private 1x1 with Unicorncob (rp)

[Unicorncob 5,628]

"I just don't like it here," Oliver admitted. "I wanna get out of here as soon as we can. It doesn't smell right--there are clean things, but everything smells so stale. And like you said, we haven't found anyone anywhere. There must be a reason why."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

"I know, everything here is stale, not just in smell, but in feel too." Jenna agreed "And I assure you, I would also rather be anywhere else, but I think we are past turning back now." her apartment building came to view, it actually looked rather normal, be it bit more old looking "Though I admit something is certainly wrong here, I can feel it." she looked at her own hand, it was shaking slightly, "Something about this area specifically, I think my powers are interacting with something." 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver noticed Jenna's hand shaking, and he could feel a chill up his own spine. His nose twitched involuntarily. "I can feel it too. There's something weird around here, but I can't see, hear or smell anything..."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

"Maybe that is what causes it? There is nothing here, so our imagination is running wild?" her voice told that she didn't really believe that, but she didn't have any other explanation, she pressed herself against Oliver harder "Let's just go in, I'm sure it's fine." she didn't sound sure.

The front door to the building looked like everything else here, rusty, worn, all that stuff, though it was still functional, and fortunately, or unfortunately, depended on how you looked at it, Jenna's key opened the door, she looked...uncomfortable, as she pulled the door open and looked at her key. This didn't last long though, as a second or so after opening the door, a new smell appeared and took her attention, the smell of moisture, the smell of damp concrete, it wasn't a good smell per say, but at least it wasn't stale.

The reason was also pretty clear, as from the door they could see the stairs to the basement, or well, the top of those stairs, as the basement was filled with water. "I guess a pipe has burst at some point, shouldn't be a problem, it's not like we had use for the basement anyway....luckily it wasn't the sewage pipe." she said the latter slightly joking trying to lighten the mood, though it didn't really work. 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

"I guess that makes sense," Oliver muttered, still not very comfortable about the whole thing.

He walked in after Jenna, and immediately caught the damp, stale scent. "Yeah, that definitely smells like a burst pipe. Hopefully your place hasn't flooded or something," he said, trying to lighten the mood as well.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

Jenna looked up the stairs "No water damage on the walls, so the water hasn't come from above." she stated as she started climbing the stairs, it wasn't a long way to her apartment "I guess it's pointless to try if we have running water though." again it was an attempt at a joke, but the uncomfortable feeling was impossible to ignore, she stopped in front of her door, but before opening it, she turned to Oliver "I...let me go first, I'll call you in when I've checked things out, aright?" she wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to go alone first, she knew it was in case there really was another her in there, but she wasn't sure if it was to protect her dignity in case it was in such state, or if it was to protect Oliver from seeing it, since she was the one who brought him here. 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver followed her up the stairs, still feeling uncomfortable himself. He stopped at the door and nodded at her request.

"Sure, but just... don't take too long," he muttered, looking around the hallway nervously.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

Jenna let out a sight and opened the door, again her key fit, and the door was in relatively good condition compared to most things, the damage being mainly on the outside due to the moisture in the hallway caused by the basement flooding. The smell inside her apartment was....surprisingly okay, it was stale like everywhere, but instead of the moldy-stale, it was lack_of_airflow-stale, which was nice change, though Jenna still staggered a bit backwards, as her bad feeling got lot worse, though she acted like it was the smell and just stepped inside. 

From the door, while there was only so much one could see inside, Oliver would be able to see that the apartment was intact, as in, too intact, when compared to everything else, besides a small layer of dust, it looked the exact shape as Jenna's apartment back home had been. 

When inside, Jenna walked slowly and carefully out of sight behind the corner, and the sound of door opening was heard, after two doors total were opened, her breathing got heavier and slightly shaky, it wasn't especially loud, but with his hearing, Oliver could probably hear it from the door, and it was clear she was feeling very unconformable about something, it got worse as only moments passed, until she just held her breath altogether. This all was in matter of seconds, so there wasn't any chance for him to act in any way, if even enough time to fully comprehend it, before Jenna suddenly shrieked, followed by *thud* like a person falling over, and door slamming shut.

If he went in after this, Oliver would find Jenna sitting on the floor, leaning on the closed bedroom door shaking, teary eyed and hyperventilating, with mixture of several emotions on her face, but most importantly, horror, as she just stared forward, she would not react for several moments to...well, anything really, until eventually she started crying, either against her knees or against Oliver, depending on where he was at the moment. 

 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver followed Jenna into the apartment and looked around. The same damp smell was inside, but it wasn't as bad. In fact, the place looked like Jenna hadn't been in it for a few days. He wasn't sure how to take that.

He jumped when he heard Jenna shriek, and he raced into the room she'd gone into and saw her on the floor. "What happened?! Are you okay?!"

He blinked as she leaned against him and sobbed.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

It took few more minutes for Jenna to calm down further, enough to be able to say anything clear enough to be understood "I- It -There..." "Don't...go in there..." she was silent for a moment, taking few deep breaths to calm herself down further "I found- maybe found, I don't know if it was real." "I was there, in bed, I think, it's dark." she was making a visible effort to calm her nerves and control her crying "It felt awful, dread, pain." "I touched...it? her? me? And- and then, pain, like, indescribable agony, and crippling terror." she pulled away from Oliver a bit to move her hand under her nose as if she was checking for nosebleed, there was nothing "The earlier feeling is gone but I feel awful..." she was still shaking, as was her voice "I feel like...like.." her speech was becoming slightly slurred  "I think...I think I will...pass...out " she tried to speak more but those were the last clear words before she did exactly that, passed out.

There was few options for Oliver, one was to take her and try to get back home, but that was risky, it was long distance to carry someone, and there was no way of knowing if there was potential dangers on the way back. Other was to stay here, there was a couch next to them, and they had sleeping bags with them too, there was also the bed if Oliver wanted to go against Jenna's wish and open the door to the bedroom, though she had specifically asked him to not do that. 

There was also a hybrid of those two, or just leaving her here and trying to get help, every option had its positives and negatives, but what was the best one? it was a choice Oliver had to make.

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver caught Jenna as she passed out, holding her against him as he tried to process what she just told him. Another her? And it caused her pain when they touched? Just what was she trying to say?

He thought about using the opportunity to escape from this place, but he had no idea where to find a portal home. If it was far away, it would be tricky to carry the unconscious Jenna that far. He'd have to keep her in the apartment until she recovered.

He carried her to the couch and gently set her on it. He looked back at the door, wondering if he should take a look for himself to see what she'd seen. But she'd begged him not to... perhaps he'd wait until she'd rested, and then she could explain properly what happened?

He didn't want to leave her alone and go to find help on his own, in case something happened to either of them, so he decided to just wait until Jenna felt better. Naturally he'd soon look for ways to spend the time until then.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

There were few ways to spend time that weren't just a matter of imagination, there could have been more, like for example the TV, but there was no power, probably due to the flood in the basement, so anything that required electricity was out. One was to take out playing cards or anything else they may have packed up with them, other could be something more practical, like eating some of the food they took with them, or sleeping, it had been a long day after all, and, at least based on their clocks, it was late, though again, the time made no difference here, since it was always the same constant darkness.

There was also the option to explore the apartment, now, there wasn't a lot to explore, it was a small apartment, and the bedroom was closed, but it could kill some time, or well, mainly the one room that wasn't the bedroom could, as in the rest of the apartment there was nothing special, being exactly what you'd expect from an apartment who's owner has been gone for some time, the only potentially weird thing being that the food in the fridge hadn't rotted, but rather dried up, mummified. 

The one room that could give something to do, was the room next to the bedroom, the one where Jenna kept her cut out newspaper pieces and other such stuff, or at least she did in their world, who knew it it was the same stuff here, but from looking outside in, it seemed to be everything from photo albums and journals to piles of paper and boxes. It of course could be argued that it would be a invasion of Jenna's privacy, but at the same time, she had given no reason to think that those were in any way private.

 

Ultimately Jenna would end up being out for quite a while, so Oliver would have lot of time to kill. 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver tried to look for ways to occupy his time until Jenna recovered, but he quickly found himself bored. He still didn't want to leave her alone, but he wanted to be of some help while he waited.

He found the box of journals and papers, and wondered if he should take a look. Though, he also thought they might hold some clues, so he was sure Jenna wouldn't mind him searching them.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

The similarities between the worlds came again apparent, as when looking the news clippings specifically, one would find them to be the same stuff Jenna had shown to Oliver before this whole things started, until certain point that is, as after what to them would have been few years ago, news reports took a turn, reporting mysterious deaths, humans, animal, plants, everything alive, it was in small scale and specific areas at first, theories from the writers being everything from new disease's to effects of changes in the climate, and nobody seemed to believe they were in any way connected to each other. The last clipping mentioned it increasing in scale, it didn't mention numbers, or didn't even seem like the writer was overly worried, but it was mentioned that some experts started to be slightly concerned. 

That was as far as the clippings went, and the story was the same for the miscellaneous papers, as they seemed to be prints from various online news services and other sources, and while they had slightly different information, they gave the same message, things started to die, research into it underway, theories went from reasonable to full on conspiracies, but no answer for the real reason. Only thing different among the papers from the news clippings, was that this Jenna had also printed screenshots from social media, from questions asking about black mold that was unusually hard to get rid of.   

Then there were the journals, which were full of this Jenna's own thoughts, but it would quickly come apparent that this Jenna also used them as diaries, as among thoughts about whatever she may have seen for example in news about something, there were also very personal things, so there was again a decision for Oliver to make, was he going to read them or not, it was possible to pick and choose in a way to read only the less personal stuff, but that didn't mean he could avoid all of it, since it wasn't like it was clearly labelled, so he'd have to read at least some words, if not full sentences, to know which one something was.

There of course was also the angle that this was a different Jenna than the one he knew, and the fact that it wasn't like Jenna would know anyway until he told her about it

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver swallowed as he looked through the clippings. From the looks of it, life on this world was dying, if not already dead by the time he and Jenna arrived. It would definitely explain why it was so empty.

He saw the journals, but he wasn't sure if he should go through them. Then again, this was a different Jenna and not 'his' Jenna, so maybe it was okay to look through them? After all, they'd need all the information and clues they could get.

He'd just decide not to say anything unless she brought it up.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

The journals weren't stored in any real order, but as each entry started with a date, it wouldn't be too hard to put them in order if Oliver wanted to do so. The timeline of the journals was quite wide, as the earliest ones were focused on the time of Jenna's early adolescence, though they were clearly written later, as both the wording and lack of direct details implied they were written from later memory.

With these very early ones, it would be quickly clear that they wouldn't add much to the topic of what happened here, as they didn't mention it in any way, but rather were entirely focused on Jenna herself, but while there of course was personal stuff that one could consider embarrassing, they were lot more focused on one aspect specifically, Jenna's powers, at least confirming that powers were a thing in this world too. 

if Oliver went in order without skipping, there would be a slight change in writing style as Jenna caught up with the present and started to write about whatever the current day was rather than from the past, this happened around the year where Jenna would have been around 15, if assuming that this Jenna was the same age as 'his' Jenna. Though again there would be nothing about the situation here, and it was still about her and her powers, though at this point she had taken interest in powers in general, and it matched what 'his' Jenna had told him about her research to powers.

This was the status quo for quite a while in the not-so-personal writings, until what to them would have been few years ago, around the time the first news reports about the deaths started. Her writing about that started like the reports, she had no idea what was going on, but unlike the official reports, this Jenna suspected right away that they were connected somehow, and unlike the reports, she actually entertained even the crazier theories.

For most part, even her writings didn't give much more information, though they did give more detail on just how weird the events were, as this Jenna used what she could figure out to disprove theories in attempt to find the answer by eliminating the wrong ones, though worryingly, it was the most scientific answers that were eliminated first. For example, she had eliminated the potential of new disease, because she had sneaked into one of the death-areas and stolen things to look at more closely, and there was nothing on them, as in, nothing alive, even the smallest bacteria had ceased to live.  She also nodded an odd lack of rot, something she connected to areas with high radiation where the microorganisms behind rotting had died.

Similar oddness took down the other logical answers, Climate changes? too small are of an effect, weapons? illogical targets....this Jenna quickly came to the same conclusion as they had come to, whatever this was, it was supernatural. 

Where the new information started, was where the other sources had ended, This Jenna wrote about the weird black mold, how it had started to spread in the areas closest to the 'death-zones', and how it seemed to resist any attempts to get rid of it, there was also an explanation for the sudden stop in reporting, or well, she wrote that it had indeed been a sudden stop, and theorized that the government was behind it, most likely to try to stop potential panic.

She also mentioned how thinks only got worse from it, how the 'death-zone's' got more common and bigger, and how schools and such were closed for good, at some point she started to talk about mythology, religions and other such thing, explaining that while she wasn't a believer, this all really started to look like some kind of end of the world situation from various texts like that, she made a direct comparison to the four horsemen of apocalypse, there had been new epidemics in last ten years, lot of people were starving around the world, wars had started and the fear of WW3 had loomed over the planet, that left only one, Death.

After this things got even weirder, as the writer Jenna started to question her sanity,  writing that it had been a nigh for way too long, she had no working clocks, but she was certain that sun should have been up hours ago, yet it was pitch black. she also wrote that she could swear that she had seen someone in a medieval knight armor walking on the street, but questioned if she was starting to see things, as the darkness and silence were really starting to mess with her head, wishing that the power would come back on so that she could at least have some noise on the background.

The writing got more messy, as this Jenna was most likely starting to actually lose her mind, but the text was still readable, and it was written that she had seen horrible nightmares lately, and that she questioned if she was even awake now that she was writing, things had started to change around her, she was going to see if one of her neighbors was still alive, as she wanted to speak with someone, anyone, but the apartments door had a wrong name on it, the previous neighbor's name. 

there was then a week long break in writing, before the last entry, it was dated only few months before things started to happen in their world, and was extremely messy, yet readable 'Everything is wrong, past is now, now is in the past, it hurts, I can't stop feeling it, I've lost control, I can't.' that's where it ended, there was a small smudge after the last word though, implying that she had for some reason cut the writing short. 

 

For the personal stuff, at bare minimum, if Oliver made an effort to avoid anything uncomfortably personal, it would still become apparent how similar this jenna was to 'his' Jenna, as even from the few words he was bound to read, there would be familiar topics, the event in the forest Jenna had spoken about, the situation when Jenna had used her powers on a human, which she had vaguely mentioned to Oliver, the less than pleasant relationship she had had before meeting Oliver, again something she had been rather vague about, but Oliver had seen few photos, or well, pieces of photos, at a glance relating to that, there was mentions of the self-defense teacher he had also met, and even a description of a 'nice seeming guy' that was oddly similar to Oliver. Even small details that may have been apparent from few words alone were very accurate to what Oliver knew of 'his' Jenna.

 

 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver looked through the journals and diaries, and felt a discomfort as the further he went, the more frantic and almost insane this Jenna was starting to become. Whatever was going on, it wasn't natural. Something was messing with the flow of time itself, and it was eliminating people in the process.

He understood why his Jenna didn't want him to see this, of course she'd be freaked out at seeing her own mind becoming warped like this.

He had a better grasp on what had happened to this place, but still had no idea what to do next.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

While reading everything would take a good while, Jenna would still be out cold when Oliver would eventually finish, though she was slightly less still than before, twitching a bit in her sleep, nothing too serious, just small movements. It was now far into the night based on the clocks they had with them, and Oliver still had the same options as before, self-entertainment, eating, sleeping, leaving the apartment...regardless of what he would decide to do, until he tried to wake her up earlier for some reason, Jenna would be out for several hours more, only starting to wake up around what based on their clocks would have been late morning/early day.

 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver finally finished reading, and was relieved to see Jenna was still sleeping soundly. He spent more time waiting for her to come around, but didn't find many ways to entertain himself.

When Jenna woke up, she'd find him sleeping on the chair near her, presumably having been watching over her as much as possible.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

Jenna woke up with a groan and quiet muttering, her head hurt like no tomorrow, so she didn't pay much attention to her surroundings as dragged herself to her bag and took medicine along with water, only after this she decided to look around for Oliver, and spotted him sleeping on the chair, she didn't want to wake him up, as she didn't know how much or how little he had slept, instead she smiled at him and sat down on the sofa she had been sleeping on. 

She rested her head on her hands, holding her forehead as she waited for the medicine to do its job, for the first time she was glad that it was as dark as it was, because it meant she didn't need to worry about bright lights making headaches worse, though such optimism faded as her memory also woke up, it hadn't been a pleasant sleep as long as it was, she had been seeing nightmares the whole time, but not ones with monsters and such, but rather more...emotional ones, things that made her uncomfortable, sad or otherwise just miserable, and she remembered them well, though while thinking about them did make her squirm, the things she felt didn't translate to the waking word, as in, she didn't feel any more miserable than she had felt before, if you didn't count the massive headache. 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver soon awoke as well, yawning and stretching. He looked over at Jenna and was relieved to see she was also awake, but noted how she was holding her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Did you sleep well?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

"Depends on what you define as sleeping well." Jenna half-muttered "In terms of quantity, yes, quality? not so much." "My head is also killing me, I can barely think straight." her tired, half-muttering tone supported her words.

[Unicorncob 5,628]

"It was hard for me too," Oliver said, rubbing his own head. "Something about this place just isn't making me sit right. It must be something in the air."

He looked around the apartment. "What should we do now?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,430]

"I'll sit here until I stop feeling like my head wants to explode." "Then we probably should eat, drink and do all that, won't know when it's safe to stop again." "And of course part of the reason why we came here specifically, see if there's any answers." 

[Unicorncob 5,628]

Oliver knew there were answers, in the files and journals he'd looked through, but he thought being coy about it was the right way to go.

"Maybe there's something here we haven't found yet," he suggested. "Maybe you can have another look around while I find some food?"