Rat | 001 | Video | Day 68

[bluesrat]

[It's pretty clear from the video that the device has been turned on by accident, since the first view is partly up someone's nose. It's not a small nose, but a squinting blue eye quickly replaces it as the central focus, before the video pulls out to show the whole, narrow, lined face. The owner of the face mutters, half to himself, but clearly audible over the sounds of the water on the shore nearby.]

Hunh. It didn't do that before.

[There's another startling moment of video while he taps the screen with one calloused finger.]

Calling Dick Tracy? I don't know where Cape Kore is or how I got here, but I'm pretty sure you don't want me. If anyone's listening, I'd be glad for directions to the train station, and I'll just be on my way.

Comments

[Video]

[tryingitall]

[A face pops up on the screen. It looks like a man in his late forties, with bright blue eyes and ash-blond curls. He also looks like he's trying not to laugh.]

...Dick Tracy? I don't think we have one of those here. I take it you're new?

Re: [Video]

[bluesrat]

[The man with the narrow face and beaky nose could be anywhere from a weathered early forties to fifties. To say he looks startled by another face coming onto the screen would be an understatement.]

Not just a radio wristwatch, then...

Wow.

Just off the factory line, sure. Have I been drafted into a super spy network or something?

[Video]

[tryingitall]

[Oh, the temptation to mess with this one's head is strong. But that's really more Gabriel's department and Balthazar hesitates to steal his big brother's schtick.]

No, it's more of a science experiment, actually. Or so I'm told. I have yet to see any scientists.

Re: [Video]

[bluesrat]

[His eyebrows rise, and he takes a moment to mull this over. He's fresh meat, all right.]

Well that's ominous. How did you hear it was a science experiment, then?

[Video]

[tryingitall]

[Balthazar would be more interested in fresh meat if he were still a Leviathan. The newcomer is in luck.]

From several people who were here before me. And of course, there are the cameras. Have you seen them yet?

Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

There's no train station, I'm afraid to say.

Re: Voice

[bluesrat]

A road out would do. I can walk.

Re: Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

There aren't exactly any roads out, either.

[A pause. How to say this in the most diplomatic and least alarming fashion...]

You -- well, all of us, actually -- have been kidnapped.

Re: Voice

[bluesrat]

[There's a pause on the other end, but the reply is calm, thoughtfully distracted.]

Somebody's not very selective.

[dowhatisays]

Watch it, pal. Any closer and we'd be countin' your nose hairs.

[bluesrat]

...Uhh. Sorry?

You know, I wasn't even really sure there'd be anybody on the other end.

[dowhatisays]

You ain't the only one. Welcome to the fucking future or some shit. So everyones here says.

[bluesrat]

How do you mean the future?

[blackmagus]

[She gives her own device, and this stranger, an amused smile. Her accent's British, on most other worlds aside from her own.]

I'm afraid that there's no one by that name here that I'm aware of. And there's worse news on the train station front.

[bluesrat]

[By the time she replies, he's gotten at least a little information from other people, so he just gives a little sigh over the idea that there's no train, bus, or anything else to take him out of this ghost town right now.

On the other hand, there's a lady with an interesting accent to talk to.]

It's... you've never heard of Dick Tracy? It was sort of a joke.

[blackmagus]

Ah. [She chuckles, but in a good-natured way. The perils of cracking jokes in other worlds!] I'm afraid not, love. Unless it can be found on the computer, I'm afraid to say my experiences are a bit narrow.

[bluesrat]

Uhh... [What does anything have to do with computers? Those are room-filling machines that run on punch cards. The stranger slides his cap off to scratch his head, showing off a receding hairline, then pulls it back on. Here is the expression of somebody who's utterly lost.]

It's a comic strip I used to read, when I was a kid. He was a detective with fancy futuristic gadgets, like a 2-way radio wristwatch.

[hung_garian]

Sorry to break it to you, pal, but there's no train station here. There is a ferry, though, leaves every couple hours from the docks. Next one oughtta be going in about, ooh, fifteen, twenty minutes. Only thing is, the guy's awful picky - some kind of OCD, I reckon. Only takes passengers if they're either shirtless or dressed as clowns.

[bluesrat]

...Yeah. The ferryman's not you, by any chance, is it?

[He gives a friendly smirk, but he's not buying it.]

[hung_garian]

Y'know, people make that mistake a lot, but no - he's my identical twin brother.

[bluesrat]

...Unhunh. Well, I'm afraid I'm fresh out of clown suits, and I don't have enough shirts to just be giving one up. But I'll keep it in min, thanks.

[He's amused, anyway.]

[burnburnburn]

Good luck with that. We don't know why any of us were chosen.

[bluesrat]

That's... reassuring in a way, I guess.

[burnburnburn]

Reassuring? We don't know why we're here, we don't know what our captors want and we've got know way of knowing if whatever we do brings us closer to freedom or more under their control.

[bluesrat]

Sure, but at least I'll be able to sleep at night knowing there's nothing I could have dine differently to prevent it.

I'm not saying I'm happy about this, just... appreciating a little solidarity?