xp_logs | Sarah and Maddie: The Bad Influence (Backdated to Dec 5)

Maddie asks the Goddess of Technology to give an inspirational talk to her iPod. Then proceeds to start the corruption of those around her.

"Sarah! I've been looking all over for you." Maddie popped her head over the sofa next to the object of her frantic search. She should have known that the technocrazy girl would be playing video games, but, as that was obviously too obvious, she had spent the past fifteen minutes running around the mansion. "Hey. What are you playing? Ooh. Shooter game. Awesome. Aw shit, you just got killed."

Sarah had been playing a deathmatch in the latest Halo game against some random kid online, who was actually pretty darn good. Not that she was a slouch herself, she kicked ass at shooters in general, but this person was crazy good. She pictured some old dude living in his mom's basement who had nothing better to do than play games, it made it easier to try and frag his ass. It was a close match though, and they were currently tied, so the next kill would likely win it.

Maddie had walked right in front of the screen just as Sarah had spied the other player's avatar but she couldn't get a clear shot since her vision was blocked. Sarah juked her head to the side, hoping to see where he'd gone, but it was too late; he'd seen her in the split second in between and she was dead.

"Ahh! No!" Sarah reached up and touched the headset on her head. "Offfffffffff." It had been buzzing loudly as the other player rubbed in his victory like the anonymous idiot he was. Bah. Sighing, Sarah put the controller down and smiled a little at Maddie. "Yeah, ah well, just a stupid game. How are you, Maddie?"

"My iPod's being stupid," she pulled the device from her pocket and flopped down on the couch. "Do you think you could use your like completely awesome powers to make it work? I have a feeling I'm getting a new one for Christmas, but until then I have to keep this relic from dying."

"Oh, yeah, sure thing." Sarah reached out to take the iPod from Maddie, looking down on it. "Hello Maddie's iPod." She rubbed her thumb across its wheel, getting a feel for the device. It was an older model but still workable, it just needed a little coaxing. "Come on, old girl, you can still crank out the tunes like you used to, I know it." Sarah couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with it, but she could use her powers to convince it to work again, hopefully, if only for another while. Turning it on, the screen lit up and it seemed to be responding. "That's it, come on now. You can access all the songs on your flash drive just fine, and your connection to the headphones it awesome, isn't it? It is, you can do it!" She should maybe consider a career as an inspirational talker to all things machine related if her mutant training doesn't lead to anything else.

Maddie leaned in, and watched in awe as Sarah pep talked her ancient music player back to working. Her eyes lit up, just as the iPod did the same, her lips forming an "o" as the machine was slowly coached by Sarah. "Woah," she whispered, almost reverently. "Have I ever told you how awesome that is? You're like... amazing."

It seemed to be stable again now, so Sarah handed the iPod back over to Maddie, grinning at the compliments she received for her efforts. "It's just what I do, it's no biggie. I can be handy repairing stuff from time to time." She shrugged, not wanting to boast about her powers or anything. "That should last you for another while, and if not you can come and find me again, I'll give it a sterner talking to next time, hehe."

"Sarah," Maddie inched closer. "Give yourself a little more credit, okay? If you were a Greek Goddess, you would totally be the Goddess of technology." She paused to think. "Did they even have a Goddess or God of technology? I mean I know they had knowledge, and metal pounding, and stuff, but not like technological innovation in general, I think. Dude!" Maddie bounced excitedly, her hands shaking the shoulder closest to her. "You'd be like a whole new Goddess. How is that not cool?"

She looked over at her friend as she spoke. "Well, maybe, I guess, but yeah, I don't think they did. Probably not, anyway, but they would today if they were around, I guess?" That was a good question! Sarah blushed a little at all the complimenting, she wasn't used to it and she always tried to play down her powers. "But I'm not! I mean, maybe I would be, but I'm not. You'd be too though! What with all the cool powers and stuff you've got, you'd have to be." TK was awesome and Sarah might have been slightly jealous at times of it.

Eyeroll. Cause hearing someone else's thoughts randomly and sporadically was so awesome. And it wasn't like she could control the whole "pushing her thoughts on someone to let her go" thing that Doug had mentioned, which apparently she had done to him. If that was the extent of her powers, they were totally unawesome.

"Oh hey, so new topic," Maddie relaxed into the cushions. "Christmas. It's totally coming up soon. I gotta go home and pack up the things I don't trust my parents to know I want."

Sarah raised her eyebrows and looked over at Maddie at the mention of a new topic, sitting back into the couch a little bit herself. "It really is, yeah, only a few weeks or so away." It really only seemed like it had been Hallowe'en just the other day, though that hadn't been the best of times so it probably wasn't best to think on that. "Parents are so bad at that kind of thing, ugh. Which sucks because you've got to go back and do it." That made for a lot of traveling in winter weather, unfortunately.

"Seriously," eye roll, "they have no idea what to do. I mean," Maddie tucked her legs under her and draped her arm on the back of the sofa. "My mom tried picking a dress out for me and it was just... shudder. But you know, there's that wanting to see my family thing, even though my mom already decorated. So I can't even trim the tree."

"Parents, man." She could totally sympathize. Sarah pulled her legs up onto the couch, hugging them with both of her hands and resting her chin on her knees as she looked over at Maddie. "Oh no, yeah, I could never trust Mom to do something like that. She used to buy Jessie and I matching outfits when we were younger but once we were old enough, nuh-uh, we did all of that ourselves." The identical twins dressing alike thing was only cute for so long, after all. "It's good to see them though, yeah, and maybe you can rearrange the tree or add some of your own touches?"

"Never have I been more glad of being an only child." Matching outfits? Gro-oss. "But now I totally need to see those photos, you know." Maddie gave her a sly, conspiratorial smile and winked. "I'm sure they are just precious. But I kinda feel like doing something now. Something for everyone to enjoy." It totally had nothing to do with the fact that she was bored. And when Maddie was bored, she tended to get ideas.

"It's not all bad but yeah, I'd be lying if I said that hadn't crossed my mind once or twice before." She loved her sister dearly but sometimes she could be a handful, like with the whole Layla thing. And matching outfits, but they were unified in their anger at their folks over that one. "Oh no, not if I can help it!" Sarah giggled and smiled at Maddie. She certainly didn't have any of them on her, and hopefully Maddie wouldn't ever run into one of her folks. They probably carried copies in their wallets. "Oh? Like what, Maddie?"

Maddie took a moment to ponder this question. Not that she hadn't been digging up ideas for most of the past week or anything. "You know that skeleton in the science lab? Let's dress it up in a Santa suit."

She frowned and thought about that for a second. "Yeah, I know that one. We could do that, if we could get a Santa suit..." Where would they find one of those? There had to be one around somewhere in the mansion, hmmm. "That'd be great, they'd get a kick out of that in the lab!"

The younger girl shook her head. "You're thinking too small," she explained. "Like no one goes in there practically. I mean, think of all the people who would miss out on the holiday cheer. No," her eyes were wide with excitement, "I think we should put it where it can be enjoyed by everyone.

"We should put him on the roof."

"Well, there may be exams and things in there. Though yeah, it's not a main thoroughfare or anything I guess." She listened to Maddie as she explained her idea further, then her eyes went wide. "On the roof?" It was true, everyone would see it up there, no doubt about that. "How the heck would we do that though?"

"Well after taking Bob from the science lab. Oh yeah, I totally named him Bob by the way," Maddie clarified. "We get a ladder and use that to get up to the roof. It's probably the safest way. And the easiest. One of us goes up first with Bob while the other holds the ladder. Then the other one can climb after."

"Bob? Ok." It made just as much sense as any other name for a skeleton, after all. "I guess that's the best way, the only way I can think of anyway." Since she couldn't fly or anything like that, after all. Climbing ladders wasn't her specialty or anything but like Maddie said, one can hold it for the other and it'd be ok.

"Great!" The redhead mistress if mischief rubbed her hands together in excitement. "So we'll both keep our eyes out for a Santa outfit, and figure out our next move from there. And remember, tell no one.

"This is gonna be so awesome!"

Sarah grinned and nodded, it did sound like it'd be fun, even though climbing to the roof on a ladder might end up being a little bit scary. She wasn't about to admit that though. "Alright then, let's go get us a Santa suit! And of course I won't!" She popped up off of the couch to do begin the search. "Say, maybe we should use a secret code or something."