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]

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.