057 ☣ But now am found

[fridgetothefire]

[She feels brittle and stretched, like an old rubber band, achy and shocky. The world isn't quite steady. She blinks open tacky eyelids, sees blue sky instead of read cape, then closes them again, takes carefully counted breaths, tries to center herself in her body until the static clears. She sits up, and realizes dimly that the world really isn't steady. She's in a little motorboat on a charming neighborhood canal of some sort, rocking lightly with the shallow waves. The position of the sun suggests it's afternoon. She doesn't have a hangover but she still feels strange, unreal and full of echoes. Her back aches where she was laying on something - her communicator. Her breath whooshes out as memory rushes in, and she swallows several times, picks it up with hands that shake only slightly.]


[Public, video]

[Anya has messy hair and a drawn expression, carefully tamping down on hope and fear alike.]

...hello, this is Anya, can anyone hear this?



[Private to the Admiral, a little later]

Give me an expanded storage room off the maintenance office and I'll be able to stock up better.

Comments

[maced_eggs]

Hello, love. Were you gone? Been difficult keeping track of people 'round here.

[fridgetothefire]

Apparently I was.

[Slightly disgruntled, but it breaks into a watery smile.]

It's really good to see you back.

[fridgetothefire]

...I feel like a bean bag chair that got ripped open on the highway and scattered over a couple miles and smushed and run over, and then someone came and collected all the beans and poured them back in and stitched everything up.

Not, like, in a painful way. Just very. Jumbled.

[fridgetothefire]

I don't remember being gone.

[Which is kind of creepy, Zane!!!]

[fridgetothefire]

I - yes, I mean, I remember the ship and you and the other ship, but I was just in maintenance, and suddenly we could talk to everyone we lost and then -

- and then nothing.

Riddick says we won but I. I don't remember that.

[godsays]

It hasn't been normal here. [ He's not that surprised. ]

[fridgetothefire]

Oh, fantastic.

[Her sarcasm is less about Arthas himself than her irritation at being given a duty in absentia that she was totally unable to fulfill.]

Riddick let you off the ship, or someone else?

[She assumes he found someone to do it.]

[fridgetothefire]

Hey. Chromie.

Riddick says we lost people - do we know who all yet?

[fridgetothefire]

Yeah. I'm getting that.

[darknessb4me]

I let myself off the ship.

[strangehistorian]

There has been no official count, but Harvey Dent, Megamind, Derek Powers, and Jack... the one that goes by "Hood," that is, have not been heard from. Until now, we thought you were among them.

[maced_eggs]

It's good to see you too, my darling. I don't particularly care for your other half.

[punched_hitler]

Anyone ever tell you, you've got a really good knack for simile?

Anything I can help with? I make a pretty good cup of coffee. I'll even deliver it.

[godsays]

It's all right. Your door stayed - some people vanished. Megamind, Harvey, a few others. Their doors are gone.

Ben hasn't come back, but his door is still there.

[myresponsibility]

Just some nerd who might've missed having his buddy around.

[fridgetothefire]

I'm not sure I actually expressed it well at all.

[Because it feels really fucking weird, Steve.]

I'm going to grab some fancy future espresso, I think. But if you're not busy, Stephen and I could use some super-strength loading and unloading some supplies.

[fridgetothefire]

Hey, nerd. Are the walls still standing?

[This is not as rhetorical as she would like.]

[fridgetothefire]

[Oh dear.]

...she didn't go after you again, did she?

[fridgetothefire]

[She goes a little cold. She and the admiral had a deal, even if it was an implicit one. His door. Her door.]

Maybe he's in the city too.

[maced_eggs]

Nah. I stayed clear.

Oh, but I missed you. I missed this place. Even if I hate it some days, I missed the fuckin' barge.

[fridgetothefire]

Zoom in a little for me.

[fridgetothefire]

I hate it sometimes, too.

[A weird confession, painful and pinched, because it's home, it's the best home she's had in fifteen years. But it's a hard place, sometimes, even for someone who suits it as well as she does.]

It's okay to feel both. It's - crazy and extraordinary and. Well, you know.

I missed you too. The other Mason was awful.

[fridgetothefire]

No. No, I'm here.

[Somehow.]

A mix of wardens and inmates, stolen and not...

[No clear pattern, while isn't unusual, but still annoying.]

[maced_eggs]

He's not me. He doesn't deserve being here. Or maybe he does, I'm not sure how that works, really.

Can we never do that again?

[punched_hitler]

Well, I think I at least kind of get the idea.

[Hey, he's had his soul pulled out and shoved back in all in one afternoon, it's not the same but he's definitely felt pretty jumbled, recently, too.

He grins and shakes his head at the mention of future espresso, but,] Yeah? You got it. I'd be happy to give you a hand with the supplies.

[No, seriously. You have no idea how much he likes carrying stuff just because he can.]