The Universe's Mixer

There were a few things that Jeannie took a great deal of pride in. At the top of her list was that when she had a master that treated her well, she returned the favor a thousand fold. She did her very best to make their lives comfortable, fulfilling, and most importantly, fun. But each master had their own idea of what that meant, and she needed to mold them slowly until they had a good time ( in spite of themselves. )

The day was crystal clear. Warm, even, considering what time of year it was. Kids were happily running around the park wearing their shorts and maybe a light sweater. Flowers had bloomed unseasonably. Bees and butterflies busied themselves while birds sang.

To top it all off, in a nice grassy area some picnic tables popped up. They were all covered in food and drink. A big banner unfurled across a nice space that could be seen from the road. It touted "Annual City Picnic" in bold black lettering.

With the absence of the Rift, and all the backwash and problems that accompanied it, Ianto had more time to spare. Although, ironically, there had turned out to be almost as much of the weird and wonderful mysteries here as back home, especially now there was no longer UNIT to rely on 'just in case'.

Tonight, he headed into the city by foot; he was in the mood for walking, so he did. Quickly, mind you. Spend enough time chasing after creatures in the wider world which scratched and fought and pushed for their moment to spring out under the cover of darkness, then no. Spending too much time outside at night was something to avoid, up there with small enclosed spaces and solitary Weevil hunts.

In one of the less busy streets, the sign of a bar called to him. Opening the doors, the soothing, crooning notes of Sinatra drifted through the dimly-lit room, and he permitted himself a private smile at that. He turned his eyes to the main bar, where rows of bottles were eagerly anticipating someone with a spare minute to indulge in them.

"No. No. No." Jack said, flipping through a line of shirts on a rack. Jack McFarland was shopping. A hobby he enjoyed, but didn't indulge in with the frequency any more that he'd have liked. He was looking with disgust at each shirt on the rack before giving up with a loud sigh and moving on to another rack.

"No.. No.. Absolutely not..."

There was nothing thus far meeting his high standards of what would be allowed to grace his wardrobe, or even moreso, his person. Always perfectly coiffed, always perfectly dressed, Jack was always sure he looked his best. And he wasn't going to be able to look his best with the tripe this store was trying to pass off as fashionable.

"Dear Cher, what is that?" He said to a particularly putrid shirt that was full of purples and pinks and swirls of green. It was right awful.

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!"

Zoe had the map, and what with the weather letting up, she might actually have a decent chance in finding someone, anyone. The map though wasn't always the biggest help; it made her sick sometimes to look at it. Streets and dots moving this way and that. But, she wasn't going to let that stop her, not this time, not when she could find what she was looking for...finally.

So, with a new set of clothes, that were definitely lighter than the fare she'd been sporting, what with the snow and all, she headed out. The dot she'd marked as Wash, hoped was Wash, seemed to have settled for the day. Well, it hadn't moved, and she had to hope that that didn't mean he was dead. She actually had to stop as that thought came to mind; if he was dead again, she was going to kill him.

Grabbing a real cup of coffee, she might have become addicted, she made her way to where she thought the dot was. She didn't look like some tourist with the map open in front of her: one, she didn't want to look like an easy mark, and two, looking at the damn thing for long sent her into a tail spin. She wasn't going down that easily.

The Amazon wasn't all that surprised when she found herself at the docks; though, she did find the ship's new placement a little odd. How had they gotten it out of the warehouse? She didn't care; it just better be her ship with her crew, mainly with her husband.

She walked up to the cargo bay and entered the code to get in.

[Open to whoever might find themselves at the City hospital in the snow]

Rincewind had happily put on his new uniform while humming to himself in his bunk on Serenity. He had heard from overhearing that this had belonged to the ship's doctor before, who now worked at the hospital.

"It would be great to meet him at the hospital!" Rincewind thought to himself. "Maybe Dr. Cameron knows him. She's so pretty and smart. I hope I don't knock her over again. Or anyone else. Maybe I should take the staff along just in case. No, I don't need magic here, especially not at the hospital. I have to get the hang of how everything operates here. I mean, without imps or anything! I was right all along, there is a better way to do things than magic. Most of the time."

He smiled broadly and pushed the button to walk out the cargo doors.

And stopped short. His uniform did not come with winter boots, and the snow was definitely falling.

"Crud. Bulls bollocks. Luggage!"

The Luggage reluctantly creaked over from the engine room, where it had been trying unsuccessfully to romance the machinery. In short order, Rincewind had a fur coat, fur-lined waterproof boots and a fuzzy hat. What winter outfit would be complete without a fuzzy hat? He bet even the vampires in Uberwald wore fuzzy hats in the winter.

The wind was powerful but Rincewind was determined not to be late (well, too late) for his first real day of work in this City world place. He was ok not doing much of anything at the Unseen University, because let's face it, the UU owed him. He did all the dirty work, taking tourists to the end of the Disc (literally) and keeping interesting times from turning into dead times.

But this hospital, this seemed like meaningful work! He hoped he didn't screw up and get kicked out really soon. He didn't have high hopes he would manage never to get kicked out, but he hoped it would at least take a while. Hey, maybe he'd actually prove to be good at this technology and saving people's lives thing!

He pushed his way through the snowy parking lot and coughed as the sliding doors slowly slid open. He had made it. Rincewind hoped the heat was working. He quickly presented himself at the front desk and was assigned to helping whoever was on clinic duty.

Ok, he could do that. Breathe, Rincewind, breathe.

Being a cat had to be an all-time low for Dick. (Alright, that wasn't true, there was the time when he was lying in a largish pool of his own blood and everybody thought he would be dead in minutes.) Being a cat that changed back to a man on the hour had to be even worse. For one thing, he couldn't go outside for very long. The snow was coming down in waves, and being a rather small, warm fuzzy animal one minute and then a rather large naked man the next meant snow was not the ideal environment for Dick.

Then there was the overwhelming urge to claw things. Literally, almost anything. Buffy walked across the room once and suddenly her ankles just had this... incredible appeal. He had to get them. So he sprang, sank his claws in... and she was rather upset with him for a while afterward. It was all very embarrassing.

Most of their research on the topic went nowhere. The watch couldn't have been older than a couple hundred years (considering when pocket watches were in vogue, likely later), but other than that, they had nothing. No idea where it was made, or why, or whether the spell on it had anything to do with the watch at all. Maybe some nut just picked it up and decided to practice making the owner a cat. Thought it was funny, or something.

Dick wished he could throw things. He put it on his list of things to do when he changed. He had a whole minute as a human, and he made a list of things to do once he got there. Throw something. Scratch the exact top of his head. Eat a piece of fruit.

One night, when Dick was at the point of suggesting they just smash the damn watch, the City must have decided this whole thing had run its course. The doorbell started ringing, and the City started dumping the magically inclined at Buffy's doorstep--probably so it wouldn't have to deal with Dick the Cat's irritated yowling.

With so much snow laying on the ground, it didn't take much for the kids of the City to start playing with it. At first they hadn't known what to do, but instinct took over in no time. They were soon building things with it, making snow angels... and snow demons.... and then one kid had the brilliant idea to pick up some of it, turn it into a ball-ish shape, and hurl it at one of his friends.

It started a small war.

Soon enough, random passers by were caught up in it, forgoing everything else they had been on their way to do, and joined in.

About an hour later, everything in the City was closed so that anybody who wanted to could join the big snowball battle.

Errant snowballs flew, giving no regard to who they hit or how hard.

There were a great deal of things wrong with the City, even Kaylee knew that, but it did provide when she really needed something. She was starving hours ago and when she rolled out from under the engine she found a sandwich waiting for her. Whenever she got thirsty there was always strawberry lemonade waiting for her to drink in her glass, even if she emptied it the last time she drank from it. She liked having everything provided for her. But at the same time, as much as she hoped for Serenity to spring to life it wasn't happening. Her mechanical know how was pretty useless when the city was living in the dark ages as far as she was concerned. Mal had his guns, Wash was alive, Simon had the hospital, and Kaylee had a dead engine and more repairs to do to Serenity than she'd ever done before. It was like her baby went through hell and back to get here.

( It was enough to make anyone frustrated. )

All verbal communication has to be in the form of questions. If a statement or exclamation is made, everybody in the room forgets everything after the point they were placed in the room. There is a sign in the room that says "Do you know the question?" and the door will open if the right question is asked.

Rincewind shook his head and spit out a rather large clump of grass. Then he groaned.

“Where am I this time? Damn it all, doesn’t it ever end? All I wanted was to get a book out of my closet!”

( He looked around cautiously )