[video // @jackwynand56] first transmission.

[belowthesea]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...

[Someone just found his way out of a nightmare dome... he'd been sort of vaguely reassuring himself that this is just another weird city like Rapture, but- yeah, Rapture was lonely, but not oppressively lonely like that.

His video is in first-person, but it isn't showing much. Just his hands clutching a worn short-wave radio so hard that it might just crack under pressure.]

Someone... talk. Please.

Comments

[11calls]

Okay. Hi, Jack. I'm Alex. Are you in a dome with other people or is there no one else around?

[belowthesea]

[He glances around briefly, and hesitates before speaking.]

Alone.

[Hiding out, away from people... he's sure someone is in this dome - maybe? But people are dangerous, it's better to stay away anyway.]

[11calls]

Okay. But do you feel like you're alone? Like there's no one else around you? Like you're alone in the entire world?

[belowthesea]

[What an awful way to phrase it.]

You're here.

[Not physically, sure, but she's there as much as anyone ever has been. As much as Tenenbaum or-

Nevermind. Not thinking about him.]

[11calls]

Yeah, I am. I'm not going anywhere but it might help to leave where you are and find another dome.

[belowthesea]

Yeah.

[Seems reasonable enough. Here he goes, wandering in a random direction.

There's a very long pause before he speaks again.]

Is it safe here? Not, here... but... here.

[11calls]

[The silence breaks Alex’s heart a little and she swallows because before she would have said of course but now with how things are changing she doesn’t know.]

There are people who are safe. I can introduce you to them if you want. I don’t think everyone’s wholly good anywhere.

[belowthesea]

Most people are bad.

[They're liars, and they hurt people. Jack has come to accept this, more or less; he doesn't have to like it, but it's the way things seem to be.]

Where are you?

[11calls]

I'm in the merchant dome, in the newspaper office. But if you'd like I can meet you somewhere else. Are you hungry, Jack? I know hot chocolate always helps me.

[belowthesea]

I like chocolate.

[He's glancing around now... it's sort of bothering him that there aren't any giant neon signs like Rapture had. Well, he can figure this out anyway... it'll just take him a while longer than he'd like.]

Lots of people here. I don't like it.

[11calls]

Okay. If you want I can come out and find you and then we can go back to my office, and I can get the hot chocolate before I find you.