a_time_slip: (glamour thinking)
Janie woke up, face down in sand, with a warm surf lapping gently at her legs.  Her boat stuck fast in the sand beside her as she sun shone gently down on the pair.

"You okay?"  she muttered to her boat.

"Don't worry about that.  Can you stand?"

There was a fog in Janie's mind, and she had no idea when her boat started to speak.  Or why it was speaking, or how she ended up on a beach.  Then, a few seconds later, she realized that a shadowy figure stood over her.  That's what spoke, not her boat.

"Over here!"  called the voice "She's bad off."

After closing her eyes for a second, to block the sun out, she remembered setting the auto-pilot on the boat, then pouring out a nice glass of whiskey for herself.  Gods, that whiskey would be good about now, and so would her bed.  She still didn't know what happened, when things went wrong-

"Miss?"  spoke a soft, feminine voice "Miss, you need to drink this.  Ma'am says it's going to help your recovery."

"It's Janie."  she said, before opening her eyes.  A tall and willowy blonde stood in front of her, holding a smoothie.  "Well, hello.  Nice to meet you."

"Hi, I'm Sandy...  will you drink this please?"

"Yes, whatever you say."  she sipped the drink, without knowing what was in it, or where she was.  Something about the place made her trust everything.

"Your boat is almost repaired and since you're up you can go anytime you want."

"Where is this?"

"That's not important, Miss Janie."

"Yes, it is."

"Elysium.  We're a small world in big solar system and an even bigger galaxy.  We're nothing compared to where you've been and what you've seen."

"Don't say that."

"It's true, but we all like it here."

"I'll reimburse you for any damage or expense."

"That won't be necessary, in fact, we have something for you."

"...What?"

"A map, for The Key Of Time.  You said something about it in your sleep and this was just sitting around in the archives."

"Funny coincidence."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw all that was sitting around in our archives."

Janie was about to say something else, when a loud young man ran into the room.  "The boat is fixed!  We couldn't get inside, but the hole is patched up enough so she won't sink...  Hi there Miss."

The young man was towheaded and covered in grease and sand, clearly very excited about something.  Janie sipped at the smoothie and realized that it tasted like a sunset and memories of old picnics.  Enough to make her forget her doubts.  Sandy handed the map to her and smiled.

"Miss Janie, are you going to stay for a while?"

"No, Sandy.  I've got things to do."

"You're welcome here any time."

Janie nodded at the two, then set the smoothie down and walked out of the room.  The rift raft floated in the water, and soon, the two of them took off, back into space.
a_time_slip: (glamour thinking)
The gentle sounds of jazz, and the click clacking of a keyboard were the only sounds that filled the small room late one afternoon.  Janie lay on a hammock, using an old laptop to play internet games and to go on internet search tangents.

With no motivation to do any work, she continued to type and click her mousepad, until her phone rang.

The hammock flipped when she reached for the ringing phone, and she and her laptop tumbled to he ground.  Janie glanced t the now ruined LCD screen then answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"mom?"  asked Lynn, in a tiny voice 

"Sweetie?  What's wrong?"

"My room is filled with chinchillas"  she said, quietly and evenly "They multiply when I try to get rid of them."

"...How?"

"Mom, help!"

"Have you tried giving them away?"

"No."

"Try that.  Why didn't you call your Dad?"

"Because you... won't ask questions."

"Call me if you have trouble...  I'm working."

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want a chinchilla?"

"No"

Janie hung up, and hurried out, before Lynn could convince her.  Later that evening, she worked on a different laptop, with one of the pets in her lap.
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