Huh [video/action]

[part_time_overlord]

[Video of some guy wearing a T-shirt peering into a lens. He shrugs, then looks down like he was looking at a computer screen beneath a webcam.]

...huh.



[Yup, that's it. He's just reading old posts with the camera on. Maybe he forgot to turn it off.]

[Action]

At the downtown Locke City McDonald's, one of the cashiers had a slightly forced smile. No one would expect a fast food clerk to be legitimately excited all the time, but this smile seemed to be forced to cover nervousness, not boredom. He abruptly looked up past the latest customer to the street outside. A second or two AFTER he looked, a man and woman outside suddenly broke into some sort of lovers spat, arguing and shouting with wild gestures and both clearly very, very unhappy.

Comments

[Action]

[steinsgatehaschosen]

While the video prompt is happening, Chris is about ten feet away, on the couch, fiddling around on the internet. Then, suddenly:

"AHA!"

[part_time_overlord]

Sam almost actually falls over spinning around from his seated position.

"What the hell, Chris!"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

Chris flips is iPad around to face Sam, showing the same two-second video he just Networked.

"It's not use hiding it. You're one of the few chosen by Stein's Gate!"

[part_time_overlord]

"You still haven't clearly explained what Steins-"

And then suddenly he was on his feet pointing accusingly at Chris, "Why the hell am I on your tablet!?"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

Chris is on his feet as well, doing some kind of ridiculous mad scientist pose.

"Allow me to open my third eye and gaze into your immediate past! A mysterious sequence of numbers appeared in your head, accompanied by a inexplicable memory that doesn't match up with the life you know. Shortly afterwards, you entered that number into your computer, and that brings us to the present!"

[part_time_overlord]

"Wrong!"

Then he finished processing what was actually said, "Okay partly wrong. I didn't remember anything weird other than the number!"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"Interesting! Perhaps what you got was not a memory, but something far more sinister."

[part_time_overlord]

Spot on the money.

"Anyways I can't believe I'm asking this but do YOU know what all this stuff is on about?"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"The Chosen gain not only access to the network, but they also become some sort of conduit connected to a past life. There's an FAQ somewhere, but I lost the link."

[part_time_overlord]

Sam folded his arms. "I refuse to believe a mystical connection to past lives comes with an FAQ."

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"It's the twenty-first century! I bet the Astral Plane is HTML5-compliant by now."

[part_time_overlord]

"Okay fine. Assuming this isn't like your other stupid theories about the organization that you abandon ten minutes later, what would that even mean?"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"It could mean a wide variety of things. What is sure, whoever, is that you and I are among those chosen for a grand destiny."

[part_time_overlord]

"A college drop out and a mad scientist wannabe are gonna change the world?"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"The insane mad scientist Hououin Kyouma and his faithful assistant!"

[part_time_overlord]

Sam had long since given up on this particular argument. "Faithful assistant, sure whatever. So what is your brilliant invention for..."

He peered at some old post or another, "Dealing with...grues?"

[steinsgatehaschosen]

"Wouldn't a light bulb be sufficient for that particular opponent?"

[Video]

[destinedforrock]

[This fellow strikes Cinderella as a new face; she observes a while - even after the initial "huh" and turn of focus away from the camera - for an introduction, or showing-off of an Echo-granted gift, or some other such, but - for what is he connected?

Primly as possible:] Ah-hem.

[part_time_overlord]

Talking horse? This is a weird site.

[destinedforrock]

[Flick of the ear and lift of the brow - or something to that effect.] ...Quite, dear.

Seeing as I'm perfectly able to reach it without a computer.

[part_time_overlord]

Smartphone?

[destinedforrock]

[Pause.

Small side-to-side shake of her head.] N~no, dear - water trough.

Would you have happened to - well I don't know. Write down a number on a thing on top of that computer you're using? ...Tap it into a device?

[part_time_overlord]

Like all these other people did?

[He gestures to the posts he's reading through on the screen below.]

[destinedforrock]

[Voice flattens in a blink and a flick of her ears.] Y~yes, dear, precisely like all these other people did.

You do know you were broadcasting.

[part_time_overlord]

Alright.

[BRB scribbling number at the top of a pad of graph paper. The page that subsequently appears on the network shows an elaborate pencil map of a land that doesn't exist, complete with extensive notes referring to other pages detailing goblin fortresses, undead crypts, and the like. ]

[destinedforrock]

[She's possessed of little savvy on which to make anyone's likely most immediate guess as to just what this is. In light of how this's gone so far, however, she also can't decide whether to assume, now, this is going somewhere or whether it means absolutely nothing.

Voice still flat at the baseline. With an affected melody to it.]

Oh?

Now did this happen to come with your numbers...? The lay of some - strange, distant land?

[part_time_overlord]

Er, no. It's a map for the S&M campaign I've got in the works.

You can see the map now?

[destinedforrock]

[Well then - wonder resolved, it's a frivolous thing. Another idle ear-twitch.] Do you mean this map~?

Yes, I most certainly can, and I expect everybody else can, too! You did write down your number, darling; that's - the essential to how this all works~

[part_time_overlord]

[One moment, erasing number from map. This material is rated for Dungeon Master eyes only, after all.]

That's pretty weird. What's it all for?

Also why are you a talking horse?

[destinedforrock]

[Another effective brow-quirk as the map disappears.]

Well. If only we knew; if I'm not terribly mistaken every one of us just happened to find this network of communication of ours.

And... Do you mean to ask me why I'm talking, darling? ...Or why I happen to be a horse?

[part_time_overlord]

The latter. Horses don't normally talk, but I'm having a weird enough day that I'm willing to entertain new ideas.

Video

[playerspooker]

[Linda stares for a moment before propping her head in her hand and sighing.]

Hey dipstick, you left the recorder on.

[part_time_overlord]

Shouldn't matter as I didn't connect it to anything.

[playerspooker]

...you put the numbers in, didn't you? If you did, then you're connected.

Obviously you did, or I wouldn't be staring at you...

[part_time_overlord]

I am having the weirdest day.

[playerspooker]

[Linda squints at her phone for a moment. That face looks kinda familiar...]

Wait a minute - do I know you from somewhere?

[part_time_overlord]

Maybe?

[counter squinting.]

[playerspooker]

You wouldn't happen to know anything about a fellow called Trokk the Wrathful, would you? Pig-headed, ruins every well-laid plan his allies ever made and generally a big pain in the ass?

[part_time_overlord]

Oh! Hey Linda, didn't recognize you.

[playerspooker]

It has been a while, I suppose you get a pass for not remembering me right off. Ignoring I might've made a better impression on your memory if you hadn't screwed up all my grand plans...

[part_time_overlord]

Your grand plans were slowing the game down. And you have to admit the whole thing with the grand hierophant and the battering ram was pretty funny.