Event Horizon

[Natalie Denisov]

People close to Natalie's room begin to find that their cell phone reception is occasionally garbage. An assessment of the network shows that something in Natalie's room is occasionally just consuming data. Sometimes it would consume it, only to create echoes of it later with a slightly different signature than the original message. For her part, Natalie hasn't really been out of her room except for classes for a bit, not even to go to the cafeteria.

((Open))

[Shari]

One afternoon there's a knock on the door.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Who is it?" calls a distracted voice from inside the room.

[Shari]

"Room Service."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I didn't..." She sounds confused for a moment before the voice registers. The quiet sound of someone walking up to the door and the door opens. It's still recognizably Natalie, though her hair is now a plain-ish brown instead of the usual red.

[Shari]

It is, in fact Shari, as the voice gave away, although she wearing (or shifted into) some kind of bellhop uniform and is holding a bag of chips and a six-pack of soda that's missing one can. "Here." she says, showing the bundle of junk food at Natalie as she pushes her way inside. "I liked the red better." she informs her with a tone that is surprisingly free of judgement yet blunt at the same time. Remarking on somebody's looks and respecting their choice of appearance probably has a different cultural vibe where she's from.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I... didn't feel like redoing it," Natalie says, not sure how to handle someone just barging in or the comment on her hair. She looks at the chips and the soda and sets them on her desk. Natalie's desk is up to three monitors now, all processing things. There seems to be a small set of drawers next to her desk that are clear enough to see electronic parts inside. Natalie herself is dressed in a set of baggy sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt. "Um... how is it going, Shari?" Getting back into the groove of human interaction was obviously proving difficult.

[Shari]

"Going alright, going alright." she says as she pokes around the room. "Working on something in here? I haven't seen you in a while..."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Been keeping busy. Doing some programming work. Testing some theories. Nothing earth-shattering unfortunately. Did do one DJ gig, but that was a one-off." If Shari's particularly observant, she'd notice a few food wrappers in the trash, but nothing on the order of what she'd expect a human to consume.

[Shari]

"Cool." she says, flopping down on Natalie's bed and her clothes shifting into comfy pajamas. Which technically probably means she's not wearing any regular clothes.

"Kinda what I figured, so I brought you some food and obnoxious company, so you don't forget how to speak English."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I wouldn't forget how to speak English," she says, perhaps a little indignantly. "And that's nice, but really not necessary. I have some food here."

[Shari]

"Okay, but I read that's what friends do, so you're gonna have to put up with it." she says, flipping around on the bed till her head is hanging off the side and her feet are up against the wall. "What kinda theories are you working on?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Programming theories. I think can further reduce the footprint of my limb movement augmentation code. My first pass was good, but I'm having to refactor it blind because the Headmistress kicked me out of the Point for a while." The monitors pull up windows to show a bunch of stuff which really isn't visible from where Shari is. She's fairly animated when talking about this stuff and surprisingly dispassionate when she mentions being kicked out of the Point. "I'm also binge 'watching' a couple of science fiction series, just to see if I can keep up."

[Shari]

"You know, when the robot kicks you out maybe that's a good sign you should be taking a break?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I took a break," she says, "A couple of breaks even. Then I got back to work. Why does everyone seem to think that's a problem? It's not like I have anything else to do."

[Shari]

"Yeah, you're right. This seems perfectly healthy. When's the last time you ate something?"

[Natalie Denisov]

She looks distant for a moment. "Maybe eight hours ago. I'm not really all that hungry."

[Shari]

"Okay I know you guys eat less than us, but I'm prrrretty sure you should have some chow." she says, waving her arm around as she fishes for the trashcan and finally getting her fingers on the rim to pull it over and inspect it without further comment.

[Natalie Denisov]

There definitely wasn't enough indication of food in there for the average human and most of what was there was energy bars, granola bars and the like. "I said I'm not hungry. Last I checked, my mother was living in Cardiff and she looks nothing like you."

[Shari]

"That's negotiable." she says as her face suddenly ages and rearranges itself into some approximation of an older Natalie who doesn't really look like her mom either, but probably gets the point across. "But if you think starving yourself proofs some kinda point here then go ahead, I guess."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Do I look like I'm starving?" She moves closer and it really doesn't look like she's been skimping on food. Shari knows what that looks like and Natalie isn't exhibiting any of the signs.

[Shari]

Shari flops herself right-side up, involving a fluid movement that suggests she at least temporarily opted for a couple extra joints somewhere.

"Huh. You're right..." she says, eyeing Natalie with her face so close it's almost a little uncomfortable.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie takes a step back, obviously uncomfortable. "Satisfied?" Shari's phone buzzes as a text message she sent a few days ago repeats itself.

[Shari]

"I mean, I guess. Still can't be good to be holed up in here all the time." she says as she fishes out her school-issued phone that is definitely not tapped by the head-mistress at all. "Did this just send a message on it's own?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"They don't generally do that," Natalie says. The phone loses service for a moment, then recovers. Then it loses service again. Then Natalie's stomach growls, "That's weird. I'm hungry now."

[Shari]

"Must be all the electronics in here maybe? I dunno, you're the data-head."

[Natalie Denisov]

"No, I can sense the signal trying to get to it," she says, looking down at the phone. "It's..." She loses focus for a moment and the phone service returns. "There we go. It was just vanishing there for some reason, like something was soaking up the signal. I reconnected it."

[Shari]

"Weird." she says, then looks at Natalie and holds out the phone to be closer to her friend's head.

[Natalie Denisov]

The phone promptly loses service again. "What?" Natalie pushes the phone away.

[Shari]

"You're eating my signal." she chuckles. Then stops and looks at Natalie strangely. "Wait a minute!" she starts typing furiously to the point of just hitting random letters as she sends a whole bunch of text messages Natalie's way.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie wrinkles her nose as her power starts interacting with the signals. The text messages start registering as 'Not Delivered' as they vanish into Natalie's power. "What are you doing?"

[Shari]

"I'm trying to send text messages. The question is what are you doing?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Nothing, I'm..." She looks distant again, "What the hell?"

[Shari]

"It's the egg of some kind of plant creature. I've been told it's very funny?" she says. Apparently she's been sending Natalie eggplant emojis.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I..." One of the text messages marked as delivered and Natalie's phone buzzed. "That's just weird. I'm... still hungry, but not like I was a bit ago."

[Shari]

"Cause you're eating my messages of plant eggs." she nods.

[Natalie Denisov]

"That's... not possible. It's not a thing."

[Shari]

"It's not a thing you know of." Shari corrects her, holding up her index finger.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie looks like she's about to object, but considering she's talking to the alien girl, she stops. Finally, she nods, "Fair enough." She sighs, "I suppose being more of a freak was inevitable at this point."

[Shari]

"You still look pretty normal from where I'm standing. If anything you've gotten more boring." she teases and reaches out to flick a strand of Natalie's hair.