Nine-colored Roses (Princess: The Hopeful) IC

[theUnearther]

Seeing his fellow Nobles clearly trusting everybody, Giovanni cannot help but feel a little guilty over his own caution.
And this may still be an elaborate plot, possibly against him specifically. But if so, it works.
Well...
A soft sigh escapes his mouth, and he too loses his transformation. He is still clearly himself, but his clothes are more informal: dark red sweat pants and matching jacket, a plain white t-shirt, and a small but filled backpack.
Name's Giovanni Minotti, I teach at Pioneer High and study at PSU, I should be on the directory. Pleased to meet you.
His hand sweeps on his head, and he notices that it's about time to shave again.
...please tell me I'm not the only one still worried about the social consequences of today.

Spoiler: Snape kills Dumbledore

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It just hit me that we've gone through about a million scenes without checking for transformations wearing off. Oops.
I guess it's probably too late for this time, but, what do you (NOR) want to do about that in the future?
The options I see are being more vigilant, maybe you roll for everyone whenever you declare a scene over (everyone has 9 dice except Giovanni, who has 10); or handwaving that rule away. Any opinions?

[Felyndiira]

Mana sighed at the mounting social pressure; she still wasn't comfortable with revealing her identity, but it doesn't seem like she has much of a choice in the matter. She tapped one of the snowflakes in her hair, and her elaborate costume receded back into her fashionable - and still wet from the rain - clothes. Linen and silk are some of the most terrible fabrics to wear on a rainy day, and even now the girl feels like she is wearing tight, metal plates that constricted her movement rather than a simple blazer and dress.

Aside from the rain, though, the girl seemed generally pleasant and cheerful; she bowed slightly to Alison - recognizing her untransformed identity but not wishing to draw too much attention to it - and stood with the rest of the "new noble's crowd", facing the trio of veterans. She glanced briefly at the awkward atmosphere between the healer noble and one of the veterans, but decided not to think too much of it - instead, she introduced herself candidly after the older man.

"I'm Mana, a Junior at Portland State University. I'm delighted to make your acquaintance."

"I'm still a newbie at all this, so please forgive me for any mistakes," she was tempted to add. There was, certainly, still much about this whole responsibility that she knew nothing about. The glaive-girl (her name still unknown at this point!) running away from the tainted scene with a headache, for instance; perhaps there are some nobles that are sensitive to blighted areas, too, somewhat like suffering from an allergy? And the man's black-colored magic: Mana had paid no attention to it, but it also seemed like an important topic somehow, as if his magic - uniquely - was somehow a poor reflection upon his status of a noble.

There was definitely so much she still need to learn about this other responsibility, but she also didn't feel comfortable saying that aloud to a group of effective strangers. First, names, she thought - and her lips moved in sync with her wishes, speaking in a sweet, cheerful tone that bore none of the sarcasm and frustration of a hour's past.

"It looks like I missed the introductions. I apologize."

[MReav]

Realizing that the newcomer had missed her introduction, Shira adds "Shira Rosenberg." she thought for a moment, "I'm a student... also at Pioneer High..."

She disguised her sheepishness, but she slightly glanced away at Giovanni for a moment. Most of the teachers there were uncomfortable with her around, ever since the 12-Second Lunchroom Brawl incident a couple of months ago.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Spoiler: OOC

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In the future I'll probably just make sure to specifically declare a scene change. In all honesty Transformation rolls are trivial until you start losing Belief/accumulating Shadows anyway.

"Alison Tellings, Mark Nguyen, and Christin Svenja," Christin interjects. The other two look at her. "What? We weren't going to get a natural order of introduction like we did before again, so I just ran down the list."

"Well, now that we all know each other, and we know at least some of us can work together," Alison starts, "we can make this a formal sort of organization, if you like."

"We don't have any particular plans yet other than communication, but if you all would like to collaborate on solving our mystery suicides, we'd welcome the help," Mark adds.

Alison turns around and gathers what looks like a bouquet of specialty roses from...somewhere. Possibly a bit of Regalia she'd left transformed, possibly her sleeve. "The basis of all cooperation is mutual understanding. If you'll accept these...they're small tokens that should help us communicate. Each one will only work for the Enlightened, so they're secure, and they should work anywhere in the city."

She offers a rose to each of the 'newbies' present. Shira is offered a red rose, Carrie a pink one, and after some consideration and a quick glance at Mark, Giovanni and Mana are offered a blue and an orange rose, respectively. Even putting aside Giovanni's impossible one, they're clearly not entirely natural, seeming still alive despite being cut. Some Light went into making these tokens.

[MReav]

Shira pondered for a moment, then asked, "Can I speak with you guys, alone for a little?" She wanted to know if they could help her (they already knew about the fire and her own connection to it), but also, she wanted to know about Lacrima. "The tool of the traitor bitch queen" as Ember so eloquently put it.

[Beans]

Carrie takes the pink rose, holding it a little awkwardly and wondering what to... do with it. Listening, she nods, biting her lip. Yes, this is a good idea, of course. Not just because it means working near Christin again, no...

I, um, yeah, communication's really important, and I know I'm up for helping solve this if there's anything I can do... uh, should... we trade numbers, contact info, that sort of thing?

[Felyndiira]

"So...are these for communication?" Mana was guessing; she didn't know anything about these roses or the organization that Alison (who seemed, to her, to be the leader of this whole outfit) was trying to create, nor was she entirely keen on adding to her already impressive repertoire of responsibilities. All-in-all, she wanted to know what she is getting into this time, and a guess from out-of-the-blue seemed to be a good way to start a discussion.

She pulled out her cellphone and began to dial a number, but stopped and put it back away when the name "Aya" appeared on her screen.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"That's it exactly," Mark said. "It's not normal Enlightened stuff, but Alison's worked out a few interesting tricks with what they call Endowments in the Dreamlands."

"What these do is basically work like..." Alison begins.

"Walkie-talkies!" Christin supplies helpfully.

Alison sighs. "Yes, walkie-talkies. Focus and speak to one, and anyone else carrying one should be able to hear it. It should help us coordinate and respond to any other Darkspawn attacks. It's also safer than calling or emailing each other."

"Basically, the difference between us and the Darkness is that all of us can think and work together," Mark explains. "Darkspawn are basically animals, as far as intelligence goes, so no matter how powerful they are, cooperation and coordination should let us keep them in check."

"And there's a lot we can do besides fighting," Alison adds. "Helping the victimized, raising people up from poverty, changing the world..."

"Most of these folks are young enough to still have their feet on the ground, Alison," Christin says gently. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. We should concentrate on tonight's murder mystery for now, yes?"

[MReav]

A slight twinge was the only indication that Shira was annoyed at being ignored. So she opted ask them at a later point.

She took the flower being offered and took a sniff. "These aren't fragile, are they? I don't have to worry about them being crushed or anything?" She then spoke into it. "Hello?" She resisted the urge to question why they'd go for something like a flower. A pin or a bracelet would have been easier to conceal. Though Inari's explanations of the dreamlands suggested to her that it wasn't that simple. "Any idea on where to begin?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Shira's "Hello?" echoes very quietly out of each other flower charm thing.

"They're magical, so they're basically indestructible unless a Darkspawn like, eats them or something," Christin says, pulling out her own yellow rose and crushing it in her hand. Alison visibly flinches at that, but the rose does in fact come out unharmed.

"As for the investigation," Mark says, "the victims didn't have any ID on them, but they were clearly vagrants. You might start by checking around at soup kitches and shelters, see if any of their regulars have gone missing."

Alison nods. "I'll pass along anything the police find out as far as ID goes. I think that covers everything I had planned for today...did anyone else have any questions?"

[MReav]

"Yes, a couple of personal matters I'd like to ask." Shira says.

Assuming she gets her audience with the experienced members, she says, "You guys obviously know about St. Johns, so I'm going to cut to the chase. My parents were badly hurt when the Storms and Tears fought it out, and I was wondering if there's any sort of magic that can help them. I don't really have any aptitude in that and Inari's been sending out feelers, but I get the idea these are not normal injuries."

She was about to ask to go aside to speak with them about Giovanni's magic, but maybe telling them behind his back wasn't the best idea. She thought that maybe she should ask him first, get his side of the story. Though that would likely be an awkward conversation, especially in light of her reputation at PHS.

[theUnearther]

Spoiler: MReav

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Mind if I overtake you there? Before you break up the meeting, I mean. (Also because my internet's acting up and you posted while I was logging in)

I do have a question actually. You had a flower for each one, despite us showing up with an extra kid out of nowhere. So, how many did you have? And/or, how difficult is it to make new ones? And will you need to recall them to add more flowers to the group?
He holds his flower closer to his face, examining it attently.
For that matter, is it possible to use these to send messages only to some of the others? I'm not sure which answer would be preferable there... And I realize this is turning into a lot of questions, but anyway: do we need to feed the magic somehow? Or the rose, for that matter? And do I need to keep it away from people who may be allergic? And if so, do you have the power to check for allergies, or just didn't think of that? And there was another one, but...
He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, thinking.
Chier! Alright, guess I'm done.

[Felyndiira]

"Yes." Mana stopped wrestling with the water in her hair; though her clothes were still wet and annoyingly clingy, enough of the rainwater had dried so that her appearance was no longer a complete mess. The girl was expressionless with a faint smile - the appearance that she had always worn in public ceremonies to hide her true heart from the voracious eyes of the modern world. Rather, she spoke in a calm but certain voice, exactly as Grace and her other teachers had instructed her.

"Pardon me if I am mistaken, as I am a late-comer in all of this and probably missed a few crucial bits of information. But the meeting - the setup of this Nation that you have proposed." Mana turned to briefly look at Christin, whose sincere comment probably revealed more than Alison's carefully chosen words. "From what I've gathered, you've planned this meeting before ever finding out that those...those corpse eaters were going to attack this place. To me, that means that you have a grander design for this collaboration extending beyond just this tragedy and little acts of charity that we probably all do regardless. After all, I can't imagine that someone as meticulous and savvy as you, Mrs. Tellings..." Her glance turned to the leader of the three experienced Hopefuls; her speech was brazen and fluid, as if practiced for days before its deliverance despite only knowing about this subject a few moments before today. "...that someone as savvy as you would gather a bunch of people together just for vague things like 'changing the world' and a coincidental mystery that none of us could have predicted."

Except for Aya, she added, in a private whisper. She wasn't sure if she had angered the senior princess with her words, but she was not about to add to her responsibilities without even knowing what she was getting herself into. It's a politician's sense, if you will - not really a princess-like quality, when you think about it, but it had served her well throughout her career and internship. "I'm willing to help out with the murders regardless - it's my responsibility to, as one of the blossomed. In regards to the nation, though - if you don't mind, will you tell us the original reason that you had gathered all of us here? What is it that you sought to achieve with our assistance? The grander designs of it all?"

"It can't be campaigning for the Socialist party again, is it?" she added - this time, in a jocular voice.

Spoiler: OOC

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(2 successes on politics roll)

Knowledge GET: Allison's association with the Socialist party.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"You are a very thorough man," Mark says. Despite the expressions on the faces of the two women, he actually seems enthusiastic. "These aren't real flowers, or at least not mundane flowers, so you don't have to worry about keeping them alive or allergies. They're a joint effort between Alison and some folks in the Dreamlands, so it's not actually hard to get however many we need."

"We basically just brought a half-dozen of every color," Christin admits. "They need to be imbued with a Wisp once to get them started though, so don't worry about spare receivers lying around for eavesdroppers."

"And you can do private messages, yeah, just focus on the name and face of the person you want to talk to," Mark continues. "As long as they have one, naturally."

When Mana speaks up, Allison's lips twitch upward into a slight smile. She'd been solemn and distracted until now, but this girl's questions and style sounded almost like a challenge - a fun one, judging by Alison's expression.

"I've left my third-party days behind me," Alison replies to begin with. "Call it a sad sacrifice to pragmatism. The Light...this calling of ours...it's beyond the mud-slinging and fighting of regular human politics."

She pitches her voice just a bit louder, warming to the subject again. Her compatriots give subtle signs of settling in for a reasonably long speech. "There's a certain structure to the world and human nature," she begins. "I've come to believe over the course of my life that the long arc of history naturally bends toward decay, injustice, and oppression. That's what we call The Darkness, capital-t, capital-d. It has a physical presence that can be measured even if it can't be seen, just like gravity or magnetism. You might even call it a law of the universe, or at least of living things."

She shakes her head. "But that's not how it should be, not how it has to be. The Darkness exists, but so does the Light. Long ago, whether it was a hundred thousand years or just twenty, Light got to rule the world. Harmony, Justice, Knowledge, Joy, and Love weren't just words, they were real, tangible things just like their opposites are now."

"I'm not going to go on a nostalgic rant about the good old days. They obviously weren't perfect, or the world wouldn't be the mess it is now (I mean, shoot me right then if I ever suggest literal monarchy in the twenty-first century). It is proof, though, that people who dedicate themselves to these ideas, these responsibilities, can work together to achieve something great. Right now, we're building a foundation. A little society that can hopefully work together in small ways at first, but bigger and brighter later. We're all touched by the Light and, hopefully, that means we can be Darkness's opposites, but we'll only get there if we can work together."

She finishes with, oddly, an expansive shrug. "Right now, I just want to see if we can do that, starting with the basics of removing Darkspawn from this town and recruiting more members."

"Does that answer your question?"

Spoiler: Shira, later

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"What happened in St. John's was a tragedy," Alison says solemnly. "If we'd gotten this started six months sooner, we might have been able to head it off..."

Mark shakes his head. "If not for that, we'd have had the Tears cult crashing this meeting instead of dumbass Darkspawn," he said. "Something like that was going to happen sooner or later, and I'm sorry it had to happen to you, Shira."

He continues: "I haven't had a chance to check on your parents specifically, but in general wounds caused by Tempesta or Lacrima can be nasty on a spiritual level as well as physical. Those Invocations are meant to be used on Darkspawn, but I've never heard of anyone who uses them regularly being very discrete with them."

"Enlightened Magic exists that can heal almost anything," Alison says, "but things like that, or the corruption caused by Taint, are beyond the abilities of anyone I know personally."

"Carrie's got a lot of potential with it," Christin throws in casually. "But she's nowhere near there yet. Maybe if she chose to really focus on it..."

"I will keep spreading the word that we need it," Alison says intently. "There's other magic out there too, but it's not to be trusted lightly..."

"Yeah, professional tip: if a weird, twitchy creature offers you magic fruit, just say no," Christin adds.

[MReav]

The look of disappointment actually broke through her usually stoic face and she actually visibly slumped. "Very well. Thank you for answering my question." She paused slightly at the 'fruit' comment. Probably some reference to a mythological boogeyman that just happened to be true and distressingly common.

She was a little worried at the comment about "discretion" and "Lacrima". It was something she was going to have to confront Mr. Minotti about.

"If there's nothing else, I'd like to get going."

Shira planned to visit her parents in the hospice before heading home.

[Beans]

Carrie glances and coughs, eyes flicking between Mana and Christin and then to the others. "I, uh... yeah, I would like to, uh, get along if I can." More than anything else, she realizes she wants to talk to Vo.

In a very real way, she hates living like this. She hates constantly swooning over every pretty face, letting her desires drag her around by the nose.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The Meeting

"Well, if there's nothing else, I think we can call this adjourned...?" Alison asks, looking to see if Mana has a rebuttal before formally calling it. If she does not, the 'senior' trio give some polite goodbyes and wait for the others to head out before talking to Shira in private.

Spoiler: Still Shira in the future btw

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"There is something else," Alison says, looking at her sadly. "It sounds cheesy, but it's vitally important you don't give up hope."

Mark nods, possibly surprisingly, in agreement. "The Darkness and the Light are both about emotion as much as physical state. The best thing you can do for your family is keep a positive outlook, and I'm not just talking about holistic or psychiatric stuff here. Just being around them and thinking and speaking positive can help protect them."

"It's one of the fun parts of being magical," Christin chimes in again, "and most of why I spend all my time being flippant. Spoilers."

[MReav]

Shira looks away a little awkwardly. "Positive attitude" made sense given what she was, but... it was hard. She was a quiet girl before the fire, but since then... it was easier to shut down.

"I'll... keep that in mind. Thank you."

Shira waved to them and any remaining Nobles before heading over to visit her parents.

[theUnearther]

Giovanni bows and leaves first. He feels a little odd doing so, but it's clear that so does everyone else, and someone must take the first step.

Tomorrow, after the club's meeting, he will go on the internet and research the suicides. After the police has had time to react and form hypotheses, and maybe identify the corpses. He's already wondering how to proceed from there. Investigate the dead personally? Maybe call up one of the others? But only he, it seems, is passably unconspicuous in his Noble identity.

And miss Tellings probably has a better entry into the system. He makes a point to vote for her, for the foreseeable future.

But for now, he's already regretting having forsaken his bike at the job, where he'll not be able to reclaim it until monday. He briefly considers breaking in and picking it up. And leaving a second note announcing that he did so, of course. But then he'd have to jump the fence carrying it, so he abandons that plan and begins the walk home.

Spoiler: Fun fact

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I was going to make him break into school, and then I realized the problem. Haha.

[Nerd-o-rama]

That Evening - Shira

Shira is able to go see and visit with her parents at the Providence Portland hospital. They're happy to see her, of course, though it's difficult for them to get up or interact much. Most of the burns have healed as much as they're going to by now, but they're still a long way from "recovered". The doctors that are there tend to tut-tut rather thoughtlessly about keeping in better health generally in the future, since their current theory on what's slowing down their recovery time is a period of malnutrition before they were injured.

Spoiler: OOC

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Anything in particular you wanted to do here?

That Evening - Carrie

Shortly after leaving the meeting, Carried gets a call on her cell phone from Christin's number.

Internet Research - Giovanni

Giovanni will find a few things through the local news and police public statements. Aside from the obvious - two deaths, neither ruled a homicide, bodies damaged by animals - he learns the names of both victims, Nicholas Stevens and Mona Antonini, and that both were identified by the operator of a homeless shelter on Burnside street, just north of downtown, named Jane Williamson, who's cited in a news article about the discovery.

[Beans]

[Carrie]
Ah, hell. Carrie looks at her phone, biting her lip. She does like the older Princess, and she's grateful for all Christin has done for her, but it's hard not to be nervous.
She answers.
"Hi, C... Chrissy..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

That Evening - Carrie

"Nervous all of a sudden, dear?" Christin says, laughing. "Actually, you were pretty wound up at the meeting, too. Is something wrong, or was everything just overwhelming?"

She waits to hear what Carrie has to say, listening with a sympathetic ear and chatting comfortably, the way only Christin can.

Spoiler: Carrie

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She's mostly calling to check up and give some words of encouragement, but we can thread this out as much as you like. Let me know when you're ready to move on to the next day/talking to Vo.

The Next Day

Spoiler: Everyone

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Everyone regains 1 Willpower, for a restful night's sleep. Unless Carrie does something weird but that seems unlikely.

Saturday April 25, 2015

The morning dawns bright and sunny on nothing terribly unusual, even for the Enlightened residents of Portland. Giovanni wakes up and attends his club meeting, having a pleasant and semi-fruitful discussion of problems very far away from the weirdness he witnessed yesterday. Afterwards, in the midst of performing the aforementioned internet research on the corpses from yesterday, Shira Rosenberg gets in contact with him.

Spoiler: Giovanni

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Giovanni regains 1 Wisp from his Circle. Feel free to thread a conversation with Shira without my input.

Shira's grandmother is greatly appreciative of the fairly large amount of housework she asks Shira to do, not having quite the energy to keep it up or quite the finances to compensate a maid right now. She keeps her granddaughter busy all morning. After that, however, it should be easy to contact Mr. Minotti by either email or these magic flower doohickeys. Inari recommends the latter (in as many words) if Shira asks him. He'll also add: "I can ask around about a Bequest that can heal, but it might take me a while. You sure you want me gone in the dreaming that long?" he asks, unable to keep himself from looking at the tablet lying idly on the desk right now. It's a pain to carry electronics into the Dreamlands...

Spoiler: Shira

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Shira regains 1 Wisp from her Duty. Feel free to thread a conversation with Giovanni without my input.

Meanwhile, Mana has a busy morning bouncing back and forth between personal research, Student Council duties (fortunately mostly administrative, so she doesn't have to deal directly with anybody), and working with younger students for Second Life - with such busy schedules, Saturday morning is often the only time many overstressed people can meet, and of course, there are very few mentor volunteers for such discussions. Mana handles it well, however, getting that satisfying feeling of making a positive difference in small ways even as she runs down some research in between her duties. In particular, she learns that cannibalism was historically (as in, before about 1850) sadly common in the Western US during the harsh winters in the Rockies and the Great Basin, both among natives (leading to the legend of the Wendigo) and among white settlers (leading to events such as the infamous Donner Party incident). Needless to say, it's vanishingly uncommon nowadays barring the most obscure serial killers.

After finishing up with her last meeting (and ignoring a call from Aya, who totally called during Second Life stuff on purpose), Mana begins to feel a bit faint - it's close to 1:00 and she hasn't had anything whatsoever to eat since breakfast. Stepping outside for lunch somewhere near campus, she's hit with a shock as she's quite certain she spots a Princess wandering around, transformed, in broad daylight. Or...well...or is that just someone with a super-strange fashion aesthetic. She's seen more unusual outfits on brief trips to Seattle. Possibly.

Spoiler: Mana

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Mana regains 1 Wisp from managing the Second Life meeting. The strangely-dressed person is Bobbie; feel free to react however you like there.

Bobbie (who is in this game now) spends her Saturday morning as per usual, spending time with her roommates and working on her projects. She does find that she's in need of several different kinds of material today, as well as several flyers on spring clearance sales for shops in downtown Portland. Most of them are easy to walk to, so after lunch seems like a good time to walk over to the area near Portland State University, where she can shop as she likes and possibly find a Chinese-American student staring at her, or possibly not. Either way, she does turn heads if she goes out in wearing her "typical" work.

Spoiler: Bobbie

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Bobbie gains no particular benefit from hanging out with her friends, but at least they're fun! I've also put you in the same vicinity as Mana in an effort to try to put the group together, or at least paired off. Feel free to thread whatever you like with her.

[MReav]

Shira made sure her grandmother wasn't nearby when she spoke with Inari. She usually took a nap about this time.

"No. I need to talk to Mr. Minotti about what we saw him use, and I'd rather have someone who can help me with that." Shira said, "I don't think he's Tears, and I'm pretty sure Ember was exaggerating about its practitioners, because otherwise, I'd be getting migraines all day because of him. Still, I need to know."

Shira tried the flower, but got no answer. After tapping it for a moment, she decided that Giovanni wasn't answering.

"What's the point of getting a walkie-talkie flower if you're not going to use it?" Shira mused quietly, "I know Anne and MH have him as a French teacher." she thought to herself.

She called Anne. She could trust Anne to be discreet, even if she wouldn't give full disclosure. Secret identities and all that jazz.

[Beans]

That Evening - Carrie

"Nervous all of a sudden, dear?" Christin says, laughing. "Actually, you were pretty wound up at the meeting, too. Is something wrong, or was everything just overwhelming?"

She waits to hear what Carrie has to say, listening with a sympathetic ear and chatting comfortably, the way only Christin can.

Spoiler: Carrie

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She's mostly calling to check up and give some words of encouragement, but we can thread this out as much as you like. Let me know when you're ready to move on to the next day/talking to Vo.

Carrie sighs, gnawing her lip softly. "I don't mean this in a bad way, but... it's kind of... you. N-not that it's your fault, I just... given what, um, happened between us and... I wasn't expecting to find you here. It's a bit of a surprise, finding out one of the top Princesses in the city you come to is, uh..." She tries to figure out how to word it without leaping headfirst into "the lady you slept with". "Y'know."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Carrie

"Sorry about that...I guess I should have thought things through a bit more before telling Alison to invite you," Christin responds, laughing again as disarmingly as she can manage. "I mean, I enjoyed our time together, but I recommended you because you're a skilled Princess and a friend I can trust, first and foremost. If it's too awkward, I can drift off. Alison and Mark are both expecting that eventually anyway."

Shira

Anne answers with a simple "Hello!", although it's easy to hear Marie-Helene chattering in the background, to which Anne responds, "Would you shut the door if you're going to be nosy? Sorry about that, Shira."

When asked about Mr. Minotti, she says, "Hm? He's a nice guy, one of the better French teachers. Really...European, I guess? Why do you ask?"

[MReav]

"It's... about my meeting last night." Shira said, being vague but letting her know enough to figure it out, "I know enough to be a bit concerned, but I also know enough that my concerns are mostly unfounded. The sooner I can nip this in the bud, the better. Though can we hold off on mentioning this to MH, at least for a little while? I know she means well, but I don't want another repeat of the Vampire LARP incident."

Spoiler: ooc

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If it's of any relevance, I envision the twins as having French Canadian ancestry

[Beans]

Carrie

"Sorry about that...I guess I should have thought things through a bit more before telling Alison to invite you," Christin responds, laughing again as disarmingly as she can manage. "I mean, I enjoyed our time together, but I recommended you because you're a skilled Princess and a friend I can trust, first and foremost. If it's too awkward, I can drift off. Alison and Mark are both expecting that eventually anyway."

Carrie meeps, shaking her head before she remembers that Christin can't see her. N-no, um, I didn't mean---I just, uh... the awkwardness is on me, it's fine. It's... it is really nice to see you again. And it is---Christin's presence is a welcome one in many ways, and knowing she'll have her support is something to fall back on. I, um... I kind of have to go, sorry I couldn't talk longer. She starts up her laptop's IRC client, looking for the notification that Vo is indeed online.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Carrie

"It's no problem," Christin says, voice still full of a warm smile. "Take care."

Once Carrie's set up and online, she does indeed see Vo in one of her usual channels.

hey there! how's the west coast?

Shira

"Hey, what are you talking about, anyway? Ow!"

"Sorry, she needed a flick to the head," Anne replies idly. "But sure, as long as he's not going to suck out someone's soul, or something. I'll keep any eye out for that."

"Seriously, what--oof!"

"Okay, gotta go. Salut."

[Beans]

Carrie smiles weakly, toying with her necklace as she types.

nice, rainy, but in a different way from, say, Cleveland rainy. how're you?

She has so much she wants to say and doesn't think she can.

[Entelechy]

Bobbie, dressed so typically, gives the starting girl a smile and a wink before continuing on with her shopping errands.