sixthiteration | Test Drive 23

It has to take place in the 6I universe.
It cannot be the character's arrival into the game.
Please only test new characters who do not have a version in the game. Our cast list is here.

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Prompts

FULL VIEW - The Observers really do their best to make each villager's wrist device as user-friendly for them as possible, but with all new tech, sometimes there's a learning curve... And sometimes, you just screw up. Like now, when you've accidentally triggered the video option and called someone completely random on the network without realizing it. Yep, you're just going about whatever, totally oblivious. Here's to hoping that your clothes are fully on, and that the person on the other end is nice enough to speak up sooner rather than later.
SHADOW OF A DOUBT - Being the intrepid (or just bored) villager you are, you've gone exploring and found yourself a very interesting (if moderately spooky) cave. What lurks in the dark? Might it be some shadow dust to turn you intangible? Or perhaps a cave wolf with all of its little goblin-monkey friends? Maybe, just maybe, it's both.
ILL AT EASE - 'Tis the season for the common cold, and you've got it. Unfortunately, the village doesn't have a corner drug store, so you're achy, miserable, maybe a little feverish. The good news is a little time in bed should do the trick. That is, if you're not the sort who has to be bullied to take care of yourself anytime you get sick. Either way, maybe you'll be lucky enough to find someone to tuck you in and bring you some chicken soup.
WILDCARD - Choose your own adventure. Maybe play powers roulette.
NETWORK - All characters are fitted with a smart watch-like device on their left wrist, which they can use to send text and video messages to other villagers. Text and/or video are allowed, any length. Display names may be changed by characters on the fly, but anyone can tap to see someone's real full name.

Please list your CHARACTER NAME, CANON & PROMPT NAMES in your SUBJECT LINE.

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"Smudge anything and I'll break every bone in your foot," Five snaps without looking up. He takes a few more seconds to finish whatever line of equation he's working on and then sits back on his heels to look at it.

Nothing. He can't see any problems. He suddenly misses Delores so deeply it aches--she'd always been able to spot the mistakes he couldn't. Something like despair settles over him, like a heavy blanket. He's not panicky like he was before, but instead he feels wrung out, stretched thin. Tired. Not to mention developing a cramp from crouching on the ground for hours, but that's never been a consideration before.

He runs a dirt-caked hand through his hair in frustration, which only serves to streak more of it. He sits there blankly for a moment, staring at the writing in the dirt, before his brain engages again, like the start of another cycle. He doesn't have time to be tired.

And so Five leans back forward and begins scrawling equations again. The same as before--it's repeated multiple times around him, like if he just wrote it over and over and looked at it from different angles he might suddenly have a revelation--muttering to himself as he goes.

He doesn't look at Klaus once.

Oh. Well. At least the acknowledgement was nice.

"Wasn't planning on it. That would be like painting over the Sistine Chapel."

It's pretty easy to see what's going on here - Five is scared, out of his depth, frustrated, and repeating the same equation over and over (even Klaus isn't enough of a burnout not to notice the repeating patterns in the dirt) in a frantic effort to fix whatever this is.

Frankly, it's just a tad bit terrifying. Five always knows what to do, even when he doesn't. Hell, he comes from the future, he knows everything.

Standing up, Klaus pushes a shaky hand back through his hair while Five starts back on his equations, doesn't look up at him, just keeps scribbling and muttering and squatting in the dirt like he's the last man on Earth again. Except he isn't. Klaus is here too, and he should be doing something. The problem is, he's not really sure what to do. He knows how to comfort most of the others, he's done it off and on several times over the past few days for almost all of them. Five has been impervious to comfort, all the stress and trauma seems to slide off him like water off a duck's back. It's been over 15 years since Klaus has seen Five, and he's only been around this version of him for a few days total. He doesn't know how to comfort him.

Fingers tug at his thick hair a bit, distracting him from his spiraling thoughts, and he exhales heavily.

"Uh. I don't mean to interrupt but...there's an Inn like a 10 minute walk from here where we could scrounge you up a notepad or something..."

A pause, and he bites his lower lip, instinctively reaches for his pockets as if he had a cigarette to light to take the edge off, because his skin is crawling again and the need is hurting his diaphragm.

"And I don't know if this is pertinent or whatever but there are other people here besides me and Diego and they all came the same way. So."

He doesn't expect Five to be listening. But it's something

That actually does get Five's attention.

He's on his feet in an instant, before he even really thinks about doing it, which makes his stressed muscles strain in protest but if he's going to indulge in the favorite pastime of yelling at Klaus he's going to be standing up to do it.

(It helps only marginally. Five is unfortunately still very short.)

"What?" The sudden fire might make up for it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Five knows he's overreacting, but he feels like his emotions have been stretched and yanked around like a rubber band too many times in the past few hours, and he's not very good at managing them on the best of days.

"What other people? Why didn't you say something before?"

(When did Klaus have a chance to? Shut up, inner voice that sounds suspiciously like Delores.) He knows that he only transported his family--or tried to--and there's no way he could have brought along anyone else, which means...

It means this might not be his fault. Maybe that's the variable he's been missing this whole time: the reason he can't find an error in his calculations is because there isn't one.

Something else did this. Which is alarming in its own right, but at least that means it might not be his own failures that doomed them. His own judgment wasn't at fault.

Small comforts.

When Five jumps to his feet, Klaus instinctively straightens and takes a few steps backward, both hands lifting, tattooed palms toward Five, fingers spread, as if to show that he's unarmed and harmless. It does nothing to stop Five from yelling at him, voice full of spite and acid.

"Oh my god, are you-"

More yelling. Klaus drops one hand and gestures with the other (conveniently, the one tattooed "Good Bye") as if to brush Five off, to dismiss him. Takes another step back and to the side, swaying a little.

"Oh please. When was I supposed to tell you anything, Five? Maybe right after you hung up on me the first time, or maybe the second time? Or how about when I tried calling you three times and you didn't answer, huh? Maybe I could've told you about it then."

Huffing a breath out, he glares at Five for a moment, then puts a hand on his hip and the other on his forehead.

"I'm just saying I don't think this is all your fault. You know?"

Edited 2019-04-20 03:22 (UTC)

Five, at least, shuts up--but his eyes still blaze like he could burn a hole in Klaus's skull. He works his jaw. Logically, he knows Klaus didn't have an opportunity to tell him before now, knows he's being the unreasonable one. But Five is rarely one to admit fault, and his nerves are frayed to their limits, and it's just easier to be angry. Comforting, almost.

After a long moment of seething, though, he finally turns away, his fists clenched at his sides.

He could back off. Maybe even apologize. But he's keyed up, so he doesn't.

"Where's Diego," he bites out instead. Diego is at least capable of a comprehensible conversation.

Klaus waves a hand again, turning away from Five and looking back the way he came, huffing out a breath. Resting his hands against his waist at the back, he bounces on the balls of his feet and shakes his head a little.

"Probably back at the house. You know, about two hours back that way."

A gesture toward the direction he just came from. Klaus stands still for a moment, feels the slow throb in his feet from where the hiking boots dig in, feels chilly wind slipping up the arms of his scrubs, and shivers.

"But you know what? I'm not going back there today. It's a long walk and my feet hurt, and I want to go to the hot springs then crash at the Inn."

Turning, he raises his brows, looks at Five with a questioning expression.

"How long has it been since you had a good soak, old man?"

Five looks back up at Klaus with something like incredulity, then scoffs and shakes his head, looking back out at the horizon.

"I'm not going to take a bath with you, Klaus."

Now that his mind is settling, he feels something like--well, he refuses to call it shame or embarrassment--over his earlier--he refuses to call it a fit. But he certainly doesn't want to talk about it, and he knows from experience that Klaus can be more perceptive than he has any right to be. Another thing he'll never admit.

And the last thing he wants to do is have a conversation with Klaus about anything in a hot spring. Not when there is so much he has to do, now that he has better stock of the situation.

"Hot spring. You wear clothes in hot springs, duh, it's like a hot tub. Anyway, it'll help me think, you don't have to come in."

Of course, he's not going to mention the fact that he usually goes into the hot springs in the nude, because ew, he wouldn't do that in front of his brother, no matter how old he is inside that kid body. Pushing a hand back through his hair, he exhales heavily and looks around.

Honestly, he's just not going to mention Five's freakout. If he doesn't mention Five's shit, then Five doesn't have any reason to mention Klaus' shit, and they all get along better that way.

"Seriously, I'll answer anything you want, to the best of my ability. Cross my heart."

You don't wear clothes in hot tubs, Klaus, you wear swimsuits.

Whatever.

Five rolls his tongue in his mouth, mulling it over. His choices are these: a long walk up to the North Village, when there's no guarantee Diego will even be around when he gets there. Or he can stick with Klaus and gets answers immediately, if delivered in typical convoluted Klaus fashion.

Neither is ideal. But Five has never been particularly patient. Persistent and resilient, yes. But having to wait, when he has the option not to?

He's already heaving a sigh before he consciously makes a decision, because in the end there is only one he'd ever make.

"Fine." It comes out through grit teeth, almost like it's painful. "Where is it."

Klaus stands still, shoulders slumping a little with exhaustion (he's not high anymore, and he's not detoxing, but he still never feels like he has any energy, and the walk here was really really long) while Five seems to methodically and very, very s l o w l y go over his options.

When Five finally grates out that he's willing to come with Klaus to the hot springs, Klaus claps and grins.

"Excellent. And it's not far, just over that way."

He gestures vaguely southeast, and starts moving, carefully skirting Five's equations on the ground, because he isn't completely sure if that particular threat still stands or not. Better to play it safe.

The walk to the hot spring isn't long, and Klaus doesn't hesitate much before stripping to his underwear and sliding into the water. Turning to face his brother, shoulders out of the water and enjoying the hot, revitalizing, blessedly healing waters of the springs on his sore feet, he rests his chin on his crossed arms against the rocks at the edge of the spring.

"You know, you really should come in here. You do realize you're covered in dust, right?"

Five's eyes narrow, and he makes no move to get in. Instead, he leans against a nearby wall, arms crossed, clearly not interested in rising to Klaus's bait. Such as it is.

No, Klaus, he hadn't noticed.

"You said you'd answer anything. So start talking."

Because Five doesn't even know what to ask at this point, he's so out of his element, so he'll pass the burden onto Klaus. As revenge for being confusing earlier.

"Fine, be that way. You look like a filthy street urchin. If you're angling for sympathy points, you might get them from someone who doesn't know you're actually everyone's serial killer grandpa."

It's lovingly acerbic, and he ducks his head under the water before breaking back to the surface with a little gasp and pushing his fingers back through his hair, eyes closed.

"Mmm. Feels good though. You know, they say this spring has healing properties. I think it's already getting rid of the blister I got walking for two hours to come meet you. Rude of you, by the way, to not just meet me in the middle."

Distracted? Who's distracted?

Five knows he's filthy. It's kind of hard to ignore. That doesn't mean he's about to get in a hot spring with his brother like they're a couple of frivolous old women trading knitting tips.

It's not like he's any stranger to being dirty, anyway.

"I was busy." It doesn't come out as snappish as he'd meant it; he'd really rather not dwell on the topic, and it's evident in his voice. Which means it's time for Five to get them both back on track.

"You said there were others brought here the same way we were." Five turns what he knows over in his mind. Hell, he remembers his own circumstances waking up: certainly not typical for after a jump, but at the time it had seemed more prudent to get out of there and get his bearings than wonder about it. Now, though, the more curious part of his mind is catching up.

The clothing, the tubes, the packs, the wrist communicators--all this points to some kind of organization that apparently has the ability to yank people out of spacetime at will. Not implausible; he'd worked for a place like that. But he doubts this is the Commission. Not their style.

Which begs the question: who, and why? It's only a matter of time before Five gets to the bottom of it--he prides himself on his ability to get shit done, thanks--but right now, his only source of information is, well. Klaus.

"The clothing, the supplies--they were provided by somebody. Whatever this is didn't happen on accident. We've been brought here for a reason, but--what?"

It's a rhetorical question, but knowing Klaus, he'll answer anyway.

"Sure you were, sure. Seriously, Five, you should get in here. Did I mention healing properties?"

Klaus gamely lets Five drag him back on track because Five was so kind as to allow him to soak in the hot springs while they get caught up. The hot spring is the closest to what could be called Klaus' happy place here, so being here is giving him the energy and mental fortitude to actually deal with this situation. Almost as much as Five doesn't want Klaus to be his only source of information, Klaus doesn't want to be the one who has to explain all this weirdness, because he can barely keep up with it himself, let alone explain it to a genuine genius.

"Yeah, all of that. That's...pretty much what I was thinking too." Or at least parts of it were, but he's not going to give Five more reasons to call him an idiot today, it's not like Five really needs the help, "But like, why drop us here without any supplies or whatever, or even our own stuff? What's the point of that?"

Tilting his head back, he looks up at the sky, and sighs a little, "Maybe they're seeing if we can make it. Which like, I don't know why they would've brought you, you can survive anything. Wait, maybe that's actually why."

Five's face twists into the start of a sneer, but just as quickly it morphs into something like consideration. Klaus... might be onto something. Maybe not that specifically, but there must be some kind of commonality between the people brought here. This is all too... constructed to be random.

He's started to pace without realizing it, talking out loud as he runs over his options, more to himself than Klaus. There's people behind this, which means he might be able to negotiate, which means he just needs to get in contact with them. If they're anything like the Commission he'll know how to deal with them--but with how little Klaus seems to know, they seem determined to be secretive. Five doesn't have an extremely high opinion of Klaus's competence, but he does at least have a few brain cells to rub together.

So how does Five find them?

He finally stops his pacing and turns to look at Klaus directly.

"I need to know who all is here. Is there anyone that might have had direct contact with these people?" Contact that could be reproduced. Then he can ask all his questions himself. Failing that...

Why only him, Klaus, and Diego? Why not the rest of their siblings? They're all resilient people--if nothing else, they have that, moreso than most. If he has stock of everyone here, maybe he can figure out what qualities this... organization is looking for, and go from there.

That expression on Five's face - not the aborted sneer, but the expression afterward - is so unexpected that Klaus makes a little surprised noise. Five starts pacing back and forth and Klaus can't help but preen a little, shoulders going square, some of the languidness going out of his body language. Sitting up straight, he turns and rests his elbows on the edge of the hot spring again.

Well, getting Five into the spring with him is obviously a lost cause.

It's interesting, realizing that he fed an idea into that big nerdy brain and that now Five is actually making something of it. This is why they'd always been a halfway decent team, besides the obvious parental torture and abuse under the guise of training.

"Oh yeah, sure, just let me rattle off the names of every person in this godforsaken place, I have them all memorized."

He rolls his eyes, kicks a foot out of the water and lets it drop back in with a little splash, rests his chin on his folded hands.

"I mean, we can ask, though. With the little watch thing, you can send out a message to everyone and see. Don't know if they'd tell you the truth but hey, who knows, they haven't been bad yet. Mostly."

Five rolls his eyes at Klaus in turn. Way to lose all progress you'd made toward having Five think you're halfway intelligent, buddy!

"This 'watch thing' was given to us by..." He needs a name for them, but at the same time he doesn't want to confer them the dignity of one. "Them, which means it's probably monitored. It would be better to do this in person."

Truthfully, he hates the device and wants as little to do with it as possible. A tracker in his arm, he can cut out, but this? He'd happily dislocate a thumb if it meant getting it off, but he has a feeling that wouldn't get him anywhere but handicapped.

It feels like being tagged, and it makes him feel sick. Nobody owns him. Not anymore.

And he's starting to get fed up with Klaus's nonsense again. Would Diego know where to start? He has to have picked up some investigative skills with his silly little vigilante hobby.

"Tell me you at least told Diego I was here before you ran all the way over."

Just because Klaus isn't completely paranoid, and manages to survive without the crazy survival instinct...

"Monitored. Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense? You mean like, the Man reads everything we post? You think they're gonna care if you want to meet them? Maybe it'll get their attention and they'll come meet you, you ever think of that, old man?"

Probably not helping the whole perception of Klaus as less than halfway intelligent.

The truth is, Klaus doesn't have a lot of stock in whether or not he's tagged or monitored or whatever. He's been tagged and monitored since he was a kid, and he's been ducking authority his whole life. He's been in jail. This feels a whole heck of a lot more free than that.

"Yeah, but I sent it on this thing. Sorry."

Lifting his hand, he wriggles it to indicate the device.

"Well, they seem pretty committed to secrecy so far. If they know someone's looking, they might double down."

Or he could kick up enough of a stir to get himself captured, if that's how They operate. There's an idea. It wouldn't be the first time he'd fought his way out of a situation like that.

There's too much risk involved at this juncture, though. So, last resort option, but still on the table.

"And they already know I'm here, obviously, so thankfully your lack of forethought hasn't sabotaged anything just yet."

That was mean, but if he doesn't have any caffeine or booze then being nasty is his only form of stress relief.

"Wow. Harsh much?"

He says it without much vitriol or legitimate hurt, spends a few moments deeply wishing he had a joint, because nothing goes with a bath better than a joint. Plus, marijuana always did do the best job of taking out the sting of the real world - not a full on floating-in-the-clouds amaaaazing high like opioids, but real great for being coherent but not in actual pain, mental or emotional.

A functional sort of high. Perfect for dealing with someone like Five.

"Anyway, you would know, wouldn't you? About how weird esoteric organizations behave. I've never been part of the time traveler secret service or whatever it was, so I'll let you take the lead on this one. Mmmkay?"

Edited 2019-04-27 06:09 (UTC)

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Test Drive 23

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