[video]

[plumlucky]

[Stephanie comes onto the network a la video and she looks tired, bedraggled, and kind of like hell in her flannel shirt and still damp jeans.]
 
Hi. Stephanie here. [She wrings her hair a little.]
 
That was an experience I never, ever want to repeat.  [Ever.]
 
Why the ocean? Couldn’t it have been a freshwater lake? At least that way, I wouldn’t feel like a too salty piece of beef jerky, though I guess then you run the risk of leeches and other watery vermin. [She needed a shower, bad, but she had some questions first. It wasn’t unordinary for her to shunt personal hygiene to the side for at least a few minutes when there were answers that could be sniffed out.]
 
And, why a coma? Anybody have any answers? Those guys that ‘saved’ me were kind of vague. I’ll buy coffee – if they have it here and God I hope they do – for anyone that can help me out.
 
[Or at least, she will until her money runs out, anyway.]

Comments

[plumlucky]

Yeah, Stephanie. It's nice to meet you Phil, though I'd have picked better circumstances.

[earpiece]

[Here, Stephanie. Have a rueful smile.]

Ditto. Gotta play with the hand you're dealt, though.

[plumlucky]

[She's returning it. Hooboy.]

Yeah. I'm getting pretty familiar with that concept, actually.

[earpiece]

[She certainly sounds as though she's having just as tough a time as he is. But there might not be a single ruder question Phil can think of than, Say, would you happen to be dead?]

Bad day? Aside from... all of this, I mean. Or—on top of it.

[plumlucky]

Well, kind of. Things just hadn't been going my way. That's it.

[earpiece]

I'm sorry.

[And that's not perfunctory sympathy—he really is sorry, for her and for himself and for everyone else here, at least on some level.]

I hope things improve.

[plumlucky]

Oh, it's not so bad. [She smiles at him, and tugs ruefully on her wet hair.]

I mean, I haven't been to the beach in ages anyway.