GAME EVENT: Day 17: [Ami] All Fall Down (open tag)

[island-muses.livejournal.com]

Three days after the survivors split themselves into two camps, either staying on the beach or moving into the caves, five days following Amanda's "banishment" from the camp and six days after Lucy's suicide, Mindfuck Island, as Scott so affectionately referred to it, settled down and life returned to normal. It said a lot, Ami reflected, that the survivors had reached a point where the day-to-day routines of survival were considered to be the height of normalacy.

There was a return to the routine of foraging, and Ami frequently found herself in the company of Rose and Molly, and surprisingly Daisy as well, when they ventured from the caves to go gathering fruit. More than once they also made the trek down to the beach to share the bounty with the older Rose, Claire and Sue, gathering up additional fruit and vegetables on their way back to the caves. They also scouted out an area for a garden, fortunately finding a suitable patch of land half-way between both camps. It was a bit of a trek for older Rose and Claire, who insisted on helping out with the garden and walked there with Sun, but Molly declared it to be the best spot and no one argued with the woman who seemed to know as much about herbs and such as Daniel did about languages.

Mid-afternoon found a small gaggle of women on hands and knees, working diligently to clear the area for what would become the community garden. Just a few minutes walk off the well-worn path between the caves and the beach, it had easy access to water, optimal sunlight, but was protected by foliage and shrubs enough to prevent anyone from accidentally stomping thorugh before the garden began a proper growth.

Laughing and talking with Claire, Daisy and Rose, her arms and clothes covered in dirt and grime, Ami realized that she was more relaxed than she had been for several days. She swiped at her face with the back of her hand, earning a laugh from the other women.

"Now you've gone and done it," Rose laughed. "Your own personal mud mask."

Ami dabbed at the dirt on her face, then winced as she realized she was only making it worse. "It's all natural at least. Maybe it will fight wrinkles."

"If it does, then we'll have to market it when we get rescued," Daisy suggested. Surprisingly, she too was covered in dirt from the weeding and clearing of the land.

"Craphole Island Face Care, eh?" Claire grinned, looking up from her patch of almost clear dirt. She made a face and promptly tapped her bump. "Don't you have somewhere else to put that foot?"

"Careful, Claire," Daisy warned, "When he's a teenager, he might just have an answer for you."

Ami cast out her awareness, as she did intermittently, just to be on the safe side. Scott and Megabyte were constants and most closely located were the women gardening with her. She knew that Molly was en route, and just beyond she could sense –

Startled, Ami blinked and peered cautiously into the distant trees. While the conversation continued, she reached out a bit more, a chill climbing up her spine. They were being watched; not by the Others, this didn't have that slimy, unnatural feeling to it, but they were being watched.

Just as the realization registered, Rose cried out, hand going to the side of her throat as she toppled over, twitching.

"Rose!" Ami scampered to her friend's side in alarm and that was when she heard it. The faint whizzing sound of air pressure escaping, and the same time that Claire gave a gasp and Daisy yelped, she felt the sharp pricking of something digging its way into her upper arm.

/Scott! Mega -/ was the only thought that Ami managed before the jungle tilted sideways and her awareness of everything became muted, blurred and then just wasn't anymore. Metaphorical fingers clawed at the metaphorical wall that cut her off from her abilities while darkness closed in on all sides. The world narrowed to a tunnel and then darkness swallowed her completely.

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[Miho]What was that? (open tag)

[sweetnovicane.livejournal.com]

Miho started to walk back to her place by the river. She had gotten used to being by herself. She was never a people person anyway. She hated words more than anything. Why did she have to be forced to talk?

She was halfway there when she heard something. A scream. It was a bit faint, but Gail once said her hearing was better than anyone elses in Sin City. She looked up and around. "Did anyone hear that?"

[Scott] Sudden silence (tag Jin, Megabyte)

[starborn-scribe.livejournal.com]

While Ami was working with her fellow gardeners, Scott joined Jin to help fish. The Korean man was as closed-mouthed as ever. Scott presumed that Sun had told her husband that he'd healed him. Maybe she hadn't. He didn't know what to think, so he worked in silence. The rhythmic crashing of the surf was a pleasant white noise.

They'd been net fishing for about an hour when Ami suddenly was gone. With no warning Scott's background awareness of his wife vanished. Scott dropped his end of the net, reeling from the cold of her absense. Turning in the direction where he'd last sensed her, he 'shouted,' /Ami!/ There was no reply.

"Ami is with Sun at the garden," Jin said cautiously. Either Jin had suddenly become telepathic, or Scott had shouted aloud as well.

His eyes continued to search the treeline in vain. "She's gone," he heard himself say shakily. Scott connected with his sphere in his pocket, remembering to call telepathically this time. /AMI!/

Silence.

Still connected with his sphere, Scott ran out of the surf reaching out with his mind across the camp, through the jungle, and to the caves. Ami's familiar presense was absent. Stretching his senses further was painful but necessary. He reached farther until stabbing pain made him see stars and shattered his concentration.

"Scott!" Jin's voice brought him back to reality. Scott was on his hands and knees in the sand. Jin crouched at his shoulder, wearing an uncharacteristically anxious expression. Scott's head throbbed. Ami's warmth was still absent, leaving him cold and empty.

[Daisy] Well...Damn!

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Rose clutched at her throat and toppled to one side, twitching. It was sudden and shocking and Daisy was alarmed to see it happen. It made her feel helpless, this not knowing whether someone was alive, dead or dying. She really didn't want to have to reap another survivor.

Daisy had been kneeling in the dirt to clear another section. She was just gathering herself to stand when she felt a painful jab in her ass. She yelped and jerked herself upright. Had she been stung?

She flicked a hand smartly across her buttock to swat away whatever had stung or bitten her. Her fingers brushed something unexpected--something large and metallic. Daisy plucked it free just as Ami shouted "Rose!"

Daisy glanced over at Rose again just in time to see Ami stumble, drop to her knees next to Rose and then tumble bonelessly to one side. There was something metallic protruding from Ami's arm. When Daisy looked, Claire lay unmoving as well. Daisy knew before she opened her fist what she would see: a brushed aluminum tube with a hypodermic needle on one end and a bright red tuft on the other.

(They're alive, then,) she thought. (You don't use tranquilizer darts to kill people.)

Daisy lurched to her feet--and swayed slightly, feeling lightheaded. (Potent stuff,) she thought. It had knocked Ami off her feet almost instantly and she was feeling drunk now. (I hate feeling drunk,) she thought.

Daisy turned toward the caves. Staying with her friends never even crossed her mind. Getting help would do them more good than anything else she could do. She took several running steps before she felt another stinging blow, this one in her back.

A veil seemed to fall between Daisy and the world around her, blurring her vision and muting the sounds around her. Daisy tried to keep moving, but could barely maintain her balance and reeled to one side, barely staying on her feet.

Daisy was distantly aware of it when a third dart struck her calf. She stumbled to a halt, then reached down to try to remove the dart in her leg. She managed to wrap unruly fingers around it but couldn't muster the strength to grip it. She kept trying, convinced that it was terribly important to get rid of the dart though she wasn't sure why.

Daisy fell over, still trying to pull the dart free of her leg. Around her blurry figures slowly emerged from hiding to converge on the unconscious women.

[Doctor] (w/Jack)

[purplerhino.livejournal.com]

They were splitting fallen log with wedges and the back end of the axe and a crudely made hammer, making boards to help build up the varrying appartments in the caves.

"You punched me." The Doctor finally stated in a lull. Jack had to rest. Although the young human seemed to be glorying in the free movement of his arms.

"Seemed like an appropriate response at the time. You ever spend a three days in a station full of hundreds of rotting corpses? No explination. I just heard the engines and arrived in time to see the Tardis fading away. Had three years to let that punch build up." Jack mopped his brow.

"Great right hook, by the way. But you PUNCHED me." The Doctor rubbed his jaw. There was no bruise. Rose had used the dermal regenerator. There was still a phantom ache though.

"Yeah, but then I kissed you. You know how to insult a guy. Remember the punch more than the kiss." Jack grinned.

"Yeah, well my jaw was kind of hurting at the time." The Doctor moved to the log once more and motioned for Jack to do the same.

"I'd be happy to do a repeat, remind you what it's like." Jack's grin widened.

"Still haven't bought me that drink." The Doctor replied as he moved to make a swing.

Just then he heard the cry.

He stopped and frowned. That had come from somewhere down the trail leading to the beach.

"That was a person." Jack announced, as if that much weren't clear.

"Rose is down there." The Doctor announced.

Both men looked at each other and took off at a full run.

The Doctor was almost exaspirated. After all it was almost a week since they were in a scrape. Couldn't go much longer. It was against the laws of the universe. Whatever was going on, Rose was most likely helping whoever was hurt, or fending off attackers, or generally giving someone hell.

[Locke, Tommy, Emerson] Quick decision (open tag)

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Clarice's shout carried the short distance into the jungle to where Hugh, Locke, and Tommy were tanning a boar hide. The three immediately looked up from their messy work. One hundred feet to their left several survivors crashed through the foliage. "The garden," Locke stated. His immediate concern for Daisy's safety was somewhat assuaged by the fact that she was a grim reaper.

Tommy had already moved to join the others. "Tommy, wait!" Locke called. The young man skidded to a halt and turned to frown at Locke curiously. "I'll go. Hopefully it's nothing. If it's not, we'll need a tracker, and we shouldn't leave the camp unguarded."

Emerson nodded. "Right. C'mon, Tommy." He stiffly started back toward the camp. "Least you can run," he grumbled.

Although Tommy was clearly torn, he complied. Locke loped after the other survivors heading to the garden, clapping Tommy on the back as he passed.

[Chris] Should've been there

[estirose.livejournal.com]

Chris had not been at the community garden, though he should have been. Instead, he'd been caught up gathering fruits, and therefore seeds, near the beach camp.

When he saw a handful of people running in the direction of the path to the caves, he joined in, wishing that he could heal. He doubted it was a demon attack, but given this island, anything was possible.

[Kenzaki] Disturbances (open tag)

[estirose.livejournal.com]

Kenzaki was on high alert from the first scream.

He'd been patrolling in the general area of where the new garden was being set up, but in the opposite direction, hoping to find more snare traps before they got anyone else like they'd gotten him

When he heard the screams, he ran towards the garden, suddenly aware of how far off the path he'd gotten. When he arrived, all of the gardeners were missing.

He saw movement off the path. He struck out, tried to grab the person to see if they were friend or foe. The figure slashed at his hand, leaving bright green blood in its wake, and then he was punched into unconsciousness.

(OOC: Kenzaki's still there, just out of it for the moment.)

[Aiden] Strange New World (open tag)

[det-aiden-burn.livejournal.com]

Aiden was slowly settling into life at the caves. It had been a difficult a decision not to move from the beach. She never really liked the beach, unless it came with a boardwalk. And now that her medication was finally kicking in she didn't have to always have the cushion of the sand beneath here. But she wasn't sure she'd like life in the jungle. Unless it was an urban jungle.

She missed New York. She still felt like an outsider among the other castaways. She hated not knowing why she was missing two weeks from her memory. Though she knew it could very well be for the best. And she had yet to find her own place in this twisted little survivor family. She wondered what was going on back home. Did they miss her at work. Or had they forgotten her already.

Well in tuned to her surroundings (what self respecting Detective wasn't?) the commotion brought her to her feet and she raced off to find out what the hell was going on.

Molly

[purplerhino.livejournal.com]

Molly had a basket of plants weighing on her shoulder. Both medicinal and savory shared the basket equally. She’d gone to gather more so the garden might be completed, at least the planting stage, by nightfall. Her bow was strung across her back, her quiver banged against her leg as she walked. Her other hip held her knife in its sheath, She moved freely through the forest now, often alone. But never unarmed.

She heard the cry and froze. A moment of panic gripped her as she relived the fear of her attempted kidnapping. But then she dropped the basket and climbed the nearest tree. Among the branches she ran and jumped, making only the slightest of noises when a more slender limb bent under her weight.

She pulled her bow over her shoulder, already reaching for an arrow by the time she reached the garden.

Already having been half way there she was the first to arrive.

There was no one in the garden. Neat little rows of soft earth had been dug up, but there was signs of a lot of trampling at the one end, next to the plants left laying unplanted and the few tools left abandoned on the ground. Molly was no tracker, not by a long shot, but she could see the signs of someone being dragged in the softer earth of the dug up garden.

“Daana bless us.” She whispered.

Jumping down from the tree she kept clear of the garden’s trampled earth. The few trackers they did have might be able to make some sense of it. But she did reach down to pick up something odd. It looked like a dart. The kind used in that old Mutual of Omaha series, not the newer kind.

What she wouldn’t give for Clarice’s gong right now. Which way should she run for help? She had just turned for the cave area, where she’d last seen Blaise with his nice big gun, when the first help arrived.

(**OOC: Very minor edit made in re: to Blaise's location...)

[Jac] Un-f**king believable (Tag Quentin, larger rescue group)

[purplerhino.livejournal.com]

Jack saw Quentin on the ground, blood coming from his head. Damnit. He'd caught a fleeting glance at Charlie the Mornon, as the Doctor called him, dissappearing into the trees.

Between his shouting and assinine lone ranger act, he was going to get someone killed. With any luck it would only be himself.

As it was he had cost one more hand in the rescue.

"Quentin. Comeone, buddy." Jack crouched, lightly slapping the older man's face. He checked his wrist comp. No skull fracture. But he was concussed. "Doctor..."

The Doctor bent over Quentin. He was utterly cold, now, his face a mask, and Jack was a bit worried.

He was the most dangerous when he was like that. That was the face of "The Oncoming Storm".

His impatience bit through the cold mask. He Checked the man's pulse and used his Sonic Screwdriver for a quick diagnostic of his own.

"Concussion. He can't be left alone, or he might be next."

"We need someone to stay with Quentin, maybe walk him back to the caves." Jack looked to the rest of the group.

[Doctor] We'll get them back (tag larger group, tag MARA)

[purplerhino.livejournal.com]

When someone had stepped forward to watch over Quentin, Jack continued to lead the way. The Doctor wasn't about to be held up too long, not when it wasn't life or death and the girls situation could be.

The plants whipped at leather of his jacketbut the broken bits proved the kidnappers went this way. For another quarter mile, at least. Then Jack stopped and crouched down to examine the ground.

"What is it?" The Doctor crouched as well. He wasn't much of a tracker, never really had to be. But even he could see the well trapled path suddenly ceased.

"The stopped, and stood here." Jack pointed to the change in the tracks from striding to feet side by side. "Then nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?" Molly pushed through. The Doctor watched her close her eyes and breathe deeply and she crouched and held a open hand low, over the ground. "No magic." She almost whispered.

Jack looked up at The Doctor. "Transmat?"

"Or teleporters." He looked up to the treetops. They hadn't heard an aircraft of any sort, and the canopy was too thick to land anything, even to drop a ladder or a basket.

"Okay. So either way there has to be a range, right?" Jack stood and paced around the tracks.

"Limited to the island, at least. So they're still here." The Doctor considered the options. "They want them alive or they wouldn't have gone through all this trouble."

He used that as his own life line. Rose was alive. Otherwise they'd have killed them in the garden. But what was happening to her?

Ami was an advanced human, pleanty of reason for some immoral body to want to study her. He had his suspicions about Daisy as well. But that meant somone should head out and warn those who split off. George and Mara might be in serious danger.

There was no help for it, he was going to have to do the one thing he had avoided doing. But there just might be a way to reduce the shock for Mara...

The Doctor mentally reached out for the TARDIS, and she answered. Not in words, she never used words with him. But there was comfort and sympathy, and a dose of her own anger.

He mentally told her what he wanted to do. It used more of the energy she had so recently just built back up, delaying their escape by that bit more. But she would act as a buffer.

"Doc, what're you..."

He held up a hand to silence Jack. The Doctor went perfectly still, his own eyes closed as he reached out, through the Tardis...

(Continued in the Mara thread)