[AUDIO] @M.HUGHES; OBSERVATIONS AS OF JANUARY 25 [OPEN]

[dadandgone]

[He sounds so tired. His words are clipped, professional. Jovial, fun-times Hughes is apparently gone for the time being. He can't keep that act up right now.]
I'd like some input here...a distraction that I can put to use.

Tell me about the lantern colors anyone has seen besides red or green. I want to know what's...different. I don't need names or specifics, but it would be helpful to know what to expect. For us ALL to know what to expect.

I don't know what good it will do. I don't know what good anything we've tried will do.

[He suddenly clears his throat and he coughs to cover it. For a second he thought he had heard Envy's voice coming out of him again. He knew he should have done text -- but this was part of another test. He needed to see if the voice, the eyes, if that was just him or...someone else.]

So talk to me. Tell me if I sound different. Help me solve this puzzle.

[He snorts. It would almost be a laugh if it wasn't filled with such bitterness.]

He told me I died because I was a smart man. I'm starting to wonder if that was just nothing more than a lie.

[He pauses and it's almost like the message is done, but he speaks again.]

Green. Envy. It's not lost on me, but that's only relevant to me, so the green light can't be just doing that. Please, I hope some of you still have enough of your wits about you to reply to this with some information.

[He almost begs, pleads for someone to respond. He can't be left alone with Envy's voice and Envy's eyes telling him he's a monster. He can't listen to Gracia's cutting remarks either. He needs other voices and he hopes that a few of you out there can give him that.]

(ooc: Note that Maes's Lantern is GREEN. So he doesn't actually look or sound different to anyone but himself. Of course, he THINKS he sounds like his killer)

Comments

[moderatelymaladjusted]

My lantern? It just-- it just cracked.

[And there's still the distant sound of Quentin giggling, but he's trying to swallow it down to keep talking. He sounds happy.]

And if our lanterns fall apart? So do we? And by we I mean 'me'. I think-- so, you know how sometimes people die here and they don't come back? Maybe it's because of this? Maybe their lanterns just-- poof! Fell apart.

[The laughter is closer to the microphone now.]

Maybe I'm next. I don't even know why I laughing.

[dadandgone]

Hmm. Well, cracked isn't the same as destroyed. [Obviously, or they wouldn't be having this conversation. He glances at his own lantern and decides to ask.] Did it turn that way around the time of the light change on your lantern?

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Yeah. [Breathless and gasping, like he's been laughing for too long. Like Quentin can't quite catch his breath to speak properly.] It just cracked, as if I had dropped it and the light changed. Maybe the red light means something. Besides that I'm dying.

[dadandgone]

I think the two might be related. That's not to say that we have any evidence that it won't shatter...but we also don't have evidence that it will. It's still holding together, so is mine, so I think we're okay.

I don't think the red light means your dying.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I think-- I think the cracked lantern means I'm dying. But it's okay. I feel fine. Or, you know-- [Still breathless and still giggling under his breath like he's heard a joke.] I feel fine now. I hope it happens when I feel like this.

[dadandgone]

I can see the appeal...but I think I'd want to go out with my own mind in tact.

Hang in there, the cracks might not mean you're dying at all.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

My mind is intact! I'm just-- when I think about the sad things? I feel like laughing. It could be worse, it could be so much worse.