voicemail

[trilluminati]

[ BEEP! ]

I'm sorry for whatever I did to you. Leave a message.

Comments

[trilluminati]

I kind of did.

[ Hood back up. ]

... In my way.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Shoot straight or I'm walk'n out. I have Jim half naked in the bedroom and that's more appealing to me than cryptic almost talk.

Communication skills, remember?

[Hood back down.

Q might notice McCoy didn't have to use his hands to do that.]

[trilluminati]

Fine, but after you're gonna tell me why you think that's a good idea. You saw what happened to the last two people.

[ Tugs his collar up around his ears. ]

Anyway, I have it. The Haze. Don't worry, I'm aiight. It doesn't really affect me.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

...something else it would've been useful to know- seeing as clones we're supposed to be immune for one and- shit.

[He feels fine. He should be fine. But there's no goddamn way he can tell how it's transmitted and it's going to hurt like a sonovabitch but he pulls the tweezers from his pocket anyhow and plucks the implants from his finger and thumb, shoving the silicone medigel plugs in place instead.


Losing Mo'cawa is a little like going deaf and colorblind.

He doesn't let it shake him. Much.]

[trilluminati]

[ Q flashes him a crumpled smile. ]

Smart man.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Forgot to take them out before I came over.

['I was too worried about your dumb ass' goes unsaid.]

Keep talk'n.

[trilluminati]

I used this machine to extract it from the cap'n. It kinda just...hopped to me. It's aiight though, like I said. All it did was give me back...all the shit I didn't remember.

[ HOOD ]

I was about to turn 31 when I died.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

[Fuck that hood, fuck it right to hell. McCoy flicks it back, not letting Q hide from him, from this conversation.]

You've lost a decade.

[trilluminati]

[ Q buries his face in his hands instead. ]

A decade.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

What do you know?

[trilluminati]

Everything. I don't even know where to start. The deluge helps, though. I gotta admit, it keeps shit objective. The guy in my head and I...we grown apart.

[ You can see his smile through his hands about that. ]

Kir-- cap'n and I knew each other.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Start at the beginning and go from there. No secrets, no details held back- I don't care if you think it'll frighten or anger me. I'm not going to say anything until you've covered everything.

[trilluminati]

You know most of everything. I'm still sorting through all of it myself. And that's the truth.

[ He gestures with the Rock Star. ]

It's hard to just eat a decade. Probably the most startling revelation is that the Haze is...me. It's all the missing parts. The "Vision." I get foggy on the details, so you gonna just have to try to parse that out.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

We got time and I like puzzles. Go ahead whenever you're comfortable.

[He settles back, fingers laced, entirely attentive.]

[trilluminati]

His vision, for the perfect world... He just took those years he spent... spent obsessing on this idea-- With that machine. He took them out. And he and Roth designed a way to infect people with them. That's-- the fowlo. Lalé brought it off the island. He and I used to be friends.

Anyway, that's where they went. Mystery: solved.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Where do the rest of us come in- the versions of us that 'fought' the haze? When'd he meet Jim?

[trilluminati]

[ Q has to disconnect a little, before he says all this. ]

He convinced him to betray all of you. A lot of people were there. Some I didn't recognize.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Bullshit. There is no logic or argument that would turn Jim on his friends. What did he do?

[trilluminati]

[ Q tilts his head to the side absently. ]

It didn't matter. He was the weakest link. The easiest to bend. No.

[ Q exhales raggedly beneath his hands. ]

That wasn't the cap'n.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

...Alright then.

[Neural and cortical suppresses, mood elevator, all coded in at the same doses. McCoy holds his hand out for Q's and waits.]

Let's take care of this first, then we'll continue.

[trilluminati]

It's really fine, Doc. It's been easier to deal lately, with the big picture all out there.

[ He puts his hand out though, anyway. Why the hell not. Maybe it'll complement the bouquet. ]

Anyway, I don't really have too much more for you. Like I said, I'm sorting. I don't even wanna know what happens if I don't take it step-by-step.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

You been writing stuff down as you remember it?

[The press of the hypo against Q's skin is gentle.]

Could help you make some sense of the fuzzier bits.

[trilluminati]

What? Blogging? Yeah that would do...irreparable damage to the street cred.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Personal logs, meant to help a man vent, order his thoughts, and keep him healthy. Only people with access to them would be you and your personal physician, baby bear.

[trilluminati]

Maybe. I don't exactly have time for that. I haven't slept since I got it all back. Not all of the vision was bad. Some stuff was...innocuous, you know? Harmless shit. Alternative energy, exploring new frequencies -- I remember a stick of incense with impossible physics that never burned down.