ph_logs | [OPEN] And I'll dream each night of some version of you

[OPEN] And I'll dream each night of some version of you

Who: Alice Dyer (

closureisformovies), Samama "Sam" Khalid (

huntingtruths) & you!
What: Alice and Sam arrive back from their canon update
When: Early May
Where: Around, locations in prompts
Warnings: Reference to gun violence; typical horror protagonist things; specifics in headers. Magnus Protocol Spoilers up to Episode 40.
Notes: Open prompts for both Alice and Sam will be down in the comments! Body of the post is meta/closed to Sam.

It's just her luck, really. Goes to talk to some spooky external— thing and don't even die because it's dangerous, oh no, that'd be too logical. She was prepared for that risk. Getting accidentally shot by her overeager bodyguard she didn't ask for? That's the level of absurdity that her life is made of, these days, so of course that's what happened instead.

(Gwen Bouchard, when she fucking sees you again...)

The memories hit when Mortanne welcomes her back and with it, the fact that Sam was here, too, the first time, so if she's here again, then surely— maybe— she almost doesn't dare to ask but she does and Mortanne says yes, and, well, after that it's all she can do not to cry with relief.

She's alone on the ferry, except for ferryman. It's the most nervewracking few minutes of travel of her life and she spends it shifting from foot to foot, scratching at her arm, pulling at her hair—nervous, scared, anxious, excited, she doesn't know. She just knows that Mortanne wouldn't lie. So she pays her fare, steps off the boat, and then stands on the dock to wait.

She's not going anywhere until he turns up. She doesn't care how long it takes.

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Eyes slipping closed for just a moment, Sam lets himself lean into the touch. He's tired. After everything that has happened he's so tired. He feels like he can breath again and it's hard not to want to just curl up right then. It might be a thought to snag a room at the Oak and Iron tonight, at least until he can get his keys back.

Or something.

But Alice is talking and he's so glad she understands. He knew she would, he was there when she lost her parents. Knows that she of all the people he knows understands grief. He can't help but chuckle a bit at the gentle joke.

"Made it through the shit we couldn't and still in the end..." We....more like he. Shaking his head as much as he can without dislodging himself. "It's so good to see you again..."

"I knew we would. I knew I'd find you somehow."

She means it, despite the mad panic that's been driving her actions for weeks. She had to believe it, had to believe that somehow she'd pull it off, or she'd crack. And if she cracked then they'd stand no chance. She had to stay strong enough to push through.

Maybe this isn't how she planned it. Maybe at home there's still work to be done. But she was right. He's alive to be found. And until then, he's here.

Her eyes mist. "You're never allowed to go missing again, yeah? It does nothing for my work-life balance and makes me miss you so bad I look stupid in front of everyone."

Seeing the way her eyes mist over and the attempt at humor, Sam can't help put use the grip he already had on her hands to pull her into him and wrap his arms around her.

"I can't promise not to go missing but I can promise I will try my best not to. I wish it didn't happen in the first place." His thoughts turn to Celia again and there's a bitterness there now. He hates that she had lied to him, even if she said she really had liked him in the end she still planned on tossing him in that place with no care on if he lived or not. There was no way she could have known for certain.

Alice's arms wrap around him in turn, clinging on so very tight, and her face buries itself against his shoulder. She missed him, she missed him so fucking much.

"Good enough for me," she murmurs. If this is what it takes for him to be a little less impulsive about these things, she'll take it.

Her fists curl tight into his shirt. "I can't believe that— that sneak, she's been lying to my face for weeks—"

It's weird, being back here after what feels like months. Hasn't been more than a month and change here, apparently—which of course just makes it weirder.

The Alice that's set foot back into Pumpkin Hollow looks frayed at the edges and yet more alive all at once. The dye in her hair has changed, a warm pink that stretches from her grown-in roots down to where the old teal-green shows spottily through the ends. A rush job. The kind of dye job you do one night in your bathroom just to feel in control of a life that's spiralling far out of your reach.

So maybe the life in her is manic energy, but it's also relief.

First things first: she drops in to Town Hall to get her keys and everything back, and to crash the party (read: her co-workers normal working day).

"Hey, losers (affectionate)," yes, she does say that out loud, "you better not have cleaned out my desk or I'll be having words."

Once she's got everything sorted she heads back to her apartment, where she can shortly after be heard groaning at the mess her Pokemon have made of the place in her absence. How much damage can an Impidimp and a Snubbull do? Quite a lot, apparently, at least in terms of strewing things all over the place and getting into all her drawers and food storage.

And then it's a matter of trying to just... get back to it. Go buy new groceries to fill the icebox. Swing by the O&I for a drink and to see if she catches anyone. Swing by the homes or workplaces of the people she's closest with to show them she's back.

Don't worry about where she's been. She's fine, see? Totally fine.

"Huh?"

Radar looks up, blinking, from where he's indeed standing over a pretty well cleaned-out desk with a few folders in hand. Automatically, "Oh, no, ma'am, this is my desk, not yours. Wait -- "

A light finally clicks on behind his eyes. "Miss Dyer?"

"The one and only! Ooh, hm, actually—" given what Sam's not long told her about the other her from another universe, that doesn't feel quite so true. Anyway. She clears her throat. "Anyway, more importantly—why're you packing up, Radar? I know I've been gone for a bit but christ, what've I missed?"

Few places better on this island to drink and smoke than the Oak & Iron, save for maybe Empty Pockets. Alice likely knows she'll find Gerry occupying a chair at one of the outdoor tables there for nearly the entirety of any Tuesday that isn't too cold, drinking a beer and puffing away at his "dinner". (A joke, he insists. He'll eat a real meal. Probably.)

And there he is when she arrives. He perks up immediately. "Alice! Where the hell----" Oh her hair. He notices it instantly. It looks incredible, which can only mean one thing. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Her face brightens the second he spots her.

"The better question might be what hasn't happened—" is the largely unhelpful immediate answer, she'll elaborate in a minute. Right now she's bust going for the hug, breathing very real relief that he's still here to be found. The last few months have been so... lonely. "Christ it's good to see you—"

Sam feels himself relax more and can't help the chuckle at the anger he feels from her. He shouldn't laugh and he knows that. It's just hard when the laughter is from relief. Relief that someone else knows that they were betrayed now. That he was betrayed.

"She probably won't help you since...since she definitely doesn't want me telling you all what she did. But that place Alice...I can't blame her for not wanting to go back."

"Alice!"

There's a voice Fever's been wondering if she'd ever hear again, a relief that it wasn't permanent welling up in her chest. Whatever she's dealing with can wait, being set aside so she can take Alice in. Her hair - it looks remarkable, a striking change.

"Where have you been? We had votes between you somehow ending up in that Paradesium or spirited away by fairies."

"Aww, you started voting on my disappearance. You really did miss me, I'm touched," Alice jokes, hand to her heart. Though, really, she is genuinely quite touched to have been missed at all. "I got called back home—me and Sam both, actually. Then we both managed to nearly die again so, y'know, you can guess how things have been going back there. It's been months for me."

"Yeah, well, I haven't seen it, so I can," says the bitter part of her. Oh, she can see the logic that led the woman there, sure—she has the baby and everything. But... "Or at the very least I can fuckin' blame her for sending you there when she knew it was shit! Couldn't she've thrown Bouchard through instead?"

Now she's being silly, she knows.

"Yes you can," It's said in the fondest 'yes dear' sort of tone even as he can't help but chuckle. Right now he can laugh because it's Alice, later he'll surly be seething about it alone in his apartment. "Wow, resorting to last names with Gwen now? That bad?"

You may be joking but he knows that tone still Alice.

"Yeah. That bad." She huffs. "I got back to the office the day after you disappeared to her telling me Lena was gone and she was in charge! Still don't even know what she did to oust her, but we've been flying freaking blind ever since! Half the time she still tries to pretend the computers didn't eat Colin."

Beat.

"Yeah so the computers ate Colin. That's how he, y'know. I mean I know we always said the system was gonna be the death of him but, ha, I guess Freddy took that as a challenge."

If she doesn't joke about it she'll cry and that's worse.

Radar's been worrying about Alice ever since she stopped showing up to work. He really likes her; the way she's always cracking jokes reminds him of Hawkeye, sometimes, especially on busy days when they're all run a little ragged. Plus she's even taught him a little bit of slang from seventy years in the future, which makes him feel really cool.

(He does not sound cool. He sounds exactly like someone from the 1950s would trying to use slang from the 2020s, even though he's way younger than Alice.)

So why does he feel so awful for a split second when he sees her again? Why does he think, it's not fair, before he recoils in horror at how mean it is to be thinking something like that?

"Oh, I'm leaving to go work at Baker Ranch full time," he says, a little vaguely. "I dunno for how long. But -- where're you been? Are you okay?"

The best way to shake the last of that mean thought from his head: check up on his friend. Remind himself, sternly, that he is glad she's back and looking mostly okay.

"Well hey, look who's back!"

Zivia is up from her desk as Alice passes by, hands outstretched in what's either a dramatic gesture of welcome or an offer of a hug, whichever Alice wants it to be.

Alice will go for the hug. She's actively remembering how much nicer it is to work in an office that's actually got people in it that she doesn't want to throttle.

"Didn't think you could get rid of me that easy, didja?"

That pulls her up short, a flicker of uncertainty on how to react to that news. On one hand, Alice still considers that home. On the other, being away for months and nearly dying is bad news. As bright as Alice is being, all the changes at bare minimum have to be abrupt. Unsettling. And probably a huge relief to be back, from the sight of it.

"A little over a month, on our end. But...are the both of you all right?"

Which is subjective in general, but if she wants to talk about what happened, Fever will make time for her.

It's a chance run-in that, in the remarkably pleasant spring afternoon, Jon spots a familiar face at the market. Little stalls in warmer weather make for nice browsing, and after the turbulence of a world of waking nightmares, he thinks he's well overdue for small, mundane pleasantries. And what better mundane pleasantry than catching up with someone he hasn't seen in a few months? (God, he's really got to get better at maintaining his social life. Coming back to it has made it glaring just how bad at this he is.)

"Oh, hey, it's--- Alice, right?" Even if he's just asking for propriety's sake, he doesn't look any less pleased for it, offering her a playful little grin. "It's been a while. They've figured out pink hair dye here since last time, have they?"

"We are now." Mostly, anyway. Still reeling, certainly, and still figuring some things out, but... "Better than we were back there. We got... separated, a couple months in. It's a long story."

The kind of story she'd expect to start popping out of the computers back home, because of course that's where their lives were destined to end up.

"But y'know, we're here now! So things are gucci again."

Alice straightens up sharply, immediately distracted from studying a selection of pears by the sound of that Fucking Voice. Which is how one Jonathan Sims ends up with a pear being waved in his face as Alice thrusts her hand out and says: "You— you and your— computer voice! You're still here!!"

The pear is being shaken.

"Oh, shit, for real? Did something happen? Are you like, okay?"

What is it with her leaving for a minute and coming back to find out everyone's managed to get into some situation or other? Colin got eaten by a computer in the few hours she was away from the office, Gwen somehow got Lena sacked and took over, Sam got himself attacked by an External in the time it took her to get a drink with Teddy... not to mention everything after that.

She clears her throat. "But uh, yeah, no, I'm fine. Mostly fine. Me and Sam got sent home for a bit, not sure why, dunno if we learned anything important or just got fresh new funky trauma on our way to nearly dying again. Hard to say."

"Wh--- I---"

Jon sputters, reeling back from his face full of pear, trying to look around the shaking fruit. That's right, she did tell him about the computer voice, he'd nearly forgotten. He'd hoped he might have answers about that by now. (Of all the answers he got, not a word about a computer. What is that about?)

"Yes, I'm still here! Or, well--- back, as of the other day, I think I was gone for a week of time here, but--- y--- yes?" Not the most graceful response he's ever given, but considering the shaking pear, he'll cut himself some slack on this one.

The pear drops a few inches and Alice's eyes narrow suspiciously at him. "Funny, that, 'cuz I just got back a few days ago. Though apparently me and Sam were gone about a month."

Longer than that on her end, of course, more like three. The three most chaotic months of her goddamned life, almost more so than things got here.

"And you," the pear is up again, "were still there readin' off bloody cases!"

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[OPEN] And I'll dream each night of some version of you

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Alice Dyer | OTA

town hall

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Town Hall

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Around Town

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