savetheearth | video;

[ Dante dials his number into his cellphone, then lays it down in such a way as the video camera is obscured, effectively making it an audio recording...for the moment. His voice is rich and calm, noticeably Italian American, but a Locke City accent through and through. ]

Under normal circumstances, a doctor in my position would recommend that someone experiencing hallucinations to any degree get help right away. Then again, those hallucinations aren't usually on this sort of scale. Considering what we as a city witnessed, the recent news, and what some of you are capable of doing, I'd suggest that this has gone some way beyond normal hallucinations, as if there ever were such a thing.

I've seen it with my own eyes, experienced it - I dare say - myself. Gaining access to this network, this number's club, was one thing. I've been able to watch as other people have experienced their first echoes, learning from their experiences with a certain air of detachment. I may have watched out of professional curiosity, but I didn't consider myself to be one of you. Nor did I have any reason to take it on faith that the public were incapable of seeing these conversations--after all, I myself was viewing them, and there was nothing wrong with me.

Except that there was; there is, and in some sick twist of fate it seems the only people I can discuss this turn of events with are the very people whose stories seemed so ludicrous and farfetched to me before that it's a wonder perfect strangers believe them without proof now. Forgive me for saying so, but before all this began the idea that people could fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes and whatever else you people can do didn't precisely seem like the delusions of the clinically sane.

[ The phone is lifted, but not to reveal the speaker. Instead it lifts up to reveal a glass of water on an expensive Mahogany desk. A little light enters the room through closed blinds. There are inbuilt bookshelves, and a prominent leather couch visible in the distance too, but the glass is the focus. A hand reaches into shot, closes over the glass, and a moment later the glass frosts up, followed by the water inside solidifying into ice moments thereafter. ]

Now tell the truth: I didn't just hallucinate doing that, did I?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No hallucination, no. You seem to have pulsed back some kind of magical or mental ability to freeze things.

Unfortunately, none of this is a hallucination. Some of us have been at this for almost an entire year, and have undergone changes that would be extremely difficult to chalk up to hallucination.

Edited (for fixing reading comprehension issues ;)) 2014-03-26 19:24 (UTC)

Sure, but most people don't grow metal arms and go 'gee, this must really be happening to me.' Of course now it seems the whole world would have to be seeing things, I must make more of an effort to make peace with it. Even so, it doesn't mean it's wise to rule out questioning it the whole way.

~~Is it~~ Is it normal for people who recover an ability not to be able to fully control it? It's taken me two weeks to learn to do this, but when I was attacked by one of those snakes it was much more powerful.

Do people turn into wolves and then think the same? I must admit, it was quite difficult for me to chalk being a werewolf up to hallucination, especially given I destroyed my living room in the process.

It is quite normal, I assure you. Sometimes the ability comes at full strength with no control whatsoever and it must be learned, and sometimes control comes in pieces through more pulses later on, but very rarely does an ability come with control intact.

It would be possible to hallucinate the destruction as much as the actual transformation, but I've learned enough here to believe you did it. Just as surely as this glass is cold.

Does it frighten you? Would you go back to forgetting if you could?

No, I would not. I have too many students and friends now who depend on me. And at this point, I would rather know than not know. Besides, going back to not remembering wouldn't make it all go away, anymore, not after what happened.

Comparing our experiences with those of others helps with the hallucination theory, as well. I had people come and see my ruined living room :)

[ If they were in session, he'd point out how that answer was dodging his questions. But this isn't a session. Does it frighten you? Would you forget if you could? ]

I'm good, I don't need any more convincing.

Your students?

[It was an entirely honest answer to the question posed. Had Dante asked if he could go back and never know any of this, the answer might have been different. But now, forgetting after everything that's happened and all the people who he'd let down? No. Definitely not.]

I teach biology and health at Lock High School. Some of my students, current and former both, are actually involved in this mess.

That's interesting. Very interesting. To see that there's that kind of pattern there. People who know each other usually end up in this network like this, I suppose?

Only occasionally. I know more than most, as a teacher at the largest high school in the city, but there are over a hundred people on this network and I only know a small portion of them. I used to know more, but many have dropped back off the network again and lost their memories of it.

I can see how that might be difficult for you, but it's good for them, right? That they don't remember? Or does it just leave them open to the same dangers with no way to defend against them?

I tend to see it more as the latter. While they aren't as likely to wind up arrested on false charges by the corrupt police, they have even less protection against the things going on, like the mental coercions in the statues and the water.

Though those seem to have become less prevalent, as of late, at least. I'm hoping for good, but they aren't very high hopes.

Less, like they're still one of us, or less like they're back to being like everyone else? I only ask because I'd like to look out for that sort of thing with my family--if it's touched two of us, it's possible one of them might have been affected; if not now then at some point in the past, and any tell I could look for would be worth investigating, right?

Those of us who are on this network have some mild resistance to some worrying effects that occurred over the course of the last several months. Most notably, random pausing and staring at nothing for long periods of time, and statues radiating mental suggestions like "trust Thunder Corp" and "trust the police department" and "this art is amazing and you should love it". We seem to be immune to the former and somewhat resistant to the latter. Things in particular to look for would probably be intense appreciation of Thunder Corp, that's the most obvious one now.

Edited 2014-04-09 23:26 (UTC)

I'll do so. Of course appreciation of the police at all in our household wouldn't be top of the list; we've had long running disagreements with them.

But thank you for the help, I do appreciate it.

It's the least I can do. I know how confusing it all is. We all thought it was some kind of elaborate joke, at first. The perils of whoever is behind this opening up the network on April 1st, I suppose.

The fool is that it's no fool at all. Genius.

video;

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text] (sorry for the slow, went on vacation :3 )

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]

[Text]