entranceway | [text] By The Sounding Sea: the blog of Buffy Meissonier

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[text] By The Sounding Sea: the blog of Buffy Meissonier

My name is Georgette Marie Meissonier. Buffy to my friends. I'm a licensed fiction blogger with After the End Times. I'm using text format because, frankly, the video quality on the tech here is personally offensive to me and whoever designed all of this needs to sit in a corner and think about what they've done.

But, okay, enough of the tech tangent. For now.

[ She's not done with this subject, Wonderland. Not by a long shot. But she has bigger issues than the abysmal level of tech you're all working with. You'll be hearing more about this in the future. ]

I'm a little uncomfortable with this because facts aren't my wheelhouse. I make things up. On April 17th, 2040 I legally died because of well.. the usual reasons. Viral amplification. I shouldn't be talking. I shouldn't be doing anything.

I've looked at this network and in between being appalled at your complete lack of security I've read up on things. Everything about this reads like bad fiction.

[Private to Georgia and Shaun Mason; Unhackable]

I know you're both here, I looked. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

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[George isn't surprised to hear it. She knew Buffy had realized what she'd done was wrong by the end. Still, her expression doesn't change.]

We still couldn't trust any of it. We had no way of knowing what was safe or not, which meant none of it was safe.

[Shaun casts a quick glance at George. She's right, but.] I mean, let's be fair--we wouldn't have gotten what information we did get without her stuff.

[ She's always felt sorry for people on the wrong side of George's sunglasses glower. Funny how much worse it feels to be the one on the receiving end of it. ]

I know. I did too much damage and nothing will fix it. Those people... Chuck-

[ Her breath catches as it hits her for the first time without Kellis-Amberlee rewiring her body and what little composure she had cracks. He's dead. She'd liked him so much. She'd never thought he would get dragged into her mess. ]

No, Shaun's right. [Which isn't lessening her glower, but she does nod her head a fraction of an inch.] Without your bugs and the information you left us, we would never have figured out what was going on.

[Which also might have led to George not dying, but she's not so far gone that she can regret learning the truth, even though it cost her life.]

[Shaun knows perfectly well that George doesn't want to be fair right now, but she's George, so she will be if it kills her. But Buffy's right, too. No amount of sorry or reparations will change the damage she caused. God, he wishes things were simple. But they're back from the dead, in Wonderland, and no one's eating anyone else.

Of course it's complicated.]

Yeah, I always wanted a conspiracy of my very own to blow up. Hey George, you think I should get explosives when I go home?

At least I can't do anymore damage.

[ Except now she's thinking about other potential victims and her stomach clenches. ]

Did... did anyone else get hurt? Rick or Mahir?

[ Rick was still her friend even though he hadn't said hardly a thing to her since she'd said they should quit. And Mahir would follow George into hell if he thought it was necessary.

Knowing George died and that Shaun is... broken is bad enough. ]

[She gives Shaun a look for that comment, then turns back to Buffy.]

I fired Mahir. He's safely in London, ready to carry the story if the rest of us get tried for treason. We put Maggie in charge of the Fictionals. As for the rest...

[She looks at Shaun again. She doesn't know the rest.]

I hired Mahir back on. He's head of the Newsies now. Becks is head of Irwins. Maggie's head of Fictionals. Rick signed on with Ryman as VP, now that Tate's out of the picture. I'm site admin. So I guess we're all great. We all got promotions.

[He's smiling, but it's not a happy smile. More of a grimace.]

[ Hearing Maggie inherited her role is actually comforting. She never updated her will after going on the campaign, never bothered to name a successor because even as much as she knew what she was doing was wrong she didn't want to think she'd get hurt. That sure changed. ]

Good. Maggie's good at working with people. [ And then she has to process the bigger piece of information there. ] ...Rick is the Vice President?

[ She rubs her face and tries to imagine that particular mental image. This is too much and every new bit of information feels like it's weighing her down further. ]

Is it okay if I get up now? [ It's always best to ask since they're still armed and she isn't and they have every reason to be angry at her. ]

Of course. [They aren't angry enough to shoot her again. George doesn't think she could be that angry. She already had to shoot Buffy once. She isn't doing it again if she can help it.

She looks over at Shaun again. She's so torn. She's missed Buffy like crazy, but that doesn't change the fact that Buffy betrayed them and if she'd lived, George doesn't know if she could forgive her. But she didn't live, and that makes everything so much more complicated. Neither of them lived.]

You're not fired. [It's abrupt and harsh and George can't quite look at her as she says it. Good thing sunglasses means she doesn't have to.] We don't have another fictional or another techie, and we wouldn't be able to find someone as good as you anyway. This place doesn't have an economy, so we can't pay you, but the job's still yours if you want it.

[She grits her teeth for a moment, steeling herself.]

But that doesn't mean you're forgiven.

Edited 2017-03-01 03:06 (UTC)

Oh thank god. Just wait 'til you see the mess I made of our cables. You might not want to work with us after all.

[Shaun's stance on the whole 'forgiveness' thing is a lot more flexible than George's... well, he's always been a little more flexible than George in some ways. But he's also had more time to come to terms (badly) with losing the two people who mattered the most to him, and his relief to have both of them back more than outweighs the anger he still feels.]

Missed you, Buff.

I want it, I do. And I don't expect to be forgiven, I just... I need something to do.

[ Sitting around with nothing to do would just leave her time to think about everything she'd done wrong and that's a path she knows she won't survive well. Not knowing what she's done.

George's cold anger is expected; Shaun's warmth less so but welcome nonetheless. She offers a thin smile. ]

I'm sure I can fix whatever mess you've made. It can't be worse than what the security people did.

He didn't electrocute himself, so it wasn't as much of a mess as I anticipated.

[It's too, too easy to fall back into easy banter and old habits. She'll have to watch out for that.]

This is what I have to put up with. [His tone is one of mild complaint. Like he actually minds George teasing him. Like he's not privately pretty pleased to have them all back together again--bad blood and all.]

I'll do my best.

[ It's hard to feel cheerful when she can still remember the pain from the crash, from the bite. She has a second chance she didn't earn and she's just so damn tired. ]

Just promise you won't try to help wire anything ever again.

[George regards her, expression unmoving.] Don't leave again. Then we won't have to.

[Shaun points at George and makes a thumbs-up gesture.]

Yes, that. That would be ideal. Because if you do, I'm going to make a rats nest of cables, just to annoy you in absentia.

I don't really have anywhere to go, do I?

[ She looks as tired as she sounds when she says it, she can't even bring herself to fake cheer because everything is starting to weigh on her. ]

What's the housing situation like here?

Infinite rooms that you can magically alter to your exact specifications. [Georgia's voice is so very dry. She's used to magic now. She'll never like it.] We've got rooms on the ninth floor.

The one with "After the End Times" on the door is mine. [He smiles sweetly.] I don't need nearly as much closet space as George.

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