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Alistair stops Axel before he leaves. Looking up, he says, "I investigated that blood sample we found in Dr. Rasmussen's office. The only oddity I could discover is that it was highly resistant to cold. It froze at a much, much lower temperature than normal blood. Whoever, or whatever killed the doc must have been pulsed."

To Elise, "I live in Greenwich, Connecticut. I took the train in to the city today. I'm not sure taking the train is a good idea right now. Would it be okay if I hung with you for a while?"

Alistair wasn't quite running but he was walking very quickly. It figures, he thought, I decide to take the train into the city for the doc's memorial instead of driving and, of course, the train is late. He looked at his watch. Then I can't find a cab to save my life. Dammit, everyone's gonna be gone before I get there!
Rounding a bend in the path, Alistair saw the Alice monument ahead and though, Thank god, it looks like people are still here.

He saw the police detective that he'd met at Dr. Rasmussen's office and the girl in the cap he'd seen leaving but before he could approach anyone, everything changed. Alistair felt a great weight squeezing him down and heard the sound of hammers clanging on anvils. How do I recognize that sound? he thought, I've never been in a forge before in my life! He crumpled to the ground with his hands over his ears.

The weight lifted and the sound died away. Alistair got back to his feet. All around him people were doing the same. It looked like whatever happened didn't just happen to him. He saw that people were even more changed than before and felt himself to see if he had changed. His hands encountered a full, flowing beard, easily 6 or 7 inches in length that certainly hadn't been there this morning. His hair was longer as well. His clothes were much too large, at least lengthwise. He had to roll up his sleeves and his pant legs several times just to be able to move around. I can't be more than four feet tall, he thought. He looked for the police detective, remembering him as a steady influence.

When he saw him, Alistair realized the detective now had wings.

DB3, what happens to the blood when it is exposed to extreme cold?

Alice at the Tea Party Monument .

Alistair spends his time working at CVS and, whenever possible, studying the blood from murder scene. He'll try various reagents to see how it reacts, heat, cold, etc. He doesn't really know what he's looking for but hopes something will happen that might help fill in some of the blanks.

Just a check - Blue_Angels_Fan, I_Know_Kung_Fu, EliseQuartermain, tatboss82, Short_and_Hairy are all PCs. The other handles are all NPCs? Correct?

Short_and_Hairy:Looking forward to it

For the Doc:

Short_and_Hairy: I'll be there.

Alistair's game!

"No, but I am a pharmacist and it just seems like something I could do to help," answered Alisatair.

Alistair walks up to Axel after giving his statement. Speaking quietly, he says,"Axel, can you get me a sample of that black liquid on the doctor's chest? I might be able to figure out what it is. It might give us a clue as to what happened here."

"I was referred to Dr. Rasmussen by my doctor, Dr. Andrews. I met him once, here in his office. He told me about what he called the Pulse and how people all over the world were affected. He told me about this online thing where people could talk about what was happening to them. I don't remember what he called it, I never got a chance to look at it. Looks like he pissed somebody off somehow. It's too bad, I was hoping he could help me."
"Did you see anything unusual or suspicious around the office while you were here?" asked the officer interrogating Alistair.
Alistair chuckled. "I'm from Greenwich, everything around here is unusual or suspicious to me. No, not really. I only met him the onc time and nothing seemed odd, at least not compared with everything going on that I came to talk to him about."

"Umm...hey. You worried about Doc too?" Burne says to Axel, awkwardly.

"Yeah," nodding to Burne, "I couldn't get him on the phone so I decided to come down from Greenwich and see what was going on."

Feliks holds out a hand, Name's Feliks.

" Alistair, Alistair Duncan. Nice to meet you."

The instant Axel opens the door, it's clear why Dr. Rassmussen stopped messaging last night: he's dead.

His chest has a large hole in it, and his shirt around it is soaked with blood and some black liquid that has long since dried. The office is in a state of disarray like it was torn apart in the search for something.

Written on the wall in large, lopsided black letters is a chilling warning.

"ALL WHO WOULD STOP THE POWER WILL DIE!"

Quote:

Did not see that coming!! :)

Alistair woke the next morning hoping everything would be back to normal. One look in the mirror served to dash his hopes. If anything, he thought he might be even shorter and hairier. He tried to call Dr. Rasmussen but no one answered the phone, not even an answering service.

Strange, he thought, he seemed so excited and focused yesterday, wonder where he is today? Alistair decided to visit
Rasmussen's office again and try to get some answers.

He turned down two taxis because he didn't like the color of the drivers' auras but finally found one that didn't glow. He tried not to see all the glowing people on the streets but it seemed like there were more than before. At Rasmussen's office several men were gathered outside his door, including Axel, the man he accosted in the coffee shop after his first visit to the doctor. All the men were glowing, different colors.

"Hey, Axel, what's going on? I tried to call Dr. Rasmussen but nobody answered."

I'm good.

Axel chuckled. "Now I've heard of pregnant women glowing, but I'm not sure what you mean." Axel takes a sip of his hot chocolate. Axel lowers his voice. "Why did you see the doctor, out of curiousity? He helping your eyesight?"

"Doctor Rassmussen said that a lot of people have been changed by what he calls a 'pulse' of some sort. It seems that I can tell, somehow, who's been affected. We glow. Yours is golden, kinda, and bright. I've seen others that were reddish, green or brown." Alistair took a gulp of his latte. "I figured since you were sitting here such a long time, maybe you were following me. Just nervous, I guess. Never mind, sorry to bother you." He stands up, getting read to leave.

Axel raises an eyebrow for a moment, then simply smiles. "Can't say I know what you mean. This shop has the best Mexican Hot Chocolate in the city." Axel gestures at the half-empty glass of cooling Hot Chocolate, and hits a button his iPhone, darkening the screen. "You new in town? Names Axel." Axel reaches across with his left hand, an opportunity to shake hands.

Alistair automatically shakes Axel's hand, "Alistair, Alistair Duncan, from Connecticut." He sits down at the table. "It's just that you were here when I went in to see Dr. Rasmussen and you're still here and so much weird s&!* is going on and you're glowing, too, and I just assumed you were following me. Sorry. You have any idea what's going on?"

Edit: I got bleeped. LOL

"Try to go on with your life as best you can. I'm pretty close to pinpointing the origin of this event, which seems to have spread across the globe. People all across the world have reported changes, ranging from physical to... more. If I can find the source of this event, then maybe people can be able to choose between going back to the way they were or staying the way they are."

Alistair thanks Dr. Rasmussen and leaves the office, after getting the doctor's email address and cell phone number. He steps into the coffee shop across from the office for a latte and, maybe, a scone. It's mostly empty, only a few people nursing cups and checking their tablets. Only one of them has the glow Alistair has come to dread seeing. "I think I saw him here when I went into the office," thinks Alistair. "Maybe I should check him out."

Alistair Duncan wrote:

"I couldn't see her hair, she was wearing some kind of cap. What's going on, Doc? I wake up one day, shorter and hairier, the next day not so much, today I'm talking gibberish and seeing people's auras? What's wrong with me?"

"Technically, I think the correct question is what is different about you. At the moment, you are undergoing some kind of change, like the others who felt the pulse. The lady you saw with the cap? She has gills now. Others have pointed ears, or small horns. If you read some of the posts on Unknown Power you'll find other examples."

"You're the first one to be able to see auras though." The doctor admits as he writes down the information almost feverishly. "If I'm correct in the assumption, that means you can tell which people are changed and which aren't. That will be invaluable in my research. Being able to who is the telling the truth will let me map out where the 'pulse' came from and if we can find that, we could work on reversing the effects."

"If you could answer the usual questions, that'll be appreciated too. Start with when you first noticed the changes, and anything else that seemed unusual. Where you were, approximately if you don't want me to know the exact location, will be useful too."

"I first noticed a change Saturday morning when I woke up in Greenwich, that's in Connecticut. I got shorter and grew a beard. I was normal on Sunday except for a really bad headache. Then, this morning I was short and hairy again and I spouted some kind of gibberish at a customer. Dr. Andrews suggested I see you. Are you telling me this is happening to other people?" Alistair paces back and forth as he talks to Dr. Rasmussen. "What do you want me to do, Dr Rasmussen?"

Axel finishes the Mexican Hot Chocolate, and pulls up the news, to see what has happened around the world.

Bearded is certainly taking his time.

:) I'm stuck in an office with the narrator who apparently has a malfunctioning pc. I don't want to just leave, he might have something more to say to me.

Dr. Rassmussen seems to think a moment.

"Mr. Duncan, I think you have something very interesting there. Please, come in and sit down. This girl you saw, was she tall with multicolored hair?"

"I couldn't see her hair, she was wearing some kind of cap. What's going on, Doc? I wake up one day, shorter and hairier, the next day not so much, today I'm talking gibberish and seeing people's auras? What's wrong with me?"

The doctor shakes Alistair's hand firmly

"Not a problem, Mr. Duncan. If you are worried about being overheard, come in and have a seat. I have a lot I need to ask you too." Dr. Rassmussen steps back into his office, motioning for Alistair to take a seat. "I got a few details from Dr. Andrews, but I'd like to hear what you have to say."

"Overheard? No, I was just trying to figure out why everybody is glowing these days. Those two guys talking out there, you, that girl I saw leaving... I keep getting shorter, talking gibberish, what the h@ll is going on?"

"Mr. Duncan?" A middle aged man asks from his doorway. "You are Alistair Duncan, correct? It's just that you match the description Dr. Andrews gave me of a patient he was sending my way."

"Um, what? Oh, sorry, yeah, that's me," says Alistair, looking away from the men talking on the sidewalk. "Dr. Rasmussen?" Alistair shakes hands with the doctor. "Thanks for seeing me on such quick notice...." Alistair's voice trails off as he notices that Dr. Rasmussen is glowing, too, brighter even than the two men outside. Alistair glances wildly back and forth between the doctor and the two men.

Alistair heads for the door of the office building, determined to get to the bottom of whatever's going on. He brushes past two men talking, hardly paying any attention to them until he notices out of the corner of one eye that they both seem to be giving off the faint flow he's noticed before. Alistair looks around and sees several other glowing figures, including one tall thin woman wearing a ski cap hurrying away. He stops and just starea at the two men for several seconds, trying to see why they are glowing.

Alistair spent several minutes explaining to Dr. Andrews what he thought was happening, growth spurts, mood swings, the headache. Dr. Andrews examined him carefully, comparing his findings to Alistair's history. "Yes, you've definitely shrunk, Alistair, and you seem heavier, as well." He sat on the edge of his desk. "Other than that, you seem perfectly normal. If you don't mind, I'd like you to see colleague, someone who specializes in this kind of thing. Dr. Rasmussen has an office downtown. Here's his address. I'll call and let them know you're on the way."

In the cab on the way to the office, Alistair googled Dr. Rasmussen. There were references to some kind of pulse, cryptic messages about synchronicity and promises to help. We'll see, thought Alistair. He got out of the cab and stood looking at Dr. Rasmussen's building for a moment.

Alistair's head still hurt but not as bad when he got up Monday. Everything else seemed normal. He tried to forget the weekend's oddities and was mostly successful until late afternoon. He was working the drop-off window when a new customer came up with a prescription. He looked up to see a short man with a slightly greenish cast to his skin and prominent canine teeth. Without thinking, he blurted out some nonsense syllables, "Rukh! Vass? Ohr an-shmek leib!"* The stranger jumped back, growling, "Watch it, stoneskin." Looking as shocked as Alistair felt, the man turned and fled.

Alistair called Rebecca to take care of the next customer while he took a short break. Short is right, he thought, I've shrunk again. Outside, he called Dr. Andrews office and got an appointment for later that day.

I think Alistair is ready to go. He'll have a car, probably a Subaru, an iPhone and an iPad, at least.

I had Alistair all worked out and my post got ate. I'll fix him up tomorrow.