The Universe's Mixer

When Veronica got home from the ball, she looked at the little box that they'd given her. The instructions said to fold the paper... and a wish would be revealed.

After the weird time-and-space travel-filled evening she'd had, Veronica was okay with a free wish.

She sat down on her bed, high heels off, now, still in her beautiful green dress. And she started folding.

The paper made a tiny cup, and when she finished folding it, words appeared on the side.

I Got Baked in Ensenada


Veronica smiled. Lilly.

She'd missed Lilly all night, too. She'd have loved the masquerade. She'd have been the belle of the ball. She picked the paper cup up, turning it in her hand, completely focused on it.

"I thought I told you you were red satin."

Veronica blinked. Her focus shifted.

Standing in her bedroom, dead center, stood Lilly Kane. "I mean, the green's nice. Very... sleek. But I think you're more of a red."

Veronica couldn't do anything but blink and stare.

"Is that all you got?" Lilly pushed her long hair behind her ears and sat on the bed next to Veronica. "Really? No, 'oh it's great to see you? No 'I missed you?' No--"

Before Lilly could finish Veronica was hugging her. She was real. She was real and she was here and she was alive. And Veronica was crying quietly into her shoulder.

Lilly hugged her back. "So what's been going on?" She pushed Veronica away gently, with a slight smile. "I mean, since I died I'm not really up on everything."

"Uh." Logan. She couldn't tell Lilly about Logan.

"Do you have anything to drink?" Lilly was up and heading to the kitchen.

And Veronica thought she was either dreaming or still in the asylum. There were cupboard noises, and pouring noises.

Her dead best friend, the girl whose death had changed Veronica's life completely, was standing in the kitchen, getting glasses of wine.

Veronica followed her. "Lilly. How...?"

"You wished me here. You wished, I'm here. I don't know how it works, really."

Veronica gulped. "Is it permanent?"

Lilly made a face, twisting her lips, thinking. "I'm not really sure. I know... I was somewhere. I was resting... and now I'm..." The face turned a little pained. "I'm here."

[to be continued in comments]

After seeing Wendell the Dog jump through the magic mirror, Wolf approached it with some caution. The image was wavering like water, but he could see trees and a night sky. Lights burning a thousand times brighter than stars lined the buildings behind the trees. That worried him a bit, but the goal was the dog. The Queen wanted the dog, so Wolf would fetch him. He'd given his word, his will.

Before he could run off, tail between his legs, Wolf stepped through the mirror. Everything blurred in that moment, shifted and stretched. When he could see again, it was daytime. The shapes of the buildings had changed, though there was still grass and trees in front of him. With a frown, Wolf sniffed at the air. There was a lot of smells, but the dog-smell of Wendell was not among them. Not even faintly, as if Wolf had simply arrived the morning after the prince had crossed into the mirror. A scent could linger for days on the open ground. Weeks, in the wintertime.

Wolf bent at the knees, getting closer to the ground. His nostrils flared as he sniffed again. Dogs, more dogs, and -- a growl rose in his throat, one corner of his lip curling -- a few cats. No prince. Staying low, Wolf began to work his way downwind to the treeline. ( It might work, if the dog had crossed over there. )

The instructions were so simple.

The paper should be folded thus, and thus... and it would create a shape. Once that shape took form, he was to make a wish. His heart, the directions said, would make it for him.

That was no longer a wish to be human. He'd been there and done that. Raglan James had ruined it for him, and it had cost David Talbot his life. Lestat was aware, very aware, of the thorns this process had. And that he would likely bleed. His heart's greatest desire? Depending on the moment or the day, that could be anything. An antique chair could appear. He could end up standing in the foyer of his apartment facing Gabrielle. Lestat did not, himself, know what he wanted.

Ever.

It was a main reason why he was such a pain.

He sat at the small table in his hallway, listening to the clock tick. He folded the paper into what became the flower of a rose. And then he shut his eyes.

He felt wind behind him, movement, footsteps. But they were the kind of footsteps that did not belong to anything as clumsy as a human. He felt a hand on his shoulder, cold, dead. He heard the mouth begin to open, to speak or draw blood.

And he smashed the rose. Picked it up and tore it.

It all stopped.

With a sweep of his arm, Lestat knocked the contents off of the table and onto the floor, then stood up and flipped over the stool he had been sitting on.

He would not allow the City that insight and entertainment. He could not abide it.

And now he knew the answer, anyway. He would not allow it to go wrong, for his house to burn down again, to be maimed again and thrown into a swamp again, to be left in favor of the whole world, to be abandoned again.

He knew what it was he was looking for.

Lestat did not want to be alone. He never had. He never would.

He'd have to do something about this.

The night had been interesting. Charlie'd gotten to dance, gotten to drink, gotten to look and feel like he hadn't a care in the world. It was as if he had never gone to prison, or so his reflection told him. He was young again. Unfortunately, he hadn't gotten to dance with the woman he was rather certain was Jennifer, his partner. It would have been fun to get her reaction, and perhaps to try and deduce why he did indeed look so very young.

He went home, smiling. He smiled a good bit, but this was the smile of a man who'd gotten his youth back and found that he didn't really need or miss it. Of course, he wouldn't mind having a few less aches, but he didn't feel the need to go back in time as if he hadn't lived through it all and learned.

The detective was quiet, or tried to be, as he got home; he didn't want to wake Ted. He got ready for bed, and as he was settling in to listen to one of his tapes, the box he'd set on his night stand opened. He looked at it carefully, not touching it until he thought it was safe.

"Make a wish. What could I wish for? What couldn't I wish for? Wishes are not like fishes, even if they sound alike. They're not like horses. Though they can be slippery like fish and speed away, even a little flighty like horses." Charlie looked at the paper and started folding, ignoring the directions. "Wishing is part of the human psyche, so if I do not wish, does that make me non-human? But wishing is desiring, and desiring is not undesirable."

He continued to fold until he had a boat/hat. It was a simple thing that many people learned when they were younger. "I suppose if I were to wish for something. I would wish that I could tell my partner how I feel." He smiled sadly as he decided to just turn out the lights and go to sleep. The boat/hat sat on the night stand, proud and straight.

The next morning Charlie got up, got ready for work, and headed in. His wish didn't come true. Then again, he hadn't really had much of a wish, had he?

She was home from the ball, the interesting night she'd had, and she couldn't even begin to sort through everything that had happened. Her mind was still reeling from it. There were too many questions, not enough answers. Especially for somebody like herself, who made it their life to find the answers.

But she'd had fun. She supposed that was really all that mattered.

Jennifer moved through the house and discovered Jake absent. And so were some of his things. It made her worry. Jake was her best friend, and she didn't want him to be alone out in this strange City. Actually, if she were completely honest, Jake made her feel safer. He had helped to make this apartment into a home. She felt wrong without him here. Jennifer wondered if his missing things meant he was staying overnight with a friend, or if he was gone for good.

Simon. She would ask Simon. He was the last person who had talked to Jake. Which made her worry a little more.

She decided to not panic or freak out until she'd had a chance to talk to Simon. It would also give Jake time to come home if he'd just gone to stay with a friend. Jennifer hoped that the worry churning away in her gut was nothing. She wanted to ignore the instinct that she normally paid attention to. She wanted Jake to come home, happy, and tell her that he'd met a new girl cat. Or that he'd stayed on his ship for a little while so that he could try to fix it. She didn't want to hear anything else.

As she cleaned out her little handbag of the items she might need to have for work, she discovered the small box. She sat on the couch and opened it, glad for the distraction. Inside she found a piece of perfectly square paper and a note that said make a wish. Sighing, Jennifer followed the folding directions she found on the other side of the note and after a few missteps discovered she'd made an elephant.

"Make a wish, huh." Jennifer thought about it. What did she want in life that would require a wish? She had a job she loved. She had a boyfriend who was beginning to break out of his shell. Her best friend, while currently missing, was capable of taking care of himself in the long run. Wishing Jake home might mean taking him away from something that was making him happy, and she couldn't do that. Finally, she laughed. "I know what would take a wish. I wish I could understand Charlie better. Really understand him. Sometimes, he just confuses me."

Jennifer set the elephant aside and went to bed.

Fred had had fun, for the most part, but she was feeling a little down as she walked home. She hadn’t planned on someone walking home with her, so the walking home alone part really wasn’t all that surprising or unexpected. Yet, there were times she missed being in a group, waking up and walking down the stairs to find people who cared about her. They might not have “loved” her, but they certainly cared. Okay, so some might have loved her.

If asked, she’d say she was happy for Dinah and Harry; they were champions, and champions were meant to be together. But, that didn’t mean she didn’t feel a small twinge inside. When she got back to the office, she sat down on the couch, rather than going down to her/Angel’s basement apartment and stared at the box. The night had been fun, sort of. Being able to time travel had been fun, even if a little frustrating because she couldn’t quite figure it out, and she knew that if she wasn’t careful she could upset the space-time continuum which could be an issue even in the City where space and time weren’t normal. Seeing Lorne had certainly lifted her spirits a little, but it wasn’t the same.

She continued to stare at the box then blinked as it decided to come open. “Oh.” ( Her brows furrowed as she pulled out a small piece of origami paper and some instructions. )

River eyed the piece of paper cautiously.

The instructions were too complex, she thought. This would be an easy thing to do.

Eyebrow arched, standing in the women's lounge outside the bathroom, bent over a counter, River made the last fold. The thing was complete.

It was an origami version of Serenity. River smiled at it.

The instructions urged her to think of what she truly wanted. Looking at the ship, thinking of how things had been with her brother, River wished.

Silently, in Mandarin.

She smiled.

_______________

Later that day, April Fool's Day, River went to the hospital, hoping to grab Hannibal for lunch. She was cheerful, and she couldn't really explain why. She just felt... better. She grinned as she opened the doorway to the hallway that held Hannibal's office, hitting it with both arms out so it swung.

Takes place after all the threads on this post


Dean was definitely smirking when she asked 'what?'. She'd just proven his point. The next thing she said proved his point even more, even he'd prefer she hadn't.

The hunter moved quickly around the table, the pizza and beer forgotten. She wasn't lying about bleeding on his floor, not that he was all that worried about the floor. He stepped away from the slumped over Dinah long enough to grab up a clean towel. More than one thought went through his mind, but they all focused on making sure Dinah didn't die. She was too hot to die.

"Okay, Dinah? Dinah, you need to keep talking to me." He pressed the towel to her side. "You need to stay with me." Dean hated how much that sounded like some bullshit he'd see on tv, but it actually were the words he'd said a few times now. "Just talk to me, okay, Dinah?"

Dean didn't call her "baby," "sweetheart," not even "Legs." He also didn't stay by her. He stepped away long enough to grab up his belt, boots, and jacket (along with his Colt). The boots were yanked on without the socks; he'd pay for it later probably. The jacket waited until he used the belt to hold the towel in place over the wound.

"Dinah?"

( Slowly, all other versions of Dinah stopped being in the other places. )

Logan stared in surprise as his box suddenly fell open at midnight on April 1st. He reached inside, hands shaking, and retrieved a small sheet of paper with attached instructions.

“Fold me four times and speak your heart’s desire.”

Logan rolled his eyes, but decided to play along anyway. He folded the sheet four times and was a little startled when suddenly it formed into the shape of a heart.

“What the hell? Origami is weird,” he muttered.

The heart was still emblazoned with the instructions “Speak your heart’s desire.”

Logan rolled his eyes and tossed the paper heart back in its box.

“Well, I’d just love to understand women better, paper heart. Thanks for asking.”

Logan thought of Veronica and the mystery that almost always surrounded her motivations when he tried to figure out what she might do next and what she was thinking. Then he passed over the box and went to bed, the wish already forgotten.

----

I think I woke up in the wrong bed. His roommate’s way cuter.

Logan woke up to a strange woman’s voice. He opened his eyes and looked around for the source of the voice. A redhead was just straightening her t-shirt, as though she’d just finished getting dressed. She was staring at him, but when she realized he was awake and looking back, she winked and then turned away.

“Um,” Logan said. He sat up and tried to think of a reply to that, or if he was even supposed to reply.

Cute, but obviously not very bright. Nice vacant stare, buddy, the redhead’s voice filled his ears again, and yet her lips didn’t move, save for the ghost of a smile.

“Excuse me?” Logan exclaimed. He looked toward the top bunk and realized his roommate was already missing.

Classy guy, that roommate from hell.

The girl looked at him in surprise, and shook her head.

“I was just leaving. Sorry if I woke you. Any idea where Dylan went?”

Logan shrugged. “No idea.”

Of course not. That would require you to have an actual brain in your head.

“Okay, you really need to get out. Now.” Logan glared.

The girl rolled her eyes and finished gathering up her stuff.

Asshole.

Once again, Logan didn’t see her lips move. What the hell was she-some sort of ventriloquist? It didn’t matter though, since she slammed the door behind her a second later.

----

A few hours into his day and Logan was really starting to wonder about things. For some reason, everywhere he went, he heard women’s voices saying things that… well, he just didn’t think anyone should be saying out loud. And whenever he looked to see who was speaking, no one’s lips were moving.

It was more than a little off-putting, so he was relieved when he found a mostly deserted coffee shop and grabbed a table in the outdoor pavilion, which was currently empty of other customers. Logan sipped at the coffee, wondering if maybe he should have found a bar and ordered something stronger, given just how weird of a day it had been so far.


OOC/Explanation: So, Logan can only read thoughts that are fresh on any woman's mind. So basically, if you want him to be able to read a thought, it would have to be something your character is currently thinking about. Open to anyone who wants in on the weirdness :)

Harry woke up to a crash. "Mouse?" he called, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. It was still dark, so he lit the candles in his room with his usual spell. Beside the bed was the small origami crane he'd folded the night before, but it was the only familiar thing in the room. Harry stared in surprise at the large queen-sized bed he was laying in before shifting his gaze to the wardrobe in the corner. Almost everything he could see was dark-colored, and well made. The staff leaning against the wall wasn't from the gnarled lightning-struck oak of Ebenezer's farm. This one was made of a darker wood - possibly ebony - and it was straight, with an intricate weave of runes carved into the sides.

"...the hell?"

"Harry!"

( The shout had him jumping out of bed )

Dinah looked at the instructions that came with the mysterious parting gift from the masquerade. She was just about finished folding the intricate paper flower and exhaustion was setting in when her phone beeped. She glanced at the text alert from the Clock tower computers and sighed. She looked at her bed longingly and then changed into her suit.

Before leaving, she picked up the origami once more and turned it over in her hand. Gold lettering that she could have sworn wasn’t there while she was folding the paper caught her eye.

Make a wish

“A wish, huh?” she muttered skeptically. “Well, it sure would be nice to have the ability to be everywhere that I’m needed at the same time.”

Lately she’d been feeling pulled in all directions more than ever, and she was definitely losing the battle. It seemed like she was never where she should be, never able to do enough

She rolled her eyes and tossed it aside. Wishes. That was about the same thing as fortunes in fortune cookies and supposed happy endings. A fairytale.

Even as the origami left her hand, something strange happened. Suddenly, Dinah’s feet touched the ground in front of a man who was running away from something, a large sack in his hands. Behind him, alarms blared and Dinah noticed a jewelry shop with a window that had been shattered.

Before the man ran straight into her, she moved quickly and caught him, using his forward momentum to knock him to the ground.

Across town, Dinah looked out from a rooftop over the warehouse that housed the City’s most notorious drug trade. She blinked in surprise, trying to understand how she was somehow in two places at once.

Even as Dinah tried to process that, she was suddenly in an alley way, face to face with a mugging in progress.

It continued on throughout the night. She was suddenly able to be everywhere at once. Able to help so many. She didn’t have to think about her destination, didn’t have to focus on someone in need. When she was needed, she just… appeared. It was hard to get used to paying attention to so many situations at once, but her mind kept up with the multi-tasking well, save for the few lulls of confusion where one thing or another commanded her full attention.

Dinah grinned as she sat on a rooftop and watched the sun’s first pinkish rays appeared over the city’s skyline, even as she ended up in the kitchen with plenty of time to make Jake a big breakfast and get things ready to drive him to school, and as she ended up at the Sherwood Florist well before opening with enough time, for once, to give the store the reorganization it badly needed. Somehow, she had gotten her wish.


OOC/explanation: Dinah's about to get way more than she bargained for and end up anywhere someone needs something that she could help with. This could be anything from needing a rescue, a friendly word of advice, or needing help getting your kitten out of the tree. There's lots of room for brief drive-by posts if you just want to put your character in for a short scene, or for a longer scene. And this thread does not have to be linear in comments. Each interaction may end up taking place simultaneously.