[Don't Touch That Dial] [network] [locked on principle]

[wheyoftheadept]

[nb: if you are not trapped in the hell town, you can't see this, per mods]

[Saturday's image, when you open the video feed, is faintly green-tinted. This lends a yellowy look to the bright-red stripes on her short-sleeved shirt. She's also wearing jeans overalls, with shorts that end above the knee. It looks like a ten year old's outfit - because it is]

Hi. Hello? Is anyone else out there? I'm with three of us - besides me there's Loken, Kerrigan, and, uh, Guts.

[The camera pans over to the meanst sonuvabitch-looking three-legged junkyard dog you ever saw. Its eyes are unnervingly human.]

Guts is. Not quite himself at the moment. He's still in there, just - did anything like this happen to anyone else? If there is anyone else? Something more then this place dressin' us up funny an' trynna make us read off a script.

And does anyone remember how we got here?

Comments

[Video]

[bringinghopewithme]

[he gives a small 'yeah that's me' groan in acknowledgement.]

Dan and I are holing up for safety in numbers. If anyone else got sent here without a happy family I'd suggest the same.

Two things: I'm pretty sure I found a request for help in the pharmacy. The pill bottles in the locked case spelled out "help me" if you read the first letters. The pharmacist didn't acknowledge it when I gave her the opening to talk it out, so it could be a coincidence but in this town I'm willing to run any coincidence down.

Second thing: has anyone in your household, ah - [he pauses, wondering how best to phrase it.] gone into character? I tried to leave town when I woke up here first, blacked out and blacked in pruning bushes at the school. And Dan's gone under and stopped answering to anything but his role here. I'm worried others might be doing the same.

Re: [Video]

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday sucks in an upset breath, exhales it hard]

Yeah. It tried to get me when I woke up. An' I got no way of knowin' if Guts is - cutting out. Loken's sort of real confused, but mostly himself, and Kerrigan's got her wits.

[No need to say that ain't good. She's sure he knows]

Re: [Video]

[bringinghopewithme]

[strewth, none of that is comforting.]

Right, stay together as much as possible, and look for more signs from the town. I'm sure someone was asking for our help. We might get more messages.

If it helps, if Guts is having a time anything like mine, he might be keeping his mind better than the rest of you. It keeps you real alert, being in the wrong body.

[the body dysphoria never really does let him relax.]

You should work out a check signal though.

Re: [Video]

[wheyoftheadept]

I think if me'n'Guts aren't together, and don't have a funny reason, this place might scream my brains to mush.

[For sale: one joke, very feeble]

How're you holding up? Aside from - Dan's situation. Gotta say it's really weird having your voice come out of the wrong face.

[bringinghopewithme]

It does that to you, too? Least it's not just me.

[Saturday's question just makes him cover his face with frustration, then recoil as his face and hands both feel so alien.] Humanity's not my very favorite thing in the world, turns out. I think I can snap Dan out of it but if I don't manage by tonight -

[if he doesn't manage by tonight, will he not manage at all? No, he's not going down that line of thought.]

You can imagine how weird it is to have the wrong face. And the wrong hands. What do humans need so many finger joints for?

[wheyoftheadept]

Tool use and construction, mostly. [A small grin] It probably feels like I do in this - blighted outfit.

[Where had blighted even come from, that's not a word she uses]

- an' I really could do without the creepy g-rated mind control, dagnabbit!