[ It's time for an ATC Gaiden... gaiden. How meta! This is the story of young Zak Krogstad, who didn't want to talk to the Platina the silver-haired ice bitch and, after Xavier's freaking out a WEE bit, needed some air. ] [ Air is what he gets, outside in the wilds of Red New York City! Armed with some directions and his own two walkin' feet, the Twilight native may be getting his first picture of the big city here on Mars, or firsthand anyway. There are lots of people at midday, walking everywhere! Signs advertise everything! And somehow, there is a gentle breeze or something approximating it. ] (In the center of the city, a number of people crowd around a large creater, whining that they expected a tentacled psychic alien, not some bomb.) (MY SQUIIIIIIIIIID) [ But the farther he walks, the less and less city there is, until eventually there's barely any city at all... just the towering boxy-ness of the Prototyping Sector, a combination of alleys, box-like buildings, and water. Somewhere at the center of that is the shantytown (of sorts) called Box City, where he hopes to find a very special woman. ] [ Join us as we walk with Zak into the outskirts of Box City... ] (Do I need a pipe and smoking jacket for this mini) (You know what it looks like. Gooooo. *armwiggle*) * Zak is walking along, trying to reconcile his innate TC instincts of "never look like a mark" with "this is a strange and actually beautiful city", coming off somewhere in the area of "spastic pigeon". As the passersby get fewer and fewer, he settles for casually glancing around, hands in his pockets. Friggin' Kat, dragging me back into weird shit. * Zak steps over a fairly large stream of runoff. "Friggin' TC. How hard can it frackin' be to turn an entire city around? I mean, really." (Friggin' frackity fuckin' fudge.) * Zak finally wanders into Box City, and pauses for a second. ".... whoa." [ As Zak rounds a corner or two, he can spy a young girl with ash-blonde hair standing next to a water reservoir. On the ground next to her is a bucket that's got the slightly wet look of having just been dipped into the water; she's sitting on the concrete edge, swinging her feet and eyeballing off into the distance. [ (-[ +]) * Zak wanders up to the girl. "Greetz, fem-type person. Is this what they call Box City?" ("Whyfor you spittleface me, bikini femme?" I should never have given you those to read.) (:D) [ The girl -- who is wearing a nano-extruded jumpsuit that is intact but has clearly seen better days -- almost falls backwards in the water, apparently lost in thought. Her arms pinwheel for a moment before she heaves her body forward as counterbalance, then looks up. "Jeez, mister, don't do that!" she breathes out. ] * Zak smiles. "Hey, sorry. Didn't mean to intrude, grok?" [ The kid seems to accept that at face value, crossing her arms over her chest in the imperious way that only young children can. "Well, s'long as yer sorry," she says, before jerking a thumb to her right. "Box City's that way, coupla meters. I'd take ya, but I gotta..." She grimaces. "Can't go back yet." ] Mega-important stuff to do? [ Her face looks glum. "Gotta figure out how ta frost this junk," she says, jerking a thumb at the bucket. "Can't go back 'til I do." This is the sulky tone of 'Mom told me not to come inside until I mow the lawn'. ] * Zak grins. "Like, ice it over?" [ Another glum nod. She's NEVER going home. :( ] (Some days I wish Zak was a different character. "You should go crack open that liquid nitrogen pipe. That would help." (Haha.) (is the bucket full?) (Yes, but it would present no challenge to you.) * Zak keeps grinning, then touches his finger to the side of the bucket, which freezes solid. "There. Now you can play tour guide." [ The girl's face is the model of D: for a moment, before she suddenly grins and leaps forward to hug Zak's legs. "Oh thank you thank you thank you!" she burbles, before turning and lifting the bucket with... effort. It's not as if the mass has changed, after all, but. "C'mon, this way!" ] [ She trundles off! Definitely a trundle. Big, lurching steps, the bucket swaying behind her. ] * Zak puts his hands back in his pockets and follows along, still smiling, though mostly to himself now. "No effort, minihuman. You need all that ice for something?" [ "Grabbed a plank... hngh... offa someone's box... hngh... and she caught me," the kid says between lurches. ] * Zak looks nostalgic for a moment, but shakes it off. "You got that bucket okay?" [ "Ye... hngh!... yep." It's a lie. It's a defiant lie. ] [ However, she may be saved further trouble... when she said 'a few meters' she wasn't kidding. From here you can see Box City itself... a conglomeration of the eponymous 'boxes' built from whatever materials are handy, and populated by a smattering of unique-looking individuals in all sorts of dress. Soon you are walking over its proverbial threshhold. ] [ The girl, as if having walked over some invisible doorstep, drops the bucket and leans forward, hands on knees and taking some deep breaths. ] * Zak looks around, and utters a low whistle. "Schway setup you got here." [ Wiping her brow, the girl beams with pride. "Pretty slick, huh? Built everythin' ourselves." The 'ourselves' has the tone of 'myself'. Kids are easy to understand. She turns to look at Zak. "What're you doin' here, anyway?" ] Lookin' for a crazy lady I used to know. (WAS she crazy when Zak knew her? *beat* Well, she sang sleythin opera.) (She appears crazy to the untrained eye.) [ That gets a nice big brow-furrow. "Huh. Well... c'mon, I can introduce ya to a couple." There's a long pause, a staring contest between girl and bucket, before she finally lifts it and then hauls off toward another box. The thumping sounds of construction come from that direction. ] * Zak follows along. "She used to be pretty into stones, if that helps." [ Heave! Heave! "Ain't... a lotta stones... here. Just... concrete." ] [ It isn't long before you come to a stop near a box that appears to be in the process of... disassembly? Something. The frame, tarps, plastic and laminate sheets, and other detritus that made it a shelter are slowly being peeled off. "Ah, lass, put tha' thing down," comes a voice... ] [ Before indeed, the bag lady-looking body of Mad Hettie emerges from the box, grinning like mad and rubbing her hands together like a kid on Christmas morning. "Ye brought me wha' I wanted, and tha's a fact. Hello, boy," she adds, looking to Zak. ] * Zak grins. "Hello, Hettie, sir. Uh, ma'am/ [ The girl looks between the two of you in a state of shock for a moment, before giving Hettie a surprisingly shrewd and speculative look, before mumbling indistinctly, "Said you were crazy." ] You gotta be crazy to do what she did. [ Amused, Hettie reaches over and pats her on the head. "And now ye paid for what ye took, so run along," the woman says, bringing her hands back and crossing her arms over her chest for a moment. "Plenty o' thin's tae be talkin' to this git about. What took ye so long, boy?" ] * Zak looks sheepish. "I... had stuff to do? TC needed ... I mean...." He rubs the back of his head. "I've been tryin' hard to reformat my life, ma'am." [ That gets a cackle; the girl, a combination of annoyed and confused, takes the opportunity to run off with a square of plastic sheeting from Hettie's rapidly-deconstructing box. If she notices, Mad Hettie doesn't seem to care. Instead she walks back toward the box and has a seat on a concrete block, putting her hands in her lap. ] [ "Ain't like a computer hard drive, me son," she says wearily, though she smiles a bit. "Ye can add but ye cannae take away, and tha's a fact. Best ye can do is... forget." ] * Zak looks around for a seat, finding a relatively-level chunk of concrete and plopping down on it. "I wish I could even do that. Or make half the gangers in TC forget it. Some days I swear they'd be happier on their own moon." [ Surprisingly, Hettie reaches over and pats Zak on the knee; it's a strange gesture, to be sure. Her hand moves back into the myriad folds of her pastiche of coats and shirts and dresses soon enough. "Ye got a taste o' what it's like tae have a common enemy, my lad. Wi'out that, who knows... but there be things other than a common enemy what can give a man focus." ] ... yeah? [ A not-quite-cackle follows. "Oh, indeed there be. Which be remindin' me... here." She reaches inside her coat(s) and grips something, holding out a clenched fist with her thumb pointed down, as if she's going to drop something into Zak's hands, should they make an appearance. ] * Zak looks quizzically at Hettie, but holds out his hands. (Must think of appropriate color...) [ She opens her hand; into Zak's palm drops a smooth, oval stone. The color is... lemon-lime, for lack of a better word. The sort of shade that is a cool, bright median state between pale yellow and mint green. "It came up, a couple o' days before ye came to see me. Didn't know it was yours 'til now, so go ahead and keep it." ] * Zak stares at it blankly. "But ... I'm not... I mean... " He swallows. "That was Roch, who was supposed to save the world. And the others. Not me." [ Rather unexpectedly, that gets a hard look from Hettie. "D'ye think they saved th' world, bonnie lass?" the woman asks pointedly. She gets up and starts to pull at some of the plastic sheeting that is the outermost layer of the front of her abode. "Every day it be saved, yea alleluia? Ye may sound like a daft bag o' words, my son, but ye dinnae strike me as *stupid*." ] (LAD.) (Holy shit, why did I type lass?) (BAG OF WORDS) * Zak clutches at the stone. "So ... what am I supposed to do?" [ Hettie turns around, glancing at Zak. "Ye know, that bairn tha' just wandered off with me plastic... the lass of some muckety from Calhoun what left his job 'cause he was tired of it all, ye ken. Couldnae handle it. He lives here and he be happy as a clam, and his girlie too, 'cause this is a life they can be believin' in." ] (Lemme add a little to that.) (Also we need to pause soon, dinner approaches.) [ She turns around and gestures at the stone in a swirl of cloth. "Th' firefly, tha be. You prolly ain't never seen one nor will ye, I wager. Flies around at random, it do, or so it look tae us. A light in th' dark, swirlin. But ye look me in the eye and tell me that even one thin' in alla creation... true random, my lad?" ] (That's fine, I haven't eaten today yet either.) (Okay. I can start back up 9/9:30ish my time) (Heddie talks like a sausage) (if by sausage you mean Scots) (Time to go cook skillet) (He said 9/9:30 your time?) (That... might allow me to make it to Dairy Queen and back.) (I shall return as wellllllllll.) (Plenty of time!) (I want a power that does 7W+str and let's me smack back and forth with basic melee attacks!) (and half on miss) (Then be a barbarian and stop spamming up the mini :|) (I'm not spamming nearly as much as they are.) (Oh man, Maxoderm. I wanna max out my derms. :| ) (Ngh. My room is such a pit) * Zak looks down at the stone, then up at Hettie. Finally, he smirks. "Hard to tell you that when you know my sis, Hettie. Ma'am." (*tries to remember what the hell was going on before a two hour break*) [ That gets a "feh!" and Hettie turning away, waving one hand dismissively. "You callin' me 'ma'am'... upsettin' my equilibrium, boy. Ye need to cut that out." A pause, and she walks back over and sits down next to Zak again. "Ye're holdin' the last stone, my lad. Old Hettie is... packin' up and leavin'." ] * Zak blinks. "You're leaving? Leaving for where?' (Oh jesus... I have to restart.) (Be right back, HOPEFULLY) * Todd has quit IRC (Quit: ) ( I HAVE ENJOYED THIS HOST BODY. BUT I MUST FIND FRESHER MEAT) * Todd has joined #atc (*mutter*) (Can someone paste me the last few things that got said?) [ There is a very long pause. It may be the longest time Mad Hettie has ever taken to respond to anything, before she finally says one word: "Home." ] * Zak doesn't seem to be taken aback by this. Poker face. "That's great, Hettie. I hope you like it." He looks down at his stone. "I guess I've gotta step up my groove once you've skedaddled, huh?" [ Zak gets a poke in the arm with one finger. "Whether I stay or nae shouldnae affect how hard ye work, bonnie lad." This is followed by one of those little cackling laughs she gives, before she shakes her head. "I knew it were time to give ye the stone 'cause the stones told me so, my son. Hard times on the horizon for ye, soon." ] * Zak shrugs. "If you're gone someone's got to up the weird level, Hettie." Then he sighs. "I knew it. When Roch mentioned the colors I should have known it. I guess I was hoping I could just go back to my office and ride this one out through games of HyperSolitaire." (LAZER SOLITAIRE) [ A shake of the head. "Ye cannae. I know ye think this is all beyond yer ken, but it innae. I dinnae think there be a happy ending for this story. Not that the last one did neither, did it now?" ] Not the way everyone's telling it. At least it's better to know up front. [ Hettie stands up again, and it now becomes clear that she is restless... which is strange. Even at her most active, her most crazy, there is a purposefulness to her motions. Now, they're... edgy, unsure. Zak may be reminded of Roch's earlier days, dealing with her ability to see things. (More) ] [ Still, when she speaks, it's with confident tones. "It's a good thing ye do, in that city, my lad, and tha' is no half-truth. But so long as part o' ye wants ta run away ye cannae move on, and that be a fact." ] (I somehow feel like I'm not doing this right. :| ) * Zak stands up and looks at Hettie. "I guess I'll have to keep working on that. Thanks, Hettie. Schway wings and no sandstorms for you." [ That gets a cackle from Hettie. "Don't be goin' nowhere, lad. Your sister and the..." She pauses. "I dinnae what to say the stones said 'bout that one. But they be coming here and they'll be needin' you, be sure o' that." With that, she shuffles back into the box without further comment. ] * Zak looks around, blinking. [ What did Hettie mean? Is Rochelle really on her way to Box City? And where exactly is 'home', and what calamity is to come? Find out... next time! Mini end!]