voidtreckerexpress | Never smile at a crocodile

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Never smile at a crocodile

WHO: Harry and YOU
WHAT: Discoveries and poor life decisions
WHEN: the morning of Evie's disappearance
WHERE: the train...?

WARNINGS: idk I'm pretty sure Harry counts as one all on his own?

It had started out as good as it had been since he arrived. As good as things had been since the trip off-train. Okay, maybe a little less so; after their little heart-to-heart once they got back, Evie had ended up spending the night in his bunk, but when he woke she was gone. Maybe she'd taken off in the middle of the night, it wasn't completely out of the question. Second thoughts or something, it's not like a pirate was her best option, considering.

But he found her in his travels. She was still there, at breakfast. A weird train thing, apparently you wake up in your own bed regardless. Could be worse. So they got on with their day. Went back to their respective bunks to get ready for chores and whatever came after...but she never showed. He started trying to tidy up on his own in hopes it would summon her somehow, but he got through the first car and she still never came back.

They were supposed to meet up to play a game after, but she didn't show up to that either. He cursed her name, frustrated at being shown up because there wasn't a reasonable alternative, right? Nowhere else she could go, and he would have thought she would have said something at breakfast if something changed. His damned mistake, lesson learned.

Not that it stopped him from walking by her cabin, just to see. Maybe something happened, maybe she got wrapped up in something and couldn't make it, she had her fingers in enough pies it wasn't unreasonable. But the name on the door glitters.

She's gone.

It echoes in his head, over and over, a litany he can't quite break but without an answer to the implied question. She'd said she was here before, that she disappeared on the platform and came back without any memory of it and two years older, but that was immediate. And she hadn't left the train. She was gone.

He tried to keep going. Tried to find something else to do, because there wasn't much he could do about it, but it continued to eat at him. At lunch, in the gym, no matter what the distraction or how hard he pushed his thoughts kept going back to it until thinking shifted towards doing.

He had to do something. Hades knew what, but he had to do something, which was how he found himself as far towards the front of the train as he could get and pounding on the door to the engine car. Sure, there was a sign warning against the wisdom of it, but Evie was gone and he needed an answer. The conductor or whoever the hell was driving the train could tell him, so he was going to get in if it was the last thing he did.

"LET ME IN, you tiny pathetic toerag! What, you get buyer's remorse? I swear to whoever you pray to, you bring her back or I will tear you into little pieces and feed you to Tick Tock myself!"

He kicks and hits until his knuckles bleed and his hand goes numb and honestly he doesn't even care anymore.

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There's a shout from down the hall. Renee's met Harry briefly, once. Seen the pirate here and there since, but as a habit, she never did tend to bother most people too much. And yet, things like this happen, and she never could stand by and watch, either. And thus, here we are.

"Hey, Piratebay, what the fuck are you doing to yourself?!" Not that it wasn't kind of self-explanatory, really, but. And his hand--well, she'd just gotten her own cast off, and she knew exactly what that meant. Well, shit.

"Didn't you see the sign? Shit, I'm one of the reasons for that sign. What's up, my dude?" Because it was pretty clear to the redhead that something had happened. Someone had disappeared.

He wheels on her when she interrupts after a last kick at the door, a scowl on his face, features twisted in anger, but at least he stops. Blood drips towards the floor but he doesn't seem to notice.

"The coward at the wheel won't open the bloody door, that's what's up. Wouldn't happen to have any explosives, would you?"

"Wish that worked. If it did, we wouldn't need a freakin' sign." At which Renee gestures angrily at the cab. "I can't get a good handhold on it or else I'd just try to tear it open. Won't work. Whatever's protecting it is more than I can handle, or a big ol' brain like Tony Stark can wiggle around."

She has a distinct lack of enthusiasm when it comes to the conductor cab. "I'm with you on the coward thing, though. So why are you here, is what I guess I'm saying. Who did he take away from you?"

Carefully, she reaches for one of Harry's hands--the one that's bruised and bloody. The other one's going to take more help than anything she has, but she's got a few napkins from the kitchen. At least he won't leave a blood trail. "We probably ought to go to the med car. I know you're a big ol' tough pirate, but if you got a broken hand, we ought to get that fixed."

He grumbles and scowls and huffs at her words, looking back towards the door like there's a challenge to be won. Maybe there is, he refuses to be bested by a door and a faceless conductor, but it's not one he can face right now; he clenches his fist like he's seriously considering punching it again, but now he's got a few moments of distance it starts to hurt when he does, needles stabbing and sparking, and he hisses in protest. So he lets her take the other one without protest and do what she wants with it.

"Fine. It's Evie. I swear, the second there's a crack in that door..."

Okay, Evie is someone she knows, somewhat. If only due to a certain advisor. Renee makes a face at that and grumbles an epithet or two of her own at the train cab. But then she gives the pirate a snort.

"Listen, honest? The moment anyone sees a crack in that door, there's gonna be a fuckin' bum rush as we all come crowding down here in a damn lynch mob to give a big, fat piece of our minds to whoever's behind it. Though my bet is it's nobody, personally. Though I'd love to be wrong."

Renee figures there's an automaton or something--a faceless computer. Nothing human or humanoid, nothing capable of any empathy.

"Still, I'd save a piece for you if there is a person. You can stick your hook in his ear or something." Because she hopes that the mental image there is enough to soothe the savage beast, at least a little bit.

"His bloody heart would be better," he grumbles, but fine. Not much to argue with there. He shakes out the hand that's probably-definitely broken in hopes it will settle something, but it doesn't, so instead he huffs in frustration and lets it hang for the moment, sparing a moment to make sure his hook's still tucked away in his belt safe and sound. It is, which is something at least.

"Yeah, well, wish in one hand and crap in the other..." Renee wasn't even sure that she'd ever see the day they met the conductor--if said individual even existed--but she wouldn't mind taking her proverbial pound of flesh, if that ever happened.

"Shit, don't do that!" she yelps when he shakes out his hand. "You wanna have it working still, right--wait. No, screw that, I'm gonna call someone to heal your hand. So long as you don't fuckin' punch the train again, it doesn't do any damn good."

Then again, Harry probably knew that already. Still, she'd pause at the ICP. "Yeah. Ignis? It's Renee, if you can meet me at the medical car, I could use a hand. Uh, not me this time though. Um. I'll let him explain, if he wants to." She can at least try to give Harry an out.

Oh, he already learned shaking it out doesn't help. Just now. It's pretty bad. He still growled and scowled because it's better than being a baby about it.

"What's to explain, I punched a bloody door. A few times."

Ignis was detailing his notes from the council meeting and was enjoying some tea. The afternoon had been rather uneventful and quiet time in the quiet cabins was always a welcome reprieve from the otherwise bustling hubbub of the train.

Hearing Renee's voice calling for him made the advisor put his tea down. Medical car? Was she injured? No time to ask questions, and Ignis got up immediately.

"Stay right there, I'm on my way."

She would never have any need to ask for his assistance twice.

"Yeah, well, ya got pride don't you? I thought you might wanna save a little. Come on now." Not that Renee's about to drag him, but if that's what it'd take...

"We need to get to the medical car, 'cuz your healer's probably going to be waiting for us by the time we get there."

At least Ignis could be relieved that it wasn't Renee herself who was the walking wounded, but the pirate she was trying to support. If he'd let her...

"Healer?" He eyed her critically; healer implied magic, and while magic in theory wasn't a bad thing, his own experiences weren't particularly positive.

"I thought we were going to a doctor or something. I don't need to be magicked better, just...do the medical thing."

Taking no time at all, Ignis had left the quiet carriage and moved to the medical carriage. Opening the door there, his green eyes scanned around. "Renee? Are you here? Are you alright?" There was no reply, no one seemed to be in here.

Funny, she'd said to meet him here and he would give her a few minutes so the advisor sat down, eyes staring at the door, waiting for her arrival. If she wasn't here by then, Ignis was going to go look for her.

"It'll be fine. I trust this guy with my life." Even if she wasn't happy with him right now, that was still the truth, and Renee wasn't about to make up stories about Ignis. "He won't hurt you, and he knows what he's doing. If he can't fix it up right, he'll fix it enough so that you won't have to wear a cast for forever."

She snorted as they closed in on the room that served as the medical bay. "He's there already. Trust me, the only reason I didn't ask him to heal my wrist after I broke it was because we were going into a big mission and I thought he'd need it all for that."

Besides, Renee was tough. By some luck, she hadn't made things worse during the most recent mission, either.

"Lot of people say that about a lot of people. Doesn't make it the truth, but alright. I'll play. It doesn't work out it'll be you and your friend with the guy behind the wheel."

Empty words because threatening sounds like the best option right now, the only way to exert some kind of control over things, but he skulks into the room, looking around the space like a caged animal.

"You the magic man, then?"

Ignis looked at Renee and the man she brought in with her. She doesn't appear injured but sees how the other is coming into the room. Something seems to be a little off, but he's not going to comment. His green eyes look from Renee to the unknown person for a moment before he receives an odd form of address.

"Ignis Scientia." came the calm steady reply to the magic question. "You're the one in need of healing?"

"No, if you've got a beef, it's all with me, and you can take it up with me, after he's done with you. Savvy?" Ignis was here because Renee had asked him to be, and in no way was she going to let the pirate take his pique out on what amounted to an innocent bystander.

"He is, he pulled a me and punched the wall." She shrugged at that. After all, it was the truth. "Evie's missing."

Renee figured that was a good enough explanation, and one that Harry wasn't like to supply. And hey, if he got mad? She was a good target for his ire, 'cause she could take it.

"Fine. Whatever."

He lets Renee explain, and for once he keeps his mouth shut. There's no sense in arguing or trying to clarify, especially not to people who are effectively strangers. Evie's gone and he's left with these strangers and she's supposed to come back but they're words from people he barely knows.

"Just...do your thing already."

Ignis wasn't happy to hear that Evie was missing. But if this man had punched a wall because of that disappearance, they must be close. Inwardly he smiled though nothing showed on the advisor's face.

Pulling out the healing potion, Ignis broke it and applied it to the hand that was very obviously wounded. The green mist appeared and the advisor could see everything mending within moments.

Once it was completed, he nodded. "There you go."

"And you'll still have some battle scars to impress Evie with," Renee said. Now, she wasn't trying to troll Harry, not at the moment--but she figured it was probably likely that pirates liked that sort of thing.

So why shouldn't he?

"See, told you he'd be good as his word," she said as she jerked her head towards Ignis. There was a reason she trusted the advisor somewhat, after all.

Some time later, Gwen seeks Harry out on purpose. She’d happened by Evies door and saw the name in gold. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what that meant. And as much as she and Harry pick on each other, much like how she and her brothers did, he was family. So she was going to check on him.

Following her senses, mostly her hearing because tracking someone by smell is weird, she finds Harry eventually.

What she wants to do is wait until he notices her lurking, but that didn’t feel right. So she decides to speak.

“I disappeared from the train a few weeks back. The conductor called me over the ICP. Next thing I knew, I was in a suitcase. Falling off a shelf in the luggage car. She’ll come back, is what I’m saying. In the same way. Suitcase. Luggage car. No clue how she got there. Or maybe she’ll have a clue. I don’t know. I sure didn’t.”

A sigh from Gwen as she watches Harry for some manner of reaction. And then a slow wrinkle of her nose as a realization hits her.

“Ew. I just remembered what that lady uses the luggage car for.” Smoking. Gross gross gross gross gross.

“Think we can find a way to...I dunno. Lessen the stink? Maybe we can find some flower scented cleaner and scrub the walls? Or make Miss Jessie do it since she’s the one funking it up.”

The words aren't the most reassuring thing in the world. Sure, it's an explanation, but that doesn't mean it sits easy. No explanation of why it happens, only that it does, because the conductor demands it, and then a hasty return stuffed into luggage like nothing. He scowls, lip curled, good hand clenching in annoyance at his side.

"That's it? Like it's nothin'? Bloke behind the wheel drags us all here, picks us out whenever he wants and drags us back? That supposed to help or something?"

But her new tactic helps a little more, or at least gives him a direction that's not being angry and upset. He huffs, jaw clenching and flexing, but tones down a little at least.

"That supposed to help?"

Gwen knows it’s not the most reassuring. And she was hoping her idiot brother would latch onto the idea that she’s hopefully coming back. It sucks that she’s gone but maybe at some point hearing Evie will come back will help.

As for the cleaning?

“No clue. I just know I can smell it from here because my senses are heightened and it’s pretty gross. You can rage scrub and I can take all the luggage to the gym car for a little bit to air them out.”

"Fine."

It's spat out, because it's the only word he can come up with and he's at a loss for anything else. Rage scrub sounds like something useful at least even if it's just empty actions.

She almost wants to snark at his attitude, but she can’t. She’d be in the same state if Peter or Miles disappeared. Angry. Ready to punch the wall. Again. Just because she learned what happens if she punches things to get to the conductor doesn’t mean she won’t do it again.

“So, Evie is from your universe, right?” That makes this whole mess suck more and Gwen doesn’t even know they’d started dating. Oh, boy.

Once she starts walking, he'll follow, no particular destination in mind past needing something to do. If they end up in the last car great, if they end up somewhere else that's fine too.

"Yeah."

It's a loaded question and everything's still too new to try to volunteer any extra information if she's not even here to say anything about it. Normally he wouldn't care, but he actually gives a dragon crap so it curbs some of the automatic filler.

“Cool.”

She knows when to not push an issue and if Harry doesn’t want to talk about Evie, that’s fine by her. So Gwen continues on, kind of a slower pace to keep up with Harry. Until she decides walking on the ground is boring, so there’s a quick jump from the ground to the wall to the ceiling and Gwen is walking upside down. As she’s prone to do on the train like it’s the most normal thing ever.

The closer they get to the luggage car, however, the slower she walks until she stops entirely and listens.

“Damnit. I think Jessie is in there, so there’s that plan for now.” She turns to look at Harry, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

“Let’s go to the gym car.”

He follows, matching step for step, until she abruptly leaves the ground, and then he's watching her instead. It's not the first time but it's a little weird every time, even if there's more than a little jealousy mixed in too. How cool would it be if he could do that??

He doesn't care all that much about the car itself, or the smoking in and of itself, but she turns and offers an alternative, and that promises a better chance of venting things so he seizes onto it.

"Yeah. Okay. Better than cleaning."

Gwen hums a bit to herself as she walks, her steps matching the rhythm of the song she's humming to herself. It's not quite dancing on the ceiling. She's upside down, of course, gravity working against her on this. But she's had some practice, and is having a lot of fun.

"Oh! I know. We could spar." That'd help him get some of his anger out, right?

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Never smile at a crocodile

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