Message 15: Roll Call

[unrecovered]

[Kind of hard not to notice that a whole bunch of people - namely, the people who randomly appeared a week ago - have now up and disappeared.]

Who's still here?

Comments

[unrecovered]

[Wash had been expecting an affirmative - planning on it, actually. For Carolina to admit, in public, that she wasn't okay...it had to be worse than he thought.]

I've been better.

[Which, for him, is a non-answer. He's silent for a few moments, thinking. When he can't come up with anything that feels right to say, he goes ahead anyway, because it has to be better than the silence.]

What- Can I...what do you need?

[guerriera]

[ It could be argued that she hasn't been okay for a very long time. This just happens to be the very tip of a very large iceberg. ]

[ What does she need? There's a soft huff of noise, scoffing. ]

Don't worry about me, Wash. There's nothing here I need, except a way back home.

We still have that one nightmare to deal with, the one that started all this. [more firmly] That'll be a start.

Filtered to Carolina

[unrecovered]

[True, but she doesn't normally admit it.]

You just admitted in public that you're not okay. What makes you think I'm not going to worry?

We'll take care of Spellican once we know who we have on board. [Read: once people have recovered from suddenly losing those who woke up.]

[Carmen has been listening to this conversation carefully and has decided to take matters into her own paws. She digs under the bed, grabs something in her mouth, and disappears out of the room before her person can notice. She's on a mission!]

Re: Filtered to Carolina

[guerriera]

[she snorts faintly]

After an event that's shaken everyone? Pft. I doubt anyone would be surprised to head it. [weak, but she's going to stick with that anyway. There's no sulk to her voice - she's just. tired.] I don't see why it would give you reason to worry.

I suspect we'll have plenty of volunteers for handling things, regardless of who's left.

Permafilter

[unrecovered]

Because it's you. [Because he's lived through that part of the timeline now. Because he knows how badly life has battered her, and that she wound up here before she could get her resolution. Because he can count the times he's seen her admit to Not Being Okay in front of other people on both hands.]

[Because, having just lost a bunch of people all over again, he's even more worried about the ones he has left, even if he's not on the greatest of terms with them.]

Yeah, probably. I don't think anyone wants a Nightmare that big just hanging around.

[Having made her way down the hall with her prize (a bright orange Grifball shirt) in tow, Carmen paws at the door to Carolina's (temporary) hotel room. Let her in! She brought a gift!]

Re: Permafilter

[guerriera]

And my question still stands.

[she doesn't want to talk about it, doesn't want to think about it, she's tired damn it. Bad enough that Carolina doesn't know, isn't sure she wants to know, how she stands with Wash anymore.]

[there's footshuffling as she moves towards the door, trying to focus instead on the thing she can fight, rather than what she cannot. Dax follows at her heels.]

Not giving it time to bring back the other nightmares will be ur priority, I guess. And finding some way to--[the door opens]--reopen the portals will.

..What do you want.

[said to Carmen, with an irritable frown, not quite parsing what the orangey fabric could be]

[unrecovered]

Pretty sure I just answered it. [If she doesn't want to talk about it, he's not going to push it - not right now, at least. God knows they're both still trying to deal with things.]

I get the feeling the portals will take care of themselves once we get the Nightmare out of the way.

[Carmen rears up on her hind legs and places her paws on Carolina's knee, meowing an explanation around a mouthful of fabric. She brought you a present! She...borrowed it from the other person you liked, but he left and now she's giving it to you!]