The First Chat.

T.Mor:

"Put up with what? Rationing? We've been rationing here for...as long as I can remember...I mean...Even before my parents died...They made it more tolerable, but...It is what it is." I had actually been shocked to learn that other places didn't have rationing...So...yeah.

Annaleah
I had been talking about everything...the job, the sister...but decided not to push any more. "Well...if I can ever help, in any way, just ask."

T.Mor:

I nodded. Really though...What could she do? I mean...She was a guest. I couldn't ask her for money...I mean...In my mind I hadn't even done anything to warrant that. I didn't deserve it did I? I mean...I kill people. I deserve to get kicked out of my house. I deserve to starve...At least- I deserve to be hungrier than the people I kill... I deserve it all, basically...Just for that. Just for my occupation. Just for letting myself DO THAT to people. She...Leah...Was confusing me a bit with her offer. What had I done to deserve the help? Rescued her...Ok. Sure. But...It hardly seemed porportionate...I don't know.

"Any thoughts on how to get me unkicked out?" I asked, instead of asking any of the above.

Annaleah
"With the assumption that simply asking wouldn't help at all?" I leaned back for a moment to think, drumming my fingers on my knees. "Well, a favorite of mine is reverse phsycology. I pull it all the time on my sister."

T.Mor:

"Asking gets you nowhere with Ana...She's as stubborn as a brick." I said flatly. "She'll throw an ultimatum at you before you can do anything." I explained. "What is reverse psych..psychology?" I asked curiously. Anything that could get me back in there without having something else thrown at me.

Annaleah
I flashed a hint of a mischievous smile. "It's a very useful tool that works best on controlling people." I lowered my voice a tad. The walls were paper thin, and it wouldn't work if Ana heard. "People like Ana like to be in control. She thinks she's punishing you now, for instance, so if you don't react to it as a punishment, then she'll feel out-of-control and try something else. See, what you do is pretend you want to be out of the house. Perhaps pretend you're leaving out of choice. If all goes well, she'll then demand that you come back inside."

Leslie

While Ana and T.Mor had been arguing, Peter and I had been bickering about magic. I was still certain that he was using some...but our discussion got cut off when T.Mor stormed through the room and left the house.

"Food isn't really a problem for me..." Peter said. "I mean, I can kill it myself. Heck, I could kill enough for everyone."

"Seriously?" I asked, skeptical. "You seem to be able to do a lot. You have magic--" He tried to interrupt, but I continued, "--you can fight, and apparently you can hunt? What's with you?"

"I'm a soldier," he replied with a shrug.

"Wha...?"

Cricket
I leaned against a wall, listening to everyone bicker. I got tired of it. "It's not magic, a'ready."

Riddle:

"Yeah. Peter's all...SWIFT. Like...Like a taco." I explained. No way she could misunderstand now. "And he can make things catch on fire...like bricks...Well, actually...not bricks...BUT OTHER THINGS...and...He can go to other..." I couldn't remember the word. "Other...PLACES." I substituted. Close enough, right? I mean...at least I didn't say 'pastrami'. that was my other choice as a word to put there.

T.Mor:

"Maybe we should try that then...Erm. Yeah...I'll just...Yeah." That was really...Clever. I had never thought of that...Well, last time I was kind of...running for my life too...So...Erm. "Ok...We'll go back in then...and I'll go 'pack' and see..." I could be devious when I wanted...as long as nobody was going to end up dead...I hated when that happened.

Annaleah
I smiled. "Alright then, here we go!" I stood up and started for the door. "Try to make it as real as possible."

Leslie

Like a...taco?

"Planes, Riddle," Peter said. "Other planes."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, still skeptical.

"Other worlds. Universes."

I felt a bolt of electricity shoot through my spine. Worlds?

"B-but then...then that proves it!" I accused, pointing at him. "If you can travel through the three Worlds, then that proves you're using magic!"

He...chuckled. Why was he doing that?! I didn't like that one bit.

"Three?" he asked, a wry grin on his face. "You think that's all there is?"

"Well...yeah!" I replied. "Yeah! There are three Worlds! And the only way you can traverse them is with magic!"

"Ahaha...no. There are way more than three worlds out there! Millions...maybe even billions. Countless worlds. And I have the power to jump from one to the next in an instant. It's very straining, but I can still do it."

"Magic!" I was getting somewhat hysterical now. How...how could there be more than the three Worlds?! "YOU'RE. USING. MAGIC!"

T.Mor:

I walked back into the room, trying to look nonchalant. "Oh. Planes. Like...Trains. and Brains...And cellophane. Got it." Riddle was saying to Peter.

Ana looked daggers at me, just as she was getting down the stairs. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT." She yelled, not even bothering with subtlety. "And take your criminal friends with you." She added, crossing her arms.

"Give me half hour. I have to pack. I'll leave you the deed to the house... and three weeks worth of rations...And, me and my freinds will be gone. I promise. I was planning on leaving anyway. If I moved, I could buy tinned meat once a month." I told her. She gaped at me.

"Well..FINE. YOU...YOU DO THAT!" She replied uneasily.

"I WILL!" And I went back upstairs to pack. I didn't have anything to put anything in I realised... and just ended up turning a few of my shirts into makeshift bags, to put my other uniforms in, and my one other pair of boots. I pulled a bunch of pictures off my walls, and packed them too.

I went back downstairs and started on the kitchen, pulling out the can of cheezewiz, and 5 of the 8 cans of food product we owned. Ana just stared at me. "What...You don't need all of that..." She said, still stiff with disbelief.

"I have people to feed. You can keep the jello though...It gets melty when it travels." I told her, stacking it all in one of my shirt bags. "Peter...In the closet there's a gallon jug of preboiled water...Could you..?" I asked calmly.

Riddle was watching me too, and I couldn't tell if she knew what I was doing or not.

Leslie

"We can leave that," Peter said to T.Mor. "I can boil any water we get. Or will there be water we can find? I guess I could manipulate and condense the air... It's easier to pull water out of the air itself, but water's not my thing..." He had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Please, I can handle water," I said with a smirk. "I'm a Hunter. I'd be damned if I didn't have any survival skills!" I loved using idioms involving damnation.

"Hunter, eh?" Peter asked. "I'm a Scout. Survival skills are necessary for that, too."

Scout? Couldn't be the same kind of Scout I was familiar with!

Annaleah
So far, so good...Ana was getting peeved. Perfect. He was a better actor than I thought. I waited anxiously, hoping it would work. Cricket tapped my arm and gave me a confused look, but I couldn't break character to tell him what was going on.

T.Mor:

"If you wanna buy water on the road...Fine with me. Good luck finding any that isn't green though..." I said. I wasn't worried about it though, If Peter said he could make water happen...Well...I was inclined to believe him.

"HOW...How am I...T.MORBID NAMECHOV!! HOW AM I SUPPOUSED TO SURVIVE? With three weeks of food and no money?" She asked.

"You should have thought about that before you kicked me out, huh?" I responded coldly.

"YOU...you can't leave...I'll die! Our parents wouldn't have wanted that!! You know that!" Ana was trying to flip it around AGAIN.

"Well. Good thing they're dead then." I cannot believe that came out of my mouth. I almost left then, to go back outside and sit in the drizzle.

There was silence. Oh crap. I'd done it, hadn't I?

Leslie

Ooh...man. This wasn't a good situation... And as much as mortal affairs usually made me laugh, I didn't like the fact that I was part of the problem here. I mean, this Ana chick had flipped out because there were guests in the house...and I was one of the guests. Not that she didn't seem to deserve the treatment T.Mor was giving her...but still.

And man, these guys had a hard enough life already! But Ana couldn't just kick T.Mor out for good, could she? How would she survive then? T.Mor didn't even seem like the kind of guy who would just leave, either. Especially not someone like family. He just...didn't strike me that way.

...So was he really leaving? Or was this an act?

Riddle:

So. This was new. Normally T.Mor just takes some crap from her, apologises for no reason, and then makes dinner...and they shout some more then too. They shout a lot. And then I normally get sent back home so they can shout some more. Sometimes I sneak onto the fire escape so T.Mor can vent about her a bit...Or sometimes he just falls asleep and I just sit on the fire escape so I don't have to go home...Or sometimes I just sit so that I can throw things at the building across the street, and see if I can break all the windows. I have not managed to break all the windows yet. Then I sneak home, and play videogames. ALL NIGHT LONG. Sometimes in my dads laboratory so I can play on Portal. I love Portal.

I think T.Mor just said something serious though...I dunno...Everyone got all quiet...I just was in this for the silverware.

T.Mor:

Please don't let her be crying...Please don't let her be crying...I wished I had my mask back on, because I knew I would be making a face as I turned away from my haphazard packing and toward her. Yes. She was crying.

Crap.

"Ana...I didn't mean...I...You know that's not what I meant." I tried to smoothe things out. I hated it when she was sad...Even though she made me so...ANGRY.

"You can't leave..." She looked at me all...sad.

"YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" I replied. Wait...Wasn't that the point I was trying to make by deciding to leave? Hold on...

"JUST...DON'T LEAVE! I DON'T WANNA DIE..." She said, sounding like she was five. This was technically what I was going for...So...I could just leave it for now.

"Can my friends stay as well? As long as they have to before they figure out their stuff?" I asked, somewhat...Less mad.

She looked at me like giving that away was killing her. She stared at me for a good minute before she finally answered. "If it's over a week, I'm kicking you all out again. And...They come out of your rations because their your friends. And..." She started setting limits immediately, but the yes was all I needed. "And If someone comes to the door from your work, and it's not to tell me you died, I'm giving them away without fighting."

"We'll sort out the technicalities later..." I kinda wanted to drop the subject now that I was unkicked out actually...

Leslie

"Like I was saying," Peter began, "I can hunt for food. I'm accustomed to it."

"And I can probably do something," I put in. "You know, with magic."

Peter merely rolled his eyes in response.

T.Mor:

Riddle giggled. "Peter...Unless you are a cannibal, I think you're gonna have problems hunting here...I mean...In the city. There's not much worth eating." She was eyeing up the silverware drawer, and had been for a little while now, I figured. She loved silverware.

"Riddle...Here..." I handed her a fork, and she shoved it tines first into her mouth, chewing happily.

"I'd like more explanation to the whole magic thing...I mean...I couldn't ask earlier because of time and all, but...We have time now..." I said, interestedly, sitting down at my kitchen table. I untied my combat boots, and kicked them off. They were feeling a bit small recently...and I didn't want to wear them more than I had to.

Leslie

"What, you don't even have pigeons or rats or anything?" Peter asked, slightly surprised. "You have to at least have some forms of small animals and-or vermin around here."

"Dude," I said to T.Mor, "it's...magic. What else needs to be explained? It's magic."

T.Mor:

"If you go to the right place you can get headcrabs...But...other than that...It's kinda...Well...Do cockaroaches count as food?" Riddle said informatively. Riddle would know wierd things like this.

"Remember...we didn't know what trees were..." I added. I turned to the redhead. We had never been formally introduced, I don't think. "Well...Does it work anything like the internet? I mean...It confuses me. You just...TURNED INVISIBLE in my cell block. That was...I just want to know how...or...why...or...I dunno. Something." I tried to explain. I mean, Peter had explained about souls and all that...Was it so hard to just...answer my question?

"T.MOR...CLEARLY IT'S JUST LIKE ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK. LEAVE THE GIRL BE." Riddle told me through a mouthful of fork.

Leslie

"No, it's nothing like Robot Unicorn Attack," I said with a laugh.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"You don't--?!" Then I remembered. This guy claimed to be from a different universe. "Nevermind," I told him, shaking my head. "Anyway, T.Mor, I practice geometric magic. I design spells by drawing spell-circles and programming them by adding runes, sigils, and other shapes. The shapes matter. Once I finish defining the parameters of the spell, I check to make sure nothing conflicts, then activate the spell-circle. Of course, I don't have to make all the spells myself, but I prefer to. I like to avoid purchasing someone else's spells if I can help it."

T.Mor:

Wait a second...Did she say programming? "Like...Like the internet?" I paused. Internet worked differently in other universes...Erm. "Like this?" I pulled a large chunk of metal out of my closet with about half the coding done on it. I was trying to get a newer sheet of corrugated aluminium for my roof. It leaked. So bad.

Leslie

"Well, yes and no," I said. "I design a spell-circle. See, each rune, sigil, and shape is like a bit of computer code. I arrange them and plan them so they all work together together like one big program. With different arrangements and different designs, I can make them do different things."

T.Mor:

"Oh. So...Oh. Ok." So...It was similar, but didn't involve...say...C++ or something. Hmm. Ok.
I remembered that most people not from here ate with some frequency. "Anyone want dinner? I have to make something for Ana, and I mean...If anyone wanted anything...I have..." I glanced at the cans."Noodles...beans...and soup....Oh and jello with toast...And...Silverware...If anyone other than Riddle eats that..." I offered.