December 24th, 7:20 pm
Somehow, even after the early morning, and the grueling week, and the 14 hour flight, and the large meal, Athena still couldn’t immediately sleep. Not like her roommate Ema, who had had a couple of drinks while they were all at dinner, and was currently snoring half-dressed in their shared bed.
Athena was happy for her for managing to get a little sleep, especially with how loud she’d started to get in both voice and emotion the more drinks she tipped back. The detective was a good friend, after all, if, admittedly, kind of a lot to emotionally deal with.
But where Ema had the good fortune to fall asleep, Athena lay in her pajamas, staring at the ceiling with a blank look that wasn’t quite a frown, unable to drift anywhere close to sleep as she replayed the conversation with the Phantom over and over again in her mind’s eye.
Her emotions stayed soft, barely a whisper to even herself, and the memory looped for the dozenth time back to the chaos of the dinner.
“You seemed a bit out of it at dinner– don’t worry, I don’t think anyone else noticed.”
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been laying there when her phone vibrated and buzzed.
Turning her head dully towards the sudden flare of light and vibration, she blinked slowly as the world drifted back out of focus.
Her attention snapped back to reality with enough wherewithal to grab her phone and slide out of bed on numb-feeling legs to answer it with a hushed, “hello?”
“Cykes-dono. I’m sorry if I woke you. Can you come to our room?”
“I’m not asleep…” She stretched and glanced at the drawers in her room with a blink before she simply threw on her shoes and opened the door in her pajamas “I’ll be right over, alright?”
Getting dressed beyond the Moon and Rabbit tank top and matching star-themed sleep pants was far, far beyond her current state of being– Simon would just have to deal with it.
At least she didn’t have far to go– little chance of being caught in her pajamas as she crossed the hall.
She only realized when she was practically to the door that she hadn’t hung up the phone, and was just leaving it on, in an awkward, shuffling silence.
She knocked anyway, phone still held to her ear.
“Come in,” she heard– both through the door and the telephone.
“Mmrf..” she murmured as she pushed the door open, phone still on her ear.
The scene she walked in on was yet another distraction from remembering to hang up. Probably the last thing she expected to see. Simon and ‘Halblicht’ were half naked in the hotel bed, handcuffed together.
“Uhm…” Athena stammered, as her senses returned to planet earth, and her mind caught up with what was happening. She flushed a scarlet red, lips twitching in a shaky smile as she said…into the still active phone “Am…”
“I mean, you called for me, right? Am I i-interrupting something, guys? If you two want some private time I can come back in an hour…m-maybe get some ice from the ice machine?”
“Never mind the ice, Athena,” Simon snapped. He pointed at Halblicht. “This man desperately needs therapy.”
Halblicht gave her the world’s most embarrassed and hesitant little wave.
Athena covered her flushing face, before waving back at Halblicht. She finally regained the presence of mind to hang up the phone.
This was surreal. In a room with Simon Blackquill and the man she’d known as both her mother’s killer and ‘Good ol’ Bobby Fulbright’…as they were chained together while topless.
And Simon was demanding therapy. “I mean, of course, Simon, But I think he needs a shirt first?” she laughed awkwardly “or is that part of the point?”
Simon grimaced and flushed brilliantly red. “Forgive me, I called you before considering the proprietary. We were supposed to be going to sleep. However, Halblicht here– or whoever he is– had a breakthrough.”
“I did say you should let me put on a shirt first,” Halblicht murmured, fidgeting with his hands.
Simon sighed. “Taka has the key, Athena. He should let you take it from him, so we can dress. And– lest you get the wrong idea– the cuffs are so that our friend here didn’t decide to go wandering while I was asleep.”
The mood of the room backed up Simon’s words– chiefly a mixture of embarrassment and irritation radiating off of Simon himself– though there was a little bit of worry from Halblicht.
Athena’s teasing , flustered grin gave way to a soft gasp. She couldn’t keep up the attempts to tease Simon like their courtroom banter…not when she could feel the truth of the matter in the room itself.
Something really was going on…
She hurried over to Taka to take the key with a gentle scritch under the chin, as the emotion drained from her face into a pensive frown.
Taka made a soft trilling noise at her, and nuzzled her hand. He let her slip the key off from around his neck.
“A breakthrough?” she asked.
“I don’t know if I’d say that,” Halbricht murmured.
“I’m saying it. You remember what you said to me earlier today, Athena? About Halblicht here’s mental landscape?”
She glanced sidelong over her shoulder as she pet Taka a moment more..
“…About the…ah, possible schism?”
The growing evidence for two distinct presences within one man. Dissociative Identity Disorder, or something similar I don’t yet understand.
“….”
She tossed them the key, letting it land on the bed. “Are you saying he’s confirmed it?”
“He did. And he swears it’s the truth.” Simon nodded. He caught the key out of the air, and unlocked Halbricht’s cuff. The other man immediately went over to where his clothes were folded and grabbed his shirt, starting to put it on.
Athena fussed with Widget, flicking him on and looking for a place to sit.
“Robert?” She asked him as he started to dress “You don’t mind me being here, do you? I’m hoping maybe we can talk through this together.”
“Pull up the chair, Athena. Or sit with me on the bed.” Simon was stubbornly sitting in his undershirt and boxers– technically decent, but still.
Hablicht put his pants back on, and looked over his shoulder at Athena.
“I’m afraid I’m not being given much choice in the matter, Ms. Cykes.”
Athena took a seat on the bed, and brought up Widget’s AR display with a low yawn.
“Sorry, Robert…” She said with a gentle smile, “It’s for the best, to help us understand one another…like earlier, yeah?”
“I suppose so,” he nodded. “I’m preparing myself.”
Simon crossed his arms. “He mentioned something about his training. And when I asked a follow up question, he said it was difficult, because ‘the phantom’ didn’t want to talk about it.”
Athena watched the reactions on the mood matrix, her eyes half closed as she hovered her finger over one of the folders off to the side.
“The phantom doesn’t want to talk about the training? No surprises…from the little I’ve heard from Interpol’s interviews and our talks, it sounds like it was beyond traumatic.” She tapped the folder “…who do I have the pleasure of speaking with right now? ‘The Phantom’ , or someone else?”
“‘The Phantom’ is something you’ve all been calling me,” he murmured. Once he was dressed, he sat down on the chair by the desk. “I’ve never gone by it.”
Athena nodded.
“That makes sense. It’s the name the prosecutorial office gave you during their investigation.” Her eyes lingered on the screen, before she looked up at him. “What would you like to go by? I want to make you comfortable.”
He shrugged. “Since yesterday I’ve been going by ‘Robert’. I suppose that’s fine enough.”
“What about before yesterday?” Simon asked, narrowing his eyes.
‘Robert’ shrugged again. “I didn’t go by anything.”
“Robert.” Athena made a note on Widget. “Alright Robert..” She bit her lip “you weren’t given a name, then? Or you didn’t associate with one?”
“I wasn’t given one.”
So far, widget wasn’t registering any emotional data, which confirmed Athena’s own sense. The only thing she was getting at the moment was Simon’s confused wave of emotions.
“By the organization that sent you?” she asked with a pensive hum. “…part of your training?”
“Yes.”
She felt another wash of emotion from Simon, as he asked, “When did you start training with that organization?”
“I don’t know. As long as I can remember.”
Athena took a soft intake of breath. “…they raised you since you could remember…with the intention to make you an espionage agent? Am I correct?”
There was a pause, and Athena saw his posture stiffen further.
“That’s correct,” he said, dully. Suddenly, he moved again, rubbing his arms, and then his face. His expression changed from vacant, to rather nervously apologetic. “Sorry… like I said, it’s um, he doesn’t want to talk about it… it’s hard for him.”
The mood matrix started pinging. Anxiousness, sadness, and even a little ping of happiness.
“Ah! …this is exactly what I’ve been tracking,” she whispered softly, before looking up to meet his eyes. “…Bobby? Or do you prefer to go by something else?”
She bit her lip thoughtfully, tapping her finger on the ‘happiness’ “I can’t blame Robert for not wanting to talk about it. It’s hard to remember a difficult past…and to let yourself feel vulnerable sharing with someone.”
“I like Bobby,” he said, fidgeting with his hands in his lap. “Bobby’s my name. I can’t blame him either, though. It’s not like he wanted to share it with me.”
Athena watched Simon tense in bed, and she could sense the confusion, and sadness coming off of him. He looked like he was going to interject something for a moment, but just watched.
“But I imagine you didn’t have much of a choice…” Athena’s eyes were wide, the sleepy dissociation knocked right out of her as she traced shaky notes on the screen.
She’d had the theory, but to hear it confirmed was another thing entirely…to hear the clear switch in voice and tone…and the sudden influx of familiar emotions.
“B-Bobby Fulbright, right?” she said with a nervous smile
“That man is dead,” he said, pushing up his glasses, his mouth drawn in an exaggerated frown. Then he smiled again bashfully. “Isn’t that what they always say in thriller movies? Um, it’s probably uncomfortable for you to call me Bobby Fulbright. I get it.”
“You ‘get it’,” Simon murmured icily. He closed his mouth, and kept his arms crossed tightly. He looked like a cat who didn’t know whether it wanted to pounce, or hide.
Athena chewed her lip.
“It’s hard.” she admitted in a shaking voice. “Because I look into your eyes and I see someone I liked. A friend, a good friend even, and I hear your voice and your mannerisms, which haven’t changed.”
She traced her finger through the screen, over the emotional nodes.
“Calling you Bobby Fulbright is hard, when we remember all you both took from us.” Her fingers tapped against thin air, the screen relaying the soft sound of tapping where it lit up. “But it’s who you are, between you and him, right? There’s Bobby and there’s Robert in there…two separate people trying to share an existence…right? When did you arrive, Bobby?”
“Since last year,” he explained, still fidgeting with his hands. “When he killed me. Though, I don’t think I was really aware of it at the time. Except in hindsight, if that makes sense?”
Simon’s posture shifted on the bed. It was the only outward expression of the turmoil that Athena could feel like a knife.
The mood matrix, however, held steady in its reading on ‘Bobby’. Anxiety, with a strong undercurrent ping of sadness now, talking about his death.
“Hhh…” she took a deep breath. “…So you’ve been with Robert since he killed you and took on your identity. So you were present during…not during my mother’s death but in the leadup to last week’s case?”
It wasn’t even a week…it was still a mere few days.
The anxiety and sorrow on the machine started pinging even higher.
Bobby twisted his hands together and nodded quickly and uncomfortably.
“Yes, Ms. Cykes. I was there this past week… I’m not– I couldn’t…I couldn’t stop him.” He looked at the ground, away from her. “I tried.”
Her voice hitched with sympathetic feedback. The sorrow joined her own from the bad memories, mingling into that foreign, dissociative sensation of someone else’s feelings joining with hers.
“I believe that you did,” she said in a quiet tone. “T-tell me more about your situation, please.”
“I’m not sure what to say,” he murmured, shifting in his seat. A moment later, the twisted up expression in his face smoothed, and he adjusted his glasses. “It’s been unusual. I’ve never had this happen before, where an identity I borrowed took on a mind of his own.”
“Never? I’d say ‘because you never kept it so long’ but it sounds like Bobby was …immediate.”
“On reflection it seems like it was immediate,” he said. “I didn’t recognize it at the time but it was very easy to step into character as Fulbright. It wasn’t a conscious action so much as… letting go of action instead.”
“An unconscious switch.” Athena made note with a soft hum, pushing her own feelings down, down into the dark. “When did you become more…aware…of Bobby as an independent entity?”
“A couple of months in,” he said, after thinking about it for a moment. “Maybe nine or ten months ago, once I’d fully established cover and started working towards future goals. Bobby… started objecting. I started hearing him yell at me about it.”
“Hah!” Simon laughed out loud. “So you made up your own conscience, did you?”
Athena quickly glanced up to gauge Robert’s expression, biting her lip as Simon’s laugh rang in the air.
“Hm…nine or ten months ago…” she closed her eyes “w-what was the first thing he objected to?”
Robert’s lips pulled slightly as Simon laughed, and there was a very subtle flutter of both annoyance and sorrow on the mood matrix.
“I can’t recall specifically. Probably when I was going through classified files I wasn’t supposed to access, or something like that.”
“That makes sense.” Athena nodded with a tired smile. Her eyes flicked to Simon, hoping that he’d go along with her as she continued “Robert…I believe you. I think that there’s something of Mr. Fulbright…a cognitive echo or something within you. And while you struggle with feeling emotions, it’s clear that his emotions are as active as ever. Working together could be very healing if we’re careful.”
He put his hands together and smiled shyly– Bobby again, as the chart lit up with nerves. “That’s what I’ve been telling him, Ms. Cykes, but he doesn’t really want to cooperate. The worst part is trying to convince him that there’s anything wrong.”
Simon snorted a laugh. “So the Phantom thinks he’s fine, meanwhile you, Bobby, have been trying to play feelings coach inside his head? This really is madness. It’s hilarious. It’s very… well, it’s very Bobby Fulbright.”
There was a derisive edge to his tone, but Athena could tell that in his way, Simon meant it.
Bobby adjusted his glasses sheepishly. “I suppose so, yes.”
Athena nodded slowly.
“Very, very Bobby Fulbright.” She brushed her long hair out of her face, dark circles under her eyes as she kept her smile going despite the confusing interplay of ambient nerves and her own heart. “I know he thinks there’s nothing wrong, it’s how he was raised. But I…but…” she stammered over her words, faltering quietly.
Bobby bit his lip. “Ms. Cykes… it’s been a long day. Should we continue this tomorrow? Ah, after the investigation, I guess? I know this is your job, and you want to help but…”
“Trying to avoid the issue, Half Bright?” Simon drawled.
There was a confused, rapidfire ping of emotions on the mood matrix as Bobby looked over at Simon. “No, sir. Absolutely not. But Ms. Cykes has been wiped out since dinner…”
Simon frowned, and gave Athena a searching look. “You’re not wrong.”
Athena grit her teeth, her fingers tensing against the bedsheet as she held up her hand with a bright and fabricated smile.
“I’m fine. I’m just trying to word my request, don’t worry about me guys. Promise!”
She laughed gently, brushing her hair over her ear as she leaned in “I know how difficult emotions can be to deal with when they don’t come naturally. Tell him that. And tell him t-that it could be helpful…for the two of you to share. For you to help ease him into understanding them better.”
Her eyes flicked down, not wanting to make eye contact while she forced herself to speak.
“He hears you, Ms. Cykes. I’ll do my best to make sure he understands. I think somewhere deep down, he probably appreciates your consideration.”
Athena nodded slowly.
“I’m glad…I’m glad he appreciates it, Bobby, in his way. I hope he listens.”
Simon’s mouth formed a hard line. “I hate to say this, Athena, I’m compelled to agree with him in this specific instance. You need rest.”
She rubbed her hands against her sleep pants as she bit her lip “I’m not tired..”she tried to protest “…but I don’t think I’ll be able to convince you of that.”
Simon crossed his arms tightly again. “Cykes-dono, there have been many surprising things revealed over the last week, but you not being tired after a 14 hour flight and a day that started before 4 am in another timezone stretches credulity to the breaking point.”
She looked up . “I…I’m fine, yeah?” she flashed her brightest smile “I mean, I’m used to jet lag, Simon. Geeze. You need to get better at it if you think a 14 hour flight is that bad!”
“I suppose I do,” he murmured. “Well– I can’t force you to stop here and take care of yourself any more than I could do that in the courtroom it seems. So if you want to stay all night, Cykes-dono, be my guest. But at some point I, humble creature that I am, will have to submit to sleep.”
“Sorry if we’re keeping you awake, Simon,” Bobby looked up at him apologetically.
Athena bit her lip, her eyes flicking down as the ‘I’m fine’ smile flitted from her face.
“Sorry Simon…” she echoed. “It’s been a long day, huh? I’m just…I’m just feeling a little off. I like Ema, a lot…but she wasn’t exactly lulling me to sleep.”
Simon waved his hand magnanimously. “It’s fine, Athena. I’m the one who called you in here, and it seems to just as well I did.”
“I’m glad you did…we made progress. Y-you don’t mind if I stay for a bit?” She rubbed her neck “I think I’d just wind up staring at shadows in my room, after all..”
“Stay all night if you want,” Simon shrugged. “If anyone suggests something untoward or inappropriate might have happened, they’ll pay the price.”
Athena clapped her hands together with a little sniff and a bow. “T-Thank you Simon, thank you…”
The truth was, she felt safe here.
She was far from home, on the tail end of the worst week of her entire life. She was tired, exhausted, falling apart…and while Ema was a dear and cared for friend, she needed something familiar to ground her.
What was more familiar than Simon Blackquill…the man she pushed herself to grow and smile for in the courtroom of her nightmares. What was more familiar than, if she forced the memories of the last few days into a box, Bobby Fulbright the detective..?
At least, if she forced herself not to think about it, complications and all, till morning, she could almost feel like herself again. At least enough to sleep.
“You don’t mind?” She asked Halblicht.
“I don’t see why I would, Ms. Athena,” Bobby said with a little smile at her and a shrug. “It’s not like we’re waiting for you to leave the room to throw a party or something. I kind of feel like it would be the opposite.”
She watched him glance over at Simon and away, and Athena felt Bobby’s little spike of sorrow and anxiety.
Athena bit her lip..logging it away in the increasing evidence that there was more here than she was supposed to know, but was starting to understand.
“I get it…Alright.” She clapped her hands together. “Looks like we’re having a sleepover, guys.”