groovygamers.com

Sarah and the 'Zoo Crew' as Greg has taken to calling them have managed to stake out a good booth.  Dave, who routinely has money, has bought fries and drinks encouraging everyone to work on their acne and heart attacks.

GREG: "So, this Drama Club thing is gonna be so cool.  The Science guys are building this volcano prop for them, they want to do a musical version of Joe vs. the Volcano, which is bizarre but something I'd like to see."
ROB: "One of the cheerleaders is in my US History class.  She is sooooo hot."
DAVE: "Dude, you're a freshman, the chances of a cheerleader being in your US History class is very small."

Seth walked into the Tasty Dog after school with his guitar. His Parents hadn't wanted him to bring it to school with him the first day. And he had acquiesced, the first day. But this was only the first day of real school, not his first, So Seth had toted around his guitar all day. The music teacher...what's her name.... had been gracious enough to let him store some of his instruments in the music room. All he had to do was sell his soul to him and plan and play in some concert later on. He had said he would.

She had practically salivated over him. It both excited and disgusted him. He really didn't know what to think about it.

He saw Mr. McEnrath, the Tasty Dog owner. He was a cool dude, and usually took care of Seth.

"Hey, Mr. McEnrath. You mind if I set up and play? I gotta strum something out."

(OOC- I made some assummptions. Feel free to correct them. If it's not the type of establishment where he can play music, or the owners name is something else... Please edit it appropriatly.)

Mr. McEnrath waved a hand at Seth, you go ahead and get set up.  You want anything, I'll have Tammy bring you a snack?"  Tammy, the youngest of Ernest's children was cute, but a little enthuiastic about boys.

Seth set up, grabbing "his" stool from the Janitor's closet. He set it up in a corner with good visibility and brought out his Gibson Deluxe 12 string. He opened his case and set it out at his feet.

"Hey, I'm Seth Mondsee. I'm going to play a little set for your....eating pleasure tonight. This first song is a work in progress. I only wrote it this morning. Please be kind."

He began to play, something both happy and haunting.

A shooting star
coming from afar
burning out
falling home

I'll catch youuuuu.
Bring you softly heree.
No day too bright
In this, your starting year.

The sky is uncertain
cloudy and fright
but you'll burn through
opressive nights

I'll catch youuuuu.
Bring you softly heree.
No day too bright
In this, your starting year.

What are you.
Feel the Earth
she calls for you
with gravity's embrace
she calls you
to end the human race.
she calls you.
I'll catch youuuuu.
I'll bring you, softly softly heree.
No day too bright
In this, your starting year.

What are you?
Shooting star
What are you?
Coming from afar... 

"Thank You."[/color]

The tone is soft, melodic. There is a break for a tripletts solo before the long verse.

At the end of his work in progress, he begins a standard set. A mix of covers, and some of his own work.

(ooc- Should i roll? or will you?)

Megan followed along with Lisa as the head cheerleader led her and the rest of the squad to the Tasty Dog after practice.  She was realizing that she was going to need to do some serious shopping to make sure she had the right clothes for Oak Park.  Maybe she could just get her mom to give her the money she would need and Lisa and some of the other girls could go along with her on a shopping trip.  As the group entered the place, they caught the very end of a song being played by a guy with a guitar that looked about her age.

Perhaps most surprising to Megan was that she spotted Sarah, a friend from grade school she hadn’t seen all that much of in the last few years.  She gave Sarah a slight nod as she followed along towards the booth the squad normally took when they came here.

Go ahead.

When you use Invisible Castle just make sure to tag the roll, either with 2011-Character Name or something like that so we can track them, especially for combat.

ROB: Very excited, "That's her, that one."  he spouted as the cheerleading squad came in.
DAVE: "Dude, don't have an orgasm, geez."  Dave looks at the group of girls as they enter.  "Congrats, there is hot cheerleader eye candy in your history class."
GREG: "The chances of her noticing you, beyond the mandatory snubbing she might be required to give, is pretty low."
DAVE:  "Man, why is it we always fall into this caste system, like a bunch of drone bees or somthing.  why can't we live in a world where Rob here has a shot with little miss hottie cheerleader bitch?"

(OOC- Just this once....From now on Invisible Castle.  name= Seth Mondsee

I rolled an 18 for the Singing Check giving it a check result of 23 which is a great performance.
 (Audience Impressed)

I rolled a 9 for the guitar check giving it a check result of 17 which is a routine performance on the guitar.
(Audience enjoys the performance)

Thats for the first song.

I'll let the singing check stand for the whole performce, but for the subsequent songs i will modify the Perform (Guitar) check as follows. I will use my one hero point roll a 20. Making my total a 28.

I will then extra effort a +2 bonus, for a total of a 30 for the performance. However he will be "tired" at the end of it. He plays for about 30 minutes.

His performance after that first song is Aweing. And he has guitar case open for tips.)

DAVE: "That guy can play."  He makes a pass to toss some change in the guitar case.

A number of the students drop in cash and there is a pretty steady stream of compliments as they do.

Seth catches site of a man in the back, slightly out of place.  He's a tall thin man in a suit with a bouler hat and cane.  He's smiling as Seth sees him, and taps his cane to his hat.  He moves past the case and drops something in, then leaves through the front door.  He says nothing as he goes by, and actually makes a point of moving in the opposite direction that everyone else is.  No one seems to complain though as they move around him to toss money in Seth's case.

As the compliments and money started to roll in, some man caught Seth's attention.

"Thank you, Thank you. You guys are awesome. Thanks for letting me play for you."

Seth can feel his cheeks start to blush, even as he is sweating. Some of the songs he played towards the end really started to take it out of him. Between tripletts, and some of the notes he had to hit....man.

He grabs the chicken strips he had ordered, which had long sense gone cold, and takes a big bite out of one, after dipping it in an unhealthy amount of bar-b-que sauce.  It still tastes good.

He take his guitar of of his sholder and places it in the booth. After everyone was done with tipping him in his case, he picks it up and begins to count his winnings under the table...

After everything in the case is accounted for, he puts his guitar in, and snaps it shut with a click.

(what all did i get?)

Seth counts up his tips and comes away with about $8.75, which isn't bad for a group of teenagers tossing him their change.  Amoung the coins he did find a business card also.


Is all the card says.  Seth is pretty sure it's the item the strange man dropped in the case on his way out of the restraunt.

"Hey"  A voice says, drawing Seth's attention, "You play really well."  Seth recognizes the bioy as one of the first to get up and drop some change into his guitar case.  He extends his hand, "I'm Dave McBride."

Pocketing the change and the buisness card, Seth takes Dave's hand and shaks it warmly, old school (Firmly and looking him right in the eyes).

"Nice to meet you, I'm Seth. Hey man, thanks for the tip. I really appreciate it.

I haven't seen you around really. Are you a freshman?"

Dave chuckles softly, "No, I'm a senior this year.  A couple of my friends are classmates though."  He points to a booth on the other side of the restraunt where some others are sitting.  "The plump guy is Rob, that guy who thinks he's young Elvis is Greg and the girl is Sarah.  Sarah and Rob are Freshman."

Dave looks back at the booth again and then down at Seth, "Hey, you wanna come join us?"

"That would be great...Just let me clean everything up here, and i'll be right over.".

After storing the stool back in the closet and making sure there is no trash or anything... Seth grabs his guitar and his chicken fingers basket(looking fairly overloaded in the process) and moves to follow.

Sitting down at the table, he introduces himself. "Hi, I'm Seth" His natural charisma shining through

Introductions are made more formally and hands are shaken.

The chatter at the table is a mix of subjects, including some talk of the hole in the wall on the 4th floor and the fact that rumors have already started about the schools quarterback being replaced by a Freshman.

Eventually Dave gets Seth's attention, "So, you have to practice a lot to play like that?"

"Umm....Well. Kinda."   Seth is always unsure of how to talk about his musical abilities. "Like, I learned how to play my first instrament before i learned how to swim. I've been playing the piano sense I was three. I practice all the time. But i play like ....20...or 23 instraments. And I sing. A lot of it comes really naturally to me. "

The look on Dave's face is hard to pin down.  Shock might describe it, so could amazement and disbeleif.

DAVE:"Wow".  this is followed by a series of blinks as though his mind were trying to process what Seth had told him.
ROB: "I can barely play Nintendo man, that's freak'in awesom.  You're like some kind of one man band or something."
GREG: "Gifts like that are rare.  It used to be, to be in the movies you had to be able to sing and dance.  Acting was considered a bonus."

DAVE:  "I didn't even know there were twenty different insturments to play."  His tone is back to normal, a sort of gentle dispassioned sound that could report the birth of children and the deaths of thousands with equal ease.

The others laugh a bit at that.

GREG: "Yes, Dave there are more then the four traditional instruments of the rock band."

Seth's eyes drift toward the table. "It's not really that big of deal. I mean musical theory is pretty much the same no matter what you play. A lot of my instraments are just variations on a theme. Clarinet, Oboe, Horns are pretty much the same. Most of the differnces are physical or tonal. It's the same with the stringed instraments. Guitar, Bass, Mandolin. If you can play one it doesn't take much time to learn another.  

Extremely shyly "I just pick them up a little faster than most"

diverting the conversation somewhere else. So you guys are all actors? or techies?

Megan and the girls from the cheerleading squad, save one, were in what Megan learns is their traditional booth.  she gets the who's who from Diane, who seems to be as up on the people at Oak Park as Lisa.  Diane is a senior also, and it's obvious that she follows Lisa's lead in style, but adds a slight twist to it to make it seem like it's hers.

It's too early in the year for her to have the scoop on all the freshman, but she's a wealth of information on all the upper classmen, and enjoys gossip.

LISA:"So, where is Lucy?"  Lisa's tone is a bit tense, like Lucy was somehow screwing up Lisa's schedule by not being here.
KANSAS:"I saw her at her locker, she said she was headed right over."
HANNAH:"She was talking to Logan in the hall when I left, soooooo."  The statement brings a bubble of laughter up from the girls.  Lisa sees that Megan isn't "in the know" and leans over.
LISA:"Lucy's a sophmore this year, and so she's trying to make a play for a senior.  Darklight, Logan, used to be all wierd and geeky, but has become Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome.  It doesn't matter though, he's still a wierdo".

Sarah finally glances up from her journal to find a newcomer at the table.  A quick memory rewind lets her know that she nodded absently during introductions.  She smiles apologetically to uh... Seth!  Yeah that was it.  "Sorry, I was pretty distracted.  It's nice to meet you Seth.  Hey you play really great.  I'd have chipped in some money but I don't have a dime on me.  Just ask Dave how much I mooch off him." 

She is pretty impressed with Seth.  He's got a great voice, courageous and talented.  Well he'll be beating women off with a stick within the week.  Not that she really cared about that sort of thing that much.  "Are you in a band Seth?  Or do you prefer to solo?  If you were in a band you could probably get a lot of school gigs and a bunch of local stuff.  There's always a party somewhere and a decent live band is a notch in the ol' social belt.  Did you know that music stimulates several areas of the brain that scientists still know nothing about.  I mean, it's doing stuff to our head and we can't even explain it.  Can you imagine the possibilities?" 

"We're a pretty mixed bag.  I'm no actor... not much of a techy either.... but Greg here is a techy, and a director and a film maker.  Some of his stuff is pretty cool.  Dave's a natural actor.  The way he explains himself out of trouble to his parents... it's inspiring.  Rob.. when Rob can get his eyes off cheerleader uniforms can act pretty well and he knows a little of this and that as well."

Rob:"What, huh, I heard my name."  His attention had been across the room on the table of cheerleaders, "That one right there on the end is in my history class."

There are some groans and a few fries thrown at Rob from the other guys.

GREG: "Yes, in a moment Rob will demonstrate the proper drooling procedure used to impress girls."  He shakes his head and goes back to reading the script in his lap.  "Joe vs. the Volcano was not stellar cinema, and having a bunch of high school kids perform it as a musical on stage is inspired in that Robinson Crusoe on Mars kind of way."

Sarah slides a pile of napkins between Rob's elbows on the table to catch any drops.  Poor boy.  Well let's see what happens when he hears that I know his mystery dream girl.  "You know Rob, Megan hates it when guys just stare at her like that." 

ROB: "What?  You know her.  I didn't think you knew anyone cool."  His smile gives away his attempt to slam her, but there are more thrown fries from Dave and Greg.

DAVE: "Back when you were living in Chicago?  Cause we've known you since you came here, and none of us know Miss. Ozone."

Sarah raisees the rolled up journal of doom and displays it as a warning to Rob.  Finally she nods, "Yeah, Megan and I were friends back in the good old days.  But she went all girlie and beautiful.  Like being perfect is so original." 

Here she gives Dave a stern look, "And you don't know her, so don't give my old friends a hard time unless I give you the okay first.  She's not a bitch, even if she is apparently a cheerleader now.  She was always a nice person."  She pauses to grin.  "See I do pay attention when I'm reading... it all just takes a while to filter in.  So sometime I'll probably talk to her and then I'll let you guys know whether she's still nice or if shes become a total female canine."

"Ouch" is the general response from Dave, Greg, and Rob.

DAVE:"You're right.  I should stop judging people before I get to know them.  Like you Sarah, you seemed okay, then I got to know you and realized you were a psycho."  He raises an arm in defense of the smack he's certain is coming, but let's it down too soon more likely than not and gets hit anyway.

I'm not in a band. But I think I would be ok with being in one.

What instrament would I play?  (awkward laugh).

Theres a lot of stuff that goes on in heads that no one really understands. Headaches for one. Migraines, that type of stuff.
I've thought about acting. Never seriously. As far back as i can remember i've been so focused on my music. Hey does anyone know the music teacher. She asked me to play in some fall concert or something?  If that doesn't conflict with the school play, maybe i'll audition or something. What is the play?  

He starts to talk faster and faster, that last bit a barage of questions.

GREG: "One in the same.  I wish these people would use the word Production instead of concert and play.  That's the problem with a musical, everyone thinks of it differently.  If you can sing, make sure to let Sudor know.  She'll need singers to pull this thing off."

DAVE:"She's okay, great legs.  She's a pretty good singer too I think.  Or maybe she used to sing, Ehh, I'm not sure."  Dave takes a sip of soda, "If you ever want to get into a band let me know, one of the guys in my shop class plays and stuff.  He's always talking about getting  a band together, not sure how serious he is though."

*Thwap!*  Justice is served upon Dave and all is well with the world once more.  "I think keeping these hounds in line is my talent.  The play is going to be.. uh.. well I'm sure it will be interesting.  Maybe?  It's Joe VS. The Volcano... the musical.  I can't see where that could possibly go wrong.  That's got broadway written all over it.  It's bound to be another Springtime for Hitler."

GREG: "Or Waterworld."

Megan gives a knowing smile at Lisa’s explanation.  She could somewhat understand that Lucy was simply doing what she could to move up a few steps in social status.  As a Freshman, Megan wasn’t about to do the same thing, not to mention her father would likely flip out if he was to somehow find out.  And even next year it wasn’t something she could really foresee as an attractive idea, for dating a senior then would mean dating a guy her brother’s age, and that was a bit too creepy.

“Sounds like she should have picked someone else then.”  Megan whispers back.  So then she looks at the other girls as she speaks up, “so I have realized that I really need some major changes in terms of clothes, any ideas on how much I should pry out of my mom later today when I can corner her?”

The answers Megan gets range from the mid hundreds to Lisa's "Just get her credit card."  A healthy chorus of laughter follows.  You're sure your mother wouldn't have a problem with any amount you thought you'd need, and it's obvious from your quick scanning of labels that the other girls on the squad have that you'll need to milk that good karma you have built up with mom for all it's worth.

Gretchen accompanies the new staff of the Huskie News over to the Tasy Dog.  They managed to get a booth and Gretchen gets her chocolate shake fix.  She begins to point out some of the people that she knows, mostly from various classes.

"That guy over there is Greg Pierce, he's into movies and stuff.  He joined the Drama Club this year to meet some actors.  The older guy with them is Dave McBride, he's a senior that's a teacher's aide in my computer art class."

"That girl in the middle over there is Lisa Janush, she's the head of the pep squad.  She was dating the senior quarterback, but the broke up over the summer.  I know her brother Elrod.  He was in my English class last year, he's taken the class three times.  He's a senior this year."

"I think Virginia knows that guy," Sylvia offers in an attempt to make conversation, nodding at Greg.  "My sister," she explains.

Kel nods as he looks over the groups laid out before him, he orders a burger and fries, and smiles as Gretchen points out everyone to them.  Then he just leans back to listen to all the conversations going on around him.

Kirby and Tim make their way out the back door of the school and across the street to Tasy Dog.  The crowd has thinned out some and as they start to look for a table Kirby sees Gretchen Ross waving him over.

KIRBY: "Hey, Tim, over here."  They head over to the tabel where Gretchen is seated with three other kids.  "Hey Gretch, this is Tim....I don't know his last name.  We're in the Science club together.  Tim, this is Gretchen Ross, we went to grade school together."

Gretchen does quick introductions of the gang at the table, explaining that she's gonna be working on the school paper with them.

KIRBY: "Well, if you guys ever need any help with science stuff Tim here is a whiz chemestry guy and I know the physics stuff pretty good."
GRETCHEN: "I'll say, he built a force field thingy for the science fair last year, it was pretty cool."
KIRBY: "Eh, I got the plans off the internet, it wasn't like an original idea or anything.  You guys mind if we join you?"

Sylvia scootches over, making room for the new arrivals.  "I'm Sylvia," she tells anyone who's listening.

"And I am Colin. Colin Crow. Nice to meet you."

Colin moves his chair to make space for the newly arrived.

"Gretchen, Kirby, do you happen to know Joshua Walters? He's a good friend of mine, a sophomore too."

He takes a sip at his orange juice.

"A force field? How does it work?"

Kirby and Gretchen both think they might share a class with Joshua, but can't claim to actually know him all that well.

KIRBY: "I don't have many friends outside the Science Club, not really."

GRETCHEN: "Except for me."  Gretchen pipes up.

KIRBY:"How does the forcefield work.  Well, not very well actually."  He gets a soda and some fries and tries to explain the physics behind the device.  He manages to make the explanation quick, but not very useful.  "So it would keep the rain out basically, but not much else."

GRETCHEN: "He won second place for it though."

"Only second place?"

KIRBY: "Yeah, Clayton Beamish won first place.  He had this really cool model of the water to rainfall cycle that was pretty cool."

GRETCHEN:"I still think you shoudl have won."

KIRBY: Kirby shrugs, "Maybe this year."

"What are you going to do for it this year?"  Sylvia's a newswoman now.  She feels a duty to ask nosy questions.

"Ah, maybe something with ultra-sonics.  I was doing some reading over the summer about there applications in geology and stuff.  Earthquake detection and stuff like that."

That doesn't sound as exciting as force fields that keep the rain out, but Sylvia nods like she's impressed--and like she has a clue.

Ultra Sonics?  Seth says piping up.

I just read this really interesting article on Sonoluminescence. Experiements in Sololum....you know use ultrasonics. The calculations were really complex and i had to slug my way through them. What do you think you are going to do for the science fair?

Kel nods making like he understands all of the science going on around him, he introduces himself with a firm handshake, "Kel, by the way."

"Hi everybody, I'm TImmy Jacobs. But you can call me T.J." T.J looks at Kriby and whistles. "A force-field? Sounds cool. Also the sonic thing sounds great to, what exactly where you thinking of doing with it?"

"How big was it? Something that keeps water out sounds like something that could be useful to put on a bicycle, or even a motorcycle. At least you could do a very cool umbrella if it was little enough."

"Uhm..." Colin looks like he's chasing an idea in his mind. "T.J., do you think you could tell if something chemical was involved in making that hole in the wall at school? We're going to investigate it for the newspaper. Kirby, you could help us cover the physics angle instead."

Kirby shrugs.  "Ah, The emmiter was about the size of a blender, but it needed wall current to work so it wouldn't be someting you could carry around.  The force field was also really short lived, about ten or twelve seconds.  It kept tripping the safety breaker I put on it."

"As for sonoluminescence, I was looking into it but what I was hoping to do would require a dry environment, and sonoluminescence is only viable in a liquid environment.  Although they're doing some cool stuff with it as a method of micro-burst power generation for energy weapons.  There was an article in last months' Popular Science about that."

"This year I was gonna make..."  Kirby stops, "Ah, I'm not sure what I was gonna make, not really.  I still have time though, to decide."

((OOC: Everyone with any ranks in Sense Motive realize that he stopped himself from saying something before he gave his non-committal answer about the science fair project.))

"You guys are gonna write about the hole?  I suppose I could help, I guess.  What would I need to do?"

Since he didn't want to go home straight away after school anyway to his mom and Glenn arguing again - god he hoped she'd kick him out - Matt heads over to the Tasty Dog as well, following the gangs of other kids going there at a clear distance. Once inside he takes a look around. Cliques, pff, he thinks, looking from gangs of cheerleaders to art people to others, all grouping together. He didn't need them, and he certainly didnt want them. His eyes linger for a few moments on a shapely cheerleader leg sticking out from under a table, then he moves to the counter, orders a small cheeseburger and some fries, then finds a solitary spot to sit down, bringing a comic book out of his bag and eating in silence. At the half-heard mentions of forcefields and energy weapons he looks up a bit, but keeps quiet and keeps reading his comic book.

TJ thinks for a moment then nods eagerly. "Sure I'd love to help you with the hole. Although we may not be able to find a trace of anything in the end." He takes a sip from his drink and talks to Kirby. "You say it needs a liquid environment? Well maybe you could like adapt your plan for that. What exactly where you planning to do?"

As Matt involuntary assumes an interesting pose while reading his comic, Colin gets out his digital camera and tries to snatch a photo of him without him noticing.

Matt keeps on reading, too interested in his comic to actually look up out of it (except to occasionally glance at that cheerleader's leg), though he keeps his ears peeled for any more mentions of cool superhero-y stuff.

OOC: Visual arts check on Matt's photo (1d20+3=21) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=583475)

Colin smiles, satisfied of his photo. He managed to capture that "just-leave-me-alone" message Matt's body language seemed to send, as well as the Tasty Dog's neon lights reflecting from the pages of the comic to Matt's face, as if the comic was the real source of light, a door to a better world.

The he turns to Seth and the science guys. "What's so-no-lu-mi-ne-scence?" he asks, hoping to have prononunced it correctly.

"I'm not exactly sure Colin but from what little I know it involves using sound to produce light, by making bubbles explode." T.J looks uncertainly at Kirby. "Is that right?"

[[Knowledge (Paranormal Physiology) check 25 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=583560)]]

"Ooh, like Songbird." Matt mumbles, about just high enough for someone listening to notice, but keeping his eyes on his comic book.

[[OOC: secretoracle, feel free to edit in case Songbird/Screaming Mimi does not exist or someone else would fit better]]

Sylvia doesn't know a damned thing about sonoluminescence, but her gaze drifts over to Matt when he mumbles.  She can recognize the disenfranchised, being one herself, and she wonders for a moment if he's just responding to something in his comic book.  "Who's that?"  She nudges Kel to direct her question, but anyone at the table might hear it.

"Yeah, pretty much.  You use modulated sound to produce a bubble in a liquid, usually water.  When the bubble collapses there is a breif flash of light.  Some theorists thing that the heat in the bubble could reach phenominal levels, but they haven't actually achieved those yet.  Still, it's showing promise for large scale energy weapons."


Kirby looks a little nervous at the more direct question about what his plans were.  "Nah, it's not something that would really work for me.  You need the liquid environment to make the bubbles, and I'm more interested on the effect of sound on solid matter."  Kirby leans towards the center of the table and lowers his voice, "You guys have to promise not to tell anyone, I could get in a lot of trouble."

Kirby looks around to make sure no one is listening that shouldn't be.  "I accidentally cut the hole in the storage closet wall.  I had a piece of plywood I was using to test my tunnelling ray, but I didn't get it turned off fast enough and it cut through the concrete too."

T.J looks at Kirby with an awed look on his face, which then breaks into a grin. "Whoa! Really? You did that?" He then lowers his voice. "So it cut through the plywood and the wall and neither collapsed? That sounds like a great invention. It could help people who were trapped because of earthquakes of rockslides. Don't worry I won't tell." He looks at the others wondering how they would react.

"Wow!" Colin whispers, as his eyed go wide behind his glasses. He leans on the table, in an involuntary but blatant conspiratorial fashion.
"Why do you think it could get you in trouble? You were only testing it. I'd talk about it with your teacher. It's a brilliant project."

"I damaged school property."  Kirby whispers, looking around again, "I think it might be a bit more powerful then I thought.  I wasn't sure if it would even work, but if I can get it to work right then I could patent it and maybe get a scholarship to a really good college."

"I thought it would be good for mining and stuff like that, and yeah the earthquake thing.  Only problem is, I'm not sure if the beam is harmful to flesh.  It's not supposed to be, but I haven't had a chance to test it yet.  After the closet ting I stashed it in the back of the physics lab until the heat died down some."

Kel looks over at Matt and shrugs when Sylvia nudges him, "Not sure Syl, but he looks like the type who likes to be alone."  When Kirby whispers that it was him who caused the hole Kel leans in and says, "Damaged school property or not, I think they'd overlook it when you point out the fact that you built a device like that and all of its uses.  Lot of publicity can come from you and that thing, so what if you accidently did something, nobody was harmed just some piece of a wall needs to be patched over."

Sarah stares hard at Greg.  "You've scared him off with your talk of Waterworld!  There are some sights too horrible for the human mind to comprehend.  That movie is one.  Something must have happened at school today to wash the taste of that word out of my mouth?"

There's something about Sylvia's oddball upbringing that's given her an instinct for tracking down the loner, the outsider, and the alien.  It's more than an instinct.  It's a compulsion.  It's probably why she fell in with Kel.

She excuses herself from the table and goes over to Matt, standing out of armsreach, and waits a little bit before she screws up the courage to say, "Hi."  Just hi.  Nothing more than hi.

DAVE: "They're just over there." Dave says, "Let's go and see what's up with them."

Rob and Greg shrug and give little chance for Sarah to resist the exedus to the table where Seth went to chat science with some other kids.

DAVE:"Hey guys."  Dave makes some introductions and gets names from those that give them.

ROB (to Kirby): "Dude, you really built a forcefield?"
KIRBY:"Ah, yeah."  Kirby scribbles a website address onto a naplin and gives it to Rob, "This is the site I got the plans from.  They have some other stuff there too, but the force field generator was the only thing I could afford to buy the parts for."
ROB:"Cool, thanks."  He stuffs the napkin in his pocket.

A moment later another group of boys come intot he Tasty Dog and find seats.  They seem a little rowdy, and are laughing a good bit, but they're not really disturbing anyone.

((Colin make a Notice Check for me, give me the total.))

OOC: Notice roll on the boys entering the Tasty Dog (1d20+5=9) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=584442)

Colin introduces himself and shakes hands, but he seems somewhat distracted as he's trying to keep track of what happens between Sylvia and the lonely guy. The laughing boys behind them catch his attention for a moment too.

Colin is almost certain one of the boys that came in laughing is in his English class.  He's also certain that for a moment he heard voices, wispering voices, but then he's not sure.

Bruce and company make their way over to the counter to order.  After plopping down a handful of singles for a large order of chili cheese fries and a Mountain Dew, Bruce carries the tray of steaming food over to an empty booth and plops in.  Realizing he forgot a fork, he meanders back to the counter to ask for one and heads back to the booth.  He half nods at one of the kids who looks at him as he walks by.

Although the kid playing guitar isn't exactly playing Bruce's usual choice in music, he's not half bad.  It might be the weed but whenever the kid starts playing, the annoying voices in Bruce's head seem to take a break from their ever-increasing amounts of chatter.  Bruce piles his fork so high with chili cheese fries the cheap plastic threatens to break under the strain.

"Hey man," he calls out to the guitar player during a break, "play that first song again.  That was pretty good."

What was that?

Colin looks at the boy in his class, then at Sylvia, then at Kirby, then finally at Kel and Gretchen. "Excuse me a moment. And please convince Kirby. I'd love to make a photo coverage of the new Enrico Fermi's first discovery." He smiles at them and Kirby, and approaches the boy that just entered.

"Hi, I'm Colin. We're in English together, aren't we?"

If they are, the boy would surely recognize Colin. He quite stands out, with his copper skin and those huge, round glasses. As he offers his hand, Colin tries to catch those whispers again.

Bruce does indeed recognize the kid from his English class.

((Bruce Make an INT check DC 9))

((Colin make a WILL Save DC 12))

((If Bruce shakes Colin's hand both of you need to make a WILL Save DC 16))

((If Bruce shakes Colin's hand Seth and Sarah need to make Notice Checks, let me know the total))

OOC: Will save from Colin meeting Bruce (1d20+2=12) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=584568). Barely meets the DC.

OOC: INT roll = http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=584652]1d20+1=10
          WILL save = http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=584679]1d20=5

Bruce looks up at the boy standing next to his table.  He squints dully, trying to concentrate on the boy's question.

"Colin...um, yeah," Bruce says, gulping down a mouthful of food and reaching his hand out to return the boy's handshake.  "Yeah...English class.  I'm Bruce."

Colin firmly shakes Bruce's hands, looking at him in the eyes. "How's life treating you?"

OOC: Will save as Colin shakes hands with Bruce (1d20+2=22) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=584855). Natural 20!

Bruce remembers that the voices were quiet during English class, he starts to wonder if it's got something to do with this kid.

As Bruce and Colin shake hands the voices rush into clarity for a moment, both boys can hear them, and they are no longer whispers but a cacophoney of voices, accompanied by a million ghost images all around them.  The real world fades into the background, loosing clarity and color and the ghost images begin to come into focus.  It's like a movie of all the people that have ever walked through here.  The two boys watch as time seems to roll backward, watching ghosts come into focus and then become blurry as new ghosts take on focus.  Each shift in focus is a shift in time, running backwards all the way until there is no Tasty Dog, they watch it's construction or rather it's deconstruction and then they watch the building that was here before it emerge from the rubble of it's own demolition to become a drug store, with a soda fountain and then they see those people come in and out of focus.

Suddenly, the world is back to normal and the voices are silent.  Colin feels like he wants to be sick, like he just got off a roller coaster after having eaten a whole pot of chili by himself.  Bruce feels like he's suddenly awake for the first time since the voices began, and he feels like he wants to throw up.  No, he's certain he's going to.

((Bruce Fortitude Save DC 8 to make it to the bathroom, or DC 4 if you just go to the parking lot.))

"Huh?!" Matt looks up from his comic, startled, looking at Sylvia, then to each side of her, and just to be sure behind him to make sure she's not the distraction for someone looking to give him a wedgie. Satisfied that there's no one else around now at least he returns his gaze to her. Hm, cute, he thinks."Uhm.. hi. What do you cute--ehrm, want." Matt turns slightly red, closing his comic book and making ready to run.


[[OOC: Just realized I need to give this dork another Complication: Paranoid. Man, paranoid schitzophrenic, this is looking good...]]

Sylvia flashes Matt a skittish smile.  "Sorry.  Didn't mean to interrupt your reading.  I was just wondering what you were doing."  Then she realizes how lame that was and begins to stammer.  "I mean, you're reading a comic book, obviously.  It's just . . . uh . . . nice to meet you," she says and puts out her hand like she's not sure he'll want to shake it.  "I'm Sylvia."

"Oh." He looks at her outstretched hand for a moment, and just when she thinks he's not going to take it, takes it and gives a light single shake, pulling his hand back just as fast. "Ehm, ma, Matt. Yea. Mattew actually, but, Matt. Nice to, uh, yeah... so, uh..." He keeps stammering for another few moments, then seems to panic, folding up his book and placing it in his bag, then standing up. "I, uh, have to go. So, uh, sorry for, uhm..." he trails off, not sure of what he's supposed to be sorry about, but sure it's something, then he starts towards the door, not quite running but not quite walking either.

OOC: Notice Check (1d20+2=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=585220) 

Sarah just soaks up the conversation and tries to quietly read peoples minds... failing as always. 

There was a moment, when Colin shook Bruce's hand that you felt a strange sense that there was something odd happening, your attention was drawn there, like you'd heard a sound or something that made you look in that direction.

"A disturbance in the force..."  Sarah mutters half to herself.  She doesn't know what to make of it.  She'll study the two quietly for a time trying to make sense of the oddity. 

OOC:  Sense Motive Checks on Bruce & Colin. 
Sense Motive Checks (1d20+4=14, 1d20+4=13) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=585257)

Colin has visibly paled. As the vision fades he takes his glasses with shaking hands and wipes mechanically on his t-shirt. He feels his knees buckle and his stomach turning inside out, but he takes a deep breath and manages to regain control.

He remembers seeing ghostly people, and time running backwards. He thinks he recognized the building that was there before the Tasty Dog as a drugstore he's seen in a photo in the Barclay collection (http://www.oprf.com/oprfhist/barclay.htm), but it still makes no sense. Was it something in his orange juice?

"What was that?" he whispers to Bruce "Did you see them too?"

OOC: Both boys look as though they were absorbed by something, and both seem to have been shaken by whatever it was.  You also feel as though your sense about people has sharpened suddenly.

Sylvia stares after Matt and then has to self-consciously sniff her pits.  She slinks back to the table with Kel, Colin, and the others and sighs.

Kel noticing Sylvia making sure she is presentable says, "Don't worry Syl, it's not you, some people just aren't good in social situations.  Especially involving the opposite sex."

"That was worse than bad.  I feel like a leper."  But Sylvia throws Kel a smile that means he's taken the sting out of Matt's snub.

Kel laughs at her comment and just shakes his head, "Probably left because of the complete opposite of that."

Sylvia blushes, but it doesn't show.  Instead she shrinks into her chair and mutters something incoherent that's meant to shut Kel up.

Well outside the door, Matt hits his palm to his forehead with an audible *SLAP*. Idiot, he thinks. Oh well, just as well, if I'd said anything else I'd probably have scared her off anyway, this way I can maybe try talking to her later. Yeah, right...

He heads off home, hoping not to run into Glenn or his mom, intending to spend the rest of the day and night in his room as always, until it's time for another day of getting shoved into cans and toilets...

Kel just laughs as Sylvia shrinks down a bit, and returns to eating his food.

http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=586272]Bruce FORT save (1d20+1=4)

"Mmmglph!" is all Bruce manages in response to Colin' s  question, one hand firmly clamped over his mouth.  He jumps up, his legs shaking and fine sweat covering his face.  He bolts outside, barely making it to the parking lot before retching.  The mixture of chili cheese fries, Mountain Dew and beer is less than savory on the return trip.

Bruce empties the contents of his stomach on the blacktop, dry heaving a few times for good measure.  He steadies himself for a moment before finding a spot away from his vomit to plop on the ground.  He sits, legs spread straight in front of him, wiping the sweat from his brow with one sleeve of his hoodie.

"What the f...," he begins to say, burying his head in his hands.  Another, less severe, wave of nausea washes over him before he can collect his thoughts again.  "My life just sucks..."

Colin follows as Bruce bolts outside the Tasty Dog, guessing how he feels. As he lets himself down, Colin sits beside him, offering him a tissue.

"I guess you saw them too, then."

Bruce reaches out to take the tissue Colin offers without even realizing who offers it.  He squeezes his nose tightly, screwing his eyes shut.  He rubs his eyes hard with the heels of his hands, forcing tears from the corners.

"I...yeah...no,"  he stammers, barely responding to Colin's statement.  "I mean, I saw something, but I'm just a little more messed up than I thought, I guess."

Bruce breathes deep, filling his lungs with the fresh late summer air.  He flings the used tissue over his shoulder as he pulls his knees up and ducks his head between them.  He runs his fingers through his sweat soaked hair, before the full realization of Colin's words hit him.

"Wait,"  he says, looking at Colin for the first time since he came outside.  "What do you mean I saw them too?"

"... ghosts ... maybe people from another time ... time rewinding itself? That's what I saw. You had seen them before?"

Bruce can tell Colin is quite confused, but totally sincere.

"Please, tell me."

Seth, content to be silent, notices all the people leaving, and checks his watch somewhat absentmindly. SHIT!. He was late. His mom was going to have a cow. She had probably been sitting in the car for 20 minutes at this point.

And almost as if on cue, Seth's mom burst through the door. Debra Escalante-Mondsee was...formidible. The 5'ft 6 woman was intimidatingly beautiful, aware of it, and posseseing a fiery spanish temper. Not a latin temper per se. But a Castillian Passionate Spaniard from Spain sorta thing. And she was cursing in full on spanish.  It took here seconds to find her son.

Setito! He estado esperando mitad de la hora! ¿Qué usted ha estado haciendo? Perder tiempo? Eso es lo que. Venido con mí este instante.  

Seth blushes violently. Mama. Era el colgar justo hacia fuera con algunos nuevos amigos.  Perdí la pista del tiempo. Estoy apesadumbrado.

Usted será cuando conseguimos caseros.

Gottfluch es.These words are not spanish.

She switches over to a sexily accented english. Don't chu take the name of the Lord in vain. I do not speak german like chu and chor father, but I recognise the bad words. Go get in the Coche.

Seth excuses himself. "I'll see you guys at school tomorrow."  As he leaves, he forgets his guitar, when his mama stops him and points it outto him, he blushes again.

DAVE: "Wow, She seemed pretty mad."
ROB: "Dude, was that his mom."
GREG (Putting his face in his hands): "Don't say it Rob."
ROB: "What?  She was so frikk'in hot, did you see her?"
DAVE: "I hate to say it, but he has a point."

KIRBY: "Hey, ah, I should get going too.  I have some homework to take care of."  Kirby gets up and heads for the door.
GRETCHEN: "Later Kirby."  Gretchen calls after him.  "Hey," She asks in a low tone, "Should I go check on Colin?"

Sarah grins at her crew.  "Okay, she was pretty hot.  So are you going to be singing Seth-y's Mom for the rest of the day Rob?" 

She looks around the Tasty.  "Well nothing like a good spew to clear the room."  She waves her hand infront of Dave, "You want to give me a ride home."  The perturbed look on his face is evidence enough that Sarah is still just spinning her wheels mentally. 

On the way to the door she adds, ""Colin's a decent guy.  I didn't notice anyone else heading out to check on that poor guy.  Not even me.  But then... puke... ick."  Sarah gives a little shudder. 

When she's outside she looks in the Bruce and Colin's direction.  Swerving well around the ickiness she asks, "You guys okay?  You need a drink of water or something?"

Colin perks up at Sarah's offer.

"Uh, I dunno..."

He takes another look at Bruce.

"Well, some water wouldn't hurt. Thanks."

Spinning on her heels she heads back into the shop and gets a big cup of water out of the machine.  She drops a quarter on the counter for the cup on her way by.  "Thank you!" 

Outside she skirts yuck and puts the cup down near Bruce.  "Hope you're feeling better. "  Looking back to the not sick Colin, "Some weirdness in there huh?  What was that?  You two both looked like you got pants'd or something."

"Thanks," Bruce says, looking up at Sarah.  He reaches out a still slightly unsteady hand for the cup of water.  Drinking deeply, he swirls the cold water in his mouth before spitting it off to the side.  Looking around for his stoner friends, he realizes the only people who came out to check on him were these two people he doesn't even know.  The guys are probably inside laughing their asses off over how he can't hold his liquor.  He shakes his head and sighs.

"I don't know what the hell happened," he says, responding to Sarah, then realizing Colin asked him a question first.  Turning to Colin, he says, "Yeah, that's about right.  It was like...rewinding a movie or something.  I've never seen...or felt...anything like that.  What the hell was that, man?"

He glances at Sarah out of the corner of his eye.  In the back of his mind, Bruce wonders if they should be having this conversation in front of her, or if he should even be having a weird-ass conversation like this at all.  In public, no less.  For the first time in months, Bruce decides not to worry about how cool he is or isn't.  He just wants to know if he's crazy. 

"Whoa. I have no idea. When you got in, I thought I heard something weird, like, I dunno, voices. Yeah, whispering voices. So I looked up and there you were. Then I came to say hi, and I was thinking to myself, let's see if I hear them again, maybe it's just a cellphone ringing, though it didn't really sound like a cellphone. We shook our hands and then bam! Those voices came back with a vengeance, there were like millions of them! I saw you, and me, and all around us these ghostly people coming and going, no, actually going and coming and fading away, since it was all backwards. Then even the cafeteria disappeared, and there was this drugstore, that I think was here, like, eighty years ago. And all of a sudden we were back, in the Tasty Dog, there was silence, or at least normal voices of normal people, and everything was normal, except for this nasty urge to puke my soul out."

Colin sighs, and, realizing how tense his muscles are, he tries to stretch them, grimacing in pain.

"So now? What was that supposed to be? An allucination? With us seeing the same things? Somebody put LSD in the orange juice?"

He pauses, thinking of something Bruce said.

"You said you think you are messed up? Why? Did it happen to you before?"

He sighs again, then looks at Sarah. "You must think we're quite crazy, don't you?"

Sarah nods vigorously.  "Oh yes.  It's just the authorities told me to keep you occupied until the van for the asylum could get here."  She smirks, "Please, I've been dying to hear about some of this stuff first hand." 

She reaches into her back pocket and pulls out this month's JAMPA  (Journal of American Mentalists and Psychics Association)

"So ... Oh wait a second!" 

She turns back to her friends in the VanNoGo.  "Never mind!  I'll catch up to you later!"  She waves and smiles despite the dirty look from Dave. 

Turning back around to Colin and Bruce, "So... is this the first time something like this has ever happened to either of you?"

Kel looks about the room, at the fine looking woman who yells at Seth, the way the kid piled out and then how people went to look after him.  He looks at Sylvia and Gretchen and states simply, "It's going to be an interesting year."

"Well, yeah, I'm not even sure what it is that happened."

His eyes fall on Sarah's magazine.

"What's that? Oh... You think one of us may be some kind of... medium?"

Timmy sits at the table and watches all the exitement happen with an awed and intrested expression, quietly sipping on his Pepsi. He looks at Kel and nods. "Yes indeed. I'd go out to see them but I have a feeling I wouldn't be welcome." He shrugs carelessly and bounces out of his seat. "Well, I'm going to go home. Have a nice night! See you tomorrow." With that he walks out of the Tasty Dog.

He felt full of energy and life and lately his body hadn't felt to together. But it wasn't like he was going to come apart. With a chuckle, he walks home to experiment and think on the days events.

"Well either one of you has a psychic power or you two were zapped by somebody who does.  Sounds like uh, postcognition... seeing stuff that happened already.  Notice anybody giving you the hairy eyeball inside?  Well, right now might not be the best time to think about seeing how you've just parted so suddenly from dinner but think about it tonight and swing by my table at lunch!  I'll try and have a few more ideas for you by then.  Either of you bit by radioactive spiders or find any strange glowing rocks?"  

Sarah grins at that last thought.