[OTA]

[icanhearscreams]

Stop talking stop talking stop talking stop talking it's like the screaming it's not real it can't be real it has to be fake. Just another hallucination.

Stop it, stop it, stop it! It's not real! It's not... just stop...

Comments

[icanhearscreams]

[He will totally fight back! ... Badly. But he will try.]

Who said that? What -

[ofinspiration]

[ Sigh. ]

You're thinking very loudly. We can all hear you.

[icanhearscreams]

I - oh. Wait.

Why?

[ofinspiration]

Because our hosts find it entertaining to subject us to everyone else's inane chatter day and night? I don't know, I've never asked them.

I suppose it does make finding each other on jaunts easier, but I'm not sure it's worth all this.

[icanhearscreams]

This is going to make it impossible to sleep...

[ofinspiration]

Oh, very probably.

[ She sounds almost cheerful about her. She hates the network and her inability to turn it of, but it's better if someone else is suffering with her. ]

[icanhearscreams]

Whatever has us as playthings can't be doing a very good job if they let their playthings get exhausted and stressed so they can't perform.

[ofinspiration]

I'm not sure all of them care if we're functional. Some of them pretend to, at least, but they're not terribly good at it.

[icanhearscreams]

Then they're stupid and don't know how to play a game properly.

[ofinspiration]

It doesn't seem to be ruining their fun much. But you're welcome to tell them they're doing it wrong.

[icanhearscreams]

I'd be happy to.

[ofinspiration]

Which one of them claimed you, by the way?

[icanhearscreams]

Mortimer? Something like that.

[ofinspiration]

...hah. Good luck, then.

[icanhearscreams]

That bad, huh?

[ofinspiration]

I wouldn't know personally - I haven't met him myself. But he's not terribly popular among Travelers. Responsible for one of the more unpleasant jaunts that we're aware of, or so the current speculation goes.

...but maybe that's just unreasonable prejudice. People hear a name like 'Death' or 'the Devil' and they expect the worst of you.

[icanhearscreams]

They probably do. But death's a natural part of the world, even when it happens in an unnatural way. They don't have to get all stupid about it.