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

[nobasisinfact]

It seems someone felt it appropriate to put some sort of concoction in my tea. While not completely debilitating I find the results, irritating.

I'd appreciate it if someone happened to know exactly what idiotic concoction of the month is supposed to cause color blindness. Complete color blindness.

[There's a grumble after a few seconds.]

Because of course, this place would do something this stupid.

Comments

[11calls]

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. ]

[nobasisinfact]

Agreed.

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

[11calls]

[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.]

[nobasisinfact]

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

Alright.

[11calls]

[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?

[nobasisinfact]

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

Same.

[11calls]

[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?

[nobasisinfact]

[He offers her the glass]

Now it's your turn.

[11calls]

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

Are you staying or are you going?

[nobasisinfact]

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

[And he does.

[11calls]

[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.

[nobasisinfact]

I assume that means you've drunk it.

[11calls]

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.

[nobasisinfact]

It is, uncomfortable.

[He walks back into the room.]

[11calls]

[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.

[nobasisinfact]

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

[CALL JEFF!]

[11calls]

Do we really want to subject someone else to spending the month like this when there's not a possible antidote if they don't have someone here?

[Alex didn't sound all that much like she wanted to do that, honestly.]

[nobasisinfact]

Jeff made comments of desperately wanting to assist.

[He's the kind of friend who will throw you under the bus if you laugh at him.]

[11calls]

We're not turning our friends colorblind because we're doing science-y things, Richard.

They're our friends.

[And Jeff is like one of the people in trusts in Riverview other than her, so no.]

[nobasisinfact]

[If Jeff were really his friend he'd be okay with letting him have this science.]

Acquaintances, and I don't see how that changes anything.

[11calls]

[Richard friends aren't for experimenting.]

Friends. [Of course she's going to correct him, because that's what Jeff is.]

You really don't need more data on the subject. It's doing what it's supposed to do.

[nobasisinfact]

Annoy me?

[Because really, that's what it was doing.]

[11calls]

[Alex is just going to roll her eyes.]

Yes, Dr. Strand. The potion is just here to annoy the hell out of you.

[A beat.]

Did you look at other people after you drank it but before I showed up?

[nobasisinfact]

Of course I did.

[He's trying not to roll his eyes as he pours two glasses of scotch.]

[11calls]

[Alex will roll her eyes for both of them, then, it's a gift.

And she's just going to sit on his desk without saying anything. Work it out, Dr. Strand with your three PhDs from Yale including one in refusing to see the obvious before his nose.]