FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Cullen Rutherford
RECIPIENT: everyone
WHAT: Cullen is attempting to turn nostalgia into a good thing again
WHEN: now

[ The voice over the crystal sounds tired, which is nothing new, but there's a little bit of fire that's been lacking lately. Maybe it's a desire to get back to something that's been slipping away. ]

I've had a reminder recently that one's past can not be outrun, and perhaps that isn't such a bad thing. It is the hand that shapes the people we become. Looking at those I have in my life now, I feel I have a cause to be grateful for the pasts we all carry.

I'd like to ask for something - a happy memory. Something that gives you hope, something that keeps you going. I realize it's an easy thing to lose sight of, things being as they are, but forgotten is not the same as gone.

I've spent some time interacting with Benedict Artemaeus at the suggestion of Madame de Cedoux and with permission from Ser Coupe. [There's a long pause. Possibly the message has been edited a lot, and somewhat clumsily, by someone who really doesn't get this magical social media shit yet.

Then,] Let me just get right to the point, if you folks want to use this kid as some kind of resource in the fight against the Venatori or Corypheus, you're going to need to get him out of solitary pretty damn fast. [Maybe also quit scaring the shit out of him, he thinks, but doesn't add.] He's a quick study; I taught him a pretty complicated card game in almost no time, and short of making a few rookie errors, he picked up on it fast. I get the impression everyone around him thinks he's an idiot, to the point where maybe he thinks he's one too. He's been chronically under-estimated by everyone around him.

[A pause.] He's a prick, but he's not an evil prick. If you get him out of solitary, give me a little time with him, I think I can bring him around.