savetheearth | [ voice, 12/18, after dark ]

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[ voice, 12/18, after dark ]

[ the voices are somewhat muffled because the phone is in his pocket. neither of them sound in good shape. ]

I'll-- I'll help you up. Let's go.

[ those who know nick will recognize the second voice as his: ] This is turning out to be a pretty crappy rescue, man, I'm sorry. [ this is followed by the sound of clothes rustling as the two dudes get up. ] It's this way.

[ the sound of snow crunching beneath shoes might be faintly heard. ]

Two trauma cases. First, hemorrhage, suspected class two. Second, penetrating trauma, chest, broken ribs. Not... No major blood loss yet. [ a pause. ] Where are we?

Just outside of town. [ this is followed by a more precise location. ]

Requesting aid. And if anyone can contact... Ravindra, that'd be great. Thanks.

[ a short stretch of silence. ]

Re- Recline your chair or lie in the backseat.

I can manage, your injuries sounded a lot worse. There's a first aid kit in the back. [ the muffled sound of a car door opening. ] I only have basic training, but if you tell me what to do I can help.

[ rustling as alex sits down, butt-ending the connection. ]

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[Literally never sleeping is as it seems a boon indeed - and thank God, there's a further resonse - ] -- ...I called him -- yes... -- Are you -- are you both, erm -- ?

["All right" is an obvious no, and "there" calls for no reassuring meaning.]

Conscious. [ then his tone temporarily lifts. ] Holding a very merry conversation, actually.

Thank you, Anthony.

[Well. Evidently he wasn't the only one and there's nothing in the above conversation to confirm that he was so much as the one who got there first, so, active Sanity boost dampened.

Hearing from Alex again, though, is deeply relieving - manages a twitching kind of smile, even more unstable as he's not sure whether that's a wryly jesting about something additional to worry about sort of tonal lightness, but anyway, moves on mentally scampering for something else productive to do or say - ] ... -- Did he uhm.

Did he -- say -- that he was coming - yet?

Yeah, he's on his way.

[ a short pause, then ] What day is it today?

Wednesday -- [Muffled and hesitant once the first start sounds not out of uncertainty but because is that even what he means - or is it the date that he needs, if it's the date - ] It's the - it's the eighteenth - ...

What?

[ it's a breathy sort of disbelief, but it still manages to make his next breath a little more pained than the rest.

the eighteenth. the eighteenth.

he was in the ground for six days. if nick hadn't dug him up, would he had ever gotten up?

holy fucking shit balls. alex is creeped out.

you know what that means! time to regard all things creepy with light-heartedness. ]

From one dead-not-dead brother to another, that is some weird shit.

[Even without the element of pain, a "what" - a breathy "what" - is a thoroughly disconcerting response to being told what day it is - what around Anthony's mouth that's in-tact enough to move does so - for this entire time has he been he doesn't know what he would've been doing, tests it - ] Uhm. Ravindra said that er - he hadn't -- seen you since - Thursday - ...

[Distant poking-at-it-with-a-stick questioning whether that would have been the last day he remembered it being.]

Yeah... The armor I gave you? It showed up on me in public. So I got arrested, and then...

[ alex is suddenly struck with the idea to tell anthony everything sherman had told him so that anthony could, in turn, tell the rest of the network. it might help him feel a little less frustrated ... alex hopes, anyway.

except he isn't sure if he wants that information out to everyone.

alan and octavia come to mind. brash hearts with understandable intentions, but brash nonetheless. they can't be the only ones like that, either, just the easiest to recall.

but he really doesn't want to sit on any of this...

he glances at nick beside him, then looks back to the back of the front seat. ]

... I was arrested and then staked.

[ what should he dooooooooooooo ]

[In that first bit there his first impulse is to assume blame but that's caught and culled quickly, that just happens, no one knows how to keep the items in place -

And on the final one, he doesn't stumble - but is caught.

Caught tight, as it's actually processed - and he's reeled into the inside chilled and vacant on the out in the process willing himself to take it as matter-of-factly as possible while giving the thought it's due. Don't over-imagine it; it didn't kill him, obviously.

Anthony shakes it off. No more settled of course - wide eyes, tensed. Thickly and probably visibly dry-swallows something down, a kind of spidering dread, more than anything, and dread doesn't even make sense, it's not news, not to Alex, at least...] What - what did it do...?

[One of those sorts of attempted questions. Barely inflected as a question and strandedly muttered.]

[ he presumes anthony is referring to the staking. ]

Not kill me permanently. [ an uncomfortable swallow. ] But I think I did... die. And then the- the next minute, I'm outside, covered in dirt, freezing.

That's what it felt like, anyway.

Nick. He, um, got me out.

[Dread is nonsense.

And he should not be feeling this - contracting in his chest, a sort of wooziness, his entire system's dead by now, what is doing that - words still compressed.] - Good, erm -- what ha -- happened to him.

[It was implied and sounded as if the both of them are injured. He's endeavoring to not too vividly overthink the rest of that, either.]

[ he sucks in his next breath through his teeth. he doesn't want to admit it. he's ashamed to admit it.

after a short delay, he murmurs, ] I fed on him.

-- Oh. [That is really all he has to say to that. It's uncomfortable. Another wave of a queasiness and misgiving flicks on through, but Nick sounded again, not fine but there. Coherent. Alex had reconfirmed a few exchanges ago that they were both conscious - it could've been willingly allowed.

He looks about the way he sounds - grimly, mildly-surprisedly neutral.]

[ so much to infer from a simple 'oh'.

his stomach twists with shame. not knowing how to respond, he lets the conversation die. ]

[Lets it "die", does he. Except... that's not funny at all.

He waits a few beats for any more details Alex might be willing to disclose, and when there's not another word, that contracted thing he's got a sensation of inside him goes steadily pulling downward.]

- Are -

- are you still... - there?

[Ravindra was on his way, Again that was confirmed.

Either way, any lack of further response is, one way or another, not a good thing in the remotest.]

[ certain that he's been judged, alex isn't quite sure what to make of anthony's followup.

quietly: ] Yeah.

[ a note of self-derisive humor is perched on the tip of his tongue, but he keeps his mouth shut. better not dig this metaphorical grave any deeper. ]

-- Okay... [A little strained and weary sounding, sort of thick and carried on breath. In attitude the breathing's got a component of stress and a component of relief. The component of stress is bolstered by virtue of it being breathing, at this point.

His eyelids sort of - sag a little and his eyes go skimming the lower half of a side of his connection point. And he's got nothing, he doesn't even know that literally every one of Ravindra's contacts hadn't said something by the time he'd called let alone Bakura, and would like to say for what it's worth that it's a sheer relief Alex has been found, but he's got no idea how desperate that would sound.]

[ he feels, suddenly, that he's failed anthony. that there is a palpable disappointment in their conversation despite the fact that it exists purely in his imagination. but anthony does have reason to feel disappointment. anyone who comes across this conversation, preserved on the Network, will have a reason to be disappointed. and disgusted.

he closes his eyes. ]

Level with me, Anthony. What are you thinking right now?

It's, uhh.

[Rather desperate, it is.]

It's -- good to know - you're -- [...the thought he had there was most faithfully coherable as "not dead", but that's rather a strange thing to say...] ... -- "back" -...

[That word slowly said. Floating a bit, outside the consonant sounds, as that sounds downright not-quite-right semantically. He looks more attentive - gets his eyes back on the connection, if drifting off since he still feels rather embarrassed and helpless that he had no part in it - but still, the bottom line is that Alex has been found.]

[ self-derisive humor flares up again.

he bites his tongue again.

he sits, hoping for a better response and coming up with none. eventually, he gives up. ]

Yeah. Sorry to worry you.

[ sorry for fucking up. sorry for this shitty, bloodlust echo. ]

... Vin'll be here soon. I'll talk to you later, okay?

A - all right. ... -- I'm - sorry if I -- ...if this really hasn't helped, I'm uhm -- I just - [Clips off at a small tone cleanly.

Something like "you know" comes to mind. That'd be inappropriate even if Alex did know if he was getting at anything, let alone himself - thus, have a repetition in essence. Wearier, but more fluent.] ...It is -- good to know that it wasn't too late - [What, now, that wasn't exactly the same thought at all - ] I will -- talk to you later, I hope...

I hope so, too.

[ later, 19th, butt o'clock in the morning (before alex goes to bed): ]

[ voice, private to anthony ]
Hey, Anthony. Just wanted to let you know we all made it back okay. Gimme a holler when you get this.

[Oh-ho, he was going nowhere - and receives it immediately.]

-- Here I am -- good... uhm. [Still some nerve-racked tension, but enough of the tone's relieved. Tentative, but relieved.] -- Are you, uhm. Still there - ?

Yeah, yeah, still here. Vin's exhausted -- looks like that took a lot out of him... He's gonna sleep it off.

[A little floating clinging to a question - and then remembers yes, that's right, Ravindra's got healing abilities - ] -- Oh - [In fact it's not even hit him until just now that that would also be a factor in why it was as important as it was that he headed over.] -- And how uhm --

[Asking how he and Nick are is excessive, Alex had just assured that they'd gotten back fine. Gives up that thought with a throat-clearing cough.]

-- Thanks, um. - ...For, erm -- ...contacting me.

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