[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."

[yourwonderings]

Here, Mio. Have Jo tending bar for the evening.

She's serving drinks and otherwise being a good, if not always sympathetic, shoulder to bitch on. The fact Mio is having a non-alcoholic drink at the bar piques Jo's interest. Particularly since the girl looks like she could really use some tequila.

Living in Chicago is more than enough reason, but it looks like there's a story here.

"Hey, Mio. Rough night?" Jo asks with an understanding sort of smile that comes off more as a grimace.

[trappedbyhate]

Mio would love some tequila. Unfortunately, Mio cannot drink any of the tequila, because the universe is unfair.

"Jo, right? Glad to see you've found a job," Mio says by way of greeting. "Rough day, actually," she says. "Fucking Rift."

[yourwonderings]

"Thanks, took a while but finally settled down somewhere," Jo says with a genuine smile, which turns into a commiserating grimace. She places the dish rag over her shoulder and flattens her palms on the wooden surface of the bar's counter.

"Fucking Rifts," she agrees with a small snort. "If you feel like venting, by all means."

[trappedbyhate]

"So I was on a mission with Phoebe for Torchwood today," Mio begins. "Jack sent us to go take some readings from the Neverending Hallway in the ruins of the Conrad. So not only do we get to climb through a bunch of dirt and rubble to get down there, ohhhh boy," Mio's voice is sarcastic, "but then the Rift decides it'd be a whole lot of fun to start screwing with us." Mio rolls her eyes.

[despite_myrage]

Robin Rice is wandering into the Kashtta's kitchen to check on the stock levels inside the cupboards. He does this a few times a week while he makes a fresh pot of coffee. There is generally a new pot needed every few hours, and he insists on making it himself.

No one else knows how, according to him.

It only takes him a minute to figure out what Luka is doing, and when he does, he leans over the bowl. "You know that generally works better when you use an electric mixer instead of trying to stir that thick batter by hand... well, spoon."

[designed2kill]

Mio would protest that she knows how to make coffee perfectly well, thank you, and that Ianto is even more of a coffee master than she is. However, Mio is not in this thread, so the narration insists that she STFU and go elsewhere.

"Mixer?" Luka asks. "I don't know what it looks like, so I couldn't find it."

There is a pause. "You look familiar." Once, a very long time ago, before Luka was known as Luka, she harassed Robin out in Cicero about the reason angels felt different to her than regular humans. She doesn't quite remember the contents of that conversation right now, but she does remember Robin's face as someone she's met before.

[despite_myrage]

The narration is positive that Ianto and Mio can make fantastic coffee. However, Robin is a hobag. He will always insist irrationally that his is the best.

"I will find one for you," he tells her, going to the exact cabinet that the mixer is located in and pulling it down.

There is a pause after her pause and admission. Robin looks at her and then it clicks. "Jesus," he breathes out. "I knew my memory had begun to suffer, but I do remember talking to you. It's been a long while, hasn't it? Glad to see you're in one piece still."

Hey, that's saying a lot in a city like this!

"You've got to put that dough into the mixer like so and then you... push that button to make it mix."

[designed2kill]

This narration thinks that Mio and Robin might need to hang out sometime. They're too similar a lot of the time, including being overly pretentious about their chosen skill sets. (Though Mio will allow that Robin may have a better knowledge of coffee than her, if he ever tries to insist similar things with tea, well...Mio would never be able to let something like that slide.)

"You told me about angels," Luka remembers. "And there was hot chocolate."

It is saying a lot for Chicago! And especially considering Luka was in the hospital in a coma less than a month ago, although Luka would protest that doesn't count because she wasn't in any danger of being chopped into pieces from that.

Luka plugs the mixer in and pushes the button Robin indicates and the beaters whirr to life. She watches fascinatedly as the mixer mixes the dough. "Some of the dough is getting stuck on the sides of the bowl," she points out. "Should I try to scrape it off?"