To say she was expecting a swamp when she came out of the ground was an... understatement. She stepped out into the dirt, tilting her head. She had found a few magazines in that god awful train traveling the never ending death labyrinth known as the Deepsea Metro. She expected paradise. Salvation. A place to live without death looming over her shoulder at every single misstep. She was expecting the sun and beautiful music like those two girls sent her. Speaking of which, she didn't understand all of their nonsense claptrap, but the place that they spoke of looked nothing like this. Did she take the wrong way up? Was this not the Promised Land? That is what Tartar called it and... even if he did try to blend her alive, she didn't have a better name for it.

  ... So this was it.

  The Promised Land.

  A place of sunshine and good clothes and games to play.

  Eight took a step in a muddy puddle, her ears pinning back. Her face scrunched up as she stepped back onto the metal on the ground. ... Yeah... It was... great. Don't get her wrong. She would take anything over that train but... Eight had to admit she was looking for something a bit more atmospheric. But... she supposed as long as she didn't have to go through any more tests, it was fine with her.

  Eight took a deep breath, shutting her eyes. She could smell the dirt; the muck and grime of the undergrowth. She could hear the sounds and calls of birds and insects, she could hear the scuttling of insects and reptiles. She opened her eyes, a smile on her muzzle. She could feel. This wasn't a dull, plastic simulation with a shiny plaster over it. This was real. She was in control of her life, and she was going to do what she wanted.


... Well... what was that?

  Eight frowned, tilting her head. She supposed her first rule of action was to find out where she was. And after that... she might want to find the two that were on that radio. They were kind enough to help her out of that place. She should probably find Three somewhere along the way, as well. Who knew where she went? At that though, where was the Captain? They all got separated somewhere down the line... did they make it out of the facility too? She supposed it was time to find out.

  Despite having a better outlook on her surroundings, Eight was still tense. Test after test in that facility put her on edge. She felt like she was made of glass, that every single little step she made could lead to her death. To say she was paranoid and anxious would be an understatement. A scan of the area showed a large number of spiky traps dug into the earth. Eight broke a sweat, tensing up. What kind of hell was this? Her first thought was to look up at the sky through the canopy. Was... Was she still underground? Was this another test? Was she still in the Metro? ... n-no... she couldn't be. She took the elevator out it came right up here. She could still see the grate she crawled out of. It was right there. Eight broke a sweat, slowly turning back around to the course in front of her. Well. it would be easy to avoid them, even in combat. Nothing could be harder than pushing those giant balls around or jumping from floating platform to floating platform. She could feel her breath skip as she slowly began walking forward. One muddy paw quickly became two muddy paws. Two muddy paws multiplied into four. She whined quietly under her breath, her voice hoarse and unused. She could do this. She could do this.

  And that's when she heard a metallic hiss from behind her. Eight screamed out, whipping around and ready to fight anything crawling out after her. She was ready for shadowy hands and tentacles to swarm out of that hole, dragging her back to C. Q. Cumber and Tartar. She was ready to hear the screams of the damned echo out of the hole, attacking her ears and breaking her spirit. She was expecting... anything that didn't happen. The hole simply closed up. The metal plates pushed back into the earth and pushed up grass and undergrowth to replace it. Eight froze. Captain and Three were still down there. She zipped back over to where the metal grate fell and began to dig. She teared up as she dug and dug. A hole quickly swallowed her. One foot deep. Three feet deep. Six feet deep. She gave up. All she was hitting was dirt and muck. Eight sighed, her ears pinning back. Three was tough and she had Captain's guidance on her side. Even if he was old and couldn't move well, he was still a veteran. He knew what he was doing. They were going to be fine. She had nothing to worry about.

  Swallowing down her new predicament, she figured the only way to go was forward. She couldn't go backwards even if she wanted to. Swallowing down her anxieties, she started walking. There was no where for her to go. There were no friendly voices coming through her radio. There were no instructions.

  She was in control of her own life.

//no need to match muse actually dont ill cry if i have to do this again

"SPEECH"

Paranormalhoax hadn't been out of camp a lot since he'd joined. Seriously, there were alligators and traps and stuff and Paranormalhoax wasn't going to deal with that. But! Today! Today was the day Paranormalhoax left the camp! He wanders through the mud like some sort of spooked rabbit, ready to flee at the slightest provocation. He'd always been a coward. But he was gonna change that! One step at a time!
It would seem that Paranormalhoax was just in time to see Eight digging a whole in the ground, though. The canine had just been minding his business, trying not to spook at literally every little noise, when he happens upon her. Paranormalhoax nearly screams. Oh god this was not what he signed up for when he left camp. Not at all. Does he run? Who is she and why the fuck is she digging? Why was the whole so deep! The world may never know, but Paranormalhoax was pretty upset anyways. All these questions, and absolutely no answers! Within moments of his arrival, though, she gives up and starts walking away, and Paranormalhoax has no idea what to do. Does she stop her? Question her? He's not sure, nobody gave him a rundown on these these!
.. Luckily, though, he doesn't have to worry about it. A big dog and the yellow cat show up, questioning her, but why weren't they asking the real questions? Sure, she'd walked away, but what the fuck! The chimera grumbles as he wanders over to join the two of them, scowling. Should he ask? He was gonna ask.
"Do you guys not see the giant hole in the ground behind her?" He asks, deciding to point out the obvious. Was he gonna get yelled at for pointing out the obvious? Probably. Did he care? Not particularly, no. Seriously, what were these two doing? What a problematic way to ask what people were doing here. What if they couldn't talk? Then what? Not that Paranormalhoax has any other ideas, so he's not gonna point it out and get yelled at for being a smart-ass too. Still, he just really doesn't understand these guys at all.

  A-ah.. Eight muttered under her breath, her ears pinning back. The agent slowly blinked, tilting her head at the situation around her. This was... bad. Real bad. Everything in the metro seemed to attack first and ask questions later. Though... it seemed most of these creatures weren't keen on attacking her. Though... maybe the bear... dog? ... Besides the other agents, there weren't many specimens of life down there. She had no idea what most species were. Eight hummed, taking a step back. She didn't trust these creatures. Not one bit.

  The hell were these creature's problems? She supposed it was one hellhole to another. Eight stayed quiet. At least she wasn't being attacked. That was a plus. She supposed while she had time she was going to observe those in front of her. Well firstly was the brute of a dog. The canine was huge and easily towered over her small form. He looked hungry. He licked at his lips, drool waterfalling from his mouth. Maybe not hungry, but definitely aggressive. The canine appeared as an angry cobra, coiled up with so much tension that could snap at any second. She would definitely have to be careful around him.

  The second was a yellow cat, much like herself (though, she was more of a tan than anything). Though... he seemed completely calm. He was silent, much like herself. He did not even seem to notice the giant quivering form next to him, though she thought she could catch the briefest flick of his eyes to the other's form as he stared at her. Despite that, he appeared completely calm and collected. It was... hypnotizing. She wished she could simply brush aside nerve and tension like that. How wise the lemon coated cat must have been. It was worrying to think about.

  And the last seemed just as panicked as she was. He seemed jittery and out of focus. He twitched and shook like a leaf in the wind, simply trying to find a position or spot that was comfortable in this unnatural, twisted world. She could related. Eight gave Hoax a ghost of a sympathetic smile before her attention turned back to Zimavich. He did ask a question. She... supposed as long as she wasn't getting attacked... it was only fair that she answered...

  ... But how? Eight sighed, reaching up and tapping her chin. She was down there for who knows how long. With death lurking around every corner, she couldn't afford to speak. She could barely breath at the thought of various octarian machines lurking around the corner to snipe her down. Even if she could gather the courage to use her voice, she doesn't think she could muster the strength to speak anyways. Her vocal chords were underused and dried. She reached a paw up, coughing into the cupped palm. She winced. Yup. Definitely as dry as a desert. No talking for now.

  Eight sighed, crossing her arms and staring down into the dirt as she tried to think of a solution. There had to be some way to convey her name. Well... Her nickname anyways. Even before she found herself in the metro, she had lost her memory. Eight wasn't truly her name, but it was the only name she knew. The aquatic cat blinked, wiggling her toes into her arms as she blinked at the ground. Could she write it? It couldn't be that hard to write a number. She whispered out a whine. Her feet have suffered enough at the dirt's wet embrace. She wiggled. Wiggled and wiggled until it clicked. Eight reached her paws out in front of her, staring at her paws.

Duh.

Eight smiled and proudly held up eight of her fingers. There! Eight! She was Agent Eight!

"SPEECH"

  They seemed to have caught on. The octopus cat smiled brightly, nearly catching whiplash from how quickly she nodded. Her purple eyes shined, happy that they seemed to catch on. Eight put one of per paws down and put the other on her chest to confirm the thought. That was indeed her name.

  Now to explain how she got here? That was another story. Eight tilted her head. How the heck did she explain 'train station' without words? Was it even possible? Were they even going to ask her or was he backstory going to be shrouded in silent darkness? ... she wouldn't mind that personally. If she could choose when she got amnesia, she would have chose now.

  Yeah... Perhaps it was for the best that she didn't explain herself. Eight decided to play along as well. She turned to Amunet, giving her a grateful smile and a nod. That was truthfully all she could offer for now. The huge cat was the only one to offer her name in return. Well... besides the snarling one but ... she had a strange feeling he wasn't exactly... all there ... in the most respectful sort of the sense. She was sure he was plenty intelligent, just... more feral than sentient?  She didn't know. 

  She was still a bit on edge... but she still believed these creatures didn't have ill intentions towards here. They were just as weird as she was. Even if she's never seen these creatures before, that doesn't mean they're ill natured. Still a little twitchy and on edge, she waited for more names. They had to have them, right? They weren't just assigned numbers like she was. Applicant 10008; shortened to Agent 8 by the Captain. All she has ever known was numbers.

"SPEECH"