Gadget Box

[Narrator]

At approximately 1:45 in the afternoon, a new electronics shop popped into existence at the Maldon mall.

This was probably not a normal occurrence.

[Laura Weston]

Laura was walking the mall, canvas shopping bag over one shoulder with some purchases in it. She noticed the new electronics store and stopped. "Don't remember that being there. I thought they were putting in a smoothie shop," she says, walking into the store with a curious air.

[Narrator]

"Come in, come in, come in," the proprietor said -- an man in his late 40s, wearing some kind of eyepiece over one eye. "Welcome to Gadget Box, Maldon's top spot for gently-used electronics."

The walls and center counter of the small shop were covered with electronics, some still in clamshell packaging, others out and loose. The wares were...a little different than what Laura had seen previously.

The front of the store had the highlight items. Modern electronics being what they were, there were a bunch of small black boxes -- like cell-phones, but without screens or other obvious interfaces. There were a selection of earpieces in a bucket, as well as some sealed tiny black dots of some kind. None of these items looked particularly familiar, and the logos and brands displayed on the hand-drawn placards were not immediately recognizable.

[Laura Weston]

"This is an unusual shop you have here," she says, "What does that do?" She points to one of the black boxes without an interface.

[Narrator]

"Eh? That's the Stark25, from back before they merged with Fujikawa. Just runs Ulysses II, but that's good enough for government work, aye lass?"

[Laura Weston]

"From before they merged with Fujikawa..." She said absently, "And the dots?"

[Narrator]

The man behind the counter looked at her strangely. "Throat mikes. Just £40 for a pack of six."

[Laura Weston]

"Seriously? I've never seen mics that small."

[Narrator]

"...You one of those, whatchacallit, Mennonite types? Out on a walkabout?

[Naiad]

The automatic doors glide open with only the faintest of sounds and the woman stepping through gives the proprietor a small wave. She looks... peculiar to say the least. Like a humanoid fish, almost.

"Hi Carson." the woman says. "Did those pressure-proofing kits come in yet?"

[Narrator]

"I think that this time, they'll meet your standards," the man (Carson?) behind the counter smiled. "I apologize again for the last batch."

[Naiad]

"That's quite alright." she chuckles. "Still cheaper than the official cases and those start breaking at 3000 feet already."

[Laura Weston]

"I..." Laura starts to say, before the new customer comes in. Maybe it's a little weird to see a mutant being this cordially greeted and even, to some extent, apologized to in public, but this is also Maldon. Still, she's pretty confident that she hasn't seen this person around before. "Excuse me, do you go to the university? I don't think I've seen you around before."

[Naiad]

The woman looks over at Laura and smiles. "Really? You must be new then. I'm Professor Naiad. I teach Ecology and Environmental Science." she says, extending a webbed and clawed hand to Laura.

[Laura Weston]

Laura reaches out to shake Naiad's hand, "I am a bit new. I'm Laura Weston." Maybe that was it. She wasn't in those classes, so maybe she'd just missed her? Still, in the back of her head, she thought she would have noticed someone this striking.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Out shopping in physical stores for once, Tosh detoured from hunting for a Valentine's gift for Steph to check out the unusual gadgets on display. He was too enamoured with the screenless black boxes to notice Bruce's dream girl.

[Naiad]

"Hmm, I don't recall that name... The school really has grown a lot." she says with a brief huff of a chuckle.

[Laura Weston]

"Most of my classes are first year things like math. I did manage to squeeze in a mutant studies course though, so I'm happy with that."

[Narrator]

Out shopping in physical stores for once, Tosh detoured from hunting for a Valentine's gift for Steph to check out the unusual gadgets on display. He was too enamoured with the screenless black boxes to notice Bruce's dream girl.

"Anything you're looking for in particular, young master?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh looked to the voice. After being momentarily distracted by the 'young master' honorific, he said, "...yeah. What are these things supposed to be? I've never seen anything like them before."

[Narrator]

The man looked at Tosh strangely. "Is this one of those prank channel things?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh looked back, no less befuddled. "Uhh... no. I'm honestly asking."

[Naiad]

"Ah, where are you from? Your English is really good." the woman turns her attention towards Tosh, assuming his unfamiliarity with the devices must be due to hailing from some backwater spot or third world country. Of course in assuming she ends up being rather rude.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"California," he answered curtly, clearly insulted by the assumption.

[Naiad]

"Cali... but... Then how can you not... What?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"And now that I look, I don't even recognize half the brands in here and I grew up in a store like this," he thought aloud.

[Narrator]

As Tosh was thinking aloud, he'd notice the store, the proprietor, and Naiad all going a bit...wavery. Like they were sliding slightly out of focus.

[Toshiro Narumi]

He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly before opening them again.

"What? Why is everything all... wavy."

Did somebody slip me something?

[Naiad]

"Are you okay? Maybe sit down, let me get you a glass of water." she says and reaches for Tosh's shoulder to try and steady him, clawed fingers pushing through Tosh and startled she pulls her hand back.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"O...kay.... that can't be good," Tosh said worriedly.

"Either I'm a ghost now or this is some kind of spatial disturbance."

[Narrator]

Naiad's voice was getting harder to hear as everything continued to warble.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh slowed his breathing and tried to fully absorb every detail he could as he made a hasty retreat from the wobble zone.

[Narrator]

And as Tosh left the shop, it was gone, replaced by a trendy smoothie place.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I should report this," he said, phoning Ashlie.

(doesn't necessarily require posts)

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie patiently listens to Tosh's report, adding the information to the growing list of incidents in the database so the other X-Men can keep up to date.

"This sounds like it's in line with other occurrences. Possibly troubling because there was a more distinct spatial overlap. I don't like the progression of this, at this rate we're headed for the most substantial breach of dimensional barriers yet."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Is there a pattern to them like with the Nazi time machine incident?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I'm still compiling data. I only have solid readings from one incident."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I actually have my multi-scanner with me if you want me to get some readings."