taxonomites | Entries tagged with { dg

Just like last week, Ashley's tablet starts recording while she's in the throws of a nightmare. It's far closer to morning this time, and unlike the last, she's fallen asleep with the light on. Her thrashing can clearly be seen as the tablet is up on a ledge with a clear shot at her.

In her mind, Ashley can still feel the tank of water around her, the feel of the medication as it flowed through her veins, the last of her resistance being pushed out. Her mind is being forced back, her will bent into a corner of her brain, and from the looks of her thrashing, whatever nightmare she's having is far worse than the last.

The tablet records for a few minutes before Ashley suddenly sits bolt upright in bed, her eyes snapping open. Those who have actually seen her and pay attention to these sorts of things will notice that her eyes aren't blue this morning. They're red, a deep, blood red. Source Blood red. Ashley pulls herself together and leaps from the loft, landing catlike on the floor below. Eventually, the tablet feed will time out and that is all it catches of Ashley for the next week or so.

The blonde girl is on a mission and no one is safe.

[ ooc: ashley's cabal glitch is go now! she can be found anywhere in taxon, absolutely anywhere (all week, in fact), and anyone is free to tag in, even if we haven't planned anything out! i am willing to have her be seriously injured multiple times (in fact this will be necessary to helping / stopping her), so don't hold back! (seriously, this is your chance to do all those crazy funky power things you never get to do because it's all crazy godmode stuff. go nuts. not even kidding.) if you have questions, feel free to ask me! ]

sourcebloodaughter

The tablets click on in the middle of the night, when Ashley is sound asleep. There's no real light shining into her top bunk space so there's not much to see aside from darkness, but the sounds of a struggle can definitely be heard. It's not enough for her to be yelling, and really she's not making any vocal noises, but she's clearly shifting against the sheets. Violently.

In her dream world, she's reliving some of the worst memories of her life, being trapped and genetically engineered. She can clearly see that tank where she spent six weeks of her life, the scientist on the other side injecting something into the water, the table where she lay for so long-

Ashley awakens with a loud cry, flinging her arms everywhere to get the feeling of being trapped away and knocking her tablet off its stand. It crashes to the floor - the far down, first "story" floor - and turns off. Ashley takes a little longer to gather herself before she climbs down to retrieve it and send one very heavily locked text to a few people she knows can help with this.

locked to DG, Buffy, Nikola, and Briar.

Hey. I need to talk to you. It's important. Sooner rather than later on this one.

/lock

Knowing full well they likely wouldn't reply until the morning, she grabs her weapons, tucking her tablet into her pocket, and decides to go hunting for something to knock the terrible Cabal taste out of her mouth. Maybe this place had a shooting range or something she could make use of.

buffy_slayer

The tablet is on, and broadcasting.

Buffy doesn't care.

She's sitting on a set of stone steps that apparently lead up a short grassy hill to... nothing. Not even a stone foundation to break apart the stretch of green.

"Hi there, Taxon."

Not crying, not yet at least. There's more resignation than anything else, and Buffy's leaning her head against one hand.

"The castle is gone. Willow is gone. My stuff isn't -- the hamsters were nice enough to leave me my stuff."

A motion towards a neat stack of small boxes, each stamped with "this side up" and an arrow pointing downwards.

"I suppose that I ought to look for a new place to live."

drowning_dog

--and there's trees. I know you're a fucking California boy through and through, but you gotta remember trees. They had them in old Cali. I just--if we're not gonna be on wheels, I'd be comfy here.

[Hologhoul will give a little wave at the surroundings here--one of the less built-up areas of the Wilde district. He doesn't realize the feed is on, but excuse the new boy. He is, as of yet, unaware of exactly how treacherous the damn electronics can be, and at least this peek into his private life is rather mundane. Fading in and out of the feed is Party Poison, you may know him. Not clearly evident from immediate impressions is that they've been doing this for a few days. Home hunting. It is, apparently, not going well.

[Ghoul stops to turn and look up at some building, some structure, hands loosely in his pockets. A heavy sigh.] It's just pretty out here. Not too alienated but--fuck Central, man, I ain't tryin' t'hear that. The tram's near enough enough. And there's a lake, dude! A fucking lake! I couldn't hardly remember water until--well.

Look, I'm just saying this-- [One hand waves up at the building he's seeing.] --it's--I mean, I think it's...perfect.

[And about here, he picks up on the tiny echo of his voice coming from Party's phone. Ghoul scowls, digging his own tablet out of his pocket.] ...fucker. Welp. [ B| ] Uh. Nevermind, I guess.

[OOC: WHOA trying to find a house so they can stop sleeping in the car. ; __ ; Obviously, Kat's going on hiatus, so Party won't TECHNICALLY be around, but any type of response to Ghoul is awesome--even if you wanted to do ACTION and presume Monsieur Poison has taken a detour to make his own investigations. BLAH BLAH ETC everything is welcome.]

azoftheoz

From the moment Azkadellia had taken possession of the tablet on the table in that odd little room where she arrived there had been a blinking red dot on the monitor. Names moved around, people she didn’t know and those that she did went about their lives, and still the light blinked.

Reading what had been gathered by others to assists those new to the city, Azkadellia had learned much. Including that many brought something with them yet when Azkadellia arrived there had been nothing on the table but the tablet with its constantly blinking light. Whatever the beings that brought them there had equipped Azkadellia with must be there where that light blinked.

A blinking light that Azkadellia avoided for as long as she could. Time had, in her mind, run out. She had to know what it was, if only so she could work to start her life over here.

Following the map, she quickly found herself standing before a building that looked nothing like anywhere she had ever been in the O.Z.. That did not stop her from pressing her hand to the pad beside the door.

Inside was sparsely decorated, comfortable enough without being the lavishness she was used to. A single great room with kitchen and a separate bedroom, minimal furniture. In truth, Azkadellia thought it was quaint, except for one thing.

At one end of the long room was a door nothing like the rest of the loft. The door was heavy steel, reinforced and, worse than that, familiar. The heels of her boots echoed on the wood floor as she moved closer. Tablet clutched in one hand, she reached out and ran her hand along the metal, warm to the touch and fairly vibrating with magic. Not only magic. Her magic.

Even before she used that same magic to open the door, Azkadellia knew. She knew exactly what would lie beyond as the door swung open. A room familiar to her from the dark walls to the sheen of the floor. Even the scent of the room. All of it was exact down to the last detail. Including one that made her gasp, hand covering her mouth.

Metal gleamed around encapsulated liquid, tubes leading to the brain as well as out and away. Suspended within the sickly looking liquid was a brain. Not just any brain, Azkadellia knew. It was Ambrose’s brain. The brain she, no the witch, had removed for the sun seeder.

Hands shaking, she fought to remember the details needed to activate the tablet’s video function. Desperate and trembling, she hit the button to make it private to two people, her sister and Ambrose. Without realizing it, she hit it again so that it broadcast to everyone.

“DG? Ambrose? I… It seems I brought Ambrose’s brain with me,” she managed to say, voice barely more than a whisper.

skysung

Kitten had hesitated to visit the zoo. For anyone who can understand the speech of animals, zoos are exceedingly unhappy places unless they are constructed with the animals' natural habitats in mind. She is relatively pleasantly surprised by Taxon's zoo, but then, she supposes that the aliens are used to adding amenities to their prisons.

Then she reaches a section that makes her skin crawl in the same way Ozorne's menagerie had. Unicorns. Not killer unicorns, even, but their far from malicious cousins. Winged apes not in league to anyone and wishing to fly free.

Kitten screeches. She holds back just long enough to listen to the creatures for a moment, to get a clearer idea of whether they would be peaceful when released. As soon as she is satisfied they will be, Kitten takes action.

With a low croak, she shatters the locks on their cages, the entrances to their enclosures swinging open.

Unicorns and flying monkeys flee from their prisons-within-the-prison, free to at least travel the larger enclousure of the city itself. And then, to protect her new acquaintances, Kitten turns to the tablet.

She slowly types a message, switches to visual mode long enough to whistle for everyone's attention, then transmits what she has to say.

I am aware that many of you will be concerned at the appearance of winged monkeys in the skies of Taxon, considering recent events. Be advised that those currently flying throughout the city are not in service to anyone. They have no desire to harm humans, and should you attack them unprovoked, I will see it as an attack on an innocent and respond accordingly. It is bad enough that we are all trapped within the large prison of the city. I see no need to leave magical creatures imprisoned in an even smaller cage, not unless they are a threat to others present here. Neither the unicorns nor the winged apes released today should pose such a threat.

((OOC: Feel free to use this as a party style post! Tag each other, encounter the newly released creatures around the city, respond to Kitten's network post, have fun finding out that you can't get near the unicorns unless you're a virgin, etc.))

azoftheoz

Take my hand.

Despite all she had been through, something in those words broke through the mental cage the witch had Azkadellia trapped with. All that she had witnessed second hand and through a fog and yet now she could see something more. More importantly, she could feel more. The sensation of emotion flood through her and for a moment the annuals seemed to have melted into nothing. Suddenly it was Azkadellia herself standing there in the light, the emerald ablaze about her neck and Ambrose's brilliant device twisted and on the verge of bringing darkness forever to the O.Z. Grown and hated by so many and yet the young girl that had lost herself to the witch's power that fateful day in the woods.

Reaching out, she could feel the witch fighting her, the rage buffeting her like a wild storm, tossing her about even as hands that were her own and yet unknown to her brushed against DG's. Clasping tight, holding onto that lifeline as she felt it. That sudden snap as the witch lost her hold, driven out by their magic joined. Stumbling from the dais, staring into DG's so pale eyes and then there was another wrenching, the world shifting as if the entirety of the Outer Zone was turned on its head. Then blackness.

Azkadellia came to in a small room that looked nothing like any place she knew in the Tower. Metal above, everything so different from her chambers, from that balcony where she stood during the eclipse, the darkness bathing over her

as the witch changed her world. Now her world had changed again.

"Don't let go!"

The words came from her lips before she could stop herself, scrambling to her feet. Heavy boots thudded on the floor as she looked around, gilded bodice gleaming as she turned quickly, looking for answers, looking for an exit, looking for one thing.

"Deeg?! Where are you?" Voice rising as she checked the walls, seeking a door though she found nothing but a table with a small device. The screen lit up, a small dot on a map blinking at her. Hand trembling, Azkadellia snatched it from the table, spinning on heel as the door slid open behind her.

"Hello?" She paused, peering at the door before taking a quick step toward it. Another careful step, eyes narrowing slightly. "Is anyone out there," she called, ignoring the tablet in her hands though viewing screens of a magical nature weren't entirely new to her. "Deeg? Anyone? Can you hear me?"

Another step toward the door, fingers clutching the tablet. Her lower lip quivered as she stepped out of the room and hurried along the hall, whispering under her breath.

"I swear, I didn't let go."

((ooc: For those that did the arrival on the voice test, feel free to handwave to outside the building, ie DG obvs.))

tothelightshown

Last time, it had happened in an instant. The witch had closed her eyes and, a moment later, DG had opened her own.

This time, however, everything was different. The witch had realised too late that she'd been a fool to send her trusted mobats out after the escaped Glitch. He couldn't do her any harm in his damaged state and the pain that his half existence caused to whatever remained of DG was palpable. Still, what was done was done. Every death weakened her, but the witch held on and her army increased in size by the hour. The formerly palatial palace of the Northern Island had been turned into a fortress.

( When the tablet switched on, it showed the witch turning her back as a dead long coat fell to the floor next to three other expired soldiers. )

build

Quietly perched on a bench located not far from the Sanctuary, Ariadne sat, her brow furrowing in thought as her attention moves between the tablet in front of her and the Sanctuary itself. Only to finally turn her attention fully onto the tablet, addressing anyone that happens to be listening.

"Does this sort of thing happen all the time?" She asks, clearly sounding more curious then anything as she lets out a deep sigh, quickly adding for clarification: "The Witch or whatever that is? Do these things happen often here, or was this just something completely new?" Because really, if not, this is one messed up dream she now seems to be in and she has no idea how to even wrap her head around it.

She pauses then, her nose crinkling slightly as one of her hands unconsciously starts rubbing at the back of her neck, quickly working out her next few thoughts she wants to get out.

"Obviously I'm new here and of course there is still a lot that I need to understand. So I'm hoping some of you are willing to help me with a few things? Such as living arrangements, places of interests, common rules we should be aware of -- things like that."

A beat, and she is adding with a clear curiosity to her. "I'm mostly curious if anyone has attempted to find a way home yet though?" She stresses home more then anything there, as this is in no way her home and she can only assume people (if they weren't projections that is) would feel that way as well. "And if not, why haven't you?"

ooc: feel free to have this action as well,
assuming she is in a public place, visitors watching the message are bound to appear, right?
Pretty much just let her pick at your characters brains for some answers.

no_rose_tint

"Good evening, Taxon."

Scott looks calm as he talks, assured of himself. "There's a lot of rumour of problems in the city at the moment. I just wanted to remind everyone of the offer from Charles and those of us living at this Mansion.

"You are welcome here and you safe here. We will protect you if you feel threatened. We can give you a bed to sleep in and food if you need it. We specialised in helping people who pose an uncommon threat without meaning to and we will never let anyone be hurt while under our protection."

He lifts his head slightly. "We're here and you're always welcome, day or night."

The transmission will cut, but the map will briefly flash to show everyone which building is in question, the Westchester mansion in Osten.

apackofone

Remus paces restlessly around a small cottage room. There's little in the way of furniture visible, just an armchair and some curtains fluttering in the breeze, suggesting a garden outside beyond the open window.

The man shifts restlessly, clearly agitated and muttering to himself, throwing himself into the arm chair, getting up again to pace, tugging his hair with his hands. "It's getting too soon, too close, I can feel it, but even if I found a brewer, it's too late to start for this cycle. I should tell them, no, Remus, think, you can't tell them, they don't even seem to have magic here, explaining the details of being a Dark Creature isn't going to go over well. But I'm a danger. I know I'm a danger and I need them to stay away. I'm not near anyone, but someone might come looking for me, because they're all nice and thoughtful that way, buggeration, I can't think when it's so close!"

He throws himself into the armchair, glowering at the tablet. "And you, you horrible little thing. Why are you flashing at me? I don't know what you want, stop it."

He's clearly not quite himself. He also clearly has no idea that the tablet flashing means 'broadcast'.

drowning_dog

His first thought, blooming in the back of his mind as he pushes out his first breath of stale air, goes to the Retinal Resorts. Some matrix bullshit, hypnosis. Something. Fun Ghoul stands on the raised platform, perfectly still aside from the involuntarily twitch of his fingers as they hang at his sides. It's so cold. It's a long few minutes of stillness as he listens and looks.

Finally, his hand twitches up to thumb the gun in his double-breasted holster. In an environment like this, he can't believe his hosts let him keep his--

"Fuck." The familiar hum of building charge--there's nothing there. The gun is dead. Fun Ghoul's gaze snaps back over his shoulder. It scrapes around the round room, almost sharp enough to squeal against the metal walls. His gun hand drops, and he absently tugs at the bracelet they locked around his wrist. His lips purse, and he whistles a few loud, clear bars of a classic song--normally a signal to his friends, but just here it's a comfort noise, something to soothe his nerves. They're on fire.

The tablet. His heart jolts in his chest when his attention settles on it. Monitoring. "Shit." The steps toward it are clipped, body cable tense till he gets his hands on it to turn it around--

But before he actually turns it, before he can figure out how to disable this nasty little motherfuck, the door opens and there's light. It doesn't take too long to figure out that he needs to device to keep the door open, so he finally just grabs it, keeping it painfully tight in his palm. The sun. The sun. The sun.

There isn't any sun. More dead lights down clean hallways. Maybe he's home after all--or at least maybe here is somewhere unfortunately similar. Fun Ghoul's steps out of the arrival room are slow, deliberate, paced to a raise of his hands in surrender. Who is watching? "Don't fire." He hollers down the corridor for anyone (anything) detaining him, watching him.

"I'm a friend."

aintnoconvict

Some hours before this announcement...

For being such a tremendous genius, Glitch was a colossal idiot from time to time. This usually occurred when he got a bit too generous with denial, when it was easier to look past what was in front of him and turn it into what he wished it would be. In small doses it worked, but this time he'd created a logical paradox.

It's not real, the mantra that had mostly seen him through the past month, the quick and decisive rejection of a problem. All dreams matter, all of them mean something, especially DG's. Her visions had guided them across the O.Z., they would always be significant.

Things could not be unreal and true at once.

He'd noticed little signs, little shifts, little alterations in attitude. Posture. Mutterings. I'm certain it's a phase, majesty. Wrong then but he knew better now, and so that morning over coffee he analyzed every smile, gesture, and word while being oh so cautious with all his own. At the end of the conversation his heart broke again and icy fear coiled around his spine, but he tried to hide it, kissed her cheek, touched her hair, and excused himself to work on something in his office.

This time, he wasn't going to run, he knew had to stay and exert whatever influence he could to keep the worst from happening again. The city had to know still, so he'd find Madelyne and Bagoas and send them out, keep them safe.

Glitch was only able to find one of them. He hoped it'd be enough.

ooc: so how this'll roll - Glitch will track down Maddy and she'll go out with a ~cryptic message~ for Cain and other folks. Elsewhere in this post: awful things happen to Glitch. Must be a day that ends in y.

tothelightshown

A long time ago - so long ago, in fact, the history had long since turned into myth - the Wicked Witch of the West, as she was known to her enemies, had been the most powerful being in Oz. (The wizard had been all show and Glinda had been all light. Without help, they would never have been able to defeat her.) She had been content with her domains in the west, ruling the Winkies with an iron fist and conducting occasional magical experiments with her sister. It was the arrival of that damned girl, Dorothy Gale, that changed everything.

The girl killed - murdered - her beloved sister before setting off along the yellow brick road with three Ozian companions. The witch could have killed her immediately, of course. Would have killed her immediately, if it hadn't been for the shoes. Her sister's shoes. Powerfully magical shoes that couldn't be removed by force. She captured the child easily enough. From that point on, it should only have been a matter of time. The child was lucky, however, and her friends were indomitable. Although the water that Dorothy had thrown wasn't enough to kill her, it was enough to destroy her body. The witch - or what remained of her, at least - sank into the rocks beneath her palace.

( For several long and agonising centuries, she waited. )

Later, DG - or someone who looked very like DG, except for the tattoos on her chest and the dangerous gleam in her bright blue eyes, appeared on the tablet. She was sitting in what was unmistakably a throne, flanked by armed soldiers dressed in black and smiling as she addressed her fellow prisoners.

There was no need for secrecy now. Glitch had been cleverer and quicker than she'd expected. He'd managed to get a warning out before she'd taken him to heel. No matter. The people in the city had one obvious and potentially fatal weakness. A great many of them loved DG. They knew that they wouldn't be able to harm the witch without harming her.

"Hello, Taxon. It's been a long time since my last visit, but the city is just as I remember it. A city of wasted opportunities."

Her smile widened.

"I'm looking forward to meeting you all. You may call me DG. For now."

build

She sure didn't expect this to happen after she took that leap off the building. She had actually hoped (or more expected) she would have woken up in another layer (which one, she honestly didn't care). So when she woke here (in some place she clearly hadn't designed) her eyes went wide, as all the air suddenly left her chest. Which in turn, left her with a fear like no other.

This can't be limbo, can it?

"Hello." She called out almost hesitantly. Her voice clearly tinged with a panic that something such as this would allow. "Cobb?" He had to be here – he would know what is going on – he would help get her out of this. But a moment later and there was no sign of anyone - not Arthur, not Eames, not even Mal.

It only takes a moment of quickly deliberation on her part and she was jumping off the platform, letting her eyes quickly scan over the entire area as she slowly started circling it.

Yeah, this wasn't something she would have designed – it was almost sci-fi.

"Okay." She says sounding slightly, as she is then taking notice of the pedestal and what appears to be an item placed on it. What the heck kind of dream is this?

Her curiosity clearly gets the better of her then, as she is quickly moving towards it. Only to let her hands lightly brush over the device, almost as if she is waiting for something to happen to it as she does. A moment later (after nothing appears to happen) she is picking up the device, fumbling with the buttons as she does.

"Directions. That would be nice." She mumbles clearly frustrated over it all, as her thumbs continue fumbling with it all the while. Not even remotely aware she may be being watched by all those currently on the network.

"Hello?" She finally says, letting a ting of hope show in her tone as she does. She knew she was taking a shot in the dark by asking for help here. But it’s clear, she has no idea just who or what was behind this and she could really use some guidance right about now.

"Can someone help me here?"

And wake me up.

killtheparty

The tablet clicks on to one red-headed dust angel on the grass, looking pretty worse for wear. Though Party's normally a lump of half-showered snark wrapped up in a desert bundle, this is a little different.

He's groaning, finally pulling himself up and--yeah, there's a leaf stuck on his hair. Awesome. A hand moves up to brush it off but his coordination is more than a little shaky, so hitting himself in the face is totally understandable. Or he's trying to rationalize, anyway.

"Jesus fuck."

Classy.

There's a few more minutes of stretching before Party unconsciously moves to rub his arms--it's not cold, but it's a force of habit, and then--

"Whuh--?!"

He's panicking now, patting his chest like he's just lost his keys before he notices the tablet laying on the grass. Gloved hands pick it up and Party stares at it, disoriented, squinting, before realizing it's on and asking the most important question he could ever ask:

"You cityrats seen my jacket?" Oh, right-- "Also, where the fuck have I been? Don't remember nothin'."

tothelightshown

DG was dreaming.

It wasn't the first time that she'd journeyed to the O.Z while she slept, but this particular dream was unusually vivid. She wasn't a child running through the forest with her sister. She wasn't practicing magic under Tutor's watchful eye or listening to her mother singing a lullaby. The familiar and somewhat hazy mixture of memory and imagination had been replaced by stark images of a grey and barren world bathed in permanent darkness.

The same thing had happened for three nights in a row and, each time she fell asleep, the voice in her head grew a little louder.

You broke your promise. You let go. After everything that you said and everything that you've done, you abandoned your sister again.

"No! It wasn't like that!"

It had been the city. Taxon had taken her away from the O.Z. She'd never stop fighting to get back home. Back to Azkadellia.

It doesn't matter. Soon, there will be nothing left for you to hold on to.

I'll get you, my pretty. You and all your little friends.

She woke with a start. For a long moment, she lay perfectly still, staring up at the ceiling with wide blue eyes and her heart hammering in her chest. Eventually, she sat up and sighed, pressing the heal of her hand to her eyes.

"This is starting to get weird."

In Taxon, that was never a good sign.

angry_salad

[ Arthur is testing things. It's why there's a few mass texts over the log, though they've all been sent quite late at night (or early in the morning, depending on your point of view. ]

1. Does anyone remember how they got here? 2. Totem 3. The next sentence is true. The previous sentence is false.

[Locked to Ashley Magnus, Gwen Raiden, Madelyne Pryor, Mick St. John]
Let me know if you can see this message. Testing encryption.

theextras

It has been a week (or so) give or take of harrowing adventures for those citizens unfortunate enough to have been caught up the project's bad code. Fortunately, the aliens have worked out a solution of sorts.

The time has come to find your door and open it, meander your very simple maze of servers and blinking technological wizardry, report your findings, and then emerge back in the "real" city for touching reunions and all the free drinks ever.

ooc: IC plot wrapping! tag in, tag enough other, puzzle out mysteries and propose ridiculous theories. as usual you can backtag the event until the crack of doom.

aintnoconvict

Early in the morning after Jack's arrival and thus well before Buffy's transmission, there is this:

"Good news and bad news."

Here, have a Glitch. He's standing with his back to a wall of crumbling plaster, looking a bit haggard and lot...manic. His hair's a mess and there's a scrape across his right cheek and he's grinning like a fool.

"Good news: I'm fine, little bump on the head but it's kinda been through a lot worse. Bad news: I'm in creepy ghost land and I've gotta warn ya, it's not exactly a picnic."

He turns and starts walking, and if one looks closely they'll see a scarecrow-looking figure, all gold-tinted rust, staked out some distance behind him.

"More good news, though, is...I think maybe we can find a way out from here. A way home. I just don't think they have the same kind of power that they do in...I dunno, what should we call it, Taxon Prime?" He shakes his head, dismissing his ramblings. "Basically it's chaos over here, so maybe we can turn that to our advantage!

"And, um...Party, Bagoas, Scott? Anyone else over here? Check in, I'll come find you."

ooc: someday I'll write up his harrowing adventure, but the beginning can be found here.