2024-07-13 - [5.5] Shared Silence

Eventually, doubt about what he should be feeling is overridden by the need to find out what others feel. A sample size of one might as well be none, and even though two is barely better Courth has to start somewhere.

First thing's first, finding out when they stopped responding. They had been so loud...Courth shakes himself off in a shower of indiscriminate sparks to stop himself falling again into lethargy and throws open his mind on the widest 'channel' he can manage.

'Hello? You there! Hello! When did you last hear them? Rocranth and Ghrebieth.'

We are still together, but the Others?

Muxiaoth was calm, there was nothing they could actually do in the moment and while that was stressful, they had come to terms with it a long time ago.

but... Hm. Courth was not calm. Maybe they could help somehow.

'We were talking with them just before.... the incident.' they said, 'but not since.'

The 'incident'. Bah, how is he supposed to build a timeline with only that to go off? That's nothing at all!

'Be specific,' Courth snaps, static building all over again. 'The quake only? When they dug us out? The relocation? Which one!' There were so many incidents that could be considered defining moments in the past few...days? Periods of rest? It was simple to say the incident was the moment of the shake, but how is Courth supposed to know what Muxiaoth considers most important? 'How often did you speak to them?'

Part of Muxiaoth hid at the tone from Courth. The other was.... livid.

'Courth. We. Are. Family. Calm down please.' They said. Not that they were calm, but they were at least not yelling.. 'We last spoke before the quake. We didn't speak much during or after, to any but ourselves. We spoke often to Ghrebieth, they had many many words to share with us, but... not after.'

'No.' Is Courth's mulish reply, storm turning darker but not more violent as he reacts without thinking to his more sensible clutch mate. Feelings didn't matter when information was at stake, and it was always an annoyance that no one else understood this. He would be angry as much as he liked while Muxiaoth was being obtuse.

Which unfortunately for Courth lasted all of two heartbeats.

'Oh...Really? So long?' He didn't mean to sound sceptical, but he was. 'It took Gwillanth – oh, she was injured...None of the others noticed?'

Instead of upset, Muxiaoth's deep waters simply rippled with Courth's storm in... was that amusement? It most certainly was. They were so amused, in fact, that their surface texture picked back up from the flat where it had been since Courth snapped at them. Though, the skeptical question caused their voice to color with shame.

'We were not... listening... for a while after the quake started.'

In fact, it was quite likely that others might have considered them lost, for a time, until they mastered their fear and came back to themselves.

No listening...Well that was true enough, and it rankles Courth that he is apparently as susceptible to missing things as everyone else. That can't happen again. He needs to know everything he can to make sure he's prepared for...life? The universe? Everything.

'Hmm. Well listen more...And check in,' he huffs, drawing his storm back in to see if there's anyone else nearby he can go and 'check in' with. 'I don't like this going quiet business. We can't lose anyone else, it doesn't look good for the rest of us.'