[This is Hope. She is totally calm and rational and....smiling.]

Okay first of all, just a note on the off chance if the people who brought us here and messed with our minds are listening. Everyone else feel free to ignore this part, I have something I have to say after it though.

[Yup still smiling.]

If you ever touch my memories of my father again I will do everything in my power to find you and kill you. Or smash you if you aren't alive in the traditional sense. I'm not picky. Just.Don't.

[And the creepy smile is gone and she's serious again.]

Right got that out of the way. Feel free to tell me it's pointless but I have more important things to bring up. First, virtual realities. Does anyone know about them and if so what do you think about the idea that we're in one right now? Memories being altered, people "dying"  but coming back fine, and we're trapped in what seems to be an enclosed space if our guesses about those ice walls keep up.

I've been in two of them in the past and one was run kinda like this only with more memory loss and less different worlds. Also more being tortured but I don't want to give them any ideas... I don't know how the other worlds would tie in save for the idea that we actually just have false memories but I think we should wait to get into that sort of mess until we have more proof.

[Hope gets the device working after a moment. She's not really sure what to say so.....have a small awkward laugh...]

So .....I'm not dead.

I'm pretty sure I died there but ....I'm not dead? Maybe I just suck at dying. First radiation now exposure. Though at least there I woke up in a medbay with answers and not a morgue and....


....and I'm rambling but ....uh yeah. I think I missed a few days there being ....dead and all but I guess I'm back?

[Small pause]

Okay no really how am I back? If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them. This is freaking me out a little. I was ready to die there. I accepted it...and suddenly I'm back here.

[Again. Why does she keep coming back and why does she have the feeling that she's forgetting something really important?]

[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.

I know there's been a lot going on. The sickness, the vaccines, Klaus Mikaelson's death - we know now that the Admin isn't afraid to let us die. The idea @LELRIC posted - establishing base camp - should be our first priority, but while we're all getting there, we can take the chance to search for clues. I've heard of enough strange things that it can't be a coincidence.

So far, I've seen a room covered in incorrect math equations and a table set for four like whoever lived there had to leave suddenly. I've heard about a notebook with insane scribblings, but I haven't gotten a chance to look at it. If you have, I'd like to hear about it.

I'd also like to hear about the places you've traveled here, even if you think it's insignificant. Everything helps. Any pictures would be appreciated, too. If we can compile all the information we have, maybe we can start to make sense of it.

Oh - and I found running water.

( feel free to threadjack if you want to! )

( EDIT: clarke has marked the door of building 26 with the word water. it will remain there on day 004 and vanish overnight. )

Characters: Hope, Bard, England, and America
Location N1, building 62
Date: Day 004, night (shortly before curfew; very shortly)
Summary: Sometimes you find friends, and sometimes you find strangers. Sometimes both at once! Poor Bard.
Warnings: None to my knowledge. Will edit if anything comes up.

( if you keep 'em at bay that way no one's gonna surprise you by getting too close )

A: Network (Voice); 11am - Open

There was a death.

[His voice is sombre, with an undercurrent of anger. How dare these faceless strangers pull people into whatever this is, and then let one of them die? He can't imagine how scared this person must have been, so far away from home and loved ones, and now he'll never see them again.]

I don't know how many of you saw that, but a man called Klaus Mikaelson has died. I don't know how, or why, or who the people are that told us this, but... But I know that he has to be the only one. We can't let anyone else die here, no matter what. We have to work together and find the answers to what's going on, so we can all get back home. I didn't speak to Klaus Mikaelson, but I'm not going to make that mistake again. I'm going to get to know every person here, because we're all in the same situation and I'm not going to let anyone fall through the cracks.

[Whether or not you wanted to be on Team Elric is irrelevant, Al will make friends with you all.]

The first thing we need to do is establish a base and start bringing supplies there. I know it's hard because none of us know this place, but we need to find a way to not keep wandering without a concrete direction. I've moved as far west and north as I could from where I got here, and I found a wall edging me on both sides. I went back a little way to a house I'd found, and now I'm moving south to see how far I can get that way. Please, if you hear this, try to move west and south... if we all do this, we'll all eventually end up in the same place. While you're travelling, make sure to leave marks anywhere you spend the night, so anyone following knows someone else has passed that way, okay?

B: Network (Voice) & Action to anyone travelling between D2 and D5; 11am - Open

[Al is struggling.

He's not moving nearly as fast as he did on the first days he was here, and he seems to be getting worse. His legs feel heavier and heavier, he feels somehow light-headed, and there are odd pains coming from his stomach. He's doing his best to ignore them, because he knows that it's impossible for him to truly be feeling anything physical, but it's getting harder and harder to ignore.

Finally, when he stumbles and lands on his knees in a snowdrift, almost passing out, he decides it's time to speak up and ask if anyone else is suffering the same things.]

Is anyone-- uh, I mean... is everyone okay? I've been feeling sort of light headed since the injections, is anyone else feeling that way?

[Except it's been since before the injections, and he knows that in his heart, but he doesn't want to admit it. Al is suffering from not eating anything since he arrived, because he doesn't realise that he even can eat now, let alone that he has to here.]

[ 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