First PSI

[a_gentle_boy]

Ah.  Um.  H-Hello?  This is a telephone, right? . . . You talk into it and other people talk back?  Excuse me!  Is anyone there?  . . . I'm not sure if it's working . . . Well, if anyone's listening, I need to know.  What happened after the Dark Dragon came?  The world was destroyed, but . . . I didn't think it'd be reborn so quickly.  A-Actually, this doesn't look anything like what I thought the new world would be . . . It's not like Tazmily Village at all.  I thought . . . I thought after I pulled the Seventh Needle, everything would just, well . . . go back to the way it was before.  . . . I guess I was wrong.

Oh, I'm sorry.  You probably don't know who's talking.  My name is Lucas.  You've probably heard of me; I'm the one Porky called out to fight.  I hope you've all realized the truth by now.  I don't blame anyone except Porky for what happened, but . . . Well, that isn't important.  Does anyone know where my dad is?  Flint?  Or Kumatora, Boney and Duster?  I ca -- . . . Huh?  What is . . . AH!

No way!  Wh -- What's a Happy Box doing here?!  After everything we went through . . . Haven't you all learned from your mistakes by now?!  This isn't right.  I've got to take care of this.

[Moments later at 846 Goldberg Street, a television falls out a second story window and smashes to the ground.  This is followed by several wads of dollar bills, a smattering of coins, and a radio.]

Comments

[crawlininmytome.livejournal.com]

[was coming back to the house to see this--]

What the-- What's going on here!?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Oh, hello. . . . Do you live here? Thanks for taking care of me while I was asleep, but you really ought to have known better than to buy a Happy Box.

[crawlininmytome.livejournal.com]

... A Happy Box? Don't you mean a television?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Huh? I don't know . . . But Happy Boxes are really terrible. They ruined Tazmily Village.

Where did you come from before all of this happened?

[crawlininmytome.livejournal.com]

... I'm from the year 1998. You must have come from another fragment where television is bad.

[katto-katto.livejournal.com]

You thought to destroy the world and assume that everything would "go back to the way it was before"? You poor, foolish, doomed boy!

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Um. I'm pretty sure that was the only way to save the world, actually. Sorry, but you just weren't there . . .

[katto-katto.livejournal.com]

Nonsense! You destroyed a world, so now you have to be punished for it!

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Ah. But the world would have been destroyed and stayed destroyed. Since I got to it first, it was reborn . . . This doesn't look quite right, though.

[skyruns.livejournal.com]

[He just so happens to be walking past, and his walking is interrupted by the immediate sound of a television crashing in front of him. He ignores the bills, before seeing the radio come right towards him, prompting him to get the heck out of there.]

...huh?! What's going on up there? Uh... hello?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! I'm sorry! You're not hurt, are you? . . . I had to get rid of them.

[skyruns.livejournal.com]

...n-no, I'm fine. Why? Were they broken? I could've fixed them, in that case.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I know Porky was really convincing, but you've got to understand that we don't need that stuff. Money, Happy Boxes, nightclubs, big cities . . . They just take away from what's really important.

[numanstan.livejournal.com]

[Man, Vince should go for random walks around town more often. It rains money here!

... And radios, apparently, because that last one just misses him.]

Oi! Watch it!

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Ah! I-I'm really sorry! I didn't see you . . . You're not hurt, are you?

[numanstan.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'm alright. You've gotta be more careful, though, kid! Never know who could be innocently walkin' by. [He says as he pockets the money.] I mean, y'almost hit my hair! That would've been a tragedy.

... What're you doin', anyway? Not like somethin' on the telly? They've got an 'off' switch for that, y'know...

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

The . . . what? That's a Happy Box. They're terrible things. I-I had to get rid of 'em.

[bashinhippies.livejournal.com]

Wait what-

You know Porky?! Also what's going on over there?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Huh? Doesn't everyone know him?

[bashinhippies.livejournal.com]

Not everyone, especially not here.

Wait, how do you know him?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . I-I don't understand. Porky . . . If it wasn't for him, the world wouldn't have been destroyed. He ruined everything.

[fail-dragon.livejournal.com]

... Happy Box?

And yes, this is a telephone... Albeit one that's very odd, by my standards.

Welcome to Mayfield. Sounds like you came out of one nightmare right into another, sadly.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

M-Mayfield . . . Please tell me more! Someone told me that my PSI is gone. And Dad . . . and all of my friends.

This can't be real.

[fail-dragon.livejournal.com]

Trust me, I don't want to believe this place is real either.

From what I can tell, people are getting randomly yanked here from world after world... All of us against our wills. Everything that separates us from normal humanity - technological, magical, or racial in origin - gets removed, and then we're put here, and ordered, on pain of our personalities getting erased, to go live 'ordinary' lives by strict community standards.

No one seems to know who is behind all this, or why... Only that they've got to be incredibly powerful.

I only arrived here just days ago, but that's the important bits...

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas listens with increasing trepidation as Incardine speaks. He can't believe it. It's impossible. The words that he's hearing . . . It's surely all just a dream, right? The boy takes a deep breath before he responds. He sounds surprisingly calm.]

. . . I -- I see. I think. Porky may have been partially responsible, but even he's not strong enough to do something like this.

How many people are trapped here?