The Last Voyages: IC Contact

[fifthofthecovenant]

"Hey, you've reached Chase Collins! You know what to do." BEEP.

Comments

Re: text, very much backdated to not too long after the flood

[fifthofthecovenant]

Chase doesn't want to talk about it. He has been low-level panicking about who might have talked to the man, and what he might have said. He might even have gotten pretty drunk with Yelena over it.

He considers not answering. He stares at the text for a long minute, in fact. But in the end, he needs to know. He can't plan, can't mitigate, until he knows.

and what did he say?

[dead_boy]

A lot of things, actually. That your magic wants you to use it, but it uses you up when you do.

And that he assumed he'd be terrible to you, which is why he tried to kill you.

[fifthofthecovenant]

yeah he told me that too. wanted to end the line and all that. should have done a better job at it.

He doesn't address the magic thing. That's more than he expected the old man to say, and it's not something he's wanted to get into. Not that any of this is something he'd wanted to get into...

[dead_boy]

Funny how that kind of thing rarely works out.

You made it pretty far, after all.

[fifthofthecovenant]

far enough to take care of him anyway. I'm still here now though. still dead in the end.

And his stupid father isn't. Luck or timing or what, he doesn't know, but the son is the one the Admiral managed to grab.

[dead_boy]

Everybody ends up dead in the end.

Although it seems like the Admiral is into granting extensions.

[fifthofthecovenant]

yeah at least there's that.

He still has shit to do, after all. Is Nico going to leave it at that? Please say Nico is going to leave it at that...

[dead_boy]

For what it's worth, Nico considers leaving it at that. He does.

But leaving it at that won't help Chase get out of here, will it.

So magic feels addictive? To you?

[fifthofthecovenant]

Ugh. Fine.

not feels. is.

He knows it. He didn't know what it was it until it was too late, but he knows. He's just not planning on having to deal with it much longer than it takes to get off the Barge.

[dead_boy]

Okay. Is, he corrects.

But does it cost the same, here? You don't look any older than when I got here.

I don't think.

[fifthofthecovenant]

no we don't age here so it's safe

besides I can't do any big magic here, and the little stuff isn't as bad

[dead_boy]

But if you had all of it back.

You could do big stuff and it wouldn't hurt you?

[fifthofthecovenant]

yeah I could

[He has a moment where he's sure he repaired a bunch of greenhouse glass... except he didn't, did he? There's no way he could, with his power the way it is here.]

makes this place pretty appealing you know

[dead_boy]

I can imagine.

So is that what you want to do? Just stay here?

[fifthofthecovenant]

no

[Can he leave it at that? Ugh probably not. Though his follow-up isn't that much more helpful:]

I have stuff to do back home. I can't stay dead forever

[dead_boy]

Stuff that involves magic?

[fifthofthecovenant]

no stuff to do with my trust fund

[Can you feel the sarcasm rolling off that text, Nico?]

yes of course stuff that involves magic

[dead_boy]

Okay but does it actually need magic or is that the addiction thing talking?

[fifthofthecovenant]

I am 100% sure I can't do this without magic

[Reconstitution and resurrection is not a thing you can do with money.]

[dead_boy]

It's not what killed you in the first place, is it?

[Because that would just be counterproductive okay.]

[fifthofthecovenant]

if my magic had killed me I would look a lot different than this

[Getting information out of Chase is like pulling teeth. Sorry, Nico. He's spent way too much of his life being secretive.]

[dead_boy]

I don't know, maybe you're actually five.

[Now he's just being dumb, he knows Chase is vaguely as old as he looks.]

Are you going to use enough of it for whatever you need to do for it to kill you this time, you think?

[It's probably hard to tell, but there is not actually that much judgement going on. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.]

[fifthofthecovenant]

if you were right here I'd flip you off. imagine me doing that right now

[Then, more seriously:]

I don't know. unless I can figure out something better here, it's possible.

[Probable. He knows how much power a regular darkling takes. This would be two, plus enough fuel to keep them solid for... hopefully forever. He still doesn't know if it will even work. (It has to. It has to work.)]

[dead_boy]

[Well, that's something.

Nico doesn't know a thing about magic, but if Chase doesn't know either - ]

Is that why you're always in the library?