[Phone/Fax Machine]-Early Morning

[shendude]

[Being an old man, of course Shen Fujin owns a fax machine. But being an old man who at least tries to keep up with the times, it is a fax machine, phone and answering machine combo. It would probably be state of the art back if anyone but old people used faxes. Heck, it even prints in colour.

Trying to get the thing to stop printing sheets of pink is the trouble. In frustration, he eventually yells into the phone section.]

Stop wasting all of my ink, damn you!

Comments

[shendude]

...Radios are not fax machines.

[Sounds obvious, but it's said very flatly.]

[comparative_insanity]

[...okay, what. His TV so didn't just answer what he said.]

They ain't TV's either, and that's what this here is. A TV. [A pause.] Okay, has this thing actually like... connected to the phone network or something? Is that how fax machines work?

[shendude]

[Wait. TVs, phones and fax machines, all together?]

...I do not know. I am not a technician.

[comparative_insanity]

Sugar, neither am I. All I know is suddenly I remembered this number and I used it on the TV, and now I'm talking to someone's fax machine? It ain't making a whole lot of sense to me neither.

[He's sitting on the floor in front of the TV now, trying to tell himself that he's not, in fact, going mad.]

[shendude]

[There's a deep, deep breath and long, long sigh as Shen Fujin tries to make sense of all this.]

...This number you mentioned... Where did you get it?

[comparative_insanity]

[There's a thoughtful pause as Fay tries to remember, but then makes a perplexed little noise.]

You know, I haven't a clue. It just sort of turned up in my head, you know? One moment my friend was teaching me how to make chocolate whatsits, and the next I just... remembered the numbers. That, and I suddenly knew how to make those chocolate things already. Isn't that weird?

...I just asked my TV if it thinks something is weird. Wow. [Maybe he should've gone easy on the nose candy that weekend.]

[shendude]

Hmmm...Something similar to me... And you say you learnt how to make...chocolate?

[Because he got flying.]

[comparative_insanity]

Uh~huh. They're called something... Oh! Chocolate fondants. They're real nice, and pretty hard to make my friend says. And usually I'm the type to burn boiling water, you know?

But this is so trippy. You mean you also got this weird number thing and you used it on your fax, and now we can talk to each other? [A beat.] Oh, did you learn something too?

[shendude]

I learnt that people really will believe anything they hear on the television.

[It's a bit flippant, but he's a little paranoid.]

[comparative_insanity]

[That just gets a soft laugh.]

Honey, I'm talking to someone through my TV, let me tell you that I ain't sure what to believe.

[shendude]

I believe something strange is afoot, young man. And it implies something deeper awaiting discovery.

[comparative_insanity]

...a foot? [Sorry, that is not part of his dictionary.] But yeah, I think there's like... more to be learned about this too. I mean, there's got to be at least an explanation, right?

[shendude]

I am beginning to think that if there is, it is not going to be anything I can guess.