snowblindrpg | [network] @CaptSteveRogers; voice; Morning 82; Survival Guide [open]

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[network] @CaptSteveRogers; voice; Morning 82; Survival Guide [open]

Good morning, Norfinbury.

Quark and I have both used Winter's app; I can report the same results as Steph—a strange, cold feeling in my head, and then I started to remember—something, a memory about me and Buck, that I now can't seem to get to. It's just gone. I believe Quark experienced something similar. Both of the anomalies that hounded us have... dissolved, like you saw happened with Steph's. ...Anyway, just thought it would be useful to report that.

[There's a brief pause.]

...I know it's only been a few days, since—since the anomalies got to Al, and Ed, and Greed. But if things keep to their usual pattern, we should be getting a batch of newcomers very soon, and I believe we owe them the best help we can give them. To that end, I've taken the liberty of making myself responsible for editing and updating the Survival Guide, unless and until Al comes back to us.

I'll attach the updated guide; I welcome any suggested edits you might have. I also welcome anyone with useful skills or just the willingness to help who would like to volunteer to be on the contact list. We're down to a very few again.

Take care of yourselves, Norfinbury, I know it's been a rough couple of days.

[Attached to the message is SurvivalGuide.doc.]

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I'm not too fond of things messing up with my brain and my memories, even if I'm not sure why. I can see why you did it since you're traveling with Quark but be careful, we don't know how much that program will allow this... winter or the admin to mess up with our heads. And they already have too much power for my tasts.

And- yes. It's almost the newcomers time... I feel so bad for them already.

Well, it's a little late to be careful. Right it this moment I'm not sorry I did it, but yeah, let's hope it doesn't turn out we've done something regrettable.

I take it this means you're not using the app? Can't really blame you, but you be careful too, all right?

You can't miss something you don't know you had in the first place, Steve. That's why I'm not using it, memories are too personal, how do I know I'm not...

...
What could it take if you don't have memories of that person in the first place?

I will be careful and I'm not alone, I will be fune. You be careful and, please... tell me if anytin seems amiss.

...You don't know who your... anomaly is supposed to be?

[Steve sighs a little, relieved.]

I'm glad to hear you're not alone. Who's with you?

[Steve huffs a tiny, sardonic laugh.

If anything seems amiss... y'know, besides the tiny hole in my mind? [Sigh.] Yeah, I'll keep you informed, promise.

I don't. Even if I feel like I should, everyone else has someone important following them and this woman... I don't even know if I ever mentioned women with long red hair before.

[She shrugs, that's not the biggest problem]

Beckett. Don't worry, we won't attempt anything stupid. Again.

[She frowns at his reply]

You know what I mean, you don't know if they'll start taking... more things from us all, especially after... giving them access. So, yeah, be careful and try to control if you notice other small... holes. Or something wrong with the control of yur emotions.

I... don't know that you've ever specifically mentioned the hair color of anyone back home, sorry. That's... huh, that's funny, though, as far as I know everyone else knows the face of their monster. I wonder why you'd be different.

[Steve feels a spike of alarm when she says she's with Beckett, and has to bite down on his words so he doesn't say anything rash. He breathes carefully for a few moments, sorting through what he thinks and feels about this, and how much of what he thinks and feels is fair.]

..........Rydia, to be frank, I don't think I know how to not worry. I've got no sense of what "stupid" even means to either of you. I don't trust Beckett. I don't— [He breaks off, sighing and closing his eyes, rubbing at his temples. He continues in a quieter voice.] ...I don't know how to trust you anymore, Rydia. ........I worry. I am going to worry.

[Another long sigh.]

Yeah, I know what you mean. If I notice anything, I'll let you know. Heck, I'll let everyone know. ...And. If you notice anything out-of-sorts with me... tell me? I might not be able to notice the difference, if it's happening inside my own head. ...I don't know what the heck we can do about it, really, besides report it to the group, but. It's good to be informed. ...Who knows, maybe the Admin could fix it. Assuming she'd even want to.

I'm not different, I just... don't remember anyone back home. I bet she's someone important to me, still she looks like a stranger. I will remember at some point, everyone else regained what this palce took from them, it just feels a bit surreal. And I'm almost relieved I have no real involvement in this, I can try to help the others dealing with it.

[She sighs but tries to keep up a smile. She's feeling so sorry, Steve, but apologizing again isn't going to change anything, is it?]

Don't blame Beckett for something that was my idea, Steve. Like me, he just wants to go home, no matters what. [Funny how little she cares about her world right now.] But your lack of trust is more than understandable. And... I will keep worrying about you too. Hey, we're friends now, aren't we?

[She sighs and looks at her feet before smiling again, even if it's even more forceful.]
Yes. I will carefully check the network to see if anything seems off between the people I know. And I know it's silly but maybe we should start... sharing our stories with others, talking about our worlds and the people important to us. If we keep asking questions to each others about the things we know, well, maybe we have a chance to spot with more ease if something else is stolen?
I don't know why, Steve, but the idea you let someone enter your mind scares me to no end.

This wasn't something Admin did, this is something an unknown, external person who could be a ghost wrote... [She doesn't trust Winter, her being in a room with no access and knowing nothing about how she ended there] I don't know if Admin will be able to fix it, somehow, but I certainly hope so.

You don't think they're coming back, do you.

[ From her tone, Steph doesn't really think so either. ]

[Steve sighs, long and tired.]

To be completely honest—I got no idea, no way of knowing, or guessing, one way or the other. We got lucky with Rydia and House, so maybe—I dunno. I really don't know, Steph.

[ She's quiet for a long moment. ]

Thank you for taking care of this. I know it would mean a lot to Al.

I'd like to think so. He's always worked real hard to keep people informed and as safe as possible. I'd hate to see the work go undone just because he's....... out of commission.

Yeah...

[ And Steph hasn't been doing well keeping her own info page up to date, so it seems like Steve really is the better choice. ]

Well, it's good work. Keep it up.

I get you're trying to help but it's only been two frickin' days since their obituary went up.
They can still come back in time for anyone new who might show up.

[Steve doesn't switch to text like he usually might, because he knows how intent and meaning and feeling can get scrambled, and that's the last thing he wants.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out slow, tries to pick the words that he needs.]

You're right. They can. I sincerely hope they will. God, I hope—I hope they will. I just—I'm sorry, I guess this must look—crass. I know it's bad timing. I just—I wanted time to make edits if necessary, for people to give feedback, in case there's anything important I missed. Even if Al and them do come back today or tomorrow, they're gonna have other things on their minds, you know there's always—difficulties, when people came back.

...I am. I am trying to help. I'm sorry.

[He finds whatever flash of ~~denial~~ irritation deflating pretty quickly at that]

I get it. [He sounds pretty worn down for a moment before he bounces back to more normal.] He would want to make sure the Newbies get in case he doesn't make it in time.

[Steve lets out a tiny sigh of relief. If he's gonna hurt people he sure as hell doesn't want to do it accidentally. He smiles a little bit, thinking of Al.]

Yeah. I think he would. I can't claim to know him all that well, but that's the one thing I do know about him. He helps people.

He really does his best to save everyone. He's pretty great.

[Al Fanboy #2 right here.]

I still keep finding his messages written in buildings.

[Which both hurts and builds up hope he can come back. He has to come back.]

Heh, yeah. First thing I saw when I got here.

Edited 2016-02-13 04:54 (UTC)

Same. When I first started, I kept seeing his name in places. It was kind of neat seeing if I can find it every house I went to. It made it less lonely, you know?

[Whoops. That's sharing a lot.]

I'm going to send him a song soon enough. I found a violin in the school.

...I found a harmonica a little bit ago. I was going to teach myself to play, and then Rickroll him.

You mean that song he was playing before? What does that even mean?

[You mostly normal world people and your memes]

[Steve chuckles.]

It's... kind of hard to explain. It's an internet meme, it's—this weird kind of self-referential humor where you have to understand what's happening to get that it's funny. It's a prank, it's called Rickrolling—the song is "Never Gonna Give You Up" by this guy named Rick Astley, which I guess is why the name. It's not really about the song itself, could've been any song, really, except the song and video are kind of hokey and dated. Anyway you set up a link, in an email, on a blog, on social media, whatever, and you make it out to be something important, the point is to get your victims to click on it, and instead the link takes them the music video for the song—boom, they've been Rickrolled.

It's completely baffling until it happens to you a few times, and then it's funny because you're in on it, and then you're busy Rickrolling other people, or laughing along when you get pranked again. My teammates did it to me a bunch of times.

...If that doesn't make any sense to you, I don't know what to tell you, the internet is weird. You learn to roll with it.

Huh. So, like an inside joke, but for your world. It sounds like it would get stuck in your head pretty quick.

[Which makes it pretty evil when you think about it.

There is a bit of a shuffling sound as he puts the tablet down on a surface and gets the instrument out. There a thump sound from tapping the instrument. Then he's going to play the first five seconds of a song]

Still learning it. It's a little hard with only have a ukulele to go off of. It would be easier if I could find actual sheet music.

would engineering be useful?
more specifically the electronic and mechanical kinds
plus computer programming
basically i am good at robotics! ;P
the core principles of which can be applied to a lot of situations

[ It feels awfully presumptuous talking like some kind of expert, but volunteers seem to be in short supply. ]

also!
i do not have much experience with gardening in this climate, but i have read a lot
if someone came across some fresh fruit or something i could try to cultivate it!!

Edited 2016-02-02 22:12 (UTC)

I think any of those things could very definitely be useful. I'll add you to the list; thank you very much! Sorry—I don't think we've spoken before, what should I put your name down as?

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