audio; un: s.rogers

[noble_sentiments]

[ Steve sounds like he's out of breath, like a man who's been running. For anyone who knows him from back home, you'll know how hard Steve needs to run in order to sound like this. ]

Does anyone copy?

[ If he sounds firm, it's because he needs to be. He has to believe that it's not just him left. He has to believe that he didn't wake up in a new world, just to live through this again.

It's only after connecting to the network now, however, that Steve realizes he might be able to access its archives. ]

----

[ Update. Steve posts a second message roughly thirty minutes after his first one. ]

Thank you, to everyone who responded. For those who aren't aware of what's going on, there's an explanation in the archive. If you currently feel isolated. Alone. If the people around you have vanished. Find the nearest exit and keep moving until you see can people again. You will find them, and this feeling will pass.

Comments

[noble_sentiments]

[ Hearing anyone's already gets him to stop running. To just breathe for a moment as he shuts his eyes and processes that someone else is here. Someone else is alive. ]

Alex. I'm— [ Steve. I'm Steve. But he just answers her question instead. ] I'm not sure anymore.

A few miles out from the dormitories.

You?

[11calls]

It's nice to meet you, Steve, and it's okay. You're not alone, I promise.

I was in the merchant dome. It was weird, it was like everyone just vanished at once. I left and everything came back. So if you can get out of the dome you're in it'll help.

[noble_sentiments]

[ She sounds calm in a way that feels impossible to him, but he breathes a little easier regardless. ]

Get out of the dome...

[ He repeats it, nodding once before he looks up, using the curvature of the dome to determinate the direction of the closest wall — and therefore exit.

How the volume of his breathing starts to lower. ]

Alright.

[ This is a plan. One he can follow and execute, and the firmness of it grounds him. ]

I hope you're right.

[11calls]

[Alex has already done most of her freaking out and is freaking out more privately with her people which is why she can be so calm.]

It seriously stopped as still as crossed the dome boarder. You have got this, Steve. I promise. And I can keep talking to you until you get out of there if you like.

[noble_sentiments]

Please. [ Steve has never had trouble asking for help, but the word comes out sounding more desperate than he intends. What can he do? Isolation feels like a rope against his neck. ] Keep talking.

[ Just because he can see how the dome curves doesn't mean it'll immediately lead him to a door, but once he's at the border, he can follow it until he finds one. Slowing down only once to double check that a hatch isn't some kind of exit, Steve picks up his pace again.

Soon after, he sees the door. The exit. Undisturbed. Clear and open.

As soon as he steps into the tunnel connecting this dome to the next one, there are people all around him again, and the noise should carry through his comms. ]

Sorry- [ He says, softly, to the woman he'd just accidentally bumped into, but there's a relief in his voice that he wasn't sure he'd ever feel again. ]

[11calls]

Well. [There’s a tiniest little bit of a smile wrapped up into the Canadian accent, far less than it otherwise would have been honestly. But this is what she was good at and would always be good at.] You got lucky, I talk for a living. I’m a reporter here.

[As she speaks, Alex is heading towards where she expects that he is going to come out and her steps are quick. Telling stories is effortless and she keeps them light and meaningless knowing that it’s not about her or what she says, it’s about her voice and being present . After so long working on the radio, Alex has excellent breath control and it’s on view during this. Hearing the familiar voice next to her, the tiny woman gives a relieved sigh.]

Steve, right?

[noble_sentiments]

[ Even though she can't see it, Steve smiles. It's faint but present, and soon, the constant sense of her presence becomes his backdrop, a calming white noise that allows him to focus and find his way out.

When he sees her and pairs her voice to her person, Steve breathes his own sigh of relief. ]

Alex? [ He asks, even if he'd needed a second to remember her name. He's still breathing hard, too, but it's no longer because of how hard he was running. It's because, for the first time in what must be eighty years, Steve was beginning to have a panic attack.

So he holds his hand up — a sign that he just needs a minute — to let this heart-bursting anxiousness fade from his chest. ]

[11calls]

[As someone who had dealt with things like this even before the arrival, Alex definitely gets needing a moment to let the nightmares fade and to come back to the land of the living. So, she lets him breathe as she nods in response to his question, and gives him a little smile.]

Yeah, it's me. [And then because she knows how helpful this can be when your blood is burning with panic from something like this, she just adds softly:]

You're okay, Steve. You're out of it.

[noble_sentiments]

[ By the time Steve can maintain a few sustained, regular breaths, he nods, and after a final sigh of relief, he says: ] You're very calming, Alex.

[ Enough to make him think that it was a skill, not a coincidence. ]

[11calls]

I've had a fair amount of experience doing it for myself so I know how to help others.

[Giving him a sheepish grin, Alex just couples it with a little shrug. Considering how she didn't sleep for two years because of nightmares, it had to be good for something. And it was good for this. And she was good at keeping people calm when she'd done her reporting too, so that helped.]

But thanks. If it helps, this is a new thing, honestly.