issue #4 | video; backdated to the 6th

[survivorsguilt]

[Ellie looks wrecked. Are hangovers supposed to last several days? Maybe that's how things work when you flood your system with magical shots and the most alcohol you've ever consumed in your short life by far. She scrubs at her tired eyes and sighs at the camera.]

Hey. So. I've got a question for everyone. There are scientists and shit here, right? Probably? Doctors, definitely. Is there anyone here who could, like... potentially help me make a cure for something? Maybe this is a dumb idea, but I've gotta try.

[She's been thinking about it ever since Chris mentioned to her that time freezes back home when you're gone. So long as she's here, she has unlimited time to try and manufacture something to cure people back home- and she has both the disease and the cure inside her body. That's gotta be worth something, right?]

Also, uh. Sorry if during that party I was- if I did anything- sorry.

3.2 Video

[amos_moses]

The video opens with the yip of a fennec fox and the tail end of a tangle of music. A tan blur flashes past the screen and when it clears, the feed shows Amos beside the orchard. He’s wearing his usual jeans but is down to a tanktop, revealing that under the baggy clothes he prefers to wear, Amos is built like a brick and well-muscled. He’s moving through a sequence of stances that soon becomes obvious as a set of martial arts kata, each stance carefully correct. Amos loves martial arts for the form and beauty, not the violence. A pair of fennec foxes is bouncing around, darting in front of him playfully.

Amos attempts to slide his foot under a staff he’s liberated from Rage’s armory, and pop it up into his hand. Instead he ends up catching it between his ankles, trips, and goes head over heels. The foxes scatter. Amos sits up laughing, despite the scrape on his elbow.

“Oops. Let’s try that again,” he tells the foxes, who turn and go bounding away. Amos gets back to his feet and sets the staff down very precisely. He walks back out of the frame. As he does, his mp3 player’s music starts again with a different song. A scuff of combat boot on stone, and Amos comes back into view, working his way through the same kata routine as before.

The foxes start their darting runs again, but this time, Amos can feel everything settle just right: the concentration, the kata, the music, his balance, and the way his awareness of his own ability blooms. His eyes close, a smile curling his lips. Without missing a beat he flips the staff into his hand and runs through a set of kata with that, the foxes weaving in and out of the pattern, and it all flows. He’s not worried about stepping on them at all, because they all three know eachother’s next move, perfect like clockwork in this moment of harmony.

It’s play, it’s practise for the hunt, it’s living in this one perfect present moment of now and Amos relishes the fierce rush of joy, sharp and intense.

Easy as breathing, he hears the foxes beg for more play, and slides from one form to the next, a guarding stance with the staff held in both hands, as if he might fend off the tiny foxes facing him down.

They bark and rush him, and with a laugh Amos turns tail and runs, dashing out of frame, the little foxes hot on his heels.

The moment of communion fades into the mundane but that’s okay. Now is the moment that matters, and the foxes are delighted to play.

The video ends when someone knocks the phone over as they all thunder past again, Amos laughing and the foxes yipping excitedly.

[Comment here or meet Amos in the orchard!]