do: read; don't: visit 214

[giftedandtalented]

Mehitabel reads a lot.

She starts calling herself "Tab", for short, not that anyone calls her anything apart from Kers. She writes suitably encrypted emails to Aelise about ideas for fixing the world - mostly she asks questions, to start, forming a picture of the exact problem she has to solve.

She misses her parents, but not very much. At least she got to say goodbye.

When her brain won't absorb new information, she bounces around in zero-g.

After six months, Aelise visits again.

Tab says, "Anybody you store up here must be important somehow. If I don't know about the other secret person, I won't know how to come up with ideas that work with them being important however they're important."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah, I wish I could help you."

[salus_populi]

"You found him. That's something."

[alicornucopia]

And it is, alas, the extent of Demauri's skills. He bids her goodbye and hangs up.

[salus_populi]

Well, she can leave Harley to sort himself out, then.

Meanwhile, how's Chelsa doing?

[warmfeelings]

She has calmed down some, since recovering from the... breakage.

[salus_populi]

That's good.

Aelise monitors her for a while, then okays another flicker.

[giftedandtalented]

Tab is more than happy to obey.

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa is not happy.

Chelsa is hysterical.

This means it's not a one-off, this means she didn't just break but that she is breaking. She gathers her friends in a pile around her and doesn't want any of them to leave her. She turns up the literal heat in the quarters until everyone's sweating. She wrings her hands and, when she can bear to drag herself away from the comfort of her beloveds (and she brings Jony with her, anyway) she asks Aelise if she's got any idea what could be going on, yet.

[salus_populi]

Aelise shakes her head.

Aelise finds a doctor.

The doctor pronounces that there is, as far as she can see, nothing wrong with Chelsa at all.

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa wants a second opinion.

Chelsa wants an arbitrary number of opinions, she wants someone to know what the matter is and fix it.

[salus_populi]

Aelise can find her, literally, all the opinions in the world.

They all come down to the same thing: her Gift may be flickering, but if it is, they can't tell that it is, and they certainly can't tell why.

[warmfeelings]

It's like being told she's dying, and she wasn't supposed to die, she was supposed to live forever, with her friends, with the warmth of the world on her, and instead she has nightmares about freezing to death.

She won't sleep alone; she needs to wake up warm.

One night she sleeps entangled in Corona's arms and half-wakes and says Harley's name.

[pythbox]

Corona shivers.

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa falls back asleep, cuddled up close.

[pythbox]

Corona... doesn't.

He doesn't even know where Harley is. He just - hasn't thought about it. Well, he has, but he didn't get anywhere.

He doubts Harley is happy, though, wherever he ended up.

And he can guess why.

He gets up. Tima is here too; Chelsa won't have to sleep lonely. He hates that he still cares. But he does. She's going to be wrecked, and it tears him up inside, and he won't let it stop him.

He gets dressed; he goes out to grab a vehicle. He's left on his little trips at weirder times, with no more warning.

He doesn't know where to find a volcano, so he just... goes. Off in a random direction until he's over enough water that he can't see the land. And he lights a match, and holds it in his hand, and calls on his Gift to multiply the fire, and lets it wrap him up - nothing he hasn't done before, so far. Kers is still keeping him safe. Anneia could heal him no problem. He's hardly even toasted.

Kers can only keep you safe if you let her, if you want her to.

Corona stops wanting her to. The fire roars. He keeps feeding it as long as he can, hotter and hotter until he's burning in the middle of a falling blob of molten plastic and metal. He loses consciousness on the way down.

[queensidecastle]

Kers happens to be awake.

She calls Demauri immediately, and then Anneia.

[alicornucopia]

Demauri wakes up when that signal goes. "'lo?"

[queensidecastle]

"I need you to find Corona. Urgently."

[alicornucopia]

"He's north by -" Demauri pauses. "He's gone."

[queensidecastle]

"Dammit," says Kers. She sighs. "Thank you. You can go back to sleep."

[alicornucopia]

"Love 'n loyalty," mumbles Demauri, "sorry," and he goes back to sleep.

[lookingforwardtoit]

Anneia finally answers, with a sleepy, wordless mumble.

[queensidecastle]

She takes a breath.

"Corona just killed himself. I called to see if you could get to him in time, but - you couldn't have. It was maybe half a minute from when he cut me out."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Shit," says Anneia.

[warmfeelings]

In the morning, Chelsa winds up curled up to Tima, since Corona isn't there.

She isn't worried right away. He may have gone to get a snack. It would be sort of thoughtless of him to go on a trip while she's so frazzled, but she never said he couldn't, she supposes.