Woods Surrounding Camelot, Wednesday Morning

[bitchprince]

After the feasts of a few weeks back, Arthur had fallen into the routine he preferred above all. Training, training, and more training, interspersed with some talks about minor adjustments in grain dispersion and the occasional audience for the public, as well as the odd hunt.

But he was hunting for something else today; he was hunting for contact with Fandom, or rather, his friends both on and off it.

As it turned out, having his old routine back made his thoughts about the island far kinder than they used to be.

[[ for phone calls, yes! ]]

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[bitchprince]

Baroque was already pushing it too far, if one asked Arthur. Of course, Arthur could occasionally twitch at the sound of Beethoven, so it was probably best if no one actually did.

"Hardly," he said. "Beyond the odd band of bandits, it's been quiet." And if this had been any other kind of genre world, he would have added 'too quiet'.

Well, all right. It was totally that kind of genre world; usually it would just be Merlin stating the obvious. "Had a few good hunts, doubt you're interested. Where were you last week?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Not at work," Katchoo declared instantly. "I wasn't going out in that mess."

. . . she could have interjected with the 'too quiet,' but she felt that would be redundant.

[bitchprince]

"In the dorms?" Arthur prompted, "Which were properly barricaded, and with Francine?"

Worrywart.

And she could have, but would she have managed to attain the level of big eyes, fearful wobbly lip, and 'Could we please just go over the mountains?' that Merlin would bring to the role?

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

She could have, but on that second point? Hell no. Well. She could. But it would be terrifying, and not at all helpful.

"In the dorms," Katchoo confirmed. "Warded, but not barricaded, for all the hell of a lot of good that would've done with crap just blinking out of existence."

Awkward, loaded silence for a moment.

"Francine had a pretty shitty time of it. She got sucked into one of those other worlds." That crack in Katchoo's voice? Might as well have been a neon sign advertising how badly she'd taken that.

[bitchprince]

"Ah."

That little 'ah' was... well, it was the usual level of signage on Arthur's part when he was threading on emotional ground that he didn't come especially equipped for. Nevermind the little wave of worry that came up, then dispersed quickly afterwards, settling uncomfortably on his gut.

"How was she? When she returned."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Not good." Katchoo's stupid visual memory wouldn't let her forget the look on Francine's face, and her voice made the understatement of those two simple words clear. Which in and of itself was an effort she was making on Arthur's behalf, knowing his, er, inadequacy in that department. (No offense, Pendragon.) "None of 'em were, from the look of 'em when they got dumped back in the dorms."

[bitchprince]

Arthur rubbed at his hair, feeling, again, stupidly impotent for not having been there at all. Some aspects of being away from Fandom were frustrating after all, and they would just happen to come in human-sized packaging.

"You're getting off that island as soon as you can."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo bristled, just a bit; it was a tangled mess of completely understanding the sentiment, agreeing with it, and, damn it all, not wanting to leave despite every bit of hell the place had put her through.

She also knew it was about the only way he could feel useful from a distance.

"Our deadline for having to leave is creepin' up pretty fast anyhow."

[bitchprince]

"How many weeks left?" he asked. It was hard keeping up with Fandom's seasons from afar, as they blurred the longer he was away from it.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Two or three?" It might have been a rough guess; it might have just been vague so as to deny the reality that tiny bit more, just a little longer. "No time at all. You can breathe."

As if he wasn't just as aware as she was what could happen in Fandom in that 'no time at all.'

[bitchprince]

"I'm breathing just fine, thank you," he said, leaning one shoulder against the nearest tree. "You know how the island works."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Damn you," Katchoo answered in a mild-for-her tone. "I'm tryin' to keep you from having vapors here. Work with me, geez."

[bitchprince]

"No vapors," Arthur assured her. "I don't get vapors."

Uh-huh.