♙ 1

[howruthless]

[at first, there's silence.

The silence is then followed by gasps and sobs as Tess is forced into a sitting position like there's been a shock of adrenaline to her system. It takes a moment for her to catch her breath, and get herself oriented again, and when she does -- this isn't Metropolis Gen. In fact, this isn't even close]

What the hell?

[if you didn't know better, you might even say that there was a twinge of fear in her voice, but she'd never admit to it if she knew anyone was listening]

Is anyone there?

[a beat]

Chloe?

[it takes her a minute to get her legs under her, but she does, slowly and cautiously making her way to the door. She pulls it open, sees her name on the door, and slams it shut again.]

I repeat. What the hell.

Comments

[howruthless]

[nods, her arms still crossed in front of her chest defensively. she's still not sure how she feels about everyone suddenly being friendly, but she's not in the mood to look for teeth.]

Sounds good. Is anyone else here other than you guys and Oliver? From home, I mean.

[supes]

Not anyone that you know, but there's a Bat-themed family of heroes from Gotham. We hadn't heard of them before we got here, but that's because they're twenty or so years ahead of us and on a different time-line.

[Pause.]

I promise this makes more sense eventually.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

... Exactly why I said you might want to wait for the full scoop. But it's basically what Clark said. When people wind up here, no time passes back home, so no one notices anyone's gone... and everyone forgets this place when they head back, so none of us winding breaking space-time.

I think.

[howruthless]

So the castle just wipes our memories and puts us back at square one?

[supes]

Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

And that's really sort of the shallow end of invasive procedures where the castle's concerned.

[howruthless]

.... Do I want to know?

[supes]

Probably, but whether you want to know now or have a chance to absorb the rest first is up to you.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

What Smallville said. This is probably already a little overwhelming.

[howruthless]

Overwhelming might actually be an understatement.

[there was a beat before she makes her way back to where she left the journal]

I was here before -- it would mostly be on this, right?

[supes]

Whenever you had the journal open. I don't think you used it much. [Or if you did, you filtered away from him.] I think the only time you and I spoke with the journal open was when you arrived, and when we went to the Pillar Fields.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

If you can find out who you talked to last time around, they might be willing to play informer.

[howruthless]

[nods slowly]

I'll look through it and see.

[supes]

And we can answer any other questions you have, too.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

Until then, maybe you'll settle for a tour?

[howruthless]

A tour would be good. At least as far as learning my way around.

[supes]

Let's do that, then.

[He'll just be gettin' the door for you ladies.]

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

[Lois swings out ahead of them, turning around to fix Tess with a smirk] Kitchen's on the first floor.

[howruthless]

[chuckles]

That seems to be a good place to start.

[supes]

It's usually the busiest place in the castle, too.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

Doesn't matter what world people come from: everyone loves a good double decker sandwich at midnight, I guess.

[howruthless]

[chuckle]

But we all have to share? That seems a bit ... impractical.

[supes]

Lois and I have a kitchenette in our room. If you ask the castle, it can accommodate. It's just a bit more social to use the communal one, not to mention it has everything edible under the sun in it.

[loisfuckinglane.livejournal.com]

You can pretty much dictate your personal level of hermitude here. Convenient, really, but I usually prefer to keep a finger on the pulse where I can.

[howruthless]

[nods]

I'll keep that in mind.