entranceway | [Voice

[He turns away and scoops up the water bottle again to buy himself some time. He fiddles with it, running a fingertip around the cap, then digging his thumbnail into the paper label and shredding it from the plastic with steady, deliberate tenacity.

How does he talk about this? How does he talk about a thing that can't be talked about? There's a word for it, isn't there?

He closes his eyes, keeps his tone deceptively light.]

So, uh - you ever heard of like, stuff that travels by word of mouth? It's -

[He wets his lips. He still can't look at Max.]

There's a word for it. It's - it's like a virus.

[That's it. It's like a virus. And he's the cure. The antibody. The hero that scrubs that all clean. Even if means killing everyone and everything that has anything to do with it.]

[She shrugs.]

Sure, like a meme.

[A virus that travels like a meme though? That sounds scary as hell, especially to someone who spends so much time online.]

What would it do? I mean, like, biological stuff?

Memetic. [He snaps his fingers. That's it. That's the one.] That's the word.

[Now for the hard part. There's a little mound of shredded label that's rapidly growing on his desktop, and the rate of his studious picking at it intensifies as he keeps going.]

So. There's this thing. It doesn't have a name, or - [He shivers, unable to suppress the chill racing up his spine.] - or a face. It just...is. And whoever sees it, hears about it, looks at it -

[A hard swallow. The words are sticking in his throat. Max might think this is the right thing, but poking in deep? That's how people get killed.]

Things start to go wrong.

Wrong.

[She clears her throat.

Hears about it. He said, whoever hears about it. And she's in his room right now, listening to him tell her about it. She just got out of trouble, sort of - she doesn't want to get into more.

But she's nothing if not inquisitive. Nosey. Maybe she'll ask just one or two more things.]

Like... how?

[Alex...Alex laughs. It's not a good sound. It's not genuine, it's not remotely joking. It's mirthless, condescending, ugly. You think he wanted this? You think he wanted the blood of everyone he knew on his hands? He was the source. He had to put an end to it.

He talks slow, quiet, but the longer he goes, the more rapid his breathing gets, the quicker the words just pour out, tumble out, rush out unchecked, like they've got a life of their own. Like they've just been waiting to be said.

L̳i̗k᷂eͮ ịt̝'͍s᷅w̌h̬a͈t̩ t̡h̗e͆y̜'͏v̒eͬ a̔l̞w̤a̔y̯s̪ w͏a͟n̈́t̺e᷾d͔.]

You wake up, and there's someone in the room with you. Standing there, watching. [He laughs again, and it's almost a sneer.] Only there's not. You look again, and there's not. But you leave your house - and there it is, watching. And it follows you. It's not there, not really, and you can't get a good look at it because it's not really there. It's just you, losing your goddamn mind. Going crazy. Delusional. What's really out there?

[Suddenly he rounds on her. His phone, left on his desk, abruptly flares to life, spitting static. Alex stares at Max, an inch from reaching out and grabbing her, as if to shake the sense into her. His eyes are wild. Manic. Almost hysterical.]

What's really out there, Max?

[Holy shit.

She stands as he rounds on her, an instinct born out of fear. The way his eyes are wide and staring, the way the words seem to crash out like an avalanche- she doesn't fully understand, but she can feel the rising hysteria.

But he wouldn't hurt her. She reaches out, grabs his arms right below his shoulders. When she speaks her voice is confused but soothing, to match her worried expression as she looks up at him.]

Hey, it's okay, there's... there's nothing here.

[She shakes her head a fraction side to side, to emphasize her point, to get him to look around the room to see that it's just them.]

[Holy god, no. No no no no no no see this this is bad this is it this is how it starts and he's done - so much to keep this thing contained but it's still in him.

Alex jolts to a halt at the contact, jaw clenched tight enough to crack a molar. He blinks hard, shaking his head, his breathing still too tight and too heavy. He turns back, pulling away from Max's grip. He needs to move. Pace.]

That's what I thought. [A low, dry sound rasps in the back of his throat. Not a laugh. Not...anything.] But it's showed up here before. In Wonderland.

[His hands are fists, nails digging into the flesh of his palms, hard enough to hurt.]

It can show up again.

Then we can deal with it. We can.

[She doesn't even know what it is. But she wants to help, not leave him after the effort he made to help her.

She watches him pace, still with a worried expression. But he seems to have calmed down somewhat - barely manaed to, it seems.]

It might never even come back.

You don't know.

[His tone hardens savagely.] You can't dig that thing out once it's in there. It's there.

[It's his fault.

No it's not. He fixed it. Like a hero.]

Sooner or later it'll come for me. And that'll be the end of it.

[He says it dully. The thought's always been there, even if he's never acknowledged it. He clung gamely to a normal life. Moved away, settled down with Amy. Pretended it all never happened. What a fucking goddamn luxury that was.]

It's better like that.

[She walks over to him, slowly, and lays a reassuring hand on his arm - it seemed to help before. She tilts her head to try and look him in the eye, even as he paces around.

Comforting him seems like the priority, and although she's not exactly sure what to say, there are a few points she wants to get across. Mainly that he shouldn't panic, that he should try to look on the bright side of things.]

Don't say that... You're not even sure it will show up. It could all be okay.

Sure. [He snaps it out bitterly, without any conviction whatsoever.] I'm sure it'll be all fine.

[It was him, wasn't it. He was the source. The root of the cause. And now it's going to dig its claws into everyone here, and all he can do is hope that it just never comes.

He takes a breath, shakes his head. Max is trying to anchor him, he can tell, and he seizes upon that feverishly.]

All right. I've done my sharing corner. Your turn.

[She's not convinced that he feels better, but she doubts he was trying to convince her, anyway. The hard bitterness of his voice lingers, and she eyes him warily, not fearful or worried, no - just concerned. Obviously she was right about him having problems. It's still not clear what exactly those are, but they've stepped forward, and she feels like they're both safer because of it. And that might be enough for now.

She shuffles her feet. Thinks about delaying or leaving, finding some excuse to cut the conversation short. But she can't do that, not after everything he just told her. She bites at her lower lip, before finally speaking.]

It's not... that big a deal, I guess. [The admission comes out slowly, almost painfully. Each word almost takes its own moment to be said.] I don't know. [She hangs her head.] There was a... monster tornado. Huge.

And it whisked you off to Oz, and you were there, and you were there, and there's no place like home. [He says drolly, and returns his attention to the food Max was nice enough to bring. Back to shoveling through the bag of pork chops.]

Somehow I don't think that's all there is to that story, hm?

[She can't help but roll her eyes slightly.] Yes, Alex, I'm actually Dorothy in disguise.

[Sarcasm isn't an unusual tone for her to use, but this time it's laced with impatience. She takes a moment to calm herself down because she honestly can't expect much tact out of this conversation, but maybe that's just Alex's way of lightening the mood.

She rubs at the back of her neck. Looks down and off to one side.]

I caused the storm. I just woke up in class one day and I had this... [Fuck, this is going to sound so stupid, but she forges on, looking at him with embarrassment.] Power. Like... superpower, but not super.

[His brow furrows as she goes on. That's not the direction he expected this to go. Granted, he's not sure what direction he did expect this to go, but superpowers?]

Okay... [He draws the word out suspiciously, but his interest is piqued.] What kind of power are we talking here?

[She inhales deeply, holds it for a moment, then two, and then keeps holding it. She gnaws at her lip, eyes darting around. The breath eventually comes out in a gush, and her voice wavers as she speaks.]

Reversing time. Changing things... in the past. [She looks up at him, almost pleadingly.] I don't have it anymore. But I did... and I used it to save my best friend.

[She wants to pause, to take another long breath and bury all the hurt underneath the pressure in her lungs, but if she stops it will be a struggle to continue again. So she forces the words out, her voice strained and tight.]

I just wanted to help people by changing things, but every time I did it got worse and worse, until-... the storm came because I changed things too much and- and I had to choose between never having changed anything, and letting storm destroy the whole town... So I went back to the moment I first used it and. Didn't.

[She doesn't mention being kidnapped, drugged. She doesn't mention watching people die beneath a hailstorm of flying debris. Doesn't mention the murder they uncovered, the insanity underneath it all, the ripping up of space and time as she tried to rewind again and again to fix it, Max, why couldn't you fucking fix it!?

Doesn't mention hearing the best thing that had ever happened to her dying just a few feet away, as she hid around the corner and did nothing, because nothing is exactly what she had to do.

Or the loneliness of the week afterward, knowing Chloe sacrificed herself willingly to save everyone, practically begged Max to go back to the moment when she started rewinding and never rewind again. And nobody knew what they had gained because of it. And what Max had lost.

Stupid- at the end of it all, it turns out there was only one person she couldn't save.

Or maybe two. The second one is still to be decided.

That's it. That's the end of the story. So she just stares, blinking as tears start filling her eyes.]

[Well. He's not sure what he expected.

It sure as hell wasn't that.

Alex stands, swipes a hand through his hair. Time is a tricky thing, and he knows that firsthand - he's witnessed its unravelings and reravelings, the way it skips and jumps and how you're at one place but then you're at another, you wake up and you're miles from home. But this? This is a kind of power that - that thing is the only one that should have that kind of power.

No one person should be able to do that. Unsettling is what it is. Unnatural.

He looks at Max sidelong, suspicious.]

You don't have that...power anymore?

[Well. She shouldn't have expected him to comfort her. Maybe it really isn't a big deal.

But at least it's out there now, at least someone knows. She expected to feel a bit lighter, like a burden was lifted from her shoulders, but she doesn't. Not when he looks at her with that expression - obviously he thinks she's dangerous, knows how stupid she was for even trying to change time in the first place.]

...No. Not anymore. [She shakes her head slightly, keeping her eyes on him. Maybe a bit too long. Her voice is decisive, but at the same time she hasn't actually tried to use it, so she can't be one hundred percent certain. Though it's a moot point, because she's done using it entirely.]

How do you know?

[He keeps his voice level. Steady. Things that can do that sort of shit to time and space, well, that's not normal. That's a lot of power in the hands of someone who was willing to get carved up by something wearing the skin of a kid.

Who's to say she hasn't rewound time around him? Who's to say he's safe from that? Max is all right, sure, she's cool, but this? This isn't what he thought would come of their little discussion.]

Have you tried it at all? Have you - [His mouth contorts briefly, almost pained.] - have you done it around me?

[Who's to say she hasn't done this confession already, a dozen times over?]

[She lets out a sharp breath, her eyes narrow in disbelief as she shakes her head again, small movements from side to side.]

Do you really think I'd... do that again? After all the trouble I caused? All the people who... who fucking died?

[And there's the water in her eyes again, that she tries to blink away. She should have seen this coming- even with Chloe. Once in a while she caught her best friend's worried expression, wondering how many times Max had rewound to replay one of their conversations and make it come out just the way she wanted to. Even when Max hadn't been rewinding at all, that doubt and tiny hurt were always there.]

Come on, Alex. I'm not that dumb.

So you don't know if it's gone.

[Christ. Some part of him is aware that he's being a dick to one of the few people in Wonderland who can tolerate him, who will actually go out of her way to bring him food like a friend, but this touches far too deeply on something he doesn't want to think about.

Namely, time. And all the possible variations.]

So that's why you - you thought you could change things. [The realization dawns over him belatedly.] You thought you could stop me from - ?

[He slides a finger across his throat, curt and taut.]

[She feels like stomping a foot on the ground, petulant like a child, frustrated. Instead she shoves her hands outward slightly, palms up, eyes still narrowed because she's going from disbelief to downright irritation.

She knows he's a bit too smart to think she's sure about the current state of her power. There had been the hope that he'd take the word of a friend at face value, but that seems dumb now. She can't help but gripe internally at how different his reaction is from how she reacted to his virus.]

No! I didn't think that because I don't have it anymore. [Her voice isn't quite as hard as it can be, still more of pleading for him to understand, but there's an edge to it as well.] Even if I did... I didn't try. And I definitely can't now.

[She needs pictures to go back farther than a few minutes, and the one she took with Nageki during the Mystery Mansion tour is somewhere in the forest, its pieces flung to the wind. Even the one she took with Alex is gone, now.]

All right! [He holds up his hands, palms out, now more than a little aware the he's crossed a line of some kind.] All right. I get it.

[He looks away, at the wall, trying to piece together everything she's said before with what she's saying now.

Finally, he lets his head fall back to he's staring at the ceiling, and he blows out a long, weary sigh.]

Sorry. I just, uh, that thing I told you about - it liked to dick around with time sometimes. Jerk me around.

[She's not sure he actually does get it. She's not even sure that she does. But she's shared her story, and she doesn't feel like explaining it any further.

At least he helps her understand his reaction more. She pauses, then nods, calming down.]

...I think we'll both agree that it never ends well. [While she's disturbed to hear about time getting messed up in any form, it's actually sort of nice that he can relate, though on a different level.]

Nope. [They're solid on that front, at least. Solid. And hey, the fact that she trusted him with this has gotta mean something, right?]

Pretty much just makes things worse.

[His nose wrinkles briefly. Weeks upon weeks of lost time - yeah, he's never getting those stolen memories back. Fuck amnesia.]

[Voice - Private]

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