forum “It’s cold outside…” - Private RP with Icefire

Started August 18, 2021 by @Mojack group

tune

@Icefire Here it is!

I’ll just put the main post down again.

”Won’t you let me in?”

Genres: horror, sci-fi.

It’s been less than one year, and yet, it feels like forever. Less than one year since..well, it doesn’t have an official name, really. Less than one year since the Shutdown.
The Shutdown was a catastrophe taking place on the colony Selnugawa, ’Selnu’ for short. Selnu was a mining colony, it was just another planet for humans to strip of its resources. As long as everything went to plan, Selnu would be emptied out within a few centuries, and humans could put their resources elsewhere.

That didn’t happen - clearly, as noted by you being locked in the shelter.
When the Shutdown happened, it knocked down all communications- or most, as you’re led to believe. Who knows. Maybe someone managed to contact help before the Shutdown happened.

but as far as you know, you’re alone. no one is coming to Selnu to help.

You weren’t always alone, in the shelter. But those numbers dwindled quite fast. There were three others in your specific shelter. The first two went out to figure out things, find out what’s going on, reach the radio tower located to the North. The other went out about a week later, in attempt to find them. That all happened about a month back. Would it even do anything if you went out searching for them as well?
Selnu never had a big population. 6000 people, tops. There’s gotta be other survivors, right?

No one knows what caused the Shutdown. Maybe it was a solar flare, but something reeks - literally. You swear you can smell something from beyond the bunker doors, despite them being sealed shut. Throughout this entire ordeal, you’ve never set foot out there once - only tended to the station inside.
Tending to the station means keeping it alive - or as alive as one person possibly could. Whatever isn’t shutdown is your focus now. The oxygen and heating - those are definitely of your focus. The lighting - in order to save power, you only keep what you need online.
While the Shutdown did a lot, at least it didn’t harm your station’s backup generator.

but if it goes down, you’re going to need to suit up and power it back up again.

Food, since you’re one person - as long as storage remains good, you should be fine. The meat is synthetic and easy enough to produce, and there’s an indoor farm in the facility. As long as you continue to maintain the farm, that’ll be good.
Every now and then, check the radio. You’re pretty sure all of Selnu’s satellites are dead: meaning you probably won’t be able to contact off-planet resources. But you can contact other stations, assuming their radios are fine and dandy too. Thing is, you haven’t received any calls, for the seven months that you’ve been down here. Weird.
Also, the doors. You’ve still gotta maintain the exits to the bunker. The big doors are easy enough - make sure they’re completely sealed. But there’s also an entrance that’s a pain to get to. It’s a bit lower, in the basement of the bunker. Only a smaller human could fit through there, you reckon. At the least, it’d be a tight squeeze, and you’d probably have to crawl through there if needed.
There’s also an exit that leads to the vehicle garage. And maybe you could take one of the vehicles and dive off. But the thing is, there aren’t any trucks left in there. So that’s out of the question.

It’s been a lonesome seven months in the bunker. No doubt that its been mentally draining, especially since the last other person of the bunker left about a month ago, and they haven’t returned. None of them have.
Sometimes, you peek at the surveillance systems, seeing which cameras are still up and running, checking if maybe, anyone’s still outside and has news of what’s going on.

with each passing day things get harder. but you have no idea how hard things are going to get. it’ll make what’s going on now a walk in the park, all I’ll say.

Sci-fi/horror RP taking place on a mining colony. Your character was one of those on the colony. Whether they were a miner, a scientist of some sorts, a technician/engineer, doctor, etc, is up to you. If you want any overviews on what different jobs were on Selnu, just give me specifics and I’ll describe them to you.
After some sort of disaster taking place on Selnu, your character has been left alone, singlehandedly maintaining a bunker by themselves. Three others used to be in the bunker with you, but all left about a month prior to the beginning of the RP. If you want to, give them names/personalities/appearances - I’m leaving that up to whoever joins the RP, since they would have more of an affect on your character.
You’ve been in the bunker for around seven months.
The current year is 2203.
Aliens have been discovered - but only in the form of bacteria and microscopic life. Other than that, nothing else has been found..yet.

Details about Selnu:

• very rocky planet. Despite that, there aren’t very steep or high mountains on Selnu. Just sharp, jagged rocks - terrain a pain to walk on. Vehicles on Selnu were made with the purpose to cross its terrain with ease.
• the planet orbits two stars, known as Bruys and Crual.
• water is present on the planet, primarily underground but can be found at lower points of the land. Water should be purified before consuming.
• Selnu is a mostly lifeless planet, save for small bacteria. At least, that’s what’s been observed…
• the weather on Selnu is mostly calm, however the climate is very cold, temperatures often staying near the lower level. It’s also a bit humid. Occasionally, large, vicious storms occur. Find shelter when they happen.
• the sky of Selnu is often clouded, and rarely ever clear.
• Selnu has several cave systems, most of which are unexplored.
• Selnu was declared to be a safe planet for humans to land on after five years of planning and outside survey. clearly that wasn’t the case. The incident on Selnu happened within 2 years of human landing.
• the oxygen of Selnu can be breathed in for about five minutes without any protective gear. Once that period is over, you begin to choke on the air itself. Weirdly enough, the cave systems have been found to be safer to breathe in - keep that in mind, should you ever run out of oxygen on land.
• each station on Selnu has a backup generator (keeps on the cameras, lighting, heating, etc.) If that generator shuts off for whatever reason, someone would need to go out and manually restart it. They’d need to put on a protective suit, however.

Now that’s over, onto the rules.

1. This will be a bit of a darker RP. Depending on if you choose to give the three other bunker dwellers who left you about a month ago names/identities, the beginning of this RP may open up on a dark note. So with that being said, mature RPers, please.
2. Swearing’s allowed.
3. Though this RP may be a bit heavier on blood - there’s a time and place for everything. Same goes to violence.
4. No autohitting, in the event of a fight. Don’t dodge everything either. Play to your strengths. Remember your weaknesses.
5. Response time may vary.
6. Have a writing sample (preferably with dialogue) ready when asked! If I remember your style, I won’t ask.
7. I thought a little on this, and while romance is allowed…it may not be the focus. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, either. In fact, we could get a bit of unrequited love here, depending on how things go…my favourite!
8. Linking to the above - if the yiffy wiffy/sexytimes somehow happen, fade to black, please. Not comfortable writing/reading that, so please understand.
9. No one liners. ever.
10. Ask questions as needed.
11. And as always, this list will be changed as needed (it probably won’t.)

Now for the template - remove brackets when filled out!

Name:
Age: (20-25)
Gender:
Pronouns:
Orientation: (sexual/romantic orientation)
Nationality/country of origin:
Employment: (something that would have fitted in on the Selnu Mining Colony. Examples could be scientists, engineers/technicians, drivers, miners, guards, etc. If you have a specific idea in mind, ask and I’ll tell you if it would fit in on Selnu or not)

Appearance:
Clothing:
Personality:
Background: (tell as much as you want - secrets are welcome)
Skills:
Equipment: (any gear that they have on them at almost all times, or at least at the beginning of the RP.)
Fears:
Physical/mental ailments: (this is not a requirement of your character.)
Other: (anything else goes here! fun facts, any relationships they may have had with those on Selnu be it friends, enemies, or something more; family back on Earth, etc)

:D hello!

Greetings! So, do you have any questions at all?

I did and because I'm an idiot, I forgot them lmao

Uhhh do you have any specifications for my character that you'd prefer me to do? And like, how many planets/moons/starbases/asteroids are there that humans have colonized, or is it just Earth and Selnu?

No specifications for the character that I have in mind!

And I’m glad you asked that second question: there are, and a notable fun fact out of all of the colonized planets Selnu is the farthest from Earth.

• Cicreon, also nicknamed ‘Earth 2.0’, a planet with strikingly similar conditions to Earth; just a bit more rainy and a bit more ocean covering its surface as well. seen as a paradise for many, in effort to maintain its natural beauty only certain people are permitted to go there, and very few people (aka only rich, rich, RICH people) can live there permanently.
• The moon (Earth’s) was briefly mined, but not completely. In the present days, it’s more of a research post off-planet, but close enough that it’s not outside.
• Mars was one of the first planets to have been officially colonized for humans to live on. Though the population of Mars is nowhere near Earth, it still has more people living on it than Cicreon.
• Saturn’s moon, Titan, has an established base that serves as the headquarters for anything to do with the Saturnian system.
• Callisto, a moon of Jupiter, serves as an established base similar to Titan.
• Another Jupiter moon, Europa and Ganymede are both points of research for humans.
• There are multiple asteroid mining colonies, and out of everything else, asteroid mining colonies rank number one in terms of how many have been built.
• Starbases have been built outside of Cicreon, Earth, and Mars. That means there are three in total.
• Another planet in Selnu’s system, Aphus, was thought to have habitable conditions, and once the Selnu project was complete, Aphus was to be investigated.

Alright, makes sense! Thanks! I'll have to get the character up tomorrow

I was thinking maybe my character was a xenobiologist or something? And something else probably, maybe they have two degrees or something lmao

That would work, yeah! Looking forward to seeing them!

Great! Also has there ever been any evidence of aliens discovered, at any point? Ruins, old tech, cave writings, etc?

And is gene-hacking/DNA editing a thing?

No well known, official evidence of aliens, though very close to the events of the Shutdown (and prior to the beginning of this RP) it became popular opinion, supported by researchers that in the deep cave systems of Selnu, life could exist. when I say deep I’m talking about very far down; no one knows how extensive the cave systems of Selnu are, and very little was explored by humans.

As for gene hacking/DNA editing - it does exist, though there are a fair amount of regulations for them.

Alright, great! Thanks

Name: Romeo "Ro/Rome" Ace Accord
Age: 24
Gender: Demi-guy
Pronouns: He/They
Orientation: Pan
Nationality/country of origin: Mars, though his family traces their roots back to the USA, then to Italy
Employment: Xenobiologist and xenobotanist. Double-majored and earned both degrees, though the botany portion is considered more "useful", since they can study the plants of other planets, including Selnu
Appearance: A picrew. Ro has black hair with soft curls, and dark green eyes. He has olive skin, which tans easily in sunlight. Since, however, they have not been in direct sunlight for a while, he is rather pale (for their normal skin tone, at least). They wear round glasses most of the time, though these glasses only correct a little bit, and they can survive perfectly fine without them. He also has contacts, but these irritate his eyes and so they don't usually wear them for long periods of time. They haven't bothered to get their vision fixed permanently, as it is expensive. Has a tattoo of the silhouette of a few different plants on his ribcage.
Clothing: He typically wears long sleeved t shirts and a pair of soft, comfortable pants, and will often simply throw a lab coat on over top. They also like button ups, and will sometimes wear those instead, or unbuttoned over a t shirt. Wears a necklace around their neck with some dried sage in a tiny bottle on it, as a reminder of home.
Personality: Ro is incredibly smart (as evidenced by the two degrees at such a young age), but is quiet and soft-spoken about it, in most cases. They don't like to make others feel uncomfortable. He likes to make jokes, and they also have a tendency to talk to himself while pacing, which, while a little eccentric, is typically considered rather normal for a scientist. It also serves them well while alone in the base, since they don't love silence. He likes to listen to music while they work, as well. Cautious, and likes to consider all the possibilities and options before making any decisions about what to do.
Background: Romeo is the oldest of three, and his parents were middle-class. They lived on Mars, and have since their grandparents were young. They are quite proud of their Italian heritage, and Romeo learned from a young age how to cook, especially Italian food. He also helped to tend to the family garden, which is where he learned his love for plants, from his grandmother. He graduated high school early, and went straight to college from there, where he earned their two degrees. He had always loved stories about aliens, which is why he got his xenobiology degree, so that if aliens were ever discovered, they would be equipped to help study them. When he finished college, he was looking around for work and contacted a rich man who lived in Cicreon who was looking for a scientist to study the local plants. They came, and the rich man, who was about 15 years older, was his patron. Unfortunately, the man used his position of power to abuse Ro and draw him into an abusive relationship, not letting him leave the planet for nearly a year. When Ro finally got away, they almost immediately signed up for the expedition for Selnu, wanting to get as far away from the man, Darrington Crunard, as possible.
Skills: Plants (identification, preparation, etc). Drawing, especially from life (excels at plant sketches). Good at decoding things, both actual codes or foreign languages. (not good at sections like this, my apologies)
Equipment: Almost always has some dried plants stuck somewhere. Usually has his glasses. A water bottle. A pocket knife. A mini mortar and pestle (bc why not).
Fears: Tight spaces. Darrington Crunard. Being taken advantage of. Too much physical contact. (also not good at this section, i again apologize)
Physical/mental ailments: Anxiety, depression, and PTSD. He had anxiety and depression before Crunard, but the year he spent with the older man made the two much worse, and gave him a case of PTSD. Claustrophobic (again, pre-existing, but Crunard took advantage of that and made it worse). Walks with a limp, since their leg got badly burned when he was young and it didn't quite heal correctly.
Other: ~ none for now

(I hope he's alright?)

((Sounds good!))

Name: Karel Dohnal. Preferred to be known as his last name.
Age: 23.
Gender: AMAB, when asked, considered himself to not care, and say “whatever.” When asked to put it into specific terms, Dohnal worded it as “gender apathetic,” or “unlabelled.”
Pronouns: “Any will do, I don’t care. You could even call me by it/its pronouns and while that may throw some off, I really, just don’t care.” As quoted directly from an interview with Dohnal. (Note: in short terms, any pronouns).
Orientation: Described himself as panromantic and “undecided/questioning” sexual orientation.
Nationality/country of origin: Born in Czech Republic. Has ancestry from Indonesia, as one parent was born there.
Employment: Began professional training originally as a guard, although despite that his primary job is as a driver.

Appearance: Dohnal was a fairly tall individual, at around 6ft in height, or 180cm. Complete heterochromia in both eyes. The left eye is grey, while the other, dark brown. He had paler skin than what could be considered as fair, although was not the palest person around. Had an athletic body type, categorized as ‘lean’ by some. Dohnal was almost completely devoid of any markings on his body, save for three particular things;

• a scar from an appendectomy he had whilst on Sendu located on his torso,
• a small tattoo of a feathered serpent on his left arm.
• a long small scar on his collarbone, going down on his chest and stopping at the mid-torso.

His facial features were described as ‘even’, and he had a light amount of facial hair (black, the same colour as his hair). Dohnal often kept it trimmed, rarely ever shaving it completely; even mentioning in a conversation that it grew quite slowly. His head hair, on the other hand was trimmed often (again, Dohnal mentioning that it grew quite fast). Despite that, Dohnal kept his thick, slightly wavy black hair long enough to go down past his ears by two inches at the least. If long enough, Dohnal would tie it. Despite his best attempts to tie it/brush it, often, a strand would hang in front of his face.
Clothing: Dohnal was rarely spotted out of the uniform. Despite his ‘laid back’ attitude, he seemed to be a workaholic. He often sported a cap whilst on the clock.
On the occasion that he wasn’t working, Dohnal often wore slacks or capri pants. He would often sport button ups, and on the occasion, flannels. He would also use the same cap he sported during work hours. Usually wears boots for shoes. His wardrobe could be described as ‘dark’, though his tops were often lighter colours.
Personality: Dohnal, on Selnu, was known as a laid back individual, used to listening to other people’s problems - a thing he got a lot of while driving people back and forth to different areas of Selnu. He was calm, but admitted in a conversation, Dohnal said he was often stressed out more than not - just got really good at masking it.
At first glance, Dohnal could also seem like a quiet person, but in social interactions with coworkers, was a talkative, often loud and sarcastic person. His energy could be ‘overbearing’ at times, and Dohnal was slightly known as not the best person at picking up social cues.

Background: When one were to take a look at their childhood photos, you would wonder if Dohnal were the same person he is today. Most childhood photos take a solemn looking individual looking at the camera - that’s Dohnal. He has never, in his time on Selnu, mentioned what it was like growing up, other than the fact he was born on Earth. In the modern era, Earth is a high population planet, suffering from damages often manmade in nature. Dohnal had some sort of bitterness towards the people who left Earth to other planets and their descendants, but he would rarely let that sway his actions against another person. He said at some point that he had a lot of siblings.
On Earth, Dohnal received training in weaponry and whatnot in Ukraine. In his file, Dohnal mentioned he fought in active conflict on Earth briefly - the truth of this statement is debatable, and Dohnal is not an individual who tells the truth all of the time. Still, even if massive conflicts on Earth haven’t occurred for some time, smaller scale ones have happened, including areas where Dohnal may have been. It is not completely out of the picture.
Having the opportunity for the Selnu expedition, Dohnal signed up. Despite being qualified to become a guard, Dohnal opted to become a driver instead, which detailed transporting materials or people, etc. His time on Selnu was pretty much without major events, with the biggest thing happening to him being his appendix bursting (resulting in an emergency surgery that went without complication via the planet’s doctors).
A few days prior to the Shutdown, Dohnal went missing.
Skills: Trained in using guns, his specifics lying in rifles. He was excellent at preserving stamina, able to run for long distances without stopping (assuming he wasn’t going full speed). Good in close quarters combat. Knew how to drive some vehicles, specifically the Selnu transporters. Knew basic first aid, but would rather utilize the skills on himself rather than others due to anxiety.
Equipment: Pocket knife, bandages, tranquilizer.
Fears: Death (both how he’ll die and what lies beyond his death), fire, electricity (the sensation, even just a minor one, of being shocked to specify).
Physical/mental ailments: Unspecified anxiety disorder (diagnosed), bipolar disorder (undiagnosed).
Other: Practiced meditation often when he had the opportunity.

From the dust.

Seven months earlier, Selnu was not an extremely busy place by any means. But at least it had something going on. Now? It was more like a ghost..planet? Selnu was cold, and the only noise that one could occasionally hear for miles was the occasional gust of wind, or the rare storm when it happened.
Or the scuttle of something climbing up the small slope next to the road.

Unattended vehicles could be spotted for miles. Areas that were commonly travelled on Selnu had roads made and maintained, so that the terrain was easier to traverse between stations. Yet all of the vehicles were emptied, and most covered in a thin layer of dust. Some even had some form of damage, like broken glass. Maybe it was just the storms. They had been sitting out for a while. Or something more.
From the slope, a humanoid appeared, their form encased in a suit of some kind. It was a human - or maybe it just looked like that from the outside. One couldn’t see their face, after all.

The suit was recognized by most, as one built for traversing low gravity areas with unbreathable oxygen; the suit being designed to keep a good foothold on the ground. It was heavy as well; special training had to be taken to even wear the thing for work. But Selnu- Selnu was neither of those things. The oxygen, while not safe long term, didn’t require something as complex as this grey thing.
The black visor stared aimlessly ahead, and the human stayed still - unnaturally so.
Until someone else appeared.
It was another person, albeit one dressed in clothing completely unsuitable for wandering Selnu. Casual clothing. People on Selnu would dress in casual clothing, but only within their respective facilities, whilst not being on the clock. This person was not that. This person moved unnaturally; their movements stiff, like a poorly played puppet.
As if sensing the suited human, they stopped - and turned to them. The two were caught in a staring contest, or what seemed like it.

Leave. Puppet.

The Puppet gradually backed off, not once turning their back from the suited humanoid. But once they were of considerable distance, they turned tail and stumbled off, at their attempt at a run. The suited humanoid watched some more - slowly turning to their left to look at a manmade structure not that long from their current position. If they hadn’t chased the Puppet off, the Puppet would have surely headed there.
Don’t waste an opportunity, they decided, as they shuffled towards the quiet station. Their movements weren’t much better - but still seemed a bit more natural than the Puppet, albeit slow. Slow steps, not lifting their feet above the ground very much. It also could have been the suit, restricting their movements.

It did not take long for them to pass through the fence gates, which were wide open. They continued to walk, walk towards a large, ‘bunker door’. Or something akin to that sort. It was sealed tight - and yet the human attempted to open it, although not very successfully, given it was nearly impossible to open such a door from the outside (unless it wasn’t sealed properly; of which this door was). Still, they tried, lifting their gloved hands and attempting to pry the door open. It was as though knocking didn’t come to mind at all.

Unbeknownst to them, their presence was known, by the cameras sitting outside the facility. They hadn’t thought of that either, that there were cameras. And there was a camera sitting right outside of the door, catching their troubles with the door right then and there.

(Np! Ahh, I see)
(also you might find this amusing: last night, as I was about to go to sleep, I came to the realization that, knowing you, your character could be human, a strange alien, or a fifty foot tall monster, and that I had no clue which it was to be)

Romeo had been alone in this station for approximately a month, ever since Lindsey left. They had done his best not to get bored or lonely, knowing that isolation could quickly become extremely harmful to the human mind, especially when bored. Though, as the only one in the station, there turned out to be plenty to do. Running the farm for plants had proven quite easy, even though it hadn't been their division. He liked plants, after all, and so keeping them alive was easy. The water reclamation system had, so far, needed little to no upkeep, though they had set up a system to alert him right away if anything broke down or even went the slightest bit wrong. The lighting had been reduced, in most hallways, to emergency lighting only, dim lights that gave the whole place a rather spooky air. In the main control room, Ro had kept the lights on full, along with a few other areas, including the room he was sleeping in. Whenever he went near the main station door, he could swear he smelled something, but that was of course impossible; those doors were air-tight. They had to be. Before Lindsey left, they had set up a perimeter alarm to alert him if anyone came close. Or came back, though that had not seemed likely. Not anymore.

Much of the time, Ro would spend most of the day tending to the various systems that needed small upkeep; everything needed small repairs every now and then, and he knew enough about each system to be able to do minor repairs. Once he had finished all of that, he tended a small garden that they had started; mainly useful plants, though there were a few flowers. Once done with that, they would do some laps and exercise to keep in shape, before heading to the control room to keep an eye on the radio. While in the main control room, they usually listened to music or an audiobook, read, played solitaire, or played chess or checkers against a computer. Before bed, he would usually do a few more laps, and all the physical exertion of the day would usually be enough to send them to sleep rather quick, before they would wake up in the morning and do it all over again. It was monotonous, but busy enough that Ro didn't have too much time to dwell on what could have happened to the others, or why no help had come. It had been seven months, surely someone would have missed them? There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people on Selnu. Radio silence for even a day would have been highly unusual, and seven months? A few times, communications had come over the radio, but most of the time it was so choppy and distorted that he could make neither heads nor tails of it, though they always did their best to radio back.

Today, he was in the midst of tending to the garden when the perimeter alarm went off. He finished what he was doing and ran to the control room, pulling up the outer cameras. While the cameras did not catch the strange encounter between the suited human and the unsuited, they did see the person trying to open the perimeter door. His first instinct was to open the door and let them in, but he paused, finger hovering above the button that would open the door. Who was this person? Why weren't they following protocol, of ringing for someone to let them in? There was a button to call to the control room from outside, after all. So Ro cleared their throat and picked up the microphone, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked. He had never been trained for radio usage, nor for radio usage in a situation quite so strange, but they knew that the suited figure would be able to hear them, even if they weren't quite following proper protocol.

((I like how I’ve built up that sort of reputation with my characters))

Even if the suited human was most definitely stronger than average, they were not strong enough to pry open the door. The door was designed with a purpose; and it had done that purpose very well.
So when they heard the voice they paused, momentarily holding their hands near the metal, then slowly allowing them to drop to their sides. They looked around briefly, searching for the source - found none, then realized that the direction of the sound was right where they were standing. Or somewhere close to them.

They focused in on the wall and door, inspecting it. They hadn’t noticed the buttons earlier, perhaps due to how the helmet filtered their vision to be darker - although it was daytime, the constant clouds of Selnu provided little light and the building itself was quite dark. In a way, the buttons were camouflaged from their view.
But now they knew where they were.
They stood there for a good 30 seconds, staring at the button. What they were doing there was not clear - perhaps they were just in thought, thinking of what to do. It was sort of like that.

Name. What is your name?

After the 30 seconds passed, they raised one hand and lifted it to press the speaker button. They spoke - their voice distorted by the suit; which was expected, but it sounded natural enough. “Karel Dohnal. Please. It’s cold outside, let me in.” Somehow, they managed to give their voice an air of pleading to it - even if they hadn’t…

when was the last time I spoke?

Once they finished, the human- Dohnal drew his hand away from the speaker, and waited for a response.

(alright, thanks!)

Ro turned off the microphone, inputting the name into the database to see who this person was. They frowned faintly. Karel Dohnal had gone missing just a few days before this whole place shut down, where the hell had they been all this time? His brows knitted together. No way could this person have survived for seven months on the surface or even in the caves of Selnu. Sure, the air was better in the deep caves, but not that good. Plus, what about food, water? And where had this strange suit come from.

"Where have you been for the past few months?" he questioned into the microphone, watching the video through narrowed eyes. This Dohnal person was acting…quite strangely. Their behavior was highly abnormal, and the way they were pausing so much…it was odd. Perhaps they had suffered brain damage, somehow? But that still didn't explain the months they had been missing. Ro drummed his fingers, frowning as they considered things. They needed more information to make this decision, but they wondered where Dohnal would be forthcoming with any concrete answers.

“I fell.” His answer came almost right away, but then he realized he hadn’t pressed the speaker button. Again, he moved his hand forwards, and pressed the button, repeating himself.
“It’s a long story, but I fell. My oxygen lasted me long enough while I had been knocked out, and enough for me when I woke up. I was disoriented when I woke up, and if it hadn’t been for the person who came across me, I would have not have made it.”
Well. It wasn’t a complete lie, for Dohnal. It was a retelling of the truth - a slight adjustment of a character instead.

If we don’t get let in after this, I’ll just find another way in.

“Please. Just let me in. What reason do you not have to let me in?”