tornheart | Visits of Velvet

A: Between the conscious and the unconscious...

It happens so fast you don't have time to dwell on it.

At first, you're sleeping in your room. As you drift into slumber, you suddenly find yourself facing a blue-colored desk with an ancient-looking computer and screen. If you try to move, the chair squeaks loudly - that thing definitely needs a little bit of grease to function properly. Some chairs have rips and tears, leaking fluff, missing buttons and are generally badly in need of repair. Looking around will reveal rows of such desks all around you, with everyone in their own little blue-colored cubicle. There are large windows to the outside too, but it's impossible to see - there's way too much fog outside. Phones and other electronic devices don't appear to be working either if you had them on you.

It won't take too much time for you to notice that everyone is dressed business casual. A tiny little empty plaque holder sits on your desk, along with scattered letters from what appear to be Scrabble pieces that could form your name (or an anagram if you're feeling like it), and a number written on a post-it. You can turn your machine on, but it will take a while to be useful. Best to look around the place to see what else is here while the message saying that it's preparing the booting up screen chugs along.

The entire floor is pathetically barren for the most part. The theme of color continues with the dark blue walls, the visible ceiling pipes and the shaggy blue carpet, which is, thankfully, free of stains. If you do bother to look around during the next ten minutes, either chatting with others or walking around, you may notice two more rooms.

First, there’s a dining area with a single coffee machine. No way will this be enough for anyone to get their coffee fix. Not that they could, as there doesn't appear to be coffee anywhere. Or cups. Or spoons. Just a poor, lonely, coffee machine, empty cabinets and a fridge that isn't even plugged in.

The second is a large gathering room. You know that’s what it’s mean to be thanks to the clumsily taped sign on the top of the room's opening in near perfect handwriting. No chairs, just an empty room with no door....and a portrait of a strange man hung in the back. To its credit, despite the face and nose possibly giving you nightmares for the rest of your life, this portrait of Igor may be the most expensive looking thing in the entire floor. The mahogany frame, is enhanced by the carved butterflies around it.

B : The Talk

Eventually there is a message over the intercom to everyone. The voice is neutral, seemingly devoid of emotion. It's still hard to hear due to the glitchy sound and skipping noise.

"Att...tion. If you cou...all please come ..t....Gather... room. Thank you."

As the crowd moves into the aptly-named room, those that stay out of it will eventually find themselves being pushed by invisible boundaries into it. Once the last person is in, the voice from the intercom finally makes herself known with a polite cough. Dramatic entrance or just perfect timing? The blue, black and gold business suit somehow manages not to clash with her blonde hair and bright yellow eyes. Next to her is another individual who's also dressed in a similar suit, black hair and the same pair of yellow eyes, a small smirk and a glint in his eyes and a giant wad of papers on a wood board a golden pen in his hands.. They've already met them in a dream but now seeing them in person is an entirely new experience. They look...like models, and a lot more expensive than anything else here.

"Welcome to your first team meeting, team," she greets them, eyes darting at the group while she continues to talk. "I am Mary, and this is my brother, William. You will have to forgive us for the lack of space - normally the Velvet Room only has a small number of Guests at a time. You are all very different than that, due to the circumstances. I hope you will all get along - for your sake's anyway..." She stops to adjust her glasses and crosses her arms. "Now then, I'll make this brief. This place exists between the conscious and unconscious and takes the image of what is most suitable for the tasks ahead. In your cases, an office. As per the contract you all signed a few weeks ago, we are here to assist you with your personal growth. In exchange, you are to prove to us your willingness to change this world."

"It's no small task," William adds, finally speaking up. His voice is much deeper and relaxed than his sister's. "But our Master has faith in all of you . It will not be the same for everyone of course, but each of you has a role to play. My sister and I are here to aid you as the Velvet Room's Humanoid Resources. I am most eager to begin my duties."

"While you may have many questions, we unfortunately cannot answer all of them. This journey is also your own and those of the Velvet Room are tasks with watching, not interfering."

William just nods and shrugs is elbows.

"That being said, we will do what we can. The first round of questions is opened to the floor."

[OOC: IF you have a question for the Velvet Room’s residents, please go post it in the appropriate section in the post below. The rest of the prompts can be between yourselves!

The requests will be starting in a few weeks.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jaune poked at the computer and the scrabble pieces for a bit, wondering if they're clues to something. He's seen snails move faster than this computer boots up though so eventually Jaune decides it's time to find out what's going on now. Are they ever going to catch a break, he wonders. He leaned back, looking up at the ceiling.

He heard footsteps. Jaune jumped up and--from the perspective of the person approaching--literally pops up from the cubicle out of practically nowhere. He probably further startles them by going: "Hey!"

It's a second later that he realizes that might have been a bit startling and winces, "Ah...sorry..."

Genda is usually very observant in regards to his surroundings and keeping twenty three moving targets in his attention as well. But sadly nothing ever truly prepares you for the jack in the box jump scare. Doubly so when the squeak of the chair was not heard in time to stop the sudden flinch back from there suddenly being another person within touching distance. Those cubicle walls hardly counted as a barrier really, especially in this circumstance.

Dignity is lost for a brief moment as Jaune is treated to a look that one would fine on a very disgruntled and angry cat that hasn't decided just yet if it wants to flee up a cabinet or scratch whatever just offended it. Only for a few seconds later the expression to smooth out into a more neutral frown and curious headtilt.

"Did you just arrive?"

Because Genda is not certain what could keep someone in those cubes for long before leaving them.

Yep. Definitely startled this kid. Whoops. Jaune felt bad, but the damage had already been done. He looked over his shoulder at the computer and tiles that he had been playing with. "Uh...sure," he said, then thought it might be better not to lie exactly and added, "I mean...more or less...I was waiting to see if the computer would load." And playing with the tiles...and making the sticky note into various origami shapes so that now it was a wrinkled mess on his desk. He really only knew how to do a fortune teller and a crane.

He turned back to the boy, "Are you exploring this place?"

There's only a slow blink added to the slight headtilt after that explanation was given. Considering that phone app that has been stalking them for over a month now Genda hadn't felt like touching something that was clearly in the domain of everyone pulling at least one of their collective strings, but there was a rare possibility of something being on them he may have to check later on.

"Did you find anything on it?"

Genda for a moment seems to be prepared to ignore Jaune's question as he looks uneasily towards the windows again.

"I was looking to see if there was a door to the outside."

Jaune shook his head. He hadn't thought about the technological side of their issue, despite the app taking up a good portion of his time these days. The computer had just been sitting there and it seemed like a good idea to turn it on. Granted, given its dated appearance he was honestly surprised it had turned on at all.

"Nothing. It's still loading. I think when I had a virus on my computer it loaded faster than this," he said, glancing over his shoulder quickly just to see if the screen had changed at all.

It had not, so he turned his attention back to Genda. "Ah," Jaune considered his options and then decided to just go for it, "Mind if I join you? I don't think these computers are going to finish loading any time soon."

Considering even the old and almost fossilized computers that the library seemed to keep going with some unknown witchcraft and force of will in order to not have to transfer all that data to a new computer, Genda is only partially surprised by that confirmation that the screen was still loading. Maybe it was just for show and didn't actually do anything after all then.

"If you wish. I plan to start opposite the windows and go from there."

There isn't even a pause as Genda turns with complete military precision on his heel in order to move around the cubicle maze. Gaze forward and stride with purpose. It's likely hard to imagine this kid is younger then Jaune is with those movements.

Jaune nodded. Honestly it was more out of boredom than anything. He didn't want to just sit around in the cubicle when there could be answers literally around the corner. Although, somehow he doubted they'd be getting anything good any time soon. He was used to disappointment like that--no one ever seemed to want to be straightforward about things.

He exited the cubicle, "Is this in order to escape or just so you know where you CAN escape?" This place seemed somehow familiar--like he'd been in a room related to it before or like he was kind of in a dream or something. Had there been a place like this prior to awakening?

Visits of Velvet

A.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject