The Key and the Gate

DeletedUser28032

The rules for this game are nice and simple; create a modern day character and start your first post with a normal working day (things will get strange later). You do not all have to start in the same country nor do you need to know one another though if you feel you should know one of the other characters then feel free to do so. If you decide to be a member of the armed forces then can I request that you are either on base or on leave as being on the frontline could prove...hazardous to your characters health or rather more hazardous than usual.

With the “Notable possessions” section these are simply the stand out items that you keep close to hand such as Zippo lighters, lucky rabbit’s feet, iPad’s, etc so please don’t feel you have to list every single item your character owns.
As for the “Mystery key” each of you has one and have no idea what it opens or where it came from only that for whatever reason you seem incapable of throwing it away and any attempt made by either yourself or another to do so simply results in it reappearing within your possession a few hours later. Each key is unique so feel free to describe it any way you like.

Normal CS rules apply and if you ever get confused or wish to ask me something then feel free to send me a PM and I’ll try and answer you.


Name:
Age: 18+
Gender:
Occupation:
Physical description:
Notable Possessions: Mysterious Key
Background:
 

DeletedUser31931

Name: Boris Stein
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Occupation: Private Mercenary
Physical description: Tall Muscled Build with brown cropped hair and dark brown eyes, he bears a knife scar on his right hand shoulder a reminder of his days in the American Military
Notable Possessions: Mysterious Key, Silenced Five-Seven Pistol, Karambit Knife
Background: Boris was a born and raised American citizen, his father had met his mother shortly after the downfall of the Berlin Wall and they had moved back to America to start a life together (his father being Russian and his mother American), Boris inherited all of his mother's features except for his father's height, Boris standing at around 6''. Boris was never academically brilliant and signed up for the military as soon as he could quit school, doing several service tours in Iraq and Afghanistan he quit before Afghanistan became "trench warfare" and began working for a PMC, he still keeps his five-seven and Karambit on him at all times, having decided that one day his key would bring him bad luck and that he should be ready for when that day came.
 
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DeletedUser37114

Name: Nia Kyu
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Occupation: Software Developer
Physical description: Around 5'2", slim build, light brown hair cut short in the back and kept longer in the front, pale skin. Her key is a worn silver one kept around her neck on a fine chain with a flash drive .
Notable Possessions: Mysterious Key, Flash Drive, Pocket Flashlight
Background: Raised by a single mother in a small apartment, Nia has never felt a real need to socialize. Preferring to interact with machines over people, she quickly became familiar with how to run programs and systems, finding herself a part time job helping to manage the school's computers until her graduation, after which she found a small local apartment and moved out. Since that time, she has worked remotely with a local software development company, writing code and keeping their network running without leaving home.

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The day began unusually, as these things went. For one, her alarm wasn't the thing to wake her up, her phone instead taking that job for itself about five minutes before the clock could. Greedy thing, it didn't know that everything had a duty and that the clock would feel left out having not woken her. Nia comforted the clock, assuring it that it would certainly wake her up the next day and turning her alarm off (no point in it wasting effort to wake her when she'd already woken up) before checking why her phone was ringing so enthusiastically. A coworker, probably calling about a program she'd finished three nights ago. She let the phone ring (served it right for waking her) until the call went to voice mail, then sent the annoying coworker a simple text ("What?") and got out of bed, dressed in an old t-shirt and flannel pants, her phone going into her pocket and her necklace, as was only proper, around her neck.

Since today was obviously an odd day, she knew it would be best to have something even to eat, something to balance things out. She stroked her key (why in the world would the key be HAPPY today?) and pulled the frying pan from its place (hanging second from the left, of course, the better to be even), the eggs from the refrigerator (and there were six left, perfect for an even meal, though she'd only use two), and a fork from its drawer (though unfortunately the fork only had three tines, which unbalanced things a little). An omelet was a matter of a few minutes of scrambling and mixing and sizzling before it had landed on her plate (a plate had no legs, so it MUST be even) and she dug in, checking her key again (even happier, if that were possible, though it had four teeth on an odd day). It didn't take long after that for Nia to clean up (though the pan required some shuffling, as it didn't want to be in an even place anymore) and log on to her computer (overjoyed to see her as always, regardless of what kind of day it was), message the annoying coworker again (still hadn't responded to her text) and get to work.
 
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Deleted User - 819397

Name: Zani Kosi Nosho
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Occupation: Librarian
Physical Description: 5'4", athletic build, of Native American descent. Her black hair is kept short in the front except for bangs while falling neatly behind her to around her waist. Keeps fairly well dressed. Her key is a small brass one that she holds onto, believing it to either be left over from a renovation to the library or left by a forgetful patron.
Notable Possessions: Her key, a taser
Background: Coming from a Native American Reservation, Zani is the first of her family to leave and make her way outside her homeland. Those who think she is uneducated due to her lineage would be sorely mistaken, as she devoured books growing up, venturing off the Reservation to the nearby library to learn all she could about the world she was a part of. Upon making the decision to try her luck in the world at large, she gravitated naturally to the library in the city she settled in, getting a job as an assistant librarian. Despite being a proud member of "modern" society, she has unmistakably brought many of her peoples' traditions with her, though takes care to not let them interfere with her friends' beliefs. Zani is a very nice person in general, always helping patrons at the library with a smile. However, the few times she's had to use her taser to keep would-be muggers and overly handsy patrons off of her, she's left it on her attacker's skin a little longer than completely necessary, although this could easily be explained as not fully understanding how the tool works.
 
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DeletedUser28032

Nia
John Swore quietly under his breath as he read the rather curt text message he’d received from Nia knowing that he’d unwittingly set her off...again. Knowing from painful experience that if he didn’t let her work out whatever madness was currently within her system that it would be a waste of time talking to her, he decided to go and make himself something to eat before texting a reply.
Tall and lanky with glasses and hair that was cut unfashionably long John was a stereotypical computer geek. Sure he’d tried to fit in with the Normal kids at school and university; cut his hair, wore cooler clothes, listened to rap and hip-hop hell he’d even tried watching Big Brother! But he always seemed to slip back into old ways. In the end he decided to simply face facts and embrace it besides which working with Nia on a regular basis tended to draw people’s attention away from his rather geeky mannerisms.
Dressed in faded jeans and a Breaking Bad T-shirt John quickly dragged a comb through his thick sandy blonde hair before heading into the kitchen.
It was his own fault really. He should have known better than to contact her this early in the morning but he was just so excited, the guy had actually asked for him and Nia by name to work for him on some kind of project...well ok he’d asked for Nia but since he was the only one willing to work with her then it was obvious that he would be working on whatever this project was as well.
Forcing himself to remain calm as he ate his breakfast of scrambled eggs and black coffee he picked up his phone and after several failed attempts finally settled on what to put in his reply opting to keep in short and to the point.

Sorry 2 wake U. Need 2 meet. C U @ usual place

Zani
She was having one of those dreams again. She could tell by the way the sun shone through the thick canopy of trees overhead to dance warmly across her skin, the sight and smell of the wild flowers clustered all around her and the sound of birds singing in the early morning light.
It wasn’t the first time she’d had a dream like this though it was hard to place when exactly they had started only that she’d find herself stood within this forest surrounded by birds and flowers and animals, not all of which she was able to recognise though it was a dream when all was said and done.
Walking down one of the forest paths at random; the feel of pine needles soft beneath her bare feet she idly wondered how many hours she had spent wandering the winding forest paths looking at the flowers and animals, marvelling at how vivid everything seemed. Sometimes she even met other people though those occasions were thankfully very rare as she was only dressed in her night clothes, but the things they told her were simply amazing it was like she had wandered into a fairy tale.
Glancing up her eyes were drawn towards a tall, slender tower poking up above the treetops, its pointed roof pale blue in colour causing it to almost blend in with the sky.
She’d never seen this before, it had only ever been a forest every other time she had had this dream so where had this tower come from? What was inside? And why had she never seen it before?
However before she had time to dwell on this fact she awoke with a start with her alarm clock ringing loudly beside her bed informing her that she was late for work.
 

Deleted User - 819397

The alarm clock shook Zani into the world of the living, causing her to groan in frustration. That tower had been so interesting…she'd had the dream of being in the forest many times before, but the tower was new…and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't interested in this change in scenery. Rolling over to shut off the irritating blare of her alarm, she froze in mid-movement…she was late. This had never happened before! Quickly recognizing she had time to either shower or eat, not both, she opted for the former…she prided herself on appearing professional every day, and she figured she could survive a morning of hunger until lunch.

As she washed herself, she allowed her mind to ponder more about her dream. She knew that dreams didn't really mean anything. They were the brain's neurons firing and creating something that faded upon moving elsewhere in the sleep cycle, nothing more, nothing less. And yet, something about that tower had stuck with her…she hadn't seen something like that before…so why was it so vivid in her mind?

Unfortunately, and contrary to what people believed, no shocking revelations came to Zani while she was in the shower, and after she departed it there was no more time to think. Teeth, clothes, out the door, and into her car. As she busied herself with these things, her day came to take on a semblance of normalcy, which was relieving, all things concerned. After a late start she didn't want to have anything else slowing her down.
 

DeletedUser37114

She was halfway through tracking down and squishing a nasty bug in her latest project when her phone vibrated, apparently overjoyed that her coworker had decided to respond. Nia still hadn't forgiven it for being so enthusiastic earlier (what was it with everything being so happy today?), but picked it up anyway to check what he wanted.
Sorry 2 wake U. Need 2 meet. C U @ usual place
Nia glared at the message and patted her phone reassuringly (she couldn't stay mad at it, it was supposed to be excited after all), playing with her key (still practically vibrating) and rapidly typing out a barrage of replies.
Wait a few minutes more next time before you call, I've told you before what time my alarm is set
And why do we need to meet? You do have that video call service I installed on your computer, right?
Whatever, it's been a while since I've been to the library, see you in thirty
And stop using abbreviations like that, you can take the time to type out full words
Satisfied that he would be where he would know what to do, Nia stripped out of her sleepwear and rushed to the shower (consoling it because she knew she wouldn't be able to spend long with it today), rinsing and scrubbing and toweling, un-undressing into her underthings, a pair of black cargo pants, and a grey t-shirt (all of which knew her well and calmly accepted that they would be going out into the sun today) along with a mismatched pair of socks (there wasn't any fighting that it would be an odd day, might as well run with it) and worn shoes, then vacating her apartment and walking towards the library (thankfully, it was cloudy today so there was that little comfort). She checked her pack as she went, making sure it had her dry erase board (a little peeved today for whatever reason), her bright blue marker (happy, as blue things often were), his black marker (as bored as ever, which is why it was his to use), an eraser, a tissue box, and a roll of duct tape.

Nia checked the time on her phone as she walked (brightly reminding her that she would be around ten minutes early) and held her key with one hand (it had calmed down a little, maybe it just knew she would be going out today), humming absentmindedly during the trip. Of course, being as early as she was, her coworker wasn't going to be there yet, but that gave her some time to spend that she didn't otherwise get if she went rushing around everywhere. Nia reached the library right on time (ten minutes before she'd told her coworker to meet), taking time to say hello to the old lamppost outside (stoic as ever) and the steps out front (wishing for sunny weather, the better to warm up with), sitting down to wait with the old stone and brick of the building.
 
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DeletedUser13682

Name: Johnathan Kingsbury
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Occupation: nuclear reactor plant operator
Physical description: a fairly fit 5’ 11”, with brown hair and eyes, with beard to match. Usually wears dress shirts and slacks, with tie loose and top button undone. Will wear blazers on Fridays. Wears a black synthetic fleece liner when it’s cold outside. Wears top hats.
Notable Possessions: Mysterious Key, multitool with belt hanger, tool bag.
Background: Johnathan grew up in suburban America, performed well in school. After he graduated, he enlisted in the Navy, desiring to become a nuclear operator. He became a machinist’s mate, and served on various submarines for 10 years, where he gained the nickname ‘Thrust’. At 30, he let his contract run out, and moved into the civilian nuclear field. He now produces power for home use, variously performing maintenance on the actual systems and sitting in the control room.


It had been a boring night. Power demand during the midnight hour was steady and low and working in the control room was boring, but there was a new guy working on maintenance that night and he needed the experience. He had come from an oil rig originally, and seemed trustworthy. After the drive home, a very interesting experience due to the rain and the nature of Porsche’s old 911s. Sitting at home, reading a novel on his computer, Johnathan couldn’t help but finger this one key; a worn, dark key that appeared to go to, something. He hadn’t been able to figure out where it went, though it seemed to have some luck; he hadn’t lost a set of keys since putting it on his key ring. As usual, John dozed off in his chair, letting the book help him off to dreams.
 

Deleted User - 819397

The drive to work was fortunately uneventful, and Zani made it to work just a couple of minutes late. As she approached the entrance, she noticed one of the more…eccentric patrons sitting on the steps, possibly waiting for someone. Knowing from experience that trying to draw her into a conversation would be a pointless endeavor, she simply smiled and gave a slight bow as she passed, adding a cheerful, "Good morning Nia!" for good measure. Once inside, she busied herself with her typical morning tasks, working quick so as to catch up on the time she'd lost by oversleeping. Her mind focused, she didn't have energy to spare on her dream anymore…reality was much more important anyway.
 

DeletedUser28032

The sun shone brightly intermittently through the clouds outside the library and traffic was thankfully for Zani light allowing the sound of birdsong from the nearby park to filter through to where Nia was currently waiting for John to arrive.
It was as Zani passed Nia; the girl seemingly lost in her own little world that a tall thin man in a business suit could be seen emerging from a nearby alleyway with his attention seemingly fixed upon the steps leading up into the library.
It was unclear whether it was either of the two girls or the building itself he was intently studying only that he was gone almost as quickly as he'd arrived; turning sharply on the spot and disappearing into a nearby shop. It was almost like he knew someone had seen him and so needed to hide.
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Zani
The library was a pleasant mix of old and modern with some of the building dating back to the civil war; the modern extension built so as to seamlessly match in with the rest "Morning Zani, blimey I don't think I've ever seen you late before...something the matter?" Rebecca asked in a cheery voice from behind the desk. Tall and blonde with frameless glasses one couldn't help but like Rebecca and her bubbly personality or her often bumbling if well meant efforts to be friendly "Don't worry the boss isn't in today so I think you're off the hook, but hey enough of that what’s his name then?"
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Nia
John silently watched as message after message appeared on his phone, yes it was going to be one of those days he thought to himself as he finished his coffee. Pulling on a pair of high tops John grabs his laptop bag from where he'd left it on the table before then heading out the door.
The walk to the library was nice enough as the weather was holding out for the time being and pretty soon he found himself looking at the diminutive form of Nia as she waited for him "Ok first of all I am sorry I woke you, secondly the last time a video messaged you, you said and I quote can you tell the posters in your room to stop laughing at me and thirdly some guy called me last night and asked for us by name to work on a project of his....I don't know what it is but...Nia I think we could become rich by the end of the week"
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Jonathan
"It has been done...I've found a place where nobody will ever stumble across it"
"Good now all we need to do is hope things go to plan"
"I should hope so it took me a long time breaking into that..."
"NO! You mustn't tell me where it is Cynthia, you mustn't tell anybody its location is for you and you alone to know"
"Very well...but...but what of the other thing?"
"Don't worry yourself about it I know of a place it will be quite safe...."

A sudden crash from upstairs cut off the strange conversation mid sentence as Jonathan suddenly awoke. A loud scratching noise could be heard coming from upstairs almost like a large dog clawing at a door.
The conversation had been strange because although it had been a dream, it hadn't seemed like one. There had been no pictures although he instinctively knew what Cynthia looked like, right down to the way she had casually leant against the door frame to the mans study. There was also the nagging feeling that there was something very important he needed to do, something that up until this point he'd completely forgotten about.
Meanwhile upstairs the scratching continued.
 

Deleted User - 819397

Zani couldn't help but smile as her coworker jumped fairly seamlessly from one topic to the next. It seemed their boss either was late or wasn't coming, so she was completely free of being in trouble, which was nice. Grinning wryly, the shorter woman cast an amused glance at Rebecca. "Even if there was a man, I would keep that to myself, unless of course it could get you back for all those hints that I need a love life…then I think I could make an exception. However, unfortunate for your fantasies and my revenge, there is no man, and therefore this line of inquiry is pointless. Instead, the much more mundane rationale of my alarm either not going off on time or me being in too deep a sleep to hear it for a bit is the cause of my tardiness. Most certainly unusual, but not worthy of special mention." She made to continue what she had been doing, then turned back, eyes gleaming. "However, upon further reflection I'd say you jumped to the conclusion of there being a man in the picture because you have one yourself…do tell. Has tall, blonde, and pining managed to grab someone's attention?" Zani was inwardly laughing her head off, though outwardly she was simply being coy. In addition to being surrounded by books, more than she could ever read in a lifetime, she couldn't be bored with coworkers like Rebecca. Managing the library was important work, sure, but it had a laid back attitude, which allowed them to actually get to know who they were working with…and of course, tease each other like they were doing now.
 

DeletedUser37114

It really was relaxing sitting with something that didn't feel the need to move and rush around like the librarian climbing the steps, who smiled and told her it was a good morning (THERE was someone who was obviously having an even day) as she went by. Nia nodded and smiled back, trying not to envy the order that must be so prevalent in her world for her to declare it a good morning for all. The nice, cool breeze whispering sweet and light in her ear and twining around her and the building beside her (must be curious, traveling and twisting and whistling away like that) helped with that, though. She liked this place, which of course was half the reason why this was their meeting place when they did decide to venture out in the sun. It gave her the patience to deal with even the most annoying people as if they were simply numbers in a computer system that had not yet been told where to go and how to get there.

And speaking of annoying people, John the annoying coworker had apparently arrived while she was appreciating the wonderful place around them and, as was fitting for an odd day, had three things to tell her. The first was an unnecessary apology (really, they'd been over this by now), which she simply waved away as he continued to talk. The second was an excuse and revelation, which shocked her a little. In a quiet voice, lower than you would have expected out of a person her size, she stammered out, "Wait, those are..." then shook her head and sighed. Of course he'd left them up, he wasn't good enough at seeing these things (those groups clustered and posing and smiling on a stage together as if purely to provide a picture just felt so... fake). She would have to work on that some other time. The third thing John had to tell her, the reason for their meeting, was a triviality. Money had never meant much to her thanks to her spartan lifestyle (though it really did have its uses, keeping her computer running, keeping food in her home, and keeping her home), but a promise of a lot of money suggested that something interesting might be going on.

Nia rummaged in her pack for a second for her white board and black marker (a little less bored now, it liked John, they were two of a kind), tossing them to John with a quick, "Details." She then trotted up the steps into the library, headed for their usual nook in a back corner where they wouldn't be disturbed and could write back and forth in peace.
 
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DeletedUser28032

Zani
“I am not pining!” Rebecca replied in mock shock as her friend turned the tables on her “Besides I swore off men after the last one...not that I’ve been exactly beating them off with a stick” she continued; shuddering slightly at the memory of her last “boyfriend” although stalker would probably be a better description. Thankfully he’d finally gotten the message after he’d had a run in with Zani; the gleam in the Native American girl’s eye as she’d produced the taser had been more than enough to persuade him that perhaps Rebecca wasn’t the one after all “So let me get this straight, you’re still single and I am still single...well that’s tragic, I’d give in completely and date you but then that really would be tragic” she said laughing at the old joke.
It was as the two women finally turned their attention to their work that Nia and her rather geeky friend entered the building making a bee line straight for their usual corner; the blonde pausing to wonder what the boy saw in the weird girl before shrugging it off entirely as another thought entered her mind.
Being one of those people who seemed to have the innate ability to talk about anything that entered her mind, often seamlessly leaping from one topic to another with barely a pause for breath it would be no surprise that she had started talking again “Oh hey, seen as you’re terminally single do you fancy going to see that exhibit down at the art centre at lunchtime?” she said retrieving a leaflet from somewhere under her desk and handing it to Zani. The artist was from England and so completely unknown to the average person yet Zani couldn’t help but find her attention drawn to the picture on the leaflets front cover. Although much of the picture was obscured by the artists head and the leaflet was a rather poor black and white photocopy the picture was of the tower from her dream right down to the trees around its base “...so what do you reckon, should be worth a giggle right?”
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Nia
Entering the library they were met by the sound of laughter causing John to briefly glance over at the two women on the reception desk; one was tall, blonde and wearing glasses whilst the other was short, dark and of either Latino or Native American heritage. He wasn’t sure which but either way both of them were way out of his league, even if the blonde one was kind of cute and looking his way.
Turning his attention back to Nia and the mysterious project they had been offered he waits until they were both seated in their usual corner before speaking; noting down the pertinent points on the small whiteboard as he does so “Well from what I can gather, as the guy on the phone was reluctant give out much in the way of details. His clients have gotten their hands on some old hardware from somewhere and want us to first get it up and running and then design a program so that it can interface with a modern system, either way he wants to arrange a face to face meeting with us” he hadn’t been all that surprised by any of this because although he hadn’t been able to get any details on the device he could tell by the way the man had spoken about it and by the amount of money they were being offered that it was important and wouldn’t be all that surprised to find themselves presented with ND forms “So what do you reckon? Doesn’t sound all that complex merely sensitive or ...you know illegal” the possibility that the reason the project was being given to a pair of junior programmers and for such extortionate sum of money was because the project was highly illegal hadn’t escaped John but the amount of money being offered meant that it couldn’t be refused out of hand entirely “...he hinted at a seven digit sum Nia...just think of it we could work on that project of yours full time perhaps even set up our own company, we could be set for life!”
 

DeletedUser37114

Nia sighed at John's enthusiasm. So this was what he had called her so early for. Obviously, she should have thrown her phone at him instead of his marker since they were in such similar moods (even his marker was a little put-off). On top of that, just like every other time they'd come here, he forgot the other half of why she liked meeting at the library. Retrieving her blue marker (a little annoyed at John, it knew the rules) from her bag, she pointed at a poster conveniently hung up behind him, showing a pair of lips with a finger in front (and labeled "QUIET IN THE LIBRARY") and started looking over what he'd written down. As she jotted down questions and notes in quick, flowing writing (John was right, it didn't look complicated, but there was still a lot that they weren't being told, though that did pique her curiosity...), she lamented internally that she'd never get a meeting the way she wanted.

Which brought her to the tough part of the meeting, as she handed the white board back. Nia and picked her words carefully (what was the use of picking words otherwise?) and held up two fingers (the better to go with his three statements earlier). Dropping one finger, she stated, "Money," in a quiet voice and pointed the finger at John. She wasn't much good with handling cash (it was meant to move and circulate, so it never stayed around long enough to get friendly) and she knew it, so he'd be better at handling any finances. She'd written a note that she hoped he'd gotten ($ HALF AND HALF SPLIT), but it was a point that she made every time since the disaster she'd made the last time she'd been in charge of that.

Trusting that he'd understood, she raised her second finger and asked, "Meeting?" cocking her head to wait for John's response (or for him to see her note, WHERE/WHEN?). Since she probably wouldn't be able to pick the time or place for this meeting (most people wouldn't meet at the library and her home was obviously off limits), she needed at least a little time to prepare, put on her dancing shoes (which at the moment were lazily lounging in the back of her closet), and try not to put the customers off too much. Nia didn't like playing social games with people, but it looked like she'd need to if she wanted to learn anything more about this project.
 
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Deleted User - 819397

Zani became somewhat more somber when Rebecca mentioned that she was still carrying her decision to not get involved with men around…her past relationship had been extremely unhealthy…the fact that it had come to threatening him with her taser and the promise to call the police after he'd been shocked was something she'd rather forget for her friend's sake, but it was clear she was still working through it. The shorter woman knew that between her own fortunes of not being able to find anyone to attempt to date and Rebecca's past situation, hers was infinitely better.

The taller woman's sudden return to cheerfulness and mentioning that she was almost desperate enough to date HER brought Zani out of her brooding. "I'd say that would be more tragic for the world than for us…not only would it take two fine people off the market, we'd be in control of the world within a year, and I can tell you right now I can't see myself being an understanding ruler," she snarked, laughing along with Rebecca.

The conversation hit a lull as Nia and her friend…oh, what was his name…he didn't have a card, but he visited enough so she should know…John, that was it, went to their usual spot. The man was rather excited about something, his voice carrying far in the quiet atmosphere. Sighing, Zani moved to go tell him off, only to see Nia do it for her. Smiling wryly, she turned her attention back to her coworker as she pulled out an art exhibit, asking if she wanted to check it out with her over their lunch break. The artist was a bit of a nobody, but as she scanned the flyer she noticed that the work the man was standing in front of had a rather perfect depiction of the tower she'd seen in her dream. That was rather strange…had she seen the tower out of the corner of her eye in another ad for this exhibit, only to have it manifest in her dreams? She wasn't sure, but figured it wouldn't hurt taking a look at the full work. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do," the shorter woman replied, handing the flyer back. "Sure beats just finding a quiet spot to rest…if only because such a spot's hard to find if it's not in the building, and seeing as we can't take our lunch break here unless we're in the staffroom…" She left the rest unsaid, knowing that Rebecca knew as well as she did that the lights in said room buzzed to an incredibly irritating degree, to the extent that people tended to prefer eating in their cars rather than put up with it if they brought their lunch.
 

DeletedUser13682

What were they doing here? He hadn’t invited anyone over tonight. There wasn’t anything planned until next week. And who was this Cynthia? He didn’t know anyone named Cynthia, well not anyone here. And this Cynthia didn’t sound Australian. So who was she? He didn’t recall anybody like her leaning against somebody’s study door frame. Where was this taking place? A loud crash woke Johnathan up from his dream, a dream that didn’t seem like a dream at all. He knew this would be one of the few dreams he remembered. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to remember too many, despite having a dream journal next to his bed; most of his dreams left his head by the time he woke up enough to be able to hold the pencil. But that didn’t matter. What mattered now was that somebody was breaking into his house, and that was a mistake that they wouldn’t make again.

In his rush to get upstairs, Johnathan didn’t have time to grab one of his pistols; the closest weapon to him was a KA-BAR that had been gifted to him before he left on his first deployment. It was a standard 7in KA-BAR, with a leather sheath, the ACE logo burned into it. Though originally designed to kill, it had been a very useful utility knife on deployments. Now, however, it seemed like it would be able to realize its original purpose. Johnathan quickly moved upstairs, the scratching growing steadily louder as he neared the door at the top of the stairs. Wait, scratching? Had a rat gotten into the house? Best not to presume that. Johnathan got to the top of the door, and slowly put his hand on the knob. On a silent three count, he flung open the door, knife ready to strike. “HALT YOU SON OF A !” The words came out like hellfire, meant to intimidate the would be breaker into cowardly submission, if 7 inches of razor sharp American steel didn’t do that already.
 

DeletedUser28032

Jonathan
As the door crashed open under the impact of Jonathan’s sudden and rather noisy entrance nothing prepared the former navy man for what he glimpsed hanging onto the frame of his bedroom window.
The face was a sleek, shiny black completely devoid of facial features save a small mouth filled with tiny needle like teeth and long talon like fingers that even now were prying at the frame.
No sooner had this nightmarish horror registered itself in Jonathan’s sleep deprived mind than it was gone leaving him staring at the shadowy shape of the tree outside his window in the early morning light. All sign of the creature had it ever existed in the first place now completely gone.
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Nia
Realising that he’d gotten over excited at the prospect of having his dreams if not realised then at least brought that little bit closer to reality, John gave an apologetic wave to one of the librarian’s who’d been beaten to the post by Nia telling him to be quiet.
Feeling suitably chastised John cocked his head to one side in order to read what was being written on the whiteboard fifty – fifty! Really? John thought with a touch of shock. He knew Nia wasn’t good with money and that he would also be working on this project part of him felt that was perhaps a little too generous on her part. After all she would most likely be doing more than fifty percent of the work ...not that it stopped him from nodding his head in agreement.
When asked when and where the meeting was John gave Nia a slightly surprised look, he’d kind of been expecting that he’d have to try and sell the idea to her a little more and so her simply agreeing kind of threw him “I wasn’t whether or not you’d go for it so nothing has been agreed yet...but if you’re willing to meet him I’ll go and give him a call” he said being sure to keep his voice down this time so as to avoid the combined ire of Nia and library staff.
Leaving the room so as to make the call out on the library’s front step John would be gone for several minutes leaving Nia to her own devices until his return. It was during this time a tall man in a charcoal grey suit entered the library and took a seat and began reading his newspaper; the front page reporting the story of a Cambridge professor that had vanished a couple of days ago. Although there was nothing overtly wrong with the man or what he was doing something just didn’t seem quite right about him.
However before any really close examination could be made, if that prospect even crossed her mind John was back and sitting opposite her “ok meetings on, he says to meet him eight o’clock at Silvio’s...damn we’re going have to dress up for this, also I am going to have to find some money because I am broke and that place is expensive”
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Zani
“Cool, like I said should be worth a giggle…that and its free entry and next to that really nice pizza place which is always a plus in my book” she said with a laugh. How Rebecca wasn’t huge was a mystery to everyone who knew her as she never seemed to put on much in the way of weight no matter what she ate and although she wasn’t exactly a supermodel she was still in annoyingly good shape.
Beginning work once again Rebecca had only managed to last a few minutes before speaking to Zani once again “Hey Zani, that guy in the suit…he’s not a friend of yours or something is he?” she asked in a low voice as her fingers continued to type away at her keyboard “…only I could have sworn he was staring at us just a minute ago” dressed in a dark suit and reading a newspaper the man looked just like anybody else, a low level businessman using the library as a handy place for a little quiet time before heading back to work perhaps? Either way there was something…odd about him or so Rebecca thought not that she could place her finger on what exactly that was. Though from what she could see he was just sat there reading his paper, no she must be imagining things he’d simply looked up to see what all the laughing was about that’s all. Maybe she needed to lay off the mystery novels for a while?
 

Deleted User - 819397

Zani sighed in mock exasperation as Rebecca mentioned her favorite pizza place being close by, offset by the fact she licked her lips in anticipation. "You're going to be so sad when your metabolism slows down…you'll get to start exercising with the rest of us that have decent figures," she snarked. Things calmed down after that for a moment, with the third patron coming in with a newspaper. This wasn't unusual…many people came here just to get away from the noise of the world, bringing their own materials to read. So long as they weren't being disruptive, no one had an issue with them being there. The shorter woman paid the trio of patrons no mind until her coworker asked her if she knew the man in the suit, as he'd been looking at them rather intently a moment ago. Giving him a more critical look-over than she had previously, Zani shook her head. "I don't even recognize him as being someone who comes in regularly…I doubt he'll cause trouble though, that suit looks expensive. If he does become an issue…" she reached into her pocket and felt the reassuring presence of her taser…not a police issue with extendable prongs, it was a simple melee one, but effective nonetheless. "But we're getting ahead of ourselves, he's not exactly done anything to arouse our suspicions. Assume the best until we're forced to accept the worst, yeah? I'll keep an eye on him though just in case…not like we're swamped yet, it being a workday and all." Odds are nothing would happen, after all they weren't alone in the library, with Nia and John over in the corner…but it never hurt to be prepared in case things DID go poorly.
 

DeletedUser37114

The chair that Nia was sitting in was a little restless. As John got up to make the meeting that would hopefully satisfy her curiosity, she shifted her weight back and forth, causing her seat to wobble (on three legs, definitely odd, chairs were supposed to sit on four). His marker was even more bored now that he had left, she placed it back into the bag (where it was more comfortable), grabbing her duct tape in exchange. Getting out of her chair, she examined it, trying to figure out how best to fix the problem (couldn't have a chair being odd when it obviously wanted to be even) when someone caught her eye.

He wasn't someone she had seen before (though that wasn't uncommon), but though his dress and actions looked right for someone out on break and trying to find a quiet place (she could relate to that), his body language was wrong. A businessman on break should have looked a little uncomfortable in a nice suit like that, but this man wore it easily. As someone who wasn't a regular from the lack of a greeting from the librarians, he should have looked around a little since this place would be unfamiliar, but he walked straight to his seat. This wasn't someone here to read a newspaper. However, before Nia could get up to ask the man what he was doing in a library when he didn't intend to read, John got back, forcing her to split her attention between the man (who she continued staring at) and her coworker (who she started listening to). She'd figured they were going to need to dress up (she had a dress in mind that she'd bought because she loved the look of it that and she was told worked great for formal events) and eight left her more than enough time to confront the man, dress herself up, exit the library, fix the chair, go home, and head to Silvio's (not in that order).

When John mentioned his lack of money, Nia growled in frustration (she needed him there, he was better with people than she was and she didn't like taking her eyes off that businessman and how did he not have enough money anyway?) and dug into her bag, unzipping a side pocket on the inside. As was appropriate for a sunny day bag (though the bag itself wasn't too appropriate for the day), Nia kept a couple twenties for sunny days inside the bag. She threw one at him and and fixed John with a stare, making sure he would take it and that it would be enough.
 
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DeletedUser13682

Johnathan was expecting an intruder, someone he could scare or, well, take care of. But he was not expecting some strange monstrosity straight out of /x/ trying to break through his window. It was as if some sort of slenderman had decided it wanted what Johnathan had. Of course, this thing could have just been a tree, for it had disappeared in a moment, replaced by the butternut tree a previous owner had planted. Johnathan sheathed his knife and chuckled to himself; what was he coming to, getting scared over a tree… Though he couldn’t remember a single time that tree had banged against the house. Johnathan went back downstairs, and began research. Looking through capped stories, posting on /x/ and doing some internet research.

In the morning, Johnathan woke up, still wearing his clothes from last night. His threads had gotten little results, just a few other stories, speculations, and, well, very rude posts that didn’t help at all. There was zero information gathered from his searches, both on internet and tor. There may be a club or a few that may know the answers to those strange events last night, but he’d rather not get himself involved with them; he actually liked his job. Maybe there would be answers at the library. He hadn’t gone there since he picked up his library card; most of his answers had only been a few clicks away. But this time, that supposed inexhaustible well of knowledge had come up dry. It was time to hit the books.

After a shower, Johnathan changed into a nice pair of slacks, light blue dress shirt, and a burgundy tie, worn loose so the top button could be open. Johnathan decided not to wear his top hat today; this was a situation too strange for that. He did, however, opt for his Porsche today. He needed the fun. It was a ’79 Targa, with the heart of a wrecked German 930, making it extra fun in any road condition. The drive to the library was fun to say the least, although there were a few times Johnathan wondered whether he had scared any other drivers, especially that Jeep in the roundabout. But nobody was hurt, and that was what mattered. After parking, Johnathan walked up the steps and straight to the front desk. “So, you’re not going to believe me,” he said with a smile, as he rested his elbows on the desk. “But I had a very strange dream last night. Out of body experience. To top it off, some faceless creature with fangs and long talons, about this big.” Johnathan placed his hands about shoulder width apart. “Tried to break into my house. I managed to scare it off, but that left me curious. What was that thing? So I did some searching, and can you believe it, nothing! So I came here to find some answers in those hallowed tomes stored here. You wouldn’t be able to recommend a good title on the subject, would you?”
 
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