[network] night 320 @curiouschloride | video | Surely heaven waits for you [open]

[motherserpent]

[CW character death; pet death]

So, um.

[It's hard to tell time of day from a video when the sun barely sets for a few hours in the middle of each night. The sky is the same cold gray as ever as the video, the camera directed outward rather than at Tess herself, pans across the sealed door of the grocery store downtown.]

I'm...not going to make it to that seance tonight. Mistakes were made. Couple of mistakes. Maybe a lot of mistakes? Maybe just one big mistake. I'm good at those. So, uh, guess I'll be trying out that revival mechanic, huh?

[She's worried enough to babble, but her tone's surprisingly light. This still doesn't feel real to her. Apart from the malaria, none of this has ever felt real.]

Or hey, maybe I'll finally wake up from all this.

Comments

@jwatson; video

[jumpthegun]

[She was just with them. Why does this keep happening? Why do people keep dying this way? It's not right and it's not fair. John manages to have his tantrum about that internally and his expression when he comes over the tablet is nothing but pained empathy.]

I'm so sorry, Tess. What you can do to try to get comfortable, at least is dig yourself a little cave in the snow. It'll get you and Roy out of the wind. I'm sorry this happened. If you just had your tent- [His expression and voice break for a moment before he recomposes himself.]

When you get back, we'll get it back to you so this doesn't happen again, okay? We'll do that when you get back.

[motherserpent]

It's okay.

[She's already shivering in the cold, the tremors audible in her voice, but it doesn't seem so much worse, really, than being out in the day had been. Not yet. She turns the camera feed around she he can see her face, RGBV an indistinct lump under the two coats she's wearing, the standard issue one and the puffy coat he gave her.]

It'll be okay. I mean...I shouldn't promise that. Shouldn't make promises I can't keep. But I think it's going to be okay.

[She's on the move now, trying to get around to another side of the building so it'll block the wind, kicking now and then at the snow and rubble as she looks for a diggable spot. It's not a bad idea, after all.]

[jumpthegun]

[She's comforting him, which really isn't right. John presses his lips together and forces himself to at least pretend at calm and steady. All he can think about is if he hadn't traded for that damn tent, she'd survive tonight.]

Yeah. And we'll keep an eye out. If you can remember, if you're able to, contact me as soon as you wake up. I'll see about getting us to wherever you are so you don't have to travel on your own for too long.

[motherserpent]

Ah, yes. The infamous death losses. Wheel of Misfortune.

[If she doesn't take this seriously, that just proves that it's not real and she's not falling for it, right? Tess frowns at the ground in apparent concentration before the video feed swings wildly as she crouches, plants the tablet in the snow, and swings her pack off to open it up and start digging through. The poof of bright feathers on the end of RGBV's tail is visible for a brief second as it slips out from the bottom edge of her coats only to be quickly withdrawn again.]

Gonna be really mean to this poor pot. Sorry, pot, today your name is shovel.

[It's fine. Everything is fine. It's like an adventure or something.]

@Wayne, audio

[gothamiteknight]

[This seemed to be happening a lot. Those obituaries kept coming. The inherent danger of this place wasn't lost on him, nor was the sentiment and suspicion that maybe this wasn't actually real.

But all signs were pointing to this being, unfortunately, very real indeed.

He couldn't let this one slide, even though he didn't actually know her.]

You might have a chance if you dig a shelter. Can you light a fire?

[motherserpent]

Got matches. Got some candles. It's not going to do me a lot of good if I don't have fuel to keep it going, though.

[The tablet view jostles as she kicks experimentally at some of the rubble. Fire. Also a good thought. If Slager were here...no. He wouldn't have power over fire any more than she has power over the sky right now.]

Snow cave, right? Real, uh...mountain man thing....

[She's distracted as she looks for a likely spot.]

[gothamiteknight]

[Without a fire, her odds were...well. He was going to try to keep her hopes up as much as he could, though. If she had a fighting chance, and he could help, he would.]

Yeah. Even a small fire during the coldest part of the night would help, in a small cave. Melts the snow on the inside a little, forms a barrier.

Sort of. More like survival training.

[motherserpent]

[This is sounding surprisingly doable, actually. But if it's survivable...well, people had made it sound like it wasn't. She's switching her feed back and forth between conversations, so when she comes back on she's already stuck the tablet in a snow bank and begun digging a hole using a cooking pot.]

Got a sleeping bag, too.

@Spoiler; video

[spoileralert]

Jesus, Tess...

[ Steph has frozen to death before. It isn't fun. She sighs. ]

It's not so bad, once the shaking stops. Want to play a game until then?

[motherserpent]

[If she flinches at the use of that particular name as an expletive, it's mercifully lost in her shivering.]

I just hope I don't do that strip naked thing. Not with the tablet on; that's a bit too reality TV, don't you think?

[Hahahaha the funniest. Tess has been working on a snow cave since the menfolk came online to give her advice; she's made a dent in a snowbank with her cooking pot but it's not enough to climb into yet. She's out of breath and shivering hard.]

Right now I'm playing the pretend-I-can-survive-this game. But....

[She swipes at her running nose with the sleeve of her coat.]

Once I'm in my snow hovel. Yeah. Yeah, I...I want to keep talking.

[spoileralert]

[ Steph knows as well as anyone that it doesn't matter what precautions you take. The town takes you, one way or the other. ]

Tell you what, you start acting weird I'll make everybody else hang up. Let me know when you're... set up.

[motherserpent]

That's...probably a good idea. I'm just gonna....

[This is pointless. Still, she goes back to digging, interrupting only every now and then to respond to more incoming messages. When she turns her feed back to Steph the hole is dug, at least as deep as Tess is going to make it. The video now shows a more dimly lit view; Tess is curled up tight in the too-shallow snow cave, tucked up in her sleeping bag as though it'll do any good. Her teeth are chattering; she knows enough to know that it's a good sign. Or a bad one, considering this is just a waiting game at this point.]

Ta-daa....

@zd; voice

[swatsflies]

[ :( :( :(

He feels his heart drop as he sees the door and recognizes where she is. His voice is quiet. ]

Guess you are, huh? Careful when you wake up again. [ A pause. ] It can be pretty freaky opening your eyes to darkness.

[motherserpent]

To darkness?

[His comment catches her off guard, and she isn't sure what to make of it -- is he referring to something that will happen when she wakes up from this whole simulation? But the others have yet to break character on her....]

[swatsflies]

Oh. Yeah, the um body bag. [ Sorry, he's referring to more adventures in snow simulator. ] You wake up zipped up in one.

[ Hopefully she's not claustrophobic. ]

[motherserpent]

Ohhhkay. Okay, that's -- okay.

[She disconnects. Too real. She'll be back on this feed in a couple minutes if he sticks around; she keeps switching through them. She just...needs to go talk to someone else about something that isn't body bags for a minute.]

@standardissue; video

[deus_ex_phs]

[Easy enough to pick up on what Tess is trying to say here. Kunsel's stomach sinks into a pit, though he tries not to let it affect his voice beyond a pained understanding.]

I'm sorry.

Want someone to stay up with you? Keep you distracted?

[motherserpent]

[By now she's hard at work digging a hole in which to die, which would almost be funny to her if the pain in her hands wasn't already starting to fade into numbness. Tess pauses to flip her feed over to the latest incoming message, offering the camera a tired, meaningless smile.]

Got a, uh...hah, this is a workout. Got a few offers, but the more the merrier. Good to be popular. Belle of the whatever.

[deus_ex_phs]

[He doesn't comment on what she's doing. She doesn't seem like she needs him telling her what to do.

Definitely doesn't need him pointing out that no one has yet managed to survive outside at night without a Norfinbury-manufacture tent.]

Hey, pretty girl, working out, what's not to make you popular?

[He cracks a smile with the joke. Just trying to lighten the mood here.]

@Mnemonsyne; voice

[bookofnope]

[Well, someone's coping nicely, for a given value thereof. Beckett is not here to be a dick about it. He isn't about to offer any fun death-bed (hovel?) games, but there are other things on a person's mind when slowly dying, he knows. He sounds calm, with just the hint of imploring - like he'd really like not to sound like he's pitying her. Which he isn't, but he's not expecting total rationality here, so. Just in case.]

If you don't come back, or take a while - is there anything you want us to know, or to do?

[motherserpent]

[She doesn't get around to replying until she's already finished digging said deathbed and huddle down in it to start flicking through messages again. Whatever can be said of the realness of these people, they do turn out in force when you're dying. It's kind of nice, in those moments when she manages to convince herself that she's right about this all being some stupid, twisted game.

All the same, this particular message is less welcome than Beckett might have hoped. There's suspicion in her voice when she replies, flatter and colder than how she's been speaking to the others..]

No, there's nothing I want you to know.

[Wouldn't that be just the thing? Make her think she's dying and then ask her to spill her guts -- about what she doesn't know; there can't be so much that she knows that their enemies don't already, but then what's the point of any of this to begin with?

She blows out a breath, and her next words are spoken like some kind of challenge or bitter joke.]

You can play Carry on Wayward Son at my wake.

[bookofnope]

[Beckett waits. It's the least he can do, and it's something he's practiced in. Her reply doesn't terribly surprise him, either. He doesn't know, of course, but his default assumption of anyone - unlife experience being what it is - is that they have their secrets. So he can rather easily guess what she's thinking, in broad strokes. Weak, scared, surrounded by strangers; he'd be cagey too.]

I'll pass on the request. We haven't been keeping up with funerals, but we do have the one harmonica someone was almost murdered with a shovel for.

[Can't see him, but his voice implies he is saying it with the Straightest Face. Challenge met, joke made. He isn't really looking to disarm her, after all.]

But I meant more in the sense of discoveries you've made. Or... anything we might say to anyone who may show up here looking for you. Knowing you, at least. It's been known to happen. It's ugly.

@godsend, video

[termineur]

[ This is no good. But unfortunately, it also wasn't too unusual. Newbies had a higher risk of getting locked out- thankfully, not an issue Gabriel's had to deal with. He looks fairly somber as he comes on-screen. ]

Hey, make sure to keep everything in your bag that you need. When you wake up again, your bag'll be on the end of the slab with you.

Did you make it into the store at all? I was jumped by an anomaly the same hour we finally reached someplace that was heated indoors- it's really not fair.

[motherserpent]

[It takes long enough for her to reply that one might be forgiven for thinking she's gone and died already. The reason is clear when her video flicks on; she's huddled in a Tess-size snow cave, wrapped in her sleeping bag.]

Welll shit, cause I don't want to get up and pack my sleeping bag back in its case. Not, uh, planning to get up again. Hah.

[Ffffuck it's cold. She's shivering pretty violently.]

[termineur]

[ He gives Tess a slight smirk at her joke. It's always nice to find someone who can appreciate morbid humor. ]

You're probably safe there. I think that counts as 'wearing it', and that comes with you, too.

People told you about the death price. Make sure you ask for help if you need it. You can send me a private message if you don't want to use the Network.

[ He tilts his head as if he just realized that she wouldn't want to ask him for help. ]

Other good people to go to are the doctors. -other than House, of course. Or Al. He's the one who maintains the guide? He likes helping people out.