Friday Late Morning: Portalocity to 43 Unicorn Street

[mylandmyrules]

Nine years after she'd left, Nell and her belongings arrived back in Fandom late Friday morning, She was certainly bringing much more with her than she'd had last time and needed to hire a few people to move everything to her new home at 43 Unicorn Street. There were bags, boxes, several stacks of wood, numerous boxes of plants, quite a number of very large containers that seemed only to be filled with dirt, and even a small tree.

Everyone seemed careful to avoid looking directly at her face, though she heard some of them whispering about the bruising that covered most of the right side of her face and her cut lip. And they couldn't even see what was hidden under her long sleeved tunic.

When she arrived at 43 Unicorn, she wandered through the downstairs, making note of the space and what she would need to get in place before opening the shop, and had the workers leave most of the wood and some of the containers of dirt down there. Then she ushered them up to the two bedroom apartment above the shop where she found that the beds and basic furniture she'd ordered had arrived. It was pretty spartan for the moment, but Nell didn't need much.

Up on the roof was the real beauty of the place, a large greenhouse taking up the majority of the space. She was very grateful to find that the person she'd dealt with in Fandom had been able to get so much done in such a short span of time. There was still work to be done, but the bare bones were exactly as she'd hoped for and there were enough rough wooden tables to hold all of her plants with room for more.

Once she'd gotten things placed where she wanted them and paid the workers, Nell had time to sit for a moment and think of the enormity of what she'd just done. Had she really left her home and traveled back to settle in Fandom? Apparently so, and even now, thinking it over in safety, she knew she'd made the right decision.

Part of her wanted to go out and explore. It had been nine years since she'd set foot in Fandom after all and she was eager to reacquaint herself with everything and see how it all had changed. First though, now that her new phone, an actual smartphone this time, was up and running with the few phone numbers she'd had transferred in, she thought it was time to at least attempt to reach out to the friends she hadn't been able to stay in touch with over the past nine years.

Calling and talking to them was too hard to think about right now. She'd been an almost entirely solitary creature for too many years to find talking on the phone an easy thing and all the business of the morning had her tired out. Besides, if she tried to call only to find that they didn't remember her at all it would be devastating right now. Yes. Much better to send a few texts and see what happened. Maybe they'd respond and maybe they wouldn't.

The last one was the hardest. Did she text Marc or Steven or both? In the end she sent them both the same text.

Then she went up on the roof to sit by her greenhouse and gaze out over Fandom. Sooner or later she'd have to figure out food for dinner, but right now she just wanted to let herself settle in.


[OOC: And with this, Nell is back in Fandom, living at and getting ready to open up her own shop at 43 Unicorn called "Plant Parenthood".]

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[hasaknightjob]

It was late afternoon when Marc came over. He took in the overall look of the place then went up the staircase Nell had told him about. He knocked on the door when he got there.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had made her way down from the roof and set a kettle on for tea. Marc may not want a cup, but she did. When she heard the knock on her door her hand went to the small gun tucked in her pocket and she carefully made her way to the door, checking out the peephole while standing carefully to the side.

It certainly looked like the man she remembered. She opened the door, one hand still on her gun. "Marc," she said, but there was a note of question in her voice.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc held out the six pack of beer he'd brought with him. Maybe she didn't drink much but at least now she had a fairly low key option.

He took in Nell's appearance, bruises and all. "Hate to see the other guy."

[mylandmyrules]

"I let him live," Nell said simply. She took the beer from him and stepped away from the door. "Come in, please. Hospitality and safety to you while you're here."

She gestured around the room. "I don't have much as yet, but then I don't need much. Pizza's on the way."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc came in and took a look around. "At least you're not living in the woods, huh?"

He figured she'd give details on the fight when and if she felt like it.

[mylandmyrules]

"No. But I have a greenhouse on the roof," she said with a quirk of her lips. "And wood and soil from Soulwood to put down everywhere."

Nell turned as the kettle began whistling. "Please, have a seat. I'm assuming you don't want tea?"

She'd probably have a beer later, though John would roll over in his grave to think of it, maybe with the pizza.

[hasaknightjob]

"Tea's fine," Marc said. He took the offered seat. Given all the evidence it was easy to guess, "So you're back for good."

[mylandmyrules]

That surprised her, but she poured him a cup of tea as well and set it in front of him before going back for some sugar and milk. Except, of course, her sugar was still in a box somewhere and she didn't have any milk. She stopped for a moment, then turned back to him with a rueful smile. "Hope you're all right with it undoctored. I forgot I didn't have anything."

Nell took her cup and sat across from him. "I am," she said. "It was... made fairly clear to me that I wouldn't survive much longer as things were going. Portalocity has assured me that this time the portal is stable, so if my sisters need me -" She cut herself off and made a face, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm not holding my breath."

[hasaknightjob]

"It's fine," Marc told her. "Sorry about your sisters."

Not that he knew what happened to them, but whatever their situation was clearly wasn't something that made Nell happy.

"How long has it been?"

[mylandmyrules]

"Me too," Nell said. "Apparently they're very happy and if I'd just get remarried and have a baby I would be as well." That was never happening.

"Nine years," she said. "I was there for nine years. Went through the portal and found myself back only moments after I left originally. John was there waiting for me to make him his supper. Everyone thought I was still rising fifteen."

Nell shook her head. "It's been odd, having everyone think I'm one age when I'm really another. I guess here I can just go back to the years I've lived. So I'll be twenty-eight in a few weeks and not twenty-four, but actually twenty-eight in my head."

[hasaknightjob]

"We had something like that back home," Marc said. "People vanished for five years and came back. Don't think they ever agreed on how to handle that clusterfuck."

[mylandmyrules]

"I figure I lived 'em, so I get to claim them," Nell said. "But I'm happy to stay here now and just be who I am.

She looked over at him. "John's dead. Almost five years now. I don't have any promise to make me go back."

At that point there was a knock on the door and Nell was on her feet in a heartbeat, hand going to the gun in her pocket before she realized it was probably the pizza.

"I'll just get that," she said after a second and went to the door.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was glad for the distraction so he didn't have to pretend to give a shit that John had died for any reason other than he was glad on Nell's behalf. He clocked her and the gun, though he didn't say anything about that yet either. "Let me know if you need cash."

She had just gotten back after all. Might not have had a chance to hit the bank yet.

[mylandmyrules]

"I came prepared," Nell said, "But thank you." She paid the delivery person, tipping well, then brought the two pizzas to the table.

"I didn't know what to get for you, so this one is half cheese and half veggie." She smiled at him. "Mine is sausage and mushroom. Sorry. I couldn't resist."

[hasaknightjob]

"It's your food," Marc said. The sausage was only a problem if it had pork, but luckily he could avoid it entirely. "So who are you running from?"

[mylandmyrules]

It was good pork sausage. And besides, she knew kosher didn't mix meat and cheese and hadn't been able to remember if Marc and Steven kept kosher or not. It had been nine years after all.

"Running from?" She shook her head. "Not really. Just choosing to exit the battlefield before I'm forced to do something I won't."

[hasaknightjob]

"So you always greet pizza delivery guys while packing heat?" Marc asked. No judgement, just pointing out he had eyes that worked.

[mylandmyrules]

She wrinkled her forehead, trying to figure out what he meant, then gave him a small smile when she realized. "Always since John died and the church started trying to take my house and land from me. It's been an... interesting five years."

[hasaknightjob]

"That where you got the shiner?" Marc guessed.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell looked up at him. "Steven around?"

She hoped he wasn't. She certainly wouldn't talk to him about this.

[hasaknightjob]

"No," Marc said. That door was staying firmly shut until Marc was ready to open it. "Doesn't even know you're here yet."

Though that was partially due to pure luck that Marc had already been out and texting Liz when Nell's messages came in.

[NFB from here, please.] CW for attempted sexual assault.

[mylandmyrules]

"Good. All right then." Nell let out a deep breath. "They've been threatening me for years. Watching me from a deer stand on the edge of my land, coming to my lands to tell me what a sinner I am and that I need to repent and return to the church to be married and give them my land. A few days ago they lost patience."

She set down her pizza and clasped her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. "They came for me in a group, armed, shot up my house. One of them got the drop on me, dragged me off, beat me, cut my clothes, tried to -" She stopped herself. "You know. ...I managed to call a bobcat across the land to me, scared him off. I could have fed him to the land then, after the bobcat slashed at him, but I thought it might just make things worse, so I showed him mercy."

Her whole body was trembling now. "I should have known that would only make things worse."

Re: [NFB from here, please.] CW for attempted sexual assault.

[hasaknightjob]

The shit of it was Marc had expected as much. Not the specifics, sure. But you don't hunt down the worst of humanity to mete out a god's judgement for ten years and counting without getting an idea for how people like that worked.

And Nell - well it'd been a no win situation no matter what he or any of Nell's friends could try to do before she'd left. It was trauma one way or another, the only thing any of them could do was give her the courtesy to pick which kind she wanted.

"So you handled yourself," was all he said. Not dismissing, reminding her she'd survived and it was the best anyone could do.

Re: [NFB from here, please.] CW for attempted sexual assault.

[mylandmyrules]

"I did. But two days later they came back." Her hands were clasped so hard that her knuckles were white. "I was ready. I was going to give them all to the land. I had two of them before they even came into sight and I had John's hunting rifle ready. There were eight of them. Then they stepped out of the woods.."

She had to swallow hard. "They were children," she managed. "Not a one of them was over fifteen. They sent children to bring me back to the church and murder me if they couldn't."

"I couldn't kill them, Marc. I couldn't. It wasn't their fault evil men corrupted them."

Re: [NFB from here, please.] CW for attempted sexual assault.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc sighed. Fucking cults and children. At least it sounded like Nell had come out of it without killing any of them. It put her ahead of Marc in that regard. "No. It wasn't. You were right."