Action / Accidental Video

[just_displaced]

[There’s no way Ginsberg’s been looking at the communicator. No, it might as well not exist at all, although it is recording, although he's unaware of it. Instead, he’s sitting on the edge of the fountain, soaking wet, talking to… whoever happens to wander by -- and, apparently, to the network, as well.]

Where am I? Is this some kind of drug induced hallucination? Because let me tell you right now, I don’t do that kind of thing. If someone snuck something into my coffee, I’m gonna be mad. I keep telling everyone, that stuff makes me paranoid. And now something’s making me hallucinate a whole city.

[He scrubs a hand across his face, shaking the water out of his hair as he does so.]

I have work to do. This account, this Manischewitz account, I have to get to the meeting.

[A slight grumble, and then…]

Not that I want to go, anyway. If someone could point me back to Madison Avenue, though, that’d be great. Really great. In fact, look, I’ll buy you lunch or something if you can get me out of here. Just get me out of here.

[He puts his head in his hands.]

I don’t know what the hell’s going on...

Comments

video;

[candothat]

This is the City, and you are going to miss your meeting.

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

What the...

[He startles visibly before he realizes that the voice is coming from the communicator device next to him. Picking it up, he stares at it, frowning.]

Okay. This isn't... Are you real? I mean, you're talking to me, so I can probably assume that you're at least somewhat real. Unless this is an extremely complex hallucination. I've never heard of anyone getting quite this bad, but there's a first time for everything, right?

[A deep breath, and then more of the same too-quick speech.]

Can I just point out that if this is real, and if you're real, then the name "the City" is extremely unoriginal? I don't mean to criticize the name of something that may or may not be a delusion, but that's just lazy.

[And finally, after a moment of thought...]

And I really need to get to that meeting. I mean, I get why you're saying I can't, because this doesn't look like New York and I'm not sure how to get out. I get that. Kind of. I just don't get it, you know? Fully, I mean.

video;

[candothat]

[Chekov doesn't even know where to start. This guy needs to calm down.]

I am real, yes, and the City is not a delusion--or, if it is, it is a shared delusion.

Have you had this place explained to you?

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

Nobody's explained anything to me. I guess they were avoiding the ranting guy who just climbed out of the fountain. I can't blame them. I would too.

[He wipes another rivulet of water off his face.]

Does that mean you're going to explain it?

video;

[candothat]

Ah--a moment. I will send you a brief explanatory document.

[city_information.txt]

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

[Give him a moment to just... read this over. And then stare in disbelief.]

So we're... basically in a science fiction novel? There's a part of me that wants to find this really fascinating, but I'm not sure that part is winning out, at the moment.

video;

[candothat]

Science fiction novel? Why do you say that?

[Everything in that document is scientific observation and speculation, not fiction, plzkthx.]

You don't need to believe me.

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

Because it just doesn't sound possible. I mean, it's the kind of stuff I want to believe, don't get me wrong, but...

[He shakes his head.]

Okay, first of all, the twenty-first century?

[deadmanbusiness]

I wouldn't worry about the meeting.

[just_displaced]

Yeah, I know, someone told me that. I just...

[He wipes the sleeve of his awful mustard colored sweater over his face.]

That's hard to believe. Alternate dimensions? Time travel? It sounds like bad science fiction.

[deadmanbusiness]

It depends on who you talk to.

[An undead rat crawls up on his shoulder.]

[just_displaced]

I... okay, no, that's not...

[Deep breaths, Ginsberg, deep breaths.]

Call me crazy, because I'm pretty sure if I'm not already I'm going to be soon enough, but is that rat... uh...

[deadmanbusiness]

[Theo blinks and turns his head to the rat, he's forgotten it's there.]

That's jasper. And yes, it's a zombie.

[just_displaced]

This... really isn't happening. I know the other guy said it wasn't a hallucination, and you all seem very real, but I'm going to wake up from this any second now, and find out that Stan put acid in my coffee or something, because zombies aren't real.

[deadmanbusiness]

You know. There are so many people who have told me that and yet... there they are.

[just_displaced]

I know, and yet here I am, soaking wet and completely miserable, and you've got undead rats, and...

[A long sigh.]

I think I'm going to throw up. Or faint. Or both.

video;

[makingastatement]

That's the popular request around here.

[ Everyone's got an agenda back home, buddy. Meetings and such. ]

Might take days, months, years. [ A small shrug. ] Make yourself comfortable.

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

People keep saying that, but what no one's saying is how to get comfortable. Because it's not exactly a comfortable situation.

video;

[mapmaker]

You're not mad.

[ Remus offers up a smile, a soft, patient one. ] Nobody knows all the answers straight away. But you're in a place called the City? I don't think you can get back to your home that easily.

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

I'm starting to realize that. I'm not entirely convinced that we're not all crazy, though. That this isn't one big mass delusion. I mean, that seems easier to believe, somehow, than the idea that we're all... in a different dimension. As interesting as that is, as much as it sounds like a science fiction book, it's...

[A long sigh.]

Someone told me it was 2013. The last I checked, it was 1968. It's a disconcerting thought.

video;

[mapmaker]

It was 1975 for me.

[ But he makes a noise and tries again. ] I don't think we're stuck in a book. At least I hope not. No, I've chosen to just believe what everyone is saying, it explains it? Easier than panicking.

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

I don't think we're stuck in a book, either. At least, I'm pretty sure we're not. I think we'd know if we were fictional. But then again, I guess if we were, we wouldn't be aware of it.

[He rubs a hand across his face, although he's already dried it off from his inadvertent dip in the fountain.]

A lot of things are easier than panicking. I'm trying not to panic. I'll start by believing what everyone's saying. Okay. Alternate dimension. Time travel. Magic.

video;

[mapmaker]

I think it would be rather nice to be in a book. [ ... Remus. ]

You've met someone who's magic?

Re: video;

[just_displaced]

It depends on the book. I mean, what if you were in some kind of horror novel, and everything was constantly dangerous and surreal. Come to think of it...

[He looks around pointedly.]

This place kinda feels like a horror novel. And yeah, I guess I've met someone who's magic. I mean, he says he's a necromancer. I think that counts as magic, generally. Although I'm not actually sure, because I've never met anyone else with that particular talent.

video;

[mapmaker]

A necromancer?

[ >That's ... troubling. Dark magic is on the rise in Britain and he hears enough about it to be wary. ] I haven't either. But there are people in this city who do things even I've never heard of.