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

[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.

[iote]

Just remember that nothing I tell you hurts me anymore.

[The implication, at least, is clear; there's no sense in telling him anything that still affects you, unless you're certain you want to.]

[rangerslayer]

I know.

[ She's certain. In this one, at least.

Again, she taps on the billiard's table. ]

...Do you have this, where you're from? It's a game...but I always found it a nice way to practice trajectory.

[iote]

...We don't have anything like this. Show it to me.

[rangerslayer]

[ She gathers the pool balls in the center, gesturing him over. ]

It's called billiards. There's lots of different ways to play...but this is the most popular. You take the cue ball [ she picks it up ], and you shoot it at the others.

[ She demonstrates. The pyramid breaks, the object balls bouncing about the table. She sinks two--one solid, one stripe. ]

Now... There are all kinds of fancy rules, but the simplest incarnation? One person is trying to put the solid balls into the pockets. One person is trying to put the striped balls into the pockets. Try not to pocket any of the other player's. When all of one player's balls are pocketed, you say what pocket you want to sink the one black ball - the 8-ball - into. If you call correctly, you win.

[iote]

[That seems simple enough - it makes sense, it's good.]

Seems a bit of a dangerous game to play against an archer.

[rangerslayer]

Only if you're afraid of a challenge.

[iote]

[That...actually gets him to laugh a bit? It's brief and sort of subdued but it happens, anyway.]

Such goading doesn't tend to work on me, you know. But I'll indulge you and play for a while.

[rangerslayer]

Solids or stripes, whichever you want. If you can't hit the cushion, sink a ball, or if you sink one of the opponents ball's, then it's my turn.

[ She considers this a victory. ]

So, not the competitive type, then?

[iote]

Solids, then.

[He'll pace the table a bit, looking to line something up.]

And I certainly can be. I'm just not usually so over games or daily matters. I save it for the battlefield.

[rangerslayer]

I tend to even it out. Wouldn't want a burst of competitive spirit, when I've something else to concentrate on.

[ A moment, as she studies the table herself. ]

Also, I tend to gravitate to like-minded people. It keeps things interesting.

[iote]

[When he finally takes a shot, it's...surprisingly not bad? He obviously hasn't done this before, but he's got a decent sense of trajectory and he's used to smacking things with the business end of long objects, so he's not practiced but he's not hopeless either.

Also this is going to be the most handwaved billiards game because while his sense of spatial awareness is good, mine is not. Look at all this quality rp.]

I haven't really had anyone that I've spent time with on a casual basis. Only one in recent memory, and that was less because I was friends with him and more because I respected his strength as a knight and leader.