1st Scream [Text; from home desktop computer]

[reapsthewind]

[She starts typing...]

Alright people, it's time to stop fucking around...

[Then pauses, thinks "awww shit there might be kids younger than Bakura, who knows even," deletes that, and starts again. And continues to correct herself as she goes. ]

Alright, people, it's time to stop faffing around. We need to figure out what the heck is going on. Best way to do that is with cold, hard data.

Facts known:

> April 1st, everybody couldn't stop thinking of a number
> These numbers key into a network of some sort
> They even work for fax machines
> Some of you claim they work with your notebooks but you're clearly lying liars, or maybe you typo'd "netbook" but whatever

Things I have since discovered:

> The three people I've talked to have vastly different time frames for when they first encountered their numbers. This ranges from a few days to a few years.

With that in mind, if you lot would kindly report in this thread (I bolded it so my instructions are clear):

> When you first remember encountering your number? Doesn't have to be exact, you can be like "I dunno it was a few years ago" or "Uhhh a few days ago I guess." General timeframes are fine.
> Did anything weird happen around the time you got said number?

Kthxbai

In the interest of full disclosure and fairness, I'll start.

> When? I first remember my number in January.
> Weird stuff? This was around the time my friend Sam and I got lost in the Dead Zone of this city. We kind of parted ways soon after, and then I got my number. Also, I used to be extremely nearsighted; now I can see just fine. Unsure if events are correlated, but I'm noting it anyway.

Got it? Awesome. Now make yourselves useful.

Comments

[Phone call!]

[reapsthewind]

Oh! Yeah, hi. I take it you're also keeping tabs on the rest of this thread. I got... one piece of data.

[sigh]

Man, I knew this'd be an uphill battle.

[professorwolf]

Well, you can have mine, and I can share what I have from a young man I met with yesterday evening. I started a spreadsheet of my own. Couldn't resist, I'm afraid.

[Among other things. He really ought to share about the dandelion person and the possessed sparrow... he'll get to that.]

[reapsthewind]

Cool! Thanks, it's good to have somebody to collaborate with on this. I'm glad that other people are interested.

So. The delicious data, give it to me.

[professorwolf]

[He likes her already. It encourages opening up more, sharing with someone who actually values data.]

We spoke some yesterday of mine-- the blank diary that seemed familiar, right? It was three days ago, I looked it up. And since then I have felt very uncomfortable in sunlight.

[He pauses, coughs lightly, and adds,]

And as of last night, I can smell things I never could before. To the degree that I can track my students across campus after lunch hour.

[reapsthewind]

[There's a really long pause]

[She's not sure if she can open up to a stranger like this. But what he just told her is... weird. Almost as weird as hers.]

Can you keep a secret? Like, I mean this. I know we've just met but. I won't tell anyone about what you're capable of unless you tell me it's cool, and... yeah, same on my end.

Please.

[professorwolf]

[Really? Lyall is not always this forward, either, and he hasn't told anyone else yet, besides poor Fay who happened to be there at the time. But between the kindred love of data and his just plain frustrated confusion with the whole situation, telling someone is almost cathartic. Especially as she didn't seems to disbelieve him.]

I promise to keep your secret, Chris. I don't imagine most people would believe something no the scale of what happened to me, anyway.

[reapsthewind]

[deep breath]

... I don't have eyes, anymore.

Not... human eyes, anyway.

I... the day after I had that screaming fight with my friend, I woke up with some bad eye pain. Brushed it off. Started bleeding. Didn't go to the hospital though, like an idiot.

They're... I have mechanical things there, now. There's a light in them, a red one, and my vision is much sharper than it used to be. I'd put it at 20/12 or better, actually, not superhuman but at probably the upper edge. They've got an aperture, I can see the mechanical parts turning if I look in the mirror. The surface feels like glass.

I've been wearing dark brown contacts to hide the glow; it works... decently enough if people don't get too close. I also have no idea how these are working with my body at all. I know nobody put them there because I was there when they... changed.

So no, not eyes, they're cameras of some sort.

[professorwolf]

[There's a moment of stunned silence at that, this time on Lyall's end. He takes a long moment to gather his thoughts.]

I may like to see this, at some point, if you don't mind too much. This sounds... almost harder to believe than what I've seen so far. But considering what else I've seen....

[He sighs.]

Not so difficult as all that, in the end.

[He'll explain in a minute, Chris, really.]

[reapsthewind]

... okay.

heh, I should probably get 'em looked at by someone. I've been avoiding the doctor, for obvious reasons.

[professorwolf]

I would be glad to meet you somewhere later on? Perhaps this weird sense of smell can discern something, too. You never know.

[Not necessarily now, of course. Now is for data, of which he still has more to impart. He's just momentarily stuck trying to imagine cybernetic eyes.]

[reapsthewind]

... yeah, fuck it, let's. Do you know somewhere relatively private? My apartment's kinda tiny and a total disaster area.

[professorwolf]

[Oooor now works, too. Lyall scrambles to think. Somewhere indoors, to hopefully avoid more of those... things.]

Ah-- well, there is a cafe with fairly private booths I like to eat at, down on Lassen. Or we could meet at the museum? I think it's still open--

[Glancing at the clock...]

Oh, no, it closed half an hour ago. Damn. Well, the cafe works.

[reapsthewind]

I actually didn't mean right this second, haha. Maybe tomorrow, at the museum? If you know somewhere more private there. I like that place.

[professorwolf]

Oh. Tomorrow isn't convenient, I have a former student coming by to make use of a microscope... Thursday? The museum will be fine, I imagine, unless you really want to see my house.

[It isn't a very impressive house, and he doesn't usually have ladies coming by said house, cybernetic eyes or not.]

[reapsthewind]

If it's in the afternoon, sure. I have a morning class. I'll also have to cancel some tutoring stuff but that's not too hard.

[professorwolf]

I have to teach until three, so afternoon it is. I guess until then, you want the rest of what I know?

[He glances at the computer and the texts that have shown up since.]

Though it looks like Fay has already contacted you.

[reapsthewind]

Yeah. I'd still like to hear your take.

See you then.

[professorwolf]

All right. Well, Fay told me a few weeks back he was learning how to make dessert, and suddenly he remembered learning how and was comfortable with the procedure. Since then, at the same time my sense of smell came to life so impressively, he had visions of a whole... bestiary, I suppose, of strange creatures.

So there's that.

[reapsthewind]

Weird stuff man.

Anyway, see you later.

[professorwolf]

Oh, yes, of course. See you later, Chris.