savetheearth | 2. text. cellphone.

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2. text. cellphone.

[Someone's just arrived back in Locke City after a month of vacation and spying on family. Waiting on baggage check can prove rather dull so Richard opts to do something productive during the wait.]

The limitations on how far we may move before forgetting this network and all associated with it is rather curious. To simply set foot outside the town's boundaries leads to such an erasure; conversely a foot inside leads to remembrance. How this is possible and done so effectively is worthy of an investigation if only to determine whether or not memories are being tampered with in other ways. While I am in the process of looking through all the back entries on the Network, anyone willing to summarize the more notable events of the past month would be greatly appreciated.

[The text momentarily ends there, but a minute or so later, a final part gets tackled on.]

Also, would anyone be aware of a remedy for a painfully upset stomach, potentially on the verge of food poisoning without actually having ingested the food to cause it?

[Memory of a bad (more like a sin against humanity with no right to ever have existed) food came back full force, sadly.]

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[Someone knows that number, and is a bit surprised to see it. It's been a while.]

Ah, welcome back. Yes, there's been some experimenting with that leaving and coming back thing. I'm not looking forward to my own trip in August.

As for a summary, well. A large number of us went down into a coal mine to meet a sage of the earth who was apparently only some kind of trap. We were attacked by larger versions of those tiny monsters who possess animals. We all seem to have gotten out all right, but it was harrowing. Be glad you missed it.

For the stomach, try eating some simple crackers.

[There's a pause, before a final message comes through:]

Also, I appear to be a werewolf. So there's that.

Thank you. No conclusive information uncovered regarding how and why it happens, I take it? I take it a reason existed behind so many desiring to go and meet with this sage?

[There's a reason the next message takes a while to come and it's not due to his luggage finally having come. Had he... read that right? After a number of rereads, the answer seems to be that yes, yes he did.]

A werewolf?

Edited (html fail) 2013-07-15 02:23 (UTC)

[And in the time where he waits on the last message, Lyall replies to the first two:]

I'm assuming it has to do with some kind of limit of whatever power is giving them to us, to begin with. Perhaps it has a limited broadcasting range? It does imply that whatever this is, it is being actively forced on us.

As for the sage, he promised to tell us more about what we're supposed to be doing here. I imagine we're all just desperate enough to take whatever we can get, and we fell for it :(

[Ahaha. And there's the disbelief.]

And yes, a werewolf. Full moon transformation until an angry beast. Thankfully, I was also in a lot of pain, since it doesn't seem to be complete, so I couldn't exactly do much.

Possibly so, though a limited broadcasting range feels far less unnerving then the alternative of memory tampering. A reckless, though understandable action given the great desire for answers. Had this sage revealed any usable information or had that been a part of the ruse, as well?

[That's... You know, he's getting more and more used to the craziness but to hear a teacher's turning into a werewolf? That sounds more like a bad sitcom.

Yet somehow he knows that isn't the case. Lyall being a werewolf is fine, if still unbelievable, but him being a potential threat is what has Richard concerned. Once again, the next part takes a few minutes before arriving.]

Once the pain subsides, that may unlikely remain the case. Do you know if there's any way to halt the transformation before it progresses further?

There was something about one of the "gems of the earth" within the mine that would shut some kind of portal, but no one seems to have found any yet. I'm guessing that was a lie, as well. I'll admit I haven't gone back down there myself yet.

[He doesn't want to admit that he feels pretty useless, and he hadn't done a thing down there to help anyone. Not over this, anyway.]

As for the transformation, it's only happened to me once and it took me rather by surprise. I'll see what I can do next time, but I'm guessing not. I'm investing in stronger doors and windows for the time being, and a little help standing by in case I get out anyway.

[Gems of the earth? What even...? It had to have been some sort of made up tale.]

His words may have be nothing more than a part of the trap. Needless to say, returning would be something best saved for when it can be affirmed no further traps exist.

[The mine talk seems far less important than the werewolf talk, honestly. A past trap verses a future trouble: one clearly beats the other.]

Should you require additional help, I'm capable of providing such aid.

[Thinking the conversation about the mine and the trap settled enough, himself, Lyall is quick to reply to the last part.]

I don't want to risk biting you. I don't know what it will do.

Better to risk one individual being bitten than several. Additionally, I am more than capable of defending myself should the need arise.

[Which is the truth of the matter. A werewolf rampaging through the city can end badly while a werewolf dealing with a pseudo-chem teacher might not have nearly as many repercussions.]

[Well, far be it from Lyall to tell someone what they can and cannot do. After being rescued by a ten year old and a freshman zombie-boy, he's not doubting most people these days, even if they're just chemistry teachers, as far as he knows.]

If you really want to risk it. As long as my other guardian doesn't mind having company, I suppose. I'll ask him.

[Chemistry teachers are all Chuck Norrises in disguise. Lyall's lack of resisting is nice, too. Really, as long as only Richard himself gets hurt then it's all good.]

Whatever necessary to ensure not only your safety but that of others, as well. [Protect and serve and all that fun stuff.] Who is this other guardian?

[Which sounds a bit funny coming from a chemistry teacher. Lyall is over-protective to begin with, but that... just sounds a lot more formal than he takes it. Odd.]

One of my former students. He volunteered last month for the whole event, in case I changed multiple nights. I didn't, of course.

[Thank god.]

((interested in playing out the transformation with Hajime-mun? :) I'll set up the log for it today if so!))

[Richard doesn't really even realize how odd it may sound, It's just the truth.

Whoever this former student must be then he must certainly have both Lyall's trust and some capabilities in fighting.]

A drop of good in the bad, if nothing else. So if it's acceptable with this student, then I offer my help for the upcoming full moon.

All right. I'll talk to him, then send you my address along and the time to show up. It'll be a little bit before moonrise, since that's when it happens.

Thanks, Richard.

[The last comes out a bit embarrassed. Having to arrange one's own guards to keep you safely locked up is just... not really something he'd ever considered having to do.]

Alright. Not at all.

So what you're saying is that when we leave, we forget?

Correct. Any and all knowledge pertaining to this network vanishes from memory upon leaving Locke City.

Why did you come back?

Vacations need to end at some point.

So it really is everyone that gets affected by that. You'd think we'd, I don't know, feel something weird when it was happening. Forgetting things that are so important.

Have you tried anything for your stomach at all yet?

Yet no such feeling occurs. The memories are there one moment and entirely forgotten the next, as though they had never taken place to begin with. I've been suggested crackers, but how effective those may prove in this case is uncertain.

That's terrible. I mean, it's our /minds/ that are being messed with.

I know a great tea shop next to the university that has medicinal teas. If you think that might help.

It is. Worst yet is the fact we have no idea to what length the mind tempering goes. Tea might help, though the fact the cause is a memory of food rather than actually ingesting food may make most remedies useless.

[He will definitely the tea, at least.]

To what length... I don't want to just think that's all some kind of trick. When the feelings are so real. And the objects, you can't just explain those away.

...or mysterious stomach aches.

[ Granted he's never tried a medicinal tea, because he hates bitter things, but it's worth a shot. He sends along a Google Maps location ping for Posies. ]

We cannot know for certain until more information is uncovered about the entire situation. It may all be an illusion, it may not. However, if it is all false, the feelings are overly realistic.

[His stomach wishes they were less so, really.

Hmm that's not too far away. It seems as though an unexpected stop to that tea shop is gonna happen.]

Thank you for the directions.

It's no problem. I've never tried any of the medicine ones myself but I've heard that they can work wonders, so

Maybe even on memory-related stuff like this.

Perhaps so. Sometimes the most effective remedy is the simplest one.

[And can't get simpler than tea.]

I'd be ready to believe that for once.

You don't normally believe so?

It's not that I don't, it's just

Things just got really complicated so fast that it's hard to say if simple stuff is the right stuff.

Complexity doesn't necessarily render simplicity impossible. What it does do, however, is make an individual less likely to see the simple and desire to search for the complicated.

So it's not the solution that changes, but our definition of what's simple?

Not exactly. The definition remains the same, but our perception changes. Take for example how 2+2 is always 4. Obviously simple. When a situation becomes more complex, that simple equation can thus evolve into (2+2)^2+(28-12)-4/7. The answer remains the same, however the route to attaining it had changed because we do not realize it can be simple.

[ That he gets, though there's a piece of him that's had a struggle with the concepts of perception and definition themselves since this all started. ]

Even left on their own, it's not so easy for people to look at it that way, is it? Habit... can overtake possibility, in that case. Whether it's because of the world around them, or the people in it.

For us, it's like we have double all of that.

The difficulty lies with overcoming that habit. Simplicity is a skill to be mastered, not one which is instantly acquired. We may be unsuccessful with doing so in our situation, but that does not mean we cannot try. So long as we try, even if unsuccessfully, it will lead to an answer.

Kind of ironic, if you think too much about it. But I don't think you're wrong. It's just hard to see right now.

Acknowledgement is more than enough for now. The path towards seeing begins with accepting that there is something to be seen.

There is! Or

I feel like there is. So I don't want to try to stop finding it.

Retaining this attitude will fuel your search for as long as you deem necessary. Your name?

As long... well as long as it takes to find out what's happening to us. And how we're supposed to use these things.

Oh sorry. It's Banagher.

Banagher, that discovery may or may not be made, however as long as you keep looking, the chance of uncovering the truth will always remain.

As long as there's a possibility, I don't want to be the one to waste it.

Um

Can I ask for your name?

A good mentality, one I hope you will retain. My name is Richard Locke.

I can't not try. I don't want what's happened so far to be meaningless. So

Thanks, Mr. Locke.

So continue to give it meaning. Not at all.

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2. text. cellphone.

[Text, Computer]

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