Strokes of Genius: Thursday

[onlymistaken]

Cally was not sleeping at the counter this week. Oh no. She was instead throwing highliter pens at a gremlin who'd tiptoed in and sunk its wicked little teeth half an inch into her ankle before it finally realized she was wearing combat boots and all it was going to taste was leather and steel.

"And stay out!" accompanied a large green marker whooshing toward its big-eared head. "It took hours to get this stuff off my face last week!" Cally perhaps had just a little frustration left over from wondering where her weekend went.

[Open!]

Comments

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"This weekend was really weird," Dolf sincerely understated as he wandered in, hands stuck in his pockets. Like a sad sack.

[onlymistaken]

"You remember this weekend?" Cally shot back, but only verbally. No flying markers at his head.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"...Yes," Dolf said, frowning at her. "Are you pretending that you don't?"

Not that he'd seen her all weekend.

[onlymistaken]

"...No," Cally answered with a pause containing equal numbers of elliptically-represented seconds. "I actually don't remember anything between going to sleep on Friday night and waking up Monday morning.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"...I think there were parties," Dolf said, slowly. "Everyone had gotten very old. Or at least... older. But that's weird."

[onlymistaken]

Cally frowned. "Do you remember seeing me?" Hopefully not doing anything embarrassing?

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"I... don't really remember?"

Somehow, that felt wrong.

[onlymistaken]

"No one I've handwavily shut up asked has remembered seeing me; I wasn't mentioned on the radio, either."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf tried to think about it, he really did, but in his rapidly fading memories of the weekend all he found was a little distant sadness.

"I... maybe you were off-island?"

[onlymistaken]

Cally rubbed her neck. "I suppose. If my older self had returned to Auron, coming back here might not have been possible."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"That might be it?" Dolf volunteered, hopefully. "You went back to Auron but you couldn't make it back here." He winced. "Not that I'd like it if that happened, but you get what I mean."

[onlymistaken]

"Yes." She folded her arms on the counter and leaned on them, feeling both cheered and...conflicted. "Do you suppose that those who were older are true representations of what the future will be? Or is it like the children - only possibilities?"

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"I don't remember enough to be able to tell," Dolf sighed. "But most of the time it's just possibilities here, yes? So why would this be different?"

[onlymistaken]

"True enough." Cally gave him a half-wattage smile. "I'm just a little unsure whether to let myself be happy about the chance I'll get home again, or not."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"I'd like you to be able to see home again," Dolf said, after a moment. "But I don't want you to leave forever to do it." He sighed. "You should be happy about it, though."

[onlymistaken]

"So noted," she answered with a small laugh, as if deciding to be happy was just that easy. "So do you recall what this possible future you was doing with his life?"

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Not much of it," Dolf said, running his hand through his hair. "But I think I was working on a time machine? And there was something about Faramir and visits and..." He squinted. "But that's fuzzy."

[onlymistaken]

"Why am I unsurprised that you would be developing a time machine?" Cally grinned. "Hopefully one with better controls than the one that stranded you in the past." It wouldn't take much to have better control than whatever had stranded her in the past.