Suspiciously Quiet

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

The carnage in the hotel ballroom disappears in a gut wrenching wave of nausea and blurryness. When she can see again, she's on her knees, surrounded by her fellow Exiles.

Raven braces herself for the worst. Zombies roaming the streets, the sun blotted out by swarms of locusts, a world where every restaurant is non-smoking. She opens her eyes and sees...a suburban strip mall.

A Best Buy anchors one end. The other end is held down by a Dick's Sporting Goods. In between, there are a couple of ethnic restaurants, some clothing stores, and, to her immense relief, a Cox Smoker's Outlet.

Comments

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

A head shake.

"No, I'm the director. We're running a bit late here..."

Hungry, please. No chit-chatting with the locals yet.

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Raven gives the mother an appologetic what-can-you-do shrug.

Wok and Roll is only two more doors down. It's a little early for the lunch crowd, so few of the tables are occupied. Inside, the back wall is plastered with larger than life photos of foods with combo order numbers beside them. A bored teenage cashier is texting while waiting for customers.

Raven shifts her features to appear Asian. Shewalks up to the teenager and says something soft in Chinese. His eyes widen, and he disappears behind the counter for a moment, reappearing with an elegant cloth-bound menu entirely in Chinese.

"Whatever they want," she says in English. Then she proceeds to order half a dozen things off the special menu.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"That'll take a little time," says the kid.

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

"No problem. A couple friends may be meeting us here soon. I've heard good things about your place. I thought I'd surprise them."

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

The kid glances at the others and chuckles quietly to himself. "Sure, sure."

He gives TJ and Spidey a surprisingly innocent grin. "And what can I get for you? Lemme guess - General Tso's chicken and an order of Sweet and Sour chicken?"

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

Gretchen orders a raspberry hot chocolate and a vanilla one. "That way you can try them both and see which one you like better."

She leads them over to a pair of overstuffed chairs nestled in one corner.

"Aw, man. Moving can be hard. The way Nana Gretchen - my namesake - tells it, she wasn't able to stay in the same place for more than a few months at a time until she was in her 40's. Are your parents in the military?"

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah tries the raspberry one, savoring it a moment, then the vanilla one, bringing a wide smile to her face. "Mmm, I like that one." she replies, before considering the question. "I guess I can sympathize with her... yeah, my parents are special forces, kind of always on call sort of thing. But I think we get some down time for a bit... I'm hoping." she replies, not really having to stretch the truth too much there.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"I hope so, too." Gretchen stares into her hot chocolate, blushing.

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah glances at the blush, then gets one of her own. She quiets a few moments, sipping from her hot chocolate, paying it very close attention before she turns her attention back to Gretchen. "So...uhm, you said you liked karate?" she asks, reaching for whatever topic comes to find first.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"Totally!" Gretchen looks as relieved as Sarah to find a nice, neutral topic. "I started taking it in kindergarten. My brother dropped out when he was in the eighth grade, but I love it. I keep telling him it's like a live action video game. Each belt is like a level, and each level you earn a new weapon."

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was... strange. Not entirely bad, but a neutral topic is definitely nice. "I never really thought of it like that. But then my parents didn't really use belts or anything when they were teaching me. You must be pretty good by now, in that long."

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"If you're here for awhile, I could, you know, show you my dojo. I get to do demos for the new students all the time. It's really fun in front of the little ones, because they can't sit still. You can tell the ones who'll be begging their moms to take the class, because five minutes into it, they'll be on thier feet, trying little kicks and punches of their own."

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah grins a bit at that, thinking back to the start of her own training, and all the time she spent training under Captain America for granted. "I'm sure I have enough time for that anyway. I don't think I'd qualify quite as a new student... though I'm not even quite sure what martial art I'd be closest to now. But I'd love to see your demo. Maybe when my arm heals up, we can show each other a few moves."

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"That'd be fun." Gretchen grins over her hot cocoa.

"Hey - it's not karate, but have you seen Tomb Raider III yet? I mean, if you have, that's totally cool and everything, but, you know, if you haven't, I, like, don't have any plans tonight and stuff, and y'know, I totally understand if you don't want to or you're busy. I bet you're totally busy, what with just moving to town. But, like, if you're not, um, you know, we could, if you wanted to, kinda see it at the same time, y'know?" Gretchen takes a deep drink to shut herself up.

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah can't help but giggle a little at the rambling, quickly stifling herself, her blush not entirely gone yet in its own right.
"I'd love to." she replies, when Gretchen finally works on her hot chocolate. "I travel light, so unpacking didn't take much time. I'll just need to go by the hotel and get changed." She pauses again, the blush growing a touch again. "You'll... uhm, have to tell me about it a little. I haven't seen any of them. I mean, it sounds like fun, I just... don't go to many movies." Or any, but she's trying not to sound too weird.

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

Consciousness is not a happy thing for young Roxanne Simpson.

"Mah head still on fire?"

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

"If you were," Barnes replies, handing her a glass of water, "you'd be talking a whole lot less. Here. Drink up."

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

"Ah think it can still talk when ah'm like that," she mumbles as she eases up and takes a glass of water. "There's still like screams in mah head. Did I...do someth'n while it was go'n?"

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," he replies, checking her color while she drinks. A little pale, but not to the point she should see a doctor. Good. "You saved us all. Thanks."

He waits for her to put the water down so he can check her pupils.

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

She puts down the water. "You some sorta doc?"

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

"Nah," he shrugs. "Still, serve in the Big One, and you pick up some field medicine." He gives her a nod, having finished looking her over. "You look alright. How do you feel?"

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

"Big What?" She growling in frustrations. "You people keep driv'n me crazy." Not as much as she's speeding there well on her own!

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

He smiles a little. "Sorry, Roxie. World War II. I don't even know if you had anything like that back in your world. Hitler, the Axis and Allies, Captain America, the Invaders..."

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

"We had that. All this other world stuff is really annoying. What do y'all mean other world? I mean I heard Biig Blue talk'n about her world not be'n there anymore and Little Blue and Sara seem to have the same deal going."

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "To be honest... I'm not sure what I'm doing here either. Apparently, the others have spoken to some guy who calls himself the 'Time Broker,' who sends them to repair broken universes. How you and I got caught up in that... well. Your guess is as good as mine." He looks out the window. "I guess I'm just a little more used to it... what with having been through alternate universes already myself. Do you know the basic concept of alternate unierses?"