IC Contact/Voicemail

[ardent]

[VOICE/TEXT/VIDEO; OPEN TO ALL]

"You've reached Kiyotaka Ishimaru; I seem to have missed you! My sincerest apologies for that - but if you leave your name and state your business, firmly and concisely, I'll return your contact as soon as I can!

Until then, I look forward to speaking to you; do what you can to make your day pleasant and productive, and be sure to keep your head up!"

[Please state in the subject line if OOC planning is preferred and we can handwave like the wind, but otherwise IC will be assumed!]

Comments

[nostabbing]

ok i'll be in the air vents i think he might be in there

[ardent]

How would he have gotten in the air vents?

[nostabbing]

he's a ninjacat

[ardent]

[...of course he is.]

Give me ten minutes.

[Well, if nothing else, he'll be punctual...]

[nostabbing]

[Truth be told, Parker's pretty at home in the air vents of the Rocket Base, which is more an extension of the fact that she's generally pretty at home in air vents in general than anything else. This is far from the first time she's been in them, and it certainly won't be the last; some of them are too narrow for a person to traverse, which is generally where the assistance from Archie comes in, but most of them are relatively easy enough for her to fit through without too much undue trouble.

She's keeping a rough count of the time in her head as she shimmies her way through, hoping to catch a glimpse of Archie and rapidly growing more anxious the longer she goes without seeing him. But she does feel a bit better once ten minutes have passed, because Ishimaru is nothing but not dependable, and if her sense of direction is right (which it is, when it comes to air vents), she ought to be right near the one by the entrance to the base, such that she'll be able to see him when he comes in.]

[ardent]

[Ishimaru's never liked the idea of anyone being in those vents; he's normally not afraid of being enclosed, though that's changed a bit since Hope's Peak - but as a general rule, as long as he can see light he's fine in closed-in spaces. However, the thought of long, narrow shafts like that tends to wig him out quite a bit; he's never really sure whether it's because he's more claustrophobic than he thought or if it's just basic common sense because he's rather obviously not built for tight spaces himself, and it's not anything he cares to work out anytime soon, either.

He does show up on time, at least, though he's more than a bit awkward upon entering the base; that's about when it occurs to him that "the vents" cover pretty much the whole building and he has no idea where to look for her, so just. Let him get the device out once he's inside so he can text her or something...]

[nostabbing]

[Aha. There he is. ...Oh, and he's got his Gear out, good thinking. Now she doesn't have to stage-whisper down at him and hope he catches on — assuming she gets signal reception in these things in the first place.

Well, one way to find out.]

I see you.

[ardent]

[Well, that gets him to jump quite a bit; he obviously wasn't expecting it and he turns quickly, and it's stupid but his gaze shoots high rather than looking for any sort of person, seeking out security cameras and taking a moment to remind himself that whatever surveillance there might be here doesn't have gatling guns attached.

Parker isn't the only one having a hard night; just give him a moment.]

Aneki, don't do that - where are you?

[nostabbing]

On your left about two feet above eye level. Don't turn and look this time.

Go down this corridor and hang a left and wait by the grate near the supply closet.

[ardent]

Okay.

[Just...let him do that, then...

While he's making his way down there, though - ]

I'm guessing you didn't find your cat.

[nostabbing]

Not yet. But I think he's been up here; there's purple fur.

[ardent]

Well, that's good, at least.

How did he get out of your

[...you know what, just. tell him when we get there, that would probably make more sense.]

Never mind, we can talk in person in a moment.

[nostabbing]

OK.

[And as promised, here she comes, popping off the grate and swinging herself down out of the shaft with absurdly graceful ease.]

[ardent]

["Aneki, why" is probably going to be a running theme tonight, isn't it.]

Ah...there you are, aneki!

[...okay he has to admit that was kind of cool

the entire thing is still claustrophobic as hell of course

but kind of cool regardless]

How did your cat get out of your room in the first place?

[nostabbing]

[Considering it involved at least a few seconds of hanging upside-down by the fingers of one hand, "kind of cool" is a fairly accurate assessment there. But she, of course, thinks nothing of it.]

He jumped and turned the knob. He does that sometimes — runs away, I mean. One time he ran halfway across the city and got some guy at an outdoor cafe to feed him before I caught up.

[She bounces on the balls of her feet, fidgeting anxiously.]

Sometimes he takes Stiletto and Taser with him but today he just got out.

[ardent]

W-Well, I'm sure he's all right; the animals around here are very resilient as it is, and they're smarter than most I've seen. So I'm sure nothing's happened to him.

[nostabbing]

And there's no cars.

[It seems unusually important that she have that reaffirmed, somehow.]

[ardent]

...Right. There are no cars, either!

What made you think that he was hit by a car in the first place?

[nostabbing]

I had a nightmare. A really —

[...]

A really, really vivid nightmare, like. Like, when you don't know if you're awake or not because it seems like you're awake but you're not and then you wake up and it all still feels real but you were sleeping and then it's like deja vu like you never stopped being asleep, maybe, or maybe you were and you don't know and...

Like that.

[ardent]

I have those a lot.

[There's nothing pointed about it; it's just how things are. The sky is blue, the grass is green, he has those sorts of nightmares a lot.]

It wasn't so bad tonight, but I wasn't having good dreams, either; it's why I'm awake right now.

[nostabbing]

I never have them about Archie. Cat-Archie.

[ardent]

...It'll be okay. We'll find him; he's got to be around somewhere.

[nostabbing]

I think he's probably in the vent where it's too small for me to go. I send him in there sometimes to hide stuff for me. Maybe that's what he's doing.

[ardent]

I'm sure he'll come out eventually, then!

[He pauses, though.]

Are you going to be okay?

[nostabbing]

...

[...]

It's just a dream, right? Dreams don't matter. Not that much.