(Untitled)

[dogbitesman]

The earthquake had been somewhat interesting; William had felt almost as if he was playing some sort of game where you had a list of things and ticked them off as they arrived. This particular list was of natural disasters

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[dishabille_mal]

Maladicta nearly collided with him, coming out of a stairwell, and reached out to catch his sleeve.

"I can't find her," she said.

[dogbitesman]

William just stared at her for a moment that stretched, his brain first rebelling, then setting up its own government to replace the overthrown oppressors, then slowly collapsing as power corrupted the formerly idealistic revolutionaries.

"...neither can I," he said, brow knotting. He looked both ways down the hallway. "People are missing," he added. "The number of people who seem to be missing keeps going up."

[dishabille_mal]

"Uh huh," she said, starting past him for the IPD office, "just like after the last natural disaster where people disappeared in droves and reappeared on the other side of the island. Guess where I'm heading."

[dogbitesman]

This time William caught her sleeve.

"...to the IPD office to gather a search party," William said. This was only partly a question.

[dishabille_mal]

"I'm not going to wait for them to assemble volunteers, William," she said, turning back to him, lifting her hand to rest it over his. "I can't take that long. I'll see who's coming with me and then I'm going. The quicker I get- we get out there, the better."

[dogbitesman]

"In a group," William said, giving her a hard look. "If you can't find enough people to go with you in the office, find some somewhere else. I'm not letting you go out there on your own."

[dishabille_mal]

She hesitated only minutely, before she leaned up and caught his mouth, reached up and caught the back of his neck as well, kissing him soundly.

"I promise," she said, pulling back and meeting his eyes. "I promise I won't go alone."

[dogbitesman]

"Thank you," he said, massaging his forehead with the tips of the fingers. "Having both of you out there would be bad enough without having both of you out there on your own." He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, then opened them.

[dishabille_mal]

"I'm sure she won't be alone for long. There's a lot of people out there," she said firmly, and squeezed his hand. She hadn't been alone long. It stood to reason neither would Sacharissa. She was convinced of this.

[dogbitesman]

"Right," William said. "Yes. And only a limited space for them. It stands to reason groups will form, just like last time. I hope she has her spring-gonne. No. No, actually, I hope she doesn't. It only has one shot, and one shot could be worse than none."

[dishabille_mal]

"You're right," she said, "especially if someone talks down to her." She offered a slightly wan smile and pressed her fingers against his cheek.

"I'm going to find her, all right?"

[dogbitesman]

"I don't think there's much risk of the dinosaurs talking down to her," William said. He felt vaguely ill; he knew what it was like over there all too well.

But there were more than two people over there. And search parties that knew where to look, how to look.

He sighed, and ran his fingers down the side of her face, following the line of her hair. "Right. Go. Get your search party together. I'm going to go find Duo."

[dishabille_mal]

Maladicta turned her face into his touch, lashes fluttering briefly. Then she quirked her eyebrows up slightly, looking back to him.

"Giant robot?" she asked.

[dogbitesman]

"Giant robot," William confirmed. "Hopefully enough people know about it to run towards the giant robot rather than away from it."

[dishabille_mal]

"Good plan," she said, then pulled his head down and kissed him again, hard, for an extended moment. "Okay," she murmured, "I'm going to- Vimes," she said with a small, decisive nod, taking a step back.