Another Theft

Madripoor served two purposes. One, if they were collecting spares, another TemPad wouldn’t go amiss, which meant getting the attention of the TVA. Two, clothes were clothes.

Though the two dressed more low-key, just vanishing into the crowd. No one had done much to react to them yet, which meant minimal variance; places like this seemed a good place to hide, if it could be kept up.

It also gave them a bit of time to figure out the best way to be a pain for the TVA. Neon lights flashed overhead.

Sylvie brushed shoulders with one of the drifting people in the crowd. There was a flicker of green.

“They didn’t do anything,” Ava whispered, as they walked on.

“I only looked into their mind,” Sylvie said. “Besides, I don’t want to wear rags. There are people in this city that live in a little more luxury; I think that’s the best place to start filling out our wardrobe.”

“I’ve heard a little about this place,” Ava said. “Had a mission here a while ago.”

“Remember much?” Sylvie said.

“It wasn’t like this,” Ava said. “Whoever’s in charge now is different, and I don’t know much about the lay-out. I never needed to know where the doors were.”

They ducked into a club, a touch from Sylvie granting them access to another seething crowd. Ava gestured, identifying something that looked like a way up above the publicly accessible nightclub. Sylvie nodded, and they slipped through together, enchanting another bouncer on their way.

They climbed the stairs together. Sylvie couldn’t help but smile, a little exhilarated despite herself; it had been a while since she’d been just surviving. Okay, hunting for clothes so she wouldn’t spend another few decades naked wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was a little more enticing.

The upstairs of the club couldn’t have been more unlike the crowded mass belong; the floors and walls were clean, and empty, no sign of anyone and every indication very few people walked through it. The paintings on the wall, too, to Sylvie’s amateur understanding of Midgardian art, of a much higher quality than the cheap decorations below.

“Looks like the place a higher-up would live,” Ava said.

“And somewhere our presence would cause variance,” Sylvie said. “Remember.”

“Run through the portal, I know,” Ava said.

The two wandered for a little, walking forwards. Remarkably quickly, someone rounded the corner, raising a gun:

“Who are you, and what do you want?”

She had a dark blonde hair, well looked after while giving the impression of being unkempt, and a hard look in her eyes. Her clothes were far from high-class, a cheap hoodie and jeans, in contrast to the wealthier surroundings. Carefully, Sylvie stepped in front of Ava, lifting her hands in a pretense of compliance.

“Just visiting,” Sylvie said.

Then she darted forwards. The woman shot, though it did little beyond leave a faint bruise on Sylvie’s palm as she grabbed the woman’s hand.

She could just have enchanted Sharon – as she learnt the woman’s name was – to take her clothes off. Still, she added an extra command, just for the fun of it.

Sylvie stepped back. Ava watched.

“Still not over how you can just do that,” Ava said.

Sharon undid her hoodie, helpfully throwing it near them. Ava started to gather it, briefly distracted by the sight in her peripheral vision; Sylvie never took her eyes off the blonde. She unbuttoned her shirt, a loose-fitting practical thing, offering a tantalising glimpse of a well-worn bra. She dropped that too, and kicked off her shoes so that she could undo her jeans.

Her underwear was mismatched, but it didn’t matter for long. She undid her grey bra, dropping it off of her arms, letting it hang for a moment before dropping it into Ava’s hands. Her breasts might have been modest, but she was undeniably pretty. Then she slid her black panties down her legs, revealing the last bit of her, a well-trimmed tiny strip of brown in contrast to her hair, before standing up, fully naked.

Rather than swaying for a moment before coming back to herself, as Ava had seen before, the green glimmer never went out of Sharon’s eyes; instead, she walked past the two, her rather toned butt swaying as she walked, and down the stairs to the club.

In retrospect, that probably made baiting the TVA a waste of time, they’d be materialising in too crowded an area for it to be easy to get to them, but it was worth it.

“Did you tell her to do that?” Ava said.

Sylvie smiled playfully. There was a panicked scream a second later, the last thing the two heard before Sylvie led them through a portal back to their outpost.

Ava put the clothes with their other supply, arranged into each kind of garment. The pile was sparse, but at least it existed.

“It’s a good start,” Ava said.

“It’ll last,” Sylvie said. “Though better to add more sooner rather than later. We can start again tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Ava said. She paused. “What do you do out here?”

“Fantasise about ****,” Sylvie said, matter-of-factly.

Ava hesitated. Sylvie sat down, looking out over the landscape.

“It is fun,” Ava said. She paused for a moment. “You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Shouldn’t I?” Sylvie said.

“Stripping women isn’t a hobby I’ve heard of,” Ava said. She hesitated again. “And I get wanting more clothes. It just seems that it’s a bit more than… just that, sometimes.”

Sylvie frowned. Ava sounded more curious than disapproving, though it wasn’t wholly clear what she was getting at. Eventually, Sylvie just shrugged.

“I get what I need, and they look pretty during,” Sylvie said. “Why?”

“Thought so,” Ava said.

“Thought what?” Sylvie said.

Ava faltered. She had an odd smile on her face, but she shook her head quickly.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said.

A while passed on their abandoned planet. Ava was careful to not disturb anything, more paranoid than Sylvie at leaving a trace. She didn’t like what she’d heard of the TVA.

The novelty of being on an alien world hadn’t entirely worn off, nor had the… uniqueness of her company.

“Does every trip need to be to get clothes?” Ava said.

“Do you have something else you want to do?” Sylvie said, sceptical.

“I’d… like to see myself,” Ava said. “You said I’d been replaced by a version of me where you never showed up.”

“That’s how it works.”

“I’d like to see,” Ava said. “Just, curiosity.”

Sylvie looked at her. It was hard to tell if she was bothered; she seemed more like someone who was surprised she wasn’t annoyed. She shrugged.

“Why not?” Sylvie said. She reached for the TemPad. “I need a time and place.”

They found the coordinates Ava had been at, and added a bit of time, almost just for the sake of it. Ava felt more trepidation than she expected when going through.

It was hard to put into words just what was motivating her. She’d heard about the TVA, glimpsed them once or twice, but time travel was a lot to get her head around. And after an alien world, it was almost comforting to be in the familiar environs around her home.

She kept back. Sylvie stayed close by her; this wasn’t about doing anything that would draw attention, she was just curious. She could hear some voices, evidently there was some activity, but it was distant enough that she didn’t care. It wasn’t her life any more.

She squinted, looking through the trees. And there! She was there, another here, in the white suit she’d grown so accustomed to, blurring like a ghost. Another life.

A life she would have led.

If not for Sylvie. Rescued from the tedium, the pain, that whole life. She glanced back, expression soft.

It was… kind of overwhelming.

“Wait, I hear something over there.”

Ugh, people outside her home. It was something of a relief to not worry about all the tech thefts and consequences any more.

“Time for us to go,” Sylvie said. Ava nodded.

She waved her hand vaguely, hearing the buzzing of some insect, but ignored it as she followed Sylvie back through the portal. It took her a second to adjust to the other landscape, as it always did.

They were a little way from the outpost proper; Sylvie started to walk over to the place where she kept their food and clothes, only for Ava to grab her hand. She was more hesitant than she’d expected.

There were a lot of things on her mind. Admittedly, some of then were trivialities. Shoes that didn’t fit, the cool air on this world that felt just a little different, the seemingly perpetual starlit sky…

And then there was the fact that she really couldn’t go back to Earth. She’d heard that, believed that, but now she’d seen it. She was with Sylvie, perhaps indefinitely. She could see a little of herself in the blonde; pain, drive, focus. She didn’t know if Sylvie saw the same, if Sylvie cared, but there were two things on her mind.

One, she’d be with Sylvie for a while, on an alien world with very little to do, and she was interested in growing closer with her. Two, Sylvie seemed to have rather more than a merely academic interest when she got women naked.

“Wait,” Ava said, thoughts still whirling slightly.

“I did warn you,” Sylvie said. “The TVA’s pruned your timeline. That’s what there is if you go back – the version of you they want to be.”

“Not that,” Ava said. “I know. I’m just… grateful.”

Sylvie’s eyes widened for a moment. Apparently she hadn’t expected kindness.

“It was… lonely,” Ava said, slowly, trying to find the words. “For you as well?”

Sylvie looked away. Ava squeezed her hand, until she turned back. And meeting Sylvie’s eyes, slowly, deliberately, Ava pulled her shirt up off over her head.

It was still the woman on Asgard’s shirt – what had Sylvie called her, Jane? – comfortable, fairly loose. It was also Jane’s bra she had on underneath. Ava felt her cheeks warm, but pushed past it, trying to gauge Sylvie’s reaction.

There was some surprise there, not unexpectedly. Her mouth formed a small O, and she seemed briefly unsure of what to say – crucially, though, Ava saw willingness. She smiled, hopefully, and reached back to undo her bra.

It slipped off easily, her light-brown breasts exposed to the cool alien air. Her nipples hardened swiftly, only partly from the cold, brown peaks on her chest. She swallowed.

“Sylvie?” Ava said.

“Lonely?” Sylvie echoed, eventually,

Ava’s cheeks darkened, embarrassed. Still, Sylvie echoed her own motions with slightly shaky hands. Her own shirt, from that Jessica, came off quickly; she was braless beneath, her breasts moving as her arms dropped the top, a gentle sway of her rather generous proportions.

Sylvie blushed, though it seemed a more welcome one. They both paused for a moment, not sure who wanted to make the next move.

It was Sylvie, in the end, unfastening her stolen jeans; she slid them down over her remarkably slender hips, revealing that there, too, she had nothing on beneath. She kicked off her shoes, and stepped closer to Ava.

“It’s, er, been some time since…” Sylvie began.

“Same,” Ava said.

She wasn’t sure if Sylvie was about to kiss her or undo her pants. In the end, she did both; Ava felt her hands hook around the back and push, thumbs pressing against her butt to drag her panties down too. Ava squirmed, wriggling to get them off, suddenly far more aware of the heat of the other woman’s body against her, than she was the chill air against her back.

It was a couple of minutes before they heard the telltale sound of a TemPad time portal opening up. Rudely interrupted, the two nude women quickly sat up, Sylvie’s face bright red with equal parts irritation, self-consciousness, and embarrassment.

They were out in the open; some way from the outpost, over the coarse ground, was a smoother outcropping that served much better for laying against. Sylvie quickly rolled down off of Ava, slipping into a more secluded spot; at the same moment, Ava turned her head and saw the outline of an orange portal, visible just over the top of a small feature of the landscape. Before she could roll off and hide with Sylvie, an agent turned around the hill.

“There! Oh for… another one?!”

Ava crossed her arms over her chest, and pressed her legs together, suddenly not sure what to do. They’d seen her; if she hid, they’d know where Sylvie was.

She glanced back. Sylvie was flushed, looking up at her with a rare hint of vulnerability in her eyes. Ava made her mind up faster than she thought.

Face burning, she ran perpendicular to both Sylvie and the TVA agents, shifting her arms from her front to trying to cover up her butt as she ran – the one advantage to an abandoned world was knowing where the only people who could see her were.

Still, she powered through the embarrassment of streaking. There was no way she’d have had time to go back to where their clothes were discarded before the TVA agent reached her.

Sylvie stared at Ava’s behind with a distinct mix of emotions. Two of the TVA agents were drawn off, pursuing her; one was still lingering though, both to set the reset charge and look for any more oddities.

Not too far away, her TemPad and their clothes were. Sylvie looked at them, and looked at Ava, and looked back at them.

The TVA weren’t supposed to find her here. It wasn’t unheard of, it just happened less often. Sometimes she left traces – changed the wrong rock formation, left a footprint, brought some microbes through a portal… Abandoned worlds weren’t totally safe, but only mostly safe.

Until Ava had come here. Maybe that just increased the odds of something happening – though trust wasn’t something Sylvie was great at.

She didn’t like how she was hesitating. Ava was still streaking, her skin stark against the dull rocky landscape.

Then Sylvie took a break, and ran out from cover. She clutched one arm over her breasts to keep them from jiggling too much and ran as fast as she could, bare feet almost leaping from the ground; she scooped up a TemPad just as the remaining agent noticed her and opened a portal away from there.

Not slowing, she used her bare foot to kick the nearest articles of clothing through with it, and hoped that was enough.

When the reset charge went off, there went the wardrobe she’d collated, and she didn’t have time to stop it. All she had was whatever she’d been able to push through.

She glanced back again, at the landscape, the admittedly gorgeous, naked form of Ava as she was led through a portal to the TVA’s base, at the agent pursuing her and staring at her exposed body, and then vanished to another time and place before she could be caught.