[General Log] Tuning Towers, Sept. 22 onward.

[theearth]

Who: Any and all!
Where: The site of Tuning Towers (and/or en route accordingly), at the heart of the business district in Locke City's downtown.
When: September 22nd and onward.
What: Following that mysterious buzzing sound to its strongest point! Perhaps you made plans with numbered associates for a trip downtown, or perhaps you went a-wandering alone to follow the noise yourself - surely you'll hardly be the only one.



[Tuning Towers, the third-largest building in the United States and Locke City's most prominent feature, from a tourist perspective in one sense and quite literally by another - look up and marvel, if you will, should you not be a bit too distracted by the circumstances.

Even if you needed to focus to tune into the buzzing in your brain at the start of whatever trip you took, you'll find that by the time you come close enough to the tower to feel a rising sensation of tremors beneath your feet - unnoticed, as far as one can tell, by the crowds, which almost never lack presence around the building - you'll be able to hear it very easily without even trying. It isn't terribly intrusive in the first couple of days after the return of the lights in the sky. As September moves on and into October, however, the intensity will grow all the more overbearing.

It is, indeed, even worse if you enter the building - only the ground floor is accessible to the unauthorized by the tower's maintenance and management or personnel of the companies making use of it. Apart from that, among the indoor crowds, you'll find nothing unusual on the ground floor - and if you'll find that the buzzing loses its strength the higher you go if you take a trip up to one of the observation floors.]

Comments

OPEN INTERACTION

[theearth]

[If you're free for a spontaneous encounter with a fellow member of the Numbers Club around or inside the towers, place a tag here - labeled with an appropriate name and date!]

September 25th

[searchforpeace]

[Even outside the buzzing of the Tuning Towers was enough to have Audrey clenching her teeth. It hadn't been bad before she got this close but now just outside the buildings, it was amazing how much the tremor seemed so evident to her and no one else.]

September 24, 4pm

[not_good_not_wicked]

After school, Marisa randomly decided she was going to test out this theory that the source of the buzzing was somewhere downtown. She doubled back, looped over her path, spun around in circles a lot, and ultimately ended up walking about two miles back and forth before eventually zeroing in on the Tuning Towers. The ground was humming beneath her in a way that set her teeth on edge and was starting to give her a headache.

She stop by an out of the way wall to dig through her overly full backpack, grimacing faintly.

25th September

[selfassured]

[ Should Derek have been out and about after his little public incident? No. He definitely shouldn’t have been.

Knowing that didn’t prevent exactly prevent him from going out though, although he was trying to wear the whole baseball cap and sunglasses look. One incident he could still potentially talk his way out of, two? That would be pushing things.

When he’d heard the buzzing in the mines, his hearing had just started to kick in, or return if the past lives idea was worth trusting, and he’d ended up incredibly disorientated. Now he had slightly better control over the heightened sense, and the city didn’t echo the sound around quite as much.

Risky or not, he was intent of following the sound this time. ]

September 24th, afternoon

[needsmorezippers]

[It had been bugging him all through school, and even his headphones wouldn't block it out. It was really starting to get on his nerves. So after school on the first day since the lights he didn't have practice, Neku headed out, headphones covering his ears as he followed the buzzing noise. Now where was this thing taking him...]

September 25th

[doomedtheworld]

[Vanessa frowned as she came close to the towers. This was definitely where the buzzing sound was coming from and the longer she stayed around, the more she recognized it as the noise from the mines.

She needed a closer look.]

Gavin Davis, 23rd around 5PM

[stagnantair]

[As a telemarketer, Gavin has to wear a headset all day and that gives him enough headaches as is before adding in the annoying buzzing that's been getting worse over the passed few days.]

[So instead of his usual commute home, Gavin decides to investigate, knowing he's not the only one that heard it considering the activity on the Network lately. Hopefully he'll meet some of these people in real life and get some answers too.]

September 25th, night

[shouldertheburden]

[Kaworu is actually really excited that he was able to focus enough on the buzzing to follow it this far. He did feel bad about sneaking out, and he feels silly for wearing sunglasses at night (he hasn't gotten around to getting those contacts yet), but this is generally more fun for him than it is nerve-wracking.

Kaworu is leaning against a wall outside the entrance to the ground floor, wondering if it's worth it to try and sneak in, since otherwise, his investigation's at a dead end. The towers aren't locked and devoid of any activity, but it's definitely much quieter and easier to be noticed than during the day. That said, he does look a little suspect, backed up outside the doors and twiddling his thumbs.]

September 22nd

[dyingtohealyou]

[Well that was annoying.

He'd been hanging around with a group of friends and convinced he was experiencing tinnitus, but after a while it became obvious that wasn't really the case. The slight tremors as they walked that went completely unnoticed by his friends? It was a little too much like the whole network scenario. There was no way he could just be imagining a physical sensation like that.

Eventually citing some errand he needed to run for his parents, he split from the group and backtracked, occasionally stopping under the pretense of checking his phone as he listens and feels his way towards the source.]

September 25th, early evening

[truthandlogic]

[One would think that after what happened the last time that Miles would avoid the Tuning Towers like the plague. But now that he has a recurring nightmare that doesn't even belong to him, he's finding himself even more curious about all this. He's definitely not one to run away from a chance to get closer to the truth, after all. Of course, he doesn't know the actual cause of that loss of consciousness the last time and is putting it down as a reaction to the nightmare and that he should be fine attempting to investigate again.

But just to be on the safe side, he makes sure to head out after he's done with his day's work. He also makes a stop at home first to change into some less conspicuous clothing, as much as he hates the idea. He knows he stands out normally, so that needs to be dealt with. So he's just wearing a shirt and normal looking tie (and was surprised he even still owned one) and no vest. So he looks like any other person who might work in a nearby office building who would stop by for dinner or a drink after a long day of work.

Well, except for the fact that he slows down the closer he gets to the entrance. So much that someone may well accidentally run into him.]

September 16th, Late-ish

[originaloddcouple]

It took them long enough, but eventually the Dians made their way to where all the excitement was. Parked a small distance away, they began their trek to the tower. They seem pretty excited, actually. They even brought a picnic basket.

Surely whatever memories might stir won't be too awful, right?

Sept. 27, late afternoon!

[elfstoned]

[Aaron's taking what looks like a casual stroll around the outside of the buidling, hands in the pockets of his coat.]

September 30, early afternoon

[caosgo]

[A lot has happened in the past week or so, and Emmanuel is definitely shaken; but he's also become steadily more determined to do something productive. Something about near-death experiences with malfunctioning planes must have flipped a switch or something. Well--mostly it was that if he didn't keep himself busy, he'd have too much time to think.]

[the buzzing has made it pretty difficult, though. He's left the city's public library with a headache and a bunch of unremarkable information about the city's early days as an English colony, and not much else. Lunch sounds like a good thing, but the path to one of his favorite cafes takes him through the Business District. It seems like people were right--it is coming from the Towers. He'd always sort of thought of the building as an ego trip on the part of its creator, but now with the truth behind Thunder Corp. out, at least for the network, it was much more sinister.]

[There's a dilemma here: he knows people have gotten memories, pulses, from getting too close. Julien had gotten sick, other people he wasn't sure. But there's only one way to get answers, and that means more memories. Even if the ones he has are still a jumbled mess.]

[He moves closer to the building.]

October 1st

[respecting]

[After Neku told him about the towers, Beat finally decided to come check it out himself - after all, the buzzing in his head is starting to get really damned loud. He's taken his skateboard out to make it quicker.

Of course, once the tremors start, his balance on it falters. Big time. He may be heading for a crash before he even gets his echo.]

September 28th

[strikeraid]

[ SCENARIO A ]

[ Don't mind this kid. Skyler's sitting a dozen yards or so from the entrance of the towers sitting on something he's probably not supposed to (a decorative fencepost? A light fixture? A tree in a "no trespassing" area? The sky is the limit.) Ostensibly, he's texting on his phone and feigning interest in the local foliage (ie he's stripping down every leaf within reach), but in reality, he's watching visitors like a hawk. He moves around a LOT because he's a restless type, but he doesn't move any farther away and doesn't appear to be leaving anytime soon. Does he look suspicious? Probably. Does he look like a teenage bum with nothing better to do? DEFINITELY. Does he look like a public nuisance? DINGDINGDING WE HAVE A WINNER! }

[ SCENARIO B ]

[ If confronting an obnoxious teenager isn't usually your character's thing, whoops! He's dropped his phone, either right in front of them or on their head. Hey, good thing that isn't an iPhone! ]

Whoops. Hey, pick that up, will ya?

October 1st

[peacefulwinter]

[She'd left with the others that day something like a week prior, but she'd gotten caught up in other things, and pulled away from the group; by the time she could get away to try and rejoin them, she'd had no idea where they went, and didn't want to look awkward catching up to them this late. So she pushed off the trip for several days.

That brought her to today, Tuesday; if anyone asked, she was here for a research project, as evidenced by the notebook and (made-up) writing assignment she was carrying openly. The problem now, however, was trying to look natural with this horrible buzzing sound in her ears that made her want to curl up into a ball where she stood. Raquel, from his perch atop the messenger bag hanging from her shoulder, was similarly struggling to remain casual. After a few minutes' snooping around the first floor and taking occasional notes on the building in her spiral, she proceeded up to the observation deck to get a better sense of things, and sighed in relief as the sound faded slightly on her way up, at least enough for her to function again. She'll continue investigating up here, but even she can tell something's not right. After some time up on the observation deck, she'll return to the lobby and poke around a little more.]

October 5, 2013; Early evening

[professorwolf]

Lyall hadn't been in back town long-- really, just long enough to drop off his bags and grab something to eat and verify that Stella wasn't actually in the house. But that buzzing... that was bothering him. It got underneath the skin, rather like sunlight. So, as soon as the sun went down, he went hunting for it. It was like tracking a scent, but not a scent-- a sound.

He parked his car a block away from the Towers and approached on foot, feeling vaguely ill as the sound got louder and more obvious with every step.

October 7, 3pm

[part_time_overlord]

McDonald's sometimes does catering to corporate conventions. In this case, they have a booth set up outside a wheat growers convention, for when the attendees get tired of reading and talking about wheat and wheat by-products. They're set up between the panda express and the subway.

Being the responsible young employee that he is, Sam has been one of those chosen to help man the booth for a change of scenery from home base. A nice chance to get to work more or less outside in these last few nice days before fall really gets down to business with the gloom and rain.

Unfortunately, the convention is held within a block of the Tuning Towers. Sam did his best to stay professionally friendly, but after a few hours the buzzing noise has given him a pounding headache. He's currently on break, a little ways from the booth, lying on a bench with one arm over his face and looking kind of ill.

October 14, 4PM

[ladyofluminosity]

After having heard of the stories of the infamous buzzing at the Tuning Towers, curiosity had gotten the worst of Luci. Cutting out early after school, the blond made her way downtown, expecting maybe a low hum around the perimeter of the building. She didn't quite expect what she encountered, though. The ground under her shook, the air almost moving with the sound; it was almost like being in a hive. Swallowing, she stood at a storefront on one of the adjacent corners, feigning interest in what was in the window, all the while weighing her options. Should she get any closer? Could she? And, more importantly, how could the people passing by not hear or feel any of this?

CLOSED INTERACTION

[theearth]

[...Or if you've plans for a visit to the tower between your own character and any number of others, place it here - again, labeled with the names of participating characters and the date of occurrence!]

September 25th | Benjamin Ratchet and Aaron Harding

[neonnerd]

When Benjamin'd called Harding to ask him to meet at the bar and grill that evening, he'd left a rather long voice message in his attempt to convey that he wished to discuss his latest echoes and to look into the source of the buzzing, without giving any specifics. He wasn't sure he was entirely successful, but he's mostly confident that Harding will still come.

But now, as he waits, he's finding the buzzing far more distracting than it's ever been. It's - louder, as though he were closer to the source of it, and he resolves to move it up to the top of the list.

September 23nd | Nick Burkhardt and John Mitchell

[detectivetroll]

Nick's been almost nonstop busy on a case lately, and for the most part, that's been enough to keep him from focusing on the vague, irritating buzzing he's been hearing. As he goes about town, though, it's impossible not to notice that it's stronger in some places than others, and that makes Nick want to figure out some sort of pattern.

When he's finished talking to the ex-girlfriend of the latest victim, it's somewhat late, but Nick realizes he's right by where John works and decides to stop by. Bring him that coffee he can now have, and, if he happens to be close to getting off, see if he's up for investigating.

September 25th | Shiro, Mamoru, Chris, Regina

[hollowleg]

[Shiro arrives a little early, opting to loiter around outside of Starbucks, waiting for Mamoru to emerge. Since it's nearly dark, he's without sunglasses and hat, opting instead for his normal glasses and a loose ponytail.

He's also eating something, but what else is new. It's hard to tell what it is.]

Toni & Karl | Sept. 26

[rota]

[Time, what time? Things have been hectic lately, and a cop tends to be busy, especially one with the night shift. So it's only now that she'd gotten the time to visit these Towers after watching the network and seeing people come to the conclusion that the structure is at fault.

Well, they're not wrong. The sound is definitely worse around Tuning Towers, and not even listening to music on her phone with headphones on can block it out, strangely enough.

So all Toni can do right now is stake it out, driving around on her usual rounds, before returning to one of the 24/7 stores near the Towers for a "break". Sometimes even idling in her car, watching. She's just waiting for a sign, any sort of visual sign that there's something more to it.]

September 28 | Arthur Curry and open to whoever wants in on this trainwreck

[italktofish]

It hadn't taken long for Arthur to notice that buzzing after returning to town after leaving to celebrate Granny Curry's 100th Birthday Extravaganza. Skimming the network let him know where it was coming from, and so he decided he'd have to be subtle in his own investigations. After all, a school bus driver didn't have much cause to go over there without the benefit of a field trip.

So Arthur decided to go in disguise. He'd dressed as a tourist, complete with horrible loud Hawaiian print shirt (that he was actually quite fond of), a map, a giant camera hanging around his neck (maybe he'd get some pictures of the place without looking like a spy?), and a Swedish to English dictionary. The dictionary was, he thought, the best part of the disguise. He'd pretend not to speak much, if any, English if someone tried to give him any trouble. The plan was flawless.

Sure, he couldn't actually speak a lick of Swedish, but hey, he'd seen the Muppet Show. He could fake it, right?

[shiromadoushi]

What.

What

WHAT was he even seeing...


Seconds later, Bakura's cellphone is out, recording video.