01. video; un: jsims

[itknowsyou]

[ The feed opens to show two men in the Archives. Martin is tall, and stout, with a friendly if not slightly nervous expression as though he might be a little camera shy. Beside him, Jon Sims looks like an underfed wraith of a man: he's gaunt and exhausted, but at least he holds himself at ease for the first time in months. Those who spend time in the Archives have likely seen him in passing, and it's a shock to see him smiling.

He clears his throat and leans forward to address the camera. The feed speckles into static with the movement, distorting briefly around his eyes. ]

Hello. My name is Jonathan Sims, and I am joined by Martin Blackwood.

Hello! [ Martin lifts a hand to give a small wave to the camera. ]

We were both residents of Deerington, though our memories of the experience are... incomplete.

So we're asking people to come forward with their memories - either Deerington, or Trench, or even at home. Anything weird or supernatural that might help us get a better understanding of what’s happening here - or what might happen, I guess. And how to deal with it? There's a lot to be learned from our own experiences. And - and sometimes it just helps to talk about it?

[ This all sounds well and good, but Jon looks uneasy, frowning down at the sheaf of papers in his hands. He clears his throat and continues, more steadily: ]

Additionally, I have a warning to issue. There have been instances of... unusual books and artifacts being found throughout Trench.

They will probably have a weird effect on you, or the people around you, if you read them, or mess with them or anything. You might even know as soon as you see one that there’s something kind of... off about them?

If you encounter anything which strikes you as [ there's a twist of exasperation at this gross oversimplification: ] cursed, please alert myself or Martin immediately.

We've seen these kinds of things at home before, so we have loads of experience dealing with them. We can help. Just let us know and we'll be right there.

[ Jon looks directly at the camera again, and for a moment visual distortion swallows the feed: there is a shivering bloom of static and an uncanny intensity to his eyes, as though he is truly seeing you, the viewer, from the other side of town. You can make out Martin's nervous smile, and then it clicks off. ]

(( Permissions and info if you'd like to provide a spooky memory! Statements given via the network will not invoke the consequences described. It's safe... for now. ))

Comments

video; un: gaiaonline

[lipochrome]

[ Kiriona leans in, chin resting on her hands, eyes wide. She looks incredibly engaged, or, at least, as interested as a dead person can really look. ]

Oh, dude, I've seen something totally cursed. Wanna know what it is?

[gotaknife]

Yeah, of course! What'd you find?

[Wow, she doesn't look like she's doing so great. Maybe it's normal, though? Maybe she always looks like that. Still, Martin can't help but look a little concerned.]

video; un: shiro 1/2

[shiro2hero]

[Well... there's a lot to unpack here. But hey, let's focus on the good part. It's good, right? Space Lion Jesus help him, he hopes it's a good part.]

Martin, hey! You made it too?

[And then moving on...]

[private to both of them]

[shiro2hero]

Is something wrong? The feed at the end went... [He makes a sort of uncertain gesture with his hands.]

Weird.

video | un: sharpshooter

[azurestar]

[A raised eyebrow.]

Dude, that's a loaded question. Kinda personal too. Maybe show us yours first. [A pause as he considers, then clarifies:] Y'know, memories.

[gotaknife]

I guess it's not unreasonable to want to know about our experiences too? We could talk about it privately, if you want.

( video | un: alucard )

[ananym]

What sort of experience would that be?

[gotaknife]

Oh, it could be anything at all that's strange, or unusual, or... unexplained? From my understanding, there's a lot of that going around here. Like, all the time.

[itknowsyou]

[ profoundly dry: ]

All of it.

[ thank you jon that's very helpful ]

Whatever encounters you can describe, it is likely we've encountered something at least tangentially similar. Our new situation seems to be similarly... eventful.

video; username not set

[givetheslip]

Could you clarify what you mean about memories? You want people to tell you stories of their lives?

[Their nosiness is impressively upfront if so.]

Also, 'weird' how? A book is a book. The ideas they contain may be more unusual but it's just ink on paper.

[itknowsyou]

[ Jon's expression says that he thinks very little of this assessment, and also of her. ]

A book is a book until reading it can feed the victim to something beyond their comprehension. The dangers we've encountered are malicious entities in the shape of books.

... But [ sigh! ] yes. We are looking to collect accounts of the dangers people have faced, whether here in Trench or otherwise.

video; un: harbinger - 1/2

[bolstafir]

Think just about everything that happened in Deerington and does in Trench counts as weird or supernatural. [A short huff of amusement.]

I can tell some stories, though. Been around for over two years now.

-> private

[bolstafir]

[And with that...he switches over to private. It has been a very long time since Qrow last interacted with Jon, but there are some things he can never, ever forget. Relating so thoroughly to Jon's cursed nature is one of them, even years later.]

Is it okay to just talk, now? You used to prefer text for this kind of thing, right?

[Maybe Trench has changed things. He wants to be sure before he starts, just in case.]

text; @skywalker

[facultative]

What if you're the one that's 'cursed'?

Text;

[gotaknife]

What makes you think you're cursed?

late tag whoops

[itknowsyou]

[ As though Jon could pass this one up. ]

It's been known to happen.

[ Wry as hell, on his end of the line. Martin will probably frown at him for self-loathing too loudly. ]

I'd like to hear the story, if you ever care to share it.



[ Oh, right— ]

Text is fine, that is.

Video; un: darkness

[survivalthroughhate]

[Oh great, it's the abomination and his boyfriend. He should just leave this alone. Turn off his Omni and walk away right now. But Maul's anger is clouding his better judgment right now. So he decides to give the two of them one hell of a story if that's what they want.]

Once, there was an October in Deerington where a boy made of grass went to one of his good friends, a monster rendered blind but still very dangerous. 'There's a monster much more dangerous than you here. Will you help me kill it?' And being good friends with the boy and having seen visions of his death that he was trying to prevent, the monster agreed to help kill the fiend, thinking this would save his young friend. He also had a grudge against the man and his band of friends for stealing some books he had been hoarding. But neither of them knew that the moon was driving both of them insane.

They went to find this man and attacked him with the intent of killing him swiftly. But when the monster attacked, he found this other monster was far, far worse than he was, for this thing could look inside a person and dredge up all the worst, most horrible parts of themselves, making them feel agony unlike anything known before. And this eldritch horror looked upon the Sith Lord and showed him all the horrific sights in his mind. He screamed for what felt like an eternity as all the worst parts of his life were shown to him. So the grass boy decapitated the horror to stop the torment but in doing so sealed his own death, the one his friend had wanted to prevent in the first place. He had failed and so he lost his mind for the rest of the month until meeting his own demise.

[He pauses, staring without blinking at Jon.]

Sound like a familiar story yet?

[gotaknife]

[Martin doesn't recognize the story at all, nor does he recognize Maul, but it's impossible not to recognize who the other 'monster' is. Outside of the frame, he reaches for Jon's hand as Maul talks about the decapitation, as though to reassure himself he's still there.

It was just a dream. It was just a dream, and he doesn't remember it at all, and even Jon's memories of that time don't seem to be exactly clear either.]

Hm. Sounds a bit like self-defense to me.

Video | un: justafarmlad

[justoscar]

[He's not going to mention the book he's tracking yet. However... ]

You know everything looks supernatural between the Dream and Trench, right? You're gonna have to be more specific

[gotaknife]

Well, really, anything that anyone might be willing to share could potentially be helpful. Besides, I'd way rather weed through some things that might not be helpful rather than miss something that could turn out to be critically important.

[stayscared]

I can't tell if I'm still in the goddamned thing or not, but sure, I'll bite. People keep saying that. That it helps to talk about it. Maybe that's true. But if I'm still in it, it would just be a trick.

I've walked into a curse or two. But here, how would I even begin to tell? And what kind of "artifacts" are we talking about, here?

Maybe you should get that camera looked at.

[he is typing this because he's having another bout of crying. and now he has to stay away from books, too? because they could be dangerous? cursed, even? what qualifies as 'cursed' here must be a hell of a thing.]

Text;

[gotaknife]

We'll do what we can to help, of course. Maybe you could tell us a bit about what you've seen?

It's hard to say what artifacts might turn up here. The best way to go is probably to get in touch with us if you come across anything unusual.

(private) video | un: graham crackers

[possessum]

( He might have glimpsed them back in Deerington over time, might even have spoken once to the one who looks so frail and exhausted. Peter's own memories are unreliable, skewed, and sometimes erode completely. To be perpetually haunted certainly isn't without unfavourable side-effects. But then, the two men who have made this post might know that better than most.

He doesn't remember either of them, but what they're asking.... draws him in almost immediately, heart skipping an odd beat. There's a plethora of supernatural activity to be shared, from his own home and back in the Dream and here in Trench, and Peter himself is a walking talking supernatural buffet, but it's the second part that has him speaking up, right now.

(Even if the knee-jerk instinct is to run away, because he doesn't like that glimmer of something in the smaller man's eyes, the Shift, although Peter could not describe what it is that is shifting, exactly.) )

I'm— I think someone I know had one of those books. ( Nerves pinprick his voice in intervals, making him sound smaller than he is. But something pushes him through. "Someone I know" is "someone I love". )

She destroyed it, and it.... bit back. ( Luna's own words. She'd also explicitly used the word cursed. )

....Could it still hurt her? Even though she got rid of it?

Private;

[gotaknife]

[Martin straightens up a bit, looking suddenly concerned. He knew to expect that they would probably hear from some people who had encountered the books already, but 'bit back' is a worry.]

Is she all right now? How did she destroy it?

video; un: rider

[kaientai]

"Weird or supernatural" memories, huh? Mm, I bet I can think of a few things, seein' as my former line of work had a tendency to brush up against that sorta thing all the time. [ which is a ridiculous understatement but there's a lot of that going on here. ] Depends on what you're looking for.

[gotaknife]

Anything you're willing to share, really. It's hard to say exactly what's going to be useful - neither one of us have been here very long yet.

text, private; un: _unregistereduser

[poorlittlesange]

[Jin Guangyao feels no particular inclination towards sharing any stories from his past with anyone, least of all in this format; he hasn't even bothered to create a registered account on this network, rather utilizing a series of anonymous shell accounts auto-created each time he opts to peruse recent posts. Today, however, something in particular catches his attention, enough that he makes the time to painstakingly draft a private message to Jon.]

Greetings. Please forgive the direct inquiry. Could you explain the nature of these cursed books in more detail?

[itknowsyou]

[ This is, at least, a welcome break from the influx of people questioning their very premise. Jon throws himself into it. ]

The effects can vary substantially. Some are not immediately harmful, but all are dangerous. If it belongs in a nightmare, it can come in the shape of a book.

I don't know how many may be present here.

Have you found something?

voice; un: hakkai

[knowsvinewhip]

[Well that's creepy.]

I don't suppose legends and stories of our worlds would suffice?

[gotaknife]

Yeah, of course! Anything at all could potentially be really helpful, even if it's not from Trench.

[Video][UN:A_Wesker013]

[subject_013]

[The feed shows a tall fellow in black under a tan lab coat, typing inhumanely fast on a steampunk-looking terminal, but pausing to listen to the message.]

Shall we start with establishing a baseline for what constitutes 'weird or supernatural'? Considering there are a vast variety of universes represented here, what would seem weird in one world would 'be a Tuesday' for another. Also... Clarke's Law seems to be at work here, since some worlds seem to have a scientific explanation. My world of origin might be one of them.

[A weighted pause and he might reach one black leather glove-clad hand to the angle of his neck.]

By 'unusual books', I take it that would include a glamour magazine curated for sentient zombies?

[itknowsyou]

[ Jon steamrolls past all of this except the last bit, to which he looks mostly impatient. ]

Does the book have any unusual effects, or are you concerned solely with the content?