I swear this isn't a junk call

Emy

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@"Thirteen"

Loralai Lovage Merriweather

She had a nice desk, with an assortment of baubles all lined up in a row under the screen of her computer and the all of the paperwork filed away -out of sight was out of mind, after all. Ever the optimist, Loralai liked to think that her little cubicle was the neatest in the company. Every single one looked the same but hers was the tidiest.

Also, she had the nicest headset. It was ivory colored and decorated with cute 3-D stickers she had ordered from Japan, the kind that had little cut-outs and beads in them so that they made sounds whenever they were moved. She was allowed to do it because she had payed for the headset right out of her own pocket. That and because she brought donuts in on Tuesdays for everybody.

All was well in the world.

Taking a sip of her iced tea, she looked down her list of phone numbers and dialed the first un-highlighted one there. And then she waited as the line started ringing.
 

Thirteen

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Hundreds, maybe thousands of years ahead of humans in technology, and the Aridians, and the Aenari by association had lost all form of what they considered now, "basic technology." One of those pieces of tech she now held was what the humans called a "cellular phone." A multi-functional touchscreen device that primarily served as a communications device between other such devices.

And now the thing sat on Cytus' desk in the front office, ringing with an incessant noise that was indicative of someone trying to communicate with her.

It wasn't the part where Cytus knew how to press the answer button that was the big deal. It was the whole talking part, and how this thing actually worked. She answered...but didn't say a word, half expecting the thing to simply start working telepathically.

Humans didn't just speak into these things did they? There were what looked like two microphones...but, were those actually for speaking?

Uhhh.

She slowly raised the device to her head. Upside down at first.

And simply listened.

 

Emy

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Loralai Lovage Merriweather

It took a while for the ringing to stop, long enough that many other telemarketers might have resigned themselves to the fact that they were about to be redirected to somebody's voice mail. But Loralai was the optimistic sort. She tapped the keys on her keyboard a few times without typing anything, humming quietly to herself as she read over her script. As she heard the ringing stop and the phone most definitely not go to a machine, she gave a mental cheer and waited for a few seconds.

Silence.

But she could hear breathing, so Loralai went right ahead with her spiel channeling the shameless energy of an overpaid, professional day wrecker. She made sure to sound as chipper as possible, and the effort might or might not have been negatively affected by the fact that a preppy tone sounded a bit strange in a distinctly masculine voice.

"Hi, my name is Lovage and I'm calling from Manta Carlos Handymen Services." Which was a terribly un-creative name in her opinion but at least people could tell at a glance what the business was about so that was just parsley! "We've got fantastic deals for a variety of services perfect for your everyday household and gardening needs! How are you today?"
 

Thirteen

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Only a couple of seconds into pressing the answer button, Cytus was wondering what would happen. Would someone teleport to her or something? Or was the device going to communicate with her telepathically?

"Hi, my name is Lovage and I'm calling from Manta Carlos Handymen Services."

Cytus moved the phone from her ear, only to finally find that it looked she was speaking from the phone instead of listening to it. Apparently these phones still used rather primitive radio technology. Not that there was anything wrong with that...the device had fascinating design.

"I am okay."

It was the simplest of replies, and one that was quite obviously not human in nature.

"I do not believe I require household or gardening services."

That was to say, she had neither a household or a garden. But as this lady sounded like one of the nicer people that Cytus had had the pleasure in talking to, the alien decided to keep her on the line.

"Are you also well?"
 

Emy

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Loralai Lovage Merriweather

At the sound of the voice on the other end of the line, Loralai immediately came to the conclusion that she was not talking to another human being, which meant that the likelihood of her actually making a sale had dropped considerably. The probability then promptly plummeted at the person's next words.

Well, it wasn't like she was on commission anyways and as long as she wasn't talking to an answering machine, Loralai was perfectly fine with talking to anybody. And she was definitely going to try and make a sales pitch of some sort, because she wasn't going to give up that easily. There were so many alternate uses for household supplies that she knew there had to be something of use that she could offer.

Something, something. Lysol? Lysol. Lysol was a beautiful thing sometimes.

"Oh, well, my day's been perfect so far," Loralai said perkily. "Except I guess it's been a bit slow lately. I think you're the first actual person I've spoken to in the last few hours." Basically, a lot of people were starting to recognize the company's number and therefore not picking up at all. That was what her grandmother told her, anyways. It was really too bad that the island was so small.

"Er, who is this that I'm speaking to anyways? Sorry, this number didn't come with a name attached to it."
 

Thirteen

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"That is a shame. Does no one else wish to speak with you?"

Another simple question. Cytus had absolutely no idea how this whole telemarketing thing worked, and to her, it simply involved trying to talk to another human randomly. There was no sense of sale or anything of the sort. Not that she caught that anyways.

"My name is Cytus. I apologize if this conversation seems strange. I am not yet accustomed to this device."

She was of course speaking about the cell phone in her hand, a device that while archaic, Cytus had not yet quite learned how to use it.
 

Emy

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Loralai Lovage Merriweather

She laughed a bit nervously. "Yeah, I guess it's something like that. Not me personally, just the company in general, though. Small island so people tend to recognize the number now that we've been around for a while."

"Oh, are you from backcountry, then?" Loralai could think of few other reasons for why a person wouldn't be used to phone calls. Being from a whole different planet was way, way down on the list. "If you're new around these parts and find yourself needing anything, we could probably help you out for a cost."
 
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