watch_dogs / wynonna earp } { i been lost somewhere between heaven and hell

[stupetballs]

[The fog has been rolling in for weeks now. Curling up out of the trees, messing with people's minds, and while Waverly and Wynonna did go through a stretch of forgetting things, there's also things that she remembered too.

Things from somewhere else.

Things from Hell.

She doesn't know if Wynonna remembers, and she doesn't want to ask. She doesn't want to think that if for some reason she doesn't, her question is the thing that triggers the deluge of memories of the pain and suffering they spent there. So she keeps it to herself, toiling away with Jeremy and regular cases and hoping that one day, she'll be able to put it all behind them.

They get a call one day, about someone having been found in the fog. It's unsure how much of an affect it's had on him, but Jeremy manages to divert him back to Shorty's so they can get a better look at him. He doesn't have any ID, any phone, and he's definitely not one of the locals. But the moment they place him on the pool table to get a better look, Waverly almost drops the bottle of whiskey in her hand.]

Oh my god, Aiden.

Comments

[the_vigilante]

[the sound of his name snaps him out of his barely consciousness, and immediately, reflexively his fingers go for his hip and the gun that's usually there. unfortunately, he's as unarmed as he is without identification, and that gets him to sit up a little more. he feels like he's going to be sick, moving just that little bit, but like fuck he's just going to sit here and take whatever bullshit Hell's drug him into, now]

[give him a minute to realize where he is, exactly]

[stupetballs]

["You know this guy?" Jeremy asks, glancing between Waverly and the other men.]

Long story.

[She darts around the bar, moving to his side so that he sees her and keeps her fingers crossed that he remembers Hell, like she did.]

Aiden? You okay?

[the_vigilante]

[his head jerks up at his name, his stomach rolling again, and -- ]

[wait. wait]

[Waverly went home. but she's here now. but she was the angel before. but his head is fucking killing him and for more than just the fact that none of this makes any sense. it's a hard thing, to keep himself from shaking his head]

What --

[what is this?]

[stupetballs]

You're in Purgatory.

[And, after a pause as she thinks back on where they were the last time they saw each other:]

You're in my Purgatory.

[The town, not the plane of existence. She then reaches out and touches him gently, almost as though she's testing him to try and figure out if he's really there.]

I don't know how or why.

[the_vigilante]

[he glances down at his hands, briefly, when she clarifies, that obviously some sort of litmus test. considering his nails aren't black, anymore, though, it may as well be. he flexes his fingers, regardless, before glancing back up at her]

T-Bone?

[is Ray here, too?]

[stupetballs]

["There's a guy named T-Bone?"

Waverly gives Aiden an apologetic look, turning back to Jeremy.]

Did you find anyone else back there? Older white guy, long beard?

[He shakes his head. "No, just this guy. Should we be looking for someone else?"]

Worth a shot. Just do another sweep.

[And also please leave them alone? Jeremy seems to get the message, so he nods. "I'll go grab Doc and do another sweep."]

Thank you.

[And with that, Jeremy will make his way out, closing the door to Shorty's behind him. She then turns back to Aiden with a wide smile.]

Hi.

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden watches Jeremy go, and as Waverly turns back to him, he tries to mirror the smile, though the expression reads more as confused than anything else. he's very glad to see her, don't get him wrong, but -- what?]

Always kinda thought you didn't remember Hell, once you got out.

[but he does. but she does. but]

[stupetballs]

For a while I didn't.

[Part of her almost misses the blissful ignorance. As much as she's glad to remember Aiden, and the people that meant something to her, there was a lot of horror that came with it.]

But there's been this weird fog in the woods, lately. If you get caught in it, it takes your memories. It makes you forget who you are. I got caught in it, but when they fixed me and gave me my memories back, I got my Hell memories too. And since you showed up in the fog, and you don't belong to this world, you got spared?

[Hell if she knows, magic is weird.]

[the_vigilante]

Guess so.

[he has about a hundred more questions he wants to ask, as an offshoot of that one, but first] You good?

[is she coping okay with remembering Hell? has she had any more problems with the angel, here, since she's remember? before she remembered? is she okay? is Wynonna?]

[stupetballs]

[She shrugs.]

It hasn't been great, but I'm managing.

[Then she hesitates.]

I'm not sure what Wynonna knows or remembers. She hasn't talked about it, but she also hasn't turned things into more of a bender than usual, so ... I think she's okay?

[the_vigilante]

[he hums. it's both a relief and a disappointment to think that Wynonna doesn't remember Hell]

How you gonna explain me?

[stupetballs]

Well, if she remembers you, it'll be fine. If she doesn't ... you're a friend from out of town?

[Because that's an easy enough cover and partially true, right?]

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden shrugs]

I can work with that.

[he can even spin how they actually met to seem normal, so they don't have to come up with a new, more elaborate lie. he'll just leave out the part about the Mares and all]

[stupetballs]

Do you think you could point us in a general direction?

[Waverly stands in the middle of the forge, trying to go through Mattie's records. Greta on Waverly's phone is sitting on a table nearby, propped up against a stack of books.]

Your sister's filing system does ... not really make sense?

["Hard to really say if I don't know what you're looking for," Greta comments, dressed in her scrubs as she sits in her car in her break. "But you're not wrong. Mattie stored things to make sense to her, not anyone else."]

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden, meanwhile, has been not quite pacing while Waverly's been on the phone, making slow, concentric laps of the room, each a little wider than the last. occasionally, he'll stop and touch something that catches his eye, maybe pick it up if nothing weird happens when he does, but overall? well, he's not particularly contributing much. he's not entirely sure what they're looking for, either, and he's a little wary of diving too deep into the things scattered around the room for all that they might be inadvertently dangerous. he learned in Hell not to speak Latin in front of the books and all that]

[also, yeah, the previous tenant's organizational skills suck]

[but anyway]

[he looks up from a stack of books, frowning] Got anything on the specifics of why the Triangle works the way it does?

[that might help?]

[stupetballs]

["Mattie always assumed that it was a very old curse that came with the Earp curse. But if Wynonna's broken it and the Triangle is still up ..."]

Not connected. Do you know if she had anything on the Garden?

["Maybe? She'd keep anything super rare in the living spaces."]

I'll check upstairs.

[She goes to jog up to the loft and Greta turns her attention to Aiden. "So how'd you get pulled into their mess?"]

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden exhales a humorless sigh of a laugh]

Yeah, pretty sure I am the mess. [a beat] Also not sure you'd believe me if I told you. [or if he can trust her to tell her]

[stupetballs]

["Did Waverly tell you about that time I erased her sister from existence and created a whole alternate timeline because I thought it would save my sister?"

Waverly calls out from the bedroom:]

It was fun. I almost married a dude I'm pretty sure had a crush on Wynonna.

[Her tone indicates it was not fun at all. Greta rolls her eyes. "Basically Purgatory is full of messes. It takes a lot to leave me skeptical."]

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden's eyebrows bob up and down -- okay, that's something. even so, though, when she promises it takes a lot to surprise her, he can't help but smile, the expression just a touch cruel]

[well, she did ask]

I'm from an alternate timeline, myself. All this magic shit doesn't exist there. Then I got pulled into Hell, met Wynonna and Waverly there, got tortured, started slowly turning into a demon over the course of a couple years, then went to bed one night and woke up here.

[looking mostly human but still marked, if his reaction to the edge of the Triangle is any indication]

[stupetballs]

[There's a long pause before she glances past Aiden to Waverly moving behind him. "You went to Hell, Earp?"]

Yep. Wynonna did too.

["Mmm. Sorry I missed it." Hard to tell if she's serious or not.]

Anyway. That's why we need to figure out what's up with the Triangle and if there's a way to maybe take it down once and for all.

["Is that a good idea?"]

To be determined.

[the_vigilante]

Or at least find a way to get around it.

[no offense to Waverly and Wynonna, but he needs to be able to get out of here on a mutliversal level]

[ ... nevermind that that's probably not a good idea]

[stupetballs]

[Greta pauses, starting at the screen for a long moment.

"Well, there's always Wynonna taking Bobo Del Ray for a long walk with Peacemaker across the barrier."

Waverly stops and shouts back.]

We're trying to not kill everyone in town, Greta.

["I'm just making sure all the options are on the table."]

[the_vigilante]

[he's only vaguely aware of Bobo -- he knows that he was a demon and an enemy of the Earps, but that's about it. if they ever told him anything else about him, he's forgotten it. he knew what he needed to know, knowing he was an enemy]

[all that said, then, he arches his eyebrows at Waverly's reaction]

How would that kill everyone?

[stupetballs]

The heir and a revenant going through the border on the edge of the Triangle brings down the Triangle so the revenants can leave.

[So yes, it is a solution to their little problem.]

But it also means it lets in everything else waiting on the outside, trying to get to the Garden. So that means a lot of monsters coming in, and if the glimpse we got when Willa tried to do it a couple of years ago is anything to go on, they're big nasty ones.

[the_vigilante]

[yikes]

Yeah, let's not do that.

[he pauses a moment, thoughtful]

Any way we can get it to work like a two-way mirror?

[let things out -- specifically him -- but not let anything nasty in]