Klaine Advent 2018 Day 15: Orange

Dimension thirteen: Vacationers in Iceland

“Blaine Devon Anderson, you disgust me sometimes.”

Blaine opens his eyes and Wes is standing next to his bed. “… what?”

“What did we say about shoes on in bed? It’s a terrible idea,” Wes says, but he’s smiling. Blaine yawns and he looks around. It looks like he’s in some kind of cabin with the other Warblers. There are bunk beds everywhere. It’s a bed and breakfast, or at least it looks like that.

After all, Blaine is supposed to be on vacation in Iceland. He assumes this is Iceland.

“Also, you know Gilbert doesn’t like shoes on in the hut,” David says.

Gilbert. Why does the name so familiar?

“Anyway, get dressed,” Trent say and he throws a woollen sweater towards Blaine, “Time for breakfast and then it’s time to continue exploring Iceland!”

Luckily for Blaine, his friends are all blabbermouths. They talk non-stop, so it doesn’t take long for Blaine to piece the story together. They’ve all decided to go to Iceland for vacation to celebrate their friendship. Iceland was chosen for its scenery and also because telling people that you’ve visited Iceland doesn’t happen often.

Blaine has no idea where exactly they are located in Iceland, but the scenery is breath-taking. It makes him want to visit Iceland in his own dimension. Kurt must be here as well and Blaine hopes he enjoys the view as much as Blaine does.

They visit town and eat omnom chocolate flavoured with Lakkrís and sea salt, and harðfiskur. Blaine decides to keep some of the chocolate for later. Blaine doesn’t drink alcohol, but Nick and Jeff share some beers bought from Vínbúðin. Blaine’s having a lot of fun. A part of him wants to continue his search for Kurt, but he’s enjoying himself. He hasn’t hung out with his friends like this in a while. Sure, he’s seen them in these past dimensions, but in his dimension, The Warblers are all scattered around the world. They need to have a small reunion soon.

He also learns that his woollen sweater is called a Lopapeysas, which has its roots in Icelandic independence. It’s grey with an orange patterned ring around the neck opening, and it’s very comfortable.

He’s almost sad when the day ends, but it makes him more focused. He’s had his fun, now it’s time to look for a way out.

The Warblers all go back to the cabin and the other Warblers are all talking about new guests arriving. New guests will apparently stay in the sleeping room next to theirs, so they’re all joking about the possible loud snoring.

When they get back to the cottage, Blaine can finally see it up close. It’s called ‘Gilbert’s place’.

“Who is Gilbert?” Blaine asks before he can stop himself. Wes frowns.

“He owns the cottage, remember?” he answers.

Blaine laughs shyly. “Oh, of course.”

Blaine has heard the name before. In fact, he’s heard it several times. Blaine needs something to write in, so he rummages through his bag.

The Sinnoh Region Guide Book from the Pokémon dimension is still in his bag. The others are distracted, so they don’t notice Blaine taking it out of his bag. He flips to the last couple of pages. There are rooms for notes about the Sinnoh region, but Blaine has other notes. Luckily, he still has a pen from class in his bag.

He writes down all the dimensions he’s seen. It’s more difficult than Blaine expected, since there’ve been twelve dimensions before this one. The order is also difficult to remember. Blaine puzzles with the thirteen dimensions for a while, but he manages to make a list of all of them from memory.

Then, he starts writing down all the times Blaine’s heard the name Gilbert in these past few days.

Santana and Wes both mentioned a General Gilbert in the space dimension, the other Ilvermorny students confused Blaine by talking about Headmaster Gilbert, Wes died trying to get to Gilbert’s Safe Haven, Gilbert was his manager in the famous dimension, and so on.

Blaine is shocked to find out that there’s a mention of a Gilbert in almost every dimension.

In fact, there are only a couple of dimensions without the mention of a Gilbert, namely the artist dimension, the The Good Place dimension, and the royals dimension. But maybe Kurt’s heard of someone named Gilbert in those dimensions.

Blaine writes down what he knows of the remaining dimensions and he notices a pattern. Gilbert is never seen in the dimensions, only mentioned. The reason he gets mentioned is because he plays some role in their lives in those dimensions.

It’s not the book, it’s not Kurt, but it’s something.

There’s a lot of noise in the hallways. The new vacationers have arrived. In the beginning, Blaine doesn’t pay much attention to them, but then he hears something.

“Oh my God, we have to share our showers with the other guests?”

“Yes, Rachel, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you, since you booked this place!” Santana does not sound amused.

The New Directions are here.

Blaine jumps of his bed and he runs to the hallways, ignoring the questions from the other Warblers. He looks around and he sees numerous New Directions members, including Kurt.

When their eyes meet, Kurt’s entire face lights up.

More notably, Kurt holds up the book.

Since they don’t know each other in this dimension, or it has to look that way, Blaine watches Kurt check in with the others. Blaine goes back to his shared room and he waits for an hour. He spends that hour writing more about this Gilbert. He doesn’t have many details, but there must be something.

After an hour, Blaine takes the Sinnoh Region Guide Book with him and he tells the others that he’s going to walk around and in the hallway, he and Kurt pretend to accidentally bump into each other. They start talking, and to others it looks like they’ve just met, but that’s not the case.

There’s some sort of common room. They sit down and they talk. Kurt has the book with him.

“Oh, I see you’re wearing a Lopapeysas,” Kurt says. Typical Kurt. He knows Icelandic clothing.

“You’re not,” Blaine points out, “They’re very comfortable.”

Kurt shrugs. “We just landed today and we spent our first day in Iceland travelling to this place. During our trip, I found the book in a souvenir shop of all places. It needed my plane ticket. How about you?”

Blaine tells Kurt about what he’s seen and how much he’s liked Iceland. Kurt listens actively and he sometimes comments. Blaine loves talking about Iceland, but he has more pressing matters.

“Kurt, does the name Gilbert ring any bell?”

Kurt shakes his head. “No, why?”

Blaine opens the Sinnoh Region Guide Book to the last few pages and Kurt quickly reminisces about the Pokémon dimension. Blaine shows Kurt the list.

“The name has appeared in almost every dimension,” Blaine says and he points towards the superhero dimension, “For example, he was the mayor of New York. Or here, in the private detective dimension, he was the missing person.”

Kurt reads the list and he furrows his brow. “What does this mean?”

Blaine shakes his head. “I have no idea, but I am right, aren’t I? The name keeps popping up. I only can’t recall hearing the names in the artist dimension, the The Good Place dimension, or the royals dimension.”

“I can,” Kurt says.

Blaine takes out his pen.

“I had the art exhibition at Gilbert’s Art Studio, and Janet told me that someone named Gilbert was the architect of the neigbourhood, and Sebastian mentioned his royal advisor Gilbert.”

Blaine writes it all down and his mind is reeling. What does this mean?

“And now we’re both in a cabin owned by someone named Gilbert,” Blaine says. Thirteen dimensions and thirteen times the name Gilbert.

“I propose we continue our adventure as soon as possible,” Kurt says and he opens the book, “Iceland can wait. When we’re both rich and famous, we can visit Iceland in our own dimension, but now we should go on.”

“I agree,” Blaine says and he closes the Sinnoh Region Guide Book.

Kurt shows Blaine the page. Kurt’s ticket is already shown underneath the words ‘Vacationers in Iceland’. Blaine recognizes the other object. It’s his leftover omnon chocolate. Such a shame that the books needs it, because Blaine planned it on saving for later.

Blaine goes back to his room to retrieve the chocolate. He tells the others that he’s met a guy, and they all start to encourage him to feed this guy chocolate.

“Be sensual, Blaine!” David yells out.

Blaine rolls his eyes. “I am never telling you guys anything. You’re even making chocolate a sensual thing.”

The others laugh and Blaine leaves. He’s going to miss his friends.

Kurt and Blaine take the book outside, so that the others won’t see them disappear and Blaine puts the chocolate on the page. Well, he takes a last bite first, but then he puts it on the page.

And okay, he feeds a piece to Kurt, but it’s not like what David had in mind.

The remaining chocolate disappears into the page and it reappears as an image. Two new words appear in the next page: Carry On.

“Reminder: look for Gilbert.”

“I will.”

The words start to grow and it’s time to go.