10th Frontier [audio//common]

[ecopiracy]

[The comm clicks on, but for a long moment, nothing can be heard but faint, harsh breathing.]

No. Not here. Damn it, where-?

[A sharp intake of breath, a clatter as the communicator is dropped.]

NO.

[Silence. Silence. Then another ragged breath.]

Comments

This is so dated after her finding Torn.

[nottheaveragekg]

......

If you stop breathing, Phoenix, you'll die.

[Did she really just say that?]

[ecopiracy]

[There's a faint scrape and clatter as gropes for the communicator. His voice is a lot harsher than he tends to use with Ashelin.]

That might actually be preferable.

...

[A soft hiss of frustration. Damn it, he hadn't meant to say that out loud.]

[nottheaveragekg]

Don't say stupid shit like that. Don't you know what that'd do to me?

[Okay. Can we stop this now? She doesn't like this.]

...A... I mean.
Shut the hell up. Your death wouldn't last anyway.

[ecopiracy]

I'm sure you would move on, just like all the others-

[NO. He is not going to lose his composure so much that he forgets all sense of tact. Even if-

Precursors. No no no no no.

There's a strangled sound from the other end of the comm, a sound which Ashelin's never heard from him before.]

[nottheaveragekg]

It's not like that. It'd mean something to me.

[She pauses.

Something's off.]

...What is it? What's going on?

[Does she sound worried? She is.]

[ecopiracy]

[The next few breaths have the sound of someone desperately trying to calm himself down. It takes several more moments before Phoenix responds, but there's still a strain to it that shouldn't be there.]

Ashelin, if you manage to find a gun and you run into me, I want you to shoot me.

Please.

[nottheaveragekg]

You're kidding.

[No, no, no, no, no. Don't come spewing out. Don't even start going down that road. She can't stop it, though, so she tries to flatten it into a string of incomprehensible words.]

I can't do that.

So would you just... tell me what the hell's going on with you?

[ecopiracy]

[He isn't in any condition to take note of her concern. He's too terrified by the hallucination he's having.]

I-

[NO.]

[CLICK.]

[He shuts the comm off before he says anything else - but not in time to cut off another strangled sob.]