most_unwanted | [Voice/Action]

Current Mood: uncomfortable

Entry tags:

[Voice/Action]

[There's a squelching sound of someone falling into a very muddy area. Then that someone curses under his breath, followed by the distinct sound of some very angry toads who he's disturbed. Many of whom also curse along with the general annoyed croaking.]

Hello? Who's there? Who said that? Scully, are you with me? Can you hear me? SCULLY!?!

[There's a pause, and more muddy squelching. And more grumpy voices in the background as Mulder appears to have fallen into a whole clan of toads. He seems to take this in stride though, thinking aloud as he tries to gain his bearings. He picks up the book that's near him and eyes it curiously. It's very out of place here, but he's already drawing his own conclusions.]

Let me guess. I've finally been abducted by aliens. I knew it was a matter of time, but somehow I always assumed the experience would involve less falling face down in the mud, and more probing.

Not that I want any probing, I'll pass on that opportunity.

So now the question is- aside from where the hell are my real clothes- where am I? My theories include afterlife or parallel dimension, maybe a mix of the two with a dash of government-initiated kidnapping thrown in. It's not every day you wake up in someone else's clothes with wings sprouting out of your back for no reason. Wings that hurt like a bitch when I pull on the feathers, I might add.

[Yeah he already tried that. Is it really any surprise he's already tried that?]

So what's going on here? Who's responsible for this? Was I subjected to an experiment of some kind? Kept imprisoned as a test subject and cast off to the wilderness as soon as they were done with me? Is this Russia? It better not be Russia. I didn't have such great accommodations the last time I went there.

[...and is it just him or are ALL of the toads in the area looking ready to gang up on him? He's deciding he's overstaying his welcome here. Time to get moving. In some direction. So Mulder can be found hurrying the rest of the way through the woods and into town. He's covered in mud and followed close behind by a whole bunch of very disgruntled toads.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Mulder takes a few furtive glances behind him, hoping he's not managing to annoy any more talking animals. He stops in his tracks quickly upon hearing a noise. And he knows all too well that feeling of being watched. Going on instincts, there's a vague sense of danger, but maybe he's just getting himself worked up and paranoid. As usual.]

[Instinctively, he reaches for where his gun should be.]

Damn it...

[He risks a glance up...]

Hello? Who's up there?

[Derek doesn't bother to get out of sight this time, although he notices the gesture, which in turn makes him shift nervously. The telltale signs of a rising heart rate don't help, and he licks his lips before he can catch himself. He'll look down for several seconds before answering.]

Derek Bliss.

Take it you're new?

[His own wings, as sensitive to sunlight as the rest of him thanks to the infection, are out of sight under his jacket, but they do twitch a little as he waits for an answer.]

[His Mulder-sense is tingling about this guy. He can't tell specifically what's off, but he's got strong instincts with the paranormal. He'll keep wary, though he'd really like some answers.]

Fox Mulder. And that depends, do you run into a lot of half-naked winged guys wandering around here?

Not usually, no. And not wearing the...pants everyone show up in at first. Been awake long?

[He's got the hunting instinct under control for now. Seems like a decent distance, so Derek will relax a little, sitting on the tree branch and keeping himself balanced by holding onto the one above him with one hand.

Not very long. I came to in this forest, with wings sprouting out of my back and an unnerving feeling that a bunch of toads were cursing at me.

[Without Scully here, he's trying to think of what she'd say, but this being a dream or hallucination just doesn't sit right with him.]

...this place IS real, isn't it? Some kind of experiment, maybe?

Yeah, unfortunately, it's real. So are the wings, and the talking animals. It's called Luceti.

That's a new one.

[Which is some mix of intriguing and troubling, since Mulder would expect he'd at least have heard something about a place like this.]

Do they always give people such a friendly greeting? Stealing our clothes and other items and dropping us in this place?

Pretty much. You'll probably find your clothes and stuff in the shops in the village, though. If you have weapons, those might take a little longer to show, and you might not get all of them back. We're supposed to get along in our little cage, after all.

[Pause]

...and there's no real economy set up; take what you need, find a place and move in, and so forth. Stuff gets replaced on a regular basis, so you won't be stealing anybody's stuff.

...I guess that's a better set-up than the last time I was an experimental test subject.

[Though it definitely sounds to Mulder like they're all being kept comfortable and complacent around here. Good thing he's here to stir things up.]

Is this enclosure a very big place? Very well-populated?

[Ah, Mulder, you'll learn...>.>]

Ninety by forty miles, roughly, although there's a lot of ocean to the east, now. Few hundred in the population. Good chunk of them are younger adults and teenagers. Best person to ask for a better idea of numbers would probably be a man named Albert.

[Mental note to remember the name Albert as another source of answers.]

I'll be sure to follow up on that... What about our captors themselves, they must have some kind of headquarters near this enclosure?

[...headquarters, or perhaps a spaceship. Mulder hasn't seen evidence they're NOT aliens who took them, after all.]

[Derek shakes his head.]

They stay outside of the enclosure. Sometimes they'll take random people to experiment on, but they'll drug you or knock you out, so you really won't have any idea where you are. And sometimes the experiments themselves mess with your head for a short time.

We've been drafted to protect one of their bases though, before it was over-run. That one...may have been to the east, past the shield, since that's where the ocean flood came from that took out the desert on the other side of the mountains.

Don't quote me on that, though. We were teleported in, so it's hard to say for sure that's the direction the place was in.

...They make the conspiracy back home look like a bunch of amateurs.

[Such a crazy level of secrecy and control... even more than Mulder's run across in his line of work. That's not stopping him from thinking he'll find a solution to perhaps the biggest X-File he's ever run across.]

What kind of experiments do they run on us? Don't spare me the details, I'd rather know what I'm up against in here.

[If they magically graft wings on them, who KNOWS what freaky stuff they're capable of...]

When they take us? Hard to say. but people generally come back with a weeks worth of side effects. Scrambled memories, broken bones, wounds, disorientation, a few stranger things like personality changes or a change in age. But, like I said, it reverts in a week.

There's also village wide experiments; those are stranger. Falling in love with people you don't even know, turning into something else, from a you from an alternate universe, to gender and species changes, other things like random teleportation, to...just...whatever they can dream up. It can get pretty bizarre.

And you won't know you're affected, or that you're getting affected. No funny gas, things in the water, whatever. It just happens. Occasionally, it can be traced back to using the journals on a certain day, but once that was caught onto, they found ways around it.

[Well, damn, he could say "there's an X-File for that" about many of these things, but it's still really impressive that one collection of scientists can do all of that.]

And no one's caught on to how they implement these village-wide experiments? [Rubs at his head.] I've... really got my work cut out for me, this time.

Trust me, several folks have been trying to figure all this stuff out, including trying to get us out of here, since the first person got pulled here.

Doesn't help that our...hosts...claim they don't know how to send us back themselves. They claim it's some sort of 'shifting' technology of theirs that's gone wrong, or some-such non-sense, and that the experiments are a 'regretful' side effect of them trying to figure out how to fix it and supposedly send us all safely home.

Like we're supposed to believe that one? [TRUST NO ONE, MAN. Mulder sighs. He's traded one shadowy conspiracy for another, looks like.] ...Wait, what was that word you used? "Shifting"?

That's what they're calling it. Seems to be a catch-all for 'we mess with time and space to product various effects even we don't get'.

And yeah...I wouldn't trust them either.

That's not the kind of power you want to see in the wrong hands like that... Do people at least have some kind of resistance, an escape plan, a plot to reach them... anything?

How does the phrase go? "Many have tried, all have failed'.

They pretty much have us by the balls, even the ones claiming to be on our side. Still, there are people trying to work around it. Nothing so far has succeeded, though.

Speaking of which, keep anything you don't want known off the journals. They can see what you do on them even if you lock it...and no doubt there's likely people in the village too who won't hesitate to try and break into the entries.

[Definitely something to make a mental note of.]

Big Brother is watching, huh? I'll keep that in mind. [Not to mention that there seems to be danger even inside the enclosure itself. He eyes Derek curiously.] Are there any particular individuals I should beware of?

Yuber. He's...not very fond of humans. No clue what he is, but he's blond and will have no problem screwing you up if he feels like it. He'll also take great pleasure in telling you how pitiful and boring you are, especially if you white knight at him.

Moro. She's a giant white wolf goddess, and she doesn't like humans in the forest. Be very respectful and don't take any guns with you. And she doesn't like questions. Remember she's alpha wolf and act accordingly and she'll at least not rush at you. Don't press your luck past that point, though.

[Derek thinks for a few minutes, then shakes his head.] There are others, but can't recall them at the moment. There's a guide in the journal, if you go looking, it'll tell you more of the basics. Generally, if you're polite and back off when people show signs of wanting you to back off, you should be all right.

And...just as a warning, this is as close as you want to get to me. I...have an illness that's deadly transmittable, and I'd prefer not to give it to anyone.

[The guide sounds promising, too, and Mulder is definitely going to spend many a night looking over that. But he eyes Derek even more closely if that's possible, at what he's said. He knew there was something...]

What kind of illness?

Let's just say it can't be cured by normal means.

If you think, you'll probably be able to figure it out, but...I don't know you well enough yet. I just don't want you hurt.

I'll proceed with caution... Whatever it is, it's paranormal in nature, isn't it?

[He can't quite put a finger on it, yet, but there are some theories knocking around in his mind. Give him enough time and he definitely might come close.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Voice/Action]

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject