| Dazzling Encounter in Mutant Town |
| Summary: | Dazzler is found in Mutant Town by Douglock who then brings her to Xaviers' Institute. |
| Date: | 2016-10-03 |
| Related: | NA |
| NPCs: | Street Vendor |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Logfile from Douglock @ Marvel Reborn: 3 Oct 2016.
At the X-Mansion:
An alert pops up within the computer systems of the Mansion. One of the various sub-routines has found a small article upon the net, buried beneath all of the other more important news article. It reads:
Alison Blaire found!
Beneath the headline, a small picture of Alison Blaire appears, though it seems she no longer sports her more punk-rock-glam look. If the article is read the highlights will simply states more questions than not: Where has she been? Why is she hiding from the limelight? Is she secretly pregnant with another rockstar's baby?
Either way, the picture was taken in Mutant Town and while her hand was raised upward slightly to cover her face, the photog was still good enough to snap a three-quarter view of her face for the on-line magazine.
Mutant Town:
It hasn't been long since Alison Blaire, aka Dazzler, awoke to this strange world. In fact, when she first awoke she seriously considered this to be some sort of trick. Some sort of telepathic attack, to be exact, but after the run-in with the paparazzi Ali had to reconsider that original thought. It's only after a few days have gone by that the young woman has finally began to lurk more upon the streets than shadows of Mutant Town. In fact, today, she's become brave enough to casually stroll down the street. It's only when she approaches a small coffee kiosk that the freedom fighter will pause. A brief flicker of amazement will wash across her features, as she spies the so easily accessible food.
It's been years since she's seen food so freely bought -
And so, she stands in line. She may not have much, but she's managed to scrounge a few dollars here and there, though perhaps not in the nicest of ways.
Her clothing is low key, as is the tattered hooded sweater that's pulled up and around her face. Sunglasses also obscure a good portion of her face to help conceal who she really is (or isn't in this case).
In the computers at the X-Mansion:
A@r0n, a Gamma forks that Douglock installed into the system to monitor the system for such searches, arises instantly from his root-kit-like quasi-slumber the moment the alert sub-routine activates. He activates Ay-ron-wuhn, a companion Gamma fork A@r0n had previously created by stripping down his structure even further to be a message delivery system, and tells the other fork to notify their Primary that Alison Blaire has been found in Mutant Town, with GPS coordinatnts of the specific location of the blip he double checked with Cerebra. As Ay-ron-wuhn departs, A@r0n begins the process of creating Ay-ron-too so that he is prepared for the next time he needs to send such a message.
Ay-ron-wuhn exits the specific computer his Secondary is residing in and travels though the wiring to the nearest wireless hub. He surfs the institutes WiFi network until he reaches Doug Ramsey's room and sends a signal to urRamsey, who is aware while Douglock is resting, before downloading into Douglock's mind and alerting him of his presence.
As Doug awakens the "cord" extended from his shoulder unplugs from the wall jack and retracts back into his body. He stands and, as he leaves the room, reintegrates Ay-ron-wuhn into his consciousness. He leaves his room and the northern administration building quickly. After collecting one of the many motorcycles in the garage he drives off the campus heading towards New York City…
Destination, Mutant Town!
By the time Douglock makes his way into Mutant Town, Alison will find herself next in line. Apparently this particular coffee kiosk is quite popular, perhaps because they have donuts and bear claws to go along with the hot beverage.
While she stands in line, Alison will keep her ears open for any chatter she can hear around herself. The conversation, while lacking in real intel, does allow the would-be singer to get a feel for this particular world.
'G'morning.'
'Hello'.
'Black with one sugar, please'.
All typical chatter. The kind of talk one would hear before Apocalypse took over the world. It's enough to have her glancing over her shoulder at the normal seeing day. Still, even with the normalcy of the talk, Alison can still see this world has its own problems. She can still see homeless people about, not to mention the fact that one whole town is devoted to mutants -
"What will you have?" Asks the kiosk worker to Alison and with a blink, the woman turns her attention back to the front. Internally she chides herself - really Alison, if this were back home, they'd have killed you by now.
"Black." She says quietly, offering the few dollars to the young woman, "With four sugars." She adds that last part hastily, it's been so long since she's really had a huge supply of sugar. Once the sugars have been added, the kiosk worker will offer the coffee to Alison. "Thanks." Comes the blonde's voice, before she's stepping out of line and merging back into the pedestrian flow of traffic.
Douglock approaches the kiosk from the direction Alison is heading away from, following the "Dazzler blip" on his internally emulated portable Cerebro, just as the barista calls out, "Hey! You have to pay for that!"
Instantly putting two-and-two together, Doug produces his Xavier's Visa and hands it to the young man. ":Give yourself a tip and hold onto that for me,:" he says in his strange, artificial-sounding voice which isn't that unusual in this part of New York at least, ":I'll be right back.:"
Stepping up his pace just a bit without running, Doug moves to catch up with Dazzler and says, ":Alison?:" just loud enough for it to carry to her though the noise of traffic to get her attention.
Payment.
She forgot. She's so used to a system of bartering, or of everyone freely taking what's needed, as long as it's not in excess, that she forgot to hand over the few crumpled dollars held within her other hand.
As soon as the Kiosk owner calls out, Alison will pause mid-step and start to turn back towards the portable coffee shop. It's with that movement that Alison's gaze will fall upon Douglock. And it's easy enough to tell he's coming for her -
While this world is less dangerous than her own, she can't discount anything, especially when an odd looking young man is calling out her name.
Her hot coffee is looked at and with a grimace, Ali will toss the black liquid at Doug. Then she runs.
Darting between a group of obvious mutants, Alison will twist between them, before she heads towards an alleyway that leads to the next street over.
Hot coffee in the face might cause a problem for most people but Doug just converts the organic material to T-O material and drains it of its lifeglow and lets the hot liquids and dust roll down his face to drip to the ground.
Rather than engaging in a chase with an intent to catch up though the crowd at full tilt he instead takes a tactic of keeping up. Also, he uses his ability to read body language to more deftly avoid people so he actually does gain some ground on her entering the alley a few paces behind her.
Doug then does something that Alison might seem tactically unsound - given her abilities - or at least it would make her suspect he doesn't /know/ her abilities: he speaks using vocal amplification causing his voice to echo off the walls of the alley.
":Alison! Stop! I only want to speak with you.:" He stops himself and continues speaking at a loud volume. ":Alternatively, I could yell your /full/ name out so the crowds hear it… you're quite famous here after all!" Ok, a threat… but given her abilities its not /that/ big of a threat… he hopes.
Almost, she was free, nearly out of the alleyway, but when the other mutant speaks with that amplification and says what he does … well, it's enough to cause the blonde to skid to a stop.
She's only a few feet away from the alleyway opening, a few feet away from the freedom of the next street, when she turns upon booted heel. While her gaze is hidden by the chunky sunglasses, it's clear, that she's feeling very defensive, as her hands come upward. Even without that outward sign of her wariness, Douglock, with his abilities could easily read it from the set of her shoulders, the spacing of her feet. She expects to fight for her life very soon.
"Who are you?" She finally asks, her voice rasping just a touch, thanks to the physical exertion she just did.
The body language is very clear to Doug and so he sets his body in a position that says "I am not a threat" to the human subconsciousness - relaxed shoulders and hips, fingers splayed outwards, no tension in the neck… naturally with his non-human nature he is able to leap into action from this stance just like any other but it is one that a /human/ would not be able to be a threat in. He's hoping that this will ease Alison's subconscious mind in a way that cannot help but affect her conscious mind.
He lowers his voice, still projecting it to be heard as he hasn't moved from his end of the alley towards her, but it no longer echos like it did before. ":I'm a friend,:" he pauses and then adds, ":Or a potential friend at least.:" He then asks, ":Would you mind if I move closer? Perhaps we could meet close to the middle so we can speak at normal levels?:"
It takes a handful of seconds for Ali's subconscious mind to accept the non-threatening message Doug is conveying. It starts with a relaxing of some of the tension within her shoulders and then it ends with the short-haired woman's slow agreement to meet within the middle of the alley.
At least here the two are somewhat protected from prying eyes.
"Friend." She states sharply, "I'm pretty sure I don't have any friends here." Slowly her feet walk her towards the middle of the alleyway and while her hands drop to her sides, there's still wariness held within her movements. Once she's close enough to Douglock, she'll really give him the once over. She'll even remove her sunglasses, so she can get a better look at him.
"Are you .. a mutant?" She asks finally, as her gaze takes in his bright eyes and tattoo-esque lines upon his face.
Internally and at his thought rate, Douglock speaks with his fork urRamsey. ("Monitor the credit card. Make sure that she didn't over tip… I'm okay with up to 200% in this case. If she does, cancel the card and order me a new one.") The fork, not needing to speak in this case, simply salutes and sets about the task.
At the same moment, Doug extends a small half cone out of his back as he emulates a white noise generator able to make a sphere of white noise around both himself and Alison, canceling all the ambient sounds of the city out to about a five yard radius around him. He does not turn this on full blast, instead he slowly ramps it up so that after a time the sound is canceled. For now there is only a slight lowering of the volume of the murmur of crowds, the throb of music and the low rumble of traffic and subways moving though the city.
":I am the friend of /an/ Alison Blaire,:" he says somewhat enigmatically, ":So as a courtesy to her I will extend that friendship to you if you're willing to accept it?:"
For now, Alison doesn't realize that her readily available source of sound is being taken away, so slow is the removal.
At the mention of friend and 'an Alison Blaire', Ali can't help but grimace. The hood that half obscures her face will be pushed back, as she considers the young man before her. "I don't think I have much choose, honey." She begins, her voice perhaps sounding the most like this world's Alison with that one sentence. "I don't even know what world I'm in." Her blue eyes will flick around the alleyway for a few seconds, as if she the answers were right there before her.
When her gaze finds itself back to Doug, she'll continue with, "This isn't a dream, is it? Or a trick?" And with that question her lips will twitch towards a slanted smirk, "Though if it were you'd likely not really answer that question honestly, would you?"
Doug laughs, a friendly sound despite the semi-synthetic nature of his voice. ":No, not likely at all. And lets see… in reverse order since I started with the last one. No, this isn't a trick. Not a dream either unless we're all having freaky dreams. You always have a choice. And, yes… I'm definitely a mutant but there's so much more than that.:" At this point the sound has been reduced to three-quarters its original level, only enough where a great intellect or a being with sound-related powers would notice it but… well, he's prepared for a bad reaction to this precaution if it happens.
The laugh, synthetic sounding or not, earns a faint smile from Dazzler. Laughter was such a precious commodity in her world …
And while her mouth opens up to reply to some of what Douglock says, suddenly her attention shifts off to the side.
Blonde brows lower over her eyes now, as she suddenly notices the lowering of the sound. Immediately now, Ali's gaze will snap back to Douglock's. With his powers he should be able to read the tensing of her muscles again. "Are you doing that?" She asks, voice raising a notch in volume as she takes a step forward. "That's a funny way to show you're a potential friend."
Doug does not stop increasing the level of the white noise, but he does slow the rate of increase by quickly halving it, something that Alison likely will sense as she's keyed into it now. He calmly says, ":You were taking a threatening stance earlier. I thought some precaution was in order. This world has a problem, Alison… people from other worlds are replacing natives. Sometimes they are equivalently friendly… but sometimes they are not.:" He makes a guess based on her body language up to this point and says, ":I think your world taught you to be cautious, right?:" and then he calmly asks, ":Is it a sin to practice what you live?:"
That frown still sits upon her features but it lessens somewhat at both Douglock's words and actions. She'll shake her head, even as her hands busy themselves with digging into the pockets of her hoodie. From one pocket she'll pull out a crumpled up pack of cigarettes and while she pulls a cigarette out, she doesn't yet light it. Instead fiddling with it in a clearly nervous tic.
She could believe him, in fact she's almost there, as she considers all that he's said so far. Finally she'll slide the cigarette into her mouth and light it with a suddenly red glowing finger-tip. While she'll never admit what a nasty habit smoking is, she will concede to it non-verbally as she makes sure to blow the majority of the smoke away from Douglock.
"No." She finally admits, "I can't really blame you for doing that. If what you say is true - " About all the replacements, "- Then I would be cautious as well. And just so you know, I'm not a bad guy." She'll offer a faint smile at that, "In fact, I'm one of the good ones. We were fighting Apocalypse. A being who wanted to take over the world and kill both mutant and human alike if they didn't meet his standards of usefulness or powerfulness. In his eyes humans were the ultimate waste and so were many mutants."
Doug stops ramping up the volume on the white noise, holding it at the point where the noises of the city are at about two-thirds their previous level. ":I know of Apocalypse. He exists here and there was a version of him in the world that I am from as well,:" he says, identifying himself as a non-native to Dazzler for the first time, ":It can be very disconcerting to find yourself in a strange world also. Are you residing anywhere or just wandering the streets?"
When Doug reveals that Apocalypse exists within this realm Ali's expression falls. She had really hoped he wouldn't be here, but clearly he hasn't yet done anything terrible. After all, this world is standing? Is mostly whole - yes, there's violence and mutant hate from what she can gather, but it's nothing like her world.
His question earns a rather rueful expression from the songstress, "Mostly the streets. I know the other me -" She says with a touch of hesitancy to her voice, "- has more, but I felt like I was walking over another person's grave." And while more could be said, especially about the paparazzi, she doesn't.
Instead, the blonde will shift away from speaking about the other Dazzler by asking, "So you're a .. what did you call it? A replacement too? What was your world like?" She asks, before she adds with a quirk of a smile, "And a name would be nice too, honey. I hate being rude."
":Oh, right, sorry,:" he says with another laugh, this time a bit self-deprivating. ":I'm Doug Ramsey,:" he says, ":And yes, I'm a DP… displaced person. That's the term I prefer. And I could do some tests elsewhere to confirm that you are actually a DP rather than an amnesiac suffering from False Memory Syndrome, but honestly… its much more likely that you're a DP. There's a place I could take you if you wanted a roof over your head while you figured out what was going on with you… you're practically family there… well, your native counterpart definitely is and until they can find a way to send us back home… if they can that is… we're pretty much opening our doors to DP members."
Doug Ramsey. That name. It means something to her, but for now the elusive memory is lost upon her. The memory is further forgotten as Doug mentions that one important word.
Home. That's enough to bring both a feeling of hope, but also hopelessness.
Hope, so that she returns home to her friends, her family. Hopelessness that she'd leave this world, that while new, is as close to paradise as one can get for someone who's world was made into a desolate warzone.
Those thoughts are scattered from her head with a quick shake, which then turns into a nod. "I would .. like that." She says, "As long as the people realize I'm not the same person. The Dazzler here, she was different than I was. Especially with the amount of paparazzi chasing her. They're likely I didn't Laster them between the eyes. Why you would be hiding behind a bush with a camera …"
Her words fall to low grouses, as she grumbles about those would-be stalkers. "Where are we going?" She'll then ask, as she nods towards the opening of the alleyway, specifically the way the two of them came from. "And sorry for throwing my coffee at you. It's usually not a good thing when a stranger knows your name."
Doug chuckles. ":Its alright, no harm no foul.:" Seeing as they are going to be entering the crowds again in a moment Doug turns off the white noise generator and instantly that missing third of the volume comes crashing down around them again. ":We'd be leaving the city and going north into Westchester, there's a school there… its more than a school though. And I'll post a report explaining that you're a DP and a guest while you get your feet under you. Jean and the others will likely want to talk to you, see if you want to be more than a guest, but that's a good place to start.:" At that he turns and begins walking out of the alley in the direction they came from, walking at a reasonable pace, easy for anyone to keep up with.
When the sound comes crashing in Alison's whole body briefly glows - or rather, sparklies of various hues immediately appear around her body. With a faint wave of her hand the young woman will tame said sparkles and the rainbow of light will simply fade away. Her cigarette, that was barely smoked, is dropped to the ground and snuffed out by a well placed grind of a boot heel. Then her sunglasses and hoodie will be pulled up and over her head, and also over her eyes.
It's easy enough for her to catch up to Doug, as he walks so casually out of the alleyway.
"Westchester?" Again that frown of hers, possibly there was something within her realm that correlates. It's hard to say, as she doesn't expand much beyond that echo of the name.
She'll be quiet for a few steps but eventually her own natural curiousness asserts itself. "So, do they think they'll be able to get us home?" And while she speaks, she'll keep her gaze moving, looking for anything that strikes her as odd, or possibly as a threat.
As the pair walk back to the vendor Alison got her coffee from Douglock shakes his head. ":There are people working on it, but I actually don't think they have a clue as it was truly cosmic power that did this,:" he says. Then he lets the conversation die for a moment as he retrieves and pockets (in what looks like his pants pocket) his credit card. Once they have left the vendor and are just moving though the crowd he says, ":Where there's hope and all… I just have decided to accept it and if they can send me home I'll accept that too.:"
"So, potentially permanent then." Comes her softer tones, even as she shoves her hands deep into the pockets of her hoodie. Her gaze will slide towards Douglock now, as she asks, "What was your world like?" Which might be a coded way of saying; Did you leave anyone behind?
For now, however, Dazzler cannot force those particular words past her lips. When the two pass the Kiosk, Dazzler will offer a faint wave even as she offers an apologetic smile. Truly she forgot.
Next time she'll have to forgo food and drink kiosks in general.
Doug leads Alison to a motorcycle, hastily parked on the side of the street. Luckily the police don't patrol here as much and so there is no parking ticket. ":My world was very similar to this one, no Mutant Town there though,:" he says as he hands her the helmet. ":You will want to wear this so that we don't get pulled over for not wearing helmets,:" he explains. He then glances around to make sure nobody else is looking directly at them and then forms an old style helmet on the top of his head and a leather biker jacket appears to form out of his shirt. He says, ":Hop on, won't be able to talk much until we get there but at least the landscape is prettier once we leave the city,:" as he mounts the motorcycle slightly forward to give Dazzler room to slip on behind him.
The helmet is taken and while she hates to take her sunglasses and hoodie off, she does just that. Her sun glasses are tucked back in her pocket, as she once more shows her face to the world. Thankfully that glimpse isn't too long, as the blonde dons the helmet.
She couldn't quite help but notice Doug's interesting way of acquiring a helmet and biker jacket and so, the Songstress says, "Well, isn't that a neat trick." Humor can be heard from her muffled voice even as she slings one leg over the bike and cozies up to Doug's back.
Her arms will wrap around his torso for stability, as she says, "Ready."
Transition: The scene moved to the main drive at Xavier's.
The ride up to Westchester County is uneventful and, as promised, got prettier after departing the city. The unusual aspects of clinging to Douglock are that his body reflexively conformed to his companion's, he is a little cooler than a human would be and there is a hint of ozone that can be detected after more than an hour pressed against him. Once they get to the estate he stops on the main drive. ":So, this is where I call home. Xavier's Institute or… what ever they're calling it this month. And…,:" he turns his head just a bit further than a human could so he can look at her though the corner of her eye (unnecessary but less disconcerting then looking at her though the back of his head could be he hopes), ":… home of the X-Men which I am a member of and you're native counterpart is associated with as well.:" He says this now knowing that some people could be bothered by this.
The scenery is watched. If a telepath were around they'd like sense the confusion that Ali feels, as she sees all the greenery about. It's so hard for her not to compare to her world, where there was more destruction and death than actual color. Of course, her thoughts are interrupted as she soon realizes that Douglock has indeed conformed his body to her own. If she could say something, she'd likely repeat her words about 'neat tricks'. Nor is it lost upon her in regards to his body temperature or his smell; but neither will be remarked upon. Not unless he brings it up.
When the two are finally within the main driveway and the bike is stopped, Ali can't help but gape behind her helmet. The mansion is so large … And so intact. The helmet will be slid off her head as she turns to look at Douglock, "It's so beautiful." She says, even as she tilts her head to the side. "And that's a bit disconcerting, just so ya know." She adds with a flash of grin, having noticed his neck is a bit /more/ flexible than most when he peers back at her.
Turning back to the Mansion, Dazzler will give the building another look, before she murmurs, "The X-Men? I'm somewhat familiar with that name." Giving herself a shake, she'll ask, "Are we walking the rest of the way?" Up the driveway she means, which is fine by her, as she starts to slide off of the bike.
":Yeah, I'm not entirely human any more… and both sides of my background are mutant so… those tricks are part of the 'its complicated' I implied earlier,:" he says about Dazzler's comments about his abilities as he reverts back to his normal appearance once they pass through the gates. ":I figured we would, stretch your legs out after a long ride and all. And I'll show you where the guest rooms are so you can have a room of your own for now.:"