A Bedroom inside your typical Apartment building.
Daytime, all thought you'd never know it because the aforementioned room was outfitted with sunlight blocking curtains.
Inside of the room, is a bed. On said bed, under the covers lay a woman. She lay there unconscious & fully clothed. Her shoes are beside the bed by other then that she's fully dressed in your Typical Corporate World attire. Her mousy brown hair was slightly messy up & she wore little to no noticeable makeup.
Her blue eyes pop open & she lets out a small groan. Jane Tarzania knew today would be a bad day. Her first indication was that her head hurt & hurt bad. She wanted to go back to sleep so she closed her eyes & rolled over. That's when it hit her: she was not in her own bed. It felt different. She opened her eyes & looked at the sheets. Now it may have been her bed but then someone had changed her sheets. She sat up & through the dim sunlight peaking through the heavy curtains, on the pillowcase Jane could just make out a tan muscular man scantily clad in leather & fur. He had a short blond bob hair cut. He was riding what appeared to be a large green tiger with yellow stripes. The Tiger, for some reason, had a red mask on. The man was holding up a sword of some kind in his right hand, in his left is a circular medieval style shield. He appeared to be yelling something. Jane also noted that there was drool spot around his loincloth.
Jane pulls the bed covers off her & walks over to the window. She pulls the curtains aside, blinds herself for a moment. Once regaining her eye sight she knows she's still in Parrodipolis. There's Parody Plaza, the top of Drusel's department store peaking out from behind a few building in front of it & the coastline of in the distance.
Jane turned around to look at the room. It was your average Bedroom, nothing all that out of ordinary. A Bed, headboard, side table, a Bookcase, dresser with mirror on top of it (the mirror had small picture encircling glass, they had been pushed into the molding), a Closet. On one of the closet's sliding doors was a poster of a large group of people in colorful costumes. Some were flying, other running toward you. Jane recognized some of them Saturday morning cartoons long since past.
Jane had some idea of who's bedroom this might be but she had to be sure. She walked over to the door, as she did she past a cork board filled with ticket stubs. Then there were ads' & articles ripped from magazines & cut from newspapers. The board also had over pieces of paper pined to it & some pictures, too.
Jane opened the door quietly. She went down a short hallway, on the walls were a few framed photos & few pieces of art. One picture caught her eye, it appeared to be a family photo but appeared to be taken in a Prison. There was an older gentleman with dark brown hair with grey temples standing behind a Plexiglas wall while the rest of the occupants of the photo were in front of it. The man wore a Burgundy smoking jacket, the rest of his clothes were obscured by others in the photo. The others in the photo was a younger gentleman, also with dark brown hair, his templates weren't graying. He wore a pair horned rimmed glasses similar to the ones' Chad wears. He was dressed up in a grey suit, white button down shirt, a dark red tie & black leather shoes. Next to him was a blond haired woman dressed in a half black & half white sweater, which when the black & white halves met in the middle they made an abstract design to it. She wore a knee length black skirt, black nylons & black leather pumps. In front of them was an unhappy looking girl with slightly pale skin, sandy blond hair & emerald green eyes. She a pale blue long sleeved dress, white stockings & black patent leather Mary Jane shoes on.
As Jane continued down the hallway, she could hear intermittent periods of typing. There was also some background noise, sounded like a radio or a TV. There was also some talking but only one voice. The talking also seemed to be intermittent & mostly happened during the typing like someone was reciting something being typed.
Jane turned left at the bathroom & into the main living space. It was span the entire length of the apartment, to Jane's right was a small kitchen & the front door (by the door was a coat rack with what looked to be her coat on it along with a other things). To the left, near the outer wall was the living room with a couch, coffee table, TV & a few bookcases. This room had similar curtains to the bedroom. On the walls were framed items like in the other places around the apartment. Behind the couch a few feet & in front of her was a large round table, that was where the typing was coming from.
With their back to Jane sat a woman. She was wearing faded grey T-Shirt, a pair of plaid drawn sting pants & no socks. Her black hair with various light blue streaks was slightly messed & put in a ponytail. On her wrists were a few bracelets, a few of her fingers had rings on them . Her fingernails were painted black & the paint was chipped in places. Jane noticed that she also there was a pearl chain around her neck & went up to her face.
"Catherine, What am I doing here?" Jane asked.
This causes the seated woman to freeze up a bit. She then turned around, she had a pair of a pair of black plastic glasses on, her emerald green eyes shown through from behind. The woman had very little makeup on except for some ruby red lipstick that really popped against her pale skin.
"Jane! You scared me. I didn't hear you get up. But, then I had a TV on a little loud & was off in my own world but I thought I'd at least hear my squeaky bedroom door open. It always squeaks when I open it." She said with a smile as took of her glasses & let them hang down around her neck.
Jane ignore what Catherine said, she said "I didn't know you wore glasses."
"Yeah. But only when I'm looking at small text or a computer screens for a long while. Which is kind of funny since Computers almost always have small text on them."
"Sure." Jane said offhandedly & changing the topic. "So, what am I doing you apartment?"
"Well, I couldn't just leave you there & since I don't know where you live. The guys you came in with didn't know how to get back to your places from where we were, so I took you back here."
"And put me in your bed?"
"Yes. I camped out on the couch after I got back from Work."
It took Jane a few moments to register the comment but it eventually clicked. "Oh yeah. You work at night."
"Yup. Down at the Morgue." She said with a small laugh.
There were few minutes of silence between them, the TV played in the back.
"What time is it?"
Catherine turns around to look back at her computer screen, then back at Jane & said. "Around 5."
"Am or Pm?"
"Pm."
"How long have I been out?"
"Uh..." Catherine said & looked at the ceiling thinking. "I don't know exactly. I left for a bit. But, It's been awhile maybe like half a day or maybe a little under that."
"You said I came in somewhere with a group of guys?"
"Yeah. I guessed that you all had come from work seeing as how you were dressed. I'm glad I don't have to get all gussied up to go sit in a felt covered cubicle. I can just roll in around 10 in what I'd normally wear & get down to sitting on my butt making sure the dead down leave without proper paper work." Catherine said a slightly bigger laugh.
Jane laughed a bit & then asked. "Where were we?"
"O'Malley's Pub on corner of Seneca & Revena. A real dive but some of the best Waffles in the city limits."
Jane raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "What is it with you & Waffles?"
There a few moments of silence & then Catherine replied. "There is nothing between Me & Waffles, we have a healthy & open relationship. We are free to see other people. It's just they taste sooo.. good! Especially with O'Malley's secret syrup drizzled on top. Not sure what's it's made of but I suspect it's laced with Crack: it's that good!"
"Ok." Jane said shrugging the comment off.
"Oh yeah!" Catherine said. "I was to tell you something. It was from... uh.. what was his name? Tall guy, chiseled features, nice blond hair. Very GQ. Kind of reminded me of Aaron Eckhart. When I told him that, he had no idea who I was talking about."
Catherine stopped talking to think some more, she mumbled as she did so.
"Charles?"
"Maybe. I think some of the people were calling him Chuck."
Jane began to blush a bit. Jane had had a small school crush on since he started working at the FMRC. He didn't work directly for her but was always coming over to see Mr. Holcomb so Jane saw he at least once every few days.
"What did he have to say?" Jane said with some excitement.
"I don't exactly remember, I think it was something about your partying abilities. After what I saw: I'd agree with him. Here I thought didn't do that kind of fun but then I was judging the cover & not the pages."
Jane's blush & expression changed from excitement to embarrassment.
"It's ok. We all need to let off some steam but I think Ronnie might be amazed at what your doing there. You seemed to be possessed by a mad woman or at least by some Teen Starlet."
"ok." Jane brushing off the comment. "What were you typing before I came out?"
"Making a post at the tMaT9 blog about my more resent Comic Book acquisitions, DVD's I've gotten, Movies I've seen, ramblings on other things of a geeky nature. Earlier I was replying to posts by other posters & what they chose to add to the Conversation."
"T M A T Nine? What's that?" Jane asked.
"Oh! Sorry. tMaT9 is shorthand for 'the Mutants at Table 9'. It's a group I'm part of that is part online & part in person. The online part is part blog & part chat room. It's run off some of the web space from the Forbidden Comics website. The in person part takes place in basement/storage area of Forbidden Comics it's self. The contributors that are in the area which are most but we got a few people over in England, a couple up in Canada & one all the way over in Australia. The meetings of tMat9 start organized, we have a charter! But they quickly devolve into just a group of people just hanging out & geeking out."
"oh."
"Yeah. The group is kind of hardcore but we're kind of open to all newcomers."
"kind of?"
"yeah. We have a few members who will call you on fact they think you should now. This can scare off a few people."
Catherine gives a glance at the clock in the upper right hand corner on her Laptop. "Speaking of the Mutants: it's almost time from another meeting."
Catherine turns back to Jane & asks "You wanna come along?"
"um... I don't know. I'm not all that much into this... kind of stuff." Jane said nervously.
"That's ok. I'll be there to protect you." Catherine said with a smile.
There was some silence. Then Jane replied "oh alright."
"Ta Roxor!" Catherine said with a quick upward pump of the arm.
Jane was about to ask what she said but Catherine was off to her room before Jane could ask. So, she went & sat down on Catherine's couch to wait. She then began to wonder why Catherine was watching a spanish network. But, it doesn't surprise her that she was.
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TO BE CONTINUED!
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Next time we meet the Mutants at Table 9!
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