Girl found dead in Tir, little to no evidence left behind (Onging news story)

[Nevver]

Janella "Nevver" McCallagher was sleeping, as usual, when her comm started to chirp. To her though, it wasn't as much of a chirp as it was a squawk at that particular moment as she awoke from her slumber. "H'lo?" she mumbled.

The reply on the other end of the signal was the high-pitched cooing and squeaking of a Leet. Still dazed, Nevver replied with, "What's that? Little Timmy fell into the well?"

There was more chirping coming from the comm. Even though she couldn't comprehend the language, the tone of the squeaks was unmistakable. "Missmaul? You're speaking in Leet. I can't understand a chirp that you're saying."

There were more frantic squeaks on the line followed by, "Nebber!!! I'm permaleet! I need help!"

Having been awake for only a few seconds and not wanting to confront anything that interfered with her cocoon of sheets and quilts, Nevver sighed. "Leet is not permanent, Meeshmowr." She was well aware of Missmaul's affinity with Leets and fondness for pepperoni pizza and other things that one shouldn't eat before going to sleep at night. So, she figured that Missmaul must have had a strange dream and was still half awake, imagining the whole thing.

"Grrr! Nebber!!! I'm serious!!! I didn't do this to myself! I woke up as a Leet this morning and I'm not running Pronouncement of Greatness! I need a Doctor or someone who can get me out of this!"

Nevver began to realize that Missmaul really was being serious.

"Okay. Let me get some names for you, then I'll come over and we'll see about getting you to a doctor and back to normal. Hold on a second."

Nevver slipped out of her warm sheets and shivered in the cool, fall air that had crept into her bedroom during the night. She enjoyed the feeling of the chilly air against her face as she walked over to her desk, and did a quick search of her contacts before returning to sit on her bed and address the comm on the night stand.

"Okay, Meesh, here are some names. I want you to try and contact one of them while I take a quick shower. I'll be over in a little while. Try Aleny, Trepdor, Docouting or...," Nevver hesitated, "Holliander. That last one is very talented, but she's... unconventional."

The reply was a series of happy chirping and cooing followed by, "Thank you, Nebber! Now hurry! I have tomato sauce all over my face from a slice of pizza I tried to eat and have no arms to use a napkin so I need you to wipe it!"

Nevver grinned and laughed with good nature, "You're one in a million, Meeshmowr!"

With that, she said "goodbye" and headed off to her bathroom to take her shower.

[MissMaul]

Cristin Locknane applied a few last changes to her new robot, grinning. It was her first android, and she hoped it worked.

Taking a screwdriver, she put the back panel in securely, and stood up, admiring her work. Cristin pulled a remote control pad from her pocket, and gingerly knelt down. She flicked a switch on the robot’s back, and stepped away anxiously.

A few seconds later, the robot rose and turned to her, its blank face twitching slightly. A buzz came from its head as the robot took note of her facial features, size, height, and other notes.

“It recognizes me,” she breathed. It was working so far.

On edge with anticipation, Cristin cautiously pressed a button on the keypad. Slowly, the robot gave a small chirp, and began walking across the field. Cristin dropped to the ground and quietly followed it, afraid she would disturb its thought processes.

At last, the robot located a Leet, and proceeded to push it towards her. A smile spread across her face, escalating to a grin as she laughed aloud. “I did it!” she shouted proudly, scattering the Reets from the previously silent field. The Leet scampered away, as Cristin ran to her house. She couldn’t wait to write her cousin Katelin about it…

Where was Katelin, anyway? Cristin hadn’t received a letter from her in two weeks at least. Commlink communication was so much more convenient, but she hadn’t had much luck convincing her parents that technology wasn’t so bad. Honestly, they haven’t warmed up to the Rubi-Ka way of life ever since we came here.

They didn’t seem to understand that farm work was so much more easily done with a robot to help out. Not only this, but they plain and simply refused to buy her a commlink- or a gun, for that matter.

“I’m going to find her.” Cristin said aloud to herself. But where...?

A Gridstream Productions party.



Thirty minutes later, Cristin 'Misstrixie' Locknane sat in a taxi with her robot folded up in a backpack. “Stret West Bank, please.” She said, handing 100 credits to the driver. Programming her robot to bring her snacks and sodas could wait- something wasn’t right…

[Gridfan]

Gridfan was sitting. chatting with DJ Epiphonic GSP's latest addition to the DJ stable plus busy with the guild chat on comlink.

Suddenly a young lovely girl comes by. presenting herself as Cristine "Misstrixie" Locknane.

Gridfan doesnt really pay attention to her.
"Has anyone seen Katelin Locknane lately?" she asked.

Gridfan gets his recollection mixed up. (maybe it's the Leetpiss he's drinking) Saying she (katelin) tried to kill Missmaul.

Linheru sitting nearby quickly corrected Gridfan.
Clarifying that Katelin was Missmaul and was almost killed recently. worrid but reassured a bit after quick questioning.
Linheru inform the young girl that he had seen Missmaul last at Rompas in Omni Ent. The young girl didn't know where this was.
And didn't have any cash left to get there.

So she sat down in a chair near a wall listening to the music. unshure of what to do next...

After a while Gridfan walked over to her, worried...
After a brief talk. making sure she wasnt hungry. (she did look a bit skinny he tought). And actually asking why she wanted to find Missmaul, he reassured her that Missmaul was fine. And after a bit more talking and learrning she had no comlink he sent a message to Missmaul.

But there was no reply. "The receipient is not available!" his comlink beeped. "Message has been logged!".
after informing the young girl off this he tought best to leave her alone for a while, heading back to the rest of the Gridders and reet heads having a chill time in the next stall...

He couldn't help worrying over the girl tough. Glancing over now and gain to make sure she was ok.
"Sure hope Missmaul checks her messages soon, I hope her young cosuin isn't in some trouble. Or Missmaul again for that matter, she has had some crazy days lately indeed".

[MissMaul]

Cristin was a little embarassed. Everyone was older than her, and she hoped she hadn't talked too much. Her robot (Which she'd dubbed Pusher Robot by now, after an old-earth cartoon) was roaming around Reet's somewhere, and didn't seem to want to come when she called.

At least that Gridfan man was nice.

She hoped Katelin would be back soon. She would know what to do...once she found Katelin, she would drive Cristin home so she wouldn't miss school and everything would be okay. (Being eleven years old she wasn't able to assess the situation very well.)

These couches sure are soft.

Maybe I'll go to sleep, just for a little while...

[MissMaul]

Missmaul woke up and rolled out of bed the next morning to the sound of her commlink chirping across the room. The sunlight hit her face directly and it made her head hurt. She felt hot and sticky under all the fur, and altogether somewhat miserable.

"Nnngh."

MM picked herself up off the floor and walked over to her commlink. (She didn't fall down this time, Wyldthing had helped her learn to walk). Pressing a button with her tail to make it stop beeping, she listened to the message- from Gridfan. Must have come while I was asleep.

...Cristin.

MM had forgotten to write back, and explain what had happened after she was ressurected...Cristin could be sort of a pest, and an eleven-year-old know-it-all when she had to be, but adorable all the same. But in Stret West?

Not possible. MM knew Cristin's family lived on a farm in Tir County somewhere...the taxi fee to Stret West would have depleted the few credits she posessed. Still wondering if the rumor was true, MM rolled out her apartment door and began running as fast as she could for the ICC whompa.

---

MM arrived in Reet's- finally. The traffic through the whompa system had been high, and she'd had to wait almost 45 seconds to be transported once. She ran for the GSP lounge, listening only to her tiny feet pattering in the halls.

Reet's was almost empty in the morning. Except for a few passed-out partiers on couches here and there, it was a ghost town. Urgently, she tripped over someone asleep on the floor and entered the GSP lounge.

"Hello?" she yelled, her voice echoing around the large room.

Nobody answered. MM pattered up the ramp and headed for the couches, very much doubting anyone was there.

And to her wonder, there was a small figure curled up in a chair, asleep- a robot in stand-by next to her. MM smiled a little, and hopped onto her younger cousin's lap. Suddenly thinking of a way to wake Cristin up, she leaned forward and licked her on the face.

Cristin woke up almost instantly, and soon grinned. "Katelin!!" she shouted in the silence of Reet's, and squeezed MM the leet tightly. "Ouch- not so tight" MM replied giggling, and was quickly dropped to the floor. "You're a leet!" Cristin said giggling. Cristin always loved it when she went into leet form and did her tricks.

MM frowned a little. "Well-yes, but it's a little more complicated this time." Cristin didn't seem to mind, and went on smiling. "I'm so glad your back, why haven't you been writing to me?" Suddenly, Cristin's expression turned to that of sudden fear.

"A nice man...said someone tried to...kill you...are you allright?"

MM sighed. This was going to take a bit of explanation...

"Yes sweetie, someone did...a bad person. But my friends got her for me, and I'm okay now. See?" MM jumped into the air, and licked her cousin on the nose quickly. Cristin giggled. She seemed to be content with this answer.

MM thought a few minutes, and decided on something...

"Tell your bot to follow you- I'll buy you a bronto burger and some ice cream."

[MissMaul]

Cristin licked at her sticky fingers, finishing the ice cream. MM had gone off to run some errands, so she was watching at all the interesting people.

She had been amazed at these people and all their talk. After growing up sheltered from anyone remotely different, she loved just listening to people speak, of leveling and missions and other incredible things.

And they sit on the TABLE!

Cristin studied the lingo, and was still attempting to determine what an 'MT' was when she heard some familiar names.

Anake, Gridstream Productions, Tarryk, and Wyldthing were all being thrown around- people MM had talked of in her letters. Maybe I should ask them about this new place.

No, she was too shy.

Well...maybe she could say something. The girl she had figured as 'Anake' was sitting closest to her- a Nanomage. (She was amazed at the sight of any opifex, nanomage, or atrox)

"You look familiar. Does Katelin know you?"

Anake looked up. "Yeah, she's one of my dancers." Hmm, another thing that was familiar...The Gridstream Dancers. "She tells me about all these things in the big city." Cristin said, starting to talk a little more.

"I like it here." She continued happily. "I don't want to go back to Tir County, it's so boring on the farm." Anake smiled. "Yep, I should know- I live there. It does get pretty boring."

I like this Anake person. She's nice, I'll ask MM about her.

"I've lived there all my life. It's so much more interesting in the cities." Cristin thought aloud. "Someday I'm going to be a famous engineer and move here." Anake grinned, and began speaking on her commlink. For once, Cristin shut up.

After a while, Anake left. Cristin decided to go explore a little more, and see about getting a commlink...

((Yah, the time is all wrong- I know. Humor me and pretend it's midday. ;P ))

[Ditzie]

She kept her apartment in a perpetually pristine state. There were no pieces of bric-a-brac cluttering the shelves, no artwork on the walls, no plants, no reminders of family hanging warmly from the baren cold walls. Everything in the spartan room was there for functionality. A metal desk, cleared of everyting except for a datapad meticulously centered, with the edges lying exactly perpendicular to the sharp lines of the desk-top. A small couch, a floor lamp and a coffee table, with a coaster precisely centered in the lower left corner. Bookshelves lined with Medical Journals and Textbooks. Each book was organized by height, and the bindings of every single document or volume matched evenly, creating the illusion of one long unbroken row. The kitchen counter was kept in a virginal state, with only a single coffee machine, presently hissing as dark liquid ran into the caraff.

The bedroom was likewise spartan. A bed was centered on the back wall, with not a single wrinkle on spread or pillow. A nightstand cleared of everything except a single lamp. Two oak armoires at opposing ends of the room, and a mannaquin in the corner dressed with a full suit of Biomech Armor.

The door to the bathroom hissed open, sending a billowing cloud of steam into the bedroom. Her showers were ran so hot that she nearly scalded her body every morning. She stepped out into the bedroom with one towel wrapped around her body and another forming a turban enclosing her wet hair. She glanced over at the armoire on the far side of the room and alowed herself a small grin as she brought up images of the contents and the previous night's entertainment. She quickly abandoned those thoughts and opened the doors to the armoire closest to her, selected undergarments, shoes, a grey skirt and white high-collared top, and laid the pieces out on her bed. After inspecting the ensemble, and nodding approval, she returned to the bathroom to prepare for the day.

Twenty minutes later she sat at her desk, legs crossed and recrossed at the ankles, as she skimmed over newsfeeds on her datapad. She was paying close attention to the happenings in Tir. As she read about the latest updates, she couldn't keep her mind from wandering back to her childhood. Fighting the memories, her face crinkled in disgust. Her adult life was dominated by the need to control, but the memories were something she was completely submissive to. Raised in poverty and filthy living conditions in one of the Tir slums inprinted Dr. Holley "Holliander" Guiney with a life-long obsession with order and cleanliness. It was no surprise that within a month of beginning her medical training, the young woman abandoned her life with the clans and choose to come to Rome and it's clean orderly way of life.

A metalic, steril voice broke the silence of the apartment.

"You have an incomming message from Janella McCallagher."

This was not the first communique sent to the apartment this morning. For the past half hour, someone named Katelin Lochnane had been trying to reach her, but Holli never answered in-comming calls from people unknown to her.

"Send it through," she replied immediately. Her calculating mind immediately brought up the image of the tall brunnete, her sharp, wry and irreverant sense of humor, and her nickname, "Nevver". McCallagher was a board member of Devil's Advocate, an organization which Dr. Guiney had recently become indebted to. If she could repay her debt to the organization and it's Director Garret "Valaik" Clasen, she would be free of the shackles which pinched at her soul.

"What can I do for you Mrs. McCallagher," Holli asked in her best "let's get straight to business" voice.

"Hi," the voice came through her intercom system. "Nice to hear from you too," Nevver added with more than a hint of sarcasm. Not waiting for an answer, she asked, "You know anything about adventurers permanently trapped in leet form?"

Holli thought for a minute.

"Hello?" Nevver asked. "You still there?"

"I'm here" Holli answered her. "I've never heard of anything like that. But if you know someone in that condition, I have some time this afternoon. I could take a look at them."

"Okay, Great!" Nevver replied. "It's Missmaul, the winner of the Ms. Omni-Tech pageant. I'll fill you in on everything we know that's happened to her, and I'll send her over to see you."

"I'll be here," the 24-year old doctor replied before ending the conversation.

"Hmmmm. This could be interesting," Holli spoke to the empty room then went back to scanning her datapad.

[MissMaul]

MM lounged in her apartment, waiting for Cristin to get back. She'd supplied the girl with 100,000 credits and sent her on a shopping spree in Omni-1- her cousin had seemed so happy at the prospect at a first-hand look at Rubi-Ka technology.

Of course, she had more important things at mind...a doctor named Holliander was supposed to contact her any minute then, but didn't seem to be responding. I want to be human again as quickly as possible...

Finally, her commlink chirped back. MM hopped off the bed and pattered to the commlink, pressing the 'Accept' button with her nose. "Hello?" she squeaked with anticipation.

Holliander raised an eyebrow. Nevver wasn't kidding, this was most certainly a leet. "Are you the Leet girl? I guess you'd have to be...I need to see you in person, there's a theory I've got but I'd need to check things out." She spoke very fast.

MM grinned, hopeful for her de-leeting. "I'll be there as fast as I can." She ran for the door, and headed for Rome...

Meanwhile, Holliander was running through possibilities.

If this theory is true...well, heavy-duty cell restructuring is a very risky crime. This is no amateur...but nobody's perfect. If there are slight 'mistakes' in this girl's Leet form, then I must be right.

I suppose I'll know in 20 minutes.

[MissMaul]

((Oh...and yes, I know the story is dragging on the ground...don't worry- things are about to get interesting. ))

[MissMaul]

MM lay snoozing on a table in Holliander's office. The doctor had several papers spread out: a drawn diagram of a Leet and a few photographs from different angles. She was inspecting the Leet and looking for imperfections.

This is nothing like I've ever seen before. she wrote in her daily reports.

This girl has been killed once, ressurected, and then found herseld permenantly a leet. There are several possibilities, but there is no evidence for sure...As I suspected there are slight problems with the form, but I still have two theories and this tells me nothing. It could have been a cell-restructuring job. On the other hand, the imperfections could come from the wear and tear she's gone through...she could have a constantly running version of Pronouncement of Greatness, meaning her NCU has been hacked- by presumably a fixer.

I need more information, they have given me almost nothing to work with...

A little frustrated, Holliander stood up from the report and tapped MM on the shoulder to wake her up. "It seems you've either got a hacked NCU, or some serious cell-restructuring going on. I would contact a Fixer immediately to check things out...and if restructuring is the case, an experienced doctor." Half pushing MM out the door, she settled back into her chair and sighed.

I don't want to get involved in this.

((Gack...I need some help here....it isn't over!!))

[Gridfan]

Gridfan was busy working on some new grid bot codes,
tired and wanting a brek he checked his messages.
"*Sigh* None! Hmm! Oh I know. I'll call Missmaul and see if the rumours are indeed true!!!"

Missmaul's comlink made a *blip blip* sound,
jumping with a hope of joy she clicked the answer button with her tail.

Missmaul: yahuh?

Gridfan: Hi how are ya doing? I've been hearing you have some issues with um. Stuck in leet form was it? *stiffled laugh is heard barly*

Missmaul: Yahuh...it sucks

Gridfan: Well. You sound cute so it aint all bad! *a soft friendly laugh is heard*
Gridfan: Um. So how are ya, you stuck this way or?

Missmaul: Bah, I'm trying to get back to human as fast as possible
Missmaul: Stuck until I can get a fixer or experienced doc.

Gridfan: Hmm. fixers. Ya know. Oh I know. The Mockers. a guild of fixers. gotta be a handy fixer there that can help?

Missmaul: Possibly

Gridfan: I'm making some calls on the grid here hang on.

Missmaul hears the call gets muted...

Gridfan: Um Tris ya there?

Tristalyn: Yes, whats the matter?

Gridfan: Any mockers around? Missmaul needs some help by a good fixer. shes stuck in leetform it seems.

Tristalyn: nope sorry.. We're a bit busy

Gridfan: Well. Tellem to send a tell to Missmauls comlink when they are free. She may be a bit slow answering using her tail and all but.. thanks anyway...

Missmaul hears the call is unmuted again...

Gridfan: Hmm. Just did a quick check with Tristalyn she seems to be with a few mockers right now, but they are busy out in who knows where. I told them to send ya a message as soon as they are free...

Missmaul: Hm. Alright, I'll need to go a bit soon.

Gridfan: Well. when ya check your messages maybe there will be one from a fixer there. Good luck Missmaul. We'll get ya back to normal tough. Even tough leets are cute. *laughs*

*click*

Missmaul sighed, or rather being a leet it sounded more like a hickup with cute rrr sounds in it.

"How long am I gonna be stuck like this!"

[MissMaul]

((Alright. Here's teh situation.

People seem to have abandoned the story thinking it's over- IT'S NOT.

We're dragging on the ground and so, here's the grand update:

Someone from the Mockers un-leeted her. It's supposed to be a surprise, and she'll show up at the DA party tonight human again. I know, i'm cheating and it's a cop-out, but it seems to be the only solution I have.

Because people seem to think this is over, this story will now be moving to the thread 'Return of a Shadow' once I post it. (Still have to write the story for it)

Good day! ))