lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

Entry tags:

⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: Any time before the start of the event.
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Once you've submitted your AU summary, you can use this post to do some CLOSED THREADING to play out some character interactions that happened before the event start. This means that memory regains will not be in play yet. Open top levels are not allowed - these threads are intended to sort out closed interactions between planned backstory connections, during the week leading up to the actual event start.
Warnings: Could be anything.

PORTLAND, AS YOU KNEW IT↴

The shift went unseen and unfelt. One moment you were one person, and the next, another. This before all that, though, in the new life that you remember living here in Portland. No memories of your true self have arisen yet, and at the time this was the only life you knew. Did these events truly happen at all? Or do they only exist in memory?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well this is certainly a debacle. Bonus, Peridot is about to make it worse, because clamping your hand down over a panicking animal-- no matter how necessary it may be at the time-- is generally not a wise move. She can't even take the time to be judgmental about the ridiculous sounds Lambert is making, because she's too busy emitting muffled squeaks against his hand and putting her little fruit bat teeth against the heel of his palm.

At least she's not a bloodsucking variety of bat. She probably doesn't even manage to break the skin.

Probably.

Peridot doesn't draw blood, but it's a near thing. Lambert has to bite his lip against a shout when her teeth sink in into the meat of his (thankfully calluses) palm and he jerks his hand back so she isn't as trapped. Whether she ends up coming along for the ride depends on whether she lets go or not..

"Calm down, Peridot!" He hisses, in the grand tradition of people who know full well telling someone to calm down is going to do absolutely fuck-all to make it happen. Maybe using her full name for once will actually have some effect, but who knows?

"You startled me!" she snaps indignantly, totally flustered. At least she's trying to keep her voice down somewhat. "This is ridiculous, look at me, how is something like this even possible!? It flies in the face of the very laws of NATURE!"

To be honest, Lambert was thinking the same thing, but he doesn't have any answers for her ... and they're definitely not getting any more answers standing around like this.

"I don't know," Lambert admits. "But we can't stay here. We've got to get you home and ... and figure it out from there."

An incredulous, humorless laugh. "Home? We can't go home!" Peridot shuffles anxiously up and down her brother's arm, which is about as close to agitated pacing as she can get in her current shape. "Can you even imagine how the parental units will react if they see me like this!? No, there is no WAY I am going back there!"

Lambert grimaces. All right, he hates to admit it, but Peridot might have a point there. While it takes a certain kind of person to bring three foster kids into their house at once, he's not sure he wants to test the limit of that patience. If he could just sneak in it would be a different story, but...

"They don't have to see you," is what he says instead, thinking out loud. "Since it's still early, they won't be looking for you for a while. I could bring you in in a bag." He glances down, makes another face. "...And we need to pick up your clothes."

Peridot lets out a dubious sounding groan. Is it possible for a bat to appear skeptical? Because she feels pretty skeptical about this plan.

"We're already at the library. Why go home? Isn't library science like, your thing? You should be able to research up a solution easy, with all the resources we have access to here."

"I haven't picked a major yet," Lambert snaps back, automatically defensive; sure, he's flirted with a few different subjects and so far he kind of likes the idea of getting more into research, but he's really a little worried it's a little too much nerd.

But his life choices aren't what are on the chopping block here!

"Well we can't stay in this bathroom and I can't go out there holding a bat," he'll point out instead. "So you're going to have to hide somewhere." He's going to take this opportunity to multitask, awkwardly slipping his backpack and reaching for her discarded clothes so he can start stuffing them inside.

Another groan. This is so embarrassing, and Peridot hates every second of it.

"Can you at least let me maintain some of my dignity by letting me ball my undergarments up inside of the rest of my clothing? I don't want you touching them," she complains.

There are arguably a plethora of more embarrassing stories Lambert could rib her with, including a snide you weren't this fussy a few years ago, but a bitchy Peridot is a good sign things are gravitating a little bit closer to normal, at least, and he rolls his eyes, bundling up the cloth (see, he isn't touching them) and jamming it all on top of his other shit.

Unfortunately, it doesn't leave much room for her to actually shove herself in, and he frowns, glancing between her and the bag before he sighs and unzips his jacket.

"Come on, hop in." Yeah remember that thing called dignity, Peridot? Kiss it goodbye.

On her perch, Peridot leeeeeeans away. Her little bat snout is all scrunched up.

"You can't be serious."

"You're not going to fit in the bag," Lambert says, with exaggerated patience.

"And if we're gonna stick around, I really don't want to explain why I'm carrying a bat around."

She can't help but wonder: What did she do to deserve this? She's a good person, she works hard and gets good grades and generally doesn't do crime, so why, universe, is she being punished like this?

Peridot heaves a sigh and wobbles her way up Lambert's arm, and then clings to the front of his shirt as directed. "Oh my god. Why are you so sweaty?" she complains. "Did you run here or something?"

Come to think of it, he still hasn't explained how he found her here. Hiiiiighly suspicious.

Lambert had, but she doesn't need to know that, does she? He isn't certain about it himself, and it's easier if they focus on one person's problems at a time. Once she's securely on, he'll zip up his hoodie (it kind of awkwardly looks like he got knocked up or suddenly got tits or whatever, but he'll live) just enough that she isn't super obtrusive, and ... yeah, he really should have thought this through better.

"You probably haven't realized this because you never work out, but sweating is a thing most people do." Gingerly, he slings his bag over his shoulder, then walks to the door. "Where'd you put the rest of your stuff?"

"Wow, you're hilarious," she replies dryly. "Nngh... I left my bag over by one of the computer stations. It should still be there, provided some rando hasn't gone and lifted all my stuff."

Anyway get ready for some awkward tickling, Lambert, because Peridot is moving north to poke her head up just over the neck line of his hoodie, so she can squint out and get a sense of what her field of vision is.

Not that she can... see... anything very clearly... what with the bat eyes, and everything.

"All right. Try not to talk too much once we're outside."

Lambert's wit is amazing, thanks. He lets her wriggle her way to a better position, cracking the door open and scanning their immediate surroundings -- thankfully clear -- before he hustles over to the computer stations as directed. It isn't hard to find Peridot's stuff, and he slides into the seat, putting his bag next to Peridot's and reaching for the mouse.

The timer's still running -- thankfully? -- so it's not hard to pull up a new browser window, before he pauses. What the fuck does he even search for, here? Finally, after a moment's hesitation, he types:

can humanss turn into bats?

The initial results aren't particularly reassuring. Neither is searching for bat transformation.

Edited 2017-05-31 22:11 (UTC)

Fortunately, Peridot really can't read the screen because, as previously mentioned, bat eyes are garbage. "Are you finding anything?" she hisses urgently, wriggling up a little higher to try and see if she can interpret anything on the monitor. Huge yellow ears are probably grazing Lambert's chin at the moment.

Lucky for Lambert, really, because nah, he's really not into looking at weird pictures when any time a librarian could come look right over his shoulder.

"Hold on," he mutters back. The tickle of ears against his chin -- something that makes his skin instinctively goosepimple and leaves him fighting the urge to jerk away -- does inspire him to look up something else: white bat, yellow nose.

There. Now that's something marginally useful.

"Looks like you're a Honduran bat. Just a really big one." He squints. "...you aren't from Honduras, are you?" #Logic at work.

Edited 2017-05-31 22:52 (UTC)

"Seriously?" Come on, man. "How would I even know? I don't even know who my birth parents are, let alone where they originated from."

It was worth a shot. "We're not getting anywhere with this," Lambert grumbles under his breath. "What were you doing before you ended up in that bathroom?" People just don't turn into bats out of nowhere, after all, maybe if they retrace her steps they can pinpoint something useful.

Peridot is gradually emerging from his sweatshirt without even realizing it, because it's too warm and sweaty in there and she does NOT care for it. Her little thumbs on her wings are gripping the neckline of the hoodie now, her whole head poking out the top. At the very least, she's keeping a hyper-sensitive ear out for any approaching footsteps...

"I was using this computer, obviously. I... Haven't been feeling well for the past few days," she admits quietly. "So I came here to do some research on the symptoms."

"A few days? You should've told me." What else is technology for, if not pointlessly complaining to your big brother about feeling like shit. Luckily, with his back turned to the rest of the library, the sudden fuzzy tumor he's acquired on his throat.

"Tell me about your symptoms."

Edited 2017-06-01 06:05 (UTC)

"What was I supposed to tell you," Peridot says at an intense whisper, to make up for not being able to talk as loud as she'd otherwise prefer. She starts making alternating poking motions with her bat thumbs, ostensibly in an attempt to mimic typing while she talks like she's dictating a letter: "Dear brother! How are you doing? I just wanted to let you know that I've been having what seem to be stress hallucinations! I genuinely believe I may be going clinically insane, because while I was brushing my teeth last night, I looked in the mirror and noticed my ears were growing pointy! To say nothing of the strange occurrence of the other day, when during English class, I started having trouble holding my pencil, and looked down to see that my fingers were twice their usual length!"

The hissing isn't as quiet as Peridot (or Lambert) would prefer, as there are at least a couple of people whose heads lift up to shoot irritated looks in their direction even if they can't quite pinpoint the source of the sound. Lambert, however, isn't paying attention to them, because this is clearly some kind of cry for help (even more so than Peridot's existence in general).

"Dot, you know I'm the last person to judge you," he says, starting off with his best effort at a 'concerned big brother' tone that ... quickly goes right out the window, because fuck if Lambert can do subtle. "But how long have you been doing drugs?"

Peridot is stunned into silence for all of two seconds, until finally she has an outburst in an even quieter, even more intense whisper: "I have not been doing drugs-- See, this is why I didn't say anything!" she hisses.

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