[text - handwritten]

[entertainaplanb]

[You wouldn't think a string of random numbers would stick in your memory so hard, but for the last couple weeks - since that weird spot of vertigo, actually - they've been getting more and more insistent. Kind of irritating, really. So Becky figured she'd write them down and see if that helped.]

[Instead, it's just been distracting her from grading homework for the last half-hour as she tries to make sense of it.]

...So, what, is this some kind of handwritten Internet thing? But it can't be, there's as many visual things as anything else.

[Her handwriting's very neat. But then, when you're writing things for third-graders on a daily basis, it needs to be.]

Comments

video {smartphone}

[ursoreckless]

From what I hear, it's the secret numbers club.

[still text]

[entertainaplanb]

Well, I guess there's a club for pretty much everything these days. But why a secret numbers club?

forever video

[ursoreckless]

The only people in this club are those who have the numbers that randomly popped into your head one day.

By the way, don't ever tell anyone about the numbers, and always erase them once you're done with them.

[entertainaplanb]

...Duly noted. I think I'm going to have to start keeping some pencils on hand that aren't for my students.

[Good thing she has ready access to a paper shredder, innit.]

[ursoreckless]

There's a list to common questions about this club. Someone passed it to me, so I can pass it along to you.

[entertainaplanb]

Well, thank you for that. I tried ignoring it, but that doesn't seem to be helping.

Is the vertigo thing part of the club too?

[ursoreckless]

It only gets worse from what I hear. Things randomly pop into our heads, stuff and places we never been to, people we never seen, it's just part of the club.

I didn't get vertigo. I got a song.

[And he'll send along this forwarded text.]

[entertainaplanb]

Great.

Well, it was kind of a vertigo thing and then the numbers. and I'm pretty sure I could fire a gun if I needed to. Never handled one in my life. Don't particularly want to.

And yet.

Thanks again. [There's a pause as she reads over the information.]

...Sounds like this is kind of a mess.

[ursoreckless]

Doesn't it though? Something's wrong and I have no clue what it means except there goes my social life.

[entertainaplanb]

[There's no audio of it, but Becky laughs, at that.] In that case, maybe it's just as well I don't have much of one anyway. My students definitely don't count.

[ursoreckless]

Jobs. Ew. [Dramatic pose of the dramatics. Shou is overdoing it a bit.]

[entertainaplanb]

Necessary evil, if you look at it like that. Personally, I love it, so it never feels that much like work.

[ursoreckless]

I guess I never found one that interests me after a month or two.

[entertainaplanb]

I can see where that'd be a problem. And teaching's definitely not a line of work you want to get into if you don't want to do it.

[ursoreckless]

Nope. I think that if I even tried, all the karma will gang up on me and make my teaching job a living hell.

[entertainaplanb]

Karma can do that. I think that's why so many parents wish their kids have children just like them.

[ursoreckless]

Yup, think I'll never get married then. My parents can wish all in vain about that. [he's a brat and he does not want to ever have to deal with another him.]

[entertainaplanb]

To be fair, not everyone who has a kid gets married first. Or at all. But on your own, I doubt you'll have to worry about it.

[Always look on the bright side of life?]

[ursoreckless]

Oh I know that. [This is sort of weird how the conversation just sort of changed from welcome to the club and he just sort of realized it now.]

Yeah.

[entertainaplanb]

[Well, conversations do have a way of doing that.]

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[ursoreckless]

Anytime.

I'm Shou.

[entertainaplanb]

Becky. Pleased to meet you.

[ursoreckless]

It's nice to meet you too. Later!

[Texted]

[espigeonage]

Hello! I see you've had the briefing! Congratulations and condolences on joining our august body of necessarily-paranoid randoms! I know it's confusing at first. I can't say it gets much more straightforwards, but you can get used to just about anything.

[entertainaplanb]

Thanks, I think. But it's definitely good to know this isn't only happening to me.

[Becky's pretty sure she's not exciting enough to get that kind of special treatment, though. Odds are it'd be someone else if it were only one person.]

[espigeonage]

Absolutely. We're in this together, after all. Some more than others, but isn't that always the case?

[entertainaplanb]

Seems to be, yeah. Does anyone know if there's any kind of pattern to it?

[espigeonage]

Not that I'm aware! A lot of us were taught by this one teacher in this one high school in the city. And everyone here is currently in or around Locke, afaik no one's calling in from Kansas or something.

But there's a nice range of ages and even some talking animals. idk!

[entertainaplanb]

...Talking animals.

Okay, that wins for disconcerting.

[espigeonage]

A horse named Cinderella. Poor thing, I don't think she can leave the farm and it's a ways out to there.

[entertainaplanb]

And pretty much no matter how you slice it, a talking horse is going to attract attention. How'd she even get on here?

[Sorry, Becky's trying to picture accessing the network without opposable thumbs. It's not going so well.]

[espigeonage]

Yeah there were a lot of jokes. As for how, I think she used a basin of water. You can get on here through a lot of weird things.

[entertainaplanb]

So... if you can find a way to put a number on it, it'll probably work?

[espigeonage]

So it seems! Computers, phones, paper, walls, mirrors, toy computers, still water... Saying your number out loud just cold doesn't do anything, though.

[entertainaplanb]

Under the circumstances, I'm not sure that'd be the safest way to try signing on anyway.

[espigeonage]

Right! People without numbers can't see anything on the network, so you can have a club member on the mirror and someone in the room with you using said mirror without even blinking. But that doesn't mean whoever's with you won't notice what *you* do.

[entertainaplanb]

So, for example, don't talk to the mirror in mixed company. Got it.

[espigeonage]

Yeah. We don't know if they'll tell someone who tells someone who tells our mysterious opposition who might know about this stuff. Best-case scenario you just look crazy, lol.

[entertainaplanb]

And looking crazy is rarely a good plan.

[espigeonage]

You got it!

So, I'm Julien.

[entertainaplanb]

Becky. Pleased to meet you.

[espigeonage]

Likewise! lol, inasmuch as this is meeting.

[entertainaplanb]

Yeah, well, people meet on the Internet all the time. Who said it has to be face to face?

[espigeonage]

Oh, I know. But we here have got a fairly high chance of meeting up in person at some point, and sometimes it's hard to tell.

I'm not comfortable putting my face on this thing, though, and usually not my voice either. We don't know how secure this thing is.

[entertainaplanb]

There is that. I'll figure out if I want to try that later.

[Maybe she will, maybe she won't. Maybe she'll have something that needs the visual context to explain, at some point.]

[espigeonage]

You can always send just like a photo, or only do it in private conversations, or both! Don't worry about it for now, anyway.

text

[angelskills]

A handwritten internet would be very cool though, wouldn't it?

[entertainaplanb]

Won't argue with that one. But it would be a lot more work than just typing everything.

And without these numbers, it'd be a lot harder to wrangle.

[angelskills]

Yeah...

Maybe someday something like it will be made!