forum Role-play where we get drafted into the army, and bad things start to go down (CLOSED)

Started July 04, 2018 by @Oakiin

tune

Ellen nodded and closed the door quickly. She turned around. "Let's see what screwy things are in here."

The inside of the barracks was quite dark until Vin found the light switch. The electric bulbs in the low ceiling didn't illuminate every detail, but it was enough to see by. The barracks was all one large, long room, lined on either side by metal bars so that only a narrow walkways down the center remained. It looked more like a badly-kept prison, or even a kennel, than a barracks.
As the lights came on, there came sounds of things stirring behind the bars on both sides. On their right, a woman with pure white skin and curling ram horns hissed at them from a nest of dirty straw. Her lower half was that of a huge white snake, and she had very long fangs.
"And what do you want?" she said in a low voice.

"I have no words." Ellen muttered, staring at the snake woman. "Vin, we are in deep schist."

Vin cautiously approached the bars. "Who are you? What's your name?"
The woman looked at him with contempt. "What do you care? Nobody else has asked my name. Why would you?"
"Because….because I don't like this, and I didn't know it was going on. We're not the people who brought you here." Vin shook his head. "Why did they bring you?"
"Beats me." She looked them over calculatingly. "Fine. My name's Scream. Yours?"

"That's an awful name." Ellen said. "How did you end up here?"

Her lips rippled, revealing her teeth again. "I bet my name's better than whatever yours is, human." Then she let out a breath and leaned back, seeming suddenly very tired. "I don't wanna talk to you anymore. I feel funny, like I ate something bad."
Vin's jaw tightened. "One more question. Do you know what happened to the big black lion that got loose this morning?"
Her eyes flickered with interest. "Oh, that hottie? They caught him and knocked him back out. He's at the end of this room, I think. He's pretty strong. Nobody else has had any luck fighting back so far. Why don't you go talk to him? He woke up not too long ago."

Ellen frowned. "Last time we saw him, he didn't seem to be in a talking mood."

But Scream was already asleep, snoring gently.
Vin turned away. "Let's try him. It sounds like this guy might be better at resisting whatever they drugged these creatures with. He might remember more details of whatever happened."

"But can he actually talk? He's a freaking lion."

"Let's just go see. I don't want to leave this place yet."

Ellen nodded, pausing to hear whether or not someone was approaching the barracks before making her way to the back.

The light barely reached the back of the building. The area behind the bars was divided into small cells with straw on the floor and buckets of water in the corners. Each was occupied by a new monstrosity, each more frightening than the last. The animals that had been brought in were nowhere to be seen. In their place was an assortment of humans with animal parts–wings, horns, scales, all combined in ways unlike anything seen in nature. The figures behind the bars growled at them as they passed, their predatory eyes glittering.
At the very end of the room, in the last cell, was a man. He was undeniably the biggest one there, with pure black skin and long shaggy hair. He sat with his back to the wall, his face in shadow. One clawed hand was slowly scraping at a manacle on his other wrist.
"I think this is him," Vin whispered. "The lion."

Ellen nodded. "He does not look like he's in a talking mood." She murmured.

At the sound of their voices, the man looked up. His expression was not welcoming. A low rumble came from his chest, and he rose, towering over them. He started forward, but the manacles on both wrists were chained to the wall and he couldn't reach the bars.
"What do you want?" he said. His voice was deep and angry.

Ellen stepped forward. "May we ask you a couple of questions?"

His eyes narrowed. "Like what?"

Ellen glanced at Vin. "Well… how did you end up here?"

"What are you talking about? You know that. You did this."
Vin shook his head. "No, we're new. It was the officers in charge that did this. We have no idea what's going on. So…what's your name? Where were you before….all this happened?"
The man drew himself up, making himself look even bigger. "I am Destroy. I'm stronger than anyone else in the whole world. Nobody could ever beat me in a fight. But you humans cheated. You snuck up on me while I was asleep. I was in the mountains, in my den. You came and knocked me out with your weird stinger things–"
"Darts?"
"Whatever." Destroy's eyes lost some of their confidence. "I woke up here. There was something on my face. I tried to get out, and I almost made it, but then those stupid stingers came again. Now….." His voice became altogether less bold, and he stepped back. "I….I can't change form. I could turn into a lion this morning but…they did something to me." His eyes shot up. "You did something to me. Little worms. Make it stop." He lunged forward suddenly, but the chains held fast.

Ellen hastily stepped back. "We didn't. We're forced to work here because of the people who did this to you." She cocked her head. "Wait… we don't want to be here, and neither do you. We've got something in common…" She was now talking to herself more then them.
(I gtg ;( See ya soon!)

(Okay, seeya!)
Destroy turned his gaze over to Ellen. "What do you mean we 'have something in common'?"

(I'm here!)
"We're here against our will." Ellen stated. "We were forced into an army, and it's almost a prison in everything but name."

"Why don't you just leave, then? You're not in a cage."
"We're trying to do that right now," Vin explained. "But we don't want to just leave you guys here. We want to help." He glanced at Ellen. "Think these locks can be jimmied?"

Ellen nodded. "I'd need more then a bobby pin though."

Vin started looking around. "Umm….hang on. Maybe there's something around here…." He found a door on his right and peeked in. "Some kind of storage closet. Let's see….straw, buckets, cleaning stuff…..what's this?" He pulled out what looked like a first-aide kit but it had a bio-hazard symbol on it instead of a red cross. "There's a bunch of little vials in here and a syringe."
Destroy looked wary. "They gave me one of those. A blue one."
"Oh… maybe that's what's keeping you from changing form right now." Vin's expression brightened. "So that means the antidote could be in here as well. Not that that helps us get the doors open."