The Atlantic Ocean, Sunday Morning Fandom Time (NFB)
Eleanor
Grace had taken Eleanor's arm and murmured something soft and soothing, and so Eleanor's feet had moved. There was a sub to get to. They had to get out of Rapture. Everything else would wait.
I reject you.
She kept seeing that face. Grace was guiding her forward. Grace could watch the ground for the both of them.
Joker
When the airlock door opened, Lou was standing there patiently waiting for everyone, with her damp hair and brand-new dress.
Joker didn't leave his chair. "Welcome back! Everybody get on and strap yourselves in," he announced. "I have big long hugs for everyone, if you want them, because FUCK that was twisted, but first we are getting the shit out of here. 'Kay?"
He grimaced and looked apologetically at Lou. "Sorry. Don't use those words."
Barry
"Jesus fucking Christ! And you yell at me for swearing?" Barry's voice rang out from the sub's comm. "Welcome back guys. There's Oreos in the galley if Lou hasn't eaten them all."
Joker
"She tried," Joker added. "But she didn't manage it."
Eleanor
Grace still had Eleanor's elbow, was still guiding her forward, but Eleanor stopped for a long moment, searching for Joker's eyes. She hadn't even seen him since before -- before all of that. He'd been a voice in her ear, but he hadn't been real. She wanted -- she wanted him to push back from that chair and wrap his arms around her and promise her that it was all right, that he didn't suddenly not feel the way he'd claimed to feel a few hours (days??) ago, that he would hold her while she tried to process everything.
But he had the ship to pilot. Of course. He was a pilot. That was who he was. That was what came first.
She was being ridiculous. They had to get out of here. He was being practical. The sooner they were away from Rapture, the better.
"This way," she said, tearing her eyes away from his with some effort and leading Grace into the conference room. "I promised you introductions, didn't I?"
Joker
Joker watched her go, feeling bad that he couldn't be there for her. She was traumatized -- they ALL were -- and there was probably a lot she needed to talk about. Not now, though. Not while they were still docked, not while they were in range of splicers who could teleport, not while the lights of Rapture still filled the windows. "You sit tight," he added softly. "I'll come say hi soon."
Grace
Grace lead Eleanor onto the sub, then found them seats in some kind of meeting room. Eleanor still wasn't talking much, but that was all right. Aunt Gracie was going to sit right here and stay with her.
Children. Children coming all this way for an old woman. It was foolish as hell, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't touched.
Lou
Lou now had Oreos on her face, and a light smattering of Oreo dust on her unicorn's fur.
She had watched some fun movies while everyone was gone, but she was glad they were back. And maybe she'd really get to see sunlight soon. Everyone said so.
She climbed onto Big Sister's lap. Eleanor wasn't really her Big Sister but she'd called herself that. Maybe Lou got to call her that, too.
Eleanor
This had been a horrible, dreadful mistake, but right now -- leaning against Grace's shoulder, with a warm Lou on her lap -- it didn't feel like one. She pressed a kiss against the top of the girl's head.
"Aunt Gracie, this is Lou," she said. "Lou, Aunt Gracie. Lou's coming with us to the surface."
Grace
"It's very nice to meet you, Lou," Grace said, offering the girl a hand to shake. "And isn't that a pretty unicorn you have."
Lou
"I didn't name him yet," Lou said. "The fairy-girl made him for me."
He needed a properly fairy sort of name, after such an auspicious start to life.
Eleanor
"Her parents were in the Family," Eleanor said, hoping that she could sound conversational while still conveying to Grace the reality of the situation. That Lou's parents were either deranged cultists or dead, and it was hard to say which would be preferable.
Though, considering what they'd done to her, Eleanor knew which she'd rather.
And then, divine inspiration struck. How had she not seen it sooner?
"You know, Lou," Eleanor said, confidentially, "Aunt Gracie doesn't have anyone to stay with. I bet she'll get lonely."
Lou
"You don't?" Lou asked, turning her eyes to the woman sitting next to her. "I don't, either!"
This was something to be celebrated, that they had this in common. Obviously.
Grace
Grace was sure that her heart stopped. That beautiful little girl, staring up at her with eyes that seemed to be pleading ...
Her eyes found Eleanor's. "You don't mean it," she said, not wanting to believe just yet. The Lord could be mighty good, indeed, but this was beyond what she deserved.
Eleanor
"I have school to attend," Eleanor murmured, in a low voice that hopefully, Lou wouldn't pay much mind to. "I'm not even seventeen. I can't raise a child."
But Grace ... Grace had always longed for a child. She'd been sure, by the time she reached Rapture, that she would never have one.
Grace
Grace had a thousand objections on her tongue. For one, the girl didn't look a thing like her, and in St. Louis, no one would believe a colored woman had a white grandbaby. For another, how was she supposed to take care of herself, outside of Rapture, much less raise a little girl? And beyond that, she was too old, now. Surely the girl deserved someone better to be her new momma.
But if Eleanor was telling the truth, then her real momma was down at the bottom of the ocean, and may not have been much of one to start. Maybe what that little girl really needed was love.
Grace had plenty of that. Everything else, that was just details.
She reached over to smooth a lock of Lou's hair away from her forehead. "Bet we wouldn't be so lonely, if we stuck together," she suggested. "How 'bout it?"
Lou
Lou didn't really understand the significance of what had just happened, but she didn't need to. She was on her way to see sunshine. Real sunshine. Aunt Gracie said they were gonna be together, and she wouldn't be lonely any more.
She didn't have words to answer with. Instead, she threw her arms around the woman's neck, sealing it with a hug.
The unicorn was included in the hug, obviously. You couldn't have really good hugs without unicorns.
Raven
Raven found herself a spot to sprawl out and let her limbs go floppy. She was too tired to even pull on her old, practiced blonde form, but everyone here was now at least a little acquainted with her blue self, so she couldn't dredge up any worry.
They'd done it. They'd survived Rapture, had found Eleanor's friend and a new one, to boot. It was over.
"We won," she said, needing to hear the words out loud. She still wasn't entirely certain she believed it.
Joker
"More or less," Joker agreed. "There's a reason it's not called 'victory of the fittest'. ...That was sort of a joke, you know, with all the social Darwinism... Ah, fuck it. We're all still alive, and we did what we came to do. That's a win."
Raven
"I'm stealing that," Raven said. "I'm kinda hoping I never have another reason to use it, but I'm totally stealing that line."
Eleanor
"We're alive," Eleanor said softly. "That counts as a win."
Raven
"I'm sorry," Raven said. "That you had to grow up there. That I didn't realize how bad it really was."
Eleanor
"I'm ... glad that you didn't," Eleanor said. "I wish nobody had to know."
And then, because she had been meaning to ask earlier, "But you've known ... if not that. Something. Haven't you?" She was eyeing her big sister with some curiosity. "Pauper's Drop. You seemed to understand it."
Raven
Raven looked down at her lap. "I've known poverty, yeah," she said. "Before I met Charles, I was on my own for a long time. I lived in a few alleys like that in New York before I realized that I could make myself look like the people who lived in the rich houses."
Eleanor
"I'm sorry," Eleanor said, wishing there was a better phrase. "I never -- I never had to be alone, in Rapture. I can't imagine how you didn't go mad."
She bit her lip before asking, "Like them meaning, how they dressed?"
Raven
"Like them like I looked like Sofia," Raven said, smiling slightly. "No one tells you off for being in a house if you look like the person who owns it." She shrugged. "I didn't know how to be anything else, at the time. I don't remember ever having a family, before Charles. Alone was what I knew how to do."
Eleanor
Alone. Eleanor understood that plenty herself. Fandom was the first she'd even had friends.
But what Raven said about making herself look like Sofia ... something in that bothered her.
"You ... shouldn't have to," she said, slowly. "You shouldn't have to look like -- like what other people look like. Just because people don't --"
Raven
"I don't mind." It wasn't entirely true, but it was a lie she was very good at telling herself. "It can even be fun, sometimes. Sneaking around, fooling people. . . ."
Lou
Lou didn't mean to stare. She'd seen lots of people looking kinda weird and different before. But none of 'em had been blue.
Raven
Raven attempted a small smile at her in return. She felt a little bad, not trying to interact with the girl at all when all the others did it so easily, but she had no idea how to handle kids.
Weird, scary people trying to kill her, sure. She apparently could handle that just fine. But kids?
Jono
Once they were back on the sub, Jonothon grabbed his leather jacket from where he'd tossed it earlier and found himself a quiet corner to sit in, to process everything that had just happened back there. They'd seen horrors, but they'd done some good, and Grace was alive and well, and Lou looked happy and adorable and safe. The trip down had been absolutely worth it, if only for those reasons alone.
He was worried about Eleanor, though. And the other students as well, of course. They'd seen things that they'd be trying to scrub from their memories for a long, long time. But Eleanor, who had just had a madwoman impale herself on the end of her weapon, who had to re-trace ground that she'd been free of, worried him most of all.
He was running almost on empty as it stood, half propped up by a wall with his jacket wadded up in his lap and clutching tightly to an old green scrap of paper that was nearly see-through with wear. He'd worn himself entirely too thin in that last showdown, trying to turn the cultists away without killing them, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to gauge just how everybody was handling this, tired all-white eyes looking silently from one person to the next.
Lou
Sooner or later, they would hit upon Lou, who was watching everyone with curious eyes of her own.
"You're not really a Mr. Bubbles, are you?" she asked.
It was a fair question. She knew she only thought that because Big Sister had told her so ... but he was all tall and protective and he didn't talk except in your head.
Jono
Jono's gaze settled on Lou when she spoke, and he was a few moments trying to work out a reply. In the end, he decided that the best answer would be the truth. She'd been twisted into something inside-out and wrong. She needed some honesty now, didn't she?
//I'm not,// he replied, gently. //I'm a friend, but I'm not the same thing that they are. I'm sorry about that... I don't much care for lying.//
Omitting the occasional truth, perhaps. But outright lying was never really something he condoned.
Lou
Lou shrugged. "I don't mind," she said. "Big Sister was helping."
It was going to take some time to sort out what was real and what was fake, what she knew from what she'd imagined or been told. She might feel differently, then. For now, she'd been glad to have a protector when she needed one.
"How's come you gave me shoulder rides?" she asked.
Mr. Bubbles did that because he -- oh. Probably because he'd been made to think that he wanted to, not because he really wanted to. She still felt like she loved Mr. Bubbles, though. But that didn't explain why Mr. Not Bubbles had been willing to play along.
Jono
Jonothon tilted his head at her at that, remembering how she'd been on the Big Daddy's shoulders when he'd arrived. That was something that they'd probably both taken for granted.
//You wanted to be up there,// he explained, //and it was one of the safest places for you to be until we could get you back here, onto the submarine. I wanted to be able to keep you safe. I wanted you to feel you were safe.//
Lou
There was some sense to it, but Lou was still a little lost.
"Why?"
He wasn't a Mr. Bubbles. Why did it matter to him, if she felt safe?
Jono
Why?
Jono considered that, gave it proper thought, before he shrugged his shoulders, looking at her with gentle eyes.
//Because I wouldn't wish being alone and afraid and helpless on any good person,// he said, finally. //And you... I think you're a good person, Lou.//
Celia
Celia was numb as she boarded the sub, her brain still struggling to reconcile everything she'd experienced in the last -- good god, how long had they been down here, anyway?
She wordlessly, expressionlessly snagged a blanket and found a spot to curl up. There was no way she would be able to sleep, but she could at least be comfortable for the first time in however long.
The one thought that repeated itself consistently was that she wanted to go home. Home to Fandom, home to her bed, home to Ichabod and safety and warmth and comfort she didn't really deserve.
Lou
Lou wandered up to her fairy godmother, who had promised her ribbons in her pretty hair.
But her fairy godmother looked sad, like Big Sister did.
So instead Lou held out the unicorn. If the fairy girl needed to hug him, she could. The unicorn gave good hugs.
Celia
It took Celia a moment to register the unicorn, and Lou attached to it. But once she did, she couldn't help but offer a wan little smile and take the unicorn to hug him.
It was only right, once he'd been offered. She wasn't going to leave Lou hanging like that.
"I think we were going to do ribbons, weren't we?" she said, softly, after a moment spent hugging her little creation. She could still use her gifts for good -- she'd nearly killed a man, but she had helped this child, and she could continue to help her. That would -- nothing would make it better, but that might make it bearable. "Purple to match your dress?"
Lou
Lou nodded, solemnly. "But darker," she said. The dress was a lovely light purple. The ribbons should be more a royal purple, as accent pieces.
Ribbons were serious business.
And then, remembering her manners, she added, "Please."
Celia
"They'll look nicer against your hair that way, too," Celia agreed solemnly, handing back the unicorn. "From one brunette to another."
She was exhausted, but this would be easy. This would be easy, and maybe she could have some of those Oreos after, or something, and soon enough she'd get some sleep, and soon enough they'd be home, and --
And soon enough she'd seek out Ichabod, and hopefully be able to articulate how desperately, desperately glad she was that he hadn't come, and how stupid she felt about telling him not to, in light of how things had gone, and soon enough she'd be with the one person who made her feel safest and warmest of all.
Life, as she was rapidly realizing thanks to Rapture, was a precariously short and fragile thing. Some things needed to be said instead of relying on insinuation.
"Want me to make it curly, like mine?" she asked, turning her attention to Louise as she lightly pulled a ribbon together in her hands. "Or we could keep it very straight and shiny, like Big Sister's."
Lou
"Curly," Lou decided. "Big, pretty curls."
It was amazing how the fairy-girl made things out of thin air. She was going to be the prettiest Lou ever.
Joker
Ten or fifteen minutes after the lights of Rapture disappeared in the gloom behind them, Joker headed back to see people. And by "see", he meant... Well, "see". There was a little waving, but not much actual talking. And by "people", he mostly meant Eleanor.
He sat down next to her quietly. "So... Are you...? Uh. Do you want to talk?"
Eleanor
There were at least seventy-five answers to that, and none of them were any good. She couldn't wrap words around the odd turmoil in her stomach. Did she need to?
Talk? No. No, she didn't want to talk. Please, could she not talk? She shook her head vigorously. Except -- that might give him the wrong idea. She didn't mean that he should go away, either.
Her hand crept over -- nervously, cautiously -- and her fingers found his. Her hand slipped into his and maybe they could just sit, like this, and not talk. Would that be okay?
Joker
That was more than okay. Joker squeezed her hand reassuringly, and held it close.
If she wanted to lean in for a hug, or rest her head on his shoulder, or maybe even talk, he was there. For... well, not for as long as she needed, not while there was a sub to pilot, but he could give her a good ten minutes right now.
Eleanor
His hand was warm, and he was alive. She wasn't an ephemeral ghost; she was a human being, alive and real.
She leaned over, gently, to rest her head on his shoulder. If only these ten minutes could last forever.
Joker
Joker squeezed her hand again, and reached up stroke her hair. There'd be time for talking later.
Anders
Anders was still jittery with nerves as he boarded the sub. This was all too much for him, and they'd done what they came there to do but was it enough, they couldn't rescue everyone in Rapture, and what was going to happen to Louise, and --
He drew a deep breath and put his fists in his pocket, still standing just inside the doorway. "Does anyone need healing?" he asked. "Does anyone want healing? I've still got a lot of potions. Might be fun to drink a few and see if the sub starts spinning."
Joker
"Save 'em," Joker told him. "You never know when you'll need 'em again. We're out. We're safe. Now, you get to rest."
Anders
"I will when I remember how to," Anders said, but closed his satchel nonetheless and flopped down on the floor with his back against the sub wall. Joker was right: Potions shouldn't be wasted. "I'm still wound up from the fights. It feels like everything is -- jangling."
Joker
"Yeah, I got no idea how to deal with that. We're all just gonna need some sort of wind down."
Anders
"Yes," Anders said simply, nodding in agreement. He'd calm down,but it would take time; that was all.
A question occurred to him. "Do you know what day it is? I lost track."
Joker
"The clock says we're on into Sunday, now," Joker answered. "I can't tell if that's too long or too short. It feels like only a few hours, and it feels like months."
Anders
"It's like dream time," Anders agreed. "You can't really say how long it was, ever. But" -- he stretched -- "It's good to know it was only two days for the rest of the world."
Lou
"I can spin," Lou volunteered. It probably wasn't what he'd meant, but she'd been dying to show off how her pretty skirt twirled around when she did.
So Anders was now getting a demonstration.
Anders
Anders grinned at her. He hadn't spent much time around children since he was one himself, but he liked them if Louise was anything to go by. And either way, watching a little girl spin was a welcome mental break from contemplating Rapture's ultimate fate.
"You can," he said, nodding. "And you look lovely doing it. Do you want to be a dancer someday?"
Lou
"I could be a dancer now," Louise volunteered, missing his point entirely. "Look!"
The uncoordinated flailing was not exactly dancing, but it was spirited enough, and there were plenty of twirls and spins.
Anders
"You could! That's very ..." Anders wasn't sure he could come up with the appropriate adjective. "Very energetic. I can't wait to see what you'll be able to do on the surface with more room."
Lou
Really, it was surprising she hadn't smashed clear into someone's knees.
"Is it nice up there?" she asked, her eyes growing serious. "I heard the sky goes on forever."
Anders
"It's bigger than you could imagine," Anders told her. "And the land's big too. You can walk in just about any direction you want for days and days."
Lou
"I hope I don't get lost," Lou said pragmatically.
Anders
"You won't. You'll be with Aunt Grace, remember?" Anders reassured her.
Whether she'd get lost in less literal ways -- that wasn't something he could be sure about. But Grace seemed like she might help there, too.
Joker
After talking to Eleanor, Joker stood up again. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and the smug flippancy slid back on like armor.
"Ladies and gentlemen," his voice rang out, "we are currently travelling at a depth of 25 meters. The almanac indicates that today will be clear in these waters, and we're going to surface in just a moment. If you'll all come with me to the bridge, you will get a good view of the most beautiful sight you'll see this weekend: the sun."
Lou
"Really?" Lou squealed, excitedly. She pushed off Grace's lap and ran out to the bridge, staring out at the water completely awestruck.
Sunlight. It was every bit as pretty as she'd hoped it would be.
Joker
"Later on, there'll be a sunset," Joker promised her. "And then stars."
Anders
"And a moon," Anders added quietly. He'd followed Lou to the bridge and was gazing up toward the surface, mostly because he needed to see sunlight too. "And rain and snow -- do they ever make it rain in Rapture?"
Celia
"More plants than you've ever seen, too," Celia added quietly, "because of the rain. Things grow all over, not just in Arcadia."
She looked around, frowning a little. "We'll need to make sure she gets some sunscreen," she murmured, glancing at Grace. "Sun might be an awful shock."
Barry
"Already on it," Barry's voice crackled over the comm. "I'll be bringing that and a fancy pair of sunglasses."
Eleanor
Eleanor had followed the rest out. The sun on her face felt like a revelation. Like waking up from a nightmare.
"It was an awful shock for me," she said, softly, managing a gentle smile.
The best kind of shock. The sky was still magical, every morning it stretched over her like a friendly canopy.
And now the sun was welcoming them back. All of them, alive, whole, and with two travelers to boot. Orpheus returning from the land of the dead, but with Eurydice restored. It was nothing short of a miracle.
(Rapture Post #9, also known as THE END! There will be already is! a post from Barry to welcome them back to the warehouse and take care of some loose ends, but that's going to be liveplay. Preplayed with the unfuckingbelievable fly_so_serious, notaweenie, tigerundercover, furnaceface, pasunereveuse and not_every_mage.
I don't have to warn for this one, except possibly a light mention of some of the mind control and medical experimentation from earlier. So let me use this space instead to say holy shit, I cannot convey in words how fucking incredible everyone in plot was. At every turn someone had an idea to make things even better. Everyone contributed, not just big plot moments, but these fascinating amazing subtle little character moments that blew me away. And from the OOC perspective? Nobody lurked, or flaked, or made me feel like I was herding cats; there was no fucking drama or blow-ups or whatever the hell, despite most of us having insanely stressful months for varying reasons. Plot was what saved me from my own stress-month Hell. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU GUYS a hundred times.
NFI, NFB, but OOC is love. And I'll stop spamming your flist now.)