Return to the Rift

"I'm done," Joey declared, tossing his pen down beside the notebook on his bed. The page it was open to was full to the margins with writing. "I no longer care about this assignment. It can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned." He closed the notebook and tossed it on the floor beside his backpack, where he would leave it for the rest of the night.

Feeling tired, he flopped back on the bed and took off his glasses, covering his eyes in his arm. College was . . . exhausting, to say the least. Schoolwork abound, and he had hardly even begun classes for his major yet. Most of them were just general education this year. It wasn't to say that he hadn't expected a different workload, but half a year of college was down and he was definitely feeling it. Between classes and his part-time job . . .

He groaned, thinking of work. He'd had to give up his job waiting tables when he moved out of the house, and now was stuck working in a dinky fast-food joint.

"Don't wanna go to work tomorrow," he complained to his companion. "It's my Saturday. I don't want to go."

Veronica looked up from her spot where she was spread out on the floor. She had been done with her work for over half an hour, but that was just because she hadn't really cared about it in the first place. She had done the bare minimum that she had to do in order to get a passing grade and that was it. Instead, she had taken to flipping through a magazine absently.

At Joey's exclamation that he was done, Ronnie sat up, turning around to face him and running a hand through her hair in an attempt to straighten it. She gave him a little smile, pulling her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. "I'll come visit you." She replied, still smiling at him. Of course she would. Veronica would go wherever Joey went, no questions asked. He of course, never noticed the difference.

"Trust me. I would rather do that than go with Dan to a movie." She said, making a face at the words. She was referring to an invite she had gotten from a fellow classmate, one who was constantly trying to get to go out with him. And she used every excuse in the book to avoid it. It would never work because...well, he wasn't Joey.

She glanced at Joey again under her eyelashes, just in case he looked a little jealous or something at the very mention of Dan (not that she thought he would, but maybe right?) and then picked up her magazine again, pretending to read it.

"You know, at some point, you're just gonna have to tell him that you're not interested," Joey said blankly. He rolled over on the bed, sliding his glasses back on. "I don't think he's gonna get the hint otherwise." Granted, Joey wasn't certain he had ever so much as seen Dan on the campus before, so it was difficult to pass much judgment. Regardless, if Veronica's stories held true, it probably didn't matter. He wasn't too fond knowing that the guy was pestering his friend.

Finally, he sat up, stretched, and glanced over at his laptop at the other end of the bed. It lay closed, and when he couldn't think of anything he needed it for, he stood up and went to the dormitory window. He was lucky his roommate was long gone for the weekend. The other male was not the greatest one to spend large amounts of time around.

Joey leaned against the wall and stared out the window to the campus grounds below. Along a stretch of greenery leading to the science department, where he went daily, there seemed to be a little shimmering bit of light. Joey blinked, and it was gone again. It felt like a familiar sight, but when it disappeared, he shrugged and pushed it from his mind.

Ronnie rolled her eyes, immediately dropping her gaze away from Joey. "I guess.." She said, shrugging her shoulders lightly. She looked up again as Joey went to the window and she slowly got up too, stretching. Her gaze followed Joey's and she went to stand beside him, her arm just grazing his as she did so.

"This is weird huh? Me and you being here..and..not there." She said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. She was, of course, referring to the time that they had spent in another world completely, where they had powers, and responsibilities. Veronica wanted to be back there, not here. But here she was.

Her eye caught the same thing Joey's did. But she thought nothing of it. Not for now anyway.

Joey smiled a little in amusement. He glanced down briefly when Veronica's arm grazed his, but thought little of it. "I'd say it was weirder to be there than here," he said with a slight laugh. "Considering this is home and all. Well, as home-like as a college dorm can be."

He sighed afterward. "But yeah. That was a hell of a trip. Took awhile to get used to things here again . . ." He trailed off as he thought of their time in Ferelan, that other place. It'd been months --perhaps a year already-- since they had been there. He didn't think of it often anymore, but it was hard to forget. Having abilities that were unthinkable in their home world and responsibilities where lives hinged upon their decisions and actions was difficult to simply forget about.

He frowned a little at the window. That little glimmer of light was there again. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses and looked back, but the sight still remained out on the grassy campus lawn.

"Alright, that's annoying," he said. "I want to know what that is."

Veronica smiled, moving away from Joey again. She would rather be there, but it was a thing of their past. So she thought anyway. She would rather be who she was there than who she was here. But of course, she would never tell that to Joey.

"Let's go then." She said, giving him a big smile and readjusting her clothes. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and walked to Joey's door, waiting for him. "Anything to get away from studying." She said brightly, even though she hadn't even attempted to finish studying.

"Oh, pff, like you did any real studying," Joey replied teasingly. He snatched his favorite black hoodie off the back of the chair at his desk and slipped it on as they headed out of the dorms.

The first step outside into the evening air was met with a sudden gust of wind. Joey winced a little at the cold air but didn't otherwise react. He liked being out in the wind, for no explainable reason. What bothered him more was an unsettling twisting sensation in his stomach. It felt familiar, but for reasons he couldn't place. Chalking it up to not having eaten much that day, he ignored it and started off toward the science department.

The light was still there out above the grass, but it didn't appear to be coming from any particular source. As they neared it, the feeling in Joey's stomach only increased. The spot of light itself didn't even appear to be stable; it looked like the air around it warped a little bit, like there was something else there.

If Joey felt the rush of wind, Veronica felt it much more strongly. Only because she had no jacket, and was wearing a sleeveless shirt. But she was used to it anyway, and beyond a slight shiver when they first went outside, it didn't bother her.

As they moved closer to the strange light, Veronica could feel her stomach tighten up too, and she glanced at Joey curiously. She didn't know if the same thing was happening to him, probably not though. But they drew nearer, and it happened again, more urgently than before. Then, as they stopped and she could see the warped air, a sharpness hit her mind, momentarily blinding her in a flash of pain.

Veronica held up her hand, rubbing her forehead, and looked at Joey. She knew. Her heart beat a little bit faster, and a smile spread across her face. "We're going back." She said simply, stepping forward right to the brink of the warped light.

And she stepped forward into it.

"Wait, Ronnie--" Joey reached out to grab Veronica's arm, to stop her from going, but she moved too quickly. His hand breached the area of warping light and he felt that familiar tug; he yanked his hand away again, unconsciously digging his heels into the grass.

He hesitated to follow. He wasn't sure how eager he was to go back to that place. He had already had his life uprooted once by interdimensional travel--it didn't seem fun to repeat the experience.

But Veronica had gone, which meant that he couldn't leave her. Gritting his teeth and steeling himself against whatever was to come, he took the step forward and into the light.

Unlike the last time, his foot came down on solid earth again and he didn't find himself hurtling downward toward the earth. He blinked his eyes and looked around. The sun was high in the sky here, starkly contrasting the evening that he had just left. He shook his head and glanced around, making sure Ronnie was nearby and trying to get a grasp of their surroundings.

((I feel so slow. xD))

Ronnie hadn't even bothered to think about his this could change their lives around again. And she hadn't thought about whether or not Joey even wanted to come back. She did, and that was all that mattered. And clearly, if this was happening again, then they were needed. It made complete sense after all.

Veronica was on the ground, she hadn't been as lucky as Joey had been in her footing, but it was only because she had tripped on a tree branch when she came through. It didn't matter though, she climbed to her feet quickly, turning around just as Joey came through and joined her.

"We're back!" She said happily, clapping her hands together and then throwing her arms around him in a hug. "What should we do first?" She asked, still not even bothering to question if he wanted to be here as much as she did.

((It's okay. X3 I just type really fast.))

"We should try to get back," Joey replied, looking behind him and seemingly ignoring the fact that Veronica had her arms around his middle. There was nothing there. The rift had already sealed. His stomach lurched. They were stuck here again, until they found a way to return.

He swore and disentangled himself from Veronica's embrace. "Ronnie, why did you just run through?" he asked. He tried to keep his voice calm, but a bit of anger showed through, anyway. "This isn't just a trip for fun, Ronnie. We can't just run off like this! Now we're stuck here again and god knows what hoops we'll have to jump through just to go back home!"

Joey swallowed down a feeling of panic. There was a way back again, right? There had been the first time. But why were they even here in the first place? The first time the rift had opened for them, they had been needed. How could they possibly be needed again?

Veronica looked at Joey, a slight look of hurt crossing her face as he snapped at her. She resisted the extremely strong urge to reach out and touch him, just to see if her powers had returned and if she could read his thoughts. But she knew better than that though, so she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

"I wanted...isn't this better than being there?" She asked him, knitting her eyebrows together and dropping her gaze to the ground. He probably didn't think so. "Come on, Joey. It's not like this didn't happen for a reason. We just..have to find out what it is." She said, trying to give him a smile.

Of course, she wasn't factoring in the fact that they had no idea where they were, and this time, there was no one to greet them. She glanced at the ground again, and then up at him once more, her face flushing slightly. She hated it when Joey was upset, and since this was her fault...Still, she didn't think that she had made a mistake.

Not yet anyway.

Joey stared at her for a long, tense moment. Eventually he dropped his gaze to the ground, shoving his hands in his pockets. It wasn't worth it to yell anymore. It wouldn't accomplish much.

"Guess we just hope we find a town and nobody looks at us too strangely for not having the right clothes again," he muttered. About fifteen feet away from where they appeared, a dirt path, worn with footprints and tracks from merchant carts, stretched in either direction. He looked to each direction, but neither way gave any indication of where to go. He picked a direction at random and went that way, unable to do much more than hope that they were going the right way, or that they would find someone who could tell them where to go.

At that point, he would have given anything to even see Bane, just to know that they weren't left to their own devices. Granted, the centaur would be much less happy to see them, Joey was certain, but that was beyond his caring.

Ronnie followed behind Joey, biting her lip as she did so. He was mad at her, she knew it. But that didn't matter, because they were here anyway. Besides, she really didn't understand why Joey would rather be at school than here, where they actually made a difference. But she didn't say anything else to him as they walked.

Finally, after a while of not talking, Veronica got bored. She narrowed her eyes slightly, picking up a stick on the ground and holding out in her palm as she walked. She glanced at it, concentrating, trying to take her mind to a centered place as she did so. The stick in her hand rolled over lazily, once then twice, and she immediately broke into a grin. She still had her powers then! Although, much much weaker than they had been the last time they had been here. She needed to start practicing once more.

"I can still do it." She said finally, holding out her hand to show Joey the now unmoving stick in her palm.

Joey glanced over, then looked at the stick. He considered saying something sarcastic, feeling severely underwhelmed by Veronica's ability to move a stick in their situation, but he held it back. She already knew he was angry and there was no point in continuing to make it known.

He did wonder, would he still be able to use his own powers? By the end of their last stint in Ferelan, he'd nearly mastered conjuring and manipulating a few elements as he wanted, through both intuition and magic, but he wasn't sure if he could manage now. Trying to conjure a magical flame was the last thing on his mind, anyway. He could recall some number of incantations for advanced spells that simple will wouldn't control and various other things--but he didn't need to. Not right now.

He paused for a moment as he heard something that caught his attention. Creaky noises, like those of wheels on the road. He turned back as a shadowy figure of a horse-drawn cart trundled down the path they walked on.

"Well," he said flatly. "Maybe they can give us a lift, if they don't think we'll rob them."

((I lol'd. Poor Ronnie, she was proud of moving that stick. xD))

Joey's reaction to her lame attempt to make peace between them left Veronica feeling hurt again, and she frowned dropping the stick on the ground as she kept walking. That was it. He was never going to forgive her. She knew it. It was over.

Okay. She might have been being a little over dramatic. But really, it was how she felt right now. She had wanted him to be happy too. But nope. She bit her lip, staring at the ground again, starting to kick up the dirt as she walked, making it known that she wasn't happy with him either.

It wasn't until he spoke that she even bothered to look up again, where she followed his gaze to the cart. "Whatever you want to do." She said, slightly sarcastically, crossing her arms across her chest.

((I'm sure she was. XD))

"Well, if you'd like to continue walking in some direction, not knowing where you're going, then be my guest." Joey didn't bother waiting for a response, turning back and increasing his walking speed to reach the merchant wagon sooner. He yelled out to get their attention, and it seemed to work, as the wagon creaked to a halt as he approached.

"Any chance you could give us a ride into the next town?" Joey asked the couple who sat up front. "We, ah, are a bit lost at the moment."

The man holding the horses' reigns gave Joey and Veronica a suspicious look. "The two of you aren't from around here, are you?" he asked slowly.

"Not really, now. Like I said, we're a bit lost and we just need to reach town. Can you help at all?"

The man contemplated this a moment, then nodded at the back of the wagon. "Yeah, go sit in the back. Next town over's maybe an hour from here. You can get off there."

Joey thanked him with a small smile and turned back to Veronica. The smile vanished, and he just made a gesture for the wagon as he went to sit in the back.

((xD So, last post for tonight))

Veronica watched Joey as he flagged the people down, narrowing her eyes a bit. She hated it when she and Joey fought. But it was definitely happened now. As Joey talked to the people, and then made his way to the bag of the cart, she followed stomping her feet rather childishly as did so.

Eventually, she joined him, sitting down and pulling her knees to her chest. She turned her gaze to the side, not meeting his eyes as she sat, chewing on her lip in thought. She was going to refuse to give in to him and say she was wrong for coming here without a second thought. He would see. As soon as they got to a place they knew. Which would apparently be in a hour.

Great. An entire hour of sitting here, with Joey being mad at her. She sniffled, a sudden feeling of sadness hitting her stomach. Joey was mad at her. Her best friend. And they couldn't be here upset with each other. They certainly couldn't survive like that. And it was all her fault. Her eyes teared up inexplicably, and she turned her head further away from him, just in case he saw. She was still trying to be mad at him after all.

Joey leaned back against the siding of the cart, exhaling a heavy breath. At least they had been saved an hour of walking, but what would they do once they got to town? They didn't know where they were or really where they were going, there was nobody they knew, they had no money and no supplies with little way to get either. What were they supposed to do? It didn't seem they were lucky enough to have someone come out of nowhere and tell them to do like last time.

He looked over to Veronica and felt a bit guilty. Joey felt justified in being angry--it was, after all, her fault for dragging them both back here-- but he hated to see her upset for any reason, particularly if he was the cause. When she looked away further, as though trying to hide, he guessed that she was in tears by that point and felt more uncomfortable.

It wasn't until they had been riding for a little over half an hour that he could finally find words to say. He wanted to apologize, somehow, but couldn't find a way or a reason to, so he settled with just trying to dismiss it all entirely.

"So what do you think we should do?" he asked, in a considerably gentler voice than he had used before. He pointedly tried not to make eye contact, looking at the road instead. "Once we get to town. We don't have anything with us or any idea what we're here for this time, so . . ."

Ronnie glanced up again as Joey spoke, running her hand across her eyes and then through her hair. She was glad that he was trying to talk, so far, the half hour they had been sitting here for had been nothing but torturous for her. So even the small conversation that Joey was trying to have was good enough for her.

Instantly, she sat up, avoiding the wary gazes from the people driving the cart. "I'm sure that as soon as we get to town, we'll find out what's going on." She said confidently. "Someones going to be looking for us. I know it. Maybe even Bane!" She said brightly, even though the three had always gotten in trouble by the centaur, she had a feeling he had actually liked them anyway.

"We'll just....ask around." She said with a shrug, as though it was going to be the easiest thing in the world. Clearly, she was just happy to be here (especially with Joey), and she wasn't thinking quite right. That's what she had him for though, right?

Joey felt another little twinge of irritation. He cared about Veronica, he really did, but she needed to learn to think things through. He didn't like constantly being the voice of reason.

"Someone's going to be suspicious if we just walk into town and start asking questions, though," he said. "We need resources. Money, clothes, all that. I don't know that we'll be lucky enough to just stumble on someone who knows again, so we need to take care of ourselves and not get into trouble. Maybe ask for work, I don't know . . ."

He ran a hand back through his hair, then took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He hated not knowing what to do. He could hypothesize all he wanted about what they should do, but there was never any guarantee. People might react poorly to their presence, become suspicious--hell, everything would vary just depending on where they were going. At this point, all he could do was try to make plans and hope for the best.

Veronica scowled slightly, though she knew he was right. They were going to be very suspicious indeed, but still. She ran her hands through her hair and nodded a little. "We should find Ithilwen." She said, glancing up at him for a few seconds before looking away. That's what they should do, surely the wise elf would know why they were here.

But, in the meantime, Joey was completely right. They needed money, clothes, food. A place to stay. "You're...you're right though. We do need to do those things." She said, finally bringing herself to agree with him. It had almost been the full hour, they would be there soon, and Joey was right. They needed to figure things out.

"I should have...thought about things more..." She said finally, glancing at him from underneath her eyelashes, her face flushing once more. She had to admit that she was wrong, and he was right. Something that she absolutely hated. But it was appropriate in this case, and Ronnie wanted to make sure he knew before they got to the town, just in case they got separated or something.

Joey tore his gaze away from the road to look back at Veronica. Well, that was probably as close to an apology as he was going to get, and he really didn't feel like trying hold a grudge against her.

He sighed before speaking again. "It's alright," he replied quietly. "I guess I can understand having been excited, at least . . . Probably shouldn't have snapped like I did, so . . . sorry for that."

Deciding that was good enough, Joey swallowed thickly before changing the subject. "Anyway. You're probably right about finding Ithilwen, but I have no idea how to go about that. I know she's in a forest somewhere, but that's really about it. Not to mention getting there. Walking would probably take ages, depending on where we are compared to where she is."

Veronica nodded, thinking back to when they were here last time. Finding the elves was difficult, everyone knew that. Even with a guide, it could take much longer than anticipated. Either way, now that Joey was no longer mad at her, she didn't really care. They could figure something out as soon as they got into town. Nothing mattered as soon as Joey gave her an apology, anything else beyond that she could care less about right now. Subconsciously, she moved a bit closer to him, giving him a smile, her eyelashes fluttering.

"Everything will work out." She said, turning her gaze away from him, suddenly aware of what she was doing. No, now was not the time for that. She shook her head, and then glanced out beyond him again where she could see the tip of a village coming into view. "I think we're about here anyway...Guess we will just have to...blend in." She said with a joking laugh, glancing at her and Joey's attire. Yeah..so much for that anyway.

"Heh, blend in." Joey glanced down at the clothes he was wearing. "Baggy jeans and a band t-shirt in a world where denim and rock music don't exist don't make the greatest camouflage."

The merchant wagon creaked to a gentle halt at the front gates of the town. The driver turned back to his two stowaway passengers. "This is it," he said gruffly.

Joey gave a nod and a halfhearted word of thanks, standing and stretching for the first time in an hour. He hopped down from the back of the wagon and looked around. Though they were on the outskirts, it looked like the town could almost rival a small city. Just a little farther down the path, the dirt road gave way to a cobbled street, and the air hummed with the distant sound of merchants and civilians going about their business.

Joey sighed heavily. "Well then. This should be fun."