queenofthieves | transition into the future (for not_a

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transition into the future (for not_a_conartist)

[[continued from this log]]

Vala bit back a pontiff smile, because if there was anything a con artist knew, it was not to give away all of her secrets right away. She tried to remember the Earth saying Mitchell had taught her; "Don't show all your cards." Vala would, most decidedly, be keeping her cards away from Neal for a while.

It was funny, in a quaint sort of way, how humans had all these hang ups about time travel and whatnot. Vala learned quickly that the SGC was far from the ordinary, and most humans didn't have half the idea how utterly insignificant they were in the scheme of the universe. It was absolutely endearing.

"Come along," she chirped, turning back to the door. "We should drop by my room and pick up some supplies. After all, we don't know what we're getting into, and the first step to adventure is to always be prepared."

Mostly, Vala wanted to make sure she had everything she needed in the case that there was something shiny, rare and/or valuable that she may need to, er, liberate. "Some water," she chatted idly, "a first aid kit. And, oh, some of those delicious granola bars from the kitchen. Have you tried those? They're really good."

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When Vala's back was turned, Neal took that opportunity to get the bag he'd been keeping stashed above the bed. Once down it looked like no more than your ordinary leather shoulder bag, but inside it had several of Neal's tricks of the trade. Lock-picking set, cigarettes, and a few other odds and ends he'd brought with him in his perceived escape from New York City.

"Those are pretty much some of the only things I've eaten for the last week," he said, with the slightest hint of disdain.

In all honesty, Neal was admittedly spoiled with food and drink since living with June. He had access to some of the best wines in the world, all the ingredients he could ever hope for making gourmet meals, and a stipend from the FBI that he often used for the food of his choice since he didn't have to worry about paying for clothes or shelter. Peter tended to get pretty irritable with how good Neal had it for being on house arrest, and for just a minute he imagined the smug look Peter would have had to see him in his current condition.

Suppressing a sigh, because he was Neal Caffrey who needed no one and missed no one, the facade of pleasant bachelor was put solidly in place. Adjusting his crooked tie with a put on air of self importance, he followed Vala into the hall and off to her room. Neal took care to photographically remember every step along the way.

"So if this time room is real,like you claim, what are you going to do if we get transported to pre-dinosaur times and the earth is volcanic and the air too acidic to breathe?"

While Neal wasn't convinced in the slightest that they'd be taken anywhere, it was a question worth asking.

Vala scrunched up her face as Neal spoke. She'd definitely let her mind be sidetracked to what kind of food they should bring - after all, better safe than sorry when going anywhere. And safe usually meant preparing to be able to eat. Vala certainly didn't know much about fine cuisine; the commissary at the SGC didn't really have that much to offer when it came to fine wines, at least. But she did really like granola bars.

Crossing her arms, she turned back slightly to look at him while they walked, raising her eyebrows. "That's isn't exactly optimistic or adventurous. Besides, I don't see the point of anyone putting a time room in a castle just for the sheer joy of transporting it's occupants so back far in time that they die. It would probably be more economical just to poison the air in the castle and get it over with right away."

"Have we been at the same castle?" Neal laughed. "I wouldn't put anything past these lunatics. Who puts beautiful cars meant to be driven on a compound with ten miles of road? Now that's cruelty."

The bag he was carrying was adjusted multiple times along the way. It was starting to drive Neal bonkers being a cripple. Trapped was bad enough but the whole helpless angle was more than he could tolerate. Most of the fidgeting was done discreetly but by the time they at her room Neal was ready to murder the long strap that he just couldn't seem to get shorter with his one and a half hands.

"Hey, I'm very adventurous. I just like to consider every angle, that's all." Insert charming grin here.

Vala rolled her eyes and opened the door to her room. "They probably put them that far away to deter people from making a habit out of crashing them." She shot him a sly smile over her shoulder as she grabbed her green bag out from under her bed.

It was already filled with all of her tools and usual supplies. She nabbed some extra clothes from the closet, including the fatigue's she'd come to the castle with, and shoved them into the top of the bag. A girl could never be too prepared, after all.

"We'll just try to avoid going back in time. Besides, if it's an option, I would find the future much more interesting."

"But there's something to be said for the past. All those amazing artists, Van Goh, Goya, Matisse, Dali..."

Apparently Neal was some sort of art buff. Or, you know, a very talented forger. That part though, well he didn't see any reason to share. As she stuffed her bag full of clothes, Neal suddenly had regrets over his packing. If they were indeed heading to the future, it would probably be even harder to find the vintage suits he so loved! They were going to have to pit stop again on the way to the time room.

"As for the crashing, it wasn't like I wanted to hurt the Jag. Never that Jag. I just sort of... passed out? I don't know it was... weird."

Neal knew he was being ineloquent but as no one had explained what had happened to him when he wasn't concussed it had been a major hang up. It was as if his body had betrayed him, something that had never happened to Neal.

She pulled the ties on her bag until they were taught and then stood up, swinging the bag over her shoulder with a tiny grunt.

"There's some kind of field around the castle grounds. It's not a force-shield, but it disorients anyone who tries to cross it and eventually you lose consciousness. You probably went out to far." She offered him what was, really, a comforting smile. Even if she didn't know what she was thinking, Vala knew an awful lot about being betrayed by her own body. Quite literally, when it came to memories of Qetesh, anyway.

"If Samantha were here, she'd be able to figure it out and probably deactivate it. She's a friend of mine from back... Well. From back home." She grinned again and adjusted the bag on her back before adjusting her hair, and then she moved back out of the room and shut the door behind her.

"Oh of course, force fields. I can't believe I didn't consider that," Neal responded with a wry smile.

The comfort Vala tried to provide didn't go unnoticed and it certainly helped to keep him from just dismissing her as crazy. They headed back down the halls at a quick pace, both being tall and with long leg strides. Holding up a hand at his door, an unspoken request for a quick stop, he ducked into the room. A few shirts, suit pieces, and ties were tossed into his bag, which was now bulging on the sides, before he turned back.

On their way out he grabbed his hat from the nightstand, twirling it one handed onto his head. Neal had long ago taught himself to be ambidextrous, so the motion came with ease despite his main arm being broken.

"Okay Vala Mal Doran, let's go check out this 'time room' of yours." Again with those air quotes.

Watching his small display, Vala laughed, impressed, and dropped her head to the side. She thought he was funny, and she thought it was even funnier that he clearly didn't believe her. He probably wouldn't believe anything about the Stargates, either, or the fact that was alien, or much of anything about her life, really. It was hard for her to grasp the quaint realities of the Taur'i sometimes, but considering the things she had seen, sometimes she did envy them.

"It's not mine," she replied, leading him down the hallway and following the directions she'd been given. She wasn't sure she quite believed any of it either, of course, but that gave her even more reason to think it should be tested.

The approached the room, and Vala gestured to the doorway with her hand before winking at Neal. "Go on, you first."

"Well, I think it should be the Vala Time Travel Spectacular."

Again with the charming comments and sweet remarks. Boy could Neal lay it on thick. Though, in some ways, it wasn't totally an act. Vala was cute, smart, and amusing. Something about her was drawing Neal in, much as he tended to do with others. The writing was on the wall but his own con was blinding him.

"Oh sure, send the cripple in first," Neal complained.

Peter tended to do the same thing, though without the cripple part. Send Neal in ahead and see what happened was sort of his lot in life these days. Admittedly though, when it came to the work the FBI was doing, Neal liked being right in the fray. Since he didn't truly believe the claims people had made of the room, despite his complaint Neal strode right in.

The art on the walls caught his eyes first. The paintings were all foreign to him, which was unexpected. They were all clearly done by the same artist, a lefty by the looks of it, but the generic look and unusual scenes were baffling. Stepping up to a few, Neal was unconsciously began doing his appraisal, hoping for clues within the art.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from any big bad monsters..."

Her voice faded as Vala was equally bowled over when they entered the room. It was not at all what she had expected - decadent, not unlike the Goa'uld palaces she had spent a fair amount of time in as Qetesh. She raised her head to get a good look at the surroundings, skimming her eyes over the drapery and artwork and doing her best to puzzle it out in her head, much as Neal was.

After a moment, the smile still stuck to her face, she dropped her eyes and looked at him. Oh, Vala knew men like Neal. Handsome, and quirky, and ridiculously likable, and usually jerks beneath the surface. He was everything Daniel wasn't and Vala had, legitimately, tried to leave guys like that behind. Well, all guys, to be fair. But she couldn't help feeling attracted to Neal, anyway. There was something genuine about him, maybe, that drew her in.

Giving her attention back to the artwork, she sighed loudly. "Look at this. The artwork in here must be worth fortunes... To someone anyway, heh," she added quietly.

If only Vala knew that Neal was probably one of the least jerky fellows at the castle. But she didn't, and she wouldn't. The real Neal Caffrey was someone a very rare few had seen. Less after his incarceration and Kate's death. Tracing the paints with delicate fingers, Neal found that he couldn't really place the age. There was something really strange about the whole room. Keeping suspicions to himself he turned back to Vala with that same plastered on expression.

"No kidding. I can't imagine how much this room must be worth. You'd think with all that money the owners wouldn't need to play creepy phantom kidnapper. Though, it's usually the most wealthy who can afford the most... unusual... hobbies."

Underneath the pictures, Neal's eyes caught buttons. Shiny pretty buttons that probably opened secret treasure rooms! The whole 'time room' thing must have just been a metaphor for all the time periods the paintings captured. Underneath a particularly odd picture, a classically styled painting of what looked like a sci-fi future, Neal felt his finger itching. The curiosity that drove almost all of his motivations was practically screaming that he should push it.

So he did!

Having glanced back at him to see him examining a rather futurist portrait, Vala nodded in agreement. It did seem rather ridiculous for someone who was as wealthy as whomever owned this castle was to waste their time kidnapping people, but Vala also knew an awful lot about the power of wealth and prestige, and the lengths people would go to in order to never risk growing bored with it.

She examined a painting nearby, a spooky scene filled with dark colors and textures that filled Vala with slightly less adventure and a little more dread. Vala saw Neal spot the button under his painting, and she, in turn, took a look at hers. She leaned forward, examining the red button carefully. Vala frowned. Maybe the buttons opened up to a room with a time machine in it or, hell, as far as she knew, the castle had a Stargate and the type of technology needed to predict solar flares.

"Neal, I think..." she turned again. And, of course, he was gone. Huffing a sigh, Vala made her way over to his painting. It wasn't nearly as creepy as hers at least, and for someone like Vala, the style of the picture reminded her of the things she remembered. Readjusting her bag on her shoulder, she sighed. Whatever the button did, Neal had apparently already figured out, and Vala had absolutely no intention of abandoning him. And she definitely had no intention of letting him have all the fun, either.

Holding her breath, Vala reached out and pressed the button.

There was no time to shout her name or warn Vala to stay away from the apparently dangerous button before he blipped out of existence in the castle. Neal's world was spinning and sky seemed to open up into a vortex of swirling stars. For the world's longest second, and also the shortest, Neal Caffrey was terrified. Well, simultaneously terrified and exhilarated. Vala's stories of time and space were true?!

Before he could consider this fact any further, Neal found himself shielding his eyes. His feet had never moved, his position had never changed, but suddenly the light was far brighter than the room full of painting or the moment of transitioning in time. When his eyes finally adjusted and Neal brought his arm down, the usually loquacious man was silent.

Space craft and hover cars were whizzing by overhead. Skyscrapers that reached where he'd known aircraft to fly in his time. Neal's handsome jaw hung agape as he tried to register everything he was seeing. The amount to take in was beyond overwhelming and when Vala appeared beside him, he was still in the same stunned statuesque pose.

Vala, used to Stargate travel, didn't find herself disoriented by the process. Once she pressed the button, she found herself appearing next to Neal. Her first thought was to be secretly happy they hadn't ended up somewhere with a hostile atmosphere - or worse, floating in the void of space - and she looked up at the sky, her mouth widening into a tremendous grin.

"Now, this is more like it," she declared. She took a few steps up to him, still looking to the sky, and shifted so her shoulder gently bumped his. "I bet this makes you wish that garage was full of more than just fancy cars, doesn't it?"

Blinking, Neal turned his head toward Vala. There were very few people in the known universe who'd successfully rendered him speechless. The strange brunette could now be proud to count herself among them. Rubbing the back of his head, Neal struggled to not look completely dumbfounded.

"Well, I wouldn't want them to take the fancy cars away but..." Staring as a hover bike whizzed by, a childish grin took his lips. "But I REALLY want to try one of those."

The big spaceships were amazing, surely, but not something that appealed much more than jetliners. They were a bit unattainable for him. Neal's eyes sparkled as he looked from ship to building to ship and then back to Vala. Internally, he was trying to catalog how much he could steal, make, and need to learn to be perfect his trade in this place.

If they never returned to the castle, it would be too soon!

Vala's thoughts weren't too far from Neal. This was a treasure trove of technology, and Vala had certainly stolen much more complex ships. She watched then whip through the sky, debating the best way to go about such a heist, and trying to decide how to do so without bringing it to Neal's attention.

"Let's go and try one then," she said encouragingly. Maybe if they "borrowed" one, they could get it back to the right timeline and use it to get away from the castle. Granted, Vala wasn't sure her plan would work, but at this point, anything was worth trying. She really just wanted to go home, mostly. But doing so by flying in a rather extraordinary ship wouldn't hurt...

"Of those bikes? They are bikes, right? That's what people call them here?"

It was obvious to Neal that Vala had been truthful all along. This future was real. He could see it, feel it, and even taste it. Most people would have thought about how their friends were long dead and how they were alone and obselete. Neal meanwhile, well he already was alone in life and so all he saw in this reality was potential.

With a nice and honest girl like Vala to accompany him and show him the ropes, Neal was sure he'd integrate alright in time. Granted his crippled arm was going to leave him relying on Vala for quite a while, something he wasn't as happy about, but at least it could be an excuse to stick by her without seeming as clueless about the future as he actually was.

"Well, I'm not exactly going to be the best candidate for driving one of those," he admitted, giving his arm a disdainful look before turning back to Vala with a patented charming smile.

Vala shot her own patented smile right back, knowing from Neal's attitude that she had him wrapped right about her finger. Men were so easy sometimes, especially when they didn't have much of an idea of what was going on. Daniel had been impossible to tame, of course, because he knew what Vala really was; or, in the least, what she had once been. Neal, on the other hand, was a welcome challenge.

"Something like that," she informed him. "Personally I'm more familiar with more modest trading ships. Sometimes I really miss mine." The lies were coming easily, slipping off of her tongue with genuine innocence. But she was too wrapped up to even feel badly about it. "I think if we're going to give anything a try, it should be one of the bigger ships. And I'm sure I can fly anything here."

"Well back at the castle it seemed alright to help ourselves, so this is probably no different?"

Neal's voice was purposefully tinted with innocence and optimism. If he could convince Vala they take one, steal one really, then he'd have plenty of time to recuperate. Once he was better, Neal would focus on the where's and finding a good place to set up shop. There were probably aliens and a slew of other dangerous things he was going to want to be educated about from the safety of a ship rather than some place they would have to squat in or, gasp, work hard to keep.

A wink, the kind men give cute women to convince them of their sincerity, punctuated the end of his spoken sentence and his unshared thoughts.

"Lead the way. If we find one you think will work, maybe I could distract them or something?"

Yep, lay it on thick, as if all these ideas were just coming out of nowhere.

Vala let her mouth hang open just a tad, as if such an idea would never occur to her. "Oh, I don't know about that..."

The play of innocence was obviously working to her advantage, but Vala didn't want to push it too hard, lest Neal catch on that she was over-compensating. The suggestion, however, certainly impressed her. He was making this far too easy.

"I suppose if we just take it out for a ride and bring it back," she finally added. "Maybe they won't even notice it's gone! If nothing else I'm sure we both could charm someone into giving us a wonderful deal..."

For Vala, of course, "deal" meant "free." But she and Neal were in this together now, and she didn't need him running off when the fire got too hot. After all, she was sure there was something she'd be able to use him for.

Vala was playing right into his hot little hands. Neal was almost compelled to feel guilty for taking advantage of her. Almost, but not quite. She might have helped to save his life, but beyond that she was just another pretty face. Granted it was a very kind and sweet face, but still one he planned to use to every advantage he could.

"Charming is something I can be very good at, even with the broken arm," Neal assured her with a dashing smile.

That statement was actually true, but surely not in the context Vala would take. His charm could be natural but it was also crafted after hours in front of the mirror so that no matter who he was playing. Despite all this though, he knew he was going to have to rely on Vala to supply him with the right approach in this foreign world. Just a few more helpful suggestions and Neal was sure he could get her to fill in the blanks of his currently developing con.

"We could try to get a test drive. They probably do that if they're trying to sell theirs, right?"

It had been a fairly long time since Vala had enjoyed the feel of pulling off what could result in being a fairly lucrative con. A white lie here and there, especially when she was doing it for the betterment of the galaxy, never quite lived up to the rush she got from stealing something from someone who, for whatever reason, really didn't deserve to have it anyway.

"That seems like a possibility. They have to let people try it out before they'd expect anyone to make an investment."

She stepped forward, deciding to push sweet little Neal out of his comfort zone once and for all. "Let's go look around and see what we can find, shall we?"

Letting Vala think she'd made the push towards taking a look, he nodded. Part of every successful con was letting those who weren't in on it think they were in control. If it was 'her' idea, she'd have even less reason to be suspicious when he was seemingly agreeable. Pepper every lie with validity and truth and that would make it all the more difficult to separate fact from fiction.

"Sure! Let me know when you see a good one, this is all foreign to me. I'm better with cars and yachts," he said, continuing his role as the clueless playboy.

Gesturing with a grand sweep of his arm, Neal let her lead the way. If he picked the ship, there was a good chance he'd end up getting them in trouble with military folk or worse, dead in space with a junker. As they walked, his eyes still shined with awe. It was genuine, though certainly helped to perpetuate his image of a naive fellow along for the ride. Blue eyes were fixed on the sky above and all the activity it held, causing him to bump into Vala's back more than once as she would have any reason to slow her pace.

Vala was rather pleased with herself in turn. As far as Neal was concerned, it was his idea to get a ship, and anything that occurred after that would be easy to adjust to circumstance. He was the easiest hurdle, and the real challenge would lie in making sure whomever she swindled didn't catch on until it was too late.

She let Neal spend his time wrapped up in the interesting things going on around them while she mentally made an inventory of what kind of ship they would need. Technology, in Vala's experience, didn't change much between cultures, even if the look and feel of a ship did. She hadn't had any problem shifting between her expertise between Goa'uld and Asgard technology, and anything in between, so she didn't doubt figuring out a Tau'ri ship from the future would be all the much of a challenge. And if it was, it would be a welcome one after her time spent trapped in that stupid castle.

The streets were filled with people going about their business; a few shops here and there selling advanced looking items that didn't look anymore complex than hand devices, and Vala already had the supplies she needed neatly stowed away in her bags beneath her clothes. Finally, they reached an impressive, glass building with a landing pad behind it, and a magnificent small ship on display out front.

Vala paused, waiting for Neal to bump into her and hoping that would knock him out of his state of wide-eyed wonder. "This seems like a good place to ask," she said cheerfully.

Though he was usually incredibly aware of personal space, he hardly expected Vala to be leveraging that as well. Before he could stop himself, Neal had bodily bumped into Vala again. Outwardly he played it off as being in awe of the future but inside he was berating himself. New world or not, Neal knew better than to get distracted during a con. Taking one long breath Neal Caffrey reigned in his excitement and put on his best game face.

Which, in this case, was a naive smile and the vague air of money that he used as his natural default when playing the world at large.

"Looks shiny. And expensive. I'm generally a fan of both of these things," he responded with an enthusiastic nod.

The future was as oddly empty of folks to stop them as the castle had been. By the time they were where the docking ramp to the vessel would lower, not a soul had appeared to attend to or stop them.

"Guess the future is over security teams?"

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transition into the future (for not_a_conartist)

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