Right. So, MC2 people, you've been investigating a string of Tarot- related incidents. Kaede, you've lost contact with other Arcana, but found a wierd person with fox ears. She seems rather confused about how she got to be in a place she claims is Earth's past. Claire, you also went through one of those swirly circle doors, thinking it led to the restroom. Imagine your suprise when you find all the MC2 kiddies in a hallway, instead. Thalan, meanwhile...got lost flying his space thingie. But a large concentration of energy that seems out of place on this backwater planet has attracted his attention. The MC2 kiddies have just met Claire, and their search is bearing fruit, as Katherine and Kaede are talking in a room that connects to this hallway. [Start! ...oh, this is in Sakuragaoka, in Tokyo, Japan.] ...uh. Where am I? and who ARE you people. * Claire protectively has her hand on Excalibur. Funny, we could ask you the same question. Dunno and we're us. * Kaede stares at Katherine for a while, then rubs his temple. "Alright...Meimi, now you're just getting silly..." * Katherine frowns, and taps her foot. She's a tall woman with red hair, wolf ears, and is wearing just enough leather to cover the important parts of her body. She's frowning at everyone. * Rei looks up from her computer: It's a mini-laptop, held in one hand, with BOX in big tape letters on the cover. "Hey, another person joining us on our girl's day out! Who invited you? You're not related to any of us, are you? Because man, I've been finding so many cousins recently... all one of them." * Maria curiously has her hands on Claire's drivers liscence. "Well, this answers my first question." ..hey! * Chie peers over at Maria. "What's it say?" Oh. Oh! * Claire grabs for her license. * Rei looks over Maria's shoulder. Don't take that without asking! Hey, I'll give it back. Just wanna see. * Maria shows Rei! * Chie is a petite Japanese girl, with dyed bright pink hair with yellow tips, and blue-green eyes (yep, they're contacts). She's wearing a black tank top, black jeans, and sneakers. A large bag is slung over her left shoulder. * Kaede sighs and adjusts his glasses, peering Katherine over. "So what are you supposed to be?" * Chie also has far too many earrings in her left ear, and a single silver hoop in her right. * Katherine snorts. "I'm supposed to be me. Katherine Parker, and I'm not supposed to be in..." she looks around, "A beat up ancient building." * Claire stands about 5'7", she's wearing a loose grey sweater of a shiny, soft material and black corduroy pants. Her hair is dark brown and pulled back into a ponytail. * Chie looks at the license, too. * Kaede joins in the description by saying he's a second year Japanese high school student, wearing glasses (relatively thin, yes thankyou) and a school uniform. He has short brown hair and hazel eyes and stands 5'9". He also has a kaban at his side. * Maria is a Japanese girl with long black hair and dressed in heavily patched clothing. She could be said to e built like an amazon, but she's way too short for that. What's an amazon? Is it tasty? * Claire is in her early 20's, those of you that have seen her driver's license note she's 22. * Rei goes "oooooh" in a very interested fashion. She's slightly scrawny, about average height, with horribly messy, short black hair. Her eyes are a striking violet, and her clothes clash in many horrible ways. And if that wasn't out there enough... she has a thin, fox-like, dark brown tail with a black tip. Ancient? I didn't think Sakuragoaka failed maintenance that....why am I wasting my time talking to an illusion? (If only I remember what year Claire's from <<;;) * Maria nods. "Yup." She puts Claire's drivers liscence back in her wallet and gives the whole thing back. "Don't worry, I didn't take any money." (2044, according to your sheet, Ins) * Kaede starts to walk past Katherine, trying his best to ignore her. * Claire takes it back. "you had better not of. It looks to be useless here anyway." (Oh, we're from 2042. No problem. ;p) * Katherine lifts her hand, making the threat of claws very clear, and snarls. "Wanna see how much of an illusion it is, kid?" Eh? Oh. We *are* still in Tokyo, right? We didn't end up in China or Hell or some other dimension while we weren't looking, did we? ( I'm..not seeing my character description, ARGH. ) ( We're from a 2042 that's remarkably like 2004. o/` ) (Kat, as a clarifier, is looking a little under 20, and built built BUILT. Muscles!) * Kaede blinks and turns around, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Well...err..." We're not being attacked by chinese demons, so I think we're still in Japan. * Suddenly, there is a loud crash and a bright flash of light from down the hall. In the room with the two Ks (Kaede and Kathy), a smallish fighter spaceship just crash landed, making a brand new skylight. * Chie blinks. "What was that?" What the? (CAAATS FRRROOM SPAAAAACE!) Tell me...you... Now what? ...dunno. Lemme go see! (*snerk*) * Maria goes to see! No, I'm pretty sure we're still in Tokyo- wait for me! * Rei runs after her. Yeah, me too! * Chie follows! * Katherine leaps, and draws a large handgun from under her jacket, rolling back and away from the crash. "Fucking hell!" * Claire follows afterwards. There's...a fighter in there. And Kaede and Kat and anyone who just entered through the door. Remarkably little damage, save to the desk that the fighter landed on, the fighter itself, and the ceiling. * Thalan glances around the room from the cockpit, then quickly pops it open, making the typical huge amount of smoke. ( ...this is pissing me off. Seg, can you send me the character description as it's not showing up on my end. at all. ) * Katherine starts looking around for people. Or weapons. Seeing the cockpit open, she draws a bead on it. * Claire whips out Excalibur and trains her sights on the open cockpit. (It's not here, either, Ins. I just extrapolated from birthdate. ...unless I mixed char pages again. ^^;;;) * Kaede eyes Katherine, then looks at the spaceship, dropping his kaban. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a medium-sized crescent wrench. "I..." He side-glances at Katherine. "You're not one of Meimi's are you?" * Chie peers in the doorway. "What the *hell*? We're being invaded by aliens now?" * Katherine keeps the gun leveled. "Who the hell is Meimi, kid?" * Rei peers around the doorway, hovering a little to look over Chie's head. "Shit, one of them has a gun!" ( You..probably did. There's no birthdate there, but 2044 sounds about right. ) * Maria blinks at the space ship. "That's a new one." Dammit, you're right! She's just...oh never mind. She's just a pain. Let's leave it at that. * Claire aims at Thalan. "Who are you?" Well, I'm a pain too. He's fuzzy! * Chie looks over her shoulder at Claire. "So does she. Why is it always guns?" * Thalan hops out of the cockpit gracefully, and actually away from the humans. "Fuckin' ignorant humans." He looks around and types on his datapad. Over his back is slung a very large and fancy rifle, as well as a small bag. "Thalan." I like my gun. Excalibur's a good friend. * Yeah, Thalan. This ain't the timeperiod you're used to. Readings are all wrong...but this is definitely Earth. I don't like guns. Whenever there are guns, I usually end up getting shot with them. * Maria walks up to Thalan and comes away with his wallet, too. "Yup, he's Thalan alright." * Katherine cross-draws another gun from somewhere, and also levels it at Thalan, then glances at the group of spectators. "Alright, way too many goddamn people." * Thalan is a Pershala. He's got cat-ears, a curved nose, and... (Can I roll to detect that?) * Kaede side-glances at the new people. "You're not from around here either." He then turns back to Katherine. "Perhaps. But you don't appear out of nowhere just to mess with people's heads, now do you?" Rei, how the *hell* do we keep getting into these kinds of things? * Rei waves cheerily at Thalan, then looks at the wallet. "Hey, cool currency!" Well, if you recall my theory about paranormal incidents and how they work in relation to physics... Yeah. Not like those lame u.s. dollars. Oh, right. The weird draws the weird, and things just go on from there. Not to mention that the space-time continuum, random Start Trek babble, and other planes of existance, some of which have wings! * Thalan appears right behind Maria and snatches the wallet back. "That's not currency." Spaceships are new, though. Maybe the world got bored with hell-spawned demons? * Maria blinks at Rei. "Wings? Really?" Maybe it did. Can we go now? * Rei nods at Maria. "And sunglasses." I'm just used to espionage. * Kaede lowers his stance and takes a deep sigh, clearing his throat. "Excuse me? Who are you people and what are you doing destroying our school?" He adds under his breath. "As if that should really be a question now..." Cool. We're in school? * Er, those of you who got here from Otherwheres? You recognize the swirlly circular opening that just appeared on the other side of the room. There seems to be a futuristic-looking corridor on the other side of it, and a young man somewhere between 15 and 30 dressed in a black t-shirt, black pants, belt, and shoes standing on the other side. His hair is black, too. And I'd say yes, but we *are* looking into tarot or something. Are space ships involved with tarot? I wouldn't think so, but you never know. Maybe it's a new-age interpretation. I haven't destroyed anythign today. * `Away is now known as Black-clad-figure * Kaede blinks. "Did you say tarot?" Hey. I walked through one of those doors. What, the four of rockets says you'll have a bad day? * Thalan sighs. He's a cat person, all right. Tail, bright-orange fur, green eyes, and short black hair. He's short too, around 5'2". * Black-clad-figure seems to be leaning on a wall just out of sight of the...door?...and watching all of you talk. * Katherine grits her teeth, and lets the other gun point towards the large cluster of people, and yells, "Point of order. Will someone clue me the fuck in?" You first, and you could poke someone's eye out with that. I would if I knew what the hell was going on! Don't point that thing at me. * Claire puts Excalibur away. * Rei nods at Kaede. "Hey, you know something about that?" * Maria eyes Katherine. "You're funny. Like we know what's goin' on." And just who're you, anyway? Don't make me take your wallet to find out. She took mine. * Kaede looks over at Katherine and sighs. "Just my luck.." He holds up his hands and looks over at Rei for a second, nodding his head to the lady with the gun. "I think she's got priority for attention right now." Well, if you'd stop arguing, I might explain it to all of you. After all, I worked so hard to get you all together. * Kaede blinks at the clad figure. "One question. Why my SCHOOL of all places?" * Thalan flicks off the figure. "Yeah, whatever the fuck you want. * Chie looks over at the black-clad figure. "Geez, another person stealin' my look. Well, hi there!" * Black-clad-figure smiles, though it's not conveying much of anything save smugness. * Katherine brings the OTHER gun to bear on the figure, and leaves the other half-way between Thalan and the group. "There's more of you. I figured there'd be a goddamn chance." * Maria blinks at the black-clad figure. "Rei, he's wearin' all black. That means he's a lame goth, right?" *I* wear all black. Sometimes. Your school, Kaede? Well, random choice, really. * Thalan pretty much ignores Katherine. Sorry, I've had this look for ages. ...though Recluse puts me all in white for some reason... (Feeling's mutual, asshat!) And you don't see me angstin' about the emptiness of life, do you? * Kaede glances at Katherine. "I've long passed the point of asking what goes on in my life. But I would like to know..." 'wah no one understand the blackness of my soul'? Exactly! * Maria doesn't ignore Katherine. She might be loaded, for all she knows. (Yep. At least the clips are.) Katherine, funny you should mention chance...see, I need your help to change the chances of the course of events. One of those 'save the universe' things. I know, they're lame. But, I'm not allowed to play the game directly today. True. And you're not lame like Chomei, either. * Chie mutters. "He's not *that* bad..." (Actually, Claire's from around 2055 >>) * Katherine mutters, "Fucking save the universe people." Really now... Save the universe? You payin'? We get to save the unvierse? (Kat's not loaded, it's too early in the morning. But the guns are.) * Claire is clearly not used to saving any damn universes. Save the universe? Us? You gotta be kiddin' me. Well, how about I put it in different terms... Catch me if you can! *starts walking backwards, away from that circular door. It stays open, though* * Kaede groans and glances at the figure, pushing his glasses up and relaxing a little. "Would you take a number? I already figure we're doing something like that anyhow." ..Great. * Claire pulls Excalibur out again and heads through the door. "It's not going to get any better -_-" * Maria moves with dazzling speed for the black-clad figure. "Yay!" ...guy with answers goes through the rabbit hole..it's obviously a trap.. Maria, wait! Oh, hell. Not like we don't walk into traps all the time. * Katherine lowers the guns to her side, and bites off, "Katherine Parker. Nice to fucking meet you all too." Chie Matsuda. Likewise. Thalan. You knew that. * Claire calls back "I'm Claire Arthwin." she hefts the gun. "This is Excalibur." * Rei hmms. So. Who's up for jumping into the obvious trap? * Katherine nods at Excalibur appreciatively. Maria seems to have already gone. Oh! And I'm Rei Ueda. Nice to meet all of you, and thanks for putting the gun away. Fine...introductions. I can deal with that. Kaede Takeuchi. Two of Pentacles, if that means anything to you. If it doesn't...well, I still am. Two of Pentacles! That's a tarot card, right? Who said the guns were away? * Chie raises an eyebrow at Kaede. "Tarot?" * Maria catches up to Blackie, since he's not moving fast. "Hey, that wasn't any fun." * Black-clad-figure calls to those still on the other side. "If you don't mind hurrying, I can't keep my brothers from noticing that portal forever..." * Kaede nods and sighs. "It's..a long story. Anyhow, I'm going the rest of the way. Don't know about you. Don't blow up my school while I'm gone. It's kind of important. (And by 'three', you mean, like, most of us?) * Kaede walks through. * Thalan rolls his eyes. "Fuckin' morons." He walks in. * Katherine smirks. "I agree with the asshole. Might as well play follow the raver, eh?" * Chie sighs. "Well, there goes our only lead on this tarot thing." She looks at Kat. "Why the hell not? Let's go." * Maria blinks. "Timbucktoo? Is this real?" She waves a drivers' liscence she got from somewhere. Probably not. * Kaede stares at Maria. "Is she for real?" Why wouldn't she be? Well, you can't expect me to be too creative on the fly... You had to have something to take. ^^ * Maria pokes the Black Clad Figure in the chest. "Is this a fake i.d., mister? 'Cause those're illegal! Not like I really care, mind, but... oh. You just made it?" * Katherine puts the guns back, and now you can tell she had a thigh holster hiding on her left hip. "Well, then, the sooner we go, the sooner I can get to drinking this nightmare off." * The portal closes when the last person walks through. Black-clad-boy stops moving backwards, then, too. * Maria brightens. "If you just made it, can I keep it?" * Katherine does walks through. ...isn't stealing in the first place just as illegal? No, it's more illegal. Eh. Depends on what you're stealing. * Chie looks at Kat. "I hear you. Boy, do I ever." Some things are perfectly legal to steal with the right loopholes. * Kaede tries to answer, but stops and just slaps his forehead. "You're right but...oh forget it. Waste of time." * Black-clad-figure tilts his head sideways, just listening to the exchange. * Katherine grins, and says, not looking back, "I like you, Matsuda." She looks at the people in the distance talking at the Black-clad man. * Chie laughs. "Can call me Chie, if you want." * The corridor could be something out of Star Trek. If a bit more blue and metallic than the plush carpeted halls of the Enterprise. Ooh. Shiny. * Claire is distracted by the lights glinting off of the inordinant amount of metallic material. So who's going to explain why everyone's here? And...what we're doing on something that looks like something out of a bad science fiction show? Eh, I don't know any loopholes. I just take things. Um...if you all would like, we can go to a more spacious area. There's a cargo bay just around the corner here... * Katherine hmms. "Chie, then." Cargo's good. * Chie eyes her surroundings. "Gotta say this is new." * Katherine strides forward. "Catch the bouncing mookface, la-dee-dah..." Oh, I just take things too. But I do it because I'm paid too. ..sometimes. * Black-clad-figure leads the way. Oddly unconcerned that all these people are near him, some obviously upset about the circumstances. I don't care where I go, just as long as I get answers. I mean.. * Thalan keeps walking, keeping his eyes and ears open. * The cargo bay is...a cargo bay. Boxes, lots of empty space, big (shut) door... * Katherine looks over at Kaede with a smirk. "After you've seen everything I have, you gotta make fun of it. Or get drunk, and there's nothing around." * Maria starts looking through boxes. * Chie keeps to the rear with Rei, who's unusually silent. She sticks her hands in her pockets and strolls along, seemingly unconcerned. what's in the boxes? Um...stuff? I actually don't know. Really. Did you see your world turned upside down? Quite literally. Literally? Nah. Although Zero-G combat gets dizzying. But that's another issue. * Black-clad-figure shudders. "Leave the tower out of this, please, Kaede." No. I'm talking about... Tower? Oh, sorry. Wrong universe. I get confused, sometimes. * Kaede blinks and stares at the figure. "How...do YOU know about the Tower?" Huh. More tarot stuff. I get the feeling he knows a lot. Symbol of catastrophic change. Kind of part and parcel of me, kind of not. *shrugs* Zero-G? Never had a problem with it. Yeah? Your name isn't Winston is it? Well, I've been in the Microcorp tower before.. * Chie eyes the black-clad figure. "So who *are* you, exactly?" No, no, I don't really have a name. Just a description. You probably will laugh, too. *mock-pouts* * Katherine mutters, "Good for you." And what do you want outta us besides this so-called savin' the universe thing? * Rei is quiet, yes. But that's because she's looking around at everything. Much more interested in the environment than the guy who's talking. * Kaede folds his arms across his chest. "Anyways, it's the Tower Reversed." * Thalan unsheathes his claws and idly cleans them. "And we care why?" * Kaede rubs his head and mutters. "Temperance is going to have fun with THIS..." *cough* Well, my brothers are manipulating events to send this particular universe into oblivion. I figured that you guys could throw the plans off. Well, with my backing, but that's just to overcome Destiny. She's taking a direct hand in it. Destiny? Uh. I thought Destiny was male. And had a book. Temperance! But oblivion's definitely not good. So...destruction...no no...wait...don't tell me. * Kaede groans and holds his hand over his head. "Let me guess..you're...Chaos?" * Black-clad-figure looks at Chie oddly. "No, that's Fate. ...unless he's made ANOTHER Destiny. That would stink." ... * Katherine snorts. "Don't care what Destiny is, besides a bitch." * Black-clad-figure is now known as Chaos * Rei snaps out of it and skips ahead to Kaede, peering at him. "You think you're a tarot card?" * Maria is lost on the conversation, so she just keeps looking through boxes. And taking the occasional interesting-looking doohickey. Hey! How's you guess, Kaede? Maria had the drivers license. Chaos, huh? Well, I've always liked spreadin' a little chaos around... * Kaede looks at Rei and blinks. "No...I'm..well, guess you could say an avatar?" * Katherine 's ears twitch. That's how one person said it..I told you it's a long story. It's okay. We're gonna have aaaaaall the time in the world. I'm just used to stealing things from companies. Not saving the damn universe. * Rei grins madly. "All the time *ever*." Okay. Do you have a deck on you? * Thalan perches himself on one of the higher boxes, then vanishes when nobody's looking. No, but I've done some research on... hey, Chie, Maria! Either of you pick up a tarot deck? * Chaos shakes his head. "Cards are my brother's favored trick." * Katherine taps her foot. * Chie reaches into her bag and tosses one to Rei. "Yeah, just for tonight. Catch!" Sure did! * Kaede turns away from Rei and puts two fingers to his brow, letting out a deep breath. "Shuffle them." * Rei catches, fumbles, and drops. But she does a great job scooping it off the floor. "Sure. Kinda hard to do when you're standing up, though." She kneels on the floor, her tail flicking behind her, pulls out the cards, and shuffles. Got it from a fortune-teller. It's okay, tho, 'cause she had a crystal ball to fall back on. * Chie keeps one eye on Rei and Kaede, and the other on Chaos. I guess that'll tide her over until she gets a new one, yeah. You could've asked, though. * Claire watches them play cards? ...you got those off a fortune teller, without her knowing? *grins...mischeivously* Alright..spread them out so I can pick one. * Katherine smirks. "She should meet up with Anders, then." She cracks her knuckles. * Rei stands up, cards in hand, and fans them out, face down. Maybe? Hey, I'll give 'em back eventually. * Maria eyes Chaos. "Why're you grinning." * Kaede reaches behind him, not even looking at the cards and slips one out. He turns it around to show Rei without looking. "Two of Pentacles, right?" Because he's a bastard, obviously. Well...if you could steal the Stylus, it would really screw of my brother's, nay, both my brothers' plans. * Thalan speaks from behind Maria. "Because he enjoys chaos and rules breaking." That too. Stealin' things? Maria's your gal, then. Ooh. Stealing things. Hey! I make more rules than I break! ...of course, no one else follows them... That's what you said, not me. Now me, I figure I'd be the Fool or something. At least, I bet a lot of people would call me the Fool. Can we break computer systems too? * Rei perks. " * Maria sticks her tongue out at Thalan. "I didn't ask you." Computer systems! Look at the card. Oh, getting distracted- card! ...the Book would probably be a computer in this world... * Rei takes the card and flips it over. Two of diamonds? *he's wrong* [The card would, indeed, be the Two of Pentacles.] * Chie looks at the card. "Nice trick." * Kaede sighs and adjusts his glasses. "It's...not exactly a trick." I'm no good with cards. Hey! I'm supposed to say that. No GM intervention! * Katherine stalks over to Chaos, and looks him dead in the eye, and slowly brings her claws up to press on his chest. "Start. Explaining." I'm no good with cards. *nods firmly* What's a gee-em? Is it tasty? Probably with a generous helping of cucumber sauce. * Claire is confused. * Claire sits down and plays with Excalibur. That wall over there's lookin' mighty unstable. Now...you said computers, right? * Thalan shows up behind Chaos with a plasma rifle to the back of his head. "I agree with her. Start spewing what you know." * Chie points at the fourth one. (Thalan? You're an ass, but you're my kind of ass.) * Rei beams and waves at the fourth wall. "Hi, Mom!" * Kaede sighs a little and looks at Chaos's predicament. "I think...they're anxious." * Maria eyes the plamsa rifle and picks at it. "Is this some kinda' gun? Lame." (Thank you.) No kiddin'. And I might just go join them if we don't get some answers soon. Yeah, probably. Tell us all about it after this, okay? I really wanna hear. I do wish you wouldn't be on opposite sides of me. If you shoot, you'll hit each other. *sighs* Right, so, if you wouldn't mind, steal a laptop shaped like a big book and a rather funny looking fountain pen? ...everyone has weapons. Yep! * Chie pulls out a Chinese sword and looks at Kaede. "Hmm?" * Claire waves excalibur around. I'll live. I don't! I got my fists. Better'n weapons. I'm unarmed. <_< >_> * Kaede takes a deep breath. "I shouldn't be surprised...this day just gets from bad to worse.." I'm sure. * Kaede rubs the bridge of his nose and leans back against something for support. Preferably a wall. Preferably not the fourth one. * Katherine grins faintly. "So that's it? You kidnap a ton of people to steal a pair of artifacts? I'll give you Anders' number, and you two can swap tacics." * Maria walks up one of the walls and has a seat. She then waits for Chaos to start explaining, which he'll get to eventually. Maybe. I think the question the lady's getting at is...why should we help you and why should we care? Hey! I didn't kidnap! You could have stayed behind. Fate would have put you back where you belonged before too much longer. how much longer? Er...a couple hours, tops. He's anal about that sort of thing. What's in it for me? It would've? Damn. Possibly the first chance *ever* that we would've actually gotten out of something. I never get out of anything... * Chaos laughs. "Now that's precious. I'll have to remember to call Fate an 'it' next time we talk." * Chie smirks. "You do that. Now, keep goin'. What else do we have to do besides steal stuff?" So, what's in it for you? ...I'm afraid I'm not omniceint. What do you want? We could've gotten out of this? Awwwww. Money's good. I want to be left alone. That's already not possible. So you're losing ground as we speak. I gotta make a living somehow, and my current job pays squat. I hate having an actual job. Ew ew ew. ... * Chaos eyes Kaede. "Indeed...leaving you alone is beyond what I can do. You are too much Fate's instrument. I can help you avoid being Entropy's as well, however..." Hey, we get slightly more than squat. * Kaede looks at Maria. "...what's wrong with a job?" We get slightly more than slightly more than squat. Money, a new ship, and something you can't give. * Chie raises an eybrow at Chaos. "Can you give us *anything* we want?" * Kaede shrugs. "I'm already a pawn in so many other people's games. Why should one more matter?" It's got hours. I gotta do stuff. I can't turn down assignments. And I can't negotiate prices. And worst off, I can't rob my employers blind if I don't like them. * Rei puts her arm around Kaede's shoulders. "It's okay. You're not a pawn in my game!" Um... So that's one less than you could have been. If I had a game. Besides Raze and Connect Four, I mean. * Katherine snorts. "I wouldn't take any gifts from Chaos anyway." * Kaede looks Rei over and pushes up his glasses. "You're...sure Meimi's not involved in this?" Though neither of those employ pawns in the first place. A new ship's easy. Money...not so much, since you've all got your own stories...but I can let you keep the stylus once you've got it. And the Book, too. I don't want it, personally. ...Chie: Well, I can come close. And I have no idea who the hell Meimi is. Is she another one of those card people? A way to turn a demon back into a human. That's what I want. Who said anything about gifts? ... And now I'm talking about you like a concept too. Is there any alcohol in this danm place? * Rei looks up. "Wait. Are we getting something for doing this?" I'm just confused Chie: Um...which demon? * Kaede nods. "The Moon. She's..." He starts to say "insane" but given he's talking to Rei, thinks better of it. "..annoying." Oh. That's okay. I meet lots of annoying people. It's a long story, and he's not *exactly* a demon, yet. ( She used to be so nice, too. ) I just meet people who shoot at us. Yes. But do they put you in their own little dream world to satisfy their sick little boredom? * Chaos points to a large box labled "Erclosis". "I think that is the name of an alcoholic beverage." * Katherine decides to let Thalan do the threatening, and busts it open. "That's something I can get into." (So were you. Then you turned Ebil. :P) (Very evil. You stabbed me, you bastard! Well, Satoshi-me, but still.) ( Er, I didn't mean to? The GM made me do it. ) * Katherine pulls out, uh, whatever the Erclosis are, and sniffs them. Well, I can show you a world where he isn't one...and, with the Stylus, you can rewrite things. I promise not to interfere; with that, Entropy can't stop you. *They're bottles. With old-fashioned corks. We can rewrite things? I'll think about it, then. * Chie looks at Kat. "Toss me a bottle?" Well, I am asking you to steal the Book and Stylus of Fate. Rewrite things? Change history? That sort of thing? * Katherine grins, stashes her guns, and tosses one wobbly over at Chie. "Catch." * Thalan eyes Chaos. "Can you change history?" Yup. Well, history's harder. The future, the present...easilly. * Maria blinks at 'Change history'. "I'm in." If you can do what I want, I'm in too. If history's doable at al, I'm in. * Katherine smirks. I can't change my history at all. * Chie catches and pulls a pocketknife with corkscrew out of her bag. She opens the bottle and takes a sip. * Kaede tilts his head to the side. "I've no reason to really believe you...but...it's a ship?" S'not the past I wanna change. Just the future. Hmmm. History...would take my active help. And even then, it would take more than just rewriting it. It would open a whole new chapter of the Book, in fact, with you and your pawns as the heros...or villains. *grins again* Which would - royally- piss off my brothers. >:) * Katherine , assuming it smells survivable, takes a sip too. "Which is why I don't give a damn." * Rei opens her mouth, then closes it. She just sits on the ground now, thoughtfully. * This Erclosis is strong. But has a pleasent aftertaste, and seems to have about twice the kick you'd expect from Klingon or Dwarven beverages. * Claire seems confused and emotionally torn over the whole thing. She's not used to saving the world, she is essentially a corporate thief who gets shot at a whole lot, really. * Thalan takes the rifle and slings it across his back again. "Throw me one of those." * Kaede shakes his head and closes his eyes. "But...messing with things like that...things are already tangled enough as is..." * Katherine gasps. "Christ. Well, it's not Sleythin, but it's got it." There's a little problem with rewriting history. I don't think we should do it. * Rei nods up at Keade. "Hey, you're pretty smart for a piece of paper." * Kaede raises an eyebrow at Rei. "Excuse me...?" * Katherine grabs one and tosses it Thalan's way. Hopefully, it hits Chaos in the head. * Chie takes another sip, having seemingly survived her first one without too many ill effects. "But I don't wanna rewrite history, Rei. I just wanna make sure we've got a future." * Maria gives Rei a seriously pained look. "But why not?" * It actually should have...but it missed, for no good reason. (Damn! Foiled again.) I...wish I could change it. But...I have to work through this myself. I...need to talk with Temperance. * Thalan catches it easily and pops off the cork with one of his claws. He takes a quick sip, then puts it down. * Katherine takes another drink. "You change the future by taking hold and not backing down." She stands. "Not writing in some dumb book." So, um... do you want to know how this one's dying, or do you just want to get started? Or are you going to just insist I send you home? * Kaede rubs his forehead. "I'm not even sure what I'd change it to..." Dying? What's dying? * Chaos eyes Katherine. "Very true..." This one what? Explain, then Chie, this universe will die, very soon. I cannot stop it; my brothers are working together to end this story. I need someone to be involved. I just randomly selected you guys. But, it seems chance, as it must be, is on my side. Wait, I thought we were supposed to be *saving* the universe? You can do more than play inside the story...you can help me once again grasp the storytelling mechanism. * Katherine smirks. "Can't save it if it isn't gonna get fucked." Yes, saving it from its end. Saving it from 'getting fucked', as you so eloquently put it. Oh. You can't stop it, but we supposedly can. Gotcha. Riight, who's the avatar of Chaos now? * Chie takes one last sip of alcohol, then sets the bottle down. Don't want to get *too* drunk before a mission. Well, not without my help. But my help will just be sitting here and altering chance. I can't rewrite the story - the paths are chosen. You need to be here, acting, to create new ones. * Thalan shrugs and glances Chie a look. "We can all do more than we seem. And you should know that." Avatar? I don't have any avatars... What if I gave you a gun? Then could you not sit here like a lump? * Kaede closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose again. "Random choice is never a good strategy...that's what Haruko uses..." You forget what I am, Kaede. Everything I do is random, by my very nature. * Claire sighs (Haruko would be too distracted by this spaceship to do much. And she'd be with Rei. Now *that's* scary.) Right. That's why I'm saying you're doomed from the start... * Kaede pushes up his glasses and sighs into a defeated expression. "But..I'm used to that position. Go on." * Chie smirks at Kaede. "You're so positive." But...shouldn't the randomness eventually work in our favor? I'm realistic. That's how these things work isn't it? Not really. No. Each element of randomness is completely seperate from each other. If you think you're gonna get your ass kicked, then you'll get your ass kicked. That's the way it works. Randomness will always work in your favor, so long as I want it to. Well, you're the experts in saving the world. So, in the end, there's always a chance everything'll just suck. Nothing works in my favor. That's why I kick ass. * Katherine tosses her partially-drunk bottle at Chaos again. Right...I'm proof of that. * Chaos doesn't dodge, but it misses cleanly nevertheless. * Chie eyes Kaede. "Then kick back." I've tried. It kicks back harder. Just when I think things are going well....no, nevermind. It's not important. So. Um. You guys are the experts in covert stuff and stealing. What do you need? I can bring my brothers, either or both, anywhere you like. * Kaede eyes Chaos. "I'm not an expert in EITHER really. That's what randomness gets you." I need a room where nobody will find me and a promise that there's nothing around that will kill, maim, or otherwise dismember ghosts and spirits. * Chie shakes her head at Kaede, then looks at Chaos. "I'm no expert." And I need BOX. * Rei thinks. ...or am I jumping the gun again? Are you in or out? Though...if it's electronic, I may be able to help. I just stab things. And deal with spirits. I just need things that can be shot. Can they be shot? Well, Chie can carry BOX. She's good at taking care of it! What's BOX? I can. And I am. * Rei waves her computer and grins. "BOX!" That. * Kaede blinks and looks at the computer, peering it over. "...this? You build it?" * Katherine snickers. "Or can you bring me my Claws?" The C is definitely proper. * Chaos grins, and holds up a disk. "This is my facsimile of the Book." He tosses it to Rei. What do you need me to do? I'll go in, get whatever, and get out without anyone know. I'm...good with electronic. (knowing.) Kat: Claws? What are those? and computers. Well, Fangs, really. My exo. Chaos Gate. *one of those circular portals opens again, and Chaos reaches in and pulls out the exo in question. Somehow, it fits perfectly no matter the respective sizes of it comapred to people or the room* * Rei catches it and fumbles a ittle, but manages to keep her grip this time. * Thalan grins, exposing his very sharp fangs that could probably be registered as lethal weapons. * Rei eyes it. "You're sure it's not bugged?" * Katherine brushes a clawed finger over it. It's a suit about as big as her, in greys, blacks, and whites, made of metal. Ooo! Well, it's not perfect by a long shot. I have to edit it manually. But it might help...I dunno. * Maria looks the exo over. If you don't want to risk it, I could try it on mine. I'm sure I can scan it out. I could also try. Anyway, if you open the file called "Picture00.pic", you'll find a picture of the Stylus, as it appears in this universe. Do you want anything more of me? I hate manual loading. But you'd have to get me my laptop. Chaos Gate. *portal opens, Chaos pulls out Claire's laptop* * Katherine starts cracking the suit open, and getting in. It involves a lot of squirming. I could try and excorcise anything bad out of it if so. * Rei pops it into her computer and runs a virus scan on it. * Claire takes the laptop. Exorcise? Yeah. It's sort of complicated. Like spirits and stuff? * Kaede sets down his kaban and opens it up, pulling out his laptop, then blinking at that. "..looks like I'm not really necessary then.." Well, in this case, viruses and bugs. But yeah. * Rei's computer starts scanning. And scanning. That status bar isn't filling. But, it hasn't found any virii yet... Oh. Damn. And here I was about to feel useful. Er...I think the spirits are kept in the engines of this ship, actually. * Kaede sighs and just kneels next to Rei, looking at her hard drive. I don't generally use them on ghosts. not a whole lot of them around where I'm from. * Katherine eventually gets in her suit, and stands. The suit echoes, "Well, now I'm faster than hell." The conference of alliance between the Shadogas and the One is almost done. *looks worried* * Kaede points to the computer and looks at her. "You mind?" (her=Rei) * Chie looks at Claire. "Lucky. I gotta deal with them all the time. They're not all bad, though." * Claire looks at Rei's work on the computer. * The computer's still scanning...and the estimated space on the disk has exceeded 400 gigs so far... * Chie eyes Chaos. "Spirit engines? And the who and the what?" It'll be faster, trust me. ...an excorcism might be faster. Well, the Shadogas built this recently. With a new power source driven on the spirits of their dead. * Thalan taps his foot impatiently. That's totally sick. * Chie blinks. "That's... that's... ewww." ...Ew. I'm surprised I'm not pickin' anythin' up off of that. They're among the most alien creatures to humans, yes. I guess I only see dead people. Good shielding. Some of it mine. My brothers are both on board. Serving as the negotiators. * Rei rubs at her chin as she looks. "Good thing I'm not transferring to the hard drive. This is mildly crazy." Only mildly crazy? * Katherine flexes her suit-covered hands. "Well, I'm ready for anything. Only mildly? That thing is huge. This must be....really, really, really high quality. * Chie looks over at Kaede and grins. "Outta my head." or the Stylus itself. Yeah, there's more messed up things. Like people dying from playing video games. * Kaede looks up at Chie and deadpans. "No. That's Satoshi's job." High quality...sure. You'll find it totals over 9,000 Teras. (Extra point since it's directed at the same player ^_^_v) Hey, that involved a spirit in a computer system, Rei. Actually, I always thought that was my dad's job. What's a Tera? * Chie looks at Kaede. "Who's Satoshi?" You would be surprised how often that happens. Er, Terabyte. ...long story. Not very uncommon where I'm from. Tera..bytes? Uh. That's...reallyreallybig. * Kaede looks a bit starry-eyed for a second. Yeah. It's only a shell. I can't get the whole thing on there. And it's not totally accurate, either. ^^; * Thalan shrugs. how big is this Stylus anyway? * Kaede shakes his head and looks at Rei again. "Can I have a look now?" * Katherine walks over towards Maria. "Well, you're the thief. Any input?" The Stylus is about 8" long, 3 of that the magnifying glass on the end. Always looks like a fountain pen. * Chie folds her arms in front of her and leans against the wall, watching the computer people do their thing. * Maria shrugs. "Anything can be stolen. Most things easily." Yes. Depends on who's shooting what at you. and who your backup are. If this is important as all that, it might be tricky, but that's okay. I'm tricky, too. And so's he. *nods at Thalan* * Rei scratches at the back of her head, somehow messing her hair up more, and moves the computer so Kaede can see, too. Hm... anyone up to disrupt a conference between a couple of irracible species? The conference room upstairs is where it's being held...it would delay things a bit, at least. * Claire tries to get a better look at the file. * Kaede looks at the screen, then looks at the computer and takes a deep breath, closing his eyes and putting his palm on BOX. Disrupt? Rei can do that. * Thalan nods back. "If you've been too dense to pick up on it already, I'm very good at staying hidden." * Katherine snorts, which is audible even over the speakers. Disruption? I could probably cook somethin' up, if you wanna go the physical route. I can as well. * The pic of the Stylus shows an ornate, antique looking fountain pen with gold filiagrees along its length; there is, indeed, a magnifying glass in the non-pen end. Depends on how well they sense illusions. Oh, quite well, I assure you. Though the two humans, my brothers, will see right through them. Hm. * Kaede concentrates and squints his eyes a bit. There's a steady flowing glowing white light from his hand now, coursing over his veins. Quicker this way too. * Rei blinks. "Hey. Hey! What're you doing!" Quiet. I'm trying to concentrate. * Katherine smirks. "Lay off him, kid." If you hurt BOX, I'll fucking... well, I wouldn't kill you... no... I'll make your life really really miserable! Don't think I won't! I mean, even more miserable than it is now! At least, if it's as miserable as you say it is. * Wow, that's a lot of info, Kaede. ...stuff about the beginning of the universe, about the formation of mankind, all sorts of secrets. Too many, in fact. As more rush in, you forget some of what you've picked up, overload/overwrite. * Rei watches BOX with concern. Kaede with less concern. I'm just reading it to see if there's anything you missed..now.. * Kaede 's eyebrow twitches slightly. "You're right..this IS messed up." * Maria blinks and pouts. "I'm lost." * Chie eyes Kaede. "What the hell are you?" * Chaos seems to have left, by the way. Hey, where'd chaos go? Just another 24. Or something. Prolly got bored. * Thalan shrugs. "Cyberware." * Kaede picks up the important stuff, speaking offhand to Chie. "I'm just an ordinary japanese high school student. Isn't it obvious?" He left. Dammit. Can't say I'm surprised. * Chie snickers. "Touche." * Kaede takes away his hand and rubs his head. "I've...got to get used to that..." BOX all right, Rei? * Important stuff: The way the story line for this universe goes, the conference happening a few hundred meters above your head precipitates a rip into an otherverse, which causes both to destroy each other. War and more basic annahilations combine with the arrogance and pride of various beings to drive both into Oblivion. * BOX is fine...just still trying to count the byte-size of the disk it's got in it. Up over a terabyte, now. * Rei looks BOX over. "Yeah, seems to be okay, I'll run a quick... wow, lots of stuff. Well, if there's that many terabytes." I..have a headache.. * Chaos walks in through the door, looking around. His expression is one of concern verging on annoyance. He surveys those present, not speaking. So, what'd you do to it, card person? Kaede, right? Need some medicine? I think I have some Advil somewhere around here. Want some Advil? Or Chie has some! She gets headaches, too, because she hangs out with Chomei a lot. * Chie laughs. "He doesn't give me headaches, Rei." No..I'm fine. Seems to be about some conference up there. Ripped apart a universe or two...it's hard to make heads or tails of it. Ripped apart a universe? ...how do you know that? *brows lower darkly* I take it that's what we're here to stop, then. That's bad, right? I read the disc. * Katherine is standing dead still. Stop? Disc? Clarify yourselves, please. He stuck his hand on the box and he read the disc. and it was shiny. So...wait... Duh. * Kaede eyes Chaos and narrows his eyes. "So..can you tell us how we got here?" Let me see that, please. Guys. * Chie draws her sword and whispers a few words. It starts glowing with a silver light. She points it at Chaos. "Who are you, really?" So there's a conference? Directly above us? How many floors? and they're ripping the niverse apart? You shouldn't know about that. You shouldn't even be here. * Kaede draws his wrench out and spreads his stance to ready, holding it like a sword. "Just as I thought." * Chaos seems...angry...now. But it's a quiet sort of anger. * Rei blinks. Not the same guy. Not at all. * Thalan raises an eyebrow. "Nope." Hmmm. How odd. ...You've met one of my brothers, then. I have one guess as to which. Chaos? * Claire pulls out Excalibur. ...eh? I'm not seeing why we should tell you anything. * Rei gets to her feet, slowly, picking up BOX as she does so. And I would also guess that he's how you got here. * Maria makes herself hard to notice and positions herself behind the new guy. You feel so very... wrong. * NotChaos turns his gaze on Chie, eyes like pools of ... well, not like anything, really. * Thalan snarls. I know who he must be. * Kaede whispers out of the side of his mouth to Rei. "I'll tell you later..seems there's more important things to deal with right now." Entropy. How's he feel wrong? How? Because it's gonna suck to be him in a little bit. * NotChaos is now known as Entropy Very good. You have me at a disadvantage, name-wise. As horribly cliched as this is gonna sound, Rei... like death. * Katherine snaps into movement, as the entire back half of her exo's body lights on fire and she breaks across the room straight at NotChaos at high speed, claws extended. "I'll start. Name's Kat. Screw off." (Suicidal? Yes. Yes she is.) * Kaede lets out a slow breath. "For some reason, I rather WOULD deal with Morikawa-san right now..." * Claire keeps her gun trained on Entropy. * Chie still has her sword out, and it's still glowing. * Thalan jumps out of the way onto a high pile of boxes and gets Entropy in the sights of his plasma rifle. Yeah, that was awfully cliche. * Chie fixes her gaze at a point slightly behind Chaos and gives a tiny nod. * Entropy stands there. When her claws sink into him, they only go so far as her hand, which touches the cloth of his black t-shirt. When she pulls back, the part of her mech that entered the space where Entropy's body is is...gone. Sorry. It happens sometimes. * Maria kicks for the back of Entropy's head. * Rei jumps up into the air, taking flight and zipping backwards. (What about the physical claws she has? They don't even sink in?) * Kaede blinks at Rei. "That's new. You're not Arcana too, are you?" * Rei blinks at Kaede, then beams. "I dunno what an Arcana is, so maybe!" * Kat's physical claws seem...cut off, as well. ...we'll get you to draw a card then...sorry, Fool's already taken. Damnit, I wanted that one! * Kaede blinks. "Fool Reversed?" I'm guessing we can't reeeaally hurt him. ...was that really necessary? * Katherine burns backwards with the same speed, and says, "What the fuck? " Oh, can't we? Of course it was. * Kaede sighs slightly. "Wonderful...just what I need." Well. the ones without magical glowy swords. * Maria blinks, then kicks Entropy a few more times. "Is this hurting you at all? Because if it isn't, I'll stop." * Rei frowns and tosses nothing at him, underhanded. "Let me try!" * Katherine rubs the cut off one of her hands. "Damn. That stuff doesn't grow back easy." * Maria fumes. "Great, something else I can't hurt. Just ducky." (I know the feeling, Maria!) * Chie waits to see if Entropy reacts to Rei before trying anything. * Maria makes herself hard to notice again and heads over to Thalan. She whispers something in his ear, not that anyone else is likely to notice. <_< It's annoying. But not causing real damage, or you'd lose your foot. Can we get back to the point? Who are you, and what did Chaos want you to do? 2d6-1 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6-1) and gets 4. He just said hello. and stuff. * Thalan makes himself hard to notice, if he wasn't already, and is hard to notice. * Katherine is once again standing there in suit, not moving much. Suits make people very non-expressive. * Rei lets out a little scream of surprise and tumbles to the ground. * Maria makes her way out of the cargo hold, not that anyone's likely to notice. o/` Rei! Huh? * Chie runs over to her. Her sword stops glowing in the process. You okay Rei? * Kaede blinks and looks down at her. "What happened? Ow. SHIT. I hope BOX wasn't hurt. Ow. * Chie deathglares at Entropy. "What did you just do?" ...Where is this disc? Was it Chaos's copy of the Book? Give it to me, please. * Rei scrambles up into a sitting position, reaching for her computer. "It's like there's nothing there." I think it's kind of gone. Nothing, huh? Well, it can't hurt to try. I did nothing. She tried to attack me. She's lucky chance was on her side, or she'd be in a coma. ...chance...Chaos is still here! *looks around suspiciously* This is getting really stupid. I mean, more stupid than it was before. I wish Dad were here. He'd tell who's lying and whatever or something. * Kaede groans and grabs Rei by the hand after she grabs BOX and runs out of the cargo hold, dragging her (probably the only person he can try to drag). "This is worse than Chariot...come on.." * Rei is dragged. "Aieeeee!" ... I'm going to find some way to knock both of you out and knock your heads together until you come clean. That would probably just...eat eachother's heads. or something. Even fucking better. Works for me. ...he didn't even tell you what he wanted? So typical. Here's what I want. I want you gone. Go home. And give me the disc. * Katherine reaches for a nearby box, and hefts it, before tossing it idly at Entropy. * Claire uses her TK to lift and box and tosses it at Entropy's head * Entropy doesn't dodge, and the box looks like it decapitated him...until you see that a head-shaped hole was put in it, as it passed effortlessly through the space he occupies. * Chie raises her sword and whispers. It starts glowing again. She swings it in Entropy's direction, and the silver light shoots from it at him. "Spirit Stream!" * Claire gets bored, picks up her laptop and heads out of the bay in a vaguely sneaky manner, following Rei's cries. * Entropy sighs as the energy of the attack simply stops when it hits him. "Enough. ...where have you--" * Entropy is interrupted by the arrival of someone who looks just like him, stepping out of one of those circular portals. He glares at his brother. "...Chie, right? What did this charlatan ask you to do?" ... Just shut up. * Entropy asked that, Chaos hasn't said anything. Both of you need to shut up before I start tearing out walls until you meet vacuum. Oh, you know. Things, and stuff, and maybe some things. If you're suicidal, go ahead. What's your name, anyway? I hate this impersonal business when I'm dealing with people. I already told you my name while you were busy removing pieces of my hand. * Katherine sighs melodramatically. "Can't even pay attention when I try to kill you." ...*tries to remember...* Katrina? Katherine? Katherine will do. * Katherine thumbs towards Chie with the damaged hand. "And that's Chie." Yeah. Hi! * Chie waves. We like drinking. You? I do not mind it. *eyes Chie, Katherine, and Chaos, suspiciously* * Katherine would be smiling, but the facemask blocks it. Awesome. There's some good stuff here, you know? Definitely. ...I'm leaving. *walks towards the door* Chaos Gate. *a portal opens in front of the door, leading to the back of the room, where another portal is open - obviously the companion opening* ... * Entropy stops, rather than making a fool of himself and walking around in portal-made circles. * Chie manages to keep herself from grinning *too* hard. * Katherine is also grinning, but facemask, you know. She picks up another box. "You seem trapped. How sad." Very. * Entropy ... shatters. Like an FF7 battle transition, but only him. And there is nothing left when the polygons are gone. Chaos frowns at this. * Katherine chuckles. "I can't tell whether I just want to sit and drink, or try to think of a way to screw with this parade." Okay, what was that? Beats me. Boys and their toys, whether they're gods or concepts or whatever. Heh. Fair enough. And once this is over, I intend to drink. Quite a lot, even. So, Chaos, what's going on? * Katherine chuckles in agreement. * Entropy is now known as Chaos He left. Destroyed the entire multiverse to do it, and used the time it took Fate and I to restore it to change his location.' ... you people are out of your fucking minds. So where is he now? I'm steadily thinking I need a bit more than a drink to get over this. Excuse me a moment. Chaos Gate. *portal opens, Chaos bends over on hands and knees* Hey, guys? Push him, will ya? ... What? Push what? * Entropy falls backwards after a gun-blast is heard through the gate. He trips on Chaos, and lands on his back. The portal closes. * Katherine smirks, and tosses the box on him! She's got a million of them! Well. Hello again. Fancy meeting you here. Good to crush you. Hey, Entropy...let's let them play this out. *grins maliciously* *Kat's box lands on top of Entropy, and pins him* ... Fuck, it worked! THAT calls for a drink. Awright! * The box does the same shattering trick Entropy did earlier...but is still there when the polygons are gone. * Chaos smirks at his brother. * Katherine hrms, and picks up more boxes. "I wonder if he can be crushed." I wonder if he likes spirit wards. Wanna try? Have fun. ^_^ * Katherine grins nastily behind her helmet. "Works for me." * Chie pulls out a silver medallion with some kanji carved on it. She idly twirls it on the fingers of her left hand. "So. You could've just stayed behind and had a drink with us. But, no, you had to try the hard way, didn't you?" * Katherine puts another box on Entropy. "It's a crying shame." Isn't it just? * Chie tosses the ward at Entropy, yelling the activation word as she does so. It glows white and sticks to the middle of his forehead. Possibly it hurts. If nothing else, it makes Chie feel better. Spare me your prattle. You cannot hurt me, regardless of what Chaos does to make me unable to act. *the ward sticks, but doesn't seem to distress him other than shining in his eyes annoyingly* * Katherine leans on one of the boxes. "So, why did you know my name anyway?" But it makes us feel better. * Claire re-enters the Bay. Oh. You got him. * Chie waves. "Hey! Welcome back! Need to vent some frustrations?" ..Sure! We've got a primal concept trapped under a box. * Claire looks at the spirit ward. Nice. It's like a dream come true. Thanks. Can I excorcise him? * A portal opens, letting anyone who wants to come back into the bay. ( Score one for the mortals. ) Um... Fate's going to notice really soon. I think I'd better get you guys home. Fast. Or at least away from here. I can't stand up to both of them. Knock yourself out. * Claire pulls out a piece of chalk and begins drawing a cirlce and symbols around Entropy's body. Hm...squiggle heeere...another line over there... Oh, you're like Asanjya! Cool. * Katherine stops leaning on the box. "Better hurry, kid." * Claire mumbles something and the circle gets shiny. * Chaos eyes the group nervously. Especially when a shining door, like a dimension door spell, opens. Fortunately, a well-placed Chaos Gate blocks it off. Uh... well, if you're going to move us, go for it. Yeah. And make sure you get everyone else. I mean, just make sure it's got atmosphere. Your friend fucked my suit up. Chaos Gate! *portal opens, leading back to the damaged school room* * Claire hops through, sighing at te lack-of-Entropy-excorcism. * Chie waits for Rei and Maria. * Katherine waits by Chie. Nobody gets left behind when Kat's involved. * Maria comes through the portal, dragging a Rei behind her. * Fate appears with a bang, but seems disoriented, oddly. He is, in fact, fluctuating in and out of existance. * Rei appears on the other side and wobbles. "Okay, *okay*, you can stop dragging- hey, it's my new friend again!" Heya, kid. Heya, new friend. * Chie grins at Rei and Maria, then points at the portal. "There's our ticket home, guys! Let's go!" * Maria blinks at the fluctuating fellow. She'd make a joke about fate uncertain, but she's not well-read enough. Go, quickly...he's going to manage to beat the odds soon! * Maria heads through the portal! * Rei looks to Katherine. "He doesn't think my pen's good enough. Can you believe it?" She gives it to Katherine. "Here you go, I bet you could use a good pen." * Kaede sighs and shakes his head, stepping through. * Chie snags the bottle of alcohol she was drinking from earlier. "I'll bet she could. And we should be leaving, Rei." * Chaos follows the last of them, letting the portal close. He looks relieved. If it'll work as a stylus, it'll be just fine. * Well, it LOOKED like the school room. But it now appears to be under water...and more damaged that they remembered. However, no one has any trouble breathing or moving. In fact, it feels just like air to them, despite anything not them acting like it's underwater. * Katherine goes. Uh. Where are we now? ... (Ohhhh, shit.) ... This is wrong. * Rei jumps in, looks around, and blinks. "Uh... oh." Oops...missed. Sorry. * Chie starts SCREAMING. * Claire checks her neck. "I don't FEEL like I have gills." ...I dunno if I'm wet or not. I had a bad feeling this would hap- Chie! What would happen? What-- Chie! * Rei floats/swims/runs/whatever over to Chie and hugs her. "It's okay! It's okay! It's not real water. See? You can breathe." Chie? What's wrong with her? *looks confused* * Kaede looks over at Chie and rubs the bridge of his nose, wrinkling it. "Um.." * Chie sobs and covers her head. * Thalan lands and looks around frantically. "This is far from natural." ( And it's 'runs'. Just like air, it seems. ) I think she has a wee fear of drowning * Katherine winces. "Aquaphobic, or whatever it's called, Chaos. Go somewhere the fuck else." Aww, shit. Come on, Chie. It's okay. Just more paranormal crap. We deal with it all the time. Just breathe. Come on. If you're crying, you're breathing. Nonononoitsgonnagetme! She won't drown, the Gate protects those who go through it. But... Chaos Gate. *portal again. Leading to a nice, open, sunny, DRY desert* * Katherine would kick Chaos, but he's resistant. Stupid primal concepts. ...don't tell me... * Rei flops on the ground. "Hey, the world's giant sandbox." Your portals only open randomly... * Chie falls to the sand and gasps a few times. * Claire hops through the portal. again. * Maria blinks, and suddenly becomes aware that she's underwater. She leaps through the portal right quick, and sits shaking afterwards. Are you okay Chie? * Katherine mutters. "Water, then sand? Are you TRYING to destroy my exo?" Is it... gone? Yeah, it's gone. I'm so sorry..I was rushed. Um...yes, it's gone. Seems so. * Chie looks up. "Good." Her eyes are still wet. ( Don't tell me you didn't rustproof your exo. ) * Thalan pops out onto the desert and frowns. But...now you weren't...and it's not here. No water for miles from here. Light-years, in fact. However... Chaos Gate. *portal opens, leading to the school room. This time it looks right. And dry. Again? So did we save the universe or what? * Claire heads into the new portal. ( Vernon rustproofed my exo. But there's a big hole in the hand.) Indeed you did. * Kaede sighs and walks through the new portal now. * Rei steps in and, amazingly, ends up on the other side. "Yay, go us." * Katherine follows. "Fucking hooray. Does that mean Anders will shut up?" * Chie lets out a breath. "Woo." * Chie goes through the portal after Rei. * It's the right place this time. As far as you can tell. * Thalan steps in again too. "Now, for your part of the bargin. * Maria reaches hesitantly through, and then satisfied with the non-wetness of the area, walks through. Back to where only known abnormal forces are seeking my destruction... ..Can I go back to corporate espionage now? Right. Um... I'll gate you to whatever kind of ship you want, Thalan. And yes, you can, Claire. Somehow, I thought that deserved a yay before I said it. Now I'm not so sure. Woo. Nice, normal dodging bullets with a giant robot. You all can go back to doing stuff, I can get drunk and try to fix my nails. It's better to know what's trying to kill you than not. I guess. * Katherine hrms, and walks over to Chaos, and tries to punch him. "Fix my nails!" ...yeah. That must have..hurt. I thought I was the one who was supposed to get beaten bloody. I'll take you all home. Or wherever you want to go, to whatever possiblity you want. *Katherine, not suprisingly, misses. But her nails are back - it seems a bunch of molecules suddenly randomly aligned just right to be exactly what nails should be* ...that was easier than usual. >:) Have fun with the Book and Stylus, kids. * Katherine flexes her exposed nails. "Eh, could be a lot worse, Kaede. You don't seem to have any idea how much damaye you can take and live." ...I know I can take an elevator falling on me. Does that count? * Chie looks at Chaos. "What, you aren't gonna keep 'em?" * Chaos says those magic words, "Chaos Gate", several times, opening portals to various appropriate places, and one to somewhere he wants to go. He leaves, closing his behind him. Oh no. You are *not* leaving us with those things? ..Thisis probably a bad thing to say but...call if you need help. You know what happens- shit! And fuck you, too! ... Yeah, that's a good one. ..Good, he probably didn't hear me. * Katherine hefts the stylus. "Don't worry, kid. I've got it." * A note in Claire's pocket, with "Chaos: 555-1234" written on it indicates that he may have heard her, after all. * Chaos is now known as ` * Rei folds her arms and hmphs. "I didn't like him." * Claire stows it somewhere safe. I didn't either, but at least he fixed my nails. How many guys'll do that for ya, eh? None of us did. Not many. So. I think I just wanna go home. Home, just the way we left it. I fix Bolero's nails. and hands. and body. * Thalan grins and keeps the book and flips thru his datapad, noting the new net-addy of a certain 'Chaos'. "This should come in handy, to say the least. I wonder what Sludge'll think when I say 'I met your god'..." Exactly. Now, who wants to try to write some drinks into our future? I thought you were investigating tarot. * Thalan steps thru one of the portals, not saying goodbye, and not even waving... the jackass. I don't even know if he was telling the truth. It looks kinda like he caused the mess, instead of fixing it, he could have given us a fake fake version of the book that was changed, and... yeah, that's right. We were. (I have the cosmic power! I use it to get drunk.) The rest of the future... well, it's like you said, Kat. You take hold and don't back down. Drinks would be good. * Rei doesn't even notice Thalan's gone. :P But first, some drinks. Many drinks. We probably screwed the universe even more. Who cares? If they wanted it done right, they could have done it themselves. We do that on a regular basis. Don't worry. * Katherine starts pulling off the suits, and tossing it home. * Claire grabs a drink and heads home to stealing shit and getting shot at. * Claire is now known as Insanity|Sleep * Katherine hrms, and looks out in the hall after she's managed to get back to wearing barely anything. "Where's the alcohol?" I think I lost mine in the confusion. I wonder how long these portals are gonna stay open. Well, we've got the stylus. We can just draw new ones. Or not. Ehh, I'd rather not mess with the fabric of the universe if I didn't have to. Me neither, but what reason is better than a drinking celebration? ( Y'know, I could make this a OST series...adventures of the writers who stole the book of fate... ) (And then got drunk!) * Rei has since dragged Kaede off for a 'private conversation about tarot'. Which probably means they're in the next classroom over, and Kaede will be storming out in annoyance about her wasting his time any minute now. True enough. I haven't had a good drinking session in a while. (Kat needs to wrie her suit fixed again.) * Katherine nods and says, "Well, I bet I can find the alcohol, if someone can find the money." ( For reference, writing things doesn't magically make them happen if they're too improbable. For instance, writing 'my suit suddenly is fixed' would result in failure. Writing 'and lo, a stranger approached, and used marvelous tools and techniques to fix her suit. "I only do it for the joy of repair, ma'am," was all he said before departing as mysteriously as he came" would probably work." ) Got some in my apartment. Excellent. We'll have the world's first interdimensional drinking party. I'm sure Rei can take care of things with Kaede. * Katherine smirks. "We're just racking up the reputation! Crushing Entropy and interdimensional drinking.' It'll be a story to tell my friends who weren't here tonight. Oh? Will they believe it? * Katherine frowns. "Wait. Rei's one of your friends. I guess they will." Considering everything we've been through? Yeah. (Just write in "Yes, they believe it." if they don't. Problem solved) I mean, look at the kid? Is she a 24 or something? What's a 24? * Katherine frowns. "Uh... you should lead." Right. And a 24 is... um... well, like, all of humanity decided to up and get crazy powers about 24 years ago. Like having claws, or funny eyes, or tails, or telepathy, and stuff, built right in. * Chie yells in the direction that Rei disappeared off to. "Rei, take care of things, will you? We're goin' drinking!" Figured maybe you got to it early or something. * Kaede peeks his head out the door and stares at Chie. "...what do you mean "take care of things?" * Chie looks at Kat. "Huh, interesting..." She then turns to Kaede. "Oh, don't worry. You're in good hands." Yeah. Just look out for the tail. * Katherine grins. * Rei pokes her head out the door, too. "Okay! Save some for me! And Kaede, if this talk goes really bad and he needs a failed headache remedy!" ...that's what I'm worried about. * Rei grins and pokes Kaede in the side. * Chie gives Rei a thumbs-up. "You got it!" * Rei waves cheerily. * Kaede oofs as he's poked and glares at Rei. * Rei turns the grin to Kaede. "What?" I'm too young to drink, you know. * Katherine doesn't wave cheerily, but her ears twitch. Me too. Isn't that funny! * Rei grabs Kaede by the arm and yanks him back in the room. ... * Chie finds a portal that conveniently leads to her apartment. No, not re...ack! * Kaede gets yanked. * Katherine follows, making absolutely sure she has the stylus. "And lo, Katherine and Chie went and got drunk, and Rei and Kaede joined them, and Kaede was nervous, and then everyone went home toasted." "The End!"