life without end [open]

[notsocommon]

WHO: Dr. Helen Magnus
WHERE: The Fountain; the town
WHEN: 1 August
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: N/A
STATUS: Open

---

Helen had lived for an extraordinarily long time but there were still moments in which this life took her by surprise. This was one of those; her lungs burned and she twisted and pulled and clawed her way upward toward pale light in a vain hope that this was the way out. From what she could tell, it was some sort of narrow waterway. Stone, possibly, a cistern? A cave? Regardless, she wanted out and as quickly as possible. After narrowly missing the lip of the stone with her skull, she used the last of her strength to push herself out onto the ground and coughed loudly, trying her damndest to catch her breath again.

After all she'd seen and done, she didn't want so ignoble a death as a drowning and she glared back at the fountain with particular vitriol before hugging her knees to her chest and looking up at the sky. This wasn't her Sanctuary. This wasn't the old, rambling house she'd come to love over the last century in Old City and it certainly wasn't her new, state of the art facility beneath the ground. This was somewhere else entirely and she wasn't certain that she trusted it. Had she been teleported here? So far as she knew, John was dead, but it wouldn't be beyond him to teleport her some place where she had no frame of reference and leave her at his mercy.

She looked down at her waterlogged clothes and found that instead of the smart suit she'd been wearing earlier that day in the office, she was in dark blue scrubs instead. She had no surgeries on her schedule for the day but, again, those things weren't always planned. Neither was this jaunt, though it seemed she'd been pulled along on it anyway. Reaching for the edge of the fountain, she pushed herself upright and stood on shaky legs. She leaned over and peered into the fountain, trying to see where she'd come up from, but there was nothing but flat, clear water and her own bedraggled reflection that peered back at her. Oh.

"Bloody hell, I look dreadful," she said, quickly combing her fingers through her hair to try and repair the worst of the tangles. It could be dealt with later, yes, but it had been a long time since she'd looked quite this pathetic in public. Still, there were other, more important things than her appearance to be dealt with and she decided to simply pick a direction and start walking, start trying to make sense of the place she'd just wound up in.

"Well, Helen, now you've gone and managed to get yourself into a bind, haven't you? Nothing but the clothes on your back and...well, what's this?" There was a pack beside her, as well, and opening it revealed a few additional articles of clothing but no clues as to the origin of it or the identity of the place she found herself in. "You could have at least included a map," she muttered. "That would have been helpful."

She would persevere. She always had.

Comments

[womanofvalue]

"I was at Bletchley before they put me in the field," Peggy says, furrowing her brow as she works a little harder now to try and place the woman in front of her, trying to scan through the dozens of faces that had come through the door to see if she can't figure this one out. "I have to say, though, I'm ridiculously grateful to meet you."

"No one else is from anywhere near the same decade as me," she remarks.

[notsocommon]

"It's nice to have something in common," Helen agreed. "A countrywoman and someone who isn't from a different time and place. It's something I find welcoming in a place that's certainly not known for it."

It didn't feel welcoming at all. This place felt ominous, in a way, and Helen wondered what the secret of it was.

[womanofvalue]

"Yes, I'm afraid no one really believes me when I say what year I'm from, with the few exceptions who come from my future," she says with an air of displeasure. Sam and Frank both seem to know her, which is both a good thing, but also puts her at a disadvantage. After all, they seem to know everything about her, but she hardly knows anything about them in turn.

"I'm afraid this place doesn't really ever lose that daunting feeling of being overwhelmed," she notes.

[notsocommon]

That was a pity to hear, that the place never seemed more friendly or easier to navigate. Still, it didn't appear to be an active war zone and Helen thought that meant she had (and could) endure worse. Living life as long as she had, she'd learned that there were a great many things a body could endure, so long as they had perseverance and hope. She had those in spades.

"Hopefully we're able to crack the mystery of it before long. With so many minds to work on the problem, it can't take forever, can it?"

And, if it did, she did have the advantage of time.

[womanofvalue]

That's what Peggy keeps thinking. Her stubborn resolve is that she'll crack the nut any day now, that she'll figure out what the key is to escaping and getting home. And yet, every single time she thinks she's found something, it proves to not be any sort of lead. "We've plenty of clever minds," she agrees, seriously. "And no lack of determination and resolve."

"There's also the unfortunate distraction of trying to stay alive," is a mild sarcastic and amused reply. She does rather like staying alive, of course, but she'd much rather escape and get home to where she can enjoy the luxuries of home again -- such as they are.

[notsocommon]

Helen scoffed a bit. "Ah, well, that's an inconvenience, isn't it? Damned mortal bodies."

Hers was a little less mortal than most, though, and she intended to put that to good use. If she outlived every one else in this settlement, she could have more time to devote to the problem of getting them home. People had only a given number of years; Helen's years were infinite. She looked at problems differently as a result.

"Next you'll tell me we'll have to eat and sleep too."

[womanofvalue]

She opens and then closes her mouth, but decides that keeping mum about such a thing will do no one any good. "You say that as if mortal bodies are an oddity," she notes. "Or you've got a very odd turn of speech," she says, which could also be the case.

Then again, this could all be a joke and Peggy's just being far too serious. "Or you're joking and I'm making a fool of myself."

[notsocommon]

"I'm quite tired," Helen said, trying to cover for her error as smoothly and naturally as possible. "Since I just came through the fountain and all. I just misspoke, honestly, and didn't mean to cause confusion."

Perhaps it wasn't a perfect cover but she would try to float it and see if it worked.

[womanofvalue]

"It's all right, I'm still getting used to meeting people from space and the future and...well, it's a bit to get used to," Peggy says as she offers an apologetic smile. It's still quite an odd thing to say, but she supposes that there are odder things. "I can show you to someplace if you'd like to lie down."

[notsocommon]

"I would truly appreciate it," Helen said, giving her a grateful smile. It was all a bit much at the moment and she needed the time to recoup and recharge before trying to attack the puzzle of this place.