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In the end, Valkyrie didn't drink that much, largely due to the fact that Jess had agreed to come home with her. Even if it was just snuggling on the bed she didn't want to miss out on it because she was in a drunken haze. Instead, she got herself slightly buzzed, where she was feeling good with barely lowered inhibitions.

"Not that I'm really into that sort of thing," she said, pulling Jessica into the cottage after her. "But this is our one year anniversary of dating, you know."

So, Valkyrie felt pretty pleased with herself for all this. She had tricked Peter into meeting her at the Catscratch Club for lunch to help her plot out her academic future; mostly via a combination of pleading, threatening to talk about making out with his cousin, and saying it would really help her get a jump on her education. The three pronged attack probably wasn't necessary, but she didn't want to take any chances.

She had arranged everything with the club owner beforehand. It wasn't going to be very many people, just those who knew Peter best would be waiting for him to arrive. Everything was pretty much low key, the purpose was for them to celebrate Peter's accomplishment. Or his future accomplishment. Either way, she wanted to do something nice for him because he deserved it.

Hopefully he would bring the article with him, she'd asked him to bring it or a copy so she could read it and he could try and explain it to her. She was hoping that he'd read it to everyone here, although Valkyrie knew that would be pushing it.

In the meantime there was some food and drink, plus most people seemed to know each other so there was some mingling. Once the guest of honor arrived they could start up with badgering him with congratulations, questions, and just generally embarrassing him.

[So, here is the surprise party to celebrate Peter's accomplishment. Tag each other, tag Peter, etc. It's timed for Saturday the 29th, so ST/LT is always welcome.]

Valkyrie didn't think she'd have ever really been one for doing something like laying out under the stars and just talking to someone. That seemed overly cheesy and romantic to her, which was not her at all. At least she hadn't thought that was her, but apparently now it was.

She blamed Jessica entirely. Because Jessica was fun to talk to, whether under the stars or not. Jessica also made her think about things that she normally wouldn't, like going back to school voluntarily. Not that Jessica ever pressured her or anything, she just made her think.

It was kind of frustrating, but mostly nice. Whenever she'd seen other people change because of their significant other she had assumed it was because of guilt or something. Apparently it wasn't always like that.

"So," she said, staring up at the sky. "I'm going to start taking classes next semester."

Valkyrie was more excited about this whole Rapture thing than she would ever admit. It was new and exciting and best of all it was dangerous. The dangerous part was what she was absolutely not admitting to anyone because she recognized that it probably wasn't healthy.

It didn't stop her from making plans with Jessica though to go explore the place. Jess was just as eager to go as she was, although she was more curious about what sort of technology and supplies were down there and where everyone was coming from. Which was, you know, sort of exciting in a boring way.

Before they were about to head down though, Valkyrie had something for Jess.

"I got this for you," she said, handing her a bundle wrapped in plain brown paper. "It's, um, an explorer outfit."

The crimson color had been a pain to match, especially since she had only seen Jessica's costume the once, but she was sure she was close. There were red cargo trousers with lots of pockets for storage, a red and white striped tank top, a matching jacket, and some red boots to top it all off. It had taken her forever to put the outfit together, mostly because it was a pain to find stuff in the right color and size as well as be flexible for all the acrobatics Jess might need to do. It was similar to Valkyrie's own outfit, only hers was in black and her trousers were a bit less practical and she had a katana slung across her back.

Valkyrie liked roaming along the edges of dinosaur territory. There was a good chance that she would catch a glimpse of a dinosaur while being left alone by some of the other animals of the jungle. Clad in khaki shorts, a snug tank top, and heavy boots she surveyed the area around her. She could see the head of some larger dinosaur lumbering in the distance, but that was all for now.

Adjusting the sword strapped to her back she took another sip of the canteen attached to her belt before moving further west along the border. Maybe she'd come upon something interesting a bit closer to the beach.

Valkyrie had ended up letting Jessica wear her jacket while she had found a nice woolen overcoat that someone had been drunk enough to be willing to part with. She had to admit that Jessica looked pretty hot in it, even if it didn't necessarily go with her dress. At some point, she was going to have to convince Jessica to try the tight trousers and leather jacket look.

She was pretty sure that the pier had been the right way to go. The air was crisp and new and while Times Square hadn't been crowded, there were fewer people out here she didn't see anyone around that they knew. Privacy felt important right now, even if she totally wasn't nervous and those were not butterflies in her stomach. Not at all.

"I'm glad you suggested the pier," she said, squeezing Jessica's hand as they walked down the pier. "Perfect place to chime in the New Year."

Valkyrie was glad that she didn't have to hound Peter too much to make sure that he showed up for the picnic. She tried to make sure that she was understanding of his schedule and didn't assume every time he said a certain time wasn't good for him he was just making up excuses. In the end, they settled for a Sunday afternoon not all that far from the Compound.

It wasn't anything fancy, mostly just leftovers from whatever meal was cooked a few days ago with a lot of fruit and vegetables. An exciting meal wasn't the point, the point was to give Peter a reason to get cleaned up to have human contact with someone. Valkyrie hoped that after she saw him he'd start to pick himself back together at least a little bit. The guy lost his wife, so she wasn't expecting a miracle, but hopefully knowing someone cared about him enough to check up had helped.

So, with warmed up boar burgers and some side dishes, Valkyrie waited for Peter to show up. She'd give him five minutes past the agreed upon time to show up before she started hunting him down. If it came to that, she would find him.

As much as Valkyrie was willing to offer up her cottage to Sonya and the twins, she was somewhat dreading it. She adored the babies, but she remembered all the screaming that her own sister had done when she was little and was not looking forward to losing any sleep to them.

The babies though didn't make so much as a peep, or if they did Valkyrie slept right through it. Really, the only major inconvenience the whole experience provided was that she felt compelled to clean her place up and considering how dirty it had been, that ate up a large part of her time.

All in all, it hadn't gone as poorly as it could have. She had been scared for the safety of Sonya and the kids at first but then she remembered that in this situation, Sonya had the clear advantage. Her husband had had some sort of freaky magic powers back in their world, but here he wouldn't have them. The guy would still be a competent fighter, but he wouldn't have his full arsenal and Sonya would.

It had ended up being a pretty normal night in the end, for which she was grateful. If the safety of the babies hadn't been a factor, she would have almost wanted something exciting to happen. As it was, she was rather happy with how everything had turned out.

Valkyrie was more nervous about lunch with Edward than she would ever let on. It wasn't that she wanted Edward to like her, she didn't care about that, not for her own sake. But she wanted to get along with him because he was or was going to be the boyfriend of one of her best friends. Also because of that though, there were things she felt she needed to tell him.

She wanted a public place like the mess hall though to help keep herself civil. A public venue would hopefully keep it from getting too heated a debate and she continued to remind herself that she was doing this for Bella, not for herself. This was about making sure her friend was treated properly. She could totally be selfless about this.

When she saw Edward enter, she gave him a small wave to let him know where she was and waited for him to sit. She wasn't sure if he was actually going to get lunch, but she had grabbed a plate of fruit for herself to munch on while they talked.

It was time to stop hiding. That didn't mean she was going to fully integrate herself into island society again. She still wasn't going to go to her dance classes, especially not with Percy there, but she had decided to go ahead and live in her own place again. As grateful as she was to Charlie and Edmund for letting her crash at their place, she wanted to be back home.

She had left notes in the mailboxes of everyone that had gone home with everyone. They simply said I'm sorry. -Valkyrie

She wasn't sure what could be said beyond that. She hated herself for what she had done to them, even if becoming Darquesse had been to save them. In the end, she hadn't been strong enough to save her friends, not from herself. Not only that, but each time she became Darquesse, it was harder and harder to find her way back. If it hadn't been for the ending of the dream, she wasn't sure if she would have come back from that.

Then there was the fact that all of her closest friends now knew her secret. It wouldn't have been so bad except that her secret was that she had the potential to become some sort of crazy-powerful nut job without any conscience. Go her.

Sighing, Valkyrie curled up on her couch and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd just sit here for a while and try not to obsess over what happened. Later, much, much later tonight she would head to the ring and take out some anger on one of the bags and maybe go for a run along the beach.

[This can be set for any time between the 1st of June and now.]

"Arlight, so, zombies are coming. That's a thing that's happening."

She should have known that after a week of relative peace "at home" that something bad would happen. Or maybe since this was her dream, thinking something bad would typically happen might have made it happen. Dreams were confusing like that. What she was clear on though was that this was going to be bad. Also, there was a good chance that any of her friends hurt in this world would be hurt on the island.

It had started slowly enough that they'd had time to prepare. They'd gotten some weapons and fortified the mansion as well they could. It had been obvious pretty early on that the zombies were focusing on all of them. Valkyrie thought maybe it was her they wanted, but when she separated from the group, it hadn't drawn all of the zombies away. So they were making a stand.

Skulduggery was off looking for the source and mustering as many sorcerers as possible to help, but Valkyrie didn't know many of them, so consequently there weren't a lot of them in the dream to help out. But they totally had this, right?

"Bella, Jessica, no offense but you two are sort of... non-combatants. So unless you have an objection, I think having you take support roles would be best. Steph, Cass... you two do your freaky superhero thing. Perseus, since the house is near the beach, maybe you can draw water to cut a moat or something around to slow them down. We can win this, because it's my dream and I believe we can. Also, if you get bitten, please restrain yourself before you get turned to save us the trouble of having to do it. We'll find a cure after this is all over. Or you'll be dead back on the island in which case there's not much we can do. Questions, anyone?"

Valkyrie had managed to beg some money off of Skulduggery for her friends. At first she argued that since all of this was a dream and he was just a figment of her imagination, then it was really her money that he had. Skulduggery was less than convinced. When she promised to pay him back, he finally coughed up enough money for them to go to the pub.

The fact that this wasn't really her home had been crushing to Valkyrie. She hadn't wanted to believe it, but meeting Tanith, the real Tanith and not one possessed, had convinced her that this wasn't really her home and one of the strange dreams that people on the island sometimes had.

Just because this wasn't really her home though didn't mean she didn't want to see her family. They were her family as she remembered them, and that was good enough for her. First, she needed to make sure her friends were taken care of, hence the trip to the pub.

"Now remember," she told them. "I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll bring more money too. Try to have fun. Percy and Bella, please remember you have the faces of a famous actor and actress. I know this is a dream but... it really, really seems like the real world to me, so people will probably act accordingly. Drinking age is 18, be responsible and I'll see you all later!"

With that, Valkyrie was out the door of the pub and haling a taxi. She loved her friends, but she wasn't going to wait another minute to see her family.

Valkyrie had gotten used to the sounds of the jungle during her time on Tabula Rasa. She had already been accustomed to the sounds of the beach from home, but jungle sounds were a lot different from city sounds. For some reason, the absence of them startled her awake more than any other shift in her environment did.

The room she was in was bigger than her hut, she could sense that right off. Even if it was so dark she could still barely see out, the room felt big. She tried to control her breathing and act like she was still asleep, straining to see if there were any sounds that would give away where she was. There was nothing though, other than the generic sounds of a large building.

Sitting up, she ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face as she tried to get a gauge on her surroundings. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she thought someone was playing some sort of trick on her.

She was back in her Uncle Gordon's home (although legally it was her home), back in Ireland. She'd had this dream before, although never quite so realistic as this. Did that pinching thing really work? Valkyrie pinched herself and sure enough it hurt. So, she was not, not asleep? Or something, that really had confirmed nothing.

There was one way to tell if she wasn't on the island though. She was almost afraid to try it, afraid that it wouldn't work and what that would mean. Holding out her hand, Valkyrie clicked her fingers.

And flame leaped to the tips.

"Yes!" Valkyrie shouted, laughing almost hysterically. It worked, her magic worked. She was home.

"I'm home! I'm really home! Skulduggery! Uncle Gordon! Anyone here? I'm home!"

She knew the chances of anyone but her and her uncle's echo, but she didn't care. She didn't care who it was from her world, she just wanted to see someone.

The changing of the island to the old west had thrown off Valkyrie's date plans just a bit. She had actually planned a really cool date with Jessica only to have the entire island screw things up by changing into the American old west. It was like they were stuck in a horrible theme park.

The one saving grace was that she had been able to coax a decent looking outfit from the clothing box, where most of her friends had been stuck in some really horrid dresses.

As it was, with a few days preparation she'd been able to figure out a fairly decent substitute for the date she had originally planned. All in all, it had taken a little bit of hard work and a note to Jessica to meet her closer to 3 o'clock than to one but it was going to be worth it. If things went well, maybe she'd have to see if Jessica wanted to try her original idea once they got back home. In the mean time, she thought this would be pretty fun.

The fact that Jessica was so fun was the only thing keeping Valkyrie from being overly nervous at the moment. This was her first official date with a girl, which was kind of a big thing. Did she like girls? Did she just like Jessica? Are you there God, it's me Valkyrie?

Well, either way, whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. Unless, of course, Jessica stood her up.

Rapture was spooky. It was like it was a horror movie setting come to life below the ocean. Big, abandoned buildings with some of the areas even flooded in. Valkyrie had even seen one weird person looking statute. She wouldn't even have come down here except that at some point the ITF had closed it off and Valkyrie hated being told there were places that she couldn't go.

Besides, she had heard that if you looked hard enough, you could find weapons down here, and Valkyrie very badly wanted a gun. So she was down here looking all over the place for anything resembling a gun. A knife would have been good too, but not a gun would be best. She had even run across some bullets and had placed them in the pockets of her large coat.

She was dressed in her 'work clothes', black trousers, shirt, jacket, and boots to better blend into the shadows. She didn't think that there was much to be afraid of down here, but it would have been stupid to assume that and not be cautious.

She had been down in Rapture for the better part of four hours and was ready to give up for the day when she kicked aside a broken piece of wall and heard the sound of metal scraping across the ground. Crouching down, she lifted the piece of wall and grabbed the bit of dull metal that was underneath.

Guns weren't really her specialty, so she had no idea what kind it was a revolver, but it was a gun.

"Jackpot," she whispered, grinning to herself.

Valkyrie wiped the sweat out of her eyes and for not the first time since arriving on the island, lamented the loss of her magic. She didn't realize how many tiny ways she had used it every day, for things even as simple as keeping a cool breeze on her so she didn't get all sweaty. In a place as humid as the island, that skill would have been very helpful.

It was a minor thing to be annoyed about, but it helped take her focus off of the way her arms and shoulders were burning. The practice sword that Edmund had made for her wasn't terribly heavy, but she had been drilling with it all morning. She hadn't learned much yet, but Valkyrie was a dedicated student and wanted to learn everything to perfection.

Leaning the sword against a tree, she got a drink of water from her canteen and massaged one of her shoulders. She was mildly pleased with how hard the muscle there felt and wondered if maybe she should go hunt down Percy later since she felt like she was looking especially good in her sleeveless tank top and yoga pants.

Nodding to herself, she picked up the practice sword again. She would practice for another hour, then go see if Percy wanted to get lunch.

Valkyrie felt a bit out of it. Only a bit though, she wouldn't admit to being more than just a bit. She had only had a little bit to drink at the party, mostly just because she could, and made sure she didn't get all out drunk or anything. Besides, she'd had a pretty fun time of it. It was just all a bit much with everyone there knowing each other and being such good friends that after a while she couldn't quite take it anymore. She didn't expect to fit in right away, and she didn't begrudge anyone their fun, but after a while she had to get out of there.

She hadn't been in her new place long, only just a week or so, but already it was becoming to feel uncomfortably like home. It was a cute little cottage that she couldn't imagine why no one would have snatched up so far, but when she saw it she loved it. It was almost ridiculous with how picturesque it looked.

Valkyrie almost felt like she was violating the wholesomeness of it with her costume. Trinity from the Matrix was not all that wholesome. But that's what the clothing box had given her, and she thought she had looked good in it so she went for it. Besides, it reminded her a bit of her clothes from back home.

Yawning and stretching, she stumbled over to her bed. It wasn't late and she really shouldn't fall asleep in her costume, it wasn't exactly breathable, but she just wanted to crash without too much introspection. Flopping down into her bed, she gave a happy sigh as her head hit the pillow. Reaching out she pulled close the stuffed bear that Percy had won for her at the fair and closed her eyes to fall asleep.