(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

[hardwearing]

[ Kyna happens to pop into a common room, an off-duty area basically serving as a lounge. Most of the soldiers around have their helmets off, drinking coffee or playing cards to pass the time til their next shift. There are worse places she could have appeared -- the shooting gallery or training room, for example -- but she's still on base rather than out in the open in New Armonia where people are now occasionally wandering around without armor. Here? Everyone is armored and armed, and the soldier she materialized in the path of startles terribly, shouting and throwing his coffee cup into the air and scrambling for his sidearm. It draws everyone else's attention, and now Kyna is at the center of a commotion, responses varying from understandable exclamations of "what the fuck where did she come from?!" to several weapons being pointed in her direction. She's tiny and unarmored, and therefore doesn't look anything like a soldier.

One man does seem to have heard what she said, though -- a tall fellow in blue-trimmed armor, who steps forward with his head tilted curiously. He doesn't sound particularly alarmed, his voice is deep and even. ]

Are you referring to Agent Washington, ma'am?

[ Another soldier, trimmed in teal, flaps his arms in agitation. ]

Shut the fuck up, Andersmith, we don't know where she came from!

[ No one is actually making a move towards her just yet, mostly glancing to one another with expressions of ??? like they don't have protocol for this situation. ]

[evocation]

[Wow, this could not be going worse.]

Okay, first, get the guns out of my face. And yeah, I mean Washington.

[She shifts impatiently, trying to peer around him. It's probably extra weird that the guns pointing at her don't seem to phase her.]

Is he here? Is he okay?

[hardwearing]

[ Yeah, no one is lowering their guns, but Andersmith at least isn't pointing one at her. As he moves forward everyone else murmurs around them, wondering how she knows anything about Agent Washington. Should they call General Kimball? Dr Grey? Should they take her into custody? No one recognizes her and it doesn't seem like they trust her one bit. It looks like Andersmith is going to say something, maybe answer her question or just ask another question, when Palomo steps in. ]

Don't you dare, man, she came out of nowhere, I saw it. That wasn't even a teleportation grenade, she just appeared! Somebody go call Kimball!

[ Andersmith blinks, but still doesn't seem agitated. ]

Doctor Grey seems more appropriate, considering.

[ Palomo glares, as if the other soldier said something wrong. ]

Kimball. Now.

[ A soldier closer to the door seems to break out of his stupor, snapping to attention and turning to leave the room. Kyna can hear him speaking as he puts his helmet back on, making some sort of report over his radio. His voice is muffled, though, and she's about to be distracted by Palomo again, who's looking her over more carefully now. ]

Who the fuck are you, anyway?

[evocation]

[Kyna watches them argue, crossing her arms. She's waited way too long to get stuck in some stupid room with a bunch of people debating what to do with her, and the longer they take, the more obviously frustrated she gets.]

Kyna. Look, just get Wash and he'll tell you.

[hardwearing]

[ More murmuring at that, the soldiers' alarm shifting further towards confusion. There are a lot of frowning faces in the crowd gathered around her now. But the fact is Andersmith has already tipped their hand and let on that Agent Washington is, in fact, on Chorus, so Palomo squints at Kyna and asks a different question. ]

We can't. But how did you know he was here?

[evocation]

[Well, that's... complicated. She has a feeling if she starts talking about magic they'll think she's nuts and just dump her off somewhere or something, so she hesitates, struggling for an answer. It probably makes her seem like she's looking for a lie.]

Um... He told me. And what do you mean, you can't?

[hardwearing]

[ It does make it seem like she's searching for a lie. And since what she's claiming is technically impossible? As far as they're concerned she is lying. Even Andersmith's expression shifts to something distressed now, and he draws his own sidearm. ]

He couldn't have--

[ Before he can explain anything -- or refuse to -- the soldier who went to report to Kimball steps back in. ]

The General says to search her and put her in a holding cell. She and Dr Grey are on their way.

[evocation]

Uh, what?

[Kyna's head whips around towards the soldier, and she tenses.]

No one's searching me. If you just go ask Wash, he'll tell you you're being stupid.

[hardwearing]

[ Hey now, tiny stranger, stay calm. ]

Ma'am -- Kyna. You need to come with us. It's not stupidity, it's caution.

two months later;

[hardwearing]

[ It took about two months of recovery and physical therapy before Dr Grey gave Wash the all clear to leave medical facilities. Kyna was there every step of the way -- literally in some cases, Wash was down long enough that he had to rebuild his strength, but he's feeling more himself now.

Even if sometimes, he has these... lapses. He'll forget where he is, what's happened, and it's as distressing and disorienting for him as it is for the people around him. He always comes back to it, but it happens and they think that may just be how he is now. So he decides he's not fit for combat anymore... and where does that leave him?

"With me," Kyna says, taking his hand again, and she offers to bring him home. To her home. She's been gone for so long... and they know now that they can come back, they can visit, and so Wash agrees. There's nothing more they can do for him here, anyway. ]

So how does this work? Do I have to click my heels or anything?

[evocation]

[Kyna has both of his hands in hers, and she squeezes tight as she grins.]

Yep. Three times. And then you have to sing Bohemian Rhapsody backwards.

[To tell the truth, she's a little nervous. What if he hates it? What if he decides he doesn't want to stay with her after all?]

You ready?

[hardwearing]

Shit, I wouldn't even know it forwards.

[ Wash is terrified. He's covering with weak jokes, but also... he trusts her completely. And he's said his goodbyes already. Now it's just them, and the uncertainty of the trip, and how he's going to cope on her Earth.

If it's that bad, he tells himself, he can always go home. He just really wants it to work. He tilts his chin up. What do ODST say? Feet first into hell. This won't be as bad as all that, even if he remembers that one time she teleported him when he had the flu and he puked everywhere. He'll manage. ]

I'm ready.

[evocation]

[Okay. Okay, they can totally do this. Kyna stands up on her tiptoes to steal a kiss, keeping their hands securely linked.]

It'll be easy. Just a little whoosh in your stomach. It might be easier if you close your eyes.

[Kyna, for her part, certainly closes her eyes. She's set up two teleportation circles—one in her apartment back home, and one on base here. She's memorized the sigil sequences of both obsessively, and if all goes well, it'll be a foolproof way back and forth, no special objects or guesswork necessary. The spell is almost like teleport, just a bit more intense. To Kyna, the rush of magic is like the rush of adrenaline flying down the first drop of a roller coaster gives her, but she's used to it. She's not sure if it'll be more intense for Wash.

When she opens her eyes, they're back in her apartment, and she lets out a soft sigh of relief.]

Are you okay?

[hardwearing]

Okay...

[ Wash closes his eyes, squeezing her hands to hold on a little tighter, and then it does feel like the world drops out from under him with his his stomach whooshes. He understands now why he puked last time, already so sick, but now it's just a slightly overwhelming rush. Like being a hell jumper.

He doesn't open his eyes and fully regain his balance until Kyna speaks again, and then-- ]

We're here? [ He sounds utterly shocked, maybe a little frightened. ]

[evocation]

[Kyna grins at him, rocking back on her heels.]

We're here.

[Her apartment is small, and surprisingly clean—Harlan must have reorganized the whole thing while she was gone, as is his habit when he's stressed. Provolone is missing, but there's evidence that a cat lives here, with a little cat tree shoved into one corner and toys neatly piled in a basket on the floor. All of Kyna's throw blankets and pillows, usually strewn over her couch, are folded and draped over the back, and her books and DVDs are shelved, not haphazardly piled on the coffee table.]

Huh. Harlan must have cleaned.

[Honestly, this level of organization is setting Wash up for disappointment, living with her. She tugs her hands free and studies one of the shelves.]

Looks like he was in a good mood.

[hardwearing]

[ Wash is frozen there, looking around, stunned. He wants to rush to the window but feels a little like if he takes a step he'll also take a tumble, he's so disoriented. ]

Huh? How can you tell? He seems more like a stress cleaner to me.

[evocation]

[Oh, poor thing. Kyna rejoins him, wrapping her arms around him and settling her head against his chest.]

See how everything is organized by color? He does that when he's happy. If I can't figure out the system it means he's doing really badly.

[This is a Thing.]

Are you okay? Should we sit down?

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.

[evocation]

[He's the absolute opposite of okay, but Kyna doesn't say so. She's so desperately relieved that he's safe that she just pushes his arm down, sits on the bed beside him, and hugs him tight. It takes her a second to respond—for a moment, all she can bring herself to do is bury her face in his shoulder and try to steady her breathing.]

What happened? Where were you?

[hardwearing]

[ Wash wraps his un-stuck arm around her and kisses the top of her head, immediately feeling guilty for worrying her so badly. And that he can't really answer her questions. ]

I was hoping you could tell me... I just walked until I couldn't anymore, they found me unresponsive in a park. How did I get here? Back to you?

[evocation]

[Kyna peeks up at him again, and if he was hoping to alleviate her concern, he's only worsening it.]

What? What do you mean, back to me?

[hardwearing]

[ Wash glances up to make sure the nurse is out of earshot, but lowers his voice just in case. ]

The last thing I remember I was with Carolina, this psycho locked our armor and left us for dead. Then it's just... missing.

[evocation]

Oh.

[Kyna's stomach drops. That isn't just a few minutes or a half hour missing—it's months. Is he getting worse? How does she even begin to explain.]

David, you... I came to get you. You were shot, and you were in a coma, and... It was bad. You don't remember?