nyc ♔ everybody knows the rock leans over the town

[behindcloseddoors]

The Rock - Harry Chapin

WHO ||Deryn, Alice, Sara, Frankie [closed]
WHAT ||The Knights investigate a mysterious transmission...
WHERE || New York
WHEN || Late March 2016
HOW || Actionspam

[A garbled, static-filled transmission, encoded in a Shadow language, has made its way to the Knights attention, seemingly linked to a series of similar transmissions last year.  Equipped with a decoding program by the Dragon's Hoard, the Knights head to a set of railroad tracks that were mentioned, to try to see what this is all about... ]

Comments

2/3

[mabeljuice]

[- a girl in her late teens/early twenties! walking along side the tracks, easily noticed by the overlarge sweater she's wearing. a boy around the same age is following close behind her, like he intends to yank her away from the tracks at any moment.]

A Hummer? What kind of person even drives a Hummer. They're ugly and they kill the ozone layer and stuff.

3/3

[lowvi]

[The boy has a hat on and a flannel shirt, and he's looking around warily as they walk.]

Mabel, it doesn't matter if they're probably Republicans. We've still gotta stop them from being run over by a train. Or at least find out who the hell is behind all this.

[A beat.]

...though if there's a Trump sticker I may revise that opinion.

[thetokenaussie]

No but... they might? [As Frankie draws everyone's attention to what she's seeing.]

Hey, you two! It's probably not safe to be down there.

[lowvi]

[The boy looks up with a scowl.]

Yeah, well, we... work here! It's a train internship!

[He could probably sound less convincing if he tried. But not very much (bluff 3).]

[thetokenaussie]

[ Ah Hahahahhahaha...

And then Frankie Crit Failed her Sense Motive on that so. She shrugs like, ok cool.]

[mabeljuice]

[taking that cue, Mabel proceeds to embellish on that terrible bluff... with a 10] Yeah... there's been a problem with cars stopping on the tracks. [she hisses.] And you know... Yikes.

[icouldbe_bess]

[ luckily alice is less easily deceived (sense motive 17), lips pursing like this is the last freakin' thing she needs. ] When they said "in New York you can be a new man", they should have added "be a better liar", too.

[lowvi]

[Dipper rolls his eyes.]

Fine. We're not supposed to be here, and that song's gonna be stuck in my head for the next week, thanks. You don't look like cops, so... we're just gonna do what we want.

[mabeljuice]

Fight the man! [she throws a fist up]

[icouldbe_bess]

And yet. [ alice drags a pair of handcuffs out of her jacket pocket because she literally always has at least one pair of handcuffs on her person at all time. her eyebrows arch. (bluff 20 total) her dad's a cop, sara's got batons, close enough. ] You're supposed to stay behind the yellow lines. There's a sign. Which means... trespassing. Tsk, tsk.

[thetokenaussie]

[Frankie is less Bluff more Blunt.] Would you two just get off the tracks before you get yourselves killed. Nobody here wants to be collecting body parts for the next week.

[mabeljuice]

[Mabel steps off the tracks and holds up her hands.] Okay, seriously, don't arrest us. We're just trying to make sure nobody gets dead here. [(diplomacy 27)]

[lowvi]

[Dipper glances at Mabel, then also steps off the tracks, crossing his arms.]

Yeah, didn't you notice your phones or...radios or whatever, going off with some weird message? We're probably the only people who actually know what it said so.... [He looks down the track impatiently, then glances at his watch.] Mabel, we've only got like eight minutes now.

[theshadowspeaks]

[ Deryn was lingering behind the group listening to them talk to the two new people. He was curious but he didn't speak up, just stood twirling a bit of his bangs.]

[icouldbe_bess]

Eight minutes to intercept the H2 coming from the north? [ this is the bland look of a woman who has been mansplained to too many times in her life. ]

[mabeljuice]

Yeah. The Hummer. Full of people who are gonna get hit by a train. Can we all just agree that we don't want that to happen and deal with it?

[lowvi]

[Dipper puts a hand on her arm.]

It's not worth it, if they know about it, they should be helping us. Unless they're behind it. [They may or may not be cops, but honestly, Dipper doesn't particularly trust cops. As far as he's concerned, they're on their own, as usual.] Let's just go.

[To... stop the thing on their own, of course. They're not... actually gonna leave.]

[thetokenaussie]

[Frankie is going to state the obvious here with a; ] They clearly know more than we do.

[The inference being, we kind of need them so maybe we should be nice.

Moving towards the tracks now.]

Hey - don't... go running off, it sounds like we all want the same thing here. You guys have some details we don't and we have, numbers and some areas of expertise on our side. [Hands open at her sides as if, imploring them to consider the benefits.] A Hummer full of people you said?

[lowvi]

[Dipper pauses, still looking suspicious, but he doesn't actually move to go. Instead he just squints over at the group.]

Who are you guys, really?

[thetokenaussie]

[Frankie glances at Alice before reaching into her pocket to pull out her wallet. Retrieving one of the cards she keeps in there to offer s proof of identification???]

We're with a group called the Karthur Institute. [Extending the card so... Dipper and Mabel will have to get off the tracks to look at it.] We're investigating these transmissions, just like you it seems.

[lowvi]

[Dipper's eyes widen and a pen and pad of paper appear from his pockets almost as if by magic.]

The Karthur Institute? Really? Oh my god.

[He nudges Mabel, barely able to restrain his excitement as he steps forward to take the card.]

I have so many questions and theories and do you guys intentionally hire phone people who are absolutely terrible at their jobs because it really seems like you do and what do you actually do and--

[He pauses (will save 20), and tucks the pad of paper back into his pocket, though the pen stays out, his thumb clicking it on and off almost nervously.]

...we need to save people first. But I'm not letting you guys out of my sight until I have some answers.

[mabeljuice]

Hooooo boy. [Mabel says when Dipper goes on, but at least he cools his jets before he goes into full nerd mode.] I dunno if it's full of people, but have you seen a Hummer? On top of being aesthetically displeasing, they're like brick walls. The train's gonna hit that and it's gonna be an unnecessary disaster movie sequence in real life.

[she wraps an arm around Dipper's shoulder and tugs him against her shoulder.] Anyway, I'm Mabel and he's Dipper. We're kinda pros at this.

[theshadowspeaks]

I've seen one.

[ The quiet one standing in the back spoke up finally. To Mabel's question. ]

[thetokenaussie]

[Frankie gapes as Dipper rushes forward, eyes wide and wondering what she's just unleashed because in all her years throwing out the Karthur Institute cover? The most exciting response she'd get was; "Never heard of it."]

Uh... [She scratches behind her ear, lips twisting into a grimace until Dipper comments on the receptionist, a knowing smile touching her lips.]

As a rule, no that's just Cheryl. [As if that somehow explained everything. She notably, doesn't even touch the rest of that just yet because... yeah she'll just blame it on the impending disaster for now. That works.]

Frankie Matera - [Distracted.] You said, 8 minutes? You didn't happen to decode the rest of the message, did you?

[lowvi]

I mean, I don't know what part the "rest" of it is. I just decoded all of it. [Though he's guessing "hummer" is part of it. And the timing, presumably.

He pulls his notebook from his pocket again and flips back a page.]

"In ten minutes, a hummer H2 will approach these tracks from the north. You must stop it from crossing the tracks until after the train passes. Do not fail."

[He flips the pad shut, looking up at the group.]

And that was like two minutes ago, so we should probably get going and find that hummer and whoever's meant to be stopping it.