(inbox) probably too busy eating to pick up the phone

[bulletfool]

This is Kohei Izumi.
I'm not available right now, so please leave your name and message.

Comments

[bulletfool]

Whoa . . . That is scary.

[ Suddenly this doesn't seem as funny as it was earlier. Faceless Chihiro would be bad with a capital B – not to mention nightmare fuel for which nobody asked. ]

I'm fine. I just had a little laugh, thanks to the plants. But it's gotten really foggy, so I've been holing myself up indoors.

[ The building doesn't matter, as long as he has shelter. Running through the fog to go back to the flooded apartment unit seems like a stupid plan even by his standard. He saw the roots once, never again. ]

Where are you now? And what about the person who was with you?

[onethousen]

[ Now that his questions can actually be answered... ]

He's okay now. He came back to a body okay.

[ It was really gratifying and odd to see that flash of light and find Nagasone there again, in a different outlet, and not simply dying back in the plant-hill of doom. She shivers again, reacting to the memory.

That hill... ]

I'm between the apartment complexes and the school. I've been trying to avoid the bubbles.

[bulletfool]

[ Came back to a what? What? That doesn't sound remotely okay? But Chihiro has seen Things, so he doesn't question her judgment. ]

If he's okay, are you with him? Are you guys planning to wait this out?

[onethousen]

[ there's some interference on the line, obscuring what he'd said fully, but she thinks she understands? ]

Mm, we're heading back [ sccccchrreeeEEEEEEEEEEEE ] the street. Are you somewhere safer?

[bulletfool]

Huh? Yeah, I should be fine, but you broke up for a bit. Can you hear me?

[ He taps on the CereVice. This could be bad. ]

[onethousen]

[ His voice cuts back in toward the end, Chihiro holding up her cerevice and frowning before she breathes out in a small sigh. Her lips pull up into a smile that lasts a second or so.

Can you hear me sounds like a commercial she's seen before. ]

I can now, yeah! If you said anything else, though, I didn't hear it.

[bulletfool]

No good . . . We can't communicate like this.

[ Judging from the voicemail she'd left him, it sounds like she'd wanted him to do something, too. At the rate this is going, though, he won't be able to hear the request. ]

Focus on getting back to the apartment. I'll figure things out on my end.

[onethousen]

[ Just help her figure out arson to destroy a hill, it's not anything important, really...


She can make out about half of what he says, hoping this isn't a sign of more to come in the future. Cell phones weren't this wide spread or versatile back home, but here, they're one of the most practical means of getting in contact with others. Her fallback plan of playing messenger girl alongside anyone else fleet of foot is looking more and more possible. ]

Okay. I think I know what you said. Be safe, Izumi-san! I'll talk with you later?

[bulletfool]

[ He can't help you become Elmo, Chihiro. Sorry.

All he manages to hear are the snippets of "okay," "safe," and "later." Izumi thinks he mostly understands what she means. ]

Sounds good! I'll try to leave a message.

[ Or something, provided that he doesn't run into her between then – like dropping off cashews – and now. ]