contact part deux

[bouchonne]

if this were modern times byerly would probably make you listen to total eclipse of the heart before you were able to leave a message

Comments

here he is! The Other One. or The First One? Is The Other One The Other One? it's Eggs Benedict

[altusimperius]

[with great urgency,]

Byerly.

[bouchonne]

Yes, what else?

[ Spoken with the slightly distracted air of someone working on something, who's half-listening for some new details. ]

[altusimperius]

Whoever you've been talking to, it-- it isn't me.

[he sounds like he's having an existential crisis, if that could be communicated via tone.]

He's talking to Bastien too.

[bouchonne]

What?

[ His attention is now more fully on Benedict. And he asks the obvious, if not particularly clever, question: ]

What - Then who is he?

[altusimperius]

I don't know.

[bouchonne]

[ Ah. Hm. ]

He says he's traveled back from a grim future.

[altusimperius]

[And you believed him? is the first thing Benedict wants to ask, but is caught moments before he can undermine the integrity of someone who might be... also himself. If there's even a chance. And yet,]

that's absurd.

[bouchonne]

Is it? I recall hearing of a Tevinter mage who did something akin to this, towards the beginning of the war.

[altusimperius]

[YEAH WELL,

it still seems deeply unlikely to him that he would have been the one delivering the message, but Byerly has a point.]

...well then,

[he searches his mind for a moment,]

...ask him what he did about. The Problem.

[bouchonne]

The problem?

[ What problem? ]

[altusimperius]

[this is TOP SECRET FOR BENEDICTS ONLY]

Just-- ask him, and if it's really me, he'll know what it means.

[bouchonne]

Hmm.

[bouchonne]

[ After a moment - ]

Tweezers, and skip the boot polish. Going gray?

[altusimperius]

[A similarly long pause. Then, sulkily,]

…all right.

[as you were]

[bouchonne]

All right? We believe him?

[altusimperius]

Mmhmm.

[bouchonne]

All right, then.

[ And - ]

Just accept it. It happens to all of us at one point or another.

[altusimperius]

Thanks.