Ten Forward

[thesurlyone]

In the busy evening of Ten Forward, a new arrival seems to appear in a swirl of white lights, already irate at something or someone from her tone of voice.

Already, the brunette had a finger up in that classic position of a mother about to chastise her child and half of her sentence tumbled out of her lips.

"--you orb me, young ma--"

And immediately, Piper stopped in the middle of her sentence.

"Oh...kay...where did you orb me to now, Wyatt?" she quietly asked herself.

Piper took in her surroundings. Looked like a bar but it was definitely not P3. She hadn't thought about remodeling it lately and was pretty sure mock ups were not in the books for today. The furniture looked futuristic and, as she slowly made her way around, a small sense of panic rose in her chest. She couldn't call Leo right now. Oh no.

"Paige?" she called out cautiously. Piper reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears, hands at the ready.

Just in case.

Comments

[demontobeloved]

"Hey, Piper."

There'll be a familiar voice from the bar, all nonchalant-like, and probably resounding over the buzz of conversation.

Back against the bar, sprawled against it casually, is Cole Turner. The demon isn't looking best pleased as he regards Piper Halliwell.

"Lemme guess. You're from my future, too?"

[thesurlyone]

Oh that was a familiar voice. Too familiar. Piper held onto her hands when her eyes fell on Cole. His comment cut hers off and Piper's brow furrowed. All right, so he wasn't the same specter that she had met when she was in between worlds. She looked around and back at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes. What the hell are you doing here?"

[demontobeloved]

"The same as you. Trapped."

He pushes himself up off the bar, sticking his hands into his pockets, slowly walking over, before stopping a respectable distance away... but so they don't have to shout.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we're now the playthings of some omnipotent being who likes to toy with the lower life-forms."

[thesurlyone]

"Right."

Of course. Piper groaned a little and took a few deep, calming breaths.

"Okay, well do you know who this omnipotent being is? What part of the past are you from?"

That would make her slightly nervous because if she was standing in the presence of the Source without Paige and Phoebe, then vanquishing might be a little difficult.

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"Hello, Miss," he greets her, looking as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world. The uniform he wears, albeit a little buried under a blue grey, well worn coat, is a little too Bright Red to be anything a demon wears, and besides which he's sitting down next to a drink in a benign fashion.

[thesurlyone]

"Hi."

Piper put on her best customer service smile and chuckled.

"Mind tell me who you are? What's going on here?"

It had been strange enough running into Cole, but this guy was definitely not someone she recognized.

"More like when you're from?"

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"I'm Bob Fraser," he said. "And you?"

He paused, wondering if that meant he shouldn't answer the first one.

"I'm from Canada," he said, though he's honestly not sure whereabouts. His parents wandered all across the country and into others in a kind of itinerant lifestyle, so he can't be certain where he had come from.

[thesurlyone]

"Piper Halliwell. Canada, when?" she asked, curious about his easygoing demeanor and mildly annoyed by how calm he looked.

[student_lighter]

Chris wrinkled his nose, almost like he was trying to scratch a mental itch. Why did his Mom just jump onto his radar. Well, there was the obvious reason of course. Chris took a second to put down the paper and pen he was using(trying to do spellwork on a PADD seemed very wrong somehow), and orbed to her location.

"Um....Piper?" Better be safe.Just in case she has no idea who he is. In which case he would be fine as long as Piper and Phoebe didn't check the room listing and wonder why his last name was listed as 'Halliwell'. He didn't have a lie good enough to get through that.

[thesurlyone]

"Chris? Sweetie, what are you doing here?"

The last time she had seen him like this--well, things were a little dire at the time but she was pretty sure the Angel of Destiny was gonna keep to her word. No more big battles. Leo was home, had been home, for a few months now.

Immediately, she moved over and hugged her son.

"Is Wyatt here? Is this your future?"

[student_lighter]

Oh. We were going to hug. Guess that answers that questions.

"Um. No. Like you, I've been witch-napped. Wyatt's not here, Wyatt-Wyatt or little Wyatt. But Phoebe is. And....Cole. " Chris added, like he was trying out the word for the first time and wasn't sure he liked it.

"We're somewhere. Not entirely sure where, but I think we're out of reach of the Elders. Actually, I think we're in a completely different universe. Lucky us. "

Chris stepped back from the hug and looked at his mother. "You look...different." Cause he certainly wasn't tell his mother she looked older.

"You're not from 2004 are you?"

[thesurlyone]

When she let him go, she let what he said sink in.

"Great, different universe. So is Grams here? Grandpa? Dad? Anyone else?" She paused. "Wait, is the Book here?"

Because having witches thrown waywardly was one thing but stealing their heritage and throwing it all over the universe? Different thing.

"And no, I'm actually from 2006."

[transient_gunner]

He couldn't help but grin a little at the pretty young woman. Her tone sounded exactly like Raine's. Laguna turned in his stool and gingerly slid off it to approach her, hands up as she also looked ready for action. "Not sure what being orbed feels like, but I'm pretty sure it's not like this."

He held out his hand. "Name's Laguna. Looks like you've been kidnapped like the rest of us, or so I've been told."

He only just got here recently and was laid up at the Sickbay long enough to get healed. But now that it was done, he decided to go off exploring even if his side was killing him. Not literally, at least.

[thesurlyone]

Laguna. Like the beach. Piper watched, amused, as he slid off. Carefully, must've been recently injured. He didn't seem to attack her, so that was a good sign.

"Yeah, so my son says: witch-napped. And just where are you from, Laguna?" she asked.

[transient_gunner]

"Well, I was originally from Galbadia, but I've recently made my home in Esthar," He replied, then he paused. Wait, witch-napped? While he didn't want to immediately cause an alarm but he did recently send a really evil Sorceress to space only a few years ago. But this one seemed nice and he met all sort of people during the Conflict. Better to wait and see. "Are you a sorceress, then? I'm just a regular ol' soldier."

[thesurlyone]

Whoops, probably should've kept that one under wraps but, she figured, completely different case because even the Elders had no reach here. At least, according to Chris.

"Sorry, pal, regular ol' witch. Pretty sure you can't just take the Bart down to Esthar. How'd you get mixed up in this mess?"

[engineermage]

Kale recognizes the 'orb' use of the word from Chris. Poor baby lamplighter. He still has to deal with the twins, even if he knows there's two of them now.

Still, no reason not to be friendly with someone who is from his world. "Hello. I might know a friend of yours."

Admittedly the likelihood of this is small, because worlds are large and all but it's a good enough opening as any.

[thesurlyone]

"Yeah?" she asked when she heard the voice talk to her.

Piper had to remain cautious. Right now, the only people she knew to trust were her sister, whom she hadn't seen yet, and her neurotic son.

"Exactly how do you know Paige?"

[engineermage]

"Chris... actually. I know a Chris not a Paige," Kale said, smiling all polite and everything. "Cute kid. A bit on the neurotic side... seems to insist on following me around..."

[empathic_pathfinder]

That's a familiar feeling. The twisting of confusion and worry. Being an empath sucks sometimes, but... Well, Terzen has a duty.

Standing from his table, he makes his way over to Piper. To the witch, he'll look like a tall man in a yellow and black Starfleet uniform. He looks human... until you notice the spots running from his temples, down the sides of his head and straight down, seemingly down his entire body. His eyes are black, but not cold.

"Excuse me... I might be able to shed some light on this."

[thesurlyone]

And that was definitely one of the odder sights for her to see today. Piper kept her hands raised, just in cased.

"Yeah? Got some info from some of the people around here. What light can you shed?" she asked.

[empathic_pathfinder]

Terzen is going to keep his own hands visible, but lowered, aiming to show he's not a threat.

"My name is Lieutenant Commander Terzen T'Karr, you're on-board the Federation Starship USS Enterprise, and the year is 2368." That's the basics. "If you let me know what others have told you, I can try to fill in the blanks."

[premonitioned]

"It's Phoebe," Phoebe says coming up behind Piper and smiling. After weeks, it's a relief to see at least one sister here, looking like she is in one piece. "It's so good to see you Piper." She waits to step forward and hug Piper, in case she startles her, and she blows up the nearest table and chairs.

"At least there aren't any crazy costumes involved this time."

[thesurlyone]

"Jesus!" Piper jumped, lucky that she didn't blow anything up. "Phoebe!"

She returned the hug, all right, they had some semblance of the Power of Three so that might mean they had a way out. She snorted at the costume comment.

"Yeah, this time."

[premonitioned]

Piper gets an extra squeeze before Phoebe steps back to check her sister over, looking for any obvious sign of injury. Phew. For once, things are looking okay.

"We've gone to the future, like way into the future." There is a little forced cheerfulness to her voice. "Chris and Cole are here too, isn't that nice?" Yes, she is going to mention her ex as casually as that.