After Alister finished his sentence, the thread that emanated from his fingertip vanished. The bright green of Alister's eyes flowed back in soon after.

"Ugh, god damnit. I lost it." Alister sighed, checking his hand from all angles. Tatsumi stayed silent as Alister continued to inspect his hands. He felt an overwhelming sense of dread as he looked at the threads flowing from his own hand. He also continued to think about his encounter in the alley-- Why would someone attack him out of the blue? And what did he mean when he mentioned a 'catalyst'? That single word echoed in Tatsumi's head.

Catalyst, Catalyst, Catalyst, Catalyst, Catalyst, Catalyst, Catalyst, Cata--

"Hey! Tatsumi! Do you want to find out what's going on here or not?" Alister's words quickly dispersed the repeating thought that lingered inside of Tatsumi. Alister managed to bring the thread back into his vision for a moment. It trailed out of the door and across the street, fading into the night.

"I-- yeah. I'm coming." Tatsumi responded, starting to walk out of the door behind Alister. The ashy-haired man stepped out into the street, finding himself on the corner of 16th and Trout. A payphone sat in front of the entrance to a bus depot. The depot itself looked new and clean, despite the lack of patrons. The payphone in front was quite run down. Cracks spidered along the glass box the handset and keypad sat in. The pole that the rest of the phone stood upon was also quite rusty. It had probably lost most of its galvanized layer to the elements.

Then the phone rang.

"Gah! What in the--" Alister said, jumping at the sudden sound. Tatsumi was unphased.

"Someone must have misdialed. Maybe you should answer it, tell them they have the wrong number." Tatsumi said, catching up to the now frozen Alister.

"Uh- yeah." Alister managed to respond readjusting the collar of his shirt and walking up to the phone. With a deliberate and forceful motion, Alister picked up the handset. And before he could say anything, music played. Starman.

"There's a Starman, waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us..." The phone sang, much clearer than the jukebox at the diner. Of course, the sound was tinny, and the backing track could hardly be made out, but it was there. Tatsumi tilted his head in confusion, looking at the utterly flummoxed Alister. He simply shifted his gaze over to the blonde in the bracelets, holding up the handset so he could hear.

"'Cause he knows it's all worthwhile, he told me..." The one on the other side of the call continued.

"Interesting." Was all that Tatsumi said in response. Alister crammed his head into the earpiece again.

"Who in the hell are you? Are you the one who started the jukebox at Tom's?" Alister interrogated over the phone, irritated. No response came, the song played on.

"Look out your window I can see his light, ight, ight..." The song said. Alister looked down at the hand holding the handset, pulling it away from his face. He saw the thread from his hand worming its way into the holes in the microphone. The strand looped out through the speaker and back into the microphone a few times. Alister's irises were milk white, and his head throbbed.

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