guadalajara ♔ polishing a compass that I hold in my sleeve

[wynn]

♬ Grounds For Divorce - Elbow

WHO || Carol, Malina, Alex, Kali [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a ~mysterious crash~
WHERE || Guadalajara, Mexico
WHEN || April 19th [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

With most of the team staunchly convinced that about to go check out Area 51, they head off to Guadalajara, Mexico, to investigate local rumors of a crash site outside the city. One of the best things about this little trip is that even in February, it's in the seventies, so there's definitely a vacation air to arriving in the bustling city. They'll need to rent a car and head out in the direction of the supposed crash in the flat countryside. It's a fourteen hour flight so get comfortable.

Comments

[felidity]

[ after the grown ups rent a car (kali is too young), they climb into the car and kali quickly sets a course for the supposed crash site. kali is apparently the best navigator in the world (navigate nat 20), so she has got this shit covered and is happy to direct alex, glancing over at him from the passenger seat. ]

Okay, take a left out of the parking lot.

[ambitionist]

[his drive crit fail takes them out of the parking lot ... and into a ditch. yay! I HOPE YOU WERE BUCKLED UP.]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Son of a bitch. Kali, come help me with this. [gonna get the car out of the ditch ... and then carry on with no other problems ok. X( (drive 15)]

[bredinthebone]

[I hope you all are prepared for the very unhappy red tailed hawk who is in this car that landed in a ditch. Harry is squawking unhappily in the back seat between Malina and Carol, while Malina tries to sooth him the same way she did on the plane.]

You know, if we wanted to go off-roading, I would have drove.

[She couldn't help herself.]

[felidity]

That was fun! I've never been in a dramatic car crash before.

[ here is the silver lining! she passes back her bag of cheetos for the hawk. ]

[ambitionist]

Oh, please. It wasn't that fuckin' dramatic. [SO MIFFED. he has so many ranks in drive and yet...]

[airforceful]

Just glad it wasn't the plane. [She's just saying.]

[felidity]

[ glancing between the map and out the window, kali traces their route with her finger, tongue pressed between her lips in adorable concentration. when they're close to the site, she nudges alex. ]

Pull over here. [ she turns in her seat to address malina and carol. ] The crash site is only a few miles away, this is probably the best place to stop so we aren't noticed while Carol is flying.

[bredinthebone]

[Harry pecks at the Cheetos as though to say what am I supposed to do with this, but once the car stops he starts squawking again.]

Alright, alright, you can go too.

[she lets him hop up onto her arm, before opening the door and sliding out herself once the car is stopped.]

Get close, stay hidden, don't get into trouble.

[And with that she'll lift her arm and off he goes. Once he's into the sky, she glances back to Carol.]

Same goes for you.

[ambitionist]

[wheeeee, we're now parked. yay.] Adios. Ganbatte. [and now that they're parked, alex is going to reapply his sunscreen again. he's a siberian tiger ok don't judge him.]

[airforceful]

I've got a bird watching my back. Clearly, I'll be fine.

[And with that she slides out of the car, flashing them a smile as she lets her helmet come up. Then she takes off, doing her best to stay out of sight but I guess there aren't many clouds or something so idk hopefully no one's looking up (hide 12). At least her eyes are peeled (spot 23).]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ it's not hard to spot the crash site. there's pretty much what amounts to a trench-shaped crater in the ground, where it looks like something skidded along and then wound up half buried.

whatever it was, however, is completely and entirely gone. tire tracks lead up to the site and away, back onto the road. off in the distance, there seems to be some kind of small gas station and a few scattered homes. ]

[airforceful]

[Well, that can't be good. She takes note of the direction of the buildings and flies back to the group, landing gracefully next to the car.]

Looks like someone took our UFO. It's gone.

[bredinthebone]

Damnit.

[She hates it when she has to chase whatever they're looking for.]

Can you tell which way it went?

[ambitionist]

No, rewind, let's fuckin' talk about this. What do you mean someone took the UFO? Did they drag it off? Get it and hotwire it? What the fuck.

[felidity]

Maybe it's invisible. Or, alternatively, there may be tracks at the site. Of the possibly invisible UFO.

[hacker]

[ Surprise: you're not the only ones with the idea to park a ways off. One wheel stuck in the crag of a ditch, a rusty van is parked a good thirty feet away, aged, and looking altogether broke-down.

That van's not the only one, by any means. There are a few scattered crazies in equally run down cars parked with satellite dishes atop their RVs and station wagons, wearing Buddy Holly sunglasses and using reflective sun protectors on their windshields while they try to squint to get a look at the site.

A short woman takes a break from dropping her laptop bag into the passenger seat of her van, which definitely looked abandoned in the tumbleweeds and crabgrass on the side of the road—all very Jane Foster—to insert herself in their conversation matter-of-factly. ]

Weekly World News over there's got some tinfoil hats, if you're in the market.

[ She jerks her thumb at one particularly eccentric face, matted with uneven facial hair, who leans out the window of a van, spinning tales about Area 51 in rapidfire Spanish to anyone who'll listen long enough. He has a notepad and a press badge, crumpled paper sticking out from under his seats.

It's important, given what's about to come out of her mouth, that she immediately distance herself from The Crazies. Because her eyes get wide and she leans in like she's got a secret as she says, ] The government just got done towing it. I'm talking escalades, max tint, black suits. Oh yeah. [ Boom. She raises her hands like she's gesturing fireworks, voice squeaking a little with excitement as she evaluates, ] Whole package.

[airforceful]

[Carol glances over at the newcomer (sense motive 20) and raises an eyebrow.]

The government? This something you saw or just guesswork?

[She can believe it, but it's also the first guess anyone paranoid about government conspiracies would jump to. It's worth double checking.]

[felidity]

[ and kali is just going to step back and behind alex like the fact that he's more than a foot taller than her will keep the government from noticing her. you know, since she is government property. in one quick movement, she tugs her hair out of it's elastic to her blonde hair falls around her shoulders and covers up her neck. nothing to see here, y'all. move along. ]

[hacker]

Seriously? [ Audible pfffft. ] Come on. Mysterious crash site gets cleaned up in a day? It's always the government. When I saw the tweets that something came down, I hightailed it here because I knew they'd bury it. And good thing too.

[ From her back pocket, Skye whips out her phone and starts thumbing through pictures. Whatever it's worth, Carol gets the impression that Skye is very committed to this theory. The evidence is solid, and so is her blind enthusiasm. ]

I snapped a few pics before they took off. It looks like there's some kind of insignia on the side of the vehicles, but I couldn't make it out. [ She tilts the phone around, then shows a picture of a bunch of black trucks parked around with floodlights trained on a large, mechanical shape that's mostly obscured. It definitely seems to have wings. The trucks have some kind of governmental circle insignia on them, but like she said, it's indistinguishable in the photograph—the lighting sure doesn't help, either. ]

They showed up, kept everyone back, cleared the place out in just a few hours. Some of us have been out here all night trying to sneak a peek. [ Something occurs to her. She reaches down to pull at the neckline of her shirt, dropping her chin to sniff lightly at it. She releases it quickly and decisively, straightening and shaking the whole thing off. ] I'm thinking they're starting their own Mexican Area 51. Like … Área de cincuenta y un. [ She bites down on her lip, looking between them all with very much the affectation of an excitable golden retriever, voice akin to something mocking a Spanish announcer's booming voice. ]

[ambitionist]

[well, at least she has pictures. she can stay while she's being useful.] But you watched them take it, and have an idea of the direction they went off in?

[airforceful]

I saw tire tracks that looked like they were going back to the road. There was a gas station and some other buildings near it. Nothing that looked like a secret anti-alien government building, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. [If it were obvious, it wouldn't be a very good secret. She glances back at the new girl, raising an eyebrow.] Do you know the area, kid?

[hacker]

You did hear the part about me driving down last night, right?

[ There's a look on her face like is there any part of me that looks Mexican to you? Meanwhile, she's trying not to be offended by 'kid.' She looks between each of them, effectually sizing up the group. ]

No offense, but even if you could track them down … By now, it's buried behind fifty miles of bureaucracy, red tape, and classified stamps. What makes you think you could get any further than any of us got with the barricade?

[bredinthebone]

An irrational amount of stubbornness and smidge of sass.

[She's mostly speaking for herself but from what she knows of her team so far they've got sass and stubbornness to go around. Harry returns a few minutes later, landing politely on the roof of the car and fixing Skye with a stare like WHO IS THIS, I THOUGHT WE DIDN'T COLLECT STRAY PUPPIES.

Or maybe he's just a hawk and suspicious of new people. Who knows.

Malina frowns at the pictures before tipping her head to the side.]

Besides, government collecting things that are possibly not of this world and covering it up doesn't exactly make me feel happy and at home. Especially when we don't even know if they're really the government. There are any number of not-so-good organizations with that level of mobilization if they're clever enough.

[See: The Knights of the Silver Dragon. Not that they're bad, but they the team:]

We might as well start heading that way and see if we can figure out which way they went and find the site - if they're looking to set up shop with the reach that ...

[a beat, and then back to New Girl:]

Sorry, what was your name?

[hacker]

[ While Malina thinks aloud, Skye inches towards the hawk and the car, cautious but interested. The attention turns back on her just in time to stop her from making the bad decision of reaching out for it. Perking up, she smiles awkwardly around at the group. ]

Skye. [ She straightens, taking her phone back once the pictures have made the rounds. ] If you're going after it, I can help. These pictures have license plate numbers in them for some of the trucks. Hazards of buying new: it's super easy to hijack a nav system remotely and fire up the built-in tracer.

[ A beat, then as if she's trying to repeat herself in plain English: ] We can find out exactly where they took it, if you think you can get us in. People deserve to know what that thing was.

[felidity]

[ BUT DO WE HAVE TO is what kali's expression is screaming. also how about no. and how about hell no. funny how she just doesn't want to stroll into a possibly shady government facility. who woulda thunk it.

instead, she asks it quietly, ] But do we have to? I mean, really?