voicemail

[trilluminati]

[ BEEP! ]

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

Comments

[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.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Things like that are pitched to scientists and communities for a reason. The bullshit that comes with academia and the bureaucracy slows everything down but it's there to keep things safe, fair, and from doing...

[He waves a hand at the window]

Shit like this. Neural grafting is going to take another additional three or four years just to get other surgeons on board with it, trained up, and convinced of it's safety- and I invented the procedure as something life saving.

[trilluminati]

[ Q snorts. ]

That sounds like something that'd come in handy now.