voice | morning>day | 001>002

[lonelynotforsaken]

[ LO431Y | VOICE | 001 ]

[Martin's day isn't going well. And he's shouting as loudly as Squalo had been on the first communication. He's also very clearly running.]

May day! May day may day may day! Oh, god! Oh, god! May day! There's- Drone. Electricity spikes. Oh, god! East jungle. Close to shore!

[His responses to things may be delayed depending on whether or not he can escape the thing.]

Comments

[aluminumandash]

[ Rust's picked up details from other conversations so they don't have to be written out six times—electrocuted, drugged—along with the near-certainty someone's listening in on the walkies. But what choice does he have? ]

Been 20 hrs. Give or take. [ Lost time's a bitch. ] Only 1 cell? Side effects from drug?

[lonelynotforsaken]

There's more than one, but I can't see into the others. No side-effects that I can tell other than my whole body hurts. I think that was the electrocution and sleeping on hard ground. I can't get more than my hand out between the bars. Looking for alternatives to getting out. There's a mattress in here. Maybe something with the coils.

[Possibly to use as a tool to grab something or a lockpick. Although, it's been a few years since he had to do B&E for Jon.]

[aluminumandash]

Protect self. Wrap hands before grabbing metal.

Fucking suspicious they left everything on you. [ He's off walkie a while, reading along with the lock discussion when he gets the chance. ] Door wired? Alarm, shock?

[lonelynotforsaken]

[He's already doing the first suggestion and doesn't bother to respond to it.]

I think the drone locked me up in here. It doesn't have anything on it that would let it remove things without injuring me. It doesn't look like any actual people have been in this place for a long time. I'm concerned they've left me for a guard that doesn't actually exist anymore. There's a toilet. Checking if I can get water out of the tank, but I only have a plum on me, otherwise, and I haven't had anything to drink since waking up.

[Dehydration would be a horrific way to die.]

There hasn't been any shock from the bars when I touched them. Or the door. Possible there's an alarm if I try to unlock it, but I need to touch it to see what I'm dealing with. None of you know where I am, and I don't know where I am. I'm not planning on any of you rescuing me.

[His tone remains matter-of-fact on that point. He's utterly alone and in serious danger of dying that way if he doesn't act. 'In the end, the only people we have to rely on is ourselves.' Peter's 'wisdom' hadn't always been wrong. Just mostly. Martin mentally shakes the insidious thoughts off. He can worry about that sort of thing later.]

[aluminumandash]

Someones flying the fuckers. [ A logical conclusion to draw in 1995, where all of us live. ] Reupping the drugs.

Good, keep your head on straight. Mundane shitll kill you just as dead. [ If there is an alarm, and Martin's right about the lack of human element (impossible), it could alert everyone to his location.

And if he's not right, he's likely fucking dead. ] Ill find you. May not be a rescue but it wont be you and the jungle.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Possibly. Or it's on an automated system. I'm the only one who's been taken, right? I'm not sure they'd still have the drugs if all three of them ran through their respective shots.

And it's fine. Take care of yourself first, Cohle. I'm not that important. I got myself into this by being stupid. [As the man had pointed out.] I'm the one who needs to handle it. But I do appreciate your advice.

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ He changes over to voice, since this sounds like it's taking a turn. This does not mean his voice contains any particular warmth, though he makes some effort to soften the edges. ] Mm, still sounds...expensive. [ He settles on, in lieu of "preposterous." ] Hard to maintain anything out in the jungle, your shit's gonna get wrecked real fast. And... [ And he still can't picture a drone, other than imagining some cross between a wasp and a helicopter. Can't conceive of a machine with the wit and maneuverability to zip through the trees. ] And who's paying the fucking electric bill?

Nobody's important. [ Rust says the word like he can't wait to get it out of his mouth, coming down hard on the "t"s. ] That's something people tell themselves, they wanna feel untouchable.

I think people not dying in cages is important.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Someone mentioned mountains. It's possible this is actually an island with a volcano.

[Given the heat and humidity pointing toward equatorial islands, he's guessing it's likely this is more like Hawaii and less like the British Isles.]

They've maybe got things running on geothermal energy, then. Which would mean you'd be generating your own electricity for ages. But I don't know how difficult those sorts of systems are to maintain.

[Admittedly.]

But some people are important. Maybe just because they matter to other people. Listen, if I do end up... not making it out of this, could you please keep an eye and ear out for my boyfriend, Jon Sims? He's the one I gave you the description for and he's the most important person in the world to me. [In more than one world. Some of the emotion does start to filter back into Martin's voice now.] He doesn't do well on his own. If I'm not around, he's going to need someone to look out for him, to help him survive. It doesn't have to be you, just... someone. Please.

lmao sorry he hates...love...

[aluminumandash]

[ Off walkie Rust snorts, boiling with the predictable human stupidity of it. Love a transcendent force. Love object the center of the universe. His patience gone, snapped, and in its place a sense of dislocation, as if his emotions had popped out of joint.

He breathes slowly, recovering himself. Delicacy. The man's worse off than he'd sounded. ] I'll do what I can. [ Said with the force of promise: direct, unwavering. Meant with the same force. ] He'll know what happened here, I'll find somebody to take care of him.

You wanna take a little break, talk about him?

Not here.

[salamanca]

[ Hahahaha! Fuck you, pig! If he has to be saddled with an annoying obligation, then so do you. :) At least his is cute! Kinda. ]

[lonelynotforsaken]

[Jon is an easy topic, one of Martin's favorites. Talking about him means he doesn't have to talk about himself. But there's a longish pause as he works out what to say to someone who has no context for their relationship or their world.]

We met at work. He was the Head Archivist of the research institute where we worked. He's a really dedicated man, throwing himself into his work all the time. Barely stopping to think about sleep or food or... anything else. I've always admired how focused he could be. The last archivist left the place a shambles, so we had to work extra hard to get it back in order when Jon took over. It was hard work... so much to add notes on and file properly, right? [So many worms to run screaming from, doors to avoid, monsters.] Jon never wavered, though. He worked harder than anyone I'd ever met. And he let me make him tea and coffee. Even when he was grumpy and hadn't got enough sleep.

I got sick for a while--[he was under siege in his own home]--and when I came back, he was actually really concerned about me. That's when I realized that all his sharp edges were just him trying to seem a lot tougher and on top of things than he felt. There was so much work to do and he was in charge of it all. I can only imagine how much pressure that must have been. I also ended up finding out he's pretty superstitious... which was really cute. He always pretended he wasn't. [He puts on a faux-posh accent and deepens his voice.] 'There's just no logic in it, Martin! Think critically. Honestly.'