Even when there's no walls or windows...

[noteasytobepink]

Who: Clarice, the Timebroker, Bill?!
When: After the end of Grant.
What: It's like coming home...when your home doesn't exist any more.

She groaned and cracked an eye open, immediately wincing at the harsh light. She was either back in the hospital or...

"Easy, Clarice, you're hurt," the Timebroker sighed, reaching back to pluck pillows out of thin air behind him. "Careful, that's a girl..." he helped prop her upright before patting her hand. "I lose you for a few years and look what happens!"

"...alien," she noted automatically, trying to breathe carefully. Time to take stock: broken ribs, she'd probably at least sprained her wrist, knee hated her, black eye...

"I already set your nose and three fingers," he offered helpfully.

...broken fingers and nose then. Headache. Thankfully no bleeding gut wounds or anything, that would have taken the wormy cake wouldn't it? "Getting soft," she chuckled carefully, licking her lips to clear away the grit of dried blood.

"No, getting lost without a proper team," he chided. "That level should have been a full team, not one crazy mutant backing up a town."

"So...why no team?" she asked, shifting to look at the short man standing beside her bed. Once upon a time a series of kitchen tiles standing alone in a desert would have been weird. Now? Now it was just where the Timebroker lived, and now there was a bed set on the tiles. How thoughtful.

"...because I can't watch everything." The Timebroker settled on a chair that hadn't been there a moment ago and held out a thermometer. Thermometers were important parts of ensuring wellness! That was what observation told him anyway. "There's more than just me out there, I'm a fixer, I meddle more than I should and I care about those that get lost. You fell...right out of my territory. A timeline and reality far past anything I can see. I knew I'd find you again if I watched for you, but the broker in that area was...less than happy."

"...I didn't go there on purpose."

"I know. You saved your team. That's what you do. She just...should have told me. She's the angry sort though. Anomalies are...discarded. So she didn't let me know one of 'MY' anomalies was wandering around in one of her worlds." He...didn't like his own kind much honestly.

"And Wheelsy?"

"Safe," he assured. "For good this time. It was a two event, one defeat, two defeats, out."

She leaned back on her pillows, letting that information trickle through her mind. Good. She didn't ask about Bill; she couldn't. His place was safe. His world was safe. It would be alright. "My team?"

"Still scraping along, you won't be up to joining them for a bit but Morph is saving a spot for you. Speaking of..." he held up a Talus unit, this one a bit more form fitting it seemed. "You lost your last one. I didn't know that was possible."

"Psycho mutant with a knife and super strength," she pointed out, holding up her left arm. That was a faint, almost hidden starburst of a scar on her forearm. The place the last had attached.

"Yes, well, this one is made for you," he assured, sliding the metal and gem sleeve on. "There, how does it feel?"

She had winced slightly when it went on, but she didn't even feel it attach like she had the last. A moment more and the metal had warmed to her skin temp, that was better. A poke revealed she could...feel through it. Huh. "A lot more user friendly," she noted. "It's like a second skin."

"I should hope so," he noted. "It took some time to work up but this one can't be taken from you, I promise. They won't even manage to cut off your arm if they tried."

"...that's reassuring," she chuckled, wincing as her ribs bit. "Don't...want to do that again." Get lost. Get involved.

"I know," he patted her cheek and looked out over the tiles until a kitchen showed up for him. "You rest. You've had a rough time, but you're safe now. We have you back. I'll get some soup going."

"Sorry to make you worry," she noted, already drifting off.

That was for the best. The soup could make itself, yes. The short little man was...pulling on a cloak suited for desert travel and going to trace down the other anomaly. He could send the man back to his own realms, but as he'd mentioned, the broker there wasn't kind to those who slipped between the cracks. If he was smart he'd just send the man away and let Clarice move on; Bill was from a world set where mutants didn't even exist after all!

But...he'd looked after Clarice. That earned him some credit in the Timebroker's book. It was a bit of a walk; being attuned Clarice had shown up where he was, but Bill? Bill had no place now so anywhere in the lost sands.

The Timebroker was good at finding things though. It wasn't long before he was nudging a sandy leg with his boot, "and what are we going to do with you?"

Comments

[noteasytobepink]

"Eat, Clarice," The Timebroker sighed. "What's done is done. The answer to your question is yes, but you couldn't have stopped this from the moment you set foot on that world, you're not the type to stand back and let people die." And that would have been the only answer really.

"And he's lived with you for years now, at least he has heard of many things that would otherwise make him crack. He is in better standing for this situation than he would be otherwise."

"...they better build him a statue," she muttered, looking down at her soup.

[wheelsy_sheriff]

The thought of a statue twisted his stomach and he pushed the bowl of soup away.

He didn't want a statue, or to think of what else was going to be done for him. The services, the funeral.

Would he get full honors? Color Guard and rifles.

Would there be a casket? Flag draped and empty.

Flowers. A eulogy.

His chest was heaving as he stared at the table top in front of him, the weight of everything bearing down and making it difficult to breath.

[noteasytobepink]

"Ah, I was expecting this a little sooner," Timebroker noted, lifting a hand so the surrounding froze. Somehow he didn't think he wanted his girl to witness this. "Death, and the illusion of death, is common in this edge of the universe. Her comment was meant more along the lines of 'she hopes they appreciate what you did for them given the price you paid'.

[wheelsy_sheriff]

He didn't notice everything freezing around them, his focus was on the emptiness straight ahead, and the future torn away.

"I'm dead. Back home I'm... I'm dead."

His throat was a knotted pretzel and everything was underwater as his vision swam.

"All my friends, my deputies, my-- my mom... "

The thought was too much and all at once he stood up, knocking his chair over backwards and rushing towards where the tiles ended so he could toss everything in his stomach out.

[noteasytobepink]

"Yes, you are," the Timebroker noted, not unkindly, as he came up alongside Bill with a cool washcloth. "There. It is everything you've known, yes, but it is not everything you can know. You still have a future. Many futures, open to you. Whether you were brought here or no...you would be dead there." Because that was how that timeline went.

Grant came back. Bill beat him, but at a very high cost. It was entirely over, but no sheriff walked away.

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill accepted the cloth numbly.

"An' I can't ever-- there's no way at all just t'-- t'see how things turned out? That they're okay without me?" he asked, looking up at Timebroker.

[noteasytobepink]

"Some worlds," he noted "are very messed up. Their timelines are so tangled that dead men can show up and nothing really changes. That's...not your world. And it's my overlook. I can't see that far without a piece in play there like Clarice. I can get word through my contemporaries, try to get you some sight there, but it won't be soon."

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill frowned in disappointment, but nodded in acceptance.

At least there was a chance...

Straightening himself back up, he handed back the washcloth.

"Thanks."

[noteasytobepink]

"Most of my people, the ones in my worlds, and the ones that are temporarily displace, can fit in somewhere else. Those that cannot...are my family. They are what I have. It was a small family." Clarice, in fact.

"I'll do everything I can." That said he nodded back toward the counter and unfroze things, letting Clarice blink and look around to spot them.

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill held his eyes on Timebroker for a long moment, measuring and reading him before turning away.

When things unfroze he glanced around, looking at Clarice briefly before turning back to Timebroker.

"There somewhere I can lay down? I'm... pretty tired."

[noteasytobepink]

"I would suggest a shower," the Timebroker noted, waving at a corner of his tiles where a walled bathroom had NOT been a moment before. "And if you would do me the favor when you get out of dragging Clarice back to bed? I should have her done eating by then."

Though...

"...unless, for now, you'd prefer a separate bed?"

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill worked his throat, eyes darting to Clarice a moment, uncertainty clear, before returning to Timebroker.

"I'll let y'all decide that." With that said he dragged himself off to the shower.

[noteasytobepink]

"...I'm in no position to do so," the Timebroker admitted. "I've little idea about romance. So you and Clarice will have to decide such I believe."

That said, well, he was going to chivvy the girl into finishing her soup. It was hard to eat when you were absolutely certain you been the reason a person was time slipped AND you were in pain! That he understood. And he knew she'd be able to face it a bit more rationally...later.

[wheelsy_sheriff]

There was nothing rational about this to Bill's mind, and he spent his time in the shower very determinedly not thinking about any of it.

Instead he focused on the heat of the water and steam, on the pains of his body, the aches, the bruises, the stiff joints and bone deep weariness. As much as it all hurt, it was a showing that he was still alive.

Which was something, he knew.

Finished with the shower he was surprised to find clothes waiting for him, but considering everything else about this place he probably shouldn't be.

He got dressed and finally left the bathroom, looking around.

[noteasytobepink]

The Timebroker seemed to be...holding a cup of ice cream in front of Clarice's face, and saying something about the bowl in front of her? If anyone had to guess it was probably something along the lines of 'finish so you can have dessert'?

Clarice was...cracking her jaw on a yawn instead of eating though, yes. Otherwise, well the bathroom disappeared when he stepped out of it? That was all that changed!

[wheelsy_sheriff]

"She ain't one for sweets," he said, sitting down, gingerly, in the chair he'd been in beside Clarice's bed. "Outta see some of the disapprovin' looks she'd give me for things that I'd eat."

[noteasytobepink]

The Timebroker blinked at Bill, then the ice cream, then sighed and...put a lemon slice on top? There, not sweet! "Finish your fooooooodddd..."

That, at least, got a soft laugh out of Clarice, as she did lift the bowl t drink the rest of her soup down. "Bill likes sundaes. All the goo you can think if on..."

[wheelsy_sheriff]

"Ain't a sundae if it's not loaded with good stuff," he countered, an old argument though this time his heart wasn't really in it.

"You wouldn't happen t'have anything to drink, would you?" he asks of the Timebroker.

[noteasytobepink]

"Hmmm, I should have considered that necessity earlier," the Time Broker admitted. "How about a whiskey sundae float?"

"Please remember lack of healing factor," Clarice noted softly.

"...with some coke in it too."

[wheelsy_sheriff]

"Just the whiskey'll do me fine," he replied.

[noteasytobepink]

"Right, right, hmmm, 1940's sound good?"

Clarice was...wincing a touch?

No helping it, there was a juice glass full of whiskey. ONE THING THE TIME BROKEN DIDN'T REALLY GRASP WAS PORTIONS OKAY?!

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill eyed the glass, but took it without complaint.

After everything maybe he should drink himself into oblivion.

[noteasytobepink]

"Warm soft pretzels and cheese dip if you can Time Broker?" Clarice asked. Just...something he could nibble, and liked nibbling, to help with taht glass of whiskey?

"Do I look like a restaurant?" he blinked.

"At the moment?"

"Point! Pretzels it is!"

[wheelsy_sheriff]

Bill nurses his drink, picking at the pretzels but mostly only to distractedly pull them apart in his hands and pile the pieces.

[noteasytobepink]

Clarice eventually started stealing small bits? She...honestly had no idea what to even say now. She'd had her melt down, she hurt like hell and...Bill was locked up.

Hell hell hell. "Hey..." yeah, she kinda had nothing to follow that with?