After March 9: the broken locks were a warning you got inside my head

[girlsolo]

Ever since she found Finnick screaming for Annie, Kate's been restless. Strung tight like she hasn't been for months now. Not even when she realized B (Buffy, not Bella) was gone so soon after William's Uncle Jack. That'd just been sad, in that slow, aching way that punching bags or bodies doesn't help.

She can't sleep, even with Declan, and since Bonny keeps him up about half the time anyway, it'd be a dick move to take up more of his sack time with trying to tire her out. It probably wouldn't work anyway. Running, swimming, surfing, training, chasing kids, playing hoops, target practice, nothing works, and it's only gotten worse since Bella fell.

If she does sleep, she dreams of Thad getting eaten by the Sorkel instead of Constantine, or seeing dad get blown up but turning into Jimmy at the last second, or Will turning into a Psillobar or not coming back after Kali, or Biggie dead and Magnus batshit and it really doesn't take her shrink best pal to work out the kinks in her psyche (not that kind, but he can probably figure those out too, which is why they're never, ever talking about it). She's freaked out about the roots she's putting down here. Even more freaked out about not having anywhere to run when it hurts too much to stay. And don't even get her started about not being able to protect the people she's let herself care about.

It's late, it's dark, drinking just makes her emotionally sloppy, getting high makes her think too much. She's sick of everything and crawling out of her skin. So what makes a blind run down to the Compound a good idea? The promise of a shower, maybe some tea, and a movie at the end of it. She can watch movies on her laptop, but she left it at Declan's and the last time Bonny licked her in her sleep, she had dreams of being trapped in a cave with a million squirmy worms.

So she's scanning the bookshelf for something decent to watch instead of choosing from everything she loves in her own space. The hot shower and tea have just managed to soothe the sharpest of her edges off when the light catches on reel in a shiny case, fallen on a diagonal in a gap between two others.

Kate freezes.

Sanctuary

Instantly the edges are gone and Kate busts out all over spines. Like a porcupine or pufferfish. But she can't help reaching for the reel. And the next one. And the next and the next and the next and the next. Seven in all. Kali, pts 1, 2 and 3, which she shoves in the hemp bag she brought with her. She knows what that is. Penance, she knows that from the script, and shoves it away too, all the way to the bottom. Metamorphosis, and maybe Kate's not the most educated person but she remembers the Kafka jokes from when Will was turning into that thing and that goes into the bottom of the bag with him dying to save the world from a giant sea spider, while she swallows back the acid and the chill. The Bank Job's pretty self-evident, and even makes her smile a little. If Will knew, if they hadn't agreed not to tell him, she could show him that reel. They'd had fun on that job. But she can't, so she bags it too.

The last one's called Acolyte and she can't think of anything that's happened that might get that title. The smart thing to do is bury them before they can fuck her up more, but it's like Danny with Grace. Kate has to know. She has to know what's happening to Hank and Biggie, to the versions of Will and Magnus, Declan and Tesla and herself that she left back home.

Wishing there were somewhere private to watch these things, Kate edges over to the projector, head low and trying not to catch the attention of any of the other night owls. She fumbles the canister open with shaking fingers and snaps the film onto the arm. It takes a couple of tries to get it fed through, but she does, starts the film, hops the back of the couch and then sinks low into it.

It starts with Will's voice saying "Previously on Sanctuary" and she laughs nervously. That dissolves at Magnus looking gorgeous and talking to Will. It cuts to a guy she doesn't recognize talking about Hollow Earth saying they just signed the Sanctuary's death warrant.

"Typical genre melodramatic bullshit," she mutters to cover the catch in her chest at seeing and hearing Biggie, then Will, Declan and Henry are driving through the jungle talking about Magnus and where is she?

Will shouts, "Magnus, come in. You've got to get out of there now--!" and then a hotel explodes. It crumbles like the Twin Towers to the sound of Declan, master of British understatement saying, "My God."

Credits roll, Kate can't decide if she loves the music or hates it, but she knows how this stuff works, so she's not panicked about Magnus blowing up. Not yet. But exploding buildings and people she cares about…yeah.

Half an hour later, she's seen herself come up from Hollow Earth - she's living down there? - to deliver a message to Magnus, interrogate some dude from species she doesn't know with Will (who says Hollow Earth is treating her well), find a bunch of dead humans and Abnormals and uncover a key piece of evidence in a terrorist plot. Biggie's brainwashed. "Fuck this fucking show! Goddamn it! It better not be real!" because she's crying and she doesn't cry and that's before she and Magnus get through the gate guards "the old-fashioned way," "Krav-Maga them" according to this Addison asshole, and she smashes Biggie in the head with a fire extinguisher -

To keep him from blowing himself and her and Magnus up with his suicide bomb vest.

They get him out, but the hotel explodes anyway, their van rolls, and Kate sees herself unconscious, battered, bleeding ,and Magnus sounding terrified when she calls her name. Cut to Will sitting by a bed reading, her bed, she realizes, and they do the wake up dance. She's been out for a week, Magnus did two surgeries, Sally's been helping remap Biggie's brain and Kate's…

Running her fingers over a bracelet. The bracelet. The goddamned bracelet that was in her jewelry box. What the hell?

"Did the doc say when I'll be well enough to travel?"

"Calm down, okay? You just woke up."

"I just really should be getting back to Hollow Earth. People will be worried."

"Is that a… Herusan promise band? From Garris? I looked it up."

"Yes."

Yes?!

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"Oh, fuck me sideways." Kate pauses, her stomach flips over in a tight, hot knot and her voice is raw from crying. "Seriously?" She doesn't even know this Garris guy.

[[ooc: There's a youtube full episode here and a transcript here. Feel free to find Kate at any point of the episode. If you come before she starts the reel, she may not or may choose a different one, depending. Caveat: Cerie and Callie do not want Magnus and Will canon-punctured, so if yours are going to need to tell them, please don't tag. ]]

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[blackb3ltbarbie]

Phoebe hadn't been able to sleep, the feeling of restlessness getting the better of her as it had the last few nights. So, she'd made her way to the compound, again only this time she heard Kate's voice and it brought her into a room where a scene was being played out on the screen. At first she thought it was home movies that Kate was watching until she realized with the cuts and angles that it was a TV show. Her eyes widened just a bit at that revelation and as much as she knew that she should probably walk away in this private moment, Phoebe couldn't resist the urge to go and sit by her friend if she needed comfort, even if it was only silently given.

She smiled slightly when she saw Kate's visage on the screen upturned toward sunlight. It was a familiar pose on the island, absorbing the warmth. Phoebe silently took a seat near enough that Kate could see she was there but far enough away that she didn't intrude on her 'space'.

[girlsolo]

Kate hears the movement behind her and she closes off, definitely not inviting conversation. But it goes quiet again and Kate goes back to the images on the screen.

She can almost feel the sun on her face when the scene shifts and she sees herself there. The movement and sound in the room becomes Phoebe sitting on the couch and Kate acknowledges her with a nod. Phoebe's fine. Whatever's happening here, even her dodging Will's questions about some "Garris" isn't a problem.

"Turns out there's a tv show about us back home," she says, not bothered by that. It's kind of off-handed, even, since she's more ticked about that damned bracelet being hers from home than anything else yet. "Not sure yet if it's all made up or some kind of documentary."

[blackb3ltbarbie]

Kate had told her that it existed, especially knowing Kirk was on the island, but this was the first time that it was more than something nebulous. She felt like she was dream walking in one of her visions only with someone that she knew rather than her own. Phoebe had never told Kate or anyone that she was a witch, or was one, she wasn't sure how that technically worked without powers.

"Can you tell from how it's playing out if it could have happened or is the situation and actions of everyone something that wouldn't happen?"

It was always hard to tell if it was a vision of what could occur if steps weren't taken to avoid it or what was written in stone and going to happen. Like a future memory.

[everyone_takes]

"You got hurt," Kate says, not even sure why she's up this late, let alone in the Compound. She should be back at her place with Effy, but Maxxie's there, Marshall's there, they're keeping her safe, too, and she needs a break for something to eat and maybe a shower.

But instead she's standing here in the door of the rec room, watching Kate lie in a bed on the screen. That's the really shitty thing about this place, she thinks. Everyone gets hurt or they have bad shit happen to them and then, like it's not enough that it's happened, the island has to show it to them.

[girlsolo]

Kate stiffens at the sound of footsteps behind her, or maybe at the conversation on the screen. Seriously? She thought it was just bling when it showed up before, but it's some kind of 'promise' ring or something? What. Ever.

Then the footsteps get a voice and she kind of half relaxes. At least other-Kate already knows about Biggie, if he comes back on the screen or whatever. She doesn't look back, but answers, "Yeah," a little sharp, but almost dying in an explosion's nothing. "SSDD. Getting engaged, though. The fuck?" It's not really an invitation but it's as close a one as Kate's going to get.

[everyone_takes]

At first she still hesitates, but she thinks if Kate wanted her to leave, she wouldn't be wondering about it anymore. If Kate wanted her to leave, then she'd definitely know it, so she takes a few steps forward, then settles on one end of the couch, her knees pulled up toward her chest. It isn't like the video she found of herself sitting on a cake. She made that video -- the girl she is in the future did, anyway -- and this is something else entirely. It wouldn't surprise Kate to find something like that about her own life, but she doesn't want to. Can't imagine how weird it must be.

"So this is... your future?" she asks curiously. A little cautiously, too.

[first_pink_lady]

Rizzo walked in just as the screen panned down to show Kate, knocked out and bloody in broken glass, strapped into a crashed van.

"Christ," she said, before she could stop herself, because a flick of her eyes down showed that yes, that was Kate herself watching this flick, and this was personal, private 'This is Your Life' shit that made Rizzo's stomach twist into knots at the memory of seeing herself up on that screen belting her heart out.

"Oh, honey," she said, and it's not pity so much as apology and regret for barging in and, alright, a fair bit of shock at seeing a gal like Kate up there broken like that.

[girlsolo]

"SSDD. Not even close to the first time," Kate says, the half-snarl in her voice for the Crixorum and what it did to Biggie, not the chick she's talking to. She'd tell Rizzo to get lost, but she kinda feels she owes her something since Kate knows pretty much her life story and all the songs that go with it.

"In or out? Not sure how this is gonna end." It's easier to keep an edge about it with someone else there.

[first_pink_lady]

Rizzo didn't exactly know what SSDD was, but she can't take her eyes away from the screen, not when Magnus was trying to reach Kate and failing. Kate doesn't yell at her to get out, so Rizzo doesn't bother making herself leave. "Yeah," she said, and was sitting down to watch more easily before she registered moving.

[chasedthestars]

"Kate?"

He's been present for a while now. Walked into the room with a smile that only brightened for the sight of Kate, but she didn't see him, her eyes fixed on the projection with an intensity that makes Jim look, too. He doesn't understand what's happening, but he can feel that it's important. It's in the line of Kate's shoulders, the deep shadows between her brows, the white press of her lips. He spends more time watching her than the projection, but at a new voice he looks up again, recognizing that craggy face at once.

Biggie, she'd called him.

Jim detaches himself at last from the door and doesn't stop until he's crouched between Kate and the images on the wall. "Katie bug, c'mon." He doesn't know what the hell is happening, but he knows enough to have made a decision. "Maybe we take a break, huh?"

[girlsolo]

Kate knows there's someone there, she always knows what's in her environment, but she can't look away. For once on the island, she trusts that it's safe long enough to do what she needs to do. So she's surprised when it's Jim. Pissed, too, because he reminds her so much of Jimmy. I'm Jimmy, by the way. Hi Jimmy, I'm...? Who's about the only person besides Biggie and Will who's ever seen her cry.

She dashes at her face with her wrist, scrubbing at the telltale streaks and spits out, "No. I have to see what happens." And then a beat later, because he is who he is, she dredges up the attitude and the snark to say, "And did you seriously just call me Katie-bug?"

[chasedthestars]

"Too cutesy?" Jim asks, but he knows she's well past smiling right now, and sits down next to her. "Okay. But I'm staying, too," he says, eyes flicking back to what's happening on the wall. It's hard to get a handle on what it is. That's Kate, and those are others he's seen on the island, but the scenes move more like entertainment than documentary. Reenactment? If so, why? "What are we looking at here?"

[trytobegood]

I had seen the moving pictures known as movies since coming to the island. It was all very strange to me, though many here seemed to find such a phenomenon commonplace. I supposed it was part of being from so far in the past, in comparison to much of the population. Either way, I did not take much of an interest in the projector that sat in the rec room, nor in the reels it played.

It was for that reason that I focused on Kate, not on what she watched, when I first entered the room. I studied her body language, using the tools Phedre had given me, the gifts my mother had passed on to me. I noted the tension in her shoulders, the set of her jaw, the tear tracks on her cheeks. I saw her fault-lines, the weaknesses she hid so well, but also the strength she possessed.

"Oh, fuck me sideways," she said as I moved to her, sat next to her. A crude joke passed through my mind, spoken in Eamonn's voice, and I brushed it aside.

I opened my mouth to tell her to shut it off and promptly closed it again. Hadn't I always wanted to know the truth? Why wouldn't Kate have the same desire? "I can stay, or I can go," I said instead. "Tell me which you would have me do."

[girlsolo]

There's a snarl that rises to Kate's lips, curling the corners of them and urgent desire to punch something, someone, anything, anyone, when Gorgeous stops lurking in the shadows and comes to sit beside her. Her fingers curl in tight fists on her thighs and she would have him fuck the fuck off.

Except that it's almost over now and she won't risk missing something to say it. Even if Imriel deserved it and he doesn't. So she just shakes her head tightly and keeps her eyes fixed on the screen.

When Biggie says that crap rise from below line again, she actually laughs. Sharp, dark and bitter. "Bullshit. No way he goes back to that. No way Magnus gets fooled twice. Bullshit."

And it gives her back enough of herself to turn and look at Imriel. "How much did you see?"

[trytobegood]

"Not much," I replied. "Enough to know it was somewhat personal, about your life, events you mayhap have not yet lived through. I do not need to know more, unless you wish to tell me." I could see the anger, curled within her, and I sat, quiet and still, waiting to see what she would do.

[seeyousoonthen]

Savannah stood by with her eyes on the screen. It was so strange to see, though it wasn't beyond reason. She'd heard of more than one person who had seen reels- Jack and Logan both. She herself had read a book and although she probably shouldn't have, she couldn't help herself from learning what happened after she'd arrived here, even if it really was John's story.

Fuck me sideways got her to move forward and she slowly moved up next to Kate and sank down beside her.

"You found one of you," she said quietly. "I found a book about me."

[girlsolo]

"Found a script awhile ago," Kate says, quiet and tense, fingers curled in fists against her thighs.

It's almost over, she can tell from the sound of the reels and the pace of the 'episode' if that's what it is, so she keeps her eyes on the screen for the last business with Biggie. That makes her want to laugh. She doesn't believe Biggie would ever betray them again or that Magnus would be fooled. He's playing double-agent.

Kate does lift a hand to gesture to the screen at the big furry guy. "That's Biggie. Bigfoot. One of my best friends. It's bullshit, that. He's infiltrating." Somehow it seems important that Savannah know. That she get it, that Biggie would never hurt humans. That he's one of the good guys. Like Savannah.

[seeyousoonthen]

"He's one of your best friends?" Savannah asked, looking at the hairy man-thing curiously. "Do you miss home, Kate? When I read the book the shelf gave to me I missed home so very much."

So very much was an understatement. Reading about John and Tim and thinking of Mr. Tyree and Alan and her momma and daddy had sent her spiraling down into the worst depression she'd felt since that year after she'd spent spring break with John.

[thedevamper]

"Why Katherine I didn't realise my mere presence turned you on quite that much," Nikola said to Kate's little outburst. It's not like that he hasn't thought about it, once or twice or a dozen but really fucking Kate sideways really wasn't in the cards at the moment. And not just because he actually liked having Declan as a friend which was a fact he was never going to mention outloud. "Not that I'm not flattered dearest Kate but I'm a little busy right now to be satisf- are you crying?"

[girlsolo]

"No. My eyes are rolling so hard I sprang a leak," Kate tries to snarl, but it lacks the usual bite. Biggie's okay, so she's not crying anymore but this is seriously fucked up. Her hands want to shake from tension when she unclenches her fists and pushes them through her hair instead.

"Wait." She actually turns and looks at him. He's not freaking out at the screen. Her eyebrows hitch upward but a knot in her chest loosens. "You know. About the reels. And you're not freaking out." Kate's not going to look too close at why Nikola knowing makes it hurt so much less.

[thedevamper]

Nikola smirked at the snarl, sliding into the space beside her. Offering her the bottle of rather disgustingly rough alcohol, Nikola rolled up his sleeves and smirked a little more at her astonishment.

"I met a... fan. And why would I? It's just a show, true it's about us and it's lacking in quality well me time but it's just that. A show, why should I care about it?" Nikola replied. "Parallel universes, alternate dimensions, they're all distinct possibilities. And well, as you can see, in one of those we're entirely fictional."

[gonnabefine]

Were it up to her, Olivia would have chosen not to walk in on what should have been a private moment. Finding out one was fictional had to be a blow no matter how well adjusted that person was, and though she found she liked Kate in some strange way, she didn't think she was the sort of person to be there while she watched...whatever it was.

She saw just enough - Kate on the projector, Kate in the rec room - to immediately back out of the doorway, bookshelves already forgotten. Olivia busied herself for a little while in the lab, hovering over Walter, but she eventually made her way back down the hall, hesitation in every step.

There hadn't been anyone else in the room. Olivia knew Kate had friends, but she couldn't just turn away again. Not when she heard Kate's voice.

She pushed the rec room door open and walked in quietly, still only a few feet from the door. Just in case.

"Kate?" Olivia's voice was loud enough to be heard over the projector, but low enough so as not to startle her, if she hadn't already heard her walk in.

[girlsolo]

Kate hears the footsteps at the door, she hears them pause after the door opens and hears them retreat and the door close again. It's early enough in the 'episode', she's distanced enough that she can think through that enough to realize it's probably someone who knows her deciding to give her privacy. She's grateful, even though she doesn't care as much as she probably should.

Yeah, she doesn't want her life to become the island's entertainment, but better Kate Freelander, Sanctuary Network than Kate Freelander, petty larcenist if they need to know anything. That is, even assuming they care. Why should they? She wouldn't.

But the images on the screen roll and Kate sinks deeper into the couch, her and Will, Magnus and this Addison cat, Magnus and Henry, her and Will and - fucking fuck - the bracelet and whatever she's not talking about. Biggie, god, and then she is glad whoever it was went away. If Biggie's gone bad, she doesn't want anyone to know it. He's good. The best thing in her world and if something fucked that up, the only thing she can still do for him is protect their memories of him and make sure anyone else who ever learns about him doesn't think he was bad. That Abnormals are. The Biggie she knows would want that.

The tears are still streaking her cheeks when the door opens again, but this time she's only barely aware of it. Biggie's okay, or gonna be, and that's the big thing. But there she is, larger than life, can't miss it, mooning over that bracelet and the guy that gave it to her.

Kate?

It takes a second to place the voice. Long enough to scrub at her cheeks, as if it's gonna fool anyone with one good eye. Long enough for her to check the screen and see the bracelet between Kate's fingers. Long enough to see the big furry guy talking to Magnus.

"Well-played, island," Kate says mostly to herself and then cocks her head and waggles her hand over the back of the couch in invitation. She can't peel her eyes of the screen, but she can armor up enough to deliver a smirky, "Well-timed, Dunham."

And then Biggie's saying from below, we rise again and Kate concludes this little adventure with an explosive, "Oh, that's bullshit!"

[misanthrope_md]

House didn't spare more than a glance at the screen.

He plopped down into a chair not far from where she was sitting, leaning his cane against the side. After a few seconds he said, "You know, the accepted strategy of dealing with those things is to turn them the fuck off."

[girlsolo]

"Yeah, well. I never met a bad idea I didn't instantly love," Kate says, managing a terse tight smile. He's right. She really should turn it the fuck off and walk away. But she can't. It's like a train wreck and she needs to know. She needs to know that it was a trick like when Magnus "shot" Biggie.

She turns her head to look across her shoulder at him while Magnus is reading Addison the riot act. "You can't tell Magnus about this. Any of it. The reels. The Big Guy. Hollow Earth. She can't know." As weird as it is to be the one keeping these secrets instead of Magnus, calling these shots, she has to. She can't defer it to Will and when it comes to the Big Guy, she's not deferring it to Declan either. He's her best friend and it's her call.