[semi-locked] It's in your eyes, a colour fade out//Looks like a new transition

[trappedbyhate]

[[OOC: Locked to Phoebe Donovan, forward-dated to Monday]]
Mio and Phoebe have been sent on a mission for Torchwood to check out the ruins of the Neverending Hallway in what was formerly the Conrad's basement. They've been down there for about an hour or so, taking readings with various sensors and seeing what little in the way of personal

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[thehighestwing]

Phoebe is a little apprehensive about this mission.

It doesn't have much to do with what it entails, but the fact it's just her and Mio. She hasn't interacted with the other girl in a one-on-one setting and something about it is off. She can't put her finger on it.

"Islintik?" Phoebe asks with a nose wrinkle. She's surprisingly calm and collected, for all her usual bubbly ways. She's in mission mode now. "What's the situation?"

[trappedbyhate]

"It's a country ruled by magicians," Mio says. "Hence the infinite labyrinth. They throw people they don't like in there to wander around until they die." Thankfully, Mio's never had the occasion to ever need to spend a whole lot of time in Islintik.

"Transverse phase shift," Mio says, trying not to groan. "At least it wasn't a complete dimensional shift--that's another term for a green rift, by the way. We're still in the same Chicago, thankfully. Except our wavelengths are now rotated by about ninety degrees compared to everyone else's so even if we leave the hallway we won't be able to interact with anyone. We'd be like ghosts to them, and vice versa."

[thehighestwing]

"...Sounds like a party," Phoebe says with a nose wrinkle for proper effect. "I can't imagine punishing someone like that just because you don't like them."

She sticks close to Mio, albeit not too close, her eyes widening slightly at Mio's explanation. Mio may try not to groan, but Phoebe doesn't bother hiding her own. "Fuck our lives. How long is this going to last? And is that the only side effect? Because that doesn't sound so bad compared to what the Rift likes to pull. It's made me paranoid."

[trappedbyhate]

"Well, Islintik was never known for being a particularly nice place to live," Mio says. "It's been overdue for a revolution for about twenty years, but fuck if I was going to go volunteer myself to lead it. Not that I even have the option now, thanks to the Rift."

"'Til the Rift decides it wants to quit screwing around with us," Mio says. "Unless I can get my PINpoint to do a reset, but I'm not holding my breath on that. Pretty sure all of the teleportation capabilities were broken by my first trip through the Rift."

Mio fiddles with the dials on her PINpoint. "Can you hook one of your arms around me so you're in contact with me?" Mio asks. "I'm going to need both my hands for this."

[thehighestwing]

"So I'm guessing you're okay with never going back to it?" Some might consider that too personal a question. She never knows. Phoebe usually lacks all sorts of boundaries.

"Great. At least we're not in Narnia." Pause. "I really shouldn't jinx us like that, sorry."

Looking over at Mio, she studies the PINpoint curiously and nods.

"Of course I can. You sure there's not anything else I can do?" Phoebe asks, dutifully hooking one of her arms around Mio. She smiles at the other girl sheepishly when she almost trips in her attempt to reach Mio so quickly.

[trappedbyhate]

"Never even lived there," Mio says. "I only visited a couple of times to buy supplies for various kinds of workings. Magically primed crystals to use for shielding, magically concentrated herbs, that sort of thing. So yeah, I could really care less about going back." She shrugs.

"Narnia's where you go when you get eaten by the Kashtta Tower," Mio says. "As far as I know, there was never anything like that in the Conrad, least so far as anyone has recorded."

"Well, if that doesn't work, we'll have to figure out a Plan B and possibly a Plan C. That'll be the fun part." Mio's is noticeably sarcastic in her usage of the word 'fun'.

Mio finishes dialing the coordinates on her PINpoint. "All right, here goes," Mio says, as she punches a button.

Nothing happens. Mio reads the coordinate display to check and see if it was a 'silent' reset. Nope, they're still out of phase. "Well, so much for that," she says. "Time to figure out Plan B. Any ideas?"

[thehighestwing]

"...Right. Stupid question."

It's weird. Phoebe usually doesn't have so much difficulty initiating and continuing a conversation. She's aware Mio's very professional and doesn't like messing around, but there's always something that keeps Phoebe from giving that extra nudge.

Or just flat out asking if Mio hated her guts.

"True, I was just giving out examples. I mean, there was a Rift room and a lot of wanderers showed up through there but no Narnia. Which is a good thing. I never finished reading the books but no White Queen for me, thanks."

Phoebe groans again. "Well, we're still in Chicago, right? We could keep on exploring the hallways and entertain ourselves until our wavelengths are copacetic again." She looked that word up in the dictionary, true story. "If we've finished the readings and there doesn't seem to be a change, we try to come up with a way to contact Jack. ...Sound good?"

[trappedbyhate]

Aw, Phoebe, Mio doesn't hate your guts! If Mio hated your guts, you'd know it. Mio has Issues, but she's perfectly aware they're her own issues and is trying not to get you involved with that.

"Seems reasonable," Mio says, trying not to snrk at Phoebe's use of the word 'copacetic.' It's not that Phoebe used the word badly, but it's not a very commonly used word nowadays. At least Phoebe's speech patterns are quite different than Mizuki's, especially considering the differences between languages.

Mio looks at the list of measurements they need to take. "Next up are the common areas in rooms 65-75," she says.

[thehighestwing]

Hey, Phoebe would be pleased if Mio found some sort of amusement at it.

"Yes, ma'am! 65-75 it is," Phoebe says, saluting her and quickening her step. She also has Issues, but then, everyone in Torchwood seems to have them. Phoebe keeps her hands at her back and turns to Mio with a mischievous sort of grin.

"Did you have fun at the Halloween thing? We didn't get a chance to talk but I was hoping someone took pictures of Owen, Ianto, and Jack in their costumes."

[trappedbyhate]

Mio debates how much of the truth she really wants to tell Phoebe about Halloween before answering. "Parties aren't really my thing, but as far as parties go it was a pretty good one

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe studies her reaction thoughtfully, and doesn't press. "Oh. You looked hot, if that helps any," she says with an amused grin. It probably doesn't, since Mio isn't at all like the costume she was wearing, and far too smart to put stocks into her looks.

Still, it's the truth and Phoebe is shameless about saying so.

She giggles softly to herself, covering her mouth. "Oh my God, you're going to have to give me a copy of that. I need to frame that picture and send it to Jack. And just keep one for my mural. You should come by some day to see it. I like keeping pictures of everyone there."

Ianto really did look miserable in his costume. Phoebe hopes the dance they shared cheered him up a little, but since Jack was flirting all over the place, chances are it didn't.

[trappedbyhate]

Mio flushes slightly and looks away. She's still not used to people thinking she looks attractive, and it's a lot harder to brush that kind of thing off after what happened with Ianto the other day.

"I'll have to send you the pictures when we get back," Mio says. She's got copies on her phone, because that's the camera she took them with, but she's not going to hand that over to Phoebe right now. Mio is very picky about who she allows to handle her electronics. Touch her phone or her laptop without her permission and you'll be regretting it for a long while.

Mio was going to make a comment about Phoebe's mural, but she notices something odd about the numbering on the doorways first. "Hang on a second," she says. "Didn't we already pass room number 45?" She pauses to think. "We had to have, because we took some measurements at room number 40 a while back."

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe would find it so weird that she's not used to it, since she can't see anybody not finding her attractive. Phoebe knows attractiveness, Mio! Even if it's subjective. Ahem. So she just smiles a little sheepishly. "Sorry! Just calling it like I see it.

It's a good thing Phoebe would never touch Mio's things. She does seem like the kind to be prickly about it, and Phoebe doesn't want to upset her.

"Whenever that may be," Phoebe sulks with a nod. Her eyebrows knot into a frown. "Yeah, we totally took measurements at room 40 already. For fluck's sake, is it just going to have us going around in circles until it decides it's bored?"

[trappedbyhate]

"I'm just not used to it, that's all," Mio says. "Usually when people do that they're drunk or trying to convince me to give them a raise. Or both." And then there was Ianto. She had to admit that she liked him quite a lot, and found him attractive as well. But she was giving him time to try to wrap his head around the concept of polyamory and figure out where he stood with Jack. She and Ianto could decide what they wanted to happen between the two of them after that.

"Fluck?" Mio asks bemusedly. "And I guess it wasn't just a transverse phase shift, but it also looped us as well. We could continue walking around in circles until the Rift decides to let us out, or we could sit down and take a bit of a break and hope it decides we're boring.

"Personally, I'm voting for the second option."

[thehighestwing]

"Huh. It's not that I don't believe you, I'm just surprised more people haven't approached you about it since it's true. Then again, you do look like a BAMF a lot of the time, so there's that," she says teasingly. Oh, Ianto. He was a tricky one. Phoebe is entirely too open to the concept of polyamory and has no idea Mio and Ianto are involved in any connotation of the word.

She gives her heart away too easily. To more than one person. It's a problem.

"We could sit down," Phoebe says with a grin. She places her knapsack on her lap and starts to rifle through it. "You want a chocolate bar or something? I came prepared!"

Not that she knew a transversal phase shift would occur, but Phoebe's always got booze and candy at the ready. In Torchwood, this sort of thing is a necessity.

[trappedbyhate]

Well, there have been a lot more people that have complimented Mio's looks, but Mio's written them off because their motives have been suspect. Of course people who are looking to get laid are going to tell her that she's hot. That doesn't make it true. At least, she didn't used to think it did. "Well, I did have a fairly intimidating reputation at my job before I fell through the Rift," Mio says slyly. And Mio would protest that just because she and Ianto confessed mutual attraction to one another doesn't mean that they're involved...right now anyway. The two of them are still managing to be utterly failtastic at the whole relationship thing