Hadriel IC Contact

[nowherewolf]

James Tucker

"Hey. Leave a message or just text me like a normal person. Later."

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[nowherewolf]

[Oh. Well that's... significantly worse. Her magic's gone, just like Harlan's hearing and his voice.

He can't help it, the first thing Tucker thinks of is her dad.]

But you said you can still cast cantrips, right? Maybe it just got reset. That happened to Harlan once, and he got his back.

[evocation]

Reset so far that I can barely cast a fucking Light spell?

[She scoffs.]

Yeah, right. I could do that shit when I was like nine.

[nowherewolf]

Yeah, and so could Harlan. He's a sorcerer.

[But he doesn't want to argue about this. He wants to give her answers. Plans.]

Speaking of which, this is probably the same shit that happened to him when he came back. As soon as Hope's not on his deathbed or whatever, we'll march down there and get your shit back, okay?

[evocation]

[Kyna nods a little, toying with her now useless focus.]

Maybe.

[How long is it going to take Hope to get better, though?]

I can't really... I mean, I can't do anything without it.

[nowherewolf]

["Maybe" is better than abject despair, so he'll take it.]

You do plenty of stuff without magic. Just don't worry about the fighting. It's mostly taken care of, anyway.

[He thinks.]

[evocation]

[She scoffs.]

I do plenty of stuff like what?

[nowherewolf]

Like eat food, and talk to your friends, and hang out with your- [Hmm.] Whatever Wash is to you. You don't use magic 24/7, K, it'll be alright.

[evocation]

[She makes a face at him.]

Tucker, are you serious?

[nowherewolf]

[Tucker sighs. She's taking this the wrong way. Ugh!]

Look, I'm not trying to downplay how much it sucks that you can't use your magic. You're right, that's bullshit, and it's awful. But it's also not the only important thing about you, okay?

[Shit was that too sentimental? It was, wasn't it.]

[evocation]

[It is... shockingly sentimental coming from him, and it trips her up, enough that she falters in her retort.]

That's not...

[She sighs, rubbing her hands over her face.]

What am I going to do? Sit inside and talk to people all day while everyone else is being fucking useful?

[nowherewolf]

[He rolls his eyes. He's gonna keep this train chuggin' so he doesn't have to think about that stuff he just said.]

It's not like you're useless whenever there isn't a giant robot war. But that's besides the point. Most of the fighting's done. It's almost over.

[evocation]

[She feels like he's not really getting it, but that's probably because she's not explaining it well. It isn't just the fighting, but she doesn't know how to put the rest of it into words.]

I guess so. Is everyone else okay?

[nowherewolf]

[Shit, that didn't go great. Tucker feels like they're not meeting in the middle here. Like they're both just slightly missing each other. And now Kyna's essentially dismissing the topic. Ugh. Maybe they can revisit this later.]

Well, Harlan's deaf and he can't talk. A lot of other people died, but as far as I know, they're all coming back. Hope's still alive.

[There were a lot of people to keep track of. He's probably lost tabs on a few, but that covers the gist.]

[evocation]

Shit.

[She hesitates.]

That's... kind of better than I expected?

[But it still blows.]

Are you okay?

[nowherewolf]

What, you thought we were all gonna die?

[At the very least she should've had some faith in Tucker. Like he told Rome, he's a fucking cockroach.]

I'm fine. The Null figured me out eventually, but it wasn't too hard to sneak past 'em.

[She just means physically, right?]

[evocation]

No. You're too sneaky to die.

[She says it a little less convincingly than she usually would. She thought Harlan would be safe, too, and look how that turned out.]

I just thought it would be... worse. I don't know.

[nowherewolf]

I'll take that as a compliment.

[Though it's perhaps also not as convincing as usual.]

And, well, thankfully it's not worse. And that's probably because of you guys.

[See? You didn't die for nothing. Tucker's weirdly doubtful that this strategy will work, though. For one of the first times in his life, he can't figure out what she'd want to hear.]

[evocation]

I guess so.

[Tucker likely has no idea what Kyna wants to hear because Kyna has no idea what would even make her feel better.]

Can we like... sit down or something? Just for a second.

[nowherewolf]

[Yeah, but knowing what people don't realize themselves is supposed to be what he's good at. And he's failing pretty hard at it right now. Ugh.]

Yeah, sure.

[They can sit down longer than a second, but that goes without saying. Tucker kind of puts a hand on her shoulder to guide her into the living room proper so they can sit on the couch.]

[evocation]

[Kyna allows herself to be led and then sits, wedging herself against the back of the couch.]

Dying really sucked. Don't do it.

[nowherewolf]

[Tucker plops down next to her, kind of close. For support, he guesses. He wraps an arm around the back of the couch, so he can put his hand on her shoulder again.]

I don't plan on it.

[That feels lame. Try again.]

Do you... want to talk about what happened? Or would you rather just chill?

[He tries to make it sound like he's fine with either.]

[evocation]

[Unsurprisingly, Kyna closes the last of the gap between them to rest her head on his shoulder. She doesn't really want to talk about it, but...]

I don't know. There were a bunch of Null, and Lup was there, and then Wash...

[Kyna tenses. Shit. Wash.]

Something was wrong with him. Have you seen him?

[nowherewolf]

[Tucker frowns, thinking.]

I don't think so? Shit's been pretty crazy though. I feel like I've seen someone in armor when I was sneaking around, but I can't say for sure which one of those two it was. Anything that's not a Null or trying to kill me directly, I usually give a pass.

What was wrong with him?