||sky graffiti
because fashionable entrances aren't their thing. ace&baron AU.
— pressurized colors are liable to burst.
x•x•
Dimension travel is like layered sunsets, transcribed behind your closed eyelids like symbols after staring at screens too long. Colors upon colors upon colors, sands sifting in hourglasses and bubblegum lava; a montage of fantastical contradictions that make perfect sense to creatures of worlds far away.
And to Baron.
"Okay, okay, stop for a minute." Ace snaps, grabbing the shorter boy's forearm with a characteristic scowl. "We can't jump into the portal just like that."
Baron kind of looks like he wants to say 'why not,' but settles for an inquisitive blink.
And Ace doesn't even wonder about how easily they understand each other without words. "We—you don't know anything about Earth."
"Right! Which is why we're going! …That is why we're going, isn't it?"
"You have to have some knowledge about what you're getting into. You're definitely the type to get culture shock."
"What's culture shock?"
"Exactly."
Baron smiles sweetly, his foolproof method for getting out of trouble. "As long as you're with me, I'll be fine."
"Right. That doesn't work on me."
Baron's smile doesn't fade. "What doesn't work on you?"
"Just get over here," He snaps and, grip on Baron's arm still intact, pulls the boy over to the main controls system.
It was a little anticlimactic, Baron thought with a pout, when his free hand (did he even notice he was still holding on to him?) bypassed the pretty, colorful buttons and instead opened a drawer, only to retrieve…a book.
"This has pictures," Ace announced, "meaning that it should hold your attention for more than two seconds. It's currently the most up-to-date and in-depth information on Earth in all of Vestal." He handed Baron the book and, noticing their conjoined limbs, coughed and dropped Baron's arm abruptly.
Baron's eyes took on a sparkle as he flipped through the glossed pages; even though he couldn't read the words, the pictures were pretty. "Hey, Ace," he said conversationally, pointing to a emboldened title next to a building with a neon sign, "What's this say?"
"…Top twenty places to go drinking."
"Whoa, humans have special places to drink? Like how animals go to watering holes?"
"They're called bars," Ace rolls his eyes, acting long-suffering. "Apparently they're like restaurants, except they procure alcohol and are less formal."
"Ooh," Baron replies, pretending he knows what 'alcohol' is, "What kind of book is this, anyway?"
"A guidebook, I think they call it."
Baron breaths the name in reverence, holding the book out under the fluorescent lighting. "The Guidebook. It sounds so…so…official!"
"Yeah, whatever, just hurry up and study all the pictures so we can—"
The noise of a voice outside the control room's doors, muffled by the near-soundproof walls, stops him abruptly. "Now where did I put that keycard…did I leave it in my other pants again?"
"Professor Cla—" Baron manages to squeak, before Ace claps a hand over his mouth.
"Damn!" He hisses, eyes darting about it panic. His gaze falls to a lever—the lever.
Without a second thought, he pulls it.
The blinding swirls of light in the teleport chamber elicit another gasp from Baron, but they don't have time for reassurances. The Guidebook still clutched in the younger boy's grip, Ace takes him by the free hand.
They jump.