video:

[charring]

[There's one very normal looking Charlie looking into the device with a small smile on her face. It's an entirely relieved look, as minimal as the expression is. On occasion, her hand will reach up to rub at her mouth as if she's checking that those teeth really are gone. Which she is. She has a quick message for a few people but isn't bothering with filters. Mostly because she doesn't give a damn. It's not like any of this is super secret personal.]

Doctor Banner, thanks again for helping me out with my ever so delightful diet change. Hopefully, I won't need it again.

Tony, do you want the clothes you loaned me back? They're clean.

How's everyone else doing? I was...concerned. [And yes, that was just as hard to admit as it sounded. She's just not good with caring about people.

The video gets shut off. She's done.

She'll be outside, wandering the town for anyone that wants to run into her.]

Comments

[charring]

[The grateful smile is met with one of her own and she shuts her device off. She'll be knocking a moment later, waiting patiently to be let in.]

[bonesandskin]

[ He doesn't take very long to open the door. His exhaustion is mostly mental, though the very thought of having not slept the entire time he was changed leaves him aching. ] Welcome to my sanctuary. I'm glad to see we're all looking a bit more like ourselves today.

[ The room at large is dimly lit, mostly by the window, the contents left behind by the house's previous tenants shifted about and items collected from about town to make something of a home. Though it's all still rather wide open to allow for his habitual pacing. ]

[charring]

[Charlie steps in once she's sure it's okay to, taking a quick look around before looking at Oliver.]

There's a spare lamp in my room if you need it.

[In case it's too dim for him.]

You missed the couple days where everyone was hallucinating. It was interesting. I have yet to decide which...situation was more fun. That or the most recent.

[bonesandskin]

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind.

[ With the door closed behind his visitor, Oliver makes his way over to a couple of chairs, boxes stacked between them to make a table. ]

I can't say I'd have preferred hallucinations, myself. I somehow doubt they would have been something so easily escaped. Had I found myself unable to cope with our recent transformations, I'd have simply had to let my-- ah-- heart go out. [ A disturbing thought but there it is. Never mind his uncertainty as to whether or not that would have counted as dying. ]

[charring]

Hallucinations can be explained, though. What happened these past couple days?

[Charlie shakes her head. She doesn't like how easily they can be tampered with here. It's horrifying and will most certainly keep her up for a few nights at least.]

This isn't something I'm used to at all. None of it makes sense.

[But she looks at Oliver with a soft smile on her face.] I'm glad you didn't let yourself go out. It would have probably been upsetting without you around.

[bonesandskin]

Nightmares rarely make sense and this place seems to be a living one.

[ Though he is quite used to powers tampering with people as they please, his own recent experience has left him more out of sorts than most things he can remember.

He shakes his head, clearing his mind, and smiles, faintly. ] You got on well enough without me here before. I doubt anything would have changed much without me again. Though I do appreciate the sentiment.

[charring]

Yes. But, I like your company. I can't really say that about people back home.

[And since Charlie wants desperately to change the subject.] Is it okay to ask what it's like for you where you're from?

[bonesandskin]

Ah well. Thank you. I'm flattered.

[ His smile is a bit lopsided, sad, when he thinks about home. ] To be entirely honest with you, Whitechapel-- my Whitechapel was something far worse than this. Here, at least, we have something beyond smoke and iron. There are days when the Powers That Be leave us primarily to our own devices. There it was always evident that someone was watching, waiting for the chance to crush any dissent, and children grew up under furnaces and ash clouds. [ He laughs, quietly, and waves a hand to indicate the attic at large. ] Hence holing myself up here, I suppose. I'm still not entirely comfortable with nature, as it were.