[network] @Mnemosyne; video; night 227; history will judge us [open]

[bookofnope]

[Beckett starts the feed sitting huddled in a corner against a wall that's been burned a featureless black. He's not wearing his tinted glasses, and both his look and voice are flatly composed, distant.]

I am going to start recording everything. Simply leave this thing on at all times. We are losing too much information to patchy and inaccurate records in a way that is simply inexcusable considering the means we have access to. I strongly recommend that you all do the same. [He pauses, then nods half to himself.] If nothing else then for those who will come after us. Eventually.

[So optimistic, Beckett.]

Do let me know if you would like to receive regular transmissions of my records. And if you have, and are willing to use the means to put some of them on SD cards that may be preserved in the event of lost access to our iteration of the network. There is... a certain comfort in the thought of posterity, in my experience. Such as it is.

[Such as it is. He wrinkles his nose at the thought, and puts the tablet aside, though the recording keeps running. After a bit of time, he picks it up again and adds a text message, along with an attached file: TheBookOfNod.txt]

The file I am attaching is the complete text of the Book of Nod: the mytho-historic principle document of the Cainites, namely, the vampires of my world, transcribed from memory. I doubt this is of particular interest to anyone, but my physical copy was recently destroyed, and as far as I am aware, that was the last copy in existence. My purpose here is thus its preservation as a text. I am the last record of my Kindred. Let something remain.



[OOC: I didn't want to directly link one but if anyone's interested for whatever reason it's actually really easy to google up an online copy of Vampire the Masquerade's Book of Nod. I'm sorry it's so painfully 90s.]

Comments

@hotstud_xxx; text

[rubikscomplex]

i'll take a copy of whatever you record
also
jesus christ are you vampires pretentious assholes

video;

[bookofnope]

[Beckett half grins despite himself. Sharp teeth.]

You have no idea.

[rubikscomplex]

i'm starting to get the idea "precious childe"
does this guy want to mentor you or bang you?

@tantalus; voice

[tidalflame]

Why are these cards more reliable for preserving information?

Are they just not picked up but whatever it is that keeps cleaning up everything else?

[bookofnope]

In theory, yes. We've found plenty hidden around town, though, so in practice there must be a way to preserve them.

[tidalflame]

I guess I'm asking why we've been finding them around town. There's not much left of the people who used to be here, right? But these cards are still here for some reason.

@Spoiler ; video

[spoileralert]

That's certainly one way of doing it, I guess. May as well add it to my growing list of broadcasts. I have paper copies of all my notes for more or less the same reason.

Shadownet; text

[bookofnope]

Have you given any thought to hiding copies for the next cycle to find?

Shadownet; text

[spoileralert]

I've thought about leaving copies for you guys to find, if I happen to die permanently.

@featherydouche; text

[mrcreamsicles]

question
what are methuselahs antediluvians and these 13 tribes
because they sound important but fuck if i know how your fancy vampire stuff relates to them
for the records ill take anything important you find

[bookofnope]

A Methuselah is a vampire of the fourth or fifth Generation down from Caine. Antediluvian normally refer to the Third Generation, whose progeny are the major bloodlines.

[He's got his Helpful Academic voice on. It's astoundingly easy, and quite comforting, to slip back into it.]

The correct term for these bloodlines is clan. Tribe is Lupine terminology. Clan is chiefly a matter of blood ties, though also of history, culture, and political organisation. Something between extended families and very small ethnic groups.

[mrcreamsicles]

[He'll swap to audio to match, but firstly something catches his attention. Lupine... wolves?]

You're telling me your world has werewolves too?

[It's a good guess. He's not shocked, really. Jade is like werewolf lite with her ears.]

Do I need to know specifics about those clans to follow the rest of this?

@carcinoGeneticist; text

[quadrangle]

[He reads maybe a few lines of the book before giving the fuck up. Yeah, no.]

YOU HAD THIS MEMORIZED?

video;

[bookofnope]

I've been puzzling over this text for two centuries. So yes. It was, as they say, not a big deal.

audio;

[quadrangle]

[No video for you, sorry Beckett, but he'll switch to audio to make this conversation go a little more smoothly.]

So you're a scholar?

[He's reluctantly intrigued. Kanaya would get a kick out of this guy, to say the very least.]

@dissect ; text

[circumsutus]

On a more serious note, what are you planning to do with those SD cards? Do you really think you'll be able to hide them?

Shadownet; text

[bookofnope]

Perhaps not SD cards. But some kind of record. There must be a way, no? Someone was able to hide the keys that Kunsel's people found.

@navialernovictoria, text

[whiteknightnecromancer]

I am looking at your book. And gave it a quick skim. Would you be a person to ask about certain things this book seems to take for granted the reader understands?

video;

[bookofnope]

Probably. Though you would have to point out what these things are. I've all but lived this book for centuries; I'm blind to how it looks to a fresh eye.

Video @Enoch

[warriorscribe]

You know I would welcome hearing of your findings.

[Enoch is illuminated only by the tablet's light, sitting under a rack of sports equipment faintly visible at the edge of the screen's glow. He reaches up and pulls down the blanket-turned-scarf he keeps wrapped around the lower half of his face so Beckett can see him clearly.]

And... I'm glad you've decided to share this book with us. I can transcribe it, if I find another empty journal. That way-...well, I hope I would be able to take it with me, if you can't find refuge in another world.

Video

[bookofnope]

[Beckett's eyes widen, and for a moment he is speechless. He wasn't expecting this suggestion, not this scope, and from Enoch, Enoch, chosen of Heaven... what could he do with the book? At whose feet could he lay it, a last offering?]

I - I'd be honoured. Even - eve if it's not the truth - [And doesn't Enoch know, about truth and history?] It is our story as we have shaped ourselves around it. It's all we - all I have.

@standardissue; voice

[deus_ex_phs]

You can always count me in for updates.

[He'll be keeping that copy of the Book of Nod, too, even if he doesn't think it'll ever be pertinent to him.]

[bookofnope]

Noted. How come you haven't taken to round the clock recording yet? Afraid you'll show us something embarrassing?

[Don't mind him, he's in a deep dark pit, and Kunsel is always good for some uplifting snark.]

@beyonce | audio

[thewarningafter]

Far be it from me to turn down free information, but if you mean you're literally going to leave your tablet on all the time we're going to have an issue.

[And just...quietly downloading the Book of Nod because why not learn about vampires.]

[bookofnope]

I'd say I'm not about to take it with me into any showers, but let us be honest, showers here are remarkable events.