Weirder Stuff - Rainbow In The Dark

[Coraline Hess]

"I'll keep an eye on Charlie while you all do that," Coraline offered flatly. She was not okay with all this. Not out of doubt, Cade's fang trophy and vanishing roadkill seemed evidence enough something weird had happened, but because it stank of something you shouldn't poke at. Her dad had worked in various prisons her entire life, and there were rumors enough about some of them being caused by something not strictly human that it seemed like... choosing poorly to meddle in them. Bad juju. The trailer certainly gave off a bad vibe.

She bit her lip, still clutching her improvised weapon, and hoping ghost squids and vanishing cats were allergic to wood.

Her curfew was well and truly blown at this point. She knew it would be going in, so... Roll with it. Deal. And hope that her Dad was more worried for her than angry at her. "Cade," she offered with a sidelong look, "Your choice if you want to deal with the Rule's Talk tonight or whenever my Dad let's me see you again. Don't know how long that'll be, honestly."

[Cade]

Cade nodded.   He'd heard Bannon apologize with sincerity tonight, and everyone was super keyed up over pretty much everything.   "I think us taking some pictures and locking up, calling it a night is a good idea.  Whether that means we go back to the party or go home, well that's up to the individual.  The party is supposed to be for us, and I'm grateful for the efforts made.  We can go enjoy them still, or not."

He shrugged.  "Tomorrow, or whenever we can, we come back up here, clear-headed, and when we can actually you know, see clearly, and take another swing at all of this."

Once he was done speaking to the group at large, he looked to Cora.  "i'll probably take that Talk tonight, might as well get that one over with because I know I'm catching hell when I get home."  He'd leave the choice up to Cora, but if she wanted to go home, then he'd bring her, and anyone else.  He himself wasn't all that ready to go home, but he also wasn't in the mood to argue with anyone over it.

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean gave Jase a strange glance, he could see Lilly's point. He hadn't seen the supposed vanishing Saber-tooth Tiger or the... the... sigh... Cephalogina, and while quantum mechanics and various other theories made a strong case - a probability even - for other dimensions, he couldn't quite fully believe them. At least, not here showing up in the backwoods of Montana. During an experiment with the super collider at CERN in Geneva, maybe... Which didn't mean something strange wasn't going on, what with the trailer and all the files and maps. It was weird stuff, which Sean would admit was piquing his curiosity.

But whatever was going on was definitely winding Jase up, enough that he'd lashed out - twice by his admission - due to stress and being doubted and he was apologizing for it. That wasn't like Jason at all. He was always deliberate in his actions and what he said. It was hard not to mention the possibility of drugs and alcohol affecting perceptions, but the ones who had seen the weirder stuff were pretty vehement that they hadn't. Okay then, he could go along with it for now.

"Okay then, let's get to it, then get back to the party and wind it down," Sean said with a sharp nod. "And we're either gonna have to stay a while to clean up the grounds before we go or make sure we we allot time for clean up when we come back, because otherwise, eventually it's going to draw attention, too. Let's get those pics and then get out of here."

Clara and Cassandra, both clearly eager to see what was inside the trailer and to document it nearly sprinted for the dog, but Marissa still somehow beat them there despite a swanning glide, shooting them a scathing look. "Walk, don't run," she told them condescendingly. "It isn't going anywhere, Nerd Herd, and I don't want you messing up what Bannon and I already organized."

"We aren't--" Clara began to protest.

"Nerd. Herd," Marissa reiterated, each word biting and distinct, before slipping inside the trailer, Clara and Cassandra making a concerted effort not to trip over her heels.

Sean gave the brawny Sara an apologetic shrug as he passed her following more slowly after the girls. Sara grunted and sidled away, a brooding set to her broad shoulders as she faced the trees.

There was more light in the trailer now after Sean had played with the power box, making taking clear pictures easier. Marissa settled defensively by her neat stacks of notes, begrudgingly fanning them out for pics to be snapped and shooting daggers at Clara, stopping her in her tracks when she moved to reorganize them in a manner she believed more efficient.

There were already several people taking pics, one more wasn't necessary, so Sean contented himself with just looking around and keeping out of the way. He'd remember everything he saw. He carefully set the radio to the settings he'd found it in and turned it off then moved over to the power box between the bathroom and master bedroom.

Clara was being meticulous in her pic taking, starting to go through each file box that Marissa and Jason hadn't through, verging on OCD.

"You don't have to be so thorough, Clara," Sean said, "we want to be out of here before the sun comes. And we're coming back tomorrow." He glanced at his heavy digital watch. "Well, technically, later today now."

"That's just it, what if the files and maps aren't here tomorrow?" Clara countered. "What if we come back and all we find is a burned out husk?"

"If they are that quick about it, we'll have a shit-ton of other problems to worry about," Sean replied. Like if they can tell this place has been tampered with and can respond to that fact that quickly, they can likely track at least a few of us down. too.

Sean hadn't said it, but Clara picked up on it. "Point."

Reluctantly, Clara stopped being so thorough and began taking her pics more briskly.

Sean blinked the spots from his eyes from the flash when Cassandra - Fucking Cass - snapped a pic of the power box. The flash seemed to hit him like an artillery shell of light.

"What's the deal with this? Anything special about the electrical box?" she asked, getting her reporter on.

"Other than it being homemade, not really." Sean said, shaking his head to clear his eyes. He could see again, but there was still a green smear sliding across his vision. "I'm just going to reset the settings to what I found them at when people are done in here. He, they, whoever, could be tapping into another electrical line or there might be a small generator hidden nearby, so it might not matter. But if the power line has been set up for a particular reason, the increased power draw might be noticed, eventually. Let's not make it any easier on them, if there is a them, than we have to, hmm?"

 

[Jaunt]

"Have fun," Devin murmured under his breath.  He spoke up as Tawny and Laurie were having a side conversation.  "Tee, I'm heading out, you want a ride?"

He was about as done as a guy could get.  He checked out somewhere between Lilly making no sense and Cade opening his mouth and spewing ignorant beta male bullshit.  He didn't understand these guys at all.  Sure he was a bully and a overall jerk, but how any of these weirdos functioned in society was completely beyond his level of comprehension.  It was like they were all just crazy balloons waiting to pop with their conspiracy theories, Lilly still walking around with a loaded gun in her sweater, Sara barking orders like she was somebody, and all the rest who didn't have a single clue what they hell they were doing except for making shit up.  The whole place was trouble.

Laurie narrowed her eyes at him.  "We're having a conversation, Jauntsen, do you mind?"  She spewed with her usual vitriol.

The old shoulder he offered spoke his level of irritation.  If the old adage about treating a hot girl like shit to get her to notice you was a thing, he proved a bit of it as she looked at him with momentary confusion from not receiving a snappy comeback from him.  "Tee?"

"This is all really interesting Devin, I thought I might stay."  She offered him a smile to help perhaps get him to stay as well, but he didn't seem into it anymore.

"Okay." He touched her shoulder and let his hand fall down her arm.  "Be safe.  Call if you need anything.  I'll ask Mari to give you a ride."

"She's fine, Devin.  She can ride with us."  Laurie tried once more to hit him with attitude laced words implying Tawny didn't need the twins' help with anything.

"Night, Tee."  Once again she may as well had been invisible and mute because Devin simply ignored her and walked off as he gave Tee one last smile.  The truth was simple, though.  If Devin acknowledged any of these lunatics at this point... someone was going to catch some hands.  He preferred it wasn't Laurie.

Marissa was safe and appeared in good hands, so he was content to let her be for now.  Had she wanted to leave she would have given him some or signal to indicate the Nerd Herd were keeping her captive.  He withdrew his phone from his pocket and tapped out a text to her as he walked away from the trailer.  He stepped over the 'cougar prints' as he did so, not realizing he didn't even know they were there but his subconscious told him they were important to someone, even it wasn't him.  He let her know he was calling it a night and made his way back to the party.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie patted Cora on the shoulder reassuringly. Well, it would have been if Charlie hadn't been consistently spouting out high nonsense yet somehow knew about Devin's cephalo-gina. The only one in the group on any drugs this whole time. "Shelly's a strange place." His smile turned glassy. "Strange since the mammoths. They got strangers on the other siiiiiiiide." Suddenly he groaned and clutched his head, rubbing it as his eyes blinked rapidly.

The transcendent high was coming to an end. "Uhhh. What how does Jason make these. ...Where am I?"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly glanced over and noted Sara watching with her strong arms crossed and disapproving look, which gave Lilly pause for a moment. She thought and then looked to looked to Sara, making eye contact and giving her an 'I got this' nod before looking back to the others.

"Guys!" Lilly barked using her same firm, even slightly husky voice that she used to cut through noise of a game when she changing to an audible play during a football game, causing the others to look to her in a bit of surprise.

"Sara says it is not exactly safe in the trailer, so let's at least limit it to a couple of people in there at a time just to be safe. This place is going to do nobody any good if it collapses or something." Lilly calmly suggested in her normal voice to the others. 

"Tonight's already been... enough. Just... enough. We don't need somebody getting hurt." she added and then closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh and then looked up and back to her friends.

"And make sure you are not backing up your photos to the Cloud or anything. Sound good?" she asked and got some, albeit begrudging nods.

 

On 8/19/2019 at 8:30 AM, Bannon said:

"Lilly."  he said quietly, getting her attention once more.  "I'm glad you are okay." he stated simply, then fell silent as he watched her.

"I.. Thanks, Jase." She replied, holding her her left fist for a fist bump, a habit she had picked up from being on teams with boys, which Jase returned.

"Look," she sighed, "We've all, or at least those of us out here in the woods to start, have had a big adrenaline dump in our systems and haven't really used it, so we're edgy, anxious and whatever. Like, right now, It's hard for me to sit still. I just wanna run or workout or something to burn it out of my system. So we're saying and doing things we don't really mean. It's the nerves talking.

And for the record, I am not calling you, or anybody, a liar here, dude. It's clear that you believe you guys saw what you said you saw. All I am saying is that it doesn't mean that's what you actually saw. That's all. It's pretty dark out here and we are in an unfamiliar place. It is easy to be mistaken, especially if a couple of jackasses from the party to decided to prank people for 'lolz'.

That's why your 'if you don't believe us, then GTFO' comment pissed me off. I'm not calling anybody a liar, just trying to apply reason to it all. And you're not one ignore reason or to talk to others, especially your friends, like that, a lot like impatient, bitchy Marissa was in the trailer. And that comment she made to you in here? I dunno what's gone on between your two while I was gone, but it was not a flattering look for you, Jase." Lilly explained to her friend.

"Tomorrow when we are rested, sober, with all the adrenaline out of our system or whatever, we'll think more clearly." she sighed. 

 

While other went into the trailer to take pictures and what not, some taking more time than others, namely Cass and Clara, Lilly walked over to a tree and leaned against it to wait. She was not going to go in while a bunch of them were in there. Not after Sara's warning. She had wanted to talk with Devin too, but he was too emotional at the moment, which was to be expected when one really thought about it, so she let it go for now as he walked off back to the party and/or to leave.

When an opportunity finally came she walked into the trailer. She did not care if one or two of the others were in there with her though, but not the entire 'Scooby Gang'. She looked around, paying more attention than she had before. The walls plastered in maps and the reinforcement was strange and the place looked like it was dragged out of past. She made sure to take a picture of the settings on the radio once Sean had put it back like he found it, and then she moved further back and came across the uniform. Compared to the rest of the trailer, the uniform was out of really place. She snapped some photos and thought about what she saw, much of which made completely no sense at all. 

Lilly finally exited the trailer, clearly thinking and/or confused, probably both, which seemed to catch the attention of some of her friends.

"What's wrong?" Cass asked, ever inquisitive.

"It makes no sense." Lilly said, still going over what she saw in her mind.

"What the hell does tonight?" Cass asked, only half jokingly.

"Okay..." Lilly said as went to photos in her phone's gallery of the uniform and it's badges and patches, showing them as she spoke. "First off, nobody go doing a flood of searches on the stuff I am going to tell you. Some of which you would have no business, like, ever trying to look up, and we are being para- uh.. really cautious here." she stressed.

"A few things. Mr. Cooper here is, or was, a Captain, that's O-3, and a pilot. The uniform is standard 'work blues' uniform. And while it was folded neatly and regulation it's dirty, especially the trouser's. And the shoes are scuffed and scratched, so they have been worn hard and recently. But now here is where it goes off the rails... He had a pistol because he is special forces, and all special forces personnel are issues sidearms." Lilly said as she looked at each of the others, making eye contact for a moment if possible.

"Okay. I've got something to show you. So no nobody freak out, okay?"

Lilly turned her gaze to Mari. "Especially you, Marissa. Got it?" she said, more than asked, her eyes slightly narrowed and gaze very serious.

Lilly brought up her right hand covered in a rather large ball of wrapped sweater. She slowly twisted it, keeping her arm pointed down at the ground, letting the sweater unravel from around it to reveal the pistol which she was holding wrapped in her sweater, and which she kept aimed at the ground with her finger off the trigger. As some of the others went wide eyed at the sight of it she held up her left hand, holding her phone with just her thumb and forefinger, letting the rest of her fingers come off the phone to make a 'calm down' gesture.

"Relax. I know how to handle guns and shoot. My dad taught me and we go hunting to the range. The weapon is secured, but just nobody touch it and no pictures with it in my hand either." she explained as calmly yet firmly as she could.

"This is the new, like, 'just now getting phased in' new sidearm for the Air Force, the Sig Sauer M18. I found this in the clearing where..." Lilly paused to consider her words for a moment before continuing, "...Devin and Cass where shot at. It had been freshly fired. So rather than leaving it on the ground where either badguy could find it and use it against us, or some drunk or high party goer could find it, I picked it up and secured it. I still have it because I've been out here and not had a chance to lock it up it something. Now I may have damaged the fingerprints on the grip, but unless he was going out of his way to be super meticulous, the gun is probably covered with them, especially the magazine which is inside. Heck, there's probably a nice thumbprint on each bullet from loading it. Regardless though, you don't just leave a loaded gun laying around where anybody can find it, so I secured and would do so every time." she explained without an ounce of remorse. She would choose to protect others every time, and her friends more or less knew that about her.

"Anyways, I know this gun fairly well as my dad carries one every day. And for those that don't know, my dad is not special forces, but he is head of security for the base and a Lieutenant Colonel, O-5. In the Air Force, outside of combat, only law enforcement, security forces and special forces are issued sidearms. Now.. here's the thing about Captain Cooper being special forces... You see, the base, Bulwark, is classified as a special forces base since it's where Pararescue does their training and they are considered special forces." Lilly pointed out.

"So he's Pararescue." Cass said with a nod.

"That's the thing. He's not. But there is one other special forces unit on the base. The 558th Special Operations Squadron. I have no clue what they do. Like, nobody really does actually, but they are special forces too, and therefore would be issued a sidearm, just like this one right here. So he is not Pararescue, but has a sidearm, and the new one at that, so he is not Pararescue, but still special forces. So the 558th could be, and likely is, Captain Cooper's unit." Lilly clarified.

"Remember when I said he was a pilot? He's a pilot, but an RPV pilot. RPV stands for Remotely Piloted Vehicle. So he pilots Predator drones and stuff. So them is that was the 558th does? But the thing is... there is no drone piloting station on base. It's a just training facility for Pararescue and not big at all. I have lived on or around Air Force bases all my life and Bulwark is not a big base and there is no RPV station there. But this is a RPV pilot badge, and he has a sidearm, and he's here, so... like... what the hell? And what the hell is a drone pilot doing alone, way the hell out here in this trailer on the Res?" she asked, clearly a bit confused by the situation and facts at hand.

"This makes no sense at all." she said, shaking her head.

[Clara Lys Wright]

"He could have been a deserter," Clara pointed out. "Reservation land would be a good place to hide out, and if he was familiar with drone technology, that could explain all the metal plating." She hooked at thumb back at the trailer, having finished her picture-taking montage and joined the group back outside. She arched a brow and added, "Or there could be a base in the area that you don't have clearance to know about."

"Whatever's going on, it's late enough to be early now. We should pack up whoever's left at the party and head home ourselves. Lilly is correct. We'll all think better after some sleep," Etienne said, glancing around the group. "Does anyone need a ride back? I came by myself, so I have room." He frowned at the gun in Lilly's hand, a thought occurring to him. "Perhaps you should not be the one with the military-issue gun, no? Your father is the base commander. If he finds it, he will know what it is and have questions. I live alone. I think I am the only one who does?" He shrugged, the offer clear.

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara studied Etienne with narrowed eyes, then stepped up beside Lilly and held out her hand. "Your an adult Eddie, and a foreigner, you get caught with it and your in a shit load of trouble. We're minors we can get away with a lot more. If you want, Lilly, I can stash it at my dads place. He won't be back until September at the earliest."

Sara finishes by facing Lilly who catches Sara cutting her eyes back toward Etienne and gives barely perceptible shake of her head.

[Clara Lys Wright]

Etienne held up his hands, sensing the distrust of the two girls. "As you wish. I was just offering to help. Clara," he leaned down and kissed her cheek, "I will drive home with you, okay? Make sure nothing weird happens on the road." 

Clara nodded, digging her keys out of her pocket. "Who's coming with me? Cass, Cora, Laurie, I gave you rides here. I'll give you ones back, if you want." She nodded to Luis, who'd been quite pretty much the whole time and doing his best to neither be in the way nor really get involved. "Luis, do you want to give Lona a ride back to the fair and we can take her home from there?"

[z-Avalon Wilson]

Luis nodded quietly. "Not a problem," he assured her, giving Lona a smile.

She smiled back. "Sorry, this isn't what I promised you."

"Yeah, but I won't ever forget it," he said, chuckling ruefully.

[Bannon]

"Etienne."  Bannon spoke up from his air of intent concentration where he was mulling over Lilly's information.  His pale hazel eyes fixed on the graduate's face as he nodded.  "The offer is appreciated.  And I hope you are not too offended by our reluctance."  His lips quirked, head tilting to one side as he smiled wryly at the French-Canadian.  "Chacun voit midi à sa porte, inutile de discuter." he quoted in near-perfect French, causing Etienne's eyes to widen before he laughed, shrugging and nodding in agreement.  The others stared as though Jason had grown another head.

"Il semble en être ainsi." Etienne replied with a chuckle, scrutinising Jason once more.  "You are a surprising one." he remarked as he and Clara, and their passengers made to leave.  Bannon just shrugged faintly, pretending not to hear Marissa's muttered 'No, duh!' from the trailer doorway as he turned to Lilly.

"Lilly, I'd say go with Sara's idea.  It's secure from prying eyes, Sara is steady and sensible -"  he nodded to Sara, who smiled a little. "-and she'll keep it safe."  As Lilly mulled that over, he approached the trailer door, peering inside to make sure everyone was out.  Sean was just turning the power back down, and gave his friend a thumbs up as he hurried out of the eerie place past him.  Jase closed and latched the door, then hung the padlock in place so it looked secure, at least to the casual glance.  That done, he turned back to those still present.

"I'm heading back to the party." he shrugged.  "A few drinks are in order, after which I'll start ushering people to leave.  Then it's cleanup time.  Tomorrow we're all going to be varying degrees of wasted, so let's meet up at my place on Saturday.  My father is heading off hunting with a buddy for the weekend, won't be back until Monday.  We can de-stress, chill and grill, and talk calmly about what we do next."

"Wait, your place?"  Sean blinked, sounding amazed. Cass looked at Sean warily.

"What's wrong with his place?" she asked, glancing sideways at Jason.

"Uh...  Nothing.  Except kiss cell-reception and wifi goodbye.  And that he's never invited anyone over before."  Sean smiled at Cass wryly, and Laurie peered over her brother's shoulder at this sudden new development.

"Can we all come?"  she asked, to be met with a shrug from Bannon.

"That's between you and Sean how much you get involved." he said calmly.  "You are all invited, but you might not wish to accept, and instead choose take the blue pill. Up to you."  he finished with a slight smile.

"A Matrix reference again?" Cade asked with a grin.  "Wasn't that how you got Sean and the rest of us into this?"  Jason actually laughed at that, a low quiet chuckle.

"It's a useful analogy." he admitted, then thrust his hands into his pockets and stepped away, heading for the path into the woods, and back to the party, whistling a snatch of a tune.

Spoiler

Chacun voit midi à sa porte, inutile de discuter. - Literally "Everyone sees noon at his doorstep, it is useless to disagree".  A popular French saying for those situations where people will not be budged from their viewpoints.

Etienne's reply was "It seems so."

 

[Bannon]

Marissa caught up with Jase before he had gone ten paces, grabbing a torch from the several and falling into step alongside him, not huddling close because she was not some goddamn damsel in a horror movie.  Jason smiled slightly, his face hidden by the flickering gloom of the woods.  The others, not really wanting to stick around this place themselves, followed along with Sara bringing up the rear with her own torch.

By the time the unlikely group of intrepid explorers made it back to the campsite, the party was winding down anyway.  These weren't city folk who stayed awake all hours - Shelly was a rural community, and most people woke up around dawn out of sheer habit.  Devin was nowhere to be seen, but Marissa was not worried, airily explaining that he'd headed home.  Some gentle ushering, as well as removing the remaining booze from easy access convinced the partygoers, most of whom were very mellow thanks to the Lucifer's Reserve, that it was time to head homewards.  Most, if not all agreed that it had been a 'killer party', a fact loudly proclaimed so many times that the slightly frazzled survivors of the mystery and dangers of the night were sick of hearing it.

As the last revelers and stragglers pulled out from the parking area, honking their horns in abandon, those remaining took stock.  Cade had to get Cora home, and Charlie gratefully accepted the ride too.  Clara, Eddy (as the unfortunate Etienne was forever dubbed), Lona and Luis all headed off when it was made clear that enough people would be hanging back for cleanup.  That left Lilly, Sara, Sean, Cassandra, Laurie and Tawny, Jason, and (surprising everyone except Shelly's resident psychopath) Marissa Jauntsen, who pitched in just as diligently as the others in gathering trash and straightening the spot out.  Between them, the work was relatively painless and quick, the trash being loaded into the back of Sara's wrecker.  They worked in relative peace and calm, chatting quietly with no asides, arguments or snark thrown around, and it genuinely seemed as though the immensity of the night's happenings had rendered previous differences moot.

Jase was perhaps the most quiet of the lot, not saying a word as he worked, and other than Lilly briefly checking to make sure he was okay (to which she got a nod) the others left him to the small eye of stillness he seemed to project around himself.  Finally, the work was done, all belongings were packed, and with a final last look around the former logging camp, the teens went their separate ways.

[WS ST]

End Credits Scene

Sean was heading to the trash pile they had stacked on the lowboy trailer that Sara was going to haul away on the morrow when she came around out of the shadows and almost made him pee his pants she startled him so bad. "What the fuck Hutchins?"

She didn't say anything but pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to him. it was very thin cell phone he guessed and a separate battery. "What's this," Sean asked with a whisper because it seemed appropriate? Sara looked around Sean copied her and looked around too, "It's a phone, I need you to unlock it," she said, "It was hidden at the trailer."

Sean took it and looked it over his curiosity peaked. "How'd you find it?"

"I remembered putting it there so they could find the trailer."

"What? Who?"

"I don't know Sean, it wasn't my memory. Unlock and be careful where you do it."

She squeezed his shoulder and walked away to her wrecker leaving Sean holding a mystery.