[quote=@LuckyBlackCat][color=ff4f61]"It doesn't matter!"[/color] she snapped. [color=ff4f61]"I doubt anyone much likes you either, yet you wouldn't want to be in his place! So quit watching with popcorn and go get help, which two of us here need! Is everything some big joke to you?"[/color][/quote][quote=@drewccapp][color=pink]"Don't say that, Rose. I like Fluke. Hey, uh, Fluke, if you do help out... I'll do your laundry or something."[/color][/quote][quote=@Grey Omen][color=BurlyWood]"A little bit more [i]courtesy[/i] would be appreciated, Fluke."[/color][/quote]

[color=B6C6AB]"Hey it's not my fault it's funny,"[/color] Fluke protested, shifting from one foot to the other. [color=B6C6AB]"Look, he's drooling!"[/color]

But no one else was laughing. In fact, Rose and Listener and Cedar seemed the very opposite of laughing. All of them were hurt, some more than most, Ruskali most of all. The old man seemed to have aged a decade in three minutes, his skin sagging and eyes glazed, brittle fingernails scratching into his frail palms. Rose especially seemed upset by this.

While they all turned their backs on him, Fluke fidgeted with a metal piece on his mask and squeaked it back and forth while he scuffed his boots in the dirt.

Finally Fluke knocked on Cedar's shoulder and shoved the drone controller into his hands. Between the thumb controls was a little screen with a live video feed of the drone's camera. It was currently hovering over the half-buried corpse in the alley.

Fluke jammed his hands in the pockets of his shorts and strode away toward an empty flower shop, where he'd spotted a landline telephone.


[quote=@LuckyBlackCat][color=ff4f61]"Archer, I know you wanted to test us all, but please you've gotta do something!"[/color][/quote]
Archer approached with a grave gait, the horns of her mask glinting blue and green. She slung Ruskali's arm behind her neck and cradled his weight away from Rose, then carefully laid him down on his back in the sandy street. While she held Ruskali's face between her hands, the old man whimpered and fidgeted and breathed loudly through his nose.


[color=C2EC2C]"Ruskali,"[/color] she said, calm and firm, like an anchor for a ship in the storm. [color=C2EC2C]"What is coming? What did the voices say to you?"[/color]

In Cedar's head, a voice laughed like a pit of snakes.

When Ruskali's only answer was a gurgling sob, Archer sighed and laid a comforting hand on his forehead. She moved instead after Listener.

[color=C2EC2C]"Now, you'll only be a liability scuttling about like that,"[/color] she warned, taking Listener's shoulders in her hands. Once Listener was standing still, Archer pressed her palms against Listener's neck to gauge her heartbeat. 
[color=C2EC2C]"It's one thing if you know what you're doing, but you've obviously never been blind before. If ya don't want to go home, I've got something that might help temporarily."[/color]

Confident that Listener's blood pressure was mostly normal, Archer reached into a pocket and popped the cap of a little pill bottle. She pressed a gumdrop-sized candy into Listener's hand. [color=C2EC2C]"Lose one sense, rely on the others, yeah? Sound, taste, touch, smell. Just be careful of the kick, it's like seven cups of coffee, but you can handle it right?"[/color] There was a small grin in her words as she gave Listener an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

Archer looked up and took a step behind Rose. [color=C2EC2C]"Steel Rose,"[/color] she said solemnly, her mask's scanners drifting between Rose and the jagged window above, where the singing continued. [color=C2EC2C]"What is it, what's wrong? Is someone in trouble?"[/color]

Fluke stepped out of the flower shop and stood alone with his hands in his pockets again, watching the clouds.

A whirring noise in the sky drowned out Jay's song, and a pair of hoverbikes appeared over the low rooftops. The two healers were bright in their orange robes, medical kits slung over their shoulders, a stretcher balanced between them.

They landed in a soft swirl of wind and sand, and with practiced efficiency they tossed supplies between them and scurried to Ruskali's side.

[color=gray][i]"etsaw a!"[/i][/color] laughed the voice in Cedar's head.

The singing had stopped.