40410 | 07 // audio // when in doubt, eavesdrop

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07 // audio // when in doubt, eavesdrop

[Alex has avoided outright conversation for most of the event, but he's opened his feed now and again to find out if it's over. This is one such occasion.

He doesn't speak, but you might notice a mysteriously less-than-chatty feed going around, broadcasting the very, very faint sound of shallow breathing and occasionally the clink and gulp of quiet drinking.]

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I've just been hiding. [Thanks a bunch, event. Make him phrase it in the least flattering way possible, why don't you?

...Whoa, that was incredibly blunt and slightly worryingly phrased.]

A lot. We were friends for a while. [He shakes off the urge to go barreling into a full-on description of the guy and instead asks:] Why?

So have I. [Mrgh.]

He knows more than he ought to and I need to know why.

[This was not supposed to be an equal exchange. She isn't particularly happy about it, but she will have to pick up the pace.]

What is his full name? How long have you known him? Where did he live?

[He wants to know what she means by more than he ought to, exactly, but he can't ask because he's already talking.]

Jay Field. The Jay's actually the full three-letter name. We were friends for a while before college, so I guess... three or four years, we knew each other? But before he came here, we hadn't spoken for about that long. [His voice goes quiet as he says that, ashamed.] We were both living in Helena, that's in Montana, I don't know if he stayed there. Sof, I don't think I should start spilling everything about him without him saying it's okay.

I would not be asking you now if I thought he would consent to me knowing.

[Good thing this is audio, because that's one massive eyeroll at the event right there.]

One last question, Alex. What does Jay mean when he says that he "played the game"?

[Alex does not like this flash of insight into her character.]

He played the game? [Uh. That has him stumped.] I have no idea. What do you mean he knows more than he ought to? What's going on?

[Her first instict is to turn the device off now, before there is any more unwanted sharing on her part, but at the last second she stops herself. She thinks about his enquiry. This conversation is not going to earn her any gold stars in Alex's book and his question may just be one she would answer truthfully anyway, so she might as well have him know for certain she's not lying. Her speech is slow and deliberate. She hopes that way there may still be some room for navigation.]

He talked to me on the channel in the hallway only minutes ago. He said he knew all about me before he even arrived in Wonderland. He knew about Rapture, not only of its existence, but of events nobody from the surface could possible know about. He knew about my death!

[ANDHANDOVERMOUTHOHSHIT. That's exactly the kind of thing she wanted to avoid, the reason she was talking slowly, BUT HEY, why give a poor woman the satisfaction of stopping before she mentions the thing that's bothering her the most, the most terrible of all terrible memories, the one nobody here should know about, ISN'T THAT RIGHT, YOU DAMN MANSION?!

And because she's as disturbed by mentioning her death to anybody than she was by hearing about this in the first place her voice totally doesn't break, nope, not at all.]

I just don't understand how he could possibly...

[She swallows. Pauses. Change of subject. Change of subject. Deep breath. Chance of subject.]

I am sorry I had to interrogate you like this, Alex.

[Alex is quiet for a long time, because he has no idea how to respond to what he just heard.

Her death?

From her voice, there's no way she's kidding. Hell, she can't be; it's a truth event. Alex really does need to network more extensively; a month in the mansion and he still hasn't learned that some people are dead.]

Your death?

[He sounds half stunned, half confused, half worried - never mind that that's too many halves. And then he realises that the event might make her answer that. And it doesn't sound like she's up to that. She's treated him leniantly in the past, so--]

Don't - don't answer that.

[She sounds like she needs help. Pretty much every occasion on which he's interacted with a person has proven that he's bad at giving help, but...]

...Come up here. I'll make you coffee, and... and we can be silent at each other until the event stops.

I was-

[Despite Alex's interjection it takes a great deal of effort to not spill the truth about her death, but her relief over him not pushing for an answer is a truth too, one that wins out in the end.]

Thank you, Alex. I-

[If he says he will be silent until the event stops, does that mean he definitely can't change his mind when she arrives? If he does, will she have to knock him unconscious with a vase and run? And could the narration please refrain from slapstick images and stick to the solemn mood of gratefulness Lamb feels over his offer?]

I'm on my way.

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07 // audio // when in doubt, eavesdrop

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