All Wrapped Up

Though many students might prefer going to London, Maldon provides closer amenities for those without a car or unwilling to pay for a cab. Several pubs are available, though the Rose and Crown is notable for having been where Excalibur spent a good deal of their downtime. Also of note is the Plume Library, home to many rare books.

All Wrapped Up

Postby Narrator » Thu Nov 08, 2018 9:15 pm

Everything is dark. Occasionally the darkness wobbles back and forth as Will's 'prison' moves rapidly, then it slows down again. Moving as Manikin uses his arm and - presumably - is on the move. The darkness is all around, compressing Will into a vague egg shape, the confines smooth until suddenly a needle stabs in on one side, humming with an electric buzz no stronger than the zap one might receive from licking a battery, but persistent and burying itself right into Will's... arm? And leg and side, puncturing through all of them. At least it gives him bit of an idea of just how crumpled up he is in here...
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Thu Nov 08, 2018 9:18 pm

With little room to squirm, Will's only option is to try to expand, testing the strength of his moving holding cell. The electricity was making that somewhat difficult, though.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Narrator » Thu Nov 08, 2018 9:27 pm

All his expanding seems to do is increase the pressure inside the container until it reaches a point where it feels like he might pass out. At least the needle seems to withdraw after a moment of this, followed by the entire container shaking rapidly back and forth, sloshing Will around.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Thu Nov 08, 2018 9:30 pm

This was highly disorienting. It's not that Will had never been compressed or sloshed before, but the complete lack of any external stimuli was making it hard to figure out which way was up. The lack of a concrete form or shape to take was also a problem -- his body normally translated his senses into appropriate forms based on the shape he was taking, but 'indeterminate blob' was not particularly useful.

If he had a stomach, he might be emptying it's contents at this point.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Fri Nov 16, 2018 6:44 pm

After a while, it's hard to tell how long exactly, there's a distant hiss of pressure equalizing and then the port through which Will got sucked into his current predicament opens up again and the pressure inside the container ramps up until it forces Will back out in a stream of clay that splatters into a larger container. After a moment of putting himself back together Will finds himself on a narrow slab of metal. Too uncomfortable to be a bed, really. Above him a bright circle of lights. The room smells like disinfectant and blood and next to the operating table he's on Manikin is standing, regarding him with the blank expanse of his 'face'.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:20 pm

Will immediately tried to sit up and scoot backwards away from Manikin -- before realizing he was trapped inside a container. His eyes darted around, trying to figure out where he was, what scale he was in, and what was going on.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:54 pm

Will's about half-scale, having expanded out a bit after being unloaded into what looks like a repurposed neonatal incubator placed on top of an operating table. Or possibly a slab in the morgue, judging by the large rectangular metal doors set into the far wall. Manikin watches Will recoil, then leans in to tap one metal finger against the enclosure before turning around and leaning over a table with neatly organized surgical equipment. Past that is another slab with an unconscious orderly lieing on it.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Sat Nov 17, 2018 7:29 pm

"Wh...what is this place? What are you doing? Why am I here? Who are you?" Will asked, shrinking back from the tap against the side of the enclosure.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:27 am

Manikin doesn't respond. Not that he could if he wanted to, seeing how he has no mouth. Instead he points at Will's arm, then flicks a scalpel blade out from the fingertip and points at the orderly on the table. Then he reaches for a tube that's connected to the same gas cylinder that the orderlies face-mask is connected to and screws it into one of the valves on Will's enclosure. With a hiss a weak dose of an anesthetic gas fills the chamber as Manikin waits to see if Will grows sluggish.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:30 am

Will scampered back, pressing himself tightly against the back of the enclosure (compared to where Mannikin was), shrinking down to try to make him less...valuable. Or useful. Or WHATEVER it was Mannikin was trying. If he wanted his...arm? Well, maybe it if was smaller, it wouldn't be useful. The minnow gets thrown back, right?

Of course, the side effect of getting smaller was that he was getting a larger dose of the anesthetic. Thus, he started to swoon a little bit, blinking to try to stay focused.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:58 pm

Manikin wags his scalpelled finger at Will and goes to fiddle with a bunch of things hooked up to the container, removing one thing, adding a filter, reconfiguring tubes and pressure gradients until he flips a switch and the pressure inside the incubator is reduced while not siphoning off the anesthetic gas. The negative pressure slowly counteracts Will's attempts at shrinking, forcing him back to less diminutive proportions.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Mon Nov 19, 2018 8:53 pm

Will tried to strain against the pressure, but the suction was essentially stretching him out against his will. It wasn't quite as normally proportioned as you'd expect Will to be, but the pressure was overcoming his innate shifting abilities.

"Wh...what do you want with me?" he slurred.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:46 am

Manikin places one finger on his face where his lips would be. Then he reaches into the chamber through two of the access ports on the side and grabs Will's arm like a steel vice while the other one brings the scalpel to bear on his shoulder with ruthless precision.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:05 am

The move is too quick -- and the anesthesia too thick -- for Will to react. He cried out, as the scalpel easily cut into his arm at the joint.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:37 pm

The blade swiftly slices through the shoulder and Manikin wrenches the arm free with a swift twist and pulls it out of the incubator. Regarding the stump curiously he steps over to the other table and goes to work, his frame blocking Will's view of what exactly he's doing.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:41 am

Will started hyperventilating as he grabbed his injured shoulder, as he tried to look around Manikin to see what...what the hell...
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High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
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Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:47 pm

As Manikin works his clean, white exterior becomes increasingly smeared with blood until he lifts the orderly's arm away and places it on a nearby tray, neatly amputated at the shoulder. He picks up Will's arm and goes back to work.

Finally he seems to be done and takes a step back. Prompted by seemingly nothing the orderly suddenly sits up, eyes snapping open and darting about with a panicked look. On his neck, previously obscured by him lieing down Will can make out some kind of metal brace with prongs stabbing into the skin and anchored in the man's spine. He lifts his Will's arm in a jerky, mechanical motion and holds it out with Manikin watching expectantly as nothing happens. Manikin turns back around to Will's enclosure and drags one of his fingers across the plastic wall on the incubator, leaving behind a trail of blood that slowly spells out:

S H I F T ?
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:00 pm

"R...right underneath "Caps Lock"..." Will stammered.

It would sound braver without the quaver in his voice.
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Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
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Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:36 pm

Manikin's fist slams against the plastic, smearing some of the word. Behind him the orderly awkwardly gets off the operating table and takes a couple shambling steps and Manikin stabs a finger at him. His arm specifically. Then she slams the fist of his other hand against the smeared word again.
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:56 pm

"It won't...won't work. It doesn't work like that. You can't...you can't do this. I'm sorry..."
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High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Manikin » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:53 pm

Manikin stares at Will blankly for a moment. Then he cranks up to anesthesia to knock him out completely...
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Re: All Wrapped Up

Postby Reach » Sat Nov 24, 2018 9:10 pm

When Will comes to again he finds himself once again encased in darkness, but something about it feels different. He's smaller, but not in the shrunken sense. There's simply not that much of him left it feels like. No arms, no legs, no nothing. Not even eyes or ears, but as someone who can retain his senses as an inanimate object his cells slowly compensate for that. Not that there is much to see, he's a lump of grey matter encased in one of Manikin's containers, but he can make out some sounds from outside. Namely a voice.

"...not quite certain I follow. What was the point of reducing him down to this?" he can hear Reach talking nearby. There's a pause as he seems to receive some kind of non-vocal answer from Manikin. Then he finds himself being picked up and a strange sensation washes over him. Suddenly he's aware of another piece of himself a couple feet away as if he was touching it, controlling it's shifting like his more sassy counterpart had done to him previously when she'd turned him into a tree. But he's just a witness to it, it's Reach's power forming the connection and he's the one controlling it. The lump unfurls like a snake, dragging some kind of weight with it as Will tries to make sense of the impressions he's picking up from it. It's surrounded by something warm, moving and there's a faint rhythmic thudding. A heartbeat. The bit of clay isn't a snake, it's taken the place of somebody's spine and it's forcing the body to contort.

"Oh ho ho. You've outdone yourself this time, Manikin."

And then Reach's power flares and with sudden dread Will can sense where all the rest of him went. Dozens of little pieces in a myriad of shapes and forms, scattered throughout the room, all embedded - no, implanted - in people. All responding to Reach extending and abusing Will's shifting...
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