riverview | (I refuse your merry making and offer annoyance instead) Voice: TheStrandInstitute

[Richard wasn't pacing. He hadn't been pacing the whole time with a glass of scotch in his hand.

When she opened the door all he could see was red, red and Alex in complete color. The longer he looked at her the more the edges around her began to bleed into color.]

Odd.

[His eyes narrowed, squinting as the color seemed to return to the world.]

[Alex is used to Richard looking at her in strange ways during the three years that they'd been working together, and the four months that they've been here together, she'd added a few more of them. But this was like nothing that she'd ever seen on his face before, and she walked towards him, the expression on her face one of intense concern.

He was Richard Strand after all, and everyone knew that Richard Strand was the master of the understatement.

Her eyes crinkled up below her glasses, and she just frowned as she reached out to touch him, the tattoo on her arm very much visible because it was right there on the wrist of her dominate hand.]

What is it? What's wrong?

[He'd hard that lovingly concerned voice before, even before he'd gotten sick. Even before he'd gotten there.]

It's gone.

[The words are simple and curious. Suddenly the world was back to the way it was meant to be and he wasn't sure why. The only alteration in the equation was Alex, and, of course, that was where the change had occurred.

He ignored the wrist, conveniently, focusing on her face and the color that was there instead of black and white.]

Gone? [There's a questioning frown that Alex can't help but make and she feels the need to reaffirm it with him, she can't help it. Alexs gotta Alex after all, and Alex is always at her most Alexy when she's with him.]

The colorblindness? It just like... went away? Really?

[Without thinking about it, Alex's fingers reached up to ghost against his cheek without thinking about it, so that her wrist was easily viewable.]
When I just walked in?

[Trying not to jump to conclusions is not Alex's speciality and she was trying so instead of mentioning herself and the whole thing that was happening she just added:]

Maybe it just wore off?

Doubtful. The effect seems to have ...

[He frowns because it sounds so stupid.]

You seem to have been the catalyst.

[Seriously, what the hell Riverview, don't be stupid.]

[He's not saying it, so she's not saying it. But she looks at him for a moment before she takes a step back. Richard Strand with his phD in the fact that there was actually no magic in the world and no demons and you know everything else that he didn't believe in, does believe in testable data. So, testable data she would give him. So instead of kissing him as she would normally do, Alex just takes a step back, and then another moving towards the door.]

Hold on, I want to see if it comes back if I'm not around.

[Which would be one: more evidence and two: potentially bothersome for him if he needed to depend on her when it came to the ability to see color for the rest of the feastival. Of course it would give Alex leave to be creative with the color of his clothing, and she just smirked on that before she stepped out the door and shut it, calling through (which he was the one who went on and on about his walls being so thin so... Well, he should easily hear here.]

Are you still colorblind now?

[He gets what she's doing. Testing a theory that he, himself had, but that doesn't make it any less silly.

Still, when she calls through the door he can easily hear her (because the walls were that thin).]

No.

[There is no denying that what Alex wants to do is just roll up his sleeves and see what was there on his wrist if anything was. But there were several reasons that she didn't do it, and the largest one wasn't that soulmates were stupid (even if Alex was a romantic and did believe you ended up with the person you were right for right then sometimes) but because what if this was just silly Riverview magic and they were happy and still somehow this stupid city thought she should be with someone else? If there was something that Alex hated, it was not being able to make your own choices and your own mistakes, and did the things that defined you.

The idea that someone was supposed to just... be your unchosen endgame bothered her and if nothing else, she would never want to be a choice that Richard didn't get to make. Not anymore. It wasn't fair to him, and she wanted to be fair to him so for now she's just going to come back into his office and perch on his desk.]

I have some of the stuff. Do you want to try again and see if you get the same results or are we going on the hunt for a prankster?

[Richard frowns, thinking heavily about the idea.]

I think it's prudent to.

[For scientific research.]

Okay. So I think we need to start with me outside of the room and then coming back in, right? Like a control?

[Richard, you are the scientist here, Alex is just supposed to be annoying and ask questions and look cute. She is trying very hard not to screw up and she's a wordsmith, but these are weird sciencey words, Richard. Weird. Sciencey words. ]

Agreed.

[He pours a small amount of the rainbow liquid into a glass, waiting for her to leave the room.]

[Alex just nods, but there's an amused smile on her face that he's pouring into a glass, because it's such a him thing to do when she'd be chugging it from the bottle.

Then she touches his hand before she walked out the door and closed it, watching her watch to give him exactly a minute after he tells her he's drunk it.]

[He takes a drink from the glass, but not all of it, just enough and everything goes black and white.]

Alright.

[She still gives it thirty seconds before she opens the door with a raised brow, watching his expression as she did so to see if it affected him in the same way again.]

Well?

[The same as before, she was in perfect color, the color than bloomed out around her.]

Same.

[Alex expected it honestly, and she considers for a moment, trying to put herself into his shoes and what he would do if it was her.

Other than tell her she was being ridiculous.]

Okay, so now what?

[He offers her the glass]

Now it's your turn.

[Alex just raised a brow for a minute, but she took the glass before she asked softly.]

Are you staying or are you going?

To preserve the integrity of the experiment, I'll leave.

[And he does.

[After he leaves, Alex makes a face and then swallow. As soon as it hits the back of her throat, her world goes black and white.]

Wow. Okay.

I assume that means you've drunk it.

Obviously. Man, this stuff would give you a migraine if you took it too much.

[Clearly don't take it anymore, Richard.]

Come back in.

It is, uncomfortable.

[He walks back into the room.]

[Whereas Richard had seen the red of Alex's dress first, for her it was the bright blue of his eyes, and it just made her grin as the colors came flooding back into her almost like a wave. With a breathless little laugh, Alex just nodded.]

Came right back when I saw you, Richard.

It would be more conclusive if we could have someone else here.

[CALL JEFF!]

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