Salle, Tuesday Afternoon

[glacial_witch]

Okay...after the trip home and what she and Raven had discovered about the disappearance of the island of Zuul--pardon, Zuulaman--Karla had some very complex emotions to work through. On the one hand, she was pretty certain that whatever was going on with other people's worlds was not at all related to what happened to Zuulaman. So, that was a plus

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[not_a_parakeet]

See, Warren didn't come down to the Salle often, usually opting to practice his sticks outside. The sky over his head was nice, and all. But today, he was totally playing the wimp, who cared what Lucivar thought, and consenting to the island that it was probably starting to get on to 'practicing indoors' weather by now.

He smiled a little as he stepped into the Salle, sticks in hand, and realized that he wasn't alone.

"Great minds, huh?"

[glacial_witch]

Karla shook herself out of her concentration daze and offered Warren a small smile of greeting in return. "Yeah," she said, managing to shrug a little without missing a beat. "Guess so."

[not_a_parakeet]

Or... not.

That little smile turned pretty quickly into a somewhat worried frown. A response like that seemed to warrant one, really.

"Something up, Karla?" Sticks could wait for a moment. 'Guess so' was not really a Karla sort of greeting.

... Warren had been a little sheltered this weekend.

[glacial_witch]

Karla gave a wry chuckle. "Yeah, you could say that," she said, shifting into the next form. "You've heard about the disappearances, right? They've gotten worse."

Someone was making a few major assumptions about just what her boyfriend knew.

"Today didn't make it any better, either."

[not_a_parakeet]

No, really! Warren's weekend had been very sheltered!

"Uh... disappearances?"

See? Really, a lot! He'd heard about Portalocity's fail. He knew that he still hadn't heard from Bobby since he'd left to be with his dad, but he figured that was more a matter of Bobby needing space. And he had no idea what was up with Kennedy being impossible to contact these days. But beyond that?

Warren didn't really have anyone back home that he kept in touch with, on a regular basis.

[glacial_witch]

"People are vanishing," Karla said quietly, finishing up the form and pausing before starting the next. "All over the multiverse. Banard and Dujae from my world. Valentine, Ender's sister. Parks and streets in Momoko's world. Villains and metas from Dinah's. Priestly's entire world. He's gone. Jak's too, I think. Silent Jak, Dinah's ex?" She wasn't sure if Warren had ever met either of them. "Sebastian, from Jack Priest's world. The Warren from Jono's world along with his Bobby and Paige, too. Just being erased from reality and everyone else can't even remember."

[not_a_parakeet]

So many of those names meant almost nothing to Warren, beyond being a terrifying tally that seemed to just keep stacking up, one on top of the next, until it built a wall that had him feeling like the world was closing in on him, too.

He'd known that other Warren. He'd had a long talk with the man, about what it meant to be a mutant, what it meant to be a Worthington. What it meant to just be.

He swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Oh..." That was... that was bad. "And... nobody knows what's... causing it? Or where people are going?"

Obviously they had to be going somewhere, right? Like when reality had ripped a while back and he'd wound up in Rapture? That was what this was like? Only... maybe less... Rapturey.

[glacial_witch]

"No," Karla said, shaking her head. "No one knows what's happening or what's causing it or how to fix it. There's a Reserves meeting tomorrow in the community center. We're hoping someone has an idea--or maybe if we put enough heads together and facts together, we can figure something out."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I'll be there," Warren replied, without so much as a moment's hesitation. He... had no idea what was going on, but if there was anything he could do at all, even if all he was good at in situations like these was throwing money at things, he'd do it.

He shifted his weight uneasily after a moment, and then sighed. Suddenly, he wasn't feeling so up to training with his sticks, after all.

"I'm... sorry I didn't know about this sooner. I could have been looking into this, too, and instead I've been, uh..."

Wallowing and dogsitting. Good show, Warren.

[glacial_witch]

Karla shrugged. "I could have come to you," she reminded. "Mother Night, just--after yesterday and the phone calls from Dinah and then this morning--"

Her shoulders slumped. "I've mostly been giving thought to hiding under my bed for awhile and not coming out."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Pretty sure I wouldn't fit under there with you, though." Warren was going for 'lighthearted,' and was mostly just coming off as 'worried, with a side-order of helpless.'

Probably not the most reassuring attempt at levity he'd ever made.

"Might get kind of lonely under there, huh?"

See? So that was a perfectly valid reason to not hide away. And for the time being, if he set down his sticks, he could even step forward and offer her a hug, like so. While he tried desperately not to think about his own home, and if his dad was okay back there.

[glacial_witch]

A hug. Yeah, a hug would be really nice right now. Karla vanished her sticks and stepped forward to cling. "Today sucks already and it's not even half-over yet."

She still had to head to the Boards and tell Jono a friend was his was gone.

"I'm tired, Warren. And not just 'had two bouts with sticks' tired. I mean tired. Something bad is happening everywhere, we don't know how or why or how to fix it, and then I go home because I think I know something that might help--and I find out not only is the information useless but--"

She bit down on what she'd been about to say and shook her head. "I'm tired."

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren found himself chewing on the inside of his cheek as she stopped herself from... whatever it was that she was about to say.

Yeah... He was starting to feel a little tired, too. But he held her close, folding his wings around her and drawing soft little circles against her back with his fingertips.

"Stay with me tonight," he offered, softly. "Hercules is himself again, so it'd just be you and me. And Thor, I guess. But you shouldn't have to be alone just because the universe sucks."

Yes. That was the universe's problem. It sucked.

[glacial_witch]

"I would really like that," Karla said into his neck. "I need you tonight."

She stood there for a long moment, inhaling the scent of cornchips and pretending that everything was okay. So long as she could smell cornchips, nothing could hurt her, right?

"Warren...do you think there are things that are unforgiveable?"

[not_a_parakeet]

Oh, there was a loaded question, if ever Warren had heard one. But he continued holding her, keeping her there in his wings where the rest of the world couldn't get at her.

Nothing could hurt her, here.

"I think... There are things that would take a lot of work to fix," he said at length. "And things that can't be fixed. But forgiveness..."

This was not an easy question.

"I think maybe that depends on whose forgiveness counts the most, after it's all been said and done."

[glacial_witch]

Karla mulled that over in her mind. Whose forgiveness counted the most? Not hers, that was for damn sure. But then, none of the people whose forgiveness was needed were in any position to grant it. They'd been torn from time and space--not even a whisper in the Darkness remained of the entire lot of them.

"I thought I was helping," she said bitterly. "I thought the answer might lie in an old legend. But it didn't. There was nothing useful there. I should have let the past lay dead and buried. It's the only thing that was."