Weirder Stuff - Session IV - CHASING RAINBOWS

[Clara Lys Wright]

The Interrogation

<That sorta fits with what you told us before, Sara.> Clara sent to the group link Sara had them in. <If Cook is just a frontman for this Project Proteus, I mean. Do....do you think Charlie might be able to be enough like Cook to bypass the scanner? Or maybe Cassie could look in on the place since we have an idea about it now, and Devin could get Sean in to do a data raid?>

Aloud, she asked Etienne softly, "What were you trained to do?"

"Analysis and pitches for soft targets - people that were already inclined to help us or just easy marks for one reason or another," he said, but his eyes were still on Marissa. How could they be anywhere else? "They were supposed to start training me for more field work in a year or two but-" He shrugged, "There were budget cuts and I was a new recruit. First in, first out. That's why I had to go looking for new work in the first place."

[GDP_ST]

Cassandra, Cade, Cat and Beth

"Egyptian?"  Beth's nose scrunched cutely as she wondered why the sudden tangent, though her lips quirked in a wry smile.  "Also, wait: Made up stuff?  Cassie, stories are serious business!  They tell us who we are as people, even the 'made up' ones.  Maybe especially those.  The correct word is 'mythology', which separates lies - which journalists tell -  from stories.  There's also legends, which contain grains of truth..."

"Okay, okay!"  Cassie laughed, grinning at her friend's teasing.  "But do you know anything about Egyptian mythology?"

"A little."  Beth tugged at her top lip in thought.  "I'm no Egyptologist though.  Why the sudden interest?  Looking for the Lost Ark or something?"  The other girl's expressive brown eyes shifted to study Cade, then Cassandra curiously.

"No, nothing like that.  Just wondered what you know about Kek."

"Kek?"  The other girl blinked.  "You mean like Horde-speak for 'LOL' in WoW?"

Cassie suppressed a sigh, tapping her fingernails on the table.  So much for that.  She'd just have to track down Dylan and wring answers out of him.

"Hey."  her oldest friend said softly, reaching over and placing a hand atop her tapping fingers.  "What is up with you?  You can tell me, Cass.  I've not seen you this bothered since- well in a while."  Bethany's eyes were on Cassandra's face, her expression plainly concerned as she leaned forwards.  "So... yeah.  You can trust me, you know."

 

Charlie and Sophia

Sophia's face lit up in a pleased smile, her features tinted just a little with red as Charlie took her hand in his, and now with the crisis over Shakespeare popped a post-it onto his forebrain:  'Come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy.'  True enough - perhaps tomorrow the town would be swallowed by a giant fishasaurus, but right here and now he was alive and had made a pretty girl smile from happiness.  Sophia leaned towards him quickly, somewhat daringly, and kissed his cheek, then smiled again as she leaned in once more-

"Here's ya order."  Max grinned as she knocked on the window, the busty waitress having approached while the two teens had been... busy.  Sophia jumped a little, blushing cutely but smiled as she paid and collected their order from Max's tray.  "Enjoy, sweethearts!"  Maxeen practically cackled as she bounced away, leaving the pair in a somewhat red-faced, slightly foolish-feeling but comfortable silence as they glanced at each other over their drinks.

[GDP_ST]

Clara, Marissa, Sara, Lilly and Avalon
The Interrogation

With verbal nudges and telepathic probing, the young women drew what further crumbs they could from the (depending on point of view) slightly pitiable, vaguely contemptible figure sat facing them.  Dr Cook was the 'front man' of the project, but he was not 'The Doctor' - Etienne had heard some of the paramilitary guards referring to them both as if they were separate people, and with differing levels of regard - Cook was regarded as a senior manager, whereas the Doctor was a never-seen figure of supreme authority.  Cook had Shelly wired for video, though not in private dwellings, and had the school and med center in particular wired for video and sound.  No, Etienne did not know where the surveillance center was, but surmised it was well-hidden, probably underground.  Smitten with and overawed by Marissa, at least currently, he had a compulsive need to somehow impress and please her, goading him to put his brain to work on her behalf.

Sara could only take so much of it, the strong girl's stomach somewhat turned by the devotion Marissa's 'Shine' was drawing from Etienne, even as she tried to just focus on the raw data and ignore the emotional content.  She didn't think it was permanent, at least not to this level, but it was still enough to make her uncomfortable.  If Marissa turned on the charm, was there anyone beyond her reach?  Even that fucking contrary-minded psychopath Bannon seemed to dance to her tune, though the burly telepath was not sure on why, steering clear of even brushing against Jason's sharp frozen-crystal mind unless absolutely necessary.

Finally, the interrogation was over - there was nothing else Etienne could tell them, though he desperately wracked his brains.  He slumped a little in his chair, eyes on the floor and gnawing on a nail as he tried to think of somehow, some way to prove himself of worth.  Marissa smirked, letting out a faint feminine snort as Sara quietly informed all the girls that Etienne was played out.

"Well, he's all yours I guess."  The Queen said to her apprentice, casting a glance at Clara.  "I have a hole I dug for Jason earlier out back along with a shovel, but turns out I didn't need it.  You are a guest, so I'm happy to share some of my conveniences."  When Clara didn't immediately respond, Marissa sighed softly and stood up, smoothing her top down.  "I can tell you're going to agonise over this, so I'll let you get to that.  We-" and she indicated the others. "-can head upstairs for pizza while you decided whether to kiss and make up or not."  The Mantis smiled beneficently and nodded towards the stairs for the others to proceed as she leveled a flaying glance at Etienne. 

"Play nice, sleazoid.  Between She-Thing and the Amazon Princess here, even if Clara doesn't hand you your skeevy ass you are in for the mother of all beatdowns if you so much as lay a finger on her."  For once, Sara found herself in agreement with Marissa, even if she scowled at the appellation so casually dropped on her.  Lona was last to follow Marissa upstairs, her eyes going from Etienne to Clara.

"I'll be near the top of the stairs."  she reassured one and warned the other in the same breath before heading up.  Clara and Etienne were alone, the revelations and their history hanging between them like the sickly misty smoke of the Land of Upside Down Thunder.

Spoiler

Clara, next post is all yours.  Etienne is your NPC and whether Clara cannot even and tells him to scram or whether she has the heart-to-heart I am returning control to you.  With Marissa out of the room he will be able to focus on you.  As of this post, unless anyone else present has something to add, for plot purposes the interrogation party is done.  Feel free to socialise upstairs, talk amongst yourselves, etc.

 

[Cassandra Allen]

"Hey."  her oldest friend said softly, reaching over and placing a hand atop her tapping fingers.  "What is up with you?  You can tell me, Cass.  I've not seen you this bothered since- well in a while."  Bethany's eyes were on Cassandra's face, her expression plainly concerned as she leaned forwards.  "So... yeah.  You can trust me, you know."

Cassie frowned at that and shook her head. "Of course I can," she replied. "Obviously. Look it's about a story. Possibly connected to the situation at the prison. You heard they had riots? But I don't have the facts yet. "I got 'kek' from an anonymous source, and I think it may be related but it's hard to tell."

She sighed and scratched her temple. "I thought maybe some kind of mythical tie in, but I'm pretty sure it's not a computer game reference. And...it could have just been a nonsense word, so I have to recognize that."

"Ugh. Sorry for dropping it in your lap. I can just hit up Google. It's not your problem."

[GDP_ST]

Cassandra, Cade, Cat and Beth

"No, but it's yours."  Bethany said with a slight scowl.  "And friends care when friends have problems."  Cassie smiled faintly, her awareness of Beth extending due to her friend's touch.  She didn't 'Shine' the way the Fellowship members did, but she shone nonetheless, a clear distinct light similar to possessed by everyone in the diner, even the cat which had sat up on the bench seat and was looking up at her expectantly, like it wanted a treat-

- it was a flash of imagery, kaleidoscopic and chaotic, her as yet untrained mind trying to make sense of it all.  So much information, too fast to digest: it was like trying to drink from a fire hose, the force of the stream bowling her over backwards -

Cade and Beth saw Cassie suddenly jerk back in her seat, a fork falling to the floor with a clatter as her flailing hand swept it off the table.  "What's the matter?!"  Beth asked in alarm as Cade started to grab Cassie in case this was some kind of fit-

- an adult woman with red hair, face lined with woes / Devin racing through the woods with his hand in hers, dragging her away from the impossibility that had eaten a naked man / The Dark Man, smiling sardonically as his cold hooded gaze gleamed like pale jade over his circular shades / Dylan, smoking a joint as he watched a buddy skateboarding down by the old hangout -

-and then Cassie snapped back, finding that Cade's hand was on her shoulder and Beth was looking at her with shock.

"Cass?"  they asked more or less in unison.

"Kek." uttered the cat, quietly, and butted it's head against her ribs.

[Cassandra Allen]

It was a lot...too much. Her curiosity tried to take her down every road at once. Who was that woman? Why was she seeing that scene with her and Devin now? Was it related? The 'dark man' had green eyes! And sunglasses!

More than any of those though, she thought that the vision of Dylan was something happening right now. Maybe her idle thoughts about trying to find him had somehow guided her visions, even if they'd gone through a lot of weeds to get there? She didn't really know.

Without thinking about it she reached down to give the cat's head an affectionate petting.

"I'm okay," Cass said. "I just...kinda jerked for a second. Kind of like...when you start to fall asleep in class and suddenly sort of...twitch? And wake up? Like that."

She looked at Cade for a second but couldn't think of a way to indicate anything to him that wouldn't make her look crazier than she already did.

"Beth...I'm kind of feeling like maybe I should get home and get some rest," Cass admitted to her friend. "Can we talk more later? I know we haven't seen each other much lately and I want to fix that."

Gah, why can't we ALL have Sara's telepathy?? It'd make things so much easier!

[Cade]

"We need to go."  Cass looked at Cade, who nodded.  He'd already said he would help however she needed.   Beth let her go, promising to catch up with her the next day.  She paused to give Cade a look, that  said "keep her safe"  which drew another nod, before the athelete and journalist left, their strange cat in tow.   As soon as he opened the door, it hopped up into the jeep, onto the back seat as the two got in, and Cade drove off.   While it wasn't somewhere he frequented, he knew the skaters hung out mostly in the abandoned Sunwood shopping center.   Nobody really cared about what happened there, as it was near the outskirts of town, and there weren't any open shops there anymore.   He didn't remember what had happened exactly, some sort of electrical fire, either by a storm, or bad wiring had gutted the place, and no buisness had ever come back.

"Are you okay, Cass?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Turn...left up here at the light. I saw where he is, I think. It was a vision. Just...hit from out of nowhere. Lots of weird stuff. Just little shots, like a movie trailer almost. But the last one, I saw Dylan. If it's not something in the past or future, I know where he is now. I need to ask him about this video."

She looks at Cade and says, "I also saw a guy's face. Really green eyes, dark round sunglasses. I think he's 'carrying' the Dark, or...or...is the Dark? I don't know exactly."

Cade followed her instructions, driving and turning where she indicated.  "I'll grab the bat then."   He hadn't gotten around to keeping a different weapon in the jeep, as it was pretty logical with his athletic leanings that he'd always have a bat, ball, and glove in the jeep.

"I don't recall seeing anyone like that here in town.    Could be from out of town, or just someone we don't know.  We stick together and we'll be fine."   When they got where they were going, he reached back to grab the bat, and handed Cass a flashlight.  It was one of the heavy metal maglites, though it was only one of the smaller ones.  "Just in case."

"Bat?" Cassandra looked at Cade warily. "What are you talking about?" She made no move to take the flashlight.

Cade pulled out an old wooden baseball bat.  "Better than my bare hands, and I don't keep a gun in here."

"What the hell? Dude, it's just Dylan. He's not dangerous. Relax."

"Fine I'll leave it.  I'm not worried about Dylan per se, more anything else that might be out here."   he answered quietly.  Cade was completely calm, and thought he was simply being cautious, given the level of strange they'd been dealing with.   Still perhaps it was too much, and he got out of the Jeep, the Cat following suit.

Cassandra got out as well and shaded her eyes as she surveyed the parking lot. The strip mall's last business had closed a year ago, and the place was just sitting fallow now. The pavement in the parking lot was still mostly intact, and no one cared enough to watch the place now and stop kids from skating at it. Several were there even now. A few more sat against a nearby wall, watching, smoking and talking.

Cass nodded at those kids and said, "That way."

 

[GDP_ST]

The cat slinking alongside her on one side, and with Cade bookending her on the other, Cassie felt reasonably safe even given the dilapidated surroundings and the gathering dusk.  A couple of semi-functional street lights were on, adding patterns of light and shadow to the parking lot in which the skater kids, a small subset of Shelly's youth, raced back and forth, flipped their boards, egged each other on in various feats and, of course, smoked out.

Cassie readily spotted Dylan, leaning against a wall with one of his buddies passing a joint back and forth, and the pretty blonde experienced an eerie sense of deja vu, only this time it was real. This had been the snapshot she'd seen of him, pads and t-shirt and everything.  He looked up, seeing her and Cade approaching, and straightened from his slouch against the wall, passing the J in his hand back to his friend.

"Hey, Cassie-andra." he smirked, plainly baked as he regarded his ex.  "What brings you to my hood?"

[Cassandra Allen]

Cassandra frowned. Not because something felt off...but because it felt on. This was the Dylan she remembered. And he was nothing like how he'd been at school.

She held up his phone. "You dropped something," she replied.

Dylan blinked and squinted, peering up at the object for a second, then his eyes widened.

"Oh shit, you found it! Jesus, guys..." he looked at the other kids lounging with him against the empty shell of the strip mall. "You know before I was telling you I must have dropped my phone? She found it!"

One of them, a somewhat heavyset guy with his lank, sparse hair done in some kind of cornrow type do, waved a hand that still clutched a smouldering joint. "Nah, you were just saying that like...an hour ago? You didn't even KNOW it was gone!"

Most of the onlookers burst into chuckles and laughs over that, nodding at one another.

Holy shit, Cassie thought. How was this ever my crowd?

Rubbing the back of his head, Dylan managed to get to his feet and go over to his ex-girlfriend. "Where'd you find it?"

She didn't offer the phone back just yet. "You gave it to me," she answered icily. "At school today. You were all paranoid and shit, acting like the CIA was after you or something."

Dylan squinched his eyes in a very familiar 'I want to tell you you're wrong but I don't want to get yelled at' way. "Uhhh..."

"Hey," said one of the other kids. "Dyl was with us all day. Like, this morning Scorch and Teebo decided to skip, and they called me and Jay but they couldn't get Dylan on the phone so we went to his place and..."

Cassandra shook her head and cut them off with a quick 'zipping' gesture. "Okay! He was HERE? All day? Like, from before lunchtime?"

"Since morning, yo," agreed the kid, who Cassie didn't recognize immediately.

"Yeah and...you know, getting chased by CIA is kinda your thing, right?" Dylan offered, with just the right passive-aggressive blend of snark and timidity.

"No," Cass denied, and held up the phone. "Dude, you GAVE this to me. I mean..." she frowned. "You told me...where to find it."

Dylan looked back at the other kids who were shooting each other dawning looks of comprehension. "You, uh, been smoking any again?" he asked. "Like, I hear if you do a bunch right after not doing any for, like, a long time...it can kinda fuck with you."

"Word," said one of the other kids. "My old man had to go to the hospital." That elicited a frenzy of laughs and denials that faded into the background as Cassandra focused on Dylan.

"Dylan," she said, "it's not just your phone. Look."

She brought up the image viewer and played the video for him. To his credit, his eyes widened immediately on seeing the figure in the recording.

"Holy shit, is that..."

Cass shushed him and nodded. "Yeah. It is. So...this is fucking serious, Dylan. I'm not fucking around. Am I clear? I have to know where you got this recording. When. How. All of it."

Dylan shook his head wildly, honestly afraid now. "I didn't!" he protested. "Cass, you gotta believe me. My phone...I don't remember the last time I saw it, okay?  It must have been days. No calls or emails or texts or anything. I just thought I was unpopular or something."

"He's got that right!" crowed someone from the peanut gallery, to a little chorus of cheers and jeers.

He was still a bit out of it, but Cassandra knew the difference between Dylan when he was zonked completely out, and when he was struggling back to sobriety. "I have no fucking clue how that got on my phone, Cassie," he pleaded. "I thought I'd just dropped it, but...shit, maybe someone took it?I don't know."

"And you weren't at school?" she pressed.

He nodded. "We went to fucking...like Denny's, only the cheaper one on the other side of the freeway? Then we came straight here. Been here all day."

Cassie felt herself wobble and she turned away. "Jesus fuck." The smell of pot was suddenly too strong, too cloying. It was simultaneously nauseating but compelling.

Just breathe in, it said hungrily, and you can forget all this shit for good. It doesn't matter anyway does it? Everything's fucked regardless. Just leave it behind.

He's my dad.

Wordlessly, Cassandra held the phone out to Dylan, who...very cautiously...accepted it from her.

"Email me the video when you can," she said distantly. "If I don't have it by dark tonight, I will text you every five minutes until you send it."

Dylan nodded quickly. "Yeah. Yeah sure. Of course."

Only then did he notice Cade standing a little ways off, watching warily like a cowhand guarding his herd. He glanced at Cassandra. "So...this what you traded up to?"

Cassandra shook her head, suddenly too tired to deal with this shit. "No. I traded 'up' to me. Cade's just a friend."

"Oh. Okay." Dylan scratched the back of his neck and then asked, "Hey Cass? Are you okay? Seriously."

She nodded now, though somehow even the gesture felt like a lie. "Just...Cass being Cass," she said woodenly. "You're welcome. For the phone."

"Ah shit, yeah. Thanks."

"Bye Dylan. I'd say take it easy but...I think maybe the opposite is what you should do."

A grin quirked his mouth, and he was actually really cute. She could sort of see where she'd been coming from. Then she turned and went back to Cade.

When they'd walked far enough to be out of earshot, Cassandra said, "Whatever told me to get the camera wasn't him. Or...if it was him he was being controlled, but I don't think it was him. They'd ALL have to have been controlled for that to happen, because they all remember all of them being here. Which means that...this Dark is behind it, and it wanted me to see my dad..." Cass held her breath for a second. "...which means it wanted me to go to the prison."

"Shit. I don't know what to do now."

 

[GDP_ST]

"Maybe it wasn't the Dark."  Cade suggested in a low tone, looking back over his shoulder at the stoners currently giving Dylan shit, hooting and laughing together.  "We know that there's other players, like the person in armor who rescued Devin, and this Proteus organisation Sara mentioned. But yeah, whoever it was definitely wants you to go to the prison, or even just wants to let you know your dad might still be alive there."  The two of them made it to Cade's jeep and stood there for a second, staring at each other as they puzzled over what had just transpired.

"Yeah, but who-"  Cassie started to ask then stopped as she felt the hair raise on the back of her neck.  Cade's hackles likewise prickled, for the cat had started to yowl.

It was a low, ululating sound, rising and falling and getting louder with each oscillation as it ripsawed along the feline's eerie vocal range.  It contained warning, and a rasp of menace, but more than that - it contained fear.  Terror, even.  The two humans glanced at the uncanny creature in amazement, their own souls freezing until, with a final shriek, the cat pelted across the abandoned parking lot, leapt a low wall and disappeared into the overgrown bushes beyond.

"What the-"  Cassie was interrupted again as a low growl sounded from the far end of the lot, from the opposite direction the car had fled.  Both teens glanced around to see, some one hundred feet distant, the low glossy shape of a classic car, a Cadillac perhaps, though the exact model was hard to determine in the gathering dusk.  It was stationary there, and as they watched the driver's side door opened and a lean, tall figure got out.

Dressed in black.

Wearing round sunglasses. 

Despite the covering of his eyes, however, they both knew that the man in black was looking right at them.  And he seemed to be smiling as he began to walk at a steady pace towards Cade's jeep.

"Let's go."  Cassie whispered.  Cade briefly considered the bat in his car, but something told him that, despite having a few inches of height and a couple dozen pounds of weight on the approaching slender figure, fighting him head on, here and now, was the very worst thing he could do.  The baseball bat may as well have been a toothpick.

"Yeah."  he said with admirable composure, though his mouth was dry.  The two of them bundled into the jeep hurriedly, Cade absently proud his hands weren't shaking as he gunned the ignition.  "What about-?"

"Cade, it's a cat."  Cassie's voice was a little higher as she looked out of the window at the approaching figure.  "It can look after itself.  It's outta here, and so are we."

"Right."  The jeep peeled out of the derelict parking lot so fast that it left tire smoke, and they drove in silence back into Shelly-proper.  Both Cade and Cassie's heads were on swivels, but there seemed to be nothing chasing them, and the sense of impending dread both had felt ebbed, though they didn't completely relax.

"We should tell the others."  Cade said as the streetlights played over the hood of the jeep.

"Tell them what?"  Cassie asked.  "That someone is able to impersonate my ex, steal his phone, record a video of my still-alive dad, and that Mr Black showed up and scared the pee out of us?"  There was silence for a moment, Cade looking askance at the lovely blonde's unnaturally pale profile.

"Well, yes."  was all he said.  Cassie sighed, releasing tension as she dragged a hand over her face.

"Yeah.  We probably should."  she admitted.  "But... tomorrow, okay?  I'm not up for roaming around in the dark knocking on doors and saying 'watch out for the boogeyman'.  We don't even know he meant any harm."

"Good intentions from him ain't something I'm betting on."  muttered Cade, but he nodded as well.  "Tomorrow, then."   They drove on in silence, heading for home, each deep in their thoughts.

Spoiler

5 XP for all participants.  Overall a good thread with decent engagement.  This is in addition to the half-way XP awards Nina gave, so a total of 7 for Rainbows.

Additionally, I am awarding 10XP to all still-active PCs as a bribe loyalty bonus.  There's been a lot of drama and tumult, and those who are still here after the storm I feel deserve recognition.  Both awards will be put up in the XP thread presently, but you can all spend XP as of now on your sheets.

This thread will remain open partly because I cannot currently lock it, and partly so that if anyone wants to do any final wrap, close of day posts they can do so.