To Whom This Now Concerns,

William had been in a daze for quite a long time. After the people running this place came in, he had really nothing to say. It wasn't comforting knowing that even the people working here had issues with each other. He had his own thoughts. He paused, and then looked around again. He took a sip of his drink. He also watched as Callum apologized. He wasn't that shocked, but still surprised to stay the least. The drunk one knocked out the new person who had come into the room. "Splendid." He said simply, not knowing what else to say really. He wasn't able to comprehend the stupidity.

 

"That's not right why did the-"
"Is he still drunk I think, there's nothing to worry about. He still completed the instructions in the box and the testing should begin now."
"I thought we only sent out one box?"
"We did, wasn't it to Willy?"
"No it was to the late one. Er... Beuce?"
"...get Derek out of there NOW."
"You think they know?"
"We can't afford for competition to get involved this early in the game."
"Alright sir."


There was a commotion outside before the man who had taken Emma out of there came back in and grabbed Derek, pulled him away from the group, and left the room immediately. As he slammed the door shut, another door at the other end of the room was opened. There was a deep breath taken before they stepped closer and closer to the group.



"Good..."

They paused and looked down at their watch to check the time.

"...Evening. I am terribly sorry for the events that have occurred so far. I am sure Derek explained how we meant no harm towards you. If he did not... well... we meant no harm towards you. Now..." the man placed his hand up to his chest and bowed his head slightly, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Alexander Revere. I am the one in charge of this operation, but I am not the one who sent the original letters. That is my superior, and if I can be honest, I am about as happy to be here as all of you."

Alex put on a fake grin as he continued, "If any of you have questions, and I am certain you do, you may direct them to me. I will answer them to the best of my ability. And please, don't try anything mindless."​

 

There was silence as the man placed his hand to his chin in thought as he walked over towards the table at the other end of the room. He seemed to be struggling with answer, but when something finally came to him he shrugged his shoulders lightly and looked directly at Tasha,



"There could be multiple factors, stress related factors, suicide watches or warnings, criminal activity, dishonorable discharges..."

He scanned the room at everyone and then returned his sights to Tasha, "In the end in comes down to one factor: who answered our letter? And fortunately from what I heard out of the 8 people who read the letter only one person did not reply."

Alex looked up at robotic arms that came down next to him and he grabbed it and mumbled a thank you. When the arms disappeared he opened up the file and squinted, "Oh wow it is dark in here... did we not turn on the..."

He looked up to the back corner at what could be assumed to be a camera, "Hey Dick, can you turn on the lights?"

The room was brightened up in a flash and he shielded his eyes obviously too late, "Ow! Slowly SLOWLY, we don't want to go blind. Christ." He reopened the file and scanned through it before clearing his throat.



"Here's the specifics I can assume, if you want to know your specific reason... I will share it out loud. Not privately. But... since Tasha asked I will continue..."

He held the file up and read out loud.

"Tasha Rask, age 18, student and part time worker. You lost your parents in a tragic accident but you still have your brother... younger brother, we did not collect his name because we do not like to deal with minors sixteen and under. However you are currently the one legally in charge of your brother, you do not wish to lose him. Losing him we don't just mean him getting killed but at this point if anything were to happen to you that burdened you anymore financially he's been threatened to be taken away from you. You also want to continue your studies and be able to pay them off as best as you can while still getting food on the table. You were collected for your stress levels, they are frighteningly high for someone of your age and we want to see if there is anything we can do to help that."

He shifted the file to the other page and without looking at any of them he spoke, "You all lead relatively interesting lives I must say..."​

 

After an interesting chain of events, the man who'd taken Emma out of the room had entered again, this time so that he the room that they all were in and drug the unconscious Derek out of the room. Maybe they took him out so that he could get some fresh air, or something like that. There wasn't all that much time to be concerned with that for another door opened up, this time another person came through.

Alexander, the man who'd just entered, started off by saying that he didn't mean them any harm, something that has been said quite a few times now. While he wasn't the one who'd sent them all the letters, he was still giving them a chance to get some questions answered. Going off of what he had said about Tasha, there probably was some stress or depression related reason other than the fact that he answered the letter, but he was still curious about it.

"So what's the specific reason behind me being here?" He asked. When he got an answer for this question, then he would ask one that would hopefully benefit more than just himself. Like something about the superior who sent the letters or what happened to the one person who didn't answer to the letter. The second thing was something that he was really curious about, seeing as how there was a threat within the first paragraph of the letter.

 

Jeez, more yelling.

These people sure loved to yell and his bff was extra yelly apparently. They just loved to yell...yelling was all they could do apparently...how boring. They needed more fun and Willy was the one to give it! His bff didn't seem to pay him much mind, so Willy was dissapointed in this front, but another person arrived! oh joyous days!

"sooooooooo we gonna get paid for this or something?" Willy said casually leaning back against the nearby table, starring down at the broken bottle in his hand and spinned it a bit. "maaaaaaaaan you people need to relax a bit and smile a bit more. Life's all about adventure!" Willy said giving them a wink "what we need is more alcohol is what I say!" Willy said before chuckling and raising up the bottle before his face and stared at it with a smile

"Why must we all be so cryptic, blabbing on about our own personal ****...lets all just enjoy the ride..." Willy said glancing over at Alexander with a smirk "why don't we get to the point hmmm? lets start the fun! if you wish us to do something why not tell us now! after all...knocking out that guy must of had some point wouldn'tcha say~" Willy said saying the last bit in a sing songy voice.

 

Callum stood quietly as all the tension in the room stepped up a notch. He was still feeling a little...different, since his drink, but the boy knew exactly what he wanted to ask this man before them, exactly how he wanted to word it. He was about to, but Tasha, the girl who had tried to be nice to him before, decided to speak up. Callum didn't care much for others in general, and he could care less if people were upset, but he didn't like the idea of him owing someone something. Regardless of whether or not Tasha had succeeded in helping him feel better (she hadn't), the fact was she had tried. He didn't know many people that had ever tried to help him, so that only made the feeling of guilt even worse.

"Alright, I've got more than one question for you, so you better pay attention. Firstly, like the others, I would like to know why I specifically have been brought here. If you truly wanted some depressed, near-suicidal guy, I'm sure there are plenty to choose from, so why me? My second question is this: What exactly do you want from us? You could have helped us any number of ways, and given all the **** that's gone on in here so far and your lack of intervening, clearly it's not our best interests that you hold dear to you. So, if not our well-being, if not wanting to help us, then I very much doubt it's anything that is going to benefit any of us in the long run. Spit it out, tell us why we're all really here" he said, his voice incredibly serious but speaking with an authority he did not have. Callum stopped after that though. He wasn't sure how to phrase the next part. Well, time to clear my record, he thought to himself.

Callum thought back to the knife he had placed in his pocket after his little outburst earlier. It comforted him, knowing that he had a weapon to defend himself with against the rest of the people in the room should it come to it. Although, part of him hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Damn, what was in those drinks to cause him to think things like that? Clearing his throat, he opened his mouth to speak.

"My third and final question is a simple one, but one that you'd better give an honest answer to. There are people in this room that seem as though they don't desire to be here. Most of them can sit here and rot for all I care, but that's not my point. What do I have to do to win Tasha her freedom?" Callum asked, nearly surprising himself.​

 

William looked at the others. All pointlessly asking stupid questions. Of course he had nothing to ask, he knew everything already. Well that wasn't actually true but he wouldn't let the others know that. Will laughed at Callum's request. He muttered something under his breath, and then deeply sighed. "You really think that is the best thing to ask you prat? Anything in the world and that's what you say?" Will started to laugh again. "Oh well you can't fix stupid."

 

The next to speak up was Beuce. As though everything was as casual as every, he pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards. Leaning forward against the back with his legs to either side. Both his elbows rested against the top of the back, and his hands were crossed over his mouth. "So you're here for the Q&A huh? Well, i guess I'll ask mine next. I don't need to know why you want me here. I mean, who wouldn't want someone so incredibly awesome in their presence?" He said, likely making most people inner face palm. However, what happened afterwards was quite the contrast. His face became almost serious, and the questions he asked were fairly surprising given who they were coming from. "First off, Who, or rather, what are you people? You're obviously an organized group. What kind of group are you? A criminal organization, maybe? There aren't many legal by-the-book companies that drug their guests to test it out." He said, revealing to the rest of the group what exactly had happened with the drinks.

"Second, What's stopping anyone in the room from leaving? What are you going to do to them if they try? You probably wouldn't keep us here without some kind of precaution, but what's the dangers of trying to leave? Unlikely something as messy as armed guards who will shoot on sight. The sound would attract attention from nearby. Probably something a bit more subtle. So why don't you fill us in? And lastly..." Beuce paused, looking at the door where they had dragged Derek through. "What was the purpose of knocking him out? He didn't seem to be going against you, so you could have just called him back if you wanted to. So, either that was just because you thought it'd be funny, or there's something we don't know about that. Which is it?"

 

Drake downed a cup of of the "Dr Pepper." It was good, and honestly reminded him of that bottle of whiskey he'd finished off in the time before he'd arrived. It had an odd taste, but he ignored it as long as it could -- which wasn't very long. Within a few minutes, he could feel the telltale burn in his throat. He'd grown all too familiar with it.

He took a seat in one of the chairs by the door, his thoughts starting to blur. If anyone spoke to him, he didn't hear it. His right hand clenched into a fist and his left gripped the fabric of his jeans, both starting to shake. He looked around, trying to find something to distract him from this god awful feeling. Suddenly, some loser who looked like he'd come straight out of Doctor Who Cares started talking. He couldn't really get himself to focus on words, but there was one name that stood out: Alexander Revere. That caught his attention, and for a moment the feeling of minor withdrawl was overpowered by a seething rage. Somehow, rage was all that could ever pull him out of his pathetic longing for his vices. He did his best to pay attention after that, and heard that there was one person who hadn't replied to that goddamned letter that they'd sent. His hands shook more than before, but now it was out of hatred. That fact that someone was actually dead because of this ridiculous crap upset him to no end.

Suddenly the lights came on.

"Shit!"​

He dropped his head, trying to avoid the sudden change and any headaches that would probably follow. The guy seemed upset as well and after he barked some orders, the room got dimmer. He quickly proceeded to give the whole room Tasha's life story and claimed that they wanted to "help her."

The questions came almost immediately. Everyone had something they wanted to know -- why them, why here, why ANYTHING?? -- and Drake just bit his lip while they all asked away. He could feel that he'd reopened the wound, but he didn't care about that. When the time came for Drake to speak up, he didn't even move. He wasn't going to give this asshat that kind of respect. He didn't even want to know about the why. There was only one thing on his mind.

"The poor ******* who didn't answer your 'invitation'... what was his name?"​

That was all that went through his mind. Some innocent sucker had died because they opened up that piece of crap letter.

He wanted to hear a name.

He wanted these psychos to recognize what they were doing.

But more importantly, he needed to know it wasn't him.

He couldn't stand the thought of it being him.

His hands shook just a little more than they'd already been.​

He had to know, for better or for worse.

 

As Damion waited quietly for his question to be answered, everyone else had started to chime in with thoughts of their own. Some of them would save him the time of possibly asking a question that would have the same answer. Though there were still some things said that did surprise him, at first it was just was Callum had said. Later it was what Beuce had said. They drugged us?! That explained the strange feeling that he was having after drinking some of the drink. "What the hell did you put in the drinks?" Aside from the answer dictating what he would do next, it was also likely that by the time that he'd gotten an answer that whatever the drug was doing to him, he might now be all that angry. Only time would tell.

 

Alex originally had the intent of answering every single why was I chosen question. He figured he'd stretch it out for as long as he could as things got taken care of. But then they began asking more questions than specific ones to them. Most groups he had usually asked questions involving themselves and then they wouldn't ask these types of questions. Clearly this was not a normal group, or a normal day at work.

The questions distracted him from reading the file. After a moment he just shook his head and held up the file letting out a small whistle. He waited a moment without really moving, then he tapped his foot impatiently, before he looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "Dick? Are you paying a lick of attention?" he waited for yet another moment before he just shook his head and placed the file on the table. Perhaps he was doing something a little more important at that moment.

Alex folded his hands and made eye-contract with as many of them as he could before he answered, "The pink haired girl's stunt with the knife is unaffiliated with our intentions. She did that on her own behalf and we had no idea exactly what she had done until a few minutes ago. Let's just say that we are now in the middle of unexpected circumstances, and it is going to take us much longer than we planned to get you back to your homes."

He stopped speaking and placed his hand up to his ear as if listening to something private, after a bit he turned his attention to Damien, "Maria Colt is the eighth person. Lovely girl, she had a family of seven... all siblings. Her parents had abandoned them all when she was young and she did her best to keep them all together. She was the oldest of them all... taking care of all those younger siblings... Nathan... Simon.... Daria... John... Timothy... the other two were too young... we didn't look into them. Maria... hm... how do I put this... Maria-"

Alex's head shot up at the ceiling and he put his hand up to his ear and whispered as quietly as he could, although it could still be heard, "Brendan, get in there. Dick isn't responding and it sounds like Rebecca got a hold of the microphone and we need to shut her up before she-"

Alex glared at the ceiling before he ran at the door and tried to open it. He tried to force it open afterwards before he kicked it and growled. This was intentional of course, they didn't want everyone to just run out at once and run off, but now it was a severe issue with the situation going on.

Alex shouted beating the woman to the punch, and she shut up so they could hear it come from his mouth, "Our testing guarantees what side effects it has on humans.... because we test on humans."

Alex refused to look at the group before there was a tsk noise.

There was a loud noise before there was silence. Then someone got on the microphone.

"Great."



Alex took a deep breath and looked over at the group. He was not sure how they would react to that bit of news, he didn't want them to have found out it was a test rat thing. At least not this early on in the game. Alex's calm composure he had as he walked in here was now completely gone. He pulled a gun out from his belt and made sure they knew it was there, "DON'T. Try anything funny."

He used the gun to point around the room and spoke, "Even if you succeed there are 73 other people within this facility. If you listen to what I tell you, all of you will make it out of here in one piece. It's a sympathy kind of thing. But if you do try anything funny, and get me down, the 73 other people in this facility will not hesitate to be rid of you. Now."

He looked over at Willy and stepped a little closer to the group, now leaning against the table, "Knocking out Derek is no longer an issue... however... would you mind tell me if there was a signature at the bottom of the letter? I'm sure it will clear up some issues we are having with miscommunication."

He nodded at Beuce and spoke, "Nothing is keeping you from leaving. If you would like, we have a man out in the front lobby who is willing to take you home." he looked over at Tasha and spoke, "I understand that this is now an issue where other members of- of this group are concerned for you but we cannot get you out of here at this time."

Alex took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Are there any more questions that you all need answered?"​

 

"Yeah, there's still my first question that you ignored." Damion spoke out, not at all fazed by the gun that Alex had pulled out. It wouldn't be the first time that a gun was pulled out on him. Getting an answer to his earlier question probably wasn't the most important thing that he could ask right now, it still didn't change the fact that he wanted an answer to his question. Now that that was out in the air, Damion started to ponder about the what was recently said. The name D.A.S.T.A did sound familiar, but so did many things that he'd ended up ignoring so he'd probably just look it up later.

Next up was this Maria Colt person. From the few details that were shared with all of them, the fact that she was not the most fortunate person was pretty clear and again the idea of these people helping her made sense if they'd actually gave her more support instead of sending her a letter. Seriously though, seven siblings all abandoned by their parents. To him that sounded more likely in a depressing book, which he read quite a lot of depressing stories a while back.

"Secondly, what did she mean when she said that Maria 'Was the smartest of everyone who answered the letter.'?" He didn't bother to ask anything about hidden motives or anything along those line cause he doubted that he would even get an answer, let alone one that could justify any of this. In fact there was a risk that the answer that he was given wouldn't be all that satisfactory, but they would need to get answered before he could decide whether he accepted them or not. Not that he really had much choice in the matter.

 

"Human testing huh?" Beuce said to himself. Well, that explained a bit. Particularly the part about the drugs. If these people were a company that focused on that sort of thing, it was no wonder that they got people there through what seemed to be chain mail. Not many would go by choice. However, then something was said that almost surprised him. He could leave whenever he felt like it. Yet, it was only him in particular. Now, why was that? What separated him from the rest of the people there? Well...He'd arrived late, for one. Perhaps it was something that happened in that time that set him apart. Most apparent thing being the knife game. "If she saved their lives with the knife...Did she also trap them here? By that logic, would i be in danger if i stay?" He asked Alex.

If that were the case, he began to wonder if he really wanted to stay here. After all, there was really no harm in leaving if they were even offering to drive him home. After a bit, he came to an answer. Of course he wanted to stay. Things were just starting to get interesting. If he could see this thing through to the end, it might make a good story to tell people at later times. He laughed in the face of danger! Ahahah! ...Wow he was glad he didn't say that out loud. He'd be getting even more weird looks than he usually did. That would have been awkward.