[ May 17, 2091. A scant few days ago, the planet Mars -- indeed, the human diaspora -- was somberly observing what happens when 6 months drop off the map and nobody knows where they went. Now normal life is proceeding apace for everyone. Here in Red New York City, the rain has stopped and the sun has a nice warming feel through the ion curtain... such as it is. People are on the streets. ] [ But for a handful of people, the last few days have been a little different than normal. Three friends (of a sort) found themselves saddled with an individual, took him to a place, and were confronted by the past and the future colliding like collapsing neutron star. The fallout has left them confused, wearied, and saddled with an unconscious mystery. ] [ Last night was spent preparing at Stargazer Hall; this fine morning -- let's say 11am, a good time -- finds our heroes walking out of Kat's closet. Literally. ] [ What awaits them today? ATC Gaiden, part 2: start! ] * Rochelle walks out of Kat's closet. She hasn't been particularly talkative after everything that happened, instead going about like she has a headache. Which she probably does. Meds didn't help, either, damn them. * Katherine is in her suit walking out of her closet, X over her shoulder. Well, this is different. She pulls off her helmet and tosses it on the bed, followed shortly by the small bag she took to TC. * Zak walks out of the closet, in his suit, which is predictably colored in icy blue with white highlights, but otherwise looks fairly stock. He spent most of last night holed up with a bunch of advisors, trying to get some real work done. Outside of that, he's been about as talkative as Roch. THAT is kind of shocking. He walks into the room and looks around. (oh christ what does Luanne look like) (PASTED.) [ The last to arrive, so to speak, is the surprisingly business-like form of the woman named Luanne. Her red-brown hair is primly set, and she wears a sharp-looking combination of sleek grey pants and a somewhat flowing cream-colored shirt over a white tank top... which is business-like for Luanne, anyway. ] * Katherine pulls her braid out of her suit, exhales noisily as she sets X down on the bed as well, then looks over at Luanne and says, with a faint grin, "I really hope I didn't forget you coming to my apartment and exploring my closet. That'd be a fucking tragedy." [ She doesn't close the closet door; instead she turns to look at Kat for a moment, then lets her eyes drop down to the still-unconscious Xavier Aurin before turning them back on the group. The comment does make her smirk, though. "I can't stay very long, you caught me right before I left on the job. You gonna be alright? And trust me, when I explore someone's secret places, they stay explored." ] * Zak pulls off his helmet, then walks over to the window and looks out. (Did that cut off?) (Nah, it made it.) (ZAK WE'RE ON THE 50TH FLOOR HOLY CRAP) (DON'T FALL) (*shurikens Zak in the back of the head*) (D:) ( :( ) * Rochelle goes and flops on the nearest sitting place, rubbing at her forehead and letting Kat do the talky thing. * Katherine grins a bit and says, "Yeah, we'll be fine." She rubs her neck and then adds, "Go and go back to work. And thanks. You ever get an itch for exploration, you know where to walk to." [ That earns a shrug. "I'd half rather stay here. Some guy in Red Mexico City is claiming life insurance on his dad... but there's no proof the guy's dead, just missing. So... yeah. If you need anything, gimmie a ring, but this is gonna be a long time investigating." With that, she gives a jaunty wave and walks back into the closet, which she shuts behind her. ] (*starts up "Signs of Love"* Quick Roch, see if there's food in the fridge to up your Courage!) (I keep my fridge full of things that are not moldy pears!) (How about expired miso soup.) (No, that would be Mecha's fridge.) (Anyhow that was an in-joke.) (Hahaha XD I could use some courage raising.) (the lyrics for "Signs of Love" make it an oddly appropriate Kat's apartment theme.) * Zak thunks his head forwards into the dunnoplasteelglasstic. * Katherine grins a bit more to herself as she watches Lu go, and then the grin slips away as she glanecs to X on the bed. She then mutters, "Then fucking stay, jesus." She walks over to near the training robot and starts shedding her suit. "So, Roch, how's _your_ romantic life going?" [ Xavier sleeps through the noise! This is as good a time as any to note that he hasn't started moaning 'rosebud!', or anything else for that matter. He is asleep. A little fitfully, but his vitals seem okay to trained first aid-ers. ] * Rochelle blinks, then looks at Kat like she's kinda crazy, because she is. But she does say, "Not so good. Why?" [ A shuriken embeds itself in the A/C unit. ] (Damn straight.) * Katherine steps out of her suit, shrugs, and then gets the holster off of it before putting it on herself. "Figure I'd ask." She glances over to Zak, then back to Roch. "Haven't seen you in a while, and I've been in my own head for the past couple days. Smalltalk or somethin'." * Zak pulls his head off the window, revealing a web of frost, then starts taking off his suit. "Love life's hard to keep up in TC, Kat. You grok that." Oh. * Rochelle presses at her forehead with her index finger for a moment, then says, "The sniper guy." * Katherine makages a smirk, then says, "You seemed to manage pretty damn well, Zak." She then looks at Roch. "What 'bout him?" (Continue to kibbutz, I must AFK one sec.) He was green. * Rochelle frowns a little. "And some gold, like ours, but just kinda... flecks." (... I totally forget. Does Zak grok the color wheel?) (Zak at least knows that he and Kat and Rochelle and X are gold!) (I think when Rochelle first told him about it, he was like, "Yeah sis, you're crazy," and went about his life.) * Zak tosses suit parts in a corner, then rubs his hair until it's standing up again. "You're scanning, sis. Interior decorating your next gig?" He shoots some kind of incomprehensible glance at Kat. (At least it's not comprehensible as, . o O (Is she considering cutting off my balls again?)) * Rochelle shrugs. "He just is. Oh yeah." She pulls a stone out of her pocket and walks over to the other two to show it to them. It's smooth and powder blue. * Katherine frowns, then says, "I guess we know our sides. Green and Gold... not as classic as red and blue forces, but it'll..." * Zak looks up and eyes the stone. "Is that...?" * Katherine trails off as she looks down at the stone, then up at Roch, then she grins. "Hot damn, Roch. You scammed the fuck outta him." * Katherine walks voer and grabs her helmet off the bed. "What you leave him?" * Rochelle smiles a little and shrugs. "Mine." She pockets Thren's stone again. I knew that he'da called me on it if I gave him the wrong rock and he saw it, but he probably wouldn'tve killed me over it. So I figured it was worth it. * Zak sits down in a chair, frowning. "But... your rock and this one are kind of the same, right?" * Katherine tosses her helmet into the air, then catches it and puts it on her suit. "It's our only real clue at the moment except for the unconscious package over there." Kinda? Mine's white and his is blue, but... * Katherine rubs her face, then looks over at Zak and Roch. "I got one too, but it doesn't trigger a good old fashioned flashback." * Rochelle nods. "I dunno why X finding his rock would do that, but the guy wanted both of them." * Zak gets that look where he's actually thought of something important but can't actually vocalize it. "But.... if this one's important, what if yours was important?" * Rochelle blinks. "How?" I dunno! Just what if? And how he's got it, right? Yeah, but... I mean, I guess it could be. * Katherine walks over to the two of them. "If we had to lose one, better to keep the one we know was weird." (Sorry that took so long.) * Rochelle nods in agreement. "Plus Thren was a lot scarier than I am." Maybe they won't know that rock's mine and just figure I used it to throw them off or something. Which I did, so I guess that's fair. * Zak shrugs. "I don't grok any of this crazy mento stuff, sis." * Katherine snorts and runs her fingers over her ears, then shakes her head. "Don't want to think about that right now. I wish I had any idea what happened either." * Rochelle grins at Zak. "It's okay. You can freeze stuff." Didja get flashbacks, too? [ The producing of the stone does not cause any more crazy flashbacks, coincidentally. ] (Was that at Zak or Kat.) (At Zak.) (Kat mentioned she gets flashbacks.) (Well, got them right then.) Yeah. If you can call it that, cause it wasn't my memories. It was both of yours. Scanny, and majorly un-schway. Really? Man, that's gotta suck. I, uh, just got mine. * Katherine snorts and says, "So fucking sorry it was that bad an experience..." and then lets that trail off. After a moment, she mutters, "Of course it was bad. Idiot." You got no right to call me idiot. Not when you know just what it feels like! * Katherine looks down at Zak, then snaps, "I was talking about myself, you... rrgh, fucking forget it." (*munches popcorn*) You're both idiots, okay? I'm hungry. * Rochelle goes to get food. (Time to raid Kat's fridge and up my courage!) * Zak puts his face in his hands and doesn't say anything. * Katherine looks after Roch, glances to Zak, then mutters, "Alright." She glances to X, and says more loudly, "We did Platina's job, so I can let her know. Maybe we can drag something useful out of her. I'd really like to know why the hell she sent him there." Maybe she'll want to talk now that X is out cold. Wouldn't count on it, but I don't have a better idea. * Rochelle raids Kat's fridge! Let's see what she's got... meh. She raids the pantry instead, finding some chocolate flavored popcorn and returns, munching away. "Kinda wanna wait for him to get better." [ Xavier has no witty rejoinder! He's out cold! ] Not sure I wanna sit on my claws and wait. (I don't have a team of gun-toting spies waiting to ambush you, so we can move on when you know what you wanna do ^_^;) ( But who wants to sit on their claws? I HAVE CLAWS SHUT UP.) * Rochelle shrugs. She looks at Zak, then shoves popcorn in his depressed face. "Here. 's chocolate." * Zak looks up into chocolate popcorn. "Mmmph." He takes it from Roch, and looks up to Kat. "Could ring up a doc." (That's what I was about to paranthesis.) * Katherine looks down at Zak for a moment or three, then says, "Yeah. I know someone." She rubs her temple and adds, as she heads over to the TV and adds, "Who said working was profitable, huh?" (My name is Katherine Parker. I know stuff.) * Zak munches on popcorn. * Rochelle shrugs. And steals popcorn from Zak, which she gave to Zak and stole from Kat, so it's all good, really. (AFK) * Katherine dials up a number on the TV screen! It's futuristic! (I forget, do we have the magic of videophone in the future?) (I don't see why we wouldn't?) (Yeah.) [ The TV rings, which just goes to show that the future is WEIRD. Eventually it pops up a... woman. Maybe. She's wearing a camo sports bra, and from the neckline to her actual chin are tattoos of every variety and color. There is an obligatory bar code in there, somewhere; a butterfly with a skull on the wings. A few of them are irridescent. ] (Had to replace bulbs) (For the record I explicitly rememebr a mini whre Kat got called on the wallsxcreen) (Yep.) (.... alos comprehension dwingling) [ Her hair is a mohawk, the rest shaved, and a nice spiky purple color. She grins a toothy grin when she sees Kat, waving a hand covered in a black fingerless glove. "Been a while since I heard from you, brat. Whatcha want?" ] * Katherine 's ears twitch, then she says, "Yeah, looks like you're even more inked up. Have a guy I need you to take a look at. Looks like a coma, but I'd like to see him come out of it." * Rochelle looks at the lady, because dude. She's wacky. And she has more popcorn. [ That gets a raised (purple) eyebrow. For a moment the mohawkéd woman cranes her neck, as if she's trying to look around Kat to the others in the apartment, then shrugs. "Ain't much other work for me right now. Lookin' like fuckers are too drunk or depressed to suit right now. You wanna bring 'im here, or should I come ta you?" ] (We will not be going much longer. Just want to set up some leads for you to follow for next time.) (Sure. ^^) (If I say 'go there', are we fading through it?) (Or will everyone want to tag along?) (Zak is mopey.) (Whatever's easiest, really.) (That's up to you. We can have wacky doctor adventures or you can have Kat come back in with the results.) (I was wanting to get back with the results before Cham goes all purple monkey dishwasher.) (Then set up leaving and we'll blipvert through it.) * Katherine replies, "I'll bring him your way." (PREPARE TO FAST FORWARD! ) (READY TO FAST FORWARD!) (FAST FORWARD!) (FAST FORWARDING!) (sir) [ Behold the blipvert! Kat carrying Xavier! Doctor Mohawk's tattoos blinking like LEDs! Roch eating popcorn! ] (Also, what fusion cuisine do you want me to bring back for lunch?) (I was thinking jap-mex.) [ Soon, Kat returns laden with two things: Xavier's results (well, and Xavier) and lunch from the local alternative meat hamburger shop, Nothing Is Sacred Cow. ] (OVERRULED.) (DAMN.) (... Indian/Burger?) (I couldn't think of a pun on Ganges so I dialed it down some.) (Also I want butter chicken.) * Katherine comes back with Xavier on one arm and bags in the other. Well, her other hand. You know what I mean. She drops the bags on the table and goes to set the poor sack of squishiness down. "God, that feels better." * Rochelle was flopped on the couch, flipping through commercials on TVNet. "He's not better, huh." (s/was/is) (Ah, some things never change.) * Katherine shakes her head. "No... weird, actually. It's not that his brain's out. It's hyperactive." [ Xavier is put back where he was. Presumably he does not explode unless Kat's just tired of him. ] * Zak is flopped next to Roch. He grabs a sack of food. "He dreaming?" Doesn't look like it. Not REMming. * Zak speaks through a mouth of burger. "Weird." * Katherine rubs her face. "She didn't have any way to knock it off." She digs under her bed for a moment, and then licks her lips as she pulls out a weird pyramid-shaped thing. "Let's see if this helps." Probably not, but sometimes you get lucky. ... you're gonna bean the dude? * Rochelle looks over. "Y'know, I got a psionic suppressor." If we wanna try that first. It's a little less creepy. * Katherine looks over at Zak oddly, then to Roch, before shaking her head. "If it's Thren... this is what I wanna try first." * Rochelle shrugs, then says, "Arright." * Katherine puts it nearer to X, muttering, "If it's our brand of crazy, anyway..." [ Deciding to play God, Kat screws around with powers beyond her ken. ] [ What results is this: ] [ Xavier's eyes shoot open, his fingers clench and unclench, and his legs start kicking sort of randomly. Even more strange is that Kat's apartment's electronics start going *nuts*: displays flash, or glitch. Lights flicker. ] * Rochelle glances around. "Uh, Kat..." Because seriously, wack. [ And for the REAL kicker: the TV turns itself on, but isn't showing any actual TVNet show. In fact, what it IS showing seems to be out of whack. The images are fleeting, staticky; some are of Twilight City before the events of the Flu. One is of a young girl in dirty clothing with dark brown hair, smiling at the 'camera'. One is of the Nevada desert. ] * Zak looks _terrified_/ * Rochelle scrambles for her bag, opens it, and digs around. She eventually pulls out one of those halos straight from their time with the brain flu. * Katherine looks down at his twitching and grits her teeth as she watches him thrash. Is he calming at all? [ Uh, no. Also you're going to have to reset all your clocks after this. You can hear your shower running. ] * Katherine draws the pyramid back away from him, to calm him down. "Space jesus..." 2d6-2 (Oh. Dice!) (Oh haha, dice yes.) * Dicesuke has joined #atc (Shows you the type of game I run!) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6-2) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 5. (Made by two.) [ The farther the pyramid gets from Xavier, the more things seem to calm down. ] * Rochelle looks down at her halo, and her eyes glaze over. (But the more he goes back to unconsciousness?) Yes. (Er, Yes.) (HAHA. IN UR FUTURE, NARRATING YOUR CAUSALITY.) * Katherine pulls it back all the way, taking a step back before she bites her cheek. "Well... I guess there was some of Thren in it." * Rochelle furrows her brow, then snaps out of it and shoves the halo right back in her bag. "Yeah." * Zak runs his hand through his hair. "Space Jesus, Kat, what the frack was that?" [ The pyramid sufficiently away, Xavier subsides, his eyes closing again. Indeed, all of Kat's clocks read 12:00 and are flashing. ] [ The TV, at least, blinks back off. ] * Katherine looks over at Zak a long moment, then walks over to her lunch and puts the pyramid down on the table. "This thing helps keep down most of my crazy. And it helped Thren too." Doesn't look like it helped Professor X, here. (Okay, I am just about at my limit) (Yeah, get in your reactions and let's wrap it up.) (And Xavier picks up more nicknames.) Depends what you call helpin'. But I'm not thinking he's gonna wake up anytime soon. So we call Platina? * Katherine grabs her own burger and nods. "Sounds like it. And we get him fitted for an IV." * Rochelle nods. She reaches over for the remote and turns the TVNet back on, this time to regular programming. [ So very few mysteries solved... but clues, perhaps, begin to surface. What's really going on with Xavier? And what does it have to do with the pasts of these three individuals? Why did Platina Fortescue send them to Twilight in the first place? Find out next time! ] [ Session end!]