(no subject)

[notfaking_it]

The gala had been a bit of a bore.

Lily was used to it, mingling with investors, the people who essentially paid for her to be a dancer, and she was usually good at it. Even tonight, she doubted anyone noticed that she was bored, but it had gone on long and all the champagne in the world couldn't make it end any quicker. She passed by Nina several times, pausing long enough to talk to her, to laugh about something that had been said, but she knew it was encouraged for them to be as social as possible and so she moved on after a few minutes.

It was something she was good at, even at her worst, and Lily smiled and laughed as she knew she was supposed to.

Between conversations, she set down her champagne flute and slipped toward the bathroom, her purse in hand. Raising her hand as she passed Nina, she grinned, then slipped through the bathroom door, glancing down into her purse for her compact as she crossed toward the mirror. Her heels clicked against the tile floor and when she glanced up, at first it seemed that nothing was wrong.

But the bathroom was gone.

Beyond the mirror she had glanced into stretched a long, golden hall and Lily shifted, moving away from the mirror to stare at what had appeared. She blinked, then turned back toward the bathroom door only to find it gone, replaced with a beautiful hall, the walls adorned with art she'd never seen before, rich looking and lush.

"What the hell?" she murmured.

Comments

[behindmothersback]

I was late for work. Not very late, but late enough that I was rushing more than I should have been, Father. Had I not been in such a hurry, I might have seen what was beyond the shop door before I stepped through it. The strange hall I find myself in is like nothing I've seen before, golden and beautiful.

But it is not Darrow and it is not Rapture and that puts me ill at ease. I'm not ready to go to another place, Father, I'm not ready to be torn away from a life that I still feel I'm just beginning to live. Where are you?

"Father! Hello! Is anyone here?!" Father where are you?

...Mother?

[notfaking_it]

Lily didn't expect to hear a familiar voice, but she turned at the sound of a young woman calling for her father. It could have been anyone, she tried to tell herself, but it sounded like Eleanor and she walked in that direction, her heels loud in the tall, empty room she'd entered.

"Eleanor?" she asked, poking her head into the hall, lifting the hem of her dress with one hand so she wouldn't trip on it as she walked, hurrying toward the younger woman. The few other people she'd seen didn't seem inclined to explain anything to her and a familiar face was extremely welcome.

[behindmothersback]

"Lily?" It isn't you, Father, that I finally find in this place of strangers, but rather your... girlfriend. I'm disappointed, and frightened that somehow, some way, after everything we're finally being parted. I can only stand and watch her as she comes towards me, ignoring the few people that are about. Unless they try to harm me, I really don't care who they are or what they're doing.

"Have you seen Father?"

[notfaking_it]

"No," Lily answered, lifting one hand to brush some hair off her face as she glanced around the hall again, looking for any other familiar faces. She'd been looking for Nina, having seen her only moments before, but all the people who passed were strangers.

"If we're here, I'm sure he's somewhere around," she said, not knowing if it was true. She wanted it to be, knowing how important Delta and Eleanor were to each other. "Do you recognize any of this?"

[behindmothersback]

"No, I don't. I've never seen anything like this. It's... lovely, but I don't know it at all." You have to be here, Father, I can't move on like this, without you. But I keep looking around and I don't see you anywhere. Just this big place and all these strange people.

And her.

"I don't think we should stay here, it could be dangerous."

[notfaking_it]

The people didn't look especially dangerous, but they were also perfectly content to go about their lives, sparing Lily and Eleanor only the barest of glances. She could hear snatches of conversation, some of them talking about parties, others of politics.

"Maybe there's a central meeting place," she said. "Somewhere with a map."

[behindmothersback]

"Somewhere Father would go?" I hope. I really and truly hope that he's here somewhere. I have nothing against Lily, but she's not you.

"How did we get here? How does this keep happening?"

[notfaking_it]

"I hope so," she said, because even if she couldn't understand the depth of it, she knew well how important they were to each other.

But Eleanor's question deserved some thought. The first time, on the island, she'd simply turned down a hall and found herself in the Compound. In Darrow, she'd woken up on the train. "I was at a gala," she said. "I opened the bathroom door and found myself here. What about you?"

[behindmothersback]

"I was heading in to work. I opened the door and... do you think it has something to do with opening doors? We both did." I can focus on that. I can work on the problem instead of worrying about you. I have to do something or I think my heart will break.

[notfaking_it]

"Maybe," Lily said, wishing there was someone else they could ask. If they had more people who'd come from Darrow, more experiences to draw from, they might be able to come to a better conclusion about why they arrived here and how. And how they might get back.

"Here," she said, as a young woman approached, then raised her hand and smiled. "Excuse me, can you tell me where we are?"

The woman looked confused and said, "You're not far from the temple."

[behindmothersback]

"Who's temple?" It's not something I like to hear. One of the only things from Rapture I approved of is a disdain for organized religion. If this place is centered on some deity... I'm not sure I'll like this.

[notfaking_it]

"Poseidon, of course," the woman answered, laughing as if Eleanor had told a wonderful joke. Her smile was warm, but Lily wasn't sure she liked it very much.

"Come on," she murmured to Eleanor, turning them away from the woman, moving down one of the smaller halls, though the walls were still ornately decorated, like every inch of the place seemed to be.

[behindmothersback]

"I don't..." I look over my shoulder as Lily leads us away. "I don't like this place. Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea, back home... there were a lot of nods to the Greek gods." An affectation that filled me with dread to see it again.

"I want to find Father, I don't feel safe here."

[notfaking_it]

"No, I don't like it either," Lily agreed. She wasn't especially protective most of the time, but she put herself between Eleanor and the woman anyway, making sure to block the woman's view as they walk away. There was something strange about the way she was looking at them, something almost predatory.

She was used to doing things without worrying about them, but now she needed a chance to think things through. "In here," she said, poking her head into a room and finding it empty. It was lined with books, a soft looking couch against one wall.

[behindmothersback]

I went immediately to the books, the only place I felt I would find answers without arousing too much suspicion. The first volumes were useless, fictions and romances, and I continued to look, fingers running over bindings.

I hope you're here. I hope you're finding it easier than we are, Father. "Lily, what if we don't find a way back? I do not see any packages, not like Darrow."

[fatherslove]

As he turned the corner he saw her and broke into a run, not caring if it called more attention to him than it should have. All at once panic melted away into relief so deep it almost crippled him. Whatever this place was, whatever had happened, if it was her, he could stand anything that might come.

"Eleanor!"

[behindmothersback]

I feel like a little girl again, frightened by the intrusion of a Splicer into my happy, addled world. And hearing your voice again has the same your monstrous roars did then, soothing my fears and calming my panic. Thought I think you can feel me tremble when I wrap my arms around you, knowing that together, we can do anything we must to survive.

"Daddy, I was so worried, I opened the door and there was this place..?"

[fatherslove]

"I know. All of a sudden." He held onto her and felt anchored, even though he was freshly reminded of how much smaller than him she still was. All that time, who had really been holding on to who?

Did it matter?

"Are you all right? Are you hurt at all?"

[behindmothersback]

"I'm not hurt, I was just... frightened." My voice got softer as I admitted that. I can wander anywhere in Darrow now, feeling safe and secure, but place me somewhere I do not know and leave me alone and I fall apart without you. I don't know what it says about me.

"Where are we? This isn't Rapture and it isn't Darrow, so where are we?"

[fatherslove]

"I don't know. It looks so different." He could have asked people, he realized. But he had been focused, he realized, on finding Eleanor. Before he had even known for sure that she was there.

"Come on. Let's see if we can find out. And maybe there are other people we know here as well."

[behindmothersback]

"But how did we get here? I was just on my way to work." I take your hand as I start to look about. I'm sure that together we will find our way, as we always seem to. It's just... I've never seen a place like this. It's beautiful, really.

[fatherslove]

"I was doing some dishes. One moment I was standing there, and the next I was standing here." He shook his head, still bewildered. "The only thing I can think of it like it is... coming to Darrow in the first place."

And of course there had been the darkness and the ash. But he wasn't going to think about that. Not now.

No one was looking at them with any particular interest, but as a woman passed, her long brown hair pulled back into a golden net, he raised a hand and she stopped, looking at them curiously.

"Excuse me," he said. "I'm sorry to stop you, but... what is this place?"

The woman's expression turned from curious to puzzled. "I don't understand. How can you have come to the city and not know its name?"

[behindmothersback]

"We're from... far away." Which is the truth, isn't it? I don't know what else to say so I find myself looking up at you for some idea on how to proceed. Truth be told, I want to be anywhere but here, finding a safe place, a place we can defend.

Isn't it scary how easily the habits of Rapture return.

[fatherslove]

"Ah." The woman brightened. "Yes, many come to see the wonders of Atlantis. I bid you welcome."

She gestured to two pillars beyond which lay a huge plaza. "There is a festival tonight, and many parties. You should be sure to attend." She smiled at Eleanor then, and there was something in that smile that Delta didn't at all care for. Something... speculative. "You especially, my dear. You're quite lovely. But you must find something else to wear."

[behindmothersback]

"Um..." I look down at what I'm wearing, a red skirt, bright yellow top, just the normal things I wear for work. I guess that's not allowed here? I've never been somewhere with a required dress code. "What... what should I wear? I don't... we don't have much money with us."

And I get the feeling, Father, that even if we did, it wouldn't apply to this place.