The Universe's Mixer

TVs everywhere..that were on flashed all of a suddenly with the telltale sign that there was an incoming broadcast. Other devices that usually showed such broadcasts didn't. Something had definitely changed.

Frank and Candy sat in front of the camera, staring. Frank looked as if he hadn't shaved in a little while, and Candy seemed to have an oddly shaped eye from a bad make-up job. They were definitely out of sorts.

"What do we do?" Candy asked through the clenched teeth in her forced smile.

"I don't know." Frank hissed back.

"They can hear you!" came from off camera.

"Oh, blow me!" Candy yelled back.

"And in the weather..." The voice came from the side. The camera remained on the news anchors.

"And in the weather..." came the lead in again. Finally the camera moved to a very cheerful looking Windy. "We'll be having weather. The tempature is dropping, and there looks to be possibilities of snow and sleet in the future. Stay tuned."

The camera panned back to Candy who was bowed over the desk with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Frank was drinking from a flask, but stopped quickly to shove the flask out of the way.

"They're back. Hey they're back." Frank hissed at Candy, who just shook her head, never lifting it.

From off camera, Windy exclaims, "I love this shit! Yes! Weather!"

Ted couldn't exactly say that he was upset that The City had stopped moving around. He'd never particularly liked that bit about this place anyway. He was, however, a little sad that he actually had to do the grocery shopping now.

He was also a little sad that he was the one cleaning up cat litter and horse poo.

But it was all evened out by the mere fact that he had a job now - an actual job. One that meant something and wasn't just teaching a class every once in a while or working on somebody's portfolio because he was bored and had nothing else to do.

And this particular evening, he was in good spirits because he and Charlie were finally getting to have that dinner that they'd been talking about for a long while. It seemed that they both finally had some free time - or rather, Charlie had some free time - and they could meet up. Since he had more than one really exciting thing to share with his housemate, Ted was really looking forward to the evening.

Charlie had left a note on the counter in the kitchen telling Ted a time and a place. Ted had done some research and discovered that the place was a little bit fancy, and so dressed accordingly. He'd debated for some time if he should bring something for Charlie, it might have been a man-date, but it was still a date, and finally settled on a card. He hadn't been able to find exactly what he'd wanted, so instead improvised.

The card said "CONGRATULATIONS" very big across the top in colorful lettering on a yellow background. It had a balloon on it that Ted sharpied to look like a chubby little batman. On the inside he crossed out the "It's a boy!" Statement and replaced it with "You're not Batman!"

He carried the card in his hand as he entered the restaurant looking for his friend.

There used to be a stable.

No, no, that wasn't exactly right.

There used to sometimes be a stable -- and it used to appear when she wanted to spend some time with the horses that were sometimes boarded there. With all Beauty's new-found vacation time, she'd had every intention of going on long, lovely rides across the City Commons, but the stable simply wasn't appearing. It just wasn't there anymore.

Other things had changed, too. The whispers in her cottage - those invisible servants who forced clothes on her and who set out her meals and who apparently did the laundry and kept the place clean - had disappeared. At first she was glad -- but as the days passed, she found herself actually missing the strange companionship that the whispers had been. She could never quite understand them, but they ... they'd been friendly to her. They'd been kind, or at least, they tried to be very kind.

Beauty stood at the top of a rolling hill overlooking where the stable used to be, arms twisted behind her back, hands clasped together. She hoped that the horses were all right, wherever they'd gone.

The older Winchester had yet to tell anyone he was in the hospital. He didn't want to worry anyone. He also didn't want people messing with his phone. It was bad enough that they'd taken his gun, knives, multiple ids, and the phone to pack away where he couldn't get them. It wasn't that he could use them, which wasn't the point. They were packed away from him.

He rested on the hospital bed. He had a few other problems, not just the ruined hands, that had come from being thrown into a wall. He shifted on the bed, groaning to himself. He couldn't even press the button very well to ease the pain with a little chemical help. It was slight misery.

The hunter stared up at the ceiling. He was useless here, and he was going to be lucky to get for mobility back in his fingers the way they'd been crushed. He couldn't even protect himself much less help anyone else. These were the moments Dean hated himself the most; he hated that he pitied himself and that he could do nothing. He was just some poor slob who couldn't lift a finger, in this case literally, to even wipe the drool off his own jaw.

Well, there was one thing he could do in the past, but he didn't want to go that route here. He didn't even know if it was possible. He hadn't seen his own personal angel in days, weeks. The only other type he knew of who could hear prayers, maybe...

"So, look, this is probably as uncomfortable for me as it is you, but if you could see your way into giving a hand here." He shook his head at his own slip of the tongue. "I need help. Not asking you to prove yourself, just asking you to help." He looked at his hands, what he could see of them under the bandages anyway.

"I can't believe I may actually be praying to a guy who smokes and knows Batman." He just shook his head, giving a soft laugh at just how bad it had gotten. Dean knew he was going to have to get some flowers or something for Lois Lane; he laughed again thinking of how she'd probably just throw them out.

Jack had just been getting a handle on his job as mayor once he'd hired Ted to do the budget. Things were starting to fall into place and he'd finally found a rhythm with things.

Until everything changed. Again.

Only this time, it wasn't the streets or the buildings or even the balance on the bank account provided to take care of the City's needs.

No, this time... everything came to a screeching halt. Maybe not everything, but it certainly seemed like that.

The good news was that the streets and buildings were all in one place and maps made sense again. Once everyone adjusted to the change, there were far fewer people getting lost.

And he hadn't heard about anyone else getting shanghaied and arriving in the City. So he supposed that it was a good thing that no one else was getting taken from their homes against their will.

That was where the good things stopped.

Things that everyone had taken for granted-that even he had started to take for granted because he couldn't afford to spend time thinking about things that got done automatically when he had so many other things to attend to-suddenly all of those things just stopped getting done.

It was a mess. An absolute, complete, mess. The streets were no longer being cleaned up. Garbage was no longer being picked up. There were people complaining about the fact that their cupboards were no longer being restocked and their bank accounts were no longer magically refilling themselves. Thankfully, there still was a food supply being delivered to the grocery stores, but Jack didn't know where it was coming from or what he might do if it suddenly stopped.

In all the chaos, he'd barely been home, let alone had time to think about his strange and awkward new living situation, nor had he had time to help Alice get situated in the City.

No, currently Jack was stealing naps here and there at his desk in his office. He was exhausted, but he was doing his best to work through the complete and total upheaval and make sure things started running smoothly in the City again.

There was only one thing Hatter was completely sure of. He wasn't in Wonderland.

He knew that place better than most anyone, perhaps even better than its royalty. The royals couldn't possibly know the underground the way he did, the back alleys and the traps and the outer forests. As a kid on the run, he'd learned the slums of the cities in and out, and as he grew into the smooth talking conman, he'd learned the city proper. And finally, as a member of the Resistance, he'd learned the secret hideouts, the places for people to go who wanted out from under the Queen's eye. This? Was definitely not Wonderland.

But it certainly wasn't what he'd been expecting when he'd gone through the Looking Glass, either. If this was Alice's New York, he wasn't sure he liked it. He'd read about it in the books in the Great Library, and he didn't recognize anything. Either it had changed drastically since the book had been published (as getting Oyster books to their world wasn't really on the agenda of the Queen), or he'd somehow ended up somewhere else. Occasionally he'd ask questions of passing people, but he was admittedly loathe to trust most people and had reverted to his old ways of hiding in alleys and stealing scraps of food where they could be found.

He was, possibly, one of the only people in the City who had no idea that it wasn't how it was supposed to be. It looked normal to him, and so he ran with it. After all, he'd dealt with some ridiculous and strange things in a city that shouldn't even have existed to the Oysters. Why would this place be any different?

Still. He'd come such a long way from the boy he'd been, always hiding, always on the run, never using a 'real' name. He had to suck it up and deal with this. If he was in the wrong place, he'd have to work on finding a way back. And he wouldn't know if he didn't get out there. When he found himself in front of the library, he felt a little better. Books were easy to get answers from, right? They'd never let him down before. He'd just head in there. Easier than putting his trust in a person, Oyster or otherwise.

Have you noticed the world has changed? As if overnight things are suddenly different? The way the streets stay as they are, the way the food just isn't in the cupboards as before, the way your clothes are still in a pile on the floor dirty?

If you haven't, what rock have you been under the past few days! If you have, then you are in the thick of it with the rest of us. It seems lately that the City isn't acting as it should. It isn't looking after us anymore. Did we upset it? Where has it gone? Did it just get tired of us? How will we look after ourselves?

Something has gone horribly wrong, and we must find out what it is. The City Police need to get to the bottom of this. Or, if that Mayor will let them, that group of so called vigilantes need to find out why things are just so very wrong. Either way, someone needs to fix this, and fix it now.

Missing Dinner on Perry St

----

It's the end of days!

The world is coming to an end. First there was a snow storm. Then there was the horrendous rain storm. Now, nothing moves, and we have to go to the market for our food. The world as we know it is coming to an end.

We must right whatever wrong we've committed, or probably those [...] other people have committed. We have to ask for forgiveness.

The world will be over soon!

No more chances at Basset and Lewis Aves

----

The extreme reaction to the change in the City is just that, extreme. We have been through many difficulties over the past generations, and we will endure many more. We know that we have survived such things as large lizards and primates. We have experienced devastating weather conditions and lived. We have seen the rise and fall of queens and mayors. We will see our way through this latest issue. This is our chance to show that we do not need an easy life, and we can better ourselves through this adversity. This like all the other difficulties in the past will make us stronger, and we should embrace it.

This latest development will make us better people. We can take the opportunity as we have before to share and grow. We can become a better and brighter community. So, look at this as yet another chance to live to the best of our abilities.

Survivor on Washington Dr.

OOC: Feel free to have your characters post their own editorials here.

I hope that you are doing alright after our little spat. Are you? Please let me know if I can do anything to help.

-Eric.

It didn't penetrate Jensen's brain that there was something different about the City right away. He stopped to get a ginormous cup of coffee and a bag of powdered donuts without the street changing while he was in the shop, but it wasn't until he'd crossed three intersections that he realized nothing had changed randomly. Period. At all. When it finally did sink in he stopped in place to look around...it might have been better if he hadn't stopped in the middle of the road, but he knew the cars with the blaring horns would swerve around him.

"....whoa.."

That was when he decided to test this out. He pulled up a City map on the laptop he was carrying, plotted out a route to the City library then implemented it. When he got to his destination without having to replot his course even once he stood looking at the stairs to the entrance and burst out laughing.

"This is so awesome!"

Beast woke up in the a quiet, lightly wooded part of the park. It was comfortable here, but something was wrong. His head lifted, emerging from beneath the blanket he'd curled under over the night. It was a good smelling blanket, but the little female it smelled like was no longer next to him like she had been when he'd passed out.

He scowled deeply, testing the air. She'd been gone for a while, and that was unsettling.

Climbing off the wooden pallet that had been his bed the creature-like man stayed on all fours, stretching out and letting a grunting snarl out as new muscles were called to duty. He felt immensely better, the pain from the night before was almost gone and he was rejuvinated. Now the only thing wrong was his stomach, and the lack of his companion from the night before.

He dropped the blanket, it smelled good and of her so he'd return here to sleep, but he had no use of it if he was going hunting. He followed where his nose hinted she might have gone, leaving the small canopy of trees and heading across the park, still on all fours. He followed her scent until a much stronger one caught his attention, and more importantly, his appetite. A delicious smell coming out of a box with wheels where a few people were gathered. Beast changed his course almost immediately, and was pleased when he didn't have to do anything to scare them off except snarl a bit. The people, one a mother with a small child, took off running, leaving him to stick his fist through the side of the flimsy glass box and get at the lovely pieces of meat roasting inside, stuffing himself full of hotdogs without worry or care about where he was or who was around him.

( Don't go into the alley. )

Displaying its' cruelty as always, the City had moved the Sherwood Florist right across the street from Harry's office building a few days ago, right after Dinah had left the break-up letter for Harry. She... really wasn't ready to face him. She knew that they'd probably need to talk about it at some point, but she didn't want that to be just because there was a chance running into each other outside of their workplaces.

For that matter, she didn't really want to talk about it at all. She'd done the right thing, as much as it hurt. And she hoped that he would take the little bit of advice she'd given him regarding making things right with Murphy.

She'd waited for the City to shift things again. It usually happened fairly often, but this time it... didn't.

In fact, the entire City had stopped moving. Dinah didn't really know what to make of that, and she wasn't in the mood for yet another puzzle to solve. Not when her mind was still filled with trying to find a way to kill the vampire that had attacked her and threatened Hank.

She was a little bit preoccupied with that, and with trying not to linger too long outside of the florist shop when she left for the day. Since it was the day after Valentine's Day, there was a nice lull to recover from the holiday rush. She looked both ways and then hurried across the street to the only parking spot she could find with her motorcycle, hoping that she wouldn't run into Harry before she could get to the bike itself.

Dean had been thrown by creatures much stronger than him before. He had felt that stomach dropping rush of flying through the air, and he'd done it while experiencing a great deal of pain. So, his latest bit of monster assisted flight was not new. What was new possibly was the way his hands were injured and how public it had all been. He had caused the damn thing pain, which had felt good for more reasons than the hunter wanted to think about, and he had gotten away, by luck more than anything. Only, Dean Winchester wasn't in any good way.

He hit the wall and crumpled; his Colt had made the trip and thankfully not gone off upon impact. One hand crushed, maybe beyond repair. The other twisted and turned. It was humiliating. He could hear Bobby and Sam both telling him he'd been stupid to take on the vampire alone, but he'd been alone in the street. The damn thing had been out in broad daylight. He could also hear a few others asking why he hadn't admitted that he needed help with this one. Hell, he didn't want to admit the damn thing really existed.

So, he stayed were he was for the moment, trying to figure out how to get up. He also was trying to decide how he was going to make this better, how he could work this, how he could survive with his hands mangled the way they were. It wasn't exactly a pity party for one, but it wasn't a laugh and a gas either. He knew he'd have to get the knife; the idea of attaching the damn thing with some sort of tether coming to mind was not helping his attitude.

"Just get up, you stupid son of a bitch." He mumbled to himself as his eyes started to open.

( Transformation. )

Whatever the color, whatever the type, Beauty loved roses. In stories, blue roses stood for perfect or impossible love... And the author defined the impossibility. Sometimes it was distance, death or family. Sometimes it was religious obligations or a marriage that never should have been. But Beauty had never read about love turned impossible because of a city.

Wistfully staring into the bouquet of red roses (for Beauty preferred the message of red roses over that of the impossible blue) Beauty stood now in the last of three locations she visited on this night every year since... Well.

It was nothing more than a back street -- just a street. But it had also been a place where she'd seen dark things. Seen, but also had been protected from them. By the same person who led her to the library to find the end of her family. By the same person who had found her the job she so loved. The library steps and the stoop of Bookmark Books both had their own bouquets, tied by white ribbon.

She bent her knees and stooped to set the last bunch of roses at the street corner. Ah, she missed him, that strange and gentle soul that had been haunted too heavily for any single man. Wherever he was now, she dearly hoped he was happy.

"Happy Valentines Day," she said, before straightening again. Then, with hands tucked into her coat pockets, she headed back home.

Jesse woke up with a start. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he didn't know why. But something was wrong. Really, really wrong. He looked around, trying to see if he could spy fire or smoke, or something immediately near that would cause him to feel this way. But the apartment was clear. Zoe slumbered peacefully next to him. If she was still asleep, calm, then there was no danger within her apartment. She wasn't the type to sleep through a problem.

He was up and dressing as quickly as he could, looking out the windows of her bedroom. He could see nothing out there to cause panic. But he gathered the rest of his items and went to Zoe's side of the bed. He kissed her softly on the cheek and whispered that he had to go, but didn't bother to try to wake her. He felt like there was no time for it.

As he moved through the apartment, he finished dressing himself. There was a smoke in his mouth and lit up before he hit the elevator, and it was finished as the bell dinged for the lobby. The ride had felt like it took years, but he knew only minutes had gone by.

When he got outside, the wrongness settled on him further. Jesse looked and couldn't pinpoint it. Everything seemed fine. But there was something... what?

He began to walk, the destination of his own building in mind, ready to navigate the moving streets and shifting buildings, and that's when it dawned on him. None of that was happening. Everything was still. Everything was staying in one place.

Jesse stopped in the middle of the street, looking around him, more than a little confused.

This day in The City was as beautiful as most of the days were. It liked it when people were outside and enjoying themselves, so it rarely changed the weather. It knew that people enjoyed occasional rainstorms, so it allowed those from time to time. But unless it was experimenting, the weather never altered too much for too long.

It had not done much experimenting lately. He had brought in the giant King Kong, wanting to see what those Justice League individuals could do against it. Prior to that had been the werecreatures. There had also been a very wild storm, which it had had nothing to do with.

It had been worried when the storm had happened. The word for the emotion that over came it when that happened was fear, it thought. It feared the one named Baba Yaga. It had opened itself to her, using her like a conduit. She had misbehaved, and it had thought to punish her. The punishment had only made her very angry, she had lashed out. She had done something it had not expected, and it had not liked the feeling of that.

The worry had not, of course, stopped the City's mischievous ways completely.

The love holiday was coming up again. It had played with it's citizens once before on the love holiday. So much fun had been had, that The City was intending to play with them again. Differently this time, but it thought that there was more potential behind the new idea. It would be bigger, more gripping. It had liked to see the people fall in love last time. It wanted more of that.

As The City prepared to unleash the new game, it felt a jolt. Though it had no body at the moment, the jolt felt like it ripped through the entirety of The City. Then came another. And another. The jolts were distracting, mind-swimmingly blinding.

And they hurt.

It had taken some work, the notion that formed in the leprechaun's head. He admitted he was curious as to the way the City had kept the Djinn away from him, since they had a stint there where it felt like that infernal woman was everywhere he went. Always, as she tended to do, interfering with his day-to-day activities. And she was horribly judgmental. Not to mention ungrateful. Just when he was trying to take the high road, be the better person and make sure she got to safety... she acted out against him again.

( If Sweeney didn't know better, he'd have thought Jeannie liked him. )

It was 'date night' for Logan and Veronica. Which meant that he had the night off from Caritas and he'd actually been able to pry her away from her case long enough to watch the Big Lebowski and eat some takeout. Logan hadn't seen a whole lot of his girlfriend lately, so he'd actually made an effort to clean up the discarded beer bottles and pizza boxes so his apartment was presentable.

Man, he missed having a maid or at least room service.

Unfortunately, those days were behind him which meant that his apartment usually looked like the typical slob's bachelor pad. Which meant that it had taken the better part of an hour to get it looking more like... a slightly neater bachelor pad.

The food had already been delivered, which meant he was just waiting on Veronica. He was already hoping that he could distract her from the movie after they'd had the chance to eat. Especially since they hadn't seen that much of each other lately. Hey, he'd missed her and all the things that went along with seeing her on a regular basis.

Temperance Brennan glanced back at Booth as he headed out of the airport. They'd said their goodbyes. Indonesia was waiting for her to further investigate the interspecies hominid remains that could be a crucial link in the evolutionary chain. She turned and continued toward the terminal where her flight was getting ready to leave. She knew that she needed this break, not only from the Jeffersonian and solving crimes, but from Booth. She wouldn't be getting completely away from the Jeffersonian, though, not with Daisy tagging along. But they were both going for the same purpose.

The flight was long and Brennan read when she wasn't sleeping. Her First Class accommodations treated her well and she was comfortable. But she was relieved when she finally felt the plane touch down. She gathered her belongings and met Daisy at the door. She stepped out of the plane, fully expecting to set her foot down on the tarmac, but instead, she stepped out onto a concrete sidewalk with high rise buildings on all sides.

It was not Indonesia, but it was familiar. She sighed in frustration, not knowing how long it would be this time, and if she would ever get to examine those remains in Indonesia. She had her carry-on suitcase with her, and as she patted her pockets, she found that a set of keys, a bank card and a cell phone had appeared. It seemed the City had her again.