RADIO FREE ELLIE: 1st Broadcast.

[ascocarp]

WHO: Ellie and YOU.
WHAT: Ellie is bored and playing with a ham radio.
WHERE: Anywhere with a radio.
WHEN: After the TDM, for various values of 'after' when time is variable.
NOTES: It's Ellie, so casual discussions of violence are de rigueur.

[The broadcast begins a little fuzzy as Ellie messes with the dials and utters indistinctly to herself.] Can I- uh- yeah, okay. Cool. Hello? Wait, no, that's... [More fuzz and murmuring.]

[Eventually, she seems satisfied. Now, how do radio broadcasts go? She remembers the ones in Boston's military QZ go...? God, she never paid any attention in that class. Her voice comes in clear, and it's obviously a young person speaking.] Uhhhh, nine-hundred hour... fuck it, the sky's fucking broken. Callsign... Daniela Star.

[Right.]

So, like, is there anybody here that goes by William? Or Will? Not Bill. Heh, those guys are assholes...

Oh! Also, has anybody seen any frickin' trees? Like real trees, with branches and shit. I found some potted plants, but they were all plastic. What about animals and stuff? I don't mean the freaky shadows, fuck those assholes. Like actual living breathing animals.

But... y'know, speaking of the shitty shadow fuckers, does anybody know how to, like, beat them? I saw somebody do it, but they had like a full suit of armor. I tried it and my hand almost fell off. They're cold.

...Maybe that's it. Anybody seen any fucking suits of armor laying around?

Comments

[ascocarp]

Ooookay, just don't, like, run off and try to prove it. Only dumbfucks start fights they don't gotta.

[swordliest]

[yeah, what kind of DUMBASS would do something like that?? haha....... ha....]

Helps that I probably couldn't find him even if I wanted to.

[What with, again, all the shady fuckin magic. People seem to be one of the harder things to find, around here.]

Maybe we'll get lucky and hear from him first. [With the radio, which he's already forgotten the name of.] Wasn't joking about asking him some questions.

[ascocarp]

[Bullshit senses... tingling...]

What kinda questions?

[swordliest]

It's magic that got us here. [... probably...] Maybe magic's what gets us out.

[He has questions about both sides of that equation.]

Assuming he's actually a "magic king", anyway, and not just some prat with a complex.

[ascocarp]

You're the expert.

[The metaphysical aspect of this mess is way above Ellie's pay grade.]

Everybody's an asshole with a complex. I think. That's what prat means, right?

[swordliest]

[A snort. Her definition's close enough.] Fair point. Only it's worse if he's useless, too, if you ask me. Still have to sit through all the bullshit, but you don't even get anything decent to show for it.

[ascocarp]

Because he's... magic?

[swordliest]

Not because he's magic. [This is, it seems, an important point of distinction for him.] If he's shit at it.

[ascocarp]

[Okay, she's laughing.] Is that your side job? Grading wizards?

[swordliest]

[so fucking dry:] You'd be surprised.

[There is so much he could say, but— even after everything, even with the whole bloody world knowing his brother's name, she hadn't known it, and there's still a part of Carver that's thirteen and afraid to give the secret away.

Keep it safe, then. Complain about coworkers!]

It's like you said. Plenty of mages are just assholes like the rest of us. They'd swear they shit gold, when in reality they couldn't hit the ass end of an ogre if it was standing right in front of them.

[colorful]

[ascocarp]

Well, yeah, that's everybody. What's the deal with magic people, though?

[swordliest]

It's complicated.

[He's not trying to dismiss her with that, it's just... true. Does he talk about the Circle, when the Circles aren't really a thing, anymore?]

People are afraid of it, where I'm from. Magic. [beat] Well— mages, I guess.

[ascocarp]

Oh.

[He's afraid.]

You don't gotta bug him. He's probably a dick, anyway.

[swordliest]

[He gauges her reaction, a little. Not consciously, it's just something he's used to doing: evaluating people on how they might respond to his family, even with his family gone, for the most part. She hadn't been afraid before, but... sometimes being told you could be afraid is all it takes.]

Might be. Who knows, if he's a decent enough mage maybe he buggered off already. Couldn't blame him if he did.

[ascocarp]

If he fucked off and didn't tell us how, I'm gonna wanna fight him.

[She's kidding, though. Now that she really thinks about it... magic seems as frightening as it is cool.]