001; Dictated

[comsubin]

[ Well this is an odd situation to find yourself in. A man in military gear and a big ol' rifle strapped to his back is standing outside the castle in the nice cold night air staring up at it critically. He's got the journal open in one hand and every now and then looks down to flip a page or two over.

He seems to have gotten the basic gist of the thing at least, since he seems to be listening and reading things without really absorbing anything that's being said before flipping to a new page and talking. ]

Hey! What the hell is going on here? I've got no idea what game you're playing at, but I've got something more important I was in the middle of.

Comments

Dictated

[comsubin]

I heard it already. Hey. You people around here give up pretty easily.

dictated all the way down

[originalcopy]

Who's given up... I'm just giving you a dose of reality.

At least as real as it gets around here.

This place throws curve-balls at us pretty regularly. I think it's to keep us so busy we don't have time to look for a way out.

yes that!

[comsubin]

[ Different than the feeding off the emotions theory tossed his way earlier, but makes sense to him. ]

What sort of curve-balls are you talking about?

[originalcopy]

All kinds of stupid shit.

A bunch of us just got sucked through a mirror and sent to a bullshit crazy place.

Before that there have been psycho viruses and kiss-crazy inducing nutcrackers... and that's just to start.

[comsubin]

[ Wow... almost none of that sounds remotely sensical. ]

Viruses, kiss inducing nutcrackers... Sounds like a pain in the ass. Is it all the castle's fault?

[originalcopy]

As far as I know... except the virus thing. Some assholes brought that back with them from the ruins of another castle.

[comsubin]

There are other castles around here?

[originalcopy]

I haven't heard much about it... but it seems like they've only found the one and it had been ruined a long time.

No idea if there are any others out there. Travel isn't an easy thing here. If you go too far away from the castle you enter a "Dead zone" where technology doesn't work anymore.

[comsubin]

[ Well that's gonna be a pain... ]

How much of the Dead zone has been mapped out?

[originalcopy]

I'm not exactly sure, somehow I don't think it's been very much.

I was supposed to get a map... but my source left for the Dead Zone before I could get it. The other person who would know isn't in any position to answer a bunch of questions right now.

I haven't been able to get to the library to check if there's one there.

[comsubin]

[ He's quite for a few seconds while he thinks this one over. ]

Is the library you're talking about inside this castle?

[originalcopy]

Yeah.

It's on the fourth floor somewhere.

[comsubin]

Thanks.

[ Gonna check that one out, but later. ]

What else is wrong with this place?

[originalcopy]

Hey, I wouldn't want to ruin all the surprises.

Just keep on your toes. You never know what this place has in store next.

And don't touch anything odd in the lobby.

[comsubin]

[ Well at this this guy was still more helpful than the kid he met a moment ago.

He's not sure what counts as odd... but he's just not gonna touch anything and that'll solve that problem. ]

Got it.

[originalcopy]

Let me know what you find.

Oh... if you ever need to send a private message over the journal you can filter it to specific people. Either by a specific name, good description or by group, like "friends".

I'm Church by the way.

[comsubin]

So the castle does do some things right after all.

[ A short pause before adding in. ]

Colonnello. Send me a message if you figure out more about the maps.

[originalcopy]

One or two things.

Good luck.

[comsubin]

Thanks.