01 - Video

[youngestone]

[When the feed starts, a scruffy teenager is kind of peering at the screen a little curiously. He’s outside and on a laptop, alone somewhere]

That..was not in my address bar. Why did typing in some random numbers in Goggle take me to some...forum or something? That’s what this is, right?

[He’s not sure. He’s not the techy one. He’s the cute one.]

A forum? For...people who’ve found weird stones and then had a weirder hallucination...type...thing?

[He holds up one of those glass runestone type things—the rune for "th"]

I mean, I know I look like it but I swear I don’t smoke pot so...this thing had to do it. Whatever "it" was.

[Honestly, he’s not sure what it was. Funny whooshing sound, random string of numbers...yep, no clue.]

So. Um. If anyone wants to explain what’s going on that’d be...great. Please.

Comments

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

[[It takes so much of his patience not make a snide comment. So many disbelieving newbies lately....]]

Not even close to one.

[Text]

[youngestone]

[Oh come on like you believed this at first either!]

And why should I believe some dude I don't know?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

[[He totally did. ...almost no one else did, though. Which frustrated him then the same as it does now. Why more people don't jump at the call like he did just baffles him....]]

Because it's either that or you get to figure it all out on your own. Now, I don't know about you, but personally, I find working with others to figure out WTF is going on a lot more fun and helpful than stumbling around in the dark without anyone to back you up when things start crawling out of the corners to bite you in the ass.

[Text]

[youngestone]

The only "help" I've gotten is the FAQ and Dr. Strider's assistant offering proof.

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Gonna have to be more specific with your asks if you want to actually get something.

Because unless you're face down in a ditch somewhere, not really much anyone can do to help with just "So I got this weird thing" because we're all in that same boat. You just learn to deal with it.

[Text]

[youngestone]

Something that sounds a little less like a bad video game or something'd be nice? I don't even know what the hell happened. I picked up a stone, my head went whoosh, I got a bunch of number in my head, I typed them in google, I got taken here.

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

That's kinda how it goes, yeah. The numbers get you to this network. Doesn't matter where you write them down, it transforms whatever you're using.

[Text]

[youngestone]

...so if someone taking a math class happened to write down those numbers as the answer to a problem they'd have to explain the crazy people on their paper?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

That'd be a hell of a math problem with one of those numbers for the answer.

And only numbers people can see this stuff, so that's at least helpful.

[Text]

[youngestone]

Hey, you never know. So showing this to my mom would result in her thinking I'm nuts?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Wondering why you're showing her jack all, yeah.

[Text]

[youngestone]

Great. I'm shit at keeping stuff from her.

Not that I believe any of this stuff, but something's clearly going down

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Yeah. It's probably better she doesn't know, even if it's hard.

And you'll believe soon enough. You'll just need to see something you can't deny.

[Text]

[youngestone]

Like a talking horse?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Yeah, that would do it.

She's shown up, huh?

[Text]

[youngestone]

Yep. And the guy from the shelter. Kind of hard to deny THAT

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Guy from the shelter? Someone you know, you mean?

[Text]

[youngestone]

Yeah. Mr. Mitchell.

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Don't think I know him. Course there's a good hundred of us at this point, gotta be, and I can't keep track of everybody.

[Text]

[youngestone]

A hundred?!

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Think so, yeah! Pretty nuts, huh? It used to be just like.. 10 of us for a while.

[Text]

[youngestone]

Is there something in the water here or what?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Used to be! But we got that fixed.

[Text]

[youngestone]

What

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Thunder corp was dumping this weird shit in the water that made it so every time you drank it it was all flashbacks and giggling, which SUCKED.

But that's gone now, so it's safe.