NODE: City of Acts - Reel Burns

NODE: City of Acts - Reel Burns
Date of Scene:	05 July 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Stuff in Fiora's Node. Car chase.
Thanks to:	GM: Abby
Cast of Characters:	2, 40, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 253, 347
Tinyplot:	When They Return

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Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Nothing particularly substantial has changed in the City of Acts: It's still a hyper-urban city-studio. The exit, after the strange hallway, is still at the bar set, but that's currently being reconstructed for later, various shades of studio crewmen hard at work replacing faux-wood panels and props, and re-planting explosive squibs.

Out the back of that, you can head through a couple of hallways - there's some tables with donuts set up here for the people hard at work, how nice! - before heading out to the street. A few stunt-men Shades are hanging around, some of which look pretty close to the group today. Various versions of the same vehicles are around, presumably seperate for the various groups and uses. Lots of cop cars here too, and a lot of police extras hanging around. Some of them are helping the crew plant squibs on their cars.

The Short Man seems very active and healthy for a guy in a bloodstained suit. The Tall Woman is also here, drinking a lot of coffee. The Barman is also around, hanging out alone near the front car, presumably because he's an unpleasant asshole and the others didn't want to be near him.

Despite the fact that this should look like a simple, if archaic, street, the saturation of studio equipment and the fact that there is no sky, and that the skyline visible down the street is painted, the entire area still feels very much like it's still just a fakery in a studio. It looks like people are getting ready for the shoot though.

Psyber (253) has posed:
Psyber is here. He's part of the crew. He's not one of the stars of the show, though. He's relegated himself to Frequent Extra, because of the fact that it will let him mingle with the more mundane parts of the crew. Maybe get some extra information that others can't.

So he's hanging out with the other extras by the snack table, laughing and having a good old time while he stuffs his face with a section of one of those big sandwiches they make and then cut up into smaller parts for catering. He also has a glass of soda in his hand.

He's finishing up some last costume changes too, being fitted for a vest and new tie.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Homura is here, dressed as the Archagent of Derse.
Gotta maintain continuity.
She has grabbed a donut from the tables and is munching on it while they gather up and wait for the shoot to resume. She wonders, idly, if something bad would happen if they broke continuity, or if the footage would just magically get editted or something to fit together. Interesting as it sounds to mess with that, that's more Fiora's decision to make if she wants to risk it.

She would currently be found with the Short Man (and Tall Woman, most likely), asking: "So, I was wondering. Can we get a copy of the script? It'd be handy."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
VRUASA TELASH arrived a small while ago. He hasn't bothered to actually keep up with his continuity in this node, so instead he's set his illusions up to make him appear to be whatever he would be if he had in fact maintained continuity. In other words, he looks like whatever he would be expected to look like to the denizens of the node. It's a good thing that he can cheat like this, because he doesn't pay nearly enough attention to get this kind of detail work down properly otherwise.

He is lingering near the entrance, arms crossed over his chest, one eye shut. The other eye is Ulixes, and currently the little eye-compass is being used to analyze the surroundings in mild detail. Nothing is really going on though, so apart from being warmed up and ready to go this hasn't actually caused anything to happen.

Privately, Vruasa reflects upon the severe oddity of looking through the physical body of another being that came in such a format as to be HIS EYE if need be. It's something he hadn't thought about very much before just now, but the more he thinks about it the more it weirds him out a little bit.

Like a word that's been repeated too many times, and therefore temporarily lost its meaning.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Eleanor is looking resplendant today in a very lovely white dress. Partly because she wasn't sure what to where and also because she's coming into this half-blind as it were. It's been a while since she's been here, and is still trying to make sense of things.
THough, she does sort of over near the back with Psyber. This wasn't her party to lead, either.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
Fiora is boring. Because today, she's just Fiora. She's not God-Fiora or Cthonic-Fiora or any of that. She's just Fiora.

Well, okay, she stole the stripey dark blue and grey socks from her god-robe (or just got some identical socks), but aside from that she is dressed fairly commonly. T-shirt, skirt, shoes... even one heroic scrunchie that is trying valiantly to hold back her mass of hair into one long ginger ponytail of epic proportions. A few short bangs had escaped the Hero Scrunchie, but... They just kind of framed her freckled face as she wanders in with two cups of coffee.

She breezes past most of the people, giving a smile here or a nod there or just a 'good luck on this shoot' to a few extras and bit-players, before holding out the Hornbucks (that's Afterus Starbucks, with a stlized Musclebeast two-fisting coffee cups) tall coffee, on top of which is a pair of fancy creamers and a packet of sugar for...

For the BARMAN to enjoy.

"Hey again. Coffee? I take mine black, but I didn't know what you liked, so, here's an everything."

Then, with a smile, she goes to check on the Tall Man. Yep. Just being friendly with him.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Psyber finds the mini-sandwiches servicably good. Nothing exceptional - these are extras and crew, after all - but the studio treats them right.

Homura finds the Short Man laughing to her a little. "Script? S'not... Exactly how things work around here. Just do what you do." He makes a dismissive gesture. "Writers 'round here find a way." He says, vaguely. How strange.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Vruasa's passive scan is slowly revealing what appear to be a pair of seperate, interconnected timelines that hot-swap between primacy in the area depending on mechanical triggers, such as the activation of cameras and mics. It's almost as if the Script is a timeline all in itself, and not just a vague fictional element of the Studio.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Eleanor's dress won't look too out of place. Her traditional styles of dressing mean that this vaguely gangster-era movie will have some anachronism to it, but it also seems like it's being made in modern times, so people probably won't care.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Eleanor straightens out her dress again, before looking over to the extras. Particularly to her Stunt Double, and tossing a friendly wave to the Lady-Ghost-Shade. Though... oooh, craft services. Elle's belly rumbles and she gravitates that direction, passing Fiora with a murmur. "Good luck today, I suppose. Break a leg and all that." She plucks up a nibblet sandwich and murmurs. "As nervewracking as Rapture is... this place still wierds me out a little. I mean, I like a good story, but this feels too much like those creepy 'you are the story' things in the Union holodecks. Never could get into those."
More sandwich.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
FIORA gets a grim and unpleasant look. The Barman's Actor sneers at the coffee. "Puh. This dimestore grime they expect me to drink is disgusting. I can taste the filter as much as I can taste whatever disgusting orfice they pulled it out of." He drinks it anyway, and doesn't thank Fiora at all.

Hecate "stage-whispers" to Fiora, since apparently that's a legitimate private communication method around here. "I'm starting to think he might not actually have redeemable personality traits. He seems like kind of a dick." Not even being smug about it! Hecate seems to put that by the wayside when it comes to aggression towards its User.

The Tall Woman remains uninjured from the last scene; the dying Short Man is only dying in his Role, so his Actor is still quite healthy, albeit covered in fake blood.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"You are as helpful in this form as in all other forms, you know that, right?" Homura tells the Short Man, with a bit of a pouty frown on her face. "So, are you going to tell me what you meant by Fragments leaving something behind for Samael, or are you going to play dumb and pretend you don't know what I'm talking about?"

Either way, it is not the time or place for this.
So she will not press it.

Instead, the Puella greets Fiora with an idle wave, and then looks towards all the cars lined up for the eventual chase scene and god knows what stunts Psyber is going to pull.
Oh god that's right Psyber's a driver.
FUCK.
There went this movie's budget.

Psyber (253) has posed:
Psyber looks bored as he finishes off the sandwich in his hand. He's not talking to much of anyone outside of the small group of extras he currently has surrounding him. Better to stay in character, after all. He's a stuntman, so he's likely hanging with the other stuntmen and chattering about their stunts.

Soon enough he sets down his drink and is dusting his hands off. He whistles at an intern, who tosses him a pair of keys and he's heading over towards pre-staging to get into whatever truck or getaway car they've given him today.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
Vruasa observes the general timeline of this area with extreme interest. Actually, he hadn't realized that it would work that way. He wonders HOW it works that way exactly, and whether or not he could travel betweeen one configuration and the other. Is it safe? He examines the timelines carefully, to see if the 'live' set or the 'stage' set appears to be a beta timeline or if they are simply overlapping iterations of the alpha timeline. Or, for that matter, if any of those concepts even slightly apply to what's going on here.

The appearance of FIORA O'BRIEN distracts him slightly, because he's staring at her giant ponytail. His regular eye flicks open, turning towards a self-only display of the contents of his sylladex. Yep, looks like he's got replacements for her somewhere in there in case that scrunchie breaks. Really, with her hair he can't imagine that feels at all comfortable.

Oh well. He alchemized some reinforced scrunchies for her, so if that one breaks he can just toss her a new one.

The knight's attention is drawn towards the short man and Homura. Not because of anything in particular, but because he has an interest in the short man. While he's analyzing timelines anyway, Vruasa checks to see if the Short Man's timeline is still incredibly fucked.

"Fi, did you seriously go to a Hornbucks before you came here?" He asks, half-amused, half-incredulous.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Utopia is the one who speaks up here, to Eleanor. "It is... Rather unsettling, isn't it? But don't worry. While it may imply your inauthenticity all it likes, all it is is the gimmick of an unusual world, nothing more." The glove gives a soft, comforting sort of squeeze.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
"That I did, Vruasa, that I did." Fiora offers with a smirk, playing off the Barman's attitude as so much petty noise. She had been courting him for a while, and he still was an asshole. She frankly didn't expect him to come around now, if at all. She was just hedging. "Wow, coming from you this is the height of hypocrisy!" She stage-whispers back with a little grin. "You're saying that because someone is an asshole to me, actively, that's damnable? You're actively an asshole, well meaning or otherwise, to me fairly consistently. I think you're just jealous he's getting attention and validated for his actions."

Fiora snickers. "I think you just want a hot, delicious Hornbucks coffee. Also, there's a reason I don't get my coffee with cream from Hornbucks. Just saying." She offers, with a visible Evil Bitch Grin (well, not visible to the Barman).

Yep.

"Anyway, where were we? Car chase? Resistance base? You..." She gestures to the Short Man. "Dying? SOmeone remember the bandage props and such."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Homura gets a light shrug. "Playin' dumb is normal around here. Fictional people are stupid, y'know." The Short Man says, grinning a bit and seeming quite a bit like he knows what Homura is talking about but has reasons not to talk it over.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"Of course," Homura frowns even more at the Short Man.
Like talking to Burden! But shorter. And being even more obviously cagey. It's annoying, but what are you going to do?

She kind of wonders how hard they could genre break. Can they grab a toy syringe, write 'Miracle Life Serum' on it, and stop him from dying? That might just be cheating, though. Certainly wouldn't blend well with the setup.
On the other hand she's curious if that's how it works.
Maybe another time. She doesn't have a prop syringe on her right now to do it anyway. She'll bring one next time, or somesuch.

"Right. Well, ready to go when the crew is."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Adjudicator speaks up softly, from wherever Psyber has it. "This is a good way to approach this, for you. It keeps you immune to most of the dangers. And while this world may not care much for the extras, I don't think it'll be anything bad at all to care for them yourself."

The cars here are far more stylish than the average fare of mid-world-war-two-era vehicles. Someone's abusing art direction a little. They're probably too awesome to care much about that.

Psyber (253) has posed:
Psyber nods his head to Adjudicator, "Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Plus, it might let me overhear more info from the cogs and gears of this Node." He murmurs back to the GAUNTLET ON HIS HAND. Steel Grip was his street name, he supposes.

He stops by Homura and then takes a double-barreled shotgun from one of the prop directors and then thrusts it square into Homura's chest, "Main Characters ride shotgun. Here's your shotgun. Try to keep me out of the frame." He warns Homura, "If I get too much screentime, it blows my gig."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:

Vruasa gets something odd. Apparently it's less like split timelines and more like two entirely independent worlds vaguely linked through internal temporal mechanics. The Script exports its tropes and content to the Studio, and the Studio seems to supply temporal power to the Script. It's less like one timeline split into two and more like two timelines entirely that engage in symbiotic relationship. Travel between the two seems simple: Have a camera and mic turned on and pointed at you.

The Short Man's timeline is still incredibly fucked.

Ulixes speaks up rather plainly as Vruasa looks around. "Two instead of just one now. More flexible. Possibly a little more dangerous. Of course, temporal volatility is good for you of all people, isn't it?"

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Oh, right, the car chase. Eleanor shuffles a bit with Utopia, and murmurs. "Alright, let's try the other thing out. Ah..." She looks over at Psyber and Adjudicator and then at her own Abstractum. They did like drama and pomp and circumstance. "Utopia, would you kindly Switch Form?"
The dame was packing heat, afterall, and it was more than just her fireballs and temper. And she hadn't really used Utopia as a pistol just yet.

Though she does look over towards Fiora and Vruasa, smiling sweetly. "Alright, I think I'm ready, wherever you want me to be is fine, Fi." A hopeful look. "I'm ready to break all the legs."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"Oh, but I have plenty of redeeming personality traits. My titanic magnanimity and tremendous personal charm, for example. And I get a free pass on acting like a know-it-all if I do actually know all, or most, anyway." The broom assumes a rather grin-like posture.

The Tall Woman waves vaguely. "Yes, he was dying. We were going to go through a quick car chase. I assume we film at the base after that, but I think they are still constructing the set."

Speaking of filming, people are starting to get into place... The crew is clearing the set and the various actors are getting into assorted positions. The military-police extras are gearing up - there's a LOT of them - and the three cars the group has are starting to get moved out. There's also a few rather more modern cars on the set, bearing the cameras and their stabilization apparatuses. They look like they'll stay out of the way of the chase, though.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"Yeah, and I'm sure you want some fuckin' piss beer." Vruasa says to Fiora, observing her Evil Bitch Grin with interest. He's grossly exaggerating his dislike of chain coffee. It's really not all that bad if you're in a hurry, but anybody could always do better. He pushes off of his wall and moves over towards Fiora, intending to stick around with her when things get rolling again. The timeline here is... odd. Extremely odd. On the other hand, he's pretty certain that he can do something with it. But really, would he WANT to?

It's probably best to consult Fiora on it some other time, once they've had the opportunity to observe things a little bit more. Which is to say, later tonight. There is one thing that he really, really wants to try eventually, though. A temporal switch mechanism is great for him. What would happen, he wonders, if he leeched some of its power?

For the moment, he foregoes any of the PROP WEAPONS. The damn things make his Strife Specibus start screaming at him like a little bitch, and it's really not worth the trouble.

Better to just illusion things up later on.

A glance is cast towards Eleanor, "Why did humans come up with that saying, anyway? It's like asking fate to slap your shit." Vruasa would know ALL about that, too.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"I'm not sure that's what riding shotgun means but alright," Homura says, absolutely unable to be bothered about the fact she just got a shotgun handed to her. Shotguns are great. She doesn't use them much because of the recoil, but in a pinch they'll really tear into things.

The Puella will get into the same car as Psyber, taking a seat next to him and lowering the door window so she can actually see and shoot out properly. She holds her Abstractum up, just a bit, to address her.

"Although we're not the drivers, do you think you can give the car a little something extra? If not, I'll settle for just the shotgun." Might as well see if the car can be granted mild Time Stunts powers.

And to Vruasa, idly: "It's because wishing a performer good luck is, apparently, bad luck, so by wishing them bad luck you would apparently invert the result."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Utopia obligingly shifts a moment. "Of course. While I may be somewhat less effective than other firearm abstractums... I will certainly be more fitting." The glove shifts around Eleanor's hand. It moves like a fluid, similar to how flesh tends to shift under the influence of Plasmids, as it slowly forms a white revolver etched with elegant, artistic designs.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Well that's reassuring. Eleanor gives the Utopia a cursory check of the wheel and 'ammunition', before settling in and finding her place.
Vruasa gets a blink and a murmur from Eleanor as she sits in her spot in the car behind Fiora. "It's because in the olden days, the troubadors that worked the stages liked to play superstious to appease the crowds and each other." Homura finishes the rest of what she was going to say, and she smiles.
And with that, the Pretty Lady In The Dress settles in behind Fiora, bouncing a little bit. Okay, time to get hype and be exciting.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
As everyone's finally gotten into place, the Director's voice can be heard. "Ready... Action!" And with the snapping noise of the film clapper, the real sky can suddenly be seen, the stunt doubles and fake cars disappear, and the group find themselves at high speed, the trio of cars screeching their way through the streets as blaring, intense sirens behind them scream a constant stream of noise.

There's at least six cars already blaring their way towards the group, with more soon to possibly join. THIS IS NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE AT ALL! Three or so of them already have military police officers poking their heads out, trying to get good shots.

The street is wide, but there are streetlights and other things like that on the median. The road goes on for a long while, presumably because this is bound by the laws of narrative, rather than physics, and there are many turns into an assortment of car-chase-cliche situations that one can make. On either side, modern cars bearing the cameras that have them swapped to this world are driving, and the Actors seem to ignore them.

The Barman (in his Role, rather than his Actor) is calling out from the car ahead. "We're not gonna lose them this way! You got any genius ideas, I'll follow your lead! We need to keep him alive!" He quickly slams the brakes, skidding so that he's behind the group; as he slides back, he slams into one of the lead police cars, tossing the officer who was about to fire out of the window and using the impact to restore his speed just behind the pair of cars the Users are in.

Unlike Actor Barman, Role Barman seems genuinely caring for his friends and intensely devoted to working together as a team, and quite willing to take orders if the group has any schemes about how to lose the occupational police going after them.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
The SHORT MAN is currently dying. Instead of just having some fake blood on his clothes, he has intense, gaping bullet wounds, and is clearly suffering from an actual, legitimate medical incident right now. There's probably first aid somewhere in the car, as there should be in any place in any action movie. He's laid out in the back of the car.

Meanwhile, as a VOICEOVER, Fiora and the others will recall the Barman's flashback narration. It has resumed, once more. "Call them police. They're nothing but thugs. We had guns, sure. We weren't planning on /using/ them. But you storm us with heavy weapons and try to kill our people without even a call for surrender, you really expect we're not gonna shoot back?"

"It's what you chose when you decided to start this little insurrection." Once again, the strange female voice in the flashback's narration.

"We didn't choose that. You bought into a war of greed, you set up this occupation, you think we had any choice?"

"You had your choice from day one of the surrender. Obey or die."

"Not much of a choice when obeying means dying anyway. Heheh. Can't blame a guy for living a little before he dies--" The sound of a physical strike interrupts him, presumably part of some kind of violent interrogation or exchange that this is a flashback from.

Eugh. Kinda heavy on the melodrama in that writing. Little hamfisted, hard to get invested when it starts out so intense. Kinda an iffy bit of writing. Barman's actor is playing it well, though.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Well, if that's what the phrase is from.
Might as well go with it.

That voice over sure is setting the mood though.

Homura cocks the shotgun, which is probably entirely unnecessary at this point. She glares out the window, behind them, at the police cars insisting, and those producing heavy weapons too. Oh that's not good.

"Hey driver! Make a rough turn and give me a good view of them!"

Extras have no names, after all. Giving Psyber one would ruin his gig! And that request should be vague enough to keep him off camera. The Puella pops her head and arm out the window, aiming the shotgun back at one of the police cars.

She'll need a better angle-- a turn'll do it. But for now, firing the shotgun towards the front wheels of one of the cars oughta slow it down and take one out of the chase.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Oh right! The voice overs! Now she remabers what's going on. And then the cars take off. Finally some action! Eleanor's eyes go wide and she lets out a little 'woop' of noise as she's slapped into the back seat cushions, getting her bearings again. RIGHT!

Bad cops on all sides of her, but she's got a pistol, a heart of gold, and some medical supplies. But that's boring, right? And so hands go to apply pressure to those gaping wounds, blood getting all over her pretty white dress. "Stay with me sir, we can't let you die, and you can't die here!" One hand on a bullet hole, and another in the kit to get a plaster of gauze and styptic, trying to get the first of the wounds to close up.
"Look at me sir! Look at me and keep awake!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
Psyber is currently flooring the vehicle, taking it at absolutely unsafe speeds through the streets. He has his collar popped up and his hat pulled low. It obscures his face from the sides and gives him that suitably generic look the film needs.

It also lets him fill the role of stunt driver. Once Psyber can pull out ahead of the pack of cars, as someone with his driving talent is going to do in any car chase, he grunts to Homura, "Hold on to yer hat."

He slams the brake, cranking the wheel and skidding the car a full 180 in the street. And then he slams the accelerator again. He's driving INTO oncoming traffic, both his own sides vehicles and the enemies. He's carefully weaving himself between cars and through gaps.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
Fiora sure is in her element here. Yes sir. She is the greatest actor that has ever acted an act. The acting-est. An actioree. An actoi! The actoriest-est-ness.

In other words, she is literally the fucking worst at this right now. She manages to look rather intense and seem totally focused, riding shotgun in one of the cars. Potentially the same one EXTRA!Psyber is driving.

"Hmm. Oh! I know!" She offers, before rolling down the window and poking her head out, as Psyber engages in CRAZY STUNT DRIVING.

"Make sure everyone gets away. Run interference if we have to. I'll try to make sure we all get out of this intact." She grumbles, as she grabs Hecate in the seat-well next to her, and looks out at the chase.

Trying to spread out her power, through her Abstractum. To make THEIR stunt-cars more stunty. More... Objectively Stuntriffic.

And to, you know, erode away the 'is still a working car' part of the pursuit. Making them LESS... Stunt-y.

Essentially, trying to enforce Protagonist Car Physics on their vehicles, and Antagonist Mook Car Physics on the Pursuit.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"That's a fucking stupid superstition to keep rolling with." Vruasa complains, sifting through the weapons in his sylladex. He's got some good ones for this situation, and he's just got to fluff it right. He mimes reaching into the back of the car that he's in (which is not the car that anybody else is in, so he's driving with a bunch of goons) and retrieving a rifle. Specifically, an enormous bolt-action rifle, the likes of which were used as anti-tank rifles in approximately but not quite this time period. It's been sawed off partway so it's not quite as large as it might be, but it's still a Big Fucking Gun.

He thrusts it through the rear window of the car with a shatter of glass, and starts firing at the police cars following after them. Now, underneath all of the illusions what's ACTUALLY happening is that Vruasa is throwing incredibly explosive spears down the road at the police cards. Unlike what the rifle resembles, the kind of explosive power in these spears is more than enough to take out more than one vehicle at a time.

They are, after all, made of crystallized hellfire.

Today, he's not too terribly worried about actually inflicting casualties. These guys seem to come back basically whenever. So, his spear throwing is pretty goddamn indiscriminate about collateral damage. They can suck it up and deal in the aftermath.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Psyber slams the brakes on his car, deftly dodging past a car with BLOWN OUT TIRES that blasts a metal-on-asphalt scream as it rips past him, barely sheering the back of his car as he dodges and weaves around. Homura's disabled much of the turning ability of one of the lead cars, and Psyber's sudden change makes it much easier to lose that one. That still leaves five though! One of them tries to nick the back of his car, attempting to spin it out as he dodges among them! And as Homura passes right by one of the cars, one of them bares a larger rifle that no police force should ever have fielded and tries to blast a line of shots into the side of Psyber's car; Homura will only have just enough time to "gun him down" before he gets it done, but it'll be hard!

The Tall Woman is also in this car, firing a high-power pistol she has at one of the cars that turned around most quickly, trying to keep heads down in there so they don't get off any shots of their own.

Psyber (253) has posed:
The driver has two jobs in these movies: Crazy stunts and ramming people.

So Psyber has done the first, and now it's time to do the second. With a crank of the wheel and a slam of the accelerator, Psyber looks to Jude and whispers, "Power up the car."

And then he tries to follow Fiora's directions. He's just a lackey, after all, and she's the boss. So Psyber tries to ram the bumper of his car, enhanced by Strike Drivers, into the back of one of the chasing cars.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Eleanor's pressure keeps the wounds from being too debilitating; her rugged medical instincts will be able to help get the wound closed quick, but he'll need to be stabilized. Wow, the Short Man seems legitimately dying here, though he's trying to hang on just as much as Eleanor is trying to keep him hung on. He'll probably make it through this, as long as the car doesn't get too shot up.

The driver is another Extra, and nearly gets taken out trying to whip around to follow Psyber's skillful pathing. But as one of the cars rams its tail end, its STUNTINESS BUFF has already been applied and it just doesn't slow down! Thank god. The stuntiness buff applies on the Barman's car too, allowing him to slam backwards into a car that was heading for Psyber's!

The cars behind Vruasa now are dodging and swerving as massive gushes of dirt and asphalt and concrete spew up in front of them dramatically, and one of them is sent spinning and burning, rolling over repeatedly as Vruasa takes it out, cutting the pursuing group down to four and immediately attracting three carfuls of gunfire towards Vruasa.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Eleanor's tossed about as the stuntman tries to keep up with Psyber, but manages ot hold on to her charge. The Short Man is tough, styptic hurts like hell! She huffs though, and goes for the next wound, as sweat starts to trickle down her face. A look over ot all the shooting and the buffing and the girl yelps. "Ah! I know we need to hurry, but be careful, we're losing him! Just... oh goodness."
Another plaster is pressed up against a wound, and she shakes at her patient slightly. "Sir! Sir, look at me. I need your eyes open and looking at me, stay awake. Just keep awake!"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"Don't get on a tangent." The woman is saying in the flashback narration. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not keeping me from finding out what I want. You went to a safehouse after the chase."

"Since you wrecked the place that wasn't one, it seemed like a sensible choice. I had friends. They had already helped me. I needed to keep them safe."

"A bad set of choices for that. Where did you go after I caught up to you?"

"Kinda defeats the purpose of a safehouse if I don't make it safe."

Another violent striking noise. "You went somewhere after I lost you in the chase. Tell me /where/."

Still a little overdramatic. But it's at least got some useful foreshadowing, so the group knows to keep an eye out for a main character coming up in a bit.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Driving into traffic is a bit more extreme than she'd have liked, but that's Psyber for you. It'll do! Hopefully without totalling their own car in the process. With one approaching and trying to riffle the side of theirs with bullets, Homura will have to think fast. Well, that, or...

"Your turn to hold on to your hat!"

Homura suddenly swings the door of the vehicle open, and with an elegant and graceful flip, ends up on the roof of the car in one motion-- no fuss. She's used to this sort of movement, by now.

5tShe slams one hand onto the roof of it, and the other is manning the shotgun, firing once at the incoming gunner. "Claire, bleed my power through the car."

It should allow swerving through traffic and the other cars better, although she'll only be able to keep that up on a moving vehicle for a few seconds. A few seconds is a lot, though.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
In answer to being shot at so fiercely, VRUASA climbs through the back seat INTO the weapons fire. He discards his giant rifle with a clatter, having run out of Hades Fire Iron's to actually use as 'ammunition'. He makes a jerking motion just underneath his shirt, causing an illusion of an iron plate to drop out from beneath his shirt to explain why he didn't just drop dead from eating all that weapons fire. It too clatters to the ground behind him. As for the remaining cars...

A quick swap of weapons.

The STEEL ICE SPEAR is taken into hand and thrust towards the back of the car along the road. Ice issues from its tip, coating the street behind his car in a sheet of ice in a pattern according to where it happens to go. He shouts at the driver, "SWERVE AROUND A BIT!" To make certain that there's a pretty unavoidable ice slick across the road.

To somebody looking on towards him, it appears that he's pouring oil onto the road from a number of containers, which he then discards into the environment. This is all complete bullshit, of course, but it should be a good enough cover for what he's ACTUALLY doing. Too bad he can't set the fake oil on fire, but oh well.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
Fiora who is apparently shotgun in VRUASA'S car, because that makes MORE SENSE, as Vruasa shoots motherfuckers with explosive spears and Eleanor does some Field doctoring, Fiora reaches up to the dashboard, and depresses a few buttons on the RADIO firmly. With GUSTO. And MEANING.

As she does so, she whispers 'hype drivers, smoke and shit', to Hecate, as she forces her powers out of the car, a cloud of THICK BLACK SMOG billowing out of the tailpipe and under the car.

Classic James Bond smokescreen. Thankfully, the car and its occupants can see through it just fine! Unfortunately, nobody else can. Nobody being the ENEMY MILITARY POLICE.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"Well then. Powering Strife Drives." And then, "Strike Driver." And Psyber's car has a flash of red in it as it SLAMS through a second car, sending it into a spin! Fiora's STUNTINESS BUFF is really paying off more here, Psyber doesn't suffer much slowdown. But he's reached the back of the pursuing pack, and they're all turning to get after him now! Besides one that exploded and one that can't turn; the one he struck was mostly stunned.

"Y-yes, Miss Akemi!" The ring says, As Homura clambers out. Psyber rushes ahead, suddenly fast-forwarded! There's an odd film-like visual effect around him... He's blasting his way through the traffic and pulling ahead of the police though.

An UNUSUAL THREAT will make its way towards them in a moment! That arrives just a bit later, though.

Psyber (253) has posed:
Jolting from the collision with one of the cars, Psyber rocks in his seat and puts a hand on top of his head to keep his hat in place. To Fiora and and Homura, he states a generic, "Looks like we got their attention. Hold on."

And then, as the cars are starting to face off against him, Psyber SLAMS his foot down as hard as he can on the accelerator. His Abstractum has no defensive capability, but he's trying to circumvent that by using offense as his defense. Namely, he wants to blast his way through every car he can like a Badass-Fueled, Hype-Driven Comet before they can actually start actively damaging his own vehicle.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
The Short Man's eyes snap open and he winces heavily, clearly feeling the pain here. At least he's awake. He grunts and starts trying to help Eleanor apply the medical supplies. There's a lot of appreciative tones to the grunting, and his survival chances are going way up, though he still probably won't survive this car rolling or anything like that. Still gonna need to get to the safehouse!

Meanwhile, Fiora's car suddenly ejects gushing rushes of smoke and steam and light, while Vruasa lays down huge swaths of ice! The few remaining cars are falling behind as they skid out, and the ones already disabled can't catch up!

Unfortunately, around here is where something new comes in. A burly man on a motorcycle that bares a Pure between the handlebars can be seen blasting through the smoke, disregarding the ice. The side-car on the bike carries a thin, short woman with long black hair and a much more masculine coat than someone like her should wear whipping behind her.

Two extremely unusual things can be seen immediately. FIRST: The bulky man seems to have mechanical arms, cyborgized in exactly the same way as one of the enhanced humans from Psyber's Nodes are. SECOND: The woman has a Rapture-designed rocket launcher in her hands. Both of them are surrounded by horribly intense decaying film effects as they close in, rushing forward and trailing smoke behind them.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
There we go, now we're cruising. With the few moments of extremely advantageous time+ driving, Homura takes a few more shots with the shotgun-- she does not appear to reload, and instead simply produces a new, already loaded shotgun everytime her current one is empty. Yeah nobody has taught her about gun conservation very much yet. On the other hand when you have as many as she does you stop caring about discarding a few guns every other week. She's aiming at the cars they pass-- driver's side, if she can help it, but she'll settle for the tires and engine blocks too.

It can't be helped that the effect wears off eventually; they're not quite at the same location by now, but the Pures won't escape notice either. Or, rather, the strange drivers. There's no way to tell they're Pures from that far off and in high movement. At least, for Homura.

She kneels on the car's roof, to grip herself better for now.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Eleanor's eyes pop p enough to spot the lady with the Tell Talle Rocket Launcher, and she snarls a bit, getting her head down. A look at the Short Man, and she murmurs, planting more gauze, and then pulling a shot of... oh, oh dear. It's a Rapture-era medical syringe, filled with all sorts of good stuff and just a hint of ADAM to help regenerate someone. Her own make, of course, with all of her attempts to normalize and refine the process in use. "Hold very still, sir, we may need to speed this up."
The Enemy is cheating, and so shall she. A moment to line it up, and she gives her charge a jab in the shoulder, pumping him full of happy time healy stuff.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
"I don't really have a weapon that... works at range!" Fiora complains into the compartment of the car, as Robocop and the Kamen Rider roll up, trying to figure out what to do. And... Well, basically coming up with jack squat. So she just kind of frets there, not thinking of things. Sort of an odd... Conundrum.

"I can't just get out and fight them, I can't really just throw shit willy-nilly, or use powers, or anything! All my Kinds are useless here. No matter what I do, it... Breaks... What we're trying to do! Stupid, picking pens. Could have been a cool kid. Could have had swords or guns or all the normal, safe Kinds. Had to make a statement."

She peers at the rearview mirror and frowns. "Just fantastic."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
Alright, so there's not much that Fiora is really able to do. That's a problem, and one that they're going to need to address longterm. If it comes down to it, Vruasa thinks that probably the best thing to do is to switch back to the version of the area that's NOT all about staying in-character. He takes no action against the bulky man and the rocket launcher-wielding woman, instead using Ulixes to turn his attention towards the temporal status of the area.

Then he reaches out, asserting his dominion over Time, and attempts to drain the temporal power available to the node's timeline alternator. A spinning cog of red light surrounds him as he does this. It's easily passed off as shitty SFX, if SFX that doesn't really belong in this particular environment.

In the meantime, he just keeps himself parked right where he is, standing upright in the back seat of the car that Fiora is riding in. He's still holding the Steel Ice Spear, but he isn't actually doing a hell of a lot with it just now. In fact, he tucks it away in exchange for his CLOCKHAND SPEAR, which will be much more useful if push comes to shove.

"Ulixes!" He calls to the eye-compass, before shunting communications into a private medium.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
The bike blasts forward, swerving around shotgun shots, the bike itself suffering a hit or two but refusing to slow down as sparks fly off of it in waves. It continues to close in viciously!

Psyber, fortunately, has pulled ahead of most of the group, so while any that come in to back up their comrades will be bashed to the side - there's one or two that do! - for now, he doesn't need to be ramming.

Eleanor slams the needle in and the man is, at least stabilized, obligingly holding still at Lamb's request. He takes deep, intense breaths, and now seems okay to move a bit, though he'll need to stay in the car and mostly still. He's healed just enough that he can break open the rear window and start firing at the bike, though his pistol shots ping off of the burly driver's cyborgized body.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Vruasa shunts himself straight out of the damn movie, apparently. A strange decayed-film effect surrounds the outline where he just was. Vruasa himself finds himself... Standing on top of a prop car, in front of a screen where a city street rolls by, projected. The car isn't in motion. From his perspective, the Extra driver, Fiora, and Eleanor all seem to be intensely wrapped up in a fakery, while over on a car nearby, Homura can be seen with a prop shotgun, filming a sequence where she fires from a car roof, and Psyber is over on a neighboring stunt track trying to film parts of the chase with the Pure User and his companion.

"I understand." Ulixes says. "This will be dangerous. I will let you know how risky it seems as we go." As the two actors (one with big practical-effects cyborg arms, the other with a big green cardboard rocket launcher that looks like a stand-in for when they edit in the actual thing with CGI) are intensely involved in their roles, Vruasa gets to try this plan.

There is no fancy effect, no big gush of green light. Ulixes' surface cracks once. "I think it's trying to kill me. It seems that, in this form, Pures are more capable of abstract conflict and combat." Ulixes cracks again, and seems to be visibly bleeding a black liquid, which will make Vruasa quite aware of what's going on in his eyesocket. "The risk is pretty big here."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
As the bike closes in, the Barman is calling out, possibly a bit in response to Fiora. "Floor it, I can take them! Don't let him die!" He pulls the brake, sliding to one side, skidding as he moves sideways over slick ice, pulling and firing his own handgun at the pair as they go.

The woman fires her rocket launcher it strikes the car despite the deftly agile maneuver, exploding and sending the entire vehicle up in a plume of smoke that's suddenly surrounded by an intense visual mark of burnt celluloid, as if the "film" of reality just lit aflame.

"You mean after you caught up to me and I lost you, and... No... You caught up to me and you... Killed.. Me...?" The Barman's voice in the flashback suddenly becomes confused. "Wait, no, that's not..." The burning celluloid starts to expand intensely, gushing over the car and blasting through the street alongside the chase; it moves forward like some kind of awful flood, threatening to consume both remaining cars as they scream forward through the streets.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"Too risky to keep going. Cut the attempt for now, and save a recording of everything that happened up to stopping." Vruasa replies to Ulixes, simply. He reaches up to pull Ulixes out of his eye socket, examining him upon his chain. He asks, "Are you going to be able to recover on your own, or do I need to take you to somebody for repair?"

Since it seems like he's partitioned off from everything that's going on in the script, the Knight of Time begins to drift in the direction of the actors that represent the cyborg man and the rocket woman. This is very interesting. In fact... he wonders, idly, how this dual state works for Fiora.

Logically with her anti-Fate properties, she should be able to interact with this in a fairly interesting way.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Okay good, we're returning fire, that's good. Elle lets out a breath, and is about to turn and handle the lady with the Rocket Launcher...

And then the World is being... Unmade. And Miss Lamb looks over to Fiora, blinking in confusion. "What do you want me to do? I am unfamiliar with fake reality unraveling." Her grip tightens on Utopia, and she glances from the Short Man to the lady with the rocket launcher and back again.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Why is the narration confused?
That is an awful and horrible sign no matter how you look at it.

If the bikers are the source, and they're too tough to beat right now... well, they've got to shake them. Preferably before one of those reality-breaking attacks hit any of them. Homura mentally shuffles through her inventory. Guns, guns, more guns. You'd need something pretty big to stop an amped up motorcycle long enough to outrun it.

Oh, well, then in doubt...

Homura reaches out with her empty hand, and a bright purple flash of light shimmers a missile truck into existence. There are no missiles on it because she already used its payload. Also it's kind of battered and badly burnt in places. It slams onto the road, having possibly been offscreen or in an alley beforehand, for all the narrative cares.

It does so immediatly in front of the burly man and his rocket launcher-totting partner-- if not to stop their advance, to stop them from having a clear field of view on people long enough to put some distance between the parties. Maybe even to tank one of the rockets-- and to see what happens.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
Fiora blinks, as things become very... Odd. And then she realizes things. Was her impulse to stay 'in character' her own? Was she riding on some fucking wavelength? No?

She looks to Vruasa as he does his THING, which is hard to understand. The thing was, she didn't /feel/ any more special! She didn't really feel like her perceptions are different, her powers apply any more...

Well, maybe they did.

"CUT!" She cries, and then she tries to extender her own powers to enforce it. To snuff out the cameras, to stop the microphones.

Then she gets out of the car. Even if it still is moving, nothing is being recorded. It's just her, her friends, and the Pures. And the Barman.

First, she goes to the Barman, either in Studiospace, or Setspace. "Play along, and you may still have a job after this." She mutters, as she floats past him, her skirt taking on an ephemeral quality as Voidy magic just kind of flows off of her. And then she pulls out a NOTEBOOK, and a RED PEN. And then she just floats in front of the pure(s) in the motorcycle, clicking her tongue. "Look. This isn't climactic for you enough to kill me, and I can just fuck off. I /want/ to do this right, okay? So, first thing's first. Your motorcycle?" She gestures with the red pen, before X-ing it out repeatedly with her pen, the ink holding in the air. "This is now a BMW R75 World-War-Two era german motorcycle-sidecar. Go to props for a replacement, or at least to patch it in. Get some green paneling. And this GUN!" She goes up and scribbles 'Panzershrek' on it. "PERIOD GUNS, PEOPLE!" She fumes, before going back to one of the MP's, and pulling one of the GREATCOATS off of, fiddling with her pen on the shoulders and collar bits, before handing it to MISTER CYBORG. "Alright, you. Costume. Put it on. Cover up that stuff. Don't care what they are, don't care if you're going to kill me, but at least put some fucking work into it. You are now... Oberlieutenant Sturm. Here." She offers, whipping out a german officer hat and placing it on his head. "You can keep your sick cybernetic eye or whatever. It looks meanacing. Like a Captain America villain. Okay, and, remember, this is all for the big payout!" she jazzhands, before going to the Barman. "When cameras roll, pull ahead of us, then do some heroic leap if you get blown up towards our car. I'll catch you. It'll look fucking sweet. And, you know, you won't die." She offers, before heading back to her car.

And sliding back inside.

And letting her power drop, with a bellow of "ROLL FILM".

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
Eleanor blinks a bit, but... but she IS the director, after all. She sits up and sighs. This take's on hold, for now. Or it should be. That Pure might take kindly to this.
Either way she pats the Short Man on the shoulder, leans out of the car window, and gets ready to defend Fiora if the shit goes sideways.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Ulixes cuts it, grunting in Vruasa's eyesocket as if that was causing some substantial pain. "Thank you. Core integrity at ninety percent. I don't know what progress I made against it. I believe this may be a gamble, unless we can find some means of enhancing this process, or simply naturally increase my resilience enough."

Speaking of Fiora interacting in an unusual way, the stunt-driver for the Barman is walking out of the wreck of the car, scratching his head and standing to the side as he observes this. "S'weird. That shouldn't have..." What Vruasa sees next is unusual. Instead of film burning, it's lights going out, and the studio itself seeming to... Turn abandoned. Portions of the stunt track are being consumed by a sort of advanced abandonment, clearly indicating that the Studio will go OUT OF BUSINESS if the movie isn't usable! It seems like this is more symbiotic than it seemed.

Meanwhile, Fiora CUTS the film. Everyone is jolted out of the experience, getting to see how silly it kinda looked from the "outside" when they were wrapped up in this, not because of any mental effect, but because of how the two linked timelines work. The others seem stumped that Fiora was even able to do that, the woman and her Combat Chauffeur staring at her with a sort of wide-eyed "she shouldn't be able to do that" kind of look.The Reel Burn has been frozen, halted in its advancement.

The gun and the motorcycle are replaced by a crew of shades in mere moments, and the Barman's stunt-double seems much more amicable than the Barman himself to this plan, while the Barman's Actor is, as ever, a huge fucking jackass about everything,. But all the while, there's an ominous creaking sort of noise from the Studio, as if something's threatening to collapse... Fiora's CUT seems to be straining reality, so she'll need to use it sparingly and in quick bursts at most.

Everyone's back in position. The group gets their chance to do exactly what was going on before, except now, the woman doesn't have her rocket launcher, baring a more period-appropriate shotgun, which her (much less speedy) lined-up shot uses to blast out the back wheels of his sliding automobile, opening the passenger side door and leaping out of it, reaching out for Fiora to grab his hand (reality is saturated in dramatic slow motion to make this more viable for the girl) as his car slams into the non-Pure motorcycle and forces the woman and her driver off the road, both swearing wildly as the group pulls ahead. It looks like the PLOT HOLE was resolved! Through Fiora's careful editing.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
The Short Man, during the CUT, is completely unharmed and healthy, with a bit of slightly fake-looking makeup for his wounds and medical dressings. A quick grin and a thumbs-up from him as he's patted, though.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
As Fiora catches the Barman's stunt double, as the car MICHAEL BAY FLIP EXPLODES behind him (catching SWEET air and all around being FUCKING AWESOME), she yanks him inside, letting him sit down before leaning out the side.

"You'll have to try harder then that next time, Herr Sturm!" She calls, saluting him sarcastically as they drive off.

Fiora just hopes beyond hope that she didn't fuck things up.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
The fact that Fiora is able to just make reality her bitch is... well, actually, it's not all that surprising but it remains impressive. VRUASA observes with mute interest, one eye socket unfilled. He takes a moment to hang Ulixes around his neck, reaching up into the socket to very carefully wipe away the black fluid that had been leaking out of the abstractum's frame. Disgusting. He gives a shake of his head and draws a regular prosthetic eye out of his coat, popping it in without so much as a second thought. It takes a minute to boot up, during which time the troll is blinking very rapidly.

Amidst the activities of SETTING BACK UP, he accelerates himself and plants two small devices on the Barman and his stunt man. The devices are PROXY STATUES for Ulixes. Low-level proxy statues, but proxy statues nonetheless. They're stuffed into the loosest pocket that the barman and stuntman have to offer, to reduce the possibility of detection.

Then again, things like that never get taken during interrogations in the movies, do they?

Once this is done he takes his place again, ready to act as an anchor to hold Fiora in the car if she needs to lean out way too far in the potential DRAMATIC CATCH. Hopefully that won't be necessary, though.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
And then the PROPER cut seems to happen, the Director, inscrutable as it may be, seems to have been satisfied. And reality is safe! Both worlds were not torn asunder by a continuity paradox. Now, a few facts and events quickly happen to clarify this.

Hecate speaks up to Fiora. "You know," It says, "You could probably have just cut the voiceover from the other scenes. The man's Role is nice and all, but his Actor seemed actively contrary to your edits. I think he might just be actively contrary to everything."

Ulixes reports, softly and quickly. "The Stuntman and the Actor merged during the event, along with their gear. I have proxy functionality in both, though I think you may need to film a flashback sequence planting it if it comes up in the Script.