Emily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
iluvroadrunner6) wrote2017-12-13 08:47 am
iluvroadrunner6) wrote2017-12-13 08:47 am
get your words out { 2018 } challenge tracking
Directory:
PERSONAL GOALS:Complete Requests 2018 Reading List GYWO Yahtzee
OFFICIAL CHALLENGES:01/21/18: Word Bowling COMPLETE 02/10-11/18: Roll the Dice Challenge COMPLETE 02/24/18: Cliches COMPLETE 3/10-16/18: Catch Up Challenge COMPLETE 4/13-14/18: Time Management Challenge COMPLETE 4/28/18: 5-4-3-2-1 Setting Challenge COMPLETE 5/20/18: May Challenge: Classified Information COMPLETE 5/21-27/18: 7 Days, 7 Stories COMPLETE June 2018: Mid-Year Marathon INCOMPLETE 6/8-9/18: Roll the Dice Challenge COMPLETE July 2018: Mid-Year Marathon INCOMPLETE 7/26/18: Dog Days of Summer Idiomatic Challenge COMPLETE 8/13/18: The 8d20 Challenge COMPLETE 9/14-15/18: Two Day Challenge COMPLETE 10/17-21/18: Nano Prep Challenge INCOMPLETE 11/30/18: Five Minutes Challenge COMPLETE 12/26/18: Stop, Drop, Write COMPLETE
personal goal: complete requests
personal goal: reading list | 3/13
01/21/18 | january challenge: word bowling | strike | 162 words
whims of a four year old. A man who could choke out guards in under six seconds, hack into the
most complicated systems in the world, break down a situation with scientific precision is
currently chalking up his floundering in this particular situation to the fact that he is lacking
proper support. He’s never dealt with a child though, inexperience having made him overly
cocky, and now he finds himself in the midst of a crisis, looking for a way to cheat just enough to
make it through this day intact. He wrenches the dangerous scissors out of Tyler’s hands, staring
down into the bright, wobbly eyes of a toddler, before nodding. “Okay, champ,” he sighs. “How
do we make it out of this without an international incident? Soda?” The bribe seems to have no
effect. “Chocolate?” The child’s eyes brighten, and he knows they have a winner.
2/10-11/18 | roll the dice challenge | goal: 3,861 | COMPLETE
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3,864
2018 | gywo yahtzee
round 1 | running score: 260
2/24/18 | february challenge: cliches | 1,300
“Well, hello there, sister. It has indeed been a while.”
He wears the gilded armor of her people, of her father, a rose-gold base with delicate snow roses emblazoned into the metal. The Frostwards are hardly the leaders of Xandria – that honor falls to Hodour, god of cold and snow, but they are high enough nobility that their snow roses are a symbol of their power and promise, and their wealth strong enough to give them rule over their small patch of mountains.
“Rosalina?” One of the valkyrie’s voices is uncertain behind her, not sure how they should approach here. She glances back to the girl over her shoulder, before waving them off by drawing her sword.
“Find my sister. I will take care of this braggart.”
Aster sneers, drawing his own sword from across the room, before taking a step forward and climbing onto the dining room table. “Come face me then, Rosa. Or will you run away again, just like you did from your wedding.”
Her eyes harden as the Valkyries continue to move down the hallway, and she steps forward to do the same, gathering her skirts with one hand as she steps onto the chair then up onto the table, holding her sword in front of her. “Those are large words, Aster, considering I used to best you every time during training.”
Flashbacks to their childhood sparring matches pass behind his eyes as his teeth grit, fingers curling around the broadsword as he prepared to swing it forward. “I’ll make you regret that, you wench.”
The sword swings high and fast, but Rosalina’s prepared, dodging easily to the side and she swings out her rapier to block the move. The blade isn’t meant to block the swings and slices of a broadsword, but after having been tempered with Asgardian steel and the blessing of Odin, she hopes it will hold up, and it gives her more flexibility to handle a more lightweight weapon. Most had the impression that the valkyries were women who desired to be more like men and therefore needed to handle every weapon a man did, but that has never been the case. The valkyries are women warriors, first and foremost. Which means, they fight like women, always, and Rosalina has always been far more effective a fighter with a rapier in her hand, as proven when she dodges out of the block, swings her blade high and across, slicing against the soft skin of his right cheek.
“Still favoring power over accuracy, Aster? Why am I not surprised?”
His hand comes up, glove swiping at the blood on his cheek, before his eyes hardened again. “You’ll pay for that.”
“I’d be delighted to see you try.”
The battle continues with more of the same. Aster raises his sword to strike his sister and Rosalina swipes it away scornfully, just like she did when they were children. Eventually, she gets to the point where she ceases to be impressed, and starts coaching him through each wrong move, eyes rolling in return, almost as though he was one of the recruits she was elected to train on the fields of Valhalla.
“You need to keep your blade up or you’re never going to be able to protect yourself.”
“All the power in the world isn’t going to matter if you’re not accurate enough to hit anything.”
“My gods, it’s like you were taught by a fool. Honestly, I have no idea how you managed to survive this long – ”
Another wide swing forces her to lean back and away from him, just barely grazing her as a result, but there is true anger in her brother’s eyes now, the kind that comes not from bloodlust, but from being the frustrated younger sibling and forced to deal with his overbearing older sister.
“Why are you so bossy,” is the growled protest as he comes in for another swing again, and he actually manages to get in a few good ones that actually manages to put her on the defensive, before he swings too wide and she manages to get the upper hand. A broadsword is a large and powerful, but it lacks the finesse needed for some more delicate maneuvers. It doesn’t take much for Rosalina to get in close, catch just the right angle and knock the blade from his hands. A fast backhand with the handle quickly follows and Aster drops, stumbling off the table and tumbling towards the wall.
She stays where he is, standing tall for the moment, before she gathers her skirts again, stepping delicately down onto the chair and then onto the floor. “Yield, Aster.”
He watches her for a moment, before holding up his hand and waving his challenge, indicating that she’s free to lower her sword. She does, before moving to sit next to him as they both shift to rest against the wall. There’s a long moment of silence before she speaks. “Veronica should be free to make her own choices.”
“Veronica is a girl. She doesn’t know what choices are best for Frostward. All she sees is you, who ran off to join the valkyries because she thought she could be free.”
Rosalina purses her lips for a moment, before sighing heavily. “I will speak with her. But could you at least let her choose her own suitors? She’s smarter than you give her credit for, and she’s not like me, where none were acceptable because all were men. She just wants a say in choosing someone who will treat her well.”
“And she thinks I do not care for such a thing?”
“She knows you do. But she also knows that you are a man and therefore not able to see the flaws of your own gender.” He turns and raises an eyebrow to her at that. “She says one of your options was Nicholas Orbbane.”
“The Orbbanes are a good family.”
“The Orbbanes have a history of silent wives and unexpected widowers. Nothing has ever been proven, but there is much suspicion, and ladies talk.”
Aster sighs as he tips his head back against the wall. “What should I do then?”
“Our sister has a better political mind than you think. Let her work with you, rather than against you. She won’t steer you wrong.”
Aster frowns, but eventually nods his agreement. “Will you call off your warriors before the do any more damage to the décor?”
She laughs a bit at that, before nodding her agreement. “That I can do. And perhaps a dinner before I leave, just the three of us?”
“Still so bossy, daring to tell me what to do in my own home.”
“Oh, hush,” she laughs, as he gets to his feet, before extending a hand to help her up as well. “You know that you missed me.”
“I’d miss you a lot less if you’d come home more.”
“We’ll see,” she sighs, taking his hand and letting him pull her up. “But for now, I think we need good wine. Lots and lots of wine.”
3/10-16/18 | catch-up challenge | goal: 5,544 | COMPLETE
TOTAL: 5,573
4/13-14/18 | time management challenge | COMPLETE
GRAND TOTAL: 1,021
4/28/18 | 5-4-3-2-1 setting challenge | part a | COMPLETE
5 Things You See:
4 Things You Hear:
3 Things You Feel:
2 Things You Smell:
1 Thing You Taste:
4/28/18 | 5-4-3-2-1 setting challenge | part b | 829 words total | COMPLETE
He almost can’t hear her voice over the sound of the New York City traffic outside, but he knows what she’s saying all the same. Noah can’t help the smile that crosses his face as he leads Deirdre into the bar, looking over the dilapidated state of everything. He knows it doesn’t look like much, in fact, it looks like a pretty large dive, but he can see the potential in every corner, and in a lot of ways, it’s what he’s always wanted. A place of his own where he can build his own life.
The side walls to their right is lined with cracked red leather booths and solid wood tables set between them. While the dust indicates they haven’t been sat in in a while, they were well loved once, a long time ago. Across from them is a sturdy wooden bar, that’s well finished, albeit a little dusty. The beat up stools have stains on the cushions, but that’s to be expected from years of use. Against a mirrored window, a line of multicolored glass bottles that catch the reflection of light, turning the mirror into a multicolored poor man’s disco. There’s even a stage area towards the back, accentuating the broken neon signs and rock star posters, but the wood is rotting and will need to be replaced all the same. Stale beer and peanuts permeate the air, and while there’s a touch of something rotting, he’ll be able to clean that up before he starts doing business.
“This is a bar.” He holds out his hands to the side, turning to face her with a cheeky grin. “It’s my bar.”
Deidre blinks at him for a moment, eyes wide before she responds. “You bought this shit hole?”
“Look, I get it’s a shit hole now, but once I get it redone, I think it’ll be pretty sweet.”
There’s a plunk, plunk, plunk from somewhere nearby, and Deirdre sighs as she points up to a wet spot on the ceiling. “I think your pretty sweet roof is leaking.” Her head then whips around at the sound of something scuffling nearby. “Also I am not staying in a place with rats.”
“Okay, okay, we don’t have to stay inside.” He quickly gestures for her to move ahead of him, back out the door. Their feet stick to the floor as they make their way outside, and he runs his finger over the soft grain of the wood of the bar, ignoring the dust in favor of just soaking in the texture. Eventually, the door creaks open and they move back into the heat of the New York City summer, sitting down on a bench right outside the bar.
Deirdre fishes in her bag for a moment, until she pulls out the silver flask and unscrews the top to take a swig. She then passes it to Noah, and he takes it, giving a swig and letting the sharp, strong burn of the whiskey as it slides over his tongue.
“So you’re really going to buy that place?”
“Already bought,” Noah says with a grin as he passes the flask back. “They accepted the offer this morning.”
“And you want to do all that work?”
“Yeah, man. It’ll be nice to actually have a place to dig into. A place that’s really mine, you know?”
Deidre considers for a moment, before nodding with a small smile. “Then good luck. I’ll be sure to come by when it’s all finished.”
“Good,” Noah grins as he leans back with a smile. “I think it’ll all work out. You just have to have a little imagination.”
5/14/18 | stop, drop, write challenge | 1,029 words | SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WARS
"Meet me at the Cortex, we've got a really big problem."
"Oh really? Is it the kind of problem that's going to explain why the very nice coffee girl in front of me just disintegrated into nothing." All Cisco wanted was his regular cup of coffee, and maybe to do a little harmless flirting. Now he's looking at a pile of dust, he doesn't have his coffee, and he's trying very hard not to freak out right now.
"Oh, you're at Jitters. I'll be right there."
Cisco barely gets a chance to respond before he's caught up in the speed force, and Barry is running, and it's way farther than if they were just going to the Cortex, but he doesn't have time to ask before Barry skids to a stop and they're somewhere completely different and way more advanced than anything he's ever seen.
"Where ..."
"You're in Wakanda."
"You're Princess Shuri." The words fall out of his mouth before he can think of anything else, and he's immediately in fanboy mode, a wide grin splitting across his face. "Dude, your tech is amazing, like beyond anything. There are so many things I want to ask you about ... " His voice trails off when his eyes go past her to the table behind her and sees the last thing he ever thought he would see. " ... That's Vision? What the hell happened to Vision?"
It's not that he and Vision were friends exactly. It's hard to be friends with someone who doesn't fully understand the concept of "friend." But they hung out when Barry and Caitlin were helping Wanda with her meta abilities, and the guy was a pretty cool dude. And now he's dead.
"Thanos ripped the Infinity Stone out of his head." Cisco's eyes then turn to Captain America, standing off to he side looking like he's had the fight kicked out of him, and it's then that Cisco starts to panic a little.
"Okay, what the hell is happening?"
And that's when it all comes out. Thanos, the Infinity Stones, his plan for the universe. It all tumbles out of them in bits and pieces, but he manages to weave things together enough to get the full narrative. When they're all done, he takes it all in, and steps up, just like any hero would. They've got to fix the world. He'll do what he has to do.
"What do you need from me?"
"We need you to find Tony Stark." Bruce Banner comes from the side. "He got caught on one of Thanos' ships when it was leaving orbit. If he's still alive, we need to find him and get him home so that we can come up with a plan to fix this. Barry says you have some kind of locator power?"
"Yeah, I vibe." The word gets confused looks from some of the older Avengers and a curious look from Shuri.
"Vibe? What the hell is a vibe?"
Cisco turns on his heel at a rough voice he doesn't recognize, and his eyes suddenly widen in surprise.
"That is a talking raccoon."
"Cisco, focus." Barry's hand is on his shoulder and he turns Cisco towards the spot where a piece of armor that looked similar to Iron Man's but much larger was sitting on a table. "You can ask Rocket questions later."
"Rocket. It's a talking raccoon named Rocket." He makes his way closer, putting on his visor as he moves to place his hands on the piece of armor. "The universe continues to be a crazy, crazy place." All it takes is a moment of concentration before he's rocketing far, far away from Earth. Eventually the vision clears, and he sees Tony Stark, sitting on a desolate piece of Earth and looking Not Great.
"Got him. He's alive. He's hanging out with some blue robotic lady."
"That's Nebula. You should probably bring her back too." Rocket mutters as he makes his way past Cisco to continue cleaning his gun. "She's gonna want a piece of this action."
"Got it." Cisco's never vibed off planet before, but if he's managed to vibe between universes, then this shouldn't be that hard right. God he hopes he doesn't die in the vacuum of space. But this is for Tony Stark. He can save Tony Stark. He takes a deep breath, opens a breach and he jumps.
Stumbling out onto the rust colored surface of the planet he glances around for a moment, before he spots the two people in question. He leaves the breach open behind him and shouts. "Hey! Anybody looking for a ride back to Earth?"
Tony's head snaps around, eyes wide with surprise, before he appraises Cisco like he doesn't know if he should trust him. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Cisco Ramon, I'm here to rescue you."
Tony blinks again before he rolls his yes. "Did you seriously just Luke Skywalker me right now?"
"What is a Luke Skywalker?" The mean robot lady asks and Cisco rolls his eyes in return.
"Don't judge me for having style, man. Captain America sent me. He wants me to bring you home." He nods back to Nebula standing behind him. "You too, Lady Blue. There's a talking raccoon who's looking for you."
"Rocket survived?" And with that Nebula is marching past them both, heading towards the portal that Cisco was holding open. She didn't seem to care about whether or not this was a trap, probably because she'd kill him the second she found out. He lets her head through, before looking back to Tony.
"I can only hold this open for so long, man. What do you say we find this Thanos guy and fix the world?"
Tony glances back over his shoulder for a moment as he makes his way closer. "What if we can't?"
"Who are we if we don't at least try." He cracks a grin. "Awesome demigoddess said that to me once. You should listen to her, she's kinda scary."
"Think you can recruit her to fix the world."
"Oh, I think it would be her pleasure."
5/20/18 | may challenge: classified information | 173 words
5/21-27/18 | 7 days, 7 stories | COMPLETE
WORD COUNT: 6,853
round 2 | running score: 0
june 2018 | mid-year marathon | goal: 16,438 | INCOMPLETE
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
WEEK 4:
Running Word Count: 15,620
6/8-9/18 | roll the dice challenge | goal: 3,780 | COMPLETE
TOTAL: 3,789
july 2018 | mid-year marathon | goal: 21,233 | INCOMPLETE
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
WEEK 4:
TOTAL: 1,750
7/26/18 | dog days of summer idiomatic challenge | COMPLETE | 605
All he needs to know is present in the way his mother says his name. The short clipped tone, the complete lack of warmth. Normally his mother is a pretty loving person. Normally, she sounds happy to see him. Normally, he hasn’t wrecked his father’s BMW in an illegal joyriding incident, and he doesn’t think he’s going to get a whole lot of leeway on that one.
He was trying to breeze past the dining room without being seen, but since he’s already been busted, he decides he’s going to just roll with it. He flashes his mother his most charming smile as he makes his way down the stairs.
“Hi, Mom. How was your day?”
“Just got off the phone with the insurance investigator.”
“That good, huh?”
His mother is giving him the driest look and he swallows down his discomfort, slowly inching forward as though to try and find the best way he can approach this without getting into too much trouble.
“Okay, I take it back. That bad?”
“You’re so lucky that we persuaded them to cover it. An unlicensed driver crashing our car that happened to be our own son? If your father didn’t have friends and the company …”
… He’ll be honest and admit that he’s mostly tuned her out at this point. It isn’t anything personal, but he’s heard this rant several times before and while he doesn’t believe it’s wrong necessarily, he just wants to escape it all and retreat to the safety of his own room.
“… so you are grounded for the next six months.”
“What?” Part of him is glad he tuned in just in time for that, but the rest of him is just baffled at the severity of this punishment. “That’s the entire summer!”
“Yes it is. The only exception you’ll have for leaving the house is a part time job that you’re going to get to pay us back the amount of money it’s going to take to fix this car!”
“You said the insurance was going to cover it!”
“Yes and our rates are going to go sky high with it!” She places her hands on her hips firmly, and still fixes him with a glare. “Honestly, you’re lucky that we’re not reporting you to the police. They, I’m sure, would be much less forgiving.”
He’s almost starting to wish that he had paid more attention to the lecture, to be honest. Right now he’s simply just stunned at how hard and fast this particular punishment had come down and right now he can’t see a way to wiggle out of it. He lets the silence linger for a moment, before glancing up at her again. “Is there anything else?”
“Not now,” she replies, before waving him off. He nods as he turns to go before glancing back over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
She glances back to him, rubbing her eyes for a moment, before responding. “It shouldn’t take a massive punishment for you to finally say that.”
He swallows hard before nodding again and retreating to his room. He flops down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling for a moment and just tries to process how it feels to have his metaphorical knees knocked out from under him. Then he takes a deep breath and nods.
“I kinda deserve that.”
And then he rolls over and reaches for his phone. He’s fairly certain that he’ll find a way around this particular punishment eventually. He’s smart enough that he usually does, when push comes to shove.
Just give him a month or two and watch him fly.
8/13/18 | the 8d20 challenge | COMPLETE
TOTAL: 2,710
8/18/18 | red-e or knot challenge | COMPLETE | 549
It’s not an easy thing, following in your family’s footsteps, but she knows that eventually she’s going to have to try. She stands at the entrance of the room, watching the various performers mill about and prepare for the evening’s performance while her stomach ties itself in knots. She can see them eye her, some with interest and some with disdain, knowing what she already knew – it’s nepotism, pure and simple. Her mother makes this look easy, she always has. There’s no way that Serena is going to be able to make this look quite as effortless.
She didn’t earn this place, as far as the rest of them are concerned. She’s just here because her mommy said so.
“Move it or lose it, honey,” Kara, the emcee, says from behind her, nudging her out of the way so she can get to one of the mirrors. The outfit she’s wearing on her large six-three frame manages to contain the essence of classic Hollywood elegance, and it’s something Serena’s always envied about her, ever since she was a little girl. She hopes that one day she can contain even half of the grace and poise she manages to portray.
Serena does as she’s told, however, making her way into the backstage area and launch herself into the ebb and flow in front of the various mirrors. She finds herself an empty mirror and sits down at the stool, taking a deep breath and taking a moment to make any last minute edits to both her make up and her song choices. She’s got a fairly versatile set planned – now she just hopes that she’ll be able to pull it off.
“Serena, baby?” Kara’s voice comes from over her shoulder again and she spins to face her. The anxiety must have been written on her face, because Kara’s face softens before placing a hand on her shoulder gently. “You’re up next, sweetie. You ready?”
“As ready as I’m going to be,” Serena admits, before getting to her feet and following Kara out towards the stage. The previous girl is just finishing her set, and her voice echoes off the acoustics of the club, before it’s replaced by a thunderous kind of applause. Kara swings up onto the stage to close out the performance and Serena feels like she must of blacked out the rest of her introduction because the next thing she knows, Kara is saying her name and sending her out onto stage.
The room goes silent from the applause, waiting for her to begin, and she takes a deep breath to steady herself, letting her focus drift for a moment as she tries to find her spot, her spot to sing to that isn’t a person and allows her to tune out the rest of the room. It’s a trick her mother taught her, for dealing with her stage freight, and at first there’s nowhere she can look that she doesn’t see people, until her eyes land on an eel tank lingering in the back of the club. It’s nothing fancy, but it will have to do.
She pauses, takes a deep breath, and sings. As far as she knows, there’s nowhere to go but up from here.
9/14-15/18 | two day challenge | goal: 5,000 | COMPLETE
GRAND TOTAL: 5,354
round 3 | running score: 35
10/17-21/18 | nano prep challenge | goal: 2,000/day | IN PROGRESS
RUNNING WORD COUNT: 5,200
11/30/18 | five minutes challenge | 338
“What sound?”
Brad’s voice was rough and gravely against Janet’s throat, the light kisses there trying to draw her attention back to the matter at hand. It had been days since they had been able to get this time alone, without their parents breathing down their throats, and he wasn’t willing to let anything interrupt them. Not when he was so close to getting what he wanted.
Janet, on the other hand, was more invested in the sound than their current activities. She tipped her head back towards the emptiness of the park beyond the windows of the car, trying to see if she can see anyone coming. Her long dark hair brushed against her shoulders as she waited, and one hand came out and caught his wrists as he tried to slip his hands up over her shirt.
“Something’s wrong.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Brad sighed as he slumped back into the backseat of the car. “You watch too many horror movies.”
“Those horror movies are going to save our lives one day. I told you I didn’t want to do this in the middle of the park.”
“It’s the only way we could be alone!”
“It’s also is a really easy way to murder us!”
Brad rolled his eyes, before nudging her off him and going to push the door open, listening in the silence of night for any sign of this “noise” she claimed to have hear. When the silence only seemed to prolong itself, he pulled back in and closed the door behind him.
“I heard nothing.” He smirked a bit as he reached for her hips to pull her closer again. “But I could tell you what I’d much rather be hearing.”
Janet rolled her eyes as she leaned in to kiss him again, before shaking her head. “You’re such a dick.” And as they descended into their evening of teenage bliss, neither of them noticed the dark shape that formed in the flickering lights behind them.
12/26/18 | stop, drop, write | 601
Oliver's voice seems a little irritated, even though for those who don't know him well, it can be hard to distinguish between irritated Oliver and regular Oliver, but being a werewolf means he can use chemosignals to cheat from his position just outside the room, and they lend a little more credence to the "irritated" side of things.
"It's a wedding! Of course I'm bringing a date." Thea doesn't seem bothered by Oliver's irritation, almost as though she's been the target of it her entire life, so Derek just keeps his mouth shut as he makes his way in and observes, placing their bags down on the floor next to him. "Besides, Derek's never been to an alternate universe before. I thought we could do it together."
"You can't bring a date because you are going to be my date."
There's a long pause, before Thea shakes her head. "I am not going to be your date so you can be moony over Felicity all night. I want to have fun at this wedding. So I'm bringing it with me."
Oliver's eyes flicker over to the man in question, and when he does he startles visibly, which from what Derek has been told, doesn't really seem like an Oliver Queen thing to do. Derek glances from Oliver to Thea for a moment before turning back to Oliver again, straightening as though he's anticipating some kind of challenge.
"What?"
Thea also seems confused, but any kind of commentary is cut off by a tall, thin man suddenly appearing in a shower of gold lightning, another woman in his arms. "Hey guys, what's -- wahh!" The man seems to blink in surprise, as he places the woman down and she looks equally surprised.
Thea looks even more confused. "What?"
The woman blinks. "Doesn't he look just like --"
Before she can finish that sentence, a hole in the world opens behind them, swirling blue and white and two people pop through. One blond woman who smiles like sunshine and a tall man with dark hair that captures all of Derek's attention the minute he sees it.
"Hey guys, we thought we'd come help with the ... oh Rao."
It's not quite a mirror image. The man is broader than Derek is, built more for power than speed. He's clean shaven and wears thick rimmed glasses, and his dark hair is brushed back into a fairly neutral hairdo. He doesn't smell human - neither of them do - but Derek can't pinpoint their species off the top of his head. All he can do is stare in silence, taking this all in and trying to figure out what any of this means.
"Uh, Kara?" Thea's voice comes from somewhere to his left. "Who's this?"
"This ... is my cousin, Clark. The one who's getting married. Who's ...?"
"Derek. A friend of mine."
"Maybe in this world, he ..."
"Oh, no. He's not an alien. He's a werewolf."
At that, both men who had been studiously watching each other, turn to face the two women in surprise. Clark raises an eyebrow while Derek rolls his eyes.
"Seriously?"
"I don't know." Thea frowns. "Are werewolves ... descended from aliens or something?"
Derek just takes a deep breath, before shaking his head and taking a step back. "Actually, you know, what, I'm out."
"But Derek - "
"Nope!"
He grabs his bag and leaves the room, only managing to pick up the tail end of the conversation as he leaves.
"That ... was so weird."
"Barry ... now's really not the time."