Methinks

Giving an addict a choice is not always the rude awakening supporting family believe it would be. In all fairness, the addict often has a world constructed in their mind that is safer, cleaner, and happier than it seems from the outside. Can they realize the boundaries they cross with their family, friends, or even the law to get a high? Those facts are not on their mind. That is, not always on their minds. The mind of an addict at the very worst could care less if death came knocking. However, moments of clarity and moments of revelation come to their door step too. Times when they see the truth. Those who hate themselves and feel unworthy of love see they did not deserve the abuses of their past the medicate in the present. Some have an anger at the very thought of realizing the truth. They know it and don't care. Some wallow in the truth but lack the courage or ability to change that would get them off the path of destruction they are on.

My job as an interventionist isn't to be understanding or to make deals. I know that the deals made with a drug addict will just be hot air so they can get to their next fix or get me off their back. That is the game of it. The drive for something that can erase those bad feelings, those lonely feelings, those pathetic feelings is nearly carnal. Some are more aware than others. The trickiest patient to work with are those who know perfectly well what they are doing. They know the cost. They know the pain it causes. They know the future they have. I have seen they go two ways. First, they may resist to the very end and deny getting treatment. Most die at their own hands whether overdose, vehicular accidents, or medical issues due to the irreparable damage they did to their body. The other option happens infrequently, but when it does, my job gets really hard. This person volunteers to be a patient. They commit to a program. They give their family a show. The intervention looks the smoothest it could go. Everything is still on the water's surface. This patient has a plan. They manipulate and they control. They lie. They are the worst when it comes to trust. I learned with my first tag that this type of patient is the most dangerous because they are the smartest, the most vile, and the easiest to trust. So I distrust now, why? Because in the very end, I feel responsible for the tag's recovery. And my first tag that betrayed me tried to kill me dead. He hadn't succeeded but neither had I. I had seen a future for him that scared me not because it was so violent but because it was a slow and agonizing lonely path. He would betray anyone to feel the power of gaining trust and then breaking it. He never really grew up from the spoiled child he was. It hurts deeply to have the trust broken.

My job as an interventionist and a muse liason is actually to recruit. Offering rehabilitation is just a bonus to the life altering path the tag could chose. And it was always a choice. To choose the boot camp Ryla offered meant losing yourself. The "you" that you were as an addict- gone. The "you" you were before your addiction- gone. A fresh start with a new world. Why would anyone chose that? Leaving behind who you were is one of the hardest things someone can do. It can also be terribly easy if you know leaving it means you are protecting it. Your removed presence and your ability to fight puts you on a side that is bent on preserving the world. From a distance. Quiet warriors. They are held away from the normal world to remain off the grid. The reasons for this are many. Keeping out of ear shot of guild networks is essential for the future plans and their success. Off the grid means a guarded position against any possible rogue draining your charge. There is an equilibrium each person holds. When they are full of energy they are happy. When they are drained and their equilibrium is thrown off. Keeping full on your equilibrium is essential because it is the advantage we have as charges and those who protect charges. It is also a weak link. The training I implement shows the tag how to increase their threshold of energy. To hold more. Why would we care? To have power pulled is less debilitating, but most importantly it creates a thirst for power in return. This is a secret we guard to the death. If anyone were to leak this information I would surely be the hand that takes their life. Hasn't happened. But as I said, I have a problem with trusting just anyone. So the training is also a trial period so that I can see the performance and character of a person in their purest form. The thirst I teach them is only at the very last stage. Most are able to taste just a sip of the power I can drain in tsunami form. It is a skill they have to perfect but that a person is usually gifted with before they were ever even targeted by their rogue. The people chosen by rogue are tastier and easier to siphen from. They channel large amounts of energy easily and their muses were likely targeting them with more charge for a specific reason. That person had a talented future, a path to follow, and a chance to change the human world with their creations. These people are tapped, though the rogue wouldn't know this, and given a siphen of energy unlike other humans would receive. They are expanded just by the force of the large amounts of energy given to them. It is a constant struggle for the muse. They cannot make up the mind of their charge to follow that path. They can only inspire their life force with a power to create. They cannot save them when they spiral down. They cannot even challenge a rogue who started that downward spiral. They are forced to abandon their task with their charge. They are supposed to report all rogues. So it is only appropriate that the team dispatched deal with unruly rogues were human charges once victims to the rogue pursuit. Just as it is only fitting that I, the once alcoholic who overcame addiction, am the one to help combat addiction and rehabilitate the rogue and tag alike. There is such a thing as second chances. There is always such a thing as mercy.