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[x-shinobi.livejournal.com]

After a chat with Nathan earlier on in the evening (you know, early, like 11PMish?), Shinobi wakes up after a couple hours of sleep and fires up the laptop to see if anything's gone on while he's been zonked. He's reminded of AIM's existance when he gets two IMs in short order - one from Domino, and one from Doug.

While Domino and Shinobi are amused, Doug catches Shinobi up on what's happened while he was gone - most notably, Skippy.



LadyLuck13: Well, hello there. Lonely tonight?

Shaw2.0: Only as lonely as exhaustion will let me get away with. Who's this?

LadyLuck13: I spent some time with a lovely lady of your acquaintance recently. Hell of a ride, she was.

Shaw2.0: Now that doesn't really narrow it down much.. I can think of a half-dozen people off-hand that 'lovely lady' and 'hell of a ride' might theoretically be applied to.

LadyLuck13: I had to rescue her from a very bad man, and send her into exile across the Atlantic. Very sad.

Shaw2.0: Ahh, the Atlantic helps. Amanda's doing as well as she's letting me think, I hope?

LadyLuck13: *dies* Romany would have a stroke if she ever heard about this.

LadyLuck13: It's Domino, actually, Shinobi. Not that we've, you know, actually met or anything. :)

Shaw2.0: She shan't hear of it from me, I promise. *grins* Nice to hear from you, text-based though it may be.

LadyLuck13: I'm in another window with a certain stubborn bastard, who let me know you were back in the mansion. Just sorry to hear that it's under such circumstances.

LadyLuck13: I don't know if Sarah told you that she and I sparred the last time I was there. It involved a collapsing ceiling. Lots of fun.

Shaw2.0: A certain stubborn bastard is trying to convince me he doesn't need to sleep anymore. If I thought I could throw straight, I'd go upstairs and pelt him with as heavy a book as I could find. As for the sparring.. she did mention, I think. And I should thank you for that. A good spar usually puts her in a very fun mood. *grins*

LadyLuck13: ...I see. Pardon me for a moment.

LadyLuck13: Sorry. Needed all my focus there for a moment. I was thinking he sounded a little odd... and now he's sulking.

Shaw2.0: Hah. No problem. Would I be correct in guessing I owe you a cookie for whatever just happened?

LadyLuck13: Not positive. Sadly, I'm not in a position to actually kick his ass, so I'm left with shameless emotional manipulation. Which sometimes works, and sometimes leads him to laugh at me. I'll keep working on it.

LadyLuck13: So Nate didn't tell me... did you get your car okay?

Shaw2.0: You could always threaten to sic Moira on him. You're talking to me, I'm within a stone's throw of medlab.. it can be done. I did get the car - thank you. For it, and the trophies in the glove box. That was lovely.

LadyLuck13: Thought you might appreciate them. Picked them up when I went in to write the rude message on your father's bedroom wall. I do try and do things with a certain style, you see.

LadyLuck13: As for Nate... I'll let him be for now, I think. I'm not sure what's going on, but he's not himself.

Shaw2.0: If you got a picture of the rude message, I owe you lots and lots of cookies. Or whatever you'd like for it, anyway. Style's to be rewarded, in my book.

LadyLuck13: Sadly, no. Security guard chose that moment to walk in and I had to incapacitate him. Hee. Wonder if he's playing football again yet.

Shaw2.0: Aww. Oh well, I'll owe you anyway. It's more fun that way. Going to be in the city anytime soon?

LadyLuck13: Possibly. I'm between jobs, and Nate's told me that Pete was recently stupid. So I might fly over and kick both their asses for the price of one airfare.

Shaw2.0: Throw in visiting with Sarah (once she's up for it), and me spoiling you rotten, and it would probably be well worth the flight.

LadyLuck13: Well, goodness. Been a while since a handsome man spoiled me... actually, a very long while.

Shaw2.0: I don't know how handsome I am right now, sadly. More 'unkempt and in need of a shave' than handsome. Unless that floats your boat, of course, in which case I am a stone cold fox.

LadyLuck13: I like scruffy. I dote on scruffy. Ask Pete.

LadyLuck13: And you really didn't need to know that, did you? :)

Shaw2.0: *snickers* Only if the next line would involve the phrase 'very nice ride', and happily, I'm tired enough that I can keep my brain from going there anyway.

LadyLuck13: Le sigh. I hate this particular mode of communication. Lets out all the lovely body-language emphases you really need in a conversation like this.

Shaw2.0: I could always dig out my phone, though that wouldn't help with the body language part. We can always revisit the topic once you're in town, see if it'd make my brain melt out my ears then. ;)

LadyLuck13: Promises, promises. I should know in a few days if I've got any particularly pressing business coming up. Doubt it, after the job we just got back from...

Shaw2.0: Now you're just being cruel, dangling what is probably a very interesting story like that.

LadyLuck13: Well, I don't know if you were following the news at all about four days ago. There was this "industrial accident" in Teheran...

Shaw2.0: Oh, brilliant. That was you lot?

LadyLuck13: ::enigmatic look:: It's really too bad. Nasty setback for their nuke program.

Shaw2.0: *snickers* That must have paid nicely. I'll try not to be too jealous. All my money comes in much less exciting packages. Do you have any idea how bloody dull board meetings are capable of being?

LadyLuck13: I'm yawning at the thought, dear.

Shaw2.0: I'm just glad I only have to go to the really important ones, and they at least have strong enough coffee to keep me coherent.

LadyLuck13: Coffee is the food of the gods. I mainline it myself.

Shaw2.0: I usually go in for tea, but this place is lacking in any strong enough to keep me awake, same as most office buildings. I have a little coffee cup castle here.

LadyLuck13: Americans don't know how to make tea. If I'm coming over I'll bring you some of the good stuff.

Shaw2.0: Oh, please do. Amanda and I would love you forever. Or, well, more than we already do, I'm sure.

LadyLuck13: Deal, then.

LadyLuck13: And as enjoyable as this is, I really ought to run. Have two overgrown boys here whining that there is no beer. I don't want them to start eating the furniture again.

Shaw2.0: But that would be funny, dear. You could take pictures.

LadyLuck13: Eh, I need no more incriminating pictures of these two. Their immortal souls are mine already.

Shaw2.0: Oh, well, in that case.. by all means, beer them. Just keep plenty for yourself.

LadyLuck13: But of course.

LadyLuck13: You take care, Shinobi. And take care of Miss Impulsive, too. Tell her I'm coming back to kick her ass specifically. ;)

Shaw2.0: Oh, will do. She'll probably be glad to hear it. You take care, too, Dom.





XCypherDoug: Morning, Shinobi. Or, well, guess it's late night there. Time zones suck. So does jet lag for that matter.

Shaw2.0: Oh, it definitely does. Old friends, jetlag and I. No idea what time it is here, though. I should probably check the clock sometime soon.

XCypherDoug: You might also want to look into that lovely new invention called sleep. I mean, I know Sarah's in the medlab, but all-nighting yourself into a stupor doesn't really do anyone any good.

Shaw2.0: I have slept, actually. Have a pillow and everything. It's just one of those 'two hours here, an hour there' sorts of sleeps. Better off than I was when I got here, though, definitely.

XCypherDoug: Well, that's something, I guess. Sorry I didn't really get to see you before we left. I heard you were coming back, so I left the country. ;-)

Shaw2.0: Ha! Can't blame you. At least you don't have to see me before I've gotten a shower and shave in, unlike these poor people.

XCypherDoug: *wrinkles nose* Indeed.

Shaw2.0: *grins* I'm assured it's a ruggedly handsome look on me, but yeah. It's going away as soon as I can walk straight again.

XCypherDoug: Not to mention shave straight, yes? I don't imagine the scarred look would be all that good, either.

Shaw2.0: I can cheat on that, though. This density manipulation gig has definite perks, especially since it doesn't seem to extend to my five o'clock shadows.

XCypherDoug: Wow. Yeah, I can see how that would come in handy.

Shaw2.0: It's let me sleep in before many a dressy occasion. A blessing, really. So, jet lag - where're you off to, then? I'm still plugging through the back-posts a bit.

XCypherDoug: France. Visiting Angie's family for a week in Lyon, and then off to Denver for a week to visit mine. Back some time around the 7th, if I recall.

Shaw2.0: Oh, very nice. I miss France, even if the last time I was there was moderately insane.

XCypherDoug: Heh. I don't plan any insanity. Unless you count Angie's mom.

Shaw2.0: I haven't had the pleasure, so I'll be good and say nossink about her sanity.

XCypherDoug: She's...aggresively Catholic. She's convinced Angie is Joan of Arc reincarnate, and after Pentecost a month or so ago, she's convinced that my power is the result of the Holy Spirit descending "as a tongue of flame" on me.

Shaw2.0: Okay, maybe she's just slightly sanity-deprived.

XCypherDoug: She's already kinda gotten on us about going to church on Sunday. Yeah, she's not as insane as, say, Skippy, but still.

Shaw2.0: Huh. Missing the reference. Either it's a movie I haven't seen, or something happened while I was gone, and I haven't read back that far yet.

XCypherDoug: Then again, I don't think _anyone_ is as insane as Skippy.

XCypherDoug: Jamie's evil twin that invaded the mansion a little bit ago.

Shaw2.0: How long have you been living here? You say that like it's the most normal thing in the world. Or maybe it's just the text thing.

XCypherDoug: It's mostly just the text thing.

XCypherDoug: Although I've been living here almost a year.

XCypherDoug: I've had to get used to quite a few things.

Shaw2.0: Possibly a bit of both, then. *grins*

XCypherDoug: Trust me, I'm not at all blase about Skippy.

XCypherDoug: Considering I had to kill him.

Shaw2.0: Oh, yuck. Sorry, mate. You're one of the last people in this nuthouse I'd ever expect to engage in fisticuffs, let alone something that serious.

XCypherDoug: Well, let's see if I can give you the Reader's Digest version. Will help you catch up a bit, as well.

XCypherDoug: You weren't around yet back when we did relief during that hurricane, were you?

Shaw2.0: Go for it. I'm all.. er.. eyes. I even have coffee left.

Shaw2.0: No, I think I showed up a bit after that. Emma, Manuel and I showed in.. December, as I recall, and that's a ways after hurricane season, isn't it?

XCypherDoug: *nods*

XCypherDoug: Well, we were doing relief, and one of Jamie's dupes ran after a kid who was out in the storm. A large wall collapsed on him, and the dupe died.

XCypherDoug: Was the result of some trauma for a while.

XCypherDoug: Come to find out, there was a dupe created in that accident, and it was thrown free, physically and mentally.

Shaw2.0: Lovely. I can imagine how it would be.

XCypherDoug: Among other things, he went batshit insane. Magneto picked him up and warped him to his own purposes.

XCypherDoug: He was fixated on "getting his life back". Harassed Kitty and so forth.

XCypherDoug: Anyways. Among other things, Magneto's tampering meant that he didn't have Jamie's limits.

XCypherDoug: So he invaded the mansion.

Shaw2.0: Wait. The dupe could dupe? That's.. interesting.

XCypherDoug: He was completely separate from Jamie.

Shaw2.0: Huh. Very interesting. Anyway, go on.

XCypherDoug: Anyways, a decent number of teachers were out. He managed to neutralize the rest (including locking the Professor in the psi-proof room and using a knockout poison on Alison and Nathan), and then told Jamie to come alone to the quarry.

XCypherDoug: Oh, and he took Artie and Miles hostage.

XCypherDoug: Jamie called a war council, and we sent a large group to get Artie and Miles, and Angie and I went down to break the Prof out. Except Hydra (that was the name he'd given himself) was waiting for us.

Shaw2.0: Fitting name, if nothing else.

XCypherDoug: Well, long story short, I tried to get him unconscious, but the tampering Magneto had done apparently made his dupes unstable. So he dissolved. And then I had to kill another one, because Angie tried to use one of her tarot cards to manifest swords in a dupe's back, but that just caused him to dupe again.

Shaw2.0: Must have been some serious tampering. Wonder if I'd have been any help.

XCypherDoug: I imagine you might have been. Could have phased right through the locked door to the psi-proof room, gotten the Prof out. Been in on the rescue of Artie and Miles...but don't blame yourself. It all turned out for the best in the end. Even if there was plenty of trauma to go around.

Shaw2.0: There would have been anyway, even if I'd been around. Don't worry. If I'm not blaming myself over the current situation, I'm not about to make up for it by guilting over the last one.

XCypherDoug: Yeah. I hope she pulls through okay, man. I mean, it's not like she and I are at all close, but still.

Shaw2.0: Oh, she will. She'll be lording this over people who worry about her getting into serious sparring matches in no time. She died, and got better.

XCypherDoug: "Well, I'm not _quite_ dead"? Something like that?

Shaw2.0: Something like that, yeah. I'll know better once I can talk to her.

XCypherDoug: Hopefully that'll be soon.

Shaw2.0: Knowing how fast she usually heals up, and with a vague idea about how serious things were..? I'm guessing a few days, possibly a week. ...which means I should probably be sleeping in a bed, now that I mention it, but I kind of like this patch of floor.

XCypherDoug: Angie's getting on me to be social, so I suppose I'd best be going too. See if you can't bum a cot off of Doc McCoy if you don't want to be all the way in your bed. Because sleeping on the floor is murder on your back.

Shaw2.0: That would entail finding out if my bed is still my bed, and it's a bit early in the morning for that talk, methinks. But I'll at least look into a cot. Try to have fun with the family-visiting, Doug. Say hello to Angie for me.

XCypherDoug: Will do, and you look after everyone there for me. Especially Amanda and Angelo, I know they've been worrying more than most.

Shaw2.0: I think I could manage that.

XCypherDoug: And above all, try and take care of yourself, hm?

Shaw2.0: I'm eating, I'm sleeping, I'm getting some sunlight once in a while - I'm trying.

XCypherDoug: All anyone can ask.

XCypherDoug: Night, Shinobi.

Shaw2.0: Nah. All anyone can expect. They can always ask for more. *grins* See you, Doug.