J. Alfred Darrow,

April 25th

I think I've fixed it.

I worked with my brother Julian - he used to be a cursebreaker. We bound the curse to the door of the navigation room. There's a big Pictish symbol on the door, and it might slam itself sometimes - but it's not going to try to kill anyone anytime soon. We tested extensively, it doesn't backfire on us anymore - one of my coworkers is taking a look and doing some tests of his own tomorrow, but we are expecting that the Voyager will fully pass vetting, and then it's cleared for people to go on it.

Once it has - I think I know how to fix you, too. It'll take me a few days to pull the materials together (I have to catch up on paperwork for a few of my other packages or I think one of my supervisors will eat me) but there's no reason it shouldn't work. The magic might be a bit uncomfortable, though.

The other thing is - whatever I bind it to, you're going to have to carry on you for the rest of your life.

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Z. Fisk

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

April 26th
Z,
That's certainly excellent news regarding the Voyager, and I don't want to imply I'm anything less than delighted by it — however — I have a lot of questions regarding the rest of this.

What do you mean by 'uncomfortable', exactly? Is this something that's been done on a living thing before or did the process have some effect on the Voyager that gave you reason to use that particular word? I know I can't really complain about something being 'uncomfortable' if the alternative is death, but — I hope you understand why this might be a bit concerning.

And what do you mean by 'whatever I bind it to'? What does that mean? Carry what for the rest of my life?

How do you know this will work?

You're incredible and talented and I trust you. You know that. But this is... uncharted territory for me, to say the least, so I'm ... concerned.

Do we have to do anything with it at all? It hasn't acted up again since I was on the Voyager — won't it be alright now that you've gotten it contained, if the curses aren't interacting with each other anymore?

Alfred

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

J. Alfred Darrow,

April 27th

This has been done before, with different curses; the problem, from what I've read, is that one has to draw the curse from where it is rooted in your body to the object itself.

The curse is - it's still there. And it's possible that things will be fine on the Voyager. But if it's not there, then something else, someday, could (and probably, will) trip it up - and you might be by yourself, or you might be with people who don't know what to do, or the healers may not be as skilled and clever as Miss Bones, who drew the curse back for you.

The tradeoff for not breaking the curse - the tradeoff for ensuring that it will not someday kill you - is this. And I won't do it if you don't want to, but - I think it's worth the cost.

How do you feel about earrings?

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Z. Fisk

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

April 28th
Z,
Obviously, you're right. There's no way to frame it that makes just staying this way and hoping not to die seem like a viable alternative, if you think this will work. It's just — it's difficult because you haven't made the experience sound particularly pleasant, nor am I sure from your description exactly what will happen, and if there's a chance that it could all go wrong — which you haven't explicitly stated but I assume, as this is Pictish magic that ruins everything and there is always a chance for it to go wrong — then it's difficult to come around to the idea of doing something about it now and possibly dying when I could just keep going about my life doing nothing in my flat and not dying

Can you explain it a bit more? Maybe it would be easier in person, when convenient.

What do earrings have to do with anything?

Alfred

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

J. Alfred Darrow,

April 29th

You're right -- it might be easier in person. I'll pop by - maybe not until early next week, though, I've had to catch up on some of my other projects. Monday?

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Z. Fisk

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

April 29th
Zelda,
Sure. Monday.

J.A.D.

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER