(no subject)

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

A late night conversation between Alison and MacInnis, about the emails he has been sending Nathan but that somehow always seem to end up in Alison's inbox instead. Among other things.



Simonides: Good evening, Ms. Blaire.

Songbird: Good evening to you as well, Mr. MacInnis.

Simonides: I figured I'd use the IM name you'd recognize. Makes things a little simpler.

Songbird. Well. There's that, and the fact that not many people use quite that level of encryption when IMing me...

Simonides: True enough.
Simonides: So. Do you feel like telling me why my emails to Nathan appear to be landing in your inbox? Or should I just guess?

Songbird: Guessing is such a hazardous proposition these days, wouldn't you say? 

Simonides: Let's say we've sparred enough and get down to business, shall we?
Simonides: You've been mighty persistent.

Songbird: My parents always were confused by how stubborn I could get. And simply put - Nathan doesn't want to talk to you at the moment.

Simonides: May I ask why?

Songbird: So polite. Of course you can. Let's just say it took me a while to put it all together, but once I did, well... I expect the word "son" will ring a bell. Or maybe several, at that.

Simonides: Ah. You're an observant woman, Ms. Blaire.
Simonides: To be honest, I wasn't sure the trigger was still working. The death-threats that seemed to come out of his mouth every time I tried were a little off-putting.

Songbird: Funny. That was what set me to wondering. Perceptions are an interesting thing, aren't they? And considering what a half-assed job whoever put it in there did, you're lucky it didn't turn itself inside out. You'd have ended up very dead if it had.

Simonides: It wasn't Kritzer, if that's what you're wondering. I asked one of the members of her team to implant a few things back in May just in case the Trojan Horse didn't work as I then thought it was supposed to.

Songbird: A few things.

Simonides: Yes, Ms. Blaire. A few things.

Songbird: The Professor already has safeguards in place. There are no more triggers for you to reach. But it would go a long way as a gesture of good faith on your part if those 'few things' were explained.

Simonides: Nothing on the level of what was there originally. The one you figured out was meant to make him more pliable when I was talking to him. More eager to do what I suggested.

Songbird: It was a basic command input sequence. Clumsy at that. Anyone figuring it out could easily have suborned him away from you. All that was needed was a sample of your voice. You're telling me what I already know.

Simonides: We were in something of a rush back in May. Didn't figure we could keep him for very long before you all came looking.
Simonides: The others aren't complex. Gave his hatred for Mistra a bit of a boost, that sort of thing. There's one failsafe in there to render him unconscious if he ever got out of hand.

Songbird: Oh. Oh yes. That would be the one which might actually kill him given its less than ideal location. The Professor was unimpressed with that one. It was removed a few weeks ago.

Simonides: My telepath didn't have any idea what the Trojan Horse actually did. Kritzer kept that from the rest of her team.
Simonides: So Xavier's been removing them. Can't be easy on Nathan.

Songbird: Send in someone with incomplete knowledge to do a hack job? I see.

...you have such a talent for understatement.

Simonides: I don't expect you to believe this, but I nearly backed out of the whole thing in May.
Simonides: Saw enough kids go through conditioning... and he fought us so hard. The amount of drugs we had to give him just to keep him from ripping the place apart around us would have killed a non-mutant.

Songbird: Irrelevant. Fact is, you didn't. And you knew exactly what you were doing to him. And what finding out would do to him. You. Knew. And did it anyway.

Simonides: I decided the ends justified the means.

Songbird: And Nathan decided he didn't want to talk to you.

Simonides: Sensible decision on his part, I guess.

Songbird: On that we agree entirely. Minus the 'I guess' part.

Simonides: That still leaves the question of why he decided that you should be the one talking to me.
Simonides: I would have expected Wisdom.

Songbird: You've answered your own question. You do realize that, right?

Simonides: So Wisdom goes sniffing around the periphery and you take the full-frontal assault? Not a bad strategy.

Songbird: Guessing is dangerous. But we said that already, didn't we? I asked Nathan if I could speak to you. He wanted to block you out entirely. And permanently.

Simonides: Ah.
Simonides: And what is our correspondence supposed to accomplish?

Songbird: It's very simple. You already said so yourself - you need something I have. Very much so. The next time, you will ask. No manipulations, no games. You will simply ask. Have a good evening, Mr. MacInnis. Sleep well.


*** Songbird signed off Monday December 13th, 23:46, 2004.