openish } but nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

[choosetruth]

Who: the After the End Times crew and maybe YOU??
Where: ASGARD! Sort of.
When: Throughout the event
Rating: PG-13 for violence and swear words probably
Summary: Shaun makes poor sartorial choices that lead to his demise. Georgia does not handle it well. Thank fuck Mahir and Maggie are here to be the adults they need.
The Story:

[Starters in the comments!]

Comments

[fishandclips]

Mahir can't help himself. He makes a scoffing noise, shaking his head. His tone is as dry as it gets. "We're going to die. I don't know why we're deluding ourselves that anything short of horrible, embarrassing, painful deaths is in our future. But yes, lets rush headlong into danger in the name of news. Something new and different for us."

Why does he work with these people, he has to ask himself. Even as he follows them to what can only be certain doom.

[choosetruth]

"We won't die." But she does still put a hand on Shaun's shoulder as she passes him. She doesn't love the way he's acting. But he's smart and careful and not about to let himself get hurt for real. She just wishes he'd stop worrying her. "And if we do, we come back in a day, and not even as zombies. No big deal."

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Or two." After all, he and George have already died once, and that usually means it takes longer to come back. "But that's a lot better than the alternative." Shaun doesn't sound especially concerned about the prospect. It's basically a long nap, right, and God knows they could all use it.

[fishandclips]

"Yes, being this blase about death is a fabulous thing all around for everyone's sanity," he grumbles, frowning at them both, but at Shaun in particular. He can hardly remember this Shaun, which is... alarming, for all that he's thought he wanted to see him back to "normal," or at least something resembling it. "You don't think a little caution and restraint is a good thing? Even if death isn't permanent here, what I've read indicates there are only a finite number of deaths a person can experience and how is this a thing I'm saying."

[choosetruth]

"Twice as many for us if we're not careful," Georgia's tone is dry. Being blase about death is how she functions. But Mahir does have a point, of course. He usually does. "We're going to be cautious and restrained. Right Shaun?"

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun rolls his eyes. "Yes, George. I already promised to be cautious and restrained and not do anything interesting. Can we go?"

[fishandclips]

Mahir lets out a weary sigh. Following the Masons into danger is nothing new, even if it hasn't been quite this literal... well. Since he got into the van with Shaun and went to break into the CDC. Which was basically a week ago.

"This is me, making my extreme reluctance known. For the record. Whatever the record is worth here. But yes, by all means, lets go rush to our certain doom in the name of news, to observe monsters out of Norse myth invading Wonderland."

[choosetruth]

"Noted," she says, glancing back at Mahir before nodding at Shaun. "Let's go."

It doesn't take them long to find a troll. Georgia stops when she sees it, raising a hand to the others to signal them to be quiet as she raises her camera.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun grins over his shoulder at Mahir. "See, when you put it that way, it sounds even more awesome than it already did. Legendary creatures invade a land of whimsy, while its varied and fantastical inhabitants defend it. In the midst of the chaos, three intrepid reporters set out to record the heroic deeds of the mighty defenders. Who needs fiction when reality is this cool?"

He's not using any handheld cameras when they find the troll, but there are enough on his person that he's not afraid that they're going to miss anything. He does want to get closer, though. The closer he can get, and the more angles they can get on this thing, the cooler it will be. Maybe it will even do something interesting enough to be worth showing to the rest of Wonderland, either as a still in the zine, or as a video post on the network.

"Hey, George. Check this out."

He doesn't even see the second troll.

[choosetruth]

George sees the second troll.

"SHAUN!" she shrieks, standing up sharply, but not fast enough. Not nearly fast enough. Why the fuck didn't she listen to Mahir? Why did she listen to Shaun?

There's a sickening crunch when the second troll's hand collides with Shaun's head and the armor isn't nearly enough. George raises her gun and starts shooting. If they can get the thing away fast enough maybe it's not too late to drag Shaun away and get medical attention They just need to get him to safety.

[fishandclips]

Mahir sees it all coming, knows what's inevitably going to happen before it happens, but he can't possibly move or react fast enough to do anything to stop it. He's briefly stunned, unable to move or process what's just happened, but then Georgia is moving and Mahir reacts before he realizes what he's doing, reaching out to try to grab her and stop her from going after Shaun and following his example. "Georgia!"

[choosetruth]

Mahir's grip jerks her back. She struggles. "Let go, I have to... Mahir, I have to help him!"

He's beyond help. She knows that. She can see from here that the angle Shaun's neck is at is not an angle any person can survive. But just this once she wishes she were good enough at lying to herself that she could believe there's still hope.

[fishandclips]

"You can't!" Mahir's voice breaks, but he doesn't let go of her. He can't quite tear his eyes away from Shaun, but if they keep yelling and shooting, the thing that killed him is going to come after them. "We've got to get out of here, now."

[choosetruth]

"We can't just leave him!" She tries to pull away once more. In that sick confused moment she doesn't care. The troll will see them. It'll come after them. She'll die too and that'd be better than living without Shaun.

But Mahir's here too, and while she might let herself die, she can't let one of her people die. Not like this.

She takes a breath and stops trying to move towards Shaun, but she also isn't moving to leave.

"We really can't. We..." she swallows. "We need to make sure he won't amplify, then we need to bring his body back.

[fishandclips]

"Okay! Okay," he repeats himself, still holding onto her, although his grip relaxes a bit when he realizes that she isn't going to continue rushing toward the trolls. His mind races, coming up with and dismissing half a dozen plans before just shaking his head. "Let's just... Maybe if we wait, they'll move along, and we can move in."

It's that or one of them be a distraction while the other goes to get Shaun, and he isn't sure that Georgia is strong enough to carry Shaun the distance they need to bring him, and he is not about to suggest that Georgia be the diversion.

[choosetruth]

"We can't wait too long." But she doesn't protest. She's not exactly in a position to come up with a better plan. They just both know he won't stay down for long, and the last thing they need is zombie trolls in addition to everything else.

[fishandclips]

"I know," he agrees, but tugs her down to crouch next to him, making them small in the field, hoping to minimize any attraction they may be drawing to themselves. If they stay still and quiet long enough, something larger and louder is sure to draw the trolls' attention away...

Sure enough, that's exactly what begins to happen. Both trolls eventually turn their backs on them, moving on to bigger and louder threats. Still, Mahir doesn't let go of Georgia before he's sure they aren't going to turn back around if they move or step on a twig.

[choosetruth]

Georgia is quiet. Waiting like this is forcing her to acknowledge what's going on, acknowledge that Shaun is dead. There's an aching hole in her gut that's starting to form, and even the knowledge that death isn't permanent here, and not in the same way it isn't permanent back home, isn't enough to stop her from feeling like she's going to throw up. She's never wanted to be an only child. Life without Shaun. All she can do is keep repeating that he'll be back, he'll be back.

The second Mahir lets go of her, she's running towards Shaun's body, only to be brought up short when she gets close enough, her hand going to cover her mouth as tears start leaking out from under her sunglasses.

He's really dead. Oh god.

[fishandclips]

Mahir follows a little more slowly; he has no doubt what they will find, and he is in no hurry. He knows himself well enough to know that the extreme calm he’s experiencing is one of his defense mechanisms; when he’s so far gone past his usual default anxious worrying, past the point of near or total panic, it means the shit has truly hit the fan and the part of his brain that generally is in panic mode shuts down and he’s able to do what needs doing. He’ll fall apart later, of course, but for now…

For now, Georgia is crying. He realizes he’s never seen this before—of course, she couldn’t cry before, but she can now, and it’s almost as jarring as the sight of Shaun’s body before them. He puts a hand on her shoulder, silently offering support for a moment before he takes a deep breath. As ridiculous and insane as Wonderland is, he can’t help but be grateful for one thing right now: “He’ll be back.”

[choosetruth]

"I know." Her voice is steadier than she'd hoped. Years of practice being put to good use, even if it wasn't really her. She slowly raises her gun. "But not just yet."

Mahir would do it for her, she's sure, if she asked or even gave him time to offer. But she won't. It has to be her. She owes Shaun that much. After he did it for her, after she always promised that she'd be the one if it came to that. She swallows and aims, her hand shaking, but it doesn't matter at this distance. Not with a target that's already still. Squeezing the trigger is simultaneously easy and the hardest thing she's ever done. The bang echoes in her ears and she can't look to see if she hit her target or not. She knows she did. She's too good a shot to have missed. But she doesn't want to see it.