[text, handwritten]

[sugarslice]

[ working at a grocery store means working christmas day. working at a bed and breakfast means working christmas night. working, in this case, means being sociable with a pleasant-enough elderly couple who lost their condo in the earthquake and are rolling in enough dough to stay at a b&b for now.

after everything is cleaned up and put away, angeline squirrels away to her room, only to experience the hollowing sensation of an echo before she gets inside. perplexed and just the slightest bit concerned, she continues to her bedroom, only to find a set of clothes lying haphazardly on her bed. given that her room is locked in her absence, their appearance strikes her as doubly odd.

was it... blood keys? the only other time she had experienced that hollowing sensation had been in their presence. she nervously creeps to the window, as if she could detect an intruder if there were one, but comes up with nothing. she searches the room, but finds nothing missing.

finally, she glances at her notebook.

grabbing it and a pen, she leans against the headrest of her bed and writes her network number down.

in slanted script: ]

Someone left some clothes on my bed. They must have done it within the last hour because the clothes weren't there the last time. Is this the work of Blood Keys?

Are any of you Blood Keys?

Sorry, I'm new.

Comments

[sugarslice]

[ she can see that. BUT WHATEVER, confirmation that jovan is full of shit! AMMUNITION AGAINST THE ENEMY. ]

If I type my name number in google, can I search "the network" for the guide?

[scramasax]

[Split-second pause.

And wheels spinning, he has not even considered connecting Google to the network in the remotest - ]

Perhaps you can! [A thing he's going to make note to give a go himself next time he's got a chance failing any report on it from her...] If not, then it is usually shown to people who connect for the first time... [Never mind why apparently not this one!] You should not have to look long through other messages before you can find a link (even if it is still inconvenient), if no one else links you first.

[sugarslice]

I'm going to try it.

[ and lo, it does work! she hits on emmanuel's faq and begins reading.

'As a warning, one of the linked videos contains real footage of a murder' WHAT THE HELL

'dubbed pulses or echoes' well that explains why a few replies were using 'pulse'...

'The police are not to be trusted.' ....... she just threatened police action against the not-minion of the non-existent pulse fairy...

wow, she remembers the fiasco with the water supply. so these people are the eco-terrorists the media's been on about? well, alleged eco-terrorists.

by the time she's finished reading the post and the replies, her eyes are crossing. ]

I found the guide. It mentioned buzzing, but I don't hear any. Did that change?

[scramasax]

That is correct... It stopped the night of the earthquake last month. The [Feels about for a somewhat descriptive word - can't find one - ] thing that was producing it is underground. If I am right, it was "disturbed", and when that happened, it also caused the earthquake. (Were you able to find the guide through Google, by the way?) [Jussst to confirm it works now!]

[sugarslice]

[ frysquint ]

Disturbed by people here? (Yes, through google.)

[scramasax]

(That's good to know... Thank you!) [Went to respond to that first to think of as much of a non-accusatory way to put it as possible.] It isn't easy to say... Some of us had been trying to find a source for the buzzing for a while, and more than one of us reached it. [Two, to his knowledge.]

[sugarslice]

☺ What else are you g in the news is related to this network?

[scramasax]

[He momentarily snags back to mentally complete that stricken out sentence but never mind that now, another question.

He doesn't recall every bit included in the guide. It doesn't occur to him to establish a connection on the side elsewhere to check as he's distracting himself enough racking his brain for what he might be able to bring forward on his own - starts tapping his pen just in midair...] David Proud (the artist) sent a message to it recently. Some of us found him.

[In the background of that he's figuratively rummaging around for anything else of relevance - he'd figure that police raid on the high school'd be known of, but who can tell if that indeed was about this...]

[sugarslice]

[ the guy in the subway tunnel? she checks the guide.

the guy in the subway tunnel. ]

So... what have you all done with this? these Echoes? I guess it'd be dumb to expose yourselves as one big group like the X-men...

[scramasax]

Unfortunately, ["You may be right", "it would most likely be too much of a risk if we exposed ourselves", "we have been trying to stay hidden" - a bit of all.] we do think that it would be too much of a risk to expose ourselves. We have been trying to stay hidden... [He feels like a bit of a fool to write as if he's speaking for everyone, surely not everyone's actively hiding themselves so long as they're out of immediate sight of, say, police.] Since it's because we know that we are being threatened, it may not last forever. We do not know how long it will.

[sugarslice]

[ she frowns. ]

What if it's forever? Like you have to hide for the rest of your life?