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Yesterday had been a day.

Quin had been looking for somewhere to study. Somewhere relatively quiet that she could sit down with her laptop and knock out some of the mountain of work that she’d been assigned by her professors.

As she’d struck out over and over again, Quin had remembered an offer of a coffee and a description of a neat sounding space.

The coffee had been excellent, and the space, and the conversation as well and Quin had finally settled in to do some work when disaster had struck the little game cafe in the form of three baddies spoiling for a fight.

They’d gotten more than they’d bargained for with Will and Quin and the two of them had embarked on a wild day of adventure that neither of them had really wanted. Will had gotten stabbed, Quin had bruised her ribs, but they’d managed to survive a few situations that could have easily become unsurvivable very quickly.

When Quin logically thought about everything that happened it almost seemed like it was fiction…from the church, to the giant truck that Michael had used to drive them back to Haven, to the five thousand year old Mystic who had been responsible for all of this…

Then they’d had a freezer pizza and watched TV before Will had crashed on her couch and Quin had gone to bed.

Life was weird.

This morning found them up and about much earlier than Quin had thought she’d be up and about. Sleeping propped up on pillows hadn’t been all that comfortable though and there had only been so long she could tolerate laying in bed and being as quiet as possible before she had given up and just gotten up. Now Will was obligingly going with her to see if they could find her laptop and Quin was equal parts hopeful and pessimistic that it was a thing that was even possible.

Just as they were stepping out onto the street, the calm morning as a stark contrast to the chaos of the day before, Will stumbled and for a moment Quin panicked, thinking that something had happened before he managed to right himself and apologize, pointing out that he’d simply caught sight or sound of someone he knew.

Following his line of sight, Quin’s own eyes fell on a familiar figure and a non so familiar one as well.

“There’s no way the world is this small…” Quin said, taking a few steps forward before calling out, ”Hey! Lee! Wait a minute.” because that was most assuredly the woman who had kicked Quin’s ass up and down the mat just a few days before.

”I know I’d take an angry cabbie against most magical threats any day of the week.” Quin said when Will latched onto the wishful thinking that she had projected a few moments before. You simply didn’t mess with the cabs during rush hour…that was when they made their money and they did not like interruptions. Quin had to think that they were furious today…some were probably still running.

It was an interesting line of thought that Quin let her mind wander down for a moment. What would it be like for someone who had existed that long ago to suddenly wake up in the modern world?

Quin had a little bit of unique perspective into what it was like to wake up and not recognize the world. It had been wildly and intensely disorienting and Quin’s world had only changed by a decade and a half.

According to Michael though, this woman was single minded in her pursuit of…chaos? Getting what she wanted? It almost didn’t make sense, but five-thousand years stuck as a statue would probably have done wild things to anyone’s mind.

Michael. Will agreed that knowledge would be great, but that contacting Michael while things were still touch and go was a bad idea. Maybe in the morning though?

They were quiet for a few moments then, and Quin shook her head at the images and videos that kept running across the screen with the reporter’s commentary.

Will spoke and Quin nodded, if she’d been here all day studying like she’d been supposed to do she may not have even realized something was going on.

”Same.” she said, ”Hell, I might not have even known a thing until I left to go to class tomorrow.” Quin didn’t often watch the news and there wasn’t much to see from up here. Especially now that the sun had sunk behind the buildings.

”It’s crazy to think….” she said, stifling a yawn at the end of the words.

“I’m gonna have to crash soon I think…” Quin said, ”The offer to couch surf still stands.”

Will explained what it meant to fawn and Quin tilted her head slightly at the explanation. That made…sense? Of course people were more complex than a simple fight or flight reflex.

Nodding slowly, Quin couldn’t help but smile just a little bit, ”Not the one I’m most familiar with…but it makes sense.” she said. No, for Quin, things really were pretty black and white. Today Quin had fought, then Quin had run. The other things weren’t even a thought. Maybe that was something worth thinking about. Maybe jumping into every situation with both feet wasn’t the always the right call.

As she looked for a local station, Quin glanced over at Will, noting that he honestly looked pretty chill at this point…or just completely worn out and wrecked from the trauma and intensity of the day. It had been a day. Quin honestly didn’t know how she was doing so well. The adrenaline had to have worn off ages ago, was this just how things worked for her? Was it going to be one of those things where the second she laid down she’d be fast asleep? Would she have those weird dreams tonight where she thought maybe she was getting flashes and imprints from her former life?

Will spoke and Quin jumped slightly, pulled from her thoughts as she blinked a couple of times and nodded. That was probably the exact same thing she was going to do.

Was she up for it?

”You got it.” she said, starting the stream.

There was…a lot of cell phone footage. It seemed as though the news stations hadn’t wanted their people out in the fray. That made sense, miscreants and evildoers didn’t really respect press passes and there had been a fair amount of casualties over the years when they’d tried to put people out in the field.

The violence had been widespread and varied and there was definitely damage up and down the island.

It did however seem like things were settling down as the night progressed.

”Guess that means we’ll be able to get out tomorrow. Things seem to be settling down.”

That was definitely a relief. Maybe Michael and their friends had managed to get things under control. Maybe the bigger threat that they’d alluded to wasn’t going to actually come to fruition.

”Right?”

Quin shook her head and let out a disgusted little sound as Lee listed the reasons she had such a hard time finding sparring partners that would actually give her a challenge. Owing to her size, Quin didn’t tend to get dismissed quite as easily as some women, but it was always assumed that she was going to be slower or weaker than her male counterparts. A lot of times it was true, sometimes it wasn’t.

Still. It was gross on several different levels that Lee had experienced these issues to a degree that she hadn’t been able to continue her training until she’d met Michael.

Michael was excellent at breaking rules. The few times they’d worked together Quin had learned that lesson explicitly.

Lee had apparently learned a thing or two as well in that fight, but didn’t want a repeat of the aftermath. Noting the several places she knew were going to be bruised after today, Quin couldn’t blame the other woman.

”Well, then we will have to do this again…” she said. If Lee wanted to toss Quin around the mat, Quin wasn’t going to argue, maybe eventually she’d figure a few things out and be able to compete.

”Maybe a couple of times a month to start as long as you don’t mind potential sudden schedule changes? I can be pretty flexible, but on top of classes I’m an aide to Senator Lanyi when she’s in town. It all depends on the Senate schedule, but sometimes I’m basically on call.”

Again, Quin had to think that Lee was speaking from experience as she pointed out that sometimes there was nobody there to save you. Quin…honestly couldn’t relate to that in her recent experience. The redhead knew that she’d been in a situation like that at least once.

Once. Lee knew how to fight the way she did, hadn’t been taught, and spoke like she’d seen some shit….an Quin was waxing dramatic over a single bad encounter at a bar.

Quin shook her head, suddenly a little bit embarrassed.

“I don’t know when a law student is going to need to know all of this…it’s not like I’m in those kinds of situations very often anymore.” she said.

”But I do appreciate you taking the time to work with me.”

”The electric bits were just fine.” Quin said, “But the guy at the repair shop looked at me like I was an idiot when I asked if they could just fix the other parts.” she shrugged, ”Kept asking if I’d gotten it wet and put it in the microwave or melted it somehow.” It had gotten frustrating enough that Quin had just left and gotten a new phone…again.

She’d gone on an absolute eco-rant since then though and breathed a small sigh of relief when Will laughed a little instead off looking at her like she was a crazy person. Then he responded and she relaxed a bit further. Why she was particularly worried what he thought about her environmental convictions, Quin wasn’t sure, but there it was.

Working near the University, Will had been on the front lines of the plastic straw ban. ”And you said you’d never seen anything like today…you can’t tell me people weren’t up in arms.”

She smiled, ”Sea turtles are awful cute.”

Will continued and it seemed like he actually knew quite a bit about the issue at hand. Working in an industry that used straws gave him a unique perspective too. Quin had thought about the impacts to business owners…but the workers in the shops were another thing entirely. Paper straws did kind of suck, which is why Quin generally went with reusable bottles, despite what the disposable ones today suggested.

That thought trailed off and Quin had to marvel a bit at how they’d gotten on this topic. Chaos had reigned all day in the city, they’d both almost been badly injured or worse, and here they were ranting about sea turtles and microplastics.

Will was rubbing his arm where he’d been stabbed though and Quin frowned a bit, ”You sure you don’t want any ice or anything for that arm…?” she said, not knowing if that would actually help, but wanting to do something.

Shifting back to the topic at hand, Quin couldn’t help but think it probably seemed weird that a huge part of who Quin was centered around plastics and their availability and she was staunchly arguing against their pervasive role in society.

Will made the point that they should be looking elsewhere but weren’t because plastic was cheap and Quin nodded her head, smiling over at Will a moment later.

”We sure are good at getting deep at a moment’s notice.” she said. ”Might as well solve the world’s problems while we’re waiting for New York's to calm down.”