castleinthemist | | Opening Log

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| Opening Log

Everyone's waking up at once, covered in bits of rubble, temporarily without abilities and with a lurking headache. The castle looms around them, irrepressibly gray, huge and silent. The only noises are the people, rustling as they extract themselves from their sarcophagi and look for exits along the arching walkways.

Better take a look around, and see if anyone else knows what's going on.

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Again, Duo felt his words were gone, stuck in his throat somewhere and unable to break free. The vocal question that came from another body but in his own voice just prompted an uncertain head shake from him, eyes still filled with fear and confusion.

It just reminded him of the headache he had. He moved to the railing across from the other one and slid down to take a seat, a hand pressing against his face as he grimaced. His other hand went to join it as he heaved a sigh. What he wanted? He wanted to forget all this time travel nonsense, where nobody he talked to made any sense what so ever. Coulda been he'd idly hoped to encounter someone that didn't make him feel like he was goin' nuts, but this wasn't want he meant.

"What the fuck, man?" He dropped both his hands and looked to the other one. "You can't be me."

"I--... I don't--..."

I don't know what you're talkin' about. This is fucked up. This is really fucked up.

Vocals just continued to fail him, brain not connecting the thoughts to his mouth to be spoken. All he could do was stare. Stare and hope that one of the times he blinked he would wake up and things would be normal again.

But then he remembered, again, that dreams didn't hurt.

So... he was either dead and in some kind of freaky afterlife... or this was 100% fucked up real.

Slowly he rocked back off his knees and sat on the dirty floor, letting out a nervous, weirdly sounded laugh. What could he even say to that?

Could this day get any worse? Weirder? Insane? He brought his hands to his face again, rubbing his forehead with his fingers and bringing his hands back down to his cheeks, sighing heavily, mumbling something softly to himself. He then let his hands rest against his bent knee and looked at the kid for a good long while. Fuck this.

He crossed his legs and patted one side of his chest, digging into a pocket on the inside of his jacket withdrawing a silver flask with the rampant lion engraved on the side. He opened the cap and took a long swig of it. That done, he reached it over and offered to the boy. "Here."

Duo stared at the flask before hesitantly taking it. He didn't know what was in it, but right then he didn't really care. Anything to take the edge off the pain and whatever the hell this was supposed to be.

It burned like hell, but he only grimaced slightly at the taste, handing it back.

"... I'd ask if you got any idea what's goin' on here, but I get the feelin' you're just as lost as I am."

Ah, there's his voice. Nice and properly freaked out.

He took the flask back and took another sip before sliding it back in his pockets, his hands folding and his elbows resting against his knees as he settled back down. After getting slammed by something like this, he really like he had the strength to get up and walk around right then. He gave a mirthless chuckle at the other boy's comment and nodded.

"Yeaaah, I'm about as clueless as they come. But I've talked to a few people about it. Seems like nobody else even knows what the hell a colony is." Yes, he was adequately freaked out himself. How else would one respond to this? How else could you?

"So far everyone woke up in one of those things, same as you."

For the first time since getting out, Duo looked up and took a long look around the massive chamber they were in. The sarcophagi were numbered in the hundreds, if not more, one line even spreading all the way back across a curved wall to join with the other side. The rest of the place would have looked almost like a Renascence-era stone structure, but there was something very off about it. Something Duo couldn't put his finger on.

"... like something out of a freaky dream. Or an acid trip," he muttered, more to himself than the other.

"You said it." He let his head lean against the wall behind him, trying to relax a little. Trying to reason with himself, that maybe it really could be a dream or something after all, and that he'd wake up later on. Fat chance, he wasn't that lucky anyway. He shook his head and turned his eyes to the other one.

What was he supposed to tell this kid? Say nothing? That wasn't his style. He just couldn't think of anything. Something to break the ice maybe? "You... Sp... You're me from a few years ago. Same hair. same face." He smiled just a little.

"I think I'm going crazy." It didn't hurt to reiterate, or just state the obvious. Especially if it helped them both get a little more accustomed to the idea.

"... that's impossible."

Even if it was sitting right in front of him, he just couldn't believe it. How could he? It didn't make any damn sense.

"There's just no way..."

"Then what? Who are you? 'Cause I'm Duo Maxwell." He said with utter confidence in his voice. His eyes went a little harder, a look to match the one the younger one gave him when he rejected the idea.

Well. There went that denial.

"... fuck me."

"I'll pass, thanks." Duo said crassly, shaking his head and furrowing a brow at the boy.

Fed up, he climbed to his feet and looked down the path. There was still a ways down the tower, and he needed some air. He offered his hand to the kid. "Probably best we get outta here. I'm getting claustrophobic."

Duo met the comment with an annoyed glare, but took his hand and stood, trying to ignore just how much his knees were still shaking.

"Just gonna wander 'round a place you've never been with no direction and no idea, huh?" he asked, adding in quietly, "Yeah, sounds like me."

"Pretty much." Duo said, hoisting the kid up and patting him on the back once he was on his feet.

He started downwards though, leaning over the side of the stairs to gaze down at the rest of the tower going down. "Doncha think' there'd be an entrance or exit at the bottom of this thing?"

He grunted at the patting, coughing at the dust that came off his clothing.

"I'unno... never seen anything like this before..." he commented, looking up the other direction. The curving stairwell that went to the second floor didn't lead to anywhere but that row of sarcophagi, but below that there was an archway that led to a closed door.

"There's that..." he pointed out.

"Me either." Maybe in pictures and movies. Maybe. But it wasn't exactly like he'd been a tourist on Earth!

Duo followed the gesture down to the door, then looked back at the kid. He'd been so distracted with him he hadn't noticed.

"Nice. At least that's a good place to start." He started down that way, careful not to move too quickly or leave his double behind. It wasn't hard to see that the kid was still pretty weak in the knees, while he's had more than an hour to recover.

As far as the issue of his younger self? Putting that aside for now. There were other things to worry about.

Duo nodded quietly, also putting the strange issue of standing there with an older version of himself aside. He approached the door, leaning against it and running his hands over it. No lock, no latch, nothing he could pick. Sighing, he stepped back and looked around, back up again.

"Ha!" he said after a second, taking off up the stairs without another word.

Duo turned his head to follow the boy's movement, then backing up so he could see why he was running so quickly up the stairs. Course he also had to be a bit impressed at how quickly he got back his stamina. Heh!

"Oh!" Duo said as he caught sight of the lever. He hadn't noticed that either.

"Man, I really must be losing my touch."

"Hey, I almost missed it too!" Duo called back down, voice echoing through the massive chamber. He stared up at the lever, noticing that it was just an inch too high for him to grab by raising his hand up.

"... damnit. Where's that growth spurt when I need it.."

Crouching low, he jumped and latched both hands on to it, wiggling back and forth until his weight drug it down with a loud CLANK! Somewhere, heavy gears could be heard turning.

"Did that do it?"

Had to say, he was starting to forget their initial difficulties and was instead becoming amused by his energetic movements. How'd he manage to get back his stamina so quickly? He found himself grinning up at him, but was distracted by the sound and the movement of the door opening upwards.

"Hey! Yeah! It's open!"

Slowly, Duo let go and dropped back to the ground, wincing a bit as his back and knees protested. He was still a bit achy from being trapped and whatever had put him in the tomb in the first place, but it was fading quickly. He watched the lever to make sure it didn't slide back up, heading back down the stairs after.

"Alright. So. That's... different, but obviously we just gotta keep our eyes open."

Duo entered the next room, only to see a series of raised ledges in front of him. Who the hell would design it like this? Course then it did seem like a pretty effective way of keeping people inside the last room. Hmf. He went forward and climbed up the first ledge which was about a meter and a half tall, but higher then that? He looked from wall to wall, then up. A rope? Or--

Aw man. Really? Was that the only way up?

"... th' hell is this, a goddamn puzzle?" Duo questioned aloud from below him, staring up at the ledge and the chain he could just barely see the bottom of from where he stood.

"Man, what the fuck..." he muttered in irritation, hauling himself up the blocks of wood and over the ledge.

Puzzle? Seemed like it to him.

"Maybe only the smart asses get out alive?" He mused as he looked up the side of the tall wall, then back up to the chain. Looks like that's the only way up. He reached up and grabbed it with both hands, lifting his legs to hang before dropping down again.

"Okay. Let's give it a shot." He reached up once more and got a hold, then pulled himself up and grabbed another link a step higher and began to scale the chain. It was tough, but no more difficult than climbing up a fire escape ladder from this far down. Once he was up high enough he used his legs to help him up.

"Whooa... okay. How the hell do I get over there anyway?"

"Good thing we're smart asses..."

Watching him, head lifting the higher he got, Duo could only scratch his head and wonder the same thing to himself. He reached forward and gave the chain a tug, pulling it back a little. It didn't give much with the weight on it, but enough that it gave him an idea.

"Hey! Can you swing on it up there?"

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