forgodssake | ic inbox } ataraxion.

I had rather take his hand than take his sword. I have to hope that--

Already I see reason to go on hoping. You saw-- his Starks. Humans! Mortal men, and it was his hand that reached out to them. My brother.

( somehow, she sounds so terribly, terribly sad. )

I don't know them, you know. I'd spoken only to Robb, before that day. But my brother nursed a hatred in his heart that quickened his sword and spilled our father's blood, a hatred he would have unleashed in the form of an end of days such as your kind cannot imagine--

And he took my hand and offered ours both in friendship.

( it's like a talisman, his kindness to the starks. )

Good.

[ And he sounds glad, but it's also good that she's not a psychic by way of telephone. Somewhere, Charles massages fingertips on either side of the bridge of his nose. He has his irritating science reasons to believe that none of this--

Well.

None of this matters, very much. But...

Hope and faith, Erik had said. ]

To know him capable, anyway. I suppose I just sort of find all of this a little-- exacerbating. Fear is a poison, you know. Like hatred.

If all I take from this is to know that-- I will go back to my grave with peace I did not have.

But perhaps it's my ego, as much as anything else. Perhaps I had rather think of such things than think myself dragged forth from that end to play the puppet in an awful game.

--I don't think your acts on the bridge were wasted, you know. The young man who spoke of games and patterns, I think he approaches it wisely.

Mm.

[ This is warm agreement. Perspective. He can't fault her on that much and, indeed, does not. On the rest, he is reticent. Recent arguments still chafe. He redirects back to her. ]

And what about his approach do you like?

I'm not so arrogant as to think that which I don't understand can't be understood. He makes a clever point-- we have not seen all that we have been shown. And Severus - you know him, he says - Severus reminds me that even such failures speak to an indomitable spirit that is in itself a most valuable thing.

[ Another exhale, rustling the audio sensors that transmit these little nuances down this blind transmission. This one reads as slightly surprised. Pleased. ]

Well. That's good of you -- and Severus -- to say. [ A smile enters his tone; ] And I happen to agree.

It was Smiley that opened the doors, in the end. Lots of opinions floating around about that. And it.

I reserve my own, for now. What do you make of it?

That it's manipulative, and deliberately coercive, and has set up a relationship, or a system, of implicit trust. Situations where the alternative is death, and so it fears no resistance. The bridge was resistance, and look what it did. It became our saviour, just like that. Even Petrelli thinks so.

Some of those that have existed here longer, they do as it tells them to do. Witness what happened with engineering.

This Petrelli has been here for sometime, hasn't he? Does he share that trust that we have seen?

( he said 'even'. she is interested. )

I think so, in his way. He's thought about it, all of it, a great deal. But we're all susceptible to conditioning, after a time. Rationalisation sets in.

[ Even had been, perhaps, disappointment. ]

I know it.

I will be interested to take any opportunity I might to speak with him. His perspective seems a valuable one, for all that one must remember what it is.

( one man's perspective. )

You ought to. I consider him a friend.

[ Near enough, anyway, as far as the Tranquility permits. Charles Xavier and friendship, how does that go? ]

He certainly isn't everyone's.

I will take your opinion over that of a mob, as I consider you a friend. Though I have seen it-- I was...troubled, I think, by Mr Edgeworth's response to him in this latest chaos. I can't think we're served by that sowing of discord, to see misdeeds in every act.

That one's got his head up his own arse, pardon the expression. But I've never seen anyone so singularly minded in character assassination. If it was better timed, I'd lend it more credence, but for goodness sake.

[ He sounds so fussily annoyed, removed of dire horrors, as if they were talking about the nerve of some colleague over the watercooler. ]

Sorry, Princess. I've seen Petrelli's mind, so I suppose I feel as though I know better, but in all fairness, I've not met Edgeworth.

I do hesitate to dismiss him out of hand, but to call it poorly timed and misdirected is--! He served his cause poorly by handing Mr Petrelli such a simple victory. The only injured party was, I fear, his damaged credibility.

( nathan petrelli is a politician; so is princess nuala, as her assessment of that embarrassingly public outburst indicates. presumably not news to charles, of coure. )

But perhaps I underestimate Mr Petrelli's detractors. Or overestimate them.

It would be nicer still if it didn't matter. We're all in this together, and we're all responsible for our own decisions.

A mutiny effects us all, of course, or could have, but no one presented much in the way of alternative, other than to stop. Regardless, we won't be trying that again any time soon.

I have heard, and indeed given voice to, many criticisms leveled at those of us who cut our teeth on the intrigue of rule. I doubt that your Mr Petrelli is any more immune to those failings than I myself, and I don't pretend to be-- but he wore the strength of his convictions in his own strong right arm, and he asked nothing of any of you that he was unwilling to commit his own life to. It's as important a context as your own agency.

Still-- of course. But I'm glad that you did try. I believe we will see it bear fruit in time.

[ Another pause, the kind that's probably meant to be filled with a smile, had they been talking face to face. ]

Petrelli aside, your faith means a lot to me, you should know. I'm glad to have shared in it.

I have great stores of it that I mean to put at your disposal whenever needful.

[ Laughing; ] Then I'll find excuses to make use of it frequently.

ic inbox } ataraxion.

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