InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "MAKE US WHOLE"

Simon Tam (bigcitydandy) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2012-11-23 17:37:00

Entry tags:

simon tam

Who: Simon and Ginger
What: One minute you're returning to a safe, comfortable bunk, the next...Best Buy. For the holidays. Oh dear.
When: Early Friday morning
Where: Best Buy! (Lawrence has to have one!)
Warnings: Chinese swearing...possibly English swearing. And crazy people. It's Black Friday

It was all finally making sense. Why they had taken River, what they had done to her. And why she, and in turn, he, was now a fugitive from the Alliance. Why he'd spent so much time running, so much time hiding. It was a terrifying thought if he let it be. But they were safe for now, back on board Serenity. Back home. When had he begun to think of the Firefly class ship as his home? When had he been so willing to put Osiris behind him?

River was safe, though. Oh, it had been a close call, there was no denying that. But she was safe, and she was comfortable, or as much as he could manage to make her, considering. And he tucked her blanket more firmly around her as she finally drifted off to sleep. He stood to walk away, to get himself ready for sleep, when he realized something had drastically changed. For one, he was no longer on the Serenity. And if he was...well, something had gone terribly wrong.

The setting seemed odd. People rushed around him, some shouting, some seemingly quite angry. People pushed him from all angles. One swore in his ear to get the hell out of the way. "What the hell...?" he murmured in Chinese, glancing around. The things around him weren't familiar from any market. They looked more like something out of history books. Cassettes...no, videos. No! DVDs. That was them. And big devices, probably things to play the old DVDs on. Or not. Would those be snatched up by a very stressed looking woman in her forties and rushed off? Hard to say.

His head was spinning and, if he had any idea where his medbay was, he'd go there. But he didn't. Because it was clearly nowhere around.

Too proud to call out to the captain for help, and too afraid of the Alliance to call for River, Simon decided to try his luck with the others. "Kaylee?" he called out, wincing at the sound of his voice blending with so many others. There wasn't much hope, was there? He had to try. "Um. Wash? Zoe? ...anyone?" He looked ridiculous. But what else could he do? Maybe Jayne had drugged him and left him here. That...actually seemed a reasonable explanation. Oddly enough.

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onefiercebitch
2012-11-24 07:07 pm UTC (link)

Shopping was one of Ginger's favorite passtimes and, if she did say so herself, one of the talents she had rather perfected over the years. And sales made it even better. She didn't have a lot of money, but she had some and she intended on making the best of it for the number one shopping day of the year. Black Friday was one of the most insane days in the retail world, but she loved it all the same. The deals were great, even if the people were insane. This was the day that shopping turned into a competitive sport--and Ginger liked competitive.

Though she wasn't what you'd call a tech-savvy person, Ginger decided to go by Best Buy and see what sort of deals they had. Maybe she could pick up some DVDs or something, at least. The masses had already started their grab-and-run tactics when she got there. Most people around her were frantic, but in that greedy, gotta-have-it, Black Friday sort of way. But the person in the crowds that caught her attention was the guy that was frantic in a confused, disoriented sort of way. She remembered that feeling. He must be...what was the word everybody used? Displaced. She was pretty sure he was speaking another language, so as she approached him, Ginger hoped he knew English at least. "Hey, sweetie," she said as she moved to stand in front of him. "you're not from here, huh?"

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bigcitydandy
2012-11-24 07:32 pm UTC (link)

The brunette was speaking to him. That took him a few seconds to register. He had to get his head together. Looking as out of place as he felt was dangerous, he'd learned that quickly enough on board Serenity. He took several long, calming breaths and finally shook his head slowly. "No," he admitted, his voice as relaxed as he could manage. "I'm not. A uh...tourist." Not his usual response to this sort of thing but he was getting better at hiding who he was thanks to all the time spent hiding.

And he'd never, ever risk the Serenity being found. Not only for their less than legal activities, but for the protection of his little sister. If anything he did or said to this woman put River in danger, he'd never forgive himself. He could handle being arrested himself, if it came to it. But not her. Never her. "A bit crazy in here, isn't it?" he commented as casually as he could, trying to act as if he saw this sort of thing every day.

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onefiercebitch
2012-11-24 08:34 pm UTC (link)

"A tourist?" she parroted back, a confused sort of look on her face. Was there even anything worth touring in this town? If there was, she hadn't found it yet. "I wasn't aware Lawrence had tourists." she shrugged. She doubted that was true, given his demeanor, but she decided to roll with it.

"Completely insane," she agreed with a nod, "But Black Friday always is." she pointed out with another slight shrug of her shoulders. "You were somewhere else a few minutes ago, weren't you?" she asked him, almost positive this guy was a new member of the Lawrence-displaced crew.

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bigcitydandy
2012-11-24 11:47 pm UTC (link)

Lawrence. Was that the planet's name? It wasn't any he'd ever visited, though he was still adjusting to all this travel to begin with. It was taking time but he was beginning to get a feel for it. This wasn't like any of the outer rim planets, but what else could explain how primitive everything was? "Right. Well. Um. Visiting...family. Yeah." It had worked when Mal and Zoe used it. Of course, they'd always been better at cover stories.

But then she asked a question he couldn't deny being surprised at. "I was, yes," he agreed, before he could stop himself. What if that gave him away? It was dangerous, being so open with his answers. But she'd known. She'd known that he hadn't been there just recently. It had to mean something, didn't it? "I'm...not entirely sure how I got here. Or where here is. Or what Black Friday is." Or what the system the woman nearby was grabbing was, or why she was tackling another woman for it. But that was besides the point.

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onefiercebitch
2012-11-25 01:03 am UTC (link)

An eyebrow arched in his direction. This guy was a terrible liar. Not that it was such a bad habit to be horrible at, really. What did lying ever really get anyone? She laughed softly, "You're a terrible liar, sweetie. But I've also been in a similar position not all that long ago, so I recognize the disorientated look. I'm pretty sure I looked the same way when I woke up here."

"Here is Lawrence, Kansas, the year is twenty-twelve. And Black Friday is a ridiculously amazing day of epic sales on all the things you could want, ever." she explained most of his questions rather quickly. "But the explanation of how you got here...that's the part that sounds insane." She wasn't sure if he was ready for that yet, so she decided to judge his reaction on the other information first.

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bigcitydandy
2012-11-25 01:34 am UTC (link)

He knew he was a terrible liar and he wouldn't have been terribly offended if she'd pointed it out. Instead he listened to her story. Kansas wasn't really any more familiar to him than Lawrence was. Lawrence was the city, Kansas was the planet, perhaps? But then she told him the year. And his first reaction was, why would she tell him the year?

His second reaction was to turn a bit pale. "Twenty...twelve? As in two-thousand and twelve?" This wasn't normal. It was, in fact, impossible. He couldn't have traveled in time. It didn't exist, time travel, not even in his 'future' world. Space travel, sure, they had that down. But time? "I... That's not the... No."

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onefiercebitch
2012-11-25 02:13 am UTC (link)

She waited, let him process for a moment. When he lost color in his face, Ginger wondered if he might faint. That would be bad, here in the middle of the crazy crowd surrounding them. "Yes..." she nodded slowly, reaching over to tug gently on his shirt to get his attention and making a motion for him to follow her. They needed out of this crowd before she explained everything else.

Once they were free from the masses, Ginger looked back at him. "People...that end up here...they travel through space, time, dimensions. It's...complicated. And it's magic, crazy as that might sound..." she pushed her hair behind her ear. "Where were you, before you were here? What year was it?"

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bigcitydandy
2012-11-25 05:20 am UTC (link)

Frankly, given the shock, Simon was pretty easy to maneuver. When she tugged at him, he followed with no questions, no hesitation. He had one goal and that was get out of the crowded market or wherever it was they were. So when she led the way through the crowd, he followed willingly. Hesitantly, but willingly.

He tried to focus on her words, but they were impossible to understand. Space, sure, no big. But time? More, dimensions? And magic, well, that was impossible. Wasn't everything scientific once considered magic? He hesitated again before he answered. "I was on Ariel. Well...I'd just left Ariel. I was on a ship...the Serenity." Even now he was wary about giving even that much information. "The year was twenty-five seventeen," he added, pointing out that over five hundred years had passed for him.

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onefiercebitch
2012-11-25 07:24 pm UTC (link)

She wasn't sure where Ariel was, or what it was honestly, but she nodded as she listened to him explain his prior whereabouts. He was so hesitant, almost skittish, she wondered what sort of world he came from. Not a good one, she guessed.

"A ship?" her interested piqued at that term. "Like in the ocean? Or in space?" She asked curiously. That sounded vaguely familiar. She was pretty sure other people had mentioned it before. "Because there's some people around here that were talking about a spaceship, I'm pretty sure. Maybe you know them? I don't, really, though...so I can't really give you names. But I'm pretty sure most of them are at the complex, so it's a win-win, cause that's where we're going."

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