un: plushiewarrior | VIDEO (in which alex sends a really powerful radio signal into the night)

[reincarnesiac]

( The wind's too loud to hear anything at first, catching the earpiece at exactly the wrong angle. Then Alex waves, smiling with that glassy eyed look that significantly tipsy people can end up wearing. It's dark behind her, but anyone very, very familiar with the skyscraper rooftops in Nova City will recognize she's on one of them. )

Hiii! Oh, it is... so not as cold up here as I expected!

( She laughs a little, throwing her hands up into the air and stumbling forward to likewise toss her arms around part of a metal structure, possibly a radio tower. Alex rests her head on it, her laughter trailing off as she smiles, a little bittersweet. )

I wanted to send a message. A big one! A big... message. So I thought, what if you had a lot... I mean a lot of power behind a radio signal? Won't that do something? We just want to be heard...

( Her eyes close, and it doesn't seem like she's doing anything. Then the tower starts to hum, lighting up with a soft sort of glow under her hands. Anyone tuned into its frequency will hear a humming too, almost like static feedback, that starts to sound more like a heartbeat. Hers. Then a clearer message with that beating in the background: Echo. Come in, Echo.

Then it really starts to glow, until the whole radio tower is a beacon of light. There is no way for the tower to handle that much energy for long. Alex's brow furrows as she's swallowed by the light, the overpowered radio signal shooting up a moment later, all the light abruptly going out as it fizzles upward, a misleading manifestation of what went without being visible to most eyes. Alex is left clinging to a partially melted structure, pushing herself away to stand, swaying. )

... Did that... oh. I don't... feel so good...

( Which is when she goes boneless, dropping out of frame to hit the rooftop in a muffled thud, close to passing out. Luckily her earpiece is still recording! ... About four feet higher than her current head level. Enjoy your scene of a warped radio tower and the otherwise unremarkable rooftop, Etraya. )

Comments

Un: frost - voice

[shadowsincryo]

…do you need help getting down? [Well that was a lot. He’ll process all of that in a minute.]

off screen but audible

[reincarnesiac]

...

...

...

... 'mmm down.

Voice - > action tag order Kaeya - Setsu - Alex

[shadowsincryo]

On the way.

[There is a rustle then something vast darkens the sky in colors of the depths of the sea. His feathers seem to reflect a starlit sea.

He arrives swiftly and his glowing eye narrows as he extends his front paw, palm up for Setsu to step off of onto the roof of the radio tower.

Possibly the hand is in the video or one glowing eye.]

[backtostart]

Thank you—

[ Setsu doesn't know what they or Alex would do without Kaeya's dragon form or his willingness to help here—definitely not already at the rooftop, overlooking the melting remains of the tower. For now, they simply give a quick thanks before rushing off of his paw in a few quick, careful steps, unmindful of whatever video might be broadcasting at the moment. ]

Alex!

[ Kneeling beside her, Setsu curls an arm around her shoulders to gently ease her back up. ]

Come on... Can you get up?

[reincarnesiac]

( They'll have found her curled up on her side, just shy of fetal position. Her eyes opened when she heard voices, but it's not really until Setsu is helping her sit up that she gasps and sucks in a deeper breath. Which is better for her, really: Gorgug helped her sober up some by asking point blank if she was dying.

It's a horrible question. )

Just... give me a sec.

( Her heart isn't hurting as bad as it had been, but she's spent too much energy at once. The second core isn't stable in the first place, and lacking the stability of the first core, has her breathing in a wheeze.

She might try to stand. She will not, at present, be able to manage it. One hand presses against her chest as she breathes in sharp through her teeth. Augh. )

... Sorry. I need another minute.

un: gorgug, voice;

[tinflower]

[ Well, Gorgug saw that Kaeya's going over to find and meet Alex, but- ]

Aleeeeeex?

[ C-can she hear him? Maybe he can keep her company... ]

off screen but audible

[reincarnesiac]

( First there's a long pause. Her wheezing isn't really so much audible? Too much wind up here. But she does manage a: )

... Gorguuh?

( When she's forcing herself not to pass out, fight against the darkness, and tamp down on the pain. Still too drunk to really tackle the whys of it. )

[tinflower]

...Yeah, that's close! Gorgug!

[ He may have been momentarily haunted by a reminder of people being unable to say his name correctly, but nevermind that- ]

Are you okay? Are you dying?

[ How 'not good' is 'not good', here? ]

[reincarnesiac]

( For some unfathomable reason, being asked if she's dying is a jolt to her system that gets her to sober up some. It's not an idle question, but she has to focus on herself, curling up a bit as her heart thumps painfully in her chest.

This isn't the kind of pain from when she'd been at the healing retreat, the one where everyone was getting incubated into monstrous wanderer-human hybrids, with no way of being undone. Then she'd felt the extent of her second core's instability. Right now it's... not that level.

Still hurts. Her breathing is measured around each short burst of words. That seems like it helps? )

Not... not that bad. Just tired. Hurts a little.

Voice; un: Wolfman

[will_chase_balls]

Uh...are you okay? That looked...not good.

Can you hear me?

[He's glad someone else is offering to get her down, since he's not even sure how he'd even be able to ge tup there to help her down.]

[reincarnesiac]

( Oh...! She's a bit sobered up from being asked if she's dying, but there's no energy to sit up. She does recognize that voice though. Another kind person her brain parses, not much useful beyond that. )

Hi. I hear you, yeah. I'm... laying down. For a while.

[will_chase_balls]

Oh. That's good. And you're laying down somewhere where you should be laying down, right?

[In a bed or couch, not the roof of a building or somewhere equally unsafe, he means.]

[reincarnesiac]

....... the roof?

( She lets this sound like the question it is. Kaeya and Setsu are on their way, but they're not here quite yet, and she's... on the roof. Which is better than off the roof? )

video

[krtaps]

Alex! Hey! What the hell did you just do, where are you! Are you okay!?

video happily showing the same ending image, but hey! she can be heard!

[reincarnesiac]

... Julie?

( She knows that voice! It penetrates a little slow, because while she's sobered up with people talking to her, she's still... in a lot of pain that she's mostly forcing herself to breathe through. It's been worse. Also, she kind of deserves it. She did this to herself, going way overboard. )

I... sent out a radio signal. Big one. Lot of power. ( Hers. The problem of Resonance and the actual energy of her complete and incomplete protocores in her heart. ) 'm a little tired.

( She's going to pass out, but she'll live. Even if she doesn't go to the hospital. She's not in an out of control spiral: her protocores aren't destabilized to an explosive energy release degree. Probably. )

[krtaps]

Okay I have so many questions about everything you just said [and if she knew all the other stuff going on in Alex's inner monologue she'd have even more] but first of all where are you?! I'm gonna come get you with Kera and take you to the ER, okay!

[There's a lot of clattering in the background, whether Alex hears it or not, that is Julie grabbing first-aid gear and shoving it in a backpack.]

[reincarnesiac]

I think — ( Things are sounding busier over on her end too, the arrival of a giant dragon being imminent. ) — can you and Kera... meet me at the ER?

( She's not thinking too Well at the moment, but it seems like the best way to make sure Julie and Kera are checking up on her without possibly missing where she is. Alex would feel even worse about that, which is a terrible reason to do much of anything, but making people worry more at this point is outright unkind on her side of things. )

voice; un: MAXIMUMLEGEND

[maximumlegend]

[ Oh, gods--

Fabian is of half a mind to get on the Hangman and drive over - a likely ill-advised plan, given that it's not like he has any ability to help her by healing or anything of the sort, let alone carrying a potentially unconscious person on a motorcycle - but thankfully he sees the messages that help is on the way before he does anything stupid. ]

Alex! You're not supposed to do this sort of thing on your own!

[ He sounds a little agitated. Okay, maybe more than just a little bit. But can you blame him, really, given what he's just seen.. ]

video is unchanged with her audio coming in clear

[reincarnesiac]

( Another familiar voice jolts her eyes a little wider. She's less drunk than she had been, mostly because worried people asking her things like Gorgug's are you going to die are extremely sobering things. She opens her mouth, considers words after an extended: )

Aaaah... yeah. Hey, Fabian. You're right. S'pposed to drink with friends, anyway.

( She knows that's not what he meant, but it's what slips out first anyway. Because... how do you rally people around so you can drunk signal dial space? )

this is so stupid, i'm sorry, no braincells in this thread

[maximumlegend]

That's right!

[ Maybe that's not the sort of thing to double down on, given that Alex is clearly still a little drunk, or at least ought to know - just like Fabian ought to know! - it's not the most important thing here.

But when everything else feels out of your control, you just have to double down on the one thing you can, right. ]

You should have told me! Do you think I can't drink?! I could have brought the bad baby milk! [ Alex!! Alex, you can't die until you've had the bad baby milk!!! ]

who needs braincells not they

[reincarnesiac]

( She has to turn this over in her head. Twice. No, five times. )

... Do you drink that from a baby bottle?

( She's so PUZZLED by this name here! )

video; un: blake

[plangona]

What were you even trying to do? Are you okay?

video continues to show exactly the slagged radio tower, audio comes in clear

[reincarnesiac]

( Alex takes a moment, fingers twitching into the material of her sweater. Bad idea. She will remember, probably, this was a bad idea. )

'm okay! Really. Really okay. Was just trying... to talk.

( Her small gesture toward the sky isn't on camera, but dangit, she did make one! )

[plangona]

Talk to Echo?

[reincarnesiac]

Yesss. Yes. That. Talking to... Echo, echo, echo...!