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 nodded. "Exactly. Hardison was sayin' it might be some kind of drug, one that hit the animals before it hit us, but if whatever this is literally changed you. . . . This goes much further than I'd thought."

[sharp_as_knives]

"And I would be very surprised if the rest of it isn't related," Hannibal said, eyeing the tower. "But if they intend - albeit in an odd way - to help, then why remove Jono's powers? And if they intend some sort of harm and have neutralized threats as best they could, why the overly cheerful people around, and that smell of flowers?"

He eyed the (soullessly) smiling strange couple walking across the street from them. "If they're attempting to lull us into a false sense of security, they're doing a very poor job."

[inner-fire.livejournal.com]

"I don't trust people with looks like that on their faces even when I do have the ability to eavesdrop on what the hell is going through their heads," Jono noted, raising an eyebrow at the very same couple. "That's bloody eerie, that is."

[sharp_as_knives]

"It doesn't look as though anything is going through their heads," Hannibal noted.

[vdistinctive]

"Hardison tried pinching one of the rickshaw drivers earlier," Eliot noted. "Guy didn't even blink."

[inner-fire.livejournal.com]

"Right. So... nobody's really home, then?" Jono looked speculatively at another passer-by, who waved a cheerful hello before continuing on their way.

He shuddered a little.

"Or they've been brainwashed or something. Like the animals. They're not quite right in the same vanilla sort of way. Like extras, you know? What they do doesn't matter. They're filler. They're just supposed to be there acting nicely while we run around being... us."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal turned to Eliot. "You said Sparkle is here. Who else have you seen so far?" He trusted Eliot would know he meant actual people.

[vdistinctive]

"Just my team and you two. But I haven't got out and about too much, yet. Sparkle said I was the first he saw."