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

[fridgetothefire]

Mom.

[It pops out, reflexive and unprecedented at once, teary with relief and everything else she's been holding back while she tries not to let her mind whizz through the whole gamut of worst case possibilities. She claps her hand over her mouth a second later, then drops it, breaths in, shivery and small.]

I don't remember. Anything. I was - in the office, I think? And then. Here.

Which Ben, is he, what happened?

[with_my_teacup]

You're home, baby girl. This is home. Our barge.

The admiral rammed the other barge. That's when I lost track of you-- for twenty four hours, we were overlapping each other, crews mixed, everyone who'd been stuck on the wrong ship was missing. The barges were-- fighting. I think. For space, for existence...

We won. The mirror barge and everyone from it just ... laid down and died in the end. I remember that, but through the other guy's eyes. It's just us left now.

We won, but we lost power and we lost people. We've been in the dark the last week and we just touched port today. I'm out in town but I'm coming back right now for you.

[fridgetothefire]

I'm...out in town too.

[There's a swooping of view as she climbs gingerly out of the boat onto the little sidewalk/jetty area, then points it around the streetcanal where she is, walking towards a sign.]

The same town, hopefully. Is this Dutch?

[with_my_teacup]

Yeah, the local language is Dutch-- Earth, Europe, Amsterdam, early twenty-first century.

Flash me the skyline and that sign, I can figure out where you are.

[fridgetothefire]

Wunderbar.

[A little sarcastically - it's bizarrely mundane, after everything. It is the closest she's been to the place she grew up in almost two years. It's - strange.

She follows his instructions.]

I'm not hurt. I - okay, I do still have my kit.

[By which she means, knives, lockpicks, matches, and other sundry useful pocketables.]

No money, though, so it's unwardenly burglary for lunch unless you do.

[with_my_teacup]

I do-- admiral passed out our allowances before we disembarked.

Are you hungry-? You feeling all right?

[fridgetothefire]

A little - strange. Not bad, just. I don't have good words for it. But I've only been getting steadier.

[with_my_teacup]

Okay. You're north of me, by the way-- you head straight down that road you showed me away from the water and we'll meet in about twenty. Keep in contact in case I have to switch routes-?

[fridgetothefire]

Yeah. That's. That's probably best.

[Just in case, somehow. In case she slips through cracks in the universe again, in case they are in different Amsterdams, somehow, in case nothing, just so she can hear him breathing.]

[with_my_teacup]

[Riddick runs, when he has to, in the same grim un-winded lightly-sweating miles-on-end way that most humans jog. He's not at a sprint-- he's afraid he'll miss her in the city if he's too focused on speed--but he's moving fast enough to get a few puzzles looks. Attention is a small price to pay right now.

When he sees her--finally, just a flash of her face in a crowd but he knows it like some animals can pick out their young in a sea of other young.]

Anya, I'm on your three, standing under a striped overhang--barber shop, sign's in Dutch.

[fridgetothefire]

[And then she's there, throwing herself onto him for a hug, and she can't shake if she's holding on too tight to move.]

[with_my_teacup]

[He hugs her like he's trying to wrap his body around her, armor her up with his muscle and bone. He presses his cheek to hers, gets her scent, feels her breathe and her heart beating. He doesn't say any of it, how he was afraid he'd lost her where she couldn't be gotten back, that somehow she'd been consumed like the other barge, something -- that she was gone in a way that left no room for her to be brilliant, a schemer, a survivor .]

[fridgetothefire]

[She clings and clings, still disoriented, it seems impossible that everything happened and she missed it, impossible that they are still fractured, chasing the lost. She is still chasing the lost. She breathes, the not-quite human feline clean of him, lets the warmth press into her bones, until her calves start to ache where she's on tiptoe just a bit, and then a little longer than that.]

[with_my_teacup]

[He stands like that, unmoving and pretty much immobile, for long minutes.]

Okay.

Okay.

Let's get you something to eat. Fix up the blood sugar. I'll catch you up on the details.

[fridgetothefire]

[She - nuzzles him, one more time, the refuge of him, then settles side by side, leaning in a little, takes his hand. Tactically sub-optimal, maybe, but they both have easy knife draws with their free hands, and not getting separated is also a strategic concern. She doesn't want to let go.]

Thanks, mom.

[Deliberate, this time, and there's an edge which might let someone overhearing think she was being sarcastic, but only if they didn't know her at all, couldn't see the seriousness and gratitude in her eyes. She said once, long ago, that he made her feel that way, warm and small and home and safe, and it's still true, so she says it deliberately this time, settles in and tugs it around them both like a blanket.]

Sounds perfect.

[with_my_teacup]

My baby.

[She knows. But he murmurs the words, private, and touches his forehead to hers before she falls beside him. He squeezes her hand before the bad news-]

Ben's still missing. Strategy after food.

[fridgetothefire]

[A heavy breath. But he's got her tight, and she keeps walking. She's back. Food. Strategy.]

Alright. Alright.

private

[darknessb4me]

...I need to talk to you. Later.

[He won't interrupt this.]