who: Alex Reagan and Open what: May normal stuff, plus mingle stuff and possibly sickness plotting stuff. when: Month of May! where: All over Riverview. warnings: Possible illness stuff, shippy stuff.
Who was the first person to say they were feeling sick?
[It might not net them patient zero, but it would be somewhere near it. Or as near to it as the three of them were likely to get while wildly stabbing in the dark.]
It might get us close.
[His infection was obvious. It wasn't as if he or Alex were trying to hide the fact that he was sick. He wasn't going about and making announcements about it. He wasn't making statements about anything over a network, however; something that seemed to be outside of the norm for this place (delusion).
As the two talked, Richard kept his eyes partially on Peter. He had met more than enough charlatans in his line of work to know better to trust someone who claimed to have a gift of the supernatural. It always ended up there was a rational explanation for whatever they were claiming. More often then not, it was that they were lying. Still, if it would make Alex feel better to know that she wasn't infected than maybe it would have a placebo effect on her mind here and she, in fact, wouldn't be infected.]
[Peter frowned a little, but it was a thoughtful expression as he stepped in closer to Alex and tried to search for that strange, unhappy vestigia he got from any of the infected. After a moment or so, he shook his head and stepped back again.]
No, you're fine.
[Her friend definitely wasn't, but they all knew that. And Peter glanced back over at him, expression going just a bit bland as he caught the stare he was being given.]
I haven't been tracking the network that closely, I'm not sure. Alex?
[She usually seemed to have a fairly good idea of what was going on there, at least.]
[Alex let out a relieved sigh when Peter said she was infected, because honestly if she was going to get it, she was pretty sure that her exposure to people and Strand would have brought it on already. Feeling a little bit invisible, Alex pulled out the small moleskin notebook that she'd been carrying in her pocket that was already mostly full of notes that she'd taken about this.
Flipping back to the beginning with one hand, Alex just read back.]
The first people on the network that mentioned it were the younger Tony Stark, [There's a note next to his name that says 'brain tumor' but she doesn't read that aloud.] And Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He'd been treating people at the hospital before he was infected though. He's the one that said that the symptoms were varied, and because of the magic and technology...
[Alex is pointedly not looking at Strand, because she knows that he thinks this is already her fault.]
It's not even confined to humans. He said a Norse God got it, which means Loki, Thor or one of the two Valkyries I would imagine. And we know that others who don't identify as human have told the network that they're sick as well.
[It's not as if Richard is blaming her. Besides, or that he's not relieved that Peter has pronounced her 'fine.' He has more pressing matters to deal with than the idea that she'd mentally created a plague-type illness or that some man he'd just met had 'magically' given her a clean bill of health.
He was trying to focus on the situation, no matter how ridiculous it might it, and doing his best not to look imposingly toward Peter. Usually, he wouldn't care about things like that, especially when it came to Alex. However Alex trusted this man, no matter how Richard thought poorly of that acclaim, he couldn't just intimidate the man into leaving in annoyance. So he was doing his best not to be his usual asshole self.
Something that had been being thrust on his a surprisingly annoying amount since his arrival in this delusion. Part of him wondered if he was going to snap from the strain eventually.
As for Alex's evaluations, the two men she mentioned weren't going to be useful. Especially if this Victor (he wasn't saying that damn last name, even in his mind) was treating patients with the disease before he got sick.]
Then we go to the hospital and try and get hold of the patient logs.
[Not that he was sure how to do that in this place. He had no connections here. Which was weird considering he could think he'd have created at least a few people of use to him.]
[Peter's voice was mild, but it didn't mean that he wasn't serious. Trying to find answers or not, he was going to need some serious convincing that there was no other option before he turned to that sort of thing.
From a police standpoint, the next step should have been interviewing the victims, but with the resulting comas that was going to be difficult at best. And interviewing their nearest and dearest seemed a bit harsh when they had very little information to start with.
He sighed softly and glanced between the two of them. Peter may not have known much about Strand but Alex, he was sure, was going to think like a reporter. The information was paramount.]
But we can try speaking to the nurses, see if any of the early cases are still conscious. It may give us a starting point, if nothing else.
[Actually, Peter was right in that Alex was quite good at getting people to give her information that they probably wouldn't otherwise give to people. The staff at Three Rivers had given her Simon's file in near completeness, but she expected that was because they were concerned that he would go after her and kill her and they didn't want her family to sue. But people gave things to her all the time, and she almost wished that she'd not told Peter how persistent that she could be.
But she sighed at the whole thing about doing something illegal. It wasn't that Alex hadn't done it before, it was that she was doing better and wasn't going to do it anymore. At all, never mind here where her reputation was still mostly in tact and the internet hadn't dragged her within an inch of her life.]
We can talk to the nurses and the friends and family members. We're not trying to get personal medical information for them; it wouldn't be helpful with how varied things are. What I want to get to the bottom of is where. So maybe we can find some commonality there.
[Richard resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Peter's comment. He promised he'd be nice, but that comment was trying his resolves more than most. Of course he wouldn't do anything illegal. Letting Alex, nudge, as she did, wasn't illegal.
Of course, there's a part of him that didn't exactly feel as if he belonged here, and that was bothering him more then anything else.
In truth, he felt less like participating and more like he should be standing back and just watching. He felt useless, and he hated it. So instead of making any comments or observations, he merely held back and said nothing.]
[There was a short pause before Peter nodded, clearly mollified. If there was a slight twinge at the back of his mind about involving civilians in an investigation, it was largely silenced by the fact that it was increasingly clear that this was Alex's investigation, and he and Richard were just along for the ride. He glanced briefly at the man in question, and whatever it was that he saw made him nod again.]
Hospital it is. Keep in mind I can't do any magic in there.
[He was definitely not looking to break any of that equipment. And he wasn't sure how much he'd impressed on Alex what kind of damage he could do by accident, so the warning couldn't hurt. At least feeling for vestigia didn't require any active magic work.]
[Alex gave Richard's fingers a squeeze for a second, before she nodded at what Peter was saying with a little smile.]
Don't worry, we're not going to blow up the hospital, I promise. Even I have some limits on what I'd go to in order to get information! [Alex Reagan bad joke time? Alex Reagan bad joke time! She looked back and forth between the two men with a grin for a second, trying to lighten the tension that she felt between the two of them, before there was a small chirp from the phone inside of her pocket.
Something told her to answer it. While it might drive Strand crazy, Alex did believe in trusting her gut, and everything inside of her told her that whatever had just showed up on her phone was important.
Letting go of Richard's hand for a moment, her fingers swiped across the pad and towards the new email notification. Scanning things while walking was second nature, but then Alex actually stopped, which was a rarity. She read what she'd been sent again, knowing that it was a mistake, but she called out softly.]
[When Alex pulled her phone out at the first sign of a message, it didn't surprise Richard. He was already far too used to this sort of thing. Alex, pulling out her phone in the middle of a conversation, no matter how important it might be. This hadn't been an important conversation, so it only made sense that she was even more willing to check her messages readily.
The stopping, on the other hand, was something that he could count on one hand the instances of, and he wasn't entirely ready for it. Nor was the deadly serious tone she seemed to take after reading the message. Either someone had finally died of the illness, or she'd found a lead. Or more, a lead had been handed to her. Something not all that uncommon for Alex.
He leaned over her shoulder to read what she was, his frown growing more severe as he finished the contents.]
Convenient.
[He gave Alex a slight brow raise. If she were trying to prove to him that this world wasn't part of their mutual delusion, then this turn of events wasn't helping.]
[Peter frowned to himself as he stepped up to Alex's other side to see what she meant. Though as he read quickly through, he could understand what the sudden change in tone was for.
The name attached to the address wasn't one he recognized, but he knew enough about police talk to be pretty well convinced that it was genuine. That Alex had somehow gotten a hold of it was just a stroke of good luck he wasn't about to stare at directly for too long.]
Well. That's definitely a start.
[Better than stumbling blinding around the hospital, for certain.]
[Alex knew Richard well enough to know what that 'convenient' meant, and she just frowned at him for a long moment. Okay, maybe it was a bit convenient, but Alex had been here long enough and worked at the network long enough to know that with the turn over, emails bounced around all the time. It wasn't that suspicious, and she was pretty sure that it was a police source that she could trust rather than some random person leading them along a merry chase.
Even though that wouldn't be the first time that someone (Thomas Warren) had done something like that to her.
Her attention focused on the list again, and Alex tended to be rather active in the community, and she brushed her fingers over two or three of the names on the list.]
I know these people. They work in the city center. Well, these three do, I don't know about the others. But it would make sense that it would be a good place to launch this from. Hard to pin down, everyone has access to it...
[Alex let the sentence drop for a minute before she looked from Richard to Peter and back again.]
Okay, so I think we should start with the people I know. Do you know anyone else on the list? [The question was obviously to Peter, because well, Alex knows Strand.]
[Again, Richard relegated himself to the sidelines, or more, Alex had done it for him. There was no way he would know anyone on a list of delusions he hadn't met yet. Instead, he busied himself with looking over the list and memorizing the content of the text.
[Peter has clearly been falling down on his community outreach. Too used to the way things were done in London, maybe, but he just shook his head.
Though speaking of that, it sparked a thought. Departments back home were only too happy to kick investigations off to anyone else they could find, it might have been the same in Quarantine. Granted he was a department of one, at the moment, but it might at least get them a foot in the door.]
But I can contact the investigating officer, if we need to. Spin it somehow so that he doesn't have to find out about that email getting waylaid.
[Peter was the magic police, after all. There were times when he was absolutely not afraid to bank on the fact that most people had no idea how magic worked.]
That's a good idea. He's probably going to be way more likely to talk to you than he would be to me.
[No matter how charming Alex could be, or how she did manage to find people who would be willing to speak to her, or how she understood cops because her dad was one, they are definitely more likely to speak to either a fellow cop or a man. It was terrible and sexist, but there was a reason that Strand was drinking with the sheriff and not her when they were in California. It was just something that she'd learned, along with good cop and bad cop and how to bribe people into talking just by doing things that were her being nice or persistant.
But then again, the officer had sent the email to someone who worked for the media, so clearly they were frustrated with how the investigation was going. Alex could relate. She was also frustrated by it, but she had opinions on it.
As she forwarded both Strand and Peter a copy of the email so that they could have it (just in case), Alex spoke again, putting forward a theory.]
You know, I think that this isn't designed to kill anyone. Otherwise we'd have people who would have died because... I mean gods have gotten sick. So it should be able to kill normal people. I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that it's meant to be Memoria. I've been doing some research on the history of the event...
[Richard watched the two of them discuss with a certain stoic silence. He focused on the names, none of whom he knew, but it gave him something to do while he was outside of the conversation. Something he wasn't particularly pleased with.
THen Alex began her lead up to one of her theories, possibly leaps through logic that she often did, and he raised a brow to greet it; unsure of this would be one of the many times when he had to rein her back in from the fanciful.
When she spoke about the source of this particular holiday, Richard had to admit that he hadn't been paying much attention. He was still settling in, and taking his time about it. The fevers and chills hadn't done much to help with that; neither did Alex worrying about him. This whole thing had an apparent end, and no amount of fussing was going to change that.
[It was a stretch, but not one Peter was willing to discount immediately. Instincts had their own place in investigations, and as far as Peter could tell, Alex had good ones. And she did have a point, the comas were dramatic, but by percentages at least someone would have had to have died, gruesome as that seemed.]
It's about the first big plague, right? The reason this place is called Quarantine? A way to remember everyone who died.
Yeah, the first big plague and the great war that preceded it a decade ago, before people like us came through the portal and stuff. I mean, people lost their community and families and friends because of this. And now it seems like they really want to include us and our families and our losses inside of it. Maybe it's just that I spent too long on the internet back home.
[Because when Alex can't sleep she tends to fall down google holes, and it helps more often than one would think to come up with information for her plot. Just ask her how shortest presidency got her to Oneda and Charles J. Guiteau. But she follows the same habits here, going into things when she can't sleep, and background about the events is one of the things that Alex loves.
So, of course she would dive into this one.]
But it kind of makes me wonder if there's like a Riverview version of Fox News or something. Like the war on christmas or whatever, being against this.
[Richard's brows rose as he processed the new information. It wasn't that far of a leap that Alex was making. In fact, for Alex, it was almost entirely logical and well planned out.
He was almost proud of her.]
You have a point.
[He began to process the new information with what he'd learned about the holiday through the native's harassment. It was possible that this could be a bite back against the incorporation of them into a believed private and highly personal mourning period, but it was also possible to be something different. A bit less terroristic and more an attempt to allow them to understand.
Even if that want was completely misguided and more than a little insane.]
A want to share grief with others is a very societal based concept. It's possible that they wished to, us, to share a similar pain to what they experienced.
[Peter had no illusions as to the kinds of terrible things people could do to each other, for good reasons or not. So maybe this was someone wanting to share grief or maybe they wanted people to understand their feelings or maybe they just hurt and they wanted other people to hurt too.
Either way, it was at least a starting point. A motive could count for a lot, even if they were still trying to narrow down exactly what it was.]
So we're looking for someone who was here for it, maybe. A local, rather than a more recent arrival.
[Alex was surprised when Strand agreed with her, but she didn't comment on it. Normally she had reached more resistance than that, which meant that she maybe wasn't being as out there as she was thinking. It was good, at least that other people could see the argument she was making and getting it.
But she also understood where Peter was coming from, it could be them just wanting to do it to prove that they could, but it still seemed like if that was the case, they might want to wait and do it in a month that wasn't entirely designed around mourning.
Nodding to both of them, Alex added quickly:]
A local or locals who have the ability to combine magic and technology. Expertly it seems like, or this would be going much differently.
[Richard understood Peter's logic all too well, in fact, it had crossed his mind as well. Still, this whole thing reminded him a bit too much of the festival of the upside down face. Not the 'supernatural' aspects of it that they'd been asked to investigate, but the festival itself. Perhaps this one wasn't created as a way to drum up money for a failing hotel, but it was still a societal thing. Something to bring together survivors of a significant loss. He could understand where Elizabeth had been coming from now in regards to her words.
Remembering how the 'natives' had tried to push their festival on him, to force him to participate in something (if it were real) that would have been a time for them alone, he could see how someone would try to force them to participate by bringing it on them. The fact that no one had died yet was also very telling. If someone were expecting their ability or power, at least one person would have died. Probably someone very powerful. It was possible, but with the evidence provided, unlikely, for the moment. Still, any of the three theories would take them to the same conclusion.]
They'd need to have access to the materials. Is there a department that works with this sort of thing?
[Peter gave them both slightly considering looks.]
There's Gramarye that does magic and a few different places that work with tech, but I don't know how much overlap there is between all of them. You'd need a lab or something to develop nanotech, I'd think?
[Frankly that's just pure sci fi to Peter, but then again he is a wizard. Some things you just have to accept and move on.
Though that does make him wonder what would happen if he did magic around an infected person, if the nanites have microprocessors. Maybe best not to find out, if he can help it.]
So check in with people who have access to tech labs?
[Alex was typing on her phone again, but this time it wasn't messages; it was notes on what they were talking about. Because everything that they were saying was true. However, she does have a question:]
Isn't Gramarye mostly visitors rather than locals, though? I'd always thought that when I'd gone in there to pick up books.
[Books that would be helpful in dealing with the demon problem back in her world, and anything that she could find on Tiamat, even if she knew that it might be as applicable at home as it was here, or where ever the book had it's origins from.]
The younger Tony Stark was working on a tracker, and he knows about them but he's infected and worried. I expect older Tony Stark is working on something similar. I think maybe if we talk to these people first, [Alex gestures to the list they've got.] It might give us a description to talk to other places about who works for them. But we'll definitely check in with those places.
[Richard actually glances at Peter this time. It's a sound thought, but then again, Peter also works with a department. Peter's used to having people to work with in an investigation. If this supposed person were working alone, it was probable that, if not within easy reach of their occupation, they would just build it in a private space - or their basement. When motivated, people could be highly resourceful.
He filed the information about the two Tonys (related?) activities away for later. While he knew very little regarding nanotechnology, it was a prominent piece of this puzzle. He was sure they'd stumble into it sooner or later. And if Alex had anything to do with it, it would most certainly be sooner.
Checking in with the witnesses was the best beginning course of action. Getting a detailed description would be paramount in any investigation, and Richard was particularly proud of Alex for doing that rather than jumping to conclusions like she often did in the real world. Even so, it was best to let them talk amongst themselves in this matter. Helpless as he was, Richard knew that here, he was just a tag along.]
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[It might not net them patient zero, but it would be somewhere near it. Or as near to it as the three of them were likely to get while wildly stabbing in the dark.]
It might get us close.
[His infection was obvious. It wasn't as if he or Alex were trying to hide the fact that he was sick. He wasn't going about and making announcements about it. He wasn't making statements about anything over a network, however; something that seemed to be outside of the norm for this place (delusion).
As the two talked, Richard kept his eyes partially on Peter. He had met more than enough charlatans in his line of work to know better to trust someone who claimed to have a gift of the supernatural. It always ended up there was a rational explanation for whatever they were claiming. More often then not, it was that they were lying. Still, if it would make Alex feel better to know that she wasn't infected than maybe it would have a placebo effect on her mind here and she, in fact, wouldn't be infected.]
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No, you're fine.
[Her friend definitely wasn't, but they all knew that. And Peter glanced back over at him, expression going just a bit bland as he caught the stare he was being given.]
I haven't been tracking the network that closely, I'm not sure. Alex?
[She usually seemed to have a fairly good idea of what was going on there, at least.]
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Flipping back to the beginning with one hand, Alex just read back.]
The first people on the network that mentioned it were the younger Tony Stark, [There's a note next to his name that says 'brain tumor' but she doesn't read that aloud.] And Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He'd been treating people at the hospital before he was infected though. He's the one that said that the symptoms were varied, and because of the magic and technology...
[Alex is pointedly not looking at Strand, because she knows that he thinks this is already her fault.]
It's not even confined to humans. He said a Norse God got it, which means Loki, Thor or one of the two Valkyries I would imagine. And we know that others who don't identify as human have told the network that they're sick as well.
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He was trying to focus on the situation, no matter how ridiculous it might it, and doing his best not to look imposingly toward Peter. Usually, he wouldn't care about things like that, especially when it came to Alex. However Alex trusted this man, no matter how Richard thought poorly of that acclaim, he couldn't just intimidate the man into leaving in annoyance. So he was doing his best not to be his usual asshole self.
Something that had been being thrust on his a surprisingly annoying amount since his arrival in this delusion. Part of him wondered if he was going to snap from the strain eventually.
As for Alex's evaluations, the two men she mentioned weren't going to be useful. Especially if this Victor (he wasn't saying that damn last name, even in his mind) was treating patients with the disease before he got sick.]
Then we go to the hospital and try and get hold of the patient logs.
[Not that he was sure how to do that in this place. He had no connections here. Which was weird considering he could think he'd have created at least a few people of use to him.]
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[Peter's voice was mild, but it didn't mean that he wasn't serious. Trying to find answers or not, he was going to need some serious convincing that there was no other option before he turned to that sort of thing.
From a police standpoint, the next step should have been interviewing the victims, but with the resulting comas that was going to be difficult at best. And interviewing their nearest and dearest seemed a bit harsh when they had very little information to start with.
He sighed softly and glanced between the two of them. Peter may not have known much about Strand but Alex, he was sure, was going to think like a reporter. The information was paramount.]
But we can try speaking to the nurses, see if any of the early cases are still conscious. It may give us a starting point, if nothing else.
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But she sighed at the whole thing about doing something illegal. It wasn't that Alex hadn't done it before, it was that she was doing better and wasn't going to do it anymore. At all, never mind here where her reputation was still mostly in tact and the internet hadn't dragged her within an inch of her life.]
We can talk to the nurses and the friends and family members. We're not trying to get personal medical information for them; it wouldn't be helpful with how varied things are. What I want to get to the bottom of is where. So maybe we can find some commonality there.
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Of course, there's a part of him that didn't exactly feel as if he belonged here, and that was bothering him more then anything else.
In truth, he felt less like participating and more like he should be standing back and just watching. He felt useless, and he hated it. So instead of making any comments or observations, he merely held back and said nothing.]
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Hospital it is. Keep in mind I can't do any magic in there.
[He was definitely not looking to break any of that equipment. And he wasn't sure how much he'd impressed on Alex what kind of damage he could do by accident, so the warning couldn't hurt. At least feeling for vestigia didn't require any active magic work.]
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Don't worry, we're not going to blow up the hospital, I promise. Even I have some limits on what I'd go to in order to get information! [Alex Reagan bad joke time? Alex Reagan bad joke time! She looked back and forth between the two men with a grin for a second, trying to lighten the tension that she felt between the two of them, before there was a small chirp from the phone inside of her pocket.
Something told her to answer it. While it might drive Strand crazy, Alex did believe in trusting her gut, and everything inside of her told her that whatever had just showed up on her phone was important.
Letting go of Richard's hand for a moment, her fingers swiped across the pad and towards the new email notification. Scanning things while walking was second nature, but then Alex actually stopped, which was a rarity. She read what she'd been sent again, knowing that it was a mistake, but she called out softly.]
Hey. You guys have got to see this.
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The stopping, on the other hand, was something that he could count on one hand the instances of, and he wasn't entirely ready for it. Nor was the deadly serious tone she seemed to take after reading the message. Either someone had finally died of the illness, or she'd found a lead. Or more, a lead had been handed to her. Something not all that uncommon for Alex.
He leaned over her shoulder to read what she was, his frown growing more severe as he finished the contents.]
Convenient.
[He gave Alex a slight brow raise. If she were trying to prove to him that this world wasn't part of their mutual delusion, then this turn of events wasn't helping.]
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The name attached to the address wasn't one he recognized, but he knew enough about police talk to be pretty well convinced that it was genuine. That Alex had somehow gotten a hold of it was just a stroke of good luck he wasn't about to stare at directly for too long.]
Well. That's definitely a start.
[Better than stumbling blinding around the hospital, for certain.]
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Even though that wouldn't be the first time that someone (Thomas Warren) had done something like that to her.
Her attention focused on the list again, and Alex tended to be rather active in the community, and she brushed her fingers over two or three of the names on the list.]
I know these people. They work in the city center. Well, these three do, I don't know about the others. But it would make sense that it would be a good place to launch this from. Hard to pin down, everyone has access to it...
[Alex let the sentence drop for a minute before she looked from Richard to Peter and back again.]
Okay, so I think we should start with the people I know. Do you know anyone else on the list? [The question was obviously to Peter, because well, Alex knows Strand.]
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[Peter has clearly been falling down on his community outreach. Too used to the way things were done in London, maybe, but he just shook his head.
Though speaking of that, it sparked a thought. Departments back home were only too happy to kick investigations off to anyone else they could find, it might have been the same in Quarantine. Granted he was a department of one, at the moment, but it might at least get them a foot in the door.]
But I can contact the investigating officer, if we need to. Spin it somehow so that he doesn't have to find out about that email getting waylaid.
[Peter was the magic police, after all. There were times when he was absolutely not afraid to bank on the fact that most people had no idea how magic worked.]
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[No matter how charming Alex could be, or how she did manage to find people who would be willing to speak to her, or how she understood cops because her dad was one, they are definitely more likely to speak to either a fellow cop or a man. It was terrible and sexist, but there was a reason that Strand was drinking with the sheriff and not her when they were in California. It was just something that she'd learned, along with good cop and bad cop and how to bribe people into talking just by doing things that were her being nice or persistant.
But then again, the officer had sent the email to someone who worked for the media, so clearly they were frustrated with how the investigation was going. Alex could relate. She was also frustrated by it, but she had opinions on it.
As she forwarded both Strand and Peter a copy of the email so that they could have it (just in case), Alex spoke again, putting forward a theory.]
You know, I think that this isn't designed to kill anyone. Otherwise we'd have people who would have died because... I mean gods have gotten sick. So it should be able to kill normal people. I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that it's meant to be Memoria. I've been doing some research on the history of the event...
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THen Alex began her lead up to one of her theories, possibly leaps through logic that she often did, and he raised a brow to greet it; unsure of this would be one of the many times when he had to rein her back in from the fanciful.
When she spoke about the source of this particular holiday, Richard had to admit that he hadn't been paying much attention. He was still settling in, and taking his time about it. The fevers and chills hadn't done much to help with that; neither did Alex worrying about him. This whole thing had an apparent end, and no amount of fussing was going to change that.
Now, however, he was curious.]
And what did your find?
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It's about the first big plague, right? The reason this place is called Quarantine? A way to remember everyone who died.
[He did listen sometimes.]
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[Because when Alex can't sleep she tends to fall down google holes, and it helps more often than one would think to come up with information for her plot. Just ask her how shortest presidency got her to Oneda and Charles J. Guiteau. But she follows the same habits here, going into things when she can't sleep, and background about the events is one of the things that Alex loves.
So, of course she would dive into this one.]
But it kind of makes me wonder if there's like a Riverview version of Fox News or something. Like the war on christmas or whatever, being against this.
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He was almost proud of her.]
You have a point.
[He began to process the new information with what he'd learned about the holiday through the native's harassment. It was possible that this could be a bite back against the incorporation of them into a believed private and highly personal mourning period, but it was also possible to be something different. A bit less terroristic and more an attempt to allow them to understand.
Even if that want was completely misguided and more than a little insane.]
A want to share grief with others is a very societal based concept. It's possible that they wished to, us, to share a similar pain to what they experienced.
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[Peter had no illusions as to the kinds of terrible things people could do to each other, for good reasons or not. So maybe this was someone wanting to share grief or maybe they wanted people to understand their feelings or maybe they just hurt and they wanted other people to hurt too.
Either way, it was at least a starting point. A motive could count for a lot, even if they were still trying to narrow down exactly what it was.]
So we're looking for someone who was here for it, maybe. A local, rather than a more recent arrival.
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But she also understood where Peter was coming from, it could be them just wanting to do it to prove that they could, but it still seemed like if that was the case, they might want to wait and do it in a month that wasn't entirely designed around mourning.
Nodding to both of them, Alex added quickly:]
A local or locals who have the ability to combine magic and technology. Expertly it seems like, or this would be going much differently.
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Remembering how the 'natives' had tried to push their festival on him, to force him to participate in something (if it were real) that would have been a time for them alone, he could see how someone would try to force them to participate by bringing it on them. The fact that no one had died yet was also very telling. If someone were expecting their ability or power, at least one person would have died. Probably someone very powerful. It was possible, but with the evidence provided, unlikely, for the moment. Still, any of the three theories would take them to the same conclusion.]
They'd need to have access to the materials. Is there a department that works with this sort of thing?
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[Peter gave them both slightly considering looks.]
There's Gramarye that does magic and a few different places that work with tech, but I don't know how much overlap there is between all of them. You'd need a lab or something to develop nanotech, I'd think?
[Frankly that's just pure sci fi to Peter, but then again he is a wizard. Some things you just have to accept and move on.
Though that does make him wonder what would happen if he did magic around an infected person, if the nanites have microprocessors. Maybe best not to find out, if he can help it.]
So check in with people who have access to tech labs?
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[Alex was typing on her phone again, but this time it wasn't messages; it was notes on what they were talking about. Because everything that they were saying was true. However, she does have a question:]
Isn't Gramarye mostly visitors rather than locals, though? I'd always thought that when I'd gone in there to pick up books.
[Books that would be helpful in dealing with the demon problem back in her world, and anything that she could find on Tiamat, even if she knew that it might be as applicable at home as it was here, or where ever the book had it's origins from.]
The younger Tony Stark was working on a tracker, and he knows about them but he's infected and worried. I expect older Tony Stark is working on something similar. I think maybe if we talk to these people first, [Alex gestures to the list they've got.] It might give us a description to talk to other places about who works for them. But we'll definitely check in with those places.
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He filed the information about the two Tonys (related?) activities away for later. While he knew very little regarding nanotechnology, it was a prominent piece of this puzzle. He was sure they'd stumble into it sooner or later. And if Alex had anything to do with it, it would most certainly be sooner.
Checking in with the witnesses was the best beginning course of action. Getting a detailed description would be paramount in any investigation, and Richard was particularly proud of Alex for doing that rather than jumping to conclusions like she often did in the real world. Even so, it was best to let them talk amongst themselves in this matter. Helpless as he was, Richard knew that here, he was just a tag along.]
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