Waiting For Rain IC: Spring Slowly Comes

[Thanqol]

It was at this exact moment that a scream of horror came from the house. A girl, Michael's sister, was standing in the doorway, staring out at the three-way melee in her back yard.

Michael Greene was swinging his arm around to crush the side of Jon's head when Isabelle tackled into him, tangling the three together, momentarily turning everything into the confusion of a desperate wrestling match. Greene punched, bit, and kicked, doing everything to inflict as much pain as possible which could hopefully let him escape.

There was the sound of a car door slamming, a policeman yelling, feet running.

There were maybe eight seconds before everything went terribly, terribly wrong.

[the_druid_droid]

Things had gone from bad to worse in the space of a heartbeat. Jon had just caught sight of the rock, and then Isabelle was on them, even as he was raising his own arms to try and fend off the attack. Together, the three of them rolled and wrestled on the grass, while the sirens reached a crescendo and a familiar voice let out a scream.

There, on the grass, Jon’s world was a blur of bumps and random pain, even as he tried to clear his head and fight back. As they struggled, his frustration mounted, knowing that time was running out, and the old, hunted part of him began to whisper that he must get out and get away...

[Deadly]

Hearing the car door slam and the police call, Charlene jumped for cover. Any cover. A tree, a shadow, a fence to hide behind. Anything to not be seen. She would have run, but her two friends were still struggling on the ground.

[Let me know if I need to roll something to not be seen]

[BlasTech]

The three of them rolled across the backyard and Isabelle's world span in a confusing blur of grass, sky and tangled limbs. For a moment, she was a teenager again, wrestling with some bully in defence of her sister on the schoolyard.

She felt, more than saw, her tackle knock Jon clear of the swinging rock. Something hit her in the stomach, it knocked the breath out of her but did little more than make her angry. She'd reached for the Fake-Jon's hand as she'd run in, and her fingers instinctively tightened around the double's other wrist as they wrestled. Green replaced blue as she completed the roll and slammed his arms to the ground.

Green eyes met Blue as she leant over him and gave a simple, yet powerfully delivered demand.

"Stop. FIGHTING!"

She didn't know what she did to make him comply, but she felt the tension immediately leave the duplicate's arms.

She wanted to say something more, but shouts and noises from the front yard told here that there was no time. Their eyes met for a heartbeat longer, before she scrambled to her feet. Grabbing Jon, the real Jon, she tried to pull him away.

"Come on, we have to go."

[Thanqol]

The fences around the back yard were easily jumpable; there were plenty of places to run.

But then the policeman running around the side came into view - if it could be called that

He was like a robot, but made out of iron, stone, and wood - more like something out of fantasy than science fiction. His eyes glowed a bright electric blue. His face was almost a blank plate of metal apart from those two huge blue eyes. It was incongruously wearing a policeman's uniform over the top of it's iron-plated body.

"Stop!" It shouted in an echoing, metallic voice.

[There is a Wits+Stealth roll to avoid being seen, -3 penalty (-5 for creepy vision powers, +2 for availability of cover)]

[Deadly]

[Wits+Stealth-3, dice pool 4, rolled 8, 3, 1, 6, one success]

Seconds before the policeman came into view, Charlene leapt over the nearest fence and pressed down behind it, head low and breath bated. She stared through a slight crack in the wood at the strange cop. She had to be seeing things... but then, the day had been strange enough already that perhaps she wasn't.

[the_druid_droid]

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

Dice Pool: Wits + Stealth - 3 = 2 + 3 - 3 = 2
Roll: 7, 7
No successes

As the three bodies rolled around on the grass, Jon felt himself pushed away from his döppleganger when Isabelle began to gain the upper hand. He used to opportunity to roll clear of the fight and stand, trying to evaluate his next move.

No sooner had Jon started to regain his bearings, than he heard Isabelle’s voice urging him to move. He wanted to go, to get away from the disaster this day had become, but already he could see the policeman rounding the corner of the house, and calling out in a huge, echoing voice.

By now, he should have been used to things Fae-touched, but still Jon gaped at the sight of the metallic creature which lumbered into view.

[BlasTech]

Isabelle tugged Jon along behind her, but sheer fright propelled her onwards before she could check to see if her friend had heard her words. She made a dash for the fence, vaulting herself over it through sheer willpower and landing beside Charlene.

She thought that she'd managed to do so before the policeman had seen her, although she couldn't be sure. She hunkered down for a moment, breathing heavily and waiting to hear if she'd been spotted.

It was only a moment later that she realised, with a paniced glance at Charlene, that Jon had never made it over the fence with her.

[Thanqol]

Those glowing blue eyes focused on Jon, and they seemed to look right into his heart. It raised one hand, palm up, and slowed in it's approach - a calming, reassuring motion. "Sir," it said in a low voice, "I need you to come with me. I'll be able to explain everything on the way."

It was still alien, intimidating, but the gesture seemed genuine.

[BlasTech]

Isabelle pressed her eye to a gap in the fence next to where Charlene crouched. The two of them looking for all the world like a couple of children spying on the neighbours. If only things were so simple.

Come on Jon, what are you doing? She thought.

[the_druid_droid]

Even though he was standing in the wide open space of his back yard, Jon felt cornered as the blazing eyes settled on him. He wanted to run, but being spotted would make that difficult; at that moment, he longed to see the faces of his friends, a reassurance that he had some backup if things went wrong, but Jon also knew better than to look for them, in case his recognition betrayed them to the police...thing.

The massive collection of metal and wood seemed to be doing its best to calm him, and Jon wanted to believe that what it said was true: after a day like today, explanations were in desperately short supply. It was clear that this policeman was like him, a victim from Faerie, but the giant had shown already that even others of their own kind weren’t always friendly. Of course, if it was hostile, he didn’t want to put the others or his family in any more danger. Thoughts and arguments swirled through his head, and suddenly he felt a strange pang of desire the simple, mindless pleasure of flight.

At last, after what felt like hours of hesitation, Jon came to a decision. As the blue-uniformed golem came closer, he spoke, a flicker of doubt in his voice. “Ok. I’ll come along quietly, if you’ll tell me one thing right now. He isn’t really me, is he?” Jon pointed to his mirror image a few feet away, his expression creasing with a frown.

...Please tell me I haven’t gone that insane...

[Thanqol]

"It's complicated, sir," and for a faceless robot, the figure did a remarkably good job of emoting 'and I can't tell you about it in front of all these people.' "We can have a nice long conversation down at the station."

[the_druid_droid]

Jon’s shoulders slumped at the reply; he’d really hoped that someone could help him sort things out before he made any more mistakes today. Still, despite his frustration at the response, it seemed to Jon that the policeman was trying to reassure him, even if he managed to seem more than a little cryptic and imposing doing so...

For another moment, Jon hesitated, glancing between his double, the mechanical policeman, and out of the corner of his eye, Jessica. “Alright, if you can’t explain that to me now, can you at least tell me if I’m under arrest?” His heart sped up at the word; right now he couldn’t think of many worse places to be than some tiny cell, separated from his friends and surrounded by criminals after he’d worked so hard to come home and restart his life.

[Thanqol]

The machine shook his head, 'no'. "Yes," he said aloud, "you have the right to remain silent. Please come this way."

[BlasTech]

Isabelle tapped Charlene on the shoulder and nodded her head in the direction of the entrance to the street. Whatever Jon was doing, if he left their field of vision with this robot creature, they would follow discreetly.

[Deadly]

Charlene nodded in silence at Isabelle. She wasn't sure what would happen. Maybe the policeman was speaking the truth, Charlene wanted to trust him. She didn't like crouching here behind the fence, hiding from a policeman like a common crook or worse. This wasn't her, was it? It felt wrong, she shouldn't have to act like this. She should be greeting him with raised head, nothing to hide. She looked down at herself. But that was what she looked like, a crook, with her scars, her torn and worn clothes, in someone else's back yard, driving around in a car full of human bones... it was all wrong.

[the_druid_droid]

Jon heaved a little sigh; mixed messages seemed like the best he was going to get. Moreover, if there was some sort of invitation to a real explanation and a chance to work things out lurking under that wood-and-metal facade, his gut told him that it would very quickly evaporate should he push his luck too far.

Looking directly into the policeman’s glowing eyes, Jon spoke, as firmly as he could muster, “I’m trusting you.” With that, he slowly approached the officer, hands stretched out in a non-threatening gesture.

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

Ok, so for educational purposes I have a question: I could vaguely see arguing that this is Jon expressing Hope, by agreeing to separate from his friends and (possibly) get arrested on the promise of getting some explanation/perspective from the cop. Of course, he's obviously trying to communicate to Jon that he's not really going to do that, so I would understand if this didn't qualify for Willpower-restoring-level of a Virtue. However, if it doesn't, I'd be interested if you could describe an alternate version of the scenario that would qualify, so I can be on the lookout in the future.

[Thanqol]

[That's a good call, this totally qualifies as Hope. Have a complete Willpower regain! (Remember for these you have to raise the issue, like you just did )]

The policeman put a hand on Jon's shoulder and firmly marched him out the front towards the police car.

The policeman they'd met before was coming towards the house. He groaned when he saw the two of them. "Urgh, Keith - one of yours?"

"Yeah. I'm taking the car. Get statements, tell them everything's going to be all right, you know the drill."

"Goddamn it, Keith," grumbled the other officer, walking around the back.

The robot opened the front door of the car for Jon to get into; another minor gesture of trust rather than putting him in the back. "Keith Baker. Welcome back, you poor son of a gun."

[the_druid_droid]

“I think you’re the first person to say that to me, officer. Thank you.” The policeman’s reassurances were finally starting to have an effect, and Jon was feeling far more comfortable than he would have expected while riding in a police car. “My name’s Jon Swift...or that’s what I’m calling myself, for the time being.”

He glanced around the interior of the vehicle, and felt almost giddy with relief when he realized that there weren’t any stains or orphaned bones lying around; in fact, the car seemed comfortingly normal, and he could feel his shoulders relax just a fraction as he settled against the upholstered seat. “So, will you really be able to explain what’s been going on when we get to the station?”

[Thanqol]

"Ah, I'm not taking you to the station. That was just for the bystanders. I can't exactly go off about faeries in front of regular people, right? I'm just going to drive you 'round the block for now," Keith started the engine. "The short of it is that we were both taken by the Gentry and made our way back here - and we're not alone in that. There's about a hundred like us in the state that we know about. We look out for each other."

[BlasTech]

Isabelle watched, concealed, from further up the street as Jon was herded into the police car. She couldn't hear the words they spoke once inside, but the robot creature's cordial demeanour got her thinking.

"I don't know for sure, but something tells me that Jon isn't going to be locked up over this." She whispered to Charlene, as the police car started up and began to move. "What do you think is going on?"

[Deadly]

"It is... unusual to put a suspect on the front seat. To say the least," Charlene admitted, confused. "I wish to believe that it's a good sign. We should follow and find out. I'm tired of looking and acting like a criminal."

[BlasTech]

Isabelle sighed as she got to her feet. "Yeah I know. If things were perfect, we could have just trusted them enough to walk right in to the nearest station once we got back. But ... I don't know. It's just all so ... gah!"

She shook her head in frustration. "I just don't know these people well enough to trust that it would have turned out alright, you know what I mean? Especially after the last few days ... and don't even mention the stuff we found in the glovebox. I guess it still feels like we're just one wrong step away from being thrown in a cell."

[the_druid_droid]

Jon nodded as the policeman spoke, trying to decide if a hundred was more or less than he had been expecting; at the same time, he was trying to think of how to phrase the question that was still pounding in his head.

“So... you seem like you might know who it is that’s been living in my house disguised as me. Do you know how long has he been there? Didn’t my family suspect anything was up when I disappeared?” Jon desperately hoped that he would finally get some answers; the bizarre scene at his house had left him more confused and upset than he wanted to admit.

[Thanqol]

"It's... That's called a Fetch. When the Fae take you, they make a copy of you. That copy of you lives your life like you never left." There was still no expression on that metallic face, but the voice was full of sympathy. "It has all your memories, your personality, your appearance. Your family wouldn't have noticed that you were gone because, from their point of view, you never left."

[Deadly]

"I know," Charlene said weakly. "All I want is to get back on my feet as soon as possible. Get some proper clothes, get a bath, something to eat, then work out what happened and find people who can help." She wasn't sure that order made much sense, but it was what she wanted. She couldn't walk around in rags and ask for help from random strangers. She needed to be... presentable, before facing the world again. So far she had come nowhere close to that.

[BlasTech]

Isabelle nodded, she'd been thinking along much the same lines. "Once we pick up Jon from the station, we should probably look for a shelter or a soup kitchen. I'd hoped that we could ..." She trailed off for a moment. She'd hoped Jon's family might be able to give them a helping hand, but that was out of the question now.

Why, exactly, that this was the case was something she had trouble wrapping her head around.

"Anyway" She continued. "We're going to need some kind of food before much longer, and it's the best I can think of right now."

[the_druid_droid]

“They don’t even know...?” Jon’s face had gone slightly pale. Of course, it only made sense, but still it felt wrong. “I-I should have known He’d be clever about this...” His throat tightened and Jon wasn’t sure if he was going to cry, or simply scream in rage.

[Thanqol]

"Look, man," the cop awkwardly patted him on the shoulder, as he drove. True to his word, he just drove around the corner and parked again. "It'll get better. You're out. You're free. You've survived worse than this. You just got to be smart about it, you know?"

[Deadly]

Charlene nodded. It was about the best they could hope to do.

As she saw the police car stop, she paused. "This is strange..." She felt it was best to stay low a little longer. "Better stay out of sight, if Jon has made some kind of deal or something we'd best not upset that."