The Universe's Mixer

Ted was checking out houses and condos for investment purposes. He'd had an idea shortly after Lois Lane had left his office for keeping the City in money and helping it's residents at the same time. City housing. The City would buy the houses and keep them maintained, while the rent would be cheaper so that the poorer and disabled residents of the City could afford to be in nicer areas with better resources around them.

Property generally only rose in value. Even when the market failed, the property itself didn't really lose it's spot, just what one could charge for it did. But it always rose again eventually.

He'd decided to scout some locations and draw up a proposal before going to the Mayor with it. A vague idea wasn't any good, you had to have numbers to back it up. Evidence that it was a good idea. Ted knew this. He also knew that the mayor was a busy guy and that bothering him with the very beginnings of a plan would probably only cause more work for him. He liked the mayor, he didn't want to add pressure to a job that was already difficult with the things going on.

There were already spots that Ted liked, his list was growing, but it was all condos and co-ops so far. No actual houses. He felt that having a house, some place that could have more than one person in them at a time possibly, would be a good idea too. There was a bigger side to this plan, of course, in the name of buying a whole apartment building, but that had to be worked up to.

Seeing an address without a door number attached to it attracted Ted and he skipped down several spots to visit that one next. He'd get to the others, he was sure. But houses went quickly. He wanted to see this one before anybody else had a chance to put a bid on it.

And it was a big house. He could see that from the outside when he arrived. But it looked so empty. Like nobody had lived there in a really long time. It wasn't so much neglect. Somebody was coming around to cut the grass and trim the hedges. But there was dust in the corners of the windows. The door knob looked shiny and untouched. The lock, when he got close enough to see, seemed freshly oiled.

But the door opened smoothly enough. He stepped inside and began to take notes on the things that he saw. Sure, every listing provided square footage and number of rooms. But seeing stuff for yourself always provided a much different view. A room with large footage might actually not fit a bed because it was an odd shape. Or a kitchen that seemed spacious might be so stuffed with cabinetry that you couldn't move.

Ted saw none of these issues. It made him all the more curious as to why nobody was living here, and why it seemed nobody had for a very long time.

He thought he heard something fall in another room and went to investigate, but found nothing. Then there was a scraping noise that he could feel into his bones, followed by a very disturbing giggling.

In a place where nothing could be ruled out anymore, Ted felt immediately suspicious and afraid. He went to the front door to leave, but discovered it wouldn't open. As he turned to try to find the back door, something flashed by him. Something unpleasant. He got a vague sense of blood and maybe a missing half of a face.

Ted became very still.

The shop was slow today, so Annie was organizing everything. Whomever had run the shop before had just kind of put things on the shelves randomly, and there was hardly anything entered into the computer at all. Not that she minded, really. She could find things by speaking to them. Or speaking to things near them. But it did make it hard on the customers, who always had to come ask her if she had something.

She had music on very loud, some band that had been around way before her time but was popular here. All Annie knew was that it had a nice beat and the singer had a nice voice. Which, she supposed, was all music really needed to be good anyway.

She was also dancing. Not something that she ever did when somebody could see her. Her shop shades were pulled because of the way the sunlight hit directly into the windows when the afternoon came around, so she figured that she was safe.

Annie went from section to section, sorting and placing. Entering items into the computer.

She probably should have expected to be fired when she made an entire coffee shop full of people hallucinate and took off with no notice. It still stung, though.

Megan let herself have one day of full-time moping, where she didn't even change out of her PJs and bathrobe and ate cereal and ice cream and watched movies. It didn't really make her feel better, and the sugary cereal and ice cream made her feel sick at the end of the day, so one day was really all that was needed.

What she really needed, she decided, was to actually cheer up. With friends. A friend. She hadn't seen Rufio in a while, since she'd been busy with work, but--well, it wasn't like that was a worry right now, was it? Fanged sniffy guys, on the other hand, were. She doused herself with Febreze just in case and teleported from her living room to Rufio's fort.

"Hello?" she called the second she was fully there. Outside, because she didn't want to just 'port directly into somebody's house with no notice. She knocked on the door. "Rufio? Are you home?"

There was going to be a press conference. Thomas was going to have a chance to answer all their irritating questions all at once. This made him feel happy. Perhaps the first true and whole happiness that he had felt since being put inside this stupid body.

He had been staying at Beauty's home. She had given him the bed, and he hadn't known better to insist that he be the one to sleep on the blanket pile on the floor. He had, instead, just taken the bed and enjoyed it very much.

Thomas trekked his way to the little cottage from the Mayor's office. He had to walk because he didn't have the money to pay for a cab, and wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to be in one again anyway. The night had fallen on his way, and he was enjoying it, despite the much cooler temperatures. Perhaps because he was so happy. Perhaps nothing could sour his mood now.

He opened the door and went inside, and sat at the little table.

Warning: Slightly adult content.

Frustration was not the word for it. Anger wasn’t either. Sadness, loss, so many other emotions warred within the little body. There was a definite need for satisfaction; the meeting with the girl had not gone at all how she had hoped or expected, and she still didn't know what that was. That she felt anything at all would set off the emotions once more, and she’d feel lost. This was not how she should feel; this was not what her path dictated, even when she was the one choosing the way.

Rather than go back to her cabin, which had showed but could feel its mistress’ anger, the crone started off across the park. She didn’t run; she didn’t fly. She walked. Rather determinedly. She knew where she wanted to go, and while it took longer than she liked, still, she found the damn tower where the heroes liked to stay. She didn’t need the City to know this.

She didn’t pay attention to any security measures, cameras or otherwise. A little bit of magic could short circuit much, and she had no problem doing so. It helped matters that this was not her first time to here. ( She wanted to see her bouncing blue beauty of a boy. )