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Who Alex Reagan and You.
What: Alex needing company while she's being bored out of her mind and supposed to be taking it easy for a week.
When: Whenever you want it set for this week period!
Where: ~~Howard's~~ her and Strand's house
Warnings: None.

[Alex Reagan was not a still person by any means. She was someone who normally was a ball of energy, even when she was entirely sleep deprived and exhibiting all sort of bad judgment. Even the nights where she couldn't sleep, Alex got up, did work, did something so she wasn't just... laying there and not doing anything. This was something that she was seriously having a problem with after she'd spent the first day following the rescue basically sleeping and not being aware of the world. But now that at least some of that sleep debt had been paid off, Alex was bored, and restless and had proclaimed to Richard that she was losing her mind more than once.

Because she'd tried to work, he'd taken away her devices, which reminded her of being home when she was supposed to not use her electronics after ten pm. It was frustrating, because she was a god damn adult, but she'd also agreed to take it easy if he didn't push for her to go to the hospital. It wasn't Alex's fault that she couldn't manage to simply be stubborn and wear him down until he let her go back to normal. Nope, it was all Richard's.

Still, she'd managed to compromise for the big and comfy sofa and company so it wasn't a total loss. After all, she'd declared, that she didn't want random people in their bedroom, and she knew that he'd agreed, because well, Strand was private, save for when Alex put him under a microscope and she was making a good faith effort not to do that anymore. At least not here.

So, when people showed up to the stupidly ornate Victorian house that was still in the process of being put together inside, they were greeted by a annoyed Strand who informed them that "The insufferable one is over there on the couch. You deal with her. You may need wine, or scotch." Before he retreated to a nearby room. And when they came into the living room, Alex was propped up on pillows, and her bruises were in various shades of fading, and she just chirped out as if they were her best friend in the world even though they may not be:]

Hey!

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[ Goodsir had to laugh at Alex's assessment of Richard's character, one that he is too polite to state himself. ]

How long have you known one another?

[ He almost said been married, but he's starting to realise you can't always make that assumption here. ]

A little over three years now. More in my time since I'd been here for seven months before I left, but he came from two months after I did and math was never my strongest suit.

[She literally has to have professors in to explain it more often than she would like. It's a bit embarrassing but fuck Pythagoras and his stupid theories and his dumb cult he got started by being an asshole.

But that's neither here or there.]

He was the subject of my show back home. So we worked together for a while, but nothing happened until he got here, and I'd had six months to really think about everything. [A little laugh.] And then it turns out that a couple of months after I was brought here, I ended up telling him anyway.

[ He can just about follow the chronology she outlines without having to take out a notepad and pencil to work it out visually. Sometimes this place makes his head spin.

Not to mention the occasional confusion from concepts he's still learning. ]

"Show"? Do you mean ... something like the posts on the network here?

[Well, if there's one thing that Alex has gotten used to over the last couple years plus months, it's trying to explain what a podcast is. Normally she has the easier time of comparing it to radio on demand, but that's not going to work for him.

So instead, Alex tries a different approach, one that she knows from history.]

Sort of but not really. It's more like a serialized real story, the way that some novels end up in the newspaper? But it's presented in an audio way, almost like a storyteller where I narrate but you also hear from the different people involved in it.

[Especially Strand and Nic, but that'll come after.]

[ Ah, that he recognises! ]

So not unlike the Pickwick Papers of Mr Dickens, then—yes, I think I understand. I should like to hear an installment of this someday, if I may.

I appreciate you wanting to hear it, but just because it's so personal to Richard and myself, I've decided not to let anyone listen to them. I mean out in the world, there's six billion people and most of them don't listen to podcast, but here there's like sixty thousand and it seems like everyone knows everyone else and it's not fair to either of us to have things on it out.

[Like Coralee and like how unhinged and unprofessional she got when she wasn't sleeping, among other things.]

It's definitely not a personal thing. But I am thinking about doing one based off of people's lives before they came here though, if they're willing to talk about it.

Of course—of course, I understand.

[ That bit about wanting to create a series about the lives of the quarantine residents catches him up a bit short, though. ]

I am sure that would be very interesting—I imagine we all have much to learn from one another's experiences.

[ But he's obviously a little distracted. ]

[For a minute Alex just frowns at him, sensing his distraction.]

You know, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I mean, I'm not going to force anyone to reveal anything about themselves that they'd prefer I didn't.

[At least not here at this point. This Alex is sleeping and has maybe learned at least some of her lesson.]

[ He smiles a little, almost nervously. ]

Thank you—forgive me, I certainly did not mean to imply any importunate behaviour on your part. It is simply that ...

[ A pause. ]

Have you ever heard, in your world, of the Franklin Expedition?

No, it's okay. I mean, I know how I am. You didn't imply anything bad. Really.

[Which is definitely an understatement. There's a reason the love of her life calls her things like 'annoyingly persistent' and 'insufferable'. He's been dealing with the brunt of these things for the last three years. Alex has moments (a lot of moments) of being both.

For a minute, Alex just closes her eyes to think. Unfortunately, she's not Strand with his encyclopedia of knowledge in his head.]

Honestly, and I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard much of anything about it. I mean, maybe a mention in school history, but it was a long time ago.

[And she couldn't just hit wikipedia for it.]

[ He nods, almost relieved. ]

I have wondered if it is common knowledge. Of course, it seems that there are many different versions of the known universe here—a multi-universe, as it were—and perhaps the expedition does not exist in others.

[Now Alex is torn, because her journalism senses are going all a tingle, but at the same time, she can't deny how relieved he looks that she doesn't know. So for now at least, Alex is going to leave it alone. Besides, if she gets up and tries to go look at one of the giant encyclopedia volumes, she's pretty sure Richard would tie her up.

Not having wikipedia sucks.]

It's certainly possible that it doesn't. I mean, I'm pretty sure there are at least five or six separate universes from mine that are from similar years and stuff but things are vastly different, even for some of the similarities in them.

[ He nods, smiles ruefully. ]

This is all a great deal of information to keep abreast of.

[ A pause, and he makes a decision. As he speaks, he chooses his words carefully, and it might be obvious that he's eliding the worst, but the worst can wait for when he trusts her more. ]

I may as well tell you. Before I came here, I sailed with the Royal Navy Discovery Service as assistant surgeon and naturalist on the HMS Erebus, under the command of Sir John Franklin. She sailed into the Arctic, alongside the HMS Terror, on a mission of exploration to map a passage through the Arctic to the Orient.

We became trapped in the ice, and were ultimately forced to abandon ship. We struck out for what we hoped would be safety, but ...

[ How to say it. ]

I do not think we succeeded.

[ There are volumes of grief and loss in that sentence. ]

It really is.

[Alex just nodded for a moment and leaned forward to listen, her eyes and attention focused entirely on him as he told the story. Alex frowned when he said that he didn't think they succeeded, and then she leaned over and put her hand on his arm and gave him a squeeze.]

I'm so sorry. Have you thought about trying to find out from people if you did? Or is it something that you don't want to know?

[If she failed, Alex didn't think she'd want to know.]

[ A small, grateful smile. ]

I have thought to ask, but ... I want to know, and yet I fear the answer.

[ He's afraid that they will be remembered for the madness and misery into which they descended. That those who came after will have discovered the desperate means that the men resorted to, for survival. He wanted to be remembered, but not like that. ]

Eventually I suppose I must know. Else someone shall tell me unthinkingly, and I would not like to find out that way.

[As someone who has a very uncertain future ahead of her, she understands wanting to know and fearing the answer. So, she just bobbed her head for a moment in response. Alex wants incredibly badly to know her own future, but there's no way with for her to know. At least not yet.

Still, she frowned at the idea of someone else just blurting out what's to come, and shook her head quickly.]

That would be a terrible way of finding out, I wouldn't want to find out that way either. Either way, it seems like a terrible choice you're going to have to make, Harry. I know I wouldn't want someone to make it for me.

[ He nods. ]

You are right—it is better, I suppose, that I take control of my own destiny, as it were. I shall do so in time.

Okay. Cool. If you need to, and you can't find anything in the library, we've got about a million books here.

[Alex says with a grin and gestures towards the shelving lining the walls.]

Most of it has to do with the occult and whatnot, but I'm sure there's some encyclopedias around here if nothing else.

Thank you for the offer. I may take it.

[ He looks around. ]

It is a very impressive library.

Of course, it's always open!

[Alex looks around then, and offers a smile.]

I'm afraid I can't take credit for it. It's all Richard and the Strands who did it.

[ Harry finally realises that this isn't just a regular house in Riverview with a well-stocked library. ]

This is—Mr Strand's actual house?

Well, his father's house first. But yes. A real estate agent called me and told me that it was left in our names here. It's full of stuff from home from the night that we both last remember.

[Like her suitcase in the front hall along with her own personal laptop and stuff.]

I did not realise that it such a thing was possible.

[ He's imagining now a house-shaped spot on the ground in the city that Alex and Richard come from. ]

Does this happen often?

I didn't know it was possible either, honestly. It just sort of happened. But I think a couple of the other buildings that look a bit out of place came in similar ways as this did.

Do you think that it was ... brought here, as we were? Or could it be [ and this prospect fills him with a vague sense of horror, though he can't explain why ] that it is some kind of duplicate?