27. » voice + spam

[tolaywaste]

Bruce!

[Here, Barge; have some screaming. Then some panicked hyperventilating.]

I'm looking for Bruce Wayne. He's not in his cabin, I've checked everywhere - has anyone seen him?

I'm - Alex Summers, for new people, I guess, if you see him, he's my inmate, I need to make sure he didn't get sent to Zero--

spam } deck

[He slams the feed off when he realizes he can't continue to form words. He's too scared, too tired, and most importantly too closed in. He can't keep looking. He has to find the sky.]

[A few minutes later, he's on deck, leaning over the real and breathing deeply and slowly through his nose. It feels like years since he's had the space to move around, even though it's really just been days. He's numb head to foot, adrenaline draining from his system. All he wants to do is sleep.]

[He can't sleep. He can't do anything.]

[Fuck.]


( ooc; alex is from directly after toshiko sato's takeover from LIKE A YEAR AGO and is freaking out bc a] claustrophobia b] where is bruce tho. all responses to the audio of this post will be text. )

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[tolaywaste]

[Ben. It's Ben.]

[They are friends, but not close friends; not yet. He remembers Ben, but in the fevered fury of his mind right now he doesn't remember the last time he spoke to him. Was it when he told him about where he was going, protecting Megamind? Was there another conversation after that? Everything's been a blur, and he's so exhausted.]

[Then again, when he looks at Ben, it seems like maybe it isn't him after all. Alex shifts slightly away from the rail and looks at this man, this boy, with bleary hesitation.]

[Finally, he tries. What is the worst that could happen that hasn't already?]

Ben? Is it Ben?

[warisart]

[The moment Alex looks at Ben in a way he absolutely cannot begin to decipher, Ben knows this was a bad idea; but he's been noticed and so he's pinned there, obligated to wait to be dismissed, suddenly terrified by the emotions he can't at all read in the warden's expression.

It's safest to assume he's about to be punished; his jaw tenses but he does not otherwise move, smoothing the lines of his frame into the best semblance of formal that he can, and does not react to his name.]

My designation is X5-493.

I apologize, sir. I was informed I had clearance to occupy this level.

[tolaywaste]

[My designation is X5-493.]

[Alex freezes at that, confused. That's not - Ben is Ben now, isn't he? Isn't that how they have decided, mutually and without ever quite directly hashing it out, that they will address each other, him being Alex and Ben being Ben? Has he done something wrong? He must have.]

[Or else someone else has. After a moment, Alex figures it out: Ben is scared. Someone's scared him. He narrows his eyes but otherwise tries, really really tries, not to react.]

You have clearance to occupy wherever you want.

I thought . . . I was supposed to call you Ben. I thought - [we were friends.]

[warisart]

[Whoever this stranger is, there is an anger in him that terrifies Ben; a lack of control. He breathes in and lets it out slowly, carefully, to avoid shrinking back or reacting. If the narrowing of his eyes turns into something else, Ben will be expected to take it and stand ready for more, for further instructions, for correction.

He'd forgotten how much he hated Manticore.

But again the words are strange, they don't make sense, because he is also confused. Ben's teeth push silently against each other, jaw clenching subtly, but he has to have an answer.]

I can neither confirm nor deny your orders, sir. I will answer as I am addressed, however that may be.

[tolaywaste]

They're not - my orders. I . . .

[He rakes his hand through his hair, blowing out a long, gusty sigh.]

I don't understand. You don't remember me at all? Did something - I guess you wouldn't remember if something happened to you. [But God, he wants to know who did it if it did.] What's the last thing you remember?

[warisart]

[Ben watches from behind his shield of impassiveness as Alex becomes more distressed; the X5's pulse rises alongside, equal parts empathetic and in fear for his own wellbeing. He does not move.

He hesitates, but only because the question is so expansive; one of his fingers twitches, but there's nothing for it. He needs clarification to answer honestly, and he won't answer otherwise unless required to do so.]

The last thing I remember when,sir?

[tolaywaste]

The last thing you remember before today.

[He worries his lip, tapping his fingers together, first and thumb, first and thumb.]

Because I remember remembering you. I remember us being friends.

I don't know if that's wrong. Maybe I'm crazy.