dramatispersonae

Citrine

[ You’re in a corporate boardroom… of sorts. There’s no door and the walls are all glass, open to a clear blue sky, but if you look out the glass and down, there’s nothing but a layer of fluffy white clouds. If you look up, nothing but sky and sun. The room is dominated by an odd table that hasn’t decided what shape it wants to be – there’s a square corner on one end, but the rest of it is wavy and ellipsoid. The chairs are swiveling leather office chairs, quite comfortable and quite ordinary. The tea service and digestives have come along as well.

In the middle of the table are three typewriters with paper primed and ready to go, the mailbox, and a typewritten.

Dear Quail:

We’ve gotten some very good submissions so far, but not enough to go to print! Talk amongst yourselves and write a letter asking for help solving a problem that you face, as a team or as individuals. And don’t be afraid to send in more than one. We’re such a popular feature!

- M

]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[This is stupid.]

Come on, it's fine.

[sitting down]

[Says you. Being forced to help people, though ... not that new.]

I don't think anyone's gonna truthfully ask stuff.

I think you'd be surprised.

Anyway, we don't have to do anything you're uncomfortable with.

[At least there's that.]

You got anything you wanna ask?

I wrote my own letter . . . what would we want to ask as a team?

"How do we learn to be less invasive?"

It's voluntary, isn't it?

Is it?

If we wanted, we could write something really unimportant, right?

Would we win?

Well, that's the line, right? You can make your choices, but you can't guarantee that your choices will have the results you want.

You can ask a good question without going too far.

Mm . . .

"What advice would you give to people who haven't remembered a lot, when they're feeling confused or directionless? What's helped you the most as you started to gain back your sense of who you are?"

... Works for me. Though you don't need memories to have a direction.

Maybe. But I think it changes things.

What else would you say? For a different letter.

Something about ... adjusting to a team.

"What do you think about the concept of being on 'teams' here? What do you think the best way is to adjust to living and working and relying on people that you hardly know, just because you're told to? For the most part, it seems to work out, but why do you think that is—and do you think that it's something you should work towards, or is it fine if there are some people that don't want to be part of it?"

That's good.

Okay.

[ submissions go here with your team name in the subject of the comment ]

[ One of the typewriters begins typing on its own, eventually printing out:

Excellent, excellent, this is enough material to keep us going for quite some time. Now, get to work answering the letters!

The mailbox makes a coughing noise, and up comes a… large newspaper. Each column starts with one of these letters. The space below each letter is blank… for now.

The typewriter keeps going:

Just stick your letter in the mailbox – “Dear So-and-So” – and it will find its way into print. Oh, but we don’t want to give bad advice. If you see someone giving advice you disagree with, feel free to correct them. Remember, you get paid by the word… no, paid by the letter… no, brevity can be the soul of wit… no, rewarded based on productivity… aha! Giving a good answer or many good answers will help you win! But the newspaper business can be about entertainment, so there’ll be a reward for pleasing your peers as well. Yes, those are good criteria.

Now, get to work.

- M

Yes. It’s a magical newspaper that will update in Aather-realtime with the contents of the linked DP post, so your characters can snipe at other letter writers and call their advice terrible.

Use this thread for discussion and this post for submissions. ]

... These letters.

There's a lot . . .

[reading]

[GETS HALFWAY THROUGH AND STARTS TO MAKE OFFENDED SQUAWKING NOISES, PUFFING UP]

... What is it?

[FIERCELY TYPING IN RESPONSE TO this]

[... Yeah, none of my business.]

I'll go answer some people, then.

Okay!!

[Isn't he a little young...?]

Okay.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Citrine

ROUND ONE

DISCUSSION

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SUBMISSIONS

ROUND TWO

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