[network] @claytonator; re-arrival; day 6, evening [open]

[dr_unconscious]

[video]

[When Clayton wakes up this morning, he is immediately aware that something is very wrong. Not just because he doesn't remember how he got here or where he is, but because he's sealed up inside a body bag. The claustrophobia kicks in before the rest of his brain does, and within seconds he's on the floor, bag and all, flailing and swearing and tearing at whatever he can find purchase on. His fingertips and throat are raw by the time he finds the zipper. He needs to lie down for a little bit. He does, for several minutes.]

[Now: Where the hell is this?]

[Nothing is familiar. The building isn't familiar, his coat isn't familiar, the tablet telling him to leave isn't, the backpack full of random household supplies and a suspicious amount of dry cat food isn't--his own mind isn't familiar, apparently stripped of its power to focus and meditate. This is so strange. What happened? Where is everyone? Where are his shoes?]

[After a quick examination to make sure he hadn't hit his head at some point, and a quicker look around the funeral home, Clayton decides that he doesn't have much of a choice but to head off and see if he can find someone. The owner of this bag and tablet, perhaps. It's not until after he's stepped outside, balked at the massive wall of ice swallowing up the far end of the funeral home, then followed it through the apparent wasteland to the nearest shelter he can find, that Clayton settles down again to see if the tablet has stopped throwing whatever fit it was having when he woke up so he can figure out who's it is.]

[He's immensely surprised to discover that it's his.]

[Clayton spends an hour or so just going over some of the old posts he made and replied to. There's got to be something wrong with him. He doesn't remember any of this happening. Has he been drugged? The hell?...]

[Only one way to confirm, as far as Clayton can tell. He starts the tablet's camera and stares into it for several long, quiet moments, completely baffled. Eventually he clears his throat.]

I, uh...I ain't too sure how to approach this. [Clayton laughs, nervously, and runs a hand through the hair on the back of his head.] Has anybody...do any a y'all know where I was, yesterday? I don't...remember...

[He pauses, tries to regain his composure, and fails spectacularly with a frown and a quick shake of his head.]

I ain't gonna lie, this is real weird.

Comments

@TW; text

[maskintape]

hloy fcking shit what

[ What is coherency even? We just don't know! ]

text

[dr_unconscious]

[oh dear]

[Clayton at least recognizes the username from his sifting--he has a vague sense of who this guy is. Based on his reaction, Tim probably has a much better grasp than Clayton does, though.]

I know it's confusing. I don't really know what to do with all of this myself.

[And he's tempted to leave it at that because, really, where do you start in this kind of situation? But that hardly seems satisfying to him, so it must not be at all satisfying for Tim. He can make some kind of effort. From where they left off, maybe?]

I'm not dead and I'm not hurt. I can confirm that.

[maskintape]

[ As far as Tim is concerned, this confirms that one of his current theories about Norfinbury are true. There are two major possibilities:

1) The tall thing brought them all here and is messing with them. He wouldn't put it past the creature to use someone's dead body like a puppet.

2) They're all dead and this is hell. Deaths don't stick because this is the afterlife and you can't be tortured eternally if you just up and die, right?

Neither of these are good thoughts to have. ]

well actually I can confirm that you ARE dead, so
lots of people saw it
saw you
you died
you're dead.
I don't even know why this is surprising me we should have expected this from the start

[dr_unconscious]

[Okay, okay, he can explain this. Just give him a minute.]

[...Give him several minutes...]

I've looked over the footage a few times. [And it was the most surreal and weirdly unpleasant thing he's ever done. Tim does not need to know this.] What do you know about resuscitating victims of severe hypothermia, Tim?

@Nobody; video

[promises_to_keep]

[Lea just stares for a moment. He hasn't spoken to Clayton yet, but he knows his face from the network. Didn't he die? Not that death is a permanent thing where Lea comes from--he kind of died once himself, but this is still kind of unusual.]

Your name's Clayton, right? You... don't remember what happened yesterday?

video

[dr_unconscious]

[They're on roughly even ground, then! That must be some kind of improvement.]

Yeah, that's me. [...Still really weird that everyone seems to know his name through this little network thing when he doesn't remember introducing himself, even though he's watched where he did introduce himself at least three times over, and...ah, screw it. Clayton bites his lip and glances off at the ceiling.] 'Fraid you've got me at a disadvantage, mister...?

[Formal introductions: most important, even over information about sudden onset amnesia. Clayton's priorities are definitely in the right place.]

[promises_to_keep]

It's Lea. Just Lea is fine, 'mister' makes me feel old. Ah, we hadn't spoken before now, but I saw you on the network a few times. Also saw your name in an obituary earlier today, so I'm a little confused, is all.

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton chuckles. Forgive him, it's a nervous habit.]

Lea. Alright, then, I getcha. It's nice to meet ya, in that case.

[Now: back to business.]

Saw the obituary, too, so it's you an' me both on that one. [His smile fades in stages, starting here. It was very surreal. Just because he has a theory for why it happened doesn't make it any less weird.] Don't remember yesterday, or...I guess the four days 'fore that. There were four days, yeah? [Clayton tilts his head, in an attempt to pose the question more directly.] I was just countin' timestamps, but these tablets ain't got dates on 'em. Real inconvenient, ain't it?

@Spoiler; private video

[spoileralert]

[ For a long time, all Steph can do is stare at the entry. Her thoughts are highly complex, but if they could be articulated it would go something like this:

I'm hallucinating.
No, I decided to assume I'm not hallucinating because somehow that has been the slightly saner route.
I'm dreaming.
I'm too cold to be dreaming.
This is a trick.
This is a nasty, terrible, awful trick.
I want to find the person responsible for this horrible trick and break their nose.

Clayton is alive. ]

Yesterday you were dead.

private video

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton doesn't even know who this is, technically, but he's watched their other locked videos enough times to expect that he'll receive another one. Consequently, he doesn't look too surprised on his end. Tired, confused and more than a little drained, but not surprised.]

So folks keep tellin' me. [He aims for a smile and manages to quirk the corner of his mouth, halfway. Close enough.] Just ain't possible, though. I ain't dead. Plain 'n simple. Take it from the doctor, this stuff only works one way.

private video

[spoileralert]

But... you stopped responding. You were locked out. There was an obituary...

[ She thinks she's figured out the trick, and is now crying with relief. ]

I'm so glad you're not dead.

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton's smile relaxes and he easily shifts to soothing.]

Hey, hey, it's alright! There must've been some kinda mistake. It's all fine now. Everything's fine. I'm sorry for worryin' ya.

@MarbleHornets; text

[genreblindness]

[People losing their memory? Always bad.
People coming back from the dead? Really bad.

Jay is not having a good evening.]

What's the last thing you remember

text

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton can sympathize with this.]

I was at home, walking towards the front door to put on my shoes. I'd just grabbed my keys off the kitchen counter and remembered that I was almost out of creamer. Then I woke up here.

Sorry, I wish I knew more. It seems like I'm missing days.

text

[genreblindness]

No, it's ok. I know what it's like.

[dr_unconscious]

[Oh. Apparently Jay can sympathize with it more.]

How often?

@lancer, more text;

[croi]

you died. welcome back.

[He'd do audio but considering the fact he's apparently roommates with three other people for the night they need the luxury of exchanging what the fuck expressions behind Clayton's back.]

text

[dr_unconscious]

Thanks, glad to be here.

[The only drawback to text is that Lancer and his roommates can't see Clayton smirking at them while he plucks away at the tablet's keyboard and know that he appreciates the humor.]

I wish it was that simple. But I'm pretty sure that if I was dead all day yesterday, I wouldn't be here right now. Nearly dead, maybe. I could see that mistake happening.

[croi]

sometimes it's that simple.

how do you feel? weaker?

@Chillinski; video

[figureitout]

[...... holy shit. Now, Stiles might not be a total stranger with dead people suddenly coming back to life, only in his experience it's only the people you definitely don't want coming back to life who ever actually do it-- but that's beside the point.

Because. Holy shit.]

Clayton?! Oh my god, okay, so... you don't remember. Anything?

[At least he's not starting with that "so you died" thing, that has to count for something.]

video

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton appreciates the discretion! He's even smiling, although it looks...a little practiced. Stiles is one of those people that Clayton's seen himself mention with some familiarity, which makes him think he should know him better than he does. Maybe that's while Stiles is so concerned with his memory? Did they do something important that wasn't over the network? This is concerning.]

[Not that Clayton shows it, of course.]

That's my name. [He gives a quick bob of his head.] I remember that much. 'pparently I've lost...five days? [scratching the back of his head and staring at the ceiling while he thinks, for a moment: ] Yeah, five. Checked the timestamps. All's I remember is bein' at home, then wakin' up here this mornin'.

[figureitout]

[...... wow. He's actually gone and lost his memory. Is it a by-product of being brought back to life, a permanent side-effect, or will he regain the memories?? Because this is slightly worrying. Okay, actually, scratch that "slightly".]

Right. So... then you also lost the first day, when we ran into each other? Great. I know this probably sounds really weird, but we did actually run into each other. Ended up in the same building for the night, because the doors lock, which you probably don't remember either. [Oh god, how does he even.]

Voice only @LELRIC

[armoured]

Clayton...?

[Al's voice is nearly a whisper. He's heard from Tim already that someone has been brought back from the dead, but to see it with his own eyes? It makes him feel sick with fear, and with revulsion.

This isn't natural, it isn't right.

He knows, probably better than most, just how much of a bad idea bringing people back from the dead is. But to see it work, and to see it done multiple times, it's beyond horrifying.]

No, this-- it--

voice

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton doesn't really catch the finer details of what has Al so distressed. It's probably because he was so worried before, right? And now he's back, so everything's better? Maybe? Goodness, but if he doesn't sound absolutely distraught about it. Clayton thinks carefully about how to best approach this.]

Yeah, it's me. I know it's...weird, but I'm thinkin' I know what's goin' on here, and it ain't as alarmin' as it looks.

voice

[armoured]

[He clearly doesn't understand, or he wouldn't be saying anything like that. This makes it worse, so much worse. Clayton didn't ask to be revived, he didn't ask for someone to use a philosopher's stone, reaping the souls of hundreds of people, just to provide his own life through an unnatural human transmutation.]

What-- what do you think is going on?

[His voice sounds weird to his own ears, like it's coming from far away.]