InsaneJournal

Who: Jane Foster, Dr. Strange
What: those pesky mind leeches strike again.
When: Recently
Rating/Warning: Green

Not for the first time, Jane was suddenly.in New York City. There was no mistaking the city in the summer time, with the smell of trash piled up on the sidewalks waiting for pickup. The alternate universe was complicating things again. If only she could be sure why. Jane had left New York City for her Puente Antigua lab for reason she couldn’t quite name. Nor could she really recall what she’d been doing with her time there. Things had been normal before Jane had been seized with the sudden urge to go travelling. At least, she was pretty sure things had been normal. Jane wasn’t sure she could trust her own memories right now.

Some things still worked. Jane knew she was in midtown Manhattan by the looks of the buildings. She was just about to go looking for a metro station when a portal with a view on to somewhere else opened up. A tall man in dark robes stepped out. Of course.

“Doctor.” She nodded her head at Strange.

Well. This had been a....month.

Strange got the mystical notification that Jane was back, and he couldn't explain why she went off his magical grid. It was better sometimes not to figure out why this broken copy of a universe was doing things, or what creatures were wreaking havoc stealing memories lately.

He knew almost immediately what was gone wrong. There was an infestation lately, and no amount of him and Wong gathering sorcerers as an astral plane pest control was helping wipe them out entirely. One always escaped, and one could breed if it could feed.

"Hi again, Jane. Just a minute. I'm putting this conversation on hold."

Strange sat down on the sidewalk in a lotus position and went out of his body, swiping a mind leech out of Jane's head, leaving behind a cold chill like someone walked over their grave. Fun times.

With his soul back in his body again, Strange opened one eye to look at her. "Feel that?"

Jane felt cold and clammy all over, an out of body experience that wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Mystical forces had taken over he body before. But when Strange finished whatever it was, it was like a veil dropped away from her eyes. Jane felt more clear in her thoughts than she had for the last few weeks.

“What was that?” she asked, reaching out to steady herself on the wall of the building beside her.

"Mind leech," Strange replied, with his usual lack of squeamishness or bedside manner. "It feeds off memories. Over time, it can leave a person in a vegetative state. In the physical state, it looks like standard cognitive decline."

He stood on his own two feet again, walking toward her until he could rest one hand on her shoulder.

"Take a few deep breaths while you're realigning. I hope nothing major was lost. It's hard to tell what thoughts or memories were consumed."

She breathed slowly in through her nose, the way she’d seen yoga people doing. Not that Jane had ever done yoga. With every breath, she tried to think about what she remembered. Her mother (books and tea). Her father (baseball, calculus, funeral). Darcy and Erik (lab, van London). Thor (van, Asgard, lightning, goodbye).

“I think… I think I’m good? How bad is cognitive loss? You’re not going to tell me I won’t be able to do math anymore, are you?”

"If you remember the universe is broken and you've been working with Stark, in his labs, then you'll be all right," he assured her. "Don't worry about not being able to do math. It's memories for the most part. I believe it only happens if the leeching is over a long period of time.

"I even checked out the theory. A small portion of those in assisted living facilities had mind leeches. They're attracted to certain energy sources or people with innate or untapped powers."

Sure that she wasn't going to topple over, Strange removed his hand and looked around, to make sure there were no onlookers.

"Where would you like to go, Dr. Foster. Let's get you there."