FIRST IMPRESSIONS (Charm)

[Caleb Ostling]

Caleb was choking, chocking and drowning as the machine roared to life. The stranger across from him was separate now, a divide had finally split them. Then a mechanical clank and the water dropped away and left Caleb in a heap at the bottom of his new machine. He shot a bleary look out at the scientists, who seemed... disappointed? In what?! In him, apparently, the way they kept looking. Caleb's eyes dragged off of them and back to the dark-haired stranger on the other side of the glass, and watched him. What had they wanted him to do to him? Had they given him some kind of mind-altering drug, only for it not to work right? The idea made his stomach flip coldly, and if there had been anything in it he would have been sick. He couldn't even apologize; the room seemed to lurch and spin, and when he reached a hand out toward the glass he barely touched it, two fingers against it before he slid sideways and blacked out.

When he woke up he was in the same position, curled uncomfortably against damp glass. The air in the tube was warm and dry, but his clothes and hair still clung to him, and he was shivering. It took several long minutes for him to fully be coherent, and when he finally managed to open his eyes the glass tube beside him was empty; the stranger gone. The feeling of isolation was crushing to the point that he wanted to cry, but nothing came. He just sat and shivered and sat and watched until he couldn't stand it and crossed his arms over his knees and dropped his face against them. Eventually his clothes dried and the shivering subsided, and he played songs over and over in his head to pass the time. He was halfway through a particularly rowdy tavern song when he felt the mechanical hum around him change. It was like he was sitting on a sub-woofer and the volume just kept going up, threatening to vibrate him apart. What could he do?! He hugged his knees harder and buried his face again and waited it out, and so he missed it when the room disappeared around him.

It was a short fall, all told, and not that uncomfortable of a landing. For him. Sunlight blinded him as he knocked someone to the earth and ended up sprawled over their legs. Beside them both a bucket came crashing down and soaked Caleb's hair and left sleeve, and he was so surprised he couldn't even get out a sound of surprise. He just turned and looked and then STOPPED looking because... well the legs of the woman he was on was very, very naked and very CLEARLY in the middle of some kind of shower.

"Sorry, sorry!" He jumbled out in English as he tried to roll off her, head reeling. What on earth had just happened?! He tried to open his eyes and snapped them shut again as they watered painfully, unused to the blazing overhead sunlight after weeks in the relative dark.

[Charm]

A light breeze coasted through the streets, but the fall sunshine was blazing warmly on her skin. Charm nudged the door of the makeshift wall so the latch clicked into place, whistling a low tune to herself, a bucket of hot water in each hand. It was peaceful, quiet - the washing area was set, for obvious reasons, a short distance from the main pathways through the Complex, and the noise of the ring’s activity didn’t carry that far. Looking forward to a few minutes to herself, she stripped, leaving her clothes and belongings on the struts and posts of the wall. From the collection barrels against the side of the skyscraper, she scooped a bucket of rainwater, added a generous splash of the hot water she’d carried over, and dumped the whole thing over her head. A handful of rough lye soap went to scrubbing, and a second bucketful to rinse. She had just mixed a third bucket, and was getting ready to dump it over herself, when something - someone? - crashed into her chest. It happened too quickly for her to even yelp, sending both them and the bucket down in a heap on the concrete. It became abruptly clear that it was, in fact, a person. A male person. Some hundred plus pounds of male person, to be precise, as her blooming aches and stings were quick to point out. She pushed herself into a sitting position, and for a beat Charm stared blankly at the man sprawled on her legs, very much aware that she was wearing nothing but her tats and some stray soap. The man turned and stared back, then abruptly started scrambling with an exclaimed apology. Survival instincts finally kicked in, and in a heartbeat Charm had his arm twisted behind his back, knee pressing warningly into his spine, since he had quite helpfully rolled onto his stomach. He certainly hadn’t struck her as an assassin - she didn’t think assassins would apologize, politely avert their eyes, then flop around like a fish out of water - but she wasn’t about to take chances. “Be still,” she warned. “I won’t hurt you unless you make a move first. Three questions, and I’ll think about letting you up. Who are you, have you ever been in the dome before, and were you given any instructions?” She was guessing the Keepers had just dropped him in, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t taken him out of it, first, or that they weren’t trying to start some shit. - - - - - OOC: RUUUUUUUDE

[Caleb Ostling]

"OWW! AH! What?!" No sooner than he started to realize which way was up than the poor girl he'd landed on went ninja warrior on him and pain stabbed from mid-back to shoulder. His eyes were open now, teeth bared in pain, but all he could see was wet pavement. A second later her grip changed and the pain became excruciating and he bucked on reflex. What he did not expect was to throw her and himself right into the portable walls and send them crashing down around and on top of them. He was freeish, the arm she'd been holding felt like it was on fire, and he was scared and everything was moving way too fast.

Caleb rolled onto his back and slung the wooden panel off of his left side... and into the nearby concrete wall where it cracked off with far, FAR more force than it should have. He gaped after it, then snapped his head back toward the woman as he suddenly remembered the pain-fest, and tried to scoot backwards, eyes wide. It was like in the movies where everything around him seemed to be happening in slow motion, giving him an absurdly long time to think about it as mere seconds passed.

"Sorry again! I didn't.. DON'T!" Hadn't she asked him to tell her something!? Why on earth couldn't he remember anything clearly? Whatever the scientists had dosed him with clearly hadn't worn off yet, it just hadn't been apparent until he'd actually tried to move.

[Charm]

The dude was built, and Charm was certainly up close and personal enough to know that. Hell, she was going to have the bruises to prove it. But she was trained to deal with people who outweighed her, because the fact of the matter was that most of them did. Muscle bound or not, he was in a vulnerable position. However, that didn’t appear to be relevant in this case, as he suddenly bucked and twisted with a frankly abnormal amount of strength. He jerked hard enough to yank his arm from her grip with a ripping sensation that made her cringe and send them both crashing against the patchwork walls. They toppled around them, and this time Charm did yelp - the plywood wasn’t exactly light, and the rough, weatherworn surfaces scraped against her bare skin. One good thing came from the whole debacle, and that was her belongings fell with the wall and landed less than a foot from her. She had a knife in hand before she could finish formulating the thought, even as she heaved a section of board off her shoulder. Automatically, she rolled the knife back through her fingers in preparation to throw it and embed it to the hilt in the stranger's chest if he came at her. Channeling every ounce of Alpha backbone she possessed into the command, she barked, “Be still!” For a seemingly infinite second they stared at each other, sitting amongst the wreckage as Charm registered his wild eyes and heaving chest. Abruptly she relaxed her posture a fraction, lifting her hands in the universal sign of harmlessness. She wasn’t stupid enough to drop the knife, but she held it loosely between two fingers. This time, when she spoke, she kept her tone soothing. “Let me guess, the Keepers screwed you over ten ways to Sunday? I don’t want to hurt you. Take a few deep breaths. Sorry I jumped you, you startled me.” That was putting it lightly, but now probably wasn’t the time to hash out the years he’d scared off her life. “You hurt your shoulder,” she added. “I can get you some help for that, but you gotta put the crazy eyes away, okay? Or if you’d like to continue this path of destruction, I’m gonna have to ask you let me put some pants on first.” She was getting splinters in places no one should be getting splinters.

[Caleb Ostling]

Her voice cut through his haze of wild, adrenaline pounding panic, telling Caleb to sit his ass still. He goggled at her, and her knife with apprehension. Fortunatly for him and all his various extremities, she decided to talk it out, which some back part of his brain was grateful for. A Keeper though? What on earth was a Keeper? Like a ZOOkeeper!? That was almost so indignifying it wasn't worth considering. And he'd hurt his shoulder? Sure, right. Now that he paid attention to it the hot burn increased tenfold, and he had no idea how he'd forgotten about it in the first place. Nervously, he tucked that arm in closer to his side and tried to do something about his crazy eyes. There wasn't much to do, they'd always shown expression with stage level drama, and were currently undercut with dark circles, lined and bloodshot.

"Keepers? Like.. the scientist...guards? I think they gave me something," he said thickly, his normally crisp accent slurring around a bit on the vowels. He sounded like his brother, so help him. He looked past the woman to the wreck that was left of the shower, and his brows drew together again as he tried to understand it. "How did I...? I wasn't tryin to, you pulled and it hurt and I kinda jumped and... and?!" Was he the Hulk? Was he turning green!? They'd kept him tied down to a chair or in a cage for weeks, how had he gotten stronger?

"You can um.. pants all you want. Sorry." He was all about nude body positivity, but there was something indecent about crashing someone's private shower and then throwing them and the shower all around the street. And to be fair, it was cool outside. She had to be feeling that breeze. He was a bit nervous, she was clearly super duper ripped and it seemed, very comfortable knife-fighting people who dropped out of the sky. This place was advertised as some sort of haven, right!? Why did she need to be so ready to cut someone? "I'll sit here, I think. ...this is inside the dome, right? I mean I was just in the labs, and they were doing weird stuff and.. have you seen a guy who looks like me? Blue eyes, bad attitude, super trashy English?" he asked hopefully, remembering his brother. He knew they had Kite, that was how they decided to come after him. He had no idea how much of a small world or not was in here, but he had to try.

[Charm]

“The scientists, yes. Sorry, habit - we always call them Keepers.” She freed her clothes from the wreckage as she spoke, and now hauled herself to her feet and began pulling them on, ruefully figuring her shower was a lost cause anyway. He still seemed disoriented, so Charm kept her tone gentle, but didn’t sugarcoat as she began the familiar ritual of introducing someone to the dome. He wasn’t the first person she’d found, but it was certainly the most dramatic instance to date. “It’s pretty common for them to experiment on us. It looks to me like they enhanced your strength.” She shoved her feet into her shoes, then turned and dropped onto her haunches to speak face to face, gaze steady. “You may come to view it as a gift or a curse, but in either case you must be careful. Your bones and skin haven’t gotten any stronger, and you can easily injure yourself.” Or someone else, she amended silently, but kept that to herself. He looked wrecked enough as it was. “You’re in the dome now, yes. They use teleportation to drop people in, which I’m assuming is how you literally fell from the sky.” She offered him a wry smile. “I haven’t seen anyone recently who fits that description, but I can ask around, and have people keep their eyes open.” Since they seemed past the destructive portion of the meeting, she offered her left hand for him to shake. “My name’s Charm. I’m a shapeshifter, as most of us are. Sorry about before. I know it’s disorienting, getting dropped in. I can give you a rundown on things, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.” Leaning back a fraction, she glanced him over. “Can you walk, or would you like to sit for a little longer? If you want I can get someone to look at your shoulder while we talk.” Plus, he might enjoy a chance to stretch his legs, after being kept in a cage for who knows how long.

[Caleb Ostling]

It felt like the woman was throwing a whole lot of information at him at once, though maybe he was just uncommonly dim right now. It was hard to tell through the pounding in his everything. Caleb was pretty sure he caught the gist of most of it though; he had freaky strength powers, she didn't want to stab him, and she had no Kite.

"I'm.. um. Charmed to meet you too? I'm Ostaks. ...Caling? I mean Isaks Caleb? Caleb Isaks Ostling," he finally managed, mortified. He wished she'd told him her name, but maybe he hadn't unlocked that level of friendship yet. Or maybe he had? He couldn't quite remember what she'd said anyways. "Sitting? Yeah I like sitting.." Caleb's eyes crossed a bit to try and see the blurry shape that he suddenly had been in front of his face for.. how long?! It was her hand, obviously, and he suddenly felt distressingly rude. He rocked precariously and missed her hand entirely in his first attempt to shake it, blushed a shocking crimson, and weakly managed it. With his new hulk-strength he didn't dare actually squeeze her hand, and he gave the unfortunate impression of a meek, limp fish.

"I think you're right about my shoulder, It's. Um. Tingly? ......bad.. tingly?" His eyes narrowed, trying desperately to communicate successfully when he was fighting an inexplicable craving for a rare rib-eye. Or a rare anything, his stomach was screaming louder than his shoulder. But his shoulder was bad, he really should do something about it before it got way inflamed or something. Ice it maybe? Definitely ice it. And maybe an entire bucket of Tylenol. COLD Tylenol, he could just ice it with frozen Tylenol, that sounded amazing. "You have a doctor? In here? ...do they need my insurance card?"