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

[with_my_teacup]

Anya.

[He sounds a little angry, but that's not what he's feeling-- it's painful but not bad.]

Been more than a week since I lost track of you and Ben.

[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.

[ Private ]

[bargemods]

Granted.

[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?

[ Private ]

[fridgetothefire]

Thank you.

When everything's packed and sorted, I'm going to need to go looking for Ben.

Unless you can tell me where he is.

[She doesn't expect it; she isn't even angry, not now. It's just the flat truth.]

[ Private ]

[bargemods]

You're a warden, Miss Lehnsherr. You can leave at will.

It isn't that simple.

[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.

[ Private ]

[fridgetothefire]

It's precisely that simple.

You can't or you won't; that's fine, you've got your own rules and restrictions to which we are not privy, I've more or less accepted that. Which it is ultimately makes no difference. But it does mean there are places I need to search myself, and it seemed - professional, to inform you.

Under the circumstances, will it be onerous for you to keep the timescale of my absence short, shipside? Or is that easy, temporally adrift as we are?

[ Private ]

[bargemods]

You can search, but he is not in those places. If he were, and he were willing to come back, he would already have returned.

I will need a better approximation than "short," but I believe I owe you at least that much.

[ Private ]

[fridgetothefire]

[A possibility: he is there, but somehow unwilling to return, subverted or hurt. She would conclude her business on the ship and stay with him, help him. A possibility: the admiral's perspective is incorrect. According to an economist, it is impossible to find money on the ground, because if such a thing happened, someone else would have picked it up already.]

Nevertheless. A few days, I think.

...you think you owe me.

[An echo, thoughtful contemplation, betraying neither surprise nor entitlement.]

Did it help at all, then? The construction.

[ Private ]

[bargemods]

From the perspective that you and I clearly share - that the favorable outcome was to overcome the other Barge and retrieve our passengers - it did.

[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.

[ Private ]

[fridgetothefire]

Good to know.

[It's not enough, it's nothing like enough, because she was supposed to get him back and she hasn't. But she checked his door, and there it is, and she is capable of waiting, so long as she also has plans.]

[dinosize]

Yeah.

[fridgetothefire]

Thank fuck.

Where are you now?

[strangehistorian]

Hello, Anya!

private

[darknessb4me]

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

[He won't interrupt this.]

[darknessb4me]

We're paired. Temporarily.

[yes, hello to you too arthas.]

[youwillgotohell]

Yes--

[Morgana fumbles her communicator in the desperation to say something. When the picture steadies again, she exhales a relieved breath.]

You remember, don't you?

[dinosize]

Amsterdam.

[godsays]

You came back.

[punched_hitler]

You bet we can.

And it's good to hear from you. Are you okay?