eversohungry | [APPOINTMENTS POST] 13 Paternoster Road

[Vastra waits until Eugene is in the kitchen, then looks back down at the plate and wills herself to eat. She only has three minutes, after all. But she doesn't wolf the meat down, her stomach turns at the thought of being full. It's a small piece, comparatively though, so she makes short work of it. There's very little sound, too--just some soft sounds of tearing meat. Not even chewing.]

[When she's done, she sets the empty plate on the coffee table and lays back on the couch.]

I believe this is one of those cases. I've been angry, and I've cried, and it hasn't done much of anything.

[Ravenous eating wasn't something he felt too oddly around being, on account of having to live on rations for a few years. He keeps to his promise and closes the ice box without taking a look in at her while she ate.

Primarily, he was more concerned about her recovery. But he did listen when she spoke, moving closer to where she was]

You know that... well, shifts aside, having you as a maternal figure was one of the best things I can say about this place. And considering how hideous home is, that's pretty high up there. You know if there's anything I can do all you have to do is ask. Inaction isn't because I don't want to help, it's...

[He shrugged, grinning a little out of nervousness and a fondness he hadn't been able to give a name to]

I dunno how. For whatever reason I thought you'd like cake and tea and instead the fridge is full of meat...

[He figured she would be up front enough with him to tell him if she didn't prefer dairy. At all. Even if that was utterly beside the point.]

...I'll listen. Even if I don't have any way to make anything better.

[Vastra smiles again faintly and shrugs.] I'm surprised I've kept it secret from you this long, Eugene. Like many lizards in your world, I am a carnivore primarily. I do enjoy all sorts of foods, however I garner most of my nutrition from protein. After starving myself, I need that most of all. It isn't a matter of you not knowing well enough how to help, Eugene. You're helping very much right now.

[She reaches for Eugene's hand and gestures for him to sit by her.] Listening will help very much. Where were you earlier in October?

[So, carnivorous food would be far more applicable to keeping her healthy and... relatively happy than, say, cupcakes. He could deal with this, and it would give him a valid excuse to try out a few new culinary delights. The further implications of what meat was included, he'd let slide. There were worse things to be, and he'd seen that first-hand.

Sitting beside her after taking her hand, Eugene scritched the back of his head to remember.]

Working, basically. There seems to have been something happened to most of the people here in Luceti that's kind of mercifully missed me and Jack. But there's been a lot of oddities happening recently. Everyone's on edge emotionally...

I am glad it missed you, whatever it was.

[She pauses, holding Eugene's hand, wondering where to begin or if she should even explain. Talking would be the only way, though. Eugene couldn't guess.]

For a few days, I was convinced I had everything I wanted. I was retired, the universe and time was relatively safe, I was accepted here, Jenny was here. We had adopted a son.

[She squeezes Eugene's hand.] It felt so real.

Me, too, truth be told. [If it had shaken Vastra, he knew it had to be something proportionally horrid. He squeezed her hand in return, clasping its twin over top]

Is it like how... when we shifted before and you were my mom? That's still not gone away.

[A grin followed, soft and not meant to be mocking at all, but if he didn't tease her, there was something deathly wrong with their relationship]

So do I have a new brother? I don't mind, just so long as I get to boss Max around still.

You may want to reserve your bullying to Max. A grown man pushing around a seven year old child might look a little too deplorable. [Vastra tries to smile, but it never reaches her eyes.]

How many more times am I going to lose her, Eugene? I never imagined I would fall to anything so slow as this has been, but I feel nearly broken by this.

How old do you think Jack is?

[But all jokes aside, his smile dissolved slowly when he heard her speak further, confide and ask. Scooting a little closer, he kept quiet for a moment, but it was a contemplative sort of quiet. Choosing his words carefully]

I can't say. The Malnosso are so adept at their crafting of worlds that it could be many more times. As much as I wish it weren't so, I can't lie to you about that possibility. But... I suppose, if it matters at all, none of this is in fact real.

[Ultimately, useless consolation, the feelings were real enough to devastate]

They've left you nearly, but not broken. This won't be forever. Would it help if we try to figure out a way to get you home to her?

[Because when it came right down to it as much of a bond as he had for Vastra, he'd be willing to do what it took to send her home if it would make her happy]

It is very real, Eugene. [Vastra frowns deeply at him.] Simply because this is a pocket universe, and that when we are returned we don't remember anything, does not make this unreal.

[That said, she takes a deep breath and lets it out.] I would love that dearly. However I couldn't leave you both behind.

[He felt like he'd been scolded, and even if he had, thinking it hadn't been real was one of the few things keeping his reality from unwinding. Vastra, though, she was far stronger than he could ever actually be]

What would Jenny want you to do? I mean, objectively. Would she want to see you in this place because of her?

[It would be a question that he'd expect to be asked if he were in a similar state, Jack absent from his life. Because he knew without a shred of doubt that Jack wouldn't want it for him, and that his memory was best served living life to the full... It wasn't asked to be cruel or reprimanding]

[APPOINTMENTS POST] 13 Paternoster Road

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