seriesofbaddecisions | Room 210- Sunday morning

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Room 210- Sunday morning

Usually by now Sabine would already have an idea of some mural she'd put up on a wall somewhere, commemorating the island's latest adventure, and might be prepping which supplies she wanted to bring to do it.

She would not be doing that this time.

Being stuck as a weirdly evil plastic toy who'd happily turn people in because she was supposed to was not sitting well with her now, and she was stuck somewhere between wanting a thousand hugs and not wanting to see anyone at all, which mostly left her feeling kind of sick. She had a sketchbook out and was angrily drawing in it, but all the things she kept making appear on the pages weren't things she wanted to deal with, this was supposed to be distracting her.

Maybe she should go to the gym and hit things and hope the rest of the dorms didn't have the same idea.

[Closed door, open post!]

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Chamomile and lavender could only do so much; Astrid had slept, but not much, and it was still fairly early when she woke up again. That was fine, since it meant it wouldn't be too much later in Fandom, either, or maybe it was, she wasn't sure how calling over twenty-five-plus years actually worked, anyway.

She didn't even know if it could work. But, if it did, then Sabine's phone would be ringing.

Sabine really hadn't thought anyone would be calling her today- maybe ever, in the moments where she felt more dramatic- so she looked at her phone in surprise. On one hand she didn't want to talk to anyone, on the other hand if it was a wrong number or telemarketer maybe she could yell?

"Hello?"

"Hello?" Astrid answered back, actually a little surprised it had worked and still feeling like she was in a bit of a weird, displaced fugue state, anyway. "Sabine? It's...it's Astrid."

And then she paused, awkwardly winding the coil of the phone's cord around her finger as she leaned against the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, wondering if she needed an explanation for why she might just be calling seemingly out of the blue on a Sunday morning.

But she had to ask.

"Is....is everything okay out there?"

"Uh, it is now." Sort of. Aside from all the leftover trauma. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

She had been here, right?

Astrid had been there...maybe? There had even been a radio broadcast that would seemingly prove that she had, but she apparently had also been here, sick in bed all week, and remembered none of it. Only the dreams, that would confirm that she had been there.

It was all very confusing and made very little sense, and it was a little disturbing to think that Fandom's weirdness could still manage to reach her, all the way out here, through time and space.

"I'm here," she said, then amended. "At home. California. But...I just had the...weirdest dream about everyone out there...and I know things have been a little crazy, so I...thought I'd call..."

It was weird being worried about people she'd thought she'd never really see again, too, and the dream was still sticking to her. And when a dream stuck like that, it usually meant something.

The length of the pause on Sabine's end might be a little telling.

"What was the dream?"

Yeah, that long pause was not reassuring. She'd almost thought maybe she'd lost the call or something.

"It was...." Astrid hesitated, because it all sounded a little bit crazy in the light of the day, but if even Claire didn't think it was crazy, so Sabine, who was used to Fandom, shouldn't think it was weird, right?

"Well, we were all toys," she explained. "Dolls and action figures and Legos, things like that. And the whole island was this sort of toyland. There were good toys and bad toys. A bunch of the bad toys were going to get executed for trying to jump-start the island, or something? And there was a fight, and an explosion, and...that's...kind of it. I must have woken up at that point."

There was another long pause, followed by a sigh.

"That actually happened here."

It was now Astrid's turn to hold the long pause, and it might have been longer still if she hadn't remembered how much this call was probably costing Claire and Ron right now.

"Are you serious?" she finally asked, even though she knew she was, she knew it was more than just some random dream, and her stomach twisted a little. She was glad the cord was long enough to reach to the table so she could pull out a chair and sit down.

"But...it's done now, right?" She knew that it was, too, and Sabine had said as much, but it was almost like Astrid needed to double-check.

"Yeah. All back to normal now," Sabine said, a little flatly. "Not plastic anymore, no one really got crushed."

"Good," Astrid said, breathing out a little, feeling at least some of the tightness in her chest loosening. Not all of it, because there were still so many things that were confusing to her, but she didn't think those would have such easier answers. "I'm glad. I know things've been really rough for you guys over the summer, and then having to deal with...that...!"

"It's not ideal," Sabine agreed. "I think it's over. I'll probably still be waiting for something new tomorrow, but that all felt... big."

It better be over. If it wasn't, she might bolt. This has been terrible.

"I mean," Astrid offered reasonably, "that one was so big, I felt it all the way out here."

Felt it. Lived it. She still wasn't sure on that, but it didn't seem to matter too much now that it was over, she hoped.

"I don't know how that happened." Which also made her feel weird. Like even once you got away from this stuff, you didn't really. "I'm sorry it did."

Astrid sort of shrugged it off a little, then remembered she was on the phone, and it wasn't like Sabine could tell. But she lingered a little before answer, because she did miss being able to talk to Sabine about stuff like that, but what she missed even more was how, when they were at least in the same room, they didn't have to talk about it.

"I guess it can't really be helped," she reasoned. "Maybe the island just didn't want me thinking I could get off that easily."

"Maybe. I feel like there should be rules."

Like once you escaped the crazy, you actually escaped the crazy. That felt important.

"I should probably know better by now."

"I'm calling you from the past right now, Sabine," Astrid pointed out. "I don't think that place even knows what rule are."

"I know," Sabine said with a sigh. "I just want some of it to make sense."

"That sounds like a pretty tall order," Astrid said wryly, but sympathetically, "but I'm sure you can figure out something."

Meanwhile, she was maybe just going to be even more grateful that Claire and Ron had taken her in. Sometimes, her life here really didn't make any sense to her at all, either, but at least her illogical situation played by rules.

"I hope next week's better for you, Sabine. And...everyone there, really."

"Hopefully. I promise we at least won't drag you into it," Sabine said. "Seems like things are going pretty well out there."

"Hey," said Astrid, a note of amusement in her chiding, "don't go making promises you can't keep. But...they are. They really kind of are. It's weird. I keep kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? But I'm getting better at just...accepting it, I think. It's....weird. But it's nice. I really do like it here."

And it also felt surprisingly good to actually tell someone that, to say it outloud, without having to worry about someone getting upset and somehow ruining everything just by putting a voice to her happiness.

"Good. You deserve to be somewhere you like," Sabine told her, meaning it even despite her terrible mood.

Astrid wasn't sure she entirely agreed to that, but she would allow that she was maybe warming up to the idea a little bit. She was definitely going to take a moment to cherish the simple fact that it had come from Sabine, too.

"Thanks," she said. "You do, too."

Which made it all the worse that Sabine was still over there, in her opinion, but she didn't think she could actually say that without it sounding sarcastic instead of sincere.

"I...should maybe get going," she then said, as she realized the conversation was going in a direction where she had little emotional experience and capabilities. "For all I know, this call might be costing Claire and Ron a small fortune."

Which was another thing. As nice as this was, and even if Claire had said it was okay, she didn't need this turning into the thing that ruined it all.

"...This costs that kind of money?"

She'd never known anything outside of her phone plan, and it showed.

"Yeah," said Astrid, a little sheepishly. "It's, like, ten cents a minute or something just to call outside the state. I can't imagine what it'll be to call outside the state and outside the century, too."

Time travel was so, so weird.

"Oh! Go! I'll write you a letter!" Sabine promised.

And Astrid laughed a little at that and was almost tempted to forget about how much it might cost, because this really was nice, and she missed this.

But she would also miss foster parents who actually seemed to care, too.

"I'm pretty sure I owe you one at this point," she noted, "but I'm really bad at keeping track. But, yeah, that sounds good. If something exciting happens this week, you'll have to send me pictures, anyway. I really liked the last batch you sent."

"You might get pictures of really boring things, like breakfast, and sunsets."

She hoped, anyway. Please be boring.

"Breakfasts and sunsets sound perfect," Astrid assured her.

She could even show those ones off to Claire without it being too awkward, as well!

"I'll work on it," Sabine said. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

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Room 210- Sunday morning

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