Acceptance and Forbearance (Kara)

The office building is vacant right now; a sign at the main entrance to the two story office building claims there are some inherent health risks involved with something detected here. Rush hour has just started in this are and there is alot of street and foot traffic. Not a whole lot of cover for Kara to pick the lock and get in but a quick inspection on the side alley way reveals a supply door. This door is relatively easily picked; it's a lot harder than a typical lock but not impossible for Kara. The security on the door is probably a remnant of the ex-inhabitants.

Once in, Kara is exposed to the rotting gray carpet and dingy white, dusty walls. The door open into a storeroom now littered with metal shelving and a few empty boxes. The smell here however reveals something has died here. A quick inspection of the 4 room downstairs revels nothing of not, not even a scrap of paper on the floor. walking up the wooden stairs to the top level however reveals a little.
At the top of the stairs is the skeletal remains of a male human. The only notable difference in this person from all others is that this guy had 4 arms.The body has no sign of tissue remaining and only small shredded scraps of what might have been a Army uniform remain. The rank and name have been torn off long ago.
Beyond the body are a few more empty rooms. One of the rooms however has the old secret wall safe where small arms were stored and discs were stowed. The safe is no longer powered so cracking the old fashioned way takes a little longer than Kara enjoys, and opening it reveals more dead ends. A few thousand dollars, Lonn-Tech cure-all pills in a bottle, and a Ares Manhunter Heavy pistol with a decamolar clip are the only contents.

The office has not other items or hidden areas to Karas liking; she's pretty sure this place was systematically emptied and cleaned years ago.

Kara examines the corpse to see how the poor sap died.

Did he die in battle? Was his flesh disintegrated? Was he torched? Did he get hit with a quantum bolt? Was acid poured on him and he died in agony? Other than the four arms, are than any evidence which would lead to the conclusion that he was a quasar? Was he the same species as the four armed “aliens” who attacked Kara in the World Serpent Inn?

Does Kara detect any hazards that would warrant the signs that were placed outside?

Kara takes the contents found in the safe and makes her way back to the driver waiting for her outside. She checks the county records to find out who is the new owner of the abandoned facility and asks the driver to take her to the closest known address of Spectre. Hopefully the driver is agreeable to take her…

While in the backseat of the car, Kara looks for history of Lonn Medical and Security to see if they were allied with any Quasar Teams similar to Team Tomorrow or other private agencies of Quasars. She looks for potential contacts and makes notes of their preferred method to be contacted.

The remains shows no sign of what caused the death, even the original position is lost in the collapsing of the remains over time. The skeleton seems like the poor sap died there and decomposed over many, many years. He does not look big enough in stature as the alien people met in the world serpent.
There is also no signs of combat, of course there would not be as all the safe houses were outfit with nanite repairmen, who have long since gone inactive and been removed.

No signs of contaminants as to why the health hazard signs are on the building. NO current owner; the building is in the cities ward presently as the old owners simply ceased contact over 40 years ago.

Heading outside, Kara re secures the locked door and heads north into Orange county.
"Sit tight, its about a 2 hour drive this time of morning, and Ladera Ranch is a gated private community I hope you have a way in by the time we get there or it will be a wasted trip"
The driver offers his polite two-cents as he drifts slowly into northbound traffic.

[i]Any preparations or such on the journey there? Ladera Ranch is an upper class million dollar plus home area second only to Coto de Caza in prestige. Many corporate execs and mid to high level income private residents claim home here. It wont be Fort Knox getting in and quite frankly, Kara feels she can probably talk her way in.

LMST did have a Quasar team employed by them but the only one who was publicly known was Spectre. AS far as costumed teams, thats a no-go. Seems everything was done in the dark, so to speak, from LMST side.

Now that the sun is up and there are many more people up and about, Kara does detect more Quasars/Nova's. Most are not seen as much as they are felt and so far, the power levels seem to be putting old earth where Kara is more familiar with to shame. Power levels are generally 30-50 percent higher in intensity or raw potential. Stil however, no overt power displays have been seen.

Ooc: I am guessing Kara failed her roll because cause of death would be something that she would have found easily… or this guy just died from natural causes but she would have been able to detect that too. And another thing… you are watching waaaaaaaaay too much Real Housewives of Orange County to know about Ladera Ranch.

Kara attempts to make contact with Spectre or his representative to alert them that she is coming for a visit. She is going to attempt professional conventional means before relying on her powers and other skills to get through security. She is going to charm it up but she is hoping to not have to use powers to get through.

She does continue to do her research on Spectre as much as possible. She reads some manifestos on his missions and team missions through Juntha’s computers looking to find as much information as possible in two hours so she can get a better feel of the man. She is looking to find an ally, answers, and something of interest to do in this universe. She is looking for risks to her and trying to determine why Asche and Gwen abandoned ship… Is this planet a preparation center to protect this universe from the effects of the Rend?

OOC- I was working selling dry cleanining in Ladera and Coto.

Spectre has some obviously edited public files. He is too clean and sparkly. No one questons quasars means of income so nothing is had there either. Kara spends about forty-five minutes scanning news and private databases with nothing to show. Her time is then likely spent meditating or contemplating.

Once off the freeway heading down the Ortega highways, Kara notes the fae batteries double in frequency. The driver is also noticeably placated but alert.
Arriving at the gates of the housing area, its too hard to get in. The guards simply wave the car by. Spectres gate is also open and the front door is ajar. This house is probably over three thousand square feet, small for this street. Kara can passively sense two sentients inside. The driver is going to park and let Kara out.

Kara is certain Spectres past history has been edited; there is sinply little to no data aside from his registration.

The driver is in the driveway, or was able to drive her all the way.

The Sentients are in an expectation emotional state, like they know all the possible options this encounter will bring.
That or their simply overconfident..

A second before Kara's finger touches the bell button, a slow deep voice from inside the house calls her in.
"Come on in, friend. It's been awhile."

Once she steps past the threshold of the door; "And please shut up behind you I don't want the cat to get out."

The house is rather spartan but the decor it has is extravagant, obviously ultra expensive. A few paintings on the wall, an ancient carving on a small table, antique furniture, all from different parts of the world passing the owner as more than eclectic. The floor however is covered with those 3-4" think exercise matting wall to wall. It is silent when walked on and odd to see in a home.

"Come on down the hall to the right, I am in the foyer."
Following the voice and directions, Kara walks about 30 paces and comes to an archway on her left. The room beyond is floored the same as the rest of the floors so far but the walls are a vastly contrasting color to the rest of the house. IN here, instead of the soft whites, this room is covered in an electric yellow that seems to glow of its own. A large square table with 8 chairs sets to one side of the room while on the other a mechanized robotic gym set is set up. This gear is obviously for quasars as some the weight setting are in tons. A brown haired man in his mid 30's dressed in only a pair of red bike-shorts that appear just a little too tight sits on the bench. He is just setting down the arm weights.

"Please remove your shoes before you come in here. I have a thing with walking barefooted where the skin of animals has touched, and I bet those shoes of yours are made of dragon-leather or worse. Other than that..."
He stands and walks to greet Kara with a handshake;
"Welcome to my home. I'd like to say you are sooner than I expected, but I've been waiting almost 10 years already."

this is Spectre.

At Karas touch and her 'sampling' of Spectre, she is aware af a slighlty warmer than normal touch. Spectre makes to response however except to say;
"Your family was great company for many years as was the company they kept. It was sad to see many of them killed and eventuallly, to say goodbye."
He walks afew paces away and picks up his shirt and puts it on.
"I did forsee a return of Rathien blood to this earth, but as is with most of your family, the exact time was hard to discern."

Justin suddenly smiles.
"Please forgive me, would you like to sit and have a drink with me? It would be nice to put a few back with one who could hold their whisky."

Kara is certain that her system was not compromised at all from the touch with Spectre, his system however, according to the analysis of his sample was very aware of her action. It seems that he, like Kara, is very aware of every cell in his body and each of them are constantly reporting back to him on a conscious level. It is almost as if he is an android or Keeper made entirely of nanites although purely biological.

"It's a long story and one I hate to roll over again. It's good enough to say that an advanced alien species called the Atelayans arrived to earth, or rather returned, and they wanted revenge. Earths armies of the 33rd century fought to their best man but still they failed. The quasars fought with them numbering in the hundreds of thousands; still they fell. Gods in men like your grandfather and many of your direct family did all they could, and they themselves began to fall. None fell in vain however and ultimately, those of us that were left won out over the alien scourge but the earth and the solar system were not going to support life much longer. The powers unleashed had broken the back of our mother earth and her sisters in the heavens."
"A few Quasars of exceptional power, we were all that were left since the Atelayans begans exploding nodes to fight us, decided to take things into our own hands, much like Asche and Pax Concordat had hoped we would. we rebuilt the solar system and planets, rebuilt the ecosystem, and repopulated the planet. But in doing so, we locked the development of this planet to that which you see around you."
"We were not entirely done and were deeply involved in some database Gwen and Toya were allowing us to use which categorized all life on the planet since it was formed. One day, Gwen, Toya and the remaining family, a direct kin of yours I believe (insert a brother or sister of Kara here) all vanished. Not literally I suppose, we just lost all contact and the world ship was unseen in our sky."

Kara checks with the database on Juntha II to check the validity of Justin’s story.

I assume she is familiar with the Atelayans. What does she know about them?



She has been involved in several battles and many wars but nothing stings her as much as when the battle involves her family. She keeps her composure but she is visibly moved.



How long has this planet been kept at this technological level?

What attracted the aliens to this planet?

Since all life on this planet was destroyed, what would it take to recreate it?

The database on Juntha II is confirmation of the facts Justin tells of this current earth. Since the ship was technically dormant for the past 50,000 years, and it was hidden under and very near the Rift, it has no data on the destruction and reformation.

All life has been restored, for the most part. There are however many anomalies since the database on Juntha I is from true earth. It's the same database the MoonDark had. The life here is real and permanent and not a fictitious reality like a matrix or something.

The Atelayns are a new species Kara has not heard of. No data exists on them but it can be concluded they are highly advanced technologically and the entire species are shape-shifters.

According to Juntha II’s database, who built her? And who made the data entries for all the logged history? Does it appear altered?



Kara continues to monitor her cells and her mind to make sure that everything is functioning properly. She is ready to dump any anomalies that may be present in her body or mind.



She looks down for a moment and shows her emotions of being a few steps behind her family. She looks for anything alive in the room and walks towards it. If the cat is near, she reaches down to pet it. She uses her charms to attract the cat to her and she analyzes it as well. She is looking to see if it too is intimately knowledgeable about its body like she is. All in all, she doesn’t trust Justin. She is not trusting what she is seeing to be real but a recreation. She understands that she is not in a matrix but if her family and the quasars lost this planet… she may be in more danger than she has ever been. Paranoia or her extensive training is making her extremely cautious.



With the other part of her mind, she analyzes the sample that she took from Spectre. How would she kill on of his skill? How would she maim him? What are his weaknesses? What are some of his offensive abilities that she needs to be cautious of?



Were the skeletal remains inside the warehouse human?

Kara keeps the conversation going with Spectre, “So, when you decided to recreate life on this planet where did you start?”

{{JUntha II was built by Pax Con from the hull of a 2000 man luxury liner or cruise ship. It was privately commissioned and registered in Nepal. The data base was mostly recorded by the AI and Keepers over the years but some entries are manual. It does seem genuine although their are gaps, which could be explained by the artificial world that has been created around the ship.}}

Kara beckons the cat over and it strolls over looking for a stroke. Once it is touched Kara is sure this is just another feline. Justin smiles at seeing someone else appreciate his little companion.

Analyzing her touch from Justin a few moments ago, Kara looks for weaknesses. The sample scanned shows little more of his stamina than a human would have. It does however have the residue of quantum and the fact that each cell of his is self-aware is unnerving; Justin knew what she did when she did it. This shows a complete mastery of his body and/or betrays the fact that he is artificial himself. Not an illusion but an artificial intelligence like Eve or any of the Keepers.

The skeletal remains did not seem human. All trace of DNA were scoured out of the victim. It is logical to assume the body was Atelayan.}}

At Kara's question, Spectre gestures for Kara to join him as he walks to the porch.
"We started by placing all sentient life into a suspended animation and then moving them all to one spot on earth while we worked. The process took a few years as we reseeded the grounds and altered the growth rates and sped the natural ecology to get several thousand years of growth in a few years. We also took DNA from each of the humans and grew more with as much biological involvement as possible. 49,000 years ago we were done and set everyone back in the places they were from but altered their memories to allow them to fit properly into the new societies. I must admit, the telepaths from your family displayed spectacular control in this task."

Then gesturing out over his back yard laws that reaches a half acre; "The anomalies I spoke of come from the fae that somehow arrived here with your people. The fae drew out the dormant but latent memories of many of the humans and quasars alike and formed all manner of things. Some resembling what you called Kindred and Lycans, or changing-breeds; some more like the fae-ilk from the otherworld. The world now is in a state of flux and without the telepaths and labs of Juntha, we cannot align the planet to what it was."

It is interesting to Kara how much knowledge Justin has of her people and the other world. It is curious how he knows of the kindred and the lycons. This universe sounds very interesting but the Ataleyan threat disturbs her as well as the abandonment of her family from this planet. Why did Asche spend all this time here and then jump ship?



“So on this world is there a Quasar government? Is there a Quasar representative or are all sentient beings on this planet subject to the same laws?”



“How are the relations with the Lycons and the Kindred? Are they growing in numbers? Are they accepted by society or are they outcasts hidden from the rest of the world?”

“Why were you in expectation of my arrival? Or was it just a child of Rathien that you were expecting, not necessarily me in particular?”

"We, the quantum empowered of this planet, are a government unto ourselves. Most of us however do follow the 'laws of the land' were in; we were not gifted with these abilities to cause problems."
Justin turns back to look Kara in the eyes, he seemed lost in thought looking out over the horizon.
"Aside from that, we are really too few to cause lasting harm."

"The anomalies are no longer under control, and it is this fact that led me to your arrival. We were told by, I mean, we discovered information that should the anomalies grow, Rathien would arrive and see to the balance again. I was unsure however, due to the nature of your families departure, whether or not this was going to be true. Their numbers are growing and no longer satisfied with hiding in the shadows. Most people live under fear of the anomalies."

Justin pauses for a moment and reaches down and strokes the cat.
"There are no longer any vestiges of your family here however, I am afraid all you have in my words and conjecture."

Kara looks into Justin’s artificial eyes and for a brief moment, she is tempted to dissect him to see what really makes him tick. Quasars are so squishy on the inside and this Justin appears to be extra squishy… She is also curious to see if she can find who the manufacture of Justin was…



“On other planets, to extinguish the threats that the leeches and dogs presented there was a need to increase the technological level to counter balance their use of the fae energies. I have the resources to develop such technologies but there are also other drawbacks to increase technology… there always is a backlash.”

“The other need would to have soldiers prepared and trained to fight these anomalies. Are you affiliated with any military or security organization that would be willing to be trained to defeat this menace?”

Justin looks a little shaken at the mention of assembling a team.

"Pax Concordat was my affiliation years ago and short of recruiting all those that might still be alive on the planet all these years later, I am afraid getting fresh recruits again willl be nearly impossible. You see, one of the Rathien telepaths who did not entirely agree with a divisive element within society set measures in place to prevent it from ever happening again. A sort of mental failsafe kicks in when a person gets a certain level of, call it fanaticism, they suddenly begin to lose interest. This has had its benefits though; the world does not have any hardcore terrorist organizations."

"I have lost contact with most of the other Company men and women left in the world who were here and took part in the war so long ago, but there might still be a few left."

“Sounds like the work of Fystara. She was always against organized religion unless of course, she was the goddess of said religion,” Kara says with a smirk. “Well, are there gangs and a military? How about any religious groups? To form a team against the Kindred, the Dogs, and the other fae spawn need not need to be as fanatic as the company once was. Of course, the other option would be to make soldiers. Are there any new laws of nature preventing that?”

“We might not need to contact ex company members just yet.”