[Center][h2]Dakota Rhett[/h2] [sub]November 29th - Late Afternoon[/sub] [hr] [/Center] For a moment, Dakota simply picked at the cracked wood out of curiosity. Black nails brought small wooden chips up, figuring with all the cracks it'd have to be repaired anyways, so a little prodding wasn't exactly going to cause enough harm to be more devastating. His mind wandered on multiple questions, regarding the warm from below to the fact that the cracks went from solid ground to the dock above the water somehow. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the crayon box, but even he knew there was a lack of sense to that! It was a similar warmth he'd felt in the bathroom, at the sinks. Which at least put his mind at ease that he hadn't done any damage before, but it really made him think about the damage he'd seen around the place. The cafeteria had some damages, too. Wasn't Jin in there doing repairs? Maybe those cracks were unrelated, as it didn't seem the stocky man looming on one of the benches was taking much note of the damage. Maybe a more sane person would be running off the dock before the cracks got worse, or something. Yet here Dakota was, picking at them like a child. His dismissal of that man soon came to correct him, the man's voice catching the younger boy's ears. He perked up, phone almost slipping from his hand from being startled, but it was kept in place with a firmer grip. He didn't exactly think to stop filming, instead his phone tilted slightly, not catching much more than Barney's feet, but it made the source of the voice obvious nonetheless. A meek "Eh?" escaped him as an initial reaction, but soon turned to him noting what Barney said, and joining in the enthusiastic reaction to possibly not being insane. "Yeah, man!" His view trailed back towards land, as he pointed with his free hand he'd been using to pick at the wood. "One sec I'm just on the phone, next the ground starts cracking! And instead of just going forward, it's turning like a path down walkways an' crap for me to follow all the way down here!" His momentary explanation was cut there, as he fell quiet. His hand fell to his side as he noticed other figures showing up, first of all being a girl he couldn't identify by any means. A momentary awkward stare in her direction lead to him looking back at Barney, then the cracks below him. Not sure if he should make assumptions about why she was there, just in case him and Barney were both just crazy, so he left her distanced and quiet self to stare at the odd sight of the other two sitting in the gazebo's odd warmth. That silence didn't last long. Probably from him trying to look away from the gatherers, he failed to notice Caelum's approach. But the quiet question caused his head to turn, both surprised he was being asked about the cracks again, and kind of relieved. Once again, Dakota's phone camera tilted it's view and caught Caelum's lower half, and Mila slightly for simply being in the same direction. "Think it's a weird enough sight, yeah?" His hand drifted over the cracks, camera pointing down as he noted; "That warm air coming out of them is so weird. Shouldn't be anything below this spot but water, right...?" Of course, if there was, how did that explain everywhere else? It'd be just his luck if there was an actual answer and he looked dumb. But he felt confident about this. Might've said something else, but a voice caught his attention. Strained breathes and a meek greeting. If not purely out of curiosity, Dakota's eyes fell on the source for a moment. She looked like a kid, and his eyes darted up to Caelum, being the only other one near him he could suspect of knowing the girl. He wasn't sure if he should voice concern in case something happened to the gazebo or not, but things seemed stable and safe. Just... Weird. So there probably wasn't any issue with her being here. Of course, a shifting Dakota meant a shifting camera, which yet again caught a new individual. Along with a second one approaching from behind, who's form was much, much larger. In comparison to the little girl, this guy was a [i]legitimate giant.[/i] Dakota, being on the shorter side, felt like he might've visibly compressed at the man's arrival. His clothes not quite looking correctly sized and seeming hurt, this popped him out of his fear a bit and into concern. However, this concern shifted a bit from being about the man to the wellbeing of everyone in the general vicinity at the man's threat. With a conflicted "Uh," He pondered how to respond to Vincent's words, but as the giant collapsed, Dakota decided to just leave it at Barney's empathy. That man wasn't one he wanted a problem with, for sure. After such a barrage of weirdness, Dakota finally found a little relief. Jin's arrival, though perhaps unnoteworthy to those around, was the only familiar face for him. "[i]Oh![/i]" Pushing himself out of his sitting position, he didn't pick up on their mumblings but did approach with plenty of energy. "Jin! It was Jin, right? Yeah?" Dakota didn't give a chance to answer, instead his free hand landed on Jin's shoulder and the phone swayed as he gestured back towards all the cracks. "You can see all those cracks too, right? Ain't it weird?" Maybe it was sudden and a little awkward, but Dakota found it better than being enclosed slowly by total strangers. Not that they were much better than strangers, but still! A swear catching Dakota's ear caused his and his camera's view to turn a final time, catching the last few unsuspecting gazebo dwellers as some dude was [i]really[/i] glad to not be going nuts with this. But really, with all of them gathered here like this, it was possibly weirder than hallucinating the whole thing that brought them here. Well, that meant it probably wasn't as special as he thought. Or his own mind playing tricks on him. So the excitement could die down a little, and maybe he'd hear about the cause on the news later. Nothin' to worry about-- Dakota's eyes widened as he heard a snap. His generally calm demeanor began to drift as the cracks split open, the light drawing the boy's view and putting a bit of fear into his heart. Instinctively, he recoiled as far as he could, hand slipping off Jin's shoulder to instead press against the wall. "What the [i]hell is that?![/i]" He knew there wasn't an answer, but he couldn't help but let it out in a yelp as things quickly escalated. Perhaps idiotically, he pointed his phone towards the light in an attempt to get a recording of it, not having a much safer space to evacuate to. The view from the camera was already shaking because Dakota was growing more and more worried, but as a dizziness began to overtake him, the camera's view quickly took a dive towards the ground as it's owner slumped forward into the opening abyss. [Center][h2]Dakota Rhett[/h2] [sub]November 29th? - ???[/sub] [hr] [/Center] Having fell forward, Dakota had a stomach-down landing with his forehead smacking against the ground, a hiss and exclaim of the curse [i]"Shit!"[/i] being about all he could manage as he rolled onto his back and clutched his forehead, accidentally smacking himself in the face with his own phone, causing him to roll on his side instead as he tried to cope with his own stupidity. It took a minute for him to realize the extent of what was going on, sitting up while rubbing his forehead (Without the phone contact this time). Barney's confusion caused Dakota to take a good look around. It wasn't difficult to realize that they weren't in Texas anymore, and though he peeked over the dock at the color-filled black mass below, he was quick to scuttle away, not wanting anything to do with it. Deep breathes marking fear, he slowly pulled himself to his feet, staggering for a moment as the dizziness faded away. The cracks were weird, the warmth and light were weird, but this was horrible. And it only got worse as his gaze followed Barney's, looking at the horrifying but also immensely huge prison that replaced the visage of the university he'd seen only minutes ago, when people started walking up to the gazebo. Speaking of walking, his steps were cautious as he observed the odd bubble-gum colored substance that splashed every time he took a step. Nervously he looked at his phone, attempting to make use of it, but like some sort of damned movie, of course there was no service. "Of course." He muttered, slipping the phone into his pocket due to it's uselessness. He instead gazed at the sight beyond the prison, momentarily trying to bask in that orange light which felt familiar yet so immensely foreign. "Man, I'll just be glad to be out of this at all." He responded, not trying to make light of Barney's way to cope, but more so just speaking the honest truth of how he felt. He lifted his leg to try and avoid the stocky man's splashes but once he realized they weren't making a mess he chose to ignore it. Instead, he looked up. Trying to find any source of where they came from, to no avail. It was just a messy sky with no answers. "There's nothing even up there, where the heck did we fall from?" He squinted his eyes, hand over his brow as he tried to see [i]anything[/i] up there. Unfortunately, the squinting just made his headache build a little faster. He held back a groan of annoyance and pain, looking forward at the prison. It wasn't the most welcoming place, but it was also where the only path lead. A nervous laugh escaped him at the thought of getting closer, instead trying to avoid that by turning and looking at everyone else. There wasn't a person unaccounted for, at least from what he could tell. "Everyone's okay, right?" He voiced, glancing about to see what answers he'd get. He felt like smacking himself. What exactly counted as 'okay' in a situation like this? The best he could do is display concern. If someone needed help, he was in decent enough condition. Being the only familiar things left in this place, he'd like to stick together. [sub][center][i]Can't take it no more~[/i][/center][/sub] Dakota's head turned to the sprawling buildings again. [i]What was that?[/i] [sub][center][i]I'm goin' crazy~[/i][/center][/sub] His foot tapped, wondering if he was actually going insane. He swore he could hear a familiar tune, it was comforting and almost drew him in. He simply looked nervous to the others, the sound only reaching his ears, unknowing to him. But he turned back to the group as a whole, focusing on the task at hand. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him? Regardless of it being his imagination or not, his foot kept tapping to that beat. It was helping him a little bit, but he couldn't shake a chill. This place was beyond a nightmare, people didn't just share nightmares. But could he really claim it was real, either? With how outrageous it was? Nightmares. Dreams. Glancing out into the horizon, this sky almost felt familiar. Unable to pinpoint it, however, he simply shook his head weakly as he couldn't piece anything together.