[Waking up in a body you don't remember is ten degrees is horrifying. How do you stand up when you don't have legs? How do you come to terms with limbs you don't recall ever seeing in your life? With being dyed bright orange and bleeding bright yellow? (He gave himself a nosebleed falling off the morgue shelf to the floor.) He's lucky enough he figured out how to float without being told.]

[He's lucky, too, that the few things he did remember helped to piece together his situation. Norfinbury, Alaska: a town multiple people have been brought to, where the dead sometimes revive in morgues with something missing. He has enough collected things to suggest he's been here a while. He just can't remember anything he's done here, nor a big chunk of what came before.]

[By the time Davesprite starts the video, however, he's regained enough composure to feign calmness. He's cleaned his face, so there's no sign of the bloody nose earlier. His expression is neutral; the backdrop is the outside of a building some may recognize as the funeral home.]

Hey, so, few questions. One, why am I an orange bird dude? Last orange bird thing I saw was my sprite, but that doesn't tell me as much as you'd think it would. Two, how old am I? I sure as shit don't look thirteen anymore. And three, how did I die? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I died—else why would I be at a morgue—but I recall a whole lot of jack shit about anything I've done here.

[ Video ]

[ Steph still has a bandage over one cheek, taped in place with packing tape. But at least the injury underneath it isn't as disturbing anymore, just an unpleasant growing scab. ]

Alright kids, it's that time again. Let's talk about what we all saw when things went crazy two days ago.

I hope you've all got at the very least some pain killers by now, but if you're still waiting for medical help? Please take care of yourself and don't strain yourself trying to answer this.

Now we all know that eyes are a theme. What I want to know is what sort of things we saw besides eyes.

For us there was a glowing like fire, or like Andromeda's eyes, I guess. Ice fell from the top of the tunnels. [ That was... upsetting, considering the way Kes and Zach each died last. Steph shudders. ] And, uh... god, there's not a way to put this that isn't creepy as hell, we got... licked.

So there was that. What else do you guys have for me?

[It's first thing in the morning when Ginger sends out this post. This one isn't optimism. She's afraid, and in pain, and tipping at the edge of a precipice of panic. Charlie's with her, and she seems unable to stop her focus from flipping between him and her tablet screen. Her words are breathless, indicative of an irregular heartbeat.]

Hello? We're hurt--Charlie and me--and I'm really worried about everyone else out there. Please check in, let us know if you're hurt and how bad or if whatever was out there didn't get to you. And if you can offer any sort of help to anyone who needs it, if you're in any position to do that...

[Well, the rest is pretty self-explanatory, and she's having trouble getting her words across. Not that Ginger's ever been particularly eloquent.]

I think my arm is broken, and Charlie's is--his shoulder is dislocated.

Characters: everyone
Location: mysterious, white hallways
Date: Day 193-194
Summary: Find friends. Get lost. Don't look.
Warnings: Potential for gore and psychological horror. Please note any specific warnings in your subject lines!

While confusingly similar, the area is split into a few different sections:

The Core
The hallways here are narrow and twist at a rapid rate. With how dazzlingly white everything is, it's easy to not realize you're coming on a turn and slam right into the walls. There are no rooms here--no one starts here, though they may find it while they wander. At the center is a large, round area, like the center of a spiral. There's a lot of air pressure here.

The Inner Hallways
The largest area, filled with dead ends, gentle slopes and twists, and, occasionally, difficult-to-see drops where a higher hallway intersects with a lower one without a wall to separate them. The whole place tastes vaguely like blood. Most rooms are here--most people start here.

The Outer Hallways
The outer ring of the ball of yarn. It's not as thick with halls and twists as the other two areas, leading to a lot more boring walking in one direction. It's totally possible to circle around the same path multiple times without realizing it, as everything is so similar here. Occasionally, footsteps can be heard just outside the farthest walls. Sometimes, something breathes. There are a few rooms here--some people will start here.


Remember to note what kind of eyes your character has in their top level!

[No text today! Instead, the viewers of Norfinbury get a video showing a weird orange bird guy filmed from inside a house. In addition to the shades, behind which a faint orange glow is visible, he's got on the standard peacoat people receive here. It's the same violent shade of orange as the rest of him.]

Hey. A bunch of you already know by now, but the name's Davesprite, and I'm this thing called a sprite and I'm part crow.

[He caws demonstratively.]

But I'm posting this because House and I just did some experiments about the whole nonhuman thing yesterday. See, some people were positing that maybe I only look weird because of distorted perceptions and junk, so we wanted to test basically if I'm the way I should be or not.

Thing one, I've got a hole through the middle of my chest where my sword used to go, because sprites are weird. Don't worry about it. Watson told me how normal objects found here go right through anomalies, but stuff coated in rubble dust hits them. So he and Sherlock wanted me to try to stick some rubble in my sword hole. Spoilers, it worked.

Thing two, my blood's bright yellow like somebody cracked a glowstick open, and it doesn't look like a human's under a microscope. Since the admin said my bloodtype's been "adjusted", House wanted to inject some of it into himself to see if he could. And that worked too.

If you want to go and lecture us about how that was dangerous and stupid and we could have gotten ourselves killed: Yeah, I know, but too late. Sometimes you gotta be stupid to get science done. And now we've confirmed that looking nonhuman is still real and not just some illusion cast on our senses via the nanomachines, and that regular humans can accept "adjusted" blood with the right type.

Thing three's got nothing to do with the experiments, but House wanted me to share that he found an SD card back on day 183 with Andromeda and Winter talking some more. If you saw the post I made about the card I found a while back, the one where they were talking about the cult? It sounds like this one relates to that.

[Here at the end Davesprite links a few files. First are video recordings of him and House performing the experiments described above. His blood in the relevant experiment is indeed a yellow as he said and slightly luminescent. Along with this he includes a couple photos of his blood taken under a microscope. The blood cells aren't human or avian, but a shape that looks somewhere between both.]

[Next, he includes the audio file of Winter and Andromeda talking.]

(OOC: Replies may come from either Davesprite or House!)

[ Audio/Video ]

[ First comes a video of darkness. There's the sound of metal clicking against metal multiplied by a hundred, and the slightest red glow. Then dozens of red lights turn to look at the camera - robot eyes. They swarm, and the video ends.

The broadcast turns to audio. ]

The ventilation system in the school is quite deep. I did not see what was at the bottom, but there was a great deal of moving metal.

[Video is a conscious choice for this post. Stephen is new here, a relative unknown, and he's coming to these people asking for information. He sets himself up with his tablet in the bedroom of the house where he's overnighting with Dr. Watson, camera angled to show head and shoulders. The cuts and scrapes of a few days ago are still in evidence, and a sharp eye might pick out the new bruise forming on one cheek.

Besides looking a hell of a lot like Sherlock, he doesn't look much like a neurosurgeon. If anything, he probably looks a little like a super villian, with the goatee and the high-collared red cloak and everything. Just don't tell Stephen that.

He levels a serious gaze on the camera. What comes next is just a little bit rehearsed.]

My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. I spoke to many of you when I arrived here three days ago, and it seems to me we would all benefit from knowing just who else is here with us. Being able to match up identities to screen names will be helpful to everyone, and it's possible that if we conduct a full census of the people here it might shed some light on the question of why each of us were chosen to be brought here.

I've started already. I marked down the people I've seen on the network since I got here, and I copied over names and dates from the obituaries. I know this list isn't complete, though, so I ask that all of you help me fill in the blanks. Look up yourself, look up the people you know, and tell me what I'm missing.

And, uh, thanks.

[And he reaches up to turn off the feed, one scarred hand visible for only a split second. He'll conduct further responses over audio instead.

Attacked to the image is a link, labeled Network User Census.]



[OOC: Known errors in the census include incorrectly consolidating records for multiple versions of the same character (Rhys, for example), failure to consolidate characters listed on the obits under slightly different names (Margaret vs. Peggy Carter), possible double-listing of characters separately under screen name and real name when the two names aren't known to be linked, and the exclusion of characters who have not appeared on the obituary or in recent network posts. The spreadsheet has been generated and will continue to be updated with IC knowledge only, including errors.]

[The microphone crackles for a moment, Lutha struggling to get his tablet in place to speak properly. His voice is just as sullenly tired as usual, though his words have taken a sharp, cross tone.]

Oi. We need to talk.

Last I checked, there's over two dozen of us wandering around this nightmare trap by the museum. Still no food source. Shouldn't be a problem if we have that many people to go in and out, except getting rations takes time, and we can't just have two or three people working on it blindly. Yeah, I know, we just fucking talked about this, what, two weeks ago? But we need some better damn coordination than what we have right now or guess what? You'll all starve to death.

Look. If you're still stuck in this damn maze of tunnels, regardless of what the fuck you're doing, then say something here. We need a damn head count. If you don't want to say specifics about where exactly you are, then just don't. Not my business. I just need to know amounts.

If you're bothering to run rations for anyone in here, either say something here or just talk to me privately. How much you can carry and how fast you can get through this place without hurting yourself are key, and keep in fucking mind it takes almost an entire week to get from that museum to food and back.

[A pause. He lets out a tight breath, a muffled sound against the mic as he rubs at his face with his hand.]

And if you're even thinking to come over here to join the mess of people already crawling through here, use your head a little. Don't just add to the people that are already fighting for food unless you have someone around here to actually back you up reasonably.

Can we just fucking do that much? Alright? Sound easy enough?

[He doesn't answer that before the feed ends.]

[It's in the evening, after lockdown when this goes up on the network. Instead of his usual text, Davesprite is posting in audio.]

Hey, guess who found something? I got to talking with Natasha the other night when we were all messed up with the eyes, and we got to thinking, you know who else had glowing eyes? Andromeda. Plus people saw her in the dreams, and Winter said she might have a backup at town hall... My point is I thought it was worth asking her about this, since she might know something, y'know? Turns out she did. Check it.

[Davesprite uploads an audio file of two women speaking.]

So, I can hear Winter first, but I'm not sure who the second is. I'm guessing Andromeda since it's her house, but I ain't exactly heard her voice. I know some people talked to her in the dreams before, so can one of you confirm?

Point of interest speaks for itself, though. Cult hates robots, lady number 2 thought she could fix it, and I'm pretty sure that didn't work considering the situation we're under. We know they both died, after all. But if you ask me, that only raises more questions about the prophet.

Go ahead and talk if you've got your own ideas. I've been reading up a lot, but I'm still a newbie next to most of y'all.

In case anyone hasn't spoken to a friend for obvious reasons, we seem to have all cooled off. I know now might not seem like the best time, but after what happened it's more important to keep in contact with each other and stay with people.

[Tony really wishes Steve were here. It should be him making this kind of announcement.]

What happened the day before wasn't an accident. It was something, the town maybe, trying to reach out and assert its influence over all of us. And if we react by dropping the work everyone has done so far? It wins. It gets exactly what it wants, because all of us break apart, making us easier to pick off. Or we give up. What we should be doing is pushing back and finding out who the prophet really is. We need to try to figure out what they intend to do for our own safety.

If there's anything I can do to help the rest of you, I still intend to do that. I'm not going to stop. I want everyone to be safe. And the best way to help each other is communication. Like the man said yesterday, don't shut down. He's a good guy.

So, on that note, my name is Tony Stark. I'm considered a superhero on the Earth I come from. We handle organizations that want to endanger the world, the occasional intergalactic threat, and... Things like this when they happen. Some of you might consider that a police force, but we're more of a general emergency response solution. I just want to give you a fair idea of who I am.

[He's holding the tablet up so he can address them properly, and raises his off-hand to gesture.]

Also, I have questions. First, how are your eyes? If you are still showing signs of change, I'd like to know. Do you feel different? Secondly, if you are alone right now and weren't with someone when this started, please check in. Let us know everyone is still here and no one is stranded without help. And if you have questions, today I'm going to be completely open.

Characters: Gregory House, Ecks, Brian Thomas, Jade Harley
Location Various
Date: Day 174 - 176
Summary: Unsuccessful dollquest fall out and some additional fun.
Warnings: House being House.

( Does it plague you at night? )

Characters: Brian, Davesprite, Jade, and Sora
Location: the shed and the school possibly, AKA buildings 29 & 30
Date: evening of day 165/all of day 166
Summary: Some folks spend the night in a shed and Davesprite tries to break up Snowhell's cutest notcouple.
Warnings: I don't think so, but Davesprite and Jade might broach some heavy subjects? Will update as needed!

( [LOUDLY IMITATES THE SOUND OF A TRAINWRECK] )

Characters: Stephanie Brown, Zach Spencer, Kesara Freamon, Death the Kid, Leonard Church, Charlie Kelly, Jade Harley, Brian Thomas, Kanan Jarrus, Vanitas
Location: Buildings 48. 29, ??, ???
Date: 162-165
Summary: Assorted shenanigans
Warnings: Discussion of domestic abuse

DAY 162
48: The only doors in this single-story house are the front door and the bathroom; all other doorways are separated by faded green and yellow curtain beads. Even the bedroom gets this treatment, and it's the same for the living room and kitchen. The beads seem to be made of glass; moving through the house is a bit of a noisy affair. The bead curtain leading into the living room has been torn down, with half of the strings now scattered on the floor and some of the beads shattered, leaving a small mess of glass. The sharp bits of broken glass have been swept to one side, out of the way of anyone walking. Small, finger-sized slits have been cut into the couch.

"ALPHONSE ELRIC, MAMI TOMOE, FREYA CRESCENT, GREED, EDWARD ELRIC, STEPHANIE BROWN, DAY FORTY THREE, TRAVELLING NORTH-EAST." has been written on one of the walls. "ALPHONSE ELRIC, STEPHANIE BROWN, EDWARD ELRIC, GREED, DAY SIXTY-SIX, TRAVELLING NORTH-WEST. DEAR FORMER RESIDENT, WE ARE FRIENDS, PLEASE DO NOT FEEL YOU NEED TO HIDE FROM US. CONTACT LELRIC." has been written on the walls. "ALFIE SOLOMONS, 1922. Camden Town, London, England, UK, Europe, Earth. Day 133, January 23" is carved onto a wall.

DAY 163
29: A small shed outside the school, going inside reveals sports equipment is being stored in here. There are hurdles, various sports balls, giant mats, and the like. There's nothing that could be used as a weapon, though, unless you're going to try to hurl a basketball at someone's head. This is the only place on the campus it's possible to stay in overnight--if you try to stay anywhere else, you'll be made to leave at 7PM.

The following is written on the wall in blue ink: "This is Building 46 on the composite map. Contact @CaptSteveRogers for details." Underneath is a fairly accurate map showing the shed in relation to the school and buildings 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41, 42, 43, and 44. House 34 is labeled "Medical assistance; hot, clean water. Contact Dr. Epps @claytonator". The school is labeled "School. Food available in cafeteria; DO NOT STAY HERE OVERNIGHT." The shed is labeled "Shed". Behind the shed is a small army of snowmen armed with sports equipment.

DAY 164


DAY 165

Characters: Davesprite, the Cat, Jade, and Brian/Hoody
Location Houses 34, 35, and 37
Date: Day 157 evening + all day 158 + at least part of 159
Summary: Dog girl and hood man run into a crow and a cat, awkward travel ensues. Then event weirdness.
Warnings: Nothing planned. Individual warnings can go on threads if the need arises.

( Read more... )