After a hearty dinner, Marin was on Jarvin's couch for the night.
She had tried to be polite while his wife had made friendly conversation. Marin really had no direction to go on. She had never wanted to stay in Icicle Inn, beyond surviving the cold nights. The Dwyer's had made that complicated. Both to leave and to tell her story.
Gaia was a bigger world than Marin had assumed, not that Jarvin and his wife, Kari, thought that she already had a twenty-point plan worked out for her travels.
So she could only talk of her hobbies, or how she might market herself for a job.
Kari had still been dressed in what she had been wearing on her fishing boat earlier that day. Overalls and warm clothes, her black hair in a loose bun with a few wisps of gray creeping in. Nothing as heavy as what Marin had been wearing. Kari's soft expression carried much of the look of Marin's Japanese grandmother making it easy to talk to the other woman.
"My music is for me, I'm not good enough to make any money off of it." She told them, when that came up.
She was even less enthused to pursue a career in music, when they happily informed her how ShinRa supported creative industries by funding the few labels that were even signing anyone. And every label was owned by that company.
Marin plastered a big smile on her face while Kari listed off all the benefits of not having a cut-throat industry, what with there being only one company that owned all the labels.
"Yeah, sounds good." She told Kari before going back into the rest of her dinner.
Kari was not grateful to find Jarvin's right sleeve torn and bloody, though she brightened when she found out what Marin had done to help. Kari found out about the Bandersnatches while Jarvin cooked dinner. Originally confronting him with the bloody clothes when he arrived.
Then Kari was smiles and hugs for everyone.
When Marin had no useful answers for what she might do, when she crossed the Sea. Kari was full of advice, like do this, don't do that.
Marin was a little older than some that had struck out on their own. What she did have going for her was the bit of magic and knowledge of the game she still remembered. Kari had coaxed Marin into pitching healing as a service.
Marin knew some first aid, which would only be improved upon with the magic she had now. The only downside was that if she came across anyone sick with more than a cold. She didn't have the worldly experience to tell one disease from another, especially not the ones that were specific to Gaia. Or curing a big one that could happen in the years to come.
"What was that?" Kari asked.
Marin had started doing some coin tricks out of boredom. Another art she didn't want to be paid for, she knew nothing compared to Jamie. Marin did not have the presence for the stage like her girlfriend. "What, this? I do it when I'm bored."
There were other things she could do, making costumes was the same as being a tailor. Though Kari quickly informed her of only a few jobs outside of Midgar for making tailored clothes. ShinRa made everything, tailored clothes were more something for the wealthy. People made do with what they could get and fixed it up themselves. To which, Kari had already fixed Jarvin's parka.
There wasn't much Marin could do with those skills on the road. Not when people were so self-sufficient.
Marin gave Kari a weak smile. She didn't want to brag about the little tricks Jamie had taught her, most of them were of a duplicitous bend, outside of the stage. Picking locks or hand cuffs, or sleight of hand with Gil. They were not things someone bragged about.
When it was late and Kari was satisfied with the advice she could part to Marin. Marin, as 'Janine,' lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling. The weather outside was cool and felt very spring-like. Despite Weylinn's proximity to the snow line.
'I'm really doing it,' She realized. 'I'm really on my own.' She hadn't even finished high school. She had missed final exams the year before. If she didn't get back to earth soon, she would have no time to prepare for mid-terms. She wouldn't graduate at this rate. Or in her case, some tutoring and probably summer school, mixed with whatever homework she could finish. It wasn't going to be fun whenever Marin returned home. She hated high school, and the homework. But the sooner she put it behind her, the sooner she would never have to deal with it again.
The whole thing was a waste of time. Jamie and Marin had a plan. Marin would get a job, Jamie would go to college, then they would leap-frog work and school and build a life together. They could get an apartment with friends. Danny, unfortunately, was disqualified from being one of those roommates since he had died.
Marin had been thinking of going into the trades, she hadn't decided which one yet. Which meant that her current classes were already more than she needed for that sort of program. Carpentry didn't sound so bad, if she could get into making sets for the local film studios, the theaters. Maybe even build homes. Marin wanted a degree in being a linguist, she already knew three languages. But that wasn't a marketable skill for a job. Not when no one here spoke French or Mandarin. She knew that the longer she was here, the more those languages would fade from disuse.
Marin rolled on her side and tried to sleep. She would be saying good-bye to Jarvin and Kari before dawn. Another place where she felt welcome. She didn't think Ardyn would settle for Weylinn. Not when there was so much more world for her to find trouble in, or whatever Ardyn was keeping from her.
The planet, Gaia, could move on with or without Marina. And she was sick of her own troubles keeping her behind.
Fighting her nerves with another breathing exercise, the fatigue from her earlier magic caught up with her. She was asleep before she counted to four.
In no time at all Kari was shaking Marin awake.
"Buh-yeah?"
"The ship leaves in a couple hours. Come. I made you something to eat."
Kari asked Marin to come into the kitchen, once Marin was out of her sleeping clothes. The parka took up a lot of space in her bag, but it was already too warm to wear.
Yawning, Marin managed to get through breakfast without any conversation. The sun would rise in a couple more hours.
"Not a morning person?" Kari asked brightly.
Marin shrugged, "I think I just forgot that in my other pants."
Kari chuckled.
Marin shook her head. "I haven't had to get up this early in months. Something I'll have to get used to again."
"Was life easy, up north?"
"I just recovered from...an illness. I've been laid up for months, going stir crazy. Now I'm traveling to places I've never been before. To get a job I've never had before. To see a world I've never seen before." Marin shrugged.
"Nervous?" Kari asked concerned.
Marin held out her hand, it wasn't shaking. "Yeah."
Kari took Marin's hand. "Well, Janine, if it's ever too much. Just know that you're welcome to Weylinn." She pulled something out of her pocket. "Here."
Marin stared at the translucent green sphere. "What?"
"Just a little something for watching Jarvin's back. I keep telling him not to travel those passes alone." She put the green Materia in Marin's hand. "But I'm glad you were there this time."
Marin swallowed, gazing into it, she could imagine the heat that wanted her to pull it out of the green depths. "Fire? But, is this Jarvin's-"
Kari closed her hand over the sphere, "No, no. I'd never take that from him. He's had that one for years and years. This is just something to get you started, build up your skill set."
"Thanks." Was all Marin could say.
Kari dragged a sleepy Jarvin out of bed to say good-bye. Who made one last warning of people trying to scam her, before Kari took Marin to the docks.
The first thing Marin noticed, before reaching the edge of town. Was the salty-sea air. This close to the docks, the salt was mixed with dead fish. The whole mix of smells made Marin think of freedom, and moving onward. The dead fish smell didn't bother her. Marin's instincts told her not to wrinkle her nose at the smells Kari, and the other fishermen, worked with every day.
"Bye, Janine!" Kari told Marin, squeezing her shoulder. Jarvin was back at their house, too tired to follow them without risking missing the boat across the Sea.
"See ya later." Marin told Kari as she walked the gang plank to the ship, large boat. Marin yawned again, greeting the captain and stowing her pack below the tiny deck.
Kari had already bartered for Marin's benefit to the captain. Stuffed in her spring jacket pocket was also a map Kari had given her.
She would be hopeless navigating the ocean on an unfamiliar planet. But this captain knew Kari, and Kari had haggled a fare for Marin as a last gift.
Marin would be on her own going forward. At least the 3000 Gil she had would go further now. With Kari bringing the fare down for Marin, she had a larger remainder of what she had started with.
Marin just had to find a job and a place to stay, before she knew where she really stood. Which meant not casting spells willy-nilly, or buying two more ethers with all she had.
Marin couldn't afford to go on any sort of real adventure. She had to work for a living, unless adventure found her.
With no sign of Ardyn, Marin settled on the top deck. She kept out of the way of the few people working on the small ship. Settling on the bow to write some things down, before they were forgotten. She watched the sun rise while the Captain waited for the tide to come in.
"Never been on a ship before?" the captain asked.
Marin shook her head. "Boat yes, ship, no." She had been on boats on a lake on earth. But not since arriving to the land-locked Icicle Inn.
The captain's had another question, "ah, a land lubber then?"
Marin nodded. Pulling a snack out. Kari had packed Marin a cold lunch and dinner. Lucky her she had no food allergies on Earth, and hadn't run across any on this planet. The food was pretty much the same, except for the origin of the meat. 'Did anyone farm Chocobos? Or only ride them.' Whatever it was it tasted like chicken.
"Well, then looks like tha' next stop is Kuar-town."
It was a small-ish town on the north coast of the western continent. North of Rocket town. Which meant they were several times larger than Icicle Inn, or Weylinn.
"What's their main import?" she asked him. Struggling to make conversation about another town or city she knew nothing about.
"Same as their exports." He said. Surveying the southern horizon.
"What?"
"They're the main shipping-receiving for rocket parts."
"Ah."
"If yer gonna see tha' world. See a launch or two before moving on." He suggested.
The man wanted Marin to pay triple for his food, Kari's meals were a blessing. Some of the sailors and workers out of Weylinn knew each other but weren't the best of friends to strangers like Marin.
This ship was going where Marin had intended to go, so she wasn't choosy with the captain she got.
Kari had felt well enough to send Marin on this boat. Jarvin's words reminded her that Kari wasn't there to watch out for her. But the captain was being kind enough. So she made polite conversation until he went back to his cabin to steer them closer to the coast.
Marin sniffed the air. She had never been to an ocean before, so she had no reference. She wouldn't know if they smelled different from each other. With the way the salt mixed with the smell of dead fish, it just smelled like the open ocean to her.
The southern horizon grew texture and shape as she was reminded that she had no idea what tomorrow would bring.
The shoreline could not come closer quickly enough.
Marin thanked the captain, and the crew, for the trip. Hefting her bag, most of it was winter clothes that would only be suited for the coldest winter days, or daily wear in the north.
Hungry, stressed and tired. She hefted her pack and kept an eye out for anyone watching her.
There were curious eyes. But whether it was looking for a mark, or noticing a stranger, she couldn't tell.
Marin asked around about a place to stay and was pointed out to an inn that would have a bed and something to eat.
"500 Gil?"
"Got a problem? Then don't stay here." the woman at the front desk told her.
Marin sighed, this was the only place in town she could let a room, without knowing anyone to borrow a couch from. "Does that come with a bath?" as she pulled out her Gil.
The lady waved a hand under her nose. "In your case, the first one's free."
"Thanks." She kept 'for nothing,' to herself... Marin bit down the retort and paid up for the night. The sun was just about set this time of year. So Marin would have to make tomorrow a very productive day. Before that, would be the first bath she had had in days.
For 'only' 50 Gil. The staff would launder her clothes. It was a rip off. As long as the clothes came back to her, she could live with doing it once.
Marin scrubbed her face and her black shoulder-length hair. While she sat in the bath in the women's bathroom. She washed off the last three days of travel stink off of her. She had something left she could at least sleep in while the rest went laundered. Marin just wanted to be clean in clean clothes.
Her bangs were getting long as well, she had never trimmed her hair since she had come here. Blowing out her bangs, Marin figured it would be simpler to grow them out and just have a ponytail all the time.
There were worse things to worry about. Like a cheaper place to sleep and a job to pay for it. Marin had no intentions of staying here another night, if she could help it. Even the change that Kari had given Marin was not enough for one more night in this place.
"Rocket town." she said to herself. She had yet to ask the number of the rocket they were up to. She knew, as far as the old game held up, that #25 would be the last. She also didn't have a perfect picture on how close that put her to the other events. 'Had rocket 25 been canceled 2 years before the game? Ten?' She wasn't sure. And that bothered her.
She felt like she had time to figure out a place on this planet. But she didn't know how much time that was.
Then there was Ardyn. Who knew more than her, clearly, some sort of person or being that could take a shape he liked. Or just a shape that she found familiar. He acted like she only saw him as Ardyn. But not knowing for sure who or what he really was bothered her the most. When his cryptic answers didn't frustrate her.
Whatever he really was, he didn't belong on either planet. Which made this more complicated. This problem was not just being inside a video game.
He seemed happy to pop up when he wasn't expected, be mysterious, get a reaction out of her then leave. And all of that for his own reasons.
Marin was honest with herself, she only referred to him as a him or even a person because of how she had first perceived him. The version of Ardyn she knew from his game was eccentric. So she had fallen into that sort of reference to whatever this Ardyn was.
He wasn't a two thousand year old immortal, cursed to live forever, like the one in the game 'Ardyn' was from. Or at least until that game's heroes had defeated their Ardyn. This thing was something else.
She scrubbed her back, getting all the sweat off, reminding herself that he wasn't Ardyn. Hoping that he only looked a villain. He was potentially more dangerous than that character. And despite that feeling, she had kept the moon pendant token. It made her feel like she was grasping at straws, keeping it just in case it was useful.
And here she sat, no job, no way to know if she had a chance to stay in Kuar-glen. And her money wouldn't get her through a week. That didn't count the clothes she missed from earth, the clothes she had broken in. And especially her binders, on the days she wanted to be more flat or just less masculine in shape.
Living in this place was going to be a problem, where-ever Marin ended up. Especially if she didn't find a replacement for those binders.
Sighing, she had no idea if the next town would be better or worse. She needed more Gil, and she needed it now. Before she felt more secure.
"I might never feel safe." she mumbled to herself. Most people went their whole lives without that kind of financial security. Most of the people she knew like that, they also lived on a planet where there was a zero-chance of a giant monster appearing, or the world ending.
The Materia wasn't enough, she could do something. But the magic she had now was not enough for her to 'get by' using it for a full-time job.
Channeling the magic made her feel powerful, in the moment, felt like it's own trap. Magic would not solve every problem, and she didn't have enough to solve every problem if it took too long.
Finishing with the shampoo, she rinsed out her hair and washed her face until she was sure enough soap was gone to open her eyes.
"Took you long enough." Ardyn told her.
"Bah!" she backed up in the tub, until the cloudy water was up to her neck.
He stood there, looking her in the eyes, while she covered herself in her panic with one arm. While reaching for her materia bracelet with her other hand.
He only 'tsked' at her. "Do you really think that would help?"
He made no moves, other than to swagger in place.
Marin clipped the bracelet on.
"No, I don't. But it makes me feel better."
"For once, honesty." He handed her the towel that was just out of her reach.
She would still have to rise out of the cloudy water to take the towel.
Glaring at Ardyn, whatever he really was. She held herself in place and reached out for him to come closer with the towel. "Towel, please."
He sighed and took another step, close enough for her to snatch it and keep most of her dignity.
She blocked herself from his view and ungracefully got out of the tub, covering herself. "Are you also above leering at people while they take a bath?"
"Oh come now, surely you figured out why I'm even here."
"Nope, can't say that I have." She found another towel and started hastily drying herself off, hating how vulnerable she felt from the surprise and lack of privacy.
"A pity." He turned his back on her.
She took that moment to start getting dressed. She didn't care that she was dressing with damp skin. Pulling her white t-shirt and gray pullover on over the towel, before slipping the towel more securely around her waist, preserving what dignity she could cling to while someone else stood in the bathroom.
He called over his shoulder, "Have you thought about what you want?"
"I'm loathe to ask for anything from you."
"Hmm." was all he said.
"What would it take for you to not be so frustrating to deal with?"
"Not the right question, but…"
"But what?"
"Perhaps Janine-"
"Just Marin, I'm not pretending to be her anymore."
"Ah, that remains to be seen. Anyway, Marin. You know exactly who I am. Have you considered that you do not know who you are? That you are the one getting so easily frustrated?"
Marin glared at him.
"That is exactly what I'm talking about." Ardyn beamed down at Marin. Hat or no hat he towered over her.
"My temper is just fine."
"Hmm," Ardyn tapped a finger to his chin. "I'm really not sure if you mean that as a lie to me, or to yourself."
Marin swallowed instead of pout, holding back her words as she reined in her temper. 'I won't give him the satisfaction of getting flustered again.'
"Hmm," Ardyn had a considering look for Marin. "Needs work, but a little better." He started pacing around the bathroom. Keeping his back to Marin while he talked to himself "Not a great start, but all things considered. Yes."
"What are you on about?"
"Still the wrong questions," Ardyn shook his head.
Marin took a breath and continued to wrestle her dry clothes over not-dry-enough skin. "What should I be asking then?"
Ardyn tsked again, "I thought I told you-"
" 'If I gave you all the answers, you won't learn anything'." Marin finished for him.
"You do remember what I say."
One of her feet was sticking to the inside of her blue-jeans. "Not everything, but I'm trying."
Ardyn kept his back to Marin. "Trying isn't good enough, but it will have to do. Are you done yet?"
Marin finally finished with her jeans, "Yeah I-"
Ardyn spun around "Have you thought of what you want?"
Despite the distance between them, Ardyn's immediacy had Marin leaning back. "I don't want anything else from you. Not anything."
"Oh? Don't you want to go home?"
"And what's your price?"
Half of Ardyn's mouth smiled, more smirked. "Do me a favor, and I will give you what you want."
Marin stared at Ardyn. "A favor, what if I don't want to do that favor?"
"Oh, I think you will." He smiled widely.
Marin sighed in disgust, "What do you want from me?"
"What do I want?" Ardyn looked puzzled, "What do I want?"
He paced back and forth, repeating himself until he turned back to Marin. "What do I want? You'll know."
"Know what?"
"When you've done me that favor."
Marin shook your head. "You're still speaking in riddles."
"Hmm, well. Feeling less exposed now?"
Marin's jaw hung open. She did not know how to respond to the change in subject, "I was asking you a question."
Ardyn looked to the ceiling and back at Marin, "And you did not answer mine."
Marin picked up her sweater. "I guess? Next time don't bother me in the bath."
Ardyn looked around the room, "Oh, is that what you were doing?" Ardyn started fiddling with his fingertips. Moving his hands like he was playing cat's cradle with no string.
Marin found it distracting enough she did not ask another question, while she pulled her socks on.
Ardyn did not break the silence, continuing to fiddle with his hands.
Marin blinked and blinked again. Looking back up at his face, she thought she had seen a string there. But there was nothing. "What is with you today?"
The look of concentration did not break as he spoke, "what is a day even?"
Marin rolled her eyes, holding her hand from putting her forehead in her palm, "More riddles?"
Ardyn broke off whatever he was doing , his hands going still, "You still have not given me an answer."
"To what?"
He put on his most winning smile, "Don't you feel better now?"
His charm grated on Marin, "Now that you ask. No, I don't."
He shrugged, "Ah well. It was worth trying." He started walking around again, with a swagger. Ending where Marin had left the her things for the bath.
Her wallet, her necklace. He showed no interest in that, or the paper Gil inside it. Poking at the pendant she had kept. Ardyn ignored the ring. "You kept the token."
Even as the tub stood between them, him just poking at her things felt like an invasion of her personal space.
Marin tried another question. "What's it for, the token?"
"Ah, well, that's for me to know and you to find out." He did a melodramatic shrug with his hands. "Or don't."
She folded her hands across her chest. The materia bracelet pressed against her. "Is that the only form you can take?"
"Hmm, what? Oh this old thing?" He brushed off non-existent dust from his giant coat and scarf. "Why? Do you think I could do better?"
"I dunno about better. I'm just curious to what you can and can't do."
"Ah well, that's an entirely different question. What did you have in mind for appearances?" He stood in a very not-Arden like pose and her father regarded her from across the tub.
The face and eyes of her real father. With his voice "Would you rather I take the form of someone you trust?"
She backed up, the urge to cast a spell was strong, not that she thought it would work, "Oh fuck! No! that's much worse!"
Shelly wrung her hands at Marin from across the tub. "Would you like some tea?" Shelly asked Marin.
"Ahh!" Marin covered her face. "Nope. Nope. Ardyn's better." She shivered in fear. Not just that he had stood and spoke like her dad, but that 'Ardyn' knew what he looked like. It made the being before her all the more creepy. He had felt like her father, except that he had been Ardyn right before. "Keep it to Ardyn, please." she lowered her hands to see him as Ardyn again.
"Well, all right, you did ask nicely." He half grinned, like an open-lipped smirk, another Ardyn-like gesture.
"Ugh."
"Something else bothering you?" He asked.
"Hmm." she said searching for words. "I'd rather you look incongruous to this world. I'd rather trust to know who or what it is I'm looking at."
"Oh? Is that what you want?"
"Oh for, stop asking me that." She rubbed her fingers through her hair. "I keep feeling like any requests to you are going to hurt later."
"Would that make you feel better if they did?"
She rolled her eyes again. "Look, this is going nowhere. You're here, you've made me uncomfortable. There is always an edge to you continually asking me what I want. Can we just talk?"
"And what do you propose?"
She threw out her hands in resignation, "I know it's not true, but like equals, or something? I find out what you want with me, and me with you. If the latter is even possible. And we go our separate ways. You can keep being cryptic. And I can flail around the planet until I figure myself out."
"Hmm, like equals but not you say? Is that-"
"Don't finish that question. Please." she ran her fingers through her damp hair. "I'm sorry for interrupting you, uh... sir? But could you please drop the asking me what I want and we'll just talk?"
"Hmm." He held his chin like he was deep in thought. From Ardyn, it looked sarcastic. "Hmmm. Like equals you say?" He looked at her. "What do I want with you?" He gave it a few moments though, "Well, that's easy." He took off his trilby and swept it off his head. Using the hat, he made a grand and sweeping gesture out the door. "I'd like you to get your show on the road!"
"By which you mean?-"
"By which I mean get out there! Look for trouble!" He plopped the hat back on his head at an angle. "Honestly, if you move about enough, trouble will find you! Save us some time."
"And what purpose is that?"
He chuckled, "Surely you didn't think I would tell you all the answers. Now did you?"
She shook her had, "No, but that would have been nice."
"Now." He put one hand on his hip. "What do you want from me?"
"Some answers would be nice."
"And what did I just give you?"
Marin sighed. "You still haven't told me why I'm here, or how."
He shook his head. "I'm not here for you to figure out everything for you, then what would be the point?"
Marin rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, fine. What about the token? What is it for? What if I lose it again?"
He moved like he was going into a grand speech, then he said a single word. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't lose it." His face was less cocky. Ardyn looked angry for a moment, his eyes were more shadowed.
Marin only shook her head. "What about: are you the one that brought me here? Can you take me back to Earth?"
"Is that what you want?"
She waved out a hand, "Oh for, it depends."
"Depends on what?"
"On the cost of going home."
"Cost? Oh there is no cost, to you."
"Seriously? No big adventure? No hero's journey to find out that I had it in me all along? I can just go home now?"
He smirked, "you're asking me the wrong questions."
She frowned at him, "Little help?"
"What you could ask me, is not what it will cost you, but cost others."
She frowned at him. "OK, so what would it cost everyone else if I left right now?"
He fiddled with his fingernails, plucking at dirt that was not there. "If you leave now, you won't find your answers until the answers won't matter."
She cried at the ceiling, "Augh. OK, fine." Lowering her head to face him again. She took a deep breath. "Then we're going to need to establish some ground rules."
"Oh? Are you the referee now?"
She shook her head. "If you're not going to establish what you can or can't do. What about me? What can or can't I do while I'm here?"
He shrugged, "I don't know, why don't you try it?"
Her shoulders sagged in exasperation. "I mean weird stuff. Things people normally can or can't do. Like" she wiggled her fingers at his coat. "You take on whatever form, so far only ones I know of. What about me? Are there any rules I can break? Use Materia no one else can use?" she looked around the room, searching for ideas. "Or if I die here? Am I really dead or am I going to bamf somewhere else? Like wake up at home. Things like that. What are my rules?"
"Hmm," He considered her. "I'm not going to tell you anything you can figure out for yourself." Letting go of his chin, he rested it back on his hip. "But I will say this." He waggled a finger to lecture her, moving it in warning. "I warn against you trying to wake yourself up or take control, like this is some sort-of dream." He put his finger down. "That didn't work out so well for the last fellow that tried to will themselves out of trouble. You seem the type that would rather go home than share that fate."
"So I'm not dreaming. I can believe that."
He shrugged, "As for the other questions. You're just going to have to figure that out for yourself. Part of growing up is learning the rules and adapting to them."
"What if I don't adapt?"
He shrugged again, "Adapt or die." He didn't elaborate.
Marin rubbed her mouth. "Well, I figured out where I am, but can I ask you 'when' I am?"
"You may ask."
She rolled her eyes. "OK, well." she sucked in a breath. "I thought I knew this place until I came here. Now I have no idea if the world is going to blow up tomorrow or ten years from now. Or never?"
He shrugged again. "All things end eventually."
"Yeah, I know."
"Then why even ask?" He said.
"I want to know where I am in relation to the time line of the game all this is from."
"And you think that would help because..."
"While I'm here. I would like to be useful. I figured I'd be more useful if I knew when things were going to happen."
He shook his head, tsking, "Again, you're asking the wrong questions."
"All right then." she sucked in her anger, to avoid yelling something at him. "Where should I be right now?"
He threw up his hands. "that depends on what you mean by useful."
Marin sighed. "This is getting me nowhere."
"At least you acknowledge that. Not that it's helping."
"You. Are. Being. Impossible." she told him.
He shrugged, offering, "Well, if I had to choose one thing. I'd say that you might not have enough wealth, whatever it's called here, to be very useful. So maybe get more of that?" He swept his hand over the floor. "Run along now, find a way to be of use." He gestured for her to leave the room.
She squeezed her lips shut. Slowly putting her boots on and gathering her things.
"Well? Run along." He told her again.
"What? you're not going to disappear when I'm not looking?"
"Shoo." He told her.
She glared at him from the door, passive-aggressively still moving slowly to enter the hallway. Turning her back on him, her foot was over the threshold when she heard voices coming up the stairs.
The words were not clear, but her ears caught the sound of a voice she knew. She froze half in and out of the doorway. Her rented room was on the other side of the voices, down the stairs and under them.
Some people must have checked in after dark. And one of them was a familiar voice. She could finally make out the words.
"I heard you the first time, get up at the crack of dawn. OK?" Danny's voice.
Marin's hand was still holding the doorknob. Thoughts of Ardyn flew out of her mind. 'Danny….' She listened.
An authoritative voice respond "that goes for everyone, no sleeping in tomorrow."
A few other voices chimed in agreement.
A few men and women were nearly up to Marin now, one of them glanced at her while they passed her by. One of the women gave an odd look to the stranger, Marin, standing still in the doorway as the group passed. They all had a collection of casual coats on over their shirts and t-shirts. Every single one of them had the same light brown khakis on over their combat boots. |IT ad the look of appearing casual while still wearing part of a uniform.
Danny chatted up someone near him, he hadn't noticed her yet.
"Danny." He looked at one of the others in his group, Marin spoke again. "Danny!"
He stopped and looked at her. His group went a few more steps before the leader came to a stop, and took in Marin and Danny.
"Marin?" He looked surprised to see her there. He looked like he wasn't convinced that she was there.
She was surprised herself, in a different way. The last time she had seen this face so clearly, and true to life, was the portrait over his closed coffin. She put out a hand to hold his shoulder. Marin wanted to be sure that he felt real. "Danny." Her eyes were watering.
"Marin?" Danny sounded concerned now.
The leader waved the rest of his group off and waited nearby.
Marin fell into Danny, he awkwardly grabbed her and held her in his arms. Marin buried her face in his shoulder, crying. She mumbled, "Danny..."
Danny patted her back, also awkwardly. "I missed you too?"
"Old girlfriend?" the leader asked.
Marin sobbed, choking back tears as she started gathering herself back together.
Marin didn't see what passed between Danny and his group leader.
"Whatever, dawn tomorrow. Don't be late." the man's boots clomped off after the others.
Danny helped Marin stand up straight again. "Marin. What's wrong?"
She shook her head. "Other than everything?" she covered her mouth, afraid she would start blubbering again.
'He's here! He's real. I'm holding him.'
"Is there somewhere we can talk? Just the two of us?" Danny asked her.
Marin nodded. She broke off her hold on Danny and led him to her tiny room under the stairs Danny had just come up from. It had a single chair, no desk, just a chair. And a single uncomfortable bed. Her overloaded backpack was under the bed.
Plopping on the uncomfortable bed, Marin watched Danny walk over. He carried himself differently than she remembered. She couldn't put her finger on what. He was still Danny, but now he was a new Danny. And also a living Danny.
"How long?" He asked her as he closed the door behind him.
"How long was what?"
"Since you last saw me?"
"Oh," she blew her nose. She would need some water if she wanted to prevent a headache. "I lost track of the days, about five months."
"What? Lost track? How?"
"I've been out of school."
"What? How?"
"I was in the hospital Danny." she smiled. "This little vacation to Gaia goes on much longer. And I'll miss skip mid-terms."
Danny leaned against the door, folding his arms across his chest. "Five months? Yeah, that sounds right."
Marin shrugged, "At least time is the same then. Not that it matters If I never go back."
"If we never go back." He corrected her.
Marin found herself looking at Danny and made her face go blank.
"What is it Marin?"
She didn't know why she tried to hide anything from Danny or Jamie. They knew each other too well.
"Marin?"
"Danny, sit down."
"Marin. What is wrong?"
"Danny?"
He shrugged and complied, sitting in the single chair. The room was at least wide enough that their knees were inches apart.
Marin fiddled with a loose thread in her pants.
"Marin?" He asked softer this time.
"Back home, on Earth…There was a-" she choked. Sitting across from the best friend she was still grieving, kept her from falling apart completely. She was still in recovery mode from her breakdown, her resistances to emotions this strong was still weak. "I went to your funeral."
