I’ve asked around a little and it doesn’t seem like there’s any particular authority here for businesses and the like. It also doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of crime here. Would anyone find a police station that specialized in ‘weird’ helpful here? We’d handle regular sorts of crimes as well, but also police escorts, security and that sort of thing.

[action]

After shooting her text out to the entire network, Audrey decides to do her own reconnaissance regarding a police station. She’s heard about the wish magic; she knows that’s how Duke got his boat here. She’s tested it on small things and now has her gun here along with a few other random things. If this place would find some use in a police station, she needs to know where she wants to place the police station; somewhere central to the city she thinks. With that in mind, she’s prowling the streets, gathering her own information about general crime in the city and scouting locations. Feel free to come interrupt her, ask what she’s doing or just give her your opinion on crime and a police station in Itinere.

((ooc: please, please, please make sure you comment to Bo's opt-in/opt-out post before responding, just so that I'm not accidentally godmoding you to keep her in character, k? I can totally work around opt-outs but my default is to roll with whatever I can with this one))

[ The camera opens with Bo with her stuffed turtle, Stanley floating in the air beside her. She's grinning at the camera because she's in a good mood having seen her crush favorite superhero on the network before. He might not know her, but that's okay; he will. Everybody will, if she can help it. Bo loves people. Good, bad, dubious; she just likes people in general and she might come off as the type who trusts too easily, but the thing of it is she can sense the good hiding in people, even the bad ones, and she knows that everybody is redeemable if they really want to be. She can help. She's good at that. ]

Hi everybody! I'm Bo and I'm twelve. My dad and I just got here a few days ago and now that I've had some time to adjust [ translation: mourn; and yeah, she just called Sirius her dad because he's the closest thing she's had to it in her entire life, so far, even though he's only been with her for two years. That probably says more about the caretakers before him than Sirius himself, but that's really neither here nor there. ] I wanted to say hi to everyone!

[ She points to the floating stuffed turtle. ]

Oh and this is Stanley. I don't have any real pets, so he's gotta do for now. But that's okay, he likes to boogie, so that's good enough for me.

[ At the word boogie, the stuffed turtle starts dancing around in the hair as if on his own. Bo's doing it, of course, with her mind, but that kind of never gets old. She wonders if it ever will. ]

It's taken a lot of Katniss' self-control not to question the Brig when the message appears on her phone. The reminder of the cost is what keeps her quiet. She had lost a lot by questioning authority in Panem. President Snow had hurt Peeta because of her rebellious ways. Prim had died because President Coin hadn't agreed with Katniss' attitude. Or nearly died, as the case may seem in the world that Prim now remembers. It doesn't matter. The cost had still been great regardless.

Questioning one of the people who appear to be in charge of matters in Itinere over anything seems to be a dangerous prospect. Questioning the validity of a gift seems like an even more dangerous prospect even if the woman seems to be so nonchalant about whether or not they keep the gift.

Still, Katniss doesn't trust the Brig. She doesn't trust anyone claiming to do something in her best interest. Despite the rain, she had been out hunting and wandering as normal. But the message gets her to hurry home in order to see what this gift is. The sight of a gold ball seems innocuous enough at first. What kind of harm can there be in a gold ball? Then she notices Prim idly playing with hers from across the room. The last time she had seen her sister with any kind of so-called gift (that one also golden in color), it had exploded. All of the parachutes had exploded, taking the lives of the children and medics trying to help them. Taking Prim's life.

Katniss doesn't hesitate. She picks up her own ball and locks the door to her bedroom. If something does go wrong, she doesn't want Prim to see. But when she opens it, there's nothing but music. The song is simple enough and before she realizes what she's doing, Katniss starts to sing along.



Why should something like a little rain effect such a good mood? The rain is a good thing. It provides sustenance to the trees in the forest that Katniss has learned to love so much. It provides sustenance to all living creatures. Her hair is down and soaked with rain. Her clothes are plastered to her body. She doesn't care. There's a light in her grey eyes that hadn't been there since she was a child and a smile on her face that's normally out of place. Most of all, she's singing. It starts with the song played by the sphere and just continues. She hasn't sung this much in over a year, since her imprisonment during her trial.

This time though, Katniss sings out of nothing but pure joy.

When Derek gets up every morning, he goes jogging on the trails through the park that lead into the lower parts of the mountains and back out to the city. It's a good way to start his day, get his heart and mind going and clear his thoughts. Also, anyone who needs him in the mornings can know where to find him. He'll be somewhere on those trails.

This morning he was awoken by his dog, Clooney, licking his face. The bulldog wasn't here in Itinere yesterday. It is today. Maybe he'd subconsciously wanted him here. In any case, it makes him smile and he takes Clooney with him to run the trails. Clooney is well trained in sticking close to him and keeping up with him.

With Clooney here, with things with Venus getting better than they were, life seems to be setting to rights.

He'll be taking Clooney over to meet Venus at some point.

After meeting Matt and visiting his gym, Derek has been showing up to work at the rec center less and less. With Matt's gym manned and active, there's no need for Derek to work so hard to keep the rec center going. It might even eventually phase out. He'll find something else to do. Derek has a lot of interests, after all.

With Fall getting closer, Derek also visits the beach more. He loves the beach. He loves the sun. Anyone who knows him at all knows this about him. He can be found lounging on the beach getting some sun. Or maybe in the water swimming out as far as he can go and back in to shore.

Most nights he's at Venus's apartment. Sometimes he's at his own.


* * *

One day on his morning jog, his phone buzzes and lights up. The GPS is on with a blinking red dot on it. There's a part of him that feels like it might be a trap. Itinere can be unpredictable. Going straight to a random red dot on his phone is probably not the smartest thing. But it looks like it's in the city and his curiosity gets the best of him.

He jogs off the trail and back into the city, slowing as he passes buildings and houses and gets closer to the red dot. What he finds there is an old house, Victorian style, fairly large, two floors. The house looks like it's seen better days.

What a crappy gift, one might think. But Derek's favorite hobby is restoring old houses. How Itinere knows these things is beyond him.

Derek pushes open the creaky door and sees the mess inside. He smiles. In the large foyer is a tool chest with all kinds of tools and other construction items he might need to get the job done.

This. This is perfect.

"I don't know how or why you did it... but thanks." He says to the empty room. He has the distinct feeling that whoever deserved the thanks is listening.

Matt has been in Itinere for a few months now. He's settled, as much as he can, and he's come up with a routine, but he still doesn't have a purpose. Daredevil isn't something that's needed here nor is practicing law something that's necessary. He feels rudderless and useless without something to do, some way to help. It's with this useless feeling that he wakes up one morning, showers, dresses and grabs his keys from the side table out of habit more than anything. He locks his apartment door and notices a new key on his keyring, but it's also an old key, one with edges worn and notches that he could trace in his sleep. His heart catches in his throat and he pushes hope and emotion down. It's just a key, he tells himself then takes the elevator down and heads out the main door of the apartment building to grab a cup of coffee.

He walks along the street as he usually does with his coffee when a familiar smell stops him in his tracks and it occurs to him that maybe the key isn't just a key. With a little exploration, he figures out which building is new, which building wasn't there yesterday morning when he'd taken this walk. His hands slide along bricks, feeling a building that's been a part of his life for as long as he can remember, a building that ought to be in Hell's Kitchen and not here. At the front door, he gets the key out and tries it, unsurprised at this point when it unlocks the door and he steps inside. He can't see the room that's actually in front of him, but he knows what it looks like regardless, or he knows what it looked like when he was nine years old, when he used to go to the gym with his dad and hang over the ropes of the ring while he practiced. It smells exactly the same and that smell evokes Matt's childhood memories, good memories of afternoons with his father, of his father's refusal to teach him to box because he wanted him to use his brains instead of his fists.

Despite Matt's memories, the gym isn't quite the same. It contains many elements of the old gym he'd spent so much time in. There's a boxing ring and a slew of punching bags, but there's also a cardio room with treadmills and exercise bikes. It's also got Murdock's Gym on the sign out front, a fight poster of Battlin' Jack Murdock and an advertisement of his last fight. His robe is there as well encased in glass. Matt will spend the rest of the day exploring those differences in this gym and the one from his childhood. Feel free to come in and disturb him. He could stand to be pulled out of his memories.

[ alaina opts for a video post for this, mostly because she does a lot better in person than in writing. she's apparently like cassandra that way. whatever the case, she has something to say. settled in at a table outside, she sets the camera up, after a while of fiddling to get it just right, so that she can be seen at the perfect shot, hands folded on the table in front of her. she looks like a noble, someone born into the role of a leader, or who has been pushed there by fate and circumstance.

it might be a little of both. ]

So, how many of us are still here? I think we need a headcount. I hope everyone is still safe, but we need to work on a lot of things now. What happened recently was a tragedy. We need to be prepared so that something like this doesn't happen again. To go with our headcount, I'd like a list of who is capable of what. If you want to give it to me in person, I'll be outside my apartment all day. [ here, have a few directions. ]

I'll start us off. My name is Alaina Trevelyan. I'm the leader of the Inquisition in Thedas and a member of the noble house Trevelyan from the Free Marches. [ this probably means nothing to anyone but whatever. ] Most of my combat experience is with two-handed weapons -- greatswords, battleaxes, and warhammers -- and I have enough here that I can teach anyone who wants lessons. I'm used to fighting mages, templars, red templars, bandits, bears, quillbacks, anything that crosses my path. I also have extensive use of survival skills. In Thedas, we don't have any of this... electricity. [ be proud, natasha. ] I'm used to pitching camps, forging weapons, and hunting for food. Everything in the world has a use and I can help with that, too.

[ paaaaause. ] I also have a habit of taking in people, so if you need a place to stay or someone to protect you, now or anytime in the future, my home is open.

I've never seen a place repair itself like this one, but the fact that it was torn down so quickly means that it could happen again. We need to be ready. That means working together to ensure that everyone survives.

[ and with that, she'll let it go. inquisitor out! ]

There had been more than a few moments when Venus had threatened to lose hope. She is strong: she knows that. She showed that. It's just that things were so very grim for a while there: no power, food that was difficult to come by, things that chewed other things, all of it could get a lady down.

But, now that things are looking better, well, so is Venus. Now that the sky is back (and as strange as that is and things are just ... better. Showers are so very nice, and so is being able to cook. Between helping Derek to get the fitness center back into order and getting her apartment back into order (though she misses having a reason to sleep with Derek every night), Venus is busy. But when she has a bag of homemade food (chicken and potato salad), she ventures toward the garage where she knows Adam works. She wants to see him! She's missed him! She's worried. So, she hopes he's there. She hopes he's all right.

She hopes they've all come out the other side of all this insanity all right.

catch all type thing;

It's everything Katniss eventually expected of Itinere. She knew that this world was too good to be true. Being reunited with her sister, living a life of relative anonymity and peace. It had all been too good. Too nice for anything in her life. Maybe it just took Itinere's Gamemakers a little longer to decide on properly playing the game. Ultimately the reason doesn't matter. Katniss only really has two goals as soon as the electricity goes out again: keep Prim alive and keep herself alive. In that order.

From the very second the sky turns dark, she's on guard. She's almost continuously by her sister's side. Nothing is going to happen to Prim. Nothing. Her sister has suffered enough because of her. Whatever happens next, Prim is to be kept safe from harm.

On occasion, she can be found alone. Usually she's on the outskirts of the town hunting. It's harder to see in the perpetual night but she does her best. The flashlight helps a little. Now more than ever, Katniss finds it important to stock up as much food as possible. People are too comfortable here with their easy access to food. Surely that has to go soon.

At some point, as soon as she notices the first building start to crumble, Katniss finally reaches out to the rest of the community. It's a simple text message:

What kind of game are they playing?

Having made herself to home in both the dreams of Derek and Adam had left Venus feeling both disjointed and thoughtful. Such horror and such darkness, inflicted by other people. Not by chance or fate, but by human beings. It makes her so angry.

Perhaps it is that this place collects very damaged people.

On one of her days off from the health club, before she takes Derek his lunch, she walks. No longer in high heels, but in comfortable walking shoes (cute little pink Keds that please Venus when she looks down at them), she walk. There's just that hint of the coming fall and winter in the air.

Venus trades in optimism. She has to. The world is too dark otherwise. She finds herself sitting on the merry-go-round and thinks of the profundity of hope. Of what it means. Of the power of it. Even if it isn't real, if it's imagined. The idea of hope. "Ask not what this place can do for you," she whispers to herself, letting the words get lost in the breeze, "but what we can do for this place." And the damaged, beautiful people in it.

(ooc: First, the trigger warning here - Natasha's past includes brainwashed assassins, and thus this post mentions a lot about that and death.
And secondly - Natasha's out for the week, yay nightmare funtimes. The nightmare portion is slightly backdated, as she had champagne at the party on the 1st. I've also added a part for the rest of September for after she wakes up if anyone would like to play with that instead.)

( You can't wake up, this is not a dream; you're part of a machine, you are not a human being )

When Karrin put a gloved hand on the doorknob at her crime scene and stepped through, Itinere was not the sight that she expected. By the time she got her bearings, though, the door had slammed shut behind her, and it refused to budge. This didn't look like anything she'd expect in the Nevernever, at least, but where else would a Way take her, and what was that doorway if it wasn't a Way?

She unholsters her gun in one easy movement, trying to ignore the voice in her head reminding her that if this is the faerie realm, firearms may not work at all. Karrin has neither mail nor sword on her. She was armed for Chicago, not wherever this is.

And she can't get back. This is Karrin's second offense when it comes to disappearing during an ongoing investigation. Coming so close on the heels of her first, it bodes anything but well for her shaky career. She's already gone from Lieutenant to Sergeant this year.

Anyone who encounters Karrin on her first day will find her in uniform, armed, and suspicious.

Even once time has passed and she has some grasp of what's happened, if not how, Karrin keeps wary eyes open. She investigates every corner of the city, this time in plain clothes and with her gun concealed. If a building is public, she may have stopped in. If it's private, she won't linger, but she isn't above glancing around corners and vaguely in the direction of open windows as she walks past.

Derek had somehow gotten away with not getting sick more than a headache that was just getting worse and worse as time moves on. It was never so bad that he couldn't work though it though, not as bad as so many others in the city (knock on wood). So every morning he went into the rec center to put in a full day's work. Every evening he went to check on those people he knew here in Itinere who were sick. He took them food and medicine and whatever else they might need. And he tried not to get sicker himself.

At the rec center, throughout each day, Derek stayed busy. Some days he worked with the treadmills, weights and parallel bars. Some days he worked with the punching bag and settled in a training room to go through his judo moves. Some days he did laps in the pool. Some days he was out on the basketball courts shooting some hoops.

Every day, he helped out whoever came into the place. While people are sick, after people are feeling better. Derek is there.

When Derek isn't at the rec center he can be found around the City in various places. Sometimes he's at the market picking up odds and ends. Sometimes he's at the park walking or jogging on the trails with earbuds in his ears, music from his iPod blaring loudly in his ears. Sometimes he's driving down the streets and up into the twists and turns of the roads in the mountains on his bike from home, which had magically appeared recently. Sometimes he's stopping at the burger joint, because Derek has a hard time resisting a good burger now and then. But really, who doesn't?


ooc: Open catch all for Derek all the way into June. So even if you're sick, you can chat with him when you aren't sick anymore too.

Suffice to say that this new locale that Venus is forced to call home has not been entirely kind to her. Firstly, she was taken from her lover and from Charming and unceremoniously dropped in this place. Then she met a most stunningly handsome man who turned out to be just a little nuts short of a full toolbox, very nearly overwhelming her with his ardor only to entirely vanish as if nothing had ever occurred.

It's enough to make a girl's head spin.

Then add insult to the injury of the whole drama that is her current position, she has the most hellacious headcold, making everything seem muzzy and fuddled.

Really, as she sneezes for the fiftieth time into her handkerchief, she falls to sit on a bench because a girl just needs a break. After all, it's hard to give oral pleasure when one can't breathe through one's nose.

So, there is a very striking brunette in a very short skirt sitting on a bench, sneezing and blowing her nose to beat the band. Oh, the trauma.

No more snow means the city of Itinere has come to life. It's kind of a relief after the perpetual snow that never went away, that never changed or melted or looked anything but perfect. After awhile, perfection became a worrisome thing. He was glad it was Springtime, or that it seemed to be Springtime. It just added more life to everyone and everything. Itinere had needed this.

Derek, in one of the better moods that he's been in in awhile, has gathered a bunch of roses to take to all the employees of the rec center he owns and runs. He walks around the building passing them out to each and every employee with a little added flirtation and a charming smile that he's all too adept in giving. His friends used to say how unfair his smile was in that it was almost too charming. He would counter with the fact that he got it from his mom, nothing to be done about that.

He even keeps one of the roses for himself before he gets to his work for the day. He takes it to his office area and lays it on his desk before checking the schedule of classes for the day on his laptop. Quickly, he changes into some sweatpants and a tank top and then goes out into the main area to see if anyone needs any help with their work outs or classes or in setting anything up.

Yep. This is bound to be a good day.


ooc: Derek, having touched so many roses, is going to be affected. He may or may not feel the affects of them with others. Just let me know if you're open to it. There's a description of the rec center HERE. And if you want to plot something heavy, I have a comment HERE.