3 /audio

[moarnomsplz]

[Alex usually handwrites his posts to the secret network, but he keeps forgetting not everyone can read them. He hasn't forgotten this time, but he makes it audio so no one will see how uncertain he looks.]

Has enn, anyone had one of those vision things, ing-zuh, where you remember, like, a family, lee, member you don't have in... I guess real life? We're still calling-ing it that, right?

Also, pretty sure I got confirmation, shun, that the guy whose memories I'm getting-ing isn't human.

Comments

[Video]

[scramasax]

[Last night it was one Alex, peculiarly enough.

Hearing this message immediately holds his interest fast - and that last part hooks it.]

What do you mean -- Alex?

[His tone of voice isn't any more forceful than usual, the question is barely inflected as such - but it is less hesitant.]

[Video]

[moarnomsplz]

[Anthony gets video, and Alex is frowning thoughtfully, still trying to sort out how he feels about this. It doesn't feel fair. It's like he gained and lost a brother in the span of five minutes.]

I'm an only, lee, child, but I remember a brother now. And I know that he... he's gone.

[He doesn't want to say 'died.' Alex can't feel the mix of affection and hero worship the memory carried, but he remembers feeling it.]

[Video]

[scramasax]

Oh...

[Anthony's expression also drops into thoughtfulness. Similar enough, out of instinctive show of sympathy. It is tinted below the surface with very thin frustration. His voice is a bit thick. He works up his statement as an offer of both confidence and apology.]

I've been alone in all of mine... There have been people - but I've been "at work". ...As a messenger. I -- I don't really know them.

[Stranded pause. Trails back in.] Is it - something - that you saw?

text - handwritten

[entertainaplanb]

[awwwww, kid. At least, Becky's guessing this is a kid from his voice. In any case, her response is clearly in a teacher's handwriting.]

Not family members, no, but certainly people I've never met here, or back in Minneapolis.

And I have no idea how I would have met one of them anyway.

But short answer: Yes, I have remembered people I don't know.

text - handwritten

[moarnomsplz]

[Alex happily goes back to writing; his is backslanted and messy, and yes, definitely a teenager's. Though he tries to make it less sloppy. He's seen this person's handwriting, or its close relative, on so many school papers.]

Not family, but important people, right?

Was there something weird about the one you don't know how you met?

[entertainaplanb]

[Son, your penmanship is atrocious. But Becky's not his teacher, so she won't be the one to comment on it unless it gets really illegible. And she works with third-graders, so she can decode a lot. (Incidentally, he won't have seen her exact handwriting on his homework before; she's only been in Locke for a year. But close relatives, certainly.)]

I think they're important. I don't remember much about them yet, but I don't see why I'd remember someone who wasn't.

Well, she was starting to unpack a time machine. I think that's pretty odd. Otherwise... from what little context I do have, I don't think the times match up at all, unless she'd already used said time machine.

voice;

[hollowleg]

I don't know. I saw some things I know shouldn't exist... shouldn't be real. I'm willing to bet these SFBs can show us and give us just about anything.

Dear SFB Gods, I'd like wings now. [a laugh]

voice;

[moarnomsplz]

Ess, SFB?

[That's one he hasn't heard.]

Would you mind being-ing less vague?

voice;

[hollowleg]

Well, Chris came up with "Echoes", but I didn't like that... So I call them SFBs.

You know... Stupid fucking bullshit...s.

[ video ]

[fatherssins]

[ Adrian does not like using the video up-link to the network, but he recognises that voice (and the pitiful stammer that went with it...) and he felt moved. No, he wasn't saddened, he was angry and frustrated. ]

Where have you been.

[ He demands, brow tightening. He was worried... ]

[ video ]

[moarnomsplz]

What? I haven't been anywhere, wher-ruh...

[He has been sort of anti-social. But why is Adrian mad?]

Sorry? Are you okay, kay?

1/2

[fatherssins]

[ That hint of anger softened and turned to concern ]

I was worried, I didn't hear anything.

2/2

[fatherssins]

[ A pause before he adds ]

I'm alright, are you?

[Audio]

[originaloddcouple]

That's exciting!

And unnerving. The non-human thing, I mean.

But as for memories... the only ones we have, both of us are there.

With the exception of a few other people we don't know.

No family member, though.

[Audio]

[moarnomsplz]

I kinda-- no, not kine, kinda, did suspect already, about the non-human thing-ing. The tail was a pretty big clue. [He gives a little laugh.]

You guys, guy-zuh, are together in your vision things, too? Huh.

[Audio]

[chalicejoker]

I've seen people I know were important to me, but...

[There's a bit of hesitation.]

I don't think the me in those memories had much of an idea what family was at that point. They were as close as he had, but I think the idea confused him.

[There's a note of sympathy as well as concern in Hajime's voice at his next question.]

You taking that okay? Knowing you're getting the memories of something that isn't human?

[Audio]

[moarnomsplz]

I was pretty, tee, sure he wasn't human already, I just didn't know ex, exactly what he was.

[An alien with a brother Alex doesn't remember at all is much weirder than just an alien.]

It sounds, sound-zuh, like you've remembered a lot. More than me, anyway, way.

[phone, audio]

[salvagedlight]

[He's not going to mention the stutter, that's just impolite. But the rest of it? That's fair game.]

I don't know if they're family members, but I... I've definitely remembered two people I was close to. Really close, I think. But it's just started coming back to me.

[And then he'll pause for a second before tackling that second bit.]

What do you mean, "not human?"

[phone, audio with a picture]

[moarnomsplz]

It feels, feel-zuh, really weird.

[Alex can tell he's going to need a visual aid, so he does a quick drawing, which looks sort of like this, only sketchy, as something not-perfectly-remembered would be.]

Not human, like this.

[Text | phone]

[healspec]

[he has to listen a couple times to get past the stutter and understand the content]

I have. A sister. I'm also an only child.

[handwritten]

[moarnomsplz]

That you only remembered recently with these vision things?

Are you OK with it?

[audio]

[forsakenwood]

[ she doesn't attempt to conceal her icelandic-esque and entirely echo-induced accent. ]

If not human, then what?

[audio]

[moarnomsplz]

[That's a pretty cool accent. Alex has no idea what kind it is.

He's already made a sketch for just this purpose to show people.]

Some kind of ay, alien, like this.

Where are you from?

[Video]

[shut_up_idiot]

I've sort of experienced it. I remember this girl, and while I don't think we've ever been related by blood something in me still thinks of her as family. Or dynamics doesn't really seem to be that of brother and sister but either way I know I've never seen her before in real life.

I've also met someone here who was important to the other me - or whoever he is - as well. I'm not quite sure how common that is, but if you weren't already you should probably be aware that it can happen.

[Video]

[moarnomsplz]

There's those two peep, people who I think are married who are in each other's vision thing-zuh, too, but they were the only ones I knew about.

[It still seems weird, but also kind of comforting. Like maybe not everyone in the memories will be a total stranger.]

The girl you see's like a really, lee, good friend or something?