ioduanlogs | I've never been to oovoo javer.

Characters: Gene, Jackie, Miles, Aly, and yoooouuuu!
Date: Februrururururuary
Location: Throughout Aifaran
Situation: So, this is new.
Warnings/Rating: Will be added as necessary! Also, stupidity, probably.

A. [Gene] | throughout Aifaran | early February | open
Adjusting back to somewhere he's not actively being hunted is harder than Gene would like to admit. Almost the exact length of time spent in Aifaran as he'd spent at home, and he's still looking over his shoulder and tensing at sudden noises. He'd gone back to face the music, after all, and SHIELD had come to collect.

God, but he hates this. He hates that so little time spent back there has made him so paranoid about a world that he'd called home, mere weeks ago, the only place he'd genuinely called home since he was a child. The Sentry actively trying to recruit him doesn't help, either. He'd been with the Police Department back in Keeliai, but law enforcement had hunted him back in his own world.

The viral attention he's gotten on Xa Xa with the few photos he's posted has been uncomfortable. But at the same time...it's nice to be recognized for something benign. Here, nobody cares who he is, what he's done. Maybe he can start acting like it.

(Maybe some fun selfies with Tony and Pepper will help.)

And Kalliel is here, but he can't talk to the turtle he'd once protected, and that hurts, too. Sometimes he goes out and sits down on the shell, staring out at the sea.

I'm here.

Do you know that I'm here?

I didn't want to leave you.

I'm sorry.

B. [Jackie] | Aisling Tower | early February | open
Jackie's a little flummoxed by the invitation extended to him to visit the Aisling Tower, but he accepts. He'd chosen to stay, after all, and he'd had some experience with the Dreaming besides. Especially back in the days of Mali--

--he still can barely even think the name.
Still, he wants to be as helpful as he can. This place has given him everything. A second chance at life.

C. [Miles] | throughout Aifaran | throughout February | open
Journalism! Journalism with film! With cameras!!! Miles is so happy he could burst. Finally, finally, his niche is here. Time to get his ass a job!

And to walk around filming absolutely everything, so he is bound to trip over something and/or someone. And/or barrel into someone. It's a risk he must take. Ah, the price we pay for knowledge.

Additionally - later in the month - Miles is invited to a political event. And they want his Opinions on things. Even if they're blunt. 'Miles Upshur' may as well be a synonym for 'blunt', and his Opinions are probably not going to be welcome. Probably because they begin with 'eat the rich'.

D. [Aly] | throughout Aifaran | throughout February | Kaito
Crash.

"Oh, for--!" Aly bends down to pick up the glass she'd dropped, mumbling to herself about being an idiot. Then, the mark on her wrist glows and the glass pieces form back together.

"Uh. Uh!" She raises her voice. "Guys! I did a thing!"

E. [Aly] | throughout Aifaran | throughout February | open
"Look, I didn't do it!"

Aly is extremely huffy about this. She wouldn't dare destroy a spirit house! "I know how spirits are, okay! I wouldn't risk angering them!"

She takes a deep breath and looks at the offended kedan. "If you want...I can rebuild it for you. Or I can help. I dunno. That's...kinda what I do?" She rolls up her sleeve to show off the Restoration mark on her left wrist.

F. [Aly] | the Dreaming Bridge | February 2 | Devin
For once - for once - Aly is nervous. She'd admitted to wanting advice, from Devin of all people, and that stung, but, well...apparently he'd ended up in a situation that might await her, if things went wrong in the best way possible. And anyway, his advice would help. Doesn't mean she has to like it, though.

G. [Miles] | a cafe in Aifaran | February 1 | Pepper
Well, at least tea is the same, even if nothing else is.

Aifaran is more like New York than Keeliai had been, though smaller - a larger city than Keeliai, more bustling, filled with more people and more types of people. It's almost like being in a sci-fi movie. (Not like he doesn't practically already live in one, anyway.) Or that one show he can't remember the name of.

And at least Pepper is here - Pepper, who he'd menaced when the Red Mist had been in his system during the cultist attack, who'd talked him down, who understood. He'd made progress back home. He was pretty sure she'd be interested to hear about it.

H. [Jackie] | a restaurant in Aifaran | February 5 | Brigid
He's overjoyed to have her back. She's different, but still Brigid, and Jackie honestly hadn't thought he'd ever see her again. He'd braced himself for losing her. He'd accepted it. He'd lost Jiu Mei, and that had been his fault. He'd lost Brigid, too. But now she was back, and that was cause for celebration.

He'd found the one set of nice clothes he'd been able to take through his Dreaming stasis, and knocks on her door, grinning like a fool. She's back. She's really back.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When Devin shows up, Aly had been poking listlessly at a bowl of something pudding-like. It wasn't bad, but she didn't really have the stomach to eat much of anything.

"It's fine," she says, glancing at him. "I fixed it." She un-broke it, is what she means, but she's going to keep that under her hat a little while.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you here today," she says in a mock-evil overlord voice, but it falls flat, and she knows it. So to play that off, she just makes a face, and stirs the pudding.

As far as Devin recalls, teenagers are bottomless pits. Aly being indecisive about food just emphasized the seriousness of whatever this is.

"You would be correct," he returns, leaning forward on his elbows. "If you're hoping to stall, I don't the pudding is going to be a willing co-conspirator. What's on your mind?"

"Hm." She pouts, but she doesn't argue with him. It'd be pointless, anyway.

"So you're in enemy territory back home now, yeah?" She might take a while to come around to her point. She's chewing on her bottom lip as she thinks of the best way to phrase things.

"In some respects. They're as much allies as enemies - enemy of the enemy is my friend, and all that," he elaborates with a shrug. "I've made myself a resource, which is all I wanted to be."

Some of the hunters (well, one of them, and Sam couldn't even rightly be called a hunter though he was an integral part of the group) insisted on treating him as more than a tactical consultant.

"Suffice it to say I've found myself in much worse situations."

"Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is just another enemy," Aly says, not trying to be contrary or sarcastic, but just speaking from experience. Too many truisms had been ruined for her lately. (And the one about looking and leaping...well, that one was just a joke now.)

"So you're a consultant, basically. You ever put yourself in a crappy situation on purpose? For the, uh, greater good?"

"True," he allows. Different factions could not always come to agreements based on mutual hatred and distrust, for the very reason that there was hatred and distrust to begin with.

"On multiple occasions, up to and including this one. I got myself caught on purpose, although things have veered... off track to my expectations, shall we say," Devin answers. "There's a lot at stake, but it's much less physically damaging than previous situations have been."

"So you've got some experience with walking your whole entire face right into the lion's den."

Aly's not sure if she's happy about that, but, well, she had wanted to talk to him.

"This kind of thing doesn't ever go according to plan, though, does it? And hey - at least you're, you know. Not physically damaged." She tries to smile. It doesn't work.

"A fair bit, yes. And no, it rarely goes entirely according to plan A, although I usually try to have backup options in place where possible," Devin tells her. What he's getting from this is that Aly has either landed herself in the middle of something out of her control, or is on the verge of diving headfirst into it.

He sighs, a hand moving almost absently to his right shoulder and the healed bullet wound that's his most recent addition to the collection. Devin's current situation wasn't without the risk of injury, but it wasn't at the hand of his former captors and the emotional turmoil outweighed it by leagues.

"I try to avoid it where I can, but getting hurt is part of what I do. That's just the job," he says simply. "Suffice it to say, I may have expertise to offer you. What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Yeah. Well. Sometimes backup options aren't really a. Thing." Devin massaging his shoulder isn't lost on her. His situation's more dire than she'd thought, and she's wary of telling him too much about hers.

But, she had asked him to talk, which is why she was still here and not trying to snark at him. "Hm. Part of mine, too." She tries to smile again, and keeps talking.

"Well," she begins slowly, "did I ever tell you about my whole situation back home? About my little side job?"

"Some. Not much in the way of specifics, but I recall mention of faeries being horrific and having to fight them, to save your planes of existence." She'd been yelling at him, at the time. He hadn't been in a very good mood either. "You didn't give me much context, however."

"Hm. Yeah. Well. Same shit, different day, basically. They're ba-ack," she says, making the last word singsong and trying to turn it into a joke. That doesn't work, either. "Basically...well, I have less time than everyone else to fix it. Because I'm gonna be vulnerable soon. Since their domain is the air, and all, and I'll be in an airplane." She hugs her arms to herself. "So I have uh. One last option, and it sucks. Because I'm going to have to go as off-grid as someone can get where everyone can tell who each other is by their energy ties."

Devin frowns at her as he tries to read between the lines. Whatever the last option is, it's bad. Last options usually were.

"That's unfortunate. I'm sorry," he begins, thoughtful. He's in a position to be level-headed about this, and Aly isn't. "Alright. What's stopping you from taking other modes of transportation? Do you not have enough time to get where you're going?"

I've never been to oovoo javer.

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