(Untitled)

[onlyforthedream]

Seventeen days after reliving those last few hours of the war, I feel the best that I have yet, the closest to myself, again. I just can't believe it took me so long to find something that hits back. It's the biggest resource we have, here- the ocean- and I couldn't see it. I kept looking inside and coming up against walls, but I couldn't beat

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[unbellegeste]

Marie hadn't exactly been making a big secret of looking. This island thing is all still bizarre, and she's still not entirely sure she's not dreaming. Actually, well-built blonds walking out of the water doesn't necessarily help with the dreaming diagnosis, though her subconscious isn't usually that nice to her.

But the point is--she's on the beach in cutoff shorts over her bikini, smoking and going over notes and thinking the environment here, at least, is nice--but since he's said hello, the least she can do is return it.

"Bonjour," she says, with an answering wave.

[onlyforthedream]

I don't recognize her, and seeing as how I've been making a point to try and recognize all the residents of Tabula Rasa that I can- even the mere prospect of being an elected official here makes this, in my mind, absolutely necessary- this means she must be a very recent arrival.

"You wouldn't happen to know the time, would you?" I ask as I lean down to pull my t-shirt up from the sand where I left it, and absently shake it out.

[unbellegeste]

"Sorry." She shakes her head, first glancing up at the sky, then holding up her arms so he can see she hasn't got a watch. "I'm not even sure of the continent. Maybe about three?"

[onlyforthedream]

"Thanks," I reply, and smile a little, nodding. I use the shirt to towel off my head for a few seconds then start to pull it on.

"The general consensus is 'a new one', albeit a very, very small one. When did you arrive?"

[kinesicist]

Batgirl reached the beach ten minutes quicker than previously, barely out of breath she dropped from the tree and rolled into a crouch. Ducking out of sight, she pulled her uniform off over her head and tucked it away into a bag. Touching her face, she frowned before pulling the mask and hiding that away too. Draping a towel over the uniform just in case, Batgirl moved out of the shadows and Cassandra moved into the light.

Looking up at the man approaching, Cassandra studied the way he moved; the hand moving across his face, through his hair, the way the water clung to his body, the power in his shoulders. Raising a hand in greeting, Cass slid the black jacket over her shoulders hiding the bullet wounds and knife marks that covered her body.

"Hi," Cass replied, indicating the water ahead with a free hand. She wanted to ask him to fight her, she wanted to ask him to spar but she couldn't. She was Cassandra now, not Batgirl. "Is it- no. Hmm, is the water good today?"

[onlyforthedream]

"It is," I tell her, offering the girl a slight smile. I can't help noting the jacket, odd for the weather.

"Warm near the land, a little cooler farther out."

[kinesicist]

"How long did it take you?" Cassandra asked, letting her face relax. The shy smile that Barbara had cultivated lingering on her lips as she watched him. The cool gaze of a leader evaluating a soldier rather than one of a curious school girl. "My friend said there are sharks, giant squid."

[onlyforthedream]

"I'm not sure how far I went out," I tell her, aware that her gaze is assessing, and far too mature for her face, "but I was gone several hours. No signs of sharks or giant squids, just a few dolphins, a few schools of fish."

[pylean_cow]

While there's a part of Fred who knows it's really, really rude to stare, she's got eyes, and when Steve Rogers emerges from the water, she doesn't realize that her eyes have drifted up from her book until he speaks.

"Hi! I was just--" Fred starts, quickly realizing that defending her innocence is likely a lost cause, "How's the water?"

[onlyforthedream]

"Good," I reply.

"Perfect, really. How's the book?" I ask, nodding to it as I stop a few feet from her, grateful to see my shirt and cargo pants roughly where I left them and not covered with sand.

[pylean_cow]

Fred frowns, turning the book, Universe or Multiverse? over in her hands. "Convoluted. And patently incorrect, for the most part. I think the bookshelf is being mean again."

Even as she says it, Fred is aware of how crazy the statement is. The bookshelf is simply subject to the same randomization of physical laws that the island is, localized to that specific area of the rec room. There's not any emotion involved.

[onlyforthedream]

"It can be... capricious," I agree, sitting in the sand, knees drawn up, and shaking out my t-shirt.

"I was looking for some anatomy books for artists, and it was..."

Not appropriate for a classroom.

"...Not as straightforward as I would have liked."

[teambatgirl]

She smiles at him. It's hard not to because, come on, he just rose up out of the water like something out of a movie. Those abs, that hair shake? It might as well have been in slow motion. Put him in a white bikini and he could be a Bond girl.

"How are the currents today?" She asks as she steps farther out with water bobbing up to her waist. In a one-piece today with her hair pulled up into a tight ponytail, she's all set for a long swim. She makes sure to look him in the eyes too, because Stephanie Brown is just a gentleman like that. "I think I might go out farther today instead of doing laps closer to shore."

[onlyforthedream]

"It gets rough," I tell her, glancing out at the horizon, before looking back to the young woman.

"About a mile out, the waves get bigger and it gets a little rough. But between the break line and there it's beautiful."

[teambatgirl]

"I think I can handle that," she says with a nod as she puts her hand out to skim over a wave. "I realize that if you get out far enough you'll get pulled back to shore, but I don't know, I'm still getting use to this whole ocean business."

She smiles at him. His face is familiar, he's one of Captain Barnes friends. On the periphery of the mess that was Bruce's arrival. Still, it wasn't his fault it was a shit show. "But I haven't gotten eaten by a shark or drawn out to sea yet, so far so good."

[onlyforthedream]

"I didn't quite hit that point," I tell her, but hearing it now, I think, I must have neared it.

"No sharks that I saw, but a few dolphins." They'd skimmed the water on either side of me and danced away.

"Hopefully it's a sign that things will stay fair for a while."

[ihadfaith]

It was hard enough coming to terms with her new home, from the variety of people - never an issue so much as an interesting surprise - to the size of the island and its history to learn. Peggy did well with acclimating herself to a new environment and learning bits and pieces of new cultures

[onlyforthedream]

I walk further up the sand, taking in her box-acquired clothing, the way the sand trails from her bare feet. Regardless of universe, this is the most relaxed I have ever seen Peggy Carter. I smile, reaching down to grab up my t-shirt where it remains, discarded hours ago, and absently shake it out with one hand.

"You look... comfortable," I tell her.

[ihadfaith]

"For the most part," Peggy admitted, something she wouldn't say aloud to anyone else if asked. Steve seemed to be the cause for the majority of times she felt off balance, even before she'd caught him after a swim. "I decided to try relaxing for once, today. It's harder than I thought."

[onlyforthedream]

"It can be. I went for a dip when the sun was..." I tilt my head back, then gesture to a point markedly lower in the east.

"Well, over there. At least the intention was there."