@katelin.philips

[covertness]

after the fire, i talked to one of the firefighters on site. he said the fire started at the nurse's apartment and that the nurse was found dead inside. no cause of death known at the time, but they were already considering the fire suspicious. he said there'd be a full investigation soon.

i went to have another talk with him, together with marcos diaz. [ between her powers of emotional manipulation and marcos' truth inducement, they make a good team. ]

he's not involved in the investigation, but he's heard a thing or two. apparently someone was stockpiling carcasses of the smaller creatures that attacked in one of the other apartments. apparently people have been doing that, looking to resale the bodies.

not sure how useful that is, but i figure we're better off sharing whatever information we get, no matter how random. maybe we'll spot a connection or a pattern at some point.

Comments

[saviorexe]

Is there any information regarding who lived in the apartment that stored all the corpses?

[covertness]

there's got to be, but he didn't know

[saviorexe]

Then it might be a lead worth pursuing.

If anything else, it'll be information we didn't possess before. It might open up an array of contacts we can carefully [carefully!!! all this shady shit] follow up on.

[covertness]

[ just don't let fitz and connor follow up on it, they go to too many seedy bars apparently!!! ]

i can try to talk to more people

[saviorexe]

[mmHMM he can see that up there......CONNOR AND FITZ]

I will, too. It's been nothing but dead ends for me so far; at least you've managed to pick up something interesting.

[covertness]

marcos and i used our powers

[saviorexe]

Did you? What are they?

[He can't not ask, after a reply like that.]

[covertness]

other than "kind of scary"?

marcos i think makes people more inclined to tell the truth
and i can make them feel differently

[saviorexe]

["Kind of scary", indeed. Prodding at the very idea of free will and agency which... is not Good, in Markus' book.

But the situation is different. They didn't ask for their specific powers; but Markus can't help the discomfort that threads through him.]

You mean that you can manipulate emotion?

[covertness]

[ "kind of scary".

it isn't actually scary to bobbi, who's been manipulating people most of her adult life in some way. she's always done it for the greater good, to protect those who can't protect themselves. katelin's moral compass is more conventional than bobbi's, though, and so katelin thinks that the potential to manipulate is scary.

bobbi? bobbi is very aware this is not a private form of communication. ]

i think so? i haven't been trying it a lot
for obvious reason
but when i tell someone that it's not so bad, they calm down a bit

[saviorexe]

[Markus is blessedly(?) oblivious to this. As far as he's reading, Katelin is handling it about as well as anyone else saddled with that kind of power.

...]

I see that you're discussing experimentation with a few others. Burning monster parts, correct?

[covertness]

[ if markus is oblivious, bobbi is doing things right as far as she's concerned. it isn't about deceiving markus or any of the other abducted individuals, that's only a side effect. it's about deceiving, if possible, whoever brought them here.

if there's an element of randomness to it at all, she wants to have an ace up her sleeve. ]

discussing it
i'm not sure it's a good idea
and that's assuming we get our hands on them

[saviorexe]

Right. Following up on what we discussed earlier might make the latter part easier.

But you're trying to recreate what made us all lose control? Your power might have to be relied on, in tandem with physical touch, if someone starts flying into a rage.

[Basically be careful.]

[covertness]

i've used it for that before
to keep the affected calm long enough to touch them

[ so she'll be fine. probably. most likely. (katelin has her doubts. bobbi not so much.) ]

it would be good to know, wouldn't it? what made people so angry
but also what it is inside us that works as a cure

[saviorexe]

I don’t think you need me to tell you to be careful, anyway.

A biochemical reaction of some kind? Do you have any working theories?

[She’s the biologist, after all.]

[covertness]

honestly? all of this scares me
but i don't want to be too careful, either

[ that's - almost the truth. bobbi's very good about not being scared, or about doing things regardless, katelin... is getting there. ]

i don't really have enough information for anything specific
but i've gotten some blood samples by people affected
if i can get those tested properly, they might tell us more

[saviorexe]

Do you need another sample for the collection?

[covertness]

are you offering?

[saviorexe]

I am, if you need it.

[covertness]

need is a strong word
but in the world of sample sizes, bigger is usually better

[saviorexe]

Then I should do my part to add to the overall state of "better" is what I'm thinking.

[covertness]

thank you