The Day They Became Real

"Alex Redwood. Gotcha!" Iris said in her usual cheerful, casual tone. She fed her picture into a slot, then tapped some buttons on the 'bus' dash whit one hand while driving with the other. *bing* "Found her!" she exclaimed. "It was not hard at all, really. Just tapped into the city's public records. This Internet of yours is so easy to hack."

"OK, let's be clear, I found her home address; we don't know if she's still there, specially after Changing. But, it's a place to start."

((OOC: Too Many Ideas, feel free to decide on the address, and whether Alex is there. If not, I'll handle it.))

Felix checked out the dashboard. Apparently, Alex lived in a quaint little blue house in Noe Valley. He smiled. "Okay, okay, this is cool. We'll just head over there right now! This is easier than I thought it was going to be!"

He went over to the replicator. "Does this thing make coffee? She could probably use a coffee right now, and honestly, so could I."

Jeremy glanced over at Felix, currently looking over the replicator to try and figure out how the machine worked.

"Huh, found something useful, I take it?"

Felix grinned at Jeremy. "This replicator is literally the best thing ever." He pressed a few buttons and ended up with a steaming mug of black coffee. "What, it doesn't add the cream and sugar on its own? Stupid technology..."

"You're making using this shit look easy, you know." Jeremy jokingly remarked, raising an eyebrow at Felix's complaint.

Marcia watched the others work with the replicator. She chuckled when Felix caused the machine to pour a hot cup of black coffee. Apparently, Felix wanted coffee with cream and sugar. When Felix was done, Marcia pressed a few buttons. Hopefully, these buttons would let her create a sandwich. Her plan worked, but this sandwich was unusual. It had steak and lettuce, but there was carrots, radishes and peppers. Why would you eat a sandwich with carrots and radishes?!

"Don't ask how I messed up..."

Despite her mistake, Marcia tried her sandwich. There's nothing gained if you're not adventurous once in while. A smile formed on her face as the sandwich was better than expected.

Alicia went over to the Replicator to see if she could help Jeremy. At first it indeed looked complicated, but she quickly realized the control pad had all the letters of the alphabet- just out of order.

She decided to try it. She found and pressed the letters h... a... and.. t!

-*Hmmm* it buzzed.

A hat materialized in her hands.

Smiling, she offered it to Jeremy.

Meanwhile, Iris chirped, "OK, Noe Valley, here we go!" and drove all the way to that district.

"Btw" she added, "Felix has the right idea. Take the chance to rest and grab a bite, folks."

A short while later, they arrived at their destination.

It was a cute neighborhood with lots of houses built on both sides of the streets. They soon found the blue house that Felix had indicated was Alex's home.

"Here we are!" the Time Lady announced. "But. We must be careful. Felix, I think it's up to you to see if she's home. The rest of us are strangers to her."

"Huh, simple as inputting the name of the item, thanks..." Jeremy said, nodding to Alicia.

"Look, I don't wanna be picky, but does it really gotta be that kinda hat? The kind that makes you feel like its wearer is going to utter a "m'lady" every time he sees a girl?"

Felix smiled and walked out of the bus, heading for the house. He had been waiting for this moment for at least a year. This was when he was finally going to be vindicated. When he was finally going to have a friend he could see the face of. When he'd finally have Alex at his side.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. "Alex! It's Felix!"

No answer.

Suddenly, the door was opened- by a middle aged woman.

"Alex! Is that y- oh" she suddenly said, realizing her mistake. "I thought- never mind. Who are you?"

In the meantime, Marcia quietly waited in the bus. Hopefully, the meeting with Alex wasn't going to take long. They're probably talking about Star Wars and speculating whether the birth of Darth Vader has an impact on the timeline or something like that. Speaking of Star Wars, watching them for the first time with a friend who knows what she's talking about sounds really exciting. Surely, there will be plenty of awesome moments, right?

Even crazy, silly Felix could tell that that was not Alex. He sighed. "I'm Felix...Alex's friend...she's probably mentioned me a few times...is she here?"

"I... I'm afraid not" the woman responded, in a tone that clearly showed her worry. "Sorry, it's just that- I haven't seen her in days. I'm her mother, you see..." she took a moment to continue. "Alex was one of those who- Changed. At first, it wasn't so bad. She just looked- different. But at least, she didn't turn into a freak, like some people... but then, she started acting, well, odd. Like, I don't how to describe it but, she wasn't herself anymore. Then she started hanging out with a group of others who had also changed. She told me she felt she belonged with them now. We- had an argument over it. And then she-" she actually sobbed. "She ran away. That was the last I saw of her. I notified the police but I haven't heard anything from them. When you knocked, I hoped- that it was her" she sighed.

Felix drew in a breath, held it for a second, then let it out again nice and slowly. He did this again, and again. And one more time after that.

"You know...I don't know why anyone would want to steal Alex away from you...after all, they have something very special all of their own..."

He pulled out his wand and spun it like a cowboy pistol.

"SOME FUCKING BALLS."

"I am going to find Alex and bring her back to you. If necessary, I'll also show the group she got messed up in what happens when you corrupt my best friend. Sound good?"

edited 12th May '16 4:56:00 PM by TooManyIdeas

At first, Alex's mother was a little baffled- and then taken aback- by this strange girl's reaction.

But then, she collected herself. "Please, do" she responded. "If there's anything you can do for Alex- do it."

((OOC: Felix needs to return to the bus now and tell the others what he found out.))

Meanwhile, Jeremy had been fiddling about with the replicator to complete this disguise. Since no headwear short of a massive turban was unlikely to effectively hide the horns growing out from the sides of his head, He decided not to bother with them and went with a simple olive-colored field cap. To cover up his tail, he opted for a brown leather longcoat, with a fairly neutral earth tone.

He briefly glanced out the window towards Felix as he finished talking with his friend's mother, before turning back to the others aboard the bus.

"So, ah, how's that look? colorful enough to not make me look like an edgy teenager?" he asked with a hint of a smirk on his face.

Marcia studied the new Jeremy from head to toe and just gave him a thumbs up. No need to say anything when that gesture is universal, right? Anyways, if it weren't for those deformities, Jeremy might have been a good fashion model. Guess that's another thing this daughter shares with the mom, whether they'd like to admit it or not.

Felix gave a salute and walked back to the bus, poking his head in and semi-shouting. "Okay, listen up, Alex isn't here. Apparently, she ran off with some group of changed people who are probably not trustworthy in any way whatsoever. So...we should probably go check that out."

"Heh, thanks..." Jeremy said to Marcia with a small chuckle, turning to Felix as he entered the bus.

"Alright, where'd your friend go, then?"

Alicia sighed. Of course finding Alex wouldn't have been that easy. Even without Paradox shadowing them, it was like the world constantly conspired against them.

Iris on the other hand, seemed unfazed. "Time for Plan B, then" she announced. Her fingers once again flickered across the TARDIS' control panel. It glittered and beeped in response for a few seconds.

"...Running face-recognition software based on the image of the character she transformed into, cross-referenced with recent pics uploaded to social media from local sources because of course that's what Changed Teenagers would do and- voila!"

(Bing!)

"Target acquired! and- Oh ho!" she turned around, a wicked smile on her face, which she directed, in particular, at Jeremy.

"Location: Chinatown."

"Chinatown? Ah, crap."

Felix ran up to the front of the bus and pointed forward. "ONWARDS!"

edited 15th May '16 9:37:30 AM by TooManyIdeas

"Jesus, do you wanna make the NSA jealous with that shit?" Jeremy asked with a smirk as he watched Iris working to locate, resting an elbow on the back of her seat, before she turned around and shot back a smile of her own.

"Chinatown, huh? What's makin' you laugh about that?"

"I seem to recall someone who claimed being disguised as a Chinese Dragon roof ornament would have been too obvious" the Time Lady smiled back at Jeremy. "But don't worry, our tourist disguises will work just as well there. So, off to Chinatown we go!"

"-and don't worry, I'll drive there. No more jarring teleports for now."

"Nuh-uh, I said the chinese dragon wouldn't have been fitting for India, did you even listen to what I said?" Jeremy shot back with a grin, barely stifling a laugh at the situation.

edited 15th May '16 11:16:05 AM by FokiasTheJester

"And I said it would fit in as long as we pretended to be tourists that had just gone through a Chinatown, do you remember now?" Iris said, still not budging. "Also, instead of arguing, we should be practicing our 'wide-eyed tourists' act." Then she turned away from him (and back to driving) and began muttering, "Ohh! Lookit those! How cute, I simply *must* have them!"