Info
Sometimes wanting something feels more satisfying than having it.
Since this was for Promptcon, my prompts were the following:
- Family
- Nostalgia
- Loss
- Endings
Written by Boring Talkings! /:| The original Level 32 that this is based off, and that is used in the first offset, is made by U/Therealmaplesyrup!
| Other pages by me | |
|---|---|
| Levels | Level 2 | Level 11 | Level 13 | Level 19 | Level 22 | Level 25 | Level 38 | Level 41 | Level 74 | Level 82 | Level 100 | Level 106 | Level 111 | Level 120 | Level 134 | Level 145 | Level 174 | Level 179 | Level 185 | Level 196 | Level 206 | Level 208 | Level 222 | Level 320 | Level 368 | Level 369 | Level 370 | Level 371 | Level 421 | Level 427 | Level 445 | Level 511 | Level 557 | Level 587 | Level 600 | Level 602 | Level 603 | Level 605 | Level 606 | Level 607 | Level 608 | Level 609 | Level 669 | Level 713 | Level 790 | Level 812 | Level 910 | Level 948 | Level 998 | Level 999 | Blue Channel | The Middlesorts | The Frontrooms | PA98 | |
| Entities | Entity 1* | Entity 40 | Hypothetical Creator | |
| Phenomena | Phenomenon 31 | |
| PoIs | The Travellers | |
| Objects | Object 22 | |
| Tales | A Late Letter to a Late Friend | Case Closed | J. Doe and His Night With Your Mom | Permission Overwritten | The War For Scene-01.1 | |
| The playground | Click me! | |
Hey Esther.
Oh, look who it is.
Yeah, I know, I haven't messaged in a while. Sorry. I've been a bit busy with things. I'm sure you have been too?
Like you wouldn't believe, Magnus. What is it you want.
I want to apologise, Esther, I'm sorry for what I did.
I want you to tell me what you did.
What?
What do you mean 'what'? You acted like you cared about what I was going through until I got uncomfortable from your advances, and then it was nothing but small talk until being ghosted. At a time like this, I needed your comfort.
Yes, of course I'm sorry! It was wrong of me to do, and I've felt bad about it. I didn't know how to apologise properly, which is why I've been inactive.
You didn't say what you did.
Hello?
Magnus?
The entire time I was thinking ''can you believe the audacity??'' I won't finish the last part of that quote. I get I made her upset and pushed things too far, but I really feel like I'm being hounded on a lot for simply misreading the room. You'd think that with the issues and paperwork that comes with the passing of her mom she'd have way bigger, much worse things to think about than some small advances I made she didn't like. Whatever, no person is without their little quirks, and that's especially true for Esther. And Holly, come to think of it. God, she was a pain too, considering I've given her an almost endless stream of pages to write free of charge. I would've been more grateful myself, but there you go, I suppose.
I left the chat with Esther in the end, I have a few things going on and job applications to sift through. It doesn't matter which one I go for, I'm pretty sure when the resurrection of dead levels becomes huge I'll be able to mooch off residuals and other stuff. I mean, it'll be a shift of culture, I better get something from it you know?
I'll check back in with Esther tomorrow, a momentary bit of ghosting never hurt anybody. It's the extended ghosting that seems to cause the issues, so just doing it for a few days and letting Esther sort out family shit should work better. Hopefully her rudeness will ruminate around in her skull and she can realise she took things a bit too far. I'll see. In any case, I have much bigger plans at hand.
Sorry for vanishing again. I got a sudden job interview that seemed pretty urgent. Apparently one of the chip shops needed a new worker ASAP.
It's okay. Look, Magnus, you don't need to lie to me. I get why you left the chat.
What do you mean?
I was being a bitch, I'm sorry. You already know why I am, but it still doesn't excuse it.
Don't say that.
Why not? It's true? I've felt so fucking lost after my mom died, I really need her help with these stupid forms and obviously I can't get it. And no, I'm not contacting my useless Dad, not after he flunked getting the train to see Mom pass.
If you say so, I guess. Are you at least feeling better?
I'm not angry anymore, if that's what you mean. Are you really sorry? Genuinely?
Of course I am, Esther. I'd never want to make you uncomfortable or do wrong by you.
Thanks. I'll make sure you don't have a reason to be a stranger. Sorry about that again.
No need to apologise.
:)
Honestly, I think I'm beginning to impress even myself with these recent streaks of plans, I genuinely think what happened yesterday was one of the best accidental moves I've ever done. I'm back on Esther's good side! Excellent! And all it took was a momentary ghost, I knew it'd work. If only everyone worked like that, then maybe Holly Clove would've been less frumpy with me. Oh well.
I've also finished writing the different transcripts for my plan, which has been a lot of fun actually! It's pretty neat pretending to be different people for each different thing I wrote, and making sure I wasn't repetitive at any point with my writing as well. I mean, that was difficult to do, almost as much as coming up with a bunch of different handwritings. (I ended up letting AI do a few of them for me. These all get scanned digitally anyways, should be fine.) However, unless I suddenly think of something more to do, I'm done. Okay, no doubt I'll do some more tomorrow before I head out and enact the next step of my plan, but that's the fun of it! This is definitely going to take a few days to do in its entirety, but I doubt anyone will notice.
Hey! How are you today, Esther?
Better, I think. Definitely not as good as you are, though.
Well, I feel better knowing you're doing better? Sleep well?
Um, no, not really. When I did get to sleep I went out like a light, but I opted to stay up for hours getting some leftover forms filled in. At least they're all done now.
Congrats! Glad to hear you're pushing through it, I knew you could. How much is left?
Oh god I'm not even sure myself, Magnus. Lol.
But, um.
Look.
It's a Tuesday, I'm already exhausted, and let's face it we're both unemployed. Do you want to come over? I'm in a good enough state to have a visitor I think.
Ah. Honestly, I'd love to! But I've got a thing going, it's important. It's potential work related. Maybe on Thursday? Then maybe we can do a second meetup on Monday?
Why are you planning two?
I'd like to make it regular?
Oh! Definitely then! You're on.
. . .
<Begin Transcript at: 08:46AM>
Date: 21/04/37
Location: Level 608's main auditorium, captured from security cameras AA-1, AA-2, AA-3, AA-4, and AB-1.
Person/People of Note: Magnus Grand.
[Despite being a weekday, Level 608's main auditorium was seeming particularly packed, primarily with one or two parents and their children that seemed either ill or too young to be in education. Within the main hall today, among the constantly present Railwayman's Broth Café, the various educational tents, the main entrance and queue to enter the level, and the turntable in the middle with countless famous locomotives around it, was a large seating area at the back of the room that surrounded a myriad of tables. Whilst the sparsely populated chairs were taken up by adults, the tables were surrounded by children of extremely young ages, playing with various toy building blocks and trains that were manufactured for very young kids.
Among the crowd of parents watching their young was a childless individual, the same age as some of the parents but far younger than others. He wasn't solely watching the playing children, as his eyes appeared to wander to the other landmarks around the room, (most notably one of the streamlined trains and the Railwayman's Broth Café queue) but he was focused on the youth's more than other things. About an hour after he sat, he got up, stretching his arms and letting the seemingly heavy messenger bag fall off his lap and to his side, held onto his person by the shoulder strap. With that, he began to walk the main hall, stopping at the informational podium for the train he had previously been eyeing.]
'Blake': Hey, you! I'm Blake! Did you know that this train, the Duchess of Hamilton, was built in 1938 Crewe? That's a city in the Frontrooms with a population of 53,8874, under the umbrella of England! Ain't that cool!
Magnus Grand: …Dumb.
[Magnus Grand scoffed at the podium, which had begun to speak to him through a tinny speaker using the AI recreation of Blake, with a basic 3d animation playing on the screen at the podium's top in-place of the wall of text that was there prior. Magnus stared blankly at the screen though, even when the AI blanked on how to reply to his statement and the animation awkwardly replayed the same idle animation repeatedly, giving subtle glances to the second, different podium to the left of it.]
Magnus Grand: You know, 'Blake', what passed as entertainment when I was young was far better than whatever the hell you are.
[Magnus sneered at the screen with what seemed to be a degree of genuine distain, moving slowly towards the second podium. Instead of being informational, this pillar was designed to take reviews and recommendations not only of Level 608 itself, but also for the recent remodelling's and refurbishments done to countless levels in general—which were sent straight to a wide variety of divisions for reading, archival, and potential follow-through. The front side of the podium had an angled embossment on the front that held a tablet within it for writing reviews, but it also had a thin yet wide hole designed for accepting written notes as well. From his bag, Magnus procured a written note, haphazardly taken from a bound stack of many others, and slotted it into the podium.]
Magnus Grand: There you go…
[After the podium accepted the paper, its internals gave a momentary whir, and the screen switched to a message that first read "Checking for profanity" and then "Checking for relevance". After a final whirring, the screen flashed a big green tick, and then returned to the digital keyboard and notepad it usually displayed.]
Magnus Grand: Welp, that was boring. Can't wait to do it again.
[Magnus Grand pivoted slowly on his heel, twisting and sauntering to the Railwayman's Broth Café.]
Assessing further relevancy—-potential for brevity.
. . .
Brevity assessed—-summarising further events.
[After ordering some basic food, Magnus returned to sit in the temporary play area, taking a different seat to the one he had before without realising. He crossed his legs, and diverted his attention between similar landmarks to the ones he had done the previous time, although he switched to staring at the shorter and stockier one instead of the large one from before. After another hour had passed, Magnus righted himself again and made his way to the locomotive he'd been eyeing. Just like the previous one, by the side of this steam engine was a podium designed to accept reviews and suggestions, to which Magnus Grand submitted another paper taken randomly from his bag.
This pattern of sitting and submitting forms on an hourly basis continued for the entire time that Level 608 was opened for, only halting after eleven different submissions. These submissions were all distributed at a different podium each time, all but one of which was located inside the main auditorium. At the end of the day, Magnus was one of the last to leave, excluding the closing staff.]
Cross-referencing suspicious activity with subsequent surveillance transcripts.
. . .
Cross-referencing concluded. Similar patterns by [Magnus Grand] enacted on the following dates:
- 22/04/37
- 24/04/37
- 25/04/37
- 26/04/37
- 28/04/37