[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

[wantedittobeagame]

Urk...

[Adachi paused his writing, a weirded out look coming to his face.]

What, did you try to escape or something?

[protect_and_serve]

They don't tell us what they actually want. When we had no idea after six weeks, a large group... tried to force a confrontation. To quit.

Then they were gone, and we were back here.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

[in reply to this]

A face I recognize from home. But nobody from earlier on the journey. If we're lucky, next month we spend a long time fishing in dungeons. If not...

[He gives a wordless mental shrug.]

[wantedittobeagame]

[Note to self: Just go with it.]

Sometimes it's better to wait and see what your up against, than just going against it and hoping.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

...Then they're gone, just like that?

[There's something like a mental sigh.]

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

Maybe the ones that never come back get sent home, chere. For all we know. Maybe the Trumps just looking out for us all.

All the same, I won't be telling them I give up any time soon.

[protect_and_serve]

In more than a year, I've never seen them.

[rozpetac]

I'm not actually dreaming am I?

[ Unless his subconscious was a lot more messed up than he'd ever thought. But if he's not dreaming and these people can actually talk to him...then there's a lot he needs to know and with his luck, not a lot of time to learn it in.]

What do I need to know to survive? And what's a Jaunt?

[protect_and_serve]

This place might be a nightmare, but you're awake in it.

You've been taken from your world. From here, you'll be cast into other worlds with the rest of us. Each new trip, we call a Jaunt.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

Or they could be somewhere else, in some other in-between limbo. We simply don't know.

But I'm with you. I'm not giving the Trumps any more reason to oust me into the unknown. Not until we know all of the variables.

[unabatedly]

It's the typical first sign, I would say. It's just a word of caution, to be aware and be ready. But with how things have been-- Joscelin is right. Our typical patterns have been tossed aside.

[She sighs.]

But there's no reason to jump to conclusions. Just hold on and be strong. We should be moving on soon.

[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?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

Counting cards only works if you know what deck you're playing with. We never get all the variables. Not without taking a few risks.

[wantedittobeagame]

Well then, there's gotta be a way to draw 'em out, without getting poofed.

[A bit of a lopsided grin came to his face.]

Luck you got a detective here with you guys now.

[protect_and_serve]

Just what we need.

[wantedittobeagame]

[Adachi paused at that, letting out a nervous laugh.]

...w-was that sarcasm, or...?

[rozpetac]

Okay. Anything you can tell me would be helpful. I mean this's isn't a dream right? Or a mass hallucination? We all drank some sort of crazy koolaid?

[rozpetac]

Cast into other worlds? For what purpose?

[protect_and_serve]

You're not the only detective we had, or have.

[protect_and_serve]

A different purpose in every world. They want us to meddle for them. And they don't like telling us clearly what to do.

[detectivewonder]

No kool-aid.

Right now, you're in something called Liminal Space. It isn't real, it exists between universes, and basic principles of physics - gravity, conservation of mass and energy, object permanence - don't operate outside of will and expectation. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and the Observer Effect, dialed up to eleven.

[wantedittobeagame]

[He's pretty sure he hasn't had a detective quite like him, but he'll keep that to himself for now. Besides, other than what this guy's told him, he really has no idea what's going on, or who to trust for that matter.]

Man, you sure know how to take the wind out of a guy's sails.

[rozpetac]

So we're supposed to meddle and solve whatever they need or want us to solve but they're not going to tell us what that is? That's not even helpful. Are we just stuck there until we magically happen to solve whatever the hell it is? Do they pull us out if we never get close or if we're in danger?

What happens if someone kills us or tries to kill us on a Jaunt - do we wake up back here in whatever the hell this freaky fantasy mind palace is?

[wholeheaded]

That's... troubling. On the other hand, good to know this is an aberration.

[ a really troubling aberration. ]

[protect_and_serve]

Better than the other way around.

[It isn't quite possible to incoherently mumble a telepathic response, but he comes close. It has the sound of a remark that's rhetorical, aimed at himself and not at Adachi.]