primedirector | TLV: IC Inbox

Hey, uh. Yeah, I feel like I already kind of fucked it with him?

[She sounds immediately self-admonishing.]

I asked him if he was okay since I hadn't seen him, and I think he thought that meant he was in trouble for slacking off? I-I really just meant I hadn't seen him, so if he was sore or tired from all the bullshit that he should take it easy and I can cover him, I just... like, I'm technically his boss? Even though I gave him the key because he obviously knows more about the job than I do, he's been great about teaching me, but I think he thinks he's in trouble and that's- no, that wasn't what I meant at all.

He's a lot more angry than he is sore or tired. Sitting with somebody while she death tolls. I'm just not sure he'll want to leave. He's stubborn as fuck, though. I've seen him drag himself in there on day... three, I think, of a death toll. [She actually thinks he might be a bit more likely to skip work for Laura's death toll than his own.]

You probably haven't screwed up too badly, or you'd know it instead of suspecting it. [But Maggie likes that Jesse worries about it. It's a good sign that she probably hasn't, or will fix things.] Even I fuck up sometimes, and I've been his warden for... it'll be two years in a couple weeks. Hell, I fucked up a little today, or at least had a previous fuckup come home to roost and had to work on straightening it out.

But I skipped over introductions, sorry. I'm Maggie, by the way.

Hey, Maggie. Uh, Jesse, but- you probably already knew that, um. I've been here two months, now. First flood, but- yeah, apparently that wasn't like a normal one. Felt a lot more like something from my own world, apparently someone was playing with portals pretty badly.

Want some belated cookies? Just a way to say 'Welcome to the Barge, which is full of wonderful people and also, unfortunately, horrors.'

I'm in 203.

Honestly that's a day ending in Y, so. I think I deserve some cookies, still. Be there soon.

[And Maggie's door is... wild. So she knocks, curious but uncertain.]

"Hi, come on in. This is Fetch," Maggie says as she opens the door and steps aside to let Jesse through. The brown and white dog is, as usual, underfoot, tail wagging furiously as she greets the new person.

And Maggie's cabin is as warm and homey as ever, aside from the usual assortment of notes hanging by the door. The remnants of a blanket and pillow nest are visible over on the couch, along with a couple mugs and a popcorn bowl with just a few kernels remaining. Maggie has been holed up all day and living on comfort food.

A rare genuine smile crosses Jesse's face as she kneels down immediately to pat Fetch with both hands, scruffing eagerly under her ears. "Hey, girl. You keeping your mom safe?"

(She's not not an animal person, but it's immediately obvious she's never lived with one for an extended period.)

It takes her a minute to stand up, giving Fetch one last pat before she actually looks around. She looks out of place in the cosy room, in her all-black leather jacket and jeans, but she gives Maggie a more awkward smile. "Nice place."

"I mean, I'm a werewolf, so if there's a guard dog in this cabin, it's me." Just saying.

As she heads into the kitchen, Maggie adds, "And the house belonged to my grandparents. It was in too rural an area to be safe after the zombie uprising back home, so it stood vacant for years. But we did a bunch of security upgrades and moved in after I turned twenty one."

...no way.

Jesse follows a step or two behind, still looking around, but now eyeing Maggie curiously. "So are you from, like... a magic world? With- you know." She lifts one hand to wave vaguely, tucking the other into her jeans pocket. "Werewolves and zombies and stuff. Sounds like it's a lot."

"The werewolf thing is a recent development, actually. There are five of us on board at the moment. Because the Barge is the kind of weird where you wind up dating a time traveling werewolf with touch telepathy, and when you broach the subject of possibly becoming a wolf, she immediately says you'd be an amazing pack matriarch and gets on board with the idea."

Maggie shakes her head, and she'll gesture Jesse to a seat at the kitchen table, where a plate of chocolate chip cookies is waiting. "Honestly, I feel like writing fiction was probably better preparation for this place than anything else in my life. I just had to wrap my head around the fact that anything that could happen in stories is actually possible."

Because it wasn't like that in her world. "Our zombie virus is just medical science gone horribly wrong. I've never seen any signs of magic, or anything that might be mistaken for it, back home."

She has to pause and kind of just stare for a few seconds. Before she shakes her head and takes the offered seat, and grabs a cookie. "Hashtag Barge life, I guess."

But she is curious, watching Jesse with unashamed interest, and she swallows her cookie so she can talk.

"Yeah, uh. We don't have like, magic magic in my world, I don't think. Pretty much all the supernatural bullshit I know about is because stuff from other universes, like. Broke through the veil, I guess? And started infecting things. Sometimes it doesn't really do much, it just... makes things a little weird or superpowered. Or it nearly blows up an entire town, there's... not really a halfway."

She picks up another cookie. "These are so good, by the way."

"Huh. How long has that been happening? Or how long have you... lived with the knowledge, I guess, if those answers are different."

Maggie smiles at the compliment. "You want anything to drink? I have pretty much everything."

That gets a dry huff.

"I'm normally a beer girl, but these might go good with coffee?" She shifts to lean both elbows on the counter, more comfortable and at ease. "And as far as anyone knows, that's just... how things work. The problems start when things get pushy about it."

She holds the cookie in both hands, turning it idly in her hands. "I've met a couple of, uh. Beings, I guess, from other dimensions." She shrugs. "Technically one of them is my boss? I think I'm also..."

She looks up with a frown. She just doesn't know how to phrase it. "I think one of them is part of me now? Her main, um. Anchor, body, sort of, i-it got destroyed. And, uh. I think all of her... presence, in our reality. Came back to me. Like... filings to a magnet. Maybe."

Maggie's brow furrows, and she pauses in pulling coffee grounds down from the cabinet. "Is she a separate consciousness, sometimes or always present? Or like... a hum of background noise? Or do you not usually feel her? Of course, if I'm missing some possibility, feel free to insert your own description."

She'll get coffee brewing now, she just had to ask about that.

Her head snaps up a little quickly, broken out of the existential-crisis rabbit-hole by remembering Maggie's still there.

"Uhh..." She huffs a heavy breath out, flapping her bangs up before she rubs her face with one hand. "All of the above? I barely remember what it's like without her. But she doesn't... talk, not like you and I are. It's like... feelings, urges, prompting me to check something out for her. She's not my boss, we're a team. I called her Polaris. Like-" and she does a lazy little jazzhands, elbows not leaving the table. "You know, the north star."

Edited 2024-09-03 08:04 (UTC)

"Mm." Maggie starts the coffeemaker and turns to face Jesse, leaning against the counter. "That's definitely better than some possibilities, in terms of otherworldly entities sharing your body. Glad you two are a good fit for one another."

She feels the soft press of Polaris' grateful love against her, and she smiles faintly.

"Definitely makes me feel like I fit in here, at least," she adds, resting on her elbows again. "Just one more weirdo in a grade-A looney bin."

"How's settling into Barge craziness going?" Maggie asks. "You got hit with a lot right off the bat."

"Would you believe that's been the easy part?" She leans on on hand to gesture at the room. "All of this is my job back home, the weird- everything changing every time you enter a new area. Magic rooms inside magic rooms, sort of thing. I have a lamp cord where if you pull it three times you get send to this motel that might exist between universes."

She gives a light huff. "Honestly, it's being in charge of people that's the weird part. Still new to me."

Maggie laughs. "That part's my bread and butter. I run the fiction department of a global news site back home. I've got twenty writers working directly under me. And I work closely with the heads of our factual and action news departments, so I adopt their employees too. I'm pretty sure some of them have jokingly started calling me and Mahir "Mom and Dad" behind our backs. There's a reason Iris looked at me and went 'yeah, you're a pack matriarch waiting to happen.'"

Thoughtfully, she adds, "Actually, I miss it. Having a whole bunch of people it was literally my job to look out for. Things here are more... fractured and complicated."

Edited 2024-09-30 17:22 (UTC)

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