A Quiet Place, Midweek | The Green, Butler Hall & Briefly Inside Fandral's Pink Noggin | SFW
Stevie finds Fandral's body and, wouldn't you know it, he's back up and at it again. You'd hardly know he was ever dead if it were for a slight case of being
completely pink.
⚠Character death, Vague SU spoilers
It wasn’t hard for Stevie to move around or protect herself in this world. Though she could not defeat the monsters, she could protect herself from being torn apart. The Death Angels were powerful but so was her ability to shield.
When Loki mentioned the dead behind the Old Gym, Stevie was resolved to try something. She’d mentioned some of her powers on the network; healing tears, minor shapeshifting, the ability to shield herself anothers in a pink bubble, empathic and psychic abilities.
It was only scratching the surface of her capabilities. The truth was even Stevie didn’t know everything. Her age was based more on her emotional state, she’d spent years in childhood when she should have been a teenager. She could make constructs from plants, even pebbles. She could project her dreams on television screens. It was a lot.
The Green made a lot of noise.
Solution: leap over The Old Gym in a single bound, and float down slowly, safely and quietly to the other side. Another power Stevie had not disclosed. It was as she sank slowly back toward the earth, not even landed yet, that she had to cover her mouth. The view of the bodies was more than her tender heart could take. Her tears ran freely, landing in droplets over Fandral’s face like rain.
By the time she landed next to Fandral’s body, it was already starting to wash over with a soft, pink glow.
At the very least, Loki had been kind enough (he’d probably roll his eyes at that) to move the bodies away from their location on The Green to a safer spot behind the gym with the claim that it was to get them out of the sight of everyone else in Butler Hall. If that was the truth, Fandral would never know. He’d been partly covered with a blanket, though, the upper part of his torso and head still exposed. It was something that seemed to have a bit of respect to it, at least.
What happened next for Fandral though was like waking from a dream. Or a nightmare, depending. There was no immediate memory of what had happened, and slowly his eyes fluttered open in a way that would give a Disney princess a run for their money. Probably.
He blinked a few times, a confusion settling on him as he looked over and saw the girl nearly hovering over him whose face was soaked with tears.
Instinct was to reach up and touch her, to comfort her, but as soon as he felt his hand brush against the fabric of the blanket his mind was distracted. He looked down and through the torn fabric of his shirt, though there were no longer any wounds, he could see his skin. That was when he opened his mouth to speak, his mind not quite caught up to everything else just yet.
When Stevie landed she put a hand over Fandral’s mouth to silence him and shook her head, the hand itself expanding slightly against his face to make sure his lips were completely covered. It was reflex more than anything. Now that they were out in the open, they were no longer safe from the monsters.
Stevie took a deep breath, and then the two of them were encased in a large, pink bubble. The same shade as Fandral’s skin. Anyone who walked by them would be forgiven for not noticing Fandral’s new complexion right away.
“The bubble is pretty soundproof but we should still whisper just in case,” Stevie said. It was hard to know for sure how soundproof the bubble was, and how much of her belief in it being soundproof was Onion pretending not to hear anything she’d said inside the bubble when she first discovered that power.
Stevie removed her hand.
“Are you okay? I know I should have asked first but so many people have died this week and everyone was getting really sad and I saw you and--” Stevie’s eyes welled up and the tears ran down her face all over again. Considering how useful they were, it was a good thing she was so sensitive. “--I knew I could do something and I just wanted you to be okay.”
She sniffed slightly, keeping her gaze away from Wynonna’s less complete body.
As soon as her hand was over his mouth, Fandral stopped himself and let her do what she needed to, protecting them via bubble. It was also the reminder that they should whisper that made the events of the past -- how long had it been? An hour? More? The memories caught up to him and suddenly he recalled just what had happened.
Except he was nowhere near where he’d been when the monster attacked him and--
Fandral’s eyes went wide and he scrambled to move the blanket off of his body. His shirt was ruined, the fabric in pieces and bloodied, however there was no wound. Unfortunately, he could distinctly remember how he’d been trying to hold his fucking intestines inside of his body while everything around him faded.
The memory hit him like a brick and his eyes welled with tears. “Shit.” He swallowed hard and had to blink a few times to try and fight off the rush of emotion. “Pardon me. I believe so. I do not…” He paused then and finally let his eyes settle on his hands, and then his arms. “...recall being pink before, however.” He was quiet for a moment before he looked back up at her and then to the bubble.
Stevie closed the gap between them and gave him a hug. Unlike his doppleganger, Stevie didn’t acknowledge the tears or try to get Fandral to talk about them. He just seemed like he needed a hug, and so she gave him one. They both needed a moment to recover from their tears.
She let him go shortly afterward.
“Regular healing doesn’t turn people pink, but… this does. You’re going to be okay, though. And next week, you probably won’t be pink anymore. It’s just for a few days.”
Stevie sniffed a bit, wiping at her eyes. There was still red with a gleaming wetness to them, but for the moment she was composed. There was something she wanted to ask, something she wanted to say to him. It hung, tense in the air between them, but it seemed unfair to ask something of him right at that moment. Not here. Not where they were unsafe.
“We should get back to Butler. Just let me know when you’re ready, okay?”
The hug startled him, but his shock was brief and he relaxed into it, lifting an arm to gently wrap around her smaller body in return. He appreciated the show of affection though -- it was something he needed in that moment more than he would have ever been able to communicate.
Fandral gave her a small nod and then looked back down at his arms and hands. He probably wouldn’t be pink anymore. What a strange side effect of resurrection. Swallowing, he shifted, careful and pulled the blanket with him. But then he paused and gestured toward Wynonna’s body.
“May I take just a moment first? I do not know what happened that she found herself at their mercy, but I wish to pay my respects.”
Stevie frowned, nodding her head solemnly. It was hard to ignore the thought completely that she should have been there. She could have protected them all. Her first powers to manifest were shields, like the pink bubble that encased them.
“Do you want me to take the bubble down?” she offered gently. It was safer to pay his respects from within but harder to get close.
Fandral hesitated a moment, his eyebrows furrowing slightly at the question. It probably would have been better to stay inside of the bubble, but he frowned and gave her a small nod. “Just briefly. I won’t be more than a moment or two.”
When the bubble disappeared, he gave her a halfhearted smile of thanks and quietly made his way over to the remains of Wynonna. She’d been laid there as gently as she could be it seemed, with her head nearby, and he took the blanket that had been draped over his own body and used it to cover hers. He said nothing, but stood there solemnly for a few beats as if in prayer, before turning back toward Stevie.
Stevie waited a few moments, standing still in the space behind Fandral. When he turned back toward her, Stevie gestured him to come close.
So she could pick him up in his arms.
He was heavier than she expected. Stevie almost grunted with the surprise effort but choked the noise in her throat. She was capable of hefting his weight, but the surprise of it and not putting in the purposeful effort she should have was almost a disaster.
From there she lept into the air. Not as high as before, but she crossed the distance she needed to and got them to Butler in a single bound. More than that, the descent of her landing slowed to the point that it was almost floating, the two looked next to weightless and Stevie landed barefoot in front of Butler and set Fandral down. She crept toward the front door and opened it carefully for him.
Well, being picked up by a young woman who seemed half of his overall size by comparison was something of a surprise. And that fact was entirely readable on his face, too. He wanted to make a remark but held his tongue and instead let his expression twist into even more surprise as they became temporarily airborne.
Who was she? The abilities she had were astounding, to say the least — strength, protection, something akin to flight, and bringing someone back from death?
He had so many questions and yet no desire to really ask them once they were back on the grass.
Fandral quietly made his way through the open door and into the corridor of Butler, waiting for the door to shut behind them both before he gestured toward the staircase and then pointed up, almost questioning which direction she would be going in. His dorm was several flights up.
Stevie reached and gently tugged on his hand, holding up a ’one’ finger with the other. It took her about a second to bubble them again, allowing them to speak more freely.
“...Um, Mr. Fandral, sir?” Stevie was nothing if not polite. She’d made a point of learning who people were and their names so she could address them appropriately, with or without formal introductions.
“I know it’s a lot right now, and you probably want to see your friends, but could I ask you for a favor? It’ll be quick.”
Fandral paused at the tug to his hand and let his expression grow softer, eyebrows furrowing slightly before he looked around as the bubble reappeared. Well, at least that was safer.
“Yes, of course you can. I suspect I owe you many favors given the current circumstances,” he added gently, pulling his hand from hers to rest it gently against her shoulder. “What would you like to ask of me?”
“Well,” Stevie started, her tone vaguely apologetic, “you’re kind of tall. Can you kind of kneel down? It’s sort of hard to explain. Uh, basically I can jump into your head? It’s not really your head. Well, it’s like your head is a portal to a pocket dimension and there’s a tree. The tree’s not important. But it might be connected to two other trees which means I could go home. But I can also come back! Bring supplies or anything else we need. This has sort of happened to me before.”
Stevie released the breath she was holding and hoped that it made enough sense to get his permission.
Her explanation was strange indeed. A tree? In his mind? Fandral looked at her with a deep sense of curiosity, hesitating for just a moment or two, before he lowered himself down to kneel in front of her. “Is my mind a portal now because of my being brought back by you or is there some other reason for it?”
“Um, being brought back by me,” Stevie mumbled. Her expression softened when he kneeled. Even if his mind would provide a way back home, she owed it to him and the others to bring back help. Maybe Homeworld could provide special warp pads? Although the idea of trying to get a warp pad out of Fandral’s head was questionable at best.
She took a deep breath and let the pink bubble burst around them. It meant having to climb into his head quietly, which was as awkward as it sounded. Fandral wouldn’t be able to see the way his hair lit up, becoming a portal for Stevie to dive into and then…
She was gone.
Though he knew he could trust her — he could, right? — he was still unsure of allowing her to do this. However, if he was currently the only one who she could actually do this to, didn’t he have some sort of obligation to allow her to try? To see what she could do and bring back?
Fandral gave her a small nod and then with a deep breath, she was gone. He opened his mouth to say something but then held his tongue, looking around. Had it worked?
“Stevie?” he whispered. Well, of course she wasn’t going to answer, not if she was actually in his head.
There were elements of being inside Fandral’s head-- pocket dimension, really-- that were expected. The lack of breathable air, the pink fields that were not quite grass or hair, the hill in the distance and a distinctive spruce tree with a very long trunk, taller than Lion’s or Lars’ trees.
Stevie expected all of that.
What she hadn’t expected was the tree would be alone. When she had revived Lars and entered his head, she had-- even lightyears apart-- been able to see the twin hill with Lion’s distinctive tree. In Fandral’s pocket dimension she’d expected to see both trees and be able to get home once more.
Maybe they were just a little further away than normal.
Stevie wandered from the little pink hill with the tall pink tree, under a mild pink sky, searching for Lion and Lars’ trees. She just had to try a little harder, right?
But Stevie couldn’t search forever, not limited by the oxygen in her lungs. She made it about three and a half minutes-- pushing herself longer than she normally would have-- before scrambling through the pink fields surrounding the hill and sprung forth without warning from Fandral’s hair. Stevie had just enough wits about her to return the pink soundproof bubble around them so she could gasp for air freely and loudly as she needed to, collapsing onto the bubble’s surface.
Time seemed to slow even more when you were standing around, patiently waiting for someone to finish up inside of your head with whatever it was that they were doing. Trying to find a way home, at least according to Stevie. When there’d been no response to his whisper of her name, he quietly leaned back against the nearest wall and waited.
And waited.
And waited a little more.
Suddenly she sprung from his hair and found himself encased in the bubble again, her gasps causing a level of momentary panic to rise in him. “Are you quite alright?” he asked softly, reaching a pink hand out toward her. “....were you holding your breath that entire time?” Honestly, that was impressive, if so. His hand caught her under an elbow as she sank against the bubble and he gave her a gentle yet concerned look. “What did you find?”
Stevie took a few moments to catch the rest of her breath until her breathing evened out and her body relaxed. “There’s no air, so you have to hold your breath when you go in, or... when I go in.”
No one else would be able to enter Fandral’s head, not without Stevie’s help. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about other people trying to climb inside to take a look.
Judging by the frown on her face, she had not found what she was looking for.
“It was just your tree in there. The other trees were gone. I should have been able to see them. Even on other side of the galaxy. I looked for as long as I could but it was just you. I won’t be able to get back home.”
Those last words, that last admission, stung. Stevie did her best to hold back tears. That wouldn’t have been fair, right? Fandral had just died and come back. Even if he wasn’t physically tired, emotionally that couldn’t have been easy? He didn’t need to worry about Stevie. It wasn’t fair to put him in a position to comfort her. No one else was able to get back home, so why should she have been able to?
So she scrunched up her face and did an admirable job of holding back tears.
“I am sorry that you are unable to get back home,” he replied softly, that look of concern still etched on his face. No, emotionally he wasn’t doing well, but at least trying to comfort her just then was allowing him a small peace of mind by way of distraction. “Are you willing to explain what you mean about the trees, though? How would you have been able to get home?” Fandral was endlessly curious about new things sometimes and, despite the threat that lurked outside of Butler Hall, he was all ears -- as it were -- if she wanted to go into details.
Stevie sighed and leaned back against the curve of the bubble. Fandral’s counter weight was more than enough to anchor it in place so that she could do so. She needed a moment to compose herself, make sure she would talk without bursting into tears.
She knew this was a possibility, logically. It wasn’t as if she’d never go home. There were disappearance notifications every few days. Her time could come at any moment. Some people barely stuck around for a full week.
But emotionally she’d thought it was her time to go home on her own terms, to hug her dad and tell him everything that happened. To see Garnet again and get her advice. That was a difficult disappointment to take.
“There are others like you that have been brought back,” Stevie said. “Inside your head it looks like a grassy field with a hill, and on the hill is a tree. Inside their heads, it’s the same but each tree looks different. I should have been able to see their trees, no matter how far away they are. I should have been able to come out of their heads.”
Her expression was mournful and Stevie barely met his eyes for a moment before looking back down.
Though he knew the disappointment of not being able to go home, the look on her face spoke louder than her words did. Her heart was broken. The realization that she was just as trapped here as any of them dawning on her. There’d been a hope there and when hope was crushed, it was devastating.
He was still curious about the trees and what they were exactly. A portal of some sort, it seemed. His questions regarding that could be asked later, however.
Fandral stepped closer and gently used his hands to pull her to him. She was much smaller than he was, but he brought her against him for a hug, his arms wrapping gently around her shoulders as he cradled her head. “It will be alright,” he said, his voice tender. “You will find your way back to your home one of these days, I am sure. It just was not meant to be yet, that is all.”
Not that that really helped when there were terrifying creatures outside. Derleth certainly had a way of making a person want to go back where they came from. “Perhaps when it is safer to talk at length, you can tell me more about your home?”
Fandral’s voice, his kindness, the hug, opened up the floodgates. Stevie was a small person with big feelings. She cried into his shredded clothing, which also started to mend itself with her tears, which were powerful things.
A less sensitive person might have tried to save them for emergency use, but Stevie certainly wasn’t in the right frame of mind to think of it.
He spoke and she nodded her head. At some point she would want to tell him about home, about Homeworld, and maybe some of the other planets she’d visited and the different spaceships she’d been on.
But now? She just wanted to mourn. Fandral held her until she reached a point of catharsis. When Stevie was able to quiet herself, the bubble was released and the two of them wordlessly went their separate ways to contend with what just happened.