savetheearth | Twenty-Third Message [Video

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Twenty-Third Message [Video | Sheet of Paper]

[A good amount of time after dark when this recording comes in. It's badly lit, and even if it wasn't, nobody's onscreen.

The voice is telling, though - murmuring extra low, hoarse, and with anxious held-flat inflection. He feels rather like an idiot for even asking this - even if someone wasn't fine, what'd he even be expected to do about it? But hearing something will get his nerves humming less, at the least. Or get him thinking about something he may be able to contribute to - maybe - once his brain's not-so-violently tossing and turning.]

-- Uhh. [Assuming he's properly connected...]

It's Anthony Janvier.

Please, umm. - Who was - who was there? And, uh -- who's all right?

[Clears his throat. Cuts of a quick "Nn-?"] No one died - did they -- ...?

[That dragged off with a scraping edge - realistically, it's very likely someone did, isn't it, given how many of them were there?

At present, he's not exactly capable of reading a previous message giving a partial answer to that question.]

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Anthony? Are you OK?

[Rakka groans softly, rubbing her head as the screen turns on her laptop. She looks a little flushed.]

I-I was there. There was a lot of fighting... and a lot of bodies.

[This isn't a familiar voice to his recollection, though he's racking his brain, but of course he's not going to decline to answer.]

Yes -- I'm fine, are - you? [It's slightly withdrawn, as again, he's not sure who he's asking - making it sound as plain amicable as fitting, will adjust for further fittingness (and that goes beyond appropriateness) if anything else to be gleaned comes up.]

[He had not been in position to see the aftermath at its worst.

Again, that there would've been many who died makes swallowing, sickening sense.

Breathes with a thin "Hnnh" noise to stall. He's tempted to ask how bad it was - first question to come to mind - but that's a horrid thing to nudge a discussion toward.

Coming off a snag:]

-- You don't sound -- [Doesn't sound necessarily fine. THat groan could've just been tiredness.] -- What about you... what - did you do...?

[Drops off muffled. Awkward question, somehow - difficult to assume anyone wants to relive earlier goings-on, but it's a twofer; he's asking if she's fine and is somewhat curious if she did do anything particular, given how little he's picked up on her pulses. Assuming he's correctly remembering this voice.

Clearer pickup:]

-- This is Rakka -- right?

I'm fine, Anthony. Are you okay and somewhere safe?

[He sounds exhausted and there's a small bit of concern in his tone as he speaks. There's a momentary pause at the question about 'no one died', assuming it was meant for other members of the network, but it couldn't help to mention about people who weren't.]

...There were a lot of civilian causalities.

Busted a leg. Otherwise I'm tired but fine.

And I can fly, so really the leg isn't THAT big a deal.

[There's a silence as L continues to just listen to the quality of Anthony's voice. He can't see him clearly, but believing that this guy is a walking corpse isn't really so difficult.]

Decent. I'm sorry, but a lot of people died. Plenty of unnumbered civilians, and at least one numbered girl.

Edited 2014-03-10 05:52 (UTC)

Hi, Anthony.

[ it seemed like a good way to start out. she sounds tired and she sniffs and coughs, apologizing under her breath for having done it into her phone ]

Ah... I'm sorry, Anthony. It's true, there are... a lot of casualties. Been finding a lot of them... [ and it's torture on her stomach to do it, but not in the way it would for most people. ] But I don't know any... that I've found, at least... sorry.

[ an apology just sounds appropriate. ]

Ah... I'm fine... dusty. Some cuts and bruises, but a lot of it's already on the mend.

Were you here, too?

Edited 2014-03-10 06:57 (UTC)

No one I... knew well, as far as I am aware.

Y-yeah, it's me.

[She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Everyone was turning their things on at night and she had to reply to at least some of them.]

I...[A moment to think. Her head was clouded.] I was fighting the snakes and stuff. Helping people.

Are you alright?

I... [ There's a long pause. ] I tried to assist as many people as I could, but I couldn't save them all.

[Takes him a moment to move past the mental flash at the voice; surprised, and somewhere a layer or so under that relieved.

Then pushes his brain to processing that...]

I was afraid of that -- [Voice constricts and sticks a little, as that is, again, the painfully-logical obvious and expected; has no idea what more to say.

Shakes it off - proceeds, answers the question.]

-- I am all right -- and - safe... -- I have been since, umm. [He's not sure what time of day it was by then; difficult to estimate, also, with the way things had been going.] -- Uhh -- Alex said - you were fine; it's -- ...nice talking to you again - Xander.

[A bit muttering. He doesn't want to make a point of saying that if Xander would rather not.]

Edited 2014-03-11 02:23 (UTC)

Good to -- good to hear it - uhmm. -- Have you heard - from... anyone else -- ?

[A little awkward winding into the inflection - and a hasty:]

-- Marisa.

[Partly to ensure that he's recognizing this voice correctly - not that he needs eyes to recognize a voice, but 'course nerves could be tricking him.]

[Luckily, Anthony couldn't see the visible wince Xander made when he heard the name Alex mentioned.]

I'm glad you're okay and it's good to talk to you as well. I'll have to thank... [A brief pause.] Alex at a later date for passing on the message.

[...Okay, maybe that wince did come through after all.]

[He does and yet doesn't want to ask roughly how many is "a lot" - and that's right, the library was within range of the first earthquake, as well...

His first response is a distracted "Mmh - " in the affirmative.]

-- I was in -

[Neat cutoff.]

- I was in the - ground... - cover group at the farmhouse -- ...The -- "alien" flew in - to the city, and -- someone caught it - that's - what caused the first explosion - ...

[Uncertain quivery waver and thin-off that time - it may have been partly their fault, then...]

[Another one confirmed as "still safe". Thank goodness.]

-- No one you knew -- at all, I -- hope.

The dead have yet to be numbered.

[Alex doesn't need to check in for his own sake, but he does for Anthony's.]

How're you holding-ing up?

[And a long silence, as well, on Anthony's end.

He might have been pre-sinking during the first one, and his voice comes out very cowed and thin, as he knows this is a platitude - hasn't an idea what else to say, but the sympathy's definitely sincere.]

-- I'm sorry...

[Rattles in a breath - is he remembering the last talk he had with someone with this voice correctly, yes, he's reasonably sure he is...]

You -- said you - said you have a friend who's -- here, too - right, uhm. -- Was he there, is he o -- okay?

[He's apparently bad at answering the question he himself was asked - he'll avoid it if he can.]

[Much as it's comforting to hear any familiar voice checking in after everything, Anthony is indeed not surprised to hear Alex's - grateful, though.]

I'm fine -- umm. -- You - ...?

[And a break as the inflection floats higher. His nerves are still a bit racked to say the least; that passes.]

[Flare of shock.

He figured the number civilians; it's enough of a fact he wishes wasn't present to dwell on or otherwise.

He did not hear about the numbered girl. Once that flare passes the first thoughts to go thinly twining up are hopeful but-maybes; he knows of two numbered girls who don't stay dead. Tavia had said that's the case with her. He saw another one die and come lifted back up this very day.

Forces tension to release, works up a throaty:]

-- What was her - name - ...?

["Name" a bit softer than the other three words - not sure that's the right question to be asking first.]

[A yawn...? Yes - perhaps just tired, then.]

Not, umm. -- Hurt - ?

-- You're not, I mean; not - badly...

[Better not hurt at all, of course, but to ask if someone who'd been caught in that much (and admitted to fighting, no less) had made it out completely unharmed might be aiming a bit too sorely high.]

[Use of "dead" and "numbered" in one phrase - low and decidedly not steady, a bit awkwardly-slurred, there's no good way to ask or comment on this - ]

-- Someone just told me one of us did - ...

-- Is something wrong - ...?

[Asked in an innocent enough tone - that pause definitely came through; Anthony's failing to make any manner of Alex-Xander connection]

N-no, just some cuts and scrapes and bruises. ...A lot of bruises.

[Those stupid snakes kept headbutting her.]

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Twenty-Third Message [Video | Sheet of Paper]

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