taxonomites | now i rock a house party at the drop of a hat.

It's around five o'clock in the morning when the citizens of Taxon find themselves inexplicably transported into rooms within the Sanctuary. Doors are left open and beds unmade, food abandoned and lights left on, still shining brightly for those who were awake and are no longer present. The Extras don't seem to notice the captive population's sudden disappearance, continuing on with their business as usual.

For those relocated, though, it's an entirely different story.

They find themselves in rooms with white, alabaster walls that gives them an almost too-clean feeling, as if the entire place was sanitized prior to their arrival. The room assignments are seemingly random, people placed on floors with those they don't know and don't like, people they would rather not be within twenty feet of. It matters not, for what's done is done and cannot be undone. For those who happen to have pets, they'll find them waiting for their owners in the rooms as if nothing is out of the ordinary.

The only thing the captives have managed to bring with them is the clothes on their back and the tablets. On them, they find the following message:

SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE PLEASE ENJOY YOUR STAY WHILE WE ADDRESS CERTAIN TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Unfortunately for those who try to find a means of escape, they'll discover there is none. Leaving the Sanctuary will prove to be as difficult as leaving Taxon itself. However, if one heads down the right corridor and the right floor, they'll find something else entirely lurking in their midst...

( ooc | sorry for the delay in posting! your mods were otherwise occupied with things of the irl variety this morning. THIS BE A PARTY POST, Y'ALL. room assignments are here, and refer back to the sott post proper for any additional information. please contact us with any questions/concerns you may have in regards to this plot. ♥ )

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Stefan spins, resiting the urge to turn faster than a normal human should. He should've been paying attention to the sound of that heartbeat, but his eyes had been on his tablet, looking through the map for any sign of a Petrova Doppelgänger, Caroline, or his brother. He looks genuinely startled, and then irked; he rolls with that, playing up the part of freaked out, pissed off teenager.

"Pretty sure the hamsters managed to collect the whole set on this one."

Anita raised an eyebrow, though she couldn't blame him for being on edge. She wasn't exactly feeling very sunshiney herself. Still, whoa there, Trigger.

"Good for them, I guess. Can't help but feel this is going to turn out messy." Lots of people plunked down into a single space, even if it was a rather sprawling one like this? Tension tended to run high.

Stefan's on edge for a variety of reasons, not just being trapped her. A glance down at his tablet before he shut it off to pay attention to this woman only added to that irritation, seeing someone pouring blood down the drain. That's not going to end well. Stefan's type of vampire can survive for a time on human food and things that help with the cravings, and worse comes to worse, he can always ask Elena to feed him, but still. Dumping the blood? Bad move.

Turning the tablet off, Stefan looked back up at the woman. "Most things in this place do. Last time they glitched us, it was back to the 1950s, like something out of Happy Days. At least we remember who we are this time."

"That's a definite plus. Losing your memory seems a little overpriced for getting to wear a poodle skirt," the animator said with a snort. She gave Stefan another quick once-over, being careful to avoid meeting his eyes. There was something off about him. He certainly pinged her dead-radar, he felt like a vampire, and yet... what was it that felt just the tiniest bit different? It was like a faint humming along her skin.

... oh. Well. That didn't make any sense.

"Question for you," she began cautiously, still making an effort to keep from looking into his eyes. Thankfully, she had a lot of practice. She put both hands up as if to show she meant no harm, not wanting to come off any more accusatory than she absolutely had to. "Not to pry, but I'm curious, here. You're a vampire. Why do you have a heartbeat?"

Stefan stiffened reflexively before he had time to stop himself from doing so. The confusion that spread across his face was genuine, though it wasn't in regards to being accused of being a vampire like he was hoping she'd buy into, but more with how she knew he was a vampire. Where he came from, not vampires couldn't tell one another apart from living humans. He hadn't known Lexi, the vampire who taught him everything he knew in the wake of Katherine's absence after she turned him and left him to fend for himself, was a like him until he'd attacked her and tried to feed from her. How someone could figure that out...

Maybe she was a witch? But she hadn't touched him. Emily had been able to tell by touch, as had Bonnie. It didn't make sense.

"I'm not a vampire," he denied, taking a step back from the woman.

She sighed heavily, placing one hand against her hip as she let the other drop to hang at her side. Okay, she could understand why he might want to deny it, but that wasn't the sort of thing you could argue. There was little debate over what a person was or wasn't, it wasn't like talking about political parties.

"Look," she said evenly, "I can tell. I'm an animator, kind of have an affinity for the dead. If you're worried about me telling someone else, don't worry, not my place to do so, but I'm legitimately curious about that heartbeat. And you're -- are you breathing?"

Had he not read his vampire handbook? Man.

A necromancer. Of course. Stefan rolled his eyes and glared up at the heavens as if he were asking the unseen beings that may or may not exist if this were some sort of punishment for all he'd been up to as of late. This woman was the second person in the span of a few weeks to learn of his vampirism. Granted, it was his decision to tell Quinn. He hadn't done anything to draw that kind of attention to himself beyond being dead, apparently.

He let out a sigh of defeat, posture that was once the slouched a-typical kind of modern teenagers shifted into something more resembling a young man who was taught how to stand up straight by tutors paid to do just that. Oh, the unwanted spoils of being a rich kid in the mid-1800s.

"Yes, I'm breathing and my heart is beating. My body functions normally, as far as anyone looking for any kind of a vampire indicator can tell."

The shift in posture immediately marked him as a bit older than she had first assumed -- usually she could tell within the decade, but she had to be honest, the heartbeat and working lungs were really throwing her off. That was unheard of back where she was from, even among the vampires who were great at passing as human. Occasionally one breathed for show, but it was a difficult facade to keep up. The most they could do was be careful not to show fang, keep up their color through regular feeding and take care not to adopt that eerie, almost wooden stillness some of the much older vamps tended to have.

Not that any of it ever made a difference to her. She could always tell.

"Well huh." The other hand came to rest against her opposite hip as she appraised him from where she stood, cocking her head to the side. "I'm really not in Kansas anymore, I guess. Even the vampires here are different."

"I suppose my type of vampire is the most human-like," but he didn't elaborate beyond that. She's a necromancer, he gathered that, but that's all Stefan knows. He wasn't about to detail the ins and outs of vampires from his world for a complete stranger.

...not that he didn't do that for Quinn, who he didn't know all that well, but no-one ever said Stefan was a saint or free from hypocrisy.

Edited 2011-06-15 02:15 (UTC)

"Guess so. Where I'm from, they're pretty corpses, but corpses nonetheless." No breath, no heartbeat, nothing growing but hair and fingernails. The usual. Her eyes flicked upwards to steal a glimpse at Stefan's own. Nothing. She didn't feel that same pull she felt when she dared to look at Jean-Claude, that feeling like a knot had formed in your stomach and you were being pulled forward by it, beyond your control.

No mind-tricks being played here, as far as she could tell. But that didn't mean it was time to give up being cautious. Her eyes flicked downwards again, resting just beneath Stefan's gaze. She was well-practiced, and had perfected the art of appearing confident even while avoiding meeting a vampire's eyes.

"So. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, maybe we should set some ground rules here. Are you out? In the closet? I've got a lot of experience with vampires, don't get me wrong, but unless you're out on a killing spree, I've got no beef with you."

now i rock a house party at the drop of a hat.

[location: seventh floor corridor] aw yiss.

[location: seventh floor corridor]

[location: seventh floor corridor]

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