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Sylvia's easy to catch.  She's drifting down the corridors of the school with a smile on her face as if her world has suddenly become a Technicolor musical.  She turns to face Sammy with something a little harder than joy in her eyes--the jubilation of someone who fears everything's going to fall apart around here any minute now.  "What's up?  Are you guys off to save the day?"

"Sort of.  Donnie would never forgive us if we let you walk into traffic, so I'm going to keep you company until Mitzi gets here, ta daaa."  Sammy quickly matches step with the other girl, then looks around.  Wasn't Laney headed this way too?  Talk about needing to keep someone from wandering into the path of a moving car.  "What kind of cookies are you going to make?"

"If Mitzi helps, jam thumbprints.  If she doesn't help, chocolate chip.  Easy as pie," Sylvia says, "but easier."

She stops.  "You'll be okay, right?  You'll be okay dealing with Strange?  You've got this?"

Sammy's smile flickers, but she glues it back on.  "Uh, sure.  The mannequins and photographs change things though.  A little too creepy, you know?  I hope Jack will be able to come up with a useful idea."

"Of course he will," Sylvia says, her faith in grown-up humanity restored.  "That's what Jack's for, to look out for us, to keep us safe.  That's what superheroes are for, right?  And it's a trickle-down hierarchy, a pyramid scheme.  He looks out for you guys.  You guys look out for me."  She pauses.  "But that's where it ends.  At least until I have kids, I guess.  So I have--what?  Ten?  Fifteen more years left of being a victim, a hostage, an innocent bystander.  A witness?  The president of your fan clubs, the leader of your secret militias?  I'm good.  I'm ready to go.  Let's do it."

[Watching Fight Club.  Maybe that explains the dialogue, eh?]

"You crazy, girl."  Sammy laughs.  "Do you know how lucky you are?  You can just walk away from all this any time you want, but you keep hanging around.  I'm jealous."

Sammy and Donnie sweep past Laney, who is meandering down the hall in that mindless way of hers.     

While the implications surrounding Dr. Strange are ominous – no, downright criminal – they aren’t what Laney is focusing on.   Hearing that Sammy was receiving counsel from the man summoned a shadow of the peace Laney had experienced this morning, when she was nestled securely in her perfect place.  It’s a strong link, one in a pattern she is part of.   Chances are she can resolve this, untangle and make sense of things, if she can isolate more threads…She’s overtaken by a craving to see Strange again – just to look at him - right that instant, and dissect his connections with the world. 

Only after convincing herself she’d accomplish more by analyzing his notes and signature from her school paperwork at home, does the sudden pressure ease and Laney’s calm return.   She’s in a hallway she doesn’t recognize and has no idea what time it is.

Sylvia. Damnit.

Resting her rear on a window ledge, Laney bows her head over her neon green sliver of a cell phone and sends four texts.

To Dave:
can u c who strange meets ea wk in op ?

To John:
sry. wantd to c u.      aftr skl ?

To Colin:
coincidences.    y syl ?

To Sammy:
syl stil ther ?

Still where? Her guilt is audible.  With a pained groan, Laney stands again and starts walking…that-a-way.

"It must be the excitement," Sylvia admits, because she can't think of any other reason.

"Look," she says, remembering something as if from another life.  "I don't know if anyone else is ever going to thank you for all you've done, but thank you.  I thank you, on behalf of everyone who never gave a thought to what their life would be without you.  It's because of you that I can just--"  She waves her arms, tossing through the infinite.  "--be a cheerleader, bake cookies, be fourteen.  Because you're out there, doing what you can.  It's just, that's important.  If I'm hallucinating, if this is a dream, it's still important that you know that it matters."  She's dead serious.  Some things are even more urgent when reality as you know it is doing the twist.

Sammy looks up sharply and takes a step back, away from Sylvia.  Her eyes are wide.  "Two," she whispers."That's two."  Just then her phone lets her know she got a message.


Sammy's hands jingle Elrod's keys as she reaches past where they are hanging to get her phone.  Keys.  He's in class now?

Yes.  I think.

She thinks??  Oh, hell.  Worried Sylvia might have been left alone, Laney hastens her pace.  Rounding a corner (inside or out) she skids to a halt, a hair’s breadth from colliding with Sammy.

“Sorry!  Hi.  Ssoo…Maybe you’ll get another free day off, Sylvia.  I should thank you for giving me an excuse for skipping classes this morning.”  She giggles nervously as Sammy's text message takes on new and unpleasant connotations.  “Are you feeling better?”

Sylvia nods, eyebrows pinched with worry.  Whatever's going on, she's giving them a reason to distrust her.  "Yeah, I'm fine.  Better than fine.  How are you?"

"Better than fine...To be honest, you kinda surprised me with that Strange business.  I don't know...It sortof fits, now. Not sure why."   Her eyes trace a crack in the ground at her feet; she doesn't dare look up.  John would have said something if he'd seen an injury or a tumor...Wouldn't he?

"What happened?"

Sammy seems distracted.  Her hand reaches up to nervously rub at the tattoo on her collarbone.  I'm not sure either one of you are really here.  Why did both of you thank me?  Its like you were listening in on my session with Strange this morning.  Its weird, like, like a dream.  She turns to read a notice posted on a hall bulletin board, then closes her eyes, counts to five, and tries to read it again to see if it says the same thing twice.

"I barely remember," Sylvia says, trying to wave off the inquiry.  "It was probably just something I ate."

But guilt besets her.  What if she's not hallucinating?  What if this isn't an alternate dimension?  What if these are her friends and buddies, all under the effect of some--and she's not even going to think the word, so she goes with "conviction"--some conviction that things are not the way Sylvia remembers them.  If it were Sylvia and Sylvia alone, she'd let it go.  She'd leave it alone.  She'd stay here for as long as she could and hope that the rest of her life played out like a dream of being rescued, of being safe--no more near-death experiences, no more delving into the murk of the soul.

But if something's happening to all of them and she's the only one who remembers how things were, how things are supposed to be, then she has to find out.

She digs in her tote for Logan's phone.

Sylvia gets a text from Mitzi.  At the office, where are you?

Then Sylvia can see the nurse in the hall, near the offices.  You'll be happier.  Don't you want to be happy?  It's the sound of telepathy, but Sylvia isn't hearing them on her own, the Nurse is broadcasting them to her. 

Be right there.


Sylvia's face falls.  Her expression turns bitter.  That was dumb.  That was really dumb, she tries to answer.  You could have just let me go on doubting myself.  I would have been happy to do so.  Now you've left me no choice.

She doesn't even take Logan's phone out of her bag, only thumb-types an SOS with one hand.

need hlp

nurse stole pwrs

frenz think nothin wrong

u2?

You're still not sure.  None of your friends remember you having powers.  Now be a good girl before everyone forgets who you are.  Take your happiness.  Or get nothing. And then she's not there anymore.

"Food allergies can cause all sorts of problems, but that's not what I was referring - " Laney scowls and raises her head, fixing her gaze on those stains on Sylvia's shirt rather than the girl's face.  Laney's scowl makes her look something like an angry hamster: no matter how much the little furry thing squeals and bares its tiny teeth, you still want to laugh.  

She's polite enough to pause while Sylvia reads her message from Mitzi, then repeats, "That's not what I was referring to, and you know it."

Sammy turns away from the notices, back toward Sylvia and Laney.  "Are you wondering if she's pregnant?  Alicia says no."

“No, I’m talking about the psycho singing routine in the cafeteria.  She’s the one who suspected Strange was up to something, it was her idea to send Sarah to check his house, you find her on the floor after meeting Strange, I think it was hers to ask that Jack guy about him, and – on a personal note – I would’ve been in deep sh*t with Jean when she finds out I skipped school this morning, but now I won’t be.   Sylvia just gave me an excuse.   Don’t you see it?   There are two constants in every one of these  – I’m sorry.  I can’t explain.

“It is your problem, Sylvia.  It is.”

"Actually, I think its my problem.  What made you guys thank me out of the blue?  Because," Sammy takes a deep breath, "That's what I was talking to Strange about today.  About feeling unnoticed, unappreciated, taken for granted by the unwashed masses at school."  She points at Laney.  "You were the first.  One.  Then Sylvia did it.  Two.  From nothing really expected to two in what, 45 minutes? an hour?  Doesn't that seem weird to you?  Or were you guys eavesdropping?"

"You?"  The suggestion sends Laney reeling - almost literally.  She leans against the nearest wall, switches a few variables around...

"How is that out of the blue, Sammy?  You made Sylvia sick?  I don't...Are we the unwashed masses?  But I was there.  I saw it.  So was Sylvia.  Don't you remember the circle?  Should I not thank you for saving me from harm?  That was the first time I'd seen you since Tuesday.  It...doesn't make sense... I mean it does.  I understand some people want to be famous, but that's different from being appreciated.  You think we don't notice?"

"I made the circle.  I remember the sick feeling in my stomach very well.  This," Sammy half turns away.  Her voice drops, and the words come out grudgingly.  "This is something that's been going on longer than that, that and some other smaller things.  What happened last week just brought it more into focus, so I used it.  I had to give him a problem that was true so he'd pay attention to me.  And then,  right after I stalk out of his office because he pissed me off, I find Sylvia, then you, and I start getting thanked.  You guys are on the inside, so maybe its not so weird, and I'd like to believe at least the insiders are sincere, but it feels staged to me."  She jingles the keys at her waist.  "And for some weird reason, I never realized until now that El was in a class while I was at lunch."

Sylvia finishes her SOS and, more subdued, turns back to Sammy and Laney.  What can she do?  The nurse--and who is this fucking psycho anyway?--has a hold on them, and if Sylvia leaves the script too obviously, the nurse will do something more overt, and damaging.  Siccing John on them comes to mind.

Come to think of it, Logan is smart; she could dump this in his lap and hope for rescue.  But Laney's right.  "It is my problem."  Powers or no, she can't ever go back to being who she was.

"Do you trust me?" she asks the other two.  "No matter what you remember about who I am, do you trust me?"

"As much as I trust any hallucination," Sammy replies.  "I'm not at all certain that any of us are really having this conversation, and that I'm not sitting in Strange's office under hypnosis, exploring my 'feelings'."

"Then either help me or stand back, but please, don't stop me."  Sylvia heads for the nurse's office, reaching into her bag as she goes.

Laney zealously shakes her head (a mistake, because she almost slips down the wall).

She tries to explain coherently, but instead babbles, “El’s a senior.  Doesn’t he eat in the other – Wait.  It was your idea to check Strange out?   You sent Sarah to his house?  I mean, she is – or you are – right.  Sarah found some…things that I – Oh.  Sorry.  You were going to talk to Strange, anyway.  I get it.

“Um…Thank yous would’ve come regardless, Sammy.  Self-evident.   I would’ve reacted to you like that if I had met you in the lunch room, instead.  But if you’re just now recognizing coincidences, then um…get used to it around me.    Sorry.  They happen.  A lot.

“Smaller things matter, though.  Can have a big impact.   That does create a link between Hamilton and Strange, through you.  I guess if – "



"Trust?  You’re sick, Sylvia.  We’re worried.  Of course, we trust you.”   She blinks dazedly, trying to cling to this new tangent.



“Where the hell is she going?”   The angry hamster look returns, and Laney balls her little fists and follows Sylvia.

Sylvia heads down the hall and throws open the door to the nurse's office with a plastic cylinder dangling from her finger.  She sights her target, swings the cylinder into the palm of her hand like an urban-commuter gunslinger, and sprays her keychain mace at the nurse's eyes with a look on her face like she's amping herself up for a fight.

"J3sus!" Sammy exclaims, and stops breathing so she doesn't take in any of the mace.  She chases after Sylvia to save the girl from... herself?  Something else?  Whatever.  Donnie would never forgive her if something bad happened to Sylvia on Sammy's watch.

Laney winces and hastily follows Sylvia into the office, intending to apologize and gain the nurse's assistance calming Sylvia down.

Then she recognizes what Sylvia holds - what she raises and aims at the nurse.

She springs towards them both...




http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2103594/
1d20 → [20] = (20)

The nurse screams and her hands come to her face, but what she does with them is unexpected.  Instead of rubbing her eyes she begins to peel the skin off of her face, revealing a withered hag of a woman beneath the smooth pretty exterior that was.  He voice also changes, rising in pitch and gaining a sharp piercing edge to it.  "You little bitch."  she screams, and grabs the thermometer, the wand comes loose and she stabs it outward, but Laney is in the way.

OOC: Need a Will Save from Sylvia and Sammy DC 16.  Laney(motely) will be away from the computer for a while but I should be able to work around that.

(OOC:  Will Save (1d20+2=22) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2103636/) Aha!)

If Sammy has a chance to react, she'll try to slam witchy poo into a wall or the floor with a blast of wind.

Quick, Sammy, get a bucket of water! (1d20+4=17) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2103656/)

Sylvia, not quite sure about Sammy and Laney's states of mind, steps in to krav the hell out of the nurse.

The witch stabs the thermometer into Laney's temple.

OOC: Sammy and Sylvia make attack rolls.

Krav Baba Yaga (1d20=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2103689/)

Sylvia scowls as the witch stabs Laney.  She makes a grab for the thermometer as she jabs the fingers of her other hand at the witch's face.

(OOC: Blast her! Blast her! (1d20+2=17) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2103696/))

A hovering Sammy pushes a blast of air at the witch, trying to slam the old hag into something hard and unforgiving.

Sylvia jabs her fingers into the witches eyes, causing the hag to yank her hands back, releasing the thermometer.  Then a blast of air ripples around the two girls from Sammy, converging on the Nurse and sending her flying backwards into the wall.  With a crash she shatters like a porcelain doll.  The thermometer drops to the floor, as it does it shifts into a gnarled wooden wand.  Striking the ground the wand shatters, and suddenly Sylvia can hear the soft murmur of thoughts around her.  The scene slows for a moment, almost to a stop, and then a second later the three girls are standing alone in the empty nurses office.  No cot.  No desk.  Nothing but the three of them. 

Laney drops to her knees.

"Wasthatpepperspray?

That's probably the only question Sylvia can answer with any certainty at the moment.  The keychain is still in her hand.  "Yes.

"Sammy, am I a telepath?"

Sammy is glaring around, looking for another attack.  "That's an interesting question.  Why don't you tell me?"

Sylvia is staring around the room in adrenalized readiness, too.  She knows witches.  She's fought witches.  They don't just disappear.  "Not helping.  I'm not sure how real reality is right now.  Are you really Sammy?  Am I really awake?"

Sammy's eyes fix on Sylvia.  "OK," she says, "Riddle me this."

I am Sammy.  My boyfriends are Elrod and Nick, but I'm mostly seeing Elrod right now.  I have a horrible crush on John, which is why it almost destroyed me when he kissed me because he doesn't like me back the same way.  Now for the secret part.  He likes Laney because she needs somebody to take care of her.  He likes somebody else too.  Its a secret that nobody else knows but him, so you can ask him.  "Whose image do you see in my mind?"

Sammy is thinking of purple elf Sylvia (from the Halloween party), standing with Uther, Althea, Pip and  Donnie.  A sweaty, grinning, muscle bound John changing out of one blue shirt and into another might momentarily appear too.

"Me.  The dragons.  Donnie."  Sylvia feels some relief that the world is realigning to its usual configuration, but it's not without regret.

"Okay," she says with didactic deliberation.  "I'm going to assume this is really the real, real world.  What was that thing we just took down, and is it still here?"

You're magic, Sylvia says unreasonably, but not irrationally.  Do something!

The room was here.  Now, it isn’t.  She was here.  Now, she isn’t.   Sylvia was a squirrel.  Now, she has pepperspray and is talking about dragons.  Sylvia wasn’t real.  Now she is…is...what?

Laney folds over, resting her forehead on the floor that is – or isn’t.  Just to be sure it is, Laney then rolls onto her side for more contact with her body, her face pressed against the cool tiles. 

Then it’s strangling her; she had no means to stop it: the panic pushes her heartbeat into a frenzied pace.  Her chest aches, and she tries to concentrate on relaxing and breathing through her nose instead of her mouth, until her lips are greyish-blue.  Stay. It'll pass when the room is back. It’ll pass. The floor is still here. See?  Not alone.  Stay. It can’t get worse.  Please don’t faint. Pleasedon’tfaint.

Sylvia watches Laney go down and, not knowing yet if they're safe, blasts out a call--uncalibrated for volume, the way a person talks too loud when their ears are blocked--to John and to Colin.  Nurse's office.  Laney.  We need medical!

Sylvia stifles her exasperation and gives him a fast-forward replay of how they got there.  For all she knows it's a janitor's closet.  Good enough to find us?

When his memory and what Sylvia dumps in his head conflict, Colin gets a headache. Today it's quite awful.

Re-ouch. I hope so. On my way.

He excuses himself and tries to follow her steps.

Sammy plays a game with the air in the immediate area around Laney, changing the pressure and the moisture content until she can see it is easier for the girl to breathe.

"Grab one of her hands, Sylvia.  Talk to her, try to keep her calm.  Did you call John?  What is it with you guys passing out in front of me today?  If John passes out, do we have to wrestle for who gets to check his vitals?  I hear the pulse in the femoral? artery, the one near the groin? usually has a nice strong pulse."

Sylvia kneels, keeping half an eye on their surroundings.  She takes Laney's hand and gives Sammy a smirk.  "If you're not worried, does that mean we're safe?"

Laney gets the Alicia treatment, a heavy, dampening blanket of calm meant to take the sharp edge off of her panic.

"I'm yammering like an idiot, Sylvia, saying any old thing that passes through my mind even if I'll regret it tomorrow.  Assuming there is a tomorrow.  Why should anybody be worried?"  Only then does it become apparent --maybe a dust bunny or a scrap of paper gets stuck -- that Sammy is holding an air barrier around the three of them with the intention of keeping any unwanted visitors out of the room.

Sylvia fights off the snaky twitch of paranoia.  "You're going to let John and Colin in when they arrive, right?"

"Sure.  Should I make them kiss me first, so see if they taste right?"  Sammy says this with a perfectly straight face, her attention still all on the door and the air she's manipulating.

A panic attack is tricky to describe.  The mind may remain rational, if you’ve had one before and are aware that this is a survivable physical response and not a heart attack.  The body is in control, however, and will stop when it’s good and ready to stop – maybe not when you want it to.   Laney is predisposed towards these fits for several reasons I won’t go into right now.  

For this occasion: While the others see a missing desk, a missing cot, a missing nurse…to Laney, the world just did a marvelous back-flip, and a few things fell out of its trouser pockets.   Important things she needs more than most.  Laney hasn’t the breath to tell them what’s happening, but Sylvia’s influence helps her focus on not struggling and keeping her mouth closed.  Over and over, she keeps telling herself silently that she’s alright, nothing’s wrong.   Her friends are here.  They’re safe.  Nothing’s wrong.

The room doesn’t return to normal.   She’s a terrible liar.

"Uh. . . . "  Sylvia has no idea how to answer that question and deems it wisest to stay the hell out of Sammy's complicated love life.  Her attention is on Laney, who's emitting the mental equivalent of staticky FM.  "Laney's freaking out here, and I'm not exactly sure why.  You know her, right?  What's the issue here?  She seemed remarkably lucid until the nurse, and her face, and--yuck."

Colin arrives a the nurses office.  It's been empty the entire year, since the budget cuts have forced the school to cut back on some positions.  John wasn't at the lunch table when Colin got the call, but he's here now opening the door.  Inside are Sammy, Sylvia, and Laney.  

Mitzi comes around the corner and sees Sylvia.  "There you are.  I thought you'd be in the hall."  Then she realizes all is not as it ought to be.  "Did I miss something?"

Sammy drops the protective wall to let John, Colin, and Mitzi in.  She nods to acknowledge their arrival, then  quietly steps out of the room and sits in the hall, her back against the wall directly opposite the door.

John lifts Laney up gently, trying to get her to focus n him.  "Laney, it's me John.  I need you to tell me if you're okay."

Mitzi looks into the room, "Why are you guys in here?  The admin office called and sai you'd gotten sick."  she moves to Sylvia slowly, wrapping her daughter in her arms.  "Are you feeling better, do you still need to go home?"

Sylvia takes a moment to answer Mitzi if only because she's not sure of her senses.  "Mom?" she says, not liking her own uncertainty as Mitzi embraces her.  "Who called you?  Was it a nurse?"

Laney releases Sylvia’s hand after a game of tugowar.

She shakes her head.  Shakes it so much John can’t doubt she’s trying to answer him.  He can watch her eyes rolling about, back behind her eyelids, then to the ceiling, then steady on his face.   Weakly twisting in his arms, Laney does her utmost not to look at the room anymore.   Her breathing evens out in another minute, though it feels longer.    Still, she doesn’t dare look.

Colin is quite worried seeing Laney like that. He opens his eyes to the ghost light and takes a look around.

Are the remains of the wand still there?

He gently takes Laney's hand, as she instructed, and says her name.

"Laney, I'm here. Please tell me what's wrong."

Laney won’t raise her head, won’t look.   She whispers nonsensically, “Where’s Sammy?  Sylvia sprayed her with mace.  Then she broke everything.  She was there the whole time.  Please, I can’t be here.  It’s not mine.”

After Colin and John begin their ministrations, Sammy begins to feel pretty awkward and unnecessary.  At least that's the name she's giving to the feeling.  By the time Laney asks her "Where's Sammy?" question,  Sammy is heading away in the general direction the cafeteria.

Mitzi holds onto Sylvia for a little bit, "The attendance lady in the office.  The same one that always calls when something happens.  I'm starting to dread the sound of her voice."  she says, a little shaky.

John sets Laney down, glancing at Colin, "Keep an eye on her."  and then he's gone, the next second standing in front of Sammy with his hands on her shoulders.  "Not so fast."  he says, looking her over.  "You ok?"

"Mrs. [placeholder:  Pandowski]?"  The rest comes out of Sylvia's mouth in a rush.  She's still young enough that at some level she's convinced her mother's the super-est superhero of all.  "Mom, there was this woman, a nurse.  This morning I got sick while we were checking Dr. Strange out, and when I woke up, I was in this office.  She stuck a thermometer in my head, like through my head, and my powers were gone.  Then I sprayed her down with mace, and she ripped off her face, and she was this old woman.  Sammy blew her back against the wall, like wham, and she disappeared.  Now she's gone, and I don't know if we're okay, or if this is just part two of crazy-crazy."

After shaking John's hand and heading out of the cafeteria, Donnie is trapped by hus English teacher, who wanted to grill him on his most recent essay. Knowing Sammy was with Sylvia made Donnie feel better about not immediately chasing after his girlfriend, so he answered the teacher's question.

There is a blur of movement and a quick whip of wind as Donnie explains an answer, and it takes the blonde teen but a moment to realize that was John heading at full speed. Donnie quickly begs off from his teacher and jogs down the hallway, gearing up for possible problems.

He is at the end of the hall when Sammy comes out of the front office.

OOC: There is nothing in the room at all expect the girls, and drops of pepper spray in the wall and floor (everyone is crying, it's so heart wrenching until you realize it's the pepper spray).

Colin's ghost site shows the world as he expects it to be.  The threads that connect Laney to the world are snapping back into place one by one like they had somehow been disconnected, but otherwise the world seems perfectly normal.

"No no no no, God and Great Spirit, no, this is wrong, it shouldn't be happening." Colin mumbles to himself, as he wraps his arms around Laney and squeezes her.


"Laney, don't let go, don't let go. I'm here. Stay here with me, ok? Stay here with me."


Somehow, through the haze of his worry for Laney, some of sylvia's words reach him.

"She stuck a thermometer in your head and took your powers? Is that what happened to Laney too?" He asks, his voice bordering on panic.

Sylvia nods.  "What's wrong?  Does she need tethering?"

"Something is... cutting her out. You see, she's connected to everything and now... I haven't got time to explain, sorry."

Colin picks Laney up in his arms, and moves to take her out, then stops.

"Syl, I have to take her outside. If your powers work now, please try to find her mind, wherever she is, and link her to me."

He rushes to the security door, gets out, and gently lays her on the grass. He needs some natural ground below him.

Ok, Colin, you already did this once. You can do it. Keep her here. Keep her grounded.

Colin knows that when they touch, Laney can create connections using him as a hub. He saw that once, when they experimented on dice. Whatever the nurse did to her, it wasn't permanent on Sylvia, so he has to hope he can sustain her until it can be countered. He's afraid she literally risks losing her mind, so he going to try to keep her connected.

He takes a deep breath in, and stiks one hand in the dirt, while keeping the other on her chest.

Please, world. I know it's been very little since I last asked you something, but I think you need this girl too, and she doesn't deserve this. Please help me help her.

He wills his finger to become roots, to partake of the essence of the Earth and let it flow into her, to recreate and strengthen her rapidly snapping connections, to keep her centered, whole.

Please.

Sylvia spreads wide the net of her telepathy and tracks the staticky FM of Laney's mind, anchoring herself to Colin as a kind of psychic conduit.

"I'm fine," she says, and wriggles out of John's grasp, knowing he won't dare hold tighter for fear of hurting her, then hovers just a tiny bit so she can get a burst of speed to escape if she wants it.  "Go take care of those two.  The world got screwed up a little, and I need to go see if its normal again."  She stretches her arms expansively.  "See, I'm not sure any of this is real, ok?  And if its not, I need to wake up fast because that'll mean I'm in a lot of trouble."  She floats past John and keeps going in the direction of the cafeteria.

Laney tries holding onto John as she did with Sylvia, but that’s…impossible.   She blindly latches onto the next available target and buries her face in chest.  Her rambling is muffled, “She was. Then she wasn’t.  Now, she is.  We didn’t go anywhere.  Everything else did.  Where?”




She’s exhausted and much less coherent than usual (that may not be saying much), but Colin can feel her tension ease away once she is distanced from the vestige of whatever happened: that room.   

And much like a toddler, Laney opens her eyes wide and reaches up, grasping the air as if she were trying to catch clouds.




Whatever caused the initial severance Laney suffered is gone.  She was tenaciously trying to reintegrate herself and might have succeeded in time, thread by thread, on her own.   At what cost can be debated.   She hasn’t but so much mind left to lose, and reality (for anyone today) is challenging to decipher.

Colin just handed her the Cliffsnotes.

Laney doesn’t say anything at first.  She lowers her arm and rests her hand over his.  Her eyes are very dark when she gazes steadily at Colin, expressionless.    He can see himself reflected in exquisite detail, and the school behind him, and the sky above …

Then her thoughts begin a lively weaving, like a fish skipping upstream through rapids.   No guarantee they make any more sense to Sylvia than they ever did, but they are strong again and seem normal – well, normal for Laney.

“Are Sylvia and Sammy alright?”

Colin just hugs her tightly for a moment.

"Whew." he says, finally letting her go. "You really gave me a scare here, Laney. I'm glad to have you back. I think Sylvia and Sammy are fine, all right might be too strong a word today."

He sends a mental message to Sylvia.

Syl, it's pretty evident we have a problem here. Can you please call the others? I need Donnie to check if there was magic involved, and we have to piece together what exactly happened, since it looks like we can't trust our minds too much, and it would save time if we explain things only once.

Laney clings to Colin with more fervor than he might have expected.  Her chest hitches when she suppresses a sob.

"I don't know what happened.  I don't know. I'm sorry, Colin.  Please, I don't want to go back to her room.  I'm sorry."

She sits back, looks around, and adds matter-of-factly, "We're outside."

Donnie enters the room. "You rang?" At everyone's serious look his quip seems innappropriate. "Sorry. What do you need me to do?"

Sylvia smiles as Donnie makes his timely entrance, but Sarah, Alicia, and Rhys are still having their lunch, presumably.  Sylvia sends out another deafening beacon.  Trouble.

Sammy puts her hands up to her ears and winces, then remembers that won't do any good. "Ow."  She hesitates a moment then keeps moving away.

Back in the lunch room, Alicia winces.

"Puñeta," she curses softly, then drops her lunch and heads out, her ears and nose questing to track where her friends are.

I'm not sure where her friends are. Colin and Laney are outside, and I thought Sylvia was with them, but Donnie mentioned enteringthe room and she was still there, so I'm confused. Did she keep linking Colin and Laney from there, or Donnie and Sylvia are outside too?

[That question is probably best answered by Bill.  I imagine Donnie wouldn't walk blithely past Colin and Laney, in which case he and Sylvia haven't run into each other.  Sylvia's still somewhere with Mitzi.]

[OOC:  I believe Colin grabbed up Laney and ran outside with her.  Sylvia and Mitzi are still inside.  Sammy is still inside, a little down the hall from them, with John.  Donnie passed Sammy and John and made his way to Sylvia.]

Uhm. Let's say then that Sylvia and Mitzi are still in the "nurse's" room, and Donnie went there. Alicia has her own way to track them and decide where to go. Same thing for John. Sammy likely sees Colin and Laney as she flies away. And Sarah... she can pop back wherever she likes. :)


"Yes, we are. And I won't take you back there, don't worry. Do you think you need anything? A glass of water? Would you like to go home?"

It's not hard to track Sylvia down. Alica can hear Mitzi in the room, making her wonder what the fuss is all about.

Heading down the hall, she sees Sammy single-mindedly going the other direction. Alicia skids to a halt and does a 180, catching up to Sammy.

"Sam! What's going on?" she asks, curious and confused.

[retracted]

 OOC: Uh-uh, sister, homie don't play dat. If Alicia had seen/sensed Sammy heading the other direction, she would've stopped and talked. So either Sammy was going another way, or I get to retract the move.

(OOC:  Retract away, brother-man.  She's been going the same way for a page and a half? now, so unless there's more than one way in and out of the office area (not true in my high school, but YMMV), Alicia passed her.  And Sammy's totally freaked out in a quietly single-minded kind of way.)

OOC: Very well. I'll edit the post and we can take it from there.

And FYI, most building have more than one set of stairs, entrances/exits, etc., but as you said, YMMV.

(OOC:  I just remember my admin area being right off the main entrance, and there was only one set of non emergency doors into that admin area; but yeah, sure, the building had lots of stairs and hallways other than that.)

Sammy replies, "Some kind of mind fuck.  That's all I'm sure of.  I can't even say if its over yet.  Sylvia is that way.  I think Colin took Laney outside.  If any of you are really here at all, that is.  The school nurse wasn't.  Or maybe she was, and I just think she isn't anymore.  I don't know."  She starts moving down the hall again, toward the cafeteria.

Alicia looks in the direction Sammy points, but hesitates. In her mental list, she has no doubt of the relative standings between Sylvia and Sammy.

Once again, she catches up to match paces with Sammy. "Okay, you're going to have to explain that a bit better."

Sammy's voice is remote, distracted.  "The school nurse took Sylvia's powers away.  Sylvia sprayed her with mace or something, and her face peeled off.  Then I blasted her hard into the wall when she tried to do something to Laney, and she disappeared.  The thermometer looked like a witches wand then it broke and vanished too.  But I don't know if Strange did something to make me think all of this is true.  I have no idea if I'm still in his office or not, so I'm going to go test the world.  Find something true and real that I can't doubt."  Her forehead crinkles in a frown.  "If Sylvia's real, she needs help.  If she's just a mental construct of mine, then she's trying to protect me, and since that would make you a construct too, you should go help her.  If this is all some kind of game put in my head, then its probably in my best interest to go the other way and try to bust out.  So off I go.  See ya."

OOC: John is letting crazy girl go.

Sammy goes to the cafeteria and looks for the remnants of the Usual Suspects.  Anybody still eating?

Alicia follows Sammy along, mulling over her discourse. School nurse? Since when do we have a school nurse?

She finally works her way through to the last part and calls out, "Hey, Sam!"

She steps in front of Sammy and asks, a frown on her face, "So you're not sure if you're dreaming this? Pftt, that's easy to figure out."

Alicia flicks a clawed finger in front of Sammy's face, making her nose sting. "WAKE UP!!!" she yells at Sammy, pushing her face close then stepping back with a grin on her face.

"Home. Yes!  No.  Are Sylvia and Sammy -  I asked that already.  Sorry.  Wait. N-no.  I want to...to see everyone.  Is that alright?   I want to know what happened.  I guess...the nurse is helping Dr. Strange?  Or...or she just used the moment to...May I go with you to hear what Jack says?"

Sammy scowls and growls.  "Don't do that again.  If you're real, I don't want to really hurt you, and if you're not real, I'm going to remember hurting you which will be just as bad."

She sidesteps around Alicia and mutters, "I'll give you this:  at least YOU are acting normally."

"It's a bit too early to guess. That Sylvia was attacked right when she was investigating on Strange is an interesting coincidence, but we don't know anything for sure yet. We should get together, each one of us has a peculiar way to look at the situation, and every little bit helps. What about the newsroom? So you don't have to go back there. And sure, you can come see Jack too. I should warn you that he's most likely not who you would expect."

He looks back at the emergency door.

"Do you think you can stand now?"

Laney listens to Colin, then nods at the suggestion of the newsroom.  She focuses her energy on standing, rather than speaking, however, because when her hand touches the ground her fingers spread in the grass and she seems to have difficulty pulling away.

Once she's upright, Laney curls her hand around Colin's, smiles timidly, then looks back down at the earth.   She nods again.

Colin leads her back to the school, and then to the newsroom without passing near the "nurse's" room.

Then he sends a message to the others.

Laney and I are in the newsroom. Please come meet us ASAP.

Alicia's grin doesn't diminish in the slightest. "Pfft, as if."


Alicia nods happily, then frowns as another aspect of the situation strikes her. "Were you saying you think the school shrink's is f**king with people's brains for real?"

"Yep.  And I was in his office just before things started going weird.  Sylvia passed out, we all forgot she had powers then she got them back again, the nurse that wasn't there, people thanking me, these keys... so I have to find something to either prove I'm an idiot or prove I'm not being paranoid."

She looks for Greg and Dave and Rob.

Alicia stays where she is as Sammy moves on. Unless she's looking at Alicia's face, Sammy will miss the mirth draining from it, leaving behind a grim expression as memories flit through Alicia's mind. Never again.

She notes Colin's text message and turns to leave without another word.

(OOC:  b/c the gm is going to be gone all day, I'll let this Kat be herded. :)  )

Sammy turns as Alicia is disappearing through the doors.  She's actually behaving sort of normally.  Maybe I ought to stick with her...  I'll find Rob later.  She runs to catch up.  "I just realized that I don't quite know what I'm looking for, so if I'm nuts, maybe these messages are me trying to tell myself something.  I'm going with you."

Alicia glances at Sammy. Her face is cold, but her body radiates heat. Sammy has been around Alicia enough to recognize the signs; she's pissed off, and looking for someone to take it out on.

Alicia nods curtly. "OK." She loosens enough to add, "Colin just sent out a text to meet in the newsroom. I'm assuming it's about all this s**t. If anyone can figure out what's real or not, it'd be him."

Sammy nods.  Colin is just about as good as Rob.  Rob's just less likely to be expected by Strange, but she can save him as a backup.

Alicia stalks into the newsroom. If her feline qualities included a tail, it would be switching back and forth to indicate her tenseness.

"What's going on, Colin?" she asks without preamble.

Laney has wedged herself between a desk and wall, as compact as she can make herself.  When Sammy and Alicia enter, she is either patiently waiting for everyone to show up or sleeping.   It's difficult to tell, until she greets them without opening her eyes.

"Hi."

John comes in and finds a seat.

OOC: Normally Dave, Greg, and Rob do not attend these little get togethers, but if they need to be here they will be.

[Taking liberties.  Will edit if you want, Gordon.]

Sylvia appears in the news room when Donnie does.  She swoops down on Rhys--

"You're sitting in my chair!  Naked!"

--and shoos him out of her usual seat.

Sammy finds a spot on the side of the room where she can watch everybody.

Before Donnie follows Sylvia to the newsroom like the good little puppy of a boyfriend that he is, he sweeps the empty 'nurse's office' to search for magical residue.

if necessary: 1d20+3=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2108258/)  

He runs his hands lightly along the floor and over each wall, ending at a careful search of the doorway. "Doorways are especially useful for making barriers to sight and sound. It's easy to turn a doorway into a magical sieve, since it already has a built in affinity to craft portals, whether making or hiding them. One can, if powerful enough, make portals visible to certain people or groups and others instinctively avoid the portal, not even realizing it's there."  He lectures calmly, as if talking about gravity or other known scientific priciples. For him, the whyfors and myriad forms and rules magic can make, break, or follow are known principles.

Sylvia tags along too closely, still infatuated with the idea of being the plucky girlfriend.  "Are you suggesting that she was here and she sort of attached a pocket dimension to the door, or is that reading too much into it?"

Donnie detects a residue of magic.  From the intensity of the glow, and the pattern of the light it was probably a glamour of some kind, and pretty powerful.  But it's fading fast now, and will probably be completely gone in a few minutes, like it was never there.

"Well, the big problem here is that I have no idea, except that we're under attack. Let me recap. This morning Sammy, Sylvia and Sarah decided to make a move on Strange, who we suspect to have influenced some of his patients to commit crimes. Sarah went to check his house, Sammy went to her appointment with him, and Sylvia stayed outside to eavesdrop telepathically. Then things get blurry. All of a sudden Sylvia gets violently sick, and Sammy calls the nurse to help her. The problem is that this school never had a nurse. This nurse apparently stuck a thermometer in her, cutting her out of her powers and apparently making us all forget Sylvia ever had them. Now, I don't remember a thing about this, but I trust Sylvia's word on this. Sylvia managed to shake off this... conditioning and went to face the false nurse. Sammy and Laney were there too. Apparently this attack made the nurse drop her mask, or at least one of her masks, but after that she disappeared. In the struggle, Laney was struck with the 'thermometer' too, and given the different nature of her powers, this could have been devastating on her. I don't want to even start to think what could have happened to Sammy, or John."

He takes a breathe.

"The fact they were checking on Strange might be more than a coincidence, but this... creation of an alternate reality in which we have no powers reminds me of someone else. Which might mean astronomically bad news. But I'm gonna wait until Donnie can check that room for eventual traces of magic."

There's also one more option, but he decides to talk about it only with Sylvia.

Alicia paces during Colin's lecture, unable to stand still.

At the end, she bites her words as she says, "So we're not sure, yet, that Strange is behind the mindf**k. OK. Who else do we have on the s**t list?"

Sammy stirs nervously.  "I'm still not sure its over.  I was coming out of Strange's office when I saw Sylvia on the floor, so its safe to assume that she fell while I was in there.  I... don't know if this is all a big hallucination for me.  If Strange isn't make me imagine all of this happening."  She whispers, "I don't know what's real." 

Laney solemnly replies, "Everyone. If this person can look like anyone, appear and disappear, and make us forget...Everyone is on the sh*t list.  It doesn't matter if this is real or not.  You're here and now and must make your own luck - wherever here and now may be."

She opens her eyes and with her little finger idly traces the cracks in the floor where she sits.  It seemed symmetrical when she first counted these tiles not so many days ago, but on closer inspection, the cracks vary in width and depth.  This is...fascinating.

"Odds are, given the timing and...other factors, Strange is involved. With who else?   We can't go around spraying everyone with pepperspray.  What if she had cut off Sammy and Sylvia again?  We don't know what we're up against, and when they're trying to stab us,  it's a little too late to prepare.  I'm sorry, I'm not so jaded as you.  This reminds me of no one and nothing but horror movies.  

"I'm really sorry I freaked out like that.  It was my fault.  I was trying to stop them from hurting each other and got in the way. Really stupid.  Thanks for not...not leaving me there."

Leaning back, Laney draws imaginary lines from those cracks in the floor with those parallel in the ceiling.  

"If it's Strange, then he knows.    Now we're under siege.  No one should be alone with...with...everyone?"



Edit:typos must die.

Alicia grits her teeth. "So we take the pendejo down now, before he f**ks up our minds more," she growls.

"Sylvia?"  John asks.  "You were trying to read Strange, and then you felt nauseous and passed out?"

"'Nauseated,'" Sylvia corrects, unwilling to let that slide while sitting in state in the news room.  "But, yes.  I probed, and then, wham, reality came loose from its hinges."

"It's probably Veritas.  It's a drug developed in the seventies.  It's used to protect people from psionic intrusion.  Basically it causes feedback in certain neurotransmitters when you interact with someone that's using it.  It's one of those happy accident drugs.  Originally it was hoped it would be a cure for autism, but it had some strange side effects.  The government took over the research, which got stolen and then sold.  It's expensive, but if you want to not be read it's the way to go.  Of course, it's not subtle."  John's delivery is dry, if you didn't know him better you'd think he had better things to do than to be here.

"What? Wait a moment. If your theory is right, John, then Strange specifically took an expensive drug to protect himself from, well, us?"

Sylvia tunes into that.  After their morning every little weirdness seems extra weird.  She doesn't quite poke into his head, only passively soaks up what he's feeling.  She sifts through his emotions with the vague conviction that, if John isn't acting like John, the world is still out of phase.

"Or...That's standard operating procedure for a shrink working in a district with unusually high levels of paranormal activity.  And he's completely innocent."

Laney's nose wrinkles as if she'd smelled something she didn't approve of.

Sammy's weird-o-meter is tripped too.  He let me go too easily before.  Now its like he doesn't care.  Huh.  Rule out some things first...

Sammy stares down at her shoes and starts to whisper.  The only ones in  this room who ought to be able to hear her are Alicia and John.  "Hey, John?  I'm sorry I was so mean to you at Valentine's Day.  I'm sorry I've been avoiding you.  I need to put on my big girl panties and get a grip.  I want us to be friends again, if we can.  I miss hanging out with you.  Please?  If its all right, come over here and give me a hug.  I'll even let you kiss me again if you want, the nice way this time, no yelling about boyfriends and boundaries.  I'm so scared right now, John.  Please?"  The moment she's done, she looks up and over at him, looking for a blush, a twitch, anything.

"Uhm. Is it a legal drug, John?"

Tears slowly run down John's cheeks.  "It's not on the controlled substances list.  It's technically not available either.  I don't know if there are specific laws against it's use.  I know that having it in your blood stream would prevent you from gaining access to certain government facilities and people in the government."  He walks slowly across the room, giving Sammy a quick hug, then walks back and sits down.


John feels isolated.  It's a comfortable feeling in his sense of the world, but it's got the feeling of a sensation he's resigned himself to having.  Sylvia hears the echo of what Sammy says echo in John's skull, and the urge to scream well up in him.  Sylvia sees for the first time the hurricane of emotion that John stands in.  A fragile world he can't hold, or touch.  Everything and everyone around him is breakable, and beautiful.  Crafted works of art that he feels so unlike it turns his stomach.  And the after thought of the explosion.  His grinding dislike of how good it felt to be there, to do that things he can do.  Happiness in disaster is sick, it's the dark underlying thread in his thoughts.  It's with a supreme effort that he gets up to give Sammy her hug.  To reaffirm her sense of the world, to give her what she needs to keep going.  Sylvia's muscles begin to twitch with the exertion she picks up from John, the effort he musters to not burst through a wall and run off into the desert and scream.  When he sits back down, across the room from her, she can feel the earthquake in his chest, and feel the tiny white hot trickles of emotion leaking out from around his eyes.

Alicia pauses in her pacing just before John speaks. She glances at Sammy, then back at John, then politely looks away, as if intruding in a private moment.

Her breathing is a bit accelerated, and it doesn't take much for Sylvia to notice her agitated state. She's angry, an anger fueled by the buried fear of losing her mind once again.

She focuses on John's words. "So Strange is popping no-read-me pills and f**king around with our heads. That sounds like hostile action to me. What more do we need? I say we corner him and give him a beat-down. No more pussyfooting around."

Her imaginary lines are numerous, perpendicular connectors between the ceiling and the floor which dissected the room and her friends within it.   She didn't like that she was thinking of them as separate entities; they should be braided into the weave.  So, one by one, Laney fixes her oddly silvered gaze on each person, remapping...   If she blinked more, it would be less unnerving.  It's as if she isn't seeing them at all.  This fanciful endeavor, though amusing, distracts her from the conversation.


"Wait.  You think the nurse didn't exist at all?  She was a construct of Strange?  She seemed...real to me...since my first day at school, actually.  So does Strange.  Is he real, too?  I am so skipping my time with him this week.  I'm hungry."

As John starts weeping, Colin's eyes go wide. As he goes to hug Sammy, he's thoroughly confused. He looks around at the others, in search of an explanation.


Alicia's words shake him. "No!" he says, a little too loudly. "Sorry. No before we face him again we have to find a way to protect ourselves. What if we strike at him only to find out we're beating on each other?"

He turns to Sylvia and sends her a single thought. Smith.

Almost mechanically, he opens a drawer and offers Laney a snack.

Laney never realized how interesting Alicia's shoes were; they make such wonderfully distorted shadows on the floor.    "Did Strange f*ck with our heads?  He effectively defended himself from an assault.  Might not even know what happened.  Or...or...the house...well...if he...knows about us somehow and left things for Sarah to see to freak her -" 

She winces at Colin's raised voice, but is immediately delighted when offered a granola bar and mumbles her thanks...and something about winning the prize.  If Sarah is there, Laney flashes a grin up at her.

"Um, no. Creating pocket dimensions is a little scary. I think that she simply put a powerful glamour in this room, anchored to the doorway so that someone walking into this room would suddenly come under the spell of the glamour. I have never been here, perhaps my magic spider sense would have been tingling if I had. Maybe it was so powerful I would have gone under the spell too. I don't know. What I really wonder is to what purpose was she here? What would her presence accomplish?"

He finishes the circuit of the room. "It's nearly gone, fading like a fogged breath from a mirror."

****
Later, in the newspaper room..

"It was a powerful glamour, anchored in the room. Anyone passing the threshold of the doorway immediately fell under it's spell. The remnents of it have faded away completely by now though."

Laney's horror movie comment sparks something in Donnie's memory. He snaps his fingers and stands up

"Hag thief! Witches that use glamour to fit into a place and steal things.  Some steal children and then make the world forget about them.  Some steal gifts, like powers.  They have a massive power to make the world forget but this power makes them fragile like glass.  Certain people with extremely stubborn wills.."  Donnie smiles at Sylvia "..will sometimes see through their glamour, which is how they are usually caught. They usually try to slip into reality where they wont run a big risk of being hurt.  They're generally very friendly and helpful, and are often trusted.  They've changed their tactics in the last century, since the 'mean old neighbor lady' schtick is not tolerated as much as they were in past centuries.

Legend has it that when one is confronted and destroyed the only people that remember them are the people that were there, which made it easier to get rid of them since no one came to arrest the people that had done away with them.  There have been about two dozen cases in the last fifty years."

He goes over to one of the lab computers and starts tapping away, pulling up a couple crime reports after a quick google search. "Mean old Neighbor ladies is what they are often called, but I like Hag Thief much better."

He gets a serious look on his face and turns back to face the room, eyes resting on Colin.

"They can steal a variety of things, like musical talent, a gift for math, natural charisma.  They barter with demons for various gifts like eternal beauty, longevity, more power using the things they've stolen as currency.  The more powerful the gift, the better the thing they can try to get."

OOC: I sent you a PM, did you not get it?  Have I perhaps sent it to some other GG member?

got it, failed to read it prior to posting. d'oh!

"Coincidences.  Sylvia's still the constant,"  Laney mumbles between rabid munching.  If they forgot she was there, then she can't be here because she's nowhere.  Alicia did look nice in heels at the dance...

Sammy looks down at the floor and starts whispering again.  "oh god, you're crying.  I'm sorry.  Its okay.  It'll be okay..." 

"Aw, man," Sammy gets up, and moves over next to him.  She rests a hand on his upper arm and with a shaky voice and a shaky smile says,  "Yep, you're you."

Alicia shoots back hotly, "And the more time we spend here shooting the s**t, the more time he has to set himself up or f**k with us some more. If you have any bright ideas for covering our asses, let's have it. Otherwise, we're wasting time."


Alicia goggles at Donnie. "Seriously, dude," she says nonplussed, "You so need a life. You gotta be making that s**t up."


Alicia frowns. "So you're saying the fake nurse wasn't tied to Strange?" She brings her hand up to rub her face. "This is so seriously f**ked up. We need a goddamn program to keep track of all these creeps."

She raises her head to spear Sylvia with her gaze. "Maybe your pretty boy Logan can deign to spill some info our way, assuming it doesn't violate his precious neutrality," she says archly.

Emotions are important, and Sylvia knows better than to banish John's pain.  But she does what a purring cat does and radiates peace and comfort and the tacit reassurance that he's among friends:  they're all screwed, each in their own way.


Sylvia says it out loud, out of context of the conversation.  "Dude, don't do that.  You're only going to annoy him."

[I can't remember if Sylvia knows about the tripwire or not.]


Sylvia looks up at the ceiling and lets out a disgruntled sigh.  "He'd give us information if he thought it'd help us, and before you ask if I think he's smart enough to know the difference, yes.  Yes, without a doubt he is."

Under the weight of Alicia's voice (and her shoes), the entire John/Sammy exchange goes right over Laney's head - literally.  


"There's no such thing as neutral. It's not possible."

"Allie, taking a little time to think is usually how we manage not to get killed. We have a bad record of rushing into a confrontation without knowing enough." Colin says, patiently.

He turns to Donnie. "If these hags are so frail in this world, and if her glamour has disappeared, we can safely assume the one who Sammy and Sylvia dealt with is done for, can't we? Do they usually act in group? Should we expect another one? Do they usually take the initiative, or these demons they barter with send them on a mission?"


Colin keeps thinking to her. But we might need his help. The last time we got stuck in a fake world he got us out. And maybe he knows more than John about this drug. For example, what happens if a telepath takes it.

Alicia stops and stares at Colin, her jaw clenched tight enough to make her face muscles creak. Sylvia can detect a rush of rage flush through the girl's mind, ripe with the smell of rotten strawberries.

After a tense second, Alicia expels the breath she'd been holding and stalks to a corner to lean against the wall, her scowl evident even behind her shades.

"I have a question," Sylvia says, all seriousness.  "Is there any chance this hag is related to the other witches we've met?  They also put us in an alternate reality."


What?  Why does that matter?

How does Strange 'influences' his patients? How did he know someone could read minds? I'd like to know if he's a telepath too or not. And if there's a way around that drug. And if we could turn it against him.

I could call Tangina.  Or John could put us in touch with the medical team in Arizona, through his dad.  Don't--  She lets out a short sigh of anxiety.  Don't put him in danger.  There are people looking for him--bad people who know how to find, and keep, a telepath.  Don't turn me into his Achilles' heel.

Sylvia pulls out her phone and digs around until she finds Tangina's number.  She steps away from the hubbub and dials.

"Yeah, she's gonzo. They are solitary because they don't like to share. Why share when you can have all the power to yourself? They are, eh, independent contactors. They do their thing and then barter it off with the closest demon. Demons don't need to send them on missions. They come to them once they have the goods."



"No. They won't share anything, power knowledge, whatever. All they have they've stolen. I'm surprised the hag hasn't already snuffed out the magic any of the little bwitches had."

Alicia growls, "Fine, then that's something we can do right now. If we need to know more before doing anything, " she does not even glance in Colin's direction, "then we need to gather information. And he's a prime resource for it."

"Logan's all right, Alicia" Sammy interjects.  "He's helped me out too when I needed it.  If we 'gather information' from him, its going to be the nice way, or not at all."

The phone rings a couple of times, then Tangina answers it, "Hello Sylvia."  Her voice is still slightly high pitched, "How are you?"

Alicia rolls her eyes, regardless that the gesture is lost behind plastic lenses. "Fine, so we'll make sure to bring him a box of candy and flowers when we go visit.

"The point is that we're totally in the dark here; we've got witches and mad scientists operating in the school, and the only way we find out about them is when we stumble across their s**t. Colin says we need to know more before taking care of Strange, and I'm saying let's go out and get what we need, instead of just sitting here and waiting for the next steel-toed boot to drop on our heads."

"That's what we're doing.  Gathering resources.  You.  Right now. Sitting here.  Stumbling's what happens when you don't look where you're going.  Unless you're me.  Then it's what happens when you do look where you're going."   

The moment Laney says this, she flings the balled snack wrapper against the surface behind her, above her head.  It ricochets off the wall, strikes a computer monitor, bounces across the desk, and lands precisely into the center of the waste basket.   Laney can't even see the waste basket from where she's sitting.

"What do we need?  Jack? Logan? A pharmacist?  Sarah checking his house daily?  I already asked Dave if he could find out who sees Strange regularly.  I -"  She frowns slightly and flips her cell phone open.


Reference:
http://www.groovygamers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7034.msg234789.html#msg234789[/size]

Sylvia decides it's totally irrelevant whether Tangina knows who's calling because she's psychic or because she works for a company with killer caller ID.  "Hi, Tangina.  Things are interesting, in that bad-interesting kind of way.  Do you know anything about a drug called V [Cassie's typing from phone, can't easily review]?"

Alicia crosses her arms and hunches her shoulders. "Great. Now I'm getting lectured by the space-case," she mutters sulkily.

Colin is about to tell something to Alicia, but then he remembers to try to see things from her point of view and shuts up.

"Ok, Syl is calling a friend, an expert in telepathy. Donnie, in the meantime, is there a way to protect one's self from glamour? Allie, I'm gonna call Sarah. She can get us into Strange's office when he's gone. We both need to be there. I hope to get a useful impression, and you're much more... careful to details than me. Sammy, John, if he took that drug and knows what happened to Sylvia, he also knows something is up. He might try to cover his tracks. We're going to need some reconnaissance."

"Faerie glamour, yes. Human glamour magic, not so much."

ooc: is the hag thief fey, or demonic, or something else? ?

Alicia nods mutely. One doesn't need to be an empath or mind reader to detect her nervousness, from the tension knotting her shoulders to the clenched jaw.

Colin calls Sarah, beginning to worry about her.

"He knows about us.  He knows a lot about me.  I was in his office when it all started.  Maybe instead of flying surveillance, I should offer myself up as a target.  Give him a place to go instead of guessing where he might be going.  If there was someone helping to protect my mind, I could probably physically defend myself."  Sammy's fingers nervously clench at the fabric of John's shirt.

((In between storm-attributed power outages, when the motley one is not flicking tiny pastel mints at the fathomless grey screen, it posts randomly.))

"Um...Other than a few pictures of us - which, honestly, anyone watching this school who's interested in paranormal activity probably has. I mean, Colin has pictures of us, and no one thinks he's out to - why is it everyyone thinks Dr. Strange is after us?  I'm sorry.  I'm really confused.  So he's taking drugs.  I would if I were him.  Obviously, it was justified.  He was attacked, wasn't he?   Um...I'm still skipping my appointment, you know...just in case, but...I'm...I'm sorry.  I'm just missing something here.  And I need...Sorry.  It's hard to explain.  I need data."

Alicia glares at Laney. "Uh, hello? Creepy mannequins? That drug he's using, it isn't Claritin we're talking about. You don't put that much effort into hiding something unless you have something really bad to hide."

She glances at Colin. "Besides, I'm still not entirely convinced he didn't have something to do about Nurse Ratchet."

"Given his profession, it is Claritin we're talking about.  Does he take appointments at his home?  That could explain the - Sorry.  I'm not saying I disagree with you.  There is something strange. Strange.  Whatever. We should be...I'm just not...not sure that's the right way to approach this.  And if you're going to confront Strange or report him to the police...Um...we need to be sure.  Or take out another school building.   Sorry."   She slumps miserably, further down into the shadows than she was.  One might not have thought that possible.

If cold stares could do actual damage, they'd be carrying Laney out in a stretcher. After a few seconds, Alicia turns slowly back to Colin.

"If we're taking the Sarah Express into Strange's office, we'll have to be careful. Someone who's paranoid enough to take proscribed medicine to keep mind-readers from peeking probably has security in his office. Sarah and you'll need to stand by while I sweep the room for booby-traps."

Cold stares can do damage.  Laney's voice cracks when she whispers, "Going by that theory, if he's watching us and took precautions against mind readers, wouldn't he also have taken precautions against teleporters?  Breaking and entering is a crime, no matter how you do it.   Oh, hell."



Edit:
be=he...

Alicia's smile is sweet. "It's only a crime if you get caught, chica."

To Colin, in a serious tone, "The mouse does have a point. Cueball may have defenses against someone popping in. It might be better to just try the old-fashioned method first."

Mouse?

"I meant camera surveillance.  Did he have it posted?  I'm not familiar with the laws of this state, but in other states, if it's posted, camera recordings can be used as evidence in criminal cases.  Sarah might already be in deep sh*t.  Don't you get it?  We're not gods, alright?  We can't do whatever-the-hell we want without consequence.  What right have we to accuse anyone else if we're the ones breaking the law? What the hell is the old fashioned method?  Does anyone have time travel ability here?"

Not quite a mouse.  She's in the rodent family.  The hamster scowl returns in full force.

Alicia's condescension is poorly hidden. She seems unaffected by Laney's ocular volley.

"Which is why I figure I should scout the place out first. Cameras? Pfft, that's kid stuff. For all we know, he's got the place laid out with motion sensors.

"You see, nenita, sometimes, in the real world, you have to decide between what's legal and what's right. And f**king with people's brains is most definitely in the Not Right column."

The last sentence comes out cold and sharp like a knife edge.

Laney pipes, "He's a shrink!  People pay him to f*ck with their brains.  Trust me.  I know.  What has he done to us?  What's legal is what's right.  I'm just trying to make sure you don't end up in prison, Alicia. That's all.  He hasn't f*cked with us.  We f*cked with him."

The undirected rage simmering under the surface finds a target and spits out a solar flare.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Alicia yells, invading Laney's personal space by placing her face inches from the girl's. "For all you know, he's already made you think that way, so that you won't suspect him or remember what he's done to your brain! He's already implanted false memories, made you think it was all your fault, that you actually did... those... awful..."

Her voice runs down as she realizes what she's saying. Her body visibly vibrates as she tries to contain the flood of emotions pouring through her. She chokes back a sob, and without another word, rushes out of the room.

A horrified squeak escapes Sammy's lips.  "Alicia, no! Not alone!"  She tears off after the other girl.

The girl can't get much closer to the ground than she already is, tucked into as small a space as she could manage between the desk and the wall.  Oddly enough, her submissive body position aside, Laney doesn't try to cringe any further back.   She looks directly up at Alicia - who can see, as close as she is, perfect reflections of herself in Laney's weird eyes.  Can even see Colin behind her.



"He.  Or someone else.  That's the problem, isn't it?   Who?  I'd prefer to avoid witch burning, if you don't mind.   It doesn't solve anything.  Don't we have other problems to prioritize?  The hate-goo and such?  Did he do anything wrong?  Did anyone do any -"



"Oh.  Sorry.  I missed something, didn't I?"

"Oh, yes.  It's nasty stuff.  If you have the misfortune of being a telepath that happens to read the brain of someone taking it.  Or worse, actually take it yourself.  Most people that use Veritas and aren't government agents are generally trying to hide something.  You've come into contact with it I'm guessing?"

"Yes, there's a--"  The sudden outburst from Alicia gets Sylvia's attention, but before she can lay down the mojo, Alicia's gone.  And Sammy.

"Oh, brother," Sylvia mutters, then picks up the conversation again.

"There's a psychologist here who's taken it.  I pretty much lost my lunch, my breakfast, and last October's pumpkin pie.  His name's Hugo Strange.  I don't suppose he's on your most-wanted list?"

Alicia is fast, especially when she doesn't care about hiding the fact. She bounces off walls and lockers to get around any obstacles. She barely touches the steps as she heads to the roof. The much-abused lock on the roof access door barely slows her down.

On the roof, Alicia bounds to the edge as if ready to throw herself out into the frigid air, but stops. Her body still trembling, she throws her head back and releases all her pent-up emotion in an inarticulate barely-human half-scream, half-roar of rage.

Once it's over, she drops like a discarded marionette to a hunched, crouched position on the eave, arms wrapped around her knees, as if auditioning for the position of gargoyle on a church gutter.

OOC: Human

Laney's phone chirps indicating she's gotten a text message.  Dave has finally gotten back to her.  List of patients here is pretty long, getting a copy now, Rob will drop it by the News Room.

A few minutes later Rob comes in with the list.


"The names not familiar.  I can do some checking though I guess and get back to you.  Just be careful.  You can use passive mental abilities, but anything that forms a connection to the person who uses Veritas will certainly cause you to become sick.  And if they see you get sick, they're sure to know why."

Laney smiles broadly up at Rob, even gestures to the floor beside her as if she were offering him the best seat in the room.  She thanks Rob, but doesn't send a reply text to Dave, yet. 

She reaches for her backpack to fetch a pencil - and it's not there.  It's still in the "nurse's" office.  With a soft sigh, she begins flipping through the list.  If students are being forced to commit crimes, some of these names may be victims.  After a little while, however, there are so many names that the letters begin to swim together in her sight, until she's no long reading them in any conventional sense.

OOC: Make a Fate Roll.

((I was this || close to throwing a die roll in there, too.  Always go with your instincts, I swear...))
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2111247/
1d20 → [13] = (13)  

Alicia is fast, but Sammy can move out when she wants to.  She follows in Alicia's wake, and stands silent witness to the scream.  When its done, she walks over and sits down next to Alicia.  She doesn't say anything at all.  She simply keeps vigil until the other girl seems ready to talk.

A force diagram would be a kind word for what Laney does with the pen she picked up off the floor.  Normally a force diagram connects and defines relationships between entities, but Laney has drawn lines and arrows from the letters of names to circles, the circles form word puzzles from the letters.  Several names have letters in certain relationships to the other names, and those relationships and the letters themselves become a point system in her head.  When it's done she has awarded a score to each name on the list.  and the force diagram puzzles have formed four words.  Arson.  Ice.  Theft.  Hypnosis.  Three of the words get a score based on the letters that were used, and the values of those scores match the scores for three names on the list.

Arson -> Trent Davis
Ice -> Penelope Lang
Theft -> Vincent Lo

The fourth word, Hypnosis, is formed from a force diagram that emerged from the three names which scored matching values to the other three words.

That's when the pen ran out of ink.

Alicia doesn't move, but her voice comes out, dulled and muffled. "I thought it was over. When Colin showed me... what really happened, I thought I was fixed, that I could go back to being who I really was.

"But that's just bulls**t."

As she continues, emotion creeps in to Alicia's voice. Pain and anger, laced with self-hatred. "Laney doesn't know what the f**k she's talking about. She has no idea what it means to have some bastard rip your skull off and treat your brain like Play-Doh, like his own personal toy."

Alicia stares out into the cold day. Her sunglasses lie discarded on the tar-covered roof. "I'll have a thought, or remember something, then stop and wonder, was that me, did that come from my own mind, or was it something tacked on, something he added in there as he twisted my brain into a pretzel? Or I'll look in a mirror and, for a moment, I'll see the face of a stranger looking back."

Her voice roughens and her face twists into something feral, and for a moment it is like a different person is squatting, no, crouching, like an animal ready to pounce.

"If Strange is f**king with people's minds, I will tear his throat out and drink his blood." There is a distinct impression she's not speaking figuratively.

"I'll be careful.

"My friend wants to know what happens when a telepath takes Veritas."

"They could die."  she says, without pause.  This sort of thing usually warrants a pause, doesn't it?  "The only remedy is to get them into a coma until the drug works it's way out of their system.  But you have to do it quickly."

"I'll bear that in mind," Sylvia says, thinking about what kind of awful death that would be.  "Thanks, Tangina."

She pauses.  "Hey, do you swing any weight at Eagle's Nest?"

"Some.  What did you need?"

Sammy takes her time to respond.  "Well," she says consideringly, "that should be safe enough.  I mean, since for all we know he's only romantically involved with mannequins, you probably don't have to worry about contracting any diseases from drinking his blood.  Unless -- you don't have a latex allergy, do you?"  She smiles tentatively at Alicia.  "Seriously, think it through before you do anything.  I'm still not convinced we're seeing things as they really are.  Suppose you go after someone thinking its Strange, and it turns out to be the principal under some kind of -- what did Donnie call it?  a glamour?"  She reaches for her phone.  "This can't wait. We need big guns help right now.  I'm calling Jack, unless you have an objection?"

Her fingers hover over her phone, ready to speed dial "the sensei".

Sammy's ramble is enough to knock Alicia off her fugue. She looks at Sammy, blinking her eyes, then shuts them in an expression of self-disgust as her own words penetrate.

Alicia nods. "Yes, we need Jack. If nothing else, he can make sure I don't hurt anyone."

She stands up and looks to Sammy. "Tell him I'm on my way. And Sam..." Alicia looks down and then back with a crooked smile. "Thanks."

She leaps off the roof as if diving from a board at the pool.

Sammy dials Jack's number and starts to head back toward the news room.

"It's totally irrelevant to what's going on today and, as always, conditional upon our survival, but a friend and I were talking about taking our own version of the college tour, looking around to see where we might want to live--provided we live.  I don't suppose you could wrangle that, could you?  Fix us up with a tour of Eagle's Nest?"

"I'll see if I can get someone to call you.  And Sylvia.  Do be careful."  Pleasantries exchanged, Tangina ends the call.


The phone rings a few times before Jack answers.  "Hey Sam, everything okay?"

Laney locks up, staring at the pen for a full minute before she is able to stand, wincing when her numb foot twists uselessly from being sat upon for too long.    She limps over to where Donnie sits at the lab computer (if he's still there) and rests her hand on his shoulder, partly for support and partly to that she may lean over him and stare at the monitor.   

She holds out the pages she'd scribbled all over and asks, "Would you look up these three names online, please?"

Sammy doesn't waste any time.  "No, Jack, its not.  We've been attacked by some sort of magic, and reality is taking a couple of twists.  We need help.  Oh, and Alicia is on her way to your place."

"Okay.  What do you need from me, should I come to the school, or wait here for Alicia?"

Sammy babbles.  "One way or another, tag up with her.  She's real twitchy right now.  Things started going weird while I was in talking to the school shrink.  His name is Strange, Hugo Strange.  There is also the nurse that wasn't there, who took care of Sylvia by taking away her powers...  I don't know if its all one big coincidence or not.  We were going to come after school, but I'd feel better if we saw you sooner.  Can you come here, please?  And find out what you can about Strange, just in case?"

"I'll wait here for her and then we'll head up there.  Just find a place to hold up and we'll sort this out.  I'll make a couple of calls in the meantime and see if I can dredge up anything about this Strange guy."

"OK," Sammy says.  "Alicia knows where we were.  I'll try to keep us all there unless we have to move; if we move, I'll call you."

She scoots quick like a bunny back to the newsroom.

Alicia makes it to Jack's in record time. She shows it too. She arrives out of breath and soaked in sweat. Her pants have a rip and she has a scrape on one elbow.

She doesn't say anything when Jack opens the door. Just looks at him and waits for his word.

"Come on, we're going back to school."  he says, stepping out to the street.  It's only a couple of minutes before a cab arrives, and the pair get in.

The ride to school is as quiet as Alicia wants.  The driver of the cab, an older gentleman, says nothing the entire ride.  When they get to the school Jack hands him some cash, the man tries to way it off, but Jack gives him a look and the man takes it.

"Sam called, she said you knew where they would be.  So lead on."  Inside one of the school administrators sees the pair.  It strikes Alicia as a little odd that she just keeps walking, not a word to the strange man who doesn't belong walking the halls of a school without a visitor's pass.

Alicia participates in the silent treatment, which in itself is odd for her. She does hesitate a second when Jack announces they're returning to school right away, but doesn't say anything and comes along.

Once in school, she leads Jack straight to the newsroom. She doesn't greet anyone or say anything, just heads to a corner and leans against the wall, arms crossed and head down.

It is immediately apparent she's no longer wearing her shades but doesn't seem at all discomfited by that fact.

Sammy said Jack was coming, and that they should wait in the newsroom until he arrived.  With any luck, Alicia would be with him.  She's relieved to see him.

Laney glances up from where she had been prodding Donnie to Google those three names.  She flashes Alicia and Jack a friendly smile, her eyes sparkling strangely (they're still reflecting the computer monitor behind her).

"Oh. Twenty-five.  It is that Jack.  Hi."

"Hey everyone.  I'm waiting for a phone call about Strange, but how can I help otherwise?"  Jack doesn't seem disturbed, "And why is Sylvia's mom in the hall?"

Sammy looks around at the others, then says "I'll start."  She stands up.  "Short version, we were attacked this morning.  Long version, Sylvia found out some things that made her want to look into Strange's mind.  Since I've been talking to him off and on all year, I made an appointment to talk with him.  He kind of got on my nerves, and I left early.  I found Sylvia down the hall, passed out in a puddle of her own puke.  I yelled for help, teachers came, the school nurse who wasn't there came, the office called Sylvia's mom -- that's why she's here -- and they sent me along to my classes.  Syl can tell you more, but the nurse who wasn't took Sylvia's powers away from her.  Syl convinced me and Laney -- that's Laney over there -- to help her.  Syl sprayed the nurse with mace, the nurse's face peeled away, she went after Laney, I went after her and slammed her into a wall, she disappeared, and nobody but us three remember her being here.  And Sarah -- she went to Strange's house, and saw some stuff that just isn't right, pictures of us and mannequins, but I haven't heard from her since then.  Have you guys heard anything?"  She looks around at the others.

"Colin was giving her a call?  Someone should.  You skipped the part where Donnie told us about the hag thief thing.  Odds are he's right.  She's not an issue anymore.  I understand the patterns are tangled, but it's important not to assign traits from one to the other merely based upon their proximity.   

"It was probably unwise to bring Jack here.  Unsafe, I mean.  Unless he's already been publically associated with you guys?"   Laney curls her fingers in a tiny wave to Jack and turns back to the computer.

"Well, we went on a field trip to a vampire's house, I feel safe with them.  And I don't mind being publicly associated with them.  They're scruffy, but they mean well."  Jack replies and waves back.  Something about Jack makes it easy for Laney to relax.  He seems to fit nicely into all the patterns around him, like he's a part of everything that's happening, but not an integral part, more like an accessory that goes with everything.

A level of tension peels away from Sammy's body when Jack mentions the vampire.  It really is Jack.  Nobody else knew about that.  She almost starts to defend her decision to call him for help, but lets it go.  She's convinced there's another shoe ready to drop, so there's no time to waste with internal squabbling.  "I feel a little less afraid now that somebody but us knows, and that he's here to help.  That's good enough for me."  She sits back down next to John, wrapping her arms around her knees so she's in a tight little egg.

Alicia contributes to the report, speaking slowly as if testing each word before letting it escape her lips. "John mentioned a drug that people can take that makes anyone trying to read their minds react like Sylvia did. The drug is not exactly over-the-counter, so the fact that Strange could be using it is suspicious."

She sighs. "We don't have any evidence that the fake nurse has any relation to Strange, but the timing of the attack is a little too slick. We still don't know what, if anything, Strange is up to, but it's a good guess we've been made."

With a glance at Colin, she finishes, "We need more info, but we're not sure how to get it without dropping the dime. We're hoping you could give us some advice." She pauses, then adds, "Um, please."

"Nero Wolfe says, that in a world which operates predominately at random, coincidence is to be expected.  However, it's never to be trusted.  So, you said the school nurse took Sylvia's powers.  Has she been in to see the school nurse alone before?"

OOC: The answer should be no, and if it's not it is now.

Sylvia's developing a knack for coming into a conversation exactly when her name is mentioned.  It must be a telepath thing.

She returns from her conversation with Tangina to say, "I stay away from the health office when I can.  Health-care facilities are breeding grounds for contagion."

"So, Sammy found you passed out in your own vomit after you looked into a Veritas protected mind.  She took you to the nurse, and then the nurse stole your powers, which I'm guessing you got back?  So, that looks like a crime of opportunity.  Have you read Strange's mind before?"

Laney cringes slightly at the word "coincidence" and mumbles something that sounds like an apology.

"I try not to do that without reasonable cause," Sylvia says.

Jack looks at her, his head moving slightly like he might be getting ready to dodge a punch.  "Is that teen-speak for yes but I don't want to say or no?"

[It's been over two years.  I don't remember.]

"No.  Never."

Jack smiles, "Ok.  So, everything is pointing to a crime of opportunity.  I guess the question of the nurse is, who else had something stolen from them?  But, we can leave that as a back burner thing.  You guys are worried about Strange, and I'm still waiting for my little basement dwelling geek to get back to me."  Jack sits down, "So, you think he's done some bad things, and he has mannequins in his house.  Have you talked to anyone else that's seen him?"

Laney goes from being unusually articulate to stammering and red-faced, gesturing in futility at the now-ragged collection of papers she's holding and the computer.  "Um...There's a lot.  Of-of them. Ice?  Sammy even. Um..."

"I was thinking we should talk to the family that wanted to sue him, but then things got exciting.  Suddenly everyone was here, and then everyone was freaking out or storming off."  Sylvia has a frown on her face, looking at no one in particular.  "Thing is, if prior experience holds, the police can't help us, and when we try to handle things without them, people fucking blow up."  There's an edge of anger in her voice, but it's under control.  "What are we supposed to do?  Gather evidence?  Whack him?  Leave him tied up on the steps of the police department?"

During Sylvia's speech, Alicia raises her head and opens her mouth more than once, as if to say something, then stops and settles back down. She's making a point of avoiding eye contact with anybody.

"Okay, I feel bad for not having covered this, but you guys seemed to have things well in hand most of the time.  When you involve the police, you sort of have to do it backwards."  Jack raises a finger and looks at Laney.  "Relax."  Then he goes back to addressing the group.  "You take photos, illegally wiretap, video tape, what have you, then you send it to the police anonymously, but try to make sure their are enough clues to get them to the right place.  It's a juggling act sometimes.  Also, you can get yourself arrested along with the bad guy and hope that there is enough raw evidence on hand to get them to keep the bad guy and let you go.  Also sort of tricky, but with practice it can work out.  Also, there is the make a scene and then make sure to be gone when the police arrive.  Evidence collected in relation to one crime can be made part of another."

Jack walks over to Laney, gently pulling the paper from her hand and looking at it.  e studies the list of name and her inked in diagrams.  "This is the sort of stuff Adrien turns out."  He looks up at her, "Did you do this?"

Donnie begins an exhaustive search for the three names laney gave him, checking news sites, crime reports, and what looks like the online school records, which he really shouldn't have access to. He hasn't tried to get into the FBI database..yet. He's too scared to piss them off again.

When Jack and Alicia come back in he says "Hey Jack. Nice to see you have eyes, Alicia."

Alicia narrows her eyes at the comment, but doesn't say anything.

"Cross reference arson, theft, and - Huh?"  She watches the papers slide out of her hand in a daze.  "It ran out of ink. You know Adrien?"

Jack nods, "And the fact that you know Adrien pretty much tells me what you do."  Jack says.  Jack turns and looks over his shoulder, "Alicia has eyes?  I thought those glasses were glued to her head."  Then he goes back to the list.

Donnie runs the names.  All three have had issues in the past. 

The girl's name Penelope Lang, the one associated with ice was the girl that tried to freeze the girl's gym teacher to death early in the year.  She's currently in a private mental hospital, and Strange is her doctor.  That note is in the school records.  He's also made a note that she's ready to come back to school.

Trent, the name associated with Arson, was expelled for setting a fire.  Strange is his doctor too.  He's also ready to come back to school.

Vincent Lo, the name associated with theft, is returning to school in a few days after he's released from juvenile detention.  Strange works as a counselor there.

"Do?  She has her father's eyes.  I don't know what I do.  Get in the way maybe.  Arson.  How do you know Adrien.  Oh. The lawyer's office.  Is that why you suspected Strange?"    She looks up at Sylvia, blinking.   "Sorry."

"The chances of you meeting Adrien are the same as mine."  Jack says, handing her back the paper.  "I'm apparently a three."  He says, turning to look at the group.  "Can I get a cold soda?"

Alicia makes sure to wait until Jack turns back before giving him the finger. She then goes back to holding up the wall.


Alicia pulls herself off the wall. "On it."

She glides out of the room and heads down to the vending machine outside the cafeteria. The one she knows will give up its bounty with the proper encouragement and no financial expense.

Laney babbles, staring at the papers again.  "Twenty-five. Oh. I guess that could be a three.  If you take something away...How many years is that?  Donnie, what dates are - No, really.  Do you work with him?"

KA-THUNK! KA-THUNK!

Alicia grabs the two cans of soda. She's snarfed enough soda from Jack's fridge to know what he drinks.

She saunters back to the newsroom, ignoring the looks from any wandering students as she goes.

"Heads up," she calls as she enters the newsroom and tosses the can Jack's way. She nonchalantly pops the tab on the other one and takes a sip as she appropriates an empty chair and props her feet up on a desk.

"Did I miss anything?"

Jack's hand comes up and his fingers close around the can as it sails over his shoulder.  He slips the soda into the pocket of his old bomber jacket.  "I've worked with him before.  He takes getting used to."

"Nope."  Sammy is chewing at her fingernails, something she hasn't done in ages.  "World's still falling apart.  News at 11."

Sylvia asks, for form.  "Sammy, are you thinking he might have fucked with your head?"

Alicia frowns and rubs her forehead as if from a headache. "So, business as usual. Got it."

Alicia leans back to balance the chair on its two hind legs, then balances the open can on her upturned forehead. She closes her eyes as the cold metal rests on her skin and remains in that position.


"Should be an easy thing to check out," says Alicia, not moving from her precarious pose.

"I'm still not sure he didn't.  Hasn't.  Not sure you all aren't figments of my imagination,  something I'm dreaming up under hypnosis -- which would explain why Alicia is suddenly running around without her glasses, and why a bunch of little tiny details still seem wrong.  So I'll let you check.  If you're real, and there is something wrong, you'll fix it and I will quit worrying about it.  If you're not real, you can finish the job so that I quit worrying about it.  If you're real, and there's nothing wrong, you'll tell me, and I'll quit worrying about it.  A win all around."  Her left pinkie finger is going to be bloody if she chews it any more.

Donnie turns away from his computer searches. "For fuck's sake, Sammy, this isn't all about you. Didn't you hear what Veritas does? Strange did not do anything to your head. If he has taken Veritas, as probably proven by Sylvia, he would be in a coma or dead if he were a telepath. I think we would really appreciate it if you would concentrate on what our next step is instead of chewing off your thumb and wondering if the world revolves around you. Jesus." Having vented his annoyance, he turns back to the three students.

"Three super powered kids coming back to school very soon, all having been under Strange's care. Think maybe he is forming his own little hit squad? If he's a good shrink, he couls easily fuck up these kids' heads enough that they do his bidding easy. Psychology can be scary stuff."

Sylvia gives Donnie a gape-jawed look but decides the wisest course is to turn to Sammy and say, "This shouldn't hurt at all.  If I vomit, John will shield you with his body.  He's good at that."  She smiles at them both and takes a slow, careful, thorough dive through Sammy's skull, looking for the unusual.

I'm assuming Sarah answers, so Colin doesn't have to be worried sick about her.

Colin puts away his phone and scowls at Donnie.

"It doesn't take a telepath to fuck with someone's mind. Vandross was plenty good at that. He was her doctor. She trusted him. And now it turns out he has a penchant for hypnosis." he says pointing at Laney's papers. "She has every right to be worried."

He turns to Jack. "Is there a way to get a list of his patients?"

Jack flicks Donnie's ear.  "Way to reassure a friend there chief.  Remind me to never call you if I'm depressed and need a pick me up."


"I'm hoping I can get that, not really sure what's taking him so long to get back to me.  How long can a raid in a video game take anyway?"

Alicia removes the soda and looks at Sam in confusion. "What are you talking about? I never wear glasses."

She keeps the expression for a few seconds, then her face splits into a grin as she points at Sam. "Psych! Got'cha!"

She takes another sip then returns the can to its perch. Eyes closed, Alicia continues. "You remember very well that I talked to you about not wearing them any more. So I finally decided not to."


Alicia intones sonorously, without moving. "So speaks the Great and Powerful Dragon Lord! Heed his words, ye puny mortals!"

She manages to give Donnie a one-fingered salute with so much as a wobble.


"Good! It's about time we had something that we can target directly. All this pussyfooting around punching at shadows is starting to get old," Alicia says, lightly.


Alicia mutters, "Crap. Hypnotizing people. S'gonna be hard pinning that on Strange."

She removes the can again so that she can focus on Sylvia, once she's done ministering to Sammy. "Talking to that family who's suing Strange is a good idea. If we can hand them enough evidence to nail him, that could get him out of circulation. At least long enough to give us time to deal with him directly."


Alicia gives up her balancing act. The chair slams back onto its four feet.

"Suspecting foul play?" she asks Jack.

"Suspecting lazy computer geek is taking his sweet time with his computer game."

"If he's within running distance, I can go ask him to hurry up," she offers, an evil grin plastered on her face.

Laney offers her bundle of papers to Colin, mumbling, "Sorry.  Got this list from Dave. I um... Well, here.  Sorry.   Um...I'm alright.  I've only been in school for three weeks.  What harm could he have done?  Game raid?  Oh, days.  I only saw him a few times.  Those other kids.  The ones coming back.  He has plans for them."

Donnie ducks his head from the scowls and abuse for his rather rude comments. "Sorry. I'm an asshole. I just thought that a good verbal slap might wake her up a bit instead of coddling her as she spirals into self absorbtion. A real slap might work better, but I think I'd be in pieces if i tried that."  

Jack nods, "Good point."

In the intervening time Sylvia has stretched her telepathic awareness into Sammy's head.  Danced along her memories, and slipped like a spy into the embassy of her free will.  In the polished pillars of her morality, her emotions, and her reason Sylvia sees everything reflected as it should be.  Some green tints here and there, but nothing seems out of place.  For Sylvia, Sammy's mind is well lit and clean.  Not the dingy and grimy walled ghetto that Sylvia feels her own mind is becoming.  Her inspection complete she sees no signs of tampering or manipulation.

"No s**t, Sherlock," scoffs Alicia. "Smart kid, but sharp as a sack of wet mice," she quips to the rest of the group, waggling her eyebrows and pretending to hold a cigar.

She looks over at Sylvia. "So, what's the diagnosis, Doc? Will she ever play the piano again?"

Sammy gives him a sickly sweet smile.  Even though she's in a sitting position, she's floating up a few inches now.  Her hair moves, caught by little vortexes spinning around her body.  Papers on the table next to him start to drift in the air in a low, lazy spiral too.  "You're right, Donnie," she purrs.  "You are an a$$hole.  So when Strange completes his elements set -- Fire for the Arson guy, Water for the Freezer, Earth -- how was that theft done?, and Air, which would be me, I'll remember that.  I'll leave enough behind for the dragons to have a memorial cremation.  Or memorial day barbecue.  Whatever."

Alicia chuckles. "That's telling 'im, Sam." She turns to Donnie. "You've been pwned, Lagartijo."

She starts and looks back at Sammy. "Holy s**t, Sam! You think that's what Strange is planning? Makes sense, in a sick sort of way. And he is a sick bastard."

Sylvia finds herself imitating Tangina's sweet, high voice for no good reason.  "This house is clean."

She looks at the others.  "Okay.  So we have addresses for these kids?  If they're going all Manchurian Candidate on us, we probably shouldn't interview them singly.  We need teams of at least three, tactically valuable Suspects.  If I may make an executive decision to speed things along, Colin, go with Alicia and Sammy as one interview team.  Interview," she emphasizes with a mild glance at Alicia.  "Donnie, John, and I will take another.  Laney, if you want, you might be comfortable with Colin's team, but you haven't had much in the way of combat training, so no one expects you to put yourself out there.

"A good first step?" she asks, querying everyone, including Jack.

[GM, opensesame's just busy, right?  We shouldn't worry that Sarah never came back from Strange's?]

Laney looks from Sammy to Donnie to Alicia, and cycles through the three again.  They might have sprouted ears on their noses, judging from her mystified expression.

"The arsonist may be the only one we can speak to, until they all return to school.  He could probably be found _____, if you want to meet him by chance. Less suspicious.  Trent, I mean, not the other...um...Is it the same person from the lawyer's office?  I - Oh.  Combat?  What are you planning to tell them?"

"Sure.  Sounds good.  I'll keep Mitzi company until it's all over."


OOC: Yeah, assume she got cornered by her math teacher and is working formula on the board in front of the class or something equally unpleasant.

Laney adds, "I'm not sure why we're not - Um...Can Rhys shape himself like anything or...or only like people?"

She gets a thumbs up from Alicia.


Alicia gives Sylvia with an angelic Who, me? look.


"Hot damn! It's about time!" hollers Alicia enthusiastically.


"Oh, he's very versatile," quips Alicia, smiling wickedly.

"It's just a guess.  If I was a villain, I would do things with a sick sort of sense to them, if only to amuse myself."  She drops the wind near Donnie.


Sammy nods.  "OK.  Thank you."


Sammy nods again, and says quietly, "If that's how you want to do it."


Sammy rolls her eyes.

"Guess you'd know about dead mice wouldn't you, Alicia?"


Donnie purses his lips and says "Well, at least when she's threatening to kill me, she's not moping about 'poor me'. Alicia, I really need to get you a couple of pom-poms so you can look the part of Sammy's sycophant cheerleader instead of just sounding like one."

He turns back to the computer. muttering "I don't remember saying anything about killing her, and here she is threatening to do that to me.."

Sylvia tries to play the grown-up.  "Okay.  That's it.  Everyone out of my news room.  Sammy, Colin, Alicia--do you guys want Trent or someone else?"

Alicia grimaces at Donnie. "Weak."


Alicia pauses then turns slowly to face Donnie. "You got a problem with me, Lizard-Lord?" she says in a dangerously soft voice.


Alicia backs down at Sylvia's statement and says off-handedly, "Whatever Colin wants. I'm just there to provide back-up."

*Colin calls Sarah*   Answering Machine: "Hi, I can't come to the phone right now.  The battery has died.  Leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I remember to check my messages."

-

Sarah eventually checks her messages.  "Doh!"  She picks up a phone and starts dialing before realizing she doesn't actually know Colin's number.  "I don't know my boyfriend's number.  What kind of girlfriend am I?  Colin called and I don't even know his number.  But that's the point of address books right?"

She sighs and puts her head against the wall.  A vague memory of ages past causes her to vanish.  She appears at home and logs into her computer.  A few clicks later she is digging up her phones backup data.  "Ah-ha!"  She picks up her phone and dials Colin back.

If/When he answers, "Hi!  I'm okay.  Sorry I didn't get back to you.  Dead battery.  What's going on?"

Sammy narrows her gaze at him.  "She's off limits, Donnie.  And why the hell do you think I get so worried about people turning my mind?  I'm not worried for me; I'm scared about what I know I can do to you and others, especially if I was out of my mind or under somebody else's control.  Sometimes you need to be reminded of that too, so you don't take my worry too lightly.  You weren't in Strange's office.  You weren't the one who found Sylvia.  You didn't see the nurse change and attack and disappear.  And as much as you say you want us to talk and be close, you still don't know what its like to be me, to know that beings like me were used to utterly destroy beings like you, even though everybody keeps telling me not to worry about it because it 'can't' or 'won't' happen to me.  So until you know all of those things, I'm going to ask you -- nicely -- to please quit picking on me."



Sammy shrugs.  "Whatever those two want.  I'm just there to try to protect whoever I go with."

"I'm sorry.  Please don't ask me to do that again.  Not without...Without telling me what's going on.   Please.   Just...Let me know if you need help talking to those kids...Talking, not scaring, not threatening.  Just talking.  I have to go to class."   She had offered the list to Colin already.  If he didn't accept it, Laney sets it down on the desk beside Donnie and walks out.   

"You know what? I am sick and tired of this shit. Just because I don't coddle people or pat them on the head and say everything is alright, but instead give them honest and sometimes harsh responses, i am always the fucking bad guy. I want to help you, but I am sick and tired of the constant threats I receive from certain supposed 'friends'." He gestures towards Alicia. "Do you realize you sound more and more like her, Sammy? I threatened Alicia once, because she near eviscerated my girlfriend. Have I ever threatened you, Sammy? Ever? Just because you don't like to hear what I have to say sometimes does not mean you should ignore my point, or respond with physical threats. 'Destroy beings like me..' Whatever." He turns towards Alicia, voice raising over anyone trying to interrupt his diatribe. "Alicia, I just try to give you back what I receive from you, and it always comes down to threats in the rare instance I actually get a good verbal jab in on you. Until we can speak civily to each other, I am done with you.

I have never threatened any of my friends with my dragons. Never. To be perfectly honest, between my personal abilities and the fact I can have fucking four dragons fighting alongside me in a battle, I can really kick some ass if I need to. But thankfully it has never come down to that, and I hope it never does. I may run my mouth at times and speak before I think, but I have never used my abilities to cause serious harm to anybody. I have a goddamn magical sword for crissakes. Swords are made to kill people, not for knocking them unconscious. Even when I had three gunmen in my house, threatening me and my mother at gunpoint to tell them where the Blade of the BorderLord was, I did not respond with lethal violence. Uther was ready and willing to take care of them, permanently, and I declined. I called the police after my dragons kicked their ass.  

He throws up his hands. "Screw this." He turns to Sylvia. "I'm glad you are okay, and I'm sorry I did not notice a freaking thief-hag in our own school. Tell me when and where you want me to be, and I'll be there. Call me later. I need to leave before I really get pissed off." His eyes, a lurid green now, flick towards the sources of his frustration.

He grabs his bag and walks out, ignoring any responses from either Sammy or Alicia.

Sylvia pinches her temples between her thumb and forefinger.  She wants to go after Donnie--he's supposed to help her with one of the Manchurian Candidates--but she knows things will get out of control if it looks like she's choosing a team.

She looks at Jack.  She doesn't even need telepathy with the expression on her face.  You see what I have to deal with?  Bill Paxton comes to mind.  How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?

Jack nods to Sylvia as Donnie leaves.  "Just change the plan, and keep going.  Adapt.  Improvise.  Overcome." 

Alicia looks after Donnie's departure with a raised eyebrow. "Wow. That boy's a LiveJournal account and a few razor cuts away from being a poster emo boy."

She shifts her look to Sylvia for a moment with a "he's your problem" look before glancing at Sammy. "Not that I needed the back-up, Sam, but... thanks."



Alicia tries her hand at conciliation. "I can back you up, Syl, if you want. I think Colin and Sammy can handle anything that'd come up."

Sammy stares after Donnie and a noise of angry frustration escapes her.  She bites down on it, hard.  "Go after him, Sylvia," she grumbles.  "It'll get worse if you don't.  You need his magic more than you need what I can do, and more important, you need him.  At least, he needs you.  Your teams need to shift a little too; Colin needs Sarah to go with him and Alicia, not me.  It'll work better, trust me.  I'll hang around on call."  She waves her hands futilely around.  "I'm sorry.  It doesn't fix a damned thing, but I'm sorry."

"No."  Jack says.  "Let him go.  His feelings are more important to him than your group goals.  If you feel the group can't succeed without him, then delay your action and regroup.  It's easier when you're adults, sometimes.  Right now you're little storms of super powers, hormones, and emerging self-identity."  He looks at Sylvia.  "Make the call."

Alicia can't help but put her two cents in. "Besides, putting Sarah and me in the same group is overkill. She and I are front-line; you need to pair us off with the ones that need the physical backup.

"Sammy here works best as reserve; she's got the high mobility and firepower," she finishes, glancing to Jack for approval.

Sylvia grimaces.  How did she get to be in this position?  "Let's roll out as is.  I'm sure, if John and I head toward our appointment and I ask Donnie to meet us, he will.  If not, Sarah can shift from your team to ours in a blink."  She pauses.  "And since everyone's deflecting responsibility--"  And Colin's probably consulting the spirits about something.  "--John and I will head toward the thief.  You guys can head toward fire or ice.  I think at least one of you could use a therapeutic fight, so make sure to flash them with the queen of diamonds or something first.

"Alicia," Sylvia adds, while she's being large and in charge, "no death.  And a minimum of blood, please.  These kids are under the influence."

Alicia raises an eyebrow, her eyes flashing. "What an undeserved reputation I seem to be gathering," she says in wry humor.

She gestures to Colin and Sammy. "After you."

"Now?" Sammy says.  "Right this minute?  Sarah's not here, and we still have afternoon classes.  Last time I checked, we didn't have permission to cut school this afternoon."  She jangles Elrod's keys.  "I need to return these.  And I'd like to get my flight suit, if you don't mind.  It gets cold flying around up there."

"Aw, man," Alicia complains half-jokingly, "we were this close, and you had to go and spoil it, Sam."

She sighs theatrically. "Oh, well. I guess we can meet up after school. Dave can give us an address for our target and we'll case the place before moving in. Besides, Sam has a point. I'd like to get my work clothes on for this."

"You're released on your own recognizance," Sylvia says, giving Colin a significant look.  If she's traveling light, with John, or even with Sarah, she's neatly excluded all the emo-heads from what she needs to do.  Let Colin test his saint-like patience on that.

Sorry guys. My PC keeps dying on me.


Colin retreats into a corner to talk to Sarah. Tempers are too hot now, and they wouldn't listen to him anyway. As if he had something wise and important to say to make all this mess better. He sighs.

"Hey wondergirl. Been missing you. Donnie, Allie and Sammy are lashing out to each other. You know how it usually goes. Sylvia and Laney were attacked by a witch disguised as the school nurse. No, not one of those witches, a new one, but Sammy dealt with her. Yes, I know we never had a school nurse, but she put up a spell so it looked like everything made sense. She tried to steal their powers. She probably figured that our school is a good place for harvesting powers. Sylvia managed to snap out of it, Laney needed a little more help, but they're fine now. Jack's here too, now, and we're planning what to do about Strange. He took a drug that makes every telepath trying to get a read on him puke and faint. Sylvia found out at her own expenses, so you stay out of his thoughts too, for whatever reason. Laney says he hypnotizes people, and probably makes them do what he wants. No, please don't ask me how she knows that, it's even more complicated than how *I* get to know stuff, let's just say I trust her, ok? We're in the newsroom by now if you manage to drop by. Now Laney's run away, not that I blame her, and Donnie's just stormed off too. We thought you could get me and Alicia in Strange's house or his office, so I could try to get a read on things, to figure out what he's up to. That's not telepathy, so I should be safe. And Alicia can pick up details none of us can. Except John maybe. I don't know who'd be better at that. There's something up with John too, but I have no idea what. Are you all right? Laney gave us three names of strange's patients who might have been influenced. We'll check on them, but I'd like to know about all the photos you found in his home. Did you take pics?"


---


"Wait a moment, what did we decide? We first talk with his patients and then we check on his office, or the other way around?"

If Colin could have his way, he'd run after Laney, then after Donnie, then after all the others like a shepherd dog, he'd make them all sit in a wood in sunny summer day, but with a gentle breeze so it's not too hot, and he would show to all how he sees them all, how they really are, in his mind. But such miracles are beyond him.

Alicia pouts. "Man, why do I never get the B&E jobs?" she mutters petulantly, then grins and winks.

"Syl, I'd like to know what he's up to, and since you can't read him, the next best thing is getting me into his office. And Alicia too, in case there's some interesting detail I would miss. I'd like to talk with the arson guy too, though. And Sarah would help a lot there. Can our team cover both?"

"By all means," Sylvia says.  Since when has Colin, the goofy guy who talks to invisible people, been the most sensible person in the room?  She really needs some normal friends.

"See?" Sammy says.  "It does work good with Sarah and Colin and Alicia together.  Firepower, brains, and a quick exit capability.  It's probably easier for Alicia to focus with just them too.  I-- I'm just going to float and be ready to move in where I'm needed."  If I'm needed.  Both sides have it covered.

Alicia is obviously anxious to move, telling by the nervous twitching of her leg. "So, we meet up after school, right? I'll need to stop by home and suit up. You got a place in mind to meet, Colin?"


Alicia gives her a wide grin and a thumbs-up. "You're our guardian angel, Sam."

Sammy half smiles.  "No. Rhys is the one with wings.  I'm just a flighty airhead."

Alicia's grin gets even wider. "But Ree-is is all mine. You get the rest of the group."

Colin would like to follow Laney's advice, but I'm not that good at reading what's not there. :)

Do I fill in the blank myself, or someone already has an idea?

"I've been missing you too," she says with a touch of sadness.  "Uh huh, naturally.  If a week goes by when there isn't a tiff... then I'd start worrying about the fabric of reality.  A witch posing as a nurse huh?"

"Yes I took pics," Sarah responds, "I'll email them to you right now.. or to your phone though it's hard to see anything on these dinky little screens.  Wait a second... where is everyone.  Forget that.  Where are you?"  

If/When Colin tells her she's there in a few heartbeats.  She hands him a set of color print outs from her camera and then squashes him and the pictures in a big hug.  


If Sarah had her way she'd find out how many humans in free fall Donnie's dragon could juggle.  Still, each to their own.  

The world could be on the edge of destruction and Sarah would still make Colin happy. After a kiss long enough to make everyone else groan, he goes back to being the professional superhero.


He takes Sarah's prints, and with his memory, and the fact he took most of those pictures himself, it doesn't take him long to give a name to every face. The one who worries him most is Sheila. When he sees her photo, his knuckles get white for a moment.

"I wouldn't be surprised if all these people were paranormals." he says to the others. "If some of them have been his patients too, be very careful. He could have influenced them to protect him."

He sends each of the Usual Suspects the list of names and the yearbook pics.

Sammy scans the list then closes it.  "Jack, I'm sorry for dragging you over here.  I was afraid, and, well--" she shrugs.  "Sorry."

She hands Elrod's keys to Jack.  "These are Elrod's -- could you get them back to him?  I was supposed to meet him after practice but it looks like I'm going to be busy.  Maybe.  I don't want to risk leaving him stranded."  Her voice is very subdued.

He doesn't get a groan from Alicia. More like a wolf whistle and a "Booya!"


Alicia looks askance at the list and says sarcastically, "And what are we supposed to do with this? Tag 'em and release 'em back to the wild to track their migratory patterns?"

That is a randomized guess for the GM to fill in, as he has done before.   Keep in mind, it's a maybe.  Always maybe.  ::)

"That would be an idea for the future, since someone said we should take initiative instead of always waiting for stuff to happen to us. We could watch them, and see if they really are paranormal, and if they're dangerous. For the moment, though, I just meant it as a 'if you meet one of them, be careful'."

Sarah sighs in contentment and then winks at Alicia.



Sarah quips, "Well wouldn't that just make our lives easier if they all had little GPS trackers on them?  Best we can do is talk to them and let Colin or Sylvia check them for brain misalignment.  Then hopefully they can be shook out of it or maybe I can help them out a little.  The worst thing is we can't just say, 'Everything he told you was a lie.'  I mean he might have helped them all with problems not associated with their abilities.  What if he hypnotized them to be loyal servants AND no longer be emotionally crippled from some past trauma?"

Some days... most days Sarah can see the appeal in being a four color comic Super-Hero.  "Life would be so much simpler if this guy had just built a bunch of giant killer robots to attack the city."

"Mmm, killer robots," Sylvia agrees.  "I could stay home."

"I hoped you could make them forget the loyal servants part." he says to Sarah. No point in whispering, Alicia would hear anyway.

"Yep," says Sammy.  She gathers her things.  "Let me know where you need me to be later.  See ya."
She heads off in the direction of her next class.

Alicia raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, so just to make sure we're on the same page here? IF I meet up with one of these guys and IF he or she has actually been Stepforded up by Strange, and IF he or she decides to throw down because of this... what? Can I beat him or her up then?"

She shrugs. "Just want to make sure the rules of engagement are clear."


Alicia does not seem to react to the statement. Whether it's because she doesn't unerstand the hidden meaning or doesn't care is hard to say.

"If worse comes to worst, remember it's not their fault, so please leave something that can be healed. And don't bite anything that you can't chew. Tough girls know when to call Sammy for help."

Alicia snaps off a jaunty salute. "Yes, sir! I will sincerely apologize beforehand for any damage caused! And signal for help using our secret code phrase: 'Dear God! Get this thing of me!'"

She glances at the wall clock. "Aaaand... My History class is now over. Mission accomplished! Give me a call with the time and place tonight. I'm off to terrorize my P.E. teacher."

She bounds out of the classroom without another word.

Jack takes the keys.  "No problem.  Happy to help."

He watches them leave, and then goes to the hall and sits down next to Mitzi.  "All in a days work for teenage super heroes."  he says, then looks at the keys.  "You know someone named Elrod?"

Dude, we're so goin to the mall.  I need a pretzel and a slushy.

[Don't even joke about that!  For the rest of my role-playing career, I'll be scarred by that shopping trip.]