01 - [Handwritten on a piece of paper]

[blind_devotion]

[A slow day at LCU's library has left Alexa with plenty of time on her hands, for a change. Sitting at the circulation desk, Alexa begins doodling on a sheet of paper, starting in one corner and expanding outwards in spiraling patterns. On a lark, she includes as part of the design a series of numbers, a string that had been rattling around in her head since she was young. It didn't mean anything, at least not that she could tell, but she'd never been able to quite get it out of her head.

And so her first foray into the network is a doodled pattern, spreading across the page in quick, thoughtless strokes. Then a pause, as someone approaches the desk to ask a question, and then, in flowery handwriting:]

- The Oxford guide to the history of physics and astronomy QC7 .O94 2005

[And then nothing, as she turns away from the page in order to help him with his inquiry. Who wants to be the one to scare the piss out of her by having the page talk back to her?]

Comments

[Handwritten]

[originaloddcouple]

Oh! I think I had to read that for a test in college.

I probably failed, but I tried really hard!

[blind_devotion]

[Alexa finishes directing the student to the correct shelf, and then turns back to her doodle sheet and...and...

What? She didn't write that. She doesn't remember writing that, anyway. She looks around briefly, but there's nobody in sight who could have scrawled it down while she wasn't looking.

Tentatively, she put pen to page once more, writing:]

Hello?

[originaloddcouple]

Hi!

[blind_devotion]

[When the response, brief though it may be, it startles her so badly that she stands up abruptly, making enough noise that several people look over with concern and annoyance. Sitting back down and mouthing an apology, she picks up the pen again.]

Are you a ghost?

1/2

[originaloddcouple]

Oh! Uh... I don't thinkso.

I still feel alive. I'm still at the shop...

[originaloddcouple]

So, nope! Definitely not a ghost!

[blind_devotion]

[Well, this was it. She had finally gone crazy.]

Then...what are you?

[originaloddcouple]

...A 36-year old woman? I don't really understand the question...

Text -- typed (also don't mind the threadjack she's just rude)

[soulsborderline]

Why is everyone who accidentally texts going straight to the ghost explanation lately?

Handwritten

[originaloddcouple]

If its a choice between ghosts and aliens, I think I'd rather think ghosts too.

[soulsborderline]

Why? Aliens can be fought. You can't do anything to ghosts.

[Handwritten]

[pitch_slap]

Is that...whatever system they use to sort books at the university? Congress or whatever?

[blind_devotion]

It's...the reference number, yes.

[WHAT IS GOING ON]

[lackinginfaith]

Nice to meet you too.

[blind_devotion]

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE????

[She hopes she doesn't look too weird, frantically scribbling to herself and nearly panicking at her desk...]

[lackinginfaith]

I hope you're not in public making faces at your paper. Calm down. We'll explain.

[blind_devotion]

[That is, of course, exactly what she's doing, but those words make her stop and realize it. She resumes scribbling a moment later, but slightly calmer and a lot more secretive.]

Am I crazy?

[lackinginfaith]

No. You're not haunted, either. We're people just like you, communicating. I know it's impossible, and nobody can explain it, but we're all... different, should I say.

[blind_devotion]

I don't understand. Different how? Where are you people? How does this work?

voice;

[metalbent]

[ Sure, Sophie will be the one to speak. ]

You're writing something, aren't you?

Re: voice;

[blind_devotion]

[Okay now THAT freaks her the fuck out. She'd sort-of got her head around people writing to her through a piece of paper. But suddenly, a voice with no apparent source? Oh god, this is how schizophrenia starts, isn't it? And she was around the right age and...

(WebMD articles make for terrible late-night reading, she should really know better)

After a horrified moment of indecision, she answers in a hesitant voice barely louder than a whisper:]

Yes...?

voice;

[metalbent]

Sometimes my reader can't figure out handwriting. What are you writing about?

[blind_devotion]

I, uh...

[Okay, Alexa, calm down. Whatever's going on, it turned writing on a piece of paper into a clickable link. It's not out there that it could transmit voice too, right?]

I'm trying to figure out what...what all this is about.

[metalbent]

Welcome to the mysterious bullshit number network, where nothing makes sense.

I'm Sophie.

[blind_devotion]

I'm...we're not supposed to say our names over the network, are we? Security and all that?