Chloé will ALWAYS be Queen Bee (buzz_off) wrote in somerealityrpg, @ 2020-02-13 19:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | inactive: chloé bourgeois, inactive: teddy flood |
WHO: Teddy Flood and Chloé Bourgeois
WHAT: Relying on the kindness of strangers
WHERE: Outside, near the Villas
WHEN: February 9, Sunday afternoon
WARNINGS: None
SPOILERS? Miraculous S3, I guess?
Chloé sailed out of the classroom with her head held high, Sabrina following close behind and echoing her complaints about their latest assignment. Probably. Chloé barely bothered listening. Except for very rare occasions when someone like Hawkmoth or Marinette Dupain-Cheng interfered, she could always count on her best friend to back her up.
Their griping carried them all the way down the stairs and to the school entrance, where Chloé sighed and whipped out her phone, fluttering her fingers dismissively. "Oh well, I guess you'd better get on that then, it'll take you all night to do both of them so I won't keep you. I have so much shopping to do tonight anyway." It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without Sabrina to tell her how great she looked in everything, but sometimes you had to make sacrifices.
What the heck? Something was wrong with her phone. Instead of the website she was trying to go to, there was just a bunch of writing and names she didn't know. She must have hit something wrong… but nothing seemed to change it. "Sabrina, give me your phone," she said, holding out her hand.
"Sabrina," she snapped, looking up -- but no one was there. And this -- where was she? This wasn't the school at all. Those weren't even the right buildings. They were completely wrong, in fact. Everything looked too tall: stretched out and gray.
"Ugh, not another akuma." Usually they were a little louder so you knew something was going on. Taking her quietly, midsentence, when she was completely minding her own business, that was sneaky. And worst of all, if she’d already been taken there was no way Ladybug could ask for her help. What a complete waste!
Or maybe they'd just changed Paris. It wouldn't be the first time. People had weird ideas of how the world should be, and not everyone was as strong as her and could fight off an akuma.
Then she saw it -- a fluttering in the corner of her eye, like she'd willed it into being. "NO, Hawkmoth!" she shouted, swinging her purse at it. "I TOLD you, I am a superhero!" He wouldn't get her again. She'd show Ladybug she was worthy. She'd show everyone, she thought, stomping it with her foot for good measure and only realizing belatedly that it could get her that way just as well.
But nothing happened. "Uh… what?" she said, lifting her foot. Oh. It was just some paper or whatever, not an akuma after all. Someone must have just been throwing trash around. Clearly it wasn't important.
The buildings, though... they definitely were not Paris. She’d lived there her entire life. Here, she could barely even see the sky. Chloé glared distrustfully around for a moment, then turned back to her phone.
There had certainly been a discussion about the weather among the residents of this odd, bird-themed habitat, which had prompted Teddy to see for himself what the sparkles were about. It had been, like this entire adventure so far, unlike anything he had ever seen before. Only now his apprehension was gone, and he was certain that no matter what, he would adjust to his new surroundings and adapt.
The map was super complicated and there were more locations marked than in all the areas he knew back home? That was fine, he would learn. He needed to get a job in a world where he didn't really understand how anything worked? Certainly there was something he could do. Dolores was here, the weather really was beautiful, and he was confident things would work out even as he had no idea how that would possibly happen.
It was that attitude that prompted him to stop and check on a young lady who seemed somewhat lost, much like he had been when he first arrived. "Hello, miss," he said cheerfully, tipping his hat in greeting. "Did you need help with anything?"
"Yes," she said, with more than a hint of finally. No one online had been any help at all. They were just talking, like none of this mattered, and while Paris had been dealing with some weird things since Hawkmoth appeared, last she heard (so like, as of yesterday) people still cared if they were attacked or not.
"First of all, I need to borrow a phone. Mine is apparently rubbish." Her daddy would just have to get her a new one. "And I need to know where the danger is. Have you seen Ladybug lately? And…" Her voice trailed off as she took in his hat, which like everything else around here was faintly dusted in glitter. "You're a cowboy," she said blankly. Were cowboys even allowed in Paris?
Teddy glanced at Chloé curiously, then noticed her letter was presently on the ground. Yes, she was new. "Well, you should probably start with that," he said, pointing. "It's a letter that doesn't really explain much, but you live here now, along with the rest of us." He said all this with a smile, even as he knew nothing made sense, he was pretty cheerful in explaining that.
Chloé wrinkled her nose. "It's dirty," she pointed out, ignoring the fact that it was only dirty because she'd crushed it beneath her extremely fashionable shoes. But maybe because he was the first person to give her any clear direction, she did at last reach down for the -- apparently -- letter.
As she read, her face puckered further. She'd only just started to think this might be non akuma weirdness for once, but the letter didn't make anything clearer. "But this is New York," she said in disbelief, studying the map, then looking up again at the horribly tall buildings. Was that really what New York looked like?? How had her mom lived there so long?
Jubilant Entity... if it was an akuma after all, maybe it was Juleka again? Or Rose. God knew all the happy people sounded just like Rose. And it would be just like Rose to fling glitter everywhere, and then it wouldn't have to have anything to do with her mom after all.
Not that it could possibly be her mom anyway. The random cowboy sealed it. Audrey Bourgeois would never be so tacky. And she definitely wouldn't be making people happy. "Wait, new home? Guardian? What guardian? You're not my guardian, are you?"
"I don't know," Teddy replied, thinking that over. "I would hope not though, because I really don't know what's going on any more than you do." He smiled at her, genuinely pleased that the odds of him being a guardian were low, because he wouldn't have the first idea of what to do with that.
"That's where we live though," he said, pointing to the apartment building. "Maybe that will give you a better idea? And don't worry, Miss. Things aren't nearly as bleak as they seem."
He said that, of course, because he was under the same spell as the rest of the building, euphoric, almost. But without that enchantment Teddy would have had far less optimism and a tad bit more caution. Even so, he didn't want this young lady to worry too much about the situation.
"Teddy Flood, by the way."
Chloé gave him a doubtful look. She didn't know much about cowboys, but he seemed a little too cheerful given what he was actually talking about. But maybe he was just happy to have his horse out of the rain or not be getting shot by Indians, or whatever else cowboys did. They couldn't possibly have as much to lose as she did.
Or maybe it really wasn't that bad. It was a big city, everything seemed clean enough, there must be things to do, maybe she could still get some shopping in…
No. This was all ridiculous. And anyway how was she even going to pay for shopping without her parents around? How was she going to pay for anything, if she was in some different world?
"I'm… Chloé. Bourgeois," she said, suddenly shaken from her habitual irritation and confidence at the realization that her name wouldn't mean anything to him, or to anyone, because she was as far from Paris as she possibly could be. And she couldn't quite shake the bizarre feeling that that was a good thing.
"Well, Chloé Bourgeois, I suggest we head inside and see about getting you set up. Maybe find your actual guardian somewhere about. You can even meet the ostriches on the way." He said that with continued cheerfulness, but Teddy did actually enjoy the ostriches.
He was fairly certain he wasn't her guardian as that seemed as though it would be weird and certainly he would know about it first, wouldn't he? Even so, he felt the need to guide her toward her next stop, still following his programming even in this completely unknown setting.
"Okay," she said in a subdued tone, and followed Teddy. There was nothing else to do at this point, unless she wanted to wander around completely on her own, which she definitely did not. The city was still huge, the buildings still disorienting, and his was the only friendly face she'd seen -- nearly the only face at all. Wherever this was, it was not even close to as highly populated as the real New York.
She could probably trust him to see her down the road. It wasn't that far and he seemed overall pretty trustworthy, which was strange. Chloé Bourgeois was not known for her trusting nature.
"Where are you from?" she asked. She might be lost and confused, but that didn't mean she had to be quiet. It felt better to talk. "And why ostriches?" she added, regaining a bit of usual haughtiness.
"A little town called Sweetwater," Teddy answered. "Though I've been traveling a lot, that's where I always return to. It's a lot different from here. Simpler. Quieter."
That wasn't entirely true. The setting was completely different but what Teddy never remembered were the gunfights in the middle of the streets, or how many times he'd ridden with Dolores to her family's ranch only to discover bandits had made their way over. He didn't remember the full extent of the violence back home so as loud and as big and as busy as Goodland was, it had shown to be far calmer in comparison.
He simply had no idea that was the case.
"I have no idea why ostriches," he laughed. "They're just here?"
"This thing that brought us here is so tacky," Chloé grumbled. She refused to call it The Entity. If it didn't like it, it could come and tell her to her face. “It could at least have made them peacocks. Or swans.” Her last encounter with a peacock hadn’t been pleasant.
Wait, hadn’t Dupain-Chang said something about Mayura being here too? Chloé had discounted it at first, since she’d also said it was weeks ago, but maybe Marinette wasn’t completely useless after all. And — that’s right! Someone else said they’d seen Ladybug!
"Have you seen Ladybug?" she asked eagerly, her spirits lifting rapidly at the thought. "She's a superhero. She has a mask, and a red suit with black spots. She's usually swinging around from buildings." If Ladybug was here, everything would be okay. She was probably working on fixing things already! And since Chloé was here, she might even let her help!
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Teddy replied, unable to keep the cheeriness from his voice. "But I just arrived here myself and I've yet to meet everyone so it's possible that she's here." He gave Chloé an apologetic shrug and then pointed as they arrived at the building.
"They're not so bad, are they?" he asked, walking up to an ostrich. The birds didn't seem to mind him, which he appreciated. He hoped to find some horses soon, after being told that there were actually some around.
As they entered the building, it seemed a path of glitter that had been tracked in awaited them. It sparkled under the artificial lighting and Teddy found it oddly beautiful.
It was disappointing that he didn’t know about Ladybug, or it should have been -- she was pretty noticeable, after all! But Chloé shrugged it off surprisingly well, considering this was her only hope of getting home. Someone had seen her, and with her and Dupain-Cheng that made two people she knew, and at least one was a useful contact.
“It’s not nearly as nice as my daddy’s hotel,” she remarked, looking around the entrance, with a smile and a tone that didn’t quite match her words. “But I guess it’ll do.” Now she just had to get up to her room and she’d be taken care of, apparently, which, to be honest, was all she really wanted. Waving a hand to dismiss Teddy, she said, “I can probably make it the rest of the way myself. As long as there’s nothing weird here, besides the glitter and the ostriches, if the numbers are all perfectly normal.”
Teddy simply nodded with a smile and another tip of his hat. "Let me know if I can be of any further assistance," he offered. "Pleasure meeting you, Miss Chloé."
Chloé paused. She wasn't used to people being glad to help her, just being paid to. “A pleasure meeting you too, Mr. -- uhh, yes, thank you, I will,” she said, turning away hastily. As she marched over to the elevator, head high once more, cheeks only slightly pink, she made a mental note to pay attention the next time someone introduced themselves. Obviously she was going to find Ladybug, fix this and go home asap, but in the meantime she was in an entirely new place with only 1-½ allies. If she was going to navigate it successfully, she was going to have to understand the playing field.