PFSB in London Above

[herald_ingress]

The door slams behind Ingress as she strides into Milliways. She hesitates in front of the House of Arch painting, but if she goes there she'll cry and be coddled, and her sister will give her the look that always says "Come home, we'll figure it out, just come back home to us." There is no figuring it out, not even with Tom's help. She was chosen for a reason. She wants to be a Herald. She wants to be with her companion. She wants to be a part of her new world, her true home now. She wants and wants and never stops wanting.

And, oh, tonight, she is tired. Tired to the bone. Tired deep down to her soul.

The last time she came here, she laughed like she had when she was little with her practice sword and tutu, when everything was bright before her and nothing could go wrong. When she went back to Haven, no time had passed; Megwyn asked her why she hadn't gone after all. Ingress hadn't answered right away, and then she'd simply said "I changed my mind" and then changed the subject.

When Megwyn found her here, all those years ago, she had been broken, possibly beyond repair. Door had tried so hard to be everything her sister needed her to be, but she was, Ingress knows now, ridiculously young, and she had Tom to deal with, too, even though he tried his best to fix them both as they stumbled together into life as a family. But Ingress had shattered that day in the greenhouse when the blood rushed out from her mother's throat onto the roses, and she'd been snatched, kicking and screaming, away from her home. She'd broken into more and more and more pieces during her silent captivity; isolated, cold, and in the constant dark with nothing but scuttling spiders for company.

She'd tried to open the door for Islington when he had her brought to him. She'd tried so hard. But she was too little, and the door he wanted was too far away, and when he screamed at her, she'd tried again, tried so hard that her ears hurt and her nose bled, but it still hadn't been enough and back she'd gone into the dark. She was fed irregularly, and, after a while, she stopped crying. She stopped hoping. She stopped feeling anything at all. When Door saved her months later, she had to learn how to be a little sister, how to be loved, how to be Ingress again.

When Megwyn found her, when she chose her as her herald, the bond between them mended the broken parts within her enough that, with all the rest of the love and support from her family and friends, she healed quickly. Ingress came out of the dark that day, for good, in her mind and heart, and she lived and she laughed and she thrived.

But even when you're not broken, life isn't easy. Ingress has the blessing of a companion who is always - and will always be - there for her, but she's as lonely as any single young woman hoping with all her heart for more. Her  three week circuit had ended, and she was tired and wounded from a skirmish - nothing terrible, but enough to make her constantly aware of the ache on her left side that kept her from sleeping well. When she got back to her room, her heart full of hope and relief, the message basket beside her door was empty. Cassildra hadn't written. That made two months without word from her, and, what was worse, Mewgyn gently told her no when Ingress asked her to check in with her Companion, Talian, to see if Cassildra was okay. Which meant... which meant Cassildra wasn't going to write her. Ever.

Blast it all, it wasn't as if Ingress had insisted on a betrothal. She was deeply smitten, but she'd tried to play it cool, to not be clingy, as her ex-boyfriend had called her a year before. When Cassildra was posted indefinitely across the kingdom, she'd only had hoped for letters. And for something, maybe one day, more than an empty bed night after night.  But that was looking like it would be her fate.

It was hard for Ingress, even still, to fit in as someone from 'out kingdom'. Someone with strange hair and strange eyes and strange gifts who was oh so lovely, and such a gifted fighter, but never quite enough to secure a place in a beloved's heart.

She slumps onto one of the couches near the fireplace. There are times when she wonders if it would be worth opening the door that she keeps tightly shut within herself, the door with thoughts of her sister and her birth world and just what could be fixed and what couldn't behind it.

Or... maybe she'll get really, really drunk and not think about anything for a while, until her wide open heart pains her just a little bit  less.

Comments

[acrookedpath]

He beams back at her. "So am I," he says, and tugs the satchel just close enough to slip the bamboo flute inside. "We should take pictures on the way. You know, I have seen and been told of cameras, but never used one myself until now?"

Maybe he can show the pictures to Lan Zhan later!

...Damn it, no he can't. Who is he kidding. As if he has not embarrassed himself enough already.

[herald_ingress]

Don't worry, Ingress will show Lan Wangji all the pictures if Wei Wuxian fails to do so. Well, not any incriminating ones!

"We can take as many pictures as we want all night long," she assures him. She tosses the slim rectangle device to him. "It's easy. Press the round button on top. That turns it into the camera. You line things up with the view finder and you press another button and the picture comes out! It's brilliant."

She grabs his free hand and opens the wall of the gallery into an alley somewhere in the Underside. It's dim there, not great for a picture, even with a wizard's camera, so she keeps walking, towards the nearest free line station is that can take them where they need to go.

As they wait on the platform for the train, she says, "Oh. When we get on the train, mind the gap. If you step into it, it might eat you."

No big!

[acrookedpath]

No big at all! Wei Wuxian has almost been eaten by his share of monsters.

"You have my word I'll be careful," he says. He holds up three fingers in a cheerful promise, then turns his attention to the camera -- which, it turns out, unfolds into something far bigger than he expected when he presses the button Ingress indicated. He lets out a small noise of surprise, but the grin doesn't falter; if anything, it grows as he swings it around toward Ingress.

Click!

[herald_ingress]

She waggles her fingers and strikes a pose. A 4X4 square picture whirs out of the camera, developing into her moving image.

"See? Want me to take one of you? Oh, hold on, here comes the train."

They bundle onboard once it rattles to a stop, minding the gap, and Ingress snaps a picture of him.

"Hey. Important questions," she says, pressing the button and letting the camera fold into its tinier shape. "We're going places to drink, but I also want to flirt and maybe even dance with any attractive people who are able to see me; some of the more artistic and open people can. This-" she waves to herself with a flourish "-shouldn't go to waste! But before I push you in front of someone cute, do you want to flirt with hot people and if so, what kind? There are no wrong answers."

[acrookedpath]

He beams at the camera and waves an enthusiastic hello, delighted to see the milky-white square that pops out resolve into a miniature him waving up at them. The train is already rather loud, like a constant shaking roll of thunder beneath their feet; he suspects, somewhat wryly, that this isn't as loud as the evening will get. Oh well. He'll be fine.

And then Ingress mentions flirting and dancing, and his expression freezes a touch.

"Ah..." He can hear himself trailing into the deflating-balloon noise he's made far too often the past couple of days. "No, I will pass. I will not ruin your fun, I promise! If you wish to flirt and dance, you should, I'm just..."

He's started slumping more and more as he says this, until he ends up with his elbows planted on his knees.

[herald_ingress]

"I promise I will not push in front you of any cute people then, and we will have just as much fun anyway."

She loops her arm around his shoulders.

"And hey, I won't pry. I know that your whole situation makes things... complicated. But if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm here. Okay?"

Especially once they're a few drinks in.

[acrookedpath]

"All right," he says with a sigh, leaning in to bump shoulders with hers. He aims a small smile her way, then goes back to examining his sneakers a moment.




"I am pretty sure I'm in love with Lan Zhan?" he goes on a moment later, half a wince and half a wry laugh. "And I made a fool of myself about it."

[herald_ingress]

"What? Seriously? Wait, what happened? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

[acrookedpath]

Yes, it is definitely a laugh now, though it trails into an amused groan as Wei Wuxian buries his face in his hands.

"It's terrible," he declares, the picture of melodramatic woe. "I have not actually said anything to him, I don't know if I can -- he visits every night, yes? And last night I could hardly speak at all whenever I looked at him, half of what I said made me sound like an idiot, I drank too much to calm my nerves and only worried him more -- "

[herald_ingress]

"He visits you every night? For, what, dinner?"

[acrookedpath]

"Yes, for dinner and tea," he says. "He returns home in the morning -- right now it is more comfortable for him to sleep at the inn."

He can already feel his face starting to redden again.

[herald_ingress]

"That's- every night?"

Um. Wei Wuxian? Honey?

"Does he have his own room?"

[acrookedpath]

"No?"

He peeks up at Ingress from the corner of his eye.

[herald_ingress]

"Oh," she says, trying not to look as bug eyed as she feels. "How sweet of him. You've been friends for a long time, right?"

[acrookedpath]

"Many years," he says, and goes back to hiding his face in his hands. "Friends! And why would I expect anything more after this? You did not see the way he looked at me when I was drunk, Ingress. Like I was -- "

He flounders, miserably, and can only finish with, "I am a fool."

[herald_ingress]

"Stop that," she says, firm. "You're not. Even if you did something silly when you were drunk, it won't matter to a true friend. And Lan Wangji strikes me as the kind of person who can only be a true friend."

She rubs circles on his back.

"Did he use any actual words or was it just looks?"

Come on. It's a fair question.

[acrookedpath]

"Lan Zhan never says much," he mumbles. "His looks often say enough."

Especially if you are Wei Wuxian and have, unbeknownst to yourself, become one of the very few experts in reading the nuances to every millimeter of difference in Lan Zhan's barely-there expressions.

(And especially if you are Wei Wuxian and have also been overanalyzing every single one of those nuances for the past eight hours, give or take.)

[herald_ingress]

"I've picked up on that, yeah."

Ingress didn't go to junior high school in America, where much of this dilemma could have been solved with the delivery of an elaborately folded note to Lan Wangji reading: "Do you like Wei Wuxian? Circle yes or no."

But that's all right. She's smart; she'll figure out some way to help him.

The train shudders to a stop.

"Hey, we can go back if you want. I really wouldn't mind. Or we can go have fun and drink our sorrows away. I promise you, no matter what we do, it's going to be okay."

[acrookedpath]

"We will absolutely not go back," he says firmly. Squaring his shoulders beneath Ingress's hand, he makes himself straighten up in his seat, swaying into her a fraction when the train jolts to a stop. "I have committed to drinking and we will drink, Ingress. I will simply have to give my apologies to Lan Zhan for putting up with me two nights in a row."

He hauls himself to his feet using one of the metal poles, swinging around it in a gentle arc as he makes his way to the train doors. A chime sounds as they slide open of their own accord --

That is a truly impressive number of people on the other side.

There is no time to stare before they begin moving into the train, so he does not. Nimbly, Wei Wuxian avoids the gap and eels through the crowd, Ingress close behind, until they reach a small spot free of the immediate crush of people. LEICESTER SQUARE, reads a mosaic on the wall in the odd double-vision he sometimes experiences at the inn: a language he does not recognize, another one he does shimmering just above it. It seems whatever gifts of translation Milliways imparts have stuck with him as he moved into a new world.

And there is so much to see in this new world already! Huge posters advertising all manner of things, hundreds of new faces streaming past them, the brassy sound of a horn playing a melody he doesn't recognize at all -- his whole face has lit up in wonder as he takes it in.

(Just wait until they actually make it to the first bar.)

[herald_ingress]

Even Ingress, who has been in the city before, is momentarily taken aback by the sensory input as they ascend to street level. She's definitely grown used to a more bucolic way of life than this loud and bright conflagration of color and shape. Her heartbeat picks up its pace as adrenaline flows through her, excitement of an adventure and new things to see and do stretching gloriously before her.

There are shops and restaurants lining the streets, with larger lit up buildings rising into the sky down the way. The Hippodrome - which in London Above appears to be a casino - is on a corner to the east, and everywhere she looks, she sees flashing lights and smells delicious scents.

She hugs herself as they get their bearings on the sidewalk. It's a little cool this evening, but the bustle makes Ingress feel warmer. She's too excited to care about being chilly, anyway.

"Wow. This is... a lot," she says, her voice low and full of wonder.

Across the street from the station is an establishment called The Brazen Monkey.

Ingress knows where she wants to go first.

She's never been to a karaoke bar. She's not entirely sure what karaoke is, but they're going to find out! Since it's just the two of them, they aren't taken to one of the private rooms, but instead escorted to the main bar where there are people singing a loud and inexpert duet with passion on a stage.

"Oh, it's a singing bar? I think- Milliways had something similar a few times, but it was for adults and not kids."

She hops up onto a bar stool at a tiny round table for two and in a few minutes, thanks to their server, has acquired a drink improbably called a Neon Iguana.

It glows in the dark a little. Ingress is mesmerized. She giggles, raising her glass to Wei Wuxian. "I toast us, an amazing night of adventures, and new friends," she calls out over the din of the music and singing.

It tastes very yummy. She could drink lots of these.

[acrookedpath]

"Cheers," he yells back, beaming as he clinks his glass against hers. Now he understands why she saw fit to warn him that it would be loud, bright, and crowded. Fortunately, strong alcohol can help with all of that!

Having no idea what half of the cocktails might be, he opted for a glass of scotch -- but he has to admit he is fascinated by the unsettlingly bright color of Ingress's drink. "Will you pick my next one?" he goes on. "I do not know where to start!"

On stage, the dueting pair sling their arms around each other and entusiastically bob to the music as they warble out the song's chorus. Something about blessing rains somewhere? He can't quite make it out, and the voices of the singers themselves, well...

They're enthusiastic! Wei Wuxian will give them that! Good for them; every musician must begin somewhere.

[herald_ingress]

"Absolutely! I have no idea what most of this is, but if it has a name I like, I'll try it."

That drink is gone. Ingress waves the drink menu to attract the attention of the server.

"We'd like a Drunken Monkey Cocktail and ummmm, oh, a Moscow Mule!"

The woman on the stage is singing about cakes left out in the rain, and while Ingress thinks that's a terrible waste of cake, it's a pretty cool song.

Their second round of drinks arrives, the singers change out, the songs blare, and Ingress, while not tipsy quite yet, is feeling warm and relaxed.

"If you knew any songs, would you sing up there? I might. Not tonight! But another time."

[acrookedpath]

Oh, Moscow Mules are good, he discovers. He's dropped into a more relaxed sprawl in his chair, kicking a foot idly against one of its legs as he watches the singers.

"Yes, if I knew any," he laughs. "Why not? It seems like fun! Maybe I will start asking Madam Bar for music in addition to new alcohol. I know a few songs from other worlds, but nothing this, ah..."

I do my hair toss, check my nails, baby how you feelin' -- a burly man roars to the absolute delight of the crowd.

"Upbeat."

[herald_ingress]

"It's so loud! My Aunt Nymphadora took me to a wizard rock concert once, and it was louder, but there was a spell for ear protection."

By the end of another round of drinks, Ingress is starting to get - not bored! This is in no way boring. But she's wondering what else there is to do and see. What are they missing?

She's starting to feel the alcohol a little now. She's looser and gigglier and she's forgotten all about stupid Cassildra and her stupid inability to write even one stupid letter.

"Let's try somewhere else. You pick this time!"

She drags the duck bag onto the table and starts pulling out pound notes to pay the tab.

[acrookedpath]

"You trust me not to steer you astray?" He grins. "All right, then let me see what I find."

He's comfortably loose-limbed himself, wondering if perhaps things weren't quite as bad as they seemed last night. They were still bad, to be certain! But maybe Lan Zhan will be kind enough to forget about it. Lan Zhan's a kind sort of man.

Once Ingress has paid off the tab, they venture back out into the crowded street. He unzips his sweatshirt -- much easier to cool off than trying to untangle multiple layers of robes! -- and squints a little at the bright lights radiating everywhere, making early evening hardly different from day. Let's see, let's see...

Huh. What's this? It has none of the flash and grandeur strewn over its windows like the other tavern; he would have barely noticed it at all if his eyes hadn't landed in just the right spot. AlleyCat Bar, reads the sign above the door.

He nudges Ingress and points. "That looks disreputable," he says, in a tone that makes it clear this is a feature and not a bug.