第二十 錯覚; 「accidental voice」

[promisedlotus]

[It's raining. Hard. With thunder. It's 4:30AM. Where's Kanda? Why, the loud splash that sounds tells you exactly where he is. At the river. And he just stepped in part of the river

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[AUDIO]

[tothelastbreath]

[What. Why is his PDA broadcasting at 4 in the morning. What is this flooding you speak of. Where is this flooding you speak of. Fumbles his PDA on, already pushing himself into a sitting position.]

Hello?

[AUDIO]

[tothelastbreath]

[He could deliberately misinterpret that, but...]

You're the exception here, Kanda.

[You and your video feeds of absolute silence. There's a soft 'good morning, Tim', the sound of a door opening and closing, soon followed by the quiet drumming of rain. Someone's on his way to the river.]

[AUDIO]

[promisedlotus]

I'm hardly an exception, stupid beansprout.

[not here]

[tothelastbreath]

[BRB lots of scuffling as he goes scrambling for Lavi's PDA.]

[not here]

[promisedlotus]

[You do that, he'll go and do his own thing.]

[offline forever at the risk of retcon]

[tothelastbreath]

[Whenever you get back, you'll catch sight of a dark figure by the bridge, hands tucked in their coat pockets, hood drawn up against the rain. Given the rain and time of day, it'll be pretty hard if not impossible to pick out their features at that distance, but they don't seem to have problems seeing in the dark as they skirt their way along the edge of the swelling waters.]

[offline forever and what retcon 8| psh]

[promisedlotus]

[It catches his eye, but Kanda doesn't say anything. Instead, he keeps going, the backpack he stole slung over a shoulder as he makes his way toward the bridge - careful to watch his step as much as he can this time. Unless Allen - because, really, who else could it be at this hour? - called out to him, Kanda was dead set on making his way back to the apartment building.]

[tothelastbreath]

[Allen's done surveying the damage by now, so when Kanda crosses the bridge, he falls into step an arm's length or so beside him. Look, it's not like he wants them to head back together, but he does have some information to relay and now's as good a time as any.]

[ a backward glance at the flooding ] It's gotten quite far from the banks and it's still rising. We'll have to keep an eye on it.

[ In case it gets bad enough to sweep stuff away or weaken buildings nearby... Not that they aren't already crumbling to begin with. This could get messy. ]

[promisedlotus]

[So shoo! :T Gdit Allen. Kanda tries to ignore him for as long as possible-

-but of course Allen's the first one to talk. Well, so much for that. The silence was nice while it lasted at least. And they can't get caught by Credinta police should they break out into an argument.]

I doubt it'll flood to the point where we need to do anything.

[tothelastbreath]

I'd hope not, but it's still raining. Can't hurt to be careful. [ adding, in an tone caught between weary and sullen: ] You'd think there would be fish.

[promisedlotus]

[Can't help the snort.] What, so you could eat a quarter of them?

[tothelastbreath]

[Slants a flat look his way. He may be good with waking early now, but that doesn't mean he's happy to be awake.]

So we can be more self-sufficient. ['Duh', his tone implies. But no, he wouldn't be opposed to getting to eat his fill for once.]

[promisedlotus]

We've had to be the past year, bean sprout.

[tothelastbreath]

[God, why don't you ever listen.]

I said more. Living off what we can take from other people doesn't count as being self-sufficient. And it's still Allen.

[promisedlotus]

You expect us to be able to grow much of anything? What we can grab is better than nothing.

[tothelastbreath]

[ voice going sharper with irritation: ] I said more, not completely. They don't want us there, and there's only so much we can carry back on each trip. [ only so much while the number of mouths to feed has gone up, and more trips equate to a higher risk of getting caught ] There's no telling how long we can keep this up. If we can find other sources of food, I'll take them.