Log:Abandonment Issues

2021/01/27 Evan Tessa Kid Tengu Travis 1

Travis contacts everyone over the Brainwave to let know that a meeting is needed in library at around 7PM. This message goes out about 6PM. He does say that Evan needs to talk to everyone.

Travis puts on some jeans and sneaks before heading for the library. He also had to appease Anna-Marie and promise to pay Hide and Seek even later than promised. He walks in with a CafPow in hand.

So, at the appropriate time, Evan comes into the library. He's carrying a large duffle bag which is sets down with a dull thud as he enter the library. The red head seems a bit paler than normal as he looks at you all.

Hooray for not being a last-second call. This means that Tessa has plenty of time to finish up whatever she was busy doing before heading for the meeting. She arrives with a *BLAMF* precisely on time at 7:03.

She's chewing on some popcorn, but that doesn't stop her from asking, "So, what's this all about?" Perhaps minding her manners after the fact, she swallows, and then leans over to wash it down with some (of Travis') CafPow.

KT doesn't exactly have a sixth sense- well, not sixth sense for danger or anything, but the coarseness of the Brainwave message leaves a worried knot somewhere withing the young Abraxxian Royal's gut.

He wraps up his patrol- figuring that he's at least an hour out and he didn't bring the car so he's got to get there himself. He spreads his wings, looking like a gargoyle come to life on the rooftops above before leaping off and heading toward the rest of #CodeDark.

With no time to spare, KT clambors through an unlocked window and manuevers around the room until he finds a comfortable position.

Evan nods to Tessa then KT as he says, "I'm moving back to the dorms at the Academy. A Detective Carpenter, his assistnat Ms. Grimm, and the guy who chased me after I deactived the nanites at the pawn shop, who turns out to be a CSI with the CVPS named Augustus Weaver, came to the school earlier this afternoon to accuse me of being involved in the fraud against various pawn shops. So..." He says all this in one breath.

"Heeey," Travis complains half-heartedly as she drinks from his can.

"Well... shick." Tessa scowls. She's not sure what to immediately say after that. It could be that one word sums up things pretty well for her.

Evan barrels on. "So, in the end he decided not to arrest me, I think cause my fingerprint doesn't have a scar anymore. And because I talked to him without a nup on my side present like a parent or guardian which makes anything I said inadmissible in court's here. But, he strongly hinted that he knows I didn't work alone /and/ that he knows I'm not from this Earth." He runs out of breath again.

KT is oddly silent. His eyes just look over at Evan as he tries to gauge the situation. "Shick is right." He says after a long moment. "And maybe abandoning us is somewhat extreme too don't you think?" He asks the question as if he were upset but he's not letting it show on his mallable surface.

KT shifts into an older version of Evan. "I thought we had all this worked out already. Does this copper need to see you get a spanking? Maybe we can make this CSI disappear... or crack or something. Or this Carpenter... maybe he can get found out doing something awful..." KT says, brainstorming dark and terrible things to protect his family of pet humans.

"He's not trying to abandon us. He's trying to protect us," Travis says in placid tones. "There's got to be a way to smooth things over or deal with this issue, but we aren't gonna have a solve right away."

"I'm /not/ abandoning you all! I trying not to get you all frakked up as well! I'm just going to be staying at the school so he doesn't come here," Evan interjects. "And he's not doing it out of malice, KT. He's not like the cops back home. Detective Carpenter is actually really into the serve and protect shick. It's just his job to go after criminals. Just when he catches them apparently he doesn't demand a cut or beat the shick out of them."

"We get what you're doing," Tessa assures Evan, though doesn't sound any more pleased than KT did. "Just don't go too far. We're here, now, because we realized a while ago that running off alone was stupid, and doing it together was stupid, but with company. It's always better to have company."

"I get that. And I'm not gonna run any further than the Academy. And, while at the Academny you all need to avoid me like bad blood, I can still meet up with you all a lot." He shakes his head. "I don't think I;m under sruveillance, but, shick, with all the hero metas around no way to be sure. But," he reaches into a pocket and takes out little quarter sized discs. "These'll scramble our calls when we talk to each other. And I can use my new ghosting creation to sneak all invisible and desolid. At leat long enough to slip any tail. So, I can meet you all here and at Cosmos. Just need to put some distance between us for the nups."

He takes a deep breath. "Which reminds me: Detective Carpenter read me about being an irresponsible little shick and that I needed nup supervi9sion. Apparently, he looking for someone to be my keeper. Whatever. I'll deal with that as it comes up. Probably be some metahero nup." He adds without stoppiong. "I also told him the pawn shops jobs where over which we all'd had alrady agreedd to. So, you all keep looking for as honest a illegal poker game as we can that we can get into."

KT is definitely still not 'on-board' but it looks like he doesn't have much of a say in the matter. "I don't like it." He says as if that weren't clear. "You shouldn't have to go through this alone too- I mean sure, sneaking around and stuff helps. But what about the dumb grunts on Travis' team? Or ..." He falls silent after looking around. "Fine. Fall on your sword, /Felix/." He crosses his arms after cutting himself off. He feels like finding that game is going to be a whole lot easier than splitting his family up.

"Stupid with company? Maybe that should've been our team name," Travis manages to grin a little. "I still think KT should be standing in as the nup."

Evan goes over to Tyson. "Tyson, I'm not doing this to be noble. This is /me/. I'm doing it so you all aren't immeidately in the shick because I frakked up and left clues behind. I don't likt it either. But, I can't become like Cateran and just mess with the detective for doing his job, 'kay?

He puts a hand on the alien teen's arm. "And the meatheads at school? Tyson, the only reason they can touch me is 'cause I let them. I'm stronger and tougher than them. I put myself in their way so they can't get the kids who can't take it."

Tessa grins at Travis. "Still could be. Question is, whose company, and whose stupid..." Then it's back to the more serious matter at hand; namely Evan. And possibly Ty. She doesn't interject on the bro-to-bro just yet, though.

KT snap-points at Travis after he says he should be playing the 'nup. "I'm great at it. I was a magnificent Tavye in Fiddler!" He announces like a true thespian as he pulls out a 3lb bag of gummies he had stashed away in the library to drown his worry in.

"I feel like it'd be easier to just move on to the next world, right? I mean. This place is nice and all... but if there's 1, maybe there are other worlds that aren't total schickwagons." He says, just loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to try to force the issue but he's in fierce agreement with Blink's mention of company. "And I don't want to rough up some badge /if/ he's really not playing at something- but I'll never trust it. Not. Ever. Badges are just licenses to valiantly file villiany."

He can't help but nod as Evan addresses him directly. He nods again, this time a bit sadder as he realizes his friend is right. Still he doesn't like it but "he's been through worse" a thought his mind readily produces.

"Well- if you're going to the dorms I'm going to check in anyway. And you can take it, sure. Never thought anything else- but I'd rather string all of those braindead meatsacks up, jam their prefrontal cortex full of Abraxxian Labortech and have them start keeping the grounds clean. Sherrod the Janitor is too nice for all the garbage his made to collect. That's three or four feathered fliers with a handful of implants."

He opens up the bag of gummis and takes a deep sniff with his palms, opening and closing one over the bag rapidly. He's not taking thsi temporary split up well despite seeing the logic in it.

Well nothing getting wasted on gelatin & gelatin adjacent chemicals won't fix!

"Wait, what? Feathered fliers?" Travis asks as he gets a little lost on the topic and sips his soda. If there's still some left after Tessa.

"Yes. The saying. Two 'Birds' with X or Y stones." KT answers. "I thought the aliteration was warranted." Being dramatic for the sake of not getting overly-dramatic.

The red headed teen sighs. "Fine, I can't stop you all from talking to me at school. I get it. And, just to be clear, I /hate/ all this. It was /so/ tempting to just disappaer on the detective adn the nups. And yes, if I can, I'll get you in as the nup wathicn gme Tyson, but, for some reason, Detective Carpenter doesn't seem to trust my suggestions. But I'll work on him."

He then looks at the others. "I'd prefer to stay here for now. On this Earth. It's the least schiock filled one we've hit so far."

Tessa eyes the bag that's inhaled from, though KT is quick to close it. Probably wisely. Yes, she left Travis plenty of CafPow; she only took a sip. If she'd gulped it, she wouldn't be standing so still right now...

"Considering the odds, I think it's work hanging around a while longer. We could go through a hundred places before finding one this zoned. not perfect, but it's way better than the past ones."

"It is better than some by far. But if it's the fam's safety or this place, I'd take everyone's safety," Travis states. "This place at times seems almost too good." To illustrate, he motions generally around the room, and the mansion.

"Yes. I still wake up in a cold sweat sometimes when I can't tell the dreams of the interrogation cells from our lives here now. Its almost like this whole world was made to soften all of our hard-earned edge." KT says, sounding as if he too still can't find a way to trust the truth in front of his face.

"Yeah, I get what you mean, Travis. But, I'm starting to think it's because our original Earth was so /bad/. I mean, there are species here, animals, that thrive that are extinct or almost so on our Earth. Horses and other quines. Whales and dolphins..." His voice trails off.

"I do like dolphins. They're nice." KT agrees. "We couldn't swim with dolphins back home." He says out a new mouth as his original mouth chews another mouth full of gummies. He's already looking extra-wobbly. He offers Blinky the open end of the bag now that he's feeling the jiggle.

Travis nods slowly. "Well, we ran into other cruddy worlds, too. I keep waiting for the other penny to drop."

Tessa can't turn down sugar any more than she can deny herself CafPow. She's at the open bag in a BLAMF and happily grabbing out a handful. She only has the one mouth, but she makes it work with shoveling and stretching followed by chewing.

Travis adds, "I don't think it's all soft. I've been reading some trauma off of Golden Girl recently..."

Evan looks at the ceiling as he adds, "And there's no, hmm, weird zone to the mana here, the magickal energy of this world, I mean. It's not...slick feeling like back there. I know that makes no sense to the rest of you. It's just the way magick feels here." The red head then looks at Tyson. "And no getting hammered just casue I'm leaving, Tyson!"

"I can still embarrass you in front of the theater kids at the Academy!"

Evan hands out the discs to each of you and leaves one for Summer as he speaks.

"Yoer getting trashed because yoer leaving, Ev-an!" KT rebutes before narrowing his eyes.

"I dare you. I'll flush this meatsheet so fast and re-enroll as your long lost cousin. I double reticulated viper dare you to try!" He exclaims defensively.

KT snatches at one of the discs becaise of course he would. Well he tries to anyway. But his flesh gets all wibbly-wobbly and doesn't quite grasp the disc.

Evan rolls his eyes. "I'll be like literally 2 miles away in a straight line, Tyson!" He then picks up the disc and holds it out again. "Maybe we shouild shift. To a world with no sugar. Aspartame world or something."

Travis accepts a disk silently.

Evan sighs. "And Travis hasn't promised to avoid me either, so, fine, hang out with me still at school, all of you," grouses Evan in a much more normal tone of grump.

Tessa gets enough gummies in her mouth to free up a hand to take one of the discs. "Takes. Be-uh tay clo!"

"That sounds awful." KT replies though doesn't elaborate on which of Evan's points he meant. He grows and extra arm and takes it successfully this time. A smile does return to his lips (both sets) when Evan grouses his discontent. Now he feels better.

The spectral form of Anna-Marie rises through the floor as if she's walking up some steps. The little mixed race girl in the old old dress looks at Travis. "I've been waitin' for hours and hours and hours to play hidenseek! You promised!" A pout forms on her lips as she silently stomps a foot. A book falls off the shelf after she does.

Travis shrugs. "I'm already not hanging out with you much. So...yeah. No promises," he grins.

Travis smiles apologetically. "Okay, okay, Anna-Marie. I'm sorry. May as well do hide and seek," he suggests to the others.

KT jams more gummies in his mouth and then shrugs. "Sure- but Evan has to be 'it' first!"

Anna-Marie spins in a circle as she shriekd with joy. "Yes! We can all play! All the kids!"

Evan rolls his eyes at KT's words then just sighs at Anna-Marie's excitement. "Yeah, fine, whateveer. I'll count to a hundred. And no one can hide outside the grounds! I'm /not/ looking all over everywhere in CB for any of you all!"

KT sighs and does his own eye roll. "Fine!" He says before running off to hide.

The little ghost girl crows, "I know /all/ the best hiding places."

Travis sets down his drink and goes to find a hiding place, which is tricky to do on his own.