Just Keeping Swimming | March Planet Mingle

[thespaceopera]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: Anywhere on Mafik
When: The month of March



[Welcome to Mafik, the water world! Hope you brought your best swimming gear and don't have a paralyzing fear of water, because that's all that's here! So get out those wet suits and enjoy life under the sea!

In other words, it's a mingle! ]

> System Information

Comments

[exothermia]

[Distantly, he thinks it does. Once again things from their world, things of great import, have been magicked into another universe at just the right moment for them to obtain them. Erik finds that he doesn't care about that right now. It's just a relief to have it, even if it comes mingled with pain. He hasn't seen this photo in months... hasn't seen Magda or Nina in person for longer. That time will only continue to lengthen.

Tracing his finger along the edge of the frame, Erik still sounds out of sorts.]

No. Not really.

[axiomed]

[ Charles hesitates. The itch to distance himself rises strongly. Erik had a wife, a son and a daughter. What was Charles?

This still feels like a private grief. As if Charles is intruding where he shouldn't be. Trying to fill a hole where he shouldn't be stepping in to begin with. They are family, but Charles is the kind of family people can walk away from while he nods and gives them his blessing. He doesn't belong in this conversation.

But he knows that he wouldn't want to alienate Erik by saying so. Grief and the aftereffects should be felt. He waits for a few minutes before speaking. ]

Our memories don't fail us, but I think it helps to have tangible objects to hold. To look at.

[exothermia]

[Erik lets out a slow breath, and lays the photo aside on the bed, finally. It's not going anywhere.]

It does. But memories do fade, or disappear. Time does that.

[There are large parts of his childhood he doesn't recall. Other more recent gaps trouble him at times, but he knows he doesn't want to remember what should fill them. He looks back up at Charles, returning a bit more to the present.]

This was one of the things I found when I went back there, to Poland.

[axiomed]

[ He smiles faintly. ]

Perhaps. But the feelings do not.

Did you find anything else?

[exothermia]

Yeah. [He glances over to the photo, plastic coating shining in the light.] It was inside a book I had... along with some money I had started putting away.

[axiomed]

[ Money for what? But Charles doesn't dare ask. ]

Not Frankenstein, I hope.

[exothermia]

[Erik blinks, looking back to him.]

Yes, actually. The copy you gave me.

[axiomed]

Oh.

[ Charles was just joking. ]

I didn't think you'd keep that.

[exothermia]

[Erik picks at the bedspread a bit, not finding it all that remarkable. There was little that he had taken with him from the mansion... the book, and the coat Charles had given him. Everything else had been left behind for safekeeping.]

I wanted to hold on to it. I had a few things out there, in the barn. ...your card, as well.

[axiomed]

My card? Why would you need my card?

[exothermia]

You gave it to me when I left, if you recall.

[Maybe Charles doesn't. There was much more worth remembering about that last parting, rather than the passing over of a business card. Still Erik had stowed the card away, largely out of mind until the last couple of years.

Remembering this is sobering, but the photo has stirred his memory of it.]

I had started planning ahead... for how to get us to the States.

[axiomed]

[ His brow furrows in confusion before the realization hits him. Erik wanted to bring Nina to the school. Of course. He rests his hands on his arm rests, digging his fingers in, a myriad of feelings running through his mind, not all of them pleasant to bear. Sucking in a quiet invisible breath, Charles neatly slots it away. ]

You could have asked for help.

[exothermia]

I was going to.

[Or at least, he was going to ask if it was okay, use that card's phone number to call. He would have stayed behind if Charles didn't want to see him, as long as he could ensure safe passage for Nina and Magda. It had been one of the difficulties he had started thinking about, how to manage a crossing when he was the most wanted man on Earth.]

But she wasn't old enough yet. I had thought that in a couple of years, that...

[He shakes his head. He had waited too long, out of a desire to give Nina a chance at a childhood he'd never gotten to experience. Even as her powers started to manifest, even as stray comments from the townsfolk started to follow her around.]

[axiomed]

[ Charles softens, despite himself. ]

Of course. She would have been welcome. You all would have been.

[exothermia]

[It only reminds him of his abject stupidity in planning for a future he was always doomed to lose. When he had found that tin of money, Charles's card stashed inside, the memory of his plans - his hopes - clanged uselessly against his heart.

He had left the money behind.

Erik takes a deep breath, squares the feelings away as best he can. This isn't anything Charles wants to hear.]

It doesn't matter anymore. But that's why those things were in the barn.

[axiomed]

[ He looks pained at that statement. ]

Of course it mattered. It may not have come to fruition, but it mattered.

[exothermia]

[Part of him agrees, as much as the other part does not. The ruthless, defeated part of him that partitions off his failures and miseries from the rest of him. Only that doesn't work the way it used to. Everything's blurred now.]

It's not an easy thing to look back on.

[axiomed]

No.

[ Charles has no illusions on that. But Charles is tired of looking back. It certainly hasn't given him a modicum of peace or any answers. There's nothing there which he could have done differently or fixed. ]

And it never will be. But what was said, what was done, what was shared — it matters because it was heard. For a moment, it was important. It was real.

[exothermia]

[And the real things are the ones that hurt the most. Erik lets out a breath, tired of scraping over the past. He'll never be done with it. It's never done with him, either.

He reaches out and covers Charles's hand with his own, where it grips the armrest.]

[axiomed]

[ With a tired but encouraging smile, he twists his hand to clasp Erik's. It might not be true peace. It might not even be close. But they're more than their past. ]

[exothermia]

[Erik curls his fingers around Charles's, taking some comfort in the grip. He swipes at his face briefly with his other hand before speaking again.]

I took some photos of the temple with the communicator, if you want to see.

[axiomed]

I would love to.

[exothermia]

[He smiles slightly, and pulls out his communicator.]

Other than the puzzles in there, the architecture of it was interesting.

[axiomed]

[ He peers over the communicator, eyes alight with curiosity. ]

It seems the structure is built around the puzzles not vice-versa, from the looks of it.

[exothermia]

Yes, but it's still a building in its own right.

[Erik flicks to the first image, a photo of the inscription on a stone altar. It mentions the trials to be faced within, and the reward of 'otherwordly treasures' if successful. The following photo is a wider angle of the same altar, showing the ornate stonework behind.]

Things were a bit more utilitarian further in.