fh_adventures | Ingvar, leading to the volcano [Tuesday afternoon]

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bde: krampus

Ingvar, leading to the volcano [Tuesday afternoon]

As the Fandomites fought Krampus' hordes back to where they came from--Ingvar's island--they found themselves with some unexpected allies: Ingvar's very own collection of creepy, creepy dolls. Ingvar was Not Best Pleased with his new friend, Goth!Santa, turning out to be not very nice after all.

They'd be difficult to tell from Krampus' minions, honestly, but if you say some creepy doll on creepy doll action (NOT DIRTY), best to leave it be.

Ingvar's friend were helpful in leading our heroes towards the volcano, at least, once they got past the dive-bombing Christmas tree angels and demonic gingerbread persons/things!

Time to grab our friends, kids, and apologize profusely to the newbies.

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Mae nodded happily. “You’re back! . . . Also kidnapped, which is less happy news.”

Astrid felt she could make the arguement that being back wasn't happy news, either, but now didn't really seem like the time or place.

"I...," she started, shook her head a little, and tried again. "Well, yeah, kidnapped, but rescued, now, by the looks of it."

And, as she said it, she felt the undeniable relief in her words that proved that she really was glad for that, closed her eyes, and let out a long, long breath that felt like she'd been holding it since Christmas.

Please, just let it all be over for a while.

And, belatedly, with one hand gingerly to the side of her face, she figured at least if the bruise she'd gotten last week was still there, everyone would just assume it was because of this whole mess. One less thing to not have to explain, one less thing to dance around.

Yep, Mae would have been surprised to see her not bruised, after all of this. "And hey, at least you didn't get tied up!"

If Astrid had been Gregg, that would have been a "too bad you didn't get tied up", because that was how she and Gregg did. But Astrid looked a little wobbly just now, so Mae decided morbid humor was maybe not the way to go here.

A little wobbly was a good way to describe it, right down to her weak attempt at a faint smile. The bruising didn't even seem to be the worst of it, either; the worst was definitely the emotional whiplash she was feeling in the attempt to just process things.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Small favors, right?"

Honestly not a bad reward for not charging in to fight creepy dolls or attempting to a seduce goat-demon.

How was this her life now...again?

Right? Fandom's gonna Fandom.

"I'm just going to assume it's because you were too clever."

Maybe it was just because she was so tired, maybe it was the relief talking that it was over, maybe it was the fact that it was coming from Mae, or maybe it was because she was still convinced that she'd wake up any moment now and be back in her bed in Hollywood, but that managed to get a small smile out of Astrid, even a little laugh.

"Sure," she said, "let's go with that."

And, in a sense, it was true.

"How've you been, Mae?" Astrid then asked, as if she hadn't been the one stuck in a volcano for the past few days.

"Good," Mae said, because why wouldn't they be making small talk in a volcano? "I got to beat up toys without being one myself this time, so, you know, that's been cool."

There was another weird bonus to all this: Astrid hadn't inexplicably been a toy, depsite being all the way across the country and in a completely different century, either.

And small talk was about as big a conversation as she could handle right now.

"I can see why that would be much better," she agreed. "Bet you got in some really good hits, too."

"Aw yis," Mae said, looking happily down at her stick. "Those creepy bitches didn't know what hit 'em."

Astrid knew there was some clever comment about it being a stick that hit them in there somewhere, but she didn't know where to find it. She must have used all her cleverness up in not getting tied up by not even doing anything.

All she came up with was another faint smile, the realization that this felt like the first time she actually had smiled since before Christmas, and a heavy lean-in to the theory, the desperate off-chance hope that this all really been just a dream anyway, a nightmare, like she always used to have.

"My hero," she said.

Let's just ignore the swords and blasters and magical mind powers that probably did most of the heavy lifting.

Mae blushed.

Not that most people could probably tell.

She looked down and shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Astrid shrugged, too, but her eyes went up.

"So how long do you think it'll be before we can just get out of here?"

Mae looked around and shrugged. “Do you want to wait for any of the people who’re tied up? ‘Cause if not, I think we can probably at least go outside now.”

Astrid could practically feel the pull of outside right now, but, after looking around a little herself, she couldn't help notice someone else standing not too far away, like she was almost waiting. She had her helmet off, but Astrid couldn't quite read her face. Either that, or she was just too afraid to read it too closely.

She shook her head a little, then nudged it a little that way. "I should probably go talk to Sabine first," she said.

Not exactly the best place for a little catch-up chat, but she'd rather just get it out of the way now, when everything still felt mostly horrible, than later when all she'd want to do is get something to eat, take a long shower, and sleep for a very, very long time.

"Oh," Mae said, noticing Sabine for the first time as well. She bobbed her head in a hurried nod. "Yeah, sure. We can talk whenever. You're -- you're back, right?"

"Yeah," said Astrid, wondering just how much of the flinch she felt at those words would actually show on her face, and if it could just be dismissed because of...everything else right now. Her own nod was stiff, miniscule. "I'm back."

Then she felt a heavy, awkward moment, before she started to lean her body away toward Sabine, as if some invisible string was now pulling her that way. "We'll talk later, okay?"

"Yeah," Mae said, bobbing her head even more to cover for the little flash of hurt she felt. "Totally!"

There was no point in being hurt. Astrid had had a bunch of friends here, and Sabine was her roommate. Of course she wanted to talk to her!

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Ingvar, leading to the volcano [Tuesday afternoon]

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