Open post, multiple threads welcome!

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie was seated in the dining room, in front of her a plate piled high with vegetables and steak. Both things she'd seriously missed in the past year. Despite everything, she rather enjoyed eating her fill. Again, something she hadn't much of a chance to do since the invasion

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[thors_fav]

Jack wandered into the dining room looking for something to nibble on. It didn't have to be particularly nutritious, just edible. Something salty would be good. And crunchy. Huh. That sounded like pretzels to him, and where did one find junk food in this place?

He turned to go check in the bar when he caught sight of a girl sitting before a heaping plate of food. From the looks of her, she could use it. And probably a couple more plates just like it. He approached slowly as she shoveled in the food like she was starving.

"Well, I see someone likes her veggies."

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie nearly jumped when the man talked, strangers were still making her jump and she had to convince herself she wasn't a wanted guerrilla here. No-one was going to kill her. She hoped.

"I...uhhh...yeah." She forced herself to calm down, "haven't had much of a chance to eat them lately. I've missed them." She put her fork down with a longing look at the plate before her attention drifted to the man infront of her. "Ambe-" habit made her begin with her assumed name, "sorry, Ellie Linton." She offered her hand.

[thors_fav]

She was a twitchy one. And she'd obviously switched in the middle of telling him her name. From real name to fake or fake to real? And what was it with this hotel and its penchant for people with 'interesting' pasts?

"Jack O'Neill," he said, briefly shaking her hand. He took a seat across the table from her and waved his hand at her plate. "Please, don't let me interrupt. I'm just wandering around, being nosy."

[teenguerrilla]

"Nice to meet you." Ellie looked rather pleased that Jack didn't mind her eating whilst they talked, and shoveled a forkful of peas into her mouth, swallowing before she talked again. "Sorry, I'd only had one meal in days before I came here. And before then, what they called food we wouldn't have even used for compost back on the farm." She knew she should eat slower, but months of eating whatever she could find...or the animals she and Homer could kill...all this food was just too much for her.

[thors_fav]

"Slow down. You'll make yourself sick." Jack had some experience with forced starvation as a prisoner and he knew all that food could be too tempting, and too much to handle all of a sudden.

He also knew it wasn't just the physical craving for food, but a psychological fear of having it taken away as well.

"The food's not going anywhere," he assured her. "In fact, as far as I can tell it's here in large quantities twenty-four hours a day."

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie looked down at her plate. "I..." she'd all but craved adult direction, she was meant to be a teenager, still a child but the War had forced her to grow up. She nodded, and complied. "I don't know...I only come here when I'm hungry..."

[thors_fav]

"It's all right. I just don't want you to make yourself sick eating too fast," Jack said. He actually was capable of being quite gentle with kids, and this girl wasn't much more than a kid. "I take it you're pretty new here?"

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie nodded, "couple of days. Better than most places I've seen lately." At this stage in the War, she'd begun to even forget her parents faces let alone her life before the War and she hated that. "Not where I was planning on going."

[thors_fav]

"I don't think this is where any of us were planning on going," Jack said with a rueful grin. And if this was better than where she'd been.... Jack really didn't take kindly to people or governments that messed with kids.

"Now me, I was planning on going fishing," Jack said, trying to keep the conversation light and non-threatening. "Sadly, there appears to be a distinct lack of fish in this place."

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie, popped a piece of meat into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Once she'd swallowed, she spoke again, "I was heading to Simmon's Reef. Slowly...I thought I'd been fatally shot when I found myself here." The more she said that, the more absurd it sounded.

"No soldiers, it can't be too bad here."

[thors_fav]

"I'm a soldier. Colonel in the Air Force to be precise," Jack said, wary of her reaction to that news. He'd seen enough of war to know that children didn't escape the suffering because of their age. And sometimes they were forced to be an active part of it. Turned his stomach every single time.

"Where exactly are you from, Ellie?"

[teenguerrilla]

"Oh..." Ellie's gaze slowly returned to look at Jack. "I didn't mean...I meant the ones who invaded my country." She paused for a moment, "I know a colonel. colonel Finley, he's in charge of the Kiwi's war effort." Talking was good, that's what her therapist in New Zealand had said.

A small blink and a shrug, "Australia. Everyone here tells me there wasn't a War, that doesn't bring my friends back though." And Ellie desperately wished it did.

[thors_fav]

"No war on my Earth, so you must be from a different reality." It occurred to Jack that just because most of the people he'd met so far were aware of weird stuff like alternate universes, that didn't mean Ellie was. "I know it sounds crazy, but there really are multiple versions of Earth out there."

"You're right, though, it doesn't help your friends. Sorry about that."

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie's brow furrowed, "alternate universes?" Back home, before the war she hadn't been a big fan of science-fiction. "What do you mean?" She was completely and utterly confused...and a little scared too.

"Thank you."

[thors_fav]

Jack scrubbed a hand across his face. What a time to get caught without a science geek or two.

"I'm not good at explaining this kind of thing, but there's a whole bunch of different realities that all kind of run parallel to each other. Each one has its own version of Earth. Some of the Earths are very similar and some are very different." Jack shrugged; that was about the extent of his ability to explain.

"If it helps any, on my version of Earth you and your friends are probably living normal teenage lives."

[teenguerrilla]

Ellie stared at the man, a small part of her convinced he was a little mad. "Normal lives?" She'd almost forgotten what one of those was, "in the early days of the War we'd sit around and tell each other our plans for when it was over...then it became what we would have done if it wasn't happening..."