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Post by Skittles on Mar 8, 2015 4:47:34 GMT 12
The back door slid open with a throaty creak, shutting behind a bundled figure, locking out the chilled fingers of winter that grasped at any exposed skin. The hat removed, the young man shrugged the heavy coat off, draping it over the dusty computer chair, before spinning it's seat outwards and plopping down in it with a heavy sigh. After rubbing his hands for a little warmth, the sole occupant of the empty building spun back to face the long untended desk, wiping the fluffy gray coating off, giving a winded blow to the microphone for the PA system, sending a cloud up into the air in the dimly lit room. With a flick of a switch, the device groaned to life, flickering lights coming on after years of hibernation. The figure held the microphone to his lips, but when he opened his mouth, only a dry gasp emerged. With a grunt and a painful sounding cough, he fought the wall of mucus that restrained his voice, and finally, the intercom barked as the building heard the familiar tone fill it's hollow halls....
"RPAA, sound off!" Skittles' called to the empty building, the words echoing clean to the attic, before a long, solemn silence answered him.
With a small smile, he pushed the chair back, pulling a pen and pad out of the desk, slapping it down on the intercom box and hastily scribbling his name and the date across the paper. Standing up, he took one glance back at the desk before pulling his coat back on over his shoulders, stuffing his ears back into the hat that sheltered him from the cold outside. "It's not home, anymore, but this dusty old house still puts me at ease." The back door slid open, filling the young man's cheeks red with bitter cold. "Let's see just how many others feel the same way...."
With a chuckle, and a little hope, he left the old derelict with the lights still on, an invitation... or a homecoming...
+1 Skittles
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Post by Sin the Keeper on Mar 8, 2015 17:10:24 GMT 12
Eleven hours too late, a familiar smoke filled a room somewhere below the boiler room, flowing through the grates and vents. It came together in a familiar form in an even more familiar place. One flickering light bulb hung from a battered wire in the center of the ceiling. The wavering light didn't illuminate much, but it was enough to make everything out. Pictures and letters littered the walls and the floor, leering like ghost from their writers. Sin stared back at them for a moment, his hands hovering over the old terminals keys. With a deep breath, he picked up the nearest thing and read it, before continuing. He skimmed over everything, and read his letters. He didn't get too far before the nostalgia hit, and everything before him held meaning again. Nodding to himself, Sin approached the old beaten terminal with purpose. Yawning he cracked his knuckles, sat down, and turned the old beast on.
As it whurred to life, the wails and griping of the Banned played in his "office". Smiling, he got up humming an old half-forgotten tune, and walked out of the old tomb. Upon entering the basement he gathered an old custodial cart and the scattered supplies and dragged it upstairs right to the main hall. With a sigh, he pulled out moth-eaten rag and dusty squirt bottle of water. Still humming, he began to dust off the massive layer of dust that befell the banner and the face of the building. "So much work" He snickered to himself, working away at the mountains of neglect. " I knew this place couldn't die," He said to himself, "to much has been invested. Sweat, time, and blood have given this old place a patchwork of soul. She can't die." A floor board creaked and an old pipe hissed in response. "I know girl, I know you're hungry. I'll see what I can do" Sin said patting the wall.
The heater kicked on with the sound of an empty stomach. Warmth, thats what the people needed in these cold times, an if anything could do it, it was this place and these people.
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Post by Tinkleton on Mar 9, 2015 11:02:19 GMT 12
The back-door opening and shutting broke the tomb-like silence of the derelict house, and the visitor's footsteps - though heavily muffled by the inch of dust that cloaked the wooden floorboards - echoed eerily through the dark halls. Far back in the recesses of the building's gloomy attic, in the darkest corner, lay a barely discernible shape which had not moved in such a long time that it was a surprise it had not simply grown into the floor; it looked human-ish but it was coated completely in a very thick blanket of dust and it didn't seem to be breathing. It must have been alive, though, since the sounds of movement in the rooms below reached it and it reacted with a minuscule twitch. Whatever it was had long since become accustomed to the deathly stillness that enveloped the house, and a pair of dull eyes opened a tiny bit at the strange sounds. Though it was quite dark in the room, the thing squinted against whatever light existed there, and it listened hard as it waited for it's vision to adjust.
What had that been? Was someone there?
The creature listened harder, then it flinched as the houses' long unused PA system crackled to life. A voice spoke, booming through the halls, and the thing's dull eyes widened and became slightly brighter. That voice! It recognized that voice!
Now it began to really move, though the movements were agonizingly slow. Bones creaked and joints popped as it rolled over, then very slowly sat up. A cloud of dust rose into the air, and some of it was promptly sucked in as the creature - revealed under the coating of dust to be a young lady - took it's first raspy breath since forever. A heartbeat started in the woman's chest, and she coughed a few times before rising to her feet and making her way on wobbly legs toward the attic door, gaining confidence and speed as she went along, navigating the doorknob and flinging the door open. She went to take another step and tumbled gracelessly down the stairs, dust flying off of her in clouds, and she landed in a heap below. But it was OK! She was OOOOK! She hopped to her feet and burst through the bottom-of-the-stairs door, scampering along through the house. Full of excited energy, she flung open another door and found herself in the room with the PA...
..only to find the room disappointingly empty. The person who had called out had already left. Her shoulders sagged. But then she noticed the paper on the intercom. There was a note! She went forward and looked at it, reading the words, then her crusty lips split into a smile. Maybe they'd be back, so she'd wait for them. She'd already waited for so long, what was another few years or whatever? Hastily she scooped up the abandoned pen and, after a brief moment where she had to think to remember what her name was, scrolled "Tinkleton" under the other's name, as well as the date and a short sentence alerting whoever came across the paper to where she'd be in the house. Then she turned and trotted away, going into a side-room and sitting down on a very dusty couch, where she drifted back into hibernation mode. --
Hours later, more noises broke the silence and Tink opened her eyes. She listened, then sat up once she'd decided that the noise she was hearing were definitely not the house just settling. Another person was here; maybe Skittles had returned? Tink stood and followed the sound, finding herself being led into the main hall. She paused at the doorway, seeing a man dusting away and mumbling to himself. Tink felt another grin spread across her face as she recognized who it was. It wasn't Skittles, but it was definitely another friend. Using an almost forgotten skill which she'd honed in her youth and used many times to sneak up on people to catch them being naughty, she crept with silent footsteps toward the man until she was just a few feet away, then she stopped. "Hey there." Tinkleton rasped, attempting to surprise him and wondering if he'd recognize who she was.
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Post by Gee on Mar 9, 2015 15:12:24 GMT 12
The water pressure sputtered in and out, and the temperature continued to stay below body temperature as Gee wrestled through his shower. Jumping slightly from foot to foot, he suddenly belted out to the song in his head. "I've been hanginaroooooound this old corner, I've been bumming around this old time for way to loooooong. " His voice echoed down the empty halls of the hotel he resided, miles away from being an appealing sound. Scrubbing into his scalp, he does a jump spin into the water and begins to dive into the next song when an alarm disrupts him.
Eyes suddenly opening from the passion-filled state they had been scrunched in, Gee jumps through his shower curtain and rushes into his cluttered and overly-decorated room. His eyes lock onto the alarm reader that rests above the foot of his bed. He curls his lips into a smile and screams the words outwardly with the excitement of a thousand kittens surrounded in catnip.
"OPERATION RPAA ROLL CALL."
With zest, not only the soap but also the movement, he drug on pants and a shirt and began sprinting down the hall. As he rounds the corner to reach the stair case, he begins to bound up the stairs, skipping every third step. He reaches the top floor and rushes to the first open window where a zip-line is rigged up. Gee grins from ear to ear and grabs either side of a zip-line-slidely-thing. He mounts the windowsill and looks out over the land that surrounds the hotel, bidding it an emotional fair-well. With that, he propels himself forward to commence an impressively quick and unrealistically surreal trip towards the headquarters, their headquarters.
The line flies him directly to the roof of a dilapidated looking building, that pulses with memories and forgotten friends. Gee flings himself off the zipline and performs an impressive shoulder roll to land right next to a roof-hatch that is labeled "Only for Emergency Roll Call Use by Gee." Grasping the handle, he rips it down and hears the lock turn open with a tired sounding click and the hatch falls down, crashing into the ground.
Taking a deep breath, Gee dives his head into the hole and smiles as he prepares himself to see them. His friends.
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