cape_kore | 013 ✳ day 149 ✳ audio

[She isn't showing her face over the network, but still, Fortescue's voice sounds almost as bad as her numerous injuries. It wobbles every so often, from the abuse it's taken, and she can't even drum up the emotion to be angry about her lack of control over it. It is what is is.]

Hello, Science Center. Miss me? [Fortescue holds the phone away from her face, for a moment, to cough. She might sound dry, but she really is grateful to be back. Very grateful.] Had this place let me remember, I would have been able to return the favor.

...I don't want to inconvenience anyone, but I'm not... especially mobile, and the canteen is quite a distance from my room. If anyone feels like being generous, I wouldn't mind a snack. [Or maybe more than a snack, but she doesn't feel worthy enough, anymore, to ask for more than that. What is she, aside from a person who failed in her most basic duties as a sister?

She almost asks for alcohol, too, just for the hell of it, but she doesn't. She cuts the feed after a quick,]

Thank you.

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[ In all the time he's interacted with Fortescue he's about a hundred percent sure that none of it has ever been in person. Loads of flirting. Loads of toeing the line, but he's never actually met the woman face to face in a real setting. Now's a good a time as any right? Right. He's going to go ahead and swing by. She did ask for a snack and he wasn't going to be completely horrible and ignore her request. He hasn't seen her on the Network in a bit which generally means things have probably gone sideways for her. This place has the tendency to mess with you.

There's a definite sharp knock on her door. How'd he find it? Fortunate for her they share a few friends. Friends that actually like Alec as well. That's an amazing thought, but he's not completely ridiculous. Generally. ]

Delivery. Keep in mind if you don't answer I kinda just plan to eat it all myself and it'll all go straight to my hips.

[As is true to her message, it takes her a moment to get to the door. Her leg's healed, now, but her feet are bruised and unhappy to be used. Fortescue opens the door and raises an eyebrow, smiling at the sight of Alec. She has numerous cuts and bruises, especially on her arms and hands. Being tortured for information is a bitch and half. Luckily, all her wounds are closed, now, and the worst-looking visible wound is her black eye.]

Well, your hips are skinny, love. [She draws her blanket around her a little more and stands to the side, to allow him in. A fancy dress and a blanket — all the rage in the fashion world.] But if we both eat, I'm sure we'll cancel out the calories.

[ And out from behind his back comes his hand which is currently balancing a plate of food on it for her. A sandwich because if Manticore didn't teach it to him than Alec didn't learn it. Which includes cooking. Though there's a chance he could master it in a day or so if he was forced to master it. Them Manticore genes do come in handy most days. ]

I'm like ninety percent sure that's not how calories work, but I'll give it to ya on account of the fact that you're just so pretty.

[ Though at this current moment she looks a little bit beat up. Worse than beat up. Not great. ] Having a rough day, gorgeous?

Thank you. You're too good to me, really. [She hesitates a moment before she answers his question. It's loaded. The short answer is yes. The long answer... is very long.] ...it's been a rough three years. And a... horrific two months or so.

[Jazz looks up from the bed as she closes the door. The black cat scrutinizes Alec for a moment, but just curls up and goes to sleep again. He's been under the same amount of pain for the past week, and it hasn't agreed with him.]

But, I'm back.

No one has ever accused me of being that. [ Most of it was about how Alec was selfish which was still actually very true. He's been changing a bit more though. Max sparked that back home and being here just made it worse. He wants to help, but he's still a little shaky on it. Especially with the frosty welcome about sharing a face with Dean. That's all faded, but still.

Alec eyes the cat for a minute, but he relaxes. Feline DNA. Mostly feline DNA. Other stuff as well, but Alec has a lot of feline in him. He'd probably get along better with that cat if given a moment than human beings. ]

That's how long you were in your world? Sounds rough. Who busted ya up? [ He's just curious. He sets the plate on the bed away from the cat, but it's there if she wants it. ]

Well, now you have your first.

[Luckily, Jazz isn't very high maintenance, and he won't go after the food. Well, probably. Fortescue hesitates to answer the question for half a second, but Alec doesn't seem to be asking out of malice. It's both respectable, what with the deprivation and the restraints, and pretty damn shameful, what with Fortescue being a highly trained agent.]

I don't know who they were. [They're dead now. Very dead.] They were looking for information. Empirical secrets. Didn't know who they had, exactly, but they knew enough to put me into a magic deprivation chamber. [She sighs, hands shaking slightly, and shakes her head.] Just a dumb mistake I made. One of many.

Feels weird. Like I should be a dick or something.

[ Not many people have nice things they can say about Alec. Not even Max. Maybe one or two, but she's not sticking her neck out on the line because she likes him. She does it because it's the right thing to do and that's what Max does. The right thing. Alec just messes up a bunch and does the wrong thing. ]

I'm really good at dumb mistakes. [ He shifts his stance and back stepss to lean back against her now shut door. ] Kinda my expertise. You okay?

[Right about now, if things had gone differently — if Ward hadn't approached her — she'd be shrugging and saying she was fine. The war would have ended with her back at base camp, and she'd be onto her next mission. Whatever that would be, back in Imperium and far away from the little group she'd been partnered with.

But that's not what happened, so she sits on her bed, shrugs, but—] No, not really.

[She can be honest, now. Finally. No longer does Imperium pay her to lie for a living.]

Got some bad news, quit my job. Sort of figuring everything out from the ground up, now.

[That's an incredibly simplified version of it, but it is the truth.]

013 ✳ day 149 ✳ audio

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