"I don't know of anyone who has gone cybersycho, but I am aware of a kid that got all arrogant and overconfident," Minerva says in response to Shin-ji.  "I think the sim went over some limitations, I don't know the details really, but keep it in mind."

"You bring up good points, unfortunately I don't have the answers.  A bunch of us, 'evolved' we're calling ourselves, are organizing, cell-like in a kind of resistance movement.  We're trying to get to the bottom of it, save kids from getting dissected or turned into weapons, and ultimately see if there is a way to control the plague or stop it," she says.

"A good place for you guys to start, not even having to commit to anything, is helping me find out if everyone got out of the Obelisk and if not, what happened to the missing kids," she adds.

Nikola's eyes opened wider than usual while her eyebrows went up as well, her gesture was of some surprise, not of suspicion, but of her thinking that it was actually a good idea but wad not sure where to start, she looked for Vamp since she might have some idea
"That's a good idea indeed i would like to help other like us.. Vamp! Would you like to give a try locating your fellow goths?"

"I got out of there pretty late, all things considered. At least one kid was sick and probably got picked up, do you have a list of folks who haven't resurfaced?"

Minerva shakes her head.  "I would have to know everyone that was there in the first place to do that," she says.  "I have a familiar out scanning the feeds for missing persons of the right age group, but it's not smart enough to hack police records," she adds.  "The Obelisk is your neighborhood, if you can slip back into your lives maybe you can scan who is missing from talking to others juvies, checkin out who's not showing up to class, that sort of thing," she suggests.

Tailgate frowned at the reactions and conversations going on. He had, of course, been focused more on Vamp and Val than anyone else. At least initially, with Val not waking up like everyone else.

But then the talk turned to the Carbon Plague again, what it was, what it had done...and who might be effected. Or picked up by The Authorities. Or worse.

But that still didn't answer what THEY were going to do next. What they were going to do with their new abilities. Or if they'd stick together, though it both seemed a smart play...and an easier way to get spotted.

"Who created it, why they created, how it chooses people, how it chooses what to give them - all good questions, but ultimately right now, all fraggin' unimportant."

He shrugged. "Are we stickin' t'gether? Do we have a next step or more? Do we have a GOAL?" He reached up to his ears unconsciously but quickly yanked his hands back down. "We get these...abilities, this STUFF...what're we gonna do with 'em?" He seemed to be asking himself as much as anyone else.

"I think we should stick together, and I think we should help those who weren't as lucky as us. As far as our abilities... I mean, I've got a few ideas..."

He bit his lip nervously.

"...as soon as I figure out what I'm actually doing besides besides being able to listen to three radio stations at once."

"We need to stop stuff like.. that, from ever happening again. I'm willing to fight to do that." Shin-Ji didn't think he had to say what "that was".

"Well definitely i welcome the idea of getting back a little , my parents must be worrying more than usual, and our absences could raise some attention, but i also think that we will be more efective if we can meet regularly and do activities as a group.

Btw Jai feel free to share your ideas"

"Uh, I mean, your usual hack work, just with my head instead of a deck I gotta lug around. No visible hardware means some crazy stuff as soon as I get a handle on it."

He looked around at some of the more obvious or odd effects the Plague had rendered on the group.

"I don't know what the heck to do with metal arms or whatever except for, ya know, the obvious. No offense. And I don't even know what most of you can do at all."

He looked down at his hands, gesturing as though he were counting or keeping track of something in his head.

"But the bottom line is the same. Keep ourselves, and everyone else victimized by this, safe. Whether it's blocking bullets from the Dead Folks with those arms, sending that spider thing down vents to activate manual locks to get other juves out of a bind. Whatever you bring to the table, we use it. Especially while they're not expecting it. Because I certainly didn't hear about this on the news."

"Righteous. Though I'm not going to try and catch a Genius round any time soon with these metal arms. I'm a pretty good fighter, but that's vid stuff, even with boosts.

Though, according to that little intro program, I can armor myself up when I need to. I'm not too anxious to try that immediately and asphyxiate myself or something.

What a gonk way that would be to die! Here stands Shin-Ji Han, locked in place forever because he covered his own nostrils.

We should exchange contact info I guess, unless we have a particular way of talking hooked up by our benefactor?"

Tailgate looked from one to the other as they spoke up. Then his eyes slid to, and then quickly past, Val. He gave a small shrug. "Sure. Yeah. Keep in touch. Maybe meet once a week." He sounded like he was thinking as he spoke. "Too often and we'll draw attention to ourselves and our...eclectic grouping...but too little and...won't be worth much."

Val had been munching on the energy bars and drinking water absent-mindedly, until all of a sudden there was a silence and the food was gone and the bottle was empty. And she was still hungry and thirsty.

She shook her head, willing herself to fully wake up. No, it wasn't that; it wasn't that she was sleepy of something, she was fully awake, in some sense more awake than ever, her new senses showing her reality in ways she had never perceived. Actually, a bit too much; the room was like a swell of clashing emotions, A psychological clamour like the audience from one of her concerts, surging like a tsunami of mixed feelings. Some were scarcely surprising, some were... Oh well.

"We gotta go back home?" she said finally, taken aback at the prospect."I mean, it's not like I'm a super big fan of whatever we're doing here, but... if I go back home I'll be super grounded, mum will give me an earful, the PR And Marketing guy will give me another one about announcing that collab without asking them first... So, like, can we not?"
There was all that, and there was the stuff that went unsaid. Val hadn't exactly had funthat night, but at least she had felt like an adult. Going back home meant going back to being a kid, and worse than a kid; it felt like an admission of defeat.

"Fiiine," she sighed after looking around at the faces, an affectation, really; now she didn't need to read faces to know moods. "I'll go back back to my good little schoolgirl life. Better hide all this before mum throws away the 'slutty gear', huh. None of this is cleared with the Public Image Consultants," she said, voice dripping poison. "T, can you give me a lift or something?"

"Well, you don't have to go home; you don't have to do any of that," Minerva says.  "But if you can slip into your old lives, it's better than being on the run.  A girl's gotta eat, and kibble isn't what it's cracked up to be," she says with a smile as protein bars and kibble is all that is in her cupboards.

"However you guys want to take it, I can help and I can reach out to my crew as well from time to time.  Jai, I can give you a copy of a messenger daemon I made; it's not perfect but it can get messages to me fairly safely," she adds.  In virtuality a little winged chibi anime-style woman appears in the space above her head and flies over to Jai, hovering around him.  "One of my furies," she says with a smile.

Vamp had been half-listening to the conversation around her whilst sitting and drinking her water but her full attention turned towards Val when she began to whine. She stared at her, jaw dropped and utterly gobsmacked at the things she was saying.

"Are you taking the piss? You have to be because I can't believe that even you are that bloody tone-deaf. Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth?" Vamp asked.

She stood up and carefully set the water down. "You...don.t want to go home because...you might. Get. Grounded. Some of us wish we HAD FAMILY TO GROUND US!" She screamed. In all the times she had been angry before she had never raised her voice but this time she screamed. Electricity sparked around her hands as she took a step towards Val. "I WISH I HAD A MUM TO GIVE ME AN EARFUL! I don't and you're whining because YOU DO? ARE YOU SERIOUS? Jaysis Christ but you have to be the most spoiled, entitled brat I have EVER BLOODY KNOWN!"

Her hands seemed to come up of their own accord, the electricity intensifying but she kept lowering them, seemingly unaware that she had raised them. "I may have lost the only family I have known for the past six years last night which means I am alone in this bloody world," she said, hatred in her voice and eyes. "You have parents that care but you're scared to go home because of getting grounded. You are unbelievable."

She took another step forward, lips drawn back in a silent snarl.

"Yeah, a girl's definitely gotta eat," Valeriya echoed Minerva, and the rumblings of her stomach were loud enough to hear. "Very badly. Can I get another? At least this plague isn't going to make me fatter, right? So... Yoboys? I guess this is..."

She was going to say 'goodbye', 'catch ya later' or something like that, when Vamp flew off the handle - again. For a second Val flinched, but then anger filled the place of fear in her mind, to be gradually replaced with dull annoyance. If last time seemed a lifetime ago, that morning was... another decade? Whatever.

"Ugh, Vamp. You are fracking exhausting, anyone ever told you that?" Val rubbed a finger on the bridge of her nose, trying to calm down a sudden flare of headache. "I didn't ask to get a 24/7 CCTV line live from your inner mess, OK? So at least turn the volume down, yogirl. Or just don't be around, eh. Nobody's forcing you to talk to me."

Val turned to Tailgate, rubbing at her temples even as she managed a winning smile.

"Gimme a ride home, T? At least it'll piss them off to see me arrive like that."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:41, Tue 14 Dec 2021.

Minerva was quiet for a moment, the tension in the air palpable, and then she clears her throat and says quietly, "here is my number, it's not listed, you can reach me there if needed.  I can help connect you guys until you are better organized, if that is what you want."  She is clearly trying to change the subject to deescalate the sudden confrontation.  "Look, Vamp, your crew was at the Obelisk, right?  Give me names or tags and I'll see what I can find.  It's a good place to start," she offers.

"Well I'm off then," Hunter says, having sat remarkably quiet throughout the discussion.  He offers his phone number so he can keep in touch and will accept anyone else's provided.  Kat, also quietly sitting in a corner with her arms wrapped around her knees seems to come out of some sort of reverie.

"I can call a cab from the New Harbor mall, it's not too far and is a reasonable place to be.  Anyone need a ride?" she asks her voice still sounding sleepy.

None of them seems to want to get in between Val and Vamp

"Right, I guess I just tell it to tell you whatever needs sharing?"

He stared up quizzically at the daemon, completely at odds to describe his current circumstances.

When the argument erupted, he was glad for Minerva's interruption.

"I'll take a ride. Where the hell am I going to put this appliance cube..."

Vamp went utterly still, jaw hanging open at Val's response. Anger she could handle but being dismissed? Her aura flared bright red as pure hate welled up inside of her and then she moved. She had always been frighteningly fast but this was something all together different. She was a blur as she crossed the room and stopped just before ramming into Val.

"LOOK AT ME, DAMN YOU! I SAID LOOK AT ME!" She screamed, her face inches from Val's. She pulled down the neckline of the wedding dress she wore, ripping the cloth in her rage, to reveal an ugly scar on the right side of her chest. "I SHOULD HAVE DIED THAT NIGHT! WHY DIDN'T I DIE?"

And then the rage was gone, leaving a deep void surrounded by a grief so profound it was breathtaking. Mixed with it was self-loathing, guilt, and unbearable loss. Tears begin to run down her face as she looked at Val. "Why didn't I die with them, Val?" She choked out before starting to fall to her knees. "I should have died."

There were no more words. Just tears as she cried so hard no sound came out.

The rage and closeness to violence had him up and over in a few seconds out of reflex, but Shin-Ji had no idea what to do to this, so all he could do was look pained and look away once he realized Vamp wasn't going to actually kill Val.

He could prevent a physical assault, maybe, but what did you do about this?

Vamp's outburst hurt, probably because he was something he felt as well, deep down. The death of many in his clat, not to mention his sifu, came back to haunt him. Not to mention some deep resentment for his own father's death.

Caught with nothing to contribute, all he could manage was a pained grimace, standing a few feet away from Val and Vamp.

Nikola had been wondering how to put her “powers” to good use while noting the number of Minerv when she heard Val and Vamp arguing,

at first did now want to engage but inconciously her new extremities reacted to the situation, climbing to her shoulder and  starting to analyze the situation, it seemed the lenses on one of the “spiders” was changing its focus.

 When Vamp exploded  she was moved to do something and get close to confort her, with a hand gesture she indicated val to wait and calm down, she would try to handle this:

 “oh dear, you had been through so  much! Let it go if you need to, and who knows ! maybe they are not all dead, they might even be all alive, finding them could be our first mission, and if someone fell victim ,  we can make whoever is responsible pay”  Nikola rested her hand on Vamp’s shoulder hoping not to be electrocuted

Tailgate glanced at Val when she voiced her concerns. Her version of "problems at home" were way different than his. He started typing a message out and then stopped, hesitated and then deleted it. He shook his head. He didn't want to be labeled a...well, whatever it would be. He looked down and let out a small sigh.

He flinched away when Vamp started yelling, looking at her wide-eyed. While he agreed with...some...of the sentiment, she was WAY too loud and energetic about it. About lots of things. He opened his mouth to reply to Val but didn't want to appear over-eager or anything - but then Vamp blew up in a different way. He stopped, blinking, mouth slightly open, for a moment.

After a bit of hesitation he lightly cleared his throat, "Um." He licked his lips and closed his mouth. He turned to Val and nodded slowly, the words just gone after Vamp's breakdown.

He tried to think of what to say to Vamp, several times his mouth starting to form a word and stopping...finally he gave up and scratched his head. He was feeling a bit uncomfortable, and like he was intruding on something private, though it wasn't his fault.

Val knew; she just knew.

Her new powers didn't include seeing the future, but people were as transparent as wine glasses. No, bad metaphor; they were as transparent as glass partitions on a public bathroom - you got to see all the things you really didn't want to, every single flaw and imperfection, every hairy crack and fold, every flaccid appendage.

She knew Vamp would retaliate; she kinda knew someone would step in. Maybe Shin-Ji, because he was the kind of guy who dislikes disorder. Maybe Minerva, because it was her place after all and she didn't want a fight there. Or more probably Tailgate, because the readings Val was getting from him looked very... protective towards her. Yeah. That was one way of putting it. Really she hadn't looked much into it, into him, because it was... scary?

How much of ourselves do we read when we read others?

Hey that was a good line for a song.

Val knew, but she hadn't known Vamp would break down from one second to the other; she was very new to her powers, and Vamp's inner turmoil too volatile to predict. Not that Val was making a huge effort, to be honest; she was tired, she was restless, she was too worried about her own life, whether to go back home or not, what would her parents do. Who the heck was she supposed to be, really.

She turned around slowly, sighing. She was surprised to see Vamp cry, and also she was not. She was getting her emotional distress like literal waves of color and feel, like jellyfish thrown at her face with a vengeance.

"I don't need to look at you to see you, Vamp," she whispered in the strange silence after her outburst, suddenly feeling very tired. The storm of emotion coming from the Goth was exhausting, a swirl of rage and impotence. And slowly she descended and took a knee, the slick black second skin of her leggins reflecting the harsh light in strange ways.

"I know how you feel, Vamp," she said in the lowest of voices, only for her. "I don't know what happened or maybe... maybe I don't know who you are any more. But I know how you feel, trust me. And I'm sure... it wasn't your fault. It's not your fault. What happened sucked. What happened was unfair. But you are alive and..."

Deep breath in, her eyes on the Goth's, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Why me? A Scanner? Give me a fracking break.

She had never been interested in healing, or even understanding other people - who ever gave a fuck about healing or understanding her? Not her parents, for sure; not her millions of fans; maybe not even the yogangers in the room, who shared with her... what, exactly? The bad luck to have been in the wrong Obelisk at the wrong time? And what else, beyond that?

And yet, here we fucking are, Valeriya Konstatinova; there's no going back to your former life, so might as well live this one.

"...And I'm glad you are alive, Vamp."

"I've been so terrible," Vamp whispered. "To you. To everyone around me. I should have died that night. I wish...I wish I had.

She looked down but her eyes weren't looking at anything save what happened that night.

"My brother was six. He never had a chance to live. He was looking at me when he died. I was trying to reach for him but I was too far away and then I saw the light leave his eyes."

She reached up and rubbed her chest.

"It hurt to breathe. There was so much blood. Mine joined with my brother's and did what my hand couldn't do. My parents were lying together, close to my brother. They had been trying to get to us when the men opened fire. I was gasping and coughing and what I thought were tears was blood. I was crying but not tasting tears."

Tears ran down her face as she looked at Val.

"The men left. As fast as they had come in they were gone and the flat was on fire. I somehow stood up but I didn't go to my brother or my parents. I went to the door and was on the street in my nightgown and there was so much blood."

Her voice hitched but she kept breathing.

"They told me I was lucky. They said the shooters used high powered weapons and armour piercing bullets so it went right through me. They said I was lucky. My family died in front of me but I was lucky."

Her eyes searched Val's face as she talked.

"I waited for family from Japan to come get me but no one did. The corporation never sent anyone for me either and it wasn't until later that I found out that they killed my family in Tokyo and London and destroyed the company. In one night I went from having a family to being in the system because there was no one left to claim me.

"But I was lucky."

She looked down again, face hidden in the fall of her hair.

"I've been so awful to you when all you did was try to be keep being my friend. I don't know who I am Val. Everything I thought I knew about myself died that night. It ran out of me in a pool of blood and left a stranger in its place and I've been so damn angry ever since. It's like everything else was left on that floor save the anger I feel every moment. And I take that anger out on the world and everyone around me. I don't know how to move forward or apologise for it."

She looked back up.

"Will you help me?" She asked in a small, soft voice empty of everything save pain enough that she was drowning in it.

Valeriya sighed.

“Well, you’ve been a bit of a bit-your brother, he-? Oh.”

The immensity of it hit her like a sledgehammer. Not just the words, but the sheer grief emanating from the other girl. She saw it, she was there, watching life leave the little body of a six-year-old, and not just any random boy, but his brother. Val closed her eyes and retched, but the sights didn’t leave her mind, the salty, metallic taste of blood was still on her tongue.

If this has been your life, I don’t know how you didn’t kill yourself, Vamp.
And if this is my life now, I don’t know how I will carry on living.

She reached for something, blindly, and grabbed Tailgate’s arm, purely because it was the closest thing that felt solid enough to take some of her weight. Eyes still closed, she forced herself to breathe slowly.

“It’s not… like I… wasn’t, a bitch. To you, Vamp,” she muttered, fighting back the urge to puke. “With maybe… less… reasons, but…”

She shook her head. No. Not a contest to see who had the shittiest life, or what was worse, bad parents or no parents. Another deep breath, and she tried opening her eyes. Oh frack, everyone was looking, and not in the good way. As much as she loved spotlights, it was because they elicited adoration and admiration, they enhanced your best bits in front of strangers; here it was the opposite, whatever they were doing was an exhibition of the ugliest bits in them, in front of… her peers? Really?

“You are still you, Vamp. Whatever you have suffered, I’ll do what I can to fish you out of there,” she promised.

And maybe one day someone will wade through the marketed, branded, globally sold version of myself, and get me out of that packaging too.

Vamp looked at Val and the look in her eyes, the expression on her face, was heartbreaking. Mixed in with the guilt, the self-loathing, anger, and hate...was hope. Hope that Val could, would, help her.

She threw her arms around the other girl's neck and cried.

***