[Entry Post - For Allison]

[fifthbeatle]

It's not cold anymore. 

Vanya was standing between her brother and sister, gripping Klaus' hand on the right and Allison's on the left. The briefcase made a noise that Vanya could feel in her teeth, sent light up into the sky that surely could be seen for miles. Her eyes followed up after it, each of the Hargreeves children glowing blue in its brilliance. She thought maybe she should close her eyes, but she didn't. The time for shielding herself from brilliant light was over. 

The sound of her siblings' breathing isn't there anymore. She's not moved, not even blinked, and she's in a living room, hands out as if holding on, but they are empty. Her gloves and her hair are no longer damp from the snow. She can't smell the grass and manure that marked the last month of her life adrift. Now, she closes her eyes and focuses hard on the sound, so hard that her skin pales and her irises go white. There's no wind in the trees. No wildlife crunching through the grass. No whirl of mills and symphony of crickets. Just the sound of a tap running and the creaky normalcy of an old building. 

Her eyes open and the white of her irises flood brown-hazel again; her skin regains its pigment, but she is no warmer. There is movement in this apartment, but Vanya hasn't moved a muscle in several moments, except to look around her and hope that one or all of her siblings pop up later. Time travel is not an exact science, she thinks, but they travelled by briefcase - wasn't that supposed to be a more trustworthy method? Maybe it's supposed to be, but are there consequences for travelling with a sound-fed anomaly unable to keep herself from ending the world twice?

"Hello?" She calls softly, hunched a bit, hands out at her sides in a passive surrender. 

Comments

[nomorerumors]

Allison has spent more time upstairs with Klaus than she has in her own apartment, a combination of needing to be near her siblings and feeling more than a bit freaked out by a city that knew she was coming and had everything prepared, down to a freaking lease.

But, as much as she loves her brothers, she'd finally reached a point where she had to go most of the day without seeing them, or lose her mind. As nice as it is to bond and have time with them again, after decades of not being around them, it's still kind of weird. Really nice and emotional at times, but weird.

She's just finished a nice bath and is prepping for a night in, wearing a fuzzy bathrobe she picked up as an essential need. Also essential: an aluminum baseball bat, which is in her hands as she leaves her bedroom and creeps into the hallway, listening hard.

There had been a sound, maybe a thump of some sort, but Allison doesn't have anything in her apartment yet, nothing that could fall over, nothing that could make that noise. And she is nothing if not incredibly aware of the fact that she is living on her own, in an apartment that she's not entirely sure is safe, in a strange city she can't leave.

Allison is half way down the low lit hallway when she hears a soft voice, and she gasps.

She shuffles forward the rest of the way into the living room, too eager to see if it really is her sister to realize she still has the bat in her hands, raised and ready for anything.

"Vanya?"

[fifthbeatle]

Gentle footsteps are coming closer from the dark hallway. At first, she's afraid out of habit. It still hasn't sunk in fully that she has powers to keep her safe when she feels disarmed like she does now. This is the sort of feeling that would have her reaching into her pocket for her pills not that long ago.

The figure that appears in the dim light is her sister, poised to fight in a fuzzy bathrobe. The silliness of this is lost on her. All she can do is stand herself up a little straighter to keep from drowning in relief.

"Allison," Vanya breathes. Her brows knit like she might cry for a second. The space between Vanya's strange arrival and the appearance of her sister was just enough to let in a little rush of panic. Now, she stands up straighter. The urge to run across the room and squeeze Allison half to death is rising, but Allison has a bat and there's no telling what could happen when time travel is involved. What if Allison doesn't remember what Vanya does? She knows a thing or two about forgetting.

"I-it's okay." Whether she's talking to herself of her sister is unclear. Her brain is on a delay because her skin itches and all she can think is that they might be in a place and/or time where Allison doesn't trust her anymore.

[nomorerumors]

"It is you." Vanya is standing there in her living room looking like a rabbit about to bolt from a trap, tiny and still wearing the same clothes Allison last remembers her in, the faint ozone smell of the Briefcase lingering in the air.

Allison lets out a small sound, half joyous, half shocked as she drops the bat to the ground, the thump of it loud as it hits the carpeted floor. "Oh my god, you made it." She's talking even as she rushes over to Vanya, looking every inch of her over. "Are you okay? You're not hurt or anything?"

[fifthbeatle]

A similar, more anxious sound rushes out of Vanya, too. Allison bolts over to her before the bat can even settle to the floor. With vague wonder, Vanya realizes that she will never tire of the feeling she gets when her siblings run toward her.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," Vanya assures her. She lets Allison fuss over her for a second, then wraps her arms around her sister's middle for a tight hug. When she pulls back just enough to look up, she's near tears again. It's been a long day - a long month.

"I'm so happy to see you. I thought we got separated again." At least they're back where they belong, or so she thinks for a few more seconds before she starts to realize that the pieces she is putting together don't quite make sense.

"Did we make it back?"

[nomorerumors]

Allison wraps Vanya up, thrilled and relieved that another one of them is here already-- maybe it won't be as terribly lonely, this time. She always had hope she'd see her siblings again when in Dallas, but it had still been hard.

"We got a little separated," Allison admits, looking Vanya over. She looks almost exactly the same as when she'd last seen her, and now Allison realizes she'll be the one giving Vanya The Talk, much like Klaus did for her.

The very idea of it is overwhelming.

"And we're not back home, no. It's kind of like what happened with all of us in Dallas, but weirder."

[fifthbeatle]

Vanya's searching Allison's face for what it is that has her looking -- cautious, maybe. It could be another emotion entirely, but when things go wrong, Vanya assumes she's the source. It was just a feeling as a child, but the time she's spent knowing she's powerful has been fraught with a lack of responsibility. Since that amount of time is unquantifiable (due to either amnesia and/or time-travel), she has to rely on what's around her to figure out what's within her.

She's still holding onto Allison when she asks in a small voice, "what do you mean?" Then, smaller still, "was it me?"

[nomorerumors]

"No, no way, it wasn't you," Allison says, wanting to laugh at the ridiculousness of how that question is necessary at this point in their lives. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like there's anything about this now that will add anymore weight to Vanya's tiny shoulders.

Allison takes Vanya's face into her hands, making sure she's looking at her when she says, "I promise it's just weird time travel stuff according to Five. You're not about to cause the apocalypse, okay? I think two is probably enough for a lifetime."

[fifthbeatle]

It feels like a billion hornets have broken their swarm in her chest. Allison's gentle reassurance and fearless touch makes her cry immediately. Vanya jams her eyes shut and squeezes her sister into another fierce hug. She's so many things, but mostly she's relieved that she's found herself here, grateful and in awe of the person her sister has worked hard to become.

She stays that way for a while, fuzzy bathrobe on her face. After a bit, Vanya pulls back a bit, swiping at her nose with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry to burst in like this," she murmurs, and the absurdity makes her laugh just a little. "Wherever we are."

[nomorerumors]

Allison can't help but tear up herself, holding Vanya as long as her sister needs -- and as she stands there with Vanya in her arms, Allison realizes she's needed this, too. A few weeks and two apocalypses isn't enough to completely mend the burned bridges between them, but it's a start.

And she's missed Vanya, truly missed her.

"No apologizing," she says with a laugh, and wipes her own face gently. "At least you showed up here in my apartment. I ended up in the middle of the sidewalk in the middle of the day, yelling for Five. We're in a city called Darrow, and...we're stuck, somehow. We literally can't leave, Five says."

She's seen it for herself by now; she'd pulled her rental car over to throw up on the side of the road when she realized she had somehow looped right back around and was driving toward the city again instead of away from it. Something's just plain wrong about it all, and Five not knowing how to get them all out makes it all worse.

[fifthbeatle]

That's a lot to take in. First, Vanya empathizes with her. They both know what it's like to drop in somewhere scared and screaming for Five. Allison had to go through it again. It makes Vanya feel guilty for having an easier time. It also makes her more grateful. It makes her want to be stronger.

"O-okay," Vanya says, still processing. "I have like a hundred questions. For some reason, I can't think of one." God, their father purchased them as babies with powers, how is it possible there is something that's weirder than that?

"Five's here?" She perks up a little. Allison's here and Five's here. That's great news! The rest of what Allison has said sinks in a beat after. If Five says they can't leave, they can't. At least the family is all together. Isn't that what Allison said? "What about everyone else?"

[nomorerumors]

Allison knows just about everything Vanya's going through right now, and had spent her first day here trying to get answers to tons of questions. Answers she still doesn't have, and can't give Vanya, but she can try for what she does know so far.

"Yeah, Five's here. Klaus is here too, but that's it." But Vanya is here now, and maybe it will be like Dallas. Maybe they just have to wait for Luther and Diego, find them, and figure it all out together.

"Just the four of us so far. Klaus and Five are actually sharing an apartment upstairs," she points at the ceiling, a look on her face that says she honestly still can't believe it. "I was there for a few nights myself, but I eventually had to get down here for some alone time. Oh, God, speaking of--"

Allison breaks away from Vanya, walking over to find her purse on the nearby coffee table. She talks as she goes through it to find her wallet. "We're not exactly sure how we got here or why, but this place is kind of creepy. It's like someone knew we were coming and left things ready for us. This apartment lease was in my name when I got here, and this..." She holds her wallet open for Vanya to see her ID card, the picture somehow of her in the same clothes she was wearing at the farm. "This was already made. There'll be a package waiting for you at the train station with an ID and information for your apartment and a city map and stuff. Apparently it's a thing."

[fifthbeatle]

"Are you sure they're not here?" Vanya asks. It's not that she doesn't trust her sister's judgement, but time travel is so weird. What if they're lost and they need their family to find them? They might be feeling the way Vanya felt on the farm, lost without knowledge of who they are. That makes no sense, but she needs to help the family that helped her.

She wants to ask if they can go see their brothers, but Allison blows her mind again with the little ID. With gentle trepidation, she takes the wallet and inspects the card.

"Holy shit." It's Allison in the clothes Vanya last saw her in. She's so dumbfounded that it takes her a few seconds to register the newest information. She looks up at Allison with big eyes. "There's one of these for me?" There's a horror creeping in.

"I don't understand." There's a dizziness whirling into her. She hands the wallet back to Allison and finds herself sitting down on the nearby couch. "When did you take the picture? Did someone know you were coming?"

[nomorerumors]

"We're keeping our eyes out. Thankfully this place isn't as big as Dallas was." It's still exhausting, scanning every face she passes by day after day for Diego and Vanya. At least with Luther, she'll see him coming a block away.

Allison can see the way the ID hits Vanya, knows exactly what she's feeling - that panic struggling to claw its way out and make sense of it all.

"I don't know the answers," Allison says, setting the wallet back in her purse. She sits down next to Vanya, looks around the little living room and thinks about how she's asked the same questions Vanya is asking, day in and day out. "None of us do. But...apparently it's something that's been happening for years here. People like us are brought here with no explanation of why or how, and the natives just...act like it's normal."

It's deeply unsettling, to say the least.

[fifthbeatle]

A part of Vanya already feels ungrateful for having so many questions. Their lives as a family have been made of unmet expectations. Reginald Hargreeves had called himself their father, taught them to read using books about adventure and family and love and dared them to spot the difference. It was the only kind of knowledge they could be punished for, and some worse than others.

By the loosest of estimates, it's been just under 2 months since Vanya discovered she has powers like her siblings, and she was dormant for more than half of that, too. They are he family and they love her, and they have 26 years on her when it comes to knowing how to live with the responsibility of the things they can do and what they have done. She has to trust that their love doesn't bring with it the kind of dissonance their father's did.

Vanya realizes she's been quiet for a while, sort of inspecting the flooring like it might make any of this clearer. Her eyes flick to Allison's helplessly, and she realizes that she has to give up, just for now. It's good to question what she sees and hears and what she tells herself, but now she has voices to guide her that don't speak in her father's lies.

"I-I'm sorry," she says again, wishing she'd said something else, but there's something about sitting there moving her mouth like a dying fish that doesn't leave a lot of space for quicker thoughts than that. "This is all a lot."

A thought seems to strike her. She asks, "what do you mean like us? People with powers?" That, at least, makes her feel a little better. There are more of them, they know that now because of Lila.

If what Allison means is that all kinds of people show up - and four of the Hargreeves siblings are here - maybe that means Sissy might show up, too.

[nomorerumors]

Allison shakes her head at the apology, but doesn't touch it anymore. Vanya keeps feeling like she has to apologize for something and Allison suspects their upbringing and the way she joined in treating her sister, but this isn't the time to try to shake her out of that mindset. Allison has years of mending to work on in that area.

"I think there are other people with powers here," she says, "but that's not what I meant. People who've been brought here from our own homes. A lot of the people in this city were born and grew up here, but then there are those of us who were...brought, or arrived, I'm not sure. I've been trying to read everything I can about it and I still have a lot of stuff to get through."

[fifthbeatle]

Of course she is. Allison is a fastidious studier and a quick learner. That was the tragedy of her addiction to her power: the only person that believed Allison was not capable of earning her place was Allison. Vanya knows the feeling. She wishes she knew then what she knows now. She'd never have written that book. Or, if she had, it would have been very, very different.

It's becoming clear that there is no wrapping her mind around this, so she sits back with an exhale between pursed lips. She blinks a couple of times.

"Just when I thought we'd seen everything," Vanya muses, a twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Two apocalypses later and the Hargreeves are still being visited by untold horrors. She reminds herself for the hundredth time that, at least she's not alone anymore. So, she leans against Allison, head on her shoulder.

"I can't help but think Dad has something to do with this."