exsilium | [Video]

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[Walter does not often bother with the network. He hasn't exactly made many friends. The primary reason for that is his temper. But even for those acquainted with Walter's choleric nature, something about him today is bound to be unsettling.

When the video feed starts, he's looking straight at the screen. His eyes are hard--like steel. Somehow, there's all the aggressiveness, yet the expressiveness of his features just seems to fall flat of the norm.

When he speaks, his voice is calm, yet not calm. When he speaks, it is with cold boiling rage.]

Which one of you removed Seras Victoria's name from the network.

[Someone should probably answer that. Before he starts making the rounds and torturing people for answers.]

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[The reply comes pretty quickly. Nill's been staring at her tablet for most of the day, wondering if she should say something. She's a little glad it wasn't her.]

No one removed her name.

Seras is gone.

Devices do not just disappear. These tablets belong here. They came from here.

[He knows she's gone, that something has happened to her. Seras isn't the type to just leave him without so much as a note and not come back. It's the idea that someone might know something about her disappearance--that someone knew about it before he did and didn't tell him that he's fixating on.

He needs something to be angry at--something on which to focus his rage.

He doesn't know how to channel his worry any other way.]

The Initiative keeps the list of people here updated. The only reason her name wouldn't be there is if she was gone, or if she had removed it herself.

[And Seras wouldn't do that. Not without warning her first.]

[No, Seras wouldn't do that. Seras is too kind for something like that.]

That doesn't excuse not telling the people who care about her. If they want us to win their war, it's the least they can do.

Unless they made a public announcement every time someone left, there would be no way of alerting the people who cared about her that she was gone.

A public announcement that is easy to make. The network is home to plenty of pointless, rambling transmissions. A bulletin board is just as easy to maintain.

There is no excuse for leaving people in the dark.

The Initiative has few resources and fewer workers who know what they're doing. I doubt keeping us informed is on their list of priorities

Information flow is key to a war effort. Neglecting so much as telling a unit when one of their comrades is gone is like pissing morale straight down the drain.

Don't mistake this for me defending them. I'm not.

I just know what I should and should not expect from them.

[Walter's icy demeanour begins to chip, the stress starting to show through. The name he sees is one he recognizes. It's the name that was right next to Seras' on the housing register at the moon base.

The person responding to him... must be Seras' friend.]

I have never been content to accept wilful inadequacy. If they will not step up to do what should be done, then they should get someone else to handle it.

They should. It doesn't mean they will. They don't have the resources.

[And even if they did... this is, for once, one thing that Nill can't fault them for. She can't imagine needing to make a list every single day of people that were gone, and needing to deal with grieving loved ones, while they blamed you for their disappearance. Nill isn't happy about it at all. But at the very least, she understands.

Even keeping that in mind, it doesn't make Seras's loss any easier.]

[He's quiet for what, to him, seems like a short eternity. In reality, it doesn't stretch out more than a minute.]

...You knew her.

I love her.

[The reply comes fast, and without hesitation.]

Seras is family to me.

I see...

[Though he had known Seras for a couple of months, Walter and Seras had never quite gotten around to having one of those full heart-to-heart sort of conversations. Seras knew the future him; that much he understood. But the details of their lives had been largely passed over in favour of addressing the situation regarding Exsilium.]

When do you have some free time? There's something I want to deliver to you.

[Free? It's not like she's done anything productive since she found out Seras was gone. She spent most of the day sending messages to other people, avidly avoid the list of people still there, and smoking.]

I'm free now if you would like me to meet you.

[More than a minor part of him wants to reject the time. It's time he could spend looking for Seras. On the other hand, perhaps the technicians will have an answer, or at least a lead.]

I can take a short break to eat something. Where can you meet?

Anywhere. I know the area well enough. Would outside of town be better for you?

Were you ever shown the house we fixed up?

Yes. I was able to visit there once or twice. Would you like me to go there?

Yes. It will be ready by the time you get here.

I can be there in the next hour, if that's fine with you.

It is.

Then I should see you in an hour.

[Heath looks genuinely concerned about this.]

What? Why would anyone even do that?

Is she...y'know, [still here] okay?

[A concerned kid. The kid that Seras was talking to back when the undead were running about. The too-nice-for-his-own-good-and-everyone-else's kid.

Walter never thought too much of him. But right now, those thoughts don't matter. The kid's someone who seems to actually care about her, so for now.... for now Walter at least tries to tone back his anger.

It ends up shifting from his voice to his posture.]

...She's not here. She didn't tell me she was going anywhere for a long time, either.

I haven't seen a whole lot of her.

[There's a pause.]

Do you want me to go looking for her? I mean, the snow doesn't bother me at all. I can cover a lot of ground out there.

[Always so damned naive, Walter thinks. This was the reason he butted heads with Heath in the first place. Apparently, neither of them have changed since then.]

Idiot. If something did happen to her and you ran straight into it, you'd be killed for sure.

Hey, man, it's better than sitting around and getting angry about it.

[Unfortunately, through the lens of Walter's thinking, that sounds an awful lot like an accusation.

It's precisely what it takes for Walter to boil over.]

YOU THINK I HAVEN'T BEEN LOOKING FOR HER?! OF COURSE I BLOODY WELL LOOKED!! AND I'LL KEEP LOOKING UNTIL I'M SATISFIED!!

BUT YOU-- you're not QUALIFIED to handle the sort of danger we handle! And I'm not going to let some well-meaning, daft fool get himself killed looking for her!! It would just make her sad! So either take someone skilled at fighting with you or don't bleeding go!!

Seesh, dude, less of the screaming.

And fine, whatever, I'll find someone.

[He knows what a disappearance from the network means. Unfortunately, the truth is usually no better than what Walter is assuming.]

...I do not believe that was the case, sir.

[Kevin. Nice, pleasant, gentlemanly Kevin. Under normal circumstances, Walter would find it much easier to talk to him. Unfortunately, Seras was his only friend in Exsilium, and Walter has a lot of difficulty coping with loss.]

I don't want beliefs. I want answers.

I beli-- She has gone home, sir.

[England, he remember too well. Not a particularly good version either, but she loved it all the same. He wonders if she is alive and well, or if she is one of those whose return only means she must face her fate twice.]

How do you know?

[Seras is not just his friend-- she's his comrade. They're from the same England, only more than half a century apart. To him, he's responsible for her well-being even if she has all the strength and durability of the undead.

His hands clench, the tablet creaking under his grip.]

I can't leave her behind. I won't.

[There is not much he can do to comfort him. He knows how it feels to be separated from those you care about.]

You may persist in searching for her, sir. However, I have never heard of anyone being removed from the network for any other reason.

That's why I want the answer from the one who removed her name.

[Because he has to be sure that her being returned to where she belongs is the reason her name was taken off the list. Not just her disappearance in of itself.]

Unfortunately, I am not completely familiar with the procedure, though it might be merely mechanical. Otherwise, one of the Initiative technicians is undoubtedly your best option.

The technicians... That's right. Someone gave me their contact information once...

[It probably comes across as odd, but his response is more or less him thinking aloud. It's actually pretty hard to think at the moment, when he wants so much to simply act.]

[Walter might find out he received an email with the technicians' contact information. He has ben cleaning their lodgings too.]

...Good luck, sir.

[It takes a moment for him to reply. He's finally lost his temper with someone else, leaving his hold on his demeanour shaky at best. But the e-mail and the information therein are both received and appreciated. As such, he at least takes a moment to express that.]

Thank you.

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did you wanna action spam it up

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