Stone Broadcast 16th May [for anyone awake]

[savedbyasong]

Aster? Aster? [Shion's voice is frantic]

Laurent? Did you escape? Laurent can you hear me?

[A moment passes and when he speaks again his voice is more controlled]

Is anyone recieving? It's Shion. Is anyone else awake? Please let me know your location. [And he will come and find you, when the strength returns to his legs]

Comments

[crosslaced]

[It is bitterly satisfying to remind himself that yes, this is how it is and will always be; him collapsed underneath dying branches, playing cards from a hand he cannot win by. Anything better is necessarily a lie. Anything kinder than the distinct sensation of nausea, the pain reminiscent of too many hours drilling his swordplay- any day he opens his eyes and doesn’t have to claw himself out of oblivion with will alone must involve some kind of lie. It hurts. It does.

Now get up, Laurent. Get up.]

….. h-ey. We're alive.

[His voice is breathy, tired.]

… did anything happen?

[savedbyasong]

[Twenty three agonising seconds of silence while Shion wondered if he was the only one awake, wondered why he would be the only one who woke up and panicked about where everyone else was, what was happening.

A voice...]

Laurent...

[He is so relieved to hear from him. But... focus. Report. Breathe. He looks around again at the mass of vines]

I woke up covered in vines... I was sleeping. I think it's safe to say anyone here is also sleeping. I haven't been back to Enso yet so I don't know the state of things there. I will when... [When he can muster strength, just talking is exhausting]

[crosslaced]

… you’re on Ziziphus? In the forest or out in the open?

[He had not anticipated the full scope of the attack- perhaps he should have, now remembering how spread out the vine sightings were. They need to assess the damages as soon as possible. But-]

It's going to take a while... for us to get back. How long will it take you to reach the mana pools?

[savedbyasong]

Open... but near the forest. On the edge. The vines are everywhere, all over the hills. [He's gotten up now, his legs are shaking and he looks around. Where... where had he been?]

A while, I'm quite far north. Where we found garlic. Where are you?

[crosslaced]

In the forest. Deep. Not sure exactly where.

[well, now that they're both stranded….]

Are you alone?

[savedbyasong]

Yes... [He can't see anyone, not even anything that might be people caught in the tangle of vines that have errupted out of the hillside.] You're the only one who answered...

[Were they the only ones awake? That was a terrifying thought]

[crosslaced]

Damianos is with me.

[It's beginning to sound like they triggered a large-scale attack on Ziziphus. Getting back is going to be trouble. also, the fact that no one’s answered… well, it's been a long while since his last message, and broadcasts are easy to miss.

They can't all be done for. There's a lot of them. ]

My ability to escape mental traps is above average. We may be the first ones up.

[savedbyasong]

[Damianos. The man who had leant Shion a scarf to cover his hair on Ai'Tuoh. That's three people.] We might be. I'm not sure how long it has been... I guess not having a very good imagination worked in my favour... [Or something. He definitely had no training to escape mental traps, he had been fooled many times by Ruana's games.

It might only be the three of them. But if he could escape such a dream so could others. There were many people who were a thousand times more capable than he was]

Everyone can't have been on Ziziphus.... These vines surely can't have reached Enso

we can wrap up with this if you've got nothing else in mind!

[crosslaced]

[conjecture is ultimately unhelpful; they only need to worry about the evidence for now. his reply is simple:]

… stay on the transmission and we'll see, won't we?

sure!

[savedbyasong]

Yes... [No use in panicking until they had more information. Not that that had ever stopped Shion. But he could do that, stay in contact with the rock, maybe call out some more periodically. Hope that someone replied.]

Stay safe.