Future Visitations (AU/CC/Adult) Casting Call

[isabelle]

*Max*

"AD, yes," I say as Jakki and Hart start talking about WHEN we are. "November 2000, Roswell New Mexico, on Earth," I tell them, not sure how far I should go. It's amazing to actually have to explain that to anyone. Of course, the rest of what they said brings even more questions.

"When and where are you from? And what do you mean about a cocoon? What hatched from it?" I ask. I wonder if he's talking about some kind of pod. He said it was a 'mimic'. I'm not sure what he means by that. A clone, maybe? This is all very confusing. About half the words these people use seem to have a new meaning just a little left of center from the way we know them...

[StormWolfstone]

~Robbie~


I had remained mostly silent, inputting all tests manually while listening. But, as I heard how far back we'd come, I turned, shock hitting me. "AD, yes," Max had said and then supplied even further, "November 2000, Roswell New Mexico, on Earth."

Wow, I couldn't believe it. We had traveled back before Nexes was created or there was even a need for it. The thought of that held me silent for a few moments before Max asked, "When and where are you from? And what do you mean about a cocoon? What hatched from it?"

"Umm.. the cocoon held a different form of Quixote that was able to make itself look like Hart so that those who placed the body cast around him truly thought it was Hart in there. As to when and where we are from. You would call where we are from Ontario, Canada... we called it Sector 12, quadrant 36. And when... two thousand thirty Common Era which is two thousand, one hundred and thirty years from now. Common Era began a hundred and thirty years from now." I explained even as I glanced at Hart who nodded.

"You are saying that you traveled through time? What exactly is Common Era?" Tess asked and Hart gave me a look that said for me to continue while Zeus and Jakki did the same.

"Common Era is when the world suffered social, economic and environmental collapse. It's also when PAS was first introduced to humanity and an organization called Nexes was created by combining Science, government and industry in order to supposedly bring order and stability to the post-apocalyptic planet." The last I said, noting my anger as I mentioned Nexes. I couldn't help it.

Hart nodded, "Nexes has actually been feeding people lies since it was formed. It has done some good, but it also hasn't fulfilled one thing it was supposed to and they've lied to people suffering from PAS." He remembered when he'd learned that his uncle's medicine had simply been a sugar tablet. It hadn't been anything that really helped stop PAS or even slow it. It had been a farce.

[isabelle]

*Rome*

I sit here, holding onto Hart, never wanting to let him go again. It's so amazing to see him back and just sitting here chatting with these strangers. I find myself looking from him to Max and back. Max saved him. He just put his hand on my brother and saved his life. Eliminated the PAS. I never believed in miracles but that's the only word that seems to fit.

Hart is touching my hair and I'm loving it. Just having him awake and alive and with me again. "So, are any of these guy's interesting to you?" Hart asks in a whisper.

I turn to him in shock. How could he be thinking about something like that, I wonder. Still, the question makes me think. I look back at Max and Michael and Alex. Michael looks a little wild, but not afraid of that. Alex is so quiet, I wonder what he's like. And Max -- Max is the miracle man. I want to know all about him and what he did, but I know that's not what my brother meant. "I don't know," I whisper back to Hart, trying not to blush. "They're all kinda cute."

I am a bit concerned when Max starts asking about Quixote. She's been nothing but a help to us and I've never tried to pry. I'm not very comfortable hearing all this, even if it's things I don't know the answers to either.

Still, when I realize we've traveled over a thousand miles and more than two thousand years, I'm a bit floored. I do hope Quixote has a way to get us home. ... or maybe I don't. There's no PAS here. No Nexes. "Hart," I whisper in his ear. "Do you think we could stay here?"

*Max*

"... the cocoon held a different form of Quixote that was able to make itself look like Hart so that those who placed the body cast around him truly thought it was Hart in there." Robbie says. My mind was already racing and now it was going even faster. A form of Quixote could change shape. It sounded exactly like a shape-shifter from Antar. But, Robbie's words implied that Quixote was different - similiar but not a shape-shifter. She really could be a human hybrid like us. But nobody's using those words. Either they don't know, or they don't want to say it to us...

I almost miss the rest of what he says as he explains how far in the future they've come from. The math seems a bit off, 'though. I think their 'CE' must start closer to a hundred years from now. Still, two thousand years in the future? Would aliens still be a big mystery then?

Hart and Robbie supply more information about Nexes. PAS is obviously this aging disease that Hart had had. It doesn't surprise me that Nexes is a government scientific organization that's hurting people. Reminds me of the SU, only treating the world that way instead of just aliens...

I want to ask about the shape-shifter and Quixote, but there are bigger questions first. "But how did you get here? And why?"

.

[StormWolfstone]

~Zeus~


I can understand that everything this boy's hearing sounds like a shock. Still, I listen and watch the many reactions around me even while I decide to start working on recrafting the Vid chip so it will work even in this time, since all that needs to be done is resetting the networking module with the beta format and altering the imagery scanners. So, doing that kept me busy in between asking or answering questions.

"But how did you get here? And why?" Max asks and I have to shrug.

"Quixote somehow brought us and she did so because she said we could find a cure for Hart. Though, we were expecting some medical cure that might be able to be used to help each of us and the others back home." I reply, "Quite frankly, Hart will live now and if we can get back home, he'll probably be able to create something to stop P.A.S. but the rest of us will die if he doesn't manage it. All normals have P.A.S. in the future."

"Did you ever think, Zeus? Maybe Quixote was meant to bring us back here so we can stop Common Era from happening in the first place. Maybe Hart will find the cure here and save us and as we age we can teach people how to keep Common Era from becoming a reality." Jakki hypothesized.




~Hart~


"I don't know," Rome replies to my teasing question, "They're all kinda cute."

"Hart," I hear her whisper a few minutes later while the others are still talking, "Do you think we could stay here?"

Squeezing her shoulder and smiling, "Maybe, first though I need to get a hold of a medical center so I can start working on a cure. Whether it's in our own time or this one, I need to be able to make certain I won't lose you, Robbie, Jakki or Zeus."

The idea of living in a place where they don't have to worry about the things we do really appeals to me, but then again unless we are able to change things, I would have failed to fulfill a promise I made to Uncle Jake before P.A.S. took him and he was forced into a center.

[isabelle]

*Max*

Zeus explains that they came because Quixote said that there would be a cure for Hart. She was the one who came to collect us all with her riddles and the symbol out side of Liz's window and on the bus. She brought them here to find me.

"Quite frankly, Hart will live now and if we can get back home, he'll probably be able to create something to stop P.A.S. but the rest of us will die if he doesn't manage it. All normals have P.A.S. in the future," Hart explains.

Normals. I wonder what an abnormal was. Someone like Quixote, maybe? Someone like me?

Jakki jumps in then, here eyes taking on a intense look. "Did you ever think, Zeus? Maybe Quixote was meant to bring us back here so we can stop Common Era from happening in the first place. Maybe Hart will find the cure here and save us and as we age we can teach people how to keep Common Era from becoming a reality."

"If you try to tell people that you're visitors from the future, they'll lock you up as lunatics," I warn them. Maybe timetravel is common in their era but it's definately not concidered to be anything real now. I notice that nobody asking about how I did it anymore and I'm glad but I have a feeling that topic hasn't been dropped completely. I still don't know what Quixote is, either...

Turning to Hart and Robbie, I have to ask. "How would you find a cure if the disease is gone? I don't think you'll have antibodies for a serum or anything..."

[isabelle]

*Robbie*

Antibodies? I can't help but wonder as I look at Max. "This isn't a virus. It's a genetic defect. Nobody knows what caused it but everyone has it. Even me. Hart's condition was unusual only because he's so young. Usually it doesn't manifest until we're closer to thirty."

Max just healed Hart, and he doesn't know this? Doesn't he even know what he did?

"We need some kind of gene therapy to cure it. Nobody's been able to come up with a solution," I say.

If Hart's cured for good. If his genemap is clean, then he may be able to pass that on, but only if the mother also has a clean gene-map. That would be pretty much impossible....

[isabelle]

*Rome*

I slide a bit closer to Hart as I watch the exchange between Robbie and Max. Max is amazing but his questions are a bit foolish.

Okay, delete that. Maybe they're not foolish if we're back in a time before the collapse and before P.A.S., but it still sounds that way to me. Any child of ten would know more about PAS than he does, and he just actually cured Hart.

"Well, one cure is a good start, don't you think?" I ask Robbie. "Between you and Hart, I'm sure you'll figure out how to cure it, or maybe even to prevent it." I smile at both of them. If Hart is cured, he can be a doctor again. There's no Nexes to force him into the Eco-squad. He was top of his class. If anyone can solve this, he and Robbie can.

Although I do have to wonder. What if they CAN prevent it? They'll change the future. What will home be like when we go back? Will that even be possible? I wonder what it would be like to grow up here...

[KatnotKath]

OOC: I know these aren't great, but hopefully they'll act as catch ups and the next will be better

~Alex~

I wait in silence, trying to be objective as Tess pushes past me before I can answer Max. Michael has accompanied him it seems, while the three girls remain outside. I can't help thinking that this is extreme, even for Max and Liz in the past. They haven't neccessarily been friends, but neither have they been actively avoiding each other... Or it hasn't seemed that way to me either. It's almost as though they're trying too hard to show that there's nothing between them...

I shake my head, dismissing the thought for the moment as unimportant, although I would far prefer it if she, Maria and Isabel were also on the bus. I'm not saying it would be crowded, but at least we'd all be together...

Looking round, I concentrate on the numerous machines, wondering what they might do while Max takes the lead and talks to some of these others. Tess of course is more familiar with them all, having spent some time alone with them before we arrived, and I'm realising that, as much as I hate to admit it, maybe her being here isn't such a bad thing afterall...

The new group seems thankful to Max for something, I'm guessing his healing worked, and the delight and amazement is obvious especially on the face of the girl and guy who are hugging at the moment. Jakki, or at least I think that's the girl's name, thanks Max, and then proceeds to ask about him, about what he did. Of course Max knows no more than they do really, although he admits to wondering about Quixote - hardly a surprising thing. Some of the things that she has done are so similar to that which he and the others can do, but then there's other stuff, for example the appearing and disappearing, that as far as we know is beyond their capability...

Zeus explains further, although he doesn't seem to have any more concrete information, and then Jakki mentions something about date. She speaks of the common era, and then AD - the present, which is long before apparently. Further questions dart back and forth as the reality of them being here seems to sink in. They talk about common era, and say they've come back over two thousand years in time.

It seems quite amazing, and yet when I look at the equipment dotted round, I wonder if it does sound quite so crazy as before...

All this talk of a genetic disease, PAS... They say it's not a disease as much as a genetic mutation though, something which Max can still sure obviously, but he can hardly go and cure every person in that time...

Robbie, the doctor I think, looks at Max as though he's crazy for asking these questions, and I decide any input I might have will probably not be welcomed either. Instead, I stay quiet, listening and taking in the information we're being provided with.

~Liz~

Every minute we wait out here seems like an age, and as much as I'm getting reassuring waves of emotion sent through the connection between Max and I, I'm really struggling since Tess and Michael followed Alex in after Max. Maria's stood, not really sure what to do, but from the way that Isabel keeps looking at the bus, I'm pretty sure she's feeling much the same way. I want to know what's going on in there...

I venture a little closer to the open door, and find that I can hear some, although not all, of the conversation going on inside. It's not unbroken by any means, but it's better than nothing, that's for sure.

"a hundred and thirty years from now...common era...social, economic and environmental collapse...post-apocalyptic planet...Nexes...feeding lies...PAS..." I swallow and lean closer, needing to hear more even though in effect I'm evesdropping.

"Chica, if you're that interested, go inside..."

I look round, surprised not to have heard Maria approach.

"I don't know...he won't want me there..."

"Are you crazy...Max always wants you there!"

"But he has Tess..." I argue weakly although I know I'm already giving in.

"Are you really going to let her win... That blond haired bimbo who just flounced in and tried to take over...?"

I groan. This definitely isn't what Max and I need if this engagement is going to become public knowlege anytime this millenia. I can understand Maria's thinking, and I know she's only trying to be a good friend, but... "Maria please...don't... She's not as bad as that... She didn't know that Max was involved with me...she only knew what Nasedo had told her..." I try to placate her, missing by doing so most of the rest which is being said. "You should give Tess another chance...maybe she'd surprise you..." I plead desperately, realising just how difficult this might be going to be. Originally I might have thought that the most difficult thing would be for me to be 'friends' with Tess, but now I'm beginning to think that Maria is going to be even more of a challenge.

[isabelle]

*Robbie*

Well, one cure is a good start, don't you think?

Rome's words echo in my head as my hands start to ache. I know it's probably only psychosomatic, but Hart wasn't the only one with PAS. He was just the only one with symptoms. Very dire symptoms. I study Max, measuring my words carefully.

"Where we come from, everyone has PAS. It's genetic. Hart was just the only one with symptoms. Could you cure Jakki and Rome and Zeus?" I ask.

"And you," Rome adds.

"yeah," I say although I really want to watch him. When he cured Hart, I was so busy trying to do what I could do to sustain him, I didn't even realize that something-else was going on almost until it was over.

Max bites his lip, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "I don't know. I usually can't change 'natural' illness like aging... If there's nothing wrong with your body now, I don't know if it'll work. Even if it did, how would you tell?"

[StormWolfstone]

~Hart~


I listened on in silence knowing Robbie can handle this. Though I know my scores were better then his, he's my best-friend and I have trusted him with my life and would do so over again. "This isn't a virus. It's a genetic defect. Nobody knows what caused it but everyone has it. Even me. Hart's condition was unusual only because he's so young. Usually it doesn't manifest until we're closer to thirty."

I can see the questions written in his expression before I turn to look at Max, Robbie simply continuing on. "We need some kind of gene therapy to cure it. Nobody's been able to come up with a solution."

Rome moves closer to me and I smile, squeezing her hand.

"Well, one cure is a good start, don't you think?" My sister asks our friend, "Between you and Hart, I'm sure you'll figure out how to cure it, or maybe even to prevent it." I warm at her smile and can honestly say that I'm glad that Quixote brought us here. Even if I'd died, I hadn't seen my sister smile much since I'd collapsed shortly after we'd taken down the wolf tubers.

"Where we come from, everyone has PAS. It's genetic. Hart was just the only one with symptoms. Could you cure Jakki and Rome and Zeus?" Robbie questions and I can't help but tense. I could tell that Max hadn't felt too comfortable with doing what he'd done for me, to ask him about doing the same for the others....

"And you," my sister says and I clamp my lips together.

"Yeah," Robbie replies simply, though looks at Max.

I glance over and can see the uncomfortable set of his features. "I don't know. I usually can't change 'natural' illness like aging... If there's nothing wrong with your body now, I don't know if it'll work. Even if it did, how would you tell?"

"I think I can answer that in the easiest terms." I begin as I sit up, keeping my hand on my sister's. "If Zeus can get our equipment powered again, reformat Vid to fit with the Technology you have now.. we'll be able to check the gene maps. However," I glance around at the others sadly before looking back at Max, "You've already done so much for us, people you don't know or have a reason to help. We can't really ask you to extend yourself. Maybe if we can find a way to keep PAS from happening, then we'll somehow be altered in time. Or, maybe together with Robbie, like Rome said, we can find a cure. Rome and the other's won't start a full manifestation until they reach around twenty-eight. That gives us some time."

I pause a moment and sigh, "PAS is always detectable, but not active until that time."

Zeus nodded, "First thing I need to do is get to a computer terminal, luckily Victor saw to it I learned plenty about Pre-Collapse technology. I'll need to hack into registry's and create identities for us and then we'll have to integrate ourselves until we know we can go back." He looked at Max, "I won't ask you to heal me. I'm just glad that Hart will live. He's important to our cause."

Jakki had remaned silent for what seemed like a long time, "Can we possibly take some time to defrag. This entire situation is causing my memory banks to reach their limits and I'm getting tired. Not to mention, when's the last time we gained sustenance."