[IC] Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

[rivaan]

"...what?" She asked quietly once she heard what Rhiannon told her over the phone. It took Lisa a lot of her will to not react outwardly at the men who were apparently not supposed to be there. She just nodded and replied a simple "Sure." Before turning around and looking at them with an annoyed expression." So you are really part of the inspection...?" She asked in a very annoyed voice. She had to play them for the time being.

The men looked at each other and nodded." Yes, we were told to make sure the generators were in proper state for the big experiment." One of them replied and she could swear they likely have guns or somethign udnerneath their lab coats.

The growled." Fine... take your readings, but im going to be having some complaints to your bosses." She replied and allowed them to enter. The men looked pleased, though they were looking at her with generally suspicious eyes as they made their way into the lab. Lisa called over some of her underlings." Keep an eye on those guys... I need to go to check something out and under NO condition open access to the generator's internals." She told them and htey nodded. The generators were a convined and isolated machines. It had a very well secured outer shell, a casing that was completely airtight. It protected from dist and other such things for hte most part and also served as the first line of defense against sabotage.

She was almost at the door when she heard some commotion." Hey, what are you... ugh." There was a muffled whistling sound and a momentary gurgle from behind. She literally wasted no time as she dove out the door, as bullet had lightly hurt her, leaving a gash since it hadn't quite hit true due to her last minute dive out the door. She heard a slew of cursing, shouts and death throes as she scrambled and slapped her keycard on the doorpad, sealing THAT lab off. From what she heard, apparently this wasn't part of the plan and her calling them out on it forced their hand. She herself wanted to curse, especially as she looekd by the armored glass doors that they were taking something suspiciously similar to a bomb from the cases they brought.

She touched her comms to call Rhia to halt all experiments and lock down the systems when suddenly a powerful buzzing sound filled her ear instead, their internal communications seemingly being jammed. So Lisa did the one thing she could. Holding her right hand to stop the bleeding from her wound, she ran. She ran towards Rhiannon's labs. Meeting Rhia halfway.

"RHIA! They were infiltrators! They opened fire as soon as I tried to leave!" She said, holding her bleeding arm. Her wound had dyed a good deal of that sleeve on her white coat crimson red." They have bombs! I think they want to sabotage the generators and blow up the entire complex! We need to lock down the systems so they cannot power anything and evacuate!" It was then that what she thought was impossible happened. green and red signal lights began coming to life as a neutral emotioness female voice began announcing the start of the experiment. The machine was to be powered up and the generators were being booted on. She looked at Rhia in horror. If the generators powered up, and those bastards blew themselves up along with it, the resulting explosion from the generator would blow the entire complex, there wasn't enough time to escape!" WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN THE SYSTEM!"

[Benzaiten]

As Rhiannon ran through the corridor she pressed down forcefully onto her comms. It was to no avail. The communication was cut off. She could not talk to her wife. Please be unharmed. God, please be unharmed.

She rounded a corner and her heart began to race with happiness she hadn't know was in her. A massive amount of tension lifted off of her, she hadn't even noticed it before. "Lisa!" She was about to tackle-hug her wife when she noticed the red seeping into her sleeve from beneath where her hand was pressed against her arm. "You're bleeding!"

Lisa was talking so fast it took Rhiannon a fracture of a moment to catch up to her. "Wait - bombs?!" The next moment the hallway began to flash in red and blue lights. A female robotic voice began to announce the start of the experiment. Their portal was being powered up. Rhiannon's mouth dropped. She didn't know what else to do. Her body felt frozen in this moment as the voice echoed in the corridor. "Why are they starting it?", she whispered to herself. But she knew the answer, she just wasn't ready to face the consequences of such a stupid decision.

Lisa's face was painted with pure horror. Rhiannon's attention was averted towards the blood on her wife again. It'd have to wait. "Shut down the system. Evacuate." She repeated the words for herself, to spring her mind to action. Her body had not been frozen for more than a few seconds but in this situation, it had felt like valuable minutes had passed. She gave her wife a glance packed with love and sorrow and the pain of someone who was ready to lose the love of their life. Lisa would never leave her behind. And she would never leave the complex and save themselves. Neither would Rhiannon. Both of them knew this. And neither of them pretended for a second there was a chance to convince the other to not put their life on the line.

There was no kiss, there was no last 'I love you'. There was no long longing moment in slow-motion as they stared into each other's eyes and flashbacks of their love played in their heads. It was a fracture of a moment and it was hectic, loud, chaotic and Rhiannon had no time to even think about what could happen to her wife.

Rhiannon began to run once more, back to where she had come from. This time with Lisa by her side. "I'll try the lab. You check the power grid. If you can cut the power externally, it'll activate the emergency power which is not connected to the portal or the generator." How would they stop a bomb from exploding though? If the saboteurs opened up the generator and placed the bomb inside, the generator could explode even if it wasn't powered up. There was still a chance for it to happen.

Rhiannon pressed on her comms once more, trying to connect to someone she trusted on their team. But the comms were still out. As she turned to head to the lab she hoped Lisa would head straight to cut the main power. When she saw the doors to the laboratory closed, she feared she wouldn't be able to enter. But her keycard swiped and the little light led up green, she offered the sensors her eye and then her fingerprint and entered the code. Her heart was racing. This was taking too much time.

As she stumbled through the door once the security system permitted her entrance to the experiment chamber - also commonly known as the laboratory among the team - Rhiannon was greeted by one of the supervisors she had never seen before pinning her straight against the wall. "Good day, Mrs. Windsor", he greeted her unamused. "I am afraid your clearance has been revoked for an undetermined amount of time."

Rhiannon struggled against him but her shock was shown on her face and the man was clearly stronger than her. "This is treason!"

The supervisor laughed into her face. "Mrs. Windsor, I understand you don't have the full scope to see what is at stake here. Scientists are always looking down their noses so much, they miss what's around them." Rhiannon's eyes found the head supervisor lying on the floor. He was unconscious. His head showed a bleeding wound. His hands and feet were tied together. Anger rose inside of her.

"Do you understand what you are doing? We are all going to die! You are blowing up the entire facility! Radioactive material will be blown into the air these citizens breathe! Are you aware of that?!" She was screaming into his face. Her hands were trying to dig into his skin, scratch at him, pull on his fingers. Anything to make him loosen his grip. But he wouldn't budge. He had been chosen for this job in particular, she was certain. To hold them off. To guard the door. His body was way too close to her. She drew up her knee between his legs but only screamed in pain.

He only grinned at her, holding her upright as she buckled over in pain. The feeling rang through her bones. She wore some kind of metal protection around his crotch. Her knee was burning with pain. Rhiannon screamed and began to claw at his face but he simply readjusted his grip on her. As though she weighed nothing more than a rag doll, he threw her onto the ground and positioned himself on top of her, so she couldn't move her legs or her arms.

Her eyes darted around the room for someone who could power down the system instead of her or for something else. But she couldn't move in this position and her limbs were beginning to feel the shortage of blood flow in them. They will be guarding the main power, too. Lisa will not get through. What do I do? What do I do? The fact was, she didn't know what to do. She wasn't equipped for such a situation. She had run straight into this man and let him take her down with ease. But Lisa won't. She's much smarter than this. Smarten than you. The lab had a power system that could power down the portal as well as the generator if you had the clearance and the codes. It was for safety measures. But in case of emergency, the power could always be cut from the power room where one had access to the entire power grid. If the main power was cut down, all systems would power down automatically and the emergency power would spring on. The safety protocol demanded that the emergency power would not be connected to the portal or the generator. If Lisa could cut the main power... How did I just fail her this badly? As a theoretical physicist, I should have been smarter than this. And then another thought crossed her mind: Why haven't they shot me yet?

She once more took a look around. There were maybe five of them. Only one seemed to carry a gun. They couldn't risk being exposed before they had the facility under their control. They were too close to the real external supervisors. If one of them had spotted them wearing weapons, they'd have locked the facility down immediately. One guy, that's a risk they took. But not all of them. Rhiannon didn't know a big deal about guns but she knew they ran out of bullets. They're saving ammunition for when they need it. If she could only somehow make them waste their bullets and free herself from the man's weight on her body... Maybe she could still fight her way to the controls and power down the system in time...

This is the moment I'd like you to come blazing in with smoking guns, darling. If her bet was between her or Lisa firing a gun with accuracy, she'd bet on her wife any day.

[rivaan]

"I will try... The generator itself was secured well enough from breaching, but depending on teh strenght of the bombs, they may be able to force it to malfunction despite that. I've protected it from tampering, haven't actually gone the route of giving it a strong blast resistant shell yet. It was planned for when I complete the serial manufacturing design for wider use." It was true, the generator here was a prototype same as the time machine. For the 'comercial' version, she was already finalizing some of the schematics and one of the key features was a nearly indestructable shell and safeties she designed just in case somethign like this happened... sadly those weren't featured on the prototype.

"Rhi, don't get killed... if you have to, just comply with whatever they demand, I will get you out if something happens." She pleaded as they were separating to go both ways in attempts to stop a massive tragedy from occuring. There were thousands of people in the research complex, it was a multi-bulding one, so many pscientists and engineers worked here after all.

Pulling herself away from Rhiannon was the hardest thing she had done in many years, but they had work to do. The machine and the generator had to be stopped. Her first course of action however was to go to the security room and at least take a peek at it from distance. The fact she couldn't see anyone there or outside the door wasn't meaning well for the situation as she crept in closer and snuck a glance inside. The security room was wrecked. The computers smashed, the security guards were both killed. She wanted to throw up at the sight of their dead empty eyes and the holes they had in their heads, but held it in. Their guns were gone... and seh could safely assume that the other guards were likely targeted too. There were more infiltrators than the one they had seen, tehre was whatever number that had snuck in with the inspection group at the main lab, then there were the duo that apepared in the engineering. It wasn't a stretch to assume there were more and now with the communications and emergency alert system out, they could clean up any guards without raising too great a fuss.

"Fuck...fuck...fuck" She growled as she began rummaging around the room for anything of use and to her luck, she quickly located what she was mainly searching for. The guards had a hidden gun stashed away in a hidden spot. It was for situations where something unsuspecting happened and they were disarmed or caughed unaware and needed to rearm. It was a pretty simple revolver, wouldn't make it through armor, but it'd do. With that in hand she hurried to power, but sadly didnt' make it all the way there, mainly because there were too many people guarding it now and because she saw from distance that they had smashed the emergency shutdown manual switch. The fact they had made it in, meant they had the codes, which didn't bode well. Lisa's paranoid conspriacy theorist mind, quickly formed a pretty spot on theory that this was an internal job. SHe swore and ran back towards the lab, if the notifcations for the experiments weren't shut off yet, it meant that Rhia was either killed or captured. There was no way to stop it now. Even if they shut down the experiment and had access to the controls, if these infiltrators and terrorists had access to their codes, it meant that the ones that Lisa and rhia could use, were likely already replaced, making them unable to access the system.

No, Lisa ran, stopping for just enough to tear one of the sleeves of her lab coat to turn it into a makeshift bandage around her arm. She had one way and one chance to save Rhiannon and maybe herself. The machine... they knew it was operational, but these people didn't. True it didn't have a blink drive, which meant no control over their destination be it time or space, but also no way to track them either in case somebody tried to do so, which would already be hard once this whole places goes 'nuclear'." Can do it... I assembled that machine, I know it inside and out... It's not impossible to trigger it manually..." She mumbled as she neared the lab and stopped, it is guarded, she reminded herself. She snuck a glance over the lab's door's glass window and saw her wife sadled and pinned to the ground. Well Lisa now saw red. Nearby she spotted one of the big tool cabinents that was with wheels down. It was completely metal and could easily hide her and a manic plan formed in her head. From what she counted the guys here actually had one gun, likely the others that had grabbed the weapons off security were killing more seucirty.

She swiped the keycard and ran behind the cabinet, pushing it down the corridor while hte doors were opening, it flew forwards into the lab at speeds due it's weight, the completely even floor and it's well moving wheels, making all the instruments clank and rattle inside, creating a horrendous noise that pulled the attention of everybody inside the lab. Shots immediately were fired from the terrorists, while Lisa herself tossed herself kneeling on the ground and aimed the gun just like how she'd do in shooting ranges.' 5 people, I got 6 shots... breathe in breathe out and kill the fuckers. Rhiannon's mine.' She thought and the first shot rang out while everybody was distracted and there was complete chaos from her distraction tactic. it hit the man stradling Rhiannon straight in the chest. The next one rang out, taking the guy with the weapon. The rest all ran for cover, thinking they were being attacked by some remaining security.

Lisa ran into the room, over to where Rhia was and in the emantime fired another loosely aimed shot to keep the other 3 buggers occupied and hiding while the countdown of the experiment had already began, making it too late to stop it without the codes, codes she inwardly knew were already changed." COME ON, RHIA!" Lisa cried out, losing no time in pulling her wife standing and dragging her towards the time machine. A shot flew past her head as one of the men had ran over ot he gun his comrade dropped. Lisa fired back, making him hide just in time as she pulled Rhiannon into the machine. It didn't appear protected, but once they were fired upon once more, the shots veered off course because of the magnetic fields surrounding it. Lisa then tore one of the panels and proceeded to cross the wires inside. The countdown till generator intiation was growing lower and lower. The magnetic fields were on ebcause they were seprate powerline and were almsot always powered on.

"It's too late..." Lisa finally stated as she finished fiddlign with the wires and switches in the panel, she sat down, all energy leaving her body from the stress and bloodloss." There's no stopping it... this is our only chance... if we don't make it... I'm sorry for everything and know that I love you." She stated as the countdown reached zero. There was a loud proclamation over the speakers. then a distant explosion, then sparkls flew off everywhere from the walls and cables. The machine came to life, energy emmitters and coils crackling with power as reality was folded on itself and torn to pieces. There was a blinding roar, everything was trembling adn then with a deafening explosion there was only white as the machine, overcharged from the spike as the generator overloaded, snapped to life in a blink.

White,dark,twisted colors of madness, being crushed,reformed, the infinity of the world, the madness at the edge of human perception and the void between worlds... It all lasted a single moment and and yet was an eternity. A paradox within itself and an impossibility within the possible.

Lisa saw the flash of light, saw what she could only describe as madness, a paradox and then after an eternity for the human mind and a moment in time, they were out and falling. She fell flat on her back, blasting the air out of her lungs from the impact as she groaned, staring at the gray sky over them. She was bloodied, tired, hurt and completely confounded... Her mind couldn't quite understand what had happened, but she knew one thing as she looekd to her side. Rhiannon was there and they were (probably) alive.

[Benzaiten]

To Rhia's big surprise that was indeed the moment her wife came blazing in with smoking guns. Well, not literally smoking. Rhiannon could do little but watch her wife take down the people, freeing her first and going for the guy with the weapon next. All that she could do was make herself small so she wouldn't be in the way of her wife's firing and hope Lisa didn't get shot.

But there seemed to be no need for worry on that front. Her mouth dropped as Lisa threw herself into action like some Lara Croft spinoff. She wasn't really sure who this person was that she had married but something within her loved this revelation. Maybe that something was her survival instinct.

She didn't get more than a couple of seconds to admire her wife's work before being pulled to stand and dragged into the direction of the time machine by her heroic woman. People fired at them, Rhiannon ducked away, almost letting out a scream but there was no time for her to scream. As Lisa fired back, Rhiannon got pulled into the machine. It took her just a split second to have her mind catch up with her wife's. "You're a fucking genius", she whispered more to herself than to Lisa.

"It's too late..." Rhiannon looked at her wife as she began to fiddle with the inner workings of the machine they had built together. Then Lisa let herself down to the floor and Rhiannon quickly grabbed her by the arm. She was worried sick. Lisa was still bleeding and losing more blood by the minute despite her improvised bandage. "There's no stopping it... this is our only chance... if we don't make it... I'm sorry for everything and know that I love you."

Rhiannon's eyes tried to meet with her wives. "Lisa...?" In that one word and that last look she was granted she put all the emotions she was feeling. They had fought before this. She had accused her wife of going behind her back, of sabotaging her. She felt so stupid now. None of that mattered. This was the last time she would ever see her wife. And it broke her heart more than she could carry. But what broke her more was that Lisa thought she had to use their last seconds to apologize to her. Tears welled in Rhiannon's eyes. "Lisa, -" She began what was meant to be her last words. But the countdown hit zero.

She felt like she needed to throw up and as if all of her worries had disappeared at the same time. The swirls of colors made her sick and calm. It seemed as if the light itself bent in on them, towards them. It was too bright but pitch dark. All the colors in the world seemed to exist in this moment without any substance.

Then her back hit the ground harshly. She heard something break at the middle of her back and all air left her lungs. Rhiannon opened her mouth in desperate need of oxygen but her body seemed unable to remember how to take the substance in. How do you remember to breathe when you had never had to worry about such a process before? Luckily the long anguishing seconds in which her body refused to consider staying alive went by and Rhiannon was allowed to draw in a breath.

She coughed hard and loud and turned herself onto her knees, her hands on the ground. Beneath her lied a broken twig from the forest they had landed in. It had dug into her spine when she had crushed into the ground. Once Rhia had ceased coughing, she let herself drop to the floor. Exhausted and looking quite dismantled she lay there flat on her tummy.

She knew Lisa was next to her without looking but she had to turn her head anyway to be absolutely sure. A rush of joy paired with a rush of tiredness flooded her body. Rhiannon began to laugh. It was quiet and subtle for the lack of energy and her ribs hurt from it.

She forced her battered up body to crawl closer to her wife and put her hands on the woman's cheeks before she leaned in for a longing, soft, intense kiss. Her lips played with Lisa's, her heart began to beat faster and faster. Nothing mattered at the moment. Lisa was alive. And Rhiannon would kiss her and never stop if she could.

"I love you, Lisa Jane Johnson. Don't you ever have your last words to me be 'I'm sorry and know that I love you' ever again!" Her eyes beamed down at her wife's face, her hands still holding her head gently. "I will not have it. Do you hear me? I won't have it." She hoped Lisa would understand what she was trying to say but he herself could not put it in better words right now. Her life had turned upside down. Rhiannon wasn't ready yet to look around and realize where - or when - they had landed. She would cost out this moment with the love of her life and so help her god if something interrupted it.

[rivaan]

Lisa couldn't help, but return the kiss for the eternity it lasted. It was all just so sureal, they nearly died and in fact they probably would have died if the protective fiends hadn't held the extra time, suggesting her idea to split them off to a separate and well secured grid was the right one. Had the magnetic fields failed, the two would have been torn asunder in the machine from the forces it generated.

As Rhiannon finally pulled away to forbid her from doing anythign stupid ever again, she chuckled a bit painfully." I promise, Love." She replied, a bit winded out. Let's just say that having all the air blasted out of her lungs when they fell and then having Rhia occupy her like that didn't do wonders for her cardio. She wouldn't have it any other way though." I swear there shall be no secrets ever from me anymore. No matter what happens, I will tell you everything... and no stupid suicide plans anymore." She chuckled, it turned into a cough halfway, but at least she wasn't coughing out any blood so that was a good sign. Meant it likely hadn't gotten into a internal wound.

"Lie down with me... I think we need to rest a bit more. I literally cannot move myself... 'Traveling' with an injury seems to not be a good plan." She chuckled and looked at the gray skies again." Besides...when was hte last time we actually spend the time to just rest and look at the sky? We were still in colleage." She mused.

Needless to say, it hadn't been completley missed by Lisa that they were in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Forest on one side, fields on the other and nary a machine in sight. Not even relay towers or automated farming. In fact the fields looked rather abandoned which she knew wasn't something to happen easily in their time, so who knew where and when they appared. Still Lisa just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being alive without moving with her life for a bit while longer. They will have to get up and seek shelter eventually, but at least if she was getting the signs right it was still morning here, so they had time. For now just rest and bask in Rhia's presence and the fact they were alive. There were many chirping noises in teh forest, along with the sounds of other prey animals, which meant there weren't predators anywhere close.

[Benzaiten]

"Your arm is still bleeding." Rhiannon sat up and positioned herself so she could take a better look at Lisa's injury. She gently began to take off the improvised bandage. "Just hold still. I'll look at the sky with you in a minute." She gave her wife a genuine and gentle smile. The rush of still being alive, of still being with her wife hadn't washed off yet. She knew they'd have to start walking soon enough and she knew that it wouldn't be a simple journey from here on in. But they were together and Lisa was alive, only mildly injured considering the scenario they had just escaped by hair-with. For this moment, all could be fine, all was well.

As she looked at the injury, she tried her best to not move Lisa's arm too much. She didn't want to cause her any more pain. A bullet wood must hurt like a bitch, even if it was "just" a shot in the arm.

"You're lucky. It seems it hasn't hit any bone. Just a flesh wound. I wish I had something here to disinfect it with and a proper bandage." Since neither of them had anything but their clothes with them, Rhia took it upon herself to find the sharpest tool she could and rip a piece of her lab coat off. It took her a while. In movies, it seemed so easy. They just pulled on the fabric and it came apart. But in real life, tearing apart a piece of labcoat proved much much harder.

Once she had managed that deed, she wrapped it around her wife's injured arm and pulled it tight to stop the bleeding. "We will need to find you some stuff to disinfect the wound and a fresh and clean bandage. I don't wanna risk infection. We have no idea where or when we are. An infection could end deadly."

Rhia let herself rest on the floor next to her wife. Lying at her healthy arm, she put her head closer to Lisa and slung her arm around her mid-waist as she snuggled into the woman. "I am sorry we almost died and the last thing you'd remember of me was a fight we had." She still wasn't over the fact that her wife had kept such a big secret from her and had dumped it on her at the side of the street. But right now all she cared about was that Lisa was safe and healthy and they were together. Rhiannon had no idea how to handle everything on her own. Lisa had always been there, all her adult life. There wasn't a thing she had to tackle on her own. And she didn't want it any other way. They were a team. And they would continue to be a team. Despite Lisa's mistake of shutting her out like that for years. Couples overcame things all the time. Some even overcame cheating. She could forgive her wife and she would trust her again. Rhia believed that Lisa would not make the same mistake twice.

As she lied with her wife and took in the sounds of nature, Rhiannon began to make a list of necessities they would need first. She didn't mean to. If she could, she would just lie and enjoy the moment as they deserved this peaceful minute of rest. But her body was still pumped with adrenaline and her head was going a mile a minute.

They'd need to get clothes for sure. It was highly unlikely they'd not draw attention the way they were looking right now. They'd need stuff for Lisa's wound and if possible pain meds. Then they'd need to come upon an opportunity to find shelter, food, and a way of income. Without money, it'd be hard for them to survive for a longer period of time. They would need a disguise, a reason why they showed up without papers and without any coins on them. If they were lucky, someone would take them in for a short while and point them towards the opportunities they needed, like a job or information or medicine. They also had to quickly figure out the position of women in this society. It was probably the smartest move to drop their lab coats immediately. They couldn't know what decade they landed in and history was full of sexism at its finest. The risk would be too great. They should also learn how much education and say a woman, in general, had here. If they'd walk around openly reading papers when women weren't typically allowed at school that might prove difficult. It was best to blend in with the most common people. The big mass, the grand crowds.

And as much as it stung Rhiannon... they had to figure out the position of queer people as well. Her gaze went over Lisa's face. The amount of love she felt for this woman could never be hidden entirely. How would she even attempt that? In their time, no one had to hide for loving someone. Holding her hand, lovingly gazing at her, calling Lisa her wife, being a couple was so normal to Rhiannon, just being in love openly... she doubted she could convincingly pretend she didn't feel any of those strong emotions. They belonged together. And anyone with a little sense would be able to tell. Oh god, she hoped this wasn't a far misogynistic and homophobic past. But she had a feeling that she'd just gotten unlucky.

[rivaan]

"Yeah... I think the time travel made it bigger than it was... or completely opened hte wound." Lisa replied with a dry chuckle, looking at her bleeding arm. Could have been worse, she could ahve been dead... admittedly she could still be dying and this was actually her brain giving her a nice thing to occupy her last moments as they stretched into infinity... Suddenly she blinked and shook her head.' Nope, not even going to approach that rabbit hole...' She silently told herself, dispersing any thoughts of that. This was REAL! Anything else was not acceptable.

"Yeah... I dove out of the way of that one in the last moment... It was aimed at my torso... I think they aimed at my heart to be specific, didn't quite see, they shot at my back while I was leaving my lab." She stated, slightly wincing when hte bandaging was over with and a makeshift cloth bandage made out of Rhia's own labcoat was put on her." I should be good, but we will keep an eye on it. Worst comes to shove, we will just treat it with makeshift medication." She tried to reassure her wife. There were more than a few traditional and folk medicines that modern people didn't really even think about that were mightily effective.

" Apologies accepted, though I'm sorry too, since I'm even more at fault for it." She apologized back. It was honestly a nightmare now that she thought back to it. Once she realized everything, she had promised to tell Rhia as soon as she had an idea for a solution, but it just got worse with time. Road to hell was truly paved with good intentions." What I can do however is swear to never repeat the same mistake at all ever. No secrets anymore. I will always reveal to you everything and never leave anything hidden... except birthday and anniversery presents. If I encounter a difficulty, if I find something that's important and dangerous, I will never try to tackle it again by myself." She grinned a bit as she promised, and looked at Rhiannon." Besides, You've always been the more out of the box thinker. If there's a inventive and unconventional solution to a problem, you'd be the one to find it." Lisa loved Rhia for many things, her smarts, bravery, devotion, wit, the peerless beauty and even her temper.

After a bit, Lisa groaned and began standing up, first to sitting position and then slowly to standing up on her two feet. She felt a bit shacky at first, but her body steeled itself before long." We should get going... those gray skies... they suggest rain later in the day." She spoke aloud, looking at hte clouds that covered the skies like an endless gray carpet. In the distance to the east from where the winds were lightly blowing, one could see the skies were increasingly darker, suggesting that heavier clouds and likely bad weather was indeed headed their way. She'd guess they had a few hours until it was to them though.

"This has the tale tale marks of a Temperate Climate... Looking at the sun position and how it has moved since we arrived, I'm guessing we are northern hemepshere. I doubt we'd be able to see the stars tonight what with the storm slowly rolling in, but once we do see hte star map, we'd get better idea of where we are exactly, unless we find a place with people or something to get proper idea of it before that. Guess those survival classes did come in useful after all." She added with a smile and began walking, slowly taking off her labcoat, but continuing to carry it along. It might be later useful as cloth or even as cloth strips for makeshift ropes or something. It was hard to say mroe things on where and WHEN they ended up at. That said, she hadn't spotted any planes since htye arrived which was a hard thing to do at their modern times when planes were always flying in somewhere in decently great numbers, so usually it didn't take long to at least spot one." There's no planes though... either we ended up somewhere where the air traffic's very small or... we've ended before planes were very widely spread..." She pointed out to her wife. Still WHEN they neded up wasn't of utmost importance right now, they needed shelter before that bad waether caught them out in teh open.

eventually she spotted a wooden post of some kind that she pointed out. When they were close enough, she realized it must have been part of some kind of fence since there were other posts that were in similar state of disrepair. Beyond it were what looked like overgrown retaken by the wilds fields. Whatever wheat was leftover and wild grown was mixed with tall grasses that swayed on the light gentle wind." If there's a fence and fields, there might be a farm nearby..." The engineer suggested.

[Benzaiten]

Rhiannon listened to her wife patiently and let her gaze linger on the many features of her face. It slowly dawned on her that she could still lose her wife. Yes, one catastrophe was past them. But there were many other dangers. No one could tell what the time travel had done to them. Were they fine on a molecular level? Were their cells slowly disintegrating? Would their mind fail them at some point due to the sheer force of bending space and time and pushing their bodies through that process? The effects of their machine were fully unknown. It could very well be that they were dying right this minute.

Rhia pushed the thought away. She could not deal with such an emotionally heavy topic at the moment.

"I appreciate your apology. We're a team. That's all I want from you, Lisa. Honesty, respect, inclusion." She didn't feel like any more words were left in her about this unhappy incident. Lisa had made a mistake. But they were alive and somewhere entirely else, likely sometime entirely else. They had just survived the sabotage that probably killed the entire staff working in that facility.

"Not to be a downer but if the time machine is gone... How do we get home? It took us half a lifetime to get the first one to work. With our modern technology and all the money we could've dreamt of. Just... something to keep in mind maybe." Of course, there was nothing they could do right now so she changed the subject. "You're right. We should get going and find shelter. Hopefully some food and information on when and where we are."

She followed her wife's action by standing up and soon they began to put one foot in front of the other with little idea if the direction they picked would bring them luck or hardship. She imagined them in a movie. How the camera would shift to birdseye-view and show them as two tiny dots moving away from the safety that lied only 200 meters in the different direction. She had always liked that movie cliché. It showed how perspectives were important to base your decision on something more than intuition. But now she didn't feel too fond of it anymore. She felt mocked by her own association with the trope. Lisa knows what to do... kind of.

It was true that her wife would be much better equipped to do anything of value in a survival situation. Rhiannon had always been a head person. She loved to learn, to read, to discuss, to debate, to wonder. There was no need for her to know how to read the stars to orientate herself, she hadn't needed to learn how to survive on the bare minimum. And while Lisa's life had thrown more hardships at her, Lisa had also never needed any of that training. The social justice system took care of people. It didn't discriminate, it didn't need you to fulfill a certain amount of things and keep up with a ton of rules. It was more flexible than ever and it made sure people were always provided with what they needed on a basic level. But Lisa had enjoyed learning these things. She had always had an interest in keeping herself alive. Her wife liked staying busy with her hands and being able to rely on herself instead of anyone - or any government or system. Rhiannon hadn't thought they'd ever need to rely on this hobby of Lisa's.

While Rhiannon was - typical! - in her own thoughts, Lisa found what seemed to be a leftover of a once intact fence. "You think the farm might be in better shape than this fence and field? I am all for a dry place to sleep but I'd rather not be buried beneath a collapsing old house in the storm."

They continued their way on, stepping onto the overgrown field. They walked for quite a while. As they crossed over the first field, which had been bigger than anticipated, they reached something that remotely reminded them of a sandy road. It had been a long time since it had been used so it was hard to tell at first, grass and other greenery had overgrown the path. But they followed its many curves and soon found the old farm. There was a house, a big shed, and a hut. As they got closer, they could make out the house better. It had been painted white once upon a time, but the paint was coming off more than it was staying on. The two front windows that faced them were broken and the door seemed closed. The entire house was battered from nature, vines were overgrowing it and Rhiannon found small insects crawling along the wood, the vines, and the other greenery attempting to pull the house into the earth. It had two stories and Rhia would have guessed it had a very small attic where one could barely stand.

Rhiannon went up to the windows and peeked inside. It was mostly empty. Dirt was scattered along the floor, some greenery had managed to get inside through the broken windows. In one corner stood an old piano that was missing a whole bunch of its keys and one leg. There was no stool. She attempted to open the door but it was shut close. "The weather must have rusted the lock. It won't budge." The physicist took one look up and down the house, threw her body testingly against the wall and decided it was probably stable enough so it wouldn't fall down on them at night. "We could climb in through the window."

Before her wife could voice her opinion on that, Rhiannon had already swung a leg over the windowsill and climbed inside the house. The windows sat low enough so that an adult would barely have any problems lifting themself up onto it.

[rivaan]

The farm was a rather standard affair given it's age. This also suggested they weren't far into the future or even their time... A building of this style and in this disrepair... also given the fields and their state, she had the distinct feeling they were in the past. Exactly how far back she didn't know though." Yeah and it might be better this way, it means nothing else can enter through the door and we can probably cover up and block out the windows to some degree for tonight at least." She replied as the distant rumble in the air cemented her intent for them to spend the night here. Even if the roof was leaking some, it was still going to be better than soaking out in the incoming storm.

With her wife hopping over the broken window and inside the house, Lisa sighed and hopped over also. The force she put on her hand though cause a spike of pain to rush up her nerves. She grimanced, but at least it didn't seem like she forced it to the point the wound once more snapped open. There was a bit of blood seeping out, but that wasn't surprising anyways. It'd stop as it starts coagulate once more.

The inside was... dirty and dusty, but surprisingly no cobweb were hanging off the walls, so at least there was that going for this place. She didn't want to have to deal with spoiders right now. In any case, nature had slowly started to retake this place, but it was still in the initiate stages. Dirt was piling up near the broken windows and vines and other greenery was crawling through those also, but there weren't actual trees growing through the floor, so it was structurally sound for hte time being like her wife suspected." Be careful just in case..." SHe warned as they explored the place's main room. The wrecked piano was a nice touch and probably was the joy of the place once upon a time. Lisa studied the dirty floor and to her honest relief, the dirt and dust was untouched without any traces of anythign moving over it aside their own steps.

"At least it means there's nothing in here... look at the floor." She pointed out to Rhiannon." There are no steps or anything, so no animals have walked in here for a while." With that she proceeded to explore the rest of the place. There were 3 rooms on the first floor plus the entryway that had the staircase to the next floor. There was the 'living room' where the piano and an old fireplace were. There was the kitchen and finally what appeared to be the pantry. it appeared to have some wooden boxes and glass jars with stuff in them that were there still, so there might be at least some food left.. now if it was edible was a whole different kind of question, but at least the kitchen had some tableware and othe tools they could use." At least we won't be going thirsty tonight... after we get a fire going, we can boil some water later. I spotted the old well we can draw some water from or we can wait for the rain to arrive and get some water from it too." She pointed out as she took up one of the few big cooking pots and examined it. It wasn't rusted, so it was good to use.

All in all the first floor of the farmhouse was exactly what htey needed for shelter tonight. There was also chairs and table that were in a rather bad state, but servicable. Eventually Lisa made her way over to the second floor very carefully, testing each step on the staircase to make sure it was strudy enough and thankfully aside some creaking that wasn't unusual for old buildings it was fine. The second floor appeared in a bit better a condition than the first one. There wasn't dirt and leaves here, just the regular dust. With a heavy sound of rusty hinges and creaking she managed to get one of the 3 doors on the 3 doors on the second floor open and it turned out to be one of the bedrooms. It had an old double bed with big wooden posts. It was still had blankets and bedsheets that were completely convered in dust. There were some usual bedroom furnishings for the time, such as an old dressing table with a mirror and a wardrobe. The bed was out of the question to sleep on really, but maybe the wardrobe had some servicable blankets or something for tonight. She noted the howling of the winds was increasing and it was gradually getting darker outside." Hey, found anything interesting?" She called out to Rhiannon as hse opened the wardrobe to check for blankets and maybe clothing for if nothign else it would at least give them a rough idea what locals were wearing some years ago.