A Midnight Gathering (April 2017) [open to everyone]

Sawyer slouched in the pew listening to the unprogessive bickering. A sigh escaped his chest as he waited for the next person to finish talking. They weren't getting anything done going back and forth. Sawyer stood on top his seat to match levels with Shepherd, the only one trying to encourage teamwork. "Why aren't you eager to play the game?" He questioned Wolfgang. "Go ahead and wait in Roslare if you want." His voice started to project to the rest of the crowd rather than the meeting-caller. "If you have the strong belief someone will save you, then stay. If you want to go home I suggest we all listen to the blondie over here." The tall player rested his hand on his forehead as he took a breath. "Teamwork is going to be our best option. Share as much information you can gather with others and create a team to go through each levels gate. Above all, don't leave players out. We will not be separated or taken control of by this psychopathic creater." The Ranger jumped from the pew, waiting for another player to pitch in.

Mackenzie kept her spot in the back of the Cathedral, her dark cloak shielding her well. Except for her bright blonde hair, which would give her away the moment anyone looked for her. The Ranger’s gaze tilted downwards, not daring to look up. That was, until her brother spoke. Her blue eyes seemed to dig into him from afar as she studied his words. She was tired, and so she placed all of her focus on every word he said, being sure to process and analyze it before daring to say anything herself.

Yes, his planned seemed like a good one. They’d have to play his game… Having judged the “gamemaster’s” tone of voice, it seemed like their only option. Crossing her arms, all she did was listen to the quarreling of people going back and forth. Well, sort of. Her mind was replaying the events that led up to her being stuck here…

The video game store.

Mackenzie’s head spun. As much as she tried to picture it in her mind, some events were foggy. Her and Shepard side-by-side, the brand-new game they had gone for in hand. One moment they were about to cross the street to get to the subway, the next…

A speeding car, heading right for them.

Hands pulling at her shoulders, hips, and ankles.

Everything. going. black.

But… she never felt any impact.

A gasp suddenly came from her corner of the room, her cyan eyes blazing to light in realization. ”We don’t have a choice but to play his game, or sit around. They’re not going to look for us.” Mackenzie pushed herself off of the wall, walking over to where her brother was. Sure, there were people all around her, but she needed to ask him this. ”Shepard… What do you remember from before we got here?” It was somewhat of a rhetorical question. She was ready to interrupt him right at the moment.

”That car was heading right for us… but we were knocked out before we were ever hit.” Her voice was small. It quickly started growing. ”Ratman said it himself. We’re in a laboratory underground - to the outside world, for all they know, we’re dead.” This wasn’t just Mackenzie wanting to back up her brother. This was a hard fact - there was nothing else that could have happened. Her memory was definitely foggy, but she could remember clear as day never being hit by that car.

”Why would anyone bother looking for us?”

That moment, her words hit her. Why would anybody bother looking for them? They would be busy grieving their deaths and figuring out how to carry on with life. A hand went immediately to her chest, as if she had been pierced with one of her arrows right through the heart. Her jaw clenched, and she took a moment to recover, listening to others talk about her.

The suggestion of sharing information no matter what happened was definitely a good idea. They all had one common goal - escape the cage. How were they going to pick the lock? They’d all have to work together somehow. If some people dropped out, then that wouldn’t be any of the others’ faults. But they had to carry on under the assumption that everyone would do their part to a degree.

”Assuming Ratman doesn’t exactly grow fond of the idea of us refusing to play his game and we do have to play along, he’s right. We need to share information. Someone could process it in a way that could get us all out of here. No matter what choice we make.” Gripping her elbows, Mackenzie shook her head. This was all so much to process. Letting out a sigh, her gaze just once more dropped to the floor as she sat down in the pews, close to her brother.

This was going to be a long process.

A bit of worry flashed though the blond, as Wolfgang opposed his argument, speaking of waiting for a rescue. His eyes narrowed, and before he could snap back a response, others then spoke up in favor of his argument. It lessened the tension in his shoulders, but he couldn't sit down quite yet. After all, his sister had spoken up from the shadows, reminding him of their own kidnapping.

Shepard remembered almost as much as Mackenzie did, and merely nodded at her words. His eyes lowered as he forced himself to remember. It all felt a world away. A universe away. Lips pressed together, Shepard let his sister finish and watched her come over and sit near where he stood on the pew.

"Kenzie isn't wrong. The people out there could very well assume we are dead by whatever the mean." Shepard casted his gaze out to the others gathered. " And even if they knew were were kidnapped, out of the billions of people in the world--kidnappings happen all the time. What do we all have in common that would make them figure that our cases were connected?" He asked, giving Wolfgang a pointed look. "We may not have help. And if you are too scared to fight your way out-we will do it for you." Of course, he couldn't speak for the rest of the people, but if it just came down to he and Mackenzie--they'd do it in an instant.

Shepard wasn't completely aware that the rift between the two plans could cause some animosity, but what he did know was that he was not going to wait to be saved. If they could save themselves--so be it.

Seamus' eyes flicked back and forth as the debate bounced around the cathedral. It was all nonsense to him, five levels, gates, a lab, Roslare, Ratman... But it was enough to piece together what he'd already started to suspect, the creeping realization he'd gotten on the city cobblestones. This was a game. An actual game. And somehow, he knew right then it couldn't have been a dream. He balled up his hand into a fist anyway, nails digging into the skin of his palm, but when he opened his eyes again, he was still here, surrounded by all these strangers.

"I woke up here maybe twenty minutes ago," he cut in after a lull in the conversation. His head was spinning, but he had his bearings. "So I don't have any idea what any of this is, or why we're here... It all sounds like bull to me. But I think I've heard enough." Seamus hefted the spear onto his shoulder, lips tightened in a hard frown. "If there's a chance we can escape, how can you just sit back and want to wait it out? If we get rescued, we get rescued, but what if we don't?" He glanced at the blonde who had just spoken—appreciating her nice figure, but he had to keep his eye on the prize here. "I don't know about the rest of you, but nobody's missing me out there."

Maybe it was dangerous, but if it was between that and spending the rest of their lives here, was it even really a choice?

No one was looking for him. That was for sure. The feds probably didn't even realize he was gone.

He let out a snort of laughter, leaning against one of the pews. "If you just wanna lounge around and jack off waiting for Prince Charming, that's on you. But I'd like to get out of here. By any means possible."

Ah, almost everyone was still talking over each other. Though very few seemed to be against playing the game as much as the boy standing up on the pulpit, higher up than anyone else, but the moonlight seemed to avoid him, leaving him in the dark. Instead, the beacons of hope lie more on the whiskered blonde from the morning. A policy of "no player gets left behind" and that it would be a cooperative effort between all of them. Many of the other players inside seemed to be rallying behind him as soon as he took the lead. His twin sister had no objections with it either, and both were very determined to see this through. So would he be the leader to bring them out of the game? Or someone else rise to the occasion?

Nonetheless, this was an interesting development. Not an unexpected one, but it did seem to move from the path he had predicted. Callum could only smile as player after player spoke, but his curiosity only piqued with the twins. They had potential. Arguably, the rest of the people gathered in the cathedral did, yet those two stood out to him in more ways than one. Though he had little reason to join their entourage. Simply watching would suffice to see how far the players could get in their struggle to escape the so-called cage they were trapped within.

At the very least, all but a select handful of players were willing to play through this game that the creator had put them through. The person in charge of this must be very satisfied, if he were listening into this conversation that they were having. They were being obedient test subjects. "If mutual wound-licking will get you guys very far, then be my guest," he said with a mock bow. "I'll share if I find that it'll be useful."

But really... He offered questions, almost as though they were ultimatums. "What will you all actually do? Will you continue to argue against each other or work together? Or will you go off on your own?"

And so, everyone was on top of him. Wolfgang pursed his lips, not expecting to be dogpiled from his Devil's Advocacy. Well, maybe not quite. In reality, he loved the idea of not risking his life. Something about doing what the overseer wanted them to do ticked him off, a pinprick in the nape of his neck. "Anything's better than having him jack off to us," the blonde grumbled to Seamus. What an ass. No wonder he had no one in the outside world.

Despite Callum's plead for working together, the boy was fired up. He sat down on the edge of the platform, kicking the back as his feet dangled off.

---

They were bickering in front of her. Rory rested her head against the back wall of the cathedral, eyes half-closed, a silent moment away from falling asleep. She yawned and nestled her head deeper towards the hard wall, wondering again why she came in the first place...

Olive, even as she stood there, hands cupped around a small flame, lost in thought, couldn't help but wish she was not choosing the role of a bystander. She understood the logic of her fellow players and knew that in order to get out, they would have to work together and aquire intel on the weird virtual world around them. The mage waited quietly, hoping for a window, a moment of relative calm in which she could speak her mind. A few more moments of talkign and the mage cleared her throat quietly, sound only picked up by the ones nearby, but she tried to urge herself to gain confidence and soon spoke loud enough to be heard in the square.

"Yo. I get that you all have split decisions, but I believe it would be better to nonetheless abvoid conflict. Those of you who are keen on playing the game and getting out of here..." she paused for a moment, overlooking faces and carefully picking out her words. She had done public-speaking classes in her later years of school, but never had she felt quite so nervous to speak in front of t the crowd. Maybe it was the circumstances which gave her this terrible stagefright.

"As I was saying, we need to work together and bring as much information as possible. What if we meet every month at midnight here, to share what we have learned. Take pictures of whatever creatures you have seen, talk about the lands you have visited, exchange tactics..." she grew quiet, uncertain whether others would think that her way was a good one. People were restless and they didn't want to just sit, at least the ones that wanted to get out of the game witht their own powers.

"Umm, thank you." she finished her speech just as they been taught in public-speaking class. With a curt nod and a thank you to the audience, she bowed her head, staring into the flame in her hands, not feeling that her words would make a change.

Mackenzie for the most part just simply sat back and listened to the others. It seemed like mostly everyone was going to be playing the game, which she couldn't decide whether or not was a good thing. She couldn't hold back a bit of a snicker of laughter at Seamus's comment, but pressed her lips tightly in disgust at the comment Wolfgang had followed up with.

The new voice peaked her interest though. It would be a good idea to hold a truce night, to share information and discoveries... "That's a good idea, a night of truce. Although, I'd prefer not to meet here at midnight." She gave a yawn, signifying her tiredness. Everyone had to be tired. They had been here for a day, and it was bound to be overwhelming and exhausting for more people than just her.

"Personally, I'd like to form an alliance. Considering there are classes within this game -- if you don't know yours, guys, check your UI's -- we should assemble groups to become as strong as possible." Swiping open her UI, her eyes went right to the Overview tab. There, it displayed her stats.

player : Mackenzie Herman
class : Ranger
hp : max

Checking her stats before swiping it closed, her arms crossed and she tilted her head downwards once more. She was listening, but was resigning herself from her speaking role for the final time.