Participants:
| Scene Title | Holograms and Illusions |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | With Kaylee missing with no word, Valerie goes looking for Kendall to try and find out of he's seen her. And some more revelations of similarities are made. |
| Date | October 27, 2010 |
Even from the outside, this store clearly caters to specific crowds. Cardboard standees of Spiderman, vie with Gandalf and one of the many manifestations of Dr. Who, and small posters declare release dates for various comics. Once inside, it is clear that comic books are the main sell. Everything from the most well-known to the obscure are present, lined up on the walls and on metal racks, every single one bagged and boarded individually to protect them from damage until they are sold. The store is updated weekly, so all the newest titles are available. Off to the side in a corner are other merchandise, action figures, board games, and figurines that make this place a haven for geeks. Right by the entrance is the counter with a display of the many manifestations of dice, with packets of cards sold behind it keeping the cash register company.
It's another usual day at the comic book store, and there's plenty of people browsing the racks, discussing geek things among themselves, and just generally socializing. Kendall is currently in the back, putting boxed star wars figurines up on a shelf for display. Directly behind him, on the back of a rack that holds shelves for more merchandise, there are plushie doll representations of diseases and other microscopic organisms.
Somewhere between the discussion of the latest Bleach episode and how much D&D 4th addition sucks when compared to another game, someone else is suddenly behind Kendall. A short blonde girl that has been sharing many a video game marathon with him lately. "Kendall, hey," Valerie says, looking around his arm at the plushie microbes with a tilt of her head. "I was trying to find you— have you seen Kaylee at all, lately? I thought maybe she had stuff to do… you know, stuff like what happened with us." Time travel. "Or school, but I can't seem to contact her. Her phone isn't connected, and I don't think she's anywhere in the city at all."
Kendall nearly jumps when Valerie appears behind him, although he doesn't drop the box of Clone Wars Anakin figurine he's holding. "Oh, hey." he smiles at her, setting the box on the shelf. "Uh, no I haven't really seen her at all since she invited me to stay with you guys, it's kinda weird." also nice, but Kendall's not going to say that out loud. "She's probably saving the world or something, that's generally how things go with the stuff we've been doing." right?
"She had a lot of school work, but I don't think she's even going to her classes anymore," Valerie says, noticing the jumping, but visibly worried about what's going on with the sister she just met. "Missy's getting really cranky. I think she blames me." The new blonde person took her person away! Any dog would probably think that, especially needy ones. "It must be important since she didn't even leave a note, and isn't going to her classes or anything." There's a bit of a huff to her voice, as if she's both worried and upset. After all she got pulled out of time and now her only family just vanished on her.
"Well if you ever need someone to talk to, I've got a ready ear." Kendall tells Valerie, as if that's not what she's doing right now. "I'm sure she's fine. She might even be back now for all we know, because, well… theoretically, if you can travel through time, you can return whenever you want, right?" theoretically, time-travel isn't possible, but tell Dr. Who that!
"Depends on the direction you travel," Valerie says, as if she knows a thing or two about this. "If you go back in time you may do something that will change the flow or time and split the river into streams. If you try to go back to the future you may not be able to, cause the future that you try to go back to may not be the same future you left— or, that's what I've heard." But— "If she's saving the world in time there's really not much we can do…" Other than worry, which she might be able to do a lot of all on her own… "What is this place anyway?"
"Huh, well I guess so…." Kendall shrugs. "Well dinosaurs haven't suddenly popped into existence, and we're still in the United States, so I'm sure she hasn't changed the past too drastically." at her question, he looks around. "Welcome to Sam's Comics, the largest comic book store on the planet!" pause. "….online." yeah, the actual store isn't that big.
"Oh, comic books— you were going to let me look at some of yours eventually," Valerie says, looking around, and noticing that some of the token nerds have stopped their conversation to look at her. She looks back, perhaps not understanding why. "There's stuffed animals, though, and those don't look like comic book characters— unless the comic book characters are diseases."
"Nah, we sell other stuff as well, like those, and these." Kendall jerks his head at the action figures. "Also, we have every board game imaginable, and small figurines for those who play games like Warhammer. Also, card games." beam. "And yeah, you can read my comics whenever you want." he pauses, noticing the looks from the others in the store, and frowns at them. Then he grabs at her hand, intending to pull her away from the looks. "Here, take a look at the comics and tell me which ones strike your fancy, and if I know them, I can tell you if they're good or not, and if I have some. You can't open these, because they're taped in bags, but you can see the covers."
While he's talking, Kendall may not have noticed that his grabbing at her hand— only his hand didn't connect with anything. In fact, Kendall's left pulling on air a bit. Valerie's hand just wasn't there. Did she just happen to pull it back at the right time? "I'll go look," she says, though there's a sudden nervousness in her voice that she tries to hide, as she moves to follow— with feet that seem to make no sound.
Kendall pulls her along, although he pauses and turns to blink at her. "Er…" he shrugs, then looks forward again. "If you feel like sharing, feel free whenever you want." otherwise, he'll just pretend he didn't notice. He understands shyness about powers!
There's a glance around the room, and Valerie creeps up closer. Something about the way she moves, now that he's looking closer, seems off. It's like her hair doesn't respond to the movements of her body right— and she has no shadow. "It wasn't exactly easy to find you, so I just… kind of… projected myself to you. I was able to cause we've been playing video games a lot…" She bites her lip a bit and looks down. "Can I explain the whole thing to you later?"
"Oh?" Kendall's surprised, tilting his head as he regards her. "Well, if it makes you feel better…" he glances at the people in the store, moving to a vantage point that they can't see. He then pulls a sheet of paper and a pencil out of his pocket, and quickly draws something down. Immediately, a second Kendall appears, then the first one pulls something that looks like the One Ring out of his pocket and puts it on, disappearing from sight. "There… now we can both be fake." the second Kendall tells her. "If what you said is true, and you're not actually here."
That display makes her laugh, and she glances back to see if any of the customers were looking. Valerie isn't used to power displays being common place after all. In her time it was a closely guarded secret of hers. "Well, nice to meet you, fakeKendall. I'm fakeValerie." She even holds out her fake hand, to see if his illusion can compensate for being unable to actually touch her. Can a mental projection and an illusions touch?
If Valerie thinks she can, she'll feel it, because Kendall's power affects the neurons in the brain that control the senses. Although, since Kendall's not actually there, he won't feel anything, but his illusion will act like it does because he expects it to feel it. "Hahaha, nice to meet you." Kendall has been using his powers in public a lot more often than he should, for someone who isn't registered yet. Bad Kendall.
And feel it she does. Valerie's smile brightens dramatically, because it's the first time that's ever happened for her— And despite the distance, the projection makes it so her mind is essentially right in front of him, even if her body isn't. "Wow, that's never actually happened before, but I've never met anyone with your kind of ablity, either…" It's so similar to hers, without being quite as similar as one might thing. "I need to get back, though, there's kind of a time limit on this… But— maybe you could bring home some comics for me to read."
"Oh, is that where you are right now?" Kendall looks surprised. "I'm jealous, just because I can make them, doesn't mean I can see what they do, or even control them past a certain point. I mean, if people expect to see me walking down the street, I'll continue doing so, but if they try to talk to my illusions, the most that would happen is they'd hear what they expect me to say, which isn't what I would probably say in a situation. But even that's doubtful." he scratches his cheek with one finger. "If we could work together, maybe we could make something that could sneak into places. You can't touch anything like this, right?"
"Not really, no. But I can't project myself where no one else actually is either," Valerie explains, though there's definitely something intriguing about the idea. After all, there's some people in Cambridge holding her comatose father prisoner.
"Well what if you think my illusion is actually me? Oh… I guess that wouldn't really work unless I was actually there. Hmm. I guess there goes our idea of being super thieves, hahaha." Kendall-illusion grins at Valerie-projection.
"Yeah, you'd have to actually be there, I think," Valerie says, though she seems disappointed. "We can probably think of something, though." Somehow. After all, what are powers for if they can't work together sometimes? "I do have to go now. I think Missy's trying to crawl on me." That could just be an excuse. She waves with her fingers and then starts to move around one of the aisles, to find a place where no one can see her, except maybe him, and then she slips inside the aisle and disappears.