fandomtownies | Center of the Park, Saturday Morning

Adra was vaguely aware that normal parents did not respond to weird portals which had previously transported their kids across time and space reappearing again by cheerfully shoving said kid towards them with a "Traumatise the other me!", but she was used to her weird dad by now.

Plus this place had been fun last time.

There was a portal to the past and, sadly, this was in no way a new thing in Petey's life. So, after writing a note that said 'time travelling to traumatize you guys' he was off to visit Fandom past.

Because he was the worst ever.

If Jaq heeded every warning Anakin and Obi-Wan gave him, he'd never have any fun. When the portal opened he jumped right through, rolling into the park with an eager grin on his face and dirt on his nose.

"Yippee!"

Mama and Dad had told Janie Not To Touch Portals a lot. She was supposed to get as far away from it as possible as fast as possible, and get an adult. Preferably Daddy, but any of her adults would do.

So of course Janie was going to go through the portal. Whyever would you think she wouldn't?

Last time the portal had been a let down, but that didn't stop her for going for it this time. Especially not after she'd been expressly forbidden to go through any more.

She looked around. Yep, still a park.

Jarik made a little moue at the place she ended up at the end of the portal. But she could work with this. Adversity into opportunity.

Still would have preferred the portal dropped her off in London. Or Alderaan.

She took a moment to check that her hair was fine before stomping off to find her parents.

Want to know who was sick of portals? This girl. This girl right here.

Ylva sighed, pulling out her phone to find a decent signal. Or JARVIS to direct her toward where her parents might be.

One moment Rain was in a rather heated argument with her mother, and turned to storm off dramatically. Straight into a swirling vortex of WTF.

She swallowed the mouthful of shepherd's pie (dinner time was often when she got into it with her mom) and stared around in shock.

Huh?!

Then she saw the castle up on the hill, and it was a good thing she'd swallowed her food because now her mouth dropped open with even more shock.

Holy shazbot is this FANDOM?!

Edited 2016-04-16 14:28 (UTC)

Like Ada was going to pass up a trip back to Fandom to see her tiny parents again. They were so cute when they were panicking and flailing. Though finding them took a backseat to hanging around the portal looking for either a) siblings, or b) cute people to flirt with.

Petey had inherited all his parents' skills with the ladies. Meaning he was bad at it and women occasionally attempted to murder him.

"Hey," he said smoothly. So smoothly.

He should meet one of her dads. Hardison was terrible. Even being married to two people.

Still, this kid was cute--and not a kid--so Ada was willing to smile back and say, "Hey," in return.

Scintillating, kids, good job.

It was possible that Petey would get along with him since he willingly went by Petey just to be difficult and embarrass his parents.

"So, you visiting too?" In case this was someone who was, like, thirty where he was from. It would be his luck if that was the case.

She was named after Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper; the nerd was strong in this one.

...Though maybe not 'Petey' strong, to be sure.

"Yeah, just here for the weekend to traumatize the parents," she said, looking far too gleeful at the prospect. "The first year I showed up, Dad had a meltdown and Pops had to, like, drag him outside and scold. You too?"

"First time for them," he said with a truly evil grin. "Not the first time for me. Time travel kind of just happens back home."

When you had to put up with Kang the Conqueror ruining your tenth birthday, you got revenge in the little things.

"I have no idea what number this is for them," Ada said with a low chuckle and a glance up through her lashes that she'd been practicing. "I've been here pretty much every year for, like, a decade now, but my second year here, was something like their fifth, you know? It's weird how portals work."

She wanted to study them!

"Who're your parents?"

[Fleeing for brunch, be back in a few hours!]

Okay, that was cheating. Petey was totally calling that out as cheating. For someone who picked the awful codename of The Widower, he was so terrible at this.

"Tony Stark and Jessica Drew," he said, voice only cracking a little bit. Which meant he totally nailed this flirting out of costume thing. By his standards. "You?"

Awww, Ada didn't have a codename. That wasn't how Leverage rolled. They needed to work on that.

"Dad's Eliot Spencer, Pops is Alec Hardison, and Aunt Parker who is never mom, even though they're married," Ada said easily, fighting down a grin at that voice crack. Nailed it. "They own the diner in town? Though by my time, we're living in New Orleans."

They were way more fun when you got to wear ridiculous costumes along with them. And and the proportional angst of a spider in your DNA.

"I'd say that's confusing but my parents made me in a lab." He was pretty sure there was something about Reed Richards in there, but he didn't want to know. He held up a hand for a highfive, though.

Ada was always up for high-fiving weird families. Especially cute people with weird families. "My dads don't like talking about how I ended up coming about. They just say island weirdness and change the subject."

"So, magic? I'm betting on magic," Petey said cheerfully. He always bet on magic. It really pissed his dad off.

"That's my guess!" Ada said cheerfully. "All I know is it makes everyone real uncomfortable, so I make sure to ask every couple of months."

Because it was funny, that was why.

"Or maybe one of those weekends where people are the wrong gender," Petey suggested. Because that would make him feel awkward too.

But since it wasn't him, he was enjoying this.

"That would be awkward," Ada said and this time her laugh was much less calculated for effect. "Because what happens when the weekend is over?!"

"Well, when a man and a man love each other very much and this island decides it likes making people unhappy..." Petey started like it was a tale as old as time.

"...But it knows that a force of awesome must be brought into the world and the woman they both love categorically refuses to even think about having kids," Ada continued with a grin. "This does sound pretty legit, yeah."

"It's practically a sitcom."

"And its tagline is something cheesy as hell like, Love makes the impossible, possible," Ada said, spreading her hands. "And at least once an episode I have to wail, 'Awww, Daaad,' and then look into the camera."

"Awwww," Petey replied. "And there better be a live studio audience. Is that still a thing where you're from?"

It sadly was where he was from.

"Yup," Ada said with a long sigh. "So are laugh tracks and applause machines. Ugh, hurry up and retire, older generation. Let the young people in who know what cool is."

And then she was giving him another flirtatious smile. "You can be the cute neighbor who lives next door if you wanna be. We can be study-buddies."

Ada, stop.

"I--" He cleared his throat and tried to act cool after looking completely surprised at first. "I can do that."

Awww yeeeeah.

He reminded her of Spike, absolutely no game to speak of. It was adorable. "How do you feel about bad ideas that are actually great ideas, sticking up for the little guy by sticking it to the Man, and a few light felonies in the name of helping people out?"

Just checking!

"I could manage that," he replied, trying not to smile. Because he fought crime in a skintight black costume. What she described was an average Thursday evening.

Ada produced a business card practically out of thin air. One wasn't raised by Parker without learning serious sleight of hand. "Here," she said, offering it to him. "If you're interested in having some fun and getting into trouble, I'll probably be around the diner a lot this weekend. We can probably find something to do."

In neat script, the card read Ada Grace Hardison-Spencer, Mastermind.
Leverage, Inc Junior Associate.
You're operating under a tremendous weight. We can provide leverage.

"I will have to stop by." And not just to fail at flirting with her. But mostly to fail at flirting with her.

And probably get threatened.

He could also bond with Spike over failing at flirting! Probably after he was threatened by Spike for flirting with his little sister. And glowered at by adults.

Which just made this all the more fun for Ada!

"You should," Ada told him, letting a little more Louisiana drawl slip in. "We've got the best food and the prettiest people on the island. Well, that's what we always say at Dad's cafe back home. I think it's just as true here, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Petey said, distracted for some strange reason. Whatever might it be that was completely ruining his ability to brain? "Yeah, totally."

He was going to rub this in Franklin's face when he got back. Sure, he was probably being played here. But it might get him a kiss from someone not trying to: kill his dad, kill his mom, or kill him.

That was true! Ada was running a purely non-murder operation! And even if she weren't, she wouldn't be the hitter anyway!

Heck, this wasn't even an elaborate con to get at his money, mostly because a) the name Stark meant nothing to her and b) she didn't have a reason to target the family anyway. This was just some nice, safe practice flirting with a boy who probably didn't even exist in her world. You know, flirting to keep her hand in. She'd hate to get rusty!

...Over the course of the weekend.

"Awww, you're awful sweet to say so," she added with a wink. "Though we should probably go break our respective parents' brains before we sneak off, right? It's more fun when they know to look for you."

Emmy had seen the portal, had figured out what it was, and then been through it before you could say 'Mandelbrot Set.'

Oooooo. New place! CASTLE. New place! ... lots of other big kids!

Bouncing around like she'd had ice cream and Teddy Grahams for breakfast-- it was Mommy's turn to feed her-- Emmy proceeded to explore the heck out of her surroundings.

Alex had not planned on getting into the portal; it had snuck up on him. His family had been freaked out enough the last time this happened, he wouldn't do that to him twice.

Well, it was out of his hands now-- hello, Fandom. He grinned and looked around, seeing if anyone looked familiar.

The combination of Toretto and O'Conner DNA meant that Jack and Gabriela didn't really have thoughts like 'this might be a bad idea' when they saw a shiny portal. It was only once they were through it that Gabi realized, "Okay...this isn't California..."

Luckily, they had a protocol for this. Jack and Gabi had been the first kids on their street with cell phones, even in LA, and Mom had had them microchipped after the second time Gabi was kidnapped. Aunt Ramsay could find them anywhere. Step One: Call Mom.

"Mom? Mom, it's Gabi, I don't know where I am--I'm in a park, and--"

"Hey, the ocean's on the wrong side! Tell her I think we're on the East Coast!"

"And Jack thinks we're on the East Coast, and--"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I think you've got the wrong number. You need to call the police, the number is 911. I'm sure everything will get straightened out soon."

That...was not good. "Jack, Jack, Mom's acting weird! She said to call the police!" Their mom would never tell them that.

"Okay," Jack said, frowning as he tried to figure this out. "Should we call Dad?" Dad was on a fishing trip with Uncle Dom. Jack and Gabi had been trying to figure out if that was code for something for years.

"Maybe she's in trouble and she can't talk to us!" Gabi realized. When they'd stepped through the portal, Mom had been in the kitchen drinking coffee with Aunt Leti, but now they were on the wrong side of the country, so who knew what was happening in California?

Jack nodded decisively. "I'll call Dad."

Center of the Park, Saturday Morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject