He showed up and before he could say anything Simon-like, he noticed the bruises and how I was moving. When I explained what happened, he sort of implied that he was going to be Simon about the whole thing and attempt to...
[She wants to find some euphemism around what she was worried that he was going to do but instead she just lifted her face from her arm and looked the tiniest bit haunted, and not all that unlike she did when she'd been told what her playing the movements of the Mysterium on her show had done.]
Kill them. [Because of her.] I told him that they were all taken care of Richard, that the community had jumped into action to rescue us and stop them but, it's Simon.
I eventually tried to convince him that he doesn't have to do here what he did back home. That he didn't need to be the person who hides the shadows and sort of stalks me and you know try and be mysterious and aloof. That he couldn't do it here. And he just said that there were always shadows.
[Sighing again, it's clear that Alex wants to do what she does most when she's hurting: turn herself into as tiny of a ball as possible. Of course kitchen chairs and holding his hand aren't really the best way to do that.]
I said that he had a choice, like you and I had a choice, that he could just be here. But he almost acted like I hit him, Richard, I swear it might have been better in his eyes if I did. He said that it was too late for him, and I told him that I didn't think that it's true. Yes, he's done terrible things, but even if you don't believe in demons... I mean the poor kid was raised in a cult that did believe.
I told him he had a choice, but he had to be the one who took it, but he just said I was too good sometimes and just poofed.
[Alex wasn't avoiding the other have of their conversation on purpose, she just focused on the way that he'd acted when she'd told her that he didn't have to keep being in the shadows Simon. She just kept seeing the look that she'd never seen on his face before: the lost child that he had been.]
I've never seen him like that, Richard. He just looked... like a lost kid. Like someone who had lost the whole world and it was all my fault.
[Richard understood that. There was one thing that both he and Simon shared, it was an unwavering belief in their respective realities (of course Simon's was only a delusion, but that wasn't the point.) While some might downshift to changes like this, he and Simon had to wade in and make mental adjustments to their views gradually. The only difference was that Richard had had Alex to assist with that adjustment. Simon would very purposefully seek out no one and look for an enemy that would fit into his delusion and perpetuate it.]
Do you want me to go out and find him?
[As much as he disliked Simon and accepted the fact that he was incredibly dangerous, he also knew that only he and Alex would know how to deal with him and his particular delusion. He was, in a sense, their responsibility (not that he would ever tell Alex that)]
[Alex just looks at him for a moment, before she scoots the chair over enough to wrap her arms around him in a hug so she can bury her face in his chest. Her voice is muffled a bit, but she needs this anyway.]
Yes and no. Or no and yes, I guess. I mean, Richard... [Alex just sighs softly, because this isn't something that she was prepared for, in a lot of ways. She wasn't prepared for Simon to show up, wasn't prepared to feel responsible for him and she definitely wasn't prepared for his... hinting? Alluding to..? The fact that she actually had some part whatever the hell was (not) going on at home more than just being who she was and being with Richard.
It was a lot to take in. All of it was.]
I'm worried that he's going to see me arguing with someone or think I don't like someone and he's going to see them as a threat to me and do something stupid.
[And it would be her fault, at least in her eyes.]
I don't want something terrible to happen to someone because of me. Especially Simon when he's... [Well, messed up and needs actual help from someone who believes him and someone else who may not believe him, but who at least understands what the hell is going on, rather than him just being completely insane.]
[Richard doesn't want to say it, he wants to let Simon out there to his own devices. Let him sink or swim, but that's hardly Alex's way, and he's adjusting to allowing that matter more than it did before all this. So instead of letting the fact that she didn't say yes slide into the night, he decided to rationalize.
Which, unfortunately, ended in going to drag Simon back to the house to live.]
Then we bring him back and keep an eye on him.
[Because really, what else were they going to do?]
[Alex just sighed softly against his chest again, and she closed her eyes. This was definitely not what she expected when Howard's house showed up, that they would eventually end up filling rooms. She definitely didn't expect that Simon would be one of the people who was there. Living with them. In their house. Like a regular person.
God this was fucking weird.
But she also knows they don't have a choice, even if she wants to give Richard all of the information she has. So, Alex pulls back a bit with a frown and a serious face. It's the serious face when she knows she's going to tell him something she hates.]
You should know before we bring him back here... I asked him why he didn't include you when he told me I needed to come to Turkey, and he said that the Horn of Tiamat was for me. [It's clear how uncomfortable that makes her.] And that I'm supposed to be more than just the reporter in this.
[She definitely understands now why he spends so much time denying the fact that he's at the center of a demonic plot to take over the world even when the evidence was right in front of her. This sucks.]
He's a deranged individual who has an obsession over you; of course, he would say that.
[While he's not wrong, there's a part of him that knows Simon is right. That Alex is a part of this somehow. That, just maybe, he'd caused that. So, of course, he pushes that thought and any others about demons and the occult and how he's supposed to end the world if he goes to Geneva as far away as possible.]
He was right about one thing though. We are at the center of this together, but there's nothing supernatural about it.
[Alex can't deny the comment about obsession, and Alex sits back in her chair, and she's doing some thinking. It's always possible to see the wheels turn in Alex's face especially when she's thinking about something she doesn't want to be, and is making connections that even she definitely wished that she wouldn't.]
I know we are. But I just assumed it was because I love you, and you and I we've had this... connection since I first walked into your office and found your Black Tape collection. But..
[Alex frowned, and she added:]
We didn't think about it at the time, not with everything else happening, but Thomas Warren stole my sunglasses. Not even the good ones, the ones that I wear when I forgot the good ones. That and some change was the only thing that he stole. But Richard... [Alex's frown deepens, and it's audible as only her frowns can be.] What if he took it so he could check my DNA? I mean, I'm adopted even so...
[So there was no chasing bloodlines like there would have been for the Strands to go back to Oneda.]
[The sigh that Richard offers back is one of knowing that they'd gone through this before. Not exactly this, but enough forms of this that it was exasperating enough. It wasn't that he didn't understand her worries. Thomas Warren was a dangerous and deluded man. The fact that he had taken her sunglasses was, worrying, but not an indication that there was anything demonic in any of this.]
Even if he thought that it has nothing to do with the supernatural.
[Well, this is familiar territory for them, isn't it? And Alex gives him a familiar look, and a familiar tone to go with it, because she doesn't know how the hell he can keep wrapping himself in the cloak of his irrational skepticism. Especially now when the two of them were here with people who did magic.
Her frown was fixated on him, but at least his words helping to pull her out of some of the spiraling that her brain was doing. There were loads of reasons Alex didn't want this thing to be supernatural and one of the biggest was because she wanted him to love her because he loved her and not because he was supposed to because of whatever the hell the prophecy was.]
Did you just miss what I said about Simon disappearing before my eyes in our own brightly lit kitchen, Richard? He couldn't just fake that!
It's entirely possible that the strength of his belief in those powers caused a manifestation in them here.
[It was odd, and he wasn't going to deny that, but there were ways to explain the possibility of Simon having 'magical powers' here. Especially when others seemed to as well. Not that he was admitting such.]
And everything back home dating back from where there wasn't blood on him after he'd admitted to murdering his parents?
[Which was a fact that could be proven by the police reports from when it happened. And you know the whole stalking her think and knocking on her pipes which he'd told her were just her pipes, and getting the Horn of Tiamat from the Vatican which makes sense considering how Howard had been inside the archives with the stupid research group.
Before, on the show, Alex had said that it seemed like Strand wrapped himself in his disbelief just like christians did in their beliefs and it was especially true right now.]
Okay, if that's true, then why haven't I? The one of us who actually is definitely sort of lowkey obsessed with magic been someone who's developed the ability to do it? Or something like it?
As obsessed as you may be with it, you're rational enough to know that you aren't magical.
[It was simple really. If Simon had truly believed that he was magical, that the world had given him powers, then it would stand to reason that he would think that he had them now, and the possibility that he would have them now was entirely likely as this world seemed to favor the strength of belief.
Alex, on the other hand, knew that she didn't have anything of the sort, so even if she wanted to fly, she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't be able to.]
[There is a small part of her that wants to scream with that, because he's ignoring the stuff from back home. So instead she's just going to press her head into her hands for a minute, because well, she's not magical but she has attempted to get people to teach her how to be.
So, instead she just groans loudly and shakes her head.]
God, this sucks. Just this whole thing sucks.
[She hasn't even had a week to enjoy not being on bedrest anymore. Or like more than a day.]
[He reached over, taking her hand and squeezing it. This situation wasn't ideal, but they'd been through weirder and worse. They'd been through so much weirder and worse, actually. This wasn't something they couldn't get past.
[He supposes he can't say much about the bilocation thing. Bilocating isn't real, but Alex isn't on enough painkillers for it to have been a trick of her imagination. The best route is that there's a hiccup in whatever system Warren has them in.]
No discussion about what's happening back home with outsiders.
[Simon seemed the type to do so without realizing how detrimental it could be for Alex. For Richard as well, but he wasn't the one with an extensive group of people he called friends or an outgoing nature to meet new strangers daily.]
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2018-07-04 03:25 am (UTC)[She wants to find some euphemism around what she was worried that he was going to do but instead she just lifted her face from her arm and looked the tiniest bit haunted, and not all that unlike she did when she'd been told what her playing the movements of the Mysterium on her show had done.]
Kill them. [Because of her.] I told him that they were all taken care of Richard, that the community had jumped into action to rescue us and stop them but, it's Simon.
I eventually tried to convince him that he doesn't have to do here what he did back home. That he didn't need to be the person who hides the shadows and sort of stalks me and you know try and be mysterious and aloof. That he couldn't do it here. And he just said that there were always shadows.
[Sighing again, it's clear that Alex wants to do what she does most when she's hurting: turn herself into as tiny of a ball as possible. Of course kitchen chairs and holding his hand aren't really the best way to do that.]
I said that he had a choice, like you and I had a choice, that he could just be here. But he almost acted like I hit him, Richard, I swear it might have been better in his eyes if I did. He said that it was too late for him, and I told him that I didn't think that it's true. Yes, he's done terrible things, but even if you don't believe in demons... I mean the poor kid was raised in a cult that did believe.
I told him he had a choice, but he had to be the one who took it, but he just said I was too good sometimes and just poofed.
[Alex wasn't avoiding the other have of their conversation on purpose, she just focused on the way that he'd acted when she'd told her that he didn't have to keep being in the shadows Simon. She just kept seeing the look that she'd never seen on his face before: the lost child that he had been.]
I've never seen him like that, Richard. He just looked... like a lost kid. Like someone who had lost the whole world and it was all my fault.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-04 04:31 am (UTC)[Richard understood that. There was one thing that both he and Simon shared, it was an unwavering belief in their respective realities (of course Simon's was only a delusion, but that wasn't the point.) While some might downshift to changes like this, he and Simon had to wade in and make mental adjustments to their views gradually. The only difference was that Richard had had Alex to assist with that adjustment. Simon would very purposefully seek out no one and look for an enemy that would fit into his delusion and perpetuate it.]
Do you want me to go out and find him?
[As much as he disliked Simon and accepted the fact that he was incredibly dangerous, he also knew that only he and Alex would know how to deal with him and his particular delusion. He was, in a sense, their responsibility (not that he would ever tell Alex that)]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-04 05:18 am (UTC)Yes and no. Or no and yes, I guess. I mean, Richard... [Alex just sighs softly, because this isn't something that she was prepared for, in a lot of ways. She wasn't prepared for Simon to show up, wasn't prepared to feel responsible for him and she definitely wasn't prepared for his... hinting? Alluding to..? The fact that she actually had some part whatever the hell was (not) going on at home more than just being who she was and being with Richard.
It was a lot to take in. All of it was.]
I'm worried that he's going to see me arguing with someone or think I don't like someone and he's going to see them as a threat to me and do something stupid.
[And it would be her fault, at least in her eyes.]
I don't want something terrible to happen to someone because of me. Especially Simon when he's... [Well, messed up and needs actual help from someone who believes him and someone else who may not believe him, but who at least understands what the hell is going on, rather than him just being completely insane.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 04:59 am (UTC)Which, unfortunately, ended in going to drag Simon back to the house to live.]
Then we bring him back and keep an eye on him.
[Because really, what else were they going to do?]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:20 am (UTC)God this was fucking weird.
But she also knows they don't have a choice, even if she wants to give Richard all of the information she has. So, Alex pulls back a bit with a frown and a serious face. It's the serious face when she knows she's going to tell him something she hates.]
You should know before we bring him back here... I asked him why he didn't include you when he told me I needed to come to Turkey, and he said that the Horn of Tiamat was for me. [It's clear how uncomfortable that makes her.] And that I'm supposed to be more than just the reporter in this.
[She definitely understands now why he spends so much time denying the fact that he's at the center of a demonic plot to take over the world even when the evidence was right in front of her. This sucks.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:33 am (UTC)[While he's not wrong, there's a part of him that knows Simon is right. That Alex is a part of this somehow. That, just maybe, he'd caused that. So, of course, he pushes that thought and any others about demons and the occult and how he's supposed to end the world if he goes to Geneva as far away as possible.]
He was right about one thing though. We are at the center of this together, but there's nothing supernatural about it.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:42 am (UTC)I know we are. But I just assumed it was because I love you, and you and I we've had this... connection since I first walked into your office and found your Black Tape collection. But..
[Alex frowned, and she added:]
We didn't think about it at the time, not with everything else happening, but Thomas Warren stole my sunglasses. Not even the good ones, the ones that I wear when I forgot the good ones. That and some change was the only thing that he stole. But Richard... [Alex's frown deepens, and it's audible as only her frowns can be.] What if he took it so he could check my DNA? I mean, I'm adopted even so...
[So there was no chasing bloodlines like there would have been for the Strands to go back to Oneda.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 06:33 am (UTC)Even if he thought that it has nothing to do with the supernatural.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 12:36 pm (UTC)Her frown was fixated on him, but at least his words helping to pull her out of some of the spiraling that her brain was doing. There were loads of reasons Alex didn't want this thing to be supernatural and one of the biggest was because she wanted him to love her because he loved her and not because he was supposed to because of whatever the hell the prophecy was.]
Did you just miss what I said about Simon disappearing before my eyes in our own brightly lit kitchen, Richard? He couldn't just fake that!
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 12:45 pm (UTC)[It was odd, and he wasn't going to deny that, but there were ways to explain the possibility of Simon having 'magical powers' here. Especially when others seemed to as well. Not that he was admitting such.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 12:53 pm (UTC)[Which was a fact that could be proven by the police reports from when it happened. And you know the whole stalking her think and knocking on her pipes which he'd told her were just her pipes, and getting the Horn of Tiamat from the Vatican which makes sense considering how Howard had been inside the archives with the stupid research group.
Before, on the show, Alex had said that it seemed like Strand wrapped himself in his disbelief just like christians did in their beliefs and it was especially true right now.]
Okay, if that's true, then why haven't I? The one of us who actually is definitely sort of lowkey obsessed with magic been someone who's developed the ability to do it? Or something like it?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 01:07 pm (UTC)[It was simple really. If Simon had truly believed that he was magical, that the world had given him powers, then it would stand to reason that he would think that he had them now, and the possibility that he would have them now was entirely likely as this world seemed to favor the strength of belief.
Alex, on the other hand, knew that she didn't have anything of the sort, so even if she wanted to fly, she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't be able to.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 01:15 pm (UTC)So, instead she just groans loudly and shakes her head.]
God, this sucks. Just this whole thing sucks.
[She hasn't even had a week to enjoy not being on bedrest anymore. Or like more than a day.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 01:28 pm (UTC)Together.]
We'll get through it.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 01:34 pm (UTC)Well, at least it'll make it easier for Simon to stalk me if he's just down the hall.
[Because lol this is their life right now.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 03:16 am (UTC)[He knows it's a joke, but Simon really does need to stop stalking Alex, or anyone else for that matter.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 03:28 am (UTC)[And she just sighs softly, because well, what else is there to do in this situation but that.]
So ground rules for him then: no killing anyone, no stalking me, no coming near our bedroom, no bilocating in the house...
no subject
Date: 2018-07-12 11:07 am (UTC)No discussion about what's happening back home with outsiders.
[Simon seemed the type to do so without realizing how detrimental it could be for Alex. For Richard as well, but he wasn't the one with an extensive group of people he called friends or an outgoing nature to meet new strangers daily.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-13 01:30 am (UTC)If he wants a fair shake at things, maybe no discussing his history? But I don't think he'd do it anyway.
[Not to anyone but them. Probably.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-15 06:32 am (UTC)[In all actuality, Alex was the only one with a history that could really be discussed.]