Cometeers of Viking Bay: Issue 2 IC

[Sakuro]

Steven Mason
HP: 2
Cnd: Healthy
Loc: Museum


Steven tended to pay more attention to the other people taking a look at the comet exhibit. He'd seen and experienced personally some of what the displays were showing, so he wasn't all that curious about them. Except whether they were in a positive, negative, or purely professional ad analytical light. That sort of thing told you how people were taking the events and rise of cometeers. Which was mainly what Steven was curious about: public opinion. He did loiter over some of the displays concerning cometeers he wasn't familiar with. Viking Bay was a small town, and he expected to see plenty of oddities elsewhere.

[cobalt-blue]

BOBBY JAYMIE, STEVEN, AND MARK
Bobby, Alanis, and Shelby enjoyed the rest of their rather high priced meal, sharing each other's company and simply a group of friends out for the day, much of the earlier concerns were forgotten. As they left the restaurant and headed toward museum, they saw Jaymie and Mark heading in their direction, the duo having taken care of whatever non-family viewing friendly activities were.

Steven on the other hand had gotten so wrapped up in the video of the comet strike that he'd lost track of time. Were those wisps of blackness following the figure that struck the comet? Why did they seem to have tiny wings? The detail of the video was better than he'd expected. It looked like the museum had spent a great deal of time cleaning it up.

Steve remembered that the video had been taken by someone with a simple digital camera capable of taking video so it had always been rather pixelated. However this was crisp and clear. Somebody had gone to considerable lengths to clean up the video.

He was so caught up in the video that he did not realize how much time had passed until he spotted Jaymie, and Mark, plus Alanis, Shelby and Bobby all standing at the kiosk next to him. Looking down at his watch, he realized that he'd lost nearly an hour.


SEBASTIAN
As the teen genius studied the diagram, he became more and entranced with its complexity.

(Perception roll please)

He was learning far more from it than he felt comfortable knowing. He started identifying particular sequences- sequences that lined up with some viral rewrite that was introduced. Sometimes the changes were beneficial. Sometimes they would result in death. Most of the time they just got weird.

In the back ground his computer still seemed to hum. He briefly wondered if the fan on the hard drive or his video card was going out. It didn't seem to bad right now though. It wasn't hot or anything.

Make two science rolls and a technology roll.

[Arkrite]

Bobby
Location: the museum
Status: Normal
HP: 2

Bobby couldn't help but notice how many people he knew had shown up at the museum. His "somebody's pulling some kind of crazy nonsense" sense was tingling and he couldn't help but wonder who was up to what this time.

Of course maybe this was all just some kind of innocent coincidence and he was just really paranoid.

It was just so hard to put it down to paranoia when most of the time things were really out to get you. He made a note to run screaming like a girl if the football team showed up, then did his best to ignore the rest of the world while he read the plaque on the kiosk.

"You know, I think I liked it better when it was all fuzzy," Bobby notes, "It looked less George Lucas and more like that Bigfoot sighting video."

[Israfil]

Perception Check: 1d20+8=18
Expertise (Science #1): 1d20+14=25
Expertise (Science #2): 1d20+14=20
Technology Check: 1d20+15=25

Hmm, neither are bad, however not too extraordinary either. Burning a HP to reroll-
Expertise (Science #2): 1d20+14=22; add 10 and that's 32.

Also, I might be away from a computer this weekend as a heads up. Don't wait up for me if I don't post.

[Sakuro]

Steven Mason
HP: 2
Cnd: Healthy
Loc: Museum


Steven shook his head after checking the time. He didn't even remember coming over to this display. It was one of those he didn't have much interest in. Why the heck was he watching it for an hour? Something was off. Way off. Was there some kind of weird hypnosis going on. Arching an eyebrow at his own musings Steven looked around at the people nearby, checking them out to see if anyone seemed to be in a weird staring daze ... or watched it for longer than would seem normal.

Yeah, he noticed the other people he knew from Viking Bay showing up. While keeping an eye on the folks viewing the video Steven made his way over to Shelby. He gave Alanis and Bobby a polite nod, but it was Shelby he was after. Looping an arm around the guy's shoulders in an expressio of familiarity and companionship he smiled.

"Hey buddy. Mind if I borrow your brain for a few? There's something weird going down here."

[Hound]

Mark Swanson
HP: 3

Mark held Jaymie's hand tightly, less than an hour ago she had told him a very important secret. Understandably Mark had been shaken when he heard the news, but it didn't change how he saw her. She was the same person he had fallen in love with. That didn't change. So Mark re-expressed his love for her, and comforted her. He knew how terrifying it must have been to tell him.

Mark had his own secret, something that was silly by comparison. He had shown her his inhaler, and admitted that he had been hiding his asthma most of his life because he was afraid of looking like a geeky loser.

Of course she had laughed at him and told him he was an idiot for thinking she would care about something like that. She was a good person. Better than Mark could have ever hoped for.

~~~

Steven seemed weirded out when the group met up with him. Or was that curiosity? Steven was a hard guy to read for Mark. He called over Shelby and asked him to figure something out. This peeked Mark's own curiosity, though he was a little annoyed to not be asked. His grades were fairly close to Shelby's after all...

"What's up Steven?" Mark asked trying to act casual.

[Sakuro]

Steven Mason
HP: 2
Cnd: Healthy
Loc: Museum


"A freaky video that's melting people's brains, that's what's up!"

Steven exclaimed when he heard Mark's inquiry. Not an ounce of subtly present. He blinked though and looked away from Shelby, his eyes seeking out the source of the voice and finding Mark.

"Oh, hey man. Ah ... why don't we talk this over in private. Bobby doesn't like this sort of thing."

Dropping the arm that hand been around Shelby Steven pointed his thumb away from Bobby and Alanis. quick smile was cast in their direction to show he was actually making an effort to keep Bobby clear of the very thing he had wanted to from day one of their meeting.

[cobalt-blue]

SEBASTIAN
From the best that Sebastian could tell, something was rewriting certain human genetic material into some pretty weird stuff. It seems to target human only genetics but it's damn sophisticated. Some of it reminded him of a computer code with certain lines left out. It was like it was running the code part way, coming to the break in the lines and rebooting. Based on the spectra-analysis of the comet itself, there are some compounds and elements present unknown to modern science. And they've been suspended in Earth's atmosphere for several months now.

MARK, STEVEN, BOBBY, AND JAYMIE
Shelby looked back toward Bobby and Alanis nervously, then sighed and followed Steve. "What is it?" he asked, his voice betraying just a bit of trepidation at the thought of being "guided" away from his friends. For some reason, he really wished Sebastian was here.

[Israfil]

Sebastian
HP: 1
Location: Home
Condition: Normal

What Sebastian was staring at was way more than sophisticated, it was elegant. So much in fact, that it required some music to go along with it. He unlatched the violin case and rested the instrument on his shoulder. Drawing a deep breath he brought the bow across the strings, the vibrations filling the air with a sweet sound.

At the same time he was reviewing the screen on his computer. These elemental compounds were nothing he had ever seen before, and it was beautiful, but Sebastian had to remind himself that they were also dangerous. After all, that's what gave all these people powers, and they were still floating in near-space.

But aside from all of that, who had given him the drive in the first place? What did they want to accomplish by having him see this? What did they think he could accomplish?

[Sakuro]

Steven Mason
HP: 2
Cnd: Healthy
Loc: Museum


Yeah, Sebastian was never around when you needed him. Or at least it seemed that way lately. But Steven didn't seem to be settling. Two brain-boys instead of one wasn't a bad deal. Once they were a discrete distance from Bobby and Alanis Steven tilted his head towards the display depicting the comet being blown apart by some black ... thing.

"That display over there ... Don't look at it! You might get sucked in. That display, well, there's something off about it. I wound up staring at it for an hour and I don't even remember going over to it."

[Arkrite]

Bobby
Location: the museum
Status: Normal
HP: 2

Bobby crosses his arms and watched as Shelby walked off to talk with Steven.

All in all it made him look nearly as intimidating as the cheerleader standing beside him.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Steven, it was just that the first time they'd met he'd come to the conclusion that Bruce needed to have the crap kicked out of him based on rumors. Admittedly he'd been right on that one, but if he was that easy to send off on a tangent... Actually, Bobby had to note it was that he didn't trust Steven.

He didn't seem like a terrible person, but he did seem impulsive. And almost everything he did seemed to draw attention and that sent up red flags as far as Bobby was concerned. It was just something he didn't want to get too close to.

Especally if he wanted to keep his own secrets out of sight.

[Hound]

Mark Swanson
HP: 3

Mark's left eyebrow raised in disbelief, "Normally I would laugh at someone saying such a thing, and claim they just lost track of time... but considering what we've seen so far... I think you words of caution may be worth listening to. Tell us exactly what happened."

[Sakuro]

Steven Mason
HP: 2
Cnd: Healthy
Loc: Museum


"I walked in, looked around. Then I pass by the display not really caring all that much; why would I? I've seen the same video a hundred times. Anyway next I know I'm gawking at it and when I check my watch I see an hour has passed."

Steven threw up his hands, befuddled by the entire thing. After the expressive gesture the mused a bit, thinking over what he could add.

"... the video was cleaned up a lot though. I mean a LOT. You know that black blur that hit the comet? Well, it looks like tiny little things with wings were following it."

[CelticREI]

Jaymie
Location: Museum Exhibit
Condition: aloof
HP: 1


The blonde haired shapeshifter nodded absently to Steven, looking closely at the video in question "Yeah... it -is- a lot more clean-like video... almost like it wasn't the original footage even..." she said while staring at the screen.
Everyone had seen Jaymie come in with Mark, maybe looking slightly cling-y to him, but nothing too unordinary, but she had snuck away to look at the video it seems as Steven spoke of it.

[Israfil]

Sebastian
HP: 1
Location: Museum
Condition: Normal

After awhile Seb gave the bow a break, and satisfied himself by plucking at the strings of his instrument. He knew he should give his brain and body a rest, after all, he had been up for the better part of 24 hours. But it just wouldn't take.

From his desk drawer he withdrew a bunch of sheet music that his teacher had given him to look over for practice. Of course, he had no need of practice, one time was enough, but what it did give him was a chance to put his own spin on classics, like Bartók's Sonata. Seb actually didn't like sonatas very much, so he attempted to adjust the old piece to less staccato-y and more legato-like; essentially a rewrite.

That's when it hit him like a sack of bricks. It might be an experiment, a rewrite, the human genetic code was the music and the comet the pen. Someone might purposefully be trying to put their own spin on the human race...

***

Sebastian was on the road to Liberty City for the second time in a day, and on full alert. He had to go to the museum and see the exhibit on display; somewhere there had to be a clue to find out whom the composer of this piece was.

Storming into the building, he easily spotted the Cometeers of Viking Bay next to the array of comet speculation. Some were deep in discussion, while others were trying their damnedest to not get involved, and even one who seemed to be not so much staring at a screen, but through it.

"Consider being caution around the comet, my colorful coterie. This carbonous mass can cunningly clasps one's concentration, I cognize." He tried to jerk Jaymie away from the video.

"Tell me what you've all noticed."