SWITCHBOARD

[transmittable]

If you'd like to ask the Transmitter something over the phone, go right ahead! The Transmitter will answer the phone as soon as she's available. Leaving messages is impossible, given how old these phones are, but you should be able to reach her at almost all hours.

Comments are screened for privacy; all Patients are offered confidentiality, didn't you know?

Comments

[nachetanya]

Alright, thank you! Now, I hope you don't mind if I ask you something else.

Misty, you seem to use "we" a lot more than I've heard you use "I." Is it because you're speaking for the Risen, or could it be you're shy?

[transmittable]

Wha... We are not- [ Okay then, she sounds almost taken aback. ] I. I am not shy. I'm just speaking for the collective, for the Risen.

[nachetanya]

I didn't mean to accuse you, you simply seemed to stop and start a lot, so I worried you were uncomfortable with me!

[ A little laugh, and she leans back a bit against the wall, still holding the phone line ]

[transmittable]

It's nothing like that, it. [ She sighs, inspiring a whole new round of crackling. ] I...simply haven't spoken to anyone outside the Risen in...awhile, a long while. It's unfamiliar.

[nachetanya]

Oh...

[ Hmm... She tuts, and then - ]

I have many things I need to talk to you about, so we can go right to those if you don't have time. But if you do, given that, is there anything you've been dying to hear a different opinion about? We could talk about that, Misty.

[transmittable]

[ ... ]

Why do you care? I'm your abductor. Why are you asking about...me?

[nachetanya]

[ Nachetanya... hums a little, and ... ]

Misty, is what we speak about confidential to only us two, you won't tell the others?

[transmittable]

Of course. Confidentiality is important in hospitals, after all.

[nachetanya]

[ She nods, exhales, and then slides down the wall - the phone cord seems like it['ll reach even if she ends up sitting on the floor ]

I have something that I need to do back where I was taken from, and it must be completed within the next two weeks or so. If I fail, then half of the thinking beings in the world will be killed, and the other half will end up enslaved to a power that doesn't make them happy. And so I need to return back, as quick as I can... I don't know if anyone else here will understand, but you seem to know more than anyone else, and I know you can do more for me than anyone else. So I want to know more about you, and facilitate positive communication between us - I think that makes more sense than to think of you as my "enemy" when I can't be sure if anyone else here is my "ally" against you. Certainly, no one here is my "comrade."

[transmittable]

[ For a few moments after Nachetanya finishes, there's just quiet, aside from the feedback. ]

The needs of the many, the many you care about, over those you don't. ...We think that makes sense. We think we can understand.

Understand that positive communication isn't something I'm really looking for in all this, but...I wouldn't mind a little.

[nachetanya]

It isn't even a matter of caring. In the grand scheme of things, my life isn't important either, or even my family or friends. The survival of everyone, and the peace that can follow that is what matters to me. It's my "ambition," as I like to put it.

[ She nods. ]

Our communication doesn't need to be positive, but that would be preferable. I would enjoy it remaining open though, if that's agreeable.

[transmittable]

Alright. Sure. We're fine with that. As for your first question that lead us here... Horses.

How do you feel about horses?

[nachetanya]

[ she... actually laughs at that. A little girlish giggle. ]

I find them to be very reliable animals! I learned to ride them when I was younger, and their loyalty and speed is very impressive.

[transmittable]

Do you...have any unicorns, where you're from?

[nachetanya]

No...? Actually, I don't know that word, what are they?

[transmittable]

Drat. They're like horses with horns. I've just always wondered what they're like.

[nachetanya]

Oh, fiends which look like horses might be called "unicorns" then. There are some of those.

[transmittable]

Really? Well, what are they like?

[nachetanya]

Well, most fiends that have a shape like that would be the sort of fiends who aren't able to talk, and likely are not as intelligent as some others, because fiends can evolve based on their desires and needs. A horse fiend would probably eat once every ten days or so, eating a fair amount of fruit or shrubs, and run around one of the lesser poisoned valleys of the Wailing Demon Territory... and when the Evil God is awoken, it would probably help carry other fiends into the human lands. Overall, a simple and fairly peaceful existence, most of the time.

[transmittable]

Huh.

Was expecting kind of a "magical" or "mystical" or "majestic" descriptor in there somewhere, but that sounds about like what I imagined.

Okay, thanks, curiosity satisfied.

[nachetanya]

Well, such a fiend probably would be colorful! And fiends are a little bit "magical," given a lot of their properties.

[ She laughs, and.. ]

... Did you or the Risen take my arm, Misty?

[transmittable]

[ She matches that amiable tone. ]

Nope. We did nothing to your bodies. When we received you, you were missing an arm.

[nachetanya]

... I do not remember that. And you said that you are certain that those profiles are correct?

[ Her tone remains sort of even-positive ]

[transmittable]

Yes. ...It's...possible that in the transfer to your current location, you... That there were some side-effects, with your memories.

[ She's less positive. ]

This wasn't intended, and we apologize for it.

[nachetanya]

I... was actually going to ask about that. [ A beat ] You had said that "time" was interesting, so I was wondered if somehow time has... wound itself back, or forward. But if it's my memories...

[ She bites her lip. What if the timeline was actually tighter than she thought, then? How could she be missing her arm? ]