DAY 3 | DAYTIME | VIDEO

[shouwablues]

[Hey, it's early morning, about 6AM? For those (still) awake at this ungodly hour and checking the network, you'll be greeted by a scruffy soldier guy broadcasting from his laptop. After finally taking his time to figure this thing out and watching the network. And not, you know, being busy wasting ammo on certainy slimy things and mentally mapping

Comments

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

'Ey. [His voice has a southern drawl. He's also trying to figure out what commanding rank you were from the speech.] Ye'll need some other alias, man.

Alright, it was year 2010 from where I was. I speak English, decent at Spanish, Russian, Arabic to name a few. And yeah, I fight, [tiny snort] but I don't like guns.

Accordin' to daylight hours, we'd have to be past the -63rd latitude. I don't know about you, bubbo, but this doesn't feel like the south pole to me. The sky ain't from the south either, stars ain't anythin' I've ever seen anywhere on Earth really.

What else d'ya gotta know to start plottin' how to get off this island?

Audio

[shouwablues]

Names, for starters. I'm not too fond of talking to a group of John Does.

[BIG BOSS DOESN'T LIKE ANON.]

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

That's real funny comin' from someone callin' themselves Big Boss.

Audio

[shouwablues]

We can't always choose the names or titles we're given. I didn't ask for your real name.

[There's a tap tap sound.]

Whoever set this network up knows everything relevant about you already, anyway. You think being anonymous provides you with any sort of security? It's just a nice little gimmick to make things more difficult, I wager, and lull people [like you] in with a false sense of security.

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

They're not the only ones I gotta worry about.

Eliot.

[Yes, he keeps it anon to avoid having his face shown. Last thing he needs is to have his wanted mug all over a network he doesn't know about.]

Audio

[shouwablues]

[Big Boss just rolls his eye. With this anon crap, it's not like he could contact people privately, and someone else can always screw shit up by claiming they're someone they aren't. It's not like he doubts there are people here that are up to no good, what with the whole game set up...]

You realize you are giving them the opportunity to mess our communications up. Not that I doubt they couldn't still do it even without this anonymous function, but it's being made particularly easy like this. Hell, I could be talking to one of those bastards right now.

[Well, Big Boss here is an internationally wanted terrorist and so far things are just dandy. He didn't announce himself like this with his title for no reason.]

Fine. Eliot. Can you tell me anything else?

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

I know it, man. Look, I'd be happy to schedule a meetin' cause that's the only way I see bein' secure. Not like they can't spoof posting ID's or some other crap. Until then, guess that's the way it'll hafta be, Boss.

[Irritated inhale, exhale. Okay, back to the problem at hand.]

Like I said, the sky's ain't what it should be. Constellation's all wrong like the star's themselves shifted. Which means, either this whole place's a fake, or we're really held in some virtual reality game... I don't buy it. You're right on one thing, this ain't a game.

Audio

[shouwablues]

My room's W2-215. You're free to drop by at any time.

[He's really had it with people acting like that. He's not asking for too much, is he?

...Oh well, stars. That's a start, though not what he was hoping for.]

So there's nothing at all in the sky that you recognize? I'm not at all familiar with all the constellations.

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

[Here Eliot takes a moment to wonder what sort of army guy is not familiar with stars. None of the ones worth noting was his anwswer, but that seemed at odds with what he's hearing.]

Well, I am. Can't find better compasses.

'Cept I don't even see a North star, and that's- that's not possible. People change, landscape, trees, rocks, countries, they change, but stars don't just shift and disappear.

[He notes the room. Not the same section, but the same building.]

Might take you up on that.

Audio

[shouwablues]

[Well, usually he'd navigate through the terrain just like that or with the help of his support team, but that won't do him much good here. Never cared much about the sky and stars in the distance.]

Oh, I noticed that. But hell if I know how to pinpoint my location by using the stars. Good to know that it would have been useless knowledge, anyway.

Be my guest.

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

Ya don't find it weird that the one thing that doesn't change, can't change, is now all wrong?

[He wasn't sure he kept the incredulity out of his voice there.]

Audio

[shouwablues]

It's weird all right, but given how weird this place is in general, I'm not too surprised. I just wanted to hear the opinion of someone who's better informed about these things than I am, so thanks for proving my suspicions right. Looks like that's either a fake sky or we're on a different planet altogether. Needless to say, I'd prefer the former.

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

Not sure the latter's possible.

Then again.

Audio

[shouwablues]

Should anything you encountered so far be possible to begin with?

Audio || Anon

[distinctive_guy]

I don't claim ta know nature's strange quirks.

Audio

[shouwablues]

Nature? What I've seen so far doesn't look much like a product of nature to me. ....More like mutations.