empty_vessel: The Man With The Plan (Default)
Jimmy Novak ([personal profile] empty_vessel) wrote in [community profile] taxonomites2013-08-20 10:22 pm

[Holo] [Arrival] Is there anybody out there?

A faint ping hits the holos across Taxon, alerting everyone to a new person entering the city. A 'Novak, Jimmy' by the tag.

Anyone interested in checking the new arrival out can see a small representation of a man in a tan trenchcoat and a black suit sprawled on the floor of an arrival chamber. Which turns into a very active representation as the man wakes up and startles away from... the tablet, apparently. Sending it skittering across the floor of the chamber and him skittering to the opposite corner. There's a few minutes of desperate cowering and trying to look very small and easily overlooked by anything ( Castiel ) before he settles enough to start focusing on things around him instead of the Regularly Scheduled Morning Delirium And Panic.

- Easy, Jimmy. It's okay. You're okay. Just waking up. You know how this goes. Just waking up, like... every other day. - He waits for the shakes to stop before he tries reaching for the whatever it was that he smacked across the.... wherever he is. Finally noticing the metal bracelet on his wrist makes him stop again. It's skin temperature, so he didn't notice it at first, but he notices it now. A smooth silver band, not quite as wide as the watch he'd had... before. His thumb runs along the edge to try and find a seam before trying to wedge the nail under it. There's a twinge of pain and he's stopping before he draws blood. - Okay. Metal bracelet grafted onto my wrist, smooth metal room, and a flat plastic thing. Still not the strangest place I've been dumped. -

Putting his confusion about the bracelet aside for now, and with a wary glance at the door, he inches over to pick up the weird plastic thing. The screen is off due to inactivity at the moment, giving everyone a rapidly spinning viewpoint as Jimmy flips the tablet over a few times. What he really remembers predates common tablet use by about two years, so it takes him a few minutes of messing around with it before the screen comes on and he can interact with it, and a few more minutes of looking for a keyboard before he figures out the touch screen. - Huh. I knew laptops were getting thinner, but *this* is new. -

He thinks he might remember seeing things like this in that week in Atlanta before he got.... here. Wherever here is. But that's a big white blur, leading down into a big dark... - And that way lies the rabbit hole, Jimmy. You step away from it *right now*. You follow that any farther and who knows when you'll come back. - There's another headshake, and Jimmy's back in the here and now. Mostly. Staring at a touch screen and wondering what's waiting for him outside that door. But, little metal rooms aren't that far removed from little padded rooms, so he's leaving now.

Using the smooth metal wall as a makeshift mirror, Jimmy makes a last attempt at looking presentable. Straightening his tie, brushing himself off and trying his best to look like someone who hasn't lived in the same suit for the past six years, (Angelic dry-cleaning doesn't quite cut it, sorry Cas.) Once he's satisfied with his attempts, he'll tuck the tablet under his arm and carefully make his way out the door and onto the streets of Taxon.
skinandbone: (Default)

If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding

[personal profile] skinandbone 2013-08-21 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Delicious venison, fresh from the wild."

It was proving hard to be enthusiastic in the face of Extra indifference. Perky, cheery, grayly muttering to the middle distance, they didn't care. They bought the same, so long as Metody went through the motions, and that made it very hard to care about said motions.

Metody was still trying, sort of. The cloth on her booth was still bright and cheerful, but the creases from it being folded were still visible. The display of people deer meat was neat, but arranged with an eye towards efficiency, not artistry, and the vase of wild flowers was a but wilted.

And so was Metody, who looked wan and pale in her jangling rainbow of an outfit.

She perks up a bit at the sight of Levi, though. "Hello! Would you like a sample?"
skinandbone: (Default)

I'm sorry! Work has been heck

[personal profile] skinandbone 2013-08-25 07:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, you're - you're - brand new, aren't you?" She'd just assumed he'd had the same conversations she'd had when she'd arrived, before she plucked up the courage to leave the arrival room.

"Oh....dear. Here, come around and si-i-" Her eyes flicked down, to where Daisybelle was sleeping under her counter, boney mass hidden from general view by Metody's bright tablecloth. Perhaps this was not a good time to introduce them. Perhaps it would be kinder to wait.

" - ah. Actually, maybe not."

"Um. This city is called Taxon. Did you read the little welcome packet on your tablet? Everyone here - all the real people and, um, people-like...sorts..wake up in the same room. We're not sure of the actual mechanic."

skinandbone: (Default)

Re: S'okay. Happens to the best of us! :D

[personal profile] skinandbone 2013-08-28 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
She smokers and extends he hand over the counter to shake. Her nails are cut short, painted a frosty pale blue, embellished with dotted silver flowers, and chopped. Her hand is hot, and there it's a subtle tremble in her politely firm grip.

"I'm Metody. It's nice to meet you."

"Ah - no, I think the current theory is that they're aliens. Taxon is....the real people in it have been taken from many different worlds. You can tell at a glance who they are - we all have the silver bracelets. The creatures who brought us here are usually called, um. Hamsters. I've been told they can change forms."

Would this be the right time to repeat Sherlock's simulation theory? Probably not.

"So far as anyone knows, there's no way out if the city. You reach the edges and you pass our."
skinandbone: (Default)

Re: S'okay. Happens to the best of us! :D

[personal profile] skinandbone 2013-09-04 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
From her perspective, Jimmy goes straight from relative calm to looking like something just hit him.

Like, say, the knowledge he's impossibly far from home.

"Oh, gosh - here, come sit down - " She scoots the chair towards the gap that allowed her to get behind her counter, turning it so the back is towards the monster hidden under her table cloth. "Do you want something to drink? I've got - um, extremely strong sweet tea, or you could have one of my glucernas? They're sort of...kind of like milk shakes. But not cold."

"Are you alright?"
skinandbone: (Default)

[personal profile] skinandbone 2013-09-07 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm fine. I've been here a while."

She rummages under the tablecloth, being careful to not lift it enough for him to see the bones beneath it; that particular revelation can wait. When she stands, she's holding a large metal thermos. The top is a metal cup, which she pours a shot of tea into.

"It really is strong. Sorry - I have a terrible sense of taste."

It looks more like coffee than tea, and smells like someone decided mouthwash wasn't minty enough. The taste is like a punch to the face.

Metody leans against her counter, and on the other side of it, the tablecloth gently wavers as things quietly creep away, staying low and out of Jimmy's line of sight.

"The...people-like...um. Those guys. They're called Extras - you know, like the extras in a movie? They're the background, I think. You can pick out the...more people-like individuals by their silver bracelets."
loves_bitch: (Brow Raised)

[personal profile] loves_bitch 2013-08-21 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Once the sun sets, Spike's on the move. Mainly, this is because Spike bores easily. The arrival wasn't something that he noticed as he was unconcious when it happened but now that he can be, he up and wandering. The guy in the trenchcoat doesn't blend into the background the way that the 'normal' people here do.

He smells more real too.

"Ey there, mate. You're new here."
loves_bitch: (Disbelieving)

[personal profile] loves_bitch 2013-08-23 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
Not really but there is a feeling to him. Spike wouldn't know what an angel felt like if he ran face first into one. Other than Angel but that's something else all together. Spike takes the hand and shakes it, his skin definitely too cold to be a normal person, "Welcome to the largest mouse trap ever invented."
loves_bitch: (Bashful)

[personal profile] loves_bitch 2013-08-24 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
Spike blinks, trying to figure out what, exactly the hell was that?

He pulls his hand back and looks at the blush and looks really confused, "Sure. Sorry. What for, exactly?" He hasn't had any real sort of contact with anything angelic.
kings_fool: (hey what is that it looks like a truck)

[Location: Taxon Plaza] (can be whenever you want it, next day, same day, whatever works for you!)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-21 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
Here is a scruffy man with messy hair juggling an apple, banana, and orange, for a crowd of smiling children. Here is a man making dumb jokes about apples, bananas, and oranges (Why did the banana go to the doctor? -It wasn't peeling well), to the crowd of smiling children.

Jeremy doesn't interrupt his performance when he sees a new figure walking by, but he does lift his chin towards him in a little nod as the apple arcs overhead.

"Hey hey hey, maybe you know, mister-- why was the tomato so red?"
kings_fool: (my hair is alive with the sound of music)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-21 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[[That's fine! A necessary evil of play-by-post. :) ]]

Jeremy's smile gets more sympathetic as he registers the guy has that shell-shocked look that comes to one of two classes of people: those rolled by the hooker-roofied-you-and-stole-your-wallet-combo, and those new to Taxon.

"Because he was embarrassed. Know why he was embarrassed?"

(Orange flies overhead. Banana flips around a finger and arcs up to follow it.)
kings_fool: (educated and possessing mystique)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-22 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
Jeremy catches the falling fruit and clutches it to his chest, giving the man a sheepish smile.

"--yeah. Heard it before, huh?" he asks rhetorically.

"Scram, alla you, show's over," he says with a gesture at the 'children', who make an on-cue noise of disappointment and start to disperse. He wades forward and offers the hand not holding several pieces of fruit.

"Sup? I'm Jeremy, and you're new."
kings_fool: (embracing my heritage with a big hat)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-22 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
"A bit," Jeremy admits. "But dude, you got lucky. I showed up in my underwear. And it was winter."

They're in front of a fountain-- a big, big fountain, much like the Pacific Ocean is a 'body of water'. Specifically, they're in front of the Bellagio Fountain, if Jimmy ever went to Vegas or saw pictures (you know, before an angel screwed up his life). The primary difference is that no railing separates the Fountain from the spectators-- just the raised edge of a lip. Jeremy sits down on this edge and squints up at Jimmy in the bright sunlight.

Daughter, huh. That suuuucks. Bad enough to get yoinked here if you're just, you know, fucking around, Jeremy figures. But if you gotta kid? Extra-suck.

"I'd ask how you're doing, but that's such a stupid question," Jeremy says while raking his messy hair back from his face. "You're either one of the super-people, in which case you're like 'Heyyyy it's Tuesday', or you're a regular dick like me, which means you're one loud noise away from running screaming for the fake ocean, ooga-booga freakout."

The apple, orange, and banana get set down on the railing next to him. "But if you need any help getting, like, oriented or shit, I'm a helper. And a lot of people are nice, here."

And some of them aren't, but Jeremy tries to focus on the positive.
kings_fool: (find your zenjew center)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-22 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Jeremy offers him a squinty smile and a nod when he sits, yeah, there you go, I don't bite, bro.

He scuffs his sneakers against the sidewalk, listening while Jimmy talks, frowning a tiny bit at 'panic attack'.

"Man. If I had a dollar for every time I'd said yes when I shouldn't have.... well, it wouldn't matter cuz dollars do jackshit here, but, you know, I could make some badass origami."

Of course, Jeremy's bad life decisions don't exactly come anywhere close to Jimmy's Big Decision, but Jeremy doesn't know that.

He shrugs and fishes a washer from his jeans pocket, absently practicing with it as he answers-- making it seem to appear and disappear between his fingers, dance across his knuckles.

"I don't got a story. 'm just a nice Jewish boy who makes people laugh. I am the dolphin to the Taxon tuna: mistakenly yoinked by the bad guys. They were probably going for.... I dunno. The Blue Man Group, and their aim was off by a block."

He botches a pass with the metallic watcher and it slips from his fingers to bounce on the sidewalk, tang-tang-tang. Jeremy bends to scoop it up before it can roll away.

"You hungry? Someone treated me to a meal my first day here."
kings_fool: (biting all my lips)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-23 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well," Jeremy says with a bit of a grin, "maybe they brought you to do, uh, PR. Taxon: Resort living for FREE! Or something."

The audible rumble of Jimmy's tummy makes Jeremy's grin get bigger. "No worries, man. I have this fine selection of fresh and only slightly bruised fruit for you to pick from!

"Just kidding. I'll take you for real food. Whatcha hungry for?"
kings_fool: (hey what is that it looks like a truck)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-26 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Buffet! Okay. Imperial Panda is like three blocks away."

Much like Mayland Long, Jeremy Fischer is engaged in cataloging Taxon's restaurants. Unlike Mayland Long, Jeremy Fischer is not terribly burdened by standards.

He takes the offered hand easily and bounces to his feet in his scuffed sneakers. The fruit goes into a plastic bag that he pulls from his pocket. He starts leading for the restaurant.

"So.... ad salesman, huh? I can say I've never tried that."
kings_fool: (some days I think i'm cool)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-08-27 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh Jeez, I've got you to blame for those Crazy Bernie's Furniture ads? You asshole," Jeremy says without any apparent malice, still grinning.

"Music? No shit! I majored in Music Comp.... well, for one year anyway-- but yeah, I know all about the specter of the Parental Career Advice." Not that he had listened.

"No James. You got it.

"Their General Tso's chicken is unusually spicy? And I don't really trust their seafood, sittin' out on the line. Other than that, go wild. Pork buns! Violating kosher has never tasted so sweet."

The inside of the restaurant is full of the scents of Chinese food, or more specifically, American-style Chinese food. All the MSG you can eat! Jeremy waves his bracelet vaguely at the cashier to pay for two and starts loading up his plate.
kings_fool: (find your zenjew center)

Not even a thing, no apologies allowed, you're doing fine! <3

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-09-02 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
There is all the terrible, artery-destroying food you can eat. Jeremy takes half of the egg rolls from the buffet, earning him a dirty look from the Extra who is restocking things.

Lunch is a conversation that is, by Taxon standards, incredibly mundane. No talk of superpowers or superheros or magic or mutants. Jeremy listens to radio station stories, talks with his mouth full, and expresses his desire to be a DJ, one of many life dreams that never quite got off the ground.

"...closest I got was bangin' this girl who was college DJ for Tuesday Night Lilith," he admits. "Dude. Never date a girl who listens to heavier metal than you do. It's, like, emasculating and shit."

He takes a huge bite of rice and stir-fry. "Diimh myoo almwaym wum oo be a malefmman?"


[Crazy Bernie furniture commercials are totally a real thing where I live. So awful.]
kings_fool: (sly like a vegas stripper)

[personal profile] kings_fool 2013-09-04 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Jeremy duly looks at the pictures. "Oh, damn! Cute kid! Look at those chubby little cheeks!

"Haha, chewing on the drum sticks? Maybe she's got a future. Punk rockette."

He hands back the wallet and pictures, considering whether to ask more questions about the dude's family. He clearly misses 'em like hell. Sucks for him, but Jeremy's tactic is going to be to not let him dwell on it. Escapism. Distraction. It's Jeremy's motto, and he's happy to share.

"Okay okay okay wait. Time out. So you always wanted to be a musician? Drums?"

Jeremy's eyes gleam in a manner that could be deemed predatory.
infinitelystranger: Sherlock concentrates looking into a microscope. (game's afoot)

[text for the time being]

[personal profile] infinitelystranger 2013-08-21 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Sherlock Holmes occupies his time in a variety of ways, some more productive than others. He's missed other arrivals because he was dead asleep in the middle of the afternoon, or engrossed in a video game, or playing his violin in the Plaza with Jeremy Fischer, for that matter.

This time he's in the middle of sterilizing some of his laboratory equipment with a blowtorch, gloves and protective goggles on--Jimmy is quiet enough not to immediately take his attention away from his work. When he's satisfied, though, he glances back up and notices that his tablet--cast aside for the time being on one of his two workbenches, which were both free acquisitions and do not match--is blinking.

He checks his messages and watches Jimmy's arrival transmission, as he watches all of them, eventually. There are a number of things immediately apparent about Novak, Jimmy, some less so, but one stands out the most: the man is frightened out of his wits.

(Elsewhere in Taxon, Johannes Cabal watches the holo too and then dismisses it--not his concern, and the android David studies the frightened human on the screen and decides that his sometimes-unsettling presence might not be the ticket just yet. Taxon's something of a panopticon when it comes to new arrivals, unfortunately. They don't get very many.)

Sherlock hesitates and then sheds his gloves and opens up the message again. He contemplates it for a moment and then types in a text message:

Calm down. You're in no immediate danger.

And a few seconds later again, in customary style: Check your screen for the introductory file.

Jimmy's tablet pings two alerts.
infinitelystranger: Sherlock staring out a car window contemplatively. (contemplative)

[text] np! <3 it's text, there's only so much you can do!

[personal profile] infinitelystranger 2013-08-23 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
A philosophical question, really, but Sherlock gives it a moment's consideration and answers the question he supposes Jimmy Novak is actually asking-- Another prisoner. I've been here for a year and two months. My name is in the 'FROM' column of your messaging interface, which is on the far left. Your name and your location are on the map, by the by, if you're interested in turning off the GPS. Not everyone bothers. Our captors can find you regardless.

His attempts to be helpful to arrivals always tend to devolve sooner later (or revert, if one's being neutral) into tech support.
smecker: (textless- Clock - Wall - All Business)

[Text message, the day after Jimmy's arrival]

[personal profile] smecker 2013-08-27 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
Hi. My name's Paul Smecker, and as far as I know, I am currently the closest thing the city has to a non-magical medical professional, which sucks for you. Other members of our medical staff include Metody Green and Remus Lupin.

The following file is a medical questionnaire designed to help us care for you should you get fucked up, fucked over, fucked out, fucked in the head, or otherwise unable to dictate the terms of your own care.

If you do not think you will ever be incapacitated in Taxon, you are a jackass, but you should still scroll to the bottom and check the little box that indicates you are refusing medical treatment.

Thanks,
Paul Smecker


======[Attached File: MedSurvey.X]======

1. Name
2. Date of Birth Age as best you know it
3. Are you a fully biological human in all respects? If yes, fill out the rest of the questions on this page and save this file to your tablet. If no, fill this out, and make sure you tab to the next page in the file and fill that out too.
4. Blood type if you know it?
5. How do you feel about being healed by magical or experimental means? Please detail your consent or lack thereof in plain terms, as your answer is what will be consulted should your ass be unconscious or in a diminished capacity.
6. Existing medical conditions? Explain fully, please.
7. Taking any medications?
8. Allergic to any medications, or other substances?
9. Is there anything else we should know about you in the occasion that we need to render you medical aid?
10. Does anything out of the ordinary happen should you fall unconscious, or die?

[Next Page]

1. I am a... check One:
  () Augmented or enhanced human
  () Undead
  () Shapeshifter
  () Other non-human, please clarify

2. Any substances that are toxic or dangerous to your person and should be kept far from you in case of a medical emergency?

3. What is your resting pulse, if applicable?
4. Normal blood pressure, if applicable?
5. Normal body temperature, if applicable?
6. How should we render care to you if you are unresponsive? Are human medicines or medical procedures harmful to you?

Save your completed file to your tablet. It will be consulted in the case of an emergency or if you are incapacitated.

If you do not wish to receive any medical aid should you become incapacitated, please check this box, because otherwise you're getting it, sport. ()


[OOC: You don't actually have to fill this out if you don't want to. ;) You can just handwave that your character has done so if you like, and/or have Jimmy ask questions.]
Edited 2013-08-27 06:32 (UTC)