Let's be war buddies...

[initiates]

Date & Time: 18th, beginning at 2100 hours, through to the 20th.
Location: All around Exsilium.
Characters: Everyone!
Summary: The United Earth decides Exsilium had obviously not learned its lesson back in October, and does another round of humble-making bombing for those impertinent exiles. OOC info can be found here.
Warnings: Violence, death, general gloom and doom.

The warning had gone out approximately two hours before the bombing began, broadcast to any available receptor on the island: UE aggressions incoming, bombs expected; please proceed to Catacombs immediately. It repeats over and over, right up until the first bomb, aimed at the Hold itself, silences the signal.

The air is thick with smoke and worse. Every one to two hours another bomb shakes the island. Buildings crumble and shatter, but the focus is on the Hold and the native hospital. Initiative employees, some sick as anyone else, are steadfast in their escorting natives and transports alike into the underground catacombs. For two days the bombs continue ceaselessly, dropped by their cloaked and invisible carriers overhead.

The United Earth is nothing if not thorough.

Comments

[velveteened]

"Jack?"

It's not quite a question so much as a confirmation; it's still so strange to hear Jack like this. Like normal people, thought wryly, and he looks upwards (the direction of the voice and what he remembers of Jack's height) with a slight cough and a smile.

"I'm glad you're alright."

[psychopath]

Jack takes Oz's reply as permission to basically sit down on the bed next to him (right in his personal space) and ruffle his hair (again). He's been told of what had happened to Oz, and he has the passing thought that oh, well, Oz wouldn't know if Jack looked at him with a sort of possessiveness that usually ended in murder.

Like how Jack's looking at him right now.

"A bit shaken up, Oswald frowned at me a lot, but yes, I'm fine. I hope you've been resting."

[velveteened]

He's had a growing appreciation for physical contact, admittedly, if only for the confirmation that someone really is right there, so Jack's lack of hesitance to get in his space makes him relax a little.

"I haven't done anything but rest," he says in a way that could be wry or reminiscent of when he was a child who'd sneak away from the maids.

The latter is what he aims for, but his tone is too suffused with the former; though better wryness than fear or panic.

"Oswald's alright, too?"

[psychopath]

"Oh, Oswald? He's fine, good heavens, he is a Baskerville. But you, though—"

Jack leans in to whisper conspiratorially, arm around Oz's shoulders, like personal space isn't a thing when you've spent so much time in someone else's head, "If Gil-love wasn't watching you like a hawk I would have helped you escape this bed, but alas."

[velveteened]

"That's a good point."

Baskervilles with all of their healing and immunity, just like Leo had pointed out in that burnt world,I'll be fine since I'm a Baskerville. Easy to remember but difficult to factor into worrying, anyway, though he'd directed more at the thought of Leo than Oswald himself.

Oz laughs at the mention of Gilbert however, as if he himself hadn't panicked the first time Gil tried to leave his side for something.

"He's been pretty worried! It even makes me feel bad about teasing him."

For once.

[psychopath]

"He's very cute when he's flustered."

Jack says, quietly, the mattress dipping further as he draws his leg upwards to sit on it. It was nice to be so close to his Chain again; it wasn't the same as being in his head, but there was still the Contract; a vague impression of the other that he can probably write off as an effect of sharing bodies.

"He was looking for you in the hospital, you know. He's a good friend, isn't he?"

[velveteened]

"Was he?"

He doesn't really ask it like a question, and there's no surprise at hearing that. Though - there may be some contrition, and it shows up on his face. How Gil must've worried, searching and unable to find him. Not Oz's fault this time, precisely - at least, not the result of any particularly knowingly stupid action of his - but just the same. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, especially as of late, that he really needs to do better.

"He's my best friend," he says like he told Alice once, meaning it.

[psychopath]

"It's always good to have a friend like that."

Jack says, mulishly, folding a hand over his knee as he turns to look at Oz's face. He figures Gil was still under his control, and so as long as he can leverage Oz-- The only irritating person to him currently is Kevin. Break, as he said, whatever. Jack shakes his head to rid himself of the thought, leaning back on a hand.

"Is he all right, though? Gil. That attack on us was nasty business."

[velveteened]

Oz frowns at that. Gil's been sick since the mission to Alaska, or rather since before, had gone anyway and made things worse and is still paying for that. He's sure Gil hasn't been half as careful of his own health down here as he should either, instead fretting over Oz and others. Oz can try to make sure he takes care of himself, but under the circumstances there's really only so much he can do.

"He's still sick. It's not as bad as before, but..."