savetheearth | [Text, Friday afternoon]

[Lyall's been meaning to get on the network again for a while, and now that he's finally got a few things to say, it takes him a minute to actually get started. He does finally, though, after a couple false tries.]

Lyall here. I've been in the gallery, and I think a lot of the rest of us have, too. I've even been by that forum, though I didn't post anything. I find it a little disconcerting that whoever was replying kept referring to people as "humans", as if he or she was not one. Given what we've seen thus far, I do not think that is impossible.

Also, I know at least one other person has heard howling sometime at night. I heard it, too, Wednesday night. It wasn't those mutant dogs, the smell was entirely different, and no one else around me seemed to have heard it or even noticed something was wrong.

[He isn't sure whether or not to mention the dream, but he does say:]

I keep thinking it's something connected to all this. That howl, and the feeling of being watched a few others have mentioned, and that wolf statue, with all these visions and changes we're all going through.

Has anyone else heard it or felt anything strange?

[Private text to students, pre-students, and former students:]

I know a certain one of my students has been joking about a club. I was thinking of making it official, if you really wanted to have an after-school club of some sort for those of us on this network. All age ranges, so long as you're still in school of some sort?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I heard it too. I'm thinking -- that third statue, the one with the murdered wolf, that was a message for us.

I'm wondering if that wolf was more than just symbolism.

As for referring to us as... as humans, I'm not actually sure they're even right about that.

It obviously had to allude to something. Either the wolf was us, or the wolf was those mutant dogs, or the wolf is whatever we're all hearing and sensing.

[It feels dumb to use the word "sensing" in this, but he doesn't have any other word to use except "feeling" which is even worse. He cocks his head at her last sentence, though, and then goes private by typing in her number before:]

What do you mean, not being right about being human? Did you get another vision?

[Because he can relate. Wolf visions, and all.]

I think the wolf is both us and what we're hearing. I'm not sure but I feel like the thing we're all hearing is related to... whatever's causing these hallucinations.

... given how that... whatever it is on the forum is referring to us? I'm starting to think that maybe we're being used by something bigger. Something that doesn't want whoever that is winning. Dunno how to feel about that.

Anyway, yeah, I did, Monday night. I was... being born. Well, not me, but whoever's memory I was getting? Except now I think either it WAS me, or I'm becoming that person.

Born is the wrong word, I was manufactured. I was a machine in a machine factory, and my creation was being overseen by other machines? They didn't seem to have total control over the process. I know that I -- he? -- had weapons, and something called a "transformation cog." I'm not sure what I was for, but I don't think any humans were even around. Like, I know whatever machines those were? They weren't made by humans. I mean they're bipedal and have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but something about it all was fundamentally alien.

And the weirdest part is that when I woke up it was... it was me who felt alien. Everything felt wrong, I could hear my heartbeat and blood in my ears and for a long time I just felt disgusted with myself, like, why am I full of nasty fluid and salt and protein? Gross.

[It takes Lyall several long minutes before he replies to that rather long message. There's a lot to think through there.]

You dreamed about being a machine, and you got yourself cybernetic eyes first thing. And I have had visions of being a wolf and interacting with wolves, and I now have a phenomenal sense of smell. That does seem to point towards becoming whoever we are having visions of, doesn't it? That is not a particularly reassuring idea, for some of us.

Are you all right now? Do you feel comfortable again with being a flesh-and-blood person? Or is that feeling still lingering?

Yeah, not exactly. I don't know much about this person I'm becoming. Also, I like being me, y'know?

... I'm ok with being what I am, but even since I was a kid I wanted to be a cyborg. Like, if I woke up as a machine tomorrow? I'd probably not just be ok with it, I'd be pretty excited. It felt... right.

Also, there's been this weird buzzing sound in my chest since... a while back, actually? Shortly after Paul Ben died. It gets stronger when I have one of those visions, and when I'm feeling not right in my skin.

I like being me, too. And there are plenty of us who would not be pleased to be associated with those we're seeing pieces of. I'm still not sure what I think of this fellow who is sometimes a wolf. He seems to see things a lot more in shades of gray than I do.

Has anyone looked at you for that buzzing? Doctor Strider or Doctor Solus? It may be that you have spontaneously developed more cybernetic parts, inside where you can't see them.

... I'll see if I can make an appointment with them. I should probably get the eyes checked out anyway. Solus, especially, would probably have a blast...

As for seeing things in shades of grey, I dunno. Maybe it's the time for that kind of thing. We can't afford to be black and white about all this, I think.

Good idea. Let me know how that goes? As someone else changing physically, I have to admit I'm very curious. Besides, I worry about you a bit :)

I don't like the kind of shades of grey that makes a plan that somehow manipulates one one intelligent wolf to kill another. It feels too much like the shades of gray that might convince a police chief to kill a high school student.

... yeah ok that's fair.

Anyway worrying? About me? Seriously? Pfffff. Why?

I always worry. I'm very good at it. I think it comes with being a teacher. But since your visions that I know of seem to have made the least sense of out everyone's, and you seem to have had some of the more drastic physical changes, that does make you stick a bit in my mind.

Yeah, I guess that's fair enough. Maybe it'll all come to nothing, though.

It's possible. I'm not sure whether I hope it comes to nothing or not. It seems like a lot of trouble we've gone through, for nothing, but the end game is still awfully murky and probably very dangerous :(

[And he still has students in all this, damn it.]

[Text, Friday afternoon]

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[private text] wtf I'm not getting notifs for some reason

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private text FOREVER

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