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Dave secures a table for 'The Usual Suspects'.  Greg and Rob are also present today.  Rob's wardrobe and demenor seem to have returned to normal, as has his appettite.

Shelie finds Matt on his way to the cafeteria.  "Hey, okay if I join you guys again?"

Colin sits with the three friends.

"Hi guys. How's life today? Rob, everything's well?""

Colin is hungry too. It's been a hell of a week-end.

"Dave, I haven't got to tell you yesterday, but really, the way you are sticking up for us is great. Thank you." He smiles bashfully.

"Oh, uh, yea, of course!" He smiles at her, genuinely happy to see her and walks with her to 'the table'. "Uh, hey guys." He nods at the others and sit down, appearing clearly somewhat more comfy now than he was last time if Sheila decides to sit down next to him.

Sylvia comes in, sits down, says hi, and then proceeds with a strange experiment.  She opens up her container of cold fettucine with equally cold lentil bolognese  and proceeds to stare at it like she can make it go away with the power of her mind alone.  That's not what she's trying to do, though.  Mostly she's trying to see if she can convince herself that the dish is hot and that the leftover noodles haven't clumped together like the nest of a drunk, pasta-spinning spider.  Yes.  Ye-es.  Hot and appetizing.

She tries, and maybe a wisp of illusory steam rises from her plastic container, but then she tries to take a bite and finds herself with a mouthful of cold lentil mush.  She sighs disconsolately.  "This sucks."

Colin look at Sylvia, then at his second tuna sandwich, with salad, mayo and tomatoes. He sighs.
"Trade. This one for the pasta you don't eat. But really, telling her would be so painful? Or at least telling her... I dunno, that now that you are a cheerleader, the coach suggested you a protein diet, or something?"

He shows her the paper he bought in the morning, and the article about the shooting.
"More students of Oak Park High involved in this new drug traffic. He's in a hospital now, and if anyone can enter the hospital, get past the police and talk with him, I think that's you."

Sarah walks in to the lunchroom and spots Rob.  She comes over and gives him a little hug.  "Hey!  Welcome back to the land of the living!  How are you feeling?"

She sees a space near Colin and gives him smile before sitting down next to him and breaking out her lunch. 

Megan entered the lunch room with Lisa and a couple of the other cheerleaders as usual.  As the girls made their way over towards their typical table near several members of the football team and other groups of the generally “popular” students at Oak Park, the blond girl noticed Sylvia sitting with Colin, Sarah and some other students in what she had learned was something of the “drama” clique at the school, least based on the older students that always claimed that table each day. 

So far Sylvia hadn’t show much inclination towards spending much time outside of practice and games with the other girls in the squad.  So far Lisa and the others hand said anything, but Megan wondered how long it would be before they started to think something of the fact.  Putting the thoughts from her mind for the moment, Megan focused back on the conversations around her as she sat down.  Apparently from what Lisa had said, there was some word spreading about fact she had pulled a guy out of the pool Saturday night.

"Hungry mostly."  Rob replies, taking another bite of his sandwich, "I slept like all day Sunday, but other then that I'm okay."

Sylvia shrugs helplessly.  "It's not so bad at dinnertime.  Everything's hot, and Momda usually slips us dessert--"  And then she catches herself.  "Dad, I mean."

That's a whole new lode of trauma there.  Sylvia's not ashamed of her family per se, but she's done her best not to mention her parents except with an ambiguous "my mom."  It's likely only Kel knows.  And now Sylvia's actually lied, and she feels immediately, crushingly terrible about it.  The expression on her face might look like genuine nausea as she eyes her clumpy pasta.


She looks at the article and then bites her lip and nods.  "I'll do what I can."  She looks around for Kel, who makes her feel safe.

Colin can't quite put his finger on it, but he'd say there's something wrong. So he asks.
"Is there anything wrong with... your dad?"

He returns Sarah a warm happy smile as she sits beside him. he shows her the newspaper too.

"I didn't say you have to go there alone though, Sylvia. I'd rather the contrary."

What can Sylvia do?  She winces and shakes her head.  "They're okay.  My parents, they're okay."


"If Kel can't go, maybe I'll ask that guy, Cal.  He's muscle, he said.  I could maybe use some muscle."

Sarah scans the headlines....

"The armored car robbers are dead?" She looks a little grey at the thought.

"Why do I have a sick suspicion that maybe they have connections to that dealer?" 

She looks up and gives Matt a long look. 

"You doing okay after that crazyness at the mall Matt?"

Matt looks up at Sarah with a bewildered expression.

"That, uh, huh? What are you talking about? The armored truck thing? Why would I care about it, I wasnt even near it. I was planning to head to the comic shop around then and stock up, but I called it off and went to bed. Too bad as then I might have gotten a glimpse of that caped guy, an actual super hero, man that would have been cool... even if capes are kinda dorky these days."

Sarah grins, "Naw, he carried the cape off pretty well.  Then again anything looks good on somebody who just flipped over a car of armed criminals."  What does he mean he wasn't there?  Just trying to keep things buried?  Ask him later!

She hands the paper back to Colin, "Thanks... I wonder how a car just blows up?  I mean it happens in the movies all the time but that's because they pack explosives in the things."

Donnie comes in, dropping a couple well-thumbed books and a ragged notebook down on the table. He attempts to sit next to or near Sylvia. "Hey all. Rob! Feeling Better? Great! I'd like to talk to you later about somethings after school, if that's ok."

He sees Sylvia staring discontently at her lunch and ponders for a second before he grabs her hand and pulls her up. "C'mon. Lunch is on me today. You choose your food so I don't try and force unpleasently high sodium, carbo treats on you."

For those interested, the books on the table deal with demonic possession, curses, and witchcraft.

"Those at the Mall had homemade guns with uranium bullets. These ones probably got a sort of bazooka. They're escalating."


Colin isn't really convinced.
"I bet they are. Still, if you should feel like talking, I'll be right there."

Colin smiles.
"I think he'd like it. Cal... in a certain way he's too good to be true. One would never think looking at him."

Sylvia gives Donnie a rueful smile.  He's the second friend who's tried to feed her today, which means she must be making faces at her lunch again.  "Thanks," she tells him, unable to resist being taken by the hand and led toward the nutritional evils of the school cafeteria.  "It's good--it really is . . . when it's hot."  Mitzi doesn't believe in excess salt, so her food tastes like library paste when it's cold.


"Any progress?" she asks Donnie, nodding at the books.

Sylvia nods and gives him a smile that's really a grimace.  The truth's not as bad as the lie, and now that she's lied, she's not sure how to back out of it.


Sylvia glances at Cal and shrugs.  "He's nice."  Then something connects.  "Hey, Sarah's muscle, too, right?  Sarah could go?  Could you, Sarah?"  She has no idea if Sarah's been paying attention to the conversation between Colin and herself, but it's easily explained.

"Hmm? Sure I'll go."  Sarah turns a few pages of Donnie's book, pausing over a particularly nasty looking symbol.  "Go where?" She looks up a little perplexed, "Did someone just call me muscle?  Because that's like ... like.. um something thats the opposite?   Sorry I think I left my brain in math class.  I was sitting fourth chair back in the second row if anyone spots it there.  Poor little thing stuck absorbing math all day.  I hope it's not suffering too much."

Colin smiles.
"Hey, if you'd like help with that you only have to ask. She meant that you can hold your own in a fight. I do expect no fight though. We just have to sneak into the hospital, find this guy's room, and hope he can answer our questions.
Sylvia do you think you could... I dunno, disguise us as policemen? Nurses? The boy's family? At the very least you should be able to make a distraction.
I don't think he would tell us more than he would tell the police, but from what I saw we need another track."

Donnie shrugs, ladling tomato soup into a bowl next to his two grilled cheese sandwiches. "Magic is complicated stuff. Most of what normal yokels and wannabees can get is at general bookstores is half trash and poppycock. Those who really know about magic and its workings generally don't write instruction manuals for mass consumption." Seeing Sylvia setting herself up with a fresh salad, he gives in and gets a small one too. He adds lots of olives, cheese and eggs on his, however, and a large dollop of bleu cheese dressing. "Since Rob was cursed, possessed, or had a spirit instilled in him, there is more out there on that stuff. Curses, possessions, and witchcraft are pretty common subjects, and manuals for recognizing, identifying and explaining them are readily available. Most colleges with paranormal studies programs have some damn good textbooks that can be bought cheap on ebay, especially the last year's editions. I have bids on several recent ones now and hopefully I win and get them. It will likely shed a bit more light on things."  

He lingers at the dessert part of the line, but passes by, mindful of the willowy asian girl at his side. Ah sacrifices.. He gets three cokes and an organic juice for Sylvia, smiling as he places it on her tray. "Mom gave me my fifty bucks for lunch this week, so i don't mind saving your stomach from saltless torture." At Syvia's wide-eyed look, he shrugs again. "We don't even have brown lunch-bags in the house." He pays for the food an makes a gentlemanly bow to let her go ahead of him. Sylvia gives him a a small smile and leads the way, mindful not to move her butt any more than humanly possible.

Sylvia answers when she comes back from the lunch line.  "I don't know.  I could try.  I'd probably need some practice."

"That's kinda scary, isn't it?  That anyone can pick up a textbook and do this stuff.  Or is that not the way it works?"

Sylvia might actually be moving her butt a little more than usual.  Not only has she forgotten Donnie's comment--or filed it away under "general boy-ness" as opposed to "specific Donnie-ness"--but she's spent the past few days working on the cheerleading dance routines.  The lesson she's carried away from those sessions is that, while sticking your butt out is bad (for the spine, if not for general aesthetics), shaking it from side to side is just part of wearing one of those little pleated skirts.  Sylvia's butt is just, well, there--certainly the farthest thing from her mind, second only to her legs and feet.

"There's no hurry. I don't want you to do anything you don't feel ready to. It can get messy. I know something about it."

This thought brings Colin to other thoughts, to the pieces of advice Bobby gave him. So far no dreams. maybe he was looking for them with too much intensity and they ran away. Same thing with the mirrors. He twitches with expectation every time he comes near them.

Maybe I should try to relax and let things happen on their own.

I suck at it though.

"Dave, do you smoke?"

"I carry cigarettes and a light because girls that might think of having sex with me smoke.  Why, you looking to take up Rob's former Bad-Boy image?"

"To be honest, you have to have the 'knack' No one knows if it is biological, mystical or what, but some dude could be waving his hands and performing all the rites perfectly, and get no magical response. Other people it comes to as easy as breathing. Or shaking hands."  He smiles at Colin as he says that, sitting down and tucking in with gusto. Was Sylvia wiggling her but at me? God, I don't know. I found out earlier from Greg that she's on the Cheerleading team. No my chances are damn near zero. Oh well. Maybe she'll fall for my sparkling wit and big brain.. Or fat head. Shut up and eat, moron. Donnie smirks ruefully at his thoughts and takes a bite of cholestrolly goodness known as the grilled cheese sammich.

"Can you test for that kind of thing?"  She looks at the three magic adepts (Ron, Harry, and Hermione?), seeing if any of them has the answer.  "Can we just go through and test people, or look at them, and find out who zapped Rob?"

[Sorry.  I miscounted.  Matt's here, too, isn't he?  Ah, but Matt's more the general-paranormal-knowledge guy?]

"Well, anyone can perform ritual magic."  Greg begins, "I watched a documentary about a year ago.  Ritual magic is something anyone can do, so long as you have the bodies and the instructions."

Colin chuckles. "Not really. Hard to be a Bad-Boy with glasses, and I'm too uncomfortable with lenses for them to be more than a sometimes thing to me.
I'd be very grateful if I could borrow one, unless that would be impairing your chances of mating, of course."


"Well, to be honest too, 'shaking hands', as little as I understand it, has nothing to do with the magic in your books. It could be quite the opposite, in fact." he says thoughtfully.

"Just talking in generalities.." Donnie taps his fingertip on the books. "This stuff is mostly ritual or group magic. Other 'paths' of magic, traditions if you like, take different methods to achieve the same ends. The differing methods are legion, and there seems to be magic out there for the taking, if you have that knack, or a willing group and a lot of time on your hands. As Greg says, if you have the people, the knowledge, and the time, you can cast a spell too. It just takes a LOT of patience. More than people possess these days. Can you imagine repeating a chant, with slight variations, for like, ten hours on end? That's what traditional ancient magic was like, with witchery, Native American magic, ancient cultures, etc. Nowadays, sometimes magic gets distilled, if you will, into specific people, who are able to perform amazing feats of magic without hours of ritualized actions. Those people are the ones that are true masters at the Craft."

"Dude, mating?"  Dave shakes his head, "The goal at our age is NOT to mate, just to couple."  He hands Colin his pack of smokes and lighter.  The lighter is a shiny Zippo, polished silver and very reflective.

And for some reason Sylvia cannot resist looking at Colin--like his eyes might start glowing any time now.

Colin feels Sylvia's look upon him.

"Nope, Sylvia. Wrong target. I'm nothing like that. What about you? Is what you do magic?"


OOC: And that is where my english fails me.  :-[

"Ehm, yeah, that's what I meant. That's also why I shouldn't try to be funny. Thanks. I only need one."

He gets one out of the pack and puts it away in his spectacle case. He can't resist looking at the Zippo, though. He tries to light it, looks at the flame for a moment and he closes it down, putting it out. He flips it in his hands a few times looking how the light plays on it, and how it distorts his face.
Then he gives everything back to Dave with a smile.

Sylvia shakes her head.  "If it was, it wouldn't be so hard."

Colin is about to object that ten hours of chanting doesn't seem easy either, but changes his mind.
He says only "Then, what else?"

"Matt, I almost forgot. Did you bring that stuff about..." he catches himself just in time not to mention Rory in front of Sheila "...about what we said yesterday, so I can give it to Chris?"

"Huh?" Matt looks up at Colin startled, having sat fully entrenched in his own thoughts as usual. "Oh, uh, yea, I did..." He rummages around in his bag, bringing out at least half a dozen superhero-related comic books and several notebooks which obvioulsy have nothing to do with school, with headings like 'Defenders', 'Avengers', thinner ones entitled 'Omega Squad' and 'Solo Heroes' and a few books that deal with villains before he finds the print-outs, which he hands over to Colin.

[OOC: Results from research check quoted below]



[OOC: Pretty much, in fact Matt doesnt really believe in magic even, he just thinks of it as another way to focus your gift...]

"Thank you. I'll see what he can do."

Then something shines in his eyes. He looks at his friends, at the table, at Donnie's books and Matt's notebooks scattered around.

He stands up, still looking at them, he takes some steps back until he finds the right angle, then, as fast as he can he takes out his camera and snatches a photo of the conspirators before they can protest.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it."

"Colin, lemme run some copies of that stuff real quick to add to my research." Donnie grabs the proferred stack, holds a grilled cheese with his teeth and runs off to the library to use their copier in the back office. Hopefully he can make it back before the end of lunch..