[OPEN] Like the echos in your mind you try to leave them all behind...

[radiopalkiller]

Who: Philip ( radiopalkiller ) & OPEN
Where: A nightmare! That country whose name he doesn't remember anymore! The mines!
When: 3rd to 7th of October, aka. event time (with bonus thread for the week after)
Rating: PG-13 and neighbouring ratings
Summary: Home sweet home! ...Sort of.
The Story:
[ OOC INFO: Open to all, prose and comment spam welcome. Here is a summary of all the days:

#1: Philip will wander the tunnels aimlessly and try to process that he's actually stuck in his own event.
#2: Philip will wander the tunnels deliberately, make a tentative transmission and spend most of the time murdering dogs with zest and That Unsettling Little Spark (TM) in his eyes.
#3: Philip will casually look for tools and spend most of the day sitting by the lake.
#4: Philip will get impatient, look for tools in many more places and gather supplies to make a huge bomb which he hopes will blow open the door to the incinerator, the path he knows leads to the last part of the mines.
#5: A brief public service announcement, followed by broken sobs.]

Comments

[nascensibility]

Great job, Philip, she drops her radio because the sudden static and lift in both volume and pitch right next to her eardrum scares the ever-loving Hell out of her.

"Shit!"

She squeaks, scrambling the comm unit and hoping it isn't damaged. Minor scratches here and there, but it doesn't look as though there are any loose parts or rattled screws. What she gathered from the latter part of Philip's outburst was something along the lines of:

'-ility- the...arch facil... ...virus-- ... ...pen the door!'

"The vi..." she breathes, huddling back to her wall, drawing her legs up as she sits on the floor. "The virus. The virus."

Clarence. The sentient...Tuurngait thing, what later resources she uncovered referred to as a hivemind. And behind that door, the door that seemingly held all the answers, was nothing more than death.

It's another thirty seconds before Evelyn recovers herself and presses the radio's transceiver button again.

"This was the door you went through."

[radiopalkiller]

He doesn't hear the rusty creaking of hinges or the hoarse hum of moving mental, so that is a plus. That is... probably what he should have expected, but in his mind Evie's hand was already at the door, seconds before making a terrible mistake. They're so close to it, he doesn't think he could think of anything but walking through it.

Christ, he's tempted to go himself, because no matter the cost, no matter the consequences, he did find his answers, and he could use a few answers right about now, he could really stand to figure out what he's supposed to do in Wonderland, how the bloody hell he's supposed to get out, if there's even a point in trying...

Only the price for finding out this way is going to be too steep.

He just knows it would be, or at least he's got to convince himself of just that. And he's got to convince everyone else, too, or at least everyone he can still reach, and judging by the static crackle it's a miracle he can even hear one single voice at the other end of the line.

"Yes," he only mumbles back, voice no longer frantic.

In fact, it's almost bordering on relief. She's got to understand now, she just has to.

"You- you weren't going to-- I mean, you won't go, right?"

[nascensibility]

"I thought about it," she replies honestly, having spent too many minutes (hours?) mulling it over. She weighed the pros versus whatever the cons might be, deciding that she'd sit in the dark and see if another answer presented itself. Up until Philip's transmission, nothing had permeated the quiet hum of machinery save her breathing. Nothing had growled or howled or skittered out of the corners.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Evelyn had almost been tempted to open the door simply to break the anguished monotony, just to acquire a change of scenery because as long as you were moving forward you were getting somewhere. A quiet voice at the back of her mind told her that Philip had thought the same thing, that answers were ahead, but they didn't get him anywhere.

What do you do with your answers when there's no place left to go?

"But I trust you. So I won't."

[radiopalkiller]

'....won't.'

After a series of unintelligible cracks and noises that is the only thing Philip hears. The last thing he hears, before even the static hum of his radio dies. He gives the device a half-hearted shake, already knowing that the problem won't lie with the batteries, or any other part he could fix.

"Hello?"

He repeats it. Once. Twice. Again, until he is sure that he might as well be talking to a rock. Won't. He'll take that. And he'll take it to mean something reassuring, and hang on to that notion for as long as he can, hoping Wonderland won't prove him otherwise.

Because with the radio lying silent at his feet now, there truly is nothing.