Out of Phase: Artefact discovered

[curiously_cora]

There were several well trekked paths and one newly forged one, leading away from most of the huts created by human feet. And another created by smaller feet. There was one bunch of flowers, fourteen individual red and yellow flowers picked and left on a rock which was not particularly interesting. There was one noisy small blonde human. And then there was the boar minding its own business until something strange happened.

A pulse of bright white light came out of the jungle startling it, screeching the boar ran angrily towards the source. Crashing into something metallic, the boar grunted and gruffed at it turning as it shuffled in the dirt. The metallic thing was broken into pieces, snuffling at it the boar mouthed at pieces before swallowing a couple of smaller pieces. Making an unpleased noise it tried to cough, trampling the artefact and kicking pieces of it further away. Stumbling forward it dragged some pieces alongside with it as it carried on its grumpy journey.

The boar didn't know what it had done. And it wouldn't for long. Boars didn't tend to last very long on the island. Not with so many hungry mouths to feed.

And the small blonde human? She'd disappeared without trace.

Comments

[daretodo]

One of the first things you learn about the Island is that random stuff just shows up sometimes. Underwater cities. Space stations. A coffin you were buried in, once upon a time -- and a coffin that was mercifully empty. After a while, you just learn to keep an eye out for the stranger amongst the strange. And what appears to be a component of some piece of unfamiliar tech? Qualifies as strange.

If it was in the scrapyard, I don't know that I'd pay it half a mind, but way out here, in the middle of nowhere? It's something that grabs my attention. This belonged to someone, obviously -- unless those flowers picked themselves, which I can't actually rule out -- but the question of who remains as big a mystery as the question of what, exactly, this thing once was a part of.

So I take it back home. Well. 'Home.' I take it back to my house, at any rate. I don't exactly have Tony's old set-up, but I've got enough equipment in there to run tests. Heck, I even lucked into a fancy pants computer, recently, so I don't have to keep running equations longhand.

Not that that's stopped me from covering the walls with marker.

Setting the doohickey down on my desk, I dig out my glasses from under a stack of papers and slip 'em on, giving the right lens a tap. Immediately my field of vision is filled by a spider-web of red and blue lights, the rudimentary HUD I've been working on with components salvaged from the S.H.I.E.L.D. car that crashed into a tree outside my house this past January -- the Island's idea of a gift -- springing to life before my eyes. I've got a drawer full of watch batteries culled from the clothes box to keep the damn thing running, but it's a bit more portable than my other options.

I pick up the doohickey to give it a look-see.

"So what have we-- Ooh. That's. Huh."

Residual radiation. Maybe I shouldn't be handling this with my bare hands. Or maybe I should go find the nearest spider, there's an idea. Booting up my laptop, I turn on the webcam and swivel the screen so I can record the initial analysis, murmuring details and basic readings aloud. Whatever this thing is, it's a lot more exciting than I'd've thought, that's for sure.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline was starting to get hungry, she didn't think ghosts could get hungry but she was. It didn't make sense but nothing had since she touched that stupid artefact. Never touch creepy, shiny, mysterious objects. She should have learnt that by now. Except she hadn't and now she was dead or possibly dead and everyone was ignoring her. And they kept touching the stupid thing.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Just saying," Coraline said as she followed Mister Parker. He was ignoring her like everyone else was but that still didn't stop her from trying. Coraline followed him attempting to get his attention before making ghostly noises behind him. "Ooooh, oh come on how am I supposed to haunt you if you keep ignoring me? I'm trying to warn you of impending doom."

Concentrating really hard she attempted to try and push one of Mister Parker's science-y things off the table, it didn't go anywhere but Coraline did- Coraline went straight through the stupid table. Coraline let out a yelp as she sulked beneath and partly through the table. "I hate this, being dead sucks. Never die Mister Parker everyone just ignores you."

[daretodo]

So there's a head coming out of my desk.

"GYEEAHH!"

It's not my finest moment. I topple out of my chair, glasses falling askew. There's a terrifying five seconds I think the laptop's gonna join me on the floor, but it stays, precariously balanced, on the desk's edge. The mystery object's not so lucky, falling into my lap. I lift it away from my valuables ASAP and pull off my glasses, staring up.

Because I might've mentioned that there's a head coming out of my desk. And from this angle, I can tell it's attached to a body. A quasi-translucent body.

"....Coraline?"

[curiously_cora]

Coraline let out a startled giggle as Peter sort of flailed everywhere and then fell out of his chair at the sight of her. Looking at him curiously, Coraline smiled before pressing her lips together to try and stop herself from laughing. Okay, maybe haunting people was a little fun. She still kind of wished she wasn't dead though.

"Um... hi Mister Parker?" Coraline said raising her hand through the table and wriggling it in an awkward wave at him. "You really shouldn't touch that."

[daretodo]

"--I've gathered that."

Is this a hallucination? (And if it is a hallucination, why the heck am I imagining Coraline Jones, of all people. Surely my subconscious has a deeper catalogue of weird choices to choose from.) I push my glasses back up my nose and flick the HUD on again with an impatient tap, a web of information dancing in front of my eyes that makes about as much sense as everything else that's happening at the moment.

Which is to say: not much at all.

I reach out to touch her shoulder only to find my hand passes right through. Not surprising, given the trick with the desk, but it's still another point of data.

"--why are you in my house?"

[curiously_cora]

Coraline looked at Peter, following his hand before making a face at him as his hand passed right through her shoulder. Coraline let out a startled noise before waving the hand away. Coraline couldn't feel it but it looked weird and what if he got his hand stuck halfway through her? That would be a disaster, well less of a disaster than being dead.

"Don't do that! It's just weird," Coraline said, shivering as if she had the creeps from it. Coraline looked up startled at the question before taking a leaf out of her boyfriend's book and ummed. "Ummm... I did knock. Sort of? I was sort of following you? You picked that up and I didn't want you to die too, so I was trying to warn you only you weren't listening. Haunting people is really no fun when people ignore you."

[daretodo]

"No offense, but you're hard to ignore," I say, pulling my hand out of her shoulder. She is, generally speaking. Which means I probably should've picked up on the fact that she was following me sooner... So why didn't I? Frowning, I pick myself up from the ground and plant myself back in my chair.

"And physically incapable of knocking right now-- Wait, you died?"

Probably should've picked up on that detail a little sooner, too.

[radical_cowgirl]

Ein had found something very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. He'd been following a boar scent, not that he could hunt them, but he liked the chase. Chasing things was still fun. Even with the smarts he'd been given, he still loved the chase. Today, though, today the chase gave him something new. Something shiny, metal and new. He pawed at it, putting his nose against it, it had a strange smell.

So, he decided to take it to Edward. She liked strange pieces of technology. Holding it in his teeth with a doggy grin, he started off.

[curiously_cora]

"Hey! Hey! Put that down," Coraline said, making a face at the Ein. Coraline followed Ein, waving her hands at him as she tried to get his attention. Coraline ran after Ein, hoping to catch him except when she dove for him she went straight through him and landed on the floor awkwardly. "Ooof."

[radical_cowgirl]

With a yip of surprise, Ein jumped, dropping the piece of metal before staring. He tilted his head one way, then the other, then lunged for Coraline to see if he would go through her again. She didn't seem like a hologram, but one could never be too sure.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline scrambled backwards, yelping as Ein lunged towards her.

"Ein!" Coraline yelled, holding her hands up in front of her as he went straight through her. "Ein! That is so gross, what if you got stuck in me? Wait, can you seen me?"

[radical_cowgirl]

With his tongue lolling out in a doggy grin, Ein yipped twice. She might be a fancy hologram, but he could see and hear her. Mostly. Maybe Edward should see this.

Picking up the piece of something he'd found, he started off again in the direction of home.

[curiously_cora]

"You can see- hey, wait!" Coraline said, scrambling to her feet and chasing Ein as he ran away from her. He was the first person, or dog, that could see her. She wondered why he could see her and not Mister Bobo or Cat. "Come back or at least slow down."

[theyoungwolf]

Grey Wind is usually after something--he is, after all, a natural predator, and not being required to eat humans on the island, he indulges his native instincts by taking down large, tasty animals. What he normally does not do is let his human in on the fun--it's time reserved for running with his mate and his four-legged pack.

But this is a strange thing that Grey Wind doesn't understand. It's certainly not edible. A human thing, he knows, and this is why he raises his voice to summon Robb to him. If it is a human thing, the humans may be looking for it. Or whoever it belonged to. Grey Wind sniffs at it again. It doesn't smell like death, or magic, but as to the other aspects of humanity, a direwolf is not well-versed at all.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline sat sulking quietly. What was the point of being dead if she couldn't haunt anyone? Or float, she thought at least she would be able to float. Looking up Coraline let out a startled noise before covering her hand with her chest.

"You know, it's not nice to sneak up on people." Coraline said to the direwolf. Coraline made a face as was that one Grey Wind? Whichever one it was sniffed around the artefact. "You really shouldn't... nevermind, what's the point when you can't even see me."

[theyoungwolf]

Grey Wind sniffs the air curiously--something doesn't seem quite right, though he couldn't put a paw on quite what it is. His big warm nose is actually very close to Coraline, or would be if they were quite in the same part of reality. Looking confused, he sits back, just as his human finally catches up to him.

"There now, what have you found?" Robb asks, looking puzzled.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline held her breath, looking at the big direwolf held his nose straight in front of her. Coraline made a face at the creature, hoping he wasn't going to try and eat the ghostly version of herself. She probably didn't taste that good, no matter what the Other Mother said.

"Hi! Hi!" Coraline said waving at Robb before she remembered. Not being able to haunt anyone sucked. That and being dead. Obviously. "Mister Stark you probably shouldn't touch that I'm- and you can't hear me. I really don't know why I bother."

[theyoungwolf]

Sure enough, Robb can't hear her. Grey Wind looks as though he might, but he can't smell, only the traces of her, and that confuses him more than a little.

Robb crouches down to get a look at the strange thing his wolf has discovered, but has no idea what it is. "Is this it? Are we to take it back to the compound for Dairine to put in one of her machines, is that it?"

Grey Wind is not sure.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline sighed, hugging her knees to her chest and looking thoroughly miserable. She was tired and cold and hungry and really thirsty and she was dead. She didn't think that was supposed to be possible but it was. She just wanted to go home, well properly that is.

"I really don't think you should touch it, it just makes you dead." Coraline said making a face before looking at Robb curiously, letting out a sudden and loud. "Boo!"

Well, sometimes it paid to just try and haunt people.

[speakscanadian]

Disappearances were part and parcel of life on the Island. If Ray's honest, when he heard the reports about Coraline, there hadn't been anything particularly hinky about it. His sixth sense, the hunches he'd honed as a cop, didn't tell him there was anything out of the ordinary. Her number was just up; it was her time to go.

So why the hell was he traipsing around the jungle yelling for her? She was probably tucked up at home - her real home somewhere over the rainbow - blissfully unaware that there was currently a disgruntled police officer wasting his time searching for her. His conscience and excessively annoying partner might have had something to do with it. You have to show willing, Ray. You're an authority figure. You have to be seen to be doing everything possible to relieveyaddayaddayadda blah blah. Ray had agreed to take a look just to shut everyone up.

He wasn't going to find anything though. Of that much he was sure.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline was getting hungry which was quite odd. She was dead, she was sure she was dead but she was hungry. Maybe that was why some ghosts, not the ghosts she had known, got cranky with people. Who would want to spend an eternity getting thirstier and hungrier? No one. And no one could hear her or see her which sucked.

Coraline groaned in frustration, sighing as she tried to pick up a piece of the artefact and groaning when her fingers went straight through it.

"This place sucks!" Coraline said in frustration. "I hate being dead. I just want to go home."

[speakscanadian]

Getting his pants leg caught by a prickly and oh-so-gross leaf, Ray grunted in annoyance and pulled it free, tearing a rip in the material in the process.

"This place blows!" He yelled, frustration bubbling over, checking the damage with a look of seething rage. "Five more minutes," he told himself, taking a deep breath to try to calm down. His hands were balled into fists by his sides as he trudged through the dirt. "Five more minutes and then you can go home and tell them you've done all you can. Four more minutes and fifty five seconds..."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline turned at a noise, looking startled for a moment as she saw Mister Vecchio coming into view.

"Hey! Hey!" Coraline said shouting before she remembered. Being dead and not being able to be seen sucked. Sighing, Coraline wrapped her arms around herself and sat down sulkily. "I bet if you were a ghost everyone would be able to see you."

[speakscanadian]

Huffing out a sigh through his nose, Ray scanned the area as he went, looking for anything that might give him a sign. The problem with this case was the girl in the centre of it. Everyone he had spoken to said the same thing - that she loved exploring. Ray'd bet his bottom dollar this wasn't the first time she'd disappeared, so if she was still on the island, she'd more than likely show up at some point.

Without the need for him to mutilate his best pair of pants.

"Coraline!" He called out, voice a little rough from the strain. "It's the IPD, can you hear me?" There was a sharp angle beneath his shoe and he rocked his weight back quickly in case it broke. Crouching down, he brushed the dirt away and hesitated for a moment before giving the thing a tap.

[curiously_cora]

"Do you really need to yell my name quite so loudly? It's annoying," Coraline said, huffing at the fact he couldn't see her and was shouting her name over and over. It was maddening. Coraline sighed, resting her head on her knees and hugging them close. "Watch out for- that."