009 [ Voice ]

[hellionated]

[ So Julian's been gone somewhere close to a week. He finds that out from a newspaper stand. For him it's been a hell of a lot longer than a week, and his head is spinning now. Memories he hadn't known were there are rising to the surface, fitting back into place. Friends, enemies, people from other worlds. Events he'd thought he'd never forget. Skrulls, Vulcanus.

God, this is weird.

And last time he'd been here, he hadn't looked like this.

He's walking through the City, metal hands concealed in his pockets. Every part of this is a mess. His powers are holding the phone to his ear, and there's no video.

He sounds like he's bored. ]

This place has good timing. I was almost in math class.

So I'm back. You can all stop missing me now. Since nothing's in pieces I'm gonna guess no one tried to destroy the place this week. Did I miss anything worth telling?

► 033.

[culver]

[nill has the comm in her hands; the picture is half-obscured by her palm. there's some rustling as she rearranges something in front of her. after a few seconds, she pulls back and squares the camera at a red basket stuffed with all kinds of goodies--candy, cookies, iced tea mix, and all kinds of other wonderful, tasty things. most of them are red in some way. there is also a copy of the princess bride (the book) peeking out from behind a few chocolate-dipped pretzels.

after showing this for a few seconds, nill turns the camera on herself. she's holding a bouquet of red lilies and a card. she smiles widely. her wings flick behind her back.]

Happy Mothers Day Kate. I hope you like it.

[ooc; all of the female teachers at the institute will find little bundles of cookies, chocolate-dipped pretzels, etc. on their desks tomorrow morning. happy mother's day, c&c!]

Day 12 - VOICE

[exceptfebruary]

It is the second Sunday of May.

I wonder how many of you can pay tribute to your mothers in this City? Many of you have probably been separated from your mothers. Even those whose mothers have gone cannot even visit their grave. How many mothers have been torn from their children?

Cards not given, flowers unreceived.

[ Pause. ]

Happy Mother's Day.

☼ 004.

[ecphrasis]

[The light in the morgue is bright; the glare on the comm almost completely obscures the video. But after a few seconds, a small, purple-gloved hand reaches up to turn the lamp to a different angle, removing the glare and revealing the inside of the local morgue. A pair of men’s feet, pale and stiff, are almost at the edge of the table. Luckily, only the subject’s legs are visible for all you kids out there. Molly is on the opposite side of the table, half-inside the shot. She has a mask on her face and a clipboard in her hands. She’s mid-sentence when the recording starts:]

--eaced shows signs of heart and liver failure, reason yet unknown. Blood samples are on their way to--

Poison. I already found the delivery mechanism. [He’s holding up a small bag as he walks on camera, before he tosses it down by the victim’s feet, stepping up to the body and leaning over it with a smile.] Run it through the tox screens, would you? It isn’t the type to be regularly checked for.

[He pauses, finally, and walks off camera, the sound of his heels scraping over the tile floor.]

The new make-up suits you, but you really should just give up dating entirely, Molly.

[The corners of her eyes lift; she’s smiling beneath the mask. She actually reaches up to pull it down before grabbing the bag.]

Wow, thanks. This will really speed things up, Sh-- [And then she hears his remark, and her face falls. Her cheeks flush. She cranes her neck to watch him walk.] Wh-what? What do you mean? Why would you say that?

Floyd. You’ve always had rather disastrous taste, haven’t you. [His voice is muffled for a moment, and his comments aren’t quite clear over the comm’s microphone until he steps back into range, though he’s still out of shot.] -- and those boots, surely. Genuine wachbatallion jack boots - they aren’t even replicas.

[She has completely stopped what she’s doing. There’s a scalpel hanging loosely in her hand, and she’s just staring off-screen, profile to the camera. She clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.]

You--you don’t have any right to--what do his boots have to do with anything? And my taste in men is just fine!

Nazi Germany, is the point. And he’s polished those boots within an inch of their life - it’s hardly meant for collection. It’s a point of pride.

[She has stepped away from the table now, looking completely unsure of what to do or say. But she musters her courage. her brows pull together.]

Sherlock, if you’re going to insult my--insult Pink, then you can just. Wait outside until I finish!

[Sherlock finally steps back into the camera view, up to Molly, hands in his pockets and an amused smirk on his lips.]

Just pointing out the truth. Isn’t that kinder? [He pauses, glancing, and then sees the light on the comm.] Ah-- you’ll want to turn that off, I suspect.

[Molly’s head snaps to face the comm and, seeing it, she struggles to rip off one of her purple surgical gloves before smacking her hand down over the camera. The feed ends.]

VOICE

[thegooddoctor]

There are few things that vary as greatly in their manifestations as a mother's love.

It can be tender. Or punishing. And many other things.

But perhaps narcissistic, most of all.

( ENCRYPTED TO: Katurian Katurian. )

46th course [video]

[notadartboard]

[see Sanji. See Sanji puffing away on a cigarette, comm in one hand, a cat in the other.

...it's a very cute cat, mind you, but it's just sort of under his arm at the moment]

Dammit. I had a bad feeling about that.

Looks like the monkey - I mean Goku - is gone. His damn cat kept coming around to my door looking to be fed. I was going to come give him a piece of my mind for not feeding it but...

[pause. Furious smoking]

On the plus side, I have a surplus of food now. Anyone want to have a picnic at the MAC?

And somebody come take care of this thing. I hate cats.

∮ 001.

[elongates]

[ the video opens to reed intently adjusting the settings of an electron microscope in a spacious, empty laboratory, arm stretching and looping to hold the communicator at a wide angle. the lighting around him is perfect, flattering: very clean and deliberate, staged and sterile.

and he turns toward the video, flashing a sheepish smile. ]

God, I've been so lucky to have had a benefactor lend me their lab so soon after I stepped in here. Hey, everyone. [ he laughs, waving awkwardly. ] Sorry that I've been too busy to introduce myself before now. It's been a few days.

I'm sure a lot of you don't know who I am. That's okay. It's Reed Richards.

[ his neck lengthens away from his shoulders, holding his head above the camera, looking down upon the video. the audience. ] All you need to know is that I'm here to help bring a better tomorrow for this universe's children, today. I can only hope most of you are with me.

I don't know what I'd have to resort to if you're not.

video

[breakyou]

[ The video feed exposes an imposing sight: it reveals a man heavy with muscle and he's dressed to expose plenty of it. He begins to address the camera and his speech is accented, but not thickly; it's merely a rumbling undercurrent to his low voice which offers perfect English. ]

Tell me, who owns this City? [ His face forms a frown. ] If one may indeed call it such. I recognize when I am imprisoned; incarceration was my entire life. The bars may be wide apart, jailers out of sight, but it is a cage nonetheless. Who, I should say, owns this prison? Does any one man lay claim?

If not, that soon may change. I have made my domain, my home, in worse condition.

[ There's a beat, and pause that is pensive rather than hesitating, before he continues. ]

When I was summoned here, I was called hero, and I will take that as an invitation.

You may call me Bane.

I believe we will grow familiar very soon.

x-factor investigations starts off with some great PR

[entertaining]

-- unbelievable.

[ there's the sound of clattering as the video comes on, like someone knocked the communicator over but is obviously too preoccupied to notice. even though there's only a crooked view of someone's feet, rictor's voice is raised and clearly audible. ]

What part of this did you think I'd be okay with, exactly? Or weren't you thinking about me at all?

I do not know. [shatterstar sounds defensive, but like he's rather missing the point:] Why would this upset you? You were not here.

Why would it upset me? [ there's a tone of incredulity in rictor's voice. ] Oh, wait. That's right. You wouldn't understand because you have no concept of what it feels like to only want to be with one person.

When I was not in your dimension, you were with others. How is this different? [a beat, heatedly:] And you also wish to be with Rahne.

Rahne is different. I thought she was pregnant with my -- [ hhurghh. ] That's not the point.

[ the camera starts to get unsteady, trembling a little at first, then more as rictor continues to raise his voice. ]

This isn't about me and her. It's about us, or if there even is an us at all --

Of course there is an- [and then, when the shaking becomes too intense to ignore-] Rictor? Julio!

What? [ the whole building lurches one more time.







then stops. because he stops. he realizes. dead silent and still for a long moment. ]

...That was me.

[END FEED]

1818 - voice - A typhoon blows back into town

[plantpacifist]

This place AGAIN? I swear I hadn't been back home for more than ten minutes! Oh, Rem, why are the gods of misfortune and poverty always just a step behind me?!! [Whine, whine, whine.] Always I just try to do the right thing but every time it turns into a disaster! And then I get spirited away by some kind of demon computer to this bizarro Earth where total ecological collapse is a matter of decades and not centuries! I musta been real evil in a past life to deserve this!!

So ANYWAY. [Suddenly serious.] Ten minutes ago it was fall, now I look around and it's springtime. I know the Porter doesn't handle time in a sane, logical way. [Sigh.] How long have I been gone this time?

001 | New Locations (video)

[nutritionalexpert]

[hello there, network. here's a twentyish, smallish, scraggly looking dude. completely normal looking, apart from the fact that he's pretty much covered in drying blood. he doesn't act like this is a big deal, though.] Hello out there, HYBRIDS. We've got something of a... Well, we've got a special episode for you today. I do, anyway.

Okay, so I guess I'm-- I'm pulling a Vince, here, since he's not around to record this for me. I think this like, uploads straight to youtube, or something? I only screwed around with it long enough to find the video settings, because I really need... Well, just fucking look at this.

[the camera pans around at a busy manhattan intersection, and up at shiny manhattan skyscrapers, before settling back on evan's face. it looks unimpressed.]

So yeah, you'd think this was probably New York, right? I mean, I've watched Friends -- don't you fuckin' judge me, it was what was on after school -- and I know what a goddam cab looks like. I figure this pretty much has to be New York.

There's a little problem with that, though! [he taps a finger against the side of his nose, and laughs, perhaps trying to sound knowing. it comes off as just a fraction unhinged, however.]

Here's the problem-- the problem with that. Last I checked, I was passed out in the back of Jeff's car.

So, I guess, what I'm going to do here is just keep on... Keep on recording until whatever this bullshit is gets, gets sorted out. I don't even know if I have enough it my goddam wallet to take a fucking bus back South.

(VIDEO.)

[ioudas]

(back in the porter room again, here we are. cross is standing in a very nice black suit with red trimming and a gold insignia and even more gold ornaments on his chest. but rather looking the regal general that he should, his hair is in complete disarray, lipstick on his cheek, lips and collar and there's a very expensive bottle of romanee conti on his hand.)

Right, so I was at a conference in Rome regarding - stuff, and there was a very well not fun. So, thank you very much Porter for taking me away but really, she really needs to work on her timing. Don't say that anyone has seen a brunette wearing a suit in the uh, same condition I am?

(a beat:)

Everyone's still here, right? I haven't disappeared for a thousand years and come back to learn that the Earth has been concurred by lemmings or something. Jesus Christ, this is the worst, I'm not drunk enough for this.