[text/action]

[bashfulshifter]

[It's too quiet.]

[Rick's been wandering the Tower since Thursday, trying to help whoever he can with their shadows, checking up on them every few hours when he can catch his breath. But after yesterday, he's lost track of nearly all of them...and earlier today, he watched yet another die. After making a full circuit of all the safer floors and the stairwell, he's only now beginning to realize that perhaps Sertoria's death was just a continuation on a pattern that he's somehow missed.]

[It's evening, now, and around him the Tower has become eerily silent. Rick's staggered his way to the top floor dorms; his collar is almost as clear as it was Wednesday. He knows that the network hasn't been working well, but he's so alone, so terrified that he's failed all the people that he's tried so hard to help, and this is the only other way he can think of to try and contact them. The message he sends is short...]

Is anyone still up and around? There's so few people left...if you're still alive, I'm on the first floor of the dorms. We should stick together. Don't let the shadows win this.

[...but the message that comes out is glitched, nearly unreadable in spots. Rick paces between terminals, reloading his post to see if the problem fixes itself--and then, appropriately enough, he gives one of the computers a solid, frustrated kick, and collapses on the opposite side of the hall.]

[It's doubtful that anyone will be lucky or persistent enough to decipher Rick's message. If they do, though, he'll be curled up by the wall where he left himself. A shadow rubs his back.]

[You tried, honey...but you can't save everyone, you know. I told you it wasn't worth the effort and you just didn't listen...]

Comments

[vermicompost]

No, you don't. No one deserves that.

[Kariya kneels beside him, and sinks to the ground with something like relief.]

What's wrong? Can I help you?

[bashfulshifter]

[Rick opens his mouth to argue, but he can't seem to bring himself to say anything. He's too...the word of the day...]

...tired...

[...Yeah, that's the one. Rick closes his eyes, apparently unaware that he's said anything at all, and nearly dozes off.]

[Then they flicker open again when he thinks of the real answer.]

...Th--They're a-all...d-d-dead...

[vermicompost]

[Kariya stares at the man, uncertain. The liquid in his collar is partly faded, but it's still a discernible sky blue.

He's alarmed by Rick's answer, his eyes widening.]

Dead? Who's dead?

[bashfulshifter]

[He trembles, eyes quickly filling with tears.]

--E-E-Everyone, I-I-I--I f-f-found--th--they're a-a-all--g-g-gone, a-a-and--I c-c-couldn't h-h-help--

[vermicompost]

[He's not fully aware of the situation, falling at times into complete delusion (now, for instance), so he doesn't understand what Rick's saying, he only knows that it's alarming and that this man is in pain. He needs to calm him down.]

It's--it'll be all right. I'm sure you did everything you could to help. It's all right. I'm fine, and you're fine, and everything will be fine.

[Kariya says this with more certainty than he has a right to.]

I--is there someone who can help you, someone we can find?

[He's not sure what to do, on his own.]

[bashfulshifter]

[Interestingly, Kariya's affirmations seem to work. Rick curls up tightly and takes several deep, gasping breaths, but he regains his composure well enough. It won't do to drive the person helping him away.]

[He doesn't answer Kariya's question directly. Instead, Rick glances over his arms with red-rimmed eyes, sad and pleading.]

...P-P-Please d-d-don't l-leave.