[network] @ASolomons; audio, afternoon of 347 [open]

[devoutish]

[The recording starts up and Alfie says in a rough, no-nonsense voice:]

Where are you? You're alive?

[There's a brief pause, and then he continues, his tone markedly different - it's a bit softer, but also more tired. Less guarded.]

Where are you? I'm in one of the newer areas; I'm in a funeral home I've never been in. Fucking cultist markings all over the walls-- answer as soon as you can, mate; please.

[Another pause, and then:]

Hello.

[He almost sing-songs his words, but only enough to just barely hide the hardness that lurks underneath.]

Do you know who I am?

[Once upon a time, this disjointed, confusing post was several separate messages. Unfortunately for Alfie, once he hit send, all privacy filters were removed - a consequence of his current death loss. For a guy who prefers private conversations over public ones by a large margin, this will not be fun.]

Comments

@betterhalf; audio

[darkincrement]

[ His own voice isn't going to sound like him normally. He's a real boy now and can emotion properly. So he's going to sound exactly like Sora. ]

Hey, are you okay? Who are you looking for?

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

[Dafuq.

Alfie takes a moment before replying to try to figure out what the fuck happened, because this is definitely showing up as a reply to something and not a direct message, so...

... Oh. Great. Just what he needed out of life right now.

He grunts, because that's always a helpful response.]

Sora? Is that you?

[darkincrement]

[ There's something familiar about that name but it feels more like a distant dream than anything. ]

No, sorry. This is Ventus. Who's Sora?

[devoutish]

Never mind. Why have you got--

-- no, right, you know what; I don't care about that either.

@user; voice

[cosmicwords]

Ah...

Are you alright?

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

Problems with the network.

[What an understatement.]

[cosmicwords]

Oh, I see...

What sort of problems? Maybe I can help.

[devoutish]

You cannot; there are always going to be things that you can't help with.

[Sorry, Chaos, he's especially cranky today.]

@Ecks | text

[ecks]

yes
I know who you are, Alfie Solomons

[Waaaait, she had this problem once already with the person who is not Mickey Mouse.]

do you know who you are?

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

Yeah, Ecks, I do. That message was for one person in particular.

[ecks]

does that person not know who you are?

aaah I missed this, sorry!

[devoutish]

[He gives a derisive snort.]

We'll find out.

[But he's guessing no.]

@godsend, audio, Day 348

[termineur]

[ It doesn't take long for Gabriel to parse what's going on and who Alfie intended to contact. He doesn't even try privately messaging him, instead just replying here for the time being. ]

Hey, Alfie? I'm back, too. Still where we had been.

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

That's lucky. You're all right?

[termineur]

I'm clumsy as all hell, but otherwise- yeah.

Sorry about...everything.

[devoutish]

[Alfie's still not totally sure what happened, and why.]

We'll need to decide where to meet.

@carcinoGeneticist; audio

[quadrangle]

[... Motherfucker.]

[It doesn't take a genius to piece together what must have happened, not with Alfie mentioning a funeral home and asking after someone who can only be Royce. They'd both died, somehow, and it'd... what, happened unexpectedly enough that they hadn't been able to warn Karkat that it would be a possibility? So probably an anomaly, whatever, he doesn't have the patience to check anyone else's responses yet, so—]

What the fuck did you do?!

[He's just going to start there.]

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

Karkat - don't start.

[He barely has enough energy to inject a note of warning into his tone.]

audio

[quadrangle]

[Uh, fuck. There's a beat of silence, then in a slightly more restrained tone, Karkat continues.]

I didn't see this coming, okay? And you both got wiped out! Like if it was just one of you, sure! That makes sense even if it's fucking stupid. But...

[Shit, this is pretty much the exact opposite of not starting, isn't it? Not that Alfie is likely to do anything too severe because of it (Karkat hopes), but he's taking another moment to try and contain himself. Self-control is hard and he doesn't like it.]

Have you heard anything from Royce yet?

@duster, audio, night 348

[bywolves]

[ A terse, quiet voice is what Alfie gets this evening - it's not private because Royce doesn't know private filters exist. Not that it matters on Alfie's side anyway. ]

Who are you?

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

[He's alive.

He doesn't have his memory right now, and that's no good, but it also doesn't matter at the moment because he's alive.

Still, Alfie takes a moment to make sure his voice is under control before replying, and when he does respond, he manages to sound just like he would talking to any other stranger.]

Solomons. And you? Is it Duster?

[bywolves]

I know you know my name.

Duster will do for now. [ His voice drops into something softer, more dangerous. ]

@hsiaoke; voice

[heavensreader]

[Briefly, Kesara just listens in; it takes her very little time to get the gist of the situation.]

Oh, no...

[Now this, this is a rotten punishment. She can only come up with a partial solution, switching to Russian.]

You speak Russian, don't you, Mr. Solomons? I think I remember.

@ASolomons; audio

[devoutish]

[Bless her. It's not a perfect solution by any means - House speaks Russian, after all - but it's more privacy than English provides.]

I do, my girl; I do. It's a shame I can't speak your Chinese to you, as well.

[House speaks that too, the bastard.]

[heavensreader]

[It's indeed far from perfect, but Kesara is used to working with what she can get. She checks off people in her mind -]

Dr. House speaks it, and Tess and that Star-Lord fellow who say they speak all languages, and Bucky, too. But they are the only ones I know about.

[So now they know who to watch out for if they need to.]