The Inkwell Bar

Doc presents Marty with a tiny orange box, giving him a small smile. "It's nothing particularly jaw-dropping, I admit. But I know you're in the process of explaining our history to Daniel, and -- well, I figured you might appreciate a reminder we're safe."

"Definitely," Marty nods, taking the box. With a smirk, he adds, "What is it, a good-luck charm?"

"Actually, it is, more or less," Doc laughs. "Open it up and see."

Well, his curiosity's piqued. Marty opens up the box to find a little metal guitar figurine, suitable for hanging from a keychain. "Okay, unless this is -- holy shit, is it iron?"

Doc nods, looking quite proud of himself. "Custom order. We're in and out of the Nexus, and we've seen the variety of people that can pass through. And with what's come up about our pasts. . .well. A little extra protection can never hurt, right?"

"Yeah." Marty slips the guitar into his pocket, then hugs his uncle. "Thanks a lot, Doc."

"You're welcome, Marty. Happy birthday."

save_us_alice

To everyone's (except a giggling Lucy's) surprise, Alice is quite fidgety as she approaches her new husband. "I, ah, can't give you your gift right now," she tells DGVictor in a near whisper.

DGVictor blinks, clearly puzzled by this development. "Whyever not?"

save_us_alice

"Well, you see. . .Lucy took me shopping the other day, and the clothes are kind of my present to you," Alice explains, fighting desperately to keep from blushing as she rocks on her heels.

DGVictor is politely blank for a moment -- but then Lucy's snickering grows louder, and something clicks. "Oh -- Oh!" He doesn't even try to resist the blush, cheeks staining deep red. "I see. Er, y-yes, probably better that we d-don't parade that around in front of Dee. . .or anyone else. . ."

save_us_alice

Averted eyes, quiet whistling, and a few stifled chuckles attest to the growing level of awkward in the room. "Yes, well, I figured I should at least let you know," Alice mutters, then leans forward to kiss his cheek. "But, um -- it's going to be a happy birthday regardless. I hope, anyway."

DGVictor manages a smile for his wife. "I'm sure it will be. . .if Lucy will ever stop laughing," he adds with a significant look.

secundus_cast

The Secundus gang are of course on-hand to help their favorite son celebrate his birthday, and it's Doc who comes forward with the present, contained in a glass jar with a ribbon. "You've been talking about these lately, so I took the train out on a special trip," he says, handing it over.

butterflyboy

Butterfly Boy, of course, can immediately identify the little crawlies inside. "Glasswing caterpillars! Oh, I've wanted a few of these for the lab. . ." He playfully wiggles his fingers at the capterillars on their leaves, then glances up. "I assume you managed to snag these in Florida rather than Panama or Columbia."

secundus_cast

"Yes, finding out that they travel through one of the states did make things a bit easier," Doc laughs. "I was originally going to get you adult specimens, but Marty told me you'd probably appreciate the ability to rear them from the larval stage more."

butterflyboy

"Very much so, thank you Marty," Victor says with a nod at his friend. "Oh, this is lovely. Thank you so much!"

secundus_cast

"You're welcome." Doc gives his hair a friendly ruffle. "Happy birthday, Victor."

crossover_chick

It's Vicky who steps forward with this present -- a medium-sized box wrapped in butterfly-themed paper. "It's scary how freaking long it took me to come up with this," she admits sheepishly, setting it down before Forgotten. "But the end result should be well worth it."

"You really didn't have to get me anything," Forgotten says, even as he takes off the paper. "I've dominated this birthday for two years in a row."

crossover_chick

"Maybe so, but I would have felt bad just skipping over you. And it really is a very good present," Vic assures him.

Forgotten arches an eyebrow, then removes the lid of the box and looks down. His eyes go wide -- then he covers his face with a hand, laughing quietly. "You would go for something like this. . ."

"What is it?" Marty asks, craning his head for a peek.

"Some old friends I never thought I'd see again." Out of the box comes a little plush grey dog and black and white cat, both looking rather well-loved. "I'm sure you all recognize Socks and Fluffles?" he adds to his counterparts.

The stunned looks serve as an adequate yes. "Oh my. . ." DGVictor gently pets the dog. "I didn't think I'd ever see these again."

"Nice to have a mun who is willing to use her god-like powers to retrieve old toys, isn't it?" Forgotten asks, grinning and getting a light cuff upside the head.

dee_lorean81

Dee squints at the plushies, then at Forgotten. "Socks I get for the cat," she says, pointing to its white feet. "But Fluffles?"

butterflyboy

"He used to be a lot fuzzier," Butterfly Boy explains, setting down the jar to give the not-very-Fluffles a hug. "I'd forgotten how much I missed these. . ."

"You guys all know I'm willing to share," Forgotten assures them, before turning to give his mun a quick squeeze. "Thank you. This really is wonderful."

crossover_chick

"I thought so," Vic says, hugging him tight. "Happy birthday."

alienlisa

Insert quip about being late here.

AL and the guys file in, though they are conspicuously minus one. Coulson is absent this time around.

AL sighs and explains. "He had a rough finale. In a nutshell, in order to save the lives of his team members he caught a very dangerous crystal - one that can activate hidden powers and abilities within certain 'chosen' people but if you don't have the genetic makeup, then it's lethal. To save his life...well, his arm had to be amputated at the elbow." She winces and flexes her left hand. "He's fine considering the circumstances. One of his team aquired the power to create earthquakes and now he's entrusted her to put together a secret team of people with powers. I'm an honorary member." She chuckles. "But that's why he's not here...he's a busy beaver nowadays. But he sends his happy birthdays."

There's some curious looks as the gang realizes one of Lisa's favorites is missing, which are swiftly replaced with various expressions of shock and horror as she explains the reason for Coulson's absence. "Oh -- tell him we're so sorry," Butterfly Boy says, he and his counterparts all rubbing their arms. He glances down and flexes his fingers. "Losing a hand. . .that's one of my nightmares."

"I think it's one of everybody's," Marty agrees, shivering. "I mean, I'm glad he lived, and that he still gets to do awesome stuff with his teammates, but -- yeah, send him our best."

alienlisa

AL smiles gratefully. "I'll pass it on. And who knows...this is SHIELD we're talking about. They may have access to something better than standard old prosthetic limbs." She shrugs. "We'll find out in September."

She claps her hands. "Now, enough misery for that conversation. What's new?"

"I would certainly think so," Doc comments. "And given that Coulson's already died once for them, it seems only right that they give him the best they've got."

"Betcha the opening of the new season is him kicking ass with a cyberarm or something," Marty grins. "And not that much. Been visiting some friends in the Nexus who have plot coming up. Going back to their world to tie up some loose ends, and apparently it's gonna go screwy?" He glances at Vic.

"Yeah, but in a good way," Vic confirms. "They're going to get to save somebody who dies in their canon. Though it's not going to be easy -- you may be on tap to play doctor, Alice."

Alice blinks. "Me??"

"Meta-essence! Cures all ills -- or at least helps out a guy who's suffering a nasty head wound."

alienlisa

AL chuckles. "Who knows? His actor just happened to find a photo of his action figure sporting an Iron Man gauntlet. He posted it and labeled it 'Spoiler alert. Just kidding. I don't know nothin'." She shakes her head. "What a nerd. I love him." She laughs.

She then nods. "I'll admit we don't follow your RPs outside of here unless V links them in her journal but it sounds interesting. And, hey, healing someone is good. That's one of the abilities that I lose in my timeline once the Doctor dies for permanent." After a beat, she looks at her hands. "Hrmph. I must be a version of me from later in my life since even now I still can't heal even though the Doctor is here." She glares at the sky for lack of a better place.

"Anyways, there's not much going on with us, either. The alter ego offered to proofread a novel a friend of hers wrote so she's been focused on that for the last few days as she was reading it...it's a monster at 239 pages." She pauses, then looks at V. "Well, I don't have to talk to you about monster novels. I'm sure you can relate." She chuckles.

The others laugh along. "Hey, it's always great when the actor's just as fun a guy as the character," Marty says. "Though, hey, Tony would be a great choice to build something for him, wouldn't he? Guess that might get awkward, though, given the whole touching 'his name was Phil' thing from the first movie. . ."

"That's cool -- we know there's only so many hours in a day," Marty assures her. "And these things tend to go on a while. For the same reason."

"Trust me, if I could find a way to do two things at once, I would," Vic sighs. "And cripes, Lisa, you don't even know where you are on your timeline?"

"To be fair, that can change a lot in RPs," Forgotten points out. "Note all those threads where I'm in my Houndsditch days."

"Yeah, but for meta stuff?" Forgotten shrugs. "Well, anyway. . .ooh, wow, that sounds pretty cool. Time-consuming, but cool." She laughs and covers her face. "And tell me about it. It's a wonder I can actually find it in me to write short fic."

alienlisa

AL nods. "Yeah...they don't know he's alive yet. According to him, they don't have the required security clearance. As far as I know, there are no plans yet to tell them, although his actor is lobbying to get one of them into the show. During promotions for Age of Ultron the cast went on one of those talk shows and were taking Skype questions from fans. He managed to wedge his way in and was like, 'Do you think you'd maybe do television?' and they were all for it, so here's hoping." She crosses her fingers.

Her wings flush pink at V's words. "Well, I actually never really thought about it 'til now. It's never really come up since very rarely does one of us get hurt while we're together, you know?" She shrugs. "I actually have more knowledge than I really should at this stage...like what I was doing before I lost my memories. Comes in handy when going meta." She shrugs again.

She then smiles. "Yeah. I'm in the novel...er, sort of. It's not quite a cameo but I wouldn't be listed as 'special guest star' either. Speaking of knowledge I shouldn't have at this point, that's one of them. I was in this world prior to the amnesia ordeal as a - say it with me - doctor." She scratches her head. "Seems to be running theme with me...have I said that before? Anyways, yeah. The alter ego's friend wanted to borrow a character to be a doctor and I was available, so yeah. I'm not in this form, though. I'm in my anthropomorphic form." Beat. "Oh, I may as well show you."

She brings her wings forward to obscure her body and, when she brings them back, she suddenly looks like this (it's the best drawing I have currently...it's supposed to be a "publicity photo" for when Tennant became the Doctor, lol...my friend is making a webcomic of the novel so you can see how she drew 'Dr. Lisa' here). She isn't any taller than before, but the horn certainly adds about a foot. "This anthro equine form is called 'Delphin' in that world." Her voice is the same; it's just coming out of an equine muzzle. "And there are different varieties...unicorns, pegasi, alicorns or winged unicorns or whatever you want to call them, regular horses. From what I understand, wings can be hidden but horns cannot and the wings can either be batlike or feathered. There are also anthro wolves called Lupino, cats called Feln and dragon-ish ones called Avizon. And there are non-anthro animals and some humans but since most of those anthros can shapeshift it's hard to know who's pure human and who's just shifted. It's an interesting world. I wasn't in it long, but I saved the life of the main character of the novel a couple of times."

Edited 15/6/15 14:01 (UTC)

"The superheroes don't have the required security clearance," Marty echoes, then shakes his head. "That's S.H.I.E.L.D. for ya. . ." He holds up crossed fingers as well. "Yeah, here's hoping. They could all kick some serious ass together."

"Fair enough, yeah," Vic allows, running her fingers through her hair. "Wasn't thinking of it like that. . .and more knowledge than you should is pretty standard for meta-stuff. Just my gang tends to have particular 'whens' for when they're in here. . .then again, you're not such an active character as mine are." She shrugs back.

There's some chuckling as Lisa confesses to being a doctor yet again in a different world. "Sounds like you're just well-suited to it," Doc comments. "Nothing wrong with that, though -- it's a good, solid profession that helps people -- or animals, in the case of your vet self. You should be proud that it's the job you keep drifting towards."

And then she transforms and -- yeah, they're used to weird stuff happening in their lives, but it still gets a bit of surprised staring. "Yeah, I remember other pictures you've done in this style," Vic confirms. "Never heard of the others though. . .then again, you always were most into horses, weren't you?"

"It sounds interesting," Marty says, leaning on his hand. "Good on you for keeping the main alive. Though -- okay, I can get the names for cats and wolves, but why 'Delphin' for horses and 'Avizon' for dragon-types? 'Delphin' makes me think 'dolphin.'"

alienlisa

AL shrugs. "You need Level 7 clearance. They're not Level 7."

She agrees with V. "Yeah. We're pretty much dormant until there's a party or something happens that's extreme enough to wake one of us up. Like when I first moved in Coulson and Twelve before I knew how Coulson came back to life and before Twelve was in the show proper. If we could still do the blog we might be more active but since the alter ego barely has time for much and she hates not being able to use her old web editor, that's gone way by the wayside." She shrugs yet again.

"Mostly," she says to V. "What it really was is that this is easier to draw than - " She returns to her normal form. " - this. Actually the alter ego's been trying to draw me as a humanoid but faces, hands and feet really give her problems. And my wings since feathered wings aren't easy for her, either. Not to mention the model in the reference photo she's using is wearing high heels and those are not practical for someone like me who spends most of her time running around helping others save the world."

" 'Delphin' actually does mean 'dolphin' in German," AL confirms with a nod. "She knows that. The first one she ever thought up years ago was named Delphine and she dropped the last letter for the species name. As for Avizon...she can't remember." She laughs. "This novel has been in the works for a considerable number of years so it's not unusual that certain details would be forgotten given its size."

Edited 16/6/15 13:49 (UTC)