text; anonymous

[directed]

[This post? So anonymous. Literally as anonymous as a time traveler from 2166 can make it.]

For the sake of curiosity, how would a person fulfill their "good works" quota if they are not typically one for high levels of socialization—especially of the overtly sexual kind?

[Someone's looking at you, Sara "No Pants" Lance. Discreetly, however. Anonymous.]

Thank you for your time.

Comments

[directed]

I have no idea who that is.

[leaguer]

Great. Now you know where your first stop is once you're back in our world

Either way, it doesn't matter. My point is that dress codes are arbitrary

[directed]

Stopping a group of megalomaniacs from rewriting reality? Yes, I've known that for quite awhile.

Yet you didn't answer the question. Arbitrary or otherwise, why that distinction?

[leaguer]

( fade in on sara and her long-suffering sigh, because god forbid she jokes about rip hunter taking the jump ship to zoom back to the hamptons circa 2004 for a white party. not that he knows that she wouldn't be accompanying him.

shit. )

I don't know why there has to be a reason

If anything, it's sounding more and more like you're looking for a reason to be judgmental more than anything

[directed]

[One day in the future--or in the past--Rip may well remind Sara of his lacking sense of humor.

Around the time he stops accompanying her, in fact.]

Hardly. You are quite free to do as you please, just as everyone else is about here.

[What could possibly be judgmental about that?]

It's simply not a method that will work in my particular case.

[leaguer]

( right. right. rip hunter, the least judgmental person in all of cadelle, who would never not-so-vaguely shame people who throw pantsless parties all across the network. )

I'm being dead serious right now, no sarcasm, no malice

Humor me.

What's stopping you from stepping even a pinky toe out of your comfort zone? Hell knows you've had to color inside the lines your whole life, and now you're finally in a place where you can do whatever you want

( she could talk about volunteering and all that good stuff, but this is a little more interesting. )

Private! Also video

[directed]

[Given that it's quite clear they each know who the other is, Rip takes the time now to lock the thread to just the two of them.

He'll also switch to video--much more his style than texting]

Except that's just it, Sara. I've no desire to traipse about in my pants or engage in random encounters in order to "earn" this supposed wish-granting stone.

Nor do I have a rebellious streak which needs to be indulged. I've broken plenty of rules in my time, thank you.

[leaguer]

( well, thanks for the heads up, buddy — enjoy sara's intensely furrowed brow as she looks down at the screen and waits for his reply, only to be suddenly jarred by the appearance of rip hunter in the (virtual) flesh.

there's a sigh, and she pulls her phone up to a more flattering angle as she leans back against her couch. )

I suppose there's something to be said about the fact that we wouldn't have met if you decided to play by the rules. ( there's a quirk of her lips, like she might smile. might. ) I'm just saying —

You can do the model volunteer thing while here, work at the soup kitchen, knit some sweaters, donate to charities, get your wish stone. I'm not telling you to go sleep around — ( ugh, no, she's definitely not. not that he'd ever, but. ) — but would it really kill you to socialize and meet new people?

[directed]

[Really, it couldn't have been all that shocking. Besides, she's the sort who does have the confidence to run around in her underwear. How much harm is a bad camera angle going to do?]

More than you know. [After all, it hadn't just been when he stole the Waverider that Rip went against the Time Masters; he wouldn't have had a wife or a son at all if he and Miranda hadn't conducted their illegal affair.

A touch ironic, given the conversation at hand.]

Likely not, but it concerns me just how entirely comfortable you and so many others seem to be here. [And perhaps that is why Rip is so resistant to the idea of going out and making--acquaintances or what have you.] By all appearances, you're quite happy.

[leaguer]

It concerns you?

( — and yes, she's happy, she guesses, but that's not the part of contention. sara can't imagine any reality in which rip hunter would find a need to feel — anything remotely close to what he says he does towards her.

and "so many others", too, but sara's feeling a little egocentric right now.

there's a skeptical brow raised and she just — ) How could that possibly concern you?

[directed]

It should concern you as well.

[If she needs reason for that egocentric perspective, then Rip can easily provide. Most people, including those of the Legends, he might not expect to see this metaphorical forest for the trees. But Sara, Sara, the captain of the Waverider—well.

Can it really be so much a surprise that Rip would hold her to a higher standard?]

We're in a dimension that promises the ability to change reality, and exchange for what? A few acts of volunteering or engaging in intercourse often enough? [Never mind the fact that Rip himself is there; his point remains quite valid.] An offer they make to the particularly desperate—and that is without considering the nightmare of a threat any of us being here poses to our respective timelines.

It's all the power of the Spear but on a massive scale. This world is dangerous, Sara.

[leaguer]

And here you are.

( she can't help herself, sorry. sara knows that's not the point, though. rip's concerns — yes, those dreaded concerns are valid.

they're ones that sara had to grapple with back in eudio, returning from a trip home with the tracks of tears on her cheeks, a broken heart, and fiery anger at those who didn't tell her what she was going back to so she could've maybe stopped it. after a few long-suffering weeks of worrying about the consequences of — maybe just — changing her incentive would do to their world, their timeline, she decided to go for it upon the reassurances of the representatives.

all that drama, and all before she was ever captain. )

I don't think I've ever told you — ( for no particular reason, really. somehow it just ... hasn't come up? but it feels Important now. ) I lived in a city like this one for a little over a year — in between stretches living out our time on the Waverider.

[directed]

As I said: they prey on the desperate.

[And given that Rip had spent the better part of the last year of his life drunkenly baking through his days, he certainly would qualify. It might have been worse had he known of his height before the city officials seemingly held up their end of the deal--though temporarily, one might believe, until Rip offers up enough good will or positive energy or whatever it is they're ultimately after.]

It's all the more reason to be wary.

[But then comes the bombshell. No, she's not told him before, and the way Rip's eyes widen before he rolls his head back should convey that clearly enough. She might practically feel the disapproval coming over the network; certainly it's audible in Rip's voice when he replies again.]

So it's likely some sort of pocket dimension then. Something separated from the natural flow of time. [Putting it on par with the Vanishing Point, where the Legends have had so many positive experiences.] And what did you get in exchange for living in that city? Assuming that a similar deal was in place, and now there are at least two of these operations running that we know of.

[leaguer]

( yeah, she'd expected a reaction like this one, and she probably — definitely? — deserves it. but at least now sara can attempt to articulate how she's been through this song and dance before, so her guard was already lowered, her misgivings next to nothing when she'd been brought here unexpectedly. )

It was a city of incentives, fueled entirely by physical intimacy. ( a twitch of her lips, and: ) You'd hate it.

( there's a pause, like sara's bracing herself for the disappointed look on his face that will inevitably come once she's told him the truth. ) Laurel.

( which doesn't require elaboration, she doesn't think. but she is quick to add: ) — They told me they knew a way to do it without disrupting the timeline. I haven't been back to Star City to see if they made good on their promise.

[directed]

[Though she's no doubt right about Rip's opinions regarding this other city, that's rather not the point. No, Sara herself already knows exactly what he'll say, how he'll look and tighten his jaw when that name falls from her lips. Really, he should have guessed--and on some level Rip almost can't blame her.

Almost.]

Oh, and you just decided to believe them then, hmm? [Worse, she hasn't checked to see if Laurel's now somehow alive, or if the timeline has been altered, or if Star City is somehow plummeting to disaster now that a person who wasn't present before has been brought back into the mix.] You, of all people, should understand how bloody dangerous such a change can be.

[leaguer]

( there's a heavy sigh on her end, taking the bite of rip's words without so much as flinching otherwise. though nearly every part of her just begs her to defend herself and her actions, spit back how hypocritical he sounds, given the nature of everything they came to, why he assembled their team —

they've been through this song and dance before. the last time, there'd been a knife pressed to his throat before he knocked her out. this time, there's a screen between them, and a lot of experiences that she can't even begin to articulate to him.

her eyes close and she shakes her head, insists, ) I know. I know. ( but it doesn't mean that she regrets her decision, and sara knows that there's a part of rip that understands that. where would he be if laurel hadn't recklessly gone against human nature itself, taken sara to the lazarus pit when she was long gone? sara knows where she would be. )

Once I left Eudio — I was a little too preoccupied with the matters at hand to drop by Star City for a visit. Merlyn, Chicago, the Amulet — trying to stop a certain film student in the 60s from getting kidnapped — The Spear —

I got yanked here before I could even consider going back.