maskormenace

[ the feed comes on to show a boy with very tall hair and a much shorter girl with scratches on her face over her eye, one looking rather cheerful and the other less so. ]

Hi hi hi everyone, I have an important question. [ he holds up a finger, tilts his head as if a thought had just occurred to him. he's so preoccupied he was going to launch himself into his spiel without even introducing himself. ] I'm being rude. I am Henry Cheng, and we were wondering —

[ the not so tall and in fact very short girl interrupts. ] We're looking for someone we know! [ she pulls a little face, looking over at Mr. Henry Cheng. ] A few people, actually. [ okay, maybe that was a little rude. she murmurs something unintelligible and takes a step back. please, proceed. ]

And that was my lovely friend Blue. [ he gestures with a flourish toward her, shoots her a wink, absolutely unbothered by the interruption or her outburst. ] As she said, we are looking for someone. Multiple someones. I'm sure this place has a list of sorts, yes? A quick way to CTRL-F a friend's name and find out their status?

[ he looks a bit more serious, then, like underneath the cheerfulness he's exhausted. his next words are very earnest. ]

We would appreciate any info. Thank you.

[ in the background, Blue begins tromping away, shedding dead leaves for some reason, and can be vaguely heard to say 'maybe we should've mentioned Gansey by name' before the video ends. ]

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[ Blue tilts her head so her chin is resting on Gansey's chest. This way, she can watch the little ball of light floating over them. It really does feel warm. ]

It wasn't just me. [ She glances in Henry's direction for a second. She knows, but can't really put into words just yet, that if not for Henry, Gansey might not be here. Actually, she's having trouble even thinking it, because the thought takes her several places she's not sure she wants to go just yet. Later.

Right now, she lets a little smile onto her face. It's hard not to smile. Hard not to want to smile. ] He's already getting pretty good at that.

[ Blue, meanwhile, has no kind of handle on her new gift. Gifts. Whatever they are. She's still shedding a dead leaf or two. That's another thing she'd like to stick on her "to deal with later" list. She hugs Gansey a little more tightly. ]

[ Not content with just looking at the orb of light, Gansey reaches out to touch it. It's warm against his fingertips and then gone, like a star that didn't quite catch. ]

That's marvellous.

[ And then he extends that half and makes it a fist, for Henry to bump. His other arm stays firmly around Blue. He's unlikely to let her go any time soon; he feels better just being in her presence, with the scent of her hair washing over him.

Christ, he loves her smile. ]

I can't believe you're here. The others don't remember anything, they've not seen it yet. I didn't know how to tell them.

[ He still doesn't. How exactly would that conversation go? 'We found Glendower and he was dead, and then we agreed that I would die to save a magical forest, which ended up dying to save me instead, and by the way a demon tried to kill us all.' He hadn't known where to start. ]

Looks like we showed up right on time. [ he says that like he has no idea what time even means anymore. but there'll be time to sit down and get talked through all of this, he's sure.

and to tell the others what they missed, but henry will stay in his lane when it comes to that and let gansey and blue decide what to do, or how to do it. he'll follow.

he feels for gansey, though, arriving right after that and his friends not knowing and not being sure how to bring it up. he wouldn't know how, either. ]

[ Blue lingers as close to Gansey as she thinks she can reasonably get away with doing. It's not like she expects him to vanish into thin air or something. But how's she to know? Especially now. She looks over at Henry when he speaks, brow furrowed a little. There's a lot on her mind and in her eyes, but what parts of it she ought to voice, she's not sure.

And she doesn't like that feeling much. Obstinately, she grabs a handful of Gansey's shirt, like she can somehow anchor him here. ]

Whatever you want to do, that's what we'll do. [ It's Gansey's to tell, she thinks. But, to keep a hold on how she's feeling, she adds a little: ] You should take advantage of that while you can, because I'm not going to make a habit out of letting you do whatever you want.

[ Utter bravado. There's no way she's fooling either of them with that, but in a way this is better. These are the only people she thinks she'd be okay with seeing her like this. Never mind that a whole bunch of people just did, thanks to that broadcast. Add that to the list of things she's not thinking about. ]

[ Blue says that like there is a future they can have together where she tells him what to do, and Gansey finds himself smiling because he knows that it's true.

It really is true, now. He can have a future. He will live beyond this year.

He leans his cheek against her head. ]

I'll bear that in mind.

You must have so many questions, though. Both of you, about this place. Will we go somewhere?

[ He looks between them. ]

Coffee? This might go down better over coffee.

[ he does have a lot of questions. blue certainly must have her own. watching them makes him happy, though, and makes getting answers more of a curiosity thing and less of a 'i am five seconds from panicking' thing.

besides, he trusts gansey, and it's a relief to not only see him alive but also to see he knows just where they're coming from. quite literally.

he looks over at blue, tilting his head as if to ask what do you think? ]

I think coffee sounds nice.

[ Blue absolutely does not realize it, but when Gansey touches his cheek to her head, she smiles a little. Well, things might be massively confusing and they may've left home at a pretty upsetting time to be dragged away, but the three of them are here now and that feels right somehow. ]

Coffee sounds good. I'm not going to complain about a lot right now, so take advantage of that too.

[ Feisty about not being feisty: a Blue Sargent story. ]

[ This general agreement means that Gansey extracts himself enough from Blue’s arms to take her hand, because honestly, he just doesn’t want to stray far from her right now. ]

I know a nice place. It’s this way. This is Heropa, by the way.

[ This is addressed to both of them; he looks between Blue and Henry. He isn’t keen on letting either of them out of his sight. ]

It’s called a porter city. There’s a smaller version of the machine that brought you here, and it’s connected to similar ones in the other cities. Those are Maurtia Falls, Nonah and De Chima. The latter of which is in Virginia, and it’s where I was when you called.

Our house isn’t far from it.

[ He says ‘our’, meaning his and his friends, and ‘our’, meaning yours as well, both of you. He’ll be selling that pitch soon enough; for now, he holds open the door of the coffee house. Caffeine definitely helps this all to go down better, in his experience. ]

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