Week 1 [Day 1-Day 3]

[calloperators]

[After a long stressful day like this has been, maybe you want to curl up in bed and try to sleep this whole thing off, or maybe you stay up all night desperately trying to find a way out of this town. Whether it be asking the cops for help, trying to steal a car, or just simply trying to walk out of town, you will unfortunately find your attempts to escape fruitless.

Even with it being obvious something strange is going on, no one has shown their face yet to even hint that they're the ones behind it. And you have no idea if or when they will.

However, in the very least you have a whole town to explore, and at the start of each day, and the beginning of every night, no matter where you are, you'll suddenly hear a radio crackle to life. Whether this is comforting or unsettling? Well, that's up to you to decide.

Just have a good time and try not think about the letter you got earlier, okay?]

< LOCATIONS | REGAINS | TAKEN >

[ DAY 1 (SUNDAY) || NIGHT 1 (MONDAY) || DAY 2 (TUESDAY) || NIGHT 2 (WEDNESDAY) || DAY 3 (THURSDAY) ]
((OOC: Welcome to Week 1 of Hotline! As you can probably tell by the fact that Day 2 and beyond are frozen, we will have no grace week so we can get right into the murder!

And if you want to investigate the town, you just need to write INVESTIGATION in your header! Have fun ;) ))

Comments

[rangerslayer]

Huh... Well. Mine was... [ ...how does she explain a robot ] Okay, so mine was kind of a bird? But, made out of metal. I couldn't talk with it, either. But...something about it felt alive. Like it could understand me.

[ There's a sort of distant nostalgia in her voice. ]

That was a long time ago, though. Decades.

[iote]

...It sounds interesting. I've never heard of anything like that - we have wyverns and pegasi that aid us in battle, and there are other dragons that look like humans unless they choose to do otherwise, though those are more uncommon. That's the case with Medeus, Emperor of Dolhr.

We don't have any metal beings that have life in them, however. Is this one simply no longer your companion, then?

[For...whatever reason. He has the general decorum to not outright ask if the damn thing perished, but only barely; besides, there are many reasons one might have had a companion but not anymore, not all of them quite so macabre.]

[rangerslayer]

[ To give herself something to do, she retrieves one of the billiard cues and begins turning it over in her hands. It helps not to focus. ]

There were...circumstances. [ Easily turning the cue over and over, focusing on the way her hands move. ] My companion came with a set of abilities, but they were lost to me, so the companion was too. I have a different one now, but it was...well, I would say I received it under duress.

[ It's a bit of a vague description, but she's not quite sure how to explain Power Ranger abilities. ]

[iote]

...My sympathies, then.

[It's awkward and it's sort of stilted, the kind of thing that's offered because he knows it should be as opposed to him really understanding why, but at least Lena didn't train him to act like he was raised in hell.]

I'm not certain I understand how one could receive such a thing under duress.

[rangerslayer]

Well...

[ How to put this, without getting into...all of that. ]

...It was from a man I didn't care to work for, but I hadn't a choice in the matter.

[iote]

[...That seems to strike him a bit oddly, actually; he still isn't gentle when he replies, but...]

Anything said beyond that much can be considered "things you don't have to tell me" - I won't ask anything further.

[rangerslayer]

[ She spins the billiards cue again, from one hand to the next. ]

Even if you did, I wasn't planning on going into it. [ There's nothing harsh in her tone, just matter-of-fact. ] Only that that's in the past. It's not important, for the state of things here. ...But I appreciate that.

[iote]

Of course.

[...]

I may request a favor one day, should you be amenable to it.

[rangerslayer]

[ Oh? That's... ]

A favor? What kind?

[iote]

...I'm not familiar with several of the objects in my room. If I could have a basic explanation of some of their purposes, then that would be appreciated.

[rangerslayer]

...Oh. Oh, you... You're like Xander, of course.

[ Honestly, she should've seen this coming. ]

Where would you like to start? I'm guessing...the telephone? The thing that spoke to us when we first woke up here?

[iote]

[He hates that damn thing, it's probably obvious from his expression, but...]

That's probably what I understand least.

[rangerslayer]

Alright, so. It's a device you can use to communicate with someone else over long distances. There are numbers associated with each different telephone, and if you have another person's number, you can contact them.

Are you following?

[iote]

...Yes...

[It's said slowly, but it's clear he's at least keeping up and trying to make connections. It hasn't all clicked in yet but he's following.]

[rangerslayer]

So, when you heard a voice from there, it was someone contacting you. Another person, with their own telephone. It's a way to talk to someone without being in the same place...or without revealing your face.

[iote]

...As ominous though that may be, it seems like it would be convenient in most other circumstances.

[rangerslayer]

Oh, yeah, it's ridiculously helpful, outside of mysterious kidnappings. The ones in the motel don't seem to...reach anything outside this town, though. The pizza parlor and such are fine, but nothing else seemed to connect.

[iote]

I'll bear that in mind, then. That explanation is sufficient for now.

...The pizza parlor is another place that strikes me as strange, but it's more the concept as a whole than its function. It's the same with the dining hall here. It seems wasteful to constantly provide food that hasn't been requested.

[rangerslayer]

Really? They don't have restaurants where you're from? I mean...

[ She frowns. ]

I think I can understand from that perspective. But...the people running them don't think about it like that. They don't find it wasteful because they assume someone will eat it.

[iote]

[He tips his head a bit; trying to figure out how to express what he wants.]

It isn't a bad thing. It's a sign that the country prospers, which is never something to take up issue with.

It's strange to me, that's all.

[rangerslayer]

Why?

[ She taps the cue on one of the billiard tables, pushed aside. ]

What about it is strange?

[iote]

...When I was ten years old or so, there was a famine. It was devastating, affecting the entire continent. Archanea, one of the neighboring countries, seized what remained of our crops. Most of Macedon starved to death while we could do nothing. My family survived, but only barely so.

Things were never quite the same after that.

[rangerslayer]

[ ... ]

That man I didn't want to work for? He spread chaos, everywhere. Dismantled everything. If you stood against him, you stood against...well, the world. It meant, as a budding revolutionary, it was a little hard to find things like a regular supply of food...or a safe spot to lay your head.

I get it. Once your whole world's changed, the things you can reason, that you can rationalize...they aren't the same as they used to be. They're just...strange.

[iote]

I'm the only one in my family that fully remembers what it was like both before and after everything changed for us like that. I hope to keep it that way; such a thing cannot be permitted to happen again.

I have some understanding of the things you describe as well. Opposing a force like that. I'm not surprised that it's something you've done.

[...]

You didn't have to tell me about that.

[rangerslayer]

Neither did you. But, you did...and I didn't want to just tell you I understood blindly.