[network] @ASolomons; audio, morning of 121 [open]

[devoutish]

Hello. Everything back to normal, is it?

[As normal as it gets, anyway. There's the crunch of snow in the background; he's walking as he's talking.]

I wanted to talk about those dreams - the ones with the messages. Thought I'd compile a list of what was heard. I've been looking at my own and trying to figure them out, but it feels like I got one small piece of a very big puzzle, yeah? So here it is. I talked to Andromeda, that AI. Sounds like she's not dead after all. She claimed to not be working against us. There was a big hole in the air in front of me; I asked her about it. She told me it was so dark that even light could not escape from it, and that no one knows what happens inside of it. She said the answers are in the center - of the hole, of the town, I dunno. We have to find the spiral - more about spirals, again - and "go deeper". Said the spiral's nearby. Everything else is "obscured".

She also said our time is half up - that's based on who's been here the longest - and we've got to escape soon. Suggested we work together and share information, so let's try it, eh? Fit these pieces together.

[He absolutely does not trust Andromeda, or any other Norfinbury-native entity - but right now, he has very little context for anything. He means it when he says that he thinks he only has a tiny piece of the puzzle, and it's not a good feeling. For all he knows right now, "find the center, find the spiral" could be his ticket out - or it could be a trap.]

Right. Another thing. Have we got any way to tell the months or the days of the week? That's something I'd like to know. I suppose a proper calendar is too much to expect, but some other way to keep track of time as it passes - has anybody managed it? I'd guess we're in the thick of winter right now, but fuck if I know anything about seasons in Alaska.

Comments

text @zd

[swatsflies]

Steve is keeping track of time and what day it is.
It's all guess work from the amount of daylight we have.

From what I got the town will eat us much like it did everyone else.
We will be terminated if we don't escape or find a way to fix it.
We have a meaning for NIMA
England has more on the effects as well
Oh something about finding the key.

[devoutish]

What's the meaning for NIMA, and is Steve's tracking public knowledge? Do you know it?

[swatsflies]

He made a post almost two weeks ago about the new year?
Oh! Luna has you covered.
Speaking of Luna, I think in the dreams she was told about anomalies.

Nanomachine injector machine is NIMA.
Jade found that one out from the dreams!
Her name is @gardenGnostic

@milkevoli; voice

[brokethefirst]

Good morning, Alphie.

I can answer the calendar question, to a degree. Someone calculated that New Year's Day was ten days ago, based on other estimates, so it's probably January 10th now. 2050 or 2051, I'd imagine.

[devoutish]

Good morning, Luna.

January 10th. All right. Day of the week?

[brokethefirst]

I don't know if anyone's figured that out, but... well, if we're following Earth's normal calendar, it should be easy enough to find out.

[There's a shuffle of movement and the distinct sound of a writing utensil against paper as she pauses to do some quick math. Astronomical math, really, all in her head. But she lets it play out for realism's sake.]

So... let's see.... if it's 2050, including leap days... um... the year would start on a Saturday. So today it would be a Wednesday.

And 2051 would make it a Tuesday, so it really depends whether 2050 is the current year or the year in which we just switched over from.

@determination, voice

[despiteeverything]

Um...

Well... we're counting by the days since we got here, I think. I don't remember what today is but um... I know it's over a hundred?

And I dunno about days of the week, but Mr. Rogers found out that um. That one of the days a while back was Christmas. And I think New Year's too. I can find 'em if you want!

[devoutish]

So we've got until late spring. In theory.

You're the one with the anomaly guide, yeah?

[despiteeverything]

I guess so.

[He makes it sound like such a short amount of time. It's the kind of thing that makes their stomach knot a little with anxiety. And for their stubborn determination to flare up in protest.

They're a bit surprised that he recognizes them though, and that makes them brighten up a bit.]

Yeah. That's me! And Mom, too. We're working on it together.

@Ecks | text

[ecks]

Andromeda spoke to me
Andromeda looked like a green star with other stars
Andromeda said she keeps the stars inside her and I could be a star if I wanted

Andromeda said escape is the only way to survive and we can go back the way we came if we find the answers

Andromeda said I am in the corner of the spiral
Andromeda said do not look too closely when I told her that spirals do not have corners
Andromeda said much of the spiral is still obscured
Andromeda said the center is the key to escape, the center of the town, dig deep

[There's an obvious conclusion to be drawn about the relationship between the town and the spiral, but Ecks has drawn a great many conclusions in the last two days and when she looks back at the things she has written she does not understand her own logic. No connections, for now, only observations.]

[devoutish]

Where were you when she said that? The night you dreamed?

[ecks]

I was south of the school.
In the dream I was in space but not space.

@hotstud_xxx; text

[rubikscomplex]

so, the center of the town is a black hole and we're swirling around the event horizon
cool
her little metaphor left out that it's impossible to actually escape a black hole
and that the cosmic forces inside are going to crush us into nothing once we actually reach the center
but hey
interesting imagery choice

as for what i heard
i told the clown
we're in the corner
get out or we're all going to die
put the pieces back together
and the admin is an eyeball spacewhale in their dreams

[devoutish]

What is a black hole? Are they caused by anomalies?

[rubikscomplex]

nope
they're usually collapsed stars
places out in space where matter's been squeezed into a teeny, tiny area when a star collapsed
and the gravity associated with that matter concentrates
that's why light doesn't escape
it's illustrated with a hole
but humans can't actually see them
you need specialized telescopes for that

[You asked, Alfie, and he's a total nerd sometimes.]

@gravedigger; voice

[harlequinofhate]

Follow the spiral, that's what my guy said.

Follow it and keep moving!

Stillness equals death and all that rot.

There is a void beneath us, and we're all slipping through the cracks right into it.

[Robert also told him how to get through the wall. He'll share that information once he's made the attempt on his own. If he decides it's funny.]

I still say we should take these dreamers with a grain of salt. Like old Spear said, dreamers often lie.

[devoutish]

"Stillness equals death" isn't an unpopular opinion here, is it.

He say what sort of void? Was it a black hole? A dying star?

@quark; voice

[averytinyparticle]

I talked to someone who called himself the Prophet. I actually met them once before in the school with Kesara! I don't know if they're a boy or a girl, I could only see their cloak and it was hard to tell by their voice. But I asked them a few questions about how to find the center when we don't know where to start. [He pauses as he tries to remember everything they said specifically. The concentration is obvious in his young voice.] They said that we might have overlooked something and that we should reconsider and discuss our options and what's already available to us.

[Another pause.]

And then, when I talked about how we can't figure out how to open a bunch of doors, they said that this is a town so there are rules, so there has to be a path. We shouldn't need to use force to get to it. And that the path could be hidden by a landmark or a locked door. There's definitely a tunnel hidden somewhere...oh! And that we need to work together.

[devoutish]

Doors? Which doors?

[There's a lot of information here - he'll pick it apart piece by piece.]

@totheark; text

[0thingsonmymind]

ispoke to clo aked fig ure
?prophet?
it he she they ??? didnot say

but said i we were
out side of dream
said we were onthe back of
beast
beast that is thing presence be neath nor fin bury town hall us

said beast didnot want
dig deep
but didnot say what did

said told showed
beast
was ent ity be ing creat ure thing ?? cthu lhu ??
iknow be ing ent ity thing like that

beast
isnot ⓍperatⓍr
but beast must own
here nor fin bury notdream notocean
may be you

*Not 'us,' though. If anything owned him it was SlendermanThe Operator.*

fig ure ?pro phet? said wemust
dig deep
if we want ed escape
said ans wers and esc ape follow the
s a m e s p i r a l

it they ?? didnot ex pla in spiral
just said need ed to
find

said thereis more than
one p a t h
said paths routes were
sim pl er
than we think believe
but would not ex pla in
just was
g o n e

and br oke

[devoutish]

That beast could be what Rhys saw under the town hall.

Your writing is a puzzle in itself, mate.

@LELRIC; voice

[armoured]

[Someone Al hasn't spoken to before and the accent throws him for a moment, he's never heard anything like it before in his life. But it's only for a second before he's eagerly switching on his tablet to be of help.]

I've been keeping track of the days pretty closely.

[His voice is even higher in his enthusiasm to be able to be actually helpful for once, even in a small way, making him sound younger than his pre-teen voice already does.]

I've been here since-- well, I guess not the beginning, since there were obviously people who lived here in the past. But I've been here since the first group of our people got here, and I've been carving the days on the walls as I've been going. It's day one hundred and twenty one today.

[devoutish]

Oh, look who it is - the famous Alphonse Elric.

[Alfie is surprised by how young he sounds, but doesn't show it.]

Yeah, I've seen your carvings.

@j; text

[advanced]

[He has gone deeper into hiding since what happened only the day before, since he came to himself and realised what he did. He would ignore this if it weren't Alfie.

They were not friends, far from it, but they had made a deal. He wants to be the sort of person who can honour a deal. Funny, to want that, when he has fresh blood on his hands.]

It's too cold for Alaska.

[He's survived Siberia in the winter before. It should be possible to survive outside at night. Hard, but possible.]

[devoutish]

But that's where they say we are, yeah? Do you believe it's a lie?