Midnight Voyage

Kirux, who had never heard of the Titanic before - and didn't even know what a Titanic was - tilted his head in confusion as he stared down at the field of ice the ship was going through. It looked really, really cool! It almost looked like Arendelle, but in the water instead of on land.

He looked over at Megara and Sarah. Sarah couldn't read sign language and Megara could, but Sarah seemed to understand him really well earlier. Maybe she could help him now!

He darted over to Sarah's side and tapped her on the shoulder, tilting his head and giving her a look of confusion - pursed lips and a furrowed brow.


Tim hadn't expected things to suddenly make sense when standing outside, but looking at the sea of ice only made the wave of anxiety grow stronger and stronger. This wasn't remotely like any of the stories he had heard. And part of him had already accepted that - the others thought Batman was just a character, so of course they wouldn't be near Gotham or be in one of DC's plots.

But the water near Gotham wasn't supposed to look like this.

He took a step back from the railing, hands once again running through his hair as his world spiraled increasingly more out of control. He needed to rein himself in. He couldn't keep freaking out like this, because freaking out like this was a very Jack thing and not a very Tim at all. And if acting out of character was what had got him here, then acting out of character wasn't going to help him get back.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Tim was never much of a singer, but Jack was. And the only way he knew he'd be able to calm down was if he relied on that part of himself.

Posture relaxing and growing still, and eyes opening, he whispered the first lines of the song that never failed to make him feel just a little bit better.

"Hey there Delilah,

What's it like in New York City?"

He paused again - biting back the tears that always threatened to fall when he sang that now - and curled his hands up into fists as they rested at his side.

"I'm a thousand miles away,

But, girl, tonight you look so pretty.

Yes, you do.

Times Square can't shine as bright as you...

I swear it's true..."

Winter stared out at the sea, remembering the last time she'd seen so much ice in one place. Summer had been so angry that day. The ground had turned hard and the skies looked white, blue towers of ice on all sides with Summer in the center. Anger had never burned colder in her eyes, and then her eyes were empty.



Megara gave Tim a worried look. She couldn't hear what he was singing, but she could make out the notes under the sound of the waves lapping against the side of the ship. She joined him at the railing.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

He looked over when he heard her approach, the song abruptly ending when he remembered that he wasn't alone. He glanced over at her. He started to open his mouth to confirm it, but then he stopped.

He closed his mouth and shook his head.

"No," he whispered.

She hesitated. She didn't plan to get this far.

"Is there...what's the Titanic? You seem to, uh, recognize the name and I was wondering what all of that was about." She decided on the distracting him route. Maybe. Perhaps that was what was upsetting him? She doubted it, but still, it might be. She'd find out.

He wasn't sure if he was grateful or disappointed that she had changed the subject.

He bridged the little distance between him and the railing, peering into the icy waters below. "The Titanic was a ship that sank," he said. The Titanic wasn't something he had ever put much thought into as Jack, and it had never come up as Tim.

(Lila had gotten a Magic Treehouse book on it when they were kids. She loved it so much that she had gotten the nonfiction book that came with it, too, and had spouted facts about the Titanic for weeks.

Lila was satisfied with the books. She had never wanted to watch Titanic when they got older, so he never had, either.)

"It was a cruise ship," he added. He watched as the ship kept continuing on its course - Tim barely put any thought into wondering where it was going. He would, later. But now wasn't the time. "They called it unsinkable. But there were design flaws with it, and an iceberg pierced the ship. There wasn't nearly enough lifeboats even without counting the crew, so..."

He paused.

"They drowned," he said. "There were survivors, but the Titanic was a tragedy. There was a movie for it, too, but it was painted as a romance instead of a true crime flick."

He sighed and looked over at her.

"...All of the detective work is getting to me," he admitted. "I don't think this ship is going to sink. If it does, there has to be enough lifeboats for the few of us here."

Sarah didn't know about any Titanic movie ever having been a romance. A Night to Remember certainty hadn't been and the version with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner only loosely. There were already so many Titanic movies, she couldn't imagine what another one could possibly do that hadn't already been done before. Still, she decided to let it go. Something told her that Andrei and Tim really were from the future, but she didn't want to think about that.

It had been a long time since she'd really even seen a romance movie, having a fourteen year old son that still thought girls had germs and all. She found herself staring at Tim as he sang, and broke her gaze when she worried if she was being creepy. She couldn't help it. He looked a lot like her own son. Was probably around his age too. She'd only been fourteen herself when she'd first met Jay, still much more of a child than she'd wanted then to believe that she was. She was still a child when they'd married at eighteen. She hoped Tim was allowing himself the time to be a child.

She didn't recognize the song he was singing, but it was pretty. She left herself get lost in her own song, from an album that she and Jay had danced to countless times. Songs for Young Lovers. She began to hum her favorite, The Girl Next Door.

But she doesn't know I exist no matter how much I persist
So it's clear to see there's no hope for me
Though I live at fifty one, thirty five Kensington Avenue
And she lives at fifty one, thirty three

Thinking of it was bittersweet. She wondered if she ought to be fearful of what was to come with them being trapped on this ship in the middle of nowhere and all. But somehow, she wasn't. She didn't think there were any ice fields near Seattle, anyway.

Spoiler

@Jaybird I like the idea of Sarah feeling protective of Tim because he reminds her of her son, but it's up to you how you want to play off of that! Especially before he finds out that Sarah does have a son his age.

Also, here's the song Sarah's humming!

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Megara joined him at the railing and stared into the water. "If it sinks I'll never get to learn why they got my name wrong on the plaque thing," she said absently. It probably wasn't what she was supposed to be focusing on at that moment, but it was bugging her. Everything else was right, why not that?

Unlike the others who had ventured to the railing to look out into the waters, Bo had barely managed to gather the courage to take one step outside the doorway leading out there. Well, he hadn't even managed to do that. He was still in the doorway, leaning on the frame in feigned relaxation.

Even though the others on the ship seemed to be fine in whatever sense of the word, he didn't feel quite ready to explain his irrational fear of large bodies of water. Quietly, he hoped that no one would care enough to pressure him out into the open air. Because, as it stood, he was barely holding it together.

He stood with his arms crossed and his face blank - more of a relaxed expression - and one that he was intentionally trying to keep, and only managing because of his raging denial that had been stirring since he'd woken up on the ship.

He set his focus on the people involved. Tim and his friend were talking quietly together. Sarah said it reminded her of the titanic. He chose to ignore the fate of the titanic and the potential implications of that statement if it were true. It couldn't be the titanic - not the actual titanic. Maybe it was a replica, or something, but there was no way they got taken back in actual history and put on the titanic as the only seven people aboard.

Spoiler

sorry Bo is withdrawing socially at the moment he is afraid of the ocean

Spoiler

I completely forgot Bo had a fear of water until your post. Poor Bo!

Also, I completely forgot Kirux using Ms/Mrs/Mr to people who are clearly older than him. He doesn't always do it, but I'm going to have him use it for Sarah because they've interacted more.

Kirux was so busy trying to get Ms. Sarah's attention that he didn't hear Tim's explanation on what the Titanic was. It didn't help that Ms. Sarah started humming a really pretty song, either.

He felt really rude for interrupting her, but he just had to know what the Titanic was. He tapped her on the shoulder again, the same look of confusion still on his face.



He looked over at Megara - her comment was a welcome distraction.

"It said a different name on your door?" he questioned. That was odd. Jack had never been too much of a detective, but becoming Tim had changed things. And becoming Robin had made his brain even more hardwired into trying to solve mysteries. "Mine said T. Drake."

T. Drake was a name they both knew really wasn't his true name, but it made sense given his current appearance. He was sure Megara would know that.

He leaned slightly back from the railing. "What did yours say?"

"M. Tailor," she responded. A pause. "Do you think I was brought here by mistake? I mean, the room can't be mine. That isn't my name."

That was the obvious explanation. She wasn't supposed to be here, the name was all the proof she needed. All of the others had their names on their doors, and most of them had run into...clones of? People they admired. She hadn't. Perhaps the person from her room was from whatever world all the others were from. Perhaps they knew what the Titanic was and who all these staff people were and all of that. She wasn't supposed to be here.

"Your first name is Megara," he pointed out. He looked over at her and studied her a little more careful, brain already scrambling for some kind of explanation. He doubted that she was brought here by accident - they all seemed to be who their doors said they were.

Which suggested something he wasn't sure Megara would want to know.

...Hopefully, this wasn't going to be a repeat of Jason Todd's comic arc.

Tim took a deep breath.

"...What's your last name?" he asked.

She flinched involuentarily. "I don't have one anymore," she said carefully, "But it used to be Ringly." There was a warning in her voice. She didn't want to hurt him, but she also didn't want him pressing too much further.

Tim quietly let the breath out.

"What if it never was that?" he softly asked.

She glared at him. "I was adopted into the Ringly family when I was nearly a year old. I grew up in the Ringly household and I still have the rights that go along with that title even if I've abandoned the name. I've never had any other name to go by and I never will."