Ash - Nurse Sarah

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah smiles, reliving childhood memories. "Ernest always cracked me up, too," she says. "I grew up on those movies. That one came out when I was ten too. It's been so long since I've seen any of them. Oh, and of course the Muppets were always funny. And I've always loved The Simpsons. Never got to see the new movie, though."

"Oh, that's right," says Lionel. "I was watching it at the cinema when all this started. I was going to take you to see it one day, Sarah."

"Well, maybe one day we can, Daddy."

[trixie]

Oc Handy are we the same age? Ne 77....

Brianna laughs, "That movie came out in 1987. Which makes you really old, Sarah. Sorry!" She snorts as she laughs, covering her mouth with her hand. "My auntie wanted me to watch it, but its only on VHS. I mean....those old movies skip and everything! Get a dvd player already!"

[trixie]

Dahlia snickers too, "One time my dad showed me his old beta movie player, which they don't even make anymore. I don't remember why....but it was this weird movie player that needed special tapes to play. And they used to ask you when you went to the video store to rent a movie, whether you wanted vhs or beta. Weird huh!"

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Close, but not quite. [b]Sarah[/b] was born in 1977, but I was born in 1974.

Sarah giggles. "Well, that makes me thirty," she says. "I'm not getting any younger I suppose, but I've got plenty of good years ahead of me."

"Sarah's hardly old," says Lionel. "It just seems that way when you're so much younger than her. If she's old, then I'm positively ancient! Why, when I was your age, we had to walk ten miles to school through the snow all year round, and it was uphill both ways. And we had to be careful not to get stepped on by dinosaurs."

Sarah shakes her head, trying to keep from laughing. "I'd have thought Ernest Goes to Camp would have been out on DVD. I don't even think they sell movies on VHS any more. You know what's even better than DVDs? Blu-ray! The picture and sound are so much sharper, it's like you're really there."

"I remember Betamax. It was a much more efficient format than VHS, but the people behind VHS dominated the market. Kind of like how Thomas Edison used his clout to promote DC electricity over Nikola Tesla's superior AC. We made the switch to AC eventually, but it set the energy industry back decades. Why, if we'd had everything Tesla had ever thought of during the war..."

"You're not going to claim to have met him, are you, Daddy?"

"Why, yes, I had tea with him and Queen Victoria. No, sweetie, I didn't go quite that far back. I was just wondering if maybe the Sleeper Device was based on some of Tesla's work."

[Andrew]

Spoiler:

OOC: When I started this game Cael and I were both 32, born in 1975. Lucky bastard gets to stay there while I on they other hand had to age two years.

"Tesla, yeah they were a bad, bad rock band in the 80's. Funny though how things change and happen the way they do though. I'm 32 years old and I can remember when we didn't have cable TV and it was all the rage. I can remember when HBO first started and they showed Star Wars Episode IV all the time, thanks to HBO I can quote the movie verbatim. I can remember the Commodore 64 and the Atari 2600 being new. Kids played outside with friends instead of playing video games, if you didn't have something you tried to build it and you and your buddies invented a lot of stupid stuff. If you wore a bike helmet the other kids laughed at you and play 'keep away' with it, there were no cell phones, in fact I remember rotary dial phones, but if you had string and two cans you made yourself a phone between to places however across a street was a bad idea when a car went by and the cans get snatched out of your hands." Cael stated lighting up a cigarette and continued.

"I know in the great scheme of life that these are all fairly new to the world but just the changes I've seen have been incrediable. An old man like Lionel must be floored, no wonder he's looney tunes." Cael finished with a smile and added, "Plus I can remember when Looney Tunes were on all the time, no matter the day or time, you could almost always flip through the stations and find someone showing them."

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Several characters weren't so lucky and [i]have[/i] aged a few years...

"It is truly wonderful how far we've come," says Lionel. "It may be difficult to adjust, but it's not as hard as it sounds. I've had plenty of time to get used to new technology and differences in society. Change is the only constant, after all. It was much harder on Daniel, Annie, Phillip, and the others when they suddenly found themselves in our time. And Agnes was really in awe when we told her about all the wonders of her future."

"I remember those days fondly, Cael," says Sarah. "I'm a child of the 1980's too. We have come a long way, but it hasn't been in vain. We will find a way to set things right."

[Andrew]

"I'm not saying any of it was in vain, all I meant was it's funny how when you look back on things and how they've changed that you think it was a much simplier time back then. I mean I'm sure dodging dinosaurs wasn't easy but was that simplier than say dodging hell spawn creatures?" Cael said with a smirk. "I mean even though what's going on is dangerous, I've had missions that were worse. This is scarier because I don't know what hell creature will be around the corner or if I'll be able to blow it to pieces or not but so far... it ain't so bad. I can think of times I've had that were worse than this. Although when I tried to kill myself earlier I wasn't thinking that clearly."

[Mr. Handy]

"Well, this is all new to me," says Sarah. "I don't know if I can ever get used to it. I haven't been in any dangerous situations until recently, though I've treated patients who had been. The first thing anything like that that ever happened to me was when Lyle...attacked me. I came out on top, but I was lucky. He could have...he almost...I honestly don't know how I got through that. It did help prepare me a little for the danger I've faced in the since the afternoon, but not fully. I was so helpless. Back in the ambulance, that was nearly the end of me. And there was never anything I could do. I survived, but only because others rescued me. Defeating that Hound was the first time I actually did the rescuing."

"But you did save me, Sarah," says Lionel, hugging her tight. "And you saved many others besides. You saved me when I was back at the cinemaplex, when you warned me about those creatures on the phone right before one of them attacked me. Because of you, I knew what to do. You also put out that message on the hospital intercom to warn everyone of the dangers you'd encountered. Without that, more people might have drank the water or run afoul of monsters. And it was you who ran up to the roof of the hospital to keep the helicopter from leaving. You even went ahead on your own because Aidan couldn't keep up with you, in spite of your fears. If you hadn't done that, you, Dahlia, and Aidan would have been trapped there, and you wouldn't have been here to save me when the Hound came for me. You don't realize how much you've accomplished. The Hounds are almost impossible to beat, but you did it! Almost nobody survives an encounter with one, but we all emerged unscathed. And before, when you were working at the hospital, you saved people all the time. You were instrumental in saving Brianna when they first brought her in. The doctors said they couldn't have done it without you, Sarah."

Sarah smiles back at her father. "I guess you're right, Daddy, but that doesn't balance out the people I got killed. Let's not talk about that any more, though. You've accomplished a lot too, Daddy."

"Yes, though I've hardly been an action hero like Cael or my parents."

"You fought off that monster at the cinema, remember? And then you saved Brianna, Ronald, and Agnes from poor Jason back in the war - not to mention all the other people in the hospital who were in harm's way!"

"That's right, I did! I'm a lot more used to this than you are, though. I've known about these things for the past three years and four months now - known too much about them if you ask me."

"You also kept Dahlia safe when everything went all pear-shaped back there, and you've been there for Brianna all that time. And you've been there for me for far longer than that." She wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his shoulder.

[DSIGFUSS]

Ronald finishes his Snickers and smiles at Sarah with a mouthful of nuggett. he makes a face at Brianna in an attempt to keep her mind distracted.

So where in the H-E-Double hockeysticks are we going now Cael and what exactly are we gonna do with those books? I'm all for the hugs and the kisses for sure, but we gotta start figurting this out. For the kids sake.

[Andrew]

"Well the library was the loudest suggestion I heard so we're on a course that should have us there shortly." Cael answered.

[Mr. Handy]

"It's not so much the books that are important, it's what's in this satchel," says Lionel, opening the black satchel. "All these diagrams and things about the Sleeper Device, they're the key. We have to understand it in order to figure out what's happening and how to stop it. Sarah and I can perhaps make a start of looking at the biology and chemistry stuff, but the physics are beyond both of us. Phillip, perhaps you know a bit about it? In any event, we need someone a lot smarter than all of us, and a lot more time to study it. If only we still had Dr. Malcolm..."

"That's it!" says Sarah. "Jill told me that Dr. Sutcliffe was alive in the reality where she woke up, even though she died in this one. Maybe Dr. Malcolm is alive there too."

"But how can we get there?"

"We don't have to! We can just give this satchel to Jill when we meet her in the library - and Dr. Malcolm's keycard. It could be useful if she goes to the DSTL in her reality, and her Dr. Malcolm could make sense of this stuff."

[trixie]

"Dr. Sutcliffe!" Brianna barks, looking up wide eyed. She stares at Sarah, then begins to silently shake her head.

"No! No, I can't see her again! I'm not going anywhere if she's still alive! Do you know they wanted to sacrifice me! She's an awful awful woman!" Brianna begins to panic, her voice becoming higher and more pronounced, "She shot Ronald! And then Louie started trying to help her take me away so they could kill me! Sarah, don't take me back there! Nobody take me back there!"

[trixie]

"Oh ya..." Dahlia begins to say, then changes her mind after seeing how upset Brianna was getting.

"I saw something in my book about that. The one that got ruined. It had a picture of a big room in the basement and runes or something on the wall..." Dahlia whispers it to Sarah, while staring at the fuss Brianna was making all of a sudden.

[Mr. Handy]

"I know, Brianna," says Sarah, putting a comforting arm around her. "I relived everything you went through, and I know what they tried to do to you. I know how afraid you were and how much they hurt you because I went through it myself. Dr. Sutcliffe will never hurt you again, and you won't have to go anywhere near her. The Dr. Sutcliffe that Jill met in the other reality wasn't the same person as the one who tried to sacrifice you. Jill told me that the cult didn't even exist in that world. We won't be going there, anyway. We'll be staying in this reality. The library is just a place where people from different realities can meet, and she isn't there." She quietly tells her father what Dahlia had said to her.

"That's right," says Lionel. "There's no cult in that reality. Maybe that's the future that happens if we succeed at stopping them back in the war. I remember we did something at the hospital that was supposed to stop all this, something important, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe that's because it hasn't happened yet. Anyway, once we give this satchel to Jill and her husband, they can find the boffins in their reality to help us understand what it means." He whispers back to Sarah and Dahlia. "They said there was a lake under the hospital, where the cult did the sacrifices."

[DSIGFUSS]

Calm down Brianna! We're just talking... Nobody's doing anythig yet.

Ronald looks to Lionel.

Brianna and I went back in time when we went through a certain door in the Hospital. I hate to say itl buyt maybe Louie could show us how to get back into the temple and then we can make our own way back into the past. That would mean finding that dirty no good shitake mushroom laying janitor and forcing him to take us back to the temple underneath the Hospital. Wherever Louie is now....

Damn you Louie... Damn you....

[Mr. Handy]

"I didn't go through any door when I went back," says Lionel. "As for where Louie is, he should be at the library, but in his own reality. I didn't know he grew mushrooms. I'm sure I can convince him to tell us where the temple is, if we get there before he leaves. Really, it's the other me and Agnes who need to know, since they need to stop the cult back then. You and Brianna aren't there any more, so the library is the only way we can tell me what I need to know."

"We do know how to get to the temple, Ronald," says Sarah. "I remember when you and Brianna left. You came out through a secret door in the boiler room, in the hospital's basement. You had to use a crowbar to trip the mechanism. Daddy, they did tell you they came up that way back then, you just don't know exactly how to find the secret entrance. I don't think just going through a door causes you to switch realities, though. I'm not sure if there is any way we can control it, other than to use the dust to stop it from happening, like when Ronald was almost taken from us."

[trixie]

Brianna curls up next to Ronald and puts her head on his shoulder. "I knew this day would come," she says in a voice choked with emotion. "I don't want to have anything to do with the Louie conversation. I'll wait here. And nobody tell him I'm here either, cuz I don't wanna see him again. And you guys know there were these ugly wet kids downstairs that were chasing us right?" She shudders, "We barely got away! I wouldn't recommend anyone going back downstairs to the temple. That's where they were gonna sacrifice the kids."

[Mr. Handy]

"Don't worry, we won't tell them you're here," says Sarah. "If they ask, we'll just say you're safe and leave it at that. I don't want to go into the temple either, or even back to Mercy Cross at all without a really good reason - at least not in this reality. I remember the wet children that were chasing you. Light causes them to freeze. I think they must have gotten Jason."

"Yes, they must have been the children who were sacrificed in the lake," says Lionel sadly. "But if Agnes and I can stop it back in the past, maybe we can still save them."

"But all of these realities coexist simultaneously. You said when Ronald vanished and arrived in our reality it looked like he didn't travel in time at all! How can something you do in that reality affect the others? I'm so confused."

Lionel shrugs. "Welcome to my world, sweetie."

[trixie]

"Jason!" Dahlia half shouts, incredulously, then her voice turns to one of shock and horror. "They did what to Jason?What happened to him!"

Oh sweet Jason...I hope you're still alive.....how else will I grow up to marry you if you're dead!

[trixie]

Brianna replies, "I remember Jason too, Dahlia. He was a bit of a weiner.....but still I'd hate to think of anything bad happening to him. You mean nobody's seen him since?"