001 ♪ Video

[swansongs]

[He took a few days to get himself composed, cleaned up, and acquire new clothes. What he'd arrived in had been stained with blood, after all. He couldn't wear that around. So now, as the video shows him sprawled on a couch (in a spacious apartment, though that's out of sight for now), he's dressed just like the locals in Crystalden. Bright, flashy clothes, glowing in places, but still comfortable-at least for him. It distracts somewhat from how unhealthy he looks-pale, with dark circles under his eyes. He hasn't been sleeping or eating much since arriving.]

Right. So what the fuck is this place and why the fuck are we all here? Kidnapping is a crime, especially when you're kidnapping someone like me. [Someone ~important~. Shhh, he doesn't know he's not important here, that no one knows who he is or gives a shit if he's famous. He hasn't gotten to figuring that part out yet.] I had...things I was doing-that I needed to do.

I don't want to fucking be here.

[Coming across as a spoiled brat? He kind of is. He's also been through some emotionally draining, really rough shit lately back home, before he got here, and it's made him even more irritable than he is when he's in a normal bad mood.]

Comments

[video]

[smallskull]

Are you someone important?

[She doesn't actually care, but she's curious.]

[video]

[swansongs]

Well, famous, yeah. I'm a musician.

Around where I live? Everyone knows who I am.

[smallskull]

Oh.

[She doesn't think just being famous makes someone important, but she doesn't say that.]

I don't think that matters.

[swansongs]

[Yeah, he...doesn't really either, but he doesn't like to admit that. He likes to think there's something that makes him important. Better than the alternative.]

Yeah, doesn't seem like they care here, does it?

[smallskull]

[She nods in agreement.]

It'd make more sense if they were holding you for ransom.

[Which...is maybe a strange thing for a kid to say, but that's the reply he gets.]

[swansongs]

Guess it would. Haven't heard anything about any demands, though.

[Not that there was anyone who would pay anything for him except himself.]

[smallskull]

I don't think that's what they're trying to do. [She punctuates this with a quick shake of the head.] Or everyone here would be famous or important.

[She was just pointing out that the people it would be especially bad to kidnap actually make the most sense to kidnap.]

[swansongs]

Good point.

[Not that he's talked to a lot of other people here yet to know if there's a lot of famous or important people, but from the way she says it, he figures there's not.]

Couldn't be something that easy. Gotta be some kind of...mysterious master plan behind all this shit, or something. [God that sounds cheesy to actually have to say. Why couldn't there be a less cheesy way to try and word his speculations.]

[smallskull]

It's a weird kidnapping. [Cheesy or not, she seems to agree.] We're even allowed wander around and do whatever we want.

[swansongs]

Yeah, that's the weirdest part. I always figured kidnapping would lead to being tied up or something.

[smallskull]

Most of them do. [She sounds matter-of-fact.] But they won't even tell us what we're here for, so I don't think it's a normal reason at all.

[swansongs]

Yeah. Don't think there can be any normal reason for kidnapping who knows how many people and then just letting them wander around and do whatever they want.

[Well, whatever they want within...limits, of course. Since obviously everyone wants to go home and that's something they can't do.]