HA131A | Text + Audio | Night 23

[clowngirl]

[If you were paying attention yesterday, you may have caught an accidental SOS that was sent out by the callsign BT612L. Of course, having only just arrived on the island earlier today, Harley has managed to accidentally do the exact same thing right after finding her own nifty transceiver upgrade.

SOS is sent out in morse code ("...---...") once each through both text and audible beeping.

A few minutes later, after privately contacting K to let him know she's okay, Harley sends the following audio out to everyone:]

Oh! Oopsy-daisy! My bad, that was just this whatsit that goes in my thingy. I'm alright unless you hear it again and then I probably broke somethin' like my walkie or my arm.

Nighty-night, island peeps!

Comments

BT612L; voice

[ichoosefight]

Oh hey, you found one too? Does yours also look like a little antenna?

voice

[clowngirl]

YES! Are we twins or is this like a whole thing? It only works on the island, right? Otherwise it'd be too easy and we'd get outta the Hunger Games or whatever?

voice

[ichoosefight]

Who knows? It's a pretty small device, so the waves might not reach too far. The real question is if there's anyone out there past these islands. We might be a lot more "post-apocalypse" than Hunger Games.

Hey, can you turn it on again, just for a minute? I have a map thing, and I wanna see if the SOS will show up on it.

[clowngirl]

Ew, I hate post-apocalypses. Everybody's all angsty and depressed.

[She'll push the SOS again, and wait for Steph to tell her when to turn it off.]

Where'd you get a map thing? I want a map thing...

[ichoosefight]

I just found it in a drawer. Are you in the northeast, near the shore? I've got an exclamation point over there that wasn't there before.

[clowngirl]

YES! That's me!

--Oh, you-- you can't see it but I'm wavin'!

So all I gotta do is find somethin' that has a drawer and us Gotham Gals could have our own friendship signal.

[ichoosefight]

[ ... Yeah sure okay. She did snort a little picturing Harley waving at the sky. ]

They're in all sorts of weird places. But we've got two of these things, so maybe just use it if there's an actual emergency? 'Cause I'll come running, and you know how it went for the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

[clowngirl]

You betcha!

...Is loneliness an emergency?

[ichoosefight]

No, it is not.

[clowngirl]

Fiiiiiiine. But only 'cause I don't want to worry ev'rybody right now.

[ichoosefight]

So it's fine if you're just worrying me? I'll remember that.

[clowngirl]

You're from Gotham! Your heart is usedta that life-or-death stress. Prob'ly nearly died more times checkin' the mail than most folks have in their lifetimes.

[ichoosefight]

Hey, I know how to check the mail without getting blown up. I'm not a child.

[ No big deal, just joking around with Harley fricken' Quinn... She's not wrong about the stress. ]

[clowngirl]

...Y'know, I might actually take a few tips if you got 'em. Ev'ryone is always tryin' to blow me up for some crazy reason and sometimes I just wanna unwind with the funnies before somebody tries to kill me, y'know?

[ichoosefight]

[ ...What's a nice way to say 'don't be a supervillain'? ]

I dunno if I have any of those kinds of tips. I'm not usually targetted on a personal level, you know? Just a general "mass mayhem" level.

[clowngirl]

Oh, right! 'Cause you're a regular, uh--

What was your deal again?

[ichoosefight]

Uh, I'm in college...? So I'm a regular college kid, I guess.

[clowngirl]

Hey, I was one'a those once!

[A pause.]


Maaaaybe don't go pre-med, kid.

[ichoosefight]

[ She snorts. She probably isn't supposed to get that joke. ]

No worries there. I'll take a hard pass on that much school. I'm only enrolled now because Mom wanted me to give it a try.

[clowngirl]

Worth a shot. Have fun. Don't sleep with any of your professors and you'll prob'ly be fine.

REACTION/NOT HERE (cw: surreal imagery, hallucinations/nightmares)

[salamanca]

[ Lalo doesn't have access to his walkie or, for that matter, his hands. He tries to struggle, rubbing his hands together and trying to get out of the rope. He's breathing heavily, chest heaving, forehead stained by sweat, which is making him shiver now that night has come.

He is absolutely covered in blood. So, so, so, so much blood. Worse than the time the elephant splashed on him. Worse than any other time before.

The waters flow with his blood. His heart, pounding in his chest, beats faster and faster, thuds harder and harder to keep pumping his blood into the island so the rivers can continue to flow.

Then it happens.

Morse code. SOS. He hears it faintly in the distance; on his device and on Cohle's. SOS. SOS. Everything flashes red around him. The sky flashes red. In the sky, there are smiley white teeth. Like a caiman's. They are gone in an instant. He looks to his side.

A shiny, white, caiman smile, brilliant in the dark. It doesn't disappear until, eyebrows furrowed quizzically, he blinks at it. His head pounds. His heart pounds even more.

SOS. SOS. SOS.

His heart has to keep pounding. Right now it's not fast enough. It's slowing. But that's not enough blood to keep the island alive. His heart needs to pump faster... faster... faster...

SOS. SOS. SOS.

His eyes feel heavy as he slides into unconsciousness, his heart rate slowly as the rivers in the island slow to a standstill too. They don't dry up but they start to pool and stagnate and the blood in them begins to rot as Lalo's eyes close... slowly...

And then he's jolting into waking again. The rivers flow with water. Everything is normal. The SOS is gone.

The smiling mouth is still there. ]