by Will Stanton » Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:36 pm
For a while, Will just lets Miriam hang there, stewing in her own hurt, sending waves of comfort towards her, and only occasionally letting other stray thoughts poke through -- with so much mental activity, it wasn't a perfect seal, and Miriam was fairly sure that the sudden thoughts wondering if she'd be happier as a maid or a bear-skin rug were coming from outside the head, but for the most part, Will let Miriam be Miriam.
After a while, though, the thoughts headed her way began to change, and become more insistent, eventually building and helping break through. Like when she was bumping against spores in the sewer, Miriam found herself remembering memories that were not hers; places and times where she new, for a fact, she had never been. Miriam was clinging to her moroseness, but...
...She was also lying in bed, gently running her fingers through her wife's hair after a long day, gently talking as they spooned under the covers. A fond memory, a warm one -- but one tinged with its own sense of melancholy, a warm, familiar ritual that was, for the moment, lost beyond dimensional barriers...
...She was bounding down the corridors, bouncing off walls and sliding under furniture, with her daughter (still a child; she'd always be still a child in her head) laughing and shifting trying to catch her. Teaching by example, like any good father would, and also making a game of it at the same time. A playful, exciting memory -- and one that firmly existed in the past; Robin had grown up to be a remarkable woman in her own right, and no longer needed Daddy to show her the ropes...
...She was laughing and taking questions at a press conference, dressed in her finest X-Team uniform, serving as a public face for the growing acceptance of mutants and mutantkind. Joking and happily answering questions, doing her part to make the world a better place for everyone. A confidence that she worried she would never find again; a world which no longer existed as such, not here...
...She was being pulled out of the washing machine she had specifically chosen for it's roominess, and being gently chided by Onyx for letting her get this stained to begin with -- a feeling of being taken care of by a missing friend...
...Handing out coffee at yet another meeting between headmistress Samantha McManus and some boring, grey-suited officials from god only knows what governmental department this time, letting her hand gently rub against Sam's as she did; a shared glance, the hint of a feather poking out from the edges of the power suit and a slight brush of mental contact being the reminder that this wasn't just headmistress and secretary; this was Morrigan and Champion, even if this particular battle didn't have quite as much bloodshed as either would have liked; a role filled by others in this universe...
And they kept coming. Smoking pot with Byrna and Nina until the early hours of the morning. Roaring down the interstate at well over a hundred MPH, her tires gripping the road as she chased down the baddies. Playing video games with Simon and trying not to get distracted by his tail wrapping around her thigh. Memories of friends, of family that were gone -- Will's own morose core.
...And then she found herself dancing in Syn, looking into her own face, heart racing as she realized that Miriam, of all people, got her. Tinged with fear that she had let it all slip away; ruined it by storming out on her...
...And then she was lying in bed between Sam and Tereza, crying softly as, touch-starved, she let herself be cuddled by the wolfpack; their feelings for one glorious moment lining up with her own. Tinged with worry that that sort of moment would never come again; that she wasn't the Wolf that they wanted as part of their group...
...And then she was laughing as she had dinner with Natalie, the two friends joking and talking. Tinged with concern that, having misread Natalie's intentions, that she had damaged a friendship before it began...
...And then she was riling up her team before the big fight, encouraging Nailah and Haley that they could be champions, too, if they just listened to her. A team that broke apart nearly as soon as it began...
Puttering around in the tech bay with Tosh. Obediently following ASHLIE around. The memories flowed and washed over her -- positive ones, for the most part, but always feeling just a tad out of place; the puzzle piece that didn't quite fit, with worries that her own strangeness had let those brief positive moments slip away.
And then, finally, she found herself in the music room, with three other Wills, all singing in harmony, their voices blending together. And soon, the doors opened, and they were joined by more Wills. Some of them in shapes that were very familiar to Miriam; others she had never seen before. Wills of all genders, shapes, sizes. Even non-human forms somehow joining in the chorus; the throbbing of a engine and beeping of a computer somehow finding their place in the vocal tapestry. And then Sara walked in, and Robin, and Simon and Onyx and Bear and all these remnants of Will's old life, all wearing something green and letting their own voices join the growing cacophony. The last one to enter the room, of course, was the Morrigan herself -- it always seemed to come back to her, didn't it? And that chorus held a note together, stretching through a moment in time...
...And they were suddenly joined by another Sam -- Miriam's Sam, younger, brasher, both more and less sure of herself at the same time. And Tereza. And Natalie. And Tosh. And all the people Will had met in this world, all coming together and joining in...with finally herself entering the room last, taking her place among the group, and joining in.
The voices mixed together and blended, four distinct parts becoming one. And from the combination, a fifth part formed -- an overtone, caused by the interactions of the parts creating a note higher than anyone was singing alone. Together, they had created something new, and harmonic, and it bounced off the walls and resonated in the room, lasting longer than it had any right to, the note being held longer than people's lungs could possibly hold together. Greater than the sum of their parts; all part of the greater whole....
And then Miriam would find herself lying on the floor in the bare room, the last bits of clay receding back into the blob sitting next to her. Back into her reality, back with only her own thoughts in her head.