[Open Broadcast]

[protect_and_serve]

Who: Everyone on the telepathic network (which is everyone)
When: Just after the new arrivals show up.
What: Joscelin attempting to get things organized.

[There’s a lot of chatter going on, literally making it hard to hear yourself think, between veterans gossipping and speculating what the new wave of Travelers means, and accidental broadcasts by panicked new arrivals, until one hard-edged thought cuts through it all.]

Enough.

You all need to stop this before we drive ourselves insane.

Anyone with experience on the Network, I want a few organized broadcasts offering help and information to newcomers. We don’t call them Fools.

If you’re new, stay calm. No-one can overhear you unless you’re projecting. Try to divide yourselves as evenly as you can between the people giving you answers. That much is instinctive, you won’t have trouble as long as you can imagine it.

Anyone who’s been here longer and wants to speculate? Don’t do it publicly. Find your own little corners, or keep it off the network.

New telepaths. You’ll need to find someone more experienced more than anyone else does.

And everyone be ready for a new Jaunt.

Comments

[blackhand]

[That voice that called you a Fool? It's speaking again.]

Garrett. [There's a break here, as if he's debating whether to talk or not beyond just his name.] Unlike Joscelin, I'm not going to take you by the hand- you want to avoid the name? Get ready for the Jaunt, and learn as you go.

[No one said he was the epitome of charming.]

[unabatedly]

Your charm is absolutely delightful today.

[But they're all tired and barely surviving here. She can give him a pass for the moment.]

How many hours do you think we have until this all changes?

[blackhand]

[A scoff at that.]

We've been stuck here for three days. [He's more than tired, he's antsy. The Trumps haven't so much as given them a peep as to when or where they'll be leaving Liminal Space. It's enough to drive anyone nuts after a while.]

Who knows? Hard to tell time sometimes.

[unabatedly]

If they keep us here for much longer, we're going to die of dehydration. Especially with new people here.

[It sounds oddly cynical on her tongue, but she's not going to sugarcoat the situation.]

[blackhand]

Sounds like something the Trumps would pull.

[He didn't give up in Belljar- couldn't do it, refused to. It wasn't who he was, no matter the impossibilities.]

Maybe it's their way of punishment.

[unabatedly]

Punishment?

[Across Liminal Space, the sound is absolutely cutting, carried in a tone she hardly uses.]

They took them away from us. They took away our allies and they might have thrown them away. We didn't cause this.

[blackhand]

[Normally he'd keep himself level, despite the sharpness that Neria nearly slices through his mind. How it demands attention in every aspect.

In a way, it's like the arguments he used to have with Erin.

But Garrett is tired, cranky, and restless, and he really doesn't want to argue with her. His tone is rough around the edges as he forces himself not to lose patience despite being stuck here with absolutely nothing for this long.]

Not us, them. [A beat, and it's almost as if he's sat back in a resigned kind of way. They lost a lot of good people on the last Jaunt- it was a great loss for all of them, him included. He'll never admit it, but it had been painful, in a way, to return and notice almost everyone was gone.]

For all we know, it could be they thought we were better suited for the next Jaunt. Or that we needed a reminder that they're still watching.

[It's up in the air, and really, he doesn't want to talk about it.]

[unabatedly]

I am more inclined to believe the latter than anything else. Why would they waste such a precious resource by allowing us to slip between the cracks?

No matter how cruel or driven the Trumps are, they are not fools. They would not allow us to disappear simply to be retrieved in a dungeon.

[No, she imagined the Trumps to be more sinister than that, and certainly not worth her trust. Even if fate had brought them together, she refused to believe these people pulling the strings were anything close to benevolent.]

I imagine it was a reminder, if nothing else.

[blackhand]

Who knows? [It's a flat and dull retort, one that he really doesn't bother putting the snark into, because at the end of the day, no one really does know.]

They never did like showing their faces.

[To him, he remains on the fence about who the Trumps are. He's not one for politics, or doing the right or wrong thing. He's about challenging himself, and being the best there is. That view has taken a beating on both sides, but he's stubbornly stuck to it, because it's a reminder of home, and nothing else remains the same here.]

[moredakka]

That's not fair. How are we supposed to learn if we're not taught anything? Even soldiers don't just get thrown right into combat!

[You tell him, Sio. This girl has had rather enough of being thrown headfirst into crazy.]

[blackhand]

This isn't a war.

[He doesn't care if they protest, the Trumps pulled them here and now they have a job to do.]

Jaunts aren't like combat, either. We're here to either settle a problem in worlds or cause them in others. Most of them usually involve investigating.

[moredakka]

[Wait what. This isn't about shooting things?]

Umm. I think there's been some mistake then...

[blackhand]

It doesn't matter if it's a mistake. [Flatly.] You're here now, and you can't change that.

[moredakka]

But I don't know anything at all about investigating! Maybe I was supposed to be assigned to another department? There must've been a mixup...

[blackhand]

You'll learn as you go. [Gurl pls he's a thief, he's the worst kind of person to be an investigator.] Stick with someone who's familiar with a Jaunt, and that'll help.

[moredakka]

Are there people who are in charge of new recruits? Like, like drill sergeants? [She'd be a-okay with a drill sergeant right now.]

[blackhand]

...what? [Drill sergeant? What is a drill sergeant, he doesn't have them in his time and if he ran across one in his jaunts before Moebius, he sure doesn't remember it.]

[moredakka]

Well - you know - someone who makes sure we don't die and put us to do all the dirty work because we're rookies?

[blackhand]

If there's someone like that, they'll be assigned once the Jaunt starts. Usually newcomers are paired with veterans.