Daycycle 122 [ January 15 - January 21]

[computerized]

daycycle 122

[Jan 15 - Jan 21]

[OOC Plotting for this Dacycle can be found here.]

Early, Early Morning [0200 - 0400]
At approximately 0200, several explosive devices planted in Technical Services by PURGE will detonate, damaging several memobanks. In a rush to prepare for the morning upload several Technicians will mistakenly put the wrong memories in the wrong banks. They will catch their mistake before the final upload, but as a result several memories will now be shared across different alpha citizens' consciousnesses. These memories will be experienced as dreams and characters will retain knowledge of them when they wake.

Memory Swap Pairs

• Adam Parrish - Derek Hale
• Zatanna Zatara - Oliver Queen
• Steve Rogers - Ronan Lynch
• Katniss Everdeen - Matt Murdock
• Morgana LeFey - Tony Stark
• Clint Barton - Allison Argent
• Isabelle Lightwood - Lydia Martin
• Buffy Summers - Barry Allen
• Emma Swan - Parker
• Cisco Ramon - Gracie Cannell
• Natasha Romanoff - Jack Harkness
• Primrose Everdeen - Alcide Herveaux

Room 1101 will be woken up at 1200 when a squadron of Internal Security Gray Ops come to arrest Bucky Barnes for treason. He will be led away at gun point and his roommates, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish and Oliver Queen will be immediately taken into IntSec for questioning. They will be questioned about the activities of their former roommate for several hours before being sedated and returned to their room before 0500. Bucky's roommates will not remember his arrest or their questioning when they wake, though they may feel the lingering active effects of the sedative for several hours into their day.

The memory of Bucky Barnes having ever been present in Alpha will be erased with varying degrees of success from all those he came into contact with.

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty

No Specials will be selected for a mission today.

---

Morning & Afternoon [0900 - 1600] — Service Firm Positions
All Troubleshooters not assigned a mission should report to their Service Firm for their daily duties.

At 0900 it will be discovered that the shooter from Steve Roger's assassination attempt has, ironically, been assassinated along with her guards in Armed Forces the night before. The letters mod will be left written in the shooter's blood along her cell wall.

---

Evening [1600 - 2200] — Citizen Improvement
All Alpha citizens are encouraged to better themselves through Alpha’s wide variety of educational, entertainment and cultural opportunities offered each evening. Attending these sanctioned events are not mandatory, but is highly encouraged by The Computer. Citizens choosing not to take advantage of these opportunities, have a growing number of other options available to them in how to spend their hard earned credits and free time.

Tonight’s event will be at 1900 in the Commissary and will be overseen by Clint Barton. Izzy Lightwood from Medical Services has been assigned to assist him in giving a demonstration on basic first aid and wound care.

---

Alpha Curfew Restrictions
All Alpha citizens should be in their quarters within the Wagon Wheel by 2200, unless they’ve been given permission from a GREEN or higher clearance level citizen. Sleeping Aid gas is dispelled each night in the Wagon Wheel at 2200 to assist citizens in getting a productive sleeping period.

Confession Booths
There are hundreds of confession booths available around Alpha Complex if a citizen would like to communicate directly with the computer. Please use these confession booths to report mission statuses, report treason or terrorist acts, unregistered mutants, confess your trespasses against Alpha Complex, request propaganda or speak with Your Friend, The Computer, at any time.

Comments

[duelo]

When the other man starts to get up, Derek's body jerks like he's going to follow him, but at the name, the other man sits back down and looks back at him. So that's a yes, Derek thinks, even before Adam responds. ...and that means it wasn't just a random dream with Derek's subconscious piecing together things from here and things from home to try to make sense of them. There's something more to it.

Derek tenses and takes in a sharp breath when Adam starts to mention his face in his dreams last night; jaw sets when he's nearly positive he knows the end of the sentence Adam doesn't let himself finish. "Not all predators are killers," he says quietly, frowning, and then a moment later, tacks on, "and I'm not a monster." Not anymore, anyway.

But now he realizes what's going on. Adam knows more about Derek than he should and Derek knows more about Adam than he should. Strangers forced to get to know one another without the other's permission; fed information they shouldn't have through their dreams.

"I dreamed about you last night, too. I thought it was something else; someone else." He's quiet for a moment. "I won't tell anybody about you if you don't tell anybody about me?" His eyes shift up from the table and the slop on his tray in front of him to the man across the table. "And I won't ask questions if you won't." Because it's none of his business what went on in Adam's life before this place and it sure as hell isn't any of Adam's business what went on in Derek's, they just didn't really have a choice in the matter.

[adamparrish]

Predators are always killers if given the right prey. It's just a matter of time. Adam has been prey too much in his life to believe what Derek just told him. To Adam it's almost laughable, except that Adam isn't the sort of boy who laughs all that often. He isn't the sort of boy to even smile all that often, or to let himself be happy. What's given can be taken away, even emotions.

What he saw in his dreams looked like a monster. There were flashes of images without any context to Derek's story, or to any story really, just images, disjointed and unclear. It was violent and bloody and also kind of sad. Derek was chained up a lot. Restrained. Why restrain someone who isn't dangerous?

"No one has their... whatever powers they had here." Meaning, that's why Derek isn't dangerous right now, at least to Adam. And even then, the anger he'd seen in Derek's eyes in those flashes in some places, Derek could probably still be dangerous. Adam's predator was a human, after all. Nothing spectacular about Robert Parrish.

The knowledge that Derek saw any of Adam's horrible messed up life back home, the knowledge that Derek knows how weak Adam has been and sometimes still is, it's upsetting. Especially if Derek is as scary as Adam saw. He nods at Derek and stands up again. "Deal." Best to just back slowly away and pretend it didn't happen. "I'm good at keeping secrets. Just don't come after me an Ronan. That's all." Because if that happens, all bets are off. Everyone will know about it. Adam will scream it from the mountaintops, so to speak. Self-preservation at its finest. That's one thing Adam is good at, self-preservation.

[duelo]

Derek frowns. "They're not powers, they're who I am. They're what I am," he says. Humans just don't get it, he thinks, and maybe that's fine, but he's already feeling vulnerable knowing that Adam's seen things he shouldn't have, and yet Derek hasn't the option of knowing which things he's seen. Clearly, the werewolf, but Derek's always been more comfortable in that form than in the fake human one he had to maintain to stay alive. That doesn't surprise him.

"What they took from me was what makes me who I am. It'd be like if they turned you into a monkey. That's what they did to me, they made me a weaker version of myself who can't protect himself or anyone he cares about, it's not just about power. It hasn't been for a long time."

Why that word in specific gets under Derek's skin is pretty specific to the fact that he'd been briefly an Alpha for all the wrong reasons, fucked it up and cost people their lives, and learned the hard way that it wasn't power that he wanted and it isn't power that he needs. He'd wanted a family again.

Shaking his head, Derek clears his throat. "I like Ronan," he replies simply. "And I don't know you. You don't hurt the people I care about, to my knowledge, so you're fine by me. So's he." Derek hates the idea that he has to trust this stranger, this skittish, human stranger who Derek can tell is afraid of what he saw whether he wants to admit it or not. It doesn't make Derek feel very confident that the whole goddamn Complex won't know sooner than later what he really is and the worst part is that he won't even have the benefit of the enhanced abilities that come with being a werewolf to protect him from the inevitable response of humans to the knowledge: they will hunt him. His whole life, he'd been hunted. Why should that change here?

Derek's eyes shift up and down over Adam's face. He inhales deeply through his nose by reflex but can't catch the scent because his human nose is worthless. "What did you see?" he finally asks. It's too much not knowing. Did he see Derek snapping Paige's neck? Slashing Peter's throat? Trying to kill Jennifer? Actually killing Boyd?

Did he see those things completely out of context the way Adam's memories were largely if not completely out of context for Derek? If so, it's no wonder he's uneasy. Without context, Derek does look like a monster and he knows it.

[adamparrish]

Of course Adam knows nothing about what he saw of Derek. Again, there weren't even really situations he could understand. Just jumpy flashes of images - and a lot of them, too many for him to make sense of outside of the startling image of Derek's shift from man to something else. Those red eyes and teeth and claws. Adam saw that loud and clear. But then he's been hard-wired to spot threats since he was kid. And then there was the image of Derek chained up - more than once, it looks like. At least he thinks that's what he saw.

For a moment Adam's features soften a bit, because he can understand something being so much a part of you that it's not a separate thing entirely. Cabeswater was taken from him after all, the one thing besides Ronan that protected Adam. But then Derek goes into another explanation that has Adam on edge again. If they took that beast from Derek, shouldn't that be a good thing? In the end, Adam doesn't do well with confrontation so he stays silent. Of course this is his fault. He started it by barreling in without thinking... which he usually wouldn't do except, he's been trying to be braver than he was. It was stupid, really, to initiate contact with someone who usually has sharp teeth and claws.

At mention of Ronan, Derek has Adam's attention. He never really meets his gaze because all of his bluster from before is deflating into 'holy crap what am I doing' and 'stranger danger'. But he pays attention, because it has to do with Ronan. Derek knows Ronan. Adam wonders if Ronan knows what Derek is. Does Adam even really know what he is? No. He wants to tell him to stay away from Ronan, but he isn't that brave in the moment.

He leans in and whispers after a glance around the room to see if anyone was close enough to hear him. No one is. "I saw you chained up. I saw your eyes glow red and there were fights and... your face. Maybe people were hunting you, I don't know. I couldn't tell. There were a lot of images, no words, really."

[duelo]

The silence is something Derek hasn't decided is either good or bad. It could be that he's quiet because Adam is being introspective and trying to see if there's anything in the dreams he had that would suggest Derek isn't, in fact, a monster. But Derek has no idea what all Adam saw, so for all Derek knows, the guy got a montage of all the things Derek regrets, because he thinks about them the most. If that's the case, then all that Adam probably saw was a parade of blood, death, and grief. Not good.

Adam leans forward and whispers and Derek's heart sinks. Red eyes. He's seen when Derek was an Alpha. It's, quite frankly, one of the lower points in Derek's life, if you ask Derek. He made some of his worst decisions that caused some of the most pain and loss during that time in his life. A hurt expression crosses his face only long enough for Derek to feel it there before he can straighten it into something more neutral.

"People have been hunting me my entire life," he whispers back. His eyes shift up to try to meet Adam's. "Literally, my whole life. When I was chained up...did you see who I was looking at? Was it a woman?" Was it Kate? "She's a human and a werewolf hunter. She killed my family, almost all of them. She lied to me, she told me she loved me, and I trusted her. And to pay me back for it, she made sure my whole family was in one place, because we locked ourselves up and chained up the kids who didn't have control of themselves on the wolf moon because it's the strongest pull. She waited until that moon and she set my house on fire. There were kids, human kids, in that house. But yeah. I have glowing eyes and fangs and claws; I'm the monster, right?"

Derek leans back and takes a deep breath, his stomach turning with the memory of what happened so many years ago when he was too busy thinking with his dick to realize that she'd set a trap and he'd stepped willingly into it. It makes him sick to think about to this day. But if Adam is going to sit across the table from Derek and think that he's a monster, then Derek is going to remind him that humans can be monsters, too. Adam should know. His father beat the shit out of him. Derek's ear still has a phantom ringing in it.

"I would appreciate it if this could remain between us. Even if I did have my abilities, I wouldn't hurt Ronan, or you. Like I said, I don't know you; I don't have any reason to. And Ronan, he's helping me learn to fight and protect myself without my normal strength and abilities. I'm not going to hurt somebody who's helping me, Adam, I might be a werewolf but I'm not an idiot."

[adamparrish]

Adam tends to think too much. He can overthink the most simplistic of things. Give him something like this, something with depth that unnerved him as much as it had and Adam is internalizing and analyzing everything from the most obvious to all the darker bits hidden in dark corners and crevices. He's actually kind of terrified right now, like he was when he first saw one of Ronan's Night Terror's until he realized that it was a dream thing and not all that dangerous to him unless Ronan wanted it to be, which he wouldn't.

He also knows he's very out of his league here. Adam would be the first to admit that he's not all that likable when it comes to people who don't know him. And he lets so few people know him, even back home. That's why he doesn't make new friends all that often. That's why he can be somewhat of a loner, even here. That's why he hides himself away. He'd also be the first to admit that if Derek were to turn on him, Adam wouldn't have much recourse. There's no Cabeswater here. Adam has only had a handful of lessons with Ronan in learning to defend himself. He doesn't have anything working in his favor here.

When Derek admits that he's been hunted, he thinks of the way people had hunted Ronan - the Greywaren. When Derek asks for specifics, Adam hesitates. "I..." He thinks back wishing he could take notes in his dreams so he could really remember and answer his questions. "Maybe. Yeah." Listening to the story of the woman though, Adam feels his stomach rolling with discomfort. The images he saw back up the story even if he hadn't quite understood all the flashing images in the moment. And yes, that's horrible. It's the rhetorical question at the end that makes him mad. "What was I supposed to think? I mean that's horrible, what happened. But don't act like I'm here with a pitchfork when all I wanted was answers."

There's another spike of fear here. Because Adam does not do confrontational. But he won't have Derek talking down to him either. He gets it. Derek was wronged in the worst way. But the fact that he misread flashes of images in his dreams doesn't make him stupid or a monster either. Adam's seen monsters. He's even looked in the mirror and worried he was the monster before. But in this, dreaming about Derek's memories, he is not.

"I wouldn't hurt you either." He adds, shaking his head and still staring intently at the top of the table, his head tilted just right so that his good ear is closer. "Not if you don't hurt Ronan and me... especially Ronan." Because truth be told, Adam think he can take a lot more hurt than Ronan can. Right or wrong, that's what he thinks.

Adam sits back down across from Derek, knowing now that Ronan is kind of friends with this guy. Really? Why hadn't Ronan mentioned it? Werewolves. Who would have thought? Adam has seen and experienced miraculous things, but he's never imagined what else might be possible out there. "He's helping me too. Does he know?"

[duelo]

Derek's frown deepens at Adam's response. "That question was rhetorical and not aimed at you, anyway," he replies with a sigh. "But that's the justification back home. Oh, they've got fangs, they're monsters, they don't deserve to live. We never hurt anybody. Back then, we went out of our way to make sure we never hurt anybody, but it didn't matter. So you can see why I'm antsy about people knowing, right? It's not about you, it's a general question that comes from a general lack of trust due to a general mistreatment of my kind. I'm sure what you saw makes me look like a monster. No doubt you got a highlight reel of all the things I regret in my life, knowing this place. Just...know that whatever you saw, it was out of context."

And context matters, but that part goes unsaid, because he doesn't mean or want to insult Adam's intelligence.

Adam's question has Derek shaking his head. "Not exactly," he admits. "He knows I'm not as strong as I am back home and that's kind of all he knows. I saw him when he was still doing the underground fighting, I thought he was a guy I knew back home. Only, he's got this tattoo Jackson didn't and he's a fighter. Jackson was a huge pussy," Derek says with a shrug. "I was curious. And then I got talking to him and thought maybe we could scratch each other's backs. He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut and pick his battles, and I don't know how to defend myself when I'm human." He shrugs again. "We didn't get into it a whole lot deeper than that."

Derek pushes his meal away, disinterested in it, reaching a hand up to wiggle a finger in the ear with the phantom ringing before letting his hand fall away again. "I just don't want you to think I went rooting around in your head on purpose. Trust me, I didn't. Even if I could do that sort of thing, I wouldn't have picked a complete and total stranger, that'd be too risky." He doesn't mention the fact that, technically, with the claws, he could do that. He just doesn't trust his skill level and even if he did, he doesn't have the claws, so the point is moot.

[adamparrish]

"That's because fear can fuel... a lot of things." Hate, violence, etc... Yes, Adam knows that. He knows now that Robert Parrish was just afraid and so he became a bully to both his wife and his son. Maybe Adam is even the most apt in understanding what Derek is saying. Even this morning, he'd been afraid. He hadn't known what he was going to do about that fear until he'd seen Derek sitting here. Then, without even thinking, he'd decided to see if what happened last night could be undone. Derek had been the obvious one to ask about that.

Now he knows that it's the Computer he should be blaming. Something happened last night to put Adam's memories in Derek's mind and Derek's into Adam's, without their permission. That isn't right. It isn't fair. It's... invasive and very, very personal, at least for Adam, and it seems like Derek as well.

Adam listens to Derek speak about Ronan, which is also a very, very personal topic for Adam, and slowly shakes his head. "I haven't kept anything from Ronan in a long time." He admits, hoping that Derek will get how hard it will be for Adam to keep this from the other boy. Everything with Ronan and Adam is built on trust and while Ronan might be less skittish about that, Adam's trust is a very fragile thing for obvious reasons. Ronan is completely open with Adam about things. It took Adam awhile to get to where he's just as open and honest with Ronan about things.

"He's safe." Ronan, he means. "He's a good person... better than me." Ronan can seem so harsh on the surface, but Ronan is the best person Adam knows when it boils down to it. Most people don't get far enough with Ronan to see that. "I get that you didn't do this now. I should've... I get it. It's the Computer. But Ronan should know and you can trust him."

[duelo]

Derek cocks his eyebrows, but makes no comment to that. He knows. He's been on all possible sides of the fear fueling terrible things situation. It goes without saying that he gets where Adam is coming from while also resenting it, but he doesn't fault Adam. It is what it is. That's just life.

But what does bother Derek is where he's pretty sure this conversation is going and his eyes narrow slightly as he listens. Unfortunately, Adam doesn't let him down and Derek shakes his head. "I don't trust anybody," he replies matter of factly. There are people he trusts a little, here. There's Buffy and Alcide. There's Katniss. But there's no one here he would truly trust with everything; there's no one left alive that Derek would totally trust with everything, least of all some kid he barely knows who just happens to be a good fighter and willing to share that wealth.

"But I'm not really going to get a say in it, am I?"

Also rhetorical, because Derek is pretty sure he knows the answer as he raises his eyes to look back at the man across the table from him. His expression reads very clearly, you're going to tell him no matter what I say and I know it. He's quiet for a moment. "I don't need to learn to fight that badly. I'll do it on my own. Keep this to yourself, neither of you will have to see me anymore, if that's what it takes, but just because you trust him doesn't mean I should. I don't know him. Would you trust someone just because I said you should?" He doesn't wait for an answer before adding, "I really doubt it and I wouldn't blame you."

[adamparrish]

Adam doesn't discount anything Derek is saying. He knows how hard trust is. He knows that Derek is older and wiser and has been through a lot of crappy stuff, if his dreams are anything to go by now that he has some context for them. He knows that Derek, according to what he's said, has every reason to be cold and hard right now and that's exactly what Adam is getting off of him.

Unfortunately, Adam doesn't respond all that well to cold and hard. He closes off from it. Cold and hard is a step away from anger. When Derek's eyes narrow, Adam looks down again. Anger is a step away from violence and Adam still sees fangs and claws and red eyes clear as day. Adam knows all the warning signs leading up to that end. He's always prepared for it.

But Derek is right, it isn't his secret to tell, he supposes. At the same time, it's Ronan. Adam is left between a rock and a hard place, really. Concern for Ronan. Having someone else's secret, unwanted. There isn't a good answer here.

There had been a time when Adam kept all of his secrets close to his chest where Ronan is concerned, or where anyone is concerned for that matter. It wasn't too long ago, a matter of a year and a half maybe, since people started to figure his secrets out, his friends. Adam was new to having friends, even then. But there was a time when Ronan hadn't been completely trusted by Adam either, when no one had been trusted by him. This place has forced Adam to slide backwards into worse things, worse habits, than keeping a secret or two.

"I won't say anything." Partly because Derek thinks he knows what Adam will do and really, he doesn't know Adam. Because he wants Derek to see how trustworthy Ronan is, so that Ronan can make a friend there maybe. Because he wouldn't want anyone telling his own secrets. Because he understands trust and the tenuous nature of it, how difficult it is to find.

Adam stands up then, resting a hand on the back of the chair as he pushes it back in to the table. He doesn't look at Derek when he says the last. He's never been good at looking people in the eyes. But he wants to get away before anger turns into something else. "Don't hurt him."

[duelo]

Trust...so easily lost and so difficult to earn. It's funny how that works. Derek's learned that trust only leads to pain and suffering and usually that pain and suffering begins with someone he cares about being hurt or worse. So no, he isn't going to trust these two other men when he doesn't know enough about them to even begin to try. He remains still because he knows from the body language of the other boy — who is reminding him an awful lot of Isaac early on in their relationship — that to make a sudden move will cause panic. He doesn't have to have Adam's memories to understand what's going through his head at the moment.

Adam says he won't say anything and Derek nods but he doesn't respond. He doesn't believe that for a second, but there's not a whole lot he can do about it if he's right in his suspicion. If Adam is going to tell, then he's going to tell. Short of making him keep his mouth shut, which really isn't Derek's way these days, there's not a damn thing he can do other than ask and hope for a little bit of discretion. Either way, he's not willing to share what he saw from Adam's life. There's nothing to be gained from it and even if there was, it doesn't pose a threat to anyone Derek cares about. Adam can have his secret.

Hopefully, he means it, and Derek can have his, too.

"You two won't see me anymore," he reminds Adam as the other man stands. Derek looks up at him but isn't surprised to see that the glance is not being reciprocated. "I'm not going to hurt anybody," he adds, frowning. He wants very badly to get up and leave right then but getting up means moving and moving means suggesting to a wounded animal that the predator is not finished batting around its prey. So he sits. "I'm sorry you had to see what you saw. And I'm sorry I saw what I did. Probably better if we both just try to forget." Derek's foot taps slightly under the table, a fidgeting tic he stops almost as soon as he starts. "You'll probably have a better day if you're not reliving my nightmares all afternoon, after all."

[adamparrish]

Adam wants to get away, but then Derek says that he isn't going to continue the lessons with Ronan, which really isn't fair if Adam isn't saying anything about the dreams he had, is it? If Adam is quiet then Ronan gets to keep that friendship, or that's how it should be.

"Why? Ronan needs that outlet. And he needs... friends. So... why quit working with him if I'm keeping your secret?" He asks.

Adam is a very logical creature. He'd learned that it's so much easier to be logical than emotional a long time ago. Not that he always accomplishes it, but he tries. So Derek's backing away from Ronan is illogical to him in every way. He doesn't get it. And he never asked Derek to stay away from Ronan, did he? He thinks back over everything he'd said to Derek in his bout of stupidity in the beginning. He shouldn't have even approached him in hindsight. This is what got him in trouble sometimes back home, a bout of bravado and then instant regret.

He won't ever forget what he saw. It can't be done. Adam's memory is horribly long in both the best and worst of ways. But he has no way of forgetting what he saw. It was intense and very, very real.

"You can still... I mean, if you want. And he likes... yeah. So." he hesitates awkwardly, waiting to hear Derek's response.

[duelo]

For a moment, Derek just stares at him, his expression mostly neutral even in the wake of his surprise at the fact that Adam's still standing there talking. Derek's not really sure if Adam is being serious right now, or whether this is some weird test of some kind that Derek can't possibly understand. Why wouldn't he pull out of meeting with Ronan after this conversation? It isn't worth it, anymore, to Derek. How can it be?

But when the other man finishes, Derek's almost certain he's actually asking those questions and he blinks, quiet for a moment.

"Because, Adam," he starts slowly and quietly so as not to be overheard. "The longer I work with him, the more knowing that he doesn't know what I am is going to eat at you and eat at you," he says. "You already feel like he should know, even though I'm not that person while I'm here and it's completely not applicable anymore. Imagine knowing it and knowing he doesn't know even longer while I'm still working with him. If you can look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you think that's not going to fester until you explode and blurt it out, then..." his voice trails off and he shrugs. "I'll keep doing it. I wouldn't blame you for feeling increasingly that you need to say something, but I'm sure as hell not keen on tempting that. Would you be...? If you were me right now?"

[adamparrish]

Adam would say that Ronan's time and attention, and Ronan himself, are absolutely worth it. But it's obvious that Derek doesn't really know Ronan or he wouldn't so easily cast Ronan aside. The fact that he's so willing to do so speaks volumes to Adam, and not in a good way. If he were more prone to anger, he'd be angry about it. As it is he's just disappointed. People are always so disappointing, Adam's life has proven this again and again, even wolf people apparently.

"Don't act like you know me, please." He says politely. "Because you don't." Adam has bigger problems than to let a wolf-man who is proving himself to be harmless eat at him. Free Enterprise beat his ass up recently. And the Computer put him on a watch list. If Ronan isn't worth Derek's time, then Derek isn't worth Adam's. That's Adam's logic for you. It's always about Ronan.

"There's a lot of things I let fester. You're not one of them." Adam says plainly, without bite even if the words themselves seem kind of harsh. He still hasn't looked up at Derek, but when he does finally, his eyes are narrowed thoughtfully rather than in any other way. "You do what you have to do. If I'm ever going to tell him, I'll come and tell you first. But otherwise, I'm way better at keeping secrets than you're giving me credit for. But again, you don't know me. I don't know you. And you don't know Ronan or you wouldn't be so quick to give up time with him."

[duelo]

Derek is not a man who possesses the virtue of patience and his is, unfortunately, beginning to wear thin. It takes an effort, but he bites back a response akin to reminding Adam that he doesn't have to know him to be in tune with common human emotional responses. He might be a werewolf, but that also means that he, too, is half human. It wouldn't be productive and making enemies in this place isn't worth it when the rest of the Alphas are already against them. So he's quiet. Adam isn't being confrontational, just politely defensive, so Derek lets it go. He's been on the receiving end of much, much less dignified responses to his opinions and behavior than he is right now, that's for sure. That much, at least, he can give Adam credit for, if not aloud then in thought.

"Good, I'm glad. We've all got enough problems here without turning on one another in response to the bullshit Friend Computer throws in our direction," he says, a sarcasm dripping from the word Friend so thickly that it almost sticks to his tongue.

"We'll both do what we need to do and honestly, Adam, I wouldn't have it any other way. At the end of the day, all of us can only really count on ourselves. You might trust Ronan and that's great, I envy you having a person like that in this nightmare, but be careful, because Ronan might not always be in charge of Ronan and that's not his fault. We never know when The Computer is going to alter us against our wills — look at us right now. I know things about you now that I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to have to share with a stranger and vise versa. I'll go my direction and you two can go yours. Everyone wins that way, in the end, in this case, more than likely. You don't have to fester, I don't hand off a reason on a silver platter ticking like a time bomb, and Ronan gets off the hook on something I don't think he was entirely keen on in the first place. I'm willing to bet he took pity because I caught him at a particularly good time for it.

"Your secret is safe with me and I hope that you take care of yourself. What little I do know suggests to me that you deserve a lot better than the hand you got dealt, so I really hope you don't let this place push you down. It takes a lot more strength than a werewolf to endure what you did and to stand up for yourself in the end. I knew someone like you back home, someone who'd been through something similar. He was always my favorite. I always respected the shit out of him because everything I've been through nearly broke me and he never fell down. I still don't know how he did it and I don't know how you did. Do, maybe, I don't know. So I do sincerely mean that: take care of yourself. I'm just sorry we had to meet like this. Genuinely," Derek says. His hands lift from the table in a gentle defensive gesture to suggest he means no harm before he gets to his feet. "We're going to be late for the briefing," he explains his movement so it can't be, hopefully, mistaken as a step in the direction of aggression.

Derek lifts his tray and steps clear of the chair he'd been sitting in. "...everyone around me gets hurt, Adam. It's always been that way," he says with a frown that looks as sincerely upset as he actually is by that fact. "I'm doing you both, him especially, a favor walking away. Trust me."

With that, he gives the other man a small nod, hopes to hell that he hasn't unwittingly given Adam a reason to change his stance on keeping the secret or telling, and he turns to toss his unfinished breakfast before heading to the briefing. What a way to start the day...