[Thread] The New Arrivals Characters: Kitty Pryde, Doug Ramsey, and Rahne Sinclair. Where: The Desert. What: Doug meets Kitty, then Rahne comes fetch the two newbies. Everybody lives! When: Day 10. Early morning. Rating: Low.
Doug always knew that he would end up in Hell. Not that he could remember exactly why that was the case now that he was actually standing here, but it was a feeling he carried deep in his chest like it was a given fact of the universe. The sky was blue, the ocean was vast, and Doug Ramsey was going to hell. Though, to be honest, he was expecting Hell to be more fire and brimstone and less Tatooine. Maybe he wasn't in hell then. Maybe this was Limbo and he was being reborn, and the pod was a very high-tech womb. But he would still have to have died to... All right, now he was just getting confused. The fact that he couldn't remember what he had been doing prior to waking up in the pod didn't help make the situation less puzzling either. It was as if someone had reset him to factory setting and he had no way to restore from the iCloud. His mind was blank; all he knew was his own name.
Maybe he wasn't dead at all. Which would be nice. He was a big fan of being alive. Even the whole no-memories slash no-idea-where-he-was part wasn't bringing him down as much as it should now that he was coming to accept that he hadn't kicked the bucket. But not having to kick the bucket meant he would now have to survive, and how was he going to do that if he hadn't had a clue on what was happening here?
He retreated to the pod, it being the only object that held a purpose in the endless stretch of sand and despair. The provision pack and the communication device within only raised more questions that the wasteland had no answer for, but gave him a reason to not stand there and stare at his hands. A quick survey confirmed that he shouldn't count on what was in the bag to sustain him past a couple days. The day was blazing hot and he could only assume the night would be the polar opposite in the desert climate. Not to mention looking out for the possibility of Graboids. Walking wouldn't get him very far either, not with the heat and the terrain working against him. He knew better than to exhaust his strength on hopeless task; he might actually end up dead for real. Which would not be nice. Because as previously mentioned, he very much liked living.
The only foreseeable solution was to search for other people who might have a clearer idea of the circumstance at hand. If not, at least there was strength in number; he was always better in a group than alone. (He hated being alone.) Snatching the handheld device, it was a no-brainer to him what it did and further reassured him that there were indeed other people around. He was waiting for the device to turn on when a sonic boom startled the ever-loving heck out of him and caused him to drop the device in the same beat to cover his ears. It didn't take him a moment too long to realize that the sound was another pod landing (it being in his vision field was a big clue, to be fair), and it didn't take him another moment to start running toward it. Despite the sand swallowing his feet, he moved as quickly as possible toward the newly landed pod. Whoever was inside might need his help and though he didn't have any answer to offer, he thought he could at least offer a hand.
He paced toward the opened pod, not too quickly in case he was not a welcome sight to the occupant. His voice was hoarse and he was out of breath from the heat and the running and looked ready to collapse, but his manner didn't carry an ounce of malice.
"Hello?" he spoke softly, dipping his upper body low to make himself smaller and less of a threat. "Hi, I'm Doug. Are you all right?"