ɢᴜɴɴᴀʀ’s ɢᴏᴛ ᴀ ɢᴜɴ. (mediation) wrote in drawpoints, @ 2015-08-25 12:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, gunnar song |
WHO: Gunnar Song
WHAT: Meanwhile in Balamb Garden.
WHERE: Training Center
WHEN: Backdated to evening of Sunday, August 23.
WARNINGS: N/A
At first, there had been silence.
And then everything was singing. Chirrups, beeps, buzzes, MP3 tracks used as ringing tones, each mobile device that played such sounds lit up and blinked, demanding to be answered. Someone spilled a cup of coffee on his knee and cursed. Gunnar himself jumped and smashed his own knee against the control panel of the jungle. Someone's mother had called while someone else's wife had texted. The door flew open to let out those attending to their private contacts but the discordant soundtrack only persisted to get worse.
After wincing and nursing his future bruise, Gunnar finally grabbed his phone and slid the bar towards the green button. "Ruth?! Ruth, honey, what's up?"
"Mackie's gone!"
"What?!"
"Mackie's gone! The cat!"
"Wait, I can't hear you!" Gunnar rose to follow everyone else ducking and plugging their ear in the hallway but the frantic waves of one of his teammates compelled him to look at the shifting heat map on his monitor. Ruth was still shrieking at him in one ear but his mind only understood where the colors dimmed to reflect the lack of heat.
"The monsters are dying!"
"Not dying," someone else over the other shoulder intoned, "more like...more like they're disappearing..."
No cries, no growls. If they'd all been asleep, they wouldn't have been any wiser. Someone towards the back was insisting she was coming home, someone else was asking someone what was happening back home. Gunnar was drawn to the wide paneled windows that afforded the a perfect view of the Training Center from up top. The telltale signs of an approaching T-Rexaur alerted them to a visitor and he knew in his gut who had come to say goodbye.
Tyra, who came out in the open and shrugged off the trees so they could see her throw back her head and roar. Her fading reminded Gunnar of one of the old pictures he still kept. They'd come out full of color but years would slowly rob them off it. That was Tyra, whose bold form would never be able to withstand the test of time. One second she was there.
The next...she was gone.
"Did you see that?!" someone hissed. "Holy crap, I got it all on video!" someone else whooped. Gunnar put the phone back on his ear and there was Ruth and Agatha demanding to know if he was fine.
"Gunnar, what was that?!"
"Dad, Dad, are you okay?!"
"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine," Gunnar said, still looking at the ground the giant had once stood on. "Did you get to say goodbye to Mackie?"
"Kinda," Ruth said. "He put his head on my lap and then he just disappeared!"
"Gunnar, what's going on?" Agatha asked. "What was that horrible sound?"
"Just one of my best girls saying goodbye," Gunnar said. "Listen, can we move waffle time next day? I might have to work until morning."
"Are you sure? Gunnar, you just worked round the clock on Friday!"
"I'm fine, don't worry!" he said, looking past his shoulder to watch people embracing and packing up. "There's just...a lot of backlog to work through."
"Okay. Well, call us anytime! We'll keep the phone open."
"Love you, Dad!"
"Love you two, too. Hug each other for me, okay?" Gunnar smiled. "Okay, bye." After they hung up, he stuffed his mobile in his pocket and hurried to the side of someone who'd taken off one arm and shoulder of his jacket but left the other dangling. His fingers were still married to the keyboard but Gunnar pulled them away. "Go on, go! I got this. Say goodbye to Ana for me, okay? Give her a hug."