[Haurchefant sits against a wall and smiles peacefully into the tablet.]

Hello, friends.

I am returned and not much worse for wear.

[He waves.]

What transpired beneath the town was terrible indeed but we must not let it dampen our spirits. Let it instead light a fervent blaze in your hearts.

We were faced with a momentous task, impeded by a seemingly inexorable march of obstacles and through it all we have emerged victorious.

The bonds of camaraderie between us will not be easily broken.

I'd daresay I am more certain than ever that we have what it takes to survive this place and see an end to this mummer's farce!

[He beats his fist against the chain tunic that remains from his armor.]

[So, up until now, Stiles has been fairly content to just talk to people through the network, see what people think is important to post, make notes about all the people he sees on the network and where they seem to be. But hey, he actually doesn't want more people to end up like the mysterious Klaus (or Clayton, maybe, a very hopeful-to-the-contrary maybe, because how much would it suck for the only person you've actually met here to go and get stuck outside and die), and so the post starts with a video, spanning through the grocery store, showing everything it contains.

That means mostly food. The video itself doesn't turn to the one who's recording it - instead, it cuts off and is then followed by text.]

I don't really know how many of you have been here, because it looks like at least someone has, but I didn't see anyone say anything about this, so... there's a grocery store! Where you can get food, which is, like, really important, at least if you're like me and was running out of it. And there's other things too, like lipstick.

Which anyone is free to have, by the way, if I run into you. [He found a lighter, too, but that knowledge he's keeping to himself for now-- at least this way, if he comes across another house with a fireplace, he has something to light it with.]

But yeah, if you've seen the graveyard, then from there you gotta go north and then west. Or just west from the weird cat house.

[Some time later, as Stiles makes his way further west, he adds to the post he initially made, because alright, someone already talked about the wall with the incorrect math equations, which happens to be what he is currently staring at, and... jesus christ it's freaky. And interesting. But mostly freaky.]

Remember that wall with the incorrect math equations? I'm not sure it's actually supposed to be math. Is anyone here good with breaking codes?

[Because he can't help but think the gibberish he's seen before, the letters and numbers smushed together and it was a code, it's all been a code, so maybe this is, too. Maybe it's just meant to look like incorrect math so no one would think about it more. But this one... probably won't be cracked with just one word.]

[late afternoon - video/text]

[The post starts off as a live, shot-by-shot documentation of the area Clayton has decided to explore. He's on his way to the mysterious dot of a building he saw from the balcony in house 88, where he first woke up; apart from house 83, which just happened to be close enough to scout, Clayton knows no other landmarks to look for. With what he assumes is most of the supplies he's willing to take salvaged from 88 and 83, and his makeshift shoes damp and falling apart, he decides that there's not much else to do except go for it and hope for the best.]

[For the entire morning, there's nothing to report. It's all snow. Clayton keeps himself occupied by checking other posts on the network, but otherwise he's silent.]

[By mid-afternoon, he runs into the graveyard.]

[This is worthy of some footage. Clayton posts two of them; the first is a short one, a panning around as he comes in through the front to show off the size and general state of things. His commentary is sparse--he's cold and tired and this place is kind of creepy.]

Found this...guess every town's gotta have one, eh? [He zooms in on a tombstone, here. It's unrecognizably worn.] Looks real old. If anybody died after whatever happened to drive 'em all out, I reckon they ain't buried 'em here.

[Some time later there is a much shorter video. No sound from Clayton, save his quick, somewhat labored breathing in the background as he slowly pans around him. A thick mist has settled in. He can't see it apart from on the video, but Clayton doesn't think to make a note of that before he ends it.]

[Much later, there are pictures. He's found a chapel of some sort--indeterminate Christian denomination, about as old as the graveyard, fairly small. There's a picture of the outside, followed by several more of the inside, the pews, the stained glass windows, the hall leading to the bed and bathrooms, and last, a stairwell down to a set of closed doors.]

[There isn't anything else for a bit longer after that. Then, a text post. No pictures. Something feels really wrong about posting public pictures of a dead guy, or a morgue in general.]

I found where they're keeping Klaus.

[after lockout - video]

[There's another long band of silence following Clayton's escape from the chapel. Driven out by the suffocatingly unpleasant atmosphere, he continued heading south in the hopes that there would be another side of town to explore beyond it.]

[By the time it gets dark, he has not located that side of town.]

[It's well past the time that Clayton's noted the doors on the houses lock, but he's still walking anyways. Maybe it's not all the houses? Maybe he'll find part of a house that offers enough shelter to sit in, but doesn't have a door? He can remain hopeful!]

[No such luck there, either. The wind is picking up and the strength is rapidly leaving his legs. He has to sit down. He'll freeze to death if he keeps himself exposed like this. A snowbank, maybe...]

[When Clayton decides to turn on the network for the last time, he's managed to dig out a shallow depression in the side of a small pile of snow, which is just enough to huddle within and give the illusion of shelter without actually doing anything to prevent the cutting bite of the cold. Clayton has jammed the tablet in the ice near his face so he can keep his hands tucked in his coat. He's resting his head, hair laden with frost, on his backpack, which smells irritatingly strongly of cat food. He doesn't look very comfortable.]

[But he is, as usual, smiling.]

Ah...sorry 'bout this. I know it's late. Ain't sure who's even up... [Clayton shakes his head.] ...Think I got kinda sidetracked. Gonna have to camp out tonight.

[He bites his lip through a grin. In his pajamas and a coat and some wet foam shoes, Clayton is pretty sure he knows how this is going to end. Doesn't mean he has to accept it, though.]

Could do with somebody to talk to, if y'all 'll humor me. Swaps stories, I dunno. Just...don't think I should be fallin' asleep right now.

[ Video ]

[ Steph flashes the camera a smile - she's starving and horribly cold, so it isn't as friendly as it might have been. It fades quickly. She keeps her eyes on the camera, as one accustomed to video phones. ]

Hi. I'm Stephanie, and no, I don't know how we got here, where we are or why we're here. I'm working on those last two, though. So in that interest, I have two requests. The first is that you answer a survey: nothing somebody who kidnapped you wouldn't already know or be able to find out easily. So far I haven't seen that we have much in common with each other. For that matter, it seems like we might not have, like, planets or time periods in common. [ She grimaces apologetically. ] Which is weird, so feel free to take your time with that one.

The second is this: Try to map your location. These are all going to be disconnected for a while, but given time they might come together. There's a program on your tablet that lets you draw pictures - use that. Let's assume that the sun rises in the east and north is up. Uh... if you don't usually have a north that's left-east up-north right-west and down-south. Make a note if you run into someone, and list what you find. That includes those massive snow walls people have been talking about.

On that note, a third thing: don't go wandering out into the snow if you're not sure you'll be able to get someplace warmer before nightfall. People get lost in snow easily, and tend to go a little crazy if they get cold enough. I don't know what last night was about, but it's insane to wander out in the snow at night if you don't have the right gear or know where you're going.

[ Finally she takes a breath and lets it out in a long sigh. She managed to sound pretty professional for a terrified, starving, seventeen year old girl. ]



So that was a mouthful but I'm done now. I'm going to attach the survey as text. Respond however you like, and feel free to ask if you have questions.

[ Text ]

Name:
Age: (on a scale of pubescent to menopausal, if you want)
Place of origin:
Place of kidnapping:
Year of kidnapping:
Occupation:

Name: Stephanie Brown
Age: 17
Place of origin: Gotham, New Jersey, USA
Place of kidnapping: Gotham, New Jersey, USA
Year of kidnapping: 2015
Occupation: Student