1.44 Show and Tell part 2

Jyo runs for a bit, but leaves the cemetery more confused than ever. She came here thinking it would clear her head, and when Malcolm arrived it threw her back into chaos. In the end, all she had been left with were more questions.

She feels compelled to get as far away from this place as possible. She never goes to the beach, but it draws her. It must be beautiful at night.

She just needs to be alone for awhile.

Except that she isn't.

"I've already purchased our tickets." The tall blond man says after approaching her. There is something familiar there, but she can't quite place it.

It can't be him, can it? She feels excitement, but it's dulled by doubt. Was this another dream, were these real all along? They can't be, nothing that he's forseen has come to pass.

There was likely some small talk leading up to this moment. She feels herself questioning what is real less and less.

A familiar comforting feeling sets in. She doesn't need to be so alone anymore.

And now a voice joins her internal dialogue, mixing with it, echoing in a familiar way.

She is dazed for a moment, and wavers on her feet. She did jog all the way to the overlook. Was she going somewhere else?

Then an answer comes, and she recognizes someone. “Luke!” She breathes.

“I know it hasn't been too long. But what can I say, Jyo? I've missed you.” He says. “You look more and more a grown woman every day.”

She blushes.

“What are you doing all the way out here? I was looking for you at the cemetery but you weren't there- everything looked so different.”

“What do you mean?” He counters. “We had agreed to meet here, to wait for a ferry, remember? We don't have to hide from your parents, from anyone, anymore.”

“I'm sure my dad would be very angry, but I'm not going to just leave my family behind. I-I mean, my parents did something similar when they were kids and it helped them figure things out, but who says you have to travel just to-”

The one mental projection is not going to be enough. She's awake (albeit tired) but her heart pumps with adrenaline from her jog. Things usually go the way Loki wants when she is already in a dream state. But for a dress rehearsal of the real thing, it's going well, he thinks.

He interrupts her confused rambling. “You have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. We can't stay in Starlight Shores.” Of course not, that would be absurd. “That's why you left Malcolm behind, he's already had a chance to be there for you and he chose wrong, remember?”

“We agreed to meet here after your talk with him.” She looks around- right, they were at the pier, there's a ferry that can be caught here. Somewhere along the way, this was spoken about. But it's not right. Something's wrong. Dreams don't feel this final.

“No, I don't think so- I'm here to be alone for a while. To think.”

He shakes his head. “You're not here to be alone, you're here be with someone who can value who you are.”

“No I'm-”

But her mind goes fuzzy after that. She takes it all for another dream. A real-feeling, raw dream of the kind that would normally crescendo into a gasping awakening. Malcolm wouldn't have met her at the cemetery, it was another dream about the cemetery after all. That would be a creepy place for a proper date. She must have been looking for Luke there, and found Malcolm.

Her tone abruptly changes to excitement. “We have to choose somewhere sunny to go...”

“As long as we can be together.”

“Right, that's right.” She agrees. She can figure out the rest when they arrive.

And her phone rings, right in the middle of it all. Curious, Loki doesn't stop her from answering it. She's usually out so late, it's probably one of her friends from school. They're not actually going to leave yet, so it would keep up appearances if she could answer the phone.

Except, it turns out he's done too good of a job with the projection magic this time. She's under more than one influence of it.

“Malcolm? What do you mean, where am I? I'm at the pier-there's a ferry coming- we talked about this. If you can't be there for me, when Luke has done so much, and tried so hard, then I'm choosing to be with Luke.”

The voice on the other end of the phone is garbled but surprise is evident. Turns out she was supposed to be studying late at his house, and had detoured here first to clear her head.

Loki can't see his miscalculation as a mistake. It might be a good time for her to break things off with her boyfriend, after all. He can't have her getting to be more committed to someone she's known so long at this impressionable age.

“He can come here and say goodbye, but he's better off not seeing you leave.”

“What?! Who is that?” Malcolm's voice comes back unmistakably this time.

And her voice breaks. “It's better if you don't see me leave. Y-you said I could call for you when I needed help, but you're never-”

“Hang on, don't go anywhere with him- I'm coming to get you.” Her boyfriend says tersely, and hangs up.

Her voice is sad. “He just.”

“Never really wanted to be there when it mattered the most.” Loki supplies.

“Yeah. I hope you understand, I'd want to say goodbye first. It wouldn't be right.”

“I understand.”

Malcolm's mind races. They had just seen each other a half hour ago and it was a bit awkward, but she wasn't leaving him. What was going on with her?

There's no activity at the pier at all. If there is a ferry, it's either long gone, or long awaited.

She's inside, with ...someone older, taller, and blond. He doubles up on the steps, a sour feeling building up in his gut.

“Jyoti!” He calls her immediately.

But she doesn't turn around. She's talking in a hush with the only other person out at night on the whole freaking frost-coated beach.

“You gotta be kidding me.”

He wasn't seeing things before, outside her house. He hadn't imagined it. There had been someone there.

“Who the hell are you?”

The blond man doesn't say anything.

“Jyoti- what is going on?”

“Why are you here Malcolm?” Jyoti asks, befuddled. “You don't have time to see me, so-”

“We had a date tonight, now in fact.” He reminds her. “What do you mean I never want to see you? I always do-”

“You're never available. All we do is... text- you don't even really like me. Why did you come here now?”

“He can't come with us.” Luke was saying. His voice held less of the usual force than she recalled. The dreams were starting to meld into reality. What time was it? Probably late enough.

“He's my-” She hesitates. What is Malcolm, to her? “He's-” She watches, riveted at the clarity in her boyfriend's gaze. Where is that intensity normally? What made him get here so fast?

“When... is the ferry, again?” She asks in confusion.

“I'm her boyfriend, and you need to back off.” Malcolm regains his sense of righteous anger. “I don't know who the hell you are, and what's going on right now- but you need to step away from Jyoti. She's not herself right now.”

“You can't provide a future for her.” The voice confirms one of Malcolm's secret fears. “You may think you love her now but she needs someone who can spend time with her, who can cherish who she is and what she represents.”

What she represents? Malcolm raises his voice with more than a little effort. “If she wanted to go with you then you wouldn't have to be dragging her away from me. All you're doing is revealing your cowardice and fear that she won't stay with you.” He challenges evenly, more than a tinge of anger in it.

Like the villain in a children's tale, Luke growls angrily and breathes a deep, angry breath in and out. He releases Jyoti's hand and shoves her in between them.

“Decide.” He says. It's a command, and it makes Malcolm's skin crawl to hear the disdain in the blond boy's voice. Wait-wasn't he older? Where the heck did he come from? This is not a classmate, and the local SSO syndicate doesn't have this kind of authority, or even audacity, trying to kidnap someone from a public park. They seemed more inept than this. This guy was going to murder her if it was allowed, Malcolm just knew it. There was something all too cold in his expression.

“Jyo...” Malcolm tries to calm the tremor in his voice. “Get behind me, I'm going to take you home.”

But she yells at him. “Take me home? I want to get out of this maker-forsaken city with it's fake people and fake dreams. All this place is, is hopes being destroyed by the idea of fame, and of fortune and success that doesn't mean anything! You know it's the truth, you chase money more than anyone I know! And where has it gotten you? Money can't buy you people's affection, Malcolm- it won't make people like you and it won't make me like you less if you don't have it. At least Luke can take me to a better place. Hell, any place is better than Starlight Shores!”

Malcolm twitches at the dig. “I had no idea you felt that way. But we can't talk about it here. We can go to the cafe, or something-”

“What, you can afford coffee now?”

“Jyo, please...”

She takes about five seconds to unleash the last half of a year's worth of feelings out on him all at once. “Please, what? There's no reason for you to pretend you care now! You're too busy to care, you can care later when everyone has gotten tired of waiting for you. I don't know what I ever saw in you and I'm sure it's not there anymore. You know what? I think we're through. We've been through for a long, long time and I was an idiot and thought we could be something, but if we're never together in the first place then we're never going to be together at all.”

Malcolm doesn't know what to say. Doesn't she have any sense of self-preservation? Is it his fault that she's willing to run off with someone abusive, because he was too shy to tell her, no show her how much he liked her? “I've messed things up.” He says more to himself.

“Yes.” There is no trace of her normal easy-going mirth in her eyes. She's hurt, he let her be lonely.

“I can't make it up to you. I mean, I can, but not if you run off with this guy and never come back.”

“Then maybe you would know how it feels to date you. Like nobody is there when you need them.”

He flinches. “No- I-I mean, what if something happens to you?”

“Then something HAPPENS to me.” The sarcasm is palpable.

Malcolm is fighting hard to overcome his natural shyness at this point, and loosing confidence more with every sentence she speaks. “Please just don't go with him. Even if y-you don't want... want to be-”

“Oh good lord just say it.”

He gets his thoughts together. “If you don't want to be with me then don't- then I can't blame you if you don't want that, but don't put yourself in harm's way just to make a point. Let me see you safely home or something, please.”

His voice is full of desperation and for some reason it only makes her more angry. Where was this fighting for their relationship in the past several months? Where was her first kiss, her amazing night at the dance? Where was this caring when she needed it?

“No, no Malcolm, I think we're done here, and you can leave on your own.”

He looks her over incredulously. Her expression tells him that arguing right now is pointless. He swallows his pride, grits his teeth, and spins on his heel in retreat.

“Sorry you had to see that. What time did you say the ferry leaves?” She asks Luke over her shoulder.

But he's no longer paying attention. He's been staring out the foggy window and over the ocean's waters, listening to their fight.

“I'll have to check.” He says uncertainly, which surprises her.

Malcolm gets a sense of automation as he walks away from her. He really considers calling the cops. What if she really leaves with Luke, what if he hurts her? That seems more like a when than an if. But he can't force her to leave, would the cops even care about this?

He doesn't know her parents well, should he call them? She would never forgive him if he stopped her, but there is such a strong sense of dread...

She watches him go, mixed emotions roiling in her gut despite her outrage. Why had she never seen that passion from him? Did he actually really like her, this whole time? What a waste. It's all so confusing. Love wasn't supposed to be bitter, was it?

Loki, for his part, was having second thoughts. He shouldn't be doing this. It wasn't going to work the way he wanted. She's nothing like he thought she would be, even after nearly two years of seeding magical thoughts into her dreams as she slept. His magic is not refined enough yet, many of the dreams only served to confuse her, and she is more strong-willed than he realized. He is not someone who wants to be with another by forcing them. He's not evil, like Circe.

Bringing Jyoti with him now would only expose her to his estranged wife's wrath. Even though he's long since divorced the woman, she's raising their children and he doesn't want to change things for the worse. He needs to handle Circe, first. He has a long life, he can try again. Maybe now is not the right time. It wasn't the anguish in the expression of the boyfriend he was feeling sympathetic to. That sort of thing is impossible. He's too old for it, and feelings like that are far too distant.

It's not Jyoti he wants after all, it is Andrea from the past- no Meghan, and she is never going to be with him again. Not with Dustin around, and he wouldn't dream of taking away someone who still makes her so happy. Taking her daughter, giving her time, even many years, it just wasn't going to go well, was it? It wasn't going to make him feel less alone, or more... human.

He needs more time to think about what he wants from this. He recalls the original notes written by the man who conceptualized the time machine- 30% accuracy, the future is always in flux. Maybe he hadn't seen what he thought he'd seen, or maybe he'd been trying to force the fates too much.

All is quiet at the Sparrow residence. Jet is over at Christian's place, having an all-important first meeting with her parents. Dustin is performing. Meghan is napping in the lab.

Jyoti waits for a long time at the ferry station, but Luke had left and didn't come back. It also doesn't escape her notice that no ferries have come. She finds out they don't run this late. She's also not sure if she was entirely awake, the whole time she was here.

As time passes, her mind clears. She can tell she really did this, or parts of it. She came to the ferry station, intent on leaving Starlight Shores behind and having some romantic adventure. But who was Luke, really? Where had he come from, if not straight out of her dreams? He was assertive, which was exciting, but if he was so great, why had he chickened out and left her here alone? Malcolm couldn't have been right about him. She really broke up with him, right? That part happened? Or did she freaking sleepwalk and control her dream, only to wake up alone at the station? Nobody ever means what they do or say in their dreams, so she ends up wondering if mistakes have been made, and how many. She can't shake a feeling of wrongness.

She eats alone in the earliest hour of the morning, then decides to jog back home. She makes it most of the way before hiring a cab.

Meghan, up from resting, noticed that nobody had given Leila exercise in a while.

The night sky is lit by early holiday fireworks.

The moonlight is just able to poke through the light pollution and clouds that they create.

By the time Meghan gets home from walking the dog, she finds her daughter, claiming to have woken up from a late nap.

It's cold out and she's tired, but Jyo pretends to take a quick jog around the property to keep her mom from questioning her too much. She does not want to go inside to sleep.

She doubles back to the house quickly though, it doesn't feel right being alone anymore tonight.

~~~~~~~~~

Good old routing failure directional anger used as storytelling. XD I am a professional, kids.

Well I went full blown movie villain with this one. Why? Because of my roles, that's why. Also I usually play the game in some bs manner that doesn't effect anything and one of my many whims has once again backfired. This whim involved Loki, who I'd effectively written out of the story. But in reality he and Circe did not have a happy marriage either, so all his optimism for it was of course, more of his idiot luck (which according to the game is still 'good' lol- but the game doesn't take the watcher into account). Anyways the result of all this was an effing novella, and I am truly, truly sorry to those of you who are tired of him appearing in this story. I secretly love Loki you know, he's just never as bad as I make him out to be.

I love the “Call for Protector” interaction that came with Supernatural. (I need you for a scene! ((Sim comes running)))

Because of course he's not gone. He's never gone. Also disclaimer that I don't intend to misuse Loki again after this whole thing ends. He's in the town, which is the main problem. I may see him in the future and become inspired. As for why this is legacy-ending, well it won't end but it's true that the seeds are now sewn that will forever alter it. Just like so long ago when I put the 'Glimpse' of the future together for Loki so that readers could see what's upcoming in the story, I then realized that I had made it cannon that Loki knows what's going to happen next. This may be a bullshit blog about a fake-person-breeding-in-barbie's-dream-home game, but I have my integrity too, dammit.

Here's the original seed to all of this madness for those that want to go back : https://sparrowlegacychallenge.blogspot.com/2017/11/112-glimpse.html

Also quick edit to explain further reasoning; I'm building Loki's behavior here on his ambitious trait when coupled with the family oriented and eccentric, especially taking into account the idea of an ambitious person who has lost their family trying to recover (I find the ambitious trait quite dangerous in the right situations, and family oriented doesn't equal loving. Here's a weird story from the animal kingdom about that- TLDR is a female lioness who was known to adopt baby gazelles who then would starve to death when she couldn't feed them- not the best comparison but w/e; https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/world/5-little-oryxes-and-the-big-bad-lioness-of-kenya.html). In my game he's also lucky. Circe basically made his problem of searching for the perfect family worse, but I won't go into that unless there's an opportunity. It's going to be mostly gameplay focused from here on out, I've had it with posing in alt saves for a while.