* Katherine walks down the halls. And because she's not a man, unlike Chako,
she'll ask for directions if it takes her more than a minute to figure out where
the hell she's going.
* Ian walks after Kat - pretty quickly, too.  He catches up after a minute or
so.  "Mind if I tag along?  There's nothing interesting to do, except eat chips
and compare tattoos."
<Chamelaeon> <<The only way for you two really wander is "up". A large square
stairwell is the only real exit from the floor with the cafeteria on it.>>
* Katherine smirks as she goes 'up', then. "Ask 'em for their stories. Christ,
man. You have hundreds, thousands of teenagers who live day to day on wits,
powers, and a complete lack of morality or sense."
<Katherine> Can't pull any of that into a decent story?
* Ian grins.  "Not after several hundred generations of that sort of thing. 
It's really all been done."
<Ian> Sure, minus the powers, but there's only a certain amount you can do with
a basic plot.
* Katherine rolls her eyes. "And yet, people keep trying." She doesn't stop.
<Ian> Well, authors really are gluttons for punishment.  Here I am, for example,
fighting unimaginably dangerous demons from beyond space and time in a penguin
costume.
<Ian> And I don't even have laser flippers.
* Katherine smirks. "You're just crazy."
<Ian> Oh!  So that's what it is...
* Ian keeps on wandering up.
* Katherine mms, then says, "I have a writer friend who assures me you're
absolutely crazy."
<Katherine> I can't really argue with her.
<Chamelaeon> <<The stairway ends in a broad hallway with smallish doors along
it. The architecture gains flair as it moves to the right.>>
* Ian grins.  "It wouldn't make much sense to argue, no."
* Katherine heads down the hallway. "No, it wouldn't." She rubs one of her ears
with the palm of her hand. "Ugh."
<Chamelaeon> (Which way?)
<Katherine> (Oh, it's a horizontal hallway. Uh. Flairy!)
<Katherine> (Go right.)
<Katherine> This is just flat out gonna suck.
* Ian nods.  "As things have tended to for the past year or so."
* Katherine glances back to Ian, then says, quietly, "No, not quite the same."
* Ian raises an eyebrow.
<Chamelaeon> <<The hallway opens out into a lobby. The main doors to the concert
hall are heavily guarded, but standing open. For the record, the doors out of
the building are blocked by DunnoSteel and concrete, as you saw on the
outside.>>
<Katherine> (Blocked by the guards?)
* Katherine says, "It's a little different when your options are 'wait to be
killed', 'start killing people', or 'start capturing people and putting bands on
them to temporarily cure them while you wait for the answer to come back.'"
<Chamelaeon> <<They're kind of blocking it, but not really.>>
* Katherine heads on past, though. Throwing them a look if they actually get
with the blocking.
* Ian sighs.  "That's true.  I'm still holding out for the option that we can
get something from the seven Sleythin."
* Ian follows!
<Katherine> That's the idea behind option number 3.
* Katherine looks ahead towards the goal. "And that's why I need to talk to
Hettie."
* Ian nods.
<Chamelaeon> ("goal?")
<Katherine> (Hettie.)
<Katherine> (Or, rather, in front of us, ,which will hopefully be Hettie.)
<Chamelaeon> <<Past the doors, the hallway degenerates into offices again.>>
<Katherine> (Oh boy! More offices.)
* Katherine mutters and yells out, "Can anyone point me to Hettie!" Blunt as a
stick.
* Ian shrugs, and starts looking in random doorways.
<Chamelaeon> <<A random Fummer, who is walking by, and gives you an odd look.
"You're not supposed to use her name." She points back the way you came. "In the
main hall, duh."
<Chamelaeon> (+>>)
* Katherine rolls her eyes. "Right, sure." She turns around and says mostly to
herself, "Don't use her name? Is she some sort of secret agent?"
* Ian starts walking back, quietly humming Secret Agent Man.
<Katherine> (Hatchu.)
<Ian> (This game?  SO full of hat.)
* Katherine heads back the way she came! Ignoring Ian's stupidity. Maybe she
doesn't know the song.
<Chamelaeon> <<Back in the lobby!>>
* Katherine heads through the door.
* Ian follows!  It wouldn't be a Calc character otherwise!
<Chamelaeon> <<The concert hall is pretty empty. Hettie's sitting up on the
stage, fiddling around with some stones. The only people in the audience seem to
be some other bums, apparently, who are broken off in clusters and are talking
animatedly.>>
<Chamelaeon> <<It's a large hall, so the walk to the stage will be a little
bit.>>
* Ian walks!  He frowns slightly at the lack of applause.
* Katherine keeeps walking. "I need to know what Hettie's doing, though. If
they're just sitting here or what." A small smirk. "I'd be impressed. Gangers
aren't known for sit and wait mentality."
* Ian nods.  "There must be some plan..."
* Katherine stalks right up to Hettie and says, "Well, at least she picked a 
good place to set up."
* Ian nods.  "Great acoustics."
<Katherine> I don't know HOW. Opera? Not really a TC thing.
* Katherine says more quietly, "I mean, back in the day, maybe..."
<Ian> Hm.
<Chamelaeon> <<As you approach the stage, Hettie looks up. She brightens.>>
"There you are! I was worried you might not make it, when the others showed up
without you."
* Katherine smirks thinly. "The Sleythin tried."
<Chamelaeon> <<She frowns a little.>> "Well, they probably would."
<Chamelaeon> <<The thing she's been doing with stones turns out to be a fairly
large-scale TC map.>>
* Katherine holds her hands out to her sides. "Well, anyway. Uh. You're looking
at pretty much all the support ATC is sparing for you until the Europa team is
done mopping up or our secondary team finds a solution to this." She looks to
the map and squints. "Nice map."
* Ian blinks, and starts peering at the map.
* Katherine chuckles to herself and mutters, "Since I might as well be working
for ATC at the moment."
<Chamelaeon> <<She stands up and looks at it. It's hard to see exactly what
she's got, as you're on the floor and the map's on the stage.>> "Well, we're
most in need of diversions."
<Katherine> Diversions for what?
* Katherine starts to climb on stage. "I mean, what are you doing here, besides
not dying?"
<Chamelaeon> "What do you think? Saving the world."
* Katherine smirks. "I meant in a little more detail."
* Katherine gets on stage if she's not stopped!
<Katherine> What sort of diverting would I or we be doing?
<Katherine> Standard gurilla stuff?
* Ian hops up on stage, too.
<Chamelaeon> <<The view from the stage is rather impressive. The major
thoroughfares are lined out in black stones, and she's done some rather
interesting patterns with white, gold, green, and blue.>> "Well..."
* Katherine 's lets out a low whistle for the map. It's deserved.
<Ian> Wow!
<Chamelaeon> <<The others walk in, minus Thren.>>
<Chamelaeon> <<Move back.>>