The Universe's Mixer

Jeannie paused on the street, holding the door open for a darling elderly couple that was leaving the diner. They were holding hands, smiling at each other, and the djinn did not wish for them to stop doing so just for something as silly as opening a door. She was, in fact, in a very light frame of mind due to the holiday.

More than one person that day had made the assumption that because she favored pink and red in her wardrobe, that she was enthusiastic about Valentine’s Day. That was not why she wore the colors, but she did very much like to see people being kind and helpful to one another. It was a little bittersweet, as Christmas was. Why could mortals not do that all the time, rather than just once in a while? She understood why they could not continually give extravagant gifts, but the little considerations could and should happen all the time.

( She was also very in favor of being given chocolate on a regular basis. )

"Happy Thoughts!" Betty had said, taking a picture with her new Polaroid before brushing her hand along the back of the man whose picture she's taken and watched him walk off to his doom. It never made her sad, never really concerned her much, the deaths of those whose souls she'd taken. It was meant to be horrific, so so she figured given that the man was haphazardly walking through traffic when she met him. Something painful that his carelessness would have gotten him into.

In fact, Betty had thought he was going to be hit by a car. Except as she watched him further, he moved into an alley and his soul appeared beside her. She never saw what happened and frankly, didn't care to. She just knew that she had done her deed and now she was going to have to wait until the man got his closure before she escorted him away.

But the bugger kept asking her questions. Such as did she hear what was going on in that alley and why shouldn't they try to call the cops to stop whatever it was? Then, when Betty stopped at a street vendor for a hot dog, the man tried to place an order and all she was left saying was, "they can't see you, Sweetie. You're dead." It was spoken very matter-of-factly, with little room for argument.

"But.. how?"

"In that alley, I'd assume. Probably not pretty."

Wilson felt bad that he had gotten to wrapped up at the hospital that he had neglected to check up on Violet. He had grabbed some nice journals for her this morning on his way to work. He made an effort to clear up his lunch break to go find her, since she had disappeared the other day after leaving him a note that she was going to visit friends at the youth hostel.

He had assumed she had just stayed over there with the friends, who were sure to be far more fun than hanging out with a middle-aged doctor, and that was a good thing. He just wanted to give her a little gift to make started college easier when she finally got matriculated.

He knocked on the door of the hostel, but no one was at the front desk.

"hello? Is anyone there?"

Rincewind had not met any other actual magic practitioners in the City yet other than Schmendrick. When he felt the familiar feeling of gods start to work its way through the City, he knew at once it had not been the hapless magician.

"This is far greater than anything I've seen here," the wizzard muttered to himself. "There must be Discworld powers at work!"

He scoured through the books that the Luggage had thankfully carried to him and stored an anti-god spell in his staff. Well, it wasn't really anti-god, as in would make them disappear, but it could fight off their believers or the effects of their believer's beliefs. Like, it would keep your household goods from disappearing in the face of a follower of Anoia, Goddess of Things That Stick in Drawers.

Rincewind strode out of Serenity, confidently swinging his staff around like....well, a staff.

He managed to shoot down a few arrows and he singed one of the little flying gods. However, he just managed to make it mad. It hit him with a barrage of arrows, which he quickly magicked away.

He ran off after the little flying thing, which giggled and did a little loop in the air before disappearing, leaving his standing in the same park he had fallen into upon his arrival.

"Damn the gods!"

Wes had been resisting the urge to visit Madame Xanadu's shop again. He didn't want to bother her day in and day out, but he had this uncontrollable need to see her. He always wanted to be assured she was all right, she didn't need anything, she didn't hate him and so on. He should have found it annoying, but he was glad to do it.

He was so focused on getting to the shop that he wouldn't have noticed if a train derailed itself in the middle of the street, got hit by a falling plane and exploded pinatas all over the City. He sure didn't notice the onset of immediate lust and love taking place on the very streets he traversed.

His focus wavered as he caught sight of a brown-haired strong woman. He kept trying to walk through the crowd towards where he thought the shop was, but his head kept turning towards the elusive woman. He bumped into people left and right, trying to get another glimpse of her face.

"Sorry, excuse me, I....well, why don't you two just get a room?"

Jesus, couldn't a girl even get to work without being accosted by Valentine's Day crap?

Anita dodged the guys selling red roses on the corner, silently cursing them and every other reminder that she was alone, without her boyfriends. It wasn't like she wasn't occasionally getting 'taken care of' here, but it just wasn't the same as having someone who knew your likes, your dislikes, your every inch.

Suddenly she felt like she was being watched. It was an uncomfortable, prickly feeling that raised her magic along with her hackles. Her eyes darted around at all the people crowded on the street nearby. Suddenly, a whirring sound had her looking up.

Fucking Cupid! Are you fucking serious? The City had lost it this time.

She tried ducking the barrage of arrows it shot into the panicking commuters, but it was no use. She tripped over a slow-moving teenager and felt a pink (why did it have to be fucking pink?!?) arrow wiggle its way into her shoulder.

She decided to stay face-down on the sidewalk for a little while. Maybe if she ignored it, it would all go away.

With Sidney's luck in the romance end of things she wanted to forget the whole day even happened. But as she took a shortcut to check out the ships (they screamed movie set to her after all) in the park was when she felt something dig into her shoulder,"Your aim is so off!" she screamed at whoever shot her as she tried to dig the arrow from out of her shirt, seeing a little person out of the corner of her eye. But she was having no luck whatever so there she was, staggering around with blood coming from her shoulder and trying to see if anyone could help. "Just great" as she felt a wave of pure lust wash over her or was it the blood from her shoulder talking?

That was when she crashed into one of the ships, this was turning into a bad romantic comedy at every turn. She could even hear the usually bad montage music going off inside her head at the same time along with giggling.

Cupid has a sick sense of humor.

Crime scenes.

There were so few actual crime scenes since he'd been here. He usually found himself able to finish all the paperwork and lab work for one case before another one even popped up. He wasn't at all used to that. The lack of constant work would have driven him crazy normally. Nothing to hide himself behind. Nothing to keep himself occupied. It could have been dangerous. But there were people here to discover, new things. Every once in a while, they sent him a case, and he was able to sink into his work happily.

That's what he'd been doing most of the day today. Working a case. Going and taking photos of the scene - what a lot of blood there had been - getting samples. Doing his forensics thing. He'd sent the samples and his equipment back to the office with somebody else, though. He'd decided it was a good day for a walk.

Which might have been a really bad idea, in hind sight.

He'd just passed under a tree when a shadow swooped past him. Dexter turned, catching it out of the corner of his eye. Thinking for a brief second that somebody might be stalking him. Instead, he saw nothing. Perhaps a bird flying by.

He was ready to let it go, but the shadow kept appearing and disappearing. Darting in and out of his sightline. Making him all the more paranoid. Finally, he managed to turn the right way at just the right time and see it. A really fucking ugly thing it was, too. Then something else flew at him. Dexter ducked to try to ensure it would miss him, but he felt a pinch and stood up quickly, finding nothing.

"Hmm, hm hmm hm, hmm--hm-hmmmm..." Tabs was happily humming the theme to It's a Small World while shopping around the gift shop she found, picking up candy and flowers and possibly cake if she could find it. Just because she didn't have a boyfriend or at least a date on Valentine's day didn't mean she couldn't still treat herself, and that's exactly what she's doing.

After a good haul, she struggled with her stuff up to the front. The teenaged male clerk smiled at her in a friendly way that caused her to blush. She couldn't help it, he was so gosh darn cute! Except in that moment, she dropped her bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider from trying to put everything on the belt at once. Then, to make matters all that much better, while the clerk was telling her to move back, she slipped and sliced her hand on a piece of the broken glass.

With much shock, a hand towel and help from the employees, she was ushered to the suddenly nearby hospital. After waiting a bit, Tabs was sitting in one of the rooms on the butcher papered bed, swinging her legs back and forth while waiting for the doctor.

Harley reflected, as she strolled through the park, that Red really would’ve liked this place. It sucked so hard that the zombies had eaten her brains, but that was the only conclusion she could come to since she’d not seen Poison Ivy since that incident. Which sorta meant that Harl was free to do something naughty with the plants without her best friend making her feel guilty.

She was wondering just how easy it would be to drive one of those tree-digger thingies. Her plan was to rearrange the trees into an arboreal artwork of her true love. She’d scouted this place, it was perfect, because it could be seen from the top of the building bearing the message from Mr. J, and from several surrounding. So if he was looking for her, he’d know, she’d gotten the most incredible love letter he’d ever written her. ( He used a whole building! )

Another day, another trip into the library. Hannibal found that he couldn't stay away for very long. Even if it hadn't been filled with books about various people he met around the city, it was still filled with more books than he'd ever imagined in his life. That alone would have had him coming back again and again. He was determined to read every book in this place, and that would be a feat, he knew. It seemed like every day there were more of them. More shelves to hold them. More rooms to contain the shelves.

As it was, he really enjoyed looking to see if any of the new people he met came from books like he did. It was a little bit of cheating, he supposed, knowing that this was here. Being able to discover anything he wanted about certain members of the new society. Not sharing that fact with anybody else.

At first, it was all like usual. Smile at the clerk at the front counter. Nod slightly to those who he passed and saw on a regular basis because they, too, were lovers of the library. Making his way to the computer terminals to look up a name or a place.

But this time he was struck by a brief flash of red hair. It shouldn't have been unusual, really. It wasn't as if there were no redheads where he came from. But today, it felt as if his heart skipped. And that, well. That was new. That didn't happen all the time. Hannibal's heartbeat generally stayed the same all the time. Why should red hair spark it?

To find out, he sought out the source, the woman who it was attached to. Popping around the corner of a stack and seeing her face. One look. That's all there was before his heart felt like it fell into his stomach.

Oh, he knew it was absurd. He loved River. River was where home was. River held his heart. But this. He didn't know how to explain it. For once in his life he was without descriptive ability. He felt like he needed to be near her. Needed to touch her. Run his fingers through that hair.

Absurd.

Hannibal cleared his throat to get her attention.

After the kind and gracious assistance of the gentleman Wash, Much was back on his way out. The chill had nearly left he air and he was feeling all the better for it! Freshly bathed, a 'shower!' what a magnificent device, letting one stand and rinse so efficiently. Still it was not the relaxing soak of a bath but it was refreshing indeed! But such wonders as he had been shown would have to take second to his priority, he had to know if his Master was here.

Robin was his first and foremost concern and if he was here in this City, as Wash had informed him it was called, then he had to find him. So now with the absence of snow, a full belly and a good bit more knowledge of the place than he had, had before Much set out into The City!

He strode into the towering sight of this place with no fear, ok well perhaps some. He was after all quite used to living as an outlaw for these past ears and that tended to make one rather cautious. But he kept his mind focused as he walked, his garb getting him more than a passing strange glance. He had also been educated that people of this place were from many times and what was the norm for him might well be freakish for others.

He would persevere! He would. And perhaps get some lunch.

Elizabeth didn't know why everything was pink and red, she didn't understand all the flower carts and balloons. She just knew that there was a lot of music playing, and all of it sounded a bit too happy for her. She stopped in a store to get something to drink and came out with a metal can of some sort. Painted in colors.. but it wasn't paint. She couldn't just scrape it off. She was playing with it, rolling it between her hands as she walked up to the street corner.

She could hear the liquid inside of the can. But how did you get it out? There was nothing just to press on to open it. She supposed she could smack it hard with her sword, but she didn't want to spill the liquid. Co-la. Cola. The man in the store had said it was good. Sweet even. She had no idea why she wanted sweet, maybe all that rum had been getting to her head lately. Still this metal can had the liquid, the cola, trapped inside. Elizabeth shook it a little. Nothing came out.

Fine.

Elizabeth set the can of cola on the ground and unsheathed her cutlass. "You are going to come out co-la, one way or another." She pulled her sword over her head and lined up with the can.

It was going to surrender it's liquid goodness to her. She wasn't King of the Pirates for nothing.