Fly Soup, or the Stoutland Chronicles
Chapter Four
Tadashi was not going to a cosplay convention. There were historical cons of course…but he didn't need to see a girl dressed as Elsa. What he desired was to talk to the actual, living, breathing Elsa. To see firsthand her wonderful relationship with her sister. And most of all, to gain confidence to be…well, courageous enough to ask Honey Lemon out.
Tadashi's form of time-travel had actually been invented by his first serious girlfriend, Abigail Callaghan. She had planned to test it out by having their three-month anniversary be in Renaissance Italy. But then she volunteered for Project Silent Sparrow and Tadashi lost her ultimately. It made asking Honey out even more of a quandary because not only would he be risking their friendship, but also he couldn't stand to put that much soul into another human being and have them die on him the way Abigail had…
The concept was that you put the time period you wished to be in, as well as the latitude and longitude of your destination. Since Tadashi needed to go to the year 1846 in Arendelle, a kingdom in Norway, he had to put the a date in the year he intended to visit, as well as the coordinates of his destination: 62.00 north and 10.00 degrees east from Greenwich. (At least if you used the system established a long time ago, though some people wanted longitude and latitude to be measured from Australia. Some crazy kooks, in Tadashi's opinion.)
The gadget wouldn't work if you weren't tied up in what Abigail called Time String. "The idea is that you are usually bound in one specific time, one specific place," Abigail had said to him once. "Time String takes you out of the time frame/space frame your body is comfortable with, and warps you through a space/time frame you might find exhilarating and difficult to handle."
"The gadget doesn't work unless you're all tied up?" Tadashi had asked.
"It doesn't. But you need to be sure it's always with you; otherwise someone else might use it to time-travel."
"Great. I think I've got it. Can't wait for our time-travel date," Tadashi said, as he climbed on his motorcycle, placing the helmet on his head and buckling it.
After that he never saw Abigail. But she did show him the rope. And he knew where she kept the gadget for which you picked time coordinates.
But…you couldn't get the rope around yourself—someone else had to do it. Abigail had demonstrated this briefly by showing how she tossed the rope into the air and let it fall back down on her, She had the gadget set and activated, but it wouldn't do a thing. Then she had Tadashi put it on her…("You don't have to tie me up, just throw it in my direction and it'll work on its own," she said, seeing frustration in his face at the thought of binding his darling.) That time she did vanish, and came back a few moments later.
Tadashi didn't have Abigail here to throw it at him. (She had explained that to get rope on each other when they went on their date, the easiest way would be to toss it at one another, though if that missed one of them while the other was ensnared, the way around that predicament would be to have the free individual lay on the ground while the one who was bound tossed the rope down on them, sure to not miss with such an easy target.)
He had n o one here, for he wasn't ready to tell Hiro about this. Except…well, there was one who could toss the rope at him without the secret of time-travel getting out. Well, to be honest he hadn't time-traveled himself before. But he was sure it could be done, having witnessed Abigail disappear like that…
He rode on his motorcycle in the direction of the Nerd Lab at his university. Once he got into his workroom, he jabbed his finger in a door. "Ow."
A blue light appeared and a white marshmallow-y robot leapt out of its case. "Hello, Tadashi. You seem to be suffering from a pain in the index digit of your left hand. I think a Band-Aid and a bit of rest will heal it just right, though the Band-Aid's true purpose is to prevent infection. Of course I'll have to apply baxetraxin to enforce the shield."
"Of course," Tadashi said as Baymax sprayed his finger and wrapped a bandage around it.
"I'm sure things are going well with you, Tadashi?"
"Well…enough. But I need you to do something for me Baymax."
"Sure, Tadashi. What is it?"
"See that rope there? I need you to toss it at me."
"This one?" Baymax asked, lifting up a coil near the desk.
"Yes. Now just throw it in my direction."
Baymax did so. Now Tadashi was bound.
"I fail to see how tying you up makes me a better health care companion."
"Baymax, I know. Just uh, hand me those headsets over there. The virtual reality ones."
"Getting tied up with string, and wanting to take VR headsets with you. Perhaps I should scan you to see how you are feeling."
"I'm fine, good, peachy. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Where are you going, Tadashi?"
"Away," said the young man, Tucking the headsets under each of his arms. "Now hand me the device over there."
Baymax brought over the gadget with a future time written on it. As soon as it passed into Tadashi's hands, he felt the present time slipping as he fell into an abyss which would end in landing in the past…the year 1846 for which he had set to arrive…
He found himself in a cobbled street in springtime. The air was somewhat cool but not too much and he could see flowers beginning to blossom. He was gazing around in fascination at a lone tree when someone ran right into him, causing him to topple over and drop the headsets.
"Oh, sorry," said the voice. He gazed upon the beauty of the girl who had smashed into him. She had auburn hair in pigtails, and yet they looked right on her, even though she was ninetee-year-old.
"Hello, Anna," he said.
"How do you know m name?" the girl asked, confused.
"Er, I heard of you from Rapunzel. Your cousin," Tadashi said. Then he realized he was speaking in English. He could understand Anna but he had to think to get his Norwegian focused, and even then he wasn't sure he had said what he wanted to as fluently as he intended.
(Tadashi had an implant in his brain which allowed him to speak any modern language even as far back as around the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Older that that there wasn't a chip for, though Abigail had been working on one. In fact Abigail had made the one Tadashi had, which was more advanced than most and took into account specific dialects. However, it was only perfect as a translator, it didn't communicate to your brain exactly how to phrase words in a language you hadn't naturally learned. Which was why Tadashi couldn't guarantee that what he said to Anna was exactly what he intended to say."
Anna smiled in a way that made Tadashi certain his words hadn't come out right. "Oh, you know Rapunzel. That explains a lot of things. Though er, what are those?" she asked, pointing to the virtual reality headsets.
"Er, they're gifts for Queen Elsa of Arendelle," said Tadashi, in his best Norwegian. "Well, technically one is for her, and one for you. Rapunzel thought you'd find them interesting."
"They do look pretty magnificent," Anna said, examining one. The thought entered Tadashi's head that he didn't know where the Time String was, when he felt it in his pocket. He also found the gadget that would help him get home.
"Nice contraption. What do you do with it?" Anna asked, shaking the headset.
Oh, uh, you wear it," said Tadashi. "And it takes you to a special place, where you can live in another world briefly."
"Wow, that sounds neat. Elsa could probably use some cheering up anyway."
Anna led Tadashi through the courtyard. She spotted a woman and called out to her. "Gerda, do you know where Elsa is? This friend of Rapunzel's has just arrived here from Corona, I guess."
"Elsa's in a meeting with an ambassador from Dun'Broch," said Gerda. "A girl who claims to be a descendant from the legendary princess Merida is also in there. And after that she has the council with some representatives from Weasel Town who want to reopen negotiations and trade relations with us. And after that there's the banquet, and the preparations for tomorrow's feast…and then some talk of the Spring Festival…the first spring in which the gates will have been open in fifteen years."
"Well, that certainly leaves little time to talk with her today," Anna sighed. "Well, at least I'll get to show this boy the sights. Uh, what did you say your name was?"
"It's Tadashi."
"Tadashi, then."
Gerda left then and Anna led Tadashi into the castle. She showed him some suits of armor, and a long winding staircase. Then she took him into a room full of paintings and named the artists as well as telling him how her parents acquired the pieces, though she was too young to have r4emebmered this, as she informed Tadashi. "Elsa isn't too young for a couple of them but Kai and Gerda are our biggest sources of information concerning that. Er, most reliable, that's what I meant to say…most reliable."
"Nice," Tadashi said.
Anna pointed to a painting where a woman in a peach-colored dress swung upward in the air, a divan directly beneath the work of art. "And that one is called—"
"The Swing by Jean Fragonard."
"How did you know that?" Anna asked, eyebrows raised.
"Er, I have taken classes on art history," Tadashi said sheepishly.
"Oh, a university man. Fairly few people have that kind of education. Sorry to have to put it like that."
"Nah, it's true," he said. "Perhaps I'm very lucky. Anyway, great painting."
Just then the door burst open and a snowman about a foot and a half high waltzed in. "Oh, Anna, glad I found you. The chef wants you to try a new recipe of chocolate éclairs s he found in the attic. Said that the scullery maid Sydney found the recipe."
"All right, I'll go there," Anna said. "Perhaps you'd like to join me, Tadashi?"
"Sure, I love chocolate."
Tadashi tucked the other virtual reality headset under his arm. Then he followed Anna and the snowman out.
"I do wish that Elsa wasn't busy at the moment," Anna commented. "She'd love to try the products of a new chocolate recipe."
"Oh, ah, I shouldn't talk about that, er…" the snowman started to say.
"What is it?"
"Well, you'll see when we arrive at the dining area."
The snowman wouldn't answer Anna's questions no matter how much she pressed him. Then they entered the space where a table leaned against a wall, with a plate piled a mile high with éclairs.
Anna's lips spread into a grin when she spotted Elsa there, wearing her trademark icy blue dress.
"Elsa! I thought you were talking with the ambassador from Dun'Broch."
"That meeting ended early, so I thought I'd come here," Elsa said. "By the way, this is Claudia," she added, pointing to a redhead nearby.
"Pleased to meet you," said the redhead. "I'm a descendant of Merida."
"Oh really? Descended from Merida? That's so cool," Tadashi said.
"Uh, are you someone I should know?" Elsa asked.
"This is Tadashi, a friend of our cousin Rapunzel," Anna supplied.
"Oh, Rapunzel," Elsa said, waving her hand. "Always wanting us to meet someone or other."
"Look, I better go," said Claudia. "I'm on a tight schedule."
"You'll be at the Spring Festival, won't you?" Elsa asked.
"Aye," said Claudia. "I wouldn't miss it for a pet dragon."
"Take a couple of éclairs, won't you?"
"Don't mind if I do," Claudia said, sliding a couple of chocolate deliciousness out from near the top of the pile. Then she hurried off.
"In Dun'Broch they claim to have spotted dragons nearby," the queen explained, in response to Anna's puzzled expression. "Could be just someone pulling out legs, like Bigfoot sightings or the Loch Ness monster."
Tadashi felt this wasn't a good time to mention that the Loch Ness monster had been created in the future with a platypus egg and genetic engineering, so that the new creature—a monstrosity—had the memories the real Loch Ness monster would've had.
Instead he dropped the virtual reality headsets he was carrying.
"Hey, what are those?" Elsa asked, as she licked some chocolate off her lips.
"Uh, they're an experience I wanted to share with you and Anna. It's like going to a new place without actually leaving your kingdom. Pretty nnifty, I think."
Elsa picked up on of the headsets. "What do you do with it?"
"I asked the same thing," said Anna. "He just said we wear it."
"Well, if that's the case," Elsa said, "I'll put it on now."
"Wait! What if it harms you? We don't know anything about Tadashi, other than the fact that he's a friend of Rapunzel's. And she never mentioned him before so we only have his word to say on that."
"Honestly, Anna, you don't have to mistrust everyone that comes your way. And anyhow, this man isn't Hans."
"No, I suppose you're right," Anna said, reaching for the other headset.
"Actually, I think I'd better put it on," Elsa said. "Just to test it."
"But you're the queen! If it hurts you, then Arendelle will be in peril! " exclaimed Anna, very frightened. "So I should be the one to see if it works."
"No, Anna. If anything happens to you, I will put myself to blame. Let me do this."
Anna and Elsa stared into each other's eyes for a moment, not saying a word. Then Anna nodded.
Elsa donned on the headset. Then, though her face was still visible through the clear headgear, she didn't seem to be looking at Anna or Tadashi.
"What's going on with her?" Anna asked.
"She's on a hill," said Tadashi. "And if you put on the other headset, you'll e with her."
"Okay, I'll do that," Anna said, brining the contraption toward her face.
"Annd pulled it over her head and found herself on a hill beside Elsa.
"Oh, you're here too, Anna. I was just listening to the bees pollinate."
"That's sweet," Anna said. "I like it here."
"Me too."
They watched a heron fly over their heads.
"What a beautiful bird," Anna said.
"Yeah," said Elsa.
They both watched a bluejay and a robin have a chirping contest. And then Anna felt her headset ripped off and found herself back in the dining area.
Anna held her headset in his hands. "Hey, Anna, just thought I'd tell you that Sydney wants to store the éclairs away for later, if you don't mind."
"Sure, let him do that," Ana said, dazed to be back inside the castle and having been yanked away from that peaceful sight with her sister by her reached for the discarded headset and was just about to put it on when Tadashi held her hand. "Wait, I want to tell you about this game people play where I live. It's a game I played with Rapunzel."
"What kind of game? Like chess?"
"Oh no," Tadashi said. "Though Rapunzel is a mighty good chess player. Well, she would be considering all those years she spent locked in a tower. But this game is called tag."
"Tag?"
"Yeah. It's like this. One person is chosen to be it, say me. I chase after you, and when I catch you I tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Tag, you're it.' And then you chase me. It's a lot more fun when there's more than two people playing. With only two you know the person who is It will chase you, but if say, there's five people, the person who is It can chase anyone he or she feels like, which requires more determination not to be caught than a two-player version fo the game would."
"Hmmm, sounds like fun," Anna said. "I should tell Elsa about it."
"Yeah, she'd love it, I'm sure."
"Why don't you come along, too? Then we'd have three people."
"Can't," Tadashi said. "Only brought two headsets." He winked at her. "And besides, you and Elsa have known each other your whole life. And most of hers. You should play it together first."
"Actually, I suppose Rapunzel hasn't told you but…Elsa and I didn't know each other for awhile. You couldn't tell by looking at us now, but just a year ago we were strangers."
Tadashi knew this from studying about Elsa and Anna for his history project. But he certainly didn't' want to creep them out by knowing too much.
"Well, hope you enjoy it," Tadashi said. "Where I live, teenagers get exercise by plaing that game."
He didn't want to tell her that Tag was really a game for kids. Because the types of "games" most people his age played weren't the kind that could keep you fit and healthy. Honey Lemon liked board games but she was an oddity in that regard, though it was one of the charms she had, as far as Tadashi was concerned. Gogo liked racing video games while Fred preferred ones where you played as a dragon. Honey was the only one who ever suggested a board game for them to play after hours of study and work, and Tadashi liked her for it, though that wasn't the only reason…she was cute, intelligent, funny, and her enthusiasm for chemical mixtures was so catchy…Tadashi had to remind himself that if Elsa and Anna likes the headsets, they'd probablybe willing to share girl advice with him, and maybe he'd end up as Honey's eau for some time, she could even be his significant other…
"So I say 'Tag, you're it!' when I catch her?" Anna asked, brining Tadashi back to the present.
"Yeah, that's it," he said, shaking himself inwardly. "Then she chases you and says the same thing when she catches up."
"Seems swell. Well, I'm eager to try it," she said, donning the headset again.
Tadashi had been so busy watching Anna and Elsa, and thinking about Honey Lemon that he didn't notice the redheaded man with sideburns slip a gloved hand in Tadashi's pocket and extract the Time String and time-traveling device that were stored there, nor did he notice said man escape from that room to the next one beyond, waiting for the opportune time to strike…