Todd to the Rescue?

[suey_generis]

Boston, Saturday. RP locked to KaraThe Immortal has a good idea of what everybody in Boston thinks of him, right about now. Not only do they blame him for Kara's present catatonic condition -- and he'll share the culpability, sure, but it's not ALL his fault -- they also probably wonder why he hasn't been mooning around her bedside, the way

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[kara_marie]

She could hear someone else talking to her, but she couldn’t make out the words. Was it more than one person? The voices seemed to change. She wanted them to go away, the voices didn't belong here. The words seemed to get fainter for a long time, further and further away. She was glad to get away from them. And finally all those voices became nothing more than a murmur and she was able to ignore them entirely

[suey_generis]

It's a reversal of the magic that took her into his memories. That at least, was what let him come in here. But that a swift and relatively thing. Easy to escape. Now, he can sense right away that he's come in deeper. In a moment's panic, he wonders if he'll find his way out, or if someone will find him like this. That will be an expensive coma, for someone. A man who doesn't get any older. He'll be a wonder for modern medicine. He'll be. . .

. . .and then it doesn't matter what he'll be, because he's in this room, and he's looking down at her. Sitting on the couch, looking alert and solemn at once, seemingly unconcerned by his approach.

"Kara?" he repeats. "Come on, kitten. I can take you to a much nicer place than this. I'll even buy you a slushie."

[kara_marie]

"You aren't supposed to be here." She tells him. "This isn't for you."

And because that is the truth, because he doesn't belong, it takes her a moment to understand who he is.

"Todd."

She says it out loud just to make sure. Then she repeats it because now she is sure.

"Todd."

And she turns to look at her mother, but the seat beside her is empty and suddenly she can hear sound outside, coming from the kitchen. The sound of her Grandmother and Mother arguing.

You can't defend him. Says her Grandmother.

You can't defend him. Replies her mother.

They're talking about different hims. They each have one of their own now.

And then Kara looks over at Todd again.

"Look what you did! You're gonna be in so much trouble!"

But her voice is smaller and somehow her legs have shrunk and they don't quite touch the ground.

[suey_generis]

Kara is still in the same place, on the couch, only younger now. A child of maybe five -- although, even if he hadn't seen the change, he would know her. It's a gift borne of staying at his eternal twenty-nine while everyone around him ages. He has no memory for names, but a gift for seeing the true face. The Immortal can meet a man once at 17 and know him at 80. Assuming that he cares to remember of course. And he understands more than most that it is always the same man.

In this case the same girl. So he speaks to five-year-old Kara the way he would speak to the Kara he knows. The way, he is sure, he will speak to her when she's fifty. If she has the good luck and he has the illfortune to live that long.

There are voices in the other room. He doesn't know them, he doesn't pay attention. He can't imagine what interest this place could hold, this dark shabby house.

"You don't want to hang around here, do you?" he asks her.