[ tlv ][ voice ]

[interns]

[ there's some part of her that wants to come at this optimistically, to come on the network and ask instead of going with what logic tells her, what she's learned about this place and how it works. as crazy as the Barge can be sometimes, there are some things that happen fairly often, frequently.

the meaning behind someone's room disappearing, for example.

so instead of the hopeful tone she might normally adopt at a time like this, to try and seem like she's Okay and she's Handling Things and she's only checking in about this to give people some reassurance, she sounds maybe a little tiny bit

definitely absolutely heartbroken ]

I know it's only been a few days since he left, and I know he said he'd be back, and I know this place likes to mess with us, but if Peter's room is gone, does that-

[ she pauses, swallows. she's got that same head-swimmy feeling that she got for a while when she was still getting used to Spider-Man being on the news, shown in these horrifying situations. saving people from a burning building, standing between an armed robber and their way out. it's that slow-drip feeling of dread that she's never going to see him again. which is dramatic, but that's what it is.

so no, she doesn't have to ask what that means ]

Peter Parker's room is gone.

Comments

[tucky]

... I'm glad you stayed.

[For Mason's sake, mostly; she knows he absolutely adores Gwen.]

Maybe he's gonna come right back, and he thought you wouldn't even notice 'cause it'd be so quick? I don't know.

[interns]

Part of me wants to stay optimistic, part of me knows that rooms don't disappear unless the person that lives in that room isn't coming back. Not for a long time, at least.

[ wow saying it out loud doesn't make it any better at all does it ]

It's good, that he went home. --Okay not good, but he has a life there that he spent a long time keeping on pause because of this place.

[tucky]

But he was a warden. He wanted to.

[interns]

True. But that doesn't mean he didn't miss it. And I think he really did, after this long. Like he was here for my sake more than his own.

[tucky]

Who's his inmate?

[interns]

He didn't have one. He's helped others graduate before, but he hadn't been paired for a little while. I think that's why he chose to go visit Bond now.

[tucky]

Can you ask the Admiral what happened? You think he'd tell you?