four; voice + text

[boughtabookstore]

[ HELLO NETWORK Roslyn has a gift for you. that is, she is using something other than text over the network and it isn't encrypted. WHOA.

she also sounds pretty harried! what's up with that. ]

I have news.

The time equipment can't be reached. Security is too heavy even with these problems.

They knew this was coming. It's time inconsistencies, the result of our mission. Sometimes the smallest thing changes and it causes others - the butterfly effect, it's been called before. They didn't think it would be this fast, or this bad -

[ a pause, a quick intake of air. she's struggling to make sure she remembers and says everything. as she falls silent, a second voice speaks up. Tony Stark, for those who recognize his voice. ]

Their 'solution' for this problem of theirs: send us out to fix it. The ones who can be sent out, because they're not in danger of suddenly blinking out of existence due to her-mentioned butterfly effects. And that's also why all the new neighbours all the time – just to make sure there's enough people around to keep sending people out. Because the population, not growing. People coming in to replace the ones who have vanished.

[ another pause, this time filled with the noise of a hand over the mic, movement nearby and the murmur of muffled voices. then the hand lifts and she speaks again. ]

Bariyan. John. The children.

If there's a mission -

[ she lets that hang in the air and shuts off the connection.

not long afterwards, a few encrypted messages go out from Roslyn! ]

voice; encrypted to Robin Hood;

Are you all right?

voice; encrypted to Bariyan;

I asked some questions.

voice; encrypted to John;

I've heard the clinic is having some troubles. How are you doing?

voice; encrypted to Riku;

I haven't heard from you recently. Is everything all right?

Comments

[voice]

[stonefaith]

[ bariyan is in no state to be dealing with this right now. he has to play through the whole message a couple times and process it piece-by-piece. ]

God damn it. I knew nothing good was going to come of this.

I'm not letting them send the children on another mission. Not after last time.

[ and in response to the encrypted message: ] It seems that you did. What about you? Are you all right? Were they cooperative? In answering, that is.

[ with that, he ends the transmission. only to have it come back on a few seconds later. sounding slightly less angry, and a lot more worried: ]

...blinking out of existence... that's not... what happened to everyone who's gone missing, is it?

permavoice;

[boughtabookstore]

[ she sounds tired, frustrated, too fed up with this whole thing to text or even try to conceal precisely how irritated she is. ]

I'm fine, we found someone who didn't mind talking.

It's short notice, but it's not as short as it could have been - we can get them out of their reach somehow. We'll have to.

[ a pause, at that last question. just dead air. ]

I don't know. I'm not entirely certain they do either.

[stonefaith]

How? I'd take them out of the city again. I'd take them myself, but... at this point, I don't think we'll make it two steps outside of the Hold without getting attacked. I'm not going to take children into that mob, either. [ a sigh, just as frustrated. ]

...Wonderful. [ he's preoccupied with this topic, too. but he keeps these thoughts to himself, at least. he doesn't need to be any more depressed and angry right now, and neither does ros. ]

[audio]

[hatesvampires]

[...well.

That's interesting.]

Nice work.

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

Thank you.

Permaudio;

[hatesvampires]

As much as I hate to say it, I'm afraid I won't be much help.

I'm under the effects of their little screw up so I probably won't be going on that mission and I'm not really into the whole fighting thing either, so I'm not sure how much I can do here.

Still, if I can do something, I will.

video;

[onemoredeath]

Sore wa kyūka ga owa~tsu hyōji sa remasu... I would suggest that some stay here as a safety measure to make sure that those that leave can come back. I would not put it past our hosts or our hosts' enemies to use it as a time to clean up the unwanted.

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

[ ohhh she hadn't even considered that but it sounds far too logical. ]

That's certainly something to consider. Good point.

permavideo;

[onemoredeath]

[ Even if he forgets what name he is using and why he was using it, he still knows how plans can be twisted around them. ]

It is not a good sign if the natives outside decide to attack as well. Harming them might make our position less than solid but we still must be careful and must not turn our backs on anyone.

[hernes_son]

[no response]

[ comment not here ]

[boughtabookstore]

[ Robin she is worried about you here. ]

[majoring]

Hold on, the children? They've been sending kids on missions?

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

We've only been on one, but yes. They send children on the missions.

permatext;

[majoring]

That doesn't make any sense. Children aren't equipped to deal with that sort of pressure, and they definitely shouldn't be putting them in that sort of danger. Not when they're just as capable of pulling adults through to help with this situation. It was bad enough when I thought they were just taking us, but this? It's going way too far.

pirvate permavoice

[doctorly]

The children.

[squeezes his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. they can't keep doing this. they can't keep sending them. there has to be some way--]

Wha-? Oh, the clinic. Right. Yeah. Fine, doing fine.

[if it's enough from the tone of his voice, he sounds severely exhausted.]

same!

[boughtabookstore]

[ there's upset and worry and fear hidden, but something in her voice is gentled. ]

John. You don't sound fine.

[doctorly]

[oh roslyn, don't make this hard on him..!]

..It's just, a little exhaustion is all. It's been a bit bad on us. Everyone is panicking and having little healers at this time is just having us overworked.

It'll be easier on us all to get whatever needs fixing- fixed.

voice

[theguideless]

[small, not really registering this as anything other than a problem he doesn't understand:] "Vanishing"...?

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

People ceasing to exist. Possibly the cause for the disappearances, though I'm not sure.

voice;

[hellodeadpeople]

Blinking out of existence? Oh fuck that noise. Who exactly's gonna go around forcing us to do these little bitch errands?

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

Presumably the Initiative officials.

They do still hold the power of being able to ever return us home over us.

voice;

[twiceadays]

Your previous mission to Rome is causing these symptoms? [She pauses, growling.] The people affected, it's possible for them to stop existing because of it?

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

It appears to be, yes.

As for that - they think so, yes. It's not an ideal situation.

[voice]

[vestigiaflammae]

You mean people are getting sick and - all of this stuff - because of something we did in the past?

So how do we fix it?

permatext;

[boughtabookstore]

[ another one of the kids. ]

That is the working theory, yes.