[ σиє ]

[unflagging]

[Voice Post;]
Hel--

[Can you get feedback on the Network? Yes? No? Well, there's a burst of static anyway. I mean, there's a reason he has been known to keep mostly away from PA systems and microphones.

The screeching static clears.

A cheery-sounding voice emerges--cheery, friendly, jovial, maybe even disarming. Friendly, friendly guy here. Clearly.]

Wow, wonder what that was.

[No, he doesn't wonder at all. Not that anyone else needs to know.]

Hello? Hello? Okay, okay. Sounds all right to me.

Snappy little phone here, I gotta say. I kinda like it. Top of the line, right?

Hey, but, I think I saw someone with one of those headsets in earlier too. There was a time when those things were quite the rage. I do recall it. You know, they called them "Jawbones" at the time.

[And he laughs, bright and dark at once, but he won't say what's so damn funny. Jawbones, though. It's funny. If you have to ask, you'll never know.]

Anyway, everyone--well, everyone who thought it was...cool, or who wanted to prove a thing or two about their money and their importance and ended up proving quite the opposite--wandered around with these things plugged in their ears looking a little like, well, like robots [more brightly dark laughter] and like they were shouting at thin air or phantom hallucinations like some kind of deranged madman when they were really just calling out long distance out over the airwaves. And nobody could tell the difference between galloping insanity and telephone calls. But how much difference is there, really?

That was the Zeitgeist then: everyone was always talking to someone who wasn't there.

[The slightest of intentional pauses. Can you feel him grinning on the other end?]

Are you out there?

Hi!
[//voice post ends]

[ooc: Oh snap! A godmod-h4x trans-dimensional inter-temporal semi-immortal wizard troll asshole all up in your City! A few notes: permissions post is here, first of all, for all permission, question, and 4th-wally (likely him 4th-walling your character, if you want that) needs. And second, he is at present operating under a new face and an assumed identity, as is common with him (hence the PB and stuff), so expect fakery and fake names for a while!]

Comments

voice;

[maoser]

[Mao doesn't generally engage with people on the network. He is an observer -- it's Hei's job to actually talk to people.

But he's bored, and this character sets off alarm bells. It might be worthwhile to get a better read on him.]

Hello.

voice;

[unflagging]

Hi! Who is this?

voice;

[maoser]

A fellow inmate.


You seem to be taking this quite well.

voice;

[unflagging]

What else am I gonna do about being here? I mean, really.

voice;

[maoser]

Very few people have that kind of perspective.

Have the City's do-gooders explained your situation?

voice;

[theassassin]

Would an answer put you at ease? Or would the act of answering simply make it more difficult to decide if you're talking to someone who might not actually be there?

voice;

[unflagging]

Well, you sure sound like you're there. I'm going to go with "actually there" this time.

Hi. How're you?

voice;

[theassassin]

Yes, I am. Though, I'm here and not there, because were I there we wouldn't be having a conversation about the actuality of my existence.

I'm well enough.

voice;

[unflagging]

Well played, madam. Well played, indeed.

Although if you were here, we could debate about whether you were your own being or my hallucination. As it is, if you are a hallucination, you are, for the moment, strictly auditory. Which is fine too.

The thing about hallucination is that they are quite real, even if they aren't, well, actual.

You're certainly real. And I'm not exactly prone to hallucinations. I don't think I am, at least.

[And laughter...]

And I'm glad to hear you are.

[anunluckypenny]

[Wow. This guy is coping really well.]

Hey there. Are you doing okay?

[unflagging]

So far so good. How're you?

[Because getting kicked into other worlds unexpectedly where he comes from is called "Tuesday."]

[anunluckypenny]

Good! I'm... good. And Penny--which is my name, not how I am.

[Sir, your exuberance is puzzling.]

[unflagging]

[Be afraid. Be very afraid.]

Good to meet you, Penny. Rory Fletcher.

[deadmanbusiness]

My father used to say something similar to that when the headsets came out. People used to lock up those who talked out in the air and now it shows how much money you have.

Hi.

[unflagging]

See? I knew someone would understand.

Hiya.

[deadmanbusiness]

Though now it seems more like how many gadgets you have walking around.

Welcome to the city.

[unflagging]

Isn't that the way of it? Simplify, simplify, simplify, but only by way of greater complexity. Complicate, complicate, complicate, but only in the guise of simplicity.

Thanks. What do you do for fun around here?

[indecent_butterfly]

Some believe that even the insane are talking to someone in their ramblings. Because you do not hear the reply does not mean there isn't one. Just as their hearing a reply doesn't mean there is one.

[unflagging]

Well, it's like I said to someone else: the fact that a hallucination can't be seen by someone else doesn't make that hallucination any less real.

Or, in regards to your latter point, it's making something out of nothing, or making nothing out of something, or making nothing out of nothing.

To be contrary a moment: silence is a reply, you know.

[A period of silence is kept.]

[indecent_butterfly]

Silence being golden? Or perhaps just a sign the one speaking isn't worth a reply.

But knowing those here, there have been plenty of replies.

[unflagging]

Yeah, one or two--friendly, helpful city we've got here.

permavideo;

[hexappeal]

Hello!

Interesting story.

permavideo;

[unflagging]

[Video too? Snappy little contraption, isn't it?]

I know, isn't it? And it's all true.

[hexappeal]

[Well, yeah. Gotta show how how hot she is on occasion! Although she usually only does it so she can gesture a lot. She talks with her hands more than her voice.]

An interesting place you must come from, then.

[unflagging]

[Congrats, then: you get to look on a handsome face with a very large grin on it.]

You think so? It's just where I come from to me.