[Journal Entry, Day 50]

[goldn_boy]

West? And anyone else who's listening. I'm not going in, all right? I don't know what a plaque with my name on it is supposed to mean, but I'm not doing it. You can trap us here, but I'm not making this place run for you

Comments

Private.

[thegooddrjones]

Something weird happened. I'm alright but...

Where are you?

Private.

[goldn_boy]

Weird? Weird how?

I'm in the house I was 'assigned' to, I guess is the word. Where are you?

Private.

[thegooddrjones]

Something happened with Ace. She attacked me and then she was just gone...

I'm sitting in the square.

Private.

[goldn_boy]

Attacked you? Are you all right?

I'm coming to you, okay?

[Action?]

Private.

[thegooddrjones]

I'm... I'm alright.

[Yes! Action!]

[Action!]

[goldn_boy]

[Jim didn't think Martha was all right, but it was so hard to tell just from the journal. And he'd worried, being unable to find her the day before. Splitting them up had only made him more anxious; he wanted everyone together, like a guard dog.

He strode purposefully towards the square, eyes searching her out as soon as he could. He felt a curious nervousness upon approaching her, like the flutter of tender attraction but tempered by his guilt at feeling that way when things were not at all all right.]

Martha?

[Action!]-stupid comments being down.

[thegooddrjones]

[Martha had been sitting on a bench in the square just staring at the building that Ace had blown up. The storefront had mended itself, and then a small amount of debris it was as if nothing had happened.

Her hand was pressed to her throat and held there. The bruises from Ace's hands were still there, she could tell by the tenderness when she touched them. There was a bruise on her face as well, and a drop of blood on the corner of her lip. When he called for her, she tore towards him and just tossed herself into his arms. ]

[goldn_boy]

[Jim held her tight, though not too tight having noticed the bruising and blood. His gut clenched at the thought of his not having been there for her, but he put that aside for now and bent his head to kiss the top of hers.]

Shh, it's going to be all right.

[He murmured these and other words softly, knowing the sound of his voice was more important than the content right now.]

What happened, Martha?

[thegooddrjones]

[Martha clung to him for just a moment, which was something that was uncharacteristic in and of itself. Normally Martha tried very hard not to be clingy, but today had shaken her a bit. Ace. She remembered how violent that version of her had been, and there was no doubt that if she hadn't vanished Ace would have consternated that on her. When she spoke, her voice was soft and a bit shaken still. Ace had been her friend, one of her best friends.]

Ace... She wasn't my friend Ace. There was this flood on the Barge where we were turned into mirror images of ourselves. That's the Ace who was here, not my Ace. In that mirrorverse? That Ace and that Martha were involved in a relationship. The purpose of that Barge had been to make good people evil. Her goal was to do that to me.

[She shuddered and held more tightly too him.]

[goldn_boy]

[Jim held her as long as she needed him to, his heart racing.]

She did this? She hurt you? Where is she?

[It dawned on him that Martha had said "was."]

What happened?

[thegooddrjones]

I don't know. She was on top of me, her hands wrapped around my throat... [Martha shuddered for a moment, and she took a deep breath, mostly to remind herself that she could, and that the grip around her neck was gone.]

I had been about to pass out when I smelt a vague burning smell, and then Ace was gone, she'd just disappeared as if she'd never been here. The bomb she'd thrown in the store where I was trying to hide was gone. Everything was back to normal but for the bruises.