( OPEN ) GAME START.

[monstermasher]

▶ WHO: Everyone.
▶ DATE: July 9th, 2015 (Day 1)
▶ WARNINGS: Blood, violence, general zombie horror.
▶ SUMMARY: You've met with a bad... however that line goes. Welcome to Earth.

GOOD MORNING!

---

Please try and ignore whatever it is that you just heard. It should only last for up to a minute... maybe.

It... it is morning, right?

There are no windows.

There's a light, but it's barely considered one. The compound runs on a solar generator, but that doesn't mean it has a lot of power. The light seems to be hanging from the ceiling, swinging precariously. That's when you might actually start to wake up, sit up, find the things that are familiar to you... and then some of the things that aren't. It'd be wise to explore the small room you're in before leaving through the steel door, but there's nobody around to tell you that.

Outside is a tightly knit compound, just as dark and metallic as the room. The hallway you're in houses dozens more doors identical to yours, and if you're unlucky there may be more people poking their heads out through them, just like you. There's a dull glowing sign that reads MEDICAL BAY but not all of you remember being hurt. Some of you may be just fine, apart from the memory of the sound you heard when waking up.

The Medical Bay is stocked with enough medicine to last a couple of months. There's almost everything that can be found in a hospital. Somebody was thinking ahead.

Outside of the Medical Bay are more doors, some are even locked—many aren't. There are living quarters, a food storage, a kitchen, some laboratories; even a room full of computers and nothing else, all with a screen asking for a password. There's only two doors out of the compound, a vehicle bay with what appear to be a few military jeeps and trucks, and the front doors. It's on the inside of the front doors that something is painted in bright red, flecked with what smell like blood:

DO NOT GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT A GUN AND WATER.
GUNSHOTS ATTRACT THEM.
HOLLOWS IS 1.3 MILES NORTH OF HERE.
GOOD LUCK.

And on the outside of the doors, if you choose to open them:

THE WORLD ENDED JULY 3RD, 2015.

Now... how long ago was that? And where is this place? Luckily for you, Hollows is a small town that can be raided. It hasn't been too long since the apocalypse—surely you'll be able to find something there. Batteries, food, weapons, maybe some people—and what you're guaranteed to find. Them, whatever that means.

Outside of the compound there's a fence with a single gate. Nothing can get past this unless you let them in for tea, so be careful. There's a shooting range and a large shed full of weapons and ammo, enough to last two months if you're careful. Guns, knives, anything that would be used by the military and police is hidden away in the shed. There are even a few hunting bows with arrows.

If you climb up the ladder to the top of the wall, there's enough room to walk along the top. There's definitely something moving in the distance, something you should definitely be worrying about. Maybe it's time to get a good look with a sniper rifle...?

Oh.

It's gone.

Maybe it was just a trick of the light. Regardless, it's impossible for everyone to stay in the compound forever. There are nefarious things at work! The choices are to go to Hollows, stick around, or go somewhere else. Really, the world is almost a blank slate. Maybe more of a used slate, but still yours to explore.

When the night comes, you should be hiding. The screamers, the ragers, whatever the hell they are, are running full tilt through the streets and across the landscape, running through anything in their way, ripping apart anything alive. If you don't make any noise, they won't notice you. Especially since they're stuck listening to each other. But if you get noticed by one, it won't be long until a horde forms... you might be able to outrun one for awhile, but they don't seem to let up on their breakneck pace. Maybe someone should have told you how to kill them.

OOC NOTES.

---

There will be zombies in Hollows. Whether you meet them on the way there is up to you. Apart from the undead and the animals (maybe somebody should let those poor creatures out of their houses) the town is completely deserted. In fact, the closest thing you can find to a human are the bodies of those who died without being bitten, and there's even few of those. You can find anything you'd find in a normal town here, and are free to loot and raid the houses and stores—the cops won't be coming, after all. The power is OFF apart from what you can find that is solar powered or still has a charge. If you're lucky and find another town while exploring the first few weeks, you might find an area that still has power—thank hydroelectricity.

Just keep in mind travel time... and travel expenses.

You have creative freedom over everything else. The world is open. The only stationary places are landmarks and cities—if you want to go to Texas and talk to the poor astronauts stranded up in space, it's there. (Might be a long trip, though...)

If your character can figure it out by geography before getting to Hollows, the compound is located a few hours from the west coast, in California.

The way to kill a zombie is blunt force to the head. The head doesn't need to be removed, but significant damage needs to be done to it. This does not include the throat—it needs to be a headshot.

There's also a glaring hint. The computers in the compound, asking for a password. It is impossible to hack at this time. There will be more on this later!

Finally, if your character is exploring outside of the compound (or extensively inside of it) there's a comment here for linking me the thread. You can also PM me! I'll be ducking in with what your character may or may not have found, via a response to the actual RP thread.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS please direct them here!

Comments

johanna mason || Hunger Games || OTA - prose or brackets, whatever!!

[axeyou]

[ ʜᴀʟʟ ]
Her Arena outfit is slick against her skin, and it smells. She doesn't know it, but at a glance, anyone would think that she's already been in the shit--because she has. Just not this particular shit.

Still: it isn't sentimental, but the Arena outfit is the clothes that Johanna woke up in, and she's not going to leave behind anything that could prove to be useful. That's why she ransacked her crappy little cell of a room. That's how she ended up with her axe strapped to her back. This is survival, whatever the fuck else it is.

It's also the Capitol. Not this, dim lights and grimy walls. But it is their style, like another Arena, or something worse. The last thing she remembers? The hum of the hovercraft, the crash of Enobaria in the underbrush behind her. It's Katniss Everdeen's blood that's smeared on her hands and forearms, from cutting the tracker out of the Mockingjay's stupid arm. And it's thanks to Katniss that she's here, right now--wherever here is. But it doesn't matter. She knows the rules. Survive. A prisoner, but a prisoner with a chance.

When she whips around the corner at the end of the hall, she nearly crashes into someone. Peacekeeper, Victor, Tribute--the possibilities reel through her head, but her reaction is instantaneous.

She shrinks back, throws her arms up. "Please!" A sob, impassioned, and totally believable. Inside, she's pissed, but outwardly, Johanna jumps back. "Please, don't--"

The angle of her body keeps her axe hidden behind her shoulder. All it takes is one easy grab, and then one easy chop. She wouldn't even flinch. In a moment.


[ ᴀʟᴏɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ]
Maybe it's in her nature to climb, seeking higher ground, like the limbs of a tree could ever have offered her some comfort. Bullshit. But Johanna does like climbing, which is how she ended up here, on top of the wall. It's got its advantages. For one, she can see everything: the compound behind her, the clusters of people moving around. That weapons shed is getting some attention.

More important, she can see beyond the wall, beyond the fence and the gate.

Exploration hasn't dulled her wariness, or her conviction that this is some work of the Capitol's. A new and better Arena. A newer and more creative punishment. Just because they gave her an axe doesn't mean any kind of benevolence. It just adds to the game.

Movement out over the wall sharpens her and she stops pacing the perimeter, eyes narrowed, hand already gripped at her axe. She's not bothering to pretend right now. If something or someone is going to fuck with her, then she's going to be ready to fuck back. Out there, or in here--but whatever she saw, she's lost sight of it, and Johanna moves to try a new angle, her axe gripped in her hands. Anyone in her way, she's going to dismiss with a curt and snarled, "Move."

And she looks like she means it.

[volumeone]

At first Peter Quill thinks this is some crappy Kyln holding cell where they stick all the overflow for processing. From the way Rocket hyped up this place on the shuttle ride in, you'd think it was the biggest, baddest prison ever, like a Disneyland for convicts where you had to sit in line for hours to get a cell to share with ten others, complete with one, count 'em, one bucket to piss in. When he opens his eyes and sees the swinging light and how much space he's got, it's like getting his own hotel room.

But then he sees the writing on the walls - literal writing, English - and then the date and suddenly he's pretty sure he isn't anywhere the Nova Corp can get him. Peter's seen a lot of weird, weird, downright funky stuff over the years. Seeing Earth-style lights, desks, the way the doors are built for humans instead of for aliens triple his size is pretty up there.

Still, he's up, he's free, and, checking his bag he woke up with, he's still got the Orb. It occurs to Peter that he lucked out hardcore: he doesn't have to share a cell with a raccoon or his talking tree. All he has to do is sit tight, hope he can find a ride or get a signal out and then fence the thing like he was planning to. He'll feel better once he knows what that sign back there meant by "them", though.

What he needs is a ship. Peter has no idea what 2015 Earth would have but he's really hoping it's got something better than Apollo 11. Last he checked, it was the Moon and that was it, pretty much. Adjusting his bag, looking down and making sure the Orb's where it's supposed to be, Peter looks up in time to almost slam into another human. He registers brown hair, eyes, a mouth - everything where it should be for a human, before she's flinching back like he's about to hit her.

Peter spreads his hands, "Hold up!" She's moderately hot - the jumpsuit she has isn't hiding that much - and his eyes flick down and then back up to her face, her wide eyes. "Don't what? Who are you?"

[axeyou]

"Just-- leave, please leave me alone, don't--"

Fearful is an easy role to play. She's already pale under sweat and grit and the smears of blood where she'd wiped her wrist across her forehead. There's nothing familiar about this guy--not even the cut of his clothes. And he hasn't reacted to her either, in any way that suggests that he knows who she is. Used to her own notoriety, Johanna doesn't know what to make of this. Is it an act?

But a bag is a bag, and Johanna considers it, peripherally, sizing it up. It's large enough that having a look at what's inside could prove to be useful. She's not above stealing someone else's stash, if it's worth stealing.

When she shrinks back, she ends up nearly against the wall. The corridor isn't that wide. The palm of her hand itches. She doesn't draw. "Please-- I don't know how I came here. I don't know where I am. Is this place yours?"

Which is a stupid question. But playing stupid is almost better than playing afraid.

[volumeone]

Peter hasn't run into too many people out there who know how to play possum and do it well. Not to brag, but if you ask him, he's the best one out there at it and so far he hasn't ever been fooled by someone getting all crocodile tears at him.

He buys what Johanna's selling because she's just that good at it.

Peter sees a reasonably hot lady, eyes wide and glistening underneath a mask of dirt and blood across her face, her lower lip quivering just slightly, and it's so believable it actually hits that part in him that Yondu gave him so much crap about. Yondu called it "Terran softness", Kraglin shrugged and said "that's why you got pickpocketed, Rookie" and his Mom...yeah.

Peter doesn't seem to notice how she's eyeballing his bag. He stands there, thrown off balance and it reads across his face before he can hide it.

"Huh?" Peter cocks an eyebrow, glancing around the hall and he's gotta admit, he's having trouble following her logic here. Him? Does he look like he'd own a dump like this? Peter can barely afford his fuel costs half the time, he takes a look at a whole building and the upkeep and a shiver runs up his spine. "No, uh. Look, let's start with names. Star-Lord, and I bet you got a gorgeous name."

He lays on the charm real thick, all smiles, hoping she doesn't bolt on him.

[axeyou]

Star-Lord.

Internally, Johanna rolls her eyes, and rolls them hard. You have got to be kidding. That's supposed to be a name? And this is coming from someone from Panem, where--by everyone else's standards--the naming conventions are a little less than normal--but come on.

By the way, he didn't miss that blank look on Star-Lord's face. Maybe this is going to be easier than she thought. So her eyeroll stays totally internal. Outwardly, she lets her eye round a little more, and her mouth drop open.

"Lord," she repeats, quietly, "but you don't own-- J-Juniper." The hiccup in her voice is one she tries to swallow, trying to calm down. Hastily, she presses her hands over her mouth. As good as she is, she has yet to work out how to go a little pink on command, but this is good enough. "I'm Juniper. You're a prisoner here, too?"

[volumeone]

Juniper sounds like it belongs to some old lady working on her cat hoard.

If there's anything he's learned, it's you never tell an alien, no matter what she/he/it looks like, that you think their name sounds stupid. Peter applies that valuable life lesson to today as he pretends it's the most beautiful, unique name he's heard of in the history of ever, the end. A slow smile spreads across his face, warm and comforting.

"Nice name," Peter lies through his teeth. "Yeah, I mean, I was going to the Kyln before this, so..." he drops his voice like they're in a conspiracy together. In his experience, lowering your voice forces the the other person to sit up and pay more attention no matter what species they re "I'll help you break out if you get my back."

He'll take Juniper over Rocket or that tree or that crazy green chick any day of the week. Compared to them, she looks scared but decent and by decent, he means sane. Peter's standards are so low right now that she just has to hit Hot and Sane and he's already happy to buddy up with her. He'll worry about the nitty gritty details later.

[borntochoose]

And Kal does move, lifting himself and hovering away from her way because even if he understands next to nothing of whatever is happening in here today, what he knows for sure is that this is not the place to make enemies. Especially enemies who hold an axe- sure, the axe would probably break against his skin but he doesn't feel like showing his cards too soon into this mess.

"I've been trying to get a look around." He admits, still hovering a few inch up the edge. "But it doesn't look like we'll get to see much unless we get out. And that looks dangerous."

[axeyou]

She pushes past him without looking twice, without even looking too closely at him. Sizing him up is done in a quick and sidelong look, without lingering. You can learn a lot from a look. And he looks like he might be able to uproot a small tree, or at least could seriously think about it.

But she still sneers at him, when she looks back over her shoulder. "What. You're not afraid, are you?"

[borntochoose]

No, not really, and especially not of an axe. But while he doesn't hide his powers while he's wearing the skinsuit, he also gets the feeling he doesn't want to show all his cards right away to this woman.

"Well, I don't know about you but being kidnapped to God knows where for no reason and waking up surrounded by strange people does put me on edge a little bit. By the look of that weapon you're probably not exactly at ease either."

[axeyou]

The smile that flicks onto her face is a sharp one. In fact, if a smile could be pointed at the ends, this one sure would be. She shifts her weight onto one hip, hand planted on it, and cocks her head.

"Not quite, handsome." It almost sounds--and looks--flirty. Except, like he's so brilliantly observed, they're on a wall post-kidnapping to God knows where for no reason; blah blah blah. Can anyone really be flirty post-kidnapping? Especially with an axe strapped to their back? Well, sure. She even winks at him. "Axes put me at ease. I like to sleep with them, and not much else. So you don't want to go out?"

[borntochoose]

Kal doesn't exactly blush, but he does look a bit taken aback by the flirting. He isn't dumb enough to believe she's earnest in her flirting, especially considering the situation. But he's still incredibly awkward in this kind of scene, so he just shrugs with one shoulder and focuses on the part that he can handle.

"I want to, of course. I don't do well with being caged up. But not without knowing what waits for us outside, and how to handle it. Have you seen the doors? The warnings?"

slides into your inbox everywhere also WALL

[conversed]

He's been on the wall for a damn— while, he doesn't have a watch, he can't tell the time from the sun, he has no idea. Longer than he'd like, and he still can't get a good look at whatever's out there. Clint knows what he thinks he sees, based on past experience and an admittedly terrible taste in movies, but there's still a 90% chance it's just his imagination.

This would be easier if he just trekked out past the gate and checked it out, up close and personal. But that's what the old Clint would do, isn't it? Start a war with the Russian mafia, waltz out into hostile territory with a bow and arrow and no clue, same thing. He could always drag not-Cap or someone else out there with him, but if he gets vintage Cap murdered, does that mean history gets all—

Someone's talking. Well, snarling. He looks over, distinctly unconcerned with the tone. Notes the axe, which is a little more concerning. He's got a hunting bow in hand and a quiver at one hip, but he's pretty sure an axe could make chopsticks out of all of it.

"If you're looking for the— thing, it's gone."

good.

[axeyou]

She goes to push past him, since he seems like he's going to offer little resistance--which is a good choice, because she has very little patience for resistance. Of course, she has very little patience to begin with. That just makes his choice all the wiser.

Except he's also talking. Johanna's eyes narrow--unimpressed, at first, and then suspicious. She doesn't miss the detail of the bow and arrows Archers? Are the worst. She's got experience with that fact.

"What thing?" She raises her eyebrows, rounds her eyes--too quick of a shift from her skepticism to be believable. Whatever. She's not going for believability here, but she'll still wait to see how he answer.

ok but also johanna x kate would blow his mind js

[conversed]

Okay, so it's definitely too fast to be believable, but also: Clint Barton. He seems a little suspicious of the quick shift, eyes narrowing in a thoughtful squint — and that's it. A second's hesitation, then he gives her the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe he's just too tired to keep up the skepticism, it's difficult to tell.

"The them the doors warned us about."

Bi-pedal. Shambling? Or maybe he's just making that up. Seems a little biased.

He's having a hard time deciding which would be better, B-movie reality or... actually, his entire life is pretty B-movie, so maybe it's moot. Clint lifts a hand to scrub it over his face, still a little battered and touched by a few fresh bruises (as always), then slides it back through his hair before settling it on his neck. The gesture's pensive, if a little exasperated.

"Are you planning on going out?"

heh heh slow wink @ clint, lascivious gestures toward kate

[axeyou]

Slowly, she blinks, like this is the first she's heard anyone consider this suggestion. "Going out? After the door warned us?"

Which, by the way: give her a break. Johanna isn't dumb enough to consider unqualified and unexplained warnings to be entirely legitimate. Nor is she dumb enough to go running headlong into unqualified and unexplained danger. Gutsy, yes. Crazy, yes. Dumb? No. It's a delicate balance of sensibility that's kept her alive.

Then again, she's also no wallflower. Waiting on the sidelines for something to happen is not her style. And if there is something out there, some danger--

The World Ended. She remembers those words best of all, well beyond shady warnings.

But the glance she shoots back over the edge of the wall is entirely affected. A little nervous-looking, if you're still giving someone the benefit of the doubt. "Were you planning on going?"

hMmmm

[conversed]

"Can't stay here forever."

In the compound, he means, though it applies just as well to this. Wacky alternate universes are something he's already hit the quota on for multiple lifetimes. Clint isn't looking at her anymore; his eyes are out on the treeline, the conspicuously quiet ground just beyond the walls.

"I think a few people are gonna put teams together."

That's a little bit like an offer, if a very indirect one, though it's made slightly more pointed by the: "Do you know how to use that axe?"

a

[striking]

Katniss' eyes widen when she sees that it's Johanna, with all her hair and her arena outfit, and then almost instantly rolls them.

"Please," she echoes, in an entirely different tone to the one Johanna just used. Still, it's good to see her, even if it only adds to Katniss' certainty that this is some new plot of Snow's, the shears she'd been given gripped tight in her hand. Not a bow, but more than nothing.

Katniss also apparently got clothes: she's in her fancy Mockingjay battle suit that Coin had had made for her, using Cinna's design. That Johanna didn't only makes her more suspicious: the Capitol has proven clever at using the people closest to her as weapons, and they'd had Johanna for so long, who's to say they couldn't have created some strange mutt from her? But she doesn't attack. She just doesn't drop her weapon.

[axeyou]

When she sees who she's faced with? Johanna's act drops instantly. Fear and despair give way to a flat stare. This is sort of what she'd expected all along. Whoever else is running around these halls, whatever story is being told here? This is the Capitol. This is a Game. More of the same, and here's her proof: Katniss Everdeen, the Mockingjay.

"Oh, it's you."

Second to recognition is the fact that Katniss is not like Johanna last left her. First of all, she's clean. No grit or blood, especiallY no blood on her arm, where Johanna sliced out her tracker. Katniss is wearing some fancy get-up--not Capitol fancy, exactly. There's function in the form, and that's hallmark enough to get Johanna's mouth to twist. Cinna. It has to be. Somehow. Maybe that's part of the Game. Wearing couture you can kill in.

No Finnick, no baker boy. No Nuts. No no one, but Katniss. Johanna stands a little straighter. The haft of her axe is visible over her shoulder now, where it's strapped to her back.

"Seen any of your alliance yet?"

That sort of includes her, but Johanna distances herself out of habit. She flicks a glance away from Katniss, over her shoulder, and then back again, making a quick study of her face. Dryly, her mouth curls at the corner.

"You look awesome."

[striking]

"Thanks," Katniss says, genuinely, because while she's still not totally comfortable with how Coin has been using her image, she understands that she's finally really started to look the part. "It's all Cinna. You look..."

She trails off for a brief moment, because she's not sure what to say. Johanna has long hair and an old outfit from the second Games like being shaved and tortured in the Capitol for months never happened. But for all her blunt words, Katniss has no idea where to even begin with bringing that up. Asking Johanna what she remembers.

"It's just me and you so far," she says, answering the first question instead. "I've met some other people, but no one I know." Not from the games or District Thirteen or anywhere. She's dismissed the possibility of the Games as she and Johanna knew them just because so many people didn't seem to realize they were playing, and that missed the entire point.

[axeyou]

Cinna. Called it. Johanna's mouth pinches, jealous and grudgingly impressed all at once. Katniss' trail-off gets no comment from her. She already knows that she looks like shit. She's looked worse, but she's definitely looked better. Why she has to look like shit while Katniss gets to look like some pretty decorative statue decked out in the latest and greatest fashion, well--that one can be partly put down to the unfairness of life and Katniss' Mockingjay status.

But if this is, somehow, the Capitol--how did Katniss end up with an outfit like that? Seeing her as a fellow prisoner ought to feel more like a failure than it does. Like, you had one job, Johanna Mason--but there's no guilt. She did her part. If everyone else screwed up? That's their problem.

The fact that they're here is Johanna's current problem. Wherever here is. She doesn't even feel the slightest twinge of disappointment that there's no one worth her time here. If Finnick is out, that's good. Whatever this means for the rest of the little rebellion is a bigger unknown, but again: not Johanna's current problem.

"Wow, what a great team," she drawls, shifting her weight onto one hip. "Where's your bow? Didn't get so good of a draw from the Cornucopia, huh." The Cornucopia equivalent, anyways, which was just a shitty little room with minimal furnishing. More like a cell than anything else. A weird feeling crawls up the back of Johanna's neck. She ignores it. "Did you hear the screaming too?"

[striking]

"Screaming?" Katniss asks, immediately thinking of the Jabberjays in the arena, Prim and Gale and Annie's tortured voices. She shakes her head after a second, unnerved. "No. I heard music. Someone playing music." Though maybe there had been screams beneath it that she couldn't hear, honestly she had no idea.

Anyway, despite Johanna's blithe sarcasm, Katniss is kind of glad to have someone on her side. Johanna might be an obnoxious, rude, violent addict without any shame, but she was Katniss' ally, and maybe even her friend. That's useful here, and without consciously thinking about it, Katniss is willing to make nice.

"I thought maybe there might be more things elsewhere. A real Cornucopia," she admits, though that means she was also probably looking for it, wanting more than shears. Even if congregating at the Cornucopia is inevitably a blood bath. She needs to see other people, see who else is here. Johanna, so maybe also... Peeta? Despite the fact that she's still terrified of the rabid hatred she saw in his eyes as he choked her, Katniss wants to see him again.

hallway!

[reginaprocacis]

Exploration is the name of the game for many. Regina certainly knows the importance of knowing your terrain, your parameters, your stakes - knowledge is power, after all, and power is freedom.

But even though she is careful, Regina hardly expects to almost crash into a person when rounding the next corner. Luckily she's laying off her magic illumination source (aka fireball) for now, or else this might have gotten ugly fast.

The woman in front of her is begging, which just gets Regina to roll her eyes and huff in exasperation.

"I'm not going to hurt you, relax." She gives the woman in front of her a once-over, she is dirty. Wherever she comes from, it must not have been cushy. Regina stays calm. "You might want to be more careful going around corners, though. There's not telling who or what lurks in these halls."

good 8]

[axeyou]

Still shrunk back against the wall, Johanna keeps her fear like a mask. When you're afraid, people don't pay attention as strictly as they might otherwise--especially when they roll their eyes like this woman. That's a sure sign of dismissal. It's safe, then, to give her a quick once-over in return. No one that she knows; no visible weapons--but that doesn't mean shit. Johanna's own axe is still hidden by the way that she holds herself. Even without her axe, she's still a contender. And there's something about the way that this woman carries herself, even unarmed.

Play this one out, Johanna decides.

She gulps down her next sob. "S-So you-- you know where we are? What this place is?"

[reginaprocacis]

For a moment; Regina narrows her eyes at Johanna, not sure if she buys her act. Something about how her body language -- well. Regina's wound tight as it gets, anyway. If Johanna attacks, she'll be prepared.

"Unfortunately, I don't."

She hesitates for a moment, but doesn't see why she shouldn't share what she is fairly certain she knows. It's not like she knows the vital part -- how to get out. "My best guess is that it might be a realm that pulls people in, for some reason. As for what that reason is, I have no clue."

[axeyou]

The way that Johanna's eyes round is put on. But under that exaggeration? She really is kind of like what the hell. With extra emphasis on the hell.

Regina's answer doesn't mean anything to her even beneath her facade. A realm? So it's not hard to keep up confusion, to let it eke into the quick blink that she does, like she's just reeling at this info.

"What do you mean, a-- realm? There has to be someone doing it. A person. A place-- can't."

There's always a behind-the-scenes guy. A Gamemaker.