Midnight Voyage

Spoiler

I'm definitely okay with going first! I haven't seen it before and don't really have a chance to right now, but I've come up with a good solution for getting around my lack of knowledge.

The moment the movie started, Tim felt a pit of dread form in his stomach. He shrunk back in his seat, running his fingers through his hair as the characters began to appear on the screen. None of it was like what Gotham was really like - or what the mansion was really like - but that wasn't the real reason for his reaction. He just couldn't get over how mortifying it was to see Batman and Robin on screen, even when Robin was James and not him.

About a minute in, he hid his face behind his hands. He tried his best to keep his composure, but he couldn't stop the blush from spreading across his face.

Bo hadn't seen a black and white film in a very, very long time, but the moment the sound started going, and the film started rolling, Bo started to feel very sleepy. He wasn't sure if it was the coffee from earlier, and now he was crashing, or if it was just the cool air of the theatre, but it wasn't long before he was slouching just a little further in his seat and sleeping soundly, mouth cracked open, with a small drop of drool making its way down his chin.

Megara nudged Tim in the seat next to her, just to be mean. She leaned in to whisper next to his ear, "Have you ever worn that robin suit?" she asked with a sadistic grin. She was having too much fun with this, she knew, but she had the right to have fun at all. It wasn't often that she got the chance to tease a friend like this.

She froze. Did she just think of Tim as a friend?

Alex thought that the movie was all right, but nothing special. She tried to appreciate the fact that it was made in 1949. The year her mother and father had gotten engaged. A year before she was born. She liked the movies she'd seen from this time period. It's a Wonderful Life. Pride of the Yankees. Sunset Boulevard.

There was something nice about the black and white movies from that time. Comforting. Simpler. Only twenty-three years ago, in her time anyway, and yet it felt like so long ago. So much in the world had changed since then.

As much as she tried to pay attention, she got bored fairly quickly, and even though she'd never been a superfan of the Batman TV show and didn't care about comics in the slightest, she wished she was watching that instead. That at least had Adam West and Yvonne Craig as Batgirl.

What an odd, obscure choice for the ship to play. Then she noticed Tim was having some kind of visceral reaction to the movie. His entire body was tense and he had his face cupped in his hands. They made eye contact.

"Are you okay?" she mouthed to him.

"Not that one," Tim muttered. A similar one, back when he first became Robin and before he got his own costume, but not the one on the screen.

Then he realized he had made eye contact with Alex, and he gave a very stiff nod in response to her mouthed question. But the damage had already been done; Kirux had turned around and was holding out his stuffed animal over his seat as an offering.

Tim shook his head. "I'm fine," he said. "I was just reminded of something embarrassing."

Bo was dreaming of rocking back and forth in a hammock. It was a peaceful scene, unlike most of his dreams, which ranged from chaotic and confusing to downright nightmares. But this? This was nice.

He let out a low snore, head tilted back awkwardly so it could rest on the top of the backrest, with the rest of him dramatically slouched down and his knees resting up on the chair in front of him so he could even do so with his height.

Sarah thought she'd have more of a reaction to the movie, considering the last time she'd seen it had been with Marty, and last time they'd sat in the very back in the theater and hadn't done so much of actually watching the movie. And as many episodes of Batman she'd been made to sit through by her son, she'd rather watch that than this again. Hopefully, they'd play something better tomorrow.

The lights went up and they all they stood up and stretched. Tim, for whatever reason, seemed shaken. His face was tomato red.

"You okay, Tim?"

*

Alex liked the movie overall. Well, she hadn't necessarily loved it, but it had at least made her forget about everything for a while. Still, with the end of the movie the reality of their situation came flooding back. As strange as being on this ship was, maybe it wasn't so bad. It was better than prison, anyhow.

Just as the lights came up, a male voice came over the PA systems.

"This is your captain speaking. Will the passengers please report to the Reading Room on A Deck immediately."

"What about the Frank Sinatra concert?" Alex asked.

"I know you were promised Frank Sinatra," the captain continued. "Don't worry. All will be revealed in time."

The passengers shared a look. "I guess we go to A Deck," Alex said. They left the theater. Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw Richard Beymer and Gordon Ramsay changing the sign.

TOMORROW:

2PM: Singin' in the Rain
8PM: A Place in the Sun

Cute.

They realized where they were on E Deck, and needed to go up to the top of the ship. They all got into the elevator when they heard the sound of the Mamas and the Papas playing. Midnight Voyage. The song Alex had thought of her earlier.

Just then, a man greeted them. Jay? No, it wasn't him. It looked just like him, but it wasn't him. "I'm your captain. I apologize for the show. All will be revealed in time."

Spoiler

A few things. Firstly, the captain is going to look different to every passenger. Sarah and Alex will both see Jay, but he'll look different to everyone else. He's going to lead everyone into the reading room which looks exactly the reading room from the Titanic. He's put two tables together to fit all of them, and each person has a book and a cold drink made just for them. The Midnight Voyage song that inspired the idea for this roleplay is linked in the first post, but if you need it, it's here.

After Midnight Voyage ends, the album will start playing again from the beginning.

Have your characters react to all of the above! If anyone has any questions, let me know.

Kirux had really enjoyed the movie, but he guessed not everyone had. Tim looked really upset afterwards. His face was all red - like he was embarrassed - and he kept shooting Megara looks as they left the theater. He didn't want Klein, either. He wasn't sure how else he could make Tim feel better, so he just pouted and stayed silent in the elevator.

And then the captain showed up.

The captain was smaller than Kirux. He had dark, messy hair, and didn't really look like he should be a captain. He also looked really familiar, and it took Kirux a minute to remember why. He almost look like Roxas, but that wasn't it.

He screwed his face up in concentration.

Understanding suddenly dawned on him. Eyes widening and a grin stretching from one ear to the other, Kirux immediately perked up. He was from Namine's drawings! He was always standing next to Riku and the girl who looked like Namine, so that meant he had to be...

"Hi, Sora!" Kirux eagerly signed. He didn't know that Sora could be a captain, but he looked like a really cool one!


Tim had spent the past years of his life relying on the knowledge of comic books. Things had shifted in recent times - the emergence of Red Hood, the arrival of Megara and Eddie in Gotham, and just knowing James - but he still relied on precedents for most of them. This wasn't anything like that. As they walked out of the theater and into the elevator, embarrassment faded to the calmness he had needed all along.

He had to figure out what was going on.

When they got to the other deck, he would find a chance to sneak off. He had to find out where they were, how they had been brought there, and how to get back to Gotham.

And then the captain showed up, and Tim nearly choked on his spit.

Messy black hair, sea green eyes, and a necklace made out of a hodgepodge charms. In retrospect, the son of Poseidon - who couldn't actually be the son of the Poseidon, right? - being the captain of a ship made sense. But Tim was also starting to guess that this ship was catered to their interests, and the sight of Percy Jackson dressed up like a captain reminded him too much of a life he could never return to.

...And the girl who had gotten him into the series to begin with.

The most Tim could do was gape at him as he led them into a reading room. It felt strange calling someone who was just barely older than he looked right now a captain; Tim was technically even older than the false demigod. Everyone had a variety of reactions that made Tim suspect he wasn't the only one seeing someone who wasn't there, but Tim paused when he saw the reading room.

Two tables had been pushed together. There was a book and cold drink in front of every seat, personalized to the point that Tim knew it was intentional. Kirux immediately made a beeline for the tall glass of chocolate milk with the color-changing straw. He felt a pang of familiarity when he saw Kirux eagerly open Stellaluna and start reading - and a bit of surprise. Even though Kirux acted childish, he hadn't expected a kid's book.

His gaze swept across the table.

Feeling a sinking pit in his stomach, he approached the glass of pink lemonade. There was a comic laying out on the table: Red Robin #9. While he had felt mortified in the theater, all Tim felt now was cold, hard fear. Thoughts of Captain Percy Jackson - Lila would have gotten a kick out of that - faded from his mind. As he flipped through the pages of the book, he found just the image he had been fearing.

A picture of a slightly older Tim Drake, whose haircut made the resemblance between the Tim of the comics and the Tim reading the comics all too obvious.

He carefully closed the book and sat down, his skin pale as if he had just seen a ghost.

Spoiler

Just kidding.

Sarah felt like she was going to pass out when she saw who the captain was. A face she hadn't seen in a long time, and never thought she would see, at least in person, again. She saw the look on Alex's face and know she saw him too. Even though she knew deep down that none of this was real, it still shook her to her core. She wanted to go home, and soon. Still, she went inside the reading room because what other choice did they have at this point? There were settings for all of them.

She picked up the book and started to page through it, but she couldn't focus on a single word. She saw Tim was reading what looked to be a Batman comic. His face was white. From tomato red at the movie to sheet white. The poor kid was probably flustered to all hell, being trapped on this boat.

Sarah sensed which place was hers. A first edition copy of From Russia with Love. Ice water with a whole slice of lemon in a tall crystal glass. It had be to hers. Sarah had never been much of a reader. It was one of the things she always wanted to change but never did. But Adam still loved James Bond, and From Russia With Love was still his favorite movie. That one they'd all gone to together. They'd even gone out for milkshakes afterwards. For once a normal family doing a normal thing together.

And the water. So fancifully presented as if it were more than just water. Once, early in their relationship, she and Jay had been walking down Main Street in Jackson hand in hand. They'd walked by a five star restaurant and spied on a few rich people eating inside. Rich people with fancy crystal water glasses with whole slices of lemon. What a ridiculous thing.

Sarah swallowed. Just then, Jay gave her a wry smile. Sarah looked away, her heart going a million miles a minute.

It's not really him. It's not really him.

**

Jay.

He was really there. Really right in front of her. Well, maybe not really. She wanted to kiss him so badly, feel the warmth of his arms around her, of her head on his shoulder.

No, it wasn't him. He wouldn't have just looked right past her. But it had to be. His exact face. The color of his eyes, perfectly blue. It was odd to see him in a naval captain's uniform.

"Jay," she said.

"I'm whatever you want me to be," Jay said.

She extended her hand. He took it. It felt like his hand, but something about it was wrong. He was limp and lifeless. Two things Jay never was. Still, she had to believe it was him. Had to believe she had something to hope for. "Let's get away."

"In time, Alexandra," he said. "Everything's already been prepared." She noticed Sarah was staring at her, but she ignored her for now. She definitely sensed that Sarah had some kind of a problem with her, but she wasn't sure what it was.

Her heart skipped a beat when she was undoubtedly her place next to Sarah's. A Coke in a glass bottle. And a small blue hardcover she hadn't seen in a long time. She knew what the book was before before she even saw the title. Meditations. Marcus Aurelius. The day they'd met.

She took a sip of Coke. It was perfect, sweet and fizzy. Just then, she felt Sarah's eyes on hers.

"I need to talk to you," Sarah said.

"About what?"

Sarah gestured her away from the table and led her to a quiet spot in the room. What on earth was going on?

"I know who you are." Then, she gestured back to Jay. "He doesn't love you. He never has."

"What's it to you?" Alex spat. The room started to feel like it was spinning. Of course, a lot of people had said that. Reporters. Lawyers. The press. But this felt different.

"Because I'm his ex-wife," Sarah said.

Alex's face turned white. Then she started to laugh. This was the bitch had that broken Jay's heart? She she supposed it wasn't a complete shock that Jay would love her. She was very beautiful, after all. But this was her? She was expecting at least a little more impressive.

"You're Sarah?" Alex said. "You?"

"You were in diapers when we met," Sarah continued. "You were learning how to ride a bike when we were raising our son. Did you know that?"

"Of course I did. I know everything about you. I know you broke his heart. You don't deserve him." Alex couldn't believe this was actually happening. All the years she thought about what she'd say or do if she ever met this woman. And now it was happening.

Sarah scoffed. "I've known him as long as you've been alive. He's not what you think. At the end of the day he only cares about himself."

Alex laughed now. She was sure Sarah regretted divorcing Jay and was now taking it out on her. "Jealous?"

Sarah took a deep breath. "I'm trying to help you."

"I don't want your help," Alex spat. She was tempted to spit in Sarah's face. But she restrained herself, and went to sit back at her assigned place.

Jay had gathered their attention. "Thank you all for coming. Please, drink. Read. Enjoy the music. Be merry. Everything will be made clear soon enough. We're in no rush. "

Bo was having a moment. A disassociation moment.

Maybe it was because he was still groggy after his deep sleep during the movie, and maybe it was because this whole situation was just bizarre, and unsettling, even though it was built to cater to their comforts. Maybe it was because the captain looked like his dad, but it wasn't his dad. His father was in prison.

If this was some elaborate setup for him to hug some imaginary shape-shifting i-can-be-what-you-want-me-to-be messed up dream person with a violent anaconda grip and never let go, then man. It was beyond tempting.

But he knew it wasn't his dad. For one, his dad was never that... calm, and would never be that calm at the sight of his son. And he was not at all qualified to be a captain of a ship.

What was the point of all of this, then? To make them comfortable, or to make them wish this all would end? He wasn't sure how he felt anymore. It was bad enough being on a ship in the middle of an endless ocean, nevermind to be messed with by being shown faces of people they admired or cared about without them actually even being real.

That, and Alex and Sarah were starting to argue. He guessed when they looked at the captain, they both saw the same person - a guy named Jay - which meant that the captain was assuredly not his father and definitely not someone he wanted to embrace, or even really get near to.

It was a cruel trick, really.

He looked at the tables and the books and drinks laid out, and wasn't sure if he liked that he knew which one was for him.

A glass of sparkling apple cider, and a crossword puzzle book, with a little pencil.

He didn't like being read like that. Not like this.

He sat down beside Tim, who looked like he saw a ghost, even though he was just reading some Batman or Robin comic. What was it with all of the Robin stuff? He looked between Tim and the cover of the book, back and forth a little bit. Something clicked.

Ohhhhhhhh. He's batboy. Or uh, Robin. One of the Robins. He didn't really keep up with comics that thoroughly. No wonder the guy looked so shaken.

He took his glass and sipped it, shrugging ever so slightly, just to himself. He looked over at Alex and Sarah. The tension had not dissipated. At least Kirux seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Thanks, captain," he said more emptily than normal, for him. It was weird to be talking to the face and the voice of his father with the knowledge that it wasn't him at all. "But if I'm being honest, you might not be in a rush, but I would rather have 'everything be made clear' now than later."

Megara was less confused than she was just a bit annoyed. The captain, oh the captain. It took a great deal of effort not to use her cane for the purpose for which it was designed. A blade hidden inside it was hardly useful when she wasn't running people through.

The face she saw when she looked at it was that of a woman. A very, very dead woman. Her greying red hair was pulled back as it always had been, and her rounded belly strained against her uniform. It was clearly a uniform, even if it was unfamiliar, and the portly woman was not suited to wear it.

That didn't matter, though, because the woman was dead. Megara was more than sure that the woman was dead. After all, it was been Megara's blade that killed her.

Distractions, her father had scoffed when Megara protested. He said something else, but she wasn't listening at the time, proving that the woman really was a distraction as he said.

This thing using her image now was a horrible, horrible thing to do. If Megara's stomach wasn't twisting at the sight of it, she might have been able to say something before the others. But it was, and she didn't. Instead, she found her seat. It was obvious which one it was, mostly because the title of the leatherbound book wasn't written with the same alphabet as everything else around here. The drink next to it was something that smelled vaguely familiar, some kind of fruit juice that triggered something nostalgic inside her, but she didn't touch that. She opened the book to read the poems inside. It was a familiar volume, her comfort book, in the first language she'd ever learned beyond her native tongue. As a result, she was just as fluent now in that language as she was in the one she'd grown up speaking.

The poems were good at distracting her from what was going on all around. She didn't share her father's opinions on distractions. Often times, they were absolutely essential for preventing a slaughter.



Winter was surprised to see Summer. Her double in every way aside from the brilliant red hair, her twin stood before her in a strange outfit and greeted them.

Winter was happy for a brief moment before she reached out with her mind to return the greeting, and found nothing. Whoever that was, they only shared her sister's image. Winter wondered if the being had any image of its own. Perhaps it could only mimic memories. Some kind of creature created to play with people's minds.

It must be possessed of incredible skill in order to see into her head like that.

It occurred to her, briefly, that the creature could be setting a trap. People set traps sometimes. But then she remembered that this was not a person, it was a mind-mimicking creature, and Winter could not know if it was the kind of creature to lay a trap.

There were two tables set together, and many of the others were already sitting down. Two of the girls were arguing, but Winter was never good at stopping people from yelling. They never seemed to want to stop until they were done, so Winter did not intervene. Instead, she found an empty place. It looked like it was made for her. Oh, she loved that old book of fairytales, and that drink was her favorite tea heated to just the right temperature.

Winter didn't touch the tea at first. She could draw all of the heat out if she didn't put it back in right away. Right away she went for the book instead. Tales of mighty warriors and powerful enchanteresses comforted her through the confusion of the day.

It was then that the clock struck midnight. Just like how it was described in the song.

Before answering Bo's question, the Captain disappeared. The passengers would find out in time. The passengers were there because they'd all made selfish decisions. All put themselves first at the expense of others. And they needed to learn how to be better people. The Captain, of course, wasn't really a ship captain.

That was a form the passengers could understand. He'd return to the reading room in time, but but part of learning how to better people was patience.

This had started as a pet project in the place he'd come from, and he'd taken great pains tot make sure everything was perfect. It couldn't all come unravelling just because one of the passengers was antsy.



Alex slammed her book onto the table. How could Jay just leave, after all of this? It didn't make any sense at all. She still felt on edge with Sarah right there next to her, and even if this more opulent than prison, it was starting to feel like one.

Just then, Frank Sinatra came in, looking more recognizable in a suit and his fedora. He walked towards a small stage. Alex blinked. She was sure a stage hadn't been there before, but maybe she just didn't notice it.

Then he began to sing. My Way. Yes, it was beautiful.

So now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more much more than this
I did it my way.

The lyrics felt cryptic, but Alex wasn't thinking about that.

When Frank Sinatra sung, you listened.

Nothing else mattered.

Tim's breath caught in his throat.

At first, it was because of Frank Sinatra. In the back of his mind, he thought of Lila again. He thought of when they were kids and first discovered his music; his voice hadn't gotten nearly as deep as it would when they were older, but Lila had giggled at his very terrible impressions of the singer.

He was torn between feeling euphoria at the performance, doubt in this ship, and guilt at thinking of Lila. His grip on the comic tightened so much that some of the pages began to crumple at the edges. He quickly drew his hands away and put them down, but the damage had already been done to the book.

Then his breath caught in his throat again.

A few tables over, Kirux had finished his chocolate milk. He was beginning to look a little tired as he held his stuffed animal to his chest, but he was attentively watching Frank Sinatra sing. A man approached him to fill his empty glass; Kirux didn't even notice. And he couldn't explain why, but the pit in Tim's stomach grew. He couldn't even see the man's face. He could just see black hair - shorter than his own - and a waiter outfit.

But then the man looked up.

And Tim went tumbling out of his chair in his shock - which, in retrospect, was a very Jack thing to do and not a Tim thing at all.

The man wasn't a man at all. At most, he was seventeen years old. Tim let out a little pathetic laugh at that. Of course he was. They never let him get older than seventeen, did they? And while the boy's outfit fit the outfit's of everyone on the ship, what stood out the most about him was the all-too-familiar black mask around his eyes and running down the sides of his face.

He was looking at Red Robin.

He was looking at the real Timothy Jackson Drake, even if he had to be some kind of cruel, cruel illusion concocted by whoever had brought them here. The pit in his stomach grew as he scrambled back to his feet. If anyone looked hard enough, they'd see the resemblance. It didn't matter that Red Robin was wearing a mask, or that he was a few years older. They had the same haircut, the same build, and he was pretty sure their voices would be identical with the exception of a few voice cracks on his end.

Spoiler

Since I'm not the best at describing masks, this is what waiter!Red Robin looks like, minus the vigilante outfit past his shoulders:

Bo wanted to react to everything that was going on, but something deep down inside him was shutting down. He couldn't remember feeling this way in a long time... not since he'd heard his dad had been framed and taken away.

Marcus has come to pick him up from school that day. Marcus never came to pick him up from school. It was always his dad or no one, and if it was the latter he would walk home. It took him only a split second to realize that something was dreadfully wrong.

He hadn't said anything as Marcus walked up in his usual clean suit, glasses tucked into his jacket pocket, with his eyes looking through him. He'd never seen Marcus wear such a grim expression. Marcus had never been a very expressive man - he was much the opposite of his father, but somehow they'd been the best of friends - and that was when he knew it.

Something that had happened to his dad. His first thought was that his father died. It would've made sense, really. It could've been because of anything. Someone getting back at him for a kill, or a street-fight gone wrong. But he'd always had this feeling that his father was invincible. That nothing could stop him.

But apparently the law could - even though the crime he was pinned for he didn't even do. Something about murder, something about fraud. Bo hadn't been able to process any of it at the time. All that had swirled around his 17-year-old brain was an incomputable loss and emptiness took over.

Just like now.

Except he hadn't lost anything. There was nothing going on that he hadn't always thought he could handle, but now he found himself stuck to his seat, elbows glued to the table, with his feet feeling heavy as lead.

All of this, while Sinatra was singing a song that haunted him from his early 20's. He vividly remembered playing My Way on loop on his mp3 player for the first week or so of his trip across the country when he went off-grid. In his head the memories flashed by: him on his bike, passing miles and miles' worth of rolling hills and flat plains, little gas stations on the side of desert roads as the only thing he saw for miles.

He was staring at the soduku book in his hands. He still had his thumb in the pages, ready to open it, but he couldn't.

Something about this felt all wrong, and it wasn't just because the living duplicate of Sinatra was singing live after he just saw the living duplicate of his father in a captain's costume. It wasn't just because everything about this situation was built to be so personalized that it was getting to his head.

It was because he was trapped here, with no way out, and the villain who was supposed to be the one who trapped them there hadn't explained why, which meant he didn't know it he would ever, ever get back home.

It was like the Atlantis all over again, but he didn't feel a camaraderie with these guys that he did Raiden, Aegeas, Nadira, Codix, and even Boris. They at least had Kartiel to rally around and make fun of and antagonize to make light of the situation (which in the moment, he didn't regret - sure, he was on different terms with Kartiel now, but at the time, he needed to poke fun to keep from falling apart, as was usual for him).

But this? They'd all just seen the antagonist of this trap of a cruise and they'd all seen someone different. And they still had no answers. And he was still trapped. Trapped, and with no certainty of being able to go home.

Home had never felt the same since Atlantis, but he still considered it home.

He wanted to go back. He wanted out.

He realized how tight his grip was on the sodoku book when he saw the pages bending under his thumb - being warped and wrinkled under the pressure. He let it go, releasing his hand like a claw, and watched it plop on the table.

He needed to clear his head. He took one look at the glass of cider and downed the rest of it, looked to his left, and his eye twitched.

Tim had a clone, except he had a Robin mask. Damn. This ship was messing with everybody, huh.

He put a hand on Tim's shoulder, pushing the clouds of thoughts to the back of his head so he could focus on Tim, because focusing on Tim's personal crisis was infinitely easier than his own.

"Hey," he said, more gruff than he'd intended. He cleared his throat. "That guy?" he pointed to the Tim imposter. "I can tell him to leave."