IC Inbox [Folkmore]

[goongal]

For contacting Casey through the Relic or any misc. threads!

Comments

Gasp am I breaking this in or is everyone screened

[licensetocrane]

[A couple weeks after their fae stakeout, probably, you get this unfamiliar woman video-calling you. April may have forgotten she's a bit older currently--]

Heyyy, Casey. Uhh... you got a sec?

[Voice be familiar, tho.]

Congratulations, you're our first customer!

[goongal]

[Casey looks absolutely bewildered for a moment. But her voice and the rhythm of the speech... It helps it click together, but it's very hard to believe.]

...April O'Neil? ...Is... Is that you? But you... You look so cool...! [It's hard to process!]

WOO

[licensetocrane]

[OH RIGHT. She breaks out into cackling, but it's softer than usual. Mainly so she doesn't re-get some other Casey's attention, cough.]

I know, right?? Apparently this is how I look twenty years from now. I clean up real good, huh?

[goongal]

[A slow nod.]

Yes, I- I admit it. ...You age incredibly well! [But she's sure that her own older self must look even cooler. She'll just avoid asking this April about it to spare her self-esteem.]

You must keep up an incredible training regimen. Have you called just to brag about this? [She can't blame her. She'd do the same.]

[licensetocrane]

Sadly, no. Though put a pin in that, I'll remember to brag later. [She grins, but then sobers up.]

Listen, what's happened to me is happening to a lot of others, only in the other direction. Lotta kids here, suddenly. And some of them, uh... don't remember being adults?

[Get to the point, O'Neil.]

[goongal]

Yes, there's plenty of strange shifts like that happening currently. I myself was a child not too long ago. I was quite precocious!

[She smiles nostalgically as she thinks back.]

[licensetocrane]

Aw, man, I wish I'd have seen you! I woulda taken photos.

Uh. Soooo like mother, like son, I guess?

[She's just gonna. Pan her phone around to show a six year old Casey Jr, devouring his very first (that he knows of) ice cream and probably still nursing an ice cream headache.

...and then because she knows Casey, she is going to turn the volume way down.]

[goongal]

[Probably best to mute it. As Casey's eyes take in the sight, she lets out a high-pitched squeal.]

That - that - is that - my son? Son-sized?? Boy? Baby baby baby boy???

[She looks trapped in a state of surprised glee!]

[licensetocrane]

[Bless. Lovin' this reaction; she's just a lil sad she has to get serious about this in just a moment. April will give her a few seconds trapped in the glee loop and then:]

Listen. How much did Casey tell you about where he's from? Like...what did he say about you?

[goongal]

[She's snapped back to reality, for the most part, by April's question. Casey frowns thoughtfully as she thinks back.]

Well I know he's from a time where an alien invasion has wrecked the planet! I - did not really ask for details! [She wonders now if she should have?] About me specifically... Mostly that I'm his mother and that I'm awesome. [Maybe not in those exact words, but Casey gets the vibe!] What else is there to know!

[licensetocrane]

[Ooohhh, yikes. This means she's gonna be the one to break the news. Can't really blame Future Boy for not throwing that at her in the rest of the revelations, but... she takes a deep breath.]

So... you should know that where Casey's from?

...he's the sole survivor.

[Saw that for herself in glorious 4K.]

[goongal]

...

[Her smile falters, and she goes silent for a moment.]

What do you mean by 'sole survivor'...?

[She says that slowly and uncertainly, as if there's any number of things it can mean, aside from the only definition she can think of, which is giving her a growing sense of dread.]

[licensetocrane]

[Oh, that's uh. Kind of an awful but expected reaction. Very gently:]

Exactly what it says on the tin, Casey.

It's an alternate future now. He came back in time to change things, and he did. We did. [Because it occurs to her that maybe Casey doesn't know that part.] But for this little kid, you're his lost mother.

[goongal]

[He did mention an invasion and something about a different future, but she didn't really thinks about how bad it must have been. At least not in terms of survivors - she assumed there were a numbers of hardships that they all survived together.

Or maybe she was desperately trying to avoid that possibility. Already she has trouble believing it.]

L-lost? [She repeats, with a frozen smile on her face and tears building in her eyes.]

I- I don't understand. I am going to be his mother! I will be there by his side every step of the way, won't I? I have to be. I need to be there for my child!!

[licensetocrane]

You will be. For as long as you could have been! [Casey's upset is catching, and she bites her lip as it makes her realise that at least April lasted all the way to the end, but Casey... died. Early. And she still has no idea how. Not like she can ask Casey Jr that, especially not right now. But one thing she's pretty sure of:]

It's not like you to ever do anything by halves. You wouldn't have left him alone unless you had no choice. And you didn't leave him alone. Leo an' the others raised him well, but you made such an impression on him. He knew who you were the second I showed him your picture. He loves you very much.

[...] I'm really sorry I had to tell you like this. I know it's awful.

[goongal]

[Her heart is racing. In a bad way. A panic-y way! She does hang onto April's every word, but it's hard to really extrapolate any comfort or positive feeling in general when it feels like her newly discovered world is collapsing on her.]

I- I'm dead. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die on my baby boy!! What- what kind of mom... This cannot be!!

[She drops down to her knees, dropping her phone in the process. It still manages to catch her in the corne of the frame, crouched down and crying her eyes out.]

No!!!

[licensetocrane]

[Oh shit fuck panic-- she stares in shock for a few seconds at the implosion, and then April does a possibly unwise thing and jumps right to the thrust of her conversation, voice higher-pitched and a little panicky (and possibly a little loud, her son might be able to hear this--)]

Casey! You can still be a mom to him now! He only just lost you, he needs you!

[Which is NOT how she was gonna bring this up!! But oh god, please just stop crying, she's a sympathetic crier!]

[apuckalypse]

[It is indeed just a little too loud, though the actual context is lost on Casey Junior's young distracted mind. There's a pause, and he comes wandering over with the ice cream cup she'd left with him - hers, not his own, which is very much empty now - and offers it out.]

Want it? It's melty now.

[He thinks she called him, of course.]

[goongal]

[She does hear April's words... and then his voice. It might not sound the same at that age, but Casey Knows. That's her son. Hearing that, all of April's words connect in her heart. She rushes over to pick up the phone, while hastily rubbing tears from her eyes, though there's still snot by her nose.]

I'm here!! I'm fine!! Everything's okay! I- am here!!

[licensetocrane]

[April manages a watery grin at that, and kind of. Braces herself.]

Hey, Jones. How about you hold on to that for me, and I hold on to you? [Like. Come up here and talk to your mom on the phone, yeah?] You remember how I told you people are here from different times?

[apuckalypse]

[Sorry April, that ice cream is getting forgotten. Just as Casey Sr. could hear his voice, he can hear enough of hers that April's words are somewhat lost on him. The leftover ice cream drops to the ground in a messy clatter, and he reaches both hands up urgently, eyes wide.]

Mom? I heard Mom! Is she back? Mom, I'm here too!

[Yeah, here come the waterworks.]

[goongal]

[Look at him!! He's even more adorable and precious as a child! Casey is now pretty much glued to the video feed while more tears build up in her eyes.]

Y-yes! Son!! Mom is here! I'm alive and I'm here and everything's going to be alright little man!!

[licensetocrane]

[Okay, well at this point April gives up trying to be dignified about it and just drops down to sit cross-legged on the ground, hauling baby Casey into her lap and holding the relic up for him. Her voice is friendly and not at all wet, shut up:]

Jones, you better get your ass here now, then. We're near the ice cream food truck outside the apartments in Epiphany.

[...dammit, now she has ice cream on her ass.]

[apuckalypse]

[He's getting all up in the relic's grill, pressing his little nose to the screen, hands pawing at it like he can get his mom to crawl through the screen. He of course understands distance communication - anyone in the fam would know even so long - but logic isn't really kicking in, at the sight of Suddenly-Not-Dead Mother. He's baby, he can be somewhat excused.]

S-sensei- sensei said- everybody said- you- Mom-

[goongal]

I'm coming!! Mother is coming, precious baby child!!

[The moment April mentions their location, Casey starts bolting towards the nearest station at top speed while still holding the phone in front of her.

She can hear his every word, and given what April says, she can guess how that sentence ends. She can feel her heart breaking, and tears stream from her eyes, ensuring that the path she takes won't suffer from any kind of drought.]

I- I'm here now and I'm on my way! I don't want to leave you, I promise!!