001

[hatesboys]

[ACTION: 625 Topper Street]

[It's a beautiful spring day in Mayfield, and a piercing scream like a thousand banshees dying fills the air of Topper Street and at least five of the surrounding roads.

Frances Fulbright has woken up in a strange bed--again-- and she is not at all happy about it.]

[PHONE]

Well, looks like I'm back in this stupid place again. I don't suppose any of ya idiots even remember who I am. [she thinks she's been gone for like. a month. it's more like a year and a half.]

Comments

[ceasetoexist]

[He frowns at that. That isn't a suggestion, that's a fact as far as he's concerned. There's nothing they could do to hinder their opponents here by taking the initiative. They have to wait for them to make a slip.

But the last thing he wants to do right now is start a fight with you first thing, so he'll just be quiet on that.]

Alright. Give me a little bit and I'll be over.

Also. Do you know who you're living with yet?

[Because oh please God he's hoping you haven't gotten shacked up with psychos.]

[hatesboys]

Some stupid guy, but he's no threat. I haven't met anybody else, but from the pictures I'd guess there's a girl, too.

[ceasetoexist]

[Well. That didn't help half as much as he'd hoped but he guesses he'll be able to at least get a look and see if he recognizes anyone in the photos as a threat. He wishes you would take this a little more seriously, but considering you haven't had an additional near two years worth of experience with the town.

God. He just hopes you don't start fights or anything stupid.]

Yeah. Alright. See you soon.

[And a few hours later there'll be distortion in the air over the lawn of 625 Topper as Pokey and his mech materialize there, Pokey carrying a folder containing his report under an arm.

He stops at the door for a moment before, finally, knocking.]

[hatesboys]

[She answers the door, no longer in her pajamas but in the least hideous green dress she could find.]

About time ya showed up. [looking over his shoulder] What's that?

[ceasetoexist]

What, Josephine?

[He looks back over his shoulder, making sure they're looking at the same thing. Really, that was probably unnecessary. There was very little else she could be talking about.]

She's my Time Distorter. Time traveling device along with land travel and teleportation, and mobile weapon platform.

[hatesboys]

Oh, right. I remember her. [She shrugs it off.] It's a bit fuzzy, ya know. The report?

[ceasetoexist]

Do you feel alright?

[It's hard, and he tries to clamp up, but after hearing it's fuzzy sets off an instinctive reaction in him. And he can't hide the genuine concern in his voice once it makes its way out.

So he shuts his mouth and holds the folder out to her. It's a fairly detailed report, and he's managed to list a document of all the important events to have occurred from October of two years ago to present and here I intended to have a typed out report to post a link to but I'll have to wait til tomorrow to finish it otherwise assume he has all the information present in the "story so far" section]

[hatesboys]

[shhh james I've been here I know what happened She takes the report from him and starts flipping through it. But, she looks up for a moment at the tone of his voice.]

... Yeah. I'm fine.

[ceasetoexist]

Okay. Good.

[Shit. His face slips into a small smile at that and he just does his best to readjust it.]

There's something weird with some people who've come back. One kid came back a while back who had been here before and didn't remember his first time here, only to recently regain his memories.

I don't know if that was supposed to happen in the town or not. There's evidence the town is....degrading. Or their control is.

[hatesboys]

That's good. They might just break themselves down, even if we don't do anythin'.

... [man is he like sick or something what the fuck is wrong with his face] Do you feel alright?

[ceasetoexist]

Huh?

[And back to his usual blank, somewhat sour expression.]

Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just perfect. As always.

Honestly, that'd be in our best interests. At the moment they still possess a considerable amount of power and near infinite control of the town. But they're making more mistakes. Our best chance at striking at them would be to wait until they wear themselves out, make a mistake, and take advantage of it.

[hatesboys]

For now, we can focus on weapon-stockpilin' and trainin'-- and maybe gettin' everyone to work together so we're not all a bunch of useless morons when the time finally comes.

[She gets to one part of the report, and pauses.]

... The cop, Grady. He's...

[ceasetoexist]

I've made a couple M.U.S.K.E.T.s at least. Just for practice, and in case you're unarmed right now you could use one. Stockpiling other weapons and supplies shouldn't be too hard. Getting reorganized and training may be harder. There's a growing lack of kids in the age range the K.N.D. usually accepts. It might be in our best interest to be more lenient with the age restriction, if possible.

Dead.

[He says it normally. Unphased. He's seen so much of it and died so many times himself in the last two years he just doesn't care. Let alone about Grady.]

His real name was Evan Olney, and apparently had originally been some kind of runaway or resistance fighter against the town until he betrayed the others with him and took the position of Police Chief. The position is currently held by "Jack Smith", the "father" in the Smith household.

[hatesboys]

It's really changed, hasn't it... [She stops looking through it and puts it on some surface inside. She'll read it later where she can react without feeling like a loser in front of him.]

I'd be alright with teenagers, if they're trustworthy and 'round the lower end. But no adults.

[ceasetoexist]

It has. In a lot of ways. It's hard to believe it's the same place as it was a couple years ago.

[He nods a little.]

That's fine with me. Most of the low end ones I know should be pretty trustworthy. ...There's a load more crazy and dangerous adults here than there had been, and most of them are busy fighting with each other a lot of the time, so it might be best to ignore them entirely if possible.

[hatesboys]

Sounds good to me. If they start attackin' kids, though, I'm not just gonna stand by and watch it.

[ceasetoexist]

I won't either.

The only way any of us have a chance of beating the people here is to work together, whether it's against the town or the psychos here.

[hatesboys]

It's like the sayin' goes, "You're either in, or you're old."

[ceasetoexist]

Haven't heard that one before.

I should probably leave to start working on stuff and let you read the report. I'm still at 502 Ricardo, if you need me.

[hatesboys]

Alright. See ya around.

[man this is awkward

what should she do

should she just slam the door...]

[ceasetoexist]

[Pokey turns to walk back over to Josephine and climbs back on top of the mech. He looks back over to Frances for a moment, just looking, before saying.]

If anyone could help get the kids together, I think it'd be you. I think we have a chance of reforming with you back.






I'm happy to see you again.

[And that's the last word from him, since he'll be teleporting out at that.]

[hatesboys]

... Me t--

[oh goddammit he's gone

huff]

... Idiot.