[ The first thing Yue notices, as she emerges from the black void of sleep, is the sound of waves. For someone raised on Mars, that sound may be a little unusual, but TVNet makes it recognizable. The air, coming in from outside through... something... has the slight tang of the sea to it. ] (More, or?) (Yes? Typing takes time.) (Must sayin'!) (Er, just. I wasn't sure.) [ Should she open her eyes, she finds herself in an airy room with gauzy white curtains. The walls are painted a sort of eggshell white color, and various pieces of highly interpretive-looking watercolor art are hung in the room as well. Whatever bed she's in, it's nice and comfortable, and outside the sound of the ocean comes in through the window. ] (Now you may wake up!) * Yue slowly sits up! She's much less leathery and rifley than in real life, instead dressed in a navy blue silk sundress with white lacey rims with spaghetti straps. She wakes up to her fairy tale house and stretches to greet the morning! At least, if it's morning. She has strappy sandals waiting for her. [ Chrono says 10:17am... still morning, but barely just. TVNet says you have a few messages; glimpses of other rooms beyond the bedroom are a big, empty studio with an easel and paints in the center on a drop cloth, and a corridor leading to a living room in the distance. ] * Yue walks past the diary-keeping 'lil cactus by her bed to the living room, checking her messages while she goes to get herself a quick and light breakfast before it's off to the shore for a morning walk. [ Most of the messages are just personal things; compliments on Yue's last showing, a few requests for lunch. One is from her agent, reminding her that the ride to her showing in London this afternoon will be arriving around noon. ] * Yue doesn't have to worry about that just yet! After bread, hard cheese and grapes are consumed, she takes her pad and carbon out with her to wander off to her favorite stretch of the beach for the hour. And if that goes uninterrupted, she'll eventually return to get good and ready for her ride. (Argh one sec) (Sorry. Should be less distractions from this point forward.) [ The house -- old style Earth as it is -- sits at the edge of the sea, presumably... somewhere. It's not warm and tropical, so Yue must be somewhere in the more northern latitudes, and the sea beats against the eastern shore. There's even a little gazebo for her to sit and draw at! And as it's indeed uninterrupted, what does Yue draw? ] * Yue is continuing a sketch of a lighthouse off in the distance by the end of the peninsula, a new piece she's held an interest in for a while. It has a craggy shore and a faintly misty atmosphere for that faint air of mystique that art critics love so much. [ Time passes! Things are drawn! Soon it is nearly noon, and Yue's PDA beeps a warning that her ride will be here soon. ] * Yue does return to the home. She has to take a shower, get dressed and presentable, and maybe even pack of it'll be a longer trip. [ While Yue packs -- only a few days needed, tops -- a little doorbell-like chime rings, followed by a highly soothing female computer voice. "Miss Rohay, a skimmer is arriving." ] (That'd be the ride?) (That or you're about to be kidnapped!) * Yue is still in the sundress, oddly. She has boots instead of sandals, though, under the half-the-calf-length sundress, and a duffel bag over her shoulder. "I'll be there," she says lightly, and then shuts the house down and locks up, old-school-style. Because who needs a computerized house that does everything for you. Then it's out the door! [ Out front is... a sleek black skimmer! Big enough for 6 or so, but it's a lot like a limo in execution, sitting on the circular, helipad-like tarmac reserved for such things. ] * Katherine is standing outside the skimmer, because she's the full service sort. She looks smart, in the neat sense, in black slacks, a black vest, white shirt, and black cap. She has a slight smirk on her face as she brushes back braided red hair and is standing next to an open door. She also seems pretty amused to say, "Miss Rohay?" * Yue is tying blue ribbons to locks to either side of her hair when she appears, and says, "That's me." * Katherine gestures at the open skimmer door. "To London, huhm?" (I'm way too amused by the idea of Little House in the Prairie + Helipad.) * Yue walks in and nods, not bothering to toss her bag in the back. She can sit by it! Unless it's a crammed public shuttle. "That's right." (Kansas is a big place. You don't want to drive.) (Yue is Clark Kent!) (Wait, why is there an ocean in Kansas?) * Katherine 's shuttle is not a public random shuttle. She lets Yue in and then closes the door behind her. After a few moments she gets in the front and starts it up. Hopefully there's a GPS to help her get to London. * Katherine does, however, say as they start off, "So, what's in London?" (Talk at each other a bit, I'm going to clean up after dinner.) * Yue says with some excitement evident in her voice, "The Royal Watercolor Society competition's winners are being declared there, in a fantastic grand hall." * Katherine 's hazel eyes blink in the mirror. "You're an artist?" * Yue ties off the right knot for her hair, and then says, slightly bashfully, "Do I not look the type?" * Katherine laughs and replies, "Artists don't really have a type. If you're an artist, you're an artist." * Yue smiles back and says, "Good. I thought so." A pause, and then, "What's your name?" * Katherine replies, "Kat Parker." A moment, then she laughs. "Kinda funny with the job. Someone likes puns." * Yue considers that for a moment, and then lets out a laugh. "Because you park cars... oh, I get it. Funny." * Katherine replies, "Well, it wasn't my idea. Though I'm not sure whose idea it was." * Yue raises an eyebrow and says, "What'd you want to do then?" * Katherine groans and says, "Oh, that's a story and a half." ("First, there was this kitten...") * Yue leans back and smiles, crossing her leg and putting her hands on her knee. "London's a journey and a half away." [ In the space between Yue's home and London, there is little for Kat to do as a pilot; covering long, non-urban distances, the skimmer-limo's autopilot does 99% of the work. However, soon the ancient-looking (comparatively) facade of England's crown jewel shows in the distance, and the limo beeps, requesting the pilot's attention. ] * Katherine chuckles. "Wry, but it's not that far." * Katherine looks to the beep. [ A street map pops up as a holo display, along with notes on local traffic regs and parking. This IS the future, after all. ] * Katherine looks at it, then nods and says, "At least, not with this thing. So, the awards your whole day?" * Yue lets out a brief noise and says, "A few days. Meet and greets, a few over-slicked businessmen taking me to dinner, and the whole city thing. It's too much for me. Fun, though." * Katherine ahs, then says, "I guess it's a shame you..." she trails off, then says, "Yue, have you ever seen me before today?" (Of course not.) * Yue raises her eyebrows and tilts her head. "Maybe, but I'd have to really think. My manager has to send a lot of chauffeurs my way." * Katherine chuckles and heads in on final approach. "Yeah, I guess. Figure I'd have remembered someone like you, though, right?" * Yue blinks a few times, and then says with a polite chuckle, "I figured you'd have gotten the instruction to pick up a Miss Rohay from the middle of nowhere." [ Through Kat's skillful (read: computer-assisted) driving the destination comes into view. The National Gallery as it is now is a faithful reconstruction of the old world-looking building it was historically, though much of the opposing block has been removed in order to make room for vehicles such as this one. Long stairs lead up to the front door. ] (http://www.nozio.com/img/london_guide_national_gallery.jpg, for ref) * Katherine pulls up to park across from the gallery, and says, "Yeah, but I more mean I wouldn't have had to check if I knew you." [ People of all stripes are milling about; apparently this is quite the event. The skimousine pulls into a valet space, so that the woman of the hour doesn't have far to walk. ] * Yue raises her eyebrows further. "I'm sorry, but... I'm not sure what you're saying, Miss Parker." * Katherine sits there a moment and says, "Yeah, me either. I guess stumbling through this once doesn't make it easier the second time." She steps out and walks around to open the door for her. "So, you got an escort for this?" * Yue raises one eyebrow and thinks about that for a moment, and says, "I... don't know. I didn't figure this to be the kind of event with red carpet and with my arms around someone, waving and smiling." * Katherine takes off her cap and puts it in the car, brushing hair back. "Why don't we just say I always wanted to see this sort of show, mmm?" * Yue looks a little taken aback, and then says, "I should probably get going, Miss Parker. Thank you for the lift." She takes her bag and exits the skimmer. * Katherine nods slightly, and says, "Sure. Guess that's a no, mmm?" * Yue 's mouth is slightly agape, and then she looks to the gallery for a moment, and back at her, before politely closing the door to sort of shuffle off, head swimming in mixed thoughts. * Katherine presses her lips together, looking after Yue. She murmurs, "I don't have the people. Fuck you, Kataki." [ Considering she's an artist in this show, not many people seem to hail Yue by name, and none rush over to introduce themselves in a bubbly, fangirl way. However, she gets waves and occasional fingerpoints of recognition. Inside, the main room has had a number of anti-gravity-style walls of some crystalline substance floating about in very slow circles. ] * Katherine follows after Yue's in, to see if general entrance is available. (You know, if nothing else, I've got some unique altverses if I need them now.) [ Inside each crystalline 'plate' is a digital rendering of each entrant's watercolors, cycling through. Signs indicate the real things are up in appropriate galleries for viewing close, but this appears to be for the 'masses'. It IS a reception, after all. ] (I'm not sure they _exist_.) (... hence them being altverses?) * Yue is a master of the Fake Business 'thank you, polite head nod, tilt head and smile' Excellency and manages to weave through to the actual meat of the event, unless she has to stay by her piece and give a presentation. Which she might. (I mean, even as altverses.) * Katherine enters the reception for the masses, then! Assuming she has the money to get in. (... given that the definition of an altverse is a universe where shit went differently, I am kind of confused as to how they could not exist.) (What're we talking about? @_@) (... point taken.) [ Entry is free! All types are here, from snooty Earthers in suits to cracked-out Mars art hipsters clad in what looks like flowing patterns of neon filament. Yue's watercolors are currently being observed by an average height woman in a smart black dress... what is striking is the bright, almost metallic silver of her hair. ] * Yue does not recognize Killer !KOS-MOS appraising her art, but she does, unless she absolutely needs to be somewhere else, hang around in the background in that kind of self-conscious 'I wonder what they think?' kinda way creative types sometimes get. [ What kinds of watercolors we lookin' at, here? ] * Katherine was walking through to observe Yue for a few, but the appearance of Platina causes her lips to press together tightly. She murmurs, "This could go bad fast." * Yue is a watercolor artist that is renowned for her almost OCD-level attention to detail, aiming to create near-photorealistic representations of ordinary subject matter. In this case, it was a painting of a set of swings in a park, one occupied by a small child. [ "So," says the silver-haired woman, not turning to look at Yue, "what is it that inspired *this*?" She's referring to the child in a park, at the moment. ] * Yue pauses, and glances around, but she assumes she's not being talked to since she doesn't have eye contact! [ After a moment or two of silence, the woman chuckles, then bores a silver-eyed stare right into Yue's face. Her voice is... cold. Stereotypically cold; it's like she's trying too hard to be the ice maiden of TVNet's dramas. "Does that mean there wasn't one?" ] * Yue raises her eyebrows, and then coughs softly as she says, "Oh. I hit a mood for trying to capture some of the rare moments of simple joys in the urban city... I hope that message passed through." [ That gets a short, sharp laugh. "You sure it wasn't something else?" she asks, amused. Now she really is giving Yue the 10,000 gigawatt bitch stare with accompanying smile. "Trying to pretend a few... other things didn't happen?" ] * Yue cups her hands behind her back and raising an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure. I painted it, after all..." [ The watercolor in the crystal display case, in time with its regular schedule of rotation, shifts not to Yue's next watercolor, but a dark, scary, highly impressionist painting of a woman clutching her hand, which is covered in a steel grey and off-pale green sort of color. It's as if she's in pain, with what might be her mouth open in a scream. ] * Dicesuke has joined #atc (Psyche check! This is 2d6 checked against the average of your Mind and Soul.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 8. (That's not a make.) [ You never painted that. What is that doing there? It's not even watercolor... more like fingerpainting with oil paints. The resemblence between the woman in the picture and Yue is... vague but visible, however. ] * Yue looks around for a moment, and then says, voice laced with a bit of nervousness as she tries to flag an attendant, "I'm not sure what that's doing up there. That isn't my artwork." * Katherine winces from her onlooker position, then murmurs, "Yeah, bad is it." She starts to walk forward. [ That gets a short, sharp bark of laughter. "It's not. Haha, exactly not. I'm the same way. We're... other peoples' masterpieces. We're not artists. It's amazing," she says, picking a champagne flute off a tray as it wanders by and sipping it. She talks to Yue, facing her, but her eyes are on the approaching Kat, "what I'm learning in this scenario." ] * Yue connects to Platina's eyes and winds up turning around to look at Kat approaching. "Okay. What is going on?" * Katherine looks to Yue, with a weak smile, then Platina, and the smile is gone. "So you're hopping around too." [ "Hopping is such a cheap word," she says, sipping a second time. "But I've been observing here and there, from minute one. I do wonder why I wasn't stuck living out some insipid fantasy like the rest of you fools." ] Your total lack of soul? * Yue remembers what her fantasy mother told her when she was little and backs away if she ever finds herself in a situation that could potentially be from a thriller movie. One step, two step... * Katherine smirks. "Figure that might get in the way." [ "Don't keep backing out of the frame," she says to Yue. "You're the star, after all." The picture changes, again; now it's a collage of photographs shown as a sort of flipbook style... of Yue, with a sniper rifle, trained on a man in a crowded city plaza. Then the pull of the trigger. The path of the bullet. The man going down, in close up. ] (Psyche roll, -2 bonus) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-2) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 6. (That's a ... make or not make if it's still the same, depending on whether it rounds up or down.) (We'll call it a make because it's late.) [ That... you were there for that. The man wasn't a nice man, like the picture makes him out to be. He was funneling company money to a crime syndicate on Mars. It was your job to take him down. ] * Yue folds her arms and stops stepping back, tapping her finger nervously as she looks to Kat and Platina. "This is getting really creepy. I'm ready to wake up, now." (THE A/C KICKS ON AND YOU ARE TRAPPED IN THIS MOMENT FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRR) * Katherine glances Yueward, then back Platina. "Sorry, Yue," she says out loud. "This really is just a dream. Figured I'd give you a few more moments." * Yue puts her hand to her temples, and pinches hard as she lets out a brief 'nnh'. She eventually pulls up to stare at the paintings again, though. "Well, if this is a dream, and I was there, then..." [ That gets a smirk out of the silver-haired woman, who's looking at the painting. "A dream is fiction. This isn't a dream. This is reality." With that, she holds out a hand, and in literally the span of time it takes to blink she's holding a gun, which she turns and fires into the crowd. ] [ Caught entirely by surprise, a woman goes down, falling forward onto one of the display cases and smearing it with blood as she slides down it bonelessly, eyes wide. The crowd gasps, and the area around the three women starts to widen as people back away. ] * Katherine starts, and goes for the gun as fast as she can. "What the fuck, Platina?" * Yue looks more than a bit shocked that someone just *died*, and she feels nausea catching up to her as she turns away and backs away a bit further. [ And Kat suddenly feels like she's moving through molasses. The distance between herself and Platina should be growing so short as to be non-existent, but instead it's like the gap is actually widening despite her moving forward... a vertigo-inducing sort of state. Platina shrugs and turns, firing another shot into one of the elderly butlers ferrying champagne around. ] * Yue shouts as the second shot is fired, "Stop! What're you doing?! Someone help!" * Katherine nnghs and growls, "What... the hell are you doing to me...?" [ As the glass flutes crash to the floor, the silver-haired women grins at Yue. "See, in your reality, you're running from... something. You want to live in this adorable dream world. But from minute one I've known I'll do whatever I want, because I can. That's why this isn't a dream." ] (Surprise! Platina has, like, all but 2 of her CP in Mental Toughness. Hohoho.) (Ha.) (Gotta be mentally tough to be a full-conversion cyborg, yo.) * Yue looks at Kat with more surprise, but then takes a shaky breath as she looks to Platina. "What do you want? Who are you?" [ The gun is waved around lazily as Platina takes another sip of champagne, as if this were a normal, everyday conversation. "Oh, I'm what you could be if you'd stop running away," she says to Yue, inclining her head at Kat. "That one was the same. 'Oh boo hoo, how terrible is my lot, better forget it all.' Pathetic. You, I thought, had potential. Could be convinced." ] (Another psyche check! -4 bonus this time) 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-4) and gets a natural 11 for a result of 7. (Man, I suck at psyche.) (Dicehatey.) [ With a shrug, Platina shoots someone else. ] (ONe more time! THE HORROR) 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-4) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 3. (SEEEEEEEED) * Katherine snorts and replies, as she swings her foot trying to connect with Platina's gun, "Sorry, some of us are a little more complex than 'fuck you, I got mine.'" [ No. You're not a painter. You're a hired gun, among the best in the business. That's no chauffeur; it's Kat Hunter. And the silver-haired woman, well... yes. It's all coming back to you. ] (YUE'S MEMORY RETURNS NOW WHAT) (Does my hand return?) (No, actually. BUT you do know that your current hand is not how your physical body is. And you can also tell that wherever 'here' is, it's not really the physical realm, though it has a lot of similarities.) * Yue is looking petrified at the next death to happen to Platina, but then takes a few breaths, and her expression shifts from nausea and panic to... nothing. With her expressions firmly tucked in where they can resume being bottled up, she steps forward to say, "... did you put us through this?" [ A raised eyebrow at that, as if Platina were seeing Yue in a new light. "I facilitated. That's all. Ferrion... he's insane. Something's wrong in his mind. But if this process worked, I could finally get the one thing I can't have back. You could, too, you know." She inclines her head at Yue's hand... the one that SHOULD be different, but isn't. ] (I assume my foot missed?) * Yue 's expression tightens as she narrows her eyes. "You talk too much for a machine," she states in response. (Sorry, I missed whatever you did, but yes.) * Katherine gets her foot back on the ground and then smirks. "Oh, so you think it's wrong to want something else, and then you want something else. I couldn't be more sick of you and Kataki's fucking hypocrisy." [ Kat continues to be in that vertigo-ish type scenario. It's extremely strange. Yue's response seems to amuse Platina, however. "Big talk, coming from you." She shrugs and turns to shoot someone else, before looking at Kat. "I never said wanting was bad. What's the phrase? 'It's foolish not to have a dream, but even more foolish to only have a dream.' I didn't sit and mope." ] (more) [ "I did something about it. I don't know who 'Kataki' is, but I expect he's the same way, you whiny fool." ] * Yue responds with a high level of annoyance on her face as she walks closer to Platina. [ Unlike Kat, Yue does not seem to be so affected; in fact, she has no trouble walking closer at all. The silver-haired woman turns the gun right at her, calmly. "I'm not certain what pulling the trigger would do. It'll be interesting to find out, however." ] * Yue doesn't stop walking. "Shoot me if you want. Stab me, shock me. You won't stop me from completing my mission." She reaches her hand out to plant it on Platina's face. (Gimmie another psyche check, for the hell of it, at -6.) (Rule #1 of the Cyborg Fight: A Cyborg whose Head Section is destroyed is disqualified.) 2d6-6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yue (2d6-6) and gets a natural 5 for a result of -1. 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Todd (2d6+2) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 10. (Readyyyyyyy, go!) [ What happens next is... interesting. Yue's dress burns away; what's less is her combat uniform as she was wearing in reality. Her hand shimmers, then reforms into the way it looks in real life: distorted, strange, semi-mechanical. Kat unfreezes, and Platina fires unhesitatingly, but the bullet his Yue's hand and evaporates. ] (more) [ Said hand then grips Platina by the face. The silver-haired woman has enough time to scream -- a curiously reverberating, wailing sound -- before... something effectively melts her head right off. There is no gore; there's not even any indication of a body. She simply... evaporates in a hiss of steam. ] [ The room, except for Kat and Yue, empties of people. ] (Does that make me normal again too?) (Not automatically.) (It's a matter of Kat concentrating on being Kat, if she decides to try it. Otherwise, she stays as-is.) * Katherine scratches her head and says, "Wow, that was, uh, much flashier than mine." * Yue looks down at herself, in all leather trenchcoat and blacks, and her cybered ungodly hands, and looks to Kat. "You shouldn't have wasted time letting me linger in there. Let's go." * Katherine frowns and looks back to her eyes. "Yeah? So sorry. I can't tell what anyone else wants right now. Sorry for lettin' you do somethin' you liked a little." * Yue turns her head away and responds, "That's why it's a dream. A waste of time." She looks around the room and glances around for an... exit? Is the room still the gallery, or something more real? [ Physically, everything's the same. There's just no people, and the display cases of paintings are also gone. ] * Katherine exhales noisily and focuses a moment, saying, "Well, if we're getting out... we focus on ourselves." * Yue does add with a faint smirk, "I'm thrilled that you approve, though." She thinks for a moment, and tries concentrating herself out the dream. Hey, it could possibly work. * Katherine replies, "You're not the only one who likes art." [ Concentrating on the dream itself doesn't do much. ] (Well, she'll try herself next.) (I figured, but I wanted to be clear that what she'd tried so far didn't seem to accomplish anything yet.) (Nod.) (Oh... is it my pose? I figured we'd be focusin' and such.) * Katherine 's body changes slightly on her focusing, to have her ears appear, and she then looks over at Yue. "Not so easy?" [ (Oop.) [ "Actually," says a familiar male voice, from the front door, a little tremulously, "I kinda know how she feels, I think." Should you turn to look, you see the rumple-clothed form of Xavier Aurin standing there, looking sheepish. ] * Katherine looks over to Xavier, then says, "... you were here too, X? Shit. This your first, or are you also floatin' around?" * Yue looks at Xavier for a moment longer, and lets out a brief noise. "So I assume Ferrion hooked us up to those machines we saw before everything went black." [ "I've been... somewhere else," he responds, before shaking his head at Yue. "He didn't intend for what happened to, uh, happen, I don't think. I don't know. Th... Threnody has been explaining some of it to me. That's what's been going on while you've all... been... uh..." He stops, clearly at a loss. ] * Katherine frowns. "... while we're all? How long has this taken outside?" * Yue asks for information's sake, "What happened to the other two?" [ He appears to visibly count on his fingers, then says, "Around 4 minutes." ] * Katherine nods slightly, then looks to Yue. "I woke up Roch... Zak, who knows." * Yue lets out a disinterested noise and says, "Knowing that man, he's certainly okay." (your sarcastic faith is appreciated.) (DAW HAW.) * Katherine chuckles, then looks back to Xavier. "So what's Thren given you? I guess he was more concerned on draggin' me out of my thing." [ Xavier watches that exchange for a moment, before clearing his throat. "Anyhow, this really... I, uh... frak," he finishes, putting his hand to his face and grimacing. ] What? * Yue raises her eyebrow, but is back to being her old curmudgeonly self. [ "Forget it. Yue, you have to focus on what makes you, you," Xavier says, echoing Threnody's words to Kat before... almost to the letter, in fact. "All of it. Even... even the things you might not want to accept." ] * Yue is silent for a moment, then pulls her hand up to stare at it for a moment. "There's nothing about me that I don't accept." She turns and shuts her eyes to focus deeply. * Katherine glances to the hand, face twisting before she looks away and mutters, "Fuck." She looks back to Xavier. "I have to dig myself out of this again too, huh?" (OH REALLY) (And that's why your dream was at the oceannnnnnn) (It's a metaphor for sex. It even had Kat hitting on her!) [ He shakes his head. "This is... well. This is Yue's house," he explains. "There's a..." He pauses, and cocks his head, as if listening to a voice. "There's a 'thread' connecting your psyche to hers, but when she... does her... thing," he finishes, looking as though he knows how lame it sounds, "that thread is cut. 'You' aren't even fully 'Kat'." ] * Yue is ignoring all of them. They, after all, aren't her. * Katherine nods a little and says, "Oh, good, I always like not being myself." [ "He could explain it better," Xavier says desperately, "but that's... well. You'll see." The more Yue seems to stare at and reflect on her hand, the more faint the surroundings become, until the three are standing in white, basically... featureless fields of white, with no boundaries. ] * Yue keeps focusing. That's her job. She is currently convinced she shouldn't stop until she's in reality. [ As expected, the longer this process goes on, the less defined the world becomes. Kat pops out of existence as that thread is cut, and Xavier has time to give Yue a sort of... sad look before he too is gone. Then the whiteness is so overpowering that Yue herself 'whites out'. And when she comes to, well... that story has yet to be told.]