Who: Ace and Nancy D What: Talking and eating. When: First day of the portal [Backdated!] Where: Mall of America Portal Rating: low
Ace had never been to the Mall of America and he knew that Nancy would have wanted to go to the portal so he had decided to ask her to go with him. He also decided to see what the portal's internet had to say about the info which Nancy had tasked him to look up. This was what he was currently doing as he had his laptop open in the food court with a soda and half a Subway beside him. Nancy had gone off to get her own lunch and while he waited he was researching because he could multitask like that.
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Nancy had wanted to go for two different reasons. One being that she wanted to investigate this whole portal ordeal and see what the deal was, but also because of what was on the other side, knowing it was a place she wanted to see first hand. When Ace had asked her, she thought about saying no, but she’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t excited about him asking her. This was the closest thing she could get right now since she was unable to act on any of her feelings towards him, knowing this was better than avoiding him like she had been doing.
Walking along the food court to see her options, she ignored the brief come-on from some guy who looked like he hadn’t even finished high school, walking around him as she decided on A&W for some food. She pulled up information on the mall to see what else was around here as she placed her order. Once her food was obtained, she went back to where she had left Ace, smiling at the sight of him. "With or without you, I’m hitting up this one place I found located in this mall where I might end up going into a diabetic coma, but the risk is worth it," she told him, setting her food down before sliding into the seat across from him. Nancy was hoping he would go with her, though. "How’s it going?" She nodded at his laptop. –
Ace was trying not to think of this like a date as much as he’d like it to be only because he didn’t want to assume anything and he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He had put his cards on the table with Nancy and it was up to her now with what she wanted to do with that. If she didn’t want to do anything other than stay friends? Well, at least she didn’t want him to disappear entirely.
“Where do you have in mind?” Ace had sort of skimmed what the place had to offer, but he had yet to really delve into all its offerings. It was starting to sound like maybe that was a mistake.
The question refocused him and he sat up a little. “Well, I have an answer, but it kind of brings up a bunch more questions you’re going to need to figure out. And it sort of brings up a bunch of existential crisis issues too.” This was Ace asking if Nancy wanted him to tell her or end it there.
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Even though this was Nancy’s idea of a perfect date, the whole trying to solve something because she wasn’t a normal date type of girl. Until she discovered a way to break the hex, which she hoped with a town full of magical people, someone could fix it or have an idea on how to do.For now, Nancy had to push all thoughts of Ace out of her head. It was not all that easy when she knew where he came from and had to leave him wondering about where she stood. Every time she thought of saying to give her time, she saw the final results of the hex, forcing her to keep her mouth shut since she couldn’t risk setting the hex in motion. The best way to ignore those thoughts or silence them for the time being was to focus on something else, like the issue with Ned and his memories of his best friend.
"It’s called the Sugar Factory, and some of the menu is straight out of a kid's dream. I’d say I earned myself a quick death from a whole lot of sugar that will probably have me paying for my choices later," she added, pulling her phone out and setting it on the table so he could look at the menu whenever he felt like it.
Even with her interest in that place, her focus shifted rather quickly right back to the situation that she had asked Ace to look into. She picked up a fry, debating for a moment before nodding. She'd told MJ that she’d help, and Nancy could never walk away from knowing something no matter how bad it got. "We've already started down this path; we might as well finish it," she said, encouraging him to keep going with what he discovered before eating the fry that was in her hand.
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“Something called the Sugar Factory sounds like a place that we need to experience.” Ace liked his sugar and if he were going to be honest, he’d do just about anything that Nancy asked. He was sure she knew that too even if neither of them would say anything about it. He also knew Nancy wouldn’t really ask him to do something outrageous without reason.
He looked at Nancy and nodded before closing his laptop. “Well… okay, so we already know Ned is friends with Spider-Man, right? So that means he’s from a world where he’s fictional… and it looks like in his story, from what I can tell from this portal, that Ned loses his memories because of a spell which is kind of Peter’s doing. Technically MJ loses her memory of him too, but she must be from a different point of time.”
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A smile showed up on her face when Ace pretty much agreed to go with her to check out this place. "Sounds like a plan then on us checking it out," she wanted to say date, but she caught herself before reaching that part of her statement. If she hadn’t, then she may have let a word slip that she couldn't and shouldn't have said.
Nancy ate a few more fries, listening to what Ace was saying as she mulled it over in her head, nodding her head at his question about Ned being friends with Spider-Man. "Yeah, the spell was cast because Peter wanted people to forget they knew Spider-Man's identity," she thought as she bit her bottom lip, letting it play over in her head as she zoned out. Snapping back to reality, she straightened in her chair and rested her arms on the table. "From what MJ told me, the spell didn’t work at first. So that could mean something triggered the spell to take a toll on the memories. Something like Temperance did with the kids in Nick’s care," she had lost herself in her train of thought that she hadn’t caught herself, forgetting Ace hadn’t gone through that. "Story for another time." She'd explain later, when they weren’t focused on this more pressing issue. "Or the spell didn’t work for whatever reason, but the portal brought upon the loss of memory of his identity, which is probably more likely." Nancy hoped because she couldn’t take more people like Temperance in the world, setting triggers to spells like it was a twisted game.
"That also brings about the question of MJ. Will her being from a different point in time keep her memory intact, or will it be a concern that could come later on? Maybe whatever caused the memory loss to come into play hadn’t happened for MJ," she said with a small sigh, wrinkling her nose. "Is there more?" Nancy was a bit afraid to ask, but it was the only way they could work out a possible way to help MJ and her friends.
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Ace leaned on the table as Nancy mused out loud and listened, mulling her ideas out loud. He filed away the thing about Temperance for later. “If MJ goes home and lives out more of her timeline, she’ll come back with her memory loss, yeah. At least that’s how it seems from talking to other people from Madison who have been here longer.” It was weird to think about, but it made sense and he had to wonder what it was like to come back after experiencing new things.
“As weird as it is, we could always watch the movie and see what’s going on, if you want. From the synopsis I found on Reddit, the movie ends with both of them forgetting Peter, so I don’t think it was the Dome who did it at all… and it begs the question if the answer if we need magic or that world’s magic or.. I don’t know. But the fact he remembers people in Madison means it’s only whatever happens back home.”
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Nancy thought about what he said for a moment, about how it seemed to be from talking to other people. "Would that depend? Or does Madison make it so that everything freezes in a sense no matter what it is you do?" It was partly a question she kept asking herself the more she learned about this town. Then again, even if someone said differently, Nancy would be too afraid to test it out without knowing for sure. "If the wheels were set in motion back home for the memory loss, does it freeze and let her keep the memories while she’s here?" She raised the question, knowing she had done a lot of reading up on this place, but even with the research, it seemed more questions popped up than ones that were answered. "On the other hand, if Madison hadn’t hit the stop button on the issue, even when things were set into motion, it could have a huge impact, especially if the person ended up returning to the moment they were grabbed."
It was a weird suggestion, but also probably the best way to get a clearer picture, and it wouldn’t involve magic. "I know it wasn’t the dome that caused it. The question we need answered is whether it was the first spell that got cast or did something else happen that caused the memory loss? By knowing that, it leaves us with less information to sort through to find an answer. The only other way to maybe learn what he knows is with magic, and I’d rather not have that on the table unless we’re left with no other options, especially when that most likely is the reason for this mess." Even though Nancy had a sinking feeling, magic was going to be the only way to fix this problem. –
He rubbed his chin. “I think she’s okay as long as she’s here… probably. There’s probably a lot of buts and loopholes and stuff with this place which makes rules and predictions kind of hard.” Ace had a feeling it was the sort of place that liked it when people got some sort of handle on it and then it switched up the rules… of course then Ace realized he was basically thinking of the Dome like a sentient being and that was pretty unsettling. He pulled his mind away from that and onto something less terrifying.
“What would have caused it if it wasn’t what happened in the movie?” It was such a weird thing to say out loud and so completely serious. “According to the plot the Dr. Strange guy casts a spell that makes everyone forget who Peter Parker is. Stands to reason that’s why Ned can’t remember his friend.”
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"Hopefully," Nancy was hoping her new friend was safe from having to worry about any memory issues around people in her life. She couldn’t even imagine forgetting people in her life, especially ones close to her. "No, that’s the problem with this place. There are so many what ifs and things unknown that it’s almost impossible to get a clear picture. It makes it close to impossible to know what someone should worry about or not worry about from their own world." Nancy knew it could sound like she was talking about MJ and the ones with the memory loss, but she was thinking about herself as well. She had no idea of the limits of the hex while they were here or with them being from different points in time. Looking at him, she did want to tell him to give her time to address how he felt or something along those lines, hating how he had to be left hanging. But she kept her mouth shut, unable to take a chance when the gamble was on his life.
Picking up her drink, she took a sip, listening to him. Nancy spoke as she set her drink back down. "I’m figuring it has to be in the movie, but as you just said, the plot says a spell was cast. MJ told me a spell was cast, but it didn't work. So, depending on how magic works in their world, there are three options," she was learning from the books she had been reading and from people that magic worked differently in other worlds. What Nancy knew from her world may not have worked in some of the other worlds. "First being, the spell took time for it to come into play, and for MJ it hadn’t yet, but for Ned it did," she held up one finger, "Two, something had to happen for the spell to take effect, like a word, action, etc," she held up a second finger, "Or lastly, Dr. Strange had to cast another one, and this time it worked." Instead of raising a third, she dropped her hand back down on the table. "The only way we will find out the actual answer is with the movie. So if you’re down for it, we can watch it at one of our places?" Nancy felt weird about watching the movie, but it was the only way they could get answers when too many pieces were missing and people didn’t have an answer to help fill them in. If they wanted to help, she knew the two needed all the pieces of the puzzle.
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Ace thought he was prepared for all the weird conversations and ideas that would come up thanks to Horseshoe Bay, but it seems like Madison, Indiana had the ability to bring the crazy factor up to an eleven. It was surreal, really.
"I think that's the best idea. Then the question becomes how to do you tell her what you've found out? I don't think telling her she's from a movie would go over pretty well, even if she understands the idea of multiple universes and realities."
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Nancy already knew this place was going to push her to the limit on keeping an open mind to what goes on around her. If it weren’t for all the weirdness back in Horseshoe Bay, and how she had accepted it, Nancy didn’t want to think about how she’d be handling this place. It had taken a bit for her to accept and deal with it back home, making her glad she didn’t need to deal with it for the first time around here. But this place was definitely going to push her to her limits, making her glad to have someone from home with her along for the ride.
"Really?" She asked, faking a frown. "I figured coming right out and telling her how I saw everything about her from a movie and now I have the answer would be the best bet. You don’t think so?" She pretended like she was thinking it over, as if Ace really did crush the plan she had before giving up the act. "You wouldn’t want to know that your whole life came from a movie or anything? Seriously, though, I wouldn’t do that because I wouldn’t want someone doing that to me. I don’t like it when people pretend like they know things about me. I don’t want people who I don’t know to actually know personal details about me or at least not voice that they know it," she admitted, feeling that would be too weird. Nancy was aware that people knew about her, but knowing what she did and her skill level was not the same as knowing personal information about her. "I figured I’d explain or go over what I learned without digging too much into how I came to my answers," Nancy had that as her plan for now, but she also knew it could change when she actually told MJ what she learned. "When are you free for us to do movie night?" It was his idea, so there was no way she was watching the movie without him.
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Ace would not like that at all, but it probably wouldn’t bother him as much as it would Nancy or George - he could see George really hating the idea of ‘being from’ a movie. Ace at least understood the idea of realities enough to understood fiction somewhere didn’t mean it wasn’t non-fiction elsewhere.
“I don’t exactly have a lot going on.” He only worked at the Art Store. Maybe he should be trying to do something more ambitious. That’s what he’d been trying to do in Horseshe Bay, after all. Maybe Nancy needed to see that initiative… he’d have to think it over. “How about this Sunday?”
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Nancy didn’t like the idea of anyone acting like they knew her life better than she did. While she had no problem with people knowing her and wanting her to help with a case. It was a different matter when someone acted like they knew secrets or personal details about her. She had seen the books about her around here, but Nancy was fighting the urge to look, which was hard with her curiosity.
"You have a job, which is more than I have right now. Speaking of that, I probably should get on that or look at the colleges here," she replied more to herself as a mental note than to him, but she knew it was something she’d need to look at. Nancy was still a bit upset about the fact that she had her first job since opening up her new business, and she was here, but she’d move past that to find herself doing something that fit her personality. Which means if I go the college route, I’m still holding you to proofreading anything I have before I send it in," she added with a small smile. Ace was the only person around here who she’d trust with her life and to read something she'd written, even if it was only for college. "Sunday works for me. But for now, how about we finish eating so we can see what else the mall has around here." Nancy wasn’t interested in buying anything, but it never hurt to look.