WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[The train wouldn't stop. Not until very early the next morning. The few who might have been awake would be able to exit the train, entering the cool twilight of the dawn. The star is dark, and few stars can be seen in the sky as a cold breeze begins to blow from the mountain beyond. You can see some chunks of rock floating idly nearby, far away from the station that it won't hit trains, but near enough that one can see they are larger than the train they just disembarked.

Lastly, laid out in front of them, the first port of call: Menahoven. The mountain: The Throat of the World.

But which world? Who knows. Not any of yours. Maybe it doesn't matter. Not when you are so far from home. Not when you have no way to get off this rock without the aid of the trains-and they will not let you pass.

It looks like you're stuck here until the Conductor decides to leave. In the meantime, everyone will need to get comfortable.


There are fifteen strangers left in this place.]

Comments

[strangerpeople]

[An excellent idea! Anything else you wish to ste-I mean, magically cause to disappear?]

[technicolourdifficulties]

[The soul gem seems like it might have some use, so one of those, definitely. As for anything else...

...He's not sure he likes the idea that someone else might get their hands on a sword, especially with a battle junkie among the passengers. What if he just... carefully smuggles that out too?]

[strangerpeople]

[Hmm, that one seems to be...unmovable for some reason.]

[technicolourdifficulties]

[...That's both comforting, and also very, very not.

And also a sign that he should probably go for now. Lingering at the scene of the crime is a good way to get caught.]

[strangerpeople]

[While he leaves, he might notice a newspaper, half-folded, on the counter as well.]

[technicolourdifficulties]

[He'll take that too as a consolation prize for not being able to get the sword and read it when he's a safe distance away.]

[strangerpeople]

[Will he read it, then, once he had gotten said safe distance?]

[technicolourdifficulties]

[Yes, and he'll lean against the wall dramatically while doing it.]

EVIDENCE - Beloved Empress Announces Budgetary Changes

[strangerpeople]

[It is dated several weeks ago? You think? It seems relatively recent.]


Our eternal and ever-correct Thrice-Renewed Majesty announced, through a proclamation sent to every newspaper in the Empire, a restructuring of the Hours budget effective immediately.

“After a long and deep internal review, our Empress has declared in writ a reduction in all endowments of government-owned Hours to the workworlds, retirees, and Deathless by up to 10 percent, effective immediately,” the announcement reads. “Everyone affected shall receive an official invoice within the next week informing them of this change.”

The statement also revealed that in the next five years, the Empress shall call for gradual reduction of these allotments until all departments being audited have reduced their Hours needs by an astonishing 25 percent, resulting in an astonishing and incalculable Hours surplus. As the Empress of Hours, her Enduring Majesty has full authority to decide where Hours may be allotted within the empire

Many with endowments are incensed about this change taking effect, which was promised several months prior, and they have intended to protest in front of the Throne of Hours in the hopes their voices will be heard before the Ministry comes in. The governors of the workworlds have also sent out their own statement, saying they intend to file a complaint with the Floating Parliament, in the hopes that there is a legal means to repeal this writ without trouble, claiming it jeopardizes a perfectly good business model and defies logic.

“It’s all nonsense, these reductions to our endowments,” said a Deathless residing in the Mausoleum who deigned, on the condition of strict anonymity, to speak to our reporter on the issue. “She made a promise to us that we’d be cared for when we legally died and now she’s breaking that promise. We put up with her and this is our thanks? She didn’t even say who was getting these extra Hours she’s taking from us! Surely she’s still got plenty of Hours left for herself inside that Throne of hers, right? If not us, then who’s getting this bloody surplus she’s trying to make?”

1/2

[technicolourdifficulties]

2/2

[technicolourdifficulties]

...Oh bloody hell. This does not bode well.

[He'd have stronger words to accompany the fear oozing from his screen, but the possibility of children being around keeps him from voicing them. Capitalization means manifestations of concepts in his experience, and RGB certainly doesn't like the sound of something as strange and nebulous as time being used as a commodity.]