(no subject)

[vance_prime]

No one stays in Milliways forever. Few people even have that option. They have to go away to sleep, to work, to do the various activities associated with... well, life, more or less.

She doesn't have those reasons pulling her away, and so she's still here.

Oh, she could leave, there's no question of that. But that would mean facing infinity again. She can't handle that. Not now. She's starting to lose her grip on herself as it is. Her memories are getting jumbled, indistinct. She's starting to forget what it was like to have a body.

Part of her is starting to wonder if she really is dead, after all.

[ooc: See the back room before tagging.]

[tags keep on slippin', slippin', slippin': Alyx Vance, Annabelle Newfield]

Comments

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

Charlie sits in the rafters, studying the room, pondering that really weird note he got about Alyx Vance. He wishes it made more sense. He wishes it made less sense. The life she and Gordon are leading...anything can happen, can't it?

[vance_prime]

Or lack thereof, as the case may be.

He may or may not spot a familiar figure drifting restlessly through the bar area.

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

He thinks he sees...something? His direct experience with ghosts is very limited. But since he knows he should be able to see one - does she count as a ghost? - he would guess that would help him to find her.

[vance_prime]

It drifts in his general direction, weaving its way up into the rafters.

Is someone there? Someone I knew?

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

"Alyx? Can you hear me?" He can sense her. As if the part of him that's real, and not a manifestation of the Bar's magic, is on the same wavelength as her.

[vance_prime]

Alyx? That's my name, isn't it? I'm Alyx. She turns toward him. Are you someone I know?

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

"I'm Charlie. We met a couple of times. I was with you in your city in a battle." Do you forget immediately without a body? Is that why the Bar gave him one? "You can't really remember, can you?"

[vance_prime]

Charlie? It's simply parroting at first, then: Charlie. I remember. The man without a face. Told me what bacon was. I remember. It's just... getting harder.

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

He smiles a bit. "That's me. And I suppose it would, like in the myths about the Elysian Fields." Which he suspects she never knew. "Death brings forgetfulness. But you aren't dead, I was told. What's happening?"

[vance_prime]

I... we were attacked. Ambushed. Never seen it before...

Flickers of memory: a high warbling howl, being knocked to the ground, pain lancing through the upper body, a three-legged alien silhouette looming overhead just before everything fades out.

I don't know what happened after that.

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

"But you didn't die. You're probably in a coma. And having an out of body experience." He thinks. "I had one once. It wasn't pleasant, but I came back. Maybe this is a hint that you will go back?" Of course, his out of body moment wasn't in a war zone.

[vance_prime]

I'm not dead. Her 'voice' is firmer than before. He said I wasn't. Said to hold on.

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

"He...Gordon? He's with you." It was never spelled out, but he had a sense that there was something between them at some level.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Alyx?!" Annabelle hadn't meant to be away from Alyx for so long, but patrons have gone upstairs and come back down days later before. The fact that Alyx is blurrier around the edges than she was the last time Annabelle saw her is not reassuring.

[vance_prime]

There's an alarmingly long hesitation before she 'looks' at the other woman, and another pause before she responds.

...Annabelle. That's right, isn't it?

[aeons_crackshot]

"Yes, that's right." Annabelle is very worried right now, so some of that may be coming across as well. Annabelle tries pushing memories toward Alyx again.

[vance_prime]

I remember you. I just... couldn't get your name, for a second there. She 'sounds' a touch defensive, but there's an undercurrent of worry there.

[aeons_crackshot]

"I think I panicked a bit." There's a feeling of chagrin in that thought. "You looked a bit less solid, and, well..."

[vance_prime]

I do? The worry's a little stronger, now.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Not by much. It could just be on my end. Heaven knows I've no experience with this sort of thing, I was no mesmerist when I was alive."

[vance_prime]

She's silent for a long moment.

It's not. Not just on your end. I... it's getting harder to remember some things.

[aeons_crackshot]

"What kind of things?"

[vance_prime]

Well, names, for one thing. A wry smile. And... I don't know, things are just jumbled. Mixed together.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle grins wryly at the mention of names. "Faces and places that don't belong together?"

[vance_prime]

And not knowing what order things happened in. If that makes any sense.