PSL: Travels outside the Barge (w/Malcolm)

[empathicfault]

Piloting their new ship is a little difficult. It takes reading the (somehow enclosed) manual back-to-front and learning the control panel, now situated in what looks like a little closet on the window side of the living room. It's in the new hallway that leads to the small courtyard, which Will intends to decorate once they get this one chore done first.

Thankfully, the majority of the controls are intuition-based, going off the person who puts their hand on a small orb on the panel. The rest, as it turns out, is tweaking. And luckily (or otherwise), no tweaking is necessary for their first flight.

They're heading to Will's home world.

But Will doesn't specify where, just a year later than he left. he inadvertently brings them to where he'd left. The door opens from a wall of Hannibal's cliffside home, and looks out onto the driveway. The Dragon's wings are still there, staining the cement. They overlook the grey day and the churning seaside.

Will finds himself stuck in the doorway, unsure whether he's compelled to walk out and remember or slam the door shut and take them elsewhere.

Comments

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiles softly.

“I don’t want you to feel like you’re being… forced to feel a certain way ever again. I want…” He looks at their linked hands, the matching beaded bracelets on their wrists, then he looks up at Will’s face. “I want everything you let in from me to make you feel safe and valued and free and… warm.”

He looks over at the house, then looks at Will again.

“Thank you for showing me the place where doors opened for you… and you chose who not to be.”

[empathicfault]

"I did, didn't I?" He raises his chin a fraction of an inch, the beginnings of a real, satisfied smile on his face.

Will turns from the cliff, back towards the building. "You do make me feel all those things, of course. All the parts of you. No wonder I've found you addictive."

He smirks slightly and winks, looking over to Malcolm. It's clear he's in a good mood now. Before the trip, he was tense as a piano wire.

"Okay, let's...head to the real destinations. Molly first, then we'll find Jack." As a treat, after the difficult conversation.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm’s smile at the compliment is almost bashful, but his eyes sparkle brightly at it too.

He glances at the abandoned building as they pass, then looks at Will sidelong.

“How long do you think it’s been since… the cliff?”

[empathicfault]

Will's eyes shift from their door to the real front door and the windows beyond.

"Hmmm... I'd say six months to a year and a half? That plastic over the window won't last much longer than that. But we can grab a copy of the Herald when we're in town and check for sure."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods, holds Will’s hand a little tighter.

“Do you think Molly thinks you’re dead? Are we going to give her a heart attack?”

[empathicfault]

"She's got a good heart. She'll be fine," Will replies with a small smirk. "And I'm counting on the surprise, if I'm honest. It'll make the rest of what I have to say a little less unbelievable."

He squeezes Malcolm's hand back, and pushes the door open with his free hand. "I'll take us to a town nearby first. We can do some research before we head over."

[abrightboy]

They step inside the ship and Malcolm tugs on Will's hand just enough to pull him into a gentle kiss.

"Do you want me to come with you or do you think it'd be better if I stay in town?" Or on the ship.

[empathicfault]

Will's eyes shut and he allows himself to thoroughly enjoy that kiss, gentle as it is. They can both use some comfort right now.

"I'd rather go off your preference, for that. If you want to be there or not. I know this situation is...well. Insane. And you already have to deal with that enough with the occasional Hannibal intrusion on the Barge."

He starts pulling Malcolm gently towards the console room, just so they don't have to part yet.

[abrightboy]

“I don’t want to make things awkward for you. And… I don’t want you to be obliged to explain me to her on top of everything else.”

He glances around the controls, then looks at Will.

“And I’m sure I can amuse myself in town,” he says with a small but warm smile.

[empathicfault]

"It's going to be awkward, either way." He smiles ruefully at the console, as he flips off the trans-dimensional setting and checks the rest of the various settings twice.

"But sure. Still contact me anytime, okay?" The communicator only leaves his pocket when he's answering it, and Malcolm knows that.

The travel goes quickly- nearly instantaneous, even. Apparently, traveling inside a planet is no problem for this thing. The door steps out in an alley next to a small (but bustling) Main Street. Will had decided on one of the nearby mountain towns as a stop, as he'd be less likely to be recognized there.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm follows Will out, looking around as they emerge into the street. He smiles and looks at Will.

“This is the area where you lived?”

He always enjoys learning more about Will, even if the details are small and/or only Will-adjacent.

[empathicfault]

"A little to the west of it, yeah. Our space was slightly more suburban..." He looks around, gets his bearings and points down ones side of the street. "That way. Here, follow me."

He leads them across street and to a general store. The front looks new, but it's clear this building (and every other building on the street) has been around since the Gold Rush era. There's a very distinct feeling of shops that have outgrown their space doing whatever they can to for back into them.

The general store is mostly groceries, but also pharmaceuticals, camping, and fishing supplies. Will isn't heading in, however, aiming for the stacks of community newspapers, sitting in between a giant wood-carved bear and the door.

"Thirteen months later," he declares. Then, quieter- "...and under a year until the pandemic, if we're going to have one." He searches for emotion attached to that and finds very little- save an increased desire to convince Molly to leave.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm watches Will's face, rather than the newspaper. Will can read the date without his help.

"I... wish I could say it wasn't that bad, but... it was so bad," he says with a wince. "That wasn't reassuring," he chides himself. He glances around. "A small town will definitely fare better than a big city," he adds honestly. "And it's even better if she lives outside of town." He looks at Will. "Does she still live in the house where you lived?" Because maybe he'd like to see it from a little bit afar before briefly parting ways with Will.

[empathicfault]

Will reaches for Malcolm's hand, giving him a small smile. "You don't need to reassure me. It's a pandemic- it's going to be rough. If she doesn't take me up on it, I'll try to give her some advice."

With that addressed, he continues. "She's probably there. It was her house before ours. Her first husband died when Wally was six." He was a hunter, which meant Will had stag heads in his house. He'd thought it rather fitting, right up until the letter came.

"You want to see it? It's two acres. I'm sure she's still got the dogs. She picked up more strays than I did."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm squeezes his hand and then holds on tight, but at the invitation he tries not to look too excited, though he fails.

“That’d be okay?” he confirms. He really doesn’t want to impose. But. A house Will lived in!

[empathicfault]

"Of course," Will says, amused.

He's lived a lot of places, to the point where he doesn't really feel like he's from anywhere. But Malcolm's always so fascinated by his past, like Will graced it with his presence. It helps him look more fondly on places he didn't give much of a thought to before.

"I'll set us up just outside the property. You can get a good look at it."

[abrightboy]

He keeps hold of Will’s hand, which is probably how he manages not to walk into anything as he looks around on their way through town.

“This kind of place for sure is better for you than a city. I’ve never lived in a small town. Does everyone really know everyone? …I guess the Barge is a small town. I don’t know everyone there. Maybe it has higher turnover than an actual town…”

[empathicfault]

"It is definitely the sort of town where everyone knows everyone, which is why I came to one I've only visited a couple of times. I was infamous before the scene I left at the cliff."

They reach their door and Will pushes it open, setting them in their kitchen. "I'd really like to talk to Molly before Freddie Lounds gets in my face. God, she probably made the aftermath hell for Molly..."

Ah, there was the guilt that made him decide to come here in the first place. At least he'd earned this one.

[abrightboy]

“That’s the reporter, right?” Malcolm confirms much more soberly. He knows what it’s like, their lenses in your face all the time on the worst days of your life. “I hope she didn’t find them that interesting when you weren’t there anymore.”

[empathicfault]

"No, she-" Will licks his lips, frowning in distaste. "She's always been obsessed about following me, even before anything suspicious happened. Even after Hannibal was incarcerated. I'd say it's a wonder Hannibal never killed her, but I think he liked her lack of shame."

He shakes his head and points them towards the console, much less worried about setting it this time. He was far more familiar with where they'd be going this time. "No, I bet she's still got someone watching out for them- if she's not doing it herself. Make sure you keep your eyes open for anything glinting in the trees."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods soberly.

“I’m… familiar with that glint. I know what I’m looking for.”

[empathicfault]

"I thought you might be," Will replies, with a sad smile.

The travel happens with a switch and a thought. When the front door opens this time, it's onto a small copse of trees, and a little creek running through them. The tree Will has picked to shove their door onto is almost wide enough to hold the door, but a little crack of space appears in parts where the door isn't flush. Will walks out with his hands in his pockets.

The house is on the other side of 'their' tree, and they're effectively hidden from view. It's large and looks like it belongs right where it is, among the douglas fir trees. There's a big wrap-around porch and rustic touches. It's at the top of a hill they're standing at the bottom of.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks up at it, his eyes a little wide, then he looks at Will.

“You lived here?” So lovely and rustic and isolated. “Did you love it?”

[empathicfault]

Will stares up at it. "I should've," he eventually says. "...I wanted to. It's everything I thought I wanted. A good home, a family, a house with lots of space. More dogs," he adds with a huff of a laugh.

"But it wasn't quite right, for some reason. I always felt like a stand-in, like someone's unwanted understudy. I told myself it was...imposter syndrome. That I'd grow into loving it as time passed. But..." He trails off.

[abrightboy]

“He had a hold on you already,” Malcolm says quietly. “What did you do when you lived here? Not FBI work,” he assumes.