wedonot | SIXTY NINE ✖ VOICE & SPAM

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I suppose he already hates me. There's nothing left to lose.

But if he gets visibly upset and it teaches him a lesson, it could save his life.

If nothing else it might stop him calling you Handler.

Or reinforce it.

But if he's so insistent I'm a Handler, maybe I should start acting a little bit more like one.

You're the one that knows his history, the significance of what the term means to him. I can tell he was messed with himself, that much you can spot a mile off. What I can't tell is what exactly he's trying to tell you, calling you that. That he expects you to mess with him? That he expects you to unpick it?

Honestly, the boy fascinates me, and I keep meaning to spend more time with him; my trouble is there's only so much time in any given day and I have a lot of things I need to do with it.

He's in a bad spot, Alpha. He's the first of his kind and he's struggling to define himself and feel worthwhile and important for who he is and not what other people try to make him into. He's everyone and no one.

...So altering other people: was that an attempt to prove himself right or to prove himself wrong?

It was an effort to be more in control of his own life. What worked for other people would have worked for him.

Ahhh, he was trying for a short cut? Okay, there's a kind of idiot logic in that, I suppose.

Does he have any sort of idea where he even wants his own life to go?

Surviving this long with who he is and what's been done to him is an accomplishment in and of itself.

I think he just wants the ability and freedom to choose.

funny how often people think the first step to that is controlling other people.

...no, I'm not being bitter. I've fallen into the same fallacy myself. Not in this lifetime but I have memories of being that person. In her head it was partly fear and partly frustration at people making what she saw as wrong choices. She may not be a good example though. Whatever else Bianca was, she was never a victim except in her own head.

I don't want to presume I know how Alpha thinks of himself.

But that's a way to control your own fate; control the fates of other people.

no, in point of fact it's an easy way to avoid ever facing up to your own issues, but it's a common enough mistake; we'd half of us be out of a job if it weren't.

I should like to come and speak to him myself soon, if that's all right with you.

I don't mind.

Charles; Mr. Xavier, I'm sorry. I'll go now.

SIXTY NINE ✖ VOICE & SPAM

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[retroactively visible to Charles too because lol manners]

[retroactively visible to Charles too because lol manners]

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