a_second_idea | (no subject)

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They’ve been in this city for two days, and already Graham and Joshua have realized that Detective Sousa was right. They can’t leave. And they’d tried. Graham’s body had been exhausted by the time they’d finished trying to walk out of the city. They’d caught the train, followed a Nile delivery truck, paced the border where the world seemed to end… Nothing worked.

Graham had slept hard that first night, and Joshua had replayed Detective Sousa’s words and actions over and over again while he’d waited for Graham to wake. The man was clearly military, or had been at one point. That wasn’t the problem, though. The problem, as far as Joshua could see, was that Detective Sousa wouldn’t be any real help to them. Most likely he wouldn’t be a direct hindrance, which only means they won’t have to disable him. But they’ll need help if they’re going to get out of here: supplies, equipment, connections. Without Liz and Robin, they’ll have to find something new, someone new.

The entire morning of the second day had been spent going through the welcome packet and the new apartment. Sleeping in it the night before hadn’t been an issue only due to how tired Graham had been, but after a solid ten hours of rest, it occurs to them that there might be a risk in using an apartment supplied by an unknown entity within an unknown city government. So they’d gone through the packet together, used the phone to try to call Jamie, text Talia, call Morgan or Brooke and Deirdre.

Of course, nothing had gone through. Graham doesn’t lose his temper easily, and when he does, he isn’t one to throw things around, but the temptation to throw the phone across the room is strong.

I just need time, Graham, Joshua tells him. Once I have the right equipment, I will rip a hole into this biosphere large enough for us to leave. You know I can do it.

“And then what?” Graham asks tiredly. “We don’t know where it connects to our Earth, if it even does. We could end up ripping ourselves in half.”

You know I won’t let that happen, Joshua insists. I miss Jamie just as much as you do. I miss Brooke and Deirdre and all the others just as much as you do.

“They’re our family,” Graham murmurs.

Yes, they are.

They need some air. The apartment is too empty, too quiet, too close. Graham takes them out of the apartment and out for a walk. The city is as cold as it was yesterday, but one of the first things they’d done with the money in the packet was buy a jacket suited to the weather. With that shrugged onto their shoulders, it’s easier to handle. All the same, it isn’t long before they end up ducking into a cafe — not the Ahab’s they’d seen the day prior, just something small and kind of quaint.

Watch it, Joshua warns, but too late: Graham’s body bumps into another's, and Graham grunts softly.

“Fuck, we’re sorry,” he says. I’m not, Joshua says. I saw them coming. You’re still tired and it’s slowing you down.

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She was good at avoiding collisions most of the time, but she didn't have eyes in the back of her head, so when the older man ran into her, she glanced over her shoulder with a skeptical expression. She'd think he was trying to chat her up, but he genuinely looked a little bit apologetic along with looking very tired.

"All good," she replied politely, if not particularly sincerely. A lot of politeness wasn't sincere.

They know a brush off when they see one, but they both want to handle it differently. Joshua, of course, wants to start a fight. She can't know who they are, who Joshua is, and so he wants to inform her. Graham, for his part, has always been the kind of guy to want people to get along. Besides, they can't go around threatening everyone into submission, not least because they have nothing to back it up right now.

So instead of a fight, an explanation is in order. He can't tell Joshua without this woman thinking they're crazier than she probably already will, so he hopes Joshua can feel it coming and is willing to follow along.

How is this what you're calm about? Joshua asks sullenly, and Graham smiles crookedly.

"No, really," he says to her. "It's only our second day here, it's... been kind of a ride, so. We'll be more careful, though, we promise."

'We'? Joshua says, and Graham can only just tell that it's surprise at Graham's transparency, not a dispute about his own carefulness in the future.

She smiled with a bit more sympathy than she might otherwise offer to someone who'd bumped into her. The "we" was weird, but maybe he just liked talking like that. Some people did. If she knew him at all, she might ask who "we" was, but it really wasn't her business or her problem.

"Second day?" she repeated. "Welcome to the madhouse, then, I guess."

"Yeah, it's... definitely kind of crazy. Enclosed biospheres, dimensional rifts, temporal phenomena..." They shake their head. "It's all a little above our paygrade. So, I take it you're a, uh, an 'immigrant' too? It's just, your accent, you aren't from around here, right?"

She had no idea what he was talking about in terms of biospheres and phenomena. Clearly he was a scientist or a researcher or something, to use those words so easily. It reminded her a little bit of Tony Stark, who’d also talked like that sometimes. This bloke was much less interested in hitting on her, though, at least so far.

“Immigrant’s a word for it,” she agreed. “I’ve heard ‘arrival’ too, and ‘outsider’. But yeah, I’m definitely not from around here. It was Paris, 1997 for me, and then it wasn’t.”

"Oh, is that a thing we should be doing? Saying where and when we're from?"

That's absurd, we're not doing that, Joshua says.

"Well, you don't have to, but maybe it'd be good," Graham answers, letting their gaze slide away from the woman so she doesn't think he's saying that to her.

Maybe he had one of those tiny transmitters Section used to like so well, the kind that could barely be seen in anyone's ears. She wasn't exactly going to get out the otoscope and check.

"It's not a requirement, but it does tend to be part of regular conversations when so many people come from so many places."

Asking where someone lived or was from was a pretty normal polite conversation topic. The extra detail of when and how was just a Darrow specialty.

"Makes sense. If we're all from different places and times, different, what, dimensions?"

His voice and even a little of his demeanor changes suddenly, growing firmer and colder, eyes notably derisive.

"Joshua speaking: already this is a tedious underrepresentation of the truth. This body can't make the proper sounds to say where I'm from."

Voice returning to normal, he says, "Well, it sounds like— sorry, Graham speaking: it sounds like we can just safely use the last place we were, not where we started, too. Right?" That question is directed to the woman, who probably thinks he's totally fucking nuts now.

The line for the register moved forward a little and Nikita moved forward with it, which allowed her to put just a little bit of extra space between her and the man who apparently spoke with two voices and two personalities. She'd thought that only happened in bad movies.

"If that's easiest. Not like anyone's going to get out an atlas and make you point to somewhere. Honestly you could just lie and no one would know the difference."

She shrugged. If he chose to lie, that was his decision. She had lied about a lot of things in her life. Less so now, if she could.

Graham chuckles. "Fair enough." They step forward behind her, following the line easily.

"We're Graham and Joshua, by the way," they add. "Well. You probably figured that out already. Not crazy, just. Two people in one body, if you can believe that.

"Joshua speaking: very well delivered, Graham," Joshua adds sarcastically.

The only way she'd heard of two people in one body was conjoined twins. Two minds in one normally-shaped body was a little different. She wondered how that had happened and if it was some kind of personality disorder or something else. Knowing Darrow, it could be either of those situations, but until he started being a threat one way or the other, she could stand in line with him.

"Nice to meet you both, Graham and Joshua. I think I like Joshua," she noted wryly, since Joshua seemed to be sarcastic in a way that she appreciated. "And I'm Nikita."

"Joshua speaking: Ha!" He sounds darkly amused, the flash of a pleased grin on Graham's face before their expression becomes tolerantly accepting. "Graham speaking: give him time." He doesn't mean it, though, not exactly, and that comes through in his tone, in the gentle sort of laugh. "It's nice to meet you, Nikita. That's from both of us."

Nikita smiled as well. The way the two of them interacted was a little like watching Birkoff and Walter, if Birkoff and Walter were in the same body. That was a thought she'd enjoy re-thinking later, mostly because the arguments over what music to listen to or what to do with their day would have been very entertaining.

"Who gets to decide what you watch on the telly?" she asked idly.

"Oh, television?" Graham clarifies, before his tone changes again. "Joshua speaking: Graham, obviously. He's the one in control of the body.

"Graham speaking: If Joshua wants to watch something else, I'll change the channel. He's a person with—

"Joshua speaking: it'd be nice if you'd leave it on while you sleep, too. I get bored."

Graham can tell that Joshua is leaning into his usual cattiness, but he can also tell that he's feeling a little puffed up about Nikita saying she thinks she likes him. It really isn't often that people seem to. Graham doesn't mind letting him enjoy it while it lasts. He chuckles, shaking their head.

"Ah, but it's probably hard for him to sleep while the telly's on," Nikita argued. She couldn't sleep with the telly on, after all. Some people could or even needed to, but she wasn't one of them.

"Have you considered books on tape? That way he can fall asleep to it and you can stay up listening."

"Joshua speaking: a fair point, except that none of the literature on this planet comes close to anywhere interesting for someone like me." Their voice shifts into Graham's tone and they continue, "Joshua's a genius. Sorry, Graham speaking: he hasn't been too impressed by the things he's seen while we were at Red Camp.

"Joshua speaking: or since coming to this city, either."

She smirked. How could she not when Joshua sounded so incredibly arrogant that it tipped over into being funny? She was sure he didn't mean it that way, but that didn't mean it wasn't.

"Oh, so you've met our mayor then?"

The mayor was not impressive.

As so is often the case, post shift, Robby is in a world of his own. He's got his earbuds in, and he's thinking about what he's going to do for dinner, and the fact that Jack had leaned in against him for a moment while he was handing over, and...

And someone walks straight into him, knocking him back a step. He holds up both hands in apology and then reaches upt o take out one earbud.

"Shit," he says. "Me, too. I wasn't looking."

"Us either," Graham says, then rolls their eyes and amends, "Well, me neither. Apparently Joshua saw you just fine."

His voice changes, getting harder and just slightly deeper, and he continues, "Joshua speaking: I did. He's enormous, it makes him hard to miss."

In the same softer voice as before, he says, "Sorry, we're Graham and Joshua. We're new."

Well, that's weird. He's come across, one or twice in his career, someone presenting with DID, and he's also come across people with scizophrenia and other mental health disorders that had looked, at first glance, like DID. That's the first thing that comes to mind when the guy speaks to him in one voice, and then immediately in another, very clearly different voice. And then introduces himself with two names.

"Enormous is...harsh," he says. "I'm Michael Robinavitch. People call me Robby."

"Joshua speaking: it's not 'harsh,' it's true. You're almost a half-foot taller than we are." As before, Joshua's voice is deeper and harder, and now just a little bit indignant.

"Graham speaking: don't take it personally, Robby. Joshua's like this with everyone."

He offers Robby an apologetic smile. Brooke and Deirdre don't want him to apologize for Joshua, ever, and he's gotten better at allowing Joshua to be his own person, but that doesn't mean he always likes or agrees with what he says.

Edited 2026-02-07 22:03 (UTC)

The guy standing in front of him, whoever he is, is a little shorter than Jack, if he had to guess. Robby's been tall since he hit a growth spurt when he was fourteen. Unlike a lot of guys as tall as him with shoulders like him he doesn't feel a need to slouch to make himself look taller. Being a big guy comes in useful in the ER, more often than not.

Robby flashes his own smile.

"Don't worry about it," he says. "I've definitely heard worse."

Myrna at her best springs to mind.

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