oo2. | ℒ | what the HELL just happend?

[sucking]

who. Lydia & her roommates
what. Lydia's Triumphant Return
where. Places.
when. This Morning.
warnings. Stiles will fuss.



Lydia wakes up with a start. Her body feels sore, a pull across her chest as if she's been in a collision. The Jeep. She had been in a warehouse. Frowning, she sits up and glances around. This isn't the warehouse. She glances down and she's in a bed. Fingers press to her brow, rubbing at it and trying to wake up more. She feels hazy and when she stands up she feels just uncomfortable. Moving to the door, she exits and then she realizes that she's not in a warehouse somewhere in Beacon Hills. She's on Omega. Again.

Turning around she looks at the door, but it looks like all the others and she's not even sure who would've taken her here -- or why.
Shaking it off, she finds her omni-tool and figures out where she is. It's just a shuttle ride and then she's back at the apartment. She needs to get back.

The ride feels numb, like a blur. She's trying to reconcile being home. She's trying to deal with what she saw. She's not even sure how it happened -- if it happened. Except, it matches what Stiles said to her. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe she dreamed it. Except it feels much more real. She's sure of it. Her fingers rub to the side of her nose again and the shuttle comes to a stop, allowing her to get out.

She gets to the apartment and opens the door. Glancing around, she just speaks loudly, "Stiles? Rachel?"

Her voice carries, mostly because Lydia knows how to project.

Comments

[sucking]

It feels weird to hear Rachel say that she came home, that this is supposed to be her home. Her hands tug at her shirt, pulling it closer to her knees as she curls up a bit more.

"I'm sorry for leaving you with him during that. I'm sure it was quite the adventure," she says it as though she wants to make light of it, even though she knows that it's not really anything to joke about.

[shutupmarco]

It's weird, because Rachel hasn't really even thought about it, either. The word just sort of slipped out of her mouth without her thinking about it. "No, it's okay," she says, with a half-smile. She can appreciate Lydia's attempt to inject some levity into the situation. "He was fine. He was just -- really upset about it, you know? We're both glad you're back, though."

She pauses, tucks her hair behind her ear, and her smile turns a little wry. "Besides, us girls have to stick together, right? And keep guys like Stiles from doing anything too dumb."

[sucking]

Lydia smiles at Rachel, nodding, "Yes, definitely."

It isn't that she thinks Stiles will do anything dumb, but it's just that she knows their odds and considering what her life has turned out to really be... bad things seem to just happen around them.

[shutupmarco]

"Especially in a place like this," Rachel adds with a little grin. She really is glad Lydia is back. She still hasn't had much of a chance to get to know her especially well, but now Rachel finds that she's glad she gets another chance. Of course, there's a lot Lydia doesn't know about Rachel. A lot of...really weird stuff. And Stiles already knows. Lydia really should, too.

She shifts her weight from foot to foot, looking at Lydia with a slightly uneasy expression. "Actually, since you're back, there's...something I really need to talk to you about."

[sucking]

Lydia can sense the apprehension and she gestures to the couch, "Come sit down. We can talk and it won't be also with us waiting for our feet to stop hurting." She pats the cushion beside her and tries to invite Rachel to sit beside her.

"We can talk and vent and whatever else we need to do."

[shutupmarco]

See, this is why Rachel likes Lydia. Rachel's always been the big sister, always been the one who had to put on the brave face, but Lydia makes her feel like a little sister, in a way Rachel never really thought she'd appreciate. She sits, but her faint smile is still nervous.

"Nothing to vent about, I promise," she says, smoothing her hands over her lap. "It's just...there are things you should know. About me. And...my world."

[sucking]

Lydia's expression shifts to one of concern. Given what she's recently been informed happens in her own world, she knows these talks aren't usually filled with good things. She nods, "I promise to reserve judgment as to who has the worst world until you're finished telling me the details."

[shutupmarco]

Rachel smiles weakly, shaking her head. She's already heard about Lydia's world from Stiles, the basics anyway, and while it's definitely not a bouquet of roses...she's not really sure anything really tops hers, yet. She takes a deep breath to steady herself, looking up at Lydia.

"The world I come from...Earth is under attack. No, more like -- we're being invaded. By these ugly alien slugs, these things called Yeerks. They can crawl inside your head, flatten themselves around your brain, and that's it. You're a slave, now. A Controller. You don't so much as breathe unless the Yeerk in your head decides you do. They're staging a silent invasion on Earth, slowly infesting more and more of us every day, and nobody even knows they're there. Except for us. Me and a few of my friends." She rubs one arm, trying to figure out the best way to continue. She'd told all of this to Stiles before, but somehow, talking to Lydia is different. "It was totally by chance, I think. We met this dying alien, an Andalite, one of the ones who are fighting the Yeerks, trying to stop them from conquering every last race in the galaxy. He gave us Andalite technology. Morphing capability. The ability to turn into any creature we can touch. It's our only weapon against them. And if they ever found out who we are...that'd be it. War over."

[sucking]

Lydia listens and nods along with Rachel's story. Not that it had been a competition, but this is definitely worse. Towards the middle of it all, Lydia inches closer to Rachel and reaches to rest her hand to her shoulder. She knows that it's difficult to talk about things like this and it means a lot to her that she's being trusted with it.

She understands that last statement is a bit more severe than how Rachel describes it, because it wouldn't just be the war over, it would be their lives over.

"I'm sorry that you have to go through that. It's better here, though, right?"

[shutupmarco]

Lydia's a great listener, that's for sure. And somehow, way more so than when she'd told Stiles, it feels good to tell Lydia. It's comforting, somehow. But that remark...that suggestion -- somehow it just makes anger flare up in Rachel's throat, and she pushes a hand through her hair agitatedly.

"No -- no, it's not. Not even close. Because it means they're fighting alone, okay? It means they don't have me. There were only six of us to begin with. If I'm stuck out here, and the only person I even know here is from some weird alternate reality...no. It's worse."

[sucking]

Lydia hadn't even considered that... and given what she had just experienced herself, she's not even sure if that's what's going on.

Frowning, she reaches for Rachel's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She wished Allison was here. Allison had been the fighter, the one that didn't sit down through everything. Lydia just let herself be pushed into corners and she knew that. Knowing the truth, knowing what Stiles told her, it's easier to think that Allison would know what to do here.

"That week... the week I was gone, I dreamt that I was back home, but it -- it felt real. It felt like I was there and I swear it wasn't a dream. It wasn't a dream and I didn't miss anything. It was like the world had just waited for me to return."

She looks at Rachel, trying to see if the suggestion could take hold, "So, maybe that's how it is for you. Maybe they aren't alone, maybe they're just waiting for you to come back so they can fight again."

[shutupmarco]

It's a little comforting, but not by much. Immediately, Rachel's mind is full of a hundred excuses, flaws in that idea. But...she wants to believe it. It'd be so much easier if she did.

"I don't know. That was a dream," Rachel says, quietly, but the irritation is gone from her voice. "I guess...it's possible. I don't know, this place -- it doesn't make any sense. I don't know why I'm here."

[sucking]

Lydia knows that it's only half of a comfort, but she's trying.

"The things that I felt, that happened back home -- they're the same things that Stiles told me happened. We're not from the same point in time, so I can't be missing, because in his future -- I'm still there. I was there, so things can't just keep going without you, Rachel. You have to trust that you're too important for that to happen."

It's the sort of thing she'd want to hear and she hopes that it sounds like the truth, because it's what she wants to be the truth.

[shutupmarco]

That's...more reassuring, actually. Lydia has no reason to lie, and neither does Stiles, and that's way too much to be a coincidence. You have to trust that you're too important for that too happen. That really lifts her spirits, hearing that. That she matters. That somehow, even though she's here, that her friends aren't without her after all. That she's still fighting the good fight back home.

Rachel nods, slowly, biting her lip. She manages a small smile, though, squeezing Lydia's hand back. "Thanks, Lydia," she says, her voice a little hoarse, but it's genuine. "It's just...god. All of this is too much. I don't even know what I'm doing here, if I'm still back home somehow. Or how I'm here."