001 - The Agent in the Fox Hunt

[beltbucklerebel]

[Considering how foul his mood had been that morning, it had actually turned out to be a pretty nice Valentine’s Day. The time at the shooting range with Bones had calmed some of the hurt and anger aggravated by the holiday...enough that, for one of the first times since ending things with Hannah, he didn’t have to fight to fall asleep that night.

He didn’t even dream. It was as if no time passed at all. One minute, he’d closed his eyes on the red, digital glare of his alarm clock, and the next-

There’s no mistaking the deafening crack of a gunshot. It’s so close--so terrifyingly close--that Booth wakes convinced that he’s been hit.

There’s panic, but there’s no time to indulge. Instead, he is the instant soldier, hands flying to his hip for his gun...only to find it’s not there. It’s not there and everything is wrong and what the hell is going on? He knows he maybe only has seconds to figure it out as he scrambles to his feet (barefoot. Why is he in a battlefield, barefoot?), and moves for the nearest cover (trees? Why the hell are there trees?).

It’s only in the silence that follows, listening to the rapid pounding of his own heart, that he starts to realize that something is very, very wrong. He leans back, trying to stay close to the tree, and flinches as newly added wings protest against the pressure.]

What the-?!

[There might be quite a bit of swearing and arguing happening as soon as Moran catches up with him enough to explain what the hell is going on]

[Later, once he’s calmed down...relatively speaking]

[Moran had directed him towards the village and actual clothes, but that hadn’t made Booth feel any less furious. The voice that comes over the journal is clipped and almost wry, anger audible...but tightly controlled]

Okay. Whatever genius thought that kidnapping a federal agent and playing dressup was a good idea, I’m telling you right now. I’m not laughing. I’ve heard a lot of crazy things coming out of this book...thing...and I’ve had just about enough. No more fairy tales. No more crazy, hallucination-induced, looney-bin stories. I want the truth. Now. And one more thing:

I want my badge. I want my gun. And, if you tell me how to get these wings off, I might not even shoot you with it.

[The agent can be found pacing in front of the Welcome Center, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and fuming as he waits for responses]

[OOC: First tag, chronologically, goes to Sebastian Moran who was hunting in the forest. All other replies will come after Booth’s relocated into town]

Comments

[doubleppk]

The biggest and most high tech you can imagine. Whatever you want to program it with, it adjusts to.

[beltbucklerebel]

Neat trick like that, and no one's found a way out of this place?

[doubleppk]

Who do you think made the Battledome in the first place?

If the Malnosso can make something like that as just something to keep us busy, just how vulnerable do you think their barrier is going to be?

Programming isn't that easy, trying to make something that can adapt to anyone's imagination is beyond my time's skill, and taking into account all the weird alien worlds too? That's kind of crazy. Go through a couple shifts and you'll see what I mean. They're not idiots, or they wouldn't have been able to kidnap us all in the first place.

[beltbucklerebel]

[that gets through...because, really, it takes a lot to kidnap him. Even more to kidnap Bones. And he didn't like thinking of their captors as anything like the one other person who had managed it]

Fine. Fine. So they aren't stupid. What about the people they've dragged here? Someone's got to have an idea.

[doubleppk]

They've brought demi-gods, people capable of blowing up worlds, and the best of multiple different worlds.

There are plenty of ideas, and plenty of things have been tried, nothing's worked. At best the Malnosso get bored or something acts up and they send some people back from when they took them.

[beltbucklerebel]

...Demi gods?

[you've got to be kidding]

[doubleppk]

[A shrug.] Whatever you want to call them. Think of it as high powered aliens if you want, the effect is the same.

"A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet," and all that.

[beltbucklerebel]

...I don't care what it smells like. No way I'm believing in demi gods or aliens or whatever else this place claims to have.

[doubleppk]

You have wings attached to you that kill you if removed and you're in an entirely new world where magic is possible, but aliens and demi-gods are out of the realm of imagination? Technically, to this world, you're the alien you know.

[beltbucklerebel]

[in a day or two, that might make sense. Less than eight hours after waking up here? He's not buying it]

Yeeeeah, see...Magic? I don't think so. Some of us still have a grip on reality.

[doubleppk]

Yeah, talk to me when you're not a new feather. Assuming another world is going to be exactly the same as yours is kind of arrogant, isn't it?

Besides, the first shift usually changes people's minds about what's impossible or not.

If it makes you feel better though, just pretend it's the Matrix. Only with no little pills from Neo to get out.