[It's midday, or what passes for it in Norfinbury, when Beckett's ongoing video feed opens up to the whole network, showing the field of snow with the shadows of skyscrapers in the background. Front and centre, fading in and out of the snowfall, is the anomaly. His anomaly.

Two faces: perhaps an amalgamation of limbs and pieces, all pallid and corpselike, making up the body of a sharply beautiful young woman, her hair sweeping to her waist, her lips ruby; perhaps that same face within swarming, oozing darkness, floating at a distance among writhing tentacles. But it isn't her appearance that Beckett is interested in. He asks her questions, urgent, demanding, and she speaks back, but doesn't answer - not in any way that makes sense. Between them they make a drawn out disjointed dialogue:]

What is your name?

- just like you, [says she.] Forced here against my will. Always forced -

What is the last thing you remember?

And you always knew when to get out, didn't you. Not right, not fair -

Who brought you here?

And me - we - me - all wrong, dragged across in bits and pieces -

Who - what put you together?

Without the light, it's not a thing, you fool, you can't dig it up from the ground, it's the idea, the luck of it -

Where are your other parts? [His voice starts to strain. The camera tilts.] Lucita, tell me -

Thought it was fixing me, look at me, look at us, I can still feel it saw at my bones. Why couldn't it have been you? It was my sacrifice, mine, mine -

Do you know who I am?

And you are whole and what are we what am I - [The vision steps back as Beckett pushes towards it, into the thickening snow, black fading out in white.] Tore my hands tore my eyes tore my heart and you - you - you - !

Lucita! Do you know who I am? Do you remember us? Do you -

Damn you, Beckett, you left me to the darkness!

[With that howl, she's gone, faded into the storm. Beckett takes a few running steps after her -] Lucita! Answer me! Lucita! [ - and gets nowhere. She's gone. It's gone.

The screen tilts wildly. In a flash of fury, Beckett smashes his tablet down to the snow.]

Is there anyone out there still human?

[Mycroft sounds...stressed.]

Uh, hey everyone.

[Someone sounds sort of sheepish, mostly to hide the distress that comes from being on the receiving end of being revived.]

I wish I could say that I'd died doing something really worthwhile to help out, but I didn't, it was an anomaly. But I'm-- I'm okay now, I can't even figure out what I've lost. I've tried thinking through all my life but none of my memories seem to be gone, and I've still got all my senses, and I still look like me. I'm kind of scared that there isn't a cost, that would mean they're getting more powerful. Maybe they even have a bigger stone? Maybe they've sacrificed more people?!

[There's a brief pause, and then a more subdued voice continues.]

Okay, so-- maybe I figured it out after all, please forget what I said then. I didn't mean to talk about it so publicly where anyone could hear, especially not when the Admin really might be using philosopher's stones to resurrect people!

[Damn it! Again!]

I mean... I don't think I can lie, and it's like I'm just speaking without getting to think about it first, which is really awkward! What if I end up having a conversation with someone and I don't want to say something to them, and it comes out anyway? What if I tell Steph that I think she's really pretty? OH! Oh no...

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Royce Melborn, Zidane Tribal
Location: building 162
Date: evening of 237
Summary: an accidental meet-up
Warnings: n/a; will edit if anything comes up

( Read more... )

So, I put together what information I gathered about what happened a few days ago. From what I can tell, it's definitely got something to do with whether you got that weird light taken from you whether you saw 'em one way or the other. Doesn't seem like I lost any memories though this time...

[ Zack takes a second to clear his throat. And while there's something more subdued to his tone when he speaks again, he no less remains strong. ]

On the bright side, if any of you were wondering if those were really people you knew- they're not. Or at least as far as I know. I asked Eve to confirm if my.. own was ever registered in her system and the name never came up.

[ He leaves an attachment for all to access. ]

( ooc: Feel free to have your character fill in his missing information if you feel like they would. /o/! I'm still backtagging from the last entry, but I wanted to make sure to make this ICly accessible to everyone who was interested. )

[ Fear, confusion, anger--all of them can be heard in Sheena's voice when she speaks. She can't be seen yet, though. Instead, there's a picture of this guy--faceless for those without their lights.

For those with their lights, he's going to look like his body has been turned inside out, the top half and bottom half facing different directions as though someone put a doll back together wrong. Where the hair should be are what appear to be sinew, tendons, veins, and strips of muscle. As for the face? Well, this time, it's not featureless: It has one big blue eye that takes up most of the head, with just a slit for a mouth. ]

Okay. Can people tell me who or what they see here? [ She had seen Zack's post and knows that people are seeing different things. ] Because this is the anomaly that's been following me since yesterday.

And who suddenly decided to start attacking me today for no reason, demanding something!

[ The picture shifts, revealing Sheena sitting in front of a door, and she's looking a little haggard.. ]

That's right. It attacked me, and it touched me, but all that happened was I was knocked out. It's done it a few times, always pleading, begging me for I have no idea what, and…

...calling me "hunny". Which is impossible... He's in a morgue.

[ Which, by her shudder and expression, is what really frightens and saddens her. ]

Hey, Zack here. So, Enoch mentioned this earlier about our anomaly buddies coming around again.

Thing is... there's something off about all of this. Not only is the one that's been following me different?
But Zell and Kuns have been telling me they see 'em like a mess of something or other. You know, your typical anomalies. But for me and Jim, it's different. The anomalies almost look like someone we know. Just faceless.

( cw: body horror anomaly description )

I feel like we should do a tally of who's seeing what and maybe then we can figure things out from there. So, shoot me a message and let me know what you see. And if you have any theories, I'd like to hear 'em right about now.

[ He's just about to cut it off there when one last thought- if not a slightly distracted sounding one -occurs to him. ]

I'm also attaching an updated list of those who've been discovered and identified in the morgues, too. You can thank Davesprite for the help.

[ An attachment can be found along with this message. ]

( ooc: Durp. Slight edit in the brackets due to a reading error. This is why you don't read the new plot in the middle of the night. )

[Beckett starts the feed sitting huddled in a corner against a wall that's been burned a featureless black. He's not wearing his tinted glasses, and both his look and voice are flatly composed, distant.]

I am going to start recording everything. Simply leave this thing on at all times. We are losing too much information to patchy and inaccurate records in a way that is simply inexcusable considering the means we have access to. I strongly recommend that you all do the same. [He pauses, then nods half to himself.] If nothing else then for those who will come after us. Eventually.

[So optimistic, Beckett.]

Do let me know if you would like to receive regular transmissions of my records. And if you have, and are willing to use the means to put some of them on SD cards that may be preserved in the event of lost access to our iteration of the network. There is... a certain comfort in the thought of posterity, in my experience. Such as it is.

[Such as it is. He wrinkles his nose at the thought, and puts the tablet aside, though the recording keeps running. After a bit of time, he picks it up again and adds a text message, along with an attached file: TheBookOfNod.txt]

The file I am attaching is the complete text of the Book of Nod: the mytho-historic principle document of the Cainites, namely, the vampires of my world, transcribed from memory. I doubt this is of particular interest to anyone, but my physical copy was recently destroyed, and as far as I am aware, that was the last copy in existence. My purpose here is thus its preservation as a text. I am the last record of my Kindred. Let something remain.



[OOC: I didn't want to directly link one but if anyone's interested for whatever reason it's actually really easy to google up an online copy of Vampire the Masquerade's Book of Nod. I'm sorry it's so painfully 90s.]

[He's spent literal months hiding from everyone that he can, and he's finally through with it.

Pierce showed him the worst can happen, and John showed him that people can get past that worst. He's with Steve, he's trusting himself a little more each day, and he's so tired of running. He still doesn't trust most people here, or the network itself, but he's trying to ignore that. The username is new, and the voice might be new to most people as he usually uses text, low and level.]

My name is James Barnes, Bucky, and I've had a lot of usernames here. I've been hiding for a long time, but I'm through hiding now.

[He hesitates, nearly hanging up there, but it's not enough.]

I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt. I can't promise I won't hurt people again, I'm still not safe, but I'm trying to be better. That's it.

Characters: anyone pulled into the Escherverse
Location: Escherverse
Date: Morning 220 - Night 221
Summary: All alone/Even when I was a child/I've always known/There was something to be frightened of
Warnings: general horror, violence warnings; make sure to put more specific warnings in the subject lines!

[ Video ]

[ The camera is almost sort of pointed at Steph's face, but not really. She's not even trying to look at it. She only turns on the video so people could see that she is apparently in the chapel. ]

Hey, so, uh... I have a bit of a problem. I can't see? And Zach doesn't seem to have come back yet, so I'm kind of at a loss. It doesn't seem like I have a lot of time to find shelter.

[ That's certainly one way to announce that you died. But she's right: she has maybe 3 squares to find a safe place to spend the night. ]

Is anyone nearby? I'd like to go find Zach, but I'll settle for being able to move around until this passes.

Also, where the heck am I? I don't feel anything I recognize.

[ Video ]

[ Steph is a little somber today, but she has good reason to be, considering the subject of her announcement and the many often confusing things she's been wondering about of late. ]

I've been thinking a lot since yesterday, and I finally decided to ask the Admin some questions.

What I was told is that... our friends, they aren't considered legally dead. What's done to revive them, it's considered resuscitation. I didn't ask for more details, because I didn't want her to stop responding outright. But they aren't dead, not really. Not anymore than someone who swallowed too much sea water and stopped breathing is dead.

The other thing, which I don't know will be of interest to anyone but me, is that you can ask if someone is from the same world as you. The person I asked about is... comatose, so I don't know if that's a factor, and probably there are confidentiality issues if you ask about anyone other than yourself, but I got a straight answer.

[ She turns away, about to say goodbye and turn off the feed, when she remembers something else that might be kind of relevant. ]

Oh, um, also, she responds to body location requests with a picture of the building. So like, know what the funeral home or the hospital or the police station look like from the outside, but don't worry about seeing pictures of... you know. Your friends.

[ Not dead, she keeps reminding herself. Not dead friends. ]

That's all.

[Cat-Eyed Boy's still purposefully speaking to hide any catlike verbal tics he may have, currently holed up in a building as close to the convenience store as he could find. His voice is hesitant, though, and perhaps a little confused.]

So I heard that there's nonhumans here, and you all get along fine with the humans? I want to hear it straight from your mouths, because where I come from, if you look even a little odd, you'll be shunned by humans. Maybe someone'll even call an angry mob on you. That's really not the case here?

[ The message goes up early in the day, almost immediately after Castiel wakes up. He's careful to hold his tablet the correct distance away and have it pointed at him before he starts recording - this is important, and he doesn't want anyone to be sidetracked by his confusion regarding these devices. ]

Those of you who stepped into the role of this town's Prophet last night; I need you to tell me what the beings with lights in their mouths looked like to you.

[ It's a demand as much as it is a request. He has to know if the others were being made to kill angelic effigies, immediately. Facial expressions are still something he has to make a conscious effort to preform most of the time, but even with his body language at its usual formal-neutral, there's a noticeable undercurrent of rattled desperation to his tone. Clearly the dream didn't treat him well. ]

Characters: everyone
Location: The sort of location M.C. Escher wishes he'd thought up.
Date: nights 211 & 212
Summary: I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallow'd ground
Warnings: potential for violence, death, and psychological horror; please note in subject lines if any specific warnings come up!

like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins
I want to find you tear out all your tenderness

[It's been quite a while since they've dared to do video for more casual conversation. And those who've seen them lately might be able to tell why. Their face isn't flushed, or pale underneath their brown skin, no evidence of anything other than the usual dirt and grime on their face. Their hair is slightly damp from snow and exertion, not fever.

No coughing either, as they speak.]

So, um. I guess I'm okay now? It just sorta, um... it happened, a few days ago. I dunno. Does anybody know a good place to wash clothes?

['cause now that they're feeling less gross it'd be kind of nice for their clothes to feel less gross too.]

Also, um.

[They hesitate here. But it's been a few days with no sign from Andersen (and even longer than that with no sign of Toriel), so...]

Hi everybody new or um... people I haven't met yet. I know I've kinda been away for a while? Or sorta, just... not around. But I'm Frisk and I helped write the anomaly guide.

And um, I kinda need to add stuff to it. There's been lots of things we've found out. But um, when I wrote it first, it was me and Mom. So she helped me when I misspelled stuff or didn't have good grammar or um, or organization.

But um, it's just me now. So... if anybody else knows how to do that stuff, it um... I'd help lots. I want the anomaly guide to be a good guide.

Thanks. And good luck everybody.