[ Anise seemed ten times better than the last time she was seen. There's a better aura around her but at the same time she was feeling mighty miserable. Her cheeks were flush red and she was shivering a little.

The teen knew it was pretty decent whether the other day so why did she feel cold when it wasn't even that cold. She was completely fine for most of the days until this week? For some reason she had been feeling sick and nauseous.]

Jeez, is it normal here to wake up with splitting headaches an--

[ Anise stops abruptly to cough a couple of times before finishing her lines. There was clear irritation in her voice but at least she was smiling. ]

Coughs....?

[ She makes a face as she holds a hand to her head. She hadn't experienced a real event up until now and she had thoughts about it possibly be an event. At the same time she didn't want to believe it. this place was by far weird and apparently could make people sick too. The Fon Master Guardian gives a forced smile to hide her annoyance as her tone changes. ]

Ion are you doing okay? You too Guy~ Tell me how everything is going and if you need lil' ol' me I'll be around ♥

[ Anise was fine with the ways things were said but she truly was worried about them and probably she owed them a thanks and an apology for her hysteria a while back. ]

[The audio turns on to the sound of coughing. When Johnny eventually speaks, his voice is extremely rough and it's clear talking isn't easy.]

Anyone...have a cure for...Bible burns? [His small laugh at the joke is cut off by more coughing.]

I could...use a little help...if anyone's near the forest.


[The transmission cuts off. Anyone who happens upon him will find the vampire coughing up blood as well as bleeding from both his eyes and nose. It's not a pleasant sight, but that's what happens when a vampire reads from the Bible.]



[ooc: Johnny's return from canon-update. Don't worry about timelines/overlapping rescuers.]

[ If you've ever met or seen Feferi before, when she shows up on video, you might notice that her hair has been cropped rather short-- but besides that, she looks just as chipper as ever. ]

Let's say, hypothetically, that there's someone you're in a relationship with back home. And they're not around here in the bubble, and you don't know if they're ever going to show up. Or if they'd even remember you! And you still really like them, it's not that they did anything. But then you've been hanging out with someone else here and you kind of sort of maybe like them, too.

What would you do?

[ Of all the things going on right now, this is, truly, the most important out of all of them. Sensitive teenager problems. Troll kids do have them. ]

[Hello Vatheon. There is now what appears to be a very young child looking down into the communicator with curiosity. After a few seconds of staring, despite being in damp clothing and likely confused like most newcomers would be, he does break out into a smile.]

Ohhh, I see how it works! It's like one of those really cool video phones that rich people have! So there must be people I could talk to through Starfish-kun here, right? [Yep, definitely not that perturbed about being in an unknown place without his parents as he continues to be all smiles as he waves a hand--or rather, a felt-puppet that he's wearing on his hand at the screen.] I'm Reisuke Houjou! I dunno what's going on exactly, but this place looks really cool!

[He does frown a little for a brief second, musing to himself a bit.]

Oh...but where did Onee-chan go? We were right in the middle of a really fun game too...

[...And then he's back to smiling again~]

...Well, that doesn't matter! At least there's people around here I could play with too!

Hello
I Am Not Sure Just Who I Am Contacting With This
As Far As I Can Tell This Is An Open Broadcast On This Network
Can Anybody Help Me
I Dont Know Where I Am Or Why I Am Here


[Waiting for a response, any response. Do people here even speak her language? Why does she even have this device?]

[Signless has chosen his location carefully; when he turns on the video function, there's a wall of water behind him, and a school of brightly colored tropical fish swimming past. He's very clearly in the bubble again.]

My friends, today I want to talk to you about fear.

[His voice is low and soothing, his story-telling voice.]

I have known great fear in my time. In my world, the color of my blood was a source of fear, something that drove me into hiding for a long time. Then, when I dreamed of the world that could be, rather than the world that was, I was afraid again... afraid that I would never see what I knew we were capable of come to pass. I was afraid to speak out, afraid to make a ripple in the still, stagnant waters of our society, and tried instead to live my meager little life underneath the notice of the highbloods.

But then I saw what my silence was doing, what those in similar positions were suffering, and I knew I could not stay silent. I could not sit idly by while our world rotted away from its very core, while its corruption bled away the talents and very lives of so many trolls who had done nothing beyond being hatched the wrong color. I could not wait for another to come along and demand change, or I would wait the rest of my life. I needed to cast aside my fear, to find a reserve of strength within me, and rise to what my world needed me to be.

[His voice falls, becoming hushed and soft, almost painfully honest, and he looks down, his cloak hiding his eyes.]

I was terrified. Casting off fear is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Fear is something I knew, its cold comfort as familiar to me as my guardian's face. It would have been... easy to live my entire life in fear, I thought.

[He looks up then, and his eyes are burning, his voice strong once more.]

I thought that fear was a cloak to hide me, but it was a chain I wore around my neck. When the fear was gone, when I made the decision to cast it aside, I have never felt so free in my entire life. It was how I imagine it must feel to wake up one morning with wings, and look out the window into an endless sky. When the fear was gone, I could breathe a deep breath for the first time in my life, and look to the future not as an ominous, foreboding thing, but as a path bathed in light and redemption.

I am not afraid any longer, Vatheon. This is my home now, and it is worth fighting for. I will not be driven out of my home again. I will not let fear control me.

<sub>[The video shows a girl with long blue hair. There's a blanket on her shoulders and she keeps her hand on her forehead.

She looks worried.]</sub>

...I don't feel too well. Did I also get sick?

_{[She never got sick before... And actually, who would've thought that Gears can get sick, too?]}

[ There is a very confused and awestruck hunter smack dab in the middle of the plaza. His eyes are everywhere, and his jaw's almost hit the ground. ALL. THE. PEOPLE. Sweet Etro, he's still not used to seeing them in numbers such as these. It makes him excited, but also worried as hell. Because none of these are faces he recognizes from any time period.

And worse, Cocoon isn't in the sky. They're nowhere on Gran Pulse. Cocoon is also unlikely, because he seriously doubts a city like this exists underwater there without any power generated by the Fal'Cie. So, then... where is he?

More importantly: ]

Serah! Mog! If you can here me, lemme know. I'm going to look for you two.

[ That voice comes through over the network, because Noel couldn't even figure out how those communicators in 5 A.F. work. Forget trying to operate a talking starfish when he has his companion to find. And since he can't operate this thing to save his life, anyone listening will be able to hear the following whispered under his breath before the feed cuts out: ]

So many people...