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!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot looked up at the tower again. "Sounds like the start of a plan. You want me to stick around town, see if anything else is suspicious?"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Another long lean into him for reassurance. "And text me if anything new happens that seems to matter." She looked sadly down at Val, who was just sitting there. "Or if Val gets better suddenly."

[vdistinctive]

"'Course. Maybe we should go on comms. Till we get this whole thing figured out."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker grabbed onto that idea like she'd grabbed onto Eliot. "Yes. Definitely. If we're not in sight range, comms. Just in case."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot pulled his comm out of his pocket and held it up for her to see. "Just in case."

Not that it'd work, but they didn't know that just yet.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker pulled hers out and put it in, then clicked the button to test it. Eliot and Hardison (if he had his in already too) should have heard that part.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned and tapped at the comm in his ear. "Try it again," he said. "Somethin' ain't working right."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker was starting to tense up again. She gave two sharp taps on her earpiece, then said, "I didn't hear yours beep either." She took hers out and looked at it, then said, "Maybe they need charging?"

It could be that simple. It could.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shook his head, hitting the test button on his own comm a few times. "Hardison would never let 'em run down. Must have somethin' to do with the lack of signals he was talkin' about earlier. Isn't bouncing off the right wifi or something."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Great." Parker grimaced, then frowned, torn between all of them finding stuff out, and being out of contact when the island was being weirder than usual. "Does it strike you as weird-dangerous, or just weird-annoying yet?"

[vdistinctive]

"Everything about this strikes me as dangerous," Eliot admitted. "Hell, every time one of these damn smiley assholes walks by I want to punch him in the face."

It wasn't the most rational of responses, no.

"Can't help but wonder if they're just victims who were harder hit than we were, or if they might know something."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"We could ask him why he's smiling." Parker favored the sneaky approach after the direct approach was exhausted. Mostly it was a matter of her patience level.

She stepped in front of a young man walking by whistling, looking like he'd just escaped from a really clean-cut boy band. "Excuse us. We have a question. Why are you so happy?"

[vdistinctive]

The guy shrugged, still grinning. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Eliot growled under his breath and grabbed the guy by his shirt collar. "Because there's a giant evil looking tower over here that wasn't there yesterday," he said. "Among other things."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"You need to be calm, sir," the younger guy said, hanging from Eliot's grip with all appearance of nonchalance.

Wrong wrong wrong. "Who's your boss?" Parker demanded. "Nobody is this calm when Eliot is threatening them without back-up!"

[vdistinctive]

There was absolutely nothing at all calming about being calmly told to calm down.

"There's nothing to worry about," the guy said, smiling at them. "Everything is so nice here, don't you think?"

Eliot stared at him, not letting go. "No!"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Why is everything so perfect? What do you know?" Parker demanded, leaning over and poking him. Poke. Poke. Poke. "Are you on drugs?"

[vdistinctive]

"Who needs drugs?" the guy said. "I'm high on life!"

"Oh for --" Eliot wrapped his free hand in the guy's shirt and shook him. "Stop spouting cliches and tell us the truth!"

"Hey man," the guy said. "I really think you should just calm down."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I don't think he knows anything important," Parker said, crossing her arms with a frown. "Or he'd be saying something else by now. This is really annoying."

And freaky. Was that even the guy's real face? Parker leaned in to stare into his eyes, and just saw herself staring back.

[vdistinctive]

"He might just be well trained," Eliot said, glaring daggers at the man in his grip.

The Retrieval Specialist was rearing his ugly head.

He spun in place and slammed the guy up against the tower, leaning well into the man's face. "Why do you ke --"

And then Eliot was gone, leaving a shining tear in the air behind him. His captive straightened his shirt and smiled at Parker.

"It's a lovely day, isn't it?" he asked.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker didn't waste time screaming, although it was a close thing.

If she'd stopped to think for two more seconds, she might have cartwheeled away and toward Hardison, in order to make a new plan, and find a way to get Eliot back--

--but instinct took over, and she was leaping toward the guy with her hands out-stretched--

And through the tear (http://vdistinctive.livejournal.com/11601.html)

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Nooooooooooooo!" Hardison flung himself forward, trying to reach his friends only to have the tear finish closing before he could go through it.

Parker and Eliot were gone. Val sat calmly on the street corner, looking completely fine with the entire series of events. Hardison wanted nothing more than to leave her there, but he couldn't make himself. "C'mon, girl," he said dully, turning to head back to the empty apartment. "I gotta figure out what to do next."