<> <> <<... and found them to be hooked up with an organized resistance of TC residents, organized by none other than Mad Hettie, of Box City fame. Roch's mother is safe back at SIG-ASP, and her brother is a major Resistance figure. The resistance headquarters is in the symphony hall of TC, and in fact, everyone (with the exception of Vera) is now in the cafeteria!>> <> (I thought Vera was gonna go to the cafeteria. Maybe.) <> * Thren is drinking a cup of tea. With both hands! And giving Kat/Ian/Roy an expectant look. * Katherine sits with her backpack still on. She's been standing up, or rather, sitting up, straight since she got here. Small smirk, too. * Fitzroy has some sort of crackers/chips thing that he's eating. * Ian is standing, sipping from a can of DunnoBev. He's currently dressed as...what appears to be a cross between a professor and Marlon Brando III. The bowtie isn't in the best condition. <> (Exposit! MENTOK WILLS IT SO!) (Bruce Campbell IV Distinguished Chair of Terminally Applied Sociology.) (Shut up and spill the story already, Ian.) * Katherine looks over at Ian, then chuckles to herself. "So, you wanna handle the 'What crime against Sleythin did the Egg perform this millenia'? After all, you got the Sleythin dataslam." (He got part of my brain. ;_; I don't even remember how to spell 'plant-water'!) (Snerk.) * Ian nods. "[Groovy.] ...ahem. We arrived to find that the whole place has been very efficiently turned into, well, a tourist trap. They don't quite understand how it works, but they're trying. In order to get an audience with the Egg, Kat ended up having to fight a Sleythin, although they did offer to rig it." * Thren opens one eye and trains it on Kat. "...before I say anything, do they know who that thing you're wearing belonged to?" * Katherine frowns. "It didn't BELONG to her. It was just a design prototype for the Europa team." Beat. "Figured it didn't matter which one I stole." * Thren closes the eye and sips again. "Yes it did. What if you'd stolen Vernon's?" A beat. "Sorry, Ian. Keep going." (I mean, Vernon had the finger laser to write "KNIGHTSABERS" at every scene, but...) <> No problem. So...it seems that the Egg erased the Sleythins' memory of the Old One insurgency. What we saw...really happened. Here. In the process, he erased the research they did later - of how to fend them off. We don't have time to kill all the hosts, which is what they did originally, but we do have one lead. There are seven Sleythin who left, and may still remember. But all we have to run with is about twenty locations where they might have gone - a long, long time ago. We will have to track them from there. * Rochelle slowly has a seat. She turns, looks at Zak for a moment, and then shakes her head. And steals one of his sausages. And that's all we have. The Egg doesn't remember if it was a thousand years ago, or two thousand, when they left. <> * Katherine nods, and adds, "So that's what Anders and his crew is doing while we shore things up here. Searching for lizards." * Rochelle smiles a little. And steals another one, popping it into her mouth. * Rochelle chews, then swallows and looks back. "Sounds stupid. Why erase how to stop them?" Well, the Egg's feeling pretty depressed now. I think the idea was to help them forget about that nasty piece of history. Still sounds stupid. * Thren says, mostly into his mug, "Those AIs seem to have this problem with the phrase 'for your own good'... I bet what they did to the Cube is depressing him." * Katherine rubs the side of her head. "Probably just playing the odds or something. Low chance of having it happen again." She rubs her head. "So yeah. How are things here? Besides 'full of gangers working together'?" Smirk. "Still a bit of a shock." .. Or it wanted to be thorough. If you leave only part of the memory. People will want to fill in the pieces. * Katherine nods along with Roy and flicks her eyes over to Roch/Zak. * Thren sips. Remember the guy that works with Karino in U-Division in You-Gen-Kai-Sya? Like that. * Rochelle is sitting there. She's even picking at her painted nails a bit. Same old Rochelle. (...okay, I have no idea what's wrong with me tonight. Forget I said that.) <> * Katherine rubs one of her shoulders. "... silence sums it up, huh? Great. Must be better than I thought." She gives Zak a smirk and then looks back to the others, "So why _isn't_ Vera shooting me? Is she laid up, or just being restrained and elsewhere?" * Ian sips some more DunnoBev and looks on, trying to get a feel for this place. * Fitzroy grins, "Maybe she has a crush on you. Your wife's gonna be mad!" * Katherine snickers to herself. "ARE Ronnie and I still married? I just couldn't keep track." She's grinning too. Because that's funny stuff. * Fitzroy plugs in, "Lemme check." Not in the news... looks like that's a 'No'. So sorry to hear. Don't worry. There are other fish in the sea! (They're cool and comfortable.) That's okay. She was too much into her work anyway. * Katherine continues her amused grin as she awaits an answer from Roch or Thren! Only they know the answer! Or perhaps Zak. Or any number of the random gangers, maybe. * Fitzroy chuckles. <> (Aww. Roy and Kat are bonding. It's so cute.) * Thren drinks. Teaaaaaaaaaaaa. * Katherine eventually gets to focus on Roch and Zak, since you can't get between a man and his tea. "Well? If it's just the normal hatred, I'll deal, but if she's actually down, it's gonna make things harder." * Rochelle shrugs. "Mad's running the show." She curls one leg up and sets her chin on her knee. * Katherine blinks a few times. "Mad's? Like... Mad Hettie? Space Jesus, you miss six months..." Yup. She's not that crazy. * Thren says, almost as an aside, "She's not crazy at all." * Thren pauses. "Clinically, anyway." Sip. * Katherine glances to Thren, then chuckles. "I'll take your word for it." A pause as she looks around at people. "Guess we should talk to her before we start striking out, huh?" (Do some brooding, Kat. BROOOD. Then Cordchelle will get a vision.) (And then, I'll get some alone time with Doyle. Mmmm, Doyle.) (Oh! Right. I love Ronnie so much I almost forgot to BROOD.) * Katherine pushes herself up from the table and rubs her face. "I'll do that now. If I don't keep moving, I'll remember why the hell I left TC in the first place." <> * Katherine looks to Zak pointedly. "For the love of everything holy, tell me Granch isn't on our side." <> "Oh god, don't fuckin' kill me!" * Rochelle watches him do that, then shrugs to herself and takes Zak's tin of sausages. <> * Katherine blinks, then says in annoyance, "... it was just a question, Zak. Get the fuck back up here and answer it." * Rochelle eyes. She sets it aside. <> "... uh, oh. Right. Naw, we think he got fragged." * Thren suddenly busts out Eudial's capture gun and takes Katherine's heart crystal! It turns into the Space Sword! OMG ONE THIRD OF THE WAY TO THE GRAIL! (>_>) (Thren needs less tea.) (¬_o) (Sorry. I resolved I wasn't going to do all the talking for a session but I am still compelled to fill the immense silences.) * Katherine mms and looks away. "Good. He deserved it." She walks off towards Hettie. Glaring at any gangers that don't clear out fast enough. (Not that she knows where Hettie IS, but right now, it's just a matter of walking. ^_~) (She'll find you. That's how it works.) <> * Rochelle says, helpfully, "She'll probably kill you after it's all over." (You'll have a conversation about spoons, it'll start raiing, and I will turn into Jada Pinkett.) (DAMN.) (I missed the chance for a great line.) (Sonuvabitch.) (Who is following Kat?_ (I'm not!) (Please say all of you. ;_;) (Roch is snarking at Zak!) (Teaaaaaaaa.) (It's awesome.) * Ian has settled down in a corner with some DunnoChips and is sporadically writing and staring off into the distance, speculatively. (Geek! Shove him in a loccker!) (Hundreds to thousands of gangers, and no geek lockers.) (Well, at least Vera can return. Or run into Kat.) (... so basically, nobody's going to do anything of importance. Except Kat, and nobody's going with her.) * Ian finally shrugs, stows his notebook, and heads off in the direction Kat went! ( I'm doing plenty of import! Really! ) (You expect me to do something for you? :P) (You're importing hats for the black market. <_<) (I'm still not exactly sure why we're here. To me, it's Kat's mission.) (They make the gangers more confident.) (We're holding ground.) (Until the Europa Team can show.) (Well, that's Ronnie's theory on it, anyway.) (If only Ian was a doctor, we'd have a full set of field personel.) (Doctor, Techs, and Combat.) (Sei's available. Perenially.) (Sadly all we have is a mime troupe.) (So, where are Ian and I going, Cham?) (God damn it. I did not want to have to run a split tonight.) (I wouldn't worry about it. we're sort of a low impact group what with nobody doing anything and all.) (Ian and Kat, #atc2too. The rest of you can talk or emote silently once a minute or whatever.) * Vera does a good job of not being there! (Vera's EXCELLENT at not being there!) (It's the hat.) (I'm sorry, I'm having trouble breathing. Um. Rochelle sits there.) * Fitzroy plays BrainPong. He sits there with a vacant look, eyes sweeping back and forth. "Did we have somewhere we were supposed to be?" * Thren sips. "I honestly don't know. I'm not terribly partial to discussing plans to kill various possessees. It's just not in my nature." * Fitzroy nods, still with a vacant look, "Did we have a secondary plan? Something other than annihilating the planet?" * Rochelle shrugs. Helpful! * Thren shrugs. "We won't know until someone finds those remnant Sleythin, I don't think." Who's working on that, Vernon? Thought you'd know better than us. (I mentioned Anders and crew were on that.) (*points upward*) (*nod* I see.) No, nevermind. I think it's Anders and Pals. (Airing Wednesdays after Repeating Yak.) (It's the only timeslot that can handle someone that zany!) * Fitzroy shrugs, "They're all connected in my mind. Mostly because Anders was the link between us and Vernon." * Fitzroy breaks out of his vacant look for a second to roll his eyes. * Fitzroy twitches a little.. like he just got electrically shocked. Musta dropped the ball. (Insert another quarter, quick!) (/me shoves a quarter into his ear!) (who's at the table? Thren, Roch, Vera, Me, and Zach?) (No Vera.) * Rochelle eyes Roy. "You okay?" Sure. Just lost the ball in BrainPong. (I love how we've regressed to Pong.) ( France France Revolution! ) (Snicker. Kat's more a BrainSpacewar girl, herself.) It's a TSM game that does weird things with your senses. It's slightly uncomfortable when you lose a ball.. so you learn pretty quickly. Yeah? Never tried it. (As Rochelle fails her body check and is killed by Pong.) * Vera remains unthere. It's pretty wacky. You've got a bunch of paddles in a sphere formation, each one with a different sensation. Some good, some unpleasant. ( Try not to get hit on the nose. It makes it stink. ) * Rochelle nods. You're trying to keep the ball in the sphere using the good paddles, and avoid the bad ones. They only move so fast so you can't just use your favorite paddle. * Fitzroy twitches again. "ack!" <> You guys wanna try and find Kat? There's nothing to do here. * Rochelle sighs. She looks to Zak. "Wanna?" <> "No, but if she's talkin' to the big lady, we prob'ly oughta fuckin' hear it." Guess so. * Rochelle stands and walks off to where she figures Mad Hettie and Kat ought to be. * Fitzroy stops looking like some kinda zombie and follows Roch. <> (Argh lol.) (Blah blah crude truncations lower classes.) * Vera is there now! Or rather, she happens to be going to the same place. Go fig, yo. <> * Rochelle idly waves at Vera. * Vera peers from beneath the rim of her hat. (HAT. Take one drink.) <> * Rochelle just makes a beeline for the stage. <> * Ian looks up, at that, and then waves to the group as well. * Katherine is staring down at the stage. Blah blah giant backpack blah blah red hair and black top. She gets diverted by Hettie looking up too. ( Woah. Katherine almost looks just like Lukas. ) ( The desc. is practically the same. XD ) (>_>) <> "Good, almost everyone. This makes explaining it easier." (Not really. 9_9) (I somehow doubt a nanosuit-pack looks like an actual soft backpack.) ("I had no idea it would be so much. I won't pay it." "That's all right, we can put the Old One riiight back where it came from. Dr. Savolino?") * Katherine 's eyes go to Vera, then she looks back down at the map. "I just hope you'll get to explaining the colors of the map on the way." "Don't worry. It makes sense." <> "At least to me." (Okay. Anyone have large objections to cutting here so we get the whole chunk of strategy next time?) (Fine here.) ( We're attacking the supply depot? ) (Damn! Another non-minispace cut. Ah well. I agree. One chunk is good.) * Rochelle looks at the map. A map! (You can't see the map! It's on the stagee!) (Dun dun dun!) (LAst poses, then.) * Vera leans against a wall and lights a cigarette. Most of her face is obscured by the hat. * Ian gets out his notebook and starts making some notes on the map. (Oh, I'm done. ^^;) * Katherine sees Roch trying to look at the map, and reaches a clawed hand down. "Come on up. It's not bad for a stone map." She chuckles and adds, "I wonder if you've ever seen a TC aerial map." <>