driftfleet | open | action + video

Entry tags:

open | action + video

Who: Glenn Rhee - and maybe you?
Broadcast: Yes
Action: ~~Also yes~~ SS Starstruck
When: Shuffle Day! Plus he just arrived in time for it! Good timing, Glenn!

action: SS Starstruck ]

[ The last thing that he really knew, that he understood and processed, was that his life was over. After that, he couldn't call the details to mind, but the certainty was there. And then, something else happened. He was in a completely different place, somewhere clean, utilitarian but gleaming... and there were stars.

Truth be told, he hadn't gotten past the disbelief, gradually coming to terms with both space and his own continued existence, when suddenly everything changed around him again. Only this time, there was a little tune to greet him, confetti and dessert?

So don't mind him, far more disoriented than he's ever been, stumbling and barely keeping himself upright, staring around the bridge in building bewilderment - and it's rather immediately clear that's what it is, the stations, the windows... space again. However that happened. ]

Um... hello?

[ Eloquent. He'll get to words. Eventually. ]

video ]

I, uh... I guess this is basically like the internet? It's been a while but: Hi. My name is Glenn, and I just got here.

[ He draws a deep breath - while he's doing a bit better, he's still unsteady. ]

To space.

[ He's hoping for what he figures is the impossible... he can't bring himself to put it into words. So he leaves it there, with the dubious tone of someone who still isn't sure anything is real. Himself included. ]

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[ His breathing is slow, steady, all of it a little heavier now, as if the weight of being alive when he knows he shouldn't be is something he can feel on himself. The thought she introduces - that she can see him, that she can actually get to where he is - catches him. ]

You can get here?

[ Of course he wants to see her, to be able to touch her, hold her. Nothing really needs to make sense if he can have that. ]

I'm on the Starstruck.

Yeah. There's shuttles on every ship. I could come over from the ship I'm on.

[Just the idea makes her chest ache. He's here. He's here. Nothing could separate them again.]

I can come over there.

[And maybe the ache will hurt less when they can see one another face to face.]

Okay. I'll...

[ He takes a deep breath, pursing his lip a moment, searching for something else to say - but all of it will come pouring out, he's sure, when she's here. When she's actually, really, here. He nods, swallowing hard. ]

I'll be here.

[ And then he can just... hang onto her as long as he possibly can. Something will be real. ]

Just- uhm - take a little time to process a bit 'til I get there, okay? I'll answer whatever questions your crewmates don't.

[Well, almost any. She's not about to tell him what happened to Carl recently or anything bad. He'll have to hear that later. With a hurried goodbye, she ends the video there and prepares herself mentally for the trip over.

It isn't long until she finds herself on his ship, her hands practically shaking as she sets out looking for him. These people didn't even know her - she'd never spoken to anyone on the ship that she knows of. Sometimes it happened that way - you were closer to your crew than some of the others, unless you knew people on other ships. He might very well find her first.

Her stomach felt heavy as she tries to process everything and tries to make herself forget all the painful memories that would inevitably come up. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him by not telling him, should he not know. She also didn't want to hurt him by telling him. It was a catch 22, this place. They could be happy but still shoulder a great deal of pain.]

Glenn?

[She rounds a corner in her exploration, taking in the differences between this ship and the Goldstone. It kept her mind occupied as she looked for her husband.]

[ He does - process, or tries to, talks to people, finding it startlingly easy with all these strangers to just press through and have conversations like things are normal. It's not unlike how he'd dealt, back at the beginning with things in their world falling apart, when they were all grappling with so much loss at once.

Almost numb, grappling to cope with levity - he could slip into it entirely if it weren't for their people being here.

But with Maggie coming, on her way here, he can't totally shut down. He finds out where the shuttles come in, heads that way and then... there she is, appearing around that corner. He freezes for a moment, staring, swallowing a lump in his throat he hadn't felt as he can feel his eyes sting with tears. ]

Maggie...

[ It's a breath, a whisper, desperate and shaky and covered in disbelief - the video had been one thing, seeing her on a screen, but she's here. She's really, truly, here, in front of him. He can reach out and touch her, grab her - ]

Maggie.

[ His voice is louder, but still full of desperation, still wavering, even as he moves swiftly to close the distance between them, reaching to wrap his arms around her as soon as he can reach. He's definitely crying, but he's barely aware of it, of anything beyond her. ]

[Maggie nearly loses her legs when she hears his voice. His moving in to hold onto her is perfectly timed as she stumbles into him, wrapping her arms around him just as tightly and her hands grab onto the back of his shirt, his hair - wherever she can touch him that pulls him closer to her as her mouth meets his cheek and then his mouth.

He was real. He was real. Her body shakes with sobs as the flood gates let loose and she tries to say his name somewhere in there but it's like she's learned to breathe again after being submerged in water for so, so long.]

Glenn- Glenn. [They're both crying in earnest and holding onto one another. Being able to see him and touch him after what they had lived through was more than she could bear. She holds onto him through the waves of tears, her forehead pressed to his. It was as if, by finding as many points of contact as she could, she could keep him from disappearing again.]

[ He's grasping for her, kissing her, hanging on, crying - everything happens almost at once, overcome by this desperate desire to hold tight and never let go, that as long as they can just hang on, nothing can pull them apart. He keeps his footing, somehow - they're probably each holding the other one up, literally this time.

When she rests her head against his, he mirrors it, his grasp tight, arms wrapped around her back, his fingers curling around to her sides, as close as he can be. He breathes steady, slow, gathering himself if he can, and he speaks softly, his voice barely above a whisper but carefully solid. ]

I'm here... we're here.

[She felt as if the whole world was off kilter, as if everything was teetering around her. The only thing solid and real was him. I'll find you, he'd said. Of course that seemed to be no exception even to the Atroma. He had found her. They had found each other.]

I missed you... I'm so- I'm so sorry I didn't- I couldn't-

[She was a babbling mess as she spoke to him in a hushed voice, cheeks still damp from tears that couldn't seem to stop. She has no idea if he knows about Negan, but she couldn't hold back the apology. She hadn't stopped Negan. She had sat there and done nothing, still in shock from Abraham's own brutal murder. If she hadn't been in pain and worried about the baby she would have found it in her to move, to do something.

She gulps in air, filling her lungs and trying to steady herself. Holding onto each other was probably the only thing keeping the both of them upright at the moment. He was the most beautiful thing she had seen in a long time and she couldn't take her eyes off of him, for fear he would disappear like sand between her fingers.]

You probably want to know what the hell is going on.

[She laughs a bit, a hiccuping and broken sound as if she was barely holding back another wave of tears. Her hands move to his cheeks, thumbs brushing away the dampness on his skin.]

[ That shakes him, so much, her apologizing. To think that she could possibly believe that she had been at fault, that she had failed him in any way. None of it should ever be on her. None. Thinking about she she'd looked, what they'd all just seen... He holds her as steady as he can, speaking as firmly as he can manage to, and at least succeeding on getting his feelings through, his unshakeable belief in the truth of his words. ]

Hey, you don't have anything that you need to be sorry for. Nothing.

[ He takes his own breath, shaky and gasping a bit. He just wants to hold her, solid and warm and real, to make sure they can stay in this moment. He gives a smile, small, disbelieving, but unbelievably grateful, and gives a little laugh back, barely more than a huff of breath. ]

Kind of. But... all I need right now is here.

[ And he tightens his grasp slightly, gently, as he says it. He moves one hand, runs it through her hair lightly, still caught on the way he saw her last. ]

Are you okay?

[ He doesn't think either of them are, not really, but he needs to know that the rest of them made it, after... him. ]

I'm good.

[It's automatic, something she's probably said over and over dozens of times since she'd lost him.]

I'm okay, now that you're here.

[The tears were stopping finally and reality was sinking in. They could rebuild their lives here and be together, whatever that meant for them.]

Back home- it's... been hard. Without you and Abraham around me and Sasha kind of moved on to the Hilltop. I've been running it, actually.

[She smiles a bit, thinking of everything the two of them and Jesus have accomplished.]

Gregory didn't really get a say.

[ Without him. That's going to be difficult to get used to, but. He knew, of course. He swallows, nods, and gives her a smile - small, sad, but entirely genuine, his tone similarly soft. He's unquestionably proud of her, not surprised... there's just be a part of him that will always want to have been there to see it. ]

Good. I know they're a lot better off.

[ But knowing that much leaves the naturally following question of how much else has happened. That's sort of troubling, really. It hangs there for a moment before he can put the words to it. ]

How... long has it been?

Back home it's been a few weeks. Here? A few months. Time moves differently and it makes things a little strange to keep up with.

[She has the same sad smile as him, but part of her feels lighter by just being able to see him and talk to him again. Maybe she can put the rest of it behind her.]

You know... with everything else, that doesn't even seem that strange.

[ He stops there, smile faltering just slightly as he comes to that one last pit of dread to clear... ]

What about... ?

[ He can't quite bring himself entirely to say the words "the baby," but the end of that question is plainly written in the worry line that develops in his brow, the glance downward, the heavy caution that enters his tone. There's an unacknowledged hope in him that Maggie will jump at this pause, immediately understanding, and tell him that everything is fine, that they can be a family here, quieting all his fears. Either way, that hesitation hangs, long enough for her to act on it and him hoping he won't have to press further. ]

[She had been hoping to put off talking about it. Talking to anyone else about it had felt awful at the time but talking to Glenn was actually worse. She couldn't lie and say everything was fine.]

The baby. [It was best to just get it out, honestly.]

I don't really- the way we show up here it's like time is frozen, but we're frozen too, kind of? I don't know. It's just- the baby isn't- isn't there.

[The act of forcing the words out was almost physically painful. She wanted her husband back more than anything, yet to get him it seemed she had to lose something else.]

[ He remains quiet as that hits him, letting himself absorb it while hanging on, firmly, to her. That he won't waver in, he won't loosen his hold or step away. And then he moves to pull her in close again.

This is impossible, in and of itself; he couldn't have hoped for this much, but having it - having her - he couldn't help but hope that he would have a chance to know their baby, to be a father. ]

I'm sorry.

[ For making her say it, for the loss he knows she's feeling, for not being there - even though that isn't his fault. For everything. He doesn't know what else to say, finding himself at a loss for any other words through his own pain, unable to do anything but hang on tighter. ]

You know? For a while I deliberated which was worse - which person I wanted to kill more - the Atroma for taking away the baby or Negan for -

[She sucks in a breath and just wraps her arms around him again so she can bury her face into him again. It was like she could disappear from all the harshness of reality by doing something so simple. Being able to hold onto him and maybe even just cry, after being strong about everything for so long and focusing on what needed to be done instead of her own grief helped.]

[ Gently, he places a hand on the back of her head, his fingers intertwining in her hair, stroking gently. He swallows hard, a lump in his throat that's been steadily forming and built to critical mass at the mention of Negan, his own death - the death that he's somehow standing here in spite of, holding her. He takes a slow, shaky breath, trying to keep himself together for her.

He tucks his face downward, places a kiss on the top of her head, and he speaks softly, hanging on. ]

Hey... hey, I'm here.

[ He doesn't mean it to deny her any grief or rage - it's more of an assurance, a reminder that she can just lean on him for as long as she needs to. And maybe it will even help with his own, being able to just hold her like this. ]

[She nods, understanding what he's saying. They've both been through grief before - together and apart. She knows he understands what it feels like for her to suddenly have the thing she wants more than anything while also losing something else. Part of her feels like a disappointment, that now it might be impossible for them to ever have their family that they wanted, but he's here and he's alive and she would give anything for that.]

Mmhmm. [She hums an answer against his shoulder, just closing her eyes and taking in how familiar it is. It made everything else feel like a bad dream.]

I know. Me too.

[She knew what it was like showing up here, not knowing what was going on or if any of this was real. The only difference was she had something to go back to. Anything he had to go back to had been taken away.]

[ It's true; this is it now, for him. There isn't anywhere else for him to go, nothing to return to, no life to get on with living. Whatever life he's been granted has been granted to him here and here alone. The fact that she's here - that Carl, Daryl, Carol, any one of them are here - is beyond belief, beyond the impossible. It's more than he could have ever asked or hoped for.

Yet now that he has it, that he somehow has this renewed stay among the living, even here, that he has her... not having the family they'd been planning, hoping and waiting for, still cuts deeply.

But it does help, being here with her, weathering the grief that's each their own and shared. And so he hangs onto her, desperately, tightly, because he won't lose this. If he can just hold on, maybe he can keep them both here. He closes his eyes, dislodging a couple of stray tears in the process, and leans his head lightly on hers. ]

I love you, Maggie. I'd never stand a chance of explaining how much.

[It cut deep, knowing that she can't give him a family. The Atroma had traded their child in for her continued stay here, now with him. It was painful, but the relief that he was alive soothed it a bit.]

I love you too. It's going to be okay.

[Maybe not completely, but she needed to tell herself that just as much as she needed to tell him.]

The others are going to be so happy to see you.

[But she gets him to herself for now. They have time to see the others. This moment is for the two of them alone.]

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