voice; day 106, late afternoon

[enchangement]

What is the _point...?

Every step forard becomes another leap behind.

There is ^no food. Or not enough to go around.

There is a monster in the wa_{ter that they} can't keep in check.

The guess is: the captors are gone.

The ex^{periment has g}one awry.

And we remain.

[ ooc: weird text is meant to indicate parts of River's post that are difficult to understand. Network instability for the lose! ]

Comments

ain't no party like a telepath party

[mentis]

Has Erik's pessimism begun to rub off on you, darling?

[ Charles is in another room than River, but he doesn't want to try and use the network. Too much hassle and he already has the edges of a headache. ]

'cause a telepathy party don't stop

[enchangement]

Everyone's.

Chin up and make the best, don't think of the worst.

Erik's desire to break something has rubbed off more.

[mentis]

Well, if you insist on it, make sure it's a chair and not a bone.

[ He knows how Erik feels, is the thing, knows how River feels too.He wishes he could do more. ]

[enchangement]

No insistence. Who wants splinters?

[ He exists. He's ALIVE. That's enough, really and none of this is his fault at all. ]

Improvement or change, either way.

action?

[nedofpies]

[ Ned tries to answer River with the communicators, but his seems particularly uncooperative at the moment, refuses to let him transmit much of anything at all. For most other people, that would mean taking himself away from the porch of his house and going to look for her around town. With River, however, Ned thinks there might be another option. Feeling a bit foolish, he closes his eyes and tries... though he isn't sure how... to think her name rather loudly. Is he just making himself look like an idiot, trying something like that? He tries once more, decides to give it a few minutes before he gets up and starts to search her out the conventional way ]

Reaction? I think I'm funny.

[enchangement]

[ But it works; by the time Ned has decided to be a bit more conventional, as it were, River is standing outside of his house clapping slowly. ]

Good job. [ Totally without sarcasm, actually, but not without some good-natured teasing. ]

Hi. [ And now he gets a hug because he's not been perforated by a sea monster. ]

No I laughsnorted it was great

[nedofpies]

[ Ned hugs River back, because she also wasn't perforated by a sea monster, because she came and found him when he thought about her, and because her broken and disjointed message over the network has him, as is customary, worried. He understands her frustrations all too well, knows his inability to do anything to lighten or ease them, but all the same he wishes he could. ]

You know, it's pretty convenient being able to do that. [ He doesn't mind a bit of teasing slow-clapping. Not from her, anyway. ] Hello, River.

[ Ned wanted to see River because he intended to ask her for a favor, but he hesitates, now. Maybe it's not a good time. He hates to be demanding, to always take from her and never give anything of value back. He knows she must have other things on her mind, now, after what had happened to Charles, after the general shock and trauma that everyone had experienced during the attack. These things have a heightened impact on her, thanks to her powers - Ned knows that much by now.]

huzaahh

[enchangement]

Maybe e could get Charles to show you what it sounds like. [ To have someone who cares about you, loves you, to try and reach out into the miasma that is the thoughts and feelings of everyone and ring like a clear, familiar bell.

It's actually pretty nice. River likes it. ]

Ask it, ask it! Distractions are in short supply.

[purplishgreen]

If the experiment has .... awry, then is escape .... likely?

[She's not entirely sure how much of that got through the static, but she tried.]

[enchangement]

It doesn't change the statistics of it.

If it breaks too far. We're stuck. More than before.

[purplishgreen]

But the guards are gone. .... make a difference?

[She won't let herself fall into despair. She won't. Also, damn this primitive communication method.]

[purplishgreen]

Then we build anew. If we cannot leave, then we rebuild until we can. If there is any chance of success, then we must fight!

weirdly pixelly video with occasional inexplicable green splotches

[hung_garian]

42.

[It seems for a moment as if that's all he has to say, but after a crackly silence, he follows it up with:]

The point is constant. Even if our [the words 'magnanimous benefactors' are heavily distorted, though just about intelligible if one really puts in the effort] did decide to go on vacation without us, the point of living, no matter how hard it might seem, is the same as ever. It's either forty two, or the noble quest to amass as many gummy bears as possible and one day build a sticky, gelatinous house out of them.

[enchangement]

[ River stares at this and makes a face or three for good measure.

It is really hard to tell with you, Gabe. ]

...42.

[hung_garian]

Yep. Six times nine.

[Only not.]

[Video, though she's in her disguise]

[any1youwant]

Just one question - if the captors are gone, why do they keep bringing people here?

all replies voice on River's end

[enchangement]

A machine can run without an operator.

[ audio ]

[tryingitall]

Except there's still the cameras.

Perhaps our captors have enemies of their own. If they're under attack themselves, our preservation may slip through the cracks.

I'm not sure that's a positive thought, though.

[ audio ]

[enchangement]

Not when they've already shown interest in starvation.

[audio]

[zen_navigator]

Do you know if the cameras are still running? I made a map but-[His audio cuts out, flickers back in as he's finishing his sentence.] -useless.

[Dirk has been a bit disheartened by the whole predicting-a-giant-squid thing, but he's steadfastly optimistic about most things, even if he does find this incredibly frustrating.] Stupid- [static] In a universe that allows for such wondrous and terrible things, surely there is the possibility of- [static] If your hypothesis is correct, we are afforded more opportunities than we once had. Every instability in the system provides another opportunity for complete breakdown. [He doesn't entirely believe himself, but he's pep talking himself here as much as her.]

[audio]

[enchangement]

On yes ^watched maybe hard to tell, hard to know these things. Hard to know. Knew once.

[ There is a decent chunk of silence here but after River sighs it becomes clear that she simply stopped speaking for a moment, as opposed to network failure. ]

The fear and hypothesis includes the concern of a variable - isolated and ^{removed from the standards} of the system we may become the rats in the cage that die from lack of _water.

[audio]

[zen_navigator]

Rats usually eat each other first when lef- [static] in a confined space.

[That's probably not very heartening information, and he's quick to counter himself,] I don't plan on eating anyone. I hope the other residents of our little town feel the same.

[Voice]

[lightgunhustler]

[The message is a little garbled, but Jo manages to piece most of it together, frowning to herself as she does so.]

That doesn't mean we should _{give up} hope.

Things are harder than _{ever but we have to be pro}active.

[Voice]

[enchangement]

Hope is expensive and we are ^without coin.

[Voice]

[lightgunhustler]

If we don't _have hope then we don't have anything at all.