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It's time to play the music
It's time to light the lights
It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.

One day after school [OOC: on an undefined day after the history test just for continuity's sake] , Sammy shows up at the school's stage to audition for the Spring drama production.  She looks around for and finds Nick Hurley, and greets him with a boisterous hug and a kiss on the cheek.  "Hey you," she says.  "They'll let me out of orchestra if I get a part in the play.  If I don't make it, I'll be down there in the pit making faces at you during the show."  She crosses her eyes and waggles her tongue at him.  "Is like this okay?  I want to be plenty distracting."

Determined not to lose what little social ground she'd gained in her brief time at this school, Laney shows up at every drama club meeting and has offered to help in almost any capacity.  These gatherings of rambunctious students are a special challenge to the girl, but useful, she tells herself.  Useful.   

Today, she's dangling from above, her seemingly wreckless maneuvering causing any observers apprehension if they don't realize she's wearing a harness.   Someone thought it would be fun to have stage lighting for auditions, and Laney was available...

She'd confirmed Elrod and Sammy were still an item, so once she's singled out her friend's head from the others in the crowd she follows her movement.   It's not random, she realizes after a few minutes, the pattern is intriguing.

Nick and Sammy had rehearsed fairly intensively together to get ready for this audition, each helping the other with their piece.  Some afternoons and evenings were at her house, others were at his.  The comfort and closeness they feel with each other is fairly evident in their body language, even if they aren't clinging tightly together like shipwreck survivors or constantly whispering gooey-sweet words into each other's ears.  The audition begins, taking each person in alphabetical order.  Sammy sits down next to Nick to watch the competition, and slips her hand into his as they watch.

She's too focused on what's happening down here on stage to more than casually notice anybody moving around in the catwalks.

When it's Nick and Sammy's turn he nearly tugs her onto the stage.  When Nick is comfortable almost everything he does is meant to be funny.  They take their marks, but at the last minute Nick has them swap positions, he's on the mark for the female part and puts Sammy on the mark for the male part.  With a smile and a nod he looks her in the eyes, and she knows what he's thinking.

The music comes up, and they begin to sing the opposite genders part.  The movements on the stage are fixed, the choreography meant to be a dance between a man and a woman.  Each pause of the motion places them in a part of the setting that is obviously gender specific.  Nick hams it up, the fluttering of his eye lashes almost makes Sammy burst out laughing, being saved only by her internal struggle to remember to sing the other lines.  Before it's over she's gotten the hang of it and is over masculineing the pauses as well.  The director and casting head are both in stitches before it's done.

When the number is done they go for the dip, and Nick winks.  Sammy goes into the dip, and stops, opening her arms to let him fall with a thud to the stage, then turning to walk away as he lay there, arms up, looking towards the audience with a cross between shock and anger on his face.

There is some applause, a bit more than the other auditions got, and the pair come to center stage to take a bow.

"Are you all right?" Sammy whispers as they stand together for the bows.  "That thud sounded painful.  I was supposed to drop you, yes?"  She has a smile plastered on her face, but it doesn't quite reach her concerned eyes.

"Yes you were." he whispers, "I just forgot how tall I am compared to you and had my head too far back."  They take their bows and make their way off the stage, informed that they will be notified once the final decision is made.  "Sorry about the last minute change up, but I had a flash of inspiration.  Couldn't let it go."

After the auditions, a merry voice singsongs from behind Sammy.  Turning to see, she's met by a pale, wild-haired creature with inhumanly large, shining eyes.  Oh.  That would be Laney.

"No contest! No contest!  You so have the part.  It's like you were made together!"    Not 'made for each other,' no.  That's not what she said.  Weird.

OOC:  *rassa frassa ... laney / motley is determined to not be where Sarah is at any given point in time*  *ARGLE BARGLE!!!! fragga... twice!!!*


Sarah appears at the end of a catwalk making the metal frame squeak slightly from the sudden addition of weight.  She walks across towards where Laney is adjusting a lamp.  Fearing the worst she stops halfway across the platform and wraps on the guardrail to get the girls attention.

"S'all right.  I tried to keep up.  I did ok.  Good thing we practiced enough for me to learn your part, or we might have both been singing my part.  That might have been funny in itself.  Come here, sit down so I can check your skull."  Sammy sits him on a step, then sits two steps up behind him, loosely bracing him with her legs under his arms.  Pressed up against his back, she runs her fingers through his hair and gently probes around for a lump on his scalp.  "Want me to ask somebody to get an ice pack?  If I had known you were going to fall like that, I would have tried to cushion the blow for you."  She sounds worried.


"Laney-- if anybody knows where to get an ice pack in this place, it is you.  Could you, please?"  Sammy's hands drop from Nick's head and come to rest protectively on his upper chest.

((Simul-post!  Sorry!   This obviously happens before Laney ambushes Sammy and Nick.))

Laney spins towards Sarah.  Too fast.  Any gymnast would notice her toes are in the wrong position, she's not using her arms for balance...why the hell is she looking up?  There's a truly terrifying split-second when Sarah is sure the girl is going to test the limits of that safety harness, and if she grabs at Sarah in her panicked fall-

"Hi!"  Laney smiles cheerfully.  "You should be careful up here."

"Oh!  You really do suffer for your art, huh?"  She leans in to examine Nick's head. At least, that's what they thought she was doing, until she is blinking at the stairs they sit upon instead.

"Yeah.  I'll be back!"  And so she is back soon, with a pair of small cold packs wrapped in paper towels.  She offers them to Sammy, not Nick, and hovers, anxiously wringing her hands.  "Um...You alright?"

Sarah shakes her head in wonder at Laney.  How on Earth does the girl survived day to day? 
"Hi Laney, just thought I'd come up and help.  No worries about me.  I'm good."  Funny how teleportation makes you cocky about heights.  She holds up a handful of metal cables.  "I brought extra cable locks for the lights though in case we need to move some around.  I'd hate to drop one one the set."

She crouches down near Laney and asks, "Um, do you need any help getting untangled?  Only it looks a little..."

Nick seems very relaxed there with Sammy.  "I'll be fine.  It's a wooden floor, I have a wooden head, all good."  he says with a flurishing hand gesture.  There is a lump on the back of his head though.

"Thanks for thinking of it.  That happened last week.  No kidding!  Did they tell you?  I was standing right about where that girl is down there. That's why we had to move things around.  Still don't know why.  It turns out, shards of plastic really can cut through jeans.  Sammy and Nick are the best ones so far.  Did you see them?"


Laney is as much a part of the rigging as the cables.  Yet, somehow, she's still able to move, nimbly avoiding catastrophe with every step and efficiently do her job.  She doesn't even seem to be looking where she's going-  Not until Sarah's question.

"Help?"

She looks down, very far down, catches sight of Sammy again and sways.  

Sarah wasn't entirely sure what would happen if she tried to port Laney when she was wound up like that.  Plus it was Laney.  The girl was walking disaster material if ever there was.  Still worst that could happen is ... no, no thinking about worst. 

Sarah suddenly looks apologetic.  "Oh crap.  If this were a movie I would have just told you to not look down right?"  She covers her mouth.  Finally she says, "I'm sorry.  Here.  Take my hand.  I'm an idiot.  If you get one foot braced over there, see I can hold you and you can unhook.  Don't worry.  And don't..."
Oh crap I almost said it again. 
"Uh... maybe if you think about something else?  Like, penguins.  What's their deal anyway?  I mean how did they end up living in the most inhospitable place on Earth.  Were they run out of all the good places?"

"Sorry.  Down.  Yeah. Long way.  Maybe we all started there.  They just didn't have the means to fly away. It's alright. That's one thing that hasn't failed, yet."  She slowly reaches out for Sarah's hand, bracing her foot where? Vertically against a beam. Weird.

"I really need to stop thinking of her in human terms."

"Oh, poor Nick," Sammy murmurs. She puts the ice pack on the lump, and kisses him on the top of his head.  "I hope you don't have a concussion."  She slides down a step so that she can support his weight more comfortably, and wraps one arm around him while the other holds the ice pack firmly in place.

"What?"  he says, "How's there?  I'm fading fast, the world is growing all dark."  he says in his best Bugs Bunny voice.  "I can see a light.  It's,"  his hand comes up, "In my eyes." 

"If you keep cutting up, dude, I won't have any excuse to give you mouth to mouth resuscitation."  Sammy briefly 'hugs' him with her thighs.  "Even so, I'm glad you're all right."

"I could hold my breath until I pass out."  he says, tipping his head back to look up at her.  "Which I'm guessing is no easy feat."  He looks up into the stage rigging.  "I bet if we could convince them to let us make the musical a comedy, we could redo the duet and have the lighting crew keep moving the spot lights.  Us looking down following the lights and singing until we crash into each other, then switch singing parts."

"It moved," Laney says matter-of-factly.  "Sorry.  That one keeps sliding down.  If you get a headache that won't go away all day, go see a doctor.  Or following me.  I can't tell.  It could be cracked. Yeah, with two colors.  That would be cool."

Sammy looks up too.  "Yeah, I can see that.  Why don't we work out the details tonight then hit them with it tomorrow?"

"Huh?  Who?"  Sarah helps Laney clamber onto the catwalk.  Hopefully without too many complications.  "You know, quite often you sound like haikus folded up in origami and stuffed inside a fortune cookie.  Not that it's bad or anything.  I like it.  It's sort of like listening to Koans or something.  What is the sound of one Laney clapping?  I'm sorry I'm babbling a little."

Laney balances on the walk beside Sarah, clutching at her arm.   "I wasn't clapping.  Did you hear- Oh, god, is it that bad?  It's really hard to- I'm sorry.  Thanks.  Sammy.  I don't understand her.  She doesn't move like other girls. Are you alright?"

Sarah gets Laney safe with a solid surface beneath her before puzzling out her words.  "Not bad at all.  Don't worry.  Sammy doesn't move like other girls?"  Sarah looks down at Sammy.  Doesn't see anything unusual.  "Does she walk like a boy or something?  No that can't be right.  She's.. oh.  She's probably just really light on her feet.  Gravity and her have an understanding.  Wow... that must be handy.  I mean.. no weight pulling you down."

"Must be.  Sorry. I mean, where she walks not how.  Although know what you mean.  She steps light.  There are...There are patterns to how people move.  She's different."

"Patterns?  Really?" asks Sarah in a curious tone.  She ponders and looks down on the clutter of teenagers beneath them.  They milled, wandered, danced, skipped, drifted... "I guess everyone has their style of walk... but pattern?  Like some people walk with a certain rhythm or they avoid cracks or walk on the even numbered tiles or something?"

With her hand still resting on Sarah's arm, Laney smiles and whispers, "I...Um...Not exactly.  You can take a room full of people, analyze the paths each person follows.  Do this over and over again, you'll see each person has a routine.  No, that's the wrong word.  I mean, it's true, but it's wrong at the same time.  The same person could go into the same room a dozen times and each time, though you might think it's a predetermined path...Um...I...If you watch a person long enough, you can predict a future path with a high degree of accuracy, taking into account all known variables. Oh, come on!  I just locked that one down.  Does it look loose to you? Take all these predictions, from all these people, and overlap them.  Push them together into the same room.  It's alright, I guess. The auditions are over.  There's a new pattern in that crowded room, Sarah.  Oh, it looks like a tangled mess, but it's not.  Not at all.  And when they're close, they start influencing each other.  So you have to revise your predictions. Harder, but not impossible.   Do this enough times and you'll see, in general, people move the same under certain conditions.  I mean, we're all human, right?  The same drives.   Sammy doesn't.  Not always.  It's...weird.  I'm sorry, Sarah. I didn't explain that well, did I?"

Sarah shakes her head in denial.  "No," she says, "that was a pretty good explanation.  So Sammy messes with your pattern?  Maybe she is the exception that proves the rule?"  Or, y'know, just not entirely human.  "Or maybe... why are you looking for patterns?  Or is that just something you do like how I always eat the broken cookies first before the whole ones?  Well at least when I'm not saving them for Pip."

"You should eat the broken cookies before the whole ones," Laney solemnly agrees.  "Messes?  Not...She's different.  Just as predictable, but different.  I keep letting myself be surprised by that.  I'm distracted.  Sorry.  They're everywhere.  I can't help it.  See?  There's Nick. I shouldn't be surprised.  It's part of her pattern.  But I am.  What's that all about?  Or is my reaction a variable in- Sorry. I liked your cookies."

Sammy looks at Laney (and Sarah?).  "What were you guys doing up there in the catwalks?  I thought the whole mess was going to come crashing down for a moment."

Sammy can see Nick moving his hands, imagining the routine unfold on the stage, humming the tune.  The little comedic wheels turning in his head.

Sammy takes the ice off the lump so that she can lean in closer to watch.  From behind him on the steps she rests her chin on his shoulder.  Her cheek brushes his ear and she whispers, "That's perfect.  You're a genius, you know that, right?"  She turns her gaze back to the other girls.

Sarah sits down and dangles her feet over the catwalk.  "You have so much running through your head.  It's kind of daunting, y'know?"  She looks down between the lights at the stage and all it's players.  "Kind of like when Colin is really thinking about something.  I can't keep up.  I mean I'm not stupid... I hope.  Sometimes the conversations that he and Sylvia or Donnie get into just make me glaze over.  They're quoting from books I've never read and discussing theories I can't understand."  She blinks at that, feeling a bit stupid now. 

She says, "I prefer life a bit more simple and clear.  Not black and white because that only works for Oreos but I definitely am pretty good at not over thinking matters.  Uh.. where was I going with this?  Oh right, I meant to ask.. with all this absorbing of details and examining patterns... is it mentally draining or is it like extreme clarity?"

OOC: Sorry Kat - The Laney - Sarah conversation is occuring in a time bubble when the performances are still going on down below.  I think the time streams will merge soon...

OOC:  NP.  I only started the thread to see how something would play out, if it plays out at all.  I'll just go wait in my happy place.

((It's probably Sarah is there, too.  Can't be sure she doesn't TP away to escape the weirdness.))

"Oh!  Sorry."  Laney flushes pink and mumbles something about a clamp coming loose.

Sarah looks at the light and makes sure a safety cable is attached.  And double checks that Laney is as well.

Laney crouches beside Sarah so her knee presses against the girl.  She stares vacantly at the darkness above them.  

"I'm not a genius or anything, Sarah.  Good at guessing things and...and my mom wouldn't let me not do well in school.  She was a real hardass sometimes.  Maybe because I screwed around too much.  Sorry.  I didn't ever think I'd be um...daunting, you said?  Funny.  I don't understand most of the shapes and things that run through my head.  Things on my mind.  They're really hard to ignore.   I see patterns in everything.  I can't not see.  Wrong word to use.  See.  I don't see.  I'm....I'm aware.  That's a good word.  Aware.   Yeah, that clamp's gonna fail.  I thought I was crazy.  Well, I might be, but that's not why I see them.  Maybe.  Sorry. I always think I sound like an idiot.  That's kinda cool.  Thanks.  Not draining.  Distancing.  Why?  Is it like that when you travel?  Do you see where you're going before you're there?"

Sarah says, "Right now I mostly need to see where I'm going.  If I take a little while and focus I can get a feel for where I'm going.  I can't see it or anything.  I just know where it is... sort of.  I mean if I haven't been in the area before or studied google streetview or something I could probably screw up.  Supposedly I'm going to get a lot better and travel a lot farther, without looking.  It's to do with meditation and focus which I'm not really good at."

She looks at the clamp in question, not really seeing anything wrong with it but taking Laney's word for it.  "I'll go get another clamp real quick.  I think there are some in the equipment room right?"  She pauses and asks, "Want to come along?"  

"I guess meditation and focus are cures for everything.  Geez.  You'd think grown-ups could come up with something more interesting ways to slow us down.  You must have maps for this entire state memorized by now, huh? Have you ever messed it up?  Like landed somewhere you didn't want to be?"


"Sure!  I'd better fix it now.  And I want to say hi to Sammy before she flies out of here. It'll fall on my head later."  Laney giggles and slowly stands, lightly touching a crossbeam with her outstreched hand.  Just like that, she again seems to belong to the environment like another fixture, with that bizarre sense of balance.

Sarah reaches out and takes Laney's hand.  "Ready?  Set... " *poit*

The equipment room is dimly lit by the scraps of light coming in from backstage.  Sarah smiles and turns on the light switch.  "I'd travel everywhere like that if I didn't worry about getting a big butt from lack of exercise.  Oh and I've never missed.  I think with this power it's really important not to misjudge your destination.  Showing up halfway through a wall... or even just a pane of glass sounds pretty final to me."

In the equipment room, while her companion speaks, Laney does not react to the words and does not move.  She dully stares at nothing, expressionless, locked in her own mind where all her senses still inform her she's on the catwalk.

Then she becomes aware of the presence nearby...

Her vision is the last to catch up.  It expands, and Laney sees a room she's been in a few dozen times.

Blinking repeatedly, she says in a mild voice, "That was weird," and timidly smiles at Sarah, whose hand is now in a sweaty death grip.

Sarah nods to Laney, and says, "Weird is awesome compared to my first jump."  She heads towards a bin that looks likely to have spare lamp parts and stops short.  She looks back and realizes Laney is still very attached... and moist.  "Um... ow?"  She points with her free hand at their connection.  "I'm sorry I didn't even think about it.  Did I fry a circuit?"

Laney automatically replies, "I'm alright, thanks."  She looks down, "Oh! Sorry," and detaches her hand.

Sarah may be going towards the bin, but Laney walks right out of the room...eventually coming up behind Sammy...

[OOC:  I think that lines that up...]

Sammy looks up at the place where she saw them and winces a little bit at the idea of another falling lamp.  "So you guys are both in stage crew now?"  Her arms are still draped around Nick's arms, her chin is still on his shoulder.  She seems as comfortable with that arrangement as he does.

OOC: Hurrah!  Time bubble popped... or deflated.. whatever happens to those things.  Kat get outta yer happy place! 

IC:

Sarah grabs one of the clamps and turns around... Now where did she go?  I hope I haven't broken her.  Still that's the longest conversation we've ever had so it went pretty well I think.  Probably not ready for Dragon Ball™ yet. 

She grabs a few tools before hopping back to the catwalk and carefully replacing the clamp on the lamp.  She attempts to put it back in roughly the same alignment, angle, etc. 

Mission accomplished she whistles a happy tune and steps up onto the guard rail.  Putting one foot in front of the other she walks along over the stage beneath as far as she can before her balance starts to wobble. 

Whoops!

She tilts outwards over empty air and starts to fall towards the stage before vanishing with a small noise. 

Laney stares down at the tangle of limbs - or past them.  Anyone's guess.
It's like a jigsaw puzzle.   I really need to stop thinking of her in human terms.  Who cut them that way?

"Running wires.  Crew, yes.  Whatever needs doing. What was the first time like?"

It might not be very visible, but Nick can surely feel Sammy's arms spasm slightly at the question, but it's more of a "pull-in closer" response than a "run away" one, even if both hint she is seeking some kind of protection.  "First time?  For what?  Do you mean on stage?  We performed together back in December for the Winter show.  Or do you mean this act?  He kind of surprised me when he switched our parts at the last minute, but I knew his part well enough to be his straight man.  It was fun."

Nick looks up at Laney, and rolls his head back further to look at Sammy.  "Is this one of those girl talks that started last Thursday, and is resuming?  It would explain why I don't seem to know what she's talking about.  Of course, it doesn't help explain why you don't."  Nick looks up at Laney again.  "I remember you now, you're the girl I invited to the film fest.  For no reason that I can put my finger on now."  He smiles and scratched his head, "Which would be a funny joke, if I honestly remembered why.  Were you wearing something sexy?"

Sammy's body gets very tense.  She could snatch him up and fly away at any moment, or she could flit away so quickly that he falls and his head cracks again on the stairs this time.  She doesn't say a word.

Laney turns that pretty shade of pink again, terribly embarrassed she'd asked that question in the wrong context.  Not only had she been speaking to Sarah (who may not be present, yet?), but she was also referring to Sarah's paranormal ability, which isn't something Laney meant to bring up in front of Nick like that.

She feigns a smile and nods.  "It was fun to watch.  Like you were made together and flipped over.  The back is the same as the front. So it works.  Is it hard?"



"No. Yes.  I don't know.  Was I?  Sorry.  What happened Thursday?"

In his bugs bunny voice, "She's silly.  I like her."  Nick says pointing.  "Makes me think she could be held up through the mail."  Then he looks at her.  "The back is the same as the front."  Sammy knows the tone, it's an idea forming in his head.

"Uh huh," are Sammy's only words.  Her arms slide off him as she moves back and up several steps.  She turns sideways and wraps her arms around her knees, pulling into a tight little huddle.  The urge to fly is getting stronger, but she fights it off by crooning another one of the show's songs very softly to herself.  The cold pack lies abandoned on a step below.

Laney stares right back at Nick, and if his own internal scheming allows his brain to register what he sees in those widened eyes he would see precisely that:  back to front.  He would see a transparent reflection of Sammy (who has crawled a little ways behind him in reality) overlaying his own crystalline image.

"Male? I don't understand. Sorry.  Do you like surprises?  You adapt amazingly well to them."  She smiles a little more sincerely this time.

Nick scrambles around and up some steps to squat opposite Sammy, eyes wide.  "There's a duet in the middle where the two star crossed lovers are on separate sides of a set piece and sing about each other, blah. blah.  It's a good number, but if we can get them to let us do the whole thing comedy style, then we should be strapped back to back, and tug each other around the stage when the other is singing.  Or maybe a cable between us, the song has something about heart strings in it.  We could maybe get the costume department to do something crazy like a half and half, so that you have the dress on one side, and with my back to you, that side facing the audience I have a suit.  But, turn us so our other sides face the audience and I have the dress and you have the suit?"  His eyes are alive with possibilities.  "It'll mean we'd have to essentially get a total rewrite of the play, but Greg is a sucker for a rewrite.  You think we could pull it off?  I mean, you're funny but let's face it looks aren't everything."  he grins at her.

Sammy had been singing the heart strings song to herself.  She stops when he moves next to her.

She nods.  "Only if you promise not to be too much prettier than me.  I know it'll be a struggle.  Can you handle that?"

Nick fluffs his hair and puts on his Marlene Deitrich pout and accent, "Vewy well my love.  If you insist."

Sammy laughs at him, knowing that's what he wants.  "I insist, dahlink." 

"So I take it you and I won't be watching movies and pigging out on chinese carryout tonight, since you're going to be busy selling your idea to Greg?"

Nick waggles his eyebrows, "I could sell if tomorrow if there is a chance to veg on the couch with you and watch movies."

"That was the plan," Sammy says, gently poking him in the chest with her index finger.  "At least that was my plan.  I was going to let you pick the movies and the screen," she allows.  "So if you want to invite Greg, just to talk it out -- because I know it'll drive you to distraction until you let your idea loose into the world -- go ahead.  I'll be the warm body next to you falling asleep on your shoulder while you two talk deep into the night."

"Date."  he says, leaning forward to kiss her.  "I need to go.  I promised a girl some movies."  He gets up, "Nice remeeting you Laney."  he says, tipping an imaginary hat and exiting.

"Later."  Sammy waggles her fingers at him as she watches him leave.  Then she stands up, stopping to adjust a shoelace.

"Um...yeah."  Laney waggled her own fingers in a wave goodbye at Nick's retreating form, almost in sync with the other girl.



She watches the shoelaces woven and twisted for no reason she could fathom, and she says softly, "I wouldn't let whole mess come crashing down on you, Sammy."

Sammy looks up, and there's an undefined but very intense emotion in her eyes that is quickly shuttered behind a more placid expression.  "You mean Nick?  Its all right.  He and El both know about each other, and for now at least they accept it.  If it gets to be unstable, I'll adjust.  I always do, even if it hurts."  Dissatisfied with the initial adjustment of her laces, she unties the knot again and redoes it.

A not at all falling Sarah steps out from behind a curtain and hops over to Sammy & Laney. 
"Hi Sam.  Funny stuff.  I liked the thud Nick made.  Was that acting or is he concussed?"
She looks over at Laney and gauges her for clarity, focus and general well being.  "You vanished from the room.   Ooh!  Can you mimic powers cause that'd be awesome!"

Starts humming Anything You Can Do. 

“I meant the stage lighting,” she murmurs, dropping down near Sammy to crawl closer on her hands and knees.

“I don’t think you need to adjust it as much as you think you do.” 

Frowning slightly, Laney reaches out to lay her hand lightly over Sammy’s fidgeting.  “Try a different way.   You’d think the same way would work for them all, but it’s not true.  It’s alright.  Some are just made from different material and you can’t expect the same knots to hold.”



Laney sits up, smiles at Sarah.  "Invisibility would be awesome."

Sammy tugs and twists the strings.  "Oh.  The lights.  I noticed you and Sarah up there, that's all.  No big deal."




Sammy looks up from her shoe.  "Hi Sarah.  Yeah, the thud was real.  He has a bump on his head, but I think he'll be all right.  I'll check on him later and make sure."

"Well at least you can get him to the hospital in a hurry but he seemed pretty okay when he left," Sarah says to Sammy.  She turns to Laney, "Invisibility would be kinda cool but I'm certain I'd get into trouble.  I mean I'd just get stomped on or slammed into.  I don't need that.  You were totally right about that clamp.  It was messed up.  I replaced it but I don't think I have it pointing in quite the same spot you had it.  Does that matter?"

Sammy looks back and forth between Sarah and Laney.  "Uh-oh.  It's contagious." 

She stands up and stretches, then looks back at Sarah.  "Oh.  Wow.  I just remembered.  Sorry.  I owe you a distance trip, don't I?  Things kind of--"  she makes a strange gesture with her hands, like she's trying to catch Humpty Dumpty but can't "--fell apart, and I forgot.  Sorry."

Sarah waves off Sammy's apology.  "Don't apologize!  No sooner did I promise to go on one with you then I turned around and jetted off with Donnie.  I bailed and then I fell into a slump.  I just..."  She fades off and shakes off the notion of talking about what she just was. 
"Let's plan for March or April when the weather starts getting a little nicer for a road trip."

Sammy shrugs.  "OK."  She's slightly disappointed, but she'll get over it.  "Then you won't be mad if I somehow go to Florida alone?  Or find myself in Southern California?"

She'll have to trust these things will be worked out.  They are, after all, not her shoelaces.

Laney withdraws her hands, using them to pull her knees up to her chest as she chats amiably, "Ooo, I've been to Florida once!  I got to pet a real dolphin! You can't tell sometimes.  The headache sortof creeps up on you, then it hits hard and won't go away.  I'm really sorry about that.  I completely forgot until Sammy said something. Nice to be able to go anywhere and no one would bother you, though.  I think it'd be worth the risk.  I didn't mean to leave you with the job. Just keep an eye on him.  It doesn't matter, now, but thanks, Sarah. California has dolphins, too, doesn't it?"

Sammy blinks, and counts on her fingers.  Three?  Four?  Five?  How many topics is she juggling?

Sarah crumbles easily at the chance for travel.  "Well, if you're going anyway... I mean it's not like we can't get there really quickly with just the two of us.  I mean I can port us while we're flying.  With Donnie it was one or the other... with both of us," Her hand flies across in front of herself in a rocketing gesture.  "I'm gonna need a warmer jacket."

Sammy nods again.  "I'll find out where El got my flight suit.  You'll probably want something like that too, if not today, someday.  It keeps me pretty warm, which is good now that I haven't been travelling with John on Saturdays.  It looks good too."  She cracks a grin.  "And its not like I plan on going to places; lately I've just been kind of pointing myself in a direction and stopping where I want to stop, wherever looks interesting.  So I might be going there anyway, but not on purpose unless you go too."

Laney watches the girls' faces from below, back and forth her head turns as each speaks.  Until Sarah makes that gesture and Laney's eyes track the motion...and keep going as if locked in the trajectory of the imaginary rocket.

OOC:   Squirrel! 

IC:
"Flight suit?"  How much will that cost?  No big deal.  Just run some errands and you'll get it covered soon enough.  Easy Peasy if Colin's little summer tattoo plan works out.

"Flight suit.  I thought you had seen it?  No?  Another time.  I don't have it with me today, it's at home."  Sammy waves her hands dismissively.  "You can come see it whenever, and if you like it, we can ask El to get you one.  He'd probably be glad to hear somebody reliable would be travelling with me.  He worries."

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking about me with a flight suit.  Sorry, had the 'it's all about me' option enabled in my brain.  I'm good for traveling.  I'm like an emergency parachute."

Sarah leans over to look at Laney staring off into space.  "Laney?  Want to go grab a coffee or something?"

"I don't need an emergency parachute as much as a tether that'll remind me when I've gone far enough and should turn around to go home."  She traces a line in front of her.  "Or maybe a huge Invisible Fence."

Laney smiles happily, still looking past the crowd.
"Invisibility would be awesome.  Huh?  I'm not allowed coffee.  It messes with- Something would be good.  Sure! I don't think I own anything sexy."

Sammy blinks.  Is she still talking to Nick?

Sarah snickers at the notion.  "We'll just plant the lines a few hundred miles out in every direction and make you wear a special collar all the time."  Wow, Sammy's considering me as the one to say it's time to go home?  Does that mean she trusts me to be sensible or is she hoping that I wont be or maybe just that I'll at least say stop if we come to an ocean. 

She asks Laney, "Maybe a root beer then?  You can catch up on all the conversations along the way if you like." 

Something throws Laney into such a giggling fit, she doubles over, hugging herself as she fights to breath.

"Collar...Stop when you...when you want to stop...catch up...Nevereverever!"

Sammy starts to say something before Laney busts up, but stops before a word comes out.  She looks at Laney, looks at Sarah, and shakes her head in confusion.  "I think I missed the joke."

"Maybe she got the same visual in her head that I did... You flying at the invisible fence line and lighting up like you ran into a bug zapper." 

Sarah shrugs and offers Laney a hand up.  "C'mon Giggles."

"Aaaah. Just call me Mothra.  Maybe Sylvia and her sister can sing to me."  She starts walking toward the exit doors.

Laney blindly accepts the assistance and stumbles down the stairs.  Garbled sorries, sniffles, and latent giggles gradually taper off.

"That was the most amazing thing ever!  Root beer.  Sammy have time to go, too?  Before chinese. Will you take me flying again?"

Sammy almost stumbles, but catches herself before its bad.  "I can't," she says.  "Too many conflicts.  Bye."  She double-times it to her locker.

“Alright, Sammy.  Maybe next- “   

Laney turns in time to see Sammy’s swift departure.  She grabs at Sarah’s arm and whispers anxiously, “Oh, you don’t think she thought I was laughing at her, do you?!  I- She reminded me of-  When shapes pile up wrong they-  Oh, hell!  She was really worried about Nick.  She was talking about instability.   Is Elrod a pilot?”

Sarah holds her hands up in the time out gesture.  "Relax, you're jumping to conclusions.  Or something...  Anyway don't worry about all that.  Sammy is fine.  Also she is Sammy which means that sometimes we mere mortals are not meant to understand the workings of her mind."  She holds up her finger before Laney starts pondering that last comment.  "That was just an amusing expression don't read into it or follow it down any trails."

She almost points but remembers what happened last time and doesn't want to lose Laney again.  "Now we go to enjoy beverages."  She looks around and waits until the few left after rehearsal are sufficiently distracted before putting her hand on Laney's shoulder and *zwip* to the back alley of the Tasty.  

"It's just something she said.  My timing...Words don't process the way they should.  It makes me terrible with people sometimes. Sorr- "  Laney just smiles.

The smile remains frozen on her face for a full minute while she waits for the world to appear the way it appears to everyone else.  Mostly.   Wrinkling her nose at the smells, she begins animately exploring the alley, poking into corners and garbage, following cracks in the asphalt which lead her nowhere. 

"Nope.  This way.  I didn't bring you to study urban crud accretion.  You'll have to do that on your own time."  Sarah leads Laney into the Tasty. 

They find a comfy spot away from drafts and Sarah hands over a menu.  "Choose yer poi.. whatever you'd like.  My treat."

Laney scoots herself as close to the wall as possible, going to far as to press her side against it.  She takes one glance at the menu and snaps it closed, sliding it away and bowing her head to physically pull her gaze down.

"Root beer!  I meant to ask what the first time was like.  And if you insist, then next time it's my treat."

Sarah wonders if she'd missed Laney asking about it before somehow.  Possibly.  "Terrifying.  Well okay technically the jump wasn't scary at all but the situation was.  I'd just been pushed off a rooftop to fall to my death."

She looks at the menu but passes on food for now.  "I'm going to have a root beer float.  Ice cream is happiness."

"Happiness."  She nods.  "You didn't float, huh?  It was like instinct then because you didn't know you could do it?  I'm glad you didn't die.  That would've sucked.  Funny how things work out."

"I thought Colin had saved me somehow.  Did you want ice cream in your root beer?" 

"Oh, yes,yesplease! Colin pushed you?" 

Sarah goes up and gets their drinks and comes back with two, foam dripping down their sides. 

She drops a handful of straws on the table.

While she jabs one straw against the table to make it poke out of the wrapper she answers Laney, "No silly.  Colin did not push me.  The evil witch girl Jane did."  She goes on to roughly explain events leading up to Chapter 34 Back Home (Once More With Feeling) Reply #16...  while poking holes in the ice cream with the straw and sucking on the rootbeery foamy goodness.

"...and then she hit me with some soft of magical telekinesis or something and boom, over the edge I went." 

OOC: You have absolutely no idea how long it took me to find that!   

((Appreciate it!))



Laney fixes her starry eyes on Sarah while she listens.    She stops sucking on her drink when she feels the roof of her mouth might have become permafrost.  Even so, she continues to chew on the plastic stem; her foot taps incessantly, powered by the cool rush of sugar.

When Sarah’s tale comes to a lull, Laney observes with a lopsided grin, the straw trapped between her teeth, “Wow.  And I thought I was f*cked in the head.”

“Was it easy to figure out how to do it again?   Wrong word.  Push.  Sorry.  You guys really didn’t know you could do that before?  Not even a hint?  That must’ve been scary.  I mean, everything normal.  Then suddenly everything’s not.  It’s better with ice cream.  Thanks.”

"I don't know what the right word would be actually.  There's no manual of instructions.  Morph..."  Do I really want to talk to Laney about the voice in my head?
"Uh.. Someone I talk to about this stuff said I would get a lot better at it in time.  I'm trying meditation to help me focus but it's really hard.  I'm kind of easily distracted.  I mean sometimes I can totally focus on something but other times it's like total space case." 

She takes another drink of sugary bliss before adding,

"Oh and you are not F#&%@$! in the head.  You are definitely different though.  Have you always been uh, different?"

"Better in time...You got that story, too, huh?  It helps to have someone like that.  To ask questions, I mean.  Even if they don't know the answers.  You're probably better at it than anyone.  Space I mean.  Because you have to be.  Figuring things out like that, you must be really good at math, too."


Laney smiles.  It's a beautiful smile, sparking with affection and gratitude.

It also causes the straw to drop from her lips, flip out of her glass, and spray muddy-looking syrup across the table.

"Sorry!"  Her hand snakes out to grab the projectile.

"Yes. No. I don't know.  Always. No? Someone happened and I...Um...I didn't know I wasn't crazy.  No one did.  Worse since I came back to school.  Can't go back now.  It's not like it was. And I'll get better! I just need more napkins."

Sarah shakes her head.  "I am exactly the opposite of good at math.  Is there such a think as an anti-mathematician?  I don't figure anything out really I just have to put myself where nothing else is."  Sarah pauses and stares off into space now. 
"Well when I think about it like that it does seem pretty complicated?"  Oh god am I going to start second guessing or trying to analyze my placement and wondering about terrain and vectors and all that other stuff?  No.. stick with the simplicity.  Maybe somewhere deep inside my head a tiny unknown part of me is doing some really fancy math models to jump around.  If it doesn't want to be disturbed I'm not going to mess with it.


Sarah just starts chuckling happily and scoops some napkins out of the holder for Laney.  She helps with the table clean up.  "Take all the napkins and time you need.  I think you will get better but what is the definition of better?"

OOC: Closed?

I sent a PM yesterday about it.  It can be closed if the other players find that acceptable.

Motley and OS were the active parties.  Unless OS has something more to add, I think its okay to close it up.