SURPRISE YOU'RE DEAD

[cyan_maid]

Who: Jane Crocker and Max (OC, Airlocked R1)
Where: Deadland
When: TIME IS MEANINGLESS WHEN YOU'RE DEAD
Open/Closed: Closed
Rated: M for being dead and miserable and suicidal
What: Airlocked R1 AU - What if Jane died? TIME TO MEET THE CHAMPION PORTRAIT ARTIST

[...Well. Hell is a boardwalk in Florida. Who knew? Not Jane, at least - and not that she'd ever been to Florida to know that it's usually not as dilapidated. But hey, you don't choose where you go when you die.

At least, if you're lucky, you can choose how you go.

She'd gotten desperate, panicked. Frightened. And if her memories were anything to go by, it didn't really matter if she died, right? She was a walking corpse to begin with. There wasn't any use in sticking around...and, at least, no one would be thrown out of the airlock this week. Everyone would be safe for a little while longer. It was fine. Totally fine. Laying in this gritty, cool sand? Super fine. Hearing the ocean ebb and crash on the beach? Awesomely fine.]

...

[Jane spits a little sand out of her mouth.]

This...is a lot less fine than I thought it would be.

Comments

[theundertaken]

She's fuckin' gone, isn't she, Wilson?

[When he realizes she's not with him anymore, Max takes a moment to retrace his steps. One second there's nothing but fog, and then his shape becomes visible again.]

Oh good, you're still here! That's a big strike against you being a hallucination, you know. C'mon, it's safe, I promise I won't surprise you with anything nasty. [He stretches out a hand, though it's not clear if he's actually offering it to her or just making a gesture.]

[cyan_maid]

[She blinks rapidly when Max returns, frowning a little.] You could have warned me a little earlier about how dense this is. [She'll take his hand, though. Feels pretty solid.]

[theundertaken]

I meeeeean, it's devil fog.

[He seems to think it was self-evidently very dense.

But okay, yeah. He'll take her hand and start to gently lead her along, talking all the while.] I remember there was another beach on the other side of this, in real life. Kinda the same as this one, but it would empty out a while down the shore. There's a military base down the coast from here - Cape Canaveral, actually, where they do the rockets?

[As they go, the fog gets so dense that even with his hand in hers and his voice quite close, Jane won't be able to see Max anymore. But after that, it starts to thin. They come out on a pier near the carnival, with the lighthouse they just passed now at the far end of the boardwalk from them.]

Now it just loops around like this. If you turn around, you can get back to the other side, but you can't go anywhere else.

[cyan_maid]

[The talking does help her out a bit, because for everything to be obscured by fog while you're walking? That's some scary shit. So her grip might tighten a little the further they go into the fog.]

Ah - yes, the rockets. Can't say I've ever been down to Florida to begin with...

[...Aaaaaaand now everything's weird.]

...Huh?

[theundertaken]

It's all like a big Moebius strip. Just turns in on itself again.

[Noticing her unease, Max squeezes her hand back, patting it with his free one.]

Really, this part's not bad at all once you're used to it. Saves time going from one end to the other!

[cyan_maid]

[Hahahah, unease, yes. So much fuckin unease.]

But...but that's...how?

[theundertaken]

Fuck if I know.