[closed] If you're lost you can look and you will find me

[hoponpop]

who: Jim Hopper & Joyce Byers
what: Getting settled, figuring out housing, etc.
when: Early February
where: Community Housing
warnings: Shouldn't be anything

Not long after arriving here, Hopper had come to the realization that people could arrive from anytime and anywhere, and he scoured the network for any familiar names. He found them—just a couple. Joyce Byers assigned to a separate living area in the same building as he had been assigned to live in. Well, he thinks, at least it won't be hard to drop in on her.

He can't be sure she's experienced the same things he has of late, considering the caveat about how they might have come from different times, but he does expect she'll know who he is. They've known each other since they were school-aged, after all.

Comments

[inthelamplight]

Joyce hurried down the hall. She supposed that, being the general manager of the co-op, it wasn't the worst thing in the world that she was running late, but still... it was something she definitely had to work on.

She was too busy shoving her keys into the pocket of her jeans to notice that she was heading straight on into something very large and solid - a person, to be exact.

"Aw, hell, I'm sorry si- HOP!" A wide grin broke out on her features as she looked up at her old friend.

[hoponpop]

Despite himself and how grim he feels having arrived here, he smiles in return. "Joyce," he says. "Looks like you're no worse for wear."

[inthelamplight]

Joyce lets out a shaky laugh, overwhelmed with relief at having found a familiar face. "Oh, you know..." She wasn't quite sure where to go with her train of thought, so instead she stepped forward and embraced Hopper, closing her eyes as she rested her cheek against his chest. His heart was beating, he was warm, and he was real.

"I think this might be the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us," she sighs wearily.

[hoponpop]

"That's saying something," he mutters, returning her embrace. He holds on for a moment longer than he feels her hold last, then pulls away enough to set his hands on her shoulders. "And you're okay?" he asks. "No bumps or bruises on the way in, or anything?"

[inthelamplight]

Joyce shakes her head, her smile disappearing. "Not on the way in, no." She brings up one hand to brush her fingers against her neck, her brow furrowing as she remembers Will's hands closing around it when he was possessed by the Mind Flayer, remembers the way the world around her grew narrow and airless as that thing used his body to choke the life from her before Nancy had saved her.

"What about you? Are you alright? When did you..." she bites her lower lip, trying to think of the right words. "When did you leave Hawkins?"

[hoponpop]

His hands drop from her shoulders and he pats at his pocket, working on digging out his pack of cigarettes. His expression has shuttered a bit, looking guarded.

"I'd gone with El to close the gate," he said, figuring if Joyce doesn't even know what he's talking about, that'll give him his answer on what the timing is on her disappearance. "I guess you read the literature on how we might not have come from the same point in time and all that."

His fingers pull out one of the slim tubes he had been fumbling for, and he brings it to his lips to light.

[inthelamplight]

Joyce gasps and covers her mouth with a trembling hand. That meant that they disappeared on the same night.

"Nancy, Jonathan and I just got the thing out of Will. The Mind Flayer... it was gone and then so was I." She eyes up the cigarette he's holding between his lips and gives him a soft, beseeching look.

"For old time sake?"

[hoponpop]

He nods and offers the pack to her, flicking a cigarette out with one finger.

"You haven't seen any sign of the other people involved, though, have you? None of the children?"

The fact of the matter is, he's a lot more worried about the kids than anything else in this situation.

[inthelamplight]

Joyce shakes her head, blinking away a few stray tears as the thought of being away from her boys makes it momentarily hard to breathe.

"No. There's no one. I know it's a big place but I feel like I would... like I'd feel it if they were here, and they're not."

[hoponpop]

Hopper nods, keeping his head down a bit, putting his pack of cigs away when she's taken the one he offered her. He flicks his lighter and holds it out so she can light her cigarette.

"I'd believe it," he says. "It sounds like nonsense, supernatural mumbo-jumbo, but..."

[inthelamplight]

Joyce takes a long drag before dissolving into a coughing fit.

"Ugh," she exclaims with a wrinkle of her nose, once the fit has subsided. "They gave me a job, you know. Managing one of those all-natural co-op grocery stores... even in another dimension I'm still in customer service." She laughs weakly at her own joke.

"How about you? You must live nearby, or at least I hope you do."