Midnight Voyage

Spoiler

YOU ARE CORRECT!!! sorry if it was unclear ashdkljfghl

Bo smiled. "Ah, sweet. Megara. I'm Andrei." It still felt weird to introduce himself by his full first name and not the nickname he'd been going by his whole life, but now that he'd committed to it, it would be weird to re-nag on it and explain his nickname, which didn't even sound like his first name. Ah, whatever.

"Did you look around the ship too?"

Spoiler

You can go ahead if you want, but after this post, I'm gonna wait so the others don't get too far behind. Too many posts ahead will get all the different conversations confused and such.

Also, now feels a good time to restate that my darling Meg is 5' 1" and therefore probably being dwarfed right now by pretty much everyone but specifically Bo.

She shook her head, "No, not really. I usually would it's just," she shrugged, "I don't know, I don't want to do what I would usually do?"

She looked him up and down, some smaller instinct of hers in the back of her head assessing him. Which side he favored, how he held his weight, how he moved, all of those things got listed off and stored in some dark corner of her mind. The corner that always assumed that she was going to have to fight everyone she met. That corner had been mostly right for a long time, but she tried to shut it up now. It didn't have to be right here. She could get through one day without a fight. One full day.

When Tim arrived at the theater, he found that Megara was already there. He felt a jolt of worry when he saw that Andrei and Megara were talking, but he pushed his paranoia aside to give some semblance of normalcy when he joined the group outside of the theater doors. It sounded like the movie had already started. He was usually more punctual than this, but he had gotten caught up investigating his room.

"Hi," he said, giving them a warm smile. He wasn't James; his smile easily reached his eyes.

Megara gave him a quick wave but was cut off from saying anything to him by Winter, "Is your name still Tim?" she asked him in that detached sort of way she often used, "It was earlier. I am still Winter. Have you ever been on a ship before?"

He had changed his demeanor, Winter had noticed. People sometimes changed their names when they acted differently. One of the sailors she had gone with to the islands was like that. She was Mary when she was a she, and he was Julius when he was a he. It had taken Winter a little while to be able to tell which name to use without asking. Reading the way people conducted themselves was hard.

Alex realized she felt safe around Bo. That was why she decided to accompany him around the ship. She told him everything, about how nothing was really the same after her mom died, how she met Jay, then Sasha and Helen and Claire and everyone else.

"They were my friends," Alex said. "I was happier than I'd ever been before." They'd stopped for coffee at a cafe that looked like something out of Tomorrowland at Disney. It was different, a fun change from the ornate decor. There were board games and they'd stopped to play one of Checkers.

After a certain point before the movie, they both went back to their cabins to change. Alex got out the yellow floral dress and wedge heels that waited for her in the wardrobe. She sat at the vanity, looking at herself in the mirror. The dress was pretty. Still, there was something wrong.

Her eyes were too wide, her mouth too small. She was far from pretty, not the way Carolyn was, not the way her mom had been. Once, long ago, Jay had told her she was beautiful, and she'd believed him.

Still, she thought to herself she might like to have her hair in a beehive. She teased her hair upward, and before she knew it, like magic, Her hair was perfectly fixed in one. What, was Samantha Stephens now on this boat too? Still, she stood up. She felt pretty, at least. Not beautiful, not quite. Only one person could make her feel that way.

She went out into the hallway where she saw Bo waiting.

"Can I ask you a question about the future?" She asked. "Are people kinder?"

She waited for an answer as they started to walk towards the theater, where the others were waiting. They waved.

"I don't think I've been to a serial since I was five."

Spoiler

I'll post for Sarah later. I would now but I don't have time.

Spoiler

@Elinor I'm so sorry I'm confused ashdljkhlk I probably jumped too ahead in my previous post having them already be outside the theatre and having Bo start talking to Meg!! But I can back-write because , , ,, ,, I WANT!!! Bo to answer that question, but I also want to catch us up to him n meg talking,, ,sorry i'm all mixed up hhh, hopefully this works?

All Bo had done in the brief time he went back into his room was put on a different plain t-shirt. He felt comfortable in his sweats and didn't feel like taking them off. He did grab himself a pair of shoes though - it was a nice pair of clean, white sneakers that were actually his size, and not ugly, or boring. He didn't know who put them there, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to put them on and make use of them. At least, he hoped so.

He walked with Alex down to the theater, hands in his pockets, glancing over at her. He hummed at her question.

"I wasn't alive in the 60's, but I don't think so," he said softly. "There's a lot of kind people, but there's still a lot of mean ones. I don't know that that'll ever change."

It was at about that time that he'd seen Meg and asked her name and what she was doing, the three of them standing outside the theater. He nodded at her response.

"I get that," he said to Meg. "It's a weird situation. These kinds of things can do that to ya."

He looked between Alex and Meg, then back at the theater door. He cleared his throat.

"So, uh, we should probably head in before we miss to much, huh?" He smiled and looked down at Alex, nodding his head toward the door.

Spoiler

@soundofmind It's all good! It's a bit awkward with the time jump and trying to write scenes without writing for other people's characters. I should have been more clear I imagined you'd do exactly what you just did. But since we're all caught up now, it should be fine.

Kirux was definitely an eager companion, to say the least. In spite of not being able to speak, he was bright and energetic and everything her own son hadn't been in recent months. She sort of wished he could respond to her, but his watchful, attentive eyes told her he understood.

"They've got have ice cream somewhere," she said. "Maybe we can ask Frank Sinatra."

She led him back towards the great hall. Frank was already busy talking to Alex and Bo. For a brief moment, she caught Alex's eyes. Sarah wanted to talk her, she just didn't know how. She wanted to warn Alex that Jay was no good, but she supposed it was already way too late. Did Alex know who she was?

Kirux was pointing towards another waiter. Richard Beymer. He'd offered the group cookies earlier so maybe he could help with ice cream.

"What kind?" He asked.

"Do you have mint chip?" Sarah asked.

"That I can do." It was her favorite ice cream flavor, even if Jay always used to say it tasted like toothpaste.

"And for you?" He turned to Kirux.

She looked at Richard Beymer, remembering vividly the time she and Jay had seen West Side Story, leaving their four year old son with the sitter. It was the night they'd gone out in a long time, and for a while, things had been good. It would have been perfect even if Sarah hadn't had the best of surprises waiting for Jay.

"I have to tell you something," she told Kirux, once they'd sat with their ice cream. "The man I loved, we didn't just have a son. We had a girl too. Four years after the boy. We named her Susan. She lived for eighteen days. She was too sick. I still think about her all the time."

Sarah choked up telling him. She couldn't believe she was crying in front of a young boy. The only people who knew about Susan were were Jay, now in jail. Her parents, both now gone. Adam. And Ed. No one else. It had been ages since she'd even spoken about her. At first, Jay had been supportive. It was after that things had taken a turn for the worse.

Later, as she was getting ready for the movie, the memories were all coming back to her. Susan would have been ten by now. Adam already a spitting image of his father. Would Susan have taken more after her?

She took a deep breath and put on her dress. It was just like the black one Audrey Hepburn wore in Sabrina, complete with black gloves and heels. Her dark hair was done up in waves. This ship really did know everything there was to know about them.

She liked the look, even if Adam would tell her she was dressing too young. But he wasn't here.

Spoiler

By the way, here's what Sarah looks like! And the dress!

Tim froze at the question. It didn't seem like Winter knew exactly who Tim Drake was, but it did seem like she noticed a shift between how he had been dressed earlier and how he was dressed now. He gave a smile, a nod, and then joined Andrei over by the theater doors in an attempt to avoid being questioned more.

"Let's go in," Tim agreed. He pushed open the doors to the theater and stepped inside. A second later, he found that someone else was standing behind him - it was Kirux, clutching his plushie against his chest still. Other people there seemed to be dressing up, but Kirux seemed fine wearing his pajamas.

Spoiler

Maybe we should go without major time jumps for a while, they seem to cause a whole bunch of confusion as far as everyone's characters and such. Namely, who's doing what at what times. I think we should leave time jumps to times when no one's really doing anything at all, like overnight, or if we have to do them while everyone's out and about just have everyone go back to their rooms or wander around alone for a while until the time we need them together.

That way we don't have who's-talking-to-who confusion or uncertainty over where on the ship a certain character is.

Idk, just a thought. It just seems like the setup we used wasn't working all that well.

Megara nodded at Andrei's response and his suggestion, though it did appear to have been directed at her. She walked into the theatre anyway. It didn't look like the kind of theatre she was used to. There was, namely, no stage.

She pondered this as she chose a seat, alone, as she was the first to sit down. Almost immediately she discovered herself to be deeply uncomfortable in such a dark space in seats that were designed so the people behind her could see over her head. She got up and moved to the back row. It was much better with no one to her back.



Meanwhile, Winter followed the group into the theatre with a smile on her face like she was remembering a dream. She had been to a theatre once. The actors had not been very good, and the show had been quite boring. Summer had enjoyed it, though, so Winter clapped with her. It had felt like the right thing to do.

She waited to choose her seat until everyone was sitting. She watched curiously as the blonde with the simple braids moved to the back. Winter couldn't imagine why she did that. In the back, it was harder to see what was going on on the stage.

That was when she realized that there wasn't a stage. Perhaps it would be lowered down from above? But there wasn't room for that. Winter frowned. Summer would understand this, and she would explain it to Winter if their connection hadn't been somehow severed.

Bo followed into the theater with the others, taking a seat a row behind Kirux and Sarah. He shifted in the seat a bit ti get comfortable before just leaning back and slouching into it a little, already feeling a little sleepy under the dim lights.

After a moment of hesitation, Tim joined Megara in the back of the room. She was the only one who could tease him about what they were about to watch, but she was also the only person he knew well.