children, wake up; hold your mistake up

[headandhand]

WHO: All new and remaining Dualizens
WHAT: A mysterious return! And the start of Act II.
WHERE: Begin at the dorms, move on to wherever else in the city you want.
WHEN: Right meow c:
WARNINGS: Please use these in thread headers if applicable!

Maybe it’s a stream of sunlight that invites you back to consciousness. Maybe it’s a sound - a slammed door, your roommate’s snores, panicked shouts in the hallway. Whatever it is that wakes you, you find yourself in a plain bed inside a plain room, groggy and disoriented.

Maybe this room is a familiar sight, or maybe it’s a place where you’ve never found yourself before. Whether you’re new to town or an old hand at navigating the neon-lit streets of the city outside the dorm room window, one thing is for certain - you are one of only a very few people still populating this city, and not much about Dualis is as you last remember it.

Time to wake up and start looking for answers.

Comments

[crime_stopper]

Sam jerked upward and looked to his left as if expecting to hear something something or see someone. It took him a second to realize where he was but it was like anything he'd done recently was gone from his memory....

He scrambled off his bed and yanked over the door. "Jack....Dean," he called into the empty hallway, "Jack...Dean!"

Sharon da Silva | OTA

[merged]

▼ ▼ I. Dorms

Not a single fucking thing made sense to Sharon. The last thing she remembered were the brilliant dance of flames and how the carousel wasn't as beautiful as it'd been in her childhood. She should have woken up there, in that broken amusement park, in a town that was lost to the world. Not... here. Wherever here was.

She felt more numb than afraid as she walked down the unfamiliar halls, oddly fascinated by the walls. No peeling paint. No rust. No blood. Some small part of her had a hope that maybe, just maybe, her dad saved her from all that; that this was just some strange hotel and everything was going to be better and normal and right but she also knew better: that's not how her life has ever worked.

The first person she spots, she waves down, picking up her pace to catch up to them. She tries to appear casual but her clothes are dirtied with dark spatters and smears and her hair looks as if it hasn't seen a brush in a day or so, tangled,"Hey!"

"Uh... I lost track of my dad. Was just wondering if you'd seen an older man? Dark blonde? Messy hair? About," She levels her hand a few inches above her head,"yea-high?"

She fucking knows better and still, she asks.

▼ ▼ II. City

Dualis.

It was just as empty as Silent Hill, devoid of life in a way that made it feel haunted but in a very different way from the fog and the darkness she knew. For one, Dualis was lit up as if it were still active and breathing. The street lamps flickered to life as the sun began to set. The store lights were welcoming and the flashing signs declared sales and prices and specials to entice but it somehow felt threatening in the emptiness, as if it were some sweet trap that would snap if she dared enter.

Still, she wanders in like easy prey. First, a convenience store. Then a clothing store. A bar. She never wanders far in, just enough to check for anyone, preferably someone familiar, but there wasn't a damn soul around. Not even a monster. It doesn't take her long to head back towards the dormitories but not before popping into a grocery store close by. She's been hesitant to take anything but it's gotten late, she's hungry, and... well, it's not stealing if no one is there to tell on her, right?

She snacks on a bag of chips as she browses down aisles, freezing when she hears someone else enter, the bell above the door chiming. She sets her basket down as quietly as possible, creeping down an aisle at the far end of the store in an attempt spy on the stranger.

If only she weren't in bright orange and white.

[ ooc; if you'd like a different prompt or want to talk potential threads/cr direction, feel free to PM or hit me up on discord at korvos#4053 ]

I. Dorms

[uglyminded]

Shay is wandering the halls as well, tracing her sensor-laden fingers across the wall when Sharon flags her down. She raises an eyebrow at the girl's disheveled looks, but the shifting snake tattoo across Shay's face must be just as strange to her.

"Can't say I have. Where was the last place you saw him?"

[merged]

"I, uh," The tattoo clearly draws her attention and Sharon has momentary difficulty regaining her train of thought. No one where she's from has ink like that. It makes her feel a little more uncertain, a little more fearful about reality. What if this isn't fucking real? She blinks, answering more honestly than she would under normal circumstance,"He was kidnapped, I was supposed to come find him. I thought..."

She gives a frustrated sigh, shaking her head, knowing full well she sounds off her rocker,"I don't know, that he brought me here. O-Or woke up here, too."

"But I'm not even sure I'm awake." It's not just the moving face art that makes her question reality, but it sure isn't helping (and she can't help but stare).

Natasha Romanoff | OTA + one closed starter

[tothefly]

[rude awakening: closed to Jason Todd]

[It's a small sound, but an important one. The sound of another body shifting, another body in a place that even asleep she realizes is wrong. The bed feels like the one she'd fallen asleep in, and the knife under her pillow is still there underneath her fingertips, but there's something else, a change in the air.

There's another person in the room, and they hadn't been there when she'd fallen asleep.

Another noise, a faint sigh, a noise like movement, and she's suddenly fully awake, that knife out and moving with her as she sits, ready to fight.]

Don't move.

[The words sound like the threat they're meant to be.]

[exploration B: OTA]

[Once she's over the shock of seeing the dead come back to life, or possibly a dream made reality again--she's still not sure whether that other place was ever real at all--Nat knows she needs to see for herself what she can see, go exploring and get the lay of the land, stock up on supplies. Clothing, better shoes, food, and definitely more knives, especially since her firearms are gone.

She starts with the homes. Stores are more likely to have other scavengers, and people generally feel more reservations about invading other peoples' spaces, even if the residents are clearly long gone. There's also the chance that in a residence she'll find more information about whatever happened here, even if it's just a message to a spouse or a shopping list.

The closet proves interesting, even if there's not much else. Lots of black, lots of leather, lots of reflective strips and piping. She's holding a jacket in her hands at the moment, seemingly considering wearing it, when she speaks.]

Whoever lived here definitely committed to the whole 'cyberpunk dystopia' aesthetic, don't you think?

[Of course she'd heard that person come in behind her. At least they're getting greeted with words instead of knives, right?]

[network shoutout: OTA]

itsybitsy: Anyone else feeling like they aren't exactly in Kansas anymore?

[She'd gotten the rundown on this place from Jason, but never hurts to keep some cards close to your chest.]

[uglyminded]

Shay listens patiently. Since she got here she's had to get used to uglies staring at her for one reason or another. When Sharon finally finishes Shay shakes her head.

"You're awake. And your dad didn't bring you here. We're the ones who were kidnapped, by some brain-missing super-computer."

un: adaptiveimmunities

[adaptiveimmunities]

sure am. wondering where the little yappy dog and the red heels are, because I'd like to skip the wicked witch and go straight to 'there's no place like home.'

OTA, Shaun is extremely cross.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun has no idea where the fuck he is, but he is pissed. He's supposed to be home. He's supposed to be home with Georgia, and not who the fuck even knows where with no one but himself and the voices in his head.

[Thanks.]

"Do not start with me right now," he mutters. He pushes off the bed and heads immediately out the door, looking for answers. Like where the fuck is George?

[Shaun will be stalking through the hallways of the dorm, and then eventually the city. He is looking for answers or his sister, and he is real mad.]

network; un: justnick

[metamorphotic]

i grew up in kansas

don’t got anything like this there so yeah not kansas

u must b new

Re: network; un: justnick

[tothefly]

In a manner of speaking, yeah. What gave it away?

[tothefly]

[Well, that's one right there. At least she's got one cultural marker that seems to function for part of the population. Baby steps.]

You and me both. Although between you and me I'll take 'cyberpunk dystopia' over 'little house on the monster-filled prairie' any day. At least there's hot running water here.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Monsters are manageable if you have enough bullets. [Beat] Sure wish I had some now. But you're right--hot running water is definitely a plus, and I'm a big fan of not having to do a hero's journey before someone tells me 'the power was in you the whole time.'

[metamorphotic]

cuz ur using that wizard of oz quote & newbies say it a lot when they show up in weird places like this

think i prob did it once too & i dont even like kansas

[merged]

Her dark brows knit together beneath a mess of mussed bangs as she processes the statement, gazing no more at the tattoo but rather Shay herself, as if she could determine the truth of it all with just a look. It sounded insane but her gut told her to listen; it was no more crazy than everything else she's dealt with in the last week.

"...How do you know all this?"

B

[merged]

[ She'd had no intention of following the other woman, not at first, but when she saw her duck into one of the homes, Sharon found herself following after, too curious for her own good.

She flinches when she's caught in the shadows of the hallway and steps into the light of the bedroom, somewhat sheepish. She just wanted to see what the other woman was up to and... it looks like she was just raiding closets; she's not sure what else she expected. ]

Did you just come into someone's home to go through their closet? [ She's as curious as she is judging. Though, she's got no right to judge Natasha when she followed her in like a creep. ]

[uglyminded]

Her eyes may look fake (Near-black with flecks of violet? Not likely.) but her expression is entirely serious.

"Because the computer told me itself, a month ago. We're supposed to be medical research or something."

B

[ichoosefight]

[ She'd really been trying to be quiet, but she's hung out with Batman enough that she doesn't startle so easily. She shoves her hands in her pockets and shrugs. ]

You should've seen the place when it was populated. Straight-up robocops on patrol.

[merged]

Her stomach tightens uncomfortably. As much as it sounds like the plot of a science fiction novel, the other girl doesn't look like she's lying. No flicker of amusement. No quirk of a lip. Sharon doesn't want to believe it, not a single ounce of it, but she does. She crosses her arms tightly across her chest, trying to keep her worry and fear from being immediately obvious.

"Do you know if I can talk to this computer myself? Or... do you have any proof?"

[uglyminded]

"I haven't been able to tap into the city interface, so no, I don't think you can. I'm surprised it didn't give you the whole spiel." She glances off to the side, checking her skintenna feed on the screens in her eyes. Still nothing.

"What kind of proof do you want? If you ask me the whole research angle is just an excuse. This city wants the same thing my old city did--to control us."

Seifer Almasy | One closed and OTA

[firacrux]

At the Dorms: Closed to Duke

It had been a while since Seifer had awoken so groggy and sluggish. Typically he was up and out of the dorm well before daylight, perhaps not always in the best shape but nothing quite like this. He groaned as he came too, flopping over to try to fish for his phone through the heavy fog of still clinging sleep.

Eventually his seeking hand found the device which he dragged over to peer blearily at, squinting at the illuminated numbers. Later than normal. Then he noted the date.

"The fuck?"

No, there was no way. Surely his phone was wrong? Or Duke was fucking with him, yeah Duke was probably fucking with him.


Out and about: OTA

No rest for the wicked or however that saying goes. It wasn't long after the rather startling revelation of a whole two months of lost time that Seifer decided ruminating on it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He had work to do, and a hell of a lot of it to catch up on.

The downside? His buyers were gone. The upside was he didn't actually have to pay them back for the machines they lent him to build weapons with so... silver linings? This gave him more freedom and time to work on his own projects, which mostly involved still churning out weapons but now of more varied design and deadliness. These were for defense, after all, and there was no time like the present to go scavenging for anything and everything he could use to start building his arsenal.

Of course driving in a massive city with absolutely no one else on the road was weird as hell, but hey at least there wasn't anyone to yell at him for digging in their scrap piles anymore, right? He was hard at work filling the bed of his truck with all manner of random piles of trash as he skirted around the city, ever alert for any signs of motion or life. After all, now that it was dead out here, someone out on the streets stuck out like a sore thumb.

Himself included.

[notoftheblood]

Jack had just made his way into the hallway when he heard Sam. Turning quickly, in that dramatic way one only learns by being raised Winchester. "Sam!" He called back, rushing over. Sorry, Sam, it's hug o'clock. "How did we get back here?"

[exceptionalcrook]

In almost any other scenario Duke would have been fucking with Seifer, but it wasn't his fault this time. He turns over in bed, muttering "later, Evi" and snuggles unconsciously into his sheets.

He's sleeping comfortably for once, not getting up unless his roommate demands he does. Duke snuggles deeper under his comforter, making a quiet happy sound.

[fuckregularpeople]

The woman who answers him is just as complicated as Shaun is, dealing with the voices no one else can hear too.

"Don't do it," she mutters under her breath, fingers gripping her own clothes hard, trying to hold herself together in the middle of the dorm's hallway. "Trust me, it's not going to help anything."

Then her outline blurs, her shape changing -- just a little, enough for her body to shift. A tattoo appears on her neck that wasn't there before, a heart with wings on it.

This new form of the girl yells out and punches the wall, her fist easily passing through one layer of plaster and plywood. "FUCK THIS!" Hammerhead shouts, her hands going to her head in frustration. "THESE MOTHERFUCKERS JUST NEED KILLING!"

Jane grabs the wheel again and she shifts back, looking the same apart from the ink disappearing from her skin. Jane shuts her eyes and breathes deeply.

"Do me a favor and fuck off?" she says to Shane. "I'm in the middle of something."

[firacrux]

A kinder roommate would have noticed that Duke was unusually comfortable and left him to his sleep. Too bad Seifer's not particularly kind nor considerate, and as far as he's concerned they have an emergency on their hands.

If Duke wasn't responsible for this he needed to know, if he was he didn't deserve comfortable sleep anyway. Seifer chucks his pillow at him across the room.

"Hey! Quit dreamin' about your girlfriend and get up, we've got a situation." He snapped, the adrenaline powering him through that unusually heavy sleep as he got himself up to go try to find Duke's phone to verify. If they both had the wrong date then he'd know it probably wasn't just a technology glitch.

out and about ♥

[bravers]

[Seifer's not alone.

The relative silence of the city ends abruptly, with the heavy drone of an engine. It's in the distance somewhere, rising in pitch in acceleration, falling abruptly and picking up again just as soon. The sound seems to fade away for a few seconds. Maybe even half a minute. But then it's back, and it seems to be getting louder.

Perhaps Seifer can identify it as a motorbike. Perhaps not. But it's coming, and if the sound of it is anything to go by, it's coming at some speed.]