Dimensional Bullshit

[the_horror]

He had been dead for over a decade now. Dead and gone for everyone but Klaus. Poor Klaus had to deal with his nagging and constant puttering around for so long.

When it had happened, when he died, they were all on mission. It was messy. Real messy. he had tried something new in the middle of a fight. Tried to summon something new from under his skin. It worked, but it was disgusting. Tentacles and teeth, eyes and multiple jaws that seemed to burst out of him so swiftly that it seemed to make him bleed. He screamed as it happened, hands out to the side in fists, yelling in actual pain and not strain of control.

Father had been encouraging him to call forth more powerful creatures, but Father also got a look on his face that he was going to be sick anytime they trained together. He pushed, but he pushed from the other side of a training room. A large steel room that Ben was locked away in with a window and a speaker so they could talk. "Again, six." he'd say, causing Ben to try again. Try harder. He wanted to make the man proud of him.

Training sometimes consisted of hanging pig carcasses from the local butchers place, projecting the tentacles or other things on them, and attacking them with control. Sometimes he'd just beat them up, like a boxing bag, other times they burst through the carcass and make a mess of things. Generally by the time they were done he was covered in muck, tired, in mild pain, and the pic carcasses were all missing. He'd always return to his room worn out and smelling like rancid bacon before crawling off to try and take over the bath tub for a while.

But this mission? It was bad. he had summoned something too big for him to control. Something that didn't want to be controlled. In the fight he nearly attacked his own siblings. He could feel the creature pulling at him, yanking him along the floor, losing complete control over everything. The eldritch horror rampaged for some time, taking out all the bad guys, as well as a few innocents. By time he was stopped and done, the creature had wrapped itself around Ben. Had taken hold of his body and squeezed. Ben was crying, unable to stop it. Crying for the people he had killed, Crying for the siblings he had hurt and that had to be carted away by Luther. Crying because it hurt. It hurt a lot.

And then his arm pinched in the wrong way. His leg cracked as it was pulled in wrong. He screamed, body shaking as the beast tried to return inside. except as it returned inside, it took Ben with it. With a yell, his bod broke, seeming to disappear inside itself. Gone.

For years he couldn't seem to remember how he died, just that he was dead. And Klaus didn't want to talk about it. He couldn't blame him. So he haunted Klaus, seeming to live by different rules than other ghosts. When Klaus was too high to notice him, he felt sleepy and groggy, but he was there to see his brother doing dumb things. When he was sober he hung around, bored and wanting to do things. He didn't disappear like normal ghosts.

And then the apocalypse happened.

When Five tried to take them all back in time, he managed to take them back to just after Father passed away. the wavering between youth and age effected everyone, but they all ended up the proper age and proper time. It did however five Five a flicker of where Ben was. Ben wasn't DEAD. He was trapped. Trapped in a dimension between living and the eldritch horror show that he once could summon.

When Five managed to bring him back, Ben was returned, at the same age as everyone else, tired, lost, full of aches and pains, but alive again. Alive and breathing, home once more. Able to breath real air, hug any of his siblings he wanted, and eat anything. And he was going to try out everything he couldn't try before. Be it with his siblings or on his own. He was going to live life to the fullest, even if that meant pigging out or being reckless.

[This post is open to any era of Ben's 'life'. Training. Battles and missions. THAT mission where he died. For a Five or someone to pull him back, or simply for reunion times with their long lost brother. Multi threads and Multi siblings welcome. Threadjacking welcome. Backtagging welcome. Do your best!]

Comments

Reunion Times

[numberthree]

Allison didn't care.

She didn't care that the world was falling apart. Fell apart.
Ripped and burned. Killing everyone. Including Claire, her Claire. Would, again.

She didn't care that their father had proved to be the biggest asshole in existence.
(She didn't care about the hundred bad plans to somehow make it all go right this time.
That had to go right. For Vanya. For Claire. For all of them. For all of the world around them.)

She didn't care about breathing too fast, or about how crying, which compounded that even further, only made her throat feel like it had burst into being on fire and was lacing agony into all of the somehow hundred muscles she never knew she had that made up that part of her body.

Allison didn't care about any of that for one pure, true, second, when Ben was finally real. And solid. And maybe she'd consider one flicker of a second, being cool about it. Before it was this second. About poking him in the shoulder with one manicured nail, when he was finally real, finally here, finally with them again. Not dead. Not dead. Never actually dead. But the moment he was truly real again, she didn't care at all. All he did was stand there. Breathe. Move. And she just had to throw her arms around him.

The world was still going to end, but at least, just once, just this once, they finally got back a piece of theirs first.

[the_horror]

he cared. he cared that the world might end soon, and they had to think of how to counter it. He cared that Vanya was okay, and that they needed to be a family and take care of her this time. Keep things from going weird.

He cared that his family was all here though. The important ones at least. Maybe he was a little sad, in a strange way, that Father was dead, but also pleased? It was a complex emotion he didn't really care for.

What he really and truly cared about was this moment right here. he had been brought back, and Five and he were finding the others to tell them. And here was Allison, looking stoic as ever. The little poke to her shoulder made him smile, and he figured that was all he was going to get. But then she threw her arms around him and he took a breath, glad for the hug.

Glad for the contact. It felt so surreal to feel again. His arms wrapped around his taller sister and he squeezed, eyes closed a moment as he leaned into her. Hugs were good. He was always a bit of a hugger, but this felt amazing. He held on for a bit longer then he maybe should, but he didn't want to let go. What if she wasn't there if he let go?

"Hey..." He said for a lack of any words to say, just holding onto her like he might lose her if he didn't.

{Every time I close my eyes, there's a memory of you

[bestfuneralever]

It's been... weeks? Months? A year? Klaus has lost count. He had to stop counting because it only made it hurt worse. Every day that the world started without Ben in it was cruel. And the worst part is that he tried. He tried and he tried and he tried, over and over and over again, for what felt like forever to do it. To conjure his brother just so he could see him again. Talk to him again. Tell him how much he hates the way the world looks without him in it. Anything. Anything at all. But there was nothing. No matter how sober he was, he couldn't make it happen, and it was killing him inside. He hadn't stayed at the academy for more than a few weeks after Ben died. And that's what Klaus kept telling himself. He'd been there. He'd seen it. And it was horrible. He still has nightmares about it. But the fact was, there was no body, and that brought some doubt to how dead Ben really was. But Klaus wasn't the one to do that research, or calculate those equations. Maybe Five could, or... Well, it didn't matter, because Klaus wouldn't be included in it all. Because he left. He's been couch surfing for a few weeks, but the one he's on right now belongs to, quite possibly, the prettiest man Klaus had ever seen. Who also happened to be out making himself a useful member of society with a real job or something. But he'd told Klaus he could stay, and make himself at home, and no one needed to tell Klaus something like that twice, thanks. He's pressed into the corner of the couch, a useless attempt at making himself feel protected or that no one could sneak behind him. His feet are propped on the coffee table as he eats cereal in a robe with Law & Order re-runs playing on the tv. All in all, a perfectly Klaus-like start to a morning. And nothing seems different at all on the surface.

[the_horror]

It had been traumatizing. So traumatizing that when Ben had disappeared he was lost. Lost somewhere between asleep and awake, or so it felt. He had no idea what had happened. When he woke he was kind of just floating there in a void. Everything felt bluish gray to him, and nothing felt real.

No breathing. No heart beat. Nothing really to hear and nothing to see. He just... was.

He remembered the pain, and that was about it. The pain of breaking apart and disappearing, but he didn't remember how. It all felt dizzying in a way, yet he was standing perfectly still. Though walking did nothing either. He could walk forward in place and feel like he was going no where, yet never tired. the tremors in his belly were gone as well. At least at first.

He wasn't sure how long it took, but there was this weird moment of Clarity. he felt sleepy for the first time, and a bit groggy. He felt a weight on his chest, and he pushed at it. Pushed at nothingness at first, then at somethingness. Pushed until he was... in a room?

he felt so sleepy, hands pulling his hood up and closer to his head. Who's house was this? How did he get here? There was a TV blaring, but to him it felt staticy in a way. He could tell it was Law and Order, but it felt like there was something almost demonic going on behind it. He tuned it out as he looked around the room. First to feet on a coffee table, trailing slowly up to see a bowl of cereal, and then followed the spoon feeding the face of...

"Klaus?" he said suddenly, eyes going wide.

[bestfuneralever]

There's an odd stair-stepped sort of hesitation where first, Klaus doubts his own eyes. Then, he can't stop seeing what--who--he's seeing, no matter how many times, or how hard, he blinks. Maybe it's that realization that actually causes the spoon to clatter against the bowl. Klaus can hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears as he scrambles to his feet, the bowl being abandoned in a messy slam on the nearest flat surface, milk sloshing out of the edge of it with the force. But he doesn't care. He doesn't care because this is Ben. Ben is here. Ben is here! "HolyshitBen." He is every bit intent on dragging his brother into a tight, clinging bear-hug worthy of the ones he used to give all the time-- except. When he tries, Klaus just passes straight through him. "Goddammit!" He mutters, more to himself than it is directed at Ben. "I thought--" he's spinning on his heel to face Ben again, still completely confused and slightly alarmed when he can still see him there. His features are a mixture of relief and confusion, something more than the tiniest bit broken reflecting somewhere deep behind it all. "Ohmygod." He hides his face behind his hands and sinks down against the wall to the floor. This can't be happening. It can't. It can't, because this means Ben is actually dead. Really, really, for real, for real dead. And Klaus had really been hoping that maybe the lack of body meant something. His wishes never came true when he made them as a kid, why would this be any different? Fuck you very much, too, Universe.

[the_horror]

He's here. He's real. Right? This is happening. He stands there staring at Klaus as he sloshes the bowl to a table. As he stands up. Ben's eyes are watering, and he looked so happy to see him. "HolyshitKlaus!" he had said at the same time as the other stated much the same with his own name.

He moved to hug the other too. A hard bear gripped hug, but... he felt Klaus go through him, a shimmery sensation of cold hit him a moment as it happened. He spun around, arms out still as if he was still in the middle of that hug.

And then they lowered, his heart, no longer beating, but if it was, it stopped. the God damn it the other said clued him in faster than his own failure to hug his brother. He stood there a moment longer, dumbfounded, before his watering eyes started to run. "Oh..." he said in the most heartbreaking tone.

Oh.

"Oh. Shit..." He said in the same tone, feeling a bit lost and small suddenly. So small. And Klaus slides down a wall, hands over his face. "Oh god..." Ben said as it hit him. As he understood what was going on now.

his hands grasped at his body, at his belly, and at his chest, patting it down, looking for wounds. He traced his arms as well. "I don't... I don't understand." He said in a slight panic. "Am I dead?"

[fireandthread]

Ben had been alive for a few days now, and Charlie still hadn't adapted. It was startling to round a corner and find him there. It was completely insane that the muted and cloudy feelings she'd been picking up were suddenly vibrant as they'd once been. She jokingly called them hi-def emotions, but that was the only way she could describe it.

But he was there, and he was very real. And Charlie hadn't stopped smiling yet.

They were seated at what was once their dining room table and was now just a table stacked with take-out menus and DVDs she'd wanted to watch with him but couldn't, and Charlie had her sketchpad out, doing a pretty good drawing of Captain Marvel when she shot out of her seat and ran to the fridge. There, behind a bag of brussel sprouts as always, a box of Rocky Road ice cream.

"You remember this, right? When I told you about school?" Listen, she has to ask. Just to make really damn sure this wasn't a dream and this was her brother right there with her.

[the_horror]

Being alive was amazing. He was trying to do everything, and sitting still wasn't really his thing at the moment. He was restless when he sat still too long. As for emotions, he had a lot of them, most of them overjoyed, some of them frustrated.

Frustrated for many reasons, but because there wasn't enough time in the day to do everything and not enough belly to eat everything. He was sitting at the table, pawing through take out menus for the third time, trying to find something he wanted that was a bit new.

When Charlie stopped her sketching and jumped up, he looked up in surprise, watching her dart to the refrigerator. His head tilted as she pulled the freezer door open and .. he laughed. Sitting back a bit he watched her reach in for something.

"Oh man, don't tell me you hide the rocky road behind brussel sprouts still." he said, moving to stand now, coming closer to take a look.

[fireandthread]

"I'll do you one better, okay. I have a mini-fridge in my workshop and room in Ohio," Charlie replies with amusement and exaggerated jazz hands. They'd talked about the mini-fridge a time or two, and Charlie was almost successful once, but it was just never meant to be in the Hargreeves house.

"My roommates are not fooled by my super clever brussel sprouts trick, so I had to actually go for that dream of mine."

[the_horror]

"Yeah, well, it seems to work just fine here. I mean we have a bit enough freezer space to store it in, and if hidden well enough no one i going to bother to look." He said with a laugh, moving to find the plastic bowls, like before.

"Pull it out. Let's have a bit for old times sake." he said, highly amused by this. Some things didn't change and that helped him a lot. It helped a lot more than he could even express to her, really.

HELL YES. Here comes the Cavalry

[n5]

The world was ending.

It was just their luck that they caused the very thing they were trying to stop. In retrospect, Five thought as he held his siblings' hands tightly in a last attempt to time travel them all to the past, it was a very on brand thing to do for their dysfunctional family. And if he was honest with himself, he would admit that the problem started far much sooner, the book Vanya had written the first sign of smoke before the fire.

He had no time to wonder more about their past mistakes when the familiar blue glow of altered time fell over them like a blanket. In the midst of chaos, as Five worked to project their consciousnesses backward into a suspended quantum state version of themselves, their appearance was altered. They looked just like he remembered them for so many year, like they did the day he time jumped for the first time.

There were seven of them.

Five knew the currents of time and space. He grew accustomed to their intricacies from a very young age, learned that they were in constant change and that they were infinite. He learned that the Commission lived and worked on a time pocked dimension of sorts. He knew how those felt in his bones, the shiver it caused up his spine. And there, now, that was exactly the exact same feeling.

By the time they all landed on the garden, the grass wet under them and daddy dearest's ashes a few feet away, Five's head was swimming. He felt dizzy and around him, his siblings were groaning and gasping in different states of mild pain and confusion. Time traveling had always made Five feel as if someone had tried to stuff a whole pillow inside his head through his nose. This time? This time the feeling was ten times worse, the pressure in his brain and the pain racking through his body making him heave for air. His muscles ached and his fingers twitched as he fell to his knees, palms connecting with the damp, muddy ground.

Allison said something, which meant her vocal chords were healed, and the reply came from Diego's baritone voice. He sounded alarmed and grumpy, but like an adult. Sure enough, when Five glanced to the side he saw them back on their normal bodies, Diego checking on Vanya as Luther hold her close for dear life, Allison pulling at Klaus' arm. He was looking around him in dismay as if he was looking for something. For someone.

And then there were six, Five thought, mind going a mile a minute. His body wasn't ready for a repeat, he had no idea if he could make the leap to the right dimension and not die in the process, but what the hell. What else did he have to lose? Balling his hands into fists, he shut his eyes, focused on the sensation of the pocket dimension...and jumped.

I love every bit of it!

[the_horror]

Everything was going crazy, but he was part of the team again. Luther had asked what he thought and Klaus answered right. And here he was, hanging on to Klaus for an unknown trip. Would it take him with him? Would he go back with them? Was that how this would even work?

He doubted it, but he held on anyhow. Maybe he shouldn't. Maybe it would be too much for Five. Maybe there would be some ghostly interference or something. And then it was happening. The world was altering around them, blue and crisp. He could feel something change, and he felt younger again. He felt everything changing. He could see the others flashing from old to young, and as he glanced down at himself, he too was changing.

And then something finished, and he felt as if they landed somewhere. The garden. Did Five do it? Did they go back in time? He looked around, everyone was their proper age, and a pile of ash sat in the center of the yard. He ran a hand down his body, feeling himself to see if he was whole, but...

He looked up, just as Five was clenching his fists to leave again. "Klaus?" he called out to his brother, his hand going through him. Shit. Still a ghost. Of course he was.

Five disappeared, and for a moment Ben flickered out as well. Like he walked off, so if Klaus did answer, he was just gone. his hands were out in front of him and he stared at them, frowning. the world around him was still in the blue spectrum that he knew it, but he was back in the space of time that he always was when Klaus was too messed up to see him. except Klaus shouldn't be? He was sober. There was no way that time jump messed him up this badly.

For Five, there was something like a layer of space he had to push through. the world around him was grayish blue and seemed endless. There was no floor or ceiling, but his feet would land on something that felt firm. In the far distance there was a rumble of noise. A deep whale like echo of a very large creature waking up.

Even Ben could hear it, though he threw his hands down to his belly. He'd just woke them up to fight at the theater, and he could feel the rumble in his belly, but not like normal. It felt like something in this gray space was waking up. Like an alarm was going off somewhere.

Like someone new was here and they weren't permitted.

Ben moved, turning around to see a figure, not far away. He squinted, and started to move towards it. This was new. This had never happened before. There was a swirl of blue around the figure, and the world seemed to shift wrong around him, like it wasn't closing right. Like a open hole in the world. He started to run towards it, and the closer he got the more he suddenly felt desperate.

"Five?!" he called as he got closer, eyes wide. "Five! Is that you!?" he said in a bit of a panicked feel. Was he dead or was this real? And what was that deep whale call that sounded more and more angry as he went.

Something was out there, but Ben didn't care. Five was there. Could he see him? Was this real. "Please, PLEASE don't go." he said, rushing forward, trying to close the distance.

I'm glad ♥♥♥

[n5]

Never in his life before has Five been in such an odd place. He couldn't explain the sensation, how reality didn't feel real and the laws of physics were a joke. He looked down at himself, raised a hand in front of his face and waved it a few times. It was a blue-ish color and glowing lightly, ripples being created in the air with every movement he made. Was he finally dead?

Alarm bells went off in his head at the sounds of the distant wailing, Five's lizard brain told him those were So.Not. Whales. He had to get out of here as soon as possible. He must be alive then, dead people had no reason to feel fear. Something moving in the distance and the boy shifted his posture, ready to jump away or attack if needed. And then figure got close enough, loud enough, to see and hear it was...

"Ben!" He wasn't one to show of uncontrolled emotion but Five ran up to him, meeting Ben midway and reaching for his hand, wondering if they would be able to touch here. If the odd calls were closer, he didn't notice. "Is this where you have been? This isn't...this is a tear between realities. We need to go back before I forget what our feels like."

[highondeath]

One moment they're all in a circle, arms connected. Ben is beside him and he can't tell if he's solid or not, if everyone can see their deceased brother or if it's still just him. He can't tell how old any of them are anymore, if they're adults or if they've shrunk back down to thirteen like Five. He can't feel his fingers, and as the world turns white he can't help but think this is one of the worst trips he's ever had.

The next moment they're somewhere else, the floor definitely solid beneath him. Klaus lays on his back, eyes wide upon an unfamiliar ceiling. He closes them immediately. He's not sure he wants to see what's happened.

"Five." Maybe his brother isn't even there. If he'd bother to look around he'd know, but he needs this moment. "If I stand up and I haven't gone through puberty yet I swear I'm going to squeak at you incessantly until the day my balls drop again."

He's alive. There's that much at least. And he can tell from the sounds of movement around him that he isn't alone. Something nags at the back of his mind and he finally pushes himself up onto his elbows to get a look around. Ben had been next to him when Five had done his thing. He doesn't know if ghosts can time travel. What if they'd left him behind to wander alone in the apocalyptic wasteland.

"Hey... Who's here?"

[the_horror]

It's odd. It's so strange. He feels like he is there and yet not. As the group goes back in time, Ben too is scared he'll get left behind and alone with out Klaus to connect to. Is that how it works? he doesn't know.

The world is spinning and he feels himself disappear once more. Back into the place he ends up going when Klaus is too out of it to see him. He hates this space, as it's so very gray and blue and nothing. Nothing at all.

For Klaus, he might see Five one moment, and the net his fists tighten and he's gone. For Ben? He sees a figure appear, which is new for him. He runs towards it, yelling to the person. To Five.

For Klaus, it might seem like a long ten minutes or so. Time does weird things, and spacial jumps are hard to calculate when you aren't jumping in your normal distention. When Five returns though, it's a Pop, and the two of them fall to the floor. Five is worn out, nose bleeding and he collapses. Ben wavers, losing balance and hitting the floor by hands and knees.

Allison is holding on to Vanya, still knocked out, with Luther's help. Diego is staring at Ben, shocked, surprised, but ultimately dropping to Five's side to check for a pulse, to help scoop him up.

No one has said anything. Too shocked with the reappearance maybe. Ben wavers, looking up and right at Klaus. He blinked, then smiles faintly. "Klaus..." before he falls over to his side, knocked out.

Might be a good idea to get these three somewhere safe to rest.

[highondeath]

"Whoa, hey!" Klaus is on his feet and at Ben's side in an instant. Diego has Five, and the other two are with Vanya. Given that the latter had basically just caused the apocalypse he thinks he can be forgiven for not making her his top priority. Ben had just collapsed, and that's not a thing ghosts do.

"Is anyone else seeing him? Am I still just - right, don't care." He starts to remove his jacket without thinking, as though he might need it to sop up some wound or protect Ben from the cold. That's what all the heroes in the movies do, right? Strip off their jackets and dive right into first aid? Except he doesn't know first aid and it isn't all that chilly wherever they are. Realizing quickly that he has no idea what he's doing, he pulls the sleeveless item back on.

Instead he leans into another cliche, slapping his brother lightly on the cheek. "Hey. Hey, buddy. Look, I can slap you! Isn't that great? Shit." There are no extra siblings to lend him a hand here. With three of them down they'll need to keep everyone together. He doesn't think he could even lift Ben on his own if he needed to. Piggy-back, maybe.

"Where are we?" This is supposed to be a question to the group, but it ends up as more of a mutter to himself. They'd have to go outside and look for some sort of landmark, otherwise the only person who'd have any idea would be Five - and that isn't even a guarantee. They're not in the concert hall still, that's all he knows.

[throwsknives]

Diego still stops short when he turns the corner and he sees Ben sitting there, as real and whole as any of them. Maybe it's a sign of just how much he's lost in the last few days that his throat closes up a little before he has to clear it. Having Ben back and alive shouldn't cancel out the end of the world, and it doesn't, not by a long shot, but he has to admit, he's missed seeing his face.

He pulls out a chair and sits at the kitchen table, reaching for one of the many plates of food spread out before his newly returned brother and takes a bite of an eggo from a mountain of them. "You catching up on all the meals you missed, or just wanting to gain a few fifty pounds?"

[the_horror]

He had been cooking. Because why not. They didn't stop him, really. He'd been up early enough to do it too, unable to sleep. There was a plate of frozen waffles, and one of misshapen tiny pancakes all stacked in a mount. There was a plate of burnt bacon and sausage, a plate of a verity of eggs, and some chopped fruit. It looked as if he were cooking just to cook, but he fully intended to eat it.

He had wrapped a mini pancake around a sausage and had it half in his mouth when Diego came in, sat down and stole an eggo. That was fine. There were more. He took the bite anyhow, and hummed. "Couldn't sleep. My brain keeps telling me I'll disappear if I sleep. So food helps. You don't know you'll miss food once you can't have it anymore and you have to watch Klaus shove it into his face often enough." He explained, nomming away at his bite.

[throwsknives]

Diego looks at the table piled high with food. The misshapen pancakes and burnt bacon are a far cry from the perfect circles mom used to make them every morning. But then again, they're officially on their own now.

"Well, that's the thing that sucks about the living. You gotta sleep sometime, whether you want to or not. Otherwise you die and you're back at square one." He chews his eggo for a moment. "So you were haunting Klaus this whole time?"

Being there to witness each of Klaus's bad decisions one after the other must have been one hell of a purgatory.

being reckless, you say?

[channellings]

"I can make it."

Klaus is standing on the edge of a rooftop, peering over the precipice between his sneakers. Below them is an open body of water, but straight across is another building-- which is exactly what he's trying to go for. If he falls into the water, there's a likely chance that he'll be fine, even if the water would hurt like a bitch from a fall like this. Odd, how the first thing he thinks they should do is risk their lives when Ben has only been back for a short amount of time.

He sticks one foot out, testing his balance somewhat on the ledge. He's a little wobbly, though it's nothing ridiculous. It's funny, because he's not even high on anything and he can still feel himself shaking. Adrenaline really is a hell of a thing, especially when one is contemplating roof-hopping.

"What do you think?" Klaus asks, turning to look over his shoulder at Ben, a hand reaching to scrub over his face and push his hair back. "You're alive now, so we obviously have to do something reckless."

omg yes

[the_horror]

He can't believe he let Klaus talk him into this.

Standing at the edge and looking over, he frowned at it. That was water, at least, but how deep was it? If they fell would they fall into a deep ravine of stagnant water, or would they drop like a rock into a flat channel and kill themselves? And what if they just jump right into the building and then fall? That would hurt, or kill them.

God this was a stupid idea.

And yet there was a rush he hadn't ever felt before. His hands flexed, open and closed, looking over the edge a bit dizzy feeling. This rush felt amazing and he hadn't even jumped yet.

He wagged a hand, stepping back, watching Klaus wiggle a foot over the edge. He let out a breath, then nervously laughed at the others comment. "I think we're going to kill ourselves." He said, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet, as if to wag off some of the nervous energy. "But yeah, I think we can make it. Maybe. Oh god, I don't know."

i'm sorry ben

[channellings]

He has no idea how deep the water is. Dropping rocks and other debris into it didn't really help him gauge and getting down to go check would've just been a hassle, so! Here's hoping they don't fall into the water or smash into the building and fall that way, either.

It's an awful idea and that's exactly why Klaus had talked Ben into it. (He's honestly a bit surprised as well.)

"You feel it, too?" The rush, he means-- the updraft mussing their hair, all of the senses practically vibrating. Klaus isn't sure about his brother, but he can feel goosebumps rising on his own arms and that only furthers the anxious excitement he's feeling. "...but yeah, maybe you're right." He lowers the foot and steps down, even backpedals a couple paces more, until he's standing next to Ben while he bounces. "We wouldn't want to lose you again when you haven't even been back that long," but he hasn't been dead. Klaus takes another step back then — without so much as a warning — rushes forward and leaps off the edge with all his might.

It's terrifying, he can't even lie about that, but the free-fall as he's dropping toward the ridge of the other rooftop-- it has to be one of the best feelings he's ever had. When his eyes reopen, Klaus realizes that— well, uh, he didn't reach far enough? His body immediately reacts; he can't quite get into a tuck and roll to protect himself, but as his fingers graze a loose brick, he grabs tight and prays it's enough to slow his momentum somewhat.

Thankfully, it is, even though the damn thing comes loose and he's falling again, throwing both hands out to catch the railing of a rickety old fire escape when he figures out he can reach. He grips hard, knuckles white, body successfully stopped once he slams into the metal bars. Much to his dismay, this knocks the wind out of him, and through his disorientation, he at least remembers to stretch his feet out so he lands on them first after swinging into the lower half of the stairwell.

Then, he drops flat on his back, utterly dazed, but somehow alive.

post apocalypse

[gigue]

Vanya doesn't want to be here.

Everything about this house (it's so big, can they really get away with calling it a house?) holds a bad memory that she remembers - clearly, some days, hazily others - destroying. And when you explode a place out of existence to make it go away, going back to it gets a lot harder.

She sleeps through most of it: Five bringing their brother back from wherever he was, the first reunions. It's par for the course, isn't? But when she wakes - not in the hole that Luther put her in, that gray room that she would rather die or kill than see again - in her old bedroom, V has no idea for a moment where or when they are. She wanders through the house, treating the whole thing like an hallucination. What else could it possibly be?

And when she sees Ben, it feels like the world tilts abruptly to the left.

"Ben?" Is she dead? Dreaming? She digs her nails into her palm to see if she will wake, but no - he's still there.

sorry about that delay!

[the_horror]

Ben had a lot of things to catch up on as well. He was tired and still felt weird in the lack of pressure this world put on him. He lived so long in a place that almost felt like being underwater that he was having to take his time to get used to this oxygen rich world again.

He had made his reunions slowly after waking up, after getting up again. He got hugs from everyone, worries and concerns and happy moments. Glad to be alive moments. Everyone but Vanya. She had still been out of it.

It worried him that she was still asleep after this long. What was she going to remember? Was she going to be able to hear out of that one ear? After a gun shot so close to it. Was she going to be mad to be here again? Would she be upset to see him?

He didn't care if she was upset at him, so long as she was safe. He'd checked her room a few times, impatiently waiting for her to wake again. And when she did? He hadn't been there. He had in fact been raiding the freezer for frozen waffles. He had two in a paper towel, one half bitten into, walking through the house, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw her. He swallowed the waffle he had just bitten off and stared at her a long moment. Then... smiled.

"V-Vanya? You're okay?" He said, coming over to her, looking her over, worried. "You're okay? You need anything? How are you feeling?" Honestly worried about her.

no worries!!

[gigue]

The eeriest sense of deja vu settles over her, and not the kind she might have expected: she's rocketed back not to when they were kids, but when she stabbed away at the keys of her typewriter, sketching out the story of their family. In the end, when Ben died, we were just strangers.

He comes toward her and Vanya feels like she's having an out of body experience, watching this reunion from above. Outside herself, she can see that he's worried, for her. Reality snaps back into place and she's looking up at him again, lifting a hand to her mouth first, then out toward him. She stops just short of touching his shoulder: what if it's a dream? What if he isn't there at all?

Then she'd rather wake up, than let her subconscious torture her like this. But when her fingers poke at his shoulder, they come up against solid flesh, and she doesn't wake.

"You're alive." It's a statement, but the question is how, and does she really care? Her face starts to crumple, and for at least a moment she fully forgets everything about this place that makes her feel like a ghost: she throws her arms around him and buries her face against his shoulder, all the while hoping this isn't just some new symptom or proof that she's really losing her mind.