text.

[camouflage]

Let's talk hypotheticals.

You're crossing a suspension bridge. You have to reach the other side at any cost. The bridge is wide enough only for one person to pass at a time.

A man approaches from the other side with a gun. How do you cross?

Comments

[private]

[warandpeace]

[Sometimes there's the 'right' choice, and sometimes there's the choice that says you have very few options.]

[He also thinks, from experience, that John shouldn't be alone right now, but there's not much he can do about that from here.]

The weather gets difficult out there. Is it being decent at the moment?

[private]

[camouflage]

It's nice right now. The cold doesn't bother me, anyway.

[......................LET IT GO]

[private]

[warandpeace]

Joy seemed to like it when she was out there. Is she with you?

[Please let him have taken Joy, because at least she can help. Dogs help.]

[private]

[camouflage]

Yeah, she's here. She's a good dog, trained well.

[she's pretty much the only one he thinks would be able to stand being around him when he's like this. she's a dog, after all, all she wants to do is please him.]

[private]

[warandpeace]

That's good.

I've been there for some pretty rough times, and since we got another chance, I'd like to be there for you again.

[Kaz is very used to people not wanting to put up with him as a miserable bastard. He doesn't want to leave John with that.]

So don't be afraid to ask for it, alright?

[private]

[camouflage]

[this is literally like asking a leopard to change its spots. john has hardly ever asked for help concerning anything that wasn't related to war. if he had known how to ask for help when it came to his sad past, he would've done it a long time ago.

if he couldn't do it when he was a younger man, when he was still jack and his name wasn't whispered in the same tone as a monster's, what makes kaz think he can do it now?]

Sure, Kaz.

[private]

[warandpeace]

Alright.

[And all he can do is hope. Or so he tells himself. He doesn't want to go to Ahab and ask him to go because he knows this knowledge is extremely hard on him.]

[But he doesn't want to leave John alone out there, either. A dog helps. But a dog still isn't a person.]

[So after a few beats.]

I still have that first aid kit. Where are you?

[Because this post is about as close to asking for help as he could get.]

[private]

[camouflage]

[even though john can be as dense as the sun, he knows that kaz is not going to trudge out into the forest to come give him a first aid kit. john is always properly prepared wherever he goes.]

On Chioni. In the woods.

['there's nothing in that first aid kit that's going to make me better.']

[private]

[warandpeace]

[He's trying to protect his pride, okay!]

John, please. A narrower range.

Please.

[private]

[camouflage]

I'll pick it up later. Don't worry about it.

[predictably, kaz will discover john has gone on radio silence if he sends anymore messages.]

Re: [private]

[warandpeace]

[He tries to send a couple more, before physically shaking the TAB like he's wringing his damned stubborn neck. There's a decent period of silence where he doesn't get any messages before receiving a single file.]

ATTACHED: REC001.mp3

[It sounds like it was played in a room with a slight echo to it, as though he just recorded it. After that, though, he leaves him alone.]