eyemind | Closed.

Entry tags:

Closed.

Who: Alex Reagan and Simon Reese.
What: Alex knows that Simon was there listening to her conversation with Strand and she’s calling him out.
When: Immediately following Alex and Strand talking.
Warnings: Stalking, demons, children in danger from demons, murder, the end of the world and everything else TBT-y in nature.

The conversation with Strand had felt like a small battle in a long war that he’d been in with Alex since he’d arrived here. While Alex wants to be hopeful about things getting easier once he actually listens to the show and the two of them are on the same page, right now she doesn’t have a lot of faith in it. Richard Strand, after all, can be famously contrary to her, and she knows that it’s only something that’s more likely to increase once he knows everything and realizes just how much she knows and how she discovered it. Frankly, Alex is aware of the fact that giving him the entire show is a quite good way for him to end up with ammunition to use against her just as much as he seems to now, but he deserves to know. More than that, if Richard Strand wants to condemn her for something, Alex would vastly prefer that he does it for her actual actions and not just what he perceives her transgressions to be for knowing what she does about him.

It’s a lot and Alex is just hoping that it doesn’t increase the animosity between Strand and Simon that he’d mentioned before. Strand has never been Simon’s favorite person and Alex is aware of that and since he’s been here, she’s also becoming more aware of the fact that he thinks that he needs to defend her or whatever. Being a grown ass woman, the thought that someone feels like he needs to defend and protect her chafes a bit, but Simon is the one who has all of the answers and he has been for a long time. What Alex wishes that Strand would understand is that she gets how much it sucks that you can only understand some things from your future from what the person ahead of you knows. The difference, Alex supposes is that Strand has trained himself not to believe in anything (even her, some tortuous part of her brain reminds her. It’s a familiar pain that’s leaned upon like a bruise but in the end it’s an old one and she knows how to deal with it.) and Alex can’t help but to believe.

Alex Reagan is a believer and she always has been. She always will be.

Because Alex is a believer, and because she knows Simon, as soon as she steps into the hallway that both Strand’s cabin and her own open onto, she just sighs and says. “Alright, Simon, come out. I know you were listening.”

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Alex did need protection. She didn't always know from what, and Simon never really made it obvious what he was doing, but she did need it. This Alex wasn't yet aware of the fact someone showed up in her bedroom to film her one night, for example. But these were things Simon wasn't likely to divulge very easily. The animosity between the two, however, had a whole lot less to do with Alex than she thought. Yes, Simon hated the way Strand treated her, but if that were the only issue he'd keep his nose out. No, they were at odds for more personal reasons.

She was also very right in that Simon had absolutely been listening in on that conversation. How could he resist? Not only were they both divulging some very interesting information, it was boring as hell on this space ship. Nothing to do, no leads to chase, what else is a bilocating psychic to do but to eavesdrop?

Although, it wasn't like he was going to be quick to come out of hiding and reveal that he absolutely had been creepily stalking. Again. Nor was he going to come out, but that was for a different reason. There's a long, long silence where it might seem like Simon was going to stubbornly refrain from responding at all before a single, almost reluctant...

Knock.

Yes, he was listening. No, he's not coming out.

While Alex isn't surprised by the knocking, she does let out a sigh at it. "I thought we were past this now, Simon." The disappointment in him is evident, but it's not about him listening. Hell, if Alex Reagan had the ability to bilocate then she would probably have done the same thing. No, it's Alex, she definitely would have done the same thing, driven by the same instinct that had turned the talkback mike on when Strand and Amalia were talking in the sound booth. There's no show right now, and Alex is also keenly aware of the fact that here aboard Navi, nothing that they do seems to matter to them getting home. So, she could do that all she wanted if Alex had the ability.

No, this isn't about eavesdropping. Instead Alex's disappointment comes from the fact that he's hiding again. Hiding and knocking rather than actually coming out and having a real conversation over this when it feels so important. The things that Alex had discussed with Strand weren't things that she'd admitted to anyone else for more than one reason. Who here, after all, would know what it might have meant for Alex to have had a Tall Paul in her childhood? Who here would know the reasons that the thought terrified the hell out of her? Yes, Alex has had multiple partners here but she also hadn't told them about it or wanted to discuss it with them.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Alex just draws herself up to her full (but short) stature and decides to head for his room. Of course as soon as she learned that Simon was aboard, she'd learned where he lives, and immediately takes the lift up to the fourth floor.

Knock knock!

That one was almost alarmed, an insistent no! in that mute-speak of his even as she was already heading off. Yeah, he knew that wasn't going to stop her but damned if he didn't try.

The reason, perhaps, for Simon's reticence might become clear as soon as she hit the fourth floor. His was the only occupied cabin on that floor which was fortunate for all the other passengers. Immediately the atmosphere changed. The lights seemed dimmer there, flickering occasionally as though Navi were suffering some kind of power disruption. It felt heavy, and oppressive, with just a slight charge of static in the air. Shadows were longer, moved just this side of unnaturally. There was definitely something off about that floor.

If anyone were going to describe someplace as haunted, this hallway would certainly fit the bill.

There are things in Alex's nightmares that are mutable based on what's happening around her. There are things that are constant but that are presented in new ways. What Alex steps off into on the fourth floor is a mix of both. Screaming isn't what Alex does in these situations--that's normally saved for when the dreams rip her into waking rather than real circumstances--but she does gasp loudly. It's a familiar sort of gasp to someone who knows Alex as well as Simon does: it had happened when she'd found Maddie Franks' body hanging in her apartment, it's what happened when they'd received the video of Edward Lewis being murdered in his cell, it's what will happen when Alex is watching Black Tapes seated on Richard Strand's sofa when he gets back from Italy and all of those people are killed.

Of course, the gasp tends to coupled with a very Alex 'oh my gawd' which always shows her at her most Canadian. Here what happens instead is a very soft but empathic: "fuck." Alex Reagan all too often doesn't think these things through and it's what happens right now as she wishes that she'd listened to Simon's knocked no. Her core starts to tremble and shake, the tremors spreading outward with each increased thudding of her pulse. Her breathing shudders but she steps off onto the floor anyway. Alex may not be wise, but she's brave, and she knows that whatever else Simon isn't going to hurt her. Hell, she'd practically said that to Strand hadn't she?

But Alex hasn't missed the way that people's powers are acting up and she knows it. It's easy for her to forget that the source for Simon's abilities comes from the door that his parents had opened for him. She'd see the aftereffects of it before over and over, but he'd never used those particular parts of it around her. He's not trying to scare her even if back home Alex doesn't think that Simon thinks that she's scared enough of the web that she's on now. This isn't him, and because she knows that it's not him, Alex just raises her chin.

"I'm coming down, Simon." Down the hallway, Alex means. "So if you can control what's happening right now I'd really appreciate it and if you can't, I don't blame you for it."

He tried to warn her.

Some of the lights further down the hall flicker off, as if still persistently trying to warn her away. She's right, he doesn't want to scare her, this certainly isn't intentional and if he could bottle it all back up by force he certainly would. But Alex made the choice to barge down his hallway and now she had to see for herself some of what he was.

He really wished she wouldn't.

But... they should talk, he supposes, and if she's going to insist on being stubborn about it he'll try not to make it actively worse. The whole chilling, oppressive feeling doesn't exactly lift but the lights that had flickered off in warning do noisily buzz back to life, coupled with the sound of a door sliding quietly open further down the hallway. The most she's going to get in the way of a warm welcome right now, he's afraid.

The thing that probably should be the least surprising thing in the world to Simon Reese who knows more than anyone else does about the stupid and stubborn things that she gets up to is that she doesn't stop coming. Of course Alex is going to be stubborn, and as much as she probably really should, never in this has she ever really stepped back from the darkness that is perpetually around her since she'd started the show. Well, that probably started before the show, actually. That had been happening probably since before she'd been born and definitely well before Simon had. And that was one of the reasons that it feels so important to talk to him. In some ways, the admitting those things aloud to Strand feels like ripping the scab off of what she fears and the one person (in general possibly, never mind on board.) who might know if she's right is Simon Reese.

Letting out a breath, Alex is relieved at the lights turning back on, if only so that it's not so reminiscent of her nightmares. The oppressive feeling isn't great of course but it's as familiar as an old shirt now. Granted, not one that she'd needed to deal with in a while, but there are definitely places that she's been and things that she'd dealt with in that second season of the show that remind her of that. Alex's steps are quick, and she walks into the open door of Simon's room, mostly normal save for being more pale than she normally is, and with a fine tremor in her hands. "Hello Simon."

Honestly he'd have been more surprised had she turned back at this point. While he knew very well these things freaked Alex out, scared the hell out of her sometimes, he also knew she never let that stop her. Not even once. It was both endearing and frustrating, that broken threat meter of hers. Terrified as she was Alex Reagan never missed an opportunity to stare into the abyss. Simon wondered now, as he did at other times, if she would ever fully understand why that was.

Well, that was why she was here, wasn't it? To talk about that. He'd have just appreciated having less of a headache for this conversation. Can't present her his best, but he'll do what he can all the same. As ever, he is there to help, even if it doesn't always look that way.

But, you know, just because he's awful and he'd prefer the hallway stayed empty Simon absolutely didn't help make the atmosphere better by letting the lights click off one by one as Alex moved down the hall. He'd prefer it if no one else, like Strand, got any funny ideas of coming up here. Sorry, Alex.

Simon was flopped over in his bed with one arm draped over his eyes much like someone struggling with a migraine might do, because that was exactly what he was dealing with. Trying to keep this from spreading further into the ship, while being taxed by it simultaneously certainly wasn't helping his head any. The room wasn't much better than the hallway, with the lights letting out that low electrical buzz they do when they're near to going out.

"Hello, Alex." A brief pause. "I tried to warn you." But Alex was going to Alex, as she is wont to do.

Alex is always going to Alex, but she's also going to do it in more of the way of her being reckless and staring into the void and the like. What she's also going to do is to go into his bathroom and find a washcloth. Letting the water run as cold as she could, she put the cloth under the water and then wrung it out before she headed back over to him and put the cloth against his forehead. She doesn't hold it there, instead stepping back and leaving it on him because Alex knows how much migraines suck (it happens pretty regularly because of her lack of sleep and overreliance on caffeine to keep her still somewhat functional.)

"You know I was going to come anyway, Simon." Because she knows that he knows that. Simon knows Alex and she's going to do the stupid thing pretty much every time, even if other's don't think it's the right thing. More often than not (by a fair amount, actually) Alex tended to be right, and at the moment she has some suspicions as to why that happens to be true. It's all tied up in her thought that she was connected to the story in ways that she'd not been aware of before and the fact that whatever they were keeping her safe for, it was to sacrifice her around the finding of the Axis Mundi or whatever.

But as much as Alex wants answers (in general about the story, yes, but definitely more specific about her role in it) she's also very much herself and the look on his face worries her. "Have you tried one of those pills you pocketed from the infirmary?"

Oh. That's actually very nice of her. Simon does lift his arm and then flop it back over the washcloth which does help a little with the migraine. There's not a lot to do but wait it out, he still appreciates the help and does mutter a quiet thanks under his breath.

"Yes," He did know, but he still tried to warn her not to. "I didn't want you to see... this." A vague gesture to indicate the whole haunted hallway thing he has going on right now. She's been doing so well without the spooky bullshit from back home he didn't want to go bringing it back. At least it's not as bad as it could be, he hasn't been compelled to cover the walls in sacred geometric graffiti.

"Yeah. It'll kick in eventually." Maybe. They weren't doing a whole lot and keeping himself knocked out was pretty much the only way to keep him from haunting the hallways like this. He really hoped whatever was going on wasn't going to persist much longer.

"You have other questions." In typical Simon tradition he's ready to change the subject off of himself.

Alex doesn't mention not seeing this, because she'd prefer to not see it either, but she knows that Simon isn't doing it to scare her and that's enough. She doesn't want it to be a huge thing, and whatever other parts of the fear in her this normally would light up, Alex pushes back against. This isn't Maddie or anything else. This is something that Simon can't help and Alex isn't going to hold it against him. She doesn't ask but looking at him, she's pretty sure that the headache that Simon is having has to do with stopping this as best as he can rather than trying to intentionally freak her out.

But his directly asking Alex means that she can't talk around what she wants to ask him. She can't pretend that this isn't a thing that bothers her, that she doesn't remember that time before her mom and dad. She can't not ask him about if she's been being watched just as much as Strand has and now, whatever she'd been protected for or whatever has already happened. Alex knows that Simon is from the future after Strand leaves again for months, and she knows that the show was still going when he's from but that doesn't mean that what she's worried about is wrong.

In some ways it only solidifies the fact that Alex can't just let the story go.

"The dream sharing thing, me as a kid..." Alex takes a deep breath and squares it off, holding it for four and the like as her fingers twist over one another and she wishes that she'd have the familiarity of her recorder but. "It really is what happened, wasn't it? All of it."

As usual, Alex figured it out without requiring excessive specific evidence. Simon was trying to hold back, to the best of his abilities, and doing so was absolutely exhausting. Still, far be it for him to refuse Alex when she needed some answers. That's the one thing he's been fairly consistent in offering her, answers when all other leads ran out.

So here they were. And of course, Simon wasn't going to let her dance around the topic. Did she expect that he would? She knew better than that. He'd always jump to the point and pressure her to ask what she was avoiding. Maybe she should just bring a recorder to comfort herself? Her nervousness was noted, but there wasn't much Simon could offer in comforting words. Only an unfortunate confirmation:

"You've always been able to see them."

Alex just pauses for a moment, because as much as she hasn't wanted to think about it, she's known since it happened that it wasn't something that was merely an idle dream based on things that she'd known from the show. If Alex was back home, she would have been able to do research to see if the names of the people that she remembered from her dreams were really her foster parents at that time. She'd be able to confirm at least that piece of it with the possibility of having evidence, but Simon doesn't need evidence in the same way and honestly at this point, she kind of trusts him over evidence in some cases. This is one of those cases.

Letting out a deep breath, Alex just nods for a second before she drops herself into his chair and pulls her legs up to her chest in it. It's a familiar gesture, but it's one that Alex needs at the moment, because this is a lot, even if she's been suspicious of it for so long. And of course because if there's that piece of it that's true, then there's a good chance about her being right when it comes to the other thing.

"Strand talking about the Pilori and what all of that means, where they keep the kids alive until the right point for them to be sacrificed, if that's true then it means that this is what I was like supposed to be used for. The show I mean, playing the five movements at the Axis Mundi. That's what I was supposed to do." Which feels a little bit like a death sentence in some ways, even if she's still alive when Simon is from.

Simon does obnoxiously know things that he shouldn't, especially things that people don't want to admit. To themselves, or to others. It's not an enviable position, yes he knows things, but he doesn't exactly have good news to deliver.

Such as right now. Simon respects her moment of silence, not pushing while she digests the information that she knew in her heart but didn't really want to be true. It's alright, he understands, and will give her all the time she needs. Simon will just readjust the cool cloth on his head to try to make his headache subside just a little more. At least by now the medication was starting to kick in, just enough to take the edge off.

"Do you remember what I said when I called you while I was still at Three Rivers?" About her being one note in the symphony in the universe. One note, one voice, just like him. Chosen. Yet with Simon defying them, did that not also mean Alex could do the same? Even if she was being tugged around by this immense, invisible web of plot around her. Things were dire, but they weren't yet completely lost.

Edited (inaccuracy!) 2021-06-20 03:33 (UTC)

"'You, Alex Reagan, are the one note in the symphony of the universe.'" Alex says it from memory because if there's one thing about having the show here, it's that she's able to listen to it and go back over things that she may not have seen at the time. That she couldn't have seen because she was so sleep deprived and losing her mind during those last six months of her show. So much so that she'd been sent on a vacation in the middle of it and been alone in the woods when the Unsound anniversary happened. Well, actually probably not alone come to think of it. But it didn't matter if Simon had been there or not, she'd still felt alone. God, Nic is an asshole with her boundaries sometimes.

"I remember." The words are added after a second. "At the time, I'd thought it'd been because you know, a lot of pieces. But you'd also said that 'stumbled in to it.' I guess I'd thought that was me not having been I don't know. All of this." Alex can't help but to puff her hair out of her face, and she just looks to him once more. "But I'm guessing 'stumbled into' doesn't mean that. I'm guessing that's more to do with Strand than anything else." Because while they may have intended on her playing the Axis Mundi they couldn't have predicted how Alex had sort of stumbled into that relationship with Strand.

"What do you think now?" Now that she had so much more information. About the Axis Mundi, about the Mysterium, about the music theme that kept cropping up in relation to all of this. Music and math, it was all intertwined, and she was as much a part of it as the rest of them. A piece that helped tie the rest together. Nic really was an asshole, Simon might comment but his head hurt too much right now to care about griping about Nic.

"You were always a part of this. You stumbled into the middle," Simon had specified the middle. "It's not always... straightforward. Think about Robert Torres, and Sebastian. Think about Sarah Benning. Jessica Wheldon." They manifested in such varied ways, Robert had a shadow that stalked him but moved on to his son. Sarah Benning became a "ghost" haunting her own town for fifty years, Jessica was allegedly possessed and exorcised. They were all linked, yet so very different. And yes, others echoed Simon's experience. Cracking, going nuts, and ending up in a mental ward. Sometimes the effects seemed to fade, or were removed via strange means.

Others went... darker.

One of the things with Alex Reagan is that she connects things. In some ways, that's her true sort of super power, the way that what appears to be leaps of logic are actually Alex pulling at the threads of the story until they bind her into a place that she lives in now with all of her not sleeping and being haunted. She knows that she's the one who brought Simon into the story (sort of, because he'd made himself seen until Alex couldn't ignore him.) rather than Strand, and she's the one who chased down Coralee and Warren and Maddie Franks. Alex also knows that Simon was using the show as research even if it's not something that they talk about. With the distance that being here on Navi provided, Alex is able to see that more clearly than she'd ever had wanted to.

But Alex remembers Simon's warning before she even knew that there was a Simon, or anything about many things that she knows now. Simon had warned Alex that Strand wasn't who she thought and it was true, but it had also been one of the things that had wound her up and sent her in that direction. Honestly, Alex wonders if Simon regrets doing that now. It's another thing that she doesn't ask but only for the moment when his head is hurting. It'll happen later because there's no way that Alex is letting it go. Alex doesn't know how to let things go.

As she muses, Alex speaks aloud, because it's something that she always does. It's a reminder of her time that she's worked in audio when each bit of the story had been recorded. "If I were to like diagram everything I know now, including all of those parts, the thing that would be at the very center of all of this is Strand. It's always been Strand." Which is true. Strand is the Mantle of the Dragon. Strand's family had something in his blood. Strand was being watched by Coralee and everything that had gone into it. But Alex can also hear what she expects to be Simon's next question because he'd asked it so often: and? So Alex answers it too. "And I'm...." A pause as Alex tries to distill whatever the fuck was going on between her and Richard Strand into an actual concept that's less nebulous.

So, she instead goes into what they'd spoken about before when Alex had first found Simon onboard. "I'm the one who sees the threads on the tapestry. That's what you'd said before. That's what I was supposed to do. But it changed, and now what I'm doing in addition too instead of is sort of acting like a tether that keeps Richard involved. I'm not even sure what we are at this point, but that's how I ended up at the center, because of the connection between Strand and I, whatever it is."

Maybe Alex brought him in, but Simon volunteered in his own way didn't he? Making a scene until someone had to reach out to the show to contact Richard Strand. It worked, it put them in contact, and Simon managed to make a convincing enough bid to at least keep her attention. Enough that she called him herself when she wanted some advice on sacred geometry and the kidnapped boy. They were all tied in now, even if back home Simon was still keeping physical distance he was still involved. Somewhere on the periphery, ever watchful.

Arguably, Alex was going to dig with or without his warning, even if he absolutely probably did make it worse. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it backfired. Hard to say with Simon, as he wasn't prone to volunteering such information freely. Either way the end result was Alex biting off more than she expected, but at the end of the day was it worth it to find the truth?

"It's always been Strand," Simon agrees. That much is easy to reason out. Richard's been at the heart of it all along, regardless of his insistence otherwise. "And you are in the middle with him." Inexorably tied now. Alex probably couldn't leave even if she wanted to. All of Richard's skepticism was never enough to protect him from this inevitability. Eventually it would all come back around, would it have been better to be blindsided?

"We don't know everything yet. There's still more. I was... working on something before arriving here." Maybe he could risk telling her now. It wouldn't change anything if she knew.

Alex knows that she couldn't leave if she wanted too. It's too big now, too intrinsically tied to her life for her to abandon it. There may have been a point that she could have (though, it's definitely something that's a 'may' and not definite because of that whole one note thing) but there's not anymore. There hasn't been since she'd accepted Richard's call about the Unsound tape, and let him back into her life rather than the one case and done. Later, Alex will think about how Strand had stepped into her life with a black tape held between his hands like a bouquet of roses and dragged her back in. She'll also wonder if it's a coincidence that it's where Strand is from here. It almost could be one, but Alex Reagan has stopped believing in them at this point if only because coincidence was such a convenient excuse when it came to the story and her life now.

But either way, the whole thing isn't something that Alex Reagan can walk away from. Richard Strand may try (and he had, hadn't he? How many times had he picked up his toys and metaphorically gone home on her? Before Simon, after she'd found the truth about Coralee, the time that he'd spent chasing all of the things around her during the last few months? And then afterwards when it comes to the Axis Mundi according to Simon) but in the end, he can't seem to separate himself fully from Alex anymore than Alex can separate herself from Strand.

Simon working on something however, catches her thoughts and stops them in her tracks and Alex just looks at him quickly. "What were you working on, Simon?"

That's a very big 'may', this may have been unavoidable from the start. Perhaps the specific circumstances would have changed, but at the end of the day Alex, like the rest of them, had been chosen. She may not have remembered her childhood "friend" but that didn't mean the facts weren't still there. There was more to the story yet uncovered.

The universe sure does like toying with them. Simon almost had to wonder if there was a reason he was from so much further in the future than the both of them. Hell, he could be lying, but Alex knows he doesn't usually do that. If he does it's for a very specific reason. Keeping Warren of their backs mostly.

"Something that will help you in your investigation. One of the key pieces tying everything together." Simon now is not the time to be mysterious. It's a hard habit to drop, even if he isn't feeling as compelled to do it as he normally would be. That, and it's kind of funny.

Alex believes him about being from the future because while Simon may color the truth, she doesn't think that he's ever really lied to her. It would have been easier, maybe if he had but Simon is probably the only person in the entire story that she can count on to tell the truth even if it's cryptic as hell. And going to continue to be cryptic as hell, actually. Letting out a soft sigh, Alex just watches him for a moment, because Simon's gotta Simon and Alex should know that but sometimes she wishes more than anything else that he'd give her a clear answer for once. That's not how Simon works, however and Alex knows it. So Alex steps into her familiar part.

"What kind of key piece, Simon? I mean, given what I know about the Mysterium and what it actually is, and the fact that 'Hastur' was obviously Warren sending in those recordings." Given how Keith Dabbic was dead. But Alex Reagan makes leaps of logic, and she knows what important piece that she's not connected right now is around a lingering thread from the show. After all, Alex has already figured out that all of the pieces that she'd thought weren't really connected were the same entity when it came down to it: the Order, Tiamat, the Brothers of the Mount, etc. But one thing that they'd not figured out what something that Strand had heard enough of to last him a life time even before it had jumped into the plot.

"The Horn of Tiamat. That's what you're talking about. It's one of the hanging threads."

He has not outright lied to her. Simon may have refrained from telling her things he didn't feel were relevant in an effort to keep her from getting distracted. He'd told her as much, however, Simon also hadn't been dishonest about his curating what he'd divulge. Ultimately they were after the same things, after all. It wouldn't help to make her distrust him.

Simon, however, is always going to Simon. Just like Alex is going to Alex, they weren't all that different in the end.

Simon just waited, falling silent while she talked her way through her thought process. They were used to this dance by now, Simon dropping something cryptic, then leading Alex on a verbal problem solving game. This time he didn't even need to press, she followed the threads all on her own. He might have had the tiniest smile when she got it in one. He knew she would.

"Yes."

For a moment, Alex just considers that and him possibly being able to find it. There's a little thought in her head, Richard when she'd first heard about the Horn. ' Believe me. I've had just about enough of the Horn of Tiamat to last me a lifetime. But it looks like it's back.' Jesus, she can only imagine how much Strand's not going to want to know how important it is. But Alex isn't very inclined to worry about his feelings right now--Strand can listen or not, but she's not ever going to be able to stop wanting to know these things about all of this.

So, Alex just asks: "did Thomas Warren find it at the dig in Hillah, Iraq like Strand suspected that he had?" There were a few (more than a few) things that Alex regrets not asking Thomas Warren when she and Strand had met with him following Coralee and one of them definitely had been that. Another of course had been if he really was the Advocate. But given the way that Strand had wanted to leave (and Alex doesn't blame him for that, she'd have wanted to do the same thing if their roles were reversed) they'd not had the chance and Alex doesn't think that they're likely to get it again considering everything that Coralee had told Strand about not doing it.

Do as I say and not as I do indeed, Richard.

"Where has it been this whole time? Does it have to do with Strand being the Mantle of the Dragon or something?"

Oh, if anyone's going to find it it'd be Simon. Who else had perfected bilocating down to the artform he had? Of course that didn't mean it was easy to do, mind, but he was damned good at it. Strand's going to hate it, Simon's also not going to let Strand near it but he's not telling Alex that much.

"No," Fortunately he did not. Because if Warren had it he wasn't about to let it out of his grasp. Simon wouldn't be able to secure it then, Warren still wants it. If Alex thinks that's the last she's seen of Warren, well... That definitely wasn't the end of him.

Simon's quiet for a while, mulling over how to answer, or maybe just thinking about his brain killing him one or the other. Or both! "The Vatican," He's located it, he just has to go get it. The specifics are still a little fuzzy but once he has his hands on it he'll know for sure. "I was on my way to retrieve it when I found myself here." As for the Mantle of the Dragon thing... he's not answering. And that alone should be enough for her.

Alex is definitely relieved at the fact that Warren didn't have it, but the relief is short lived. If Warren doesn't have the Horn, then it's likely that when he offered Strand all the funding he could ever want, it was a bribe so that he could gets the Mantle under his thumb. Something that she's pretty sure would be a terrible idea and she's really glad that Strand is too pig headed to let it happen. Hopefully. Probably. All of the other things that her and Simon were discussing means that... Well, she doesn't quite know what it might mean but she does know that whatever it is probably wouldn't be great for her.

Sometimes being genre savvy really sucks.

"You're going to bilocate into the Vatican to get the Horn of Tiamat? Isn't that... I don't know, dangerous?" It seems like it would be given everything else about the Catholic Church but then again, all of their demons definitely have had far more to do with Sumerian than Christian mythology. She knows that if Simon isn't saying no, then it means that it does have to do with Strand being the Mantle.

"Oh." It's a soft sound that she makes, and it matches with her frown.

Of course it was a bribe. Fortunately that was one of those times when Richard's bull-headed stubbornness worked in everyone's favor. Warren hadn't even been subtle, surely he knew Richard wouldn't comply. Or, maybe he thought he would on the basis of Howard Strand.

Simon's still functioning on Borne Identity and Meet Cute rules, to be fair. They might not be in the genre they expect.

"What about any of this hasn't been dangerous, Alex?" Simon asked, completely sliding right on past having to openly admit to the bilocating they both know he can do. Finally feeling a little less dead he moved to push himself up, grabbing one of his pillows to wrap himself around so he could sit up to give her an incredulous look. She has noticed that she's not researching geocaching right?

Of course, he also neatly sidestepped admitting that it was directly dangerous to him because it absolutely was. Yes the mythology they were dealing with was more Sumerian than Christian, but all of the Abrahamic religions borrowed heavily from Sumerian did they not? It was dangerous and a terrible idea. He's still doing it.

"He doesn't want to face his part in all this." And therein lies the root of all that conflict. Strand doesn't want to believe.

For a moment, Alex can't say anything. She can't even think of something to say which almost feels a bit like some sort of mental crisis when they were talking about this. But the sensation of being punched in the stomach doesn't go away when Alex wraps her arms around herself and studies him. It would be easier if it did go away, but nothing about this has ever been easy and Alex Reagan knows that nothing about it ever will be. It can't be when you look at all of the moving parts and people who are involved with it.

Her voice is soft when she replies: "he never wants to believe, Simon. Would you if like you were him? I don't think I would want to believe either. Hell, I'm not even the Mantle and I don't want to believe this. I mean I do," which is where the difference between Alex and Strand happened to be, Alex does believe and Strand religiously and devoutly refuses to believe in it, no matter what happens.

But before Simon can be snide about Strand (there's never not enough time to be snide about Strand when it comes to Simon Reese though) Alex focuses onto something else. "How come he's psychic here where as he could block it back home." Alex isn't saying that this is some newly found power; she knows that this ability was one that Strand has had the entire time and he'd been too frightened to use.

There were still pieces missing from what Alex knew, some of which Simon could fill in, but others he was still waiting on her to uncover the links to in the show. Regardless of that he knew full well how far-reaching this all was. How much danger she and Strand have been in all this time. They were everywhere, absolutely everywhere, and had far too much influence to easily evade.

"You accept the evidence in front of you," Simon does manage to squeeze in at least one counter against Strand. Richard stubbornly covers his eyes and sweeps it all away with "apophenia" and never has to look any deeper than that. Alex was never satisfied with easy answers. Simon wasn't satisfied with lies. Simon will be polite and refrain from being excessively snide about Strand to Alex. He's not going to talk shit that isn't the truth.

Just... often the truth was also talking shit. To a degree.

"He always has been, Alex, but you knew that already," A little snide, as Simon does. "I imagine it has something to do with this place. The connection to Navi amplifies things. And then there's the other one." Back to being cryptic thank you Simon.

While Alex isn't psychic herself, Alex can still practically hear all of the things that are following what Simon said about evidence. More than almost anyone else, Alex is aware of just how much Strand hides things and shoves them under the whole 'apophenia' umbrella. It's something that has driven her completely insane in the past, and it's not likely to be something that gets any better as time goes on. It just isn't. Strand has to be himself, just like Alex does and just like Simon does. All three of them are who they are down to their cores and none of them are likely to change easily. Or, you know at all.

"I know has been. I also know he's been blocking it back home, Simon." An understatement for the denial that Strand sat on an island in the middle of like it was going to be something that would protect him when all it does in the long run is to hurt everything that is around him. Including Alex if she's not careful.

"The other one what, Simon?"

They are all very resistant to change. Although... Alex might come to be surprised by Strand in the future. Not that Simon's going to point it out right now. Not unless she asks. He does, eventually, start to at least accept something is going on. Even if he staunchly refuses to accept any suggestion of the paranormal. That wasn't the important part of their conversation right now anyway.

"The painful one. He's too... bright. Too loud. Too many eyes."

He's talking about the angel.

For a moment, Alex just blinks at Simon. Someone having too many eyes isn't hard to piece out considering how Murmur had been when she'd asked him for help when she was having trouble sleeping here. What he did for her had kept the better part of her nightmares away until Alex had vanished for that month to Xanadu. Now, however, it wasn't working as well but Alex is fairly certain it's because of the nightmares that she's unconsciously choosing to bring in: basically the things that have long dogged her reality that have been all kicked up once more thanks to Strand and Simon himself being aboard.

Alex also remembers the how and the whys and the reasons that Fred Barnes had called the show: Simon attacking Trent. It had been in the back of her mind that the reasons that Simon was attacking Trent was because he'd been praying but that's not something that she'd considered here. Feeling foolish because of it, Alex just frowns for a long moment as she considers. "Is there something that I can ask him to do that doesn't hurt you, Simon? I don't think that he would want to hurt you if he could avoid it." But that's not all of course, considering their conversation. "How is Murmur stopping Strand from blocking his abilities, Simon?"

The specifics about how blessings and the such worked would probably be better explained by the angel in question who provided them. That kind of thing was subtle, and required some help from the person receiving the blessing for full effectiveness. Simon and Richard's presence probably weren't helping matters at all in the restful sleep department, even if Simon wasn't actively trying to make things worse for her.

Simon just shook his head, actually for a moment looking briefly distraught at the very idea of Alex asking that entity to do anything for him. He'd really just rather stay out of view and avoid him entirely. He soon went back to that usual intense stare because it was back to Simon explaining things in strange metaphors time. "Before, his door was open just a crack. Just enough to peek through. That... Murmur is like the sun itself passing by. Now that Richard has seen that for himself, it opened the door for him. Once the door's been opened there is no closing it."

He's used door metaphors before, when talking about bilocating, and when telling her about what happened to him. For Simon his door was opened by his parents and whatever demon they called up for him to serve.

Alex frowns, the concern in her expression intensifying as an entirely unfamiliar look passes across Simon's face. Now, she's not seen Simon Reese very often and before they'd been aboard here it had only been the once when Simon was fully intent on manipulating her and whatever but way Simon looked of being distraught almost makes her heart drop. Simon Reese has been a lot of things in this story other than the only person who was telling her the whole truth, and Alex for the most part considers him kind of a Cheshire Cat with his appearances and disappearances. It had been easy for Alex to forget sometimes that Strand was a man, and it was even easier for her to forget that for all intents and purposes, Simon Reese is still a kid. He may be eighteen (nineteen now? Twenty?) but he's still a kid to her considering how much of his life he'd missed. It rips part of her heart out whenever she realizes it, and Alex just frowns when he forges himself once more into an enigma.

"Alright Simon, I won't mention it." And Alex wouldn't because she doesn't want to make things worse for him when things are already so hard, but she can't keep the look of empathy from her face. But if he wants to focus on Strand, Alex can force herself to do the same. "Just being around an angel did that to him? That's a little worrisome." Or a lot worrisome if it means that more might come through that now open door. There is a reason that Warren was after things in Strand's familial line, and there's a reason why Howard had exchanged messages about 'The Mantle of the Dragon' and it's a scary thought. Oh, she's not scared of Strand, but right now she's definitely scared for him.

While Simon would absolutely contest the idea that he's still a child, in reality she wasn't terribly off the mark. He spent most of his major developmental years in a psychiatric institution, and those before then being indoctrinated by chaos goddess demon summoning parents. None of these things made for a particularly well adjusted adult. He was, however, very practiced at keeping his emotions and motivations largely secret. Thus, back into the shadows that temporary glimpse of genuine emotion gone once more.

He nodded, glad she wasn't going to push the issue. Better just to not touch that, he felt. "The rules are different here. Back home, I don't think it would have been possible." Did angels even exist? Simon wasn't sure, he certainly hadn't seen any evidence of them. Demons aplenty, no angels. "My door was opened when I was young enough to learn to adjust." Suggesting, then, that Strand hasn't had that time or practice to realize his potential. Nor how to control it.

Alex doesn't believe in angels back home. In all of the research she's done around the story, there has never been a mention one other than Lucifer making the backdoor into heaven when it came to the unsound. Demons of course were always on the menu but they weren't the sort that ended up being Christian in nature. Honestly, given everything at this point, Alex just thinks that the Christian mythos was just based on the Sumerian stuff at it's core that it had stolen. Tiamat and the end of the world had existed before Christ had even been born (if any of that was real, Alex doesn't know what she believes in anymore when it comes to that) and things like the Order of the Cenophus and The Brothers of the Mount had just like fused the two together. It's complicated and Alex is well aware of the fact that Murmur isn't from his world even if he had blessed her and it had worked.

But there's a more important problem that Simon has placed at Alex Reagan's feet, and it's a problem that both of them know Alex is going to attempt to tackle: how Richard Strand was going to adjust to his new abilities considering he's fifty-five and not five. There's something more than a little bit worrisome about the whole Mantle of the Dragon thing suddenly being in the forefront of things rather than a hanging thread that runs through the background of the story without any resolution.

"So how do we get Strand to adjust to it, Simon?" Because clearly it's going to be a group effort. Was there any doubt that Alex would put herself in the situation to help? Of course not because Alex Reagan is Alex and at her core she cares for Strand no matter how many times she's tried to tell herself not to even back home. It's something that never works which is how Alex's found herself stumbling into the middle of things with her and Strand practically being rubber bands that stretch and in the end always come back together no matter how much they may not want it.

If angels do exist back home, they're remarkably unhelpful and standoffish. They certainly haven't been around to try to stop the end of everything, maybe they don't care. As he'd never seen any evidence himself, Simon couldn't say one way or the other with certainty. He could confirm the demons, as that's all they've seen. Far, far too much of. The blessing probably worked because regardless of where he was, the angel still had his own power independent of the individual universe.

Losing the firm grasp of his unreadable nature Simon did let out a quiet little sigh, something a bit long suffering and defeated. He knew Alex was going to try to tackle that problem, which meant he'd have to help tackle that problem. Granted, it wasn't like he had anything better to do but offering to help Richard of all people...

He balled a hand into a fist to lean his cheek on, looking dreadfully tired all of the sudden. "...I can teach him." He doesn't exactly want to, but Simon would do anything for Alex. He's not sure she realizes that.

For a moment, Alex just watches Simon. If so much of their interaction hadn't happened over the phone, then she would be better to read the language of Simon Reese. In some ways that was the real work that she'd needed to do when it came to the show and all of the players within it: very rarely did someone actually say what it was that they were meaning to, and Alex always needed to find the thread and tease out what was at the core of it. With Strand, it was something that had become second nature--the silences between his words had needed a Rosetta stone since the beginning, never mind his sighs and the things that he'd left out. In a non-romantic way, Alex too had learned to read his body language so she knew just how far and how hard to push. With Simon, the Rosetta stone had only ever had the cryptic way that he'd spoken about things and the phrasing in it.

Alex hadn't ever thought that she would end up being able to learn the physical parts of his language as well. Being good at reading people is one of the things that has made Alex good at her job, but with the way that he looks now, nearly anyone would be able to see the reluctance in him. It makes her sigh softly, and Alex bites her lip for a moment. While she's not aware that Simon would do anything for her (and she never would want that for him either. Not at all. She doesn't want people who are willing to do anything for her even if that's what Alex herself does.) she does know that he equates her with the sunsets that he loves, which means that he thinks that she's going to be the one to stop this. It's not a comfortable thought, but at this point Alex knows that comfortable thoughts aren't exactly on the table for her.

"Simon..." Alex starts and then she stops, her voice low because she knows that he doesn't want to teach Strand. "What can I do to make this easier for you?" Because someone needs to teach him so he doesn't end up... however this would mess him up, and the only person who gets what he's going through, for better or worse, is Simon himself. "Would it help if I were there when you needed to teach him?"

In a lot of ways, as Alex might easily surmise, that was the way Simon preferred it. That distance, the relative safety behind facelessness. He could control his tone easily enough, and had enough practice playing so many different variations of insane at the hospital that he was hard enough to read on average. Alex, however, was more perceptive than most gave her credit for. Somehow he doubts he's going to be able to keep up the façade now that he's, for one, not being actively mute anymore. His major line of defense was gone now.

The reluctance, however, he wasn't exactly putting a lot of effort into hiding. She'd know anyway, there wasn't much point in pretending that he wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of having to deal with Richard Strand. He met her eyes when she said his name, saying nothing while he waited for her to give voice to her thought.

Silently he considered her offer for a while, taking another bite of sandwich in the meantime. What would make dealing with Strand easier? Mostly he'll need to cooperate, but honestly that's up to Richard he'll have to make the decision to do that when Simon makes the offer.

But maybe there is something. "...He think of me as a deranged murderer. He doesn't understand." Maybe Alex could soften that edge for him? It might make the man more tolerable.

Even at the beginning of this, when Alex had still had doubts about the nature of the things that the show was uncovering, she'd never thought that Simon was a deranged murderer. When Nic had showed her the video of Simon being interviewed by the psychologist, she'd had far more empathy for the eleven year old who claimed to murder his parents than she'd had for the man who was being paid to try and help him. Despite the way that Simon had been an asshole to her when she'd interviewed him after he'd gotten himself drawn to the attention of Alex and her show, she'd not thought that he was a deranged killer. While she didn't know quite what to believe with what had happened with him and Trent (even if she did know that the things that Strand had tried to use to explain what had happened was bullshit) she didn't think that he was evil or something.

As the murders had piled up, as she'd fallen deeper and deeper under the spell of the spiderweb of a story around her, Alex Reagan still hadn't thought that Simon was nothing more than a deranged murderer. He was doing it to protect kids like him (like them really, which isn't a thought that sits comfortably in Alex's stomach and she doesn't think it ever will) and to stop the manipulations to end the world. Someone needed to do it, and Alex is aware of it, even if she's not a violent person herself. Of course there's the uncomfortable way that she knows that Simon has been using her show as at least some of the way to find more parts of the conspiracy (like Maddie Franks) but she's not going to examine that too hard right now.

If the Strand here was the one who had been from the same place in the timeline as Alex was (or Simon himself of course) she's pretty sure that it would be easier to convince the skeptic that Simon wasn't deranged. Of course she may not have been able to convince him completely, but there might have at least have been a better chance for it. Alex Reagan, at least has never met a challenge that she's said no too, so she's not about to let this notion of Strand's go uninterrogated. "I will do everything that I can to make him see you as more than that, Simon. I promise." And then because Alex is Alex, she also adds a bad joke. "Even if I need to sit in on your sessions with a spray bottle and spray him every time he's an asshole."

Strand's unfounded explanations were often as wild as the tales of the supernatural he was trying to debunk. More so, given he was willing to make his own wild leaps of logic based on flimsy evidence at best when the evidence presented to him otherwise was much stronger. It was a large part of why Simon wrote him off so early. Richard Strand wasn't going to help, not on his own, but Alex Reagan, well... she could be reached. She would help him preserve sunsets.

He knew she understood. All the way back to Maddie Franks he knew, deep down she knew he was right. What he was doing was necessary. Alex understood and that's why he could trust her, not only with this but in general. She wasn't judging him the way others would and did. She understood that he didn't do what he did out of some sick pleasure, only necessity.

He didn't want their world to be lost. Neither did Alex.

Her agreement was met with a faint, tired smile. "I know you will," Alex was good on her word like that. "He might protest, I think that's a great idea." Something of a bigger grin crossed his features at that. Simon thought Alex's bad jokes were great.

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