triangularity | Open RP post for Maggie Garcia

Duke studies her expression when she pauses, when she trails off. He cannot help his reaction to the microchip, because yeah by his world's standards, it's creepy. Also, he did not have a good relationship with either of his parents. The idea they could just know where he was at all time?

It's different for her. She cares about her parents.

"I'm sorry. I wish there was a way to get back through to them- to get you back through to them. ...totally not used to microchips on children being a thing, but I can tell you love them."

It would be hard then to leave them. His hand slides over her own, and he tightens his hold there. "...by some miracle you fell right on to my front door step. Practically. I've missed you."

"They were very good to me. It's amazing I'm not spoiled completely rotten, but they drilled in some personal responsibility along with giving me everything I wanted." It worked out very well. They didn't even mind when Maggie walked away from the family business to live alone in the woods and make her living writing poetry and porn. They just wanted their daughter safe and happy.

"If I get home, I get home. I'm not willing to give up on that possibility. But you don't need to apologize, both because you didn't do it and because I missed you just as much as you missed me." She pauses, then adds, "I need to hear about what I've fallen into, when you're ready. It doesn't have to be right this minute. Soon, though."

"Good. It's good to hear about your parents, how they care about you. It's because of them you're- you're who you are," Duke says, and he really loves the person Maggie is.

There's a pause then as he nods with a soft smile that then fades, because he realizes he has stalled long enough. He tilts his head to the side. "I told you about Troubles before, didn't I? I know I mentioned my blood was special-"

She'd worried about infecting him maybe, but he's not sure it would stick- not with all the aether inside him.

"You've told me a little. Not much. I didn't want to press for more, because there was no need to bring up things that were clearly difficult for you to talk about. I never wanted to force matters."

Now, though, she has reason. It's hard enough to stay safe in a world she has reason to believe is full of more hazards than most if she knows what to avoid. Without that knowledge, Maggie doesn't like her chances.

"You credited your blood with remaining free of my virus, though I'm still reluctant to trust that you're immune."

"I believe it more than ever with what I've learned about my blood, about what's become of my blood now."

It's writhing with troubles, with aether in ways it never was before because he let Mara get her hands on him, and she left her mark. He swallows then, knowing he has to go more in depth. It's important she knows what she's getting into.

"In Haven, there are these things called the Troubles. They run in families. They're like curses more than anything. Sure, some might try to control them- try to run off with those powers, but that usually ends up blowing up in their faces, getting them or someone else killed. Every so many years, they'd show up again, and someone came along, went into the barn, and ended those Troubles until this most recent time."

"You have one?" Maggie asks, her gaze on him soft and sympathetic. "And it's tied to your blood."

She considers, because the implications of that could cover a wide range of horrors. Maggie has read too many books and watched too many movies. Her imagination is vivid, and given the way Duke talks about them, she knows the reality won't be pretty. "What are some examples of the Troubles?"

Mention of the barn is just confusing. A power source for the Troubles? Maybe.

Edited 2018-02-27 18:24 (UTC)

"Let's just say everyone who is Troubled? Their blood is... different." Duke's own Trouble makes him more susceptible to all that Troubled blood, and it means his blood is more overflowing with aether than the rest especially after Mara had her way with him.

He closes his eyes, breathing out. "So let's see examples... being able to make people spontaneously combust, controlling the weather, making taxidermy come back to life, being able to make people do whatever you say, crying and making people die every time you do. Y'know, the usual cursed stuff."

Maggie takes a deep, steadying breath. Right. Teleios got her used to the existence of magic and bizarre occurrences, but it was never this bad. A new reality to get used to. "And their cycle didn't end this time around in the same way it always has previously," she repeats.

She raises a hand to rest against Duke's cheek. "How bad have things been for you since you got home?"

Note the important phrase in that question. 'For you.' Her priorities are crystal clear. They always have been. While she's good at seeing a big picture and she wants, in general, for everyone to be taken care of, her primary focus is the people she cares about. Maggie has never been unselfish enough to do things solely for the greater good. She was willing to chase truth and justice and answers with the rest of After the End Times, but she did it first and foremost because she loved her team.

Here, there's a single person she cares about. Her focus has narrowed considerably.

Duke swallows at the question, and he leans into her touch instinctively. His eyes close, and he breathes out against her hand. He reaches up, sliding his hand over her own, closing his eyes as he does so. The question makes him pause- makes him hesitate.

What else can he say?

"My Trouble was always complicated. If I kill someone in that person's family, I end the Trouble. Forever," he says and then shakes his head. "...and then the person who made all those Troubles? Turns out they're aliens from another universe using aether- a dark material to do so- Well, I trusted her. All these Troubles were inside of me- every single one my family ever ended, and I- I needed help dealing with it, and she was the only one who could."

He swallows. It still feels stupid to have done so.

"She did something to me, and now I'm a ticking bomb. So there's that."

Maggie hates that she's too sore to pull Duke into her arms and hold on tight when she hears what comes next. She leaves her hand where it is, at least, thumb brushing his cheek. Her voice is soft and warm.

"When you're desperate, you trust where you have to, and sometimes that goes wrong." She can hear the self recrimination in his voice, and she doesn't like it there. "You did what you needed to. Yes, she betrayed you, but it doesn't sound like you had many other options."

Only after that does she ask, worried gaze on Duke, "What do you mean you're a ticking bomb?"

"My body kept letting Troubles out, and I didn't know how to stop it, but I'd already put enough people in danger. She could help me stop a Trouble when it was let out of me or so I thought," Duke says, taking comfort in her reassurance, leaning into her touch out of instinct.

There's a pause at the question. "I mean, far as I can tell, she did something to me. There are all these Troubles in me- in my blood, and she sounded like they were all gonna explode. out of me, hitting everyone in its path with a Trouble of its own."

He shakes his head.

"You might not really be safe here either."

But he knows Maggie won't care about that.

Maggie used to want to walk into a story, but she outgrew that in Teleios, and this was never the genre she intended.

Deadly serious, she tells him, "I won't be safe here, period, from what you've just told me. That being the case, I'm certainly not leaving you unless you insist."

It's a struggle to conjure up even a weak joke, so the best she can manage is, "You're stuck with me, Duke." Even then, her smile only lasts a moment before she sobers again.

"And if there's anything I can do to make things easier on you, I want to."

"What a terrible thing," Duke says with a smile of his own since he's being sarcastic, lifting a hand up to frame her face briefly as he does so. It falls when her own does, and he bites down on his lip, shaking his head, thinking through any possibility. "You being here will make things easier on me. ...harder cause I'll worry about you, but easier because you're... you."

And he hasn't felt like he's really had anyone in his corner lately.

It's another reason he got so tied in with Mara.

"Then you have me," she promises. "I can probably manage a little bit in addition to just being myself, but it's nice to know your expectations are reasonable."

She shifts slightly as he moves his hand away from her face. "I know I'm injured, but I can handle moving enough to make space for you on the couch if you'd like. I don't suppose you have painkillers handy for when mine wear off in a few hours?"

Duke smiles as he reaches down to lift her up gently, sinking down beside her on the couch and then drawing her in against him. His arm winds around her shoulders as he does so, fingers tightening his hold against her arm.

"I would like, yeah." He has been stressed out. Though he hasn't been shot so he's got that going for him. "I have plenty of painkillers, heavy duty kind too. I have my ways."

"Clearly I fell onto the right dock." Maggie leans against him and rests her head on Duke's shoulder with a sigh. She needed this. No one but her parents has really held onto her since she got hurt, and she tried her hardest to downplay the extent of how upset and hurt she was around them. They already worry enough.

"You brought me to a bar after a liver injury," she points out, smiling. "Surrounded by alcohol I can't drink, and this is definitely a week where I want to. I might have had to rebel if you didn't have painkillers to offer in its place."

Duke leans over, resting his chin on top of her head, as if protectively. His thumb slides over her shoulder, tightening his hold on her protectively as he does so. He breathes her in, taking in the reality of her being there.

"I wouldn't let you. I'd just tackle you away from all the booze, reopening your wound likely, but heroically saving you from taking a drink."

So heroically.

"No tackling, please. I promise to be a good patient. I'll even let you carry me to bed later if you insist." She sighs.

"It's been a rough couple months at home, too. That's all it's been since the last time I saw you. Strange to think. Not even two months. A month and a half. We spent awhile in a mad scientist's secret lair, then Mahir and I went off looking for an identity forger so everyone from our team but me could go into hiding. The CDC cloned my dead boss in an effort to manipulate my living one. She escaped and found us before they could make a duplicate with behavioral modifications. And we just learned that the president's family have been hostages to force him into helping cover up the fact that our virus is incurable."

Maggie reaches up to rest her hand on Duke's over her shoulder. "It's all tangled up with my immune system. If it were cured, I'd die of the first germs to come along. Glad I wished for a big dog instead, when the Agents granted presents back in Teleios." It was probably a near thing. If she'd been coherent rather than making wishes in dreams, she very well might have wished herself dead without ever knowing what was about to happen.

Duke crosses his finger over his heart as if promising. No tackling. On his honor.

He frowns as she explains in detail how the last few months have been. His heart aches with it- with all of it. He can hardly wrap his head around what she's saying. "Jesus, Maggie," he says, reaching up to take her hand as it rested on his shoulder. His hand squeezes hers tightly, and he shakes his head.

His hand tightens over her own at the reality of how close she came to- how close she came to a lot of things. To her death. That's not something he can wrap his head around.

"I'm glad you did too. I'm glad you're here. Can't imagine anything else. Wouldn't want to."

"I'll have to be careful. I don't want to cause the zombie uprising in your world. If I do need a doctor later, are there any we can trust to take extra precautions and not to call the CDC?" She's good on the couch for now and has no intention of letting go of Duke anytime soon, but these are important questions to ask. "You have enough to worry about in this town without adding my virus to the mix."

"There are people that I trust here," Nathan and Audrey. Dwight's questionable at times. He doesn't know if he could trust him to do what Duke says is best ver what Dwight thinks is best. "But you're right. I don't want to have the CDC storming the town. They'll find more than enough that they might consider a disease," Duke says with a grimace at the thought, glancing up toward her. Of course, he didn't think about that. "And I don't want them getting their hands on you."

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen," Maggie assures him, though she doesn't have the ability to make sure of much of anything here. "I just thought it might be best to plan ahead, in case. For now at least, I only need rest. Would you mind if I take a nap? Even falling into another world can only keep morphine side effects at bay for so long."

"Yes, I'd mind terribly, Maggie," Duke says with a slight smirk and a look in her direction. The smirk slips into something softer in his expression before he nods. "Sleep, okay? I'll... try to find you more morphine for when you wake up."

He's pretty sure her pain levels will be an issue again then, and he doesn't want her hurting.

But God, it really is so good to see her again.

She stretches out on the couch once Duke gets up, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a wince at the movement. She still isn't getting around so well quite yet. "Thanks. I'll see you in a little while."

Maggie sleeps deeply for a solid three hours before pain wakes her. She groans, and it takes a few disoriented seconds for her to figure out where she is. Haven. Not her room at the Agora. "Duke?"

Open RP post for Maggie Garcia

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/coming back to this nearly a year later ;o; as duke returns to me

Re: /coming back to this nearly a year later ;o; as duke returns to me

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