After fifteen minutes’ unconsciousness, the lab safeties decide that he should instead be asleep face down in a lovely pillow fort. 

About an hour later, December drops in to retrieve her bracelet and goggles.

They're laid neatly on the workbench somewhere relatively unstained.

Z twitches and mumbles in his sleep.

December pauses, and quickly checks his vitals through her green-tinted lenses.

He's lost a little blood, and he's very short on sleep, but he's...fine, mostly. This is just how he is.

Yeah, about how she expected.

She leaves a cup of coffee on the desk, and heads off. It’d be weird of her to watch him sleep.

(Would it weirder or less weird if she told him she was just musing on how much fucking time people lose from sleeping? Eh, better not to risk it.)

Some time later, voices drift in from an adjoining room. 

“- and so you just invited him into your secure lab? You don’t know this guy from Adam! Security measures only work if you use them, Avalon. You’ve got to stop taking in strays like this.”

His eyes flutter open.

But he doesn't get up, yet, he just listens, checking over his implant to make sure the nerves are still alive enough to be revived or at least replaced – shit, he shouldn't have fallen asleep, he should have gotten this put in right away...

“- yes, yes, I get it, But you’ve got the portable lab, it’s not like he needed the whole contents of your personal setup -”

“Hey, she made a new friend! You should be happy for her, not - bemoaning that she let someone see her lab. She was right there, and it’s her lab, not yours. This is a good thing!”

“Oh yeah, a good thing. Come on, the boy’s barely twenty at best, he has no fucking clue, and he Broke Through because of Jinx -“

“- and what’s so bad about Jinx, anyway?” 

“Not only that, she’s smarter than she looks. She’s survived as a rogue Unmada for what, a decade now? That takes skills. I wouldn’t put it past her that this is some kind of intricate plot.” 

“- you really think Jinx is capable of that? Are we talking about the same girl, here?”

“That’s how you know she’s good at it.”

“You really think a just-catalyzed Genius in the heart of Avalon’s lair stands a candle to her? Get a grip, Mallory, this isn’t the damn war anymore -“

“We never did get them all, not for sure.”

“- and need I remind you who’s the Neid here? This is exactly the kind of fear and hopelessness that’s been keeping us from moving forward. We could use a Staunen.” 

“We are not replacing her. Not now, not ever.”

“...not what I meant. I, just - between the three of you, I - can’t we do more?”

“We’re already doing more than we should be. A stray Genius here, a Bardo there - where does it end?”

He can't decide whether to be flattered or upset. Of course he has no fucking clue! He was looking for a weird LARP less than 24 hours ago! And does he honestly seem like a Nazi mania monster?

He tries to slip out of the fort without being loud enough to hear. He's had practice, if not with this specifically.

“We’ve had this argument a dozen times now, Mallory. You use your part of the fund for what you want, and we’ll use ours. It’s done, it’s settled, move on already. I don’t try to get you to buy into the Singularity any more, now, do I?”

“That’s not being a functioning Collaborative. That’s hardly even being a Collaborative at all, damn it!  Fine, yes, I might be jumping at shadows. Have you even considered that he might be a sleeper agent? He doesn’t need to be complicit to be dangerous to us, we have enough enemies with strong enough Geniuses -”

“My goggles didn’t detect anything.”