"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." Edgar Allan Poe
Act I, Scene I:
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." Marcus Aurelleus.
It's another night at the Rodeo bar and grill. Beneath the stench of hookers and blow and old spice that the Mexican's wear too much of,you can smell the river. Ancient and acrid like fertilizer and burnt water. The first fight has broken out so it must be past 10 pm. The bouncers have chucked a couple of idiots out who were bad for business, but you can see underage drinkers, gang tattoos, mercanaries, two lines of coke on a table in the open and one cop getting bribed. Ah yes, just another night at the Rodeo.
Joel walks past a couple of fools who decided a fight inside wan't enough and took the fight outside.
He pushed through the front doors and scanned the Rodeo for a place to sit at the bar, preferably next to an attractive young Lady.
As he sidles up next to her, he calls out to the bartender, "Amigo, a beer for me. Bottle. And a drink for the lady as well". He grins at her, "I'm new in town, wanna show me 'round?"
Justin sits at the bar, finishing his second beer and a shot of Jim Beam, doing his best to keep to himself thinking that he's not very likely to have anything in common with most of the rabble in the Rodeo.
On the upside at least this is likely to be solely his time as opposed to looking into what Scarbourough wants this time. There'll be plenty of time for that tomorrow.
Looking up the bartender, he says, "Can I get another round?"
The bartender, Tiny hustles his massive girth back and forth the beer slinger the beers to the waitresses and up and down the bar and soon enough those who order have something wet. You note that he gave you something middle row not too s%!&ty, not too spendy. Joel:
Vincent made his way into the tavern, much like he'd done most nights of the last month. He found himself a a nice spot in the corner looking over the exit, letting himself know who and when people came in and made sure he was able to get there if he desired. He waved at one of the waitresses and waited his turn for them to show up.
Meanwhile, he watched the room curious to see who he knew and if he expected much trouble tonight based on how people were acting.
The smell is the first thing that hits Daniel as he enters the Rodeo. Now I remember why I never came here much.
He makes his way to the bar, side-stepping one stumbling drunk as he goes. "Let me get a pint of beer, whatever you got on tap," he says to the bartender, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the beer taps and putting some cash down on the bar. As he waits, Daniel scans the place, looking for two things: one, a table to sit at; and two, any indication that the woman who called him was already here. He had told the woman what he looked like and roughly what time he'd arrive, but he didn't really know who he was supposed to be waiting for. "Don't worry, I'll find you," she had said on the phone.
He scratches absentmindedly behind his ear. Hopefully this didn't turn out to be a waste of time.
Like a bad slow motion scene in a trashy movie everybody except Joel sees the slap coming as the girl gets one look at him and gives him what for before storming off. Meanwhile more beer is ordered and handed to the new arrivals and there is of yet no sign of a mystery woman for Daniel.
Justin winces a bit seeing some poor, sorry, son of a b%%%~ get the taste slapped out of his mouth. Taking another drink of his beer, he thinks to himself, Should have opened up with a twenty, buddy, might have had better luck.
Joel, shrugs, takes the drink he ordered her and moves to the next available candidate.
"Evenin' darlin' seems I am available for entertainment".
Daniel watches some man get slapped upside the head, then move on to the next woman without even missing a beat. He laughs and shakes his head. It's hard not to admire that kind of tenacity.
Seeing no sign of the woman he's supposed to meet, Daniel sighs and shrugs his shoulders. Maybe she'll show up, maybe not. He takes his drink and goes to find a small table nearby.
The girl is cute in a one drink too many sort of way but you start getting lucky Joel and soon enough you hit it off and start talking about what ever you can to keep the conversation going. This is definately going to be your night.
The drop should happen with a plain envelope some time tonight Ezra and from the earlier bar fights you missed, you can see that there had been some blood after all so not too bad a start for a night. At least the Rodeo offered some entertainment that you could enjoy and isn't boring like the rest of this one cactus town.
It is just after midnight and you can feel the shift hitting third gear at the Rodeo as the booze starts doing its job and some guy is getting lucky with a hooker in the corner where the light is out over the back pool table.
The package arrives for Ezra by UPS exactly one minute past midnight and its heavy. Its not professional to open here but its some way you haven't been paid before, some sort of metal bar by the length and weight of it.
There is some other noise going on at the bathrooms. Normally one wouldn't pay attention but its not the right sort of feel to it...
Daniel sits at his table, sipping on another beer, having more or less given up on any sort of meeting taking place this evening. Among the racket of the Rodeo he hears something going on in one of the bathrooms. Normally this wouldn't grab his attention for longer than a split second, particularly given the location, but something about it feels off. He focuses on it to see if he can figure out why it feels off.
Hearing the commotion from the bathroom, Justin at first writes it off as standard fare for a dive bar of the Rodeo's ilk, but yet something gnaws at him.
The feeling gets stronger until Justin involuntarily utters to himself, "What the f#+~ is going on?"
And if we are allowed to make both rolls, otherwise ignore...
Vincent seemed annoyed at how tonight had been proceeding. He'dd chatted a bit with the waitresses, even going so far as to talk to the tables around him to ease the boredom but this just didn't seem to be a good night for the Rodeo, at least for his tastes.
Still though, he was beginning to get suspicious of what was happening behind door number two though.
Joel continues to chat up his girl, wondering if she is Ms Right or Ms Right Now, when he gets a funny feeling about that noise...
Act 1, Scene 2:
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."
Second Witch - Macbeth, Shakespeare.
As Ezra stands and heads toward the bathroom he is the first to note but not the last that the back of the Rodeo is a bit odd and off in comparison to the front toward the exit. The other strange thing is besides yourselves no one else seems to notice anything is amiss at all. All of you at once seem to see each other and recognize that you are the only others who can tell that things are starting to go sideways. You all come to this realization but you just get the feeling that it isnt safe to be where you are and it would be better to move toward the back of the place.
Then right after that the hairs on your arms and the back of your necks all raise and you feel that sinking feeling in your gut and that tightness in your balls that lets you know that its about to hit the fan, bad.
Lastly, as if this bizarre goings on wasnt enough to stir your interest or change your minds all of you seem to start moving a bit... faster then the rest of the people in the bar. Like they all started to slow down a step. The hookers breasts bounce slower and less. The cue ball hits the felt one step behind when it should.
That sound from the back of the bar picks up a bit but then so does a new sound from the front of the bar from outside. The sound of a grinder getting turned on and people getting shoved in it. All of you know that sound too. People are dying. Screaming and dying right outside the front of the bar, and still no one in here is yet the wiser.
Ezra didn't question his instincts. He started for the back even as his pulse raced. There was so much blood. He wanted to be out front watching, being a part of it so bad his whole body was on fire. Blood on the sidewalk. Blood on the street. Running down into the sewer. Blood all over him. People naked, screaming, trying to hold their insides in. All the screams were almost enough to make him believe in God. He wanted to breathe it all in and let it wash over him.
Ezra was pretty sure that if he wanted to keep cutting people up, he needed to keep on living. That was the most important thing: Be a survivor. He tore himself from the reverie, clutching his package tight enough to use it as a weapon as he started for the back door. It would be better to get out the gun or the knife, but that would take time Ezra might not have.
Vincent couldn't tell if it was his instincts, some kind of PTSD episode, or perhaps even something supernatural but his body responded before he knew what was happening. His adrenaline began to pump, he crouched down and began to move from cover to cover towards the back exit.
He angles himself, ready to dive behind the bar at a moments notice as he tried to escape the feeling.
At first, Daniel can't be sure his senses aren't deceiving him. He hadn't drunk enough for anything like this to be happening. Did someone put something in his drink? No, he was always careful about that sort of thing. Still, that feeling wouldn't go away.
Then the world around him starts to get slow. He puts down his drink and blinks a few times, but no, he's not imagining it. He stands, looking about as he begins to edge his way toward the back of the bar. He's almost tempted to investigate the phenomenon, but every fiber of his being screams at him to run away as fast as he can. Once the sound out front picks up, Daniel moves even faster, his eyes wide, his fists clenched tight, his heart racing. If whatever was out there came in, it wasn't going to take him without a fight.
Justin looks around to see if anyone else is noticing what is going on as the dizzying off-time effect takes hold.
Alright, Travers. You've seen lots of weird s+*~. Get it together and find a way out of this mess...
"Come on sugar, let's step to the back... I've uh, got something to do and I want you along with me".
Joel begins to pull his new girl by the arm towards the back.
Jessica marches into the bar, dressed in an expensive looking skirt suit, her blonde hair is tied up in a messy bun. She's clearly pissed off mumbling under hear breath about a stupid broken down piece of s+@& rental car as she waves her cell phone around clearly trying not find but not getting any cell reception.
Looking around the dive bar, she involuntarily shudders, beginning to realise this isn't the sort of place she'd be caught dead in. She makes her way to the back half hoping to find a phone now more wanting to get away from the crowd in the bar and the bad bad feeling she's getting about the place she stumbled into.
The slowing effect continues in a wave of energy now, cigerette ash hanging from the tips in sparking red dropping as tracers to the ground, the beer sliding down the bar scrapes across the worn wood forever, the suds flipping off in incandescent bubbles dancing in the air waiting to hit another outstretched hand. At the front of the bar the door opens and four plain men with no distinguishing features enter, the door their hands carrying two swords each covered in long, dripping blood that falls coy to the floor in crimson streaks.
As you all pass through the back door you see a man who is somewhat familiar who smiles at you all shaking each of your hands and saying least I could do, really appreciate the help, please go on through. Remember that things will be the same, but also different. Time does that. and then there is darkness. And silence. The type of darkness none of you have seen. There is no bar. Only the stars overhead and you note you are in a camp of some sort, with a campfire and horses. Lastly, as you all take stock of the surroundings you find that you all seem to be wearing and carrying things that are quite different from what you were carrying before... the clothing to start is strange and you cant quite put your finger on why except Jessica who knows she is wearing a corset she wasnt before.
Jessica's hands flay about in the darkness, like someone who is trying to orient herself. "What's going on? Where am I?" She feels something different against her skin. Her hands move over her own body as she feels the unfamiliar corset a wave of panic seems to overcome her, but she bites it back down. "Don't appear a victim, don't seem weak. You're strong. It's going to be okay." She repeats the words to herself, repeating the obvious lie but she finally feels like she isn't going to bolt off into the darkness. "Is anybody there?" she calls out softly.
Vincent kept his head down even as they dipped outside. The second he saw the blades, his fingers had wrapped around the gun hidden in his jacket. But he was surprised...relieved even when they had made it out the door and he saw a familiar face. Or at least it felt familiar but he couldn't place it at the moment. Needless, he was safe for the moment.
He heard the words only faintly, still lit up with adrenaline and suddenly it was dark. He almost screamed silently into the dark but he had to keep it together. He shook himself off as he looked around, noticing the stars, the campfire, the horses.
He was alarmed as he looked around at their surrounding utterly confused at what had happened, where everything had gone. When he hears the woman call out, he turned around and his focus came back to the here and now. He began to look over himself and the others. "Is...everyone ok? Does anyone remember how we got here from the bar?" he asked trying to figure things out as he began to search his clothes for his weapon.
Daniel was surprised and confused by the sudden appearance of sword-wielding men inside the bar, but this latest turn of events was downright baffling. He takes stock of his surroundings, trying to make some sense of what he's seeing. A starry sky. A campfire in the middle of a campsite of some sort. There are horses nearby. The bar itself has vanished, as if it never existed. His clothes are different. He closes his eyes, thinking as hard as he can in an attempt to piece it all together...
No such luck. None of this makes any sense. What the f!~#.
He barely registers others speaking. His eyes open and he looks around for the source of the voices. "Everything was slowed down, and we went out the back door. Then there was that guy, then..." he trails off, shaking his head. Daniel grabs a bit of skin on one arm between two fingers and lightly twists it. It hurts. "Nope, probably not a bad dream. Where the hell are we, anyway?"
Justin looks around him, trying to process the changes around him. Alright, Travers, you've seen some weird s@*@ but this takes the cake... he thinks, before he eventually hears the others speaking.
"Not a f!$~ing clue." he says answering Vincent's and Daniel's questions simultaneously.
"Do any of you know who in the hell that guy was, or where in the hell he went?"
"Maybe? I don't know," Daniel replies, scratching the side of his head as he thinks. "I recognized him from somewhere, but for the life of my I can't remember where I would have met him. It was just my gut telling me I knew him."
He sighs loudly, giving up on it for now. "Damn it. No idea where he went, either."
Joel keeps quiet as his girl seems just gone...
He clearly had bigger problems now, why was he here and who are these people?
"Maybe we'd better start by finding out who each of us are and how we are connected. Unless this is just some sort of random event effecting us for a random reason. What do we all have in common besides we are all at the Rodeo at the same time.
I own a demolition/construction company".
"No connection to that here." Justin says. "Historian by training...I guess you could say pseudo-archaeologist by trade...maybe just leave it at gatherer of odd knowledge."
Just as you are talking a portly fellow walks from the campfire cursing in what sounds like Italian and then Joel blinks as it appears to be his retainer Rodrigo wearing some sort of costume speaking in a pronounced Spanish. hey boss, what are you doing out of the camp standing around in the dark. You'll anger the spirits and catch cold out here. Come back to the camp fire.
As Rodrigo approaches the fire near by seems to grow a bit stronger and his hooded lantern lights up the area showing a nice landscape with five or six wagons circled around the fire in a decensive position and three or four men carrying swords and pole arms wearing leather and chain armor patrolling the area with younger men walking with them carring torches. They call out and wave to each other and to you all and Rodrigo as they walk by.
"What in the hell..."
Curious Joel follows Rodrigo, "My friend, what is uh, what is going on?"
Jessica looks around her clearly surprised and very confused by the scene around her. She mutters "What the f~$~ is going on here?"
Vincent looks around equally confused, though his attention does drift to Jessica's attire. "Well, I suppose the attire change isn't all bad...but seriously, this is some f%!&ed up s**~." he said only really loud enough for the others to hear.
As the group approaches the camp you see a medium sized group of guards watching over five or six wagons in the dark. There is a large communal fireplace in the center roasting a small boar and smaller fire pits near each wagon along with torches being carried by the men. The principle language spoken is Italian, then some French, a few men speaking Latin in monks garb, then last some sparse Spanish and English.
What the f!!% is this? Justin thinks to himself, finally noticing the smattering of languages he recognizes, he approaches the monks.
"Excusatum me patres, sed ubi sunt? Ultimum memini amici mei et ego, qui in taberna, non hic in aperto."
In Latin in response to Justin:
you must have been sleeping off too much wine my son, for it has been several days since the Horseman's Wrangler was left behind. According to my memory we are near northern Italy making our way to outside Venice and the Giovanni estates.
Italy? What the f@~@? This s+~% just keeps getting weirder... Justin thinks to himself before responding.
"Et tu recte putant." he says with a self-deprecating laugh. "Tibi gratias ago, patres." he concludes before returning to the others.
Arriving back to where the other poor, confused beings are he says, "Um folks, I know I had a few drinks, but I don't think it was that many. Last time I checked we were all in a dive bar in El Paso, Texas. Those guys over there say were in Northern Italy on our way to Venice."
Daniel's eyebrow raises almost involuntarily. "We're in northern Italy? Seriously? What, they use horse-drawn wagons in Italy?" He again looks around, trying to make some sense of what he's seeing. "Let's see," he begins, puzzling things together. "Assuming they're not f%~+ing with us, we're outside of Venice, but traveling in an old-fashioned wagon caravan, like Old West pioneers or something." He pats his sides. "My gun seems to be gone, and our clothes are, well, different. And there are a bunch of monks over there speaking Latin. That was Latin, right? Sounded like Latin," continues, directing his last question to Justin.
Daniel suddenly remembers something the familiar man outside the bar said, and a thought pops in his head that shakes him to his core. He looks at the others. His eyes betray a growing sense of dread. "Do you remember that guy who talked to us? I think he said things would be the same, but also different. He said 'time does that.' You don't think... I mean, we couldn't have..." he trails off, unwilling to actually voice what he's thinking.
Justin nods in the affirmative. "Yep, that was Latin you heard."
As Daniel's voice trails off, Justin says, "Go on, go ahead and say it. I think we've all dealt with a fair amount of bat s%*~ crazy today, so what's a little more?"
Deciding he has nothing to lose, Daniel speaks. "You don't suppose that guy sent us back in time or something, do you? I mean, given all..." He gestures vaguely around him. "Well, all this. Looks like a damn Renaissance fair."
One does note that the firearm is not so much missing but much changed... it looks like a matchlock pistol, Something in common use in Europe after 1400.
Vincent does a few cursory look overs upon himself again. He wasn't a historian by any means though he at least did well in his history classes particularly those involving weaponry.
He noted the rather...odd gun, this would definitely be difficult to explain or find in such good condition today.
He was already beginning to have a migraine from the attempt to even understand this. "Alright, quick inventory of our abilities. Anyone understand this lot beside....What is everyone's names? Mine's Vincent." he said trying to wrap his mind around things.