The Lobby, Sunday Afternoon

[endsthegame]

A rip opened in the middle of the dorms lobby-- but it was unlike any void the island had seen before. It didn't precisely shine, but white light did filter out, almost tentatively, like the rays of the morning sun. It did not pull or pluck at anything, and when it vanished, it would leave the dorms exactly as it had found them.

It was not a rift that would take; it was a rift that would give.

Give back the people it had taken, that is.

[[ for those who were formerly strewn across the multiverse, after they touch their part! come home, folks ]]

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[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

Beka'd not been ever so grateful to see the familiar lobby. Relief washed through her at the familiar surroundings and she moved away from the tear, making room for the others.

She sagged down in an armchair, Pounce instantly jumping up in her lap. Soon, she'd go to the clinic to have her wounds tended to, but for now she wanted to make certain her friends would be returning as well.

After a while, a magpie landed on the top of the chair, making noise and tugging at her hair. She tried to shoo it, but it'd not give up, hopping around her and making more noise than the fish sellers at the Nightmarket. He disappeared after a moment, then returned with sommat shiny and silver, dropping it in her lap.

Pounce was laughing by that time. I think your great grandson is glad to see you back.

"George?" she blinked. At least he didn't seem hurt.

[likes_scoundrels]

Leia stepped out from the rift but barely gave herself three seconds to relax. She knew Tahiri was safe since they'd been together, but she needed to find her father and Ben to reassure herself they were all right as well.

She did pause briefly to make certain she still had her toy pony, knife, and necklace. Priorities.

[sith_happened]

She had absolutely no warning before she was engulfed in a giant bear hug. "Never do that again," Anakin murmured.

[therewaslife]

Bod almost fell out of the rip. His leg no longer wanted to hold his weight so he had to crawl to a chair and pull himself up onto it. The bandages were already dirty and dingy and, underneath, the burn still ached.

He was back though. The lobby was familiar, no one was on fire, and he was back. He swiped a hand across his face, feeling mucky and dirty but relieved.

[vanillajello]

Despite Kyle's warning to stay away from the windows, Kate had been keeping an eye on the area surrounding the Efferton Manor. And in the early evening, she'd seen things starting to look normal again, bit by bit. She'd ran out of patience soon after that, picking up her bag and her pitiful knife and heading out, determined to find people.

So she ran to the cabins first, but found no one. Next stop? The dorms.

By the time she rushed through the lobby doors, knife still in hand, she was very, very out of breath, so Bod would have to forgive her for not calling out his name as soon as she'd seen him and was scrambling towards him, trying not to trip over her own feet.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

When they were suddenly sucked home, Alex was ready. He'd been fine until the end, fine until he'd started seeing his father as a vampire, fine until he'd taken a lead pipe to the back of his neck and fine until his father insisted on following him around that vault, trying to strike or bite him.

The lobby was bright, not a wasteland and Alex had never been happier to see the dorms.

[trigons_child]

"Alex, you have been hurt," Raven said, approaching him. Emotionally as well as physically, but the physical was her first concern. "Please, allow me to help you."

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen fell through the rift, staggering a little as she landed. It took a few moments for her to realize she was actually back in Fandom and then all she really wanted to do was collapse and sleep and maybe cry for an hour or two in both horror and relief.

She settled for pulling herself to a quiet corner and watching to see if everyone else got back safely. She was filty and bruised and cut up a bit, but she was alive.

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"Hotel bath for the next week?" asked a tired James; he made his way over to Helen as soon as he had spotted. "Gods, it's good to see you here."

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell hit the ground shoulder-first. This was something of a relief, because the last thing he'd have wanted was to land on his face, but it still meant pain spiking up through his body.

With a groan, he pushed up.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

The world had whirled, making her sight a hindrance and it was a very nauseous Hinata that landed, still in a Jyuuken stance.

It took her a few seconds to orient herself enough to register--Fandom, dorms, safe.

Then she sat down, hard, and let her eyes go back to normal. Pressing her hands to them, Hinata breathed deeply.

She'd get up in a bit: she was filthy, she needed her back looked after, she needed to fall over on a bed and sleep for days.

But right now, right now she was just going to concentrate on breathing.

[glacial_queen]

Karla saw Hinata from across the room, but rather than running towards her, she backed out of the lobby and dashed upstairs.

A few moments later, she was back, a purring ball of white fur in her arms. She made her way over to the ninja and said, "Welcome home, Hinata. There's someone here who is very happy to see you."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

It was a wolf that came through. So much for keeping secrets and he damn well didn't care. It was Fandom. No more demons and roaches and smelly, freakish things that were almost making him feel normal.

Now to get himself to calm down and change back.

[intraspective]

Ino had a good guess at who this was, by now, as he'd been there but then he hadn't been and yet their numbers hadn't changed.

"Thank you," she murmured to him quietly.

For distracting the nurses, she meant.

[intraspective]

Ino blinked at the light, knowing she looked a mess--soot covered, her clothing charred in places, her hair an absolute disaster--and couldn't quite bring herself to care.

There was light, there were people she recognized that hadn't been in that dreadful world...

She leaned against the wall and told herself, firmly, that she wasn't allowed to cry until she was alone.

[puppy_fair]

Zack had wanted to go to help the strike team, or to fight away more of the monsters or... or a lot of things. But for the first time in his life, his head hadn't been there. He'd been too worried to be of any use at all, and that was going to eat at him later, when he'd had some time to actually think about it.

For now... Thinking wasn't important. He didn't need to think to be able to push his way across the room, to gather Ino up in his arms and cling to her as if he fully intended to never let go again.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce stepped out of the tear and took a look around. He was going to need a shower. And a real meal. And a phone call to Alfred to tell him that Fandom was better for his training than they could have possibly imagined.

But the main thing at the moment was probably making sure that everyone was okay after the past few days.

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

Dru had been avoiding anything fight-like for the last two days. Instead, she'd tried to be useful around the dorms. Which at the moment included making coffee and checking on people as they'd come back.

"Bruce. Are you okay?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

At the point the rift deposited Effy back in the lobby of the dorms she was scraped up, ash-covered and exhausted. Her legs wobbled, almost giving under her own weight as she backed to the side of the room to lean, shaking, against the nearest wall and try and gather herself back together enough to move away somewhere else.

The relief would take a minute to set in. For now, closing her eyes and concentrating on calming the ragged breathing still making her throat burn was all she could do.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

She looked worse than he did and he thought he looked pretty fucking awful. He wandered over carefully, still keeping his arm close to his body and ignoring the throbbing pain that reached from his neck to his head.

He'd thought about her numerous times while he'd been away and didn't want to think about what that meant. Right now, he was just going to move to stand beside her, shoulder touching hers.

Eventually, he wanted to drag her out of there with him but not just yet.

[knowsnokungfu.livejournal.com]

Oh God, this dorm was such a welcome sight. No mutated people, no guns being waved around, no blood covered walls... Just light, and people and places he knew.

Home. Or as close to home as he had, and the first thing he did was look around for Ellie. Of all people, he wanted to find her.

[trigons_child]

Raven had been doing her best to keep herself occupied so she didn't fret too much about her missing friends and the growing pain in her Soul-Self. Then suddenly the pain was gone and she felt whole again. About three seconds later she was teleporting to the lobby, sensing a great surge of emotion -- and pain -- there. If her friends were injured they were going to get healed whether they liked it or not.

[living_endless]

"We're back," a very worn-looking Didi announced to Raven. She was dirty and had a bad scrape by her hairline, but she seemed to be trying to hold it together and more or less succeeding. "Jono and me ... we were in the same place."

"Where were you?"

[longislandiceme]

Bobby ended this 'adventure' as he'd started it, holding Sookie's hand tightly in his own as they appeared in the dorm lobby.

He looked... kind of like the most difficult thing he'd faced was a few days without a shower. Honestly, he was more worried about Sookie, who'd kind of worn herself thin with the use of her telepathy this past weekend.

[trigons_child]

Bobby and Sookie would be targets of a Raven pouncing. "You are back!" she said happily. "Are you well? Are you injured at all?" Bobby, at least, seemed physically well.

[glacial_queen]

Karla had been on the other side of the island when familiar psychic scents began popping up somewhere near the dorms. She had raced across the island, dodging creatures and tears and whatever else that could possibly delay her. Bursting in through the doors, she let out a happy cry and flung herself at friends.

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

James nodded at the blonde as she bustled through the crowd.

[endsthegame]

Ender popped back into Fandom existence looking a little wild and out of it, clutching his knife, and his backpack looking heavy.

He stood there for a minute, before reality began to sink back in, and he slowly loosened his grip on the knife.

[glacial_queen]

Karla approached Ender slowly, taking in the feral set to his shoulder. "Ender?" she said quietly. "You're back. Safe. Here. Thank the Darkness."

She waited to approach though, giving him space the way she would for a Warlord Prince coming down from the killing edge.

[raspberryturk]

Go figure, Reno came through the portal and landed right on his ass.

"Can't be graceful all the time," he mumbled, picking himself up and rubbing at his behind.

... If you asked him, it had been a pretty good weekend.

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

And there was a blonde Turk, with her arms crossed over her chest and, other than a bit of dirt and dust, looked utterly untouched by the events of the weekend.

"Next time," Rosalind said, very dryly, "leave a note."

That hid worlds of concern under there. But he was there and looked well enough. That was a relief for her.

[wwiii]

Warren showed up again a little worse for the wear, his wings splayed out in wild directions, his clothing bloody, and clutching a wicked-looking hook in one hand as though it was a lifeline.

He... really, really wanted to do laundry. And shower. And nice, normal, safe things, while he worked on getting his head around what had happened, back there. And then maybe he'd fly and just never land again.

[trigons_child]

The blood got Raven's attention, of course, but there were so many little injuries around her it was hard to tell if it was Warren himself who was injured or just someone nearby. "Warren," she said gently as she approached him. "Are you hurt?"

She could see that Karla had arrived and thought for a moment maybe she should leave Warren to her, but on the other hand, she wanted to prove that she didn't bear him any ill will.

[furnaceface]

If Jonothon looked something like the world's most distraught human fireball as he found himself back in Fandom, that was probably for good reason.

He still wasn't too terribly concerned with wrapping up his face, just yet. For the time being, he'd settle for taking a quick seat on the floor, and maybe... staring at the walls for a bit.

Who knew? It really had been as easy as finding the part.

[living_endless]

"We did it," Didi said, with only a slight wobble in her usual cheer. She couldn't get the hospital out of her head just yet. "Are you okay? Should I go get bandages?"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn didn't as much as loosen one finger on the tire iron for several moments. She stood there fiercely, as if expecting to be attacked by more giant crabs at any moment.

When she realized that she was in the dorms -- they weren't home yet -- and safe, she let the metal bat clatter to the ground in relief. She'd look around for Puck before she went back to her dorm room.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri was rather liberally caked in roach goo mixed with ash and other things best left unmentioned, a metal pipe still clutched in a white-knuckle grip as she sort of . . . tumbled through the portal and landed in a sprawled heap on the floor.

[trigons_child]

Raven was right there to help her up. "Tahiri, it is good to see you back safely," she said, offering her her hand. "Do you require healing? Are you all right?"

[living_endless]

Didi was stunned and disoriented at first, then profoundly grateful to be back. Just being on the island had her feeling more like herself.

Though she couldn't shake the feeling she'd gotten from the little girl's eyes in the hospital.

She took a moment to collect herself, then went to find Jono. He had something of hers.

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen sighed in relief and nodded when she saw Didi had returned. "We made it," she said quietly.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine ended up on her ass - at least it was a soft landing, then - with a scalp wound dripping slowly onto her forehead that wasn't as bad as it looked, and tear-tracks through the ashes on her face that were ten times worse.

When she felt solidity under her, saw the dark give way to the familiar, welcome light of the dorms, of Fandom, she coughed hard, then dropped her face to her hands, too shaken to get up just yet.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Getting up was overrated, anyway, especially with Katchoo barreling down at her, apparently intent on tackling her into the floor.

"FRANCINE!"

Don't tell her to use her indoor voice now, thank you.

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

James landed in a crouch, sword safely in scabbard but belt knife in hand. Cuts and bruises, while minor, peppered his body, and he moved as if still expecting an attack.

He looked around, saw others, saw what appeared to be Fandom, and the weight of the past few days fell from his shoulders and he sagged a bit, his knees almost buckling. Not yet, though; he had to make sure everyone came back, first.

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Upon returning and finding himself (as well as everyone else) back in Fandom, Shunsui could only say one thing.

"Sake for everyone ♥!"

True, he still only had his one jug, but he could now easily get more if he need to! And he was definitely not hesitating to take that first sip for himself.

It might have been a very, very, very big sip.