001 | Video | Day 136

[chimaerical]

[She’d tried handling things covertly at first. After all, you didn’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself if you didn’t have to, right? First rule of being a cat burglar – except that didn’t exactly apply here, since she hadn’t gone out of her way to break in. She never broke into a place she couldn’t get out of, and as far as she could tell, this place didn’t have an exit. Not that she could find, anyway, and she’d searched damn near everywhere.

That meant it was time to turn her attention elsewhere. Whoever had brought her here had done good work, managing to knock her out so thoroughly that she didn’t remember. Sounded a whole lot like Manticore, but she’d burned the last facility they’d dragged her into to the ground. If any stray remnants of the organization were still kicking, she doubts they would be this sloppy.

They’d left her a phone. She was damn well going to use it.]

Consider this a public service announcement for anyone out there who gives a damn. Me and labs? We don’t exactly mesh.

[She’s seen enough of them to last her several lifetimes, thanks.]

Oh, I know, blowing hot air around isn’t going to impress anyone, but I’m not looking to impress. This is a warning. The last facility that tried to lock me up became a pile of ashes pretty damn quick.

[She’ll get out. Manticore had seemed impossible to escape, but she’d managed it all the same – twice. She could pull it off again, even if she didn’t have an accomplice this time. She’d manage.]

You labcoat types never learn, do you? You’re never gonna break me, and that’s not a challenge. That’s just fact. So I hope you’re listening, because you’re going to seriously regret trying to cage me. I’ve yet to come up against a cage that’s strong enough to hold.

Comments

[ video ]

[monticora]

I'ma bounce you on your bitch ass head. Rah. Rah. Rah.

[ He's making fun of you, Max. Just in case you didn't catch on. He's mocking you because it makes sense that this would be your first message to the network? Yelling at people like some sort of drill sergeant. You're going nowhere with that attitude. ]

I should pretend I don't know you and bounce, but I feel bad. [ He smiles finally. ] Hiya, Max. Having fun?

[ video ]

[chimaerical]

[See this face, Alec? Just for you.]

Cute. Real cute.

[His imitating her has lost its novelty and charm, as far as she's concerned.]

Yeah, time of my life. What the hell is going on here?

[monticora]

I'm adorable. [ He smiles. ]

I shouldn't be surprised, but your lack of femininity is still astounding. You should threaten to take their balls off. That'd be the icing on the cake.

[ He has to shake his head because you need to calm the fuck down, Max. You're gonna make waves. He already dropped the Transgenic bomb. There's no need to paralyze these good people with fear. ]

Well, it's a good ole fashion kidnapping. Not a black bag one as far as I can tell. This whole lab situation is a new deal. We were topside for a while, but then we migrated. I think it's kinda homey. I was jonesing for some sterile walls.

[chimaerical]

The thought's crossed my mind, but that kind of threat lacks a certain mystique.

[That said, she's used it once or twice, though she prefers to slip the word 'crush' in there somewhere. Really makes a statement.]

You're kidding. You know, for being locked up again, you're being awfully casual.

[But she knows how he operates. Just because he's not saying it doesn't mean he's not pissed off about this, too.]

Homey? I don't know, wouldn't that require drills and four A.M. calisthenics for you?

video

[calmyourmind]

They do not actually seem keen on listening to the protests of their guests, but I admire your tenacity.

Are you all right, beyond the obvious?

[chimaerical]

They don't feel like listening, then too bad. I've got a way of making myself heard. Real good set of lungs.

[Tenacity? Check. She checks herself, though-- he's asking if she's already, which automatically makes him better than about 75% of the people she usually has the displeasure of meeting.]

Yeah, yeah. All in one piece, feeling no pain. Nothing I can't walk off.

[video]

[blackmagus]

[Well, this takes Fortescue back to a time when she'd arrived and thought the place to be a Nazi death camp. She'd threatened to burn the town down, too, before she'd really gotten her footing, so to speak.]

If you're going to burn the place down, at least leave my bed for last, will you?

[She's kind of holed up in her room, drinking and avoiding people with remarkably bad tempers. What is wrong with the place right now... even more than usual...]

I'll share my rum with you, if you do.

[monticora]

You have mystique? Maybe to Logan, but I don't see it. You got as much mystique as Joshua.

[ Alec didn't try to make a break for it. Alec didn't try to run for the outside world. Alec stayed. Alec lived in Manticore. He made himself a king there because it was the only way he knew how to survive. He adapted. He didn't mind it that much. He got food and shelter. The real world was the hard part. Being nice and human. ]

Hey. I never minded Manticore. You were the one with the hard-on to burn it to the ground. That place was the only home I ever knew for a long time. Sometimes you just get used to things going a certain way.

[video]

[chimaerical]

I could probably be convinced, or at least give you a heads up to evacuate first. I'm not totally heartless.

[She's not sure she has it in her to intentionally bring a place down to the ground when it's full of people, honestly.

Unfortunately, there's nothing unusual about Max's hostility. It's the real deal, 24/7, though it seems to be easing slightly. She's not happy, but she's not going to take it out on people who are being decent-- or potentially helpful.]

Pour me a shot, keep 'em coming and we'll be great friends. I could use a drink or five right about now. I've been scouring this place for hours, got zilch. If people hadn't answered me on this thing, I'd have said the place was abandoned.

[chimaerical]

Joshua's got more layers than you think. Just because you're shallow doesn't mean the rest of us are.

[A year ago, any jibe from him might have made her break out her fightin' words, but now? They'd learned to speak each other's languages. Teasing was a good sign. It meant things weren't necessarily as bad here a they could be, or so she figured. If there was immediate danger, he would have told her. They've had their issues in the past, but she trusts him to do that.]

Used to it or not, that doesn't make what happened there okay. I'm not convinced this place is any better.

[She wrinkles her nose and then pauses for a beat.]

You're okay, right?

[So much easier to get out than are you okay?]

[monticora]

I never said I was perfect.

[ Alec has been (and rightly so) of exploiting Joshua, but that was a long time ago. Before he realized how hard things are for the big guy. Now he looks at him like family. He may look different, but he trusts Alec. Alec doesn't want to break that these days. The big guy was one of his closest friends and he helped him avenge Biggs.

Manticore was wrong on so many levels, but it did give those kids homes. He's not saying Max was wrong in burning it down, but she stuck a piece of dynamite into a delicate ecosystem. She lit the fuse and then took off. They've been trying to clean up for a while, but kids are slipping through the cracks. ]

I'm fine. Place is pretty quiet. [ Usually. ] There's a dude who has my face though. Totally not Ben or an X-Series, but he is however a massive douche. Keeps saying I stole his face. He looks a lot older than me though. He's a dick.

[video]

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue smiles. It's a tad on the crooked side — because she's also been through this building and found nothing — but very friendly.]

I know this will sound preposterous, but the building changes. The layout won't be the same the next time you go through it.

[Or maybe she knows already, but hey, might as well get that out of the way.]

But yes, there are several dozen of us here. All brought here against our will, like yourself. I do have an extra glass if you'd like that drink.

[She should probably not flirt with the angry new girl. Probably. ...nah, why not?]

Video

[cinereoargenteus]

[There's an extreme close-up of dark claws and grey fur, with the camera titled at an off angle. Garrett still has yet to master the art of using his phone. He didn't understand half of what the pretty girl had just said. The part he did made him think of his battle-loving, dagger-throwing sister Rachel.]

No bars to chew through in this cage. Makes it harder to get out.

video of course

[venatical]

It'd be a shame to burn this place down before we find, you know, somewhere else to go. [ It's not like anyone's done any close examinations of the woods outside, though Dean's heard there's a way outside. ]

'Sides, I haven't seen any labcoat types around here, not anymore. They packed up shop.

[chimaerical]

If you did, do you think anyone would take you seriously?

[But enough of the ribbing for now. He has her attention-- especially when he mentions someone else with his face. Ben is her first thought, but he's quick to lay that fear to rest. She frowns and presses her lips together, furrowing her brow. It's not like doppelgangers are anything new to them, but still.]

You're sure he's not some kind of clone?

[Except he's older, so unless he's rapidly-aging...]

It wouldn't be the first time Manticore thought that was a great idea, even if he's not an X-Series.

Video

[chimaerical]

The last one didn't have bars, either.

[The answer is simple, casual. She won't let that discourage her. She'd gotten through some pretty thick walls in the past. She just needed time and the tools.

His appearance doesn't seem to phase her, either. In fact, he reminds her a whole lot of Joshua, except a little on the furrier side. Another Manticore anomaly? Probably.]

Do you know how many people are trapped here?

yessssss

[chimaerical]

There's always somewhere else to go.

[She says that with certainty. During the great escape twelve years ago, she'd been of the same mind - escape to what? It had been worse, considering none of those kids had ever known anything beyond Manticore's walls. All they knew was that escaping had to be better than staying there. The world outside had to be better.]

You really think they're not watching from somewhere else?

[She sounds dubious, but she moves on to another topic just as quickly, narrowing her eyes. Alec had given her a heads-up about this one.]

You look a whole lot like a friend of mine. Couple of friends, in fact.

[Alec. Her brother, Ben. How many times had Ben been copied?]

[video]

[chimaerical]

It changes.

[The echo seems to be more for confirmation, rather than questioning.]

The technology for that has to be nuts. Whoever's running this place must have had money coming out the butt to be burned.

[She'd suspected, honestly, but having never seen anything like it, it didn't quite click that the place could be shifting. Burglar's worst nightmare, really. A building you couldn't find your way back out of once you'd done what needed to be done.]

You know, of all the possible recurring themes in my life, I'd really been hoping that getting thrown into facilities like this one wouldn't be one of them. That drink sounds real good. How long has this been going on?

[venatical]

Yeah, I'm sure there is, but we haven't found it yet. Maybe hold off on the arson until we get that far. [ The scientists had to go somewhere, after all. And people are still getting pulled somewhere when they disappear -- and he wonders if that's where Sam and Charlie are now, and when he might get to see them again. He's motivated to get out of here, that's for sure. ]

They probably are, though they've gotten a lot more subtle about their surveillance.

[ He raises his eyebrows. ] Couple of friends? Two of us aren't enough?

[video]

[blackmagus]

Here? Anyone's guess is as good as mine; we're all somewhat new here.

[Fortescue gives Max brief directions to her room. As good as she can, at least, considering the building itself.]

We used to be 'kept' in a small town up until a week or so ago. Then the town got leveled by an earthquake, and we were led through tunnels to this place. I think I preferred the town, to be honest.

[It had been, all in all, significantly less creepy.]

We think the scientists used to inhabit this building. There's an observation room with cameras. But when we got here? Empty as can be.

[monticora]

[ He's ignoring that comment because it was rude, Maxie. Gosh. Everyone takes him seriously. Though Anita might beg to differ. Most of the time she just wants to head pop him like Max. Maybe that's why he's allied himself so closely with her. She reminds him of Max and that essentially reminds Alec of home.

For a few days he really hoped Dean had been some sort of clone. It would have made sense they had tried with that DNA before the X5's, but he wasn't. Human. Very human. He could drop him without breaking a sweat, but he kept his hands to himself. At least until Dean decides he wants to make with the punching. ]

He's ancient. We'd have been clones of him. Trust me. He's just an old dude with a chip on his shoulder about his face. Says he's seasoned though. Whatever. Gray hair is still gray hair.

[cinereoargenteus]

[The camera tilts again, this time at another extreme angle. He'll learn eventually what's the proper distance to be seen on his phone, but until then, it's going to be a lot of trial and error.]

Have not met everyone. By their scents, a score 'n a pawful more.

[He hesitates for a brief moment before adding on.]

I am not sure many can be trusted.

[chimaerical]

[Hey, a girl has to be willing to push a little to get by in that broken world of theirs. Rudeness happens, golden boy.]

Someone to keep an eye on?

[Hard to tell. Sounds like Alec might be writing him off as inconsequential, but that's nothing new. Alec has been known to play things off as insignificant even if he felt otherwise.

Anyway. Down to business.]

I need you to tell me everything you know about this place. You said it was a kidnapping. Kidnapped by who?

[Who would be dumb enough to kidnap them, anyway?]

[chimaerical]

Technically, letting the last lab's self-destruct mechanism detonate doesn't really count as arson. Any idea who 'they' are?

[She's not arguing the logic, she's just saying.

He gets a wry smirk in reply. Trust her. Two is more than enough.]

Honestly, the first one was already more than I could handle.

[chimaerical]

[Luckily for him, she's patient about that sort of thing. She's used to watching and guiding people through culture shock.]

That's more than I'd like.

[More kidnapping victims can only be a bad thing, after all.]

You're probably right. There aren't a lot of people out there worth trusting.

[She pauses.]

I'm Max.