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Peiquok Town Hall


Icelus

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((Everybody starts here. Feel free to interact with one another or NPC's, you just can't get out... yet.))

A modest town hall for a modest-sized town, it has a large, open multi-purpose room with a stage and podium at one end, and several side-rooms used for meetings and storing equipment for kids summer care, as well as a simple kitchen/break room and washrooms. Currently set up with cots and chairs, the smaller rooms are blocked off. Soldiers have blocked the exits and are telling the remaining vacationers and villagers that are being brought in that they are being held for their safety. The military has said that it's investigating the disappearance of the majority of the town's population, but isn't saying much else.
 

Pheonix Alugere

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

A young woman is moving around the main room with a slight panic evident in her movements.

What's going on? What's going on? Why are we here? Too many people, books! There have to be books around her somewhere. Their nice creamy white pages holding the knowledge of the ages. They always are there, saying the same thing no matter who you are. They don't judge. I just need to find some books. She thinks, moving about. The slight hunch in her shoulders and the way she seems to be trying to shrink herself causing her to seem smaller than she is. She also seems to have a habit of trying to move around without disturbing people. Uncomfortable with actually having to talk to them.
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Melissa stood with her back against the wall, neck craned to look through the window next to her at the street outside the town hall. Soldiers were moving back and forth along the street calling to each other as they maintained some kind of blockade. Against what, though, she had no idea. The town had been strangely quiet during her trip to the town hall.

Trip? More like kidnapping. She had been stopped on the highway leading into Peiquok, a small town she was going to stop in for a bite to eat, an hour or so ago, then forcefully led here without so much as a 'please'. Her 'escorts' had nearly pushed her off her motorcycle as soon as she parked and slammed the door shut behind her.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" she yelled to no one in particular, though certain the soldiers could hear her. "I WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE IN CHARGE!" Melissa knew she wouldn't get a response, but she felt the need to yell anyway. Finally she moved away from the wall and to a chair in the middle of the room, flipping open her cell phone to check for a signal.

No bars. Big fucking surprise. She slammed the device shut and shoved it back into her jacket pocket. She stood up again, took a few steps away from the chair, then turned back to face the people gathered. "Anyone from around here want to clue me in on what the hell's going on?" she asked loudly, addressing everyone.
 
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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Cara hadn't known what the hell was going on when someone had tapped on the window to the back of her beaten up old Plymouth Sundance, waking her from her sleep early in the morning. Seeing army gear had done nothing to make her feel better; for a moment she had thought that she was back in time, and she was late for the morning's drill, and she was going to get chewed out, as always...

But things came back fast enough.

Now she was in Peiquok's shitty little town hall, corralled here like everyone else... she didn't even think a hundred people were here, but the 'Welcome to Beautiful Peiquok' had read somewhere around one thousand. Aside from the fact that she heard rumors that people had disappeared all around, everywhere, she had no idea.

Cara hugged her guitar case before sliding it under her chair, then sat upon it with her arms folded over the back. She'd tried the guards already. Nobody else here seemed too friendly.

"Pipe down, hot shot," she told the woman shouting a couple dozen feet away from her. "If we knew what was going on, you think we'd be here?"
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

"Excuse me?" Melissa asked the woman angrily. "Look maybe being grabbed by soldiers, dragged away, and placed under house arrest is normal for you, but I want some damn answers." She looked over the woman. Ratty hair, dingy clothes, and not particularly big, but acting like it. Trash most likely, Melissa thought, then turned back to the others. "The more we know about what's going on here, the easier this'll be for all of us. If you know something, please share it, because the troops out there sure aren't."
 

Janna

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Morgan pulls over one of the unattended chairs and uses it to stretch out her calf muscles. She had been riding out along the town's main street when, like a scene out of a bad movie, two military vehicles had rounded the corner right in front of her. The soldiers had been polite. . . well, as polite as they could be as armed men walking a girl on a bicycle back to a town hall with no real explanation aside from some vague talk about a quarantine.

She turned her deep brown eyes towards the woman who had shouted, and the other two that were now talking to her, "Nobody told me anything. Quarantines are usually for disease, right? But I haven't seen any doctors or paramedics. You think they'd want to check people for symptoms."

She shrugged a little and walked over to the group that was forming. "I'm just here on vacation." The last word dripped with sarcasm and Morgan rolled her eyes a little. "I don't really know anything about this place except what the website said about the bike trails out in the forest."
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Cara rolled her eyes ceiling-ward, then drummed on the back of the seat for a moment before brushing some stray hair out of her eyes and regarding Melissa. She chewed on the inside of her lip for a minute before replying, "If I knew exactly what was going on, like I said, I wouldn't be here." Lowering her voice, she added, "calm the fuck down, you're not going to get any answers if you look like you're having hysterics."

Cocking an ear to the dark-haired woman, she raised a palm, dipping her head to nod. "No doctors, no medics, nobody else, either. You'd think the town would have more people to transport, but there's nobody here." She gestured to the handful (well, few handfuls) of people who were mulling around. "Why are we getting singled out?"
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Melissa gave an irritated grin and shook her head at Cara's comment about hysterics, choosing to ignore them for now. Instead she continued the attempt at reasoning out the situation. "I was brought in from the highway leading in to town, not away. If it was a quarantine for a disease, I think they would have just turned me away." She bit her lip and paced a bit, then said, "A town with a thousand people in it and they are talking about lots of people disappearing. It doesn't make sense."
 

Pheonix Alugere

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Too many people here. Those people over there sound angry. Why can't I find a book anywhere? Maybe they at least know something about what's going on. Or better yet, why the smaller rooms are blocked off. Jen thinks, wandering over and trying to inconspicuously place herself near the group, trying to avoid their attention while doing so.
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Cat shakes her head at the ongoing discussion and paces around. Fucking hick town in the middle of nowhere. Should've tramped, but then again. . . She bites her lower lip, almost pulling the clip-on ring off. Who knows what kind of creeps would have picked her up.
Those military types just picked her up as soon as she stepped out of the bus. Ushered her in here together with those strangers. . . and that . Ever since she set foot in this town the little mutt won't stop following her around with it's adorable floppy ears and cute eyes. Right now it sits at her feet and smiles up at her. It smiles. "Sheesh, what am I gonna do with you? Can't take you into the mosh pit when I get out here, that's for sure", she murmurs as she leans down and scritches its head. "I think I'll call you Killdozer. Show me your fiercest face!"
The puppy responded by starting to wag its tail.
Cat stares at it for a moment before blowing that strand of black hair out of her face and getting back up. "Maybe you're not a Killdozer after all."
 
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Icelus

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

A young woman in military fatigues is walking around the large room, a tray in her hands filled with cups of coffee and hot water with tea bags. She has dark hair and eyes, and olive coloured skin. She appears to be a little jumpy, so when Melissa starts shouting, she starts a little and jostles some of the liquid from the styrofoam cups.

Moving over to the group of women, she pauses by Jen and offers her something to drink. "Please stay calm, ladies," she directs, mostly at Melissa. "We're working on the disappearances as best we can, my superiors told me that it was safest for everyone we could fine to be brought to one place." She looks young, like she might not be over twenty... but she smiles genuinely enough. "Have something hot to drink while we wait this out. When more information comes in, we'll let you know."
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Taking the glass hesitantly, Jen starts sipping it until she hears the word 'safer' Safer? From what? And... And there's no books! She squeaks out quietly, before taking a drink to try and hide her face, embarrassed from speaking out and scared of how others will respond to her talking.
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Shiva puts a hand to her chin, and leans against the nearest wall to think for a moment.

She thinks to herself, "The town's population... Gone missing? Well, then, the last place I'd like to be is here. But with no car, and the transportation being cut..." then, along with her body, she rests her head on the wall, "I can't shake the feeling that someone, or something, is trying to keep us here..." Shiva's eyes glance over all of the people in the room who aren't in military or staff outfits, then shifted to said higher officials, "These people likely know just about as much as I do... And I doubt the military of all things would tell me anything..."

Taking a deep breath of frustration, Shiva waits patiently. Although, this is not as easy as it sounds, as something in the back of her mind kept nagging her, warning her...
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Morgan approaches the woman in fatigues, taking a cup and filling it with hot water in preparation for making tea. She examines the selection with a neutral expression; not expecting to find anything particularly tasty she takes one of the more inoffensive looking teabags.

"Who has disappeared?," she asks, dipping the bag into her cup. "I mean, it must be something pretty big for you guys to quarantine the whole town." She lets the tea rest and adds, "I'm not even a Canadian citizen, you know."
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Cat accepts the cup of coffee with a little smile. "So you can't tell me when we can leave, huh. Gonna have to kiss those tickets goodbye", she adds under her breath. Just her luck - this once she breaks away from home and does what she wants and she ends up in a mystery thriller waiting to happen. Any second now fucking Scully and Mulder are going to enter the room.
Cat's train of thought is derailed as the puppy jumps up and down in front of her. "What", she asks in an unnerved voice. "You want something to drink? Something to eat? You have to take a leak? Is that it?" She bends her knees to get down to him again. "I can't walk you now. I don't even have a leash."
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Snagging a cup, blowing and sipping on it, Cara listened intently to the young soldier. She could tell practically from the way the woman held herself that she knew as much as the rest of them. She agreed with Melissa -- none of this made sense -- but she didn't have nearly enough of the pieces to make sense of it.

What had come first, the military or the disappearances? Last night things had been fine. Rainy, shitty weather, and she'd been pretty hungry, but otherwise she'd seen other cars on the road. This morning, she'd been pulled out of her car and nobody else was around. Still, she kept her thoughts to herself as she sipped the burning-hot coffee. She needed an eye-opener in more than one way.

Her eyes drifted across the gathered women instead, and beyond that to the other townsfolk and vacationers brought here. She noticed Cat's puppy, raised both brows, and tucked that away for later, then let her gaze settle on Melissa and Morgan. Of all the women, they were asking the most questions the loudest. It didn't mean that they were going to be the smartest chicks in the room, but it meant that at least they were willing to try to find the answers.
 
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Icelus

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

The woman in fatigues makes a face. "Just about everyone, from what I've seen. People from Peiquok, people visiting, Canadian, American..." She pauses, noting that another, somewhat older officer is casting her a look that needs no explanation. "Excuse me, ladies. I need to get these to the rest of the people here."

She passes Jen as she moves on again, taking a moment to balance the platter on one arm as she pats the extremely nervous girl on the shoulder. "Hang in there," she suggests before moving on.
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

The tension, as well as the behavior of the officials in the hall, was enough to make Shiva quite angry.

Her anger not being shown in her soft, whisper of a voice, she talks only loud enough so nearly everyone around her can hear her, "Not even given the courtesy of a lie, the truth is hidden from us," she said, both aloud, and in a whisper, "Such a strange event, and people are being kept in, rather than out..." she sighed, lowering her head in momentary defeat, "I fear for our safety."
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Kaci sat in the corner quietly listening in on the conversation with the guards. She realized they probably weren't allowed to tell them what happened to everyone outside. She wondered what was happening in the outside world. Was her parents ok? She couldn't know. As she was driving to her job as a paramedic she was taken here. The only thing she managed to bring was her first aid kit. She sighed knowing that worrying would do nothing. She decided to get up, go to the center of the room, and interact with anyone that actually started talking to her.
 

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Re: Peiquok Town Hall

Morgan sighs and goes back to drinking her tea, "Well, that's great." She leans up against a wall in the makeshift shelter, looking around at the other people with a little curiousity.

"None of you are a serial killer, right?" she jokes, to nobody in particular. "Just trying to make sure."
 
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