Ned § Video 03 § Day 95

[nedofpies]

[ Your friendly neighborhood piemaker is looking distinctly worse for wear, this morning. It's pretty obvious that he's sick, from the way he switches on the feed and immediately suppresses a cough, from the state of his face and the scratchiness of his voice. Still, he soldiers on in a rasp: ]

I've been here long enough to know how this works, so I'm not gonna do the whole, 'have you seen my friends, I can't seem to find them anywhere' thing. That's just depressing for everyone involved. So I'm just gonna get this over with. Here are the people from our house who seem to have gone missing last night: Jesse Finch, Galen Howard, and Kenzi- uh. [ He loses momentum and for a minute the façade of calm cracks and he looks devastated ] ...I never caught her last name, I guess.

[ It takes a moment to pull himself together and go on. When he does, it is with a type of grim, angry determination. ] I know people disappear all the time, here, but that seems like an awful lot to me for one night, so you guys might want to start counting heads and bracing yourselves in case something's up. If there are any other conspicuous absences, you might want to let everyone know so we can get an accurate idea of how bad it is and start damage control.

Comments

video;

[enchangement]

[ Have a shot of the sky from the roof of Charles and Erik's house, Ned. ]

Elizabeth. Comstock.

Ghoul? Fun Ghoul. Odd one in, odd one out.

Where is Daneel?

[ Because Ned is sick. And no one else is equipped to keep record. ]

[video]

[bostonhowler]

Do you have tea? Or soup? I think there might be honey in one of my cupboards, if you don't mind it.

Video

[recognize_an_opportunity]

You're sick.

[This is a generally useless observation, since he's pretty sure Ned has noticed, by now, that he is, indeed, sick. There's a pause, and then a sigh.]

I'm sorry about your friends.

[nedofpies]

Oh.

[ He only really ever knew Fun Ghoul as 'That Guy Who Killed Jesse Once', but he'd really liked Elizabeth, had felt protective of her in the same way (though to a lesser degree) that he does for River. ]

He's here. Thank God. [ Because River knows, more than anyone else, just how much Ned would lose it if he woke up and Daneel was nowhere to be found. It's almost unbearable just imagining it; the other three disappearing all at once has jolted his mind into picturing it as a when and not an if. ] Fussing like a mother hen.

[nedofpies]

No, I, that's, I'm not-

[ Yeah, Ned knows Brigid isn't an idiot, he's so obviously sick it would be insulting to deny it. ]

I appreciate the concern, but I'm being very well taken care of.

[ Unlike Galen and Jesse and Kenzi who for all he knows are getting a three-for-one on horrific human experimentation and God knows what else. Just the thought if it makes him feel nauseous ]

Glad you're still here, anyway.

[nedofpies]

[ There's undisguised relief in Ned's expression when he gets the message from Meyer. If he hadn't heard from him soon, he was going to evade Daneel somehow, so help him, and walk over to their house to make sure he and Charlie hadn't evaporated into thin air along with several of the other people he's come to care about, here ]

Thank you.

[ They are hollow and meaningless words, and he says them without really thinking ] It's possible they'll come back. [ He doesn't sound optimistic. Even with the precedent of Kenzi's disappearance and Jesse's death and rebirth, he knows better than to hope for the return of people who leave ] Bruce is gone, too. Has been for a while now.

[bostonhowler]

[She hides a smile at the almost automatic denial. He can't hide how sick he is.]

Yes, I'm still here. I'm living in the lighthouse now. If you change your mind about the tea and soup, don't hesitate to ask.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

It's possible, but you don't think it's probable.

[It doesn't take a genius to recognize that, from Ned's tone of voice. He knows people have disappeared and come back before, but he also knows that there are those who haven't. There's no sense in hoping.]

I thought Bruce might be gone. That's too bad.

[And he really does seem to think it is. He's not one for forming attachments, but he certainly can't ignore the fact that Bruce had helped him after the tiger attack.]

[enchangement]

Good. Time by now, someone needs to fuss, or you will fuss in the wrong direction. [ River makes a small shushing sound. Ned's mind is occasionally as unkind as River's can be. ] Think about happy things. Create olfactory memory. [ Hug Daneel really tight and take a deep breath, Ned. ]

We need a record. Written, textile, complied. Will you ask if he will do it?

[zen_navigator]

Jesse is gone as well. Pinkman.

[He sighs and then squints at the video screen.] You look like death.

[hung_garian]

Well, you know what those crazy kids are like. They're probably off having a tea party in the woods or a threesome or something.

[He's well aware that they're not, that they're gone. Being serious about it makes it serious, though, and he's not entirely ready for that.]

[ video ]

[noblexcompanion]

Kenzi's missing?! Oh God...

That's quite a lot of people to vanish all at once. That can't be coincidence... I hope they're alright.

And I hope you feel better soon. You sound terrible.

[nedofpies]

Doesn't seem like a coincidence to me, either. There are others. People from all around town. Something's up. [ Ned laughs a bitter laugh that devolves into a cough before he adds ] Then again, when isn't something up.

[ He's really trying not to think about what might be happening to them. Best case scenario is that they are all back home. Kenzi's with her badass roommate, Galen and Jesse are together in New York, and they are healthy and happy. But hoping isn't going to change anything. It won't comfort him or help them. ]

I'll be alright. [ Being sick is nothing compared to having his friend snatched from the house in the night. He waves off the concern for his health impatiently. That wasn't why he made the announcement ] Do you know of anyone else who's gone missing, recently?

[noblexcompanion]

Missing? Not off the top of my head. A few people have been quiet lately and if people are going missing en masse I should probably make an active effort to check up on them...

video

[nedofpies]

[ Are you really trying to get a laugh, Gabriel? Bad timing. ]

They're really gone. Friend of mine confirmed it.

[ He really wishes that River didn't have to use her powers for this kind of thing, but it is useful. Good to have some certainty, to not need to rush around town frantically searching, wondering if maybe he made a mistake, if they are just not answering for some reason. ]

Here's hoping they're all back home and not... [ He trails off, not really wanting to finish that sentence. ]

video

[hung_garian]

They're not meaningful pause. Trust me, I'd know.

[Except that that's not necessarily true. He hasn't been keeping tabs on Jesse and Galen at all, he barely knew them, and Kenzi... well, he thinks he'd have noticed if she'd been hurt at all. But he can't be sure, not in this place.]

Kenzi'll be happy. Pizza delivery at last - she'll make herself sick.

[nedofpies]

Oh.

[ Ned hadn't really known him, had only spoken to him briefly while they'd been planting crops, but he'd seemed likable enough, if a bit odd. He'd been friends with the three in his house who had vanished, too. It's sad in a different way, when people he barely knows vanish. He worries about them less, then feels bad about worrying about them less, then wonders how well he would have gotten to know them if they hadn't been whisked off by forces unknown ]

That's a shame. Thanks for telling me.

[ He's gonna ignore the look like death comment, because if he doesn't acknowledge he's sick that means he isn't, right? ]

--> private video

[nedofpies]

[ Just choosing to think about happy things is easier said than done. Right now, he isn't even sure making a pie would make him feel better. In the state of mind he's in, he'll only think about how much Kenzi loved pie, about the face Elizabeth had made when she'd tried persimmon for the first time, about telling Galen to look up his shop if they ever got out of here, about Jesse telling him that baking pie was like its own form of art. ]

What good is a list going to do?

[ With everyone else he's been putting a brave face on it, but for River he lets the mask slip just a few inches. True, he's just asked people to speak up if they know someone else who's absent, but there's no real point to it. He'd only asked that because it seemed like the thing to do. It won't bring them back, and it won't help the people left behind stop it from happening again. ]

Could you- do you mind coming over? Promise I won't cough on you. [ He adds ] If you can stand being around my brain right now, I mean.

[zen_navigator]

No problem.

[To be fair, he didn't know Pinkman all that well, either. He'd just been the guy in the other room who he talked with every once in a while when they happened to be in the same room.]

Been eating the wrong sort of mushroom?

[nedofpies]

[ He nods to show that he heard her, that he acknowledges her offer of help and appreciates it. Perhaps it comes off as a bit cold, he knows, but he's feeling a little fragile right now, and not because of the fever. ]

...seen any ghosts in there?

[ What? He heard it was haunted. Also it was creepy as hell the one time he went in, he has no idea why anyone would want to live there. ] Why're you in the lighthouse?

[nedofpies]

[ Ned nods once, curtly. Meyer understood him just fine and that doesn't surprise him. He's not exactly being subtle, besides which Meyer is very perspicacious. ]

There's a new woman in town who says she's a doctor. So there's that.

[ But it's not only the presence of a medical professional that has Ned bothered about Bruce's disappearance. The truth is that he'd liked Bruce. Trusted him as he hadn't really trusted other doctors. Had been starting to think of him as a friend. Ned chews on his lower lip, admits: ]

Glad you're still here, at least.

[nedofpies]

[ That earn a reluctant half-smile from Ned, though it's brief and somewhat dim. He's not really in the smiling mood at the moment. ]

It's nothing to worry about. Just a little bit under the weather. I'll be back on my feet in no time.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Never thought I'd agree that being stuck here was better than the... alternative...

[It doesn't do to dwell on the 'alternative' much. Either people have been returned home, or they haven't -- either way, they're not here.]

But I'm glad you're still here, too.

[bostonhowler]

No ghosts, well not yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed though. As long as they don't mind me grilling them about their lives, I wouldn't mind sharing space with them.

[Brigid is unusual in that way.]

I needed some more space than living in town could offer. My temper was getting really short, so I'm staying out here until it stops.

Action

[thezerothlaw]

[Eventually, Daneel judges that he's waited long enough, and he approaches, lying his hand on Ned's shoulder.]

I am also concerned, Ned, but you will exhaust yourself this way, and you are still not fully recovered. You should return to bed.