Voicemail (IC Contact Post) NEW

[abrightboy]

This is Bright. Leave a message.

Comments

[abrightboy]

He wants me to provide counselling to the main pack in LA when Will and I leave here. He thinks I can really help them curb their violent impulses. He said we can live in a beach house when we’re in LA!

[conning]

[A silence on Neal's end. He's softened substantially on Will, but Lark? No. And he won't. He also can't say he's enthralled with the idea of Malcolm being on his own with Will and tasked with curbing an entire group's violent impulses.]

You want to do that? You and Will?

[abrightboy]

Well, I think we have to talk about some of the details still. We want to spend time traveling the multiverse and visiting our friends too. Can we come see you, wherever you decide to settle? You could come with us for a trip sometime!

[conning]

I would love to see you. [It's soft and sincere and warm in spite of the scratchiness in his voice.] But has Lark given any indication of what resources he has to help you with this project? What psychological support you'll have? And 'I'll have Will' is not an acceptable answer, for the record. Have you thought about what it might mean for him to be in the middle of a group that sounds like it treats violence as personal currency?

[abrightboy]

[Neal is Safe, so when Neal brings up a grave concern about this, Malcolm sobers.]

…You think they’ll hurt Will? But. He’s part of the pack.

[conning]

Physically, no. [A pause, as he redirects Malcolm to the other grave concerns he has.] Has Lark said anything about what kind of team you'll be working with to help them? How the pack dynamics might influence their willingness to open up to you? What kind of support you'll have when you need to decompress?

[abrightboy]

Um… [Okay, he doesn’t know the first two… and he can’t say Will for the last one…..]

…We’ll have a beach house? So I guess our own space with privacy and a view for decompressing? I don’t know the other stuff yet; we haven’t really got into depth about it. But it would just be for the pack. Pack members.

[conning]

Yes. [His voice is gentle, with an undercurrent of concern.] He wants you to be emotionally responsible for his pack. His pack. What's his part in their... counseling process? How is he going to reinforce what you try to help them with?

[He catches himself and takes a deep breath.]

I'm not going to try and manipulate you here, Malcolm, even unintentionally. I don't like Lark. I actually dislike him, a lot, and I don't see that changing, particularly not if he's enticed you to come to LA to bear the brunt of responsibility for changing the culture of the people he leads.

[abrightboy]

Well, he… chose me. He says their violent impulses are rooted in trauma, so he thinks I can help them.

[conning]

[But have you ever asked if that's why he chose you?

Neal isn't ready to deal the emotional blow of that question yet. He doesn't want to tarnish the prize Malcolm has made of that choice. But he can't shake the idea that Lark saw Malcolm's specialties, saw his vulnerabilities, and decided to use both.]

But Malcolm, that's my point. He chose you--but what's the plan? Is it "come with me and fix them," because if it is, that's not a plan, that's a reassignment of responsibility.

[abrightboy]

Well, I don’t know the whole plan yet, but it’s quite a while before Will and I are going anywhere. I’ll try and find out more details.

What happened between you and Lark?

[conning]

[Neal considers the question.]

I didn't like his attitudes on the network, and the first time I actually remember speaking to him was when he tried to use my... drawing attention to Dorian to further his own apparent grudge. He's insincere, manipulative--

[A pause.] He wooed you, changed you, and then left you, and apparently didn't come back on his hands and knees with a full-stop apology regardless of whether or not leaving was his fault. He's not a leader, he's a control freak.

[His voice gets slightly more militant near the end of that, and he stops to take a moment and gather himself.]

Honestly, Malcolm... he reminds me of Vincent Adler.

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm considers all of that, then settles on one question to start.]

...The guy that killed Kate?

[conning]

[It's a strange knife-twist that he still has a hard time believing has been corrected. Even after he went home. Even after he pulled strings and followed rumors until he got to see her from across a crowded piazza in a small Italian down southeast of Rome. He left without talking to her, but he saw her, alive.]

Yes. Among other things.

[abrightboy]

You saved her. [He’s pleased about it. Proud. He could have had anything for himself.]

[conning]

We did. [A soft correction. He couldn't have done it without Malcolm's first deal.] That isn't the point, Malcolm. As a hedge fund manager Adler still managed to be a few steps shy of cult leadership. Not because he was a good boss. Because he knew how to use people.

[abrightboy]

…You think the pack is a cult?

[conning]

No. I don't know. I don't think so, but I don't know anything about them. I'm worried that he leads them like they are.

[abrightboy]

But you’re worried he’s going to discard me when he’s done with me and I’m not really chosen?

[conning]

I don't know that he'd discard you. I worry he'll be possessive and controlling, definitely. I don't think he's necessarily--I think when he looks at people he sees utility first, before personhood.

[abrightboy]

…Oh. But. Why? Why do you think that, I mean.

[conning]

[Neal can't put his finger on it.]

Instinct? I'm sorry, Malcolm, I don't know, except that I've known people like him. Or at least like the person he presents, and I've had no reason to change my opinion based on his--well, on anything.

[abrightboy]

I’ll… try to be careful.

[conning]

And remember that you don't owe him shit. [His voice is quiet but absolute.] He made you promises, changed you, left you, then strolled back in and...

[A brief silence.]

I learned the hard way that someone being good to you once doesn't mean they always will be. And if they try to make you feel guilty over what they gave you freely? Turn around and walk away.

[abrightboy]

Okay. Thank you, Neal.