All Over, Wednesday, The Wee Hours

[zin-the-matrix.livejournal.com]

With a quiet, shimmering hiss, the simulation snapped to life. It was almost a perfect copy of the island itself: every shop in its place, every home as it had been. It did not even end at the Causeway, but rather it spread out a little further, covering a square mile area of mainland; only those who ventured beyond that would hit upon the 'forcefield' that denoted the edges of the simulation.

The air smelled nice. It was like someone had hung a large bouquet of fragrant flowers on every block. Neighbors greeted each other. Every rickshaw driver had a smile. And with the simulation at peace, the integrity of these simulacra of humanity was intact. There would be no weird digital shimmering across their features, at least not for as long as everyone remained peaceful and orderly.

There were the towers, of course: three of them. One where Godiva Street met Serendipity Place in the north, by the shop that had once held a megalomaniac who liked to sell people cursed toys. Another near the Rocky Bits, by Selkie Peak. And a third, situated firmly in the village itself, within a space between Photo Hut and the Post Office that simply did not exist on the actual island.

People wandered outside those towers, too, blank looks on their faces. They would greet you kindly if they saw you; it was all perfectly pleasant.

Unless you were particularly attached to your powers, of course. But who truly was?

[[ AND WE ARE OFF! All townies/fandomhigh/dorms posts go in this comm; private posts go into your own journal with a mention of which Fandom you're on. Acting up will be punished by being shoved into reasonably benign pop culture and fear-fueled pocket universes as explained here. Otherwise, Fandom is just an exceptionally nice version of Fandom. But that won't last.]]

Atlas Gym, Wednesday

[so_hawkward]

As far as Clint was concerned, today was a normal day--which meant he wasn't in the best of moods because Kitty was off in X-Men world for the next few days. He couldn't fault her for wanting to maintain a connection to her world, but he missed her when she wasn't around, and that was even before they'd gotten engaged. He didn't think it would get worse but... yeah, he was feeling kind of pathetic.

So, he was burying himself in some case files from SHIELD that he had to look over, and waiting to see if all of the trainers showed up. Some of them were still MIA, but considering how often he got waylaid instead of coming in to work, he didn't really have a leg to stand on to call them out.

[Open for anyone in the Matrix!]

Corner of Godiva and Serendipity, Wednesday morning

[vdistinctive]

The air was gently sweet, like a subtle perfume. The sky was blue, folks on the street were cheerful and smiling at one another, and there was a giant freaking tower at the end of Eliot's street that hadn't been there the day before.

Eliot stood across from it with his arms crossed over his chest, Val sitting at his feet. It was definitely alien, whether from space or another dimension, he wasn't sure. It didn't look like they'd been invaded by anything other than the towers -- why would they be so obvious with those if they weren't going to come tromping out with ray-guns or whatever. Were they microscopic, maybe? That might be what the perfume was.

"What do you think?" he asked Val. She looked up at him and panted blandly. He frowned. "You feelin' okay?" She cocked her head to one side.

A passing rickshaw driver rang his bell to get Eliot's attention and waved cheerfully at him. "Fine morning, isn't it?"

Val yipped happily and wagged her tail at the driver. The passengers in the rickshaw looked over and smiled blandly.

"Yeah," Eliot said, looking between the rickshaw and his oddly behaving puppy and the tower. "Because none of this is suspicious at all."

[ooc: open to any fellow abductees!]

Jeff, God of Biscuits, Matrix Version, Wednesday Morning

[nookiepowered]

Okay, so Bo had planned to sneak out to J,GoB early, to surprise Kenzi with doughnuts and coffee like the world's best roommate who occasionally knocked holes in the walls when entertaining a certain sort of guest. Then she'd got to the counter and discovered that when sneaking out to buy doughnuts, it helps to sneak into the pants that actually have your wallet in them.

Problem? No problem. She'd spent years living off I'm a little short, can I pay you later backed up by a soft touch of fingers or lips. She didn't even have to feel (very) guilty about it these days, since she really did intend to reimburse the new kid behind the till. With actual money, not just the supernatural pleasure of being drawn across the counter by his collar and smooched by a succubus.

Or...not? Because there was a smooch, and he didn't seem to hate it, but... nada. No dazed, goofy compliance, no temporarily free baker's dozen, and, slightly more worrying, no juice. No warmth, no energy, no life force, no...nothing. "The hell?"

New kid didn't have an answer for that. Just a polite, somewhat apologetic smile and an outstretched hand for the $13.99 plus tax that Bo currently didn't have.

She did, on inspection of every pocket and a couple other wardrobe areas less specifically designed to hold currency, find a rather wrinkled five. That at least bought her the coffee and bearclaw she was currently picking at while she sat by the window and listened to Kenzi's cell number as it rang and rang and rang.

"The hell?"

[Open for fellow matrix-dwellers, coffee swillers, and pastry-needers.]

The Park, Wednesday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

It'd taken him a couple of hours of rest to get back to himself - more or less. Atton hadn't been unused to this kind of quiet before the past year, even if this was serving as something of a wake-up call to how much quiet he hadn't had even before waking up to the Force.

When poodoo like this happened, there was usually only one acceptable way to figure out what was going on: you had to go outside and see if anyone else was having this problem. So he wandered out of MCA once he was sure he didn't look like he'd been miserable and awake for most of the night, swung by the Perk to pick up a coffee, and then made his way into the park.

There was just something... off about everything. There were those weird-ass towers, for one, sure. But something also smelled different. The people he'd met on his way had largely seemed distant, standoffish, with something in their eyes that wasn't quite there. If he'd still had his connection to the Force, he'd be sure about it-- now he just had his instincts.

Or whatever was left of them.

He came to a stop by the duck pond, and peered up at the nearest tower.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

[[ open ]]