[ phone audio ]

[struckout]

They killed him!!

[ Some time after the rather unfortunate message by Paul is cut off, it's this that pierces the network as a reaction, full of fury and horror and who knows what else from the utterly distraught Kallie who happened to witness it. Her voice is slightly echoing in a way that suggests she's still in her bathroom, but as for any visual, it's been days since she had the foresight to cover both cameras on her phone. Regardless, her tone should be more than enough to spell out her feelings on the matter...

Or in other words, spell out that she's right in the middle of being mired in sheer panic. Her breathing is rough and audible, but for a moment more it seems like her initial outburst is going to be the worst of what she has to say... up until her anger seems to focus again, voice rising even louder than before- ]

You!! Captain whatever!! What do you have to say for yourself?!

[ Nonsensical, perhaps, but her lashing out is more than furious enough to emphasize her point- with a distinct smash of something breaking before she continues. ]

Are you happy now?!

Comments

[ audio; cellphone, lying by the floor ]

[secondcomingof]

[ More noise. More noise. Exactly what he doesn't need right now, exactly what he doesn't need...

He hears the fury rising out of her like some vengeful volcano, fit to consume everything in its wake. He hears it and again he is reminded of that man who thirsted for the deaths of millions, billions. What do you have to say for yourself, Char Aznable?!

That collected person, that charm, every charismatic tool in his arsenal fails him, fails him completely and utterly in this moment.

He screams right back at her, consumed in his own terrible rage. ]

Happy?! Happy?! You think I wished for this to happen, you idiotic girl? [ But you did wish for it to happen, Char. Every last one of them, destroyed. This is only the beginning. ] We've been led around like rats! We're being invaded by bloody rats, and you think I'm somehow... somehow...

[ Breathe. Breathe. But you're going to die anyway, remember? You're going to die and... ]

This is your fault! People like you who refused to see it! I told you, I told you! Do you believe me now?

[ Hey, he can break things, too. In fact, he's already broken most of what's in his office, save for his computer. ]

Are you happy now?!

[struckout]

[ Kallie is beyond overwhelmed by this point, and naturally the accusations in return do little to soothe that. Her phone clatters to the ground as he screams at her, her hands clamping to her ears as the sound fills her tiny tiled bathroom. ]

Shut up... shut up...!

[ It would have been murmured if it wasn't also so loud, even if it's also nowhere near the shouting from just a minute earlier. Her logic has failed her, given way to the paranoia crowding in so insistently the last few days since this started. It doesn't make sense, but she's latched onto the idea that the man who set off her internal alarms before has to responsible as well-- no matter how upset he sounds too. ]

I know you're with them.

[secondcomingof]

[ Oh, he's just getting started. This is only the beginning. He can sense that retreat in her tone, the fear, the cowering and he hones in on it like the fiercest of beasts, like he's back on the battlefield and she's just another target to be shot down.

And for all he knows, she is. No was to be trusted. No one.

The sneer in his tone is practically audible. ]

Think I orchestrated this mess, do you? Think it was all some lie I crafted for the fun of it? Because I'm wearing this uniform, I'm in on it? Let me tell you something. You're nothing. I could make you into less than nothing without even trying, so don't you dare— [ hissing ] —don't you dare pin this on me for being so weak. You managed that all on your own, girl. You didn't save him anymore than I did. You didn't save him and I told you we were in the same boat and you didn't listen. Going to keep running? I bet you'd try. I bet you'd try and run straight into a fucking wall and wind up just like him.

[ Something like a laugh escapes him, but it's deranged. Quieter. Still. Like a snake in the grass waiting to lunge and expose its fangs. ]

Because there's nowhere to run. Not for any of us. Not at all.

[struckout]

[ Fear was something present here alright, a natural symptom of the clashing uneasiness that's seized Kallie since her life abruptly began spiraling out of control, thrown into high gear by the young man's death. Normal people don't receive numbers in their head and gain the ability to speak with other people using whatever is within reach... they can't just point at whatever's pissing them off and cause lightning to strike!

If they find her, find out what she can do, she'll be shot down, just like that guy-- that kid who she doesn't even know the name of.

But.

This is different. He's pushing and agitating her even further, yet the pressure his words are putting on her... they don't scare her, per se. But...

She doesn't answer, eyes closed and hands still pressed over her ears, but her jaw clenches, a new sort of irritation running up her spine and filling her chest. ]

[secondcomingof]

[ Casval seethes through his teeth, but the underlying screech in his tone dies down. Satisfied, if only for the moment, in her seeming surrender. ]

See. That's what I thought. All attitude and condescension and then you have to face reality like I did and look where you get. [ If he's aware of the hypocrisy of saying this, it doesn't deter him from continuing to press. From continuing to scrape away at any layers he can tear off. ] Curled up by your lonesome, trying to hide, but you can't.

Go on and keep pissing and moaning about it. Boohoo.

Tears aren't enough to fix any of this and I hope you bloody drown in them same as the rest of us.

[struckout]

[ She wants to get away, pulling her knees up closer to her body and pressing her face against them. Run and hide, just like he says. Futile. Pathetic. She continues tensing as his words keep biting into her.

And then that feeling pulses through her again, and for just a second, as she straightens and puts out her hands to steady herself, it feels like there's something beneath - or in - one of them. She glances down blearily, but there's nothing there on the floor beside her- nothing but two white feathers seeming to shine in the semi-darkness.

What does that mean? The logic of the matter pulls at her even in the midst of her upset. ]

What is wrong with you?

[ Her voice is still shaking but isn't hysterical anymore, stressed but dark with loathing. It doesn't matter if her initial accusation of this man doesn't hold up to sense... his words are acidic and wrong and, in that moment, she realizes that even if he hasn't turned on the lot of them already, he's going to eventually- ]

How do we know you won't go to them, selling us out to save your own hide? [ After all, he's already said it, just now: "I could make you less than nothing--" ] You're not from here, why don't you just get out?

[secondcomingof]

[ Loathing. A feeling he knows well, and even better now, consumed with it as he is as a result of that... that whatever which had invaded his mind, his presence, his sanity. The shift in her tone to a stinging bite gets him to reel from surprise. Most prey, once subdued, didn't fight back, so having fire flung in his face burns. He sounds appropriately rattled by it, once he gathers himself enough to respond. ]

I... it wouldn't do me any good. [ Casval isn't brave. He never was, not after that day. Now is when his cowardliness shines through. ] I'm stuck like the lot of you.

[ Paralyzed. Too afraid to move. Confined by the memories that aren't his. He refuses to believe they're his. He shudders, hoarsely sputtering along. ]

Y-you're not the only one feeling betrayed, you know. So don't go pitying yourself too much. It's pathetic.

( audio, laptop )

[argents]

[ Though less enraged, Banagher's voice is just as shaken. Everything about him is shaken, down to the core. ]

Who? Who could be happy over something like this? There should have been someone there! Someone should have been able to prevent this, and still...!

[ He hasn't really thought that sentiment through quite yet, but the one thing he knows for certain is that this should not have happened. A life gone, extinguished right where they all could bear witness. For what reason? ]

[struckout]

Why don't you ask him yourself?

[ Her phone's in her lap, between her body and raised knees, so aside from the shaking, it's possible too that Kallie's voice is muffled. She wouldn't be so affected and illogical if this wasn't exactly what she was afraid of in the first place- that someone out there did not have friendly intentions. ]

[argents]

I don't even know who you're trying to single out! Why would it be someone here, when he was coming to us for help? Wasn't he?

[ And they'd been unable to do a thing.

He's trying, god is he ever trying, to even out his voice. Things that were beginning to make sense suddenly don't, and while they were potentially stuck in some bizarre crossfire, they'd heard—seen...

Banagher sighs, slowly. ]

[struckout]

That guy, who was presenting on here a few days ago. [ The first day, actually, but there's no way for her to know if who she's talking to was there at the beginning or not. She pauses, but then finally brings up the name she remembers him giving, biting the syllables off with dark disdain: ] Casval Mass.

[ She's just a university student, aware of general things but uninterested in politics... so she isn't aware of whatever fame the man's managed to gather elsewhere. She hates him, though- hates what he represents, what he's available to stand in for when she doesn't know either the men who just murdered that boy for all of them watching to see. ]

[argents]

Casval?

[ Now he sounds really confused. Though he only has a somewhat odd first impression to go by, it was far from that of someone who'd murder an innocent. And beyond her anger, the spitting hatred, he sifts the panic, the fear, through. Pushes it all aside. ]

Listen. I don't know why this happened, any of it... what reason there could possibly be for something so senseless.

[ Yeah, he heard the rest. The hypocrisy of not wanting to kill. He—It—an invasion. But he guesses it makes as much sense to him as it does everyone else. ]

But because we don't know anything, we shouldn't sling the blame around like this. We can't.

[struckout]

[ ... Yeah, already logic is finally starting to make its reappearance, and there are no words for how embarrassed Kallie is going to feel later for this...

But that said, her suspicion refuses to fade - especially after the literally screaming response she got back, the threats and overall weirdness; her stubbornness doesn't and won't take 'stressed irrationality' as complete justification. He's still in a position to really screw them over with that military/police connection already there.

Arguing further isn't something her aching head is willing to entertain, though. She falls silent, nerves totally frayed. ]

text [clipboard]

[horrorterribubble]

wait

why the hell is this captain whatever's fault again?

what am i missing here?

audio for forever

[struckout]

I know he's with them... he has to be.

[ No, she doesn't have any actual proof that the unnamed guy in question is any more guilty of anything than she is, aside from them slinging attitude at each other over the network a few days ago. All she's working off right now is paranoia and shock. ]

[horrorterribubble]

he one of the po po or somethin?

[struckout]

[ Her eyes are blurring as she reads the screen, her brief attempts to switch to text as well failing before she even manages a single word unmangled by the combination of autocorrect and unsteady fingers. She does try though, even if she's forced to just keep talking instead. ]

He already said he works at the base... trying to gather information on us.

[horrorterribubble]

ugh



well that's why we need to keep info like that to people we can trust

which is a distinction we should figure out post haste yeah?

[struckout]

What do you think I've been doing?

[ She scoffs, pulling a hand through hair that feels dirty and disgusting even if it hasn't been that long since she last showered. Her entire body feels that way, though... not exactly the kind of grime that can be washed off with soap and water. ]

If there's one person we can't trust on this network thing though... it's him.

audio

[11ady]

Breaking down in a public venue isn't going to do you much good. Bide your time and save your strength.

[She knows it's you, Kallie. She'd call you out by name but she doesn't know how secure the line is.]

[struckout]

[ At this point, it's very very wise that she didn't use Kallie's real name here- so far she's yet to take notice of a conversation in progress between two others, but who knows. If the young woman knows anything by now it's that none of them actually understand anything about how this stupid thing works.

Unfortunately, that decision of Elle's also only means Kallie keeps quiet instead of growing angrier or even lashing out. It's kind of too late to take back her outburst, so telling her it won't do much good ... isn't much good. ]

[11ady]

[sigh]

You know who I am and you know how to reach me.

[If she wants to make a private call, Elle's all ears. She'll just end this feed and watch her phone.]

[struckout]

[ Funny thing, the day she was attacked by the mutant cats and reunited with her old high school bio teacher in the process... that was the day she went out to a store on the other side of the city and purchased in cash another phone- just a crappy prepaid one, but she had a hunch that if this mess continued she may need a number that wouldn't point so immediately to her.

She figured it was a pretty flimsy shield, but it also made her feel slightly better.

As it is, after finally managing to drag herself up off the floor and washing her mouth out for a bit, it's that phone that she goes for, wrestling it from the bag it was stashed in... and after a few minutes more of intense frowning, using it to call the number the other woman had given her when they'd briefly met.

She flops onto her bed as she waits, slinging an arm over her eyes as she listens to the first ring. ]

[11ady]

[Elle's quick to pick up, barely letting it ring. It's a crime to waste another person's time.]

Hello?

[struckout]

... It's me.

[ Nothing more, nothing less. She hasn't a clue on what to say next, nor the energy to figure it out anyway. For now she's pretty much cried and emotioned out entirely. ]