2013.10.22 - A Glitchy Update

It seemed like a good idea to let someone at the mansion know that she was alive. Jocelyn had, after all, not been with the main team and hadn't been initially reachable when everything in Bastion went down. But now that she had the hospital coordinated, plans were being made and she felt she needed to check in.

Thus, Jocelyn slipped into her office, closed the blinds, and slipped into Internet 3.0. Her avatar was her Internet Presence, such as it was, which meant she showed up in her old MMA fighting outfit, which was a pair of black shorts and a black sports bra with 'SCHWARMA' printed across it. Ahh, sponsors.

This place confused Jocelyn still, and so she starts wandering around, making random turns as she tries to figure out where Doug is. Or anyone else who might be testing it. She knew there had to be an e-mail program or something that would let her securely contact Doug. So she starts speaking commands.

"File - Open - E-mail". Nothing. "E-mail". Nothing. "Message". Nothing. "summon doug".

Hey. Maybe that last one would work?

Fortunately at least, Doug Ramsey had been working in the Internet 3.0 room (they really needed to come up with a better name for it. Theora for the secured 3-D communications portion of it worked well enough in a nerdish stupid way, but... somehow, TRON didn't seem appropriate for the main system...)

It kept his mind off things, given all the rumors going on about the Muir Island group.

And so when the beep occurs, and Doug notices someone accessing the system, a quick glance indicates that it's Jocelyn.

Grabbing ahold of the equipment, Doug logs into the system.

And so when Jocelyn tries "summon Doug", it gets a 'Xyzzy has been disabled for this user.'

It's followed soon enough by a spectural tomb incanting 'xyzzy'.

And then Jocelyn's avatar blinks in and out, a de-razzing and re-razzing, and Doug's avatar is there, an avatar that looks essentially like Doug in his X-Men outfit, the black bodysuit with the gold circuitry interlaced through it. "Yo, Jo," Doug greets. "What happened?"

School morning = Uncool. School morning + mostly-sleepless night = Mega Uncool. So getting a summons to report to the VR Lab is a welcome relief for Jubilation Lee. She arrives in winter classwear, Jubes-style: body-skimming magenta hoodie-dress cinched at the waist with a white belt, black spandex leggings and white, cuffed ankle boots. And her signature earrings and shades, of course. And a yawn. A big one that she covers with one hand, blushing. "Morning... what's up, Doug?" Silence. "Doug? Oh, fudge... you're in the Internet thingy, aren't you? I'll have to set up the other station myself." And she moves to do so.

If there's a monitor in the VR-space, the room's cameras will show her undramatic entry and her progress with the other station.

The girl waves to Doug and Jubilee. Jocelyn is about to speak when something dawns on her. "This isn't the secure system, is it?" Her avatar freezes, and she pulls up the secure comm system, and starts beeping Doug and Jubilee on it. Because, well, Jocelyn did care about security a bit. Of course, she also accidentally beeps Shift's comm system, because she's tired and is pushing the wrong buttons. She's had a rough day.

"It isn't," Doug replies, motioning about him. The virtual representation of Doug's personal homepage at the Xavier Institute. Secure enough for most purposes, but not for whatever she may be thinking.

As Jubilee falls in place next to him, though, Doug's avatar blinks, before asking, "Jubilee! What can I do for you, is something going on?"

Shift was just about to depart from the comm system at Muir Island, in order to prepare for the arrival of Pete Wisdom and his... ahem. Healers.

That's when the comm beeps at him again.

With a beleaguered sigh, the African sits down and prepares to accept the call. However, before he does so, he leans aside and peers into a blank monitor, studying himself. His normally black skin is pale, having adopted a sickly, grayish color, and his lips are cracked. Fortunately... there's no blood.

Cracking his neck, Kwabena reaches over to engage the comm. "Shift here."

Another thing beeping? Jubilee glances at the electrode headset she's just connected into the VR rig, and nods as she sees the status light for the secure comm system wink on. "Okay... I guess this is important." She slips on the set and steps into the wall receptacle, fastens the safety belt and presses the GO button...

Fall into place Jubilee most certainly does. The operative word being /fall/, as she drops in from the ceiling and lands on her backside. "Oof! Owie... Doug, I hate to say that this thing's getting better, but that landing just convinced me of it. I /felt/ it!" She gets slowly to her feet, wincing. "I dunno. I just got a message on my phone that said to come here. Think it was a glitch?"

She glances up and notices Jocelyn. "Joce? Wow, you're here too? I guess that explains the comm light. What's up?"

And then there's a new voice. "Shift? Wow, you sound awful. Are you all right?"

Ahh, damnit. "Sorry Shift. I meant to just call in to give Jubes and Doug an update". As was one of the many parts of certain plans, if things went bad. "You need to get some rest. You took it full in the face, didn't you? You have someone coming, or you need me to send someone to you to try and fix you up?" Jocelyn's voice sounds more strained and tired than anything else, as though she'd been fighting off a hundred viruses all at once.

"I'm at the hospital I've been using as my cover in Genosha, and we've been trying to treat the injured and the sick after the fallout in Genosha. How much are you aware of?" the woman questions. Jocelyn wasn't up for repeating herself, and she didn't have the video feed going. She didn't need people to see how she looked right now, thank you very much.

"Oh, right, right, sorry, I was going to ask you to help me test this again," Doug replies to Jubilee. "Good to know that it's starting to feel more real... did you put your butt in the fancy chair? You must have... anyway, uh, Jocelyn called in and..."

Jocelyn's avatar apparently was looking away, talking to someone else. The voices somehow comes in clearly, thanks to the VR picking up the voice on the other end, making it sound like Jocelyn was speaking with two voices. Well... at least that wasn't a bug, just a feature.

"Is that Kwa? Man, he sounds like hell," Doug wrinkles his nose.

It's probably a good thing that the VR system prevents them from seeing the thousand-yard stare in Shift's eyes. Still, the effects of shell shock are in his voice, coming through in the dry and monotone way in which he speaks. He sits back in his chair, releasing a full sigh that is likely audible over the comm. "No, it's good to hear your voice," he says at first, to Jocelyn. "Dat's more dan an undahstatement."

But then, Jubilee is there. Her voice, even through the VR system, brings a pang of both relief and pain to his soul. "Jubilation." There is a long pause. His eyes have closed. "No, we will be alright," he finally answers. "De team is undah quarantine, but I have help on de way. One of my contacts in SHIELD. If all goes well, we'll be cleaned up and ready to come home in twenty-four hou--"

The feed is suddenly filled with violent coughing.

"Sorry. I am... well. I am suffahring from tuberculosis." Jocelyn's report from Genosha is noted. He certainly wants to thank her, congratulate her, see what she needs, but his strength seems more than sapped. All he can seem to get out, for the moment, is, "Hey, Doug."

"Chair? There wasn't one in the second station," Jubes informs Doug. "Yours was the only one I saw. I had to strap myself in standing up. Is it out for repairs or something?"

Then the coughing starts. Jubes's avatar winces dramatically. "Ow... Kwa, maybe you'd better get to bed. If you're coming home soon, you'll need the rest. I know I get jet-lagged something awful."

"Huh. Then the neural relays must be working more efficiently than I thought," Doug says to Jubilee, the avatar reaching out to ruffle her virtual hair in the simulation. "Anyway hold on... Kwa, what gives? I thought you were in quarantine, stay there!"

"Stuff is pretty rough in Genosha right now. My staff is putting together some information for me regarding sample procedure, and I'm going out to see if I can find any useful samples to try and create an antidote. Everyone else is needed in here curing people. My power can't fix things like TB or the bubonic plague, but some of these others can" Jocelyn says. Normally, she's more concerned about some of the properness, but with how spotty connections were, she wanted to make sure information got out.

"What has the rest of the world heard so far? Magneto is dead, that much I can confirm". She hadn't seen his distinct energy signature in the aftermath, and he was pretty easy to spot, given how much juice he tended to give off.

"Hey, respect... 'do!" Jubes protests, giggling and ducking. The giggle sounds like it's interrupted several times. "Wait, wha..? I sound laggy, is... all right? I think... trouble with..."

Abruptly the teenager's avatar vanishes in a scatter of pixelated pixie dust. Apparently the second cubicle still isn't working quite right.

"Don't worry, Doug," answers Kwabena. "We will stay de necessary 48 hours but... well; I've called in a favah. Some few acquaintances dat may be able to set us right. We'll just need to make sure all contagions ah purged before we come home.

He's about to say something to Jubilee when her image disappears: He stifles a long sigh, then turns his attention upon Jocelyn. "Magneto is dead," he says bluntly. "So is Jean. Dey took each oddah out. We lost Monet, nevah even saw her. But, it's worse. Doctah Milton has been experimenting, Jocelyn. On mutants. Kurt was one of dem, I can confirm dat. Dey've turned him into some kind of mindless monstah, and named him Pestilence. He's de one who infected us."

"That fits with what I've been hearing," Jocelyn responds to Kwabena, frowning on her end. "Monet...Nate and I met her, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Had a bit of a 'I'm better than you' attitude going about her, really didn't like it when I didn't let her poke around in my head without permission," Jocelyn comments. She pauses. "Sorry. It's the only Monet I know, and I only met her briefly".

There's quiet for a moment. "Jean. Damnit. I should have been with you instead of here," Jocelyn responds. No, she's not going to get into the second guessing thing too much. But there wasn't anything to be done about it. "I'm guessing nobody has managed to contain Kurt," Jocelyn adds. Because containing Kurt was...difficutl on a good day.

Eyeing the de-razzed spot where Jubilee de-razzed, the young mutant frowns. "Stand by, technical difficulties..." And then Doug's avatar blinks out too.

Yanking his virtual reality helmet off, the young mutant heads over to quickly check on Jubilee. Making a dismissal motion towards the young Asian girl, Doug smiles. "I'll take care of it."

As Jubilee departs the room with apologies, Doug is already knee-deep trying to figure out the short circuit. There's a quick motion, as the young mutant reaches out to click on the Theora program.

"Y-y-yo J-jocelyn," the Doug-head avatar stutters. "Short circuit on the VR part. Go ahead and talk, I'm listening."

Kwabena himself has never met Monet. It doesn't change the fact that he's worried sick (pun intended) about her. "Jocelyn, you did what was necessary. You followed ordahs. I don't think any of us could have prevented what happened between Jean and Erik, and I..."

His words are replaced by another fit of coughing. "I... don't think I can keep tal-*HACK COUGH*"

"I understand. Listen, I'll get word out to some of the people I know. I still have contacts I can reach out to, let some people know that things could get real bad real quick". If Kurt was spreading plagues, well, that was something everyone needed to know. It wasn't the usual bedside manner, but Jocelyn knew enough that tailoring things to the individual was best. Kwabena would want to know that things were being properly handled and to have a confident voice on the other end of the line. He didn't need to know she had contracted some plagues as well. She had people to fix it. "Soon as I can get disentangled here, I will make my way back to New York. If your healer buddies don't show up by then, I'll bring someone along with me to patch everyone up there". Not just Shift, as Jocelyn knew it had to be everyone. "You just stay safe until you get patched up, Kwabenda".

Doug's switchover is noted, but right now, Joce is more concerned for giving Shift something, at the very least, to hang onto in terms of hope.

"Do it," answers Kwabena, confirming Jocelyn's idea. He's forced to resort to short phrases now, for his voice is almost spent. "Do what you can. Don't stay too long. Need you back home. Genosha is ovah." There is a long pause, before he considers trying to speak again. However, instead, he manages to find the mute button before letting loose another bout of coughing.

"Doug," he manages to get out. "Look aftah de students. Dey will be worried, and if word gets out about Jean, dey might..." Another pause, a long and uneasy breath. "Tell Kitty and Piotr for me?"

Nodding in her chair in Genosha, Jocelyn speaks up. "It may be over, but I at least need to make sure the people here are taken care of. It might have been a cover, but it's also a responsibility I took on, and I need to at least make sure it will continue without me". Her cover was also a public service, in many ways, and to Jocelyn, that was important. "I will see you all soon," the woman adds.

"I'll do that, Kwa," Doug replies softly, keeping his hands busy rather than spend time dwelling on death. It wasn't as though he were a stranger to it, but there was a rather pragmatic approach to it: after all, -he- didn't stay dead, and so until things changed, well...

"Thank you." There's a break in the monotone way in which Kwabena speaks, suddenly sounding uncharacteristically heartfelt. "Both of y-" But he cuts himself off for a moment, before going numb again. "Shift out."