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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 10, 2018 22:23:54 GMT -8
Harriet- "I'll be sure to mark him if I see him. I know it will all be clear at the end of all of this." It had already been clear, with a few cloudy details. Now, we only needed a little bit more to cinch all of this.
Find the missing boy, or what remained of him. Mills had done that too. That poor kid was out there, somewhere. Alone.
Like me.
I reached down to take the spraypaint. It couldn't hurt. At worst, I would be taking nothing at all. I pick it up, a part of me wondering if the hallway behind me was still there, waiting.
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 10, 2018 22:33:23 GMT -8
The can was cool in your hand, the little metal ball inside rolling around with a
satisfying clank. It looked all too real.
STH Fabrication METALLIC 'Queen's Gold'Mother- "Thank you baby. Your best reward is knowing you did good, so I'll trust in that."
The soup let out a burp like a bubble of molten lava and she chuckled about it,
hurrying to stir it before it sprayed all over the stove. The room felt hazy, its
warmth still there but the details were fading away. Did you stay there,
maybe try to focus to maintain the dream, or did you try to leave?
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 10, 2018 22:51:03 GMT -8
Harriet- I held it in my hands, knowing it will all fade soon. It was time to go anyways. I turn and look the way I came, feeling like I could find the door I came through.
I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve. Best to clean up before I ran into anyone else in here. We had to meet face to face soon, gas cloud hallucination or otherwise. Against my better judgement, I savored the warmth of my mother's words in my chest.
I missed her.
I made a note, whatever the disappointing reality was, I would find her again when all of this was through. Maybe she'd be proud of me. Maybe.
That's what she was telling me.
Don't linger here now. The only way was forward.
That's where I went.
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 10, 2018 23:03:03 GMT -8
The dream parted like a curtain, blinked away like hot tears-- and left you
standing in a bare, concrete cube. The door had only led to an empty storage
room, the walls grimy and scraped. Something about it must have reminded
you of a city street. You looked back out that wet corridor. Somehow, you still
held that spray paint, and the humid warmth of your old home still lingered on you.
The left side of the corridor awaited you, the one with its own warmth. Would these hallucinations always be so pleasant?
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 10, 2018 23:11:27 GMT -8
Harriet- I put the spraypaint can in my pocket. It was probably just something I grabbed out of the storage room, but something told me to keep it. I sniffed hard, pretending it was from the cold, and looked at the door on the left. Maybe this would be my way out. After all, there were only so many ways to leave a room that only went in one direction.
I hesitated, and then opened the door. Maybe I should see a doctor after all of this.
Or a shrink
Helpfully added the back of my mind. Yet I didn't feel the type of concern I expected from a situation like this. In fact, I felt good. Whatever I met in that storage closet, it was... comforting.
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 10, 2018 23:23:04 GMT -8
The warmth grew on the other end of the hall-- and sadly it did not lead to the interior of a nice home again. It was a metal door more keeping with the rest of the boat, and beyond it was chugging machinery. Wasn't this thing supposed to be decommissioned? Pipes rattled and sweated, big pulleys whirred and motivated conveyor belts to nowhere. You spied a set of stairs going up into the unknown, and another door on the far end of the room, though you'd have to navigate through the machinery to get to it.
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 10, 2018 23:31:40 GMT -8
Maybe this was what all the whirring was about. If it was decommissioned, who had turned it on?
My thoughts drifted to all of those strange teenagers. Then again, would they have the presence of mind to do any of this?
I make my way to the stairway and start to climb it. This seems more like where I am supposed to be going.
I put the hallucinations behind me as I climb.
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 11, 2018 0:05:26 GMT -8
Despite the odd machinery, something about this place seems more real than
anywhere you'd been since you began the descent. Real, but how could it be?
You walked up another narrow stairwell, this one dryer than the last.
Round red lights lit your way. When you reached the landing, you realized--
They weren't lights, they were portholes. The sky outside was blood red.
There was a door with a window that seemed to lead out onto the ship's deck,
you could also walk around a railing and enter more doors to the interior of
the ship.
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 11, 2018 0:26:06 GMT -8
Harriet- "Hey, anyone there?" I remembered that the sky I came in on was anything but red. Maybe it was just a trick of the portholes, but somehow, a part of me doubted this. Where were we?
I tried to walk out onto the ship's deck, trying to take in whatever was around me. What was going on? Who was here?
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 11, 2018 0:49:12 GMT -8
It could be a trick of the light but-- the sky all around the boat is just vivid red. The fog that floats by lights up pinkish, and the shadows are all wrong-- like something out of a bad video game. This seemed like classic psychedelia so the hallucination theory was pretty solid. ((You can come up w/ another rationalization if u like ))
Stranger though, was the absence of anyone on deck. No cars were parked on the dock, no flashing police lights. In the distance though, the giant cranes and towers looked like jet-black, enormous creatures, roaming slowly over the broken land.((Could you please roll 2d10+Perception ? ))
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 11, 2018 12:55:25 GMT -8
Harriet- Yes, it was definitely a hallucination. What other logical explanation was there for this mess? And why else would the landscape have changed? I look out to see if anyone can see me from out here over the rail of the ship. The sky reminded me of local fires, and yet there were none in the area. We all knew that.
No police cars. No one waiting. Only dead, quiet buildings and moving machinery in the distance.
I shuffled onwards to see if I could get a better view. QHy8naAo+3 ·
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 11, 2018 19:38:33 GMT -8
You thought, for just a moment, that you might have heard some movement
from higher up, but could see no signs of anything when you look. You step
forward, further into the open, the sunless glowing sky radiating down onto
you feels like you've stepped into a tanning booth.
On a thick beam you see a teddy bear cruelly bound and strung up by its neck,
a note pinned to its belly with a long golden pin.
MISSING BOY
REWARD!
RETURN HIM TO ME FOR COMPLETE FREEDOM!
The bear is too thoroughly tied to the pole to be removed.
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 11, 2018 21:33:50 GMT -8
Harriet- I compare the handwriting here to any known samples. Who could have written this? So the boy is here somewhere. Hidden. Maybe still alive. That was the key to all of this. And whoever put the bear up, wanted him. But where was I? Was this all a hallucination too? And wasn't that what we all wanted while we were here together?
The thought lingered; who put up this sign, and who was here with me?
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Nov 11, 2018 21:43:42 GMT -8
You don't quite recognize the writing, though given the thin paper, it was certainly written first on a hard surface before it was pinned. Blue ballpoint pen, and rather feminine cursive. Wasn't Mills's, for sure.
In the distance you heard a man say'What are you doing over there? '-- followed by the pounding of feet away from you, rubber squeaking on metal. Sounded like it was coming from a level up, a raised area that ran around the dock.
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Post by Dr. Jar on Nov 11, 2018 21:48:32 GMT -8
Harriet- "Who's there? I walked out into this area from below." I wondered who was up there with me. The voice was no one I recognized or knew well at least. I rubbed my neck and tried to figure out where the person was in space.
I also backwards to see if there was a way to view the newcomer. Well, relative newcomer anyways.
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