[hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/bemGSrE.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/fGCaIL3.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/MrAFI3T.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/zS3Ugjd.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/7gwGxyR.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/sHP9Odv.png[/img][/center][right][b]Interactions:[/b] [code]Cornell High.[/code][/right][hr][hr] [quote=Tyler][color=C0C0C0]“Are you fucking serious? Is this all you could get? I worried that you, Kari, would waste time I could be spending training, but I decided to give this a shot. You know, because we all went through the same shit together. I figured that might have ignited a spark under your asses to do better, but this does not inspire confidence in your leadership. We might need a proven leader to step in at some point,”[/color][/quote] Kari’s pen stopped. Before she could respond, Lupe’s chair scraped violently across the cafeteria floor. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Lupe-[/i]”[/color] Too late. Lupe crossed the space between the tables in seconds and planted herself directly in front of Tyler. She was significantly shorter than him. It did not seem to occur to her that this mattered. [color=E14BC5]“... Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to,[i] bitch?[/i]”[/color] Lupe demanded, tilting her head back to glare at him. She jammed a finger directly into his chest. [color=E14BC5]“Don’t walk in here dressed like you some Gatorade bottle and start talking down to Kari like she’s one of your bitches, dickhead.”[/color] Kari rolled her eyes. Of course. She had spent the last few hours trying to create one room where people could exchange information without threatening, insulting, [i]or[/i] attacking each other. Tyler had been inside for approximately thirty seconds, and Lupe was already close enough to count his eyelashes. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Lupe.[/i]”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“No, mami. He came in here running his mouth like his knuckledraggin' ass can do anything other than throw a football.”[/color] [color=#046904]“Lupe,”[/color] Zakira repeated quietly. Lupe did not move. Kari pushed her glasses farther up her nose, looked past Lupe, and addressed Tyler herself. [color=#eac6ae]“When did I say I was the leader?”[/color] [color=C0C0C0]“Do you really think that you need to say ‘I am the leader’ to be considered the leader? You just,”[/color] Tyler looked at the others in the room, [color=C0C0C0]“know it. Sheep flock to a shepherd, and girl they flock to you. Can you keep them safe?”[/color] [color=C0C0C0]“If not, I can make room for all of you and we can be done with the pretend work, and get on with fixing this city.”[/color] Lupe’s mouth opened. Kari raised one finger without looking at her. [color=#eac6ae]“[u][i][b]Don’t.[/b][/i][/u]”[/color] Lupe slowly turned her head. [color=E14BC5]“But-”[/color] [color=#eac6ae]“I just said[i] don’t.[/i]”[/color] Lupe stared at Kari for another second, then stepped backward. Not far. Just enough that she was no longer directly in Tyler’s face, nor could she keep her finger in her chest. She crossed her arms and remained beside Kari like an angry, five-foot-one security guard. Kari looked back at Tyler. [color=#eac6ae]“No one is making room for anyone.”[/color] She closed her notebook. The sound was not particularly loud, but it carried through the cafeteria now that most of the room had gone quiet. [color=#eac6ae]“This isn’t football, Tyler. We’re not holding tryouts, picking captains, or deciding who gets to order everyone else around.”[/color] Her ribs pulled when she straightened, but Kari ignored them. [color=#eac6ae]“And this [i]isn’t[/i] pretend work. People are missing. People are [i]dead[/i]. Things are walking around Cornell that shouldn't be possible. Roads are changing, buildings are connecting to places they shouldn’t, and apparently time might be doing whatever the hell it wants to Tommy.”[/color] Kari gestured vaguely in Tommy’s direction without taking her eyes off Tyler. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]None[/i] of us knows enough to fix the city alone. [i]I[/i] don’t.[b][i] You[/i][/b] don’t. Nobody here does.”[/color] She punctuated her statement with a sigh. Lupe nodded emphatically beside her. Kari glanced toward her. [color=#eac6ae]“That wasn’t an invitation.”[/color] Lupe pressed her lips together. Kari continued. [color=#eac6ae]“The [i]point[/i] of this meeting is to figure out what everyone knows. What happened to each of us at the warehouse. What we’ve seen since then. What our abilities can do, what they can’t do, and what happens when they go wrong.”[/color] Her eyes moved across the occupied tables. [color=#eac6ae]“Then we exchange information. We compare it. We figure out which parts match, which parts [i]don’t[/i], and which parts we’ve been too scared to tell anyone because they sound insane.”[/color] A short pause. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Then[/i] we come up with a plan.”[/color] Kari looked back at Tyler. [color=#eac6ae]“A real one. Based on what’s actually happening. Not whoever walks into the room and announces that they’re the strongest.”[/color] Lupe made a tiny approving noise. Kari pointed at her without turning. The noise stopped. [color=#eac6ae]“You want to help fix Cornell? Good. That’s why you were invited. Sit down, listen, and tell us what you know when it’s your turn.”[/color] Kari opened her notebook again. [color=#eac6ae]“But I never said I was the leader of... whatever this is.”[/color] Lupe leaned closer to Kari and spoke lowly to her. [color=E14BC5]“... You sounded pretty leader-ish just now, mami.”[/color] Kari’s eyes remained on the page. [color=#eac6ae]“I will throw you out of here by your hair.”[/color] Lupe muttered under her breath but returned to her chair. She dragged it closer to Kari’s table before sitting, positioning herself between Kari and Tyler as subtly as a brick through a window. Zakira remained where she was, leaning against the edge of another table. She had become quieter as more people entered, her gaze moving from one face to another without lingering. She said nothing else. Kari looked around the cafeteria. Most of the chairs were occupied now. Some people had responded to her invitation. Some had apparently just followed someone else inside. A few stood instead of sitting. A few looked like they were already regretting coming. Kari mentally ran through the names. Enough faces matched the list that something in her brain decided the count was complete. It did not occur to her that Ella was missing. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Okay.[/i]”[/color] Her voice came out quieter than she intended. Nobody immediately responded. Kari cleared her throat. [color=#eac6ae]“Okay. I think that’s everyone.”[/color] Lupe glanced around. [i][sup][color=E14BC5]“God help us.”[/color][/sup][/i] [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Lupe.[/i]”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“What? Look around, mami. We ain't the Avengers.”[/color] Kari took a breath and looked down at her notebook. [b][code]WHAT WE KNOW. WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW. WHAT WE DON’T KNOW. WHAT WE DO NEXT.[/code][/b] Four headings. Simple. Manageable. Probably. [color=#eac6ae]“The warehouse wasn’t an isolated incident.”[/color] Kari rested both hands against the table. [color=#eac6ae]“I think everyone here already knows that, but we need to stop treating everything that happened afterward like separate problems.”[/color] [i][color=#eac6ae]Or God forbid, someone else's.[/color][/i] Kari tacked the last part on in her head. As she spoke, Zakira pushed away from the table, and Kari glanced toward her - but Zakira gave a small motion toward the hallway with no explanation. Then she walked out of the cafeteria. Kari watched her leave for half a second before continuing. [color=#eac6ae]“The creature at the warehouse... it wasn’t the only thing that came through. Some of us encountered [i]other...[/i]"[/color] Kari paused as Lupe grimaced beside her. [color=#eac6ae]”...creatures. Some of us can do things I never thought were possible. Some of us have [i]something[/i] attached to us now.”[/color] Her eyes briefly moved toward Daniel before returning to the notebook. [color=#eac6ae]“Some people who were there are still missing. June. [i]Isabelle[/i]. Maybe others we don’t know about.”[/color] Kari swallowed. [color=#eac6ae]“Camille and Kersten were alive after the warehouse.”[/color] Her voice tightened despite her efforts. Lupe shifted beside her but did not interrupt. [color=#eac6ae]“They went into the steel mill. I followed them.”[/color] Kari’s fingers pressed harder against the table. [color=#eac6ae]“There was [i]something[/i] inside. I’ve been calling it [i]Gorge.[/i] It was strong enough to break through walls, eating made it even [i]stronger[/i], and nothing [i]really[/i] stopped it. Zakira and Lupe hit it with everything they had. It didn’t matter.”[/color] Lupe finally spoke, her voice quieter than before. [color=E14BC5]“I mean, mami, it [i]kind of[/i] mattered...”[/color] Kari looked at her. Lupe shrugged one shoulder. [color=E14BC5]“We escaped.”[/color] Kari held her gaze for a moment. Then nodded. [color=#eac6ae]“It mattered enough to escape.”[/color] That distinction hurt. She continued. [color=#eac6ae]“What's stranger is that, in the mill... There was like [i]another[/i] place connected to it. A jungle, or..."[/color] Kari trailed off. All eyes were on her. [color=#eac6ae][i]I'm going to sound fucking crazy right now.[/i][/color] She briefly thought to herself before she continued. [color=#eac6ae]”... Or [i]another[/i] Cornell entirely. I don’t know.”[/color] The cafeteria doors opened again. Kari turned. Zakira reappeared, walking backward as she pulled something through the doorway. The wheels squealed against the floor before a large whiteboard emerged behind her, apparently liberated from one of the nearby classrooms. Lupe stared. [color=E14BC5]“Did you just steal a whiteboard?”[/color] Zakira continued pulling it into the room. [color=#046904]“[i]Borrowed.[/i]”[/color] Kari looked at her. Zakira looked back. [color=#046904]“Your notebook is too small.”[/color] Kari glanced down at the page. Then around at everyone. She hated that Zakira was right. [color=#eac6ae]“... Put it here.”[/color] Zakira rolled the board beside the central table and locked the wheels with her shoe. A few faded equations remained in one corner from whatever class had last used it. Lupe leaned back in her chair. [color=E14BC5]“Grand theft whiteboard, mami.”[/color] [color=#046904]“We're already here illegally.”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“[i]I’m[/i] here so I don't get fined.”[/color] [color=#eac6ae]“You came [i]voluntarily[/i].”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“[i]Emotionally[/i], I was coerced [i]emotionally,[/i] mami.”[/color] Kari stood slowly. Zakira silently picked up a dry-erase marker from the board’s tray and held it out. Kari took it. [color=#eac6ae]“Thank you, Zakky.”[/color] Zakira nodded and moved away from the center of the room again, returning to the edge of the gathering. She dug into her bag before pulling out an apple. She took a bite as she resumed watching. Kari turned toward the whiteboard. Her hand hesitated. Then she wrote four headings in large letters. [b][code]WHAT WE KNOW. WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW. WHAT WE DON’T KNOW. WHAT WE DO NEXT.[/code][/b] The marker squeaked beneath the final line. Kari stepped aside so everyone could see. [color=#eac6ae]“Those are the rules.”[/color] She pointed toward the first heading. [color=#eac6ae]“If you saw something, experienced [i]anything[/i], or can demonstrate it, it goes [b]here.[/b]”[/color] The marker moved to the second. [color=#eac6ae]“If you think something is true but can’t prove it, it goes[b] here.[/b]”[/color] Then the third. [color=#eac6ae]“Anything we don’t understand. Missing people, creatures, places, whatever happened to time today.”[/color] Finally, the fourth. [color=#eac6ae]“We do [u][i][b]not[/b][/i][/u] touch this one until we’ve heard from everyone.”[/color] Lupe raised her hand. Kari stared at her. [color=#eac6ae]“Yes?”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“Can ‘Tyler needs to shut the fuck up’ go under what we know?”[/color] Kari lowered the marker. [color=#eac6ae]“[i][b]Lupe.[/b][/i]”[/color] [color=E14BC5]“[i]Demonstrable[/i] fact.”[/color] Lupe grinned. From the edge of the room, Zakira spoke without changing her expression. [color=#046904]“...[i] Wrong meeting.[/i]”[/color] Lupe frowned. [color=E14BC5]“There’s[i] another?[/i]”[/color] Kari turned back toward the board before either of them could continue. [color=#eac6ae]“We’re starting with the warehouse.”[/color] She underlined the first heading. [color=#eac6ae]“Everything anyone remembers. Even if it seems small. Even if it doesn’t make sense.”[/color] Kari looked over her shoulder at the gathered faces. [color=#eac6ae]“[i]Especially[/i] if it doesn’t make sense.”[/color]