& something holds
Jun. 27th, 2008 04:36 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
nepheliad.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
allthatgoesTitle: And Something Holds
Chapter Number: 1
Characters: Alice, Dawn, Sully
Rating: G
Word Count: 2,777
Summary: Alice Fitzwilliam, age eighteen, is the newest recruit of THEY, an agency involved in interdimensional diplomatic relations. Recruited off the street after a couple of chance encounters with agents Sully and Dawn, Alice is put under the training of Robert Capio, a tired old dispatch officer, and makes friends with quite a great deal of other people, including a group of teenagers known as the Killiam Set. Robert, who has been retired from offworld duty for many years, is unexpectedly handed a mission that only he, Alice and a few others are actually equipped to handle, and has to face active duty for the first time in nearly a century ... while dealing with the fact he's falling in love with his trainee. Beware of falling subplots.
Etc.: This is an AU that takes DL characters into a universe modified from the universe of another RPG that ran for a couple of years a couple of years ago. Characters that aren't from here (there won't be many) can be assumed to have come from there. Liberties have been taken with basically everything – DL characters from different places and eras are all alive here at the same time, and so far only the Fitzwilliams and the Capios are actually from this world at all. Literally.
August 28th, 1957, started out as a day as normal as any other. It was sunny out, and only a bit humid, and Alice Fitzwilliam was leaving a sweet shop on High Street in Corsham. This event itself wasn’t unique; Alice liked sweets, and was living in Corsham, and so it made a good deal of sense that she’d be going to a sweet shop there. It was quite good, as sweet shops went, and she’d gotten enough so that half could be hers and half could go to her father. Alice considered it quite a good day, seeing as how nothing yet had gone wrong, the weather wasn’t too bothersome, and a couple of boys on motorcycles had smiled at her.
Nothing had yet gone wrong, but the day itself was about to get a lot stranger. Alice imagined it, as she walked to where she’d planned to meet her ride. Imagined being in some sort of film, walking along the road and being about to meet her fate. She could hear the voiceover in her head. The unwitting heroine had no idea of the fate that was about to befall her as she walked to meet her driver … From there, though, she wasn’t quite sure where the story went. Was she being stalked by a man who wanted to have his way with her and kill her? Was she being followed by a man who’d fallen in love with her from afar? Was she about to become part of a hostage situation, accidentally discover a secret, find her long-lost cousin?
There were a million possibilities mulling about inside Alice’s mind, and not one of them involved a human man and his more-than-human female companion appearing immediately in front of her out of thin air, girl with her wings out, clinging to each other. It really was too bad that the scenario hadn’t presented itself – though why would it have? It was more absurd than the cousin, the hostage situation and the stalker combined – however, as it was precisely what happened.
Several things happened at once:
Alice jumped, eyes widening.
The girl’s wings disappeared, and she went backward a couple of steps, getting herself off the young man’s shoulders.
The young made a squawking sort of sound and pulled a black metal item that looked surprisingly like a calculator with too many buttons and a too-large flip-up screen from the messenger bag over his shoulder, frantically checking up on something.
A few bicyclists who’d found their respective ways onto the sidewalk veered around the sudden confrontation.
And then, as the frozen moment broke, the girl began to speak: “This isn’t the District of Columbia, is it? We’re nowhere near the right place. You’ve gotten us lost again, come on, we have to get going! Christ, Harold, this is my homeworld.”
“You said that out loud, y’know,” the young man – Harold? – muttered, and then glanced back at Alice, shooting her a smile. “Think we’ve been seen, either way –”
“Bloody hell, Sullivan,” the girl snapped, paid Alice no regard and took off down the street, grabbing the young man who may or may not have been named Harold Sullivan’s arm and pulling him along with her. He caught Alice’s eye once more as she tugged him off, and Alice, nothing if not curious, forgot all about Martin and followed after them. The previous two minutes seemed too surreal to have actually just happened. People appearing from nowhere. Something about homeworlds. Wanting to be in the District of Columbia and somehow not knowing that they weren’t even in the right country for that. The strange object in his hand, the way her wings had been out, the way they’d appeared from nowhere –
They walked faster.
Alice kept pace. Maybe it was a stupid thing to do – no, it was definitely a stupid thing to do, but it wasn’t actually stopping her from doing it. This was exactly one of those moments in life she’d always been hoping for, when something unexpected, exciting, and seemingly impossible occurs, and there she was the only one who seemed to notice. Sure, a few people had been gawking for a moment, but they’d probably dismissed a young woman with wings and her companion just coming to be from no source of location at all as something that hadn’t actually happened. Their minds had filled in all the blanks. But the wings, so similar to her own, hadn’t thrown Alice, and they’d both looked right at her when they’d first appeared. Straight at her, as if they were concerned with her. She was certainly concerned with them, and wasn’t about to lose track of the pair.
They weren’t hard to keep track of, as neither seemed to really know where they were going, and eventually the girl stopped and the two of them sat down on a bench they seemed to believe was inconspicuous enough and hidden from enough people that they could carry on whatever conversation it was they’d planned to have. Alice stood a bit at a distance, hoping they wouldn’t notice her, hoping that the girl wouldn’t feel her eavesdropping.
She didn’t seem to.
“Go on, find out,” she snapped at Harold Sullivan. “I’d really like to know just how dead we are.”
He was typing into the foreign item – it really did look like a desk calculator, but only barely. It was smaller and had that strange screen that was as big as the rest of the item itself. Alice could also stop to get a closer look at them; they were probably around her age, though with the girl it was entirely debatable. She had long brown hair in a set of pigtails, a few haphazard freckles, and pale eyes. He, on the other hand, had a mass of shaggy blond hair and quite a few freckles, and an innocent face that didn’t quite suit him. They were both wearing white collared shirts and denim trousers.
The mechanical item beeped softly, breaking Alice’s concentration, and both of them leaned closer to it.
“Uh, do you want to read the reply or –”
“Just tell me what the verdict is!”
“Pierrick says,” he said slowly, “that they’ll send someone else to help with the filibuster – that’s such a funny word, y’know, filibuster? I could say it all day! I wish we were still going –”
Alice had no idea what to make of any of this. Who was Pierrick? What was that thing? What filibuster?
“The point, Sully, please.”
“– They’ll send someone else and we can get transported back within twenty minutes, as it’ll take too long to get us there and back again. So, like I said, I wish we were still going. I hope there’s another one! I’ve always wanted to see one.”
Transported where? How?
“You are one,” the girl said with a sigh. “Just talking and talking and talking.”
“I’m starving,” said Sully.
That was her chance! Alice stepped forward, said, “There’s a good little café near here. The soup’s delightful, and so is the hot chocolate. I’d really recommend it.”
“It’s you!” was his response. “I wasn’t sure if you’d followed us. I’m glad you did. What’s your name?”
“Alice,” said Alice, uncertain of what was going on yet again.
“Sully,” said the unnamed girl, “please don’t –”
“She saw us,” he said. “She saw us and what are you going to suggest doing?”
“We can’t just take her with us!”
Take her where?
“Where are you going?” Alice interrupted.
“Home,” said the girl. “As quickly as we can. Don’t pay him any mind, I’m sorry we bothered you, I’m also sorry for whatever you might’ve seen. It was a mistake.”
“Where do you live, then?”
“Far, far away,” answered Sully with a grin. “Far away in a dreary desert in another world from here, even though apparently this one’s Dawnie’s home. How’d we end up here, do you think, D? Suppose the coordinates said screw it, we want to lead her home for her birthday, a couple of months early?”
“Stop talking,” she said.
“What am I meant to do, be rude to someone who chance saw us transport? It’s not her fault! We can’t exactly wipe her memory or anything!”
Wipe her memory? Alice shuddered. Maybe following them hadn’t been the best idea, even if he had shot her that glance. Maybe the glance itself hadn’t meant what she thought it meant – maybe it was something more sinister, though he certainly didn’t seem sinister. He seemed quite friendly! She didn’t, but it could’ve simply been irritation with the situation itself. A situation that made no sense.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Alice agreed with him, quietly.
“Oh, we won’t do anything like that. We’re not able to. Listen –” Dawn hesitated. “I really am sorry, for this and for my curtness and everything. My name’s Dawn Capio, and this is Harry Sullivan. Sully, usually. If you could take us to the café in question, that’d be really quite nice.” She held out a hand, which Alice shook, and Sully did the same. It was remarkably odd how she, Dawn, managed to go from cold to friendly so quickly.
“Of course,” said Alice with a smile. She’d take them to get some food, and then maybe they’d tell her more. And then who knew what might happen next? They’d just appeared like that,a nd Sully had caught her eye like that – maybe, maybe he was the true love she’d been thinking about. Sure, he hadn’t been watching her from afar, but he wasn’t bad, and he wasn’t bad-looking, either. Or wearing any rings. And of course she had a boyfriend, but it was always a good idea to keep one’s options open.
Alice led the pair to the café, and in the two-minute walk, neither Sully nor Dawn said anything at all, even if Sully kept smiling at her and Dawn kept looking around nervously, as if she was expecting someone to pop out of a shop door and grab her. She seemed paranoid where Sully was carefree. Alice wasn’t sure what to make of that either – Alice wasn’t sure what to make of anything. They continued to not talk in the restaurant itself, only quietly ordering sandwiches for each of them and looking sick. Well, Dawn was looking sick.
“Are you all right?” Alice asked, and all Dawn did was make a face.
“Transport just sank in,” Sully confided. “The way we got here’s a little … bumpy. It makes a lot of people kinda ill. I like it, myself –”
“That’s because you’re twisted,” said Dawn grimly, barely chewing at the lettuce in her wrap.
“And you’re sick to your stomach.” Sully inhaled a glass of lemonade.
“I can’t figure out how you’re eating so quickly!”
Alice couldn’t figure out what was going on. “Transport?” she asked.
Sully and Dawn both nodded, then looked at each other to see who got to explain – or who didn’t, as Dawn most likely preferred.
“We’re not really supposed to talk about it,” Dawn told her. “We’re not really supposed to talk to anyone openly, but then again, we’re not really supposed to be here, either. We’re meant to be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean helping a man named Strom Thurmond –”
“Isn’t that a silly name?” Sully interrupted, and Alice silently agreed, smiling widely and nodding.
“– come up with words for his filibuster. And I haven’t been here in ages. I’m from here, originally. Sully isn’t, even if he sounds Scouse.”
“I do not sound Scouse! … What’s Scouse?”
Alice laughed again. How did he not know? What did she mean, not from here – what did any of this mean? Why was it happening to Alice at all? The question repeated ad nauseum in her mind – what is going on, what is going on, what is going on.
“It means from Liverpool,” said Dawn.
“Which is a city,” Alice added, in case he didn’t know – it seemed he didn’t, as he gave both of them the sort of appreciative smile that couldn’t be acting.
He gave Alice an entreating look. “So it’s not a bad thing, that I sound Scouse?”
“No,” she told him.
“Good. Sometimes Dawn’s right cruel to me!”
As they ate, Dawn and Sully finally opened up a little about who they were, and it sounded just as absurd as the rest of the day did: Dawn told Alice that she was from there, yes, and the Capio in her name was the same as the Capio who was the Duke of Northumberland. That, she said, was her father, which technically made her Lady Morpeth, not that she’d ever seen much of Morpeth in her life, because since she was fourteen she’d been spending time with her great-times-a-million uncle, Robert, at Headquarters. These Headquarters were in some desert land in what was, really, genuinely, another world – Alice found it hard to believe, even if she wanted to believe it.
“Seeing is believing,” Sully had started. “So d’you want –”
“No,” said Dawn, as Alice was thinking yes. “We can’t recruit people!”
And she explained why: they were both just out of training, and this was their first mission. Missions, Sully hopped into narrate, were in fact sometimes just as boring as helping some man with a filibuster. (Odds were he just wanted to say the word ‘filibuster’ again.) But sometimes they helped with revolutions, and staged revolutions, and dealt with civil unrest and natural disasters and all sorts of things, in thousands of varying worlds, some safe, some dangerous, some different, some similar to those they’d seen before. Neither could explain the technology used to get them from world to world, or how they knew where they were needed for missions, or how multiple worlds were formed, or really any great detail at all. They were firm in the fact that they weren’t mad, and their organization did exist.
“Actually, that doesn’t stop Sully from being mad,” Dawn told Alice with a tired smile.
“Oh, shut it,” Sully muttered, and then pouted, as he was, in fact, out of food. “Can I order –”
Before he got to ask permission of either Dawn or Alice to order more food, his messenger bag beeped, and out came the device again. Quickly, Dawn explained it was called a handheld – it was a kind of computer.
“That’s a computer?” Alice was mystified. “It’s tiny!”
“They’re impressive,” Dawn was willing to agree.
“We’re, uh,” interrupted Sully, and then stopped talking, looking sadly at his plate.
“We’re uh what?” demanded Dawn.
“S’posed to transport now,” he said glumly. “Can’t we take Alice? Please? She’d like it, I bet, she seems real curious –”
And Alice was. “I’d love to go!”
“I told you both we can’t recruit people but I guess we can ask if we can come back later – oh, damn, we’ve got to pay, haven’t we, tell Robert – is it Robert?”
“Marcus.”
“Tell Marcus I’m paying, all right?”
“Right,” said Sully, hit some keys and closed the lid on the thing – the handheld – again. Dawn got up and went to the counter, paid the person behind the bar entirely in coins, shot him a smile and came back to the table, grabbing Sully’s arm.
“All right,” she said. “We can go.”
Out came the handheld again. He typed more – Alice caught a glimpse of the screen as the two of them stepped back, hand in hand, and she saw new words and tiny images appear on it just as the two of them glanced over at the bar.
“Do us a right huge favor?” Sully asked her.
“Sure,” Alice told him, not letting it sink in that these amazing people, one of whom was from another world, were really leaving.
“Distract him?”
Distract – oh. The fellow behind the counter. That was easy enough, from the way he’d been looking at her – Alice stood up, moved to sit on a stool within his range of vision, and crossed her legs, stretching out her toes in her sandals. It certainly caught the man’s eye, and it was straight at her he was looking when Sully called out another “g’bye, Alice!” and she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Dawn and Sully disappear entirely.
Chapter Number: 1
Characters: Alice, Dawn, Sully
Rating: G
Word Count: 2,777
Summary: Alice Fitzwilliam, age eighteen, is the newest recruit of THEY, an agency involved in interdimensional diplomatic relations. Recruited off the street after a couple of chance encounters with agents Sully and Dawn, Alice is put under the training of Robert Capio, a tired old dispatch officer, and makes friends with quite a great deal of other people, including a group of teenagers known as the Killiam Set. Robert, who has been retired from offworld duty for many years, is unexpectedly handed a mission that only he, Alice and a few others are actually equipped to handle, and has to face active duty for the first time in nearly a century ... while dealing with the fact he's falling in love with his trainee. Beware of falling subplots.
Etc.: This is an AU that takes DL characters into a universe modified from the universe of another RPG that ran for a couple of years a couple of years ago. Characters that aren't from here (there won't be many) can be assumed to have come from there. Liberties have been taken with basically everything – DL characters from different places and eras are all alive here at the same time, and so far only the Fitzwilliams and the Capios are actually from this world at all. Literally.
August 28th, 1957, started out as a day as normal as any other. It was sunny out, and only a bit humid, and Alice Fitzwilliam was leaving a sweet shop on High Street in Corsham. This event itself wasn’t unique; Alice liked sweets, and was living in Corsham, and so it made a good deal of sense that she’d be going to a sweet shop there. It was quite good, as sweet shops went, and she’d gotten enough so that half could be hers and half could go to her father. Alice considered it quite a good day, seeing as how nothing yet had gone wrong, the weather wasn’t too bothersome, and a couple of boys on motorcycles had smiled at her.
Nothing had yet gone wrong, but the day itself was about to get a lot stranger. Alice imagined it, as she walked to where she’d planned to meet her ride. Imagined being in some sort of film, walking along the road and being about to meet her fate. She could hear the voiceover in her head. The unwitting heroine had no idea of the fate that was about to befall her as she walked to meet her driver … From there, though, she wasn’t quite sure where the story went. Was she being stalked by a man who wanted to have his way with her and kill her? Was she being followed by a man who’d fallen in love with her from afar? Was she about to become part of a hostage situation, accidentally discover a secret, find her long-lost cousin?
There were a million possibilities mulling about inside Alice’s mind, and not one of them involved a human man and his more-than-human female companion appearing immediately in front of her out of thin air, girl with her wings out, clinging to each other. It really was too bad that the scenario hadn’t presented itself – though why would it have? It was more absurd than the cousin, the hostage situation and the stalker combined – however, as it was precisely what happened.
Several things happened at once:
Alice jumped, eyes widening.
The girl’s wings disappeared, and she went backward a couple of steps, getting herself off the young man’s shoulders.
The young made a squawking sort of sound and pulled a black metal item that looked surprisingly like a calculator with too many buttons and a too-large flip-up screen from the messenger bag over his shoulder, frantically checking up on something.
A few bicyclists who’d found their respective ways onto the sidewalk veered around the sudden confrontation.
And then, as the frozen moment broke, the girl began to speak: “This isn’t the District of Columbia, is it? We’re nowhere near the right place. You’ve gotten us lost again, come on, we have to get going! Christ, Harold, this is my homeworld.”
“You said that out loud, y’know,” the young man – Harold? – muttered, and then glanced back at Alice, shooting her a smile. “Think we’ve been seen, either way –”
“Bloody hell, Sullivan,” the girl snapped, paid Alice no regard and took off down the street, grabbing the young man who may or may not have been named Harold Sullivan’s arm and pulling him along with her. He caught Alice’s eye once more as she tugged him off, and Alice, nothing if not curious, forgot all about Martin and followed after them. The previous two minutes seemed too surreal to have actually just happened. People appearing from nowhere. Something about homeworlds. Wanting to be in the District of Columbia and somehow not knowing that they weren’t even in the right country for that. The strange object in his hand, the way her wings had been out, the way they’d appeared from nowhere –
They walked faster.
Alice kept pace. Maybe it was a stupid thing to do – no, it was definitely a stupid thing to do, but it wasn’t actually stopping her from doing it. This was exactly one of those moments in life she’d always been hoping for, when something unexpected, exciting, and seemingly impossible occurs, and there she was the only one who seemed to notice. Sure, a few people had been gawking for a moment, but they’d probably dismissed a young woman with wings and her companion just coming to be from no source of location at all as something that hadn’t actually happened. Their minds had filled in all the blanks. But the wings, so similar to her own, hadn’t thrown Alice, and they’d both looked right at her when they’d first appeared. Straight at her, as if they were concerned with her. She was certainly concerned with them, and wasn’t about to lose track of the pair.
They weren’t hard to keep track of, as neither seemed to really know where they were going, and eventually the girl stopped and the two of them sat down on a bench they seemed to believe was inconspicuous enough and hidden from enough people that they could carry on whatever conversation it was they’d planned to have. Alice stood a bit at a distance, hoping they wouldn’t notice her, hoping that the girl wouldn’t feel her eavesdropping.
She didn’t seem to.
“Go on, find out,” she snapped at Harold Sullivan. “I’d really like to know just how dead we are.”
He was typing into the foreign item – it really did look like a desk calculator, but only barely. It was smaller and had that strange screen that was as big as the rest of the item itself. Alice could also stop to get a closer look at them; they were probably around her age, though with the girl it was entirely debatable. She had long brown hair in a set of pigtails, a few haphazard freckles, and pale eyes. He, on the other hand, had a mass of shaggy blond hair and quite a few freckles, and an innocent face that didn’t quite suit him. They were both wearing white collared shirts and denim trousers.
The mechanical item beeped softly, breaking Alice’s concentration, and both of them leaned closer to it.
“Uh, do you want to read the reply or –”
“Just tell me what the verdict is!”
“Pierrick says,” he said slowly, “that they’ll send someone else to help with the filibuster – that’s such a funny word, y’know, filibuster? I could say it all day! I wish we were still going –”
Alice had no idea what to make of any of this. Who was Pierrick? What was that thing? What filibuster?
“The point, Sully, please.”
“– They’ll send someone else and we can get transported back within twenty minutes, as it’ll take too long to get us there and back again. So, like I said, I wish we were still going. I hope there’s another one! I’ve always wanted to see one.”
Transported where? How?
“You are one,” the girl said with a sigh. “Just talking and talking and talking.”
“I’m starving,” said Sully.
That was her chance! Alice stepped forward, said, “There’s a good little café near here. The soup’s delightful, and so is the hot chocolate. I’d really recommend it.”
“It’s you!” was his response. “I wasn’t sure if you’d followed us. I’m glad you did. What’s your name?”
“Alice,” said Alice, uncertain of what was going on yet again.
“Sully,” said the unnamed girl, “please don’t –”
“She saw us,” he said. “She saw us and what are you going to suggest doing?”
“We can’t just take her with us!”
Take her where?
“Where are you going?” Alice interrupted.
“Home,” said the girl. “As quickly as we can. Don’t pay him any mind, I’m sorry we bothered you, I’m also sorry for whatever you might’ve seen. It was a mistake.”
“Where do you live, then?”
“Far, far away,” answered Sully with a grin. “Far away in a dreary desert in another world from here, even though apparently this one’s Dawnie’s home. How’d we end up here, do you think, D? Suppose the coordinates said screw it, we want to lead her home for her birthday, a couple of months early?”
“Stop talking,” she said.
“What am I meant to do, be rude to someone who chance saw us transport? It’s not her fault! We can’t exactly wipe her memory or anything!”
Wipe her memory? Alice shuddered. Maybe following them hadn’t been the best idea, even if he had shot her that glance. Maybe the glance itself hadn’t meant what she thought it meant – maybe it was something more sinister, though he certainly didn’t seem sinister. He seemed quite friendly! She didn’t, but it could’ve simply been irritation with the situation itself. A situation that made no sense.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Alice agreed with him, quietly.
“Oh, we won’t do anything like that. We’re not able to. Listen –” Dawn hesitated. “I really am sorry, for this and for my curtness and everything. My name’s Dawn Capio, and this is Harry Sullivan. Sully, usually. If you could take us to the café in question, that’d be really quite nice.” She held out a hand, which Alice shook, and Sully did the same. It was remarkably odd how she, Dawn, managed to go from cold to friendly so quickly.
“Of course,” said Alice with a smile. She’d take them to get some food, and then maybe they’d tell her more. And then who knew what might happen next? They’d just appeared like that,a nd Sully had caught her eye like that – maybe, maybe he was the true love she’d been thinking about. Sure, he hadn’t been watching her from afar, but he wasn’t bad, and he wasn’t bad-looking, either. Or wearing any rings. And of course she had a boyfriend, but it was always a good idea to keep one’s options open.
Alice led the pair to the café, and in the two-minute walk, neither Sully nor Dawn said anything at all, even if Sully kept smiling at her and Dawn kept looking around nervously, as if she was expecting someone to pop out of a shop door and grab her. She seemed paranoid where Sully was carefree. Alice wasn’t sure what to make of that either – Alice wasn’t sure what to make of anything. They continued to not talk in the restaurant itself, only quietly ordering sandwiches for each of them and looking sick. Well, Dawn was looking sick.
“Are you all right?” Alice asked, and all Dawn did was make a face.
“Transport just sank in,” Sully confided. “The way we got here’s a little … bumpy. It makes a lot of people kinda ill. I like it, myself –”
“That’s because you’re twisted,” said Dawn grimly, barely chewing at the lettuce in her wrap.
“And you’re sick to your stomach.” Sully inhaled a glass of lemonade.
“I can’t figure out how you’re eating so quickly!”
Alice couldn’t figure out what was going on. “Transport?” she asked.
Sully and Dawn both nodded, then looked at each other to see who got to explain – or who didn’t, as Dawn most likely preferred.
“We’re not really supposed to talk about it,” Dawn told her. “We’re not really supposed to talk to anyone openly, but then again, we’re not really supposed to be here, either. We’re meant to be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean helping a man named Strom Thurmond –”
“Isn’t that a silly name?” Sully interrupted, and Alice silently agreed, smiling widely and nodding.
“– come up with words for his filibuster. And I haven’t been here in ages. I’m from here, originally. Sully isn’t, even if he sounds Scouse.”
“I do not sound Scouse! … What’s Scouse?”
Alice laughed again. How did he not know? What did she mean, not from here – what did any of this mean? Why was it happening to Alice at all? The question repeated ad nauseum in her mind – what is going on, what is going on, what is going on.
“It means from Liverpool,” said Dawn.
“Which is a city,” Alice added, in case he didn’t know – it seemed he didn’t, as he gave both of them the sort of appreciative smile that couldn’t be acting.
He gave Alice an entreating look. “So it’s not a bad thing, that I sound Scouse?”
“No,” she told him.
“Good. Sometimes Dawn’s right cruel to me!”
As they ate, Dawn and Sully finally opened up a little about who they were, and it sounded just as absurd as the rest of the day did: Dawn told Alice that she was from there, yes, and the Capio in her name was the same as the Capio who was the Duke of Northumberland. That, she said, was her father, which technically made her Lady Morpeth, not that she’d ever seen much of Morpeth in her life, because since she was fourteen she’d been spending time with her great-times-a-million uncle, Robert, at Headquarters. These Headquarters were in some desert land in what was, really, genuinely, another world – Alice found it hard to believe, even if she wanted to believe it.
“Seeing is believing,” Sully had started. “So d’you want –”
“No,” said Dawn, as Alice was thinking yes. “We can’t recruit people!”
And she explained why: they were both just out of training, and this was their first mission. Missions, Sully hopped into narrate, were in fact sometimes just as boring as helping some man with a filibuster. (Odds were he just wanted to say the word ‘filibuster’ again.) But sometimes they helped with revolutions, and staged revolutions, and dealt with civil unrest and natural disasters and all sorts of things, in thousands of varying worlds, some safe, some dangerous, some different, some similar to those they’d seen before. Neither could explain the technology used to get them from world to world, or how they knew where they were needed for missions, or how multiple worlds were formed, or really any great detail at all. They were firm in the fact that they weren’t mad, and their organization did exist.
“Actually, that doesn’t stop Sully from being mad,” Dawn told Alice with a tired smile.
“Oh, shut it,” Sully muttered, and then pouted, as he was, in fact, out of food. “Can I order –”
Before he got to ask permission of either Dawn or Alice to order more food, his messenger bag beeped, and out came the device again. Quickly, Dawn explained it was called a handheld – it was a kind of computer.
“That’s a computer?” Alice was mystified. “It’s tiny!”
“They’re impressive,” Dawn was willing to agree.
“We’re, uh,” interrupted Sully, and then stopped talking, looking sadly at his plate.
“We’re uh what?” demanded Dawn.
“S’posed to transport now,” he said glumly. “Can’t we take Alice? Please? She’d like it, I bet, she seems real curious –”
And Alice was. “I’d love to go!”
“I told you both we can’t recruit people but I guess we can ask if we can come back later – oh, damn, we’ve got to pay, haven’t we, tell Robert – is it Robert?”
“Marcus.”
“Tell Marcus I’m paying, all right?”
“Right,” said Sully, hit some keys and closed the lid on the thing – the handheld – again. Dawn got up and went to the counter, paid the person behind the bar entirely in coins, shot him a smile and came back to the table, grabbing Sully’s arm.
“All right,” she said. “We can go.”
Out came the handheld again. He typed more – Alice caught a glimpse of the screen as the two of them stepped back, hand in hand, and she saw new words and tiny images appear on it just as the two of them glanced over at the bar.
“Do us a right huge favor?” Sully asked her.
“Sure,” Alice told him, not letting it sink in that these amazing people, one of whom was from another world, were really leaving.
“Distract him?”
Distract – oh. The fellow behind the counter. That was easy enough, from the way he’d been looking at her – Alice stood up, moved to sit on a stool within his range of vision, and crossed her legs, stretching out her toes in her sandals. It certainly caught the man’s eye, and it was straight at her he was looking when Sully called out another “g’bye, Alice!” and she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Dawn and Sully disappear entirely.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}