The Kaleidoscope

Danielle slowly walked towards the entrance of the Kaleidoscope, walking through the parking lot and up stairs leading to the Plaza, and kept walking until she made it to the upper level. She walked over to the Sushi Restaurant, only stopping to grab a bite and leave. She was greeted by friendly faces, asking kindly what they could get her. Danielle hummed and ahh'ed before deciding on getting two cucumber and avocado sushi's. "We have just ran out, but we can go out back and quickly fix some up for you?" They offered. Danielle smiled and handed over some money before sitting by the entrance of the restaurant waiting for her sushi. While waiting for her food, Danielle scoped out the restaurant and the shopping center itself. It was the first time she had realised how quiet it was. How still and slow moving. She didn't realise how much damage the meteor's had caused.

A lone mother and child were arguing over by the elevators down to the Plaza over a toy the small child wanted. An elderly man read a newspaper article in one of the middle seating of the walkways. And a handful of teenagers were walking around, finding something to occupy themselves with. It was quiet, and Danielle felt strangely awkward about it. It felt wrong. Her eyes gazed back into the room, fixating onto the chair opposite her. Danielle found the lollipop in her mouth had finally desolved and she was only munching on the stick. The lady who had served her finally walked out with a little plastic container encasing two cucumber and avocado sushi's with the standard rice. Danielle smiled and thanked her before walking off.

Walking through the shopping center, Danielle felt more and felt lazy about getting the groceries, so settled on deciding to order pizza for dinner and live on whatever she can get her hands on. She suddenly remembered that she was suppose to work sometime that night, at her video store [OOC: assuming so xD]. Sighing, rolling her eyes, she decided to leave the Kaleidoscope and go on a leisurely stroll, discovering how lonely and truly bored she was becoming.

That was when her finger started to sting. Danielle looked at her index finger on her left hand and saw an oozing coming out of the blister like pimple. She grimaced at the disgusting sight and winced a little at the sting and began squeezing before all the ooze came out. It then continued from a sting, into a burn. "Ow. Ow ow ow ow," Danielle whimpered. She stopped her stroll, on a footpath and examined the burning sensation on her finger. A little swirl was forming, three little black dots splaying out of the swirl, smallest to biggest outwards. Danielle frown in curiosity. She looked around to see if anyone saw how idiotic she looked, and figured she didn't care. She thought she had better go home and investigate more further when out of wondering eyes.

When Danielle got home, she ran her finger under some cold water. It wasn't stinging, nor burning anymore. But it was irritating, the little swirl and dots being kind of embossed, like a strange tattoo. Danielle frowned at her finger before shrugging and walking out into her kitchen to the fridge to grab her strawberry flavored milk. But before Danielle even managed to reach her milk that was before her eyes, the milk rose from the shelf, without Danielle touching, then combusting. It wasn't a loud, big combustion. It was a small little flame like thing. "Whoa!" Danielle yelled, gripping her table that was infront of her fridge for balance. Her fridge door was still open, her milk spilled and carton shriveled into a crisp. "What...the hell," Danielle slowly walked towards the milk, expecting it to happen again. That was when she heard a light buzzing sound coming from her room.

Danielle turned around and quickly walked into her room, expecting it to be her mobile, but her little opal shaped souviner from the meteor was..buzzing. And glowing increasingly bright until Danielle couldn't look at it. "What is going on?" She thought. She walked towards her little stone, and then it stopped. Like someone had turned off a light switch, it stopped just like that. Danielle frowned, and walked back to the kitchen trying to kid herself into thinking nothing happened. Besides the fact that she would have to buy more strawberry milk after work that night.

"It's awfully odd to be wearing just one glove. If I didn't know better, I would say you're try to hide something.", the boy said as he casually approached Clair, who felt like she would frost up on the spot. Who would assume she was hiding something under her glove in the first place? Obviously, she wore it to hide the strange tattoo-like mark on her hand, but nobody else would assume that. However, the boy had made the fact that he knew extremely obvious. And the closer he got, the colder her fragment became. Just who was he?

"It's also strange to wear a bandanna to school..." Clair said in a meek tone while looking to the side. It was people like him that she didn't want to talk to. It was like he knew that she wasn't normal, unlike the city police who couldn't figure out a thing by knocking on someone's door and asking a question or two. The situation could have gotten much worse for her if the class bell didn't ring right then. "I have to go to class early, see ya-", she said quickly, leaving the boy behind as she ran off through the main building and downstairs, eventually making it to the teacher's parking lot. Saved by the bell, as the saying goes. She didn't have a sixth period class, and the school wouldn't let her go home until lunch ended. She decided that she would just head on home for the day, half out of the fact that the Kaleidoscope would be overcrowded after schools got out and half out of fear that she would run into the scarlet haired boy again. He somehow knew about her Mark, Clair was certain of this, but how? Did it have something to do with her fragment chilling when he got close to her?

There was a police officer waiting at the gate that kept cars from coming into the teachers' lot, and had finished pulling them open when Clair saw him. She quickly buried her gloved hand in her pocket before he saw her. "Heading on home, miss?" He asked in a normal tone. "Yea, I have no sixth period today." She replied as she passed him by. "Well, stay safe." He then said, and Clair only nodded as she made her way home in a fast walk. She passed the car dealers, the college, the middle school, and she finally arrived home after a long half-hour walk. Her mom wasn't home from work yet, so she headed into the back yard of her house to where the pool was. It was eleven feet deep on one end and four feet deep on the other, and took up most of her back yard. After looking around to see if there was anyone watching, she removed her glove and felt the symbol. Frost formed around it at her touch, reminding her of both it's potential and it's annoying "curse". Kneeling by the water's edge, she dipped her hand into the water. There was a bluish-white flash from the water, and with a sound similar to glass breaking, she had turned her pool into an ice skating rink. The effect was something that she found interest in, despite the chills she got afterwords.

Clair thought at one point that she could control this new power of hers, though she didn't know where to start. All good things come with hard work, and in this case, practice. So she began to practice. It didn't come easily at first, in fact, nothing came at first. All she had managed to accomplish in a few hours of practice was creating an icy-cold mist around her hand. "Well, it's a start." She said to herself with a smile as a familiar sound emitted from the front yard, like a car motor. Crap. Mom was home, and the pool was still frozen solid. Now HOW was she going to explain THAT?! She checked her phone, which told her that it was only six o-clock now. She was home early, too. Usually, she was home after Clair came home from the Kaleidoscope.

Maybe I don't have to explain anything, she thought to herself. She would just run over to the Kaleidoscope and hang out there for awhile, then come home! Genius in the making! Going through the side yard and jumping over the brick wall between there and the front yard, she fled her home and quickly made her way to the Kaleidoscope, which would be less populated around now. She hoped that the scarlet-haired boy she met at school wasn't there, but if he was, she would know, right? Her fragment DID chill when he was near, maybe it would again. At least she had some forewarning if he was there. Or maybe anyone else with a fragment on hand.

The dark haired young man turned as a police man suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. "How are you today sir?" Finn asked before the officer could open his mouth. "I'm alright. I don't believe I've seen you at this school before. If you aren't a student or teacher I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Given that this man likely had a taser (he's always wanted to try using one on somebody or get tased himself) but also likely had a gun on him, the strange character did as was asked of him and began walking north in the direction of the college and Kaleidoscope.

After walking for a few minutes he started humming a familiar tune, perhaps a lullaby once sung to him by his brother's mom, or a children's song which really had no meaning at all. He walked and walked, turning when necessary and not exactly paying attention to the few cars that dared wander the streets. Unbeknownst to him, he was almost hit twice. What you don't know can't hurt you.

Finn began to use more caution as he approached the large mall near Saddleback College. He was weary of parking lots, as people didn't use common sense in these areas. At least, that's what he believed. If he was going to get hit by a car at any point in his life, it would be in a parking lot instead of along the busy roads leading up to here. Still humming, he walked around the back of the mall before coming to a real road again and turning. The Kaleidoscope was just around this corner and offered more of what he preferred- like an abundance of frozen yogurt and laser tag.

Taking in a deep breath, he found that the air seemed crisper than usual. He exhaled slowly, but did not feel an immediate need to inhale again. This was odd, given that he needed air to live. Pausing and breathing again, Finn felt refreshed. It felt like when you step out of the shower, awake and clean and warm. curious as to why the air felt so good now when only yesterday it felt like the Titanic was on his chest was even odder. Did this have anything to do with the marking on his chest?

Suddenly compelled to examine the meteor fragment, Finn removed it from his pocket and glanced down at it. Still attached to the key chain which was attached to his jeans, the fragment appeared to be ordinary. He hardly remembered the dull glow it had given off last night, but as if being struck on the head he thought he could see it now too. It was extremely faint with the sun being out, but at least to him it was still visible. A dull, almost pulsing light emanated from it. "Huh," he said, scratching his head and stepping off to the side of the walkway. He continued to examine the piece of space in his palm. Was he Superman now? No, Superman was born super, others like Spiderman were made, and Batman had lots of money. He was none of these heroes, yet he almost felt like he could relate to them. But if he was indeed a hero, then what power did he posses?

Confused, Finn continued on his way and pondered the questions circling around in his mind. He wasn't able to shoot lasers out of his eyes, climb walls, or withstand bullets. Attempting to see if this statement was in fact true would probably get him killed, and what would be the use in that? Frustration seeped into the confusion, making his mind swirl with thoughts and possibilities. It also answered some of the questions he'd kept to himself regarding the aftermath of the meteor. The military was indefinitely here to see if anything strange had happened to those affected by it. It was a bit odd to think that normal people, soldiers at that, would believe in this sort of childhood magic. But if it worked for them, it worked for him. As long as he wasn't too outlandish (more so than normal), he would be fine to discover what exactly was going on this town.

Entering the Kaleidoscope, he realized that he had no idea where he wanted to go. Yogurtland was his guilty pleasure, but all this thinking had ruined his appetite for semi-healthy foods. He began to walk around, stopping in AT&T briefly before heading to the upper level. He actually didn't have a cell phone, and so his first stop was not entirely trivial. He really didn't see the need in it, plus who would he call? His parents? His brother's parents? His roommate who had vanished off the face of the earth? Basically, Finn didn't have many, if any, connections to those around him nor did he truly want them. People were just trouble sometimes.

Once upstairs, the young man glanced down into the open space below. There were only a few people here right now, considering the town had been thrown into chaos and normality was just a dream. As far as he knew, none of his neighbors left their apartments much anymore. He had guessed that is was because of the patrols around the city, but he hadn't realized why until recently. So everything was falling apart, turning him and what he knew upside-down. Curious.

Ingus descended the western staircase, keeping a loose hold on his bag to make sure it didn't slip off his shoulder. There was no one wandering in the hallways, in fact, one would be prone to think his school was some kind of abandoned building. There was not a whisper of life nor the presence of another person. Though this did not disturb him or surprise him--things had been far slower school-wise since the chain of events that had disrupted his life. Pinching the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses, the older boy reached the bottom of the stairs, looking over towards the window. The strange woman wasn't there, causing a crease to appear on his brow.

'Where did you go...?' He wondered faintly to himself, deciding to continue down to the lobby of the first floor. Perhaps when got outside, he'd have a better gauge of where she had disappeared to. Since there was no way she'd still be floating outside the classroom window. Well, he hoped she wouldn't be. He had had many talks with her about the patrols of the town and how uneasy the people had become since the asteroid shower. Though initially she did not seem as if she was going to take him seriously, the female had heeded his words, for the most part. But there were still times when she played it dangerously close, some of those moments where he had to deal with the police. He shook his head to rid it of those thoughts. No, it would do him no good to get paranoid. Why get worked up about something that may not even have been happening?

He exited the double-doors of his college, gazing around. At first, he did not see anyone but as always, it was that glimmer of pink that caught his eye. She was peering into one of the basement windows, face pressed against the glass. A small smile worked it's way on his lips. Somehow, Shalun'ya really did look just like a child with the posture that she had. As if sensing his approach, she turned her head with almost frightful speed, wide eyes staring him down. Ingus cleared his throat, hands sliding into his pockets.

"What was so important that you had to pull me out of class?" He asked, doing his best to be casual with her. He knew her just a bit better now to know if she was prodded to hard with questions, she would intentionally do something to upset him. The woman merely continued her stare and pointed at his chest. He blinked in confusion and then it hit him. "Are you pointing at the fra..." He trailed off, no, best not to say that out-loud. No matter how alone they seemed, it wouldn't be a good idea to say certain things out in public. "My necklace?" He amended smoothly. The strange woman nodded and then extended her arm out, pointing off in the distance.

"What, what are you gesturing to? It would be a little easier if you simply told me, Shalun'ya." He said, attempting a bit of gentle directness. She only shook her head and continued pointing. He sighed. It didn't seem he'd be getting anything more out of her so he conceded to her gestures, following the direction of her arm. In the vague vicinity were a few houses, so he doubted that was what she was referring to. Squinting, he could see a larger building a few blocks from his college. It was a place he never really went to, one that Momo had been insistent on dragging him to one way or another.

"The Kaleidescope...?" He said with a questioning tone. He did not expect an answer but she seemed satisfied with this assessment, for she tilted her head once more to the side before thin wisps surrounded her body. As always, she did not cease to amaze him with how she departed from his presence, the pink and black strands enveloping her and disappearing into thin air. Ingus blinked a few times more. One of these days, he could only hope that she'd fill him in on what the heck was going on and how she was able to do that. At this point, he was certain that there was no way she could be human but beyond that, he could not tell. She couldn't be an alien, too humanoid for that...

He re-focused his attentions on the building she had directed him to. Breathing out, he walked down the sidewalk, making sure to keep his pace relaxed and none too hurried. The police often questioned the frantic and those that seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. Though it had only taken him several minutes to walk to the building, several police cars had passed him during his walk. He had merely nodded to them as they had done so, though he privately wondered why there seemed to be more patrols out recently. Adjusting the weight of his bag once more, Ingus pushed one of his gloved hands against he door to open it, letting himself inside. The chattering of voices and activity reached his ears. This was his first time inside, admittedly, he hadn't ever bothered to make it a point to visit.

He only took a few steps forward before there was an odd sensation, a warm sort of weight against his chest. He looked down, able to make out the same faint wisps that had come off Shalun'ya radiating off of the fragment he wore around his neck. He adjusted his necktie immediately so that the glow would not be apparent, though now he was on full alert. What was making it glimmer like that? What was making it react? Whatever it was, it was clear it was somewhere in The Kaleidoscope. Though he did not know quite what he was looking for, Ingus decided to begin picking his way through the throng of people. He was sure one way or another, his fragment would react and he'd get the answer he'd been sent to find.

Finn spun around, looking at the people milling about, a slightly bewildered expression crossing his face. As soon as it came, it was gone. Figuring all of this out was not going to work if he was in jail, dead, or being tested on until death. Hmm, his options were quite slim at the moment. He needed a good cheering up. To Yogurtland it was! He walked to the other side of the small opening which peered down onto the lower floor of the Kaleidoscope. He took one last parting glance down and noticed a particular young man with blue tinted hair. Peculiar.

Pivoting to descend, intent on talking to the strange blue haired man, he suddenly froze and glanced over at the sushi restraunt. Something felt like it was pulling him in that direction too, though he couldn't see why. It was also then that he noticed the fragment in his pocket was beginning to hum. It was not a physical hum and did not truly make any noise. It was more of a sensation, a vibration inside his very being. He hadn't even noticed it until now, but it occurred to him that it hadn't started until he'd seen the blue haired man. Was the meteor trying to tell him something?

Enthralled with the possibilities, Finn decided to remain where he stood. While he really wanted frozen yogurt and toppings galore, he couldn't resist the excitement and adventure that seemed to be coming his way. Part of him also wished to go into the sushi place to see what or who might be in there, but for right now his attention was all on this new stranger.

The fragment had to be past frozen solid by now, Clair was certain of this. As she approached the Kaleidoscope, she had to move it to her small backpack she took with her when running errands or having fun outside of the house. The first thing she did when she went inside was head into the Laser Quest building on the far side of the second floor. Her fragment warmed up a bit in her backpack, so nothing bad should happen. Or so she thought. Upon walking in, she saw the arcade games immediately on her left and the round sign-in desc on the right against the wall. Some kids and high schoolers were standing around, watching two people play Through the Fire and Flames on the Guitar Hero game between Time Crisis 4 and Virtual Cop 3, all of which were games she had high scores on. A Foosball table and a couple of air hockey tables stood between the sign-in desk, party rooms and arena entrance, and were all occupied. Everyone here also held a plastic blue card programmed with their player names. Looking over the crowd, Clair guessed that this was a 26 person game. It was a good size, a bit crowded, but not one she couldn't handle. She walked to the sign-in desk and handed the clerk her game keys to sign her in.

"Divergent... Alright, run 'em down", the person behind the desk said as he gave Clair her keys back. She was one of the few remaining people who played at Laser Quest who had membership keys, since they stopped selling membership a few months back when the meteor hit. Members at Laser Quest now had special permissions, since the decline in players had affected the once booming business. People like Clair could now have one second downtime when they got tagged and rapid fire lasers, as well as muted laser-firing noise and the privilege to use the secret "tunnel" system the game proctors use to get around. Sometimes, they would even let her use two laser blasters or even one of the old packs which ended up not registering when she was hit. All in all, Laser Quest membership users were overpowered and generally teamed up against. New and veteran players alike don't stand a chance.

The blue players were called into the arena when the previous game ended, and she headed in to the arena with the group of blue players. She pulled on a laser pack and plugged her keys into the blaster, in which she heard a familiar beeping noise and saw the message "WELCOME MEMBER DIVERGENT" on the LED. Her pack flashed red and blue, signaling her status, while everyone elses' flashed a bright green and yellow. This was another advantage of being a member - Though her membership was publicly signaled, the sensors on her pack were dimmed so she could stay stealthy among the shadows while everyone else's packs were lit up to a point where they could be seen all the way across the arena. There were a few confused and unfriendly looks and glares from all around as the other players went into the arena, and she waited until they all went before the game proctor opened the tunnels to her. Jumping down and getting low as not to hit her head, she made her way across the field and to the red castle. There were three of these castles in all; red, blue, and green, where blue was right in front of you when you walked into the arena, and the red castle was halfway across and on the right, while the green castle was all the way in the back with a ramp connecting it to the blue castle at the ground floor. She liked the red castle because of how easy it was to hide there, and how almost nobody was there at any given moment and whoever was there would usually be looking over the edge on the second floor, sniping down careless players while others made their way behind the sniper.

She heard her blaster turn on, along with a flurry of laser blasts above her. People got out immediately, and the tunnel walls rattled around her as people ran for cover after being blasted out. Eventually, she made it to her exit and made her way up a ramp into the red castle, and soon cleared it of it's inhabitants. Throughout the whole game, she kept on top of and under the red castle, as was her usual plan of action. From the second floor you could shoot across the green and blue castles and at unsuspecting snipers, while under the red castle she could do ground combat and surprise attacks against her foes. Green castle was a nightmare because of ground floor combat under the castle and how ridiculously close it was to the red castle (despite there being no connecting ramp near either of the two), and the blue castle had only one underside entrance as well as the most players sniping and fighting there. The blue castle was what she shot at most, since there were obviously the most people there. By the end of the game, she had tagged people almost 250 times, while she was only tagged 20 times. She knew the place the best, and the fact that people ran half the time ruined surprise attacks on her, especially since she was sticking to one place most of the time. The game was stacked against those who didn't have a style of shooting or a cycle of combat, and that was the disadvantage to new players. She had her "humble" beginnings, as many other players have had, though with time, she climbed her way to being the third best player and by far the one player to visit the most.

People got mad when they saw how many times she had killed them, and as usual, the game proctor had to hand off Clair's score sheet to her after the scores were given and called out. Nobody liked to lose, it seemed, and she was no exception. It took hard work to get to where she was now. With a sigh, she folded the game card and slipped it into her back pocket and got a roll of quarters out. She supposed that she would play Time Crisis 4 until she could get home. Popping in a couple of quarters and hitting solo play, she got off to her shooting. She wasn't even thinking about how cold her fragment may have been while she played.

It did not take him long to spot out the two individuals, who pulsated outside of all the other activity. It was difficult to describe, for by no means did the feel inhuman, but at the same time, there was an air about them that was foreign. It matched the sensation, the same tingling sparks that seemed to radiate from his fragment. However, there were two of them. One, one would've been fine, the male or the female, he cared for naught. But two of them meant that they would be a group of three if he wandered over, and Ingus hated large groups of people. How he despised them. Though he had a feeling he may get scolded for it later, he slid his hands into his pockets and began to walk around them.

His fragment seemed to almost rebel against his chosen course of action, the glowing seeming to brighten beneath his necktie. He winced, grasping it as he made his way through the throng of people. He was heartily wincing the entirety of the journey. See, this was why he hated this place--too many people all crowded together, all in this constant state of pandemonium. He was literally cringing at all this contact, very displeased and uncomfortable the entire way through. He forced his way to the other side, breathing easier in the other part of the main lobby. Breathing out, Ingus pushed his glasses further up his nose, frowning and twitching ever so slightly. Uncomfortable experience. Very uncomfortable.

From what he could make it, all he'd need to do was walk down one of the adjoining hallways and he would be taken to some gaming area that had to do with lasers. He tilted his head a little. Wait, wasn't that the game that....

"Onii-Saaaaaan~" A voice calling out to him completely confirmed his fears and he did not even have to turn to know it was his half-sister that called to him. Of course she'd be here, of course she'd be ditching school, and of course she'd be in the most horrific section for eyesight. "So you came at last! AHAHA." Her laugh boomed right in his ear and he shot back at a bit, not having realized she had tottered over right next to him. Momo swung her brown hair around, giggling at his surprise and obvious discomfort. "Aww, don't be so upset! I knew you'd be here eventually! But now I gotta wonder whyyyyyyy..." She drew out the last word unnecessarily and Ingus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It was a recommendation by someone, Momo. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" He reprimanded shortly. Instantly, her bubbly look faded a tad and she looked down at her feet, shame-faced.

"E-Er..." She stuttered, unsure of what to do. She always grew unsure when he became firm with her.

"Go back to school, your grades must be suffering," He said dismissively, a light of rebellion sizzling in her eyes before fading out. She had long since learned never to back-talk him and looked down glumly. The ridiculous witch-hat she wore even seemed to droop a bit with her motions. She muttered an affirmation and turned very slowly, taking her sweet, sweet time in dragging herself back towards the door. As Ingus watched her, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. There, daring across the width of the corridor somewhat in the distance was a girl--a girl leaving that silly laser game. He quickly looked between Momo, who was grudgingly following what he had told her, and the girl he was sure he had just seen. Hm, around the same age, though hard to tell who was older.

After waiting until his sister had completely left, Ingus decided to follow her--something about her drew him to her. It was difficult to place, as before. The difference here was, she was totally on her own, as opposed to the others. She approached another game, a roll of quarters already at the ready. He paid little attention to the title, he'd never been one for videogames anyway. He drew nearer to her, wondering how best to breach this subject. Perhaps a little smooth touch was in order, that might set her at ease.

"I do dislike being the one to interrupt such an engrossing activity, fair maiden," He started, already invoking his odd speech pattern with people--well, when he wasn't speaking to Momo or Shalun'ya, that was. "But might I draw your attentions away from that device to ask you a quick question? I promise it won't take long." He smiled kindly after his words, more comfortable with it being a one on one and less packed atmosphere. He tried to look as unimposing as he could manage, he didn't want to scare her off. Which was a surprisingly easy feat recently.

Few watched as Clair gunned her way through the arcade game with pinpoint accuracy, knowing the location of every enemy before they appeared and knowing what weapon to use at what times. As her score grew, she started to wonder about her power. Up until now, even though everyone around her was sweating from just coming out of the arena, she had barely broken a sweat and was actually not freezing for once. Her hand, though gripped tightly around the plastic weapon that had killed countless digital enemies, hadn't become wet and sticky from sweat at all, though this was probably because she was shooting with her gloved right hand rather than her bare left hand. It did bother her to think about the Mark on her hand, but it was something she couldn't ignore. Police and military were not-so-secretly hunting down people with Marks like hers, and of coarse she didn't want to wake up every morning with a frozen mattress. At least, not without knowing why it happens, that way she could avoid causing it. She wondered if her mom had freaked out if and when she saw the frozen pool in the back yard, and it made her smile. Though, this quickly caused her to frown. What would happen if and when the police were called? Surely, they'd be investigated for how this may have happened.

As she passed the level she was on with near perfect accuracy and no damage taken, she felt her fragment frost in her pocket, which she had moved from her bag back to her pocket after finishing her game of Laser Quest. She peered toward the door to see if her theory on the Fragment being a radar to itself was correct, and it was. As the Fragment continued to freeze her pocket, she saw a tall man with blue hair and eye color, who wore glasses with cloths to match his appearance. He was well dressed as well, which attracted the gaze of many and set her off instantly. Well, if he's an undercover "Marked" as I'll call them, then he's doing a crap job at staying blended in with the crowd, she thought to herself with a mental giggle as she began the next round of her game. Almost everyone was wearing short cloths so they could run around and sweat in, while more skilled players actually wore longer cloths like hers to stay more concealed in the dark. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the man begin to make his way over to her general area, and she guessed that he had found her the same way she had known he was coming. What would happen when he got too close? Her mind began to wander for a bit about this, and as she took a hit in the game she was playing, she felt a shock go up her spine and to her hand, which proceeded to spray down everything on the screen. Sometimes, she got too into these games. She never saw this as a bad thing, though.

"I do dislike being the one to interrupt such an engrossing activity, fair maiden, but might I draw your attentions away from that device to ask you a quick question? I promise it won't take long.", the man said in a strange way with a smile. Clair shot herself with a grenade to end her game, and the game alerted her that she had reached the top twenty scorekeepers. She put away the gun-controller and faced him, being almost as tall as he was. Fair maiden? Clair was already suspicious.

"Uh, sure, I guess... I don't plan on going anywhere for at least another hour...", she said to the man. This guy was a complete stranger, but the fact that her Fragment reacted to him made her want to know at least a bit more about him before she tried to find a way to get away. Though, what if he was one of the police in disguise? There also wasn't any way of knowing if there was anyone listening to them among the crowd lining up for the next game of Laser Quest. She thought for a second, and decided to roll the dice. "Come this way...", she said, bringing him to a safer and less crowded area. She hoped she wouldn't make the wrong choice in telling him. "I can only guess that you're here because of the Fragments... Do you have a mark too?", she asked a bit shyly, wanting to choose her words carefully but ending up just being direct. If he was like her and laying under the radar, then she probably just made a new best friend. And if he wasn't, well, she'd tackle that problem if and when it came up. Best not to think of the latter, else it might actually happen, and wouldn't that be a nice way to top off her day.

She felt her cell phone vibrate, and she took a quick peek at it to see what it was. Her mom had texted her with a priority message (she liked to keep her phone from doing anything unless it was actually important; a normal text wouldn't alert her). "Police here, wondering about frozen pool? Weird things happening lately.", it said. Well you don't say, she thought before sliding her phone back into her pocket. If the police were at her house, then they might stake out and question her when she got home. She definitely didn't plan on being home while they were there. Maybe she would go through the neighbors' yard and climb through her window...