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]

I guess. [It's still weird!]

Running's a good choice, man. Killing those things is hard.

[wontgraham]

But you still saw someone do it?

...What did it look like? [ A beat. ] When it died.

[ascocarp]

It kinda... exploded? But also melted.

[wontgraham]

...Glad I asked. [ Despite the deadpan, he actually is. He'd had a feeling the answer wouldn't just be 'it fell down and stopped moving'. ]

Did anything else happen? To— to you or the person who killed it, or...anything?

[ascocarp]

Not really. It was just gone.

But- like, sometimes it comes back. The bits will... come back together.

[wontgraham]

...Like a teacup. [ Yeah, that one's entirely Will and his bad memories and worse metaphors; he's in his own head enough in that moment that it takes him three entire seconds to register he'd hit the talk button and shared that little pearl.

Too bad Ellie can't catch the grimace he gives the radio when he realizes that. ] Um. [ Smooth start. ] So maybe we shouldn't focus on killing them, then.

[ascocarp]

Uh, I guess. [She knows less about teacups than she thought, apparently.]

If you can get away, sure. Gotta have a strategy no matter what, though.

[wontgraham]

Maybe we can figure out how make them re-form into something...else. [ Because when faced with 2 + 2 = 5 logic, Will is eager to start writing his own formulas and seeing if they work. ]

Or maybe we should work on finding better hiding places. [ Or that. Either/or. Whatever results in less people dead works.

It's a very belated process to remember he's talking to a child. (Teen? Maybe a teen? He's not about to ask.) ]

[ascocarp]

They just re-form into bigger dickheads. I've seen it.

[#notallteens]

I tried. Every good hiding place turns into somewhere else when I'm not looking. I tried to hide in a cupboard and when I blinked I was in a fucking ballroom.