[OPEN] ish?

[uncurse]

WHO: EMMA SWAN, and OPEN!
WHERE: De Chima #002
WHEN: September 5th
WHAT: Emma arrives and scopes out her new digs.
WARNINGS: Updated as needed.

As days go, this one has proven itself a special brand of confusing.

When she’d first come toppling through into this world, she had to guess that Zelena’s time portal had worked. Granted, she’d really expected it to take her to the Enchanted Forest’s past—not the World Without Magic’s. The more she saw of this world, and the more the government explained, the more she realized that something had gone wrong. Really wrong.

This wasn’t the past of any world she was familiar with. Armed with a cell phone, a file detailing her magical abilities, and not much else, she made her way to her assigned housing, tense and suspicious. The best thing she could do was to follow the rabbit hole down at this point (a notion she had become entirely too familiar with in the past year), and yet …

Looking up at the building, she sighed.

She hated public housing. Almost ten years since she’d had to live in it, and now she was right back. Her eyes drop down to her phone to confirm she’s in the right place. For a moment, she lingers outside, scanning the network they’d briefed her on, but …

The last thing she needs is some kind of digital footprint in a world that she doesn’t even understand. Swapping her phone for her keys, she lets herself into the house and begins to explore, skimming the fridge, and checking bedroom doors until she finds the empty one.

Comments

[uncurse]

The name causes Emma’s eyes to stop dead on the half-empty ketchup bottle in the fridge. For a moment, she just stays frozen there, processing, and then she straightens, leaving the door hanging open as she turns to gaze behind her. Before she even sees him, she knows exactly who to expect. Knows that voice, and even the tone in it.

And still, when she sees him, her chest tightens.

“Hook?” She doesn’t miss another beat, letting her reply break the spell of tension between them. Her hand shoves the fridge door shut in one fluid movement while she turns towards him and paces to the edge of the kitchen, close enough for a reasonable talking distance. “What the hell are you doing here?” The portal. He hadn’t followed her through, had he? The edge of panic in the way her eyes search his face makes it clear she has her suspicions about just that.

[unhand]

He steps in a little closer, looking her over now that he's confirmed it's her. Emma's here. And she's okay. Well, as okay as can be expected considering she's been whisked away to another world.

He blinks, looking back up at her face.

"I... I've been here. What are you doing here? When you didn't appear, I thought... I hoped it meant you'd gone home. That the portal had worked properly for once."

[uncurse]

“Home? Hook, that thing was sucking us out of Storybrooke. You didn’t seriously go through with me.”

Her disbelief borders on the accusatory, causing her voice to steadily increase in volume as her questioning goes on. His claims about being here don’t even fully process right off the bat, overshadowed by the fact that they’re even here at all. And … apparently, housed together.

[unhand]

"Of course I did. But that was... Emma, you managed to reverse it. We were going back to the future."

Hook looks puzzled, tilting his head a little to look at her. It's not the sort of thing she could just... get wrong which makes this infinitely more confusing. More time travel? Is it possible? Not, he supposes, that it would be the weirdest thing to have happened to him this month.

[uncurse]

“Wait.”

Shaking her head, Emma raises a hand between them, grimacing to try and get a hold on this. None of it is adding up for her, primarily because Hook is operating under the assumption that she has context to something that she doesn’t ever remember happening.

“Back to the future? That would mean we—“ At least she can do that simple math. “I’m pretty sure I’d remember going to the past, let alone booting up a DeLorean to get out of it. What the hell are you talking about?”

[unhand]

Delor-what? Hook looks confused, but he pushes past it. Not important. "That's what the Zelena's portal did." And something's clearly gone wrong if she doesn't remember leaving it. "It took us to the past. Then you got us back."

Not simply or easily, of course. But she managed it.

[uncurse]

“Then, why don’t I remember any of it?” She gestures widely, plainly, with her hands, gesturing the room around them as she goes on to explain, “The last thing I remember was tumbling into that portal. Then this. No past, no return trip.”

Which makes it impossible that he can remember it—except it’s not, because amnesia happens in her family all the time. They simply don’t have an explanation for where that amnesia is coming from right now. She'd feel a lot more comfortable if they did.

[unhand]

"I don't know." Hook scowls looking away. "Perhaps... more time travel?" But this place isn't in a world either of them know, and there's no way Emma could have directed the portal here, even by accident. "You do remember the first portal. Maybe the spell simply... didn't work how we thought."

But he remembers her being in the past with him. So that doesn't make sense either.

[uncurse]

Shaking her head, Emma quickly dismisses the notion.

“If we were in the past together, it can’t have just been some detour. It must have screwed with our memories.” ‘Our’ because she won’t pretend that there isn’t a chance Hook’s are missing parts, as well. Better not to close the door to any possibilities until they have more answers.

[unhand]

"It gets stranger. I've been here a month already." Either she hadn't noticed him missing for a month, or the story is even more complicated than they realized. His ego hopes that it's the second.

[uncurse]

“A month?” Her eyebrows reach new heights in arching on her forehead. It doesn’t add up. She’d just seen him, just plummeted away from him through that portal, and now—Now, what? She lost a month of time, including some trip down the rabbit hole into the past? She scribes a hand over her face, pulling at her baffled expression until it looks more neutral. “Killian, that’s impossible. I told you, we just went through the portal, we can't have—” She shakes her head, dropping her hand out to her side. "Whatever happened ... I don't remember any of it. Not the past month, not our jaunt into history, nothing."

[unhand]

"I know it's impossible. But I remember it. And I've yet to find a way home."

His expression lights up a bit, and he reaches for her hand. It's a long shot. Portals are difficult at the best of times, and even harder when your destination is the world without magic. But he'd had a portal, and it was Emma's magic fueling it. She doesn't have Gold's wand, perhaps, but she's still Emma. Still the Savior. If anyone's magic could reverse this portal spell, it would be her.

"But you--Emma, your magic. It almost got us home before. Do you think there's any way...?"

[uncurse]

Whoa-ho-hoa. When he reaches for her hand, Emma takes a deliberate step back, pulling it out of his reach. Instinct. She watches him, defensive, cagey, uncomfortable. It must have been quite the trip. Discomfort contorts into aggravation at having to repeat herself.

“Zelena took my magic, Killian—I can’t do anything with it. I can’t even light a candle, and you’re asking me to … to create a portal out of nothing?” She shakes her head. Not happening. Not happening ever.

[unhand]

"But you--"

She doesn't remember traveling to the past. She doesn't remember the revelations she'd had there or how her magic had come back. He inclines his head, glancing away.

"Of course. My mistake. Just not sure what other options to follow."

[uncurse]

Right. She drops her gaze, looking briefly discouraged. Sure, it’s not promising. They’re stuck in some other world, with no sign of any magic portal beans, or god knows what else to get them through. No resources. No clues.

At least they’re not alone.

“We’ll figure something out,” she remarks tightly, leaning against the counter. “Until then, we just have to … Keep it together. Learn what we can about this place.”

[unhand]

"Well, I can give you the grand tour." He offers a smile, moving towards her, though this time he doesn't try to touch her. "Have you found your room yet?"

[uncurse]

"No, it's—It's fine."

Discomfort building, she holds up a hand to stay him, shoulders tight. "I can find my way around. Don't me interrupt."

[unhand]

He frowns, stopping where he is, but not backing off. "I simply thought I might speed up the process. Get you familiar with the place so we could work on our way out."

Perhaps the bedroom wasn't the place to start with.

[uncurse]

Her heart thuds against her ribcage, a deafening sound that rattles her body. Tightening her grip on the file in front of her, using it as a shield, she waffles. On the one hand, there’s something undeniably relieving about knowing he’s here, and she’d not facing this alone.

On the other hand, not getting a breather from Hook feels like a very dangerous position to be in when all she wants is to be able to convince herself to pack everything into the bug and drive off again.

“Without magic, we’re not gonna find a way out in this house.” It’ll be outside of it. And, sure, they'll find it together.

[unhand]

"Ah. Funny you should mention that, actually."

He walks over to the cabinet and pulls out two glasses. He keeps forgetting he has magic because it feels wrong. It's not something he can do. He may have lived for centuries. His ship is enchanted. But he himself has never been anything but normal. Well, as normal as a fairytale pirate with a hook for a hand can be.

He fills the glasses with water and brings them over to Emma. Then, he puts the tip of his hook into the glass and concentrates.

It turns to rum.

He repeats the process on the other glass, then hands one of them to her, raising an eyebrow.

[uncurse]

When he hands the glass out to her, Emma’s eyebrows both arch and she leans back, not raising a hand. Everything about her countenance communicates clearly: don’t hand that shit to me. She’s not drinking it, not least of all because his hook was just in it??

“That’s new,” She notes with no small degree of discomfort.

[unhand]

He holds it out for another moment, then puts it down on the table, taking a sip from his. It's perfectly safe and clean! Even delicious. But this is Emma. He's not entirely surprised.

"Aye, it is. Apparently, I wasn't heroic enough as is. They needed to add magic."

He shrugs, clearly equally uncomfortable. "According to the file, I can do more things. But this is all I've managed to make work consistently." Probably because he was most motivated to try it. The rest seemed pretty unimportant.

[uncurse]

The glass gets a second look once Hook drinks from his own. He doesn’t appear dead, injuries, or sedated. Reaching out, reluctant, she takes the discarded glass and trades it out for the file that she sets on the counter. Not yet drinking, she instead opts to swish the liquid around and give him an uncertain look.

“So, you’ve got magic.” Just to clarify that they’re on the same page. Her gut twists inexplicably at the thought. Hers is gone, and now Hook’s firmly rooted in the camp of people she needs to get away from.

[unhand]

"Seems hardly anyone who shows up in this accursed place doesn't get something." His eyes wander over to the file she's put down. He doesn't pick it up, but he does wonder what secrets it may hold. "I'm surprised you didn't."

[uncurse]

“Yeah, well. Probably thought I was already covered.”

She takes a long swallow from the glass. As she lowers it, she shrugs simply, gulping the liquid back and savoring the burn. Creepy, weird, but definitely non-toxic.

“Or it couldn’t undo what Zelena did to take my magic. Hell if I know.”