draftware

the confrontation

the confrontation

"Hey, Craggy, c'mon. You alright?"

"Ｉ'ｍ... Ｉ'ｍ ｇｏｎｎａ ｂｅ ｌａｔｅ ｆｏｒ ｃｌａｓｓ..."

"Craggy, it's me, Suzy, get up."

She stirred, before slowly getting up onto one knee and staring at both Emmi and myself. "Ｉ'ｍ ｃｏｎｃｕｓｓｅｄ, Ｉ ｈａｖｅ ｔｏ ｂｅ," she responded.

"No, no, it's fine, I helped her out, Emmi's with us now."

"I'm really sorry about any harm," she said, "I don't know what came over me."

"Ｉ ａｃｃｅｐｔ ｔｈｅ ａｐｏｌｏｇｙ, ｂｕｔ Ｉ ｗｉｌｌ ｐｉｎ ｙｏｕ ｔｏ ｔｈｅ ｇｒｏｕｎｄ ｉｆ ｙｏｕ ｔｒｙ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈａｔ ａｇａｉｎ. "

"Got it," she said, removing the jacket to her Watcher uniform and tying it around her waist.

She cleans up pretty well. I'd... I'd probably clean up just as well. "Ｗｈｅｒｅ'ｓ Ｆｌｕｘ?"

"Oh, um..." I said, picking up the little silver heart off the ground.

The top popped open, and a small character peeked out into the world. "Ｗｈｅｒｅ'ｓ ｔｈｅ ｒｅｓｔ?"

"It, um... liquefied. Sorry, I'm so sorry about that, I--"

Craggy took the heart, and began to trudge towards a water fountain along the wall. She sat the heart in the basin and held the button, and eventually water began to gel up around the heart. Within just a minute, Flux was fully-formed again, this time taking on a bit of a blue tone. "ᕼEY, I'ᗰ ᗷᗩᑕK!"

"Ｃｏｕｌｄｎ'ｔ ｄｏ ｔｈｉｓ ｗｉｔｈｏｕｔ ｙｏｕ, Ｆｌｕｘ. "

"But wait," Emmi said, "water isn't blue."

"I GᑌEᔕᔕ TᕼE EᒪEᑕTᖇIᑕITY Iᔕ ᗪOIᑎG TᕼᗩT, TᕼEᑎ."

I'm not sure if that's actually how electricity works, though. Craggy stepped outside to look for Scriff, who had been hiding in a trash can outside the library, and after a very quick regroup we were back in order. There was just one thing left to do.

"Hey James, Simon, Richard, get up. You guys alright?" I asked.

Richard stirred and looked me dead in the eyes. "Um... wh—where am I?"

"We're at the library, the Watchers seem to be somewhere around here, we just got done dealing with a couple of them, and we're about to take this right to Amark and Rakonto, if at all possible."

"Uh... right... those are..." he said before wincing, "those are words, alright..."

"Wait, Richard, Simon... surely you remember? Being Retconologists, tracking down the Watchers?"

There was silence from the group as they glanced back and forth between each other looking for nonverbal clues for this conversation. "Uh, shoot... Flux, can you jump-start memories with your electricity?"

"I ᑕOᑌᒪᗪ GIᐯE IT ᗩ ᔕᕼOT, ᗷᑌT I'ᗰ ᑎOT TOO ᔕᑌᖇE..."

She walked up to Richard and touched his head. Her hand suddenly glowed blue, and he recoiled, crying out. "You remember anything now?" I asked.

"Yeah! I remember you tasing me! What was that about? What's going on here? This isn't Portland!"

"I don't think that worked," Scriff said, and I glanced at her for just half a second in cold acknowledgement.