4th Cut -- [Audio | Cellphone]

[twopercent]

[The audio quality isn't great, but it's not due to the fact that the network feed filtered through Jack's phone is bad. It's that Jack is quite obviously drunk. Drunk as a skunk, slurring words and pausing to remember what he was trying to get at every so often.]

I dunno why any of you keep trying to fool yourselves. Fucking around with your art projects and fake IDs, asking questions about what any of this means... fine, ignore there's a damn war going on. With teenagers and kids getting dragged in. Are you happy about that? You think that's okay?

But I guess we're all damned if we do, damned if we don't, aren't we. This is all just gonna keep on happening, because I sure don't see any end yet when we don't even know what we're up against. More where they came from, I'd bet. So I hope all you volunteers had fun out there. [Added with a bitter, sarcastic snarl.]

Without even any front lines... can't trust the cops, the army, anybody... we're all still just wandering aimlessly...

[Jack's voice trails off abruptly after taking a sharp turn from irate to morose. There's the distinct glug of him taking a drink straight from the bottle.]

Nothing we can do. Nothing I can do anymore...

Comments

[Audio, private]

[professorwolf]

[Considering there's some of that lurking in Lyall's brain, he actually takes a moment to respond. Not to respond to all that terrible-ness, but to Jack.]

Are you somewhere at least moderately safe, right now, Jack?

[Ever the practical one, right?]

[Audio, private]

[twopercent]

[Particularly sullen:] Yeah. Liz's place.

[professorwolf]

Good. I just had to make sure.

[There's a pause, and Lyall adds, a little more quietly,]

If it helps any, I'm not happy about any of this, either. Not my students being involved, not my former students being involved, and not me, either. This kind of crazy isn't what I'm made for.

[twopercent]

[Sorry Lyall, Jack's not particularly reasonable like this.]

Then why the hell were you out there? You couldn't stop even a few of them?

[professorwolf]

I was planning on going back home, but my students... and that young boy. I couldn't just leave them with a bunch of men who only wanted to shoot things.

[He sighs a little, embarrassed at how poorly he'd done out there. He'd been terrified, and run away at his first chance. Even if he'd done it with the boys in tow.]

I never had any delusions that I'd be of any use as anything but a nose.

[twopercent]

No kidding!? Then stay the hell away next time and drag those idiot kids' asses back to their parents!

[professorwolf]

[Yep, Jack is definitely in a bad mood. Getting snapped it isn't gonna help Lyall's, either, though rather than getting angry, it's just making him feel more useless again.]

Maybe I will. Though dragging anyone away isn't likely to happen... In case you didn't notice, most of my students are taller than I am.

[twopercent]

Yeah. Well. Fuck 'em then. Let them all get killed. Hell if I care.

[professorwolf]

[There's a long pause, then a little sigh.]

... I still care.

[Then, with a shorter but more awkward pause, Lyall adds,]

I guess I'll talk to you later, Jack. I hope you feel better.

[He can't really bring himself to snap back at the guy, and anything else that isn't just hanging up now feels self-pitying and is likely to make Jack more annoyed.]

[twopercent]

[Jack's heard enough of that already in one form or another, and snarls before disconnecting:]

Yeah, yeah. And fuck you too.