Scene #8113: PNL: Escalation

Owner	Pose
Stanley Padgett	In a lot of places, the mall is a dying breed. Changes to the way people shop, online retailing, police actions to drive kids out of malls for (reasons), that sort of thing. There has been a lot of money spent to keep Southcourt Mall up, running, and vibrant, with plenty of shops available for the Discerning Tastes of the Nouveau Riche. Which is why all of this Nonsense has people upset and worried. But true to John's word, the cops are clearing out, the Hazmat team has rolled up all their gear and trundled back off to wherever it is the deputies keep their fancy toys, and all that's left is a skeleton crew of cops to keep lookie-loos away from the mall. Which is what you all are, technically. Granted, some of you are Very Well Connected lookie-loos, but still. Stanley and John are loitering near one of the entrances, both of them tapping away at their phones. Stanley is playing the Reversal, of course, while also looking sidelong at the posted patrol officers. He doesn't seem too concerned about them though, and they not for him either.
John Doe	John is typing after pulling the phone away from his mouth and calling things over the radio. Unlike the other two kids, he prefers to speak rather than text. It also just might be John wanting to stand out more. Those who look at John find it uncomfortable to look at him for long periods. John is wearing a pair of jeans with holes in the knees, a shirt, and a brown overcoat. On his head is a wide-brim brown hat. He's a young adult, slightly older looking than Stanley. He's also a good three inches shorter. He's got a freckled face and amber-colored eyes. He's got long brown hair under that, is messy, and looks self-cut. What's weird is that he is holding a police notepad, a police radio, and a side arm. The radio and side arm is attached to his person via a police belt. The pad is sitting in his hand. He's flicking through notes while also taking photos. These photos are being sent to both the others and the Concord database. Another odd thing is that John seems to be ignored by others. Nobody seems to notice him, nobody seems to consider him. If someone walked into him they'd look confused and walk away.
Remee Halcyon	The 'Crime Scene Dog' routine that Remee had used in Las Vegas would prrrobably not work here. (It's doubtful whether it worked at all back then, either.) Thus, a more traditional approach is called for: just simply sneaking inside. Her nose wriggles as she watches the departing cops from a bush in the mall's parking lot. She's in what Kukuru had called 'long face' form, but most people would call 'anthro wolf' form - the edge from having a better-shaped nose and ears might make a difference, and if she's spotted it doesn't matter much which form she's in anyway, and keeping her human form in her back pocket might be needed for getaway purposes. When she judges that nobody's looking, she darts out - getting a bit closer, going for the next closest bit of thick foilage. There - getting any closer than that might risk getting spotted. Time for the next step... which involves tapping send on a prewritten message on her cellular watch. A pizza delivery car, with bass boosted music blaring from the speakers and the windows down, winds its way into the parking lot - and pulls up right in front of the entrance. "Hey!" The driver, who's several hundred dollars richer than he was half an hour ago, climbs out of the car (leaving it running and music blaring) carrying a tall stack of pizza boxes with him. "Hey! Got your pizzas here - someone needs to sign for these!" He proceeds to be very loud and very belligerent that someone needs to deal with these pizzas - all while Remee makes her move, going to stealthily sprint in and get through the doors.
Kukuru	Last time, Kukuru made baked stuff that smelled heavenly, but probably closer to cloyingly sweet than well balanced. Luckily, she had brought them to their battle against the White Rabbit, so she's eaten them since then and has returned with a new batch of stuff! Somehow, today's bag of baked sweets smells even sweeter than the last time, but it truly is a smell versus taste sort of thing. Whether they'll end up tasting good or better than the lastime nobody else got to try them... That'll depend on how much any given person likes the taste of breakfast sausage and syrup mixed into everything. It's handmade sausage, if that counts. The source of the meat is unclear. For better or for worse, she's also here as one of those Very Well-Connected lookie-loos. Rather than her usual frilly white and green getup, she's wearing a more official single-colored purple outfit with a dark jacket, shorts, a collared sleeveless shirt, and only the Concord's logo and a light blue tie to break it all up. Unlike Remee, she's also just headed straight for the entrance not far behind the pizza delivery guy. Clearly, someone didn't get the memo, as she just smiles and waves lazily at the coppers without so much as stopping to ID herself in her stride, moving as though she belongs there. And why not? She's a member of the Concord investigating some weird stuff. Of course she belongs there.
Stanley Padgett	PIZZA TIME. The diversion gives Stanley and Remee a chance to sneak in while the cops are sorting out PIZZA. That said, one of them starts to stop Kukuru, before being quietly waived off by a more senior officer. Someone's put out the word that offworlders are here Doing Things, and Not To Bother Them. Inside the mall? It's eerily quiet. Horribly quiet. The sort of echo-y quiet you only get from a Mall that's got no one inside of it, but is still fully functioning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61UUM_8b1ms The trek along the first floor is unimpeded, save for a few straggling police officers too busy to look up until it's too late and spot Offworlders... and they immediately go back to what they were doing. Someone let them in, right? The main show will be in the East Atrium, where police tape still remains, and some crime scene people are still milling about. There is no taped off section where the lady died in the middle of that taped area, just some evidence markers on an already cleaned floor.
Stanley Padgett	Alternate Mood music, for those of us who grew up in 2000's malls : https://youtu.be/JELt1jxJsHQ
Rita Ma	When Rita arrives, she's chatting on her phone as she often is. For someone so averse to being cared for or helped, she takes to the notion of 'mutual usefulness' quite well. The Watch network is kind to her, and she's kind to it back. In this case, that means phoning up knowledgeable local sympathizers and grilling them on the pattern of people who've passed out at Southcourt. Were they in specific places? Doing specific things? Did they have any obvious shared trait connecting them? Eventually she gravitates towards John, not because she sees anything remarkable about him, but because of the conspicuous absence of anyone else doing so. "Are you supposed to be here?" she asks him, regardless of the fact that she herself definitely isn't. Having only interacted on the radio, she has no way of knowing his face. When the pizza truck arrives as a distraction, Rita shimmers out of view and ducks past the policemen- only for them to not pay a whole lot of attention to the group's intrusion anyway. She looks a little bit sheepish when she fades back into visibility. "It's kind of creepy in here, isn't it? Places that are supposed to be full of people, but don't have any people in them, always are. Cities underwater, parks after sunset. You feel it too, don't you?" Rita hesitates at the police tape, but her aversion to cops is overcome eventually by her desire to investigate. Ducking under it, she reaches the spot where the body ought-to-be-but-isn't with a mixture of disappointment and relief (assuming nobody accosts her). "Oh. I guess there's no way they would've just left her here." But the traces aren't so easy to get rid of. Steeling herself, Rita takes a little breath in over her tongue, tasting the air. She expects to smell rot. Was there anything unusual mixed in?
Charlotte Newman	In the food court, some few minutes after the Pizza Distraction, something pop-cracks. Blocky distortion forms near the middle of the empty food court and Charlotte S L I D E S S I D E W A Y S into this side of reality. The distortion fades while she quickly checks herself. Her bat of choice hangs from a strap wrapped around the handle. Without wasting time, the girl sets off through Southcourt towards the shops she recognizes from the viral video she saw earlier. Due to the positioning though, this means she's approaching the scene from the opposite side from where the boys entered from.
Stanley Padgett	RITA: Your Watch sources are pretty well connected. Some people at the Sheriff's Department leaked to you that the cops can't tell if the lady was alive or dead when she pitched herself over the edge of the railing, but they are definitely trying to link this to the fainting incident. The family of the victim is still being located, because she's from out of state, and moved here as part of the tech boom.
Kukuru	Whether Kukuru notices one of the officers approaching her or simply declines to care might be unclear to those that don't know who she is. Those who do will most certainly notice that telltale vacant smile on her face signifying that, no, she just doesn't care. She might not have noticed or even considered the possibility of someone trying to stop her. Upon reaching the group, she beams a little bit more. "He-llo, Stanley and Remee and Charlie and..." She trails off while leveling that vacant stare right at John, eventually canting her head slowly to the side. ".. Hello there! My name's Kukuru. Ku-ku-ru. Nice to meet you! I've brought snacks again~" She promptly offers the contents of her bag: Individually packed baggies of waffles with syrup, bacon, sausage, and salami baked right into them. Rita gets a separate container that's far more opaque with all sorts of stickers and shiny stuff all over the outside to keep the contents hidden, and there's one more container in there that's slipped right back into Kukuru's pocket for some reason. "It's kind of like a dream, too... I wonder if this is what it's like to go to a theme park without anyone else around." Kukuru taps a finger to her chin, then frowns after a moment. "It's... Lonely. Like a birthday party without enough guests." Kukuru just climbs right over the tape. She waves pleasantly at the cops she sees, too, still wearing that same bright smile with all of that unwavering/unknowing confidence about being right where she needs to be rather than skulking around. Approaching the taped off area in the EAST ATRIUM, she squats low to the ground and starts shuffling towards those evidence markers, relying on her SPECIAL EYES to comb over the areas around the markers to try and spot any really small, yet suspicious things that might have been missed by whoever might have picked through this place first.
John Doe	John looks up from his phone to look at Rita who is actually talking to him. Surprised by this, he tilts his head to one side to stare at her for a moment. "I'm never supposed to be anywhere. So why not be here instead of somewhere else?" he says, with a mischievous grin. "So I guess this means you're one of the people from the radio.." Also, he finds her cute. He pauses when the Pizza happens. "Oh hey, a convenient distraction. Let's go inside," he says, grabbing Stan by the shoulder and pushing him forward. He also takes a moment to open one of the pizza boxes and places the gun inside. He also takes a slice of pizza with him to munch on while they go inside. The quiet mall causes him to look around. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up, though Rita voices her opinion first. "Yeah. It's a place where people are supposed to be, so the lack of people really draws attention to how big and empty it is." "Oh yeah, here is the notepad of the detective," John says, waving it in his hand. "In case you want to read it. My reading level isn't the same as most people's so you might have better luck with figuring things out in here than I did."
Remee Halcyon	OH WELL THEY ARE JUST LETTING THEM IN NOW ... It's not like Remee's going to miss that money, but the pizza really smelled good (she ordered stuff she likes just in case this whole thing fell through, she'd at least have pizza) and now she's hungry. "I don't know," she says, leaving stealth to join Rita during the walk over to the atrium. "You ever been to... abandoned buildings and such? Or places that are nearly built and finished but the people haven't moved into them yet? You get used to it after a while." Kukuru has snacks. Remee goes for one of the bags immediately, and the contents disappear quickly. If nobody else wants their waffle, Remee also takes theirs. Since people are just sort of going along being visible, Remee just takes the path of least resistance and stays so as well. Being wolfy will help clearly mark her as a offworlder-to-not-be-messed-with too, right? At the spot, Remee doesn't have nearly as much hesitation as Rita does at the tape, and ducks under it without breaking her stride. Immediately, she's sniffing at the air - trying to sense something different. Like, as in, something different. Some trace of Wonderland, or some similar trace of something else.
Stanley Padgett	Outside, there is now a very confused Pizza Guy being loudly arrested for having a police sidearm in his possession.
John Doe	John looks at Kukuru. "We've already met...but I guess you won't remember that," John says disheartened.
Stanley Padgett	Some of the Crime Scene People start to stop the Elites from snooping into the site, but get called off by another one of the higher ups. That said, the cops ARE reporting this to their superiors, so they know that offworlders have found this Interesting. Stanley takes a piece of summer sausage from Kukuru, and then shifts over to snap some pictures from outside the barrier. A cop DOES square up to hassle him though. He's still wearing his school uniform, and is thus fair game. EX SENSES: See No Evil? Kukuru's sight will catch much of what might have happened here. It looks like just as they say, someone about human sized pitched themselves over the side of the atrium. It looks like they landed halfway on a table, from the scratch marks and remains of glass on the tiles. Smell No Evil? Rita will get some sniffs. There's a LOT of disinfectant in the air, though, the Hazmat team was pretty thorough in making sure that nothing Biological or Terrorism was happening here. The familiar smell of rotten human blood still trickles in the air though, not completely washed away by the teams preventing TERRORISM. The scent is again, most prevalent from where Kukuru can see the damage pattern. Sense No Evil? Remee's Spooky Senses are kicking over into high gear here. Not just from the sudden wash of energy as Charlotte shifts herself into the Real. Something here is Wrong, but it didn't start here. There's a tinge of Death in the air, but not the same 'rotten' death the others are catching. Something here Should Have Been Dead, and that sense is coming from the 4th floor, where the lady pitched herself.
Stanley Padgett	Charlotte's approach from the other direction, from out of the Reversal will let her spot the Elites trundling around the crime scene, but also a good sight of Stanley with his shockingly blue hair getting shaken down by a patrol officer who's walked over. "Listen, kid, we saw you outside, and I get that you're sneaking in here with these folks, but-" "Officer, i AM with them. Rita, Kukuru, Remee, I'm with you guys, right?" "Yeah sure, they're here doing important stuff, alright, don't just go taking pictures. You're probably here to sell them online or something." Stanley's jaw sets and he looks like he's about to say something He'll Regret.
Remee Halcyon	The advantages of having Big Bad Wolf 'genetics' are sometimes not apparent or applicable but - when they do come through, they certainly do come through... ... that is, they certainly do come through in a confusing way. "Something... 'should have been dead'," she mutters to herself, trying to parse the sense in the same way someone would try to parse and put into words the same way they'd try to describe a new taste, and in a similar way that the latter would throw out a lot of nonsense about 'earthy with undertones of copper' she's got 'should have been dead'. "Excuse me," she says, to Rita, and starts heading off - before briefly coming back to say something more. "Oh, if I fall off or get pushed or whatever, don't try to catch me, alright? You might get hurt yourself," she says to Rita, and then goes to head to the stairs. Up the stairs, to the fourth floor - checking for the origin of the new 'scent'...
Charlotte Newman	As Stanley squares up on the cop, Charlotte just sort of-- interdicts him by latching on to his arm and using that to turn him away from the officer entirely. Still hanging on, she leans close, her voice a whisper so the officer doesn't overhear. "The other side of this place is usually crawling with monsters but it's been totally cleaned out," Her head tilts towards John, "Unless you two have been tidying up errant bad vibes, something else is going on." Only then does she release him and step back to give her peer some space, glancing over towards Rita, Remee, and Kukuru as they investigate the site. Her eyes wander up the balconies and railings to the fourth floor when Remee mentions it, letting out a thoughtful little noise.
Kukuru	"We diiiid? Aw, I'm sorry." Kukuru pouts briefly as she approaches John, reaching out to him with her free arm in what is most likely a hug. It is! Right into her chest, even, to try and console him for a good half minute or so before letting go. "I won't forget next time, okay?" She forgets to ask for his name, but Rita does! With her eyes picking up the signs of the scuffle, though, she wrinkles her nose while following the scratch marks and glass pieces on the tiles around the area (with her eyes, anyway) to try and track down where they're coming from. Remee mentions that it might have come from upstairs, and Kukuru is about to head up that-a-way when John brings her attention to the officer hassling Stanley. Rita says she's got it handled, though, so Kukuru places her faith that-a-way, and she instead opts to follow Remee upstairs! Or... At least to the staircase itself. She waits until nobody's looking right at her, and then she just cheats by teleporting right up there with an ominous purple energy cloud (along with anyone else that wants to take the short-lived shortcut up there). Hopefully, there's nobody looking right at the staircase when Kukuru comes out of the second cloud. If there isn't, it's time to continue that search with her SPECIAL EYES, although she won't be quite sure where to start without someone else directing her in the right vague direction.
Rita Ma	"You ever been to... abandoned buildings and such?" "... the lack of people really draws attention to how big and empty it is." "I've been to a lot of them. But it's kind of different, Miss- uh, sorry, just Remee! Mr. Doe is right. This isn't even ruined, is it? Everything's still clean. The lights are still on. That makes it worse, not better." She accepts the notebook he's waving around with visible bafflement, but gratitude. "How'd you get this, Mr. Doe? Do they not even notice when you..." She glances back over her shoulder, expecting some angry detective to come running after them at any moment. "They really don't, huh? That's kind of sad, isn't it?" After that exchange, her eyes linger on Remee's face. Something's just on the top of Rita's tongue, but it takes her a few long seconds to say it. "Remee? Did you forget to shave this morning?" At the crime scene, Rita's nose wrinkles up and she recoils, both from the smell of rot and of disinfectant. The expression lingers as she gets to leafing through the stolen notebook. It's only Kukuru's gift that un-wrinkles her: she takes the opaque container in both hands with a little gasp, cracks the lid just a sliver to peek inside, and then lights up with joy. "Thank you, Ms. Kukuru!! You're the best. I'll bring something for you too next time, okay? I promise." Around that point, she notices Stanley's predicament post-Charlotte-interdiction, and asserts their connection by laying a hand on his shoulder. Looking up at the cop, her expression shifts from 'sunny' to 'emphatically neutral'. "He is with me. Leave him alone." That's less polite than she's been with anyone so far, Shadows included. "Actually, could you come with me, Mr. Stanley?" Grabbing his hand, she dips somewhere out of sight- possibly into an empty store- and foists a jacket onto him that didn't exist a second ago, a little too glossy and heavy-smooth to be any kind of fabric he recognizes. It's red and gray and has some kind of complicated serpent-like insignia on the sleeve. "There. If you wear that, you won't look like just anyone, right?" She puts on what she thinks is a reassuring smile. "Because you're not 'just anyone'. So don't worry."
John Doe	John shakes his head towards Charlotte. "I haven't been there at all, I only go there if I have to," John admits, though doesn't elaborate any more on that. "So completely empty..? Something has either killed them all or has them spooked..." a pause. "I don't like the first option, but it does line up.." Kukuru reaches out for an awkward hug, to which John isn't sure what to actually say or do, so he doesn't...do anything? This is extremely weird because he's not used to that kinda greeting, never mind one so motherly slash warm. "Uh...alright sure. Nice to remeet you I guess?" he seems less dejected by this. He also grabs a sausage. Rita comments on his curse and he sighs, "No they don't, and yes it is. I'd be okay with talking about this later but right now we go bigger fish to fry," John says, without any awareness. Rita and Kukuru are going to help Stanley, so instead John moves to head up with Remee. "Don't worry about being thrown off, if they can throw me off we got bigger problems so I'll help."
Stanley Padgett	Upstairs, there's a similar scene as the one down below. There's police tape, there are evidence markers on the ground, and there are crime scene people milling around, though now they're a bit more alert as the Elites start to pile up to their region. One of them even steps forward to look at Kukuru and Remee as they come upstairs... A petite, slim person wearing a Suffolk County ME's office jacket, carrying a beefy tablet computer. "Hello, I'm Lieutenant Morrows, is there something we can help you with? We're... happy to have assistance on this..." She is not happy to have 'assistance' on this. KUKURU: The place has been similarly sanitized as below. The Hazmat people really did think they were dealing with some sort of terrorist attack or something here. But that sniffer and those eyes can spot droplets of 'goop' in the cracks of some of the tiles leading up to the glass railing. Smells like Dead People, even through all the sprayed decon fluids. REMEE: This place is closer to 'where something happened' but it's not the RIGHT place. That nice lady what pitched herself over the side Should Have Been Dead up here. But she kept moving, didn't she? Right over that railing and all the way down to the floor 60 feet below.
Stanley Padgett	John, the Cops still aren't looking at you, giving you a perfect chance to fuck with them. What do?
John Doe	John sees the cop, sees that they're not happy to have actual help, and frowns. John reaches out to grab the tablet and then chuck it over the side of the railing, down to the floors below. Of course, she might just interpret this as being extremely clumsy and losing it over the edge. John also picks the gun off her holster. Something for her to panic about when she gets her broken tablet back.
Stanley Padgett	DOWNSTAIRS CREW: Stanley and his blue hair are pulled away from the cop momentarily "...I haven't been on the other side today. I didn't need to go in, so..." He frowns. "...what like, none of the Angry Neon Guys? The little doggo wolf ghosts? The weird things with too many hands? None of 'em?" The officer leans in to try and eavesdrop... right when Rita pulls them all away from the scene. The cop is about to start something but that LOOK from Rita sorta skewers him into place. The empty store usually sells what is Very Definitely Not Counterfeit Sports Jerseys. The young Fool looks at Rita, and lets out a very complicated noise, before accepting that Jacket and looking from Rita to Charlotte. "...I'm trying to feel like that but it's real... heckin' hard to think about that some days. I came here to help and all I've been able to do is make cops grumpy at me." He grumbles, and takes another bite of his Kukuru Special, before looking to Charlotte. "...So, there's... there's no Shadows on the other side? In THIS place? You're kidding me."
Remee Halcyon	> "Remee? Did you forget to shave this morning?" "... Shave?" Remee doesn't understand the question. > "Hello, I'm Lieutenant Morrows, is there something we can help you with? We're... happy to have assistance on this..." "Oh sure - if you want to help us, could you get us some more food?" says Remee, her attention more on the scene than the investigator she's talking to. "Like, any sort of thing that has or is made of meat." Her nose wriggles, as she considers what she's picking up. This isn't the right place... "I'm pretty sure I'll need it. Anyway, I need to follow this trail, so don't panic, alright?" The right place isn't down on the ground... but it's not up here on the fourth floor... So could it be...? Remee takes half a second to steel herself, and then makes the leap.
Kukuru	Rita's and John's respective uncrunklings have Kukuru's spirits lifted quite noticeably as she practically skips from spot to spot (not literally because she'd trip and smash her face into the floor) in her search for more clues on the upper floor. Noticing the goop in the cracks, she has to fight her instinct to just tear out some of the tiles and brute force samples out of that for smarter people in order to not cause a scene (yet). Good timing, too, since one of the locals approaches her. Still beaming, Kukuru stops in her investigation to instead offers Morrows her usual lazy wave. "He-llo there~ We're-" She pauses briefly to count something on her fingers, then continues. "I'm with the Concord, and we're here to look into stuff around here. My name's Kukuru." Beat, then repeat. "Ku-ku-ru. It's nice to meet you~" Whether Kukuru realizes it or not, there's a supernaturally soothing aura about her even beyond her almost airheaded demeanor. It's almost like a gentle suggestion rather than a command, as if there's a voice telling Morrows and any other officers near-ish Kukuru that there's nothing to be worried about because Kukuru and her friends are here. "Help with... Hmm. Oh! Some of my friends are helping with all this, too, so could you let your friends know not to bother them? They're way smarter than me, so you can trust them." She recommends with that same bright smile, idly bobbing her head from side to side as she keeps staring right at Morrows and what may or may not be her tablet or gun with John Doe doing his own thing with them.
Charlotte Newman	When the cop leans in, Charlotte shoots in a defiant Rich Girl Scowl; but it's Rita's concealed menace that really puts him off the chase. She trots after Rita when she draws Stanley away, since she wasn't done talking to him, though does give the pair space. She does reach up to support one arm with the other hanging at her side. "All of them are gone, at least for now," she admits now that whispering isn't necessary, "Even the freaky hands with eyeballs on them. If it's neither of you and it wasn't me, than like John said, either they got spooked or someone else is hunting them." Turning a bit, she glances back out into the mall's main corridor where all the investigating is focused. "Southcourt's usually filled with the stronger ones, I guess since there's so many people here every day for them to spin off of. I usually come to the Reverse here to try and get stronger. But it's just-- empty, now." Her gaze shifts back to Stanley and Rita, "It's even more empty on the Reverse right now than it is in the Real."
Stanley Padgett	UPSTAIRS CREW: The dulcet tones of Kuruku DO put the locals at ease for a moment or two, until Morrows tries to reassert control. "I... this is a sensitive matter, so we just would prefer that you don't touch, just-" She suddenly "loses her grip on her tablet", and it goes flying over the edge of the railing for no reason. "Oh! I... wh-" And then a werewolf is leaping over the side too. So like, that's happening. Good news, the cops aren't worried about you messing around with their crime scene now. Someone ELSE just threw themselves over the side of the atrium. Remee, you are just at the start of your descent when you FEEL the spot where the victim Actually Died. Just a few feet down, after she pitched herself over. So. Something happened to her upstairs, she staggered around... and fell. >get cop gun John you are once again in possession of a handgun. Please add that to your inventory, but also your List Of Sins.
Rita Ma	The Fool's self-deprecation makes Rita wince. "I understand, Mr. Stanley. Feeling like you can't help is awful, isn't it? But... everyone feels that way, sometimes. Every hero has a few problems they can't deal with. It doesn't mean they're not special." Her expression drops further when Charlotte explains, and not just because all of the vivid monster descriptions are giving her goosebumps (though they are). "If there's no monsters all of a sudden, but bad things are still happening, it can only be because a bigger monster moved in. That's what it always is," she says. That's quite the leap of logic. And yet... "Assuming that's true, do either of you know where we'd start looking for that sort of monster?" Maybe it's the fluttering of clothes in freefall that alerts her mid-conversation, or just some prickling intuition. Whatever the cause, Rita looks back over her shoulder just as Remee is halfway through her jump. "Ms. Remee!!!" It should be much, much too late. It isn't quite. Rita crosses the court in a fraction of a second with a squeal of sneaker-rubber-on-hard-floor, 'kicking off the ground' more than 'running' to beat terminal velocity. Even then it takes a sliding dive to try and catch Remee in her arms before her new friend can break a leg.
Remee Halcyon	Oh hey, so that's where the right spot was. That's what's on Remee's mind as she falls. Not the impending impact, not her life flashing in front of her eyes (there's things she'd rather forget, anyway). Not the realization that she did something that she did something rather reckless without properly warning everyone. And then she lands. Not, as she expects, on the hard floor - but instead in some soft arms. Which means that ironically she's stunned more by the catch than she would have been if she hit the hard floor, since she's not sure at first what happened. Remee blinks at Rita. "... Hi there?" she says, not making any move to get out of the smaller girl's arms.
Kukuru	"Don't worry. We'll be careful~" Kukuru 'reassures' Morrows while avoiding saying anything to indicate that she won't touch anything. She's about to say something else, but stops when she sees the grip tumbling off the edge. "Oh no... Be ca-" And then Remee goes right off that ledge. It takes her several moments to understand what's going on, then another to remember to feign surprise. One of her partners here wouldn't do that for no good reason, after all, and Remee did warn them! Thus, Kukuru only looks shocked for as long as it takes for Morrows and the other cops to leave her view of vision, though, before taking advantage of that opening. Kukuru starts gathering up the goop she had seen and smelled in the cracks of the tiles leading up to the guard rails, just digging her fingers into those cracks to pulls up some of those cracks and shove them into a little baggie. For good measure, she also snags one of the goop'd tiles entirely by just tearing it out of the ground. Can't be too careful about gathering appropriate samples for the science team! She definitely isn't the science team herself, though, but she can at least shove those containers of evidence into her never-bulging pockets so nobody suspects a thing (while looking at her and never looking at the missing tile).
John Doe	John now has a gun. He'll find something to do with that later, which means it'll be trouble. This happens right as Renee goes over the edge, which he blinks at. Running to the edge he looks down at what happens. Which is Rita making the catch. "Oh, nice..." And then Kukuru just rips a chunk of the ground out. Huh. "Stronger than you look, huh?" He comments, a bit starstruck by all of this stuff happening around him. "I wonder if Renee was doing with jumping off..?" a pause, "Hey why did you throw yourself off? Are you okay? Do you wana talk about it?" he shouts down.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley grumbles at Rita and Charlotte. "I mean, we'd have to go to the Reversal to check, but if there's something Big over there that's spooking everything else, I just don't think we should be making the trip without some prep work before-" And then Rita is doing her Super Hero Thing, and Stanley just... stares. "...so cool."
Charlotte Newman	Charlotte lowers her gaze in thought when Rita states what's clearly on her mind as well. Stanley beats her to the punch of answering the actual question stated, though, and so she simply affirms his statement with a nod and adds on, "No doubt something's lurking there. The terrain doesn't look any different, so it's not like Wonderland, at least. Just the same weird Reversal weather that happens sometimes." Her eyes close, arms folding with a thoughtful look on her face, "I suppose we could cross over and look around. We could just leave if things get too--" Rita zooms past her, prompting the girl's eyes to snap open, "--nuts?" It takes her a second of glancing around to figure out where her fellow Watch-member has gone. She stares for a second, then glances back at Stanley, "Did that just happen?"
Rita Ma	Rita blinks a couple of times before fully registering the situation vis-a-vis the wolf in her arms. One gets the impression that she, too, is a little bewildered by what she just did. "Oh! Um. Hi, Ms. Remee." An awkward pause. Lamely: "How are you feeling?" She rises from her knees before putting Remee down, absentmindedly disregarding the extra work involved, and then awkwardly dusts herself off, as if trying to insist through her body language that it's No Big Deal Really, and Definitely Not Embarrassing to have given a loose acquaintance an impromptu sorta-hug. Stanley is very definitely wrong. She is uncool. Any remaining awkwardness, however, is papered over by going on the attack with questions. "I'm sorry, would you have been okay? I guess I wasn't thinking at all. What happened up there? Did a psychic monster make you fall down, too?" And once all that's wrapped, she finally turns her attention back to Stanley and Charlotte, looking a little bit fatigued by the experience but eager to move on. "So, what kind of prep work? Just going and looking around doesn't sound like a bad idea, as long as you both think it's safe, but dealing with the White Rabbit almost got really ugly. I'd like to make sure we're ready."
Remee Halcyon	Remee is not, technically, a princess, so that doesn't make Rita a Hero for her feats, but Remee does tick a lot of the boxes? ... Anyway! "Thank you," says Remee, politely, whether or not she actually needed to be saved. It does mean she doesn't have to deal with regenerating broken legs, at least, which is - no, actually, that is something to show some gratitude for. She relays her findings via the radio, and decides to hang out with the DOWNSTAIRS CREW for a bit while the rest of the scooby gang works out the otherside stuff. Oh, right, she should show some of that gratitude. "Hey... do you want to grab drinks later?" she asks Rita.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley is already shuffling back over to the crime scene tape, as the cops start to react to 'falling wolfs' and 'leaping somethings' and now there's multiple cops on their radios calling for "please advise". "Hey, that was a nice catch! I-" And now Remee is asking Rita out for a date. And Stanley's going to have to rearrange his mental graphing.
Rita Ma	"Huh?" Rita looks back over her shoulder, once more. Drinks? Oh, right, drinks! Like the fancy sweet kind that Liza mixes for her sometimes! Sounds like a great way to wind down after a stressful afternoon. Surely this is a completely innocuous offer. Clasping her hands together: "Of course, Ms. Remee! I'd love to! Is five o'clock okay?"
Kukuru	"Mhm! I eat everything on my plate~" Kukuru assures John with perhaps the least convincing flexing of her arms and biceps. She's nowhere close to emaciated, but she doesn't really radiate beeflord energy. And yet, she just did that thing without breaking a sweat. "I'm sure she had a good reason to. She did tell us before it, you know?" Another bit of reassurance is offered, and then she too joins John at peering over the ledge at... Remee AND Rita! Although it's a little awkward looking, it still has Kukuru giggling lightly and waving down at them, but she doesn't loiter for long. She's still got work to do, after all! That involves yoinking another tile for Charlotte after John asks her to. She makes sure to gather up more of the stuff in those cracks, too, although she does pause to stare at her handiwork by the time she's done pulling up two more tiles for good measure. "I wonder if they're gonna notice..." She murmurs, possibly to John if he's still nearby. She opts not to stick around to find out, and she just ducks around some other store around the corner to keep an eye on the crime scene from a distance while also scrounging around for cheap vending machine snacks (ideally ice cream) (of the FUTURE).
Stanley Padgett	There is an entire, unguarded Dippin' Dots Machine right there for Kukuru, tempting and taunting her with Space Age-ness and Quasi-Ice Cream potential.
Stanley Padgett	Also the crime team is... less than happy with Kukuru tearing up bits of their scene, but it's not like they can stop the Elites from conducting their own investigations, can they? Not really. It will take Kukuru some searching to find enough blood left for the Watch though.
John Doe	"Oh did she..? I thought she was just worried about getting thrown off the edge by a monster or something," John says towards Kukuru. Also, drinks? How old are both of them? They both seemed closer to his age than his drinking age..? Oh wait, why does he care? What are people going to do, stop him? John looks at the cops noticing Kukuru's actions but doing jack and shit about it. "I think they notice, but being an elite means they can't do jack and shit. See I keep telling Stanley to stand up for himself. Cops can't do shit to him with that persona." "Oh hey, is that an ice cream vending machine?"
Kukuru	The crime team will understand. They'll have to, anyway, because Kukuru's not really stopping to ask them for permission ever. Her fingers can take it, at least, even if whoever owns this place is going to need even more renovations done by the time she's done here. Fortunately for the owners of the dot machine, though, Kukuru is sometimes a law-abiding Elite! She promptly buys two of the biggest orders of the stuff that she can with real/regular money, and handing one of them to John before pouring some into her face. "Mhm! The stuff's fun to eat, and it's-" She pauses, cringing momentarily from the brain freeze. "Rrmgh... Yeah, Stanley needs to be more confident about what he does. It's not a bad thing to want to live a quiet life, though. Attention can be kinda... Annoying sometimes, you know? It's harder to get a decent nap in if there's too much noise." She's also careful not to make a mess while eating or throwing things out later when she's done.