The Perk, Wednesday Afternoon

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

It had taken a day or so, but Kerrigan had finally recuperated from the severe blow losing most of her Swarm had dealt to her system. She'd assumed her human guise anew and arranged some housing for River and herself, and now...

Well, now she was indulging old, human patterns. She ordered a cup of coffee at the counter and sat down with it at a table, sipping it. Caffeine hadn't tasted right to her for years now, but the habit was almost... comforting... to the few scraps of humanity that persisted underneath the zerg and the hunger.

Another human trapping: her mobile phone. She reached for it, wondering if Emma had encountered this same... issue recently, perhaps left some kind of message. And she did have a voicemail...

...except it wasn't Emma. It wasn't Emma at all.

"Lee," she murmured. Those human scraps of her felt distraught, angry, terrified.

The zerg part of her still didn't care, and it was vastly greater.

But she didn't delete the message.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

Emma was her own message as she stalked into the Perk, simply slapping her credit card down as the terrified staff handed over her usual drink, already made and waiting for her.

Someone had been a Naughty Girl and telepathically phoned-in her order on the way over, and the staff really really hated it when she did that without warning.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

That presence didn't take a whole lot more to call Kerrigan's attention, really.

"Emma," she called. She couldn't care less about the staff; they had always been terrified of her anyway.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma smoothly picked up her drink, winked at the poor cashier, and went over to sit down across from Kerrigan as if she'd totally planned the entire outing that way.

"Have you seen that board? It's wretchedly depressing," she asked, wriggling her fingers in greeting. "If people don't find something to hit soon, the whole island might explode."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"The one by the school?" Kerrigan mused. "I took a look at it." Your run-of-the-mill Wall of Remembrance. She'd seen the marines use them, though the Ghosts had had no use for them - they preferred to stay out of each other's way. "Can't say I'd be disappointed if we did get something to hit, though."

[icecoldfrost]

"I have been told once or twice that violence is rarely a positive solution, ma'am," Emma replied primly, taking a long sip of her mocha. "Although when it is, it is generally a very therapeutic one."

And one she'd love to use on a few of her classmates at college, since Jonothon seemed so down on her just making a few tweaks.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Kerrigan snorted softly. "Spoken by people who think anybody getting killed is a negative solution, probably," she said. "Some people just need killing."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma wrinkled her nose. "But still messy," she sighed, making a face. "Not that I disagree, mind you, but I still prefer slightly tidier solutions to problems."

Like rewriting the brain of, say, Rene, and Emma smiled slightly to recall it. That had been fun and profitable, even though violence probably would have been faster.

"Should I even ask why you're here, Lieutenant?" she asked, changing the topic. "Or shall I assume that it's the same reason as the rest of us."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

The memory flitted past Kerrigan's attention. She examined it for a brief time, then made another note to look into consciousness-altering spores.

"I think that's safe to assume," she said. "My universe just got wiped clean away, so I went where I could."

[icecoldfrost]

She'd put her foot in her mouth again, and Emma winced internally. "Sorry to hear it," she said softly. "I'd offer you a place in mine, but it seems to be having difficulty with Portalocity transit."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"You haven't experienced any irregularities?" Kerrigan checked. She did need somewhere to bring her Swarm back to life, somewhere safe...

[icecoldfrost]

"My roommate is gone," Emma admitted. "She might have just dropped out, but no one seems to remember her. Then again, that means nothing on a college campus, because most of them are simply self-centered twits."

"More worrying is that things are missing in New York. Street vendors that have been there for years. Long-term members of the transient population, businesses in SoHo....and no one besides me seems to notice, which I gather is part of the effect, but it seems stable enough for now."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Kerrigan nodded thoughtfully - but mentally struck it off her list. "I'm sorry," she offered, because that's what people tended to say. "I know how you feel about that town."

[icecoldfrost]

"It took me over a week to get here, you know," Emma replied, tapping her fingers against the tabletop in frustration. "I was supposed to just come out for Thanksgiving, but I got rerouted over the entire unknown universe and now I think I'm stuck."

"I don't know if I'd go back now, even if I could." As much as she loved New York and Hank, Emma loved being alive more. She was just going to have to work to get Hank out from their universe from Fandom.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"I'd advise against it, if it's anything like my world," Kerrigan said, and snorted. "Going down with the ship is all well and good, but it doesn't really help anyone, does it?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Not in the slightest," Emma agreed. "But I thought I was only coming for the weekend. If I knew it was stable - even just for a few hours - I'd go back to get some of my things and Hank."

"As it is, I'm going to have to go on a shopping trip for clothes and hope that I can get my phone to call out and let Hank know I'm booking him a portal," she continued, pulling out her poor, dinged-up and dented-to-hell Blackberry out of her shoulder-bag. "It's acting funny and needs a little repair...I may have gotten shot at during my stint in Mexico."

"It wasn't my fault."

Just to be clear.