Completely enclosed and with no windows, the only way into this area is through the elevator. The walls, ceiling and floor are all white and have lit-up lines along the top and bottom of the walls that lead towards other rooms. Depending on what is happening in the lab is what color those lines are.

The place has multiple rooms for various purposes. A science type person should be able to figure out most of those purposes, but the lab covers anything needed for tinkering with electronics, chemistry, biology, and some seemingly specialized things such as an air tunnel for testing aerodynamics. Notably, all of the rooms are super clean and organized as if the lab has yet to see use or was being presented to a new buyer.

The rooms all connect to a central room, though. The central room of the lab is circular, yet having four "corners" where large tesla-coil-looking things stand (one per "corner"). At the center of the room is a 7' x 4' table.

There are other doors here. Two of which are locked and labeled "Private. Please do not enter without permission."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:27, Fri 07 June 2019.

 He read as having had serious metabolic changes on ways that defied anything close to normal human physiology anymore.  He did (although Matt had this covered) emit gamma radiation, among other types, absorbing it from the atmosphere around him, somehow amplifying it internally to support his life functions, and then releasing the 'extra' wattage of whatever he absorbed as 'waste' energy much like a human emitted body heat as a slight side effect of the chemical processes which fueled the body itself.

  Matt is starting to guess that is a 'no' on the friends or loved ones front for John. You know, aside from the currently strained relationship with Reeve.

  He will save the 'Don't worry, turning into a Monster drastically increased my amount of friends' encouragement for now.

  "Hmm, while I'm just guessing at the moment.  You might want to hold off on firing huge death rays not simply out of concern for others, but because you may simply be topped off from the incident that cause this."

Seeing the information, Lifelight begins to correlate what The First was telling her earlier. This is all consistent both with how this man's powers were functioning as well as how they came about. Although Lifelight fully trusted Mr First's word (due to her naive nature), she is at least experienced enough to know even the most well-intentioned and intelligent of people can be misinformed. So she held off on saying anything about the nature of First's reassurances until she could have scientific backing. Besides; John probably would want to see the science behind his current situations, wouldn't he?

Lifelight looks back at John to see if he heard her question or was choosing not to answer. If he takes a while, she repeats the question of if he has family to contact.

John slowly shook his head. "No, there's no one. I was....trying to get further in my career before I worried about that. I worked a lot." He looked over at the readings, his transparent skin making it impossible to tell his facial expression.

  Well, at least John had narrowly avoided working himself to death in a very literal sense.  "It may be overly optimistic to expect you can get back to working long hours after a couple sick days." He turns towards Reeve, "But I expect that job will be waiting for you if you still want it, once awkwardness is the worst impact on handling any labwork."

  It's probably better for business if Reeve didn't have 'I fired the guy I turned into a skeleton' as your help wanted reasoning, anyways.  But there's only so far that goes if John doesn't stop emitting enough trace radiation to skew test results several rooms over.  Not exactly the same situation as waiting until you don't have a mouth to learn to cook on a professional level.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:05, Sun 23 June 2019.

So the guy is without family. Whether because he never had siblings, uncles, grandparents or because of some kind of estrangement. But that he has nobody is rather sad. Lifelight gives him a compassionate look and reaches her hand to gently pet him. "I am sorry."

She then looks at the instruments. She then looks back at him, still petting him if he lets her. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is; you are OK and healthy as far as I can tell. Second, I do have a way to make you look like you used to. Third, you can learn to control your new powers. Fourth, you now have a friend if you ever want to call me. The bad news is you will still be the way you are right now, regardless of how you appear."

(Side story arc taking place starts here)

The location seems to be something similar to the center square of Weston City, but with a cyberpunk feel to it. It is night time, or at least close enough to be dark. The stars can't be seen for all the city lights and the street gangs who seem to permeate the area all have that cyberpunk look; dyed hair, mohawks, the occasional cybernetic limb or cyber eye, and all of them on or near a futuristic motorcycle.

How you got here is unknown.

Dane noted the change of atmosphere, yet had no explanation for it.

He was neutral about the implants, mohawks, and motorcycles.
Cowards hunted in packs.
Soldiers hunted in teams.
The distinction mattered.

He wondered, in the back of his mind, how he came to be in this place, if it was indeed a place, and if he was indeed in it.
Yet, caution dictated that he assess the threats as if he was there, and that they were real. If the reality proved otherwise, he would adapt, improvise, and overcome.

He marked exits around him, shooting angles above, potential hostages, bystanders, obstructions, cover, and so forth.

And waited for purpose to be made clear.

Rodger Eskin looked up from the scholarly book he'd been reading, the odd scenery slowly registering. Perplexed, the ex-schoolteacher turned evil wizard looked left and right. He was seated on a bench that he did not remember having been in.

He blinked several times, noticing the folks around. Then looked more closely. Hmm. Dress and hairstyles were one thing, but that girl's artificial eye looked like the real thing more than like a cosplay prosthetic.

Having explored every inch of Weston City by now, Mittens is immediately discombobulated by the scene.  Maybe this was the set of a Bladerunner movie she hadn't heard was going to be shot in town and she'd been slipped a Mickey only to randomly portal onto the set?  Not actually the first thought that comes to mind.  First thought is that this is an alternate future to the ones she's experienced so far.  Much nicer than that post-apocolyptic future, or the one where the Fey had taken over.  Or maybe... experiencing another Quantum Leap story arc.  Not good.

"Not my fault this time," she whispers, fumbling for a mirror to check if Mittens is still Mittens, "Please don't take me to Eternity Jail."

Looking in the mirror, Mittens is still Mittens.  From the 21st century and all.  So... not as bad as if she'd body-jumped.  But still, the Time Cops'll probably be all, "Tell it to the judge," and "Everyone says it wasn't their fault."

"What a wonderful catch-22 they've set up!  Not allowed to time jump even if you're stuck in a time not your own!  Not that I'm terribly good at getting back to Prime Time.

"Pull yourself together, Mittens.  Step 1: disguise."

Poof.  Oh no!  Mittens' secret hide-out no am haz all her stuff!  Fine.  Poof.  'Borrow' a datapad to look up clothing donation center.  Poof.  Now wearing a mish-mash of random discarded clothes and looking much more like a 80's kid than a cyber-punk.  ( https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance....53.5c8fbb0b8c110.jpg )  Good enough.

"Step 2: Befriend the natives."

Mittens looks for a non-dangerous looking cyber-gal and approaches.  "Hieee!  Mittens the name, adventure's the game!  Not sure how I wound up here, but here I am!  Is this...  Weston City?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:53, Tue 06 July 2021.

"Cowards hunted in packs. Soldiers hunted in teams. The distinction mattered."

It's true. Cowards will *always* flee when they are outnumbered. A soldier presses on to do what needs to be done, but are also smart enough to know when to call for backup to accomplish the mission.

Dane can see that there are three people out of place here: Rodger, Mittens, and Antoinette. Although Mittens is now suddenly wearing a cute 80's outfit, it is cute and therefor still out of place.

Antoinette is sitting on the same bench as Rodger. She sees Mittens and Dane and smiles, waving at them.

One of the nearby punks pulls his sunglasses down to stare in awe at Mittens. "Woah... did that chick just use magic?"

Another punk looks at him and nudges him. "Check it. She's not alone. Those two on the bench weren't here a second ago."

Apparently Dane is grizzled enough that the punks didn't realize he didn't belong.

One more thing catches Dane's watchful eye, though... one of the punks is apparently searching the area while trying to disguise the fact he is looking for something.

The girl punk Mittens addressed looks shocked that the magicat is headed her way. "Of course this is Weston... adventure, eh? Well you'll find plenty of adventure with these guys. Today, we were planning to go to the robot battle arena and place some bets."

Meanwhile, Antoinette looks over to Rodger, the smile still on her face. With a soft tone, she says, "Hi."

Rodger turns, and nods in greeting. "Hello," he replied to Antoinette politely. The open book still in his hand is a fairly thick paperback, much larger than a novel, and bears the markings of being from the public library. If the title can be seen, it is 'The History of THE BOOK in 100 Books.'

Dane slid back, panther-quiet, out of the light but into a better vantage point, maintaining a watchful eye on the punk who is searching for something. Dane is suddenly curious as to what that is.

Mits blushes and fidgets with her left pigtail when magic is mentioned.  "Yes!  Mittens knows many magic tricks.  Outfit quick change is just one of them."

Ear-twitch.  Glance over at sweet voice.  It's Antoinette!  And creepy professor turns-you-into-chocolate.  Technically legally somehow.

"That girl's a friend of mine.  Robot battles sounds epic!  But Mittens is completely broke.  How does a hyper magical catgirl scare up some money in this town?  Preferably without police butting in."

RODGER:
Antoinette just smiles at Rodger, seemingly not that curious about the book in his hands. She was more curious about the man holding the book. "My name is Antoinette." she then points to Mittens, "That's Mittens. What may I call you?"

---

DANE:
The man Dane is watching seems to be scanning everything. People, walls, the ground. But mostly the ground. He eventually makes his way to an alley where he tilts his head, examining a bum. The punk addresses the bum, "Hey you... you got something that belongs to me?"

The bum looks up from where he is sitting and says, "Eh? What? Oh... just a rock. You like rocks, huh?"

The punk says, "And what if I do? Give it here."

The bum is reluctant, but is clearly intimidated by the punk.

---

MITTENS:
The punk says, "Pff. Don't worry about money, babe. If money becomes an issue, I got you covered. Invite whatever friends you want! It'll be a fun time! And if you feel like payin' me back, well, I'll just ask to borrow some of that magic of yours." she winks.

Dane moved over toward the bum, whisper-quiet, and stepped into the light right behind him, facing the punk. He jerked his chin back toward the others. "On your way."

He quirked a slight smile down at the homeless man, and said, "I don't like bullies."

"Wowie zowie!  Thanks a zillion, babe!  Mittens go invite Antoinette.  Sweet as candy, she is.  BRB!"

Mits hurries over to Antoinette then has a record-screech sound-effect moment.  Some things make Antoinette too sweet.  Like, how would she react to battle bots?  Cry for the poor, hurt robots?  Buuut that's an unconfirmed assumption.  Maybe Ant has the requisite disposition for enjoying battle bots?  Only one way to find out.

"Hi, Antoinette!  Not sure how we wound up in this interesting alternate timeline, but...  (OK so Mittens is assuming you're not native to this timeline based solely on appearance.)  Inanycase got invited to battle bot arena by nice cyber-punk lady over there.  Care to join?  Would love your company.  Especially if you're the Antoinette that I know from the Yokai-Zord invasion timeline that gifted Maggie to Seraph.  (How does one word that in a way that it doesn't sound like the Yokai-Zords were gifting cute robo pups to Seraph?)"

"It is nice to meet you, Antoinette," he replied politely despite having a sneaking feeling that they had met in some capacity before - possibly in alternate identities? He wasn't sure, and his Mercurian resonance wasn't telling him much of anything at the moment.

"I'm Rodger," he introduced himself. He certainly remembered 'Miss Adventure' a.k.a. Mittens, and it looked to him like she was in fine form for her style of feline chaos at the moment. He privately hoped that he would not have to do any villainy needing her to thwart this evening.

OOC: Edited to fix an error. For some reason I forgot the correct name for Rodger's ancestral bloodline.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:43, Mon 19 July 2021.

Dane:
The punk initially looked like he was gonna dare Dane to do something, but an odd thing happens... he backs down. "...was just a stupid rock anyway." he walks away from Dane and back towards the rest of the gang.

The bum looks up towards Dane with a smile and says, "...thanks, mister. Hey... you want the rock?" he offers up the rock he was holding. If Dane knows his rocks, he would recognize it as a geode.

---

Mittens:
The girl punk says, "No problemo."

Antoinette looks up at Mittens from her seat and smiles. "I am the Antoinette that you know. I can join you."

---

Rodger:
Antoinette then looks back to Rodger. "This is Rodger." she then presents Mittens and says, "This is Mittens. She is my friend."

There is something odd about this girl. She moves slow. She seems spaced out. But she is able to converse, if still in a cute-yet-monotone voice. All the same, she stands up and offers her hand to Rodger.

Dane shook his head. "Nice geode. You keep it."

He watched the punk walk away, and then said to the bum, "Odd that he would want it so bad. Anything special about it?"

Then, "Maybe I should go talk to them. Tell them to stand down and leave you alone. They'll just come back once I'm gone."

Rodger accepts the hand, tucking his book under his arm, but looks puzzled. Something did not seem right here, and he could not put his finger on it. His eyes suddenly turned a clouded sapphire blue as he consciously reached for the resonance, trying to perceive the social relationships surrounding Antoinette from the music of the divine symphony that wove through the mundane, created world.

"Hello again, Mittens. Fancy meeting you... here." He greeted the magicat cordially while doing so.


OOC: The Mercurian resonance is his mother's angelic heritage, not part of his "evil" wizard spells or android nature.

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 20) and Rodger Eskin (msg # 22):

Mits jumps for joy!  "Hot dog!"

Eying Rodger she narrates, "At first Mittens was thinking, 'This version of Professor skirt-the-laws-of-taboo, it's-technically-not-cannibalism is sure acting very...  not weird.  So probably not the same one she met in Yokai Invasion Timeline, hereafter referred to as YIT.'  But then he says, 'Hello again.'  Implying that he too is from said familiar timeline.  But why so... not weird?  Oh no Mittens is being rude!"

She stands at attention and salutes!  "No wait.  Wrong formality.  Methinks Earth professors are greeted with a wave.  Yes."

Mits waves.  "Salutations, Professor Rodger.  Any idea when 'here' is?  Mittens has ascertained that the 'where' is Weston City, at least."

Dane:
The bum says, "That's... exactly why I figured you should have it, mister. They don't seem like they will bother you. But as soon as they don't see anyone strong around, they will bother me again. If I don't have the rock, I can simply say I gave it away..."

---

Rodger/Mittens:
Rodger can sense Antoinette is fully human, autistic, and one of the purest souls Rodger has seen. If he did the same thing with Lifelight when he saw her before, it wouldn't be hard to make the connection.

The punk girl has no idea and just assumes any friend of the magic user is welcome.

Antoinette turns to Mittens with a smile. She is ready to follow.

Antoinette says, "My watch says it is 12:15 A.M."

In reply to Mittens (msg # 23):

"When?" Rodger blinked, taken aback and surprised by that word. His eyes reverted to normal brown as he started to consider the implications. While not especially familiar with Mittens' powers, he was aware that she had much better perception of space-time than he did, as befit her portal powers.

"I don't know, Mittens. And it is a good question."

He briefly thought of checking clock synchronization with his henchclowns to see what time and date they were registering, but held off. That kind of updating could cause some problems for his normal vision until it completed, and he would rather be able to see right now. One eyebrow went up when Antoinette stated what her watch said.

Mits facepalms at Ant's answer.  But then huhs.  She leans in close to see if said watch has a date indicator.  And if said date matches up with the "current" time that her alien A.I. brain implant computer believes it to be.  There's a part of her that expects them to be slightly out of sync.  But that Ant's watch has a night time on it would mean there's a chance that it's somehow synced with the current environment instead of when she comes from.  Which would challenge everything she knows about time tra...  unless Ant is an inventor who made a watch that automatically syncs up with the environment without having to have a current wireless plan to do so like most smartphones would have to have.

"Th... thanks, Prof.  That thing with the eyes changing color.  Is neat-o!  What's it do besides look cool?"

(( OOC: Worried about leaving Dane behind. ))

In reply to Mittens (msg # 26):

"Oh, that? Just a hereditary gift. Nothing sorcerous. All I can use it for is an extra sense," Rodger answered, though he knew that was not entirely true. He could exert it strongly enough for his wings and halo to become visible, though that wasn't saying much. "My younger boy can do quite a bit more with it, as could my mother."

He wasn't sure why he as being so open with Mittens, but it seemed like the right thing to do for whatever reason.

If Mittens checks her own watch, it says the same as Ant's. And then it changes to 12:16. The date is the day Mittens would be waking up next. At least, according to her watch.

Antoinette squats down to pick a newspaper off the ground. It shows yesterday's date. She hands it to Mittens. "The newspaper is from yesterday." she gives an innocent smile.

She then turns to Rodger with that same smile. "You have a son. What is his name?"

Mittens is stunned speechless.  This can't be the right guy!  Talking about having a family all normal-sounding and stuff.  Or maybe... acting like a normal person to throw her off.  Must be.  Well...  As "normal" as having color-changing eyes run in the family is.

"Wowzers.  Extra senses are awesome!  Your kid a superhero?  Or maybe mommy is?"

Mits jaw-drops at the newspaper.  "This date is from our yesterday!  That confirms it: alternate timeline, current time.  This is sooo not my fault this time!  You two being with me is proof of that.  But how the heck'r we supposed to get back to the proper YIT reality?"

The Alien A.I. blips at Mits' brain, ~The probability of using your teleportation power to return three people to their proper universe and time is...~

"Slim to none.  Yes, I know."

Mits blushes and glances at the other two.  "I was... talking to my... telepathic smartphone...  Out loud.  Like an idiot.  Ohwait!  If I were to..."

Mits stops herself mid thought.  Deliberately committing a time crime in order to lure continuum cops to their location so that she can hijack one of their navigators is a terrible TERRIBLE idea.

"Nevermind.  "

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 28):

"Two of them, actually. Harold and John," Rodger answered Antoinette's question politely before giving Mittens a mildly dirty look.

"I would hope not, Mittens! That would be quite the parental headache."

OOC: His answer to Mittens was in regard to the suggestion that his son might be a superhero.

Dane looked down at him, and then nodded. "Yeah, they will. Fine. I will hold it for you.. but you can have it back any time you want."

He took the rock, and stuck it into the pocket of his jacket. Then he looked down at the bum again, and then around the area where they were, looking for some place to get food. "Be right back."

Dane walked around the area, looking for a place to get a burger for the man; it looked like he hadn't eaten in a while.

One minute she was home, on the sofa with a bag of popcorn, a big bottle of water, and "John Wick" playing on the telly and next she was...not.

"What the..?" She said, looking around at the decidedly not-Weston area she found herself in, sitting on a park bench that was not in her house just as she was not in her house. She was, however, still wearing her oversize Black Widow t-shirt, pajama bottoms, and yellow, fluffy, Pikachu slippers (the ones with the black tail that said "Pika-Pika, Pikachu!" whenever she took a step).

"What in the bloody hell is going on?" She said to herself, sitting up and taking in the rather futuristic look at the place she was suddenly in which, she was quite sure now, was most definitely not Weston.

And that is when she saw Antoinette and a few other familiar faces. Faces attached to people she knew and some she didn't, both of which she made her over to, somewhat hastily, in the hopes one of them knew what the bloody hell was going on.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:15, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

As Serena rushes over to the group, her slippers make their sound! "Pikapikapikapika!"

Antoinette sees Serena, smiles, and opens her arms to her. In her soft tone, she says aloud, "This is my friend Serena."

Dane is easily able to find a restaurant as well as a generic ma&pop grocery store. The prices are normal, despite the apparent future setting.

Assuming Dane enters either place to buy food for the bum:
While Dane is away at the store or restaurant, the punk from earlier immediately swoops in like a vulture to check the bum. And since Dane was the only one who looked intimidating (and despite her magic, the punks already believe Mittens to be on THEIR side), the punk begins antagonizing the bum. But seeing the rock isn't there and knowing that Dane might come back and find a beaten body, the punk stands down. He has a mission... he isn't going to let something trivial like taking his anger out on a bum get in the way of it.

He even straightens the bum's collar, pats his chest, hands him a $5 bill, and goes his merry way.

Serena gave Antoinette a big hug. "Hello, pretty lady." She turned, one arm still around Antoinette and gave the others a small smile. "Hello, Mittens. Serena is sure happy to see you and was thinking, 'maybe Mittens did this with some of her inter-dimensional powers but decided Mittens wouldn't do that and isn't sure she could do so on a scale that would affect all of Weston' so she's not thinking that any longer."

She stopped and waved at Rodger who she's fairly sure she has never met before. "G'day," she said in a quite pronounced Australian accent. "I'm Serena, good to meetcha."

She turned back to Mittens. "Now Serena is just wondering what the bloody hell is going on and why she is standing here, wherever here is, dressed like she was whilst watching telly, eating popcorn and getting ready for bed!"

(Important note I forgot to mention: All of you can decide what was happening before you got here, whether you were asleep and woke up here or were up late like Serena. But it would have been about midnight that you were in one place and now are here.)

Dane walked back into the area, and handed a bag with a sandwich to the homeless man. "Here. Meat, bread, veggies, condiments, salt, pepper and water. That should keep you for a bit." He smiled a bit then, suddenly seeming less intimidating. "Be well."

He nodded his goodbye, and turned and walked over toward the main group of folks he knew, giving Serena a smile, because, well, she was fierce, and beautiful, and they made a great team, tearing up enemy spacecraft.

"Serena. You too, eh?"

Mittens bursts out laughing at the sound!  And the sight of Serena in her PJs.  And then things get all adorable with Ant cuddles and Mittens mimicry.  So she squeals gleefully with her fists to her mouth!

"Welcome to the bewilderment party, Serena!  Mittens is only slightly less confuzzled than you.  We've determined that this is an alternate timeline:  One where Weston wound up a cyberpunk setting.  For the local date and time is about the same as we remember it being from our version of the world.  There.  Now that you know that, you can be equally confuzzled as Mittens.  Should I go borrow you something to change into?"

Punk being rude to a bum barely registers with so much going on.  But then suddenly changing his tune to being nice tweaks Mits' kitty curiosity.  What was that all about?!  Surrendering to her curiosity, she opens her customery very small portal and has it follow the punk from ever so slightly behind and way up so she can keep an eye on him with little risk of her flying eye being spotted.

Mittens double-takes.  "R-Rampage?!  Wowzers!  Welcome to the weirdness...  Don't suppose you've got a better idea of what's going on than, '5 random people from our world just ZOOPED over to an alternate timeline where Weston's all cyberpunky...  Punky punky CHU!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:32, Fri 06 Aug 2021.

"Me too," Serena said, holding a hand out to Dane. "Good to see you again, circumstances and all, not that we know what said circumstances are."

She looked around again. "Cyberpunk indeed. I feel like I'm on the Bladerunner set. If we see Harrison Ford chasing Rutger Hauer then Hauer is mine. You can all share Ford. If you wouldn't mind getting me something that screams less 'I'm about to get some kip' and more "I belong here in this Cyberpunk future Weston' I would be most grateful."

She reached down and pinched Atoinette then pinched herself. "I've heard that wakes you up if you're dreaming. Since we're all still here it's either a lie or we're not dreaming."

Rodger ran the fingers of one hand through his beard thoughtfully. While the sound of Serena's footwear was bringing up some unpleasant memories, they were not anything to do with the lady herself. And both Mittens and Antoinette expressing friendship towards Serena gave him a quite positive first impression of her.

He raised an eyebrow Mittens' way when she started going on about cyberpunk. A questioning eyebrow, not a disapproving one.

The bum gave a grateful smile and nod to Dane. "Bless you, sir..." and savored his sandwich.

When Dane approaches the group, Antoinette smiles and says softly, "Hi, Dane." Ant then presents Rodger to Dane and says, "This is Rodger."

The pinch made Ant squeak and she looked down where she was pinched. Upon hearing Serena's explanation, she ohs and nods at Serena. "I hope we can be friends with whoever we see. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, or cyber punks." Then looks at Mittens. "Can I have a cyberpunk outfit too?"

She looks back to Serena and says softly, "...your slippers are cute."

Meanwhile, the punk Mitts is keeping an eye on returns to the main group of punks, whispers in an ear, and the one being whispered to just nods.

The girl punk Mitts befriended is looking around at all the faces. "Woah! What a Motley crew! Well hey... we going to the robot battle arena or what?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:00, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

Dane nodded to Rodger, taking the man in at a glance. "Rodger."

He turned back to Serena, and said, "We've seen worse. This seems like a walk in the park... so far. Any theories on how we got here, where here is, who did it, or what they want? Clearly, they want something from us."

Mits grins from the Harrison Ford reference, remembering a scene from Thumb Wars where he goes on a lengthy boast of all the movies he's been in.  Why is Chocolate Rodger giving me The Spock Eye?!

And of course Dane's the one person out of the group being an actual hero at the moment, feeding a homeless person.  Inward self-kicking for shrugging off the plight of fellow man.  Person.  Mittens not a man.  Aaand there goes Ant being all candy sweet as usual.

"Excellent questions!  Mittens would love to bring friends to Robot Battle Arena!  Any chance those who want wardrobe change can get such along the way?  Mittens suspects that the interdimentional being who winked us here without explanation did so without understanding the importance of appearances.  And we're more likely to pick up clues to answer Mr. Dane's questions reconnoitering a venue of violence than standing around a bench."

She then leans in close to her new punk friend's ear and whispers, "The suspicious guy suspiciously whispering to another suspicious guy...  Either of them familiar to you?  Why would they be mean to a homeless guy then suddenly be polite and give him money?"

(( OOC: The Spock Eye https://media.tenor.com/images...971e8a416c/tenor.gif

Ham Duo https://youtu.be/MyDehO1IuG4?t=744 ))
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:31, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

Dane pondered matters for a moment, and then pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning against, and went to speak with the young men hanging about.

He walked up to the kid who had tried to take the geode from the old man, and he said, "I need a few answers, starting with, where are we, and what year is it?"

The punk looks at Dane like he's from Mars. "...you're lost, gramps? Alright. This is Center Square... Main Street.. in Weston City." He has that look like he is concerned that Dane might actually be needing a hospital or something. "The year is 2021."

Meanwhile, Antoinette has been thinking ever since Dane asked theories on what anyone would want with the group. She costumes up, her normal clothing shifting into that familiar white and pink costume. She then looks around, the HUD on her visor giving her a bunch of information.