Alex Reagan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
11calls) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riverviewlogs2018-06-01 12:01 am
11calls) wrote in riverviewlogs2018-06-01 12:01 am
Locked.
who: Alex Reagan and Richard Strand
what: Alex getting her missing memories and being canon updated.
when: June 1st
where: Strand/Alex’s apartment in the communal housing.
warnings: The Black Tapes is dark, so there’s a fair amount of that here. Also shippiness.
Alex took a deep breath, and she squeezed Richard’s hand and gave him a quick smile while she held the silver canister in her other one. It wasn’t that she was nervous, not really. Richard had already promised her that this, what this was between them didn’t change, whatever else was going on, and she already had the few hints that she’d managed to pull from him even though she wasn’t actively trying. Not now, anyway. But this was weird and different and new, even if she wanted those weeks and wanted to know what the hell was going on with how everything seemed to be ramping up to something even if she didn’t know quite what it was yet.
But Alex was ready, and she opened the lid of the tube and looked into it, instantly feeling the memories start to rush into her head as if she’d lived them but at a much faster rate that almost seemed to make her dizzy. There was her conversation with Nic and then Virk about Charles Guiteau and his son Daniel, the missing Child 29. All of the things that Virk had told her about Duris and his connections with Russia and Bulgaria, where he definitely met with the Brothers of the Mount. Then the print outs she’d received about the machines of George Duris, including the one that was a dead ringer for Warren’s demon box, and how Duris had died near the Sagamore Hotel, because whether or not Richard thought she was insane, Alex knew that everything was connected, and each new thing seemed to prove that theory.
Then there was her coming up with the idea there that Thomas Warren was working with the Order of the Ceonophus, and she was glad that it was quick from where she had been, because that was something that Alex had worked out here on her own. As for the man himself, well, Richard wasn’t allowed to be angry with her for meeting with Warren alone when she’d told him that she’d ask him about everything. Alex was somewhat proud of her sass, but maybe it was her time here with people who had been experimented on without asking, but now she was keenly aware that the only reason that Warren would have stolen her sunglasses was so that he could get her DNA as well. But it was something they’d need to worry about later on.
What they really had been missing, Alex thought, was a proper prophecy, so she wasn’t all that surprised when it turned out that there was one on the Horn of Tiamat. The Helvetian and everything else came next, and Alex went pale and started to tremble slightly when she saw the thing from her nightmare reflected on the Black Tape that Strand was showing her. All this time later, Alex had thought she was over it, but she wasn’t even though she managed to put it aside then and now because Geneva.
A quick and fond smile, the one that she was rapidly showing when she talked about Strand with people here (and made her wonder if she’d been doing it back home too) came when he asked her to go to Geneva with him. She knew that they were going to end up there eventually, because he offered to cook for her, but there was something endearing about the way his voice sounded when he realized that she was trying to not automatically assume that she was going to go with him. But there were more important things, like the fact that the demon had a name (allegedly) and it wasn’t creepy old woman. No, it was the Helvetian and Strand couldn’t figure out how it or the image of the boy had been done.
Richard surprised her in her memories by the way he ran with the prophecy and the Helvetian and how it was Calvin. Then everything about Calvin being a threat to the church and burned at the stake and how everything came back to Howard, as it always did. Because of course he’d believe that the church was doing it for money. And of course that Howard was in this up to his eyeballs, because he always had been and Alex just had never realized how much before the last few weeks.
When she remembered her and Richard’s talk, Alex paled again, and she frowned with concern, making the same worried for him expression that she’d made when he’d first told her the story about what Howard had done when he was seven, and then again when he told her that he was being followed and someone had broken into his office, and more importantly that he too was starting to believe that Howard just wasn’t a bystander in this; this was all his fucking fault. But him telling her it was her turn to trust him earned that same ghost of a smile, because she did even though she wanted to throw herself into finding out what the hell Warren was doing now.
But Warren was making demons. Or had, anyway. Of course that’s what he and Howard were doing, because there wasn’t already enough of them in the world. Her hand tightened around the cylinder, as things were coming faster and faster as those weeks poured together. Figuring out that they were wrong about so many things. The proof that Warren was the Order, the portals that he was opening all over the world.
And then the most terrifying thing she’d seen yet and something that she’d never expected to have happen: her own personal Black Tape, because someone had broken into her house and recorded her sleeping. And of course there was a demon there because there couldn’t not be. Alex paled even further, looking almost ghost like as she shivered, remembering walking through her house with the detective, losing the feeling of safety, and calling Richard and asking him to pick her up, and taking him up on the offer to stay in his house.
The offer didn’t last long, because he’d called her in a panic about the phone call from Howard about Warren having him and Coralee, and she hated that they were using people he cared about and who hurt him against him like that.
And then there was the conversation with Nic, where he finally asked her the question that she’d been unknowingly asking herself for a long time, whether or not she loved Strand. Of course, when you added all of the accusations that he’d leveled at Strand, Alex frowned in her living room. She and Nic had fought before, but it hadn’t been like this. Whatever else, Alex would never believe that Strand was leading her potentially to her doom in Geneva; she wanted to stop him from doing something stupid which was a real role reversal.
Honestly, she wondered if he’d go back afterwards and relisten to things when he was editing the last episode and realize that Alex had never actually answered the question beyond saying that she was protective of him, which there was honestly not a single doubt about. It was something that Alex had thought about as she was driving around before she had checked her messages.
Even before she could get back to his house that night there was the phone call from Simon, telling her what already seemed like a trap definitely was.
Making her decision was easier than she expected it to be, and Alex arrived later than she otherwise had told him she would because she’d been making plans. Plane tickets for the next morning were purchased to the first place in South America that she could get, and then Alex wrote letters to Nic and to Paul and Terry, telling them that she was going on indefinite leave and they could fire her if they needed to, but she was going to be out of contact for a while, save one last recording. Then she called and told her parents not to worry before she moved all of her savings into her checking account and set her bills to autopay and cleaned out her fridge. Just in case.
Then there was the asking him not to go to Geneva, and trying to convince him of the trap that she knew with every fiber of her being that it was. His admitting that in many ways, the two of them were different sides of the same coin as he finally admitted wanting to have answers to things just as much as she did. And she knew with him, just like with her, if the other one wasn’t involved too they’d go alone. So, in the end, Alex gave him and herself an alternative offer: leave their lives and their responsibilities and the end of the fucking world and just go. Together. The promised invitation to dinner, and letting him make the decision, and then she was done and Alex opened her eyes with a small frown.
Reaching across the couch to him, Alex cupped his cheek with her hand and looked into his eyes before she spoke softly and with concern in her voice. “I wish you had told me about Howard and Coralee, Richard. You didn’t need to suffer with that alone. I’m here, and I love you no matter what.”
what: Alex getting her missing memories and being canon updated.
when: June 1st
where: Strand/Alex’s apartment in the communal housing.
warnings: The Black Tapes is dark, so there’s a fair amount of that here. Also shippiness.
Alex took a deep breath, and she squeezed Richard’s hand and gave him a quick smile while she held the silver canister in her other one. It wasn’t that she was nervous, not really. Richard had already promised her that this, what this was between them didn’t change, whatever else was going on, and she already had the few hints that she’d managed to pull from him even though she wasn’t actively trying. Not now, anyway. But this was weird and different and new, even if she wanted those weeks and wanted to know what the hell was going on with how everything seemed to be ramping up to something even if she didn’t know quite what it was yet.
But Alex was ready, and she opened the lid of the tube and looked into it, instantly feeling the memories start to rush into her head as if she’d lived them but at a much faster rate that almost seemed to make her dizzy. There was her conversation with Nic and then Virk about Charles Guiteau and his son Daniel, the missing Child 29. All of the things that Virk had told her about Duris and his connections with Russia and Bulgaria, where he definitely met with the Brothers of the Mount. Then the print outs she’d received about the machines of George Duris, including the one that was a dead ringer for Warren’s demon box, and how Duris had died near the Sagamore Hotel, because whether or not Richard thought she was insane, Alex knew that everything was connected, and each new thing seemed to prove that theory.
Then there was her coming up with the idea there that Thomas Warren was working with the Order of the Ceonophus, and she was glad that it was quick from where she had been, because that was something that Alex had worked out here on her own. As for the man himself, well, Richard wasn’t allowed to be angry with her for meeting with Warren alone when she’d told him that she’d ask him about everything. Alex was somewhat proud of her sass, but maybe it was her time here with people who had been experimented on without asking, but now she was keenly aware that the only reason that Warren would have stolen her sunglasses was so that he could get her DNA as well. But it was something they’d need to worry about later on.
What they really had been missing, Alex thought, was a proper prophecy, so she wasn’t all that surprised when it turned out that there was one on the Horn of Tiamat. The Helvetian and everything else came next, and Alex went pale and started to tremble slightly when she saw the thing from her nightmare reflected on the Black Tape that Strand was showing her. All this time later, Alex had thought she was over it, but she wasn’t even though she managed to put it aside then and now because Geneva.
A quick and fond smile, the one that she was rapidly showing when she talked about Strand with people here (and made her wonder if she’d been doing it back home too) came when he asked her to go to Geneva with him. She knew that they were going to end up there eventually, because he offered to cook for her, but there was something endearing about the way his voice sounded when he realized that she was trying to not automatically assume that she was going to go with him. But there were more important things, like the fact that the demon had a name (allegedly) and it wasn’t creepy old woman. No, it was the Helvetian and Strand couldn’t figure out how it or the image of the boy had been done.
Richard surprised her in her memories by the way he ran with the prophecy and the Helvetian and how it was Calvin. Then everything about Calvin being a threat to the church and burned at the stake and how everything came back to Howard, as it always did. Because of course he’d believe that the church was doing it for money. And of course that Howard was in this up to his eyeballs, because he always had been and Alex just had never realized how much before the last few weeks.
When she remembered her and Richard’s talk, Alex paled again, and she frowned with concern, making the same worried for him expression that she’d made when he’d first told her the story about what Howard had done when he was seven, and then again when he told her that he was being followed and someone had broken into his office, and more importantly that he too was starting to believe that Howard just wasn’t a bystander in this; this was all his fucking fault. But him telling her it was her turn to trust him earned that same ghost of a smile, because she did even though she wanted to throw herself into finding out what the hell Warren was doing now.
But Warren was making demons. Or had, anyway. Of course that’s what he and Howard were doing, because there wasn’t already enough of them in the world. Her hand tightened around the cylinder, as things were coming faster and faster as those weeks poured together. Figuring out that they were wrong about so many things. The proof that Warren was the Order, the portals that he was opening all over the world.
And then the most terrifying thing she’d seen yet and something that she’d never expected to have happen: her own personal Black Tape, because someone had broken into her house and recorded her sleeping. And of course there was a demon there because there couldn’t not be. Alex paled even further, looking almost ghost like as she shivered, remembering walking through her house with the detective, losing the feeling of safety, and calling Richard and asking him to pick her up, and taking him up on the offer to stay in his house.
The offer didn’t last long, because he’d called her in a panic about the phone call from Howard about Warren having him and Coralee, and she hated that they were using people he cared about and who hurt him against him like that.
And then there was the conversation with Nic, where he finally asked her the question that she’d been unknowingly asking herself for a long time, whether or not she loved Strand. Of course, when you added all of the accusations that he’d leveled at Strand, Alex frowned in her living room. She and Nic had fought before, but it hadn’t been like this. Whatever else, Alex would never believe that Strand was leading her potentially to her doom in Geneva; she wanted to stop him from doing something stupid which was a real role reversal.
Honestly, she wondered if he’d go back afterwards and relisten to things when he was editing the last episode and realize that Alex had never actually answered the question beyond saying that she was protective of him, which there was honestly not a single doubt about. It was something that Alex had thought about as she was driving around before she had checked her messages.
Even before she could get back to his house that night there was the phone call from Simon, telling her what already seemed like a trap definitely was.
Making her decision was easier than she expected it to be, and Alex arrived later than she otherwise had told him she would because she’d been making plans. Plane tickets for the next morning were purchased to the first place in South America that she could get, and then Alex wrote letters to Nic and to Paul and Terry, telling them that she was going on indefinite leave and they could fire her if they needed to, but she was going to be out of contact for a while, save one last recording. Then she called and told her parents not to worry before she moved all of her savings into her checking account and set her bills to autopay and cleaned out her fridge. Just in case.
Then there was the asking him not to go to Geneva, and trying to convince him of the trap that she knew with every fiber of her being that it was. His admitting that in many ways, the two of them were different sides of the same coin as he finally admitted wanting to have answers to things just as much as she did. And she knew with him, just like with her, if the other one wasn’t involved too they’d go alone. So, in the end, Alex gave him and herself an alternative offer: leave their lives and their responsibilities and the end of the fucking world and just go. Together. The promised invitation to dinner, and letting him make the decision, and then she was done and Alex opened her eyes with a small frown.
Reaching across the couch to him, Alex cupped his cheek with her hand and looked into his eyes before she spoke softly and with concern in her voice. “I wish you had told me about Howard and Coralee, Richard. You didn’t need to suffer with that alone. I’m here, and I love you no matter what.”