snowblindrpg | [network] @jwatson; text; Morning 238 [open/semi-open] (Shadownet)

[The second part of the message is OPEN. The second part is SEMI-CLOSED to anyone with access to the Shadownet - a text only app created by Winter. Winter is an NPC that you'll read about in the Survival Guide, but the basic primer is that she's a Russian AI who has been periodically contacting the Snowblind characters and trying to help them to some extent. She has been encountered in multiple events and aided characters in making private messages actually private.

Please see this post about Shadownet distribution. You can contact Ecks' (

yawningdodo) mun about figuring out how to get your character a copy, if you're interested. These are also characters who currently possess Shadownet. Anyone traveling with these characters will likely be able to read messages on Shadownet through their travel companions.]

Shadownet Access Only
@dulcedeleche
Winter, it's John again. I know we haven't heard from you in a while, and I wanted to send along a little more information now we've got it. Bullet points again. I hope the others can fill in the finer details for you.

I spoke with the Admin about our turning into anomalies. You can find the transcript of that HERE. She also showed me a video in that conversation that was just me, running around naked like a madman. I honestly don't know what to make of it, Winter. I saw myself as an anomaly. Other people saw me as an anomaly. I fought with other people using teeth and claws in that form. And I stole two lights. One of the women I did that for is gone. She died and she hasn't come back since. I don't know if taking her light had something to do with it. I'm very worried that it did.
After the mess with anomaly business, we were left on our own for a bit, though. The group I was with decided to try bombing one of the trap doors, like I mentioned in my last message. We have VIDEO of that, if you want to watch. Unfortunately, nothing came of it apart from a strange red glow we could see when there was almost complete darkness in the closet. We theorized it might be a signal for low power mode, or perhaps some sort of warning sign.
Mr. Beckett has begun recording everything that he sees and does in Norfinbury. I don't know if that might be helpful to you, but he's @mnemosyne if you wanted to contact him about getting his files for the days you've been absent to try to fill in some of the details of our lives here.
On Day 229, we had something strange happen with the anomalies again. I think they may be getting stronger. More coherent? I know that people experienced something like this before and you had to write a program to get rid of them, but each of us seemed to receive a personalized anomaly. People saw them differently--we worked it out that it was based on whether or not you had your light stolen. For those of us who turned into anomalies or who were able to keep hold of their lights, we saw the anomalies as grotesque versions of people we knew. The standard sort of thing for anomalies. But the people who had their lights stolen? They saw the creatures as just the people they knew, except they were completely missing their faces. It was definitely a perception thing because I looked at the personal anomaly for someone whose light was stolen and it looked grotesque to me, even though he saw it as that person with just the missing face.

That first day they didn't do anything but follow us around. It was one of the strangest and most unnerving things we've had happen, yet. They still affected us like anomalies. I accidentally touched one and was laid out for a few minutes. Woke up to a bloody nose and headache. But they didn't attack us, and they didn't drag us off or try to swallow us down whole. They didn't say anything, either.
That changed on Day 230. The anomalies started to attack. Not all the time, not all at once, and it was only those of us who had our lights still, or who'd turned into anomalies and gone around stealing lights who were assaulted. The anomalies started speaking, too. Mine demanded that I give 'it' to her. She said I'd had 'it' too long and that it wasn't fair I wasn't sharing. I never shared anything with her. Stuff in that vein. It looked like my sister, and whatever that thing was, it was using her voice. They still didn't swallow us or drag us off, but they did attack and pin us for a bit. I think they wanted our lights. I even offered to let the creature attacking me have mine. She didn't seem to be able to take it, though. Zack had a MESSAGE where he talked about all of it and people chimed in to work out that it was likely our lights they were after. He had a follow-up MESSAGE about his findings a few days later, as well. Dr. House had a VIDEO of experiments he conducted on one of the anomalies. Just as a warning, he's attacking one of them repeatedly in that vid.

We still don't even know what these lights are. Maybe they have some connection to the Prophet? Or to Andromeda? Some echo of Andromeda told Ecks once that she kept the stars inside of her. Do you have any idea what that might mean?
The anomalies actually disappeared on their own. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it was a relief when they were finally gone. We haven't had any strange happenings since that. But Davesprite found another message from Andromeda HERE. I know we're only getting snippets, but it's looking more and more like Andromeda was able to get far thanks to what you did for her and help from Sam. I'm hoping we'll find more signs of her as we get closer to the center. I just wish we knew what happened to everyone here, this Prophet business. Have you ever known the NIMA system to fail? Were there concerns about cyber attacks on it that might have done this to people?
Last but not least, we've gotten the Power Plant over in the Industrial Area semi-operational. That's opened up these sort of skybridge things between some of the buildings. Steph sent a VIDEO of them. Do you remember these? Do you remember if there's anything else like them in Norfinbury? We're hoping some of the power's been restored to the rest of the town, too. Sherlock, his brother, and I are going to try opening that trapdoor we found again. We're hoping we'll have more luck this time. We're thinking there might be some sort of maintenance tunnel system that we might be able to use. If we can access that, it'll be a godsend getting around town.

Again, I know it's a lot, but I want to keep you up-to-date so you're not having to ask too much about things when you log in. Hope to hear from you soon.

Open to Everyone
Hullo, everyone. Dr. Watson here again with a summary update of recent happenings. You can find them attached. Hope that can help everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to answer or direct you to the people who can.

[The bullets in the open post are about the same as those in the Shadownet post. They just don't reference Winter or direct questions to her.]