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

[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.

[lookingforwardtoit]

And she continue supposing that until she sees Anneia, a little while later.

She's been up half the night trying to think of some way to say it - she's sure Kers has told Aelise by now, but Aelise isn't going to make a special trip to Chelsa's friends' quarters just to break the news, she doesn't think - and in the end she just blurts out, "Corona killed himself last night."

[warmfeelings]

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I don't know - why, or where, or anything - Kers called me when he shut her out, but she says it wasn't more than a minute from then until Demauri couldn't find him."

She sniffles. She liked Corona. Well - of course she did.

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa hugs her and bawls.

[lookingforwardtoit]

Anneia hugs her tightly.

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa is inconsolable.

She is not in a position to deliver announcements for the next time zone cluster's morning.

[lookingforwardtoit]

Anneia and Sandre both stay with her.

[salus_populi]

In three hundred years, this is not the first time that Chelsa has missed a set of morning announcements. Aelise fills in just like always, greeting the appropriate section of the world with a smile and some inconsequential news, and explaining that Chelsa was called away because one of her close friends died unexpectedly that morning.

Then she finds the time to notify Tab, because in no way is Chelsa ready for another flicker, and she probably won't be for a while.

[giftedandtalented]

Tab agrees to wait.

Maybe Chelsa will just fall apart all by herself.

[warmfeelings]

That sure looks like it's a possibility.

Chelsa can't stop crying. She'll let Amdon feed her, when he begs her to eat something, but mostly she just cries.

[salus_populi]

This is... not ideal.

But it's not the worst way it could've happened, she supposes.

Aelise visits Chelsa, amidst her friends. She expresses her condolences and gives Chelsa a hug.