scruffy_looking | (no subject)

It's been a couple weeks since this hole in the world had shown up in Darrow. Han had considered crossing over into it, had come awfully close more than once, but he's heard stories about people meeting their doubles and that's pretty much all that's kept him from taking that step. He'll never admit he's worried about what he might find, that he doesn't want to face a possible alternate version of himself that's either far more successful or just a complete idiot. Han doesn't want to have to deal with either one.

Then there's the possibility of who else he might find there. Another Luke or Rey or Poe, maybe even a Leia, and it all seems a little too daunting. For a man who's spent his whole life smuggling and fighting and getting out of sticky situations, it's stupid to be worried about something like this, but Han hasn't been able to overcome that block. Until today.

Today, he'd gotten out of bed, made himself a coffee, and walked straight to the cemetery. What's changed, he's not too sure. All he knows is there's no way he won't regret if he doesn't cross over at least once to the other side, just to see what he might find. There are a few other people crowded around the breach, maybe having the same kinds of thoughts he is, and that's when he sees her.

"Karen." He calls out her name, heading toward her with a hand lifted, then nods toward the breach when he's close enough to her. "You going through, too? Guess I shouldn't be too surprised." Han flashed her a smile. "We like getting into trouble, right? Doesn't seem like there's any better way than doing this."

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"Not met in person," Karen says, shaking her head. "One of the council members over there is… the same as someone I’m friends with over here, except different. If there’s a me, though, I haven’t seen her." That, as far as she’s concerned, can only be a good thing. Whatever another version of herself might be like, she isn’t too interested in finding out, or learning what they do and don’t have in common. If there were one, she doubts she’d be so eager to continue making trips over to the other side, spending as much time over there as she possibly can.

Then there’s the article about John, too, but she’d promised him she wouldn’t say anything about it to anyone, and she means to keep her word. There isn’t any reason to bring it up now anyway.

"I haven’t met another you, either," she adds, smiling crookedly at him. "So all things considered, it could be worse."

"Well, that's unfortunate for you, meeting another me would probably be the highlight of your day."

Actually, hearing Karen say that comes as a huge relief, but he just smirks and steps through the breach without another word. Han doesn't know what he'd expected, maybe a tingle or something while passing through, but he blinks and is suddenly in a Darrow that suddenly feels less familiar. There's no fanfare, no significant change in the air, and if it weren't for the way the city looks different from what he knows, Han would think nothing had happened at all.

Somehow, that seems even stranger than the alternative.

"Okay," he says, scanning their surroundings like he's looking for something, though Han wouldn't be able to say what. "Where to?"

She's grown used to this by now, crossing through the breach, finding herself on the other side, facing a mirror image of the city she just left. It's almost strange to think about, how she could find it normal, but then, for her, at least, the world has changed so much in the last few years anyway that it really should be no wonder that she's gotten used to this, too. Superheroes and aliens and shit like that — there might as well be a hole between dimensions. It's not pushing things any further than her showing up here in the first place.

Having a friend here with her, though, that's new, and she smiles as she looks over at Han, just this side of mischievous. "I guess that depends on what you want to do," she says. "Usually I find somewhere to hole up and work, but there's plenty to look at."

"Where's the fun in that?" Han teases, stepping forward, even if it's a bit cautiously. It's not like he thinks anything's going to happen, the ground isn't going to open up beneath them and swallow them up, but that doesn't make him any less suspicious of what they might end up finding. Sure, Karen's already been here and lived to talk about it and yeah, even if they do get into trouble, Han's confident they'd be able to get out of it one way or another; but there's still that possibility, however slight, that he'll see something he can't unsee. Learn something he won't be able to forget.

It's that kind of stuff that freaks him out, the stuff that'll get under his skin. Everything else, he can handle. Hell, he's up for the adventure.

"I have no idea what I want to do," he admits, shrugging a shoulder. "Didn't really know what to expect. Maybe something a little more exciting."

"Yeah, it's really the portal, or whatever it is, that's the exciting part," Karen admits, pulling a face, though she's laughing as she does. She finds excitement in far more than that, too, but she doesn't expect everyone to be as taken with all the details as she is, or to want to try to document them. This city, like the one they just stepped out of, has its own definition of normal. She wants to understand what that is and why it came to be, to take in every last bit of information she can, to maybe figure out what's going on under the surface. She's picked up bits and pieces of things, but it isn't enough yet, her picture an incomplete one.

Today, though, isn't about that. Her journalistic pursuits can be temporarily set aside in the name of having fun with a friend. "I mean, aside from the buildings and some of the technology — and, God, the clothes — it's not really too different. Or it is, but not in the ways you can see. But I'm sure we can figure something out."

"I'd suggest a drink but that's pretty much what I default to every time we meet up," Han says, which isn't actually a problem as far as he's concerned, but they can probably find something else to do here. Something that might even actually be worth taking back to their Darrow.

"You learned much about this place yet?" he asks. "Does it pretty much run the same way as our city or what? We could go poking around for that kind of information. We're just a couple of upstanding citizens trying to understand our history better, right?"

"That's what I'm always trying to tell people," Karen says, half-teasing, her nose wrinkling as she smiles. "Sometimes, if I'm lucky, they even believe me." She's done alright thus far, but she'd also started with the very basics, getting her hands on everything she could that's public knowledge and working her way up from there. In both its similarities and differences, it's hard not to find this place fascinating. Even if she weren't looking to try to really understand it — to make sense of what's under the surface and put that information out there — she suspects curiosity alone would have her doing the same thing. "It's not totally different, from what I've figured out so far, but it's worth trying to see what we can find out."