2021-03-07 - Endosymbiosis

Devlin wakes suddenly (or was that.. drifted into a nap perhaps in the other world?) He's leaned up against a tree as if kicked back, as he gathers in his surroundings. A kevlar helmet is under his head like it was a pillow, and yes there is a camouflage uniform that goes with it that he's wearing to include a pair of black jungle boots on his feet. His hand is resting on an aide bag off to one side. He takes breath, "Well.. not as if there was much for me to do unless someone got themselves hurt.." He sits up and stands, empty ammo pouches and a pair of full canteens hang on his web gear. "Wonder whom else the Veil drafted this time?"

It was the smell that drew Conner, but now he stands before this door rocking back and forth on his heels a little, hands in his pockets, frowning at the carving. It is a grisly image. A vastly disturbing image. He's in a rumpled denim shirt and rumpled jeans and hiking boots, same as he mostly wears when he's awake. He glances over at Devlin and says, "Well, me. I guess. Drafted."

And then: "Does this crazy symbol mean anything to you?"

To someone new to the town, and just as new to what seemed to just happen, what else can really be done but just stand and stare. The dark haired yoga instructor’s head slowly looks around, very sure she had just been in a studio at the college, having just stepped away from the class she was teaching to answer a phone call. Where was her phone? Her hands gently pat the waistband to her yoga pants, then check her sports bra. Amber looks up when she hears a voice, chirping in surprise when she sees someone.

Speaking of others drafted by the Veil... Diana blinks. A moment ago she'd laid down for a nap, which may be why she's in a pair of pj's with sheep printed all over them. She's barefoot, which she notes with a frown, and then begins to look around. She starts humming quietly, and has yet to notice Devlin, with as focused as she is on the treeline around her. She turns sharply at the sound of Conner speaking, and then tilts her head as she spots the door, intrigued. She starts carefully threading her way over there, trying to make things easier on her poor bare feet. "Oh. Hi. Assuming I'm not imagining you, that is," she says with a smile to Conner as she gets closer. It's then that she spots Devlin, giving him a polite wave. "Well, THAT looks disturbing," she says with a jerk of her chin at the door. "...wanna go in?" She actually sounds excited.

Michel had been out walking through the town, suddenly though the scenery changes. Blinking in mild surprise, grey eyes widen a touch as they take in his surroundings. The humidity in the air has him drawing in a slow breath. He steps forward to explore, spotting the door with a tilt of his head. Moving forward he goes to examine it, remaining alert and cautious all the while.

As Devlin slips his helmet on, "Yeah.. sounds like a plan. Unlike last time when the spooks showed up. Then again with my luck.. new deal.. problem is passing through the damn thing." He pauses, "Something may be near by watching or just close by I think.. nor sure." He moves to the door, "Miss Wilkerson, I don't have spare shoes but if you need it could ace wrap your feet to protect them. Might not be to good for traction though."

"Ah. Hi. No, I don't think you are imagining me," Conner says to Diana. "Conner," he adds. He's awkward, and it shows, but he nods. He wants to go in. She sounds excited, he at least looks interested. Devlin's giving excellent advice on the matter of bared feet, so he drops his hand before actually touching the door handle.

That's about when he freezes, his head whipping around in the direction of the greenery.

"You guys hear that?" he asks, in a low voice, cautious, tense. "Something's coming."

Her hands both having been over her mouth, Amber’s eyes jump from between all the people, trying to make sense of what was going on. Not only didn’t she know any of them, but they all seemed so ready, like this was all normal. She hadn’t said a thing, her attention taken up, so of course she doesn’t notice the vines. She was also barefoot, but no one had really talked to her yet either. Maybe this was all just a dream and she was a ghost that was watching them? An out of body experience? Yes, that made sense in her head.

Around when Conner's head turns, Diana's does as well. "I do," she murmurs in a low tone. "It doesn't seem to want us to hear it, but I do." She points in the general direction she thinks it might be coming from, in case that helps others focus in on the sound-- or at least prepare them. She looks to the door for a moment, and then murmurs, "Do we go through and barricade? Or face it here in the open?" It's only then that she addresses Devlin, saying softly, "...and that's a great idea, about the ace bandage. Might have to wait, given givens, but I appreciate it." Belatedly, she whispers to Conner (but loud enough that the others nearby can certainly hear her), "I'm Diana."

Michel studies the door a long moment, his senses on high alert. Slowly he approches it, extending a hand towards it as though he is planning to open it. At the last moment he hesitates, studying the carvings on it with wary curiousity. Furrowing his brow he tries to open the door with his will and mind rather than actually touching it.

Devlin nods to Dianna and then notices Amber, "New to things? haven't seen you in these before, Miss. I'm a medic, Devlin." Granted on the uniform it says McCloud and if you read ranks, shows Staff Sergeant. He looks at the door, "May as well not stand around waiting on things." He then looks over his shoulder into the woods, "Dog!" and then returns his attention to the door as he draws closer, "What do you think? Just open it?"

"You know what I'm not up to doing today?" Conner asks, his voice taking on an edge that can really only be described as a 'holy shit' edge. "I'm not up to dealing with a freaking dinosaur today. I'm definitely not up to dealing with an entire goddamn flock of them. Let's get the hell out of here. Come on!"

And that's what decides him on the right course of action. He grabs the handle to the door and is just going to charge inside, because really...it's gotta be better than what he's looking at right now. This definitely doesn't look like a 'talk to the monster' sort of problem either.

Has he got any shame that his particular plan of the moment is the GTFO plan? No. No, he most certainly does not.

Diana swallows thickly as the creature comes into view, and without realizing it, she inches backwards a little. Her eyes widen at its calling for 'friends,' and she doesn't look as relieved as maybe she might that the dog's protecting them. Instead, she nods to Conner. "I say we go through. Motion carried, motion passed, co-signed, LET'S GO!" She crowds poor Conner, trying to make sure that door gets opened lickety-split. Half an eye is kept on the lead dino, though.

Startling and yelping again as someone finally talks to her, shattering the illusion of being a silent observer, Amber stammers, “Oh, sorry, I don’t know?” But then things were moving and there was a giant dinosaur, and she yelps again, and tries her best to run away from it, piling in with the others. There’s a spot though when she stops, looks confused, looks at the doorway again, and furrows her brow. She closes her eyes, breaths, and pushes her hands out, trying to drive her energy forward.

Then she shrieks in surprise, arms grabbing her head, falling back away from it, a trickle of red running from her nose.

"Just screw me sideways with a spork," is Devlin's comment half under his breath. He then calmly says, "Lets get a move on.. "and frankly worrying about the door doing something is the least of his worries, he just grabs the door knob and turns it. "Dog.. back to me.. don't turn.." He says that as if expecting the dog to get it.

Connor stumbles through waving his hand around from the searing pain of just trying to open the thing. Their efforts send him bursting through in a way that he doesn't entirely expect; this in turn sends him stumbling forward. The end result is he has to do a merry dance to avoid pitching himself straight into the river. His mouth thins into a scowl. He looks about to make sure the others are accounted for. Then he really takes in the decor.

"If this isn't a 'good news, bad news situation,' I don't know what is," he deadpans under his breath. His gaze gets pulled to the tree and its skeletons and the person curled up inside.

"See also: 'this is probably fine.'"

Diana comes through not far behind Conner, and she at least tries to help him regain his balance-- though really, she's barely got her own balance, what with the bare feet and the totally-not-panicking she's doing. She takes a few deep breaths, and then begins to look over the tree and the skeletons. The figure-- humanlike as it is-- gets an especially long look. She takes a single step closer to the tree, and then stops herself, biting at her lower lip. She looks to the figure, and tries, "...hello?"

Even with her head killing her after her last attempt, Amber at least wanted to live, and laying around while more and more dinosaurs came out of the leaves was not the way she thought that going to happen. She does her best to scramble back to her feet and through the door, making a mess of her face as she swipes with her arm at the wet feeling under her nose. Not an attractive look, Amber. Not even looking around at the surroundings, her priority was everyone human through and then turning around to try to shove the door shut behind them, because dinosaurs.

Devlin remains at the door to help get people through and at the right moment he just says, "Dog Now.." Once the last person is through along with the Dog, Devlin helps get the door closed. "Well, lets hope this is just the frying pan.." He takes a moment to ruffle the dog's head, "Thank you."

Taking a look about Devlin hmms as he notices the figure, "Not exactly blinded by the light, but it's a beacon for the moment.. shall we? Once that is that I give the ladies a hand with their feet first.." He just seems rather calm about things as if he's used to life and death, not to mention weird Gray Harbor Twilight Zone stuff.

Conner shoots Diana a grateful look for her attempts to steady him. He opens his mouth, casting about for what to say to the tree man, when Devlin's presence provokes that kind of reaction. He puts his hands up and out and says quietly, "Hey, whoa, what's got you so angry?"

He shoots a quick glance at Devlin, one that asks what he did to this guy without ever putting it into words, a flurry of confused microexpressions. Then he decides, hey, you know, the better part of valor is probably to pay attention to the naked tree guy with all the heat powers. Especially if they're going to talk him down, which is certainly what he's attempting to do right now.

Diana hears the door close behind them, and briefly looks away from the man starting to unfold, back to the door. No dinos? No dinos! Good. She nods politely to Amber, then looks back to the man and holds her hands up in a pacifying gesture when he shrinks back. "We don't-- we don't mean you any harm--" but then it notices Devlin, and she looks between them, blinking. "Um. Whatever's transpired between you two before, we don't necessarily have to fight. This could be a situation where we all go our own way, maybe?" She even tries a nervous smile.

Holding his hands up towards the guy to show open palms, Devlin says, "I get it, your not to trilled with what happened before. How about we try this again, ok? I'm sorry about what happened before." He then directs to the dog, "Sit." He returns his attention to the man, "Things were different then.. ok? This time, we can do something else.. that cool?"

"Aw, man, look, I suck at charades," Conner says, grimacing. He glances over at Devlin. "You...roasted his skeletons the last time you met? What the hell is going on here?"

Devlin is the only one who seems to have a clue, and a mouth, to explain, so the disheveled apartment manager focuses all of his attention there. Without some sort of clear cut information knowing what to do here is an impossible task.

"I meant what I said. We don't have to fight, here. All we have to do is co-exist for a short time, so we can get ourselves home, and then you're free of us!" Diana looks between Devlin and the naked-tree-guy, carefully lowering her hands to her sides with no sudden movements. "Not fighting is very much the plan right now. Maybe you'd win in a fight, or maybe we would. But neither of us really wants to risk finding out for sure, just in case."

"We have a chance to do this differently this time. No fighting, no bull shit like before. Do you need help?" Devlin says with a degree of confidence. "I am a medic. A healer.. last time, I think it was due to miscommunication or a misunderstanding. So like the nice lady said.. we can do this without starting a fight. Live and let live. Perhaps we will both benefit this time, ok?"

Diana lets out a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding, and gives the naked guy a smile. She tilts her head as he shrugs and then starts into Charades, but it doesn't seem as though she finds this one particularly difficult. "What do you eat? Fire? Wood? ...burritos? I don't have any food on me of the human type, but I'm happy to go looking for whatever you need." She casts a quick look about, not that there's a ton more to see.

Devlin digs into his aide bag, saying to know one in particular, "Lucky for me range day.." He pulls a spare MRE out of his aide bag and a bottle of water. "Hey.." he calls out to the guy, "Food!" He holds up the MRE and then tucks it under an arm to mime eating. He then holds it out, as he motions to the guy to come over, "Come on over."

Diana is possibly either naive or just extra trusting, given that she doesn't in the least look like she expects the naked-tree-guy to attack, now that he's close. She does take some antler tips and two of the fruits, and she nods her head, twice. 'I understand,' is what she's trying to convey. She looks at the fruit in particular, and then nods one last time, looking to Devlin. "Let's go a-hunting?" she suggests. "At least the ground here's very soft, so I won't end up needing the ace bandages."

Devlin nods as he puts the food and water away. "Yeah, guess that is what we are doing. Deer hunting and me without a bow." He looks to the Dog, "You wouldn't happen to have one hidden away?" the tone half joking. "but.. I guess we will make do.. some how. A little glimmer perhaps?"