snowblindrpg | [network] @ASolomons; audio, morning of 265 [open]

[network] @ASolomons; audio, morning of 265 [open]

The fuck is going on?

[He sounds exhausted, as per usual, and his voice is hoarse and raw - he's been doing a lot of non-stop talking these past few days, trying to keep Royce engaged.]

Right - the lot of you, sound off. What happened, and what needs to be done?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah. These things happen. He'll understand.

[He swaps to private.]

keep an eye on him alfie
he was doing real bad after he lost you
and i dont know how much better he will be after this

I'm not letting him out of my sight.

[He's quiet for a little while, not too long.]

i heard you tell him you love him

[oh gross nobody else was supposed to be listening to that]

Well. He's the best friend I've got here, isn't he.

yeah

[But.]

its just not really a thing you heard in my time i guess
guys saying that to each other
unless like a drunk i love you man or

[Where is he even going with this?]

nevermind its not important

Nor mine. Not often.

[It's not unheard of, but it's definitely not a common thing.]

But I've been through more with him than I have with anyone else in my life.

[There's Rose, his sister, whom he went through one of the hardest times in their lives with. He misses her a lot, for all he hopes dearly she never shows up here. But the other is Karkat—Karkat whom he hasn't known so long, but has been through things just as intense in other ways, even if he hasn't known him half as long. But love is...]

[Love's not...]

[He doesn't want to let himself get bogged down in that mire of thoughts. He cares, and his physical absence is like an ache, and that's enough for the moment.]

i get it
more or less

[Another pause, shorter.]

im glad you have each other

[Alfie doesn't respond right away either. He's thinking of his own ache.]

Yeah. Looking forward to getting back to him.

[That they aren't together already catches him off guard, but they had been separated, and knows others had been trying to come to the building where they were. For all he knows, Alfie tried too.]

how far are you from each other

Several days. Four, at least.

shit
you want me to let you go so you can get moving or

[He's already out and about, but he's texting as he goes. It's easier talking than not.]

No, no, I'm walking. Voice to text. Wouldn't be talking now if I couldn't use it.

ok cool

[He'd swap to voice, but text offers more of a buffer for sorting out his thoughts, too.]

im not even sure what happened to royce
not entirely
i got taken before him and after that i couldnt see
whatever it was didnt sound good
i kept hearing like
some kind of tapping or thumping
sounded like morse but i dont know morse

Royce does. He learned it here.

[Meaning yeah, it was him.]

He couldn't talk.

[Which is... an understatement, but he doesn't really want to get into the details of Royce's trauma, even with someone that Royce likes and cares about. That's for him to do, if he wants to.]

[He understands, even without being told why.]

you know
that brings up another thing
they kept doing things like that now and then even before the brainwashing started to crack
some of them brought tablets down and offered them
america gave me mine surprisingly easy
i pretended like i was all loyal to the prophet and everything just to make sure but he didnt grill me about it even a little
even later nobody even tried to take it from me
later some of them gave us injections
and they were still full loyal convert mode then so i couldnt trust it
i got two of them
one that took away my hunger for a while and another for pain
i kept expecting something bad to happen from it but
i dont know if it did
unless it was how out of it we got but i dont know how much of that was from being injured and hungry and sleep deprived versus outside stuff
there could have been something in the food they made us eat but
fuck

You should share all that publicly. Could be useful.

[That, and he doesn't have the energy to sort through it all himself right now.]

[He mulls it around.]

later maybe
if im more up for a big public discussion then or if somebody else doesnt first

Very good.

Royce got the injections, too.

[Or at least he thinks he did. He got something that temporarily stopped his hunger and pain, but with no video and limited communication, it was hard to see specifics.]

im going to talk to him too
i owe him a check in anyway

He'll be happy to hear from you. Tell him you'll come see him soon, that'll perk him up.

i will
but hey im gonna go do that
ill see you around later

Yeah. Take care, Davesprite.

you too alfie

[And he goes to message Royce.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[network] @ASolomons; audio, morning of 265 [open]

no subject

private;

private;

private;

private;

private;

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private; (screams at my own repetitive phrasing in the last tag)

private; aww nbd

private;

private;

private; (cw: surgically induced blindness + speech loss)

private;

private; (cw: discussion of forced injections, forced feeding)

private; (cw: discussion of forced injections, forced feeding)

private;

private;

private;

private;

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private;

private;