if i could turn back time//if i could find a way

[traitorously]

Characters: Catty, Vanessa, Costigan, Dorian, Willow, Sabriel
Date: 14 September
Location: THE PAST
Situation: TIMETRAVEL
Warnings/Rating: N/A

Thread starters inside!

- Her landings aren't the smoothest right now. So everyone is going to fall the fuck over when they arrive.

- The portal is pretty unremarkable, just like a tunnel that opens in the middle of nowhere. There'll be some sense of movement, and it totally does smell like cabbages. Catty will deny it though.

- If anyone is wearing a watch, they'll notice the hands turning back faster and faster

- Every one will be hitting up all three points in time! I just figured that no one would be interested in multiple threads for each place, but if you want to thread your pairs finding nothing as well, just toss up a thread in the entry! Go crazy etc.

Comments

Pre Timetravel Mingle thread

[traitorously]

[Catty has gathered you all at Vanessa's treehouse, where there is a variety of baked goods to eat while you listen to her chatter about what's to come.] Okay, so basically what's going to happen is that I'm going to open a portal to the past, and we're all going to step into it. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case, you all have to be holding onto each other, and at least one of you has to be holding on to me. Preferably two. It's not a bumpy ride or anything, so there's no excuses for letting go! If you do end up letting go - please don't - just stay where you are. I'll get the others back safely, and then I'll come for you.

I decided to split everyone up into pairs, so we can cover more ground without getting totally lost. I figure I can take us through about three different stops before I need to come back, so we'll spend about a day in each play. I don't know where to start here at all, so for this first trip it's going to be sort of random and hope for the best. If we can get any kind of useful information this time, we might be able to use it next time. So, Grumpy, you're with Sabriel. Dorian and Willow, you two are together, and Vanessa's coming with me. We're leaving in about an hour, so if you have any questions just come to me. Otherwise, enjoy the food and get to know each other, because we're stuck with each other for like, the next three days.

Willow & Dorian;

[traitorously]

Lieuen's First Business Deal | ~67 years ago

[depicted]

So the landing wasn't quite as Dorian hoped, and it did really smell of cabbages, but in fact, Dorian has just now travelled in time. That probably accounts for his good mood as he offers Willow his arm in an image of gallantry. "It looks like there's a fair mass of people up ahead. Shall we go discover what the commotion is all about?"

[guiltapalooza]

It is pretty exciting to be traveling in time. Willow so can't deny that. All her moody homesickness aside, she's traveling in time and she's more than ready to share the enthusiasm with her compatriot.

Willow grins excitedly as she reaches out to lay a prim hand on his arm. "Don't mind if we do. Maybe the commotion will be... reveal-y. What did people have a commotion about sixty-seven years ago?"

[depicted]

"Where I was from? Germans, mostly." It's an idle retort; his focus is on what is before him. With the expert of the flâneur, he takes them through the crowd, noting as they pulled through, "Are those . . . the statues in the Earth Sector? They're having some kind of sculpting party?"

[guiltapalooza]

It was Germans where she was from, too, but Willow accepts this idly lobbied response with the spirit in which it was said. Unconscious banter is something familiar to her.

"Oh. Art. Not something with which I have an abundance of experience." It's probably relevant to something or other if they're seeing it on this trip, though. Willow knows how this works. She strains her neck up to peer at what they're doing. "Think they're significant somehow later on? Gotta be, right?"

[depicted]

"At the very least, I'll be able to give Annabeth at least one date." He glances over at Willow and adds, faux-explanatory, "Annabeth cares deeply about properly dated timelines." He approaches one of the sculptors, hands behind his back, and peers at the craftsmanship. "Oh, and would you look at that. This one is using another stone for the polishing. Something like emery?"

He reaches towards it to get a feel of it—and of course, he can't take it to get a proper look. "I wonder if anyone is carving hardstone." He really loves hardstone carvings. Having forgotten the goal of discovering interesting things, Dorian looks around the crowd for smaller work areas.

[guiltapalooza]

"Sounds hard for her," Willow says dubiously, not having met Annabeth but well able to imagine the headache that kind of desire for orderliness would inspire in a place like this. Heck, back home it'd given her a headache, too.

She follows after Dorian to investigate when he does, though she gets a lot less out of it than him. "Not seeing a whole lot of difference between varieties of stone," she admits. "It's a good thing you're here to interpret all of this for us uncultured plebes." It's not a sarcastically meant comment; Willow appears half-teasing, but sincere.

[depicted]

"Hardstone carvings are carvings from semi-precious stones," he explains, absent, while he tilts his head and bends to the side so he can get a better scope of the artistry in progress. "Jade, onyx, turquoise . . . Chinese jade carving is perhaps the most incredibly hardstone carving in the world, though I am inclined to Hellenistic productions. Some of them were converted into the most incredible chalices, all darkness that eats up the light marbled with a coffee-stained whiteness that catches and fills up with it."

He seems to remember himself as he straitens up. "But as this place seems to have a strong pseudo-Chinese bent, we're most likely to find jade. Shall we keep looking for something a little more substantial to learn about?"

Costigan & Sabriel;

[traitorously]

Harvest Festival Planning | ~173 years ago

[lostundercover]

By the second transport, for lack of a better term, Costigan has finally come to understand the way it works. He's still not entirely comfortable with the whole being unseen and unheard thing and he sure as hell is still anxious about the entire situation, but he's adapting.

The group is wandering around the Wood Sector when he catches sight of the kedan at the table. He sets a hand gently on Sabriel's arm, whispering in spite of the kedan not being able to hear them. "Come with me?"

The undercover doesn't fear being alone, but he understands the benefit of bringing someone magically inclined with him when wandering around a magical place.

Then he's heading casually towards the group, pretending to be a normal customer. Accepting the situation or not, he still can't quite get over the idea of wanting to remain unnoticed.

Catty & Vanessa;

[traitorously]

Security Checkpoints | ~349 years ago

[fatedchaos]

[Vanessa gags pretty much the second they're finally out of the tunnel, taking long and deep breaths as she lies on the ground. The pain from the fall doesn't even matter. She's just so happy to be anywhere at this point.

Her vision is cloudy for a moment. Or two. Or longer.] Is it just me, or do things look fuzzy?

[traitorously]

Goddess, don't be so dramatic. [Catty is pouting though, unhappy that she's lost the fine control she had over he landings. She holds out a hand to her friend to help her out - unsurprisingly, she ended up standing.] Uh. It's not just you. [And now she's scowling] None of this is going as planned.

[fatedchaos]

I'm not [herk.] being dramatic. [She takes Catty's hand and pulls herself up to her feet, sighing.] What exactly did you have planned? And how far back are we?

[traitorously]

You're totally being dramatic. It's not even anywhere near bad enough to be gagging like that. [She keeps her fingers locked with Vanessa. It's totally friendly. Completely. ] And I had something a little more helpful planned. We're three hundred and forty nine years back, and I think something's trying to stop us from seeing what's going on.

[fatedchaos]

Yes it is. [Her throat aches a bit, and her stomach is still churning, but Catty's hand holding tight to hers helps. Which is weird. Why would that help? Whatever, not that it matters. She's just glad that they're still touching.] Define helpful, exactly.

[Whoa. 349 years. There's a look of complete surprise on her face.] Like what?

[traitorously]

[She's just glad that they're still touching. Okay, Catty knows that she's not supposed to be in Vanessa's head, but she can't help herself. And she has to bite her tongue on a stupid joke like I'll touch you any time because - it's stupid. That's all. Well, that, and she doesn't want to advertise that she's eavesdropping again] I don't know, information about how to defeat Mally. Information in general.

I don't know. Maybe Mally, or the Emperor. Or...I guess this could just be what happens when you go this far back, maybe. [She squeezes Vanessa's hand, and - just out of curiosity, of course - slides her thumb back and forth over her skin.] Come on, let's go check it out.

Post Timetravel Mingle thread

[traitorously]

[Catty is pretty much shattered by the time she manages to bring them all home. But she's still pretty chipper, buzzed by having gone so far back in time.

It's twenty four hours later. She wanders over to the fridge and starts dragging out more food, gesturing at people to help themselves] Okay, so what did everyone find? Other than that it sucks to have to bring your own supplies on a timetravel trip.

Costigan & Catty - CLOSED

[lostundercover]

[After their group chat, Costigan lingers. He knows Catty's tired, but he's unlikely to sleep soon. Despite the exhaustion, there's too much cortisol and adrenaline in his veins and too many passing ideas on his brain. After the others have occupied themselves, he approaches her with his hands in his pockets, awkward as ever.]

Can we talk? [It's a quiet request. Costigan's not usually one for such politeness, but she should know that by now.]

[traitorously]

[Catty summons a smile for her grumpy new friend when he lingers, before taking a bite out of a coffee. She's sagging at the shoulders a bit, but it's clear that she's listening.

Chew, chew, swallow] Sure thing.

[lostundercover]

[He glances about, his paranoia as much a part of his casual existence as his slightly rounded shoulders. When he's convinced that no one else is actively listening, after his look around, he turns to look at her again and tries to look less grumpy, if not exactly cheerful.]

How can you do that? Travel like that.

[traitorously]

[She eyes him for a moment]

I'm the mortal child of a Greek goddess who sent her daughters to Earth in order to protect hope after Pandora opened her box. [Y u p] That's just the power I was born with.

[lostundercover]

[Costigan manages to maintain the same general scowl as before, despite the obviously ludicrous and somewhat horrifying information just presented to him.]

Sure. [He manages, trying not to sound like her story is completely fabricated.] So you've always been able to control it?

[traitorously]

Okay, so what's your explanation? [She raises an eyebrow at him, a challenge] And no, I haven't. We were all six once, you know? Vanessa had way more trouble than I did, though. The key is to not be scared of what you can do, to embrace all of it. I have pretty much complete control over it, now.