Project Infinity: Kitty Pryde Logs: August 2002

August 2002: Knives Out

These are logs of roleplay on Project Infinity, a text-based online RPG. I play Kitty Pryde there, a young woman sometimes better known as Shadowcat. Kitty is not by any means my original creation; she belongs to Marvel Comics. The take on her is original, though, as this Kitty's timeline diverges from mainstream continuity close to twenty RL years' worth of comics ago.

Previous Month: July 2002 page: When the Cynics Start Believing.

Next Month: September 2002 page: Island in the Sun.

August 2002

August 2: "I'm selling wounded Brits. Can I interest you?" (First part.) Whisper brings John Constantine by Pete and Kitty's flat, after a close encounter with Marley. He'd gone in with a plan, but things got just a little bit out of control... Language.
"Pete, if something with tentacles eats your brain, don't come crying to me." (Second part.) John gets bandaged. Pete tempts fate. Kitty abuses Pete. Whisper makes tea. In other words, everything is perfectly normal around the Wisdom household. Except for the Cutty Sark. "You drink this? Why?" Mild language, mild Lovecraft.

August 4: "This is my balcony. I intend to sit on it. If the demons want one, they can rent the flat next door." Jack Celliers plays host to a brief gathering of League women: Whisper, Seishi, and Kitty. Information is passed around, some about Marley, rather more about the goings-on in Chinatown.
"You should've seen the other guy?" In progress; last updated August 20. Kitty stops by Piotr's apartment, to find him experimenting with a new costume. And, not unreasonably, he finds her collection of bruises mildly worrisome in turn. Then they get to discussing Marley, and the worry really starts.

August 7: "It was such... a nice... dream." Kitty receives a most unexpected and unnerving visitor, and a number of warnings. But there's always a certain degree of trouble with prophecy, and while Claire St. Thomas may be a visionary, she may also very possibly be completely mad.

August 9: "There's somebody I need to talk to. Deal with. Except he's kind of dead." The most vivid warning from Claire was about Sera and Ray's terrier, Gracie. Kitty, therefore, follows up with Sera - to pass the warning on, and to keep a promise to the puppy anyhow, and to catch up with a friend. Marley's situation, Constantine's inherent bastardy, Lindsey's loss of a hand, the shop's opening ... it all gets talked about. And then Kitty has a favor to ask. Mild language, goth jokes.

August 10: "It hurts." Kitty visits Lindsey. And it does. Mild language.

August 11: "You were looking for me, Miss Pryde?" Kitty hasn't seen Kurt since he teleported out of an awkward situation with her in June; for some weeks, she's been slowly putting out feelers, trying to get in contact with the only person she knows who can locate him. In the end, it doesn't require selling her soul so much as mortgaging it, and really only a small percentage... but she gets her meeting. With Mystique.

August 13: "I know the guy who planted the bomb. He was whistling." Lorne returns to the flat early one night, and not for good reasons: it's one shaken Host after the bombing of the Parrot's Revenge. Mild language, discussion of terrorism.

August 14: "This doesn't look like Detroit..." (First part) Kitty went to the Badlands to check out some anti-metahuman graffiti. Not to have a Detroit cop get dropped through a portal, and get a dubious welcome from Kitty, Captain America (by any other name), and Chryseis. Mild language.
"I did the build my life over bit once already..." (Second part) Jeremy's not happy at being in Beacon Harbor. Chryseis and Kitty aren't happy with each other. Roger's not happy with the potential fight developing. And Pete Wisdom just plain isn't happy. Mild language.

August 15: "I like having backups." Kitty visits Whisper, and drops off copies of some of her files, just in case. And then they start talking about men - and no, the 'backups' comment doesn't apply to that.

August 18: "'I Hate My Wife's Teenage Lesbian Call Girl Friends.'" Kitty finds Lorne watching daytime television with Lockheed; her attempt to rescue his sanity from talk shows develops into a conversation about power, responsibility, destiny, and death. Some questions don't have answers, no matter who you are. All you can do is take a swing at it and hope.

August 21: "I want a piece of every season, at least. At least a snowflake on my tongue." Claire St. Thomas comes looking for Pete; she has something to show him. Perhaps he understands her better than Kitty did. Language, some blood.

August 22: "They say that beauty is on the inside." (First part.) A street festival on East Main: a moment out of time at sunset, a little while to relax, to shrug off day-to-day concerns, to enjoy life. Food and music and laughter and dancing and masquerade. It's an unutterably lovely night, until the unmasking begins. Language.
"Little lost lambs, don't you fret..." (Second part.) Sometimes there are monsters under the masks. Sometimes angels make war in the streets. Sometimes all you can do for your friends is put them through hell and pray. "You call us Ichor. The blood of God." Language, violence.

August 23: Interlude, not yet played/written: After the Festival of Freedom's wounded have been taken care of and/or turned over to higher medical authorities, Wisdom heads off by himself. Later that evening, Kitty receives a voice-mail. It's from Pete. He's at the airport. His flight for England is leaving in half an hour. He'll be back, he says, in a few days...
"Have to find her." Several hours after that voice mail, someone's had second thoughts - and a lot to drink. Alcohol abuse, language.

August 24: "There are some kinds of people who can't be argued with." Kitty apologizes to Lorne for the last couple of days, and Lorne has a question to ask her. He doesn't tell her anything, and he doesn't put her on to anything she wasn't looking into already - but a change of perspective can sometimes make a lot of difference.

August 25: "Sit down. Nothing bites except the cat." (First part) Back in England for the first time this universe, Pete Wisdom has a few people to look up. And quite a lot of alcohol to drink. Language, mild alcohol abuse.
"Do you believe angels now?" (Second part) In progress. Romany interrogates her not-quite-brother over tea; Pete makes a new friend (and gets slowly more drunk). Language, mild alcohol abuse.
"Things are looking up, right?" The League's refrain: "our lives are not like other people's." Jack and Seishi come by the flat, and there's some catch-up - Kitty tells them Marley's been dealt with, and apparently Seishi helped settle the Chinatown problem. And met with Claire. Really - they need a vacation.
"This is Beacon Harbor. The last thing this place has is a 'natural order.'" (First part.) Kitty checks in with Erik to give him the news about Marley. Erik trades news back, and stories. Booster Gold, the Junkyard Fan Club... Language.
"Besides, who needs a car when you can fly everywhere?" (Second part.) More chatter: Superman, Colossus, video games, practical jokes, dragons. The usual topics. Language.

August 26: "People get funny about religion." Late-night, in the airport, on the way back to Beacon Harbor, Wisdom meets another couple of travellers. At least this time he doesn't know Loki and Bartleby are angels. Funny the people you turn out to share hobbies with. Language.
"Aha, ha. Um." In progress. Wisdom finally makes it all the way back home, and Liam's knock at the door five minutes later is actually the second surprise he gets there. There's a little more talk about Marley, and remarkably little confusion on Kitty's part considering Pete never mentioned Liam's existence - and then, when the bearer of Guinness is gone, there are Things to Talk About. Claire, Sera ... misunderstandings ... Language.

August 28: Interlude: Shared dreams. And Pryde and Wisdom both come awake at once... This log is lead-in to The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
"Name's Ceilidh. I live under Lindsey's sink." Angel Investigations was bombed on the 27th, and now Lindsey isn't answering his phone, so Pete and Kitty drop by to make sure he's okay - and find a surprise. Ceilidh O'Shaughnessy - wasn't she one of Ballantine's patients? A dead one? (Scene cut short and summed OOC at the end.).
"Hello. This is a horror from another dimension. I'll be dropping by for tea Sunday next. Please note that I don't like scones." In times of trouble, the League gravitates to its natural center: Holmes and Seishi's apartment. Even Constantine's there, with unpleasant news. But for now, at least, any trouble in the tropics is still almost abstract. After all, it's just a dream. Language. This log is a lead-in to The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

August 31: "I can't begin to tell you how fond I am of this city." (First part.) Rooftop meetings: Kess, Liam, Kitty, and an oncoming summer storm. Of course Marley comes up again. So does the weather, and to counter it, so do Kess's wings. Mild language.
"Sorry. Mood strikes me." (Second part.) And then there's real life. Art, and weddings, and shopping, and Sera's store. And art. Yes.

Next month: September 2002: Island in the Sun.