Log:Crosstime Apocalypse, Scene 2

Crosstime Apocalypse 2014/01/23 	 Porter Forge

3

Champions Mush - Thursday, January 23, 2014, 10:08 PM

Locke Industrial Park

''Once this was a site of heavy industry, when the nearby shoreline was endless wharves; then it was all but abandoned when that industry failed and the industrialist Locke was all but forgotten. Now Locke Business Park has come to be known as the technology center of town. With its manufacturing companies, as well as retail businesses, it draws people from all over Colonial Bay to purchase the latest in high tech. And unlike in the old days, the streets are clean and bright.''

''The main road is Locke Circle, which sweeps in a crescent to meet Golden Sands Road in both the north and the east. ''

Porter takes Hardcase's coin (a 1974 silver dollar) back to where he originally found it: on the edge of Locke Industrial Park. It doesn't glow or levitate or give any indication what Porter is supposed to do with it.

Porter has good ideas. Just not often and not always when needed. He was only a few dozen days late in remembering why the coin seemed familiar. It isn't exactly standard bus or vendor fare, but the details escaped him. After many a day of jingling in a pocket, idle handling, attempts to flip along the backs of his fingers, and many drops... it now accompanies him back to the scene of the shoe-bumping where he found it. Why? Because he has no idea what else to do about it, though he's pretty sure it didn't show up by coincidence.

When Porter pulls the coin out of his pocket to look at it, it falls out of his fingers. However, as luck would have it the coin lands on its edge and rolls a few feet before losing energy instead of falling on either heads or tails.

Dropping things is not unusual for him, luck or no. Having valuables roll away from him isn't so rare, either. Still, he sighs. "At least it wasn't into a storm drain." He steps after the thing. Bore it does decide to find a storm drain or sewer to fall into.

As Porter picks up the coin, he almost drops it again, almost as if it is eager to be somewhere.

Porter can take a hint. Though sometimes it has to be a really blatant one, like conversation or a blow to the head. This time, maybe not. "Fine, fine. You win." He'll stick with just following the rolling coin for now. Track it. Wait for it to get tired or bored and make a mistake or give up.

For some reason, this is the point at which Malcolm Gibbs just emerges from the bushes between sectors of the parking lot. Malcolm blinks a few times as he stares at Porter, who is apparently talking to and/or following a rolling silver dollar. "... Did I, uh, interrupt something, Porter? Should I give you and the coin s'more alone time?"

The coin rolls an impressive distance then starts to wobble. Just as it is about to fall, a dog bites it, then flings it away as the hard metal impacts his teeth.

The coin lands on a piano that is being lifted by pulley to an upper floor apartment. As the movers upstairs pull the piano onto the balcony of its destination, the coin slips off the piano, spangs off of a balcony railing on the floor below, and bounces into the gutter of a nearby shorter building.

The coin rolls down the gutter and falls several floors down the drain to street level. Somehow, it exits the drain rolling on its edge and takes off in a different direction from the one Porter originally rolled it.

"No. I'm guessing I wasn't spending it fast enou-damnit." Porter looked over at the familiar voice to answer, then looks back just in to to watch the dog launch it. His head and eyes dart around to follow the path. Because it's Porter, he's much less surprised about the oddity and odds of this than others might be. "Great. Now it's... crap!" That's when the drain spits it back out in another direction, at speed. He starts running after. He had it for a while, looks like now he has to actually earn it.

"Oops," offers Malcolm, watching as Porter goes sprinting away. Metal quickly winds around Malcolm's legs, forming a roughly spring-like quality. Within seconds, the tall man is bouncing after Porter and the silver dollar like the weirdest gorram ferret in all existence.


 * poing* *poing* *poing* *poing* *poing* *poing*

The coin continues its careering path. Zigzagging back and forth from one improbbible coincidence to another like some kind of crazed cartoon character. It travels this way for several blocks, backtracks a few times (as coincidence dictates) then finally comes to stop at a door, unmarked except for the word "Laboratory".

Porter comes to a stop when he fully catches up to the coin's resting place. His legs are not made out of springs nor his tail made out of rubber. Panting a little, since he was nearly outrun by a coin, he eyes the door. "Ok... I suppose that could be worse." Laboratory is unusual, but not as uncomfortable as trash-compactor or a hospital full of explosives. He reaches tentatively for the coin, in case it decides to get up and roll away again.

The coin is, once again, just a coin.

As Porter reaches for the coin, Malcolm lands in a neat two-point stance beside him. The tall man casts a suspicious glance around the area, perhaps expecting lacrosse ninjas to burst out of thin air and attack. "So. This is going to be one of those nights, huh?"

"Most nights are like that, but this is different. I think." Porter finally picks up the coin and puts it in his pocket. "Last time I saw this, it was with somebody else who had weird things happen around them. Or I think it was the same one." Now it's led him to a door. So he does what he normally does to strange doors. He knocks. A little cautiously, in case of suddenly appearing lacrosse ninjas on ice skates with null energy tutus. Or something.

At the knock, the door explodes outwards, showering Porter and Malcolm with little bits of wood. A ten foot tall white gorilla shoves himself through the doorway into the street and thumps his chest angrily.