lifenet | voice; 8/16

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voice; 8/16

[Michael's voice, though he has to raise it to be heard over the ongoing sirens, is casual. Deliberately so, like someone trying to hide how not-casual they feel right now.]

Hey, is there anybody else who's not fighting some kind of war right now? I'd really like to talk to you about...non-war things.

[...]

And if you haven't been to Nastrandir since the sirens started, maybe skip that for now.

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Michael...?

[Bucky never pays attention to his stone, but he's sure paying attention to it now.]

Thank fuck someone else is acting sane.

Oh my god.

[The act drops for a moment, Michael is so fucking relieved]

Where are you? I just went back to Enso, people are forming some kind of beach cult over there, they're gonna fight the islanders - there's islanders -

[He didn't like the look of it and he just bolted, but now he's starting to think that wasn't the right choice. He doesn't know what would have been, though...]

What do we do? We should do something, shouldn't we?

[That? That's actually relieving for him, too. Bucky lets out an audible sigh.]

Me and Petunia are holed up further inland. People are acting nuts, and I didn't exactly want her to be left there in case someone decided it was a great idea to ransack my house.

[Bucky had dome similar, in other words.]

Shake people until they start acting rationally? I don't know.

[Dammit, he hates this place.]

Maybe it's some kind of spell.

Good news is, they don't seem interested in any other islands. Just killing each other over Nastrandir.

[But he doesn't think shaking is going to work. A spell, huh...?]

Those sirens started around the same time, didn't they?

[He strains, trying to remember.]

I think so, yeah. That sounds right.

If it was the noise, I wonder why it affected only some people so dramatically?

I thought it might be because of my species, but you're human. And I think that one guy may have been a robot...

[So it's not targeting humans, maybe?]

It might just be a correlation. But if we can figure out how those are controlled, we might find out more.

...Sounds like whatever it is, it's not species-specific.

Maybe it was one of the local gods causing chaos?

[Bucky has a very low opinion of the gods.]

Maybe if we shake of them hard enough, they'll snap out of it.

One of them did threaten me with a gun.

[That's not a direct no, but he does think grabbing and shaking one wouldn't be so simple.]

[He sighs.]

Of course people have weapons.

Yeah. I didn't even know people had guns!

This is the first time I've heard about it.

I wonder where the hell the gun came from?

It wasn't one of those muskets someone found over there. Maybe he brought it from home and just doesn't usually run around pointing it at people?

Maybe.

It'd make more sense than if they just magicked into existence.

None of this makes sense.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to shut the sirens off. Find a central control, or else just break them.

Want some help? I'm ready to destroy them all myself.

Yeah. Sure. Let's go for it!

I'll meet you there.

Talk to me, bud.

Oh, good, Tex. One of your armor buddies almost shot me because he thought I had traveled in a boat on the ocean! It seems the ocean is the real devil now!

Do you know which one it was?

Not Washington. Blue guy? Church?

[He should really learn everybody's names.]

He said they're at war with...the ocean people, I'm assuming. Also assuming other random friends of ours are the ocean people now, so that's fun.

Oh, well, he couldn't have hit you if he'd tried, but I'm glad he didn't try.

I'll have to go talk to him.

Be careful. I don't think he remembers things the right way anymore - he told me he was from Nastrandir. Asked where I was from too, like I actually live around here.

[well, he does now, but you get the idea. nobody's from the islands.]

It'll be fine.

[ It's hubris like that that'll get you killed, Tex. ]

...okay, but I feel like I should reiterate the part about the war and the gun, and him probably not recognizing you.

[basically everything he said, actually]

Noted. I'll be fine.

Okay, call me back when you're done.

[If you die, he's not going to retrieve your body!]

Sure. I'll let you know when I get back.

[ Needless to say that call doesn't come! ]

[you motherfucker, he's gonna be mad at you later]

Have you any idea what's going on, Michael? Is it the sirens? Ever since they started, Crowley's been —

[Aziraphale stops there, preferring not to explain too much. His voice gives most of it away, anyway.]

— shouldn't we do something?

...oh. I did get lucky, then.

[Demons aren't immune. It's unnerving to think that he's come so close, again, to becoming Not Himself.]

Yeah, I talked to a few other people. The game plan for now is to shut the sirens off and see if it helps - they started at the same time, they could be the cause.

Do we know how to shut them off?

[Aziraphale's envisioning a big red OFF switch, but he's sure it can't be that simple.]

And if it's even safe to try? I was over there, the... those affected have turned rather violent. And very confused.

Oh, yeah, it's not. But it's not like it'll get safer if they're left alone.

[Will it get worse? At any rate, they're liable to kill each other.]

I don't know how to turn the sirens off, but if it comes to it, I'll just smash them.

...right. Okay. When?

Soon as possible. Maybe tonight. There can't be that many of them on whichever team is the siren team, so as long as we don't go near wherever their camp is, they can't have people on watch everywhere, all night long.

[They'll likely have to get past the other team as well, but Michael figures someone set up those sirens, and so somebody else is going to take any attack on them as some kind of personal insult.]

I'll sneak around the island a little more today, see if I can get more information. But the longer we leave it, the more likely they are to all just shoot each other to death.

[There's a quiet clearing of the throat from the other end of the line, almost guilty-sounding. Somehow.]

Do be careful.

[Which is to say: Aziraphale offers no help on this plan, because he can't. His focus is narrow and distracted and Crowley-shaped.]

I can — if anything happens, I can heal. Not as well as I used to, but... keep that in mind, will you?

Oh. Yeah, sure. [...] I've never been able to do that.

[More useful than a lot of things he can do, really.]

[A shrug, somehow audible.]

In the meantime, I’m going to find Crowley. Before things get worse.

Thank you, Michael.

Don't get shot.

[Last person he talked to about this totally went and got shot]

I’ll do my best.

[Muffet hadn't recognized the Stone, hadn't understood why she'd been carrying it... but she could still tell it was something odd, and she'd always been rather curious. Attempting to poke and prod it at random until something worked had eventually yielded some results, by way of allowing her to overhear and reply to Michael's message.]

Good.

[Unfortunately, it hadn't made her any less affected by Nastrandir.]

Stay out of our lands, all of you. Any who remain there will be dealt with accordingly. Go, and do not return.

[If you all like water so much, get on your boats and get the fuck out. She doesn't know who these people are and a lot of things don't make sense right now, but what's clear and unquestionable is the need to defend her home from the enemy.]

[yeah see this is why he made all the response convos private]

Oh, you're...the whiskey lady, right? Don't think we've ever talked. Anyway, I live on a different island entirely, and I don't want yours. It's very humid.

[That brings Muffet up short. How... would he know that? Were the invaders spying on them? But of all things to spy on, why pick her brewing alcohol, of all things? And... if she can remember doing it, why can't she remember where she set up her still?]

[There's a brief mental image of somewhere that looks like no place on Nastrandir, but she's never left home. She knows that. Doesn't she?]

[Suddenly flustered and uneasy, she blurts out the first thing that comes to mind:]

No whiskey for invaders.

[She hangs up the call with an audible click.]

[She's going to be so embarrassed about this later.]

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voice; 8/16

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