GM Notes 1: Genesis

December 28th, 2010

Written by: WantonConstruction

Edited by Verlotorium

"-You'll shoot your eye out!"

Jess took a sip from her coffee mug as the classic scene played out on TV. It was a film that she'd nostalgically remembered from her childhood, something that stayed the same between Aleph and Bet. It was a small blessing considering their predicament, when so many things had been altered between the worlds, usually for the worse.

Oliver and Krouse had already gone to sleep, and Mars and Luke had gone out for a bite somewhere. Noelle wouldn't leave her room for obvious reasons, and Cody…

Well, Cody had finally been Cody one too many times, to say the least.

And so, Jess sat alone in her wheelchair snuggled under some extra blankets, passing time in their little hideout. Well, strictly speaking, she wasn't alone to the outside observer. She'd made a humanoid-enough form with which to...watch tv. Sure, the body she'd crafted had a few extra surprises here and there for anyone who might want to cause problems, but right now she was using the form to watch holiday movies on TV, keeping herself company literally.

Some days she wished they hadn't set up shop in such a metropolitan area; she wanted to create something that could be mistaken for a regular bird and pass the time that way. In a low population area with low light pollution, she could get away with it. In a place like Boston? There was far too great of a chance of being spotted. For now, she'd have to settle for movie time to relax instead.

She just had to put effort into not getting a little more homesick. Regardless of what Krouse said, they weren't getting out of here. The Simurgh of all things dragged them into Bet, which meant she had a plan for them, and Occam's razor dictates that 'letting you all go back home' is probably not in there anywhere.

Or, it could be, actually. If only to let Noelle break down completely and turn into Aleph's very own Endbringer.

Jess let out a sigh before wrenching herself off that particular train of thought. Being melancholy certainly wouldn't help anything. She judged there was at least a half hour left in the movie, at which point she'd have to look for another one if she wanted to be awake to let Mars and Luke back in.

She was halfway through brewing the second pot of coffee when the knock came at the door. Jess walked the body over to the door and looked through the peephole to find Marissa and Luke waiting outside.

"Dandelion, Sumac, Lily," Jess said.

"Brown recluse, black widow, tarantula," Marissa replied, hopping in place a tad. "Open the door Jess, it's cold."

Jess obliged. "I was midway through a pot of coffee if you guys want any," she said.

"At this hour? Exactly how long did you think we were gonna be out?" Luke asked as he walked towards his room.

"Honestly, about 3:30, maybe 4?"

"Wha? What the hell would we be doing out that late?" Luke responded. Jess just looked at him as best she could in the body she crafted. "Work doesn't count and you know that. Anyway you ladies do whatever, I'm heading to bed."

Marissa returned from the kitchen with coffee in hand, and made a point of sitting down beside Jess's actual body. "You know you should really spend more time using your actual body when you get the chance," she said.

"I know, I know. Shouldn't let my body deteriorate any further," she said. "To be fair, I did need something in case we had unwelcome company."

Marissa jerked her head up a bit. "Did you?"

"No, thankfully. A boring day is a safe day. How's about you? Where'd you go anyway?"

"Huh? Oh, right. Some local paddy trap named O'Houlihan's. Nothing to write home about."

"Ok. You staying up any longer? I'm going to bed now."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna browse a bit, see if there are any gems on PHO."

"Pfffft, good luck with that," Jess said as she walked her body outside to dissolve it. Waking up in her chair she started to move back to her room. "Seriously, after the one job in Pittsburgh that ended up on the news, I learned the hard way that there are a lot more people into tentacles than I once thought."

-ooo-

January 6th

Jess and Marissa waited patiently for their number to be called at the butcher's shop, and Jess prodded Marissa, trying her best to keep Marissa awake. "Seriously," she said under her breath, "Mars what the hell are you doing? This is like the third night this week that you've been up the whole night on the web. And please don't tell me you've gotten sucked into following any conspiracy theories."

"'S not a theory," Marissa grumbled. The lack of sleep showed through the deep puffy circles under her eyes. Jess arched a brow, waiting for her to continue. Marissa sighed, then reached into her coat pocket for a piece of paper.

Jess looked at it, then back to her friend. "This is a receipt. What the fuck is so unnerving about a receipt?" She started to feel a bit of panic as her imagination started to run away from her. Is this the Simurgh's doing? Is Mars starting to completely lose it?

"Turn it over."

Jess flipped the receipt over, and read the scribble. She felt her blood run cold as her eyes went wide. She looked back at Marissa trying to hide the shock on her face.

"I have no idea either," Marissa said. "Been looking for Thinkers and Strangers everywhere. None of them sound like the guy."

Marissa paused with a yawn, stretching her arms out.

"I don't think he's one of Accord's either, but I can't be sure..."

"Shit. And you didn't tell Luke did you?" Jess asked. Marissa shook her head. That's…possibly for the better? Maybe? I think? "Alright, when do you want to tell the others about it?"

"I wanna talk to the guy again. He already knows who we are, and he's not doing anything about it" Marissa sighed. "It's a shitty idea though."

Jess scratched her head a bit. "Maybe...what if this guy used to work for Coil?"

"How would that change anything?"

"Well," Jess began, "what if he's got a grudge against Coil and knows some valuable info? I don't think blackmail is on his mind; he would have worded it differently in that case." Jess looked back down again at the piece of paper in her hands. "Accord is meeting with Krouse alone on Saturday night. Krouse said that the next favor might involve hitting the Teeth."

"So what would you say?" Marissa asked. "What should we do about it? I couldn't find anything that fits and I've no idea what kind of powers he could have."

"True. But...it might still be worth it to try and talk to him. The fact that he bothered writing something like that means that he's probably willing to talk on some level." Jess paused. "I'll make a body to talk to him, and that way if things go south I can get you out of there."

Marissa looked back down at the floor, while Jess started thinking up what her next body needs to have.

Has to be humanoid, but big enough to carry someone up to twice as big as Mars...probably mostly hollow, dense enough to take a few hits….acid or sonic for the offensive?...

"Number 37!"

Jess double checked their receipt from the butcher before wheeling up to the counter. She looked back at Marissa, who was just realizing that it was time to leave. As she stood up shakily, Jess shook her head slightly. "Next, we're heading inside the 7/11 down the block, and getting you a small coffee so you don't fall asleep behind the wheel. And then we're heading back to the apartment and you are going to take a long nap."

"Mrgh" was Marissa's eloquent reply.

-ooo-

"~...double up or quit, double stake or split, the Ace of Spades, it's the Ace of Spades….~"

Jess wasn't a super big fan of the 80s, but she could get behind some heavy metaltruth be told. "This the kinda music your mom hated?" she asked Marissa, leaning in to be heard over the music. "Probably told you it was- ...Mars….you okay there?"

Marissa was looking towards the cloistered stage area with what seemed to be mild shock. "What's wrong?" Jess asked.

"That's him. That's the guy who wrote the message," she said. "This might make our job marginally harder."

"Do you think he saw you yet?" Jess asked.

"No, not yet. I'll tell you if he does," Marissa said before fishing out her phone.

"Well at least it's easy to keep an eye on this guy. Might as well enjoy the show."

"What's your plan?" Marissa asked after a minute or so. "The last time I was in on one of those these things-"

"-C'mon Mars," Jess said, cutting her friend off. Stop feeling bad that Cody decided to be a douche waffle. Or that Accord is a fucking psycho. Like, holy shit.

"Look, relax a bit. Don't psyche yourself out."

Marissa forced herself to calm down. "Do me a favor? Double check that the backups are in place at least?" she asked.

Jess rolled her eyes a bit at that, but it made sense. She got some napkins and wiped her hands before fishing out her phone; even though she looked convincingly like an on-the-larger-side-but-normal girl, she designed her body to produce a very light sheen of sweat. This sweat came in the form of a viscous gel which dampened most incoming blows and served as a solid flame retardant. However, it did make handling a smartphone somewhat more difficult.

In addition to the sweat, she'd also focused on a hollow torso which could open from the clavicle area. If she needed to transport an unconscious person, or if she and Marissa needed to leave in a hurry, the body was tough enough and strong enough for the job. Add to that a long vine-like tongue with a retractable stinger and ample sleep toxin glands, and Jess was feeling about as confident as she was going to while stealth was still important.

She opened the specialized software they'd bought off an unpowered hacker some months ago, updated her current position and made sure the caution mode was set. Unless she personally supplied a kill code at regular intervals, an SOS via text would be sent with her last known location to Krouse, Luke and Oliver.

"We're all set. Happy now?" Jess asked.

"Better," Marissa said. "Think he's got a power?"

"If he's not just the messenger. Thinker probably, or maybe Stranger," Jess supplied.

"Thinker makes more sense. If he was stalking us as a Stranger what does he get from talking to us now? Why bother at all?" Marissa sighed. "Good cape, bad cape?"

"Hey, it's worked for us before."

-ooo-

The next 20 or so minutes passed by a little quicker than Jess would have liked, truth be told, but on the bright side Marissa managed to negotiate a chat with their deliberately obnoxious counterparty with minimal head movement. Jess just had to be careful when making her way through the crowd, no sense risking her disguise any more than she had to.

As the guy who presumably wrote the message led them somewhere more private, Jess did her best to memorize the route they were taking, as well as keep an eye out for the general level of security. Nothing resembling additional security measures jumped out at her along the way, and they were actually in a fire escape stairwell with the door just outside of arm's reach, but Jess knew from experience that it didn't mean much in terms of assuaging her concerns.

"Normally," they guy spoke, while taking off the bass guitar on his shoulder, "this is the point where I'd ask what you're having, and maybe say something about the special."

The man in front of them looked like he couldn't have been much older than them, and Jess noted that he was beginning to sweat ever the slightly from his forehead.

"How do you know who we are?" Marissa asked tersely. "Specifically, how do you know about Noelle? And I'm only asking nicely once."

The man took a breath. "...can we skip that one? I-"

Jess opened her body's mouth and her tongue shot forth, wrapping around the man's neck and choking off the rest of his reply.

"One more time because you weren't paying attention," Jess said in a low voice that seemed to emanate from inside her abdomen. "How. the fuck. do you know her name?" Marissa's hands started to twitch, but she did not interject. "And don't bullshit on this or I will snap your neck like a twig," Jess added, pointing the stinger at his throat for emphasis.

He fought against the vine's strangling grip, frantically trying to break it as his air supply was cut off. The man struggled to get two fingers underneath the vine before she relented and loosened her grip.

"Please, please bear with me here. I'm being roundabout with very good fu-"

Jess began to tighten the vine again. "I really don't appreciate bullshit," she responded. "And to emphasize that fact, each time you say something insufficiently plausible I'm going to squeeze tighter. Sound good to you? Great. How do you know about Noelle?"

"Seriously I'm not kidding, I'm trying to not be killed by the guys who made thosevialsyouguysdrankstopchokingme-"

Jess let go slightly, allowing him to inhale properly. "You know who made those. You actually know who made those." Marissa was trying to keep her face as straight as possible. That information was arguably more private than Noelle's existence. She looked towards Jess a moment; the idea of feigning ignorance was tempting, but risky. Jess seemed to agree.

Marissa turned her attention back to their negotiation counterparty. "You didn't answer the question," she said.

"Like I said before, you really wouldn't believe me if I told you, can we pass on that one?" he asked.

"How about 'fuck no'?"

"Fuckin'...Look. Marissa, Jess. You guys are a long, long way from home and we both know what I'm talking about. I'm further from mine."

"What, you're from 3 earths over and we were the earth next door? Is that where you're about to go with this?" Jess scoffed. "How'd you get here? Simurgh drag you here too? More importantly how do you know who we are?"

"No to the first and I'm pretty sure to the second too,-" Jess tightened her grip slightly and the man took the hint. "Alright, alright. It's hard to explain completely, so going piecewise. First part; I am not from Earth Bet, nor do I know how I got here. Do you believe me there?"

"Stop stalling," Marissa said impatiently.

"Re- Fine. Ok, next. I don't have a power, but I've been….think of it like I've gotten a single use of a shitty pre/postcognition power. Basically I've seen bits and pieces of the future- hold up now," -the guy held up a hand to cut off Marissa as she opened her mouth to speak- "I know I sound fucking delusional, but please don't kill me and more importantly, please humor me for the next few minutes. You can and should challenge the premise; just let me lay out the argument. Imagine you're sick at home with a fever, and you're laying down on the couch watching a movie marathon, and you're fading in and out the whole damn time, so you remember jumbled bits and pieces of plot. I remember you guys in particular were there a few times. Usually the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Fine. Who are you? And what do you want from us?"

"Firstly, I'd appreciate it if you stopped fucking choking me." Jess looked over to Marissa who gave a small nod. Jess proceeded to very slowly and deliberately release the man. He rubbed his neck a bit before standing up straight. "Better. Name's Ian by the way."

Marissa impatiently gestured for him to continue.

"Alright first lemme ground myself for a moment here...have you guys communi-, shit wait you totally fucking did, but then why are you still here…what I am forgetting..."

Marissa looked back at Jess as Ian trailed off muttering to himself. Jess coughed to get his attention.

"...ah fuck it. Point is this: please do not work for Coil. Regardless of circumstance, regardless of his promises, just don't fucking work for the guy. It's a shitshow if you do."

Marissa took on a shade or two of confusion to her glare. "What do you mean. A shitshow for who?"

Ian paused for a breath. "Kinda wish I had like a rehearsed thing to say here instead of just ad libbing it but thems the brakes. You guys ever feel that way?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Jess started tapping her foot as a show of impatience. On some level the foot tapping was less to tell this dude to hurry up, and more for the sheer enjoyment of being able to tap her foot. Not that she'd ever admit that to anyone.

"If you guys do go and work for Coil, you're in for a bad fucking time. I'm about to give you an abbreviated series of events assuming you accept, and he finally calls you into Brockton Bay in mid-April-ish, give or take like a week.

"Extremely truncated series of events: you guys get to fight the cape who boxed Leviathan by himself for like an hour, then you get to fight Leviathan in mid-May? Around there. Then you get to have fun with the Slaughterhouse 9, and Crawler specifically tries to get to Noelle, so you get to enjoy that too. After that, Coil manages to get himself killed, and for the kicker, Noelle goes feral. All that takes place in the span of about...two months."

Well that's a whole host of reasons to fuck off to preferably the other side of the country, If any of it is actually true. "You said she goes feral. How bad?"

"Remember Cody?"

"How th- nevermind. That bad?" asked Jess.

"Worse. Noelle just starts mindlessly eating/absorbing people. Triumvirate and friends get called in, plenty of deaths. Also, everyone gets to see and fight evil clones of Eidolon, which is exactly as much fun as it sounds. When all is said and done, Noelle has to be killed, and actually Marissa ends up with the killing b-"

"-You're wrong." Marissa cut in.

Ian held his hands up again. "I know, it's hard to believe and I can't prove it to you but please entertain the thought for two-"

"No. You're wrong. Or the power is wrong or..or something else is fucking wrong. I wouldn't ever kill Noelle."

Jess looked at her friend. She wasn't necessarily buying all the soothsayer nonsense herself but this Ian kid knew too much to be talking completely out of his ass. If only Before he could say anything else she cut him off. "Alright, just stop talking. The main thing you want out of us is to not work for Coil, right?"

Ian nodded, starting to look relieved.

"We'll do it, on one condition."

Marissa did a double take. "Jess, the fuck are you doing?" she hissed as low as possible. It didn't exactly do anything to hide question, but Jess figured Marissa probably didn't give a fuck.

"Chill Mars, you'll like this." She turned back before continuing. "You said Coil was lying about being able to help Noelle?"

Again, Ian nodded, though more resigned this time.

"You don't want us to work for Coil? You figure out how to help her, and you figure out how to get us home" she said, poking him in the chest with her tongue-vine for good measure.

"...god fucking dammit. That...doesn't have a high chance of-"

"Tough shit. That's the price."

Ian dropped his head. "Any chance you could make that 'and' into an 'or' for fuck's sake?"

"Repeat that?" Marissa asked curtly.

"I said I'll think about it," Ian replied. "Not exactly doing amazing on resources right now; no money nor means of communication, food and shelter are very much being rented right now. Actually strike that, calling it rented gives me too much credit. 'Charity and more than a little creepy all things considered' is a better descriptor."

"Then where the hell did you get the instruments?" Jess asked.

"The guitarist noticed some prick trying to roofie his date, and switched the drinks. Date bounced, and the owner called a cab for the would-be date rapist but not before my friend relieved him of a credit card, and used it to buy this shit the next day before he knew it went missing and could cancel it."

Jess laughed. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Honestly I don't believe it either but that was his story and he's sticking to it come hell or high water," Ian said with a shrug. "So recap. You agree to at the very least not work for Coil if and only if I can find out how to help Noelle and possible ways for you to go home? That about the size of it?"

"Sounds about right."

"...I'll see what I can do. It's not like you don't know where to find me if you change your mind."

Marissa reached out to open the door and step outside, but stopped herself. "One last question. Why? What do you get out of this?"

"A reduced chance of the Nine or the Fallen coming through Boston and hooooly shit I completely forgot about the Fallen's existence." Ian turned and headed back into the interior of the building, muttering to himself.

Jess turned and looked at Marissa, hands raised in the universally understood 'fuckit' gesture.

-ooo-

Marissa and Jess didn't talk much at all on the way back, each digesting what exactly had transpired.

I can't dismiss it all. He was right about too many things to be completely full of shit. I mean really? Leviathan, S9, and evil Eidolon clones back to back to back? That sounds excessive even for this world. Jess chuckled lightly to herself.

Her projected body quivered in trepidation.

But it's totally possible.

"What's funny?" Marissa asked.

"The discount oracle who reeked of whiskey."

"Oh." Marissa let the silence drag on for a few more moments. "Do you buy any of it? I mean it sounds real dumb, but…"

"...the Simurgh is a thing so maybe it isn't that dumb?" Jess offered.

"...yeah."

The two lapsed back into silence the rest of the way, and turned in for the night, as Jess dissolved her construct.

As she started to drift to sleep, a small smile made it's way onto her face. If he's telling the truth though, maybe he can actually find something useful. Long shot but not really any worse than our current chances.

Maybe….maybe we will find a way home after all.

A/N (WantonConstruction) : Again, apologies, RL duties were not being kind to Verlo and I over the past few months. (Actually got worse during March for me, but the brunt of the shit pile has been dealt with.) That said, a Taylor chapter is next. Since RL has not let up yet on Verlo, I'll see what I can do.

Again, for those who actually read these, sorry for the delay.