#plot: lost

[tragediegh]

everything is so fucking cooked bc I know I didn't just see a video literally HCing chat gpt as a nerdy softboy™️ aesthetic model directly followed by one with a bullet point list of all the people who "aren't allowed" to refer to their significant others as their partners 💀💀💀

[fursasaida]

look I understand what OP is getting at and I'm sure their book is interesting but I would also like to build a time machine and return to a world in which I have never read the sentence "Yaaaaassss HIV is queer!!"

[speedypuffs]

Mia And Zach Morning show!

Mia makes her way out to the pools not even getting any one breakfast or coffee at all this morning and lays down in one of the pool chairs. Mia she looks at what little of the water is still left in the pool and wonders if she could touch it and not get sick. Because it seems like that is what is happening to everyone around her… Well, if she was one to tempt fate she would totally try it. But instead she just lays in the sun pushing the tacky 70s style sunglasses onto her face and sighing. Zach gets himself some coffee from the longhouse spotting Mia by the pool and debating for a moment whether to go over there or not. But he might as well because it’s not like he’s going to want to talk to anyone this early in the morning anyway. So he heads out and sits on the chair next to her. “No coffee this morning?” He asks sipping from his cup. Mia turns her head and looks at him for a moment before turning back. “Nope. I don’t even really like coffee that much. Not plain coffee at least.” Gives a small shrug. Zach looks disgusted for a moment, “Serioulsy?” Not that this instant coffee is really that good anyway. But he would die if he didn’t have any coffee at all. Mia nods Zach leans back in his pool chair drinking his coffee. “So, are you dying? Or… are you fine?” he asks this conversationally and glances over at Mia arching an eyebrow. “You know, since you don’t have your meds with you.” Mia can’t help but smile and laughs slightly. “No. I’m… fine. Actually. Yeah. I’m fine.” Shrugs her shoulders and lifts her head up to look over at Zach. “I would probably be able to be off my meds for a while without… getting very sick. I guess… I’m just worried about going back and then… what may or may not happen when I get back on them. You’re actually like… the first person to actually say anything.” Zach nods his head, “I guess that’s the good thing about not caring if you upset someone…” Mia “It’s not like it’d even upset me!” she said shaking her head. “I mean it’s a fact, jesus. Granted… not everyone here even knows. But whatever. It’s obvious people are… walking on eggshells about this, if they know. And Roy and Ollie both keep giving me that stupid look. And I’m like oh my god you guys live with me! You can freaking ask if I’m ok or not! At least if they… took what said as not trying to cover things up…” Frowns and shifts in the pool chair, “Because I really do feel fine…” Zach looks at her curiously for a second “Should you be feeling fine? You’ve been taking medication for… a couple years now haven’t you?” Mia shrugs, “I don’t know. I mean I’m not a medical expert. I never really thought of not taking my meds so I never really… did any research about what could happen if I stopped… I just know I’m healthy so that should help a lot with dealing with things I think… I don’t know.”

\Zach “Hm.” drinks some more of his coffee. Mia “Anyway, I’m tired of people. And I just want to go home. So. I’m just going to hang out by the creepy pool today.” Zach grins. “And I’m the unsocial one.” Mia “You are! At least I tried! I tried organizing things and getting people to do stuff!” Shakes her head, “They’re the stupid Justice League! Figure out how to find Kyle and then get us out of here. I’m eighteen years old why the hell do I have to do everything? It’s not like they think I can in any other god damn context.” Zach super amused right now. “Been holding that in for a while?” Mia “Only a few days.” slumps down and sighs. “But whatever. I’m taking the day off. I’m just minding my own business… and maybe the kids because it’s not like they’ve done anything wrong and -someone- has to watch them. And they can do whatever. I don’t give a shit.” Zach jerks his head slightly and laughs, “Well, you do give a shit. But…” Shrugs his shoulders. “At least you can say you tried.” Mia “Wait tried what? Not giving a shit or… trying to get everyone to pull their heads out of their asses?” Looks over at him and smiles slightly. “I mean… like I get that Bruce is really sick. But it’s like god shouldn’t that make people MORE willing to go find some way to get out of here? Jesus. I don’t want to be stuck in this creepy camp of tacky 70s horror for long.” Frowns. “I -can’t- be.” Zach shrugs nonchalantly, “They’re scared. Most of them… me included don’t have powers anymore so that is making everyone panic. It’s too bad Batman is the one that’s sick. He probably would have gotten us all out of here already.” Mia laughs a bit, “Yeah.” Stays silent for a while brushing her hand through her hair making sure her ponytail is smoothed down. “Are you scared without your powers, Zach? Aw. Poor Zaach.” Grins over at him. She thinks about again how it’s too bad Rose isn’t here to give him a hard time… But Rose would probably be freaking out about leaving more then she was. Zach rolls his eyes, “No. I’m not scared. I hate having to do everything without magic though. Is this really how normal people live? It’s horrible.” - - -

Mia wakes up early that morning in a chair bending forward in what probably should have been an uncomfortable position with her head resting on the corner of the bed Connor was laying on, and her bag protectively tucked between her lap and bent torso. That's when Mia realizes she doesn't think they have any vegan food in the camp for when Connor wakes up. Vegetarian sure but... not vegan. So she got up wrote a note about how the moment Connor wakes up they should come find her and went to the warehouse to check all the food labels. Maybe she'd just go pick some fruits or something from the forest. Zach first when he wakes up he gets himself coffee from the longhouse noting that everything was always creepily peaceful during the day as if nothing freaky happened the night before. He makes his way out of the longhouse about to go back to his bungalow, or maybe take a shower, when he sees the door to the warehouse open. When he pokes his head in he notices Mia looking through the boxes of food. "What are you doing?" Mia looks over from the shelves, "Looking to see if we have any vegan options for our new vegan camper when he wakes up." Zach "Ugh he's vegan?" rolls his eyes drinking his coffee, "Just give him fruit or something. Ask Mar'i whats good to eat. I don't think many places had vegan stuff to eat in the 70s." Mia grins slightly and nods, "that he is." She doesn't think that Zach is exactly right but it didn't look like anything here was exactly vegan. Not that she knew what vegans did or didn't eat. Not totally at least. She'd have to ask someone else to check. "What are you doing?" Zach "Drinking coffee." he says obviously then gives a small shrug. "I was going to go take a shower." Mia "Good because you smell. It's gross." He actually doesn't because it's not like he's actually doing any physical work or anything. But still. Really she's sure she probably smells worse. "Wait. I want to take a shower too." She didn't like going into the shower rooms alone it was creepy. Beware of bathrooms, right? Zach isn't opposed to that idea either for the same reasons actually. This camp was creepy and things got weird and echo-y in the bathrooms. "Go get your shit. I'll meet you there." Zach says drinking down the last of his coffee and going to put the cup away, then go get his things from his bungalow and make his way to the bathrooms. Mia nods even though she's carrying around most of her things in her bag she goes to get some clothes that she collected from the bungalow, checking to make sure Connor wasn't awake yet and going to the showers stepping in time with Zach. "Sucks they don't have hair products for you and Damian, huh?" Grins a little going inside grabbing a towel, and some shampoo picking the shower farthest away from the doors like she had every other time she came in here. Zach rolls his eyes but doesn't respond narrowing his eyes as Mia picks the shower he wanted and chooses the one a shower away from her instead. "So, what happened yesterday anyway?" Mia starts her shower making sure the water is as warm as she likes before getting in. "Well, we drove to the lake and Connor was there. And Bruce says he's ok, but he's still not awake yet. And then the water started doing this weird bubbling thing and lots of waves and it was weird. But we're all fine." Zach "Who is this Connor guy? Is he your brother? How many kids does Oliver have, god..." Mutters the last part to himself wondering if it was drowned out by the water. "Where is Zatanna? I didn't see her come back." Mia "Yeah! He's my brother. He's the best. He's sweet and adorable and hot. Everyone likes Connor. He took over Green Arrow for Ollie when he died. He also spent most of his life as a monk so that's fun. He disappears from time to time so I'm happy he's back." Starts to shampoo her hair, "Zatanna went up to the raven medical facility." Zach didn't really think he sounded that great but he didn't say that because Mia did sound excited. "She's where?" Mia "The medical facility. Don't you pay attention to anything going on?" Mia rolls her eyes then grins. "You'd think you'd remember the name. Y'know. The Raven. Like Raven. Like the girl you have a giant crush on." Zach drops the shampoo bottle at Mia's words and makes a tsking sound in the back of his throat. "I don't know what you're talking about." He mutters snatching the bottle back up from the floor setting it down out of the way. Mia laughs, "uh-huh. Everyone knows. It's why you dislike Gar so much, isn't it?" Zach presses his lips together and doesn't dignify that with a responce. Instead he takes the opportunity to turn the conversation around as he starts shampooing his hair. "You two broke up, didn't you? So you're single now." Mia smiles a little, "Yep." She says, "you're not going to start hitting on me now are you?" Zach snorts, "If I wanted to hit on you a stupid relationship that obviously wasn't going to work wouldn't have stopped me." He gives a shrug, not that she could see it, "But if you want a rebound..." Mia "You want to talk about this now? In the showers? If you wanted to be my rebound you should have at least picked the shower right next to mine Zach. Geez." Zach "That wasn't a no." Mia laughs and rolls her eyes, "find some chache brand condoms and then we'll talk." she turns off her water grabbing the towel to dry herself off and get dressed. Zach laughs from his stall as well still rinsing out his hair when she finishes her shower and no one is really shocked that he takes longer then she does. "What's going on with you anyway? It doesn't really seem like not having your medication is affecting you at all." Mia "I don't need them here." Mia says stepping out of her stall and going to the mirror plugging in the blow dryer and starting to dry her hair. Zach blinks for a moment not really understanding and when he finally asks, "what?" it's drowned out by the sound of the blow dryer. Mia doesn't hear him and continues drying her hair until it's mostly dry and turns the dryer off pulling her hair up into a ponytail. "Yeah, where ever we are... whatever is going on... I'm not HIV positive." Zach turns off his shower and starts to dry off and get dressed when Mia turns the dryer off and starts speaking again. He pulls the curtain open with a little frown, "How do you know?" Mia shrugs and turns to look at him, "I just do." She says, "before you even attempted to do any magic... you knew you didn't have it right? I can just tell." Zach "I guess..." looks at her for a moment before going to the mirror and fixing his hair the best he can. "So, we don't even really need condoms." Mia gives him an almost disbelieving look before rolling her eyes and laughing turning to leave the bathrooms. Zach watches her turn to leave and grins, "I was kidding." he says though that was probably clear. "So, are you not going to make breakfast again? Mia?" Mia lets the door swing shut behind her hearing Zach's last statement, "Make it yourself Zach!" She calls through the door heading back to the bungalow to wait for Connor to wake up.

- - -

Mia is happy to find powdered pancake mix in the warehouse and spends the morning making pancakes. Sadly not from scratch but it’s better then nothing, right? When she’s done she uses her fingers to tear hers apart and eat them slowly thinking over everything Kyle had said to her the day before, and is honestly still debating whether she should go attempt to find his ring in the forest or not.

Zach drags himself out of bed, not hungover at all, and he totally didn’t steal the bottle of tequila or anything. He trudges his way through the camp to the longhouse and sitting down on one of the stools with a yawn. “Is there coffee?”

"Nope." Mia pulls a pot out to start the coffee with and looks over at him. "Are you ok?"

Zach looks at her. “I’m not a morning person.”

"I hadn’t noticed." sets a couple pancakes in front of him and goes back to pour some coffee for both of them. "I think we’re going to end up running out of coffee before anything else…"

Zach grumbles something under his breath taking his cup of coffee from her, “Then stop drinking so much of it.”

Mia sighs and shrugs her shoulders, “I’m not drinking that much of it. I’m drinking juice most days you all can make your own god damn coffee if you’re so bothered by it. Jesus Christ.” She’s quiet for almost a second before she starts talking again. “Actually you know what you can all make your own god damn breakfasts ok? I’m sick of it. I’m sick of everyone. Just leave me alone.” grabs her pancake in her hand, and her cup of coffee exiting the longhouse with a half cooked pancake in the pan.

Zach watches her walk out of the longhouse and goes back to his pancakes glancing over, repeatedly, at the pan on the stove. It’s a few minutes before he smells it burning and sighs walking over to flip it over messily and lets it finish cooking before he turns it off. Because he doesn’t cook. Unless everyone wants to get poisoned.

- - - Mia wanders along the path to the longhouse making breakfast for everyone like she used to (in the good old days) before she started getting pissed off at everyone, then went evil, then a bunch of crazy shit happened. Zach stumbles his way in from taking a shower and is surprised to see Mia there again taking a seat at the counter. "Hey?" Mia turns around and smiles at Zach. "Hi." Eyes him for a moment and frowns. "You don't look so good... I guess continuous drinking will do that to you..." Zach gives her an unamused look. "Thanks." He rolls his eyes, "I guess it's good I took most of the alochol out of that warehouse before you destroyed it. Are you still crazy?" Mia gives him some toast with butter on it, "I wasn't crazy. I was evil. They're not the same thing you know." frowns at him for a moment and glanced towards the window, though it's not pointing that way it's like she's trying to look towards the bungalow that Zatanna had been staying in which had just literally disappeared now. "Are you ok?" Zach frowns at Mia grabbing the toast she put in front of him and heading out the door sitting down on the picnic table outside there. Mia follows him out the door. "Sorry?" She says sitting next to him. "I'm sure she's ok. I mean kate disappeared and she's ok now..." Zach takes a deep breath and glares at Mia for a moment before turning away from her. He stays silent breifly before speaking again and changing the subject, "What was it like being evil?" Mia watches him and shrugs her shoulders, "It was like being in a bad dream or something. I don't know..." Sighs a little and leans back against the table. "It was weird but I guess it wasn't the weirdest thing thats happened here." Zach "I guess not..." Mia frowns for a moment turning to look at Zach with her eyebrows furrowed. "I saw my mom... I think. I mean it wasn't really her but..." Aug 7 Zach eyes her for a moment, "Where?" Mia "I'll show you." She says standing up and shrugging her shoulders. Zach heavs and sigh giving her an annoyed look but standing up anyway and following her down the path. "You're not still secretly evil and are going to lead me to my doom, are you?" Mia laughs and grins over at him, "I guess you'll just have to find out." She nudges him in the ribs with her elbow before walking along the path. "My moms been dead for ten years by the way." Zach "I guess that makes it more interesting..." He says slowly and looks at Mia out of the corner of his eyes but he had figured her mom was probably dead. He figured both her parents were really. He didn't know but... if Oliver had adopted her he just sort of assumed. Aug 7 Mia nods her head and diverts from the path through the grass field until they make it to the little cut out grass crop circle thing. "I saw her here. When me and Ollie found the Persian Terminal. Like the grass was all up past both of our heads and I was on his shoulders and I saw her and I ran here and then she like... jumped down through the ground or something." Zach "So, she /definitely/ wasn't your mom." He says looking around the cleared out area. Mia "I guess not..." she says shaking her head and letting out a sigh. Stays standing silently before sitting down in the circle with a huff. "Have you seen any people who shouldn't be here or something? I mean people are talking about dopplegangers and stuff... or any dead parents?" Zach keeps standing walking around the circle like he's looking for something and glances over at Mia, "My parents aren't dead." Mia "Seriously?" Zach "I'm pretty sure." He says finally sitting down across from Mia. "Last time I checked at least..." Mia "Oh... I just always thought Zatanna was like... your own living relative or something." Shrugs her shoulders. Zach "The only one I actually like." he says flatly leaning back on the palms of his hands and looking up at the broken looking sky. He didn't know what happened. He didn't know what was happening at all and really... it was kind of the way he wanted it. "I guess I buck the stereotype of having dead parents." Mia "Are they mean or is this just like... a rich person thing?" Mia asks raising an eyebrow, even though it could possibly be a touchy subject of course. "I don't think that's a common thing for us younger heroes actually. I mean..." She goes through the list of people she knew in her generation of heroes and they had parental issues but not all of them were dead. Zach laughs and shrugs, "Both? They're jerks and it's 'like a rich person thing' I guess." Lifts his head to look at Mia, "I guess not... Yours are though?" Mia tears out some of the grass from the ground shifting where she's sitting. "My mom is. My dad... may as well be but I don't know if I'm that lucky." Zach watches her closely but stays silent. Mia is silent as well. Crickets. Mia "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Ollie's my dad now... And the rest of those crazies are my family." Shrugs her shoulders. Zach nods a little bit. "Lucky..." Mia grins, "I know right?" But her face falls as she looks at him, "Zatanna will be ok..." Zach "Yeah, sure..." huffs out a breath and falls back laying down. Mia frowns at him, "Sorry like... your whole.. family disappeared or aren't here." Granted 'his whole family' was Zatanna, and Bunny she guessed. But still. "But you don't have to be so unsocial. I -know- you can fake being social very well." Zach "Assuming I want to." He snorts. "If I act like I like any of these people you just get dragged into more shit like this. So I'll pass." Mia "You're here anyway so obviously it doesn't matter." Zach "Yeah." He stands up suddenly. "Obviously." Zach mutters heading out of the circle and walking away. - - - Mia stretches out in her fort reading some random book she took from the longhouse it's pretty boring but whatever. Zach manages to finally slip away from the dog who has been following him around since yesterday and goes up to the Persian Terminal knocking on one of the shelves holding up Mia's fort before sticking his head in, "Hey." He says crawling inside. Mia looks up when Zach enters, though he at least knocks before he crawls inside and she sighs, "Sure just come on inside." She mutters and scoots over to give him enough room. "Good morning.." Zach smirks a little and shrugs, "'Morning." He says and leans back against the wall, though he has to bend his neck over so he doesn't bump into the top of the fort. "This isn't very comfortable in here." Mia "For you it's not." Mia says and sets her book to the side. "It's comfortable for me..." Sort of. It did kind of suck sleeping on concrete that was sort of catching up to her. But other then that it was comfortable. Zach rolls his eyes, "Sure. And I'm sure that's why you're sleeping on the ground instead of in a bed." Mia nods her head, "It is." Zach "And I'm sure that's why you've been staying up here with your dumb goats and not going back down to the camp during the day." Mia squints at him for a moment, "Are you keeping tabs on me, Zach? Aw. I didn't know you missed me so much." Zach "When I have to wake up and make my own coffee I do." He says raising his eyebrows a little bit. Mia smiles a little, "I went down to the camp yesterday. I spent the whole day down there. So." Which is totally true. Mia looks at her hands for a moment and shrugs. "It's not that I don't want to go down there or something like that..." Zach "What's it like then?" Mia leans her head back against the wall and frowns. "I don't know." Zach "Yeah, I'm sure you don't." Mia sighs. "I don't feel safe -out there-." She says and shrugs her shoulders, "And like... half the people I'd even... talk to about it I'm -soo- mad at and I don't want to see their stupid faces at all. At. All. So... I'm staying up here with the goats. Who aren't dumb." Zach nods his head slowly, "Who are you mad at?" Mia "Roy and Ollie!" Zach "Of course..." Continues to nod, then shrugs his shoulders. He really doesn't want to know what is going on in that hot mess of a family so he's not going to ask more. Mia nods as well and huffs a little slumping against the wall. She stays silent for a while before turning to Zach, "How are you doing? Y'know with Zatanna gone and all that magic stuff yesterday..." Zach "No." He says, "Lets go back to talking about you." Mia "And people say I'm closed off..." laughs a bit, "Where is your new dog friend?" Zach shrugs, "I have no idea..." Mia "Aww. You like him don't you? But you're too tsundere to say so. Like Rose and Kiki." Zach shakes his head, "Dogs should not be able to talk." Falls silent when she mentions Rose, and her dog. "Bunny would like him." Mia "He's cute!" she says and scoffs, because he is a cute dog, and he is right Bunny probably would like him. "Aw. That'd be so cute. Bunny and Barnabas. Maybe he'll go home with you.. if he even exists..." Zach "What?" He asks arching an eyebrow. "If he even exists..." Mia "Well, I don't know. Maybe he only exists because we want him to exist." She shrugs. He apparently didn't just appear, but... whatever. Zach blinks a few times and shakes his head, "I don't even want to get into... why things happen here. They happen. And they all usually suck. So, why think about it more?" Mia "Maybe so we know how to stop things from happening." Zach takes a moment before he replys. "When things get better here I'll stop being such a defeatist." Mia rolls her eyes, "And what would that entail for you? Because I don't think we're going to get a five star hotel with a fully stocked minibar any time soon." Zach turns his head and frowns at Mia, "I'd settle for my cousin." Zach shakes his head and leans forward crawling out of the fort. "See you later Mia." He mutters heading back down to the camp.

- - -

Mia wanders around, with some toast in her hand, up the the Persian and back to the camp. Then up to where the Raven used to be and back to the camp. The around the paths a few times more. Because she's wearing appropriate footwear today and she wants to go do something, or find something, or something like that but she isn't stupid enough, anymore, to go wandering off too far alone. Not after last time. Oh well. Zach he saw Mia walking along the path from the Persian when he went up there that morning to get something for his bunny to eat though he didn't acknowledge her because it was way too early for that. When he went back down into Cachement he noticed Mia walking away from the longhouse and shook his head a little not even wanting to know what she was doing until he got some coffee. Which he did and drank it letting his bunny chew on the carrot for a little. Then he walked back out of the longhouse, bunny and carrot in hand, seeing Mia walking back towards the town. "Are you lost or something?" Mia smiles a little and coos a hello to the little animal in his arms leaning forward and petting the bunny before straightening back up and shrugging. "No, I was just looking for something to do. "You want to walk to the lake with me or something?" Zach "Not really..." Mia "Yes, you do." She says shifting and putting her hands on his back walking them in the direction of the lake. "Have you even left Cachement yet? C'mon..." Zach mutters something under his breath but goes in the way Mia pushes him, "No, I haven't. And I wasn't planning on leaving until we could all go home, and look how well that has gone for me." Because it wasn't like he was getting possessed, or attacked, or disappearing. Mia turns and looks at him blinking a little, "Yeah. I guess so... Geez Zach." She says and looks a little annoyed for a moment because besides being more crabby, and sullen, and pissy, and irritable Zach seemed over all fine enough. Which wasn't fair really and made her let out a small huff as she stepped in time with him. Zach sends her an amused look, "Don't be jealous." Mia "Gross, I'm not." She says laughing a little and shaking her head. "I guess you can just brag more about never losing your composure." Zach "I never do." Mia rolls her eyes, but smirks a little, "I'm sure I could make you." Zach laughs and shakes his head, "Well, I heard your brother and Mar'i found condoms. Isn't that what you said? Come talk to you when I find cachement brand condoms..." Mia "Yeah, but I think they've used all of those, or used them as balloons so I think we've missed that boat." She says shrugging her shoulders. "Besides I don't want to have to deal with those questions." Zach shrugs, "They all already think we're dating." Mia smiles a little amused and looks over at him, "Yeah, but we're not." Zach "Well, no shit, Mia." Mia laughs and elbows him a little, "Anyway, it turns out I'm not really a very good girlfriend." Zach "I'm not a good boyfriend." He says giving a small shrug. "But I didn't ask to be yours, so. It works out." He looks down at her for a moment, "Although..." Mia "What?" Zach "Although, I do find you attractive. And you find me attractive, obviously. And you are one of the few people I like spending time with, and not just out of these people here, either." He says and shakes his head a little. "I wouldn't mind dating you." Mia laughs, "Who said I obviously find you attractive?" She asks and looks up at him for a moment before shaking her head, "I don't think I want to date anyone. And anyway I don't think you could handle all my baggage." Zach gives her a disblieving look, "Mia. C'mon." he says motioning to himself and nodding his head. But then he raises his eyebrows at her next couple statements. "One, everyone has baggage whether you want to believe it or not. And two, I'm not looking for something serious. I already said I'm not asking to be your boyfriend. I'm... I guess I'm asking if you want to go on a date. When we get home, not here." Mia hops off the little ledge thingy as they make it to the lake and turns to look back up at Zach then shrugs, "Alright. If we get home. And you better take me somewhere nice, and not like your show or something stupid like that." Zach eyes the lake behind Mia suspiciously for a moment before scoffing and giving her a look, "You'd have to buy a ticket if you want to go to my show. I'm not running a charity." Mia smiles, "Of course you're not." Turns and looks at the lake sighing a little because it looked normal at the moment. She sighs a little then hops back up onto the path and leans into Zach kissing him, before she pulls away and pats him on the chest nodding. "We should go back to the town. Nothing is happening here." Or maybe she just didn't want to be here when something did happen. Zach looks surprised for a second when she kisses him, but when she pulls away he grins slightly and nods his head, "'Kay." He says and heads back to the little town. "So, about those condoms..." Mia laughs as they walk along the path and holds her hand over his mouth shaking her head, "No. Don't ruin this." Zach nods his head and grins. "Fine. But I'm just putting that out there." He shrugs nonchalantly.

[flylikearobin]

The Place I Belong

The room is spinning when he wakes up.  He's not sure exactly where or why it's spinning, but it definitely is spinning.  Every time he blinks, the wall and ceiling turn, so he decides that leaving his eyes closed is the better option.  It isn't until he realizes that he's actually in a room and lying tucked into a comfy bed that Dick figures maybe it's worth it to try and open his eyes again.

It all looks very familiar, despite the spinning.  There's a poster for the Flying Graysons, a calendar he hasn't seen in a while of old cartoons, a console with games he hasn't played yet, and a light blue ceiling above him.  He looks down at himself, tucked into the covers, but still naked.  Well, at least one thing is right here.

The door opens and someone walks in and Dick could see that if only the room would quit spinning.

"Oh!  I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were home."

"...Alfred?"

[flylikearobin]

A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage.

William Blake

[flylikearobin]

This Bird You Cannot Change

Blood.

There's blood dripping down his face, around his eyes, over his forehead.  He doesn't mind it so much.  The blood is the only thing he knows is real; it's his only point of reference.  He's on his back, his head hanging over the side of...a cloud?  A bed?  It feels soft, but everything is deceptive here.  Whatever it is, he's resting on it, and that's what counts.  They're scattered and their giving him a break.  Something has happened.

He only remembers a few things, flashes of feelings and contact from his arrival until now.  He'd swung up to a higher branch of the beanstalk into some blinding place.  Something had taken him, enveloped him, shoved itself inside of him, then left him naked and shivering in the dark.  Voices had whispered all around him in languages he felt he should have understood, but couldn't quite grasp.  They had shown him images of things happening in the camp, of bloodshed and horror and despair, and what would he trade to stop Them?

"Nothing."

He wasn't here to trade.  He was here to tell them it was over.  They are done.

"Non-negotiable."

It had felt like reality itself had bristled at his calmness, his audacity.  They showed him Bruce and his double, Damian and the creature that wore Talia's head, the dying Child covered in blood from his brother's blade.  What would he trade?

"Nothing."

So they turned their attacks on him.  She appeared before him in the shapes of Mirage and Tarantula, touching him, kissing him, using him.  He'd closed his eyes and thought of Kori, of Barbara, of Helena and Bridget and Bette, the smell of their shampoos, of their perfumes, of kevlar and spandex and the noodles Barbara still couldn't cook and the wine Kori always brought him and the cool air of a quiet night in Bludhaven.  The touches had vanished the more he thought and the harder he felt until he'd woken up...

here

on the cloud bed

bleeding

but alive.

Dick smiles.  He will trade Them nothing, but he will get his family home.