[Audio] Game Start! Only... Backdated to Nov. 1st at one minute after midnight

[frostheartedrose]

So, the game has started... You lost the coin toss tonight.

[There's absolutely no background noise other than her boots striding along packed dirt. After a minute of that, it shifts to boots on stone. A small clue as to her current location... Not that it'll last for more than a few minutes... Bridget had places to go, people to observe.]

Oh, I suppose I should let the rest of you know... I'm going to be playing a game of hide-and-seek with a kid named Stein. He seems to be too intelligent for his age and far too interested in injuries of various kinds for normal comfort levels. So it might be better for everyone with hair to avoid wearing ribbons until next month. Especially gray ribbons...

[An amused pause.]

Unless you want some kid trying to steal your ribbon. I don't mind. A bit of a question though. What kinds of things do people enjoy reading? There are so few overnight jobs that leave me completely bored I've considered taking up writing between commissions. I don't care what you read and won't admit to, just use a private channel.

Comments

[Video]

[melonsaregreat]

I like a good tragedy best. Nothing soothes the heart quite like a thousand pages of watching a character worn down by the vicissitudinous whims of fate.

Are you really going to just write whatever people tell you to, though? I doubt it would be any good.

[Video]

[notsoholyspirit]

Oh come on! Really?!

[Here is an unfamiliar face, Bridget. The redhead is glaring daggers at the screen, but mostly he's just frustrated that someone would play along with Stein without considering the risk involved. He has no way of knowing that the two have already discussed this already, after all, and he has to assume that this lady is putting herself in--at least--some amount of danger.]

You can't play into his games, damn it. Don't encourage him!

Re: [Video] Private

[frostheartedrose]

A thousand pages? [A snort of amusement.] I could give you a thousand years of one man cursed by his own wife and child. I would need to do a lot of time skips and potential scenes written from the very person set to exterminate him. I could write a whole series from both viewpoints...

[A thoughtful pause as the tiny blond stares at some point beyond the camera for a long period of time. Then she'll shake herself physically back to the present.] I'm not seeking to write scripted prompts or formulas like a dime romance. I've seen so many various people and events over the centuries that most of what I'd write could be termed biographies. However, I'd like to know what people would actually pay money to read.

[Video] Private

[melonsaregreat]

It's fine to have the verisimilitude and the breadth of concepts you can take from experience but if there are no ideas in the writing it'll still be boring. You have to unify all those times and places.

Look at mystery or science fiction. In a short story one good idea can carry the whole thing.

Re: [Video]

[frostheartedrose]

[She'll allow him to look at a rather lovely teapot sitting in the middle of a tray with a single cup waiting beside it. It had been several hours since her first broadcast but it was still lacking in clues to her actual location. Except this time she allowed some video of a stationary object on a wood table.]

Yes, really. I thought that expression was being phased out... Not as quickly as I hoped. I'm not sure what kind of interest you have in this but I was the one who suggested the game first. Stein has one month to take a ribbon from my hair. I did try to give him at least some faint hope by restricting that ribbon to certain colors. Other than that, I have given him my first name, my gender, and a few moments of listening to me walk. So... general height and weight.

So the question becomes... [An amused pause.] Who are you, and why are you objecting to a mild amusement to pass the time?

Re: [Video] Private

[frostheartedrose]

I've read quite a bit when I had the time, but I do admit that my concentration was elsewhere for much of the time. I will keep that in mind and study a bit.

[Yes, Bridget actually can take advice from strangers. She had a lot of experience but expressing it to an audience expecting entertainment rather than a dry military report was still something limited to the last century.]

I do enjoy a good mystery but I haven't explored science fiction much. I tend to enjoy historical, fantasy, mystery, and dry military reports. Every so often I'll pick up a romance but after a while they seem so scripted that I throw them at the far wall in disgust.

[Video] Bridget pls

[notsoholyspirit]

[Spirit glowers are the camera.]

I'm his weapon, and I know him a hell of a lot better than you might think you do. He's dangerous. He doesn't typically mean to be but that doesn't change that he is.

[If looks could kill, that teapot would have spontaneously combusted by then.] And what's his reward when he finds you? The kid has soul perception. Unless he's got no inkling of what you're like whatsoever, he will be able to find you.

Re: [Video] Nooooo! She's got fighting SPIRIT!! *stabbed*

[frostheartedrose]

His weapon? I'm sure there's a story behind that. And while I'm considering it an insult that you think I'm the one in danger rather than him... I'll let it pass for now.

[The picture is going to move to the blank wall for now. Mmmm, tea....]

He wants to see if I'll burn under direct sunlight. I'd like to know the results as well but I'm hardly about to let some kid watch. What exactly is 'soul perception', if you don't mind my asking? Telepathy? Empathy? Spiritual manipulation? I don't mind being found under my own terms.

[Video] I imagine that was a terrible pun that was made a lot when he was a kid XD;;

[notsoholyspirit]

The 'story' is that I'm a weapon and he's a meister, and we were partners in the Academy for a long time. And as the weapon paired with him for years I think I'd know what dangers he poses more than you.

[Unfortunately she's missing his angry face. For shame!]

Soul perception is an ability to see someone's soul wavelength. Everyone's soul wavelength is different and distinct, and there's some range--almost like a radar. It's for detection.

That isn't the point, though--I stand by my original statement. Don't encourage him.

Re: [Video] Poor Spirit...

[frostheartedrose]

Hm, so either you've been changing his diapers or you come from two different points in your timeline. You keep saying he's a danger to me and to avoid encouraging him, but so far you haven't stated how he's a danger and what I'm encouraging him to do.

[A slightly thoughtful pause.]

Is he going to rip my limbs from by body? Perhaps punch a hole through my chest and let the organs fall as they will? Perhaps throw me against a mountain so hard most of my bones shatter and several organs rupture? Maybe take a few moments to write a poem with my own blood? Maybe cut out my eyes and attack others around me just so I can hear them scream?

[Video] Private

[melonsaregreat]

Why keep coming back if they annoy you so much? Dreaming of love?

Well, desiring things that don't reflect reality could be called the root of all dissatisfaction...

[tinystitches]

[Stein doesn't respond. He just watches, listens, observes. It's good practice.]

[Video]

[notsoholyspirit]

Different points in the timeline. It's weird as hell to see him as a kid again.

[The weapon sighs.]

Look lady. I'm not trying to knock your strength or anything, but Stein is the sort of kid who would try to punch a hole through your chest and let organs fall as they can.

He grows up to be a scientist but he can't quite control the curiosity now.

Re: [Video]

[frostheartedrose]

It would be fun if...

[A soft, almost nostalgic laugh.]

He wouldn't be the first, actually. As long as a third of my main body is intact I'm not going to worry. And that 'control the curiosity' is really what concerns me. A kid like him with so much morbid curiosity and nothing to channel it towards? I can take some rough treatment but what about the other unwilling residents pulled into living here? Most wouldn't survive, but then there are a few even I've taken note to deal with cautiously.

[Video]

[notsoholyspirit]

[Staring.]

You're looking at the focus of his morbid curiosity. Why do you think I'd go so out of my way to warn you?

[Good grief lady, don't make it so hard for him to help you.]

Re: [Video]

[frostheartedrose]

Hmmm, you don't seem too special to me. No obvious defects or talents, I do like natural redheads so that is one point in your favor.

[Gonna sip the tea for a few moments. Seriously, tea is good and worth bliss-facing off camera!]

I suppose it has something to do with your world and other factors not apparent on the surface. I might consider visiting you in person since there are so many things lacking in this silly mechanical interface. I do promise to catch you without allowing interference.

[Video] Um fyi I love tagging Bridget ok? ok. Seriously!! <3

[notsoholyspirit]

Irrelevant.

[The redhead waves a hand dismissively, sighting. It sends the strands of hair in his face up with the breath of air and he looks rather childish while doing it, crossing his arms and glancing off screen.]

I told you already, I'm a weapon. He, on the other hand, is a meister. My anatomy is human but he's always been...

[How could he possibly put this gracefully? He sounds irritated, but his expression is more suggestive of him being nervous. There's just a slight tremor in his voice, but one would have to really listen.] Curious. Okay? He's been curious. I have scars all over the damn place.

Re: [Video] Wow, that sounded creepy... sorry! <3

[frostheartedrose]

[There might be an oddly long pause here. Cause... reasons. Tea. And stuff.]

I'm trying to figure out if you're bragging or complaining. You have human anatomy but supposedly can completely transform into an object. You're partners with someone infinitely curious about everyone and everything and may or may not have human characteristics. My question is now... if you are so distressed over scars and getting cut up, why do you still connect yourself with him?

[Video] Nah it's cool

[notsoholyspirit]

[There is a long pause on the other end of the phone, the redhead looking uncomfortable and uncertain.

Finally:]

Abandoning one's meister is one of the gravest sins a weapon can commit.

Weapons are trained to die for their meister. That is our role. In the way meisters are not replaceable, we are.

I left Stein when we were students in the Academy after a few years because I just couldn't do it anymore.

It's not boasting, or complaining. It's guilt. I shouldn't have just abandoned him. He--

[The images of finding his former meister, unconscious, having burrowed a huge bolt into his own skull, blood everywhere, and he cringes.] It's bad enough I did it once. I can't do that to him again, regardless of what that means for me.