The Universe's Mixer

The City was fast realizing that maybe snow wasn't as terrific as it had thought. Sure, it looked pretty neat and it was all crisp and white and pretty. Until somebody walked in it. Or drove their car over it. Then it turned disgusting shades of brownish gray. It looked depressing and sad, and not to mention it made the City feel a little sick.

There was also the fact that snow was very very cold. It supposed it hadn't noticed before because it'd been so infatuated with the ice flakes. But it was really cold. And wet. The City found itself shivering a lot of the time. Sluggish and unwilling to do much of anything. It wanted to do that thing that bears did where they sleep all winter and don't do anything but maybe give birth to some baby bears.

The City decided it had had enough of the snow. No more snow. It wanted it's warm spring days back. It wanted to see kids running around in the park. It wanted to see people swimming. It wanted to have nothing at all more to do with gray skies and cold wet white ground.

Okay, so it'd been sort of fun, making the snow pile up as high as it'd gotten. It wouldn't go as high as the Wayne Tower's top, but it had gotten pretty far. That was a feat. But it was one that held no more joy or glee for The City.

So, as fast as it could, The City melted the snow. Leaving everything clean and shiny and sparkly. There was no trace of the snow when it was done. All the melted snow flowed perfectly into the waters surrounding the city itself, leaving no puddles, and no trace.

There would never be snow again, as far as it was concerned.

George had been perfectly happy to wait out the storm in her own apartment. As long as the water was running and the toilet was working, she didn't care if all she had to eat was ramen noodles. Then the post-it came. George stared down at the small piece of yellow paper, her expression a picture, perfect expression of indignant shock. Wrapping up the best she could she went out into the storm and was caught in it.

Hypothermia, unlike other times George had been hurt, had the one advantage of a numbing factor. The shivering itself wasn't so bad at first until it became more violent. On the bright side, the stabbing pain in her fingers and toes became numb, and she didn't need coordinated control in order to knock on the apartment door when she finally reached it. Her lips and nose were an odd shade of blue but the reaper's only concern was that she didn't have a line of frozen snot down her face because that would be gross. She didn't.

When the door to the apartment listed on her post-it didn't open (at least she thought it was the same address but her mind wasn't functioning at one-hundred percent), she tried grasping the handle with her fingers a few times. The door opened (though she couldn't tell if it was her doing or not) and George stumbled in.

She mumbled a little incoherently to herself: "It is really warm in here..."

Elle wasn't a fan of snow, or water in general when it wasn't in shower or pool form. Rain made it hard for her to do things she liked to do, and snow was just as bothersome. Right now she wanted the comforts, small they may be, of her own personal apartment. She had meant to try and call the company, but what her cellphone did not allow was those calls. Apparently she was nowhere and somewhere at the same time. The snow kept falling and moving through it was getting to be more than just a feat. She might have to try and swim through it. She tried to melt it with a zap, but since she was a twinge wet from it it just back fired. With a little cry and kept going.

She hated this place now. Hated it. Elle stormed forward, she needed to get inside, and dry and figure this out quick. Survival skills she did have, trained as she was. She missed her father. She only knew one person here and he was a runner. She needed Nathan, or maybe Peter. They could fly. She could use someone who could fly.

Ha, leather uniforms. Made her think of superman rather than the Petrelli's.

Elle finally came face to face, literally, with a glass door. How the hell had she ended up here. She pulled with some difficulty and finally wedged it open enough to make it inside. It looked like a gas station, yes, that was what it was. She pulled the door shut from the cold and let her teeth chatter. She hopped up onto the counter, not wanting to explore yet. No one seemed to be around. Fine. Maybe she'd just light this place on fire. She looked at her hands again, she was still wet. Had to dry first.

The city sucked.

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.

Zoe was ready to shoot someone; anyone would have done, but a certain doctor type would have been pleasant. The Amazon wasn't always of a violent mindset, yet the City was testing her limits. How could it keep her away from those she loved? How could she question how she felt? And how could it snow so gorram much? Sure, they'd seen some crazy weather when the terraforming didn't work properly, but this was ridiculous.

She knew she couldn't fight through the snow for long, especially when she lost track of where she was going and ran into a postal box three times. She was rather certain it was the same one because on the second run in, she'd scored the side with her knife. So what if it was illegal, she needed some sort of marker; it was the only distinction she could see among the blobs of white crystals. On the third time, she stamped her way to the nearest door, or what looked like a door. It was angled oddly, but she supposed if it was to an underground area, it was better than nothing. Maybe there'd be supplies.

She shook off the snow as she walked down the steps and had to shiver at the bleak concrete. There were a few supplies, but none of them filled her with shiny happy thoughts. No, they made her think of some poor store room forgotten by a family, who was busy running from the bombardment. It made her think of the war. The cold didn't help, but she'd survive. Climbing back up the steps, she reached for the door to close out the snow and maybe some of the chill. She didn't want to close anyone out, but she couldn't leave the door open forever.

(for 21, 24, Elizabeth, Connor and Deb)


Shepherd Book was coming to deeply regret his decision to leave the church. It had seemed, at the time, to be the best course of action. Only course of action really, since there wasn’t much to be done inside the building to give him any clue as to his whereabouts. Nothing to be learned by staying in one place in any case.

When he’d set out on this exploratory walk, it hadn’t been what a body would call a pleasant day, weather-wise, but it had been passable. How quickly that had changed. The snow came quick and heavy, and Book decided to head back to the church. ( Answers could wait for another day. )

(For Bella, Veronica, Dick, Bruce B, Lee, Edward and Simon)


Making the snowman had been extremely fun, and Jeannie was very pleased to have met a new friend. She genuinely liked people, and the truth was, she was more than a little lonely. While she enjoyed meeting all the people that she had since coming to this place, not one of them had really stayed. There was no one that she saw regularly. While she liked her new master, it was not at all the same as having a human master who was always there. To talk to. To serve. To love.

But when the snow became too bad, it was no longer quite as fun. It became too difficult to hold a conversation. So reluctantly, Jeannie made her good-byes and watched as Liz disappeared into the growing storm.

For a bit, Jeannie wandered through the chilled and changed landscape. Here and there, she ran into people that needed a bit of help dealing with the ever-deepening snow. All of them received aid in some fashion or other. ( Except for the last man. )

(For Laura)



Snow sucked.

Well, not all the time. Sometimes, it could make the roads a lot of fun, slick enough to whip donuts in parking lots. And occasionally in the middle of intersections. That was always exciting. Harley was a good driver, even in snow. It wasn’t like Gotham didn’t get some snow now and then. Freezing rain too, which was both more irritating and more challenging. But snow? Snow was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Except when it kept falling and falling and falling until there was no way that Harley could manage to keep the stolen Caddy going through the drifts. Even with the weight of the car and the fantastic, powerful eight cylinder engine, it just wasn’t quite enough to plow through. The rear-wheel drive didn’t help once she’d gotten stuck either. Great for playing, not so great for getting out of the snow bank.

Harley had spent a bit of time venting her frustration on the dash of the car which now sported a few fist-shaped indentations. Then she’d given in to the inevitable fact that she was going to have walk. But it had only taken five minutes of wading through the snow to come to the conclusion that she’d made a mistake. The car was stuck, but it was warm, and wherever the hell she was, there was nothing here. Nothing. She turned around to go back to the stuck Cadilac, but somehow got turned around or something, because after ten minutes, she was still trudging through the ever-falling snow.

( Which was when she decided that snow sucked. )

The snow was really quite lovely, it was also nearly the only thing that reminded her of home. Everything here was so strange, carriages that ran themselves without benefit of horses, people who dressed in so little as to be parading around in their underclothes and yet it was not remarked on. Women of grown age with hair as short as a man's.
It was simply not at all what she was used to but this, the falling white, it was like home. At least at first it had been. It just kept falling. Marian had taken to the street when she had trouble opening her door, she walked down the road, soon having to trudge through banks of snow up to her shin. Everywhere looked as blanketed in white as everywhere else and soon enough she could not tell from which direction she had come.
All these buildings looked so similar, with the temperature dropping and no end to the snowfall she had no choice but to seek refuge somewhere. By the time she fought her way up the steps to the nearest door the snow had piled knee deep. She had to shovel it away with her hands just to get to the door properly, leaving quite the trail behind her in the mounds of white.
Marian swung the door open calling out to the interior. "Hello? Please forgive the intrusion, but ...I simply must come in from the cold. I will not misuse your hospitality for long." Marian stamped the snow off her shoes and shook it from her heavy woolen cloak. She stepped deeper into the home and was delighted to find a blanket draped over a chair. Used to harsh winters Marian wrapped herself up and curled up in the chair, eyes peering out the window, yet more of that expensive clear glass that seemed everywhere. Beyond the pane the snow continued to fall.

(For Dexter, Ace, Dean, Claire, Venkman, Firekeeper, Logan E.)

It'd been fun for a little while. Traipsing through the snow. It became a little more difficult as the snow kept coming; it simply wasn't physically possible for this much snow to drop like that. And, when she noticed the dog fighting to get free of what had to have been a little old lady now turned lump of ice and snow, Fred decided it was time to get inside. Well, only after trying to free the little dog from its frozen mistress, which didn't work out so well, seeing as the damn dog tried to bite her rather than let her help.

Fred didn't want to leave the little yapper out in the snow, now falling in clumps, but she couldn't stay out in it either. No, she started looking for some place that was still open and could take her. Unfortunately, the only place she found that still had its doors open, figuratively speaking, was an old movie house. Actually, Fred didn't mind it; she remembered her mom and dad talking about places like this, and she supposed it could have been a lot worse. She even giggled at the posters hanging up; yeah, it could have been a lot worse.

She didn't seem anyone around quite yet, and supposing that concessions weren't open, she settled down on one of the velvet like couches in the theatre's lobby - sure, it'd seen much better days, dust rising as she sat, but there was something reassuring about a place this old still standing. Plus, the place was a lot warmer than it was outside. She just hoped she wasn't about to be all alone, or maybe that wouldn't have been a bad thing. She'd done alone in bad times before...

Sir Guy of Gisborne had gone out for a walk when the snow started. He wasn’t bothered by the cold weather; England often had cold, snowy days in the winter. He had wanted to get some fresh air while he tried to make sense of what had happened to him. This strange City was full of more things that were strange than things he knew. He was getting use to the strange way people dressed here, but the rest left him feeling … lost.

He had been so lost in thought; he didn’t notice how heavy the snowfall was getting. When he started having trouble walking, he decided he should look for shelter. Quickly. Guy had never seen snow fall this heavily before. He was starting to think he was going to be caught without shelter. Not something he wanted to happen.

But God was on Sir Guy’s side this day. He could see something through the snow. It looked like a building. As he slowly moved closer, he could see that it was indeed a small building. Possibly someone’s home. He went up to the cabin and knocked once before he pushed the door open.

“I am in need of shelter from the storm. Is anyone here?” He gripped the hilt of his sword, just in case anyone had some objection to offering him comfort. He glanced around quickly while he waited for a response. This had the look of the hunting lodge of a lesser nobleman. He pulled the door shut behind him and was ready to make himself at home.

Things were starting to get absurd. There was no question about that in Hannibal's mind. He'd thought at first that the snow was amusing. He knew that The City was a living thing, and it had never snowed in the whole time that he'd been here. So he'd figured it was much like a child with a new toy. It would get bored of the snow eventually, then everything would go back to normal.

What he hadn't expected was for the snow to pile up more. Continuously until there was nothing but snow. He had the ill fortune to be out and about in the world when it started to blizzard. Actually, he'd seen blizzards in his life, and somehow this was worse. The snow was blinding. Even he got disoriented a few times.

When he saw the outline of a vehicle, Hannibal went toward it. He needed shelter to wait this out. At the very least, he needed a moment to think and plan away from the cold, wet snow. He couldn't help but think back to the last time he'd been in snow. How he'd been found.

Hannibal yanked open the door to the massive truck and scrambled inside.

The City loved the snow. It loved the way that the tiny white particles managed to stack up with one another and cling to things. It loved the way that the snow piled up on top of itself and stayed as long as it was cold enough to sustain it. It loved the way that it looked soft and fluffy. It loved the way that it made everything look.

The City wondered why it hadn't ever had snow before.

The way the snow was falling currently was highly unnatural. There was no way that this much snow should be falling. Even the ice age hadn't ever seen this much of it at once. And it had stayed constantly snowing for a really long time. Generally there was a break, but the City didn't know that. It just kept dumping.

Soon enough, it found delight in the way that it could cover up cars. Then it wondered if it could cover up postal boxes. Soon after that it wondered if it could cover a small house. Not far behind was the wonder if it could cover the tiny mini mart. It's sights were eventually set on seeing if it could cover the giant Wayne building. What a neat sight that would be, snow stacked up that high.

All The City's efforts went into piling up the snow.

SNOW, MORE SNOW, AND SOME PRECIPITATION
Special Story By Windy Weatherton

Hello citizens of The City. You can't actually see me as I write this, which is a crying shame for you, but I assure you all that I am in my normal Windy glory. I've come to you via print today to tell you a little bit about our weather conditions. Because that's what I do, inform you on the weather.

We've got a standing foot and a half of snow right now. Record falls, considering that we've never experienced snow in this place before, and guess what! It just keeps falling! We see no end to the snow any time in the near future. Or even the remotely far future. Our weather satellites tell us that there's going to be snow for a good long while, and it's not going to melt at all, either. Just snow. Lots of snow. White, fluffy, powdery snow.

Now here are some interesting little facts for all of you out there that might not understand snow or know what it is:

Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. The process of this precipitation is called snowfall.

Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure.

Snow crystals form when tiny supercooled cloud droplets (approx 10μm in diameter) freeze. These droplets are able to remain liquid at temperatures colder than 0°C because, in order to freeze, a few molecules in the liquid droplet need to get together by chance to form an arrangement close to that in an ice lattice; then the droplet freezes around this 'nucleus'. Experiments show that this 'homogeneous' nucleation of cloud droplets only occurs at temperatures colder than -35°C.[1] In warmer clouds an aerosol particle or 'ice nucleus' must be present in (or in contact with) the droplet to act as a nucleus. Our understanding of what particles make efficient ice nuclei is poor - what we do know is they are very rare compared to that cloud condensation nuclei which liquid droplets form on. Clays, desert dust and biological particles may be effective,[2] although to what extent is unclear. Artificial nuclei include silver iodide and dry ice, and these form the basis of cloud seeding.

Once a droplet has frozen, it grows in the supersaturated environment (air saturated with respect to liquid water is always supersaturated with respect to ice) and grows by diffusion of water molecules in the air (vapor) onto the ice crystal surface where they are deposited. Because the droplets are so much more numerous than the ice crystals (because of the relative numbers of ice vs droplet nuclei) the crystals are able to grow to hundreds of micrometers or millimeters in size at the expense of the water droplets (the Wegner-Bergeron-Findeison process). The corresponding depletion of water vapor causes the droplets to evaporate, meaning that the ice crystals effectively grow at the droplets' expense. These large crystals are an efficient source of precipitation, since they fall through the atmosphere due to their mass, and may collide and stick together in clusters (aggregates). These aggregates are snowflakes, and are usually the type of ice particle which falls at the ground. [3] The exact details of the sticking mechanism remains controversial (and probably there are different mechanisms active in different clouds), possibilities include mechanical interlocking, sintering, electrostatic attraction as well as the existence of a 'sticky' liquid-like layer on the crystal surface.

The individual ice crystals often have an hexagonal symmetry. Although the ice is clear, scattering of light by the crystal facets and hollows/imperfections mean that the crystals often appear white in color due to diffuse reflection of all spectrum of light by the small ice particles.

And now, this is Windy Weatherton signing off with my patented smile, enjoy your day.

The TVs went dead for a moment, fuzzing out to blackness. Radios caught the static then died for a moment too. Even those who had computers received a viral feed that was surely worse than any pop up scam ever invented; poor Lindy Lou Who had been working on her research paper when the computer screen went blank. She wasn't much happier when what should come on. What took the radio waves, the air waves, the cable, the dsl, highspeed...you name it, this was on it.

"Hi! This is Windy Weatherton, coming to you from the City's KWIT Weather Center." He was a mix of Dick Clark, Michael Duncan Clark, Casey Kasem, and Movie Phone Guy. "Yes, Windy with your weather forecast."

Those who could see it were shown the map of the City. It wasn't anything overly fancy. Just a little Doppler radar over the most generic city streets one could imagine. It gave the false sense that the City could be mapped in general.

"As you can see with the blue spots is that we are in for a long winter." The Doppler image was completely blue; the streets had disappeared. Windy laughed as if that blue image was the biggest and best joke he'd ever made. "That's right; snow, and more snow. Pull out your snow shoes, people, we're in it for the long haul. Might want to bring in the pets and the kids, folks. Ha ha! Stay inside when you can. Ha ha! And watch out for those yeti!"

Windy beamed that "Damn, I'm good looking" smile, posing a little to show off his muscles...through his blazer.

"Yes, this has been Windy Weatherton, for KWIT News."

And like before, everything went right back to normal. Broadcasts took up as if they were never interrupted, and Lindy Lou Who got back to copying and pasting a paper she'd found online.

TVs everywhere were tuning into a new station. The City had created something new, and it was rather proud of taking on a new technology. The way the Barbie and Ken look-a-likes smiled into the camera might have suggested just how proud.

"Hello, and welcome to the KWIT City News, brought to you by the City Hospital and the City Library. I'm Candy Clarion." The Barbie anchorwoman continued in her smile.

"I'm Frank Bassett. This is the KWIT City News." Ken anchorman chimed in.

"Many of the City's residents have noticed that the snow is still coming; in fact, it's starting to stick." Frank's voice boomed over the air ways; the image shifted from pretty boy smile to a scene of children playing in the falling snowflakes. Some of the children were even attempting snowmen, but not with much success.

"Wow, Frank, when was the last time we had snow?" Candy turned stiffly to her co-anchor.

"I don't know, Candy, but it sure looks fun. Windy Weatherton will be by later to let us know just how long that snow will be staying, but in other news..."

Frank and Candy fuzzed out, returning all TVs to their regular broadcasts.

The Cure Has Been Found!

We at the Voice are proud to announce that the cure has been found. Many have received the cure and are now on their way to a more productive non-zombie lifestyle. Sources say that the cure came from two brilliant minds: Doctors Hannibal Lecter and Simon Tam. While we have yet to confirm this, we have also heard rumors that the these two doctors are also to blame for the outbreak. At the Voice, we are happy that the cure was found.

The Hospital is currently offering the cure; they are warning everyone that there will be some mild discomfort, but the treatment is quick. As of yet, there have been no causalities from the treatment, and the outcome looks promising.

If you know of anyone who needs to be treated, do not attempt to bring them in on your own. Let the authorities handle it. Please call 1-800-DE-ZOMBI. Qualified members of City service will take care of the situation. If you see any groups or know of any existing groups of still untreated zombies, call. The situation will be handled quickly and quietly.

Weather

In a quick note, snowflakes have been spotted. We don't mean the little boys and girls preparing for their winter plays either. Perhaps the usually sunny and bright City will finally get something of a winter wonderland.