voyagers | [party post] come sail away with me

The fact that she's trapped in the inbetween hasn't quite sunk in yet for a certain young Angel of Death. She's only sixteen, she's still learning about the bigger picture in the world. Or, worlds, rather.

All Helen knows is she's on a boat. A huge boat.

And it's so cool!

She still hasn't left the deck, and she's been here a good two hours. She's spent her time rushing madly about the entire length of the ship, nothing but a blur of tawny brown feathers and bright red curls. She's probably not looking where she's going, but there doesn't seem to be anyone else on the ship - no one out here anyway.

Alternately, she can be found up on the railings, leaning over them to stare at the ocean below. Someone should probably ask her to come down before she falls in.

Peter Parker blinks from where he is standing on the ship. He never did end up being able to go through the door (at least not yet) so he eventually changed out of the Spider-man suit and now-- now there is someone who is leaning over the railing with wings.

He opens his mouth to ask about the wings because the scientist in him is like are those real?, and the hero in him is like don't fall, please. "Uh, hey, you might want to take a step back from there. It's not safe unless the wings mean you can fly but they don't really look proportionate... to... allow actual flight. Maybe soaring but nothing really... beyond that, uh, so if you could... come back to this side..."

Helen turns her head to look behind her, smiling slightly at the look on this guys face. It's like he's never seen a girl with wings before. "Oh, these things?" she asks with a little laugh. "Fly? Nope, no flying here. Weird how I can't, huh?"

It would be nice to fly. She'd like to fly.

"They just sorta... make me faster?" she pauses, concentrating and giving one of them a little shake. "But that's pretty neat to me anyway."

There's a few seconds of silence before she realises that how she's flung over the railings doesn't look like the safest thing in the world. She smiles sheepishly, looking a little apologetic. "Sorry, am I freaking you out a little?"

Without another word, she quickly clambers back over. Once she's safe on the deck, she waves her hands - motioning a kind of 'ta-da!' action.

"Better?"

"Well, you'd need the wings to be a lot-- uh, a lot different if you wanted to fly with them. They'd have to be even bigger, wider, and-- Sorry, you weren't asking for a science lesson," Peter mutters half distractedly, and he is... part Spider so it is not like he'll judge for someone having wings. He's more just fascinated by them in a scientific way, but that tends toward danger.

He releases a breath when she steps back on to the ship. If she fell, it'd be... a swift death. The water is that far away. Maybe if she has super powers to go with those wings or could soar with them at least, she'd survive, but how would she get back up?

Well, he knows. He'd go in after her. Peter nods in relief. "Yeah. It's a-- a long fall."

Helen laughs, "Naw, I don't mind!" she assures him, scrunching her nose up a litttle. "I'm not so good at science, but it's good to listen and learn something! Well, try to anyway."

It would be pretty cool if they were built to fly, then who knows where she'd go. She'd probably never stray too far from home, though.

"Hey, don't worry, okay? I was being super careful, so you totally wouldn't have needed to like... get the life-boat or something." she says with a small shake of her head. She then sticks out a hand - that might seem just a smidge too cold to be human -to shake, "I'm Helen, some people call me El or Ellie - but Helen is totally fine if you want to just call me that."

Peter smiles a bit awkwardly when she says she doesn't mind. Peter Parker tends to be an awkward person in all his mannerisms even when he isn't feeling particularly awkward at the moment.

"Being careful is really, really good. I don't even know if there are lifeboats on this thing," he says, but he feels like he should probably figure that out. Just in case. Peter stretches his hand out, taking her hand in his own. He has heightened senses so he feels how cold it is immediately, colder than most hands, and he blinks a bit in confusion. "Uh, Peter. Peter Parker. What do you prefer to be called? How-- Can I ask how you got wings?" And a body temperature that is much colder than the average person's.

Helen isn't very awkward as a person, and she can deal with awkward quite well.

"There should be, I mean this looks like a pretty big boat." she says, tilting her head to the side. "Unless this is that... oh, that big boat. I can't remember the name. I learned about it in history once. It happened like... a thousand years ago? It hit an iceberg!"

Help her out, Peter?

She shakes his hand enthusiastically, grinning brightly. She's not really fazed by the confusion. He might be like one of those Wanderers, a new one? Or so she guesses, anyway. "Nice to meet you!" she says and then pauses in thought. "Oh! Well, nobody really asked me that before. I guess I'm pretty okay with anything. You could just go with Helen, if you like."

And then she grins a little more. "You're like a Wanderer, right? Well... you could say I'm born with them? But not really. I only got these a few months ago. I'm an angel," Then, with a little more calmness. "Well... an angel of death. I became one when I turned sixteen."

"The... Titanic, but wait, what do you mean by a thousand years ago? What... year are you from?" Peter has run into people here who have been from the past and some from a few years in the future, but if the titanic happened a thousand years ago for her...

Wow. Peter scratches the back of his head before he looks at her with a smile, nodding at what she says. "Uh, you too, Helen." Nice to meet her too. Words are not a thing Peter does well necessarily if he's not in the Spider-man suit.

He shakes his head a little. "I... don't really know what I am, but I don't have wings so I'm not--" Peter tilts his head to the side, curiously. "Wait, you're an angel? Like something out of the Bible or-- No, those angels don't become one at sixteen, they just are. What's an angel of death? That sounds--"

Peter grimaces a bit. It sounds painful.

Helen's eyes widen and she clicks her fingers. "That's it!" she says with a wide grin. "That's what it's called! Titanic!" She stops suddenly, looking confused when she's asked the year. "Year? It's 2867, of course." she frowns slightly. "It is... isn't it?"

She tilts her head to the side, he's never heard of the term, so he must be fairly new. It still hasn't clicked that she might be in another universe right now. "Wanderer. No? Nothing? Erm. Name we give to folks that travel the Rift. They get cool powers and stuff. My grandpa Fletch has this Wanderer feel about him, even though he's an angel too."

Helen laughs, "Bible? Gosh no, like I totally get the bible thing but no - we don't follow God or anything. It's a genetics thing." she shrugs, she doesn't understand it all. She just is who she is. "My Mom's an angel, her parents were angels too. And grandpa Fletch, he's one too. You get all sorts. Mom and Fletch are both archangels."

And then her chattering stops and she falls quiet for a few moments, noting the grimace. "Sounds a bit scary, don't it?" she says gently.

She chews her bottom lip for a few moments, wringing her hands slightly. "Well... to make it sound easy... I... help people die. What'll happen is one day, maybe quite soon, I'm gonna see someone die. I gotta find them... and then I help them die."

"Not... for me, but this is a place that exists between time and space so you can... end up here from any-- any time," Peter says, and if he sounds a bit dazed, it's because he is, because it is hard to wrap his head around when she is from. And it is amazing too to think of people being from a when as well as a where.

Peter takes in all the information that she gives, trying to set it all straight in his head. He has a good memory for things being as smart and science-y as he is. This is all new information, but he'll remember it. He'll remember this place with its angels and wanderers and archangels.

He watches her quietly as she answers, nodding when she says it sounds scary. It does. It sounds scary and painful really, and when she explains, it sounds even worse. He winces as she answers, shaking his head.

"That's-- that sucks," Peter says quietly because there is no better word for it. He's seen a lot of people die or dead, and he never had to help with it and it was hard enough.

"Wow, so there could even be... do you think there are any dinosaurs somewhere on this ship? I mean that would be so, so cool. A dinosaur on a ship." she does a sort of giggle-snort and waves her hand, "Totally forget the whole being eaten and stuff-- just, dinosaurs!"

Hey, he said any time.

Helen ruffles the hair on the back of her head for a moment. She doesn't know just how painful it'll be. It's not what she's going to focus on when it comes to her Calling. Well, she'll try her best.

It lingers back in the back of her mind. Pain. Pain. Pain. Death. Going mad..?

No.

She is scared of what'll happen, but she knows she'll be able to do some good too.

"It sounds like it does, don't it?" she says finally, her voice cracking for a moment before she quietly clears her throat. "But, hey, it's not so terrible. I'll give people a little peace. I don't know exactly how it'll be, since it's never happened for me yet - but.. but I think it'll be a good thing too."

"Honestly, I think... anything is possible on this ship. I'm no longer gonna try to use science in this place," Peter says, and he still has to bite down on his lip to keep from spilling scientific possibilities or impossibilities in this place that is filled with magic.

There's no use for science here.

He is quiet as he shuffles back and forth on his feet, and then looks up at her with a deep frown.

Because he's seen a lot of people die before. He-- he's killed before, and it's-- There aren't really words for it, but he doesn't want to scare her so he just nods in response, reaching out a hand to rest against her arm when her voice cracks.

"I hope so. I've seen... people die before. Anyway," Peter says breathing in sharply. "So I don't know if it happens and you need someone to talk to and you end up here again..."

He's available for that stuff even if he is kinda crummy at talking.

Helen lets out a small giggle. "Or even an entire room with just a huge bouncy castle in it. Oh man, I think I might like this place." she says. "I think the general rule we might have to use here is 'just roll with it', huh?"

She smiles sweetly, nodding her head in appreciation for the touch on her arm. "Thank you, that's real nice of you." she says. "I don't even know when it'll be - but yeah, if I end up on this ship again, I'll definitely come looking for you."

She pauses for a few moments, pursing her lips. "Who did you see die?" she asks quietly. "If you don't mind.."

"Sounds like a pretty good rule to me," Peter says with a soft smile as he looks sideways at her, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans a bit as he rocks forward on his feet.

He breathes in deeply, nodding when she thanks him. "Don't mention it." Really, he's happy to do so, and it's--

Peter breathes in sharply at the question, sliding his hand up through his hair with a bit of a shrug as he shakes his head. "Uh, I-- A lot of people. Disaster was kind of big... where I was from, and it happened all the time. Some people I knew." And loved. "Some I didn't." And all of them, he let down.

It's the bright red curls that draw Sarah's attention first.

They remind her of someone else, of some other time, and some other place. It feels like a very long time ago, probably because it is. In any case, it's the bright red curls that give her pause, and the bright red curls that make her come closer, an almost amused smile touching upon her lips at the sight of her on the railing.

"I'd say I wouldn't do that if I were you, except I did exactly that when I was you," Sarah advises. When she was a young Angel of Death, as though tempting life itself for all the darkness that it holds.

That feels like a very long time ago, too. Probably because it was.

Helen does look a lot like her mother in many ways. Except her eyes, they're the same shade of the father she never met. Most mannerisms are similar too, except for this thing she does when she's not impressed with something or someone and she's been told plenty of times she looks a bit like Fletcher. She's spent so much of her life with them, it's hard not to start picking things up from them.

When she turns her head at the voice, she grins a little at the woman. There's something strangely familiar about her, but she can't remember where from. She wished she knew, but it's lost on her.

"You gotta have some fun 'round here, right?" she says, still grinning. "This place is just so cool! I've never even been on a ship before."

"Never?" Sarah asks in an echo of Helen's confession.

She may be stepping closer onto the railing to lean against it herself. This way, she can keep an eye on Helen without outwardly admitting as much, and being there if something were to happen. It wasn't that long ago she was Helen's age, and she was someone that constantly attempted to exert her own independence.

"They can be a lot of fun. As long as you don't get sea sick," Sarah adds with a tiny smile. "Though it looks like that won't be a problem for you."

"Never ever!" You heard it here first, Sarah.

Helen's not foreign to the tactic, not that she minds it. Her mother's a bit like that these days. When she was little, she was always so vocal and stuff - but she was still an Archangel then. Having a First for a mother - things start getting a bit more quieter, more of a less forceful protective presence.

Not that she hated how over-protective her mother was when she was little. No, not ever.

"Nope, I don't feel sea-sick at all. I think I'm lucky." she says with a grin. "Fun aside, I wonder where we're going, though. There's got to be a destination, right?"

She pauses, frowning slightly, "Or even getting back." she pulls a face, "Do you know how to open that big door? I really like it here and stuff, but my Mom'll get worried if I'm gone too long."

Helen, you are the cutest.

Sarah is kind of fond of you already. "That's exactly what I was wondering, on both accounts," she says, leaning lightly against the railing. She stares out at the vast stretches of water with no shore seemingly in sight. "One would think it'd lead somewhere, but in my experience, when you deal with rifts the most sensible answer is rarely the right one."

Maybe the ship will just be adrift forever. It is not a reassuring thought, however, so she does not voice this aloud.

Instead, she shakes her head with a sigh and looks back at that door.

"I tried everything I could think of and nothing would make it budge. But I'll keep trying so your mom doesn't worry, okay? We'll make sure I get you back to her," Sarah says, even without knowing -- without knowing yet who Helen means.

Helen smiles but then pauses for a moment, making a small 'hmm' in the back of her throat in thought at the word 'rift'.

"You reckon that door's like one of those Rifts?" she asks. The mere mention of them gives Helen the impression they're probably from the same place. "You mean like the ones they have in Chicago?"

She's a way into the future, but she still knows what a Rift is. The ones in the city have lessened over the centuries, but activity still happens from time to time. She's read things about them before. But she's never experienced any of it, she doesn't even live in Chicago. ... so how does that work out?

Helen scratches the back of her head with one hand, "This day just kinda keeps on getting weirder." she still smiles, though. "Thanks. I know I'm like a grown up, okay, well, I'm sixteen - but I still think I'm a grown up - but anyways, yeah. My mom can get super protective sometimes, they're... well, they're moms, you know? My Grandpa Fletch can be even worse."

She sticks out a hand. "I'm Helen, by the way."

Charlie Wellman has been on the ship with no name for a good long while. The reasons why he hasn't left are not for lack of trying. Between the mysterious door that just does not seem to want to give and the number of other rabbit holes he's fallen into along the way, he can't really say he's surprised. It's just like Chicago, only instead of going back home to the people he loves (to Jane) he's tangled up in this world of pitfalls.

It's frustrating to say the least. But at least it's not boring.

As he's wandering down the walkway, he spots a girl leaning over the edge of one of the railings. He can't help but smile a bit at her enthusiasm, taking a few steps closer to see what she's up to.

"I'd be careful there, darlin'. I'm not too sure what happens if you fall in, but I'm pretty sure it won't be pretty."

Helen's heard stories about people disappearing to other places, but she's never witnessed it herself. This is all pretty new to her, and while she's not entirely sre with what's going on - she's rolling with it.

And pretty well, actually.

She turns her head at the voice and glances up at a man approaching her. He looks familiar, like maybe she's seen his face before. Maybe in a photograph, something like that. But she's not really sure and she just smiles a little, shoving the thought away. Maybe it's all this sea air.

"I'll make a big splash, duh." she says with an impish smile. "But no, I'm being careful - and I'll keep it that way. So don't worry, mister."

"Well good. I got enough worrying going on lately. If I had to add you to it too, who knows what I'd do."

He flashes her a warm smile as he does, before extending a hand. Saying hello and introductions always seem to be the best course of action, even if there is something about this girl that is a bit familiar. He doesn't know where, but he feels like he's seen her before.

But his memory ain't what it used to be either.

"My name's Charlie."

Helen laughs, "You'd end up being a really worrying kind of person, I guess. Or something like that, I had something really witty in my head, but it came out super lame." she tells him. "But nope, nah, no worryin' over me."

She shakes his hand with a bright smile. "Nice to meet'cha, Charlie. I'm Helen. But you can call me El or Ellie. Or Helen." she scrunches her up nose up a little as she smiles. "Sorry, I ramble. Call me anything, I'm good."

The name Charlie is very familiar too. She's trying to put names to faces in her mind and she can't quite do it.

"Don't wanna be rude or anything, but you're like familiar... like, sorta?" she says with a slight tilt of her head. "I don't think we've met, but I think I've seen your face before. Like, a long, long time ago."

Charlie doesn't have a whole lot of long, long time agos but he can't deny that there is a nagging familiarity to the girl in front of him. He leans closer, studying her for a moment as he tries to place her face, but still, nothing direct is coming to him.

"Well, my memory isn't always the most reliable thing," he says softly. "There are times when I just ... forget." Which he is sincerely apologetic for. He doesn't mean to. "Are you from Chicago?"

[party post] come sail away with me

ota~~

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