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

Entry tags:

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(Probably Metody, Jeremy, then Spike, for 'Meet the new guy.' This also makes a few assumptions about Metody and Jimmy's conversation. My apologies!)

Jimmy walks down the street, carefully dodging the Extras and lost in his own thoughts. Still clutching the tablet to his chest and trying to let what he's been told sink in. Aliens? Taxon? The... Extras?

What!?

When Jeremy calls out to him, jimmy stops. Looking around in confusion to make sure that he's the one being addresed. ".. Uhm. I... don't know?"

Another Real Person. He's not sure about the kids, but the street performer's real. And that's.... oddly comforting. That there are other people here and that he's not alone. He darts across the street to the performer, wondering if he has anything else to share about what the hell he's landed in.

[[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.)

Jimmy has to stop and think. He knows this one. Did, anyway. Claire told him. She'd heard it at school from one of her teachers; he's pretty sure it was her English teacher.

"Because... Because he saw the salad dressing?" He thinks about it again. That sounds right. And he has to shove away the twinge that thinking about Claire gives him. These weird not!children don't give him the same twinge, but terrible jokes that Claire was so amused by, she remembered them all day to come home and tell her Dad? Yeah. Those hurt.

But he can fall apart later, in private. For now, it's find people and find out more about where he is.

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."

He watches the 'children' go, and turns back to Jeremy. "Yeah... heard it years ago. Think my daughter told it to me in third grade." With a faint smile at the memory, he nods. "Yeah. I'm getting that. I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Novak. S'good to meet you." He takes Jeremy's hand in a handshake.

"Is it that obvious that I'm new?" He grins sheepishly. Still having no idea that his arrival was televised.

"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.

The Bellagio does look a little familiar. From that movie... Heist flick with George Clooney and.. Brad... Pitt, think it was. It's been a while. But, standing while the other guy sits is kind of rude, so he sits down next to Jeremy.

He winces at the 'winter' comment. "I'm.... a little bit of both, really. I already had my doctor recommended panic attack for the day, and I'm starting to get used to waking up in strange places." A wry, bitter grin flickers across his face. "I'm not nearly interesting or rich enough to be one of the 'super-people' though. Just a guy who said yes to the wrong thing."

"And then I woke up here. Before all this? I was an ad salesman for a radio station in Pontiac, Illinois. Nine to Five job, church on Sunday, nicely boring little life. Then..... things changed." - Made the stupidest fucking decision of your entire life, Jimmy. Stop kidding yourself. "And it got... bad for a while, before I woke up here." He looks down at the tablet in his hands, flipping it over in his hands to have something to do.

"So... What's your story? Besides nearly freezing your ass off on arrival?"

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."

Jimmy avoids reaching out, even though he wants to. No point in wierding everyone out with his..... powers before he has to, right?

He shrugs. "I'm not that interesting. It's kind of complicated, but I'm just an ad salesman from Pontiac." - Maybe they were trying to go for Castiel and got me after Castiel.... dumped me? - He shudders. That's an image that gets stuffed in the box right now.

The mention of food gets a smile out of him, and he's about to answer when his stomach does instead. A loud growl that Jeremy can easily hear. ".... Sorry." He blushes and shakes his head. "It's... A long story."

"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?"

Jimmy grins a little back. Sometimes smiling like that is just contagious. "Anything, really. I'm flexible. Chinese, cheeseburgers, steaks.. Anything's good."

With his fare for the past week being what he could scavenge out of trash cans and soup kitchens, a good meal sounds divine. "... But maybe something with a buffet." No point in making his host pay for more than one serving, if he can hit a buffet with free refills. Right now? Quantity over quality and anything sounds good.

He stands again, and offers Jeremy a hand up.

"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."

Jimmy shrugs. "It wasn't anything worth being impressed by. All those obnoxious commercials you hear on the radio? Yeah, that's what I do. And... I'm sorry. Some of 'em were terrible, and went on the air under protest." He shakes his head. "Especially the local ones. We had one for a county fair that I would swear was recorded in some guy's garage with an old cassette recorder." He grins a little.

"I minored in music, though. That was much more interesting. Took all the modern music classes I could, and loved 'em.... Unfortunately, as my parents were so fond of pointing out.." He clears his throat, bringing out his best Parental Voice of Disapproval, which Jeremy is probably fairly familiar with as well. "A music degree won't pay the bills, James." He glances over, dropping the voice. "... please don't call me James."

But he follows Jeremy to the Chinese buffet. "Anything I should know to avoid, or is it standard Chinese buffet food. i.e. 'Not terrible, cheap, and filling if you load up on it'?"

"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.

Jimmy chuckles, embarassed. "I did say it was under protest. And I freely admit that my superiors may have been swayed by Crazy Bernie showing up at our doorstep with a garbage truck full of money." He shakes his head. "And if you thought Crazy Bernie was bad, you should have seen the stuff that didn't make it. Stuff that should have gotten on the public access channel or into a tape eraser." He coughs politely. "Not that you heard that from me."

And he is all too happy to demolish his way through the Chinese buffet, since, MSG-laden or not, it's been a bit since he had a chance at a filling meal, and he's going to take advantage of it. Starting off with a bowl of beef with mushrooms and a pile of mei fun noodles, he'll happily eat his way through the buffet and swap stories with Jeremy about life at a radio station. ("You remember the show on TV about the radio station? They got it right a lot of the time.")

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.]

"Huh? Oh, no. Not always. Wanted to be a musician when I was little. Wasn't any good, though, so.. Just let it lapse. By the time I could have picked it up again, got married and had a daughter on the way." He roots around in his pocket and digs out a battered black leather wallet. He flips it open and slides it over. "That's Amelia, and Claire." There's a few photos of them in there, including one of Jimmy sitting behind a cherry red drum set with a toddler on one knee and the toddler is enthusiastically chewing on a drum stick.

"She thought drum sticks were the best snacks ever. She'd drop anything if we offered her one. When she was teething, we'd smear Orajel on 'em and let her chew. Yeah, it wasn't the best idea, but she couldn't bite hard enough to splinter anything and she would chew on those, versus those teething rings you'd put in the freezer." He shrugs. "I couldn't tell you, but it worked, and she..... mostly got through teething without a hitch." A faint smile at seeing the photos. Claire was Daddy's Little Girl, and he misses her terribly.

"But musician wouldn't pay the bills nearly as nicely as Ad Salesman would, so.. that's what I went for. And I still get to hang out with musicians every day, so it's.... kind of a proxy thing."

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.

Jimmy looks a little embarrassed, but nods. "Yeah. Never went anywhere with it, and I'd be terrible, but yeah. Why?" He glances up at Jeremy nervously before going back to plate... Three? Four? of buffet Chinese.

His wallet gets tucked back into an inside pocket carefully, the memories more important than the credit cards or the two bucks in cash. "But it's irrelevant. I had other priorities, and I couldn't go chasing being a musician with a wife and a baby on the way."

And Jeremy can probably pick out the Parental Disapproval Voice in that, thick and heavy, even with the dust of years. "So, I went into business and got a job with the radio station. It... wasn't so bad."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

And... I'm an idiot. Totally lost track of this thread with the Event. I'm so very sorry.

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

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

no subject

no subject