2020-01-16 - A Dimension Crossed Mother-Daughter Reunion

From TwistedMUCK
Jump to: navigation, search


A Dimension Crossed Mother-Daughter Reunion

Summary: Pola finally finds the adoptive mother she's been looking for, going as far as taking untested portal tech to get here.



Who: Pola, Katherine
When: January 16, 2020.
Where: Nowhereto Park - Lakeside


Katherine-icon.gifPola-icon.gif

The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.

Questions should be directed to staff.


Pola and Pinky have been on Twisted for a few weeks now, and are starting to feel more comfortable there. It wasn't the same as Neo Tokyo, but still somehow felt familiar in some ways even so. Today the pair head to the park in the afternoon, having hit up a local pizza joint after school. Pola is riding on Pinky's back while holding the pizza box and another bag that looks to contain a large bottle of soda along with a few cups. After entering the park, Pinky heads over to a stand of picnic tables, at which point Pola hops off and starts setting everything down on the table. "Ah, a nice relaxing day at the park and a delicious pizza after the horror that is school, and I get to enjoy it with the best bird in the world." She comments with a grin, giving Pinky a gentle hug. "I'm starting to wonder if we didn't get the stuff Kat left behind about the portal stuff wrong, maybe she's not here, but it's still not a bad place."

Katherine has had a much less restful time here in Twisted. When she and Vera mastered the technology to tear holes into the fabric of time and space, she’d been ecstatic. She’d managed to attain the very thing she’d been working her fingers to the bone to do…well, that among about a 1000 other projects, but still. That first jump had been historical and Katherine’s luck felt like it had finally reached the apex of DAMN good! The second jump…eh. It’s been about a month since that second jump and it has gone as poorly as it possibly could. No matter how many times she’s tried to regain contact with R&D, it’s useless. Still, she hasn’t stopped trying. Today, like most every other day before it Katherine finds herself back at the park where she landed and attempts to reach Vera back on Neo. Again her attempts at success are zero. “Do you copy? Vera…Jodie?...Tanaka? ANYONE….Is this a joke? It’s gotta be a joke, right? Oh, ha ha. You got me! You got the boss. Okay, time to wrap it up now and bring me back home. You copy? Beam me up, or whatever the fuck you have to do…just get me the hell outta here!” Yes, nearly every day the scene plays out like this. Some of the other park goers are starting to take her for a lunatic….she might pass for one, Commander’s uniform rumpled and her nerves fraying a little more each day. Somehow she’s not yet taken notice of the oversized pink ostrich. Her back is to the pair and, let’s face it, she’s really….REALLY….REAAAALLY deep in her own foul mood.

Pola doesn't immediately notice Katherine either, as she's busy pouring a soda for herself and another for Pinky and getting some pizza onto plates. Pinky though hears the familiar voice and eyes the woman, then moves a little closer to Pola and taps the girl with a wing a bit. Pola is about to take a bite when Pinky gets her attention and her gaze falls upon Katherine's backside, and for a moment she just stares. No, it couldn't be, could it? Finally, she drops her slice of pizza back on her plate, which Pinky promptly eats for her. Pola slowly walks toward the familiar-looking woman, hearing her voice now as well. "K... I mean, Mom!? Is that you?"

Katherine is vaguely aware of someone addressing her from behind and at first she tunes it out, assuming it to be one of the various bums or panhandlers that seem to flock to her these days. Seriously? What’s it going to take for them to realize she’s as destitute as they are? IT’s the uniform, I tell you. Something does grab her attention, though. Be it something familiar in the voice or something that sounded distinctly like the word “mom,” it’s enough to prompt the woman to turn her glare from the nearby pond and level it on the figure now facing her. “-Uh-, I’m sorry, whu--? Listen, I think you’ve got the wro-----” The expression on Katherine’s face could only be described as sardonic. She’s fully prepared to let someone know they’ve got the wrong person and that they should fuck right off too but something remarkable happens instead. Her face goes utterly blank as she comes face to face with her very own adopted daughter…only…something’s different, isn’t it? “…Pola?” She asks, sounding like she’s in the thick of some kind of crazy dream. Hell, she might be after all. “Naaaw! Wait a sec. Couldn’t be." Error.Error.Does.Not.Compute.

Pola giggles a little and nods after how Kat reacts to the fact that she and Pinky are here now. "It's been, 3 or 4 years now I think? I'm sixteen now. For a while, I wasn't sure what happened to you, but when I decided it was probably something that happened with your work, and it didn't seem like you were coming back, I tried to find out what happened. The people you work with don't like giving up information, that's for sure. But I'm... persistent?" She says with a grin. "Eventually Vera met with me privately in my apartment and agreed to help me try to find you, and maybe bring you back. She spent a long time trying to make sure she had everything right and I'd end up in the same place you went, though in the end she still wasn't 100% sure. Looks like it worked out though. Unfortunately, the getting back part might be a problem. The portal kinda dumped me and Pinky into the pond and the device Vera gave me to take with me... is at the bottom right now since I dropped it when we hit the water." She says with a frown as she heads over to have a seat at the picnic table.

As Pola had been talking, Katherine’s hopes had been rising on gossamer wings towards the prospect of a bright and shiny tomorrow where she would be rescued and find her way back home. In the end, Pola’s situation is almost exactly the same as Katherine’s. “Aw damn, “She says, snapping her fingers. “No, it doesn’t matter anyway. This thing,” she says holding up her own little device, “Isn’t worth a hill of beans. Mine’s in perfect condition, it’s just crap that’s all.” She shrugs and is half-tempted to just pitch hers into the pond too…though she can’t -quite- bring herself to do that just yet. “4 years? I’ve only been here a month, Twisted time. There’s some squirrely temporal shenanigans at work here….but enough about that. My Good, look at you kid!” Katherine takes Pola by the shoulders just stares at her the way only a mother could, regardless of how sociopathic. “You turned out alright…And you came for me. I…” She has no idea what to say. No one’s ever done anything remotely as self-sacrificing as this for her. She’s not the happily ever after family type. She’s more the “push the big red button and watch things go boom” type. It feels awkward and ill fitting and yet right now…it also feels damn good. “I guess I just don’t know what to say,” she confesses, laughing nervously. “Maybe…thank you? That’s probably the right one.”

Pola laughs as she grabs a slice of pizza for herself and pours a cup of cola for Kat, then pushes a plate and the pizza box containing a large sausage, onion, and roasted green and red pepper pizza, toward her so she can decide how much pizza she wants to put on her plate. "Well I guess Vera had no way of knowing that your device didn't work because of a flaw in the device, not from some accident or whatever. Oh well, guess we're both stuck here then, but at least we're stuck here together." Then Kat starts to get a little sappy about the fact that she came for her and Pola looks around as if to make sure no one important is within earshot, not that she really knows anyone around here yet anyway. "Alright, I'll admit it, I missed you, and I was a little worried something bad might have happened and that ultimately was why you didn't come back." She says with a smile. "Who else was going to take in the crazy bounty hunter girl and her ostrich friend, show us around the city, help us get on our feet again, be the one we could go to when we had a problem."

Katherine does help herself to pizza and soda. She isn't dainty about it either. IT looks bloody good and she hasn't had much more than snacky things recently. She settles onto the bench with her impromptu picnic and plays catchup with Pola who, honestly looks so damn grown up. How can that happen even in just 4 years?! Kids these days. Ah, but it's what she says that really gets her. If Pola thought she was a sap moments ago, it's nothing compared to the whistful expression she suddenly bestows on her. "Oh Pola. Pola, Pola. I...Jesus." She sits there, the plate on her lap, chewing her lip. A grin, "You're gonna make me cry. Please don't do that. I seriously don't need bigger bags under my eyes." Katherine tries to make a joke out of it but she's actually quite touched. "You know, of all the orphaned bounty hunting children I could have adopted, you and Pinky have gotta be the best ones. I'm not even kidding."

Pola smiles and laughs, shaking her head. "Alright, enough of the sappy stuff, although I'll say of course we're the best ones, we're the one and only Pinky and Pola, the coolest combo you'll find anywhere." She says with a wink, tearing off a bit of a slice of pizza and tossing it to Pinky, who catches it in her beak and promptly swallows it, Pola also gives her some cola to wash it down. This has got to be the most spoiled bird around. "So um, more importantly..." She says as she looks back to Katherine. "Are you OK? You look like you've had a rough week, to put it one way..."

Katherine pffs, waving a hand dismissively, "Oh, yeah fine. I mean, yeah sure, this is like the - what is it? - 4th time I've had my picture-perfect life turned upside down, reality shattered, left totally lone and like the SECOND time in a row I've become a cosmic castaway. But hey! Who's counting right?" Katherine laughs and tears into her pizza. "That's not bitterness you hear, though. That is the sound of being a survivor. You can't dwell in negativity. That's just no way to live so, you crack a self-deprecating joke, give the world the finger- "Which Katherine demonstrates on a happy couple and their child who oh so innocently stroll on by "and push on." She takes another bite of her pizza. "I'm great!"

Pola giggles and nods at Katherine's response. "Now that's the spirit, life kicks you in the ass, you kick it right back." She offers with a grin as she tosses Pinky the rest of her pizza, the bird needed the calories more than she did, with all that running. "I'm glad... We're glad to see you're hanging in there. I've been doing the good girl thing and going to school, but then Pinky and I usually hit the town after school, check out the bounty board, or just find something to do or somewhere to relax. We've been around enough I was wondering if you were even here, but I guess we've just been missing you and also not running into any locals who know you either."

Katherine blinks, "Wait, what? How long have you two been here? Hell, I didn't even know there was a bounty board..." And in a quiet mumble adds,"Wonder if I'm on it..." She never ceases to be amazed at just how resourceful this kid is. Reminds her of...well, herself.

Pola laughs and grins. "Haven't seen your name yet, if I had it'd at least have been a clue that you were possibly here, unless it was another by the same name, always a chance. As for the board itself, I was told about it my first day, bumped into this really pretty lady with the most awesome rainbow hair. Think her name was Rayne, police chief I think she said? She called in backup to take care of a thief that was robbing a store in the mall. Pinky and I stopped the robbery though and I think after Pinky keeping the perp pinned to the floor till the officers came will make him think twice about doing it again. Anyway Rayne offered me a job as an officer before I told her how old I was... then again, I'm not sure what I really want to do with my life yet. What do you think?"

Katherine listens, enjoying the slice of pizza that is more delicious than it has any business being. Somehow, picturing Pola and Pinky taking down a bank robber is ridiculously easy. Hell, she's seen her take out a warehouse full of poachers before, this had to be a cakewalk for her! "She offered you a job? Hah, That's funny. Well, not -FUNNY-, but you know. Predictable. I mean, in her shoes I probably would have done the same thing, except I'M not ageist." Another bite. Pola's question catches her a little off guard, though. "You're asking -me- what I think you should do with your life?...Kid! You can do anything. You don't need my advice, you've practically raised yourself. Your parents got themselves offed then your adoptive mother goes and zaps herself into an alternate dimension and here you are...thriving. I say, keep doing what you're doing. You can't miss....But if I were you, I wouldn't necessarily take my advice...so...damned if you do, damned if you don't."

Pola nods at the answers Katherine gives her, taking a few more sips of her soda while her gaze drifts to Pinky, who has found a nice sunny spot in the grass to relax for a bit now that her belly is full of pizza. "I guess I'll give it some thought, I have a year apparently, probably some stupid law or something.... guess I can't call them stupid if I'm an officer huh?" She adds with a chuckle. "Anyway I know I could take it and be fine, I don't really need the money, the rewards from the bounties are part of the rush but mostly it's the build up during the search and the action once you find them. I know I'd probably get some moments like that on the force, and I'd get to help people more, but I have a feeling more of their days are boring than exciting."

Katherine mmms, her lips pressing into a tight line. "Well, it's kind of a double-edged sword. Admittedly, I don't know much- that's to say, ANYTHING- about the laws that govern a place like Twisted, but I can tell you that there are advantages and disadvantages to working in the system...big ones. Let's see, " She says, counting off on her fingers, "If you sign on, you have a guaranteed paycheck, backup whenever you need it, probably some kind of crappy benefits package, and a Christmas bonus - oh, that's if they even have Christmas here. For all we know, it's Yorksmuck or some other crazy thing...Anyway, you can count on having all of that. You'll work your way up the ranks and since your chief is a lady, you probably won't have to worry too much about unsolicited attention, unwanted passes, or surprise rear pinches when you go to make copies...so that's a plus. You might even impress the old girl so much, she'll have you as her right hand, grooming you to take the reins once she's gone and retired. Now here's where it gets hairy---LAW. Because doing all of this means you pretty much beholden to whatever's in those big weighty books. There's no leeway there and sure you're guaranteed a paycheck but you're talking about a salary vs those nice big fat bounties you can pick and choose?Oh yeah, that's the other thing. You're probably not gonna have a lot of choice there. So maybe you'll wanna hunt down the next Ted Bundy but you'll be meter maiding it for the first couple of years. But hey! This is all you. It's your life and your decision and I've got no dog in this fight except that you do what gives you that thrill of the kill. That's what it's all about in the end. That and money.

Pola looks back to Katherine as she listens to what her mom has to say on the idea. "Yeah, I guess I can't really have it both ways, a steady job and the freedom I enjoy now. I guess the best thing I can do is find Rayne again and talk to her about it, ask all the questions about what I can expect if I do take her up on the offer in a year. For now I'll focus on being able to graduate so that I can actually take this offer if that's what I decide, or if something else I end up going for requires it."

Katherine says, "That's my pragmatic, ostrich riding, bounty-hunting girl. Ah, it's too bad though. I'd have offered you a job back home. Remember the Zoids? You pretty kickass then. Ahh, so much potential. -- Hey! Who's running the whole thing now? Who've they got running my department?" You'd better believe she's still claiming it as HER department. She built that division from the ground up and she'll be damned if someone else takes all the credit."

Pola frowns and shakes her head a bit. "Yeah, the Zoids were awesome, but we're here without them now, so I guess it's back to just Pinky and I, and you can't really offer me a job now that you're job is in another dimension or whatever. As for who's running things? I'm not sure who it is, might be the pompous blowhard that gave Pinky and I an earfull when I came asking about you."

Katherine says, "Jenkins? That sounds like Jenkins. Oohhhhhh I can just see him there, drinking my good coffee, sitting in my nice chair, ordering my guys around like he owns the place. Bastard." Katherine unleashes her vengeance on the bit of her pizza as if it might be this infamous Jenkins she just mentioned. She gulps down the rest of her drink. "Ahh, to hell with them...ALL of em! They were all so stuffy anyway....Except Vera. She came around, I mean, she helped you didn't she? I'm impressed. I guess we might really have been friends after all. Hah, the irony. You leave home forever just when you discover you actually had real friends...Like that Twilight Zone with the guy in the afterlife whose really into his books and now he's got eternity to read em when - Whoops! His glasses fall right off his face and that's all she wrote baby." At least she can see the humor in it. "I guess, Pola, the REAL irony is that you and I are in exactly the same position....figuring out what we're gonna do with the rest of our lives.""

Pola nods and laughs. "Yeah, screw 'em, except Vera, because she's cool, she totally did help me when no one else would, even though it might have gotten her in trouble if Mr Windbag found out. Anyway, yeah, we're both in the same boat now, you're right. At least now we have each other though, to hang out, bounce ideas, support one another. I mean, I have Pinky too, but let's be honest, she's a bird, she's a really smart bird, but she still doesn't know about people stuff like jobs and school."



You are not allowed to post comments.


Personal tools