handwritten; notepad

[earnedmystripes]

[Usually, Kotetsu connects to the network through his phone, so it may be unusual to see his message today written by hand. The writing is legible...but the letters appear raggedly, as if his hand was shaking violently while attempting to write.]

its all here. just like before

but i never left town i thought

[There's a growing blot of ink at the edge of that t from where he's pressing his pen down too hard.]

youre not supposed to forget if you don't

fuck why is this ha




[And it just. Abruptly ends there.]

Comments

[Voice/Call]

[depolarized]

...Kotetsu? Hey. What's going on?

[lackinginfaith]

What are you doing?

Video;

[searchforpeace]

... You forgot without leaving town?

[That's... disturbing somehow. It ought to be relieving that this is something of a possibility, at least to her. And yet...]

[ video ]

[fatherssins]

[ Adrian did not like using the video display on his phone to communicate, but he felt there needed to be as personal a response as possible. That note showed great distress ]

What happened? Do you need someone?

audio;

[enrages]

Dude, calm the fuck down. Use your words-- actual words, not panic-induced crazywords.

[action!]

[detectivetroll]

[Nick's not usually one to pry into his co-workers' personal lives, but when one of them has something like a freak out in the middle of work and runs off to the bathroom, well, he can't help but wonder.

Still, he's in the middle of a phone call with a particularly belligerent potential witness, so there isn't anything he can immediately do about it. By the time the call's finally finished, Kotetsu's out of the bathroom and back at his desk, though he still doesn't look like himself. After a few moments, Nick gets up and heads over, leaning his hip against the other officer's desk as he looks at him.]

Hey, Sarge, uh, you okay? What's up?

audio;

[immortalize]

Uh, hello? Hey, are you still coherent? Do you need help?

[ This some crazy crap going on. ]

[recollection]

[Well, shit. This is new, and rather terrifying.]

Hey. Are you still there?!

text message; ic-ly delayed about an hour; i'm so late cries

[earnedmystripes]

[His phone rings on the desk, the sudden noise and vibration jolting his attention toward it. Riku reads the name on the screen; he remembers it now but couldn't before, had stared at the contact in confusion wondering where it came from, and that runs a brand-new shiver of terror through him. He could forget. At any time he could forget months of his life, have them replaced with falsehoods and go on with life without even realizing that everything he knows and loves is in danger. Before, not leaving town was a way to prevent it. Now...they were at the mercy of whatever supernatural force had brought them together in the first place.

He doesn't even hear the phone as it rings and rings and finally goes to voicemail, barely even registering his own name as it comes through in the young man's voice.

It's some time before he gets himself together enough to reply, and even then, his hands are still trembling.]

hey/

i;m ok. juat remmembered this netqork. didnt leavw town,, was kinda weird isall.

handwritten; icly delayed an hour; sorry for the late!

[earnedmystripes]

what do you mean

[lackinginfaith]

You were panicking.

accidental audio --> handwritten; sorry for the delay

[earnedmystripes]

[The woman's face and voice appear on the paper, and there's a sharp noise of distress that comes through the network, clearly unintentionally. Somewhere in the mess of memories that were unceremoniously shoved back into his brain all at once, it hadn't yet (re)occurred to him that this was possible.

Some time later, he returns to the network. His handwriting isn't quite as shaky and jagged as before, but the letters still appear more slowly than if the writer were entirely calm.]

yeah

[A minute later:]

i dont know how or why

handwritten; icly delayed an hour;

[earnedmystripes]

[Unfortunately, Adrian won't actually be getting a reply for a while. It's an hour later that Kotetsu rewrites the number into a new sheet of paper (the old one had been crumpled and tossed out with Audrey's video response wigging him out), handwriting still slightly shaky, but not as much as before.]

im okay

sorry for worrying you

handwritten; icly delayed an hour;

[earnedmystripes]

sorry

didnt leave town but forgot everything. weirded me out a bit

[Because obviously the way to deal with an embarrassing and overall public meltdown when you're still pretty fucked up but mostly calm is to minimize how fucked up you were initially, right?]

[ text ]

[fatherssins]

[ By this time Adrian had turned off the video, his response was in the form of a text ]

I'm still worried though.

handwritten; icly delayed an hour;

[earnedmystripes]

[>implying Kotetsu is ever coherent....]

im fine

sorry for the trouble

[earnedmystripes]

[God how many people saw this, why isn't there a way to delete shit.]

yeah im okay dont worry about me

sorry

[earnedmystripes]

sorry

[....that's all he's got.]

[lackinginfaith]

What's going on?

handwritten;

[earnedmystripes]

[He'd ordinarily try to scrounge up a smile from somewhere to try to reassure the kid, but he isn't really sure he trusts his expression or voice to remain steady right now.]

no its okay really

i just got kinda weirded out about forgetting this stuff all of a sudden.

[action!]

[earnedmystripes]

[As Nick approaches closer, he'll find Kotetsu hunched over and half-slumped against said desk, shaking as if he's cold. His face is partially buried in his arms, but it's still clear that he's pale and sweating, his breathing heavy and erratic.

He flinches as Nick speaks to him, trying to get up, to move away, but he's shaking too badly and all he achieves is falling over and taking the chair down with him. It's lucky he doesn't hit his head on the table.

Instead of getting up, though, he just...stares, distantly, still trembling. He's supposed to reply but words and thoughts are all jumbled up in his head and his mouth won't move.]

[recollection]

[Probably the same reason the network magically appears on anything and everything.]

You can save the apologies. What's done is done and people are worried anyways. [She does mean that in the best way possible though, considering that there's enough people freaked out and scared by current goings-on.]

How did you remember this thing though? Did something trigger it?

audio;

[immortalize]

[ She sticks to her phone because she doesn't have anything else on hand to write back, nor even have the patience for it or trying to type. ]

You don't need to be sorry. You haven't done anything. What's going on?

[ She's, at least, doing a good job keeping her voice steady despite the worry in her chest. ]

[action!]

[detectivetroll]

[Of all the possible reactions that Nick'd been expecting, Kotetsu trying to get away from him, especially in a way that ends up with both him and the chair on the ground, definitely wasn't one of them.

And it only gets worse when he doesn't move, and just keeps staring. Now Nick's actually concerned. He doesn't get involved in people's problems, but this is different. This is Kotetsu, and it's the middle of a work day, and there must be something really wrong.]

Nice one, Sarge, next time I'll wear a bell or something and save the sneaking up on for the criminals.

[He says it loudly enough for the other officers - the ones subtly or not so subtly looking over - to hear, as he straightens the chair and crouches down. Then his voice lowers.]

Man, what happened? It must be really bad, what do you need?

[Voice]

[espigeonage]

[Julien doesn't use the voice function much. When he does now, he mostly sounds weary.]

Feels like it can always get worse, doesn't it?