savetheearth | xx3 voice

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xx3 voice

[ The voice on the other end of the feed is shaky and weak. It's difficult to make out the words because of the hum of other noises -- clicks of cash registers and the squeak of sneakers, the shuffle of plastic bags. ]

Please... I....

[ There's more static and muffled noises - she's talking but it's not clear what she's saying, there are noticeably a lot of pauses and sharp inhales. ]

I can't -- it hurts -- please, help... some...

[ There's a crashing noise and the feed continues to run, all the noises that were there before sans Colette, who has gone silent. ]

[ ooc: Long story short, Colette has passed out in an alley beside a popular super market. Her bags are dropped on the floor and she's on the ground. I'd like for one person to find her!! If you'd like to just throw up that you're doing so in the subject line. Otherwise, Colette will be responding once she's come-to and probably been dragged to a clinic or hospital. ♥ ]

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Colette... was that you? It — it had to be! What happened? Where are you?

[ Because he can't explain it, the sting of something so alarming ripping across his mind like a siren, full of pain and fear. Even worse, pain and fear that he knew, down to every last nerve. ]

[ Enough time has passed at this point that she's been taken care of thanks to Audrey, and while she's still in pain, she feels as though, for some reason, she needs to downplay it. Hide it. Don't make them worry. She had already done enough of that, with needing to make an emergency post, not knowing what else to do when she had laughed and laughed and then the sting and pain had knocked her to the ground. ]

I'm -- [ She doesn't want to lie to him but -- but she doesn't want him to worry. There's something wrong with her and the doctors don't know what it is, can't pinpoint the reason for her sharp pain, and for some reason her hearing is... so much more acute. She can hear every stress in his voice and it pulls at her heartstrings. No, she can't burden him. She shouldn't burden anyone.]

Nothing, it's okay. Please don't worry!

[ Even now it still hurts for her chest to rise and fall too much, but she does her best to sound cheerful despite feeling -- quite the opposite. ]

I got dizzy and fell, that's all.

[ She neglects to mention that she's being kept in the hospital for a little while. ]

[ When the response finally comes, it sends his heart threatening to careen right out of his chest. After that burst of recognition she had triggered in him, there had been nothing. Nothing to go by, except that it'd been her, without a doubt. All that brightness and fleeting clarity winked in and out like a light he'd never be able to grasp. And never had he been so afraid of the silence that followed.

Now her voice is enough to send relief flooding down even into the tips of his fingers, but it's tempered, in a way. Shallow, when she speaks, causing worry rise up through him like a wave and crash back down just as heavily. Drowning his ability to make it break even again. ]

You're — [ Okay? No. No, she wasn't. Right? It wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him, it couldn't be, and —

(If you didn't, would you tell me?

...I wouldn't want to.) ]

You're lying.

[ She's silent, very silent, when he calls her out on her lie. Words leave her for a moment. What else can she say? Should she continue to deny it? How does... how does he know? He sounds so utterly certain and she had done her best to sound convincing as much as she could.

Tears blur her vision but they don't fall. Won't fall. She says the only thing she can think to. ]

I'm sorry.

[ Her silence is just as awful the second time. Almost as soon as he'd said it he'd bitten down on it hard and regretted it, and it's then he realizes that he now knows what it's like to be torn between two extremes. Knowing, and not knowing. Knowledge he didn't ask for, and she didn't either. Would either of them have been happier without it? Him blissfully unaware, and her continuing to hide it?

Before he can speak up again, he has to swallow back the sudden lump in his throat. ]

You're not fine. [ Though his voice has softened, the statement comes just as sure as it did the first time. ] So why?

I... [ Still, she doesn't want to tell him, but he knows, so what else can she do? ]

I don't want to worry you, Bannie.

[ And that's the truth, though probably not the truth he's looking for, here. ]

But... how did you know?

[ When she asks so plainly, his mind supplies him with a thousand different answers he has no way to express with words. Words that had once come so easily beforehand, pretty and idealistic words he feels have no place in this just yet. Suddenly aware of his own hesitance to come out with it to her, maybe especially to her, he realizes holding back would be wrong of him. ]

I felt it. The pain, and the fear, all of it. Like you were calling out to me.

You... felt it?

[ He had felt that moment? The sharp stab of burning, the splitting headache from the sudden overwhelmingness of sounds? She presses her lips together, not quite sure how to handle this. It was one thing when she was suffering -- at least she could do it quietly and no one else had to be wise to it...

But if he's feeling what she feels, how can she hide that? How can she stop that? ]

I'm -- I'm sorry. I didn't mean...

[ I don't want you to feel this. It's horrible. You don't deserve to feel this, ever. ]

Is that -- everyone?

[ For now, his mind's quiet. Much like everything else in the wake of the impression she'd left, the sharpness and the clarity of it. He wouldn't be able to forget what that felt like, but it's taking him a while to piece together how to describe it. ]

Everyone... like, can I feel it with everyone?

Uh huh.

[ And she's mostly quiet as well, many of her emotions subdued in the wake of that panic and pain. ... Maybe it's the meds. It's definitely the meds. ]

Is that... that's something you can do? I think that it has a name...

It was from a pulse. The fact that I can sense these things now. That I'm a Newtype, I heard it being called. But... [ Why is there a lump in his throat? How long has he just been able to talk to her without feeling any kind of pretense? ]

It's not like this with everyone, no.

... Okay.

[ So that was... another thing, something he could do, because of these 'pulses' or 'memories' or 'echoes'. ]

I'm sorry you had to feel that.

Why are you apologizing? I don't even get it myself just yet.

[ A beat. ]

Or understand what happened to you. Just that I knew it was you.

Eheheh... honestly, I don't understand what happened to me either. I can hear really well, now! So well it actually kind of hurts. But there's... something else, too. I can't really explain it, but it doesn't feel like it's tied into the hearing thing.

[ She sighs, softly. ]

It's kind of cool, thinking about it.

[ There's the sound of a shift over the line. ]

You said you didn't experience anything out of the ordinary for a long time, didn't you?

[ But to have it happen like this... ]

Does it still hurt?

[ Briefly, she wonders what he's doing. He wasn't hurt too, was he? Oh no... ]

Um, it still... hurts. But not as much. I think it's something I'm just going to have to get used to.

[ A constant pain... she can deal with it, she thinks. ]

But you're right! I was worried about that. I should be thinking of this as a good thing.

[ What "good" it was seems stretched a little thin, to him. He's at a crossroads where he doesn't know how to justify what he wants to say. Doesn't know how to react in a way that that was still true to himself but wouldn't cause her harm in the long run, too. ]

Sorry, that I reacted like that. My heart was really racing, because I thought...

[ Well, nevermind what he thinks. ]

Is the pain connected to how you hear things now? [ His tone softens. ] Should I switch to text?

N-No... it's okay. I... I like the sound of your voice. It makes me feel better.

[ Something that might normally be embarrassing to say, but it's not said to flatter. It's just the truth, it's comforting, even if it's sharp and ridged and probing against her head, like everything else.

She'd rather deal with the pain than not hear him, though. ]

I can just hear really well! I'll get used to it. It's like... it's almost as if someone turned up the volume on everything, and there's no static at all. It's very strange.

Really? [ It's a simple word with a bunch of simple, honest meanings behind it, as if he's genuinely surprised. Like he's let go of a lot just by saying it — did she really like it that much to endure it, could he even let her, was it really okay to keep speaking — even when what follows is just a slow exhale. ] You can tell me if it starts being too much.

It... sounds exhausting. Are you someplace quiet?

[ And more importantly, someplace safe. ]

Yes! Well, mostly yes... this room is quiet. I'm in the hospital.

[ She lets out a soft laugh. ]

That probably doesn't sound very good, huh? But it's only because they're being cautious! I can hear other things going on in the hospital though.

[ It's an answer he should have expected but it still renders him silent for a moment. This was... good. It was. She would be fine. ]

No — no. I'm glad you made it there. Really. You probably need the rest, right?

[ If anything, he's genuine about it. ]

Other things... what stands out?

Um... well, everything.

I can hear it all. It's a little confusing.

[ They're similar, then, aren't they? Hearing, or feeling, things they should be? Confusing messes of things? White noise, and tight chests? ]

... A lot confusing. Talking, noises, sounds of people breathing and moving...

Even people breathing? No way. All because of a pulse... it sounds way more serious than what happened to me.

Y... Yeah. Even people breathing. It's... it's very strange.

And it doesn't go away.

If I could switch you, I would.

[ It's quiet, a habit that's meant to keep things like that to himself, even when he knows it won't escape her, this time. ]

Are they going to keep you there?

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