OPEN SIGNUPS A Cruise Ship Experiment ( IC thread)

Constance had put her notebook away but clicked on her recorder so she could record what the captain was saying. He was clearly disoriented and confused but otherwise seemed quite remarkably well physically. He had full function in his arms and legs, as far as she could tell and he seemed able to think logically even though his memory had not returned fully.

She made note of his attachment to Peter, and how he seemed to go from panic to calm with a word or touch from the necromancer. She wondered if Peter had some kind of actual control over the man now, or it was just the power that rose the captain making him feel safe. Time would tell she supposed, but she was fascinated on a level that bordered on obsession at the moment, but at the same time there was a terror building in her mind as well. Peter was in grave danger. He could be used, and more than likely WOULD be used if he was not provided a means of escaping from this ship. She knew the men who had allowed the captain to be killed for the purpose of testing Peter's abilities were ruthless and unethical. She had to think and she had to do it quickly.

She knew most of them didn't trust her, so she stayed quiet while they worked on the code. She would guess the numbers were letters but deciding which wouldn't be easy. She just stayed quiet and watched until Joe returned. "Hmm...I would hazard a guess at the ...irksome one being named Dan?" she ventured hoping to garner a bit of trust from them. She knew Mike was in the know as well, and she needed to make him aware of her fears and possibly enlist him in aiding Peter. None of this was going as she was led to believe. She wanted to study Peter not offer him up as a military weapon, or a freak show.
 
Fiona smiled brightly, "Still, I appreciate it Agent Ross." She said and then feeling a bit less terrified now that the captain was speaking and attempting to interact she stepped from behind Mike and accepted the handshake. She didn't really have anything helpful to offer as far as the code went so she figured helping the captain was her best way to be of service to them.

"We did meet at dinner," she said engagingly, "You were a delightful host, witty and charming as every good sea captain should be if at all possible. you took a nasty blow to the head, Sir. Don't push for too much too quickly just relax..it will return as it should. We are trapped yes but not in danger of any kind."

Joe came back through the wall and she smiled, "I really envy you being able to do that..." She said honestly. Then Constance offered up a name and her brow shot up, "And you would know that how??" But Constance gave no clarification, so she turned back to Joe. "Shady in what way?"
 
Dan looked at Joe, "I came about two days ago. Met the captain and obtained a tour of the ship. I am a technology advisor. I am here to upgrade the safety systems for the ship." True and yet so NOT true. He was good at mixing both convincingly. he could see she was not really buying his story but he didn't really care.

She passed through the wall again and he cursed silently hoping she wasn't passing along some sort of warning that he was out there. He didn't trust that doctor one little bit. She was a bleeding heart, and would more than likely turn on them. He had wanted to kill her but the director nixed it, but maybe he'd get to feel her blood warm his hands before this was over.

He made another show of banging on the door, "Hey you guys...everything alright in there?"
 
No one really seemed to remember him from the other night, but that was fine. He wasn't the type to socialize at least until he was used to the area, and at the time of the banquet, he had been off, getting used to the area. Even Constance was starting to seem almost trustworthy...until she mentioned a random name that the ghost recognized, thus eroding away the trust altogether. Either way, the important thing was to make sure that Peter stayed safe, whatever reason he felt like he had to do so, and protect the Captain, as he was now mothering the man. He silently approved of the interaction with Fiona, finding it a relief that Christopher was starting to normalize instead of, say, try to kill him, or kidnap him, or set him on fire. The few people that had terrible reactions tended to take it out on him, not on Peter, but he was used to it by now, as the attempts really weren't that great, being recently undead and all. It was still weird how he knew all of this, as if he had some sort of memory block placed on him and some of the memories were filtering through. So for now, he kept an eye on Christopher and Fiona, while trying to solve the puzzle. "It could be a date, like when we all went onto the ship, or today's date. Or, we use the direct number to letter translation, with e being 5, m being 13, 0 being 15 and h being 8, making it 5-4-6-8?" Awhile ago, he had stopped staring at Christopher, but threw a comment over his shoulder at the pair who were talking to each other. "Kinda wish I remembered meeting you, Fiona, and Christopher. I feel like I should know the both of you from last night, but I don't." All he knew was that he had a connection to Peter for some odd reason, and he clearly helped the man with dead people.

Maybe Ari didn't think it enough, but this guy was shifty as hell. At this point, if she had seen Dan walking down the street, she would go across the street just to avoid him. She was team GhostKid, and frankly, she hoped that everyone got to meet each other soon, so they could leave the ship and she could go home. Charlie...Charlie was clearly in this for himself, which meant his decisions were somewhat shrouded in mystery, as he decided if he wanted to help them or not. Wait a minute...she was showing her cards too early. She should be pretending to trust Charlie and Dan. Especially pretend to trust Dan, even though it was incredibly difficult to accomplish that. Honestly, she wished she could just do something, instead of standing here, uncertain with a creep and a random magic guy. Though Joe's powers were really neat, and she wished she had those, instead of simply the ability to detect magic. Walking through walls would be pretty cool at the moment to have. Finding herself bored with what was happening, she attempted to use her parkour skills to try and find a way around the door, like going above to an open window or something. She didn't need that much to climb off of, being sure of herself, and her practiced skills.
 
GM Response

It seemed that the person who had written was long since gone. Whoever they were, they were either extremely cocky or knew something that Charlie knew. Either way, it wasn't like they were going to respond back to him.

If he looked back, the writing was gone, almost as if they were never in the first place. It was quite creepy and unbecoming, seeming to fit the atmosphere of this ship, it was an enigma wrapped in a mystery.


He walked calmly off, free to investigate alone as he went for the direction of the cargo hold.

The cargo did not have anything living in it. However, it did have four corpses in it. Three female corpses, one a little girl, one college aged and one older woman. The last was a brunette male. On the wall were names under them. Grace, Delilah, Angelo and Daniella. ' NOT WORTHY' was written in blood red.

@Ringmaster

Peter Destin, Chris Fletcher,Michael Ross and Joe the Ghost

Chris hadn't been paying attention what he could or couldn't know or notice that Constance was recording it. He looked back and forth between the banter, trying to rank his brain for an answer to the code home. Why was it so hard to remember these simple things? He wasn't feeling good about anything as he tried to peel back the layers of memory because it was escaping him and frustrating him.

Peter could feel that the fact that Chris couldn't was remembering him was making him unstable. He had felt these things before and he knew the more worked up he got, the more unstable he would become. If he didn't control him, he would hurt himself. He gently placed his hand on the captain's shoulder and looked at him. " It's okay that you can't remember, everything is going to be okay and we are going to figure it out together. There is no need to get so worked up about it, Captain Fletcher. We should approach this with a calm and open mind," he said, hoping that relaxing him would make things less tense in the room. It was possible that eventually Jeremy might get jealous, but if he did, he wasn't doing it intentionally. He just needed everything to go smoothly.

Joe looked back at Dan with a look that said that the ghost didn't believe him in the slightly. " You sure did a bang up job of screwing up since we are drifting in the ocean with passengers vanishing." If Joe could knew that he was assuming the ghost's gender, Joe would have slapped him upside. Too bad she couldn't.

Joe turned over to Constance with the most skeptical eyebrow raise that a ghost could give to a woman who it had just met. Why did she know who he was? It seemed very coincidental to the ghost, but it was also suspicious to Joe. " Yes, his name is Dan. He said that he was a teach advisor and the captain had given him a tour a few days ago, which just seemed suspicious on so many levels. Add that to the fact that it looked like the captain was murdered and just revived, I can't believe that it was merely coincidental that he knew where it was. Though, I do have a question for you, how did you know his name?"

Michael had so many mixed emotions at watching this interaction, but his very thought was this. Constance, it might be in your best interest to shut the fuck up before you come off as even more shady than you already are. I'm surrounded by idiots. He however, didn't speak these words and simply shook Fiona's hand, still pretending to be the nice and kind FBI agent.

" Okay, I thought I remembered that, but I didn't want to be remembering wrong. I was worried that it would make me feel bad if I was wrong and couldn't remember right. How bad was this blow to the head? I mean, I don't know how we got locked in it here, but you all seem trustworthy enough to me to be believed."

Joe looked over at her when the ghost finally processed what the other woman said. " It's not easy and it requires being dead, so it isn't something to envy." It was a good thing Fiona and Joe were on the same page. The ghost was worried that they weren't. " Claimed to be tech, knew where the captain quarters are and were getting way too quickly. Tried to accused me of being the one to lock you in. Guy seems very shady to me."

Joe looked around at everyone and back at the riddle that had passed around, trying to figure out why the mirror would play a role and decided to ask the obvious question. " Have you all been trying to figure out a series of codes to unlock safes instead of trying to safe crack and destroy things to make it easy on you?" The ghost asked, not getting why they had done that.

Peter looked over at Joe in silence at not realizing that was simpler than what they were doing
" You have been trying to figure out a puzzle instead of the simple way? Well, that is dumb. So, Home is the answer," Joe replied, walking over to the last uncracked object and leaning on it. Whatever Joe had leaned on caused the mechanism on the safe to spin in turn.... making all the numbers into letters. " Huh- I guess you were all overguessing this," Joe said. Peter just stared at the French ghost he had revived from the catacombs and was at a loss words to both the simple solution that felt like it had been going on for months. Without even talking time to think about what might happen if he was wrong, he would insert the four letter word home into it. The safe sprung out and out came a button. What the fuck? They had been hunting for a key this whole time and it was going to be a button that was going to get them out. Peter just sighed and did the only rational that was left to do in this situation, despite every instinct in his body telling him not to do. He pushed the damn button. The door swung open behind them, slamming whoever happened to be standing in front of them at the moment. " I'm stating to suspect that this ship is out to kill us."

" Normally, I would disagree with you, but that puzzle was dumb beyond all belief for a simple solution. I feel kind of dumb for forgetting the most basic rule of mystery solving. If it seems ridiculously simple, then it is fairly complicated and has a difficult to solve solution while if it seems like it will have ten thousand steps, it has a solution that as simple as a button press," he said, looking around the other and stepping out of the captain's quarter to all the strange and new people. He counted two, maybe one of them had left as he had could have sworn that Joe had mentioned that there were at least three people who were outside though. Ari wouldn't need her parkour skills. It seemed the whole group was here. Now the question was this- what was left to figure out besides the obvious. Why were they here and where were the rest of the passengers?

@slifer @PoetLore


 
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It seemed that the person who had written was long since gone. Whoever they were, they were either extremely cocky or knew something that Charlie knew. Either way, it wasn't like they were going to respond back to him.

If he looked back, the writing was gone, almost as if they were never in the first place. It was quite creepy and unbecoming, seeming to fit the atmosphere of this ship, it was an enigma wrapped in a mystery.


He walked calmly off, free to investigate alone as he went for the direction of the cargo hold.

The cargo did not have anything living in it. However, it did have four corpses in it. Three female corpses, one a little girl, one college aged and one older woman. The last was a brunette male. On the wall were names under them. Grace, Delilah, Angelo and Daniella. ' NOT WORTHY' was written in blood red.

"Blood red. How cliché."

He deadpanned aloud with a faint yawn, but writing down the names on his palm. Putting away his pen afterwards, he looked around before cheerfully setting up his own little working.

Blood for life(his own) and salt for the soul, in the preservation of it. Silver mercury, painted in intricate Sanskrit, alien and unsettling to behold. He took great care with it, spending an hour here in doing so. Upon finishing, he looked with satisfaction before he let out a deep breath.

And stepped inside.

The effect was immediate, the world seemed to cut off in terms of sensation. Weightless, detached he could feel the words welling up within him.

He gave them voice, like the degenerate Inuit, or the lost souls of the New Orleans cult, the words twisting and writhing with life of their own.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Hai ep kadishtu, sgn'wahl Chaugnar Faugn nglui nog vulgtlagln mg n'gha, fm'latgh 'ai Chaugnar Faugn zhro shtunggliyar f'sgn'wahl n'gha. R'lyeh hafh'drn ngluinyth ngn'gha Dagon Chaugnar Faugn syha'h ah ilyaaagl nog mnahn' ooboshuagl!"

Upon completion, so long as he was uninterrupted forcefully, the spell would wash out and affect the cargo hold. Outside, necromancy may hold sway.

Within here? Charlie held a savage grin as he looked about his new Bounded Field, speaking aloud what once a man had penned.

"And with strange dreams, even death may die'. Your move, cockbite."

@LuckycoolHawk9 @everyone else
 
Constance looked at Joe and frowned, "What?" she was so afraid and confuse right now she wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying. She glanced up and saw the look that Ross was giving her and somehow stifled the groan that welled up inside her at her own stupidity. It wasn't like her to be so careless, but she was rattled to her core. For some reason though, she trusted Joe more than just about anyone in the room at present so she transferred her weight to her right foot and tipped her head as she jotted three words on the paper she was jotting notes onto in a jumbled and scattered manner. ~He is evil~ is all she wrote. She tapped the pencil as she then shrugged and looked at Dan, "I must have met him last night at dinner..." that was her lie but at least Joe could see what she wrote. Her hand was shaking a bit, something that Joe could more than likely see as well.

She needed to reevaluate this whole thing. Something had taken a decidedly sinister, dark turn and she had not signed on for that. She had merely wanted to document Peter's powers and assign strength to them for scientific purposes. Something else was going on here though, and she did not like it one little bit. She didn't speak anymore but kept her thoughts to herself and listened to the interactions between the others. Even her note taking ceased in the wake of her mental turmoil.
 
Fiona smiled a very sweet smile as she shook his hand, "I'm so glad you are recovering and able to stand. So...oh..." she blinked at the men who were trying to open the door and chuckled at their discomfiture. "I also assume things are simple because most people are forgetful." she shrugged and stepped through the door as if this whole episode had barely phased her at all. She had been in plenty of weird situations in her life. That came along with being in the family she was in, so not much shook her. She looked over her shoulder, red curls swishing as she did, "So...are we going to find the other passengers or stand around in the captain's quarters?"

She was feeling the need for some fresh air and a bit of sunshine, "I mean come on...this is a cruise..sunshine, salty sea air...let's get out of here and get some sun...if even for a few minutes."
 
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Dan hopped back when he heard the door mechanism engage and barely evaded the swift swing of the heavy metal door. "Oh... I see you figured out the lock. That was lucky. I wasn't having much luck from my side." He sounded sincere enough but there was something in his eyes that gave away his true nature if you looked close enough. There was an icy hardness to those eyes that was creepy and off-putting.

he looked at the captain and smiled a sideways kind of smile, "Well Captain.... how good to see you. I'm sure you remember me. I'm your technician for all the electrical system on board." He wasn't sure what the man would remember since he'd been dead for over fifteen hours. His gaze moved to peter and his mental wheels were turning a mile a minute. So the man COULD raise the dead. How very interesting...his boss would be very pleased indeed. there was a camera in the third button of his polo shirt that was transmitting to them directly so he knew they were seeing what he was seeing. So they wanted to find more passengers did they? that would be interesting to see as well.

"I'm not sure going off half cocked around the ship is a good idea," he said, "Maybe you should wait until i get a few more systems up and running..." He knew that wouldn't stop them but he was trying to look like he was on their side so he could watch them as part of their group.
 
If there was one thing that Jeremy knew, was that scared people generally weren't in total control of everything. Constance was officially off his shit list for now. She wasn't the issue, it was the people controlling her and her actions. She wasn't as much of a problem anymore which was fine with him. These new people seemed strange, and now there there were more people he wasn't sure he could trust. Just great. Now he had to shove even more of his worries in the back of his head and focus on the main objective-protect Peter Destin, someone who somehow meant so much to him, and to care for the Captain. "I vote that we maybe look for more people." Though Peter meant a lot to him, the man followed too much movie logic- wait, this was acting like a movie. Did they have to split up? Hopefully, they didn't because he wasn't about to let himself or Peter or Fiona get picked off. IF this was a movie, then one of them was the traitor. Now, it couldn't be Peter, and it wasn't himself or the Captain because he would be sure if he himself was a traitor. Now, assuming that he could find out who Peter could have brought back to life, he could cross them off his super secret suspect list quickly and see who was left to suspect. Well, he could be wrong, but Peter had brought up a good point-following movie mystery logic would probably help them escape here alive. "We should probably leave this room. Fiona's right. We should go outside and get some air, even though...it's not exactly sunny outside."

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ari spoke up, remembering the weirdo at the beginning who had left them. "There was one other guy over here. He ditched us though, for some reason." Ari said quietly, remembering the odd man with the magic. She only recognized that he had magic, not that he knew the dark arts of Cuthulu. Besides, he was probably the least of their concerns. Dan...he was extremely off-putting and scary. Her gut was screaming at her to not trust him, even though his words seemed to be reasonable. Besides that, he was being too calm and composed for "a regular electrician." It was too suspicious, that everything that was electrical about the ship mysteriously wasn't working, especially with the electrician on board that looked way too calm and collected for this. The smile was off as well, and at that moment, if she was a cat, her fur would have been standing up on end. "I agree with...uhh...her. Maybe we...should stick together? Going off into groups didn't quite work the first time. Or, we just stay in two big groups and go from there." Hopefully, she was selling the fact that she wasn't suspicious of Dan. Maybe she would like to go with team Necromancer if they did have to show up. Necromancy was powerful, and she didn't think that he was controlling anything. IT seemed too random for that. If he had been controlling everything, then why would he be there with everyone? Besides, she had to get friendly with the other people. At least there was someone around her age here, the girl with the frizzy hair. Staying in one spot for too long seemed like a terrible idea. "I'm Ari. It's nice to meet you...I guess, considering where we are." Ari whispered to Fiona, not entirely sure what was going on, feeling like she probably wouldn't know what was going on for most of her time on the ship.
 
GM Response

There was no response from the writing.

Though he didn't know it, there were cameras around him watching him. Some of them were more obvious than others and some were less obvious like the one hide behind blood red writing though.

The cameras watched him for the next hour, just watching him perform this ritual and not really trying to stop him or prevent him from doing whatever he wanted to do. It was a wonder that he missed them, but the ever-persistent eyes watched from their safe little room on the ship.

Nothing stopped him.

It was a wonder that the forces on the ship was letting him do this, but it seemed that in all honesty, they didn't care what he was about to do here though.

It seemed weird that the superior didn't care, but it was mostly because the superior didn't know what they were doing and that was something else.

To anyone who didn't know the language, it sounded like nonsense and even to the superior, it seemed like something that the being didn't fully understand, but in order for this experiment to be fully unchanged, the superior had to get rid of him or at least keep him separated from the ghost. Seeing as he set an anti-death shield, he had signed his will.

It seemed that he had made the cargo hold a place where the dead couldn't be risen. How terrible for the corpses in there, there was no brining them back until they left the room.

And even then, it seemed like it was a stretch. All Charlie had done in this small room was to let the corpses stay dead and he had made a grave error.

As if by some powermove, the door to the cargo hold closed behind Charlie, but he had a split second where he could slid out of it. It seemed that his circle would be fine and if the necromancer or the others found him, well he would have to help he wouldn't die before then. If he made it out of the cargo hold, he noticed that it was night and the stars were out.

@Ringmaster

Peter Destin, Chris Fletcher,Michael Ross and Joe the Ghost

Joe would have raised an eyebrow if the ghost was alive, but Joe couldn't. The ghost assumed that she didn't know what was going on, but it was possible that the ghost from the French catacombs was dead wrong. Joe however noticed the look that the FBI agent was giving her and there was something wrong about it. As a ghost, Joe was the most honest of the whole group and that was something though. The ghost took a note of her shifting her right foot over and looked over at the notepad and looked over at him. Joe had knew that Dan was bad news, but she wouldn't voice it a loud anymore to seem like a team player. After all, working together was how everyone would do well and not die. " Oh yeah, the dinner. You know, there is a surprising lack of people from that dinner who are here." The ghost took note of the possible evil ones reaction to this information that Joe had presented.

The ghost did have to wonder if Constance was okay, if she did think that she was working for the bad guys though. " Maybe it would be a good idea to go outside and it might be good to see the deck. Maybe we have gotten out of the dark storm we had gotten ourselves stuck in. After all, it can't be too bad," Joe replied, hoping that it was the right thing to say, though the ghost wasn't certain about it. Of course, there were many wrong things to say in this moment, but hopefully this wasn't a bad one.

Michael smiled back at her, being as nice and kind as he could be. " Yeah, leg finally decided that it wanted to work for a bit, probably isn't going to be fully better for a while, but at least there is something to look forward too. I also thought it was strange that the puzzle was so hard. Sometimes you just forgot to examine the evidence that is front in you and it makes your life just a touch more difficult. Of course, that is true of most situations though. I think it might be better if we go to find the other passengers. I am sure that they are going to have to be somewhere around here. I mean, even if they vanished, there must be some sort of clue where they are."

Oh, how he wished there was sunshine, but there only seemed to be clouds in the sky, making it difficult to tell the time. At least there was the open sea air that the group could easily enjoy though.

Joe rolled their ghost eyes and looked over at him. " It was a button in a lockbox that had the password of home. It was surprisingly simple to figure out in the long run. Knowing he was evil from Constance's note, she could see the cold distance nature in his eyes. The ghost wondered what had broken him so well, but perhaps it was best to leave some things secret or some questions left to be unanswered like Dan's creepy and off-putting eyes. Joe briefly went to the left of the group.

Chris could have easily told the truth and mention to the others that he didn't remember who this man was, but he felt that would make the others very concerned though. " Yes, the tech consultant on the ship. What is that they called you? Stan, no, that is not. Dan, Dan the Man," he replied, not remembering that most of the time they had called him Dan the Man was behind his back, but he couldn't remember why that was. He wondered if there were any more passengers on the ships, but he couldn't remember how many people were on the boat to begin with, so there was no telling how many people were missing also. Maybe the others could remember for him and help him figure out the problems.

As if to spite Dan, the lights would come on and Chris looked up. " It looks like it was only a temporary power outage and they are coming online," he said. If the group would look up, they would notice something else. With the lights were on, they could see the clouds weren't that, but the darkness of night and now stars were starting to shine.


Peter was too busy processing what had happened to be certain of how Dan wasn't fishy and he knew that most of the people here also thought that Dan was bad news. He didn't say anything though, as it was better to let the bad people think they had moles then to send people who could be more dangerous than Dan and could hurt them as a whole. He wondered why everyone wanted to protect him though. It was a strange feeling that people depended on him as he often worked as a solo detective. He was so used to being alone that it surprised him when people got close to him and he looked over at him. "
I agree that we should look for more people too. I know it's weird to not spilt up, but seeing as the last time we did that, half of us were locked in the room for a while, it might be better for things if the whole group of people stuck together for now. I imagine that someone here is lying to us, but for now we have to trust each even if some of us are certainly shadier than others," he glanced over at Dan and Constance. " Some of us are more forgetful and some of us are strange and different, but as much as I hate to say this, it is also getting late and the power system just turned back on too. Normally, I would suggest our own cabins- but that just might cause problems as most of us don't know each other. And I doubt that there are rooms that are going to fit all of us into one or two-," Peter was cut off before he could finish his sentence as Joe had come back over to the group.

" You guys won't believe what I just found," Joe replied, looking at the group and gesturing for the group to follow them as it would seem. If they followed her, they would find two things. All of the luggage was by these two doors and if they picked them up, they seemed to be fill of their clothes. Even the strange man's was here, looking different from the rest. " But that is not even the best part," the ghost replied, gesturing to the two doors before them. Peter raised a skeptical eyebrow as the ghost opened them up.

Much to his surprise, they were fully furnished rooms that seemed it would fit the group. Luckily for the group or unluckily, depending on your view of the other members of the group, they were adjoining rooms. They seemed to have enough beds for six people per room. " You know, I don't know if I should be creeped out by the fact that our suitcases are here by these two giant rooms or impressed that somehow all our suitcases were put by these rooms without us noticing and it just so happens to be here just when it got dark. I hope the other man is okay. I know this is going to be dumb, but maybe we should turn in for the night. I know we haven't exactly discovered anything and the passengers are still gone and we don't know where we are, but I have to admit that I'm tired from all of this running around," he said, stopping his squirrel from throwing nuts at Dan, though it and most of the rest of his pets made predatory towards him. He tried to make sure that they calmed down and he knew that it was a terrible idea. " Maybe guys to one room and girls to the other... and Joe, you can...." Peter wasn't sure what gender the ghost was, as it was hard to tell if Joe was a tom-boy or an actual boy. He often found this awkward, and thankfully for him, the awkwardness was cleared up by Joe.

"I'll go with the girls."

" So, Dan, Michael, Jeremy, Christopher and I can sleep in one room while Ari, Joe, Constance and Fiona sleep in the other room and hopefully the magician will find us, so how does that sound to everyone?" He asked.

@slifer @PoetLore
 
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GM Response

There was no response from the writing.

Though he didn't know it, there were cameras around him watching him. Some of them were more obvious than others and some were less obvious like the one hide behind blood red writing though.

The cameras watched him for the next hour, just watching him perform this ritual and not really trying to stop him or prevent him from doing whatever he wanted to do. It was a wonder that he missed them, but the ever-persistent eyes watched from their safe little room on the ship.

Nothing stopped him.

It was a wonder that the forces on the ship was letting him do this, but it seemed that in all honesty, they didn't care what he was about to do here though.

It seemed weird that the superior didn't care, but it was mostly because the superior didn't know what they were doing and that was something else.

To anyone who didn't know the language, it sounded like nonsense and even to the superior, it seemed like something that the being didn't fully understand, but in order for this experiment to be fully unchanged, the superior had to get rid of him or at least keep him separated from the ghost. Seeing as he set an anti-death shield, he had signed his will.

It seemed that he had made the cargo hold a place where the dead couldn't be risen. How terrible for the corpses in there, there was no brining them back until they left the room.

And even then, it seemed like it was a stretch. All Charlie had done in this small room was to let the corpses stay dead and he had made a grave error.

As if by some powermove, the door to the cargo hold closed behind Charlie, but he had a split second where he could slid out of it. It seemed that his circle would be fine and if the necromancer or the others found him, well he would have to help he wouldn't die before then. If he made it out of the cargo hold, he noticed that it was night and the stars were out.

@Ringmaster

He didn't leave.

Why would he? In a dead zone untouched, with a new wall set up to protect him from physical dangers? Sealed off, he was now the safest person on the ship now possibly. He just watched the doors close with a grin as he moved to clear a new space.

Now then...Time to show a Necromancer why you didn't leave an Elder Sign pactmaster alone, in a place with plenty of room, ventilation shafts and utter privacy.

Cue the second circle being set up.

More massive than the first, every bit of it in a more intricate design. Sansrkit and runic work, echoing again and again in a design that seemed to spiral to infinity. The room seemed heavier, Charles tasted blood in his mouth and chuckled. Now...

"Time to go all 'Thing' on everyone."

He raised his arms within the protective embrace of the Elder Sign he had scribed with his own blood and squid ink, calling forth from the void.

He had to be careful. This was going to take a good two hours but if it worked...Well.

Lets just say the Dead weren't the only things going to rise on this ship.

@LuckycoolHawk9
 
Constance was really feeling betrayed by her employers. She could almost see Dan's hand in the death of the captain as if it was some sort of test that the necromancer had now passed. It made her sick. It was one thing to have already dead people as subjects, but to take someone's life necessarily, when the ship was full of dead people was unethical and cruel. Not to mention, frightening. And she was indeed afraid of Dan, and though she tried not to show it, she was learning that she wasn't quite as in control of her emotions as she's always believed herself to be. All she wanted to do was observe and document, not torment and abuse. But the people in charge seemed bent on twisting their minds into a pretzel just for fun and it was pissing her off.

She followed Joe out when she made her exclamation of discovery and her brows furrowed tightly. What the devil was going on? None of this was in her notes. She even cast a wary look at Dan's chest where she KNEW a listening and camera device was located. She didn't look at the FBI agent though, because she didn't want anyone to distrust him. He was there because of her boss and though he was aware of what was going on, to an extent, he wasn't part of that group. She couldn't claim the same. She's agreed to come of her own free will, a fact that she was coming to regret with each passing minute. Still, seeing people spring to life in Peter's presence was fascinating to her and clawed at the scientist within her like a mad dog. Was Peter even aware that he was doing this? She couldn't tell yet. It seemed his power was innate, not of will. She was almost glad of it, because she didn't feel he was as useful without control, at least not to the people watching. The last thing she wanted was for them to scoop him up and use him to bring a specific person back but leave other specific people dead. Still...he was in danger of being used in such a way, and she knew it. How long she'd be able to keep the secret, she didn't know. She no longer felt safe, or protected so her professional ethics and silence were tenuous at best.

She picked up her bags and followed into the two large rooms. Her eyes almost rolled at the obviousness of this 'lucky break'. They might be brilliant minds, but this was not very brilliant. "That's agreeable to me...I find I am quite tired..." She moved into the room where the women would be bedding down and sat heavily on a bed. Her hand rubbed the bridge of her nose as a heavy sigh rushed through slightly parted lips. Odd to her was the thought that the only person she actually trusted at the moment aside from the FBI agent was a ghost. "Thank you Joe," she said quietly, "For staying with us. I feel somehow safer."

She kicked off her shoes and looked at the other women, "Anyone mind if I grab the first shower?"
 
Fiona was just listening and taking everything in. She saw Constance show something to Joe, and her curiosity was piqued. No one looking at her would have known it though because she was a master at hiding her true thoughts and feelings. She was smiling and conversing and being encouraging, but she was feeling trapped, confined and she instinctively knew she was in grave danger. She was relieved when Peter suggested they all stay together, "I agree...I think there is safety in numbers...even though our numbers aren't that big..still..." She avoided making eye contact with Dan because frankly that dude gave her the willies. He was radiating evil that she felt like she could almost see visibly.

She moved with everyone else when Joe bid them and her reaction to her things being there was undisguised rage. "How the hell did my things get here? I locked my cabin...and I had unpacked everything into the drawers and closet...." She rushed over and knelt on the deck opening her bag and looking through the luggage. Everything seemed to be there, but she still felt extremely violated. In her rummaging though, a set of teeny tiny black lingerie spilled onto the deck which she didn't notice until she was putting things back. Her cheeks reddened a bit, but she didn't react in any other way. Closing the luggage she stood and followed everyone else, not sure why they weren't all outraged like herself.

She wasn't sure she liked the girls in one room and boys in the other suggestion, but she didn't argue about it either. It was the way gentlemen chose to do things as a rule, though it seemed to her they were leaving the women horribly unprotected. She followed Constance and chose the bed closest to the bathroom. Constance wanted to shower and she had no objection to that at all. "Go right ahead, I can wait." she said with a smile and nod of her head all friendly like. As soon as Constance was in the bathroom she moved around the bed and began going through her things.

She looked up at Joe and Ari, "What? You going to tell me you guys trust her??" She saw paper sticking out of a pocket and pulled it out. It was a journal. She read a few pages and frowned sitting down on the bed. "She's crackers....totally crackers..." She said as she continued to read. She got through quite a few pages of the journal before she heard the water turn off and quickly stuffed the book where she had found it and zipped over to her bed where she reclined against the wall with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. She smiled at Constance when she appeared, "Well you look refreshed. Bet you feel tons better too. I think I'll take a shower too." She grabbed a small bag of toiletries, a t-shirt and clean underwear and made her way tot he bathroom smiling as if everything was totally alright with the world.

Once inside the bathroom though, she quickly closed the door and leaned into the mirror. Was she dead? Constance's journal said she was. She didn't LOOK dead. She touched her hair and sure enough, she could feel it. She turned on the water and lifted it to her lips, and she could taste it. Her skin didn't look any different, not dry and cold. She'd been to MANY funerals, with her father and mother. She knew what dead people looked like when an undertaker had done his best to make them look less dead. You could still tell they were, and they certainly FELT dead. NO, Constance was completely insane. She turned on the shower and washed quickly, in case someone was now looking through her things. She wrapped a towel around her head and dried off pulling on the panties and the t-shirt leaving shapely pale legs exposed. She smiled as she entered the large room, "Your turn Ari...plenty of hot water it seems...feels great too." She said as if to mock Constance's inferences. She sat on the bed and towel dried her curls in a gentle patting motion. Hopefully we get some answers tomorrow...and find some more people.."
 
Dan saw the bags and had to stifle a groan. That was stupid on epic levels, but what was done was done. "Must be some crew around somewhere..wish they would have let us know.." he said loudly as if trying to call to them, when he was really yelling at the people watching them.

In a room below deck, three men pulled their headsets away from their ears and winced. "The seem to be suspicious Sir."

"It matters not."

"But what if they discover what's really going on?"

A sideways shrug was followed by a low menacing voice, "Only the asset matters, everyone else is expendable."

Dan followed into the rooms and set down his bag. He hadn't been planning to get saddled tagging along with these guys. He had much better things to do, but now he was stuck without an easy exit. He could fake his own death, and he'd likely do so tomorrow just to get away from them. He sat on the nearest bed and watched everyone. "It's a shame they didn't think to leave some food...Maybe we should make a run to the kitchen for supplies." That was probably the only true thing he'd said to them. he was indeed hungry...and he was hoping to get their eyes off him and onto something else. He needed to be able to shadow them WITHOUT being one of their group. He could tell they were all wary of him, but he was going to try to get them focused on their distrust of Constance. Maybe he could get them to do his dirty work there, if they began to fear and suspect her and he could plant those little thoughts in their mind very easily. he knew a lot about the little professor...all the right things actually.
 
This was a terrible idea. Being in the same room as Dan's blank stare and then falling asleep were probably not going to happen, considering how Dan scared the shit out of him. But...shit, he wasn't about to leave the group, so he would have to deal with it.
In his personal opinion, Dan thought he was smooth and charming, but ultimately, in his eyes, the scary man failed, especially when he said dumb things of that epic proportion. Either he was dumb or untrustworthy, and here was definitely leaning towards untrustworthy. Like this whole situation was shady as hell. A secret crew on the ship? Really, how stupid did he think they were. "Maybe we should all stick together if we go on a food run. I'm not about to split up the groups. Someone else is going to die." Jeremy said, feeling an odd migraine start to form in his head. IT was like his whole body was trying to make his brain do something, remember something that was important. It was at the tip of his tongue, he could feel it. All he needed was a push of some sort, and he knew it had to do with Peter and his necromancy. He had seen the dead come back to life, and there was always something a little wrong with them. Even if the dead could come back to life, he wasn't about to risk anyone in the group, even Shady Dan.

__________________________________________________________

It was disturbing to see that her things had been moved into a room, only strengthening the position As soon as Fiona picked up the journal, Ari came up behind her silently, reading the journal as soon as the other girl had started reading said journal. "She's not lying." Ari said slowly, remembering distantly a person important to her telling her that magic was real, just as Constance came out of the bathroom. It was hard to recall who it was, but all she knew was that a warm, loving feeling came with the thought of the mystery person, which meant it had been someone close to her. "Magic is real-" Panic gripped her as the memory of her death swam into view as the memories, still somewhat hazy came upon her in a rush. The most important part of everything was the face, the face of the person who had killed her was visible in her mind's eye. Tears silently dripped down her face, making her probably look like a madman to the rest of the group, but it didn't matter. The world was crashing down on her, and she wasn't prepared to handle the fact that she was dead.
 
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Chrissie Fletcher ( Fargothia)

It was quiet for a moment.

Rustling from behind a box, Chrissie peered out over at the strange man who was grinning at the closing doors. She wasn't sure why he was, but she was also positive that she didn't want to be trapped in the room with this stranger she barely knew.

If he didn't look to be nearly as old as her possibly thirty year old brother(give or take three years), she would have found him attractive, but right now, he just seemed like a crazy old kook to her.

God, was that door still locked right now?

She went over to it and pulled and pulled. Goddamn it, it was still locked. This was just as bad when those crazy people had dropped the corpses into the room with her. She had no clue what was happening on the ship, but she also knew that it wasn't good.

Oh great, he was one of those types who talked to himself.

She had no clue what the fuck he was doing, but she could only guess it was something bad. What sort of fucking cruise did her brother run for? One for magic users?

She tried to quietly go back to her corner box, but she knocked over and tripped over one of the bodies into his circle.

" Well, this certainly isn't the mess hall. .. Uh hi, stranger," she said. Please don't be too crazy and murderous.

@Ringmaster

Joe the Ghost

Joe wasn't sure why, but the ghost didn't truly trust anyone on the ship outside of Peter. Yeah, Constance was interesting, but with each passing second, this place was getting stranger and stranger. There were the missing passengers on the ships and the fact that the ship was still floating without anyone. Now that Joe thought about it, how had the ship been being driven if the captain had been killed earlier? There was definitely strange afoot on the ship, but the ghost couldn't place their ghostly finger on it. It was that fact alone that made Joe wonder who was controlling whom. The ghost awkwardly looked around and wonder if a night of sleep was going to help in the long run or if it was going to make things so much worse than it was before.

Joe looked over at Constance when the discovery was made and wondered if she was just as confused as everyone else. Obviously whatever she knew came from her notes, but that did leave a question. Why was she looking at tall, dark and totally not suspicious chest. It took the ghost a minute a moment to realize why. He must had a listening and camera device on him. That did make a lot of sense. Placing someone who seemed to be trustworthy into the group and having them being spied on. That was actually pretty clever of the bad guys. Joe understood that the only reason the captain was killed was to get Peter to revive him, but the more the ghost thought about it, the more she wondered if Peter even realized he could raise the dead. Yeah, he knew Joe was a ghost, but perhaps he thought this was different. It was possible that he had no clue that he could revive the dead. It certainly seemed more than possible to the ghost. Everyone who he had revived had come back healed. Even as a ghost, Joe knew that there should have more wear and tear on the body from death. Perhaps it was the fact he could revive the dead wasn't the surprising thing about him. Joe had seen many necromancers come and go around him and Peter even knew other ones. Maybe the thing that made him so special is that he can make people into the living dead. Essentially, revived from the dead and revived through him. If that was the case, he was the first necromancer she knew who could truly raise the dead.

Joe watched Constance grab her bags and wondered if this was not a lucky break or if the bad guys had meant to be so obvious about everything that was happening around him. Sometimes even the smartest people could do the dumbest things as well. The ghost watched as she sat on the bed and looked over at her. " It's no problem. We got to stick together after all. Whatever is happening on this ship isn't natural and I know that for a fact. People being killed, missing passengers, locked doors. All of that stuff just seemed to be straight out of a very dark Scooby Doo episode, but hey, it's what we are stuck with for now.

Joe didn't argue with Constance taking the first shower since it meant the other girls could snoop though.

Joe didn't even bother to wonder if they were going to look around. It had been very obvious to her, especially about the fact that she had seen and heard their reactions from outside. It made her wonder if Dan made himself to seem more suspicious than he was worth or if he was trying to look normal and was just so bad at it that it became obvious to everyone about how bad he was because he was pretending that he wasn't. If that was the truth, it was certainly a clever approach to take, but not a perfect one. The ghost had to wonder if the others were going to take the news they were also dead as well as the fact that Joe had discovered Peter had brought her ghostly soil back. It was possible that they wouldn't.

Joe wondered if the fact that the other hide their rage was a clever mask or if it was the fact that between being locked in a room or waking up alone had numbed them to the fact that their luggage had been in the middle of the cruise ship. It was possible it was just the fact that everyone was too tired to complain or maybe some of them didn't want to look suspicious. The ghost was fine with no being with Dan, but the ghost certainly didn't want to see Dan left alone. Hopefully someone would be keeping constant watch on him, even if that person was the FBI agent. Constance may trust him, but there was something off about him. He didn't carry the same energy as the other living dead at all for some reason.

Joe did wonder why everyone fell on the tired old trope of splitting the guys and girls into separate rooms. It was something the ghost had seen a lot of, but it didn't make much sense at all. It almost seemed like they were asking to let someone get captured. There was a sense of bewilderment to the fact that they agreed actually, but Joe knew for a fact that nobody really wanted to separate, but it wasn't exactly like Dan was someone that anyone wanted to room with. He was kind of terrifying and maybe it was the boys who might need more protection than the girls did with him in their room

Joe didn't want to argue with anyone, so she choose to not answer that question and wondered how long she was going to take to read the journal and wondered if anyone was going to snoop in the others stuff. The ghost knew for a fact that there was still the magician on the ship. Of all the passengers that were on the ship, there were too others that she hoped were okay. Lehna, the lounge singer and the nice passenger who seemed like a country boy whose name she didn't learn, but he looked liked a Darren to her. Maybe he was a Darren for all she knew. It must be nice to take a shower. As a semi alive ghost, Joe couldn't take showers or for that matter changed clothes. What you die is generally what you keep. That was a ghost rule that the ghost knew incredibly well, though it wasn't her favorite one at all.

Joe looked over around the room while the ghost thought about a topic to talk about. As suites, these were certainly nice with two twins beds, a single bed and a couch, though it seemed like something had been added. If she had to guess, it was the single bed. There also seemed to be a fridge and a TV. The ghost looked over at it and opened it. Huh- it was fully stocked with food. That did make the ghost wonder something though. Joe approached the door and noticed that there was no inside lock for them to lock. The ghost tugged on it and the door didn't budge. That was strange. Joe walked through the door to see if there was something in the way. There was not. It was then that Joe noticed that these doors were locked to an electronic system. It read: OPEN IN THE MORNING. Well, it looked like the door was purposely locked to make sure they couldn't leave for the night. Well, then, this was certainly something that Joe needed to tell the others about. The ghost figured by now that the boys knew by now. Joe figured that Dan had already tried to distant himself from the group and found out about the door.

Joe noticed that Ari was panicking and wondered about something. " Not to be that person, but uh- we're locked in for the night. Seems they really want us to get a beautiful restful night of sleeping and even got us food and TV, but I can't shake the feeling that its less of a hospitality and more so that we don't try to break down their door. I have the strangest feeling that all the door are like that and it would explain at least one thing about this ship. Whoever is doing wired this place electrically." The ghost figured that meant that Dan had problem wired the ship as he claimed to be the tech guy. Joe had no reason to doubt that part of the story, even if it was the rest of it that seemed to be incredibly suspicious as well. Well, first thing was first. " Hey.... I'm guessing you remember what killed you and it's a lot to take in, but it's okay,"Joe said, offering a comforting ghostly hand to the girl. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to separate the group the more and more the ghost thought about it, but it seemed to be like that right now. Well, hopefully the boys were doing better.

Peter Destin, Chris Fletcher and Michael Ross

Chris noticed Dan groan and he did notice that it was dumb to leave the luggage in the middle of the room. " You are right about one thing, it would have been nice to know who left those out. It really is an invasion of privacy." He wondered why whenever he talked to Dan he got a cold shiver.

Peter was quiet and knew that the outburst was something that suspicious, but he tried to not think about it too much about.

He moved his hand to his shoulder to pet his squirrel.

As he was petting him, he made sure he didn't throw his nuts at Dan.

Thankfully, his luggage was there. He did keep all of his pets food in the bag and it felt good that all of Hoppy, Chirpy, Quirrly, Pup and Aquaslasher food was there.

Michael did have to wonder how was it that the necromancer still had no clue he could revive dead humans whne he can bring five pets back to life. He had no clue about forcing them here so soon, but he did remember that the doors were going to lock. He looked over at Dan and pointed to the fridge and swung it open. " Fully stocked with food, some soda, beer and even some ice. I'm surprised you would think that a suite like this wouldn't come stocked with a fully functional fridge. It's almost like someone knew that this room was going to be used for the night and didn't lock up the fridge. Though this door is a little squeaky. Maybe we might find some crew member, but it will have to wait until morning. Hopefully they aren't someone who will stop being helpful mid-fix and seem sketchy." He purposefully emphasized the word lock and door and until morning for Dan to let him know that the door was already locked behind them until morning. He hoped he didn't have to make any more of a point to Dan since he was grating on caught the other secret message.

Peter did find some of the conversation Michael gave to Dan as weird, but maybe he was tired and reading too much into things. He decided to not focus on that and got out five food bowls and the cage for his cricket and carefully placed him in there to have his dinner.

He got their three bowls down and filled it with food for Pup, Quirrly and Hoppy before taking Aquaslasher out of his pocket. " Any bottles of water in there?" Peter asked. He looked over at Michael who shook his head no. Well, he had seen a vending machine outside. Maybe he could get one from there and went to pull the door open. It didn't budge. Of course. It was fucking locked. " Well, it's a good thing that we got a ton of food in there and drinks because the door we entered is also locked now. I'm guessing it's on one of those automatic timers outside. Looks like we are stuck here for the night. If I'm going to take a guess, this wouldn't have happened no matter the room we picked. I do vaguely recall waking up briefly before everyone disappeared and the door was also locked. Must be a safety precaution to keep thieves out." He didn't mention the other possibility. That it was used to keep people inside. He noticed Chris had taken a beer out. Maybe the captain had the right idea, but right now, he wanted to finish feeding his pets. He got a fourth dish and filled it with the room's sink water and put it down for Aquaslasher who gave him a sad look, but drank it anyone. The dragon preferred bottle water.

@PoetLore @slifer
 
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Dan knew the system. He glanced at his watch and nodded to Michael. The timer had locked the doors and they were good and trapped in the room with the people they were supposed to be watching, not cavorting with and definitely NOT making friends with in any way. There was something creepy to him about the necromancer. Yeah, he could well understand why his bosses wanted to watch the guy and what they had to gain by harnessing his abilities, but he made his living creating security systems that prevented enemies from killing people. Well that and actually killing people. He didn't like the idea that people he killed could be brought back. The captain was the exception to that, since he only killed him to test Peter.

He could tell Michael was blatantly trying to give him signals and he wondered why. He planned to be LONG gone once the door opened in the morning. He wanted to go sit at a desk and watch this fiasco unfold, not be a happy player in the game of life and death and reanimation. Plus, he couldn't have any fun this way. He wanted to be the one pulling the strings and scaring the crap out of these half wits. he knew his bosses wouldn't hesitate to torture him along with these losers if he remained with them long enough. No..he knew what time the doors would open and he planned to have his hand on the exit the second it was.

"Hey Captain...toss me a beer huh?" he asked figuring if he was trapped he might as well enjoy a little buzz. "What kind of food is in there?" He should know...but hell if he could remember. Hopefully something edible and not a bunch of junk food.
 
Constance came back from the shower and wondered why some of the women were upset. The hot water of the shower had been relaxing and she had really needed it. She was getting seriously suspicious of the TRUE motives of the men conducting this 'scientific' study. She'd come in good faith, but it was obvious that things were not on the up and up.

When Joe announced that they were locked in, she tried all the doors and sure enough, they were all locked fast. What were they doing? Why trap them in these rooms? To what end? She was honestly worried about the men being in there with Dan. She was almost sure he'd killed the Captain and injured the FBI agent. He'd given her the heebeejeebees when she'd first met him, but she hadn't put much stock in that until he'd appeared on the bridge. His reaction to the captain was the telling stroke to her. He'd done it to test Peter, but they had ample proof of Peter's abilities all around them.

She wished there was a way to tell the others who she was and why she was here, but they were being watched. She sat on her bed and noticed her journal wasn't where she'd left it. She looked around at the others, "Did someone read this?" she asked trying not to sound accusatory. If they had, it would definitely explain why they were upset. Would it make things easier or more difficult? She wasn't sure. Tucking her feet under the covers on her bed, she pulled the blankets up and got comfortable jotting a few notes in the journal as she watched everyone. The one thing that had her confused was Joe. Why wasn't she whole? Why was she still a ghost? Did Peter's abilities have a time limitation? Could he only revive the recently deceased? She seriously hoped so. If he could revive anyone, that would be a very dangerous thing.

Joe then said that the others might remember what killed them and she grimaced. So they HAD read the journal, no sense trying to remain a secret then. "Listen...if you know you're dead...or well more appropriately what you were dead...then it is possible you will begin to have flash backs or dreams about the moments that led up to your untimely death." She looked at everyone with sympathy, "I am a professor of Occult Studies, and I came here to observe. Necromancy has never been studied in this way, and I was fascinated by the opportunity....I am curious about how you feel and what you remember. I'm sorry about the locks and the other strange things. I don't know what that's all about....I promise I don't."
 
Fiona took a shower and felt the warmth of the water just as she would have any other time. How could she be dead? She finished and dressed and came back in the room to hear Joe announce they were locked in and watch Constance the nutjob try all the doors. Yup, she was a few marbles short.

She sat down on her chosen bed and blinked when Joe started talking about them being dead and remembering how they died. "Don't tell me you believe all this?" And then Constance told them who she was and Fiona's eyes widened in shock. "Wait...wait...wait..." holding up a hand as she spoke, "I've been to enough funerals to know what dead people look like...I do not look dead..and neither does anyone else."

She had to admit that the captain had indeed 'looked' dead, but he hadn't been. Just injured like the FBI agent. The dreamy FBI agent. Pushing that thought aside she glared at Constance, "I suppose you are not dead then..." When Constance shook her head no, Fiona muttered under her breath, Figures."

"So if we are locked in here it seems they think dead people don't need to eat, but I'm starving.." She looked around and saw the refrigerator, but expected it to only contain alcohol. She walked over and was shocked to find food. "Or maybe they didn't know for sure and stocked the fridge." She grabbed some bread and cold cuts. "Might as well make the best of this...turkey on wheat anyone?"