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

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ Toneless, abstracted: ] Turn off the walkie if it's keeping you up.

text;

[salamanca]

No, no. It isn't that. I'm just worried about you.

text 😮‍💨

[aluminumandash]

Christ.

text 😢

[salamanca]

What's wrong?

[aluminumandash]

Besides the obvious?

Hows the kid?

[salamanca]

Yeah. Besides that.

Kid's still with me. Physically, he's okay. Emotionally, I'm concerned.

[aluminumandash]

[ Somewhere on the island, a man snorts. ] Yeah I got concerns about his personality too.

Came across a cushion a while ago. Seat cushion. Left it by the beach. Could make for a pillow.

[salamanca]

That's not what I meant. I think something is going on at home.

Yeah? Congrats. What I wouldn't give for a pillow right now. My neck is killing me.

[aluminumandash]

Dont see how dumping his shit on an open channel will help w that. [ But: noted. Possible abuse. ]

For the kid.

[salamanca]

[ As far as Lalo is concerned, he deserves the Oscar for this shit. ]

He's acting out because he's stressed out from being kidnapped to an island in the middle of nowhere and whatever was going on with him before that. Come on, man. You were sixteen once, right?

Thank you. Where are you now? We can start heading towards you in the morning.

[aluminumandash]

I had an abnormal upbringing. [ Put psychobabble in, get psychobabble out. ]

Come morning Im looking for a body.

[salamanca]

Really? What was unusual about it?

[ "Why the fuck do you care so much? You blowing this guy or something?" is the first thing to come to Lalo's mind.

But "Ben" is too much of a stick-in-the-mud type to say something like that. ]

Jesus Christ. He could still be okay. Think positive, man.

But I'll look too. [ No, he won't. Fuck that noise. ]

[aluminumandash]

[ It's the Really? that irritates, a mosquito bite of a question. You're telling me, Marty'd have said, ever-pleased to be the yardstick of normalcy. And Maggie...he doesn't know. Something that'd hurt to answer but be worth the hurting.

He reads back over the conversation, struck by the lack of concrete detail. About a minute later, he types out: ] The weather.

No. You keep the kid far away from that shit. Stay off the beach if you can, stay the hell away from those drones.

Howre you on water, food etc?

[salamanca]

Haha. [ He means the "haha!" What? Rust's quip is a good one!

He's too lost in his own personal game of make-believe to pick up on the doubt, though, or attribute the lack of info to anything other than what seems to be this person's generally gruff nature. Even if he were to pick up on the resistance, which he doesn't, Lalo probably still wouldn't pry; trying to force information out of people when you don't have leverage to do so never ends well.

He carries merrily along. ]

Sorry, man. I grew up white picket fence, suburban house, all that shit. So it's hard to relate. I don't know if my upbringing was "usual," but it was nice. Mostly.

Fuck, man. I hate to say it, but I'm kinda out of my depth here. [ Lies. Well, not completely. He is a little out of his depth; they all are. But he's not as out of his depth as he pretends to be. ]

Yeah. Okay. Will do.

We're good for the water. I have a fire going and we're near a river. I've been boiling some for us.

Food's a little harder to come by, but we're managing.

[aluminumandash]

[ That makes more sense. Right off of Marty Hart's Greatest Hits—asking after somebody else and then sidling into autobiography. Rust isn't in the mood to hold a grown man's hand, but when is he fucking ever? ] Rivers good. More than Ive found. [ And it means they're some distance from Rust and—hopefully—the drone traffic. ]

How long have you been on the job?

[salamanca]

It's a nice little spot to camp. Safe. Out of the way.

Me? Two weeks. Worked for my family's business for years, but I've always wanted something more. I want to help people. Save people.