002 - The phone. The phone is ringing.

[worstvikingever]

[Hiccup has found the phone.

He has no idea what it is of course, so he's basically playing around with it until YOUR PHONE RINGS or something idek and he ends up accidentally making a call.]

What... is this thing?

[The voice is slightly distant, as if he's holding the receiver away from him... which he is, actually. He's holding it up and looking at it.]

I can't even tell what it's made of.

[Other such comments persist. You might want to interrupt him before he breaks open the thing to figure out how it works.

Residents of his house can interrupt him with action, but all others are phone calls.]

Comments

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

I mean no one stays dead. Try it~. Commit suicide, you'll just wake up back in bed, same as you did when you first arrived. Once you get over your fear, it's quite the adrenaline rush~.

[worstvikingever]

[There's silence as he processes this.

Then he replies very evenly and very seriously.]

No thanks, I think I'll pass.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Suit yourself~. Just bear it in mind if you're about to be murdered--you'll come back the next day, so don't give in! [She giggles, sounding a bit unbalanced, but at least genuine.]

I've died over a hundred times here~.

[worstvikingever]

I... okay.

Good for you?

[Getting increasingly freaked out by this conversation.]

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Now then. People die over the holidays; that's common. You get used to it~.

Don't drink the milk.

Are you human?

[worstvikingever]

I uh... haven't been. It gets thrown out every morning.

And yeah, I'm human. Why, are you not?

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

I am. Not everyone else is. My Darling could break a human being in half with one hand~. But that saves me explaining something else. Or at least somewhat. Everyone has everything taken away from them when they get here. Including, non-humans have their non-human-ness taken from them, unless they're close enough to animals that the drones see them as pets.

Anything that makes you you is gone--scars, tattoos, old injuries, everything's been stripped in order to make you fit the setting they've imagined for us.

[worstvikingever]

...yeah, I got some of that first-hand.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Well, don't worry. You'll have everything restored to you...eventually. Generally after a holiday, you're rewarded for your continued participation in this town's sadistic little games with a treat from home.

Of course if you've an old injury, it may not be as much of a 'treat' as one would like~.

[worstvikingever]

...wait so they're just going to take my leg away again? Seriously?

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Eventually~. They took my knee. At least if you don't do something stupid, [There's an implied "like I did" hanging in her sentence there.] it should go back to how it was, rather than needing to heal.

When they took my knee, I was a bloody mess and nearly died~.

[worstvikingever]

[Silence again.]

Stupid like what.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

You can go to the town post office and request something from home; sentimental, an ability, anything at all, really, as long as it isn't other people. There's just a small 'fee'....they tend to take it in flesh~.

[worstvikingever]

[The following is my attempt at writing down the sound of disgust that Hiccup makes at this.]

Bleeeeeeeugh!

I'll uh... avoid that then.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Generally? That's my advice to people~.

Now, you've been here a bit...I trust you already know about drones and droning and who in this town to Not Bother...?

[worstvikingever]

People talked about the drones and stuff... but I didn't get much about specific people other than "the town is crazy."

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

The Milkman, the Mailman, the Smith family--especially Lucy Smith, the Mayor, and Officer Grady. You should, ah...give them the respect they deserve as important members of the town, mm?

Also, be careful what you say on the phones. They could be listening in at any point~.

[worstvikingever]

Oh.

Okay.

[He's trying to commit those names to memory.]

Milkman, Mailman, Smiths, Mayor, Grady.

And... they could be listening. Right.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Yes, some people put stock in filtering their calls, but...generally I don't bother~. I was on a filtered call when I was droned for saying subversive things. Better to say things face to face if it's important~.

[worstvikingever]

Okay. I'll remember that.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Mm, I think that might just be everything, really~.

[worstvikingever]

There's... a lot, isn't there. Thanks for explaining it. Uh... what's your name?

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

Of course~.

Elizabeθ Buckley. [That's pronounced Elizabetheta. It occurs to her to offer him her nickname, but...she decides against it. Time to get people into the habit of being proper; it wouldn't kill them.]

[worstvikingever]

Okay. Nice to meet you, Elizabetheta. I'm Hiccup.

Thanks for all the help.

[ergaleomancer.livejournal.com]

That's Miss Buckley to you, Hiccup. Charmed, I'm sure. [Not really.]