goneawaycomms | Carolina

[ It's He. It's Him. Duke third in line for the royal brain cell, also known as Tucker. He went ahead and made the comm trip from psycopath whats-his-face's YouTuber apology tour. ]

Hey, Carolina. I tuned out of you verbally kicking that Price dude's ass, so I dunno if you're done yet. [ That's respect for privacy, kids. It's also about prioritizing.

This is, in fact, legitimately serious. ] But hit me back ASAP when you are. There's some shit we need to cover.

[ There. Nice and to the point. And if he's lucky, not soon to be followed with "who the hell are you." ]

I'm done. For now.

[ Is she writing off the potential need to do it again? Not even a little bit. ]

What's going on, Tucker?

[ Tucker is, of the former sim troopers, the one Carolina trusts most to lay down real priorities. ...Which is a hell of a fact he must never, ever find out. ]

[ Secret validation is something that can be so personal. ]

I'm gonna skip over the orientation since whatever Jorgmund corporate crap was in the slideshow is still more than I actually know about what we're looking at. That's whatever.

[ Leave that to the qualified nerds. Wait for the chance to do a sword. Stick to his teammate, etc. As previously mentioned: priorities.

When in doubt on exactly where to start, rip off one of the bandaids and proceed thusly. Poetically. ]

So for starters, Wash is on the Rig with us. But he's-- Carolina, his memory is completely fucked. Like it's kinda shady how it's so fucked up, fucked.

[ Carolina had already committed some of her mental resources to forgetting the slideshow was a thing, and is now forcibly reminded. Oof.

But there's also a much more important topic at hand here, and she is all business now. ]

What?

[ That's what she says. What her voice says is: Oh my god, Wash. ]

He told me he needed to talk to me, but that it could wait.

[ She could strangle him. You know. In that way you sometimes desperately need to strangle someone you love very much because they're also an idiot. ]

What happened? What's wrong with his memory?

[ God, finally. Someone on the right emotional level that he doesn't have to 'get to know'.

Also, that's such a Wash brand way of ranking his own issues even without memory problems that it's almost normal. Wash's special and kinda sad brand of being a dumbass. ]

What's wrong is he's missing a ton of it! Like, according to him, someone somewhere in medical knew how to patch up his brain damage when he got in. Which is great, except now the last thing from home he 100% remembers is from before we took out the Meta. I had to fucking introduce myself to him!

[ There's "Wash zones out while he's cooking and someone has to herd him back on track" and then there's "missing actual years of his life consistently for the past however many weeks." Hence the current levels of shrillness and concern-which-sounds-an-awful-lot-like-being-pissed-off. ]

Anything from after that, it's just... I dunno. Not gone? Sometimes he remembers stuff or says something that sounds normal. It's like he's still got it but he can't pick it back up.

[ Which is shady in and of itself. Starting on amnesia street was probably the best game plan. It's sort of what the rest of the shady stuff is built on top of. An important foundation to lay down. ]

So it sounds like the company broke something while they were in there.

[ What the fuck. Carolina breathes in. Carolina breathes out. Alright. Much though she wishes this were a problem that she could solve by taking out this spike of anger on something she can hit, it's not happening. Think. ]

I need to talk to him. I was on my way to meet him actually, but I don't know how this is going to go if he doesn't remember anything after... that.

[ Carolina doesn't like bringing up the Meta. She knew him. His fate still bothers her. ]

Wash and I weren't exactly good friends at the time.

[ Understatement. Tucker was there, she knows he knows. It was a bad and very regrettable time for all. ]

Yeah, I didn't wanna say anything about your obvious beef back in the day when you were more likely to shoot us, but I picked up on that.

[ Ah, memories. ]

For what it's worth, I don't think it'll go bad-bad. Maybe not as good as it could. Not the worst. He kinda trusts me already, y'know? If he's picking up on that when I'm just a Sim trooper he didn't even meet yet, I think you're gonna get more vibe clearance right off than any of the rest of us could. Wash told me himself that he thinks it's still in there somewhere. So, uh.

Don't sneak up on him and you'll be fine. Seeing how it doesn't fuckin' matter if he wants us on his side figuring out what happened or not anyway.

[ There are only 2 friendship speeds: "you know what, I fucking hate you" and "let's go gang time to kill, die, or destroy the universe for someone." It's cool and healthy. ]

[ If his memory is still in there, maybe there's hope they can drag it back out. It's only fair to return the favor, after all. It makes her feel slightly better, but only slightly. ]

He knows I'm coming, so at least I don't have to worry about sneaking up on him.

[ She hasn't been on this side of the "I'm helping you out of your self-destructive bullshit whether you like it or not" fence before, it's weird here. ]

...Thank you, Tucker.

Besides the thing with Wash, are you alright?

[ She's not the best at this part of looking out for other people, but being around the team she feels like she failed has done a lot to renew the commitment to trying. ]

Well, between the Wash thing and Jorgmund being Jorgmund and the Rig turning into Freelancer Central Station, I think it's pretty impressive that I'm still good to stay in the game. 'cause it's kinda been a bad fucking time all the way down.

You know how much having to think responsibly stresses me out. I'm like a betta fish. I'm good-looking and I can maybe kick another fish's ass, but I suck at stress.

[ Tucker's legacy of slow-burn internalized panic continues. He is still good to stay in the game, though. ]

But on the bright side, these bozos haven't even found an excuse to zap me yet. And I know I've been an annoying pain in the ass. So that's one for the win chart.

[ Tucker hasn't been zapped yet? Since when? Alright, that's not fair, Tucker has actually done a lot of maturing since Carolina met him and she can recognize it.

It takes one to know one. They have wildly different problems, but they also have greenish-blue character development solidarity. ]

Good.

Tucker, I am genuinely proud of you.

[ She will probably live to regret saying that, but they are trapped in a shitty corporate trash fire in an alternate universe with a broken best friend that she's on her way to go see. If you have something supportive to say to somebody, now is probably a good time. ]

You are? [ He almost sounds scandalized. No one else is even here to witness this moment. They'll never believe him.

In all seriousness, though, it means a lot to him to hear that. It means a lot to hear it sincerely from anybody at all, in Tucker's experience, but especially now given the circumstances. And especially if the anybody saying it is Carolina. ]

Uh, thanks. [ Tucker is an easy win. He enjoys a process of hearing that he didn't fuck up just being here in general. It brings him a mix of gratitude and relief that's always welcome in these trying times.

So he definitely has to recover from feeling his own vulnerabilities by flipping shit about it. Like Grif before her, Carolina does not escape. ]

"Carolina's favorite" is gonna look great on my resume.

[ Sigh. It's a world record Regrets speedrun. ]

Just be careful.

You can worry about your resume when we get out of this one alive.

[ Grim words, but her tone is stubbornly forcing them into the shape of a joke here. ]

I'll go talk to him and see what he says.

[ Ah, it was worth it. ]

Alright, go do your thing. I'll catch you later.

Carolina

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