“Now these are all things I can answer!” He sets his camera bag aside on the floor and rolls up his right sleeve, exposing more of his black carbon-fibre-and-titanium body to the light. Seams within his arm are highlighted in a metallic red and blue, indicating the points of movement- yet there are more of these accents along his forearm than one would assume should be. The question of what these are is quickly answered as his eyes light up (literally) for a moment as the panels shift open and out, unfolding to reveal a large metal blade with a faintly glowing edge. Despite the large, scary knife-thing now protruding from his unfolded arm, Forty only smiles.
“In the event of a short to medium distance threat that I cannot escape or otherwise de-escalate without apprehending the aggressor, I’m equipped with dual stealth jump blades with a heating element that can reach temperatures up to two hundred-and-thirty-two degrees Celsius,” he says with pride. “I have another in the other arm as well!” He holds his arm out and rotates it for a moment in the light before retracting it back into a closed state and rolling his sleeve back down. “I also keep a nine millimeter Eira Arms military grade smart pistol in my thigh compartment for long range defenses.” CHSR grins wide, clearly excited to show off his fancy, scary toys to his temporary commander- but he jolts up and stammers out of his excitement. “O-of course these are only mandated for use in dangerous situations where I have no way out. I’m sure that there won’t be any of those here- I have been informed that the aftermath of violent altercations can be quite the hassle to clean up after and I have no intention to inconvenience you!”
With that out of the way, Forty takes his seat again and moves into Thursday’s next question.
“In regards to my world… I haven’t seen all of it! There is a wide, wide world out there, but what I do know is that I am from MiriAi, an independent country of the west coast of Forsenan! Surrounded by its bay and the edge of the Garante Ocean, it’s all quite wonderful. The water reflects well upon the skyscrapers that make up the majority of the urban area. I think it’s the most beautiful place in the world! The people of MiriAi are very civil and understanding, but there can be a select few that aren’t very nice, but I’ve yet to fully encounter any. Oh! And how could I forget! Mister President! He runs the country and keeps all of us safe- with some help, of course. That’s where I come in. As the lead of Channel Fourty, I provide information, entertainment, and connection to the people of MiriAi for their benefit! I like my job quite a bit- well, I was made for it after all, so it’s no wonder I’m good at it. It’s great to talk to people, ask them things, and show off! I learn so much! Aren’t people just so interesting?”
“Let’s see… I don’t really read books, mostly scripts if I really really need them, but not often. I’ve never eaten mint chip ice cream! I don’t need to eat, but I’d like to! Can I eat? Guess there’s only one way of finding out. Ooh, that’s a new idea for a segment- ‘Tasting Things’, how educational! Hobbies… my job? Oh, and games! I don’t much play games anymore, but back in my Orientation days we played many games! I liked ‘Assign and Find’ the most! Back then, we had a whole town just for us! Sensei or Professor would present us a picture of someone in the town, like the mail lady, or the bartender, or the grocer, and it was our task to locate them! The harder version would be one of the townsfolk and we had to search for them and surprise them without being initially detected for a silver star on our records. Perhaps I wasn’t the best at the game, but I always enjoyed talking to everyone after I found them.”
Now, Thursday has seen many interesting things in and among the offices. A nine-foot-tall death god; a shadow man who lives in her computer; a virus-turned-human; a man made out of polygons; a man who shoved a can of soda into his face; a man with glowing eyes who could hover off the floor; a giant humanoid robot with a rainbow computer screen emoji face; and a scary Pikachu man. So the sight of the man now before her who appears to be some kind of android or otherwise manufactured being is not a shock to her, or even a surprise.
No, the shock and surprise is the fact that he is harboring two horrifying deadly weapons within his arms, positioned and hidden beneath a perfectly warm, friendly smile.
The fact that he is also carrying on his person a firearm doesn’t even really register to her.
…Needless to say, she’ll be having that talk with Austin at the soonest available moment.
“Ahahahaha, wow, Forty! You sure are packing some heat there!” she says, impressed in spite of her concern - not in the fact that he has the weapons, but by the fact that he may eventually come to a point where he’ll need to use them. Well, she’ll do all she can to ensure that doesn’t happen. “Looking at you, I never would have guessed, and I’m sure no one else will either. All right. I believe you when you say you’ll only use all that when necessary. I mean, you do what you need to protect yourself, leave the aftermath to me, and that’s that, all right?”
She eases significantly when he moves on to the next subjects. It isn’t often she meets someone as verbose as she is and it excites her and further piques her curiosity for sure.
“Oh, but how can you say it’s the most beautiful place in the whole world if you haven’t seen the whole world, Forty?” she laughs. “Ah, I’m kidding, just kidding. It sounds really wonderful! I’ve never seen anything like any of that. All I have ever seen are these offices. Well, no, that’s not 100% true - I do have ways of going to some worlds outside of these offices, but not often.”
“I think you’ll fit right in here, though! I mean, at least until we can maybe, hopefully, some day find you a way back home. Until then, there are all sorts of interesting folks you’ll likely meet here. And I’m sure plenty of them will talk to you at great length about themselves if you ask. Particularly some of the Narrators, like me - they usually love to talk. Of course there’s always the chance you’ll encounter one who doesn’t like to talk so much,” she says, clearing her throat while she turns around and gives Cyrus a pointed look. But Cyrus is too busy lying down on his cot and facing the other direction to notice. “And in any case, you can of course always talk to me as much as you like. I love talking, and I love listening! You are 100% correct, Forty - people are interesting!”
Her jaw then about hits the floor. “Ahhh, you don’t read books?! Okay, okay, nobody panic! Forty! I’ll get you some books as soon as I can! I’ll try to manifest in as many as I can remember in enough detail! See, I can bring in objects, but with limitations - I obviously can’t recreate a book I’ve never read before. Or I’ll see if one of my other friends can get them for me and get you started reading right away. When you read, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anybody! At least let me give you one book to read and if you like it enough, I’ll get you some more. What do you say?”
“…Are you going to be getting him one of your lovely horror books, Thursday?” Cyrus grouses from where he is lying down.
Thursday ignores him. Of course she isn’t going to be showing books full of horrific things to this sweet and innocent camera man down in her office! …Unless he turns out to be into that genre as well, and then HAPPY DAYS for her.
“Also, yes, yes, of course you can eat! I mean, as long as your physiology can handle it, I’ll bring you all the foods I can for you to try. And you can do your whole ‘Tasting Things’ thing down in the, ummmm- oh! The boss’ office. Nice and professional in there. Or! The employee lounge, if you prefer someplace a bit more laid back. Wherever you like - I’ll give you a tour of the whole office some time, too.”
“Now, this ‘Assign and Find’ game sounds like a lot of fun! Kind of like hide and seek, but in reverse. Maybe we’ll play some time, eh? Not that I have a lot of pictures of people, but maybe we could do it with objects.”
She’s already getting story ideas for him. It’s only a matter of time before she is narrating for him and sending him off on little treasure hunts like with the Stanlurines. Oh it fills her with such joy to imagine. Hopefully Forty will be up for it after he’s had some time to settle in.
She can’t resist sharing her excitement with him: “We’re going to have so much fun here, Forty!”
