wickedchouette | (no subject)

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[Tiffany is, as ever, still one of the main infirmary workers, and so it's no surprise that she's on shift when Helen lands back on the Barge. She's even commandeered one of the private rooms for herself, and is doing her work in there as if it's her own bedroom: looking over patient charts while sitting cross-legged on the bed, back propped up by pillows, her own personal items strewn around the room. When she hears the door to the main room open, she pauses to listen. Josh is due to come on shift soon, but those don't sound like his footsteps, so--]

Just a second!

[She calls out, setting the paperwork aside and hopping up. And when she pops out of the room and sees who it is, she immediately breaks into a sunny smile.]

No shit!

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[ her first deal had been easy enough to think of, particularly at that point in her life. the praxian map had been a way to learn about a society that was now long gone and help another one flourish in its place. with that in hand, helen had honestly not expected to return to the barge again, much as she missed a large amount of the people there. they had their lives and she had hers now to rebuild and move forward with.

however, when the admiral approached her for a second time, she gave it some thought. what else could she ask for that would possibly help without altering the timeline? she'd taken a huge risk with the first and nothing seemed to have changed. but the second...

eventually, she does land on something and the admiral whisks her away again. first thing she does is find nikola, wanting nothing more than to reassure him first and foremost that she has returned. everyone else she finds later, preferring not to announce her presence through the network just yet. second stop is, naturally, the infirmary to see what has or has not changed. she hasn't managed to make it far in before she hears tiffany's familiar voice. a smile crosses her face. good to know at least one person is still here carrying on.

as soon as tiffany appears out of one of the side rooms, helen's smile turns fond and she steps further forward. ] Good to see you again, Tiffany. How have you been?

[It's been over two and a half years, and Tiffany isn't sure how to even begin to answer that question. Things never stop happening on the Barge, and if she tried to cover everything that had been important even just in her personal life, they'd be here for hours.

So she decides to start with the basics. She's sure Helen does genuinely want to hear about her life, but she also knows there's a reason she came to the infirmary specifically. After so much time away, she has to be wondering how the place has been faring.]

Harry's gone.

[She says, plopping down in a wheely chair.]

Alec was gone for a while too, and he's back now, but he made some shitty fucking choices and lost a lot of people's trust, and that's a real complication. We got a couple new people on staff - Josh and Dogma - and some others who come in sometimes to help out in an unofficial kind of way.

And I'm still here.

[Obviously.]

[ being here for hours would not be a bad thing in helen's opinion. they have a lot of ground to cover, after all, even if most of it isn't on helen's side. she takes the offered information with a nod, glancing around the infirmary to see the details that have changed in its set up. she did come for an update on the infirmary... but she also came because she wanted to see if tiffany was still here, check on her if so, and this was always the best place to find her. ]

Of course. [ bad choices come and go on the barge... but at least tiffany is here still. she's something of a stabilizing force and the infirmary would not be the same without her. ]

I take it you're in charge around here, in that case.

[ helen glances back at tiffany with a slightly teasing smile, like she would have to slide in an application again to work in the infirmary, ask for approval the way she had originally. as though she's new and unfamiliar and not a returning face. the tease doesn't remain for terribly long before her thoughtful expression returns. ]

A complication, I can imagine. [ like steve rogers from her original time, though she doesn't say as much. there's no need. the infirmary staff have seen their own share of complications. they'll get through this one. ] Anything I can help with?

I don't know. He tried gathering intel by pretending to be Lydecker on the inmate filter, so--

[Tiffany lets out a harsh breath.]

I guess we'll see.

[She has no idea whether or not she's in charge. She'd been happy to hand the reins over to Alec when he'd first arrived, but now, she's not so sure that's a good idea.]

You wanna tell me what's going on for you? You wanna ask me questions? You've been gone for a couple years, you know.

Ah...

[ a familiar tactic and one that seems to have gone about as well as it ever has. she has seen others make that mistake and it never goes well.

turning fully back towards tiffany, helen moves to the closest table and leans against it, resting her weight back on her hands as she considers. not long has passed for her, though she knows it's been much, much longer for everyone on the barge. that's how time works between here and the other worlds, in her experience, strange though it is. ]

I'm afraid my life is much less interesting at this point. It hasn't been nearly as long for me. Only a few weeks at most. I've been working to stabilize the new Sanctuary and integrate my staff, find new contacts on the surface. I suppose it's been... another welcome challenge.

[ to say the least, given sciu still exists. but at least now she and will are back on speaking terms. and this time she means to handle him much better than she did previously. ]

Honestly... I had wanted to check on you as much as the infirmary itself. It's good to see you again.

[ "i've missed you," goes unspoken. for as much of an impact as she suspects she had on tiffany's life, so too did tiffany have an impact on hers and it truly is good to be able to see the young woman again. personally as well as professionally. ]

Most recent breach or flood that I should be aware of?

We were in each other's bodies last month. Like, sharing bodies, not switching bodies, and we were picking up on each other's feelings during it, too.

[She says, slowly turning her chair in a circle.]

So some people might still be talking about that. If anyone got hurt or killed, they didn't come to the infirmary, but--

[But it had still surely been a trying time for some people - the sort of flood where the effects linger.]

[ oh, that sounds decidedly not fun. she's very glad she missed that. ]

I can imagine how difficult that would be. [ particularly for people she remembers being here.

still she nods. she understands what tiffany isn't quite saying here and she'll keep an eye out for any of the other affected people. things like that don't just go away afterwards. ]

Never a dull moment, is there?

No kidding. I kinda liked it once I got used to it, but it's invasive; it's not the kind of shit that should be forced on people against their wills. Especially people who are here against their will to start with.

[Her mouth tightens, and there's a strong vehemence in her voice as she says this; these are opinions of hers that have only gotten more entrenched as time went on.]

If memory serves, a good deal of what people are put through here could be categorized similarly.

[ but tiffany's point still stands. and regardless of their personal feelings on the matter, it's good to have this information to work with. ]

That does give me a good starting point. Next goal will be to reacquaint myself with the infirmary. Has anything changed since the last time I was here?

[ more than likely the set up is different, considering her touch has been gone for a few years and now that harry's gone, it's possible the place is even more foreign for her. ]

[Tiffany has to pause to think about this one - trying to remember what's here now that hadn't been in Helen's day. It has, she realizes with a start, been a very long time.]

Not really. It's mostly just the people. I guess-- we use magic now more than medicine, because most of the people who work here can do magic, but on the medical side... nah. Things are real similar.

And we still make death toll soup.

Good. That will help.

[ it'll make her settling back in a lot easier.

at the mention of the soup, she smiles again, remembering her own time needing that little boost. ]

If you ever stop making death toll soup, I'll assume we've been taken over by our other selves again. [ pause. ] That hasn't happened since I've been gone, has it?

Uh, actually...

[Funny that you mention that, Helen.]

Yeah. About a year ago, some people flipped a switch they found in Zero and they, like-- breached the whole boat; they turned us into a version of the Mirror Barge.

Ah...

[ okay that gets a small smile of amusement. it's not always funny to be turned into some strange version of oneself, particularly if she remembers the specific version of those people running around, but the idea of someone finding a switch in zero and flipping it? that she can absolutely see happening and name a few likely culprits. ]

Everyone or only some? And how on earth did you manage to return things to normal?

Almost everyone. Barbara was normal, but she got to the Barge in the middle of it, so-- maybe that's why? And I don't know how everybody else went back to normal, but Callisto did it for me. The person I'm paired with. She, like-- jogged my memory.

[Which is exactly how it had gone in all the other cases: inmates bringing their paired wardens and warden friends back to themselves, one person at a time.]

And then the whole ship went back to normal because some people found another switch, near the Enclosure. It was fucking weird, Helen.

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