| Opening Log

[shadowqueen]

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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Comments

[enthusiast]

[Sofia hasn't felt this claustrophobic and helpless since last year, when she'd been kidnapped and hastily bound and blindfolded. It's immediately uncomfortable, the cool stone nothing like the upholstered couch she'd dozed off on, and the darkness nothing like the mid-afternoon sunshine of the garden. Her breath catches in her throat immediately, though she resolves to stay calm.

Fortunately, the light filtering through the edges of the "lid" tells her there's a way out, and her hands immediately move to the lid to push. It budges, just slightly, and a large crack runs up the middle. She has to brace herself against the back of the sarcophagus to get enough force to push it again. More of the lid shifts, crumbling, but she's not quite free yet.]

Hello? Hello? What's going on?!

[Help a lady out :(]

[kaderp]

[--oh, that's a woman! Civilian In Danger sense tingling. Kadar looks over and tries to focus on which sarcophagus her voice is coming from. That one--?]

Hello?

[enthusiast]

[There are people out there! She redoubles her efforts, rocking the sarcophagus, which is a freaky feeling, given that it could totally fall on you just as easily as fall over.]

Hello? Over here!

[kaderp]

I'm coming! [he can see it, now, and he clambers over. He considers before grabbing the sarcophagus as best he can, trying to get the lid off.]

Here-- we should be able to push it over!

[enthusiast]

[She is really not sure about this idea, but she would rather be out than in, and she's not about to question someone willing to help her with that. Sofia knows she's lucky, to have a rescuer before her captors return.

She braces herself, and helps push.]

Va bene -- as long as it gets me out.

[kaderp]

[Kadar nods, even though she can't see it.] Try and-- ah, try and brace yourself. [it's silly advice, given the only thing she can brace herself on is what is hopefully going to break in two, but he heaves and gives it his mightiest push a second later.]

[enthusiast]

[Her dislike for this plan is confirmed in that one, terrifying moment where it's tipping and her choices are to fall with it or get dragged down with it, and she gives a rather undignified yelp as it overbalances and slams onto its side, shattered.

Sofia is scrambling up from the rubble within seconds.]

Mio dio, what a horrifying cage!

[kaderp]

[Kadar rushes over and offers out his arm, kicking some rubble out of the way so she can move from the sarcophagus.]

It's like they put us there to die. [wonderful thing to say to a woman who was just locked inside of one, Kadar. you're such a charmer. but he sounds a little uncertain, more than anything; none of his Assassin training did anything to help him out in this situation.]

[enthusiast]

[She takes that arm, gladly, to get to her feet. Alarmed:]

To die? But why take us only to suffocate us in such a small space?

[She looks around the great room, momentarily stunned -- such a grand space with so little decoration, so little upkeep. Her first thought is that this is something out of one of her husband's stories; the caverns used by the Secta Luporum, and it strikes her that this could be the very situation he'd expressed so much dread about.

Sofia realizes she's still holding on to the boy's arm, and though she doesn't let go just yet, she looks to him, earnest and grateful.]

Thank you, for helping me escape. You were in a coffin as well?

[seventeenth]

[Desmond may not be present to help Sofia out right away, but he approaches her not too long after she's managed to free herself. Seeing yet another person that's definitely not some sort of Bleeding Effect fever dream is making everything make more sense. He approaches her calmly, not realizing he's bound to make her doubletake.]

Hey. Did you make it out alright?

[enthusiast]

[She puts on a slim smile to be polite, though she eyes his outfit for a second –– it's entirely alien to her.]

Si, thank you. And you?

[seventeenth]

[Oh, an Italian. Desmond blinks a little, looking puzzled, then smiles easily.] I manage alright, I think. Aside from the standard 'why am I in a coffin pot' confusion.

[enthusiast]

[Friendliness. She likes it.]

I think this is the last any of us expected such a thing... [She manages a touch of amusement.] Though... the proper name for a stone coffin is a sarcophagus.

[seventeenth]

No kidding. [Desmond's smile spreads into a grin when he's corrected.] Yeah, but I like 'coffin pot'. It has a nice ring to it.

[enthusiast]

I suppose it does.

[Pause, and a broader smile, despite everything around them.]

My name is Sofia. This may seem strange to say, but there is something familiar about you, though I am sure we have never met.

[seventeenth]

I get that more than you'd think, actually. [He offers his hand out to Sofia. He's not sure she'll recognize the gesture, but he offers anyway.] I'm Desmond. Nice to meet you.

[enthusiast]

[Handshaking won't be common for some time, though it is common for men to kiss women's hands in greeting... however, it's a social faux-pas for men to offer their hands first. Sofia assumes she just isn't familiar with her customs.

She offers her hand, too. Listen to her mixed accent mangle your name.]

A familiar face with an unusual name. Where do you come from, Desmond?

[gigantor]

[Roughly a half hour after Sofia's been helped out of her sarcophagus, Sam's falling out of his own and dazedly taking in the sights. He's still groggy and disoriented from the rude wake up, but after meeting Raven and watching hundreds of people break out of their own prisons, he's beyond the point of much surprising him.

So when he notices Sofia, dated clothing and all, nearby, he turns and doesn't hesitate to address her.]

Hey, you all right?

[enthusiast]

[Sofia looks over to him. If her clothes are dated, his clothes are entirely foreign; she has never seen anyone dressed quite like that before.

Still, this whole experience has been more than a little stressful. It takes her a second to find her voice to reply. She speaks with an odd accent –– a combination between Italian and Turkish.]

As well as I could be, given the circumstance. And you, messere?

[gigantor]

Pretty much the same. [He offers a small, rueful smile.]

Anyone you've talked to have any idea what's going on, yet?

[enthusiast]

[She shakes her head.]

The closest we could come up with is some sort of purgatory.

[gigantor]

[Purgatory. Damn, he hopes not. People important to him still need him in the living world. Not to mention, dying and going into purgatory at 24 just sucks, period.]

That would explain the people from different time periods, huh? [A beat.]

..Uh, sorry. [Where are his manners.] I'm Sam, by the way.

[enthusiast]

Perhaps... though it would not explain how we all arrived at once.

[But she smiles politely, and nods.]

Sofia. Piacere, Sam.

[gigantor]

Or why I don't remember dying before coming here. [Which should probably be a good thing, but for some reason it makes this more troubling. He glances over at Sofia.]

Do you?

[enthusiast]

[She shakes her head.

No –– I was reading, in the garden. I must have fallen asleep.