(no subject)

[potentialman]

Hey. To anyone I haven't spoken to before, my name is Megumi Fushiguro.

You've probably already noticed that we're linked by thoughts here. You might have also noticed that it's not only words -- you can project emotions and memories this way, too. Something else you should know is that we're not limited to communicating in the present moment; it's possible to find and revisit prior exchanges.

It may help if you think of this as a big tangle of threads. If you know the one you want, and you can take ahold of it, it's just a matter of following it back.

I tell you this so I can call your attention to this.

I've been trying to track everything we've learned -- about this place, about how it got this way. Records from witnesses to whatever happened here before we arrived. Some general advisories about the hazards we face, also.

If you see anything I've missed, I'd appreciate if you could point me to it. I try to keep an ear out, but there's only one of me.

Lortel and I have been discussing getting this all committed to hard copy, also, once we figure out how to deal with the language barrier. [ Verbal and Murmur communication has a way of making itself understood regardless, but they've found that text doesn't do the same. ] I doubt I need to point out the flaws in keeping everything we know strictly as a mental record. [ Especially when Sleep just loves to fuck with their heads! ]

I guess that's it for now.

Comments

[clockgears]

Thank you, Megumi. I'm glad you're keeping track of this information.

[ His words might come across oddly stilted, though it's not hard to guess why: he's unable to keep the utter exhaustion he feels from bleeding through the Murmur. ]

I actually have something else for you, as well as a question for anyone else listening in.

Is anyone here familiar with the name Eden?

[dethangel]

Like... like from the Bible?

[Toki hasn't been religious in a long time, not since before he left home, but it's hard to forget things you once found deeply important.]

[sculptedash]

Yo, You even included the sex post in the useful tips.

This right here, is a bro whose super thorough and cares about education.

[potentialman]

[ Did you have to call him out on that, Ash. Did you have to. ]

I really don't care about that part, but I'm assuming others might.

[vixenish]

[ the response comes slow, mired in a sick, seeping, extreme exhaustion. it's somehow faint, as if barely voiced, barely able to be voiced. ]

Thank you, Megumi.

Come see me, soon.

[potentialman]

[ He absolutely felt a ripple of Bad Shit Happening from Lortel at the end of that dream. He absolutely has questions.

He absolutely knows "in no shape to answer" when he hears it (feels it). ]

...I will. Don't overdo it.

[sorte]

get the one up on fake news before it gets you first. this share has been fact-checked by the FUCKMEE (Fiercely Underpaid Citizens' Kaleidoscopes of Manhattan's Enmious Environment) Upstart Institute, bringing you our lord and savior, TRUTH, about the things that now matter in your new daily life that you never asked for.

GOOD MORNING, MANHATTAN 𖤐

[potentialman]

Aventurine, what the hell are you doing.

[opheliac]

Thanks for spreading the word. Biscuit coninues to be such a helpful little pup.

[potentialman]

How helpful do I have to be for you to stop calling me Biscuit?

[merged]

[ Pain and weariness echo through her connection to the Murmur, along with a general sense of hesitation—but she bites through it. ]

Thanks for all this, Megumi. You can add my conversation with Sleep to the record.

And... I know we have to worry about the language barrier, but maybe we should get it all down in the languages we currently know—just in case. I'd be happy to transcribe the English version of it.

[potentialman]

I'll add that in. Thanks. [ His appreciation comes through; conversations with Sleep are personal and exposing and he definitely doesn't expect most people to want them to be aired out where people can find them, but with as little as they have, they could be important. ]

And I'd be glad for someone with better English than me to handle that. I'm...functional, but I wouldn't call myself fluent.

[eidxiety]

What do you mean, "to gaze upon the moon is to die"? This isn't just hyperbole, is it?

[sculptedash]

You go totally zombo when you do.

It's kind of how this place started falling apart.

[nutcheck]

Jesus tap dancing christ on a bike.

[ This is a lot to take in. All of this is a lot to take in. ]

I mean, yeah, thanks. Actually really helpful. Fuck.

[potentialman]

I know it's a lot. I'm sorry for that. Some of this is really better to have sooner rather than later, though.

[ Like DON'T GO IN THE SUBWAYS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD or the city map! ]

[dedicate]

Wow, this is pretty thorough. Colour me impressed~

[ there's even a familiar name among it all. ]

So basically, the moon caused some kind of biological disaster that contaminated everybody here? Is that it?

[potentialman]

Broadly, yes. A lot of the details are still unclear.

[inverseye]

GETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEAD

[potentialman]

Okay.

[ Bye!

He can't save you from yourself, man. ]

[hallowedly]

( Give him a moment. Then another. Then the next. Then, very carefully test trialing the tendrils of the community mind borg — )


He... llo? Is this... audible? Sensate?

[potentialman]

Yeah, you're coming through.

However you want to describe it. [ Audible isn't quite the word for it when it's in your head, but it's also the word that he kind of wants to use anyway, because it's like...thinking a phone conversation? Who knows. ]

[jiangjun]

[potentialman]

[ ...look, sending mental pictures of cute animals as a way to express confusion is an excellent way to head off sarcasm before Megumi even gets it out.

Because boy, does his grumpy heart melt for cute animals. ]

[salaryman]

[ Oh. Well, hello.

There is a sensation back of a smile and a wave. ]

Thank you for your diligence. [ Hm, hm. ] Is it all right to call you just Megumi? Or is that too personal? Or is that silly to ask when we're talking this way? [ HA-HA ]

[potentialman]

[ Someone...actually asked...

Pardon his momentary blink, he's been in a city full of foreigners for two months and everyone just went straight to "Megumi." Bless you, random sir! ]

I mean, at this point I think everybody does anyway, so you might as well.

[ Less confusion for everyone, probably. ]

[commitments]

[ Just groggy dread. ]

What a nightmare...

[potentialman]

One we're not waking up from any time soon, sorry to say.

[longwillows]

[It's not an immediate response. In fact, it's probably about a day or so later that Kalmiya finally musters up the wherewithal to contribute to this.

Her communication is strange, different from how she's previously approached speaking over the Murmur. It's more like an impression of her voice than something she's saying with her own mouth, like the recorded narration of a letter, or the memory of someone who hasn't heard her speak in-person for a while.

The ambient static surrounding it makes the purpose of this approach clear: distance. She gives away nothing else but her words.]

i spent some time with One
and Sleep

[potentialman]

[ Oh.

Well, that approach makes sense, all things considered, given -- ]

I saw you approach One. I couldn't really tell what happened after that, though.

[ His assumption is "bad. bad happened." ]

[paravore]

[ 'Hikaru' takes his time reviewing and processing everything. It's been a few hours since he woke up, so the initial shock as worn off, and now he's taking his time to study all the new information that's been and being stuffed into his head.

There's still one thing his mind after all of it. ]

Okay, but like, are we SURE we ain't on the Other Side? Y'know... dead?

[potentialman]

Some of us may be. But I don't think it's a foregone conclusion, just a matter of individual circumstance.

Or maybe I should phrase that as, this isn't hell, it just feels like it should be.

[panzana]

[Well, well, Nicola wasn't expecting to receive an info dump from a stranger as soon as he put his mask back on. It's not entirely unwelcomed, though. The chorus of other voices are, but he can't deny that there are some other golden nuggets of information in there too. He supposes he'll just have to get used to this.]

This is quite impressive. Thank you for your efforts. I just have one very important question...

Where can a guy get some coffee?

[He's half-joking, but man, he really is suffering from coffee withdrawal already.]

[potentialman]

The good news is that America seems to be catching on to coffee in cans, finally...but they need to step up their vending machine game. You'll probably have to check for grocery stores that haven't been picked clean.

I'd assume that any grounds or beans still around are going to be kind of stale, but caffeine is caffeine, I guess.

[regulate]

[ This is a whole lot of information he wishes he knew earlier. Perhaps he would have stopped himself from making one too many irresponsible choices. ]

Does this connection still form should you have–...be intimate during dreams?

[potentialman]

I don't know.

You might be on your own to figure that one out...but considering that entire basement, actually, probably not.

[ Go talk to your brothers and sisters in sin? ]

[nestingdevil]

[The feeling from his end isn't tense or fearful. No, instead it's loud; the feeling of it, the feeling of him, more similar to that of a guitar string, plucked and vibrating in the dim of a quiet, early-morning bar. A murky image (or well, more an idea) of a coin comes blearily in and out of focus - it's body spinning, spinning, spinning before:]

Oh - ? Sounds like you're the one to talk to, then. [Greed slurs, and the concept of the coin violently snaps shut. As if someone's smacked it palm-face down, hiding it from view.]

[Lazily, the Sin sucks at one of his teeth.] Gotta say, I'm impressed. Looks like you've already got a few things figured out. Ah, Megumi - did I get that right? The name's Greed. [He trails off and in the quiet, the noise that comes through is a'roar - like a whirlwind, trapped and twirling in an empty pit.]

Now, what's all this about an underground?

[potentialman]

Greed, huh?

[ There's surely a story behind how a guy ends up with a name like that. But it'll keep for later. ]

I don't know if you're from a place that has the concept of a subway. It's a train that runs entirely through underground tunnels. So there's a pretty extensive network of tunnels, in a city this size.

But they're a deathtrap, in their current state. All of the people who used to live here and have been absorbed into Sleep's hivemind have congregated down there...and they're territorial.

[sacral]

[ Before embarking on a spiritual traipse through these chords thrumming with information comes the soft sensation of acceptance, mutable and calm. ]

It's good to hear from you.

[potentialman]

Sumeragi-san.

I'd hoped you wouldn't be dragged into this.

[ -- he says, but there's an undeniable twinge of relief that slips into the connection, too. Of course Megumi wouldn't admit to wanting anyone to be stuck in this hellscape with him. That'd be far too selfish.

...but Subaru is a rarity in how easily he seems to get Megumi, in a way that so few people around him do. It's...comforting, almost.

(See? Selfish.) ]

[for_sake]

( there's a ping of intrigue followed by a sensation of nauseated exhaustion. the voice that comes with it is quiet but alight with interest. )

D'ya know how impressive it is you track all this?

( because all he's done since opening his eyes here is: lie on the ground. tired and unable to filter himself. there is the faint, stifled sense of finding the nearby fungus incredibly disgusting. and disturbing. )

You prefer Fushiguro or Megumi? ( a thoughtful pause. their ages might be similar… ) You can call me Yoshiki.

( there goes the last of his energy, so much for a proper introduction. )

[potentialman]

I mean, I've had a while to work on it.

[ Taking compliments gracefully is for people with actual social skills.

And Megumi definitely spent a good while when he first woke up lying there feeling like death before he realized that he felt too shitty to actually be dead dead, and thus he might need to actually take some initiative. ]

I'm fine with either. Most people here just went straight to calling me Megumi, so I've gotten used to it. [ He probably wouldn't have defaulted to that if asked, but the first cohort to arrive didn't have many Japanese people. It didn't feel like it was worth making a point out of it, given everything already on their minds. ]

[beaffrayed]

[ There's a hum of calm curiosity, almost amusement, with an undertone of exhaustion. Fray has been Going Through It since he woke up but that doesn't mean he can't tune in to what's going on here. ]

Is this how it feels to be on the other end of it..?

[ A language barrier...his first thought is of the Echo, but it's only spoken language, not written, that it aids understanding with - and it's also an ability he doesn't have, and certainly couldn't pass on even if he ever wanted to burden another with it. ]

It's bound to have its issues, but linked together as we are...some sort of code of your own devising might work best for recording all you've learned to paper. Unless there's some gift of the god's that distorts even that?

[ The impression through the connection seems to be that Fray wouldn't be surprised if that were to be the case. ]

[potentialman]

I don't think there's an actual distortion involved. As far as I can tell, it's just a matter of written language not being subject to the same power that's helping us understand each other.

This city, or some version of it, does exist where I come from. I'm not fully fluent in the primary language here, but I know enough of it to get by...and I can still feel the gaps when I run into usage I don't know. I've found other languages in use here that I can recognize, but am no more or less able to understand than I'd expect.

So I think the written word is just completely outside of it all. There's no help in understanding it, but nothing to obfuscate it, either.

[vocalistyodels]

Ain't this sweet. Rolling out the carpet for the fresh meat.

Got something you can add to it, saw something after that monster made a mess of us.

[Aka he died. He kind of assumes most people got got at the end of the dream.]

Don't make much sense to me, maybe it'll mean something to y'all.

[potentialman]

I wouldn't call it sweet. Just practical.

[ Less confusion all around makes everyone's life easier. (Megumi is a good person at the core, but it never stops him from denying he is.) ]

Thanks. I don't think any of these will mean much on their own, but there's a bigger picture, if we can find enough parts of it.

[trashblaze]

[ Zombie-themed videogames are only fun if they remain mere games!! Who would've thought they'd all wake up to this? Actually, it reminds Caelus of the Mara curse from back home. But whatever this is, it seems potentially worse. ]

The flora looks crazy. Will I ever see a normal vegetable here?

[potentialman]

I'm actually not sure. I haven't run into any myself, but we've been living in the dark for two months and now the sun is out, so I'd be surprised if that doesn't change some things.

[peripheries]

Why are you in my head and also this is boring. Do you have anything else?

[potentialman]

I'm in your head to tell you how not to get killed while you're here. If you find that boring, that's not my problem.