Somewhere in the Preserve, Shortly After Midnight, Saturday

[endsthegame]

There was a small apple tree, somewhere at the back of the preserve, near the rocky cliffs that tapered off into the water. It had been only a twig several months ago, but something had given it a little bit of an impulse. It had grown bigger, and healthier, and it had put a lot of energy into making apples.

One apple. An apple with a golden sheen.

Exactly at midnight, it grew heavy enough to start straining on its branch. A few moments later, and the fragile connection between it and the tree snapped, and it fell to the ground.

The Causeway went fuzzy for a few seconds, then straightened itself back out.

And across the multiverse, across space and time, various individuals, trying to travel back to an island in 2031-- got misdirected.

[[ have a fun reunion, y'all! ]]

The Rocky Bits, Saturday Morning

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle honestly couldn't tell you how long it had been since she'd been back in Fandom.

By physical reckoning, she'd only aged about three years after graduating, but closer to thirty had passed at home since, thanks to not having counted on Ares entombing them in ice after she and Xena faked their deaths (that time -- no, not that one, that other one, where they'd been responsible for the decimation of their own people's deities) until a chance avalanche let light into the mountainside cave and thawed them out. Add to that whatever time-travel-related headaches came from going this far into the future to visit Fandom, and well . . . she'd just as well not try and figure out a specific answer to "how long has it been," thanks.

'A long time' worked well enough for Gabrielle, who'd emerged from the mountainside (not a bad place for a grave, so she had to give Ares credit for taste) to find a world where everything was different. Their young friend Octavius was Augustus Caesar now (apparently that had happened after Xena'd killed Marc Antony and she'd killed Brutus and the whole mess with Cleopatra was over); Joxer had somehow managed to father a good-looking warrior and poet of a boy named Virgil, and Gabrielle had no idea how that had been possible; Xena's daughter Eve was . . .

Well.

It'd been an incredibly unpleasant shock (to say the least) for both of them when they discovered that in the intervening years Xena's baby daughter Eve had grown up to become Livia, Rome's new champion. Even more unpleasant (again, to say the least) to remember her killing Joxer in front of them, and to realize that it was somewhat inevitable, that a woman whose genetic makeup came from Xena and Callisto would be capable of that kind of savagery.

Knocking sense into her hadn't been easy nor had it made a whole hell of a lot of sense, and it had been exhausting, so the timing of Gabrielle's invitation to the reunion had been just about perfect, giving her a chance to get away for a few days and recover while Xena and Eve made up for a lot of lost mother-daughter bonding years.

Waking up in her old dorm room had felt oddly like it had just been yesterday, but then again Gabrielle had long since given up on trying to make sense of the passage of time anyway. She made her way into the town and out to the Rocky Bits to look out over the water, absently twirling her sai in her hands as she did. Funny how much this place felt like it hadn't changed, even though they all had . . .

[OOC: Open post, though subject to SP for a bit when I have to go run errands. For reference, Gabrielle really doesn't look more than about three years older than she did in school, though she does have short hair now and basically looks like this. Also she isn't the same version of future!Gab who will be factoring into thinkbetterofme's future, just FYI.]

Fandom High 20 Year Reunion Mixer, Community Center - Saturday Evening

[mouthy-merc.livejournal.com]

If anyone could recall the dance from the night before, they would have thought that it was decorated tastefully compared to what was going on tonight. There were streamers, balloons and what appeared to be paper flower ornaments everywhere. All done in yellow and blue for the proud graduates of Fandom High, of course.

And there were the 'classic' songs from twenty years ago blaring loudly for people to dance or cringe to. Who knew Ke$ha and Justin Bieber would get to be classic pop music for future generations?

Just be glad there is an open bar.

Arrive/Pick Up A Name Tag | Dance Floor | Open Bar | Dark Corners

Caritas- Saturday

[solo_sword]

Jaina had spent some time at the mixer, but she had to admit she'd been sort of drawn to Caritas. Saturdays had been her night and for some strange reason she was a little nostalgic today. She couldn't resist stopping in for at least a little while to tell Tino everything she'd been up to, despite- or more accurately, because of- the fact that he'd never cared about his coworkers' personal lives in the slightest, and to head behind the bar.

Just because she could. And because she never got to do things like this anymore. For some reason empresses didn't tend bar much, who knew?

...Empresses probably also didn't consider lining the bar up with champagne glasses and trying that pouring trick she'd perfected at Mirta's wedding, and yet here she was, considering it.


[Up now because it's TAH night and I leave at 6!]

Devil's Nest [Saturday Night]

[texted3times]

Eric Northman, vampire king of Nevada, didn't spend a great deal of time in Fandom these days but the reunion was too much of a temptation to resist.

He nodded at Tiny, then at the DJ who was playing the most modern of tunes--Willow Smith's latest dance hit, the Rolling Stones, Cher (who Eric had personally looked into to figure out how she was still alive. Mick Jagger was obviously a demon)--and then wandered behind the velvet rope to discover that the True Blood was the recipe from 20 years ago. Eww.

He wasn't planning on staying here all night: he was going to head to the mingler to...well, mingle...as well, but it was important to put the fear of him into his employees every now and then.

The Devil's Nest was open.

The Arms Hotel Lobby, Saturday [4/2]

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

When Mary Connell-Cooper got tired of waiting in her suite for her husband to arrive, she went downstairs and bumped into a very familiar face. "Wow, you don't look a day over 50!" she squealed while Gunther just looked confused. "I mean, I'm the one who married a billionaire but you apparently found the world's best plastic surgeon. It's like you haven't aged in twenty years," she added.

Gunther cringed a little bit and turned to flee back to his kitchen, but Mary wasn't done talking yet. "By the way, I need to make a special request for dinner. My husband really likes his steak. That's what I get for marrying a cattle rancher," she said which a chuckle. "By the way, have you seen him around? He was detained on business in Wyoming but promised me that he would get here... Are you okay, Gunther? You look awfully pale."

That's because Gunther just realized that the current owner of the Montecito Las Vegas was a billionaire cattle rancher from Wyoming. He mumbled something about cupcakes in the oven and ran to call Delinda. She really needed to hear this.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel!
Today's Specials
Bacon-Wrapped Beef Tenderloin
Sauteed Asparagus and Snap Peas
Mint Chocolate-Meringue Cupcakes

Around the island, early Saturday morning

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

In the dim light of the early morning, Agent Canary went for a jog. That's what army guys did in the morning, after all. Keeps you on your toes -- literally! There was another reason, too: it was neato being back on the old island again, but he hadn't really been all that observant the last time he was here. He needed to know the layout of the place, where everything was, that sort of thing. So he could commit it to memory, in case anything bad happened or whatever.

He skirted the edges of the preserve and the rocky bits -- those would be their own expeditions, later -- and went up and down the various streets of Fandom.

His communicator crackled to life in his ear. "Hey, Hank Grenade!" Shore Leave greeted him. "Party at your dad's house -- wanna come?" That was super-secret agent code for a disturbance at the Venture Compound. Some supervillain was attacking.

"Who's invited?" Canary growled into his mic. Secret Agent Canary growled. It was a "cool" thing.

"Oh, just some C-rate losers," Shore Leave told him. In the background, there was the sound of gunfire, and evil henchmen running and screaming. "Nothing worth breaking a sweat over. But you wanted to be kept informed."

"Thanks," Canary growled. "You handle it. I'm on... vacation."


[Open for anyone else in the streets early.]

Chilly Boulder, Saturday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Karla was back on Fandom again and, oddities of the morning aside--like waking up in the dorms--was pretty excited to be back on the island. After a brief practice with sticks in the preserve, she'd decided to look up some of her favorite places from her time here.

...Which had her heading to the ice cream store, obviously. Well, with a quick stop at the Perk for coffee. Funny how neither store had changed a bit. Even her coffee-maker back home looked more modern than that.

Of course, she had a Skywalker with a tinkering fetish in her Court, so maybe she wasn't the best judge of that.

Ordering a GIANT sundae for herself (she was a grown-up, she could have ice cream for breakfast if she wanted to), she made her way over to a table near one of the windows and settled in, looking for familiar faces.

Well, probably not so familiar anymore.

[Open like an ice cream store. FYI, Karla still looks pretty young, in her mid-twenties.]

The Park, Saturday Morning

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

It had become a kind of habit to walk to the park in the mornings and do her dance practise there. It was the best place to come up with new ideas for her classes, and she always had an audience, even though by now the ducks and flamingos mostly ignored her.

Dance practise had become a good routine. Some days it might look like she was killing something (and that might actually cause some disturbance among the birds), and other days she danced one of the ballet pieces she had learnt as a child. Some days she did a lot of standing still.

Sometimes people joined her. She wondered what today would be like. Later today she would look human, but this morning she wore her true zerg form. The bony wings always added a lot to the dance.

[open park, of course. Welcome to talk to, dance with or stare at River.]