Finding the CAUS of Things {wide open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

Characters Against Unwanted Shifting, better known by the catchy acronym "CAUS," had taken over the Hattery. This wasn't exactly an abnormal thing; Twilight had struck a deal with the management here to allow their meetings to occur fairly regularly. She'd met here in private with a handful of people to finalize details, and each time she'd come by, Twilight had made certain to purchase things. That, plus Twilight's organization and overall friendliness, had resulted in a very positive working relationship, which worked wonders all around.

Which was probably for the best, considering that Twilight had hooked up a smallish multi-media projector. It was a screen that she'd gotten on loan from the library: a free-standing thing about the size of a large television set. A projector had been hooked to a computer, and that was setting on a stack of books which in turn sat on a table. Twilight was fiddling with the controls, getting everything tweaked. The purple haze of her magic could be seen activating along various things, pulling this, pushing that, holding devices. Twilight did use her hands still, but she was using the magic for a marked purpose: to show the doubters that it had, in fact, come back. There was now visible proof. So ha! Take that, doubters!

Twilight stepped back from the projector, turning to look at the display. A very neat, well-organized header of "CAUS" showed there. Twilight nodded in self-satisfaction. This was just what she wanted to see. Everything was going to be excellent. Better, actually, as Twilight had several definite plans, an agenda, and even a long term idea that she was almost positive would work. So what if she wasn't getting quite as much sleep as she should be? She'd had plenty of tea, and she felt sharper than ever.

Plus, she just knew people would show up any time now. Probably not the same people as last time, but Twilight was almost hoping for a few unfamiliar faces in the mix.

[Darwin Daugherty]

Darwin saw Twilight through the window of the restaurant fiddling with something. When he saw the light box producing an image on a screen, he knew he had to crash this party. Slipping into the establishment, he ran a finger up Twilight's spine and sat down next to the table. He sat there posing innocently with his chin on his fingers. "So whatcha doin' Twilie? Some sort of gathering?" He picked up the menu and sat back in the chair. Between the stuff in the forest, the library, meeting Kori, and meeting his roommate, he had had a nice day. And now he was getting hungry.

[Jack Frost]

Entering the restaurant, Jack's attention was immediately drawn to a projector and a large television set. Whatever was going on here looked very official, but then he knew what was going on. At least he had a pretty good idea, he'd overheard some people talking about something like this after all. They had spoken in hushed tones with the intention of not being overheard, but the winter spirit had already found a few hiding places around. He hadn't intended to listen in, but he had wound up in the right place at the right time in this instance, and it had triggered a few thoughts. He was a Guardian, but he couldn't do his job protecting children if he was stuck here without his powers. At least he still had his staff, but then it may as well have been a random twig at this point.

Watching for a while, he noticed the purple haze coming from the hands of a violet haired woman who appeared to be in charge of setting up here. Was that what he thought it was, he wondered as he squinted and edged in closer.

As a dark skinned man approached her, Jack stopped in his tracks as he watched the exchange. It seemed as if they knew each other, but after allowing them a brief exchange, he approached with his crook resting casually on his right shoulder.

"So, is this a private conversation or can anyone join in?", he asked with an expression akin to a smirk.

---

TAG any

[Lillian Tinkerbell]

Tink had heard about the C.A.U.S. meeting from a letter she’d found in her mailbox. She wasn’t sure where the letter had come from. It could have been sent to everyone to advertise the group or maybe one of her acquiatences had sent it to her. In the latter case, she hadn’t met anyone evil so far, so she doubted it would be a bad group. Besides, it was called Characters Against Unwanted Shifting, and her shifting had definitely been unwanted. In the end, she’d decided to go because of what she knew from her experience with the invisibility beam. Someone in charge really should know what was there. So she had packed her drawing of the security room as well as her plans for a flying machine into a bag and had left her house.

She’d actually arrived at The Hattery about an hour early. She wanted to eat before the meeting and also observe for a little bit before she actually introduced herself. That was how she’d seen the purple-haired girl summon the purple haze and things moving all by themselves. This had completely stunned Tinkerbell. No, the haze wasn’t pixie dust, but it was magic. A thousand questions clamoured in her head at once. How long had the woman had her magic? Who was she? Could she give Tink some of it? Would it let her fly? If she flew, could she go back to Neverland? If she could go back to Neverland, could she be turned back into a fairy? The young blonde woman forced herself to calm down. It probably wasn’t the best idea to run up to the purple-haired woman and start shooting off questions.

Not too long after that, she saw Discord enter the restaurant and approach the purple-haired woman. She knew Discord from the forest situation, but she didn’t really feel too comfortable around him. After all, he had hit her on the head with a rock. She briefly considered leaving, but the lure of magic was too great, and she stayed where she was. Then a young man approached the pair. Tink didn’t know him, but she thought he looked as interested about the magic as she felt. However, she remained where she was, silently eating her meal and drinking her tea.

[Stephen Schmeling]

Stephen had managed to catch word of the meeting, unfortunately for any decent folks attending.  He knew that there needed to be some sort of resistance moment.  With all these - um, let's call them "aliens" for now - forced from their home worlds and forced to live as mere humans, it would strike him as absurd not to have rebellion.  But, he was a little disappointed that it wasn't him who started and lead such a thing.  Oh well.  He was Starscream, wasn't he?  He could always lie and backstab until he was that the top anyway: no big deal.  What with his superior cunning and scientific know-how, how could he not immediately be embraced with a high rank?  With him, within a pack he had slung over his shoulder, he brought a rather sloppily drawn diagram of one of his Null Rays and some metal doodads he stole found and was beginning to dissect.  A Constructicon Steph was not, but living his entire life as a mechanical being set his engineering capability above most humans anyway.  That had to be useful.

The gaunt twerp came upon the cafe and pushed the door open with one of his bony hands.  Stephen thought the place was pretty ugly, but he did give a slight pause upon catching smell of some of the food.  That was right, he needed refueling more often.  He considered it, but opted to skip snacking.  The former Decepticon continued to walk in, limping on the leg that had been maimed by that irritating worm.  After he got over feeling hungry, he first thing his fair eyes caught sight of was a familiar flesh-female.  A bit of the purple aura caught his vision, causing him hesitation.  Surely there was a logical explanation; after all, there were some remarkable abilities among his own race and his brother Skywarp could teleport at will with no one screaming "magic" at it.  Stephen didn't pay much heed to the others who also happened to be there, since he was far more interested in the purple-haired woman that he'd already been acquainted with.  He watched as a rather strange man popped up to bug Twilight.  But he wanted to bug her too.  Stephen made a bewildered face before grinning smugly.  Leaning back, he sat down upon a table top.  A cackle came up from his throat that was so wicked it could have easily belonged to a witch.

"Ah-hahahaha!" Stephen tilted his head a bit, "So we meet again?"

He looked behind his shoulder to scrutinize the others who were attending.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight shivered at the finger's touch, rising up on her toes and letting out a sharp squeal. Soon enough she was glaring at Discord, a flash of magical anger flaring through her purple eyes. "This is a very important meeting, Discord, and I'd appreciate it if you'd at least try to behave yourself, if you're going to insist on--hello there!" This last was directed to Jack, both of who had approached the area and seemed to be more confused and shy than anything else. Twilight's look of frustration gave way to an expression of friendliness and joy, one that she at least partially meant. She'd never seen him before, but that was more a good thing than a bad. In point of fact, she'd rather not have met Discord prior to his arriving.

"Yes, yes, welcome! I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm sort of the leader of our little group," Twilight gestured toward the screen, where the logo and welcome banner beamed merrily. It almost surprised Twilight to see a lack of shadow puppets. Really she figured it was only a matter of time, but she certainly wasn't going to be giving Discord any ideas. "And anyone is---welcome," the last came out flat as she saw Stephen enter. She recognized the young man, having been his new mentor upon his arrival, and Twilight couldn't say she was exactly thrilled. In point of fact, she wasn't exactly thrilled with the turnout so far. Totally different from before, with only a couple of people who looked like they wouldn't be more trouble than they were worth?

Where was Henry? Or, more pointedly, Rainbow? For that matter, Twilight couldn't help but think that Fluttershy should be here too, but at least she had an excuse not to come. "Everyone feel free to get comfortable," Twilight gestured at the chairs she'd gathered about. "And make sure to order something. We, uh, have a deal with the Hattery. They let us use the space so long as we each order a little something."

[Henry Charmant]

Henry walked into the Hattery and immediately went up to the counter to order himself a coffee and a raspberry danish. He'd found he rather liked coffee, especially with a couple sugars in it, and it did a nice job of keeping him awake and aware, which was going to be valuable during a meeting as important as this.

He moved to the table where Twilight was setting up. "I am glad you understand the way the technology works," he said under his breath. "I still can't manage to get the hang of the thing." Then he turned to look over the people who were already there, none of whom he recognized at all. Well, time to begin introducing himself.

With a smile he moved and sat down at the table, fairly near the front. "Good afternoon everyone," he said. "I'm glad you all were able to join us. It looks like we're still waiting for a few more people, so we'll probably wait a little while longer to see if they can join us." He glanced at Twilight to make sure this was accurate, then turned back to the group. "My name is Henry Charmant. I have been working for the past while to gather information about the suits and Tenebrae in general. We can continue working on that now while we wait for our other members to arrive. Did anyone have something they wanted to share with CAUS?"

He, of course, had been a witness to the destruction of the mall, and he was willing to bring that up if no one else had anything to say. But he decided he'd give the other members a chance to introduce themselves and mention anything they had noticed. Even just saying why they were at the meeting could be valuable; it was always good to know people's motivations and skill sets.

[Darwin Daugherty]

Darwin stood up as Henry walked in. If he was going have to order something, he might as well get some chocolate milk. The others filed in and had seat. He even noticed Lillian off to the side. This was going to be some meeting. After returning with a couple glasses of chocolate milk, he sat one down next to Twilight and seemed to take on the butler mood as he just stood behind her and to the side. Sipping his drink, he listened to the gentleman introduce himself.

Then when he asked for introductions, he sat down his glass and gave a deep bow to the others. "I am Darwin Ivor Sawyer Carlton Oliver Reginald Daugherty. While in the woods with a rainbow haired girl and the blonde sitting over at the other table, we came across a beam that made trees and squirrels invisible. We were able to stop it with a water bottle.

Darwin was being on his best behavior for now. This was right up twilight's ally after all. And there would be time for shadow puppets in a few minutes, but not now when no body was watching. However he had already behaved long enough where he needed to get a little mischief out of his system. He leaned over to Twilight and in a quiet voice that only she and those at the table could hear asked her. "I never did find out what you thought about the kiss." This question was so loaded for the imagination of others. All he needed to do was say that and he could possibly behave long enough for the presentation to be over with.

[Jack Frost]

There were certainly a lot of people coming in, but then why wouldn't there be? There was certainly something going on here that seemed interesting enough for even him to want to stick around! After all, he wouldn't mind finding out what this CAUS thing was all about, not to mention how the violet an pink haired woman had been able to use that magic. If he could use his own, then he could simply fly out of here, freezing any suits that tried to stop him. Where would he go though, he wondered as he remembered that this wasn't his world. So far, people had only laughed at him when he had mentioned going to the North Pole to find the others. Then again, saying he wanted to meet up with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy probably did sound a little strange to those who didn't believe.

Nodding as the magic using woman introduced herself, Jack nodded and moved his crook so that it was resting on both shoulders.

"Jack Frost", he replied in greeting as he returned the favour. At least he was welcome here, plus it still felt nice to be seen by so many people. Filled with curiosity about Twilight's 'group', he took not of her request and bought himself a coke. Straight from the freezer of course!

As the meeting got under way, Jack realised just how much he had missed lately. He knew that the mall had been totaled, but what was this about the forest? Not only that, but the feeling that he didn't quite belong began to creep up on him, but then he was pretty used to that. Everyone here knew what exactly was going on and here was him with no clue as to what was going on.

Thankfully, that feeling was partially eased by the introduction of Henry and his admission to gathering information on the suits. Is that was CAUS was? One way to find out...

"Woah, can we start from the beginning? what is this CAUS thing anyway?", he asked from his seat as he opened his can with a hiss. "I kinda just blundered in here", he admitted as he got a few looks that would have most feeling rather uncomfortable. When one was used to not being seen, having so many eyes upon you was nothing short of bliss.

Something else then occurred to him, and he raised a brow quizzically as the man with too many names spoke up.

"Wait invisible? As in really invisible or...", oh what was he saying, no one stopped believing in animals right? Coughing, he began to amend his statement. "Any idea what caused that?", he asked instead.

---

TAG any

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Don't trust him: he's evil," was the next thing that came out of Twilight's mouth. To her credit, it was addressed to "Darwin," whom she pointed at with her free finger. She gave said mischief maker a look of pure dislike, one that threatened all kinds of unseemly things. In point of fact, Twilight was seriously thinking about pulling rank and just asking him to leave. But she really couldn't just kick someone out because they'd been all... rude. If that were the case, they wouldn't have members after the first few meetings.

Besides, there were more important issues to address, mostly to the other newcomer who wasn't a total jerk face. "CAUS stands for Characters Against Unwanted Shifting," she offered, her tone sliding effortlessly into "lecture mode." "We formed to try and figure out a way of getting out of here," she gestured at the area around her, trying to indicate Tenebrae in general. "Because we don't believe all that stuff that the suits have been feeding us. For one thing, we clearly regain some of our powers and abilities," Twilight motioned again, calling upon her powers to levitate a pointer from her gathered things into her hand. Once she had it, she smiled confidently. "So we're working toward figuring things out and getting home, which I believe is most certainly possible."

Twilight paused, taking a breath and ducking to take a sip of some of the cool, refreshing tea she'd purchased just for such breaks. "As for the invisibility, it sounds like it was caused by some sort of ray. If it's connected to the living meat creatures and the incident at the mall, it looks like it was all some sort of technology thing. Apparently the main leader at the mall had a helmet that was definitely technological, and it sounds like the ray was more technology than magic," said the expert on both. She nodded confidently, before smiling a little nervously. "Uh, we'll probably get into that in a bit. We should probably wait just a little bit longer before really digging into things."

[Lillian Tinkerbell]

Tinkerbell sat at her table just off the side of everyone else. She still wasn’t so sure if she should be here. If she had to, she could easily slip away without causing too much fuss. That was until Discord opened his big mouth. Of course, he had to mention the beam, but did he really have to point her out? Up until that point, she’d been intending to just sit there and listen. She’d only speak up if no one else mentioned the beam. Now that Discord had said she’d been there, she felt she had to say something. They might she was spying on them otherwise.

So Tink had pulled out her talking device and began typing out a message on it. She turned the volume down super low, so the tapping noise wouldn’t bother anyone. She was still listening though, and when Jack introduced himself, her head jerked up at the word frost. It made her think of her sister Periwinkle, a frost fairy. Was this boy a fairy too, just like she had been? She made a note to ask him later, maybe after the meeting.

With her message complete, Tink turned the volume back up on her device and pressed SAY. “My name is Lillian Tinkerbell.” The device said in its usual feminine yet monotone voice. “I was also at the forest where the invisibility beam was, as Darwin just mentioned. It made a lot of things invisible, but it’s reason for being there seemed to be to make a large amount of the ground invisible. When it did this, a metal bunker was discovered deep under the ground. The beam made the roof of the bunker invisible and, inside there were several computers and some other strangely shaped objects. I drew a picture of the room and the stuff in it.”

Tink rummaged around in her bag until she pulled out a large piece of paper, which she had copied the original drawing on to. She stood up and took the paper over to the table with the projector on it and set it there. Then she returned to her seat, flashing the frost boy a quick smile as she passed him. If he was a frost fairy, then maybe the tinker part of her name had been familiar. Sure, tinker fairies and frost fairies lived on different sides of Neverland, but he’d still know tinker fairies existed, wouldn’t he?

[Stephen Schmeling]

Stephen looked back in front of him.  Did he really need to order some nasty Earth-slop?  The look on his face told plainly that he wasn't happy about that.  He looked back to one side of him, finding a nearby employee.

"Distributor of human-sweets, I desire to procure an item from your roster," He hesitated for a moment before failing to pronounce, "A, em,... caf-ee mook-eeeh?"

His tongue appeared for a moment as if figuring out the name of thing put a strange taste in his mouth.  Afterwords, he collected himself and folded his arms over his chest.  His eyes widened only a little once he recognized the prince that had lent him some help back at the mall.  But in all honestly, that was about the only thing that really interested him.  Darwin nor Lillian particularly caught his attention.  The fair-skinned boy who had taken to chatting up Twilight didn't quite seem worthy of the egotistical Seeker's presence either.  Stephen wasn't impressed with the turnout thus far.  Why, if he were leader...!  Hopefully one of these fleshy morons would have the sense to think of a full-on rebellion like him.  He'd be sure to enforce that option whenever he would.

But at the moment it seemed that everyone was introducing themselves.  Stephen barely took much time to think to remember the names of the others and jumped in with his own name as soon as he could.

"Greetings fleshlings!  My name is Lord Starscream, the proud and accomplished leader of the Decepticons!  You should consider yourselves extremely lucky to have me as a willing resource!" He yowled, "The strange occurrences I've heard of - I happened to be present when a large number of ferocious beasts plundered one of your resource hubs.  My skin will probably bare the marks of that impudent-"

The half-starved man was interrupted from rambling speech mode by being handed his cafe mocha.  Stephen took the beverage and jumped, nearly burning his fingers on the cup.  That shut him up for a while as he gave the inanimate object the evil eye.  Something which sounded like a mechanical voice instantly caught his attention.  He nearly believed it was a female Soundwave before spotting it's source.  A critical glare from the former-robot went Lillian's way; was she a mute or something?  How pathetic.

[Applejack Smith]

Applejack walked into The Hattery looking like a tired horse. She felt like one too. She’d never felt this tired since she’d tried to harvest the whole apple orchard by herself. It’d been a long few days at the grocery store. It was nearing the end of the season, which meant that all last season’s produce had to be sold quickly to make room for the new season. For her, this meant constantly checking the fruit and vegetables for spoiling. It was a long and tedious process. She almost wished she could just go home, but she’d promised Twilight she’d at least be there for a few minutes.

The young blonde woman entered the café still dressed in her work uniform. It was a simple out: black shoes, black slacks, and a plain, green t-shirt with the words Tenebrae Grocery on the back in white text. As soon as she came inside, she scanned the room quickly. She saw Twilight and Discord, but no one else she knew. This wasn’t that surprising since she hadn’t really been there that long. No one had to tell her to order anything. She was hungrier than a cow locked in a barn all day. She’d had to work straight through her lunch break, checking lemons and putting them out on display. She walked up to the counter and ordered a strawberry banana smoothie, a toasted cheese and tomatoe sandwich, and a small piece of chocolate cake. Once she had everything, she went to sit at the same table with Twilight and Discord.

Applejack took a sip of her smoothie and a large bite of her sandwich. It seemed everyone was introducing themselves. She tried to remember all their names, but she wasn’t sure she would. No one really stuck out to her, so she just waited for the last person to finish, a young woman named Lillian, before she started her introduction. “Howdy, y’all,” she said with her mouth full. She then remembered Rarity her once telling her this rude, so she quickly swallowed. “My name’s Applejack Smith. I ain’t been here long, got her just after all those crazy events. I’m just here to see what the CAUS is all about and maybe learn some things.” That done, she went back to eating, smacking loudly as she did so.

Truth be told, Applejack wasn’t so sure she wanted to be a member of CAUS. Twilight had told her a little about it, and while her shifting had been unwanted, she wasn’t so sure they should be trying to escape. It seemed they were just gathering information for right now, which she guessed was all right. If they started talking about hurting the suits or escape plans though, well, she’d have to put her foot down. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go home. Of course she did. It was more that she very strongly felt they’d been brought here for a reason, and she was unwilling to leave until she knew what that reason was. Who knew, maybe they were there for something good?

[Eric Cartman]

Eric found about this meeting of people similarly burned by Tenebrae on accident. Well, a happy accident - if you eavesdropped on enough conversations, you were bound to hear something interesting. This meeting of Characters Against Unwanted Shifting was something Eric heard about when he was in the library, listening to a few younger girls, in hushed excited tones, say that there were people who actually might not be interested in staying in Tenebrae. Eric would've sarcastically joined their conversation with a "why noooooot pray teeeell?", but he was already on the Tenebrae staff's radar for various minor infractions, like trying to hack through their internet blocks and asking too many questions about his amnesia.

At the end of the day, Eric was here almost solely because of his amnesia. Dreams of shadowy figures, without faces or memories attached to them, plagued him nightly. He dreamed of one particular shadow often, dreams of varying sweetness and explicitness, and it gutted him every time he woke up. The shadow never had a face, or a name, just fogged-up memories of childhood and adulthood with him. The stabbing pain was growing unbearable. If Eric hadn't shifted, he'd be with him, and he'd remember his lost love. Maybe he'd grow the spine he'd lacked for over ten years and finally ask the man out. But it wasn't just him - he'd crush his roommate in a crazed hug, he'd get high with his drug-addled mechanic friend and laugh himself hoarse, he'd actually thank his mother for the things she'd sacrificed for him.

And with that sobering thought in his head, he wandered into the Hattery, just as a very loud gentleman screeched that he was Lord Starscream, trapped in a fleshy body and leader of the Decepticons (that ALSO sounded familiar, but given how much Eric remembered, it might just be close to someone's last name), deterred only by the arrival of some coffee. Eric snorted, slipping into a seat in the back. Should've figured that all the people here would be varying shades of off-center. He crossed his legs and leaned back, pageboy cap almost falling off of his head, glasses glistening in the light as he smirked and took in everyone here. Currently speaking was a golden-haired southern girl, claiming her name was Applejack, only there to learn things. The screaming man was gaunt and appropriately insane-looking; near him, a glamorous blonde was texting furiously with her petite limbs. A small boy was also there, probably interested in creating a little mischief. A hipster-looking black gentleman seemed to be locked in a glaring battle with the woman at the front, whose purple hair was vibrant and instantly eye-catching. But there was something else catching about her.

Wendy FREAKING Testaburger?!

The similarities were unmistakeable. Bookish, obsessed with being in a leadership position, dark hair, purple things... The girl up front was probably liberal, too. Oh dear God. Eric frowned before the smacking of the southern girls' lips roused him from his irritated reverie. Why did he remember Wendy Testaburger and not, oh, the guy he was regularly imagining having sex with? And why was his worst enemy here, of all places?

Eric's cold glare fixated on the purple-haired louse up front. "I'm Eric Cartman. I'm twenty-three years old, I have my bachelor's degree in Business Communications from the University of Colorado... and it really is something, I have to say." He was getting a little more dramatic than necessary, but Eric thought something done without flair was something done completely wrong. "I can't believe that here, ripped from everything I deserved, is someone who either is my very worst enemy, or someone doing a very good job of impersonating her... are you Wendy Testaburger, then? Or just another stupidly-smart hippie bitch obsessed with saving all the fuzzy creatures?"

[Darwin Daugherty]

Darwin watched as each of the others chimed in on who they were and what brought them to the Hattery for the meeting. But the last one caught his attention more. He seemed upset. Almost as if he was the Element of anger. Walking around the table to the other side opposite from him, he just stood there with hands behind his back. a chocolate milk mustache on his lip. "Her name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. And while, yes she is a smart, what's the word the humans use, woman obsessed with saving all the other fuzzy creatures, she does not deserve to be so rudely insulted as you have done here. I must ask you refrain from such disparaging outburst again. You should at least try to find out some about others before jumping to conclusions."

The british accent coming from his was quite forward as he had actually been angered. He may have been chaos but vulgar he was not. The crimson orbs set intently on the young man, waiting for him to say something.