Logs:Blockbuster Video and Mutant Refuge

Blockbuster Video and Mutant Refuge
Dramatis Personae Astrid, Cassy, K.C., Lael, Naomi
In Absentia	2020-11-23 "You mind control the cameras too?"
Location Across the Rift - Blockbuster Video, Bangor, Maine
Light is just starting to spill into the abandoned building through minuscule cracks and holes in the boarded up windows, signifying the beginning of a new day. Astrid has been awake for what feels like many hours, but in truth she’s just been stuck in a pattern of very short periods of slumber then being jarred awake by a combination of anxiety and extreme discomfort. How could anyone sleep with what just happened? Plus it’s freezing. Sitting up, she pulls both hands close to her mouth, breathing warm air across them. It doesn’t provide much warmth, but the misty cloud that surrounds both balled up fists is a short-lived distraction. She looks around for any others signs of life stirring and grips her jacket, pulling it closer. She’s dressed for the type of cold at home, but not this. Dressed in her usual black beanie and black hoodie, she’s added a brown raincoat as a second layer. Both hoods have been pulled up and her jeans for once aren’t ripped. With just canvas vans and light socks, her feet feel frozen. Cassy is yet again discovering that maybe her outfits should be a little more practical. Ever keen to show off she'd been at the previous nights gathering dressed to perform. A jacket filled with hidden pockets for magic tricks over some layered mesh t-shirts. Plus tights & some short shorts. And gosh has the cold made her miserable. Enough that she seriously considered not trying her best to do her usual make-up routine. Vanity however won out. So she's trying as best she can to make herself useful. Listening for potential danger. Police sirens. Killer robots. Angry mobs. Thankfully this involves a lot of pacing back and forth. With her hands wrapped up with her new improvised weapon! Multi-coloured silk scarves, re-sewn into a rope for a magic trick, knotted around a rock at one end. It's probably serving her better as wrapped around her hands for warmth than it will for hitting people. There is a rustling from what was once the back entrance and break room as Naomi returns, fingers curled around plastic bags. She dumps her haul out near where someone (though she cannot for the life of her remember who) has left some sort of breakfast assemblage. “Good morning,” she says in a low voice, just generally to the occupants of the Bangor Blockbuster Video and Dimensionally Displaced Persons Camp. “Phone chargers. SIM cards. Hand warmers.” Some other things in this pile too - Advil, a road map, some ear plugs. She pulls the hood off her head, sheds her brother’s jacket and returns it to his spot on the floor. Spotting Astrid, Naomi grabs one of the hand warmers and tosses it to her. “We ain’t dressed right for this, huh?” Astrid spots the pacing teen and slowly rises to her feet. She hesitates, removing her glasses to get easier access to rubbing her groggy eyes. Once her glasses are back in place, she catches sight of Naomi having recently arrived with bags of recently acquired goods. “Morning.” She echoes back, still sounding half asleep. It’s a miracle she actually catches the tossed hand warmer. “Why couldn’t this world's blockbuster be an outdoor clothing store?” She tries to inject some levity into their situation. “Guess blockbusters suck no matter what world you live in.” The hand warmer is briefly shoved into her jean pocket as she motions for Cassy to head toward the table with food, electronics and medicine. She starts to remove her raincoat, letting it drape over her left arm. It's probably a good thing Cassy could hear Naomi coming. As she doesn't take a swing with her rainbow silk flail despite being a twitchy nervous mess. "If it was they'd have sold all the stock when it shut," she points out glumly. "How does anyone live in this weather? It's unnatural." She shuffles over to where Astrid is motioning. "Did you.. ah.. get toilet paper? I'm not sure if the bathroom here will have enough for when everyone.. ah.. needs it." She looks at the pile of things and winces. "But thanks for risking a supply run. It must have been pretty terrifying going out there when everything is.. the worst." K.C. has been across the room engaged in somewhat intense conversation with Marcus and Lael, but Naomi's arrival pulls her away to beeline towards the girls. She snatches the plastic bag up quickly, digging the SIM cards out of it. "Yes. Sure. Thanks. Good. Risk. Very brave." Her voice is, as always, a flat monotone, but the sharpness of her motions as she begins to tear them out of their packages, snap the tiny cards in half, is unmistakeable. "We're going. Need to move." "Aw shit I should have gotten TP - wait what are you-“ Naomi tries to snatch some of the SIM cards out of K.C.’s hands, fails, stares at her wide-eyed. “Shit, what are you doing what’s happening?” Her eyes flicker into an emerald green, then back to just normal green, in her panic. “I wasn’t followed I made sure nobody followed me!” Lael follows K.C. over precipitously, his hair twisting fast and agitated, his face ashen but carefully schooled to something like calm at least for the moment. "I ain't sure there's time for 'splainin'." Though he glances at K.C. His voice is tight when he adds, "There's Sentinels comin'." He stoops to pick up his jacket and holds it out for Naomi. "Thank God you came back safe, but don't you never run off alone again." Astrid holds out her left arm, offering the rain coat to Cassy. “Here, it looks like you could use this more than me.” She tries to force out a soft smile, but it comes out twisted and closer to a grimace. Her attention is suddenly snapped to K.C., who darts over and starts pulling out the SIM cards, snapping them in half. She watches, dumb founded by what is happening, bit isn’t quick enough to intervene. Her lips start to part, as if she’s going to say something, but are quickly shut closed as her eyes dart between Lael, K.C. and Naomi. The word sentinel strikes a visible nerve. Cassy slips her own jacket off and offers it to Astrid. "We'll swap? Can't have you freezing on me either." She doesn't wait for a reply before gratefully putting on the coat. "We can always share when it gets cold at night." "Summary? CCTV, bad-guys, trackable sim cards. Killer robots.. that's about it right?" She stuffs the silk scarves & attached rock into Astrids coat pocket. "I can't hear anything coming just yet. But I'm not exactly an expert on what they sound like flying.. So lets try be a long way away!" If Astrid does accept Cassy's jacket there is a fair chance playing cards may occasionally fall out at random. Or the magic wand that turns into a bunch of paper roses. All extremely useful items in an extreme situation... "Brilliant. Good job." K.C. gives Naomi a thumbs up. "You mind control the cameras too?" She dusts her hands off over the pile of plastic detritus, fingers snapping and twitching in the air after. "Getting close. Fifteen people to move." She doesn't say anything else after this -- doesn't look at the others anymore. Just darts back across the room to Marcus again. "Shit." The full weight of what she brought down on her classmates is hitting her like a truck. Naomi takes the jacket back from Lael - who can certainly hear the panic mixed with self-disparagement boiling over in her mind. Grabs the plastic bags, grabs food, stuffing her pockets. "How long we got?" The memory of this mornings ill-advised adventure is at the forefront now as Naomi tries desperately to recall any escape route. A dirt ATV trail into the woods sticks out. To Astrid and Cassy - "Flirt later. Pack up now." Eyes normal, for the moment. Lael shakes his head. "That was a reckless damn fool thing to do an' you got to listen to me from here on out," his voice is quiet, but his grip is firm where he takes hold of his sister's shoulder. "Or you're gonna get us all killed." His calm is starting to fail him, his breathing faster. "They ain't found us yet, but they're lookin'. Best get everyone ready." He gives Naomi's shoulders a hard squeeze before hurrying off to speak to other knots of their schoolmates scattered around the store. Astrid takes the offered jacket and quickly slips it on while a single playing card falls out of the right sleeve. She forces a smile but remains silent only mouthing a thanks. She starts grabbing stuff from the table as dictated and shoves them into her hoodie pockets underneath her coat. Her movements have a frantic energy and a couple items slip from her hands dropping to the floor. “Crap.” She mutters, bending down to pick them back up. “Someone is keeping an eye out… or mind… Whatever it is to keep track of them, right?” She says to no one in particular. Her eyes keep nervously looking over at the boarded windows, as if the front of the store is the only possible direction a sentinel would come. Cassy rolls her eyes at Naomi. "As a performer I can do both at the same time," she points out, stuffing the other jacket pockets with things. "Do we know if they'll be able to recognize the clothes she was wearing? If we pass a charity clothing drop off points we could take a few things to disguise anyone who might have been on camera." A shrug. "Don't know if misdirection will work but it can't hurt can it?" She frowns with concentration. "Wait can a Sentinel fly supersonic? If it can I won't even hear it... shit." Across the room, K.C.'s conversation has paused. Her eyes have fixed -- not on the windows but a point on the wall. Her head shakes a moment later. "One around the corner," she announces, to everyone and nobody in particular. "Stay quiet. Be ready." Though her voice has not shifted its usual flat tone, her eyes are huge, wide, her posture tense and a little shaky. Naomi just nods, swallowing down whatever she was about to say to Lael. She shakes, slightly, curls her fingers around the plastic loops in her hand. “K.C.? or Lael. Marcus. They’re watching.” Her breathing is speeding up, glares at Cassy with displaced anger. “Can you - can you be serious? Please?” K.C.’s instruction comes over Naomi’s request - the command is repeated with Naomi’s eyes glowing emerald green. “Everyone shut up. Get your shit. We’re leaving. Out the back.” Astrid’s gaze falls towards the spot K.C.’s eyes are fixed on, initially remaining still. There is a sudden urge to grab more of the stuff from the table and shove what she can into the various little pockets on her jacket. Another playing card falls loose and ends up on the floor. She hesitates for a second and looks between all the kids gathering their stuff before her eyes settle on Cassy. She gives her a quick nod, motioning toward the back door before heading there herself. There is no hesitation as she immediately reaches for the handle, pulls the door open and steps outside. Cassy doesn't seem to be paying much attention when Naomi says be serious. Her brow furrowed as a few moments after K.C.'s warning she's picking up the pitter-patter of approaching metal feet. Serious advance warning system business! Of course by the time she's about to say something she can't. So instead she points in the Sentinels direction with one hand and tries to mime a spider-like motion with the fingers on her other hand. Presumably she means evil robots that way. Or she's located an exotic pet store... She nods at Astrid and ducks to scoop up the playing card on her way out. Better not leave any evidence like finger prints that might lead back to this worlds her right? Naomi's eyes stay green, glowing, wide and watchful as everyone - everyone - heeds her and goes to the door. Her breathing is choppy now, but the glow and accompanying psionic directive fade as the last of them speed out the back door. She swallows, hard, pulling her hood down over her forehead before darting out herself.