[Holo | Location: Sanctuary]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

Okay. So this didn’t make any sense.

Anita frowned to herself as she surveyed the room she’d found herself in. Definitely not where she’d gone to sleep, and if this was someone else’s idea of a good time, namely someone named Jean-Claude, she was definitely not amused. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen fit to interrupt her sleep with whatever nonsense, though in the past it had usually been dreams. He’d only ever moved her somewhere once before, and she had to give him a break on that. She kind of had been bleeding to death from the inside. … and he had saved her.

But this was totally different. This was a sterile-looking metal room that didn’t look like any place she’d ever seen in St. Louis before. That was saying something. She’d been just about everywhere off the beaten path in that city for some reason or another. Oh, the glamorous life of a vampire executioner.

“Alright, come on out. This isn’t funny,” she said aloud, feeling at her right hip for the Browning Hi-Power. Find yourself in an unfamiliar place? Get a weapon in hand. It really did wonders for one’s confidence. The gun was tucked into the waistband of her jeans at her left hip – had she slept with it there? That didn’t make sense, she usually put it in the holster hanging off her headboard – and reached across with her right hand to draw it. Better safe than sorry.

“… what the hell?” She had caught sight of the silver band that had been closed around her wrist, and, gingerly placing the Browning in her left hand after checking to make sure the safety was on, she lifted her wrist to examine the anomaly properly. Huh. Strange piece of jewelry – was it fused into her skin? She made a soft ‘tch’ sound as she turned her wrist over to get a better look. “Alright, now I’m really on edge. I want some answers. Who’s been screwing with me and how’d they keep me out while they did it?”

She snapped her head up to take another look around the room, searching for any other signs of life. There, in the center – a pedestal. Was that a cell phone perched on top of it? … someone had left their phone in here?

What the hell.

Comments

[visual]

[aintnoconvict]

"...okay, this is just fair warning: we could really do without the firearms, okay?"

As far as Glitch was concerned, pretty much the last thing they needed was someone waving a gun around.

"And, um, this is gonna sound silly but bear with me: you've been kidnapped by aliens and taken to a city called Taxon." Here, have an apologetic smile from the zipperhead. "They give us all bracelets and and and the tablets and....stuff. B-but nobody here's gonna hurt you or anything, we're all prisoners too, so we could really do without the firearms, okay?"

Sorry Anita, the gun has most of his attention.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

The image on the screen caught her attention just as much as the voice that accompanied it. With another quick glance to either side, she lowered the hand holding the Browning, laying it flat against her thigh. Waving a gun around without cause wasn't really her style; it tended to put people a little on edge. That didn't mean she was ready to tuck it back into her waistband. Better safe than extremely sorry, especially since she didn't know where she was.

"Don't worry. I'm not trigger-happy. It's a precaution. Waking up in a strange room, not knowing how I got here? Kind of puts a girl on edge, if you know what I mean."

Wait. What was that he'd said about aliens? Aliens? Vampires, sure, werewolves, okay, wereleopards, fine, even renegade zombies who might have been too smart for their own good... she probably would have believed any of these. But aliens?

"... you've got to be kidding me."

[Visual]

[aintnoconvict]

That actually was very reassuing, and Glitch nodded to show his understanding. "Right. Oh, Cain will love you, he's got kinda the same instincty thing when it comes to-"

He mimed pointing a gun around a room, which was apaprently right about when the whole kidnapped by aliens penny dropped. Sheepishly he lowered his hand, then immediately reached up to scratch his head.

"Ah, n-no, sorry. They take people from all these different worlds and just stick us here, it's a whole...thing."

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his pantomime. He seemed harmless enough, anyway -- not like he was trying to get under her skin, at the very least. Brownie point for letting the firearm thing pass.

"A thing," she repeated, raising a brow at his image. "Sorry. Kind of a hard story to swallow. No offense, I don't really make a habit of buying into everything I hear. Aliens seems pretty unlikely." Of course, an off-beat kilt of vampires who thought they might be aliens... okay, no, even that was a stretch. A lot of them were delusional, but not that delusional.

[ voice ]

[stacked]

Pretty sure you won't like the answer to that one.

[ AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING. ]

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

"I get the feeling you're right. I can't think of any answer I would like, considering I just found myself somewhere completely foreign. Care to shed a little light on the situation for me?" Maybe she would have a better explanation than 'aliens.' Pfft.

[ voice ]

[stacked]

Kidnapping, the usual.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

Anita rolls her eyes. "Goodie. My favorite."

[ visual ]

[entractes.livejournal.com]

Kurt normally didn't care that much about the odd little things that his tablet seemed to pick up once in a while. In fact, they were pretty annoying. But after a day of feeling like he was on a poorly coded voice prompting system instead of mall, he kind of wanted a real conversation of some sort and quietly excused himself from the store to answer the distress call. "A gun is probably not the best way to incite the right welcoming brigade," he opened with an uneasy smile, "people here have been pretty harmless, but I also didn't train a dangerous firearm on anyone." Which was funny because Kurt didn't even know how to hold a gun. "And from personal experience? No one is going to fess up to kidnapping us, so you might want to pick up the phone in the middle of the room and get out of the hideous hamsterball that they brought us here in and look around for yourself."

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

"It's not pointed at anyone," Anita corrected him without snapping, making an effort to keep her voice calm and reasonable despite the fact that she was starting to panic just a bit on the inside. It was natural, wasn't it? She didn't know where she was, didn't know how she got there, and this room didn't appear to have any exits.

It was roomy enough, but the 'no-way-out' vibe didn't really do much for her particularly nasty case of claustrophobia.

She reached for the phone he had indicated, having chosen to let it be while she got her bearings, glancing upwards when she saw that an exit had revealed itself. Well. That was a bit better. "Can't blame a girl for being wary," she said conversationally. "You're the second person to mention a 'they.' What's going on here?"

[ visual ]

[entractes.livejournal.com]

Kurt, not particularly invested in the conversation yet, was busy giving the Extras bumping around him annoyed looks while Anita was admiring the door. He turned back to the tablet when she spoke up again.

"From what people have told me--and this is the biggest pile of nonsense I have ever heard in my life, but it's always the same story--we've apparently been abducted and are now in what appears to be a giant, enclosed alien ant farm where we are the ants." He made a dismissive gesture with his hands to indicate that he knew how hard that was to believe. He couldn't even believe it and he was the one saying it. "People will tell you we'll be here for a long time, but that's one idea I won't subscribe to."

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

"Aliens," Anita repeated, clearly just as disbelieving as the boy on the other end of the phone was. The first message she'd received had mentioned aliens, too. Apparently this was a pretty widespread tale.

Well. Stranger things had happened, she supposed, but she still had her reservations. There were a lot of things she was willing to believe without proof, but she wasn't convinced this was about to be one of them.

"I have to agree with you. That's a tough story to swallow, even for me, and I've seen a lot of things. I'm not really interested in staying here long-term. I assume people are already working on finding a way out, especially if they've been here any length of time."

[voice]

[slayersidekick]

Nooot a good question to start out with here. And don't shoot anything. It's not gonna help you. It'll just make everyone's ears ring.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

Anita huffed slightly, raking her dark hair away from her face with her free hand. Did she really come off as trigger-happy to everyone she met? It wasn't so unusual to want to be prepared when you found yourself somewhere totally unfamiliar with no explanation as to how you got there, was it? Maybe these just weren't gun people.

"I'm not going to. The safety is on. It's a precaution. I'm used to being surrounded by things that are going to kill me. Especially when I'm somewhere I've never been before." Granted, she was usually on a job in those cases, but... never could be too careful. Better come off as icy and overprepared than end up dead.

[voice]

[slayersidekick]

[ not a gun person, never a gun person. ]

I'm just saying. A lot of people seem to want to when they first arrive - not that I can really blame anyone. It's weird... getting here and not knowing how or why.

[ willow, stop rambling and be helpful. ]

Well, there's nothing that'll kill you here. [ or, more accurately, in that little room. ] If you want to pick up that tablet on the table, you can get out of the room.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

"It's my experience that there's always something that wants to kill you, no matter how peaceful the locale may seem," Anita reasoned aloud as she turned the tablet over in her hand, examining the device. It was a valid enough point. Lycanthropes passed for human all the time, and it was much trickier for vampires, but a possibility there as well. Not to mention fair folk, demons, and all the rest.

Anything could happen. Anywhere.

"Thanks for the tip."

[voice]

[secretshame]

[ blink. ]

Wow, the turn-over rate for this place is crazy.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

"Turn-over?" Anita shot the phone a questioning look, despite there being no image on the screen to examine. "So this happens a lot, I take it."

[voice-->visual]

[secretshame]

[ jenna stares at her screen for a minute and only because she's feeling generous - and she remembers how it felt for her to hear disembodied voices in that crazy room - does she turn on the visual function. ]

So I'm told. I wouldn't really know. Haven't been here more than a week or two myself. And I definitely can't say I'm used to it yet.

[visual]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

Okay, the waving the gun thing around, not cool. A former cop (and someone who'd been shot with her own gun once), Elisa definitely doesn't like seeing those just being waved around.

"Afraid I don't have too many answers...," she began, "and the ones I do have aren't great."

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

Having already lowered the Browning and pressed it flat against her leg, Anita tilted her head at the new image that had popped up on her screen. Interesting look this girl had. Reminiscent of a gargoyle, almost, except for the fact that she was flesh rather than stone. Fascinating. She would have to file that bit of info away for her inner mythology geek to process later on.

"That seems to be going around," she conceded, her tone rather benign. "I'm liking this less and less. I'm guessing that's going around, too. Everyone here has had their regularly scheduled lives interrupted, then?"

Re: [holo]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

Elisa can't help but smile just a little. She likes this one; she's got spunk.

"Pretty much, yeah. Some people for longer than others. I've been here nearly six months, but I know people who have been here for two years."

[ visual ]

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ hey, anita. you like dark haired, blue eyed snarky dudes right? at least this one is... no, he's a vampire too. but it's a secret, that's almost like being human. ]

Welcome to magic hamsterland, and if you're going to shoot that thing at least turn your tablet off first? There are the children to think of.

[holo]

[vampbogeyman.livejournal.com]

A quick glance at the tablet was enough to reveal that whoever she was speaking to, he bore a striking resemblance to a certain ooh-la-la, you cannot resist me because I am French pain in the ass from her place of origin. Great. Because she wanted to be distracted while she was trying to figure out what the hell was going on here.

"Hamsterland, huh? Catchy name," she retorted before heaving a sigh. "Why does everyone seem to think I'm about to fire into the first thing that moves? I don't have an itchy trigger finger, I'm in law enforcement." Sort of. "I'm prepared."

Seriously, didn't every woman keep a handgun on them at all times? She felt it should be right at the top of the list along with lipstick and tissues.

[ visual ]

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ and he speaks french too, anita! juuuuuuuuuuust wait. ]

I didn't name it. [ ...well. yes he did, but details. ] I don't make the news, I just report it. And usually if you draw a gun, there's intent to use it. Unless you're in a movie, which we're pretty clearly not.