First of Us | Audio

[mallrats]

Man this thing is ancient.

[Beep, beep, beeeeep. She's pressing buttons. Possibly trying to dial a number.]

But there's no service so does it even work?

[She studies it closely and when she finally sees the blinking 'record' light, she realizes oh hey it does work and it's been on this whole time.]

This is so fucking cool. Hello? Is anybody on the other end? I'm Ellie and I'm from the future. If you meet a grumpy old guy named Joel tell him to give me a ring [did they say that back then?] cause this is some weird shit.

Comments

[Audio]

[dominateartimus]

Hello Ellie. Welcome to the Black Tide. [A chuckle is heard.] I haven't seen a man with that description on board.

This device doesn't work as you think it does. Most people tend to stick with audio or video posts and responses to avoid fighting with text input.

[Audio]

[mallrats]

Holy shit!

[The phone drops and Ellie scrambles to pick it up]

Don't do that! You scared the shit out of me.

[Audio]

[dominateartimus]

Kind of hard to avoid when you want answers. Although I guess I could have left a text message instead.

[Audio]

[mallrats]

Well, I wasn't expecting anyone to answer. Phones haven't worked in...a really long time.

[Now that her heart isn't beating a mile a minute...]

So what's going on? Where am I?

[Audio]

[dominateartimus]

[That's interesting. He sounds rather curious with his questions.] Really? New technology made them non-existent?

[A sigh is heard.]

As I said before, welcome to the Black Tide. We're heading to the "Golden Shore" as marked by the map in your room. Don't mind the shrunken heads in the bathroom, they're harmless. Much like the beings with their mouth sewn shut who roam the halls.

[Audio]

[mallrats]

Pfft no. Civilization kind of fell apart after the outbreak? [Seriously, dude, where have you been?]

Did you just say shrunken heads in the bathroom? You've gotta be fuckin' with me.

[Video]

[strongerthanilook]

The future? When in the future?

[She went to the future once. It was terrible.

Also, Star doesn't really pick up on sarcasm too well.]

My name is Starfire. It is nice to meet you! I will let you know if I meet this 'Joel'.

[Video]

[mallrats]

[Ellie stares. She just stares at the girl in her old as balls phone. This can't be real.]

You're not that guy from before.

[Video]

[strongerthanilook]

Um.....No?

[Starfire is a bit confused, but tries to be helpful.]

You can speak to many different people at once using the communicators!

[audio]

[mallrats]

Oh.

[Oh. Ellie sighs then decides to buck up.]

Well who am I talking to now?

[video]

[strongerthanilook]

My name is Starfire. What is yours?

[Poor girl sounds confused and lost. Starfire remembers that feeling. Don't worry, Ellie, your new best friend ever is here.]

[video]

[mallrats]

Ellie.

[Ellie kind of laughs at her name though.]

I like your name. Reminds me of Savage Starlight.

AUDIO

[skyruleanhero]

Hi? My name's Link.

[The future? Link wondered how this girl got a hold of the timeshift stones. Zelda had them set to be essentially buried away in some vault and the truth of their existence kept from the populace at large. At least that's how the talks with the Sheikah had last sounded.]

Did you really just say your from the Future?

AUDIO

[mallrats]

How many of you fucking are there?

[Sorry Link she's kind of stressed right now. Give her a minute.]

AUDIO

[skyruleanhero]

[Link doesn't know the answer to that, which is evident by his slow start to actually speaking in response.]

I've only met a few people...although if that one. Gathering? Was a clue there's quite a few of us....

[And all of them taken away from their homes...he missed his Loftwing. He missed Zelda. Link sighed.]

AUDIO

[mallrats]

Where are we? That other dude said it was a ship? But that's not possible. This isn't possible.

AUDIO

[skyruleanhero]

No. It's definitely a ship. You can see the water from the top deck and there is no mistaking the sea.

[Link has spent essentially months hanging out on the top deck. It is definitely a ship.]

I've...spent a lot of time skygazing up there.

AUDIO

[mallrats]

[Ellie sighs quietly.]

Hey, I'm sorry for snapping earlier. This is all. A lot to take in.

TEXT

[talkback_hound]

its not ancient!!!

[Oh no. How old is she? He hated when kids came aboard, that was always The Worst. How do you break it to a kid that their world ended, probably super violently? Like maybe in an apocalypse of some sort?]

if ur from the future it doesnt count ok

Audio

[mallrats]

It is too, have you seen this thing? Even phones from back then don't look like this anymore.

[She's seen more than her fair share of busted cell phones and land lines, she should know.]

Bullshit, how does it not count?

[BACKDATED BECAUSE I'M A LOSER???] [also audio]

[needsnobottle]

Okay, Marty McFly future guy, how far into the future are you? Are we talking Fast and the Furious 17 future, or apes taking over the planet future?

[mallrats]

Like way in the future. Like people are infected and turning into runners all the time and it's going to hell really fast future.

[...]

What's Fast and the Furious? And who is Marty McFly?

[audio]

[needsnobottle]

Wow. It must be a hell of a long ass way into the future if you aren't catching a Back to the Future reference. Here I was hoping that film would outlast the species.

What's a runner? Do I want to know?

[audio]

[mallrats]

So it was a movie? That's kind of cool. What was it about?

Runners are first stage infected. They're not as bad as clickers or bloaters though.

[audio]

[needsnobottle]

Guy builds a time machine out of a Dol- a car, and manages to piss off some gangsters he used to purchase radioactive material from, so his teenaged fanboy sidekick uses the time machine to escape and ends up back in the past right as his mother and father are about to meet and has to hook up with the scientist guy to get him back to the present while also avoiding his horny mom.

It's...a classic.

I'm guessing that clickers and bloaters are more advanced infected.