[ Slowly, Rochelle blinks her eyes open, and stares up into a blue sky high above, with the sun glinting behind puffy white clouds. ] [ That feeling on her back is the tickly fingers of a grassy lawn, and it's clear she was lying down on her back, arms crossed behind her head. Looks like she fell asleep in the afternoon sun. There's a sound she recognizes as the chirping of crickets, and off in the distance there's the jumbled sounds of people doing... stuff. No words to be made out. ] [ Everything's a bit fuzzy. Maybe because she just took a nap? Only way to find out what's really going on is to get up and look, it seems... ] (And if that didn't make it clear, start whenever :) (Also: considering emailing Donatos and complaining about how often they call to ask for directions relative to how often I order from there.) * Rochelle blinks a few more times, sleepily, then sits up and rubs at her (very normal) blue eyes. That done, she stretches and lets out a lazy yawn as she takes in her surroundings. [ Looks like a perfectly normal school day. In the distance are the short, widely-spread buildings of her high school campus. It's 'California-style', more like a mini mall or a community college. The blueness of the sky pegs this as Earth. The sounds of people are others enjoying food outdoors... it occurs to Roch that Modern History is in about 20 minutes, and she slept her lunch away. ] * Rochelle checks her watch - a functioning thing around her wrist - then brushes bits of grass out of her hair while reaching for her bag. She gets to her feet and heads for her class as she listens to her stomach grumble once in a while. Maybe she can grab a snack on the way. [ As Roch walks back through the courtyard, she passes a number of her fellow students -- some baseline humans, some 24s -- and more than a few wave hellos at her. Eating at one of the tables is a young man she recognizes... a black-haired and pale individual, sitting alone and reading. ] (Going to change clothes quick, be right back.) * Rochelle waves back at the people who wave to her, then spots the guy at the table. She hesitates a brief moment before continuing on her way. Kataki's reading alone, so he probably doesn't want to be bothered anyway. [ Roch gets a few steps away before the reading young man holds up one hand, with an apple in it. "You keep sleeping through lunch," he says, not looking up. "Like a bloody cat." ] * Rochelle stops again and looks to him. "Can't help it. I get sleepy in the middle of the day." [ At that, he looks up, and holds the apple out farther. "Well, here. You can choke this down before history." ] * Rochelle steps forward and takes it. "Thanks, I owe you." Awkward pause, then, "See you around, Kataki." [ The youth shuts the book, and then looks at Rochelle silently, with a penetrating gaze that might actually make her feel a little uncomfortable... it's as if he's trying to look through her eyeballs to read something on the back of her skull. But it doesn't last long, and he simply says "Sure," before returning to his book. ] * Rochelle backs away, uncomfortably, before hurrying off to class. That dude is weird. Nice, giving her that apple, but weird as hell. Her stomach growls again, so she starts eating the apple as she goes. [ It has the delicious fruit flavor you've come to expect from fruit! Not at all like an appletato, for example, which is the delicious fruit flavors you've come to expect from... non-fruit. The building is surprisingly open and airy; big windows, sun streaming in through them. The classroom -- 2B -- is not far from the courtyard entrance. The room is empty and Roch can pick whatever seat she wants! ] (The ever-ubiquitous 2B!) (Well, or not.) (*looks in* What the Hell?) (I, Chamelaeon Rikudo, don't remember giving permission for my universe to become a high school anime.) * Rochelle paces outside of her classroom, finishing off her apple as she looks out the windows. That done, she tosses the core in a nearby bin and heads into the room, taking a seat closer to the windows but still pretty near the front. She opens up her bag and pulls out a datapad and starts skimming the reading for today, refreshing on various points. (Can't help it. Rochelle's secretly a Ravenclaw.) [ The reading today is about the emigration to Mars, particularly the founding of Pioneer, a city originally called 'Twilight' in the shadow of Olympus Mons but which, through the dedicated spirit of Martian emigreés, has become a shining example of human dedication. It's totally PR puffery on a base of facts, but this IS high school. ] * Rochelle highlights a few lines by running her finger across them, and types in a note to check out a file or two from the library on Twilight. [ As Roch gets most of the way through that, fellow students file in. They are mostly unremarkable, but her guess that the black-haired student -- Kataki -- was in her class is correct, and he sits, predictably, in the back of the room. The other notable entrant is BMOC Keith, a bronze god if there ever was one, who flops into a seat with a big smile on his face, wearing a letterman's jacket. ] (Er, BMOC meaning big man on campus. That's not his first name, even in the future.) * Rochelle mostly ignores people as they file in, though she greets one or two who sit near her. [ They wave back! Everyone loves Roch. She is friendly and chill, proving this MUST be at the very least an alternate universe or a dream sequence. ] (She's always been, er, chill!) (The friendly part, though.) (I'm lucky I didn't explode just typing that out.) (If you didn't type it... shuriken.) (She's a schwaybeast.) (She roams the plains of chill, munchin' on ripe schway.) * Katherine walks into the room as most everyone is filed in. Her red hair is braided down her back, she has her ears and everything, and she is wearing a black suit jacket with skirt, over a red blouse. Also a small black folder-case, which she sets on the desk slowly. (the teachers' desk, I should say.) * Katherine pulls out a pad from the case and messes with it a bit, hazel eyes flicking over the rim of it a moment. She catches Kataki and seems to stiffen a moment, and then Roch. For some reason which Roch probably doesn't get, she looks at her for a moment, too, but then looks back at the pad. * Rochelle blinks at Katherine, then rubs at her mouth. Maybe bits of apple are around it or something? * Katherine exhales upwards, then says, "Right. Twilight." * Dicesuke has joined #atc (Gimmie a Psyche check, Roch.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 3 for a result of 3. (By six.) [ Doesn't this woman look... familiar? Wait, but she's your history teacher. Doesn't she normally wear... leather, though? Is that your imagination? ] (I love how these scenes turn me into the Persona 3 narrator.) (Ha ha.) * Katherine glances around the class for a moment, then shakes the pad at them. "So how many of you actually read this?" (Snerk. I eat whatever's in the fridge!) ("It's probably nothing. Go to sleep.") Hands up. [ Keith, the bronze god, sits straighter up in his seat and gazes at Kat distractedly, before saying: "Uh, I did, ma'am." Boy does he look awkward. ] * Rochelle looks at Katherine oddly for a brief moment before she wipes that expression from her face. Leather - that'd be stupid. She hears that question and raises her hand. * Katherine looks down at Keith, looks to Roch, then back to Keith. "Well. You probably shoulda spent some more time pumping iron, boy." She then hops up on her desk to sit on the edge and crosses her legs, leaning back on one clawed hand. "Lemme tell you a real bit about Twilight." [ The class is ALL EARS. So much cooler than they were expecting! :D Except Keith, who looks confused, and Kataki, who looks bored, and Roch, who looks...? ] * Rochelle looks interested, actually, leaning on her arms with her pad lying in front of her. * Katherine looks over them and says, "It's actually pickin' itself up right now. Maybe in a few years, this won't be so wrong." She waves the pad again. "It wasn't long ago Twilight was about as rough as you can imagine. Think about older holos. Gangsters, drugs, 24s in wild combat. And all with kids rarely older than most of you. Good bunch of 'em younger." * Rochelle raises her hand. [ :D gives way to ._. because... what Kat is saying has no jive with official history at all. A few ._. pass straight on to D: ] * Katherine smirks a bit, and points a claw at Roch. "Yes... Miss Krogstad?" Are you saying that the version of history we've read today is completely wrong? (s/today/for today) * Katherine nods, then half-smiles. "Always a sharp one." She looks over all of them. "'fraid so, though. Might be nice if it were, but... life ain't that clean." * Rochelle is looking at her datapad again, typing in notes rather quickly. [ "So..." Keith starts, looking... perplexed, for a moment. His brows are far too furrowed as he looks at Kat. "So why's it so bad if the place is good now?" ] * Katherine then hops off the desk, and glances at Kataki again before saying, to Keith, "Poor people always need somewhere to go, kid." She walks around her desk, continuing, "Twilight City, which I'm gonna call TC to save me some time, was run from the early 80's to 2090 by gangs of 24-powered kids. The place wasn't all that nice to begin with, and you do that for a decade or so... " Huge city, though. A whole lot of bystanders. * Rochelle keeps typing, glancing up once in a while to see if Ms. Parker is writing anything on the board. [ "You're going to cramp your hand writing all that out," Kataki suddenly says, in Roch and Kat's direction. "Especially when there's not a lot of point to it." ] (Wait, in Kat's direction?) (Roch and Kat's. He's in the back of the room.) * Katherine replies, "Well, I wasn't planning on writing it out, Mister... Tsukitomi-Renard? But people should know where they came from." * Katherine leans forward on her desk, hands flat. "Or are you getting at something else?" * Rochelle shoots Kataki a cold look. Fortunately, the teacher's talking for her. [ He smirks. "You know who I meant." ] (Psyche roll!) (From Roch.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 10 for a result of 10. (Fail by one.) [ What the heck is he talking about? Sure, he can be a little bit of a loner sometimes, but this seems atypical for Kataki. ] * Hida_Juzo is now known as Oglesby * Katherine narrows her eyes at him, then says, "Alright, class." She stands upright and then walks around to the front of the desk. "If you think it's a waste of time to write this down, and you want to stick with the reading for the day, then the rest of the period's yours." * Rochelle looks at Kataki, then Katherine, then back. She's clearly confused now. If you like arguing some, you should stick around. * Katherine looks to Roch and smirks slightly. "Or maybe just if you're a curious cat." (Heading to bed. I'll read backlog in the morning) (Night!) [ The class is... dumbstruck by this exchange for a moment, but considering this is Shit They Already Know and school is boring, they start pulling out data pads, whispering to each other, or even leaving the room. Keith is the exception; he's sort of staring between Kat and Kataki with a D: on his face. ] * Rochelle blinks, and she looks almost insulted. Okay, so she gets called a cat by her family once in a while (and sometimes friends), but twice in a day by somewhat random people is a bit much. * Katherine looks at the ones who whisper but aren't leaving and says, "Well, if you're gonna do stuff on your own, don't do it here!" She waves them out. * Rochelle stays put, though. * Rochelle does, however, lean over to Keith and ask quietly, "You okay?" Because he doesn't look so okay, big man or not. [ As people file out, the black-haired kid in the back puts his chin in his hand and looks at Kat with a smile of amused sangfroid. "Boy, I wish I'd really had a chance to meet you. You seem like a piece of work." ] * Katherine waits for people to finish getting out of the way, then looks back at Kataki. A thin smirk crosses her face. "Feelin's mutual, Kataki." [ Keith just gives Roch the o_o expression and actually grips her arm, looking... frightened? "They're... they're gonna ruin it..." ] (Let's have another Psyche roll.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 6 for a result of 6. (By three!) [ Keith... he's not high school age, is he? He's just a kid. Which certainly jives with the expression on his face, something more resonant of a young scared kid than a high school jock. ] * Rochelle 's arm is clutched, and she looks at Keith, worried. "Ruin what? It's just class... hey, you're really not... uh, okay. Are you?" [ He just whispers, "Gonna ruin it..." over and over. ] * Katherine then looks to Roch and Keith a moment, before looking back at Kataki. "So why are you here? What do you represent? Or maybe you're a tag-along?" * Rochelle has a sudden urge to hug the maybe-kid-maybe-teenager, but that would just make the day even weirder. She looks up at the nonsensical conversation Katherine and Kataki are having, then back to Keith. "What's going on?" * Katherine starts to move forward to stand between Roch and Keith's position, and Kataki's. [ "God, what a selfish bitch," Kataki says, getting out of his desk, then walking around and sitting on it, crossing his arms on his chest. "I mean, I expected you to give it up 'cause you've got the Grunt in your head, but this one... she'd have been fine." ] (Roch, gimmie a psyche check with a 2 point bonus.) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6-2) and gets a natural 4 for a result of 2. * Katherine looks back at him, glances to Roch, then back to Kataki. "I don't know what's going on, Kataki." (Ha, by seven.) Someone didn't think I deserved to know. So if I break something, it sure as hell ain't out of selfishness. (Aha. Now, a soul check.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets 12, a CRITICAL FAILURE!!! "Looks like your thread just got cut. Sorry." (HA.) (Oh my.) (Sadly, the DR is tied with the precog. Let us roll with it.) (Actually you can use it, in that case.) (That's what the soul check is for, anyway.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 7. (Spot on.) [ She's not really postcognitive, but there's a sudden flash of pain in Roch's head, like a migraine cranked to 11. A lot of information comes flooding back. Twilight is as Kat described it, not the reading. Roch was never a high school student on Earth. And the last memory she has is of someone hitting the switch in the basement of DRAUPNIR, and everything going white. ] * Rochelle lets out a small shriek, ripping her arm out of Keith's grip so she can bring her hands to her head. Her eyes squeeze shut with pain, and she lets out a shaky, "What... what the fuck?" [ "I KNEW IT!" Keith suddenly bellows, looking between the three of you. "You're gonna ruin it! STOP IT!" ] * Katherine looks around everyone, then down to Roch as she says quietly, "If I'd have known I was supposed to be protecting you, Roch, I mighta let it go on a little longer." She then glances to Kataki. "Never said I didn't make mistakes." * Rochelle looks up at Katherine, sharply. "What are you talking about? You're protecting me- you don't *want* to protect me?" [ "I'm getting off on the drama," he responds, giving Keith a sidelong glance. He hasn't charged or even made a threatening physical move. ] * Katherine snorts and then looks back to Roch. "Of course I do, Roch. Who do you think I am?" Ms. Katherine Parker, history teacher and... I don't know what in the fuck. * Rochelle then looks to Keith. "Keith... are you really a kid?" [ "I..." he starts, staring at Roch with the same wide-eyed expression, before he shakes his head violently. "No! I... I play football! I like it here." ] * Katherine glances to Keith, silent a moment, before she murmurs, "You stayed at my place in Red NYC when things got crazy around Sangria-Beltane. We fought together, Roch. Against people. In Twilight, no less." She looks over to Kataki. "Against him." [ "Ha ha HA. Oh, yes. You've got a good record on fighting Tsukitomis, lady," Kataki says to Roch with a sneer. "I mean, you've got a 100% kill rate, actually." ] * Rochelle listens to Katherine's words. She hesitates, then nods. "It- it sounds right, but I don't remember." She looks at Kataki with a blink. "... What?" Followed by a nervous laugh. "I didn't kill anybody." I mean, I wouldn't. (...god I'm a bastard.) * Katherine snaps at him, "Now who's being selfish, you megalomaniacal jerk?" [ With that, Kataki steps away and slams both hands on the table, palm down. "YOU, you psychotic bitch. She could live out... however long, here. Never knowing, never needing to remember. You showing up is what brought it all down. *I* was just observing, since the dupe's kid is here living out HIS fantasy. But you decided hey, playing hero's more important than her happiness." ] [ That, interestingly enough, causes Keith to swivel toward Kataki like a turret acquiring a target, firing beams of pure D: ] * Rochelle slowly gets to her feet herself, picking up her datapad and clutching it. (One last psyche check. 4 point bonus.) 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rochelle (2d6-4) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 4. (By five.) [ Rochelle remembers everything. In fact, as she does so, she sees the people in the room as they 'actually' are: Kat as she was dressed when this started, Keith as a little kid in a hospital gown, and Kataki... well, he looks like Roch's last memory of him, back during the conflict with the Old Ones. ] * Katherine steps forward and replies, "Roch isn't a baby, Kataki. Just because I protect people doesn't mean I should have to lie. You need the truth to grab your life with your own hands." [ "Oh my frakkin'... now you sound like the red-haired idiot." He gets a smug expression as he turns to Roch. "Well, how he USED to sound." ] * Rochelle blinks, then blinks a few more times, and she brings up one hand to wipe tears out of her eyes. "What-" And Kataki says that, so the only reasonable course of action is to throw her datapad at him as hard as she can. (Damn right!) (Sadly:) [ He keeps that cold-blooded, arrogant smirk on his face and rather than catch the datapad, it literally just vanishes before it hits him. "You know, I'd have THOUGHT you'd be better at this. Maybe I just have the benefit of experience. Anyhow... I think I'm out of here. Plenty of other places to visit. Unless you two morons have more platitudes to throw down...?" ] * Katherine snorts and replies, "I don't need platitudes, Kataki. Thren's blood is on your hands. And... we, these people, aren't for your damn amusement." Just want to know why you won't die for real. (Also a good question!) [ As Kataki starts to fade away, he half-turns away and says, with a perfectly bright smile at both Roch and Kat, "Only the good die young." Then he's gone. ] * Katherine frowns at him, and then the frown slips away as she turns to Roch and says, more quietly, "You... okay, Roch?" * Rochelle mutters in cold anger, "Fucking dick." She looks down at her bag for half a moment before turning her attention to the kid. "I'm okay." (How's Keith?) (Shell-shocked!) (Locked in permanent ._.) * Rochelle moves around her desk, and around Kat maybe, to actually give Keith that hug she wanted to earlier. * Katherine starts, "Well, that's... what happens when..." and she trails off as Roch gives the kid a hug. [ He's not really resisting; he hugs back mostly on instinct, and then whispers, "I di'n't know. When I woke up... it was..." Then he trails off, crying. ] It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. * Rochelle glances at Kat with what's very much a 'he needs it' look. * Katherine smiles faintly and says quietly, "Yeah." A few moments, then, "Roch, I... well..." she trails off, then looks away. "I don't know how this works." * Rochelle replies softly as she continues to give Keith a shoulder to cry on, "Me neither." Pause. "So this was our fantasy, huh?" [ "I don't know," he responds, wiping his eyes. "I don't know. But it felt good." ] Yeah. It did. * Katherine laughs weakly and murmurs, "I had... something else first, myself." A moment, then she chuckles and adds, "But... schoolteacher, really, Roch? I never knew." I guess so. Zak's here, but he always skips class. ... yeah, that sounds like him. * Rochelle laughs a little. "It did feel good, though," she says, repeating Keith. * Katherine puts a hand to Roch's shoulder and smiles a little. "I'm sorry. Maybe I shoulda let it go on a little longer." * Rochelle shakes her head. What do we do now? I can't... * Rochelle zones out for a brief moment, then shakes her head again. "Yeah, I can't." * Katherine smiles weakly and then the smile slips away as she says, "Can't?" (Also we can wrap up soon, it is late and I am losing focus for GMage z_z) No. I haven't the whole time here, but I didn't try. And... now that I am, it's all jumbled. There's too much. * Katherine presses her lips together as she tries to parse that, and then says, "I don't know. But when I... accepted what was going on, the images... dissolved. And then I got pulled here." But there's multiple of us. If the real Zak is here, we might have to find him too. * Rochelle looks around. "I do like it here," she admits again. "It's... it's really nice." The sun, and... I mean, learning stuff, and having friends, and... you know. It's pretty stupid. * Katherine is silent a moment, then says quietly, "It's not stupid, Roch. It's... kinda like what Thren said. Living life. There's good in that. Life's just... hard." You do stupid things. Or maybe just I do stupid things. (Just you.) * Rochelle shakes her head. She looks at Keith. "Hey," she says, finally picking up her Twilight City accent. "You comin' with us?" [ Keith, who's been sniffling to himself while you two talk, suddenly looks up... then shakes his head. "Gonna... stay here for a bit." ] Okay. * Rochelle squeezes Keith on the shoulder, then stands and looks to Kat. "Just accept things, right?" * Katherine nods slightly and says, "Worked for me." A moment, then she says more quietly, "I don't hate you, you know. No matter what Kataki says. Just Thren's death... messed me up." * Rochelle shrugs. "Don't blame you." She looks out the window to see the blue sky and the trees and the sun. "I miss him, too." (Anything else before we wrap it up?) (I suppose I be good once Mecha be.) * Katherine nods and replies, quietly, looking where Roch is, "Yeah." A beat, then, "C'mon. Let's go... he's hovering around in this mess too." * Rochelle nods and closes her eyes, trying to will reality into place. [ Rather than in Kat's case, where everything went white, in this case the surroundings -- including Keith -- seem to start to... fade out, as if there were a black background that the scene were an overlay of. As things get more and more faded, Keith gets more and more back to his 'BMOC' self and not the little kid. ] [ Eventually, Kat and Roch are left alone, 'standing' on nothing but... darkness. ] [ What lies in that void? We'll find out... next time.]