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Can we meet up somewhere?
I want to talk to you about something.

[Before Wonderland, Michael would likely have just gone looking and skipped the text. But now, he's still tentative. Just a bit - they've talked some since, and he knows that Alex doesn't hate him. Doesn't not want him around, exactly. Isn't...

...well, being afraid of him might be another matter. Especially if Michael were to turn up out of the blue. Best to ask.]

[ A little unexpected, isn't this? Still, Alex shoots back a response pretty quick. ]

That sounds vague
Sure
Where were you thinking?

The greenhouse?

[It's a more private space; people can't see inside from the quad, and it's pretty much always empty in the evenings. That's intentional. The greenhouse has come to be a safe space for him, somewhere he goes at night when he wants to be alone and...peaceful, maybe, is the word.

It's fine if Alex would rather not be alone with him, though. Michael knows full well what awful things he could do, that hidden from public eyes.]

[ There doesn't seem to be worry, on his end. ]

Greenhouse it is
I'll be there in ten

Thanks.

[Michael, who is already in the greenhouse to begin with, goes to mill around by the door instead so it doesn't look like he was hanging out here like a loser.]

[ True to his word, Alex takes about ten minutes to get there. A little less, actually. ]

Uhh, hey. [ ...Has Michael been here long... ] So, what's up? Something you couldn't say over the...thing?

Yeah! Yeah...

[Michael perks up, clapping his hands together and then nervously smoothing down the wrinkles on the front of his suit. He'd just been down there messing with the plants, after all.]

First though, what's this I hear about you getting murdered?

[ Erk. Alex blanches, clearing his throat and immediately looking away. A hand goes to the back of his neck and he does a nice wide grimace. ]

Uhhh. Crap. You heard about that. It, uh... Yeah. Yeeeah, that happened.

Wash told me. We're roommates, so I did notice when he went missing.

[Off to the brig, apparently. Michael doesn't really see why everyone involved seems to have gotten the exact same sentence, but -

Well. If he's mad, it's not at Alex. If anything, he's mad at himself for letting it happen, or for not even noticing when it did. Sure, maybe there's nothing he could've done, but he could've noticed.]

Are you alright?

Riight, I...forgot 'bout all that, since he...

[ Did the whole knocking him out thing. Alex isn't that much shorter than Michael, but with how much he's shrinking his shoulders, he seems much more like the kid he is. ]

I'mean... I'm alive again, so... I'm...okay.

[ Totally unconvincing. ]

[Under ordinary circumstances, Michael would enjoy any additional height advantage, but now it just doesn't seem fun at all.]

Are you, though? I always wiped the humans' memories of their moments of death at first - even though they were fine in the afterlife, it was a pretty traumatic thing to have.

[Of course he didn't really do it out of the kindness of his heart, but in retrospect, it was better that way.]

I don't really remember it. [ He's not looking at Michael. ] It happened real fast, that's what a headshot's s'pposed to do, right? I was just up and then I...wasn't, didn't even see it coming.

[ ...He certainly doesn't sound fine. Probably telling that he doesn't repeat any affirmations of being such. ]

I'm just glad to be on my feet.

...if you're sure.

[Michael's not. But he's not quite sure how to ask further, either. He doesn't want to press too hard. Even if he got Alex to admit he's not fine, he's doesn't really know what he plans to do about it.]

Are you going to be alright? I can talk to him, if you're worried he'll try something again. [He does mean talk, just for the moment, but other things aren't entirely off the table.]

Huh? Oh- oh, no, I... There's a thing in place, I don't think... He's not gonna do it again.

[ Part of Alex doubts that? But it's a small, nervous part that still jumps when he sees an unexpected shadow. ]

He didn't seem too happy about the...the jail time, anyway, so...

The guy's weird.

[Michael's been reasonably friendly towards him up until now, but he doesn't especially enjoy him? It's just, well. He's used to poor company, he can manage.]

Well, let me know if he ever freaks you out, or anything. He's...I don't know if he'd listen to me, but I am one of maybe three people who hasn't had a public fight with him yet.

...Eh. Fighting in public's a lot less big of a thing than you'd think. I've done it a ton, and he keeps contacting me.

[ Alex really meant it when he said, 4 out of 5 times, Ogata's the one who starts it. ]

I'll... I think it was somethin' I said to him. Like...I did punch the guy. After...you know. Wonderland. [ He coughs a little. ] I was... I was angry, and...he'd hurt Will, and... I was angry. So. I'm not gonna do something like that again.

That's probably for the best. But it wasn't a good reason for shooting you.

[He kinda gets it, anyway. He'd been angry over Will too. But that was different. Will's another immortal. They're friends, and Michael cares about him, but he doesn't feel the same need to keep him safe. Will can look after himself.

...speaking of which.]

I actually did have something else I wanted to talk to you about.

Naw, I was just...

[ He mumbles and kind of trails off. An idiot, he was an idiot.

But Michael's saying something else and he looks back up for the first time. ]

Huh? Uh. What, I can't think of anything else I've...tripped into, lately. ...Besides the cult, this- this isn't about the cult, is it?

No, no.

[Jeez, man, you aren't in trouble.]

It's just that I learned this new spell recently. If I use it with someone, then later on, I'll be able to tell when they're in trouble.

[And a whole lot of other stuff. He only just Oathed Eleanor, and it's still a very odd experience. He knows she's well; he has a decent idea of where she is, or at least in which direction. It's like there's always a bit of her in the back of his mind, which...is comforting. At least, for him it is. She didn't say anything about her experience in the reverse, so he guesses it can't have been all that bad.]

I was wondering if it would be okay for me to use it with you. Fair warning, it is sort of a two-way street.

[ Look, every time someone's wanted to talk to him recently it's been because they're disappointed in something about death, he has to cover his bases! ]

A...spell? [ This sounds a little familiar, but Alex can't put his finger on it entirely. There are a lot of spells, after all. ] I kinda know one that sounds like that... What's it called?

It's called Oath.

[And then, in something of a too-deliberate rush:]

I've already set one up with Eleanor, so I know how it works now. I can definitely do it. Not that I screwed it up with her, but you know, it was a little bit of a surprise.

[He hadn't expected it to be so immediate. He's set it aside now, so it's not taking up so much of his focus. Hopefully Eleanor has managed to do the same; her new access to his essence bothers him far more than the reverse.]

The paladin thing.

[ Alex responds immediately. He feels something like...a line of string, from his head to someone else's, invisibly. His big internal whiteboard, keeping whose feelings are whose straight. ]

...Yeah, I know about that. Will, kind of, uh... He got one with me, accidentally.

Oh, uh, yeah - [Michael hasn't really told anybody that he became a paladin. It just feels a little silly? In his particular instance?] - you know. Did he?

[That...Michael thinks about that for a moment. It seems like it could change things. Will's more than capable; he could likely protect Alex better than Michael. It's probably not all that practical to double up. The most pragmatic thing to do would probably be to just Oath someone else. It's not as though Michael doesn't have other friends.

But it doesn't change anything. It wasn't just a job that needed doing to him, something that could be pawned off on somebody else like a pile of paperwork. He wants that assurance - that connection - for himself.

...of course, it could very easily change things on Alex's end. He's already got one paladin all up in his head.]

[ An awkward kind of half smile as Alex turns away for a moment. ]

He was like... I told him about how I... [ The smile falls. ] How Ogata killed me. And...he was explaining about it, abstractly, and said he'd...you know, vow to protect me from that kind of thing...happening again.

...And then it just...happened. But...I like it. It feels nice to...have an emotional connection like that.

[ Silly. But, you know...nice. ]

So you... You became a paladin?

Uh, yeah. I thought it would be useful.

[It was a lot more significant to him than that, really, but use probably is the root of it. Paladins are good at the things Michael wants to be good at.

He's grateful for the subject change, at least, because the rest of that felt like a brush-off. Well, that's fine. Will will look after him well enough.]

I picked up that shield spell, too. Practiced with it in the dojo some, it works pretty well.

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