[Wednesday: Video of Panic]

[catchingflies]

[The camera, when the feed starts, is not actually on Todd's face. It is, instead, crazily lurching around at the foliage, with occasional glimpses of a hand, the sleeve attached to it, and a futuristic sort of piece of technology gripped in that hand. Todd is apparently running-- or, more appropriately, bounding-- when he turns this feed on. Hope nobody gets motion-sick from visual cues.]

Uh, anybody in the camp right now?

[He sounds a little out of breath and squeaky, but not too badly.]

Because, uh, I'm on my way and I kinda need some help!

[There's a feline-eqsue roar from somewhere in the background behind him.]

Have some guns or somethin' handy!

[And then the feed cuts out.]

Comments

[cantcatchme]

What did you do? Whatdidyoudo?

[About an hour later...]

[catchingflies]

Uh, I found some cool stuff in a cave. Only there was this big prehistoric cat thing in there, too, and it chased me out again.

[He sounds kind of sulky, really. He's not pleased that his first awesome discovery wound up getting him in trouble with pretty much everybody.]

Re: [About an hour later...]

[cantcatchme]

... What did I tell you about staying out of trouble, man?!

[catchingflies]

Hey, I didn't mean to find big cat-monster things! I found this awesome gun thing that shoots lasers, and there were more in the cave. Figured it'd be useful, y'know?

[Defensive, thy name is Todd Tolansky. Because this keeps happening to him, and it's not his fault!]

[cantcatchme]

Not so useful if you get turned into cat chow. You know, this kind of thing wouldn't happen so much if you'd just stay in one place.

[Hypocrite alert! Of course Pietro doesn't think it applies to him, because he usually gets out of any trouble as fast as he gets into it. Usually.]

[catchingflies]

I'd like to see you try stayin' in one place, around here! It's really freakin' boring, man. There's nothin' to do except explore or, I dunno, fish! Seriously. Boring. You'd go nuts if you had to stay put.

[So there, Pietro. So freakin' there.]

[cantcatchme]

Well... yeah, but you don't see me getting into trouble! That's all you, bro.

[No, he was just half dead from the plague, and looking towards round two. Fun.]

[catchingflies]

No, you're just getting sick.

[That doesn't come out with quite the flippancy Todd wanted it to. It sounds a bit more plaintive. He promptly shuts up.]

[cantcatchme]

Not my fault some psycho weaponized the plague.

[Whoops. Had Todd heard about the sickness being Black Death? He wasn't sure.]

[catchingflies]

Weaponized? Wait, what?

[Pietro is in luck: history is not exactly Todd's strong point. He doesn't put "the plague" together with "the Black Death. He probably doesn't have any idea what "the Black Death" is.

Weaponized, however, he understands. Kind of. Enough to make it scarier.]

[cantcatchme]

Oh, you missed that? Ehehe.

Apparently some idiot a long time ago decided to take the plague and turn it into... some biological weapon or something. It got stirred up and... well, here we are. Or that's what I've gathered. And there's... um...

[He hadn't told Todd there'd be a second round yet. Heck, he hadn't brought up how he almost hadn't survived the first one.]

[catchingflies]

[Queue a little more panic there, Pietro. Todd looks decidedly unhappy, because both his friends had that weaponized plague!]

But-- what's that mean? Does that mean it's gonna kill you? You're lookin' better, though!

[cantcatchme]

Relax! Like I'm gonna let some dead egghead kill me with his germs. All it means that I get to prove that a second time. There's apparently some sort of round two, but it can't be any worse than the last one. Piece of cake!

[Pietro tries to look extra confident and healthy. At least he's good at bluffing?]

[catchingflies]

Yeah, considering you looked like you were gonna die in the first round!

[Todd is glaring at Pietro, but it doesn't have much heat to it. Really, it has more like... fear to it. He won't ever admit it, but he really, really, really doesn't want to lose Pietro. Kurt is pretty okay, but Kurt is not Brotherhood.]

[cantcatchme]

And I didn't. Looks can be deceiving, bro. You don't get eaten by cat-beasts, I won't die of the Black Plague. Deal?

[catchingflies]

[He looks skeptical for a minute. But then he just goes with it.]

Deal. And I'll be back once yer all better'n stuff. Then you can keep me away from all the giant cat-monster things all by yerself. Okay?

[cantcatchme]

Yup. Deal. Now stop getting into trouble!

[Pietro gives Todd a mock-salute as a farewell.]

[catchingflies]

Yeah, yeah.

[Todd flaps his hand at Pietro, apparently much calmer now, and flicks the screen off.

Notice how he didn't make any promises there, Pietro?]