Glimpses into the terrible future // Closed

[bilocates]

Who: Alex Regan, Richard Strand, and Simon Reese
What: Reviewing Season Three of The Black Tapes Podcast together.
When: Well into their trip post party planet, forward dated
Warnings: This will be a disaster




You know how Simon's terrible? He bluntly states the truth of others while obscuring his own. He skulks around like a cat, leaves cryptic clues, and haunts floor four?

Well, he hasn't dropped those habits. After hiding it for weeks he leaves a recorded version of Season Three on Alex's pillow one day. No explanation, no identification, but she'll know it was him.

Who else would it be?

Then he waits. She'll reach out.

Comments

[bilocates]

It's an admission. Acknowledgement. The faintest flicker of realization and reflection... that's really all Simon wanted. He didn't expect an apology, at this stage it would be meaningless and empty. What he needed was for Richard Strand to really see how his actions, his tantrums and his temper, affected those around him. Before all of this Simon could keep far, far away and never had to deal with it directly.

Now... now he wasn't so lucky. How could he trust someone who would turn on him in a crisis simply because he didn't like what he heard? How could any of them trust him to do what was necessary when the pieces all fell into place?

Finally breaking the stare down he was having with Richard he shot Alex a look and a faint shrug, he understood. She had enough to deal with she didn't need to get between their squabbling. But at least she cared. Too much, always too much. But... Simon wasn't going to make it worse. Now that he'd made his point he just fell silent, slumping back in his chair to watch the events unfold.

Ideally Richard would pull himself together and rejoin them to listen to what Simon had brought to the table, but he's going to let Alex handle that part herself.

[imarealistnotacynic]

"Simon."

It's not just Simon. It's Coralee. It's Alex. It's everyone he has ever hurt. His hand shoots out to grab at Alex's like a vice - but he drops it. Wrapping his arms around himself.

"I'm not -" No. He was. He was him. How could he move forward without getting rid of the ghost of the man he had become? That's what hurts the most. He can feel Simon's disappointment. He can feel him standing there and when he had a chance to be a good man, to do right by someone who needed him, he didn't take it.

How could he regain his trust.

When he reaches out for Alex his hand is gentle, "I was afraid. Alex I was afraid and I hurt him and Simon I am..."

I see you and you are just how I was when I was a child. I didn't mean to cause you pain. I am scared.

"I am scared and I am sorry."

[11calls]

Alex just looks at him and gives a soft and sad smile. The times that she's heard Richard Strand apologize, like really apologize she could count on one hand and not even use all of her fingers. An apology on not believing something had never occurred, but honestly Alex is relieved to hear it; she's not relieved merely for herself (because this isn't about her--at least not entirely--) she's relieved for both Simon and Strand as well. All of this has just been so much, and Alex hates what both of them have needed to go through because of fucking Thomas Warren and his bullshit.

When this is done, Alex hopes that Warren dies horribly, even if she's the one who has to end up killing him. It's not something likely, given the genre that there in and the fact that while Alex has stumbled into the middle with him, she's not the true center. Alex is Strand's friend, or she's his love interest (and honestly, back home she doesn't even know. Here she still doesn't know.) and neither of those roles end well when it comes to horror. One way or another, she's going to end up fridged, but Alex Reagan is going to make certain that her death means something. She's never one to go without a fight.

Her thumb rolls over his cheekbone as he rests his hand over it, and then she looks from Strand to Simon and then back again. Her voice is soft when she speaks, but being Alex it's also decisive as hell: "it's not up to me to accept your apology, Richard. The only person who can do that is Simon." At least when it comes to this anyway. Strand has hurt her (sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not but he definitely had) but not in the same way that he'd physically hurt Simon who was trying to help.

[bilocates]

Simon's not even the one Richard's hurt the worst. This is a long pattern of behavior for the man and one he's really going to need to get a grasp on before any of them can get any real work done. Fortunately back home Simon has made a point to exclude Richard Strand from any of his own workings, Alex can deal with that mess. Here he isn't so fortunate, and here he will absolutely hold the bastard accountable for his behavior.

As such, this display still didn't appear to impress him much, though Simon was typically difficult to read and especially so when he was being extra guarded. As he was right now. Simon wasn't gentle, Alex should know that fairly well by now. Because of that he wasn't about to jump on the reassuring Richard train, if that's what Alex wants to do that's her prerogative. For Simon's part while he was willing to drop his open hostility for the time being, he wasn't willing to accept that apology regardless of how rare they were. That only spoke of Strand's pride, not of whether or not he had any genuine intention to change.

Only action would prove that much. Words were empty without action, and in his mind often useless.

Instead he thinks it's time to hang up on this conversation, so to speak, and continue when cooler heads could prevail. "We should pick this up later." He suggested, or rather in Simon's flat way insisted.

Time to reflect.

Think about this, Richard, think about who you've become. What you've become. And do better. He'll be waiting in the meantime.