Corner of Godiva and Serendipity, Wednesday morning

[vdistinctive]

The air was gently sweet, like a subtle perfume. The sky was blue, folks on the street were cheerful and smiling at one another, and there was a giant freaking tower at the end of Eliot's street that hadn't been there the day before.

Eliot stood across from it with his arms crossed over his chest, Val sitting at his feet. It was definitely alien, whether from space or another dimension, he wasn't sure. It didn't look like they'd been invaded by anything other than the towers -- why would they be so obvious with those if they weren't going to come tromping out with ray-guns or whatever. Were they microscopic, maybe? That might be what the perfume was.

"What do you think?" he asked Val. She looked up at him and panted blandly. He frowned. "You feelin' okay?" She cocked her head to one side.

A passing rickshaw driver rang his bell to get Eliot's attention and waved cheerfully at him. "Fine morning, isn't it?"

Val yipped happily and wagged her tail at the driver. The passengers in the rickshaw looked over and smiled blandly.

"Yeah," Eliot said, looking between the rickshaw and his oddly behaving puppy and the tower. "Because none of this is suspicious at all."

[ooc: open to any fellow abductees!]

Comments

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison sauntered around the corner, hands in his pockets. "What's that smell?" he asked, with nowhere near the appropriate amount of derision or disgust for Eliot's liking, no doubt. "I like it."

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why they had to invest in a Kidnapping Calendar. This right here.

"Hey, girl. How's my girl doin'?"

[vdistinctive]

Val wagged her tail and panted blandly at Hardison from her position sitting by Eliot's feet. Eliot stared at Hardison. "Seriously?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison looked confused. "...Yes?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot pointed angrily at the tower, eyebrows raised.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"...That ain't just some weird Fandom thing?" Hardison asked.

Look, it wasn't his fault he didn't know how distinctive alien tech looked!

[vdistinctive]

". . . ain't a -- it's glowing red, Hardison!" Eliot shook his head, exasperated. "And it just happens to be right by where Gaunt's shop was. And -- oh yeah -- it's a freaking alien tower that showed up overnight."

[myownface]

Spaaarkle hated eeeverythiiing. As could probably be evidenced by the way he was practically singing swear words as he made his way down the street. He'd sort of crashed on a park bench last night - it wasn't like he had the money to spring for a hotel room and he didn't feel like knocking on doors after running away to the island just because he was in a snit - and when he'd woken up and gone to get his portal back to Toronto?

Yeah, no dice. And an attempt at wandering across the Causeway hadn't worked super great for him, either.

And now... whatever that thing was? Seriously?

"I fucking hate this fucking island and its fucking stupid fucking-- fuck!"

Hi, Eliot.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot watched this performance with an ever rising eyebrow. Val didn't seem to notice, which was also extremely concerning.

"Not that I'm disagreein', kid," Eliot said. "But I'm guessin' you ain't just pissed off about creepy towers and rickshaw drivers."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Go ahead an' tell me that that's not the kinda thing that can happen in Fandom," Hardison pointed out. Not that he was looking at the towers. He was staring down at Val and frowning. "Ditto with it smellin' like the inside of a Febreeze bottle whenever you walk outside...Yo, what's wrong with Megabyte?"

[myownface]

"I can't leave," Sparkle muttered, wrinkling his nose. "I was supposed to be going back to fucking Toronto this morning so that Lewis didn't shit himself over my vanishing and now I'm stuck. Of course I'm stuck. It's just like this place to make sure I'm good at stuck with the worst possible timing ever."

A beat.

"And you're like the first person I've seen today who hasn't been acting like he came out of, like, a space-pod or something. So, hey, a spot of sunshine in an otherwise fucked-up day. Thanks for not being creepy."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, well, so're elder gods and dead serial killers," Eliot said. "Just 'cause it's happenin' in Fandom doesn't mean ain't suspicious." He looked down at Val, who watched them talk and occasionally turning her head to watch the passersby. "I don't know. She's been actin' weird all morning. I mean -- she's actin' like a perfectly normal, healthy dog, but not like her."

[vdistinctive]

"I try," Eliot said dryly. It was the truth. He frequently had to put effort into not being overly creepy. "What do you mean you can't leave? Portalocity givin' you shit or. . . ."

The idea that there was a potential alien invasion and they couldn't even retreat if they had to was playing hell on his protective instincts.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"She, like, ain't respondin' right to stuff." You can keep your alien towers and your glowing lights, Eliot. Hardison had more important things to worry about. "Hey, girl! Hey, look what I got here!" He pulled out a bag of jerky from his pocket and held a piece out. "Mmm, look! Somethin' Daddy says you ain't s'posed to have, but that sure smells delicious!"

[vdistinctive]

"Dammit, Hardison," Eliot started, but trailed off when Val didn't do much more than bark at Hardison and wag her tail. She didn't leap up to snatch the jerky from him. She didn't run excitedly in a circle.

"If I find whoever put my damn dog on valium I'm going to take them apart."

[myownface]

"Portalocity lost my reservation and told me they were booked solid for the foreseeable future," Sparkle muttered. "And then I made my way into Baltimore, to see if I could at least book, like, a bus, and settle for being gone for three fucking days, but I ran facefirst into thin fricking air, so that was fun."

Spoiler: Walking into an invisible wall had not actually been fun.

[vdistinctive]

"Wait, back up." Eliot rubbed a hand over his face. "What do you mean you 'ran into thin air'?"

He had an idea, but he was really hoping it was wrong because freaking force-fields? Really?!

[myownface]

"I mean I started walking, and then I kept walking, and then I couldn't keep walking because I was nursing a surprise fucking nosebleed."

So, really, it had been great.

"See, I knew Fandom follows people off the island, but I didn't think it was going to be such a shit about it."

[vdistinctive]

"A goddamn force field?!" Eliot yelled at the tower, sounding personally offended by this. "Freakin' aliens." He turned back towards Sparkle. "Sorry, kid. It seems like someone decided we're all stuck here for whatever these things have in mind for us."

He was so beating up the next person who gave him even the slightest excuse. Probably a rickshaw driver who grinned creepily at him.

[myownface]

"... These things?" Sparkle looked up at the tower again, wrinkled his nose, and then reached up to pinch the bridge of it. "Oh, yay. Come to Fandom, get abducted, or possessed, or killed, or turned into somebody else. Why do I even keep coming here?"

Because it never lasted. Because as much as it sucked in the short-term, all of the worst of it always eventually went away.

Right. Good. Okay.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Word," Hardison said, popping the jerky into his mouth. "I'mma help you with that. Ain't nobody messes with our girl and keeps breathin on their own."

He stretched and looked around, actually looking at things, then reached over to pinch Eliot--hard--on the arm.

[vdistinctive]

"I'm guessin' that was rhetorical," Eliot said. "Can't beat your timing on it. I shoulda known it'd been quiet around here for too long."

Why couldn't they have just turned into women again or something? Sure, that had still stressed Eliot the fuck out, but it had eventually been pretty fun. . . .

[vdistinctive]

"Ow." Eliot whacked his knuckles -- gently -- back at Hardison's shoulder. "The hell was that for?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Establishin' a baseline," Hardison said cheerfully, before sticking his hands in his pockets and sauntering over to the side of the road and whistling a cheerful tune.

Way to oversell it, Hardison.

He barely had to wait more than a minute before a rickshaw driver trotted over to him, greeting Hardison with a grin and a tip of his hat. Hardison turned to give Eliot a, Can you believe this? look before saying, "Sorry," to the driver and pinching him, too.

The driver didn't respond.

"Thanks," Hardison said, and walked back to Eliot. The driver stayed where he was for another moment, then shrugged and headed off. "Well, we ain't dreamin'," he said. "But we've left normal behind, even for this place."

[myownface]

And Sparkle could so handle being a woman again for a few days. Especially a few days here, instead of back in Toronto, where people would wonder what the hell was going on.

"So... What do you suppose are the odds of somebody, like, trying to eat us or use us in a game of intergalactic rugby or harvest us for parts or whatever? Because I'm so not in the mood."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot hadn't honestly thought the rickshaw drivers would get any creepier. He should have known better.

"Alright," he said. "Okay, so either someone really did put most of the island on valium or. . . ." He didn't have an 'or' yet. He looked back up at the tower again. ". . . Pod people?"

Okay, maybe he did have an 'or'.

"Why would it go after my dog and the rickshaw drivers, but not you and me?" Hell, Val slept basically on top of Eliot, when there was room in the bed. How would it have gotten to her but by-passed the rest of them?