» the city network

[ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. okay, okay, okay. he'll press enter. ]


friendly neighborhood anonymous here.

so this was going to be a post about a database i'm working on with some other people and hopefully more people but one of those people seems to be unreachable now so this is also an APB for Gregor.

onto other shit: we've been working on a document that keeps all the facts we know and all the theories we're currently trying to prove/disprove. it's encrypted for obvious reasons but click the link and I'll get you access no problem [ for all those who have come across his videos on how to use encryptions and how to make yourself purely anonymous, fear not! the stupid naming conventions continue: satanwasababyboomer.doc but its safe to assume that anyone who clicks gains both access to view and edit pretty quickly. ]

this tech is pretty old for me. i'm doing what i can to make it both secure AND accessible. if you're talented with early 2000s technology c'mon down. maybe you can make something work that i can't.

i have to admit i'm not the greatest at keeping on top of things like this. could really use the extra hands in general. there are some other people looking to do the same thing as this but hard copy. mingle with them if that's your bag. assuming they reply here (please reply here if/when you see this... if you want to).

also just for my own curiosities: calling all tech people. engineers, programmers, whatever. let's put our heads together. help one another out.

ps: if you want to annoy someone that's pissing you off I recorded fart sounds, you're welcome.

It seems that several of us have already located the keys to "our" personal safety deposit boxes, and found items of a very personal nature contained therein. Likewise many of you may also have discovered that these objects carry a curse most peculiar, which compels the person who recognizes them to speak of the circumstances surrounding these objects which weigh most heavily on their memory.

This one would like to take this time to remind everyone that we exist now in a new world, subject to no laws but those we make ourselves. It strikes this one as nonsensical to persecute each other for things we may or may not have done elsewhere, especially when those with shameful memories may struggle to convey the full context which lay behind their remembered actions. This is said not to justify or apologize for the crimes some of us may have committed in another world, but simply to promote harmony in this one. We have no allies here but each other; shall we allow our mysterious captors to turn us against each other so easily?

[no shen yuan doesn't have a guilty conscious shut the fuck up]

( cw; cannabis )

[ There is no softness to the voice that murmurs onto the network in the midst of the night when people should be sleeping. Those sweet souls are not her concern if they don't wish to hear. She offers no comfort, but a reminder of what's been lost—what can still be taken.

In doing so, the woman's raspy words creep out from beneath the shadows with a voice that drags—no, it crawls—over ceaselessly hot coals. In its shudder to whisper out a poem borrowed from home, there is a smolder always bordering on a choked gasp. But no hurry, no hurry. Where do you have to be? ]

Old Yew which graspeth at the stones...that name the under-lying dead; Thy fibres net the dreamless head, thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

[ To that, a pause that looms with omen. ]

The seasons bring the flower again, and bring the firstling to the flock; And in the dusk of thee, the clock beats out the little lives of men.

[ Now, a strange yearning nearly begins to dissipate the smoke that seems to scorch her throat.

Hush, take a moment. Take a breath; hold it. Feel the shiver of a fingernail at the nape of your neck, feel it trace the curve of your ear to borrow your attention. Only just. No, don't turn. Don't touch. Just listen; the whisper can still singe. ]

O not for thee the glow, the bloom...who changest not in any gale, nor branding summer suns avail, to touch thy thousand years of gloom.

And gazing on thee, sullen tree, sick for thy stubborn hardihood; I seem to fail from out my blood...and grow incorporate into thee.

[ For a time, it seems that may be all. Then, in the same hush she speaks with a more particular address: ]

I hear that we have been denied the ephemeral — to exist endlessly within a perverse mirror of God’s image. Here, nature should protest. Instead it menaces with its silence.

[ There is a silence of her own while Vanessa takes a drag to sigh out a thin stream of smoke into the evening air. Her voice now drops so low it grates and pinches too close, like gravel against tender feet. Tickling whispers are gone; they flee the weighted melancholy that persists. ]

We carry on within a dollhouse between worlds. Do not be tempted by its pretty trinkets, lest you truly be cursed to wander the demimonde forevermore.

[ Denial still rules paramount over the rumor of immortality, but the lack of bodies is an...unsettling implication. ]

...The graves lie empty.

[ yes it has been some days. yes this is not the first time she's spoken to the network at large. this time, however, she is showing her face and standing quite proudly this morning in front of a parking lot. cars, empty of gas but otherwise whole, scatter the background. ]

Good morn, dear fellows! I have come to thee today to ask a favor, to grant thee an honor, and help this young knight with a missive most important to all!

[ a beat. she swings into frame an umbrella, popping open the apple printed "lance" with a laugh before closing it as she continues, easy-going like she isn't going to be talking about what she is.

unbeknownst to most, don quixote needs this. ]

Thou may have seen some days ago an anonymous message regarding murder. Well! I am here now, asking thee to assist me with something like it -- nay, the exact same! I would like to see for myself, and as proof of the effects for others, what happens when one dies.

I shall not fight thee, unless thou shall wish for it for I am most happy to oblige, and I shall take only one volunteer. Whomever has the daring, the will, and the capacity to kill, I ask that thee throw thy hand up and seek to claim my life! My dear friends need not apply, for I shall reject thee post-haste!

[ she is NOT letting a fellow sinner do it. not her coworkers. she's been fussed at and she's going to be fussed at again. she might let one of the other city-dwellers do it, given they're both fixers (or formerly) but not her coworkers, war vet be damned.

gregor couldn't do it the other time, after all. ]

However, allow me to lay bare the possibilities of what may happen to thee should thou take it upon thyself to do so.

There is a chance thou may forget that which is most precious to thee, that thou will forget the moment of my death itself, and face... certain difficulties in speaking about it. [ she doesn't know if kromer mentioned that, but it's something regardless. ] I may suffer the same. The goal of this is to learn if it is the victim who forgets, if it is the murderer who doth, or if both have it struck from their mind; the secondary goal, a more personal one, is to learn if both may suffer from the others I have mentioned.

... I understand it is difficult to think of killing another, but I can assure thee, such a thing comes up frequently in my work. We are ever prepared to do so, and to die just as well!

[ helps they don't stay dead but she's not. gonna. say that. it might be odd to wonder what effects who in this case, but. well. a lady keeps her secrets. ]

Any who wish to act as witness may attend as well, for we will have need of thee. I thank thee heartily for thy time and thy consideration on the matter.

[ a small bow, hand to her chest and umbrella tucked behind her, and that's that. ]

oh yeah heads up
ive heard from certain people who committed this themselves and
apparently if you kill someone here
you get your memories wiped of the incident altogether
not sure why they'd go out of their way to do that here but they do this sort of thing where im from all the time so im very used to seeing it
probably can't say the same for other people from other worlds so you guys have to educate me on that

so uhh
im not saying you should or shouldn't kill altogether
im not your mom
but just keep that in mind the next time you got some kinda murderous urge or something
the reason why im anonymous right now is bc i don't wanna reveal who did that in the first place
it might lead to some awkward icebreakers on their part
also i wouldn't lie about something like this if anyone's wondering bc i got no time to waste on leading people on

but this is probably the worst thing any newcomer would wanna see, huh
whoops
well... welcome to this city, i guess

( ooc: feel free to threadjack and craft theories! kromer/@gripper will also be answering questions about things she knows as a victim as well. )