IC Voicemail

[solvethepuzzle]

"This is Nathan Brooks. My apologies for being currently unavailable, but please leave a message and I will return the call as soon as I am able."

Comments

[Text] - The following morning

[oncedevil]

Sorry about last night. I'm cool now.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

You're feeling okay? Staying hydrated?

[Yep, he's mother-henning. But this is something Tony has seen before, with Misa the morning after Nathan's kidnapping, and at various points during the past year, when Lazarus would be in particularly bad states.]

[Text]

[oncedevil]

Yeah, I'm good. Headache will be gone in an hour at the most. This stuff doesn't stick with me long anymore.

[Upside to demonic biology, very little keeps you down for long.]

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

Good.

[Nathan still doesn't think that should mean he keeps doing this to himself, but he'd said all he's going to say about it last night.]

So I suppose it really bothered you.

[Since that's the only way he can imagine you stating those intentions somewhere he could see it.]

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[oncedevil]

[Tony isn't always the best at making decisions. Especially decisions in regards to himself.]

Yeah, I guess you could say that. You're lucky you missed it, it was weird.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[He would take weird over what he'd gotten.]

It did sound excessively dramatic from the way you described it.

[Text]

[oncedevil]

It's just a good thing no one was around. I kinda trashed the place I was at when it hit. Thought I was fighting the mothman.

[Well, his at least wasn't as emotionally traumatic more 'what the what what' traumatic.]

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[... Mothman? Oh, right. That had been mentioned last night.]

That much at least is good. With the way these have come on with no apparent trigger, it could have been much worse. I am personally fortunate that my Other may have been even less active than I am.

[Such a thing is actually possible. Shocking.]

[Text]

[oncedevil]

Sure wore myself out. My other was a beast in a fight, damn.


[How is that possible? That's a little scary, less active than Nate.]

What did happen in yours? If you don't mind my asking.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[In Nathan's defense, he gets dragged out one or two mornings a week for a run with Nux. But even without that . . . he doesn't think he's had a single memory where his Other had been so much as standing.

[It's an unpleasant question, but he has enough distance from it now that he can at least discuss it a little.] Over half of the people in the room with my Other suddenly died all around him.

[There is more about the memory that bothers him now, but that part is what had been responsible for the panic attack.]

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[Nathan's already way ahead of him, then! Better to keep moving, don't want to end up with atrophied legs or anything right?]

Uh. Wow. The hell? What happened?

[Tony's had his fair share of mass death and horror echoes so it's not quite as strong a reaction as it could have been.]

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[He still wants the morning runs to stop entirely, but doesn't have the heart to totally call them off. You know how enthusiastic Nux is over everything.]

How much do you know about the case that Lazarus's Other had been working on?

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[See what happens when you can't say no?]

Uh, admittedly not a whole lot. He used to help kids didn't he? Something like that?

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Apparently, you get in slightly better shape.]

[... Oh. Awkward.] Actually, this was a mass murder case. Mine took it over after his . . . Well. [He doesn't need to elaborate on that, surely.]

The murderer was able to kill remotely using a notebook. Absurd as that sounds.

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[Tony would go but it's kind of pointless for him to join in.]

Oh. After his what? [So. Lazarus has actually largely kept Tony in the dark about this, and he hadn't really noticed it until now. Frown.]

A murder notebook? You know, I'd say it's crazy but I've been yelled at by disembodied heads so I'm not gonna judge.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Tony would also have to be in Shepherd's Haven.]

[Sorry, he's got to blink at this. He really, really thought you knew. He feels kind of bad about explaining this. Shouldn't this part be left to Lazarus? It's rather personal . . . A long moment before he decides that he can't go back on explaining.] After his died. I'm sorry; I thought you knew at least that part.

The book killed via heart attacks . . . though re-examining this memory, it seems that isn't the only way it could kill. [One of those deaths had been a little more violent.]

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[Given what happened it's probably better he wasn't. But yeah.]

[Upon further thought, it does sound familiar. It's really hard to say though, so much has happened. Some things start to melt together and get lost in the kerfuffle.] Right, right. I think I kinda remember something like that? Maybe not, we've been through so much it's hard to keep it all together you know?

So. A book that kills, and it could kill in any way? Spooky.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Actually, with Nathan's memory, he doesn't get that. Though to be fair, that could also be because it's so tied to his own Echoes.

[... "Spooky." Right.] Yes. In any event, I wound up reliving the moment where most of my Other's investigative team was killed in this fashion.

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[Tony has a history of trauma induced amnesia and disassociation, cut him a little slack. His whole life with the numbered has been trauma.]

Oh. Shit. No wonder you freaked out. You alright now?

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Nathan doesn't expect people to have a memory like his, Tony; it's okay. When the doppelgangers first came about, to prove his identity, he agreed to meet Lazarus at the time and place they'd played their chess game eight years before. They remember the tiniest and weirdest things.]

Yes, I've managed to get some distance from it. I'm okay.

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[oncedevil]

[And this is why he tends to be extremely intimidated by them and excuses himself more often than not to go hide in his dumb and slow corner. Can't hold a candle to Lazarus and Nathan.]

Long's you're sure.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Tony, you're not dumb. Lazarus and Nathan are just weird. And are both people who will forget to eat unless you put food in front of them and tell them to.]

I'm feeling much better, honestly. I would not be able to speak so much about it otherwise.

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[He feels dumb. They're so astoundingly intelligent with such useful brain skills and he has... Some muscle? Though he has managed to stand up and shine a few times, he still gets it into his head that compared to them he's worthless.]

Good point.

[Text]

[solvethepuzzle]

[Intelligent people that forget a basic life function unless they're told, Tony. Come on.]

[He feels kind of awkward bringing this up, but . . . they need to know.] Hey. Since we are already talking, could I ask you a couple of things?

[Text]

[oncedevil]

[Still. Their skill set is considerably more useful than his.]

Eh? Yeah, I guess so.