The Universe's Mixer

Ted couldn't exactly say that he was upset that The City had stopped moving around. He'd never particularly liked that bit about this place anyway. He was, however, a little sad that he actually had to do the grocery shopping now.

He was also a little sad that he was the one cleaning up cat litter and horse poo.

But it was all evened out by the mere fact that he had a job now - an actual job. One that meant something and wasn't just teaching a class every once in a while or working on somebody's portfolio because he was bored and had nothing else to do.

And this particular evening, he was in good spirits because he and Charlie were finally getting to have that dinner that they'd been talking about for a long while. It seemed that they both finally had some free time - or rather, Charlie had some free time - and they could meet up. Since he had more than one really exciting thing to share with his housemate, Ted was really looking forward to the evening.

Charlie had left a note on the counter in the kitchen telling Ted a time and a place. Ted had done some research and discovered that the place was a little bit fancy, and so dressed accordingly. He'd debated for some time if he should bring something for Charlie, it might have been a man-date, but it was still a date, and finally settled on a card. He hadn't been able to find exactly what he'd wanted, so instead improvised.

The card said "CONGRATULATIONS" very big across the top in colorful lettering on a yellow background. It had a balloon on it that Ted sharpied to look like a chubby little batman. On the inside he crossed out the "It's a boy!" Statement and replaced it with "You're not Batman!"

He carried the card in his hand as he entered the restaurant looking for his friend.

There used to be a stable.

No, no, that wasn't exactly right.

There used to sometimes be a stable -- and it used to appear when she wanted to spend some time with the horses that were sometimes boarded there. With all Beauty's new-found vacation time, she'd had every intention of going on long, lovely rides across the City Commons, but the stable simply wasn't appearing. It just wasn't there anymore.

Other things had changed, too. The whispers in her cottage - those invisible servants who forced clothes on her and who set out her meals and who apparently did the laundry and kept the place clean - had disappeared. At first she was glad -- but as the days passed, she found herself actually missing the strange companionship that the whispers had been. She could never quite understand them, but they ... they'd been friendly to her. They'd been kind, or at least, they tried to be very kind.

Beauty stood at the top of a rolling hill overlooking where the stable used to be, arms twisted behind her back, hands clasped together. She hoped that the horses were all right, wherever they'd gone.

TVs everywhere..that were on flashed all of a suddenly with the telltale sign that there was an incoming broadcast. Other devices that usually showed such broadcasts didn't. Something had definitely changed.

Frank and Candy sat in front of the camera, staring. Frank looked as if he hadn't shaved in a little while, and Candy seemed to have an oddly shaped eye from a bad make-up job. They were definitely out of sorts.

"What do we do?" Candy asked through the clenched teeth in her forced smile.

"I don't know." Frank hissed back.

"They can hear you!" came from off camera.

"Oh, blow me!" Candy yelled back.

"And in the weather..." The voice came from the side. The camera remained on the news anchors.

"And in the weather..." came the lead in again. Finally the camera moved to a very cheerful looking Windy. "We'll be having weather. The tempature is dropping, and there looks to be possibilities of snow and sleet in the future. Stay tuned."

The camera panned back to Candy who was bowed over the desk with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Frank was drinking from a flask, but stopped quickly to shove the flask out of the way.

"They're back. Hey they're back." Frank hissed at Candy, who just shook her head, never lifting it.

From off camera, Windy exclaims, "I love this shit! Yes! Weather!"