savetheearth | Video | Take me to the city of wind on the other side of time

So, pretty sure people have probably discussed this before, but I'm curious.

[Fenn is playing absentmindedly with his nails, which... admittedly looks a bit messed-up, with them growing and shrinking over and over. But he's looking chirpy enough, even with perhaps a little bit more edge in his smile than before.]

I'm sure I ain't the only one by now who has met someone that they remember knowing.... you know, before. In those memories, or whatever they are. [He grimaces faintly, because thinking of them as memories feels a bit too personal for comfort.]

So, how many knew these people before these strange things started happening to them? Do you actually remember knowing them, or have you just got memories that are scarily alike?

Or maybe you're like me, and just kind of... bumped into a stranger and you both suddenly knew that you knew each other somehow, and even though you didn't actually know who they were, they were important....

[He blushes faintly.] Sounds pretty sappy when you say it like that, but there it is. And I'm interested in knowing, 'cause to me it seems like we're all connected somehow, and it'd be interesting to know just how much. I ain't saying everyone is from the same place, obviously, but... well. [A one-shoulder shrug.] I'm just wondering, is all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She snorts. Don't let this be about her for too long.] So those using their notebooks for conversations actually do not look like practisers of dark magic, just like regular lunatics.

Pretty much, yeah. But on the other hand, if normals could see the network at all, we would all've been in a shitton of danger - well, more danger than we're already in.

So technically we could use bits of the network to test if someone has a number or not.

Yeah, exactly. I did it on my sister when she... well, lost her memory about all these things. She couldn't see a thing. So it's a good way of testing if someone ain't got the numbers.

How did she lose it?

[Sure, she found the faq thing, but it did not offer cases, and sometimes those say more than general facts.]

I don't know. I mean, everyone loses it if they leave the city, but... well, she didn't go anywhere, didn't do anything strange as far as I'm aware. One day she just couldn't remember anything about the numbers or the network or anything that happened because of it. [His discomfort is fairly audible.] It gives me the creeps.

...So there are never any warning signs when it happens?

[yeah, she doesn't like the sound of that. at all.]

I don't think so, no. It just happened from one day to the other. I've tried to make her remember, but... no luck.

At least she's not in danger of turning into some kind of monster anymore.

[Because fml

not that Blaine has started showing any changes yet, at least not obvious ones. But stopping to be able to bleed is kind of not very reassuring. At all.]

Yeah, I mean, I'm relieved that she's not involved in this anymore. Can't imagine any brother wants his little sister caught up in something this dangerous, especially after being turned into some kind of freak himself, but... well, I ain't sure I like someone messing around with her memories either.

...What kind of freak?

[She'd say "At least you don't seem to have turned into a zombie" because that seems to be the worst thing that has happened to anyone that she has spoken to on this network, but who is she to judge what has happened to this guy. He looked normal enough in the video, but for all she know he could be ten inches tall.]

Freaky weird vampire. I glow claws, my eyes turn yellow, and I need blood to survive. That kind of freak. [Somewhat deadpan here because fuck this turning into mythical creatures except not business.]

Sounds like it's easy enough to conceal.

Nowadays yeah, thankfully. In the beginning I couldn't turn the eyes off, and all of them turn yellow and get a freaky slit pupil. Oh, and the claws were completely random, and they can cut through metal for some reason. [He laughs a bit tiredly.] But I've got it under control now.

...did you echo that control, or was it something that you could learn like that?

[Please tell her that you learned it, waiting for echoes to get troublesome things under control sounds so horribly resigned to one's fate...]

I think I just learned it. Maybe it came with another of those echo things, but I can't recall anything in particular like that. I think it was just practicing a lot, since I couldn't up and leave the flat until I'd gotten good at keeping it in check.

...

So you lost your job over it?

Lost one job over it. The one at the cafeteria. But my job at the bar doesn't really have a set schedule, and I called in saying I'd sprained my knee so I couldn't dance for a while. They're pretty relaxed about things there.

Which bar?

[Maybe she knows it. Not that she should technically be allowed in a lot of places that would probably fit the description of "bar that people dance at", but she ...does know a lot of them, if only from short trips to deliver things. ALmost always for some kind of business, though.]

[He laughs a bit sheepishly, because there is just about no way of saying the name without sounding a bit silly.]

Cock of the Walk. I know it was in the papers a couple of years ago over the name, because children who read it would have their minds scarred forever.

[She actually has to laugh at that.

Really hard.]

I bet the kids would not even have noticed that the name did not refer an animal had the adults not made a fuss.

[He laughs quietly too, shaking his head despite the fact that she can't see it.]

Considering it has a great big neon cock of the poultry persuation outside... yeah, I really doubt it. I think the adults' sensibilities were a lot more offended than the kids' - that's how it usually is.

If I remember correctly, that place was what made me realize that the word has a meaning aside from dick. Very educational.

[she grew up in an incredibly urban setting, okay. The only animals that she's ever seen are pets that you take outside, and typical city animals. Sometimes animals on television, but none of them left much of an impression, except for maybe the horses. They were kind of cool. She wanted to be a cool horse riding person at one point.

but point is, chicken to her was a food flavour, and a component of the word chicken fingers long before she realized that it was an animal, an cock was a word for dick long before a variety of chicken.]

Video | Take me to the city of wind on the other side of time

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;