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

[retraced]

[Oz, be careful!

Is what he tries to say, though no sound comes out. At all. There's barely even a whisper of air exhaled as he leans over to lift Oz up and see if he's made himself bleed. He tries to speak again as he does so, but it's the same result.

He settles instead for trying to clear his burning throat.]

[velveteened]

( there's a scrape with a perfunctory amount of blood starting to well up, but it's mostly his dignity that's got bruised. more concerning to him is all that silence. )

Do you need to get some water?

[retraced]

[He rolls his sleeve down to cover his hand so that he can press it against Oz's chin and stop the bleeding. His clothing is mostly ruined anyways, there's no point in trying to keep it clean now. But his hand is shaking slightly against Oz's face as he exhales another few useless, silent words.]

[velveteened]

( he gives it a moment, but when a response still fails to come, he reaches out. misses initially, but carefully moves his hand through the air until he finds gil's outstretched arm. )

Gil?

( sounding worried now - he can feel that shake. )

[retraced]

[I'm okay! Don't worry! he mouths, attempting to scream so loud that he ends up choking when no words actually form, empty but painful sounding gasps capping the failed try. He settles instead for keeping his covered hand pressed against Oz's chin.

At least he can't see the panicked expression on his face and worry even more, but he can't imagine that his silence is helping the situation either.]

[velveteened]

( no, the silence really isn't.

but the sounds he does get are somewhat telling, enough that he stops to really think about them. after a pause, he says quietly, )

Maybe you could do something like, tap your finger once if you're alright and twice if we should find that doctor again.

[retraced]

[Tapping his finger. Okay, that works. That's some communication, which is better than no communication at all. And though the pain in his lungs is worrisome, it's common for one to lose one's voice while sick.

So he drops his hand from the cut on Oz's face and taps his finger against his arm once. I'm alright.]

[velveteened]

Really?

( he knows what 'alright' can be with you sometimes, gilbert. not being able to speak does seem worrying, but on the other hand - on the other hand, gil's still recovering even more than he is, and it's not that strange with illnesses like these. )

[retraced]

[Another single tap. But that leaves him with another panicked thought: even though Oz can tell him how to answer his questions, Gil has no way of asking his own. This isn't just frightening, it's unfair!

He sits up with another nearly-soundless gasp and reaches out to poke Oz in the chest gently with two fingers. What about you?]

[velveteened]

( it takes him a half-second before he gets it, and then he laughs - it hadn't even occurred to him that it'd be difficult to do the reverse, though of course gil would think of it immediately. )

I'm alright. I don't think anything's changed.

( he means gotten worse, but of course nothing's gotten better either. )

[retraced]

[He exhales slowly. Nothing has changed. That's better than 'it feels worse than before' but it's not progress. It's not sight. Gil wants nothing more than to hide his face in his hands and slump forward in defeat, but then Oz might mis-guess where his head is and jab him in the throat a second time. That still smarts.

Nothing left to do except figure out a way to deal with this new obstacle until his voice returns, or Oz's sight returns.

He drops his hand back to his lap as he tries to decide how to ask what he wants to ask next. Hm. Another poke to the body, the stomach this time. Are you hungry? Or maybe it's just you should eat.]

[velveteened]

( he frowns, startling a little, at that second poke, and swats at gil's hand. )

I'm not hungry.

( he really isn't, he thinks, or maybe it's just hard to stomach the thought of food with dust dislodged from the bomb strikes in his hair and on his skin - probably, really, more than he can know without being able to see it. )

[retraced]

[He frowns even though Oz can't see it.

And then pokes him again in the same spot. No really, you should eat.]

[velveteened]

( swats at his hand again!! stop that. )

[retraced]

[And in a stunning display of maturity, Gilbert slumps forward with his palms against the ground and pouts. The most depressing form of the silent treatment ever given.]

[velveteened]

( oz can't see what he's doing precisely, but he can guess enough to scowl at a direction that gilbert is hopefully actually in. his eyes itch even while closed, so he rubs at them absently while wondering how long this round of bombings is going to last - and how long the ue intends to keep going. until there's nothing left aboveground? or are they just making a point? total annihilation's easy to think, but if there's anything the fate of that world had shown them it was that the ue could've easily done the same here by now if they'd wanted to. )

[retraced]

[It's a silent half-stare off, then. Gilbert watches Oz rub at his face for a moment or two before getting back up onto his knees with a painful sounding exhale. He has to get water for both of them, hopefully something that Oz can use to clean his face. And they'll both feel worse if they do nothing but lie here on the ground much longer.

He takes hold of his young master's arm and tugs gently. Let's get up.]

[velveteened]

( he glances upwards as he gets the message. getting up is complicated by all that time in bedrest and disease itself, to say nothing of how much more care needs to be taken in place one's feet when one can't see where to put them; the floors here are about as smooth as rarely trod upon stone can be expected.

but he moves to comply, if a little slowly, bracing a hand on the wall to avoid doing something like falling on his face again. )

[retraced]

[As soon as Oz is up, he reaches down to grab hold of his jacket and drape it over the young man's shoulders, letting his hands linger to let him know that he's still standing here behind him, and will be until he feels strong enough to walk.]

[velveteened]

( his limits aren't something he's ever much cared about before, but he's making an effort now. it's after a pause for both of their sakes that he drops that hand. )

Which way?

[retraced]

[A gentle shove in one direction. This way. He drops his hand away, just in case Oz would prefer to try and walk on his own without help. This would be the first time that they'd walked together since the bomb had rendered him blind, and the addition of Gil's inability to speak is sure to make this more difficult, but he doesn't want to make Oz more uncomfortable by clinging, either.]

[velveteened]

( dizzying, he thinks.

in theory there's nothing that different from taking a few steps in a single direction, with or without vision. in practice, the feeling is a little like the dread while missing a step on a staircase, a sort of vertigo, each step without falling a relief rather than a certainty. it's like this that he takes the first few slow steps, frowning in concentration. )

[retraced]

[He frowns as he watches him, making sure to stand close enough that Oz could grab hold of his arm easily if he needed, or at the very least just follow by feeling where he was walking.]

[velveteened]

( taking a few more steps mean two things:

- gaining some confidence!

- coming into a direct collision course with a rather harried-looking person.

oz hasn't noticed the latter, yet. )

[retraced]

[For a few seconds, Gilbert is terribly proud of him. He smiles gently and sighs in relief, admiring Oz's tenacity and determination.

Until he notices that person up ahead, that is.

There isn't much time to react, and though he opens his mouth to speak up and warn him that he's about to crash into someone, not even a whisper ends up coming out. So of course the next best thing to do would be a plant his feet and reach out with one arm to block Oz's way. Maybe accidentally clothesline him if he's walking fast enough...]