fluxnet | ( audio ) un; sargent

[ Posted as an audio file to FluxBook simply titled Episode One: There’s the soft sound of music playing before Blue’s voice finally joins in over top of it. ]

Hello there citizens of Beachville [ If you’ve met the girl in person, this definitely isn’t her usual speaking voice. It’s a little less rough around the edges, more suited for the audio medium — a bit scripted it might even seem. ] Or are we Beachville anymore? I’m Blue Sargent and on this maiden episode of Out of the Blue, I’m going to be talking about just that! Let’s get to the bottom of things.

[ The music plays on its own for a few beats before Blue continues. ]

Elora rolled in last night and I hope that everyone managed to weather the storm without too much damage. Strange that we had such a bad storm out of nowhere, huh? [ There's suspicion in her tone. ] And did you happen notice things were suddenly a little different this morning? What happened to our little beach town? This girl doesn’t know, but you better believe she has a few theories. First of all, that Wechester Enterprises building rubbed me the wrong way from the start, it suddenly appeared, and then a week later our whole town changes. Overnight.

And what is the new name of our city? [ Pause, for the dramatic effect of course. ] Wechester City. I’m not one to believe in coincidence anymore, and neither should you, listeners. What does this Wechester Enterprises really do? Why do you need a key-card to use the elevator, even just to get to the main office? It smells fishy to me, and I know fish, I spend most of my day serving it up.

[ Quietly, as an aside: ] Please tip your servers.

Whatever is going on here, however we got here, and whatever it takes to get us back to our homes, I think that building is right in the center of it. The people in the city don’t seem to notice anything different, that’s the really weird part. Brainwashing? Social experiment? Simulation? There’s something different about them, they’re not like us. You guys know what I mean.

A secret mission might be in order, I might have to do a little undercover work. Don’t worry, I’ll return with my findings, this mystery isn't going to go unsolved.

But what I'm more interested in is what you've got to say. Got your own thoughts, theories, weird happenings that no one else thinks are weird? Send them my way and we’ll get to the bottom of ‘em. Until next time, this has been Blue Sargent and you’ve been tuned in to Out of the Blue. The truth is out there.

[ The music continues for short moment longer before fading out. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but don't you think if you're gonna launch a covert operation you should be a little more... Covert about it? [There's a pause, like he's not quite sure if he should say the rest of what's on his mind, but...] And whatever's going on with the locals, it's not brainwashing.

[ Fair point. ] At least I kept the details a secret. There's still some element of surprise.

[ A very small some. ]

How can you be so sure?

[The reply is several minutes later.] I've had extensive experience being on the wrong end of it. It's difficult to do, difficult to maintain, and leaves marks behind. Even if it were something that started when they were young, they wouldn't act so... human. Not when they didn't know you were looking. Whatever these people are, they're not brainwashed. I'd put my money on aliens. [It's always aliens.]

[ There's the quiet sound of a pen scratching away paper -- she's got a little journal of her thoughts about this place. ] I suppose you're right. It's probably a lot harder to brainwash large groups of people too, right?

[ A pause. Aliens are quite often never the answer for her. ] Aliens? What would aliens want with us, though?

Yeah, though I suppose if you get enough people brainwashed, the rest will just quietly play along. That's more or less how fascism takes hold. [He's got some experience with that, too.]

Hopefully just world domination. The genocidal ones are a lot less worried about collateral damage. [He hasn't even fought them himself, but he's read the newspapers, and more importantly the internal reports that had been dumped onto the internet several years back.] The thing that concerns me is that whoever's doing this doesn't seem to care that we're able to notice things are off. Like they're confident that they don't need to -- so then, what are these locals, that whoever brought us here is so worried about them noticing and not us? [Unless the locals being oblivious is somehow incidental to the changes. He's not sure that he hasn't started confusing himself, at this point.]

[ Blue quietly 'mhmn's and 'uh-huh's in agreement, her excitement clearly building even in those small sounds -- it felt like they were on to something. ]

Exactly! If they've taken the time, or energy, or whatever, to make sure everyone else here just plays along, then why were we left out? Or does something make us immune to whatever their powers are and that's why we're here? Being studied. [ She hums in thought. Still more questions. ]

Or... [There's a pause here, like either he's not sure what he's about to say is very smart, or maybe he just doesn't want to worry her.] It could be a distraction. Give us something small to notice and start chasing, so the big thing can slide by in the background. I think it's obvious that this place is being controlled by something intelligent, and so far it doesn't seem to intend us any harm, but it feels an awful lot like mice in a maze. Like they're trying to learn about us. [He huffs a little.] I don't like it.

I think so too! [ Despite the subject matter Blue sounds positively excited -- mostly because there's someone else on the same wavelength as her and that makes her feel a little less crazy. ] It's really unsettling that we're the only ones noticing anything. It feels like we're in some kind of experiment, doesn't it? Like, some kind of weird stress test, or something.

[ She pauses for a long moment, now she's the one unsure if this is something stupid to say. ] What if we all acted like the natives here and acted like we didn't notice anything weird either? [ More sounds of pencil scribbling away on paper. ]

[Well Chiaki has her own theories but it might not be the best one, but she has her reasons for thinking it at least.]

So... It's not normal for things to change like this? I mean if you think of it as a video game, maybe we are all just going to the next level.

[That wasn't her theory.]

Not so drastically, no.

[ That's a theory that Blue hasn't even consider yet, but she's clearly intrigued by it. ]

Hmm.. But don't you usually have to trigger something in a video game to move to the next level?

Usually, you have to reach a goal, whatever that goal is on that level.

But that also depends on the plot. Sometime it could change because the big bad changed it for a reason.

Could be magic. That would explain a lot.

[Granted, Beast's view of the world is fairly limited, so he's bound to subscribe most things to magic until proven otherwise. Sorry, this is what comes from spending half his life in an enchanted castle with talking bric-a-brac.]

[ Now there's something she knows (kinda.): Magic. ]

I thought that too, but this isn't like the magic that I know. I've never seen magic that works over an entire city, people included. [ A beat. ] Except us, like we're immune.

I've seen a curse affect an entire castle and all the occupants inside before. It can happen.

That's a powerful curse and a powerful witch... or wizard. [ She hums in thought. ] You would think that we would feel some of the effects of it too, though.

Yes, she was a very powerful Enchantress. [It was one hell of a curse to last twenty years and effect both the castle plus all the occupants within.] Maybe it's just taking a while to take hold of us?

Were you ever able to break the curse? [ She can only imagine the magic needed to break something that powerful. ] I wonder what it is that makes us so special, then.

...........No. [There's a lot of sadness in the single gloomy word and a whole untold story behind it.] Maybe we all have things we need to do here. A purpose.

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