Podpop!

[cityship]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a

Comments

[myboggartismoon]

His first thought was that he had lost control, that he had failed to hide himself appropriately, that perhaps he had caused some grievous harm --

But not. This was surely nowhere he knew, town or forest or anything. And the full moon hadn't been close. So what -- where?

When he spoke those questions aloud, answers came -- so to speak. And a trail appeared, even as he patted about his goopy, naked body with evident alarm.

"I need my wand."

[helipack_jack]

Nearby, someone was taking this much less serenely.

"Oh no. No. Not this again, I already did this once!" a boy's voice yelled.

"THIS ISN'T FAIR, STACY! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

[myboggartismoon]

Serene? Oh no. All the panic was simply on the inside. As much as this situation didn't seem Dark, the same survival strategies apply.

"Pardon me," he said with as much politeness as he could muster in this situation. "May I ask if you understand what is going on?"

Their mutual nudity, he stoically ignored.

[helipack_jack]

The young man was pale, with a shock of red hair and dark, scowling eyes. He wiped a slick of pod slime from his face on his forearm with evident disgust, then spat more of the same to the floor.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know why I'm down here again, I already did this before."

He looks up at the ceiling again. "HEAR THAT STACY? ALREADY DID IT! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A ONE TIME DEAL, RIGHT?"

Again, she did not answer. Jack scowled more deeply. "Okay new guy, that's Stacy. Lesson one: She's never around when you want her."

[myboggartismoon]

Choosing not to challenge this, despite all evidence -- if the ship was, in truth, a ship, is it not always around? -- he simply nodded. "What, then, should we do now?"

[helipack_jack]

"Follow the lights, get a uniform. Fair warning, it's like it would kill the people who designed this tub to have a fashion sense."

He took his own advice almost immediately, setting off along the trail of lights without a backward glance. He either assumed that the stranger would follow, or didn't care.

"Who are you, anyway?" he asked, still without looking back. Assuming the guy would follow, then.

[myboggartismoon]

He followed, his right hand cupped at his waist. Even lacking his wand he was not completely defenseless, but to react hostilely to anything at this point could be most unfortunate...

"Remus Lupin, Pr--" He stopped, and gave a wan, tired smile that nonetheless held warmth in it. "Former professor, now. I wonder if I am allowed to keep the title."

[helipack_jack]

"Hey, I won't judge. It's not like anybody here probably knows," said Jack.

"Me? I'm Jack Spicer. Evil boy genius. Before this I was working on world domination, but now I'm on the engineering staff. I need to go hunt down Cranston and Gentry about it and see if it fell apart without me there to hold it all together."

Jack had, of course, something of an inflated opinion of his importance to the department.

The floor under their feet began to slope upward, twisting around the central spire as they approached the clothing room. Thousands upon thousands of pods were visible hanging in the gloomy dimness of the cavern, but Jack ignored them. He'd seen this before, yadda yadda. But mostly, he just didn't like looking at them because they sort of creeped him out.

[myboggartismoon]

Evil boy genius? World domination? A certain amount of tension went into his spine and shoulders, but beyond that and a certain intensity in his eyes, the wizard betrayed little of his true thoughts. What manner of ship was this, to bring aboard those self-avowed followers of the Dark Arts?

And yet, was it not true that few such followers, few of the truly evil, believed themselves such? Perhaps there was more afoot here than he knew. Well, if necessary, he could always pretend to those ways himself, to gather information -- much as he despised it.

"Could you perhaps tell me... Well, anything."

[helipack_jack]

"Weellll," said Jack, thoughtfully. Really, besides his own declaration of evil, he seemed like any other teenager. Probably about fifteen years old or so. He was scrawny, starting to get gawky in the limbs, and sure he knew everything.

"I'm not actually sure. Cause I might've been out of it for a while. But we're on a space ship and our worlds are gone. So, we have to fight some naaaasty space bugs in order to stop them from tearing the universe apart and maybe get our worlds back." He wiggled his fingers in the air at "nasty space bugs", contempt clear.

"Which, you know, I kinda wanna do because without a world I don't have anything to take over. But first, clothes."

He peered around the corner into the clothing room, the vines at the top swayed gently in a nonexistent breeze in their usual, faintly ominous manner.

||Please go to the center of the room to be clothed.|| Stacy's voice chimed in.

Jack bowed facetiously to Lupin like a bellboy. "You first, Professor."

[myboggartismoon]

He felt rather certain of a trick or trap, all things considered -- one didn't survive a year amongst reckless, feckless wizarding youth without a little common sense. So it was that when he stepped into the vines, and found himself cleaned and garbed, he did not let out a shout of surprise. Jack might be well-pleased to see Lupin looking particularly disconcerted and uncomfortable, at the end of the process.

"There must be a better way to do that," he said, half to himself, as he examined the suit in which he had been clothed hesitantly.

[helipack_jack]

Jack took the vines like a champ, knowing what to expect. He still scowled and grumped through it, though, because he honestly had to agree.

"Yeah, but nobody can convince her of that. C'mon, we'll head up to weapons and possessions and then the observation deck. Everyone mills around like a bunch of cows up there after a pod release, and I got people to find," he said as he stretched a bit, feeling the familiar heft and suppleness of the pod suit.

[myboggartismoon]

"Weapons and possessions?" Lupin's heart lightened at the thought that his wand might not be lost to him. He had no doubt that he could handle any challenge he met with it back in his hands. "Which way?"

[helipack_jack]

"Yup, c'mon. I'll show ya. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll find my coat."

Unlikely, but he still wasn't going to give up on that.

Jack led the way to the transport tube that would send them speeding on their way.

[myboggartismoon]

"Lucky? There is an element of luck in getting one's things back?"

Just as his heart had lightened, so it sank once again. He had no illusions of the measure of luck allotted to him in life.