[Phone, semi-accidental... god help him]

[salvagedlight]

[He's been resisting it for awhile, now. But that string of numbers just won't leave him alone, and it's getting to the point where even his dreams have gotten infected with it. So, finally one night, walking back to the closet of an apartment he's sharing with his brother, Ben juggles the phone out of his pocket without dropping his bag or his coffee and slowly punches it in, with a hesitation between each number.]

[Random passerby can be forgiven for turning to look at him as he yells in surprise as his phone screen is suddenly flooded with text, both hand-written and typed, as well as a myriad of voices coming out of the speaker only for him. The poor coffee goes flying and the poor phone is dropped as well - at least it drops on grass so it doesn't break?]

What's going on here?

Comments

[ Web Cam Video ]

[notquiteanobody]

[ Wait a second. At first he wasn't sure, but no. He was pretty sure he recognized that voice. And hey, if his guess was right here, then that was going to make both their lives a lot easier now. Of course, he does get annoyed when he finds that sending a video feed from his end doesn't start a video feed from the other.

If he's right, he'd want to see his brother's face. ]

Oi, Ben! That you on the other end there?

[Stickin' to phone here, sorry bro]

[salvagedlight]

[Well you should know that voice, Ciel, seeing as it's yours. Kinda.]

[And he's definitely right - and he can probably imagine the smacked-with-a-board look on Ben's face right now.]

C-Ciel?

[ Switching to Audio ]

[notquiteanobody]

Ben! Ha! I knew I recognized that voice!

Aww man, this is great!

At the risk of sounding like more of a jerk than normal; welcome to the secret number club.

[salvagedlight]

[Yeah, you hear that? That is a frustrated sigh there, the one you bring out all too often, as he carefully bends down to pick up his phone.]

You always sound like more of a jerk than normal. And why didn't you tell me you had this going on?

voice

[darkremnant]

It's called a phone. You dial numbers and speak into them. Not that hard of a concept.

[notquiteanobody]

[ It's cool. He's used to that kind of sigh by now bro. On a positive? Well, actually he's feeling pretty positive now, so that's a positive. It's always a positive. ]

If I always sound like more of a jerk than normal, then where's my normal jerk-ish level? I figure I've got some consistency I've gotta keep.

As for why I didn't tell you? Come on, really. With how crap usually goes between us, you'd probably blow me off and say that I've got my head stuck down the rabbit hole again. But now either you're nuts too or you, me and everyone else on this network are the only sane ones in the world.

audio

[sweetas]

Um--it's okay...I know it's strange. Basically, you've accessed some kind of...secret network? I'm still new to this myself. Only a few of us can reach it, though.

[ text ]

[fatherssins]

You contacted the number network, it's nothing to be scared of.

handwritten;

[memoryreprieved]

[ Huh.. That voice. It sounds awfully familiar... If only she could pinpoint...--

Hey, isn't that...? Is he... talking to hims-- no? That's two voices.

Uh... ]

You wouldn't happen to have been in the competition a few weeks back would you? [ Shion, be more specific. ]

text

[angelskills]

Welcome to the network!! It's um, kind of like a club, I guess!

[salvagedlight]

Your normal jerk level is like... the guy who cuts you off on the highway going twenty miles faster than you. You're up to forty miles faster now.

[Oh brothers. They can always find something to gripe about.]

Well this kind of thing is just... weird! People aren't supposed to have numbers stamped on their brains and have electronic devices do things they were never designed to do!

[salvagedlight]

I know it's a phone, but all the other stuff on here isn't very "phone," you know?

[salvagedlight]

But... why would we need a secret network?

[You can just hear in his tone the "it doesn't make sense" uncertainty.]

[salvagedlight]

Competi- what? [The question blindsides him, honestly; he was there, but he was just one more face in the stands.]

[salvagedlight]

This is a really weird club, then... [He's soooo unsure about all of this, seriously.]

[salvagedlight]

I'm not scared, this is just... really weird, okay?

[He seriously just Does Not Get It yet.]

[memoryreprieved]

Competition. The skateboard one? [ Maybe she's getting ahead of herself, but she could have sworn... ]

[angelskills]

Haha, that's for sure! But we're all pretty nice.

[salvagedlight]

Uhh- I wasn't in it, but I was there, yeah. [He'd always be there to support his bro.]

[salvagedlight]

Really? That doesn't seem statistically possible. [Considering there's a few bad apples in every bunch and all. But this one sounds nice.]

[memoryreprieved]

Oh. I guess I have you mistaken for someone else? [ She could sworn she still heard some earlier squabbling... ]

[angelskills]

I haven't met an unkind person yet!

[ Though this is because Colette sees good in everyone, not actual representation of the group oops... ]

We're all willing to help and do our part.

[sweetas]

I really don't know. I know that there's some kind of...gosh, I don't know, it sounds really stupid to call it an "evil force" but I know so little about what they are or what they're doing, I just know they probably want to kill us? And, I guess the network helps us coordinate and hide. We're supposed to...do something, but no one's sure what, as far as I can tell.

[salvagedlight]

Maybe my brother? Ciel competes in those tournaments, I kind of...

[There's a small pause as he glances down at his right leg.]

...can't.

[salvagedlight]

[Yeah, he's guessing that might be the case. Not that that's a bad thing, really, but it can leave you open to being used by bad people... Hopefully she's smart enough to recognize that if it happens.]

That sounds good.

So, umm - what's your name?