four; voice + text

[boughtabookstore]

[ HELLO NETWORK Roslyn has a gift for you. that is, she is using something other than text over the network and it isn't encrypted. WHOA.

she also sounds pretty harried! what's up with that. ]

I have news.

The time equipment can't be reached. Security is too heavy even with these problems.

They knew this was coming. It's time inconsistencies, the result of our mission. Sometimes the smallest thing changes and it causes others - the butterfly effect, it's been called before. They didn't think it would be this fast, or this bad -

[ a pause, a quick intake of air. she's struggling to make sure she remembers and says everything. as she falls silent, a second voice speaks up. Tony Stark, for those who recognize his voice. ]

Their 'solution' for this problem of theirs: send us out to fix it. The ones who can be sent out, because they're not in danger of suddenly blinking out of existence due to her-mentioned butterfly effects. And that's also why all the new neighbours all the time – just to make sure there's enough people around to keep sending people out. Because the population, not growing. People coming in to replace the ones who have vanished.

[ another pause, this time filled with the noise of a hand over the mic, movement nearby and the murmur of muffled voices. then the hand lifts and she speaks again. ]

Bariyan. John. The children.

If there's a mission -

[ she lets that hang in the air and shuts off the connection.

not long afterwards, a few encrypted messages go out from Roslyn! ]

voice; encrypted to Robin Hood;

Are you all right?

voice; encrypted to Bariyan;

I asked some questions.

voice; encrypted to John;

I've heard the clinic is having some troubles. How are you doing?

voice; encrypted to Riku;

I haven't heard from you recently. Is everything all right?

Comments

[boughtabookstore]

[ She leans back against the door, biting her lip, and then sighs and runs a hand through her hair. ]

It was just supposed to be reconnaissance. Get someone who might know what he's dealing with in to look at the equipment.

And then - this -

[ she breaks off. She hates that look on Bariyan's face. She hates having had some part in putting it there. When she speaks again, her voice is the sort of steady that comes only through total control. ]

Yes. It's done.

[stonefaith]

And now the children. [ It's probably a good thing that Bariyan hasn't yet started drinking today. Sounds like he's not going to be drinking for a while....

He starts to pace, running his hands through his hair as he thinks. ]

I keep trying to send them out of the city but it's no good. We always bring them back. And that's not even an option, this time. So what now? Where can they go? We can't just leave them in the Hold, either, I'm afraid of the civilians out there....

[ He winces, stopping to look down at himself. Fingers that had been broken just four days prior, arms that had been scored with new cuts. ]

[boughtabookstore]

Yes.

[ Roslyn would frankly like to be drinking right now, but that apparently is not an option as much as she'd like it to be. Not if work is necessary, and clearly it will be. ]

Robin's been working on a safehouse. I'm not sure how far it's progressed since I last saw it, but even half finished it should be enough to give some sort of temporary shelter.

After this mission we'll need to start thinking of something more long term.

[stonefaith]

Long term. [ Bariyan grimaces. Is that what it's come to? Long term? He'd promised someone here that he'd send them home. It's been five months since and he's no closer than he was at the start.

Long term. Is that what they've all resigned themselves to, now? He shudders. ]

Maybe we should have been thinking long term right from the start.... [ Bariyan shakes his head, and pulls himself together. ] Never mind. The safehouse. Where is it?

[boughtabookstore]

We couldn't have known enough to.

[ I'll be home soon, she'd said so confidently, back at the beginning. It was only now that the first creeping worries that she would never return home had begun to edge into her mind. Doubts and fears and everything she didn't want to acknowledge. ]

Down in the old subway stations. I can give you a map, if you'd like.

[stonefaith]

No. We couldn't have. [ Never in a thousand years would he have predicted this: dead, brought back to life, trapped in a completely different universe.... ]

I'll take a map. I haven't been underground yet.

[boughtabookstore]

[ she pulls out a notebook and pencil from her bag and starts sketching, relaxing a little bit as she does so. ]

It's an interesting location, but I think good for our purposes.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan watches her as she draws, arms crossed. ] And who else knows about it, so far?

[boughtabookstore]

Myself. Anders. Robin. Nathaniel. Now you.

I believe that is all.