[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

Comments

@ASolomons; audio/text; day 144

[devoutish]

Good morning, Kesara.

[Alfie sounds a little tired today, but mostly all right.]

Listen - I'm gonna travel with Fiona to the clinic by the school, to take her to see Dr. Watson in his state of injury.

[Fiona, by this point, would have been mentioned more than once. She's a good friend, and though he doesn't travel with her as much as he does with Royce and Tifa, they've been spending quite a bit of time together lately.]

She's close to the man, yeah? Wouldn't want her to be on her own just now. So Duster's gonna get to you before me, and I've sent some things along with him. Use what you can and trade what you don't want. Here's a list.

- food
- a hat (top hat, black, not made for warmth but covers the ears if you pull it down far enough)
- a thin shirt (not made for warmth but good for burning or wrapping)
- the head of an axe
- disinfectant wipes
- clear tape
- wood with screws in (not a bad weapon in a pinch)
- a hand mirror
- wire cutters
- matches
- small sticking plasters
- a sponge
- a full-sized curtain (thin, but strip it up for burning or wrapping things)

audio

[heavensreader]

Good morning, Mr. Solomons.

[Kesara, for her part, is doing her very best to keep her spirits up, though it's been getting harder with the long days in the darkness of the tunnels, and the pain in her arm. But such is the explorer's lot and she will never be heard to complain.]

Did you really find an axe-head? We could use that, sure enough! We've been going very deep - the tunnels just go on and on - we might still not be through them by the time you finally get here. [That "finally" is small, more teasing than anything else. She's made her peace with the delays, it wouldn't be different in any other expedition.

Her voice is a little more subdued when she speaks up next, though.] Is it just Duster who's coming...?

audio

[devoutish]

Tifa and Emily are gonna be in the area too, but that'd make five, wouldn't it - the three of them, you, and Zach. That concerns Zach, and it concerns me. So they're gonna stay behind, I think. Yeah.

[heavensreader]

[No matter how she tries, Kesara can't hide her nose wrinkling at the mention of Emily. But it's a faint gesture - she tries. And either way she has bigger fish to fry. Not even the size of the group, though that is also a concern. Something else, first.]

Duster isn't - you don't think he's too upset with me, still, do you?

[devoutish]

Not enough that he doesn't want to see you. Do you not want to see him?

[heavensreader]

I do! I told him I want him to come. It was only - that was before.

[devoutish]

And now?

[heavensreader]

[Her voice is subdued. Not even sad, merely a low sobriety.]

I've made a very bad mistake. I wouldn't forgive me so easily in his place.

[devoutish]

You're talking about telling Ecks, yeah?

[Because of course Royce has told Alfie.]

[heavensreader]

I knew he'd tell you. But... you're still talking to me.

[devoutish]

What you did was very different from what Watson did. Yeah? He involved himself because he thinks it's his job to play police, and it turns out that he is a fucking horrible policeman.

[Alfie doesn't usually swear when he's talking to Kesara, but this time, he slips.]

House is your friend. You were affected by the situation.

[heavensreader]

I thought s- House is not my friend now.

[She snaps it off. No argument.]

But that's what I thought about Ecks - that is, I wanted to make sure she's all right, because he is her teacher. Telling her about Duster was a mistake, but, it isn't that she's not involved. Even though Duster thought so.

[devoutish]

Kesara - you interfered, but you had reason to. Real reason. And there may be consequences, because you're involved now, but those consequences will not involve Duster hurting you.

[heavensreader]

He did promise.

[She mutters it like it's a talisman. It'll protect her.]

Duster said it's finished. I said fine. And House didn't want Ecks to do it, so he probably thinks it's finished, too. But something else will happen sooner or later. All of us know that.

[devoutish]

Yeah, what makes you sure?

[heavensreader]

Because things keep happening. Because of who we are - not all, but enough of us. Because when people are hungry and cold and unhappy they always fight. You know.

[devoutish]

Next time, I think it'll be something new. This will affect it, if it involves House, Duster, Ecks, Watson. But it won't be the same battle, repeated endlessly.

[heavensreader]

But it might be the same war. War isn't one battle, is it? But it's sides and strategists and alliances and that is still all the same war. Because there are sides, so people use them.

[devoutish]

Yeah, it might be. Or it might not. Wars do end.

[heavensreader]

Do you really think, if we just don't do anything at all, that it will all stop - the people fighting, and other people getting dragged into it - people that matter to us? Do you really?

[She sounds highly doubtful, but not sarcastic. It would be very nice if he could believe it enough to convince her.]

[devoutish]

Kesara, I don't think there's any way to stop people from fighting. Not people this different from each other, not forever. If this were home and everybody involved was a member of my gang, I'd handle things differently. But it's not, and they're not. Yeah?

[heavensreader]

But if they were -

[Is she being logical, or only stubborn? It's confused in her own head. There's a fretting fear that keeps her pushing, angry that he isn't giving her the answers she wants...]

That's what I keep thinking. That is how you make people who are different stop fighting. By making them all part of one thing - a regiment, or gang, or expedition.

[devoutish]

And how are you gonna do that?

[He at least doesn't want to dismiss her ideas without hearing them first.]

[heavensreader]

I've been thinking about it... but I think I need to think some more.

[She'd been hoping he'd have an idea or two. But if this is the challenge, then she is not giving up on it quite yet.]

[devoutish]

You've got three options, yeah? You try to bring everyone under your banner voluntarily, but then you have to deal with the people who won't come, and figure out how to enforce your control the people who do. You could also try to do it by force, and deal with rebellion, with lack of loyalty, with fights against you.

[Those are two of the three options. The third is not trying at all.]