Just the Streets, Day Four (February 5, 2317)

[Cytherea]

Rosie

The young man in the house opened the window and said "Hullo". His eyes seemed to sparkle, and Rosie smiled broadly.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "My name's Rosie Princeton, and this is my friend Clover. What's your name?"

[Lithium]

Camri shrugged. "Not too different. I mean... I can't really describe it. It's like... it's like, say you're a computer and you get a system upgrade, or get some new applications installed. You still run everything else, but you can also run those new features. Only, since I'm human, not an android, I have to get used to and discover those skills."

Archer nodded. "That makes sense. I don't know how it's like for humans that go I.S, but normally, I understand that there's a lot of pain involved. Do you remember any––"

"No," Camri said. "I just woke up and was like this. I don't remember too much after they knocked me out. Except... I can just barely remember this... this really hazy image. Really bright lights shining into my eyes... and a voice and..." She shivered. "Never mind."

She turned to Sydny. "How are you feeling today, Syd?"

[Cytherea]

Camri turned to Sydny. "How are you feeling today, Syd?"

Sydny perked up and tried to push his pain away. He smiled broadly.

"I'm feeling amazing! I don't feel serious, and I'm not in agony!" his smile flickered as he felt a small twinge of pain run throughout his body, but he managed to keep his optimistic grin.

[Lithium]

Camri grinned back. "That makes me very happy."

Sol frowned.

"What's wrong, Sol?" Camri asked. "Aren't you glad Sydny is feeling better?"

"Yeah. Sure. I mean, of course I am. It always makes me so glad to know my patients are doing better."

"Then why were you frowning?"

"Oh, no reason. Just thinking, I guess." Sol glanced at Sydny briefly before pulling a smile from her bag of Doctor's tools.

"All right." Camri said. "How's Olivia doing?"

[Cytherea]

"All right." Camri said. "How's Olivia doing?"

Sydny looked down at Olivia as Sol started to check her pulse. He gritted his teeth to stop a wave of pain from making him cry out, and grabbed the top of the couch for stabilization.

Suddenly, Olivia's eyes opened wide, and she sat bolt upright. She looked at the people around her and recognition flashed in her eyes. She let her breath out slowly and relaxed her posture. She put her hands to her temples.

"Oh my word. You guys, I'm so sorry I passed out. How long was I out?" she asked worriedly.

[Lithium]

Archer glanced at his watch. "Maybe twenty minutes. Not too bad. Are you feeling better?"

"Oh thank God," Camri said and threw her arms around Olivia. "I'm so glad you've come to."

[Cytherea]

"So am I." Olivia said as she hugged Camri. "And I feel much better, thank you." she said with a smile to Archer. She turned and looked at Camri. "How about you? Are you all right?"

[Lithium]

"I am feeling a lot better. Not nearly as groggy," she said with a smile. "But I'm starving. Any chance we can get some breakfast, Sol?"

Sol smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Breakfast? How about lunch?"

"Or better yet," Archer said, "brunch."

[Cytherea]

Olivia smiled. She felt happy to be amidst these people, her friends. She glanced at Archer.

Yes, even he's my friend. He's not so bad when you get to know him. Well, I haven't really gotten to know him very much, so I suppose that's not saying a lot. But he's a good guy. He's not all muscle and sternness after all.

"Breakfast, lunch, or brunch all sound good." she said, still beaming.

[Anwen]

She. Just. Fell. Asleep. A girl just fell asleep in my house. What do I do!- Alright. Calm down Will. Just. Calm down. Just because you have no idea what to do doesn't mean you need to freak out. She is beautiful though. Her hair is silky, her lashes are beautifully long, her cheeks looked so soft, and her lips were slightly parted, breathing in and out in deep sleep. It took a lot to stop the urge to kiss her.

He carefully took the hot cocoa from her grasp, so that she wouldn't burn herself sleeping. Then he went into the other room to get a blanket for her. As he passed the kitchen on the way back, he noticed a draft coming from it. He popped his head in and saw Tucker talking to a couple girls through the window. He chuckled to himself about his interesting morning, and went on to the front room. As he covered her with the afghan, he unconsciously bent down to kiss her forehead. He didn't realize what he had done until he had done it.

[Cytherea]

Endosi vaguely felt someone. Someone's lips, touching her forehead.

Immediately, she sat bolt upright. Her head hit something hard, and she whirled around, seeing Will. At first, she had no idea who he was. She stared at him, her eyes wide, and her breaths coming short and quick.

"Oh my word...!" she breathed. She averted her eyes from him and seemed to stare into space. She put her hand to her heart. "You did not just..." she swallowed hard. "Did you just kiss me?"

[Anwen]

Will blushed, madly, and was glad she wasn't looking at him. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I just; I just couldn't help myself...

Great. Why on earth would I say such a harebrained thing?

[Lithium]

"While Sole is making brunch, how's about we play some cards?" Camri asked.

"How about Poker?" Archer suggested.

"No," Camri said. "No Poker. You beat everybody at that game."

"Blackjack?"

Camri shrugged. "I mean, I'm good with whatever."

[Cytherea]

Olivia and Sydny

Camri shrugged. "I mean, I'm good with whatever."

Sydny realized he'd been staring at Camri and had also been smiling the whole time. He quickly looked away and hoped she hadn't noticed.

"I don't care either." Olivia said. "How about you Sydny?"

"Oh..." he stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and thought. "I always lose on card games. Go fish?" he suggested meekly. "Nah, I always lose on that too. How about Dutch Blitz?"

Endosi

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I just; I just couldn't help myself..."

"Oh, no; I'm not upset at you or anything." Endosi said. "I really..." she was sure she was blushing. "I don't mind you kissing my forehead."

[Lithium]

Camri nodded. "Sounds good."

Archer shrugged. "I'm game."

"Let's do this. Loser does dishes," Camri said before she started to shuffled the cards.

[Cytherea]

"Loser does dishes."

Sydny groaned.

"Great. I wish I could wash them before we even eat." he said.

"Oh come on, Sydny." Olivia said, standing up. "You can't always lose. And," she said, raising a hand to stop his oncoming comment of 'yes I do', "even if you do lose every time, then there's always a first time waiting for you."

Suddenly Olivia clasped her hands together excitedly.

"No! How about we play Mafia?!" She said, her eyes shining.

[Lithium]

"Oooh! Now there's a great idea!" Camri said.

"What's... Mafia? Do we get to fight?" Archer asked.

"No." Camri shook her head. "It's just a roleplaying game, with narration and stuff. I think Olivia would explain it better."

(Want to skip to brunch/lunch?)

[Cytherea]

(sure, if you want to)

"It's just a roleplaying game, with narration and stuff. I think Olivia would explain it better."

"Oh, sure." Olivia said. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Basically, everybody's given a card." she picked up the card deck and started skimming through it. "Okay. So there's four of us, if Sol's not playing. I'm going to pass out a card to each of us, but don't tell anyone what it says."

She placed one in Camri's hands, Archer's, and then Sydny's. She checked her card.

I'm the towns-person, then.

"Okay. So I passed out a king, a queen, jack, and ten. The ten is a towns-person who gets to walk around and get killed without any powers."

"Killed?" Sydny said incredulously.

"Yeah, killed." Olivia said with a smile. "The king is the murderer. He can't be killed. The queen is the doctor. She can tell only one person that they are safe for the round, and they can't be killed. She could, without knowing, save the king! The jack is the detective. He can walk up to any person and ask them to show him their card. They have to. But he can only ask one person."

"When the king murders someone, that person will collapse. Anyone nearby who hears him or her fall, will yell "murder in the dark!". We'll flip the lights on, and then try to decide who killed the person. It'll probably go quicker since there's only four of us."

[Lithium]

Camri glanced at her card. Queen of hearts... Doctor, then.

Archer picked his up and looked at it. King? Of course...

"When do we start?"

"Don't you need a narrator?" Sol asked, coming out of the kitchen as she dried her hands with a towel. "I've got food in the oven. I can play now."

[Cytherea]

"Great. Thanks, Sol." Olivia said with a smile. She jumped towards the light-switch, forgetting she was I.S. and nearly slammed into the wall. She caught herself quickly.

"Okay, ready guys? Make sure you keep your card hidden, unless the jack demands that you show him."

[Lithium]

Forty-five minutes later...

The timer in the kitchen beeped just as they were finishing their 10th game of Mafia.

"Oh! That's our meal. I'll go grab it. Anybody want some fresh fruit? Camri picked some up earlier."

[Cytherea]

"Oh! That's our meal. I'll go grab it. Anybody want some fresh fruit? Camri picked some up earlier."

Sydny glanced meaningfully at Camri, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You mean yesterday?" He asked Sol, though he was looking at Camri. "I think I remember that."

[Lithium]

Camri laughed. "You're right. Was that really only yesterday? It seemed like forever ago!"

"I'll cut some up."

Sol busied herself in the kitchen while Camri cleaned up the table and set the dishes, napkins and silverware on its surface.

[Cytherea]

Olivia gathered up the four cards and shuffled them back into the deck.

"That was fun." she said with a grin. "I was almost always the towns-person, though." she quickly pulled her hair to the side, and then braided it.

"The first time I was the detective." Sydny said. "And I can't believe I asked the towns-person."

"What about you, Archer?" Olivia asked. "How'd you like being the king the first time?"

[Hwin]

“Hi!” Rosie said cheerfully. “My name’s Rosie Princeton, and this is my friend Clover. What’s your name?”

“My name’s Tucker Hartan. It’s nice to meet you both,” Tucker said with a smile.

Grinning, Clover looked back and forth, from Rosie to Tucker. “It’s very wonderful to meet you too, Mr. Hartan! So, what age are you? Where do you live or is this your house?” Chloe swayed back and forth with the wind, her eyes laughing with merriment.

Tucker bit his lip to keep from smiling at the girl’s straightforwardness. “I’m eighteen and I don’t really live anywhere, mostly just go from place to place. The guy who lives here let me camp for the night after helping me out of a predicament. He’s a great guy. Now, what age are you both and where do you live, if you don’t mind my asking.” Tucker’s eyes shined.