The year is 2020. The heroes: a few dozen young men and women, most in their late 20s. Fifteen years earlier, four friendly-seeming but mysterious people gathered them on what was then known as the World Wide Web, dropped hints about an important destiny or mission they were to fulfill, and then vanished. Over the years, some of the group kept in touch; others drifted apart. Now a great danger has brought them all back together again…
[Continued above.]
“Zark,” Sweet Melpomene said at last. “This is big. Really big. And BAD.”
“Do you think–” Widdershins looked around at the others. “Do you think the GAPAs knew?”
Juliette shrugged. “You mean ‘knew’ as in ‘had foreknowledge of’? Like Hari Seldon and his psychohistory? Not zarking likely.”
“I’m not so sure,” Purple Panda said. “They sounded as if they did. There was one thing in particular that Robert posted, just a few days before…”
“Robert!” FrigidSymphony scoffed. “That old fraud. He’d be the last person I’d listen to.”
Shadowkat reached across the table and tousled FrigidSymphony’s waist-long hair. “Still smarting from that time he banished you, are you, Fridgey?” she teased.
“That has nothing to do with it,” the musician shot back. “I just found Rebecca and the other Administrators more helpful.”
Alice looked pensive. “I always wondered about Rosanne,” she said. “She seemed very quiet and sweet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to her than that. I suspect that she was the brains of the outfit, the one pulling the strings. And then one day they were all just–gone…”
For a moment, the group sat in uneasy silence.
“Anyway, they did their job,” Red-tailed HAWK said at last. “They got us together. Now we’ve got a job to do.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ebeth burst out. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get out there and DO it.”
“Not so fast,” Prarilius Canix said. “We can’t afford to rush into this. It’s too important for that. Failure is not an option here. We have to be sure what we’re dealing with.”
E2MB smiled grimly. “Well, whatever it is,” he said, “one thing is for sure: it is definitely NOT mostly harmless.”
I’m in the story???
w00tness!!!! Who wrote this?
I plead guilty.
What is going on?
I don’t know when or where I said that, and I don’t know what to do! Who wrote this???
Ulp. How did you decide who went into it?
Ah. Just read the title. Makes sense. Brilliant though. Way to flatter my narcissus complex!
(4) I just kept adding names until my lunch break ran out. Nobody should feel left out. I’m sure everybody is in the story somewhere — that is, if there were a story, instead of just that fragment.
So uh, is there gonna be a selected group of authors, or does anyone just write? And every person for himself?
um,robert? you created the fanpage then added rosanne to help and then she when to gremany for amunth and then you hired paul and rebbeca
8: Yes, but seeing as Robert’s the author, he deliberately downplay’s his role. Something I would never do
(7) Beats me. It might be wise to ignore it.
(8) Really? Your memory is much sharper than mine. I have trouble keeping track of blog history. Thanks!
10-thanks!
10: What? Ignore such an ego-flattering project? Never! I say we organize the writing. Or leave it all to the GAPAs.
12-let write!
(8) That’s only how it appeared to the outside world. It all played out exactly as
RobertRosanne planned it from the beginning.Oh, man, this is great!!! Lol…Robert, I see you’re making me look like a flirt…oh well, at least you’re honest!
I think it’s probably like an RPG, only we’re playing ourselves…also, I noticed, for the most part (except for maybe Fridgey), Robert put into his story the MBers who participate in RRRs, and such, the most. I’m going to start writing, so, well…here goes. Ahem:
Shadowkat looked Prarilius Canix. “PC is right,” she said. “We have to find out what it is we’re dealing with. Those disappearances…did anyone notice any kind of order to them? Do you think it could be…the bunnies?”
(8, 9, 10, 14):
Sure it seems like Robert started the fanpage. And I’m not saying that he didn’t. And I’m not saying that I did. But appearances can be deceiving. Especially Robert’s. Despite his chattiness on the blog, he’s EXTREMELY mysterious.
16-Ooh…a cover!
Cool. Do we get to help write this?
15: Mm. I was in RRRs. Terenika and Caelan, for example, and the spirits thingy which seems to have stopped entirely.
FrigidSymphony glanced up from admiring his hair. “Bunnies? I’ll kill ’em. I’ll…”. He broke off, turning his attention to a small stain on his shirt. “Dammit, I just washed this crap yesterday! Bloody pasta…”
19-I said “maybe”…sheesh. And, yes, it’s too bad about Spirits and Blood…and we had a good foundation, too.
“Obsess much?” muttered Shadowkat. She raised her hands in response to the glare she got from FrigidSymphony. “Just making an observation!” she said defensively.
cool idea..
ah god, I just realized that in 2020, I’ll be almost 30.. we’ll all be old noooooooooooo
“Hey, I care about my appearance,” he shot back, “because it’s worth the effort.” He gave her a cocky grin.
21-Omigosh, yeah, I’ll be, like, 29…agh! Can we change this to the year 2013, or 2014, even 2015?!
I’ll be 29 too. Which is fine.
Sorry about 2post!
Shadowkat grinned back, and thought, Well, at least one of us hasn’t changed…. “I care about mine, too! But, you know, you really don’t need to do anything…you’re naturally gorgeous.” She winked at him.
Never mind, it’s no longer a 2post…*sigh*
Late 20s is the perfect age for this — it’s just about the time you’re thinking, “is that all there is?” and sign up for graduate school. Nothing like the summons to a Great Destiny to distract you from such discontents. Any younger, you’d have more important things to think about.
I’ll be like . . . 27. Cool.
27-I guess so…but, still…it’s so old…no offense!
“Will you two stop the banter? We have a crisis on our hands!” Prarilius Canix snapped. He was irritable, having been awake for the past two nights, researching. “It’s not just the GAPAs. Whatever did this wanted to get them out of the way first, because it thought that they were the only ones who could stop it. People have been disappearing all over the world.”
“You’re talking about this as though there was some intelligence behind the disappearances,” said Lizzie. “Do you think that’s possible?”
“I think it’s probable,” Pentatonikk mused. “The bunnies…?”
“What are you talking about?” Prarilius Canix hissed. “The bunnies are imaginary and this is real.”
Silence.
“Right?”
Silence.
“Well… ” said Kiki the great, nervously fingering her red hair. “You never went to Kokonventions…”
“And you haven’t been on the blog much in the past few years,” The man for aeiou said. “Until now, that is… ”
“I’m sorry, PraCan,” Taiwan Hippo Fan said. “We didn’t realize there was anyone here who didn’t know.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you two stop it? We need to think about what we’re going to do about this.”
I just make two provisos:
1. If you decide to change the year so that you’re all younger, you may not be teenagers. I picked 2020 because I thought some of you would want to have advanced degrees and/or a bit of professional status.
2. Nobody can fly (without airplanes, I mean). You may not go hurtling around like anime characters. If you need to travel from one place to another, you must take some appropriate (and affordable) near-future vehicle.
Apart from that, it’s all yours.
FrigidSymphony blushed. “As beautiful as ever…” He thought. He shook himself mentally, then looked at Prarilius Canix. “So what do you propose we do?”
Right. Delete my last one, or put it before PCs.
“Know what?” asked Alice, just as clueless as Prarilius Canix. “Oh! You mean . . . that?”
I’m confused. I hat it when these things are fast like this.
32: 2020 is fine. And no, we can NOT go flying. Stupid anime.
Actually, I think this works okay in the order it’s in.
32-Sweet!
“Well, which two are you talking about, Alice? Fridgey and I were just having fun…” Shadowkat shot a glare at Prarilius Canix. Then her look softened. “Look, it’s not that I don’t think this is serious, but…oh, alright. I know some connections who might have some information about the disappearances…should I call them?”
Note: I am, by now, a Master Thief (yes, this is plausible!), and connected (by blood) to the Mafia…not that I use them for anything but information, of course. I am also highly trained in the arts of espionage and physical combat. Though I have never taken a college course in the subject, through research (and natural talent), I am well-versed in Psychology.
“You two,” said Alice. “It’s funny for a while, but right now we need to be serious. And someone should explain to PC about the bunnies.”
This someone shouldn’t be me, because i have no clue what I’m talking about.
As for my profession, I am a librarian and an author. I used to work on a tallship, but I had to give it up when it was wrecked.
Never mind the first sentence of my post. The one to Alice. And put the description of my glare before my dialogue (sorry, can’t spell…lol).
Compilation time! (Geez, already?) We need to keep track of what’s going on, here.
***
The year is 2020. The heroes: a few dozen young men and women, most in their late 20s. Fifteen years earlier, four friendly-seeming but mysterious people gathered them on what was then known as the World Wide Web, dropped hints about an important destiny or mission they were to fulfil, and then vanished. Over the years, some of the group kept in touch; others drifted apart. Now a great danger has brought them all back together again…
“Zark,” Sweet Melpomene said at last. “This is big. Really big. And BAD.”
“Do you think–” Widdershins looked around at the others. “Do you think the GAPAs knew?”
Juliette shrugged. “You mean ‘knew’ as in ‘had foreknowledge of’? Like Hari Seldon and his psychohistory? Not zarking likely.”
“I’m not so sure,” Purple Panda said. “They sounded as if they did. There was one thing in particular that Robert posted, just a few days before…”
“Robert!” FrigidSymphony scoffed. “That old fraud. He’d be the last person I’d listen to.”
Shadowkat reached across the table and tousled FrigidSymphony’s waist-long hair. “Still smarting from that time he banished you, are you, Fridgey?” she teased.
“That has nothing to do with it,” the musician shot back. “I just found Rebecca and the other Administrators more helpful.”
Alice looked pensive. “I always wondered about Rosanne,” she said. “She seemed very quiet and sweet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to her than that. I suspect that she was the brains of the outfit, the one pulling the strings. And then one day they were all just–gone…”
For a moment, the group sat in uneasy silence.
“Anyway, they did their job,” Red-tailed HAWK said at last. “They got us together. Now we’ve got a job to do.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ebeth burst out. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get out there and DO it.”
“Not so fast,” Prarilius Canix said. “We can’t afford to rush into this. It’s too important for that. Failure is not an option here. We have to be sure what we’re dealing with.”
E2MB smiled grimly. “Well, whatever it is,” he said, “one thing is for sure: it is definitely NOT mostly harmless.”
Shadowkat looked Prarilius Canix. “PC is right,” she said. “We have to find out what it is we’re dealing with. Those disappearances…did anyone notice any kind of order to them? Do you think it could be…the bunnies?”
FrigidSymphony glanced up from admiring his hair. “Bunnies? I’ll kill ’em. I’ll…”. He broke off, turning his attention to a small stain on his shirt. “Dammit, I just washed this crap yesterday! Bloody pasta…”
“Obsess much?” muttered Shadowkat. She raised her hands in response to the glare she got from FrigidSymphony. “Just making an observation!” she said defensively.
“Hey, I care about my appearance,” he shot back, “because it’s worth the effort.” He gave her a cocky grin.
Shadowkat grinned back, and thought, Well, at least one of us hasn’t changed…. “I care about mine, too! But, you know, you really don’t need to do anything…you’re naturally gorgeous.” She winked at him.
“Will you two stop the banter? We have a crisis on our hands!” Prarilius Canix snapped. He was irritable, having been awake for the past two nights, researching. “It’s not just the GAPAs. Whatever did this wanted to get them out of the way first, because it thought that they were the only ones who could stop it. People have been disappearing all over the world.”
“You’re talking about this as though there was some intelligence behind the disappearances,” said Lizzie. “Do you think that’s possible?”
“I think it’s probable,” Pentatonikk mused. “The bunnies…?”
“What are you talking about?” Prarilius Canix hissed. “The bunnies are imaginary and this is real.”
Silence.
“Right?”
Silence.
“Well… ” said Kiki the great, nervously fingering her red hair. “You never went to Kokonventions…”
“And you haven’t been on the blog much in the past few years,” The man for aeiou said. “Until now, that is… ”
“I’m sorry, PraCan,” Taiwan Hippo Fan said. “We didn’t realize there was anyone here who didn’t know.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you two stop it? We need to think about what we’re going to do about this.”
FrigidSymphony blushed. “As beautiful as ever…” He thought. He shook himself mentally, then looked at Prarilius Canix. “So what do you propose we do?”
“Know what?” asked Alice, just as clueless as Prarilius Canix. “Oh! You mean . . . that?”
“Well, which two are you talking about, Alice? Fridgey and I were just having fun…” Shadowkat shot a glare at Prarilius Canix. Then her look softened. “Look, it’s not that I don’t think this is serious, but…oh, alright. I know some connections who might have some information about the disappearances…should I call them?”
***
Alright, I tried, and it was really confusing, so if I got anything wrong…I’m sorry.
I’m twenty-six and an author in this story.
Shadowkat grinned sheepishly. “I know, I know…sorry. But do you want me to contact my people?” She looked at FrigidSymphony and smiled. She leaned across the table and whispered in his ear, “Just wait till this meeting is over…”
Ok, I get a note too. I’m a musician and an expert melee weapons user. I’ve spent the last 5 years in Lapland and Karelia fighting bears, not washing and communicating with the paranormal, something I can do only in extreme conditions of emotion, like pain, fear, anger, joy, or love. I dropped out of college after arguing with the staff. I have connections to the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily, and have spent time in Cefalù, which also gave me the opportunity to get to know Shadowkat, with her mafia connections.
Okay, how about we now take the first bit of dialogue that I wrote, Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you two stop it? We need to think about what we’re going to do about this.”and put it before PCs piece. That way, it sounds a lot better.
“What do I propose we do? I can’t propose anything until I know about these bunnies!” Prarilius Canix exclaimed.
Oh wait! My last post was in response to Shadowkat’s compilation. And the other bit I wrote was not there.
Agh.
Give in to the confusion, Alice. This is a story about MuseBloggers.
44-Alright, but I don’t think I’m going to post the whole thing again until we get some more written…it’s moving way too fast to keep doing that…I’ll do it on my copy, though, and post another compilation later.
Shadowkat looked at the others, then turned to Prarilius Canix. “Alright, look, you remember that day back in ’07, April Fool’s Day, when the HPBs took over MuseBlog? And we all thought, ‘Haha, what a joke, that can’t be real!’? Well…it was.”
“PC, the bunnies are real. Well, in a sense…it was an accident.” Sobriquet wispered, concerned.
“Wait,” interrupted Lizzie. “I seem to have missed the memo. Who are Shadowkat’s ‘people’ and what do they have to do with the disappearances?”
and since everyone else is doing it: I am a musician, conservatory trained. I have spent the past five years doing freelance work in NYC, and am currently playing wiht a professional quartet. I doubled majored in linguistics and somehow also found the time to do a chemistry minor, as well as my performance major. Because of all this, I am heavily in debt from student loans.
I don’t think anyone will be able to drag me away from the computer. This is so much fun!
ah shoot, that should come before the last bit about the bunnies.
“I have no clue,” volunteered Alice, unhelpfully. “Shadowkat?”
Woo, S-kitty, not that subtle!
FS was deep crimson by now. He pulled a flask ot of his pocket and took a long drink, then said: “I think we should all use our assets and dig up whatever we can about these disappearances. I’ll contact the Thelema, see if the occultists can give me some info… As for the rest of you…”
“My ‘people'” retorted Shadowkat, “are a few parties with whom I have certain useful connections. And that’s all you need to know. Now, should I contact them, or not?”
53-Well, you know I can’t resist your sexiness. To quote Susan Storm in the second FF movie: “I am sooo hot for you, right now.”
Shadowkat passed her own flask under the table to FrigidSymphony. “Just in case anything else ‘of interest’ should be mentioned.” she murmured.
“What about the rest of us?” asked Alice. “There’s not a whole lot I can do. I mean, since the the Wawona sunk I don’t even have a ship!” She paused. “Of course, most of you don’t have ships either, so I suppose it’s not that unusual.”
Useless trivia No. 1: The Wawona is the ship that I want to restore so badly, so I figured I could put it in here and no one would mind.
“I’ll be doing some research. Again,” Prarilius Canix sighed. “I’ll look through the newspaper archives, see if I can find any pattern to the disappearances. If I can find the time and place they started, we’ll have something to work with.”
“And I’ll contact my people, see what they know…and trust me, they’ll know something. Anyone else have an assignment for me? I’ll need something to keep me busy once I’m done…” She glanced at FS, who raised his eyebrows. “Well, never mind. Anyone?”
55: I’m gonna have fun during this fanfic…
Canix left the room. Moments later, a sleek white Prius with a BOOK♥ER license plate pulled out of the parking lot below and drove off in the direction of the library.
“I wonder what he’s up to,” Alice mused. “He didn’t even wait for us to explain about the bunnies.”
“He’s probably going to catch up on some of the old MB threads, see if he can find out something about them himself.”
“Makes sense. That’s where it all started.”
Shadowkat and FrigidSymphony, I would appreciate it if you would stop flirting. Or I will leave. (Scary threat, huh? Not really. Well, I will really leave, but it’s not really a scary threat.)
“God, I feel useless,” moaned Alice. “All I can do is write, really. I suppose I could help PC research, but…” She trailed off. “I don’t know.” She rested her elbows on the table, and her chin in her hands. “I’ve never been very good at making plans, either.”
GUYS! Stop it!
59-Heck, yes, you are…:smile: And, look, we’ve already taken care of the necessary subplot.
Hey, we can’t just stay in the room the whole time…so, let’s split for now, and come back to the meeting room later. We can just type our own (and others, if necessary) progress, for now.
Shadowkat looked around at everyone. “Well, I’m gonna go talk to a few people, alright? Everyone knows what they’re doing? Good.” She got up and headed for the door. Glancing over her shoulder at FS, she said, “You coming?” He nodded, and they left together. A black and silver Honda motorcycle with two dark-clothed figures on it glided out of the parking lot a few minutes later.
62-Oops…sorry, Alice, you hadn’t posted that, yet…pleeeaaase? Look at my post, about the subplot…see? It’s useful…!
“Well, I’m going to put through a phone call to Sicily… Care to join me, Shadowkat?” FS got up, tossing his hair.
Do we even know which city you’re about to walk out into?
65-Lol…aren’t we in sync?
Cut comment 65.
66: Yes. We’re in Geneva. International city.
Sorry about 2post…but,
66-Nope. It might be a good idea to figure that out, though, guys…I vote Chicago, since it’s the MB headquarters city, and very good for this kind of a meeting to be based out of. Or we could go with London…that’s always fun. Ideas?
66- I’m guessing Chicago, that being a place of much importance in Muserism.
Meanwhile, back in America it will be an election year (assuming America still exists and still holds elections). I wonder who’s running. Chelsea Clinton will only be 40 years old, and the Bush twins will be 38 — so, probably too young. Too bad. There might have been some satirical potential there. Oh, well, you can work out the details as necessary.
Who is the President, though? I’m betting it’s either Michael Jackson or Madonna.
***
It happened at kokonvention #30 at muse hq. skadowkat was showing her make-alive 3000 with a computer and ’07 januray muse. she typed in a ramdom therd number and hit enter.the feed the muse in.the make-alive made a ring sound and a thing poped out.It was a bunney. then anouther and more! soin all of muse hq was filled will bunneys! some were paper and some were from that april day in ’07.
72: The president is either George Clooney, Jon Stewart or Chuck Heston. Either that or the US has become a monarchy under the Crowley/LaVey dynasty. Brilliant.
73: Dude. Can’t you write with correct punctuation?
Prarilius Canix stood up, heaps of newspaper falling off the computer desk. It was so obvious. Why hadn’t he spotted it before?
He scribbled a few important points on a sheet of notebook paper, stuffed the sheet in his pocket, and dashed out into the rainy street, ignoring the funny look he got from the librarian.
“This could alter the fate of the entire world,” he thought. “They’ve got to know about it.”
He was so focused that he didn’t notice the figure standing nearby beneath an umbrella, or what that figure held in its free hand and was pointing at him.
There was a sharp crack, like a gunshot. In fact, that’s what it was. Prarilius Canix collapsed against the library wall and slowly slid to the ground.
((Note: I’ll either be dead or in the hospital when you see me next. I don’t mind if I’m dead, but I’d prefer the hospital.))
72-Randy Paul is the current President, following in the footsteps of his father, who was president from 2008-2016. Running are Randy Paul (going for his second term), Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Al Gore.
75-Fridgey, please…we don’t need this, here.
Anyway…let’s continue.
75-no
More dynasties. Will we never learn?
79-no
79-Lol…but don’t you know, Robert? Dreams can come true!
Sorry about post 75, but I wish you could write correctly.
79: Guess not.
So what about the city? Is Geneva fine?
64- Look, I am very uncomfortable about that type of thing. VERY uncomfortable. It seems that Robert made a grave mistake in not making a “no flirting” rule. Ick ick ick. This is the MUSEBLOG, for goodness’ sake!
Oh great. Let’s put PC in the hospital. I’d rather he didn’t die.
If FS and Sk keep this up, I am leaving the entire blog, for a week at least. Thsi probably isn’t important to most people, but maybe it will bring a few people over to my side…
82-Sure, why not? I’ve never been there (and I doubt many others have, either), but we’ll work with it.
83: And why is this so icky? Why can’t we flirt if we want to? Why can’t we have a story without a little romance? You don’t have to take part in it, and you can perfectly well stand our little angle to the story.
85- Yeah, I guess you’re right, but . . . Yeah, I’ve never cared for romance, but . . . Ugh. Yeah. Have fun, guys.
Kagcomix looked up, from where she was sitting (on the floor) the other MBers looked menacing in the flickering candle light.
“So they are real,” she muttered, coughed once and continued, “Animal shelters” as kagy coughed again she felt a slight twinge of pain in her left side, just below her ribcage. sometimes, mostly when she was agitated it hurt. she had been stabbed once many years ago defending what she believed right and the wound had never realy peoperly healed.
“What do you mean?” asked Alice, bending over to look at kagcomix.
“well, normal rabits multiply rapidly right? but the HPB’s are different, aren’t they spawned from talk of dogs vs. cats? and where better to find dogs and cats than at an animal shelter? I think we should check out the local shelters. I can do some volunteer work there while checking stuff out.” as Kagcomix finished she curled into child’s pose, her sword hugged to her stomach. Kagcomix was tired and her side hurt. She was worried, woried about everything because she didn’t know what to do. Kagy let the other MBers speech wash over her as she drifted off into thought. Kagy thought about everything that had brought her here, to this dark room with the large table, a room full of secrecy.
Kagy had been very young indeed when the strangers had shown her to the world wide web. she remembered all of it, she also remembered her other training. around the same time she was introduced to the WWW she began being attacked by strangers, strangers with swords. she fought them but with terrible consequences, kagy had lost her right arm and been stabbed in the left side. her arm was now replaced with a bionic one, but she still missed the flesh and bone that had once been part of her. As Kagcomix reflected she also realised how far she’d come, her then long hair had been cut short like a boy’s. somethings remained the same though, she was still tall and still even 13 years later she had a boyish figure. kagy rolled over onto her side. she was so tired. a loud bang filled the air. Kagy started and banged her head on the table.
“sorry” Frigid symphony said, “i didn’t know it actualy worked”
sorry,i know that’s realy long.
Huh? What did I do?
87- I thought FrigidSymphony had left.
I also thought I wasn’t coming here anymore. Clearly, I am.
(61) You’re far from useless, Alice. The GAPAs wouldn’t have made a mistake like that.
86-Thank you, Alice…and we’ll tone it down, a bit. I was getting a little carried away. After all, there are youngins, here. And, frankly, though…we are providing a bit of humor, I think, to those who can appreciate it.
(Of course, I mean every bit of what I said, though, Fridgey. :wink:)
87-Hey, long is fine. Just make sure it’s consistent with the story.
89-It’s cuz you love us.
And, just so you know, we love you back! *hugs*
hey, if anyone wants to write for me they can since I won’t be around
look, you guys all work out everyone’s personalities and stuff, I’m going to bed. It’s midnight here.
Frigid symphony held a gun in his hand. he smiled sheepishly,”sorry!” he said again.
“where exactly did you get that?” asked Shadowkat.
“Uh….this secret compartment thingy slid open when i put my hand on the table.”Frigid Symphony explained.
“Mabe there are more, but Frigid symphony, DON’T go pulling triggers indoors. It’s dangerouse!”alice snapped at him.
Is anyone going to dramatically discover me, gravely wounded, lying on the library steps, with a blood-soaked, partly legible note in my jacket pocket? Oh, and I’ll have a concussion from falling and striking my head on the concrete, so I won’t be able to remember what I wrote down on the note.
(75, 78) As a rule, the man for aeiou dispenses with traditional spelling and punctuation. Could it be that his mode of expression is a way to disguise his genius? Or he could be dyslexic, like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison appear to have been. He is one of MuseBlog’s most enigmatic enigmas.
97-no I have a speech problem that make It hard for me to spell right. and thank-you for calling me a genius.
90- I don’t really feel useless. But it’s true, I’m bad at making plans.
91- Thank you! I’m younger than my age, in that respect.
92- Would I say thanks to that? Or were you joking…? But it’s true, I can stay off MuseBlog when I’m really motivated enough, but there is always the matter of motivation…
Kagcomix, I’m not really sure FS and Sk are still around. I thought they left.
Yes, they’re gone for the night. I deleted their signoff posts to keep things tidy, but maybe that kind of metamaterial is useful.
96- Nah, we’ll just leave you there for a few more hours. J/k
“Anybody have a laptop?” Sobriquet asked. “We should check the news. We should keep track of any more unexplained dissapearences or bunny sightings.”
Alice handed over a small silver notebook. “For writing.” she offered. “I take it everywhere.”
The group skimmed the headlines. One read “Man Shot At (Chicago? Geneva? Where are we?) Library”
“Wasn’t PC headed for the library?” E2MB asked.
Sobriquet clicked the link. At the top of the page was a picture of Pralius Canix lying unconcious on the library steps.
100 – I meant gone from the room.
96- Um . . . sure, I guess.
Alice stood up. “Well, I have to go,” she said. “Maybe I’ll go see the library. ‘Bye, all.” She left the room with a last wave to the MuseBloggers – or former MuseBloggers, seeing as MuseBlog had ceased to exist when the GAPAs had vanished ten years ago.
She didn’t have a car, and her bike was still at home. “Drat,” she muttered, realizing that she would have to take a taxi back to the hotel – or walk. She decided to walk.
Unfortunately, her sense of direction had never been very good, and she had taken a taxi to [insert wherever we met]. It was completely by accident that she turned onto a street and saw Prarlius Canix’s car parked by the curb. Maybe I’ll go see PC, she thought to herself. See how his research is coming along.
Right. I have to take a break to form the words dramatically in my head.
Oh, oops. We’ll use Sobriquet’s, of course.
I would post this on the more general Muse Fanfiction thread, but nobody goes there anymore, so I’m sorry if this is off topic. Anyhoo, I’ll be writing a dystopia with some Muse elements (once I finish my Muse/Eragon fanfiction, that is) and I’d appreciate suggestions for it. Not here, but on the Muse Fanfiction thread.
*pays PoPoPo virtual chocolate in advance, hoping that pleading guilty will lessen the penalty*
101- That’s actually really accurate. My Notebook is neither small nor silver, and I don’t take it everywhere, but believe you me, when I’m grown up, I will.
99- yeah sorry about that
106- ‘S okay.
Kagcomix got up. people seemed to be leaving now so she guessed she should be too. she grabbed her sword and walked to the door. On the street the air felt good on her face. “i’ll go to the library to see how PC is besides, i want to pick up a book” she thought. a horriffic scene met her eyes as she reached the steps. police tape everywhere, and PC lying by the library doors. with a disregard for the police and everyone around her kagy ran towards PC.
“pralius, who did it, where did they go?” she whispered.
“dunno, they went down the side street” pralius gasped.
“It’s okay PC, i’ll get them. just don’t die” she smiled down at him before running off down a sidestreet. she didn’t need anyone dieing, at least not this early in the game.
108- BUT WE JUST DISCOVERED THAT! On my laptop! Argh . . . *is confused* Help, someone?
You know what’s weird? The piece at the top is supposed to be in the middle, but instead it’s the beginning.
“Wait!” Prarilius gasped. He held up a blood-soaked scrap of paper, with a neat, round hole through the middle of it.
“That’s evidence. Hand it over, and everything will be all right,” said a young, nervous-looking policeman.
Canix coughed, then fixed the policeman with a baleful stare. “This is more important than you could possibly imagine. Don’t touch it.”
The policeman backed off. Kagy took the paper. Only three words were legible, and their last few letters had been cut off.
“Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read.
At that very moment, the former MuseBloggers were gathered around the tiny laptop on the big table, reading the dreadful article. Suddenly someone said, “Where’s Kagcomix?”
“Good point,” said Alice in surprise. “Where is Kagcomix?”
The story started in the middle. Someone will have to write the beginning.
Can I join the story? This sounds so cool! But can someone give me a summary please? I am sorry, but I don’t have time to read 112 posts.
This is getting very confusing. A lot of posts for one day!
Please somebody tell me what we are doing! I’m 26 I guess…
Teh Confused HAWK
It’s fast reading, Donaldo. You’ll be able to zip through it.
Comments 40 and 76 contain most of the important stuff.
Green Qween burst into the room quite suddenly.
“Am I late? What’s going on?” She blurt out. “I saw Kagy in the street, and she was running away from something.” She stared at the small group huddled around the laptop. “What did I miss?”
No, seriously, what is going on? Does that fit with the rest? I think so…
Suddenly a female police officer reported for duty. “What’s going on here, Cook?” she said, addressing the man. Suddenly she stepped back a ways. “PC?” she whispered faintly. “Is that you?”
“How do you know my blog name?” the bloody man whispered from the ground. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“Cat’s Meow,” the lady said. “And boy, it’s been way too long.”
—
How’s that for an entry?
116-Thanks!
I think I will be an author and magician. In 2020 I will be 26.
Donaldo suddenly appeared into the room. “PC was shot! We need to help him. I don’t know who or when. I just saw him collapsed by the library!”
Donaldo cast a glance around the room at the MBers, all staring at him with a strange uncertainty. “You guys OK?” he asked.
“Who’re you?” Alice asked, stepping forward.
“It’s me! Donaldo the supercoolio awesome nerd! Remember, Alice? We used to work on the Captain Pye RRR all the time?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t remember you.”
FrigidSymphony spoke up. “I do.”
“I definitely remember you, Fridgy,” Donaldo said, glaring at the handsome man.
“Does anyone else remember this jerk?” FrigidSymphony asked. No one spoke up.
“Why doesn’t anyone remember me?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” FrigidSymphony said.
“Look, FS. You gotta help me. I can’t carry Prarilius by myself,” Donaldo said.
“Fine, but this will be the only time I will help you.” FrigidSymphony narrowed his eyes at Donaldo. “Look, FS,” Donaldo said. “We gotta set aside our differences. I am not sure why, but the world is in danger here. We have to work together, or else we fail.”
The room was silent for a while, but FS finally agreed. “Let’s go, and hurry.”
————————————————————————–
Wow. FS is the only one who remembers me. And we are bitter rivals! What’s gonna happen now? FS-I would appreciate your input.
118-I think your post will go after mine, OK?
119-Ooh, thank you! Now that there is/will be more people at the scene of the crime I can recognize someone else.
120-Definitly. I’ll add onto it as soon as you get to the crime scene, okay? So I can recognize you or you can recognize me or something.
In 2020 I am 25 years old. I am a police officer that specializes in forensic science, but I also do some undercover spying in my free time. All subject to change.
Is this the thing you mentioned earlier (Like 10 months ago) Robert, where Museblog is actually a coverup for some great destiny and we all have to save the world? It’s not a coincidence… there are no coincidences…
What was that they said in XXXholic? “Mokona is Mokona! ~Hyuu!~” *Em goes crazy from her Mokona otaku* No, sorry, it was “It’s Hitzusin!” That’s not right either ‘it’s hitzuzen.” Noooo I can’t spell. *hurtles around like a anime character*
Why are you all just arguing and lecturing each-other? Where’s the plot? Where’s the dramatic tension? Where’s the climax? where’s the epiphany? Where’s the romance? What? Romance? *gasp* In their twenties, are MBers still sexless? i disagree Robert, I think they should be in their early twenties. Personally, i would stop with all of the angst and tension. I think we’ll be more easygoing than this. Or, you could have some tense characters, and some more easygoing characters. I volunteer! i’m not going to write though. Sorry.
(122) There really are coincidences. If you reread the Fan Page FAQs and the HG2MB, however, you’ll see that this isn’t one of them. I’m not sure anyone has mentioned saving the world, however.
(122, more) You’ll also need at least one very rich character to pay for air fares, conference rooms, etc. Someone along the lines of, oh, say, an obscenely wealthy and famous rock star…
121-You are SO right. I think a few of us should have kids. I will volunteer, I guess.
124-Hmm, yeah. I’m only 25, but I guess I could have adopted a child or something. I don’t like the idea of a husband. *shudders* (I’m 12) I’ll make them Muse addicted, lol.
Assuming Muse is even still around then. We know MB isn’t, but what about the mag?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH Putmeinputmeinputmein! E2MB can still be my rival!
Suddenly, a tall, man in a suit entered the room. He looked at E2MB and said one word: “aga.”
You like? I read this. agagabagabag of the future is the CEO of a large technology company.
FS and Shadowkat: Whoa! Heh heh heh…
125-I’ll bet Muse has been overtaken. This story means all MuseBlog is is a way for us to warn us about the problem that is overtaking Muse and the world. Maybe Muse is like, illegal now or something and only sold on black market. Hehehe
127-Perfect! Muse is illegal because the government doesn’t want us getting too smart or something. Could it be because the government is secretly run by HPBs? @_@
This is sort of turning sci fi. I guess it is futural, so it makes sense.
122- No. Romance. I thought I worked that out. I will leave, I swear.
Ahhh! I don’t even miss one day, and there’s already 129 posts! I do want to join though. I’ll be… an engineer.
I can pay for some things, like conferences, ect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cinnamon Moon stepped quietly into the room. The few people still sitting around the table turned toward her. She moved purposefully towards the table, then introduced herself.
“Cinnamon Moon. It’s been too long, my friends. Please tell me – what has happened? I don’t understand every thing. Can you explain?”
E2MB began. “It started with the bunnies…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope that works!
You don’t all have to be physically in the same place. Some of you must have to go to work. Communications are bound to be pretty good in 2020.
the man for aeiou stoud up and said”if we tell eveveryone it will take forever,for hevens shake! let us write it up and give it to the mbers”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ramdomley I will give the money(I will be a rich movie drector and ceo and owner of mer co. inc.2018 in iowa)
Am I in it?
I have some things to say.
I wouldn’t forget Donaldo. I remember kids from my ballet class four years ago with whom I exchanged a total of eight sentences with. If there was a MuseBlogger who I would forget, it would not be Donaldo.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Hi, Cinnamoon!” said Alice.
131- In that case, I’ll pretend to have made a virtual appearance, to explain my absence from this thread for a while… [I can’t very well have been grounded at 29-30 xD]
133- Just write yourself an entry!
Story continuation:
___________________________________________
As E2MB finished recounting what had happened in the last few hours, the room fell gloomily silent as the grave nature of what had taken place began to truly sink in.
The MBers sat silently, pensively, in the ever-darkening room, looking up on occasion, wondering what, exactly, had to be done. A disquieting atmosphere ensued until a familiar voice crackled once more through the PA speakers in the room.
“Zark, zark, zark,” muttered Sweet Melpomene. “This is already getting out of hand; I don’t think I can still risk talking to you from the lab, even if I do wipe the computers… I’ll be over to [wherever you all are] in a bit–”
A loud crash was broadcast, followed only by static before the speakers fell silent.
___________________________________________
Background on me, because this bit seems to be important: Well, it’s 2020, so I’d be either 29 or 30, depending on exactly when in the year it is… I’ll be working on my
secondthird [hey, if everyone else is being super spiffy, why not?] PhD, then. This one will be in chemistry; I already have one in mathematics and one in physics. Let’s just say that I do research for the government or something whilst working my way through grad school. Hence the lab…About the second-generation Musers… are there any?
Already this thread is too long and confusing for me to read it all. So I won’t join.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……………
You had to make this thread the day I leave?
Hmm, there should be some second-generation MBers. Unless . . . Lessee, if the blog closed down ten years before this story began, the younger MBers (around ten or eleven) would have been in their early teens, or not even that. It would mean the blog has continued from now for three years. There would have to be some more MuseBloggers in that time.
Unless they didn’t capitalize their names, in which case they might not stick around for very long.Okay, sorry ’bout that. Emmatheduck doesn’t capitalize her name, and neither do agagabagabag or giminator, and they will stick around for a while, I think.Maybe we should make up some random people.
126-Lol…yeah, well, you know…:razz:
129-I thought we’d agreed that a bit of romance was ok! I can’t write a story without romance…I’m just not capable of doing so! It’s a fact of life, and it’ll happen to you, someday, whether you like it or not. Besides…we’re making it more interesting.
***
Shadowkat pulled up to the abandoned apartment building. She looked it over, noticed the broken windows, tattered curtains, unhinged door. Home, sweet home., she thought, somewhat sarcastically. She had dropped FrigidSymphony off at a phone booth outside of a “well-thought-of” bar in town. They would meet up later, when she was done with her current business. She got off her bike, set the safety, and went into the building.
Two men were waiting for her in the kitchen just inside the front door. She turned to them.
“Buenas noches, Senor Tomaschino, Masacci.”
“Ciao, Kat.” they replied in unison.
She looked them in the eyes. “Do you have the information I asked you for?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let’s see it, then.” Tomaschino pulled a few sheets of paper out of the front pocket of his jacket and handed them to her. She looked at the papers for a few minutes, eyes narrowing as she read each sentence, then looked up at her companions.
“Is this all you could find?” she asked them skeptically.
“Yes.” answered Masacci, with a touch of aggression.
Shadowkat returned in kind, “Well, it had better be. This is more important than any of your kind will ever know.” She spat out the last phrase as if it were poison. Which, to Tomaschino and Masacci, it was. Tomaschino took a step towards Shadowkat threateningly.
“If you weren’t my cousin…” he warned.
“If you weren’t my cousin, you’d be dead by now.” interrupted Shadowkat. She snatched the papers of the heavily-stained table where she had set them, turned on her heel, and marched out the door.
“Ciao, gentlemen!” she called from the street. With a roar and a vroom, she was gone.
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Alice picked up the phone in the meeting room.
“Hello?” she said, a little tentatively.
“Alice?”
“Yes.”
“It’s me, Shadowkat. Have you and the other MBers meet me downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I have some extremely important information.”
Click.
***
A bit more background information, only this time more about me: Tomaschino is actually a name in the Italian Mafia, and Tomaschino is also a name of which I am a descendant. Whether or not my ancestor was actually connected to the Mafia, or not, I don’t know…but it’s probable. Tehe.
Also, my cousin (in the story) and I don’t get along too well (in case you couldn’t tell). He once tried to get me caught for an attempted theft. We were working together, and he called the police and scrammed. It was the only job at which I ever failed. The only reason we haven’t tried to kill each other is the fact that we are cousins. The reason he tried to get me caught in the first case is because he’s jealous of how good of a thief I am. I’m holding a grudge against him for trying to turn me in, but, according to Mafia rules, you never harm a family member. We both want the other out of the way, but can do nothing about it. A little confusing, but very dramatic.
Uhm, maybe things like bunnies, WWW, and forums should be metaphors for things slightly more dangerous than virtual pink lepri. I can’t dismember digital bunnies.
139: The type of mafia with people who are called Tomaschino do not speak spanish. It’s not buenas noches, senor, it’s buona notte, signor.
I’ll jump in, if it’s not too late…
___________________________________
Back at the library, the scene of the crime was buzzing with activity. After Kagy rushed off, someone finally had the sense to call 911*. Paramedics had flooded the area, and PC was rushed into an ambulance. As an authority figure, Cat’s Meow had recieved word that PC hadn’t lost a fatal amount of blood, but he was still in critical condition.
Five blocks away, Kagy swung around the sharp corner of a dank brick building. What she came face-to-face with in the alley made her stop dead in her tracks. From a distance, the dreamlike sound of sirens speeding away reached her ears, but she did not hear it.
The downtown Chicago** emergency room had seen better days. Minor dilemmas had been hindering progress since 8:00 that morning, especially since the latest batch of interns were starting today***. Among these clueless medics was 29-year-old ‘Dotty-kay, who at the moment had quite a lot to worry about. She had recently recieved a mysterious message that her old MuseBlog friends planned to meet at a secret location this very day, supposedly for a reunion. She had suspected the matter at hand was a bit more urgent, but she had a dilemma since her internship began today. After becoming dissatisfied with her work in the genetics field a few months ago, Dot had quit her job and applied for a more conventional medical position. Although she now had more experience than many of her colleagues here at the hospital, she couldn’t afford to miss this training, and so declined the invitation. Now she doubted the wisdom in this action. With rumors of an assassination attempt so early on, it was looking like she would be giving the MuseBlog conspriacy a higher priority than her career at this point.
Cat’s Meow had been thinking along these same lines, and had stowed away on PC’s ambulance just before it left, disregarding the fact that she was still on duty****. Now as the vehicle raced into the emergency entrance, she tried to communicate with PC. From his grunts and fragmented sentences, she gained that he had just made an earth-shattering discovery. She followed the strecher inside the ICU, where Dot almost collided into the party.
*Or, if we’re in another country, whatever the emergency number there is.
**Or wherever.
***Are there internships at an emergency room? I might have to change that.
****Cat’s Meow, I had you come along to the hospital, but if you wanted to stay at the library we could take out this part.
____________________________________
re: current events: I think all the people back at the meeting place have some major editting to do; it’s really inconsistent. For example, after PC is shot, you all found out about it like 5 times. Please don’t leave, Alice, we need you as a writer in this! Personally I think the romance is amusing.
Oh crap. There were only 132 posts when I submitted that. Now I have to go back and read and see if what I wrote fits in.
Where is this meeting place, exactly? Muse HQ?
‘Dotty-kay, yes, I do believe it still makes sense…
141-Well, fine…hey, you gotta give me props for trying…I knew it wasn’t right, I just couldn’t remember what it was. Sorry.
145: No, it’s fine, just, you know, avoid having sicilians speak spanish from now on
142- I know, I know, I know. (No, not like the song.) I know that we found out like five times, I know that you need me as a writer, and I know you find the romance amusing. I think that as long as it doesn’t get any worse I can stay. This would make more sense if I was keeping it, but I don’t really want to… I think that we should delete the first two posts of Kagcomix’s because they don’t really fit with the story. Delete the part where I left the meeting room, and it makes a bit more sense…
the man for aeiou twitled his thumbs. it had been three hours snice he arived. he needed to hurry up.he had a take over to see to in a hour’s time.
122- it’s “there are no coincidences in this world, there is only hitzuzen” i am a big fan of xxxholic too!
PLEASE! don’t leave Alice! We NEEEED you.
now i continue!
random note- i’m a cartoonist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a barbed wire fence but it only stopped Kagy for a moment, she ripped the barbed wire aside with her right(and bionic) arm.Kagy could feel her heart pumping as she ran down the side street, it was long and it didn’t have a turn off for a long while. it was more of an alleyway now that she thought about it, it’s narrow grimy brick walls from the buildings on either side leaned in close. she could she a figure running up ahead. Kagy clutched the paper from PC tigter in her fist and put on a spurt of speed. she was getting closer, her muscles ached but she kept going. her sword was strapped to her side, in it’s hilt but she pulled it out. suddenly there was gunfire, three bullets rocketed past her bouncing off the walls, one going dangerously past her ear. Kagy ran faster, if she could just get into swordslength reach. As Kagy neared the figure she noticed it wore a long trench coat and a big hat. both the hat and the trench coat were black but under the hat something pink was poking out. Kagy barely had time to wonder what it was when another round of gunfire erupted. this time Kagy couldn’t doge them all, one was lodged in her right shoulder.
“At least it wasn’t my real arm.” she thought. The gunfire wasn’t stopping and Kagy noticed that from a turnoff she hadn’t noticed before more people in trenchcoats and hats were emerging.Kagy turned, there was no way she could face this many gunmen by herself. She grabbed onto a sturdy looking pipe with her good arm and scampered up the buiding trying to doge bullets and climb up pipes was no easy task. KAgy was finaly on top of the roof of one of the buildings. the gunfire died down and Kagy had twomore bullets lodged in her arm.
“Zark! i guess it’s another night without sleep to fix THIS!” she thought. with her sitll intact left hand she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
“Hello? is that Dotty Kay?”
“Uh huh”
“It’s Kagcomix. i need your help.”
“Hey Kagy. i’m kinda buisy right now,”
“with PC?”
“how’d you know?”
“I’m special.”
“Uh.. okay… why are you calling me?”
“because I don’t know anyone elses number.”
“Okay. So what do you need?”
“I don’t know if PC told you but he gave me a sheet of paper. I can’t realy read most of it but i know that you were on MB before i was and you might know what it means. Does “Ljubl… uh… Lagomo…Extrater” make any sense to you?”
“Sorry Kagy but you’ve caught me at a realy bad time, i’m not sure what that means but go back to HQ, someone there will be bound to know what you’re talking about.”
“Thanks anyways Dotty Kay.” As Kagcomix put her phone back in her pocket she realised what the pink from under the hat had been: BUNNY EARS! Kagy ran across rooftops until she reached HQ, she didn’t want to make a scene with her bullet holed t-shirt and her wrecked arm. finaly Kagy was able to climb down from the roof into the building they had been in before. it seemed there were hidden passageways everywhere. As Kagy entered the room Sweet Melpomene looked up.
“ZARK! Kagy what happened? should i call the ambulance?”Seet Melpomene asked, shocked at the holes that adorned Kagy’s shirt.
“Nah, ‘sokay, They only gor my bionic arm.”Kagy responded.
“So what exactly happened?” E2MB asked.
“Well i saw PC and he gave me a note. Then i rushed down an alleyway and got shot at by people in bunny suits, black trench coats and hats. The little #@$%@^&* screwed up my arm! I came over the roof tops to get here.”Kagy explained.
“Bunny suits?” E2MB asked.
“Guess so.” said Sweet Melpomene, “What did PC’s note say?”
“most of it’s gone but what i can read is Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” said Kagy, “Its’ a good thing i left my bag here earlier because my arm realy needs work, that’s where i keep spare parts” she explained. Kagy took off her ripped shirt and started down to work on her arm.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Sweet Melpomene asked as Kagcomix dug out the bullet and started repairing broken wires and plates.
“Nope, only near my colarbone because that’s where the metal meets the flesh. Otherwise i don’t have that much feeling in my right arm, I mean, I can feel the bullets in there and i can feel being shot, but if you were,to say… run a feather down it I wouldn’t feel it. I always wear a tank top under my shirts for situations like this. It’s realy hard to repair my arm if i keep having to roll up my sleeves.” Kagy explained.
“you’ve been shot at before?” askedE2MB increduously.
“Yup! and stabbed too! wanna see my scar?”
“not really. but why?”
“In my line of work you come to expect calamity.”
“I thought you were a cartoonist!” Sweet Melpomene jumped in.
“That and defending justice.”Kagy replied, “So do either of you know when PC might get out of the hospital because no one I’ve asked so far seems to know what his note means.”
“No idea.” answered E2MB.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
that was long. I realy hope it fits in because half the time i write stuff i missed something that happened before. Who else is in that meeting room?
i just realized i messed up a lot of punctuation and spelling. sorry.
149- Anyone who didn’t leave, I guess? *looks to top of thread* Myself, Widdershins, Juliette, Panda, HAWK, Ebeth, and E2MB, I’d say. Oh, and I think Cinnamon made an entrance. I’m not entirely sure where Alice is… the man for aeiou should be present, too. I think that’s it…. did I miss anyone?
You guys? those of you who are writitng this, feel free to write me in still. I’d be 30, some sort of freelance writer type thing maybe a professor but I’d write things for science magazines, some poetry and maybe some short stories. My majors and degrees would be in cognitive science (a mixture of linguistics, psychology, mathematics and computer science) and spanish. I occasionally stage manage/do lights and maybe act at a small local theatre. I live in the Midwest (in a city) somewhere probably. Either that or in Ottawa, Canada. Something like that.
I AM GOING TO TRY TO SORT THIS OUT.
The city should be Chicago, which could be the last place in the world still holding out on the evil genius HPBs that are taking over the world!!!! I chose Chicago cuz that is where much Muse stuff happens.
128-Exactly what I thought. Yippee!
151-FS and I were in their, but we left to get PC.
138-No. Museblog will be closed down three years from now in the story, but the thing is, all of us MBers left. The GAPAs disappeared in a short time from now. MuseBlog was taken over by the HPBs for a long time, like on April Fools Day. At first we thought “hehe really funny,” like it was a joke. But then we decided to stop because it got old, and the creepy thing was that the GAPAs never came back, never posted comments. All of the new threads were about HPBs, and then one day, they attacked at Washington DC. They are now running the government, and making it seem like Muse is evil. We are the last MuseLovers. As for MB, the new MBers in that time were taught to hate Muse because it was run by the HPBs.
SOUND OK?
131-I think, to avoid confusion, we all should be in the same room. Maybe it is, like, a holiday, like Memorial Day or Christmas or something.
36-I agree. Wait a second… I agreed with Fridgey!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!
THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE SO WE SHOULD start this story over, with everyone that is going to be in it in the meeting room. A distress signal has been sent out to the last MuseLovers and we came to meet in the meeting room.
This refuses to submit. Sorry if it multiple-posts.
I’d like to join, but kind of slowly. Potato Chip who I mention will be away the next month, and I’m going to be away the next two weeks as well, and in later July.
In a room at MIT, a girl is checking her email in an attempt to procrastinate. “Why can’t this paper make sense? I can’t do it. It’s impossible. What else can I do?” She opens a web browser, Internet Fire Safari 9.999 Optimised. “I haven’t used that email address in years. It’s some excuse.” She types a password, clicks on something. “Geneva… MuseBlog… two weeks ago… oh, no.” She takes out a phone and dials. “Potato Chip? Yes, it’s me. Remember MuseBlog? When we were thirteen. I used to be curious and questioning. You had some people’s facebook from then, right? Can you contact them? Now. There’s kind of a problem. I’m emailing you. Checking your old email accounts might help too. I’m going to try calling some other people from that DC kokonvention. If you find anything, call me or email. My thesis can wait a little bit longer.”
I’m working on a degree in electrical engineering. I’m 26. That makes sense, right? I don’t have money, I’ve kept in touch with Potato Chip because I know her well, but other people I didn’t actually see I lost contact with during college. Until now…
Maybe we should start the story where it starts now and tell in in flashback?
153: Hold up! I don’t think we should start over, or be in the same room. I agree with Robert’s suggestions and I think we should use his beginning. Your idea about the premise/summary sounds pretty good, but… it just seems to be missing something. I liked all the mysterious elements from early on, and it seems like all that wasn’t incorporated.
i like where the story is. people should just go with it and not try to start it over again. people like me need to read more carefully. i’ll do a summary of what’s happened so far.
We are in CHICAGO.
there’s what the GAPAs wrote which has Sweet melpomene, Widdershins,juliette, purple panda, Frigid symphony, Shadowkat, Alice, Red-Tailed Ahwk, Ebeth, Pralius Canix and E2MB in the “meeting room” or whatever. Shadowkat and Fridgey flirt and stuff. People have been disapearing all around the world and everyone suspects the bunnies. at this point Lizzie, Pentatonikk, KiKithe great, The man for aeiou, and Tiwan Hippo Fan also join us. Shadowkat has connections in the mafia and asks if she should call her “people” so that she can get information on the disapearences. Pralius Canix gets up and leaves to do some research at the library. Shadowkat and Fridgey then leave to call people. meanwhile PC down at the library gets shot. back at the meeting room which now contains Kagcomix,Sweet melpomene, Widdershins,juliette, purple panda, Alice, Red-Tailed Ahwk, Ebeth, Pralius Canix and E2MB, Lizzie, Pentatonikk, KiKithe great, The man for aeiou, and Tiwan Hippo Fan. Kagcomix is sitting on the floor and comments that a good place to look for HPB’s would be an animal shelter. Then someone (NOT Frigid Symphony) fires a gun that they found in one of the secret compartments in the table in the room. Sobriquet who is also in the room borrows a laptop to track the disapearances and they find out that someone was shot at the library and that someone was PC. Alice leaves the room and goes out onto the street and finds PC’s car and after that I have NO IDEA where she is. KAGy also leaves and goes to the library and goes to PC.One of the police officers who shows up at the library is Dotty Kay. PC gives Kagy a note that says “Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” and Kagy goes dashing off down a side street to find the gunman. Kagcomix finds the gunman and gets shot three times in the right arm before she can escape. After escaping Kagy goes back to the romm that now contains: Kagcomix,Sweet melpomene, Widdershins,juliette, purple panda, Red-Tailed Ahwk, Ebeth, Pralius Canix and E2MB, Lizzie, Pentatonikk, KiKithe great, The man for aeiou, and Tiwan Hippo Fan. Kagy talks with E2MB and Sweet melpomene about her arm and the mysteriouse gun men in bunny suites.
I hope that’s acurate.
When did I dissapear?
156: Actually, Cat’s Meow is the police officer (who then came to the hospital) and I work in the emergency room.
Um… excuse me… but is there anyway.. I can possibly join in? If not, thats okay.
159- I don’t see why not. The more Musers, the merrier.
Hey, could the GAPAs possibly write something about their disappearance, or current whereabouts, etc.? Por favor.
This makes me want to do MBer caricatures… *pulls out pencils, markers, erasers, and paper*
Anyway, I went through the thread, and these people are involved, so far [I’m not sure if Em is; she posted once but made no attempt to join the story, so she’s not on the list]:
Agagabagabag
Alice
Cat’s Meow
Cinnamon Moon
curious and questioning
Donaldo
‘Dotty-kay
E2MB
Ebeth
Fire_Falcon22
FrigidSymphony
the GAPAs
Green Qween
Juliette
Kagcomix
Kiki the Great
Lizzie
the man for aeiou
Pentatonikk
Potato Chip
Prarilius Canix
Purple Panda
Red-Tailed HAWK
Shadowkat
Sobriquet
Sweet Melpomene
Taiwan Hippo Fan
Widdershins
If I forgot you, feel free to yell at me or something… Sorry!
160- Thanks, but Im not exactly sure how it works. Do we each take turns makin a section or something?
146-Ok, I’ll have them speak French. Lol, just kidding!
Hey, guess what, though? I was at a Barnes & Noble, today, shopping for a graduating friend, and I spotted this book on the clearance rack called, A Complete History of the Mafia…so, hopefully, it’ll help me out a bit, at least in the general Mafia knowledge department. For Italian, though, I’ll just have to review. *sigh* Lol. Sorry, you probably don’t care.
Anyway, you need to write about what you’re doing…*smiles sweetly*…per favore.
161-Sort of. Anyone can jump in at any point, as long as their doing so doesn’t “mess up” the flow, in you know what I mean.
Aaah this is what happens when you leave for a day! Argh. Kagy, I didn’t really leave. I was going to, but then Sobriquet borrowed a laptop from me and I decided that it was better I didn’t leave. So we deleted the part where I leave.
162-
No I dont…
Fire_Falcon22 (161), Don’t be intimidated. Just read through the story so far and write what you think could come next.
164- Thanks, that helps.
It’s awkward when the GAPAs write comments and then moderate ones that came before them, isn’t it?
Oh, I think I shall fall asleep right here, and press a key with my nose. No, just kidding…
Oh my god, I can’t believe what happened when I left for eight hours, or less. What’s it going to be like when I leave for TWO DAYS?
Last night I went to sleep thinking about this, and if it weren’t for the internet being down, I probably would have got up, logged on, and told Donaldo that no way would I forget him completely, even in seventeen years. I slept really badly, too… Which may account for my being half-asleep now, at 8:45.
153- I think we should start where Robert started it. I don’t actually care for that that much, because it seems less mysterious and unknown.
Alice had been thinking hard. “Hang on,” she said suddenly. “What did the note say again?”
Kagcomix obligingly fished it out of her pocket with her real arm. “Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read. Alice took it from her.
“What?” asked agagabagabag.
Alice looked up. “I’m not sure about Ljubl and extrater, but Lagomo seems awfully similar to lagomorph.”
Everyone looked at her. No one moved. “Which is…?” asked Fire_Falcon22.
“I don’t believe none of you know that!” burst out Alice. “You’ve all grown up to be hugely successful, and none of you know what lagomorph is?” When no one answered, Alice explained, “Rabbits aren’t rodents. They’re lagomorphs.”
Dun dun dun dunnnn.
If the GAPAs don’t moderate this till the morning, we are in for some confusion, big time.
*sends mental reminders to the GAPAs to moderate the posts before bed* Unless they’re already in bed… But that would be awfully early, ‘specially for Rosanne, for whom it is only nine o’ the clock. I think. But maybe she’s on vacation. *tries to stop speculating*
Of course, I oughtn’t to pressure them. But I don’t like the thought of what will happen if all the posts are moderated at 4 o’ the clock (here) while I am still in bed and not able to stay on top of the confusion, and I don’t want to spend another night like the last one.
This is a whiny post. So to make it less whiny, I will say:
Can someone post the whole story, so far?
Let me try again.
As Kagy finished talking, a tall man in a sharp suit entered the room.
“Ah,” he said, “l believe this is the right address. I won’t bother with my full name, but you probably know me as agagabagabag. Is there a certain Red- tailed Hawk here?”
R-TH stood up with a warm smile.
“It’s good to see you, old friend.”
He turned to E2MB.
“It seems that you were right about the bunnies, in some respects.”
OK, so I think we need to sort something out. c+q’s post should go before Robert’s story fragment, and we are still clueless as to what the problem is. What should it be? HPBs, obviously, but how do we know about them? We don’t. Therefore, how about . . . people are going missing. Muserly people. Diana Lutz, Romana something, the current Editor-in-Chief of Muse, Ivars Peterson . . . The list goes on. The MBers have realized this, and banded together to stop them. The MuseBlog shut down in 2010, but the MBers who came after 2007 are not in our story. Why? How about . . . Muse went out of print in 2008, because no one wanted the smaller size, and therefore, though the blog kept on, no more people came. The people that came between July 2007 and December 2010 (when the blog shut down) didn’t care that much, and slowly forgot about Muse. Only us, who stayed mostly because we were all friends, remained when the Blog suddenly shut down one day. No more comments were moderated, and no one could post on any more of the threads. All that remained was a notice saying, “Blog Closed Due To.” There was no explanation below.
I’ll make a prologue going on that. If you don’t like it, don’t use it.
“Good night!” wrote [insert MBer here, I can’t decide.] “See you in the morning!” Little did he [she?] know, this was the last comment ever to be moderated on the MuseBlog.
When [same MBer here] logged on the next morning, he was shocked to see that no one had posted in the time he had been sleeping. He was a good deal more shocked to see that, on the very top of the page, even above the random thread, was a single post. It said, “BLOG CLOSED DUE TO.” Due to what? He clicked on the random thread, only to find it closed. All the threads were! When he had worked through the entire year of 2010, he realized the awful truth: The MuseBlog was truly closed.
[C+q’s post.]
[Robert’s story]
[things continue as in Kagcomix’s summary]
I’m sort of waiting for things to become a little more, shall we say, sane, before adding to the narrative.
“Good night!” wrote E2MB “See you in the morning!” Little did he know, this was the last comment ever to be moderated on the MuseBlog.
When E2MB logged on the next morning, he was shocked to see that no one had posted in the time he had been sleeping. He was a good deal more shocked to see that, on the very top of the page, even above the random thread, was a single post. It said, “BLOG CLOSED DUE TO.” Due to what? He clicked on the random thread, only to find it closed. All the threads were! When he had worked through the entire year of 2010, he realized the awful truth: The MuseBlog was truly closed.
In a room at MIT, a girl is checking her email in an attempt to procrastinate. “Why can’t this paper make sense? I can’t do it. It’s impossible. What else can I do?” She opens a web browser, Internet Fire Safari 9.999 Optimised. “I haven’t used that email address in years. It’s some excuse.” She types a password, clicks on something. “Geneva… MuseBlog… two weeks ago… oh, no.” She takes out a phone and dials. “Potato Chip? Yes, it’s me. Remember MuseBlog? When we were thirteen. I used to be curious and questioning. You had some people’s facebook from then, right? Can you contact them? Now. There’s kind of a problem. I’m emailing you. Checking your old email accounts might help too. I’m going to try calling some other people from that DC kokonvention. If you find anything, call me or email. My thesis can wait a little bit longer.”
The year is 2020. The heroes: a few dozen young men and women, most in their late 20s. Fifteen years earlier, four friendly-seeming but mysterious people gathered them on what was then known as the World Wide Web, dropped hints about an important destiny or mission they were to fulfil, and then vanished. Over the years, some of the group kept in touch; others drifted apart. Now a great danger has brought them all back together again…
“Zark,” Sweet Melpomene said at last. “This is big. Really big. And BAD.”
“Do you think–” Widdershins looked around at the others. “Do you think the GAPAs knew?”
Juliette shrugged. “You mean ‘knew’ as in ‘had foreknowledge of’? Like Hari Seldon and his psychohistory? Not zarking likely.”
“I’m not so sure,” Purple Panda said. “They sounded as if they did. There was one thing in particular that Robert posted, just a few days before…”
“Robert!” FrigidSymphony scoffed. “That old fraud. He’d be the last person I’d listen to.”
Shadowkat reached across the table and tousled FrigidSymphony’s waist-long hair. “Still smarting from that time he banished you, are you, Fridgey?” she teased.
“That has nothing to do with it,” the musician shot back. “I just found Rebecca and the other Administrators more helpful.”
Alice looked pensive. “I always wondered about Rosanne,” she said. “She seemed very quiet and sweet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to her than that. I suspect that she was the brains of the outfit, the one pulling the strings. And then one day they were all just–gone…”
For a moment, the group sat in uneasy silence.
“Anyway, they did their job,” Red-tailed HAWK said at last. “They got us together. Now we’ve got a job to do.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ebeth burst out. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get out there and DO it.”
“Not so fast,” Prarilius Canix said. “We can’t afford to rush into this. It’s too important for that. Failure is not an option here. We have to be sure what we’re dealing with.”
E2MB smiled grimly. “Well, whatever it is,” he said, “one thing is for sure: it is definitely NOT mostly harmless.”
Shadowkat looked Prarilius Canix. “PC is right,” she said. “We have to find out what it is we’re dealing with. Those disappearances…did anyone notice any kind of order to them? Do you think it could be…the bunnies?”
FrigidSymphony glanced up from admiring his hair. “Bunnies? I’ll kill ’em. I’ll…”. He broke off, turning his attention to a small stain on his shirt. “Dammit, I just washed this crap yesterday! Bloody pasta…”
“Obsess much?” muttered Shadowkat. She raised her hands in response to the glare she got from FrigidSymphony. “Just making an observation!” she said defensively.
“Hey, I care about my appearance,” he shot back, “because it’s worth the effort.” He gave her a cocky grin.
Shadowkat grinned back, and thought, Well, at least one of us hasn’t changed…. “I care about mine, too! But, you know, you really don’t need to do anything…you’re naturally gorgeous.” She winked at him.
“Will you two stop the banter? We have a crisis on our hands!” Prarilius Canix snapped. He was irritable, having been awake for the past two nights, researching. “It’s not just the GAPAs. Whatever did this wanted to get them out of the way first, because it thought that they were the only ones who could stop it. People have been disappearing all over the world.”
“You’re talking about this as though there was some intelligence behind the disappearances,” said Lizzie. “Do you think that’s possible?”
“I think it’s probable,” Pentatonikk mused. “The bunnies…?”
“What are you talking about?” Prarilius Canix hissed. “The bunnies are imaginary and this is real.”
Silence.
“Right?”
Silence.
“Well… ” said Kiki the great, nervously fingering her red hair. “You never went to Kokonventions…”
“And you haven’t been on the blog much in the past few years,” The man for aeiou said. “Until now, that is… ”
“I’m sorry, PraCan,” Taiwan Hippo Fan said. “We didn’t realize there was anyone here who didn’t know.”
“Know what?” asked Alice, just as clueless as Prarilius Canix. “Oh! You mean . . . that?”
FrigidSymphony blushed. He was in a world of his own. “As beautiful as ever…” He thought. He shook himself mentally, then looked at Prarilius Canix. “So what do you propose we do?”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you two stop it? We need to think about what we’re going to do about this.”
“What do I propose we do? I can’t propose anything until I know about these bunnies!” Prarilius Canix exclaimed.
“Well, which two are you talking about, Alice? Fridgey and I were just having fun…” Shadowkat shot a glare at Prarilius Canix. Then her look softened. “Look, it’s not that I don’t think this is serious, but…oh, alright. I know some connections who might have some information about the disappearances…should I call them?”
Shadowkat grinned sheepishly. “I know, I know…sorry. But do you want me to contact my people?” She looked at FrigidSymphony and smiled. She leaned across the table and whispered in his ear, “Just wait till this meeting is over…”
Shadowkat looked at the others, then turned to Prarilius Canix. “Alright, look, you remember that day back in ’07, April Fool’s Day, when the HPBs took over MuseBlog? And we all thought, ‘Haha, what a joke, that can’t be real!’? Well…it was.”
“PC, the bunnies are real. Well, in a sense…it was an accident.” Sobriquet whispered, concerned.
“Wait,” interrupted Lizzie. “I seem to have missed the memo. Who are Shadowkat’s ‘people’ and what do they have to do with the disappearances?”
“I have no clue,” volunteered Alice, unhelpfully. “Shadowkat?”
FS was deep crimson by now. He pulled a flask ot of his pocket and took a long drink, then said: “I think we should all use our assets and dig up whatever we can about these disappearances. I’ll contact the Thelema, see if the occultists can give me some info… As for the rest of you…”
“My ‘people'” retorted Shadowkat, “are a few parties with whom I have certain useful connections. And that’s all you need to know. Now, should I contact them, or not?”
Shadowkat passed her own flask under the table to FrigidSymphony. “Just in case anything else ‘of interest’ should be mentioned.” she murmured.
“What about the rest of us?” asked Alice. “There’s not a whole lot I can do. I mean, since the the Wawona sunk I don’t even have a ship!” She paused. “Of course, most of you don’t have ships either, so I suppose it’s not that unusual.”
“I’ll be doing some research. Again,” Prarilius Canix sighed. “I’ll look through the newspaper archives, see if I can find any pattern to the disappearances. If I can find the time and place they started, we’ll have something to work with.”
Shadowkat sighed.
“And I’ll contact my people, see what they know…and trust me, they’ll know something. Anyone else have an assignment for me? I’ll need something to keep me busy once I’m done…” She glanced at FS, who raised his eyebrows. “Well, never mind. Anyone?”
Canix left the room. Moments later, a sleek white Prius with a BOOK♥ER license plate pulled out of the parking lot below and drove off in the direction of the library.
“I wonder what he’s up to,” Alice mused. “He didn’t even wait for us to explain about the bunnies.”
“He’s probably going to catch up on some of the old MB threads, see if he can find out something about them himself.”
“Makes sense. That’s where it all started.”
“God, I feel useless,” moaned Alice. “All I can do is write, really. I suppose I could help PC research, but…” She trailed off. “I don’t know.” She rested her elbows on the table, and her chin in her hands. “I’ve never been very good at making plans, either.”
Shadowkat looked around at everyone. “Well, I’m gonna go talk to a few people, alright? Everyone knows what they’re doing? Good.” She got up and headed for the door. Glancing over her shoulder at FS, she said, “You coming?” He nodded, and they left together. A black and silver Honda motorcycle with two dark-clothed figures on it glided out of the parking lot a few minutes later.
Prarilius Canix stood up, heaps of newspaper falling off the computer desk. It was so obvious. Why hadn’t he spotted it before?
He scribbled a few important points on a sheet of notebook paper, stuffed the sheet in his pocket, and dashed out into the rainy street, ignoring the funny look he got from the librarian.
“This could alter the fate of the entire world,” he thought. “They’ve got to know about it.”
He was so focused that he didn’t notice the figure standing nearby beneath an umbrella, or what that figure held in its free hand and was pointing at him.
There was a sharp crack, like a gunshot. In fact, that’s what it was. Prarilius Canix collapsed against the library wall and slowly slid to the ground.
Kagcomix looked up, from where she was sitting (on the floor) the other MBers looked menacing in the flickering candle light.
“So they are real,” she muttered, coughed once and continued, “Animal shelters” as kagy coughed again she felt a slight twinge of pain in her left side, just below her ribcage. Sometimes, mostly when she was agitated it hurt. She had been stabbed once many years ago defending what she believed right and the wound had never really properly healed.
“What do you mean?” asked Alice, bending over to look at kagcomix.
“well, normal rabits multiply rapidly right? but the HPB’s are different, aren’t they spawned from talk of dogs vs. cats? And where better to find dogs and cats than at an animal shelter? I think we should check out the local shelters. I can do some volunteer work there while checking stuff out.” as Kagcomix finished she curled into child’s pose, her sword hugged to her stomach. Kagcomix was tired and her side hurt. She was worried, woried about everything because she didn’t know what to do. Kagy let the other MBers speech wash over her as she drifted off into thought. Kagy thought about everything that had brought her here, to this dark room with the large table, a room full of secrecy.
Kagy had been very young indeed when the strangers had shown her to the world wide web. She remembered all of it, she also remembered her other training. Around the same time she was introduced to the WWW she began being attacked by strangers, strangers with swords. She fought them but with terrible consequences, kagy had lost her right arm and been stabbed in the left side. her arm was now replaced with a bionic one, but she still missed the flesh and bone that had once been part of her. As Kagcomix reflected she also realised how far she’d come, her then long hair had been cut short like a boy’s. Somethings remained the same though, she was still tall and still even 13 years later she had a boyish figure. Kagy rolled over onto her side. She was so tired. A loud bang filled the air. Kagy started and banged her head on the table.
“Sorry” Red tailed HAWK said, “I didn’t know it actualy worked”
RtH held a gun in his hand. He smiled sheepishly, “sorry!” he said again.
“Where exactly did you get that?” asked Widdershins
“Uh….this secret compartment thingy slid open when i put my hand on the table.” RtH explained.
“Maybe there are more, but HAWK, DON’T go pulling triggers indoors. It’s dangerous!”Alice snapped at him.
“Anybody have a laptop?” Sobriquet asked. “We should check the news. We should keep track of any more unexplained dissapearences or bunny sightings.”
Alice handed over a small silver notebook. “For writing.” she offered. “I take it everywhere.”
The group skimmed the headlines. One read “Man Shot At Chicago Library”
“Wasn’t PC headed for the library?” E2MB asked.
Sobriquet clicked the link. At the top of the page was a picture of Pralius Canix lying unconcious on the library steps.
Kagcomix got up. People seemed to be leaving now so she guessed she should be too. She grabbed her sword and walked to the door. On the street the air felt good on her face. “I’ll go to the library to see how PC is besides, i want to pick up a book” she thought. a horriffic scene met her eyes as she reached the steps. police tape everywhere, and PC lying by the library doors. with a disregard for the police and everyone around her kagy ran towards PC.
“Pralius, who did it, where did they go?” she whispered.
“Dunno, they went down the side street” pralius gasped.
“It’s okay PC, i’ll get them. just don’t die” she smiled down at him before running off down a sidestreet. she didn’t need anyone dieing, at least not this early in the game.
“Wait!” Prarilius gasped. He held up a blood-soaked scrap of paper, with a neat, round hole through the middle of it.
“That’s evidence. Hand it over, and everything will be all right,” said a young, nervous-looking policeman.
Canix coughed, then fixed the policeman with a baleful stare. “This is more important than you could possibly imagine. Don’t touch it.”
The policeman backed off. Kagy took the paper. Only three words were legible, and their last few letters had been cut off.
“Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read.
At that very moment, the former MuseBloggers were gathered around the tiny laptop on the big table, reading the dreadful article. Suddenly someone said, “Where’s Kagcomix?”
“Good point,” said Alice in surprise. “Where is Kagcomix?”
Green Qween burst into the room quite suddenly.
“Am I late? What’s going on?” She blurt out. “I saw Kagy in the street, and she was running away from something.” She stared at the small group huddled around the laptop. “What did I miss?”
Suddenly a female police officer reported for duty. “What’s going on here, Cook?” she said, addressing the man. Suddenly she stepped back a ways. “PC?” she whispered faintly. “Is that you?”
“How do you know my blog name?” the bloody man whispered from the ground. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“Cat’s Meow,” the lady said. “And boy, it’s been way too long.”
Donaldo suddenly appeared into the room. “PC was shot! We need to help him. I don’t know who or when. I just saw him collapsed by the library!”
Donaldo cast a glance around the room at the MBers, all staring at him with a strange uncertainty. “You guys OK?” he asked.
“Who’re you?” Alice asked, stepping forward.
“It’s me! Donaldo the supercoolio awesome nerd! Remember, Alice? We used to work on the Captain Pye RRR all the time?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t remember you.”
FrigidSymphony spoke up. “I do.”
“I definitely remember you, Fridgy,” Donaldo said, glaring at the handsome man.
“Does anyone else remember this jerk?” FrigidSymphony asked. No one spoke up.
“Why doesn’t anyone remember me?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” FrigidSymphony said.
“Look, FS. You gotta help me. I can’t carry Prarilius by myself,” Donaldo said.
“Fine, but this will be the only time I will help you.” FrigidSymphony narrowed his eyes at Donaldo. “Look, FS,” Donaldo said. “We gotta set aside our differences. I am not sure why, but the world is in danger here. We have to work together, or else we fail.”
The room was silent for a while, but FS finally agreed. “Let’s go, and hurry.”
Cinnamon Moon stepped quietly into the room. The few people still sitting around the table turned toward her. She moved purposefully towards the table, then introduced herself.
“Cinnamon Moon. It’s been too long, my friends. Please tell me – what has happened? I don’t understand every thing. Can you explain?”
E2MB began. “It started with the bunnies…”
“It happened at kokonvention #30 at Muse hq. Shadowkat was showing her make-alive 3000 with a computer and ’07 januray muse. She typed in a random thread number and hit enter. She fed the Muse in. The make-alive made a ring sound and a thing popped out. It was a bunny, then another and more! Soon all of Muse hq was filled will bunnies! some were paper and some were from that april day in ’07.”
As E2MB finished recounting what had happened in the last few years, the room fell gloomily silent as the grave nature of what had taken place began to truly sink in.
The MBers sat silently, pensively, in the ever-darkening room, looking up on occasion, wondering what, exactly, had to be done. A disquieting atmosphere ensued until a familiar voice crackled once more through the PA speakers in the room.
“Zark, zark, zark,” muttered Sweet Melpomene. “This is already getting out of hand; I don’t think I can still risk talking to you from the lab, even if I do wipe the computers… I’ll be over to the Royal in a bit–”
A loud crash was broadcast, followed only by static before the speakers fell silent.
Shadowkat pulled up to the abandoned apartment building. She looked it over, noticed the broken windows, tattered curtains, unhinged door. Home, sweet home., she thought, somewhat sarcastically. She had dropped FrigidSymphony off at a phone booth outside of a “well-thought-of” bar in town. They would meet up later, when she was done with her current business. She got off her bike, set the safety, and went into the building.
Two men were waiting for her in the kitchen just inside the front door. She turned to them.
“Buona Notte, Signor Tomaschino, Masacci.”
“Ciao, Kat.” they replied in unison.
She looked them in the eyes. “Do you have the information I asked you for?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let’s see it, then.” Tomaschino pulled a few sheets of paper out of the front pocket of his jacket and handed them to her. She looked at the papers for a few minutes, eyes narrowing as she read each sentence, then looked up at her companions.
“Is this all you could find?” she asked them skeptically.
“Yes.” answered Masacci, with a touch of aggression.
Shadowkat returned in kind, “Well, it had better be. This is more important than any of your kind will ever know.” She spat out the last phrase as if it were poison. Which, to Tomaschino and Masacci, it was. Tomaschino took a step towards Shadowkat threateningly.
“If you weren’t my cousin…” he warned.
“If you weren’t my cousin, you’d be dead by now.” interrupted Shadowkat. She snatched the papers of the heavily-stained table where she had set them, turned on her heel, and marched out the door.
“Ciao, gentlemen!” she called from the street. With a roar and a vroom, she was gone.
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Alice picked up the phone in the meeting room.
“Hello?” she said, a little tentatively.
“Alice?”
“Yes.”
“It’s me, Shadowkat. Have you and the other MBers meet me downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I have some extremely important information.”
Click.
Back at the library, the scene of the crime was buzzing with activity. After Kagy rushed off, someone finally had the sense to call 911. Paramedics had flooded the area, and PC was rushed into an ambulance. As an authority figure, Cat’s Meow had recieved word that PC hadn’t lost a fatal amount of blood, but he was still in critical condition.
Five blocks away, Kagy swung around the sharp corner of a dank brick building. What she came face-to-face with in the alley made her stop dead in her tracks. From a distance, the dreamlike sound of sirens speeding away reached her ears, but she did not hear it.
The downtown Chicago emergency room had seen better days. Minor dilemmas had been hindering progress since 8:00 that morning, especially since the latest batch of interns were starting today. Among these clueless medics was 29-year-old ‘Dotty-kay, who at the moment had quite a lot to worry about. She had recently recieved a mysterious message that her old MuseBlog friends planned to meet at a secret location this very day, supposedly for a reunion. She had suspected the matter at hand was a bit more urgent, but she had a dilemma since her internship began today. After becoming dissatisfied with her work in the genetics field a few months ago, Dot had quit her job and applied for a more conventional medical position. Although she now had more experience than many of her colleagues here at the hospital, she couldn’t afford to miss this training, and so declined the invitation. Now she doubted the wisdom in this action. With rumors of an assassination attempt so early on, it was looking like she would be giving the MuseBlog conspriacy a higher priority than her career at this point.
Cat’s Meow had been thinking along these same lines, and had stowed away on PC’s ambulance just before it left, disregarding the fact that she was still on duty. Now as the vehicle raced into the emergency entrance, she tried to communicate with PC. From his grunts and fragmented sentences, she gained that he had just made an earth-shattering discovery. She followed the strecher inside the ICU, where Dot almost collided into the party.
The man for aeiou twiddled his thumbs. It had been three hours since he arrived. He needed to hurry up. He had a take over to see to in a hour’s time.
There was a barbed wire fence but it only stopped Kagy for a moment, she ripped the barbed wire aside with her right(and bionic) arm.Kagy could feel her heart pumping as she ran down the side street, it was long and it didn’t have a turn off for a long while. it was more of an alleyway now that she thought about it, it’s narrow grimy brick walls from the buildings on either side leaned in close. she could she a figure running up ahead. Kagy clutched the paper from PC tigter in her fist and put on a spurt of speed. she was getting closer, her muscles ached but she kept going. her sword was strapped to her side, in it’s hilt but she pulled it out. suddenly there was gunfire, three bullets rocketed past her bouncing off the walls, one going dangerously past her ear. Kagy ran faster, if she could just get into swordslength reach. As Kagy neared the figure she noticed it wore a long trench coat and a big hat. both the hat and the trench coat were black but under the hat something pink was poking out. Kagy barely had time to wonder what it was when another round of gunfire erupted. this time Kagy couldn’t doge them all, one was lodged in her right shoulder.
“At least it wasn’t my real arm.” she thought. The gunfire wasn’t stopping and Kagy noticed that from a turnoff she hadn’t noticed before more people in trenchcoats and hats were emerging.Kagy turned, there was no way she could face this many gunmen by herself. She grabbed onto a sturdy looking pipe with her good arm and scampered up the buiding trying to doge bullets and climb up pipes was no easy task. KAgy was finaly on top of the roof of one of the buildings. the gunfire died down and Kagy had two more bullets lodged in her arm.
“Zark! i guess it’s another night without sleep to fix THIS!” she thought. with her sitll intact left hand she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
“Hello? is that Dotty Kay?”
“Uh huh”
“It’s Kagcomix. i need your help.”
“Hey Kagy. i’m kinda buisy right now,”
“with PC?”
“how’d you know?”
“I’m special.”
“Uh.. okay… why are you calling me?”
“because I don’t know anyone elses number.”
“Okay. So what do you need?”
“I don’t know if PC told you but he gave me a sheet of paper. I can’t realy read most of it but i know that you were on MB before i was and you might know what it means. Does “Ljubl… uh… Lagomo…Extrater” make any sense to you?”
“Sorry Kagy but you’ve caught me at a realy bad time, i’m not sure what that means but go back to HQ, someone there will be bound to know what you’re talking about.”
“Thanks anyways Dotty Kay.” As Kagcomix put her phone back in her pocket she realised what the pink from under the hat had been: BUNNY EARS! Kagy ran across rooftops until she reached HQ, she didn’t want to make a scene with her bullet holed t-shirt and her wrecked arm. finaly Kagy was able to climb down from the roof into the building they had been in before. it seemed there were hidden passageways everywhere. As Kagy entered the room Sweet Melpomene looked up.
“ZARK! Kagy what happened? should i call the ambulance?”Seet Melpomene asked, shocked at the holes that adorned Kagy’s shirt.
“Nah, ‘sokay, They only gor my bionic arm.”Kagy responded.
“So what exactly happened?” E2MB asked.
“Well i saw PC and he gave me a note. Then i rushed down an alleyway and got shot at by people in bunny suits, black trench coats and hats. The little #@$%@^&* screwed up my arm! I came over the roof tops to get here.”Kagy explained.
“Bunny suits?” E2MB asked.
“Guess so.” said Sweet Melpomene, “What did PC’s note say?”
“most of it’s gone but what i can read is Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” said Kagy, “Its’ a good thing i left my bag here earlier because my arm realy needs work, that’s where i keep spare parts” she explained. Kagy took off her ripped shirt and started down to work on her arm.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Sweet Melpomene asked as Kagcomix dug out the bullet and started repairing broken wires and plates.
“Nope, only near my colarbone because that’s where the metal meets the flesh. Otherwise i don’t have that much feeling in my right arm, I mean, I can feel the bullets in there and i can feel being shot, but if you were,to say… run a feather down it I wouldn’t feel it. I always wear a tank top under my shirts for situations like this. It’s realy hard to repair my arm if i keep having to roll up my sleeves.” Kagy explained.
“you’ve been shot at before?” askedE2MB increduously.
“Yup! and stabbed too! wanna see my scar?”
“not really. but why?”
“In my line of work you come to expect calamity.”
“I thought you were a cartoonist!” Sweet Melpomene jumped in.
“That and defending justice.”Kagy replied, “So do either of you know when PC might get out of the hospital because no one I’ve asked so far seems to know what his note means.”
“No idea.” answered E2MB.
Alice had been thinking hard. “Hang on,” she said suddenly. “What did the note say again?”
Kagcomix obligingly fished it out of her pocket with her real arm. “Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read. Alice took it from her.
“What?” asked agagabagabag.
Alice looked up. “I’m not sure about Ljubl and extrater, but Lagomo seems awfully similar to lagomorph.”
Everyone looked at her. No one moved. “Which is…?” asked Fire_Falcon22.
“I don’t believe none of you know that!” burst out Alice. “You’ve all grown up to be hugely successful, and none of you know what lagomorph is?” When no one answered, Alice explained, “Rabbits aren’t rodents. They’re lagomorphs.”
“Oh my goodness, Alice, you’re right!” cried Cinnamon Moon “I’m so sorry for not having kept in touch. Maybe we could have found this out earlier! But after the news about Rebecca…” She looked at the blank faces around her. “You mean-” she faltered “Robert never told you?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phew! That was long! I changed a couple things to make it make sense.
dun dun dun
chapter two
Shadowkat pulled into the Royal’s parking lot, the papers she’d just received folded up in her pocket. I wonder where Fridgey got to…, she thought. When she’d asked the bartender whether or not he knew what had happened to a tall, handsome, black-clad man, the ‘tender had said he’d never seen a man like that*. Odd. She got off her bike and went inside.
Bursting through the door of the lobby, she immediately dropped and rolled as a dart whizzed by her head and slammed into her shoulder. She began to feel its effects even in the seconds between impact and when she pulled it out. Her vision started to cloud. No! she thought. Must…stay…awake! She bolted for the door, whipping out her cell phone as she did so. Apparently, the gun that her attacker had used was a one-shot deal, at least for a while.
The phone on the other end rang. And rang. And rang some more. Then:
“Hello?” said a strange voice from the other line, a voice she didn’t recognize.
“What have you done with the MuseBloggers?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
“Oh, don’t worry, S-kitty…” She cringed at the use of her MB nickname by a stranger. “…they’re safe…for now.” The connection broke.
“What?! Where are they?!? WHERE ARE THEY?!?!” she screamed into the phone, desperately trying wrap her mind around all this. Just a few minutes ago, they had been fine. And now, they weren’t. She darted around to the side of the building and started to climb. For once in her life, she truly thanked Master Chi for how hard he’d made her train. She crawled onto the roof. Luckily for her, the meeting room in which they’d been was on the top floor; she’d hear any commotion coming from it. She crept along the roof to the air vent, listening. Suddenly, the wind changed direction, and she could hear voices.
“…–ouldn’t be helped, sir.” said a somewhat high-pitched, squeaky voice.
“What do you mean, couldn’t be helped?!” roared the voice from her most recent phone conversation. “We had all of the others in our grasp, and YOU let this one slip through our fingers!”
“Yes, but, sir, the poison, she got the dart out–”
“I don’t care if she’d thrown it back into you!!!” interrupted the one who appeared to be in charge. “It was your job to get her, and you didn’t! Now she’s probably on her way to the–”
Ding-a-ding, dong, ding, ding-a-ding, dong!, went Shadowkat’s phone.
“@#$%!!!” she swore under her breath. She heard a clatter from the room below. She hurriedly leaped onto the next roof over, which, fortunately, was quite close, as she was in the city. She scrambled down the far side of the building onto which she had just leaped, dropped into the alley at the bottom, and opened her phone. The display screen read “Alice”. She pushed the “Accept” button.
*Fridgey‘s been kidnapped by the bunnies…and, no, hon, you can’t kill them…sorry.
***
If anyone doesn’t like a part of this, let me know, and we can either change it or cut it entirely, alright? M-k, so here’s my theory: The HPB’s are helping our foe, the creators of MySpace (whose business has, by now, crashed, and they are jealous of Muse, MuseBlog, and everything about them) in exchange for a place to stay, because, being hot pink, they have, in the past, been either put in zoos, or hunted for their unique fur. I know there needs to be more to it, but I think it’s a pretty good foundation, no?
*Make that “I wouldn’t have cared if she’d thrown it back into you!”…it sounds better.
“Told us what?” asked Alice. “It seems like we have a lot of information, but it’s all mixed up. Could everyone just sit down and explain in an organized fashion?”
Just then, her cell phone rang. She didn’t normally use her cell phone, except for business calls, so this was quite an event. “Hello?” she said.
~~~~~~
Not sure what Shadowkat wants to say to me, so I will let her work that out.
181-Wait a minute, you were supposed to call me…you’ve been kidnapped by the HPB’s and the MySpace creators, as I found out when I tried to call the meeting room to warn ya’ll, and I was just coming into the Royal to tell you guys what I’d found out, when they tried to take me, and then I escaped, heard our foes talking through the vent system, and then my phone rang, and it was you, calling me from your place of holding. Hope that makes sense…if not, please read my post, or at least skim it.
Okay so wait a minute. We’re all kidnapped by the Myspace creators and the HPB’s, so are we somewhere tied up, or are we somewhere just made to stay in a room, both, or does it matter?
Damn bunnies. I expect I’m lying around gagged and tied up somewhere in some warehouse, huh?
182- Got it. Sorry. We can delete 181. I’ll redo that.
~~~~~~
Alice excused herself to get a drink of water, and walked out into the hall. It seemed strange to just sit there, doing nothing, but it had always been her nature to stay on top of the confusion, even at thirteen, and this confusion needed more staying on top of than any RRR. She bent down to drink from the water fountain, and her head exploded into blackness.
***
She woke into blackness, and were it not for her awareness of the enormous lump on the back of her head, she would not have realized that she was awake. Her eyes searched the darkness for something light to rest them on, but there was only coal-blackness.
Then it hit her. Her cell phone! It was only for business calls, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the phone numbers of other MuseBloggers.
Her hands weren’t bound, and she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Its screen was glowing, and she fixed her eyes on it, glad of the relief from the darkness. She dialed Shadowkat’s number.
“Hello?” said Shadowkat.
“Hi, Shadowkat,” said Alice. “It’s Alice. I think I’ve been kidnapped. I’m in someplace dark.”
~~~~~~
Can we delete Donaldo’s introduction? It doesn’t make much sense, maybe he could redo it, taking out FrigidSymphony and taking into account that we already knew PC had been shot? Please, Donaldo?
Shadowkat, if the MuseBlog was shut down, why were the creators of MySpace so mad about it’s success?
Oh wait, it wasn’t just me. How about we’re all kidnapped, but because of the dark, I didn’t know that.
Argh. Clearly I didn’t read the post thoroughly. Sorry. Do I need to redo it, or could I just find out that the other MBers are in the dark room with me?
184- Probably.
185 – Maye they hold grudges?
186- Sounds reasonable to me.
189- Yeah, probably. Or maybe they kidnapped the GAPAs because they were jealous, which then shut down the MuseBlog.
190- Yeah possibly. I have read through the whole story and Im just trying to get info before I decide to make a part.
If everyone in the room is kidnapped — and all at once — doesn’t that rather constrict the storyline?
And how would it be accomplished? It’s not that easy to sneak up on a group that size — especially one that exhibits such an impressive array of skills and presumably took some security precautions before gathering.
184-Well, yeah, but that’s where you all are. And you’re right: damn bunnies.
190-I like it. And I’m not sure if you saw, but I said that you had all been taken captive. You’re calling to tell me where you are, so I can come and rescue you. Then, after some planning, we’re takin’ down those bunnies!!! Or so we think. We don’t know that it’s actually the MySpace creators behind most of this, and so, when we find this out (from an HPB we’ve taken captive), we get the bunnies’ help to take the MSCs DOWN!!! Corny, I know, but we can make it fairly serious, and that will be interesting.
Just our of curiosity…Robert, did you have any idea that this would be where MBFF would go?
192-Ok, then Alice can have escaped…or maybe more than one, but they’re trying to find me, knowing I wasn’t in the room at the time of the attack…eh?
192- Hmm, good point…
More than one MBer, I meant.
*gives PoPoPo 3 peices of virtual choklit because she figures she should*
Does anyone care if I make the next part?
195- That is fast becoming your trademark existent smiley, isn’t it? (Not to be confused with trademark nonexistent smiley.)
194- If I escaped, then why exactly was I calling you from a dark room? Though I wasn’t bound or gagged . . . maybe that has something to do with it.
197- Please do.
*launches off into bad parody of a traditional celtic love song, the whole point of which is, she has to go*
And thank your lucky stars I didn’t actually post it! Unfortunately, now I have the actual song stuck in my head. Anyhow, I shall return – I will be guided, A-hem! I had better actually leave, but I will come back. See ya!
[/off topic]
192- Exactly what I was thinking… I’ll attempt to write in a kidnapping scene, then? If it’s absolutely miserable or if you’d all rather change it, feel free.
It seems as if Alice went into the hall for a drink, so she won’t be present in this scene…
I tried to write it so that everyone could decide if they want to be trapped. If so, write yourself into the escaped party. If not, write yourself into the room. I only wrote one other person into the escape party for that reason… she volunteered to be written in, so…yeah…
________________________________________
meanwhile, back in the meeting room:
“Well, what is it?” asked Donaldo as Alice left. Finally, someone had voiced what everyone was thinking.
All the MBers turned to Cinnamon Moon as she opened her mouth to explain. Taking a deep breath, she began.
“Well, there was a reason we all called her–” she was cut off by a loud creaking sound.
“What’s happening?” shouted agagabagabag.
E2MB paled as he realized what was happening. “The whole room’s being moved!”
“What?” said several MBers simultaneously.
“That’s not possible!”
“It’s still bolted in place, for the moment!”
“I thought the Royal was safe!”
“How did they find us?”
“What’s that noise?”
Several people slammed into the door as the room began to shake. Widdershins struggled to pull it open as the lights went out. Gasping for breath, she and a few other MBers fell through as the rest realized they were trapped in what was acting like a gigantic, descending elevator.
“Zark,” she muttered as several people climbed off of her, apologizing profusely.
The group stared at the open doorway, catching a few last glimpses of their friends’ shocked faces as they disappeared into the dark tunnel.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” said Sweet Melpomene. “We have to get out of this building, stat.”
________________________________________
Taking shelter from the deluge…
201- I wasn’t there, but I still got captured. Hey, I had an idea! How about I got captured, not by the HPBs, but by a separate party. Like… hmm, I can’t think of one right now, but that would be cool.
198 –
dont know. lol.
199- Okay then:
Fire_Falcon22 tried to move, but then realized he was tied up. He reached as far as he could for his sword. He grabbed the hilt, but was unable to pull it out of his sheath. He pulled and pulled until he was able to get the hilt through the rope. He grabbed the blade and moved it slowly up the rope, and after a minute of bringing the blade back and forth, he finally cut the rope.
“Ah finally”
He got up, and put his sword back in its sheath. He couldnt see a ting but he heard a voice. He tried to follow the oice, but soon hit a wall. He got up, but he sensed the presence of someone behind him. He turned around to see an odd figure, with a skin color so bright, he could see it, even through the darkness.
Hot pink.
The figure – more hopping than walking- moved slowly towards Fire_Falcon22. The figure pulled out a gun from his jacket. Fire_Falcon grabbed the hilt of his sword. The figure shot the gun, and Fire_Falcon deflectted the shot with his sword, and the bullet bounced back at the figure.
The figure jumped back and shot a few more shots at Fire_Falcon,. He deflected a few, but then one hit him in the shoulder. He crouched down to the ground, clenching his wound.
The figure came closer.
“Who are you?” asked FF.
The figure didnt say anything, he jus pointed the gun towards FF.
FF sat there in shock, not knowing what to do…
Okay, I’m all caught up on the story now. I’ll post again soon…I need to increase my involvement in this story.
So um… is anyone gonna come save me?
202- Hmm, yeah it would! Write it in?
I feel like continuing, so here goes. I wrote in the people who haven’t done any actual posting on this thread but were mentioned anyway… I so hope it makes sense.
_______________________________________
in the room:
The MBers still caught in the moving room fell silent as the walls began to grate on the sides of the shaft. Cables and pulleys screeched against each other, guiding what once was a safe place down, down, down. Slowly, the air began to thicken and, one by one, the members of the group fell unconscious.
***
They awoke groggily in what appeared to be the same room, minus the conference table. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the dim pink lighting.
Someone sat in a corner, next to a pile of bindings.
“Oh, look! My rescue party’s arrived,” FrigidSymphony said, coating the sentence with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Which, on a bad day, is far more than average.
Ebeth rolled her eyes and gave him a disdainful look before scanning her surroundings. A few other MBers followed suit.
“Doors are probably sealed, no windows, PA system’s cut off…” Purple Panda listed to herself. She turned sharply to FrigidSymphony. “Exactly how long have you been here?” she asked politely.
“If I had my bloody watch, I’d probably have escaped by now,” he muttered before saying, “Since a little after I left. Damn bartender… he spiked my drink…”
“Right,” said Panda absently, as she continued to scrutinize the walls.
“They couldn’t even leave the chairs,” mumbled Ebeth. She, too, was looking around curiously.
“When I get out of here, I’m renaming myself Ebeth the Amazing Escape Artist,” said Ebeth suddenly.
_______________________________________
Well, Ebeth thinks she sees a way out.
Hmm, what’s next? Dun Dun DUNNNNN…
Also, I’m feeling rather loquacious, so I’ll do even more. Yay for having nothing to do on a Sunday.
_______________________________________
outside the Royal:
“What the zark was that?” said Widdershins, breathing heavily after her run out of the building.
“An amazing feat of engineering, if I do say so myself,” said someone behind her.
“We tried to get here sooner, but…” said another person, finishing her sentence with a tired sigh.
“curious and questioning! Potato Chip!” the group exclaimed.
Brief ‘hellos’ were made as the group followed the two down the street, to a modest-looking parking garage.
“There’s another place we can try to reach, if it’s not too late. We have two cars…” said curious and questioning calmly.
“Make that three,” added Sweet Melpomene. “I left mine here, too.
“Great,” Potato Chip said, “we can split up, so it’s even harder for them to capture the rest of us.”
She handed a few pieces of notebook paper to SM. “Directions,” she explained.
SM scanned them, and then shoved the directions into an inner coat pocket. “We’ll meet you there; Kagy and I are going to try to get into the hospital. We’re going to try to find Canix and Cat’s Meow.”
They hurried off into the garage until Juliette stopped abruptly. “Wait, where’s Fire_Falcon22? He fell out of the door with us, didn’t he?”
_______________________________________
Ta-Da! That ties it in with FF22’s post, I hope. Good thing I reloaded the page before I got here… Mayhaps he can be kidnapped by the same people who got Alice… perhaps…
And what was Cinnamon Moon going to say about Rebecca? Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn…..
Can’t write yet, but by the time this comment is moderated, I’ll probably be writing a continuation. Such is life.
I will write in the second party, and I have an idea for it too, maybe.
206- Thats what I was thinking. I was supposed to be kiddnapped by the same people as Alice.
156-Where am i? I am so confused!
209- Donaldo, please, pretty please, redo your post. FrigidSymphony is not in the room, PC is already rescued, and I would not forget you in a mere 17 years.
Okay, so, after the room sank, the MBers went unconscious, and when they woke up the furniture was gone, but FS was there? Do the captors have this massive tunnel system or something? Or maybe they’re not really in the room they started out in… *cue mysterious music*
I’ll leave you guys to figure that out, among other issues that were already mentioned.
So Kagy and SM are coming to the hospital, where PC is in critical condition and Cat’s Meow and I have been pretty much oblivious of recent events since Kagy’s last call. I’ll write that in, if no one minds… oh! idea… I’ll post this, to let you know I’m working on it, and if anyone has an objection I’ll refresh the page before posting the continuation, k?
wait my airplane is on the roof! how can they have moved that?
oh I know!
***
the man for aeiou loaded his gun.his bodyguards were good but he had a felling that this is to big for them. he did not carry a gun most of the time, but he keep one in his plane for this type of thing.he had left the room about fifteen min. before this happened. he saw a big plane witch he bearly missed. then he saw the same plane fly off with a building. he thought this was odd. so he flew behind it. he said to his phone “call the CEOs and president of vicom. tell to postpone the take over time till further notice.” the phone was a test of mer co. inc.’s talklessphone.
212- Why exactly is your airplane on the roof, the man for aeiou? Maybe the Royal is also a landing pad for airplanes…
213- where else would it be?
214- Quite frankly, I’m not sure. I don’t know much about private planes. But I would think at an airport.
When we compile this, put mine in where it makes sense. We might have to chop and disperse it, because a lot has happened since Kagy’s call.
And, um, in case this isn’t already obvious, I really don’t know what goes on in an emergency room, so tell me if this isn’t realistic.
~
Dot snapped her phone shut and quickly shoved it in her pocket. Looking around to make sure the doctor hadn’t seen her recieve a call, she spotting Cat’s Meow standing awkwardly next to PC’s bed. They exchanged worried glances, and then Dot came over to adjust an IV in PC’s arm.
“I just got word from Kagy,” she muttered to her two friends. It was hard to tell if PC was listening. “She got your paper, Prarilius, and she’s taking it to show everyone else.”
[I’m not sure how much time would have to pass here. We can put filler in now, or just cut out the above and start when Kagy and SM arrive.]
Snagging a most-likely-illegal parking spot, Kagcomix and Sweet Melpomene hopped out of the car. Slamming the doors and rushing into the hospital entrance, they quickly navigated their way to the emergency room.
“Please, ladies, what’s the problem?” a stern female voice said from the reception desk.
“We need to get in!” SM spluttered. “It’s urgent!”
The receptionist glanced them over. “If it’s not a medical emergency, I’ll have to ask you to head to the waiting room.”
“But our good friend is in there, and we have to talk to him!” said a frustrated Kagy.
“This is a matter that could alter the virtual world permanently, and now threatens our reality!” SM added.
“An online relationship crisis, eh?” sneered the receptionist. “I can’t help you. Patients’ visitors may be immediate family only.”
~
That’s all for now. I’m not sure how you guys are going to get in to see PC.
214- The airport.
There was a clatter on the end of the line. “What’s that?” asked Alice uncertainly. Not much had changed since she was thirteen, when it came to bravery. “Shadowkat?” said Alice, when there was no response. “SHADOWKAT?” Still no sound came from the phone. But somewhere in the darkness, a familiar voice called, “Who’s that?”
“Alice!” Alice yelled back. “Where are you?”
“Over here!” yelled the voice (which Alice was fairly sure belonged to Fire_Falcon) “I’m kind of in trouble right now!”
~~~~~~
Note: I think that we have been kidnapped by the cartoonist who took over Koko and Co. when Larry Gonick resigned/died about five years before this story. What her motives are and what the HPB is doing there, I’m not sure, but it seems like a good start.
216- Well, I could probably ask my dad whether there were beds in the emergency room, but he might look at me funny. I think that an emergency room is just where people wait to be noticed, and that PC would be in a hospital room. But I wouldn’t really know, never having been in an emergency room.
215,217-the airport? but this is a good plot! and mos airports are for big planes. this just a small 12 person plane.
220- Okay. Who knows what life will be like in 17 years anyways?
221-good point.
I work at a medical center so I can help with info about emergency roms.
First, yes there are beds in emergency rooms.
And here’s the general set up:
Entrance: Often there’s a guard at the door and you have to go through a metal detector before entering. No weapons allowed.
Waiting room. Stressed out people in various states of misery waiting for the doctor.
Intake window: A nurse here asks questions to figure out the basic problem. He/she also asks for insurance info. (Maybe this will have changed by 2020??) Emergency room staff call patients in based on the urgency of their medical problems.
Treatment area: This is often one big room divided up by curtains or room partitions into separate patient “rooms.”
so here is hte story so far:
*****
“Good night!” wrote E2MB “See you in the morning!” Little did he know, this was the last comment ever to be moderated on the MuseBlog.
When E2MB logged on the next morning, he was shocked to see that no one had posted in the time he had been sleeping. He was a good deal more shocked to see that, on the very top of the page, even above the random thread, was a single post. It said, “BLOG CLOSED DUE TO.” Due to what? He clicked on the random thread, only to find it closed. All the threads were! When he had worked through the entire year of 2010, he realized the awful truth: The MuseBlog was truly closed.
In a room at MIT, a girl is checking her email in an attempt to procrastinate. “Why can’t this paper make sense? I can’t do it. It’s impossible. What else can I do?” She opens a web browser, Internet Fire Safari 9.999 Optimised. “I haven’t used that email address in years. It’s some excuse.” She types a password, clicks on something. “Geneva… MuseBlog… two weeks ago… oh, no.” She takes out a phone and dials. “Potato Chip? Yes, it’s me. Remember MuseBlog? When we were thirteen. I used to be curious and questioning. You had some people’s facebook from then, right? Can you contact them? Now. There’s kind of a problem. I’m emailing you. Checking your old email accounts might help too. I’m going to try calling some other people from that DC kokonvention. If you find anything, call me or email. My thesis can wait a little bit longer.”
The year is 2020. The heroes: a few dozen young men and women, most in their late 20s. Fifteen years earlier, four friendly-seeming but mysterious people gathered them on what was then known as the World Wide Web, dropped hints about an important destiny or mission they were to fulfil, and then vanished. Over the years, some of the group kept in touch; others drifted apart. Now a great danger has brought them all back together again…
“Zark,” Sweet Melpomene said at last. “This is big. Really big. And BAD.”
“Do you think–” Widdershins looked around at the others. “Do you think the GAPAs knew?”
Juliette shrugged. “You mean ‘knew’ as in ‘had foreknowledge of’? Like Hari Seldon and his psychohistory? Not zarking likely.”
“I’m not so sure,” Purple Panda said. “They sounded as if they did. There was one thing in particular that Robert posted, just a few days before…”
“Robert!” FrigidSymphony scoffed. “That old fraud. He’d be the last person I’d listen to.”
Shadowkat reached across the table and tousled FrigidSymphony’s waist-long hair. “Still smarting from that time he banished you, are you, Fridgey?” she teased.
“That has nothing to do with it,” the musician shot back. “I just found Rebecca and the other Administrators more helpful.”
Alice looked pensive. “I always wondered about Rosanne,” she said. “She seemed very quiet and sweet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to her than that. I suspect that she was the brains of the outfit, the one pulling the strings. And then one day they were all just–gone…”
For a moment, the group sat in uneasy silence.
“Anyway, they did their job,” Red-tailed HAWK said at last. “They got us together. Now we’ve got a job to do.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ebeth burst out. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get out there and DO it.”
“Not so fast,” Prarilius Canix said. “We can’t afford to rush into this. It’s too important for that. Failure is not an option here. We have to be sure what we’re dealing with.”
E2MB smiled grimly. “Well, whatever it is,” he said, “one thing is for sure: it is definitely NOT mostly harmless.”
Shadowkat looked Prarilius Canix. “PC is right,” she said. “We have to find out what it is we’re dealing with. Those disappearances…did anyone notice any kind of order to them? Do you think it could be…the bunnies?”
FrigidSymphony glanced up from admiring his hair. “Bunnies? I’ll kill ’em. I’ll…”. He broke off, turning his attention to a small stain on his shirt. “Dammit, I just washed this crap yesterday! Bloody pasta…”
“Obsess much?” muttered Shadowkat. She raised her hands in response to the glare she got from FrigidSymphony. “Just making an observation!” she said defensively.
“Hey, I care about my appearance,” he shot back, “because it’s worth the effort.” He gave her a cocky grin.
Shadowkat grinned back, and thought, Well, at least one of us hasn’t changed…. “I care about mine, too! But, you know, you really don’t need to do anything…you’re naturally gorgeous.” She winked at him.
“Will you two stop the banter? We have a crisis on our hands!” Prarilius Canix snapped. He was irritable, having been awake for the past two nights, researching. “It’s not just the GAPAs. Whatever did this wanted to get them out of the way first, because it thought that they were the only ones who could stop it. People have been disappearing all over the world.”
”You’re talking about this as though there was some intelligence behind the disappearances,” said Lizzie. “Do you think that’s possible?”
”I think it’s probable,” Pentatonikk mused. “The bunnies…?”
”What are you talking about?” Prarilius Canix hissed. “The bunnies are imaginary and this is real.”
Silence.
”Right?”
Silence.
”Well… ” said Kiki the great, nervously fingering her red hair. “You never went to Kokonventions…”
”And you haven’t been on the blog much in the past few years,” The man for aeiou said. “Until now, that is… “
”I’m sorry, PraCan,” Taiwan Hippo Fan said. “We didn’t realize there was anyone here who didn’t know.”
“Know what?” asked Alice, just as clueless as Prarilius Canix. “Oh! You mean . . . that?”
FrigidSymphony blushed. He was in a world of his own. “As beautiful as ever…” He thought. He shook himself mentally, then looked at Prarilius Canix. “So what do you propose we do?”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Can you two stop it? We need to think about what we’re going to do about this.”
“What do I propose we do? I can’t propose anything until I know about these bunnies!” Prarilius Canix exclaimed.
“Well, which two are you talking about, Alice? Fridgey and I were just having fun…” Shadowkat shot a glare at Prarilius Canix. Then her look softened. “Look, it’s not that I don’t think this is serious, but…oh, alright. I know some connections who might have some information about the disappearances…should I call them?”
Shadowkat grinned sheepishly. “I know, I know…sorry. But do you want me to contact my people?” She looked at FrigidSymphony and smiled. She leaned across the table and whispered in his ear, “Just wait till this meeting is over…”
Shadowkat looked at the others, then turned to Prarilius Canix. “Alright, look, you remember that day back in ’07, April Fool’s Day, when the HPBs took over MuseBlog? And we all thought, ‘Haha, what a joke, that can’t be real!’? Well…it was.”
”PC, the bunnies are real. Well, in a sense…it was an accident.” Sobriquet whispered, concerned.
“Wait,” interrupted Lizzie. “I seem to have missed the memo. Who are Shadowkat’s ‘people’ and what do they have to do with the disappearances?”
“I have no clue,” volunteered Alice, unhelpfully. “Shadowkat?”
FS was deep crimson by now. He pulled a flask ot of his pocket and took a long drink, then said: “I think we should all use our assets and dig up whatever we can about these disappearances. I’ll contact the Thelema, see if the occultists can give me some info… As for the rest of you…”
“My ‘people'” retorted Shadowkat, “are a few parties with whom I have certain useful connections. And that’s all you need to know. Now, should I contact them, or not?”
Shadowkat passed her own flask under the table to FrigidSymphony. “Just in case anything else ‘of interest’ should be mentioned.” she murmured.
“What about the rest of us?” asked Alice. “There’s not a whole lot I can do. I mean, since the the Wawona sunk I don’t even have a ship!” She paused. “Of course, most of you don’t have ships either, so I suppose it’s not that unusual.”
“I’ll be doing some research. Again,” Prarilius Canix sighed. “I’ll look through the newspaper archives, see if I can find any pattern to the disappearances. If I can find the time and place they started, we’ll have something to work with.”
Shadowkat sighed.
”And I’ll contact my people, see what they know…and trust me, they’ll know something. Anyone else have an assignment for me? I’ll need something to keep me busy once I’m done…” She glanced at FS, who raised his eyebrows. “Well, never mind. Anyone?”
Canix left the room. Moments later, a sleek white Prius with a BOOK♥ER license plate pulled out of the parking lot below and drove off in the direction of the library.
”I wonder what he’s up to,” Alice mused. “He didn’t even wait for us to explain about the bunnies.”
”He’s probably going to catch up on some of the old MB threads, see if he can find out something about them himself.”
”Makes sense. That’s where it all started.”
“God, I feel useless,” moaned Alice. “All I can do is write, really. I suppose I could help PC research, but…” She trailed off. “I don’t know.” She rested her elbows on the table, and her chin in her hands. “I’ve never been very good at making plans, either.”
Shadowkat looked around at everyone. “Well, I’m gonna go talk to a few people, alright? Everyone knows what they’re doing? Good.” She got up and headed for the door. Glancing over her shoulder at FS, she said, “You coming?” He nodded, and they left together. A black and silver Honda motorcycle with two dark-clothed figures on it glided out of the parking lot a few minutes later.
Prarilius Canix stood up, heaps of newspaper falling off the computer desk. It was so obvious. Why hadn’t he spotted it before?
He scribbled a few important points on a sheet of notebook paper, stuffed the sheet in his pocket, and dashed out into the rainy street, ignoring the funny look he got from the librarian.
”This could alter the fate of the entire world,” he thought. “They’ve got to know about it.”
He was so focused that he didn’t notice the figure standing nearby beneath an umbrella, or what that figure held in its free hand and was pointing at him.
There was a sharp crack, like a gunshot. In fact, that’s what it was. Prarilius Canix collapsed against the library wall and slowly slid to the ground.
Kagcomix looked up, from where she was sitting (on the floor) the other MBers looked menacing in the flickering candle light.
”So they are real,” she muttered, coughed once and continued, “Animal shelters” as kagy coughed again she felt a slight twinge of pain in her left side, just below her ribcage. Sometimes, mostly when she was agitated it hurt. She had been stabbed once many years ago defending what she believed right and the wound had never really properly healed.
”What do you mean?” asked Alice, bending over to look at kagcomix.
”well, normal rabits multiply rapidly right? but the HPB’s are different, aren’t they spawned from talk of dogs vs. cats? And where better to find dogs and cats than at an animal shelter? I think we should check out the local shelters. I can do some volunteer work there while checking stuff out.” as Kagcomix finished she curled into child’s pose, her sword hugged to her stomach. Kagcomix was tired and her side hurt. She was worried, woried about everything because she didn’t know what to do. Kagy let the other MBers speech wash over her as she drifted off into thought. Kagy thought about everything that had brought her here, to this dark room with the large table, a room full of secrecy.
Kagy had been very young indeed when the strangers had shown her to the world wide web. She remembered all of it, she also remembered her other training. Around the same time she was introduced to the WWW she began being attacked by strangers, strangers with swords. She fought them but with terrible consequences, kagy had lost her right arm and been stabbed in the left side. her arm was now replaced with a bionic one, but she still missed the flesh and bone that had once been part of her. As Kagcomix reflected she also realised how far she’d come, her then long hair had been cut short like a boy’s. Somethings remained the same though, she was still tall and still even 13 years later she had a boyish figure. Kagy rolled over onto her side. She was so tired. A loud bang filled the air. Kagy started and banged her head on the table.
”Sorry” Red tailed HAWK said, “I didn’t know it actualy worked”
RtH held a gun in his hand. He smiled sheepishly, “sorry!” he said again.
”Where exactly did you get that?” asked Widdershins
”Uh….this secret compartment thingy slid open when i put my hand on the table.” RtH explained.
”Maybe there are more, but HAWK, DON’T go pulling triggers indoors. It’s dangerous!”Alice snapped at him.
“Anybody have a laptop?” Sobriquet asked. “We should check the news. We should keep track of any more unexplained dissapearences or bunny sightings.”
Alice handed over a small silver notebook. “For writing.” she offered. “I take it everywhere.”
The group skimmed the headlines. One read “Man Shot At Chicago Library”
”Wasn’t PC headed for the library?” E2MB asked.
Sobriquet clicked the link. At the top of the page was a picture of Pralius Canix lying unconcious on the library steps.
Kagcomix got up. People seemed to be leaving now so she guessed she should be too. She grabbed her sword and walked to the door. On the street the air felt good on her face. “I’ll go to the library to see how PC is besides, i want to pick up a book” she thought. a horriffic scene met her eyes as she reached the steps. police tape everywhere, and PC lying by the library doors. with a disregard for the police and everyone around her kagy ran towards PC.
”Pralius, who did it, where did they go?” she whispered.
”Dunno, they went down the side street” pralius gasped.
”It’s okay PC, i’ll get them. just don’t die” she smiled down at him before running off down a sidestreet. she didn’t need anyone dieing, at least not this early in the game.
“Wait!” Prarilius gasped. He held up a blood-soaked scrap of paper, with a neat, round hole through the middle of it.
”That’s evidence. Hand it over, and everything will be all right,” said a young, nervous-looking policeman.
Canix coughed, then fixed the policeman with a baleful stare. “This is more important than you could possibly imagine. Don’t touch it.”
The policeman backed off. Kagy took the paper. Only three words were legible, and their last few letters had been cut off.
”Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read.
At that very moment, the former MuseBloggers were gathered around the tiny laptop on the big table, reading the dreadful article. Suddenly someone said, “Where’s Kagcomix?”
”Good point,” said Alice in surprise. “Where is Kagcomix?”
Green Qween burst into the room quite suddenly.
”Am I late? What’s going on?” She blurt out. “I saw Kagy in the street, and she was running away from something.” She stared at the small group huddled around the laptop. “What did I miss?”
Suddenly a female police officer reported for duty. “What’s going on here, Cook?” she said, addressing the man. Suddenly she stepped back a ways. “PC?” she whispered faintly. “Is that you?”
“How do you know my blog name?” the bloody man whispered from the ground. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“Cat’s Meow,” the lady said. “And boy, it’s been way too long.”
Donaldo suddenly appeared into the room. “PC was shot! We need to help him. I don’t know who or when. I just saw him collapsed by the library!”
Donaldo cast a glance around the room at the MBers, all staring at him with a strange uncertainty. “You guys OK?” he asked.
”Who’re you?” Alice asked, stepping forward.
”It’s me! Donaldo the supercoolio awesome nerd! Remember, Alice? We used to work on the Captain Pye RRR all the time?”
”I’m sorry, sir. I don’t remember you.”
FrigidSymphony spoke up. “I do.”
”I definitely remember you, Fridgy,” Donaldo said, glaring at the handsome man.
”Does anyone else remember this jerk?” FrigidSymphony asked. No one spoke up.
”Why doesn’t anyone remember me?” I asked.
”I don’t know,” FrigidSymphony said.
”Look, FS. You gotta help me. I can’t carry Prarilius by myself,” Donaldo said.
”Fine, but this will be the only time I will help you.” FrigidSymphony narrowed his eyes at Donaldo. “Look, FS,” Donaldo said. “We gotta set aside our differences. I am not sure why, but the world is in danger here. We have to work together, or else we fail.”
The room was silent for a while, but FS finally agreed. “Let’s go, and hurry.”
Cinnamon Moon stepped quietly into the room. The few people still sitting around the table turned toward her. She moved purposefully towards the table, then introduced herself.
”Cinnamon Moon. It’s been too long, my friends. Please tell me – what has happened? I don’t understand every thing. Can you explain?”
E2MB began. “It started with the bunnies…”
”It happened at kokonvention #30 at Muse hq. Shadowkat was showing her make-alive 3000 with a computer and ’07 januray muse. She typed in a random thread number and hit enter. She fed the Muse in. The make-alive made a ring sound and a thing popped out. It was a bunny, then another and more! Soon all of Muse hq was filled will bunnies! some were paper and some were from that april day in ’07.”
As E2MB finished recounting what had happened in the last few years, the room fell gloomily silent as the grave nature of what had taken place began to truly sink in.
The MBers sat silently, pensively, in the ever-darkening room, looking up on occasion, wondering what, exactly, had to be done. A disquieting atmosphere ensued until a familiar voice crackled once more through the PA speakers in the room.
“Zark, zark, zark,” muttered Sweet Melpomene. “This is already getting out of hand; I don’t think I can still risk talking to you from the lab, even if I do wipe the computers… I’ll be over to the Royal in a bit–”
A loud crash was broadcast, followed only by static before the speakers fell silent.
Shadowkat pulled up to the abandoned apartment building. She looked it over, noticed the broken windows, tattered curtains, unhinged door. Home, sweet home., she thought, somewhat sarcastically. She had dropped FrigidSymphony off at a phone booth outside of a “well-thought-of” bar in town. They would meet up later, when she was done with her current business. She got off her bike, set the safety, and went into the building.
Two men were waiting for her in the kitchen just inside the front door. She turned to them.
”Buona Notte, Signor Tomaschino, Masacci.”
”Ciao, Kat.” they replied in unison.
She looked them in the eyes. “Do you have the information I asked you for?”
”Yes.”
”Well, let’s see it, then.” Tomaschino pulled a few sheets of paper out of the front pocket of his jacket and handed them to her. She looked at the papers for a few minutes, eyes narrowing as she read each sentence, then looked up at her companions.
”Is this all you could find?” she asked them skeptically.
”Yes.” answered Masacci, with a touch of aggression.
Shadowkat returned in kind, “Well, it had better be. This is more important than any of your kind will ever know.” She spat out the last phrase as if it were poison. Which, to Tomaschino and Masacci, it was. Tomaschino took a step towards Shadowkat threateningly.
”If you weren’t my cousin…” he warned.
”If you weren’t my cousin, you’d be dead by now.” interrupted Shadowkat. She snatched the papers of the heavily-stained table where she had set them, turned on her heel, and marched out the door.
”Ciao, gentlemen!” she called from the street. With a roar and a vroom, she was gone.
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Alice picked up the phone in the meeting room.
”Hello?” she said, a little tentatively.
”Alice?”
”Yes.”
”It’s me, Shadowkat. Have you and the other MBers meet me downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I have some extremely important information.”
Click.
Back at the library, the scene of the crime was buzzing with activity. After Kagy rushed off, someone finally had the sense to call 911. Paramedics had flooded the area, and PC was rushed into an ambulance. As an authority figure, Cat’s Meow had recieved word that PC hadn’t lost a fatal amount of blood, but he was still in critical condition.
Five blocks away, Kagy swung around the sharp corner of a dank brick building. What she came face-to-face with in the alley made her stop dead in her tracks. From a distance, the dreamlike sound of sirens speeding away reached her ears, but she did not hear it.
The downtown Chicago emergency room had seen better days. Minor dilemmas had been hindering progress since 8:00 that morning, especially since the latest batch of interns were starting today. Among these clueless medics was 29-year-old ‘Dotty-kay, who at the moment had quite a lot to worry about. She had recently recieved a mysterious message that her old MuseBlog friends planned to meet at a secret location this very day, supposedly for a reunion. She had suspected the matter at hand was a bit more urgent, but she had a dilemma since her internship began today. After becoming dissatisfied with her work in the genetics field a few months ago, Dot had quit her job and applied for a more conventional medical position. Although she now had more experience than many of her colleagues here at the hospital, she couldn’t afford to miss this training, and so declined the invitation. Now she doubted the wisdom in this action. With rumors of an assassination attempt so early on, it was looking like she would be giving the MuseBlog conspriacy a higher priority than her career at this point.
Cat’s Meow had been thinking along these same lines, and had stowed away on PC’s ambulance just before it left, disregarding the fact that she was still on duty. Now as the vehicle raced into the emergency entrance, she tried to communicate with PC. From his grunts and fragmented sentences, she gained that he had just made an earth-shattering discovery. She followed the strecher inside the ICU, where Dot almost collided into the party.
The man for aeiou twiddled his thumbs. It had been three hours since he arrived. He needed to hurry up. He had a take over to see to in a hour’s time.
There was a barbed wire fence but it only stopped Kagy for a moment, she ripped the barbed wire aside with her right(and bionic) arm.Kagy could feel her heart pumping as she ran down the side street, it was long and it didn’t have a turn off for a long while. it was more of an alleyway now that she thought about it, it’s narrow grimy brick walls from the buildings on either side leaned in close. she could she a figure running up ahead. Kagy clutched the paper from PC tigter in her fist and put on a spurt of speed. she was getting closer, her muscles ached but she kept going. her sword was strapped to her side, in it’s hilt but she pulled it out. suddenly there was gunfire, three bullets rocketed past her bouncing off the walls, one going dangerously past her ear. Kagy ran faster, if she could just get into swordslength reach. As Kagy neared the figure she noticed it wore a long trench coat and a big hat. both the hat and the trench coat were black but under the hat something pink was poking out. Kagy barely had time to wonder what it was when another round of gunfire erupted. this time Kagy couldn’t doge them all, one was lodged in her right shoulder.
”At least it wasn’t my real arm.” she thought. The gunfire wasn’t stopping and Kagy noticed that from a turnoff she hadn’t noticed before more people in trenchcoats and hats were emerging.Kagy turned, there was no way she could face this many gunmen by herself. She grabbed onto a sturdy looking pipe with her good arm and scampered up the buiding trying to doge bullets and climb up pipes was no easy task. KAgy was finaly on top of the roof of one of the buildings. the gunfire died down and Kagy had two more bullets lodged in her arm.
”Zark! i guess it’s another night without sleep to fix THIS!” she thought. with her sitll intact left hand she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
”Hello? is that Dotty Kay?”
”Uh huh”
”It’s Kagcomix. i need your help.”
”Hey Kagy. i’m kinda buisy right now,”
”with PC?”
”how’d you know?”
”I’m special.”
”Uh.. okay… why are you calling me?”
”because I don’t know anyone elses number.”
”Okay. So what do you need?”
”I don’t know if PC told you but he gave me a sheet of paper. I can’t realy read most of it but i know that you were on MB before i was and you might know what it means. Does “Ljubl… uh… Lagomo…Extrater” make any sense to you?”
”Sorry Kagy but you’ve caught me at a realy bad time, i’m not sure what that means but go back to HQ, someone there will be bound to know what you’re talking about.”
”Thanks anyways Dotty Kay.” As Kagcomix put her phone back in her pocket she realised what the pink from under the hat had been: BUNNY EARS! Kagy ran across rooftops until she reached HQ, she didn’t want to make a scene with her bullet holed t-shirt and her wrecked arm. finaly Kagy was able to climb down from the roof into the building they had been in before. it seemed there were hidden passageways everywhere. As Kagy entered the room Sweet Melpomene looked up.
”ZARK! Kagy what happened? should i call the ambulance?”Seet Melpomene asked, shocked at the holes that adorned Kagy’s shirt.
”Nah, ‘sokay, They only gor my bionic arm.”Kagy responded.
”So what exactly happened?” E2MB asked.
”Well i saw PC and he gave me a note. Then i rushed down an alleyway and got shot at by people in bunny suits, black trench coats and hats. The little #@$%@^&* screwed up my arm! I came over the roof tops to get here.”Kagy explained.
”Bunny suits?” E2MB asked.
”Guess so.” said Sweet Melpomene, “What did PC’s note say?”
”most of it’s gone but what i can read is Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” said Kagy, “Its’ a good thing i left my bag here earlier because my arm realy needs work, that’s where i keep spare parts” she explained. Kagy took off her ripped shirt and started down to work on her arm.
”Doesn’t that hurt?” Sweet Melpomene asked as Kagcomix dug out the bullet and started repairing broken wires and plates.
”Nope, only near my colarbone because that’s where the metal meets the flesh. Otherwise i don’t have that much feeling in my right arm, I mean, I can feel the bullets in there and i can feel being shot, but if you were,to say… run a feather down it I wouldn’t feel it. I always wear a tank top under my shirts for situations like this. It’s realy hard to repair my arm if i keep having to roll up my sleeves.” Kagy explained.
”you’ve been shot at before?” askedE2MB increduously.
”Yup! and stabbed too! wanna see my scar?”
”not really. but why?”
”In my line of work you come to expect calamity.”
”I thought you were a cartoonist!” Sweet Melpomene jumped in.
”That and defending justice.”Kagy replied, “So do either of you know when PC might get out of the hospital because no one I’ve asked so far seems to know what his note means.”
”No idea.” answered E2MB.
Alice had been thinking hard. “Hang on,” she said suddenly. “What did the note say again?”
Kagcomix obligingly fished it out of her pocket with her real arm. “Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read. Alice took it from her.
”What?” asked agagabagabag.
Alice looked up. “I’m not sure about Ljubl and extrater, but Lagomo seems awfully similar to lagomorph.”
Everyone looked at her. No one moved. “Which is…?” asked Fire_Falcon22.
”I don’t believe none of you know that!” burst out Alice. “You’ve all grown up to be hugely successful, and none of you know what lagomorph is?” When no one answered, Alice explained, “Rabbits aren’t rodents. They’re lagomorphs.”
“Oh my goodness, Alice, you’re right!” cried Cinnamon Moon “I’m so sorry for not having kept in touch. Maybe we could have found this out earlier! But after the news about Rebecca…” She looked at the blank faces around her. “You mean-” she faltered “Robert never told you?”
dun dun dun
Shadowkat pulled into the Royal’s parking lot, the papers she’d just received folded up in her pocket. I wonder where Fridgey got to…, she thought. When she’d asked the bartender whether or not he knew what had happened to a tall, handsome, black-clad man, the ‘tender had said he’d never seen a man like that*. Odd. She got off her bike and went inside.
Bursting through the door of the lobby, she immediately dropped and rolled as a dart whizzed by her head and slammed into her shoulder. She began to feel its effects even in the seconds between impact and when she pulled it out. Her vision started to cloud. No! she thought. Must…stay…awake! She bolted for the door, whipping out her cell phone as she did so. Apparently, the gun that her attacker had used was a one-shot deal, at least for a while.
The phone on the other end rang. And rang. And rang some more. Then:
”Hello?” said a strange voice from the other line, a voice she didn’t recognize.
”What have you done with the MuseBloggers?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
”Oh, don’t worry, S-kitty…” She cringed at the use of her MB nickname by a stranger. “…they’re safe…for now.” The connection broke.
”What?! Where are they?!? WHERE ARE THEY?!?!” she screamed into the phone, desperately trying wrap her mind around all this. Just a few minutes ago, they had been fine. And now, they weren’t. She darted around to the side of the building and started to climb. For once in her life, she truly thanked Master Chi for how hard he’d made her train. She crawled onto the roof. Luckily for her, the meeting room in which they’d been was on the top floor; she’d hear any commotion coming from it. She crept along the roof to the air vent, listening. Suddenly, the wind changed direction, and she could hear voices.
”…–ouldn’t be helped, sir.” said a somewhat high-pitched, squeaky voice.
”What do you mean, couldn’t be helped?!” roared the voice from her most recent phone conversation. “We had all of the others in our grasp, and YOU let this one slip through our fingers!”
”Yes, but, sir, the poison, she got the dart out–”
”I wouldn’t have cared if she’d thrown it back into you!!!” interrupted the one who appeared to be in charge. “It was your job to get her, and you didn’t! Now she’s probably on her way to the–”
Ding-a-ding, dong, ding, ding-a-ding, dong!, went Shadowkat’s phone.
”@#$%!!!” she swore under her breath. She heard a clatter from the room below. She hurriedly leaped onto the next roof over, which, fortunately, was quite close, as she was in the city. She scrambled down the far side of the building onto which she had just leaped, dropped into the alley at the bottom, and opened her phone. The display screen read “Alice”. She pushed the “Accept” button.
“Told us what?” asked Alice. “It seems like we have a lot of information, but it’s all mixed up. Could everyone just sit down and explain in an organized fashion?”
alice excused herself to get a drink of water, and walked out into the hall. It seemed strange to just sit there, doing nothing, but it had always been her nature to stay on top of the confusion, even at thirteen, and this confusion needed more staying on top of than any RRR. She bent down to drink from the water fountain, and her head exploded into blackness.
***
She woke into blackness, and were it not for her awareness of the enormous lump on the back of her head, she would not have realized that she was awake. Her eyes searched the darkness for something light to rest them on, but there was only coal-blackness.
Then it hit her. Her cell phone! It was only for business calls, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the phone numbers of other MuseBloggers.
Her hands weren’t bound, and she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Its screen was glowing, and she fixed her eyes on it, glad of the relief from the darkness. She dialed Shadowkat’s number.
”Hello?” said Shadowkat.
”Hi, Shadowkat,” said Alice. “It’s Alice. I think I’ve been kidnapped. I’m in someplace dark.”
meanwhile, back in the meeting room:
“Well, what is it?” asked Donaldo as Alice left. Finally, someone had voiced what everyone was thinking.
All the MBers turned to Cinnamon Moon as she opened her mouth to explain. Taking a deep breath, she began.
“Well, there was a reason we all called her–” she was cut off by a loud creaking sound.
“What’s happening?” shouted agagabagabag.
E2MB paled as he realized what was happening. “The whole room’s being moved!”
“What?” said several MBers simultaneously.
“That’s not possible!”
“It’s still bolted in place, for the moment!”
“I thought the Royal was safe!”
“How did they find us?”
“What’s that noise?”
Several people slammed into the door as the room began to shake. Widdershins struggled to pull it open as the lights went out. Gasping for breath, she and a few other MBers fell through as the rest realized they were trapped in what was acting like a gigantic, descending elevator.
“Zark,” she muttered as several people climbed off of her, apologizing profusely.
The group stared at the open doorway, catching a few last glimpses of their friends’ shocked faces as they disappeared into the dark tunnel.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” said Sweet Melpomene. “We have to get out of this building, stat.”
Fire_Falcon22 tried to move, but then realized he was tied up. He reached as far as he could for his sword. He grabbed the hilt, but was unable to pull it out of his sheath. He pulled and pulled until he was able to get the hilt through the rope. He grabbed the blade and moved it slowly up the rope, and after a minute of bringing the blade back and forth, he finally cut the rope.
”Ah finally”
He got up, and put his sword back in its sheath. He couldnt see a ting but he heard a voice. He tried to follow the oice, but soon hit a wall. He got up, but he sensed the presence of someone behind him. He turned around to see an odd figure, with a skin color so bright, he could see it, even through the darkness.
Hot pink.
The figure – more hopping than walking- moved slowly towards Fire_Falcon22. The figure pulled out a gun from his jacket. Fire_Falcon grabbed the hilt of his sword. The figure shot the gun, and Fire_Falcon deflectted the shot with his sword, and the bullet bounced back at the figure.
The figure jumped back and shot a few more shots at Fire_Falcon,. He deflected a few, but then one hit him in the shoulder. He crouched down to the ground, clenching his wound.
The figure came closer.
”Who are you?” asked FF.
The figure didnt say anything, he jus pointed the gun towards FF.
FF sat there in shock, not knowing what to do…
in the room:
The MBers still caught in the moving room fell silent as the walls began to grate on the sides of the shaft. Cables and pulleys screeched against each other, guiding what once was a safe place down, down, down. Slowly, the air began to thicken and, one by one, the members of the group fell unconscious.
***
They awoke groggily in what appeared to be the same room, minus the conference table. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the dim pink lighting.
Someone sat in a corner, next to a pile of bindings.
“Oh, look! My rescue party’s arrived,” FrigidSymphony said, coating the sentence with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Which, on a bad day, is far more than average.
Ebeth rolled her eyes and gave him a disdainful look before scanning her surroundings. A few other MBers followed suit.
“Doors are probably sealed, no windows, PA system’s cut off…” Purple Panda listed to herself. She turned sharply to FrigidSymphony. “Exactly how long have you been here?” she asked politely.
“If I had my bloody watch, I’d probably have escaped by now,” he muttered before saying, “Since a little after I left. Damn bartender… he spiked my drink…”
“Right,” said Panda absently, as she continued to scrutinize the walls.
“They couldn’t even leave the chairs,” mumbled Ebeth. She, too, was looking around curiously.
“When I get out of here, I’m renaming myself Ebeth the Amazing Escape Artist,” said Ebeth suddenly.
outside the Royal:
“What the zark was that?” said Widdershins, breathing heavily after her run out of the building.
“An amazing feat of engineering, if I do say so myself,” said someone behind her.
“We tried to get here sooner, but…” said another person, finishing her sentence with a tired sigh.
“curious and questioning! Potato Chip!” the group exclaimed.
Brief ‘hellos’ were made as the group followed the two down the street, to a modest-looking parking garage.
“There’s another place we can try to reach, if it’s not too late. We have two cars…” said curious and questioning calmly.
“Make that three,” added Sweet Melpomene. “I left mine here, too.
“Great,” Potato Chip said, “we can split up, so it’s even harder for them to capture the rest of us.”
She handed a few pieces of notebook paper to SM. “Directions,” she explained.
SM scanned them, and then shoved the directions into an inner coat pocket. “We’ll meet you there; Kagy and I are going to try to get into the hospital. We’re going to try to find Canix and Cat’s Meow.”
They hurried off into the garage until Juliette stopped abruptly. “Wait, where’s Fire_Falcon22? He fell out of the door with us, didn’t he?”
***
the man for aeiou loaded his gun.his bodyguards were good but he had a felling that this is to big for them. he did not carry a gun most of the time, but he keep one in his plane for this type of thing.he had left the room about fifteen min. before this happened. he saw a big plane witch he bearly missed. then he saw the same plane fly off with a building. he thought this was odd. so he flew behind it. he said to his phone “call the CEOs and president of vicom. tell to postpone the take over time till further notice.” the phone was a test of mer co. inc.’s talklessphone.
~
Dot snapped her phone shut and quickly shoved it in her pocket. Looking around to make sure the doctor hadn’t seen her recieve a call, she spotting Cat’s Meow standing awkwardly next to PC’s bed. They exchanged worried glances, and then Dot came over to adjust an IV in PC’s arm.
“I just got word from Kagy,” she muttered to her two friends. It was hard to tell if PC was listening. “She got your paper, Prarilius, and she’s taking it to show everyone else.”
[I’m not sure how much time would have to pass here. We can put filler in now, or just cut out the above and start when Kagy and SM arrive.]
Snagging a most-likely-illegal parking spot, Kagcomix and Sweet Melpomene hopped out of the car. Slamming the doors and rushing into the hospital entrance, they quickly navigated their way to the emergency room.
“Please, ladies, what’s the problem?” a stern female voice said from the reception desk.
“We need to get in!” SM spluttered. “It’s urgent!”
The receptionist glanced them over. “If it’s not a medical emergency, I’ll have to ask you to head to the waiting room.”
“But our good friend is in there, and we have to talk to him!” said a frustrated Kagy.
“This is a matter that could alter the virtual world permanently, and now threatens our reality!” SM added.
“An online relationship crisis, eh?” sneered the receptionist. “I can’t help you. Patients’ visitors may be immediate family only.”
~~~~~~
There was a clatter on the end of the line. “What’s that?” asked Alice uncertainly. Not much had changed since she was thirteen, when it came to bravery. “Shadowkat?” said Alice, when there was no response. “SHADOWKAT?” Still no sound came from the phone. But somewhere in the darkness, a familiar voice called, “Who’s that?”
”Alice!” Alice yelled back. “Where are you?”
”Over here!” yelled the voice (which Alice was fairly sure belonged to Fire_Falcon) “I’m kind of in trouble right now!
****
now what?
sorry for such a long past
A GAPA double-posting! [Oh, well, it happens. Fixed now. — Admin.]
Okay, that kind of goes with ‘Dotty-Kay’s post.
224-
I think we need to sort some stuff out. Like, Donaldo’s post. Maybe we should ignore that until he redoes it.
Shadowkat was backed up against the alley wall, with a gun pointed at her head. Holding the gun was a man. A tall man, fairly good-looking. But dark, and not in a good way. He wore a jet black suit made of what appeared to be silk, and dark glasses, too. No eyes could be seen through those.
“You won’t get away this time, you little brat!” the man growled. “Too long have I lied in wait, too long have I held my grudge, itching for revenge…and now,” he smiled an evil, toothy smile, “it’s over.” He fired.
“NO!!!” Another man, quite a bit younger than either of the people present, leaped in front of the firing gun. He groaned, having taken a bullet to the left shoulder. It seemed like a never-ending moment in which Shadowkat stared down at her savior in shock, mouth agape. She knew this young man, and quite well. He was her brother*.
“T.J.!!!!!!!!” she screamed, and it felt like her vocal cords ripped. She whirled on the man in the the suit, the man who had just shot her little brother. “You…” she snarled, looking as much like the cat from which she took her Blog name as was humanly possible. The man backed against the opposite wall, afraid of the thirst for blood in her eyes. She whipped out her own gun and stormed towards him, holding it aloft. She slammed him into the wall.
“What do you want with me?!” she shouted into his face.
“It’s not…just you,” the man panted.
“Who is it, then?!” She got no response. “Who is it?!?!”
“…MuseBlog…” he spat, venom dripping from his words. A groan escaped his lips. Shadowkat backed away from him in horror. The man let out a sickly laugh.
“Hahaha…you’ll never stop us, Kitty-kat, and neither will any of your little playmaaates…hahahaaa…” He trailed off as the poison with which he had injected himself took its effect. Shadowkat let his body fall to the ground in a heap. She turned and knelt down next to her fallen brother, who was coughing up blood. The bullet in his shoulder was holding his flesh together in that spot for the most part, but he still needed medical attention, and fast.
“T.J.” she shook him, keeping him with her.
“Katie…” he groaned. “I…didn’t think I’d…make it in time…”
“Wait, Teej, what do you mean? Did you know something–?”
“Yes. Kate, it’s the creators…the creators of…”
“What, T.J., what?! The creators of WHAT?!” He passed out. Shadowkat jumped up and called Sweet Melpomene, who, since she’d had a bit of training in chemistry**, might have some idea of what to do with her brother (known as “The Tominator” on the Blog) before they could get him to the hospital.
*Who would, by this time, be 24.
**Please just go with it. Another “911” scene would be repetitive.
This is so funny. MySpace and MuseBlog clash, and we’re making it all serious.
You know what i just realized? We’re supposed to fulfill an important destiny, and it’s saving the world from MySpace??? No offense, but isn’t that a bit…trivial?
Can I join? Is it too late? I probably will not be able to post very often, but can somebody include me once in a while?
I will be 28-ish, with shoulder-length blond hair. Can my career be a dancer-person who writes in her spare time? I won’t have any kids.
231- Sure.
230- Hey we’re also saving the world from bunnies. That my sound weird but they’re… Hot pink. Thats dangerous. lol.
(230) Well, if that’s how you want to spend your years of peak physical strength and mental acuity, it’s up to you.
(218) I don’t think I can allow you to kill off Larry Gonick. He’ll only be 73 in 2020. He should have plenty of good cartooning years left if he takes care of himself, as San Franciscans tend to do. Have a heart!
234- I don’t want to kill him off. But I wasn’t sure how old he was, so I had to say. But if he didn’t resign or die, who captured us? That is the question, is it not?
And I don’t want to spend my peak years saving the world from MySpace, quite honestly. You would think that we could come up with something a tad more evil from which to save the world. Maybe the person that captured FF and I…
230, 235-Well, I don’t know, I was just trying to come up with something that made the least bit of sense, and was somewhat plausible. Anyway, since we haven’t identified who “the creators” are, yet, we can change it to whatever we want, eh? (By the way, I was going to explain this about a half an hour earlier tonight, but I got called away to dinner…sorry.)
Your supposedly at-death’s-door brother just appeared on the Pie Isle thread. He didn’t sound like he was at death’s door.
Right, so something plausible but nonsensical, that isn’t trivial. I’ll have to think about that one.
223: Ooh, thank you! What happens when someone is put on an ambulance? If they’re carried in on a stretcher, are they brought in a back entrance, or right through the waiting room?
I think I’ll re-write the scene with the receptionist, maybe have them confront the guard instead?
224: Eek… did you take out all the paragraph breaks or something?
238- He must have, though only he knows why. It sure is hard to read, though.
It never hurts to leave an extra space between paragraphs.
240- Never. Especially not on MB, where you can’t make an indent with tab.
I think we’re going to have to delete some of the pieces nearer the beginning, because they don’t fit together.
241-Hold that thought…
Test’an
Yup
230- Myspace is surprisingly sinister. Do you know how many refreshes it takes for the music player to work? It must be a conspiracy.
How about this: The creators of Myspace are trying to addict our generation to their websites. Then, when it’s complete, they take away the websites and ask for money. They notice a small, but growing, subset of people without myspace pages but who are active in an unrelated online community. Something called “MuseBlog”. So they try buying the websites, as they have with many other groups, and when the GAPAs resist, they join forces with the hot pink bunnies, who have previously succeeded in taking over the blog, and kidnap the GAPAs, which they don’t realize stops the blog and creates us, the few dozen dedicated (former) MuseBloggers who remember and want to save the world. After all, you must know someone worth saving, and even if they don’t use myspace, other places are part of the corporation, too.
I may join the latest trend of posting the story-so-far. But I’d chop it up and reorder it so it works better.
Hm. So you all finally meet in person in order to fight an online enemy? Ironic…
The online world, however, is bound to make progress in the next 13 years. Both MySpace and MuseBlog will be very different by then. You ought to take that into account.
Another thing: didn’t MuseBlog disappear after the GAPAs vanished? If not, why not?
244- Sounds alright when you put it like that, but it still doesn’t seem like something world-wide and dangerous. Though I suppose it works. *doubtful*
I would post the whole story so far, redone, but it’s a lot of work to go back over it and then fix it up… Maybe I’ll leave it to someone else for once.
245- It DID! See, that’s the thing, or one of them. We need something better. MySpace just isn’t real for me, and therefore it’s not scary. What is real is a sore throat, but that’s also kind of beside the point. How about… *is now thinking about her sore throat and finding it hard to concentrate* Argh. We need a good, solid, evil-through-and-through foe. And we don’t have one.
247- Ill think of one, I guess. Give me a few minutes to think. :\
Does the villian have to be connected to MuseBlog? Because I think I have an idea…
249- No, I don’t think so… Let’s hear it!
*yawn* Anyone there? Any GAPAs? I kinda need the above question answered. Eh, Ill be patient.
250- Okay lemme perfect it a bit before I tell you.
GAPAS! Answer his (her?) question, so that we can hear the idea! If I was more energetic, I’d probably be impatient. But I’m not, so I’m not.
Isn’t it cool having other West-Coasters on MB? You can converse when everyone else has gone to bed. Just wait till E2MB comes back…
Well, I don’t want to say too much, for various reasons. But I think it would make more sense (and a better story) if the blog were just a way of assembling a group of remarkable young people and preparing them for a destiny or mission of much greater, global significance.
253- Be patient. I was just thinking of ways to make it better. And Im a boy. Im have the people, the reason why they want to capture or take down the Musers, but Im trying to think of the danger…
The Musers don’t have to be the target. They could just be the only ones capable of stopping whatever bad is happening to someone else.
Nor does that original meeting I described have to be taking place in a physical place. Maybe it’s virtual reality.
Just some thoughts…
Patience is a virtue I don’t usually possess. But I think I can wait now. My keyboard looks weird from this angle, kind of like it’s slanting down…
[/weirdness]
256- I know, but thats the point. The bad guys want to stop the musers, before the musers stop them from doing what they are trying to do, which Im still trying to think of/ perfect.
What about if Myspace was just a front for the real actions, which is the HPBs trying to take over the world? What if they’ve already infiltrated the government with their puppets and minions and that’s how they’ve banned Muse. Of course, there are some underground Musers (such as my adopted daughter who I may or may not include later).They’ve also formed alliances with Myspace and maybe some other websites to try and smite The Bloggers, which is the rebanded enemies (us). As we can see by PCs assasin they’re willing to do quite a bit to make sure that MuseBlog stays off the web.
And I just had another idea! What if the very last issue of Muse, before it was illegal, was about internet addictions and how people were getting addicted to Myspace or something? And some Musers wrote in letters in that issue about praising MuseBlog and not liking Myspace, and they couldn’t stand this and so they decided to hate us.
253-Yup. Although I think Fire Falcon’s from the East Coast.
Got it! Okay here it is! There are a whole bunch of people in a sort of group. Clan possibly. They all have shadow powers, and they want to engulf the whole world into darkness. They start off by brainwashing (sorta. DOnt know a better word) the HPB’s, and they planned to scatter them to get more people under their “dark influence”, but then the musers come along, so they need to stop the musers before the musers stop them? A little dorky maybe, but what do you think?
251- It doesn’t matter. Just answer!
I’m not really a big character in this. How could an inventor help? I’m not a special army or mafia person, but l guess l could make weapons… and robots…
261-It’s original. *tries to think of something more original to say* I dunno. =/ It’s so different than anything we have right now.
262-Robot HPBs? Robot cats and dogs?
256- It has to be physical reality, because of what we do. I hand a laptop to Sobriquet. Shadowkat tousles FrigidSymphony’s hair. Things happen, real things.
260- But you know each other! E-mail, probably.
ANyone there? I want to know what you think of my idea.
261- I like it! Now, let’s come up with some motives – Okay, I just had a slightly stupid idea, but tell me what you think. We merge Cat’s Meow’s and Fire_Falcon’s ideas, thus producing something that I will post later, because i am lazy now and want to eat my cake, and it’s hard to type and eat cake at the same time.
262- Well, I’m a librarian. and my ship sank. So I’m even less helpful than you. Ha.
266- Thanks.
Hmm, this seems to be coming together!
268 – Hopefully.
*yawn* Anyone there?
agrrrfishi wants to be in the story! pleeeeeeeease?
Is it too late to join this?
271, 272 – Sure, come on in! There are lots of times where someone used Musers or MuseBloggers rather than someone’s name, for just that reason.
‘Tis slowing down.
271, 272- Im not the one to answer that, but I think you can still join. Where is everybody today?
274- Right here. Don’t worry, I shan’t abandon you.
hey! how come i’m not in the story?
I’m here, too! Just waiting for us to settle on an enemy…*waits*
275- Shan’t? Nevermind.
276- You are, you just haven’t been written about yet. How old are you?
277- Did you see my idea?
280-Yeah, but I think that if our enemies have powers, it would be nice if we each had one, too…of course, we don’t have to, but you know…whatever ya’ll decide!
Our alter egos?
Back in the warehouse (Or where ever):
“So, tell us now, before it’s too late. What happened to Rebecca?” asked E2MB.
“Lady Bunniful was… well… I don’t know how to say this, but i’ll try. Rebecca was being controlled by the bunnies. But she resisted, in the last few months of Museblog. Then, she was taken by them. We haven’t heard anythlng since. The rumour is that she might be – dead. I don’t know. Our forces haven’t uncovered anything substantle.(sp? Alice?)”
“Wait a second!” burst in another blogger. “What do you mean – ‘our forces’?”
278- Shall not. Will not. Won’t.
283- Substantial.
Man, Im having writers block, and Im bored.
282-I don’t get it.
***
“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t know about those either!!!” cried Ebeth. Cinnamon Moon whirled on her.
“Ebeth, please! Calm down! Lot’s of people don’t know about lots of things, so let’s just keep our head on straight and explain, alright?” At a nod of acknowledgment from Ebeth, she continued.
“Well, a few MuseBloggers and I were kind of worried that the HPB’s would try to take over MuseBlog, again, so we arranged for monitors (the sources we were talking about) to watch Lady Bunniful, as we suspected she might be the first they’d try to take over. Our monitors, though, not only watched over Rebecca, but also made sure the Blog was always ok, and nothing “funny” was going on. To do this, they talked to the Editors, Writers, and other people related to Muse. They were very careful, and good at what they did. They never took their eyes off Rebecca, though. I know this, because I was there on that fateful day when, suddenly, Lady Bunniful disappeared. Just like that. She was sitting in front of her computer, moderating, when she was just…gone. Of course, some claim to have seen a faint pinkish glow where she’d just been, right after she vanished, but that was never proven. Nothing else that our sourced found ever led to anything. Rumors, yes, those have gone around, but never have any been shown to be true. It’s…well, it’s…scary.” she finished.
The others stared at her with wide eyes. No one knew quite what to say.
Sorry about 2p, but Fire_Falcon22, how old are you, and from what state? Just curious, Iike to keep these things in mind…don’t ask.
So, it’s not just paranoia…the walls do have eyes….
288-LOL!!! It’s just a story, Becca…don’t worry. I’m sorry, but I had to do something…besides, I think it’s kind of amusing that you all of a sudden got sucked into another world filled with Hot Pink Bunnies…tehe.
:idea::idea::idea:, etc.
Im 13. As for my state Id rather not say. Im paranoid.
Oh sorry, my last post was replying to 287.
“What sort of trouble?” asked Alice. “And where are you?”
“Right here!” yelled Fire_Falcon. “And it’s -” he broke off.
“It’s what?”
There was a scuffle in the dark, and a popping noise, and silence. “FF?” Alice ventured tentatively.
“Right here,” said FF, from a few yards away. “It was a hot-pink bunny.”
“What happened to it?”
“I don’t know. It just…vanished.”
***
Okay, so we need to work some things out. I’m merging Cat’s Meow’s idea with Fire_Falcon’s, so bear with me.
Some people – the creators of something, maybe MySpace – really have dark powers, and desire to take over the world. So do the HPBs, except that their powers aren’t dark, they’re hot pink. The MuseBloggers are the only people who dare to resist, or even know of the danger. Muse went out of business 2008, which explains why there are no second generation Bloggers. MuseBlog was shut down two years later, in 2010. Ten years later some of the MuseBloggers discovered that something was very wrong – strange disappearances of anyone Muserly – and banded together to defeat the creators of whatever it is and the HPBs. I’m not sure who captured me and FF, but it can’t be good.
Of course, if they were hostile, I wouldn’t like it…so I guess it’s no that amusing, but still…the image that comes to mind, right now, is one of you standing in a “land of grey and pink” (virtual choklit to whoever tells me where that phrase is from, WITHOUT looking it up anywhere), speechless as you’re worshiped as a goddess by small, hot pink balls of fuzz.
Sorry, that was to Rebecca.
288-Oh, wait, I get it!!! Oh, geez…the bunnies weren’t watching you, it was our sources! Wow, I’m slow…:oops:
292- Sounds good to me.
(293) OK, that’s sounding better. Especially the goddess bit. I can handle that.
~ ~ ~ ~
On a different note, here are some miscellaneous thoughts that came to me while reading this thread.
How clear a picture do we have of the world of 2020?
What is the social and political landscape? The mood of the country?
What is it about MuseBloggers that would uniquely suit them to the challenge at hand?
PC’s BOOK♥ER license plate started me wondering…what if that is a political statement? Perhaps books are being pushed out of the culture, not by anything as blatant as banning, but by the electronic conveniences that are dulling people’s faculties for enjoying the act of reading.
If there are bloglike entities, we probably won’t need to type, just speak. Maybe the entries will speak back to us, so we won’t need to read either.
Libraries have become multimedia entertainment centers, only a few of them still have books….
297- Oooh yikes. That sounds cool merely because we are such literates.
re: our enemy: What if the bad guy is corproation or pop culture in general?
I agree that it should be globe-threatening and all.
297- Dun dun dunnnn! Like in 451F!
Perhaps the government is shaky, or maybe it sold out to large corporations. And needs more of a workforce than free people?
Everything into manufacturing, and R&D for the military or something?
what about me? am I there?
(299) I think you need a more specific, embodied entity to grapple with than simply “the culture.” People have been trying to do that for centuries.
No one’s mentioned it, but does Mostly Harmless figure in here anywhere?
302- Hey, it could.
The nation’s biggest arms manufacturer or something? Mayhaps the gov’t went berserk and is on a world-conquest mission.
Maybe if we were a fascist police state?
However, they have no such plan as Mostly Harmless…..
This is pointless ramble.
302- Sure you are. Everyone is.
What if the evil guy is the government itself?
:puzzled: I’m confused. *rereads the last few posts* Okay, but why try to kill off the MuseBloggers? Or wait, that was because they knew about the dastardly plan and were trying to defeat it. Got it. But where do the hot pink bunnies figure in?
Why didn’t that turn into this
?
(300) Except more insidious than 451F. No one has to ban books; people have just lost interest in them. Though there may be those who have a reason to hurry it along.
~ ~ ~
By the way, I wasn’t recommending any particular course of action, more trying to think of trends I see around me and extending them logically to see where they might lead.
For instance, libraries are giving more space to electronic media, they have listening and viewing rooms, some have coffee shops. Many have rid themselves of old newspapers and periodicals to save space. It’s not hard to imagine them squeezing books out completely.
I can think of many things that are part of my daily life that were barely on the radar 13 years ago; graphics capabilities I dreamed of then are now old hat; the World Wide Web was more promise than actuality in its usefulness.
So what are the things you’re dreaming now that you wish your computers could do? Or cell phones, or whatever. Chances are at least some of those ideas (those which operate within the laws of physics, anyway) will be available in 2020 in some form or another.
I’m happy with my computer. Computers are no substitute for real life anyways. I really can’t think of anything that I want my computer to be able to do, apart from go online without being hooked up to the internet and have a better battery.
309- Egad, ‘t is true indeed! But why? Dun Dun DUN.
Like, an even more advanced version of multi-touch technology [Microsoft is working on this crazy tabletop thing…there was a video from Popular Mechanics about it]? Le gasp.
(310) And what might the consequences of that be? If you could go online anywhere, not be limited by battery power?
Have a dictionary you could consult anytime, anywhere just by saying the word out loud?
I can’t believe there are so many posts this fast. The current rate is 78 a day!
313- Fastest thread ever.
(312) And how about cell phones? What if they were disposable and looked like little round Band-Aids that you could peel off a sheet and stick on your cheek? Technology might not advance quite that fast, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
312- It would be more portable, but I don’t think it would drastically change anything.
The dictionary sounds kind of cool, but I like the old kind.
315- Well, how much trash would that generate? I have nothing against cell phones, but that seems an awful waste.
– Alice the Luddite (well, not quite, having looked it up (in a real dictionary!) but who cares?)
Dammit. There’s no way I could ever keep up with this. *curses the few days he was gone*
OK. FIne. I will write something, but I am still confused! Someone said that FS is kidnapped, but if we went to get PC then we must’ve been kidnapped on the way there-both of us. I will write that scene.
Donaldo and FrigidSymphony walked silently through the rain. Neither of them wanted to talk to the other. DOnaldo’s mind was filled with thoughts. Why didn’t anyone remember him? He had kept in touch with everyone until the blog closed down. He still had Alice’s phone number, and E2MB’s address, even if they never did talk to each other much. And who had shot PC? Donaldo had no idea why-perhaps it was that burger he had before he left for HQ, maybe it was just a gut feeling-but he felt the two mysteries were connected. Maybe the same antagonist. Just like one of my books, Donaldo thought.
The two were almost to the library. Someone was lying down on the ground near the library. FS had seen it too. They ran over, but the man there was not Prarilius. It wasn’t even a man. It was pink, with large ears! It’s eyes were closed.
“D**n it! I knew they had something to do with it!” FS said.
“What is it?” Donaldo asked.
“A hot pink bunny!” FS replied angrily.
Suddenly the bunny’s eyes opened. It had red pupils, sharp teeth and looked a lot more frightening than they ever had in Muse.
FS yelled as the bunny bit it. Still holding FS’s arm with its teeth, it spun around and kicked Donaldo to the ground. Everything went dark…
Donaldo woke up in a dark room, and got socked again with a pink fist. He blacked out, again.
————————————————
DUNDUNDUN!
OK, I know it is cliche but at least we have the scene now.
Also, I had an idea. The way the HPBs fit in with the story is that they are not really the bad guys, or at least the main ones. They are the minions of the really bad guy. Also, here is a thought: What ever happened to the other magazines by Carus Publishing? What happened to Cricket and Ladybug and Dig and other Muse relatives?
Is 224 the entire story so far? If it is, that will make my life easier.
People are writing about me!!!!!!! *blushes* OMG it’s such a weird feeling when I read other people’s writings and I’m included in them.
FS has waist-long hair!?!?
(319) Maybe not yet. But he’s got a few years to grow it before the story starts.
(316) Oh, haven’t I mentioned? The sticker cell phones are biodegradable — or, better yet, edible. Mint-flavored, like those melt-in-your-mouth mouthwash strips. And you never have to worry about breaking or losing them. And some of them look like hot-pink bunnies.
318- NO NO NO! Ugh sorry. But FS was kidnapped after Shadowkat dropped him off at a bar. I asked you to redo your first post because:
A ) FS was not in the room.
B ) We already knew PC had been shot.
C ) I WOULD NOT FORGET YOU.
Please redo your post to work with the story. If I’ve been brainwashed, fine, I guess, but you can’t pluck FS out of a room that he wasn’t in. And we already knew PC had been shot. We read about it on my laptop.
319- It is indeed a weird feeling. I tend to feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the world, so when somebody actually shows signs of noticing me it’s strange. Even if it happens several times a day. And I’ve always felt weird when reading my name written out.
320- Okay, that’s cool.
“Donaldo! Donaldo! Where’s Fridgey?”
Donaldo awoke again, not to a fist, but to a frantic voice. Groggily, he tried to sit up, but he couldn’t… A concerned-looking face swam into view.
“Who in the world are you?” Donaldo muttered.
“I’m purplefinch,” She whispered, glancing around. “Wait…” Digging into a pointe shoe bag slung around her shoulder, she pulled out a pink sticker cell phone, which she handed to Donaldo hastily. “Take this, and tell the others you saw me. I’ll make contact again, later.” Just as unconsciousness reclaimed Donaldo, he saw purplefinch slip away, silently, into the gloom.
Is anyone reading my posts? *feels ignored and bothered by the several problems in this story* How about this: Donaldo comes into the meeting room, no one recognizes him, he leaves (not sure why – have to think about that) runs into Fridgey, who does recognize him, and they decide to go somewhere (maybe back to the meeting room?) but they run into our pink freaky friend, who kidnaps them and then we use purplefinch’s post. Is that better?
That sounds like it works, to me.
What? Where is everyone at this point? *so confused*
(312) Portability changes many things. Look at cell phones, laptops. People can conduct business from anywhere, talk to others without revealing their location.
Portability also changed the history of art, when the invention of paint tubes made it practical for artists to paint on location. Small shifts can be seismic in their impact.
Where am I currently?
328- The emergency room, being attended by ‘Dotty-kay and Cat’s Meow.
Ohh! Ohh can I join? I always feel so left out of these things. Sorry I couldn’t start earlier. Maybe someone could text me with all the info in post 224 and I would burst into the ER panting and asking what’s going on or something like that… unless it would screw the whole thing up. If it will, please let me know.
Sweet Melpomene’s phone rang. She jumped. She was a little bit paranoid, right now, after her recent experience. Looking at her phone, she was that the display screen read, “Shadowkat”. She opened it up. She didn’t even say hello.
“Shadowkat! Where have you been?! The other MuseBloggers and I were attacked, and some of us escaped, but I don’t know where the rest are, and–”
“Yes, Mel, I know.” interrupted Shadowkat. “I was the one who tried to warn you guys, and ended up talking to some deep-voiced man, who then tried to kill me! But, Mel, he didn’t, because my brother took a bullet for me, and he’s passed out, and fading fast, and I–”
“Where are you?” asked SM.
“Behind the building east of the Royal.”
“I’m coming.”
“”
Beavo the Great suddenly bursts around a corner, the one Shadowkat happens to be at, and crashes right into her. Shadowkat, who is now very nervous, jumpes away and stares at this messy-haired, un-matched-clothed young man who is sprawled at her feet. He lookes up. She takes a step back. “Hey. You must be Shadowkat from your discription at the Muser Profiles. I’m Beavo. And that, must be your brother.”
“But how did you know all this about…this stuff? You were’nt at any of the meetings, the attacks, and you were’nt even at the ER with PC!”
“That my friend, is for me to know and you… not to know. Right now, we need to get help with your brother.” Beavo takes a huge bandage, a scotch tape dispenser, and a cell out of his pocket. As he starts to put the bandage on Shadowkat’s brother, he hands her the phone.
“Here, call someone with this. We need help.”
“I already did!”
“Who?”
“SM.”
“And she is…?”
Sweet Melpomene rounds the same corner as Beavo did, and crashes right into Shadowkat. She hears Beavo mutter “Deja Vu” as she picks herself off the ground, brushes off the dust, and looks up at Shadowkat.
“Now we just need to get out of here,” said FF.
“Yes, but where is here? And how do we get out? Man, this would make a great book.” Fire_Falcon rolled his eyes in the dark. Alice thought that everything even remotely exciting would make a good book.
“I don’t know where we are,” he said, “or how we’re going to get out. But we always have cell phones. We could call the other Musers.”
Alie moaned. “Don’t remind me,” she said. “If I wasn’t such a Luddite, we could be out of here already.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those new cell phones – not the disposable ones – have the nice tracking systems, and the maps. They can be tracked by other people, and by you, and they can have whole maps on them. But I’m so anti-tech that I didn’t even bother. You wouldn’t have one with a map, would you, FF?”
“All I have is a sheet of disposable ones,” said FF.
“Oh, great,” began Alice, but suddenly stopped. “Hang on,” she said, “I might not have high-tech cell phone, but I have a compass!”
Fire_Falcon was completely baffled. “You carry a compass, but you don’t carry anything remotely resembling a tracking device?”
Alice shrugged, though you couldn’t see it in the dark. “Like I said,” she said brightly, “I’m weird that way. Do you have a flashlight or anything?”
318-You really like hating FS don’t you? lol I guess it’s useful if you’re gonna make a story based on Mostly Harmless, two enemies having to work together *nods* can be a good sub-plot…
333-Wouldn’t you have bought one of those high-tech spell checker things that also have a GPS and e-mail and a calculator and about ten corny games?
***
the man for aeiou snuck along the hallway.he saw a hpb in corridor.he took out his gun and fired two rounds. it hit the bunney in the neck. the bunney fell over and the the sun bonnet.fell off.It reveled a womans face.the body turned in to a hot pick drees.the woman said ,groaning, “the bunney.. they.. they.. are… ttt.. aaa…. ingg over. by..by.. 2021 the bunneys will have won.. on new years eve ,2020,the bunney will attack new youk with…. a bomb….ne..c..c…c..c..” see coplased.the man for aeiou knew how this was. it was rosbecca.
334- I’m a Luddite. I’ve said it several times. Actually anti-tech, or just disinterested would suffice, but how many times do you get to say Luddite? I mean, I’m not destroying my laptop or anything, but… And no, I don’t care about corny games they’re just addictive, and why would I need a spell check on my phone? And an e-mail on the phone it just weird. I have a computer for those things. Which, incidentally, is still in the conference room… A calculator might be handy, but again, I could just keep one in my pocket, like my compass. I hate fiddling around with technology and little buttons.
335- YOU JUST KILLED REBECCA???? That’s even worse then killing Larry Gonick!
I’m definitely not anti tech. I’m an inventor! I could have all kinds of devices on me because l made them.
FF searched through his oack, that after a few seconds, realized wasnt there.
“They must have took my pack. Unfortunatly, I dont have a flashlight, so how are we supposed to see the compass?”
Alis thought for a minute.
“Yeah, that is a bit of a downside.”
“Ya think? Did you bring a flashlight?”
“Like I said, anti-tech.”
FF slapped his hand on his face.
Just then there was a gun fire. FF and Alice spun around to see the faint glow of Hot pink. The bunnie pointed the gun at Alice, and shot. FF pulled his sword out and deflected the shot. The bunnie aimed the gun at FF, but FF charged at the bunnie, with his sword. The bunnie fired, and cought FF in the hand, he dropped his sword, and hit the ground.
“Wheres my sword?!”
“I dont know.” responded Alice.
The bunnie continued to shoot at FF, but he dodged as many as he could, until he hit a wall, and fell to the ground. The bunnie hopped slowly towards him. He put his small handgun back into his jacket, and pulled out a machine gun.
“FF! Catch!” Yelled Alice.
FF grabbed the hilt of his sword, that he surprisingly caught in the dark. He swung the sword towards the bunnies head, aiming at the back. He heard a crucnh, and could see bits of metal all from the back of the rabbit’s head. The rabbit stopped in his tracks, and dropped the gun, and simply hopped off. FF walked towards the bits of metal.
“Some kind of device.”
Alice walked up next to him. “What is it?”
“Hmm. I really dont know.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In another room nearby, a man in a cloke stood in front of many glowing orange screens. The computers started humming.
“Unit damaged. Unit # 707654i5”
The cloaked man punched the table. They might be on to us..
—
Okay, so I had another idea. Instead of shadow powers, shadow technology. What do you guys think? If you dont like it, we can redo it.
I am now going to attempt to make a coherent story that flows well out of this. The just-put-all-the-story-posts-next-to-each-other method doesn’t seem to mesh that well. Apologies for stretching the page. The reference text I’m rearranging is usually the one the man for aeiou posted, in case you want to know. And when in doubt as to spacing, I added extra space. And I’m sorry if I cut the part you agonized over and if the end result has too much of my voice in the edits. Things I know I cut that you might want: FS and Shadowkat flirting where the timing messed up the story, some of people describing themselves , the man for aeiou’s plotline, because it didn’t tie in to anything, Donaldo’s posts that Alice objected to. I think that’s all the disclaimers, though.
After doing: This took about an hour and a half. It’s quite late now, and I’m not going to have tiime for anything in the next two weeks. People, proper spelling and puctuation are worthwhile. Note the time. And that I’m East Coast, and going on a trip tomorrow. I’m extremely tired right now. I spent too much time on fixing things. If I can use this to guilt you into capitalizing, I will be satisfied.
Maybe this as a back-cover-blurb kind of thing, if it was an actual book:
The year is 2020. The heroes: a few dozen young men and women, most in their late 20s. Fifteen years earlier, four friendly-seeming but mysterious people gathered them on what was then known as the World Wide Web, dropped hints about an important destiny or mission they were to fulfil, and then vanished. Over the years, some of the group kept in touch; others drifted apart. Now a great danger has brought them all back together again…
Story begins:
“Good night!” wrote E2MB “See you in the morning!” Little did he know, this was the last comment ever to be moderated on the MuseBlog.
When E2MB logged on the next morning, he was shocked to see that no one had posted in the time he had been sleeping. He was a good deal more shocked to see that, on the very top of the page, even above the random thread, was a single post. It said, “BLOG CLOSED DUE TO.” Due to what? He clicked on the random thread, only to find it closed. All the threads were! When he had worked through the entire year of 2010, he realized the awful truth: The MuseBlog was truly closed.
…
“Zark,” Sweet Melpomene said at last. “This is big. Really big. And BAD.”
“Do you think–” Widdershins looked around at the others. “Do you think the GAPAs knew?”
Juliette shrugged. “You mean ‘knew’ as in ‘had foreknowledge of’? Like Hari Seldon and his psychohistory? Not zarking likely.”
“I’m not so sure,” Purple Panda said. “They sounded as if they did. There was one thing in particular that Robert posted, just a few days before…”
“Robert!” FrigidSymphony scoffed. “That old fraud. He’d be the last person I’d listen to.”
Shadowkat reached across the table and tousled FrigidSymphony’s waist-long hair. “Still smarting from that time he banished you, are you, Fridgey?” she teased.
“That has nothing to do with it,” the musician shot back. “I just found Rebecca and the other Administrators more helpful.”
Alice looked pensive. “I always wondered about Rosanne,” she said. “She seemed very quiet and sweet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to her than that. I suspect that she was the brains of the outfit, the one pulling the strings. And then one day they were all just–gone…”
For a moment, the group sat in uneasy silence.
“Anyway, they did their job,” Red-tailed HAWK said at last. “They got us together. Now we’ve got a job to do.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ebeth burst out. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get out there and DO it.”
“Not so fast,” Prarilius Canix said. “We can’t afford to rush into this. It’s too important for that. Failure is not an option here. We have to be sure what we’re dealing with.”
E2MB smiled grimly. “Well, whatever it is,” he said, “one thing is for sure: it is definitely NOT mostly harmless.”
Shadowkat looked Prarilius Canix. “PC is right,” she said. “We have to find out what it is we’re dealing with. Those disappearances…did anyone notice any kind of order to them? Do you think it could be…the bunnies?”
FrigidSymphony glanced up from admiring his hair. “Bunnies? I’ll kill ’em. I’ll…”. He broke off, turning his attention to a small stain on his shirt. “Dammit, I just washed this crap yesterday! Bloody pasta…”
“Obsess much?” muttered Shadowkat. She raised her hands in response to the glare she got from FrigidSymphony. “Just making an observation!” she said defensively.
“Hey, I care about my appearance,” he shot back, “because it’s worth the effort.” He gave her a cocky grin.
Shadowkat grinned back, and thought, Well, at least one of us hasn’t changed…. “I care about mine, too! But, you know, you really don’t need to do anything…you’re naturally gorgeous.” She winked at him.
“Will you two stop the banter? We have a crisis on our hands!” Prarilius Canix snapped. He was irritable, having been awake for the past two nights, researching. “It’s not just the GAPAs. Whatever did this wanted to get them out of the way first, because it thought that they were the only ones who could stop it. People have been disappearing all over the world.”

“You’re talking about this as though there was some intelligence behind the disappearances,” said Lizzie. “Do you think that’s possible?”

“I think it’s probable,” Pentatonikk mused. “The bunnies…?”

“What are you talking about?” Prarilius Canix hissed. “The bunnies are imaginary and this is real.”

Silence.

“Right?”


Silence.

“Well… ” said Kiki the great, nervously fingering her red hair. “You never went to Kokonventions…”

“And you hadn’t been in contact with us much in the past few years,” the man for aeiou said. “Until now, that is… “

“I’m sorry, PraCan,” Taiwan Hippo Fan said. “We didn’t realize there was anyone here who didn’t know.”
“Know what?” asked Alice, just as clueless as Prarilius Canix. “Oh! You mean . . . that?”
Shadowkat looked at the others, then turned to Prarilius Canix. “Alright, look, you remember that day back in ’07, April Fool’s Day, when the HPBs took over MuseBlog? And we all thought, ‘Haha, what a joke, that can’t be real!’? Well…it was. I know some connections who might have some information about the disappearances…should I call them?”

“PC, the bunnies are real. Well, in a sense…it was an accident.” Sobriquet whispered, concerned.
“Wait,” interrupted Lizzie. “I seem to have missed the memo. Who are Shadowkat’s ‘people’ and what do they have to do with the disappearances?”
“I have no clue,” volunteered Alice, unhelpfully. “Shadowkat?”
FS pulled a flask ot of his pocket and took a long drink, then said: “I think we should all use our assets and dig up whatever we can about these disappearances. I’ll contact the Thelema, see if the occultists can give me some info… As for the rest of you…”
“My ‘people'” retorted Shadowkat, “are a few parties with whom I have certain useful connections. And that’s all you need to know. Now, should I contact them, or not?”
“What about the rest of us?” asked Alice. “There’s not a whole lot I can do. I mean, since the the Wawona sunk I don’t even have a ship!” She paused. “Of course, most of you don’t have ships either, so I suppose it’s not that unusual.”
“I’ll be doing some research. Again,” Prarilius Canix sighed. “I’ll look through the newspaper archives, see if I can find any pattern to the disappearances. If I can find the time and place they started, we’ll have something to work with.”
Shadowkat sighed.
”And I’ll contact my people, see what they know…and trust me, they’ll know something. Anyone else have an assignment for me? I’ll need something to keep me busy once I’m done…” She glanced at FS, who raised his eyebrows. “Well, never mind. Anyone?”
Canix left the room. Moments later, a sleek white Prius with a BOOK♥ER license plate pulled out of the parking lot below and drove off in the direction of the library.

“I wonder what he’s up to,” Alice mused. “He didn’t even wait for us to explain about the bunnies.”

“He’s probably going to catch up on some of the old MB threads, see if he can find out something about them himself.”

“Makes sense. That’s where it all started.”
“God, I feel useless,” moaned Alice. “All I can do is write, really. I suppose I could help PC research, but…” She trailed off. “I don’t know.” She rested her elbows on the table, and her chin in her hands. “I’ve never been very good at making plans, either.”
Shadowkat looked around at everyone. “Well, I’m gonna go talk to a few people, alright? Everyone knows what they’re doing? Good.” She got up and headed for the door. Glancing over her shoulder at FS, she said, “You coming?” He nodded, and they left together. A black and silver Honda motorcycle with two dark-clothed figures on it glided out of the parking lot a few minutes later.
…
Prarilius Canix stood up, heaps of newspaper falling off the computer desk. It was so obvious. Why hadn’t he spotted it before?
He scribbled a few important points on a sheet of notebook paper, stuffed the sheet in his pocket, and dashed out into the rainy street, ignoring the funny look he got from the librarian.
”This could alter the fate of the entire world,” he thought. “They’ve got to know about it.”
He was so focused that he didn’t notice the figure standing nearby beneath an umbrella, or what that figure held in its free hand and was pointing at him.
There was a sharp crack, like a gunshot. In fact, that’s what it was. Prarilius Canix collapsed against the library wall and slowly slid to the ground.
…
Kagcomix looked up, from where she was sitting on the floor. “So they are real,” she muttered, coughed once and continued. “Animal shelters”.
“What do you mean?” asked Alice, bending over to look at Kagcomix.

“Well, normal rabbits multiply rapidly, right? But the HPB’s are different. Aren’t they spawned from talk of dogs vs. cats? And where better to find dogs and cats than at an animal shelter? I think we should check out the local shelters. I can do some volunteer work there while checking stuff out.” As Kagcomix finished she curled into child’s pose, her sword hugged to her stomach. She felt tired and ached. Kagcomix drifted off into thoughts and reflections, about her training, about her bionic right arm and other wounds, about her past.
A loud bang filled the air. Kagy started and banged her head on the table.

“Sorry,” Red-tailed HAWK said. “I didn’t know it actually worked.”
RtH held a gun in his hand. He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry!” he said again.

“Where exactly did you get that?” asked Widdershins.
“Uh….this secret compartment thingy slid open when I put my hand on the table,” RtH explained.

“Maybe there are more, but HAWK, DON’T go pulling triggers indoors. It’s dangerous!”Alice snapped at him.
“Anybody have a laptop?” Sobriquet asked. “We should check the news. We should keep track of any more unexplained dissapearences or bunny sightings.”

Alice handed over a small silver notebook. “For writing.” she offered. “I take it everywhere.”

The group skimmed the headlines. One read “Man Shot At Chicago Library”.

“Wasn’t PC headed for the library?” E2MB asked.

Sobriquet clicked the link. At the top of the page was a picture of Pralirius Canix lying unconcious on the library steps.
Kagcomix got up. She had stopped paying attention and drifted off, but people seemed to be leaving now so she guessed she should be too. Kagy grabbed her sword and walked to the door. On the street the air felt good on her face. I’ll go to the library to see how PC is. Besides, I want to pick up a book, she thought.
A horrific scene met her eyes as she reached the steps. Police tape everywhere, and PC lying by the library doors. With a disregard for the police and everyone around her Kagy ran towards PC.
”Pralirius, who did it, where did they go?” she whispered.

“Dunno, they went down the side street,” Pralirius gasped.

“It’s okay PC, I’ll get them. Just don’t die.” She smiled down at him before running off down a sidestreet. She didn’t need anyone dying, at least not this early in the game.
“Wait!” Prarilius gasped. He held up a blood-soaked scrap of paper, with a neat, round hole through the middle of it.

“That’s evidence. Hand it over, and everything will be all right,” said a young, nervous-looking policeman.
Canix coughed, then fixed the policeman with a baleful stare.
“This is more important than you could possibly imagine. Don’t touch it.”
The policeman backed off.
Kagy took the paper. Only three words were legible, and their last few letters had been cut off.
”Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read.
…
At that very moment, the former MuseBloggers were gathered around the tiny laptop on the big table, reading the dreadful article.
Suddenly someone asked, “Where’s Kagcomix?”

“Good point,” said Alice in surprise. “Where is Kagcomix?”
Green Qween burst into the room quite suddenly.
”Am I late? What’s going on?” she blurted out. “I saw Kagy in the street, and she was running away from something.” She stared at the small group huddled around the laptop. “What did I miss?”
…
Suddenly, a female police officer reported for duty. “What’s going on here, Cook?” she said, addressing the man. Suddenly she stepped back a ways. “PC?” she whispered faintly. “Is that you?”
“How do you know my blog name?” the bloody man whispered from the ground. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“Cat’s Meow,” the lady said. “And boy, it’s been way too long.”
…
Cinnamon Moon stepped quietly into the room. The few people still sitting around the table turned toward her. She moved purposefully towards the table, then introduced herself.
“Cinnamon Moon. It’s been too long, my friends. Please tell me – what has happened? I don’t understand every thing. Can you explain?”

E2MB began. “It started with the bunnies…
“It happened at kokonvention #30 at Muse HQ. Shadowkat was showing her make-alive 3000 with a computer and ’07 januray muse. She typed in a random thread number and hit enter. She fed the Muse in. The make-alive made a ring sound and a thing popped out. It was a bunny! Then another, and more! Soon all of Muse HQ was filled will bunnies! Some were paper and some were from that april day in ’07.”
As E2MB finished recounting what had happened in the last few years, the room fell gloomily silent as the grave nature of what had taken place began to truly sink in.
The MBers sat silently, pensively, in the ever-darkening room, looking up on occasion, wondering what, exactly, had to be done. A disquieting atmosphere ensued until a familiar voice crackled once more through the PA speakers in the room.
“Zark, zark, zark,” muttered Sweet Melpomene. “This is already getting out of hand; I don’t think I can still risk talking to you from the lab, even if I do wipe the computers… I’ll be over to the Royal in a bit–”
A loud crash was broadcast, followed only by static before the speakers fell silent.

…
Shadowkat pulled up to the abandoned apartment building. She looked it over, noticed the broken windows, tattered curtains, unhinged door. Home, sweet home., she thought, somewhat sarcastically. She had dropped FrigidSymphony off at a phone booth outside of a “well-thought-of” bar in town. They would meet up later, when she was done with her current business.
She got off her bike, set the safety, and went into the building.
Two men were waiting for her in the kitchen just inside the front door. She turned to them.

“Buona Notte, Signor Tomaschino, Masacci.”

“Ciao, Kat.” They replied in unison.

She looked them in the eyes. “Do you have the information I asked you for?”

“Yes.”

“Well, let’s see it, then.”
Tomaschino pulled a few sheets of paper out of the front pocket of his jacket and handed them to her. She looked at the papers for a few minutes, eyes narrowing as she read each sentence, then looked up at her companions.

“Is this all you could find?” she asked them skeptically.

“Yes.” answered Masacci, with a touch of aggression.

Shadowkat returned in kind, “Well, it had better be. This is more important than any of your kind will ever know.” She spat out the last phrase as if it were poison. Which, to Tomaschino and Masacci, it was. Tomaschino took a step towards Shadowkat threateningly.

“If you weren’t my cousin…” he warned.

“If you weren’t my cousin, you’d be dead by now.” interrupted Shadowkat. She snatched the papers of the heavily-stained table where she had set them, turned on her heel, and marched out the door.
”Ciao, gentlemen!” she called from the street. With a roar and a vroom, she was gone.
…
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Alice picked up the phone in the meeting room.

“Hello?” she said, a little tentatively.

“Alice?”

“Yes.”

“It’s me, Shadowkat. Have you and the other MBers meet me downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I have some extremely important information.”
Click.
…
Back at the library, the scene of the crime was buzzing with activity. After Kagy rushed off, someone finally had the sense to call 911. Paramedics had flooded the area, and PC was rushed into an ambulance. As an authority figure, Cat’s Meow had recieved word that PC hadn’t lost a fatal amount of blood, but he was still in critical condition.
Five blocks away, Kagy swung around the sharp corner of a dank brick building. What she came face-to-face with in the alley made her stop dead in her tracks. From a distance, the dreamlike sound of sirens speeding away reached her ears, but she did not hear it.
…
The downtown Chicago emergency room had seen better days. Minor dilemmas had been hindering progress since 8:00 that morning, especially since the latest batch of interns were starting today. Among these clueless medics was 29-year-old ‘Dotty-kay, who at the moment had quite a lot to worry about. She had recently recieved a mysterious message that her old MuseBlog friends planned to meet at a secret location this very day, supposedly for a reunion. She had suspected the matter at hand was a bit more urgent, but she had a dilemma since her internship began today. She couldn’t afford to miss this training, and so declined the invitation. Now she doubted the wisdom in this action. With rumors of an assassination attempt so early on, it was looking like she would be giving the MuseBlog conspriacy a higher priority than her career at this point.
Cat’s Meow had been thinking along these same lines, and had stowed away on PC’s ambulance just before it left, disregarding the fact that she was still on duty. Now as the vehicle raced into the emergency entrance, she tried to communicate with PC. From his grunts and fragmented sentences, she gained that he had just made an earth-shattering discovery. She followed the strecher inside the ICU, where Dot almost collided into the party.
…
There was a barbed wire fence but it only stopped Kagy for a moment. She ripped the barbed wire aside with her right(and bionic) arm. Kagy could feel her heart pumping as she ran down the side street. It was long and it didn’t have a turn off for a long while. It was more of an alleyway, now that she thought about it. Its narrow grimy brick walls from the buildings on either side leaned in close. She could see a figure running up ahead. Kagy clutched the paper from PC tigter in her fist and put on a spurt of speed. She was getting closer. Her muscles ached but she kept going. Her sword was strapped to her side, in its hilt, but she pulled it out. Suddenly there was gunfire. Three bullets rocketed past her bouncing off the walls, one going dangerously past her ear. Kagy ran faster. If she could just get into sword-reach…
As Kagy neared the figure she noticed it wore a long trench coat and a big hat. Both the hat and the trench coat were black, but under the hat something pink was poking out. Kagy barely had time to wonder what it was when another round of gunfire erupted.
This time Kagy couldn’t doge them all. One was lodged in her right shoulder.
At least it wasn’t my real arm, she thought. The gunfire wasn’t stopping and Kagy noticed that more people in trenchcoats and hats were emerging from a turnoff she hadn’t noticed before. Kagy turned. There was no way she could face this many gunmen by herself. She grabbed onto a sturdy looking pipe with her good arm and scampered up the building. Trying to doge bullets and climb up pipes was no easy task.
Kagcomix was finaly on top of the roof of one of the buildings when the gunfire died down. Kagy had two more bullets lodged in her arm.
Zark! i guess it’s another night without sleep to fix THIS! she thought. With her still intact left hand she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
”Hello? is that Dotty Kay?”

“Uh huh”

“It’s Kagcomix. I need your help.”

“Hey Kagy. I’m kinda busy right now.”

“With PC?”

“How’d you know?”

“I’m special.”

“Uh.. okay… why are you calling me?”

“Because I don’t know anyone else’s number.”

“Okay. So what do you need?”

“I don’t know if PC told you, but he gave me a sheet of paper. I can’t really read most of it but i know that you were on MB before i was and you might know what it means. Does ‘Ljubl… uh… Lagomo…Extrater’ make any sense to you?”

“Sorry, Kagy, but you’ve caught me at a really bad time. I’m not sure what that means, but go back to HQ, someone there will be bound to know what you’re talking about.”

“Thanks anyways, Dotty Kay.”
As Kagcomix put her phone back in her pocket she realised what the pink from under the hat had been: BUNNY EARS!
…
In a room at MIT, a girl is checking her email in an attempt to procrastinate. “Why can’t this paper make sense? I can’t do it. It’s impossible. What else can I do?” She opens a web browser, Internet Fire Safari 9.999 Optimised. “I haven’t used that email address in years. It’s some excuse.” She types a password, clicks on something. “Chicago… MuseBlog… I got this two weeks ago… oh, no.” She takes out a phone and dials.
“Potato Chip? Yes, it’s me. Remember MuseBlog? When we were thirteen. I used to be curious and questioning. You had some people’s facebook from then, right? Can you contact them? Now. There’s kind of a problem. I’m emailing you. Checking your old email accounts might help too. I’m going to try calling some other people from that DC kokonvention. If you find anything, call me or email. My thesis can wait a little bit longer.”
…
Kagy ran across rooftops until she reached HQ. She didn’t want to make a scene with her bullet holed t-shirt and her wrecked arm.
Finally Kagy was able to climb down from the roof into the building they had been in before. It seemed there were hidden passageways everywhere. As she entered the room, Sweet Melpomene looked up.

“ZARK! Kagy, what happened? Should I call the ambulance?” Sweet Melpomene asked, shocked at the holes that adorned Kagcomix’s shirt.

“Nah, ‘sokay. They only got my bionic arm.” Kagy responded.
“So, what exactly happened?” E2MB asked.

“Well, I saw PC and he gave me a note. Then I rushed down an alleyway and got shot at by people in bunny suits, black trench coats and hats. The little #@$%@^&* screwed up my arm! I came over the roof tops to get here.” Kagy explained.

“Bunny suits?” E2MB asked.

“Guess so.” said Sweet Melpomene. “What did PC’s note say?”

“most of it’s gone but what i can read is Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” said Kagy.
“It’s a good thing I left my bag here earlier, because my arm realy needs work. That’s where I keep spare parts,” she explained. Kagy took off her ripped shirt and started down to work on her arm.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Sweet Melpomene asked as Kagcomix dug out the bullet and started repairing broken wires and plates.
“Nope, only near my collarbone because that’s where the metal meets the flesh. Otherwise I don’t have that much feeling in my right arm. I mean, I can feel the bullets in there and I can feel being shot, but if you were to, say, run a feather down it I wouldn’t feel it. I always wear a tank top under my shirts for situations like this. It’s realy hard to repair my arm if I keep having to roll up my sleeves.”
“You’ve been shot at before?” asked E2MB increduously.
“Yup! And stabbed too! Wanna see my scar?”

“Not really. But why?”

“In my line of work you come to expect calamity.”

“I thought you were a cartoonist!” Sweet Melpomene jumped in.
“That and defending justice,” Kagy replied. “So do either of you know when PC might get out of the hospital? Because no one I’ve asked so far seems to know what his note means.”

“No idea.” answered E2MB.
Alice had been thinking hard. “Hang on,” she said suddenly. “What did the note say again?”

Kagcomix obligingly fished it out of her pocket with her real arm. “Ljubl… Lagomo… Extrater…” she read. Alice took it from her.

“What?” asked agagabagabag.

Alice looked up. “I’m not sure about Ljubl and extrater, but Lagomo seems awfully similar to lagomorph.”

Everyone looked at her. No one moved.
“Which is…?” asked Fire_Falcon22.

“I can’t believe you don’t know that!” burst out Alice. “You’ve all grown up to be hugely successful, and none of you know what lagomorph is?”
When no one answered, Alice explained. “Rabbits aren’t rodents. They’re lagomorphs.”
“Oh my goodness, Alice, you’re right!” cried Cinnamon Moon “I’m so sorry for not having kept in touch. Maybe we could have found this out earlier! But after the news about Rebecca…” She looked at the blank faces around her. “You mean-” she faltered. “Robert never told you?”
…
Shadowkat pulled into the Royal’s parking lot, the papers she’d just received folded up in her pocket. I wonder where Fridgey got to…, she thought. When she’d asked the bartender whether or not he knew what had happened to a tall, handsome, black-clad man, the ‘tender had said he’d never seen a man like that. Odd. She got off her bike and went inside.
Bursting through the door of the lobby, she immediately dropped and rolled as a dart whizzed by her head and slammed into her shoulder. She began to feel its effects even in the seconds between impact and when she pulled it out. Her vision started to cloud. No! she thought. Must…stay…awake!
She bolted for the door, whipping out her cell phone as she did so. Apparently, the gun that her attacker had used was a one-shot deal, at least for a while.

The phone on the other end rang. And rang. And rang some more. Then:
”Hello?” said a strange voice from the other line, a voice she didn’t recognize.

“What have you done with the MuseBloggers?” she asked, afraid of the answer.

“Oh, don’t worry, S-kitty…” She cringed at the use of her MB nickname by a stranger. “…they’re safe…for now.” The connection broke.

“What?! Where are they?!? WHERE ARE THEY?!?!” she screamed into the phone, desperately trying wrap her mind around all this. Just a few minutes ago, they had been fine. And now, they weren’t. She darted around to the side of the building and started to climb. For once in her life, she truly thanked Master Chi for how hard he’d made her train. She crawled onto the roof. Luckily for her, the meeting room in which they’d been was on the top floor; she’d hear any commotion coming from it. She crept along the roof to the air vent, listening. Suddenly, the wind changed direction, and she could hear voices.

“…–ouldn’t be helped, sir.” said a somewhat high-pitched, squeaky voice.

“What do you mean, couldn’t be helped?!” roared the voice from her most recent phone conversation. “We had all of the others in our grasp, and YOU let this one slip through our fingers!”

“Yes, but, sir, the poison, she got the dart out–”

“I wouldn’t have cared if she’d thrown it back into you!!!” interrupted the one who appeared to be in charge. “It was your job to get her, and you didn’t! Now she’s probably on her way to the–”

Ding-a-ding, dong, ding, ding-a-ding, dong!, went Shadowkat’s phone.
”@#$%!!!” she swore under her breath. She heard a clatter from the room below. She hurriedly leaped onto the next roof over, which, fortunately, was quite close, as she was in the city. She scrambled down the far side of the building onto which she had just leaped, dropped into the alley at the bottom, and opened her phone. The display screen read “Alice”. She pushed the “Accept” button.
…
“Told us what?” asked Alice. “It seems like we have a lot of information, but it’s all mixed up. Could everyone just sit down and explain in an organized fashion?”
Alice excused herself to get a drink of water, and walked out into the hall. It seemed strange to just sit there, doing nothing, but it had always been her nature to stay on top of the confusion, even at thirteen, and this confusion needed more staying on top of than any RRR. She bent down to drink from the water fountain, and her head exploded into blackness.

She woke into blackness, and were it not for her awareness of the enormous lump on the back of her head, she would not have realized that she was awake. Her eyes searched the darkness for something light to rest them on, but there was only coal-blackness.
Then it hit her. Her cell phone! It was only for business calls, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the phone numbers of other MuseBloggers.
Her hands weren’t bound, and she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Its screen was glowing, and she fixed her eyes on it, glad of the relief from the darkness. She dialed Shadowkat’s number.

“Hello?” said Shadowkat.

“Hi, Shadowkat,” said Alice. “It’s Alice. I think I’ve been kidnapped. I’m in someplace dark.”
…
“Well, what is it?” asked Donaldo as Alice left. Finally, someone had voiced what everyone was thinking.
All the MBers turned to Cinnamon Moon as she opened her mouth to explain. Taking a deep breath, she began.
“Well, there was a reason we all called her–” she was cut off by a loud creaking sound.
“What’s happening?” shouted agagabagabag.
E2MB paled as he realized what was happening. “The whole room’s being moved!”
“What?” said several MBers simultaneously.
“That’s not possible!”
“It’s still bolted in place, for the moment!”
“I thought the Royal was safe!”
“How did they find us?”
“What’s that noise?”
Several people slammed into the door as the room began to shake. Widdershins struggled to pull it open as the lights went out. Gasping for breath, she and a few other MBers fell through as the rest realized they were trapped in what was acting like a gigantic, descending elevator.
“Zark,” she muttered as several people climbed off of her, apologizing profusely.
The group stared at the open doorway, catching a few last glimpses of their friends’ shocked faces as they disappeared into the dark tunnel.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” said Sweet Melpomene. “We have to get out of this building, stat.”
…
Fire_Falcon22 tried to move, but then realized he was tied up. He reached as far as he could for his sword. He grabbed the hilt, but was unable to pull it out of his sheath. He pulled and pulled until he was able to get the hilt through the rope. He grabbed the blade and moved it slowly up the rope, and after a minute of bringing the blade back and forth, he finally cut the rope.

“Ah, finally.”
Fire_Falcon22 got up, and put his sword back in its sheath. He couldn’t see a thing but he heard a voice. He tried to follow the voice, but soon hit a wall. He got up, but he sensed the presence of someone behind him. He turned around to see an odd figure, with a skin color so bright, he could see it, even through the darkness.
Hot pink.
The figure – more hopping than walking- moved slowly towards Fire_Falcon22. The figure pulled out a gun from his jacket.
Fire_Falcon grabbed the hilt of his sword. The figure shot the gun, and Fire_Falcon deflected the shot with his sword, and the bullet bounced back at the figure.
The figure jumped back and shot a few more shots at Fire_Falcon. He deflected a few, but then one hit him in the shoulder. He crouched down to the ground, clenching his wound.
The figure came closer.

“Who are you?” asked FF.
The figure didn’t say anything, he just pointed the gun towards FF.
FF sat there in shock, not knowing what to do…
…
The MBers still caught in the moving room fell silent as the walls began to grate on the sides of the shaft. Cables and pulleys screeched against each other, guiding what once was a safe place down, down, down. Slowly, the air began to thicken and, one by one, the members of the group fell unconscious.
They awoke groggily in what appeared to be the same room, minus the conference table. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the dim pink lighting.
Someone sat in a corner, next to a pile of bindings.
“Oh, look! My rescue party’s arrived,” FrigidSymphony said, coating the sentence with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Which, on a bad day, is far more than average.
Ebeth rolled her eyes and gave him a disdainful look before scanning her surroundings. A few other MBers followed suit.
“Doors are probably sealed, no windows, PA system’s cut off…” Purple Panda listed to herself. She turned sharply to FrigidSymphony. “Exactly how long have you been here?” she asked politely.
“If I had my bloody watch, I’d probably have escaped by now,” he muttered before saying, “Since a little after I left. Damn bartender… he spiked my drink…”
“Right,” said Panda absently, as she continued to scrutinize the walls.
“They couldn’t even leave the chairs,” mumbled Ebeth. She, too, was looking around curiously. “When I get out of here, I’m renaming myself Ebeth the Amazing Escape Artist,” said Ebeth suddenly.
…
“What the zark was that?” said Widdershins, breathing heavily after her run out of the building.
“An amazing feat of engineering, if I do say so myself,” said someone behind her.
“We tried to get here sooner, but…” said another person, finishing her sentence with a tired sigh.
“curious and questioning! Potato Chip!” the group exclaimed.
Brief ‘hellos’ were made as the group followed the two down the street, to a modest-looking parking garage.
“There’s another place we can try to reach, if it’s not too late. We have two cars…” said curious and questioning calmly.
“Make that three,” added Sweet Melpomene. “I left mine here, too.
“Great,” Potato Chip said, “we can split up, so it’s even harder for them to capture the rest of us.” She handed a few pieces of notebook paper to SM. “Directions,” she explained.
SM scanned them, and then shoved the directions into an inner coat pocket. “We’ll meet you there; Kagy and I are going to try to get into the hospital. We’re going to try to find Canix and Cat’s Meow.”
They hurried off into the garage until Juliette stopped abruptly. “Wait, where’s Fire_Falcon22? He fell out of the door with us, didn’t he?”
…
Dot snapped her phone shut and quickly shoved it in her pocket. Looking around to make sure the doctor hadn’t seen her recieve a call, she spotting Cat’s Meow standing awkwardly next to PC’s bed. They exchanged worried glances, and then Dot came over to adjust an IV in PC’s arm.
“I just got word from Kagy,” she muttered to her two friends. It was hard to tell if PC was listening. “She got your paper, Prarilius, and she’s taking it to show everyone else.”
…
Snagging a most-likely-illegal parking spot, Kagcomix and Sweet Melpomene hopped out of the car. Slamming the doors and rushing into the hospital entrance, they quickly navigated their way to the emergency room.
“Please, ladies, what’s the problem?” a stern female voice said from the reception desk.
“We need to get in!” SM spluttered. “It’s urgent!”
The receptionist glanced them over. “If it’s not a medical emergency, I’ll have to ask you to head to the waiting room.”
“But our good friend is in there, and we have to talk to him!” said a frustrated Kagy.
“This is a matter that could alter the virtual world permanently, and now threatens our reality!” SM added.
“An online relationship crisis, eh?” sneered the receptionist. “I can’t help you. Patients’ visitors may be immediate family only.”
…
There was a clatter on the end of the line. “What’s that?” asked Alice uncertainly. Not much had changed since she was thirteen, when it came to bravery. “Shadowkat?” said Alice, when there was no response. “SHADOWKAT?” Still no sound came from the phone.
But somewhere in the darkness, a familiar voice called, “Who’s that?”

“Alice!” Alice yelled back. “Where are you?”

“Over here!” yelled the voice (which Alice was fairly sure belonged to Fire_Falcon) “I’m kind of in trouble right now!”
…
Shadowkat was backed up against the alley wall, with a gun pointed at her head. Holding the gun was a man. A tall man, fairly good-looking. But dark, and not in a good way. He wore a jet black suit made of what appeared to be silk, and dark glasses, too. No eyes could be seen through those.
“You won’t get away this time, you little brat!” the man growled. “Too long have I lied in wait, too long have I held my grudge, itching for revenge…and now,” he smiled an evil, toothy smile, “it’s over.” He fired.
“NO!!!” Another man, quite a bit younger than either of the people present, leaped in front of the firing gun. He groaned, having taken a bullet to the left shoulder. It seemed like a never-ending moment in which Shadowkat stared down at her savior in shock, mouth agape. She knew this young man, and quite well. He was her brother.
“T.J.!!!!!!!!” she screamed, and it felt like her vocal cords ripped. She whirled on the man in the the suit, the man who had just shot her little brother. “You…” she snarled, looking as much like the cat from which she took her Blog name as was humanly possible. The man backed against the opposite wall, afraid of the thirst for blood in her eyes. She whipped out her own gun and stormed towards him, holding it aloft. She slammed him into the wall.
“What do you want with me?!” she shouted into his face.
“It’s not…just you,” the man panted.
“Who is it, then?!” She got no response. “Who is it?!?!”
“…MuseBlog…” he spat, venom dripping from his words. A groan escaped his lips. Shadowkat backed away from him in horror. The man let out a sickly laugh.
“Hahaha…you’ll never stop us, Kitty-kat, and neither will any of your little playmaaates…hahahaaa…” He trailed off as the poison with which he had injected himself took its effect.
Shadowkat let his body fall to the ground in a heap. She turned and knelt down next to her fallen brother, who was coughing up blood. The bullet in his shoulder was holding his flesh together in that spot for the most part, but he still needed medical attention, and fast.
“T.J.” she shook him, keeping him with her.
“Katie…” he groaned. “I…didn’t think I’d…make it in time…”
“Wait, Teej, what do you mean? Did you know something–?”
“Yes. Kate, it’s the creators…the creators of…”
“What, T.J., what?! The creators of WHAT?!” He passed out.
Shadowkat jumped up and called Sweet Melpomene, who, since she’d had a bit of training in chemistry, might have some idea of what to do with her brother (known as “The Tominator” on the Blog) before they could get him to the hospital.
…
“So, tell us now, before it’s too late. What happened to Rebecca?” asked E2MB.
“Lady Bunniful was… well… I don’t know how to say this, but I’ll try. Rebecca was being controlled by the bunnies. But she resisted, in the last few months of Museblog. Then, she was taken by them. We haven’t heard anythlng since. The rumour is that she might be – dead. I don’t know. Our forces haven’t uncovered anything substantial.”
“Wait a second!” burst in another blogger. “What do you mean – ‘our forces’?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t know about those either!!!” cried Ebeth. Cinnamon Moon whirled on her.
“Ebeth, please! Calm down! Lot’s of people don’t know about lots of things, so let’s just keep our head on straight and explain, alright?” At a nod of acknowledgment from Ebeth, she continued.
“Well, a few MuseBloggers and I were kind of worried that the HPB’s would try to take over MuseBlog, again, so we arranged for monitors (the sources we were talking about) to watch Lady Bunniful, as we suspected she might be the first they’d try to take over. Our monitors, though, not only watched over Rebecca, but also made sure the Blog was always ok, and nothing “funny” was going on. To do this, they talked to the Editors, Writers, and other people related to Muse. They were very careful, and good at what they did. They never took their eyes off Rebecca, though. I know this, because I was there on that fateful day when, suddenly, Lady Bunniful disappeared. Just like that. She was sitting in front of her computer, moderating, when she was just…gone. Of course, some claim to have seen a faint pinkish glow where she’d just been, right after she vanished, but that was never proven. Nothing else that our sourced found ever led to anything. Rumors, yes, those have gone around, but never have any been shown to be true. It’s…well, it’s…scary.” she finished.
The others stared at her with wide eyes. No one knew quite what to say.
…
“What sort of trouble?” asked Alice. “And where are you?”
“Right here!” yelled Fire_Falcon. “And it’s -” he broke off.
“It’s what?”
There was a scuffle in the dark, and a popping noise, and silence. “FF?” Alice ventured tentatively.
“Right here,” said FF, from a few yards away. “It was a hot-pink bunny.”
“What happened to it?”
“I don’t know. It just…vanished.”
…
Sweet Melpomene’s phone rang. She jumped. She was a little bit paranoid, right now, after her recent experience. Looking at her phone, she saw that the display screen read, “Shadowkat”. She opened it up. She didn’t even say hello.
“Shadowkat! Where have you been?! The other MuseBloggers and I were attacked, and some of us escaped, but I don’t know where the rest are, and–”
“Yes, Mel, I know.” interrupted Shadowkat. “I was the one who tried to warn you guys, and ended up talking to some deep-voiced man, who then tried to kill me! But, Mel, he didn’t, because my brother took a bullet for me, and he’s passed out, and fading fast, and I–”
“Where are you?” asked SM.
“Behind the building east of the Royal.”
“I’m coming.”
…
Beavo the Great suddenly bursted around a corner, the one Shadowkat happened to be at, and crashed right into her. Shadowkat, who was very nervous by this time, jumped away and stared at this messy-haired, un-matched-clothed young man who sprawled at her feet. He looked up. She took a step back.
“Hey. You must be Shadowkat from your discription at the Muser Profiles. I’m Beavo. And that must be your brother.”
“But how did you know all this about…this stuff? You weren’t at any of the meetings, the attacks, and you weren’t even at the ER with PC!”
“That my friend, is for me to know and you… not to know. Right now, we need to get help with your brother.” Beavo took a huge bandage, a scotch tape dispenser, and a cell out of his pocket. As he started to put the bandage on Shadowkat’s brother, he handed her the phone.
“Here, call someone with this. We need help.”
“I already did!”
“Who?”
“SM.”
“And she is…?”
Sweet Melpomene rounded the same corner as Beavo did, and crashed right into Shadowkat. She heard Beavo mutter “Deja Vu” as she picked herself off the ground, brushed off the dust, and looked up at Shadowkat.
…
“Now, we just need to get out of here,” said FF.
“Yes, but where is here? And how do we get out? Man, this would make a great book.”
Fire_Falcon rolled his eyes in the dark.. Alice thought that everything even remotely exciting would make a good book.
“I don’t know where we are,” he said, “or how we’re going to get out. But we always have cell phones. We could call the other Musers.”
Alice moaned. “Don’t remind me,” she said. “If I wasn’t such a Luddite, we could be out of here already.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those new cell phones – not the disposable ones – have the nice tracking systems, and the maps. They can be tracked by other people, and by you, and they can have whole maps on them. But I’m so anti-tech that I didn’t even bother. You wouldn’t have one with a map, would you, FF?”
“All I have is a sheet of disposable ones,” said FF.
“Oh, great,” began Alice, but suddenly stopped. “Hang on,” she said, “I might not have high-tech cell phone, but I have a compass!”
Fire_Falcon was completely baffled. “You carry a compass, but you don’t carry anything remotely resembling a tracking device?”
Alice shrugged, though you couldn’t see it in the dark. “Like I said,” she said brightly, “I’m weird that way. Do you have a flashlight or anything?”
FF searched through his pack, that after a few seconds, he realized wasn’t there.
“They must have took my pack. Unfortunately, I dont have a flashlight, so how are we supposed to see the compass?”
Alice thought for a minute.
“Yeah, that is a bit of a downside.”
“Ya think? Did you bring a flashlight?”
“Like I said, anti-tech.”
FF slapped his hand on his face.
Just then there was a gun fire. FF and Alice spun around to see the faint glow of Hot pink. The bunny pointed the gun at Alice, and shot. FF pulled his sword out and deflected the shot. The bunny aimed the gun at FF, but FF charged at the bunny with his sword. The bunny fired, and caught FF in the hand, he dropped his sword, and hit the ground.
“Where’s my sword?!”
“I dont know.” responded Alice.
The bunny continued to shoot at FF, but he dodged as many as he could, until he hit a wall, and fell to the ground. The bunny hopped slowly towards him. He put his small handgun back into his jacket, and pulled out a machine gun.
“FF! Catch!” yelled Alice.
FF grabbed the hilt of his sword, that he surprisingly caught in the dark. He swung the sword towards the bunnies head, aiming at the back. He heard a crucnh, and could see bits of metal all from the back of the rabbit’s head. The rabbit stopped in his tracks, and dropped the gun, and simply hopped off. FF walked towards the bits of metal.
“Some kind of device.”
Alice walked up next to him. “What is it?”
“Hmm. I really dont know.”
…
In another room nearby, a man in a cloke stood in front of many glowing orange screens. The computers started humming.
“Unit damaged. Unit # 707654i5”
The cloaked man punched the table. They might be on to us..
339- I like it. I’m not that anti-tech, but at least it’s amusing. And it’s totally the kind of thing I would say. “Yeah, that is a bit of a downside.” Hee hee.
~~~
“Wait a sec!” said Alice suddenly. “How come we can see?” It was true. A faint light filtered through the blackness, and they could see that the room they were trapped in was absolutely enormous. Away across the several acres of floor, they could dimly see a pair of steps, ascending to a door, which was heavy and – as far as they could see – locked.
341- Thanks. By the way, the last part that says: They Might be on to us, that was supposed to be in ” “. Sorry bout that.
Mm…it’s ver-ver-ver-ver-very niiiiiiiiiice! ^_^
(337) I’m not dead! I’m not!…
I’m getting better!…
I feel fine…
*sings* I feel happy… I feel happy.
Btw…don’t we need a part 2?
344-Oh, did you see Spamalot?!?!?!
Yes, this might be a good place to break off for the continuation.