'Mutation of the Dark God' Showing

[Roach Copeland]

(Most of you were told about this IC. Basically, Roach and some people are going to a movie Sunday. If you weren't told in game about it, don't worry about it! Come along if you want! It's not like this trip to the movies was hidden)

Roach left before anyone else. Or that is, he didn't wait around for people to meet him in the school's courtyard. He had stuff to do. For one, he had to trade his Mardi-Gra sharks for that broken television set. Then he had to trade that for the sack full of C battery packs. Haul that back and then run for the Movie Eight in Kings Row.

He was surprised, to say the least, to make it with time to spare.

So, he got his ticket, debated on waiting for others before deciding against it, and moved into the theaters.

Ticket? Check. Popcorn? Check. Hidden can of coke shoved in his pants? Check. And of course, a collection of candy. Life savors, suckers, and sour-suckers.

He was golden.

So, he sat in the near-empty theater, chillaxing in the mid-row. He checked his watches, snorting abit, before looking back up at the screen. Twenty or so minutes until the movie started. And he didn't know about anybody else, but he was looking forward to some clearly fake horror instead of an actual haunting taking place.

[Milo Black]

It made Mom and Dad happy. Mom cried a little. They talked about seeing movies for the rest of lunch. I have to stay the whole time. I have to be quiet. That's easy. Sondra has to be quiet. No one can say those things during the movie. The police radio has to be quiet. That's easy too because I have to stay.

I had to get here early. Fifteen minutes. In case there's a line. I had to leave the warehouse. Some of them got away. They'll do it again. I'll find them. There wasn't a line. My shirt has a hole now. I didn't change after lunch. It was faster. My glasses aren't broken. Mom won't be angry.

The building has a lot of people in it. Too crowded. They'll get hurt if there's a fight. They should know better. They don't. Never go in unless you know every way out plus two. My uncle said it. Front doors. Hall doors. Fire doors in the theaters. Roof access upstairs with the projection booths. Thin walls.

Roach is in the theater. He has a lot of food. He's hungry a lot. He carries food like I do. There are a lot of seats. I should sit on the same row. I don't know where the others will sit. Are sitting. There's no one else sitting on the row. Yet. Now. Next to him. Left side. I'll move when they get here. Get back.

"Hi."

[Designation Alice]

Ever since Alice had seen the poppet-y version of herself, she had been trying to program a similar look. Normally, such a thing would have been much easier. It was always more difficult to work from the imagination, which was the core of her struggle with faces. If she had an image burned into her memory, she could just replicate everything from it to create a like image. When she spent a lot of time on a copy, it was usually difficult to tell the difference on the surface. Of course, Alice's eyepiece hadn't been functioning properly. The image she had in her head was incomplete, and the face... Well it had been the Poppet's creepy sewn up face and that wasn't exactly an improvement over having a metal face. Still, she had done her best to replicate what she'd seen. The image of herself wasn't one she had programmed into her belt - but it still felt familiar. The long ginger hair, the fleur de lis t-shirt.... The arm warmers. She knew those clothes. She knew the small shoulders, the converse-clad feet. All of it. And she couldn't get it right no matter how hard she tried. Her scope had been off. She'd been seeing double for a lot of that battle after the vertigo had set in, but she'd powered through it somehow. Still, it left her with some sections she just couldn't get right in her holoimage. The length of the hair was a problem, but she'd managed to get it to her shoulders. The color was off, but she kind of liked the way the blonde faded into orange at the tips. She had put in an effort and that's what mattered.

Alice stowed the change back in her leg-compartment. Her hologram flickered as she closed the casing and stood back up. The thin field encasing her jumped back up again and she walked into the theater. She glanced around, spotting a few people scattered in the seats before her gaze finally came to a rest on Roach, already next to Milo. A smile stretched across her face and she walked down the aisle until she came to his row. In the most nonchalant way she could muster, she slipped in, inching over before settling down in the chair next to him on the right side. She rested her hands in her lap and tilted her head to give Roach a sideways glance. He'd know it was her for sure, but it was fun to pretend.

She cleared her throat, shifting the sound of her voice just a little to see if she could throw him off. She knew she couldn't... But what the hell, it would be fun to pretend she could trick him the way she did with 'Peaches' right?

"Is this seat taken?" She flashed a smile as she leaned back against the seat.

[Jeremy Paterson]

Jeremy had planned to get there a bit earlier, but he'd gotten distracted by an ice cream truck over on 7th Street. Sure, he'd had to gobble down his ice cream sandwich before he got to the theater, but it was an ice cream truck! How cool is that? Laterally even! And the sandwich didn't even give him an ice cream headache!

But he still had plenty of the time, maybe he'd left earlier than he thought? He really didn't pay that close of attention to the time when he left. He got in line--hey, no line! He got to skip the line part and go right to the ticket. It didn't look like anyone was waiting around in the lobby area. He bought a big tub of popcorn (extra butter!) and a big soda (Fanta! they didn't have Sunkist) and a box of Junior Mints, then went on in to find a seat.

Hey, there's Al and Roach and Miles! But where's everybody else? Guess he really was earlier than he thought. He went down the aisle and went for the open seat to Miles' left, stumbling a bit over a nearly empty tub that someone had left on the floor, but fortunately he didn't spill anything! He got settled into his seat.

"Hey hey guys! This seat's open right Miles? I mean, it's obviously open but I didn't know if maybe someone was in the bathroom and coming back for it or something. I can totes move if they are! How's everybody? Ready to see a movie??"

Jeremy stuffed a small handful of popcorn in his mouth. Ack! He forgot salt! Dammit. It was still good though.

[Roach Copeland]

Roach blinked and tossed a glance up as Milo spoke. To say he was surprised to see him would not be needed due to the fact of the yelp as he pulled his hands from his pants- He had been trying to slip that coke out from his crotch. Seeing that it was Milo and not an attendant made him take in a breath and go back in for his coke.

Out of everybody, the guy always had a way of just sneaking by unnoticed! Usually, it was the opposite. The quite ones were always the type to end up being the loudest thinkers. Funny how things worked. Milo, though? Not so much. And maybe he was very much in his head but the boy just had a way of not tuning with Roach.

Sort of creepy.

"Otis, bro!" Roach said as he slapped the arm rest next to him. "Seat down and prepare yourself for a piece of cinematic history! This movie has it all," he said as he held up a tub of popcorn towards Milo. "Action, adventure, love, explosions, girls, explosions, and bigger explosions."

He flashed him an amused enough smile before snapping the tab of his can of coke, opening it up just as he faked a sneeze. No sense giving anybody else the idea he'd snuck some stuff in. And it was about midway through that drink of Coke, he felt a familiar presence.

Alice.

She was trying to be sneaky. He remained calm, sipping from his coke until she had taken the seat next to him. He tossed a glance her way, flashed a grin at the new look - rockin' look! - and wiggled his eyebrows towards her. "Hey there, Person-I've-Never-Seen-Before. I was savin' that seat for someone else but you're such a better offer."

And with that, he pulled out the bag of candy. "Sour-Sucker?"

[Roach Copeland]

Roach tossed a glance up as Jeremy came up, throwing him the usual lazy, two-fingered salute. "Sup, Einstein. Glad to see my bros didn't ditch me. Seems like we might be the only ones makin' it."

Roach paused, watched Jeremy shove a handful a popcorn into his mouth, and then grinned. Ah, Jeremy. He liked Jeremy. He was... simple. Not in a bad way, of course! He was just who he was. No complicated thoughts. Just point A to point B and that was it.

Roach reached into he pocket and pulled out an actual shaker of salt. Where he got it? Who knows. But Roach's pockets seemed to store many things- mostly wallets- but today, Jeremy was in luck. Whistling towards the teenager, he held up the salt shaker before tossing it his way.

"I got you covered, bro-heme."

[Designation Alice]

All of the laughter Alice was able to contain at his silly eyebrow wiggle came out in a small series of stifled giggles at his reply. She cleared her throat and dropped her hand back into her lap. "Well that's nice of you, Person-I've-Never-Met" She replied in a lighthearted tone. "I don't know where else I would have gone if you had said no. I might have had to stand in the aisle." It was a joke, of course. Most of the seats in the theater were still empty. She flashed him a crooked grin before giving his arm a small, friendly nudge and dropped the facade. "How long have you been waiting here?" She leaned forward to look at Milo, giving him a friendly wave, "Hey!" She was surprised to see him there, honestly. He hadn't seemed all that enthused by the invitation, but then Milo didn't ever seem to be enthused about anything. She leaned back in her seat as Roach pulled out his bag of candy. Her eyebrows shot up and she held out a hand, "Sour-sucker...?" She dipped her hand into the bag slowly before pulling out one of the candies.

The wrapper showed a cartoon face making a sour expression. Alice mimicked it with a thoughtful frown, puckering out her lips like a fish. Sour. She couldn't remember what that was like. She tore the small packaging and popped the hard candy into her mouth without hesitation. It sat on her tongue for a moment before an explosion of flavor began overwhelming her mouth! Sour. This was what sour was like. She remembered it. Alice's eyes bugged out in surprise and she nearly coughed up the sour lemon candy right then and there. She rolled the sucker around in her mouth, shaking her head before staring at Roach with a wide-eyed expression.

"Ith Rerry SOUR--" she burst, scrunching up her face. Aside from the lollipops Roach had given her, Alice's taste buds hadn't tasted a whole lot of anything. Saliva. Blood. What remained of her organic stomach could break those down enough to digest them, and the sugar from the lollipops hadn't caused any problems so far. All the energy she needed to run came from raw sources of power, and if her body ever needed fluids she would return to her dorm to hook up to the sizable machine under her bed to pump her full of all the nutrients and hydrating fluids she needed while she recharged. In all honesty, Alice didn't know what would happen if she actually swallowed something solid. She only knew that her stomach had been operated on, and the thought of eating set off a dozen red flags and warnings in her brain that told her it was a horrible HORRIBLE idea. That she would cease functioning properly. Alice was happy to listen to those orders. In the meantime, she would continue to take risks with the small candies Roach was providing her with.

This sour candy, however, blew all of those other flavors out of the water. Alice coughed a few times, covering her mouth with her hand to keep the candy from flying out as she struggled to keep her lips closed. She was a trooper, keeping her expression scrunched until enough of the outer coating had dissolved for her to stand the flavor. Her tongue still tingled as her mouth watered. "... This is AMAZING!" She burst as she watches Roach, "How many of those do you have!?" Theaters normally drove her insane. The smell of popcorn... Extra butter. Chocolate. Sodas. She couldn't have any of it. But with these candies -- well... Maybe she wouldn't be able to focus on the smells with such a strong taste in her mouth.

She looked up at the sound of Jeremy tumbling over and leaned forward with laughter. "Hey Jeremy... Glad you could make it!"

[Jessie Sullivan]

Jessie flew through the streets, barely skimming the tops of the skyscrapers in her path, as she tried to get to the movie theater on time. She hadn't planned on being this late but she'd been so wrapped up in her repairs that when she'd glanced at the time Jessie realized she only had twenty minutes to get to the theater. She'd thrown her mostly-in-one-piece gloves into her messenger bag, which was already full of candy, and zipped right out a window.

Flying certainly made getting places easier. No waiting for subways or streetlights. No dodging slow moving tourists. Plus, Jessie simply loved flying. Being able to just get up and fly, and it not really being something out of the ordinary, was quickly becoming one of her favorite parts of moving to Paragon.

She dropped to the ground in an alley near the movie theater and dashed inside. Landing right in front of the theater, while faster, probably wouldn't have been a good idea, despite Jessie's complete lack of a secret identity. Thankfully, it was pretty empty so Jessie didn't have to worry as much about her amped speed leading to a high speed collision with some poor, unsuspecting civilian.

Ticket now acquired, Jessie slipped into the theater with barely a few minutes to spare. She quickly spotted the others and made her way over. Maybe she wouldn't be the latest person to show after all.

“Hey guys,” Jessie said as she slung her messenger bag over her head and plopped into the open seat next to Jeremy. “Sorry I'm late.”

[Elijah Elliot]

Eli glanced at the time as he walked into the theater. He had only minutes to spare. He probably should have headed over sooner, but he'd been trying to finish editing one of the video tracks for his Diego project. He wanted to get that out to him within the next day or two, and now that spring break had been bumped forward, he really should have no problem doing it.

He bought a ticket, then got a Coke and a medium tub of popcorn before heading in to find a seat. Unsurprisingly, the theater was pretty empty. That made spotting his friends pretty easy. He walked over to their aisle.

"Hey everyone." He gave the group a smile as he sat in the empty seat next to Al. "Not a bad turnout given what we're about to be subjected to."

[Jeremy Paterson]

Jeremy swallowed his mouthful of popcorn as he looked over at Roach. "No way! I was just realizing that I forgot the salt, how'd you know to bring some?" He caught the salt shaker when Roach tossed it, then started sprinkling it over his popcorn liberally. "Did the spirits tell you?! I bet the spirits told you. You need to read my fortune again sometime!" A few more shakes, jostle the bag a bit to get it to settle down to the lower levels of popcorn... perfect! "Thanks for the save!" He tossed the shaker back to Roach when he seemed ready to catch it, trying not to have any dump on Miles as it flew over him.

He stuffed another small mouthful of popcorn in his mouth. Salt and butter and popcorn! Perfect! He stuffed a bigger mouthful of popcorn in his mouth. Okay, maybe that was too big a handful.

He perked up when Jamie took the seat next to him. "'ey Jayee, 'ow're 'oo?" Definitely too big a mouthful of popcorn! He swallowed some of it down, half-chewed, then tried again. "Hey Jamie, how're you?" He gave a smile, making sure not to make it an open-mouthed one since there was still some popcorn left in his mouth. He should probably finish chewing that.

He heard Eli greeting everyone and turned to give a small wave, then realized he was still sitting next to Miles and gave him a random nod (don't want to just ignore him after all, even if he did forget he's there sometimes). He swallowed the remaining popcorn, then turned back to Jamie. "Think anybody will complain about me sparking during the movie? I mean it's not all that bright but when it's dark it's kinda more noticeable, right?"

Maybe he should have brought a blanket or something to throw over himself. Of course he'd have to leave his head out and that would still spark, and if he was under a blanket he'd have a hard time eating his popcorn and Junior Mints--where'd he put those, anyway? Shit! They were in his pocket. He took them out before they had a chance to melt (they sometimes did that when you left them in your pocket) and tucked them next to him on the seat, hoping they wouldn't fall through to the floor and get lost--what had he been thinking about? Oh well, he took a drink of his Fanta--blanket! That's right! Yeah, it probably wouldn't work, plus it'd probably make him look like some sort of old lady or something, which he clearly wasn't.