TWELVE ✖ VOICE

[wedonot]

[Right around the time when the scientists start attempting contact with people on the station again, Charles is jerking awake and trying to figure out who, exactly, is trying to communicate with him, because it's weird and unfamiliar and therefore vaguely invasive while at the same time piquing his curiosity - the station had seemed abandoned, and he hadn't been stupid enough to not check if the people were all just hiding somewhere, so either they were shielded from his telepathy or they just weren't there - so he's up and awake and trying to figure out what's going on, carefully scanning the area again.

But the only people he can really sense are the others from the Barge, which is still troubling, because the sensation of someone mentally nudging him isn't going away, so he fumbles for his communicator, switching it on to see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing.]

Is anyone else awake? Who else is sensing that? [There's a very, very faint sound of laughter from somewhere, a burst of static, and then a short pause while Charles stares suspiciously at the doorway for a few seconds before speaking again.]

I don't- [There's a long burst of static, which occasionally dies off enough to get a syllable or so of whatever Charles is trying to say, but it's unintelligible.] but they're not here. [And the feed shuts off.]

Comments

[ Voice ]

[surfaceshine]

They're obsessed with them - it's weird. Usually when you see a mass haunting like this, the restless spirits will be focused on their own concerns and their own lives, not a single thing. Of course, this is a research station, so the labs might be a natural thing for them to focus on, but it's still strange...

[He's thinking aloud, probably saying too much while he runs it through, but he doesn't care right now; he's focused on the problem at hand.]

[ Voice ]

[wedonot]

[You'll get asked why you know so much about this later, because right now the bigger concern is the whole... everything that's going on here, thing.]

Are you sure it's a haunting?

[ Voice ]

[surfaceshine]

[And later, he will do his level best to avoid it, or maybe he won't, because he's starting to decide that it really doesn't matter if people know. How's that for progress? His shrug is audible in his voice.]

I don't, but it's what I'm familiar with. Cattle ranchers don't look at hoofprints in the mud and think Oh, I bet that's a zebra. Same here. Looks, sounds, acts like a haunting, I'ma treat it like a haunting until someone has a better idea. You don't think it is?