There's a wild wind blowing down the corner of my street

[cyfor]

Cy has been cornered by bullies. This time, bullies of the fluffy variety.

One of them just called her smelly.

Currently, she's tearing off his ear.

Ragnar is sitting on a bridge over the Chicago river, staring at the water. He's been doing this a lot, lately. He's gotten several odd looks from passerby, but no one wants to--or sees reason to

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[duology]

Dev is out wandering between Millennium Park and Grant Park, mostly because he's hoping to run into a monster again. It's been a few months now, and the bloodlust is getting to him again.

He heads for the Cloud Gate, because it is a very curious piece of architecture and he could use a two-minute distraction. And there he finds Ruvin.

"Ah, I remember you. Ruvin, yes? Hello again! You've been doing important things, I hear."

There is blood on her clothes.

Dev tilts his head, slowly.

"Are you alright?"

[changingtheodds]

"Everyone keeps asking me that." She hugs her arms against her chest and folds in on herself again. "I don't know. I don't know! Something... Happened. And I don't know what it was, and something is missing and everything is wrong. So, no. No, I'm not all right!"

[duology]

Well, wow, that was not the reaction Dev was expecting at all. He blinks at her a little, and then decides that he probably deserved that for asking a rather inane question. A question she's probably been getting for awhile, considering the reaction.

Of course, this realization doesn't really change the fact that Dev utterly fails at being comforting. Mostly because he doesn't see the point.

"Oh, okay then. Sorry about that." He studies her a moment, staring rather hard at the blood. "Amnesia, then?"

[changingtheodds]

"Amnesia?" She might have heard the word before, but it doesn't mean much to her. "What does that mean?"

She sits up a little, staring at him with the desperate expression of someone who's stumbled on hope after almost forgetting what it looks like. "What happens with... amnesia?"

[duology]

Dev rubs his chin. "Hm, didn't have amnesia in your world, did they? Well, it varies, but--essentially it means a clinical inability to remember something. For instance, a person hits their head badly and then can't remember their name, their family, where they live...that sort of thing."

He tilts his head again at Ruvin, contemplating her. "You hit your head recently? Well! I suppose it doesn't have to be head trauma. If something...hm, if something bad happened, something traumatic, it has the same effect sometimes."

[changingtheodds]

"...no. I didn't hit my head." Her focus is suddenly very much elsewhere, grappling with the slippery comings and goings of that hour--two? three? less?--in the Kashtta that started with the Doctor telling her he would fix it, that everything would be fine, and ended with panic and fear and falling asleep in Dusty's arms. "I didn't hit my head, but something bad definitely happened."

If she could just remember what. "Does it go away? Can it be fixed?"

[duology]

Dev studies her for a long moment, then plunks down next to her. Partially to keep her company and partially to keep himself from staring at the blood and thinking how easy it would be to kill Ruvin right now. He rather likes Ruvin, so he'd rather that not happen.

Easy is boring, too.

"Well...that's really a question for a doctor, innit?" he says, giving her a little concerned frown. "Not exactly an expert, me. But! I know it's certainly possible to recover from it. Memories can't every truly be completely gone, yeah? Just buried. Like repressed memories and such!"

[changingtheodds]

Buried.

Repressed.

Ruvin feels sick. "Why?" she whispers, and the answer is there and not. It's like beating herself against glass, clawing at a surface without purchase.

The Doctor. The Vesmier. They did this to her--not Flagg. It couldn't have been him. There was too much time, too much between meeting him and going to find the Doctor for help. Fear twists in her stomach, echoing up into her throat and choking her along with the question. Why?

[duology]

Dev glances at her sidelong. He assumes she's asking why memories end up repressed, so he answers.

"Well...sometimes a person isn't strong enough to handle some memories. Sometimes we're not ready to face them. So they get buried very deep, until we're ready to peel back the layers and really look at them. Really deal with them and accept them, you know?"

This is something he's actually familiar with. Somewhere in Dev's past something happened; something must have happened, to make him and Ace the way they are.

[changingtheodds]

That sounds reasonable. Plausible. But part of her says it doesn't sound fair. Who gets to choose what she can handle? Who gets to take it away? "I guess."

There's a brief internal battle between fear and resentment, which she buries in favor of a question. "How do you know so much about this?"

[duology]

Dev would like to know the answer to that as well. Even with normally suppressed memories, it's as if there is a third entity in there beyond Dev and Ace who is deciding what is best for them. Dev does not like that idea at all.

At her question he smiles very slowly, his eyes lidding halfway. "Everyone has something they repress."