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

[choosetruth]

[...nice of Shaun to get her out of the line of fire. She stands up, giving him a tired smile.]

Hi, Mahir.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun staggers back from the blow. He's been hit harder in his life, but this is definitely enough to ring his bell a little and give him a bruise to remember the conversation by. Though by the way Mahir is shaking his hand, it had hurt him at least as much.]

I'm sorry? I wasn't in my right mind?

[Mostly.]

[He exhales softly in a sigh of agreement. She's right. Mostly. Maybe it's not how he is anymore, but it's not that long ago that it would have been exactly the kind of thing he would have pulled.]

[fishandclips]

“When are you?” Mahir grumbles, mostly to himself, still rubbing his knuckles and glowering at Shaun. He’s glaring and angry, but he’s always been able to tell when Shaun is hearing Georgia in his mind, and it doesn’t escape his notice now, either. But maybe if he’d been hearing from her before, he might have been less reckless. It’s hard to say.

Either way, it’s an issue for another time. This is Mahir’s first experience with Wonderland deaths, and as relieved as he is that Shaun is alive, just the way everyone said he would be… The whole thing is still incredibly off-putting.

You’d think he’d be more used to the dead not staying dead, Kellis-Amberlee aside.

[choosetruth]

Georgia has a abrupt and not altogether pleasant realization that there is not any room in this conversation for her.

She was dead. Shaun may never have moved on, but the world did. The team did. Mahir and Shaun knew each other before she died, of course, but they weren't friends. They didn't have this... relationship full of history and experiences Georgia simply wasn't there for.

It makes sense. But she feels the ache of what she's lost so much more acutely now than she did before. When it was just her and Shaun, they could almost pretend things were like they were before. Now, it's so much more obvious they will never be like that again.

She stands up, keeping herself composed. "I have writing to finish. Shaun? I'll be in the bedroom when you two are done." She looks over at Mahir. "Don't hurt him too badly. He did die for his troubles already."

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun frowns slightly at her. That's... abrupt, considering how little he knows she wants to let him out of her sight. "Uh. Okay. Though we're probably not going to brawl. and I definitely deserved at least some of that."

[fishandclips]

Mahir frowns, turning his attention to Georgia. She’s as composed and normal as she can be, but the movement and decision to leave are abrupt, especially considering how disinclined she seemed to be to move a few moments ago when he entered the room, and given how catatonic she’s been since they brought Shaun’s body back. He’s worried about them both, and he’s suddenly tired. It feels suddenly like his life is comprised of one Mason related crisis or another, and neither of them have any idea.

The reprimand stings. As if he could forget that Shaun had died, however brief and impermanent. He’s not proud of himself for punching Shaun; he’s no generally a violent man. He’d much rather use his words than his fists, or let Nan do the shouting and tongue lashings for him. But Nan is not here, and neither of them listened when he told them what a horrible idea it was to go play Viking Warriors, and “I told you so” just isn’t something he has a thought of voicing.

“No more violence from me. I think I’ve done myself more damage than Shaun,” he says dryly. “His skull is shockingly hard.” His tone indicates that there is no shock whatsoever. He’s not going to argue that Shaun didn’t deserve the punch, though.

[choosetruth]

It had been meant as more of an attempt at humor than anything else. She knows Mahir wouldn't actually hurt Shaun. She's not really surprised it fell flat. She's not particularly in a joking mood, and her humor is subtle on a good day. Rather than attempt to explain or anything, she just nods at the two of them and slips into the next room. She wouldn't argue that Shaun didn't deserve the punch either. Shaun's a moron who got himself killed. She punched him too.

She leaves the door cracked open. She needs to take a moment to collect herself, to let herself work through feelings she knows aren't fair to either one of them, but that doesn't mean she's ready to not be able to at least hear that Shaun's okay.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun watches her go, still frowning, then turns back toward Mahir. He can always talk to George later to find out what's going on. He knows she'll tell him if he asks. "I can get you some ice if you want." He pauses and works his jaw a little. "Actually, I could use some ice, too." He moves toward the closet.

[fishandclips]

Mahir watches Georgia leave with a frown of his own, but if Shaun isn’t stopping her, well. He grimaces vaguely at Shaun’s words, and moves to take a seat. “Yes, thank you. I’m sorry for punching you.” And he is. How many times did he have to tell Shaun that you can’t go around punching your coworkers? And yet here he is, nursing a bruised hand. He looks at Shaun and makes another face. “I think you may have a bruise.”

[adaptiveimmunities]

"I probably deserve it." He pulls two ice packs out of the closet and offers one to Mahir, taking a seat next to him. "Sorry."

[fishandclips]

“You did deserve it,” he says mildly, but shrugs. “Though I believe I’ve given enough lectures about resorting to violence when dealing with interpersonal differences that you could recite them back to me. Presuming you were listening, of course.”

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Well, there's listening, and..." he waves a dismissive hand. He tends to do a lot of the not-listening version of it. Where he pretends to pay attention and does whatever the hell he wants anyway, which Mahir is certainly aware of. "I mean, I could probably recite some of your lectures by now does that count?"

[fishandclips]

“I suppose I would deserve it if you did,” he says dryly, shaking his head. He glances toward the room Georgia disappeared into and raises an eyebrow. He knows she’s not all right; he saw her, when Shaun was killed, and during the time they were waiting for him to come back. He’d seen Shaun, after Georgia’s death, and even that hadn’t quite prepared him for Georgia’s reaction.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun glances at the door George had left through and grimaces a little. "...She'll be okay." Probably. "It was just..." His voice trails off. Mahir knows better than he does what George went through. He's been through it with both of them, now, and it's pretty obvious that neither of them cope very well with losing the other.