Qubit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
superposition) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
redshiftlogs2019-11-26 11:33 am
superposition) wrote in redshiftlogs2019-11-26 11:33 am
Following Up Following Down [closed]
Who: Qubit, assorted
What: Qubit needs to contact a few people about the whole Longinmouth situation.
When: i don't even know. time isn't real
Where: Anchor
Warnings: N/A
1. for Ben & Pratt, separately
[ Both of them will get the same text, but at slightly different times. ]
I need to speak with you. In person, if possible.
It's about the incident with Carlisle.
2. for Kieran
[ There's no point trying to contact Kieran over the network. He couldn't read to begin with, and now he's blind as well. So Qubit tracks him down in person, checking in first at the Medbay, only to find out he's been released and relocated into the dormitories.
He finds the appropriate door and knocks. ]
Kieran? It's Qubit. Are you in?
3. for Onni
[ Carlisle is Qubit's friend. He'll stop at nothing to help him. But there's only so much he can actually do - he may be able to help Carlisle suppress the psionic side of his abilities, but that was never going to be anything but a stopgap, a treatment of the symptoms rather than the underlying cause.
The cause is magic. And magic is far outside his wheelhouse.
He does know a handful of magic-users in Anchor. Initially, he thought about asking Loki, but the man's trustworthiness aside, he's been Ported out. Reynir's wards might be useful for containment, but that's not his objective right this second. There's still one avenue he needs to explore, one that's a total unknown. Onni Hotakainen, the Finnish mage.
So one day, Onni will be getting an audio call from him: ]
Onni Hotakainen? This is Qubit. I'll get right to the point - there's an urgent matter that I believe only a mage may be able to resolve, and I need to know if you can help. The safety of everyone in Anchor is at stake.
What: Qubit needs to contact a few people about the whole Longinmouth situation.
When: i don't even know. time isn't real
Where: Anchor
Warnings: N/A
1. for Ben & Pratt, separately
[ Both of them will get the same text, but at slightly different times. ]
I need to speak with you. In person, if possible.
It's about the incident with Carlisle.
2. for Kieran
[ There's no point trying to contact Kieran over the network. He couldn't read to begin with, and now he's blind as well. So Qubit tracks him down in person, checking in first at the Medbay, only to find out he's been released and relocated into the dormitories.
He finds the appropriate door and knocks. ]
Kieran? It's Qubit. Are you in?
3. for Onni
[ Carlisle is Qubit's friend. He'll stop at nothing to help him. But there's only so much he can actually do - he may be able to help Carlisle suppress the psionic side of his abilities, but that was never going to be anything but a stopgap, a treatment of the symptoms rather than the underlying cause.
The cause is magic. And magic is far outside his wheelhouse.
He does know a handful of magic-users in Anchor. Initially, he thought about asking Loki, but the man's trustworthiness aside, he's been Ported out. Reynir's wards might be useful for containment, but that's not his objective right this second. There's still one avenue he needs to explore, one that's a total unknown. Onni Hotakainen, the Finnish mage.
So one day, Onni will be getting an audio call from him: ]
Onni Hotakainen? This is Qubit. I'll get right to the point - there's an urgent matter that I believe only a mage may be able to resolve, and I need to know if you can help. The safety of everyone in Anchor is at stake.
cw: suicidal ideation
[Well, maybe he can, but he has scruples with that. Another sigh.]
I do not mean to refute your every suggestion. I suppose that is exhaustion speaking.
no subject
[ He's not so naive as to think he can change Carlisle's self-image, much less overnight. But sow the seeds of hope thickly enough, and who knows what might sprout? ]
You didn't choose your circumstances, that's true. But you have choices, you said so yourself. You've chosen to work toward control, you've chosen to try and right your mistakes. You could easily give in to the curse, but you've chosen to fight it.
... You chose to save Kieran's life, knowing it might cost you everything.
Those aren't the choices of a monster, Carlisle.
no subject
As for what's going on in his head right now, it's clearly something as he falls silent, turning over Qubit's assessment in his mind. Qubit isn't presenting him with anything new -- he's just recontextualizing Carlisle's own words, presenting them in a way Carlisle is currently struggling to see. However, he knows he's chosen to work toward control, knows he's making amends, knows he's fighting it in any way he can.
It's that last one that gets him: Qubit, someone who chastised him for his foolishness in healing Kieran despite what good sense would have dictated, points out a factor that Carlisle himself so often overlooks when thinking about that incident. Yes, it went wrong; yes, he unknowingly put them all in danger. He'd been sure something could have happened, but he wasn't entirely certain at the time what.
But what Carlisle did know when he agreed to heal Kieran was that it would pose harm to himself. He knew it would hurt to channel restorative energies; he knew it could tear him apart from the inside out, counteract the energies keeping him animated, or possibly worse... and yet, he healed Kieran anyway. Some of it might have been his pride and his need to find value in his existence, but most important was that he put the life of another human being -- a man he didn't know, even -- over his own. He chose to do that.
And for all that went wrong, that should count for something. It certainly does when it's someone else suggesting it, especially someone he respects.]
I... I suppose you are right, Mister Qubit. They are not the choices of a monster, and most important is not what I am unable to change about each one, but that I made those choices in the first place. A literal monster would not be cognizant enough to recognize a presented choice, and one who is more monster than man would choose in his own favor every time.