Luke's, Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

The staff's new look momentarily distracted Hardison from noticing their vacant smiles--for a second, he'd almost thought it was normal Fandom weirdness that had them dressing up like hot dogs. It wasn't until the Cook looked up from the stove to wave cheerfully at him--instead of ignoring him as was right and proper--that Hardison realized that they, too, had been replaced by creepy pod people.

Snarling at them to stay in the kitchen unless specifically needed to do their jobs, Hardison walked over to the Specials board and erased it. There were a lot more important information to be kept track of than the food on-order today (flapjacks, flapjacks and more flapjacks, in case anyone cared). When he was done noting everything he could think of on the board, he kept it propped up in the window to attract attention. Maybe with more info than what they had, they could figure something out.

That done, Hardison set up at a booth with several laptops, trying to figure out how they were keeping communications down and seeing if there was anything he could break. He was in the mood to cause a lot of trouble today.

TODAY'S SPECIALS
flapjacks!

People w/out Powers:
*Atton
*Jono
*Bo?
*Raven

People w/out Weapons:
*Cara
*Zoe

Missing People:
*Eliot
*Parker
*Surreal?
*Cosima

Other Weird Stuff
*Pets missing and/or wrong
*Most PEOPLE wrong (LOOK AT LUKE'S STAFF)
*Force field
*No communication from outside island
*Anyone's phone working?
*Jono healed(?)
*Creepy towers

YO! PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PART!
According to a chat I had with someone named Kinzie, we're actually in some kind of Fandom sim, a lot like the Danger Shop, only up on some weird alien spaceship. As an FYI.

FEEL FREE TO ADD!

Comments

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I got a data dump from from someone named Kinzie who's still down on Earth an' I'm going through that now. The best thing I can think of for you to do?" He pointed to the board. "We need more info. We need to know who's here, what's up with them, if they've undergone any changes, that kind of thing. The more info we have, the sooner we can figure out to ruin Zinyak's whoooole day."

[tigerundercover]

"Intel." Raven nodded. "Okay, I can do that." She gave Hardison a sympathetic look. "I heard your broadcast earlier. I'm sorry about your boyfriend and girlfriend."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah." Hardison dropped his eyes back to the table, shoulders slumping slightly. "I'm guessin' they were just ejected from the sim?"

He just didn't know what that meant. Were they being held prisoner somewhere? In stasis? Kicked off the ship? He was half-tempted to try to do something to get himself kicked out, too, just to find them, but he couldn't ignore Parker's Mastermind voice in his ear, telling him to play it safe, play it smart. They had students here he needed to protect, he could do so much more good here than...wherever they were.

[tigerundercover]

"But why?" Raven asked. "Why do they even have us here? Is it just to keep us busy?" She shook her head. "You said on the broadcast they were roughing a guy up. So -- maybe they were causing more trouble than that Zim or whoever wanted. They probably wouldn't want any chance they could get loose on the spaceship, either."

Which was a decent argument for "stasis." Or, well. Outright killing them. But Raven wasn't about to say that out loud.

"Maybe -- maybe they just got . . . bumped. Sent to another, I don't know, level or something? Where they have pointless bad guys to fight and can't make so much of a mess in this one?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"He did say this was sim...what number did you just rattle off? Maybe if I do a bit more diggin' around in their systems, I can get a better idea of what other sims are out there." He sighed, feeling a little better with a possibility that wasn't just 'murder.' "But why have sims with violence and not this one? I mean, if he can recreate Fandom down to the freakin' scratches in Luke's linoleum, how'd he miss y'all like to brawl like every night's MMA night?"

[tigerundercover]

"Kind of a random one," Raven admitted. "He said forty-something. Five. Simulation 45y." She nodded. ". . . Probably. And I'm guessing he missed that the same way he didn't figure out that the people who work in the service industry don't actually go around like they've had lobotomies."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Crap AIs in the NPCs," Hardison said. "I wonder if we can use that. Maybe overload 'em with commands their systems were meant to deal with an' then see what happens." He glanced back into the kitchen and his frown deepened. "Except they had to go an' look like people we see everyday. Friends an' colleagues, you know?"

[tigerundercover]

"That's probably deliberate." Raven didn't have so much of an issue, since she didn't actually have a job in town. "If they can't subdue us with mindless happiness, then they'll do it by playing on our sympathies."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I hate this," was Hardison's very helpful contribution to the conversation. "Man, two days ago, if someone had asked if there was any circumstances I would not be havin' a great time hackin' on a alien spaceship, I'd'a said hell naw. An' yet, here I am."

[tigerundercover]

"Fandom's really good at that," Raven said. "Taking things you thought would be fun and making them terrifying."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Congrats, Fandom," Hardison growled. "You could probably find a way to literally fuck up a wet dream."

Beat.

"You did not just hear me say that, by the way," he added. "Like, at all, if we're still tryna hold onto student-teacher respectability or whatever."

[tigerundercover]

"Say what?" Raven grinned and batted her eyelashes at him. ". . . You know Kathy and I basically have a standing bet on when you guys are going to ask us to fill in for you because you're all too tired from having sex all weekend, right?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"No, that was not a thing I had known or ever needed to," Hardison said, rubbing his temples. His first thought was, of course, to rib Eliot about it--right. Eliot was gone. With Parker. Together. While he was left alone.

Ugh. Everything about this was the worst.

"Don't y'all have better things to gossip about?" he asked before he got upset again. "Like boys? Or girls? Your own age? Surely y'all have some cute crush to talk about rather'n us old people. Or them old people an' me."

HE WASN'T EVEN THIRTY YET.

[tigerundercover]

"You're seriously underestimating the amount we can gossip," Raven said. She was trying to cheer him up! Or at least distract him. Much the way she might with her older brother.

Little sisters were irritating that way.

"How old are you, anyway?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Twenty-seven," he answered after his mun fudged his birthday considering she missed it completely, whoops. "For another few weeks anyways. Also gossip less. Play more video games."

He was fighting a hopeless battle and he knew it.

[tigerundercover]

That's alright, Eliot's mun's already done that at least once. . . .

"Kathy's showing me some video games," Raven said. "We talk and play at the same time."

Or Raven tried to talk and play at the same time while Kathy shushed her and complained that Raven was missing out on the story.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

If Kathy had known that Raven wanted to chat and play, she would have insisted on the assassin game! That one didn't depend on character development in order to move the plot along!

"I don't suppose there's any chance I can distract you from questions about my love life by askin' you about your game?"

But he asked it with a faint smile, so score one for little sisters.

[tigerundercover]

"I suppose it's a possibility," Raven said. "But only because I don't want you to feel awkward when class is back in session."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"So about that video game?" Hardison asked, smile growing wider. "Or, you know, you can gossip about other people with me. I like gossip!"

He would revise that offer as soon as she started mentioning other students he knew.

"You...got a crush on anyone? Datin' anyone? Engagin' in completely platonic activities that I will hopefully never have to report on the radio?"

[tigerundercover]

"I do have a crush, actually," Raven said, appreciating the fact that it was next to impossible to notice her blushing when she looked like this. "But I haven't even told Kathy about it yet, so I don't think I'm going to start telling a teacher."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison raised an eyebrow and actually slid his laptop out of the way so he could grin at Raven. "Ain't told your bestie so can't tell me?" he asked. "Or ain't told your crush and so can't tell me?"

[tigerundercover]

Both, honestly.

"I plead the fifth," she said, extremely glad her blushes didn't show. "And I might have more than one crush."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I just want you to know that when this craziness is all over an' we're all home safe, I'mma buy a buncha ice cream an' make Parker an' Eliot sit down with me while we guess who you two have crushes on. I just want you to know that."

[tigerundercover]

"I'll be sure to warn Kathy. So we can sneak in in disguise and watch."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Gonna have to be some disguise," Hardison snorted. "Considerin' we're the only three people who'd be there. I mean, I know you can do it, but what's Kathy gonna do? Pretend to be a houseplant?"