System Glitch: In The City

[theextras]

The artificial sun rises in the artificial sky... just like every day in Taxon. For some of the inhabitants, this has been going on long enough to be very routine.

This morning, though, the light shines over quite a few gaps in the city's architecture. There is no Oxford library, no Hedge Maze. A number of the private residences are simply gone, those that people brought with them to Taxon. And the streets are very empty, indeed: no Extras on the sidewalks, no Extras driving cars. No smiling faces in the corner coffee shop. The trams rattle around the city with nary a soul on board. The streets are silent.

But it's not just the Extras who are gone. Most of the familiar faces are, too. The tablets show only a very short list of 'Contacts'-- those few citizens left in the city proper.

Save for a small handful of Taxon's prisoners-- left rattling around like the last pills in a nearly empty bottle-- the city is deserted, and silent as the grave.


[ OOC: The first of two log posts to kick off the event! For reference, these are the characters who are remaining in the city: Azkadellia, Briar Moss, Charles Xavier (AU), Daphne Powell, DG, Drusilla, Eanes, Illyria, James Holmes, Jenna Sommers, Martha Jones, Remus Lupin, and Wyatt Cain. ]

Comments

[location: Sanctuary greenhouse floor]

[hasaheart]

The better part of the day is spent in a haze of half-and-half panic and coping measures: Cain wakes up to the near deafening silence of the city outside, makes to contact Paul about the weirdness only to find that there's no such resident.

The tablet's obviously malfunctioning, is his Very Rational Conclusion, and the fact that there only seems to be a handful of names still registered only serves to validate this.

That is, until he's looked through the birdhouse three times over, and not one sign of Paul. Not even his music player thing. His personal Thing with a capital t from home.

He's gone.

And if he's gone, then there's a fair chance the rest of the missing names are as well.

By noon, he sends a brief message to the remaining few, that he'll be giving respects to those who've gone home, and anyone who wants is welcome to join him at the Sanctuary greenhouse at seven o'clock that evening.

Once there, the people attending will find Cain in his usual attire, though sans hat, next to a young oak tree no taller than five and a half foot. To anyone who knows their way around planting and such, it'll soon be going into the ground proper. In fact, it's a fair bit bigger than your usual oak sapling.

On a bench closeby are a neat stack of blank scrolls of parchment and a bunch of element resistant thin marker pens and a yarn of thin rope.

[brokenoptimism]

When nearly every link Xavier had in the city suddenly went quiet, it was more than a little cause for concern. The telepath immediately set about trying to locate either the source of the sudden silence, or a mind still present in the deserted city.

It did not take long to make his way to the sanctuary. When he did, the murmur of Cain's thoughts, though he did not tap into them, was enough to draw Xavier to the greenhouse. Ever since the city-split, he had not trusted the maps to be an accurate representation of where anyone might be in the city. His mind and his eyes were much better sources of information.

What was happening? Chances were Cain had no more of an idea than Xavier. But the silence was more deafening to the telepath than it was to others, and panic had begun to creep into his mind.

The message that came out- well. Xavier had considered the possibility. That everyone else was gone. That he was once more alone. If that were the case, he owed it to the people of his reality. To his young mutant charges, to make sure that he kept enough of his sanity in tact to help them when, and if, he was allowed to leave as well. It was easier to say that, then it was to do. But if he was going to stay sane, he could not regress back into the hermit of the Xavier Mansion. It had done him no good the first time, and would not once more.

He clears his throat as he approaches Cain, hands clasped behind his back.

"Good Afternoon."

[hasaheart]

Cain looks up, the brief tremor of startled tension in the air though his face shows very little of the sort. He wasn't expecting anyone so soon, but it's...good not to be alone.

For a while there, it rather felt like he'd never want to see anyone ever again.

"Afternoon. Xavier, right?"

[brokenoptimism]

Xavier gave a short nod, looking at the tree with interest before offering Cain a small, sad smile.

"What you are doing. It's nice."

He wished he understood the way this place worked. Why the people who were gone had been sent to wherever they were. He wanted to believe they had merely been sent home, but.

Well.

Life had made him far more skeptical than his other self.

[azoftheoz]

She didn't want to believe it when she heard that message. As much as she wanted Glitch to return home, the thought of him being gone had her fighting tears. If he was gone, then how much longer before the others went as well? What if DG and Cain disappeared as well.

That terror nearly kept her away and yet she couldn't stay away. Clad in a long dressed of pure black that buttoned over her torso and barely revealed the gold corset beneath, she paused at the door, almost scared to come in.

Looking around, she spotted Cain. Every fiber of her wanted to rush to him and throw her arms around him. Instead she clung to the door, acting more like the girl she remembered being than she had before.

[hasaheart]

The sight of that familiar face hits his previously mentioned metaphorical brick wall like a sledge hammer, and he gestures for her to come in, come closer, don't just stand there. He walks up to her, and for once, though the very clothes on his back burn like fire, Azkadellia doesn't need to worry about hugs.

She gets one, free of charge. "I'm sorry, princess. I'm so sorry."

[azoftheoz]

Part of her is so scared to let go. The doorway felt real and solid and yet there was Cain.

She let go, rushing to him and throwing her arms around him. She clung so tight, the fear he would be the next to go evident.

"You can't leave," she whispered, tones as fierce as a child's might be. "I forbid it," she said, not certain if more could, and would, vanish.

Re: [location: Sanctuary greenhouse floor]

[apackofone]

Remus is there, in a shocking display of socialising.

Rather than his usual well worn clothing, he's in what looks to be new, formal robes, buttoned up to the throat and drawn around his body to be held tight with a white knuckled grasp.

"Cain," he says softly as greeting.

[hasaheart]

He looks up at the sound of his name, surprised to see the other man. Very much so, going by their last conversation.

"Lupin. Hello. Welcome. ...listen, uh, how've, how have you been?"

It might just be an easier question to answer than the present tense variation.

[apackofone]

"Poor, and worse for this. Azkadellia's in hysterics, as near as I think she can be, and the only people sworn to taking me out and down if I shift in public are gone. By the way, if I start cracking and shifting, please use your gun, thing, on me, before I kill, eat or infect anyone.

"How are you coping?"

He says the whole thing in the same conversational tone.

[location: Sanctuary greenhouse floor]

[thornandmoss]

Briar shows up, not certain what exactly Cain has in mind. The oak tree is heartbreakingly close to what he would've chosen himself, though, and a late-night confession of Ashley's runs through his mind, not for the first time since realizing so many people were missing. "Yeah, I saved her. And killed myself in the process. That's the last thing I remember before I got here."

Long, Gwen... there are others he'll miss and regret not knowing better, but Ashley didn't go home. Ashley went to her grave. Everything she went through here was for nothing, then? They bring her here, use her for their own amusement, then throw her back to her death. The leaves on all the plants in the greenhouse rustle a little before Briar gets his anger at their captors under control.

"Are we writing anything in particular?" he asks with a nod of greeting that lacks the usual smile Briar keeps on hand for Cain. He takes a pen and a scroll to start with.

[location: Sanctuary greenhouse floor]

[hasaheart]

Cain shakes his head, the silence weighing particularly heavily about him today. It's like a comforting blanket, something familiar in a world that doesn't make sense anymore.

"Personal messages. That's all there is to it."

[location: Sanctuary greenhouse floor]

[thornandmoss]

Briar nods, not seeing anything much to say to that.

'How are you holding up' seems a silly question to ask, so Briar doesn't bother. Instead, he neatly writes Ashley's name a little more than halfway up his first piece of paper in the clear, even script drilled into him by a foster sister with a love of books. Waiting won't make it any better.

"Thanks for this. I'd rather not figure out what to do on my own." As he speaks, he draws a couple vines climbing up the side of the scroll, deciding halfway through to turn them into wisteria. He's tattooed his own hands. Briar isn't bad at drawing, and a pen is easier to handle than needles. Graceful blooms hang down above her name, forming a sheltering bower.

Wisteria is strong. It can easily kill other plants. But it is beautiful, and if tended properly, it can grow without harming the rest of the garden. Now he just has to stop thinking about the reasons it's appropriate. Maybe Briar will plant some near his home in Taxon later.

He leaves an obvious space for words, but Briar doesn't want to think of them yet, and he isn't sure he wants to write whatever he's going to say while around other people.

"I can't decide whether to feel bad there are a lot of them I don't well enough to have things to say, or grateful for it," he admits quietly to Cain, reaching for a second piece of paper, this one for Gwen. "Pretty selfish of me."

[Location: Central and tablet]

[azoftheoz]

In truth, unless she heard something from it, Azkadellia rarely glanced at her tablet. She knew there were horrid things she could see there, things to learn, and yet it kept her in touch with others so she didn't feel nearly as isolated in that city as she might.

So it was that morning she was out walking through the city once more. Nightmares kept waking her up and she'd finally give up on sleep knowing she couldn't stay in her place. If she did, she would poke at those sore spots of her nightmares while standing in the brain room.

Wandering around, she suddenly realized there was something wrong. While she rarely spoke to those around without bracelets, it suddenly hit her something was off. Nobody else was out walking around. No businessmen, none of the store owners. No one but her that she say.

Stumbling to a stop, she got out her tablet. Cain. DG. Remus. All of them were represented but many were missing. Like Glitch, Buffy, Mayland... so many people suddenly gone and missing.

She hit the button to broadcast to all.

"Hello? Mister Cain? Remus? DG? Is someone out there?"

Something caught in her throat and she stumbled to a bench.

Re: [Location: Central and tablet]

[apackofone]

Remus replied to the tablet message almost immediately. "Azkadellia, what's wrong?"

[Visual]

[azoftheoz]

Her fingers gripped the tablet tightly, the image shaking slightly for it.

"Remus, there's no one here. All the people that wander around and all, there's no one here. All the people without bracelets are gone and... and some people are missing from the map."

Re: [Visual]

[apackofone]

"Where are you, Azkadellia?" He grabbed his wand and stood up, patting himself down. "I can be there as soon as I know where it is."

[visual]

[hasaheart]

"I'm here, princess," Cain replies with little delay. He's not looking his very best, it can be said, but at least to his own mind, numb calm is vastly preferable to bone breaking hysteria.

"I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm here."

[visual]

[azoftheoz]

Her own visage was pale, eyes red rimmed though she hadn't allowed herself the luxury of crying.

"You're here. It... the city is so empty," she whispered, not sure what to make of that. "Where did they go?"

Even as she said it, she rose, moving towards the dot on the map that said Cain.

[ location: sommers-gilbert house | visual ]

[secretshame]

Jenna doesn't like the silence. It's weird and makes her more than a little nervous when she wakes up. Frowning, she sits up in bed, throwing off the covers gently so as not to wake her guest, and makes her way to the window in the bathroom, arms folded across her chest.

It's even weirder outside. No Extras roaming the streets in the middle of the morning, no sounds. There's nothing out there and she doesn't like it.

Eventually, she pulls out her tablet. "If there's a reason for the silence, I'd like to protest it. As much as it's kind of nice, it's also really creepy."

[visual]

[azoftheoz]

Azkadellia was sitting on a bench, waiting for Remus. She heard the voice, grabbing up her tablet.

"I don't know the reason but... so many are gone. Real people are gone, and the ones without the bracelets... every one of them is gone."

[visual]

[secretshame]

"There's only a handful of us left, according to my tablet," Jenna agreed, looking unsettled by this news. "Where did the others go?" If Elena were still here, she'd be even more worried than she was now. At least James was still with her in the city, that much she could tell.

All Around Town.

[justdysfunctional]

Daphne covered the silence of the city with the roar of her engine, driving down every street and every path of the city, ear out for anyone's thoughts. This was just too weird, it was so quiet here... when she idled to look around it was eerie.

She was so happy when she found it, her car. Even if it technically wasn't hers, it was her's for now, till her brother was old enough to drive. It might be old, and a bit needy, and guzzles gas like you wouldn't believe... but it was her's. Plus, guys loved cars like this, she knew that without reading minds.

The more she drove though, the less she liked this place right now. Why have a big huge city with nobody in it? She left her tablet in the passenger seat, the temptation to call out to the city rising with every empty building.

Location: Central

[azoftheoz]

Azkadellia was walking along, still stunned to find everything so strange, people missing, and noticing the spots along the skyline that she knew had something in them a single day before.

Now though, everything was wrong, even in a place where she knew the world was wrong to begin with.

So distracted, she stepped off the curb without a thought for cars.

[justdysfunctional]

Fortunately being a telepath reading the surroundings didn't take her eyes off the road long enough to be a problem. And Az was far enough ahead Daphne could swerve and stop without incident. Still, tires screeched and a car too old for this complained at the physics applied to it, "Hey, be a bit more careful..." the words died in power toward the end, the woman didn't exactly have the look of being all right.

Daphne immediately dropped back to old habits and tried to see what was on the woman's mind, but given the state of the city it was probably to do with the disappearances of buildings and people. She was still there... thinking about her family that wasn't her.