[Audio] - One locked to Alex, the other to Mark

[timisnotme]

*You know if Tim is only on audio something bad happened.*

-- For Alex --

Hey Alex? You busy. I kinda... need help with something. If you could come by.

-- For Mark --

Hey Mark. I think I have some sort of solution. But I uh.. wanted to give you a heads up about it in case it goes horribly wrong somehow.

Comments

[audio]

[40410]

[ ...Oh hell. Alex hopes it's just his own paranoia, but he's pretty sure there's no way in which this can be anything other than very bad news. ]

What--'s the matter?

[ He remembers his own message asking for help, and the cold fear settles on him that the something is the Operator's doing. ]

[audio]

[timisnotme]

I just.. I uh thought up a way to keep... uhm..

Well to keep me from getting out of my room at night. But this could potentially go terribly wrong so.. Just... wanted your opinion on it.

*He sounds exhausted and just a little bit desperate.*

[audio]

[40410]

[ Yeah, it's gonna take more than that to get Alex off high alert.

The usual fears chase each other through his head - the possibility of $person_he's_speaking_to being a thread, the possibility of death lurking right outside his door, the possibility of a trap. But most of it he can recognise, at least logically, as unrealistic. Most of it comes from parts of him that he wanted to reject during the shadow event.

And besides, he can't hang up on Tim when he sounds as bad as that. ]

I'm there.

[ In the background, there's the shifting of a chair and then a metallic clatter as locks are wished out of the way, and Mosa's questioning chirps. ]

[audio]

[timisnotme]

Thanks.

*He can't help but sound relieved.

When Alex arrives he'll find the door open and Tim sitting on his bed miserably. He looks like shit since Kura punched the living hell out of Markus yesterday. He has a half-assed bandage tied around his left shoulder from where Peace shot him, a black eye, various bruises along the side of his face and arms. Right now he's nervously twisting a padlock open before clicking the lock closed and spinning it repeatedly.

This would work. It had to.*

[audio]

[paper_knight]

Solution?

[This all sounds pretty ominous.]

What's going on?

[audio]

[timisnotme]

Solution to keep me ... from uh... getting out of my room when....

*He trails off. This is sorta hard to talk about.*

[audio]

[paper_knight]

Oh.

Did something happen? Are you all right?

[audio]

[timisnotme]

I got in a fight. At least I think I did.

I'll be fine. *heavy sigh* This time.