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[deaddrop]

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[deaddrop]

Define all right?

[She shrugs, a little awkwardly. She thinks she is. She still feels like herself.

There was a little while there after she did it where she felt... maybe a little off, but it's hard to know if that should be attributed to the loss of a little bit of soul, or Mammon's influence. It seemed to normalize after a couple of days.]

They hurt coming in, but it passed once they dried out.

How are you doing?

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden shrugs, too. he'll accept whatever answer she wants to give -- and he does. he'll even let her try and push him away from the topic when she does. maybe they'll come back to it, later, because he is worried, but]

[well, a lot of things are worrying him, lately]

Little lost. [that's a segue into what he called her out to talk about] I went and talked to the asshole in the dungeons the other day, and a lot of things he said don't add up.

[he nods towards the house. he and Ray have the living room back in working order, at least. maybe they can go sit down and talk about it?]

[deaddrop]

Fitz.

[That makes sense. She sighs. Natasha talked to him too. It wasn't what you'd call a very productive feeling conversation.

She crosses her arms over her chest and heads for the door.]

I'd love to say I can make the math make sense for you, but no guarantees.

[A shrug.]

Could be we have two different pieces of the picture?

[the_vigilante]

That's what I'm hoping.

[though, his conversation with Fitz wasn't particularly productive, either. he might have been a little busy threatening him and all of his friends. oops]

[but anyway, Aiden follows her in, taking point to lead the way to the kitchen, once the door's closed behind them. they've been through the fridge, now, and gotten rid of everything expired, but all that's in there, at the moment, is beer. it's helpful that that's what he's going for]

[pulling out a couple of bottles, he cracks one open and holds it out to Natasha. if she doesn't want it, he'll drink it and put the unopened one back]

I think what bothers me the most is he still acts like he's Lucifer's friend, even after he stabbed him in the back.

[Aiden demands unflinching loyalty in his relationships. he offers the same in return]

[deaddrop]

That's easy to explain. Fitz doesn't think of himself and the Doctor as the same individual.

[Natasha takes the beer and helps herself to a healthy pull.

They've earned that.]

Just how much that's the case... well. Still unraveling that.

[the_vigilante]

[cracking open the other beer, Aiden takes a sip of, himself, frowning. after a beat, he huffs out a breath -- the ghost of a laugh but without humor] Yeah, maybe I'll stop thinking of myself as the Fox.

[if we're all going to pretend to be something we're not!]

[deaddrop]

It might be a little more complicated than that.

[Natasha angles a glance at him, then shrugs.]

Unless you have alternative personalities I should know about?

[the_vigilante]

[oh]

[well]

[oh]

[that stands to explain at least some of this]

So -- what? Barbas tortured him until he created a split personality to deal with the trauma and the Doctor made a deal with him, to protect them?

[deaddrop]

Technically, the alternate personality was already there. His girlfriend confirmed this isn't exactly the first time it's happened.

[Natasha takes a deep drink of her beer, trying to pretend she she isn't frustrated when she very much is.]

It's all very convoluted, but apparently The Doctor comes out to deal with things Fitz can't cope with. Presumably that includes torture.

[Her lips pinch.]

Which makes him a liability.

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden's silent for a moment, before:] I probably shouldn't say something like 'it's a shame we can't just kill him,' huh?

[it kind of is, though]

[deaddrop]

Probably not, so it's a good thing we avoided that hm?

[On a technicality, but only on a technicality.]

It's going to get real complicated when we can't keep him in that cell anymore.

[the_vigilante]

[look, split personality or not, Fitz really isn't Aiden's favorite person, right now]

How much longer's he got on house arrest, anyway?

[deaddrop]

Your guess is as good as mine. When I talked to Jemma, she doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get him out.

[And she can't imaging anyone else is more in a hurry to advocate for him.]

I suppose that depends on if Lucifer agrees more with Fitz or you.

[the_vigilante]

Jemma.

[a beat]

Friend of his?

[maybe he'll go pick her brain, at some point, too]

[deaddrop]

[Natasha certainly did.]

Professional colleague and significant other.

[the_vigilante]

She get pulled into his bullshit, too?

[was she in Hellburbia or no? the Doctor had a family, didn't he? was it her? was it by choice? probably not, given that Natasha said she wasn't in any hurry to get him out of jail, but he's trying to get a feel for what kind of person Fitz's colleagues might be]

[deaddrop]

Not directly, no. She missed all of it.

[Small favors. It's only too bad Jemma hadn't been available to help people out here.]

The Doctor did have a wife on the inside, but it was someone else entirely. Apparently Jemma didn't factor into his negotiations.

[the_vigilante]

[Aiden hums, silent for a moment as he tries to decide what to do with that. if nothing else, the Doctor at least doesn't care about Jemma. he's not sure if that's useful or not, though. might as well file it away for later, until he can talk to her, maybe]

[in the meantime]

You know who the wife was?

[deaddrop]

Katherine—Kate. I don't really know her outside of the illusion.

[Don't worry. She already has plans to change that.]

[the_vigilante]

Neither do I.

[he might have to reach out to her, too]

[either way, he's silent for a long moment, before:] You know, he asked me to try and find a cursebreaker. Or at least someone who knew more than I do about magic. [he's picked up a lot, since coming here, both in theory and in practice, but he's no expert]

[deaddrop]

A what, exactly?

[This bit is new to Natasha.]

Did he explain why?

[the_vigilante]

Pretty sure the implication was that he wanted help getting out from under Barbas. [or out from under the Doctor, maybe, now that he's aware of that little tidbit] You notice he couldn't say his name?

[deaddrop]

I did. There's some kind of mental conditioning in play, I think. When I confronted Fitz prior to the spell being cast, the more I tried to push him on the subject, the more unstable he became.

Until the Doctor finally came out.

[the_vigilante]

Well, at least we know how to push him, if we need to.

[he's tempted, if only for a minute, to go back and see Fitz and purposefully push, so he can interrogate the Doctor rather than Fitz. he ultimately decides against it as quickly as the idea occurred to him, however, if only because it seems like a really fucking bad one. still, though. it's an option, if they can control the fallout and if worse comes to worst]

[either way, though] Part of me's paranoid he wants someone who can do magic for some other reason, though. [what if whatever nefarious plans the Doctor has, at this point, hinges on having someone who can do magic handy?]

[deaddrop]

I'm surprised he's asking about magic at all.

[Natasha thumbs her sleeve idly, arms crossed over her chest as she considers. Magic isn't her area of expertise at all. And unfortunately, they've lost most of the people she might have considered asking about it.]

He's incredibly stubborn about accepting it. Seems to consider that scientific.