--2 [text] It's Safe To Say It's Lonely Now

[screeee]

[It's been weeks since she left. Since she went away. since she let her go

She fled to land, crawled ashore, hid in this great big house (right-side-up, and not as big as home), and stopped. Sitting in her new home, her smaller home, in a room that was dank and musty like the one she grew up in, lined with drawings from her Sisters... old and new, living and eaten...

The drawings were not perfect. But they were enough to help her remember the girls they imitated. Her memory didn't always work right, so any reminder was good, even if there was an undercurrent of wrong to it.

The reminders were good. Her memory wasn't, so the reminders were good. But they weren't. They made her think, about them, about her, about him... And she wonders.

Was it worth that burst of happiness from her Little Sister, when she took her father's hand and followed him away?


no. it wasn't.


she missed her.]


[It's late on the first day, when a plain text post appears on the network, with hardly anything to identify who it was from:]

How do you live without your Sisters?

[ (This version of her has also had had the time and calm to figure out the shift key.) ]

Comments

[paper_knight]

[Oh look. Someone's talking about loss on the network. Surely he's allowed to ring in on that.]

What happened to them?

[screeee]

[Funny that the does, considering...]

They are gone. They left. They were taken. They were eaten.

[That's not quite all of it. So she adds:]

I am here. They are at home.

I want them here.

[paper_knight]

Theyre not here
You are--like it or not.

The important question isn't HOW do you live but WHY

[screeee]

[... It's a good question. She's pretty much ruined everything for herself back home. And in letting go of her Sisters, her Sister...]

I donnto know wh

Why should

I I want them here i want them heres I want them ther I want ehtme here

[paper_knight]

[The final stream of text is alarming, and he fumbles to switch to audio before she's finished.]

Shhh, stop that. Shh, shh.

[One more familiar voice--a little slurred, somehow dull even in this momentary urgency.]

[screeee]

[That voice--!!

She knows it. She knows it's him - and he should know why she's so--

but he's trying to comfort her. and she is selfish, so selfish, so she'll take it, even if it's from him. even if he should be looking after her lost sister]

[She cries, for a little bit, listening to his voice as if someone was actually there and close. And then, she's got enough of it out to reply.

For a moment - she doesn't know what she was thinking, but for a moment, she switches to audio, too.

But it's just breathing - ragged, as it is when someone's trying not to cry. There's something off about the voice, maybe some kind of weird echo or overlay or something, but before there's enough time to figure it out, the feed switches back to text.]

They w ere evreythnig

[paper_knight]

Shhhhhh.

[He doesn't notice if there's anything off--because everything is off. The little details don't matter--all in his head.]

You're supposed to let go.
Better for you.

[For a moment his tone goes rough. He doesn't really think it's better at all, and part of him wants her to get mad, spark an argument. But no, no, that isn't right. Isn't helpful. What is it that Doctor Lyman says--or used to say, before things got so bad?]

...Sorry. You can talk, if you want. Type. I'll read.

[screeee]

[She listens to his words, spoken like he didn't know who she was and didn't know she deserved this. She shouldn't, she should stay quiet - but it's too quiet already, and this is a distraction from the silence in her head. It's not as easy as he he makes it sound, but...]

I let her go alredy. I want her back.
I want allof them back. Its too quiet. I want to be with them.

[paper_knight]

[Silence for a while, until he realizes how crazysilly it is to listen to a typed message.]

Could be worse. You could be hearing things.

[screeee]

[He can't see it, but she tilts her head. Her reply comes out slow:]

How is tha t worse than being alone?

[paper_knight]

[A quiet, broken laugh, quickly stifled. His next response is typed.]

Then youre alone and crazy.

[screeee]

[Oh.]

Noise is better than quiet. I

miss hearing things. I miss

hearing them

[paper_knight]

What if they weren't real??

[screeee]

[She looks at the drawings around her room.]

Reminders are better than forgetting.

[paper_knight]

You forget anyway--inevitable.

[screeee]

[... That's also true. she couldnt remember her birthday
But no she was different-!]

No

I wonnt I dont want to. I'l remember the feeling.

[paper_knight]

Then you'll keep hurting

[screeee]

It hurts more to forget.

You still feel something there but you dont know what. You donnt know why and its your fault y ou dont because you forgot.

[paper_knight]

You should teach me how you managed that.

[clinging 101 with traveler]

[screeee]

Hold on and dont let go

even if it crumbles in your hands you will still be holding parts of it.

Name sound feel smell it will make you remember the feeling. If you know what the feeling is from you have not forgoten it all.

Re: [clinging 101 with traveler]

[paper_knight]

I meant how to forget.

[screeee]

[!!

She -- needs a second.]

Dont.

You can'nt forget.

[paper_knight]

No fear there
I' m terrible at it.

[screeee]

Good.

Hold onto her.

[And that's the last text he'll get from her.]

[paper_knight]

[Wait WHAT???]

WHo is this???

[screeee]

[The closest thing to a reply he will get comes a day later, in the evening. Whatever Mark may be doing in his room - he'll be interrupted by a loud THUNK against his door.

If he decides to open it, he'll find a drawing --pinned by an ADAM gathering tool...

[screeee]

... And across the hall, scratched into the walls, there's another message.

The hall, otherwise, is empty.

She is gone.]

[paper_knight]

[He stares for a long while--then seems to shake himself, suddenly feeling clearer than he has in ages. The drawing and the needle he'll take with him as he runs up and down the halls, checking the stairs for the perpetrator.

Later, but not too much later, because he doesn't want to lose them to the mansion, he'll return to take a rubbing of the scratches. This is unhealthy, says part of him--this is evidence, says another, truer part.]

[voice]

[worldentire]

[ _{his voice last time was smooth and silky; his voice today is raspy and cruel.} ]

Whole lot've shakin', Sis.

[text]

[screeee]

[Again, the voice is familiar. It's different but she still knows it, from somewhere. But it doesn't really matter, it's not like either of them will go back.]

I do not understand

[worldentire]

You know, girly. That drain on your self when you've not had a taste in a while.

[screeee]

[She does not like this. But she's curious, now and it's something to poke at that isn't her loneliness or the silence. Her next qustion is more to confirm than clarify, however:]

Taste of what?

[worldentire]

ADAM, sis. You lost?

[screeee]

GO AWAY

[Well hey she's not sad anymore.]

[worldentire]

Awwww.

[ _{there is not an ounce of sympathy or sorrow in his voice. it sounds cold and cruel instead.} ]

Did I go'n make you angry.

[screeee]

Aghvdfscx jcdbgl j bcvvll;bhjdgfbgm,m ,mbjk

[And so on, as she smashes her communicator into the desk.

So that's a yes.]

[worldentire]

[ _{if she were listening while she were beating the hell out of her comm, she might hear his quiet, cruel laughter-- but that doesn't last long, since eventually his transmission cuts out, probably due to the vicious beating her comm got.} ]

[audio]

[manhunthotline]

[In contrast to Sinclair, Benny's voice is smoother than usual, sleek, if a voice can be sleek. It's habitual, not conscious--there's still a very faintly rough edge when he answers.]

I wish I could tell ya. I guess ya just...poke at it less, after a while. And maybe you never get up the nerve to do anything else but live without her.

[text]

[screeee]

[Unless Benny was screaming or shouting while firing a gun, Traveler wouldn't have recognized his voice anyway.]

[... There's something of a delay before her answer.]

I can not poke anything anymore. Theyc an not too.

What elsec an I do thatis n ot living without them?

Iwan t them here.