jimmywoo_hoo (jimmywoo_hoo) wrote in noexits, @ 2021-05-02 20:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | !delivery post, !log/thread/narrative, ₴ inactive: darcy lewis, ₴ inactive: jimmy woo, → week 012 (planet vegas) |
Who: Jimmy and Darcy
What: Jimmy has arrived and left his assigned room
Where: the campus heading for coffee
When: Sat. morning
Warnings: low
When Jimmy woke up, he was not in his bed, but some sort of dorm space. This? Well, where the heck was he? He stayed up a little late to catch the Yankees’ game, but he only had two beers and some nachos. Nothing to explain waking up in an unusual place.
He had a voicemail and felt more confused. Obviously, his best plan was to go for a walk and maybe find some breakfast.
A few minutes later he saw a familiar person.
“Darcy?”
***
Darcy had been on campus long enough that she wasn’t really phased by much of what happened. Some of it was even kind of fun, like the random musical numbers. She’d prefer not to have to worry about getting eaten by evil space bears again though. It was early, so she was headed to the dining hall for coffee when she heard someone call her name and turned around to see who it was.
“Jimmy?” she said, surprised by his presence. “Holy shit. You must have just gotten here. It is so good to see you.” There were a lot of people from home around, but none of them really knew her so it was nice to see a friend, even if she only knew him from her memories.
***
“I definitely just got here. Wherever here is. Is there somewhere to get coffee and maybe some OJ?” His stomach grumbled. He wondered if people gave Darcy coffee here, because they hadn’t when they last worked together.
“How are you?” He knew her because he’d only gotten home from the Westview, NJ situation with Wanda a week ago.
“Do you know what’s happening?”
***
“In order, yes, I was on my way to get coffee, so you can come with me, I’m fine, though I’ll be better after caffeine, and sort of, but not exactly,” Darcy said, ticking off the answers to his questions.
She gestured for him to follow and headed out of the dorm so they could cross the green and go to the dining hall. “This is a university called Derleth,” she explained. “It’s… kind of like Wanda’s hex, but not exactly. And definitely not Wanda’s fault.” That felt important to clarify up front.
“Basically, the campus moves once a week. To all kinds of different places. This week, we’re on a planet that seems to be very similar to Vegas. Before that, we were on some planet with evil space bears that tried to eat me,” Darcy said. “Every other week, we’re in this weird void thing and sometimes weird things happen, but sometimes we get a break.”
***
“I’m sorry. Evil space bears? Those are a thing?” And he thought the whole Wanda television show was weird.
“I wasn’t about to blame Wanda. Is Wanda here?” Jimmy tended to talk, a lot, when he felt nervous. Not that Darcy made him nervous, but the entire situation and unknown? They rarely meant good things for him.
“As long as food and caffeine exists here, that works. But the whole situation sounds...hinky to me. Although, less than Westview.”
***
The nervous rambling was kind of adorable and Darcy reached over to pat his hand. “Breathe, Jimmy,” she said. “Yes, Wanda is here. So are a bunch of the Avengers. However, some of them are from different points in time, because time travel is a thing here.” As if things weren’t complicated enough.
“Wanda is from after the Hex thing,” she said. “Carol Danvers is here and post blip. Tony Stark is here and from before the Avengers were a thing. It’s all… kind of a mess.”
***
“Oh good. So, not only do I get to feel intimidated, I get to feel intimidated by people from time periods where they might not be intimidating?” He appreciated the hand pat, but that wasn’t helping with his nerves.
But at the mention of ‘breathe’ he did. He took a deep breath and asked, “You must be post-Hex if you know who I am.”
***
Darcy shrugged. “Technically? When I first got here it was from while I was waiting for the shuttle to pick me up and bring me to Westview, but I recently got, like… a bunch of new memories downloaded, which included you and Monica and the hex, so yeah, I know you.” And she was glad that someone was here who knew her. Well, more than Wanda did.
“So, there are people here with magic powers and from the past and the future,” she added. “It’s basically all kind of insane. Like being trapped in some Stephen King novel.”
***
Jimmy knew coffee would help. “I’m glad that you’re here. This could be so much worse.” He looked at Darcy. “I hope with less horror than usually found in Stephen King’s novels?”
Horror was not Jimmy’s favourite thing. At all. Ever. Give him a romantic comedy or a sports film. Not that he’d admit to the romantic comedy obviously.
***
“Eh, it depends,” Darcy said. “Some of the things I’ve seen have been worse than others. Like, right after I got here, some chick basically blew up the entire campus. Weird thing is that the campus basically resets every week. Except that week, one of the dorms stayed destroyed.” None of it made any sort of sense from a scientific standpoint though Darcy was well aware that there was more in the universe.
If there was a steady supply of booze that wasn’t from Eliot, it would be a lot easier to tolerate.
***
“I should be more concerned that a dorm stayed destroyed, but after everything back home, I’m more surprised it was only a dorm. I’m guessing you’ve been studying these things. What’s that like?”
Jimmy might not be a science guy, but he was interested. And if Darcy was interested then he really was. Darcy’s brilliance made him want to learn more; like her questions were contagious or something. Plus, she was funny so that helped.
***
As they headed out of the dorm and across the green towards the dining hall, Darcy said, “Well, I’m doing the best I can with the equipment I have, which isn’t great or anything. But I’m trying. And I’ll keep trying.” She was planning on going out and exploring this planet thoroughly in the hopes of finding some good high tech bits.
“And here I thought you’d have been more concerned about the girl exploding,” she teased. “But I guess after everything you’ve seen, that’s not much of a surprise, huh?”
***
“Yeah, I suppose it’s not like the equipment available back home. Which is unfair, because you deserve the best equipment.” Jimmy thought the best minds really did, and Darcy was up there for ‘best mind’.
“Where else have you visited, besides a random world with space bears?” Although, Jimmy would not have been upset meeting space bears.
“Well, I should have been more concerned, but it sounded more like she wasn’t hurt, so much as the campus. At this point, though, after everything back home, not a lot surprises me.”
***
“We spent one week on a different version of the campus,” Darcy said. “Like, we belonged there and had different lives. It was weird. I had gone through school and was a first year teacher.” With terrible ethics, but that was a whole different issue and not one she was going to bring up at the moment. “Before I got here, they went a few places too, but I don’t really know about those.”
She was looking forward to getting out and seeing what this place had to offer. Especially if there was shopping so she could get some new clothes.
***
Jimmy raised his eyebrow at his hearing that Darcy was a first year teacher. Not that he didn’t think she could be a teacher, but that didn’t seem like her kind of thing. “I bet your students enjoyed you being a teacher?” She might not have the patience, but she was hilarious.
New clothes made sense. Currently Jimmy wore a Yankees hoodie, sweats, and a basic white tee. He might want some new clothes too.
***
“Some of them more than others,” Darcy said with a shrug. “Okay, this is the dining hall. We have to cook for ourselves, but it’s usually well stocked. And after food, we’ll go find a shop. There should have been some poker chips in your room. We can find somewhere to trade them for cash.”
She supposed they could also gamble, but that didn’t seem like the best idea when they actually needed things.
***
“At least I kind of know how to cook?” Jimmy looked around. “Shopping sounds good. I could use...more clothes and things.”
{{wrap}}