IC Inbox - Deerington

[mypartnerintime]

Max Caulfield! Leave a message after the beep... Beeeep.

Comments

[tagartist]

I don't know. No. It's -- ... It'd be pretty hypocritical, I guess.

[mypartnerintime]

Speaking of which. You better promise that you'll be careful, too.

[And not talk to Reaper.]

[tagartist]

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

... It's gonna sound fucked and overconfident, but I don't think he's gonna kill me again.

[mypartnerintime]

[You can practically hear the raised eyebrow over the phone.]

Really? That's... good but oddly insightful.

[tagartist]

I dunno. I'm not gonna play around with it, I promise. He said he did it for info. And I thought I was gonna get pissed and hang up on him, but it was... different.

[mypartnerintime]

Wait a second. You weren't pissed?

[tagartist]

I tried to wait until I calmed down so I wouldn't lose my shit and end up in the same place. I mean, I yelled for a little bit, and I called him an asshole, but we just kinda... talked.

I told you, it's weird.

[mypartnerintime]

Weird is an understatement.

[Unless it's all a trick on Reaper's end.]

What did you talk about? And what're you thinking about the whole thing.

[tagartist]

[ She'd thought of that. More than once. But maybe she's still stupid enough to have hope. ]

Dying. [ ... Duh. ] I mean, like - more than once. I guess he figured it out from some shit I yelled and asked me how many times it had been.

[mypartnerintime]

[She's quiet on the other end, unsure of how to react. It's a sensitive issue. And Chloe has every right to talk about it. Talking about it is supposed to help.

But with Reaper of all people?]

What did you tell him...?

[tagartist]

[ She can probably almost hear the shrug on the other end. She should probably give a verbal answer, huh?

Her voice is a little quieter when she answers. ] A complicated nine.

[mypartnerintime]

[...That's too many. Even with the two here in Deerington, and the huge alternate timelines... and...

No, but she's not going to talk about the big one. She won't.]

Chloe, that's-... You... You shouldn't count the ones that didn't actually happen.

[tagartist]

Define "didn't actually happen" for me, Max.

[mypartnerintime]

...

[She doesn't know what to say to that. It's upsetting.]

[tagartist]

That's what I thought.