The Universe's Mixer

Once he'd woken up, and left a message on Dinah's shop's answering machine about finding his place, Harry had found only one thing out of place in his apartment. It was a small, black device that looked like a cell phone. As a matter of course, Harry didn't touch it. Not until he started wondering who had left it. Everyone close to him knew that cell phones wouldn't work around him. Even standing near him was enough to scramble the reception of even the best cellular service. The devices themselves generally shorted out within half an hour - less if there was any magic going around. Hell's bells, Murphy and Thomas made it a point to leave their phones at home if they knew they would be working with Harry.

No one else could have left it here. Not with the wards in place. His curiosity reached the point that he picked it up and flipped the cover open.

There was enough time to see the screen flash HARRY DRESDEN - WIZARD before the device let out a squeal of noise and winked off.

Harry sighed. "Typical."

Well, at least it gave him something to do. Look for some way to fix the thing and see if there was something important on it. Harry glanced at his dog. "Want to go exploring?"

Mouse went to the door, picked up his leather lead in his teeth, and looked back at Harry, tail wagging. Harry got into his duster, grabbed his staff, and clipped the leash to Mouse's collar. It was mostly unnecessary, since Mouse wasn't going to be running away from him, but Chicago leash laws aside, Mouse seemed to think people were more likely to approach such a large dog if he seemed to be 'properly restrained'.

It was worth noting that Mouse had better people skills than Harry did.

Harry lowered the wards, and exited the house. The wards automatically raised again once he was past the threshold. "Repair shop," he muttered to himself. Mouse looked up at him, head tilted slightly, then looked out at the street. Harry followed his gaze, and saw a battered, multicolored Volkswagon Bug. His car. Dubbed The Blue Beetle. Harry gave the car a wistful look, then shook his head. If this City could bring back his apartment, his duster, his staff, his dog, it certainly could bring back his car. The question Harry was wondering was, what would be the cost of all this?

"Not this time," Harry said. "We'll just walk it." He didn't feel the urge to drive just yet, not when this blasted City kept changing. And not when he didn't have Mike around to keep the Beetle running. "But look for a repair shop."

The dog huffed and started walking. Harry followed along, paying attention to how the streets changed. He had no luck in working out any kind of pattern, but at least Mouse was doing his job. The dog stopped outside a place that seemed reasonable. Harry looked up, shrugged, and went inside.

A quick workout, a shower, a bite for breakfast, work, home, dinner, sleep, a routine. Simon had had a routine in the...asylum, and it was comforting. Of course, he could tell himself that the medication and the City had made it work, but he knew that he had liked knowing exactly what would happen from each moment to the next. It wasn't until he woke up in his own bed that he realized what had happened. Not only had he been kept under observation, doing some very ridiculous things, but he had allowed himself to forget bits of himself. He supposed he could say he learned something about himself; he wasn't good at looking at the bright side, especially when that bright side was just dark and disappointing.

Simon decided not to go into work. They had done without him for however long he'd been detained by the City; they could do without him again. He needed to see River, to apologize to her, to make sure she had been okay. He also needed to see Jennifer, Jake, George, Kaylee, Inara, Mal, Book, and maybe even Hannibal, the last to see if the detrimentally determined doctor had had a hand in the City's..experiment? He was certain he hadn't gone completely mad, yet perhaps he had deserved it for aiding in the creation of a particular virus.

He allowed himself a small bit of routine before yanking on more appropriate gear and heading out. River's apartment had been his original destination; the City didn't seem to want that. He tried Jennifer and Jake, and again, no luck. He didn't know where to find some of the people, and when he stopped by the church building, he started to lose hope. Had the Shepherd gone? He needed to talk to someone, to know that someone, anyone was okay. He just had to find them first.

She ever could keep track of time very well, considering she spent most of her time in space with light either always there or always gone. Depended on how close you got to them stars. Mal didn't ever let Serenity get too close. And once they broke atmo' it could have been days, weeks, or months since Kaylee last saw a flippin' calendar. Not that she minded it then, she minded it here. Now, Kaylee didn't argue, and she hardly ever fought. So she was on the 'good list' she supposed. Still, she hated sitting around not doin' anything and being trapped was bad. It made her think of the alliance prisons, not that she'd ever spent time in them! And then it made her think of that bounty hunter and she'd shutter and try to think of happier things.

Shinier things.

Kaylee missed the City now, or really being out in it. There was an out wasn't there? Was she even still IN the City? She was having problems remembering everything. She supposed it was something about the monotone atmosphere of this place. She'd heard it was called somethin', but Kaylee couldn't tell if she was hearing things or if there really were people screaming things around her. She knew she was allowed out of her cell, no better word for that thing, and around. But she didn't exactly.. she couldn't exactly.. it was complicated.

She was trying to stay sunny about everything. That was the thing Kaylee's were good for. Nothin' in the 'verse could stop her from being cheerful! As long as they provided strawberries.. and if they'd just let her have some tools so she could fix somethin'..

She kept finding herself in the dining area, cafeteria, whatever they called this place. She liked being around people. Any people. Kaylee loved talkin' and their stories were sometimes interestin'. Just had to be sunny! Eventually they'd get out right? Maybe someone would call to break out. Kaylee had no problem making that kind of trouble, but until she had a good idea of what was going on, or until she saw something she could fandangle and make a good break for it she was just buying time.

Like right now. She didn't mind the food. Or the company. She just smiled at anyone who happened by and tried her best to look friendly. She liked making friends. She took another drink of water and gave a look around.

The day was crystal clear. Warm, even, considering what time of year it was. Kids were happily running around the park wearing their shorts and maybe a light sweater. Flowers had bloomed unseasonably. Bees and butterflies busied themselves while birds sang.

To top it all off, in a nice grassy area some picnic tables popped up. They were all covered in food and drink. A big banner unfurled across a nice space that could be seen from the road. It touted "Annual City Picnic" in bold black lettering.

Zoe thought that the Captain and Wash were gone, for good. And Kaylee hadn't any idea what to do about that. This city saw fit to bring people back from the dead, only to take them away? To give her a captain to report to and then send him packing too? It. Was. Not. Shiny. Kaylee was not okay with it. She was going to finish fixing Serenity and she was going to find Mal and Wash.

The only problem was, once she got a hum, and the wires right. She realized the outside of her favorite ship was in dire need of some repairs if it ever hoped to get off the ground. So Kaylee in her cover-alls and a her welding mask set off to fix the nose, and eventually work her way across the whole of the ship. Only it was hard to keep herself rigged to stay up there, weld and hold the sheet metal in place.

This wasn't shiny. This wouldn't do.

She wanted Mal, and Jayne, and Book, and Simon, and Wash, and River, and Inara. She wanted everything to be normal. She wanted her Simon back because then at least he'd hold the metal in place or keep her straight on the rigging so she didn't fall to her death. Or if she fell he'd fix her gorram arm.

Wasn't shiny at all.

The curses that left the mechanics mouth were all muffled and in another language to the natives of the City, but she still cursed and kicked at a loose panel while hanging from the nose of Serenity by one rope.

Not. Shiny.

She wanted a car. It was a funny kind of desire, it wasn't as simple as wanting a nice dress, or wanting a strawberry, but it wasn't as complicated as wanting somebody to want her either. But it was difficult to just get a car. She didn't have any real amount of money, and wishing for a car seemed useless. Maybe if she could find the car parts she could build one. It wasn't like she'd never built something from scratch before. Most of Serenity's engine was built from scratch now. Parts were from everywhere, it was no longer one engine that had been built the way it was, now it was just a bunch of parts scrapped from other things.

The city did seem fit to provide Kaylee with food when she wanted it, money when she needed it, and a place to stay. But it seemed lonely these days and a new project was just the thing to sink her teeth into. Mal didn't seem to be botherin' her about Serenity, Wash was still tied up in rewiring most of the consoles. So that left Kaylee pretty free to do as she pleased.

There were a lot of cars in the city, and that meant there had to be places to find spare parts. She tried garbage cans first, not very helpful, dumpsters seemed a lot more run and it reminded her of going to that junkyard on that core planet. Which reminded her of Simon and River, which made her miss them both in entirely different ways. River was pretty much her best friend, if you didn't count Inara..and Inara was more like a sister or a mother, and they'd done nearly everythin' together. Simon... was Simon. And she missed Simon for Simon reasons, and not just the fact that he was mighty pretty when he was waking up. Or when he was doctorin', or smilin', or cookin'. Or anything, for that matter.

Still, she'd managed to find what looked like a beat up old car magazine, which was very helpful in discovering a bit more about how cars were put together, and what made them tick. They weren't alltogether that odd compared to a spaceship. Kaylee flopped down on the side of the street peering into the magazine. She was covered in not only grease and the normal engine junk, but there was a bit more trash on her coveralls than normal. Dumpster searchin' wasn't the most cleanest thing in the world, but she was in coveralls and that's what they were for.

Now if only she could find herself a junk car to fix up all nice'n'pretty for herself.

Up to her neck in the engine was a place Kaylee felt comfortable, but it was not a comforting thought that Serenity had not been responding to her at all. Kaylee was tied up in wires, her lap filled wit tools and her face coveed in splotches and smears of grease and engine muck as she liked to call it. It was the lifeblood of Serenity there on her and Kaylee was feeling like Serenity had finally given her all for the last time. Disheartening. Kaylee still worked diligently on trying to get the Firefly-class vessel off the ground in order to keep Mal and everyone else happy. Kaylee would be glad once she was off the ground again, but even as she thought about it she thought about all the good things the City had given them so far.

There was the food, real food, not bags of powder that they tried to make food out of. Not bars of gross proteins or cakes made to look like chocolate but taste like mud. Even with her helping hand Kaylee couldn't get much out of the kitchen that tasted as good as it looked. Then there was all the interesting things she could see in the city. The movies, the books to read, the dresses to wear and the fancy technology she was itching to get her fingers on and try out. Finally there was Kyle, but even with Kyle being around now and then, it didn't replace Simon in her heart. She tried not to think of Simon and everytime she finally got him off her mind she found something that reminded her of him.

He'd tripped over this wrench. Kaylee held it in her hands tightly and gave a great sigh. She must have sighed too loudly because out from under the engine the pilot of Serenity gave a muffled curse, she must have made him hit his head. "Sorry Wash. Everythin' still ain't workin." Kaylee went back to tightening another bolt and then fiddling with the grav-thrust.

( She'd explained the different parts of the engine to Simon while laying under it with him one night. )

Moved from here. Way before Valentines.

Kaylee felt like everything was finally right with this new strange world. Not only was she on an amazing date, but Kyle had made the first move and kissed her. Finally someone else takin' charge 'sides her. She felt warm all over and returned the kiss as softly as he'd delivered it. Course, it was completely weird to kiss while flying. Kyle could fly. It still wasn't registering, but it didn't matter right now.

( Because Kyle had kissed her! )

The day was crisp and clear. Only a slight warm breeze made the leaves of the trees move, making the dappled light on the ground below shimmer and dance. Playing shadows over the faces of the playing children and the walking couples in the area.

The Valentine's day spirit had taken up residence in many, and was showing thusly in the store windows. Nobody had yet taken down their decorations. The sales for jewelry and candy went on, with the hope that more would be bought and lavished upon those who were loved and loving.

There was a man carrying balloons for sale. A woman carrying a basket of assorted flowers that never seemed to empty, no matter how many of her beautiful wares were bought. Another man pushing an ice cream cart, and a lady in a colorful outfit giving out free cotton candy and selling roasted nuts. There were performers of every sort. People on stilts, people juggling. A fire breather, yes, right in the middle of it all, carefully showing what she could do. A belly dancer dancing around in a circle, a sword swallower doing his thing in the middle of that circle. It was almost like a circus, this show for the lovers.

It seemed as if everything was greener. The sky bluer. The flowers more radiant and filled with scent. The water of the lake clearer, with paddle boats and row boats gliding over it's surface easily. The birds sang sweeter. All was perfect.

( ooc )

Sir Guy of Gisborne was doing what he did best; brooding. Everything around him was celebrating love and romance. That, of course, made him think of Marian. And how she had left him on their wedding day. Why could she not see that everything he did was to assure their future? A good future with the power and position that they both deserved.

He would never find a woman he loved as much as he loved Marian.

Guy leaned against the side of a building, watching people as they walked by. He thought they were a little too open with showing their affections for one another. But he was starting to learn that this was just another part of the strangeness of The City. He didn’t think he would ever get use to it. He knew he didn’t want to get use to it. He wanted to return to Nottingham.

He wanted Marian.

He felt a slight sting to the back of his shoulder. He brushed off his leather coat and looked back. Nothing was there that could have hurt him. It was probably just a large insect. He turned back to continue watching the people and then he saw her. She was so delicate and more beautiful than even Marian. Guy’s heart leapt as he watched her. She would be his.

He strolled up to the young lady and gave her his best smile. “Pardon me, milady. You should not walk through town unescorted. I am Sir Guy of Gisborne. Please allow me the honor of your company.” Guy bowed slightly as he introduced himself, offering her his arm.

Meeting the captain of Serenity had been an interesting albeit short experience. Mal hadn't been the kind of space captain that Kyle remembered watching on television when he was younger. No, the other man was more of a 'space cowboy' if that was a way to phrase it. The actual tour of the craft had been more than fascinating. It wasn't like anything else he'd been on and Kyle had been amused with the way that Kaylee described everything; his date was very passionate about Serenity.

With all of that out of the way it was finally time to get on to the part which held the most promise of all. The actual date. He wanted to make it something memorable but The City tended to put a block on some of his better ideas. Artists were suppose to be creative though, right? Which meant said talent needed to be applied at the moment. With a slight smirk on his lips he reached out and to hold Kaylee's hand (so he could lead her to the car, of course)

( Read more... )

Ted was not happy about this at all. Not happy one bit. He was in a morgue. The door to the morgue was locked. All the rest of the power in the place had gone off, the morgue staying connected only because it was on it's own power grid. Probably because of the bodies, Ted thought. You had to make sure those bodies stayed cold, or things could go wrong. Evidence lost. Not to mention the smell.

He'd come in here to try to find a working phone. The door had closed and locked itself behind him. He assumed it was some kind of safety measure. Ted didn't know enough about morgues to say for sure, though.

He looked around the room and sighed.

This was probably better than being outside. Charlie would be trying to find a good thing about this, so Ted was going to try too. He'd try really hard. He didn't think that it was really going to work. But he was going to try.

"So." He said, leaning against one of the cold counters.

Kaylee was excited. There was no getting around the fact that she had been runnin around the corridors, jumping up and down the steps, and making all sorts of noise while inside her bunk. Mal had to have noticed, perhaps Wash had too, but Kaylee didn't mind. She was so happy to just be goin' out on a real date. Sure, this had been a terrible place at first. She almost died, or was dead, or whatever. Simon was not her Simon so they weren't together. And Serenity was stuck on the ground. But now, now she was renewed. She'd fixed an engine, and got asked out by a really really really pretty guy. She had to stop thinking about Simon, Mal had told her the truth and she'd been heartbroken too long. Now she was gleefully fixing her hair and her face and making sure not one speck of dirt hit the nice shirt and pants she was wearing.

( She could hardly contain herself. )

Find yourself in a strange place under less than explainable circumstances? That had to have been listed somewhere in the 'what-to-expect-as-a-green-lantern' guide, right? Except for that little piece of helpful literature didn't exactly exist. The blue midgets (aka the Guardians) expected you to learn on the job, improvise when necessary, and all that jazz. Up to this point in his relatively short career as GL, he had done so surprisingly well, and never made a big deal about it. Spending time on an alien planet? Typical Tuesday night, no problem. Except for the part where there was a problem; a glaring one. He had always been able to leave said places.

Kyle Rayner had found out the difficult way that The City would be having none of that. First, he'd tried to conventional method, just walk right out of the City. That would've been fine until he encountered a wall that put the 'Great' one in China to shame. Still, that wasn't such a hurdle when you had superpowers. So, he decided to put those powers to good use and fly over the wall. That didn't go over so well either. He'd never been great at measurements but the wall must have been hundreds of feet high, and when he'd actually made his way to the top, he discovered there was an even more frustrating hindrance to his escape. Some kind of invisible force (the ring hadn't been able to identify it) that prevented him from rocketing skywards.
( Read more... )

There were a great deal of things wrong with the City, even Kaylee knew that, but it did provide when she really needed something. She was starving hours ago and when she rolled out from under the engine she found a sandwich waiting for her. Whenever she got thirsty there was always strawberry lemonade waiting for her to drink in her glass, even if she emptied it the last time she drank from it. She liked having everything provided for her. But at the same time, as much as she hoped for Serenity to spring to life it wasn't happening. Her mechanical know how was pretty useless when the city was living in the dark ages as far as she was concerned. Mal had his guns, Wash was alive, Simon had the hospital, and Kaylee had a dead engine and more repairs to do to Serenity than she'd ever done before. It was like her baby went through hell and back to get here.

( It was enough to make anyone frustrated. )

You're in a funhouse maze, but it's no ordinary funhouse maze. The mighty minotaur is stalking you through it, and you have to get to the center of the maze to save the virgins and get back out before it reaches you.

Billy sat in the basement of his rented house, staring forlornly into the lens of his webcam. He noticed a sharp decrease in the number of hits on his blog. It depressed him. He straightened his posture and adjusted his goggles with gloved hands. Billy practiced what was supposed to be an evil smile which only looked mildly mischievous at best. So he stopped.

With a heavy sigh he spoke, "Apparently no one at the hospital recognized me, Doctor Horrible, member of the ELE. They let me walk right out the front door. No word from The League yet, B-T-W. Apparently Bad Horse and the others have been unsuccessful in their attempts to rescue me from this pocket dimension. Obviously this is all some sort of mistake. Not on my part. At least, I don't think. I'm pretty sure the Transporter Beam isn't capable of ... transporting anything. At least not without complications. It's obvious to me in recent light of the Undead Epidemic that The City must be stopped. So, look out for something big! Something evil. Uh, this is normally the part where I respond to reader e-mail but since no one seems to have heard of me here I don't actually have any."

Horrible cleared his throat.

"That's it for now. Those of you interested in joining The City's brand new and improved Evil League of Evil or the Henchman's Union, send me an e-mail with your resume. Maybe a video tape. Just a warning though, yes killing people is impressive but if you're going to do that you have to make it classy. I can't let just any idiot with a gun into The League. I mean, who do you take us for? The cops? There have to be standards. Okay, peace out.... in pieces!"

Horrible tried his best evil laugh (thought it sounded a little half-hearted) before reaching forward and turning the camera off. One post to YouTube later and Horrible stared at his in-box. Twenty minutes passed and still there was not a single e-mail. Billy sighed dejectedly before deciding to slip into his mild-mannered civilian attire and head to the grocery store in a white, unmarked van that doubled as his dastardly get-away car.

His grocery list read as follows: mayo, milk, butter, bread, eggs, english muffins, frozen dinners, and noz-ola cola. About halfway to Winco he realized that The City had him completely lost. Billy slammed on his breaks and pulled over. Getting out of the van he waved his fist in the air, "Alright City, laugh now but pretty soon I will take you over and put in a comprehensive light rail system! An evil light rail system! Run on renewable energy! So go on and laugh, you jerk! Laugh it up now while you can!"

( a shot to the head and they're dead, right? )

Mal had given her the address, but Kaylee wasn't sure about wanting company right away. Simon didn't know about Miranda. He didn't know about them. Her Simon was different than this Simon. While Simon had been kind to her, and checked in on her, it wasn't her Simon. Kaylee finally found the address. Was Inara gonna remember her? Remember everything that happened or was Inara gonna be different too?

Kaylee wasn't sure she could stand any more different thinkin people. She couldn't stand a different Inara. Inara had always cared for her, always worried her head about little Kaylee and Kaylee surely needed someone'ta worry about her now. Someone to take care of her for a bit till she could stand up without the heavy feelin' in her heart.

Gorram City.

Kaylee found the apartment fine, and pulled on her hair a little. Least she wasn't all covered in grease now. City had provided her with new clothes. In fact, the nurses had a new set of her normal clothes waiting for her. A new pair of cover alls embroidered with her teddy bear and a pretty flowered shirt for underneath it all. Least her arms didn't hurt no more. She knocked for a second. Pressing her forehead against the door. Was Inara even home? Kaylee sighed to herself. That was until she heard the door unlocking.

"Inara?"

Kaylee felt pretty off balance. Not just because of the wounds she had covering her arms, large cuts that were still leaking blood from being pulled out of Serenity by the large vacuum of space, but because her heart felt a little heavy. Mal said Simon didn't remember anything after the beagles. But how could he forget? How could he not know? Kaylee felt it was kind of painful to forget about her an him like that. Mal had tried to explain it, like he wasn't their Simon. But then.. He didn't know about Wash being departed? Or Book? Kaylee felt certainly out of place. Normally she was so bright and cheerful but it felt drained right out of her like motor oil out of an engine too fast. Life wasn't there no more.

Felt lick getting kicked in the gut, it did.

Kaylee was leaning heavily on Mal now. Getting blood onto his nice brown coat. She kept apologizing for it. Wounds weren't lethal really, but Kaylee wasn't weak enough to walk on her own considerin'. Finally they made it to the hospital. She'd have preferred the medical bay of serenity. She never liked normal hospitals. Even with the promise of seeing Simon.. well this Simon. Simon that didn't remember everything that'd happened with Miranda, or the Reavers, or Mr. Universe. Kaylee wasn't keen on it at all. She turned her head to look at Mal. Mal looked determined, as he always did. All worried about her. She had to go in.

She took a deep breath as the doors were open. When they came to the main counter, Kaylee lifted her head and tried to stand up fully. But Mal kept her firmly half leaning on him. To that she smiled. "My name is Kaylee Frye, I wanted to see Dr Simon Tam."

"Frye. Frye. Right here. Your appointment is in a moment."
"My what? I didn't call or Nothin' of the sort."
"Right here. Kaywinnit Lee Frye, right?"

Kaylee winced at her full name, but nodded. "Mal how did they know I was comin' before we got here?" She asked, half expecting some mess of officers to come out, having known her name and tired her with Serenity. They knew she was here, here with Mal. What if it was the Alliance was here? Calm Kaylee. Calm. Kaylee looked around, expecting something.