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[begot]

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AMY

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@starr

[unfazeable]

Hello, Amy. This is Ava Starr. Came with Bob, yesterday.

[how else to put it.]

Thought I'd check in, but don't worry about replying if you're busy getting sorted out, still. The doc patch you two up all right? How's your fella?

[begot]

hi, ava.

[ She remembers — of course she remembers, when Ava had phased through the door. ]

i'm alright. rupert's on the mend, but we're taking things slowly.

and i'm sorry, i meant to reach out soon to say thank you. if you hadn't gotten to us when you did

[ The message splits, like it's too much for her to think about. She swerves, rather than follow the thought through to its implied conclusion. ]

you were amazing. i've never seen anything like that before.
i'm sure you hear that a lot.

[unfazeable]

[ava was not gifted with great sympathy, but it's easy to find. does the flattery help? she's not used to it.]

That's very sweet. It's just the side-effect of an accident, actually. I've used my abilities for a long time, but frankly, not always for as good a cause.

[if she had wherewithal or, you know, a mirror, she'd know she was blushing. instead, she's just leaned over the dining room table, chewing a carrot stick, unclear why her thoughts are fuzzed at the edges.]

You really don't need to apologize for anything. You're looking after him, right? Unless the doctor's staying over? Must be hands full.

[begot]

[ It's a surprisingly honest answer — one that suggests a lever worth pressing, or at least being aware of. ]

an accident?

please. you willingly put yourself in harm's way for the sake of strangers. not everyone would.
and yes, i've been playing nursemaid. i can't complain — i couldn't do anything for him when we were kidnapped, but i can now, you know?

[unfazeable]

My old man blew himself up with unstable quantum energy. He and mum didn't make it. I came back different. Bit of a terminal medical condition for awhile, actually, but then a different team worked it out.

[iS THAT ALL. the story does looks weirder, typed out, instead of monologued aloud in a pain hallucination.]

Used to do this sort of thing for money, but here, we've no material need unmet. Context is different. Thank you, though. You're very cool about it, considering Max and Faith had to get the bloody door. It's better, not feeling helpless. I understand.

[begot]

[ The scale of her story is less shocking given the fact that Amy has already seen her pass through a solid door — given that people here talk about vampires and resurrection as everyday things, not the stuff of fairytales — but it's still one that bears reading twice before composing a response. ]

i'm so sorry for your loss. but i'm glad, at least, that you're not in any immediate danger anymore.

if anything, i'd say the lack of compensation makes it all the more meaningful that you'd be willing to act. anyway, i've seen people knock down doors before. i've never seen anyone go through one — at least not outside of the movies.

[unfazeable]

Oh. It's nice to have my own cachet, then. Suppose you're right, I stuck out a bit in my old world, too.

[strange to acknowledge. is this what public-facing feels like? she's not the one who asked for it, would never really have thought. too intrinsically concerned with invisibility to have considered the benefits of—well, visibility.]

Should have just said 'you're welcome.' You're welcome. That's what I meant.

[begot]

i guess saying "thanks" again would just put us in a loop, so i won't.

so this was your job, before? rescuing people?

[unfazeable]

No. Wouldn't say that. I was a government contractor. Unfortunately, a lot of the assignments were a bit shitty. I wouldn't want to upset you with the details, but there's a few of us here have that in the past.

[in an hour, it'll be a stray inkling, an odd moment of realization. not a normal share for a conversation with a woman you just met. but the grief portraits are still raw, amy's gracious enthusiasm as fresh as cut flowers.]

I'm just now realizing I've assumed you're a civilian. Is that right?

[begot]

[ Government contractor is a fun sort of wrinkle, though it makes sense that any supernatural ability would eventually be conscripted in one way or another. ]

so you already knew some of the people here?

and yes, civilian. nothing special. there's nothing like this where i'm from, really. no magic, no vampires, no heroes.

[unfazeable]

I do. Yes. Bob, who you might have seen pop in and out a bit, with the doctor. Yelena, Bucky. The Avengers, they're called?

[it sounded a bit stupid even when she was back home. she wonders if it sounds stupider to an outworlder, but amy's being a good sport. something to do with having been rescued from a nightmare with her older beau? earns you all kinds of idiosyncrasy points, apparently.]

You're more like the soccer girls, then. Just on your way through normal days back home, and suddenly you wind up in the shit with us?

[begot]

i think even they've been through more than i have.
but yes, basically.

so how much of this is actually, you know
weird
to you?

[unfazeable]

Well, we haven't got vampires, far as I know. And one's brain doesn't usually collapse into agony after you walk past a certain boundary line from a very fancy house. We've definitely have got aliens and interdimensional travel back home, though, and those things seem related. So, honestly, it's that the rich white people in charge don't usually let you come to dinner with them.

You know what I mean, right? You look posh, but you're not a Balfour, back home. It's the weirdest bit. They give us clothes, let us drink their wine. Don't even try to have sex with us, even if everything else is about that. Isn't that odd?

[begot]

it is odd.
maybe it's because they're from here? they were here before any of us arrived, as far as i know.

[unfazeable]

Like wealth just works differently here? Maybe they haven't got a labor class like we know it, that sort of thing?

[begot]

no, i mean, maybe the rules don't apply to them in the same way because they have some affinity for this place.

[unfazeable]

Oh. Well that, sure. They do seem to come and go as they please and probably do other things I'm not aware of. On account I've been here for five minutes. You'd know better. Hopefully it's not always sadistic vampire men.

[begot]

this is the first time for sadistic vampires, as far as i'm aware. i have a very charming and polite vampire for a roommate, though, so don't let him color your opinion.

[unfazeable]

Oh, that's quite good as attitudes go. We had a bit of a metahuman prejudice problem back home. Actually sort of all started with someone here, but everyone seems to be getting on now.

Mind me asking who your roommate is? Be nice not to get to know how they normally are.

[begot]

i'm sorry to hear that. i can't imagine, when it's not even something you chose. am i allowed to ask who it was?

lestat, if you've seen him? he plays at the piano bar sometimes, he's quite good.

[unfazeable]

Think I shouldn't say.

[it takes ava a long moment to type as much. is it fair? is it not? poor woman just survived a weird immortal monster attack but doesn't seem to hold it against the rest of the kind. but wanda maximoff got bob's sign-off, and while ava honestly has no idea how much credibility to assign that, it'd be a shame to start a fuss over nothing.]

But if I hear of any trouble, I'll reach out. Promise. We're all in this together, or so I'm told.

I don't think I have seen him. I'll have to look in on the piano bar.

[begot]

we're all in this together.

[ Affirmation, offered easily. ]

i try to go once a week. you can come with me next time, if you want.

[unfazeable]

[dot dot dot, vanish. ('when?')

dot dot dot, vanish. ('yes i'm excited.')

dot dot dot, vanish. ('what should i know about piano bars?')]

Sure. Sounds great. Glad I've met someone who knows their way around.

[begot]

[ Without hesitation, by contrast: ]

okay, yay! 🙂 tomorrow night work for you?

[unfazeable]

[does it? does it not? what is the standard reconnaissance time on a piano bar. ava cannot remember whether or not she's ever murdered someone in one, but if she did, it certainly wasn't located inside a billionaire's mc escheresque british mansion with its sundry vampires and seven sentient libraries.]

Yeah. Cool. What time?

[hopefully, somebody's in the piano bar tonight. a minimum sample of fifteen women with a pattern of dress recognizable to the uninitiated? it can't be that hard. if only lestat liked to play piano in a dive bar. or an urban battlefield.]