Forum > Tuber's secrets > thread

Everyone staggered as an explosion shook the earth. Buildings in the not-very-distant north trembled from the vibration, and loose pebbles danced on the marble path. A moment later, the officer touched his bluetooth, “Stevens reporting. No sir, I'm at the Fountain of Youth. Understood. Yes, sir!” He took off running for his car, then drove toward the explosion at top speed, lights flashing and sirens wailing.
“It has begun.” Ninja said.

A second explosion shook the ground again, much farther away, from the east. “What has?” Tiana shouted as a string of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances screamed past. Ninja did not answer, but began to run to the north. “Where are you going?!” she yelled after him.
“I am a healer!” was all that he said. It was all he needed to say. Tiana sighed and ran after him.
“Where are you going?” Jason demanded. Tiana barely paused to answer. “To help save lives-- and keep your next smart-ass remark to yourself!” she turned and sprinted after Ninja without a single backwards glance.

A third explosion erupted nearby and engulfed almost three city blocks, almost touching the building directly to their left. Jason saw the light, closed his eyes and covered his ears as the deafening sound generated by the blast roared past him. The structure shuddered and threatened to collapse on top of them. “Run!” Justin's mouth seemed to be shouting. Jason's ears wouldn't stop ringing. The world around him seemed to be spinning, wobbling. It's my ears, Jason thought. My balance is off and I can barely see straight. Like... motion sickness.

According to the Internet's best friend, Wikipedia, the cause of motion sickness is as follows:
“ The most common hypothesis for the cause of motion sickness is that it functions as a defense mechanism against neurotoxins. The area postrema in the brain is responsible for inducing vomiting when poisons are detected, and for resolving conflicts between vision and balance. When feeling motion but not seeing it (for example, in a ship with no windows), the inner ear transmits to the brain that it senses motion, but the eyes tell the brain that everything is still. As a result of the discordance, the brain will come to the conclusion that one of them is hallucinating and further conclude that the hallucination is due to poison ingestion. The brain responds by inducing vomiting, to clear the supposed toxin. ”

Jason forced himself not to throw up, swallowing anything that tried to come up back down. He looked up at the swaying building. If it collapsed, it would take Jason, the others and the Fountain with it. Well, he couldn't save the Fountain, but he could move people.
He tried to move and nearly fell over. A slim hand clamped around his arm and pulled, dragging him back. It was Tiana. She slapped him lightly across the face and pointed to the side, then shoved him in that direction. Jason stumbled a few steps away, and looked back. She and Ninja were doing the same to everyone else, catching their attention and getting them to start moving. It looked like Avery was fine, but he was moving so slowly...


Tiana had just caught up to Ninja when he looked back. His eyes widened. He pulled her close with one arm and thrust the other out, fingers extended and outspread. Blue energy spilled from his hand, and then a blast of (wind?) and a wave of light hit the energy, which spread from the point of contact to surround them in a protective bubble. The blast roared past them and the blue energy fell away, flowing from Ninja's hand. He closed his hand into a fist, cutting the blue energy off. Tiana didn't move until he took her by the shoulders. “Are you unharmed?”
He knows I'm fine. He's just asking me a question so that I'll snap out of it, she realized. I'll make him explain that energy thing later. What's happening here? She pushed her questions to the back of her mind and nodded once, decisively. “I'm fine. What about them?” she asked, looking back at Jason, who seemed disoriented.
“Shall we find out?” was the reply. They both sprinted back the way they had come.

She ran up to Jason, shouting at him. “What are you doing?! The building could fall! Get out of the way!” Justin looked up at her, as though in a daze, then at the shivering skyscraper. He also began to yell at the men, dragging Brice by the arm. His tone was odd... They can't hear, Tiana realized. The explosion deafened them. I have to make them understand some other way... The corner of her mouth twitched. Heh, at least I get to smack Jason again.



I. Hate. Life. It's such a demanding lover. I know you're probably ready to kill me by now for keeping you in the dark, but in all honesty, I don't know what's going to happen next. I just make it up as I go. It's like saying, "I bet I know what'll happen next," but I get to write it down as fact. Then I look at what I just wrote and make more predictions that become real-- as real as fiction gets, anyway.
I'm sure all the erratic and/or late updates are frustrating you. I understand, and I'm sorry. I'm following at least two people who haven't updated in months, and it vexes me. It also give me motivation to come back and write more. If I don't, it's because I don't have the time to spare. Sorry again.

Amazing that you are still doing this
Got no books to read anymore so I'm always really happy when I see that something got posted in this thread

Just noticed that I already said that 10 days ago... But somehow it feels like there's happened a lot in the story since then, even though it wasn't that much text... Don't know if that's because I just like your story, or because there's been much stuff irl recently Anyways, as I said, great story

Thanks again. And, well, a lot has happened in the story, even though it was mostly Tiana's and Skylar's character development. I've yet to work on Jason's, and Quinn... I'm just lost there. Hence I've been avoiding him.

And now, the characters are beginning to assemble, so the story can finally begin to get rolling!
I have no idea what's going to happen next! Isn't it great?!



“Jason, what is wrong with you?!” Jason shook his head. Everything sounded like he was underwater. Tiana gave up in frustration and charged into the building, darting through the panicked crowd of people escaping.
“Tiana!” Jason tried to shout, then gulped and doubled over as his stomach threatened to purge itself, with or without his approval. He cursed quietly and stumbled over to some bushes. Then, his stomach somewhat appeased, he started moving for the building. What exactly was she thinking? It was dangerous to go in there! “Tiana!” he yelled.
“Over here!” her voice called from the upper level. How did she get there so fast? Jason jostled through the people, then jumped onto the reception desk and leaped for the balcony; he managed to snag it by his fingertips. A jacket brushed his face. He looked up to see Tiana holding the other end. “There aren't any bedsheets up here for rope,” she explained. “Just grab it!”
“Can you hold my weight?” Jason asked doubtfully.
Tiana wanted to say, 'Do you have a choice? It's not much of a drop anyway, and there are plenty of people running underneath you to break your fall...' Instead, she nodded. Jason hesitated for a split second, then grabbed the fabric. Tiana staggered for a moment, then braced her feet and pulled. Jason climbed with his feet until he could grab the railing and hoist himself up and over. “Thanks,” he said. No doubt about it. She is much stronger than she looks. Tiana shrugged and started to run off again. Jason caught her shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Let go, you jerk! I'm trying to help!”
“How?”
“Let go and I'll SHOW you!”
Jason released her shoulder as she yanked her arm away and glared daggers at him. “And don't ever grab my arm like that again.” She took off again before he could even apologize. He sighed and followed her as she checked every office, under desks and in closets, even underneath sinks. Jason resisted the urge to question her until they got to a dentist's office. There was nobody in there, but Tiana found a little boy hiding in the storage space under the sink, crying. (He had been in the men's room when the explosion shook the building. The mother carried his little sister out of the office at top speed and was searching for him when she was crowded outside, and couldn’t fight past the mob of panicked people. He had come back to find his mother gone and the office empty. Frightened, he hid under the sink until Tiana found him. This was one of many stories that neither Tiana nor Jason ever heard. The mother could not thank them because she could not find them, but she never forgot them. Her son remembered their faces until he was an old man, how those two saved his life; a little boy that they didn't know, who had been frightened and forgotten by everyone else. He was forever grateful to them... but that's another story.)
“Hey, you. It's time to get out of here, okay? Come here, sweetheart...” Tiana reached under and pulled the boy out. He clung to her, sobbing. “It's okay. I'll make sure you get out of here.” she promised soothingly. “He's scared. Jason, go find someone who can take him outside. We need to keep looking for more like him.” Jason nodded and hurried out. Tiana followed more slowly with the child on her hip. “Shh, it's okay. What's your name? Harry? As in Harrison? Okay, Harry, where's your mother..?”

Skylar inhaled sharply as the interior of the car was flooded with deep, pulsing red light. “Sebastian, please tell me everything via the bluetooth.” At his carefully controlled tone, Molly wrapped her arms around Quinn's paw. Quinn assumed that something was terribly wrong, and Skylar was trying not to scare Molly. Quinn heard everything due to his acute hearing, despite lacking external ears.
“Sir, there has been a series of explosions in the city. No one knows why. It is assumed that terrorists are behind these disasters. Traffic is being redirected and the Elders are advising everyone to get off of the streets.”
Quinn saw a string of emergency vehicles race past silently, thanks to the soundproof car. Molly saw the flashing lights and squeezed Quinn's arm harder. Most humans are comforted by a hug, so Quinn pulled Molly onto his lap. (Yes, I've decided to call it a 'he' until further notice.)
She buried her face in the fuzzy bear costume as Quinn hesitantly put his arms around her. Skylar sighed. “Is it safe to go home?”
“The three explosions occurred within ten seconds of each other. Each destroyed approximately 2.7 city blocks. No more have occurred since 1:24 P.M.”

Jason lifted the corner of a huge chunk of debris, bracing it on his knee, then his shoulder. Tiana darted underneath and dragged a man, with a broken leg, out. “Clear!” she yelled. Jason dropped it again and rolled his aching shoulders with relief. The two had helped dozens of people, from the scared stiff to the trapped and/or gravely injured. He was tired, but Tiana kept going, and he with her. He'd insist they rest only when she looked like she couldn't go on, or if he couldn't. He say that if he lifted another thing he could accidentally drop it on both her and whoever she was trying to help... which would be true.
Then Tiana allowed her legs to collapse underneath her. “You can keep going if you want. I'm taking a break.”
Jason blinked. Had his hearing really recovered, or were they still dulled? He hadn't expected her to have done that of her own accord. Tiana looked up at him. “What? It'd be stupid to wear myself out by doing too much, too soon. I'll be able to do more if I take breaks and keep going for as long as possible. Sit,” she ordered, pointing at the ground. “You need a break, too.”

Maan... I misplaced my jumpdrive, on which I keep my story. *sighs* I guess I save it temporarily on Notepad... but don't expect too much until I find it again.




Tiana rolled her aching shoulders. She didn't want to get up just yet, but every passing second was precious. Someone nearby could be dying, and she was just sitting there. Next to her, Jason was inhaling huge gulps of clean air. Clean air? Where was that coming from?

Since she would've have to stand up to find out, she asked him instead. Jason said that the firefighters had a massive air cleansers running at full power outside the disaster zones. The huge moving truck that was driving to and fro was, in fact, running fresh filters to each unit because they clogged so quickly. The explosions had sent huge plumes of smoke, ash and debris everywhere, choking survivors. A few people had died, not from injuries, but from inhaling filth before the air cleansers were operational. Extension cords, protected by metal piping, wound their way from the massive machine to power lines that were unaffected by the blast.

Miraculously, the Fountain of Youth was still intact. The building was shaky, but it hadn't collapsed. Shock victims were led to the water simply to calm them enough to reason with them. Emergency healers filled special canteens with the magical water. These canteens were round and semi-flat, but they opened from the side; much like uncovering a shallow pool of water. They would calm terrified and panicking people with this water, then preformed their healings before the victims 'woke up' and remembered themselves. The healers saved lives, but as soon as their physical work was done, they moved on, leaving dozens of people to wander amongst the rubble in their shocked and stupefied state. A few simply clung to each other and sobbed. Several were searching for a loved one, a colleague, a friend or all of the above.
Well. Avery had been staring at that water before the disaster, so that explained why he was so detached from the reality of the situation when Tiana had yanked on his arm, trying to pull him to safety.

Tiana shook her head, forcing herself to stand. If she stayed in one place too long, her muscles would retract and refuse to function without great pain for several minutes. Also, she was pretty sure that if she started thinking about her surroundings, she'd break down-- she wouldn't cry, but she'd space out, totally oblivious to anything and anyone around her. The best description she could think of to describe that state of being would be... depression. A lack of will to live. A state in which she would grieve for all the deaths around her for days on end, forgetting to eat or sleep. "C'mon, Jason. Time to get up."

"Easy for you to say," he groaned, accepting her hand to pull himself up. "You're not the one moving heavy objects."

"If you think an unconscious 250 man is easy to move, you're dumber than I think you are." she said, and smiled faintly. "All right, fatty. Let's go before my body begins to scream at me."

"It hasn't been?"

"Nah. It was, but then runner's euphoria kicked in. But if we stop for too long, our bodies will begin to try to repair our torn muscles. Move again after that, and our nerves will begin shrieking, 'What the hell is wrong with you, dumbasses?!' After all, we've been pushing ourselves way beyond our normal limits-- at least, I know I am."

Skylar's fingers tapped a five-note beat on the wheel absentmindedly. He glanced back at Quinn and Molly. Quinn supposed that he would have been willing to engage in conversation, but for the fact that neither he nor Molly spoke unless absolutely necessary. Skylar finally broke the silence by addressing the A.I. "Sebastian."
"Sir?" it acknowledged.
"Exactly how long do we have to sit here?" he inquired.
"Unknown." it answered truthfully.
"Best estimate?" he persisted.
"Due to the emergency and evacuation vehicles taking priority, and taking into account the roadways which have been shut down due to--"
"Sebastian. The estimate, please?"
"6.34 hours. I shall inform you of any changes."
Skylar sighed. "Thank you, Sebastian."

He was quiet for a few minutes, then reached for the controls, activating the radio.
"--devastating reports of fire and--"
"--thousands of people are fleeing the--"
"We interrupt this to bring you breaking news--"
"--are advising everyone to stay inside, and ask that all available personnel--
Skylar frowned and flipped channels faster and faster. Nothing but news reports, warnings, static and awful music reigned upon the airwaves. He finally cut it off in frustration. "Sebastian."
"Sir?"
"What do we have in the form of music?"
"Your music, classical, and the mix your sister sent."
"Oh, good lord..."
"She asked you to listen to it before she returned, and she surely will after this turn of events."
"I just have to listen to a few songs, right?"
"All of it, sir."
Skylar closed his eyes in resignation. "Why does she insist on exposing me to current music?"
"Because she has voiced her disapproval of your taste in music on several occasions. She is convinced that you will find a genre that you can tolerate and come to love if she has you listen to enough varieties. She chose each song herself to ensure that none would be outright repulsive, as is most mainstream music."
Skylar chuckled quietly as he scrolled through the list. Several of the songs were Shawn's compositions. "She likes the music that I fund. Shouldn't that say enough?"
"She knows that you simply fund it because of the money. You even admitted the fact that you do not listen to Shawn Connor's music."
"Did I?" Skylar murmured, still scrolling, selecting the song titles that caught his eye.
"She also mentioned that you should listen to them in the order in which she uploaded them."
Skylar shook his head with a laugh, deleting the list he had been creating. "She was always rather bossy, even as children. All right, I'll play along."

*insert playlist of your favorite music*




Tiana tore ahead, entering a half-broken building and dashing up the exposed stairs. Jason stayed right behind her, wincing whenever an officer yelled "Get away from there, it's not safe!" at them.
Jason knew it wasn't safe, but he figured that Tiana wouldn't care. He didn't much care about his own safety, either, and the two had a better chance of helping and living to tell about it if they worked together. So, he ignored the shouts and kept going.
Which turned out to be a good thing for Tiana, who nearly hit the ground as the stair broke away under her feet. Jason lunged forward and caught the back of her jacket before she fell. Tiana inhaled sharply as she stared at the three-story drop beneath her as she dangled from Jason's hand. He let out a small grunt of exertion, braced his feet, twisted the tough cloth material around his hand for a better grip, and slowly pulled her back towards himself. "Are you okay?" he asked the moment she was safely standing next to him. She nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Thanks."
Jason shrugged. "It's nothing."
Tiana stopped, turned, and looked into his face. Her deeply colored eyes seemed like they were looking straight into his soul. Jason hadn't noticed what strange eyes she had before-- greenish-grey, and had a strange blue tint in them. A puff of dust and smoke clouded the sun for a moment, and her eyes looked brownish black. When it passed, they were back to grey/green and blue. They stared at each other for a while, then Jason finally asked, "What?"
Tiana didn't look away. "Who are you, exactly?"
Jason was getting tired of waiting for her to get to the point, but there was something in her tone that made him apprehensive. "I... what?"
"What were you doing in Area 2319?"
"What are you trying to get at?"
"You've given up on life." she said. "Why?"
Of all the things Jason was expecting to hear, this was not one of them. "What are you--"

"Please don't play dumb bunny with me," she said dismissively. "It's insulting. You really don't care whether you live or die, do you?"

Jason wasn't sure what to say. But it was true, so he nodded. "But why should you care?"

"Because giving up on life is stupid. I'm not happy, but I have no great wish to die today. Neither should you."

"You are a real hypocrite, you know that? If I wanted to die, I'd have committed suicide by now. What were you doing in Area 2319?"

"Wandering. Looking for something to do with my life."

"Exactly." he said. She raised a single eyebrow. "I know why I wander. Why do you?"

"I don't think that's any of your business." he said firmly, closing the subject.

Tiana allowed a smile to play at the corners of her mouth. "Fine by me." she replied. She turned to continue ascending the stairs when he said, "Tiana."
"Hmm?"

"Two questions."

"Shoot.

"First, what is your real name?"

"A secret."

Of course.

"And what color are your eyes?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again with a thoughtful expression. "I... actually don't know. Cyrus used to say that my eyes are the color of nature. Besides that, all he would say was that they're hard to describe, and that they change. He tried once. 'Blue for sky, sea, and ice. Green and brown for the forests and earth. Honey-gold for the sun and stars, and black for the night.' They change according to my mood and the environment I'm in. But," she said, "I don't spend all my time looking in a mirror, so I wouldn't know. Now come on, there are people who need help."


The two of them ran into a team of four firefighters and an older lady. They were helping her down as quickly as they could, which wasn't very fast. Jason stepped in to help, and they moved just a little faster. Tiana ducked into an empty room and found a two-year-old girl tugging at the limp hand of her mother, crying. Tiana knelt by the pile of debris and felt the wrist of the hand for a pulse, but found none. She picked the little girl up and carried her out just in time to yell, "Look out!"

Jason's head snapped back to see as a chunk of the building above their heads falling, rushing towards them with frightening speed.

Time stood still as Jason watched, spellbound, as the literal ton of bricks came rushing down in slow motion. Then it hit the stairs slightly above them, wrecking the top of the staircase and making it impossible to climb any higher, then bounced over their heads to land just beyond Jason and destroy the path back down.
Then time came rushing back, as if to make up for what had been lost, and Jason realized that his heart had stopped for several seconds.

Tiana rushed past him, as close to the edge as she dared, and screamed a warning to the people below. The figures on the ground had just enough time to scatter out of the way of the modern boulder of doom; one of them used to play baseball, judging from the way he dived to the side in the nick of time.

The elderly lady nearly fainted. The child in Tiana's arms began to sob anew, and one of the firefighters swore quietly. "A hair slower, a step faster, and we'd have been creamed." he said.
"This way," the leader ordered. "We'd better find another way down."
Tiana looked up from cradling the little girl and voiced her suggestion. "Elevators, anyone?"
"That's the last thing we want to do," another said. "Don't you know anything about safety?"
Jason decided to cut off the argument before it started. "All right, but why, Tiana?"
She pretended not to notice his assistance; though without it, she probably would've engaged in a five-minute argument with the firefighter. Five minutes is an awfully long time to be perched on the outside of a skyscraper.
"Because," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "We need to get inside anyway, and I can climb down the cables for help. I heard someone say it was stuck on the sixth floor-- this floor. There might be people who need help there, too. I could list a few more reasons, but that'd be an even greater waste of time. Come on, Jason. If you don't know better than to ignore me by now, you'll be the supreme dunce over all the village idiots of the world."

With that, she turned and disappeared into the building again. Jason gestured after her, and followed. A moment later, the rest followed.
Inside, she picked her way over, between and through the wreckage. The door into the hall was hanging on one hinge at a lopsided angle. She pushed it aside with her foot and continued on, searching for another exit. She heard the others following her, but she didn't allow herself to look back; doing so would display hesitation. She hoped that the child wouldn't notice how fast her heart was beating. Two near-death experiences in as many minutes-- what cursed star had she been born under? This stuff never happened to normal people...

At the moment, her heart felt like it was going to beat itself out of her chest. She took a deep, shaky breath and kept moving, reaching deep inside herself to find that endurance she knew she had. A moment later, she felt fine. "Thanks, Mom, Dad," she whispered. Dwarves and dryads; trees and earth-- both are incredibly strong. Today, her heritage served her well.

Tiana reached the elevators with no problems. Faint thumping came from the inside, then a metallic thunk. Tiana watched in mute curiosity as Jason and the others caught up to her. "What's wrong?" Jason asked as she stared at the doors. The doors cracked open, as if to answer. One of the firefighters pulled a crowbar out and began to help pry it open. A janitor was applying the same technique from the inside, with the help of a few businessmen who were trapped on the same ride.

Once the doors opened, the firefighters explained what happened to trap them in the first place. "So where's the exit? I'm a visitor, so I'm not quite familiar with the layout of this building's unique design." a tall man, wearing a blue suit, said in his British accent. Tiana noticed that he was wearing red sneakers. Something must've happened to his normal shoes, she reasoned. Interesting what things she noticed in a time of crisis.
Everyone looked to the leader of the team for directions. If he didn't know what to do, who would? He tried to calm everyone, saying, "The stairs are not safe, so we're going to stay here until a fire engine gets us a ladder. Please remain calm, and don't worry. We're going to get you out of here safely. Wait here while we go look for more survivors. Randy," he turned to one of his teammates, "Stay here with them. We'll call you if we need you."
"Got it, chief."
"Good. All right, let's go, let's go, let's go!" The rest of the firefighters jogged out to search the building. Randy knelt by the elderly lady, fitting a stethescope to his ears. So he's the medic, Tiana realized. He probably has some calming water, and this kid could use some.

After Tiana and Jason had searched the rest of the building, (reuniting the Doctor, who wore the red converse sneakers, with his companion-- he had insisted on coming along to so as to find her,) she decided it was time to leave, fire men or not. Jason was forced to follow her through a window, and jump to the roof of another (lower) building altogether. Together, they kept going into the night, finishing at the ungodly hour of 4:56. 'Finished' meaning 'finished helping bring the crisis under control'. There was nothing else they could do by themselves, no people they could save without a dog or hydra to find them and equipment to dig them out.

Jason wanted to complain, but refused to let himself whine. If Tiana could keep her loud mouth shut, so could he. All he said was, “I wonder where the others are.”
Tiana shrugged.
They passed a car that had flipped over from the shock wave; a group of survivors, emotionally traumatized, clinging to each other; a skyscraper tilted at a 45 degree angle, and a team of two healers, coming back for clean healing water.
“I wonder if our stuff is okay,” Tiana mused.
“What makes you say that?” Jason asked.
“Weren't you listening?”
“To who?”
“To whom,” she corrected tiredly. “The firefighter. While he was talking to everyone in that other place-- the one both of us almost died in. This wasn't the only place to blow up. There were three other areas that got hit...”
“areas or Areas?” Jason asked, just to be sure.
“Our hotel-- rather, the hotel in which we stay –could've been destroyed or burglarized in the chaos.” she finished, then answered his question. “Places, sections, spots, areas, whatever. I try to vary my vocabulary so that I don't repeat the same adjectives over and over. Stupid aliens. Area used to be a regular word-- now it's an adjective AND a noun, therefore a source of confusion.”
“You could complain about it to the first one we meet.” Jason suggested.
“You act like we're going to.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if we did.”
“Well, if we ever do I will.”


Tiana fought a yawn and a groan at the same time as Jason fished his card key out of his wallet, sliding it through the sensor. The lock flashed green, and the door unlocked. Jason opened it and stepped back. “Ladies first.” he said, too tired to needle her.
“Thanks.” she said, too tired to make an obnoxious comment. She trudged inside and promptly tripped. Rather than try (and fail) to catch her balance, she let herself topple forward and used her arms to stop before smacking her face on the floor. Jason hit the lights to see what tripped her. It turned out to be Dylan's leg. He, and everyone else, had taken over the living area by dropping like flies; on the floor, draped over furniture, even below and above the coffee table. Jason shook his head slowly and asked a general question. “How did you find me and why are you here?”
“Technically we didn't find you.” Tim's voice was muffled by the pillow in which he had buried his face. “We found the place you're living in.”

Justin had been sleeping sitting up against the wall, next to the door. He lifted his head now, blinking slowly. “Ah, you've returned...” he made as if to stand.
“Don't bother getting up,” Tiana snapped, pushing herself up off the floor. “I sure wouldn't if I were you, to hell with etiquette.” (She knew they were probably thinking, 'You never care about etiquette, but some of us do,' so she continued) “It's stupid. We're all too exhausted to go through the motions, and I might be able to muster enough energy to slap the first one to make the rest of us look bad for not wasting effort. Now I'm going to sleep, and I'm not going to wake up until I'm good and ready. I suggest the rest of you do the same.”
She marched to her room by stepping around and hopping over various bodies. She looked inside then closed the door with a disgusted look on her face. “Are you serious?”
“There are not many girls in this group and there were only three rooms, including this one, so we had to put them in your room.” Justin explained.
“In. My. Bed.” Tiana quietly fumed. “IN. MY BED.”
“They put some blankets aside for--”
“No.” she declared, cutting Justin off and disappearing into the room.
“I got a bad feeling about this,” Jason muttered.
Justin looked at him questioningly.
“She only gets angry about a few things, and I think that sleeping in her bed without permission is one of--”
Thud. “Hey!”
“What--”
“Shut up and go back to sleep.”

Jason crept to the open door. Rita and Morgan were sitting up in a daze. Tiana had flipped the mattress over, and the other two landed on the floor with it on top of them. She was now curling up on top of the boxspring, still dressed and wearing shoes, shunning the blanket that they had left out for her.

Jason closed the door.
Justin raised an eyebrow.

“She got the bed back.”



*sigh* Guys, I'ma have to take a semi-hiatus until December. Projects to write, work to do, gifts to be bought before the prices rocket, family to pacify... y'know, sh*t to get done.

Farewell!

After Tiana and Jason had searched the rest of the building, (reuniting the Doctor, who wore the red converse sneakers, with his companion-- he had insisted on coming along to so as to find her,) she decided it was time to leave, fire men or not. Jason was forced to follow her through a window, and jump to the roof of another (lower) building altogether. Together, they kept going into the night, finishing at the ungodly hour of 4:56. 'Finished' meaning 'finished helping bring the crisis under control'. There was nothing else they could do by themselves, no people they could save without a dog or hydra to find them and equipment to dig them out.

Jason wanted to complain, but refused to let himself whine. If Tiana could keep her loud mouth shut, so could he. All he said was, “I wonder where the others are.”
Tiana shrugged.
They passed a car that had flipped over from the shock wave; a group of survivors, emotionally traumatized, clinging to each other; a skyscraper tilted at a 45 degree angle, and a team of two healers, coming back for clean healing water.
“I wonder if our stuff is okay,” Tiana mused.
“What makes you say that?” Jason asked.
“Weren't you listening?”
“To who?”
“To whom,” she corrected tiredly. “The firefighter. While he was talking to everyone in that other place-- the one both of us almost died in. This wasn't the only place to blow up. There were three other areas that got hit...”
“areas or Areas?” Jason asked, just to be sure.
“Our hotel-- rather, the hotel in which we stay –could've been destroyed or burglarized in the chaos.” she finished, then answered his question. “Places, sections, spots, areas, whatever. I try to vary my vocabulary so that I don't repeat the same adjectives over and over. Stupid aliens. Area used to be a regular word-- now it's an adjective AND a noun, therefore a source of confusion.”
“You could complain about it to the first one we meet.” Jason suggested.
“You act like we're going to.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if we did.”
“Well, if we ever do I will.”


Tiana fought a yawn and a groan at the same time as Jason fished his card key out of his wallet, sliding it through the sensor. The lock flashed green, and the door unlocked. Jason opened it and stepped back. “Ladies first.” he said, too tired to needle her.
“Thanks.” she said, too tired to make an obnoxious comment. She trudged inside and promptly tripped. Rather than try (and fail) to catch her balance, she let herself topple forward and used her arms to stop before smacking her face on the floor. Jason hit the lights to see what tripped her. It turned out to be Dylan's leg. He, and everyone else, had taken over the living area by dropping like flies; on the floor, draped over furniture, even below and above the coffee table. Jason shook his head slowly and asked a general question. “How did you find me and why are you here?”
“Technically we didn't find you.” Tim's voice was muffled by the pillow in which he had buried his face. “We found the place you're living in.”

Justin had been sleeping sitting up against the wall, next to the door. He lifted his head now, blinking slowly. “Ah, you've returned...” he made as if to stand.
“Don't bother getting up,” Tiana snapped, pushing herself up off the floor. “I sure wouldn't if I were you, to hell with etiquette.” (She knew they were probably thinking, 'You never care about etiquette, but some of us do,' so she continued) “It's stupid. We're all too exhausted to go through the motions, and I might be able to muster enough energy to slap the first one to make the rest of us look bad for not wasting effort. Now I'm going to sleep, and I'm not going to wake up until I'm good and ready. I suggest the rest of you do the same.”
She marched to her room by stepping around and hopping over various bodies. She looked inside then closed the door with a disgusted look on her face. “Are you serious?”
“There are not many girls in this group and there were only three rooms, including this one, so we had to put them in your room.” Justin explained.
“In. My. Bed.” Tiana quietly fumed. “IN. MY BED.”
“They put some blankets aside for--”
“No.” she declared, cutting Justin off and disappearing into the room.
“I got a bad feeling about this,” Jason muttered.
Justin looked at him questioningly.
“She only gets angry about a few things, and I think that sleeping in her bed without permission is one of--”
Thud. “Hey!”
“What--”
“Shut up and go back to sleep.”

Jason crept to the open door. Rita and Morgan were sitting up in a daze. Tiana had flipped the mattress over, and the other two landed on the floor with it on top of them. She was now curling up on top of the boxspring, still dressed and wearing shoes, shunning the blanket that they had left out for her.

Jason closed the door.
Justin raised an eyebrow.

“She got the bed back.”



*sigh* Guys, I'ma have to take a semi-hiatus until December. Projects to write, work to do, gifts to be bought before the prices rocket, family to pacify... y'know, sh*t to get done.

Farewell!

Skylar had darkened the windows and played the music quietly. If his plan had been to make Molly fall asleep, it worked. She somehow felt heavier than she had when she was awake, and her breathing was deep and even. Exactly 7.36 hours after it had begun, according to Sebastian, the playlist ended, followed by dead silence for a half hour. Skylar stared at his phone the entire time.

Finally, the A.I. asked him whether or not something was wrong.

“Oh, nothing, really. I suppose my conscience is bothering me, that's all.” he said, not taking his eyes off of his cell phone. It sat in the cradle on the dashboard impassively; the red light blinked slowly as power pulsed from the car, through the fully-charged battery, and back into the dashboard.

“Your conscience, sir?”

“Indeed. I should call my sister, but the moment I turn my phone on again I'll be bombarded by hundreds of unnecessary messages and calls, which will tie up a great deal of wireless bandwidth. Lisa, my mother, the board of directors, ect., will all be concerned for me, but at least my sister would assume that I'm fine until further notice. She'll worry, of course, but she knows that you'd be the first to know if something happened to me, and that I'd have you call her first. Unless otherwise told, she knows I'm fine. Still, she'd like to confirm my safety, but there are hundreds of people who want and need the wireless network more than we do. Turning my phone on would be unnecessary and selfish in the extreme.”

“I had the foresight to take care of that, sir.” Sebastian said smugly.

Skylar sat up. “Excuse me?”

“When the reports of the disasters came out, I composed a message and posted it on your G+ account and tagged everyone of import.”

Skylar sank into the back of the seat in relief, then raised a curious eyebrow. “Thank you, Sebastian. What, uh, did the message say?”

“I gave them all the facts of your situation. You were in your car, you are safe, and you have no idea what caused this to occur but you will endeavor to find out as soon as possible.”

“Excellent. So. How much longer are we going to be stuck here?”

“Another hour or so, I'm afraid. All professionals are working in the disaster zones. There are some teenagers pushing cars and removing debris from this road, but their work is slow.”

“There are teens working out there?” Skylar repeated, as though having trouble understanding.”

Sebastian confirmed that there were.

“And I've been sitting here the entire time?”

After a minute of disbelief, Skylar asked for the location of the teens. Much to the A.I.'s horror, he got out of the car upon receiving the information, and disappeared over a pile of debris.
Molly sat up and yawned sleepily. She had stirred once or twice as the human and mechanical butler exchanged words, but the door opening and closing woke her completely. She looked around, blinking owlishly, then decided to go back to sleep and snuggled against Quinn again.

Skylar returned in about fifteen minutes with an assortment of teens. There were also some stragglers who had been wandering after their own cars were totaled, flipped, or pinned. A few just thought they could make better time on foot, and abandoned their cars.
Skylar got back in the car as they began to move the other vehicles out of the way. Quinn heard some shouted protests from the occupants inside them as Skylar closed the door.

“Exactly where have you been, sir?” Sebastian inquired, with a hint of testiness. Skylar began tapping the touchscreen interface as he answered. “I simply told them that if they began to clear the way in front of me, I could play music for them as they worked, and that I could follow them to continue playing the music. I took one or two aside first and asked them to help me convince the others, and bribed them with the pint of sherbet in the mini-refrigerator for good measure.”

He finished resetting the playlist and activated the external speakers before he added, “They're very tired, and they just want to give up and go home. They needed something to help them keep moving forward, and a pep talk would have been unwelcome. This will help to keep their minds off of what has happened, and perhaps give them a little hope. Who knows? Music is an expression of the mind and heart. There are times when words do not fit the bill. This is one of them.”

“Can I take this to mean that you will be...”

“Remaining here,” Skylar affirmed. “Yes, I'm going to pull my own weight. I've been sitting here for hours while they've been working. I feel like a sloth, and I could use the exercise anyway. This flying jukebox is going to follow them for as long as they work, and I with them.”

“I don't suppose a speech about station, self-protection, and dignity will sway you?” Sebastian asked resignedly, to which the human replied,

“Station ceases to matter in times of crisis which affect all equally; there is safety in numbers; and in the words of John Adams: 'One useless man is a disgrace, two turn into a law firm, and three or more become a Congress!' I am but one useless man at the moment-- staying here may preserve my dignity, but it will utterly destroy my self-respect as a man. Anything else?”

The A.I. was helplessly silent.

“Didn't think so. Don't worry, I'll be fine.”

“As an artificial intelligence, I am incapable of worrying.”

A smile played at the corners of the human's mouth. “Only in the same sense as you cannot lie to my mother.”