Knots IC

[Sir Dancealot]

Naomi blinked politely. Or at least what she thought was politely. To most people, it would just be a slow blink of annoyance. Not actually listening past 'how much a truck carries and how many have delivered', (Mentally paraphrased of course. His actual words were much too droll.) she began flipping through the papers on her clipboard. Nodding as she found the right one, she circled two numbers, and then waited for the man to finish his spiel. No doubt it held no real importance.

Not like anything they did held any real importance, but such was life.

Once he was done, she tapped his elbow, holding the piece of paper with the two circled number out for him to take. The numbers circled were of the current number of truck deliveries, and the total mass of delivered concrete. Naomi simply Looked at Tilburr silently, waiting for the man to take the proffered paper.

[Bladehunter217]

"So John did think about who to send." Tilburr takes the paper and checks the numbers. "That's a start." Too bad I'm going to have to make certain she is correct. At least I'll have something to do with my time here. He passes for a moment to consider the two numbers before holding out his hand. "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to see it all."

[Rith]

Riggins frowned as the representatives from their employer huddle together and buzzed quietly to one another like gnats. Walter might enjoy his work and smile a lot, but he wasn't a fool. He could easily look at their expressions and discern what they were talking about. It was difficult with the girl dressed like a mobster, but he could still figure it out easily enough. He was a manager after all, and had learned to detect thoughts of dissent from miles away. And here he had wanted to give this delegation a nice, warm, happy welcome, keeping himself fairly clean and putting on his best smiles, but he hadn't wanted to have to herd a bunch of suits and ties around his work site for hours on end. Then, as soon as they get two floors in, they began questioning his ability to keep track of his own supplies, questioning his ability as a manager. They won't accept that they made have made a clerical error on account of his company having a method of using these supplies which they had not factored into their calculations. No, they just put their heads together and whisper and connive in their unfounded distrust of him, just to stand back up and give him a ****-eating smile and tell him that they'd be laughing over a bottle of scotch. Walter Riggins was a recovering alcoholic! Tilburr couldn't know that, obviously, but Riggin's upset mind did not process this bit of info, and instead, he walked past the group towards the stairwell, "I believe this tour has been extended long enough.

However, halfway up the stairs, he came into contact with the party lingering there. Chelsea King, standing at the top of the stairs (getting NPC'd by the DM) looked back with a worried expression, whispering, "I don't know what's going on."

Meanwhile, Oliver Collins, the tall, black man (also being turned into a NPC) looked at Walter with dazed confusion, before glancing back to Toby and speaking, "Are there more people?"

Toby, in the meanwhile was sneering and taking a step back, "They're crazy..."

Walter, a foul expression occupying his usually grinning face, snapped, "What the hell is going on here?"

---

Oliver looked poised, ready to respond to Chelsea and Toby, when, suddenly, Walter Riggins appeared behind her, dressed exactly the same, but now carrying a march leader's baton and high stepping like he was actually leading a parade. This odd appearance was off put by his caricature of a frown on his face. Oliver, starting at this, turned back to Toby and asked, "What is this? Do you think they've all gone insane? Could something downstairs be doing it?"

But Walter cut across in that instant, booming in an opera voice, "GO AWAY!"

[Bladehunter217]

Three people acting strange after walking down a stairwell? That is rather unusual. A prank? No, they aren't the type to pull one and while King acted like she knew Collins, when she went looking for them she completely forgot his name. Maybe some kind of hallucination? They can't all be doing drugs and no way in hell did they go crazy at the same time. Best stay away from them in case it's some kind of disease or they are planning a prank for when you get close. Tilburr lets out all the air in his lungs and takes a few steps back, letting Riggins be an experiment for his theory of a disease or prank. Once near the back of the group and slightly light headed, he stops and breathes in. "Ms. King, are they alright? Mr. Collins and Mr. Reed, what are you doing down here?"

[Deathkeeper]

I admit, I had a little bit of a breakdown at that point. Just a little bit.
My eyebrows furrowed, and my hands started trembling as they balled up into fists.
"You know what? No, screw that. I don't know what kind of drugs you're serving up down there, but clearly someone needs to drag all of you out of there before there's only one official person left plus the intern to give a report, because I am not getting stuck with that paperwork!"
I said, angrily storming down the stairs past Sergeant Loudmouth.
Not gonna lie, I realized it was really, really stupid after only a few stairs down, but I didn't want to go back and turn around after that display.

[Sir Dancealot]

Shrugging, Naomi handed over the clipboard. It was about here that Naomi stopped caring. Well, cared less anyway. Afterall, the tools of her job had been taken away, and if she didn't have her tools, how was she supposed to do her job? Not that she minded not doing her job. In fact, if she didn't do her job all week that would be fantastic. She'd have more time to snuggle Poof and read. And who doesn't enjoy a good book? She'd tried playing video games a few months before, but she just couldn't focus on them anymore. She'd once been an avid gamer, but now, her computer has been off for close to four months. If it had feelings, no doubt it would have felt lonelyness.

She blinked a couple of times, coming out of a daydream about swords, sorcery, and talking animals. It seemed that whilst in her fanciful illusions, most of the group had wandered off. Leaving that guy with the F name and... Was that a girl? Ah. Of course. That one asian woman that Luke had told her about. Apparently F-man was trying to hit on her. From what she heard, that probably wouldn't work out too well.

It was about then that she realized something was a bit off about the place. So, she voiced her concern, "Why are all the filing cabinets made out of concrete?" She wondered aloud, her voice losing its icy edge in liu of genuine surprise.

[Hazuki]

Michi casually glances around as the argument in front of her continues, and yet more people leave the basement of concrete file cabinets for the wonderful world of unfinished floors. Whatever it is they find fascinating, the woman can't see it, although it's clear that everybody else seems to be very passionate about what they're doing. As she folds her arms to watch the highest-ranking member of their visitor's crew leave up the stairs, the male who kept talking to her decides to keep up with his long-standing tradition of ignorance and mutters some gibberish about something she's sure he finds relevant. If only there were some way to casually brush somebody off while saving face...

"Cool story." Elegant. For a moment, she's freed from the cage of conversation and feels the still wind of the basement rush through her hair. Until the argumentative lady ahead starts talking to herself and Michi begins to think that somebody in this group is already going crazy. She looks over the nobody that's present, wanders over to one of the cabinets, then lifts her foot up and gives it a firm shove.

[Rith]

Downstairs, Michi had given an experimental push to a filing cabinet, just to find that the cement is was crafted out of was heavy, anchored to the floor, and was very chilly. Very solid in construction, which a filing cabinet did not exactly need to be. If she were to slide a drawer open, she'd find that the door, also crafted from concrete, with a stainless steel handle, would not budge, being very firmly locked in place, with no visible keyhole. Passcards or an electronic switchboard, perhaps? If that was the case, it wasn't anywhere within her line of sight, so maybe Naomi ought to go hunting for them. Maybe she could find that missing floor along the way.

Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick had been blown off by Michi. That didn't make any sense. He had been talking about how the trip had been lame, which was about the only apparent thought that Michi was even indirectly expressing at the moment. Yet she expressed dismissal of what he had been saying? This had been the first time the two had crossed paths. Michi was dismissing him... The only reason he could think of was that she was dismissing him because he had talked to her. Poor girl. Must have such low self esteem. Well, the bespeckled Canadian wasn't going to go run up to the group, especially considering that he actually thought the tour was a waste of time, and instead shrugged and diverged from Michi wandering off into the rows of filing cabinets, seeing what he could find.

---

In the stairwell, an already frustrated Walter Riggins found himself faced with a crazed man, the intern Toby Reed, staring staring at him with an intense look and saying, "You're crazy and I'm not getting landed with that paperwork!" Just to try and charge past the now baffled construction manager, but didn't even get two steps before Riggins gripped him by the scruff of the neck, and pulled him back. After a split second of struggle, Walter won out and shoved him back up onto the landing, just for Collins to grab Reed and, in an almost sane tone, spoke, "Don't do that, Mr. Reed. It's a bad idea."

Riggins, blinking, looked back to Ms. King, just as Tilburr asked his question, and decided to add his own, "Were they like this when you got here?"

Chelsea looked uncertain for a moment, then spoke up, "Yeah, when I got here, he was talking about missing vents, and he was writing on his hand. I don't think they're okay, no. I wasn't sure what to do, so I was trying to bring them down to you."

Walter nodded, "Uh huh, well, we're going upstairs, so someone here should call an ambulance. Maybe, they'll be waiting by the time we get these two up top. I don't want them lingering on my construction site any longer than possible."

---

Toby tried to rush past Riggins, with his marcher's baton, and caught a glimpse of the other four behind him. Kimberly, looking sad and watching her cellphone, Gregory, looking even more disheveled that usual, Tilburr, who was moving between a friendly grin and a sneer at fairly quick speeds, and Ontario, who looked strangely fatherly, in contrast to his usual, anal self. However, Riggin's baton caught him by the neck and throttled him back onto the landing, just for Oliver to catch him and say, "Mr. Reed. If something down there is affecting them, going down there yourself is a bad idea. It could be some kind of airborne hallucinogen. We should call in a material disposal unit. Or anyone with biohazard suits for that matter."

Tilburr's voice floated up the stairwell, "Mr. Collins, Mr. Reed, are you crazy? Ms King, are they crazy?"

Walter then looked to Ms. King and boomed, "Did you make them go crazy or were they already crazy when you got here."

King only replied, "They're crazy."

Walter looked back towards the two men with menace in his eyes, "Call some special vans to take them away, then." Then, after a split second of silence which felt like far longer, his expression turned darker, and he boomed again, "GO AWAY!"

[Bladehunter217]

"Mr. Riggins, could you please not manhandle my underlings. I'll dial an ambulance, let's try to bring them upstairs." Tilburr slowly takes out his phone and closes his eyes, dialing 911. "Yes, I have two employees that seem to be on drugs, they haven't been responding to much and are acting unusual. I'd like an ambulance outside just in case something happens." Great, now I'm calling an ambulance and have to deal with hell amounts of paperwork.

[Hazuki]

Michi watches the anchored and impenetrable concrete cabinet for a few more moments, glancing around at the barren and boring area surrounding the last three co-workers. Though the area is filled with wonder and whimsy, she sees nothing else that she can interact with in the hopes of staving off her boredom, so she takes another sip of her water bottle and watches what the confrontational suit-wearing woman does next.

[Sir Dancealot]

To be honest, Naomi had no idea what to do. She didn't have her clipboard, and she didn't particularly want to go back upstairs. From what it sounded like, it seemed there was some sort of altercation going on up there. She couldn't really hear much more though. Her only option then, was to wander about examining things, but then, curiosity killed the cat didn't it?

But, she wasn't a cat, she was a human, and she kind of wondered what death would be like anyway, so she wandered about the room for a bit, poking at filing cabinets, looking behind them, not particularly sure what to do. Her characteristic look of disapproval had been replaced by curiosity, softening her features as she poked about. She'd obviously forgotten other people were indeed down there with her.

[Deathkeeper]

My eyes went wide. Oh no, oh no oh no. These weird almost-people are not taking me to their version of the loony bin. This was all too much, and it was all just so...off.
I felt bad, but I couldn't help but pass some of the responsibility. I mean, having other people around is supposed to help with decisions, right?

"Mr. Collins, they're all wearing different clothes than before. There's no way they changed that fast, and there's no way that Walter would suddenly be sing-shouting and no one find it odd. Either we're tripping out or this isn't what it's supposed to look like. So I highly recommend you let me go and we either run for the door or we go down to get to the bottom of this, but there's no way standing here is a good idea." I said, somewhere between forceful and pleading.

[Rith]

"There might have been some kind of airborne hallucinogen coming out of that air vent," Oliver supplied, as he turned his back on the rest of the group, almost shielding Toby from them, "We might actually be tripping out. The only thing is that I feel very lucid right now, and you don't feel lucid when you're tripping. Besides, why would you seem sane to me? It might be some kind of drug I've never had before, but at the same time... I think something weird is in fact going on here. I'd like to go downstairs to see if anything is up down there, but I don't think the carnival is going to let us past. That leaves us with the option of going up, and telling someone else about these nutjobs. Either the rest of the world is still same and we call some people to help them, or it's in our heads, and we'll be able to tell at that point. Either way, I don't think we have to resist them. If anything, we should try and persuade them to come with us calmly."

He paused for a minute then, allowing Mr. Reed to react. However, a painfully thin face with horn-rimmed glasses appeared by Mr. Collins shoulder just then. Ontario Leatherman, the uptight bureaucrat of the group. He looked different now, like someone's dad, instead of the perfect-pencil-pusher that he usually was. With a smile, he spoke, "I don't know if you two are okay, but everyone wants to get out of the basement, and if you're not okay, we should be going that way anyways."

---

Oliver Collins turned his back towards the rest of the group and started murmuring to Toby Reed, secretively, Walter narrowed his eyes at this, and was about to step forward when a thin hand patted him on the shoulder, and there was Ontario Leatherman looking down at him, even though he was a full step lower on the stairs, "If I may, I'd like to try and speak to them," he said with a characteristic twist of his lips.

Walter thought about it for a moment, then allowed the tall man by, allowing him to go across the landing and starting talking to the pair. It wasn't heard what was said, as Walter turned back to look at Tilburr and asked him, "Do people often go insane in your office, sir?"

---

Downstairs, Naomi was meandering through the rows and rows of concrete filing cabinets, looking for something, anything, which she could find. Anything that might seem out of place. A little ways behind her was Michi, the boyish japanese girl, watching Naomi. Fitzpatrick had gone off in a different direction, and for a while, there was nothing to find, and nothing to comment on, but after a little while, the girl with the pale eyes heard what sounded like a filing cabinet door slamming off to her left. Michi heard it as well, but to her, it was much fainter, and she did not see the light which Naomi saw. Stepping a little closer, the confrontational woman would notice that this odd, blue light seemed to be coming from the ground. Stepping even closer, she would be able to piece together that the light was coming from a hole in the ground where a filing cabinet usually would go.

Before she could take another step closer, however, the light flickered, and was suddenly gone, and, in the much dimmer fluorescent lights up above, there was a figure there now, bending over the filing cabinet which had been missing. A figure wearing what looked to be a brown tweed suit with gold chains hanging from the pockets she could see. Michi, on the other hand, saw none of this. All she saw was Naomi, reacting to something which she could not see.

[Deathkeeper]

"Yeah, sure." I said to Collins. "Worst comes to worst we just head up and then back down at some other stairwell." I suggested. But I couldn't help but sigh. This was already just too flipping much.
And then what's-his-face placed himself in front of us. Oh yeah, Ontario. I remember it because his first name doesn't sound like a person's name and his last name sounds like a joke.
"Sure, I'd hate to cause trouble." I said to his suggestion. Was it just a little bit sarcastic under the pleasant tone? I didn't even know, so I doubt if he did. And if he did well, that's just weird.

[Sir Dancealot]

Naomi idly wondered why she was here. She was, effectively, a secretary. In a large stack of concrete filing cabinets. Which were underground. Yep. Most definitely not odd. She wondered how po-

Was that a light? Obviously out of place, she moved towards it, not even noticing the smalle woman following her. Legitimately frowning this time, with wonder in her eyes, she watched to blue light disapear, a man in a tweed suit appearing suddenly.

Yep. Odd. So, she stepped up and poked him.

[Hazuki]

Michi watches Naomi poke thin air.

[Bladehunter217]

"Can't say I've had anyone go insane on me recently. Mr. O'lein was the last one, had a small mental break and robbed a convenience store for about seventy dollars. Unless you count Ms. Hall but she was already on anti-psychotics. We didn't know at the time, partly how she managed to stop taking them without anyone noticing." Don't feel like including anyone from floor eight, I'm certain they only hire people to work there if they seem crazy at the interview. "Be my guest Mr. Leatherman but if they get any worse after conversing with you, you can expect an indefinite suspension while we try to sort out what caused this."

[Rith]

As Michi watched the other girl in the basement with mild interest, she noticed that she had paused all of a sudden, looking in the direction of what might have been a door slamming in the distance. However, even as the shorter woman tried to look to see what Naomi saw, she couldn't make out anything there. Even when the girl made her way forward towards a random spot in the basement, there was still nothing to be seen there. She watched as Naomi reached out with a finger, and seemed to poke empty space. Yet it almost looked like her finger bent backwards slightly with the poke, in a way that only touching something solid could result in.

But that wasn't possible. There wasn't anything there...

Even as she thought about how this was impossible, she saw it. Where Naomi had poked was now a large, dark blob which, even as she stared after it, came slowly into focus.

The figure straightened up as Naomi poked it, still facing away, but showing the back of a head covered in shiny, raven-black hair, even as something heavy was dropped back into the filing cabinet, just for it to be slid shut once more with a click in the silence. Whoever this was, they had been very solid, and was a full foot-and-a-half taller than Naomi.

Suddenly, the figure in the tweed suit spun around, and Naomi realized, it hadn't been black hair, but black feathers. A giant raven head rose up from the collar of that tweed suit, a long, shadowy beak turned to the left to allow a single beady eye to lock in on Naomi. Turning it's head to the other side and looking at her with an alternate eye, a talon projecting from a sleeve of the suit came up and straightened the bird's tie, while the other talon-hand pulled a gold pocket watch out of a breast pocket and flicked it open. Glancing down at it, the bird blinked, and looked back at the woman before it. It stepped forward and words seemed to form in Naomi's mind, "You're early. I wasn't expecting you until after the building was finished. My preparations are not yet complete. Why are you here?"

Michi saw all this, but did not hear the words.

---

Up in the stairwell, Ontario Leatherman patted the two men in the shoulder and grinned even friendlier, "Good good. Let's get up to the surface, then. Maybe we can get some help for you two."

And with a wave to the rest of the group, they were chased up the stairwell into the first basement, and then back into the blinding afternoon light. The scene looked just about the same, but now, it seemed like there was a lit less cement dust in the air, and most of the workers present seemed to be all on break, just sitting around and not doing anything to build the building. One man was holding a hammer and just banging it against a finished wall, while another was using construction supplies to build what looked like a wooden carving of a dog.

Looking about, there was an ambulance sitting there, lights flashing, with a few construction workers standing around and staring at it. The back doors were open, and two paramedics were standing there. One looked bored, focusing on something on his iPhone, while the other was walking forward with a nutty smile on his face, saying, "Hi hi. I hear you two are acting crazy. If that's so, you should come with me. Come on, our van is really comfy," and with that, he placed a hand gently behind Toby Reed's elbow and guided him forwards toward the ambulance.

Oliver Collins, on the other side of the intern leaned forward and whispered, "It definitely has to be something wrong with us... either that or the entire world has gone crazy."

---

After a few more whispers, Ontario Leatherman leaned back from the two crazy men and, turning his terse expression back to the rest of the group, gave a curt nod, and they were off, heading back up through the parking garage, and then into the dim light of an overcast afternoon. Everything was just as it had been before, except that, now, there was an ambulance sitting at the edge of the street, a single construction worker standing there, about to offer help. They had apparently just arrived, as one of the two paramedics was just leaving the van, and approaching the group of office workers emerging from the basement. Placing a hand gently behind Toby Reed's elbow, he began guiding him towards the ambulance, speaking calmly to the man who was still murmuring and spouting out random, stressed words, "There there, calm down now. It's going to be okay. This way, towards the van. My name's Philip."

As the paramedics led the two men away, Walter Riggins turned back to Tilburr and offered his hand, "Well, it was nice to make your acquaintance. I hope you enjoy delivering your report. Do you need any help getting transportation? Wait... where is..." he had just noticed that Naomi was missing.

[Hazuki]

Michi's head gently tilted to the side as she watched Naomi poke her finger at nothingness, quietly having suspected the woman of being somewhat ditzy as soon as she'd started to stare at the lack of something. Given the attitude of the first co-worker to interact with her within the walls of the building of boring bastards, it wouldn't have surprised her to learn that the suited woman was simply pretending to poke something. Perhaps there was a disturbance in the air that her spreadsheets had detected, or however it was those things were meant to work.

That's when the blob started to appear, and the young woman had to re-focus her eyes a few times just to make sure she hadn't been staring at a light for too long. Her hand hung waiting low at her waist, and her fingertip brushing over the cap of the familiar water bottle, she looks the bird-in-the-business-suit up and down, eyes flickering up to the filing cabinet that it closes with a hefty thud. Nothing could open the filing cabinets, that she'd seen, and that fact raised more of an eyebrow than it should have.

Perhaps its mundanity was what made her focus on it. Her mind could conquer how to open a filing cabinet in a particular way, but not the biology of anthropomorphic ravens and where they get their tailoring done. She watched the talons close the filing cabinet, before a glimpse of gold stole her attention and she watched the creature flip open what seemed to be a pocket watch. The small woman's head tilted a little more, her face still quite stoic at this, as she decided that getting a look at that pocket watch was probably going to be a good idea. An antiquated device, and another artifact of normality that she could choose to focus on.

Walking as casually as her curiosity would let her, Michi moved away from the row of cabinets she was lurking around to a point behind the bird, going on her tiptoes to get a look at the face of the pocket watch.

[Deathkeeper]

I stopped at the sight of the van. And right there, absolutely right freaking there, something snapped. The last remnant of giving a crap went out. This was officially too surreal for me to honestly believe that this was all reality. People don't spontaneously go insane. And people don't share drug trips. Which means that in some sense, I don't think this was just me and Oliver having a bad day.
"How the bloody hell did this ambulance get here by now? It's been thirty seconds. People don't share trips, Collins. And they don't go spontaneously insane. And if I a, well, then I haven't a single thing to lose, now don't I?" I said, actually pretty calmed down by the confidence of my theory, and I stood up straight and stared the medic in the eye.
"I'm terribly sorry, but we're not acting crazy at all. Walter was screaming though, you should go check him out instead of us. Pardon me though, I seem to have forgotten something important back there." I said, and I made a move I hadn't made in ages. Not since high school have I needed to dodge someone's grip, but I went back to that practiced spin with ease, turning around Collins to put him between the only person in my way as I moved towards the building. The workers were all doing their own thing, and Walter had his back turned. We were barely out of the building; unless these people moved at superhuman speeds there's no way that they'd react fast enough to move and catch up to me before I made it back to the stairwell doors. They weren't far at all, and I was going to find out what the hell was going on down there if I had to jump down those stairs.

Well, I tried, but the bastard was just too fast for me. I panicked. I aimed a simple little kick at his foot, hoping just a little bit of pain would make him let go. I mean, I wasn't going to actually punch him. He was just doing his job, assuming he's a real person and not some weird fantasy thing. And a little hit wouldn't be so damning, but legitimately attacking a person sure would be.

And besides. They already thought I was mad. Unless I hurt someone, there's not much worse I could make that image, now could I?

[Bladehunter217]

Yes, I know they are missing. I intend to track them down now that those two are out of the building. As for the rest of you." Tilburr turns to anyone else who actually followed them up and isn't crazy or Riggins. "Get back to the office and if Henshaw asks, tell him everything that happened. Also give him this and tell him Naomi is suspicious of the supercrete and that Tilburr is looking into it." With a silent sign for himself, Tilburr turned back and walked to where he had left the two woman.

[Sir Dancealot]

Naomi blinked. It was quite obvious that she was dreaming now. After all, nowhere else would a Birdman be talking to her. She sighed internally in amusement, and smiled externally, her body relaxing. She had a beautiful smile when she wasn't trying, and right now, she was trying. She felt safe in her dreams. Safe enough to smile, maybe even laugh.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry. I was brought here for something of a meeting. It went poorly so I decided to take a quick look around." She replied pleasantly. She had to admit, the birdman was a tad creepy. But, her imagination could do that sometimes. "I actually don't know what exactly what I'm early for unfortunately. Due to it being so early, I doubt I had yet to be informed. Bureaucratics, I'm sure you understand. What might I call you?"

[Rith]

The bird/man listened politely as Naomi spoke, spinning up some gibberish about being so early that she had not yet even been told what was going on. Such an insane lie might even have worked, considering how insane the situation at hand was. However, even as she spoke, she could tell, the entity which she was assuming to be a figment of her imagination, was doubting her. Words seemed to come to her mind once more, "I know more of bureaucratics than you could ever fathom, little human, but this place, it's crucial. Only those who are meant to be here are allowed here. If you don't know what it is, then you shouldn't be here. Thus, you shouldn't be allowed, Clicking it's pocket watch closed with a stiff, birdlike motion, he pocketed it again, "why shouldn't I enact a punishment?" and cocked his head to center that eye back onto the woman. However, due to the nature of a bird's head, with one eye on one side and the othe eye on the exact opposite, when he turned to focus on Naomi, he caught an eyeful of Michi sneaking up behind him.

Jumping in a strange manner, like a crow hopping around on the ground, he went over a single filing cabinet and turned an eye to Michi, then to Naomi, and back again, switching between the two women with rapid speed, such that, in combination with his talon/hand going back up to his tie repeatedly, he seemed agitated. It seemed he wasn't equipped to handle two people. Either that, or something else was upsetting him. He stood there in tense thought for a few seconds, giving Naomi and Michi a split second to notice one another, and Michi to realize what she had seen with her glimpse of the pocket watch. It hadn't been a clock, but a picture. A door to what looked like an office in the building where she worked.

After a few seconds, the bird almost seemed to give off an aura of "This is not good!" Letting out an awkward 'caw', he dashed off to his right, and shot across the basement, attempting to leave the girls behind.

---

The paramedic with his arm at Toby's elbow seemed to anticipate the spin move before the intern even attempted it, his grip closing down on the arm. However, before he could get a truly secure grip on the man, a well-placed kick to a shin distracted him, and Toby was able to wrench free. Oliver Collins looked on the verge of a panic at this, "No, Toby, don't! You're just going to make the situation worse!" But Toby was already gone, sprinting across the work sight, past the groups of workers lazing about, earning one last shout from Oliver before he was back in the parking garage, "Don't make me face this by myself!" It was too late, however, as, running, Toby was only two minutes from being back in the stairwell, and then down, people chasing him were shouting insane things after him as he ran, but then, as he reached the landing onto the basement floor he had never seen before, he saw a flurry of black feathers in brown tweed erupt from the door, and vanish, just as quickly, down the stairs, towards the last basement.

---

"I think I'll accompany you to find your missing employees, Mr. Tilburr," Riggins responded icily, "We don't want anyone getting lost, after all."

The others in the group who had made it back up to the surface were accepting of Tilburr's instructions. Kimberly, Gregory, and Ontario all nodding, looking glad to be instructed to leave what had been the most unsettling trip ever. Concrete, drama, and insane coworkers. Yeah, loads of fun.

Then Toby went violent, thrashing at the paramedic and kicking his leg repeatedly until he fell back, allowing the intern to escape, sprinting through the construction site towards the parking garage. Riggins belowed, "STOP THAT MAN!" and set off jogging after him, but, the other construction workers were too slow on the uptake to catch him before he was in the parking garage, and a group of men chasing him was formed, including Riggins, the paramedic, and several workers.

Upstairs, Oliver was being guided to sit in the back of the ambulance, but was shouting random things, such as "No!" or "I'm scared!" or "Come back!" Meanwhile, Kimberly, Gregory, and Ontario, were still busying themselves with vacating the scene. Gossip would soon be filling the office building about Toby and Oliver going insane.

[Sir Dancealot]

Huh. Wierd dream. They weren't usually this lucid. Nor did they usually involve Birdmen things. As far as she remembered. It wasn't as if she had eaten anything particularly strange last night either. Just a simple smoked duck sandwich with a garlic mayo, herb roasted tomato and peppers on freshly baked, seasoned ciabatta bread. It wasn't even that fancy! Just some leftovers she threw together on the bread she'd made earlier that day.

Plus, the woman across from her wasn't even naked! What was that about? In fact, now that she thought of it, nobody im this dream was naked. The simple fact must be that this dream is lame. Sighing she shook her head, watching the birdmanthing go debating chasing after it. She looked over to the woman near her. Probably a woman near her, "So, uh, are we supossed to chase it or something? I don't usually have actiony dreams with clothed people. Or birdmanthings for that matter."

[Deathkeeper]

Crap. I really thought Oliver would be smart enough to have taken that speech as a hint of what I was going to do. Idiot. I couldn't exactly go back for him. If I'm wrong, he'll be fine; we're just nuts. If I'm right, then going back is suicide. Maybe Oliver being passive will buy him some time. Maybe if I got to the bottom of it all I could break him out from afar?
It was wishful thinking at best, but I was too busy sprinting for all I was worth. I wasn't letting those psychos catch me. No no no, if I was going down I was going to go down knowing full well that there was nothing else I could have done or tried, that I had-
wait what the hell was that?
That was a suit, but were those feathers? The hell?
It was only making me want to get down there more. I had even more excuses! So without further ado, I kept running down the stairs. Too bad the rail wasn't smooth or slick enough to do the power-slide down. For now, only running.

[Hazuki]

Michi took a half-step backwards the moment the crow-man leaped up into the air, big blue eyes flickering to the spot where he had concealed his pocketwatch, then up to the tie he constantly fidgeted with. She stared at it for the few moments that it seemed to simply sit there, tense and evaluating with its beady black eyes, before startling slightly as it dashed off down the cabinet-lined hall and she watched the last of its improbably human suit slip out of her sight. She was just about ready to stop using the pocketwatch as an anchor, to let the idea that a well-dressed servant of Velka had wandered into her life, when the inevitable reality of her life struck with the voice of a co-worker.

The one who'd challenged the building manager and decided to start skulking around the cabinet-lined area, and one whose blissful ignorance of everything seemed to strike just the right chords in Michi to want to smack the woman who, in this particular moment, was the avatar of her unwanted life. She calmly reached down to her pocket, pulled out her water bottle, took a sip to refresh her drying throat, then flicked it at Naomi so a small splash of water scattered across her face. Water was always meant to wake people up, after all.

"Not a dream." Michi told the woman plainly, keeping one eye on the cabinets where the strange man had fled, and one on the woman before her. "But we should leave." And, she silently considered, make certain that they didn't run into the other fellow who'd stayed in the basement with them. Something about the thought of encountering him post-crow unsettled the young woman.

[Bladehunter217]

Riggins distracted? This could turn out amusing or quite the opposite. Absolut ly delightful. How often do I get the opportunity to go searching for a few coworkers in a construction zone filled with insane people. Never unfortunately, those two probably just had a spot of some drug. I'm not certain which variety of hallucination causing drug. Most the ones I came across as a kid didn't look like that. Maybe this is an experimental one, certainly has bad side effects. Tilburr takes his opportunity to go downstairs, being more brain than brawn he decided to not try catching a younger man. He goes to the stairs they took before and begins his search.

[Rith]

Of the two ladies in the sea of filing cabinets, one was now dripping with water, while the other professed that they needed to get moving. Almost to punctuate Michi's words, however, as the doors to the stairwell the bird had ran to clanged shut, they heard a voice. A very loud voice. It sounded almost like Riggins, except that it seemed to be shouting in sing-song tones, "GET HIM OUT OF MY BASEMENTS!" over and over again. Then, afterwards, what seemed to be two dozen people could be heard stampeding down the stairs.

If they looked over to those doors, they'd catch sight of Henry Fitzpatrick, who had apparently been hanging out very close to them, which might strike them as odd, as he had not reacted to even mention the birdman running past him a moment ago. Another odd thing, but he had apparently found a purple fedora somewhere in this basement, and was now wearing it. Fitzpatrick was making his way to the doors beyond which that commotion had sprung, and, carefully opening one, peered down the stairs. Looking back at where Naomi and Michi stood, he smiled, "Not getting involved in that. I'll see you... beautiful ladies... upstairs," and with that, he was off, heading back up the stairway.

---

The stairwell they had found Toby and Oliver acting crazy in was pristine. Seemless concrete walls and stainless steel structure with some manner of ceramic making up the actual material of the stairs and landings. In all honesty, it was very professional looking to Tilburr's eyes. Looking closer, though, he would find no sign that those here with him on this trip had used a drug. No crumbs, no empty plastic bags, nothing to show what had happened here. Then again, if he would consider it, there wasn't anything here... at all. The stairwell continued up into the unfinished levels and was itself open at the top, and that copious concrete dust from up above had apparently not reached here. Everything was clean, not even a footstep left from the crowd of construction workers who had just ran down these stairs chasing Toby. That was curious indeed.

"Uhm, hello, Mr. Tilburr," a nervous voice cut into Tilburr's analization of the scene, prompting the man to look up and lock eyes with the tall, bespeckled Canadian, Henry Fitzpatrick. A little doubt was in the man's eyes, as he smoothed back his full head of shadow-black hair, apparently uncertain if he would be in trouble for having disappeared. However, he also had a confused expression on his face as well, "Uhm, what is going on downstairs. I just heard, twenty people run past that basement with the filing cabinets."

---

"GET HIM OUT OF MY BASEMENTS!" came the sing-shouting voice of Riggins behind Toby, as what must have been twenty construction workers poured down the stairwell after him. However, due to their apparent insanity, they were constantly bumping into one another and could not seem to catch up with him, as the intern (perhaps former intern) shot down the stairs after a black & brown figure which seemed intent on escaping. It reached the absolute bottom of the stairs, then, and sprinted off to a large, heavy door, smashing through it. The door was thick, and must have been very heavy, but the birdman just shoved it aside like it were plastic. It took so long to swing back into place, that Toby was able to slip through, just in time for it to crash shut behind him.

The bottom basement was almost completely dark and very, very cold. The entire place was filled with machinery, such as water pipes, water heaters, generators, servers, breaker boxes, and furnaces. In fact, half of the equipment here seemed unnecessary, and he could even spot what looked to be an old wood-burning stove. Toby caught the glint of gold chains in the dimness up ahead after a moment of taking stock of the scene, and could resume the chase, if he so desired. Left, right, then right again, they weaved through the clutter of mismatched machines, Riggins and his hunting party apparently having fallen off somewhere, as the chase was now utter silent but for the sound of footfalls.

They ran for what seemed like ten minutes until Toby, likely sore and out-of-breath, would be hard-pressed to find his way back out by memory alone. However, as he came around the last corner, he found that the birdman had vanished, and the only place he could have gone was obvious: an old, white-washed door carved in Victorian style sat at the end of a five foot dead-end in front of him, complete with lion door knocker. However, two things seemed out of place regarding this door. Of course, a wooden, Victorian door was out of place in a modern concrete & steel building, but there was more. First, the door had no handle, knob, or latch. Second... it was only one foot tall.

[Deathkeeper]

I admit, I just barely made it through those doors. Not because I was running out of breath by that point, but because holy crap he smashed right through them! I probably should have taken the hint and turned around right there, but I was feeling stubborn and kinda terrified of being trampled by angry construction workers. Mostly stubborn
And yet I only got more miserable from there. The place was freezing, and almost pitch black. By the time it took to fish out my Swiss Army knife and fiddle with its tiny LED for some light I'd almost lost the damn bird. I nearly stubbed my toe six times, and what was half of this crap, anyway? My lungs were on fire, and I was afraid the sound of my panting would have made my presence rather obvious. But somehow it didn't matter, because I never totally lost sight of the figure until the end. I honestly don't know how my lungs held out that long. My feet and legs were only barely in any better shape.
And then a door. A very nice looking door if it wasn't sized for a doll. I was sure that I'd lost him, but I still bent down to look at the tiny thing.
"I know he looked like a bird, but you'd need to be an actual crow to fit through here." I wondered aloud.
With a shaky hand, I gripped the knocker with two fingers and rapped it against the wood.
"How far down does the rabbit hole go?"

[Bladehunter217]

Tilburr locks his arms behind his back, tilting his head back to somehow appear as if he were looking down at Fitzpatrick. "Just people who did not listen to my warning Fitzpatrick, nothing for you to worry about. Since you clearly have nothing important to do, you can assist me and then be the first to fill out an incident report. Where are the others Fitzpatrick, we are ending this tour early and you are going to help me inform the others." Why is he wandering around and why didn't he try to stop someone to ask what was going on. Now I have to babysit him so he doesn't dissappear as well.