The Perk, Friday afternoon

[vdistinctive]

So Eliot hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep last night. Or rather . . . any sleep last night. He hadn't found more than a couple big slugs in his patrolling yesterday, but seeing as they were distinctly not holiday-themed, that hadn't helped him relax his guard much. He'd spent his time instead cleaning and checking his weapons, and making sure the safe room in the basement was well-stocked.

Listening to radio had only confirmed his fears that the island was up to its semi-regular tricks again, and he had to remain vigilant. Which meant caffeine, and lots of it.

So here he was, at the Perk, wiping slug-goo off his sword with a handful of napkins and drinking the largest, most caffeinated beverage they could legally sell him.

[open!]

Comments

[godilovedthis]

The man on the other side of the glass seemed nice enough and Kathy practically skipped inside to kneel down next to the dog, excitedly holding out her hand for the puppy to sniff.

Eliot's first clue that something was weird was probably getting a good look at Kathy's clothing; a haphazard collection of dirty clothes, worn thin and frayed, layered over each other for wamrth. Her sleeves were all pushed up to her elbow, revealing his second clue--skin covered in Sharpie with words, names, and messages all jumbled about. Most were written in English, some in Hangul. A few started in one language then drifted to another and back without any rhyme or reason. The hand she lifted towards Val was red and chapped from the cold, nails short and dirty, and the words RADIO STATION written across the palm.

But the most obvious clue, the worst of them all, was the gaze she lifted towards him, empty of any recognition. "Is this your dog, mister?" she asked, guileless as a child. "He sure is friendly! Good puppy!"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot hurt, taking in all those details, sharp and deep. He swallowed against it and leaned forward. "She sure is," he said, voice much softer than he'd intended. Val twisted to lick every part of this new Kathy as she could get. "Looks like she likes you."

[godilovedthis]

"I like her too!" Kathy declared happily. "What's her name? Mine's--" there was the briefest flicker of hesitation "--Kathy. And you're..."

She paused, looking at him full in the face. Something about him was familiar. She was sure of it. She glanced quickly down at her arms to see if one of the names there jumped out at her.

"I know you, don't I?"

[vdistinctive]

If Eliot had thought it hurt before, that was nothing compared to what his heart tried to do when she said that.

"Yeah, darlin'." He held out his hand, real slow, like he was talking to a skittish animal. "What happened to you?"

[godilovedthis]

Kathy shrugged. "Same thing that happens to everyone in the end. Our memories are gone. Eaten. Soon I'll be hollow and then I don't know what will happen. Someone will probably put me down. Dante, maybe. He doesn't forget."

Ring a few bells for you there, Eliot?

"It would hurt more, but I forget why it should."

[vdistinctive]

The handle on Eliot's coffee mug snapped off in his hand.

Yes. That did, in fact, ring quite a few bells.

"Oh darlin'." He couldn't help but put his hand -- the one that hadn't just broken a mug -- against the side of her face. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. This felt familiar. This wasn't Dante or Anders, though they often touched her like this, too, but not like this. His hand on her skin was different, was not-like theirs, was a word that hovered just out of reach.

(paternal... a voice in her mind whispered, but the pathway to bring it up to her consciousness was broken and the word was lost, erased by gray ash and dust.)

"...Eliot?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot did not, as a general rule, cry in public. But Kathy had him damn close. "That's right, darlin'. We saw each other last year, remember?"

Every single instinct in his body was screaming at her to scoop her up, gather his whole family together, and lock them all in the basement panic room until this was all over. Last year was bad. In a way few things had been bad in Eliot's life since got his first look at real war.

But he didn't want to scare her.

[godilovedthis]

"We did?" Kathy asked, pushing past the clouds of nothing to find those few, precious memories that were left. "We...We did." She nodded firmly. "I was different then."

Her legs had been worse, her memory better.

"You came to help us." Why was that relevant? This was Eliot. Eliot would always come to help her. Oh right! "And now we're here to help you!"

Weren't you proud of her, Eliot? She was a hero!

[vdistinctive]

It didn't work. Everything they'd done last year, everything they'd gone through, and it didn't even work.

Eliot felt sick. Actually, literally sick. He could taste adrenaline in the back of his mouth, and his fingernails were pressing into the palm of the hand not holding Kathy's face hard enough to break the skin.

"Help us with what?"

[godilovedthis]

Not true. Everything they'd done last year had kept their own world from being consumed. And they'd reconnected Fandom to the outside world again. They'd made things better, just not fixed.

"With what what?" Kathy asked. She'd gone back to petting the puppy again.

Sorry, Eliot. She was like this a lot.

[vdistinctive]

"You said you were here to help us, darlin'," Eliot reminded her. "Maybe you've got it written on you somewhere?"

Had the other Eliot been like this? He hadn't really interacted with him last year.

Was he going to have to see this Kathy kill and be killed?

[godilovedthis]

Kathy was a lot more cheerful than Eliot had been, but he'd had a similar inability to follow a conversation from beginning to end, yes.

"Oh! Maybe!" Kathy said, holding out her arms to examine them. Slugs was written on her inner wrist, followed by the word bad. On her opposite forearm was the phrase Stop the bad guys. "Oh, right," she said, showing it to him proudly. "We're here to keep the world from ending! They're here to destroy everything and we have to stop them!"

Way to bury the lede, Kathy.

[vdistinctive]

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Eliot's panic room was good, but it probably couldn't protect anyone from the entire world ending.

"You mean the slugs?" They hadn't seemed particularly intelligent to Eliot, but who knew. "What do they have to do with whatever's hollowin' y'all out?"

He didn't really expect a comprehensible answer from her, no. He was mostly thinking out loud.

Since the not-out-loud thinking was stuck on fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck and various scenes of blood, death, and destruction.

[godilovedthis]

"The slugs are bad," Kathy said nodding. "The cult is worse."

Did that help your inner monologue any?

[vdistinctive]

"A cult." At this point it was possible nothing was going to help that except maybe sedatives. "A cult of . . . hollows?"

[godilovedthis]

"Not hollows," Kathy said, shaking her head. "People. Hollows can't think."

Helping!

[vdistinctive]

Was it better or worse to know that the other Parker and Hardison weren't thinking when they tried to tear the other Eliot apart and were murdered for it?

"People. Alright. Which people?"

[godilovedthis]

Kathy gave him a mute look of panic. She didn't know names, Eliot! She barely remembered her own, never mind the names of their enemies!

[vdistinctive]

"Right. That was dumb. Sorry."

He wasn't at his best just now.

"I want you to come home with me."

He had to protect her.

[godilovedthis]

"Are you living in the park?" she asked. Because that was where everyone lived. Except for her. She mostly lived in a warehouse, but sometimes she stayed in other places. Like when she forgot where she was or where she was going.

[vdistinctive]

They lived in the park. That was where Eliot had given her the other Eliot's hat. . . .

Eliot swallowed hard, forcing back the memories with a concerted effort.

"No, darlin'. I live in a house. With my partners. It's safe there."

Please please please let him keep you safe, Kathy.

[godilovedthis]

"Partners?" Kathy asked. Her brow furrowed. "Aren't they dead?"

Sorry, Eliot, things were blurry still.

[vdistinctive]

His hand thrusting a blade into Hardison's throat. Hardison gurgling as he bled out on Eliot's feet.

Eliot leaned forward, fisting both hands in his hair.

"No," he said finally. "No, they're just fine."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy made a noise in her throat at the man's...Eliot's, his name was Eliot...obvious distress and leaned in to hug him. "It's okay," she said. "It's going to be okay. I won't let anybody hurt you."