Second Chances Rpg

Who: Chase Stein and Computer Janet Stein
What: Science and business, with a side of mom meddling
Where: Gert and Molly's apartment (the Runaways need a bigger place)
When: Monday morning before Jack Frost showed up
Status: Complete
Warnings: I mean he uses the f-bomb at his mother...



The computer booted up, as it did every day, to the smiling face of his mother. Chase found it strange that his mother was never annoyed at being stuck inside the computer, he would have raged if he was never able to touch anything again, but she was always happy and chipper. At first he thought Victor messed with her programming, but then he realized that in this form, Victor was always appreciative and he could never hurt her again.

“Good morning Chase,” Janet looked like she was trying to see over his shoulder. “I honestly didn’t expect you to come up for air for days.”

“Ewww mom, how about not saying inappropriate things to your son.” Chase ran a hand through his already messy morning hair. “Gert's at work, you can stop trying to embarrass her because you know it won’t work on me.”

“Chasers, sexual intimacy is a very human need, I just don’t want you to make mistakes that derail your goals. Sometimes I think that Robert and I…”

Chase seriously considered closing the laptop and putting it back in his bag. His foot was throbbing and he felt like punching something. “This is nothing like your fucking affair, Janet. Gertrude Yorkes has never been and will never be a mistake, she's the whole point of every single goal I have ever had for the last 7 years.”

He took a deep breath and forced himself to unclench his fists. “Now we need to figure out if working on the time machine is going to fuck up this world or pull me out of it.” He had promised Gert that he wouldn’t leave, that’s where he needed to start.

His mother’s eyes had softened, and Chase wondered if she had been testing him. When they were little, Gert had always been her favorite. Looking back, Chase wondered if it was because Gert had been a little wild child, who had figured out standing up for herself and feminist theory at 5 years old, and even though he hadn’t known it at the time, Janet had already been trapped in Victor’s power and control fetish. He figured when she looked at Gert, Janet saw the person she wished she could start over and be.

“I didn’t think you’d want me to hack into their system on day one, so you can ask nicely first.” Janet opened a window with a visual model. “Based on your data and what I could extrapolate from the public server, this is a brane world coming into close contact with multiple alternate branes. You traveled on an interuniverse, unidirectional, Einstein-Rosen Bridge, randomly pulling people from their own branes into this one. She’s not going anywhere. And neither are we.”

“Okay.” Chase let out a breath. “Okay. What about time travel?”

“Preliminary scans of scientific journals have found no anomalies that affect your working theory.” Janet frowned. “Chase your responsibilities to Nemo have also not changed. You have several pressing emails from the office, and Ryan has called several times this morning. He said marketing needs you to okay the budget to have Tyra in our next commercial. Evidently she is a famously bad driver?”

Chase shrugged and his Nemo Industrial email popped up on the screen. “Thanks mom, you can go do whatever it is you do on the internet when you’re not trying to caretake me.” He read through specs on a new braking system, told Ryan to put away his Top Model obsession and tell marketing to negotiate a little harder with Tyra’s people, and stopped on a funding request from a New York City non-profit that coordinated services for runaways and other homeless youth. This he would need to look into…