savetheearth | Twenty-Ninth Message [Video

[Anthony's barely in the frame when the feed comes on. His voice is low and restrained, as are his syllables. (Restrained, anyhoo, clipped.)

Starts by apologetically rattling in a breath.]

It's -- been more than a - month; I thought I would mention - ...

[Partly for himself, admittedly. He's not the only one who has and would have missed at least one of these people.

Briefly brings his voice up vibrating in a little more focus:] Excuse me - I'm sorry, don't. Mind the noise.

[There is no noise. Alas, he continues.]

Alex -- ...Varista and Ms. Bainbridge from the library aren't. -- On the network. Anymore. Their -- numbers still won't work.

There aren't -- really any... Many of us who - were always around, either. Anymore. Uhmm -- are there...

And it's -- been more than a year. Since I. Erhmm. [Half a throat-clearing.] -- Left home.

[The sounds go increasingly padded - he isn't going to go feeling back for those ends to tie them together. He simply wound up slipping on the most immediate bit of stupidly wistful sentimentality and letting himself amble over the others.]

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If there are going to be more and more people forgetting, then what can we do? It sucks but...

[Katie will admit. As much as she does want to forget, there was a part of her that didn't either. How odd]

[There - is a response here.

His brow pulls scrunched in a mild wince, it still feels much more awkward than it should pointing anything out here...]

Uhm -- if you're there, err - could you --

Would it be okay if I could. Hear -- you -- ? [Scratches and breaks off high. Twitches a hand up to his eye sockets.] I don't have, uhmm.

[Didn't work in an "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" verbally in that one, but it's shakin' up his tone in lieu of an opening.]

[Meanwhile, Katie will be raising an eyebrow. She couldn't quite understand what he was saying but she gave him a sigh. Without another thought she switched over to the video feed.]

Is this you wante-

[...Oh. Hope you don't mind Katie just starting at you. ....And staring some more.]

...Whoa, that's some....

Uh -- [Cuts off sharp.

The bit of wincing holds, but on her stop it flicks from "smite me, please" to "deer, meet flashlight". He can infer what it could very well be, but the staring itself's lost on him for the same reason that the text was.

Shallow:] -- uhh, I'm sorry, is uh -

[He clumsily pushes himself to lean away a little bit, whether to move out of the way or to tend to anything he's not seeing that might warrant it, whatever the issue actually is.] -- Is there... something -- I'm not doing...?

[She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. Locke City was a strange place to be in and seeing someone like him shouldn't be any surprise. For a few moments, she struggled to find the words of what she should say.

The young girl had a habit of being rather blunt for her own good and this was definitely not one of those times. With a sigh, she said this instead.]

No but it doesn't help that your eyes are weird.

[Yup, blunt as ever]

[Another flinch for "I'm sorry", not offense.] Mm-mm, I - don't have them, umm.

I'm -- [Resignedly hoarsens.] -- sorry if it. -- 'Ss distracting, I can't - do... anything... about it.

-- Not now. I um. I mean... [He's talking insofar as, say getting glass eyes (which is what Angeline had said she would do for him, not that he'd taken it as a point to be hung on now - count one more person who he's missing). And who knows if that's ever going to change.]

[At this point, Katie just started mumbling to herself. Whoever this person was, he definitely was the type of person that she couldn't stay quite as mean to.]

It's not your fault, if anything, you should be blaming whatever's been going on here! You don't need to apologize for something you didn't do!

[He was rather submissive wasn't he?]

No -- yes, I - I do, uhmm, if I'm not -

-- If I am handling it badly; it's not, uhm - fair to everyone else -- er.

If I'm bothering you I can - ...I can move offscreen.

[He himself is mumbling more o' less the whole way through at a cowed semi-monotone. "Submissive" would be right.]

[There were a lot of things in this world that annoyed Katie and mumbling was one of them. On top of that, the way he spoke also annoyed her too.]

No, you're not. You should try to say stuff that doesn't involve mumbling! Like talk louder, I can't even hear you that well!

[But Katie was never good with people either]

I'm sorry -- [It's a little tighter and higher for sincerity, but regrettably domineering himself over the apparent annoyance came with a sort of reflex to bring his voice down even more unobtrusive.]

First of all, stop apologizing already! I said there was nothing to be sorry about!

[At this point, the young girl wasn't sure how to approach this fellow. For a huge age difference, she felt like she was the older one. However, she shifted her attention elsewhere]

But anyway, like I said, that's just how it is. Sometimes people come and go on this network. It sucks but...what can you?

-- Oh. [Bit of bashful relief of all things at that last bit - all this back and forth and sidetracking he's been doing and that's what she'd said!

Swallows. Turns his head aside a bit, as a tic.] I -- suppose...

[And breathes. It is audibly a conscious action.] Umm. ...How long have you -- ...had - had your numbers -- if um. I may - ask...?

[Creeps to a non-verbally apologetic end - just out of curiosity, in the moment!]

Edited 2014-06-29 19:21 (UTC)

There you go again!

[sigh]

2 months now but I keep hearing so many people not answering to them anymore on the network. It's starting to sound like it's becoming more frequent.

[She will admit, if she were ever to let go of this network, she would be much happier. But at the same time, there was a hint of sadness to her.]

Twenty-Ninth Message [Video | Sheet of Paper]

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