return of the revenge of the accidental broadcasts

[fruitknife]

[This time, the feed is clearly video, though it's not showing anything interesting - the underside of a desk lamp and the ceiling of a room. How thrilling.

Somewhere off-camera, Shinji lets out an exasperated sigh. "No, it's - what if I hurt someone? How's any of this worth shit then?"

"Trust your instincts, Shinjiro." The person he's talking to sounds feminine, around his age, and like she's trying to come off a lot more confident than she actually is yet. "They'll lead you in the right direction. The more time you spend fighting yourself, the more likely the accident you're afraid of becomes."

"Easy for you to say, when you've been at this for ages already."

"Yes, well, I had to practice as well. Neither of us can be faulted for Akihiko apparently being a natural. If you lack faith in yourself, have faith in us. We trust you."]

***

[As with last time the network thing pulled this stunt, Shinji discovers it several hours later.]

Fuck's sake, that's annoying.

...Wonder if she's on to something when what I'm worried about isn't wolf shit, though.

video

[godslantern]

[Anyone who's seen Neriel's previous videos will know two things: First, she's only chosen video format when responding to others, and second, the backdrop has been very, very white. And obviously an infirmary, but the color scheme, or lack thereof, is the more relevant bit right now.

Not so today.

The backdrop to this video - the first Neriel's posting directly to the network - is rather dark, some concrete Brutalist nightmare of Earth construction bent to suit some manner of immortal needs (just how much this place defies geometry and physics isn't obvious from this one frame). And then there's the plants taking up most of the room behind her.

They are lush. They are verdant. They are... terrified? Yep, that's a thing that's happening. They are terrified.

Neriel herself is sitting on the floor, from the looks of things, and runs a hand through her hair before addressing the network.]

Okay. First things first, I'm safe, and this isn't associated with the network hiccup thing. I did nearly discorporate from sensory overload and definitely fainted from shock at one point, which was not a pleasant experience, but greetings from London. I'm staying at a friend's place.

[She hasn't said anything out loud about her friends before, but what she's said via text? That raises some implications for sure.]

It turns out the answer to 'was I lied to' is a big, resounding yes. Honestly, at this point I was half expecting it, but it still stings. I... am going to need some time to process all of this. Alastor, I don't know how quickly I'll be able to uphold my end of our bargain, but rest assured I haven't forgotten it.

I'm also going to need to request a bit of patience. I've known for some time now that none of my friends would be using the names I knew for them - they lost those when they Fell - but I literally had no way of finding out what they're going by now until a few hours ago. I'm bound to slip up, so far especially around the Rebellion, but I am working on it. Better to practice now than use the wrong thing if I ever see the other two again.