InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Let's live in the solution."

Ianto Jones (readystopwatch) wrote in marinanova,
@ 2013-07-04 10:41:00

Entry tags:

bro strider, dirk strider, ianto jones, jack harkness, kitty pryde (aoa), martha jones, penelope garcia, raven darkholme, rose, sam winchester, shining armor, spencer reid

Day 226 l Christmas Party Mingle
[Ianto has, predictably, gone a bit overboard for the Christmas party he and Jack are throwing. The entire apartment has been decorated; there's a tree with gold and silver ornaments and twinkling lights, garlands draped over doorways, candles in every window and festive nicknacks scattered about. It looks like something out of a magazine, and may make visitors a little afraid to actually touch anything. There's also a lot of mistletoe around (one of the side effects of living with Captain Jack Harkness) so it's probably a good idea to keep one eye on the ceiling at all times.

Of course he's made plenty of coffee and some appetizers, so he hopes people really do respond to the invitation Jack sent out, otherwise there are going to be a hell of a lot of leftovers.]

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	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 04:50 pm UTC (link)
	I know. I just...didn't think I'd be running into anyone else who started an apocalypse. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 04:55 pm UTC (link)
	[Martha nodded.] I can't decide if they think it's a massive joke or if they think it'll help us in our rehabilitation. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 05:00 pm UTC (link)
	[He's a bit slow to respond.] Do you think you need it? Rehabilitation I mean. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

notrosesshadow
2013-08-25 05:06 pm UTC (link)

[She's not sure how to answer that. Martha plays were her glass as she works through an answer.]

I don't know. I never really discussed what happened with other people before. It's not exactly something you bring up in normal conversation. And I knew all the right answers to say when the UNIT doctors asked me questions...

[She holds her head in her hands then.]

But they don't get it. They can't understand it. Not UNIT. Not my family. Not my friends. And besides. They needed me to be strong when it was over.

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tallerthanthou
2013-08-25 05:11 pm UTC (link)

[It's hard—impossible—not to think of Dean and his reaction to it all. As close as they were he couldn't understand how Sam was feeling and Sam didn't do much to make it easier. Keeping it inside. Staying strong. He knows that drill.

He puts down his now-empty glass and motions to the bartender bots for another round.]

It's hard enough to understand when it's happening to you. Someone else understanding... It's not something you expect.

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	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 05:16 pm UTC (link)
	Right. Because how many other people do you meet who are responsible for... for... [Martha can't quite bring herself to say the fact that so many people had died.] And in my world? When it was all over? Time reversed itself. Everyone forgot except those at the epicenter. As though that would somehow absolve me of everything. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 05:18 pm UTC (link)
	[Bring about the end of the world as they know it? Yeah, good sentence not to finish.] It was still in the beginning phases in my world. Lucifer still needed one more thing. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 05:20 pm UTC (link)
	And you need to make sure he doesn't get it? I hope you do stop him. I pretty much handed everything over to the Master. I thought I was being helpful. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 05:26 pm UTC (link)
	Actually... I think to stop him I have to give him exactly what he wants. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 05:30 pm UTC (link)
	Oh... [She doesn't know what to say to that. Instead, Martha slowly reaches across the table to grab his hand. There's not much else she can do. Up by the stage, the song has changed and the same person from before is now singing "O Holy Night" a quarter step flat.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 08:07 pm UTC (link)
	[He looks at her hand when they connect and then up at her. He doesn't try to push a smile, but his expression is a soft one.] It's just...complicated. [And he has a feeling she'll understand that.] I thought I was stopping it when I was starting it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Funny... we just finished watching an episode of Supernatural... notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	And instead, everything you did played right into the plot. [It's a statement rather than a question.] It's hard to stop a rolling boulder in motion. [Hers involved crazy time travel that she still didn't fully understand.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	hehe tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 08:17 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly. [His involved sleeping with a hot, manipulative demon chick and drinking blood. Um...maybe it best not to bring these points up.] This is...weird. [The understanding and connecting.] And trust me, coming from me that's saying a lot. [He actually smiles.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 08:36 pm UTC (link)
	A bit yeah. The weird part. [The bot comes by with their second two drinks and Martha drops his hand, feeling like she was getting caught in the hallways doing something she shouldn't.] Thank you... for not... running. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-25 08:41 pm UTC (link)
	[The touch was nice and any awkwardness he might have or should have felt over it was nowhere to be found until she pulls hers away.] There's nowhere to really run from this kind of thing. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-08-25 08:46 pm UTC (link)
	No? Maybe not among you and me. Others though... [She falls silent thinking about the last person she should have told.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tallerthanthou 2013-08-26 09:40 am UTC (link)
	It's not exactly something I bring up with people either. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

notrosesshadow
2013-08-26 10:12 am UTC (link)

[She takes a sip of her drink, slower this time, now that she's not learning that she and Sam share a similar background.]

No, it does seem a decent way to get carted off to the loony bin. And I can't exactly help other people from there.

Sometimes though... sometimes I wish I could. You know, just to explain why... why I am constantly hiding something. Why I wake up screaming.

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tallerthanthou
2013-08-27 11:48 pm UTC (link)

We could probably say a lot of things that would have us institutionalized. [Aliens. Time capers. Shakespeare encounters. Demons. Ghosts. Vampires. Underwater prisons. No shortage here.]

It's a lot to keep quiet. [A lot to hold inside. He doesn't wake up screaming...much. But nightmares? They are a regular companion. That was true even before the apocalypse. So, he gives her a sympathetic, understanding look.]

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	notrosesshadow 2013-08-28 12:03 am UTC (link)
	[Martha nods.] Quiet. Quiet and burdened with the weight of the world. I hope... I hope you do get home Sam. And I hope that you can stop yours before... before you experience... I just really hope you stop yours. No one should go through that. Ever. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tallerthanthou
2013-08-31 12:38 pm UTC (link)

[He shouldn't ask. He shouldn't ask because he needs to stop his before it goes full tilt and he doesn't need any more pressure bearing down on him about what happens if he fails. He shouldn't ask because it might be entirely different between their two worlds. He shouldn't ask because it obviously still weighs on her and she's already upset. So, in conclusion, he shouldn't ask.]

What was it like? [And yet...]

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notrosesshadow
2013-08-31 09:50 pm UTC (link)

[Well isn't that a big question. So much for drinking the second one slowly. Martha bottoms the glass before slamming it down on the table. She starts tracing the water rings made by the condensation of the glass as she starts talking. It's easier to focus on the table.]

Mine involved an alien. He managed to get himself elected Prime Minister. And within two minutes, he ordered his alien minions to kill 1/10th of the population. He kidnapped my family, my friends...

And I escaped. I escaped his capture... I escaped the slaughter... But I couldn't escape the screams. I walked. I walked around the world, watching as he killed more and more people. If he didn't kill them, he enslaved them. And the ones who helped me?...

I was captured in Japan. There was a... a different alien race. They got stuck on the planet when he took over. They captured all the people into work camps. I remember it so vividly. You had to work or you were shot. That much was clear. The guy next to me... he stopped working one day. I tried to get him back to it. Whispered to him. Tried working extra hard. And then there was blood everywhere and a gun to my head and...

[She bites her lip having a hard enough time talking about it and knowing it gets worse.]

I escaped Japan too. I forced the aliens to show themselves. The Drast. I knew he'd punish them. I thought it'd be with embargoes. Thing people can survive from if they're savvy. I didn't expect... didn't expect...

He destroyed Japan. Every man, woman, and child. I was on the last boat out...

[Martha's fingers have started tapping out a four beat rhythm. tap tap tap tap... tap tap tap tap.]

I shouldn't... it's been two years.

[But Martha had never had a chance to get over the Paradox Year. It was erased, and no one could possibly understand. Then there was Tom. And he was so wonderful and she was so happy. That's what has her probably the most upset. That she couldn't tell him. That's why Sam is getting all this information. She had been unable to tell her fiance, and her fiance was gone now. She had to tell someone. Had to get it out. But oh god did it hurt.]

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tallerthanthou
2013-09-23 11:48 pm UTC (link)

[When she starts there is a flare of argumentativeness that he swallows down. "It's not really the apocalypse if it involves aliens and not Satan." But it's only a flare and as he listens he can imagine all too well watching people being struck down all around him. He has a lifetime of watching people he couldn't save die to fuel his imagination after all.

Other questions come up like, "Why Japan?" but it isn't important. It's not the point. The point is a world out of control and more wrong than the wrong he's always known. And the point is she saw it—lived it—and now it's over and she just has to keep living.]

There aren't enough years or bottles of alcohol for that. [He looks at her even if looking at the bar top might be easier.]

I don't know how you come back from something like that, but I think if someone does it's you. [It may be a little more than he has a right to say. He knows her better than most people in this prison which is really just at testament to keeping too many hours in the library and having a hard time really letting people in, but it still doesn't mean he knows her that well. Still, he can see how strong she is even when she shows her less than strong side.

That, and a little encouragement can go a long way.]

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notrosesshadow
2013-09-23 11:59 pm UTC (link)

[Martha does finally look up at him. As much to see his reaction as to make sure he really did mean what he was saying.]

I don't know Sam. I can pretend everything's OK. Mostly. But in the end, it never happened. When we finally stopped it? Time reversed. The world was fine. The dead were alive. And no one knew. No one except those who were at the epicenter of it all.

My parents couldn't begin to deal with it. Or my sister. My brother had escaped. He doesn't understand what happened. And I have to be the strong one. Let them know that it'll all be OK. I can't have nightmares, or flashbacks.

[She finally realizes that her hand is still tapping out that damned rhythm. She stops it with her other hand, staring openly.] He still managed to leave his mark. Just a small bit of hypnosis left... keeping the fear just under the surface.

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tallerthanthou
2013-09-24 12:04 am UTC (link)

[He almost says she doesn't have to do that here, because they aren't here, but he pauses. There's something about telling someone their family is gone and completely inaccessible that doesn't exactly ring of comfort. Besides, sometimes being strong for someone else is the only way to push a person into being strong for themselves. He chooses to follow up on the last bit instead.]

The tapping? It's something he did to you? [The alien who took things over he assumes.]

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