[ Welcome to ATC Gaiden! It's currently a sunny 10am morning on May 19, 2091. Yesterday was taken up with travel to Red Stockholm, finding your way to the Borken, and getting set up in your rooms. Rooms that appear to have been paid for by a certain R. Levinworth, against all logic. A good night's sleep and excellent room service on ATC's apparent dime probably cheered up everyone except Kat since that is impossible. ] (Growl. =^-_-^=) [ Now a shining new day spreads before you to try and solve the many mysteries that the past 4 days have dredged up! What will you do? A slime approaches! Command? GAME SUTAATO! ] * Yue forks the slime and pops it in her mouth. It's apparently her breakfast, which she's eating out of a cup. She's also preparing some tools for hacking, both from her own resources and those... borrowed from other places. (Yue is having a Melange Gel. Restores HP and EP!) (It's slippery!) * Rochelle is seated on the bed she claimed as hers, drying her hair (as she managed to shower before game start, for once) and flipping through the hotel's fine selection of TVNet channels. * Zak is engaged in some kind of prolonged negotiation with what appears to be a stack of pancakes interleaved with bacon weaves and cheddar cheese. The entire concoction is slathered in butter, syrup, and whipped cream. He is of course not sitting at any kind of table but is instead shoveling food into his mouth while watching TVNet. [ The current TVNet fare is a new soap called "24th Century", which is predictably about a family of 24s set slightly in the future. Today's episode involves a side character, Markus, whose transmutation power has just changed his long lost sister Marta (who came back from the dead as a mind controlled zombie last sweeps) into a Snickers bar. ] * Katherine has decided to wash her hair today too, and leave it unbraided, for the moment, so it's damp and hanging down her back. She scratches behind her ear a moment, not looking at Zak as she asks, "Any more mysterious kidnappings?" * Yue joins the other ladies with the damp hair brigade, but has taken one towel to twist her hair into a towel-turban. Yue Rohay, she is everywhere, doing everything. Assumedly she has a set of appropriate devices to do this with, which she's doing on the 'office' desk of the room. [ The Borken, being a high-class hotel, has a mini-business center in every suite, complete with a state of the art personal terminal. Of course, it's set up for tourist use, not hacking, but the hardware is, at least, state or the art. ] * Katherine looks over at Roch and adds, "Or is it just another day on the red planet?" (Of course I never said which art it's the state of.) (Dada!) (Macrame!) (Haha, pointilism. Every app is Picross.) (Or a lite brite.) (Or a _computer screen_.) (Where is the fun in that.) (Pointilism -> screens!) [ On screen, Markus is staring in terror at a pulchritudinous blonde who happens to be eating a Snickers bar. ] * Rochelle shrugs. "Don't know." * Yue is unfortunately not your traditional hacker, so she glances surreptitiously at the rest of the room, before finishing her flan. Gel. Slime. Grok? The glove comes off, her palm pressing against the terminal tower. (Now I am envisioning a little flan with a :) face on it.) (That's pretty much what I was imagining, yeah.) * Zak polishes off his heart attack on a plate, grabs a large bovine horn which is spearing an equally massive sausage, and begins gnawing on it. "So what's haps today? I get to chill?" (It's the future, is cholestrol really still a problem?) (I'm fairly sure by now not even a direct meteor strike could kill Zak.) (Twilight City has that effect on people.) (He also has that problem where he provably exists in the future.) (Haha. i'm in ur timeline, screwing with ur wiki) * Katherine replies, dryly, "You get to be on tap for the second we figure out where we're going. Work on your book or something." She looks over at Yue and says, with a faint chuckle, "Pads don't work that way, Yue." (Argh syntax for bringing in dicey?) (/invite and then channel person or person channel, can't remember order.) * Dicesuke has joined #atc (Person channel) (Computers roll, Yue. Security spec.) (This is where I cry a little.) 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-3) and gets a natural 6 for a result of 3. (Whee! Make by 3.) [ The computer screen -- well, actually it's a wall-mounted screen of quite nice quality -- pops to life. There's a flickering of windows opening and closing like every fast-forward sci-fi computer access you've ever seen, then the OS reboots itself. ] (What, no camp 'HACKING SUCCESSFUL!' screen?) (This isn't Bioshock.) (thank god, or we'd have this problem with a horribly simplistic UI.) * Yue glances to Kat and tries to shift her hand further down the terminal to hide them from sight. "We're in. What're we hitting first?" (Did she just hack the actual TVNet screen?) (No, the comp has a separate screen.) [ With perhaps the worst timing in the universe, there's a knock at the suite door. ] * Katherine looks at her hand, then slowly stands up and starts, "Gotta find the kid. Tracing Xavier and Platina's path back to DRAUPNIR or something to get its..." she trails off and glares at the door. "There, Zak, you can chill at the door." * Zak raises his eyebrow, and heads to the door, sausage still hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he looks through the peephole. * Yue does have admin privs, after all... so she switches the screen to a screensaver after she hears that. Yue's hand is a disgusting blend of cauterized flesh, arteries, muscle, cybernetics and bone that looks like it all got stuffed into a food processor into a chunky blend. [ It is a Borken bellhop! He's looking at the door with the cheerfully clueless expression of a service industry newbie. ] * Rochelle sets the remote control on the bed and heads over to the door, opening it if Zak doesn't first. * Katherine , no longer being allowed to talk about work, ends up looking at Yue's hand. Her eyes flick to to Yue's face a moment, then murmurs, "Explains things," as she runs a claw back through her hair. Ey! Dammit, sis.... You were taking forever. [ The door opens! The bellhop seems like he's been preparing for this, because he takes a deep breath and then, despite being 5'8" and kind of scrawny, suddenly belts out in a seriously deep basso profundo: "VELCOME TO ZE BORKEN, PLEASE ENJOY YOUR STAY, WE'VE SENT THIS COMPLIMENTARY MEAD TO HELP YOU START YOUR DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY." ] [ He is holding a tray with 4 quality carved steins, each with the Bavarian flipping lid. ] (It's never too early to think about drinking.) * Zak takes a step back. "Holy shitballs, dude." * Yue lets out a bit of a grunt at the proclamation, before looking with a self-conscious look back at Kat as she just goes ahead and hacks. There are distractions aplenty at the door. * Rochelle takes the tray. "Thanks." [ He seems crestfallen at Zak's response, but perks up a little at Roch's and hands her the tray before doing a heel-clicking German bow, then walking off. ] * Rochelle retreats back into the room, now with mead! (Also I keep hearing that in my head as the "Oh, we're the boys of the chorus, we hope you like our show" tune, but it fails to scan) (That was entirely what I based it on.) (Just more... teutonic.) * Zak closes the door. "Can't drink all 24 unless you start AM, I guess." He snags a mead stein. * Katherine rubs her ear and then finishes to Yue, "Follow that path if we can, figure out what connects the people that they're kidnapping." 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-4) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 3. Look at those two stooges' travel too if you can, never know where they slipped up. (Damnit, don't give me the good rolls on the relatively insignificant info!) * Zak flips back the lid and takes a sip. "Wonder what this tastes like." [ Zak is expecting a honey-flavored alcoholic drink. Instead, the top of the stein flips up and he's hit in the face with a thin, rectangular case about the heigh/width of a paperback book. ] (Mini-Armbrust!) * Zak shouts "FUGGAH!", then proceeds to stumble backwards, trip over the coffee table, knock over a floor lamp, hit his head on the wall, and then collapse to the floor, snapping the lamp in half in the proceess. [ Victorious, the case drops to the ground with a *thud*. ] * Zak sits up, rubbing his head. "That... has got some kick to it." * Katherine turns that way with a start, hand going to her hip... and then she relaxes. "What the fuck, frosty?" * Yue is visibly in to Nightengale XVII Memorial Hospital's records on the screen now, sneaking her way in by backdooring her way as a patient whose name just happens to be a system override to get them their target's location: Ferrion, Keith, SCA Critical Care, Room 45-B. "There it is." * Rochelle blinks at the case. She sets the tray down, then picks up her own stein and flips open the lid in a way that isn't in her face. * Zak grabs one of the pillows from the bed and chills it until it frosts slightly, then puts it against his head. "Some kinda prank box. Like those loco snakes in the fake nanopaste tubes." [ The case contains six things. ] (She didn't open the case!) (She opened her stein!) (Oh.) [ The case spinkicks Kat in the face. ] [ The stein contains a honey-colored alcoholic beverage. ] * Zak works his way over to the case and picks it up, then flips it open. With it pointed at Roch. [ NOW THAT IT IS OPEN the case contains six things. The first four are ID badges with the proper chips installed. The top one has Zak's image on it. The next is a data stick. The third is, astonishingly, a handwritten note reading only: "Thought would be useful. - S. M." ] (Stick, chip, whatever. Future!Thumbdrive.) (SOMAAAAAAAA) * Yue isn't there to snark about Soma, because she's busy hacking. * Rochelle points out, helpfully, "That badge has your picture on it." She goes over to take a look at the stuff, handing Zak her stein with honey-colored alcoholic beverage. * Zak pulls out the badge. "Damn, man, he's got his ducks on straight." * Zak also takes the stein. And drinks it. [ The ID badge identifies the holder as Dr. Maynard Grußelford, a member of the Nightengale on-call staff. ] [ The mead, by the way, is delicious and in no way attempts to make Zak do any pratfalls. ] * Rochelle sifts through the badges, looking for hers. She also pulls out the data stick and tosses it to the hacker(s). [ Roch's card is underneath Zak's. She is Micheline Chevronica, R. N. ] * Yue gets a data stick bouncing against her towel, which she pulls up to stare at, before taking a break to see what Soma's got in store for them. [ On the data stick is one file quite clearly marked "OPEN ME FIRST". ] * Katherine rolls her eyes and looks up at the ceiling, from across the room. "So where's all this from?" * Yue opens that first. She's such an obedient girl. * Rochelle studies the card and tries to remember her new name. Soma. That's what the note says, anyway. * Rochelle picks up the Kat and Yue ID cards (since those are probably the last two) and hands them over as well. * Katherine squints, then snaps up her card and looks at it. "Great. He already knew where we were going." [ Kat's card is not for the hospital. It is, in fact, for DunnoCorp's headquarters. She is listed only as "G. M. Fontana" with the designation "CONTRACTOR". ] * Zak eyes the badge. "Where the hell am I gonna get a white coat on short notice." [ Yue's is similar, a contractor badge for a Miss Mercedes Benedict. ] * Yue stares at her new name and commits it to random access memory. haw haw. Buy one? [ As for Yue openig the file: up pops a video file of Soma. Yue would recognize the decor behind him as his office in Red Japan. He gives a little wave at the camera. "I thought that stuff might be useful so I sent it along via a contact in the city. I also sent some news clips from three months ago you might find interesting. Also somebody was snooping around the CEC company files for my and Yue's name in specific." ] [ He shrugs. "A really, really good hacker, I might add. Dunno what that means, but watch yourselves. Later." The file cuts to black and stops playing. ] * Zak eyes the nametag closer. "Wait, how the fuck do I say this loopy thing?" (I thought Kat said that, for some reason. I was like: 'FAWN TAN AH'.) * Rochelle moves so she can get a better view of the screen. * Yue mmms as she considers that for a moment, and unless those news clips are actually on the stick, she'll go back to hacking. [ They are! Play them? (Y/N) ] * Yue Y [ Up pops an old TVNet news story! It appears to have originated in Red Mexico City. The perky anchorlady reads on! "In other news, there was a bold daylight break-in at Red Oaxaca University's Advanced Genetics Lab earlier today. Surprisingly, the thieves appeared only to steal the experimental data of a Dr. Pascal Ferviente, known for his work on telepathic SCA mutations." ] [ A picture of the Red Oaxaca campus comes up. "University security forces were momentarily disoriented by what they called a 'sensory dep blackout'; when they entered Dr. Ferviente's lab, some equipment was missing and the rest appeared to have been melted beyond salvage. Authorities are on the search for the culprits, who they expect are still at large." ] * Katherine offers a silent prayer to Space Jesus that everyone on Mars uses one language now as she presses her lips together. [ She gets out the words "in other news..." before it cuts off. The video's timestamp is February 5th, 2091. ] * Zak has affixed the badge to his shirt, and is watching the news clip. "I don't grok." (More clips coming?) (Nope.) * Katherine rubs her forehead. "Either they wanted to know about Thren or Xavier." * Yue digests the contents of that news article, but right now it doesn't quite connect and mean anything to her. Off to Platina's trail, then. * Rochelle says to Zak, "It's the guys we keep running into." 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-2) and gets a natural 6 for a result of 4. Ooooh. (Make!) * Katherine nods slightly in Roch's direction. "Yeah, Roch's got that right." (I love Zak.) (He has a 4 mind!) (That's human average!) * Yue glances to Kat and the others and says, "Come over here for a second." She pulls up Platina's itinerary. (... and? This is spy shit, human average doesn't mean he can pull patterns out of thin plot.) * Zak wanders over to Yue! She spoke, it must be important. * Katherine looks back to Yue after nodding at Roch. "Mmm?" (My plot isn't thin. ;_;) * Rochelle goes to check out Platina's itinerary! * Yue gestures. There's a whole lot of travel dates that overlap with one another, some of which overlap one another and are probably physically impossible for one woman who can't split into multiple as they're to different parts of the planet. (Oh, and Earth.) ... what the hell? Uh, yeah. I second that. (Anybody who actually sits there and reads the dates, gimmie a mind check at a +2 difficulty.) 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katherine (2d6+2) and gets a natural 11 for a result of 13. (Kat forgets her own name!) (Well, I was pretty sure I'd figured it out, but apparently Kat is dumb.) (No, there's a pattern there I didn't tell Yue about becuase it is subtle and buried in the data.) 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zak (2d6+2) and gets a natural 10 for a result of 12. 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6+2) and gets a natural 10 for a result of 12. (Ha.) (...wow.) (Apparently everyone's just replaying Zak being knocked over by the case in their minds.) (Or thinking they want to go to Red Hardees for a Big Monata.) (COMEDY TONIGHT) (Okay, I will note that without a skill?) (Montana even.) (Kat was shooting for a 5.) (Thank you, Captain Stats.) 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6+2) and gets 4, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "I wish I got to hand out more of these, really." (A 28% is not exactly likely! Now where's my blooming onion.) (... Okay then!) (I am on a roll tonight.) (IT'S DIFFICULT. THAT IS WHY THERE IS EXTRA DIFFICULTY. TO REFLECT THE DIFFICULTY.) (You are.) It's a smokescreen for somethin'. * Yue pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment - with her covered hand, mind you - and sorts the data for everyone's benefit. First, she points out a bar chart about just how much travel she's been doing, and a particularly erect bar stands out over the last two months. "There's that, first of all..." * Yue pulls the data over in a bit of a creative endeavour next and links several TVNet articles about the kidnappings and clips out the itinerary rows to correlate the dates to each disappearance. * Katherine squints a moment at the barchart, and the articles, and then says, "She couldn't hide where she was really going?" Snazzy, it's like the schway eps of RYNC and Order. * Yue shrugs lightly, and responds, "Well, this is encrypted data we're looking at." (Okay. Regular mind checks this time.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zak (2d6) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 8. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 6 for a result of 6. (pfft) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katherine (2d6) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 8. (I failed by one!) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6) and gets a natural 5 for a result of 5. (Miss by 1 as well!) (Make!) (Calhoun's showin' us up. >_<) * Yue rigs the mined data after everyone's gotten a good look to ten days before and after, which shows that Ms. Fortescue is apparently traveling to multiple cities in the same country in the same day. Oh, also the ginormous amount of cash she's using for all this, which Dunno seems to be okay with. How's she getting all of this? Maybe she's twins? Like that show mom watched. (... I am not parsing this, other than 'smokescreen'.) (o/~) (Like, seriously. I feel like I should be able to parse it, but I cannot.) (That is why God invented fieldwork.) (As long as all of that is meant to continue to say 'Smokescreen.' ^^;) * Rochelle shrugs. Maybe she *is* twins. (I thought you were giving something a bit more.) (I'm not the type to hand it all over wrapped in a bow, sorry.) (Every burst of travel has a corresponding known event?) (Ayup.) * Katherine peers at it a moment, then finally says, "Well, we know what Soma was saying is a lot more buyable now. Probably black funds, too." * Katherine glances at the Dunno badge. "You know, last time we went into Dunno, it was a little more off-the-cuff." * Yue leans against her chair and looks at her ID for a moment. "I can't imagine her being the type to need to be personally present at each of these incidents myself." Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. But she seems a hands-on sort. She hired me directly, after all. Like you'd have called her back if she left a voicemail. * Yue lets out a bit of a noise, before saying, "I'll commit these to local files for now, unless anyone has more they want to tinker with. Gonna start the next tunneling shortly." * Katherine frowns at Zak. "No, but she coulda used an intermediary." She gestures at the numbers. "These make it seem like she doesn't bother with intermediaries." Get her hands dirty if she could. * Rochelle nods. So where do we go from here? * Yue is messing with Xavier Aulin's files under R&D Special Projects next, but... "He looks clean. Makes me wonder what project, though." (Aurin.) (He is not a descendant of the Fernandez clan specializing in magical spells.) (Though how awesome would it be if he was.) (Jonathan! :D) * Katherine looks at the Krogstads, then, "Well, we know the hospital, and Soma seems to think a little infiltration would be right up our alley." * Katherine looks over at Yue's Xavierxamination. "Whatever DRAUPNIR's working?" * Yue checks again, actually. Is Platina's travel dates coincidental with anything today? Or is she not set to go anywhere? [ She is not scheduled for any more travel for the forseeable future. In fact the abruptness of the travel dates ending is curious in and of itself given the activity of the past 6 months. ] * Zak shrugs. "Let's score a white coatwrap then." * Rochelle nods. * Yue leans back. "Looks like a plan to me." What'd you get on your badges? (Zak: "...Jim Darkmagic." Yue: *gasping* "Of the New Hampshire Darkmagics?!") I'm a nurse? I think? * Rochelle waves her badge. I can't even pronounce this. What the hell is that thing? It ain't Marsal. * Zak gestures with the badge, so of course nobody can read it. * Katherine looks at the badge a moment, blinks, then says, "Yeah, that's a nurse." She chuckles a bit. "Glasses and cat's eyes. You could do the super-smart look." Sure, I can try that. * Yue looks again and says flatly, "Mercedes Benedict. Sounds like a porn star to me." Or eggs. (Everyone turns to look at Roch with a ._. face. "What? I like gourmet cooking.") * Katherine rubs her neck. "I didn't even get a full name. Fine with me." (I couldn't make General Motors into a name so you got initials.) (Hahaha.) * Yue looks to Kat and says, "Contractors... we won't need uniforms with that, would we?" * Katherine shrugs. "Wouldn't hurt to look professional, but generally not." (Damnit now I want to play Portrait of Ruin!) * Zak looks over at Roch. "So let's go shopping." * Rochelle nods. She goes to get her stuff and put on her shoes, for great shopping! (Okay so.) (I think we will gloss over the shopping unless you REALLY WANT TO DO IT.) (No, that's fine with me. o_o) (Are you all going to the hospital, all going to Dunno, or splitting up? I'm fine with any of these options.) (z_z) (They don't have badges! FUCK THEM) (We could try the hospital together, but I don't think the Dunno option together is safe. We don't actually have enough knowledge on their security.) (On the other hand Zak has only the vaguest idea what they are LOOKING for.) (The badge distribution seems to support a 2/2 split.) (Can Roch and Zak be sympathetic enough... it is a tough question. ;) (Like I said, up to you. All the important events will happen regardless of the order or distribution.) (... then again, Kat and Yue are not much better on that front.) (Zak is like a retarded House.) (Kat says split. We're already behind on time!) (Split sounds fine to Yue!) (Alright then. Team ER, stay here. Team Metal Gear, #atctoo.) (Goooo team Krogstad. We are gonna fail so hard. :D) (It's all on you, Roch!) (And Zak's burgeonong popliness.) (He's got to work on his pope chops.) (BEHOLD, MY CHILDREN) (THE EVERBEAT GROOVETRAIN) [ Kat and Yue go off on their own! You, meanwhile, discover -- of all things -- a cosplay shop called 'Swan Song'. The proprietress seems very dismayed that you did not go for large, theme park mascot versions of the Repeating Yak main characters, but you leave in appropriate medical dress! Though Rochelle's nurse outfit is a little... sexier than normal. It IS a cosplay shop. ] * Rochelle is a sexy, smart nurse who doesn't care about you. Awesome. [ Nightengale Memorial looms before you! Rather than being many floors high, the building is just extremely large, taking up a non-trivial piece of acreage near Stockholm's most impressive feature, the lake. The large number of doors leading inside are currently busy with the normal foot traffic of a large hospital. ] Sweet space jesus, this place is massive. They actually got this many sick people that aren't dead yet? I guess? What else would they use all that space for? Discos? ... Sure, that works. (Now there's a physical therapy idea.) * Zak adjusts his badge and walks towards the front door. "So what are we looking for?" (Honestly, I'm not sure. What are we looking for, again? ^^; ) (That guy's son is here!) (Roch got a vision about he and he's importance.) (Right! I just don't know his name at all, and I don't remember the other guy's name.) (Yue said it this session.) (Including the ward he's in and his room number.) (Sorry. o_o) Ferrion's son, Keith? He's in 45-B, I think. * Rochelle tags along behind Zak. He's the doctor, after all! * Zak strides into the hospital purposefully. So, we'll.... run some tests. On him. That ... test for stuff. Or we could just go see him. You're a doctor; it's not like people are going to ask why you're here. [ The lobby is super crowded and the central information desk is swamped. On the upside, nobody bothers you in those outfits. On the downside, nobody offers to help you find something, either. ] * Rochelle looks for a map? Or something like a map? [ A bit of searching finds a wall-mounted directory! Or rather, a directory wall given the size of the building. Zak's question is answered: a large part of this place is a research hospital. A chirpy female voice asks Rochelle, when she approaches, what ward she would like to find. ] SCA Critical Care. [ There's a pause, then a colored line traces across the campus from where you are to the SCA Critical Care ward. Another pause, and the voice asks: Is a guide required? ] Think we got it. (Cham, isn't Floofy a Dunno service mark?) (No. It's a low-cost alternative to Dunno.) Yeah, we're good. Thank you. (Sorry, bathroom) * Rochelle heads off in the SCA Critical Care direction! * Zak walks ahead of Rochelle. "So what do we ask?" (I am so sad you didn't need a guide. T_T I had a neat guide thing all planned out!) ([ENJOYMENT]) (You could have told us a guide was needed anyhow!) (*slap*) (I could have but that would be cheating.) (Cheaters always win.) [ Like many hospitals, there are colored lines to help lead the way. In this case rather than on the floor they're LEDs set into the wall. Oddly, you see a number of people walking -- clearly visitors, by their badges -- with what seems like black hornrim glasses on. ] * Zak raises his eyebrows. "New hiptrend?" [ One couple in such glasses gets to a patient room and, once they find the door, pause and then take the glasses off, slipping them into a slot on the wall marked for such things. ] (Ha.) * Rochelle blinks. "Huh. No idea." (Zak! Body roll.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zak (2d6) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 9. (You're cursed.) (It's true.) [ Welcome to the SCA Critical Care ward! Interestingly enough, the security is a little tighter here for obvious reasons, but nobody gives you problems. This part of the hospital actually takes up a significant portion of the building and, at close range, you can see why: some of the patient rooms are normal size, but some are *IMMENSE*, with large transparent steel-aluminum whatever observation windows. ] (Ah, SCA. How you fux us up.) [ Rochelle can see, for example, a young man in one of them just down from the nurse's station. He is currently emitting electricity from his fingertips, feet, ears, eyes, and mouth (whenever he opens it). It does not look pleasant. ] [ Zak sees nothing, because he turned the corner and walked directly into Ryan Howe, knocking the both of them on their asses. ] (What, no taking people to the zoo for MRI scans?) * Zak is knocked on his ass for the second time today. "Shazzinfrack... uh, I mean, darn." (HA.) * Rochelle turns the corner right after Zak and sees that they're both fallen over. "Are you okay?" she asks, offering a hand to Mr. Howe. Her brother can just sit there. (ZAK IS DUMB FROZEN MEAT) (Who cares about him.) [ Dr. Howe -- wearing a nice big 'VISITOR' badge -- rubs his head, and then accepts Rochelle's help up. When he stands, he is actually quite tall... in fact, his lankiness and unruly brown hair might even remind you of Xavier, though the two have little else in common. "Ah, thank you, Nurse. My apologies, Doc..." He turns and looks at Zak and the word 'Doctor' freezes, pardon the pun, in his throat. ] * Rochelle doesn't freak out, because she's not prone to it. Instead, she helps Zak to his feet, too. * Zak stands up, with Roch's help. "Uh, don't mention it. I was ... going too fast." (I'm sorry, no fake ID and disguise can ever 100% convince anyone Zak Krogstad is a doctor.) (No limp.) [ Howe brushes himself off, then shakes his head. "Oh, that's alright. I was feeling distracted myself after that visit," he offers politely. ] * Zak replies "Visit?", then blinks and just barely stops himself from slapping his own forehead. [ If he catches it, Howe doesn't show it. "Ah, a coworker's son has been here for quite some time. I'm a... friend of the family in a way, so I come to visit now and then, since I work at Dunno corporate headquarters." He glances at 'Maynard's' badge and blinks a few times, before looking back at Zak's face. "Doctor, may I ask you a question?" ] That... depends. Very busy. * Rochelle refrains from rolling her eyes. But so close. [ The way in which he rattles on suggests that Zak's actual answer was sort of a formality Ryan was prepared to ignore. "I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on Predictive Allele Theory. I've never been comfortable with the idea of useless DNA and SCA just makes me... well." ] [ A pause. "My friend is Keith Ferrion, so you know the problems you've had here in understanding his mutation fairly well, I'm sure. I'm convinced some of the genetic pairs could be used to identify something about his SCA that could help treatment. What are your thoughts?" ] (Oh man. I'm sorry, Cham, but I can't help you!) (I had to. I am sorry.) (It's not like I picked the doctor role!) (I know. I had to. I'm sorry.) (I am being punished for following the plot and I predict a Pavlovian response to plot in the future) (We'll cliffhanger shortly so you can get to bed, BTW.) * Zak gets the deer in headlights look. For a moment. Then he turns to Howe and says "Uh, I think the theory is useful, but the difficulties in .... base pair coallating are a fundamental issue when coupled with ... the ... probabilities when matched against ... current data and the general ... uncertainty as to the experiments itself." He actually manages to not end with a tone that sounds like a question mark. (TVNET: TEACHES YOU WORDS) (BUT NOT NECESSARILY WHAT THEY MEAN) (Ahaha. Soul check, Cham. With a -2 bonus.) 2d6-2 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zak (2d6-2) and gets a natural 4 for a result of 2. * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 9. (DR1) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 7. (Make) (Spot on! ;P) [ There is a WAY too pregnant pause, before Howe nods vaguely. It's not entirely sure if he understands what you just said but Zak's fervent delivery appears to have done the trick. "Ah, yes... DNA is notoriously unpredictable in some ways. Sorry to bother you with such a trivial question, I'm just worried for his health." ] * Zak nods. "It's understandable." * Rochelle zones out briefly, then says, "It must be difficult for you. Why don't we walk you out?" [ That gets a blink. "Oh, that's not necessary, I know the way." ] (Get in a couple more then we'll cliffhanger!) * Rochelle nods. "Have a nice day, then. We'll continue doing everything we can for Keith." So saying, she moves quickly in another direction, looking for an exit. A different exit, to a different entrance, to a different way out. (I just glanced in here and for a moment I thought Zak said 'koalas'.) [ This time it's Roch's turn not to see something, while Zak gets an eyefull: before Dr. Howe can respond, a recognizable figure dressed as a doctor walks out from behind the nurse's station, holding a chart on a clipboard. Zak gets a clear view, and while the clothes are different, the face is unremarkable. Why? ] [ Because it's a blond guy you're sort of familiar with, thanks to all the different times he's tried to set you and the others on fire... ] (Er, remove the 'un-') (I am not having a good English night.) (.... MAN!) * Zak opens his eyes wide, grabs Roch AND Howe by the arms, and hauls ass to the nearest possible cover. (I did all those Computer rolls without my Technopathy bonus. So glad I rolled well.) (I counted the bonus. * Rochelle is yanked, for once! (It just counteracted some of the difficulty.) (Ah.) [ Mr. Howe's eyes go wide, but Zak is stronger than he is and has the element of surprise. The three start hearing back toward the entrance as the blond disappears down a hallway... and soon you can hear fire alarm bells ringing throughout the complex. "Doctor?!" Ryan shouts, still too shocked to stop running. "What's going on?!" ] [ Good question! We'll find out... next time!]