001 - A Bad Day For Everyone

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Misaki Kirihara appears on the plane looking very, very pissed. Her Sig P230 is unholstered and leveled at…

…no one.]

Tch.

[She lowers the weapon, very slightly, taking in her surroundings. Or rather, the lack thereof.]

Contractor!

[She turns in a slow circle, tension wrapped around her like a creaking spring.]

Contractor! Show yourself. You’re being stupid. Using your power on a member of the NPA will get you killed. It isn’t worth the laugh.

[A pause. She’s starting to get angry again.]

Show yourself!

[She looks up, down, around at the stars, and a pained expression crosses her face. Barely audible, she mutters,]

You people… know how to be cruel.

Comments

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Which would you rather--being both in a coma and given a chance to live, if only in a dream, or being locked in the dark until you either wake up or die?

[She looks out at the jumbled-up stars.]

I've heard that people can hear the voices of their loved ones, in situations like yours.

[didorothy]

Which would you rather have, Section Chief Kirihara? Would you rather be helpless in the dark, or would you like to risk caring for something that might not even be real?

[follows her gaze, expression blank]

Maybe they do, when loved ones visit. I'd think they're more likely to hear doctors and nurses.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Tired smile] Caring for something and risking yourself is better than waiting in fear that you'll discover the unpleasant. Do the people here matter to you? Regardless of how it feels to be here, doesn't it seem even more unreal than a past year on your own world? Every brush with another is a risk. Sam-san.

[She rubs one eye.] That makes sense, I suppose. I wonder if the world you're in might fracture, every once in a while, to let that sort of thing in.

[didorothy]

[a pause, and then he sighs] Televisions, telephones, and radios. I hear and see them through that. Sometimes it's directly into my head, but generally it comes through some sort of technology. [a slight grimace] When they O.D.'d me, there was a crossing guard sign, a milk lorry, and some paperwork that decided to update me on my condition. But that was the day I woke up to Gene Hunt as a puppet, kicking in a puppet nonce, so it's definitely not the 'norm' of the situation.

Or maybe I'm just mad.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[A touch of surprise.] I see. [She frowns, thoughtful.] If our worlds had more in common I might have something to offer--as it is, all I can say is I don't think you're mad.

[Tired and sardonic go into a blender and come out with her tone of voice.] Unless this is some sort of Jungian hysteria.

[didorothy]

Never was a fan of Jung. I'd have more to level against him if it was.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Small smile] Me neither, actually.

[A thought] How did you join the Manchester police in 1973? Do they not do background checks when you take the officer examinations?

[didorothy]

One of the things I woke up was this. [holds up the badge] Apparently, I'm a transfer from C Division in Hyde, by my own request. [frowns] Demoted to DI. I don't like the implications of that.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

I would imagine not. [Ponder.] Do you not have access to the record of your service?

[didorothy]

[shakes head] There's not a lot on me here, just the transfer papers. C Division might have it, but I've never gone down to Hyde. Thought about it a few times, but I was always too busy. Which could be my mind trying to keep me from going there.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Dark thought.] Or the influence of the Twins.

[didorothy]

No. Lapis and Lazuli don't have anything to do with it. What happened to me, that's something else. A distinct case.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Dry look.] Have you noticed that the lives of everyone here are profoundly weird?

[didorothy]

Have you noticed that most of them think their odd lives are normal? Fumie doesn't think her glasses are weird. The Doctor doesn't find time travel strange. My coma and your Gate... We're in the minority here with having our version of 'normal' suddenly changed. Pretty much all the others accept their odd words as normal. Or do you think Lapis and Lazuli are behind the Gates in your world?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She shakes her head.] Point taken.

Do you find it reassuring, then? That everything here is so odd? It must make your situation seem a little less... [She can't quite find the word.] Impossible isn't right. Unsalvageable?

[Looks down] At this point I can't imagine the Gate disappearing--not malfunctioning, but disappearing. I... frankly, don't know what I'd do if that were to happen. I don't know how the world could be afterwards.

[didorothy]

Aside from the usefulness of being able to go to professional time travellers for advice on meddling... I don't know. People here've given me perspectives I couldn't get before.

Do you think it would be a better world?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Nods thoughtfully.]

I'm not sure. [Loooooong pause.] I don't know how the Gate's disappearance would effect some of those I count among my friends. I don't really want to find out.

[didorothy]

Li mentioned the Gate moving in his world...

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She shivers.] I don't know that I would be able to tell if it did. I can only hope that it won't.

[didorothy]

Li said that he was the only one who could tell, of all the people who should've been able to.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Really? [Long, brooding silence.] That must have been frightening for him. He didn't react well, I take it.

[didorothy]

I didn't see his... initial response to it. But he didn't seem happy when it came up.