Glad to hear it, I want to stay over. Portal please? I have to tell Choco Carolina is here and she'll be mad if I saw her and didn't tell her and I'm a bit too strung out for the conversation today.
I genuinely love how you're starting to ask for portals. It makes him feel needed.
A portal opens right on cue, between wherever Wash is and Macaque's room. He's in his nest reading language books, American English this time, which he sets aside. "Come on, get in here."
Macaque scoots over and tugs him into a gentle hug, grooming through his hair. "From what I heard, it's a pretty complicated relationship. Perhaps with some timeline issues?"
And then, "If you don't want to talk, it's okay. My nosiness can wait."
Wash sighs, letting himself be tugged into Macaque. "Complicated history, less complicated relationship in my time. Problem is, she's from around my revenge slash villain arc," he said. "Before we met up again. After Article 12, I think."
"Damn," Macaque says softly. He can easily imagine being in that situation, obviously. If Wukong or MK left and came back thinking he was the enemy, or Red came back barely knowing him at all...
"The multiverse is fucking with you again." And it's not fair. "She sounded amenable to adjusting her view of you, at least." And from when he talked to her, she seemed reasonable... if determined to leave.
"Yep. Should have known. Still, not the worst its done," he said. North and Alpha were Definitely Worse.
He sighs, leaning into him. "She can be very reasonable. Its just when she gets something in her head, it can be very hard to dissuade her. Its why I want to be slow to her seeing the kids. More used to magic since...you know, all of them have something except Wylan." Even Eve in her more human form has some animal stuff, and Lott just sometimes does Shadow Things.
And Wylan is, well, not someone who handles intensity well. "I don't want her having a crisis with them."
"Carolina always cared about me. I knew that. She just also didn't know if I could be trusted and I get that. Its just also...exhausting to deal with when I wasn't prepared."
"Something can be not the worst and still fucking suck." He's entitled to be drained.
"Yeah, I noticed that. She is determined to get back to whatever she was doing immediately." He tossed out that he hadn't seen it happen, but she didn't seem the sort to appreciate being told no, so he left the door open for the possibility. Hell, if Wukong can die here then anything is possible.
"It's not a bad idea to make sure everyone is ready when they meet. Hopefully she'll adjust." There's a pause. "I trust you to know when it's time."
Macaque kisses Wash's temple. "You want me to hit some acupressure points? I'll mind the port." It'll help him relax.
He nodded. "She is like that. Always having to do something. I'm thinking I should tell her about how the war ended. It shouldn't be too long from her time now. The war is going to end and soon, so it feels less...pressing to go back and help." He paused. "Of course, then she focused on the Director, but maybe with it not being an immediate thing to pursue, I can get her to breathe more."
He nodded. "Warn them she can be a little aggro. Even Choco's mostly seen Carolina from later memories, and when she got to visit Chorus. A lot less wound up. But I think I can get her braced so she doesn't do anything that's upsetting." He sighed, burrowing against Macaque. He knows the kids are strong. They can take someone having a crisis. Doesn't mean he wants them to if its avoidable.
"If you think it'll help her," Macaque says softly, as he starts gently pressing some of the points on either side of Wash's spine. Gingerly working out any knots he finds along the way.
"It's not all on you to make sure it goes well between her and the kids," Macaque says, equally gentle. "They can forgive a lot, especially if told that someone is used to tech and not... all this. And it's also on her to roll with things and be a person, not a hardass soldier." And after meeting her, Macaque has faith that she can.
"I'm not saying there's nothing to worry about, but I am saying not to take all the pressure on yourself. Nothing is served by that, especially any of them."
"I think so. She got to help people, but she doesn't have to worry about being something pivotal to it ending. And it ending was good. Good soldiers don't join for glory, just to try and get the fighting to stop," he said. Carolina may want to be the best, and her competitiveness could be a danger, but she was never so obsessed as to begrudge an end that meant less dead.
He sighs, letting himself relax against Macaque as he hit those points.
"Yeah, stopping the hardass soldier is the hard part," Wash said. "I get it. I had that problem too. Its just figuring out where she's at to best help her unwind so things go well," he said. "I love her a lot. Even if she's still in the not sure how much she trusts me stage. I want them to be able to get along. I know Choco would be really sad if they couldn't, she had such a crush on her."
"Hopefully. I did try to tell her that when she goes back it should be to the exact same place, since she seemed pretty set on that. But there's only so much it can help if she thinks all this is some sort of dream or head injury or whatever." Which would be the only explanations that jive with her not accepting what's in front of her eyes. "She might not believe you all the way about the end of the war, but give it time to sink in."
Macaque keeps working on helping Wash relax, perhaps avoid a horrible migraine.
"No one understands being shoved into a crazy world where you don't know what's going on more than Choco. She'll be okay even if there's some bumps in the road. If she can deal with the whole thing with Max, she can deal with Carolina." He can't help but smile. "Her having a crush on Carolina is cute as hell, though."
"Probably that. Maybe her wires frying some synapses or something. Which is admittedly possible, I had a bunch of hallucinations from Epsilon," he said. "Though I don't know how much she understands the tech side of it."
There is a pause.
"I'll need to sit on just how much I got from Epsilon for a while. She's not ready to hear any of that." That could go so bad so fast.
"I know. Still don't want her to if I can avoid it. She deserves a break," he said with a sigh. "And it was adorable. She didn't even realize it was a crush."
"Wires frying things in your head counts as a head injury, Wash. It's just a... complicated head injury."
--Ah, Epsilon. Macaque sighs too. "You're juggling a lot and she only just found you." That's so much to be balancing, so many plates to spin.
"If anyone can understand wanting to protect Choco, it's me. But you also know how she gets about wanting to know the truth of things. She might be hurt by Carolina being averse to magic and giant pigeon wings, but she'll also be hurt if she finds out that you didn't tell her. Not least because she won't want you to be fretting."
He continues working on Wash's acupressure points, all down his spine. "I'm not saying rush it. I am saying that she'll understand if you tell her that Carolina is here but you're not ready for them to meet just yet, that you have some things to bring her up to date on. Choco will want to support you, and she'll understand a brief delay as long as she knows it's not forever." He can't imagine that Choco wouldn't respect Wash saying that he needs a little time.
Wash chuckled. "Not the first time. North and Theta was worse. Alpha was also pretty bad, but at least he was aware of the situation where I got him killed," he said. "Carolina, at least, is not a dead friend." This is not his first rodeo. Just also the worse.
"I'm not going to hide it. That's why portal. I can't be hiding it if I don't see her," he said and snuggles closer. "I'll tell her tomorrow. When I see her. Soon. Just not today. I know she wants me to tell her, she was already real mad when I hid knowing her in the Forest because I didn't want to overwhelm her. Learned my lesson."
There is another deep seated groan. "I know. Choco's great. Understanding. I just also have to tell her she can't see Carolina yet and she will be so excited to. You ever tell her no when she's excited? Like kicking a puppy."
Well, it's good that she's not a dead friend. Wash needs no further emotional and mental AHHHH about this.
"It's reasonable to give yourself a day." He needs a whole minute to process all this, figure out how he wants to handle it, and prepare himself to proverbially kick a puppy.
"Don't think of it as telling her no. Think of it as telling her "not yet." She might get excited, and she might be a little disappointed, but in the long run it'll be fine. But I can understand that it's one more thing that is hard to deal with." Especially when this sort of thing can loom so large in one's head.
"What can I do? Other than provide reassurances that I'm sure you already thought of."
He hummed. "Still. She'll worry. Whole thing," he muttered. He wishes it could be simpler. Sure, Carolina from his time would also balk at magic, but she would also be more used to the Reds and Blues and they are amazing at getting one to just believe in The Nonsense.
She would also trust him more.
"Let me relax here," he said. "Let's me breathe, and unwind and kind of deal with the fact my best friend doesn't remember me as hers, which really sucks, and you rolled with me trolling and calling you babe, so I just want to stay here a while."
"Whole thing," he says, which is an agreement. Sometimes things that should be simple just aren't.
"You're always welcome here." That actually is simple, thankfully. At least that's one thing. "I can't help much with the rest, but I'll always roll with your trolling. It's cute." And look, who would he be if he couldn't embrace trolling?
He pulls Wash a bit closer and nuzzles his head. "I've got you."
"You are helping a lot, I can hear your insecurity," he said, a hand moving up to gently caress his ear. "Being here does so much. Think about how much you wanted people to just stay. Those feelings," he said.
He nuzzles against his neck. "I can never say how much having a place like this means to me, you do so much." One day, he'll get Mavaque to understand.
"Less insecurity than inexperience. Usually when someone wanted my help it was to beat something's ass." He's good at that. The emotional stuff, less so.
He shivers just lightly when Wash touches his ears in a way that Wash definitely shouldn't find surprising at this point.
"I believe you. I do." Wash is a great liar but he wouldn't lie about that. "At least most of me does most of the time, which as good as you're gonna get right now." It's not bad as track records go.
"Absolutely do not beat her ass. She is absolutely not in a state of mind to accept someone beating her as thoroughly as mister basically a god monkey," he said with a dry laugh. "Oh, she's gonna be a NIGHTMARE when she realizes that."
"Fair enough," he said. "Just wanted you to know. I don't need a soldier, I just need a friend."
He hummed. "I absolutely do. We should go on another date soon. With more casual wear. Choco and I have bought shirts."
"You really think I'd do that to your friend without a good reason? Even if she challenged me I'd probably stall since I know she's not ready for what I can do. No disrespect meant. You're impressive and I'm sure she's impressive, for mortals." But also she wouldn't stand a chance and he wants to be sure she could accept that. Right now it doesn't sound like she could.
"I'm clear on what you need from me, Wash. I may not have every bit of confidence that I'll do it will but I can read a room." He sounds amused, and then kisses Wash's temple again.
And then a chuckle. "I suppose that wardrobe would be fitting for a picnic. And a trip to the smoothie bar you like."
"She is incredibly impressive. She can definitely beat me," he said and paused. "Or she could? It has been a few years, I might actually beat her like this. But yeah, no, I am aware where I'm at in the power scaling. I had to do weird cheating stuff to handle a fight with MK's clone and power armor." Sometimes its important to accept what you can and cannot handle. Wash can fight god. He just also knows its not through power, but teamwork and taking advantage of weird things. There is no solo'ing.
He kisses over his pulse. "Good to hear. I think you're doing fantastic."
"It is a good smoothie bar. What did you think? The banana might have been too sweet, but I made sure they didn't add anything to the mango."
"I was going to say, are you so sure she can beat you, with the pendant?" Magic counts for a lot if you know how to use it. "It might be closer now."
He chuckles. "When did you fight MK's clone? Also yeah, not even I can beat MK if he doesn't hold back. In fact, all my mates can wipe the floor with me if they really try, if you account for the Samadhi fire. Not that I think Red would break it out casually." Macaque is pretty powerful but there's still a scale.
Macaque can't help but smile at being told he's doing a decent job of this. "Well... good. I'm glad. If I can be half as helpful as you've been to me, I'll consider it a victory."
He hums in thought. "The banana smelled fine to me. I don't mind sweet as long as it's not artificial-sweet. The mango was great as usual." He kisses Wash's cheek in return. "I keep meaning to try the strawberry one you and Choco like so much. Or some combos."
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Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
No plans so far, I'm all yours if you want.
(He purposefully didn't make plans. Someone from Wash's past showed up, Macaque wanted to be available if needed or wanted.)
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
Glad to hear it, I want to stay over.
Portal please? I have to tell Choco Carolina is here and she'll be mad if I saw her and didn't tell her and I'm a bit too strung out for the conversation today.
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
A portal opens right on cue, between wherever Wash is and Macaque's room. He's in his nest reading language books, American English this time, which he sets aside. "Come on, get in here."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
And then he will come and flop down face first on the bed beside Macaque and let's out a very long, stressed out groan.
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
Macaque scoots over and tugs him into a gentle hug, grooming through his hair. "From what I heard, it's a pretty complicated relationship. Perhaps with some timeline issues?"
And then, "If you don't want to talk, it's okay. My nosiness can wait."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"The multiverse is fucking with you again." And it's not fair. "She sounded amenable to adjusting her view of you, at least." And from when he talked to her, she seemed reasonable... if determined to leave.
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He sighs, leaning into him. "She can be very reasonable. Its just when she gets something in her head, it can be very hard to dissuade her. Its why I want to be slow to her seeing the kids. More used to magic since...you know, all of them have something except Wylan." Even Eve in her more human form has some animal stuff, and Lott just sometimes does Shadow Things.
And Wylan is, well, not someone who handles intensity well. "I don't want her having a crisis with them."
"Carolina always cared about me. I knew that. She just also didn't know if I could be trusted and I get that. Its just also...exhausting to deal with when I wasn't prepared."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"Yeah, I noticed that. She is determined to get back to whatever she was doing immediately." He tossed out that he hadn't seen it happen, but she didn't seem the sort to appreciate being told no, so he left the door open for the possibility. Hell, if Wukong can die here then anything is possible.
"It's not a bad idea to make sure everyone is ready when they meet. Hopefully she'll adjust." There's a pause. "I trust you to know when it's time."
Macaque kisses Wash's temple. "You want me to hit some acupressure points? I'll mind the port." It'll help him relax.
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He nodded. "She is like that. Always having to do something. I'm thinking I should tell her about how the war ended. It shouldn't be too long from her time now. The war is going to end and soon, so it feels less...pressing to go back and help." He paused. "Of course, then she focused on the Director, but maybe with it not being an immediate thing to pursue, I can get her to breathe more."
He nodded. "Warn them she can be a little aggro. Even Choco's mostly seen Carolina from later memories, and when she got to visit Chorus. A lot less wound up. But I think I can get her braced so she doesn't do anything that's upsetting." He sighed, burrowing against Macaque. He knows the kids are strong. They can take someone having a crisis. Doesn't mean he wants them to if its avoidable.
"Please."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"It's not all on you to make sure it goes well between her and the kids," Macaque says, equally gentle. "They can forgive a lot, especially if told that someone is used to tech and not... all this. And it's also on her to roll with things and be a person, not a hardass soldier." And after meeting her, Macaque has faith that she can.
"I'm not saying there's nothing to worry about, but I am saying not to take all the pressure on yourself. Nothing is served by that, especially any of them."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He sighs, letting himself relax against Macaque as he hit those points.
"Yeah, stopping the hardass soldier is the hard part," Wash said. "I get it. I had that problem too. Its just figuring out where she's at to best help her unwind so things go well," he said. "I love her a lot. Even if she's still in the not sure how much she trusts me stage. I want them to be able to get along. I know Choco would be really sad if they couldn't, she had such a crush on her."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
Macaque keeps working on helping Wash relax, perhaps avoid a horrible migraine.
"No one understands being shoved into a crazy world where you don't know what's going on more than Choco. She'll be okay even if there's some bumps in the road. If she can deal with the whole thing with Max, she can deal with Carolina." He can't help but smile. "Her having a crush on Carolina is cute as hell, though."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
There is a pause.
"I'll need to sit on just how much I got from Epsilon for a while. She's not ready to hear any of that." That could go so bad so fast.
"I know. Still don't want her to if I can avoid it. She deserves a break," he said with a sigh. "And it was adorable. She didn't even realize it was a crush."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
--Ah, Epsilon. Macaque sighs too. "You're juggling a lot and she only just found you." That's so much to be balancing, so many plates to spin.
"If anyone can understand wanting to protect Choco, it's me. But you also know how she gets about wanting to know the truth of things. She might be hurt by Carolina being averse to magic and giant pigeon wings, but she'll also be hurt if she finds out that you didn't tell her. Not least because she won't want you to be fretting."
He continues working on Wash's acupressure points, all down his spine. "I'm not saying rush it. I am saying that she'll understand if you tell her that Carolina is here but you're not ready for them to meet just yet, that you have some things to bring her up to date on. Choco will want to support you, and she'll understand a brief delay as long as she knows it's not forever." He can't imagine that Choco wouldn't respect Wash saying that he needs a little time.
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
Wash chuckled. "Not the first time. North and Theta was worse. Alpha was also pretty bad, but at least he was aware of the situation where I got him killed," he said. "Carolina, at least, is not a dead friend." This is not his first rodeo. Just also the worse.
"I'm not going to hide it. That's why portal. I can't be hiding it if I don't see her," he said and snuggles closer. "I'll tell her tomorrow. When I see her. Soon. Just not today. I know she wants me to tell her, she was already real mad when I hid knowing her in the Forest because I didn't want to overwhelm her. Learned my lesson."
There is another deep seated groan. "I know. Choco's great. Understanding. I just also have to tell her she can't see Carolina yet and she will be so excited to. You ever tell her no when she's excited? Like kicking a puppy."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"It's reasonable to give yourself a day." He needs a whole minute to process all this, figure out how he wants to handle it, and prepare himself to proverbially kick a puppy.
"Don't think of it as telling her no. Think of it as telling her "not yet." She might get excited, and she might be a little disappointed, but in the long run it'll be fine. But I can understand that it's one more thing that is hard to deal with." Especially when this sort of thing can loom so large in one's head.
"What can I do? Other than provide reassurances that I'm sure you already thought of."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
She would also trust him more.
"Let me relax here," he said. "Let's me breathe, and unwind and kind of deal with the fact my best friend doesn't remember me as hers, which really sucks, and you rolled with me trolling and calling you babe, so I just want to stay here a while."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"You're always welcome here." That actually is simple, thankfully. At least that's one thing. "I can't help much with the rest, but I'll always roll with your trolling. It's cute." And look, who would he be if he couldn't embrace trolling?
He pulls Wash a bit closer and nuzzles his head. "I've got you."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He nuzzles against his neck. "I can never say how much having a place like this means to me, you do so much." One day, he'll get Mavaque to understand.
"The trolling was fun. Should do it more."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He shivers just lightly when Wash touches his ears in a way that Wash definitely shouldn't find surprising at this point.
"I believe you. I do." Wash is a great liar but he wouldn't lie about that. "At least most of me does most of the time, which as good as you're gonna get right now." It's not bad as track records go.
"You should. You deserve to have fun."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"Fair enough," he said. "Just wanted you to know. I don't need a soldier, I just need a friend."
He hummed. "I absolutely do. We should go on another date soon. With more casual wear. Choco and I have bought shirts."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
"I'm clear on what you need from me, Wash. I may not have every bit of confidence that I'll do it will but I can read a room." He sounds amused, and then kisses Wash's temple again.
And then a chuckle. "I suppose that wardrobe would be fitting for a picnic. And a trip to the smoothie bar you like."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He kisses over his pulse. "Good to hear. I think you're doing fantastic."
"It is a good smoothie bar. What did you think? The banana might have been too sweet, but I made sure they didn't add anything to the mango."
Re: Evening After Carolina Arrives
He chuckles. "When did you fight MK's clone? Also yeah, not even I can beat MK if he doesn't hold back. In fact, all my mates can wipe the floor with me if they really try, if you account for the Samadhi fire. Not that I think Red would break it out casually." Macaque is pretty powerful but there's still a scale.
Macaque can't help but smile at being told he's doing a decent job of this. "Well... good. I'm glad. If I can be half as helpful as you've been to me, I'll consider it a victory."
He hums in thought. "The banana smelled fine to me. I don't mind sweet as long as it's not artificial-sweet. The mango was great as usual." He kisses Wash's cheek in return. "I keep meaning to try the strawberry one you and Choco like so much. Or some combos."
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