She does just that. Sitting down that is. Diane glances at her watch- it must have been at least 15 minutes by now, right? After that, she looks around the room. Are there any fewer people in the room than when Diane got there? It'd make sense that some people would have been called by now.
She immediately noticed her watch had seemed to have stopped recently. Around the time she got to this interview. Diane immediately thinks that's probably a sign of bad luck.
(Clues Gathered by Diane: 6/10)Looking about, she was sure no one has been called yet...
As if her thoughts summoned them (Which, of course, they did) a well dressed man chose that moment to appear from the rich hardwood doors, flanked by two silent, hulking bodyguards. She couldn't say, at first glance, if the man was handsome or ugly, or what sort of nationality he might have been. He was sort of non-descript, businessman sort of guy. Yet with the air of a lack of power and command. A flunky, is the word she was thinking of. When he spoke, his voice was queerly without inflection.
"Thank you all for your patience. Welcome to Twinhall." He said tonelessly, his eyes unblinking, his body stock still.
"We'll be calling names now. I wish you all the best of luck." He says, commenting on the weather.
"Cicada, Angel" He announces mechanically.
He announces. A young woman from the back listlessly rises, crosses the room, and obediently passes through the large doors between the two guards. Silence reigns.
Agris blinks a few times, then moves on, casting a discerning eye about him. This... is not quite a dream.
Is there someone watching? Is there a camera recording? Are there people more out of place than Agris? Does anyone have an air of knowledge about them?
[Wits=2
8, 7]
(Clues Gathered by Agris: 7/10)Agris didn't see any cameras or recording equipment...yet, he'd be a fool if he didn't admit he felt he was being watched. Of course, he is a fool, so he dismissed that thought immediately. Yet, not entirely. That pearl was getting bigger...
...And, so what if they are watching him, he thinks? They are probably judging how good a worker he will make.
And the rest? Still, slumped in their seats, almost in a state of shock. No help there.
...
Names are being called. Agris thinks. He has been through the process of becoming a citizen of the United States, and he originally thought being the first to be called in many sorts of groups, was merely a happy coincidence. Once he mastered the intricacies of the English language, he realized it's because his name usually came near to the top of any alphabetical list. Which they seem to be using.
He can't help but feel a bit excited at the prospect of his new job.
Oh dear, does she really think we're going to squeak on her? Convince her to open up a little with a few reassurances.
[Maddy/Manipulation+Persuasion=4+3=7
9, 9, 5, 3, 1, 6, 4
vs
Selena/Composure+Presence=3+2=5
10, 1, 7, 4, 3
Result=Maddy (2 successes) vs Selena (1 success)
Minor Success for Maddy]
(Clues Gathered by Maddy: 4/10)]The girl seems a bit wary, but Maddy managed to charmed her a bit. And got her to put away the cellphone, which the young women did with the gravity of a grizzled veteran warrior temporarily sheathing her broadsword.
"...Oh, it's nothing. It's just...I feel like I'm being watched. Like candid camera. You know you can hide a camera in a pinhole, right? That's the only way...all this...makes sense. Right? For all I know you could be an actress, or something. Get me to say something funny, and then it's on youtube! A million hits! I don't want to say anything...um, odd, in case they are watching...
Also, my name is Selena...Selena Roman...uh, sorry if I seemed rude..."Maddy doesn't know what a 'youtube' is, but she assumes it's a television program of some sort.
((OOC: The above line may or not be true depending on maddys technoliteracy
))
Stairs. Finding out hard way that there was some kind of nasty creature waiting at the top wouldn't be so great. Perhaps once she was done and she's got the girl, she'd come back with a can of gasoline and a match...
By that point, anyway, anyone still inside would probably see it as a mercy.
She kept a careful count on the levels ascended an an eye on the environment - were some floors more degraded than others? Did some lack elevator doors?
Our good friend Alice chose the stairs,
much to her later dismay.*step, step, step*Hiking up the seemingly endless spiral of concrete stairs, counting floors-and occasionally poking her head out of the door to check adjoining hallways. She saw no sign the building was anything but unused. No signs of habitation, or that it had even been inhabited. Only the sort of impersonal cleaning services that kept the place free of dust and mold. The building also was depressingly boring. Every floor seemed to have the same, or slightly varying layout-a hallway, offices, elevator doors, candles, black ceiling fans. Not a one for heavy thought, Alice, but she does wonder if the straight life really entails working in a place like this, day in and day out-and, that those people keep their sanity somehow? Probably by extramarital affairs and plotting to murder their co-workers...she also briefly wonders how they lit all these candles, and how none of them seem to have gone out, and why they went to the trouble. But, only briefly. She's learned not to waste time thinking about the
why. There's usually not any real answer, and if there is one you probably don't want to know.
She counted herself up to the
11th floor, before her wandering thoughts were interrupted.
That, was when she heard the
sound, coming from far below her, but not too far-and getting closer. A sort of rattling, chittering, snaky noise, like links of metal over stone.
Bike Chains?, her stupid brain suggested to her, helpfully. It then assisted her by manufacturing the truly terrifying mental image of a giant metal snake made of bike chains surging up the stairway toward her eagerly, it's segments clattering and clanking, it's gaping mouth a vortex of whirling, gnashing, steel links. It added another grisly, quite imaginative image of what might happen to her body if she got caught-and then, to finish it off, some soap opera-ish scenes of a sad little funeral attended by no one, but a drunken priest with a bottle in one hand a bible in the other-because of course, if she died here, her sister would be be broke, out on the streets-busy whoring herself out just to eat, and had no time to mourn over the the landfill Alice's empty shoebox would be buried in, via an ugly bulldozer driven by a fat man with gold teeth, along with dozens of the other scumbags and invisible people.
Alice reflected at that moment she should probably watch less TV before going on jobs...
She knew whatever it was, she had to act fast. (Player Action)