Room 223, Sunday Evening

[life_inshadow]

Tara was pretty sure she had a goose egg on her head -- getting walloped with a pool cue will do that to you -- but otherwise, she was in good shape when she cautiously came back to her room from the spot in town where she'd popped back into existence.

Mr. Moxy meowed indignantly from his spot on her bed and sidled up to twine around her legs.

Tara supposed she should go hunt somebody down and figure out what she had missed, but it was all too overwhelming. She needed a good rest and some time with Moxy before she started confronting exactly why the world hadn't ended.

[OOC: Open door, open post!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

There was a tapping on Tara's open door and Karla poked her head through. Her expression of concern smoothed into a relieved smile when she saw Tara, curled up with Mr. Moxy. "You're back," she said, sounding grateful. "Thank the Darkness. I'm so glad to see you, Tara."

[life_inshadow]

Tara blinked, then smiled at Karla. "Yeah, I kind of got swept up in the fight Friday, and then I ... wasn't," she said apologetically. "What did I miss? I've just been kind of trying to get my head around being here at all."

[glacial_queen]

"Can I come in?" Karla asked--and then didn't wait for an answer, instead going right to the bed to try to give Tara a big, welcoming hug.

She'd fill Tara in on everything, but first she had to give into her relief and happiness that this was one more friend who was back.

[life_inshadow]

Tara was never going to turn down a hug, and certainly not one from Karla. She squeezed.

"It didn't hurt," she promised. "It just wasn't anything."

[glacial_queen]

"I'm glad to have you back," she said, holding Tara tightly. "And I'm making a new rule. No one's allowed to get Nothing'd, ever again. Including me."

[life_inshadow]

"Is that what it's called?" Tara asked. "Nothing'd? It's ... good. I m-mean it makes sense. I mean -- you're right. Never. Ever. Again."

[glacial_queen]

"That's what the little girl empress called it in her palace," Karla said with a tired chuckle. "It's...kind of a long story. Special Collections is weird.."

[life_inshadow]

Tara smiled warily.

"That's what everybody says," she said. "I've never been. I tend to use the Magic Box for research, you know? But I, um, missed that it had a whole empress inside. Was she nice?"

[glacial_queen]

"She was," Karla said. "For all that she looked so sad. The Nothing had destroyed most of her world, too."

Karla settled on the bed to try to catch Tara up on what had happened. "So, Friday, everyone who was left camped out at the dorms. The next morning, Principal Winchester made an announcement that everyone needed to head to Special Collections before the Nothing broke through the forcefield. The mages that were left stood on the roof of the school to buy a little more time for everyone else and then we ran, too. I guess the magic of Special Collections was too much for the Nothing to get into."

Right away, anyway.

[life_inshadow]

Tara listened closely, a tight expression on her face. "I wish I'd been on the roof," she said wistfully. "I promised to make a supply run to the shop on Friday and it -- there were too many of them by then."

Not that she thought her presence would have made such a huge difference, but anyhow.

"So the library saved you."

[glacial_queen]

Hey, Karla had thought something similar. And then look what had happened.

"I wish you had been, too," Karla said. "Hearing your name on the radio--" She shook her head rather than finish. "Besides, Rinoa and I were there. It felt weird without you. Wrong."

The three of them together had pulled off something amazing.

Hesitantly she added, "I was almost caught by the Nothing Friday. I was on the wrong side of the park when the forcefield came down. It was...really close." And in a quiet voice she added, "I wouldn't have--if it hadn't been for Warren."

[life_inshadow]

"I knew I shouldn't go out alone, it was just -- you know, by the time you figure out for sure how dumb you're being, the consequences are kind of ... already there." Tara sighed. "Either way. I'm back now."

She shook it off. "What happened to Warren?"

[glacial_queen]

"He didn't make it to the other side of the forcefield when it came back up," Karla said, voice almost a whisper. "He threw me before it hit, but he didn't--he didn't have time to get to safety, too."