[ She'd be internally screaming; hell, she already is, because technically her husband is a solider, and her literal lover is willing to fight, so her nerves are frayed. Annabeth is a good distraction, a very welcome one. ]
I mean, it's not good objectively, but I wasn't here long enough to leave any kind of impression on the old queen or court so I'm not worried there. It's intense, but I can handle it.
[ what's a coup to the pits of hell??? ]
[ ugh claire don't make her tell you she doesn't always sleep well. mornings are so hit or miss. ]
Sometimes I sleep in, but I can let you know when I'm awake tomorrow?
[ To Claire, sleeping in seems about age-appropriate; she isn't a morning person but trained herself to be and now she's used to it. A teenager sleeping in until noon brings back memories of raising her own. So, she really doesn't question it. ]
[ listen. she tells herself and percy that she's going to try and wake up at a decent time for breakfast, but she spends about an hour awake in the middle of the night so it's... probably just after 11 by the time she reaches out to claire again. ]
Morning. I can meet you at your domain in like a half hour or so, if that's okay. I'll be practicing regardless.
[ Claire is just wrapping up cleaning the small shed that Wrench briefly lived in. It's a somewhat sad task for her, one she isn't enjoying, but he's gone, and the space open again, even if she wishes it was still occupied. So, Annabeth has good timing, as it turns out, and she decides to stay right in her garden for this. ]
[ It's as Annabeth said, the eating isn't real, but she still enjoys going through the motions. And so, as soon as she's in her domain, she begins working on a batch of snickerdoodle cookies. It fills her cottage domain with the scent of warm vanilla, the front door wide open so that the smell of herbs and wildflowers intermingle with the baking. There's a gray cat in the window frame outside, swishing its tail and cleaning a paw when Annabeth arrives, jumping down gracefully and slinking out into the garden.
The cookies are just coming out of the oven in a half hour, and with the front door already wide open, it's no secret when company arrives. Looking up from where she's taking the tray of cookies out of her stone oven, she smiles broadly, proud of her for using the techniques they've practiced. ]
You've made it, welcome, Annabeth. It's a bit different from before.
[ Smaller; there's no spare room that used to be Percy's, for example. No backwoods that lead to a lagoon. The cottage is still as warm and homey though, with deep greens and blues on the walls. It isn't unlike her home in Solvunn, just a bit less than her actual dwelling. ]
[ she'd always liked claire's domain in the illusion, so she can't help but be curious what it'll be like in reality. [
[ annabeth likes what she finds just as much. she spies the cat in the window and barely resists the urge to chase after it - she should at least say hello to claire first. the door is open, so she raps once at the frame before slipping inside and immediately inhaling the smell of cookies. it brings sally to mind again, in conjecture with the warm space of the entire home - and that's what it feels like here. a home. at least, she assumes it's what a home is supposed to be like, given how much it makes her think of the jacksons'. ]
[ she thinks about the grandiosity of her own domain house and frowns, briefly, before brushing it aside and offering a small half smile. ]
It was a little easier to slip in this time. [ she shakes her head. ] It's still looks good though. I like the colors. Did I see a cat?
[ Claire's definition of home and what makes one is built around a life of never having a physical one, not until she was much older than Annabeth. Part of the reason she wants to sit and talk is to explain who she really is, and what her life has been like, not some made-up Singularity fantasy. Annabeth has let Claire in, and it feels like the right time to confide in return. ]
It will only continue to get easier from here. Before you know it, you'll be able to close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and there you'll be. [ The cookies are placed on the counter and she nods. ] Thank you, dear. And you did see a cat. I didn't mean to call it into existence, I was being nostalgic and thinking about a cat I found in Cairo once. It was dehydrated and hungry, so I took it in, got it healthy and we had a little bond the rest of the time I was there. The Singularity must've decided I needed a companion.
[ She doesn't mind at all, though she's never named the cat. It's just there, and at times, comes inside to wind itself around her legs before leaving. Nodding toward the back door, she grabs a plate and begins transferring the cookies. ]
Now, should we go outside, or get comfortable on the couch?
[ Either way doesn't matter to her. ] And do you like coffee or would you like something different? [ The beauty of the Horizon is that there isn't any way to be a bad hostess, not when she can ask for anything. ]
[ it'll be reassuring to hear, when the time comes - that someone like claire struggled with the physicality of a home too. her eyes flicker briefly towards the window, like she's hoping the cat might come back, but the origin location of the feline catches her attention too. ]
You've been to Cairo? [ it's definitely on her bucket list. she, too, would probably end up attached to a stray should she ever end up in an old city for better reasons than the last one. ]
[ at the question, she peers around the house, like she doesn't know what's better. annabeth loves being outdoors, but there's something so cozy about this place that she sits on it for a few moments and goes for answering the latter inquiry first. ]
Coffee, please. [ it's much easier to look put together in the horizon, but annabeth regularly runs on bad sleep schedule and at least two cups of coffee a day. ]
Maybe snacks inside, then we can look around outside after? I can carry the cookies, if you want. [ she must be useful!! ]
I lived there for a little while when I was nine or ten. [ This is the easiest segue into her life, might as well start young, and she grabs two coffee mugs as she smiles fondly in remembrance. ] I found a cat and a cute boy, while my uncle was digging up artifacts. That was in nineteen...twenty-eight, somewhere in there.
[ With the living room decided on, Claire slides the plate of cookies over. ] Then that's what we'll do, and thank you. I'll be right behind you with the coffee. [ Busying herself with getting everything arranged on a tray, she knows it would be easier and certainly much faster to simply let the Horizon do all of the work. She likes it though, likes being busy with her hands, so in her own domain, she usually does the work.
When she gets to the living room, the tray is put down on the table in front of them, milk and sugar there if Annabeth wants it. Pouring the coffee, she picks up her anecdote about Cairo once she settles on the couch. It's cozy but not too deep so no one struggles to get up, the cushions a deep navy blue with dark wood trim. ]
If my memory's correct, we were in Egypt around sixteen months, and then we went somewhere in the East. It all blurs together a bit sometimes, we moved so often. I think that's why a home like this was the first thing that came to mind when I made it to the Horizon. It's a home I chose, something I had a say in.
[ It's the same with her home in Solvunn and why it means something to her. The home she lived in for 20 years raising her daughter never felt like her home. Frank picked it, Frank hired the decorator for it, Frank loved it. Frank brought his mistress there. It was never Claire's to sink roots into, she never wanted to be there in the first place. ]
[ she's glad to take the cookies, glad to have something to do with her hands as she tries to get comfortable with the welcoming nature of claire's house. it's familiar in some ways thanks to those fake eight hundred years, enough that annabeth feels like she knows how to go through the motions, but she wants to keep busy enough to avoid overthinking it anyway. ]
[ she sits on the couch and her attention darts to the mention of the year immediately. ]
I was wondering about that - if you were from another time compared to me. [ just little things claire had said, back in nocwich. ]
[ the other parts of claire's experience in the horizon are a little familiar too, though that much isn't born of illusions. isn't that what she's been trying to more or less do in her own horizon? figure out how to make a house? dare she say it, a home? she reaches for a cookie and shoves about half of it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully while she shoves that out of her head and focuses on the curiosity of claire's seemingly adventurous life. ]
Did you always move around with your uncle? Was he an archaeologist or... [ wait, how can she be. polite about this. early 20th century archaeologists desecrated her mother's most famous temple. when annabeth finds you, lord elgin... she wrinkles her nose. ] Sorry, I promise I'm not trying to accuse him of being a thief. But I know what it used to be like.
[ Taking a cookie as well, she bites into it and nods as Annabeth comes to her realization. ] You know I used to hide it? Because somehow, a version of being taken to another place unwillingly has happened to me before, and I didn't want to mix up my own timelines. We'll get to that, and clearly I've relaxed about it. I didn't even notice I slipped.
[ She doesn't want to make things more confusing than they could possibly be, by jumping around her life. ] My uncle was an archeologist, someone's told me about a movie...Indiana Jones? Sort of similar from what I've been told, only, we stayed where we were once something significant was found, and worked with the locals to find out where it properly belonged.
[ Lamb had always stressed the importance of museums and artifacts staying in their location of origin, to stay where it was found to tell the story of an entire people. ] In return, I was given local tutors, taught the language and customs. It was my version of school from the time I was four until I was eighteen. Every continent except Antarctica, though not for lack of trying on Lamb's part.
[ It was unconventional, and she loved it then, but it didn't make things easy, and after a pause, she looks at Annabeth with a rueful smile. ]
I didn't do very well with others when I went to nursing school. I had to learn.
[ she lets the timeline remarks go for now, if only because claire essentially promises it will come up again. ]
[ annabeth finishes chewing her cookie, then gets settled into making her coffee. she dumps about three spoonfuls of sugar in it for extra sweetness, topping it off with a small pour of milk. she takes a sip and briefly closes her eyes. she's missed coffee. but she definitely nods approvingly as claire explains how they worked with locals. ]
I'm not sure how accurate Indiana Jones is to archaeology at all, but I'm sure the locals really appreciated your uncle's style. There was a lot of theft in the earlier years of it - and it still happens - as I'm sure you probably saw in the field.
My schooling's been a little unconventional too. [ commiseration! ] You're a nurse? [ she pauses, briefly thinking it over before she nods again. ] That makes sense.
[ Annabeth makes coffee the way the Doctor does; it took one of the more modern teens to explain a Starbucks to Claire, with all of the different coffee drinks that seem to her to be mostly sugar and milk. That's the future though, apparently, so she thinks nothing of it, only adding a little milk to hers. Then she nods seriously at the statement Annabeth makes. She makes a mental note to ask about her schooling, curious but acknowledging what was said. ]
We did see theft quite often. And of course, now there are so many museums on two continents filled with things that most certainly didn't originate there. I never knew how to feel about taking my daughter to the Smithsonian and its adjacent campuses at times, when I knew where things originated from, and where they should've been.
[ She remembers late nights of Lamb and his partner fretting, planning, sometimes arguing over it. Moving on and grabbing another cookie, this time Claire nibbles as she nods. Antiquities can always be circled back to. For now, she moves forward. ]
I was a nurse, then I went to medical school and became a surgeon. First woman to graduate Harvard medical. [ She says that with pride, will always mention it, because she overcame harassment, belittlement, sexism and misogyny, and she fought to be in the top of her class, to then go on to be the best trauma surgeon in the greater Boston area. ] I didn't think I would do any of that, to be completely honest with you.
[ Here, they finally come to a point where Claire feels she can segue a bit. ]
I'd decided on nursing school, and about halfway through, the second world war started. Everything was fast-tracked, there was no graduation ceremony. We were rushed through and shipped out, and I was on battlefields for five years or so. I was only a little older than you. [ Both of them having to do impossible things young; Claire knows but hates that Annabeth will understand, even keeping in mind that Annabeth is hardly a typical young woman. ] I was married, too. I'd known Frank for a while, he was a historian my uncle worked with. We were married around a month before he was shipped off, so I knew him, but I didn't know him.
[ sometimes she goes for a black coffee, when she really needs that caffeinated boost. ]
[ she's always known claire was certainly old enough to be a (mortal) mother, but she spins her life story and annabeth can feel the longevity it in, even if it's not objectively long. it's almost silly to think so after the stupid illusion, but she hears it and she wants that too. she wants to get older and not feel like even just eighteen remains a challenge to reach. ]
[ and she has a real daughter out there. ]
That's really impressive. [ she does not mean it lightly. ] My dad went to Harvard, so. [ gonna zoom past that quickly. ] I know how hard you must have worked, especially if you were the first woman in that program.
[ annabeth has never taken the advantages of her current era as a young woman lightly, especially when she sometimes still feels like she has to work extra hard to prove herself. ]
[ she's also very much been on the battlefield, though not in a medical capacity. she absently touches her arm, where a scar from a dagger wound peeks out from under her orange t-shirt sleeve. ]
Is that why you told me not to get married so young? [ it's half a joke, but it leaves the segue open to whichever direction claire wants to take it. ] It can't have been easy to be a surgeon at that time.
[ Claire smiles at the compliment, tucks away the knowledge about her father, and then takes a breath, letting it out softly. After tracking Annabeth's movement to her arm, her eyes drop to her coffee mug, lips pursed a bit in thought at the question. ] I think what you and Percy have is different—better—than what I had my first go at marriage. I think you have something that's much stronger, even at your age.
[ Annabeth is living a life that's nothing like Claire's was, she isn't marrying for assurance and peace of mind for a dying uncle instead of love. ]
I married young for the wrong reasons. I think the threat of war made a lot of people do things they may not have. I married Frank and then we both went our separate ways within...oh, about a year? War was declared and we both shipped off. And after, when we were changed by everything we'd seen and done through five years of hell—[ Claire looks at Annabeth and offers an almost sheepish one-shouldered shrug. ]—we were strangers again. And then I accidentally traveled in time.
[ Claire has told this story before, she isn't shy about it anymore, not when so many others have stories odder than hers. ]
I didn't choose to go, people here have explained that I must have stepped through an unchecked portal to the 18th century. I did choose to stay, though. I fell in love, which I hadn't counted on. It's how I realized I...respected Frank, I loved that he made me feel taken care of. But I wasn't in love with him.
[ She never knows what any given person will think; leaving a husband behind to wonder while she builds a new life so far away he couldn't have even fathomed it. And now, here she is doing it again in Abraxas. ]
I've seen the way you light up when you talk about Percy. [ She offers a warm smile. She never felt that, exactly, for Frank. ] I think it's wonderful.
[ annabeth can feel her face soften despite herself. she does want a long life with percy, but she also wants to take it day by day, to take it slow, and actually have the time to appreciate it all. maybe they'll be allowed to sit out the next war. but claire's not wrong. what she has with him already is stronger than anything she ever thought possible for herself, given the trajectory of people who have or were supposed to love her in the past. ]
He's... my best friend. [ it feels too simple, just like calling him her boyfriend never feels like enough anymore. he's her friend and her family and he is everything to her; she doesn't regret saying so to her mother, no matter the reaction it helped her earn. ] We have each other's backs. We always have and always will. [ a beat. ] Wars and all.
[ then five years of hell momentarily makes her blanch, but she swoops the coffee to her lips to take a sip to deter it - and almost spits it back out as claire casually drops the time travel comment. but at least the thoughts of tartarus that threatened to break in are abated. she stares at the older woman for a moment, surprised but thoughtful. ]
Accidentally traveled through time? How does that happen by - accident? [ how does that happen at all should be the real question, but she supposes it's all tied together. she says portal, but that could mean anything. ] Did you trip or something? Like, is this a common problem where you're from?
[ she'll come back to frank and the decision to stay in a minute, but she wants to understand more about the how first. it's just how she is. ]
[ She doesn't notice that her comment caused any sort of distress, even if momentary. She did expect questions and with Annabeth, she has no qualms about answering anything. Claire can't help but laugh softly in anticipation of her reaction because it is, truly, bizarre. ] So, full disclosure, I don't know how it works and I wouldn't have thought to call it a portal until speaking to others here.
[ Credit where credit is due, she understands more now than she used to thanks to the knowledge of others. ] I touched a rock. I was picking flowers and heard a buzzing sound, similar to a beehive. When I realized it was coming from a large rock, I reached out and touched it, and then everything went dark. I woke up, and after a lot of fear and confusion, it became clear I'd traveled back to the 18th century. Two-hundred years.
[ Claire takes a sip of her coffee, shaking her head. ] I don't think it was especially common, but it happened enough that a song was written about it. A ballad.
[ she makes a bit of a face over the rock comment, but ultimately just rolls with it. ]
I can't imagine suddenly being two hundred years in the past. [ the magic rock being the cause isn't that unbelievable, she supposes, when she thinks about the sheer number of chaotic magic items at home. ]
Was there a rock back then too, to go back home? I know you said you chose to stay, but... [ the idea of being stuck there is kind of alarming. ]
A ballad? [ she sounds especially curious about that. ] I feel like songs and poems can tell a lot more than people give them credit for sometimes, especially folk tales and oral history. Did you know it before you... time traveled?
Everything was quite literally the same, down to the rock. I woke up and had no clue anything was actually different. I was in pain, it was like...[ She pauses, trying to think of a good way to put it, always only able to come back to one thing. ] It was like being in a car accident, being tossed upside down and yet somehow still being contained. Hitting against something, being knocked about.
[ She's felt it each time she's traveled, worse every time. She shakes her head at Annabeth's question, thinking back to that night in Castle Leoch when she thought getting back to her time would be as easy as stealing a horse and riding away. ]
I didn't know it, but when I heard it, it gave me quite a bit of hope, because the woman in the ballad goes back to her own time after returning to the rock. That's all I wanted for so long, to just go home. But with no cars, and no easy way to travel as a woman on my own, I was captured almost immediately after I arrived. I thought I was in a war reenactment for about a day, I don't think my mind could accept the reality of my situation.
[ Claire looks around the her little horizon home, then exhales, shaking her head at herself. ] At least I adapted to this better. Although for a week, I wouldn't leave my host's house.
[ annabeth winces in sympathy. she might not have been in any car accidents, but she definitely knows the pains of being tossed around and knocked unconscious to the level described. she's had a surprising number of bad injuries. ]
Ow. Talk about a nasty side effect.
[ then she frowns as claire explains the notion and fears of being stuck, knowing how lucky she is to live in her own time, as a girl. she thinks about her father and how untethered she is to him, how different her life might have been even a hundred years ago. ]
I can't say I blame you for not getting it right away. I mean, who touches a rock and assumes they're getting sent back in time? [ she's been through plenty of difficult to process experiences, some of which she's still working through, but time travel isn't in her repertoire, and she'd like to keep it that way. ]
It sounds... difficult. I can't even imagine. And you still chose to stay, despite all that?
[ she follows claire's gaze as she looks around the house, her domain. ] I kind of wanted to nap for a week after getting here, so maybe hauling up upon arrival isn't that strange all things considered.
[ Claire thinks back to the moment she knew she was staying. It was a moment of realizing she'd loved Frank for the security he brought her, the basic decency of him (at first), but she wasn't in love with him. Not the way she fell in love with a man who gave up everything to rescue her. ]
I chose to stay because I fell in love. [ She looks down at her coffee cup, thumb lightly grazing the rim. ] It wasn't instant, but Jamie took care of me, and then to protect me with the name of his clan, he married me. I didn't want him, but I didn't want to be a prisoner on the grounds of being a spy, either. [ Her choices were limited, even in hindsight. She'd tried to escape on her own, and had been almost immediately captured by the worst possible man. ]
It took a while, but by the time he knew the truth of me and actually got me back to the stones, I realized I couldn't let him go.
[ Claire gives a helpless shrug and a small smile. It's the same with Jon now. After everything they shared together, her heart couldn't shut off hundreds of years of loving him. She's just glad he feels the same. ]
[ aphrodite would certainly find it romantic. annabeth supposes there's a part of her that thinks the same, even if she has a hard time imagining herself staying in the past with all her own ambitions. if it were for percy, it might be different - but either way she's glad it's not a choice she had to make. ]
[ there is no doubt in her mind that percy would stay with her though, no matter where she was. ]
[ and she can't help but offer claire a small smile of her own once she sees the expression on the woman's face. it's happy, and more than anything else, annabeth is just glad she was able to find a happiness. for all the kindness she's ever shown, illusion world or real one, she thinks claire deserves it. ]
What if he went with you instead? Was that an option?
[ Claire's smile falters just a little; it's impossible not to think of Culloden, of Jamie detouring to take her back to the stones against her will, and her desperate hope once she realized, that this time he would hear them, that he would come back with her. ]
He couldn't. He touched the rock and it was just a rock. But christ, I hoped. I hoped all the way to the stones something would happen. [ She gives a slow shrug of her shoulders, because she has no answers for that. ] We'd been at war, one I already knew Scotland would lose. I tried to change history, like a fool, but of course, I failed. History is history. [ Claire closes her eyes, remembers how hollowed out she felt the moment she woke up alone in the future, no sounds of cannon fire around her, no Jamie. Just the distant sound of traffic and a parting gift from her husband. ] I was pregnant, and we'd already lost one child. I had to go. I had to.
[ Her voice comes with a slight waver; it feels like an abrupt end to the story, she knows it. But even now, she can't go into some details despite knowing they're all together in the future past, her entire family, at least for a little while. The way she felt then, as if she were in a black hole of grief she could never quite pull herself all the way out of, it's too emotional to remember for long. ]
I don't—[ She clears her throat and wets her lips. ]—I don't talk about that part much. The leaving. Mostly because I ended up going back twenty years later, after Frank died and I realized Jamie survived the battle. It's easier to skip ahead, sometimes.
[ she frowns, sympathetically. there's a lot here annabeth can't even begin to imagine going through, and she's not sure she wants to try. she has plenty of her own shit to keep sorting through. but she can still feel for claire and the apparent chaos of time travel. ]
So the time traveling rock is picky. [ her tone is disdainful in a way meant to try and inject levity. she can see the way talking about it affects claire, and she doesn't really know if now's the time to offer a hug. she's better at figuring that out with people she knows well - and even though part of her still feels she does know claire, it's different. annabeth is working on it. ]
You don't have to talk about anything to me you don't want to. [ she hesitates a moment, but reaches out to give claire's arm a squeeze. ]
Twenty years? Was it the same time for him too? Or did you end up where you left off? [ she pauses. ] Was it - was that your daughter you mentioned before then?
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[ She'd be internally screaming; hell, she already is, because technically her husband is a solider, and her literal lover is willing to fight, so her nerves are frayed. Annabeth is a good distraction, a very welcome one. ]
๐ผ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ค๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข, ๐๐๐กโ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ. ๐ผ ๐กโ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก'๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ โ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐ฆ, ๐๐ข๐ก ๐ผ ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐กโ ๐คโ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข'๐ ๐๐๐๐.
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[ what's a coup to the pits of hell??? ]
[ ugh claire don't make her tell you she doesn't always sleep well. mornings are so hit or miss. ]
Sometimes I sleep in, but I can let you know when I'm awake tomorrow?
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๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ ๐, ๐๐๐ ๐คโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ค๐ ? ๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐โ ๐ค๐๐กโ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐โ. ๐๐๐ก ๐ก๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ข๐โ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข๐ก ๐๐ก'๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐คโ๐๐ก ๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข.
[ She's positive no two Summond are alike in how they manage to make their way to the Horizon, everyone's a little different. ]
๐ผ'๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ฆ๐ก๐๐๐, ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐กโ.
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I know we can make food in the Horizon too, but it's not the same.
Thanks, Claire. I'll see you sometime tomorrow.
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Morning.
I can meet you at your domain in like a half hour or so, if that's okay.
I'll be practicing regardless.
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๐โ๐๐ก'๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ผ'๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐๐. ๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ค๐๐๐ก ๐ก๐๐๐กโ, ๐ผ'๐๐ โ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐กโ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐๐ก๐๐๐.
[ It's as Annabeth said, the eating isn't real, but she still enjoys going through the motions. And so, as soon as she's in her domain, she begins working on a batch of snickerdoodle cookies. It fills her cottage domain with the scent of warm vanilla, the front door wide open so that the smell of herbs and wildflowers intermingle with the baking. There's a gray cat in the window frame outside, swishing its tail and cleaning a paw when Annabeth arrives, jumping down gracefully and slinking out into the garden.
The cookies are just coming out of the oven in a half hour, and with the front door already wide open, it's no secret when company arrives. Looking up from where she's taking the tray of cookies out of her stone oven, she smiles broadly, proud of her for using the techniques they've practiced. ]
You've made it, welcome, Annabeth. It's a bit different from before.
[ Smaller; there's no spare room that used to be Percy's, for example. No backwoods that lead to a lagoon. The cottage is still as warm and homey though, with deep greens and blues on the walls. It isn't unlike her home in Solvunn, just a bit less than her actual dwelling. ]
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[ annabeth likes what she finds just as much. she spies the cat in the window and barely resists the urge to chase after it - she should at least say hello to claire first. the door is open, so she raps once at the frame before slipping inside and immediately inhaling the smell of cookies. it brings sally to mind again, in conjecture with the warm space of the entire home - and that's what it feels like here. a home. at least, she assumes it's what a home is supposed to be like, given how much it makes her think of the jacksons'. ]
[ she thinks about the grandiosity of her own domain house and frowns, briefly, before brushing it aside and offering a small half smile. ]
It was a little easier to slip in this time. [ she shakes her head. ] It's still looks good though. I like the colors. Did I see a cat?
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It will only continue to get easier from here. Before you know it, you'll be able to close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and there you'll be. [ The cookies are placed on the counter and she nods. ] Thank you, dear. And you did see a cat. I didn't mean to call it into existence, I was being nostalgic and thinking about a cat I found in Cairo once. It was dehydrated and hungry, so I took it in, got it healthy and we had a little bond the rest of the time I was there. The Singularity must've decided I needed a companion.
[ She doesn't mind at all, though she's never named the cat. It's just there, and at times, comes inside to wind itself around her legs before leaving. Nodding toward the back door, she grabs a plate and begins transferring the cookies. ]
Now, should we go outside, or get comfortable on the couch?
[ Either way doesn't matter to her. ] And do you like coffee or would you like something different? [ The beauty of the Horizon is that there isn't any way to be a bad hostess, not when she can ask for anything. ]
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You've been to Cairo? [ it's definitely on her bucket list. she, too, would probably end up attached to a stray should she ever end up in an old city for better reasons than the last one. ]
[ at the question, she peers around the house, like she doesn't know what's better. annabeth loves being outdoors, but there's something so cozy about this place that she sits on it for a few moments and goes for answering the latter inquiry first. ]
Coffee, please. [ it's much easier to look put together in the horizon, but annabeth regularly runs on bad sleep schedule and at least two cups of coffee a day. ]
Maybe snacks inside, then we can look around outside after? I can carry the cookies, if you want. [ she must be useful!! ]
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[ With the living room decided on, Claire slides the plate of cookies over. ] Then that's what we'll do, and thank you. I'll be right behind you with the coffee. [ Busying herself with getting everything arranged on a tray, she knows it would be easier and certainly much faster to simply let the Horizon do all of the work. She likes it though, likes being busy with her hands, so in her own domain, she usually does the work.
When she gets to the living room, the tray is put down on the table in front of them, milk and sugar there if Annabeth wants it. Pouring the coffee, she picks up her anecdote about Cairo once she settles on the couch. It's cozy but not too deep so no one struggles to get up, the cushions a deep navy blue with dark wood trim. ]
If my memory's correct, we were in Egypt around sixteen months, and then we went somewhere in the East. It all blurs together a bit sometimes, we moved so often. I think that's why a home like this was the first thing that came to mind when I made it to the Horizon. It's a home I chose, something I had a say in.
[ It's the same with her home in Solvunn and why it means something to her. The home she lived in for 20 years raising her daughter never felt like her home. Frank picked it, Frank hired the decorator for it, Frank loved it. Frank brought his mistress there. It was never Claire's to sink roots into, she never wanted to be there in the first place. ]
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[ she sits on the couch and her attention darts to the mention of the year immediately. ]
I was wondering about that - if you were from another time compared to me. [ just little things claire had said, back in nocwich. ]
[ the other parts of claire's experience in the horizon are a little familiar too, though that much isn't born of illusions. isn't that what she's been trying to more or less do in her own horizon? figure out how to make a house? dare she say it, a home? she reaches for a cookie and shoves about half of it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully while she shoves that out of her head and focuses on the curiosity of claire's seemingly adventurous life. ]
Did you always move around with your uncle? Was he an archaeologist or... [ wait, how can she be. polite about this. early 20th century archaeologists desecrated her mother's most famous temple. when annabeth finds you, lord elgin... she wrinkles her nose. ] Sorry, I promise I'm not trying to accuse him of being a thief. But I know what it used to be like.
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[ She doesn't want to make things more confusing than they could possibly be, by jumping around her life. ] My uncle was an archeologist, someone's told me about a movie...Indiana Jones? Sort of similar from what I've been told, only, we stayed where we were once something significant was found, and worked with the locals to find out where it properly belonged.
[ Lamb had always stressed the importance of museums and artifacts staying in their location of origin, to stay where it was found to tell the story of an entire people. ] In return, I was given local tutors, taught the language and customs. It was my version of school from the time I was four until I was eighteen. Every continent except Antarctica, though not for lack of trying on Lamb's part.
[ It was unconventional, and she loved it then, but it didn't make things easy, and after a pause, she looks at Annabeth with a rueful smile. ]
I didn't do very well with others when I went to nursing school. I had to learn.
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[ annabeth finishes chewing her cookie, then gets settled into making her coffee. she dumps about three spoonfuls of sugar in it for extra sweetness, topping it off with a small pour of milk. she takes a sip and briefly closes her eyes. she's missed coffee. but she definitely nods approvingly as claire explains how they worked with locals. ]
I'm not sure how accurate Indiana Jones is to archaeology at all, but I'm sure the locals really appreciated your uncle's style. There was a lot of theft in the earlier years of it - and it still happens - as I'm sure you probably saw in the field.
My schooling's been a little unconventional too. [ commiseration! ] You're a nurse? [ she pauses, briefly thinking it over before she nods again. ] That makes sense.
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We did see theft quite often. And of course, now there are so many museums on two continents filled with things that most certainly didn't originate there. I never knew how to feel about taking my daughter to the Smithsonian and its adjacent campuses at times, when I knew where things originated from, and where they should've been.
[ She remembers late nights of Lamb and his partner fretting, planning, sometimes arguing over it. Moving on and grabbing another cookie, this time Claire nibbles as she nods. Antiquities can always be circled back to. For now, she moves forward. ]
I was a nurse, then I went to medical school and became a surgeon. First woman to graduate Harvard medical. [ She says that with pride, will always mention it, because she overcame harassment, belittlement, sexism and misogyny, and she fought to be in the top of her class, to then go on to be the best trauma surgeon in the greater Boston area. ] I didn't think I would do any of that, to be completely honest with you.
[ Here, they finally come to a point where Claire feels she can segue a bit. ]
I'd decided on nursing school, and about halfway through, the second world war started. Everything was fast-tracked, there was no graduation ceremony. We were rushed through and shipped out, and I was on battlefields for five years or so. I was only a little older than you. [ Both of them having to do impossible things young; Claire knows but hates that Annabeth will understand, even keeping in mind that Annabeth is hardly a typical young woman. ] I was married, too. I'd known Frank for a while, he was a historian my uncle worked with. We were married around a month before he was shipped off, so I knew him, but I didn't know him.
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[ she's always known claire was certainly old enough to be a (mortal) mother, but she spins her life story and annabeth can feel the longevity it in, even if it's not objectively long. it's almost silly to think so after the stupid illusion, but she hears it and she wants that too. she wants to get older and not feel like even just eighteen remains a challenge to reach. ]
[ and she has a real daughter out there. ]
That's really impressive. [ she does not mean it lightly. ] My dad went to Harvard, so. [ gonna zoom past that quickly. ] I know how hard you must have worked, especially if you were the first woman in that program.
[ annabeth has never taken the advantages of her current era as a young woman lightly, especially when she sometimes still feels like she has to work extra hard to prove herself. ]
[ she's also very much been on the battlefield, though not in a medical capacity. she absently touches her arm, where a scar from a dagger wound peeks out from under her orange t-shirt sleeve. ]
Is that why you told me not to get married so young? [ it's half a joke, but it leaves the segue open to whichever direction claire wants to take it. ] It can't have been easy to be a surgeon at that time.
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[ Annabeth is living a life that's nothing like Claire's was, she isn't marrying for assurance and peace of mind for a dying uncle instead of love. ]
I married young for the wrong reasons. I think the threat of war made a lot of people do things they may not have. I married Frank and then we both went our separate ways within...oh, about a year? War was declared and we both shipped off. And after, when we were changed by everything we'd seen and done through five years of hell—[ Claire looks at Annabeth and offers an almost sheepish one-shouldered shrug. ]—we were strangers again. And then I accidentally traveled in time.
[ Claire has told this story before, she isn't shy about it anymore, not when so many others have stories odder than hers. ]
I didn't choose to go, people here have explained that I must have stepped through an unchecked portal to the 18th century. I did choose to stay, though. I fell in love, which I hadn't counted on. It's how I realized I...respected Frank, I loved that he made me feel taken care of. But I wasn't in love with him.
[ She never knows what any given person will think; leaving a husband behind to wonder while she builds a new life so far away he couldn't have even fathomed it. And now, here she is doing it again in Abraxas. ]
I've seen the way you light up when you talk about Percy. [ She offers a warm smile. She never felt that, exactly, for Frank. ] I think it's wonderful.
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He's... my best friend. [ it feels too simple, just like calling him her boyfriend never feels like enough anymore. he's her friend and her family and he is everything to her; she doesn't regret saying so to her mother, no matter the reaction it helped her earn. ] We have each other's backs. We always have and always will. [ a beat. ] Wars and all.
[ then five years of hell momentarily makes her blanch, but she swoops the coffee to her lips to take a sip to deter it - and almost spits it back out as claire casually drops the time travel comment. but at least the thoughts of tartarus that threatened to break in are abated. she stares at the older woman for a moment, surprised but thoughtful. ]
Accidentally traveled through time? How does that happen by - accident? [ how does that happen at all should be the real question, but she supposes it's all tied together. she says portal, but that could mean anything. ] Did you trip or something? Like, is this a common problem where you're from?
[ she'll come back to frank and the decision to stay in a minute, but she wants to understand more about the how first. it's just how she is. ]
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[ Credit where credit is due, she understands more now than she used to thanks to the knowledge of others. ] I touched a rock. I was picking flowers and heard a buzzing sound, similar to a beehive. When I realized it was coming from a large rock, I reached out and touched it, and then everything went dark. I woke up, and after a lot of fear and confusion, it became clear I'd traveled back to the 18th century. Two-hundred years.
[ Claire takes a sip of her coffee, shaking her head. ] I don't think it was especially common, but it happened enough that a song was written about it. A ballad.
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I can't imagine suddenly being two hundred years in the past. [ the magic rock being the cause isn't that unbelievable, she supposes, when she thinks about the sheer number of chaotic magic items at home. ]
Was there a rock back then too, to go back home? I know you said you chose to stay, but... [ the idea of being stuck there is kind of alarming. ]
A ballad? [ she sounds especially curious about that. ] I feel like songs and poems can tell a lot more than people give them credit for sometimes, especially folk tales and oral history. Did you know it before you... time traveled?
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[ She's felt it each time she's traveled, worse every time. She shakes her head at Annabeth's question, thinking back to that night in Castle Leoch when she thought getting back to her time would be as easy as stealing a horse and riding away. ]
I didn't know it, but when I heard it, it gave me quite a bit of hope, because the woman in the ballad goes back to her own time after returning to the rock. That's all I wanted for so long, to just go home. But with no cars, and no easy way to travel as a woman on my own, I was captured almost immediately after I arrived. I thought I was in a war reenactment for about a day, I don't think my mind could accept the reality of my situation.
[ Claire looks around the her little horizon home, then exhales, shaking her head at herself. ] At least I adapted to this better. Although for a week, I wouldn't leave my host's house.
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Ow. Talk about a nasty side effect.
[ then she frowns as claire explains the notion and fears of being stuck, knowing how lucky she is to live in her own time, as a girl. she thinks about her father and how untethered she is to him, how different her life might have been even a hundred years ago. ]
I can't say I blame you for not getting it right away. I mean, who touches a rock and assumes they're getting sent back in time? [ she's been through plenty of difficult to process experiences, some of which she's still working through, but time travel isn't in her repertoire, and she'd like to keep it that way. ]
It sounds... difficult. I can't even imagine. And you still chose to stay, despite all that?
[ she follows claire's gaze as she looks around the house, her domain. ] I kind of wanted to nap for a week after getting here, so maybe hauling up upon arrival isn't that strange all things considered.
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I chose to stay because I fell in love. [ She looks down at her coffee cup, thumb lightly grazing the rim. ] It wasn't instant, but Jamie took care of me, and then to protect me with the name of his clan, he married me. I didn't want him, but I didn't want to be a prisoner on the grounds of being a spy, either. [ Her choices were limited, even in hindsight. She'd tried to escape on her own, and had been almost immediately captured by the worst possible man. ]
It took a while, but by the time he knew the truth of me and actually got me back to the stones, I realized I couldn't let him go.
[ Claire gives a helpless shrug and a small smile. It's the same with Jon now. After everything they shared together, her heart couldn't shut off hundreds of years of loving him. She's just glad he feels the same. ]
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[ there is no doubt in her mind that percy would stay with her though, no matter where she was. ]
[ and she can't help but offer claire a small smile of her own once she sees the expression on the woman's face. it's happy, and more than anything else, annabeth is just glad she was able to find a happiness. for all the kindness she's ever shown, illusion world or real one, she thinks claire deserves it. ]
What if he went with you instead? Was that an option?
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He couldn't. He touched the rock and it was just a rock. But christ, I hoped. I hoped all the way to the stones something would happen. [ She gives a slow shrug of her shoulders, because she has no answers for that. ] We'd been at war, one I already knew Scotland would lose. I tried to change history, like a fool, but of course, I failed. History is history. [ Claire closes her eyes, remembers how hollowed out she felt the moment she woke up alone in the future, no sounds of cannon fire around her, no Jamie. Just the distant sound of traffic and a parting gift from her husband. ] I was pregnant, and we'd already lost one child. I had to go. I had to.
[ Her voice comes with a slight waver; it feels like an abrupt end to the story, she knows it. But even now, she can't go into some details despite knowing they're all together in the
futurepast, her entire family, at least for a little while. The way she felt then, as if she were in a black hole of grief she could never quite pull herself all the way out of, it's too emotional to remember for long. ]I don't—[ She clears her throat and wets her lips. ]—I don't talk about that part much. The leaving. Mostly because I ended up going back twenty years later, after Frank died and I realized Jamie survived the battle. It's easier to skip ahead, sometimes.
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So the time traveling rock is picky. [ her tone is disdainful in a way meant to try and inject levity. she can see the way talking about it affects claire, and she doesn't really know if now's the time to offer a hug. she's better at figuring that out with people she knows well - and even though part of her still feels she does know claire, it's different. annabeth is working on it. ]
You don't have to talk about anything to me you don't want to. [ she hesitates a moment, but reaches out to give claire's arm a squeeze. ]
Twenty years? Was it the same time for him too? Or did you end up where you left off? [ she pauses. ] Was it - was that your daughter you mentioned before then?
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omfg i swear this is the last essay ๐ญ
pls i love it
figured we could probably wrap with your next tag?
5 years later, yes ๐