Time Stand Still | | A Show of Hands
Nov. 10th, 2020 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsStrange visitors arrive at the mansion. They are indeed very strange, on a mission and have a lot of secrets and yet oddly, are quite open about the fact that they're from the future.
Image inducer was still working. Brown hair, pale skin, all the "normal" stuff. Her hand was clasped gently but firmly on the shoulder of the little blonde boy next to her, hovering several inches above the ground, mostly hoping he wouldn't try to go any higher.
Talia looked at the mansion door, then back at the rest of the group, looking them over. "Okay. Everyone remembers how we're going to do this, right? Don't tell them too much, remember codenames, and-" her eyes rested on Shogo for a minute, "please don't say anything too weird."
"My codename is Horrible Goose." Franklin chirped. "Aunt Ellie said so." He wiggled under Talia's hand, trying to get his shoulder up, down, left, right, all over. "Honk honk honk honk honk honk." He raised up one hand in a fist. "Bump please."
Reaching down and smiling a little despite herself and their entire situation, Ellie reached over and gave Frankie the fistbump he was asking for. She inhaled slowly a moment later, ruffling the little man's hair before turning her eyes up to the oh-so-familiar main gate. "Let's just get this done," she said, trying not to notice the changes her own image inducer had made to her skin, eye, and hair color -- just in case another version of her happened to be at this mansion, too. "So we can go back and figure out how much we managed to un-fuck our universe or whatever."
Nathanial had been looking at his companions, their lips to be exact. He couldn't hear what they were saying but he knew what they were talking about. Nate was also wearing an image inducer, but it wouldn't deny him his enhanced eyes. Looking back at the mansion, already he counted the number of security cameras that no doubt had already spotted them.
"Wait, wait, hold on, time out," Shogo said, tapping his hands together in a T repeatedly. "Why does little man get a new code name and I don't?? I want one too!"
The difference between Shogo and Franklin in this situation was, of course, that Franklin was six, and Shogo was serious.
"What about 'White Rabbit'?" he asked, putting a hand to his chin. "People call me that all the time anyway. Never did know why, but I like it. And, and and... That way we can be Animal Bros!" His smile clearly said 'best idea ever'.
Ruby and Garnet were rather startled to find themselves (at least one of) the responsible adults on this little trip. "You know that I can hear you when you are thinking that loudly, right, Franklin? We all heard 'aunt Ellie' use the naughty word, thank you for not repeating it." The larger question of whether loud thinking counted toward tattling was not one they felt like exploring just then, though. As it was they were reasonably sure they were going to return from this jaunt with a screaming headache.
Hopefully they could just make other people scream instead.
Shakti resolutely ignored them all and reached forward to press the doorbell. "No use delaying. We need to get this over with." She kept her emotions tucked behind a prim British exterior, hands clasped together at her waist. "Now behave, or I'm turning this quest around."
Talia sighed, then took a deep breath, trying to smile. This would be fine. This would be absolutely fine.
She really hoped this would be fine.
For a few minutes nothing happened, but then long ribbons of sand came around them and they swirled together before them to conceal into Sooraya's form. Her eyes roved over the group as she folded her arms before her chest, pausing briefly on each one of them. "Alright... who are you and why have you come here? And how did you know where to find us?"
Oh good, Shogo knew this one! And he was standing in front of the door! That meant he got to do the introductions! "Hi!" he chirped, grinning happily. "We're from the future to save the past! I'm White Rabbit, and behind me is... oh, um..." They hadn't picked codenames for this mission, had they? Just Franklin and him. Well, Shogo couldn't let him and Franklin have all the fun, so he just got to pick for them instead!
"This is Horrible Goose, Wry Finch, Couching Bison, Shifting Meerkat, Melodic Axolotl, and Burning Skylarks 1 and 2," he said, pointing at Franklin, Talia, Nate, Ellie, Shakti, and Ruby and Garnet in turn. "We're the Animal Bros, and we're here to save the day!"
Oh, great, Ellie thought, taking a slow breath to suppress her automatic reaction to seeing her now-dead Aunt Sooraya's AU doppelganger forming out of sand. I fucking hate this. She sent Shogo an exasperated look, then pasted a smile onto her face and began signing as she said, "What Spaceboy over there meant is that we're from the future of an alternate timeline and we're here to try to prevent the bitc- uh..."
Glancing down at Frankie, she switched up her choice of words. "We're trying to stop the person who slaughtered our families from doing something heinous to you guys, but also, we're trying to see if there's a way for us to prevent her from doing what she did in our timeline, full stop.
"It's possible that's just me, though - the second part, I mean. So, it's like we're Obi-woning you, except in reverse and from the side. That sounded dirty." With another look down at the six year old, she put her hand on his head to stop him from bouncing and said, "Don't repeat that, Goose." It seemed strangely fortuitous that he hadn't actually interrupted her yet. She'd been talking for a while and Aunt Sooraya had been one of his favorite babysitters.
Nate was watching Ellie sign for him but he caught a glimpse of the woman who had opened the door. It was Aunt Sooraya. No, it was this universes Sooraya and quickly he went back to looking at Ellie. Clearly seeing dead loved ones was difficult, even for him. The pain was still too fresh for him.
Franklin tugged on Shogo's elbow, pulling himself up. "Uncle S... Shrabbit. Ruby and Garnet's codenames aren't on fire. I'm not allowed to do fire." He sat criss-cross in the air, and booped Shogo's nose. "And boop. You have to stick your tongue out now."
"Uhm... you aren't making a lot of sense here. Why..." Then Sooraya paused as she took in the way several of them were looking at her, especially a taller guy in the back. She recognized that look... from just after M-Day when all the familiar, yet so different faces had arrived, reminding them of those they had lost. Quickly retaking herself, she started over: "You all obviously know who I am... why don't you tell me your real names and what happened in the... future?"
Talia let the chaos happen, letting out a long breath and closing her eyes. Yup. This was going to be fine. She opened her eyes to smile again at Sooraya - was she dead? Had she been at the mansion? Nate would probably know - damn it was, someone translating for him? Shogo was such a disaster (and which one of those codenames was hers exactly? She made a note to ask later)-
"As you can probably tell, it's a bit of a long story." There was an undertone of patient politeness that might have been familiar. "May we come in?"
Image inducer was still working. Brown hair, pale skin, all the "normal" stuff. Her hand was clasped gently but firmly on the shoulder of the little blonde boy next to her, hovering several inches above the ground, mostly hoping he wouldn't try to go any higher.
Talia looked at the mansion door, then back at the rest of the group, looking them over. "Okay. Everyone remembers how we're going to do this, right? Don't tell them too much, remember codenames, and-" her eyes rested on Shogo for a minute, "please don't say anything too weird."
"My codename is Horrible Goose." Franklin chirped. "Aunt Ellie said so." He wiggled under Talia's hand, trying to get his shoulder up, down, left, right, all over. "Honk honk honk honk honk honk." He raised up one hand in a fist. "Bump please."
Reaching down and smiling a little despite herself and their entire situation, Ellie reached over and gave Frankie the fistbump he was asking for. She inhaled slowly a moment later, ruffling the little man's hair before turning her eyes up to the oh-so-familiar main gate. "Let's just get this done," she said, trying not to notice the changes her own image inducer had made to her skin, eye, and hair color -- just in case another version of her happened to be at this mansion, too. "So we can go back and figure out how much we managed to un-fuck our universe or whatever."
Nathanial had been looking at his companions, their lips to be exact. He couldn't hear what they were saying but he knew what they were talking about. Nate was also wearing an image inducer, but it wouldn't deny him his enhanced eyes. Looking back at the mansion, already he counted the number of security cameras that no doubt had already spotted them.
"Wait, wait, hold on, time out," Shogo said, tapping his hands together in a T repeatedly. "Why does little man get a new code name and I don't?? I want one too!"
The difference between Shogo and Franklin in this situation was, of course, that Franklin was six, and Shogo was serious.
"What about 'White Rabbit'?" he asked, putting a hand to his chin. "People call me that all the time anyway. Never did know why, but I like it. And, and and... That way we can be Animal Bros!" His smile clearly said 'best idea ever'.
Ruby and Garnet were rather startled to find themselves (at least one of) the responsible adults on this little trip. "You know that I can hear you when you are thinking that loudly, right, Franklin? We all heard 'aunt Ellie' use the naughty word, thank you for not repeating it." The larger question of whether loud thinking counted toward tattling was not one they felt like exploring just then, though. As it was they were reasonably sure they were going to return from this jaunt with a screaming headache.
Hopefully they could just make other people scream instead.
Shakti resolutely ignored them all and reached forward to press the doorbell. "No use delaying. We need to get this over with." She kept her emotions tucked behind a prim British exterior, hands clasped together at her waist. "Now behave, or I'm turning this quest around."
Talia sighed, then took a deep breath, trying to smile. This would be fine. This would be absolutely fine.
She really hoped this would be fine.
For a few minutes nothing happened, but then long ribbons of sand came around them and they swirled together before them to conceal into Sooraya's form. Her eyes roved over the group as she folded her arms before her chest, pausing briefly on each one of them. "Alright... who are you and why have you come here? And how did you know where to find us?"
Oh good, Shogo knew this one! And he was standing in front of the door! That meant he got to do the introductions! "Hi!" he chirped, grinning happily. "We're from the future to save the past! I'm White Rabbit, and behind me is... oh, um..." They hadn't picked codenames for this mission, had they? Just Franklin and him. Well, Shogo couldn't let him and Franklin have all the fun, so he just got to pick for them instead!
"This is Horrible Goose, Wry Finch, Couching Bison, Shifting Meerkat, Melodic Axolotl, and Burning Skylarks 1 and 2," he said, pointing at Franklin, Talia, Nate, Ellie, Shakti, and Ruby and Garnet in turn. "We're the Animal Bros, and we're here to save the day!"
Oh, great, Ellie thought, taking a slow breath to suppress her automatic reaction to seeing her now-dead Aunt Sooraya's AU doppelganger forming out of sand. I fucking hate this. She sent Shogo an exasperated look, then pasted a smile onto her face and began signing as she said, "What Spaceboy over there meant is that we're from the future of an alternate timeline and we're here to try to prevent the bitc- uh..."
Glancing down at Frankie, she switched up her choice of words. "We're trying to stop the person who slaughtered our families from doing something heinous to you guys, but also, we're trying to see if there's a way for us to prevent her from doing what she did in our timeline, full stop.
"It's possible that's just me, though - the second part, I mean. So, it's like we're Obi-woning you, except in reverse and from the side. That sounded dirty." With another look down at the six year old, she put her hand on his head to stop him from bouncing and said, "Don't repeat that, Goose." It seemed strangely fortuitous that he hadn't actually interrupted her yet. She'd been talking for a while and Aunt Sooraya had been one of his favorite babysitters.
Nate was watching Ellie sign for him but he caught a glimpse of the woman who had opened the door. It was Aunt Sooraya. No, it was this universes Sooraya and quickly he went back to looking at Ellie. Clearly seeing dead loved ones was difficult, even for him. The pain was still too fresh for him.
Franklin tugged on Shogo's elbow, pulling himself up. "Uncle S... Shrabbit. Ruby and Garnet's codenames aren't on fire. I'm not allowed to do fire." He sat criss-cross in the air, and booped Shogo's nose. "And boop. You have to stick your tongue out now."
"Uhm... you aren't making a lot of sense here. Why..." Then Sooraya paused as she took in the way several of them were looking at her, especially a taller guy in the back. She recognized that look... from just after M-Day when all the familiar, yet so different faces had arrived, reminding them of those they had lost. Quickly retaking herself, she started over: "You all obviously know who I am... why don't you tell me your real names and what happened in the... future?"
Talia let the chaos happen, letting out a long breath and closing her eyes. Yup. This was going to be fine. She opened her eyes to smile again at Sooraya - was she dead? Had she been at the mansion? Nate would probably know - damn it was, someone translating for him? Shogo was such a disaster (and which one of those codenames was hers exactly? She made a note to ask later)-
"As you can probably tell, it's a bit of a long story." There was an undertone of patient politeness that might have been familiar. "May we come in?"
