i'm not saying it's aliens

[detectivetroll]

Who: a lot of people okay, the list got long
Where: the farmhouse just outside of town
When: 12/21, night time
What: Farmhouse investigation (an OOC plotting post is up here, and a spreadsheet with team info is here!)
Warnings: violence, maybe?



They've known about the possible location of one of the aliens for a while now, but they'd waited to look into it for a number of reasons. Some of it was scheduling, some of it was trying to make sure they were as prepared was possible, some of it was waiting for enough time to pass since Nick was told about it that he wouldn't be immediately suspicious, and some of it was waiting purposefully for it to be around the holidays, with the hope of the added distraction.

But tonight's the night, and there's a decent sized group of them - somehow they'd amassed enough people for teams and backup, covering as many bases as possible. They've encouraged all measures to hide their identities, just in case - they're dealing with the police here, even if it's the corrupt ones, so Nick and Yuji have provided leather gloves to conceal fingerprints, and ski masks to hide faces upon arrival, if desired. There's medical supplies with the back up, and mirrors or something with partial network numbers written on them (borrowed from the Tuning Towers expedition), only this time, privated to one of the mission control members.

Those with backup wait at an agreed upon location, far enough from the farmhouse that their danger is likely less, unless they're needed, but close enough to provide quick service.

None of them really know exactly what to expect, but they're at least hoping to get some kind of answers.

Comments

[professorwolf]

Lyall has forgone the ski mask-- he can't risk anything that interferes with his sense of smell at all-- but he has made due instead with a hood and a strange set of glasses that had shown up in the pocket of his jacket that morning. They obscure his face at least a bit, being rather larger and bulkier than regular glasses, and they make his eyes look twice their normal size.

He isn't even sure what they're called, but they seem useful enough.

So here he is, hood up and funny glasses on magnifying everything around him, with his earplugs decidedly out to listen for anything ahead, behind, or inside. As such, he's at the front of the group, currently listening for sounds of a guard patrol or activity inside.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa had a ski mask on, but her distinctively bright blond hair is still pouring out the back, kind of ruining the effect. It probably wouldn't matter, as she had no intention of dropping below fifty feet. She also had on a radio headset under the mask, so that she could pass on what she saw to the people on the ground with shouting at the top of her lungs. She was strictly aerial recon, for this one.

For the moment, she was on the ground waiting for everyone to get ready, holding her broom like a wizard's staff with the bristled end up and with eyes shining with part excitement and part fear.

She cracked a manic grin at Lyall that was invisible behind the mask and said, "so we're getting extra credit for fighting aliens that want to conquer the Earth, right?"

[professorwolf]

The glance he gave Marisa was a droll one, or as much as one could tell of his expression behind the lenses. "I don't see how that has anything to do with biology, young lady," he told her, voice quiet. "So I'm afraid not. You might try that line with one of your history or government teachers instead."

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Totally unreasonable. I'll call the PTA about this."

With that harmless ultimatum laid, Marisa sat back on her broom and ascended into the darkness above. Hopefully Lyall had some kind of communication device, because moments later, Marisa was checking out her headset. "Test test. Am I coming through alright?"

[professorwolf]

Lyall had his cell phone. That's pretty much all he owned. "You should be contacting the people in your group, my dear," he suggested wryly. "Aren't you supposed to be on lookout for Alex, Hajime, and the rest, not us?" That was what he was for, lookout (or sniff-out maybe) for his little motley collection, and she had her job for the others.

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Roger wilco."

She said casually as she floated off to reconnect with her people.

[synonymouswithdookie]

You bet your ass Ray had on a ski mask. He was already skating on thin ice, what with his shitty deal with Sherman and all. The last thing he needed was to be recognized by the bad guys or something. You know. Again.

He doubted he'd needed it, since this was supposed to just be an information gathering mission, but he'd brought a pistol just in case. He'd checked it over at least half a dozen times before deciding to be an impatient little asshole. He called out quietly to the guy with the goofy glasses.

"Yo, hear anything yet?"

[professorwolf]

"I don't believe there are guards within earshot, at least," was Lyall's first answer, but he was still frowning and looking around, rather than moving forward. He kept his voice low, adjusting the knobs on the "goofy glasses" to try different magnifications, looking for something. He didn't seem to be finding it, though. "But there are... other scents. If we proceed, we should do it with caution."

Though that would be a good time to proceed, without the guards close enough to spy them. He hoped. So, glancing around at the members of his own little group, he swallowed and started creeping towards the building, keeping as low to the ground as he could without going on hands and knees.

[synonymouswithdookie]

Oh good, movement. Ray could stop fidgeting and being nervous now. Well okay maybe he wouldn't stop being nervous, but having something else to focus on was a good start.

He opted to take up the rear, keeping his hand on his holstered pistol as he followed behind the group.

[paradiseshrinemaiden]

Reimu is standing near by. She refused to actually put on a ski mask, but she is wearing an old bulky jacket with the hood up and a scarf wrapped around the bottom half of her face, so her face is properly obscured and all that.

Even though she basically volunteered for this, she certainly doesn't look like she's all that excited to be here. She isn't, but since she has gotten tired of sitting around trying to keep her head down when that didn't seem to stop her from getting dragged into things, she figured she might as well do something.

She might also be a little cranky because this descion seemed to have triggered another echopulse thing.

She sighs. "Let's just get this over with already."

[professorwolf]

((do you wanna join the thread above with Ray? :3 that reply fits in response to yours as well, I think!))

[healspec]

Ravi wasn't sure this was a good idea at this stage in the game, but if it was going to happen, he may as well be there. He chose to be on the backup team rather than one of the teams heading into the farmhouse because it seemed unwise for the healer to be in the thick of things if it wasn't necessary. If anybody was injured badly enough to require immediate healing, then things had gone very wrong and the backup team would need to be sent in anyway.

They'd found a place to wait, close but not too close, where they could hang out with the cars and stay hidden from view of any roads or apparent surveillance. There was a sense of false security in it that, for Ravi, only underscored how dangerous what the rest of the team was doing actually was.

And Alex was with them. When he'd recently been arrested and then killed. Ravi knew he couldn't exactly force Alex to never leave the apartment again, but this was a different unnecessary extreme and he didn't like it one bit. Needless to say, he was worried.

Which was why he was standing downwind from the rest of the group, leaning against one of the cars, with a cigarette in one hand and his cell phone, browser connected to the network, in the other. He was checking it obsessively, just in case something went wrong and that was where the message came through. In this case, no news didn't feel like good news. The longer he went without word from the infiltration teams, the more worried he got.

[scramasax]

Relegation to backup had Anthony about as restless, meanwhile, as it did Alex - except in his case the relegator hadn't been Nick (who, for whatever there may have been to take from it, had seemed more receptive to his intent to go along with the infiltration, stick within range of sight of John, Mr. Lyall, Hajime, the vampire Alex, if any of them wouldn't have overridden him) but, in fact, the vampire Alex and the reasoning had been sound, he'd not fight. All the same decidedly out of sight of each of far too many people a measure of anxiety was nagging and nagging horribly after earlier - still heard the occasional disembodied sound in empty space where he felt he was seeing and hearing absolutely nothing, nothing helpful, nothing reassuring at any rate.

He'd have been tempted to attempt a network connection as well - wouldn't even need to be told off from any temptation to, it wouldn't only be unnecessary it would be a downright distraction, thus a distraction for absolutely nothing.

That left him doing nothing but hanging in place, back resting against where it could, slumped at rest if not at all comfortably, looking up from under his hood - still on in spite of himself, even dark the sky felt too bright and surroundings too wide-open to maintain any awareness of ease - watching what he could.

Flung and skimmed glances about where they were gathered, accounting and re-counting for everyone he'd made note was meant to be in the group, with the occasional wooden tap of a finger lightly at the tip or edge of his seax. Hadn't brought the other sword no matter how much and how clearly stronger it was - could barely lift it off the ground without putting his back into it when it had materialized in the first place; he and it wouldn't be anything but dead weight, if he was needed to use a weapon - wasn't going to actively look forward to it, of course, but he was very ready to be ready to use a it if the need for the back-up that they were meant to be on standby to provide did arise.

[healspec]

It was a whim that had him approaching Anthony, and not a particularly nice one, unfortunately. He needed a distraction, and what better to distract from your own problems than someone whose were much worse?

So he edged up beside Anthony, his phone tucked away in his coat pocket but his cigarette still burning, and asked, "How are you holding up?" Normally attempting small talk made him anxious on its own, but here--it distracted him from a greater anxiousness, and he welcomed it.

[scramasax]

The active approach had Anthony giving a small jerk of his head aside to track it, through the edge of his line of sight, and very uncertainly freezing from the outside in.

Barely separated his jaws to give a polite verbal acknowledgement - dropped on top of by the abrupt, compulsive question of Is something wrong? and clamped them shut again. Held fast and waited to be spoken to...

Strained " -- Uhmm - " at the question, along a high edge.

Tried to turn his head more fully to Ravindra. Did so at an indirect downward diagonal and then more properly up. " -- I'm fine, thanks - ..."

Voice and attention held fast, the former dry, and airy enough to be reserved - out of intent in respectful subdual and not carelessness - while retaining tension.

Tonal standing back and ready to receive whatever that would've been a greeting to prompt immediate and thorough clearing-away of space for.

[healspec]

...Well that was sure a non-response. Ravi inhaled smoke and exhaled it in a sigh, looking off at the night in the distance. "If you don't want to be bothered, you can say so." Perhaps a slightly passive-aggressive way of expressing his annoyance, but that was Ravindra.

[scramasax]

Further tensing in a snap - jerking shake of his head. " - No - no uhmm - !

" -- Sorry - did -- ?"

Pressurized and thickened to a blunt cut-off as he's at a total loss as to how to carry on with the question without assuming too much, unless that's what he'd just done wrong - "It's - I can talk - ...! - Um - how are -- ...you - ...?"

Strained-hopefully said.

Followed up with an abrupt and subdued " -- I apologize -- "

[healspec]

'Did--?' Did he want to talk? Yes, why the hell else would he be coming over to talk to Anthony?

Ah, but that wasn't being very fair. How many times had Ravi assumed that people were only talking to him to be polite, and not because they'd actually wanted to engage him in a legitimate conversation? A short sigh, little more than a huff, and he forced himself to take a mental step back, distancing himself from his stress and his anxious energy.

"Worried," he answered. "No mission ever goes as well as you hope."

The apologies, he didn't acknowledge. Another little needle of passive-aggression, because it wasn't fine and at the moment he preferred to leave that question hanging in Anthony's mind.

[ursoreckless]

He was going to be a driver forever and ever on these raids. Not that Shou had anything against being just a driver, but there was a part of him that was fighting the restrictions. Sooner or later, that part will take over and he knew that meant he would do something reckless. He just hoped it wouldn't cause him to get others hurt in the process.

Shou had never been one that liked waiting. While he did bring with him a few hand puzzles to pass the time away, he soon grew bored with that and so practiced learning how to draw out his gun again and again. The fight in the alley had been one started with pure instinct and reckless stupidity, and he knew that he couldn't recapture the same feeling again. So he just best needed to know how to take out a gun and have it ready in case he had to shoot it.

[moarnomsplz]

Alex's mom had told him to be careful about a dozen times, and he had rolled his eyes, but promised he would, jeez mom. He hadn't bothered to take a mask, since it'd be toast if he had to grow his stalk eyes suddenly, but he had taken a pair of gloves, and he had a spare set of clothes in his backpack.

He didn't actually have much intention of being careful--shape-shifting into his other self's body where he might be seen was pretty much the definition of not careful, but there was no way Alex was going to just stand around like a loser if there was any way he could help. He was kind of wondering already if he should just go ahead and change, but he decided to wait and see what Hajime planned to do, and take his cue from that.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime didn't really know how he should handle this, either, so he settled on wearing dark clothing that didn't really matter because he was already stomping around in his horrible bugmonster form. They'd already seen the bug, the rumors of cockroach people living in the sewers were already running rampant, and Hajime did not want to take the chance that they would see him change. Let them think he was all-bug, all the time. At least he was already a dark color.

[earnedmystripes]

Kotetsu really hadn't liked the idea of being on backup, but the others involved in the investigation had been very convincing that it would be best for him as a cop to not risk exposure to the supposed alien in the farmhouse. It makes him feel antsy, though, letting others risk themselves while he stays behind. At least most of the people on this mission are adults, unlike the last couple of numbers-related group expeditions that had taken place.

It's not as if he has anything particularly useful aside from a gun, either, and the embarrassing experience of earlier that day tells him that the wire watch is not something he wants on him until he has a lot more experience using it.

He'll just be hanging out watching the video feeds that Barnaby has set up, trying to avoid pacing too much.