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Donnie was at his front door, trying to work his key in the lock when he realized he didn't have his phone.  He went over in his head where he might have left it and the library comes to mind.  It had dropped from his pocket, but he had knocked his water over at the same time.  He'd grabbed the water in a panic, and totally forgotten to pick up his phone.

Crap. He unlocks the front door and calls "Moooooom? You home? I need a ride back to school!"

"In the kitchen honey."  She calls.  when Donnie rounds the corner he finds his mother in the kitchen with two men in suits.  "These gentleman wanted to take us for a ride.  Apparently your father did something."  She shrugs.

OOC: Make a Notice Check

Aww crapcrap. "Are they police officers? Why do we have to go somewhere?" Donnie pauses at the entrance to the kitchen, mind whirling.

Notice Check 1d20+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1911146/)  

Jack has talked about a lot of things as Donnie and he spar.  And Donnie has picked up some of it.  Most of it is stuff he never thinks he'd need to know, but suddenly one thing Jack has said comes through loud and clear.  Feds wear cheap suits and comfortable shoes.  these guys are wearing Armani and Italian loafers.

"It's nothing too serious.  We just want to make sure everyone is comfortable for the next few hours."

Donnie goes to the fridge and gets himself a can of coke. "Can we stop back at my school? I left my phone in the Library."

Donnie walks over to the sink and turns his back to the window, facing his mother and the two likely mafioso. He concentrates for a moment and Pip pops into existance outside the house. He quickly mentally relays the sitrep to his trusty companion, and tells him to look for the fanciest car parked near his house and describe it to him.

The two men share a look and nod, "Sure, that's not too far out of the way."

A few minutes later Pip is telling Donnie about cars nearby.  Shiny.  Big.  Black.  The large sedan down the block sounds like the right one.

Good, my friend. Now, take a chunk out of one of those tires, would you? Careful, the compressed air might knock you for a loop.

Out loud, he says "Mom, have you heard from dad?"

Mom shakes her head, "Nope."

Donnie is updated as Pip nibbles a hole in the tire, then takes a whopper of a bite out of the inside once the pressure drops some.

"Okay, let me go to the bathroom first."  Donnie heads to the bathroom and uses it. He first takes off his shoes as the toilet flushes. He then turns on the water in the sink and casts his Now You Don't spell and disappears from view. He opens the door after shutting off the water and looks out. If there are no goons waiting by the bathroom door, he quietly walks out on stockinged feet.

The goons are still in the kithen with mom.

OOC: Make a Notice check.

1d20+3=23 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1912106/)
Sweet!

From the bathroom door you can see the end of the kitchen table.  The chair at the head of the table has a tan London Fog raincoat draped over it.  You recognize it.  It was the same coat the other Mary Douglas wore.  The one from the other dimension.

Triplecrap. Donnie pads quietly down the hallway into the rarely used Living room and stands near a bookcase, thinking quickly. He moves as quietly as possible through the living room into the formal dining room where he could see the kitchen and the table where mom (alternamom) was sitting.

Has my alternamom come to take me away to another dimension? Has she taken my real mom's place to protect her? What the hell is going on here?

He waits, pondering, to see what the goons will do when they realize he was no longer in the bathroom and nowhere to be found.

Are the mafioso working with her? Donnie tries to read Mary Douglas' body language, remembering her cadence of speech the few time she had spoke since he got home. He tries to dredge up more memories of jack's training sessions on observation.

Sense Motive: 1d20+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1912478/)

Mary is sitting very still.  It's a few moment before one of the goons looks down the hall, "What's taking him?"

"He's brushing his teeth."  Mary says.  "He has excellent dental hygiene."

The two goons share a look and one of them nods and heads down the hall.

Mary's body language suggests she's nervous, and she keep eying her coat on the back of the chair.

Donnie moves slowly into the kitchen until he can almost see down the hallway. As soon as the goon realizes that he had vanished, Donnie is going to drop them like a stone. Well, roughly 800 lbs heavier stone, at least. Unless they were hopped on Superman, it should fairly immobilize them. Gravity's a Bitch, fellas.

Hey Pip, fly around to the back porch. Hopefully soon I will be opening the door to let you in.

The goon doesn't bother to knock, he just opens the door.  "He's not here!"  He yells out.

Mary doesn't say a word, she just smacks the other goon in the larynx with the blade of her hand, and then pokes him in the eyes with her other hand as she rotates towards him.  She masks his gurgling sound with her voice "Really?  Maybe he went to his room for something."

Well well..   Donnie steps around the corner until he can see the goon in the hall and the choking one in the kitchen, and the men in their Armanis are suddenly plastered to the floor, 800 lbs heavier.

The spell trips and both men hit the floor like they have invisible Gorillas perched on their backs.  Mary steps back from the one she hit.  "DONNIE!"  she calls, sprinting to his room. 

Donnie calls out from the kitchen "Here," and opens the back door. Pip buzzes in up to the top of the refrigerator.

"Welcome back, alternamom."

Donnie can see Mary resist the urge to hug him, "What's going on?  I came by to see you and these guys hustled me into the house and said we were going to wait for you.  where are your folks?"

ooc: I will assume he dropped the invisibilty then.

"I have no idea. I just got home from school. Let me call mom and see where she's at." He snags the phone off the wall. As he dials he says "Can you get their guns? I am sure they're both packing."  He makes sure to maintain the gravity, ensuring they aren't able to get upright.

OOC: She was just going to go to the sound of your voice.

Mary grabs their guns, and slips them into the waistband of her jeans.

Donnie calls his mother, and she answers the phone, "Donnie?"  She says, almost hysterical. 

Donnie shimmers back to view as he dials the number. Maintaining two spells and dialing the phone might make him lose the Gravity spell..

"Mom! I'm fine! Where are you? What's going on?" Donnie motions towards the guns, holding his hand out. When Alternamom hands one over, he tosses it up on top of the fridge, where Pip starts munching away.

"Some FBI agents came to the house to pick me up.  We've been calling your phone, and they went to the school, they said it was there.  Honey there might be some trouble, you wont be safe there."

"There already is. Two goons are here, currently, um, incapacitated. Are you sure they are FBI? Comfortable shoes, cheap suits? These guys were wearing Armani."

ooc: did alternamom give me the gun?

"And I took their IDs and called teh Chicago office.  Are you alright?"  Her voice drops to a whisper, "No one got eaten or anything did they?"


OOC: Reluctantly.  Then she stares in awe as Pip munches on them.

"Nope. Everyone still has all their pieces. For now. What has happened with Dad? Do they have him?"  Donnie waves towards the goon alternamom took out, and Pip lands on his chest, hissing and slavering. Snap! Snip! The man cries out in pain and gurgles as Pip's poison begins to work. Donnie walks over and turns his head so he wouldn't choke on any vomit he might throw up.

He then walks over to the second goon, who watched the whole proceedings. Pip flaps over, lands on him and hisses..

"I might be able to get some info from these guys."

"Apparently your father and his, whatchamacallit.  The cunt he's fucking.  Took off today, for Mexico.  The FBI is a little concerned, and I guess his mobster friends are as well.  I guess the FBI was worried they'd come after us.  Remind me to slap your father if they find him safe."  Mom sounds pissed.

Donnie's face becomes stone. "Are you sure they went to Mexico? I thought the 'cunt' was his FBI controller?" Donnie says the foul word with a mix of relish and hatred.

"Yes.  So did the FBI.  Needless to say they're not happy, but at least they had the decency to make the effort to look after us.  They're coming to the house to get you, unless you."  She gets quiet again, "Unless you want to, whatever it is super heroes do to avoid being in protective custody with their mother."

"I need to make sure these goons don't remember anything. Tell the FBI to stay away for now. I don't want the mafioso to know he was, you know. I have a plan for the moment. Do you have my phone?"

"No.  If you need one."  she whispers again, "In the garage, on the shelf with the paint, the can that has Bathroom Trim in my handwriting has a phone in it.  I know the number."

Interesting. "Okay, I'l nab that one. Call me back in fifteen minutes, okay? I need to make another call."

Donnie goes to the garage and rummages around until he finds it, keeping an eye out for anything else his mother might have hidden there. He turns on the phone and dials Sarah's cell phone. One ringy dingy. Two ringy dingy. "Sarah? I need a big favor.."

The paint can has a cell phone, charger, five-thousand dollars in traveler's checks and five hundred dollars in small bills, and an address book with the numbers of all the rental car companies, airlines, and major motel chain reservation lines.

Donnie is kind of stunned. He replaces everything but the cell phone and makes the call to Sarah.

*beep* Sarah presses the answer button.  No number... huh.  "Hello?  Hey Donnie, .... A favor?  Sure, anything.  I know!  You need a third for another game of catch?" 


OOC: edited ... cause I'm an idiot.  Yeah.  The phone in the paint bucket had Donnie's caller ID on it.   ??? 

"No, I have a favor to ask. One that only you can help me with. Fwip to my garage? I'll explain better here."

"Be right there." she says and hangs up.  *click* .... less than a minute later she is.  *fwip* "What's up?"

Donnie sighs as he leads her back into the house. "First of all, alternate reality mom, meet Sarah. Sarah, this is my mom from an alternate reality. One where the thugs with the baseball bat killed me. She decided to come visit for another time. She also has one of the little thingamajiggies that opens portals." He gestures to the semiconscious thug and the one with the drooling dragon on his chest. "These are mafia thugs. Remember what my dad was involved in? Well he's done something stupid and they came to collect me and mom for insurance purposes. The FBI have my real mom and are likely on their way to get me too until they can figure out where Dad is. However, I need these guys to forget about everything that happened this afternoon, so the mafia doesn't realize dad was playing both sides, you know?"

Donnie looks apologetic and stressed. "I'm sorry, it's the only thing I could think of that could end this without people becoming dragonchow or getting into shoot-outs with federal officers."

Sarah blinks and gives alternaDonnie'sMom a smile, "Hi?  Um.. nice to meet you."  She looks around at the garage she just hopped into.  "Wow... okay.  I mean, I'll try.  So I can try and leave them blanked out... just a gap or I can tell them a fake story... got any ideas?"

"A big gap is fine, I think. Right now they can't move due to weighing about 800 lbs more than they normally do. I can reverse it, so they weigh almost nothing, and we can toss them in the back yard and lock up. If no one is home, then they won't need to hang around, right?" He looks over at alternamom, as if seeking her approval.

Sarah cracks her knuckles and crouches down next to the heavy heavies.  She clears her throat and says to them, "You have no idea what happened to you.  The last thing you remember is heading to the house.  You'd better get out of here.  Some neighbor has probably called the cops."

OOC:
DC: 13 vs mental whammy.  Failing that she can zap em with her shiny stick a few times to loosen up their mental facilities. 

Mary smiles and nods.  She waves to Sarah when the girl greets her.  It's not hard for Sarah to 'adjust' the goons memories.

OOC: I assume you let them out the side door to the garage and let them get to their car and leave, since they think the PD have been called?

ooc: perfect

After the goons are gone, Donnie thanks Sarah profusely and gathers them to the kitchen. He looks over at alternamom and says "Okay, so in your reality, is Donald Douglas the second having an affair or involved with the mob or FBI? Do youo have a secret stash of money and flight/hotel info as well?"

"Well, he and I split after...after our son died.  But yes, I did have all that stuff.  In case I ever needed to run away.  As for his involvement with mobsters, yes.  The FBI, that I couldn't tell you."  Mary grabs her coat and puts it on.  "I'm sorry, I just wanted to come say good-bye.  Rumor is that we wont be able to travel before long, and I wanted to just see you.  Sorry to have come at a bad time."  She comes close and gives Donnie a hug.  "I should get back.  Things to do and all."  she says with a smile.

Donnie looks at her dubiously. "Is the portal opener you have stolen or something? Are you going to get in trouble with the government?"

"No."  she says shaking her head, "It's just that someone is going to reinforce the barriers that separate dimensions, so they wont work before long."

Donnie hugs her back. "Well, be careful. Just remember you have a son here who can protect himself, and when he can't, he has friends who are very good at watching my back and yanking me out of the way of out-of-control vans."  He indicates Sarah.

Sarah stays rather quiet on the whole topic of dimension hopping.  Would her other self become an illegal alien?  Was she classified as one already?  

"It was nice to meet you." she says to Donnie's alternaMom.  "I'm sorry they're closing down the borders.  If..." she glances over at Donnie and asks, "If there's a way to contact you again sometime in the future, would that be okay?  I mean, how do we know which dimension you're in?  Do dimensions have addresses or codes or something like that?"

Sarah just grins at Donnie's comment.  "Aww shucks, twern't nuthin."

"It was nice to meet you too.  We, well it was explained to me sort of like a phone number.  Most keys have their home dimension programmed into them and then you dial the number that represents another dimension.  someone once told me the numbers have some sort of meaning, like how radically different they are from where you're from.  How powerful magic is.  How advanced the technology is.  I don't understand them really.  The key I use doesn't have a home code, I accidentally dialed the wrong number one night which is how I ended up here.  It's just one number off."  she takes the cell phone looking device from her pocket and opens it.  "Sarah, I remember you.  Donnie, my Donnie, used to play that game with you, the one with the dragons.  At that comic book store downtown.  Your family moved to Florida, things in Oak Park just got too complicated.  It's nice to see that you're here to help look after Donnie."

Donnie looks at the device with unabashed interest. "How did you learn to use one of thise? How did you get it?"

"A friend from college.  He went on to do great things, and I saw him after...after my son died.  He told me that he could help me get away, to take my mind off of my troubles.  After a while he just let me keep it.  He sort of showed me a few places to go, safe places.  And then I just started to explore.  There is sort of a secret club I guess.  A bunch of us will get together every once in a while and talk about where we've been and what we've seen.  That's how I heard they might be making it so we can't travel anymore."

Donnie is truly intrigued now. "Who was it? We could use a reference for someone really good with elctronics and gadgets.."

"Cleveland Heep.  Where I'm from he heads a company called Technodigm."

Donnie looks over at Sarah, eyes wide. "He's a teacher at our school!"

Donnie shakes his head in wonder. "Hey, if alternadad was going to hide away in some bolthole with a woman, where would he go? Any ideas?"

"For a fling or to actually escape justice?"  She takes a pad off the kitchen counter and starts to write on it.  "For a fling he'd stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun.  Seaside room."  She scribbles some other things down.  "If he were fleeing from justice, he has a friend from school that runs the Blue Bay Club.  It's another resort, he'd put Don up off the books."  she hands Donnie the paper with the phone numbers and names of the places she's mentioned as well as some other longer numbers.  "Those two numbers at the bottom are his off-shore accounts.  I can't promise you they'll be the same here.  They're password accounts, and the password for both of them is your birthday.  In case you need some leverage.  Maybe your dad is a better person than my ex-husband."

Donnie grumbles. "I don't know about that." He stuffs the papers into his pocket and hugs alternamom again. "Take care, ... mom. Be safe. I'm off to save the world, or maybe just dad today."

He steps back so as not to be caught up in the device's power.

"Be good."  she says, accepting the hug graciously.  Mary goes out the back door into the yard.  She activates the device and a swirling vortex opens.  She turns and waves, then jumps into the vortex.  A few seconds later it closes.

Donnie waves goodbye and looks over at Sarah.  "So. Ever been to Cancun?"  There is a sparkle of mischeviousness in his eyes. "Let me get a few things before I try to convince you to do something rash and probably stupid."

Donnie heads back into the house and gathers some things. A couple changes of clothes, his PDA, laptop, and passport. He also grabs most of the petty cash out of his mother's stash.

"Ooh!  Rash and stupid?  This is getting better and better.  Now I don't have a choice in the matter," says a not at all joking Sarah.  In a wicked evil girl notion she asks, "Are we going to Cancun?  Can we send a picture of us running on the beach to Syl and then watch the horizon for the 'splosion?"   

Donnie laughs loudly, giddy with the thoughts of the possible reckless adventure. After he has gathered his things, he asks Sarah. "How far can you jump with a passenger?"

Sarah just states simply, "I don't really know Donnie.  I don't think I can jump us to Cancun.  The airport in a couple of hops, no problem.  Could hop us onto a plane going to Cancun.  I mean technically I could make it down there in a few hours and bringing one person along is no problem.  With Morpheus's help focusing I can jump without a line of sight and bring the whole gang along but I don't know if he'd be on board for a long trip.  Plus it's going to be dark before long... though I guess if we're jumping west uh.. carry the three... okay so wait."

Sarah starts drawing math in front of her face.  She stops and thinks about it for a moment and grins.  "Actually, it might not take that long.  Though I've never tried jumping that many times all at once before.  But I could probably take a break right?  I mean you could call Althea and she could carry us along for a while until my head was screwed back on straight."

She pauses from that thought and looks at Donnie, "Are you really hoping to dig up your dad and give him to the feds?"

Donnie slings his pack up on one shoulder. "I've got some plans. We don't need to make it down there tonight. If we make it by tomorrow sometime, I can probably find him before the feds or the mafia do. I have some leverage, thanks to mom. I have the feeling that she's right on the money for finding him. Tell you what, let's get out of here fefor the Feebs get here. Someplace where I can work for an hour or so. I have some computation and some computer work to figure out. If by then either of us have decided that this is a stupis idea and that we should leave it to the Feebs or even bring in Syl or Colin. I dunno though. Bringing in Sylvia would be great in one hand, but terrible in others. Same with Colin. I don't think he'd feel comfortable doing something like this, do you? Should we bring someone else? IF so, who?"

Donnie seems to be wavering in his determination to so south and find his dad.

Sarah says, "Right.  Well first things first."  She takes Donnie's hand and closes her eyes for a few moments.  *fwip* and they're standing in Sarah's room.  She looks around and squeeks. 

The room is a mess.  The table was a cluttered pile of notebooks, school books and snack wrappers.  Her unmade bed held a basket of laundry which naturally floating on top was a pile of her underwear.  The floor was scattered with travel magazines, maps, a couple bags of chips, some empty soda cans and various articles of clothing... and more underwear. 

Sarah grabbed a blanket and tossed it over the worst of the floor mess and flipped the basket over on her bed.  "Sorry, I wasn't expecting company and I sort of forgot how messy it was."  Thanks alterna-me.  Drop by anytime I say... well at least my other me can do laundry.  Just as well as she's borrowing all my best clothes.

Donnie, ever the boy, notices the girls underwear first. "Hello Kitty, huh?"  

He grins and sits himself down on a less-cluttered area of the floor. "Is any of your family home? I don't want to get you in trouble for having a boy up in your room if that's not allowed." Then he chuckles. "That's funny, we're contemplating running to Cancun Mexico to get my runaway father and i am concerned about getting you in trouble for having me in your bedroom."

He flips on his laptop and gets to work. First and foremost, he does some reading on accesssing off-shore accounts, and then logs in the numbers alternamom gave him to see if they are the same here.

Mary included the bank names, and Donnie is able to go to the banks website and log into the accounts.  Both accounts have about a million dollars US in them.

Oh god.

Sarah just busies herself around the room tossing all the clothes on the floor into the hamper except for the ones she knows were clean and were just apparently tossed there be a version of herself with a more peticular sense of fashion.

"No, it's early still.  Mart will be with his girlfriend until dinner time and Mom and Dad don't get home much before that.  You've got at least an hour to hang out probably closer to two.  Want a coke or a diet or a sandwich or anything?"  

"Yeah, a coke would be awesome."

"Woah." Donnie rubs his forehead and motions Sarah over to the laptop, showing the account information to her. He shakes his head and sighs. "Dad, you're a dick."

He then gets an evil grin on his face. "But, you are a generous dick."  

He checks to see which account has had the most recent activity, and goes to the other one. He taps on the keyboard for a few minutes, smirking, as he finds out how to transfer funds. He empties out his father's most-unused accouont, donatining all but $1.00 to various local Chicago charities, most notably charities for keeping homeless kids off of the streets, soup kitchens, and a portion to saving rainforests. He chortles as he works, and then loads up command prompts in his PDA to do the same with the other account with a few keystrokes. He writes golden glittery symbols in the air, and then grabs the lip of them and drags them onto his PDA.

Humming to himself, he accesses his magical notes and starts working out permutations for a couple of specific spells..

Sarah looks at the numbers on the screen.  "Wow Donnie.  That's a lot of money.  Where did it come from?  I mean is that his paycheck or what he stole from someone?"

After, Sarah heads downstairs to get some drinks and make a sandwich.  She clears away a plate and cup on the counter and heads back upstairs.  She catches Donnie dropping magic into his PDA and grins.  "That is totally cool." 

"Stole it. Likely either from his company or the mafia. One or the other. Either way, it isn't his anymore. I consider it payment for nearly getting mom and me clipped by the mafia. Bastard."

Donnie thanks Sarah for the vittles and goes back to typing on the keyboard. Every once in a while, he pulls symbols from the screen and hangs them in the air, separating parts out, twisting them, rewriting, and then pushing them back onto the laptop. He then returns to typing furiously.

He summons Pip and the little dragon gives Sarah her usual due as his favorite person in the whole wide world (besides Donnie) because she is The Bearer of the Cookies. He plays with her, gets into mischevious trouble by snatching clothes and depositing them around the room, on top of lampshades, on the mirror, under her pillow. Donnie smiles at his little friends antics, but does not let himself get too distracted.

After an hour, he stands and stretches, popping the bones in his neck as his spine straightens from being hunched over the keyboard.

ooc: where is the Blue Bay Club? Is it also in Cancun?

OOC: Yes.  It's in the Hotel Zone of the city.

"Okay, so both hotels are in the Hotel Zone of Cancun, whatever that means. I guess where all of the hotels are?" He sighs and scratches Pip's scaly head.

"Are really going to do this? My mom is in FBI protective custody right now, and my Dad is the one we're looking for, so no one is going to be calling the police looking for me if I am gone for a couple-few days. That's not true for you. If you go galavanting off with me on this, people are going to worry and look for you. I don't want to drag you into trouble with your parents and stuff. What do you want to do? You've helped me a ton already.."

Sarah gives Donnie the biggest Cheshire cat grin he's ever seen.  She says, "That's easy Donnie.  I'm not going to help you.  I'm going to stay right here and hang out.  So give me a few minutes and we can get going."

She vanishes with a *fwip* leaving a confused Donnie alone in a girls room.  Pip has apparently found the bags of snacks on the floor and can be hear rustling in the packaging.

Two minutes later in the Conrad Chicago, Sarah is sitting on a gigantic bed across from her identical twin.  They're playing rock, paper, scissors. 
"Darn it!" one says.  "Okay, I can go another time." 
"Behave yourself.  Besides, I trust you.  If you can't trust yourself,"
"Who can you trust?"
"Thanks."
"No problem.  Have fun."
*fwip*

Sarah pops back into the room with Donnie and grins.  "Let me grab a few things and we'll be good to go."
She digs into the closet and opens drawers tossing what she needs onto the bed, or as close as her aim can get to the bed.  She ducks down the hall and comes back with a compass, a toothbrush and small bottle of shampoo and a small backpack.  She stuffs everything into the backpack and grins.  "All clear.  We can be watching the sunset on the Pacific in a few hours."   

Donnie gives her a baslisk stare. "Okay, is there some new Jedi Mind Trick you haven't told anyone about?"

Sarah waves her hand before her face and says, "There is no Jedi mind trick."

She says, "Seriously I didn't mess with anyone's head.  This is more of a young Lindsay Lohan trick."

Donnie nods his head "Okay, I have no idea what you mean, but if you are good to go, please stick out your tongue."

At her odd stare, Donnie smiles. "Come now. Tongue! snap snap!"

When she does he traces a mystical symbol on it and then raises his hands on either side of her head. "Don't move please."  He traces several symbols on either side of her head and then brings his palms together, pressing the glowing sigils into her ears and resting his fingertips in her hair. He closes his eyes for a moment, until the spell is set and then steps back.

He grins evilly and rubs his hands together. "Now you will be my slave forever! Mwahahaha!" He drops the act and says "No, not really. You can put your tongue back in. You now actually have a shortened version of the Gift of Tongues. You can understand and speak the spanish language with perfect fluency for the next 36 hours before the spell fades. I figured it would be a lot easier to operate in Mexico if we were able to speak the language down there."

He gathers his belongings and tells Pip "I'll call you when Sarah needs a break and we fly, okay?" Pip fades away, and the bag of crisps he was munching on falls to the bed, several dragon-bites taken out of the bag and the contents reduced to crumbs.

Donnie dials a message to Sylvia.

Syl- OOtown Dad stuf FBI. Cal wen I can! <3 D


He looks around, making sure he didn't leave anything and says. "Ready, Jedi Master."

Donnie's phone starts to do things he didn't know it could do.  A hologram à la Princess Leia's distress message projects from its face plate.  It's Sylvia, of course--white robes, bunned hair, and all.  "FBI?  What's going on?"

[I think this is probably seen only by Donnie.]

ooc: if it does it to Donnie's phone then her hologram is popping up in the Library. If it is going straight to Donnie's head, then I will answer..  

[Sylvia's illusions are always purely mental.  They go to his head.  Maybe his phone shows up in his pocket again.]

"Uh, Hi sweetie. Um. Dad ran with his skanky secretary. Alternamom came for a visit and we beat up a couple mafia goons, then Sarah scrambled their heads. Real Mom is in FBI protective custody, and Sarah and I are going to get Dad and force him to come back. Oh, and I just made a ton of charitable donations from one of his embezzledd off-shore accounts. I was tempted to make some in your name, but I didn't want the Feebs to be knocking at your door, so they re all anonymous. Um, that's it, I think?"

If this were an anime flick, Donnie would have a large drop of sweat popping up on his temple and smiling a forced overly-large grin.

If it weren't for the guilt, which feels as weird as a hot breeze off a cold lake in December, Sylvia would let it go, but there it is, blowing right in her face.  And boy, does it smell rotten.

Princess Leia squints.  "Where are you going?  Can I help?"

 PinkelephantsPinkelephantsPinkelephantsPinkelephantsPinkelephants

"Um, South?"

"I Chee Whooaa Whooaa!" says Sarah in her very best bad Spanish.  "Wow it's working already!"


Sarah blinks and asks, "Pip's going to give me a break?  Do we hold onto his tail while he flaps?"


She refrains from porting because Donnie was getting a brain call.  She wasn't sure if a teleport would cause a loss of reception or not.

"Like, to the South?  Or south?  I can meet you if you're not going too far," Sylvia says.  She's torn between wanting to tear the information out of his brain and trying to be the good girlfriend.  Donnie's got his own things to do; a reasonable young woman understands this.  But why the guilt?  Why the guilt with Sarah?  Where's Colin in all of this?  Does he know what's going on?  If he doesn't, will he help her track them down?

She forces herself to cram the instantaneous jealousy and suspicion into a deep dark hole somewhere south of superego, north of id.

"Um, south like in, south of the border..?"

pinkelephantpinkelephantsdon'tthinkaboutcancunmexicoelephants

Donnie waves his hand to Sarah in a come on! Let's go! motion..

He's looking a little like deer-in-the-headlights panicky.

"You're going to Mexico?"  Princess Leia seems jealous, but now it's less of that squirmy, suspicious jealousy and more of that open, piteous jealousy.  "With the sunshine and the desert and the mariachi music?"  She looks miserable but bites back the urge to beg and whine.  "Have fun."

'Have fun'--two little words that expand in girlfriend subtext to 'Have fun without me.  Without me.  Without me.  I'll just sit here.  All alone.  In the cold and unrelenting winter of this godforsaken place.  Shivering in my rags, in my shack, on this windswept plain.  With no one to love me.'

Sarah nods and *fwip* They're on the road.  Well the sidewalk.  Another hop and they're heading South-West on the top of some random buisness.  They keep hopping South and Sarah tries not to listen in to half of a conversation.

"It won't be fun, Sylvia. My dad skipped town with his secretary. How much non-fun can that be?"


Donnie does not read the subtext, of course. He's a boy; and boys don't think like that. They are not wired that way.

A few minutes later alternaSarah pops into the bedroom and sits on the bed.  She reaches into the bag of chips for a snack but pulls her hand back quickly from the puddle of goo that is all that remains of the few chip fragments.  She drops the bag into the trash and heads downstairs. 
She says quietly to herself, "Act casual and remember not to refer to anything in the past.  Keep busy and just enjoy having a family for a couple of days.  Might be the last time you get to have one."

"Of course.  Good luck, then."


Reading subtext is a survival skill, like finding forage on a glacier and learning to splint your own leg, and Donnie has unwittingly dropped himself into the heart of bleak and savage territory with nothing but a tube of lip balm and a video camera to capture his ignominious demise.

Poor Donnie. So foolish. He still hasn't got the realization that Sylvia's last words are ominous and hold dark import for his future when he returns from his trip to the party center of Mexico, Cancun, with another girl. Strangely ironic.

A couple minutes later and miles away from Chicago Sarah asks, "So... what did Syl have to say?"

Donnie, a little dizzy from the quick-fwipping, says "She uh, said 'Have Fun' and I said 'How fun can it be? My dad ran away with his floozy secretary' and she got kind of quiet and say 'Okay then Good luck.'"

Sarah stops and looks at Donnie.  She says, "Uh... Good luck?  Well.  Okay."  I'm crossing the border with a dead man.  *fwip*