[reverse darkest timeline AU: cellthread #2]

[stilljustandrew]

[Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

What's worried Baby the most, over the past few days --

Well. What's upset her the most is Andrew's consistent refusal to speak to her mind-to-mind, or out loud beyond the few necessary words she might exchange with any other inmate, such as requests for food, fresh clothes, an extra blanket.

But what's worried her is that he hasn't asked for anything to pass the time. No tablet with games or videos on it, no pencil and paper, no baseball to bounce off the opposite wall.

No books.



In the cell, Andrew finishes his breakfast (cornflakes, with sliced banana), sets aside the bowl, and settles down leaning against the wall.

Comments

[gothamsheiress]

This is hardly Brix's usual sort of assignation. She's been engaged primarily to listen to patrons before; she's been engaged by one person to be with another before. She's never been asked to go and talk with someone she's never met like this, though.

But Matt -- Matthew -- seemed to think it a good idea, and she is perhaps a little more easily swayed by him than by many.

She's wearing a relatively unadorned dress of grey-blue when she enters the Security office, looking for someone to speak with.

[hadyougoing]

There's a familiar brunette seated at a desk, writing irritably.

Iva Shahrizai would surely never be caught dead dressed the way she is, though: in jeans and a gray jacket and a blouse with a flower pattern. And when she looks up, there's no sign of recognition on her face.

"Hi. Can I help you?"

[gothamsheiress]

Brix halts, her eyes widening slightly.

"--Elua above. Iva?"

[hadyougoing]

"Ava," she corrects. "Ava Wilson? Hi."

[gothamsheiress]

"Ava."

She shakes her head.

"I beg your pardon, you look exactly like my cousin."

[hadyougoing]

Well that's ... the weirdest thing anyone's ever said to her.

All she can think to say is, "You don't look like any of my cousins."

For one thing, this woman is much hotter.

[gothamsheiress]

"This place seems to delight in providing me with coincidences," she says. Grumbles, really. Matt is a lovely coincidence, but this is starting to feel a little egregious.

She holds out a hand, anyway. "My name is Brix nó Balm de Marsilikos. Matt Jamison suggested I come and speak to one of your prisoners."

[hadyougoing]

"Oh," Ava says as she rises, "right, you're the--"

Therapy hooker!

"Thanks for coming." She shakes her hand, phrasing? Keep going. "I'm honestly, kind of at the end of my rope with this." Her lips twitch. "Or maybe I started out there. What did Matt tell you?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Well, he told me of his own ordeal. But he feels, it seems, that -- Andrew? -- isn't entirely to blame for his actions. He told me Andrew was captured and held by an angel called Lucifer" -- she says the name with a hint of a French accent -- "and likely tortured until he came around to believe his captor's lies. Even to idolize him."

[hadyougoing]

Ava sighs.

"Idolize is right." She frowns. "Do you want to sit down? I think the pertinent stuff might take a little while to explain."

[gothamsheiress]

"Thank you, yes."

She's still a little unnerved by how much Ava looks -- almost sounds -- like Iva, but she takes a chair willingly enough.

[hadyougoing]

Ava sits down again, pushing her papers to one side and laying the pen neatly on top.

She glances Brix's way.


"Okay ... Andrew's not from my world, but Lucifer is. From what we can put together, around five years ago, he took over a mutual friend--Sam. And possessed his body." Her tone is carefully devoid of emotion, a tightrope she finds familiar. "Andrew went looking for Sam, got kidnapped, and for some reason--I really don't know why--instead of killing him, Lucifer decided to brainwash him into becoming his servant."

Ava rubs her temple with one hand.

"He's been gone for four years."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix's eyes narrow, then widen as Ava continues.

"This angel has had him in his power for four years?"

[hadyougoing]

"Unless he escaped for part of it, yeah." Her frown deepens. "Which maybe he did. But he hasn't mentioned anything like that."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix shakes her head.

"If he's as . . . devoted, as you and Matt say, perhaps he wouldn't mention an escape. He might think of it as a betrayal."

[hadyougoing]

"Hell, he thinks just staying here is a betrayal, even though he doesn't have a choice. And there's more."

Ava pauses.

"Demonic possession is hard on a person. Most people it happens to die if they don't get exorcised fast enough. And Lucifer's an angel, I guess, and Sam did have--really strong psychic powers. But ...

Lucifer's been inside him for years. Most humans die from possession much, much faster than that. And Andrew ... is convinced that Sam's still alive."

(Her voice quavers slightly on the last three words. So slightly it's easy to miss.)

[gothamsheiress]

Brix is pretty well-trained. But if she catches the quaver, she doesn't react.

"Andrew himself hasn't been possessed, is that correct?"

[hadyougoing]

She shakes her head.

"I'd know. Identifying demons is my specialty."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix nods.

"Why would he think Sam might still be alive? It sounds impossible."

[hadyougoing]

"Because he loves him."

Ava looks up at her, expression brittle now.

"And Andrew is really good at believing the best about people he loves. That's my theory."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix sighs.

"In Terre D'Ange, we live by the precept 'Love as Thou Wilt.' And love can be a strength, but -- our greatest strengths often hold their own undoings."

[hadyougoing]

"Love is all you need," Ava mutters ruefully.

What terrible advice.

[gothamsheiress]

"It would be a fine thing if that were true," neutral.

"How is Andrew now? How long as he been here?"

[hadyougoing]

"It's been a couple days." Ava shrugs. "He's eating, but he hasn't asked for anything that I know of. Which is ... sort of noteworthy, because there's not a lot to do in there."

A pause.

"And he wanted to sleep somewhere else."

[gothamsheiress]

"Somewhere else?"