11calls: (2)
Alex Reagan ([personal profile] 11calls) wrote in [community profile] eyemind2021-06-19 06:33 pm

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.”
bilocates: (Thinking)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-20 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
"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.
bilocates: (Profile)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-20 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Ugh)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-20 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Smile)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-20 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
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."
bilocates: (Soda time)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-21 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Ominous blue)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-21 11:15 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Profile)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-23 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Skulk)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-23 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Glower)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-24 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (You sure about that?)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-24 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (More sulking)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-26 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Spookmaster)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-06-30 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
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.
bilocates: (Smile)

[personal profile] bilocates 2021-07-26 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
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.