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this is so on-the-nose
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The first thing Bryce thinks when he steps through the portal is, this is so on-the-nose.

It's an obvious thought that dungeons are all Backroomses, but this one is literally just the Backrooms.  It's yellow and vaguely gross and has tacky wallpaper and moist carpet and loud fluorescent lights.  It also has a little bivouac of SWAT guys, who hand him a spray can of microsoft-paint-bright red spraypant and tell him to leave directions back to the portal, and confirm with him that they're using one of the inscrutable coordinate systems that he knows, in case there's a situation that calls for something more sophisticated than "which way out."  (This place foxes GPS and rangefinders, but there's only so much a baby dungeon can do about arrows physically drawn on the walls.)

They mapped out some of the place already; the monsters are sneaky enough that it wasn't totally clear they were there at all, and some kidnappees were rescued without having seen anything, but then one of them reported spotting a four-armed seven-foot-tall slenderman-looking thing sneaking past an empty doorframe, so they're calling him in to scout out some of the unexplored areas.  If all's quiet and he runs into anyone alone, though, he's gonna bring them back rather than waiting for backup.

Toby's hanging back at the bivouac in case one of the slendermans comes for them there, so it's just him poking his head around the doorframe of the shaded room.

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A bored teenager in a comfy pink sweater startles slightly. "Whoa! A real person! Hi!"

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He holsters his gun, checks his corners real quick, and steps inside.  "Hey.  I'm a real person named Bryce.  Well, Shadowcat, but," he gets a bit of the body language one gets when one is rolling one's eyes affectionately at oneself, "Bryce."

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"I'm Kimberly! Watch out for the big tall dudes, have you seen one yet?"

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"No, but we've gotten reports.  You okay?"  She doesn't look injured, he doesn't think.  Hopefully him assessing that does not look too much like him checking her out Bryce, you do this for a living, come on.

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She is moderately check-outable if you're into the wholesome cozy girl-next-door look. "I've had a pretty decent time, honestly, I only got chased by a big spooky guy like once," which is for some reason a sentence she's blushing slightly about.

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EXCUSE YOU Kimberly's narration he is ABSOLUTELY NOT DOING THAT.  "Not caught?  That's good.  Stay in the corner a minute - "

He draws his gun but keeps it pointed at the ground.  The room's less lit than the hallways, in the way that the dead-ends people say they've been getting dropped in are, but it's L-shaped with Kimberly in the corner.  He's briefly checks out the other exit to see if anything's coming toward them or otherwise lurking; apparently there isn't.

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She sure does stay in the corner! The gun makes her a bit wary, in the 'don't bump into the person cutting veggies in the kitchen' kind of way.

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So valid honestly.  (He keeps it pointed at the ground and has his fingers off the trigger, if she's liable to notice such things.)

He holsters it and turns to her and says, "We're clear.  - No big tall guys coming."  She probably gets it.  "I'm gonna call you in and then I'll go ahead and walk you to the portal, it's maybe twenty minutes on foot.  Can I get your full name, where you got kidnapped from and if anyone saw you go?"

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"Kimberly Brown, hallway of my dorm building, I don't think there was anybody around? Wow, is this place that big?? No wonder I couldn't find the way out."

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"It's not, like, twenty minutes on foot across in radius, or anything, but it's kind of maze-y, so we can't just take a straight shot there."

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"Ooooh, sense. It's true, there is many a squiggle in these here halls."

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...she's cute?????

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" - uh," he says, and shakes himself, "gotta call you in."

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Hee! Got a smile out of 'im!

She nods cheerfully and waits.

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"Heya, got a rescue," and he names some incomprehensible coordinates.  "Kimberly Brown, brown hair, five-oh, about - what, nineteen or twenty?"  He looks at her interrogatively.

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"Twenty," she agrees.

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"Twenty.  Dropped out of the dorm hallway, no confirmed witnesses."  The radio says something crunchy and staticky back to him, and he says, "Were you expected anywhere?"

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"I was on my way home after class... my roommate might be worried if she got home while I was kidnapped?"

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"Who's your roommate?"

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"Lenore. Lenore, uh, Beck?"

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"Lenore Beck?"  Crunch crunch.  "All right."  He unclicks the talk button on his radio and mounts it back on his shoulder and says, "Yeah, we're clear to head back."  He considers briefly, and says, "Keep your voice low and walk softly and let me check around corners, but things have been pretty quiet so far and 20 minutes is a miserable amount of time to spend in total silence, so we can chat a little on the way if you like."

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"Okay!" She smiles. "So, how's being a cool dungeon hero guy?"

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"It's - " he giggles a little " - you know what, it's pretty damn cool."

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"Well good! It'd be a shame if it sucked."

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"God, it really would," he murmurs.  "You can just not-do the dungeon thing, though, if you're an esper.  Professional partner, anti-esper security guard, guy-who-can't-get-dungeon-napped.  But I like traveling and I - " like going on adventures is tasteless to say to a kidnapping victim probably, to say nothing of like seeing weird fucked up monsters up close.  Plus almost no dungeon monsters are actually that weird and fucked up, this place notwithstanding.  "I just like the job."

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