Video | Open

[pileofspirits]

[shortly after everyone has been teleported to their temporary homes for the next couple of weeks, a message is sent out across the network. regardless of the communications expert on board, there is a lot of static and interference. the sound warps and pops between moments of clarity, along with other strange noises that almost sound like whispers if you think about it too long.

the video is hard to make out, but it seems to be most big, dark, nervous-looking eyes staring at the camera.]

--Where? Where... [between all the static, their voice is strange and soft and at least a little upset.] Where, where... where??

Comments

action;

[alaspooryork]

[For some reason, that staticky transmission is starting to give Delta a headache. However, he'd noticed that Phalanx was assigned to his cohort, and it doesn't take huge deductive skills to assume that's who he's on a ship with. So he starts exploring - it shouldn't take too long to find them.

Weirdly, the headache clears when he turns off the video, but the skin around his tattoo starts to itch when he spies the odd person.]

Excuse me? Phalanx?

[pileofspirits]

[curled up with their forehead on their knees, looking like a pile of laundry dumped in the corner of the room, they only lift their head a little when they hear a voice.

the lights in the room flicker, though. which is probably fine.]

[alaspooryork]

[It's definitely nothing to be worried about. Ignore Delta's concerned expression.

He approaches cautiously.]

You seem unwell.

[pileofspirits]

We seem dead. [the emphasis there implies a correction, but their voice is mostly full of a scattered, distant sort of distress.]

Are we all in the ground?

[alaspooryork]

[Buddy, no. He gets close enough to kneel down next to Phalanx.]

We are not in the ground, but in a ship made of metal and similar components, and I would posit that we are no more or less dead than we were before.

[pileofspirits]

[they still haven't truly lifted their head, face still lowered to nearly rest on their knees. but their arm swings up to bang lifelessly against the wall that they're leaning against, which happens to be the closest to the outer hull that they could get in here. the motion probably hurt, but they show no outward sign of it.]

Then they're dead. Gone. There's nothing there.

[alaspooryork]

[He startles a little bit at the bang, but reaches out an open hand to offer to Phalanx.]

You can usually sense people around you, but you currently cannot?

Gone does not mean dead.

[pileofspirits]

Sense, with... senses. See or hear or... But there's nothing there. Now.

[so, yes, that's probably what the problem is. Phalanx lifts their arm to the wall again, but they don't bang against it this time. just sort of thump the back of their hand against the metal and leave it there.]

Gone means gone, then. Just gone.

[alaspooryork]

Gone for now. [His voice is quiet; he may be shy about making friends, but there's at least one person he cares deeply about that's not on this ship right now.] Not gone for always.

[pileofspirits]

[Phalanx gets quiet too, watching Delta's face carefully.]

...They'll come back? Do we go get them? Or dig out?

[alaspooryork]

[He thinks about it for a moment.]

I am not sure. However, I think a hole will open, and we will be let out. We will only need to be patient.