[Contagion] Act I

Hobbes

[OUT TAKE]

Location: Delphi, Greece.
Date: 192 BC (night time, December)

The scene starts as we see two people enter a small cave on the mount of Delphi. The cave is the (now secret) entrance to the Oracle of Delphi.

The two people are a man and a woman. The man is in his mid 30's and the woman looks young but prehaps mid 20's.

The man is dressed as centurion, and the woman as a roman slave that would be owned by a rich master. For a slave she has some expensive jewellery on her (bracelet, necklace, ear-rings).

(Note everyone is speaking ancient greek)

#woman# "Why couldn't I be the solider?"
#man# "I'm surprised you even asked that."
#woman# "Well I don't even like it here! I should of been on the other mission."
#man# "She has more experience then you, now shut up and stay alert."

They walk into the centre of the cavern, near the back and centre there sits the navel of goddess and a woman who looks to be close to 60 sitting near it. She is the Oracle

#man# "Greetings Oracle"
#Oracle# "You should not be in here, I am not able to commune at this time.
#woman# "Wheeee!" *grins* "... anyone could commune in here! What is that? Ethylene?"
#Oracle# *seems to reconise the word, looks up and then looks in fear and recognition*
#man# "You know why we are here, now where is it?"
#Oracle# "I cannot tell you what I do not know. Leave me!"
#man# "Dam, check her."
#woman# *walks over to the Oracle and checks looks at her*
#woman# *steps back away* "She's contaminated badly, but we could probably let her go as it won't make much difference either way soon."
#man# *draws his sword and decapitates the Oracle* "Better to err on the side of caution" *grins*
#woman# "Dammit, how do we know she hasn't hidden it here?"
#man# "Because we would know, sometimes I wonder if you ever pay attention. Come on lets go, we still have other leads to follow.".

The man and the woman leave the cave and walk out into the night.

Hobbes

[OOC] As I mentioned players may not be in the same scene/section. To determine what area your in I will

put a [REF:#x . Players] the 'x' is the number internal to my notes. [/OCC]

[REF:#5. Dante]
It's a cold and wet Tuesday afternoon in Londons city center. In order to get out of the rain you decide (although you don't know why) to head into a nearby coffee shop to get a cup of coffee to sit on until the weather lets up.

The person serving eyes you with suspision but hands you a coffee in a large expensive looking mug.

You look around to see where to sit. You see a woman sitting near the front entrance ([Klepto] With her bags on the floor) and appears to be sketching on a pad. To the other side you see a couple sitting at a table. The woman looks nervous about something and appears to keep looking at what looks like an ([Klepto]Expensive!) watch and looking out the window. The man sitting with her has his back to the window and appears to be much more relaxed.

[REF:#2. Whispers]
You start off in the main library of The university of Cambridge.

Your professor friend is pretty annoyed that you haven't showed up for the last two classes so to make it up your chilling out reading some book called 'Ancient Disputes, New Themes' by some guy named Kane. The book is a bit too heavy for your liking but you understand it well enough.

Amy should be getting off from her class on Archelogy soon and she's said she will meet you here. Your puppy [OCC]Name?[/OCC] is happily chewing and ripping up some book lying around.

You look around the area and notice there are not that many people here. The libarian is across the other side of the long room so she can't see your puppys appreciation to the written word. There are five others in the room (More a hall with loads of shelves), two are looking for books, two are reading books at different tables. The last (a girl) has a book in front of her but appears to be laid back staring into space with a grin on her face (you think she must be on some really good stuff).

Hobbes

[REF: #1. Jonny]
It's been a long hard day at work. Between the power lunches, the early morning golf and all those documents your Admin Assistant give you to sign your all wiped out. Almost time to punch out and call it a day.

You lean back in your leather chair and spin around and look out across the city of Boston and think about the painful drive to your mansion in New England. You are on the 90th floor of a 110 story building.

[OOC]As will become evident this world will not have the same geography as ours.[/OOC]

Your desk is pretty clean, you have a computer terminal which you have really never figured out, but it plays a mean solitaire. The rest of the large office is sparse. Your safe is behind a large painting of some famous guy whos name you forget. In the safe is some emergency cash and your firearm (Although you haven't used it in years).

Your contemplating what to do next.

johnnynolegs

I stand up from my desk and open the safe to take out some cash before i leave. As im walking out to the levator i realise i've forgotten my darn keys so i turn around and go back into my office - i grab the keys to the porsche off the desk and leave again. I take the elevator the 98 floors down to the car park level my car is on and step out of the Elevator. As i step out i see someone messing at my car so I run towards them shouting to get away from it. He seems to be a shabbily dresses vagrant and turns and flees when I scream at him. However, when I get to the car there is no marks on the door or the window or anything. "Hmmmmm strange" I think to myself but then forget about it once i start the engine and begin thinking about what is waiting for me back in my apartment...............

Hobbes

[OOC]You can't control environment. That's up to me, You can do actions within the environment though. It's in the rules. While I may or may not play around those actions, doing these sort of things will penalise you in some way. Playing within the game mechanics will give you bonuses. To demonstrate...[/OOC]

[REF: #1. Jonny]
You are about to start your car when you notice some broken glass sprinkle onto the windscreen.

Wondering what the hell is going on you get out and look around and up to see what is happening. You are thrown back by a large bang at the front of your car as an office chair (not unlike your own) goes crashing through the front windscreen where you were sitting.

While dazed on the floor about to get up you hear another thud as a person now goes through the roof of your car destroying it. He looks obviously dead. Although there is a lot of splatter the body appears to be that of a tramp. You look up again and notice a large number of security guards looking down from what may be your office.

You can pretty much kiss your car goodbye.

johnnynolegs

*I get up and shake off the glass shards that have fallen onto me and begin to look around for anything i might have left in the car*

"Hey did any of you guys see what happened?" I yell up to the security guards.

Hobbes

[REF: #1. Jonny]

The security guards can't hear you from that distance and after a short moment disappear from the window.
You go over to check out your car and the body lying on it. In it's hand you notice a piece of paper in his hand.

While most of it is unreadable it seems to be an approval form for the employment of a new research assistant on project 'Lia(rest unreadable)'.

What more intresting is that your signature is on the the bottom of the document.

Nothing else from the car appears to be salvagable. You turn around and notice that a large number of security guards are running to your position from the lobby elevators.

johnnynolegs

I dunno why but I decide I better get the hell out of there so i look around for a way to escape after I grab all my stuff out of the car and take the paper he is carrying..........

LoBo

*I take my coffee and make my way over to a table adjacent to the lady with the bags on the floor.*
Hopefully I can sit somewhere near the bags as I need to find a way to pay for this coffee, and being by the door in case I don't find a way could be useful...
*I'll also keep an eye on the nervous woman with the expensive watch.* Who knows - she might prove interesting or might forget her watch!

Hobbes

[REF: #1. Jonny]
You take the paper and shove it into your jacket pocket. Looking again at the car there is nothing you can easily get from it [OCC]unless you plan to take the spare tire?[/OCC]. You look around for an escape. You are aware of the resturant across the road and the road goes off in either direction left and right of you, but you realise that you have no idea how to get around the city on foot. But you have two escape options open to you, right which is further into the business district and right which leads off to Fanieul Hall, although it would not be as crowded around this time and may not be as good an escape route. The guards are at the outside of the building now.

[REF:#5. Dante]
Eyeing the womans bags, there is nothing much in them. It appears she has been shopping. On top of one of the bags you notice a worn out paperback novel. [Klepto]You take the book from her bag. It's called 'The house on the borderland' by a William Hodgsen. A very tatty book indeed and looks like it was written some time ago. In the middle of the book there are a couple of printed pages with various pieces highlighted with a yellow highlighter. There is quite a few bits marked but the ones that catch your eye are...

The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life (Written in the margin beside it is 'Could this be why?')
...
Melmoth is the tale of an Irish Gentleman who, in the seventeenth century, obtained a preternaturally extended life from the Devil at the price of his soul. If he can persuade another to take the bargain off his hands, and assume his existing state, he can be saved; but this he can never manage to effect, no matter how assiduously he haunts those whom despair has made reckless and frantic. (The word 'Doomed?' written beside it?)
...
A weirdly hieroglyphed onyx talisman, picked up on the street by the sharer of his dream (Dream is circled in pen with '!!?!!' beside it), is shortly given the artist; and after stumbling queerly upon the hellish and forbidden book of horrors the two learn, among other hideous things which no sane mortal should know, that this talisman is indeed the nameless Yellow Sign handed down from the accursed cult of Hastur (The word Hastur is circled with pen and has a smiley and 'as-if!' written beside it).

You come to a part about the books author when a hand reaches over you and snatches both the paper and the book at the same time. You turn around to see the woman very irate. She says "I didn't give you permission!".

[Talking] You tell her that the book was on the floor and you just picked it up. She still looks annoyed at you but with that she puts the book in her bag and the paper into her pocket. She moves the bags further away from you. She turns back around and doodles again, ignoring you.

You look around to the couple at the table who have gone quiet to watch what was going on, but have gone back to their chat. The woman at the table still looks worried while the man is chuckling to himself.

The server from behind the counter is watching you wondering if it's worth the hassle to throw you out.

johnnynolegs

I decide that I better go to the most crowded place and quickly begin to go deeper into the business district..............