(no subject)

[walkswithheroes]

When the last time you were stuck somewhere against your will maxed out at five years, a measly four months stuck in an alternate dimension is nothing. Especially not when there's a regular supply of money and a place to stay and someone Fred knows from home around. It's more than a few steps up from living in a cave.

Though, all of that doesn't mean that Darrow's stopped feeling like some weird place that Fred can't wait to figure out how to leave. Even without much success, she's kept up trying to figure Darrow out. Which is why she's holed up in a booth in a diner near Chelsea Cloisters, a small stack of books on the seat next to her while she flips through a book on magic that she's found in the back of one of Darrow's libraries.

There's a cup of coffee next to her that's gone cold, but every time she remembers to ask for a refill, Fred's distracted by something else in her book.

Just three more pages and she'll flag down a waitress.

Comments

[uncannyaim]

That thought causes her smile to fade a little and Andrea pauses to take another sip of her coffee. There are always risks, she knows that, especially with the weird things she's been through, but the thought of Spike not being here or not being able to stay bothers her deeply.

"But it got fixed," she says. "Somehow. So that's a good thing."

[walkswithheroes]

Fred nods. "Somehow, whatever's keeping us all here fixed it right up," she says, "Or maybe the properties of this dimension are different. Maybe vampires can't be non-corporeal here."

She doesn't know everyone in Darrow, but Fred hasn't come across any more vampires who can walk through walls yet.

[uncannyaim]

"It was the same on the island," she says thoughtfully, chewing on her lower lip a little as she considers it. "He was, I mean. Solid. We weren't close by any means, but I knew him enough to know he wasn't walking through walls."

She pauses, then asks, "Has he told you about the island?" Because saying it like that, in such an offhand way, is bound to confuse someone who doesn't know anything about it.

[walkswithheroes]

"Bits and pieces," Fred replies, and she really hasn't pressed the matter as much as she probably should. Especially considering that every time somebody mentions this island place, it seems like she should know more about it. It's strange, just like all the stuff with Officer Stackhouse strange.

Though with slightly fewer mysteriously appearing stomach butterflies.

"Maybe it's just a biproduct of dimensional travel?"

Being in Pylea had affected Angel in strange ways, so this could be somehow related.

[uncannyaim]

"If it is, I'll leave all that to you to figure out," Andrea says, smiling again. "I'm not exactly... experienced in figuring out dimensional travel or time looping or any of the things that happen here." She's good at exactly two things and being good at law isn't something she's sure she wants to go back to.

"Tell me where to point a gun, though, and I'm your girl," she adds.

[walkswithheroes]

"I wish it was that easy," Fred replies. In a lot of ways she really does miss the days when the best solution just involved plunging a stake in something, even if she's never been too good at that part of things.

[uncannyaim]

"Tell me about it," Andrea says. "The easiest part about living in a world full of zombies was the zombies." There was no moral quandary when it came to getting rid of them. Even Hershel had come around after seeing what had happened to his wife and children.

[walkswithheroes]

"You know, this is the first time I've thought that maybe we had it easy," Fred says, "Just when it comes to creatures. For the most part. The clean up part, at least."

Of course, there were the demons that Fred is convinced exist almost entirely to spew mucus all over everything, but with vampires all you really needed was a broom and dustpan when it came to clean up. Something tells her that it's not quite the same with zombies.

[uncannyaim]

"We buried our own. Burned the rest."

She hears Rick when she says it, hears his voice clear enough that she would think he was standing right there with them if she didn't know better. Sometimes it's like he's right beside her, reminding her of the things they went through together. Their rules, the way they lived. But she's glad he isn't here.

"It definitely wasn't easy," she says.