Intro to Palaeontology ARC Field Trip

[itsananomaly]

Cutter had made arrangements to take his class on a field trip to the ARC, which a couple of weeks ago had seemed like a good idea but now that things were a bit fracture with his team, he wasn't sure if coming back so soon was a good thing.

Cutter had asked Connor to come with him on this trip, mostly so he didn’t feel so awkward around his own Connor since he still wasn’t speaking to him after everything with the future Predator and he was trying to not notice the glares coming in his direction when his Connor was in the same room. Hopefully no one was going to notice these looks.

“So welcome to the Anomaly Research Centre or the ARC,” Cutter began when they stood in front of the Operations Room, behind them was a hallway that led to a row of offices, “this is where we detect anomalies so that we can prevent creatures from either the past or …” he hesitate a bit, changing a glance at his Connor who was pointedly not looking at him, “the future from escaping into our present world and distorting time,”

James Lester arrived then, with Jenny Lewis in tow, “so you’re Cutter’s class and other Connor’s here too, how nice,” Lester sighed, “I’ve been told that it is unnecessary for you to sign the Official Secrets Act to be here but I think it’s fair to say that I trust there will be no photos or videos uploaded to myspace or whatever it is you kids are using today,”

Cutter didn’t see the point in trying to tell Lester that it was 2022 in Fandom and no one used myspace anymore.

“I’m Jenny Lewis, I’m the PR Agent for the ARC,” Jenny spoke up then, “The only area that is off limits today is the weapons locker, for what I hope is fairly self explanatory reasons but the rest of the building is free for you to explore, if you have any questions myself or one of the other team members here will be happy to answer your questions,”

“Before we start the tour,” Cutter continued, “I want to make note that if you happen to see an anomaly,” and it was at this point that he directed the class to an image on the nearby screen, “please do not go through it, you will be stranded in either the past or the future and there is no guarantee that we will be able to rescue you, I would prefer to not have to explain to the school administration that I lost my class somewhere in time on a field trip,”

Comments

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Yeah, Connor had noticed. Was kinda hard not to.

"Hey, mate. Good to see ya," he said with a nod and smile of his own. He had almost asked how Connor was doing but knew that was pretty obvious, all things considered so far. "Lester giving ya much trouble about us all being here?" he asked giving a glance over to Lester, who looked like he was biting his tongue as he left everyone head out to explore.

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“Same here,” Connor said, the relief obvious that he had someone who knew everything that wasn’t Cutter, 
“Oh you know how Lester is, always complaining about something,” he grinned, “he mostly complained about the paperwork involved and that he wasn’t going to be held accountable if a student got lost or eaten,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Connor said with a laugh. "I had thought about bringing Rexy with me. But then remembered the chaos last time he got loose. Figured we had enough work keeping an eye on the students. And he's pretty much getting into hibernation mode and not leaving the apartment" Connor added with a laugh

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“Yeah that’s like our Rexy,” Connor winced a bit as he remembered how they’d found Rex nearly freezing to death in the freezer, “got to make sure he keeps warm, he’s not a fan of winter that’s for sure,” he paused, “Abby was also going to bring Rexy today, thought it might be a bit much but maybe one of these days we can get a play date for them? Have the two Rexys together?”

What could go wrong with that?

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Two Rexy's and two Connors in the same place? Nawwww, nothing chaotic at all would come from that!

"Aye, would be fun to see how they react to each other...." Connor said with a smile. "It would be good to see Abbey again, too." even though things with them didn't end up working out, he still did count her as one of his few close friends.

"And yeah, it's starting to get chilly back on the island. The little guy has been spending most of the day curled up under his heat lamp or totally claiming the couch and fuzzy blanket for himself!"

Connor paused for a moment, glancing quickly toward Cutter and then back. "Speaking of Abbey.... how's she doing? And how are you doing?" Connor didn't think he needed to clarify what he was referring to with that.

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“I think Abby’s around here somewhere,” Connor nodded, “she’s probably in one of the labs, I think she hasn’t quite believed me about knowing another version of me,”

Then he considered what the other Connor was saying.

“She’s …” Connor hesitated, Abby seemed fine but he knew she was having nightmares from that future predator, “it shook her up really bad, she keeps saying she’s fine but I know she’s having trouble sleeping,”

His shoulders slumped a little, “I’m …the whole situation is messed up, Abby could have died, it would have been…” his voice rose slightly as the anger crept in, “he nearly killed her,”

He couldn’t even bring himself to say Cutter’s name.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor sighed, his head dropping a bit too. It really was a bit of an impossible position he was in now and he was still trying to figure out how to juggle all this.

"That damned thing will mess anyone up just seeing it," Connor said, remembering the terror when he had first encountered the beast himself. "It is messed up, and I know how much Abbey means to you, to all of us. Including Cutter" he added softly glancing at the other Connor.

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

Connor snorted at that but some of his anger abated, “if he had just followed orders for once in his life, we would have avoided the whole thing to begin with,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Well, you know Cutter" Connor said with a faint smirk. "He's gonna do what he wants to do. And we're all rebels in a way, to hear Lester tell it. And Cutter definitely isn't the only one to have nearly gotten themselves or someone else killed while dealing with this anomaly nonsense."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“I guess,” Connor couldn’t help but think of Tom at that and how he still felt guilty getting him involved in the anomalies and what happened, “I suppose he’s not going to change his ways now, I mean half the time he never bothered to turn up to his own classes at the university,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"He's actually done ok on the island with that, but I think a lot of that has to do with him trying to cope with everything. Between finding out about Helen and Stephen, then what happened with Abbey and the creature and...." Connor paused realizing he hadn't had a chance to give the other Connor a heads-up about this. "He also knows that Stephen dies in my time line so... he's got a lot on his mind right now."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

Connor blinked a bit at that, "Cutter's been turning up to his own classes?" and apparently that's all it took to get him to start mentioning Cutter's name again, "that is a first," and then he processed just what the other Connor was telling him and went very still, "Stephen's going to die as well?" he said softly, turning around to see if he could see where Stephen was but Stephen didn't appear to be around.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"In my timeline yeah, Stephen dies," Connor said softly. "Before Cutter in fact... So now he's trying to figure out how to save Stephen, you're trying to keep your Cutter alive, and I'm trying to keep versions of my friends alive." Connor sighed. "I really am just muddling things up aren't I?"

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

Connor had to remember how to breath, “how … how does Stephen die?” he ran his fingers through his hair, it was hard enough knowing that Cutter was going to die unless he managed to change it, knowing that another close friend was meant to die as well was too much.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Helen. From what I heard when it happened in my timeline. I wasn't there for it. But Cutter was, and he said Stephen died to save him and Helen from a future predator."

Connor sighed and shook his head. "Helen lives up to her name," he said, his voice going harsh for a moment as the actual memories of losing Stephen and Cutter came back like a tidal wave. "She made life hell for us."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

"Again?" Connor grimaced at the idea of Helen being responsible for another of his friend's death, no matter how indirectly, then he noticed the use of referring to Helen in the past tense, "you manage to stop her?" he asked hopefully.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"She eventually took herself out while back in an anomaly. But she nearly destroyed the entire team in the process."

And the world really... and he had been a part of that too, something he would never ever let himself live down. And as much as he wanted to tell the other Connor what to watch out for, he knew they were already treading on dangerous ground, poking at Stephen and Cutter's futures the way they were.

"So much of it ties in with Helen. I don't know if that makes what we are trying to do easier or harder to be honest," Connor said as he ran a hand through his hair.

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“I mean it’s worth a try right?” Connor said, trying to think positively that he could fix everything, change things so that his friends could survive, that they could get through everything that Helen was to throw at them, “it’s got to be better than not doing anything,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Definitely better than nothing. And it could end up being something small too, that could shift the timeline enough. Keeping Stephen from getting close to Helen again or somehow getting her to stop being interested in Cutter.... I mean, it's worth a shot!"

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“Okay something small … I can do that … think of something small,” Connor tried to think of something that he could that would stop getting, he paused, “do you think I should let Abby and Lester know about this? Maybe Jenny as well? About Stephen and Cutter I mean … they may be able to help as well,” he lowered his voice, “I don’t think I should trust Leek with this, something about him seems … off,” he admitted.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Abbey I think would be ok to let in on it," Connor said fairly quickly. He had always trusted Abbey and saw no reason to not trust her with this knowledge. "Lester should probably know, and Jenny too.... if they would even believe us."

Connor paused and gave a small wince at hearing Leek's name and shook his head. "Naw no one else needs to know. I don't trust anyone outside of our team."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“Okay I’ll tell Abby and try and convince Lester and Jenny,” Connor paused, “do you think Lester will try and pull them from the field, make it worse somehow?”

Cutter especially wouldn’t take kindly to being delegated to a desk position.

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Oh yeah, hadn't thought of that...." Connor said with a furrowed brow as a look of concern spread over his face. "Might want to hold off on Lester. He likely is already watching Cutter close after everything that happened. Don't want to give him more reason to consider pulling Cutter to a desk job."

That would likely just lead to Cutter sneaking off and getting into some kind of worse trouble with no one knowing where he was. Not the direction they were trying to get things swinging here.

"Maybe start with Abbey and then see about Jenny? She could help run interference with Leste without letting him know all the details."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“Yeah Lester doesn’t need an excuse, especially since he nearly fired Cutter last time,” Connor sighed, running his hand through his hair.

Well technically Cutter had been fired, he just got rehired a few hours later, “I might talk to Jenny though, see what she thinks,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Let me know if I can do anything to help form this side of things," Connor said with a small sigh. "I just wish there was a way to deal with Helen and get her out of the way. Short of killing her I mean..." Connor wouldn't say that he felt she deserved it out loud but he also wasn't the type to act on something like that either. "If we could figure out how to get her to leave Cutter, and Stephen, alone it might be enough."

Re: Explore

[thearcfamily]

“I will,” Connor tried to process everything, “thanks for telling me, this … it … can’t have been easy for you, going through what you have, I just hope that I can fix things … to make it worth it, that we can change our futures,”

Re: Explore

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"It's too late for my Stephen and Cutter, but I can't just sit by and not do anything to save them in this timeline. All we can do is try," Connor said. He looked over at Cutter for a moment. "I feel better knowing he's got you, and now Abbey and Jenny looking out for him. Hopefully, between us all we and fix this and keep Helen from mucking things up."