71 Serendipity, Tuesday Morning

[chosehumanity]

The doorbell rang.

Mitchell didn't exactly get a lot of visitors, and as far as he knew, at this time of day, there were exactly two possibilities: Jack or Bo. He opened up the door with a casual greeting on his lips, and... found himself facing a polar bear instead.

The polar bear grinned at him encouragingly, and offered him a bottle of Coca Cola.

"...Thanks?" he said, taking the bottle in hand.

The polar bear dropped back onto four paws and turned around, happily trundling down the street, still pulling a refrigerated cart with the Coca Cola logo emblazed on it.

Mitchell stared after it. Then looked down at the bottle. Then stared after it again. Finally, he shook his head, went back inside, and shut the door. He felt it worked out better all around if he didn't ask questions.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

And, a bit after the bear had taken off, the doorbell rang again. Jack was on his way out of town -- his packed bags were ready for a pickup at Ronan's house -- but he had time for a brief "oh, good, the world didn't end" goodbye.

He also seemed to have a coke in his hand. The bears were quite persistent.

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell put down the empty bottle and made his way back to the door, which he opened almost warily. "If this is about the co-- Jack, hey."

[bitten_notshy]

"And that's how I know things really are back to normal," Jack observed. "We can worry about bears with bottles of soda again."

He smiled. "Hi. Just wanted to see for myself that you still existed before I headed home."

[chosehumanity]

"Came back Sunday night," Mitchell offered. "Still asleep, so..."

It had mostly felt like a prolonged nap, followed by being jumped by a succubus.

[bitten_notshy]

"So you didn't even have a chance to notice it?" Jack offered, mercifully not thinking about the succubus factor. "Probably easiest. You missed camping under toadstools, though, and I got to ride on a dragon."

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell blinked, then eyed him. "Like an actual fire-breathing dragon?"

[bitten_notshy]

"No, though we got attacked by one of those," Jack said, eying past Mitchell to see if he could come in. "The one we rode on was like a big fluffy flying dog. Apparently there are luck dragons, did you know that was a thing?"

Jack hadn't. He wasn't sure how applicable the knowledge would be, int he future.

[chosehumanity]

It took Mitchell a few seconds to realise what Jack was getting at with all the looking.

He blamed the polar bears, personally.

He stepped aside. "Never really heard of them," he said, "Unless you mean all that Chinese mythology stuff."

[bitten_notshy]

"I guess," Jack said lightly, stepping in. "I'm not an expert on the Chinese kind. Anyhow, it was very furry and got us out of this depressing swamp, so I can't complain."

[chosehumanity]

"Yeah, you'll have to fill me in," Mitchell said, shutting the door behind him. "Bo told me some things, but I don't remember luck dragons."

[bitten_notshy]

"I think she would have only seen it when we all reached the empress, and things were distracting by then," Jack said, thinking back. "I'm not sure what happened on her end, other than what made radio, but for us there were dragons, zombies, and the swamp."

He shrugged lightly.

"It felt good to be doing something, instead of just waiting for things to get worse."

[chosehumanity]

"It's not been the easiest couple of months, yeah," Mitchell said, and puttered down the hallway towards the kitchen. "You want something to dri--" pause. "Something else to drink?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm good with the coke, thanks," Jack called back.

It struck him that 'not the easiest couple of months' was probably a fair assessment for almost any given moment of the last two and a half years, but he was choosing to believe it couldn't keep being true indefinitely.

"We're due for a break from the drama," he said. "Has to happen someday, and I'm calling it for 2012."

[chosehumanity]

Way to jinx yourself, Jack.

"All right," Mitchell called back, poking around the fridge for a moment before deciding it was way too early for beer and grabbing the soda can sitting in there somewhere. "Grab a seat on the sofa."

[bitten_notshy]

What? He was going to go home, spend time with Sebastien, finish the school year, and then see about another summer on the island. There was no jinx in any of that.

Ahahahahaha

"Sure," Jack said, taking the offered seat. "How have you been, other than sleeping through an apocalypse? Heard from George and Nina yet?"

[chosehumanity]

"Yeah," Mitchell said, with audible relief. "They're all right. A bit confused why they had so many messages all of a sudden - I think George had a fit."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack smirked. "Sounds familiar. The only different thing at home is that they're all trying to figure out where the last couple weeks went. I think it's being blamed on strange weather conditions."

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell snorted. "I should try that one on George," he said, collapsing onto a chair. "No, mate, it's just the weather. Sit, stay."

[bitten_notshy]

"And then he nods dully and wanders off to ... do whatever George does in Wales?" Jack asked, laughing a bit. "Why not? It's not the strangest thing in either of our worlds."

[chosehumanity]

"Somehow I don't think that'll fly past our new pint-sized detective Nina," Mitchell said, chuckling.

[bitten_notshy]

"Is that what she's up to these days?" Jack asked.

"I'm partial to pint-size detectives" -- he had to be, with his impressive height and all -- "but I'd think nursing plus George plus being a werewolf would be enough for one woman."

[chosehumanity]

"Not Nina," Mitchell said. "She's dead set on finding out as much as she can about... everything tha thappened." He opened up his soda can and took a drink.

[bitten_notshy]

"Are you going to help her?" Jack was legitimately curious.

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell gave that a shrug. "It's her project," he said. "I'll be happy if they stay gone."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack looked puzzled a moment. "Oh, that project," he said. "I thought you meant the Nothing. As for your old friends, I'm inclined to agree with you."

[chosehumanity]

"I don't think she really believed me when I told her what was happening here," he muttered. "Too big on conspiracy theories."

[bitten_notshy]

"I wanted it to be a conspiracy at first," Jack said, a bit nostalgically. "It's easier to believe than the truth."

[chosehumanity]

"Usually is, or we wouldn't have so many conspiracy nutters," Mitchell muttered.

[bitten_notshy]

"Thanks," Jack laughed, not especially offended. "Don't worry. I'm not about to start believing the queen is secretly a lizard alien."

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell snorted. "We should have you explain that to some of our pop singers some day," he said.

[bitten_notshy]

"I shall. Though I'm not so sure about the iron queen," Jack said idly, taking a moment to remember she used her middle name in most realities. "Victoria. She looked like she might be part lizard."

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell chuckled. "It's the royal family," he said, "God knows what got bred into that line."

[bitten_notshy]

"Lizard aliens, clearly," Jack said, taking a swig to finish his drink. "I should go. My portal home's in a few hours."

[chosehumanity]

"Tell Sebastien and Carl I said hi," Mitchell said, stretching out in his seat. "Hope you don't have too many layovers."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack smiled in satisfaction. "I talked them into an upgrade and a direct portal, with a return for whenever I choose to use it. Their customer service people aren't saying no to anything just now."

"And" -- he added -- "say hi to Nina and George for me."