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

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

( 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. )

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( 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. )

...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? ]

( 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.

That looked like it would hurt. My eyes hurt watching it.

[ The engulfing light part, that is. He wants to offer something, but it's pretty difficult-- there's no point offering to come get her, and he can't exactly heal or offer support from far away. ]

Are you-- if you live at the apartments, I live close to here. If you want to rest up. There's free beds.

[ Good for tiredness. Good for hurting bodies. ]

Oh... Tower isn't doing well. I think. Looks wrong now.

( Side effect of the engulfing light. Alex briefly wonders why she's not as blinded... until she recalls her eyes had been closed the whole time. )

You're so nice. ( Disconnected and honest thought. ) I should probably... ugh. Visit the hospital. The doctor knows — there should be medicine. A shot for Protocore Syndrome.

[ The tower didn't seem to look...get weird, but uh. Maybe not the time to worry about the tower. ]

Oh. Yeah. I don't have one of those. [ A Protocore...syndrome. He's not sure what that would even be, but. ] You'll be okay once you get it? You're gonna be okay?

[ There's worry in his voice, but a hopeful kind. That whatever she did, and whatever she gets, she'll be okay. She'll be fine, once she gets going. Once Kaeya gets there. ]

Good. Good. 's bad. Most people... bad for most people.

( Course correcting from saying most people die, and she's one of the longest living cases with it. Zanye would know what to do. Zayne would also call her a fool for this, and he'd be right, and she kind of intensely misses him right now? That's her cardiologist. Also her friend. Why isn't he calling her stupid?

Oh, right. He's not here. )

Yes. Yes, 'm gonna be fine. Just a little... tired right now. That's all.

( Another wheezing gasp for air, before she's curling up a little, focused again on breathing. The steadier she holds herself, the steadier she feels, right? )

Shot'll make it all okay.

( Because it hasn't killed her yet. )

Okay. That's good. Good.

[ Gorgug speaks in that way where he wants it to be sure that he's hearing her, yes, that's good, you'll be okay--not willing to ask how it'll make her good, or why, since that sort of medical stuff, Gorgug doesn't have any need to know.

Talking to talk, until she has physical company. But what about, if not asking her the shots, if she's okay, when he's already done that? He can be clumsy with conversation, but offers: ]

If you want to try and send a message again sometime, I, we could make something that doesn't mess you up. We could shoot a satellite into space.

[ Should he be offering that? Maybe she won't remember in the morning, but--technically, they could! Technically! ]

( Alex appreciates him talking, even if she doesn't have the clarity of mind or awareness to say so right now. She will later. While possibly contemplating how deeply she should bow in apology for scaring any of her friends with her drunken act of... desperation, if she's honest.

Alex can't be seen to shift her hand, but she manages to get it to her face to rest her cheek on. More comfortable than the bare roof. )

We can? ( She hates that she sounds plaintive, but she does. ) Can we? I'd like that. Satellites are smart. ( Softer, enough that a gust of wind might steal her words away from where she parked the 'idea' of the holographic screen to record, when really, it's right by her, it should hear fine: ) Smarter than radio towers. )

[ She does sound sad. And that only encourages Gorgug, who's nodding on the other end to himself, considering it can't be seen. ]

Way smarter. My satellites are smart. [ As if he's actually made any, but.. ] My parents made the blue prints, I've got them with me. We can hook up signals and make an entire network. And make everyone listen to us.

[ How about that? Gorgug sure is promising big, but maybe it's big enough to be comfortable when one is stuck at the top of a busted radio tower.

(There's a question there, Do you miss your home already?, but Gorgug doesn't want to ask it. It feels too personal. Rude.

But he would understand.) ]

( She makes a sort of... unintelligible sound meant to be a noise of agreement. She's doing her best here. It's not very good, but it is an attempt. Her head's swimming with the kind of exhaustion she can't let herself slip into, dark and red eating at the edges of her vision as her heart beats too fast in her chest.

The wheezing is audible again for a few beats of her heart, and then she's breathing quietly again. )

From your parents? That's... so sweet. I love them. ( She doesn't know his parents. She is never going to know his parents. She loves the idea of parents on the other hand. She's so glad people have those. Except when they're terrible. Then they should just be orphans adopted by a grandparent not related to them like she was. ) Love... that plan. Make a network. Send signals... deep into space. Paying attention, that's what it is, right?

( Making whatever is out there pay attention. If it has consequences, so does staying silent. There's playing it safe, and then there's... whatever doing nothing is. )

Yeah.

[ Gorgug doesn't know what Alex means by that's what it is, but it doesn't matter. He's just trying to keep her talking, though he isn't sure it would be entirely bad if she fell asleep. Whatever she's thinking, the fact that she's thinking, is good enough.

He idly thinks again about sending off a bot to find her (he should do that energy tracking idea with her), but if Kaeya's got that big form of his, then there's no point. ]

We can talk to everyone. We could get a ship to come by and say-- hey. [ Hey there. ] You wanna go on a trip around space?

( Alex very likely also isn't sure what she's saying right now. She's making herself keep her eyes open, curling in on herself as her chest aches outsized to the beating of her heart. )

Hey. I'd love that. Space is... it's big. Deep. Deepspace. ( A wheezing inhalation, and then an easier exhalation. Long and slow. ) 'swhere we got a signal from. Get signals from. Deepspace.

Do you go out in space? On a spaceship?

[ She gets signals, there's creatures from space. It seems a possibly easy thing to talk about, so Gorgug sticks with it, even adds on the end, ] My first mission was on a spaceship. It was my first spaceship, too.

Mmm... some... no? I'm... Earth bound. Protect the ground. S'm'ne else takes... takes the skies.

( Caleb? That's who's supposed to fly. Alex has flown with him as a pilot a little by now, but it's not the same. Most of their flights aren't into space, but into the tunnel itself... which suffers similar conditions to the void of space. )

How'd you like it? Space?

[ The ground is nice, really.

But how did he like space? It's a fuzzy memory by now, one that doesn't actually feel real, but... ]

It was okay. [ ... ] I liked the ship. I liked seeing how it ran, the different parts-- I helped the engineer fix it up. The same things kept breaking. [ Which doesn't make his repair work sound good, but... ] But it was stuck in a kind of time loop situation.

[ So long ago. Should he mention the clowns? Maybe not. ]

Wooow!

( She draws out that sound, genuinely impressed. Not just anyone can help an engineer fix up whatever was going on. Even without the bit about the time loop, she would entirely believe pieces can repeatedly break down: things get old, parts are less than effective, there's all sorts of reasons. )

You are so cool. Fixing ships... when you'd never seen one before. I wish we had... MeTube around here? Videos for everything... everything you gotta fix. Amazing stuff. ( A musing sound. ) Not much on time loops though.

[ Is this where he admits to fixing pipes and nuts and bolts?

... nahhh. ]

You can help me fix stuff tomorrow, if you're feeling better. [ Is he saying it just because Alex actually sounds invested, in her own drunk and hurt way? Maaybe. ]

How bad does the tower look?

It looks...

( She squints at it, trying to lift her head. She manages for a few seconds to stop looking at it sideways, then lets her head thump back down. )

Warped?

Oh. [ Well. ] Maybe we can... twist it. Back into shape.

Good as new.

[ He doesn't actually sound confident. He just thinks that maybe Alex's brain right now might take that idea well?? ]

Oooh... do you have super strength? I don't. Unless someone else does. Then I can.

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

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