#chapter 1 red

[kscs-the-radiostar]

A notepad? H-hold on a moment!

[Bits of shuffling can be heard in the background. Quickly you can hear what seems to be paper being set down.]

Okay, I’m ready! Mr. Pence, was it?

||anon asks||

"Don't worry yourself. There's no hurry," he plucks. A pleasant call after whatever happened with Scrollen-

"Yes, Mr. Pence is fine. I hope, surely, you weren't actually trying to call me. Can't imagine why-" he drones on, strumming the cord of his desk phone. The dull vibrations go up and hit the frequency between you two, sending low hums under your voices.

"So, you called an internal line in the Mansion, probably because you'd punched in too few numbers?? Maybe. See, the phone needs careful attention to the exact numbers, pal. Once you get those, you can save the contact. Do you know how to save a contact?"

This goes on for a short time.

:the connection has expired:

:would you like to redial?:

[kscs-the-radiostar]

Your connection is pleasantly quiet, not a stir in the room. It's boring, actually. The only sign Galvan is even there is the sound of papers being filed. Every tap is uncomfortably loud now, and the cabinets are deafening thunder.

But you wouldn't call it the sounds of life.

Is this what his work is like? Is this it?

:Yeah, yeah it is:

How sad...

What a thrill Scrollen must have been last week.

:the connection has expired:

:would you like to redial?:

[kscs-the-radiostar]

[After a page or two of notes were filled, a small sigh could be heard.]

Thank you, Mr. Pence! I don’t think I would have been able to figure out how this phone works alone, fahaha! You said you worked in loaning, right? How does that work?

-❄️

Several minutes of patient explanation have concluded.

||anon asks||

"Happy t' help, stranger," he sighs, a smile in his tone. That is, until he has to answer 'loaning.'

"..Yes, I'm the Royal Treasurer, and I saw it prudent to open the treasury to the public as a means of redistribution. Seemed obvious to me, if you remember the Crash that is." He trails off bitterly, "Everything came with a price, so I came with a delayed price. Call me cruel if you want, but I made a choice. It doesn't hurt me or Lord Swatch to allow loans from the reserves, which served nothing where they were."

He's kind of lost the point-

"This isn't the first time I've dealt in loans or economy either, so don't you worry 'bout a thing. I lent to popups and addisons at my last job; never lost a client. Even Unc-"

He stops...

"Even my previous business partner paid it back... So I finance his cause out of my own pocket..." he says, a man holding back tears.

"Cuz I haven't paid him back yet..."

:the connection is expiring:

:would you like to redial?:

[kscs-the-radiostar]

…Hello? Can anyone hear me? Gosh, I never figured out how to work these things…

:Redialing. . . :

You are connected, and you hear your own call ringing in the room. Galvan sighs as he picks up the phone, dusting his private crime off of himself.

"Galvan Pence, Royal Treasury and Loan, how can I help you?"

||anon asks||

"I can hear you, pal. This your first time with the phone?" There is genuine surprise in his voice, pleasantly fascinated by the idea. "...Did you mean to call me?" He laughs.

"Hold on, I've got time. You got a pad for notes?"

:the connection is on standby:

:would you like to redial?:

[kscs-the-radiostar]

The signal crackles as the connection is set...

You can hear the writing of a pen. Everything sounds so old, like your earpiece is a gramophone. The drone of the static is only somewhat more entertaining than the sound of tapping from an unknown tenant. Until a door is thrown open. The door culprit lets off a tender, shrill 'weee' of disrupted routine as something is tossed into the room. And the something grunts,

"I WAS COMING IN HERE ANYWAY!!"

The tapping stops, and a tired, mellow voice sighs, disinterested and ingenuine, "Hello, Scrollen, are you well?"

"STOP THAT! YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!" the chuckable Scrollen cries.

"...Pardon me. You're my only visitor today, and I wanted to be nice." The pen-tapper moves and rolls a chair back, which from the sound of wheels you assume as much. "I won't make that mistake again."

Scrollen sputters, "N-NO NO NO! I-I-I cAN do nice- I can definitely do nice--"

"I'm just going to pretend you aren't spitting on my pants," the stranger drones. "Your dues are late. Again."

"GALVAN, PLEASE HAVE A [source code]!!!" Scrollen is begging, and you can tell it looks ugly.

There an uncomfortable air weaving the static now as Scrollen cries, muted by the floor. The soft tak of business shoes echo in the office, so it's not a small office. The only thing left to be heard is the fabric pulling and pinching as Galvan kneels beside his visitor.

"I know it's hard, Scroll. Bills don't pay themselves. Economy recovery hurt us all... But your loan is getting very 'mature.' A loan, mind you, that you pledged for. No money, no collateral."

The crying gets faster.

"What am I supposed to do to get my principle back, Scroll? Pull it out of your a * * ?" Galvan's tone has begun to burn a little, a clear excerise of authority and fear.

"I-I CAN GET TH-THE REST-"

"What am I supposed to take, Scrollen?" Now he's tormenting him with comfortable tones of poison.

"M-MY SHOES!"

"Wrong answer."

:the connection has expired:

:would you like to redial?: