OOC: Holy crap. I'll post to this tomorrow.

For now, at least, Smoke Alarm's lost-and-found scavenger hunt hadn't turned up much of interest, and she figured that if she delved even deeper then caretakers would comeout. Mayhaps not yet then...

She'd eyespied the littlerer girl eyespying her, and gave her a smile before going back to outlooking around. Smoke found that, no matter how many coins from Paradise Towers, Arsuran, or the Earth empire of the 26th century she poked in the vending machine, they all fell right out again. Clearly it was broken, so she wiggled her hand inside and worked out a chocky bar, and pocketed it for later sharing.

Outlooking back at the girl to see if she was still outlooking, Smoke Alarm stacked one chair precariously on top two others and climbed up to the vent, her back to the girl. Getting her screw-diver from her pack-back, Smoke Alarm opened the vent and outlooked inside, before apparently doing some exaggerated maintenance, passing things up and down. The chairs beneath became increasingly wobbly, but Smoke Alarm balanced perfectly.

Then, in total quietness, Smoke Alarm suddenly struggled, waving her hands around, losing balance. She fell back off the tumbling chairs and rolled back over the carpet, something black-and-white and furry at her neck. Puddy! 'Cat attack!' It was Kang play-acting, show-and-telling to smaller Kangs the dangers of pussy-cats and sticking your head in a duck. The stuffed animal furiously mauled the Kang before, with a throw, leaping away over a row of chairs and flying at the girl! 'Outlook!'

With all speed, Smoke Alarm followed, flipping over the chairs and landing right in the seat next to the girl. She rescued the girl from Puddy, snatching up the worn stuffed toy. 'Gotcha!'


OOC: Well, you never know, aliens might have infiltrated the hospital. I'll leave it a bit for Stan to get his task done, before I cause real chaos. ;)

How old is the girl?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Sun 29 Mar 2015.

The girl -- she can't be more than eight or so -- squeals in delight at Smoke Alarm's antics.  The others in the waiting room are rather less amused.  The boy just stares at Smoke Alarm in astonishment and grabs hold of the little girl, saying, "Hey!  Are you nuts or something?  I mean, I know you're like a refugee from a Mad Max movie or something, fair enough, but you don't mess with my sister!"

The old man, meanwhile stands bolt upright and stalks over to Smoke Alarm, glowering.  "Young woman!" he snaps.  "I don't know where you think you are, but this is a hospital.  People are undergoing treatment here and they do not need young delinquents raising a ruckus.  For God's sake, show some decorum!"

A couple of the people who have been going by dressed in the blue clothes and the white clothes, that Trav had said were doctors (but not Doctors, and it was funny how the words were different) stop and look at the group, though they haven't made any move to interfere yet.

Recovering, Smoke Alarm outlooked up at the boy and the oldster, shocked at their angry reactions and immediately put on the defensive. She knew she was a refoogee and a delinquent, she'd been called that before, but a young woman? 'Décor? You outlook at the décor! It's all blank walls and yawny. This horsepital is totally unfun and I don't even eyespy any horses.'

'And I don't mess with sisters. I was just playing. Mayhaps people going under treatments need fun and ruckuses to be fixed and feel better.'

She ignored the yawny say-so boys and outlooked at the littlerer girl, who was mayhaps the most smarty-pants here and the only one worth talking to. 'How you do. I'm Smoke Alarm. I'm a Blue Kang. You want to play?' 'Merow?' said Puddy from Smoke's lap, nuzzling the girl's elbow.


OOC: Let's just invoke all my Bad traits! :D
This message was last edited by the player at 15:00, Sun 29 Mar 2015.

The old man gives a loud "Harrumph!" and turns his back, walking stiffly back to his seat.  However, what Smoke Alarm says does seem to register with the boy, who relaxes a little bit, although he does keep a close eye on Smoke Alarm now.

"Hang on.  You say your name's 'Smoke Alarm'?  Man, your mom and dad must have been mean," he says.  "And, uh, what's a Blue Kang, anyway?"  He looks her up and down dubiously.

"It's 'cos she's blue," the girl informs him seriously.  To Smoke Alarm, she adds, "I'm Katey.  How you do?"

Trav looks up from her phone book. Where the hell is Smoke Alarm?

Up to no good, probably. The Kang has the best of intentions, but she usually finds trouble or trouble finds her. And Trav knows that wherever Smoke will be, there will be shenanigans.

She gets up. "Pardon me, Stacey, where did the girl with the blue hair head off to? I need to keep an eye on her."

OOC: I'm getting in on the get SP game. Insatiably Curious, here we go! Do I need to make a roll? Trav may get into her own Shenanigans in the hospital.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:04, Sun 29 Mar 2015.

Sereth just raised a brow at Stanley. That was... disturbing. He just shook his head, and grumbled under his breath. Red tape was annoying it was true; but to just short-cut it like that... where then was the important of credentials? If people just continually cheated the system like that... well, that way lay the fall of Empires. No wonder the human Empire had never been able to beat the might of Draconia.

'Humph!' Puddy mimicked at the oldster as he footed away like a loser. Smoke Alarm meanwhile poked her tongue out at his back, before outlooking to her new friends.

'Coz I'm blue.' she agreed with Katy. 'I'm a Kang. A Blue Kang. Blue Kangs are best. And I'm Smoke Alarm because I was warner of smokes and fires.' Smoke Alarm answered proudly and, she thought, pretty obviously.

As if it was entirely normal, she added 'And I don't have no mum and dad. Never ever. So you mean you do?' she wondered, and thought was weird, to be stuck with inbetweens who made you do yawny stuff and acted like caretakers all the time. 'I'm sorry.'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Mon 30 Mar 2015.

"I'm not sure," Stacey says.  "I saw her headed toward the waiting area for the MRI lab...."


OOC: Smoke Alarm is easily locatable in a small and usually quiet local hospital.

"Got a mom.  No Dad for a few years now," the boy says, and he scowls, though Smoke Alarm gets the impression that isn't her he's angry about.  "Mom had to come in for an MRI.  They think it might be, you know...."  He points at the side of his head.  "Well.  Bad."

Smoke Alarm didn't know what an em-ah-eye was, but figured from outlooking at Katy and the boy that it was something unhappy. Like when a friend was made unalive. Mayhaps something was broke in this mum's head. 'Oh. Sorry. I hope they fix it.' she said solemnly. She remembered something said long before time start, tangled up with something said much later. 'Be brave and bold for your mummy.'

Quietly, she pulled out the shoplifted chocky bar, figuring they'd need one. She broke it into three pieces inside the wrapper (so as to save the crumbs), opened and the wrapper and shared out the pieces. 'Here. Sharesies.'

Smoke Alarm thought for a moment, and wondered if mayhaps she could find Traveller and Stan were outlooking for. Well, of course she could. 'Do you know where the babies comeout?'
This message was last edited by the player at 14:47, Mon 30 Mar 2015.

Katey and her brother accept the pieces of the candy bar from Smoke Alarm, with Katey being as excited by it as you'd expect from an eight-year-old.  But she carefully says (or recites) "Thank you, Miss Smoke Alarm," in a way that suggests that she's been taught to do so.

Her brother just nods.  "They don't have a big maternity ward here, but I think the delivery room is down that way.  Maybe the doctors that do the deliveries have their offices there, too?"  He leans over the back of his chair and points down a hallway.  "You should be able to follow the signs okay."

He scratches the back of his head.  "Um.  Sorry about yelling at you.  Mom put me in charge of looking after Katey, so I freaked out when you started jumping around and throwing things.  My name's Tom."

'Miss? I never miss!' declared the crossbow-carrying Kang.

Smoke Alarm followed Tom's pointing, eyespying signs that outlooked promising. Maternity ward, delivery room. Presumably that was where the Ship delivered the babies, rather than dropping them down hair-conditioning ducks. Smoke Alarm decided that was probably much more sound-and-safe for the small dolly babies. 'Okay. I can follow the signs.'

She eyespied Tom then decided to accept his sorries, having almost forgotten him yelling at her anyway. 'That's okay. I get that lots when I jump around and throw things. But we should outlook after sisters. I knowhow; I have lots and lots of sisters.'

Tracking back to the topic of babies, Smoke Alarm explained 'My friends are outlooking for a baby. I think mayhaps they should try lost-and-found... Do you mayhaps know a Phillipe Collinswood?'

Perfect! Stanley smiles as he hears Helman give them the permission they need. He hasn't missed Sereth's disapproval, but Stan doesn't think that it is that much worse than lying to him. He briefly considers using the current situation to help Helman stop smoking, but he doesn't know if the director even smokes. Besides to change that sort of behaviour takes multiple sessions. Stanley snaps his fingers and a moment later director Helman wakes up. He uses Helman's slight confusion to quickly shakes his hand again. "It has been a pleasure talking to you director and thanks again for cooperating with us. I guess that we'll be get started with our audit. Goodbye!"

After leaving Helman's office, Stanley immediately goes looking for the record room or a white doctor's coats for Sereth and him. Being able to deflect any questions by referring people to Helman is great, but wearing a doctor's coat wouldn't hurt.

It isn't too tough for Stanley to find a couple of appropriate coats, but he's dismayed to realize that it doesn't overlay correctly on Sereth's holo-projector disguise.  It's probable that Trav would be able to tune it appropriately, but Sereth's virtual look already shouts AUTHORITY in a way that a coat really wouldn't add to all that much.

Following the directions in the hallway, Stanley and Sereth find their way to the records department.  They're met there by a bright-eyed young red-haired woman wearing half-moon glasses.  "Hi!" she says.  "I'm Janice.  Director Helman buzzed to say you'd be down to examine our data for your audit.  What can I help you with?"

The room includes rows of actual filing cabinets, which Stanley finds rather old-fashioned and nostalgic, and there's also a desk with another desktop computer.

Katey and Tom seem to notice Smoke's arrowgun for the first time.  "Hey, is that real?" asks Katey.  "Not Nerf?  Can I try it?"


Tom gives her a blank look.  "Can't say I know any Collinswoods.  This isn't what you'd call a big city, but it's not that small.  Is that the baby, or the baby's dad?"  He shrugs.  "You could probably ask one of the nurses at the desks if there was anyone checked in by that name...  Only, mm.  You probably want to play it cool.  Say you're a relative or something."

'Um, the baby. He'd be much smallerer now. But he has lots of names... Okay, mayhaps we'll try that later. I'll be cool.' Smoke Alarm promised, who could certainly be cool, icehot even.

At Katey's eager interest in her arrowgun, Smoke Alarm couldn't help herself, and pulled out the arrowgun, displaying it proudly, a small hand crossbow all covered in stickers and doodles and scrawled with "Smoke Alarm's arrowgun" and "No tuching!" 'It's real!' she insisted, 'It's my arrowgun and it's special... But I'll let you have a go.'

She drew a bolt from the canister on her leg; this one had been in another life a screwdriver, now fitted with pigeon-feather fletching. She fitted the bolt, pulled the lever to draw back the string as the limbs bent and creaked, then set the safety catch. Meanwhile Smoke chattered, show-and-telling each part of the arrowgun and the knowhow of it worked. 'You mean you don't have an arrowgun?' She was shocked. What were these kids being taught? 'Every girl should have an arrowgun, or mayhaps a slinkshot or a k-nife, to catch rats and cats and dogs, or shoot things or stop bad people.' In her estimation, Katey was more than old enough to use a crossbow. Smoke Alarm had started even youngerer.

Still, she started with arrowgun sound-and-safety. Safety first! 'Always-always set the safety-first until you want to shoot. Then don't touch this bit or this bit or this bit or else it could go off and bite your finger. And never-ever-ever-ever point at peoples. Dip down like this.' Scanning a row of empty chairs, she show-and-telled how to dip it toward the floor around each chair.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:08, Tue 31 Mar 2015.

"We are actually looking for the records on all the babies born in this hospital since the start of last month." Stanley says with a smile. They only need to look through the most recent files, but only asking for those might be a bit suspicious. One thing to consider is that it is probably too soon for Phillipe's file to have been digitized. If it is here, it is one of the paper ones. "Oh we'll also need the files on the pregnant women currently in this hospital. It would be great if you could help us find them, Janice."

Stanley and Janice, with whatever assistance Sereth may choose to provide, spend some time working through both the hardcopy records and the ones captured in the hospital's computer system.

This is a small local / regional hospital, and the number of deliveries in the last month is fairly low.  When they start to go through the documentation, Janice starts to look worried: the paper files include only twenty-five matching records, but the computer system shows twenty-six.  The record for Phillipe is the odd one out, and there are two notable problems.

First, the birth date is recorded as the 23rd.

Second, although Marianne Collinswood is listed on that record as the mother, and she does have a file with the resident OB/GYN -- a Dr. Teresa Kim -- that goes back for eight years, she's not on record as being either presently or recently checked in, nor are there any scheduled appointments except for a regular check in five months.

By the time all this has been uncovered, Janice is very flustered.  "I don't understand how any of this happened," she says.  "I'm responsible for maintaining this information, and this is just a mess -- it's my mess."  From the look on her face, Stanley suspects she may be afraid for her job or at least that this is going to be a terrible mark on her record.

OOC: All that is basically free for the overwhelming cooperation you got from Dr. Helman.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 23:21, Wed 01 Apr 2015.

Once she was sure-and-safe that Katey had the knowhow of arrowguns, Smoke Alarm released the lever and unloaded the screwdriver-bolt. That one was mayhaps too heavy-duty, better for taking apart cleaners. She fitted instead a push-pen shoplifted from the help desk, and levered it back to a half draw. That would be lighter for the smaller Katey, and sound-and-safe for a first time shoot.

Crouching next to Katey, she put the arrowgun in her her hands, showing her how to hold it. Smoke Alarm put her own hands on it to keep it ready-steady, to be sound-and-safe. They aimed at an empty chair, well away from people. 'Now breath out and... shoot!'


OOC: Proper teaching of crossbows, 16
10:22, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 16 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 2,5. awareness(4) + marksman(3) + crossbows(2).

Teaching crossbows to children in the middle of a hospital waiting room, I'm probably invoking my Eccentric trait here...

"Don't--" exclaims Tom.  He has been watching Smoke Alarm with Katey, open-mouthed, without saying a word (which must mean that Smoke is doing the right thing, obviously!) but jerks into motion to try to stop his sister.  Just a moment too late.

The snap of the crossbow and the thwack! of the pen as it smacks into the chair instantly attracts the attention of everyone around; even Trav hears the commotion as she is wandering the halls trying to track down Smoke.  The old man who had previously berated Smoke Alarm looks up, startled and now angry.  "That is quite enough!"  He gets to his feet and strides briskly off toward the nearest nurse's station.  "Miss!  Miss!  Kindly phone the police!  This young woman is being both a nuisance and a hazard to life and limb!"  He whirls back toward Smoke Alarm.  "And you -- you stay right where you are!"

"Katey!" Tom shouts.  "Put that down and come here!"

Smoke Alarm notes the approach of a big man, somewhat older than Tom, all in white with a short sleeved shirt.  Obviously a musclebrain.

OOC: Well, I can't blame you for not giving Trav a chance.  Take a Story Point.

I will note that this makes an ideal distraction for other PCs to exploit, even Stanley and Sereth if they feel the need, even though I think Stanley's present activity is more or less happening at the same time.

OOC: If it's feasible; Sereth can have heard. He's probably not adding much to Stanley's search anyway.

OOC: He can easily hear the uproar following the shot.

'Yeah!' Smoke Alarm whooped at Katey's successful shoot. 'Good shoot!!' she cheered, squeezing an arm around the girl in a hug, full of that funny warm tingly feeling of helping youngsters learn and play.

But she soon found herself at the centre of a to-do, her happiness turning to unbraveness turning to boldness. 'Now what?' she demanded, snatching up the arrowgun and Puddy. Tom was being a scaredy-cat as boys were, and the yawny say-so oldster was calling for caretakers. Sport-spoilers.

'Nah-uh!' she told the oldster, seeing the big musclebrain caretaker come-out behind. 'Yawny old rezzie! Bet you're full of untruths and Kangs! Don't let him eat you!' she told Katey and Tom, quickly looping the arrowgun strap around her body.

The musclebrain was getting closer. Time to foot it, all speed! 'Build high for happiness!' she told Katey with a quick build-high gesture, a wide devil-may-care grin. Then Smoke Alarm ran, leaping up onto a row of chairs, then leaping off. She grabbed the ceiling fan, whirled around to make a sharp turn, then flew off, dashing past the musclebrain. 'Catch me if you can, musclebrain!' she teased.


OOC: Foot it, all speed!
A stunt to gain distance, or just to impress:
11:27, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 20 using 2d6+13 with rolls of 5,2. coordination(5) + athletics(4) + Kang Fu(2) + jumping(2).

Sereth just groaned, and glanced at Stanley. He just gave a brief nod; before he left, moving quickly to find Smoke - or more precisely, the disturbance, his air of authority unmistakeable. He didn't need to draw his blade - he knew it was there. He would, however, be giving the members of his team a talking to about proper mission protocol.