[It's fine? It's fine! It's not fine, but he lets go of her wrist and seems to calm a little when he watches her pull out all of her supplies. Behind them propped up on his couch for some reason is a bulletin board. It has a bunch of star-shaped sticky notes and scraps of paper stuck to it.
On the other hand, he's pursing his lips together even as he's using his phone to utilize a mobile app and order them a pizza.]
From what I can tell nobody's memories fit into anything. It's all weird out-of-context stuff, like stuff that shouldn't even be real. You're smart, do you know of any kind of plants that can grow sabertooth tiger kittens?
[ hope you're not attached to your scraps of paper, luke, because annabeth is just going to casually copy their contents onto notecards and replace them after she pulls out her supplies. she also brought colored pushpins and embrodiery floss to connect them if they want to go Full Crazy.
she pauses when luke askes about the sabertooth tiger plant kittens, though, because what. ]
Uh, no. Plants, animals, and minerals are all different things, Luke. Okay, but if they're impossible things like that then we can discount them as some sort of hallucinations, like dreams. That's probably good news.
[He's paying for their pizza and sticking his credit card back in his pocket before he snorts derisively, shaking his head in response. He'll have a seat on the floor in front of the couch to watch Annabeth work.]
I didn't sleep through Biology, 'Beth. I know plants, animals and minerals are all different. That doesn't explain what I saw. Do you ever remember going to the Smithsonian as a kid because I don't.
I wish-- did you know [ annabeth no ] the original Smithsonian building is made of seneca red sandstone in the faux Norman style, and is nicknamed the Castle? [ annabeth no one cares ] Well, that's why they have to be hallucinations. Maybe everything is. A mass, world-wide hallucination that makes us think chocobos are a thing instead of horses.
[ if the word hallucinations isn't in bold writing on the board she's gonna put it there. ]
... Except we're seeing through the hallucinations, or at least recognizing them for what they are, maybe?
[Have you considered your brother's a dumbass, Annabeth?]
...I didn't know that, and I'm not even surprised you know that. I didn't need to know that? [He shakes his head.] I don't know if there's such a force that can exist that tricks everybody into thinking they're seeing things that they aren't. Wouldn't that be something like magic? Since when do you believe in magic?
[He leans back on his hands.] A lot of people around us aren't seeing what we're seeing when this weird shit's going on. But we are. The key here is figuring out what's so special about us.
[ no, because she loves luke and thinks he's great. ]
No. [ said forcefully. magic is Fake. ] Obviously not. It must be scientific or something. Solar flares or radiation, bacteria in the water...
[ she writes all that down to stick somewhere on the board, color-coded as "theories". ] You're right. If we figure that out, the rest will fall into place. I hope, anyway. So, we need to find the commonalities in us and the others. It could be a gene, or brain waves, I don't know.
[At least someone loves him. Of course, when she denies the existence of magic he seems to settle on giving her a very blank stare. He's not sure what to say just yet, an idea unraveling in the back of his head that he doesn't want to think about but now it's there and it's hard to ignore.
Magic. Magic?]
Radiation could come from a phone battery couldn't it? [He doesn't buy it, but he's not going to shoot down her ideas either.] Let's start with the commonalities between you, me, and our friends that we know are experiencing this weird crap. Obviously you and I are related so that's a gene thing. The Strider kids are all experiencing weird memories, too. But why did I start dealing with it before you did? That's the part that's missing. What triggers this into happening?
[ someone has to. if annabeth notices his blank stare, she says nothing as she continues on in conspiracy board hell.
magic? magic. throw it in the trash, luke. ]
Maybe? And microwaves, and all sorts of things. [ honestly, she doesn't buy it either but she's willing to latch onto any halfway reasonable sounding idea right now. up to and including the goddamn matrix. ] Are there a lot of siblings experiencing it? It could be some... gene combination, like something from one side colliding with something from the other. Well. Well, obviously it's these Retrospec people doing... science things.
[ said 100% seriously. she... isn't a scientist... she knows ap chemistry but that's as far as it goes. save annabeth castellan from herself. ]
I'm not getting rid of my microwave so I'll take my chances. I don't know if I'd say a lot. I know the Narukami twins have the app, you and I do now, all of the Strider kids do, uh...does Jason? Have you talked to him yet? It seems weird that it'd seek out genes though and not latch onto Mom and Dad.
[ no luke is a good boy who doesn't belong in the trash, annabeth will fight u. ]
I haven't, no. I figured Thalia would be contacting him. But for now, let's bet on yes he does. [ sticks something about siblings with a question mark in some small place on the board. ] Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it's something.
[ attempts to level luke with a withering stare. but it's luke so it's more like a withering pout. ] Yes. Like... particle accelerators. Like on TV. Except with more realism.
Can science and coincidences exist at the same time? Then again maybe there's some kind of ray that went out and sent a signal to the city calibrated to a certain type of person. Not like we can access the upper floors of the Retrospec building anywhere. [He's going to write something like "mind control" on a notecard and tack it to the board, too.]
Correlation does not equal causation is basically saying, yes, they can. I think? [ again: science is kind of a mystery. ] Has anyone tried scaling the building, breaking a window? Landing a helicopter on the roof?
Yeah, okay. [SCIENCE?] Not sure about scaling the building but let me call everyone I know that has a helicopter. [Oh. Wait.] I don't even know if the roof's that big.
[He taps the card for emphasis.] Mind control. Or brainwashing? What would you call the whole "most of the city doesn't even notice" thing?
[He rolls his eyes.] Drones can't break windows. At least I don't think they can. And at least science fiction would give us an explanation that makes sense and better than "this is happening because you all suck."
How do problems in science fiction even get fixed?
Annabeth. [He's laughing under his breath though.] We'll be more creative than that. If you're breaking in anywhere you have to make it look like you weren't there at all.
...blowing it up might be an option though. As a last resort kind of thing, I mean. Now you're just making it sound like the beginnings of the apocalypse.
Who says I haven't? Maybe I just haven't set my plans in action yet. And how do you know zombies aren't real yet? [Just. Pointing that out. Fuck.] What else makes up an apocalypse though?
Then I'm offended you haven't shared them with me. [ pause. yikes. ] Fair point, they may as well be on the table. Uh, the four horsemen? Or chocobomen. Whatever. The rapture? Biblically, anyway. Nuclear fallout, supervolcanic eruption, mass flooding, massive asteroid impact...
Edited (forgot half of a sentense) 2017-04-04 01:15 (UTC)
Maybe when you're older. [Somehow that joke doesn't seem as funny but maybe that's because they're talking about the apocalypse.]
I don't even remember what the four horsemen are so you're one over on me. And you know I don't believe in the bible, but the rest of that...man, what are the chances we're going to be wiped out like dinosaurs and an asteroid just incinerates us?
[Luckily he doesn't get that far in his thoughts since their pizza seems to have arrived. Brb Annabeth.]
Because I'm so young. [ because sixteen is clearly so old?? ]
The Four Horsemen-- War, Famine, Pestilence, and... Death? I think? [ shrugs. annabeth isn't particularly bible-thumping either. she just Knows things. ] At this rate? It's possible. Though, actually, not all of the dinosaurs were just instantly incinerated. I mean, some were, and there were likely wildfires as well, but the asteroid impact would have also caused other catastrophes, according to the theory, such as tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. And of course, the sun was blocked out by debris in the atmosphere-- for months, maybe even years, making the earth's temperatures plummet and killing plants, thusly leaving herbivores with nothing to eat if they survived the other stuff...
[ is she following him to the door going on about asteroid impacts while he gets the pizza. does the poor pizza boy have to listen to this. or does he let her stand there talking to herself while he gets the pizza. which is worse. ]
[But she's definitely following him and the poor pizza boy looks incredibly alarmed? Luke ends up giving him a large tip though and shuts the door in his face before he can ask questions, herding Annabeth back to the kitchen even as he thinks that through.]
They all sound really friendly. [But he ends up rolling his eyes anyway.] We're talking about the end of the world and you're giving me a history lesson in how dinosaurs died? Come on. Let me pretend dinosaurs went out with a big bang and that might be the way we go out, too.
[He's joking, of course, but...the alternative is something worse, probably.]
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On the other hand, he's pursing his lips together even as he's using his phone to utilize a mobile app and order them a pizza.]
From what I can tell nobody's memories fit into anything. It's all weird out-of-context stuff, like stuff that shouldn't even be real. You're smart, do you know of any kind of plants that can grow sabertooth tiger kittens?
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she pauses when luke askes about the sabertooth tiger plant kittens, though, because what. ]
Uh, no. Plants, animals, and minerals are all different things, Luke. Okay, but if they're impossible things like that then we can discount them as some sort of hallucinations, like dreams. That's probably good news.
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I didn't sleep through Biology, 'Beth. I know plants, animals and minerals are all different. That doesn't explain what I saw. Do you ever remember going to the Smithsonian as a kid because I don't.
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I wish-- did you know [ annabeth no ] the original Smithsonian building is made of seneca red sandstone in the faux Norman style, and is nicknamed the Castle? [ annabeth no one cares ] Well, that's why they have to be hallucinations. Maybe everything is. A mass, world-wide hallucination that makes us think chocobos are a thing instead of horses.
[ if the word hallucinations isn't in bold writing on the board she's gonna put it there. ]
... Except we're seeing through the hallucinations, or at least recognizing them for what they are, maybe?
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...I didn't know that, and I'm not even surprised you know that. I didn't need to know that? [He shakes his head.] I don't know if there's such a force that can exist that tricks everybody into thinking they're seeing things that they aren't. Wouldn't that be something like magic? Since when do you believe in magic?
[He leans back on his hands.] A lot of people around us aren't seeing what we're seeing when this weird shit's going on. But we are. The key here is figuring out what's so special about us.
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No. [ said forcefully. magic is Fake. ] Obviously not. It must be scientific or something. Solar flares or radiation, bacteria in the water...
[ she writes all that down to stick somewhere on the board, color-coded as "theories". ] You're right. If we figure that out, the rest will fall into place. I hope, anyway. So, we need to find the commonalities in us and the others. It could be a gene, or brain waves, I don't know.
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Magic. Magic?]
Radiation could come from a phone battery couldn't it? [He doesn't buy it, but he's not going to shoot down her ideas either.] Let's start with the commonalities between you, me, and our friends that we know are experiencing this weird crap. Obviously you and I are related so that's a gene thing. The Strider kids are all experiencing weird memories, too. But why did I start dealing with it before you did? That's the part that's missing. What triggers this into happening?
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magic? magic. throw it in the trash, luke. ]
Maybe? And microwaves, and all sorts of things. [ honestly, she doesn't buy it either but she's willing to latch onto any halfway reasonable sounding idea right now. up to and including the goddamn matrix. ] Are there a lot of siblings experiencing it? It could be some... gene combination, like something from one side colliding with something from the other. Well. Well, obviously it's these Retrospec people doing... science things.
[ said 100% seriously. she... isn't a scientist... she knows ap chemistry but that's as far as it goes. save annabeth castellan from herself. ]
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I'm not getting rid of my microwave so I'll take my chances. I don't know if I'd say a lot. I know the Narukami twins have the app, you and I do now, all of the Strider kids do, uh...does Jason? Have you talked to him yet? It seems weird that it'd seek out genes though and not latch onto Mom and Dad.
[A pause.] "Science things." Really?
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I haven't, no. I figured Thalia would be contacting him. But for now, let's bet on yes he does. [ sticks something about siblings with a question mark in some small place on the board. ] Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it's something.
[ attempts to level luke with a withering stare. but it's luke so it's more like a withering pout. ] Yes. Like... particle accelerators. Like on TV. Except with more realism.
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Can science and coincidences exist at the same time? Then again maybe there's some kind of ray that went out and sent a signal to the city calibrated to a certain type of person. Not like we can access the upper floors of the Retrospec building anywhere. [He's going to write something like "mind control" on a notecard and tack it to the board, too.]
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[ she eyes the notecard. ] Mind control?
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[He taps the card for emphasis.] Mind control. Or brainwashing? What would you call the whole "most of the city doesn't even notice" thing?
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I don't know, but those both sound really... science fiction-y. [ nose wrinkle. yes she realizes everything is science fiction-y. ]
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How do problems in science fiction even get fixed?
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By shooting or blowing it up, I think.
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...blowing it up might be an option though. As a last resort kind of thing, I mean. Now you're just making it sound like the beginnings of the apocalypse.
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Hm. We can keep it in mind. Are we sure this isn't the beginnings of the apocalypse?
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Wouldn't an apocalypse include more doom and zombies than whatever's going on here?
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Zombies aren't real. [ neither are chocobos. ] Maybe we just haven't reached the real doom and gloom part. Yet.
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I don't even remember what the four horsemen are so you're one over on me. And you know I don't believe in the bible, but the rest of that...man, what are the chances we're going to be wiped out like dinosaurs and an asteroid just incinerates us?
[Luckily he doesn't get that far in his thoughts since their pizza seems to have arrived. Brb Annabeth.]
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The Four Horsemen-- War, Famine, Pestilence, and... Death? I think? [ shrugs. annabeth isn't particularly bible-thumping either. she just Knows things. ] At this rate? It's possible. Though, actually, not all of the dinosaurs were just instantly incinerated. I mean, some were, and there were likely wildfires as well, but the asteroid impact would have also caused other catastrophes, according to the theory, such as tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. And of course, the sun was blocked out by debris in the atmosphere-- for months, maybe even years, making the earth's temperatures plummet and killing plants, thusly leaving herbivores with nothing to eat if they survived the other stuff...
[ is she following him to the door going on about asteroid impacts while he gets the pizza. does the poor pizza boy have to listen to this. or does he let her stand there talking to herself while he gets the pizza. which is worse. ]
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[But she's definitely following him and the poor pizza boy looks incredibly alarmed? Luke ends up giving him a large tip though and shuts the door in his face before he can ask questions, herding Annabeth back to the kitchen even as he thinks that through.]
They all sound really friendly. [But he ends up rolling his eyes anyway.] We're talking about the end of the world and you're giving me a history lesson in how dinosaurs died? Come on. Let me pretend dinosaurs went out with a big bang and that might be the way we go out, too.
[He's joking, of course, but...the alternative is something worse, probably.]
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