[network] @Zelda; curiouser and curiouser; day 007, morning [open]

[sageprincess]

[There's only so long Zelda can think about recent disturbing events before horrifying herself with made up theories and hypotheticals. Coupled with the rapidly declining supply of rations, she finds herself in need of distraction as she makes her way through quiet of the snowy ghost town. So she turns to the network, asking things she's been meaning to for a few days now.

Her image and voice on the video feed cuts to white noise on occasion, but fortunately she can still be understood for now.]

By chance, does anyone [krrrsch] --t there know what 'Jia Xú' might mean? It does not re-- [krrrrrrsch] sound like anything I have heard before.

[She means in the languages of Hyrule, but it also doesn't sound quite like it belongs in the strange language everyone in Norfinbury has found themselves speaking in.]

Addition-- [krrsch] has anyone else noticed things... changing over the course of the night, for the lack of a better word? For instance, I looked through one house two days in a row, and came across supplies I am certain were not there [krsch] --irst day. I also attempted in inscribe a message on an outside wall last night, but found it gone when I woke thi-- [krrrrsch] morning.

[After her explanation, the feed lingers silently for a moment, with Zelda not quite knowing how to end these sorts of messages. Eventually, she gives a nod of her head.]

Thank you for your time.

[krrrrrrsch!]

Comments

@TW; video

[maskintape]

[ Oh no. Oh no. Where Tim comes from, visual and audio disturbances on recordings are never, ever good news. Not on this scale. It generally means one of two things:

1) The weird tall evil creature thing is somewhere around

2) Someone or something in the video is either under the creature's influence or infected with the weird supernatural sickness it spreads.

Sorry, girl-Tim-doesn't-know. Looks like you're fucked. ]

Uh, the school... the food restocked overnight, but that's th--

[ There's a burst of static, followed by some visual tearing of the video even when the picture returns. ]

--st weird thing about that place, so.

Are - are you, uh, feeling okay?

[sageprincess]

[If she's fucked, you're in the same boat, boy-Zelda-doesn't-know. The video shakes a bit, though this time because she's shaking the tablet in response to his own feed cutting out.]

I am as we-- [krrsch] --ll as anyone can be, here. Though I do not think the same can be said of this device.

[Unfortunately, she has literally no idea what could be wrong with it. Ah, fantasy worlds.]

This school-- is it the same one feat-- [krr-rr-sch] that disturbing video from earlier?

[Tell her no. Please tell her the creepy school is not the one place with consistent food.]

[maskintape]

[ Oh. Maybe she just dropped the tablet in a snowdrift or something? Yeah. Surely this will be an isolated incident and Tim will have no further reason to worryAHAHAHAHAHA YEAH RIGHT. ]

Yeah, it -- [COUGH COUGH STATIC STATIC COUGH] -- ugh, sorry. Yeah, it is. Figures the place with the steady supply of-- [TSSSSSST] --ould be the place that's crazy haunted, right? It wasn't even just the stuff on the video that was weird. The - like - the air's all wrong there.

[sageprincess]

[Problems with strange devices that have worked perfectly well until now? Oh, no, nothing to be concerned over, definitely.]

[dial up noises] --man with the username 'Marble Hornets' said much the same. An 'atmosphere', he described it. I am not convinced it is unrelate-- [flickerflicker] --o the way we felt before those injections.

[The whole town felt wrong then.]

[maskintape]

[SSSSSSSSFFFFFFFFFFFF]--sn't exactly the same. In the room we found the card, it was - you know, the air was. Thick. Like when it's really humid back home, except it was [cracklehiss]--ing freezing.

Did - uh, did MarbleHornets mention the piano?

[ Because that was some spooky-ass shit, goddamn. ]

@cgriffin, video

[coleader]

[ Oh. This is worrying. Clarke frowns and knits her eyebrows together, staring at the screen intently. ]

Did you happen to drop y— [ white noise cuts in, a hissing shhh, and the video blinks off for a split second. Zelda might be able to lipread Clarke saying your tablet. ] —blet?

[ She pauses. What if the damage is on her side, not Zelda's? Could there be something wrong with her tablet? She's been watching over it like a hawk, careful not to lose it, but maybe something could have happened during the night. ]

To answer your question, yes. I found a house that had running water, and I had some charcoal. I— [ shhh again, but no video distortion this time around. ] —ote water on the door with it, but it disappeared overnight.

Where did you hear Jia Xú?

[sageprincess]

I do not think so...

[Zelda tilts her head, eying the tablet with equal parts confusion and frustration. She's really growing sick of not understanding how these things work. The feed flickers a bit, but audio remains steady.]

I had the same thought - though I scraped my message in with a piece of metal rather than charcoal - but it seems whatever power brought us here does not approve.

[Thinly veiled contempt, thy name is Zelda. Her tone makes it through, even as the image tears and distorts.]

As for Jia Xú, it came from one of those 'S-D cards'. According to the tablet, it is a key of some sort, but I have no idea to what.

[coleader]

The video feed keeps acting strange — is it the same on your end?

[ She squints as if it'll help her see better. The contempt she feels is similar to Zelda's; she doesn't say anything about it, but she raises her eyebrows and purses her lips in a frustrated manner. ]

Jia Xú is a key, or the SD card is?

[ Jia Xú has suddenly become much more relevant. A key could be invaluable, depending on what it unlocks. ]

It sounds similar to so— [ shhh ] —ames I heard in class, when we learned about China. I can't say for sure, though, unless we happen to find a history book.

[sageprincess]

Yes, it appears so. Your voice keeps falling-- [-ing-ing-i-i-i-ing] silent momentarily.

[If only she had a better vocabulary for this thing. As it is she's having a difficult time describing what's happening. Her eye narrow similarly to Clarke's.]

Jia Xú. I can reach the... application, was it? Regardless of whether or not the card is-- [krrrSSSSSCH] --he tablet. It is called 'keys' and it tells me I am in possession of one key, which is named Jia Xú.

[She butchers the pronunciation every time.]

'China'? Could that possibly be where we are located?

@Spoiler; video

[spoileralert]

That's the ------- we found! Can you upload the file?

[ She knows she's probably asking too much from a girl who's probably never dealt with technology before this place, but she's so excited. Whatever is wrong with the connection, they have a clue. ]

[sageprincess]

... Pardon?

[Goddesses, Stephanie, please give her some patience, especially with the network acting up as it is.]

I... do not believe it is the sa-- [ssssSSSSSSHHHH] as that video Hope-- ah, 'The Lone Wanderer' found. I think only one person is able to access it at a time.

It is some form of key, though, if what [krrsssch] --on my tablet is true.

[spoileralert]

[ Sorry, she got excited. She plays the message three times to make sure she understands as much of it as she can. ]

Mami and --zzzt-- found a key card. The name --zzzt-- 'Jia Xú'. Crap, I wish I --zzzt-- take a screenshot. Can you copy --zzzt-- says exactly? Word for word? In text, if --zzzt-- [ Following her own advice, she also switches to text. ]

Can you see all of this message?

[sageprincess]

Yes, I [krrrsch] --ne moment.

[Typing still doesn't come very easy to her, and between that and the network glitches, it takes a few moments for a response to come.]

Apps: keys
keys: Jia Xú
Transfer key
Are you sure? You will lose all access to this key.
Yes. No.

[She tried.]

Does that make sense?

@LINK

[tapferkeit]

[ He'd been putting his head down and just going from place to place for the time being. Zelda's message makes him want to answer, however, and in truth he'd been missing actual interaction with people too. He frowns at the breaks in her message, but focuses on the content so far. ]

There's [krrch] -utside my last house too. Tried lea -[krrch] -ails too. Gone next morning.

[ He shakes his head, sighing. ]

Gossip sto- [krssh] -ing weird.

[sageprincess]

I [krrsch] --arting to think all of them are.

[This should be worrying, after a week of them functioning properly. But lacking context, Zelda thinks it's another strange quirk of this technology and little more.]

In a way, I am gla-- [sssshhhh] am not somehow overlooking things. Though it is not as comforting-- [-ing-ing-ing] a thought as I would like.

[She's used to being that something lurking in the shadows, not the other way around.]

[tapferkeit]

[ Fortunately or unfortunately, Link is used to things lurking in the shadows. It doesn't matter if you're scared or not; you just did what you had to do. But you stayed aware of them.

Watch for the shadows of monsters that hang from the ceiling...]

Keep loo- [krrrch] - Zelda. I'll -[a high pitched ringing sound] -oon.

[sageprincess]

[Zelda frowns at the static, ears straining to hear Link's voice. Her hearing was so much better before waking up here...]

I am hea-- [ssssttt] west. There is word of an attempted base [krrsshhh] --amp there.

Be careful.

text - ID: claytonator

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton spends the first ten minutes or so after this message goes up attempting to diagnose what the hell is wrong with his tablet, from fiddling with the settings and help screens to eventually lightly smacking it on the sides whenever static starts coming up. As someone from a time period where tablets are actually widespread, Clayton is surely the premiere in electronics maintenance and is handling this in the most competent way possible.]

[When he is unable to solve the problem and discovers, though the other replies to Zelda's message, that he isn't the only one encountering these problems, he just switches to text instead.]

Sorry--I'd contact you more directly, but it looks like the network is having trouble with video and voice files. Must be a bandwidth thing.

[And now Zelda knows the extent of Clayton's networking knowledge.]

Have you tried leaving a message on the inside? The outside message might have been weathered away from the snow somehow, but it seems like things on the inside stay constant after they're changed. [That he knows of. Clayton saw his message where Tim broke a chair and it stayed that way overnight, that's about all he has to go off of.]

[sageprincess]

[It takes a moment for a response to come to Clayton's answer. In a way, she's almost glad he chose to respond with text; it's easier to seem composed in that format. She doesn't know what 'bandwidth' means, and in this moment, she finds that she doesn't really care.]

No, I have not as of yet. I thought the usefulness of the message would be lesser in placed inside, but if what you say is true, then it may be that there is little other choice. I shall have to try when I next find something noteworthy.

[dr_unconscious]

[...Working, but taking an awful long time to send and load. That's kind of annoying. But at least it's functional--Clayton is thankful for that, and he's certainly patient enough to wait.]

I wouldn't be so resigned about it. With how far apart buildings are, I would at least walk inside every one I come across, at least to warm up for a little bit. If you put something in the front hallway, I bet you'll catch everybody's attention without putting a mural on the outside.

If you don't mind my asking, what did you find that was important enough to leave a message for?

[sageprincess]

Water. Clean, and seemingly without limit. We found what my traveling companion called a 'gas station' and inside there was a small fountain he assured me was potable.

[Sink. She means sink.]

I realize there is no shortage of snow to be melted, but until we find some way to boil it, I would rather leave that as a last resort.

[There's an entire race living in the drinking water back home; making sure the water is safe is important.]

Voice only @LELRIC

[armoured]

[Al foolishly assumes that these distortions are because of something he has done wrong to his own tablet, probably through his ignorance on how exactly they should work.]

You're sure that your messages disappeared? Did it look like someone scrubbed it out, or it was painted over?

[He'll come to the other points soon, but that worries him the most immediately.]

[sageprincess]

It was as though I had never [ssshhh] --he attempt at all. No sign of anyone tampering with it; it was just... gone.

[Which is pretty unsettling, really, and her tone carries an undercurrent of that anxiety no matter how she tries to mask it.]

[armoured]

Um, wait... what was that? Sorry, something-- I think I d-- [Static.] --rong.

[This could be important and he wants to get it all perfectly, he's cursing his inexperience with this kind of technology now.]

[sageprincess]

The tab-- [krrrCCHHHH] not working as they have been. No one seems to know why.

[You have company in this boat at least, Al. Her best solution to this glitching has been to shake the tablet a bit. It worked about as well as you would expect.]

I said: the message disappeared. No evidence of [zzzzzttt] --rt of tampering. It was just gone.