Well, that took a while. Sorry, holidays slowed me quite a bit, as well as Warframe!
Krusa1 - The nature of Jackie going away from Echo Creek already makes it an alternate season 3, wouldn't you agree? The idea for All Caught Up is interesting, but I think it's for now too early to be thinking of a sequel, we don't want to be like Hollywood, do we?
Guest and Prinnrayza - We could always use a little more Sk8 Girl, after all!
Massive thanks for robertkellett for the ideas of this fic, and future chapters! Alright, let's go! SVTFOE is owned by Disney and Daron, you all know this, why we gotta repeat this and extend these pointless-
Jackie could have done things much better.
Now, this sentence can be interpreted in myriad ways, which Jackie feels the need to mentally clarify herself...she could have simply organized things better. Sure, she wouldn't be seeing Marco nor Star, probably for the rest of her life...but she could have stopped, analyzed and remembered the museum better, make an actual plan. Even now, all she's carrying is few belongings and the momentum of her decision.
That, and snow. Shaking herself slightly, she takes the view of the Universe...or was it Interdimensional? She's not sure, anyway, the museum where she rode that cool flying...fish thing, with wings?
Stingrays, right!
"...hmm...anybody home?" She calls out, the voice echoing...as she stands around more, she does notice how the place looks, in fact, completely unchanged from the last time she was here...up and including the trash and rubble, making her cringe a bit...that certainly went downhill, wasn't it?
"No one?" She asks, the reply being her echoing voice. Jackie shudders a bit, the cold returning...loneliness. Just what she needs. Well, no point wasting time here, there surely needs to be someone in this dimension...or else she'll just y'know...return and make the whole point she was making to herself invalid. Just like when she tried to leave home when she was six.
With a shrug, she starts going to the museum, eyes observing and reading the ambient...as the last time, the place didn't feel natural really, like if it was inside of a building, the sky being this sickly green tint, with some...shapes like mountains in the distance, the tiled floor stretching as far as her eyes can see; around, she can see the maze-like structure she remember Sabrina going around before...y'know, being herself and getting hurt.
If she closes her eyes, she can still hear the cheers, the joy of everyone having fun, bringing a smile on her face...then the panicked sounds, the screams, hiding from that yarn monster, the bus shaki-
Okay, in retrospect, it was a terrible idea all around, is it too late to go back?
That is the last thought Jackie has before hitting her face against a wall, wincing in pain and rubbing her nose "Ouch, who put a wall…" She looks around, the Cave being...well, awfully familiar. Looking around a bit, she sees a plaque that makes her pause a bit
"Universe's Most Coziest Pre-Dwelling Historical Cave...the coziest is really, really arguable." She turns to the entrance, sweat going down her brow as she remembers...well, that yarn monster sure made some comfy socks she guesses…
"Hello...anyone there?" She shouts as she enters the cave, the only reply being complete silence and her echoing voice. She turns to the fireplace, and extends her hand to it, trying to feel any warmth…"It's still warm…?" She mutters, as she drops her bag, stretching her hand and breathing on them, trying to warm herself up...why is she so cold, she just left the blizzard!
Not wasting any time, she pulls the jacket closer, before deciding to walk around to try and find some wood...the last time she was here, that monster was gathering some, probably to roast them. There definitely ought to have something here, and it's high time she did something about this cold!
As a matter of fact, as she walked a bit deeper in the cave, there were stacks of wood, confirming her suspicion that yes, someone was living there; she taps her chin, uncomfortable, imagining who is living on what looks like an abandoned museum? Wait...was it abandoned because of them?
Well, they should have a guide about it, you give a bunch of teenagers access to all these cool things, what do you think they'll d-
In...retrospect, where were the museum staff? Even when they came, there really wasn't anyone looking after the exhibits, I think Ms. Skullnick did mention a Troll museum right, although that is probably speakers. With a huff, she gets some logs, leg shaking slightly, silently reminding herself that she really should do some exercises, and drops them on the fireplace, before reaching for her bag...clothes, towel, extra wheels for her skate, her dismounted skate...there, survival stuff!
A flashlight, and a lighter. Picking up the latter, she heads to the fireplace, and set one of the branches of, sitting near the renewed fire, warming her hands...well, that certainly wasn't a glamorous start, but there was...some romance on it really! Sure, she doesn't have a…"partner", like Marco, or isn't full of tricks like Janna, but she can do this.
She can survive like Marco did, and when they meet again, it will be Jackie that will tell the tales to the trio of them…
"I wonder how Marco's doing…" She mutters to herself, scowling at the thoughts yet again drift to the red-hooded boy, the...well, the icon for her, she can't deny. Watching someone change like that was in some ways a privilege and a curse; she did fall in love with the evolved Marco, but in a way, she was never truly a player…
Would she have had any chance if it was the earlier Marco, the safe kid? She thinks for a bit, before shaking her head...not really sure. The concept was still there but...that Marco didn't really have the confidence that she really liked about him, really.
Or it did, but Star was the one that showed him, not her. Maybe if she wasn't so worried about looking cool to the others, she would have got him first. She would have seen and witnessed this awesome Marco that she came to really, really like…
No point in arguing it over now, they're done! Marco and herself were not a thing anymore! She hugs herself closer, sighing the relief as the heat does work on heating herself up…
Enough brooding around, time to make plans. Laying on the floor, and pulling the back close to herself, she picks up her notebook, and clicks a pen, starting to draw her list of priorities. From what she gathered, the places Marco went were highly varied but there seems to be a sort of...road connecting them, in this case, the portals. SO, if she wants to go anywhere, she needs to find someone that can open a portal to a place that there are lots of people, but she knows how people treat homeless, at least back in Earth...so it's a homeless situation in an ever wider scale!
Wait, she's homeless now. Huh...that's actually kind of rad. I mean, technically being homeless on Earth is really bad, but she's...a hobo traveling across the universe! That's...transcendental. Deep, really…
...Nah, she's just homeless. She sighs, and laughs at herself a bit…
"You know, lady, intruding on private property and using of one's resources is quite rude, all things considered," A voice speaks behind Jackie, freezing her from her thoughts. Admittedly, she didn't jump immediately, throwing fists around, or screaming, but maybe because as she turned and her brain was processing a fight or flight situation, it was frozen by the...oddity of the creature.
It was an owl. A three-eyed, purple owl but even then that's odd and not y'know, really weird. What sold it to her was the...tie? A tie that came from the owl's chest, and acted...as legs. The lower body of the owl was more of this black, inverted pyramid shape like it was some sort of ancient deity? Anyway, that's what froze her...the owl, clearly unamused, clears its throat and repeats and asks, his voice posh...and British oh god can it be any more we-
"So, all things considered, would you at least give me a name?"
"Ah…" Jackie tries to pursue words, before slapping herself in the face a bit to shake off the shock "Jackie Lynn Thomas, sir!"
"Who-"
"Okay, before we begin" She gets up, the owl getting on a defensive position before Jackie raises her hands as to symbolize no threat "Hey, chill dude...look, before we begin…"She looks at the fire, and then at the owl, her expression intensifying.
"I've already checked like, a cartoon with an owl before, and I know they say whoot, but people think it's who. So you would keep saying whoot, while I get confused, and say the name, and it would work like a cheap slapstick there is no pre-recorded laugh track around" She starts, raising her index fingers, before pointing them at the Owl "Sooo...I'm going to assume all your whos are hoots, okay?" She smiles a bit nervously...and clicks the finger guns, sweat going down her brow.
The owl stares at her, eyes narrowing into thin lines…
"...wow, stole all my fun won't you" He rolls his eyes, one of the ties picking up some sticks, and a bag of marshmallows "You know, if we're doing this, might as well go all the way."
Jackie rumbling tummy gave all the answer she needed, and she gladly accepted the treat.
If Jackie was going to rate the weirdest things that ever happened to her life, surprisingly none of Marco's stories would get in the list...well, not that they weren't weird or bizarre per see, simply that circumstances made them feel more exciting than truly weird, or bizarre without the context.
The weirdest thing was meeting Sabrina by catching the girl in her arms, back in elementary, as she dropped from virtually...the sky. She's really not sure how anything around launched her, but she did catch it. She looked at her with eyes shining, probably because she wasn't hurt for once and someone helped her. That was really weird...but alright, in the end, they struck something of an odd friendship.
The girl needed it, Sabrina was way, way too obsessed with being "popular" if she wanted to kiss Britney's feet just for a goddamn invite. She probably would have tried too, but she would probably just slip on a water puddle and twist her ankle. Again.
I guess it's not as much as odd, as simply reminiscing her life on Earth, now that she has, pretty much, given up on it...or perhaps simply filler, as she tries not to find the weird scene of an owl and a homeless teenage girl roasting marshmallows on an exhibit cave, in another dimension isn't odd enough at it is…
Not that odd, but it's her first oddity out here, in the wide world! That counts for something, surely…
"Soo…" she finishes roasting her marshmallow, taking half of it in a bite…"What...are you, if you don't mind me asking, of course, I mean…"She looks away. "It's...cool if you don't."
The owl looks at her as she ends the ramble, shrugging "I'm one of the caretakers of the museum...well, at least supposed to be. I came here truly rarely in this last...century or so." Jackie looks at him surprised, gasping "Wow, you're like, centuries-old then?!"
"Don't flatter me and yourself, a year in this dimension has roughly 20 days. I'm, by the accounts of the few visitors we have, equivalent to eleven to most dimensions." He finishes, his expression and tone telling that definitely isn't the first time he told someone this little factoid.
"Then why would you tell people you're hundreds of years old?!"
"Because I technically am. It's so annoying to correct people."
"You wouldn't need to correct people if you just told the correct age!"
"But that's my correct age." He turns to her, looking at her as if she was stupid.
"But you just-" She is ready to continue, but she can notice easily the small smirk on the owl's expression...as her frowning expression evolves into a smile, chuckling to herself "Can't believe I fell for that, wow." "Well, you did take away my usual owl trick!"
Jackie feels much warmer now, taking her jacket, she eats the rest of the marshmallow in comfortable silence...they keep at this until he turns to her, asking
"So...what takes you here, lad?" Jackie pauses a bit as the owl questions, Jackie rubbing her finger against the stick that held the marshmallow in a clear grimace…
"Well, you know...seeing the Universe's most interesting sights! The...wonders, and hmm...stuff like that" She looks back to the fire, frowning, picking another marshmallow and roasting it.
"This museum is closed. It has been closed off for years now." The owl deadpans.
"Wait what?"
"Yeah, you don't see anyone going around here, do you?" He waves a wing around "Kids these days, they have no patience to you know, see interesting things of "one" universe. And the natives of this place are all off, making their own museums somewhere."
"Wait, this place was closed?!" Jackie turns to him in surprise, Star's actions...and her own, she's not gonna wipe her blame, were even harsher in hindsight.
"Yes, it's been for years, the fact that the Yarn Monster escaped doesn't help it either…" The owl looks distant, sighing "Frankly, that was the last drop for me, I'm not bothering with this place anymore, virtually anyone else can pick this up...you're lucky, this is the last time I even come here."
Jackie looks away, some guilt on her face "Where...are you going now, then?" She turns to him, rubbing her shoulder, some of the cold back…
"Who knows. I think it's time to take one's wings and fly unsupervised, you know" The monster is quite solemn and looks at her "Sometimes, you just feel...your home doesn't let you be free anymore; this museum is the most wondrous things of this universe, but what is out there? Definitely things much more interesting than here!" Jackie's eyes take a shine, the topic hitting quite close to home, and she can't help but give a toothy grin.
"I am not going to sit, and make a museum of a universe! I, Hoots-a-Lot, am going to make my own museum, the Most Interesting Things in the MULTIVERSE!" He hollers, and she can't help but get up and shout
"WOOHOO!" She gets up, pumped up, her marshmallow on fire...then quickly realizing that and dropping it on the ground, stepping.
…
"...I take you can relate?" Jackie smiles sheepishly, and rubs the back of her head, pointing to herself "Yeah I...fled from home, I'm...y'know, wanting to see what's out there, really...get the thrill of it, you know? My home got too small for...me too."
"Sounds like a fine goal...then why did you start here, of all places? It isn't really y'know...a wanderer's hub." He moves his wing around, showing the fairly empty cave. Jackie freezes a bit...should she tell him? She figures there's not much of a problem, and sighs "It...actually was my first...place out in the universe, from home I mean."
The owl raises an eyebrow...and some pieces start to click, the ties lifting him to the ground and getting close to Jackie, as she smiles wider and sweats more "Pray tell when...was the last time you've been here…"
"...Some...months ago…?"
"...were you the one that trashed this place?" His voice lowers to an almost murderous whisper…
"...in...my defense, I wasn't alone, haha…" She starts stepping back, cursing herself a thousand times for dismounting her skate.
"...young lady, you have a 10-second advantage...make the most of it, before I peck your eyes out."
"...you're younger than me."
"...8...7…"
"OKAY, I GOT IT!" Jackie rushes out of the cave, already covering her head.
And, to his credit, after the 7 seconds, he doesn't waste time before moving way too quick than a owl pyramid thing has any right, mercilessly pecking her head, the tie legs easily keeping up with Jackie "THIS PLACE WAS BUILT BY MY FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS EVEN IF I DON'T CARE HOW DARE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TRASH AND LET THAT MONSTER OUT, I AM GOING TO MAKE A NEST OUT OF YOUR SKULL!"
"I'M SORRYYYYYYYYY!" She cries, wincing at every peck from the merciless not-keeper from the apparently-closed-for-years-but-still-cares museum
Okay, it's official. Lobsters? High up in the list for Jackie, cool, rad animals, deserve freedom.
Birds? They can go to-
"...wait you dislike birds now?" Marco asks, laughing...until he sees Jackie serious expression, choking a bit at the sheer intensity of it.
"Birds are nothing but evil creatures Marco. That seagull on the pier was a foreshadow, a sign of the species pure darkness." She speaks, completely serious.
They keep silent...before falling into complete laughter, Marco slapping his leg…
"HAHAHAHAHAhaha...ahh...oh Jackie, good one, hahaha…"He tries to speak, still breathless
"hehehe...I'm not joking, Marco"
"...oh."
It took a while for Jackie to lose her pursuer, mostly because he probably knew the museum like the back of his pa- wing, and Jackie didn't really see that much, considering she was busy riding a Stingray, then fearing for her life, she can be excused for not making a mental map of the museum…
After a while, however...the beaks stopped. She's not sure when, specially when the pecks still dealt that ghost pain that she thought was continued strikes, but she's certain that at a point she lost the owl...she finds herself near that lamppost they trapped the yarn beast on, the marks of the bus tires still present, she can even still see the paperclip…
...really changed, didn't she? Like, she was still annoyed, but she too got...a taste of it. And acted so natural too. She...was really behind wasn't she? From Marco, Janna...Star, even her teacher; no, that's repeating a point. She's here for that, exactly that...be like them! By like the people she admires…
Does she add Skullnick to the list now?
...also, where is the yarn of the creature?
Wait...silence. Being caught up without the others noticing. She flicks the hairclip slightly, noticing...it was torn. Torn… As far as she thinks, it completely unmade itself, didn't it?
…
Oh, that's absolute ball- Jackie turns, face entirely unamused as the yarn monster presents itself to her face, panting. She can hear the struggling sounds of the owl inside, as well as the faint shake as Hoots-a-Lot is clearly struggling inside of it. Really...she should be afraid, she really really should.
But...really, it just feels cheap. Like...no build-up whatsoever. Or perhaps there was, and she was just way too worried about the pecking, and she failed to notice the...mood or the tension? Perhaps it's life's way to constantly tell her she should have stayed at home, finish school and all that. I mean, Marco technically transferred, while she just fled and dropped out, that means she is technically a drop-o-
As the creature tries to bite Jackie's head off, she quickly ducks, and refocus her thoughts, okay that comes later, now it's a great time to make a plan. She can't run away from it, it's clearly quicker than her, as the swipes and tackles she's barely avoiding are any sign...sure she's avoiding, but mostly because of the adrenaline, and the struggling the owl is doing inside of it throwing it off a bit, the moment she loses sight of it, she's good as done, she really really needs a way to move quickly, and a way to get rid of it, her brainstorming the memories of the museum for anything…
"HOOTS!"
"WHAT!"
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW TO GET RID OF THIS THING?"
"ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO DAMAGE MUSEUM PROPERTY EVEN MORE?!"
"NOW'S REALLY NOT THE TIME FOR THAT, DUDE!"
She's hit by one of the errant claws, hitting against the immovable post with a clear wince, rubbing her head...wow it's really immovable...wait...immovable…
Francis…
"Okay, I...got an idea. What's the heaviest thing I can move here in the museum?"
"That would be the most perfect round ball in the universe!"
"Alright. I'm going to free you, then, you're going to follow my plan, alright. To the letter!"
"...I would argue, but that would be another cliche, and I'm very aware you dislike those quite a bit." He replies after a silence
With a roll of her eyes, she times her jump, landing on the beast's claw and quickly climbing her way up as the thing tries to shake it off. She keeps shoving her hand through the yarn until she feels the owl's wing…
Okay...all of this needs to be in one maneuver, so! One...two...three! With a pull, she takes off the pyramid owl, and holds with one her arms on the lower, pyramid-like body, while the uses her hand to roll a piece of the yarn on the paper clip.
"Alright, FLY DUDE!" With a loud hoot, Hoots-a-Lot takes flight, surprisingly taking both of them, not too high in the air, but starting to unravel it...the monster is aware, and it rushes after them nonetheless, it's teeth trying to snape the yarn being pulled out of it, Jackie constantly wiggling the rope to avoid the beast's teeth snapping away the chance to stop it…
Soon enough, they indeed see the black sphere, sitting on the pedestal. Jackie looks around, finding the ominous hole Francis got stuck before. "You don't mind if I do one laaast bit of property damage, do you~?" She turns to the owl, smiling sheepishly. The owl rolls his eyes, and lands near the sphere, Jackie quickly checking how far they are from the yarn monster…
She can see him running, not much. With a gulp, she quickly does leaps around the metal sphere, rolling up the yarn a bit…and angling at the monster. She starts pushing with all her strength, teeth gritting…"Hoots...a-a little help here!" She opens her eyes, looking around but...not finding him...besides a blur, quickly speeding up- Oh crap!
With a loud metallic screech, the owl slams it's metallic half on the sphere, dislodging it from the pedestal it was balanced...it rolls over the yarn monster, who screeches loudly, it's being rolling itself around the metallic ball more and more, until it's all but around the sphere, clearly struggling...which then falls in the black hole. The creatures howlers in agony as the sphere is spliced and spliced and...
…
…
"...oh...oh...oh…" Jackie watches, feeling more ill the longer it goes. Hoots stops shaking and looks at it, also growing pale
"...yes. This is why I did put all those no object signs...people were dangerous but..this…"
"...I think I'm seeing forever. It-It's that sphere turning from the inside o-out?"
Admittedly, she didn't see what happened to Francis when he jumped there...but she's hard-pressed to think that you know, splicing...into dozens of cubes...no circles like…
"I think the more we look, the more abstract and maddening it's becoming...perhaps in some minutes, we'll be seeing sight only the gods can truly comprehend" His voice is dripping with sarcasm...and genuine worry and fear
Jackie nods absently minded, gagging slightly, as she can already feel the stomach-turning at-
Hoots-a-Lot, in the moment of compassion, guides a wing on her side and pulls her, both of them turning away and running back to the cave. Suddenly, getting as far from the museum as possible is sounding a very good idea.
Line Break -
Jackie Lynn Thomas. School Dropout. Multiverse Homeless, stands very much away from the museum, walking with the ex-manager, as he set that with uncharacteristic emphasis, as...whatever they both helped give birth was still at the back, the sounds fading into sweet, sweet silence as the yarn creature probably crossed some sort of Event Horizon, and at this point they were only witnessing a geometrical nightmare.
Jackie is with her bags and stuff, Hoots a Lot carrying his small belongings on a bag on his head…
"You know, kid...I forgive you." He says, his voice surprisingly mellow and calm…
"I'm older than you." Jackie chuckles, and he joins for a bit…Hoots turns to him, stopping, as one of the tie laces picks its own scissors. "What will you do now. I don't think you'll be sticking around in this boring ol' place." Jackie shuffles the bag a bit, nodding "I...was hoping to find someone in this museum, you know. Like...some sort of...portal metro? Yeah, or a bus station...like a bus crossing over the dimensions- Okay, you have no idea what I'm talking" She finishes as she notices the Owl's clearly confused expression "A place I could find a way to you know, meet other places!" She finishes with an eye roll, with the owl finally giving an understanding grunt.
"I know a place, they might get you into...you know, a job. This job definitely will involve going in places alright" He finishes, looking on the side "But it's a dangerous job, not lying one bit kid...not for the faint of heart."
This is it, the transitory phase! The point she'll be no longer an Echo Creek nobody! She'll...be someone! She'll see sights, she'll taste weird things, she'll…
She'll be like Marco.
With an intense nod and a fist pump, she nods.
"I'm ready." She says, conviction set in stone. No looking back, this is the start of something great!
Jackie finishes at this point, with Marco constantly apologizing, and Jackie's nervous laughter, trying to calm him down.
"Dude, you don't n-need to apologize, how could you even know?"
"Jackie, you're one of my best friends! Regardless of anything, you were in danger and I could have helped?!" Marco exclamates, shaking her in exasperation, to her amusement as she laughs more and Marco gets even more frustrated, before crossing his arms and rubbing his face.
"So...where did you go. What was this JOB? Because I swear to God if it was something that got you seriously harmed, I'll-"
"Marco, your Paladin is shining through real hard, chill. You're still a squire." She gives a teasing smile, leaving Marco blushing in embarrassment.
She waits a bit, letting him calm down before continuing.
"I got hired on a job I still do to this day; the very gratifying, dignifying job of Quest Buy, trademark symbol, Delivery girl!" She finishes with a grin and a half-lowered gaze that screams she'll know the reaction.
"...wait what."
Everyone starts from the bottom of the ladder, Mr. Squire. But not everyone has a dimensional princess as a propeller to success!
Don't forget to rate and review! And things. And stuff.