(no subject)

[soul_sister]

Who: Rosette and YOU
Where: One of the main thoroughfares into the market
When: Several hours after the attack has been repelled/Day 1
What: THE ROSETTE IS DRIVING HOW CAN THIS BE?
Warnings: Nuns with guns


Rosette has through dubious means acquired both a vehicle and a license. It would make sense in the celebratory mood and the heavy congestion of militia and soldiers returning from their victory and civilians leaving their shelter that traffic would get a bit touchy.

More than a bit touchy.

In fact, it only took one person getting tired of how slowly their nice, computer operated car was going to crash into three other vehicles in an unusual fit of road rage.

Maybe you're in the next car over with friends, maybe you're just leaving the market, maybe you're standing by or floating over traffic with your magical floaty powers. And then there's Rosette. How does Rosette react to the traffic jam? STOMP HER WAY UP ON TOP OF SOMEONE ELSE'S CAR TO YELL AT OTHER PEOPLE NEW YORK STYLE.

"JUST MOVE! THERE'S SPACE RIGHT THERE! ARRG ARE YOU BLIND!" She stomps on the roof of the car she's standing on. Probably your roof.



((OOC NOTE: This is after infection but before anyone knows what is going on! Enjoy your new temperament in a traffic jam.

Prose and fast tagging both welcome and responded in kind!))

Comments

[interneet]

The backseat occupant of her car takes a few more moments to free himself from the wreckage, unhurt but not exactly unaffected.

"Don't the words 'Automatic Navigation System' mean anything to you?"

[soul_sister]

Also unscathed, by the dramatic power of comedic relief, Rosette half turns to her shaken up passenger.

"You saw what it was doing! It was letting EVERYONE by! Like.. some stupid Automatic Yielding System."

[interneet]

Not shaken. Ruffled.

"Because crashing into the people ahead of you made it go so much faster."

[soul_sister]

Ruffled. Of course.

"How was I supposed to know he was going to break!" She folds her arms over her chest and stomps again on the hood of the poor soul's car. The dent is three inches deep now.

"It WOULDN'T be a BIG DEAL if people would just move!"

[interneet]

Checks the back seat again briefly—nope, nothing left behind, not that he had much with him to start with.

"No one thinks you're that important. The auto-nav only makes that kind of exception for emergency vehicles."

[ungrounded]

Lafiel was walking. Thankfully, her spacial awareness was enhanced, as it let her get out of the way when idiots decided they knew better than traffic control.

(Not that Lafiel wouldn't override the autopilot if she thought she could do better. Of course, her low opinion on the lack of interfaces would mean she'd rather sulk about being unable to drive something she couldn't feel.)

"If it's not going fast enough, you could try walking."

1/2

[soul_sister]

"How would that go faster?!" Frustration radiating off of her in waves, she looks back and forth between the gridlocked snarl and the opening not all that far away. The red lights flashing on the traffic panels in the area have already alerted the road crews about the congestion.. Rosette imagined she could hear the buzzing of their compact vehicles not far off.

And then? Then inspiration strikes.

[soul_sister]

"How about you direct traffic for a few seconds while I get by?"

[ungrounded]

"Me? Why would you think I would know anything like that?"

[soul_sister]

"You have an air of leadership! Potential! I would obey traffic laws and let a humble nun by if I were listening to you." She nods, solemnly. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and very obvious fibs. But that ONE STALL WITH TEA WAS ONLY OPEN SO LONG.

[ungrounded]

"Let me survey the situation," Lafiel said. Because it looked like a mess.

[maddeninghatter]

[ It was a good thing, in the end, that he hadn't brought his cane with him on his and Kevin's ill-fated joyride through space. It hadn't been destroyed, which is very handy, given what had.

Anyway.

He'd flinched at the sound of the automobile collisions, and again at the sound of somebody leaping onto the roof of his taxi, and again at —

Ah.

He'd heard she was here, but perhaps because they had parted on awkward terms worlds away, he'd somehow managed to fail to look her up. Fate, as happens, had other ideas.

He uses his cane to rap on the taxicab ceiling, then sticks his head out the window and waves at her: ]

Did you want an answer to that?

[soul_sister]

There are a number of things that a person can say or do when having come face to face with someone she'd considered a vanished milestone, far behind her in the constant race of her life.

She could say hello. She could ask how he was doing. She could STOMP ON HIS STUPID FACE. She could ask.... if he even knew her. If he was the same person. ... No. Of course he was. The other alternative was the potential of infinite tablemonsters, able to just appear from any angle. ROSETTE REFUSED THAT REALITY AND REPLACED IT WITH HER OWN.

She shook her head, glancing around once, then back down at him. In the haze of a small automobile fire starting from a short circuited electrical panel, the rising sounds of panic and anger from the gathering crowd of commuters. Bewilderment, entertainment and fear from onlookers... It was time to focus on what was really important here:

"They let YOU drive?!" Wait that's a cab. "THEY LET YOU DRIVE FOR A LIVING?"

[maddeninghatter]

With the window now open, he can hear not only Rosette's voice, but those of an increasingly angry crowd. He feels, all of a sudden, crushing guilt. He'd avoided her not for her sake, but for the sake of his own selfish self-loathing. His shame is unbearable.

...

Fortunately, he is experienced at keeping awful feelings like this hidden, so he beams up at her, while Emily exclaims, "YOU'RE ONE TO TALK, SISTER!"

While Emily chastises, he ducks his head inside again, pays his fare, and unfolds himself out of the cab (through the window). Leaping to the pavement, he remarks gaily, "Never mind that, Emily. I think we're all better off on foot. Come along, Miss Rosette!"

WHUPS. Just realized I changed the formatting on you. MY BAD.

[soul_sister]

[None the wiser, Rosette remains a simple creature, taking a moment to snap a glare at the doll. Her mouth opens to retort when Break's grand entrance and common sense is punctuated by a warbling wail of... what appears to be a six foot tall, four legged dust mop. Annoyed at the delay, the bison like alien starts shouldering cars and carts aside alike....]


RIGHT! NOW! YES.

[She leaps from the top of the car, creating an outcry of those who wanted compensation for the fenderbender and hoofs it, reaching out to snag Break's hand on the way.. on more habit than anything else.]

NO PROBLEM

[maddeninghatter]

[ He can hear doom coming, in the form of that wail and metal crashing, and was ready to help Rosette down from the car, when she leaps and grabs his hand, and —

He never told her, like he had Kevin, how one should properly lead a blind man: placing his hand one one's elbow, so that he can, with balance and control, be guided rather than yanked along. Well, there's no point, now. His condition is temporary, after all...

Still, it's a sweet gesture, almost tender in its thoughtlessness. Why do people treat him with such kindness? Why him, the worst of all men? It's enough to make him tear up; he ducks his head as they run, so she won't see. Presently the noise falls off, and he can sense the presence of an alleyway: somewhere with less light and a breath of air, a little crosswind. Somewhere, hopefully, sufficiently out of sight for a moment while he catches his breath. It's harder than before, nowadays. ]

Dear me... tempers seem to be [ pant ] running terribly high! You're okay, hm?

[smallest]

His first day here just kept getting more unusual. He knew Rosette and he knew she should not be stomping on a car's roof. Any emotion to this scene, however, did not arise. To do so much as try to feel anything about what he was seeing was just too exhausting. Just like her, he was infected only with a different virus. While she shouted, he only watched. Finally, he mustered up enough energy to stand up and walk to her, or at least, as close as he could get without going into the street.

He sighed and he opened his mouth once, then twice. Should he even bother saying anything? On the third try, he chirped at her.

[soul_sister]

Rosette had been in an argument with the poor soul in front of her, bartering as if the cars were really nothing more than vegetables at the market.

Poor vegetables, by the sound of Rosette's scorn. It's actually a bit amazing that she DID hear the chirp, but so unlike the mechanical and organic sounds gathering around them, it filtered through. Rosette looks up, squinting at the crowd... and does a double take at the absolutely enormous form standing sullenly on the walkway.

She beams and leaps off the car, taking the now traffic choked road in quick bounds.

"FRANC!" Behind her, someone yells at her to return.

[smallest]

There was a small possibility that he just made matters worse. Well, he could not care at this point. Or perhaps he could. Hearing Rosette made him start to feel for a moment that he was beginning to return to normal. When he lifted his hand up, those thoughts were soon put to rest. He did not have the energy to do more than wave at her. She was here, too. Should he be worried or glad? He could not feel either.

Someone was yelling. He looked behind her and at the chaos she left.

[soul_sister]

He gets a hug anyway. Her arms certainly don't go all the way around him, and it's quite possible that little sensation gets through the hard shell but she's gonna do it anyway.

"When did you get in! Did you just wake up? How many of us got yanked out over here...?"

[overclocking]

[ But the question emerges, as a certain someone descends upon the scene - chaos and yelling and swearing and battered cars sending an all-too familiar chill from the roots of his hair right to his toes - does he just turn around?

Go home?

Escape now, before anyone realizes their association?

These are hard questions, but in the end, his propensity for bad decision making wins out. As ever. Hoists his bag of groceries, which he'd already taken care of by that good old fashioned thing called walking, and doesn't stop until he's within shouting (but not punching) distance. ]

Rosette Christopher.

[soul_sister]

[There were few times that her full name was reserved for. Dire emergencies, deep trouble and of course, the end of the world. Her shoulders hike up with guilt and tension..... but she doesn't turn.

MAYBE SHE CAN JUST. PRETEND. SHE HASN'T BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS.]

RIGHT! AND I DO ABSOLUTELY FORGIVE YOU KIND SIR FOR YOUR WEIRD AND UNTIMELY ACCIDENT THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME AT ALL EVEN A LITTLE BIT.

[overclocking]

[ Yes. Of course that will work. Of course.

Except no, the sound of dangerous, marching, disapproving footsteps approacheth.

How do you proceed. ]

[soul_sister]

[Rosette will later claim that if the man she'd been arguing with hadn't gone red and shouted denials and threats upon her person it MIGHT HAVE. As it was, she did the mature thing.

RETREAT!!!]

[senseandcecilbility]

[Somewhere in heaven there must be very strict rules against running over angelic pedestrians, and then causing them to crash like disoriented pelicans against one's windshield.

With eggs. Kevin had been walking out of the market with a basket loaded with eggs when he was captured by Rosette's road rage. They are now sliding down the glass, painting the fake sunlight and impossible traffic jam with egg white and yolk. ]

Owwwwwww.

[God, what has he done to deserve this?

It is the eggs, isn't it? Cannibalism by proxy: that is his sin.]