text;

[searchforpeace]

[For a while Audrey simply isn't sure what to say about the whole mess going on. ... Well no, she knows what she wants to say. And it's not something she's willing to let herself do at this point.

So she puts it off a day, comes back time and again to her phone. And finally she simply texts:]

Is anyone hurt? Does anyone need assistance?

[That all she has to say for several hours before she returns.]

For now, any gaming club activities are suspended. The police seem to be a bit too... thick.

Please be careful everyone.

Comments

( text )

[argents]

[ ...He knows the last few times they've spoken haven't exactly been pleasant, but just her presence is enough to calm him on an instinctual level. ]

This is the first time I've seen the city so shut down like this. How is it on your side of town?

( text )

[searchforpeace]

It doesn't seem that bad up town where we are. At least not yet anyhow. I've seen a few more cops but not near as many as there seem to be Dead District. It seems like that's merely a matter of time, of course.

None of you were in the Dead District during all of that, were you?

[argents]

No, I don't think so. Neither the clinic or people who live near it got hit. Or that what they're still saying on the news.

It's like a ghost town outside though. It's weird.

[searchforpeace]

I suppose I don't need to say how odd that seems. I wonder why they didn't get hit...

[argents]

Me too. It's the one thing that hasn't made sense to me, no matter how I try to look at it.

[searchforpeace]

It almost seems like they're trying to implicate those near the bombing who were left unharmed. Though that's rather simplistic and juvenile to assume...

There can't simply be a normal week, can there.

( 1/2 )

[argents]

That's not all. There's no sign of those creepy snake statues anywhere either.

[argents]

...if I do happen to find a normal day, you'll be the first one to know. Are you sure you're okay?

[searchforpeace]

They all simply vanished? Was this before or after the explosion?

I should be asking that about you, shouldn't I?

[argents]

I don't know. But I'm sure none of us took down any of them.

Asking me...?

[searchforpeace]

... That's something that definitely needs to be looked into.

Of course. I've been home most of the time, when I'm not working. You're the one in more danger.

[argents]

I wouldn't even know where to start, but I think so too. Like always, there's something we're not seeing here.

And I'm not in any more danger than a lot of us. I haven't done anything!

[searchforpeace]

You seemed to be doing quite a bit the last time we spoke.

[Texted]

[espigeonage]

It's a lot of hassle getting to the bird house now. Probably smarter not to go when things are like this, but someone has to and I can avoid people, anyway.

[Texted]

[searchforpeace]

If you need help with them, I can try. I've never done much with birds of course...

[espigeonage]

Thanks! But only if you're comfortable going into the DD when it's like this. Or if you know a good alternate place to put them.

A few of them died when that went off. The stronger ones. I think they panicked and like flew into walls.

[searchforpeace]

Birds are easily stunned, aren't they? Perhaps the explosion was enough to do that.

I'm afraid I don't really. My uncle would definitely notice a few extra birds around...

[espigeonage]

I guess. It wasn't that close, there are just some windows with cracks in them. And the dust. Man there's dust everywhere. You think when it rains it'll lay it?

lol! That's all right, thanks anyway.

[searchforpeace]

Hopefully, though I'm not sure when it's supposed to rain again.

If you like, I can look around. Do you have preferences for where you'd like to keep them? If anything else, I can always ask my uncle.

[Surely he doesn't have some mysterious allergy to birds or something.]

[espigeonage]

Yeah. There's the weather people but they're as rattled as anyone else.

That's kind of you! I've got like ten pretty healthy ones that probably don't even need a roof or walls at this point. They could probably stay outside if there were like boxes they could get out of the wind in and something to keep predators away.

I'm just keeping those cooped up and feeding them until they're strong enough to fly well again, they tend to lose weight when they're sick.

[searchforpeace]

You really know a lot about birds.

[espigeonage]

lol well I did a lot of googling when I decided I was gonna do this. Some people who race them actually live around here too! I may have implied that I have an aviary.

[searchforpeace]

You can race birds?

[espigeonage]

I guess so! Apparently they take them out into the countryside and let them go and they just fly home. I don't get it. But they seem to take it seriously.

[searchforpeace]

Oh, like a homing pigeon then? If I'm remembering what those were called correctly. The sort they used at one point to relay messages.