Midnight Voyage

Kirux frowned.

But then he sat up straight and grinned, because he had to stay optimistic! Even if she hadn't seen him before, someone else here could have. It didn't usually work that way, but this didn't really feel normal to him.

Hugging Klein tight to his chest, he eagerly looked at the faces of the others in the room-

-and realized that only the girl probably knew sign language.

He grew visibly deflated.

(All of this happened in the span of about a minute, but Kirux didn't really notice.)


"Then I guess you haven't heard about Watergate," he said.

He paused, let the words sink in, and then immediately realized how out-of-character his response had been. A muttered comment might have been in character. Even one that had been slightly louder than that could be acceptable.

But that comment hadn't been a Tim comment.

That had been a Jack comment.

A very loud, very noticeable Jack comment.

He swore in his head.

"What's Watergate?" Alex asked. "Like the hotel in DC?"

She glanced over at the other young man, the mute one. She didn't know sign language. Helen did because of course she did, but she wasn't here right now. No hope of communicating with him.

Finally adding my second character!

Spoiler

Sarah Armstrong is the love of Jay's life. His first, his one and only. There were together from 1952, when they were both teenagers, to 1963. She met him her freshman year of high school. They got married in 1956 and a son together, Adam. She has long dark brown hair and wide hazel eyes. According to Jay, she looks like Joan Fontaine when she smiles.

She was raised by a single father in Jackson, Wyoming, and turned out to be a bit of a tomboy. Things like hunting and fishing came naturally to her whereas things like cooking, gardening, and sewing, more traditional pursuits for a 1950s housewife, were less so. She loved Jay, but the more time they spent together, the more controlling he turned out to be. And one day she decided the best thing for her and her son would be to leave. She's happily remarried to a man named Ed and has been living in Washington state.

Sarah would be aware of Alex and Alex would be aware of her, but neither would be able to place the other immediately. Alex wouldn't know what Sarah looked like and Sarah would have only seen black and white mugshots of Alex. As of 1971, she's 33 and looks her age. She hates her middle name, Magdalene.

Sarah had never been a naturally early riser. With the long and cold winters being the way they were in Wyoming, and later in Montana, most days it was hard to find the motivation to get out of bed at all, no matter what time of day it was.

It was while she was married to Jay that she'd learned to wake up early. He'd always had trouble sleeping, going back to when he was a child. Still, when Adam was born she was always the one tending to him in the middle of the night. And God forbid she wasn't already up with his breakfast and his coffee. As his wife, what else was she good for? It had been eight years since she'd last seen him, and she'd been happily married for three. The year they divorced, he'd been her life for almost as long as he hadn't been, and so young when they got together. Because of that, she'd accepted there was a part of him that would always stay with her.

So whenever she could sleep in, like today, she relished it. She reached for Ed before opening her eyes and realizing he wasn't there. She wasn't in her home. She was somewhere she'd never been before. The small window showed her they were on a ship. Somewhere in the ocean.

This was strange. She had no idea how she could have gotten on a ship. The last she remembered, she'd been cleaning up the kitchen after having taken Adam to see Diamonds Are Forever. Ed had gotten back from a business trip to Tokyo that day and had been wiped from jet lag, so he'd already been in bed when she'd joined him.

Even though she had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there, she felt an odd sense of calm. She was wearing a long white nightgown. Silk, with lace trimming. She'd admired it once when she was the store with Jay and she came home to find it sitting on their bed. Jay could be like that. Spontaneous. Romantic. Instead of making her feel bitter, the nightgown gave her a comforting, warm feeling, the kind she had around Jay when things were good.

She loved Ed too, but things had been comforting with him. Never as intense or risky or exciting as they'd been with Jay. Maybe that was a good thing, though. She left her room, seeing her name printed clearly on the door.

"S. Armstrong."

Weird. She walked down the hall, trying to find someone, anyone that could help. For such a large ship, it all seemed oddly empty. It was elegant, but it was odd without anyone in it. Her eye caught an advertisement for a movie screening. "The New Adventures Of Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, TONIGHT, 8PM, the Cinema on E Deck". The old serial? That was an interesting choice. Marty, her first boyfriend, had taken her once and she'd been bored out of her skull.

She came into a great hall type of area, where she locked eyes with a group of people sitting around a table with half eaten chocolate chip cookies.

Three girls. Three guys. The girls all seemed to be around the same age. There was one, blonde, who she thought looked vaguely familiar but couldn't quite place. She felt the blonde's gaze piercing her. Her eyes were blue, but they seemed empty, like there was little feeling behind them at all. Much like Jay's had been.

"Hi, I'm lost. Do you know what's going on? My name's Sarah."

Spoiler

Long post but I wanted to get caught up!

@Jaybird I hope I picked the right film! From my research it seems only two Batman movies were made in the 40s, one with and one without Robin and I figured the one with Robin would be better. I'll try to watch it beforehand, it looks fun and probably will be plenty cringey for Tim.

Spoiler

That sounds perfect, @Elinor! I admit I'm still fairly new to DC in general, so I know as much about the early Batman movies as you do. The Robin one is definitely the better pick - even if it's not Tim's Robin, it's still going to make him die of embarrassment.

"I'm Tim Drake," he offered. The boy in the onesie, who had been playing with the stuffed turtle he had carried out with him, momentarily stopped what he was doing and looked up at both Tim and Sarah. He studied her with wide, mismatched eyes - Tim cursed himself for not noticing that one was gold and the other was green-blue.

The boy put his turtle down on his lap, signing something that Tim still couldn't understand. From the way he pointed at himself, Tim guessed it was some kind of introduction.

Spoiler

Translation: He's saying his name is Kirux and that "We're on another world!" - which I'm guessing only Megara would get.

Tim looked back at Sarah.

"We were actually trying to figure that out," Tim admitted. "None of us know how we got here - or where here is."

Winter, who had been munching on a cookie up until now and observing everyone with a look like she had nothing going on in her head, spoke up, "Are you a noble Drake?" she asked Tim. He didn't have the trademark golden hair of the Drake family. He also didn't seem to have gills. Perhaps he was a distant relative? If he was she should give her condolences regarding the death of the young prince. He was so sweet, she heard. His death devastated the family, his father even had to return from court because of that event.

She then looked up at the newcomer, "Hello," she said, tilting her head, "I'm Winter, what's your name?"



Megara's mind paused its translating of Kirux's signing when Winter made that little comment. She played it off like nothing and said, "His name is Kirux, he believes we're on another world." Again, is what she didn't say.

Bo was rapidly trying to keep tabs on all of the information being exchanged. Tim was from his time, or a similar timeline. It sounded like Alex was from the 70's. Another gal named Sarah came in, a little late to the party.

Kirux (he was glad the girl translated, he only caught half the letters) believed they were on another world. He'd also signed other things that Bo didn't understand, which was sad. It was a shame... Kirux seemed to be able to hear everything just fine, so he could understand everyone else but it was looking like only Tim's friend could understand him.

Bo turned around in his chair to face the newcomer, nodding his head at Tim's response.

"I'm Andrei," he said, introducing himself again with a wave of his hand. "And yeah, like Tim said, we're all quite literally in the same boat. All of us woke up here with no memory of how we got here. But I think Kirux is onto something," he said, pointing in the guy's direction.

"We've only talked a little, but I think a few of us are from different years or timelines, and probably worlds too. I'm from 2019, and I guess, some version of earth. Alex sounds like she's from the 70's, 'cuz Nixon is president. Kirux sounds like he might be from a totally different world entirely if he's already catching on this fast."

Kirux nodded and grinned.

He was from another world! And he had been to a lot of other ones, too. The goal had always been to find Riku, but he never had. That was okay, though - Kirux really did like visiting other worlds. And this one had really good cookies, so he was okay with being here, too.


Tim was only partially listening to Andrei's explanation.

He was still trying to come up with a decent answer to Winter's question. Nobility wasn't something that frequented Gotham often, but he was its equivalent. He wasn't nearly rich enough to be in the same social class as Bruce. Still, he was certainly close to it - close enough to be compared.

"My family is wealthy," he admitted. He didn't look the part, but there was still the possibility of him playing off his uncharacteristic attire as something related to whatever had brought them here. "My full name is actually Timothy Jackson Drake - I'm the Drake family heir. But I don't think it would be accurate to call us nobility."

Sarah was still getting caught up with everything was going. She took an awkward seat at the edge of the circle.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked the tall, scarred man who said he was from 2019. "Nixon's not the president?"

Then, she processed what he'd said. 2019?! "It's not 2019. It's 1972," she said. 2019 was...47 years in the future. If she was still alive, god willing, she'd be 81 years old. Her son would be 62.

The boy, Tim Drake, seemed to be about Adam's age. He said he was from a rich family. She decided to ignore what the other man had said about it being 2019. There was no way. She had a good decade on the rest of the group in age, and felt uncomfortable. She hadn't begun to process the rest about other worlds.

Because no one replied, Sarah tried to make a joke. "My ex used to say that time was a social construct."

**

Alex knew she distrusted this Sarah woman, but couldn't quite put her finger on why. But she saw the others giving her a look and felt the need to defend her. Her ex used to say time was a social construct, which was funny because Jay had always said the exact same thing.

"It is 1972," Alex said. She turned back to Andrei. "How could we be from different times?"

She knew what she wanted to ask. Do I ever see Jay again? Do I ever get out of jail? But she didn't want the others to judge her differently.

Still, she knew from the look on Andrei's face that he was telling the truth. But . it was odd that she and Sarah would be from the same time. "What's the world like in the future?"

While she waited for Andrei to respond, she turned to Tim.

"Do you know someone named Sasha?" She asked him. "Her family was rich too. She was my friend. I just thought, maybe. You might know her." She wanted to think of her friends now, of someone she could find common ground with. And right now, the closest she seemed to have was Sarah. And she didn't know if she was ready for that.

Ah. Sarah and Alex were from the same year. Well, there wasn't much he could say to that. It wasn't even like he had his phone on him to prove he was from the future. He wished he did though... it was weird not having it in his pocket, even though it wouldn't have made sense for him to go to sleep with it on him. He always had it charging when he was asleep. That was just normal.

Not having his phone bred a small amount of anxiety, though. But it wasn't like he'd have service out in the middle of the ocean, anyway right?

He turned to Alex, waiting for her to finish her other question to Tim before addressing her again.

"Well, in the future the technology changes a lot," he started, trying to think of what it was like in the 70's. He wasn't alive then. "TV's get a lot slimmer. So like, instead of being like a box, they kinda get real thin, like windows. Same with computers. And phones. Everything kinda has a thin glass screen and all the hardware inside is really sized down and light." He made a motion with his hands, pinching his fingers to show how thin a phone would be for scale.

"Cars run a lot faster and are more gas efficient, there's the internet, which you can access on phones and computers and allows you to access information shared around the world and talk to people across the world in real-time. Even like, having a video call, where like, you can both see each others' faces on the screen in real-time. And uh, world-wise... there's been a few wars. I'm absolutely terrible with world history and history in general, but uhhh... there's been space travel since then. People going to the moon. That was a long time ago though. Uh-" he paused, laughing a little. "Sorry, that's probably a lot to take in on top of everything else."

"Wars? Like Vietnam? There's been more since then?" Alex asked. "And I know people have been the moon. That was only a couple years ago. I remember listening..." She caught herself, mostly because the moon landing made her think of the night she met Claire. Besides, as far as she knew his guy probably just saw a lot of science fiction movies. A lot of what he said they showed in 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Prove it. Prove you're from the future."

Just then, another waiter appeared and asked them if the group needed anything else.

Spoiler

This waiter can be someone significant to whoever post nexts, as I don't want to monopolize the plot twists.

Bo opened his mouth to speak but wasn't sure what to say. He needed time to think of something. What was something he would know that Alex wouldn't know? How could he possibly prove he was from the future? She was right to doubt him. She probably hadn't been ripped out of her world and put into a clone body of herself or interacted with people from various worlds and stuff. She had no reason to be open-minded to that stuff. Before his own experience, he would've been skeptical too. On earth, stuff like this was only fiction.

He tried to think of something but his thought process was completely halted when the server walked in.

It was... Gordon Ramsay?

Bo froze, eyes widening before his mouth split into a goofy grin that he quickly covered with his hand.

"Oh my god," he said, his voice quivering in a whisper, just a few ''ha's'' away from nervous laughter. "Oh my god, it's Gordon Ramsay. I-" he cleared his throat. Now was not the time to fanboy. Now was not the time to freak out. But why on earth was Gordon Ramsay on this boat in the middle of nowhere.

This was a dream right? Maybe this was a dream. All in their head. There was no way.

His eyes went wide for just a second and he smiled and shook his head, looking away from THE Mr.Gordon Ramsay and back to Alex. "Uh. Prove it?" he laughed awkwardly. It was bound to come out anyway. "How should I uh... do that? I didn't even wake up with my phone on me, which would've been easy proof. Lowkey really stressed about that actually, cause like, half my life's on there. But that's neither here nor there."

Spoiler

I hope this okay, full confession though, I am laughing

"Half your life is on your phone?" Sarah asked. "How is that possible?"

The waiter, who the tall, scarred man had called Gordon Ramsay, asked if they needed anything else. Sarah realized she was hungry and, because she'd arrived late, had missed the cookies the group had eaten earlier.

"I am a little hungry," she told the waiter.

"What would you like?"

"Breakfast," Sarah replied.

Gordon Ramsay smiled and left. The tall, scarred man stared at her with his mouth wide open. Shortly, the waiter returned with what looked like mounds of avocado on toast and poached eggs on top of it all.

Sarah had no idea what it was, but it was delicious. "You know the waiter?" She asked Andrei. Then, she laughed. "I saw there's a movie theater in here. Imagine that. They're playing the Batman serial tonight, of all things."

Spoiler

@soundofmind your post made me lol! So good. @Jaybird I'm wondering if Tim has any concept of he fact he's a pop culture character in other universes? But maybe that will be answered in your next few posts.

Spoiler

It will be, but he definitely does, @Elinor! Tim's actually from our reality, but got somewhat reincarnated as Tim. (It's complicated.) He does remember everything from his past life, though, so he's very much aware that Tim Drake is a character.

And I definitely died when I saw Gordon Ramsey show up!

"I don't know someone named Sasha," Tim said. The arrival of Gordon Ramsey (?) had distracted him more than he was willing to admit. Something was going on here, but he strangely wasn't feeling too compelled to figure out what. He could use the break, couldn't he-

Sarah's comment suddenly registered.

He turned and stared at her, eyes wide and mouth agape. It wasn't a Tim Drake expression in the slightest, but he was too shocked to really think of staying in character. Then shock turned to mortification, and he closed his mouth immediately.

"...Which one?" he said, his voice quiet. Try as he might to hide his reaction, his skin was noticeably pale - so much so that Kirux held out his stuffed animal in what Tim guessed was an attempt to make him feel better. He just shook his head and gave a strained smile. There were two serials. One with just Bru-Batman, and one with Robin. That Robin wasn't his Robin. But the outfit Dick wore in the film was close to what Jason wore during his time as Robin, and Tim had worn that back before he got his own Robin costume.

He ducked his head down in a poor attempt to hide his quickly appearing blush.

Megara raised her eyebrow in amusement as Tim's expression. "Batman? Sounds like your kind of thing, Tim." She knew teasing him was probably not a good move, tactically, but she was having a bad enough day as it was. She was trying to distract herself from Eddie. She was failing.

He was with Ciel, she knew that, and he was safe with Ciel. No one would mess with the mer if they had a scrap of self-preservation within themselves, so he was safe for now. Like a kitten in the care of a pride of lions, he was safe.

Knowing all that wouldn't stop her worrying about him, though. Nor did it stop the barely-pondered question as of yet of why her surname hadn't been Ringly on the door. She'd grown up a Ringly. She'd been taught as a Ringly should to fight, verbally maneuver, lie, act, and all of the other things that had made her so deadly over the years. She was a Ringly. So why didn't the ship think so?



Winter was enthralled with the conversation. They were on a ship, for one, not a treehouse. That was disappointing. Water didn't agree with her. It turned to frost under her heat-absorbant touch and she'd have to put the heat back with her powers if she ever wanted to have a hope of swimming in it, but calculating the exact amount of heat needed was impossible. Killing fish was a common occurrence.

But it was the other time's twist that interested her.

Time had always felt like a solid thing. Forward and forward and forward it marched, never back, never sideways, always forward.

"You're leaving something out," she said to Sarah. She was. The subtle tension was tell-tale.

Tim raised his head for only the briefest of seconds to give Megara a very offended look, the blush still going just as strong as it had been before she made her comment. If anything, it had gotten worse - his cheeks felt noticeably warmer.