fluxscape | (no subject)

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Who: New arrivals and YOU.
What: The last group arrival day before things go weird again (more on that later.)
Where: Greenway Park Information Booth.
When: Mid-Afternoon, Sunday the 25h.
Warnings: None as yet.

You know how it goes. One minute, you're in your own world. You're minding your own business. Going about your day, or maybe you're in the middle of something very, very important. Whatever the case, whether you blinked or you turned around or what have you, you're not where you were before. The first thing you might notice are the sounds around you. It's loud. Crowded. Horns honk and people shout and there's just the constant buzz of activity around you as people play and walk through and hang out in the massive park you find yourself in.

You're in a city. A large, bustling city full of people and all the chaos cities bring.

And somehow, over the din and aggressive noise pollution, you hear someone call your name.

There's an information booth nearby, with a man seated inside, watching you with vague but warm interest over the rim of his newspaper. Motioning you over, he has a packet of information for you and as he does so, he states simply;

"Check your pockets." Unless you're wearing something that doesn't have pockets, in which case, the man will tell you to check the ribbon hanging around your neck. At the end of it is a key. Maybe it's strange to you, and it'll unlock one of the apartments in the buildings nearby. Or maybe it's familiar, and you'll find a shell of your home on the outskirts of the city.

"It would be in your best interest," the man says as he points out the packet of information and hands you an envelope full of money that seem to shift colors very subtly. "If you read all of the information I just gave you."

And he's right. It has where you'll live, where to find jobs, information on a housemate (if you have one) and information on the cellphone he hands you. And there's a box of cookies that taste exactly like your favorite from home, the first bite recalling fond memories of eating them with loved ones, or biting into one fresh from your favorite bakery.

Unless you're rude, in which case, he simply stares at you until you walk away. And remember, if you persist in your behavior, he simply shuts the info booth and no manner of physical or magical attempts will get it to budge in the slightest. Or damage it.

With your cookies and information in hand, he simply gives you a small nod and a half-smile that clearly say it's time for you to move on and he resumes reading his paper.

Welcome to Wechester City.

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Leaving the Clinic:

She was expecting to wake up in the jungle of Peru, not in a clinic bed. And certainly not in a hospital that looked just as high tech and modern as the one in London. Nor was she expecting to see kind faces hovering over her, grinning their delight as she opened her eyes and saying things like you had us worried, there as they adjusted her IV and checked her bandages with care.

"Where am I?" she asks one of the closest nurses, and the woman turns to look at her with a smile.

"Wechester City, dear," the young nurse says, as if she was surprised Lara doesn't know that. Before she can ask where that is, another nurse hands her a bag with her name on it, a large bag to hold a few of her things from home, and a new outfit inside, too.

"Your clothes were so torn up and dirty, we had to get rid of them. We home this fits," this nurse says, a grin on his face as he marks a few notes on his chart and heads out, saying he's getting her discharge papers soon.

"Wait...discharge...what are you...?" But they're gone too soon to answer this question. And no one seems inclined to talk about much past taking care of her injuries, medications to use, here's her prescription already filled out.

Soon enough, Lara's standing outside the hospital, looking up at the unfamiliar building and then around at the unfamiliar city. One hand presses to the side of her head as she tries to work through what was going on but this? This was nothing she'd ever experienced, and she once stuck a lit torch in the centuries-dead corpse of an angry queen.

Watching the people come and go for a moment, she finally steps up towards one, her accented voice loud enough to catch their attention.

"Excuse me. Where might I find Greenway Park? I was instructed to head there and speak to someone named Jerry?"

The Info Booth.

At this point, Lara was at the information booth, trying to patiently get information out of Jerry. But much like the nurses at Wechester Hospital, he didn't seem inclined to speak. He just pointed out her information packet, helped her understand what she was looking at and while Lara was incredibly tired and fairly pissed at this entire situation, this man was helping.

Of course, she didn't trust any of it, but she listened. Hoping for something she could use to figure out how she got here. This was the biggest mystery she'd ever been faced with, and she didn't have a solid piece of anything to solve it. So, taking her cookies (and what delightful cookies they were, lemon shortbreads, just like her mother used to make), and her pile of stuff, she turns and steps away from the booth.

With her FluxPhone in hand, she's careful to punch in her new address. She could hail a taxi, but as she didn't know the lay of this place yet, this seemed an unwise idea.

Her phone fumbles from her hand and she moves to grab it, bending too quickly and pulling stitches. She hisses loudly and straightens as her phone hits the ground with a sharp thwack and, certain she broke it, she lets out a swear.

"Oh, damnit."

What a fun day she's having.

Honeywell Arms - Closed to Five.

The apartment complex was lovely, like some castle or fortress, but not intimidating by far. It was well-kept, the doorman was friendly. People helped her carry her stuff to her apartment.

And now that she was settled inside, she supposed she should probably look at the information Jerry'd given her, but her stomach rumbled loudly. Checking the pantries and cabinets and the fridge showed some food, but not much, and nothing she was interested in, if she were going to be honest.

So she scrolls through her phone, finally finding a restaurant to order from and soon enough, she's placed an order for a pizza and soda.

But waiting inside...no, she felt too claustrophobic in here. The apartment, huge as it was, felt oppressive. So she steps outside of her apartment and sits down, deciding it was best to wait out there, just to get some breathing room.

Apple was for the most part trying to get her bearings about the whole situation. Before this school had been cast into a winter-like state and had just been turned back to normal before she found herself here and now she was in a place where the place seemed huge and so many buildings.

So she figured she should come back and maybe ask for more question if they could be answered, but instead when she sees someone in need, she knew what she must do first.

Help out. Walking over she moved to pick it up for the other. "here. You looked like you could use some help, so here you go."

Lara watches the girl help her and gives her a grateful smile, balancing her belongings in one arm after sorting through them neatly and taking her FluxPhone back.

"I appreciate the help," she says, accent easy to notice. She wasn't going to go into why she was having a hard time moving, but there were hospital bandages peeking over a shoulder and, if one looks, going down her back under her black tank top.

"Do you know where we are, by any chance? I've asked others. They keep saying Wechester City, but when I ask where that is, exactly, no one can tell me."

"I don't know beyond what we have already been given. I just know this isn't any place I have never heard of." And it was something she probably had to at least learn and study.

"But that doesn't stop us from at least trying to figure this place out, right? Maybe there is a way to help this place and then we can go."

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Lara states, finding the girls logic makes sense. Isn't that what she did on Yamatai? She helped?...sort of. She set fire to an Undying ancient queen who was trying to possess her best friend, but the final demise of said queen released the cursed storm keeping everyone stuck on that island.

That's probably not what this girl means.

"I'm Lara. Thank you for picking my things up for me."

"You are welcome. It's the least I could do to help. It looked like you were struggling after all." And one should always help those who need it.

Next step would be to try and figure out the situation and see what issue might need to be solved. With Wonderland it was lifting the curse. But what is this world's problem?

"Do you need help with anything else?"

Five had taken a bit longer to locate exactly where his future home would be -- likely due to the fact that he'd spent a good amount of time trying to find a way to jump out of the city and ending up right back at that damn information booth each time.

Both Jerry and himself seemed more than just a little annoyed by the whole ordeal.

Giving up on that endeavor altogether, Five follows the directions being spoken to him through the speaker on his phone -- a polite female voice with no discernable accent other than American -- toting half of a mannequin along with him, tucked carefully under his arm. Once he figured out his living situation, then he could figure out his whole power situation and why it wasn't working right.

Past the doorman and up the elevator, Five carefully strolls the hallway in search of Apartment 07 -- and he's quite surprised to find a woman seated outside of the door. No one had informed him that he would have any roommates, and nowhere on his housing information did it mention anyone else living with him. Momentarily he wonders if this is all some mistake and that someone actually thought he was 13 and needed adult supervision.

"Excuse me." He chimed up once he was standing a short distance away, much more politely than he'd been to probably anyone up until now. "This is Honeywell East 307, correct?"

Lara heard the footsteps before she heard the voice, but they sounded small, so she wasn't concerned. It was likely children lived in Honeywell. The place was rather large, after all.

But when his voice addresses her, she turns to look. Taking in the mannequin under his arm, she studies the pair for a second before looking up at the apartment number and nodding. Easing herself into a standing position, she speaks in return.

"It is. Why? Are you looking for someone?"

When she stands up, Five has to tilt his head just a bit to look up at her -- unfortunately, 13 was a little before he had hit his growth spurt and he's still relatively small in comparison to her.

"No, I'm not looking for anyone." He shook his head, tucking his phone into the pocket of his shorts only to retrieve the set of keys that he'd been given in his welcome packet a second later. He holds them up for the woman to see. Proof that he isn't some teenager trying to pull one over on her. "I believe that this is my apartment, though."

He gives her a curious once over -- he's smart enough to put two and two together, realizing that this was more than likely her apartment as well. "Do you live here too?"

She's probably not that much taller than him, only about five foot six. Five foot seven in a good pair of hiking boots. At present, it's sneakers.

She's good enough with details and her memory amazing enough to remember a lot of what she looks at, and she recognizes a duplicate of her key right off, nodding at his question.

"I do. It's where the housing information sent me." That's okay by her, she guesses. Extending her hand in greeting, she introduces herself.

"Lara Croft," she states with a faint smile, the lift of the corner of her mouth accenting bruises and scrapes that are in the process of healing.

"Have you just arrived in town, or have you been here a while?"

Considering the reaction from Lara, Five assumes that they hadn't been paired together because he needed a guardian -- he would hope that they'd at least inform someone they were going to have to look over and be responsible for another person, rather than just springing it on them. And while he probably would have rather roomed with only Delores, he still chalks this all up as a win.

(Any time that he's treated as the adult he really is is a win to Five.)

"It looks like we'll be roommates, then." He takes her hand with his free one and gives it a firm shake -- she already seems like better company than most of his previous 6 roommates. "Five. A pleasure to meet you, Lara. I just arrived here as well, it seems like a few of us all appeared here at the same time." And that's at the very top of his list of things to research further -- how the hell they all got here, followed closely by what the hell is wrong with his powers.

"Are you locked out or...?"

If Lara had been given a child to look after, she'd insist that was a terrible idea and that she'd rather not. While a possible guardianship had been the first thought that crossed her mind when Five spoke to her, the way he carried himself suggested a guardian wouldn't be necessary.

"Five. A pleasure to meet you, too." She pulls her own key out of her pocket to answer his question, and a beep from her FluxPhone informed her someone was ringing up to her apartment. She could see the delivery driver holding her pizza and soda and after some fiddling with the phone, she pushes the button to buzz him up.

"No. Not locked out. I just didn't want to be inside. And I'd ordered take-away, so I was waiting for that." An apologetic look to Five as she adds: "If I'd known you were coming, I'd have ordered a bigger pizza."

She's going to share, anyway. There's enough in the kitchen already where they can make something to go with the pizza.

Turning towards the door, the bandages on her back visible where her black tank top didn't quite cover, she opens the apartment door and lets Five in.

"Two bathrooms. Four bedrooms. Large kitchen and dining area. The balcony has a great view of the city. I took the bedroom down the hall. Last door on the left. No clue why they stuck me somewhere so big. Even with the two of us, it's a lot."

Five nods along as he listens to her speak and he can understand not wanting to be trapped inside of a new place immediately upon arrival -- hell, he'd spent a good while wandering around trying to get his bearings before even attempting to find his apartment.

"It's no problem." He gives a wave of his hand and a quick shake of his head -- he's managed to fend for himself with much less, he's sure he can get through this time around as well. "I am surprised that they didn't tell either of us we'd be sharing an apartment, though."

Five slips inside of the apartment with an appreciative nod to Lara. He's no stranger to large living spaces. He'd gone from living in The Umbrella Academy, which took up nearly an entire block, to living in the apocalypse, which literally meant everywhere was home. But, considering it's only the two of them -- and the circumstances aren't the end of the world -- Five has to agree that it's quite a bit of space.

"Let's hope we get a bit of warning before they send us anyone new. We can split the bathrooms until then, we might as well soak up the privacy as long as we have it." Setting Delores down on the floor next to him, he then gives Lara a curious look, "Did you get those when you arrived?" He lifts his chin to motion toward the various bruises and bandages she's sporting.

Lara looks around the apartment entryway for a moment before turning to look at Five when he asks about her injuries. She's not hesitant to answer. Far from it. She'd like to tell him what happened, but phrasing it properly is proving a bit troublesome. This wasn't a common situation for her, finding herself in different universes entirely. So figuring out how to explain the situation was taking a moment.

"Before I found myself here, in the hospital, I was in the jungles of Peru. I'd been in a plane crash with a friend of mine, his name's Jonah, and we'd just found each other. We were trying to find a nearby village and on the way there, I'd discovered pieces of our pilot, some of which had...been in a jaguar's mouth."

It had been an unpleasant discovery.

"I tried avoiding the jaguar, not looking to bring more danger upon myself or Jonah but the jaguar caught up to me after I'd gotten separated from him. I survived the encounter, the jaguar did not. And then I woke up in a hospital bed with nurses leaning over me saying I'd given them a fright."

Because facing a jaguar isn't terrifying, and waking up surrounded by absolute strangers isn't at all jarring.

There's a knock on the door and Lara peeks out of the view finder, opening the door and taking the pizza and soda from the delivery guy and handing him a tip. Once they're gone and the door is shut, she turns to look at Five.

"So...no. Not here. I brought them with me."

He finds it interesting that only a few places from Beachville seem to remain. The Info Booth and its attendant Jerry being one of them. Bruce sits across the street on a bench, hands in his lap, simply watching the people that pass it by. He keeps tabs on who goes to speak to Jerry. They might be people more like them - the ones that seemingly dropped into another dimension.

There are theories but not enough information.

Once Lara has her belongings tucked under her arm and her Fluxphone in her pocket, she turns to leave the information booth. She's not content to head to the place she was told was her home for now, but seeing no other options, she decides to head that way.

But the site of the man on the park bench is definitely catching her attention, so she heads over. She has questions, too.

"Sorry to intrude," Lara says politely (even though she's sure she's not intruding at all). "I was wondering if you could help me with something."

British. Huh.

"I might be able to. What seems to be the problem?" Bruce cants his head to the side and waits patiently.

British AF, new friend.

"The problem is I've never heard of Wechester City, but the man at the info booth seems to have been expecting me. Are you a resident, or have you been brought in by surprise, too?"

He makes a note about that.

"If you had heard of Wechester City, I would be surprised. Most of us have." Bruce nods to the man in the booth. "Jerry, by the way."

Then, he offers his hand. "Bruce Wayne. I come from a place called Gotham City. Doubt you've heard of it."

It's fine. She's probably making her own mental notes about him, too. It's what she does.

"Jerry was pleasant to talk to," Lara says, almost conceding to the fact. It's not that she's not used to people being kind. Far from it. She's just used to strangers who know her name wanting her dead. So she was wary of Jerry and might be wary of the box of cookies stacked neatly with her pile of information.

Lara shifts the items and balances them carefully on her hip, extending her hand. Her wrist still bears the medical ID tag from the hospital.

"Lara Croft. I can't say I've heard of Gotham City." She might have. But honestly, she's still taking in so much information she might not even remember it for a while.

Bruce gives her hand a firm shake. Business man, power, the usual that would come from a man that looks as he does in a suit.

"Which means we're from a different world. That's common here." He gestures to the city. "You've walked into something of a mystery."

"A different world?" She looks only a bit skeptical, one eyebrow raising slightly.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, Gotham City is a predominate city in America. If you haven't heard of it or my name? Then, we're from an alternate reality." Bruce shrugs casually as if it is just another day that ends with a 'y'.

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Lara Croft - OTA (with one closed to Five)

Info Booth

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the one closed to Five ( lol )

Re: the one closed to Five ( lol )

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(just a heads up, anyone reading, there's implied violence within?)

info booth.

Re: info booth.

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