OPERATOR.

[guestservices]

OPERATOR

Today, when Tsurumaru is in his bedroom, he will receive a message on his typewriter.

Sorry for the interruption in your routine, but your presence is required.

Immediately after he finishes reading the message, he will feel compelled to walk into the elevator, inside which a shadowy elevator attendant appears as a guide. Once he arrives at the destination, he will find himself in a room.

The room looks to be a control area, one wall lined with machinery covered in panels and unlabeled buttons and switches; pushing or pulling them doesn't appear to do anything, however. Prominently, a number of phones are hooked up to the wall as well, with lights on or off to signify their active state.

Cetus is leaning against a different wall, but they hold up a hand in friendly acknowledgment when Tsurumaru enters.

"We don't want you gone for too long, so I'll be getting straight to the point."

They walk over to Tsurumaru and hand him a pen and a paper that reads PARTICIPATION CONTRACT: ADDENDUM.

"Read it carefully and sign it, if you would."

RULES

1. Once a week, the Operator will be required to oversee phone operations in the hotel.
2. The Operator will be given a choice between the available lines to tap into.
3. The Operator will be able to hear a conversation, the nature of which depends on the line chosen.
4. The Operator is not to disclose that they are performing these duties. Discussing them with anyone other than authorized Hotel Staff will be considered breach of contract and will result in the death of LILI AN.

N̸A̵V̴I̶G̶A̶T̴I̴O̸N̷.̷

█ LOCATIONS █ STATUSES █ PROFILES █ AUDIENCES
█ REPORTING █ PRIVATE CONVOS █ MURDER

Comments

[preowned]

Hm, nothing really...

Lepus is very confrontational.

[guestservices]

Though they probably have their reasons, unfortunately so.

[preowned]

Ha ha, probably. But you guys are all really different from each other. It makes me wonder how you do your work together.

[guestservices]

We...

... manage.

[preowned]

Do you think it's getting easier?

[guestservices]

I don't think it's gotten harder or easier, exactly.

[preowned]

Hm, so it's just... the same?

[guestservices]

At this point, it's mostly a matter of handling each other's quirks, which we've been doing for a while anyway. It's nothing too bad.

[preowned]

As long as you're all getting along.

[ cetus didn't say that ]

Oh, I have a question that you likely can't even answer but I am going to ask it anyway. The thing that saved Cloud-- could it have been someone with a task like this?

[guestservices]

[a slight tilt of their head]

Points for trying, but you would be correct that I can't answer that.

[preowned]

I figured! [ he still had to try. ] But I am also assuming we can't count on something like that happening every week?

[guestservices]

I probably wouldn't count on it, no.

[preowned]

[ he nods... ]

Good to know. Another question-- did anyone approach you all about the paper Dimitri and the others received on their adventure? It looked like some sort of game.

[guestservices]

[headtilt]

I haven't been told about any paper.

[preowned]

Ah, it was like...

[ he pulls out his notebook from his sleeve to like. for once in his life use this for something other than shitty tip drawings.

he is going to try his best to do a rendition of this but it won't be 100% accurate work by word. he's not rewriting the potty mouth ]

It was something like this on hotel paper.

[guestservices]

[they peer at it.]

AH. No wonder Gemini's been in a poor mood today.

[preowned]

Is this offensive to Gemini?

[guestservices]

People slacking off does...

[preowned]

Are the people doing this staff then?

[guestservices]

Mm-hmm.

[preowned]

Ah...

Why is it showing up in a random spot?

[guestservices]

The hotel can have its own whims at times, I guess.

[preowned]

I think it has its own whims a lot of the time?

[guestservices]

[a pause]

That's true.

[preowned]

Do you have any idea what word they were trying to guess?

[ he knows this is a long shot ]