[Public Channel | Day 143]

[hippocarnival]

[ The radio comes on to the sound of creaking wood and a familiar voice that is, for once, not sounding all that agitated, though it’s a little distant. ]

“--just burn us out of this.”

“Then you’re just going to burn us with it!” [Yuya’s tone, comparatively, sounds snappish.] “Don’t--don’t do anything, I’m going to get us help--”

[The radio clicks off. And then immediately clicks back on.] “Hello?”

[The anger’s been smoothed out of his voice, and instead Yuya is sounding fairly composed.] “Is there anyone available right now who doesn’t mind coming to the Summerlands? We’re, uh--we’re stuck.”

“In a tree.” [ Lambert contributes helpfully. That’s not super specific or anything, and that’s is why burning things would help! There’s another creak of wood, something shifting and shuddering, and his tone doesn’t change a jot as he continues. ] “Which may or may not be trying to hug us to death.”

[Yuya is just going to ignore Lambert’s fatalism.] “We don’t really know where we are, but we were drifting… east of the city? Do these things have GPS?” [Does half the carnival even know what GPS is?]

“We’re going to get out of the tree!” [He pipes up confidently, despite it.] “But help would be appreciated.”


((Red = Yuya, Green = Lambert. Replies are separate, threadjacking is free and wild. These boys are dumb.))

Comments

[espigeon]

Ah! Something mystic, I'm assuming?

[betheman]

AUH....

[he's never really thought if it that way, but...] I... That is one way to put it...

[espigeon]

I mean I'm thinking it's not scent, scent tracking and flight don't work all that well together. Scent maps, yes. Following someone, no. So, mystic! Magic. That kind of thing. Right?

By the way, you owe me a fistbump.

[betheman]

Auh...yes! It is a method of tracking energy, as well as the spirit...

...You still wish for that?!

[espigeon]

Cool. I bet I'll get there first, though!

Yeah. Why not? Wouldn't hurt anything, right?

[betheman]

It may, at this point be best to collaborate efforts. You will be carrying someone?

[espigeon]

Possibly. I may need to talk him around. Apparently he can talk to trees, so that's pretty cool.

[betheman]

Auh- t...To all trees, or merely those that are not apart of other beings?!

[espigeon]

Interesting question. I don't know the answer! What's your prediction?

[otoko]

Hmmnnnn...

..I, the man Gongenzaka, am not sure I should attempt such a guess..

[espigeon]

Maybe we'll end up finding out! You're part tree, huh?

[Julien's only seen him in Portland and from a height.]

[otoko]

It is the best way to put it, at this point.

[espigeon]

All right, fair enough! I'm very slightly cowbird and cardinal but human ears can't tell unless I sing.

[otoko]

Hmnn?

AUH- N-No, it is...it's the result of my stay here, I, the man Gongenzaka, am not typically 'part tree'!

[espigeon]

All right then!

[This guy - kid? something about him sounds young - sure is excitable. Julien wonders if he's bouncing on his forelegs, or trotting them in place. Lashing his tail. ...Fuck, that's cute.]

As it happens, I wasn't born with any bird elements at all, but they're typical for me now.

[otoko]

[It's hard to tell-his voice tends to sound a bit older than he is. Not to mention literally all of his mannerisms ever...

He's quite still right now. Very still. HE IS STEADFAST, JULIEN!!]

Auhh...Is that so? Then they are changes of your own?

[espigeon]

[There's just this element to the guy, Julien would guess sheltered late teens, no more than twenty. ...For his part, people tend to assume Julien is younger than he is. He's thirty.]

That's right! Just not carnival-changes, so they're not going away, hah. But it's all right, a couple people in the same boat gave me an alternative.

[otoko]

They weren't from the Carnival?

Just where were they from then..?

[espigeon]

Before! There was this whole secret conspiracy for saving the earth and you had to turn partway into things to do it, sometimes. I just ended up going a lot further than most people. And then it wasn't secret anymore.

[otoko]

...I see... [He doesn't understand it at all but that's probably fine.]

[espigeon]

I can explain some other time. Long story. Treed people are the issue of the day.

By the way, I'm Julien! Julien Delacroix.

[otoko]

Auh- Indeed!!

....Gongenzaka Noboru, [he replies soon as his own introduction.]

[espigeon]

A pleasure to meet you, even at this remove! I'm sure we'll have a chance to talk later.

[otoko]

Indeed! We have other business to attend to, at this point...