un:antigoneiguess | audio

[rudelanguage]

S...that's fine, yeah. This'll...this'll be great. [beat.

oh.

oh fuck we're on! Antigonevoice GO]

Oh! Uh! Hhhhey! Heyyy, so uh. Did anyone get offered to, uh...buy a guy? During the fog stuff?

Quick yes or no works.

[...]

That's all.

Comments

I’m: CliveRosfield | text

[herofhopeless]

No. Are you alright?

[He says to a person who tried to knife him.]

[rudelanguage]

[it's okay, that person is currently being a girl and a furry right now.

the delay is only because she has to wait for text-to-speech. enjoy your government-assigned voice, dude.]

Me? Oh, oh yeah! I'm not the guy.

Voice

[herofhopeless]

Who asked if you wanted to buy someone?

[Because Clive and that person need to talk.]

[rudelanguage]

[okay NOW the pause is because Knife recognizes that voice and needs a second to remember if he's a Pending contact or an Antigone contact.

...they're 80pct sure it was Pending. so. play stupid! and if that fails...play stupider!]

Some funky demon-fiend-monster-guy. Beaky face. Asking because I dunno if I poisoned that whole thing up or not, y'know?

Cw: mention of human trafficking

[herofhopeless]

Demon fiend monster guy. Did he give you any other identifiers? A name or anything? Who did he try to sell you?

[This could have been a hallucination but if someone is starting a human trafficking ring, he needs to shut it down immediately.]

[rudelanguage]

Uhhhh...nnnot? That I recall? I didn't ask. Kinda bad to exchange names with things like that, I figure. Also I was kinda scared shitless?

[herofhopeless]

So, out of curiosity, why are you asking? Did you purchase the person?

[rudelanguage]

I meannnnnnnnnnn....

[...

...

...

...

she trails off.]

[herofhopeless]

[A brief pause.]

Who did you buy?

[rudelanguage]

I meannnnnnnnnnnnnnn...!

[the sound pitches up and then vocalizes in an I dunno implication.]

[herofhopeless]

Who. Did you. Buy.

[Clive sighs. You can practically hear him pinching the bridge of his nose.]

You know what? Never mind that part. Did you sign anything? And if you did, did you read it first?

[rudelanguage]

Hey, come on! I'm not that stupid! [Also I can't really write much so it's not like I COULD, ha. Haha. Ha...] I just! I don't know the guy's name, okay? No paper, just bottlecaps, y'know!

[herofhopeless]

Do you know what he loo-

[Clive coughs.]

Bottlecaps? You bought a man with bottlecaps?

[rudelanguage]

One.

[beat.]

I, I threw in some food I was saving for later? To like, get the monster to go away? [that makes it better doesn't it.]

[herofhopeless]

Okay. You bought a man for a bottlecap and some food. Did you make any agreements with the thing other than just buying a guy? I'm not sure what magic contracts might look like, but couldn't you just, I don't know, let him go?

[Also a beat.]

Unless he can't care for himself. And if that's the case, we should find him.

[rudelanguage]

[yelling over him:] Hey! Heyheyheyheyhey we're kinda jumping twenty steps ahead, aren't we, guy?! I was only throwing this out there to find out if it was even real!

[herofhopeless]

Ah.

[Well, now he's a little embarassed.]

Fair point. The fog did... a lot. So, have you come to any conclusions?

[rudelanguage]

[loud huff. Sheesh!!]

That it might've been just me! And that I've made people assume the worst of me for no good reason.

[herofhopeless]

Well, most people don't respond well to one person purchasing another. Why did you buy this bottlecap man, anyway?

[Clive has decided that is what he is going to refer to this person as. Bottlecap man.]

[rudelanguage]

To get the demon-guy to leave me alone. [said like that was the obvious thing to do.]

[herofhopeless]

Ah. Fair enough, I suppose. So, what are you going to do with him?

[This was such a weird conversation and the idea of someone owning another person went against everything he stood for, but it was sounding more and more like this person was tricked, or at least coerced.]

[rudelanguage]

If it's legit? [...] I dunno. Maybe he can carry stuff for me now n' then or whatever. S'not like I need someone waiting on me hand and foot, and we already got slaves in this city for the rest.

[herofhopeless]

Here’s a thought: you could release him from bondage.

[rudelanguage]

[beat.

flat:] If he can't release himself from a one-bottlecap deal, why do I gotta do it? C'mon.

[herofhopeless]

Because it’s the decent thing to do.