001: Audio | un: Graywords

[heartlessswordsman]

[Unlike everyone who isn't an asocial loner, Zelgadis prefers to keep his face off the network. He doesn't even really want to address the network at all, but he's kind of reached a point where keeping to himself isn't really working out. Sooo this is him stepping outside his comfort bubble, good for him.

Well, kind of stepping out of it. He just goes ahead and skips a proper introduction completely in order to get down to business.]

You'll have to forgive me if this seems like a stupid question, but the sort of technology that you have here doesn't exist where I'm from. To say that everything feels overwhelming is an understatement, but before I get too off track...

[There's a deep sigh, the sigh of a man who is just So Done with all the ridiculous curveballs that life keeps throwing at him.] This... microwave device, I believe is what it's called. It's not supposed to be smoking, right?

[Maybe he should have asked someone for technology tips before almost setting his hotel room on fire. Sorry about the smoke, hotel.]

Comments

[heartlessswordsman]

Then I suggest keeping water on hand at all times.

[Sounds like you have some bad luck with fire, bro. And microwaves.]

Sounds like that one's on your roommates for not telling you sooner. Or did they just assume that you knew what a microwave was?

[rediscovering]

I know how to deal with fire, I dont need water on hand!!! >:( I'm just saying, the nature of fire is wild for anyone even masters!

i didnt know it could catch fire..... and none of us know how to cook so..... our kitchen was kinda poorly utilized...... it was no one's fault.

[ no, it was your fault, zuko what ]

[heartlessswordsman]

You are really hung up on this fire thing.

[Just sayin.]

Judging by what you told me it kind of sounds like everybody was at least a little at fault.

[rediscovering]

yes, i am.

[ Yes, he is.
It's a tender topic right now. ]

thats honestly more accurate im just trying to be nice about it cuz i know theyre here in this world now too
but youre right technically it was everyones fault
one of them threw a bunch of flour on it

that did not help

[heartlessswordsman]

Fair enough.

[he figures there's a story there but he'll just let it slide for now]

I'm sorry they threw

flour

on a fire.

[rediscovering]

yeah...... they thought it could replace baking soda
or that it'd work like sand

i had gone to grab a wet blanket and when i came back it was worse, it spread, house was full of smoke. so we just. left.
it was
a bad night

then i woke up here immediately after...... :) also not great! :) :) :)

[ At least one of these friends taught him how to use sarcasm and not be such a stick in the mud, and another also taught him how to use emoticons, so they've helped him to that end. Look, he's masterful now. ]

[heartlessswordsman]

You just left.

I suppose that's one way to deal with a problem.

What are those odd symbols you keep sending me?

[rediscovering]

what should we have stayed?? we called the emergency services too ok!!
doesn't matter anymore anyway..... that world's gone now....



my friend told me the symbols are supposed to be like drawings of faces
>:(
:)
:(

my sister also taught me wink ;) but i never wink so i dont use it. those are the only ones I know......

[heartlessswordsman]

So hold it. Are our worlds gone now or are they just frozen in time? That was the story I heard, anyway.

I guess I can see how they look like faces.

[he's far too cool to use them himself but hey, he learned a thing]

[rediscovering]

isn't it both? we need to be here to save our worlds from disappearing?? that world wasn't my home. i was spirited away there too like i was here. but i'd never heard anything about other worlds being at risk for destruction, we were brought there to save their world....

yeah. there are more complex ones but i dont need those. its too much. one of my roommates could make a bear.....

[ Cuz he knows what just bears are now. Learning so much about the universe. ]

[heartlessswordsman]

Is it both? Good god, I don't usually have trouble keeping track of things, but everything here has been completely ridiculous so far.

I think I'll just stick to writing words. No need to overcomplicate things even more.

[rediscovering]

tell me about it
its a lot to take in at once
but yeah thats why we're here, that's what i was told.....

thats fair
i dont know why anyone would need a bear face anyway

[heartlessswordsman]

I'm not so sure I'm willing to believe a story as outlandish as the one they gave us. Do they just expect us to accept it and play along without asking questions?

I don't see a point to any of them personally, but maybe there's just more to it than I'm seeing.

[rediscovering]

based on my experience on the other planet? yeah. they do.
doesn't mean thats what we have to do though....

it's supposed to help be expressive and get your tone across in the text
my sister uses them to be sarcastic too like i did
it can be useful. i dont know how a bear is useful. but the other ones yeah theres more to it

my world has nothing like this technology so this is all new to me too

[heartlessswordsman]

What was this other world you were before here like? By the sounds of it, you're pretty experienced with this sort of nonsense.

I suppose I can see how some people would find use in them. Still strange to me, though.

[rediscovering]

i was there only six months
i knew people who'd been there over a year
even knew someone who'd been on another planet over a year, which sounded horrible, and then ended up on our planet for over a year... even ended up getting married to someone he met from another world...... he hasn't seen his home in years. and he's fine with it.
i cant comprehend that complacency still though


basically what we were told was the same
our destinies were frozen essentially. we were not missing from home. when we return, it will be at the last point we remembered, and we'd forget everything about that planet, less than a dream. no effects on our real lives. i had a friend who confirmed this because he went home and then returned to the planet, and remembered his life there before only once he got back to it, but remembered nothing while he was home. he was home for a long time, but only gone three days in that world. it was like that for everyone who came and left and still remembered like that. no one knew why it was always three days.
but all evidence pointed to that we would forget everything about that world upon going home
which may or may not be true i dont know because now i've left that world and i'm here, spirited away to somewhere else, i haven't gone home, i still remember it... and they say we'll forget this place too when we go back home... if we have a home to go back to.... but i'm new here, haven't heard much gossip yet, so can't say more than what they told me when i arrived

it was the opposite on that planet though. our worlds were all safe and intact. but their world was dying and needed our outside help to conjure magic they'd lost sort of.... like an energy force. thats why they brought people there. to save that world.

[heartlessswordsman]

Well I hate all of this.

[He read everything, comprehended what he could, and just decided 'nah'. Nah, this is all the worst shit and he's had enough of it.]

This honestly just raises more questions and I kind of wish I hadn't asked.

[rediscovering]

wow i didnt even mention the weird animal transformations or random curses or the fact that the world and its economy was powered by an energy created through physical touch so you had to touch each other to survive

i hated it

but i made good friends there
some of them are here
they remember too
well, most of them...

but otherwise i hated it

[heartlessswordsman]

That sounds like hell. That literally sounds like hell.

Hopefully finding people that didn't drive you insane made it at least somewhat tolerable.

[rediscovering]

oh it was
obviously for people in relationships it was easier
but for me it was hell
i was tired and sick feeling all the time cuz i didnt touch people enough and i worked in a restaurant to make money instead
it was exhausting
my sister and uncle arrived and it got better after that but even then that was really weird cuz we never touched like that at home
i dont do that typically
but i found people i got comfortable enough with... at least one.
my roommates drove me crazy sometimes but i liked them anyway
as long as i dont have to touch anyone here i'll feel a lot less crazy

[heartlessswordsman]

Avoiding physical contact made you ill? If it was me, I would have been dead within a week.

But no, I don't think that touching people is necessary to ensure our continued survival here.

[rediscovering]

you couldnt die
you'd be revived
cruel, right?

the energy force created from touching was also tied to our bodies... so i was tired and felt like shit half the time cuz i was touch starved i guess.... it got better once uncle came. and my sister. even if it's just holding hands or a pat on the back, any physical contact created energy. but the closer the touch and the closer you were to the person the more it created.... so thats why it was easier to just hang out with uncle all the time. we were already close. we didnt hug and stuff like that at home but.... it was kind of nice sometimes.
not enough to justify the rest of it though
if my girlfriend was there id probably have hated it less
but it was still a fucking stupid basis for an economy on top of all that
the energy we collected was our money too

this place seems better than that place so far
as long as i dont randomly turn into an animal or get paws or a tail or wings or anything then i can deal with normal magic and shit no problem

[heartlessswordsman]

Like I said, Hell.

Literally none of that makes sense. Every time you add some new piece of information, it sounds more and more ridiculous. You had to touch in order to create energy and money, and on top of that you were turning into animals?

[rediscovering]

yeah
there were three moons that controlled how we acted and felt and that gave us animal features sometimes. it didnt happen to me as often as others. once i got fully transformed into an animal though. couldnt talk but could still think like myself. that sucked.
you had no control over it yourself, it just happened until the moon phase was done in like a week


there were old cities that were uncovered
thats part of why they needed us there for our magic
the natives on that planet looked like weird animals too and couldnt use the energy we created, theyd lost that power after a disaster struck their world long ago, so as their civilization began to crumble without it, eventually they outsourced help, essentially


some ancient rulers came back a couple times.... there was a giant flood once..... a lot of crazy shit happened
i got trapped in a hug for hours with people like a magnet
i got trapped in a bubble under the ocean once that played the sounds of our most painful memories against our will
but both those were actually the start of my two best friendships there


i dont know, a lot of crazy shit happened
but in general, despite all this, it was peaceful
at least compared my life at home
there wasn't really any violence on that planet
no war

[heartlessswordsman]

Dare I ask what sort of animal you were turned into?

[LIKE HE'S CURIOUS but also he kind of just doesn't want to know. This shit is nutty.]

I mean peace sounds nice but it sounds like this place was essentially feeding off of you.