(no subject)

[evocation]

[It takes Kyna longer than she would have liked to learn plane shift, and longer still to master it to the point that no one (read: her brother) thinks she'll accident shift to some terrible hell dimension.

And she manages it, pretty perfectly, actually, although an exhausted girl with pointed ears just appearing in a military base with no warning doesn't get her the warmest welcome.]

Hey, chill, I'm just looking for Wash.

[God, all of them are in armor. It's kind of nuts.]

Comments

[evocation]

Yeah, but you still waited. And you're just like... the best person I know in general.

[Duh. She's certainly not biased.]

Does this mean you're officially retired?

[hardwearing]

[ Wash is grinning back at her right until that last question, when it fades a little. ]

I don't-- I guess so, from what I was doing before. But I don't know how to do anything else, either. You said I could work with you guys, wouldn't I still be fighting?

[evocation]

If you want, but you don't have to. Alana and Harlan don't go on jobs much. You could just train people or something instead, maybe.

[hardwearing]

I feel like maybe something familiar is better, but I don't want to be a liability either. So... training, if you actually need someone for that?

[evocation]

Sure. Most of us are just... you know, self-taught.

[Her voice softens a bit.]

You know I don't think of you as a liability, right?

[hardwearing]

But you do fine....

[ He's still puzzling through it when Kyna asks another question, one that makes Wash duck his head. ]

You don't, but you probably should. Sometimes I just... go somewhere else, now. I don't know why I'm not bouncing back like always.

[evocation]

[Kyna presses closer, reaching up to touch his cheek.]

It's okay. We'll figure it out. Brain injuries can take a really long time to heal, right?

[That's what Dr. Grey said, anyway.]

[hardwearing]

Yeah. But sometimes they just don't, Kyna.

[evocation]

Then we'll figure that out, too. You don't have to worry about people shooting at you here.

[hardwearing]

It sounds like there are plenty of other things to worry about.

[ He does sound a little lighter, but still troubled. ]

[evocation]

[Oh, Wash. Kyna cups his face, tugging him closer so that she can rest her forehead against his.]

Yeah? Like what?

[hardwearing]

[ Wash will lean down when tugged, hands settling on her waist. ]

Faeries?

[evocation]

Ugh. Faeries are the worst, but think of all the fun stuff. I've got a list of shitty movies for us to watch.

[hardwearing]

I'm ready for it. Can we just lock ourselves in with bad movies and good takeout for awhile? Get me prepped to face the actual world out there and not look like a shell shocked universe-hopping tourist.

[evocation]

Yeah, of course. But don't worry, everyone will probably just think you're a regular tourist from like... Idaho or something.

[She considers that for a moment.]

Actually, that might be worse.

[hardwearing]

I'd rather brag about the universe-hopping, yeah. Make you look even cooler.

[evocation]

Me? Nah. Everyone's gonna flock to the hot space marine, just you wait. So many people are going to hit on you.

[hardwearing]

That's going to be the worst of the culture shock. What if I just never let go of you, then they won't bother, right?

[evocation]

Maybe.

[She sneaks a kiss.]

Want to try it?

[hardwearing]

[ Wash grins at her when she drops back onto her heels, nodding. ]

Yes. It's a good plan.

[evocation]

Don't worry, I'll protect you.

[Protecting her giant boyfriend from terrible flirts.]

What do you wanna do? Should we go explore?

[hardwearing]

You usually do.

[ He ducks in a little to kiss her forehead again. ]

Not today... I think my stomach's stopped flipping, though... we could go find food?

three months later;

[hardwearing]

[ Things are going well, which means of course they're due for something terrible to happen. Wash has had a few little episodes, nothing too serious, mostly just forgetting that he'd already told Kyna something or completed a task, very short-term memory stuff... the worst was three weeks ago when he got a headache and tried to go home from work without Kyna and had a bad lapse, forgetting what time and place he was in entirely. The saving grace for these episodes is that he still remembers everything before the shooting, which includes Hadriel, so he didn't have a total meltdown. He found his phone in his pocket and Kyna's number, and she'd come to get him and take him home. She'd been endlessly patient with him for the few days it took for his memory to start trickling back, and he'd felt fine since but they still don't know what causes these lapses. What if one day he can't remember again, and the time lost for good is more important than paperwork or a trip to the grocery store?

They carry on because there's really nothing else to be done about it, but it weighs on Wash. He doesn't want to be a burden, for Kyna to feel like she has to babysit him all the time just in case. And he doesn't want to lose chunks of his life -- or maybe he already has and just doesn't know it. In any case, he knows he's very lucky that last major blip wasn't permanent.

Kyna's on a mission with counterspell, tonight. Wash was minding the office for them, not feeling well enough to join in on the adventures, but he should have closed up shop hours ago... it's getting late and they'll probably all go straight home from it at this point. He hauls up out of his chair and grabs the keys to lock up and leave, considering what he wants to grab for dinner on the way back to the apartment he and Kyna share. When he pulls his phone out to check the time again, it's dead... no big deal, he's pretty sure the place he was thinking of is open until 11 anyway, he'll just plug in when he gets home in case Kyna needs him.

But Wash never makes it home.

When Kyna finishes the job she was on she'll find the apartment dark and empty, and Provolone clearly not fed tonight. Wash's phone goes straight to voicemail.

Uh oh. ]

[evocation]

[Kyna's never really dealt with anything like Wash's memory lapses before, and truth be told, it scares the shit out of her. There really is nothing to be done for it, though, not until one of them finds a kickass cleric to maybe magic all of it away. For now, she knows Wash well enough to understand that babysitting him is absolutely the wrong call. As much as she wants to stick to him like glue, she knows he'd hate feeling fragile and worthless, and it's not really sustainable. If this is permanent, they've just got to find ways to work with it.

So, she goes on jobs as usual and just watches her phone like a hawk, and every time she gets the urge to text Wash to check on him, Harlan and Tucker are there to tell her to chill out. The second she gets home and realizes Wash never made it home, all of that carefully constructed calm goes out the window. When the phone call doesn't work, she defaults instinctively to magic, like she does with everything—except that doesn't work, either. He must be too far away.

If Kyna was freaked before, she's flat out panicking now. The only idea she has is to scour the city, except that that seems utterly impossible, so she calls Nico. He doesn't really manage to calm her down, but he does help her start calling hospitals, at least. It doesn't take long for one of them to call her first.

By the time she makes it to the hospital, she's an obvious mess, and she knows it. At least she's not in tears as the nurse leads her back, but she's close.]

[hardwearing]

[ Being held against his will is nothing new to Wash, but this time it's more frustrating than anything. He'd wandered for a long time, searching his shredded memory for anything familiar, until the headache had gotten to be too much and he'd gotten sick in a park and settled on a bench to hopefully sleep it off with the other lost souls there. Apparently a patrol had come around, hadn't been able to wake him and called an ambulance thinking maybe he'd overdosed or something. It could be worse than the hospital -- he could have woken up in a holding cell with no idea how he got there rather than a surprisingly comfortable gurney in the ER.

But he hadn't been able to answer a single question posed to him beyond his name. He didn't know where he lived, how he'd wound up on this planet in this time, and answering with the full truth would have led to him being committed. He suspects -- hopes, after they tell him he's in New York -- that it's Kyna's world and he just doesn't have an ID here yet. That when he tells them to charge the phone they found on him and look for her name, they'll find it and she'll come and handle this. Interdimensional visitors aren't unheard of for her world, right? But since he's not sure he plays dumb, doesn't mention he's a space marine from the future who was once kidnapped to a city run by gods. Just in case. The doctor who sees him is as alarmed by the memory loss as he is, at least, and seems to want to help. They can't do an MRI because of his implant, which he also can't explain, but they give him something for the headache and do a CT instead. Wash has no idea what they'll find, what actually happened... last he remembers was being trapped in his locked down armor. Everything after is blank, so all he can do now is cross his fingers that his hopes are right and he is where he thinks.

It doesn't actually take all that long in reality, but to Wash it feels like an eternity of waiting to find out if he's going to wind up institutionalized again. When the nurse pulls his curtain aside and shepherds in a very frantic looking Kyna, he doesn't think he's ever felt more relieved. Both because it means answers, and because he hasn't seen her for over a year to his memory. He sits up and reaches for her, nearly yanking the iv out of his arm. ]

Hey. I'm okay, come here.