ωєιѕѕ ѕ¢нηєє (notmadeofstone) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-03-19 18:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent washington, weiss schnee |
Who: Weiss and Agent Wash
What: Wash rescues a damsel
When: 02/01, ‘The day of the embryos’
Where: Outside somewhere
Rating/Warnings: Uh… PG, pretty much.
Status: Complete.
Day five of the Apocalypse, and Weiss was bored out of her mind. She’d already done a zillion laps in her pool, organized and re-organized her closet, and had even lowered herself to doing some cleaning, since the staff was definitely not leaving their houses in this… whatever it was. The quake yesterday had been frightening, but her house had made it through just fine, and today? Today was looking like another day of waiting around.
One hundred percent done with that idea, she decided to go for a walk. What was the worst that could happen after all the rest? There was no pesky sun to deal with and any other problems could be solved with pepper spray, or so she thought.
She wasn’t prepared, of course, for embryos falling from the sky. Especially since she couldn’t see them. Weiss made it a few blocks from her house before one of them managed to make contact, and she didn’t have a lot of time before blackness was gnawing at the edges of her vision and she suddenly found herself sinking to the pavement for no reason.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw someone approaching, and tried to wave them down. But would they even stop? There was no way of knowing, and then Weiss couldn’t fight the need to pass out any longer.
Wash had been out of Rociel’s control for a good five days now. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know who he was or what had happened to him. Quite the opposite, in fact. He’d been painfully aware of everything he’d done and said while under Rociel’s control – save for the few hours in which he’d managed to break free. Those hours had been marked with panic, confusion and desperation which had only made Wash an easy target for Rociel to take over again. When Rociel had been defeated the control had been broken again, the confusion and panic came surging back. The panic had more or less subsided by now, as had (most of) the confusion, but Wash was still filled with restless agitation and anxiety that refused to allow him to go home. He was responsible for this, at least in some small part. …He’d certainly not helped to stop it. So he did the only thing he, as a marine, knew how to do: keep boots (or in this case, stocking feet) on the ground and help those who needed it.
As a result, Wash looked as though he hadn’t been home in a while. He was clad only in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and socks. His boots were still at home, right where he’d left them before running out of his apartment several weeks earlier. His face was scruffy, his eyes were tired and his clothes were dirty.
Wash lacked the ability to see the creepy embryos falling from the sky, which all things considered given his current mental state was probably for the better. He knew something was going on. Orange County was never content to just let the ground shake and block out the sun. He noticed a young woman strangely out for a walk during the apocalypse. From where he stood across the street he saw her suddenly stop and then slowly fall to her knees. Without thinking – which was how he’d been acting for the past several days anyway – Wash darted across the street towards the young woman and grabbed hold of her under her arms so she wouldn’t hit the ground and crack her head wide open.
“Miss?” He called to her, “can you hear me?”
But of course she couldn’t. Wash grunted. He couldn’t leave her out here. He glanced around for a safe place to take her. Most of the shops in the area were closed, but Wash spotted a store front with an awning that was at least off the street. Wash gathered up the young woman in his arms, careful not to get his dog tags hanging around his neck against his chest tangled in her hair.
There was a part of Weiss that would have taken some pleasure in being carried around in the arms of a cute marine, even if he looked scruffy and a little wild at the moment. Unfortunately for her, she awoke long after he'd finished carrying her across the street and settled down.
It was about an hour before her eyes fluttered awake. The odd event had left her with a pounding headache and an odd taste in her mouth. It reminded her of one time she'd partied far too hard in high school, and she let out a little groan. "Winter?"
Last time, her older sister had been there for her. But Weiss was very much alone here in Orange County, and she squinted an eye at her surroundings and the man who'd rescued her. "What happened?"
Wash had placed the young lady on the ground, having balled up his shirt to place under her head. It was the best he could do to keep her as comfortable as possible while the two of them hunkered down in the storefront. The awning overhead prevented any more floating embryos from touching either of them, not that Wash could see them. He couldn’t exactly leave her there, either. So he sat on the other side of the storefront, his knees drawn up and his elbows resting on his knees. He kept an eye on the street, but there wasn’t anyone out that morning.
His attention moved back to the girl when he heard her stir, but he didn’t move, choosing to remain where he was so not to appear threatening. “I’m not really sure,” he answered her question. “There’s something happening in the county. I think...it looked as though something suddenly sucked away all your energy and you collapsed. How are you feeling?”
"Not superlative," Weiss answered, biting back the words that would have admitted she felt like she'd been drugged. No one needed to know about that side of her, especially after her father had paid so much to keep it out of the news. Her head was on something soft, for which she was eternally grateful, and this was an occasion where she thought she ought to say so. "Everything is aching but I should consider myself lucky that I didn't hit my head. You must have caught me as I was falling. I... really appreciate that. Is this your shirt under my head?"
It certainly wasn't any of her own clothing. Weiss moved to get up into a sitting position, mainly so that she could hand it back to him. That's when she noticed that he wasn't wearing any shoes. Well that was odd. "What happened to your shoes?"
Wash frowned slightly, though he would have been surprised if she’d said she felt fine. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “You went down pretty fast. Whatever it was that affected you did so quickly.” He looked upwards towards what he could see of the sky from under the awning, “whatever it was, it probably has to do with what’s going on.”
His attention moved back to the girl as she sat up and he lowered his knees and his arms as if preparing to catch her again, should moving so quickly after laying down for so long was a bad idea. Fortunately she seemed to be alright sitting there. “Yeah, it’s mine,” he said of the shirt under her head. “And you’re welcome. I couldn’t just leave you out there.” He reached to take his shirt, as he did his dogtags clinked together. His fingers had just closed around the fabric when she mentioned his shoes. Wash looked at his feet as if just realizing he was in his stocking feet. “I didn’t have time to put them on when I left my apartment,” he admitted with a shrug. He looked back up at the young woman and took his shirt back. “You should probably stay there a few more minutes before attempting to move much more,” he said. “What are you doing walking around in the middle of the apocalypse anyway?”
"I could ask you the same question..." Weiss mumbled, still trying to take in Wash and his appearance, the dog tags, and everything else. It was a confusing situation to find oneself in, and how much of anything was supposed to make sense during the end of the world? Still, she though there was something not quite right about him. But she didn't dare say anything. "However, since you were the one to rescue me, It would be very rude not to answer you. And the truth is, I was bored. My house is... somewhere nearby, I think I lost count of the blocks I walked. I wanted to survey the damage, and get some fresh air. I have to admit I don't really put much stock into panicking about the events that happen around here."
She shrugged a shoulder, "Someone's dream caused this, didn't it? Someone's dream will probably fix it. But you seem to have left your apartment in an awful hurry."
“Yeah,” Wash answered quietly. “This came from the Dreams of a buddy of mine.” His attention was on the dark sky above them again, lit up only by the Star of Wormwood bearing down on them. He knew exactly whose dream was causing this, and he hoped that that same person would be able to end it. Only Wash hadn’t seen Katou since all of this had began. He had no way of contacting him. The only thing Wash could do now was keep an eye out and help those who were unwittingly getting caught up in the backlash, like the poor young women sitting in the storefront with him. “I hope so,” he went on, “these things usually resolve themselves…”
He turned his attention back towards her when she mentioned him leaving his apartment quickly. It was obvious that he had, he’d already said as much. “Yeah, I did,” he said. “The reason why is a long story, but I can’t go back until this is over. I failed trying to stop this from happening, so now I need to make sure no one gets hurt.”
"Well..." Weiss's eyes blinked a few times as she tried to process this information. "Did you know how to stop it? Because if this... world ending apocalypse is coming from a friend of yours, I hardly see how you could be expected to do anything about it. I'm new here of course, and maybe I'm missing some crucial detail in all of this. Do you share a dream... world... with your friend?"
She knew that something like that must be happening with some of them, if only because Ruby seemed far too familiar with her. And Jaune, Ruby, and her Uncle were all involved in that... scorpion poison thing. "Your friend will resolve it, I'm sure. You're providing us all with a much needed service out here."
Weiss hoped that sounded encouraging. Wash seemed put out by his inability to stop it, and she felt the need to try and cheer him up.
Wash’s shook his head slightly. “No, we don’t share a Dream World, but he’d asked me for help and I failed in giving it to him.” He hoped that wherever he was Katou was alright and was figuring out what to do. Usually these things had a way of resolving themselves, though, he hoped that it didn’t involve Katou getting sucked into a void dimension like Lina had been forced to do a few years ago. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if that happened. Lina was a mage. Katou...was not. Wash rubbed at his face a little.
“It will get resolved one way or another,” he said and he wouldn’t have blamed Katou one bit if he did so on his own and hate Wash for not being the help he’d needed him to be. Now that the girl had been upright for a few minutes and didn’t seem as though she was going to pass out again and need something soft under her head, Wash pulled his shirt back on. “In the meantime, the only thing I can do now is make sure everyone out here is safe.” He looked at the girl again, his posture relaxing a little. Weiss’s attempts at encouragement didn’t go unnoticed and it was kind of ironic that she was the one attempting to encourage him. “My name is David Barrow,” he introduced himself, “But everyone calls me Wash. It was my code name when I was in the Marines. How are you feeling? Do you think you can stand?”
"I'm Weiss," She replied, not bothering to add her last name. There were times to name drop and throw your weight around, and during the apocalypse was... probably not one of them. Especially with everything else going on, and probably more for her sake than his. He hadn't recognized her and doubtless would have had no idea who she was, even if she'd said it. But still. Even during the apocalypse, there was no telling who else was eavesdropping or sitting around with a camera.
"I think that's so admirable, roaming around out here looking for people to help. It's... somewhat humbling, considering my own reasons." Something about Wash, perhaps his military service, made her want to act a little less spoiled. Weiss brushed her hand around her head and shoulders, then checked her legs. Nothing hurt and she didn't feel any lingering exhaustion, so she nodded her head and held a hand out to him. "If you could help me up, I think I'm probably fine now."
Wash nodded and got to his feet first before offering both of his hands to Weiss. He helped her up slowly. She may have felt fine just sitting there, but a quick movement to her feet may have caused the blood to rush from her head, bringing on a new bout of dizziness. So, slow was the best way to get her upright again.
As he helped her up he said, “Thank you, Weiss. I appreciate you saying that, but it’s not as admirable as you might think. I’m doing this just as much for me as I am other people. It’s how I deal with things. Everyone handles crises a little bit differently. For some, trying to hang on to something normal -- like taking a walk – helps.”
Once Weiss was on her feet again, Wash gave her a moment to make sure she was alright. He took a moment to peer out from under the awning again. He still couldn’t see any of the floating fetuses and still had no idea they were what had caused the girl to lose consciousness in the first place. The corners of his mouth twitched downwards as he debated what to do next. He glanced back at the girl. “I don’t know what’s going on specifically that made you blackout, so I’m not really comfortable letting you go off on your own. If you don’t mind, I’d like to walk you the rest of the way to your destination. Just in case.”
"Well... _I_ still think it's admirable. You could have done like I did, and gone for a walk without helping anyone at all." But it was clear to Weiss that she wasn't going to try and cheer him up. The self-deprication was something that her dream self would become more familiar with, but at the moment she was ignorant of it. Just that he seemed stubborn about it, and it was inefficient to keep trying to argue.
When she got to her feet, she smoothed out the clothes she'd been wearing and dusted them off. The activity was a good check to see if she still had balance and wasn't about to keel over, and she decided she was fine.
But that didn't stop her from smiling at Wash and nodding her head, "Why, certainly! I wouldn't mind the company back and it is, after all, the gentlemanly thing to do."
Wash looked back at Weiss. Perhaps it was the gentlemanly thing for him to walk her back home, or wherever it was she was going, but it was also the decent and right thing to do as far as Wash was concerned. Still the term “gentlemanly” made him raise a brow slightly. Not a term he’d ever have used for himself. He couldn’t help but smile faintly. “Yeah,” he nodded, “I guess it is.”