text;

[keep_smiling]

Hello everyone! If we haven't met, my name is Elmer. I've been here for a few weeks now, I suppose. It's good to meet you all! This place is pretty interesting, to say the least, and everyone I've met has been very fascinating. It's nice to meet so many people from places so different from my own. ＼(＾O＾)／

I have a question, though! I'm looking for a man named Victor Talbot. He was here not too long ago and now I've lost track of him completely. Typical for him, really, but in this closed-off city, I feel like it'd be harder to just disappear like that. Maybe you've seen him? Dark hair, glasses, cool sideburns, yells a lot. Let me know if you see him. Or if you're reading this, Victor, say hi already! (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ

While I have your attention, why not tell me a little about yourself? Let's break the ice this way: tell me one thing that makes you smile, no matter what. What's guaranteed to cheer you up? (・w・)

Comments

[text]

[synthedick]

Mr. Talbot dropped by the Guard headquarters a little over a month ago, but I haven't seen him since. You a friend of his?

[keep_smiling]

Now that doesn't surprise me. I'm guessing by the name that the Guard is some sort of safety patrol or law enforcement? That's sort of his business back home. And yes, I am! [Victor would disagree.] We were rooming together too, so it was easy to notice he hadn't been around since things had gotten very quiet all of a sudden. :P

[synthedick]

More patrol than police. We do what we can to keep the people here safe, both from the gods and each other. He told me he had some experience with investigations.

[Specifically the Division of Investigation, but he'd rather not put anything that might be sensitive on the network.]

How long has he been missing?

[keep_smiling]

I see! That's good. And yes, he was an investigator. Back home he worked for the FBI.

A few weeks now, I guess. I'm not sure. He and I had shown up here around the same time, too.

[circumitus]

you know that guy?
haven't seen him around in a few weeks.
best case scenario is that supposedly people sometimes get sent back to wherever they came from.

[Worst case is that they went out into the caves and got eaten/mutilated and not revived yet (or at all), but let's just even humor that thought. Or Elmer's latter query, for that matter.]

[keep_smiling]

I do! I've known him for a very long time. And we showed up here at almost the same time too!

Really? Ha! Knowing Victor, he complained too loudly, and those gods got tired of hearing him and kicked him out. CX

[circumitus]

if we're going by what we've been told as fact, that wouldn't be possible since they don't have the ability to pick and choose who gets to stay here. or so they claim.
which could arguably be a good thing, depending on how you look at it.

[keep_smiling]

They're not very good at being gods if something like that is out of their control, if you ask me. (งツ)ว But I'm no expert. I don't even believe in gods.

Well, if he did get to go home, good on him! I'd say I'd hope he'd let my friends know where I am, but we were here from clearly two different times. Ah well.

video

[skelebro]

[He doesn't say anything. He just sits there with the video on him, grinning wide.

What makes him smile? If you're Sans, the answer is literally everything.






Get it?]

[keep_smiling]

[Elmer laughs at that, but wags his finger at the screen. You can't get away that easily.]

Now that is a good smile. But that doesn't mean you can do that all the time and call it a real smile, right? You can hear a smile in someone's voice, you know.

[skelebro]

I'm always smiling. I'm just that relaxed a guy.

[He pops a wink in the camera's direction. See? Absolutely, totally, and completely happy.

Definitely.]

[keep_smiling]

[Sans, you might be some kind of skeleton monster guy, but that doesn't mean you get away from Elmer's smile radar. No one can slide an unauthentic one past him. No one!]

I believe the first part, but not the second. Don't think you can fake your way past me just because there's a smile always on your face! You should be proud of that fact, though. People who are more easily fooled by it probably find it very welcoming. That should be enough to make it easier to make it a real smile, eh?

text;

[pullback]

I'm not your Victor but hello anyway. Pleasure to meet you Elmer, my name is Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

[ and it is a DAMN SHAME that Victor doesn't know that his buddy back home's real last name is Talbot otherwise he'd talk about that. ]

[keep_smiling]

[Elmer stares at this text for like a good five minutes before responding. The Victor Frankenstein? That's incredible! Or is it a coincidence? Just someone with the same name as the famous literary character? Elmer usually has the subtle tact of a runaway freight train, but even he's wondering how to approach this. He'll think on it. For now:]

Likewise! (ノ・∀・)ノ There's always more room for more Victors in my life. So have you thought about my proposed questions, hmmmm???

[pullback]

I have. And my answer is poetry. I often find myself turning towards Shelley or Keats in times of trouble--a pity since they seem to be nonexistent in this place.

[ he's a snooooooob ]

[keep_smiling]

[Shelley, of course. Elmer is laughing right now.]

Poetry is great! So you haven't found any books here, then? That is a real shame. Have you ever written any your own?

text

[foundafamily]

Haven't seen him in days. Scratch that probably around a month.

[The jerk just spouted some stuff about regret and then vanished. What gives?]

You his friend?

[Szilard hadn't really paid too much attention to the relationships between people except to try to figure out how to use them for his own ends.]

[keep_smiling]

Has it been that long? Where does the time go??? (・ω・)?

You could say that. [Victor wouldn't.] We go way back. I was really surprised to see him here. It'd been awhile since I had seen him last!

[foundafamily]

So he doesn't show up and stick his nose in your business a lot?

[Bitter? No way.]

[keep_smiling]

[Victor liked to do that at a distance with Elmer.]

On the rare occasion, sure! Why, was he doing that to you? Why? (*・_・)??

Text

[64th]

how'd you make those faces?

[keep_smiling]

So if you hold on the keys on the keyboard, you'll get all kinds of letter options! And from there, you just build them from text. The combinations are endless! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[muscovy]

[...

It's not visible through text, but Muscovy's face falls a bit. He thought he just had missed Victor, being too busy elsewhere, but if even his housemate hasn't seen him in ages...

He's been around places like Hadriel for too long to not know what that means.]

When people stop being around, that often means that they were taken away. Maybe back home.

[keep_smiling]

A few people have said that now. Sounds a little unfair to the rest of us, eh? Left behind, and with no closure. But I'm sure Victor is much happier being back home and at work, for sure.

[muscovy]

He could have found work here, too. Without having to compete with thugs and mafioso.

[Whatever that is. But Victor said that he lived city life the best, and Hadriel is a city, but from what he's seen that it lacks those two categories. At least for the most part, he hasn't met anyone and some people will act like a thug around one person and not like one around the next.]

And the longer we are here the longer we can make friends here and stay with them, yes? Or make them smile.

[He thinks about it.]

Sometimes people come and sometimes people leave, so you will never run out of people to make smile, so it is not that different from back home for your goal, yes? And sometimes people that were dead back home or have turned to the other side or gone far away will come here, and then people will be happy and smile because they can be like friends or family with them again. So there is more potential for smiles here than back home.

[Because scary and sad things happen everywhere, Hadriel isn't special in that.]