[ voice ; open ]

[xprofessor]

I wonder if anyone here would care to assist me with an experiment.

All you need is your location, your mind, and perhaps two or three minutes of your time.

[ Xavier is testing the effective range of communicatory telepathy. He's currently in the harbor, northeast corner of BN, as far away from land as one can get without actually getting on a

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[ voice ]

[myheartglows]

I can help you.

[he can be super awesome helpful, just you wait]

[xprofessor]

[ Oh, no. No, no no, he's not going yet.

He's going to try to match that thought, in smallness. Try and coax out whatever it was that spoke. ]

/I can. I can help you./

[myheartglows]

[Tony picks up his comm and continues looking through the network, although slower. The thoughts are too small for him to really know. Or maybe they're not even thoughts, maybe just the impression of one--a feeling.

["... to remember?"]

[xprofessor]

/to fill in the empty spaces, seal the gaps, heal the wounds? Chasms and aches, but you're still in there, I can feel you./

[myheartglows]

[His body pauses. He sets down his comm. Lowers his eyes to the light in his chest.

["I'm looking for something."

[When he looks up again, his eyes are sharper.]

[xprofessor]

/Walk a careful line, my friend. Breathe easy, breathe calm, and I'll give you back just a bit of what you've lost./

[ What he does is he traces along lines where connections have been broken, neurons forced and split apart but still glowing with the remnants of a life lived. He gives Tony nothing but the barest, the most simple, the least of skeletons, but he draws, slowly, along a very few of the most bright of those connections. If it goes wrong, if something flickers out or stains pain-red he's ready to break those connections again. ]

[myheartglows]

[He shuts his eyes and breathes out, and tension unfolds along his shoulders and arms--more of his... his stance, his posture and body language, from before. No solid memories, but fleeting emotions. Memories of memories. He's still empty, but...

[He touches his fingers to the corner of his eye. They're moist.]

Ben...

["Thank you."]

[talentd_tongue]

[Uhura looks up at that, because it doesn't fit the conversation, and she only knows one Ben in this city...]

Tony? Who are you talking to?

[xprofessor]

[ Charles gives just a fleeting impression of glad and soothe and he pulls away, just barely keeping a little bit of his attention to make sure Tony is all right. ]

[myheartglows]

[He looks to her, a mixture of confused and amazed. And how he speaks, the nuances of it, has changed--before, when he would've answered in an airy "I'm not talking to anyone," now it's a more direct, but still soft--]

No one.

[His eyes wander back to his comm, and he picks it up. And then, smoothly, he unfolds his legs and slouches back in the chair.]

[talentd_tongue]

[Something has Uhura's guard up. Something about Tony doesn't seem right any more.]

Who were you talking to? Who's Ben?

[myheartglows]

I was talking to the Professor.

[A pause, where he lowers his eyes in thought for the second question, and he smiles--a very small one, but for the first time in weeks, it softens his eyes.]

He's Delta.

[talentd_tongue]

[No, still not quite right. Still something off. The Professor... he wouldn't have, would he?]

Tony...

Everything's going to be all right.

[myheartglows]

[The smile falls into the serene blankness, with a warmness there that wasn't before.]

Now that you're here.

[talentd_tongue]

[It still seems wrong, somehow. She can't put her finger on it, but something is wrong.]

Do you trust me?

[myheartglows]

[There's a pause, a beat or two too long, where his brow twitches, but -- the script follows through.]

With my life.