She had never thought she’d leave the Underworld. Others had been reunited with their shades, she knew that but there had never been any indication that she’d be one of them. She’d seen the people who came and took Alice with them and then Julia had left as well. Did they know Marina? If they knew the other two, perhaps they did. It wasn’t like she could have asked them. Now she was here, this place they called Atlantis and Marina was here so she would see her again but what would that mean. It had taken her a good while to explain to them who she was and why she didn’t actually have a name but they had finally called Marina and she was sitting outside the building on a bench watching people come and go.
It was cold but she liked the sunshine and not being cooped up indoors. They didn’t get out much in the Underworld so this was nice. Just a few minutes later, she saw her walking toward the building. No doubt Marina was as shocked as she was about all of this but she stood up and waved, giving her a little smile. "Hi," she said. "I’m over here."
Marina had chain-smoked the entire way to Intake. A text saying someone was here to see her with no name, just a picture. She had researched Shades after her discussion with Julia. How they looked like 11-12 year old versions of you, how they were your innocence. This seemed eerily coincidental. Like Atlantis had such huge balls to pull this shit on her after everything else. Then… then that post on the network about being "Marina's Shade" like it was a big announcement. She couldn't tell if she was livid, in shock, or just fucking terrified.
When she saw the little girl outside of Intake, her breath caught in her throat. That little girl, or at least a much less happy-looking version of her, had hung in a scant few picture frames at her parents' house, though they were vastly outnumbered by their own certificates and degrees and a couple of family portraits (some of which she was missing from). She knew every inch of that face and every fiber of her being told her that she couldn't deny what was standing over there, waving at her. So she stalked over and tried a tight smile. Then a frown. Then back to the tight smile before crossing her arms over her abdomen. "I don't know what to say right now," she finally confessed.
"I know. I don’t either," she said as she looked at Marina. While some of the other Shades she knew had some memories of where they came from, she didn’t. Just the name but she could easily see that this woman was what she would look like if she were actually a person. Although she was in some ways, she could feel, she could see,she could do things but she was still more a part of Marina than an entity in her own right.
"It’s very pretty here. I’ve never seen snow," she said. "We can look out the windows but I think everyone sees what they want to see. I just see the sky. I’m not sure what that is." There was plenty about her life that she didn’t understand…...if you could call it a life….but at least here maybe she’d just a chance to have one for a little bit.
"I've always liked clouds," answered Marina, her voice barely above a whisper. She rallied, cleared her throat a bit and spoke a bit louder. "What do you mean, you can look out the windows? Do they keep Shades in some kind of office building?" There admittedly wasn't much about where Shades go when they're outside of their.. Host? Owner? Just mostly the effects of what someone is like without their Shade. And while she'd read plot synopses of their episodes (and even a few books that they were based on, where she didn't exist and therefore didn't much like), she hadn't actually watched them because that felt weird. Which means she hadn't 'seen' where the Shades were kept, just that Julia and Quentin had gone to collect Julia's and had returned with Alice's instead.
"Uhm. Do you eat?"
"We live in a really big house. It’s a mansion, really. It belongs to Miss Persephone but she’s gone most of the time. We’re in the Underworld. People who still have their shades are in other places, wherever they want to be, I’m told." She nodded at Marina’s question. "We do eat and we can do all the things anyone can do except we can do miracles too. That’s kind of our job, we do miracles for kids who are sick or who’ve lost their parents out in the real world. Sometimes people get to go back to where they came from, like Alice and Julia but not always." She didn’t mention that she hadn’t expected to ever see Marina. "I don’t think anyone really knows how they came to be separated. I don’t."
At the little girl's description of what Shades did in the Underworld, Marina stopped in her tracks. Shades helped sick and orphaned kids? Jesus, that was heart-rending. Or she knew it should be. She could tell it should be and she wanted to feel how amazing that was for kids. But she couldn't. It's like her mind was telling her how she should feel, but her body seemed less concerned. Was she some kind of emotional robot? Had she mistaken all of this for having to be cold and hard to survive as a top hedge? Still, even cold logic allowed her to wonder if it was the right thing for her Shade to be here, if she had such an important job.
She turned around and squatted in front of the little girl. "Okay, I need to stop thinking of you as 'the little girl.' And I can't call you Marina. I had a favorite doll when I was about your age. Do you remember her name?"
It came to her in an instant and she smiled. "Molly. She had red hair too. Like us." It still felt strange to be talking to the person she was part of. Or more correctly, the person she was supposed to be part of. "You can call me Molly. I like that name. It’s easier than people not knowing what to call me and just staring at me."
"The latter part might still happen," noted Marina, her head spinning that Molly remembered that, shattering any last hopes she had that this all might be some big practical joke on her that she could be spiteful for. So she firmed her lips into a thin smile and stood back up before turning around to head back to her (or their?) room. Out of some weird reflex, she reached out her hand so that Molly could hold it and walk with her. Later, she'd question what made her do that, but at the time it just seemed natural.
"Listen, if you're helping sick and lost kids, are you sure it's not better for you to stay there?" she asked, glancing down towards her smaller self. Because that sounded way too similar to what she did for hedges back in New York.
"No, we’re all supposed to stay where we belong. Sometimes it doesn’t happen though. I’m part of you and I’m supposed to be where you are." Molly didn’t understand it all but she knew that she felt incomplete and she wouldn’t be complete until she and Marina were in the same body again. "They say we’re the good parts of people, like the other half of you? It’s complicated."
"Yeah, you're definitely a better person than I am. Part of a person. Complicated is a good word for it. Let's get you settled at my place. There's extra rooms, so we don't need to make it weird," responded Marina, leading Molly back to her place. She'd need to figure out what this all meant and where to go from here. Research was going to be important, sure. She didn't know the first thing about reuniting with a Shade.
"But first let's let's find out what you eat. Pancakes sound good?"
"I like pancakes! Do they have chocolate chip ones?" Although they were technically part of the Underworld and might be considered spirits, Shades were corporeal and they needed to eat like anyone else. She looked up at Marina and squeezed her hand. "Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out."