ArchivedLogs:Stranger Things

Stranger Things
Dramatis Personae Ducky, Sebastian
In Absentia	2014-02-04 Part of Morpheus TP. (Takes place some time after talking to Jax.)
Location <XS> Workshop
A large barn-like building situated at the far end of the gardens from the mansion proper, this makerspace functions as a classroom for many of the more hands-on classes. An expanse of workshop space, it is subdivided into smaller segments for the different types of activities: Woodshop, Welding shop, Machine shop, Electronics, Bike shop, Screen Printing and Photography, Fabric Arts, and the Rapid Prototyping Lab with a trio of 3D printers. The space comes complete with a large host of tools available for use, although many of the more dangerous require prior clearance from administration to use -- students with appropriate clearance to use them can gain access to locked equipment with their student IDs. From sanders to MIG/TIG welders to soldering stations to industrial sewing machines to its own darkroom, though, this space is well equipped for teaching students how to /make/. It's quiet in the Workshop after school, most of the students too busy outside enjoying /chocolate rain/ to be thinking much about this sort of activity. /Most/ of the students -- but here tucked at one of the tables is a tiny blue sharktwin, dressed blandly in dark cargo pants, dark hiking boots, forest green henley shirt with sleeves pushed up over his skinny elbows. On the table in front of him is a small round trackball-like object which is currently projecting a cross-section image of a car; beside it, a hovering window is full of lines of code that he is frowning at. Scrolling through by actually swiping through the window in midair, typing on the also-holographic keyboard that moves with him when he rotates between various windows and diagrams before him. It's not, evidently, what he's /been/ working on in here all this while; there is, half-disemboweled on the table in front of him, a small metal carp with some of its innards spread out on the table. But there's also his phone. With emails. SOMETIMES work calls. Classes sure would have been interesting, had Ducky attended them today. The flighty young woman was absent from every class today, not even making it to her art classes or lunch; she emerges from the woods, making a bee-line for the workshop. As she enters the little building, she is folding up a large bright yellow umbrella that looks, unsurprisingly, like a giant rubber ducky face, shaking her hiking boots to remove the chocolate mud from them. Dressed casually, she wears a pair of worn jeans and a gray school hoodie, her short hair even more mussed up than it normally is. She has a small black computer bag, wrapped protectively in a clear plastic bag, clutched gingerly to her chest, and she takes a moment to check to make sure it is no more damaged than it already was before moving further inside. "S... Sebastian? Are you in here?" she asks meekly, shuffling forward and spying the young man, the rest spilling out in a stream of consciousness, "I kinda have a favor to ask. It's kinda important, or, um, I think it's important, and your dad suggested I talk to you, and you're one of the smartest people I know, and I trust you, so I wanted to bring this to you." Taking a deep breath, she holds out the bundled up package, carefully, as though it would explain everything. "That umbrella is a duck." Sebastian blinks his enormous eyes a couple times when he looks up, first one clear set of lids and then the other in rapid succession. "Um -- ohright, hi." His cheeks tint darker, and he rearranges a few of his windows so that he can see Ducky better without having to look /through/ the holograms at her. "Hi. Hi, right, hi -- what's -- that?" He stretches up higher on his stool, heels braced against a rung of it to lever himself taller and peer over at the package. In confusion, apparently he hasn't really felt anything has been properly explained yet. "Wait, my Pa? Everyone keeps talking to me about him today, is something wrong?" For a moment his gills flutter, palms bracing against the edge of the table before he lifts them to reach out towards Ducky uncertainly, tipping his hands up to extend for the package. Ducky tilts her head and glances back towards the umbrella, grinning lopsidedly, "Yeah, it was cute, and they had a bunch of them at the thrift store. Also had galoshes and raincaots that matched, but they're too little for me, so I could only really get the umbrella. Also had frogs and lady bugs, but, um, I'm kinda partial to ducks. For obvious reasons?" She takes a deep breath and shakes her head, "No, nothing's wrong. 'Cept the chocolate rain. Which if you haven't been outside, you totally should, it is really tasty. The clouds tasted better though." Says the wingless, flightless bird-girl. Blinking a few times at the holograms, Ducky gingerly sets the package into Sebastian's hands. "Your dad's fine. He's my advisor, and well, also I trust him, and I know he cares about Horus too, so I went to him first, because I wanted to find out what I should do, because stuff like this doesn't happen. I mean, it was a dream, but Horus was there. I swear he was there. He was there, and we were flying and I had robot wings. But he was there." Taking another deep breath, she bounces, pulling a feather gently from the pocket of her hoodie - it's a brown one, with a smattering of white speckles on it, which she pets gently, as though making sure it was still there. "That's his tablet. It's broken - the screen is broken, it looks like it got dropped, maybe? But... but I was hoping you could fix it, or get it to turn on, or... or maybe get data off of it? Maybe he was taking notes, or there's location data... or something?" he babbling takes a pleading tone, and she eyes the package, chewing on her lower lip to keep herself from babbling more. "Peter has a froggy umbrella!" Sebastian says with sudden cheer. "Some woman just randomly gave it to him. You two should find someone with a ladybug one and get together for a picture it'd be cute." He trails off, though, at the rest of Ducky's explanation, brows slooowly coming closer and closer together to knit together in a deeply puzzled frown. "Wo-o-o-oah. Can -- can you just. Um, um, can you -- back up? I don't -- /Horus/?" His gills flutter, slow and then faster. "I don't understand, /where's/ Horus? I mean, where did --" His fingers brush slowly against the tablet, and he leans forward to /sniff/ the feather rather than look at it. His breath /catches/, a soft hitch of an almost-sob as his eyes open wide. "Wait, but how -- that happened in a /dream/?" Now he turns the tablet over, slow and careful as he examimes it, teeth pressing down gently against his lip. "I don't -- think I understand. You got this from Horus in a dream?" Ducky looks frustrated, ruffling her hair, before holding onto the feather again, focusing on that, "I don't /know/ where he is. He... he stopped answering my texts back in November, and I know no one has heard from him, and I've been scared that he might be... might..." Her voice trails off, and she sniffles, scrubbing at one of her eyes with the back of her hand, "But.... but this dream. It was /different/. I've had flying dreams, I've had dreams where he's there, but it's just barely. Not talking to me, not letting me see him. Avoiding me." She hugs herself, eyes lingering on the tablet as Sebastian holds it now, "But this? He was /there/. I know it was him. I know it. We were flying together, and got to nest in the clouds that were made of chocolate mousse, and it was the first happy dream I've had in so long. But... it was different. That was him." She sniffles, holding out the feather, but not willing to give it up entirely - it probably smells a bit like her, mingled with him, as she has been handling it all day. "When I woke up, the tablet was there, like that, on my nightstand. With the feather on it. And it was raining - the... the chocolate rain is my fault, I guess." She pets the feather gingerly, "But... it's a real tablet, right? I mean... if it's his. We can maybe find him with it?" Her voice is quavering, but has an edge of questioning hope to it, as she looks at Sebastian. "I think we've all been kind of scared that he might -- I mean, between the zombies and -- everything." Sebastian sits down heavily on the stool, his gills still fluttering rapidly. "I just. Um. Wow, I don't. How does that even work it doesn't make /sense/ I mean you can't just /make/ a -- /his/ tablet out of a --" His cheeks puff out, eyes locking down on the screen. He turns the tablet over and over and over in his hands. "It /looks/ real," he finally acceeds, a little grudgingly. "But I won't know until I fix it up if there's any actual -- anything on it. If it even works. Or has any actual data on it. I mean even if it's real maybe it was never his. Just blank, you know? But I'll do the best I can, okay? And maybe -- maybe it /is/. Really his. Maybe it was wherever he was and. I don't know this whole thing makes about as much sense as --" He looks over towards the window, nose wrinkling. "Chocolate rain." Ducky nods slowly, "S'alotta people that are lost and no easily found, and I know I'm not the only one who has been worrying about him. But... but if this might help find him, maybe? It's worth a shot, I mean. Does it, um, does it actually smell like him? I tried not to handle it too much, the glass is kinda sharp in a few places 'cause it broke. And I was scared that I'd make it worse." She sighs, ruffling her hair nervously and glancing out towards the rain, "I know it doesn't make sense. None of this does. But I woke up the other day in a Hawkgirl costume. And then it was all pretty and colorful the other day, and now chocolate rain." She may have been seen attending class in it the day the costumes appeared. "But sometimes things don't make sense at first glance, which is why I brought it to you, because you're better at making sense of stuff than I am," Ducky runs her hand through her hair, tugging at the back anxiously, "I know you're really busy, but this is worth a try, maybe? I mean, stranger things have happened." She's a bit at loss to name them, but there has to be something out there. "It smells like him." Sebastian confirms this quietly. "When Pa was in jail, Ba dreamed up a dragonfly that -- smelled like /him/, too. Even though there was no way he could have -- touched it either. So it -- I mean, none of this makes. Sense so." His mouth curls up into a quick small smile, closed-lipped and shy. He sniffs at the feather again, then settles back on his stool. "-- Stranger things? Like wh --" His nose wrinkles up. "/Maybe/ zombies," he allows. Then giggles, tiny-small with his fingertips touching over his lips. "Maybe /all/ of us." "He mentioned that this morning. And that there were other people who were finding people who they thought were gone, or haven't seen forever, or something like that," Ducky says quietly, ruffling her hair, "I just know some of this stuff seems to kinda vanish. Some kids are missing their costumes already, but I still have mine. I dunno what makes them stick around, but I'm scared this stuff is gonna go away too." Her grip tightens around the quill of the feather as she speaks, "So that's why I brought it to you. Because you're Horus's friend. And maybe because you care it'll stay around longer, and be able to see if there's anything to it but looking like a busted tablet." When Sebastian starts to question the stranger things, Ducky shrugs, grinning and giggling, "I talk to birds, you talk to fish, there's odd stuff out there. We're at a school for mutants with at least two blue fuzzy teachers. I like strange. It's normal." "Fish have /nothing/ interesting to say," Sebastian laments, with a heavy sigh. "It's all, "Food? Food? Foodfoodfood? Swim away! Aah! Aah! Shark! Sex? Food? Aaah! All day long." But this comes with another tiny giggle, too. Carefully, he nudges aside his disassembled fishbot, collapsing all his holographic windows and shutting off his projector for now to clear a space for the tablet. "If there's even a chance it might disappear I better get to work. I'll text you if I get it working, 'kay?" "Spring /sucks/. Birds are among the most vulgar creatures in the spring. Birdsong - so not pretty when you know the lyrics. It puts some pop music to shame," Ducky sighs, grinning, "All day, morning, afternoon, and then at night a whole new group starts. Gah. But some of them are really interesting to talk to lately, which is kinda nice." When he agrees to work on the tablet, Ducky bounces, looking like she might try to hug him, but refraining, "Thank you. Thank you so so much. I'll let you work on that now, though, so I'll leave you alone now, cause otherwise I'll probably stay and chatter and stuff. Which isn't helpful. But you're helpful. So thank you," she bounces, stepping back towards the door, grinning.