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.

[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.

[ 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."

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.