[network] day 092 - @claytonator - text; insert obvious meme here [open] [event/deathtalk]

[dr_unconscious]

[Shortly after the second bout of static leaves everyone's tablets and all messages return to normal, a post appears on the network from someone familiar but nevertheless very lost: ]

Please humor me for a minute here. Is everyone okay?

Comments

@haurchefant; voice

[silverfuller]

Clayton!

Ye gods, man, are you well? That was...

[Pause]

I am sorry.

permatext, sorry elf friend

[dr_unconscious]

Tablet's still broken, toes are still missing. Arm feels better. I'm somewhere relatively safe. I think I'll be okay.

[...considering the fact that he's missing huge gaps in his memory again, this time more deliberate than the first. Worrying, but he supposes it could be worse. This will pass.]

There's nothing to apologize for, Archie. I'm not sure what we could've done, it happened so fast. I'm more worried about you. What's going on?

@hotstud_xxx; private text

[rubikscomplex]

define "okay"
then request your mn poisoning levels
do you have my meds?
where are you?
who the hell dies moving between buildings less than a half a mile apart?

private text

[dr_unconscious]

[Still not surprised that the meds are the first thing on House's mind, but the fact that he's still asking after them makes Clayton anxious. Did he never find another bottle? That's not acceptable.]

Better than what I was seeing in those posts from this morning. Looks like they're missing some gaps now for some reason. Was that just my tablet?

[There's a pause between messages while Clayton does request his MN levels--though he doesn't send the report immediately to House. He'll give him the numbers when he gets them.]

Have your meds and not much else. Woke up in the hospital. I think it was waiting for me on top of the building--they're getting very smart.
Do you have my backpack?

@zachtastic; text

[majorlazer]

No.

[Zach doesn't even know this dude, but fuck no, he's not okay. He's not sure he'll ever be okay again.]

Didn't you die? Sorry. That was rude, I guess.

text

[dr_unconscious]

[Oh hey, new person! Clayton vaguely recognizes the usename--he only just skimmed the network the last time there was a flood of posts from newcomers, too drained and anxious to do much else, but it's something of a relief to see that at least one of them is still alive. Shooting a little low, yes. Clayton takes what he can get.]

Don't worry about it. Not the first time.

Sorry--I meant the messages I was reading from this morning. Things aren't great here but they're not usually...that bad. They seem a little less awful now. That wasn't just my tablet showing those, I'm guessing?

@prettypinkflowers; private video

[lacecase]

[The second she sees his username on the Network Ginger feels her heart lurch up into her throat. There's no way she can type--no way she wants to type. She hardly trusts herself speaking, but she needs to see him. It had been...it had been a full week since he died. Everyone had always revived within a couple of days--she, she was starting to believe he'd never come back. She didn't want to hope anymore.]

I thought you were gone.

[She can't stop it--she can't stop the tears. She looks so miserable, so tired, like she hasn't been sleeping hardly at all, like something's been cut out from inside of her. Ginger covers her mouth, trying to still the sobbing before it explodes out of her. She's glad she had the foresight to make her video private--she just doesn't want anyone else to see her upset anymore.]

I'm so glad you're back. I'm...I'm so...

[Ginger doesn't really have any words to describe the way she's feeling right now. Someone she cares about dying and coming back after she'd started to accept the fact that he wouldn't? It's nothing she's ever experienced before. It's impossible. Clayton's voice-to-text might not pick up her words terribly well between her frantic tears.]

private text

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton wouldn't even need to have this message translated for him to feel heartbroken for Ginger. God, what she must have gone through...what she is going through. Just her expression ruins him, instantly. Connecting that to the kind of surreal horror he saw on the network earlier in the morning just makes things worse. According to House, that must have been something somehow concocted on Ginger's end? Which is terrifying, really. It terrifies him how much his death terrified her. He can't believe he's hurt her this badly; it makes him feel sick just thinking about it.]

[Which is, of course, why he's sticking to text. No need to make things worse.]

I'm so sorry. Please don't be upset. It breaks my heart to see you so distressed. I'll make it up to you. Everything will be okay.

@determination; video

[despiteeverything]

You're okay!

[There's so much relief in that small voice. They'd gotten back from the school that day only to find out what'd happened. And then he'd been gone for so long... But he's back now.

They cough tiredly onto the back of their hand before continuing.]

We're okay. I think something was wrong with the network last night. Mom took my tablet.

permatext

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton doesn't need to hear the relief in Frisk's voice to see and understand it. This is a nice change of pace from the miserable depression he met them in just before he died. Relative innocence. He can handle this.]

Just about! I'm happy to hear from you again. Sorry for not being all there last time you and your family visited, but I'm glad they're still with you and you're all looking out for one another. Tell Toriel and Sans I said "hello" for me, would you?

@guardian; text;

[phaseshifter]

DOCTOR EPPS!! ♥ o(≧∇≦o)
It doesn't matter how everyone else is, how are YOU? You need to find Ginger ASAP and scoop her up! Hurry!!

[dr_unconscious]

Angel! :)
I'm alive, which is the best I can ask for. [Feeling a little ill but it's probably just like a cold or something. Right? Right.] Running away to carry Ginger off and out of this town as we speak. Frozen flowers and romantic dinner already planned. I've got it covered.

@Spoiler ; private text

[spoileralert]

define 'okay'

but yeah

private text

[dr_unconscious]

[The classic private text from Steph--it's such a tradition at this point that Clayton might have worried if he didn't get one from her.]

"Okay" as in "not whatever was happening in the posts I saw this morning." Seems to be the case, which is good. You sure you're doing alright, Steph?

@CaptSteveRogers; text

[starsandtights]

Clayton! Thank God. It's good to hear from you. Are you all right? Do you need assistance?

...I suppose you saw... whatever that was on the network. As far as I know, everyone's physically OK. Otherwise...? Christ, I don't know. That was some hellish nastiness.

text

[dr_unconscious]

Praise the Lord that He has a good enough sense of humor to give me a third chance, I'd say. Good to hear from you too, Steve. I'm not dead and I woke up with warm clothes so I think I'll be okay. In the hospital. The tricky part's going to be getting out again.

Saw just enough of it to know that it wasn't right, before my tablet blew out. How long has that been going on?

@totheark, text

[0thingsonmymind]

NO

*He does not want you back, go away.*

text

[dr_unconscious]

Glad to see you're still up and kicking.

[The sentiment is not returned, but, well, some things never change apparently.]

@gallowsCalibrator | text

[iustitia]

H3Y, 4R3NT YOU TH4T D34D GUY?

text

[dr_unconscious]

Twice removed. Clayton Epps.

["Emergency physician" almost follows that phrase, but Clayton thinks better of it. Advertising himself as a doctor when he can't remember any of his training? Maybe if someone desperately needed the help, but until then he'll keep that under the rug until his memories come back. Which they will. Totally. He's sure of it.]

I recognize your username, but I'm afraid otherwise you have me at a disadvantage.

@Mnemosyne; voice; private

[bookofnope]

[It isn't often that good things happen in Norfinbury. It isn't often that they get something that almost feels like compensation. So it escapes him, a quick, muttered "Thank Go-" before Beckett catches himself.]

Welcome back. For heaven's sake talk to Ginger.

private text

[dr_unconscious]

Glad to be back. Don't worry, she's found me. How's she been?

Text | @Summoner

[ninjainviolet]

[ Looks who's finally texting the good doctor... ]

I think that might depend on your definition of "okay", wouldn't it?

[ She's seen his posts before, but never responded. Until now. ]

How are you doing?

[ ooc: Sheena's "video": she was turned into a spider thanks to a spider bite, and the words "She's ours now." flowing across the screen. ]

text

[dr_unconscious]

Relative term, I know. At least it's not looking like what I saw on the network after I first woke up. Small blessings.

I think I'm okay! I'm alive and in a place I can sleep in. Not sure I should be this satisfied with not having an appetite, since I don't have any food. Will regret this later probably.

How are you? I don't think we've met formally, now seems as good a time as ever.

video/text @Enoch, pretend this isn't horribly late

[warriorscribe]

[He'd given up ever seeing that username on the network again, much less its owner in person. He didn't even realize just how much he'd been hurting, caught up in consoling the others, caught up in his lack of food and in House's health. Not until he sees that name again and he's suddenly caught up in an emotion that seems to be some fusion of excitement and pain, his heart pounding so fast it feels like it'll tear itself apart.

He doesn't even bother with all the other replies that join his, nearly fumbling his tablet in his sleep-deprived, nightmare-shaken coordination as he opens a response.]

Clayton! Clayton, you're alive! Oh, I'm so-...

[...He trails off as he realizes the medium the other is using. Clayton tends to prefer video. If he's using text...

He sheepishly switches, and finds he has to rely on Helel to transcribe his voice again - this time because his fingers are shaking too hard to type coherently on such a small surface.]

I'm so sorry, Clayton, I couldn't return to you in time. I should have listened to you when you tried to stop me in the first place. I promised I would protect you and I wasn't there, please forgive me.

text, there is no such thing

[dr_unconscious]

[Oh thank god. Maybe it's a little odd that Clayton finds himself so relieved at getting correspondence from Enoch--sure he's happy to hear from him again, but he finds himself worried, like he might have up and disappeared during his own absence. Or more accurately, he's afraid that Enoch might've been angry or frustrated at traveling the whole way back only for Clayton to get himself killed again. It's a funny sort of fear to have and in retrospect he knows Enoch would never be angry over something like that, he isn't angry in his response, so Clayton realizes and forgets about it almost instantly, like a weight off his shoulders he didn't even realize he had.]

I forgive you even though there's nothing to forgive you for. If anything I should be the one apologizing; I could've met you halfway, or not done as much wandering around outside between the clinic...it's like it was waiting for me.
But that could have very easily been you, too. You know I wouldn't stand for it if it got you instead of me. Don't worry. It's okay. I'm back now and everything's fine.