✘ | 018 | VOICE + SPAM

[wecanavenge]

[Private to Tosh]

You've been quiet.

[Or at least he thinks so, he doesn't actually look for her on the network.] Didn't care for the underwater wonder? [The sarcasm is strong with this one.]

[Open Spam]

[The pub, the CTS, the spa, a dozen amenities are gone from the ship, and Erik knows what's happening. The Barge is finally becoming a real prison.

He walks down the halls with his head high and his chin up, but underneath the facade, his skin is crawling. The halls are narrow, but the common rooms were the worst shock yet. It was chance that he discovered the bolts at all, but when he couldn't move one of the chairs by hand, he reached out with his mutation. He could see the metal, the magnetism was malleable, but it wouldn't move.

For one long, horrible moment, he thinks it's gone again, that Toshiko has stripped him of the only thing that makes him himself - but a tense, furious moment later sees the walls around him rippling and trembling under the force of his mutation. It calms him, at least, and the muted trembling stops, for now. The room gets one long, sweeping look before Erik turns on his heel and leaves.

The Admiral can nullify his mutation as he likes, so how long, Erik wonders, before they're all limited and locked in at night? How long before they march down the halls in double lines, to do progressively worse jobs? How long before they're being told, arbeit macht frei?]

Comments

[wedonot]

[Charles doesn't know what to say, or think, really. These changes have bothered him, too, and he didn't know how much worse things were going to get, if they were going to be permanent, and so he glanced towards the common room and then back at Erik, chewing his lip for a moment before responding.]

Whatever happens, I'll do whatever I can to get you out of here. [It's what he'd promised pretty much from the moment he'd realized Erik was on board, and it's as close as he's going to get to admitting that he's kind of freaked out by the changes, too.]

[wecanavenge]

[It gives him pause, makes him take a moment to look at Charles, really take him in. Erik knows what his problem has been, he understands what's going on - in a very twisted way, at least - but he hasn't paused to give much thought to how Charles is weathering it.

He has memories of the camp, after all. And he lived through the Vanquish.

Erik shifts his weight just slightly, nodding.]

I know. You've already promised me that. [There was the quiet thought, are you all right, to go with it.]

[wedonot]

[Charles manages a smile at the thought, trying to be reassuring.]

I'm fine. [Which is his standard response, really, and he knows no one buys it, even when it's true, so he elaborates slightly.] I'm just tired.

[Not because he was having a hard time with memories or nightmares, but simply because it was just hard to shut his mind off in the middle of all of this.]

[wecanavenge]

[None of them have that luxury, and he doesn't offer the helmet because he doesn't think that's the kind of shutting off Charles has in mind.]

You know, I'm half tempted to take my chances over the railing.

[wedonot]

[Not really, no, but the half offer's appreciated anyway.

That suggestion is not. :|]

Don't even joke.

[wecanavenge]

Well I wouldn't go alone. [He'll joke if he wants to!!!]

[wedonot]

[Fine, that gets a half laugh out of him.]

I suppose that's better.

[wecanavenge]

Just think of the groovy new worlds we could call into.

[Maybe a tiny bit mocking :v in good fun!]

[wedonot]

[It's funny, he's just. Thinking about the other alternatives, so the smile sort of drops from his face a bit.]

I'd rather go home.

[wecanavenge]

So would I. [Just not at the expense of his beliefs.]

[wedonot]

I know. [Which was really sort of acknowledging both statements, vocal and not. And it was frustrating, but, he felt like there had been some progress, maybe. Who knows.]

[wecanavenge]

[Plenty, but not the progress the Admiral needed to see, apparently. Erik pressed his lips together, more resigned than anything else.] Let's get a drink.

[wedonot]

[And Charles forces a smile, because if he's good at anything, it's convincing people that things are normal, and he's certainly not stewing on a pile of bad emotions and worries.] Alright. Lead the way.

[wecanavenge]

[Mmmmhm. Erik knows better by now - but he knows better than to say anything, too. Though it grates on him that he has to actually lead the way, instead of clapping Charles on the shoulder and falling into step beside him. The hallway just isn't wide enough anymore.]