The mirror flood, or BookFort 2.0

[mrs_persson]

Who: Una Persson, O'Brien, and semi-open (see Notes).
What: In which Una tries to keep O'Brien safe, tries not to get killed, and probably tries to keep other people from getting killed.
Where: Una's cabin and elsewhere.
When: Throughout the mirrorverse flood.
Warnings: For Una and O'Brien's threads, much bitching. For the others, probable dark

Comments

Shortly after O'Brien is secured in Una's room.

[mrs_persson]

The walk back to her room felt like it went on for miles, but they made it. Once there, she made something of a show of shoving O'Brien inside before slamming the door behind her.

Gracelessly, she flopped down in the nearest chair and buried her head in her hands.

[mrs_persson]

She glared at him. "If you think spending the duration of this flood suffering the death toll-if we're lucky-is your idea of a good time, be my guest."

[mrs_persson]

The jibe deserved either to be completely ignored or met with a lot of shouting, so she stuck with "ignore".

"We wait it out," she said. "I'm going to try and make contact with anyone else who's unaffected by the flood, and this time we're going to try and keep our heads down and get everyone out alive."

[mrs_persson]

"I don't intend to round them all up in one place. We'll have to decentralise and cooperate and not make ourselves targets."

She stood up and paced a few steps. "Did you hear from anyone else before I came to get you? See or speak to anyone?"

[mrs_persson]

"You're here for special disciplinary treatment. I've decided to keep an eye on you closely in the meantime, and I'm not letting you wander around while I'm at it."

She was going through her desk as she spoke, noting the contents as she went. She found a decidedly all-too-familiar box and took it out, frowning.

"Looks like your old friend John Preston had a counterpart here as well."

[mrs_persson]

She opened the box and let out a low whistle. Not because there was a lot in there, but because there were slots for a solid dozen doses ... of which one was left.

"Looks like they've been getting some use out of it," she said flatly.

[mrs_persson]

"Looks like it. Of course, he probably doesn't see it them same way as you do." She closed the case and put it back in the desk drawer, which she then locked.

[mrs_persson]

"Of course. Proof that she can take away anything he cares about anytime she likes ... by taking away the capacity to care. It's nasty and I don't doubt that it's effective." She grimaced, opened another drawer and closed it quickly.