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Apr. 12th, 2016


[info]chemical_sheds

Reflections (Preston)

With the exception of Peter, it had been months since Evey interacted with another person. Peter needed... not her, not specifically, but an anchor. She knew her course. She built mental barriers to surround her own internal conflicts and then wrapped herself completely around her best friend. Anchor? She was more a bandage. She held him together until his own shock and loss was manageable. After that, she wasn't far from Peter for long - certainly not mentally, but physically as well. It made it easy to stay away from other people. It made it easier to ignore what she'd barred off from her best friend - and herself. Her focus was Peter. And, she told herself, that was where it needed to be.

Somewhere within month three, Peter gave her a look. It was the same look she'd shared with him often enough - the one that said, "I know exactly what you're doing, and I'm not going to call you on it - yet - but you have a finite amount of time to sort it out for yourself. After that, we're going to talk." When one was deeply connected to the consciousness of another, it only took a single look to convey deep amounts of meaning. The next morning, Evey packed the scraps of possessions she'd kept with her - toothbrush, a few changes of clothing - and left Peter's apartment.

Her own apartment was just next door. 1406. She unlocked the door and dropped the keys into the white porcelain bowl sitting atop the Doric column just inside. The door closed behind her and she set her slight shoulders against the back of it. This place felt unreal. Her eyes skimmed the clean, simple surfaces, the streaks of rosy evening sunlight tossed over the tightly-looped beige carpet, the orderliness of all of it. It was a place she might have chosen for herself. The City seemed to know her; that was clear.

She passed her thin hand over her thin face and pushed away from the door. The next hour was slow and deliberate - a shower, the careful selection of clothing, a few minutes tending the hair she'd once been proud of. When she stood in a full length mirror after the time, a stern, grim woman stared back at her. She touched the mirrored glass and the reflection her fingertips met her own. She looked like the Evey who'd survived a dinosaur island and too much loss for exact sanity. It wasn't all of what she was now, but it... it fit. Her hands skimmed down the front of her midnight cotton pants, then she shucked herself out of them quickly. There was a skirt, pencil-thin and knee length, in the back of her closet. When she returned to the mirror again, she adjusted the gray pullover blouse so that the lines were straight, then slid her bare feet into a pair of heels she'd never worn before. They felt like they belonged to the other Evey, the one who'd never lost Aidan, but she had no memory of having seen them before. And yet, they were hers.

The City was a strange place.

This is not what she should be thinking about. She squared her shoulders and finally unlocked the gates of those high stone walls in her mind. And then, she palmed her keys and made her way to the apartment that had been her home for some time. She still had his key. She didn't use it. Instead, she knocked crisply, three times. Her hands went behind her back, then, and she clasped them tightly together around her keys. The palms were moist. Her stomach was twisting. The back of her neck felt hot, as did her face. She cataloged her body's reactions clinically and acknowledged that she was anxious. She focused instead on her breathing.

Behind the door, she wondered if Preston was reaching for a gun.

Jan. 21st, 2016


[info]no_savior

Tumbling down [Evey]

Something was wrong. He knew it before consciousness had settled in on him. A feeling of loss, of emptiness. It ached, the void, and he found himself reaching for Leeloo, reaching out for the comfort of her, the softness of her.

His hand found cold, empty blankets.

Peter sat up, blinking. He reached out with his mind, expecting to find her not far, maybe up to eat something, but she wasn't there.

She wasn't there.

A cry rose in his throat, and his arm reached out again, desperate. He could feel Evey there, in the back of his mind, he could touch on a half dozen others, and knowing that his powers hadn't suddenly vanished, that it was his heart and love and life that was gone...

Logic tried to intervene. She was the Fifth Element, the Supreme Being. She was needed, necessary to the world - many worlds - being this one.

But his heart was breaking, shoulders heaving with sobs.

How much time has passed before he was able to regain control of himself, to close off his mind and retreat into himself, he didn't know. It didn't seem to matter anymore.

Sep. 1st, 2015


[info]storrada

Heiðrún heitir geit

"Heithrún, stop that!" Siggy tugged at the rope around the she-goat's neck. The goat, a white-and-brown creature with long ears, bleated and dug her hooves into the dirt by the City park.

Siggy frowned, irritated. It had taken her so long to find someone to sell her a live goat, and she then had to wait until one of the females was bred. This one was newly pregnant, which meant that eventually she would have milk, real milk, and a kid goat for eventual eating. Peggy would likely protest, but the girl would agree once Heithrún was producing milk that it was for the best.

If she could only get the stubborn beast to the building and then up to the rooftop.

Jul. 1st, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

The Way Out is Through (Aidan)

Before the polished wooden door, Evey repetitively clenched her strong, thin fingers in uncharacteristic hesitation. It wasn't fear; she'd stood in front of his monster prepared to do what must be done regardless of personal cost. On more than one occasion now, she'd done that. It wasn't fear, or at least, it wasn't fear for her life. In her mind's eye, she saw him kneeling on the floor by his kitchen sink, still the noble man she knew, fighting against the demon inside him. On that day, she couldn't comfort him as she'd wanted. Now...

Now, she didn't know what she was supposed to do or who she was supposed to be with him. Lover. Ex-lover. Mourner. Judge. Defender. What was she to him now that she was both more and less than she'd been before?

Her jaw turned diamond-hard. It didn't matter. She wasn't here for her own answers. She was here out of an innate sense of duty. He deserved to know what had happened to his lover. What had happened to her. She knew that whatever confusion she felt, it would be worse for him. And it was weak of her to be standing here on his threshold hesitating like a teenager afraid of rejection. Rejection didn't factor into this. She'd deal with whatever he threw her way. Because he deserved that much. Because he would suffer more than she would.

As her resolve slipped into place, she raised her fist and knocked three times, sharply. Enough of this, now. Her frame squared itself solidly in front of Aidan's door. She lifted her chin. She was ready. She told herself she was ready.

Apr. 29th, 2015


[info]no_savior

Early Mourning [Evey]

It had happened in the night. Peter hadn't been sleeping, as usual, but he had been in bed, curled up with Leeloo, who was warm and peaceful in his arms. In die Festung, Peter had had magic to help him sleep, and on the savage world, he had been supplying energy to the TARDIS. Here in the City, he had neither as a way to drain his energy, and do sleep was all but unnecessary. The occasions when he did sleep were special nights with his beloved.

He hasn't been actively paying attention when it happened, but the sudden loss was in no way subtle. There weren't many things that could cut off a link so sharply, and there had been no steady building of walls for the younger Evey to have deliberately hidden behind. It was a sudden loss of sensation that Peter had only felt a handful of times before.

He went still, eyes wide, not wanting to wake the supreme being from her rest. Evey had been asleep, and then she was simply gone. He could sense the elder Evey still, faintly awake and reeling a bit from sudden new memories.

His touch was light enough that she probably didn't realize he had looked. She had other things occupying her attention. Peter withdrew from her mind, letting his thoughts turn inward.

Gone. Evey was gone. The young, vibrant woman that loved Aidan Waite without reservation, the Evey Hammond unburdened by the savagery of the dinosaur island, was gone. His best friend. And he, Peter Petrelli, had been completely powerless to prevent it.

Peter covered his face with one hand and wept silently.

Several hours later, when the sun had risen, Peter gave Evey a gentle nudge. He was going to take her out to breakfast. He gave her half an hour to get ready, showering and dressing, and then he was knocking at the door to John's apartment.

Apr. 28th, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

4:12 AM (Narrative)

Her eyes snapped open. From years of practice, her body stayed very still even as her heart continued its thundering. There was no screaming. There was no jolting upright. She held her breath to keep from making a sound. These were things she'd learned in London; things that she'd drilled into herself to keep her safe when panic set in.

And she was in full panic mode.

When she knew she could control her breathing, she quietly slipped away from the bed and went to the living room. Unlocking the window where she often sat, Evey Hammond stuck her entire torso outside and took five long, hard breaths. The cool, slightly damp night air filled her lungs almost painfully. It did nothing, however, to clear her head.

And her head was full of memories that were not hers. She had never gone to a festival with Aidan. She had not arrived at The City by being pulled directly off that broken world. She hadn't felt so free - and so terrified - in a very long time. Evey didn't know what to make of it, but she was no longer herself. And yet, she still remembered the island filled with dinosaurs. She remembered Aidan's truck eaten whole by the white spaces that the broken world created. She remembered grieving silently for him - she remembered quietly falling apart when The City pulled them all here.

But there was nothing she could do about any of it. So she kept breathing and waited for her heart to stop trying to flee from her ribcage. Sometime before the sunrise, she reached into the link between herself and Peter - and found that there was no bright, younger echo of herself anymore. Evey thought she knew why, too.

Apr. 21st, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Keep Calm (Peter)

Backdated to immediately after this

Evey made it downstairs with her mask of still calmness wholly intact. She ignored the workers in the Manchester, as many of the other tenants did, and thus blended in completely. Her steps took her through the doors that were opened for her, then down the street. When she'd passed two streets and was out of the line of sight from the building itself, Evey turned into the closest alley and walked straight to the very back. When she'd passed the last large dumpster, she dipped into the space just behind it that hid her from view from the street.

Her hands balled once, twice, three times, then she pressed the back of her hand against her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. The nightmare Aidan had described was horrific. If it'd been anyone else... If it'd been any other vampire who told her... Oh, she'd have found a way to end the vampire on the spot. But it had been Aidan. She was sure her heart had broken - not just for him, but for her younger self... and for herself as well. He'd murdered many, many people. He killed them for their blood. He harvested one of them. He...

She was whimpering. She heard the sound and knew it was her throat making the sound, and was wholly unable to stop it. Covering her mouth with both hands, she tried holding her breath, but the sound just hummed up through her nose. Oh god. Oh god. Aidan.

Apr. 5th, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Face to Face (Aidan)

It had been weeks since she first saw Aidan Waite on the streets of the City - and days since she'd spoken to John about it. His response had settled all throughout her until she was saturated with it. She lost sleep over it - over all of it, the implications, the probability of its truth - all of it. And, in the end, she came to conclusions.

She needed to see Aidan. There were things left unsaid.

There was entirely too much time spent on preparation. She scrubbed her skin - every part of it - until it was glowing, then carefully brush-dried her hair straight and smooth. She had long ago given up cosmetics. They'd been difficult enough to find in London, and they had been all but impossible on that dying planet, and then truly impossible on the island. Now that she had full access to it here in the City, she found that she didn't want it.

But she dressed very carefully. The soft black pants were slim, but on her frame seemed fluid and graceful instead of stern. The sleeveless blouse was satin under a navy blue bit of flotsam, too sheer and delicate for any sort of work. Perhaps that's why she'd selected it. The clothing made her feel... less like a worker. More like... something else. Maybe something beautiful, or at least, something that could have been beautiful once. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, then turned away, pushing her hair over her shoulder as she bent down to slip on a pair of low heels. It was time to go.

The grand hotel she remembered was easy enough to find. The doorman took one look at her, then opened the door immediately. She walked through the lobby as if she belonged, and with the way she was dressed, she felt like she might. There was a sharp-eyed attendant at the desk who gave her a long scrutiny, but she returned his stare with a cold, hard look of her own, and he turned away with a touch of an index finger to his nose.

She took the elevator up. She knew exactly where to go. The thick carpeting muted her heels as she walked. Three times, she rapped her knuckles against the door she knew, after some research, was Aidan Waite's.

Mar. 28th, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Machina (Preston)

Some silence closed around one's awareness like a fleece in the long stretches of the night - welcome, restorative. Others walked alongside oneself, becoming a companion that never asked too much and filled the spaces where garish talk might otherwise have marred the moments from here to there. And there were some silences that pressurized, filled the room to creaking, or would have, had the room dared make a single sound to approach that silence. There had been a time when Evey could have differentiated between the three. Tonight, she couldn't find the energy to try it. But she knew enough not to disturb whatever it was here in the room with her now.

She'd already removed what little dust she'd found on the tops of appliances or in the tiny corners of the shelves. John Preston's flat was spotless, and there was little for her to do to improve on it. Muscle memory drove her on to organize whatever she could get her hands on - but she found as she moved through the task that most everything already had its place, and the flat was laid out with extreme efficiency. It was admirable to find someone as fastidiously organized as Evey herself had become.

The yellow mid-afternoon settled into that soft lavender of early evening. After what must have been hours, the Londoner finally lifted her chin from her arms and her arms from where they'd been folded on the windowsill overlooking the City. Her body moaned softly, reminding her that she'd been too still for too long to escape some pain. It was hardly worth noting. It would pass.

They'd fallen into an easy routine, found unspoken rules, and followed them. Perhaps it was an artifact of life on the island, but they both seemed to understand that around this time was dinnertime for the both of them - regardless of where they were or what they were doing. Evey began setting the table mechanically, placing the cutlery with barely a sound on their white linen napkins. She wasn't very hungry. It seemed these days that she never was. But this was what they did. She would do it. Evey poured ice water from a jug in the refrigerator, inwardly cringing at the crisp sound of liquid hitting glass, and set the glasses out when she was done.

She didn't turn around when she heard a door behind her open. She was dressed in a plain gray blouse that was too thin to have ever been useful, and a pair of similarly-dyed linen pants. Her feet were uncharacteristically bare, though she and Preston had picked out a selection of shoes for her to wear the first day they found each other. The clothing fit her very well, and in the quiet of the room, she could hear it brushing against her skin as she moved. It was a strange sort of sound, Evey thought distantly, and then let the thought float away again. When she straightened from the table, she finally looked over at John.

She was grateful that he never clogged the air with unnecessary niceties, never asked her how she was doing unless he actually wanted to know... Evey was just as considerate, then, and turned toward the kitchen to put together a dinner from whatever it was that was in the kitchen.

Mar. 3rd, 2015


[info]nogarlic

That's... not... her... (SW Evey)

They had professed to one another words that they already knew. They'd done it at the top of the world, though figuratively and not literally. Her mouth had tasted like cotton candy, her skin had been warm, her heart had raced with the anticipation of what she must do. All the while, the words slid out of him like water from an open jar. They had been simple for Aidan to say because he had felt them so long ago and acknowledged their meaning.

It had not taken Peter's words of frustration to open his eyes to what he was feeling, but that hadn't hurt. Having a third party reveal what was there was a little bit like watching the secrets of a magic show. Wonderment at what was actually behind that curtain, yet a part of the brain resounded with sentiments such as ah, yes. Of course..

Aidan understood that they'd both needed to be away from New Troy, die Festung, and the ever present looming death of a world before they could feel comfortable expressing such a bright thing out loud. It wouldn't have felt right there. Despite Evey exclaiming that they should have exchanged this sentiment in the ruins, Aidan didn't believe that it had been the right time. Too much had gone on.

He had been reluctant to part from her after the evening was over. They had shared in the great bonfire, they had walked along the beach. They had held hands and smiled at one another in the goofy way of those who have seen great damage and come through the other side with almost no worries to burden their minds. He had walked her home, still refusing to allow her to say those words and accept him past the door. There was still some settling to do in his mind. Soon, though, he thought. Soon.

As soon as the city outside his window began to wake, Aidan was out the door. He wanted to see if he could catch Evey at what he thought of now as their coffee shop. He raced through the streets, keeping his speed as human as possible. His eyes scanned around him, seeking out the woman he loved.

The color of her hair lifted on a slight breeze. The shape of her form standing in front of the very place he'd hoped to find her. His heart was lifted, and the smaller details escaping him out of pure joy and complete ignorance.

Aidan raced to Evey, snatching her up in a tight embrace, twirling her around in his arms. He elegantly let her slip to the ground again and twirled her with a dance move so that she was facing him. All of it so quick that it was done without real thought. His eyes were closed as he moved to kiss her. To kiss her. He kissed her as much as he wanted, he could do it any time.

As he pulled away, Aidan murmured sweet words. "My heart is yours, Evey Hammond."

His eyes opened.

He stared.

Something was wrong.

Feb. 21st, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Mind Your Surroundings (Preston)

Three days had passed since Evey left the TARDIS and dinosaurs behind. The City was ever-changing, vast, and full of life. Evey thought she should be happy. She thought it was the appropriate response after leaving the wilderness. Instead, a yawning quiet blankness filled her. She'd made it her goal to learn as much about this place as she could, and that meant spending a lot of time at the City Library.

It was just as well; she had no other place to go, and it was easy enough at closing time to duck through the stacks and avoid the librarians until they left and she was alone. She slept in the lounge chairs at the very back of the library, so that it was easy for her to hide again when the lights came back on in the morning. And, when the doors unlocked again, she'd slip out unnoticed, find someone's laundry, visit the lake in the park, change... It was an easy life, and there was so much food around the City that none of it ever really was missed.

She knew how to live like this. She'd done it in London, after leaving V. She fell into the rhythm of it as if it were second nature. All the while, she carefully kept her thoughts shielded from Peter. She loved him. He was her best friend. But she couldn't bear to be around him. He was so damned happy, and so damned in love, and Leeloo loved him back. What that must feel like, to have someone like that... Someone who looked at you as if you were the whole of the world to them.

Evey buried herself in study of the City. She'd learned that people from other worlds were pulled here commonly, and that they were typically given a place to stay, led to the provisions that the City itself arranged... Assuming that the City hadn't done the same for her because of her own abilities, she didn't think much of it. By the third day in the Library, however, the librarians were beginning to get suspicious. "Research project," she'd supplied on the second day - and it seemed to hold for a while. But her welcome was very soon to be over.

Today, after having left the Library for what she imagined would be one of the last times, Evey walked a street quietly, not too fast, not too slow, head down, hands in pockets -- invisible. She was so very good at this. No one bothered to look at her, as she had made herself wholly unnoticeable. But she watched everything around her, from the corners of her eyes. Though it wouldn't have seemed like it, she was searching for something -- searching for another likely place to camp out for a few days, before moving on again.

Feb. 8th, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Next Steps (Maleficent)

Like an early morning fog, a kind of confusion settles over a mind rising from a deep sleep after a particular trial. In the first few moments of consciousness, the peace of sleep lingers - but then the sun of something not right shines over that peace, piercing it through and scattering it to the wind. And so it was for Evey, after waking from nearly a week's worth of enchanted sleep. When she remembered completely the circumstances, her stomach fell.

The collective was safe. Peter was happy. For these things, Evey was truly pleased, truly relieved. But their exodus from the TARDIS left her with nothing to do. Her hands, for the first time since London, were completely idle. There was nothing she could use to distract herself, and there was no one who needed her. Oh, Peter would argue that point. Evey knew better. Peter Petrelli was made to endure. And both of them knew that he would outlive her by centuries at the very least. No, she was indeed unneeded. That was good. That was what she wanted. But the emptiness...

After a utilitarian shower, Evey found the key Maleficent had left her and used it when discovering that it was needed. Pocketing that enchanted article, Evey stepped out into the TARDIS corridor. The lights were dimmed and flickering. Power had always been a struggle for the ship, and now that there were no people inside it to support, it seemed even the TARDIS was leaving in its own way. Evey walked past the storage rooms that had once kept the collective alive, and through the console room of the TARDIS itself. There were many memories in this place. Only a precious few clung to her.

"Can I stay?" Evey asked the console room. In answer, the lights dimmed even further. With a nod, Evey walked out into the bright sunlight and didn't look back when the TARDIS doors closed behind her.

There was a city somewhere out past the forest. She didn't know the direction she should go, but it seemed that she was meant to go all the same. Evey began walking, then, knowing that she needed higher ground to see anything at all. She considered calling Peter, but... there was a buoyant joy radiating from the presence inside her mind, and it was so strong and so bright that Evey winced from it. She didn't want to interrupt. She didn't want anything to do with it. So she walked.

Feb. 1st, 2015


[info]i_moderate

Imbolc (open to everyone)

The weather in the City was pretty much always perfect. There were days with rain, but they were still mostly warm. But there were still seasons. In fall the leaves fell (the trees were never bare, though), in winter there might be some snowflakes (never anything like the one great storm where the City had gotten carried away), and summers were warm and sunny and nobody had school.

Still, this year, the City felt like celebrating spring. Not any particular holiday. Just spring in general. There were new people around, there were couples in love, and it wanted to have a great big party for everyone.

Overnight, it set up the great festival. Streets all around the park were closed off so that people could walk around without issue. The park itself was expanded to over twice the normal size. A great clearing was made in the center, stretching from one side to the other. There needed to be lots of room.

Through this clearing the City placed tents, stands, and tables. These were filled with food and wares of all types. There were representatives for all the popular shops, as well as some that nobody had ever seen there before. There were stands for balloons for the kids, too, free of charge. And flowers absolutely everywhere. Woven into the stands themselves, laying on tables, set up in vases, growing in every patch that the City was sure nobody would accidentally step on them. Colorful ribbons, some as large as crepe streamers, also decorated everything. The City wanted as much color as it could possibly get.

At one end of the clearing the City placed a small carnival. Rides, games, everything it could think of. Even a petting zoo, though some of the animals within weren't typical farm animals that usually went in petting zoos. At the other it placed a few stages for performances. Concerts, plays, musicians. The stages were all contained within their own invisible sound barriers, as to not disturb one another, but the noise from all could be heard on the main promenade.

It put signs up all over, put notices in mailboxes, ads on the radio, commercials on television, and even made Candy and Frank talk about it on the morning news.

The celebration would go from sunrise to midnight. At sunset, the City would have a bonfire, complete with a pig roast and s'mores. At that time, it would move the park closer to the water, creating a beach between for the bonfire to settle on.

Jan. 31st, 2015


[info]godisintherain

Parasols (Aidan)

It seemed too good to be true. The weather was just about perfect - not a cloud in the sky, not a cold breeze, no fog or rain - perfect. The streets were clean and well-maintained. The buildings were strong and sound. The citizens were content, there were no signs of sickness in the wheels of the government, and as far as she could tell, there weren't any netvors chasing anyone around. The only things that she couldn't explain were the strangely blank people filling in most of the citizenship in the City. There was nothing offensive or disturbing about them, but they were so....

Well. Blank.

Evey'd taken up a table in a downtown cafe, one hand curled around a hot tea. She hadn't had Earl Grey tea in what felt like ages, and Evey wouldn't deny that she was savoring every second of it. But she was also watching the people around her. They didn't seem to be paying her any attention at all, which was strange in itself, given that the City had paid her quite a bit of attention. The apartment - #1406 - just on the other side of the hall from her best friend, the apartment itself that was stocked full of things she wanted or needed, the strange way she'd been guided around the City, as she asked questions to herself. The answers were never too hard to find. The library, the news stand.... It was as if the City were guiding her itself. And, though she was used to overlords being unkind, Evey felt very much that this City was nothing but solicitous.

It was disconcerting. She was ready for the other shoe to drop, but as the days began to spool off, nothing bad was happening to her. It was damned peculiar.

Evey had either caught sight of or found reference to many people from the fracturing world she'd left behind. Every day, she found more people. The one person she wished she could find, however, proved elusive.

It made this cup of tea just a touch bitter. Evey lifted the china cup to her lips and sipped gently.

"Where are you?" she asked the saucer, as she set her cup down again.

Jan. 4th, 2015


[info]chemical_sheds

Remainder (Maleficent)

Peter wasn't dead or gone. He was here. Not on the island, not with the TARDIS, but in a city nearby with Leeloo, and that was enough. Once she was certain she hadn't lost her best friend to circumstance, she returned to the TARDIS to spread the word about what had happened, about what the rumbling had been, about their changed reality...

... only that's not what Evey did. She walked into the TARDIS, yes, and she walked down the corridor where the living quarters were, yes -- but she was as capable of explaining or reassuring as a wall was capable of those things. When her feet took her to the end of the corridor, she turned around and walked back in the direction she'd come. Eventually, she found herself in Storage Room #3, sorting building materials.

There was no real thought to it. She simply worked, hand over hand, foot after foot. When Peter's thoughts and emotions got too loud, she closed herself off from him again and kept working. There was daylight left, yet, or there should have been. This night cloaking the TARDIS now was artificial and therefore unreal. She needed to work.

[info]all_the_feels

Been walking in circles [City-Evey]

Tired eyes fluttered open to a white wall and the forgotten blares of a morning alarm. He rolled over and reached for the ghostly shell of nothing on the side table like clockwork, and when his fingers curled around emptiness into a loose fist, he forced himself to get up out of bed.

The morsels of anticipation that had been stuck in his throat died swiftly at the sight of still curtains and the table lamp in his room.

He had hoped without hope that the universe would correct itself and return him home somehow, but this was not the home he had wanted to return to. The silence stretched after he switched the alarm off, as if he was waiting to be sure that he was neither where he was before nor where he wanted to be. As if he was waiting for someone else's voice or even the whines of a hungry puppy to cut through the silence.

But there was nothing.

The city continued to offer its cornucopia of disappointments as he wiped cold water off his face, got dressed and headed out into once-familiar streets. Instead of taking the shortcuts he'd learnt what felt like a long time ago and cutting straight into the heart of the city, his seemingly aimless wandering took him to places where an off-chance glance in an unspecified direction might find someone that would alleviate his worries.

Jan. 1st, 2015


[info]no_savior

A Duel of Personalities [Eveys]

When the world began shaking, there was a sudden onslaught of panic, fear, and confusion. It had been some time since Peter had been in a large enough population to need to shield himself regularly, and his level of comfort had left him a bit exposed. When the cacophony struck his mind, Peter flinched, mentally and physically, withdrawing into himself completely, curling up defensively, blanking his mind against the assault.

When he came back to himself, he was standing in a hallway. And he was lying in his bed, in his room on the TARDIS. There was an utterly confusing sensation of being two places at once, and he could clearly recall the caravan that had just left die Festung, where he had been standing a moment ago. But there was a set of keys in his hand, and the feel of Leeloo's hand wrapped in that same hand. There was a shudder of movement, and Peter tried to fight away from the conflicting information, trying to find where he was between the two sets of input. Then pain split his head, and memories flooded in - the savage world, the dinosaurs... the TARDIS, the inky woman.... He reached for something steady, something constant, like the solid feel of Evey's strength in his mind, but even that was split in two! Two versions of Evey Hammond, one from that first body's experiences in the broken world, and the other as he had last seen her, teetering on the edge of despair, feeling lost and alone.

Shields slammed into place, and Peter found himself on the ground again, curled upon himself at the door of an apartment, The keys in his hand were digging painfully into his palm, but he embraced that pain as it was the only sensation. A singular sensation, not that horrid duality that had threatened to rend him apart.

With a shaking breath, he forced his limbs to relax, moving into a sitting position. He was a single entity again. His memories were intact, though slightly altered - he could remember arriving here shortly after leaving die Festung... but at the same time, re remembered the later attack of snow dinosaurs in that world, the sudden arrival on the savage world and the experiences and adventures there, and then, once more, arriving at this location.

How? What? And strangest of all, an overwhelming sense of awareness, of life, of sentience all around him. He sensed the awareness focus on him for a fleeting instant, but before Peter could pinpoint just what it might have been, it retreated beyond his reach.

He shook his head, hard. The TARDIS had sometimes felt like that, but this had not been the TARDIS.

Slowly, cautiously, Peter eased the strength down on his mental shields. He reached for one mind, but the thought instead went to two: Evey?