text;

[brotimaeus]

So, I got to wondering.
I can understand wanting to get as far as fuck away from all this shit even if you don't remember any of it happening to you.
And wanting to keep the people you care about out of danger.

I've seen plenty of people talk about family and friends who dropped off the network.
How many of them are still around? Still in touch?

Comments

[disdainfully]

My brother and nephew are still in Las Vegas, and a friend moved to New York; but I am still in touch with them. One... let Locke City and fell out of touch, but not of his own volition.

[brotimaeus]

And how much do they know about all of this? How much do they even believe?

[There's a pause.]

I got a point with asking.

[disdainfully]

Two of them are still in close contact with numbered and have seen numbered things; they believe what they know and know most things.

The one that moved to New York... I cannot quite tell, but he at least hasn't expressed disbelief of the things in the notes that he left himself and the things that I tell him.

[brotimaeus]

Hard not to see what goes on here these days. We got the media over us like a damn rash.

I'd have to call denial on anyone who didn't believe what they were seeing.

[disdainfully]

At least they are a bit friendlier now than they used to be. [Not that that helps much.]

[peacefulwinter]

I know there are a few that haven't really gone anywhere. Some of them are people I was close to... people I still see on a regular basis, or at least when I'm in Locke. [Annie, Cerise, so many others... Banagher... it's hard to think about some of them when she hasn't been back to Locke City - fighting aside - in months.] I try to keep in touch with them, but it's hard when they see the things we do on TV and they wonder if they're really possible. Even if they know us. Even if they've seen us do those things since they lost their numbers, or whatever the phenomena is.

[A long, pregnant pause.] That doesn't even include the people whose friends and family have died while they were numbered.

[brotimaeus]

Yeah.

I'm trying to work out if I want to stay in touch with someone or just let them live their life not knowing I'm involved in all this shit they keep seeing on the news. It's not easy.

[peacefulwinter]

I think I've made a mistake, not keeping in as close of touch with some of my friends I met on the network. Just because they're not part of this, doesn't mean they don't remember the time they spent with you. Or, in reverse... if you don't tell them and they find out from the television, they'll wonder why you never said anything.

Even if someone leaves, that doesn't mean they're not still going to worry about the people they left behind, no matter how vague the memory. And it won't stop you from worrying about them, either.

[brotimaeus]

You might have a point.

I made my own mistakes that mean I ain't as close to my family as I'd like to be. Some of them anyway. We got close under all this Numbered stuff, but now he doesn't remember any of that.

You reckon getting in touch is a good idea?

[peacefulwinter]

I think so, in this case. Even if they don't remember why you were close, they should still recognize that you were there, and now you aren't. Anyone would be confused by that, right? Even if you only reach out to make sure everything is okay, it can mean a lot.

Text

[vaimo]

All I ever come back to thinking is whether or not it would be safer for the people I know not to know what's happening. [She wouldn't willingly leave those that she cares for on the Network either.]

I have to admit that I haven't been as good as I should have been keeping in touch with people I met through the network since they lost their numbers, but the only person I knew before I was on the Network is still on the Network as well. Do you have people you knew that you've lost contact with?

Text

[brotimaeus]

Yeah.
My nephew.

I don't think I want to bring him back into all this, but he's the only blood family I got that thinks anything of me.

Text

[dead_black_eyes]

I've known a lot of people, and I've fallen out of touch with most of them.

There's more for me here, with the people who actually need my help. I trust everyone else to find their way without unnecessarily tangling themselves up in my affairs.

Text

[brotimaeus]

Yeah. I've got a lot going on here too.

But I had some family on the network once.

Text

[dead_black_eyes]

...Dirk, wasn't it? He was close with Tony, I understand.

Text

[brotimaeus]

Yeah. My nephew.

I'm thinking his mom is happier without my being in his life but I never really listen to a damn thing she says.

Text

[dead_black_eyes]

Blood ties and biological family are highly overrated.

{As the estranged black sheep of his entire family, L would know.]

text

[scarlet_devil]

One of my cousins, Roselle, was once Numbered and dropped off the network before I became Numbered. I haven't spoken to her for some months, since she moved away.

text

[brotimaeus]

Were you close before?

Re: text

[scarlet_devil]

With Roselle? Not as much as I would have liked.

text

[brotimaeus]

The Numbered thing doesn't help none, does it.

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Several of them has disappeared entirely or moved away but I still have some family and friends left.

[brotimaeus]

Lucky you.

When you say 'disappeared entirely'... you want to be a bit more specific? Because I don't like the sounds of that.

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Lost contact with is what I mean. I don't think it's malicious or anything, just that they moved away and got busy and stuff and our emails/texts dwindled down into nothing. That's pretty normal and happens sometimes.

[brotimaeus]

Yeah.
Takes two to keep contact, I guess.