Jamie and X coming to Eureka.

[smart_house]

It may be awkward for X-23 and Jamie, transitioning from Milliways to Eureka. SARAH herself does not notice much of anything when she moves back and forth, but she advised her two guests to sit down on the living room couch before they left the bar.

"Exterior sensors have resumed function," SARAH announces. "Welcome to Eureka."

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

"No." X says this very calmly.

"We're new. Mom's looking to move into Eureka Gardens."

Beat.

"Hi."

[eureka_npcs]

Zoe takes two or three nanoseconds to examine the girl that spoke first. Nondescript black tank top, button down shirt, jeans, last season's boots. If not further back.

Hair that needs highlights pronto.

She may be new, but she's definitely a nerd's kid. "Hi."

Now looking at Jamie inquisitively.

[walksthebounds]

"Hi," Jamie says, grinning.

"So do you not have to go to school here?"

Heavily implied by the grin: 'maybe this move isn't going to be terrible after all.'

[eureka_npcs]

"If you figure out how to get out of it without testing in the two-hundredth percentile, please let me know. I'm in ninth grade with eleven-year-olds."

The former being said with an appropriately put-upon frown, but the attitude is shrugged off. "Hence the coffee run. Are you two...headed somewhere?" Continually suspicious.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Do you not study?"

X's voice is entirely innocent.

Beat.

"Jamie's a brat and Mom couldn't take it anymore. She made us leave."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie rolls his eyes so much they look to be in danger of falling out of his head.

To Zoe: "It was so boring there with Mom and the recruiters I was actually going to fall asleep if we stayed there any longer. She's just pissed because Mom made her come with me instead of sitting around with all the scientists talking about whatever swots talk about when they're alone."

[eureka_npcs]

Zoe has no clue what 'swots' are.

Probably some scientists brewing some shit in a flask or something.

Gross.

"Whatever. I'm for coffee." And that same head of blonde hair goes flouncing off toward a steaming cup of Vinspresso.

[walksthebounds]

"Nice girl," Jamie says to Laura.

[cutting_edgex23]

X blinks.

"Okay."

Beat.

"She is like Megan."

And then she keeps walking.

[eureka_npcs]

Being the tallest building on Oppenheimer Street, maxing out at five stories, usually does not amount to much.

It does offer a nice visual perspective, however, if one cares to be observant.

Right now, however, no one does.

It's just a building, after all. All of the residents should, at least in theory, be at work.

[walksthebounds]

It is a fairly impressive building, even from a few blocks away

Jamie nudges his companion in the ribs, and says lightly, "Wouldn't be too bad to live there, would it? Right in the center of things, instead of all the way out in the Gardens?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X jumps a little, managing a scowl.

"I like the quiet."

[walksthebounds]

"You would.

"You don't suppose we could just walk in, do you? Take a look at it, just to see?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"Mom might be there, too. Maybe you can get her to leave faster."

[walksthebounds]

"I don't mean where Mom is," Jamie says, scornfully. "I mean everywhere else. If we're going to be living there we ought to know our way around - all the ins and outs."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Okay."

X's voice is a little sharp.

"If you're going to whine about it."

Beat.

"Come on."

She moves fast for a teenager. Really fast.

[walksthebounds]

Jamie's not abnormally fast - but he is quick, all the same.

Youthful high spirits, probably.

"Laura, wait up!"

[cutting_edgex23]

She keeps hurrying for a second or two, then slows down, looking back at Jamie over her shoulder.

"I hate you sometimes, you know that?"

Ill grace is the mark of a teenager.

[walksthebounds]

"We're here anyways," says Jamie, ignoring this with the long practice of a much-abused younger sibling, and looks up at the building.

[eureka_npcs]

And the building, with its

Cameras

and

sensors,

look back.

For all its brick and attempts at comfort level on the outside, this is not SARAH.

[cutting_edgex23]

X is no stranger to cameras. Or to sensors.

Which may be why she doesn't so much as twitch before she grabs Jamie's wrist and tugs him toward the front door.

"Come on. I want to be quick, this is getting boring."

[walksthebounds]

"I'm coming!"

Jamie runs after her, following her through the door.




And they're inside.

[cutting_edgex23]

X pauses just inside the threshold--scenting the air, listening.

Her eyes snap to the stairs, body going tense. Someone's coming down.

She does not want to be seen.

Her hand clenches tighter on Jamie's arm, and she tugs him to where the basement stairs should be.

Her footsteps are silent.

Jamie's--

Jamie's might not be.

[walksthebounds]

Jamie's eyes follow Laura's. He doesn't see anything, but he doesn't argue, either, when she pulls him towards a place he vaguely remembers from schematics as holding a stairway.

His footsteps aren't silent, but they're fairly quiet. He tested the shoes beforehand, to make sure they wouldn't squeak.

He's been on raids before, Jamie has.

[eureka_npcs]

Richard Nickerson has not been on raids. He can't even stand using Raid(TM), a product that really? Eureka should be able to come up with something far more useful and less hazardous to the user's health.

Complete with pocket protector, the landlord of Eureka Gardens looks very much like everyone's least-favorite middle school earth science teacher, and the scowl visible even from the bottom of the stairway at the opposite end of the lobby didn't help much.

Something must have buzzed him -- Richard reaches into his pocket for his apparently Eureka-standard-issue communication device and stares at the screen, reading a message.