Wuzzafuzzle's Muse Box

[ It's all too familiar - he remembers it again, that too blue room, with Teresa's face above him, those words 'Wicked is good'. But there's more added in there, flashes of a room more sterile white, people in coats he knows are lab coats, masks covering their faces. Not all human faces, and Thomas remembers panicking, but he'd been so bleary, so out of it, limbs moving slow and words coming slower. After that, it was the hanger bays, all kinds of bizarre and grand mechanics he's never seen before. While they aren't as monumental as the maze, the complexity is still startling, building the anxiety in him that's already sky rocketing, making his heart pound in his chest. 'CDC' he sees on one of the walls, and the memories start to flood back again. They'd made it out. Lost so many of them, but they were out of the maze. It seemed like the home stretch, but they reached that operations room, with the carnage scattered around and the pungent stink of decay only just beginning to set in.

The blond woman on the screen. She offered him a deal. Thomas goes, only Thomas, and completes this job for them. Joins this Cosmic Demolition thing and apply himself as best he can, fight to survive as he did in the maze, and the rest of the Gladers would be free. They'd be given safe haven, taken back to their families (whose pictures flashed across the screen). All he had to do was work for them. Not WICKED. Another group. But how different could it really be? He wanted, so badly, to tell her no. Not again, never again. But with the others, and Chuck, who he'd promised to get back to his parents, there wasn't another choice. Against the others' protests, he'd agreed. And now, here he is, near hyperventilating as someone in what looks like a very slim space suit shoves a duffle bag into his arms, and starts to push him towards the edge of the hanger dock. Mind catching up with his body, finally, despite the light headed dizziness, Thomas's eyes turn to the direction he's being pushed, and over the edge of the dock. Into the gaping worm hole in the middle of goddamn space. The CDC officer behind him gives him another terse shove at the back of his shoulders, and Thomas is digging his heels in, arms flailing as he tries to keep balance and get the hell away from the space-chasm. ]

No-- nonononono, wait! Wait! [ Panic is screaming in him anew, and it rings so much of when he'd watched Ben be shoved into the maze, exiled from the Glade. He manages to get hands on the CDC worker, clinging to his shoulders, but something along the lines of 'stop whining, recruit' is muttered out before he's bodily shoved over the edge. All he hears for so long is his own hoarse screaming as he falls, and then something like electricity striking all around him when the ship disappears, and all he sees are the luminous colors of the Bridge. It's shortlived, and soon enough, the scenery changes - frigid, icy air stinging at his cheeks like so many needles, and the rush of air past his ears, making his eyes water too much to see anything straight. The screeches of the Shai swarming aren't even heard until he feels himself suddenly flop onto the snow below. Not quite the fatal splatter that he'd been expecting, not that he's complaining.

All he has time for is a pained groan, as the teenager rolls over to his back, wincing at his aching bones, before there's that screeching that he's finally keying into. Coming from directly above him, and closing in fast. It speaks way too much of Grievers, minus the mechanical whir, and adrenaline spikes, eyes snapping open to take in the alien for only a fraction of a second, before he's rolling away and scrambling. So much like the maze, the same blaring fear pounding in his head, but luckily not freezing him. Just run. Survive, run. His worn boots carry him swift across the snow, pretty damn fast for a scrawny kid like Thomas, but he's had experience. He barely recognizes the massive nests as what they are - nests, but he's weaving through them as the Shai above tries its whole projectile vomit thing. Luckily, Thomas isn't hit head on, but some does splatter against the side of a nest and splash a good amount on his right arm. He panics, worried that it might be acid or worse, but instead, it's just gross. Ew comes to mind, inappropriately for the situation, but the alien's gaining on him from what he can hear. Risking a quick glance over his shoulder, he's nearly right on top of him.

He ducks around boulders, skids under over hangings, but there's no where safe enough to hide from this thing. These things. That's about when a large, steel crate slams down into the earth just a couple feet to his right, and Thomas jumps with a surprised SHIT!. He nearly loses his balance, but his attention snaps up from where it came from. The boxes are falling along with the other recruits. And boulders. Wow. Fantastic. That's just perfect.

Actually... it sort of is just perfect. Watching the sky, Thomas checks for the path the other boxes and boulders are taking, where they're likely to fall, trying to work up in his head about when they'll hit the ground. Finding the perfect one - nice and huge too - Thomas makes a mad sprint directly for it, the Shai not picking up on the plan here yet. Well, at least they're stupider than Grievers. At the last second, Thomas dives forward as the steel supply crate rockets downward, hitting the ground rolling to just barely get out of the way, and the crate itself slams into the Shai hot on his tail, making it a gross, vomit-bug pancake. Eat that, snow-freak. He's heaving his breathes, now, though, having to double over for a second, hands on his knees, and lungs and throat feeling on fire. More to himself than anyone else around, he pants, through strained breathing. ]

What the hell is this place?

[ It's been a month. Thomas has moved up to runner now, and after that first night Minho and he survived the maze, things have been strained. Gally's been on his ass every five minutes, nit picking everything he does. Side eying him and Teresa like they're the Grievers themselves. There's only been a couple run ins with them during the day of late, but they're never good. They've lost two other runners in the last two weeks. It's getting worse. They all know it is.

He and Minho have been working up a plan, though. Not running it past, Gally, as he seems pretty much obsessed with chaining them all to the Glade, but they have an idea. Maybe an escape. It's their best chance, either way, but they need to right time. Wait until sector 7's scheduled to open, and rally the others to go with. If they can win them over, at least. Either way, until then, it's life in the Glade as per usual. When Thomas isn't running the maze, he's out helping the others. Today, he's putting one of the huts back together from where some of the bamboo broke in. There's another kid off to his left, someone he hasn't looked at to identify yet, but he's a little busy trying to force the bamboo pole into the tight space it needs to fix into. He's known for his speed here, not his strength, so a second later, he's grunting out a request to the kid to his left. ]

Hey-- wanna give me a hand over here?

I. Can I chase this vodka with an onion?

II. Have you ever looked death in the face and had the urge to shit yourself? I'm in that situation right now.

III. I slept awesome next to you. You're like an electric blanket that I can have morning sex with.

IV. Psycho is an understatement. You were running around the house screaming I'M UNDER THE IMPERIOUS CURSE.

HURT/COMFORT MEME
SICK DAY MEME
INSOMNIA MEME
CRYING MEME
FLUFF MEME

Just shoot me whatever! You can leave a starter, or give me some pic prompts or an idea or whatever, we'll do stuff. Cool with AUing shit too.