[Willow/ "Michelle"] Research Time!
Feb. 25th, 2007 07:17 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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crossing_lostrpWho: Willow/ "Michelle"
Where: The Staff - Security Room
When: Day 28, morning
Invited: Daniel and Alia when they are done in the office, anyone else who wishes to stumble in
Status: Complete
Michelle found her way to the security room relatively easily - she followed the metal wiring conduits that ran along the ceiling to their apparent source. Stepping inside, she knew she'd hit paydirt when she saw the bank of monitors. Several of the screens were blank, mostly the ones labeled as exam rooms. The remaining operational screens showed primarily public areas. /Whomever is currently in control here is privacy minded, at least,/ Michelle thought to herself, feeling slightly relieved.
In addition to the common areas inside the facility, there were several monitors which showed what was apparently the outside; likely the entrances. The scenes of jungle outside just added to the confusion surrounding their situation. If the jungle was a small surprise, however, it was the final bank of monitors which brought the biggest surprise - if appearances were to be believed, it was monitoring a series of detention cells. Cells which had absolutely no doors, yet which seemed to keep their prisoners in with no trouble. In fact, one of the prisoners was in the process of testing that idea; a man who looked rather ridiculously like he was dressed as a pirate was throwing himself at the doorway, only to be met by an invisible field and thrown back towards the wall. As Michelle looked on, horrified, the man-who-looked-like-a-pirate launched himself at the field with what seemed like full-force, rebounding back hard against the wall. He did not get up to try again, and if the dark puddle that was expanding around the man's head was any indication, he would not be getting up ever again.
Michelle tried to put the disturbing image out of her head - there was nothing she could do to help the unknown man, especially since she didn't know where the apparent detention area was located. For some reason she was pretty certain that it was not in the main complex, although how she knew that, she didn't know. /Focus, woman!/ she thought to herself. Turning to the remaining equipment in the room, she quickly identified the recording device - a desktop PC with the words '3R Technologies Power DVR' stamped on it. Feeling completely at home in front of the computer keyboard, she quickly maneuvered herself through the menu options until she found the playback section. Choosing a date and time at random, Michelle gasped as she brought up the recording - it was the cafeteria where they'd had the meeting earlier, and an unfamiliar man was shooting at the people inside. People that she definitely recognized as the others she'd met earlier, plus a few others.
Michelle was so engrossed in the playback that she didn't even notice that she was no longer the only one in the room until someone touched her on her shoulder.
Where: The Staff - Security Room
When: Day 28, morning
Invited: Daniel and Alia when they are done in the office, anyone else who wishes to stumble in
Status: Complete
Michelle found her way to the security room relatively easily - she followed the metal wiring conduits that ran along the ceiling to their apparent source. Stepping inside, she knew she'd hit paydirt when she saw the bank of monitors. Several of the screens were blank, mostly the ones labeled as exam rooms. The remaining operational screens showed primarily public areas. /Whomever is currently in control here is privacy minded, at least,/ Michelle thought to herself, feeling slightly relieved.
In addition to the common areas inside the facility, there were several monitors which showed what was apparently the outside; likely the entrances. The scenes of jungle outside just added to the confusion surrounding their situation. If the jungle was a small surprise, however, it was the final bank of monitors which brought the biggest surprise - if appearances were to be believed, it was monitoring a series of detention cells. Cells which had absolutely no doors, yet which seemed to keep their prisoners in with no trouble. In fact, one of the prisoners was in the process of testing that idea; a man who looked rather ridiculously like he was dressed as a pirate was throwing himself at the doorway, only to be met by an invisible field and thrown back towards the wall. As Michelle looked on, horrified, the man-who-looked-like-a-pirate launched himself at the field with what seemed like full-force, rebounding back hard against the wall. He did not get up to try again, and if the dark puddle that was expanding around the man's head was any indication, he would not be getting up ever again.
Michelle tried to put the disturbing image out of her head - there was nothing she could do to help the unknown man, especially since she didn't know where the apparent detention area was located. For some reason she was pretty certain that it was not in the main complex, although how she knew that, she didn't know. /Focus, woman!/ she thought to herself. Turning to the remaining equipment in the room, she quickly identified the recording device - a desktop PC with the words '3R Technologies Power DVR' stamped on it. Feeling completely at home in front of the computer keyboard, she quickly maneuvered herself through the menu options until she found the playback section. Choosing a date and time at random, Michelle gasped as she brought up the recording - it was the cafeteria where they'd had the meeting earlier, and an unfamiliar man was shooting at the people inside. People that she definitely recognized as the others she'd met earlier, plus a few others.
Michelle was so engrossed in the playback that she didn't even notice that she was no longer the only one in the room until someone touched her on her shoulder.
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[Tara]
Date: 2007-02-26 01:57 am (UTC)Tara wandered through the halls, realizing she'd waited to follow the others a bit too long and had gotten lost. She paused and took a deep breath, steadying herself. Yes, she was definitely an outdoors person. The concrete walls of this place, after the lush jungle, seemed so... dead and empty. It wasn't like she couldn't stand it, but the feeling was just distracting. She just needed a minute to center herself before finally finding the security room.
The redhead was the only one in there, engrossed in something on a desktop computer. Tara couldn't see what she was watching, but the set of her shoulders was clearly agitated. "Hello?" she asked softly. When the other girl didn't respond, she touched her gently on the shoulder without even thinking about it. "Are you all right?" At the other girl's jump of surprise, she pulled her hand back, embarrassed. "I'm s-sorry. I - I didn't mean to startle you."
[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-02-26 02:52 am (UTC)"Oh! It's ok, I was just sucked in, is all," Michelle explained. "What with all the weirdness and forgettiness, I was a little focused, didn't hear you come in. You *did* forget who you were, didn't you? Cause I still don't know who I am, and I don't know who you are either, and I'd think that I'd know who everybody here is since we seem to be so far out in the middle of nowhere and..."
Michelle stopped, caught her breath, thought for a moment, and then continued. "I'm Michelle. Er, at least that's what I'm going by for right now. Buffy in the cafeteria seemed to think the name suited me, so that's the name I'm using until I find otherwise or we get our memories back. Not so much with the remembering here. Do you know who you are yet?"
[Tara]
Date: 2007-02-26 03:19 am (UTC)She was blushing a bit as she replied. "I-I'm not sure. I was outside and didn't remember anything. I guess I haven't thought about a name yet. It was getting really confusing and crowded in there, so I thought I could help r-research." Stuttering, she needed to stop stuttering, she somehow knew she was backsliding a bit. "Michelle's a nice name, actually."
[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-02-26 05:47 am (UTC)Another smile from the other woman, along with that little head bob/face hiding thing she did before. Michelle couldn't be sure, but it almost seemed like the blonde was flirting with her. Shaking her head, she dismissed the thought as ridiculous and pretentious.
"Well, y'know, some of the others found ID and stuff in their rooms. Course, you probably don't know what room's yours since you were outside and all..." Michelle trailed off sounding defeated, but quickly brightened as a thought crossed her mind. "But oh! You might have a wallet, or something else in your pockets! Oh! Oh! Were you carrying anything when you were outside? Seems pretty weird for someone as cute as you to be outside alone with nothing but yourself at this time of the day."
Michelle stopped and replayed what she'd said in her head. /Did I really say that?/ she wondered. The image of the dark-haired boy came to her mind again, bringing the same feeling of loss as before, but also a twinge of confusion. /Who is he, and why do I keep thinking of him?/ she wondered.
OOC - OK, that's it for Willow from me tonight and for most of tomorrow. Won't likely be able to post again until sometime late tomorrow night, so feel free to NPC. I have a plot thought that came up regarding this that I'll throw over to the OOC comm.
[Sam Tyler]
Date: 2007-02-26 05:23 pm (UTC)Shortly after Sam left the infirmary to get a break from the weirdness he realized he hadn't the foggiest idea where he was going. He turned left outside the infirmary simply because he hadn't been down that corridor before. (Or if I did, I don't remember it.)
Two female voices drifted from the far end of the hallway. As Sam approached he recognized one of them as Michelle, the cute but scary American redhead whose eyes and hair had turned black when she'd melded a table into the cafeteria wall. Sam wanted to deny what he'd seen, but couldn't. A dozen other people had witnessed the Yank's display of psionics? magic? Although both phenomena made him uneasy, the latter was a bit harder to swallow.
Michelle was speaking -- well, rambling -- when Sam stopped in the doorway of what looked to be a control room. "...anything when you were outside? Seems pretty weird for someone as cute as you to be outside alone with nothing but yourself at this time of the day." An equally attractive blonde blushed from Michelle's flirting.
(Are all of the Yank women here lesbians?) Sam wondered briefly. Then he wrenched his thoughts back to the matter at hand. "Hello, then." The women jumped a bit and faced Sam. He put on his best disarming smile as he entered the utilitarian room. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, Michelle." To the blonde he continued, "I'm DI Sam Tyler. You wouldn't happen to remember your name or have found any ID, would you?"
[Tara]
Date: 2007-02-26 06:32 pm (UTC)She jumped at the sound, but she was a bit relieved by the interruption as she recognized one of the men from the cafeteria crowd. "Hi. Um, no on both counts. But I figure if we're in the middle of the jungle I'd have left my things inside."
Changing the subject, she turned back to Michelle. "Did you find anything there that would tell us who we are?"
[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-02-28 01:10 am (UTC)"Um...not so much," she replied to the blonde's question. "Um...it's actually very disturbing, what with the whole memory loss thing, and now with me finding this-" Michelle pointed at the screen which was paused on a shot of the mysterious man wielding a gun. "-It makes me feel a lot less of the warm fuzzies than before. And there wasn't much of those before, so..."
[Tara]
Date: 2007-02-28 01:45 am (UTC)She looked back and forth between Michelle, the image and Detective Tyler, bewildered. What sort of mess had they all woken up into?
[Sam Tyler]
Date: 2007-02-28 03:42 pm (UTC)"That's it? 'Good lord'?!"
Sam's mind had already begun analyzing the violent scene. It had taken place in the cafeteria he'd just left. The shooter's face was expressionless. (Drugs,) Sam supposed, although he couldn't be sure due to the camera angle. He was stocky, had some muscle tone, wore hospital scrubs, and was barefoot. The compact automatic weapon in his hands was eerily out of place.
Next Sam studied the victims. He recognized most of them from the cafeteria as well. One he didn't was a feral-looking woman who, despite the holes in her side, was frozen in mid-leap toward the gunman. Several people were down and bleeding: the pouty blonde, who was still standing despite multiple body shots; the new father, shot in the shoulder; the telekinetic who'd carried his wife out of the cafeteria, stomach wound; the big-eared bloke from Manchester; and a few others. Several other had weapons drawn or were arming themsleves, including Daniel, Blaise, Francis, and Ricardo. Sam himself and DCI Hunt were absent.
Sam pointed at he image of the shooter. "Have either of you seen this man?" Both women's heads shook. Frowning, the squinted at a code overlain on the bottom left corner of the video: 20041011081155. "What's that, then?"
Michelle peered at it as well. A moment later she turned toward another montior, which showed another grim scene. A strangely dressed, long-haired man lie on the floor bleeding from a head wound. Sam's hopes that that was a freeze-frame were dashed by the changing code on the bottom left of that screen. 20041019101906, 20041019101907, 20041019101908... "It's a timestamp!" the redhead exclaimed.
"Right," Sam agreed. "Year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds."
The blonde looked at the image of the shootout, shielding much of it from her eyes with one hand. "So this happened October 11, 2004 at eight in the morning."
"If this is a live feed--" Michelle shuddered at the image of the man's lifeless body "-- today's October 19th."
Sam blinked, astounded. "That only happened eight days ago? Most of the wounded should be in hospital beds, not rummaging around looking for ID!"
Although he was glad that so many of his companions had made miraculous recoveries, the latest round of weirdness was more than Sam could take. He sat heavily in the other rolling chair and buried his face in his hands.
[Tara]
Date: 2007-02-28 09:11 pm (UTC)"If this is a live feed, shouldn't we do something? Or tell someone? That man might still be alive," Tara pointed out, although she suspected that wasn't very likely. Still, they couldn't just stand there and watch him bleed to death.
She turned to the rest of the screens anxiously, looking for any indications of where those cells were. "C-can you find anything that looks like a map of this place?"
OOC:
Date: 2007-03-01 03:02 am (UTC)However, whatever damage Ami was forced to do has to be worked through yet.
He is bound to a bed with medical restraints, and his burns have been treated. Of course if he isn't found, he may starve to death or wallow in his own elimination.
My aren't I cheery...
Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-03-01 03:37 am (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-03-01 12:44 pm (UTC)[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-03-01 03:06 am (UTC)Michelle tapped a few keys, and a map of the facility appeared on one of the monitors. "There's a map here, but I looked at it before and didn't see any reference to detention cells," she told them. "The label on these cameras says something about external holding area."
Just as Michelle was about to try and find more information, the screen started to change by itself, as if someone else was controlling it. Frowning, she tried typing in a few commands. When that didn't work, she got up from her chair and gave the machine a hard *SMACK*, then smiled sheepishly at the puzzled looks the blonde and the Detective gave her.
"Percussive maintenance," she told them with a grin. A few more keystrokes and the terminal was under her control again. "Works every time."
"Now, let's see if we can find out more about this external holding area."
OOC
Date: 2007-03-01 06:20 am (UTC)*laughs*
[Sam Tyler] To the rescue!
Date: 2007-03-02 01:05 pm (UTC)"Right," Sam agreed. Michelle soon brought up a line-drawing map of the facility. Zooming out a bit showed a smaller structure labelled "Observation Cells" 1.5 km to the east.* "The sooner we get there, the better. I'll stop by the infirmary and cafeteria to see if anyone else will join me. Perferably one of the fellows who're armed. Your choice if you come along. Just remember that we don't know who or what is in the jungle outside."
Warnings issued, Sam strode out of the room. He hoped that the ladies opted to say in the relative safety of the bunker.
EXIT SAM TYLER
* No time to make sure east is the right direction. If it's wrong, please substitute the correct one.
[Tara]
Date: 2007-03-02 06:41 pm (UTC)"M-Michelle? Do you know where Daniel went?"
The redhead nodded, not taking her eyes off the screen. "Think he stopped in an office. Go out that door and it's the next door on the left."
"I'm going to go over there and let him know what's going on." While Sam was rounding up volunteers, it might be good to let the others know what was up. Funny, now that she had a purpose, the stutter had faded. "Don't go anywhere - I'll be right back!"
TARA EXITS (momentarily, she'll be back)
[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-03-03 04:52 am (UTC)Unfortunately, it didn't take Michelle long to run into a roadblock - this section of the camera footage seemed to be encrypted and password protected for some reason. Without thinking, Michelle instinctively concentrated, holding her hands over the keyboard. The keys began to glow with a blue ethereal light, and the screens changed on the display faster than any normal human could distinguish them. After a few moments of this, the blur of information stopped and the glow dissipated. With a satisfied smile, Michelle looked up at the screen, only to be startled by a horrified gasp from behind her.
The blonde had returned, as promised, and now she was looking up at the scene unfolding on the monitor with her eyes bugged out and her mouth wide open.
It was as if they'd stumbled across a late-night horror movie. On the screen a blonde woman that they both recognized from the cafeteria had just been shot twice in the chest at point blank range. Another blonde, this one looking like the british girl with the big-eared fellow, was dragged over to watch as one final shot was fired, directly in the first woman's head. The camera lingered on the scene of carnage as the british girl was dragged out of frame.
Michelle quickly got up and went to the other woman, blocking her view of the screen. "Uhm...are you ok?" she asked.
(OOC - Hope that was OK for me to stick Tara in there like that. You said she'd be right back, and Willow really wouldn't do anything else but what she did until Tara did come back anyways. If there's a problem let me know and I'll repost. BTW, Willow doesn't know exactly when Tara came in, so she could have very well witnessed the magical computer hacking.)
[Tara]
Date: 2007-03-03 04:52 pm (UTC)ENTER TARA
As she stepped out of the hallway again, Tara was startled to see a blue glow coming from the half-open door of the security room, as she felt an unmistakable surge of power. Not electrical power, something... undefinable, that she could feel in her bones. Fearing the worst, she peered cautiously into the security room, not wanting to startle Michelle again.
The glow itself was coming from Michelle - or, rather, her hands and the keyboard that she wasn't even touching. Tara watched, fascinated, as the screens flickered rapidly with information and solidified into -
- into -
She couldn't help the gasp of horror at the video on the screen. The bullet wounds, the torture, the other woman forced to watch - was this what they'd all gone through? She wanted to look away, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the horrible scene unfolding. A small voice in the back of her mind was trying to calm her down, pointing out (ineffectively) that the people doing the shooting and the torturing were none of the people in the cafeteria.
It was only when Michelle got up and blocked her view that the spell was broken. "N-no," she managed, shaking her head. "Who - was that? Who were they? How could they k-kill someone like that and make someone watch?"
[Willow/ "Michelle"]
Date: 2007-03-06 01:45 am (UTC)"I don't know, it doesn't seem quite right - there's something off about this footage. It was pretty hard to get access to, I had to do some pretty heavy computer mojo that I don't know how I knew how to do."
"Computer mojo?" asked Tara, smiling, "Is that what you call that?"
Michelle's face fell. "Did I do something weird again? Cause, before, in the cafeteria, I just wanted to try something small, you know, to see if I could do it, but things went all kerflooey and now there's a table molded into the wall, and that definitely shouldn't happen."
Tara giggled at how flustered Michelle was. "I don't know about the table in the cafeteria, but I did see you doing something I don't remember learning in my keyboarding classes. Not that I remember taking any keyboarding classes, that is. Don't worry, it didn't seem bad to me. I don't know why, but for some reason it sorta felt pretty nice."
Feeling that the conversation was beginning to head the same embarrassing direction it had gone earlier before Sam had come in, Michelle quickly changed the subject back to the unpleasantness at hand. "Did you find Daniel? Cause I think he should see this, and I don't think he could have gotten access to it from where he was, cause well hey, computer mojo here, not there."
"Yeah, I think he was going to join the group of people going out to help that poor injured man in the holding cell," Tara said. "I'm going too, we're meeting in the cafeteria if you want to come with."
"You go ahead," Michelle nodded. "I've got a few little things I want to check on here, I'll catch up." She returned to the seat in front of the monitor as Tara left for the cafeteria. With a puzzled frown, she studied the frozen image on the screen, trying to pick out what exactly was off about it.
"Oh my god!" Michelle said as she realized what it was.
Jumping out of the chair she ran off after Tara, leaving the image paused on the computer screen. The image that was stamped with the timecode 20041021101908....
(OOC - there goes Willow, jumping to conclusions over here (http://community.livejournal.com/crossing_lostrp/129713.html).)