Come Sail Away IC Inbox

[crushed_pearls]

Erin's voice mail message is in a weary voice: "Erin Peters. If you called in the middle of the night and I didn't answer, I'm dying. If I pick up and someone on your end isn't dying, they will be shortly. Text otherwise."

Comments

[crushed_pearls]

"Don't underestimate the joy of - oh my god we've gotta get you on someone's shoulders in the pool. You make teams of two and the mounted players try to knock each other into the water."

Fun! Activity!

[decrypter]

"That does sound like fun, but you're missing the point of it, which is that...I would prefer to walk by its side."

Her voice gets softer, and wow, did you know, she's going to finish off this tea, thank you for bringing it.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin ruffles the top of Helena's hoodie. "You already are, little bird."

[decrypter]

She's embarrassed, but the hood of this one - red, with small wings - can hide it a little.

"...You're going to need a large house, so all your loves can stay in it with you. Maybe in the country, so there's enough room for everyone."

Is she changing the subject to avoid more questions, yes.

[crushed_pearls]

"Helena, little bird, my friend, flame of my heart, I will burn the world to the fucking ground before I live outside of a city on purpose again." Erin pats Helena's shoulder soothingly. "I promise it's not just city girl snobbery. I was out in the Hedge for the longest time, sleeping in a farmhouse is a one way ticket to me having fucking trauma flashbacks. Not in this life or the next will I willfully commit to that."

[decrypter]

"You can't blame me for considering it. You witnessed where I spent the first part of my life. "

She's not counting the time spent in the realm between as real time, notably, but she thinks Erin will understand. With how fractured, uncertain, and difficult it is to track, only she gets to decide how old she is and what counts as real.

"And just as much as you miss the city, I miss being able to lie down in the earth and listen to all the small things being alive around me. But as I like having the world to live in, you must be placed in a city, and that will never be in question again."

[crushed_pearls]

"You suuuuuure you don't want to join me on a world-devouring rampage? It'll be fun, we can drive an army of demons before us."

[decrypter]

"Now, if you start that, I'll be duty bound to stop you. Where are we to live, if you devour the earth?"

All she has is a flare gun and a refusal to stay dead, but she can make it work.

[crushed_pearls]

"I could be talked down into blowing up the moon instead. It'll cure lycanthropy, what could go wrong?"

It's fond, so very fond. Helena's easy to talk to.

Usually.

[decrypter]

"And what are you proposing in its stead to create the tides? The ocean has a need all its own."

She's half laughing as she says it, the earlier tension leaving her. She's missed talk like this - yes, she can hunt down Erin and talk to her, but it's been an absence since this whole rooming debacle started.

[crushed_pearls]

"We'll put Europe into the sky and make a floating colony out of it, world's greatest reversal move."

[decrypter]

"Oh, well, as long as you have a replacement lined up, you may do what you like to the moon. I'm sure the new lunar people will enjoy the change in scenery."

Can you live in space? Might as well try.

[crushed_pearls]

"Either that or we'll enter the second phase of world history that can be summed up as 'hide your women and children, Europe is coming'."