firstofitskind | MHA #6, Thursday Morning

MHA #6, Thursday Morning

After whatever the hell had happened on the beach, Liam returned to the apartment feeling incredibly unsettled. He didn't understand what had happened or why, just that there was something going on with bad memories, and, well. Nightmares were honestly a pretty regular occurrence in the Price-Kincaid household, between the two of them.

Honestly, he'd even entertained the idea of just trying not to fall asleep at all. Except that hadn't worked, because even part-aliens who only needed a few hours of sleep a night still needed some sleep.

"You're right, Major. I do enjoy my job." Being held down by the energy field, twisting to see Sandoval's mocking expression before he pressed the button that sent bolts of electricity coursing through his body.

Staying still, so very still, as the needle approached the underside of his jaw. Listening to Zo'or as he spoke to Sandoval as if Liam himself were not even there. "Major Kincaid has been resourceful in the past, but he has also demonstrated discontent with me. I want him searching, but I want him on your tether." And then nothing but blackness as the CVI started to replicate within his brain.

Wrenching, tearing pain, pain so bad he could barely think. Hands holding him down as he screamed and fought to no avail. Another hand jamming a needle into his abdomen, extracting... something. He tried to remember why this mattered but all he could think about was how much it hurt.

Liam woke with a gasp, twisting away from the form cuddled close to his own, not really registering that it was Verity and not just another nightmare construct. He kicked at the blankets, desperate to get whatever was holding him down off, now now now.

[ooc: for the wife and SP!]

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Liam frowned slightly, but let it go for now. He nodded. "It was like that last night, too. Except I was awake. Couldn't do anything but let the memories play out."

Verity holds out her hand to pull him up. "Let's dry you off," she said. "And we can figure out what the hell is going on."

Because it was always something.

"...Couldn't have given me just a few more days?"

"Least we got a few days, this time," Liam pointed out, taking Verity's hand. Remember when they'd come back from their road-trip-slash-honeymoon and she'd been immediately kidnapped?

Those were the days. Except for how they really weren't.

"You think we can get all the way up to a week next time?" she asked, voice wry. She pulled him up to his feet and helped him to the bed. "Just last night and tonight? Or...?"

Honestly if she were anyone else, being touched would just be Too Much right now, with those particular memories still pretty fresh in his mind. But she was Verity, and so he just let himself be led.

He nodded. "Everything was fine before yesterday," he confirmed. "Rey said she felt a... presence, of some sort, in the morning."

Even so, she let him go just as soon as he was situated. She knew he sometimes needed space, a chance to solidify me and not-me in his mind. "A presence?" Verity asked. "Any more details than that?"

"It kept to the shadows," Liam told her. "And last night, I could feel it enjoying itself when it made us remember." His eyes darted around the bedroom, searching for any sign of the mysterious malevolent presence.

"A mara maybe?" Verity murmured, thinking. "I mean, most people wouldn't know they're around, but God only knows what happens when you mix cryptids and psychics."

Liam frowned, trying to remember what he'd read about the mara.

"I don't think so," he said. "I wasn't asleep when it happened on the beach last night, and I don't feel... drained, or anything." He knew all too well what that felt like, of course. Thanks, tremens.

Plus there was the whole 'making other people share the memories' part.

Verity was still assuming that part was his powers, not hers. A side effect of unconscious Sharing, overwhelmed by the nightmare. "It happened on the beach, too?"

That’s what he’d been inclined to assume too, except-

“Yeah. I was just talking to Rey, and then- it was like a memory intrusion, but she was able to see everything too. Without- well. It wasn’t Sharing. We weren’t even touching. Yasha was there too, and I could see her memory.”

Verity was just going to pretend she knew who Yasha was for the moment. Seemed easier.

"Some kind of psychic link? Is Yasha also psychic?"

Liam shook his head. “Not that I know of.”

Just really prone to being manipulated mentally, apparently.

Sounded like she'd fit right in with the rest of the island.

"Sounds like we have a prime candidate for this summer's fuckery," Verity sighed.

Honestly, island, you couldn't have scheduled this while she was still a squirrel?

“On the bright side, we’ve got a mayor who actually gives a shit now, which will help with figuring out how to un-fuck things,” Liam pointed out.

"We do?" Verity asked. "That's a hell of a change. How did that happen?"

"Do you remember much from when you were squirrel-y?" Liam asked.

Slight conversational detour, but honestly, Liam was kind of okay with that right now.

"Verrrry little," Verity said. "I remember you took away my rum while I was drinking with the squirrels, which was rude."

“It was for your own good!” Liam said, for not the first time. “But there was this week where things went... kind of weird? Remember how I said an ‘opportunity came up’ to renovate the apartment?”

She’d probably noticed by now that while another room had been added, the actual apartment footprint hadn’t changed; nor had any of the existing rooms gotten smaller to make space for the new one. That was... generally not how renovating was supposed to work.

"Yes, I did notice the spare room that appeared even with our apartment remaining the same size," Verity drawled.

In his defense, he’d pointed it out the day she’d turned back, too. They’d just promptly been distracted by welcome-back sex and then he hadn’t really gotten into explaining how weird that whole week had been.

“A whole bunch of anthropomorphic animals just kinda showed up and declared they lived here now? I was waiting for the other shoe to drop for a couple days but,” he shrugged. “Turns out they really were harmless. Town Hall was taken over by a talking raccoon named Tom Nook,” yes that was a real sentence he’d just said in all seriousness, let that sink in, Verity. “Anyway. Their presence pissed Tamsin off enough that she took off, and then not too long after that, Jesse showed up.”

"...And was voted mayor by popular acclaim?"

Honestly, that whole 'talking animal' thing was still less awful than the 'turning into toys,' so Verity wasn't even going to question it.

"Sure," Liam said. "Just like how I was voted Sheriff."

Actually, Jesse had gotten her job in a manner pretty much identical to how Liam had gotten his: shown up and was informed by someone else that this was their job now.

"This island, I swear to god," Verity sighed, shaking her head.

But anyway, back to the matter at hand. "Okay, so then what?"

"The mayor's assistant handed her a binder and told her it was her problem now," Liam shrugged. "And she's been proactively trying to learn about past issues the island has had ever since."

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