[network] @hotstud_xxx; voice; Play Me a Song [open] Day 92

[rubikscomplex]

[When the audio starts, the tune is charming, upbeat, happy. Is this really something Dr. Grinch Hotstud is playing? He'll even sing for it, and he's not bad on vocals. When he gets to poisoning pigeons... it may be clearer why he has this song memorized.

His audience will get to... enjoy the sick humor as he rounds off before speaking. There's a quiet, jazzier tune going in the background as he talks, just something improvised to do with his hands.]

So, funny thing about this piano. If you play a song you've heard here, you get a little kid whispering to you. Exciting. Anybody else been somewhere with incessant humming or music? I'll be taking requests for good Earth music from 2005 or earlier, as well.

Also - [and here the music does stop and mn_poisoning.txt is uploaded as a spreadsheet of data] - got a table going with the MN poisoning data provided. [The tune starts up again.] So far we know monster encounters, injuries, and death raise MN levels. Notable: Blondie and the Fashionista had their levels rise more than mine after our little run in with an anomaly. Guessing it's because I have my beacon on, but we need more data to confirm that.

Comments

@gravedigger; voice

[harlequinofhate]

Tom Lehrer, a man after my own heart. Good mathematician too, unlike some of the folks who used to live in this heckpit.

[Aaanyway.]

What's MN poisoning? All I've heard is people know enough about it to know they know nothing about it.

voice

[rubikscomplex]

A man after everyone's heart if you've got a soul. I know most of his songs if you've got a favorite.

[The comment about math does pique his interest, but he'll come back to that.]

You've got about the size of it though on the poisoning. We know it's probably killing us. According to our good friend, Winter, it's a side-effect of NIMA treatment that was supposed to have been fixed years ago. My personal theory's that it's connected to whatever turned the anomalies here into anomalies.

[There's another pause in the music and Joker will be linked to three network messages. (1) (2) (3)]

Whoever was here before us devolved into some sort of mindless thing. Connect that with this - [yet another message is linked] - and you start to get an idea for where we're probably headed. Plus this charming little nugget from the Admin. [There's a final link to the announcement from the Admin about NIMA poisoning.]

Take all that as you will, Mr. Powers.

[harlequinofhate]

Interesting.

So this MN nastiness might be turning us into monstrosities? And it looks like it's been happening for a while.

[He pauses thoughtfully.]

I wonder how long this has been going on?

[The more he digs into it the more it seems like it's been a long time and that makes him feel agitated. He has things to do back in Gotham. Whatever the punch line is to all of this, it had better be a good one or, well, it won't be funny.]

@Ecks | text

[ecks]

What does the child whisper?

And what is MN poisoning? How did you determine these data?

voice

[rubikscomplex]

'Was that you, Mrs. Sh-'

I'm guessing guessing they weren't just telling me to be quiet. We have an idea that Shelley Derricks was put in the retirement home by her kids. That's where I heard the humming.

[And as for MN poisoning, he's just going to link his explanation to Joker for this.]

text

[ecks]

Did you repeat the experiment? Are the results consistent across iterations?

You are correct, more data must be collected. Why are not all beacons turned on if the beacon slows poisoning?

@zachtastic; voice

[majorlazer]

[Zach, fascinated, reads the whole conversation with The Joker. House's theory is pretty grim, but also makes sense, to him. As much as anything does in this place, anyway.]

Did you see the kid?

Wouldn't be surprised if it looked like Pyramid Head at this point.

voice

[rubikscomplex]

Nope. Little bastard disappeared before I could turn around. Tried playing again, but small whispering child's decided not to play anymore.

I'm pretty sure there's some anomaly around here that looks like that asshole, though. And now you've said it, you'll probably be the one to see him. Because we love coincidences and screwing with people's heads here.

[majorlazer]

So now there are ghosts kids and ghost cats and ghosts in the streets, and they've started speaking. Do you think it's going to just going to continue this way? Could be a good thing, I guess.

[The idea of walking through the Norfinbury streets only to find himself face to face with Pyramid Head is enough to make Zach want to die. He was barely 8 when that game came out, and it used to terrify him]

Ah, now that's perfect. Bring back childhood terrors, that's all I need.

@totheark, text

[0thingsonmymind]

my bea con is off
ihave seen four monster anomalies
three we re when every one had monster anomaly
ihave not been in jur ed

i donot think any
weird places
oth er than school hospital

voice

[rubikscomplex]

I'll add the info later tonight. Did you seriously not get hurt at all kidnapping Epps? You must be a ninja.

@CaptSteveRogers; voice

[starsandtights]

[Steve was, indeed, mildly surprised to hear House singing something so pleasant and nice, so when the pigeon-poisoning came around in the lyrics, his first thought was, Ah... this makes so much more sense now... before settling in to listen to the whole song with amusement. The spreadsheet, now, that's interesting.]

You should probably know that both Rydia and Beckett assisted with digging up the bodies, although not in reburying them, and had the same sickness symptoms as me. And I didn't realize buildings like the school and the funeral home were relevant? I've been to the school cafeteria a bunch of times, but only explored further on a couple of occasions. Last time I did so there was something following me around... I could feel it, and once I turned around and saw—eyes, just sort of... hanging there, and then they disappeared. I've been to the funeral home, too, and inside of the morgue there, but briefly, and not overnight.

Dunno if any of that's important, didn't even think of it until I saw what other people were reporting.

...Didn't know you played piano. Know any Fats Waller? "Your Feet's Too Big", maybe?

voice

[rubikscomplex]

I'm looking for any info I can get related to location. Dunno if places like the school or hospital actually up your MN. That's why we're checking. You go into one like that again, request your records before and after.

As for Mr. Waller, me'n Fats go way back, bro. [You're speaking his musical language now, Cap. And Steve will be treated to his requested song.] Didn't know you were a jazz fan. You don't seem the sort.

@emmanellain; voice

[boozegeoisie]

[While the little bit about the child is interesting, his thoughts are thoroughly distracted. He sees Haurchefant on the list, and of course he can't help but worry.]

What do we know about this poisoning? Beyond what you have stated of course, and is there any hope for an antidote?

[This guy's a healer, right? He should know these things...]

voice

[rubikscomplex]

An antidote we can create? No. Not unless the kids downtown hit a cache with chemistry equipment and about 50 years of research for me to review and figure out what the hell this actually is and synthesize something for it. Winter might have an antidote locked up in that dead noggin of hers, but apparently she was bad at paying attention to life-saving medical advancements that happened before she was born. The things they don't teach kids in schools these days. Our second best bet is getting the Admin to actually give us an antidote instead of poisoning us. Or letting the guys running this little experiment in on the fact that they're using outdated tech.

What we know about it beyond what I told White and that NIMA was Jia Xu's specialty is nada, zip, and zilch.

Action;

[averytinyparticle]

[Quark's been searching the school on his own for most of the day, but he's kept an eye on his tablet to keep tabs on the responses that House's post has been getting. When he hears the bit about the kid whispering, he comes back into the music room, curious.]

So you think Ms. Shelley was a music teacher? I guess she did live really close to the school before she was sent away. [He frowns, thinking.] I don't remember seeing any instruments in her house...

[But then, it looked like a lot of things had been deliberately removed. And if she was in retirement, maybe all the stuff was taken away even before Norfinbury got all weird.]

Action;

[rubikscomplex]

[House keeps playing quietly.]

Maybe after she retired. According to our good pal Winter, she was some sort of software or tech engineer. She was inside your head. What d'you remember?

@hsiaoke; voice

[heavensreader]

[There is much to be addressed here, of course, but Kesara decides to start with the important questions:]

You don't really poison pigeons in parks, do you, Mr. House?

voice

[rubikscomplex]

[Well, he could call her an idiot and tell her it's just a song.

Or he could double-down.]

Oh, yeah. Pigeons, squirrels, people's dogs if we can get 'em. My sweetie and I are personally responsible for the decimation of the local songbird population.

@Spoiler ; video

[spoileralert]

DJ's choice. I don't know what grumpy old men consider good music in your era.

voice

[rubikscomplex]

Hmm... for you, Ms. Gossip Columnist?

[House begins playing a piano cover of his favorite stalker song. Yes, Steph. He's calling you a stalker. You are the one watching.]

Video | @Summoner

[ninjainviolet]

Interesting tune...

[ Which isn't a lie, exactly. She just doesn't like it. ]

Has anyone heard any music--other than what you've played, here? I've only heard a voice.

Oh, and I never run into any monsters, or have been injured, or died. And my beacon's on.

[rubikscomplex]

Only interesting. Damn. Tough crowd. How about you sing me something from ninjaville and I'll judge it, then.

[ You have terrible taste, Sheena. Clearly. ]

Anyway, quit stealing my questions. Nobody's mentioned hearing anything, but keep an ear out.

[ He does add her info to the sheet, though. ]

Also waiting for you to fill in the other blanks. Been to any weird places? Did you use Winter's app? And ask for your MN poisoning levels.

Voice @ Enoch

[warriorscribe]

[Well that was...tasteful. Enoch ignores the morbid song. Does his best to try to sound like he isn't still haunted by the things he's seen and the things he's learned others saw in place of his messages. Like he's slept. Which he hasn't.]

Feel free to play for me whatever you'd like, all the songs I know are before your time, or your grandparents', for that matter.

[A deep breath. His MN levels are higher than others...that's another thing to ignore. In fact he's going to look at something else.] And for your records, I have had no injuries treated by the spiders here.

Voice

[rubikscomplex]

Hah. Have this, then, Grandpa.

[Enoch will get to enjoy a blues piano cover of a song about getting older.]

I could also play you some Mozart. Or are you more in for Gregorian Chants?