║ sixty-ninth stanza ║ voice

[mumbled_truth]

So... we're back. Um, Neil, and Justin, and me, that is-- and we're all okay. And it looks like everything is back the way it was, before all of this...

[He sounds a little uncertain, though. Cautious, and tired, certainly.]

We didn't go through immigration, though, we-- well, we just showed up here. Back. Does that mean... is it just over? Did everyone come back?

[It's not unlike the City, but he's still dubious.]

Comments

[lovelydragoon]

The same thing happened to me. I'm not sure if it's everyone, but it seems like it.

[mumbled_truth]

I guess... it might just be the deities wrapping things up.

[lovelydragoon]

That seems likely.

[mumbled_truth]

Yeah, they usually do. I just-- I sort of wish we knew what happened.

[lovelydragoon]

It would be nice, but I doubt we will.

[mumbled_truth]

Of course not. We never do.

Oh-- um, I'm Todd, by the way. Todd Anderson.

[lovelydragoon]

I'm Judith.

[mumbled_truth]

It's nice to meet you.

Have you been here long?

[lovelydragoon]

A few months. What about you?

[mumbled_truth]

Um... almost three years - it will be, in April.

[othersdie]

I don't know of anyone who's missing.

...Something must have made this happen. That's not the kind of thing that the deities do just to amuse themselves.

[mumbled_truth]

Yeah. It's-- well, with everything big like this that's happened, it's usually something or someone else and then the deities try to fix it. But if it's someone else doing it, usually they show themselves.

And I've never seen anything like this.

[othersdie]

I wonder if what needed fixed was the City itself. For the City to fracture like that... and then one half was sand and the other was glass, which isn't anything more than melted sand...

It seems important.

[And since Justin showered immediately upon arrival, he has nothing better to do than to torture this thought until it turns into something useful.]

[mumbled_truth]

It has to be important. But... everything's just back, now, like none of it happened.

[Clearly, he thinks it just being over is too good to be true.]

And we don't even know what happened or whether it can happen again.

[othersdie]

Everything might be back, but not knowing why it happened in the first place bothers me. Don't you think we should be worried about this?

[mumbled_truth]

I... think it's pretty clear that I am worried.

[othersdie]

You're always worried.

[Not to be harsh, but.]

Do you have any ideas?

[mumbled_truth]

Well--

[He shrugs. He sort of is always worried, he can't argue that.]

Not really. I mean... we don't even understand the City when it isn't fracturing.

[othersdie]

Mm.

[He looks contemplative. That's probably not a good thing.]

Has anyone ever tried getting information from the deities? As an exchange?

[mumbled_truth]

I don't know. I'm not sure if they do deals like that, but...

[He hesitates a moment, because he has made deals himself, even if the purpose was different...]

You need to be careful, with them.

[totallyinaband]

You just woke up in the City? Makes all that waiting in line and filling out forms feel a little pointless.

[mumbled_truth]

I guess so... but, well, you did probably get out sooner?

[Not that he wanted to.]

[totallyinaband]

Yeah, the few days of glass buildings was interesting.

[mumbled_truth]

It was. I, um-- I started out on the glass side. It actually was sort of pretty too look at.

[totallyinaband]

Pretty, but not big on the privacy.

[mumbled_truth]

No, not really. Though at least most of it wasn't totally clear.

[totallyinaband]

Still enough. I was tacking up a lot of sheets.

[mumbled_truth]

Yeah... I did, too. I'm not sure I really trusted it to not get more clear anyway.

[totallyinaband]

You never know with this place. It likes to embarrass us.

[mumbled_truth]

It really does. Though it didn't seem like the deities were even in control of that.

action.

[had_not_lived]

[Neil looks a little anxious, which has very little to do with concern over whether they're in the right place, and everything to do with the fact that it's not quite midnight yet.]

Tired?

action.

[mumbled_truth]

[He has to think about that a moment, which is a little surprising. Of course he's tired; they just got out of the desert. But he's not sure that he can go right to sleep anyway.]

A little, I guess?

action.

[had_not_lived]

[That is perfect for Neil's purposes. A sly little smile curves his lips.]

So let's go to bed.

action.

[mumbled_truth]

[My, that grin is forward. Todd can't help but laugh.]

Shouldn't we take a few showers?

[Because desert, Neil.]

action.

[had_not_lived]

[Forward enough that he'll blush when he remembers, but that doesn't mean he'll regret it.]

The shower will be there in the morning.

[Though he sounds a little doubtful, a shower sounds nice. He's standing just a little too close for it to be casual.]

Or...

[...They could always... well... cursed or not, some things he won't say out loud.]

action.

[mumbled_truth]

[Or... or? Or? That is a big implication hanging on the end of that meaningful pause, Neil. It's one that makes Todd blush furiously.]

Um-- or?

[The color in his cheeks deepens even as he frowns in thought, trying to figure out what's gotten into Neil. This seems a bit beyond the result of being in the safe zone, which seemed to have less privacy than its glass counterpart.]

action.

[had_not_lived]

[Being a bit too shy to outright suggest it doesn't mean he's not comfortable with the idea. Neil tilts his head just a bit, that slight smile back, as if to say why not?

Tentatively he reaches out for Todd's hand, twining their fingers briefly before letting go.]

action.

[mumbled_truth]

[Well then. Despite his intense new colorization - on top of the desert colorization, of course - Todd lets a nervous little grin pull at a corner of his mouth. Not that he necessarily objects, exactly, this is just... extremely unusual.

Along with it, he gives a small nod.]

action.

[had_not_lived]

[That's all the encouragement Neil needs to grab him by the hand again and pull him along.]