03 → [video]

[fallforthesky]

[The feed fades in slowly, flickering almost like an old film reel-- it slowly becomes obvious as everything comes into focus that it's a play of the light. Formed by Lenalee walking among the shadows of trees, in turn cast by the sun hanging low in the sky. She talks quietly as she moves.]...So, I've heard a lot about how it isn't safe to try and

Comments

[promisedlotus]

[.....Dammit.] Thanks.

[fallforthesky]

[Did he honestly expect her to forget-- or worse, overlook-- his birthday now? No, Lenalee is clinging to these last vestiges of 'normalcy', even if what she pulls under that umbrella term should by right hardly count. Birthday, ergo birthday wishes. She falters behind the camera for a bit longer, trying multiple times to pull on a smile that doesn't tremble at the corners. Come on, throw her a bone. Their arguments from last month are still burning away at her.]

You're lucky we're so destitute. I couldn't make you anything.

[promisedlotus]

Don't worry about it, Lenalee.

[fallforthesky]

[Frankly:] ...I want to.

1/2 [OFFLINE]

[tothelastbreath]

[Allen had been on his way to check on Karkat, but he pauses in the hallway when the feed starts, turning the volume up just in time to catch the full broadcast. For a long moment, he just sits with his back to a wall, hands cupped loosely around the PDA in his lap.

So it's Kanda's birthday today. And Allen doesn't remember. He's not guilty for it ― he has no reason to be ― but it does fill his ribcage with a sort of warm regret, bluntly waiting to swallow him up if he focuses too long on it.

He clicks his video function on instead. There'll be plenty time for that later.]

2/2 [VIDEO]

[tothelastbreath]

[Now have your usual Allen smile, impeccable if a little flushed in the cheeks.]

Sounds like a good idea! I say we should give it a shot. We're so isolated here, I bet we'll find a city that hasn't heard of us if we travel far enough, or at least one that isn't keeping a constant lookout.

[Should have thought of this, really. He's gotten so used to working with what they do have, it's completely slipped his mind. Before Lenalee got here, he just knows they have no mode of transportation, no guarantee they can get themselves elsewhere before their bodies give out. But a girl who can travel at the speed of sound? It just might work out.]

[added almost as a casual aside, in acknowledgment of the last part of her broadcast:] Someone may quit being so much of a grump if we find soba somewhere.

[Sometimes he thinks that's Kanda's primary complaint about Credinta.]

[VIDEO]

[fallforthesky]

[A girl who's capable of travelling at the speed of sound and desperate enough for a reprieve from the distance festering between everyone that she'd willingly leave for a few days just to get one. Yes, Lenalee needs them and has spent the last month dealing with intense separation anxiety, but... But she's also selfish-- and if, for once, that will be what helps her grant them the chance to live instead of just survive (she has no idea how literal that will turn out to be), she'll gladly be selfish. Damned selfish.]

Or... [Her eyes are hard and not quite focused when she turns the PDA around-- she's considering tactics even as she gives Allen a perfunctory once-over, gaze lingering on his smile as it always does.] ...Has anyone ever tried to get into Credinta from the North side? Going over the river-- it just gives us away, coming from that direction; they know we're leaving Nescreca. [She hesitates.] But what if we can find a map-- find a city up North that we could say we're migrating from, and come into town from that direction

1/2 [VIDEO]

[tothelastbreath]

[...Oh yes, that's going to be fun. All of them, bumbling around in the fog for two whole weeks.]

...Well.

[A beat; he can tell she plans on going alone and it worries him, but at the same time, she's coming up with some very valid ideas. Ideas within their power to turn into reality, hopefully improving everyone's lives a little. And if there's one thing Nesreca's done to Allen, it's force him to be more of a leader, make him shoulder the responsibility for their ragtag community, because someone has to, and he happens to be the best fit. He's still worried, but more importantly, he sees the neccessity to let her go.]

[slowly:] I don't believe anyone's tried, none of us were able to. It sounds like a good plan, though, and if it does work, it'll be more efficient than travelling all the way to another city. There are some old maps in the library, I reckon you'll find one of our surrounding area lying around.

[alma_karma]

[GASP, Yu's birthday?! It's so hard to keep track of days here...]

It's Yu's birthday?

[fallforthesky]

Yes, it is, Alma.

[alma_karma]

[And he didn't even get him anything! Not that there was much to do about that in this place...]

... I wish we could do something for him.

[fallforthesky]

[Falters. It's still so strange to talk to Alma.] ...I do, too.

[--But she can't keep catching her mind up in this, and Lenalee's fully aware that she is, so she gives a faint laugh and shakes her head, though it goes unseen by anything but the trees around her.] But I'm sure he's hoping we don't make a big deal out of it. We'll just have to surprise him, won't we? Somehow...

/latelatelate

[looseleafbook]

I can probably start looking out in one direction while you take another, Lena. Can cover lots of ground with my hammer. [It's an idea. A fair one at that.]

It's that day again, huh? [Grins a little.] I'll see what I can scrounge together to give him.

/later!! Also, 1/2.

[fallforthesky]

[It's fortunate Lenalee still has the PDA directed towards the horizon, because the sound of his voice so suddenly catches her rather off guard. Through word-of-mouth and a devastatingly abandoned bedroom, she's aware that Lavi's been spending the last while shouldering the elements and squirrelling away from home. She knows that Allen at least has found him, because otherwise she's sure there'd be far more tensity in his smiles than there is. And she knows that she probably should have tried harder to find him since Rhode's little trolling session, but she hadn't; perhaps hoping that space would help.]

[And maybe it has, if he's this cheery on the feed. Cheery enough that her own smile, when she flips the PDA round, isn't entirely comprised of for-show sincerity. After the initial stretch, however, she lets it shrink.] I know you can, Lavi, but-- I don't like the idea of branching out in several directions at once. I'm not sure if we even have enough food for more than one of us to leave at a time.

[But three guesses to her real

[fallforthesky]

--And yes, it is. [The look of discomfort fades yet again into a smile, this time the tiniest bit chagrined.] You know he'll complain if you do, Lavi.

["So please do, if it isn't worth the trouble."]

[Such lengths to keep her world functional.]

[looseleafbook]

[He's come by a few times, a few times at least. And he'll be by soon enough again to deliver Kanda's present, to pick up Alma and help him with some things. Lenalee could always come by and pull on his ear or hit him on the head with a clipboard. Still, space has helped. Lavi just wants to know that they're not hiding anything else from him.

But most of the cheer? It's still a little forced, except for remembering it's Kanda's birthday.] I'm already in the north end of town, plus I've managed to find something to eat where I've been hiding out. No worries about me.

[>: He's sorry for worrying you? He just...needs space. He was upset!]

You know I'll do it anyway.