voice ⚙Oct 19th

[missfunction]

Huh-za-what? What-what-what is this?

[The mechanical voice to stutter over the network is riddled with clicks and whirrrrs as the unseen automaton inspects her new device curiously. There's the briefest huff of steam hissing as it spills from her crooked mouth, but then she's continuing.]

Th'Spine? Is this some k-kinda joke, big guy? [Her voice drops down for an impossibly low and robotic HA. HA. before returning to normal.] I thought humor had been left outta yer programmin' co-completely. Pappy had to m-make room for that s-shinin' stick-in-da-mud personality of yers, didn't he?

...Spine? [Nope, if her brother were here, that would have gotten a response out of him for sure. Rabbit lets out an irritated huff at that realization.] Th' backbone on that guy...

Okay, so if it ain't you on th' other end of this t-t-telefone conversation, then just who is?

Comments

voice

[catpiper]

[It's impossible to mistake that hissing, crackling voice for anyone else. They raised a dragon together in a dream once and Ren had been keeping an eye out for the elusive TunaMelt, should that creature ever return to the island.

And she had been keeping an ear out for that odd looking dragon too. There's always a chance people will arrive on the island after those weird dreams. A chance. And she answers the iStone with a hint of surprise and confusion. She doesn't know anyone from that first half-no idea, but she can answer-]

I'm TunaMelt's aunt. My name is Ren.

[missfunction]

Oh hey! I know you!

[One day, perhaps, full grown and still completely traumatized.]

Howdy! My-my-my-my-my-my-MY- [There's the loud clang of the robot smacking herself in the head to get her voice box out of its loop before Rabbit can finally complete her sentence.] -My name's Rabbit.

voice

[counterblows]

A lot of people.

[Dry voice. Older, masculine, and very much human. Stutter-free.]

You just made this public to everybody on the archipelago. Congratulations.

[missfunction]

[Despite coming from the twenty-first century, Rabbit has never needed to own or even use a cell phone like this before. Not when all of her contacts lived under the same roof. So all of these tiny on-screen buttons and flashing words just mean nothing to her.

how is tech????]

Holy m-m-macaroni! Ya ain't kiddin' huh! Never knew telefones could do that! Ya shore this ain't a Google Hangsouts sesh instead? Mmm-may-maybe a Skype call?

voice

[eudaimonikos]

Basically everyone. Also, you're in a different universe now.

[Sorry about that, he guesses?]

[counterblows]

[Fortunately, local Man From The Future Agent Washington actually knows what the hell a Skype call is. Outdated as hell, though.]

Pretty sure, yeah. For one, this isn't really a good replacement for the Internet. There's only something like...fifty, sixty people, maybe. I haven't taken a head count in a little while.

voice

[yakyuuman]

Hi! Hello! I'm a newbie too and my name is Jyushimatsu! Welcome to island hell!

[ He decides to address literally nothing and just run his mouth because this contact system amuses him greatly.

Also, he's incredibly loud. ]

Let's get along well!

[missfunction]

W-w-what?! Whatcha mean basically everyone?

[because that is the most important part of what he said, ofc.]

This s-ssss-s-some kinda discount livestream or somethin'? Am I live with all of th' fans? No one said we were r-r-rollin'!

[missfunction]

[Ah, good ol' 2016. It's such a shame that Tumblr had to eventually die to give us the gift that is Discord.]

Ya ain't m-m-makin' any sense, fella! Fifty peoples ain't very many. We at s-s-some kinda up-'an'-comin' anime convention?

[missfunction]

[friendship! friendship! let's hop right into this dang friendship!]

Jyu-whatsit?! I don't get a thing yer saying, b-b-bb-buddy! Yer gonna have t' speak up! Imma hundred an' nineteen years o-old!

[counterblows]

It's an archipelago. I just said.

[But it's a lot to adjust to all at once. And lord, does he never want to hear the words 'anime convention' ever again. It sucks that he even knows what that is, but that's what he gets for making friends with the Reds and Blues.]

Pretty small one, too.

[missfunction]

[Rabbit can't wait to see your sweet soldier cosplay, Wash.]

S-s-s-sheesh. An archipelago, he says, r-r-r-rrrrr-r-rr-right when my access to dictionary dot com's been totally cut. What's a g-gal t' do?

[Even with no visual image to accompany here, there's a too loud thwacking clang of metal-on-metal as the back of her hand hits her forehead, all in a ladylike swoon.]

So what? We're just stuck here f-for realsies?

[counterblows]

It's a lot of islands all stuck near each other.

[With the world-weary patience of someone who has had, unfortunately, to explain plenty of concepts to people before. The, uh, stutter is a new thing, though.]

But yes. Yes, that is correct.

voice

[barberian]

... It's a Stone. You can use it to send messages to people by themselves, or to everybody. I think yours is set to 'everybody'.

(Because why would she have wanted to message Yasha individually? also who is this)

You first.

[vagabone]

Héctor!

[This voice sounds strangely familiar, like someone he met and was instantly fond of--must be that time of the month again. New faces!]

Magical telephone rocks. Did you just wake up here?

[catpiper]

[The looped 'My-my-my-my' is worrying. Troubling. She had been used to her vocal quirks in the dream, but it's a whole new world to have that happen in reality. It makes her think there's an injury she can't see.]

Rabbit? Not Dragon? You're that kind of animal? Are you a god?

[She has so many qs.]

Voice

[forwearemany]

Greetings.

We are Legion, relict.

(The voice is clearly robotic, though it's likely very different from the one she was expecting.)

[missfunction]

Who ya c-callin' a relict, bucko? I'll have ya know I'm a p-pp-p-priceless antique!

[Fellow robo or no, Rabbit won't stand for it!]

[forwearemany]

Relict: A surviving species of an otherwise extinct group of organisms. Alternately, a remnant of a formerly widespread species that persists in an isolated area.

(A moments pause. Then:)

You misunderstand: we speak of ourselves.

[eudaimonikos]

Well, everyone on the islands. I doubt any of them have heard of you...because of the alternate universe thing...?

[He feels like we've just got immediately off-track.]

voice

[deathfindsaway]

[He almost doesn't respond to this. It's got just... a lot going on. But there's something he has to comment on, despite it all.]

You're looking for someone named Spine, but without a backbone...?

[It's probably a pun, right? But it does little to describe who this voice is actually looking for, though now he is imagining an invertebrate of some kind.]

video

[lesbeau]

The hell is a telephone?

[Oh, high fantasy worlds that don't horribly shatter their fourth walls, how unexpected.]

This is a stone. Or a message or something. And you're sending it to everyone, so.

[yakyuuman]

I am speaking up, buddy! [ And loud enough at that... though after she states her age he relents a bit. Gotta respect old people! ]

Jyu-shi-ma-tsu! It's Jyushimatsu! I'm twenty-five years old and unemployed!

[ That last bit has nothing to do with the conversation but okay. ]

Also I said "let's get along well"! Like, let's be friends or something!

[missfunction]

L-l-lady, yer optics are even worse than mine. This ain't a stone, it's a tele-fone.

[why does no one get this but her gosh]

Really? Me? I'm first? W-w-w-wwww-w-wow-za! I ain't never won n-nuthin' my whole life!

[missfunction]

Hey! I know that d-d-ddd-d-disembodied voice!

[there's been only so many living skeletons in her life, rabbit would never forget him]

How'd ya end up here in m-mm-my-my dream? An' how'd ya get this n-n-number? It's unlisted!