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[b][code]Grand Ridge - Conference Room - ???[/code][/b]
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Perhaps to Nate's slight disappointment, Penny hadn't taken the bait, only further serving to piss off half the room as she dug her hole. In fact, the only one he'd seen yet that hadn't outright laid into her was a skinny little blonde girl with some kind of Eurotown accent, who'd cut into the argument with a cold demand that she leave. And then - [i]oh shit[/i] - Claire's temper [i]flared[/i]. It wasn't wasn't even a metaphor - the space around her form had literally transitioned to a crimson flare, right at the point where somehow, this girl had managed to break off the edges of the table with her bare fucking hands. 

[i]Her abstraction?[/i]

Either way, he almost (or, maybe really) felt himself slipping a foot halfway through the damned floor when she lunged forth, restrained only by Justin at her shoulders. The guy was trying to talk her out of it but she wasn't buying it - the fuse had been lit. With what she could do... Nate dreaded to think, having just seen her handiwork on that table. Then Justin got pushed aside and Claire looked set to tear Penny a new asshole (she'd definitely need those tampons then) as she set into her rant, which raised another point - Nate himself had seen her abstraction in action, what if she decided to pick up a chair or table or something and toss that at her? No doubt they'd all go the same way he went when Lynn had nearly smashed his head in with her little graffiti trick - only they didn't have the luxury of being able to phase through shit. Maybe he didn't, this time - maybe it wouldn't work and he'd get fucked just like the rest of them.

"Would all of you..." Britney's voice rose, "[i][b]fucking[/b][/i] stop?!"

Another blackout slammed into them. [i]Same thing again?[/i] Nate felt his stomach threatening to turn over nonetheless, disoriented by the sudden sensory deprivation - but the luminescent glow that returned to them [i]definitely[i] left him feeling a knot in his insides. [i]What? Where?[/i] Those two thoughts came to mind - there was no sense of time or place here, just... space. The surface on which they stood was transparent, as were others in the group who could spot each other through the crowd. Even Nate himself could just about look through his arm - which was an experience he'd admittedly hoped he'd never have to go through if he could do anything about it. Some things were [i]too weird[/i] for people to process.

Definitely unlike the blackout, though - this place hadn't disappeared and gone back to normal in the blink of an eye. They were still here - and the others were equally confused as he was, by the looks of things. How had they even ended up here? Nate's thoughts drifted with Aliana, towards Britney having a clue to that - but as she quickly explained, that was a dead end. Figures.

Then the space they were in - the luminescent blue haze which surrounded them - faded away into another blackout, before transitioning to a more familiar sight. [i]Market Square.[/i] Only, this wasn't a picture show - this was a snuff film, showing a guy getting pulled into an alleyway by Scott Reese and brutally murdering him with a bladed weapon. Though he'd seen it in media countless times, perhaps even seen it from a distance at the camp and snuck past the bodies - there wasn't quite something as sobering as watching a guy, the same kind of guy at his age, minding his own business, get pulled into an alleyway and butchered alive, his body twitching for a couple of moments after. And the guy he killed had a brand on him - almost like the one he'd found on the back of his own neck - like the others, too. 

[i]Abstraction. Awakened. Right.[/i]

It struck home the point that had been raised about Reese being a danger to this whole town. To people like them, to people like his Uncle Quent - just dying pointlessly to this asshole who had picked up a thing for burning off their brands, somehow. It left much to stew in the depths of his own mind.

[i]"Nate?"[/i] A familiar voice whispered behind him.

The almost picturesque snuff scene faded into dust, transitioning to a view that struck him as something out of a post-apocalyptic film rather than Farmer's Hill, Montana. It took him a moment, no - a few moments - to process it. Market Square again, but halfway along to being torn down, with buildings falling apart or outright destroyed. The sky was a crimson hue, clogged with thick, darkened clouds. That wasn't the worst of it though.

No, the worst of it came in the form of bodies piled onto the streets, hundreds upon potentially thousand of them to form a literal floorspace of dead meat - some bodies of still writhing before finding relief in death. And for him, lined in a neat row... he recognised three of the bodies. Even as beat-up and mangled as they were, there was no mistaking them.

Quent? Viv? [i]Dad?[/i] Nate blinked and, for a moment, thought he saw Mom, too - but the body slumped in a heap on the ground had a face which he definitely didn't recognise. [i]Now you're just crazy.[/i] Quent's body was practically draped over Viv's, the overturned husk of a police cruiser resting close by. [i]Protecting her, at least.[/i] He figured that's what he'd have done, what he would do if it came to it. As for his Dad, well - that perhaps was a little surprise given how little often he was around, though he didn't take seeing the old man dead on the ground in such a good light. Nobody should - or should have died. Was this even real? Part of him wanted to rush up to the bodies, to shake them back to life, but...

Nate sucked in a breath through his teeth, blinked, almost felt himself reaching into a space which was outside the realm of physical touch, the colour bleeding from his vision as his feet sank a few inches into the ground. At the foot of each body was a humanoid silhouette, faceless, almost formless. At the bodies of the people he recognised - his family, they seemed to [i]stare[/i] straight at him, though they never wore eyes nor anything to suggest or hint at expression. Were these ghosts? Claire didn't seem to think so, running over towards the lifeless body of girl with a gaping hole in her torso, one who looked as though she'd been speared. Others didn't seem far off that line of thinking either, but they didn't see the silhouettes - the [i]shadows[/i] of the dead as he saw them.

"... This is what the Glutton will do to this town," A voice spoke from behind the entirety of the group, almost childlike in its nature, but at the same time resonant - as though it were speaking with a hundred mouths at the exact same time so that they melded to form a single, unified voice. A kid, by the look of their shape - though kids didn't usually have an all-white, straight white appearance. [i]Something else to throw into it all.[/i] He wasn't a believer in [i]a[/i] God, nevermind [i]the[/i] God - but this guy... thing, fit the bill. "This is what what he wants you to do; fight each other instead of him." [i]Even sounds like it.[/i] 

"You must reconsider your actions, and connect with one another. Or he'll win. Each day, he grows more powerful, and hungrier for your Gift. So tell me... will you stop him? For me? For everyone here?" For a moment, this God-kid appeared to be staring straight at him, which put the thought in his head - the thoughts he'd had before. [i]He?[/i] Scott Reese could do all that? Not just the people he'd murdered already, but the whole town? More?

The prospect of it scared him, but the alternative - the idea of losing people, losing [i]more[/i] people he cared about was scarier. Terrifying. Impossible. Viv, Quent... those two more than anything were the only real family he had around anymore. But what could [i]he[/i] do?

"I... look, you uh..." Nate found himself at a stumbling block, addressing the God-kid, "God-kid, okay? That's all I can think to call you - how can we stop him? This uh - this awakening crap, it doesn't come with instructions, okay? We can't just say 'by the power of jesus' and just expect something to work, connecting like you said." Could he even handle the job? He wasn't exactly in great shape like some of these other guys were. Was he even worth this thing's time?