Marcia woke up on a couch in the main lobby room; she was lying on her back with her head propped up against one of the arms, and still wearing her large jacket over her outfit. She quickly sat up and glanced around for a clock to determine how much time passed. She felt charged, but only slightly.
Regina and Kiah were standing in front of her. Regina briefly changed her appearance back to her usual with blonde hair and a blue dress. Kiah was several inches taller than Regina and had long reddish-orange hair and silver eyes with a red cowboy shirt, a black glossy Chariots of Colors insignia pinned to a silver bolo tie, a silver and black long sleeveless jacket with blue jeans, a glossy blue belt with a large silver buckle, and red cowboy shoes with silver X-shaped straps.
"Oh gosh! I was worried you had a hitch in the giddy-up*!" (*Wild West slang for "not feeling well") Kiah exclaimed. Regina was holding a metal wand, was standing next to Kiah and looked annoyed.
"I'm not annoyed by that, or you." Regina said to Marcia, before she looked back at Kiah.
"Well, what is it then?"
"I'm annoyed that your interruption was so loud that the audience heard!" Regina said and hissed at Kiah.
"Aren't you glad you heard to help Marcia?!" Kiah argued.
"Not too loud!" Marcia promptly hissed and covered her ears for a moment.
"That's what I'm here for and arguing will just hold everyone up further." Regina tersely said. She looked towards Marcia and waved the metal wand in front of her. The wand emitted a pale green light and Regina materialized a holographic screen in front of her to look at the readings.
As the readings came in, she nodded. "There's no serious issue. You just ran out of stamina." She said.
"Wherever you went left you plum tired!*" (*"totally tired") Kiah added.
"And not a second to eat anything to recharge." Marcia said, exasperated. "In the last thing I remember, I was going to the tabletop room when I fell down and fell asleep."
"Yep. Exactly where I saw you, but since you just ran out of stamina, it means my barbecue can fix you right up!" Kiah cheerfully said.
"Is that what I smell?" Marcia asked.
"Darn right, and I changed the recipe up to make it even tastier and energizing!" Kiah proudly boasted.
"It's ready now!" She started to run back to the kitchen when Marcia said "Walk, not run."
"It'll take a little longer to get it." Kiah paused her steps and grumbled.
"It'd take longer yet if you slipped and fell on the floor." Regina loudly retorted.
Kiah briefly tried to argue back. "Hmmmph. You bested me there." She snorted and conceded before she walked to the kitchen to check on her latest creation. A shiny slow cooker sat on a polished countertop and its contents of shredded meat in a marinade gave off a rich aroma that could be savored even from the living room.
"Now that's settled, I'm heading back to the recording room. I told the audience I'd make this quick." Regina said in a hurry. She power walked her way back to the recording room.
"As we can see, his hat was behind his ear all along!" Mi-ho announced; she stood next to Terrell who was in the recording room chair. Terrell was wearing one of his usual outfits, but Mi-ho looked dressed for the performance; she was dressed like a stage magician with a silver jacket, miniskirt and ankle-length boots with a black vest and long socks, and she wore an orange bowtie with a CC insignia brooch. Her outfit also had orange bows on it and her skirt had a longer two-layered translucent layer over it.
Mi-ho waved her hands in front of Terrell's head, stepped back and pulled out a top hat from behind one of his ears. She waved her hands again with a gesture that magically placed the hat on his head. "Doesn't he look fancier now?"
Terrell stepped up to pose in front of the camera and the reactions in the chat came in. "The audience has spoken!" He cheered and his eyes glimmered.
"Charioteers, the teammate I needed to check on was--- what are you doing?" Regina said when she returned, back to having long pink hair and her show host outfit.
"Sorry for the interruption, someone came in and--" Terrell said to the camera before he was interrupted.
"Interruption? I'm the main host of this show." Regina said to Terrell and Mi-ho, barely keeping her composure in front of the camera and audience.
"Whoops, sorry, I didn't mean you were the interruption, but we were keeping this going when you needed to check on a teammate. You're welcome?" Mi-ho said to Regina.
"Is she okay?" Terrell asked.
"Yes." Regina grumbled, but then sighed. She reached the desk and spoke into the camera. "The teammate I needed to check on was okay." She announced.
"Mi-ho and Terrell were starting another trick" read one of the comments in the chat. "Could you let them finish it?" Another read. "Thanks for checking on that teammate!" Another read.
Regina hesitated but she conceded. "Okay, you can finish that act." She said to Terrell and Mi-ho.
"Thanks! We'll dazzle the audiences!" Mi-ho said.
After Mi-ho and Terrell finished their magic trick to the audience, they stepped back and waved to the camera. "Fellow charioteers, our time is up but we should thank Kiah for giving us this opportunity!" Terrell said. He was back to his regular outfit with his signature trucker hat, but was wearing a tuxedo with his top hat by the end of the last trick.
"Isn't that in bad taste?" Regina grumbled.
"Hey, someone needed to be loud enough to get a 10-4* from you!" (*CB Radio slang for "Okay", "Acknowledged" or "Message received"), or could you have ended up 10-7?*" (*Can mean "out of service") Terrell remarked, and chuckled in a genuinely cheerful way.
Regina looked Terrell firmly in the eyes. "10-3*" (*"Stop transmitting"). She said. The message was received, but Terrell glared at Regina and did that gesture where he placed two of his fingers in front of his eyes then pointed them at her. She did the same to him in return.
"Damn..." Mi-ho quietly said. She looked nervous seeing this argument escalate.
"The stream is still running and the audiences are seeing this!" She blurted out. The two bickering cat people stood still, almost frozen with this realization.
"Our show host is usually more polite and professional than this, but also not so strict." She said, looking in Regina's direction. She sounded polite but slightly disappointed.
"10-4." Regina sighed and approached the camera. "I'm sorry fellow Charioteers that I've been harsher than usual and that you witnessed this. I'm ready to continue the stream, but I'll thank Terrell and Mi-ho for keeping you entertained while I needed to step away, and yes I'll thank Kiah for alerting me but it would've been better for her to message me." She said.
"Thank you for your support, Charioteers!" Terrell and Mi-ho waved to the camera before they left the room.
"This is delicious! I like what you did with this recipe!" Marcia said after she took the first bite of her barbecue sandwich.
"Thanks! The recipe is still a secret, but I changed the combination of peppers I used in the marinade so it tastes a little fruitier and it contrasts with the other ingredients!" Kiah explained.
"I can taste it!"
"What do you plan to do next after this? I can reschedule the tabletop gaming session for when you're ready."
"I need to make sense of these notes first." Marcia flatly said. She pulled a small notebook and assorted sticky notes out of a large coat pocket on her jacket, then she took off her jacket and set it on the couch.
"Is it a place Antares wrote about in her travel guides?"
"No, but I plan on mentioning that place later once my notes are in order."
"If you do, I reckon you could collaborate with her on writing about it!" Kiah said and looked excited.
"Well, heh heh..." Marcia nervously said. "That's possible but I don't want to make it sound certain." She said but sounded more assuring. "There is something I found that she might be interested in, so I was going to look for her."
"I reckon that'd be a good idea to check with her."
As they were talking, a few more of their teammates approached. "Oooh! What's that?" One of them asked.
"My latest barbecue recipe. There's a lot to go around and I can bring it to the cafeteria!" Kiah cheerfully offered. Marcia sat back as she saw Kiah get caught up in conversations.
"I found a mysterious cassette tape. We could play it on your recorder." Marcia messaged to Antares. While she waited for a reply, she approached Kiah again. "I'll have some more!"
"Sure, follow us to the cafeteria and I'll serve you up more!"
Marcia followed Kiah and the others from the main lobby to the cafeteria. While she was eating another barbecue sandwich, she received two replies from Antares: "Sounds good! We could do that after a while." And "Are you okay? Kiah told me that you crashed."
"I'm fine now. You could meet me in the cafeteria. The batch of barbecue she is serving today is so good!"
