insectreflection: (5)
Tara Maclay ([personal profile] insectreflection) wrote in [community profile] bigapplesauce2015-03-31 05:28 am

Strong like an Amazon [OPEN]

"Your shirt," Tara says, her brow knitting in a worried frown. It's spattered with red.
 
The last thing she sees is Willow's horrified face, as she collapses and everything goes dark. She doesn't have time to consider what this means. It just seems to happen.
 
And then she's... elsewhere.
 
Everything is soft and warm, and she know Willow's all right. She must be grieving, she must be in pain, but she will be okay. She has her friends, and she's strong. She'll heal and prosper and be safe. So will the rest of her friends. It's all going to be okay.
 
She doesn't know how long she's there. It can't be too long, but time seems to have no meaning.
 
And then she's not. The sunlight is harsh and bright, and there's all this noise. Traffic.
 
A lot of traffic, all around her. She's... in the middle of a round-about? It takes several long minutes for her to take in her surroundings. Gigantic buildings, tourists, cars. The noise is deafening. She looks down at herself, her jeans and blue sweater... the dark red stain and hole in her sweater, just over her heart. She touches it, but the skin there is unharmed, whole.
 
How did she get here? Where is here? The questions are too many for her to order in her mind, and she's not sure exactly what's happening. She has to collect herself for a minute to stop from panicking.
 
And she seems to be stuck atop the base of a monument. The granite is warm against her back, and it's just a little too far down for her to feel comfortable jumping. Especially given how shaky she currently feels.
 
"E-excuse me," she calls out to a passer-by. "I'm sorry, c- could you help me?"
peacefulexplorer: in ancient fading lines (the saints dub us divine)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
It's really saying something that a woman spontaneously appearing on top of a statue isn't the most alarming thing Daniel's seen all week. At least he's almost come to expect it at this point as the Rift...does what it does, operating under whatever schedule it has, if that's even a thing. That's really the least of his concerns at the moment.

"Hey," he calls back, waving and darting to the monument's base. She seems okay from here, just startled and disoriented, pretty much the norm for someone who's just been torn from their universe and unceremoniously dumped into another. "You're gonna be okay, don't worry." Maybe they should start with the more immediate problem. The more immediate, much more explainable problem. "Just, uh - we're gonna get you down, all right?"
peacefulexplorer: (Wary | Surprise | Concern)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
It takes a little maneuvering to ease her down, but gradually they both manage it. She looks young, a little on the shakier side, and there's an unnerving dark stain on her chest that looks disturbingly like the sort of injury a bullet would leave behind. But she's obviously moving around unhindered, not in the great deal of pain a gunshot wound to the chest would be generating right around now, so Daniel's making the command decision to file that bullet point away for later. First things first.

"It's okay," he says again, moving back to give her the benefit of space and hovering one hand halfway between a reassurance and a wave of greeting. "This is, um. I know it's a lot to take in at, at first. You're, ah." Puzzlement ripples across his features briefly as he determines the best way to put it, then decides there really isn't any point. It'll hit just as hard either way. But there's no keeping the note of apology from his voice as he continues, softly, "you're in another universe."
peacefulexplorer: (Question | Huh? | Wary | Suspicious)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
"What?"

Okay, so that's going to have to be added to Daniel's mental FAQ - doubly so, considering he'd briefly wondered the same thing himself.

Suddenly the obvious, if oddly nonexistent, bullet wound makes a lot more sense. He grimaces.

"No," he says gently. "Just a normal - well, I wouldn't say normal. But, uh, pretty sure it's nothing like that. You came through a Rift. Space-time distortion, actually kind of frequent here."

He keeps his tone level, almost conversational, trying to stagger the information flow somewhat. It's the most he can do to make this transition less overwhelming or terrifying than it probably already is.
peacefulexplorer: (mercy's eyes are blue)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes." He offers a faint smile, as fleeting and fluttering as hers, pleased that the concept isn't wholly new to her. "Yes, exactly."

God, was she shot literally seconds before she came here? That might be an uncommon thing to have in common with a person, brushing against death, so he leaves that where it is. For now, anyway.

"Daniel." His second attempt is a sadder, if somewhat more successful, tug at one corner of his mouth. "I know it's, it's kind of a lot. You're on Earth," and hopefully that's a reassurance and not deeply unsettling that Earth would be included in the standard introductory fare, "and you're in Manhattan, New York. August, 2013."
peacefulexplorer: (and I am just a soul)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
"You've been -" The echo dies half-formed, Daniel's perplexed frown darkening and fading in the same instant.

The bullet hole did make it fairly obvious, and questions about the afterlife on top of it.

He slides down onto the steps next to her, expression tightening in sympathy.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs finally, fully aware of how useless it is as a consolation. "Your shirt, it's - well. I saw the injury. I wasn't sure you were aware of it."
peacefulexplorer: (Surprise | Concern | Horror | heartbreak)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
Oh god, and she remembers. Something in the pit of Daniel's stomach contorts, his expression deepening into one of concern. She must have been shot - from behind, probably, and completely unaware of it, and almost immediately after - oh god.

Some days he really, really loathes the Rift.

Daniel wishes he could promise some measure of safety here. His brow creases, shoulders dropping.

"You're okay now," he says softly. "And you are alive, I can tell you that. We haven't figured out any ways back but, uh." His smile grows wry, quietly self-deprecating in an attempt to lighten the weight of everything she's just said. "Well, I can also say you're not the only one who's, ah, died before coming here."
peacefulexplorer: (Thoughtful | Sitting | Sad)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Not on the way here," he clarifies hastily. "More like it was a recurring thing. Not really the best pattern to have, I know." He smiles faintly with a hopeful tilt to his glance, wondering if a lighter, decidedly nonchalant tone will make it a little easier to bear.

"I guess my point here would be," he swings back toward sympathy almost immediately, meets her gaze steadily, "that you're not alone."
peacefulexplorer: in ancient fading lines (the saints dub us divine)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Some of her tension and uncertainty fades a little, and Daniel takes that as a good sign. It's never an easy transition, and being dropped here after dying is certainly much, much worse.

"I do." He scrambles to pull it out, hesitates, then resigns himself to the explanation required there as well. "All the rifties - people like you and me, people who come through - we all have one. For contacting each other since we, ah, can't really leave the city. That's probably one of the first things we should get for you."

It's not a terrible leap to assume what Tara might want with a phone, and he's not about to deny that. He holds it out.
peacefulexplorer: (Thoughtful | Sitting | Sad)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 03:11 pm (UTC)(link)
He moves away to give her some distance as she tries number after number after doomed number, then accepts the phone wordlessly and pockets it again once she's done. He won't challenge the instinctive need to confirm what, exactly, has just happened to her.

"It'll be okay." He can only say it with relative confidence - explaining the Rift's less savory side effects isn't really going to be helpful in this situation, and it's hardly all that relevant currently - but reassurances feel all in all pretty necessary. "I mean, I, I know it's overwhelming. But a lot of people here have been displaced, taken from their homes, like us. We're still looking for a way to get it to send us back. I don't think we'll ever stop looking, honestly."

He burrows his hands loosely in his pockets, mirrors her smile with a small, melancholy shade of one.

"The good news is that there's housing, money and resources for however, um, however long you're here."
peacefulexplorer: (Skeptical | Reason | mild sass | srsly?)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Just, uh," he hastens to explain, latching onto the trailing end of her unspoken question. "There are a couple organizations and, and whatnot, who provide for people who come through. You can get money and resources from them if, if you like."

He nibbles his lower lip briefly, internally debating how much else he should say, then presses on.

"Fair warning, though." He doesn't want to scare her, not when she's already so clearly disoriented and recently adjusting, but he has a disproportionately large number of friends who have been too poorly treated by the factions to not say something about it. He can't help but feel it's his responsibility on some level, seeing as neither ROMAC or the Rebels are likely to be up front about it. "Not everyone gets involved with them. They, ah - don't always work to the individual's best interest? 'Disreputable' is, um, is a word I might use."
peacefulexplorer: (Question | Huh? | Wary | Suspicious)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, you can do what I did." He folds his arms, inclining his chin diplomatically. "Struck out on my own, squared away a place with the help of a few friends. 'Course, I did get lucky there." Exceptionally. He's been even luckier to land himself a job to hold onto it.

"There are more independent parties." One hand rubs under his jaw thoughtfully as he mentally constructs the least alarming way to put it. "Er - powerful sorts. We get a lot of, of different people coming through here. And not all of them are people, per se, or - well, not all of them are human, I should say."
peacefulexplorer: (and I am just a soul)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"Uh, well." Yeah, there's no sugarcoating this one. He scratches his nose, shoots a resigned look skyward, and dives right in. "Angels, for, for one. Vampires. Aliens. And, um. Well. The Devil."

No avoiding that one, either. And it's better she get a warning sooner rather than later, if only to avoid a repeat of Daniel's case.
peacefulexplorer: (mercy's eyes are blue)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
He gauges her reaction carefully, taking note of how quickly she adapts to the rather abnormal circumstances.

"Not what you'd expect, believe me." The smile he shoots in her direction is a startled, raised-eyebrow quirk of one side of his mouth. "Kind of - alarmingly average-looking. Bit taller than me, probably mid-forties, but he doesn't typically go, you know, out and about."

Just when he's dropping in on Daniel to chat about morality and Ascension. Daniel grimaces a little, hastily pressing that thought aside, because now is definitely not the time to be thinking about that. At all.

"You can probably tell," he assures her. "He sort of - carries himself a certain way." Though Daniel had been lucky enough to have some leftover sensory capabilities, honed enough to pick up on the fact that the man he and Iman were drinking with was not a man at all.

His smile eases a little, settles into something less confused. "Not all new for you?"
peacefulexplorer: (Confused | Seriously? | Wary)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, so at least she's prepared? His eyebrows shoot up a little at Hellmouth, which carries a meaning both unknown and relatively obvious.

"Don't think we have any of those here," he says in a tone of mock sincerity. "Hellmouths, that is. Or. Well. We might. Standby for that one."

Some of the drawn-up tension that's been building in the line of his shoulders since her arrival unravels, and he leans back a little more comfortably, bracing one hand behind him for support.

"You shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting, then," he says companionably, angling his head slightly. "The Rift likes to make things difficult occasionally, but I don't think it's ever gone down the route of hell-gods."
peacefulexplorer: (Thoughtful | Sitting | Sad)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
He glances at her smoothly, appraisingly, for a moment, then his eyes flick downward.

"No," he admits simply. There isn't any point in hiding it, especially when he doesn't fully understand it himself. He hasn't gotten any warning bells or quiet thrills from the infuriatingly silent senses locked in the hindmost part of his skull, but the fact that there's nothing about Tara he can detect is no less incomprehensible than if there had been. "Mostly, yes. But when you make a habit of dying reversibly, sometimes you come back a little changed."
peacefulexplorer: (mercy's eyes are blue)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Really." His mouth twitches in amusement. "Well with that track record, you're nothing if not prepared for the Rift." He considers for a minute, then shrugs. "Ex-demon's probably the only one of those I haven't been."

But she's adaptable, and that's a good sign. Daniel rolls his shoulders back in a quick, tensing stretch and looks up, shading his eyes against the sun.

"We should probably set you up with a phone, someplace to stay. You good to walk?"
peacefulexplorer: (Wary | Surprise | Concern)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
His eyes flick patiently to scan the anonymous spill of civilians flowing past, ensuring they don't have any suspiciously alert, potentially hostile ROMAC or Rebel personnel surveying them. When the cursory check reveals nothing, he turns back to Tara in time to see her hand falling away from a shirt both clean and whole. He blinks, puzzling it for a moment.

"Magic?" he mouths, curiosity and worry currently carrying the day in the heavy knit of his frown. Then, louder, he quickly adds, "I can set you up with one, no trouble," and tilts his head meaningfully.
peacefulexplorer: (Confused | Seriously? | Wary)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
He looks at her with rapt interest, already silently dissecting the mechanics of what happened. Excersio - Latin, obviously translating the meaning of repair to something very physical and applicable. Immediately the deduction spawns its own host of questions - are all spells Latin-based, what sort of energies are at work there, what sort of consequences would semantic alterations have down the road - but he clamps that thought down where it is, and simply nods.

"Best not to do it too visibly," he says, apology heavy in his voice. "Though, I dunno, I imagine a lot of people here are used to the weird and unexplainable. But the factions, erm, there are two of them: ROMAC, which is government-oriented and the Rebels who are...well, not - they generally keep an eye out for that sort of thing." His expression becomes slightly more strained. "Another reason I chose to fly under their collective radar."
peacefulexplorer: in ancient fading lines (the saints dub us divine)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not a bad policy." He's biased, naturally, but erring on the side of caution is a favored course of action when one is kept confined to the city itself. "Bit harder to get by, but there are ways to get around that." Having a friend who's a literal archangel helps, as does having a friend who was able to get a very good apartment deal. He's a little more worried about finding her good housing, but at the very least he can nudge her enough for a hotel until they can work out something better.

He makes short work of purchasing her a network-accessible phone.

"Rifties only," he explains, handing it to her. "Not sure how far along you were, er - eleven years ago? I was pulled from 2005, so it wasn't that much more advanced than what I was used to."
peacefulexplorer: (and I am just a soul)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah?" He'd have to confess he's never had to pay an undue amount of attention to Earth technology, and has only just begun to now. "Well, we're not too far apart. Time-wise, anyway." He's going to save the intergalactic archaeology discussion for later, so he simply indicates her phone with a dip of his head. "It's actually pretty user-friendly, just takes some getting used to."

He moves down the street at a meandering pace as he scrambles to put together his next order of business. Housing. Right.

"Housing's gonna be a little more difficult," he admits. "I've got a place I'll be moving into soon, but it took a while to scope out. In the meantime, hotels might be the safest bet if you wanna stay clear from the factions."
peacefulexplorer: (mercy's eyes are blue)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-03-31 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Tara fades into silence, and it doesn't take long to guess why.

"I'll cover it," he assures her gently. "Don't worry. Rifties, we - we kind of help each other out, especially if you're trying to stay away from the factions. The person who met me when I came through let me squat in her place until I could find someplace better. It's not a problem."
peacefulexplorer: (Thoughtful | Sitting | Sad)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-04-01 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
He lifts one shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. "It's all right. It's just - not really easy, getting transplanted to another universe, and it's good to start with a few resources." Daniel had been lucky enough to get a fair amount of guidance his first few days, despite the hiccups of getting off on the extremely wrong foot with Peter, then managing to piss off Satan - and in the same day, in less.

Thankfully, Tara doesn't strike him as someone who would do either of those things. She's been so unquestionably polite that he doubts Peter could form any misgivings about her, though given that it's Peter there's a high probability he'll just find reason to invent some.

He pulls out his own phone and texts the number of the phone he just bought.

"That's my number," he says. "In case you need anything. Even if it's just to talk."
peacefulexplorer: (mercy's eyes are blue)

[personal profile] peacefulexplorer 2015-04-02 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
His distant, evaluative scan of their surroundings relaxes into another smile. She still seems pretty shaken if utterly sincere, but hopefully he's doing a decent job of helping her adjust. It's never easy.

"You're welcome." He starts fiddling with his phone, pulling up a map of nearby hotels. "Now let's see if we can find you someplace to stay."