event } was there somethin' that made you come back again?

[seeingyou]

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Missing passengers return to Navi, trauma recovery begins (or not).
WHERE: Anywhere on Navi.
WHEN: March 21 until the next event (date TBD)
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! And if you end up getting lovingly strangled by another passenger, please record it on the death page.

There’s no fanfare to signal the return of passengers who’ve been missing for the past few weeks, just a sudden influx of familiar faces, returned to their respective cabins like they never left. Anything that was on their person at the time when the shift occurred came along for the ride, so those bellbottoms from the magic closet? Yeah, you’re stuck with them now.

Another thing the returning passengers will be stuck with is their memories of their time in Xanadu. Add those to the memories of their time on Navi, before their “death,” which have all now been restored. Ain’t the multiverse a wacky little thing?

Have fun getting to know your new neighbors and reuniting with old friends! Oh, and watch out for goose droppings - the feathered menace’s reign of terror hasn’t entirely been cleaned up yet.

Comments

[imarealistnotacynic]

"You're obviously not." and it's not because I can tell "You're breathing heavy and staggering." and bleeding, and bleeding, "And you're shaking." And bleeding. He's trying to remain calm but his eyes are focused on her chest, on that stain over her heart, his features breaking.

There is something wrong with all of this and he moves forward, a hand out, "...Let me get you to a place where you can sit down and I can look you over."

IT would go better than with Simon surely. Surely, "It's fine. IT will be fine."

[11calls]

"I'm okay." Alex tries again, and she takes a deep breath in order to stop breathing so heavily. "I wasn't okay, but I am now." Looking down at her chest, Alex just touches her skin to reassure herself that it's still there and whole and that there's not been some sort of wound that she's overlooked--there isn't. It's not even tender, which bothers her more than it would have if she was in fact hurting because it seems like there should be something as at least a sign that she'd received a fatal wound even if she's better now.

But she knows Richard, and she knows that she's not going to be able to argue with him if she doesn't at least try and get some traction in the fight that they're going to have before they have it. Gesturing to the door to her cabin, she just starts to head in that direction. "I'm really fine now, Richard. I died on the planet I was on, but now that I'm back on Navi, I swear I'm okay."

[imarealistnotacynic]

She died?

His shock is hard to hide and a hand moves forward before his lips press together and he nods.

"Can I do anything for you? Please?"

[11calls]

“Hey,” Alex says quickly and with a little bit of a smile before she reaches out and takes his hand to reassure him that she’s actually here. “I’m okay really. No ghosts or such things as ghosts right?” Her voice is light and she considers for a moment because Alex can tell that he really does want to help so she just comes up with something easy. “I could use some coffee. That would probably help me a lot.”

[imarealistnotacynic]

Her touch is light and warm and he shakes off the shadows in his mind because yes of course. She is capable of reason. His shoulders unclench and this is firmer ground here.

"I have some cheap coffee. And fancy tea that we can brew in the galley if you'd like. Are you sure I can't convince you to try tea? It might calm you down."

A pause, "Though I bet I'd never convince you."

[11calls]

“There’s some good coffee in the kitchen. I stole some of it for my room actually. It’s space coffee—I’m going to be a complete and utter wreck when it comes to caffeine back home. You’re probably going to want to strangle me.” Alex gives him a grin because she doesn’t yet know that he’s going to disappear again before the show comes back.

“But you have definitely convinced me to have tea before. Actually took coffee away and replaced it with tea. We almost came to blows.” It’s clear that Alex is kidding with that—at least about the come to blows part anyway. Not about his messing with her coffee to blood system.

[imarealistnotacynic]

"You are delightfully stubborn." It bursts out and he presses his lips together. It's said tenderly before he gestures, "...Lead the way."

A hesitation, "You don't need some sort of-of course you don't." He shakes it off before smirking, "What happened?"

[11calls]

For a moment, Alex is very clearly taken back by the compliments. Honestly, she could barely remember the last time he'd complimented her. Was it all the way back at the beginning when he'd been trying to use her reputation to manipulate her? How long ago and far away that felt. At least for her. It takes her a moment to realize and remember that is from when Strand is: showing up on her home turf with a black tape in his hand like a peace offering.

(Nic had jokingly called it a bouquet of flowers. Alex had found it funny at the time. She doesn't anymore.)

"I'm pretty sure you've wanted to strangle me for my stubbornness more often than not so I should keep that in mind." Bad joke time from Alex? Oh yes of course it was. Because it couldn't not be. "I er..." It would be easier telling someone else what happened, because Alex knows that they would have believed her more readily than Richard Strand did. "I ran into some killer robots. Literally. One got me with it's stupid knife hands."

[imarealistnotacynic]

The words Knife hands and killer robots make him stare. Lips pressed together, he rubs his hands together. The thought of her hurt makes something in his chest hurt. He doesn't like people he cares about hurt - and does he care about Alex? IS that what he is feeling? Of course. They're colleagues.

Of course.

"You can be stubborn. And also hard headed but you didn't..." He waves it off as they move toward the kitchen, "Alex you claim you died. The blood was you dying. I felt that."

It slips out and he ignores it, "What did - how did you see?"

[11calls]

"I don't 'claim' I died." Alex offers a long sigh that she's trying to use to hide her annoyance about this. "I died. I died, Richard. My heart stopped beating, I couldn't breathe and I bleed out." It sounds matter-of-fact and Alex is relieved by that (even if she's surprised) considering well the fact that her life had just ended. Even if it hadn't been permanent.

Letting out a little sigh she just looked to him when he asked her what she saw. This is Richard Strand after all and she'd never thought that he'd believed that she'd seen anything. If she had seen anything, anyway. "I didn't see anything when I died until I woke up back aboard the ship. It was...I mean you heard me screaming. It was scary, and I feel like I'm forgetting something even though I have no idea what honestly." The frown on her face intensifies as she chews on her lower lip and twists her hands trying to put her finger on what exactly it had been that she'd lost. And no, she still has no idea.

"Damn, I hate that I can't remember something honestly."

[imarealistnotacynic]

"Yes I see." He frowns,"...Never the less you are here now. And I am...what can I do to make you feel comfortable."

Because that's how you respond to the news that someone has died.

"Whatever anyone may think I am capable of doing some things like that."

[11calls]

For a moment, Alex is simply relieved that he's going to agree and not argue with her about something that seems very provable by simply just asking Navi to confirm it about how she was before she'd been brought back on board. Even though she knows that it's probably not going to last (Strand has to Strand after all) it's nice to at least have the moment of peace right now, and him wanting to do what he can to make her more comfortable.

Unfortunately, that doesn't last very long because Alex knows him, and she knows that his reaction to that is something that means something happened (other than her dying) that she doesn't know about. So, she just frowns and stares at him for a moment. "What's going on?" Because of course something was and it was equitably probable that Alex was going to ask about whatever it was that had set him off in that way.

[imarealistnotacynic]

"Simon and I had...an altercation." He grimaces, "I tried to help heal him and apparently he took that as a threat."

He doesn't hesitate as they move to the kitchen before moving to brew her coffee remembering the feeling of his brain split apart. His hands shake as he moves to hand her the cup.

He stills them and just sits beside her.

"I'm glad you're back."

[11calls]

For a long moment, Alex pauses, her face a mask of confusion as he brews her coffee. It's an uncharacteristic silence, honestly, one that feels almost unnatural, but then again a brush with death (never mind actually being dead often causes someone to reflect on their situation; Alex is not really all that different on this one) even if what she's reflecting on is the fact that Simon is here. Knowing all too intimately where Strand's base point is on her timeline, she's well aware of the fact that he didn't know Simon. Honestly, Simon hadn't reached out to Strand or even talked to him other than that first meeting in Three Rivers. So Strand doesn't know how to handle him back where she's from, never mind having a basis for comparison when he's from two months before Dr. Barnes had reached out to the show for help.

(Even if they had been on a break then, because Strand has to Strand and he was upset over the absurdity of podcast Chopped. There's every possibility that if it wasn't for Simon, Strand might not have returned. Honestly Alex doesn't know if the world is better off for it or worse.)

"Simon Reese?" Even though Alex knows that there's only one Simon, she still needs to say it aloud. "That must have been difficult. Sometimes" (all the time) "Simon speaks in riddles and what not. But I'm glad I'm back too. I missed you when I was there. My fake soulmate was a demon, so that was fun?"

[imarealistnotacynic]

"Yes he does." Grateful for a seeming ally he offers her the coffee and sitting across from her, "He has been...difficult." Then the soulmate comment hits and he sputters briefly.

"You had a fake soulmate?"

This shouldn't bother him as much as it does. She is a woman who is entitled to her own life but the tension between the two of them has been real and raw and his head aches at the thought.

"...Was he the one that kills you?"

[11calls]

 For a moment Alex just frowns and the entire Simon being completely impossible thing is gone in the favor of answering his questions about Xanadu and what life was like for her in the month that she had lived through it. Wrapping her hands around the cup of coffee and savoring it’s familiar warmth, Alex stares into the oil slick sheen on the top of the cup as if it were tea leaves and she could somehow manage to tease out what Strand’s words and tones meant.

Alex had learned early on in their working relationship how jealous Richard could be (Tannis Braun and Sexy James Bond spring to mind immediately) and it’s something that he’s already shown here when she was talking about Jon. Alex finds herself speaking to him like she would have on the show after they’d fought: very carefully.

“Yeah. It was part of the set up to torment us. It’s very much the hell is other people thing. So of course I was paired with a demon, even if he wasn’t so bad honestly. And no he wasn’t the one who killed me: that was all robots.”