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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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. ]

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.

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.]

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.

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. ]

It's complicated to explain to someone who isn't a telepath, [Because there's really just no good way to communicate things that Nathan won't have a point of reference for - how do you explain the color blue to a person who's been blind all their life?] But basically it's not exactly difficult to see the presence of an outside influence if you know what you're looking for. It just... feels wrong, and you can sort of tell how it's situated itself and carefully peel it off.

Some suggestion's more difficult to work through than others, but as long as there's no actual damage done, it's not hard to untangle things. [At least, it's never really been hard for him.]

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.

It is. Does he still have access to the machine? I know someone who would be more than happy to disassemble it.

[ 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. ]

You're surprisingly talkative for a corpse.

Do you know what just happened?

Mistborn don't follow the rules.

[ YES

HE DOES ]

I've noticed.

Congratulations.

He's in Zero, so, no.

Who?

Erik. [Obviously.]

I'd rather make sure everyone is back to their old selves first.

I'm not saying we need to shift priorities, but considering you haven't had much success in finding the others, and several people have already been seriously hurt, I don't think it's inappropriate to be discussing the fate of what facilitated this scheme.

Alpha and me facilitated this scheme. The machine was a tool.

It's going to be taken apart. I just. Want it as a failsafe in case turning them back is a little more complicated.

It doesn't matter if the machine is destroyed now or later.

It's you. What you did.

Fine.

I understand that this is difficult for you, and that you're clearly upset with what happened, but if I'm being entirely honest, I'm a bit baffled by how you've chosen to handle this situation and the offers of assistance you've been given by others.

I just laid the foundations. You did all the important work.

Foundations aren't important?

That's not honesty. That's sprinkling what you really think with a heavy layer of kindness.

Alpha is going away and so is the machine. We have one more person to find out of four.

You really want to go through his head? Still?

With all due respect, two people I care very deeply about have already been pulled into this mess. I'm not interested in sitting around waiting for other people I care for to get hurt if there's something that can be done about it.

I suppose I'd say just accept the compliment, but it would probably be a bit hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?

Hypocritical? Perish the thought.

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