Welcome To Your Life (Jailbreak Mingle)

[midpointmods]

You find yourself in jail. An old-fashioned, dusty jail: three cells wide, six foot to a side and below ground level, judging from the tiny barred window half a foot from the ceiling, that looks out onto a flat expanse. Shimmering heat waves are already starting to form, the sun already burning hot, but your cell is comfortably cool and dry.

And empty. The only things in your cell are a sturdy plank bench, chained to the wall like a hammock, a solid-looking pillow and a hairy blanket sitting thereon. Any items you might have had on your person are sitting on the wall opposite your cell, nearly four feet away from the iron bars holding you: propped up on wooden shelves, hanging from thick metal hooks, or sitting on the floor if the item is particularly large.

Outside the occasional jangle of leather and metal, and the occasional chuffing breigh suggests that there must be horses outside, but otherwise the area is silent. Before too long, though, there's the sound of footsteps and jangling keys echoing from upstairs, getting louder and clearer as someone makes their way down to you...

I. Sooey Jail

The view from the windows drops off quite suddenly, about a mile past the bare scrubland bushes and occasional screeching roadrunner. In the distance, a plume of smoke is the only sign of a freight train rushing along its tracks, until the faint echo of its whistle hits the ear. While Inara Serra will likely be entirely unimpressed by the lacking cell, Daylight vis Lornlit will find it's far too small for him. Bucky Barnes is near silent as he dismounts outside.

II. Southern Point

The walls of the cells here are distinctly discoloured to nearly five feet high, an ugly brown with black mold growing in the cracks around the benches and corners of the room. The air is musty and damp, in sharp contrast to the hot, dry wind that blows in through the windows. Quicksword Irene will find her ever-present claymore on the wrong side of the bars, but Hajime Aikawa has company behind his - Ryo has come along, too. The sound of Fuwa tying his horse up is interrupted by a sharp yelp of annoyance.

III. Mountain Hole

The windows are cast in shade in these morning hours, which makes the cells distinctly cooler than the glimpses of clear blue sky and rolling heat waves suggest. Fully grown trees with needle-like leaves are visible outside, and the keen might just hear the echo of a chugging train. Taako will no doubt find the scene familiar; Yoda as well, if less sandy than some oft complained about; Jiro Azuma is undoubtedly the most confused here. Rocket and Groot can be heard outside, approaching and bickering.

IV. Dead Man's Doorstep

The higher the sun rises, the warmer it gets in the cells; even before midday it's unspeakably stuffy, and the hot breeze carries light waves of sand into the cells. The sound of ropes creaking, gentle and intermittent, under the strain of something heavy echoes through the cells, adding a disconcerting background noise to the already alarming context. Jo Harvelle will find sand in her hair; Sara Lance finds it everywhere else. Outside, Misty Day and Sam Wilson tie their horses together, and brace for their new teammates.

Comments

[ragingwolf]

"No, magic jail is about right."

The voice is male, even but amused, and the source quickly steps out from the stairway and into the main jail area. He's wearing a thick black coat with a fur-lined hood, over a white shirt and black slacks despite the oppressive heat outside, and is lazily swinging a large metal ring in one hand, on which several keys jangle happily. "If you have any kind of magic, you're not going to be able to get out of it."

[chalicejoker]

The only thing that suggests magic might be involved (outside of Ryo's everything) is the neat stack of cards (not even a full deck, just the suit of Hearts) outside of Hajime's cell.

Hajime can't say he was expecting someone to just walk on in like that, but the appearance of a strange with keys has him on his feet and very focused on those keys. "Who are you?"

Ryo nimbly hops from the ceiling to atop Hajime's head. "Man with keys! Can let us out!"

[ragingwolf]

"Isamu Fuwa." He's walking over now, and giving the deck of cards a very curious look. Of all the things to have brought with them, why that...? "I work for A.I.M.S., but I doubt you've heard of it. No-one else here has."

He comes up to the cell, and leans an arm - the one not holding the keys - against the cell. "So who are you two?"

[chalicejoker]

"Can't say we have, no." Hajime's gaze is following those keys as he tries very hard not to think about something he's sensing...somewhere...nearby. He's got to get out of here, if only to deal with...

...no. It can't be another Undead. Can it?

"I'm Hajime Aikawa." Hajime gives Fuwa a curt nod at that, and he gestures to the mantis that's had to hop to his shoulder at the nod. "This is Ryo."

"Pleased to meet you!" Ryo says happily, because of course he is.

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa raises an eyebrow at Hajime - it's interesting to him, that there's another Japanese-sounding man already - but his gaze quickly turns down to Ryo.

"Huh. I suppose that explains why there's only one horse out there," he muses, kneeling down to look at the bug. "What are you supposed to be?"

[chalicejoker]

"Am Hajime's Spirit Companion!" Ryo says proudly. "From Questing Country! Is magical land of wishes and dreams and adventures!"

"...I've been traveling a lot." Hajime's less enthused about everything, really.

Ryo tilts his head to one side, an odd gesture for a mantis. "Horse? Need horses?" He bounces up and down a little. "No problem! Can turn into a pony! Big pony!" But still a pony.

[ragingwolf]

Ryo's entire spiel gets a confused stare out of Fuwa. "...right."

But he's standing up again, and going through the keys to find the correct one for this jail. There's six of them on his ring, none labelled. "I suppose that means you've done this sort of thing before, huh? Getting dragged into some weird place, forced to fight for entertainment?"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's expression sours. "You could say that, yeah. Is it too early for me to be swearing I'm going to take down whoever's responsible for this?" And his gaze flicks over Fuwa like he's sizing up the other man, trying to decide if he'll have to fight him or not.

"Hajime's a good fighter!" Ryo offers. "Best of the best! Very fierce! Fights like mantis!" He pauses. "Angry, angry mantis."

[ragingwolf]

"That's what I swore a few months ago. That I'll destroy the bastards running this damn show."

The correct key gets jammed rather decisively into the lock, and he yanks the door so it swings outwards. "But right now, we've gotta do some damn mission for them, or we'll get punished."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime wastes no time in getting out of there, scooping Ryo up with one hand as he grabs his cards with the other. There's a brief moment where he fans out all the cards to make sure they're there, then he tucks them away in his trenchcoat pocket. "Define 'punished.'"

"More magic jail?" Ryo asks as he settles in to his usual spot on Hajime's shoulder.

[ragingwolf]

"No one's quite sure. No one remembers what it's like being in there, but everyone hates it. We just call it 'bad jail'," he says, with a wry twist of his mouth.

He tilts his head back at Hajime, a question as much as angling his head to that pocket. "What's a deck of cards so important for? Most people come here carrying weapons or something."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime considers the question. Traveling had removed many of the inhibitions he might have once had about discussing certain subjects. "Among other things, they help prevent me from turning into a rampaging monster. It's better that I have them." His transformation belt flickered into existence around his waist. The only reason he even went that far was because he was this close to transforming into Chalice and rushing off to find that other Undead he's still sensing. "But they do other things, too."

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa steps back at the sudden appearance of the shimmering belt, and it looks like it's all instinct when he flicks his coat back and yanks a blue pistol-like gun from its depths, holding it in both hands but fingers off the trigger just yet.

"What the hell is that?"

[chalicejoker]

Wordlessly, Hajime produces one of his cards and runs it down the slot in the middle of the buckle. "CHANGE," the belt intones as his form ripples into an armored one.

Ryo doesn't seem alarmed; he hasn't even moved from his spot on Hajime's shoulder, and he's now riding on a bit of armor. "I guess is easier to just show instead of tell," he muses.

[ragingwolf]

Amazingly that doesn't help: Fuwa backs up again and instantly points the gun at Hajime's head, fingers tight around the trigger, and growls, "RaidRiser?! Where did you get that?!"

[chalicejoker]

Ryo decides that now is a good time to hop off of Hajime's shoulder and out of the line of fire as he's been instructed, and Hajime just flatly stares down the barrel of the gun. It's not the first time he's been up against a trigger-happy idiot. "A what?" He makes a noise that's somewhere between a snort and a humorless laugh. "I didn't get anything." Hajime pauses, considering his next words. "I was born with it."

Humans. So dramatic. He's very fond of them, but they are so dramatic.

[ragingwolf]

"Bullshit." The gun doesn't lower, or waver, but his fingers subtly leave the trigger. Clearly this guy has had actual gun training. "No one's born with one of those shitty ZAIA belts."

[chalicejoker]

"I don't know what the hell a Zaia is, and I don't care," Hajime says flatly. "It's an Undead belt." There's a pause. "Not the reanimated corpse kind other worlds seem to have. The 'immortal monster, can't die' kind." He may have had discussions about the word and other worlds' usage before. "I never said I was human."

He turns to leave, continuing to pointedly ignore the gun, and motions for Ryo to follow. "And if you'll excuse me, there is another Undead here, and I intend to take them out before they can start anything."

[ragingwolf]

He looks a little bit shocked at just being snubbed like that, and so there's a moment's pause before he scrambles to grab the guy's arm. "Oi! I don't give a shit whether you're human or not, you're not going anywhere on your own. We've got a damn mission in two days!"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime reflexively jerks his arm away, but at least he stops walking. "It's close, and not all Undead are as...civilized...as I am. People could be in danger." Look, it's a 20 minute episode of a monster-of-the-week TV show, tops.

[ragingwolf]

Stopped walking is good, it means Fuwa can snap at him. "If they are, you think the Game Makers would just let you stop it?" He knows their logic by now - killing something with entertainment value was no good. "If it's as civilised as you it'll keep its head down. And if it's not, that's not our problem yet."

[chalicejoker]

"I need to see which one it is." Hajime is debating with himself whether or not he can deck Fuwa and just go off to satisfy his curiosity. "It's an Undead. That makes it my problem."

"Can't help himself!" Ryo offers Fuwa. "Undead feel pull to fight! Very strong! Natural biological need! Like when you gotta pee real bad!"

[ragingwolf]

"And you being on my team makes you my problem!" he growls, and now he's starting to get up in Hajime's helmeted face. "If you're the reason we screw up our mission and fail, I'll damn well make sure you get hell for it!"

[chalicejoker]

Good news: competition is another thing that Hajime's Undead instincts are primed for. Compete and win and continue existing resonates with him. "I don't lose. Ever. And it'll only take a few minutes, then I'll be back here to play that little game."

Bad news: Hajime doesn't appreciate people getting up in his face. He's going to take that swing at Fuwa now.

Ryo gives up and backs off to a safe distance.

[ragingwolf]

The swing cracks into his jaw and Fuwa stumbles heavily, but his gun is up and firing even as he only starts to recover - and unlike some Riders, his aim is very good, and three rising shots hit Hajime's collarbone, neck and helmet, right between the eyes.

And as he gets his balance again, he pulls out a weird key-like square, and rips it open using his teeth (which looks like it must hurt) so he can jam it into his gun, point it at Hajime and yell, "Henshin!" and fires again.

Only this bullet whips around Hajime in a tight circle, and comes back to Fuwa so he can throw a punch into it, making the bullet explode into a ring of high-tech energy as pieces of armour slam into Fuwa, until he's fully wrapped up in the wolf-like Kamen Rider Vulcan armour.