strangetrip | "No One Told Me Why I'm In Berlin"

Entry tags:

"No One Told Me Why I'm In Berlin" - Tag Peter and Alec

When Liz found out that the new world was actually Earth and Europe, she couldn't quite hold back her excitement. The fact that the year was, according to the people at the desk, 2018 meant she was going to be closer to Peter's time than her own. She would finally be able to experience what his world was like, even just a little bit, and learn more about the internet and scientific advancement and maybe watch a few of Peter's favourite films they couldn't get at the inn.

"I still don't know why I'm here." Alec sat across from the two teenagers on the train heading to Berlin looking appropriately put-out despite not actually feeling that way. The truth was, he had never been to Europe and he had seen that semi-embarrassing video that Peter had of his trip to Germany and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to see it. Though he told himself he was actually just chaperoning because the world could be dangerous and both Liz and Peter were naive and believed the best in people, even when they shouldn't.

Liz was dialing another phone number on the smartphone she had been given. Thankfully she had enough practice with Peter's to be able to use the one she had and not look entirely inept. So far there had been no answer with Maria's house and the number for the Crashdown was out of service. Her home got a busy signal. She also knew it was a possibility everyone had moved or something. Then suddenly her face lit up - the Roswell police department was on the other end.

"Hi, um. Yes. I was wondering if I could speak to Sheriff Valenti please?" A pause. "Sheriff Valenti. Valenti." Another pause as her excitement lessened. "Okay, well, um. Can you at least tell me if there was a record of a Sheriff Valenti on the force?... How can you not know that." She caught herself as the words came out more tense and annoyed. Liz took a breath. "Yes, I'll hold." And hold she did. The more she waited, the more her expression dampened. Finally, there was a voice again. "Oh.. okay. Yes. Thank you. Goodbye."

She hung up. "They, um. They have no record of him working there. So I guess.. this isn't my world."

Alec shrugged, still looking out the window. "This isn't mine either. We can be twinsies, if you want."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Liz is a phenomenally good actress, Peter decides. He lifts the back of her hand up to his lips and gives it a kiss, then looks over at Alec, vaguely perturbed.

"If you stick with us, you might not get accosted by random women," Peter says.

Alec practically pouted. "That was not my fault that time. She clocked me the moment we came inside."

Liz looked between the two again. This time Peter looked pretty annoyed. "Look" she pointed with her free hand. "Why done you two try that?" There were two virtual reality units for some game called 'Night of the living dead'.

"If you would have stuck with us, they would have thought we were a family and left you alone. When you go off solo, you make yourself a target."

Peter could argue more, but then Liz points out the game and Peter sees his opportunity. He turns, eyes narrowed on Alec.

"If I kill more zombies than you, you have to do whatever I say for the rest of the day."

Why Peter wanted to be related to him, he didn't know - his family was pretty messed up. His eyes moved to the game console.

"You know I'm trained to kill people right?" It seemed a little unfair, really. "Fine. But only until dinner. And same goes for me if I win."

He walked over to the game thing. The guy maning the attraction moved to prepare both of them for battle.

"Video games are totally different from real life," he tells Alec.

Peter reaches for the AIM controller and puts on his VR Helmet.

And once they're both ready, the game begins.

Liz watched and kind of wondered if this was what a mom of two would feel like. The two of them were clearly being competitive. She, of course, was hoping Peter would win.

Alec didn't think it was going to be that hard. He could kill scarier things than zombies back home. Of course, the moment the game started, he realized he didn't know how to move. Moving his feet didn't move himself and it was after a moment he realized he was supposed to use the controller to move around. By the time that happens though, he's already lost a life. When he re-spawned, he was ready and started shooting, though the gun didn't act like a real gun. Again, it look Alec time to adjust to the way the gun shot.

Liz could see on the scoreboard behind both of them how each of them were doing. Peter seemed to be in the lead.

By the time the timer ran out, Alec had only started to get his momentum. He pulled off his helmet and looked over at the scoreboard. Immediately he frowned. "Oh, that's just not right."

Peter strips off his helmet and looks at Alec defiantly and, taking advantage of his newfound powers, issues his first order:

"Stick close to Liz and I," he says, and before Alec can adopt a liberal definition of close, Peter continues: "Or I'll make you hold my hand until we get back to the hotel."

In the interim, though, Peter holds Liz's hand instead.

Liz gave his hand a congratulatory squeeze, leaning in to kiss his cheek and whispered a 'nice one' quietly as to not rub it in Alec's face, but she wanted to praise Peter.

Alec looked like a kid being told he had to go to church after just buying a new videogame or something. He rolled his eyes as he got 'close' to them. "What if I wanted to hold Liz's hand instead?" Yeah, that was just a jab because he was annoyed he lost.

He exhaled. "Fine." He didn't quite pout, but maybe it looked like Alec wanted to. He was, though, true to his word, and stayed with 'the group'. He even, occasionally, asked questions. Occasionally.

Peter beams at the compliment.

Their excursion through the rest of the museum was considerably less eventful. Once they'd played and watched their way through the museum, Peter stopped in the lobby to do a search on his phone. He really missed this sort of tech back at the inn.

"Karl-Marx-Allee is nearby," he says. "We can go there and find somewhere to eat a late lunch."

Late lunch, he's quick to specify. Not dinner.

Even though there was grumbling, they found themselves on the streets of Karl-Marx-Allee looking for a place to eat. Alec had asked who was Karl Marx and Liz had answered, giving an explanation that was succinct, but thorough somehow at the same time - she basically gave the same sort of answer she'd give to Michael who would stop listening after a minute or two.

"... Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science." She smiled as she finished.

Alec would never forget that now, but he didn't know how useful knowing about some guy and his way of thinking would help him stay alive back home.

"Why are you two so into all this history stuff anyways? What's the point of a museum? The only time I go to them back home is when I need some cash and there's something expensive on display."

"Because it's interesting," Peter says simply, his lips quirked up into a smile. "And if you study the past, you know how we got where we are now, and can avoid making the same mistakes people made back then without making them yourself."

"The past is done for a reason. I'd rather live in the present and have fun." Plus the past carried with it memories better off forgotten. "From my experience, past or not, people always make the same mistakes."

Liz frowned a little. "I think if people try to learn from the past, there can be change. Berlin is a pretty good example of that, actually." There seemed to be a nice cafe up ahead. Liz glanced at Peter, then to Alec and tentatively asked a question she was sure Peter didn't want to ask. "If you could do anything here in Berlin, what would you like to do?"

Alec glanced to Liz and then to Peter, then paused and then shrugged. "I don't know. I've never been here." And Alec wasn't used to having fun.

Liz rephrased the question for him, like she would with Michael. "What do you do for fun back home?"

"Drink." That much was easy. "Play pool sometimes. Meet women." He winked at Liz who blushed a little.

"You should find other hobbies," Peter says. "We don't know how long we're going to be here. If you want something to do when we go back to the inn, you should figure it out now."

There was no telling when or if the portal was going to bring them back to a place so close to home anytime soon. Already, Peter had about a million things he wanted to print out and a million books he wanted to find. He didn't know when they'd ever have access to them again.

Maybe Alec could figure out something he really liked and bring those things back, too.

"Like what?" Alec looked at both of them for suggestions.

Soon they found themselves sitting at the cafe and were waiting for what they had ordered. Liz had been thinking about what a good hobby would be for Alec, but she didn't know a whole lot about him - not like Peter did.

"You play piano, right?"

The question got a slight surprised expression from Alec. He paused. "...yeah, sure. Sometimes."

Peter remembers the sheet music he found. Was that all that Alec had?

"You should get some more sheet music," he says decisively. "I want you to play for me sometime."

He and Liz are an effective team against Alec.

"I already know of the classics, what else is there?" Alec had a sneaking suspicion Peter was up to something.

Liz just smiled to herself for a moment, then added helpfully. "You could always write your own music."

Off in one of the corners in the cafe, three girls and a guy had their eye on the table

Peter nods enthusiastically at what Liz says. He thinks Alec could compose if he really made an effort.

"Don't you ever get tired of playing the classics?"

"I don't play that often." He was partially being stubborn, but true to some degree.

The food came and midway through, the three twenty-somethings came over. They spoke German and looked pretty excited.

Alec said something back to them, then looked at Peter and Liz. "They're inviting us to this party tonight. Invite only. Some famous DJ is playing." Alec looked interested. It might have helped both women were hot. So was the guy, but that wasn't his thing.

Peter looks over at Liz, waiting for her reaction. And then he turns back to Alec.

"Is the party before or after dinner?"

He's not sure what he thinks of being invited to an invite-only party. Peter barely managed an invite to other-Liz's house party.

Liz wasn't sure how to reaction. She looked up at the people standing there and had a similar thought to Peter's. When Liz stopped dating Kyle, people sort of stopped inviting her to parties with DJs. She didn't look disinterested - she liked to dance, after all. She looked back at Peter, checking in with him too.

Alec asked a question and they responded. "I hope so. It starts at midnight." He looked at both of them. "Come on. What's the worst thing that can happen? You go and have fun?" God forbid. Alec, though, doubled down. "If we go, I'll do whatever you want tomorrow, too, without complaining." He had complained a lot today.

"Midnight?" Peter repeats, incredulous. "That's late!"

Alec pinched the bridge of his nose. Could Peter be any more dorky? "Alright, fine. I'll tell them you guys are out because you're both kids with curfews and don't like having fun."

He paused just subtly before he opened his mouth to begin talking.

"I like having fun!" Peter protests, offended. He looks at Liz and then at Alec again.

"Look, I'll go with you, but only if you actually promise to do what we say and not complain about it tomorrow. I'm serious. No complaining."

Alec looked at Peter and then - and he could not believe he was doing this - rolled his eyes, but held out his hand to him, pinkie out.

Once that was settled, he looked at the group in front of them. He spoke again and they seemed delighted. There was a series of directions and instructions, to which Alec nodded as he took it in. Then one of the girls pointed to Peter and Liz with an excited expression and Alec grinned despite himself. He looked at them.

"She says you both will need different outfits." He nodded to the girl. "She says they have clothes you can borrow if you want."

Before Peter could object, Alec nodded in the affirmative and agreed back in German. They looked incredibly excited and said one last thing before leaving the table. He looked at the teens. "I told them where we're staying. They're going to leave a package for you guys."

Peter is already regretting this.

"We said nothing about an outfit change," Peter argues. "You don't have any idea what they're going to drop off for us. What if it's something weird?"

And not cool-weird, but weird-weird.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject