[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

[moredakka]

So you can't hear everything I'm thinking?

[Oh heavens what a relief. She's thinking some really lame things. Like still got my phone YES and at least I'm not naked.]

[protect_and_serve]

No. There's a trick to it. If you imagine yourself being heard as you think, we hear. There are accidents, but you learn quickly.

[moredakka]

Soooo... one two three, testing. [There's a brief pause as she tests just thinking at herself. It works up until she thinks about mentally sticking her tongue out at the guy who called her a fool, and wonders if he'll pick that up if she just imagined it to herself, at which point she loses it and imagines it out loud. Because Sio.]

PFFFBBTT - oh! Sorry! I'm sorry!!

[protect_and_serve]

[Her only response will be surprised and genuine laughter.]

[moredakka]

[And that completely blows her tiny mind. Is this guy being nice to her? People don't just do that.]

I'll try harder from now on, I promise!

[protect_and_serve]

It's happened to us all. Be thankful it wasn't more embarrassing.

[moredakka]

Oh yeah. I really am. [She knows herself after all.]

Uh, was it just you or could everybody hear that just now including that guy...

[protect_and_serve]

Who did you imagine hearing it?

[moredakka]

Well, you're the one I'm talking to but I guess I was answering him so also him...

Crap.

[protect_and_serve]

It's probably good for him.

[moredakka]

Isn't he going to be angry?

[protect_and_serve]

Still good for him.

[moredakka]

Why does he have to be like that anyway! We only just got here. It makes sense that we don't know anything!

[protect_and_serve]

'Fool' is what some people call anyone who hasn't completed their first Jaunt. It's the first card in a fortune-teller's deck.

[moredakka]

So it's some sort of rank? Like 'cadet'?

[protect_and_serve]

To someone like him, yes. I'd rather not start by insulting people I have to work with.

[moredakka]

Cadet sounds much nicer than Fool...

Though if he's a superior officer I guess he can just call us whatever he wants.

[protect_and_serve]

We're not military, we don't keep ranks. Lucky for him, or I'd outrank him.

[moredakka]

But someone is in charge, right? I mean someone's got to be.

[protect_and_serve]

No. No-one gives us orders. There's one rule - Travelers don't turn on each other. I enforce that. But I'm not in command.

[moredakka]

Uh, but aren't we supposed to do missions? Someone's told me that we investigate things. So we can't just do whatever we feel like.

[protect_and_serve]

We cooperate. Mostly. There are... factions.

[moredakka]

[Oh shit. Politics. She is really bad at politics.]

... that doesn't sound very effective.

[protect_and_serve]

Then I'm describing it well.

[moredakka]

What about the people who recruited us? Don't they care that things don't get done?