vii. voice

[firstroar]

–omeone...

[a beat, a breath heavily drawn and shakily exhaled. sentences are punctuated with overlong breaks.]

Help me understand. Not one person I have spoken to recalls this mission...But she is still gone. [breath.] Physis is. Others, perhaps? I don't know. No one has any recollection...

Comments

voice, but locked!!!

[heartsink]

So, Physis is gone... and you're sure she wasn't Ported out, right?

[ she is not even playing at pretenses today. ]

[firstroar]

It doesn't add up. To say something like that, and then...

[heartsink]

What did she say?

[firstroar]

To not worry. To... [breath, letting that next one go. instead,] She was certain. She would come back. I can't...accept her knowing she would vanish, leaving it like this.

[heartsink]

No... that doesn't sound right at all.

Would she have been sent on one alone?

[firstroar]

That seems so unlikely...

[heartsink]

She would have told you about the others, wouldn't she? If she knew?

[firstroar]

Yes. Other than the escorts from the Initiative that she was certain of...Ones I can find no trace of. None.

[heartsink]

Could they have disappeared with her?

[firstroar]

Perhaps. I don't know for certain – [Ruka. it's almost out of his mouth, but he bites it off, lets out his breath in a heavy exhale.]

There's too much I don't know for certain.

[heartsink]

... She's not the only one to have disappeared recently, is she?

I thought maybe that guy was gone because he was exPorted, but...

[ with anyone else, the tone would be blithe, or dismissive, but for Blue, it is genuinely apologetic. ]

It's sounding more and more like abduction, to me.

[firstroar]

"That guy"?

[heartsink]

One of my roommates. His name's Mahdi.

[firstroar]

[breath.]

It may be too soon to connect these things, but...

[heartsink]

This sort of thing used to happen, from time to time. So, if their patterns are ones I recognize, I'll find it.

Does their Porter have hiccups very often, do you know?

[ "Their" rather than "the" — even after half a year in this world, she still speaks like she belongs in the other. ]

[firstroar]

I don't know. How much is tied to that machine and how much has changed since the end of that world...

[heartsink]

Hmm...

Let me see what else has been said. Two might be coincidence, but if it's more than that...

[firstroar]

I'll count on you for this. [breath.] In the meantime...

[heartsink]

Before you leave this world, you'll see her again. I'm sure of it.

[firstroar]

[after a breath, there's a faint sound, but nothing more.

thank you.]