The Universe's Mixer

Eric was annoyed after his encounter with the human who liked to stab him with silver. But even that couldn't spoil the general mood he had still at being able to walk in the sun. To see the bright day.

He found himself in the park again. This time with no particular goal in mind. He just wanted to be in the day and see the grass as green as it could be. Look at the flowers soaking up rays of energy and nourishment. See the humans playing because they were so sure no evil could touch them in such glorious conditions.

The Viking had a bit of a soft spot for daylight activities, he was discovering. So much that he saw during the night was completely different. It was like being a child again. Or a brand new vampire, seeing things for the first time with the new eyes, hearing the world with the new ears.

And there was a true freedom now. Having one less restriction placed on him. Of course, he had to share blood with Baba to achieve this, it was not a freedom that came completely free. But he was willing, and she was willing. She was willing enough to continue to share with him often, he had not had to worry about the sun once since they'd began this journey, and didn't think that he was going to have to worry about it for some time. She seemed to enjoy seeing him in the daylight as much as he enjoyed walking in it.

If he could get rid of the pesky problem with silver, he could truly be a god. Unfortunately, he saw no way around that.

Eric found a bench sitting out in the open, not covered in the shade of trees like most he passed. He sat and stretched his lengthy body, letting his head bend over the back. Soaking in sun on all his exposed flesh, much like a cat in a sunbeam.

There was a lot of this place to explore, and Annie didn't have all the time she wanted to do so. She had the store to take care of, and she wanted to do that right. Already, she'd filled it with more computers, more game consoles, more phones, more electronics. Instead of just parts, there were actual machines in there. It was busier than she'd thought it would be, as well. She had no idea, but some days, she felt like it was the only shop of it's kind. She'd had to pick a day and close Fixit entirely, just so she could have some real rest. Some days, she didn't even get a lunch.

So she was taking this day off, in addition to the day she usually closed the store, to explore the city some more. It wasn't an easy task, because besides the size of it, there was the fact that everything moved. She knew that she was seeing some shops more than once. Some streets, as well.

She'd passed a botanical garden that she told her phone to note for later, and a zoo. She wondered if Rufio would go to the zoo with her. She saw a park, and a district that she noted to never come back to that was by the water. It looked very sketchy and scared her. She felt like she might run into people there that weren't nice, and weren't looking out for her best interests. People that she did not want to meet.

Eventually, she found a place that sold the stuff that Charlie had been eating. It turned out there were a lot more flavors of ice cream than just banana. Annie stood, staring at the sign, unable to make a decision on what she wanted to have.

"Holy crap."

Alice was a little concerned. She remembered waking up in the hospital after stepping through the looking glass. Her mother had been there and said that she'd been found in an abandoned building by construction workers. She'd been getting ready to leave the hospital, but that was the last thing she remembered before she found herself standing on this street corner. Had she blacked out? Sleep walked?

She might have assumed she'd gone back through the looking glass if this place didn't look exactly the opposite of Wonderland. It was a bustling city, and there seemed to be people everywhere. But none of them were people she recognized.

Were she someone else, she might have panicked a little. Maybe cried. But she was Alice Hamilton, and stranger things had happened.

Really, the only option, the only thing she could do, was explore. Otherwise, she'd never find her way back. And Alice always found her way back.

After speaking with Charlie, Jack was ready to offer the job to Ted. He still wasn't going to give the man carte blanche with the City's finances, but he wouldn't do that with any new hire.

However, he was happy to have the help and he did trust Charlie's word enough that he would give Ted the benefit of the doubt even in the face of his criminal history. He saw coming to the City as a clean slate for most. There were others who had become something very different upon arriving here and it sounded like Ted had tried to turn over a new leaf even before he'd shown up here.

Jack picked up his office phone and dialed.