SIXTY NINE ✖ VOICE & SPAM

[wedonot]

[Filtered from Alpha, Riddick and Creed]

I've got Rogue. I'm bringing her to the infirmary, and I've been able to flush out Alpha's handiwork. She should be back to normal once she wakes up.

And for the record, I'm more than willing to do the same for anyone else who's been affected.

[Private to Ned]

Any luck determining who the remaining victims are?

[Spam for Raven, backdated to after Zane's been healed]

[Once Zane is out of the woods and taken care of, and Charles finally feels like he can leave him to recuperate without feeling like he's abandoning him, he heads back to his room to wash up and change. He throws out the sweater - actually, he's almost considering throwing it over the side, because even if he could get all the blood off of it, he doesn't want to wear something that feels - and looks - more like a bandage now than an article of clothing.

He's so tired of this. He just wants his little circle of people to be safe, to stop having to deal with the reality that they're probably never going to be, no matter where they are.

It's an exhausting reality.

Once he's cleaned up, he throws on another sweater and just takes a moment to breathe, rubbing his temples with the pads of his fingers. This entire thing is just one giant headache, and he wishes it was less of a liability to just reach out and immediately find the other damaged people.]

[Spam for Touko]

[Charles heads to the library when Touko's shift is ending, just as Anya requested, and he's not... really sure what he's getting himself into. Obviously what Alpha's done to her needs to be reversed, but Anya's not wrong about how traumatic it can be, when you might like the person you were now more than the person you would have been without the tampering. It's not a simple matter of knowing that someone like Rogue or Riddick would be better off not getting homicidally angry.

Fortunately, it doesn't take long to find her.]

Ms. Fukawa? I was wondering if I could talk with you for a minute.

[Private to Zane, later]

[So. You're not on his item anymore. Which means either you've been reassigned, or.]

I have a potentially strange question to ask.

Comments

[private]

[neuropathy]

How does a person do a thing like that, exactly?

[ He has ...some understanding of what Charles does, via paying attention, but that doesn't mean he actually comprehends its scope. Meanwhile, he also sounds somewhat wary, although that is colored by a thread of another feeling less easily discernible. ]

[private]

[wedonot]

Which person are you referring to?

[Because he's not entirely sure how to explain what Alpha did, but he can point you to Ned if that's who you mean.]

[private]

[neuropathy]

Rogue. How do you--[ he'll just use Charles' terminology ] flush out whatever it is? Whatever happened.

[ He also does not quite get Alpha's brain spindling, but it's less relevant. ]

[Private]

[deadly_ned]

Riddick, Rogue, possibly Touko but I'd have to check and be..delicate about it, and Toshiko.

There may or may not be another inmate. I don't know if Toshiko counts as the four Alpha told me.

...And I don't..really know if the original count he gave was accurate.

[Private]

[wedonot]

Is there a way to determine if it was? How exactly was he capable of this in the first place?

To be clear, I'm not asking because I want to find more reason to blame you or him, I just want to understand precisely what happened, here.

[Private]

[deadly_ned]

No, I know. You need to know.

It's a machine. It's done by machine. You sit inside it and it...scans your brain and...technical things that I don't know anything about happen.

I don't know where he got the parts or the tools to build it. I thought the engine room was warden-locked.

private

[godsays]

[ GUESS WHO JUST SAW A THING

AND WHO IS TOTALLY SOLEMN RIGHT NOW YES: ]

Yes.

I'm dead.

[ Guessing that he's not showing up on Charles' warden item anymore. ]

private

[wedonot]

You're surprisingly talkative for a corpse.

Do you know what just happened?

private

[godsays]

Mistborn don't follow the rules.

[ YES

HE DOES ]

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[routemistress]

[sent during this conversation]

I think Guerrero's been got at. Dean, keep your Lassiebot on you and be ready to bust into his room if I safeword. Ned, go ask Alpha how he might react if he realises I'm onto him.

more when i know more.

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[deadly_ned]

Okay.

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[routemistress]

have put him right.

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[surfaceshine]

on it

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[routemistress]

and sorted. thansk bb <3 <3

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[wedonot]

Understood.

[text/filtered to Charles, Ned and Dean]

[routemistress]

and he's sorted now. you sorted Rogue out didn't you? what about Touko? leave that with you?

[private, after some of the fuss has died down]

[fridgetothefire]

...so. I have a suspicion, about someone.

But she's happier right now, and more stable, and she's opened up, and - it's not urgent, okay, she's not going to be dangerous, and if I confront her about it and I'm wrong then it could undo a lot of genuine progress.

And if I'm right and you confront her about it and just switch her back like a lamp then she'll feel terrible and powerless and like being miserable and suspicious and all the rest is some indelible part of the real her and she can only change if someone forces it on her and I really, really don't want to do that.

[She's tense, a stripped wire, raw and exposed and taut. She's had artificial improvements suddenly stripped away before, on the barge, and one time it left her nearly catatonic. She really does consider Touko a friend, even if it's only mutual because of mind control, Anya wants to take care of her.]

If I tell you who, could you - check on her, discreetly? Without changing anything or telling her until I get a chance to talk to her about it?

[private]

[wedonot]

Of course. Who is it?

[He knows better than to just come out with it, that he's already been told who it probably is.]

[private]

[fridgetothefire]

Touko Fukawa. She's been. Different, like I said.

But it might just be our relationship changing. I don't know.

[persecutioncomplex]

[When Charles is there, she's packing up, signing out of computers and leaving everything logically organized for Chromie. She ignores him for a moment, because this has to be about school, and she stopped turning in homework in a language only two or three people on the Barge can read a week or so ago. She can't imagine any other reason.]

D-do you need a translation? I know Ms. Gordon's gone, and I don't know who else you'd ask.

[wedonot]

No, nothing like that. [He makes up the lie quickly, and it sounds perfectly casual and believable. While he talks, he's carefully examining her mind, looking for the tell tale signs of mental tampering.] I was wondering if you'd be interested in there being a sort of comparative history course. Pietro was thinking of doing something along those lines, but obviously he's left now, and it seemed like something the curriculum was missing. I wanted to gauge people's interest in it.

[Private]

[wecanavenge]

Have they sorted out who's left?

[Private]

[wedonot]

Touko and one other. I'm not sure who.

[And he sounds tired and frustrated and is just so done with this kind of thing happening. B(]

spam!! sorry this took forever

[permutates]

[ She hears people aren't themselves, and she doesn't think it through. Just flies across the hall to Charles' room and knocks heavily on the door, knowing, knowing that she'd be able to tell if he wasn't him.

But what if she couldn't?

She's green-skinned again, the hue a little more intense than before. ]

spam!! psh nw bro <33

[wedonot]

[He glances up quickly at the knock on his door and goes to answer it without scanning to see who it is. When he opens it and sees Raven, he looks genuinely surprised, and it really only has to do a little with the fact that she's green.

It's more surprising to actually see her face to face like this, regardless of what she looks like.]

Is everything alright?