Waking up hadn't been a nice experience of late; then again neither had sleeping been. Today however Clarice woke up with a start, swallowing a gulp of air that she didn't really need and almost made her cough. Immediately her surroundings startled her further; the shadows weren't in the right place, the smells weren't right, none of it felt like where she usually went to sleep. Then, she remembered. The headquarters had been collapsed beyond repair, of course this didn't feel familiar - it wasn't. But, upon a couple more yawns, this wasn't the not-familiar-familiar either. She was on a comfortable bed, for one; the sheets and the air both smelled clean and fresh.
Clarice almost let go of the idea that something wasn't adding up in order to sprawl out lazily, enjoy the feeling of a nice proper bed. But then she looked to the side, seeing another bed, and on the opposite side to that something started shouting at her. Well, talking at her, but it startled her (again) as if it was shouting. She jumped so hard she fumbled the covers into a ball underneath her. And the message made no goddamn sense. She had already been fighting a war, and for something much more important than creativity - freedom. Survival. Without people or freedom there was no creativity so it was easy to figure out which came first to her.
It only dawned on her that the hologram had claimed she was in Atlantis afterwards, which made her miss a bit of the end of the message. What she hadn't missed was that a lot of things had been chosen for her... that never sounded right. Clarice sat up on the bed, checking her arms and neck for handcuffs or collars, finding nothing of the sort. There was still so much to process that she didn't even bother asking questions for now.
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait. No. Wait." She looked from side to side, brow furrowed in thought as she attempted to piece together memories that didn't seem to be there. She had picked up a weird coin and then... this? "What? No. What the hell?!"
But one thing she never said no to was a shower. Precious few of the good ones these days, a girl had to take them where she got 'em. After a moment's contemplation Clarice got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom, suspicious as always. The entire shower was spent marveling at the luxury of this bathroom, the warmth and pressure of the water and the scents of the products, and wondering what the hell was going on. It was a jarring contrast.
In no time, Clarice was dressed and standing by the door, hair still mostly dripping wet as she squeezed the tips with a towel, making little progress. There was no time to wait for it to dry, and the tablet remained forgotten on the bedside table. She had to find out what the hell was going on. Clarice exited her room, and then her suite, wondering if this was going to be the college experience she’d never had nor wanted.
-- It almost felt like winning the lottery or something. Sure Lauren would prefer if one of her parents showed up, but Clarice was someone she really liked and knew she’d be a really good addition to Atlantis.
It didn't take her too long to figure out where Clarice was and when she saw her she practically tackled her with a tight hug.
"You have no idea how good it is to see you!" Lauren said as she pulled back. "Are you okay? Did you get enough information about this place? I can try and answer any of your questions." She offered quickly. "Sorry, I know, I'm a little excited, it's just you're here, John's here, and it's good to see people from home." She didn't mention Lorna.
-- It was disconcerting yet a huge relief to see a familiar face right now. Clarice had no idea what to do when she saw Lauren coming her way, but even less so when the teen pulled her into a tight hug. After a few seconds, however, Clarice had the good sense to not just stand there with her arms down, and wrapped one around Lauren’s middle, closing her eyes. It felt good to be hugged; it always did, especially when things seemed too ‘out there’ to bear.
“I-it’s good to see you too.” She replied, letting out the breath she’d been holding when Lauren pulled back. “I’m fine, I think. Had the best shower of the last few years actually!”
There were questions, Clarice was sure there were, but the information Lauren shared removed all of them from Clarice’s mind. “John’s here? Oh… What about…?” She shook her head. “So what’s… What is here, exactly?”
-- Lauren smiled at her shower comment. "It's really nice knowing there is a nice bathroom not far away with good soap and lotions." She didn't like to think about it, but the underground wasn't exactly the cleanest place in the world.
"Yeah, he's here, I'm sure he'll be coming to find you too," she paused with an uncertain look on her face. "Lorna's here too, but it's pretty easy to stay out of her way." She looked down before looking back up. "Did you listen to everything the hologram had to say? Don't worry, I did, and I was still really confused when I got here." Nodding her head towards the exit, she suggested. "Let's go get something to eat and I'll try and answer your questions, sound good?"
-- There was a quick nod at the shower talk, and although Clarice wasn’t one to gush about much of anything she could have waxed on and on about that shower for about ten minutes. However, Lauren had dropped a bit of a bomb that even wiped away the expectation of having John come find her (again). But hey maybe she’d find him this time.
“Lorna is? Is she...okay?” Clarice asked, trepidation clear in her voice and face as she wondered whether to be relieved, angry or both. Could one be both? She was about to find out. “Um, no, I missed the last part of it I was...confused. I feel like there was a thing I should probably be holding right now that I have no idea what it even is.”
With no reason to protest Clarice nodded in agreement as Lauren proposed they grab something to eat. “Is the food as good as the shower?” She asked with a smirk as they started walking, Clarice a step behind Lauren so the teen would lead the way.
-- "She's fine," Lauren shrugged. "She thinks she's still right about everything and likes to tell me that someday I'll see things her way but that's never going to happen." Lauren would never see things her way, ever. "She's working as a trainer, but I don't work with her."
Nodding, "Yeah, it's pretty confusing, oh, you mean the device, phone type thing? That's probably it. It pretty much can tell you anything you could possibly want to know, and it has maps, a directory of where people are staying, it'll probably tell you all about your new roommates too."
Lauren couldn't help but think back when she first got here and had her first meal. "It's amazing you can seriously get anything in the world you could want, what are you in the mood for? I'm a big fan of the Brew, but there is a good pizza place, the Three Broomsticks is here, yeah, the one out of Harry Potter."
-- Clarice really didn’t know what to say to what Lauren shared about Lorna. It wasn’t surprising that she was stubborn as hell and unwilling to concede to another point of view. People like her only saw they were wrong after something went to shit in an epic way. At least she was okay. The baby too, probably.
“Is anyone else here? Marcos, Esme and her weird twins…?” Maybe without the influence of those three shifty weirdos Lorna could be brought to reason. Not that it mattered; if the fight had followed them here Lauren would have told her already. Rolling her eyes, Clarice made an annoyed sound at herself for forgetting the phone. “Figures.”
Once Lauren mentioned Harry Potter Clarice eyed her briefly as she tried to recall if she’d ever really finished books or movies. No to both. Plus, the very first thought that had come to her head was of course the right one. “Jelly doughnuts. Breakfast food. I dig breakfast food for every meal but breakfast actually.”
-- “Nope, it’s just Lorna, John, me and now you.” She answered as she shivered at the thought of Esme and her sisters. She really couldn’t stand them and what they did to other people. She really couldn’t help but wonder if they’d done something to her brother. It was easier to believe that they had, even though Lauren knew that probably wasn’t the case.
“Snoozle,” she said with a grin. “They serve Breakfast all day long and anything you could possibly imagine. It’s all really good too. The manager of the place, Emilia Spinnet is an amazing cook.” She answered as she turned in the direction of Snoozle.
“So, about Atlantis, did you get to the part where they talk about fighting to save creativity?”
-- Sighing in relief, audibly, Clarice scratched her forehead. The last thing she needed was the sisters loose on some weird world they had no real hold on. Or she didn’t, at least. They could babble about mutant liberation all they wanted but it was obvious that if it wasn’t that, they’d try to justify using their powers willy nilly for something else. On the other hand, it couldn’t be easy for Lauren to be without Andy. But of course Clarice didn’t ask; unless the girl said something, it might be better not to even mention it.
“Ha, good name. Good place.” She smiled, pulling her hair off to one side as if it somehow helped her now soaked up t-shirt. She looked at Lauren, eyes narrowed. “Yeah; it sounded like bullshit. What’s that about anyway?”
-- “Weirdly enough it’s all true. Apparently, people hate the idea of creativity all together so they’re trying to destroy it and they’re insane, earlier this month they kidnapped some people trying to get some of the tools and well, they didn’t get any, and everyone got back alive, it’s…” she stopped. “Probably not the best way to try and talk you into staying huh? COS, that’s what they’re called, are really bad, but there is a lot of really good stuff here too.” Lauren smiled softly.
“People are okay with who we are, there isn’t any hiding and people aren’t scared of what we can do, more they think it’s cool or useful.” She offered. “I guess, fighting here means our world survives, as messed up as it is I don’t want it to go away either.” That had more to do with her family than anything else.
-- “Great! There’s a group of organized assholes no matter where I end up. Figures.” Clarice exhaled through her nose, snickering at how ridiculous it sounded to end creativity. “The only way they’ll be doing that is to end actual people as a whole, I mean-”
She paused, tilting her head. “Wait. ‘Kidnapped some people trying to get some of the tools’- what the hell does that all mean? And what do you mean by talking me into staying, I can leave? Why does anyone stay?”
Her eyes widened with Lauren’s disclosure that no one minded their mutant status here. She had no idea what that was like, couldn’t even imagine, but hadn’t hesitated in coming along anyway when Lauren wanted her to follow. That had been stupid of her, but now that she knew it could have been worse Clarice couldn’t bring herself to feeling that stupid. “Heh it’ll be interesting to see if that extends to my eye, ear and scar situation.”
Clarice wasn’t sure whether she wanted their world to survive or not, but then again she didn’t have anyone she really cared about back there… although eventually Marcos came to mind. As did Zingo, and the little girl Norah. And of course Lauren would be fighting here for her family. Although Clarice couldn’t really stop thinking about the fight, their fight, the one that needed every little bit of help and not from the likes of The Brotherhood or whatever stupid club Esme and the other two belonged to. It boggled the mind that anyone stayed really. “But other than that we can’t help our cause from here.”
-- Lauren couldn’t help a small giggle. “You can pick to live, they give you a week, or at least that’s what the hologram said, but I think people can leave anytime they want to.” She offered. “But, the fight here is really important, if COS wins, we all go away, everything in the world really, anything that matters, music, technology, everything.” Lauren tried to make it not sound as crazy as she knew that it did.
“They kidnapped 10 people to try and get the tools that we have in one of the vaults. It didn’t work.” Lauren shrugged slightly. “We could really use you here, if you want to stay, you don’t have to, but I’d love it if you did and not just because you open portals.” She added with a small smile.
“If we don’t fight here, our cause won’t even matter anymore, so in a way, we’re fighting for the ability to hopefully someday change our world for the better.” She shrugged as she opened the door to Snoozle nodding Clarice in. “We can pick any table we want.”
-- Ironically and also annoyingly, Clarice blinked rapidly while Lauren attempted to explain and then concluded it had to be the kind of thing that one could only parse in small doses over a period of time of a lot longer than a minute. She didn’t reply, just shrugged, as if leaving it well alone for now since she wasn’t going to wrap her head around how important this was right now anyway. At least she assumed it was important; Lauren wasn’t an idiot and John wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities for some vacation in another dimension or whatever this was. That, she could trust.
“Why do they want the tools?” She decided to pursue. They had to be special tools. No one kidnapped ten people for home improvement kits. When Lauren said they could ‘use her’ Clarice sighed, because of course they could ‘use her’ everybody could ‘use her’ apparently, but then Lauren added that it wasn’t just about the portals, which made Clarice snicker. “What else could you use me here for? Dog walking?”
Once again, it was all too weird to comprehend and Clarice walked into the restaurant shaking her head. She extended one arm to hold the door open so it wouldn't hit Lauren as the girl walked in, then released it slowly as they moved, picking a corner table in the back. Force of habit.
“Okay. So this is some sort of magical ‘cores of the universe’ mumbo jumbo you’re telling me is in danger, right? ‘Cause I can’t see how else this makes sense.”
-- “There are nine tools, and they can basically be used to destroy creativity, or in the right hands, give inspiration when needed. Kind of like the muses.” She shrugged. “It’s really confusing, but from what I’ve gotten, they’re really dangerous things, but often the coolest stuff can be used for good or evil.” Laughing she shrugged. “Well, actually, there are a lot of dogs around. And I’m sure a dog walker could be very handy around here.”
Taking a seat, she waved so one of the waiters would bring them menus. Turning her attention back to Clarice she nodded. “It sounds insane, totally insane, but then again so did mutants at one point in time, and in some worlds, it still is something that’s weird, Daisy, she’s sort of my guardian here, is an inhuman and can basically make earthquakes happen.” Lauren really wasn’t sure she was explaining any of this well. “There are people from so many different worlds here. There are mortal vampires, different kinds of vampires, metahumans, inhumans, witches half-angels, Jedi's, people from Star Trek, it’s crazy.”
-- It was very confusing. But at face value, it was what it was: weird shit that Clarice didn’t get nor wanted to, but which now made some sense at least. She snickered at the dog walking thing, glad to know that there were dogs in here. Maybe that would’ve been a good job, but she didn’t think that’s what she had been assigned.
“How’s an Inhuman different from a mu- you know what, doesn’t matter. Okay, earthquakes. Cool. Whatever.” Clarice shrugged. It shouldn’t surprise her that there were different worlds with things like vampires and where fictional characters were actually real, but it sort of did. Clarice laughed humorlessly, passing a hand over her eyes. “Jesus. Okay so those COS dudes are toast, right? And um, are we in actual Atlantis? Like the one that sank? Allegedly. Mythologically? I think it’s mythological right?”
Clarice already knew what she was going to order to eat, and this seemed like some sort of chocolate beverage with extra chocolate situation. She hoped they had both. John had underestimated her pure love for jelly filled doughnuts that one time, but he had been sorely mistaken.
-- Lauren almost started to answer her question about Inhumans vs mutants but let it go, it was already so confusing, and honestly, she didn’t fully get it herself. All of it could be a lot, all the different kinds of powers and everything.
“Yeah, they’re toast, or I guess that’s the goal and what we’re all hoping for.” Laughing she shrugged. “I don’t really know, maybe? It’s more like this is a totally different world, but it could be? It could be the whole lost city thing, although I pictured it more like the Disney movie than this place.” Lauren paused as the waiter showed letting them order, she nodded to Clarice to go first before ordering some pancakes.
“There is some other stuff you should be aware of here. Weird things happen, I mean weird funny. Earlier this month there were pigs that insulted people, on Pi day you had to give the first ten numbers and an actual pie appeared, there was a random room switch thing where the apartments changed from two people to four people, bedrooms I mean. And from what I’ve heard, that’s only the start.”
-- The uncertainty wasn’t good to hear in Lauren’s voice. You would think, with all different kinds of badasses, that they could easily get these COS assholes to go away. But apparently not, if the place kept pulling people in and they hadn’t done it yet. Clarice wasn’t so full of herself as to think that she was the one to change everything. She was probably the equivalent to a grain of sand in the desert in the middle of all of this. Clarice’s eyes wandered as she tried to conjure up anything from the Atlantis Disney movie but came up empty. “I imagined it wetter.”
As she’d thought, Clarice ordered a full six jelly doughnuts and a hot chocolate with whipped cream which was absolutely getting chased with a coffee. She also found, while Lauren described the absolute insanity that was this place, that if she focused on the food and the smells in this place she wouldn’t freak out too badly. “Right. Of course. What the hell man? It’s like I’m high. I better not be high. ‘Cause I didn’t consent to getting high.”
She took a moment to assess herself. “I also don’t feel high. I don’t know why I feel the need to draw the line at talking pigs but… It’s a lot.”
-- Laughing she nodded. In a lot of ways, she had imagined it all a lot wetter too.
Shrugging Lauren thought back to the St. Paddy's day stuff. "At the big parties, be careful of the food if you don't want anything strange to happen, but during normal days the food is always safe. At the St. Paddy's day, party people were searching for leprechauns and thinking people were pinching their bums when that wasn't the case at all, among other things." Lauren laughed thinking about it. "I guess there is just so much magic here that sometimes weird things are bound to happen." That was at least how Lauren tried to make it make sense in her head.
"Talking pigs is a lot, I guess hugging polar bears wouldn't help much either?"
-- Clarice wasn’t sure she liked to have to be careful about food lest she start hearing things. Or seeing them. She rolled her eyes. Magic sounded like a pain in the ass so far; on the other hand the existence of leprechauns wasn’t that far fetched anymore from where she sat. “So did they find any? Leprechauns, I mean.”
Once Lauren threw her that particular dilemma, Clarice sat there staring at nothing as she imagined herself hugging a polar bear. It was probably amazing; there had to be a reason why people talked about ‘bear hugs’ like they were a good thing. “Uh, no. No that sounds great. Smelly, but great. Long as they don’t talk. I think I’d prefer to hug a brown bear though. They look fuzzier.”
The waitress brought them their drinks, and Clarice closed her eyes for a moment as the scent of melted chocolate invaded her nostrils. “So but anyway. What’ve you been doing here? Fighting, going to school...what?”
-- "I don't think so," She answered. "As far as Ezra and I could tell, he's one of the people here and a training Jedi I think, anyways, it looked like people just randomly went out looking for them." Lauren knew how insane it sounded.
"The polar bears were really sweet. Someone said they show up every February for hugs," another one of those things that Lauren thought was insane.
"Well, I was just a reserve floating jr agent, but since John showed up they formed a team, and I'm on his team with another girl named Keller who turns into a panther." She paused letting that sink in for a second. "But yeah, there is a real school, there is a university here too. It's been weird going to actual classes."
-- “Disappointing.” Clarice replied, though her eyes obviously widened when Lauren mentioned she’d been hanging out with a Jedi. Still not as weird as February being the month for polar bear hugs. “Did anyone apologize for fu- screwing up their home turf?”
She still thought it was a random month for polar bears, especially since they had always been associated with Coca-Cola and Christmas in her mind. “So I missed pie and polar bear hugs. Dammit.”
Clarice smiled knowing that Lauren and John were teamed up. She’d like to be on their team too but wasn’t going to beg - Lauren or John. At least Lauren had familiarity in the field, which was always good. For some reason she really liked to know that Lauren had the stability she herself hadn’t at the same age. It reduced the probability of growing up an emotional mess and that was always good. “So you’ve been acting like a normal teenager and like an activist mutant at the same time. A wholesome mutant life. You like it?”
-- Lauren smirked when she stopped cursing. "I don't think they know it here? I'm not even sure if this place is on earth." Lauren shrugged.
"Don't worry there will be a lot of other crazy things I bet just around the corner that you won't miss." Lauren smiled.
"My parents would be so proud, keeping up grades and kicking ass after school, it's like an after-school special." Actually, Lauren wished life at home could have been like that, she liked both aspects of life. "I think you're really going to like it here. There is freedom and no hiding."
-- “I think I still would have apologized. Out of guilt, you know.” Clarice shrugged. When Lauren talked about all the crazy things she'd be able to experience Clarice wondered if that was a good or bad thing.
Lauren's life really did seem ideal if you weren't counting the fact that her family wasn't here with her. And the more she reiterated the point that they didn't need to hide, the least resistant Clarice felt to the idea of staying. But she still needed total confirmation. “So this war. If we don't win it our worlds will end. All of them. Right?”
-- Lauren nodded. “Pretty much, it’s fight here, or our world, all the worlds, all the books, tv shows, movies that we’ve enjoyed in our lives are gone, no more Shakespeare, no more kids watching Saturday morning cartoons, no more going to the movies and making out with your boyfriend in the back pretending to watch them.” Lauren knew it sounded a little bit dramatic, but it was all true, at least she’d come to believe that it was true.
“So, are you going to stay?”
-- Clarice was already exhausted from one fight that had lasted her entire life, and she couldn’t help but feel like whatever pulled her her had no right to do so after everything else. She sighed, scratching the back of her head as she considered the stakes as Lauren put them - and then raised an eyebrow at the scenario she chose to end her pitch on.
“Oh we can’t have that.” She joked. But when Lauren asked the question, Clarice could only shrug. She wanted to ask John if he was staying, if he thought it was worth it. Nothing against Lauren’s moral compass exactly, but Clarice felt, probably due to the vibes he transmitted, that John would know, instinctively, whether this fight was worth it. On the other hand maybe she could try to find out more and draw her own conclusions.
“I don’t know, Lauren. Maybe? I’m gonna eat, and hang out with you, and then I’m going back to my room to ask the Hologram a bunch of stupid questions.” She took a bite out of a jelly doughnut almost as soon as the waitress put down the plate. With a full mouth, she watched Lauren get handed her pancakes. “Maybe ask for a history of this place, if there’s something to read about it. I mean it’d be super easy to stay, you know this place is a hundred times better than what we’re used to. But I need to do this thing now where I think unselfishly about my revenge plans against Sentinel Services- wait. Okay well maybe not unselfishly. So we’ll see.”
-- “There is a library that I can show you after we eat, and I can take you to the base. I bet they’d be willing to give you more information too if you’d rather speak to a person over a Hologram, the people in the intake office are pretty nice usually.” She said only because she’d read that not everyone got along that was here and didn’t want to assume.
“But, let’s eat, I can tell you about some of the people and then either you can either talk to the hologram, or we can go to the base.” Lauren offered just as the food was set down in front of them.
-- “Sounds good.” Clarice replied, smiling after licking a chocolate mustache from her drink off her upper lip. Right now, though, she really wanted to just eat and hang out. Take it easy, as it were. Then, she held out a donut to Lauren, letting her know wordlessly that she could take some if she wanted. Shifting on her seat, she leaned forward. “Alright then, give me a primer on this place.”