[phone calls OTA] Technical Difficulties

[st_abby]

He'd passed by the alien, gleaming thing in his room a hundred times by now, or nearly must've done, and hardly stopped to examine it. It was strange, but so were most other things in this place. A shiny, awkward looking device attached to the wall by means of a long cable, set on one of the little tables that seemed to litter these rooms. It had neat rows of square buttons with numbers etched on, and a handle, so Vax'ildan had supposed it was meant to work some feature of the room in a way he could scarcely imagine. He didn't want to break it, but eventually the boredom and curiosity got the better of him, much like with the door locks. It would probably fix itself, if it came to that.

After the first few moments spent listening to the monotonous warble that came from the handle, Vax'ildan reached to jab a finger into a button. When it beeped but did no more, he pushed another. And a third...

OOC Note: If you would like a thread with Vax, please leave a top-level comment to this post and he will reply! No need to pre-arrange, but as one does when learning new technology, he may disconnect the call etc. accidentally or your character may tell him to leave them alone in very few words if they so choose - most of these threads are likely to be short.

Comments

[st_reetwolf]

"I don't believe I have." No, the name was unfamiliar, and no one she'd met yet had a 'litany' of names. "Is he a vampire? A few of them have names that take up entire pages."

[st_abby]

Vax was glad she couldn't see the twist of his expression, as he thought of the Briarwoods. He supposed he was starting to understand the appeal of these 'phones.' "...No, he isn't. And I wouldn't suggest that he has anything in common with vampires to his face. Bit of a sore spot there. But you'll know him when you meet him - white hair, glasses, expensive accent, he's a hard one to miss."

[st_reetwolf]

Expensive accent and a long name... Angua was immediately put in mind of Lord Rust and hoped the sum of Vax's apparent friend didn't add up to that. But at least he wasn't a vampire Lord Rust. "I don't like them myself. It's a werewolf thing." All that cool and style and superiority made her feel... rude, savage, messy. Just an animal. And it didn't help that she could have a bad hair day all over her body. "I expect I'll meet him sooner or later, though, yes."

[st_abby]

While the obvious practical applications of having one of these talking devices wasn't lost on him, Vax was truly enjoying the novelty of it. The idea that he could summon Angua's voice (or that of others) more or less as he liked and end up talking about family names or vampires or whatever else as freely as they could call water from the taps in the bathroom was amazing.

"Have you got these, where you're from? Talking devices?"

[st_abby]

"Hello?" Vax'ildan was beginning to get used to how briskly people seemed to attend the phone by now. So it seemed all the more odd or as if he'd done something wrong when the person on the other end was silent well after the ringing stopped. Perhaps he'd used it too often, and finally broken his. "Can anyone hear me?"

[st_unning]

Alcuin was surprised to hear a voice coming out of the device instead of humming this time.

He frowned, looking down at it. "I... yes? I can hear you."

[st_abby]

"Good," the other voice offered more enthusiastically. "Thought I might've gone and broken it at last. I've never used one of these, and I think I'm just starting to get the hang of it. Oh, and I'm Vax'ildan," he added, because that's how this was done apparently.

[st_unning]

"Vax'ildan?" Alcuin sounded surprised as he looked at the handle for the device. "This is Alcuin. Are you speaking to me from your room?"

[st_abby]

"Dear Alcuin! Hello, you. And I am, in fact. I think all of the rooms have got them, but I had no idea what they were even for," Vax went on. "Do you know, I've been annoying people all afternoon, never had to so much as open a door or balance out a window?" If only they'd bring his meals, he'd never have to put on clothes again. "Absolutely incredible, this place."

[st_reetwolf]

"Not at all! I don't even know what they're called," she answered cheerfully enough, wedging the ear-and-talking part between her face and shoulder; it fit comfortably enough that she knew she'd done it before, but.... "Ankh-Morpork didn't have them anyway. I rather think the bits I don't remember had them, though."

[st_eadiesthefour]

Constance thought she heard a voice saying hello, but it was very muffled, and she turned toward the door, waiting but not hearing a knock. She called out, "Is someone there?", still holding the handle of the once ringing object. And then an "'ello?" on the likely chance whoever it was didn't understand French.

[st_abby]

Vax blinked. Was that...? "Constance? Is that you on the other end? I can barely hear you." Even listening with his elven ears, it was difficult.

[st_abby]

"Phones," Vax offered, feeling more worldly for it. "Someone else told me they're called 'phones.' ...How would you know, if you'd used them in those bits you don't remember?"

[st_reetwolf]

"Well, I answered this one without thinking about it 'til after, and I've currently got it wedged between my face and shoulder so my hands are free. It feels familiar even though I don't remember doing it before." She frowned, then waved a hand vaguely even though Vax couldn't see it. "Never lose only part of your memory. It's incredibly disorienting."

[st_eadiesthefour]

The voice came again, and Constance realized it was from the strange device in her hand, not the other side of the door. She lifted it closer to her ear just before the voice stopped speaking and she realized it sounded familiar. "Vax'ildan? 'ello?" She frowned at the machine, one more almost magical invention, that spoke with the voice of someone she knew.

[st_unning]

Alcuin couldn't help but smile at how happy Vax seemed to be to hear from him, accidental as it may be.

"It is remarkable," he agreed, turning the handle over in his hands to examine it. This offered not particular insight. "Perhaps you could show me how it works?"

[st_abby]

"You want to come over to mine this time?" That he'd be willing to show Alcuin how to work the phone - as well as his understanding would let him - was a given. And their rooms were so close after all. "I think these things are all the same across the rooms, more or less. So it shouldn't matter as far as learning how to operate one goes."

[st_unning]

"Oh? Yes, okay." Alcuin sounded surprised and pleased by the invitation. "I'll be right there. Do I just... if I put it back, will it break this connection?"

[st_abby]

It was her, for sure. That made things both easier and more difficult by turns. It sounded like she'd worked out which part to talk into, at least.

Vax'ildan liked languages well enough to have learned several. But he certainly hadn't learned whatever she was speaking. He tried to remember something useful she may have said to him that he could use to help things now, but it didn't amount to much at all. "Ah... Excuzay-mwah," was really all he could manage.

[st_abby]

"It does. It also makes a new one once you pick this handle part back up again," Vax reassured him. "And it turns out it feels really satisfying to 'break the connection' ahead of somebody else. Go on, give it a try. Imagine I just won't stop talking, and you've really had enough of it, and you need to go and be done with this conversation already, but I just won't shut up..." Not unlike wearing his pearl earring at times.

He channeled his inner Scanlan, and he didn't pause.

[st_oriedqueen]

"Have you ever known a mill to speak?" Regina replied sharply, but with less bite than she might have used before raising Roland this past few years. She let out a somewhat pained sigh at the young man's eagerness, in general. She wondered if it hurt to be so genuine. "I'm not in the habit of giving my location to strange men."

[st_abby]

"All or nothing, then. Duly noted." It was as much a joke as he could think to make of it, but Vax's tone was tempered with concern. "...Are you sure that's healthy, having so much memory gone?" He'd lost bits and pieces of his own when he'd blacked out in battle, but that had a clear cause - and wasn't 'healthy' either. "Do you want me to find out if there's a proper healer here that might know what to look for?"

[st_reetwolf]

"So far it seems to just be knowing things without knowing why I know them. Light switches and such. Irritating and awkward, but apart from that...." She sighed. "I don't know. I'm not sure I want to remember any of it, since I know one thing in there is going to hurt like hell once I actually know it." It would have to hurt more seeing what she was hanging by that window for than just knowing it was there. Especially since, more than likely, she'd never have whatever it was back again, anyway. That just wasn't how life worked.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne stifled a laugh at the confusion and humor in the voice that was definitively not her dear Inspector's. Of course, the lack of a familiar voice didn't stop Phryne from flirting. It rarely did. "Costume play. How delightful. Shall I be a damsel in distress or a Queen to be paid court? A witch to be tamed?"

[st_abby]

Vax'ildan was quiet for a moment, though some muted rustling and the slither of cord over mouthpiece seemed to suggest he'd rearranged himself somehow. He tried to imagine never having known his sister. Not agonizing over the loss of her. Not clinging to every stupid little memory of their lives spent together as if it were all the riches on the world. Just being... Calm, and numb, and ignorant, of every part of her.

He couldn't do it, but he tried.

"I think the question of it - of what I might be missing - might drive me mad," he supposed. "But it's not me. It's you." It was an obvious thing to say. Sometimes people needed to hear obvious things, though he didn't know Angua well enough to guess. "If you decide want it back, the offer stands, is all I mean to say."