[eneg | voice]

[elfstoned]

Strider here.

First of all, I'd like to remind everyone that LSR clinic is available to anyone who needs it. It's off of Five Forks Road, just south of the Dead District. If there's anything wrong that you feel you can't go to a hospital for, come see Dr. Solus or myself, and we'll help you.

Second, I've been seeing rather more police around the city than is usual. Be careful. They cannot be trusted.

...present company excepted, of course.

[you're great kotetsu no rly]

Third, regarding the mines and Thunder Corp. Is anyone planning to investigate either? I cannot offer my help with the latter -- if it went wrong, it would draw attention to the clinic, and that is something I will not risk. However, about the mines...

[He takes a deep breath, then lets it out, uncomfortable underneath his even, measured tone.]

It's no secret that I don't believe we can trust anything that Sage had to say. But this won't stop with monster attacks, and that Gem is the only lead we've got. Has anyone been back to investigate?

And if not...I have experience navigating abandoned mines.

[ action; backdated to monday afternoon, locked to lyall (and lyall's roomies if they want in!) ]

[seabeast]

Lyall always returns from work at around this time of day, so after a long sabbatical, Stella sees fit to return to his front door. She was unimpressed with the sweet time he was taking to get back, time he could be using to open the door for her and possibly feed her some junk food.

Junk food. Heavens knew she could go for a hot burger patty right now.

It does occur to her that Lyall's situation may have changed in the months she was gone, and there may not be room for her anymore. Still (and she repeated this to herself, fluffing up her narrow chest), she was a very independent creature, with enough letters to get by and enough common sense to stay out of trouble. She hadn't fallen victim to any particular Echoes that would make living on her own harder... She could take care of herself. She watches from his front door. If he doesn't let her in, she could always take of herself.

action - open

[entertainaplanb]

Who: Becky and whoever wants to stop to chat!
What: It's a nice day to relax and read a book (and... mis-pronoun the author in conversation, most likely, thanks to an Echo).
Where: Starbucks, outside
When: Wednesday afternoon
( I may join your century/but only on a rare occasion )

track three; closed

[hopediesalone]

Who: Raul "Blues" Light and Kotetsu Kaburagi
When: July 19, night
Where: A bar somewhere
What: Drinks, food, old friends catching up, and some serious talk.
Warnings: Bitterness, profanity. That's all that comes to mind so far.

( you do no better than the fools of this burning city )

two sick, disgusting thoughts | text

[somesayinfire]

Damn it. Ever since I ran into that scorpion (I have a picture of it, if anyone's interested), I've been feeling... weird. That's the best way to put it. It's stupid and I can't shake it, because I know I wasn't always like this. But it's like... I woke up earlier in the week and I wasn't even sure if I could go into work today. If I could do my job. The one I've been doing for three years.

I have a feeling it's one of those... are we calling them echoes? Or lurches? One of those things. And so far it's been so strong that I've basically been fighting it back down just to get myself to do regular things. Hell, it took me two days to work up the nerve to make this post.

Sorry, I know I shouldn't be using this network as a blog. Like I said, I have a hand-drawn picture of the scorpion that attacked us (courtesy of Alan). To the person I said I'd give it to, I just did, so be sure to check that.

Oh, if anybody had one of these echo things that left them hungry for bodily fluids afterwards, which is easily the weirdest sentence I've ever typed, let me know and I'll see if I can do something about it. Same goes if you're looking for some kind of cosmetic touch-up. I'm a pretty skilled makeup artist when this lousy space depression thing isn't holding me back.

[the picture she keeps mentioning isn't attached to the post, but she has it on hand if anyone's curious.]

4th Song // Voice

[wordsgate]

[It's a little embarrassing to be gone for this long (which is why he's been lurking around the network for the last few days) buuut he had to show his face sometime, right?]

Hello everyone. Sorry for my absence. I've been, ah, recovering since the...incident in the mines. But I'm fine, don't worry. [And then his voice gets a bit warmer in tone.] Tamara's been taking good care of me.

I've tried to keep up with the Network the last few days. Seems like things have been busy. And that we have a lot of new "members" in the club. I hope everyone's been trying to stay safe. [He takes a deep breath.] I'm still a little banged up but if I can do anything to help, let me know. We're all in this together, after all.

Theories [Video]

[not_good_not_wicked]

[The view is from Marisa's laptop webcam, and is pointed at a medium sized corkboard in her room. It has which has a number of pictures gathered up from the network stuck to it, along with a few articles from the news, and pictures of various people, some of which have notes scribbled on them in red pen. All of them are connected together but lines of red thread tied to push pins. The whole thing looks very haphazard and cluttered.

Marisa herself comes into view and adjusts the camera slightly before stepping back to address the network.]

Okay so...a lot of us have been collecting information, but I haven't heard anyone trying to actually put it all together. So I took a shot at it.

[She starts talking quickly, while occasionally pointing to things on her conspiracy collage. If she got any details wrong, she's not giving anyone a chance to interrupt until she's done.]

I'll start with the mine incident. There was a guy down there who told us to collect a gem and rebuild a magic seal, but there was also a bunch of evil bats and chupacabras or whatever those hairy things are. So the obvious question is was he there to lure us in there in the first place? I don't think he was because if so why bother giving a speech before setting off the ambush. That mine, by the way, was where the rocks that were turned into those weird snake statues came from. Whatever is going on, it has to do with that mine. And maybe also with Thunder Corp, since they were the ones who donated those statues to the museum.

Next up is all this weird animal activity. I haven't been able to find any news stories about mutated animals or strange animal activity, so that means one of two things. One: They are only showing up near people in the network. Two: Someone is covering up any word about it. I guess it could also mean that we're all going crazy, but if we go down that train of thought we're not going to get anywhere. We've got swarms of bugs and animals, giant scorpions with gigglevenom, some kind of creepy fungus, and I don't even know what else.

Finally there's us. We're remembering things that have never happened to us, and some of us are mutating in fairly dramatic ways or learning how to do impossible things. It's super cool, for sure, but it's also really creepy for some people who are getting so mutated they can't go out in public without freaking random people on the street out.

My theory, then, is that there's something in that mine that is driving everyone crazy, and that Thunder Corp. wants to exploit it. The same thing that's happening to all those animals is happening to us. Maybe there's like an alien meteorite or something down there. It's starting to take a toll on us.

As much as I hate to say it, I think we need to go back down there and find out what's causing everything. Then we need to stop it, because as cool as it is that some of us can summon spirit monsters or teleport, other people are falling apart like rotten fruit, and that won't do at all. Just for example, I haven't seen or heard from Bakura for ages. I'm starting to get worried.

[Deep breath]

So I'm going to go back down there. Who's going to buck up and go with me?

05 | Action, Open to All

[chalicejoker]

Who: Hajime Aikawa and whoever needs a giant bug in their life.
What: Hajime goes a little stir-crazy and now there's a roaming giant bug on the loose.
When: Late Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning, between 2 and 4 AM.
Where: Anywhere between Lyall's house in the suburbs and Japantown. He'll be heading for his family's restaurant, deciding against going, and turning back.

( RAAAAAAAAIIIIID )

001. handwritten.

[strikeraid]

[ Someone failed physics badly enough to make summer school a necessity, not an option. Well, whatever. Skyler did what he wanted with his summer, his greatly diminished social circle totally having a huge hand in that, so now he's actually sitting down and doing his homework. Except converting potential energy to kinetic energy makes no sense, so he's since graduated to fucking around and putting down whatever numbers come to mind. And since this is the first time he's actually bothered to do his homework in ages... the numbers one would expect pop up, and suddenly his homework can scroll. ???? Skyler puts pencil to paper to investigate. ]

ok are you kidding me
what is this

no offense to whatever this is but this shit's not gonna work out

this class is pass fail but there's no way i can turn this in now
shit
shit
undo
undo

[ His worksheet (and his name) is clearly available for anyone who wants to poke fun at his awful attempt at scholastics! Or, you know, man the cannons. ]

❄ 003: action | closed

[pitch_slap]

Who: Hikari/Lucy and Shiro
What: Hamburgers and recognition. Because sometimes a monster-boy just needs a juicy hamburger and Lucy is a stone-cold badass for bringing them to him. And onion rings.
When: July 27th, mid-afternoon
Where: Shiro's place.

( When life leaves you high and dry )