fandomtownies | Town Square in the Park, Saturday Afternoon

Most of the information they had found was circumstantial, at best: rumors about what might have happened, strange reports that could mean anything about what caused this. But from it had arisen one potential path, the destruction of whatever anchored this place here - though whether it was an anchor that held their island tied to this, or an anchor that held this island tied to its doom, Obi-Wan couldn't say.

Regardless, it was time. He made his way to town square after spending some time urging people to come there. Just to make sure, he raised his voice. "May I have your attention?" he called.

And waited. A bit.

"I'm sorry if I am being presumptuous. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am... newly here. I, and several of our people, have spent some time researching the current state of the island." Yes. That. "We have identified two creatures that may be involved in powering our current circumstances. Therefore, we find it credible that removing these creatures may at the very least improve our circumstances some."

He couldn't make any promises, here.

"If you are willing to volunteer to take on a flying man vulnerable to electricity, and an easily-distractable... thing... out in town, please do report to me." Beat. "And Principal Zoe? I would like to speak with you as well."

He stepped away from the rock he'd stood on, straightened his robe, and waited.

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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"Of course," Kathy said with a shrug. "It wouldn't be Fandom if you didn't."

She just couldn't get it up to care. Or believe anything new would change.

God. This world really had done a number on her.

"Take care of yourself, Kathy. I know you don't need me to say it, but -- there's still someone here who cares, alright?"

Kathy gave him a sad smile. "Sure," she said, her eyes traveling to where Parker and Hardison were standing. "Right."

He'd care...for awhile anyway.

Eliot followed her glance and sighed.

"It's -- a different kind of care, Kathy," he said finally. "You're the one who's supposed to go off, you know? Find yourself and live your life. Those two are the ones who -- aren't. Who he needed to stay. He didn't love you less. He just didn't depend on you the same way.

"I know," Kathy said, wistful and bitter in equal measure. "It's just..."

Well, no one did. Not like that.

"Doesn't matter," she said, rather than finish her complaint. "You're not running off to help save the say?"

That was a spectacularly subtle change of conversation there, Kathy.

Dammit, Kathy. You weren't supposed to ask that. Eliot couldn't look her in the face when he answered, and all he could offer was a simple "No."

Not today. Tomorrow, maybe. Tomorrow he'd remember that he helped slay a giant sphinx and that he was the best damn hitter his world had ever seen. Tomorrow he could be back in form. Today, he'd hesitated.

Not today.

Kathy frowned, head tilted to the side. "Why not?" she asked, because she was the worst. "I thought that was what you did."

Was she misremembering?

Maybe this was for the best. Karma. To have to explain how hard he'd fucked up.

He nodded to the hat, still not meeting her eyes. "We were there. When the -- hollows were -- Parker ran in. Coulda gotten her ass killed but she leaped right in and I --"

He'd stood there and watched while the other Eliot killed the other Hardison. While the other Hardison and the other Parker cut the other Eliot to ribbons. While Parker had to take down her own evil double.

"I didn't."

He took a deep breath.

"So no. It's not what I do. Not today."

"Oh." It took Kathy a few minutes' though to understand, to pull back fragments of memories from what felt like a hundred lifetimes ago, to a time where she refused to sit on the sidelines instead of wading in to protect others. "It's not what I do either," she said. "Anymore."

Beat.

"You wouldn't like what I do."

Eliot took another breath, shaking the moment off with long practice. "If what you do you do to survive, I got no problem with it at all."

"There isn't anything else here," Kathy said. "Just survival. Maybe that's why we go hollow."

"Could be," Eliot said. "Could be there's enough magic around here to make that literal." By this point, nothing would surprise him. "I seen seasoned, trained men lose it even without monsters involved. Just makes the fact that you're holdin' on more impressive, far as I'm concerned."

"Spite and stubbornness, mostly," Kathy said. "And a willingness to do what it takes to keep going."

And if that sometimes involved pushing people between her and whatever monster was coming, well, that's what it took.

Eliot nodded. "And that's exactly why I don't care what those things are. The fact you do keep going? That's good enough for me."

"I'm not the girl you think I am," Kathy said abruptly. "I'm not as good as she was. I'm not a hero. So whatever you think you see when you look at me...you don't. Okay? It's not there. Not anymore."

Eliot raised his hands. "Alright." He didn't really think she was. He knew as well as anyone how war did to people. And this was a war, a lost one at that. "Ain't gonna stop bein' happy you're alive, though."

He'd seen too many of his people dead, today. Even if they were only poor, broken copies.

Kathy clutched the hat in her hands and nodded. "Fine," she said, as if her agreement for any of this were relevant. "Just...you stay alive, too."

Not that she was worried! She was just saying, she didn't want to have this conversation with the next iteration of Eliot she met.

Another day, and his answer might've been flippant. Today he just nodded. "I'll do whatever I gotta do."

Town Square in the Park, Saturday Afternoon

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