TDM

[alsohumans]

Unity is opening on August 12th. Feel free to jump into our Test Drive to get a feel for how your character would interact with the others who have arrived. All potential players are welcome to jump in. The TDM does not cross over to in-game canon, so go nuts!

If your character is new to Unity, you can assume that they've woken up in an old, musty bed housed in a run down hotel that needs significant repairs. Unless they didn't - which is lined in one of the possible starters below. For a quick visual reference, you can look at the two photo galleries on the Setting page. The left is the hotel that they wake up in, and the right is the rest of town.

1. Forgot to close the door.

Although the Also Humans try their hardest to make sure that they stay on top of things, keeping an eye on a large group of people trying to build a new society takes a lot of work. Did they mention that they literally just figured out how this whole interdimensional travel thing works? So they forgot to stabilize a portal (or two), big deal. You know the saying - to err is human - and since they evolved from humans, really, it's your fault that everyone is in this mess. They can only work with the genes you gave them.

Anyway, a portal has seemed to open by itself and several nasties and baddies are pouring out, taking the town by storm. Do you fight? Do you try to lock yourself away and wait for the Also Humans to figure out how to get these rascals back to their proper universe? Feel free to use any creature you wish here, although if you're unsure we humbly suggest Gremlins. Gremlins are just awful.

2. We forgot about the water!

During the evolutionary phase of becoming a more complex and intelligent species, the Also Humans have forgotten that regular humans and humanoids usually need things like water. Sure, you're on an island and surrounded by fresh, clean water on every side, but don't you people like it when it just falls out of the sky, or something? They can do that for you! No, no, they insist - you're doing so much for them, after all. Of course, by concentrating their efforts on such a magnificent storm, they've simply forgotten to put new arrivals in their proper place. They've woken up in the middle of the road - a very wet, dangerously close to flooding road.

The torrential downpour comes with nasty winds, ice cold rain, and floods, which wouldn't be that big of a deal if you could just stay inside. The problem with that though, of course, is that the buildings in this town are far past their glory days - it's hard to find one that actually has a functional roof or sturdy walls. Have you managed to find one of the few shelters available? Is there someone else in there? Perhaps you spotted someone outside getting swept away by the rain or flood… well? Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help them?

3. Not much of a handyman.

So you've either just arrived or you've been a part of the Unity Project for a little while now, and you've decided that you're going to start help with the rebuilding project. Good for you! You haven't done this before though, have you? Maybe you have and this just isn't your day… either way, considering the severe lack of proper tools, you've managed to do some real damage to yourself. Maybe you got a bad cut from a rusty nail sticking out of a wall, or you dropped something heavy on your foot. Maybe you're just a clutz and you fell down the stairs (there are stairs.) Whatever you did, you're in a lot of pain and you should probably see if someone can help you. Especially since first aid supplies are so scarce around these parts…

4. Lost in another world.

It could be your first time, it could be your 100th time, but the Also Humans have opened a portal to another world and you've gone through. Unlike the previous locations, though, it's not very clear exactly what you can bring back to help build your society back home… in fact, there doesn't seem to be much of anything. You've been wandering through a dark, gargantuan cave for hours now, and just as you were thinking about heading back you realize… you don't know how.

The Also Humans always bring their volunteers back to the main town once a portal is about to close, but that won't happen for days. There doesn't seem to be much to eat in here (I hear moss is packed with nutritional value) and there are strange noises coming from… somewhere. It's hard to tell exactly where, with the way every small sound echos in this place, and it's not like you can see it anyway, what with the strangely bioluminescent weeds lining the cracks of the walls being your only light source. Maybe you can eat that!

No, better get walking before you starve. Perhaps you'll find another lost soul, and see if you can navigate your way back to the portal together.

Post your character's name and fandom in the subject line, and feel free to play with any of the prompts to make them your own. Prose and action spam both welcome.

Please do not harm. Please eat and hydrate. You are appreciated. Good luck.

-Also Humans

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Comments

[yessiriusly]

Sirius wasn't a man that was easily startled, but the sound of a foreign voice made him jump and turn quickly to spot a woman standing behind him. He also wasn't a man to find himself speechless, but something strange happened in his head when he spotted her, her proper and well manicured look quite the opposite from the prison rags that Sirius wore. He hadn't seen another person, let alone a woman, in over half a year, or heard another voice that wasn't a distant scream or cry for help, and it took him a lingering second to process what she had said. She sounded American, which somehow made it all even stranger, and it wasn't until she mentioned his hand that Sirius looked down at it himself before finding his voice.

"Would you believe that I got into a fight with a bear in my room and won? Because if so, that's what happened." His response was a little bitter as he glared at his hand before glancing back up at her, taking in the sight of her tattoo's before finally letting his gaze return to her face. The initial shock had passed and Sirius attempted to seem - and sound - normal. The last thing he needed was to be branded as the crazy bloke who was rotting in prison the moment he met someone else in his new world. "If not, I was trying to repair a hole in my wall and my hand slipped. I've found that large stones don't make for replacement hammers. It'll be fine." His tone softened from his previous temper-fueled swearing, which he was now sure she probably heard, so he flashed her a charming smile to show that he wasn't always some raging, swearing lunatic. His own flirty and friendly demeanor came into focus, which was his default state when he actually had other people to talk to. He certainly wasn't immaculately dressed, and he was sure his usually long hair was already too long after being stuck in Azkaban without a method to properly groom himself, but for Sirius Black confidence had never been an issue and it showed.

"Don't worry about me, I've had worse than this. I'm just searching for a bit of clean cloth to wrap it up in before it ends up getting infected, I'm not keen on cutting my hand off today. It wasn't part of the original plan." He let his wounded hand fall away to hang loosely at his side before glancing down the hall that she had arrived from. "I suppose you haven't come across a new medical kit on your journey here, have you?" He looked back at her with another smile. "Or am I just going to have to settle for charming company? Sirius Black." He tacked on his name, offering her his uninjured hand to shake. "I've only just arrived."

[withstyle]

Amusement pulled at the corners of Izzy's mouth at his response, unable to quite hold back the reaction. She, actually, wouldn't put the possibility of a bear wandering into this place as impossible considering the shape it was, but it was relatively obvious from the wound itself that it wasn't an animal. So, the petite woman gave a shake of her head, a bit of that amusement shining in her eyes. "Trying to repair a hole it is, then. Though, the bear probably would have been a bit more interesting."

Izzy was joking, of course, and showed that with the flippant shrug that she gave. It was an active choice that she made to keep things light on her part, considering the cursing that he had been doing...mixed with the sight of him. He certainly didn't look as if he'd been able to keep up with himself. His hair was unkempt and there was a certain wild quality about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on, not fully, anyway. The confidence was definitely a sharp contrast to the current look that he was sporting.

It brought forth all sorts of questions, really, but Izzy was smart enough not to ask any of them...not yet, anyway.

"I'll attempt not to worry." She commented, reassuringly, her eyes moving back to his hand. It needed cleaned out and then bandaged carefully, but it didn't seem as if it were so bad that stitches were necessary. If he were a shadowhunter, and one of them had a steele, it would have been all too easy to just heal him....but that wasn't even in the list of possibilities at the moment, unfortunately. "I don't think you'll have to cut your hand off today, I'd give it at least a few days before you'd lose it, anyway." A joke, yes, but the truth all the same...even if morbid.


"I haven't come across a medical kit, or much of anything that would be really useful so far, but I haven't given up yet, personally." She shared, though, she wasn't worried yet. They wouldn't have been brought here the way that they were if they were just being left to die, she was sure. And if that was the case she was sure that her brothers were probably hunting her down already, itching to tell her what a dumb mistake she'd made. "So, unfortunately, you'll just have to settle for little 'ol me, for now." Izzy took his hand, giving it a confident shake. "Isabelle Lightwood, and same."

[akatheflash]

"I am totally cool with being an alien," he responded with a grin, but it faded quickly with a furrowed brow as if he was seriously considering her words. "I mean, does that really count as a different planet? Because it's the same planet, just a different version... am I really switching solar systems or am I just going to copies? Am I an alien, or like, a doppelganger since you probably have a Barry Allen on your world that's just not the exact same as me? I don't know." He waved his hand, gesturing that she didn't have to respond. "It's our secret though, I won't tell anyone else. I get it."

He leaned back against the wall and nodded when she expressed that she was still listening, and although Barry wasn't certain, he assumed that he had some sort of heightened sense of hearing because Kara seemed to have a heightened sense of everything, with the type of abilities she had shown him. She laughed, though, and that prompted a confused look from him before a smile slowly moved the corners of his mouth. He didn't even know what she was apologizing for and yet it was still amusing, because despite the fact that she was some sort of insanely powerful superhero it was little things like that that made Kara, Kara. He really did miss her, despite the fact that he had only spent a couple of days with her when he accidentally traveled to her version of Earth.

"I think we have some time, we can wait for a little bit longer to see if the storm dies down. But if it doesn't, we should probably look for a different place to land next time we go out to search for other people." He thought it was a decent compromise. "What did you think about? That made you laugh, I mean?"

[zor_el]

With a little snort of amusement, Kara shrugged. "Honestly? I have no idea," she admitted. "Thank you," she added with a smile. "I just don't, you know...want to freak anybody out. People back home were a little skittish about it." About her, specifically. She was still working on earning back the trust she'd lost when she'd been under the influence of the synthetic kryptonite.

Nodding her head, Kara cleared her throat. "No, you're right. I totally agree. We should move around every time we do a search. It'll be easier that way, to cover more ground, I think."

Her face colored and Kara wrinkled her nose with embarrassment, pulling her glasses out of her suit finally to put them back on her face, pushing them up the bridge of her crinkled nose to buy herself some time. "I was just—it's stupid. It's stupid," she said, shaking her head, cheeks burning.

[yessiriusly]

"Isabelle Lightwood," he repeated her name with another smile as he shook her hand, releasing her after a few moments before he gave a sigh and looked around their immediate area once more. "It's a pleasure to meet you, although it would be nice if I wasn't bleeding and in need of minor medical attention at the moment. I feel like it gives off a negative first impression." She seemed friendly enough, Sirius had decided, although his opinion might be swayed due to the fact that she wasn't only the first person he had an elongated conversation with in half a year, but she was also quite a strange character to him upon first impression. Sirius didn't want to assume anything but she seemed to be a muggle, her clothing, although flattering, styled differently in a way that he had never seen before. His curiosity usually led him to nothing but trouble, but that had never stopped Sirius in the past and it certainly wasn't going to stop him now.

"Well then." His eyes returned to her with an expression of interest, head slightly tilted before he made a grand gesture to the rest of the hall that neither of them had explored quite yet. "Would Isabelle Lightwood care to join me in my search for something clean to wrap this up in? I've explored outside a bit and I've found clean water nearby, so if nothing else I'll be able to at least rinse this off. If we find nothing I give myself at least a solid three days before I have to have it removed, so I think we can stay generally optimistic for now." He was only half joking, but his demeanor was still care free. He'd rather be here without a hand than in Azkaban with one.

It was only then that Sirius' eyes moved down to the floor between them, a delayed reaction to having noted the sound of her heels as she moved across the floor, and he leaned back a little to get a better look at them before his attention returned to her. "Perhaps we'll be able to find you more comfortable footwear in our search. Although you walk beautifully in those," he was sure to point out with another charming smile, "I doubt that they make for comfortable extended journeys. So, if we find a decent pair of runners, they're all yours, but clean cloth is reserved to care for my own idiotic mistake. Deal?"

[teamarrow]

He'd been moving for what felt like hours and as of yet he hadn't heard anything except some vague rumbling in the distance. The cave felt like it was beginning to play tricks on his eyesight and though he was alert and looking ahead, all he could see was shadows and some kind of radioactive glowing moss along the wall.

Still, when the shadow stepped away from the wall he recognized it for the possible threat it was, stopping short and anchoring himself for an attack. The woman's voice surprised him, but he tried not to let it show as he forced his shoulders to relax.

"Nah, just taking in the scenery," he said, keeping his voice light. He nodded towards her. "You?"

[missromanova]

Although she didn't show it, Natasha was vaguely impressed in the stance that the young man fell into when she revealed herself. It was subtle, but recognizable with a trained eye, and that was something Natasha certainly had. He hadn't just grounded himself, he found his placement, and those were two very distinct differences to someone who knew what she was looking at. It wasn't a comfort to know that the stranger probably knew what he was doing, but it was nice to keep a mental note of - no matter which way this interaction ended up going in - all the same.

His response would have gotten an amused smile from her if she hadn't been trapped in a cave for an unholy amount of time. "Looking for the hot spring," she deadpanned in return, adopting his light tone. "I was told caves were reserved for the most exclusive spas. Last time I use a travel agent." She fell silent for a moment until her echo fell away, eyeing the boy to size him up. He looked young, but not much younger than her, and his body language translated to more defense, than an offensive state. That, at least, was a little comforting.

"You from the island?" It was a vague question and she meant it to be. If he had been a part of the Unity Project, he'd know what she was talking about. If he wasn't, he'd most likely have no idea and Natasha would then know that she was dealing with an outsider. "Or are you a designated cave tour guide here to show me how to get the hell out?"

[withstyle]

Izzy grinned as he repeated her name, the accent certainly was nice to hear, if she were being honest. "Izzy is acceptable too, for the record." The woman gave a playful wink. She might as well make friends here....especially if everything was as it had been introduced because it certainly seemed like working together would be the best way to get much of anything done. Pulling her hand away from his, she tucked her hair behind her ears while a small laugh escaped. "I can think of some worse first impressions, and we'll get you patched up soon enough." Honestly, there had to be something around here with which to patch him up....and if there wasn't she wasn't opposed to ripping off a bit of her skirt to help him.

Unlike other shadowhunters, she wasn't completely prejudiced when it came to mundanes and Downworlders....plus, he was here for a reason, obviously. Though, he was definitely a different sort of mundane, which made her all the more curious about what his story was and why he'd been approached to come here.

"You know....Isabelle Lightwould would." The young woman gave a nod, and another laugh. If nothing else, he was definitely interesting, and she had been expecting someone more...serious (pun not intended) considering his general appearance, but certainly not minding the demeanor that he actually carried. "If we don't find anything I've got an idea for a last resort, so we'll save your hand yet, I'm sure." Izzy spoke confidently, as she always did, and as if she didn't have any concerns...even though infection was a legitimate worry in his situation.

She didn't plan on having to take care of any dead bodies in this place, though, so they'd get him taken care of one way or the other.

Grinning at Sirius' realization, and subsequent reaction to her shoes, the shadowhunter fought the urge to laugh. Most people didn't fight in heels, even if she had often done so...in both heels and little dresses. However, in this particular case she knew they weren't practical, so she wasn't going to deny the truth. "We'll just have to see, and thank you, I happen to have a lot of practice." Isabelle teased, enjoying his charming little comments and smiles. If he had a haircut, or maybe just a good shampooing and brushing, and were cleaned up...Sirius would definitely be attractive, she was sure. "They're not practical, though, I wear them all the time and I'll make do if I have to." She wasn't here to complain, after all. She'd do whatever she had to with whatever she had to because that was the sort of person she was, and she had chosen to do this, anyway. "I swear the cloth is all your's when, or if, we find it, Sirius."

Izzy gave a playful cross in front of her heart before moving confidently, hoping that they would find cloth, at the very least.

"So, how big, exactly, is this hole in your wall?"

[akatheflash]

"No, I know. I get it." Barry gave her a nod, trying to reassure her that she didn't have to explain herself. Despite the fact that he had no doubt he was loved by his city, the reality of it was was that people were fickle. They were scared of things that they didn't understand unless those things purposefully went out of their way to show that they meant no harm, and even then the trust that they worked so hard to build with a society could be easily broken by one misstep. "It's like that back home for me, too. People are usually good but they put a lot of expectation on you, even if they don't realize that they do it." He shrugged, his smile fading a little. "They're more willing to forgive if you're like them. When you're not, you're not allowed to make mistakes. They never forget."

Barry's head tilted back to try and see if he could look at the window above him, and when he couldn't he instead glanced out at the one near the door again. "Well, it looks like it's dying down. I think. I can't really tell, but it definitely doesn't look like it's getting worse, which might be a good sign." He shifted to sit forward a little, his back getting stiff. "After it stops we should go around and see what we can clear away. Between the two of us we can probably make sure that there aren't big trees on the roads or debris blocking doorways." He gave a tired expression, as if already exhausted by the idea. "It looks like we're going to start the rebuilding project a lot sooner than we expected."

He waited patiently for her to pull out her glasses, knowing full well that she was avoiding his question, and Barry raised an eyebrow when she finally deflected once more before giving a slow and solemn nod. "Right, you were laughing at me. That's okay, I understand." He was teasing but he did so with a deadpan expression, working hard to keep the smile he felt rising off of his face. "Do you need that suit to fly? Because if not I would probably hide it away until you know whether or not the people who are going to show up here will be comfortable with what we are. The suit might raise some questions if people find out that you're always wearing it under your clothes. Just saying."

[yessiriusly]

"Oh my, Izzy," He repeated with a feigned sense of honor, paired with a hand to cover his heart. "We've already made it to nicknames, this is going so well." He gave a playful grin, and it was soon traded for a look of gratitude that came with a tilt of his head when she insisted that they would make sure his hand was taken care of. "And she's thoughtful. I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Izzy." Sirius was sure that it sounded like he was flirting, but he had, quite simply, a flirty personality. That didn't mean that he intended for it to lead to anything, Merlin only knew that the appeal of sex for the sake of sex had lost it's luster during the war, but that didn't mean he had to curb his personality.

Sirius started to walk, leading the way with her down the hall, and he looked down at her heels when she walked before giving an impressed facial shrug that came with a gesture of hands in the air, as if a sign of surrender. "I won't question that at all. I would break my ankle walking ten feet in those, so I trust your judgement and believe that you are more than capable of handling yourself, no matter what footwear you manage to find." Her confidence was another sign that Isabelle, whoever she was, was capable of taking care of herself. He didn't know anything about her, but there was a story there, with her mixture of tattoo's and proper dress.

"Roughly the size of my head. Not to be confused with the size of my ego." He gave another grin, turning down the hall and poking his head into a room to see nothing but tattered, dirty curtains and an bed with no sheets. "I wanted to close it up before nightfall, but now I'm thinking that it might be nice to have a breeze come through. The hole won it's right to stay where it is. Another battle, another day." He fell back into step with her, idly wondering if there was some sort of main office. This looked like a hotel, and he felt like a first aid kit would be found there or in the kitchen, if at all.

"So where is Izzy Lightwood from?" He asked conversationally, glancing into another room to no avail. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it's not London."

Nick Sorrentino | Bitten | OTA (#1)

[boneibury]

Nick heard the commotion before anything else, followed very closely by smelling a very new...and unfamiliar scent that didn't quite belong in the hotel that he had arrived here in--god, was it only days ago? He wasn't sure how to describe the scent, but it was new among the dust and dirt that his nose had slowly been getting accustomed to. The werewolf, as most canines...and related persons, would do...followed his nose.

It didn't take long for the tall man to reach the kitchen, which seemed to be the source of the majority of the sound here in the hotel. Despite the fact that he was tall, Nick moved stealthily, slipping into the kitchen deftly and without making so much as a noise. It was the image in the kitchen that made even him pause.

Nick was used to strange. Hell, he was strange, if you really thought about it. His variety of strange didn't often have....gremlins trashing an already decrepit kitchen, though. The little imps, though that seemed too light a word, looked just like they had in the movie that Nick had seen years ago. It seemed too bizarre to be true, but a particularly large bang from one of the demonic little things snapped Nick out of his thoughts, realizing that....he had been brought here, so of course just about anything was possible.

The question was....what the hell was he supposed to do. There was no way that he was going to change, not in the damn kitchen, because it was likely he'd have to eat the things...they were that small...and they sure as shit didn't look like tasty little morsels. Nick wasn't afraid of them, not in the least, it was just a question as to how to deal with them that had him standing there in silence for long moments. They were pesky, and they could be a problem...especially considering the goal here wasn't to screw the place up further, but to fix it up (from what Nick could tell anyway).

Lifting a brow, Nick had to actively remain still and unfazed as two of them turned on one another rather than focusing on the different pieces of the kitchen, and began to fight to the death in dramatic fashion. It was almost more ridiculous in person than it had been in the movies. Just as quickly as that thought hit him, so did the sound of someone else heading this way. Nick could hear the footsteps. He was safe, either way, but he didn't want anybody else to get hurt, or to fear the little bastards if he could help it.

So, he did what came natural...he moved quickly, opening he door and grabbing the person who seemed to have been just about ready to enter the kitchen full of gremlins. "I don't normally get so grabby on a first meeting, but I just thought you'd want to know the kitchen is full of little furry gremlin bastards at the moment." Nick gave a charming smile before slowly letting go of the other person to gesture to the very room he spoke of. "So, you might not want to go in there if you are at all intimidated by little furry monsters."

[withstyle]

Izzy had definitely figured out a few useful things, as well as just a few amusing things, thus far. One of those was definitely the fact that Sirius Black was a character in every sense of the word, from what she could tell so far. He was outgoing, and definitely put it all out there without any shame from what she could tell. In her opinion that was a good thing. There were a lot of people, particularly some that she was close to, that were afraid of being themselves, so to see someone who....much like her wasn't bothering to hide that...it was nice. "Hurting yourself, apparently, gives you luck in some other areas." Izzy offered, jokingly, before giving a full-fledged, big grin in Sirius' direction. "See, luck, I told you. You found an amazing budding friend in me." She commented by way of agreement, not bothered at all by his personality, or the natural flirtatious manner that he had about him.

Izzy was probably the person least likely to demand someone alter their personality. Sure, she'd changed her clothing to be more professional for her family, but that didn't mean that she was a different person. She was still the same Izzy...whether she was in leather pants and a crop top or a structured pencil skirt. She was always telling her brother she wanted him to be himself, so she'd never push anyone else to be different.

For the second time, Izzy wished that she had more of the tools that she was accustomed to. Some of them wouldn't come in handy to actually help Sirius, but they would've helped with the search. Izzy kept her gaze up, peering around for anything that might be particularly useful, particularly for his hand. "You, Sirius Black, are a smart and perceptive man." Izzy nodded, grinning. He wasn't anywhere near wrong, and the fact that he'd put that together was a point in his favor.

Despite the fact that she was following the conversation easily, Izzy's eyes were peeled. She gave Sirius a brief look....taking in the size of his head with a slight shrug. "It could be worse...if it were the size of your torso, for example." Izzy offered, peering into another room carefully, assessing it's usefulness in a split second, easily. "If we can't find the right tools maybe we can find tarps and tape...or staples to cover it up when necessary until we do get what we need." Izzy offered, not sure that that would really be helpful, but it'd be better than nothing...should the weather become an issue. "After the hole gets its victory night, of course."

Izzy craned her neck, wondering where the staff areas were. The kitchen, office, and even any other areas that staff would work in a hotel seemed like the most practical places to keep things like linen and first aid kits, to her anyway. So those were the things that they needed to find, whichever came around first, anyway.

"I'm from New York, and I'm going to guess that you are from London considering your guess?"

[thewrongvirgin]

She was still getting used to this place and found herself trying to find her way around when she had the chance. The hotel was quiet as she made her way down the hall and she was grateful for that, at least, as her stomach reminded her that she'd skipped dinner in favor of exploring the empty rooms upstairs. She'd never been good at making friends in the first place, being in a place where she was completely out of her element only made that aspect even harder.

She gasped loudly, seconds away from screaming when someone grabbed her and pulled her away from the door. She looked at the man in front of her with wide eyes, her heart thudding in her chest as she tried to think of the best way to get away.

And then her words registered and she blinked. "Gremlins?"

He had to be kidding, right? Her brow knit and she moved away from him when he let her go and gestured to the kitchen. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. "What?"

The sound of a pot falling to the floor could be heard beyond the door.

[teamarrow]

He smirked, despite himself, at her quick response. He guessed it took a smart ass to appreciate another smart ass. He could make her out a little better now that he'd been focusing on her. She was attractive, but didn't exactly look friendly. The fact that she'd been hiding said she was either waiting for someone or had been intentionally staying out of sight.

"Yeah," he said, giving her a small nod. "I'm from the island." So she was with the Project too. At least he could stop thinking of her as a possible threat. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. "I wish I could tell you how to get out, I've just been following the direction the moss is growing in."

It sounded reasonable in the beginning. Four hours ago. He sighed, raising his eyebrows and maintaining their deadpan schtick.

"There really a hot spring?"

[missromanova]

The tension in Natasha's shoulders relaxed once he confirmed that he was from the island, her face easing a little in relief. She didn't know him, but at least that meant that he was a part of the society she was supposedly a part of now. This wasn't exactly how Natasha wanted to meet her new neighbors, but beggars couldn't be choosers, she supposed.

She had been trying to look past him despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to see very far in the darkness, and when he spoke again she responded without hesitation. "Yeah, it's a few yards down from the water park." Her tone was flat and dry, but to those who knew her it would be easy to pick up the fact that she was amused. She finally stopped trying to see something, accepting that it was a futile effort, before her attention turned back to the young man standing before her. He was much more interesting to try and figure out anyway.

"After this you and I can get massages and seaweed wraps. Never had one before but for some reason it sounds a lot less gross now." She gave a nod of her head in the direction opposite of where he came from before she started moving; a silent invitation for him to join her. Safety in numbers and all that. Once he was closer she looked at him again, this time briefly before her attention turned back ahead, fingers moving to trace the wet wall and keep herself steady. "I doubt we're the only ones lost right now. It's like some Alfred Hitchcock version of those McDonald's playgrounds in here. With less pee and no ball pit."

She turned a corner, and in the process Natasha was struck with an idea. She started tearing the glowing moss from the wall as they moved, pleased to see that it stayed lit after being detached. "You got a name?" She might as well try to make conversation as they moved, stopping every so often when a particularly well rooted piece of plant matter needed more effort to get torn out. "Start pulling this stuff down," she instructed him, so used to giving orders that she didn't take into consideration that the stranger might not take kindly to it. "If we gather enough we might be able to get a makeshift torch going, it'll be easier for us to see."

[boneibury]

Nick did have the decency to feel bad at how he'd, quite obviously, scared the poor girl that he'd grabbed. He followed that up very quickly by reminding himself that if he hadn't grabbed her she would have walked into a kitchen full of gremlins and probably been shocked....ad made more noise than he had when he'd entered the room. Plus, who knew if that startle would have turned into fear at the reptile/teddybear hybrid creatures that were probably the weirdest thing to look at, in person anyway.

Taking a pointed step back, so that he wasn't crowding the much shorter individual, Nick gave a certain nod. "Gremlins. They're wreaking havoc in the kitchen. And two of them decided they were going to have what looked a lot like a gladiator's fight to the death." Nick elaborated, unable to help the amused tone that crept up in his voice, even though he was telling the truth, completely so.

It was hard not to have the urge to laugh in this situation, though. Who planned on walking into gremlins filling the kitchen? Definitely not Nick!

"I know how it sounds, but I saw it with my own eyes." Nick smiled at the sound of a metallic thunk against the floor, gesturing to the door. "You can see for yourself, but I definitely suggest being as quiet as possible and not being particularly afraid of them, I think I remember them being able to sense fear or something." The werewolf shrugged, definitely carrying his normal careless demeanor, but he was doing what he could to help.

And even if he seemed to not be taking a thing seriously...he was, just not obviously so to those that didn't know him.

[zor_el]

It was nice to know that someone understood the feeling, as much as she hated feeling that way. It would be better if no one else ever knew how it felt to have to work extra hard to gain the trust of those around them and no one else ever had to know how it felt to have to walk on eggshells indefinitely to keep from unintentionally shattering that trust. Trust was easy to earn the first time around, but was always infinitely harder to earn back once lost. Kara knew that better than she wished she did, that was for sure, and she felt a little bit guilty for being relieved that Barry understood where she was coming from with that. "Yeah, tell me about it..." she said softly, a subtle hint to let the subject drop, because it wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to have in common, that was for sure, so there was no sense in bringing themselves down too much conversing about it.

"I'll take a good sign that it's not getting worse," Kara chirped. That was certainly better than nothing. She would rather it be getting better, but as long as it wasn't getting worse? She could deal with that. She nodded, peering out the window. "Yeah, I think between the two of us, you're right, we can get some the worst of it taken care of before any of the other volunteers show up, if they aren't already here." She paused and turned to look at him, eyes wide. "I hope they're not already here." Because if they were, then it would imply that either she and Barry missed someone when they were searching or that those who were already here could possibly have been unable to call for help or were buried out of sight. Kara frowned a little. She didn't want to think about that. The Also Humans had seemed friendly. It didn't make sense for them to put people in danger who couldn't handle themselves. They just mustn't be here yet, she told herself. That was the only way it made sense to her.

A soft laugh escaped her and she lowered herself to sit back on the floor again. "At this point, I feel like 'rebuilding' is sort of a stretch. We might have to just tear some of these buildings down and just start from scratch. It's not a good idea to try to rebuild a structure that isn't strong enough to withstand the work."

Kara looked back at him with surprised upset. "No I wasn't!" she exclaimed. "I promise," she added quickly and earnestly. While Barry made a good point about the suit potentially making people uncomfortable, her brow creased slightly. "I don't need the suit, but I kinda need the cape..." she admitted. "I tried flying a few times without it and...it isn't pretty. I'm not very good at keeping myself on track without the cape helping with the aerodynamics. At least, that's what Winn said it did, since I was flying a lot more controlled with it than I had been without it..."

[akatheflash]

All Barry could do was shake his head when Kara decided that she would decide that the storm not getting worse was good news, a small but endeared smile on his face as his attention moved back to the window. He hadn't been able to spend a lot of time with Kara when he had first arrived in her world, but in the process of helping her he had gotten to know her enough to know that her upbeat attitude wasn't an act. It was something that he liked about her, and he hoped that she never lost it. In the beginning, he had been upbeat too. But being The Flash had broken him down, shattered him in places that he couldn't even begin to explain, and Barry wasn't sure if he would ever be able to bounce back from that. It didn't feel like he would be able to. It just felt numb. Numb, with a lot of guilt. He never wanted her to feel like that, because people like Kara kept people like him from spiraling too far. He didn't know when he became someone who would spiral, and not someone who could help.

"Kara," he said her name softly, his attention turning to her. "You and I circled this place twice. You can hear through the storm, I can take in more information when I look around and see more than other people may be able to spot, it's going to be alright. The people who brought us here didn't bring us here to try and hurt us, right? If they did, they wouldn't bring Supergirl and The Flash, I think that would put a little dent in their plans. Particularly because I could probably get home by myself, if I really wanted to. It's alright." He gave her a warm smile. "We checked. There's no one out there. And if there is, you'll hear them when they arrive, right? It'll be okay."

His hand moved to mess the hair on the top of his head, hoping that doing so would help it dry faster when it wasn't pasted to his scalp. "Really? ...Do you think you'll still be flying around when other people show up?" He frowned in uncertainty. "I mean, I don't know if I want them to know what I can do, I don't know if I'm going to be running much until I'm sure I can do it without anyone seeing."

[teamarrow]

He was grinning as he fell into step beside her, relieved at least to have found some kind of company. Besides, he wasn't having much success on his own, maybe between the two of them they could find some way out. He watched as she ran her fingers along the wall as they walked, as if she was looking for a hidden lever or reading the walls themselves with her fingers.

"You know, I didn't think this could get much worse, but you're right. There could be pee and ball pits." Normally he wasn't exactly a talker, but it'd been hours since he'd seen another human being. He was grateful for the company. "My name's Roy. You?"

He looked doubtfully at the plants in her hand, but she had a point. They weren't going out after being detached from the wall. After a moment he moved to his side of the wall and begun pulling out plants. "You don't think this stuff is radioactive, do you?"

[zor_el]

She looked back at him with her brow still creased with concern as he turned his attention to her to respond. She wanted to believe very much that he was right, but the fact of the matter was that there was always a chance that they missed something. It might not be a big chance, but it was always going to be there and that was terrifying to Kara. And heartbreaking. But she wasn't going to point out to Barry that if someone had been buried in rubble or was knocked unconscious, they wouldn't have seen or heard them, but that didn't mean that they weren't out there.

Instead, she gave a little nod and attempted a smile that fell a little flatter than she would've liked for it to. "You're probably right," she agreed and she tried to make herself believe it by lilting her tone in the general direction of acceptance.

She shrugged. "Yeah, that's what Winn said, anyway," she confirmed. The next question though was one that Kara had thought a lot about...and still hadn't come to a conclusion. "I don't know, I haven't decided. I'm more helpful and useful if I can just be me, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll make people comfortable to see that. So I haven't decided yet. I don't know. Maybe I'll meet people first and try to casually feel them out, first."

Because Kara can totally do casual without sounding suspicious and cryptic. Totally.

[missromanova]

This time, the corner of Natasha's mouth quirked up in amusement, and her eyes moved to look at Roy briefly before returning to the wall that she was tearing the moss away from. "Always look on the bright side, right? It's all about optimism. At least, that's what they keep telling me." She grouped the moss together in her hands, trying to get it to stick to itself before looking over and putting out her hand for the bits that Roy managed to collect.

"Natasha." She introduced, holding the moss up in the air to see how far the light would be cast. It was working, but they would need more to get anything close to a decent illumination. She continued to harvest the plant matter out of the stone. "Dunno," she replied, voice lacking all concern. "Guess we'll find out if we start growing extra fingers." A few seconds passed as she glanced at Roy once more before giving a full smile.

"It's not radioactive, it's bioluminecent. It's not uncommon in dark environments, it's just a bacterial reaction within the plant. It's harmless." She continued to walk to lead the way, not wanting to take all of the moss off of the walls in one location in case someone else was lost in there. Turning a corner and finding a completely dark corridor probably wouldn't be welcome.

"So what sort of fighting do you do?" Natasha wasn't much of a conversationalist but she could at least try, and it was easiest to start somewhere that she was familiar with. "MMA? Martial arts?" She gestured lazily to his feet before looking back at his face. "Not everyone knows how to properly anchor themselves on wet stone when they're startled in a dark cave."

[thewrongvirgin]

This guy was doing way too much smiling for Max to take him seriously. Obviously, he thought pulling this kind of lame joke on someone else was actually funny. Her eyes narrowed as she stared him down and then looked at the door beyond him.

She swallowed and uncrossed her arms before striding forward and pushing the door open. The first thing she registered was the smell of something burning. Her eyes moved across the room to see a gremlin turning the stove up with another gremlin being held in a pot.

Her eyes widened as they both turned their heads to look at her. She grabbed the door and pulled it close, looking up at the stranger with panicked eyes.

"You're serious?" But that of course was a rhetorical question. "What do we do? How do we kill them?" She'd seen Gremlins but it had been so long she didn't remember anything, except not to feed them after midnight.

Obviously, someone had already done that.

[boneibury]

Nick couldn't quite help but be amused the way he was. That was, probably, mostly to do with the fact that he was seeing creatures from a silly movie. Plus, the natural demeanor that he couldn't quite shake off. HE wasn't scared of the things, and was even sure that if she was and they caused any problem he could take care of them. Idly, though, he wondered how bad of an idea it would be to eat one of them.

They probably tasted awful, honestly. They looked like they were salty and his wolf-side definitely wasn't a salt fiend. So, he probably wouldn't eat them, but that didn't mean it wouldn't make it all too easy to take care of them. He probably wouldn't even need to do that, he was capable enough without becoming fuzzy. Though, it did depend on how many there were.

Lifting an eyebrow, somewhat amused, Nick gave a nod. He didn't make a point of lying unless there was a purpose, but she didn't know that. "Told ya." The tall man shrugged nonchalantly before holding up a finger and ticking off his immediate thoughts. "Blunt force trauma, I remember something about a mixer from the movie, fire....I'm pretty sure most of those and more would work. Depends on how many there are in total and if there's more than just in there." Nick mused, cracking the door so that he could peer into the kitchen.

"Should I take that to mean you're up for helping me take care of the little bastards?" Nick knew better than to underestimate a woman. Elena had taught him that well enough.

[teamarrow]

It may be dark, but he'd have to be blind not to be stunned by that smile the tiniest bit. She goes on to explain how the plant works and he's reminded faintly of Felicity and her explanations. It brings a wave of homesickness but he pushes it back as he follows her lead. "So just glow in the dark then. Got it."

He raises his eyebrows in surprise when she asks him about fighting. As far as he can tell she shouldn't have any reason to know that about him, but then she gestures to his feet and he understands. "A little of both," he admits, moving down the new corridor they're in and picking up more of the plant. "My teacher wasn't exactly traditional."

He stops and looks back at her. "What about you? Usually takes one to know one."

[thewrongvirgin]

She might have been annoyed at his amusement if there weren't more pressing needs in place. Didn't these things multiply like crazy? She couldn't remember. She'd never been a fan of horror movies - even cheesy ones - possibly because her mom had been in the grandaddy of all cheesy horror films.

"Gotta bat?" She asked in reply. Chances were there wasn't one lying around, but they could use what they had. She had been resourceful when she needed to be. Unless they just set the kitchen on fire, but that probably was a last resort kind of move.

She looked up and down the hall before moving to a nearby closet and opening it. She reached up and pulled down a shelf, coughing as dust fell on her. She gripped it with both hands and took a practice swing. It wasn't a bat, but it'd have to be good enough. At least until they got into the kitchen and there was something better.

"Okay," she said, coming back to stand beside him. "Ready."