Dirk Gently and The Waking Sea of Reality

Nightly Routine

        Just a little trigger warning for this chapter:

It goes deeper into the effects of Nova on a personal level (Tina's experience with it) and has very minor parallels to addiction so watch out for that. In chapter 21 I go through another character's experience, and although the effects are more detrimental than the ones here, it's less graphic. I'll put a little warning before the section.

They were apparently out for quite some time because when they left the warehouse it was already dark.

They went home. It was a long day and they could follow up on the people on the board tomorrow. They had until midnight tomorrow after all.

Farah unlocked the door to her apartment and let out a long sigh as she shed her jacket, not minding where it ended up. Until she did mind, as much as she tried to ignore her jacket on the floor it sat there mocking her at her laziness.

She walked back over and picked up the jacket, moving it to the coat rack that sat next to the door. See? Wasn't that hard.

She dug through the fridge in her kitchenette, pulling out her leftover spaghetti. Thankful that she just so happened to have something that required no effort ready waiting for her.

As she waited for her food to be done in the microwave, she pulled out her phone and texted Tina, smiling at the almost immediate response.

She pulled up the video chat that immediately followed instantly and smiled at seeing her beautiful girlfriend's face, a much-needed distraction from all of the shit today.

"Hey, babe!" Tina said. "What's up? Other than seeing sexy moi of course."

They both giggled.

"You would not believe the day we've had," Farah rolled her eyes.

"Oh RIGHT! New case! Dish."

"Well, for starters, we almost died-"

"Don't you dare fucking die on me."

"I'll try. Anyway, Todd saved our lives by having an attack, something I never thought I'd say."

"Oh my god, is he ok?"

"Nope, it was a bad one, he himself almost died from it. Dirk's taking care of him though, he said he has a hunch it's going to be a long night for them so I'm on standby."

"Holy shit."

The microwave beeped and Farah held up a finger as if to say, "Hold that thought." Tina nodded before Farah put her phone down and grabbed her food. She quickly picked up her phone afterwards and propped it up on a small aloe plant pot that sat on the breakfast bar before sitting down.

"You know how we were looking for an MP?" She asked before taking a bite of her spaghetti.

"Yeah... oh my god you found her! Already? That was quick. Dirk's getting better at this. Or is it just you, you brilliant badass, you," She blew an air kiss to the camera.

Farah reached up and pretended to grab it and blew one back. "We found her, except she's not coming back. Turns out this thing is much bigger than we thought."

"Right, the Nova connection."

"Well, we think she's the head of the Nova ring."

"Bullshit, Nova's only been 'round for two months. Let me tell you," she shook her head dramatically, "Not a pleasant experience."