realityshifted

[Menzies is back on the Plane as her regular self today. in fact, the younger Patricia disappeared about a week ago, but when the experiment ended, Menzies immediately went home, and she's been there since. she's been throwing herself into catching up with work. on top of that, she's rather disgruntled with the Plane at the moment--and the fact that the experiment started the second she came to the Plane one day hasn't exactly encouraged her to make another appearance]

[but today the Plane is perhaps the lesser of two evils. and more than that, it has a bar, which she's currently making good use of. she has a half-empty pint in front of her--as well as an ice pack and a small pile of papers. but those are unlikely to be the first things anyone from the Plane notices about her. because the reason she's sitting in the bar on the Plane is that she has a rather impressive black eye--blue and purple and swollen and clearly recently acquired. along with that, her lip is split. the sleeve of her shirt is torn at her right elbow, and a bandage is visible through it. her shirt and slacks are also rather rumpled and somewhat dirty. in general, she looks like she's had a bit of a nasty day--and her sour expression only reinforces that image. she picks up the ice pack, wincing as she holds it against her eye, and sighs in annoyance. with her other hand, she resumes filling out the top page of the papers, stopping every now and then to take a drink]

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[she waves a hand. he could have lied to her younger self about his job for all she cares; she understands why someone in his position would censor himself for a nine-year-old]

So what exactly are you fighting?

[and she valiantly resists the urge to make a joke about Americans]

Oh, one other thing. [his comment about that discussion with her younger self reminded her] When you saw my flat during that experiment, you didn't notice a framed photo, did you?

Basically? Survival of the human race. That's what we're training for, anyway. Others are on the front lines, and then there's us dealing with things that are going on at home and the nearby colonies.

[He's midway to picking up his drink when he stops.] Oh, yeah, I did. A picture of you and your mother, right?

[she raises an eyebrow, not liking the sound of that] Survival against what?

Yeah. Much as I appreciate you not blowing the mind of a nine-year-old, do you know where it got to? [because while he might have wanted to hide it from her, she can't see why he would have needed to run off with it]

Survival from an aggressive invasion of beings from other worlds. In my time, humanity has spread far across the stars, Patricia. People populate colony worlds light-years away from Earth, the home planet. I've never gotten out that far myself, and I expect I won't any time soon. Many of the outer colonies are gone.

[He takes a sip of his drink and after a moment, he chuckles lightly] You really haven't found it yet? Check on top of that shelf with all your DVDs.

In the war, you mean? [she frowns] This world of yours just sounds better and better.

[not everyone is as tall as you, North! she's actually rather surprised by that answer] No, apparently you've got a knack for hiding places. Cheers. [she sips from her drink, too, before putting it down so she can adjust her grip on the ice pack]

[He nods then looks away a for a moment but only with his eyes.] There are many brave soldiers out fighting on the front, but with so many worlds to keep track of, there's in-fighting as well. We're taking care of things on that end. But once you look past it all, it isn't too bad. At least I get to travel. [He gives her a small smile. The war and fighting is a normal thing for him. He's grown up with it around him.]

Not that so much as I had some height on you when you were a kid. I wouldn't have known how to make it easier for you if you found out that way.

Well, that's looking on the bright side. [she gives him a smirk back because she knows that sometimes that's all you can do--find the bright side and just keep doing what you're doing] So, you take care of the in-fighting. Space police it is.

[but she makes a face at that idea] Yeah, well, thankfully it's not something you're gonna 'ave to worry about.

[she really isn't sure what it would have been like if she had seen that photo. she remembers the mixture of excitement and fear that she'd felt at the idea of time travel. she wonders how excited she would have been to find out that her future self was a police officer. but then again, how hard would it have been to see her mother that much older? she'd rather not think too much about it]

Like I said, thanks for that.

[009]

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