[network] @cgriffin; day 008 [open]

[coleader]

[ from what Clarke can tell, the tablets are functioning again. she's still wary of the text function failing again, though, so this time she opts for video. anyone who might have assumed someone named Clarke was a guy is instead treated to a young woman. there's a flash of zebra print underneath her jacket. ]

Hi. It's Clarke, again. I've reached the south wall.

[ and now she's wandering endlessly to and fro, hoping to see some semblance of human life. ]

If anyone else is nearby, let me know. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I kind of doubt it's what anyone wants to talk about after... that.

[ first, the video posted from MarbleHornets' account, with those horrifying shadows and screeching. now this, crying and screaming and clawing. Clarke is visibly unsettled, likely the first time anyone has gotten to see her this way — she's been trying to keep her poker face up, be someone that can be depended on, but this is too much to ignore. ]

Someone was in pain, screaming nonstop all night — what was happening to them, why would they do that? [ whatever was happening to them, is that what @ADMIN wants to do to the others? the signal couldn't have come from somewhere other than Norfinbury. ] They were here, they had to be here. They're still out there somewhere.

[ Clarke takes a breath and composes herself. the scared girl is gone, replaced by her "calm and in charge" look. ]

I got another injection this morning, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one. We need to group up as soon as we can. There's strength in numbers. I don't want to alarm anyone, but I don't think we're safe on our own anymore.

Comments

@TW; video; private

[maskintape]

[ Tim has indeed been assuming Clarke was a guy and would be pretty surprised to discover that she isn't. Unfortunately, Tim isn't here right now.

What is here is a video trained on a page from a child's book. There's no noise, other than the wind. There's some static, though.

After ten seconds, the video shuts off. ]

[coleader]

[ OK cool that was a helpful reply. Clarke laughs a little, but it's one of those confused, unsettled laughs where the person doesn't know if they should actually be laughing or not. She's not actually expecting a reply, considering that was a non-response to begin with, but she sends back: ]

Well, I don't see you. What is this supposed to be?

text;

[maskintape]

Ⓧ

[ Wow. Isn't that helpful. ]

send us.lead me.i am watching.fix it.

[coleader]

[ super, thx!! ]

Are you—

[ Actually, screw it. She won't lie, she's becoming vaguely unsettled at the thought of him seeing her face. If he won't show his, neither will she. ]

Are you okay? I don't understand. Fix what? Lead you where?

You're not making any sense. I can't help you if you don't make sense.

[maskintape]

[ Geez, people. It's like they have no appreciation for fragmented nonsensical bullshit. ]

he lies.i will go back.we will end it.and you will lead me to the ark.he is a liar.no more waiting.

[ That counts as making sense, right. I mean, it's not like there are any ciphers here or messages written in binary or artistic clips of running water. IT'S ALL VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD. ]

@Chillinski; video

[figureitout]

[After a few days here, Stiles has adopted a policy when using the network: respond in the same way the person he's writing to is choosing to communicate, and so Clarke is getting a video of, well, half of Stiles' face as he seems to have placed the tablet on the floor so it's not quite aligned in the way it should be-- and so she can see he's currently sitting cross-legged in a building that seems to be in the verge of collapsing entirely.]

You're definitely not the only one. And the screaming... [He pauses, scratching his chin, in an equally impressive attempt to seem calm and composed and not freaked out of his mind jesus christ, escape assassins and berserkers back home and come here into this, great.]

Maybe it was the same things that were at the school. I mean... we can't be that unlucky, right, that they'd throw multiple supernatural creatures at us? [Because those things are still out there, too. Probably. And it's not a comforting thought.]

I'm gonna start heading south, too. I wanted to make camp near the grocery store, but I've got supplies for a couple of weeks. [So that should last him, and whoever he might find down in said south-- at least nobody's dying of hunger just yet.]

[coleader]

[ Hey, Stiles. FMK: Beacon Hills, Norfinbury, Hell. ]

You think they're supernatural?

[ They looked supernatural, and it felt like she was in a horror film, but that doesn't mean anything. Paranoia is clouding their judgment. ]

The supernatural is just— a way of explaining things that people couldn't understand. We've found rational explanations for those things since then. There has to be a rational explanation now.

[ She sounds confident, but the end of her sentence goes up in pitch a little almost like it's a question. There has to be a rational explanation for everything, but so far she has found nothing rational about Norfinbury at all. ]

But that's good. Camp near the grocery store. I'm starting to run out, but I'll make it.

[figureitout]

[Unfortunately that sounds pretty accurate.]

Um, yeah, sorry to say. And... are you sure? I mean, sure-sure? Never run across werewolves, or wendigos, or banshees or berserkers or kitsunes... I mean, uh. Rational explanations can also include the supernatural, and I'm pretty sure I've seen enough of that to say that those things, whatever they were? Definitely did not seem human.

[Or if they did, at least not alive, well-functioning humans, which is the more concerning idea here.]

Is there anything where you could get more food near where you are? Or is the store the only place here that has food? [A pause.] No, that can't be it, someone said something about a cafeteria or something...

[coleader]

I haven't seen any supernatural beings, have you? [ Said with a raise of an eyebrow, like she expects him to say no. ] Werewolves are more likely people affected by rabies or hypertrichosis. Wendigos come from culture-bound psychosis. People just saw something unknown and claimed it was supernatural, just like we're doing right now.

[ The explanation is just as much for her own benefit as it is his. She's already been forced to believe in time travel and a faceless man, she can't let herself believe in this, too. Clarke is desperate to keep her sanity by any means necessary. ]

I won't lie. You're right — it didn't seem human. But it has to be the paranoia, the lack of sleep, maybe even hypothermia affecting our minds. No matter how much we look at someone and see something inhuman, we have to believe otherwise. Or we might end up like the others did, scrawling deteriorating pictures and equations on the walls.

As for your other question, yes. MarbleHornets mentioned a school cafeteria. The same one in the video they posted from their SD card. [ The one with the shadowy, inhuman beings, but she doesn't mention that. ] I'm going to go there, when I can. I still have enough to last me. I saw it in the distance when I was traveling, it can't be that far.

@MarbleHornets; text

[genreblindness]

[It's reassuring, in a really disturbing way, that he and Tim weren't the only ones who saw the screaming things. After all the hallucinations he'd had last night, he hadn't been entirely sure if it had been real.]

I'm not so sure we'd be much safer as a group.

[coleader]

What makes you say that?

[ She thinks on it, then adds: ]

This might be off topic, but did the video and audio malfunctions seem [ weird? creepy? slenderman-y? ] significant to you?

[genreblindness]

A large group moves a lot slower. It makes for an easier target. Not that these things seem to have any trouble finding us anyway.


The distortion was a lot like what I've seen back home.

[Interpret that as you will.]

[coleader]

Great.

I didn't think about being a slower group, but I'm not sure if it would matter. And if we're alone, it gives them the opportunity to pick us off one by one. What happens then?

They know where we are at all times. There's probably a tracking chip in the tablets. At least a large group means we'd have backup.

Voice only @LELRIC

[armoured]

I heard it too, but... but I spoke to the man who was supposed to be screaming, and he said it was just a recording he'd found.

[Not that this makes it in any way less creepy, since they could make it seem like any one of them was in trouble.]

But you're right, this just makes it more important for us to find one another. I think I might be near the south wall too, I've been heading that way, do you know how far west you are?

[coleader]

—What man? Who was it, can you give me an ID? Even if it was a recording, there had to be something to record. Whatever it was, that really happened. And it happened here.

[ A pause, during which she collects herself. Pull it together, she keeps thinking, but the lack of sleep makes it harder to do so. ]

I'm not sure. I'm heading back in the direction I came across the south wall hoping to find somebody. I haven't reached a west or east wall yet, so I must be somewhere in the middle. You?

[armoured]

No, I meant-- I meant the man recording the screaming, he wasn't screaming himself. Supposedly. But he wasn't, he wasn't there at all, he said it just broadcast from his name without him doing anything.

[He realises he hasn't been the most articulate, but he's stretching taut with the stress of the last few days.]

I have the video saved, I could send it to you?

[coleader]

What?

[ Clarke is getting a little tired of getting messages that don't make much sense. Granted, this is better than Tim's creepy nonsense, but she doesn't have the brainpower to figure out what people are trying to say right now. She's basically using all of it to keep breathing. ]

I mean— yeah. Yeah, send it to me. That would be really helpful. Thank you, Alphonse.

video; @BAELFIRE

[jumpship]

I... I don't know what that was. But you're right. We have to find them -- and what caused it. This place is so large, it'd be difficult to help each other. Especially if there's something else out there.

[ Baelfire frowns, looking concerned and pensive. Perhaps two traits one shouldn't see in a boy his age. ]

We could stay warm together easier if we were all together, anyway. And at least have good company?

[coleader]

[ sweet summer child... he's way too young to be here. the thought of him braving the winter on his own is awful. ]

I think so, too. Loneliness isn't doing us any good. And if we pool our supplies, we can give away things we don't want to people who need them. It's hard scrounging for things, after all. You never know what you'll find.

[ a pause. ]

How old are you?

[jumpship]

It is, and I know some of us can't carry that much, either. It's difficult. The cold makes it lonely enough, I think. Everything starts to look the same after a while, no matter which way you walk.

[ he makes a face at the thought. he carried around two pairs of boots, a log and two medical kits for a long time and that was a lot to trudge through the snow with. ]

I'm fourteen. Why do you ask? [ though he knows. children shouldn't be on their own, and he's not, but all the same, Bae has lived through worse on his own before. ]

[coleader]

I was just wondering if you have someone to take care of you.

[ it comes out a little patronizing, but the thought behind it is good. she worries for adults on their own here, much less children. ]

I've been on my own here, mostly. [ except for that time she had to stop Hook from falling face-first into the snow and dying. ] It's been rough. I wouldn't want anyone else to have to be alone.

video - ID: claytonator

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton's had the luxury of seeing Clarke's face before, although he doesn't remember having the discussion in-person, with the bonus of seeing that she has the potential to be complete out of her depth. This, he figures, is not something she wants to talk about directly. She seems like the kind of person who would appreciate feeling competent--not necessarily having her ego brushed, but having some kind of reliable support that doesn't question her too much. He thinks he has that much sorted out, and he has no trouble catering to it.]

[With that in mind, he starts with the facts. The facts happen to be good news, so that's a bonus.]

Hey, that's good to know! Clem an' I're just in the corner, I'm thinkin'. South an'... [Sun rises in what direction now? Clayton looks at it through the window next to him--the only source of light in this dinky shack he's currently settled in.] ...west! Yeah, west. Gonna head east, see if we can catch up at some point.

[Now, for the not-so-great news.]

We also got those shots. Seems like the first batch, though-- [The batch that he can't actually remember getting but has seen the reactions towards, including his own? Yeah, those.] --same lethargy, then paralysis, no other side effects...folks said they were seein' things 'fore they got the first set, right?

[coleader]

Right. Hallucinations — auditory, in my experience, but I don't doubt some people experienced visual ones. That doesn't seem like something a shot would cure, but— I don't know. I've heard that some serious vitamin deficiencies could cause them, but it seems like it all happened too fast to be something like that. I've never seen it in person, either, so...

[ She offers it as some sort of an explanation, but it's so full of holes that it falls right through. There must be something that they haven't figured out yet, but what? Injections don't cure paranoia. ]

You didn't experience anything like that before these injections, did you? Because—

[ Clarke fears the static may have been all in their heads, some kind of mass hysteria. The thought of them collectively losing their minds is somehow more terrifying than anything that's happened so far. ]

I went back and looked at the posts from yesterday. Whatever static or video distortion we thought there was... it's not there. I don't know if it's possible for someone to have cleaned up the footage, or to have somehow edited it on purpose to make us believe there were problems, but it's definitely not the same things I saw before.

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton nods along, looking worried at first, but at some point he seems to become very distracted with something and instead sits quietly, chin propped in his palm, thinks and waits. He gives them a good ten seconds or so of silence after Clarke stops talking to let the air clear. Then he abruptly changes the subject. Don't worry, he'll come back to the important bits, just let him have this.]

're you medical, Clarke?

[coleader]

Medical?

[ The answer is complicated. She's not a licensed doctor, but she has been a healer. She's learned quite a bit, but not everything — some from her classes, but others just because she has a thirst for knowledge. ]

My mom is a doctor, and I was a med student. So, I guess you could say so.