What's Done Cannot Be Undone

[Puck]

Characters Appearing: Puck & Nancy
Location (s): Nancy's house
Previous Thread Name.: What's Done Cannot Be Undone
Plot Summary.: Nancy explains the world to its newest arrival, Owen Burnett.

[Puck]

Owen sat in a well-appointed, though unfamiliar living room, a cup of tea warming his hands. He had yet to take a sip. He wasn't sure he could stomach it.<p><p>

The day's events had been a whirlwind. So much had happened that it felt like several years had been crammed into one day. The birth of highly anticipated birth of David Xanatos' son, the arrival of Lord Oberon and Queen Titania, their threats to steal the treasured child, finding himself in a new world... It was all too much, too fast. Puck was an agent of chaos, but this was just ridiculous.<p><p>

He was lucky to have been found by someone kind. Or, at least, she seemed kind. He'd known too many duplicitous people to fully trust at first glance. But what choice did he have? He'd followed her here, to her home. For his sake, he certainly hoped she was as she appeared to be.<p><p>

“You'll have to forgive me, Miss Thompson. I'm a little out of sorts...”

[Nancy Thompson]

Nancy seemed to reflect on his distressing predicament, her blue eyes drifting down to the fragrant lavender-scented tea in her cup. She had brewed it deliberately to soothe his nerves, understanding that nothing could fully prepare anyone for a situation like this. It was an extraordinary event, and no words of solace or beverage could make sense of this profound shift.

But she had to try.

She parted her lips, her smile tinged with sadness and unease, causing her shoulders to droop slightly. Nancy was grappling with the desire to alleviate his concerns, but she knew she had no magical means to transport him back to wherever he had been before arriving on this planet. Audibly sighing, she finally met his gaze, positioned at a comfortable distance yet close enough to convey her words clearly in this bewildering moment. It was crucial to give him space. "There's nothing to forgive," she offered him a sympathetic ear while maintaining a gentle tone.

Thompson pressed a hand to her heart and tilted her head slightly, correcting him with an embarrassed chuckle. “You can call me Nancy, Mr. Burnett.” She aimed to put him at ease by encouraging a more casual form of address. Then she proceeded to be more direct pertaining to the true heart of the matter. "It's perfectly natural," she continued tentatively, "to feel so disoriented. It took me a while to adapt to this new reality." Following an unhelpful pause, she cleared her throat, and her voice dipped, "A second time."


She shifted carefully in her seat, her smile a little more on the ironic side. Crossing her legs in a manner at odds with her unease, she brought the tea to her lips for a silent sip, the porcelain clinking against the saucer like a mournful melody. When she was ready to speak, she took a moment to carefully choose her words.

“What I’m about to tell you might be a lot to swallow,” she began, her voice carrying the echoes of actual experience. And she knew how insane she sounded, but having been through so much in her lifetime, she could care less about disbelief or judgment. “The first time this happened to me, it was because I wanted to get away from something. Something that scared me. A wish—to get away from it all, I suppose.”

The laugh that escaped her crimson lips was a dry one. “It worked a little too well,” she said, dimly amused.

She left the rest up to his imagination, the quiet that followed pregnant with sprinkled dark humor. "I won't subject you to a sob story, but this wouldn't be the last time the universe decided to toy with me. I was just twenty-two, finally finding my place in the world, only for that world to vanish before my eyes. Here I am now, but who knows for how long? It's been a good nine years, give or take," she recounted, her voice tinged with a weariness that belied her years.

She wasn't sure how she managed to pick herself up after enduring the heartache of having everything she knew ripped away from her not once, but twice. The thought of enduring it a third time was almost too much to bear.

[Puck]

 “I am not even sure I understand what has happened,” Owen breathed. A lot of what was being said just wasn’t adding up. “Are you saying—” He came up short, processing, trying to make sense of it all, then tried again, “Is this… common?”

The things he had seen upon his arrival were evidence enough that he was no longer on his usual plane of existence. He had walked between realms before; Avalon remained separate from the world of man because Oberon willed it so. It stood to reason that there were other such realms that stood parallel to what he’d come to know as reality, but that was not what this was. This was not some alternate version of Earth. This was somewhere else entirely, and he wasn’t sure how he’d even gotten there.

In all of the Puck’s thousands of years, he had never even heard of something like this occurring, let alone experienced it. He was sure that this was not Oberon’s doing, either, and Oberon was the most powerful being he knew of. This was new territory, and for an eternal fae, that was utterly terrifying. And yet, by her own admission, Nancy Thompson had experienced it not once, but twice.

It could happen again. That thought alone was enough to make his hair stand on end, pure dread turning his spine to ice.

His hands were beginning to shake, and he forced himself to take a sip from his tea in an effort to calm his frayed nerves. It took a lot to make him even so much as worry. To panic? Well, it was safe to say that an unwanted planetary shift was just enough to do the trick.

[Nancy Thompson]

“I’d be surprised if you did,” she half-chuckled, not unkindly.

Her eyes conveyed an unspoken apology, mirroring the regret evident in her smile. She silently chastised herself for delivering the harsh truth so bluntly, allowing him a moment of silence to process the overwhelming information. "To clarify," she attempted to amend her mistake, albeit with some uncertainty, "I've personally only experienced this phenomenon twice. I'm unsure if anyone else has encountered it more than once. I was a very special case.”

The irony of the situation was not lost on her; despite guiding others through their traumas professionally, she found herself struggling to provide solace to Owen in the comfort of her own home. "There are many theories regarding our existence here," she began, her voice soothing yet purposeful, "but one in particular stands out among the rest. However, it's a harsh truth, not one that fills your head with good dreams or hope."

She frowned, a deep crease forming between her brows. "This blows," she sighed, aware that the tea before her was hardly enough to warrant the constant nursing of it while sharing vital information. Yet, there she sat, doing just that. It was clear that she had not spoken about this to anyone in a long while. These days, she mostly kept to herself, but seeing him so visibly distraught stirred a sense of compassion within her.

"I'm not sure if we should talk about this now," she hesitantly confessed, a departure from her usual tendency to divulge everything at once when it came to such an important issue. "Perhaps it's best to revisit this another time?" she suggested, pausing to assess his demeanor. "Preferably when you're feeling more at ease. Today has been quite overwhelming for you, and you deserve a moment to gather yourself."

Her eyes briefly flickered to his trembling hands, silently yearning to reach out and offer a sense of comfort and stability. However, she hesitated, unsure if he would appreciate the gesture. "You are welcome to stay with me for a while, until you're back on your feet. It might be sudden for me to offer, but I can't bear to send you back out there with nothing," she said, her own trust issues lingering in the back of her mind. She feared opening up and caring, afraid of being hurt again, forced into another harsh reality, and having to rebuild from scratch once more.

[Puck]

The offer of a place to stay might have been appreciated, had he heard it. But terror had seized him and his grip on the cup tightened, his eyes darting to meet hers. He already felt as though he was going mad. To go another moment without answers was unthinkable. "Miss Thom--Nancy... I fear I won't be able to rest easy until I understand what has happened." 

The anxiety and guilt would eat away at him otherwise. It was bad enough that he had abandoned David Xanatos once, but to have no clear way to go back and undo his mistake was driving him insane. Would they be alright? Would Oberon have his way? Would they ever forgive him? 

No, his mind answered the last for him. Probably not.

Regardless, he had to know. He wouldn't be able to find a way back without all of the facts, after all. He owed it to that twisted little family to do whatever he could to claw his way back home to them.

"I know none of this is easy, but I need to know what is going on. Please."