Book (Beautiful beards: how to make the most of your facial hair.)
Casebook from Home (Scrapbook)
Paint (green, violet, black, red)
Paintbrush
Pen (red)
Stickers x2 (gold stars)
Sticky notes
Other
Binoculars
Blindfold
Bristle brush (thin metal bristles used to scrape away caustic substances)
Counter wipes
Duct tape
Eyeglass repair (a small tube with different replacement pieces for a pair of glasses (a few very small screws and nose pads) as well as a very very tiny screwdriver)
Day 203 [X] - Requesting medicine for a lot of people (notified that painkillers are low)
Day 208 [X] - Requesting medicine for Alfie and canceling other prescriptions [X] - Requesting medicine for Steve [X] - Requesting to withdraw his consent for the Admin's mind-adjustment procedure
Day 237 [X] - Requesting meds for Stephen [X] - Asking the ADMIN about Angel's mysteriously disappearing MN Poisoning symptoms [X] - Requesting meds for Rhys
Day 238 [X] - Checking the trap door in Building 56
Day 240 [X] - Checking for violins and other stringed instruments in the elementary school
Day 242 [X] - Asking the ADMIN about the changes they're undergoing for the No Light, No Light event
Day 247 [X] - Attempting to put out the fire in Building 242
Day 331 [X] - Requesting meds for Stephen [X] - Contacting Jia Xu (only static in reply)
Day 340 [X] - Requesting meds for Stephen and Rhys
Day 352 [X] - Trying the Ocean Eye App at the cultist chapel area in Building 276
Day 356 [X] - Exploring Building 264 with the Ocean Eye App and laying pieces of bodies to rest
Day 357 [X] - Flipping square EEF5 [X] - Exploring Building 262 with the Ocean Eye App and talking to the potential cultists there
Day 358 [X] - Exploring Building 260 with the Ocean Eye App and trying to talk to the children in the daycare
Day 359 [X] - Digging up corpses for livers in Building 257 and having Mina check the welded shut door with the Ocean Eye App [X] - Moving bodies from the door in Building 252 and saying a few words over them
Day 360 [X] - Throwing bricks on the ground in Building 253 (nothing happened) [X] - Marking out a Prophet eye in Building 254 (building reset and blood filled the room) [X] - Talking to ghosts and running the Ocean Eye App in Building 274
Day 362 [X] - Requesting meds for Royce to give to Alfie
Day 364 [X] - Using the microscope in Building 117 to test congealed blood and dust samples from around town
Day 368 [X] - Talking to Will's stalker in the hospital
Day 369 [X] - Scanning Building 138 (Robert Miller's house) with the Ocean Eye app and Galaxy Key; Ocean Eye app started glitching
Day 372 [X] - Searching the mold piles in Bunker 04 (bodies are beneath the mold) [X] - Searching Bunker 17
After Winter adjusted the network for us, we received the following message from the Admin's account: "ERROR ERROR breach ERROR ERROR breach ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR breach ERROR." The doors where I was staying started locking and unlocking, opening and shutting. Nearly took a few fingers off when I tried to hold it open. The snow grew heavier after that and something started moving out in it. After a couple of hours, the doors stopped and then I think we heard Andromeda. She told us to run. She'd lit up paths between the buildings with some sort of lit path. Honestly, it looked a little like stars. My group accidentally strayed off that path and we were assaulted by some sort of creature. Or tear in reality? It was bloody awful. It screamed at us, nicked us all over with little cuts, but it didn't attack us past that. A few other people weren't as lucky. There were other things out there that did all sorts of things. Broke arms, cut up faces, dislocated jaws, drenched people. I'm not sure what unifying theme there was except that there were a hell of a lot of eyes and watching involved and I don't think those things were proper anomalies like we're used to.
Steph put up a post for people to share what they saw HERE.
I had a conversation with Eve about the things that attacked us HERE.
[A note that this is a transcribed message from the Admin and the information about prescriptions has been removed.]
Some of the people here have been exploring the Industrial Area. That's led them to some buildings with sealed doors they can't get open. We're thinking the trigger might be in another building. They also found a building where it looked like some sort of last battle took place, a warehouse where there were containers filled with heavy bricks and stacked as barriers. Lots of bloodstains and graffiti for the Prophet.
Sherlock and I died, and when we came back, we'd both gained years worth of memories, but neither of our bodies have changed. I should be five years older and I can remember those five years, but I can remember everything that's happened here just as fresh. I'm really not sure what that means. Maybe the Admin is putting memories from another future universe into our heads? I don't know why she would.
We've worked out how to access the power plant in town and based on the fact that there's still some electricity, we're hopeful we might be able to do something to get it working on the doors around town that are electronically sealed. There was also a video that Ecks found HERE showing someone descending into the power plant core. Some of the lads found that the core was completely coated in gunk and rust. They're trying to find a way down and supplies to clean it with.
We've been having some very strange experiences. Twelve days ago, we started dreaming in this strange world that looked like an M.C. Escher drawing brought to life. Weird angles, impossible architecture and gravity and the like. I didn't actually see it at that point, though. I was blind except for being able to see people 'aligned with the Prophet,' people who were 'with Andromeda', and what looked like anomalies. People who were aligned with Andromeda could see everything in the world except the anomalies. They were helping me. We had to work together gather lights from the mouths of the anomalies. I'm not sure if it was meant to be literal or a metaphor, but it just felt right working together and doing what we did. Other people who were aligned with the Prophet were dangerous, though. Managed to get attacked by a few of them who wanted to drag me off somewhere after I'd run away. I really don't know how I know any of this, it just came into my head as things were happening. That went on for a couple of nights, but then it stopped.
On Day 217, something else happened. We received a VIDEO that showed Andromeda and Sam--the little girl we think was the Prophet--working together. Whatever cult killed you in Sam's name, I really don't think it was her wishes. She seemed to be trying to get away from them, too. They talked about a something, an 'it' that was hurting the town because it doesn't understand. I'm thinking it might be related to an AUDIO CLIP that was uploaded to the public record a little while ago, too. It's got Shelley Derricks saying there's something being done with the network in the town that's wrong.
After we'd received the file, things went a bit strange. It was like everyone was suddenly feeling like they should just bare their soul. I don't know what it was, but everything I was afraid of came bubbling to the surface and I felt like I had to get it out to everyone, right then and there, or I'd burst. I think it was the Admin or something else messing with our heads.
On Day 220 we went back to that Escher world, too. Or we went in and out of it. Last time it was in our dreams, but the last few days, it was like we were running in and out of it. The anomalies weren't just anomalies anymore, though, they were us. I turned into some sort of giant anomaly and it was everyone who hadn't transformed who had lights in their mouths this time. I wanted the lights. I managed to steal two of them. I don't know what's going to happen to those people, but I'm worried. I'm really worried, Winter. I know we're running out of time, and everyone seems fine now, we're all back to normal, but I don't know what that hell happened or what will happen to the people who lost their lights.
I spoke with the Admin about our turning into anomalies. The transcript of that is HERE. The Admin, Eve, also showed me a video in that conversation that was just me, running around naked like a madman. I honestly don't know what to make of it. I saw myself as an anomaly. Other people saw me as an anomaly. I fought with other people using teeth and claws in that form. And I stole two lights. One of the women I did that for is gone. She died and she hasn't come back since. I don't know if taking her light had something to do with it. I'm very worried that it did.
After the mess with anomaly business, we were left on our own for a bit, though. The group I was with decided to try bombing one of the trap doors. We have VIDEO of that. Unfortunately, nothing came of it apart from a strange red glow we could see when there was almost complete darkness in the closet. We theorized it might be a signal for low power mode, or perhaps some sort of warning sign.
Mr. Beckett has begun recording everything that he sees and does in Norfinbury. His username is @mnemosyne if anyone would like to contact him about getting his files.
On Day 229, we had something strange happen with the anomalies again. I think they may be getting stronger. More coherent? I know that people experienced something like this before and a program had to be written that deleted memories to get rid of them. Each of us seemed to receive a personalized anomaly. People saw them differently--we worked it out that it was based on whether or not you had your light stolen. For those of us who turned into anomalies or who were able to keep hold of their lights, we saw the anomalies as grotesque versions of people we knew. The standard sort of thing for anomalies. But the people who had their lights stolen? They saw the creatures as just the people they knew, except they were completely missing their faces. It was definitely a perception thing because I looked at the personal anomaly for someone whose light was stolen and it looked grotesque to me, even though he saw it as that person with just the missing face.
That first day they didn't do anything but follow us around. It was one of the strangest and most unnerving things we've had happen, yet. They still affected us like anomalies. I accidentally touched one and was laid out for a few minutes. Woke up to a bloody nose and headache. But they didn't attack us, and they didn't drag us off or try to swallow us down whole. They didn't say anything, either.
That changed on Day 230. The anomalies started to attack. Not all the time, not all at once, and it was only those of us who had our lights still, or who'd turned into anomalies and gone around stealing lights who were assaulted. The anomalies started speaking, too. Mine demanded that I give 'it' to her. She said I'd had 'it' too long and that it wasn't fair I wasn't sharing. I never shared anything with her. Stuff in that vein. It looked like my sister, and whatever that thing was, it was using her voice. They still didn't swallow us or drag us off, but they did attack and pin us for a bit. I think they wanted our lights. I even offered to let the creature attacking me have mine. She didn't seem to be able to take it, though. Zack had a MESSAGE where he talked about all of it and people chimed in to work out that it was likely our lights they were after. He had a follow-up MESSAGE about his findings a few days later, as well. Dr. House had a VIDEO of experiments he conducted on one of the anomalies. Just as a warning, he's attacking one of them repeatedly in that vid.
We still don't even know what these lights are. Maybe they have some connection to the Prophet? Or to Andromeda? Some echo of Andromeda told Ecks once that she kept the stars inside of her.
The anomalies actually disappeared on their own. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it was a relief when they were finally gone. We haven't had any strange happenings since that. But Davesprite found another message from Andromeda HERE. I'm hoping we'll find more signs of her as we get closer to the center. I just wish we knew what happened to everyone here, this Prophet business. Could it have been a cyber attack on the NIMA system that caused all of this to happen?
Last but not least, we've gotten the Power Plant over in the Industrial Area semi-operational. That's opened up these sort of skybridge things between some of the buildings. Steph sent a VIDEO of them out to everyone. We're hoping some of the power's been restored to the rest of the town, too. Sherlock, his brother, and I are going to try opening that trapdoor we found again. We're hoping we'll have more luck this time. We're thinking there might be some sort of maintenance tunnel system that we might be able to use. If we can access that, it'll be a godsend getting around town.
We successfully performed a second blood transfusion to temporarily cure someone from MN Poisoning. The effects lasted approximately ten days with patient slowly declining into an extremely ill state. We're working on making this last longer and more permanently. Multiple transfusions at once? I'm concerned about sickness in the other direction, though. There is such a thing as too many red blood cells.
Enoch found a tower with human skin put up on the walls like decorations. People in the Industrial Zone just keep finding more and more horrifying things. There are Prophet symbols everywhere and signs that this might well have been where they had their base of operations. In one of the audio clips we've found, though, Sam told Andromeda that the high school and the chapel are places she needs to watch out for.
Still, plenty of intrigue in this section of town. There are multiple sealed buildings and one partially sealed building. The inside of at least one in the southeast corner appears to have been transformed into a prison designed to convert people to the way of the Prophet.
On Day 242, we began to transform into anomalies. Some of us, anyway. Those of us who'd lost our 'lights.' It was a slow and physical process this time. I felt myself breaking apart and transforming into the hound, growing eyes, bleeding. Starting on Day 243, along with the transformation, we found ourselves followed by the personal anomalies we'd seen before.
Once again, some of us saw them as people we'd known, while others just saw conglomerate creatures, all stitched together parts. We'd started losing our minds by that point, as well, those of us turning into anomalies. I ran off from the people I was with to make certain I didn't steal anymore lights. The moment I stepped outside, though, I saw a beam of light going straight up into the sky. It was coming from the southeast of where I was in the residential area by the school. As soon as it went on, Harry--the anomaly in the shape of my sister, Harry--it tried to back away. The light didn't bother me, but she was terrified of it. And she started babbling about how the light she had wasn't good enough, how I wasn't good enough. I needed to get her more. I needed to get her a light of her own. It was clear what needed doing by that point, though; if we wanted our lights back, we'd have to kill our anomalies.
I couldn't bring myself to it. She looked like my sister. But I ended up not having a choice. I met with another person who'd been turned into an anomaly; they killed Harry. I tried to stop it, but they were like smoke. I don't know what's going to come of that or what may have already, but it is what it is. We'll deal with it as we have to.
The people whoweren't changed like me said their anomalies talked to them, as well. Different message, but same theme about needing lights and the lot of us being lucky we had ours. It's a concept, they said. Luck, opportunity, something intangible. The anomalies are the people we knew, brought in in pieces and stitched together with others, filled up with static in the missing places. It sounds absolutely mad, writing it out now, but with all that we've seen... I think it might well be the nanites filling in the gaps, representing the static. What else could it be?
In the middle of all of this, we discovered a new area to the south of the Industrial Zone. This one seemed to be where the nuclear bombs fell in one of the video clips the Admin stitched together from pieces of data we founds around town. As soon as people entered into that area there was a new app that appeared on our tablets; the Geiger app shows levels of radiation. Dr. House and Vanitas (@betterhalf) were the first ones into the new area.
Dr. House posted about finding messages from a Russian woman that was apparently trapped down in that area for some time. She'd had a partner, but they'd been separated. We also received footage from Vanitas showing the entrance to an additional morgue area, this one in the form of a columbarium. The entry tunnel to it was lined with human bones; clearly a bit of new decor from the Prophet cult.
Billy found a message from another Russian. It was in one of the houses in the residential area. We think it might have been the woman in the Radiation Zone's companion.
On Day 251, the network crashed. It only lasted for about ten minutes, but it was one of the stranger things I've seen here. And we've had a lot of strange things happen. When it came back, it was in text-only mode, and there was something flickering on the screen, a red light. Only turned up irregularly, and I couldn't be sure it was even there until it got worse and other people mentioned it, as well. Winter contacted us, but her message has been completely wiped from the network. She did note the disruption in it and talked to us about the things we'd learned since we last spoke with her. She informed us that someone was connected to the network and was connecting from the sealed building in the southeast corner of the Industrial Zone. As soon as she managed to pinpoint them, though, a giant Prophet symbol appeared on the tablet screen. Dr. House said at that point that when he activated his Eye App, the Prophet eye symbol was carved into his chest. We found out that this happened with everyone who activated the Eye App (Dr. House, Beckett, and Steph Brown) on their tablets. the injuries were to different places on their bodies, though. Winter's message disappeared, and then the shadow people around town changed.
We've seen this before, to an extent. A ways back, they turned static-y and started yelling for us to praise the Prophet or kill the Prophet. The ones in this case turned to static and didn't seem to say anything in particular. They followed us, though, and when they got too close, it was like being near an anomaly, the same MN Poisoning symptoms took hold. The static people were able to come into buildings, unlike the usual shadows, and they seemed to congregate. More of them led to an intense sense of disorientation. We were trapped with some in a tunnel and it was honestly hard to remember what we were even doing, who we were... that we'd ever been anywhere but Norfinbury.
The static people disappeared the next morning, but we received an ominous message on the tablets from someone whose username was just static:
'Observation of residents complete. Please await results.'
Later that day, we learned that @ADMIN and @robertmiller were unreachable over the network. All we received were bounce-back messages from those accounts. Dr. House decided that he wanted to try a tablet-breaking experiment to get the attention of the Admin again; it had worked months ago when Rhys and Angel had organized something similar. It had also, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of emergency medical services within Norfinbury. I wasn't interested in participating, but one of my companions, America, wanted to try.
Things went fine for our group. Not so much mostotherpeople. We learned a lot. I'll grant Dr. House that. We learned:
The message from the Admin asking us not to touch our chips was recorded;
The spider robots that are usually on collection duty were not active;
The Prophet followers were still alive and active in Norfinbury as these cloaked figures came to collect chips in lieu of the Admin's spiders;
Our tablets were powered by quantum computer chips;
Something was trying to abort a program called convertpurge.exe;
There was an available video feed somewhere in the town, but it couldn't be accessed, even using a hacking app;
Hacking @ADMIN and @robermiller resulted in the hacker's tablet exploding;
Invisible static creatures can kill you; and
The Prophet's followers were based in the southeast corner of the Industrial Zone.
A lot of people died to get that information, though, including Sherlock and Mycroft. It took ages for everyone to come back from the dead. Not everyone on the obituary did, but at least the ones who participated in the tablet experiment all did. Those of us who lift the chips alone after first attempting to grab them were fine and were able to keep the chips from the tablets. I picked up a few of them along with the power source from America's tablet.
After dying, yet again, Mycroft returned on Day 259 to present some results from another experiment that he and Dr. House had run in one of the morgues. Apparently, the creature in there is changing. Not only did Mycroft record it eating House, it slipped under the door and grabbed Mycroft to kill him, as well. We also learned from Kid's death in another morgue that when a person isn't able to observe the morgue creature, it just appears as some kind of ball of static.
On Day 260, a group of people disappeared. I thought it must be something like the Emergency Repairs event. Maybe something to do with the network errors and not being able to reach the Admin. I sent out a message asking if anyone else had lost people and if they'd been contacted. It wasn't until that night that we found out where they'd gone.
People had been transported into the seal office building in the southeast corner of the Industrial Area. They'd been split up into prisoners and Prophet converts. The converts were obviously being mind-controlled. They inflicted the most horrifying surgeries I have ever witnessed on people. It was difficult to watch, but Angel and I stayed in through. We were trying to find out anything we could, look for something we could use to help. I put out a call for help to the Industrial Area and Angel and I started all but running there the next day.
We didn't get a chance to talk to the prisoners until Day 262. Some of them were given their tablets back that evening. Most of them were disoriented and in pain. Some of them were incoherent or unable to talk at all after what had been done to them. They showed a remarkable amount of spirit, though, fighting through, singing to keep each other strong. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen in my life.
I'm so proud of the people here. I'm so proud to be standing with and fighting along side them. Truly. We argue and we tear at each other, but here, when everything else is coming at us, that's when you see people at their best. We pulled together. Every single person pulled together and said 'No. We won't just accept this and let it happen.' The converts fought off their brainwashing. The prisoners helped to break them out of it and get information to us on the outside. And the rest of us outside? People contacted @andromeda; she answered.
Andromeda was able to get us access to the Admin again. Once we had that, everyone gave everything they had to convince the Admin that she needed to reboot the system to fix everyone's nanomachines, as well as open up a trapdoor that the converts had found. They were able to get the prisoners down and out of the building before whatever was going on could finish.
We did this together. It's been a hard time, these past five-odd months. Some people have been here much longer than I have. I've never felt more certain that we can get to the center of this town, though. We will make it there. We'll travel the spiral, we'll fix the server, we'll rescue every single person, including Andromeda and Robert Miller and Eve. We'll do this. And we'll do it together.
Alfie and Beckett have been trying to make sense of what happened and work through what we've learned. The building where everyone was being kept has disappeared. It's still physically impossible to get through the space where it was, but it doesn't appear to be there. Maybe the Admin locked it into a quantum state?
The converts put the prisoners down the trapdoor and found themselves unable to follow and get to them. The people down there said they were traveling through maintenance tunnels and there was a light they saw, along with Andromeda's voice. It called for them to follow and their injuries fell away as they went. There are still scars, emotional and physical, but no one is going to die because of those surgeries.
The maintenance tunnel system seems to have opened up now. We'll see how that goes. I think we have all of the entrances mapped out and we can travel in them day and night. I just hope we don't meet with any anomalies down there.
Like clockwork, the new arrivals continue to appear, even following major events such as what we observed with the converts and "sinners" in the disappeared building. Since my arrival, we've had at least one new arrival every nine to eleven days. Some of the variation might be do to when people actually speak up. Not everyone does so immediately. It's definitely some sort of automated system, though. It continues to run, even when the Admin's otherwise occupied.
The maintenance tunnels are fully accessible now, according to word from Karkat. The entrance locations are highlighted on the map that Dr. House is updating. I've noticed that buildings for known previous residents have also been highlighted, for anyone wishing to attempt contact.
Note 1: The maintenance tunnels seem to be relatively safe at this point. No one has observed anomalies in them. However, items disappear when left in them overnight, unobserved. It's unclear if cabin fever can take effect in the tunnels, but it's advised that you move through them quickly. It's not something we need to test out.
EDIT: Unfortunately, I've been informed that there has been an anomaly sighting in the tunnels. Standard rules apply. Please keep travel groups small, particularly if you have anyone in your group with the Beacon App switched on. If you're new, the Beacon App does not apply to you, so no need to worry about that.
Note 2: The only way to access the new Residential Zone that's currently being explored is through the tunnels.
Exploration of the new residential area (Residential Zone 3) has been ongoing. We've identified the high school and the chapel, which were alluded to in a conversation between Andromeda and Sam, whom the cultists in Norfinbury viewed as the Prophet. Other points of interest in the new area include a house with a mound of flesh hanging down from the ceiling. Dr. House injected himself with blood from it at one point and experienced temporary symptoms that included loss of motor control and loss of vocabulary.
Beckett drank some of the blood and noted that it tasted off. In addition he cut into the fleshmound and discovered that there was something that prevents anyone from cutting completely through it. He and the others heard disembodied screaming from the building when they'd cut too far into the fleshmound. Until we actually know what it is, I would strongly advise against further injury to the fleshmound.
America, England, and Ginger identified a food source in the form of a convenience store in the new residential area.
Vanitas found both a new morgue area, as well as the gate to the next area. This requires a keycard and will likely involve solving another series of puzzles in this new area related to the high school and chapel.
On Day 273, @ADMIN sent out the following message:
"MN will re-synchronize today. Please go to a medical center if you are concerned."
Attempts to clarify with her were met with silence. In the morning, everyone in town began to experience mild symptoms of radiation sickness. By the afternoon, some individuals were recovering while others continued to become more ill. The individuals in recovery began to experience a loss of affect and displayed robot-like repetitive motions and speech. By nightfall, most individuals in recovery were completely nonverbal and did not respond to external stimuli, whether it was verbal or physical. These individuals also did not respond to pain. While the majority simply walked back and forth throughout the night, as reported by their mates, at least two individuals displayed aggressively violent actions similar to the man observed in Nurse Jia Xú's death tape and final journal entry.
Quark and Luna were senselessly and brutally murdered by one of these robot-like people, before he was stopped by Ecks.
In light of this Network Error, I strongly encourage anyone who is noticing peculiar behavior in themselves or their traveling group to separate immediately into different houses. We can't get out during lockdown. It may be the best way to prevent this happening again.
Everyone went back to normal by the next day following a NIMA injection of additional MN.
On Day 280, @ADMIN sent out the following message:
"Instabilities detected."
Following this message people began experiencing severe and prolonged symptoms similar to what Dr. House experienced after injecting himself with blood from the fleshmound: loss of motor control, loss of vocabulary, and additional symptom that could best be described as a loss of morality. Some people manifested only one symptom, others manifested two or three. The loss of vocabulary seemed to extend across multiple languages. Sherlock's post during the Network Error is the best example of what was happening.
Once again, these instabilities were resolved with the injection of additional MN.
On Day 281, @featherydouche (Davesprite) announced that he'd found another SD card that featured the Russians who seem to have been part of a previous session. They discussed finding SD cards around for seemingly no reason, as well. The SD card was found in Robert Miller's house. Possibly hinting that he might be the one leaving them out? I'm not clear on that and he hasn't been exceptionally helpful in the past.
In addition, Davesprite announced that he'd set up a supply station for those exploring the new area. Please take only one you need and restock this station if you're able to.
On Day 282, @godsend (Gabriel) announced the development of a Skills List. If you have some skill you'd like to offer to the general public, please let him know so that he can add your contact information. Additionally, this is a resource for everyone to use when looking for help with various projects.
On Day 284, we received notice that errors are beginning to build up within the network. If they get to be too much, it's very likely that the Admin will shut down the network. This will take the nanomachines offline, effectively solving the errors problem, but also resulting in death for all of us due to the radiation. It was suggested that we may be able to fix the nanomachines if we can properly observe them. We have a basic compound microscope, but are hoping to obtain better equipment from the high school once that's opened. It was further suggested that we locate an additional server station somewhere in town that may allow us to fix a few things.
If anyone has programming knowledge or would like to discuss mechanical details a bit more, I'd suggest contacting @featherydouche privately.
Additionally on Day 284, @librarian (Flynn Carsen) announced the development of a network library. If you find any reading materials in your travels, please provide them to him. We could all use the help for our collective sanity during the nights.
On Day 285, @bucky (Bucky Barnes) announced that he is trying to build a gun to fight the anomalies. If you have any of the requested supplies, please contact him directly.
As always, the new arrivals continue to trickle in. It's still every nine-to-eleven-day intervals. How do we shut this down? We need to stop dragging more and more people into this. It's not right and the conditions here just keep getting worse. The Admin told us we were running low on supplies a while back and I've noticed it's harder to find items lately. Maybe we're going longer between restocks? We're still running low on pain medication, too. The food situation seems to be stable still, at least. We'll have to hope that keeps up.
Exploration of the new residential area (Residential Zone 3) has been ongoing. We still need to find a way through the bunker. Unfortunately, Robert Miller's keycard did not work (a warning that this is a message from a young man who died overnight).
We've made it into the high school fully after Jim and his mates were able to get the password to the classrooms from some sort of blood sacrifice fire. Using the Eye app while feeding blood to it brought up 'SACRIFICE', and then a series of numbers when it had enough blood.
Rhys and Beckett tried doing some magical/spiritual rituals at the school once they entered the classroom and ended up getting stabbed by something invisible. Please do not try to piss off the data ghosts/spirits/whatevers here unless you have medical staff and appropriate supplies on hand. I would think that goes without saying, but apparently it doesn't.
Additional experiments have been conducted at the high school now that the classrooms are open. Some of the most notable outcomes from all that seem to be that the darkness within the classrooms can cling to you, people branded with the Prophet symbol seem to be able to hear some song while inside, and you can't breathe in the classrooms. Like all the air's gone out of them. Or someone forgot to put it in there in the first place, maybe.
Sherlock and Dr. House tried an indescribably stupid experiment where they put most of Sherlock's blood into a corpse they'd dug up from one of the mass graves. It resulted in Sherlock reviving in the body he transferred his nanomachines to. Unfortunately with a death price that put a man from our universe in the driver's seat. Before anyone gets the bright idea to repeat said experiment, Sherlock's new body died suddenly and without warning about three weeks after he woke up from apparent heart failure or perhaps an aneurysm. We weren't able to check at the time. He's revived again in his real body and the one he was using before seems to have disappeared. Although, it might be in one of the other morgues. We haven't gone to check them.
On Day 293, something strange happened. The longest anyone's technically been here is 308 days now, but with the way things were going off, it started to feel like months longer, then years. We aged. We seemed to age, anyway. All of us were experiencing different lengths of time and we had memories from what had happened in the interim that weren't real. They seemed it at the time. They were all too painfully real. We also experienced dreams of our own universes. They were incredibly vivid and just from what I've spoken to others about, they seem to have centered on us not being there and something terrible happening because of our absence. I'm not sure what that's meant to tell us. That we really are missing from the universes we were brought from? I wish we had more information.
Castiel's post during this "imaginary" time along with Alfie's and Quark's best illustrate what happened, I think. Quark's particularly. When he made that post, he looked like a man in his twenties, not a little boy like now. We've had errors that have altered our perceptions of our own bodies before, but never quite like this.
Everything resolved on Day 295 with an injection from the Admin. We were able to still remember everything, but our bodies went back to normal and none of it felt quite as real. Just like a nightmare you were woken up in the middle of. I've lost some of the details of all of that, but I'm not sure about others.
On Day 296, Dr. House hosted a discussion on potential experiments. We at least answered one of the questions we had out of that. Or rather, we reconfirmed something Steph and Kunsel had found out earlier and a conversation with Mr. Miller indicated that the nanomachines contain some of the same high entropy alloys that the buildings are constructed from. Is this why anomalies can only interact with us and the rubble? They go through everything else here like it's not even there unless it's been coated in rubble dust.
And talking of more asinine experiments, Mr. Graham and Dr. House decided to share the results of a few of their own. Which again, seemed designed to piss off the data ghosts/spirits. They did find that you can get a Prophet eye mark on your body using the totem in Building 217. Highly useful. And apparently made one of the spirits scream in agony while they tried to burn down the place where Winter was murdered. Good for them.
On Day 300 we had another error. More false memories. This time it wasn't just the future, it was the past. Everything mixed around. People who were never here were. People who'd died were back. Or it seemed like it anyway. I had memories shoved into my head that some people who weren't around to experience certain errors were, or that events went a different way. It was confusing and disorienting and I'm still untangling what happened here form what happened in these "alternate timelines," I guess you'd call them. It's like we were seeing through the looking glass into the hundreds of other possibilities for how things might have gone. People I was friends with were my enemies and vice versa. The Admin fixed all of us on Day 302, but the memories are still lingering. I don't know what this means or why they keep mucking about with our memories like this. It's incredibly frustrating. What's the point of it all? If there's any design here, there has to be a point to it. I know there's some sort of quantum physics thing in effect. Is more of that coming out?
On Day 302, Mr. Hans Christian Andersen requested information on strange happenings by the data ghosts/spirits around town. If you encounter any oddities that bear further investigation, please let him know.
On Day 304, Stephen and his group discovered that the Admin's robotic spiders have returned. At least this means those bloody awful cloaks are gone and smashing your tablet by accident or on purpose won't be deadly. I would strongly advise against trying to smash your tablet, though. You can talk to Angel (@guardian) or Rhys (@dickcheese) if you're in need of some information about what the tablets might contain.
On Day 305, Alfie announced that he and Royce had finished putting up some storage caches around town near the entrances to the maintenance tunnels. Please only take advantage of these caches if you're in dire need and add to them if you can. Contact @ASolomons if you're in need of specific supplies. I also have some spare clothing that I'm happy to distribute to new arrivals.
Every nine-to-eleven days we have new arrivals. Not really sure why it's set up that way, but we haven't gone that period once without at least one person turning up... or being revived. That's a bit of an odd thought. We're still running low on pain medication, but the food situation seems stable for the moment.
Day 309, Mycroft started a discussion regarding the Sherlock and Dr. House's experiment I mentioned in my last summary. The basic gist is that there might be some quantum entanglement... thing going on. It's a bit outside my expertise, but part of why it's so cold might have something to do with how quantum computers run or how quantum states are maintained?
In happier news for that day, if anyone would like a little entertainment in the evenings, Flynn has updated his library, and Peter shared a fair few songs for people to sing and dance to. The competition dance off's over, but feel free to share around anything you film. We could all probably use a smile these days.
Day 310, chaos shared an SD card he'd found. Apparently people in previous sessions really were able to build shelters here. And they've withstood into the current session. It has some implications for what we might be able to do, ourselves, but I'd rather end this than just leave something behind for the next poor sods to find.
Day 314, a lot of people fell deathly ill for some unknown reason. The symptoms were all over the map and the only consistent symptom seemed to be that it started with a fever. I contracted a form of rabies that progressed far faster than it should have been possible. Angel contracted something that isn't even from Earth. Dr. House offered his diagnostic services during this time, so not everyone was affected by the illnesses. There doesn't appear to have been a particular pattern to who was and who wasn't affected. Still not sure what to make of it. If temperature really does play a factor, could the fevers be the quantum physics in this place going off?
Day 315, Alphonse offered another high note. He opened a forum to talk about what things are real to us here, our friendships, the connections we've made with other people in spite of everything in this place trying to pull us apart, isolate us. And also what's real for us back home. Please, everyone, remember that we are getting there. Just a little further. We've come so far already. Seems a shame not to see it through, right?
Day 317, Rhys tried to burn his way into Building 68 on our map. It's a building we've been trying to get into a locked door for, for more than a little while. There's some sort of machine in there that seems like it might be important. Unfortunately, we just can't seem to get in.
That day, Mr. Graham proposed an experiment over the tablets to try to reach out to the people who were here before us. We've done this ad hoc, I suppose you could say, talking to the data ghosts in each of the houses we've visited, but Mr. Graham's idea was to reach out over the network to do this on a large scale. Given some data ghosts react more favorably to certain people than others, it seemed a clever way to get around having to travel to specific locations.
We spent Night 320 reaching out to the data ghosts and learned... far more than I think any of us anticipated. Beckett collected notes from everyone, but the most important things we learned, I think:
1. The data ghosts are the neural imprints of the people from previous sessions and the original town of Norfinbury. Usually, the nanomachines map our brains, but they're flushed out when they're serviced and those imprints get wiped. That hasn't happened for the past 1,000 years or so. It's unclear why, but the Admin is the one who controls this process.
2. The Prophet's cult is like a sickness. People can be affected by it randomly and some of the people in the data ghost collective were cultists.
3. Shelley Derricks gave something to Ecks that will get us through the high school and into the cultist chapel, which will unlock the bunker.
4. We're the farthest that any session has ever come. No one has made it into the bunker, and the Admin and collective can't see what's past it. Part of the reason sessions didn't make it very far is that they didn't have many people at all. Sometimes only one or two.
5. The controls for the NIMA are located behind the body lockers in the hospital morgue.
6. Andromeda is NOT with the data ghost collective, and neither is the strong AI version of Winter.
Day 322, Mr. Wayne asked about compiling a database of dangerous people in Norfinbury.
Day 324, Ginger announced she was putting together a memorial of sorts for all of the people who have died in Norfinbury and who've been absorbed into the data collective. If you'd like to contribute something, please just let her know.
Day 325, Monika provided a little more cheer by offering her poetry on the network and inviting others to share. If you're into writing, we'd all be interested. Honestly, the nonsense in most of the books around here could use some supplementing.
I'm not sure if I should be particularly reporting the next bit, but people should know about it. Bluestar (@bluestar) is forming a group called the SnowClan. If you'd like to find out more about it, I'd encourage you to contact her directly.
Every nine-to-eleven days we have new arrivals. The food situation remains stable, but everyone please be aware that our medication stocks for ALL medications are critically low. I had this correspondence with the Admin regarding medication stocks and a means to obtain NIMA certification. She stopped replying to me after a certain point, unfortunately, but per usual.
Day 330, the majority of the population was knocked out and moved to a featureless white room with a pit at the center of it. Our tablets were non-functional, and there was an unnatural influence that seemed to be compelling us to jump into the pit. The room resembled similar ones we've seen when moved underground. It was upward of 21-22⁰C, and the room and the pit itself expanded as time passed. The pit had no bottom that we could identify. Those of us who jumped into the pit or who were pushed against our will by people like the Joker blacked out after falling some undefined distance.
Everyone was returned to the surface a day later, based on the messages from those left aboveground. The people who went into the pit came back with something extra: red marks that have slowly been expanding since the day we returned. The marks don't appear to have a uniform pattern, progression, or location, and they're almost certainly perception-based. Angel noted that they cover some of her existing tattoos and black out where those tattoos are meant to glow.
To anyone new, PLEASE AVOID ANYONE YOU MEET WITH THESE RED MARKS. Past experience has taught us that we may well be divided up into opposing groups against our will based on marks on our body. That may mean that people with red lines could suddenly and inexplicably attack you. Or you may feel compelled to attack them for no reason. If you cannot avoid each other, please take the time to seriously discuss contingency plans to incapacitate each other if needed. Be aware that certain malfunctions can result in individuals becoming seemingly impervious to pain. Please do not count on your ability to hurt someone being enough to stop them. Consider restraints or, if necessary, breaking bones. We'd rather have a few fractures than a few deaths. Please avoid head trauma where possible to reduce the chance of concussion.
Day 332, Joker has issued a blanket threat to kill people in an effort to get to Harley Quinn. The Joker is currently in the Radiation Zone. His last known location was the funeral home (Building 295 on the communal map). Please avoid him at all costs and provide no or false information if you do encounter him and he demands Harley's whereabouts.
Peter noted this day that the red marks were progressing.
On a lighter note, Tess offered her culinary skills and food-fetching. If you are meeting up with Tess, please note whether you have the red marks so that any unfortunate conflicts can be avoided. I would also urge that arrangements with her be made privately to avoid anyone stepping in on that meet-up that you don't want.
Day 334, Peter offered a game to play. Some people are still intereacting over there, so feel free to join in.
Day 337, Dr. House announced the results of some experiments he's undertaken at the power plant. He was able to melt some of the high entropy alloys used to build the buildings here in Norfinbury. He and the others also discussed what the fabric the heat suits in the power plant might be made of to be able to withstand the temperatures in the reactor core. "Micropillars" were discussed, particularly, as a likely explanation for why the suits can shield the wearers from the heat.
Day 338, Castiel noted that he was in the vicinity of the bunker in the southwest corner of Residential Zone 3. He's made inquiries about what he can do to test things here given that we're still waiting on the other pieces of the puzzle to open up the bunker.
Squalo announced that he and his group had found a secret tunnel entrance below Building 295 in the Radiation Zone. So far, none of the efforts to open the door there have been successful.
Every nine-to-eleven days we have new arrivals. The food situation remains stable, but everyone please be aware that our medication stocks for ALL medications are critically low at last check. If you need medication still, let one of the medical personnel from the Survival Guide know and we'll see what we can do for you, regardless.
Day 341, we started to see an effect from the red lines that people got when they fell or jumped in the pit I mentioned in my last summary. In brief, a lot of people were brought down to a room with a large pit in the center. We felt compelled to jump in. Some people jumped, others were pushed. The people who went into the pit ended up with a variety of red lines covering their bodies.
Nathan posted a game for everyone to play and it devolved into arguments with people without the red lines accusing the people with red lines of being wrong and dangerous. I saw first-hand how one of the people in my group without the lines was reacting negatively, highly paranoid of anyone with the lines.
Day 342, things got worse. People with the red lines were further segregated. People who had voluntarily jumped found they had red covering their eyes, even though it didn't impair their vision. The people who were pushed or fell into the pit just kept the red lines with no red on their eyes. Instead of just arguing, people without red lines started actively being more aggressive, particularly toward people with red in their eyes. Some people had their hair stolen or were physically threatened in other ways. There was something more insidious than just the physical danger, though. Information was also being stolen.
I don't know exactly how it worked, but people with the red lines and eyes felt compelled to share information. Someone without the lines even set up a post to collect information. The people with red lines but with regular eyes tried to warn off the people with red eyes from sharing information, but it wasn't very effective. Later on, we learned that each time a piece of information was shared out to someone without the lines, there was a burning sensation in the red-lined, red-eyed person. The people with red lines, but regular eyes didn't experience the paranoia or the need to tell anything about themselves. We didn't feel any kind of burning, either.
Day 343, Dr. House indicated that the mental effects associated with the lines and being without them had dissipated. Flynn also issued an apology for the information stealing. To anyone feeling hurt or upset by any of this, please remember that you were being manipulated. You're all victims here.
Day 344, the Obituaries brought news that another morgue experiment had failed and someone died horribly. Please consider very seriously the chances of survival if you intend to carry out similar experiments in the future. There is a 0% survival rate for the ones conducted so far.
Tess also raised questions about the "light" that people had or had stolen from them a while back. In brief, the light is the physical manifestation of whatever lets us exist here in Norfinbury. Maybe a sort of luck or coding trick that allows us to survive the transfer from another universe or maintain our neural pathways in the servers. Some of us had it stolen a while ago when we had the impression we'd turned into anomalies. People who don't have their light have had their faces reduced to static when posting with video on the network.
Day 345, Enoch shared a conversation he had with the Admin. Our medical resources are all being pulled from a single source. That in mind, please make every effort to protect yourself and others in your groups. The fewer deaths we have, the fewer medications we request, the longer we'll have medical services available from the Admin.
Day 346, Angel announced she'd finished compiling a code that Steph found in the high school. It's called the Ocean Eye App. Possibly it has something to do with Shelley Derricks, but it's also something that's tied to the cult, so please proceed with caution in its use. Angel is the keeper on the keys for it. Please contact @guardian if you'd like to borrow the app to test something around town.
Day 348, Tess requested spilling blood in her name, while not in her right mind. This should go without saying, but please do not murder each other. This isn't an experiment worth pursuing when we know all anomalies of any real consequence, including divine powers, are being suppressed.
Day 349, Rhys took a moment to share some campfire tales to help distract people. If you ever feel like sharing stories from your own world, evenings are a good time to share. Flynn also has a public library he's maintaining that can probably include an audio storytelling section.
Day 351, @ADMIN sent out a link for people to activate their Beacon App. Please carefully consider whether you want to do this. Activation may decrease the occurrence of MN Poisoning, but it can also increase your chance for encounters with anomalies and allows the Admin to track your movements more precisely.
Day 353, everyone with red lines was taken from where they were and put down in what appeared to be a cell complex. Quark put out a call on the network to indicate that we'd disappeared.
We were stripped and put into jumpsuits and left alone for a bit. We're not sure exactly how we got down there. After a while, there were hospital identification bands that appeared on our wrists. They listed off various medications, most of which none of the doctors in Norfinbury have ever heard of. There was one medication that everyone had, though, and that we did recognize: Anisomycin.
Anisomycin is an antibiotic that can be toxic to humans. It's also experimentally been proven to prevent the consolidation of memory in rats. Basically, it's a drug that can stop you forming long-term memories. I think this happened to us. We were taken by static creatures to an operating room and injected with a lot of drugs throughout what I assume was the day. We experienced a range of side-effects including nausea, vomiting, disorientation, hallucination, delusion, fever, and general malaise.
All of this was Robert Miller, the Admin's assistant. He said he was trying to fix us, but he's a sadist who's put us through torture before in order to fix some of the systems in Norfinbury.
Day 354, we fell asleep and when we woke up again, we found that there were new people in the cells with us. They experienced something very different than the people with red lines. They'd been taken by the static in the night and remembered being chained to the wall of a dirty, molding cell while people with red lines abused them. some recordings were made of these happenings that got out when we were given a tablet in the cells.
None of the people with the red lines could remember doing this, but we all woke up a little more lucid and injured to varying degrees, like we'd been fighting in our sleep. People without the lines were in much worse shape, overall. They experienced far too many horrors to name, but were able to move through the cell block freely for a time.
Day 355, I think must have been when we received the tablet. Just one. People without lines all showed up as a username that was just black static. All of us with lines showed up as red static. We were able to communicate with the people outside who said the Admin was looking for us.
At some point after that, we were drugged again, I think. It's difficult to remember anything. Everyone wound up in their cells, though, and people from above ground were brought in by I assume the Admin to help get us out. It might well have been Andromeda, too. The people who came down saw something completely different than any of the rest of us dragged there. They saw us all in an empty, moldy room, trapped in a delusion. They were able to pull us out of it and get everyone out of the room and back to the surface. None of us remembers exactly how we went from the underground to the surface again.
Day 356, Angel shared a conversation she had with the Admin which seems to indicate that Robert Miller is still at large, in spite of the Admin locking him out of the network.
The injuries we received down in the cells seem to be healing rapidly, from what I've personally experienced, and the red lines and eyes have disappeared. I'm note entirely sure whether or not to cheer that at the moment. Regardless, the immediate danger seems to be over.
For everyone who helped save us from that cell block, thank you. Thank you from the deepest part of my heart. We wouldn't have made it out of that place without you.
For everyone without red lines who was brought down and tortured, I don't know how many of you I'm personally responsible for hurting--I don't remember--but I'm sorry. That can't begin to make up for what's been done to you, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen to you again. If you need help, please let me know immediately.
To everyone with the red lines, you've been tortured, as well. It's important to remember that. Mr. Graham said it from the tablet while we were down there, but you are a victim, as well. All of you are victims and it's Robert Miller who's responsible for doing this, not you. I'm also here to help you however I can. Eve might not have been able to stop Mr. Miller forever, but we're forewarned about him and his methods now. That's forearmed, as much as we can be here. Angel said it right: remain vigilant and make sure you have a partner to travel with. We are stronger together, even when this place is trying to tear us apart. That said, if we ever have a situation like we encountered with paranoia running rampant and demands for information, please remember to take a step back and wait for those feelings to pass. They may very well not be your own.
Every nine-to-eleven days we have new arrivals. The food situation remains stable, as far as I'm aware, but I'm afraid the medical personnel here are no longer able to prescribe medications. The pharmacy may still have repeat prescriptions, though. I have a supply of several varieties of painkillers. If you are in desperate need, please let me know, and I can see if I can get the Admin to deliver the supply to you. Otherwise, I'll need to arrange to leave it somewhere for you to find or meet up with you. If anyone else has medications available, please let us know. We're going to need to pool this resource now more than ever.
Day 358, Junpei organized a meet-up for testing blood from a lot of different people under our shared microscope. The hope was that we might be able to see if there are any differences in the blood from people who have been affected by things like the red lines and the loss of their light. To my knowledge, there weren't any notable differences, but it may be a matter of the magnification power on the microscope being insufficient.
Day 359, both Peter and Stephen came back from being killed with new memories. Years of them, by the sound of it. This has happened to me and Sherlock, as well as others. I don't know what to make of it. I gained five years the last time this happened and my body hasn't changed at all. It's like the memories just get downloaded into our heads, which, given what we know about how the nanomachines inside are basically us, that's not too far-fetched.
In far less happy news, Ginger and her team found Andromeda's body in the cultist church. She was apparently killed and crucified by them, but I want to emphasize that we've heard from Andromeda before. There is some piece of her still out there, even if her physical body has been destroyed. She might be a back-up or she might well have escaped somehow, before she was killed. That's my sincere hope. Ginger was able to download a program from her body and we're working on getting it decrypted. If you have any programs or skills that could help with this, please let Ginger know.
Also in the church, people found SD cards that show how Samantha, the Prophet, died. I've attached those at the end here. Please be aware that they're extremely brutal and that Samantha is a child.
Day 360, Tess rescinded her request for blood sacrifice when she came back to herself. If anyone was taking this seriously, please look at this. That includes Brian Thomas. I'm sorry to report that he attempted to kill Rhys in an effort to sacrifice him for Tess. If you encounter Brian, please be very careful. He has been known to attack others previously while not under the influence of anything here in Norfinbury. I've attached his picture to the end of this message, but briefly, he's a young man in a mask and hoodie who's non-verbal and has some level of severe mental illness related to, I suspect, his physical seizure condition.
In happier news, we also had Kunsel return. He was absent some memories as his death price. For anyone new, this is a fairly common one. When you die and get revived, you temporarily lose something. It might be memories, it might be one of your senses, but it's typically significant.
Alfie also led everyone in a round of joke-telling. I'm sure he'd still be up for hearing some if you'd like to chime in. I think all of us could use a laugh.
Day 363, Mr. Mycroft Holmes made an ass of himself asking who ate his finger when we were all trapped in the cells. On a more pertinent point, it does raise the question of what exactly happened down there. A lot of us are missing our memories.
Which Dr. Hannibal Lecter has offered to assist with. Dr. Lecter is a trained psychiatrist who has practiced hypnotherapy before to try to bring out repressed memories. Recent events sidetracked his efforts, but if you'd like to have him attempt to hypnotize you to bring out the memories, please let him know.
Day 364, the ADMIN sent out a message that resources were critically low. chaos noted later that day that we seemed to be having a communication issue. Whatever universal translator is in effect now broke. A lot of us speak English, but a number of people don't. I'm not sure what to do if we have this problem again. Maybe for those who don't know English, we can start teaching you now? At least some basic phrases.
Later that night, the ADMIN sent out another message and the network shifted to text-only. I started tasting blood in the back of my throat.
Day 365, all the power went out completely and the taste turned into actually coughing up blood.
In the morning on Day 366, Winter sent out a message that we were in trouble and she was fixing something, not that any of us could see it at the time she sent it, I think. I don't know what she did, but we're back to where we were because of her.
Earlier today (Day 367), Mr. Graham sort of announced that he's returned. To my understanding, he's down in the entrance area. He seems to be somewhat disoriented, so if anyone is in that area, please assist him, if you can. He'll be near the police station, as that's where people revive.
Brian Thomas [Attached to the end of the message is a photo of Brian that John obtained when he asked for photos of everyone during the red lines event.]
This is Dr. Watson. Please find a summary update of recent happenings below. My apologies for the delay in getting this together for everyone. There's been some mild interference in my ability to post. For anyone wanting to read up on the past, an archive of my previous summaries can be found HERE. As always, I'm available for medical consultation. Please let me know if you need anything. I'm running an on-again, off-again blood transfusion service for those with severe MN Poisoning. It's only a temporary reprieve from symptoms, but blood transfusions from healthy donors have proven to alleviate MN poisoning symptoms for up to two weeks.
We no longer have new arrivals. I'm not sure what's caused it, but it may be a pause while the Admin regroups or it may be a general power loss issue. Please note that the doctors remain unable to prescribe medication, but we have a store of it for those in need, particular pain medications. The pharmacy may still have repeat prescriptions. If you are in desperate need, please let me know, and I can see if I can get the Admin to deliver the supply to you. Otherwise, I'll need to arrange to leave it somewhere for you to find or meet up with you. If anyone else has medications available, please let us know.
Day 368, Al made some important updates to the Survival Guide. I know all of us are old-timers at this point, but it never hurts to refresh on the basics.
In addition, Rhys was able to get the Bunker open using the Galaxy Key. It is filled with toxic, radioactive mold and movements within should be limited to avoid excess exposure. Additionally, cabin fever can occur if you stay in the same room of the bunker for too long, same as the buildings. Please be careful.
Day 369, both House provided some music and requested ideas for searching in the Entrance Area. It seems as though, ever since Rhys opened the Bunker, our data ghosts have disappeared.
Day 373, Rhys announced that he'd examined the Bunker mold under a microscope. It causes respiratory distress and eventual death. Unfortunately, mycology isn't one of my particular areas of expertise. It would be helpful to know what it is, but I think knowing what it does is sufficient right now.
Brian tried to tell everyone the ants in the bunker are poisonous. In his own very unique way. If you encounter them, please be wary. They can cause debilitating nausea and dizziness for several days after being bitten.
Day 374, Alfie sent out a reminder regarding his courier service. If you do need something, please let him know. There are several groups still outside the Bunker and we want to support everyone searching in there.
As an additional resource, Stephen announced that there is a map inside the Bunker that maps out the rooms and some of their hazards. If you're entering the Bunker, please be sure to review it.
Day 376, Nathan provided some much-needed abuse of Mr. Robert Miller, the bastard responsible for repeatedly torturing us. Good on, mate!
In happier news, Quark revived, though his death price seemed to be enhanced recklessness. Luckily, it seems like most people didn't take advantage of that or him.
Day 377, choas returned to us after being lost in the Bunker.
Day 378, Ecks made something of an adorable inquiry about what a dunce cap is. Don't lie to little girls, arseholes.
In less ideal news, Dr. Wilson informed everyone of Dr. House's death and made inquires about the state everyone else is in. Please be aware that anomalies are still very much a danger. Always be vigilant.
Day 379, Magenta returned from a rather unfortunate death.
Flynn also made the clever suggestion of starting a phrase language dictionary of sorts in case we ever have a problem with the universal translator breaking down again. If you'd like to contribute, please contact him. This is an ongoing project.
Day 383, I made a bit of an arse of myself thanks to a death price. But hi, hullo! Not dead anymore.
Tess also invited everyone to a cookout at the Bunker; though, she was warned about the potential for anomalies. Unfortunately, the anomalies did end up crashing the party.
Day 384, Castiel informed everyone about a working computer he and chaos had discovered in the Bunker before succumbing to the toxic mold.
Day 385, we heard from a friend who helped all of us out of a very tight spot. I won't link that particular message, but everyone would do well to check back for it.
In additional, Castiel was able to access the computer in the Bunker again and use it to open a room near the kitchen.
Day 387, Dr. Strange returned to us after succumbing to the mold in the Bunker.
Day 388, the Obituary identified the Joker as dead. He has not been heard from since. Small favors.
Day 390, Sherlock made inquiries regarding when deaths and revivals to get a better idea of why we've had a lot of long-dead people reviving. If you'd like to contribute to his research, this is an ongoing project, and he always welcomes new data points, not to mention the conversation. He loves to listen, that Sherlock Holmes.
Ecks noted that she and Mr. Graham have obtained a cable. With the hook-up cable from Andromeda's body, it may be possible to link our tablets up to the now-working computers in the Bunker.
On a less scientific note, Tim provided some entertainment with a text-based adventure. Maybe he'll run another one now our tablets are all working.
Day 391, Peter returned to us, albeit more annoying than usual, thanks to a death price.
Day 392, Dr. Strange, on my advisement, organized another tablet seance to try to reach out to the data ghosts that have gone silent in Norfinbury.
Day 393, the Admin gave us the option to turn on our Beacons. Please be wary if this option comes up again. Beacons can slow MN Poisoning, but they attract anomalies.
Day 395, we held the tablet seance. Unfortunately, everyone who participated received notice of a power drain and had their tablets shut off. Function returned a little later, but tablets were in a low-power mode and virtually none of the apps worked.
Day 398, Stephen was able to access the network for the first time since his tablet had gone down. Unfortunately, it seemed to be infected and people responding to him who had not been part of the seance had their tablets infected, as well.
Day 399, Peter announced that he was back to himself and apologized for his death price actions. He also requested music, if anyone has any they'd like to share.
Brian was able to open one of the rooms in the Bunker, as well, the other one nearest the kitchen. It seems to be filled with sickly corpses. Please be very careful if you go exploring in this area and make sure to wear something that covers your mouth and nose, as well as gloves, just to be sure.
Day 401, Magenta requested a role call of sorts for those presently in the Bunker.
Day 402, Vanitas noted that there is a constant ringing in his ears. Everyone with an infected tablet was experiencing the same. As the day wore on, it got worse and we heard Robert Miller's voice pop in and out. Mycroft, Sherlock, and I were nearby his house, so we went to check there. The ringing got worse as soon as we were inside the doors, but his words became clear: "I'm going to borrow you. Stay calm, or don't."
Everyone worked to prepare themselves for being potentially mind-controlled after that. Zell sent out a message asking who had been infected.
Day 403, though, all of us infected people fell into comas. At some point, I'm given to understand that we started screaming. I don't remember any of that. When we woke up, what I could remember is Mr. Miller's voice telling us there's no such thing as ghosts, only copies. And copies can't change. I think, probably, he copied our consciousnesses and did something with them. It's very possible he may have put them into physical bodies for use.
During all this, Brian reached out to see who was still around.
Day 404, Kunsel reflected on the potential meaning of what Robert Miller told us. I would encourage anyone feeling lost or discouraged right now to remember that we are real. What we have done here is real, and what we do matters. The data ghosts are still counting on us. Those people from the other sessions and the original residents. Winter and Andromeda are counting on us. The Admin is counting on us. We're still counting on us. We need to see this through to the end and find a way to shut down Norfinbury permanently to stop anything like this happening again.
Day 405, Ginger first made note of the fact that we aren't having new arrivals or long-time death revivals anymore.
If anyone who's been working in the Bunker has more to add about progress here, that would be lovely, but I understand you lot are making head-way. Best of luck and stay careful in there.
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Inventory (Day 422)
Worn
Medication
Medical Supplies
Weapons
Hygiene Products
Extra Clothes
Writing and Stationary
Other
Search Requests
[X] - Requesting meds for Kid
Day 197
[X] - Requesting meds for Lutha
Day 200
[X] - Requesting potassium iodide for Dug/bomb-making, then requesting calcium for Quark, Frisk, and Emily
Day 201
[X] - Requesting meds for Davesprite
Day 203
[X] - Requesting medicine for a lot of people (notified that painkillers are low)
Day 208
[X] - Requesting medicine for Alfie and canceling other prescriptions
[X] - Requesting medicine for Steve
[X] - Requesting to withdraw his consent for the Admin's mind-adjustment procedure
Day 214
[X] - Requesting aloe vera for Alfie
Day 223
[X] - Asking Eve about turning into an anomaly
Day 228
[X] - Bombing a trap door in Building 56
Day 232
[X] - Asking the ADMIN to be let out after lockdown to help Sherlock
Day 234
[X] - Requesting meds for Brian
Day 237
[X] - Requesting meds for Stephen
[X] - Asking the ADMIN about Angel's mysteriously disappearing MN Poisoning symptoms
[X] - Requesting meds for Rhys
Day 238
[X] - Checking the trap door in Building 56
Day 240
[X] - Checking for violins and other stringed instruments in the elementary school
Day 242
[X] - Asking the ADMIN about the changes they're undergoing for the No Light, No Light event
Day 247
[X] - Attempting to put out the fire in Building 242
Day 250
[X] - Requesting meds for Enoch
Day 262
[X] - Quantum upgrade for John's phone
Day 275
[X] - Contacting the ADMIN to ask her to stop him committing murder
Day 284
[X] - Requesting meds for Jim
[X] - Putting on a high heel modeling show in Building 99
Day 293
[X] - Asking @ADMIN how Sherlock is in someone else's body
Day 301
[X] - Flipping JJK24
Day 302
[X] - Requesting meds for Mycroft
Day 331
[X] - Requesting meds for Stephen
[X] - Contacting Jia Xu (only static in reply)
Day 340
[X] - Requesting meds for Stephen and Rhys
Day 352
[X] - Trying the Ocean Eye App at the cultist chapel area in Building 276
Day 356
[X] - Exploring Building 264 with the Ocean Eye App and laying pieces of bodies to rest
Day 357
[X] - Flipping square EEF5
[X] - Exploring Building 262 with the Ocean Eye App and talking to the potential cultists there
Day 358
[X] - Exploring Building 260 with the Ocean Eye App and trying to talk to the children in the daycare
Day 359
[X] - Digging up corpses for livers in Building 257 and having Mina check the welded shut door with the Ocean Eye App
[X] - Moving bodies from the door in Building 252 and saying a few words over them
Day 360
[X] - Throwing bricks on the ground in Building 253 (nothing happened)
[X] - Marking out a Prophet eye in Building 254 (building reset and blood filled the room)
[X] - Talking to ghosts and running the Ocean Eye App in Building 274
Day 362
[X] - Requesting meds for Royce to give to Alfie
Day 364
[X] - Using the microscope in Building 117 to test congealed blood and dust samples from around town
Day 368
[X] - Talking to Will's stalker in the hospital
Day 369
[X] - Scanning Building 138 (Robert Miller's house) with the Ocean Eye app and Galaxy Key; Ocean Eye app started glitching
Day 372
[X] - Searching the mold piles in Bunker 04 (bodies are beneath the mold)
[X] - Searching Bunker 17
Day 373
[X] - Searching Bunker 07
Day 374
[X] - Searching Bunker 06
Day 393
[X] - Searching the Wall Downton (173) with the Galaxy Key app
Day 410
[X] - Searching Building 62 and reaching out to Sam and Jia Xu
Day 416
[X] - Searching Building 68 for a way to get through the locked door during the Metamorphosis event
Summary of Happenings
Day 202 to 228
Open Post Version
- After Winter adjusted the network for us, we received the following message from the Admin's account: "ERROR ERROR breach ERROR ERROR breach ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR breach ERROR." The doors where I was staying started locking and unlocking, opening and shutting. Nearly took a few fingers off when I tried to hold it open. The snow grew heavier after that and something started moving out in it. After a couple of hours, the doors stopped and then I think we heard Andromeda. She told us to run. She'd lit up paths between the buildings with some sort of lit path. Honestly, it looked a little like stars. My group accidentally strayed off that path and we were assaulted by some sort of creature. Or tear in reality? It was bloody awful. It screamed at us, nicked us all over with little cuts, but it didn't attack us past that. A few other people weren't as lucky. There were other things out there that did all sorts of things. Broke arms, cut up faces, dislocated jaws, drenched people. I'm not sure what unifying theme there was except that there were a hell of a lot of eyes and watching involved and I don't think those things were proper anomalies like we're used to.
[A note that this is a transcribed message from the Admin and the information about prescriptions has been removed.]Steph put up a post for people to share what they saw HERE.
I had a conversation with Eve about the things that attacked us HERE.
After we'd received the file, things went a bit strange. It was like everyone was suddenly feeling like they should just bare their soul. I don't know what it was, but everything I was afraid of came bubbling to the surface and I felt like I had to get it out to everyone, right then and there, or I'd burst. I think it was the Admin or something else messing with our heads.
Day 229 to 238
That first day they didn't do anything but follow us around. It was one of the strangest and most unnerving things we've had happen, yet. They still affected us like anomalies. I accidentally touched one and was laid out for a few minutes. Woke up to a bloody nose and headache. But they didn't attack us, and they didn't drag us off or try to swallow us down whole. They didn't say anything, either.
We still don't even know what these lights are. Maybe they have some connection to the Prophet? Or to Andromeda? Some echo of Andromeda told Ecks once that she kept the stars inside of her.
Day 239 to 265
- We successfully performed a second blood transfusion to temporarily cure someone from MN Poisoning. The effects lasted approximately ten days with patient slowly declining into an extremely ill state. We're working on making this last longer and more permanently. Multiple transfusions at once? I'm concerned about sickness in the other direction, though. There is such a thing as too many red blood cells.
- Enoch found a tower with human skin put up on the walls like decorations. People in the Industrial Zone just keep finding more and more horrifying things. There are Prophet symbols everywhere and signs that this might well have been where they had their base of operations. In one of the audio clips we've found, though, Sam told Andromeda that the high school and the chapel are places she needs to watch out for.
- On Day 242, we began to transform into anomalies. Some of us, anyway. Those of us who'd lost our 'lights.' It was a slow and physical process this time. I felt myself breaking apart and transforming into the hound, growing eyes, bleeding. Starting on Day 243, along with the transformation, we found ourselves followed by the personal anomalies we'd seen before.
- In the middle of all of this, we discovered a new area to the south of the Industrial Zone. This one seemed to be where the nuclear bombs fell in one of the video clips the Admin stitched together from pieces of data we founds around town. As soon as people entered into that area there was a new app that appeared on our tablets; the Geiger app shows levels of radiation. Dr. House and Vanitas (@betterhalf) were the first ones into the new area.
- Billy found a message from another Russian. It was in one of the houses in the residential area. We think it might have been the woman in the Radiation Zone's companion.
- On Day 251, the network crashed. It only lasted for about ten minutes, but it was one of the stranger things I've seen here. And we've had a lot of strange things happen. When it came back, it was in text-only mode, and there was something flickering on the screen, a red light. Only turned up irregularly, and I couldn't be sure it was even there until it got worse and other people mentioned it, as well. Winter contacted us, but her message has been completely wiped from the network. She did note the disruption in it and talked to us about the things we'd learned since we last spoke with her. She informed us that someone was connected to the network and was connecting from the sealed building in the southeast corner of the Industrial Zone. As soon as she managed to pinpoint them, though, a giant Prophet symbol appeared on the tablet screen. Dr. House said at that point that when he activated his Eye App, the Prophet eye symbol was carved into his chest. We found out that this happened with everyone who activated the Eye App (Dr. House, Beckett, and Steph Brown) on their tablets. the injuries were to different places on their bodies, though. Winter's message disappeared, and then the shadow people around town changed.
- Later that day, we learned that @ADMIN and @robertmiller were unreachable over the network. All we received were bounce-back messages from those accounts. Dr. House decided that he wanted to try a tablet-breaking experiment to get the attention of the Admin again; it had worked months ago when Rhys and Angel had organized something similar. It had also, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of emergency medical services within Norfinbury. I wasn't interested in participating, but one of my companions, America, wanted to try.
- The message from the Admin asking us not to touch our chips was recorded;
- The spider robots that are usually on collection duty were not active;
- The Prophet followers were still alive and active in Norfinbury as these cloaked figures came to collect chips in lieu of the Admin's spiders;
- Our tablets were powered by quantum computer chips;
- Something was trying to abort a program called convertpurge.exe;
- There was an available video feed somewhere in the town, but it couldn't be accessed, even using a hacking app;
- Hacking @ADMIN and @robermiller resulted in the hacker's tablet exploding;
- Invisible static creatures can kill you; and
- The Prophet's followers were based in the southeast corner of the Industrial Zone.
A lot of people died to get that information, though, including Sherlock and Mycroft. It took ages for everyone to come back from the dead. Not everyone on the obituary did, but at least the ones who participated in the tablet experiment all did. Those of us who lift the chips alone after first attempting to grab them were fine and were able to keep the chips from the tablets. I picked up a few of them along with the power source from America's tablet.Still, plenty of intrigue in this section of town. There are multiple sealed buildings and one partially sealed building. The inside of at least one in the southeast corner appears to have been transformed into a prison designed to convert people to the way of the Prophet.
Once again, some of us saw them as people we'd known, while others just saw conglomerate creatures, all stitched together parts. We'd started losing our minds by that point, as well, those of us turning into anomalies. I ran off from the people I was with to make certain I didn't steal anymore lights. The moment I stepped outside, though, I saw a beam of light going straight up into the sky. It was coming from the southeast of where I was in the residential area by the school. As soon as it went on, Harry--the anomaly in the shape of my sister, Harry--it tried to back away. The light didn't bother me, but she was terrified of it. And she started babbling about how the light she had wasn't good enough, how I wasn't good enough. I needed to get her more. I needed to get her a light of her own. It was clear what needed doing by that point, though; if we wanted our lights back, we'd have to kill our anomalies.
I couldn't bring myself to it. She looked like my sister. But I ended up not having a choice. I met with another person who'd been turned into an anomaly; they killed Harry. I tried to stop it, but they were like smoke. I don't know what's going to come of that or what may have already, but it is what it is. We'll deal with it as we have to.
The people who weren't changed like me said their anomalies talked to them, as well. Different message, but same theme about needing lights and the lot of us being lucky we had ours. It's a concept, they said. Luck, opportunity, something intangible. The anomalies are the people we knew, brought in in pieces and stitched together with others, filled up with static in the missing places. It sounds absolutely mad, writing it out now, but with all that we've seen... I think it might well be the nanites filling in the gaps, representing the static. What else could it be?
Dr. House posted about finding messages from a Russian woman that was apparently trapped down in that area for some time. She'd had a partner, but they'd been separated. We also received footage from Vanitas showing the entrance to an additional morgue area, this one in the form of a columbarium. The entry tunnel to it was lined with human bones; clearly a bit of new decor from the Prophet cult.
We've seen this before, to an extent. A ways back, they turned static-y and started yelling for us to praise the Prophet or kill the Prophet. The ones in this case turned to static and didn't seem to say anything in particular. They followed us, though, and when they got too close, it was like being near an anomaly, the same MN Poisoning symptoms took hold. The static people were able to come into buildings, unlike the usual shadows, and they seemed to congregate. More of them led to an intense sense of disorientation. We were trapped with some in a tunnel and it was honestly hard to remember what we were even doing, who we were... that we'd ever been anywhere but Norfinbury.
The static people disappeared the next morning, but we received an ominous message on the tablets from someone whose username was just static:
'Observation of residents complete. Please await results.'
Things went fine for our group. Not so much most other people. We learned a lot. I'll grant Dr. House that. We learned:
People had been transported into the seal office building in the southeast corner of the Industrial Area. They'd been split up into prisoners and Prophet converts. The converts were obviously being mind-controlled. They inflicted the most horrifying surgeries I have ever witnessed on people. It was difficult to watch, but Angel and I stayed in through. We were trying to find out anything we could, look for something we could use to help. I put out a call for help to the Industrial Area and Angel and I started all but running there the next day.
We didn't get a chance to talk to the prisoners until Day 262. Some of them were given their tablets back that evening. Most of them were disoriented and in pain. Some of them were incoherent or unable to talk at all after what had been done to them. They showed a remarkable amount of spirit, though, fighting through, singing to keep each other strong. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen in my life.
I'm so proud of the people here. I'm so proud to be standing with and fighting along side them. Truly. We argue and we tear at each other, but here, when everything else is coming at us, that's when you see people at their best. We pulled together. Every single person pulled together and said 'No. We won't just accept this and let it happen.' The converts fought off their brainwashing. The prisoners helped to break them out of it and get information to us on the outside. And the rest of us outside? People contacted @andromeda; she answered.
Andromeda was able to get us access to the Admin again. Once we had that, everyone gave everything they had to convince the Admin that she needed to reboot the system to fix everyone's nanomachines, as well as open up a trapdoor that the converts had found. They were able to get the prisoners down and out of the building before whatever was going on could finish.
We did this together. It's been a hard time, these past five-odd months. Some people have been here much longer than I have. I've never felt more certain that we can get to the center of this town, though. We will make it there. We'll travel the spiral, we'll fix the server, we'll rescue every single person, including Andromeda and Robert Miller and Eve. We'll do this. And we'll do it together.
The converts put the prisoners down the trapdoor and found themselves unable to follow and get to them. The people down there said they were traveling through maintenance tunnels and there was a light they saw, along with Andromeda's voice. It called for them to follow and their injuries fell away as they went. There are still scars, emotional and physical, but no one is going to die because of those surgeries.
Day 266 to 289
Note 1: The maintenance tunnels seem to be relatively safe at this point. No one has observed anomalies in them. However, items disappear when left in them overnight, unobserved. It's unclear if cabin fever can take effect in the tunnels, but it's advised that you move through them quickly. It's not something we need to test out.
EDIT: Unfortunately, I've been informed that there has been an anomaly sighting in the tunnels. Standard rules apply. Please keep travel groups small, particularly if you have anyone in your group with the Beacon App switched on. If you're new, the Beacon App does not apply to you, so no need to worry about that.
Note 2: The only way to access the new Residential Zone that's currently being explored is through the tunnels.
Beckett drank some of the blood and noted that it tasted off. In addition he cut into the fleshmound and discovered that there was something that prevents anyone from cutting completely through it. He and the others heard disembodied screaming from the building when they'd cut too far into the fleshmound. Until we actually know what it is, I would strongly advise against further injury to the fleshmound.
"MN will re-synchronize today. Please go to a medical center if you are concerned."
Attempts to clarify with her were met with silence. In the morning, everyone in town began to experience mild symptoms of radiation sickness. By the afternoon, some individuals were recovering while others continued to become more ill. The individuals in recovery began to experience a loss of affect and displayed robot-like repetitive motions and speech. By nightfall, most individuals in recovery were completely nonverbal and did not respond to external stimuli, whether it was verbal or physical. These individuals also did not respond to pain. While the majority simply walked back and forth throughout the night, as reported by their mates, at least two individuals displayed aggressively violent actions similar to the man observed in Nurse Jia Xú's death tape and final journal entry.
Quark and Luna were senselessly and brutally murdered by one of these robot-like people, before he was stopped by Ecks.
In light of this Network Error, I strongly encourage anyone who is noticing peculiar behavior in themselves or their traveling group to separate immediately into different houses. We can't get out during lockdown. It may be the best way to prevent this happening again.
Everyone went back to normal by the next day following a NIMA injection of additional MN.
"Instabilities detected."
Following this message people began experiencing severe and prolonged symptoms similar to what Dr. House experienced after injecting himself with blood from the fleshmound: loss of motor control, loss of vocabulary, and additional symptom that could best be described as a loss of morality. Some people manifested only one symptom, others manifested two or three. The loss of vocabulary seemed to extend across multiple languages. Sherlock's post during the Network Error is the best example of what was happening.
Once again, these instabilities were resolved with the injection of additional MN.
In addition, Davesprite announced that he'd set up a supply station for those exploring the new area. Please take only one you need and restock this station if you're able to.
If anyone has programming knowledge or would like to discuss mechanical details a bit more, I'd suggest contacting @featherydouche privately.
Day 290 to 308
We've made it into the high school fully after Jim and his mates were able to get the password to the classrooms from some sort of blood sacrifice fire. Using the Eye app while feeding blood to it brought up 'SACRIFICE', and then a series of numbers when it had enough blood.
Rhys and Beckett tried doing some magical/spiritual rituals at the school once they entered the classroom and ended up getting stabbed by something invisible. Please do not try to piss off the data ghosts/spirits/whatevers here unless you have medical staff and appropriate supplies on hand. I would think that goes without saying, but apparently it doesn't.
Additional experiments have been conducted at the high school now that the classrooms are open. Some of the most notable outcomes from all that seem to be that the darkness within the classrooms can cling to you, people branded with the Prophet symbol seem to be able to hear some song while inside, and you can't breathe in the classrooms. Like all the air's gone out of them. Or someone forgot to put it in there in the first place, maybe.
Castiel's post during this "imaginary" time along with Alfie's and Quark's best illustrate what happened, I think. Quark's particularly. When he made that post, he looked like a man in his twenties, not a little boy like now. We've had errors that have altered our perceptions of our own bodies before, but never quite like this.
Everything resolved on Day 295 with an injection from the Admin. We were able to still remember everything, but our bodies went back to normal and none of it felt quite as real. Just like a nightmare you were woken up in the middle of. I've lost some of the details of all of that, but I'm not sure about others.
Day 309 - 328
In happier news for that day, if anyone would like a little entertainment in the evenings, Flynn has updated his library, and Peter shared a fair few songs for people to sing and dance to. The competition dance off's over, but feel free to share around anything you film. We could all probably use a smile these days.
That day, Mr. Graham proposed an experiment over the tablets to try to reach out to the people who were here before us. We've done this ad hoc, I suppose you could say, talking to the data ghosts in each of the houses we've visited, but Mr. Graham's idea was to reach out over the network to do this on a large scale. Given some data ghosts react more favorably to certain people than others, it seemed a clever way to get around having to travel to specific locations.
We spent Night 320 reaching out to the data ghosts and learned... far more than I think any of us anticipated. Beckett collected notes from everyone, but the most important things we learned, I think:
1. The data ghosts are the neural imprints of the people from previous sessions and the original town of Norfinbury. Usually, the nanomachines map our brains, but they're flushed out when they're serviced and those imprints get wiped. That hasn't happened for the past 1,000 years or so. It's unclear why, but the Admin is the one who controls this process.
2. The Prophet's cult is like a sickness. People can be affected by it randomly and some of the people in the data ghost collective were cultists.
3. Shelley Derricks gave something to Ecks that will get us through the high school and into the cultist chapel, which will unlock the bunker.
4. We're the farthest that any session has ever come. No one has made it into the bunker, and the Admin and collective can't see what's past it. Part of the reason sessions didn't make it very far is that they didn't have many people at all. Sometimes only one or two.
5. The controls for the NIMA are located behind the body lockers in the hospital morgue.
6. Andromeda is NOT with the data ghost collective, and neither is the strong AI version of Winter.
Day 329 to 340
Everyone was returned to the surface a day later, based on the messages from those left aboveground. The people who went into the pit came back with something extra: red marks that have slowly been expanding since the day we returned. The marks don't appear to have a uniform pattern, progression, or location, and they're almost certainly perception-based. Angel noted that they cover some of her existing tattoos and black out where those tattoos are meant to glow.
To anyone new, PLEASE AVOID ANYONE YOU MEET WITH THESE RED MARKS. Past experience has taught us that we may well be divided up into opposing groups against our will based on marks on our body. That may mean that people with red lines could suddenly and inexplicably attack you. Or you may feel compelled to attack them for no reason. If you cannot avoid each other, please take the time to seriously discuss contingency plans to incapacitate each other if needed. Be aware that certain malfunctions can result in individuals becoming seemingly impervious to pain. Please do not count on your ability to hurt someone being enough to stop them. Consider restraints or, if necessary, breaking bones. We'd rather have a few fractures than a few deaths. Please avoid head trauma where possible to reduce the chance of concussion.
Peter noted this day that the red marks were progressing.
On a lighter note, Tess offered her culinary skills and food-fetching. If you are meeting up with Tess, please note whether you have the red marks so that any unfortunate conflicts can be avoided. I would also urge that arrangements with her be made privately to avoid anyone stepping in on that meet-up that you don't want.
Squalo announced that he and his group had found a secret tunnel entrance below Building 295 in the Radiation Zone. So far, none of the efforts to open the door there have been successful.
Day 341 to 356
Nathan posted a game for everyone to play and it devolved into arguments with people without the red lines accusing the people with red lines of being wrong and dangerous. I saw first-hand how one of the people in my group without the lines was reacting negatively, highly paranoid of anyone with the lines.
I don't know exactly how it worked, but people with the red lines and eyes felt compelled to share information. Someone without the lines even set up a post to collect information. The people with red lines but with regular eyes tried to warn off the people with red eyes from sharing information, but it wasn't very effective. Later on, we learned that each time a piece of information was shared out to someone without the lines, there was a burning sensation in the red-lined, red-eyed person. The people with red lines, but regular eyes didn't experience the paranoia or the need to tell anything about themselves. We didn't feel any kind of burning, either.
Tess also raised questions about the "light" that people had or had stolen from them a while back. In brief, the light is the physical manifestation of whatever lets us exist here in Norfinbury. Maybe a sort of luck or coding trick that allows us to survive the transfer from another universe or maintain our neural pathways in the servers. Some of us had it stolen a while ago when we had the impression we'd turned into anomalies. People who don't have their light have had their faces reduced to static when posting with video on the network.
We were stripped and put into jumpsuits and left alone for a bit. We're not sure exactly how we got down there. After a while, there were hospital identification bands that appeared on our wrists. They listed off various medications, most of which none of the doctors in Norfinbury have ever heard of. There was one medication that everyone had, though, and that we did recognize: Anisomycin.
Anisomycin is an antibiotic that can be toxic to humans. It's also experimentally been proven to prevent the consolidation of memory in rats. Basically, it's a drug that can stop you forming long-term memories. I think this happened to us. We were taken by static creatures to an operating room and injected with a lot of drugs throughout what I assume was the day. We experienced a range of side-effects including nausea, vomiting, disorientation, hallucination, delusion, fever, and general malaise.
All of this was Robert Miller, the Admin's assistant. He said he was trying to fix us, but he's a sadist who's put us through torture before in order to fix some of the systems in Norfinbury.
None of the people with the red lines could remember doing this, but we all woke up a little more lucid and injured to varying degrees, like we'd been fighting in our sleep. People without the lines were in much worse shape, overall. They experienced far too many horrors to name, but were able to move through the cell block freely for a time.
At some point after that, we were drugged again, I think. It's difficult to remember anything. Everyone wound up in their cells, though, and people from above ground were brought in by I assume the Admin to help get us out. It might well have been Andromeda, too. The people who came down saw something completely different than any of the rest of us dragged there. They saw us all in an empty, moldy room, trapped in a delusion. They were able to pull us out of it and get everyone out of the room and back to the surface. None of us remembers exactly how we went from the underground to the surface again.
The injuries we received down in the cells seem to be healing rapidly, from what I've personally experienced, and the red lines and eyes have disappeared. I'm note entirely sure whether or not to cheer that at the moment. Regardless, the immediate danger seems to be over.
For everyone who helped save us from that cell block, thank you. Thank you from the deepest part of my heart. We wouldn't have made it out of that place without you.
For everyone without red lines who was brought down and tortured, I don't know how many of you I'm personally responsible for hurting--I don't remember--but I'm sorry. That can't begin to make up for what's been done to you, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen to you again. If you need help, please let me know immediately.
To everyone with the red lines, you've been tortured, as well. It's important to remember that. Mr. Graham said it from the tablet while we were down there, but you are a victim, as well. All of you are victims and it's Robert Miller who's responsible for doing this, not you. I'm also here to help you however I can. Eve might not have been able to stop Mr. Miller forever, but we're forewarned about him and his methods now. That's forearmed, as much as we can be here. Angel said it right: remain vigilant and make sure you have a partner to travel with. We are stronger together, even when this place is trying to tear us apart. That said, if we ever have a situation like we encountered with paranoia running rampant and demands for information, please remember to take a step back and wait for those feelings to pass. They may very well not be your own.
Day 357 to 367
- Every nine-to-eleven days we have new arrivals. The food situation remains stable, as far as I'm aware, but I'm afraid the medical personnel here are no longer able to prescribe medications. The pharmacy may still have repeat prescriptions, though. I have a supply of several varieties of painkillers. If you are in desperate need, please let me know, and I can see if I can get the Admin to deliver the supply to you. Otherwise, I'll need to arrange to leave it somewhere for you to find or meet up with you. If anyone else has medications available, please let us know. We're going to need to pool this resource now more than ever.
- Day 358, Junpei organized a meet-up for testing blood from a lot of different people under our shared microscope. The hope was that we might be able to see if there are any differences in the blood from people who have been affected by things like the red lines and the loss of their light. To my knowledge, there weren't any notable differences, but it may be a matter of the magnification power on the microscope being insufficient.
- Day 359, both Peter and Stephen came back from being killed with new memories. Years of them, by the sound of it. This has happened to me and Sherlock, as well as others. I don't know what to make of it. I gained five years the last time this happened and my body hasn't changed at all. It's like the memories just get downloaded into our heads, which, given what we know about how the nanomachines inside are basically us, that's not too far-fetched.
- Day 360, Tess rescinded her request for blood sacrifice when she came back to herself. If anyone was taking this seriously, please look at this. That includes Brian Thomas. I'm sorry to report that he attempted to kill Rhys in an effort to sacrifice him for Tess. If you encounter Brian, please be very careful. He has been known to attack others previously while not under the influence of anything here in Norfinbury. I've attached his picture to the end of this message, but briefly, he's a young man in a mask and hoodie who's non-verbal and has some level of severe mental illness related to, I suspect, his physical seizure condition.
- Day 363, Mr. Mycroft Holmes made an ass of himself asking who ate his finger when we were all trapped in the cells. On a more pertinent point, it does raise the question of what exactly happened down there. A lot of us are missing our memories.
- Day 364, the ADMIN sent out a message that resources were critically low. chaos noted later that day that we seemed to be having a communication issue. Whatever universal translator is in effect now broke. A lot of us speak English, but a number of people don't. I'm not sure what to do if we have this problem again. Maybe for those who don't know English, we can start teaching you now? At least some basic phrases.
- Day 365, all the power went out completely and the taste turned into actually coughing up blood.
- In the morning on Day 366, Winter sent out a message that we were in trouble and she was fixing something, not that any of us could see it at the time she sent it, I think. I don't know what she did, but we're back to where we were because of her.
- Earlier today (Day 367), Mr. Graham sort of announced that he's returned. To my understanding, he's down in the entrance area. He seems to be somewhat disoriented, so if anyone is in that area, please assist him, if you can. He'll be near the police station, as that's where people revive.
New SD CardsIn far less happy news, Ginger and her team found Andromeda's body in the cultist church. She was apparently killed and crucified by them, but I want to emphasize that we've heard from Andromeda before. There is some piece of her still out there, even if her physical body has been destroyed. She might be a back-up or she might well have escaped somehow, before she was killed. That's my sincere hope. Ginger was able to download a program from her body and we're working on getting it decrypted. If you have any programs or skills that could help with this, please let Ginger know.
Also in the church, people found SD cards that show how Samantha, the Prophet, died. I've attached those at the end here. Please be aware that they're extremely brutal and that Samantha is a child.
In happier news, we also had Kunsel return. He was absent some memories as his death price. For anyone new, this is a fairly common one. When you die and get revived, you temporarily lose something. It might be memories, it might be one of your senses, but it's typically significant.
Alfie also led everyone in a round of joke-telling. I'm sure he'd still be up for hearing some if you'd like to chime in. I think all of us could use a laugh.
Which Dr. Hannibal Lecter has offered to assist with. Dr. Lecter is a trained psychiatrist who has practiced hypnotherapy before to try to bring out repressed memories. Recent events sidetracked his efforts, but if you'd like to have him attempt to hypnotize you to bring out the memories, please let him know.
Later that night, the ADMIN sent out another message and the network shifted to text-only. I started tasting blood in the back of my throat.
- Sam #1
- Sam #2
- Sam #3
- Sam #4
- Sam #5
- Sam #6
Brian Thomas[Attached to the end of the message is a photo of Brian that John obtained when he asked for photos of everyone during the red lines event.]
Day 368 to 405
This is Dr. Watson. Please find a summary update of recent happenings below. My apologies for the delay in getting this together for everyone. There's been some mild interference in my ability to post. For anyone wanting to read up on the past, an archive of my previous summaries can be found HERE. As always, I'm available for medical consultation. Please let me know if you need anything. I'm running an on-again, off-again blood transfusion service for those with severe MN Poisoning. It's only a temporary reprieve from symptoms, but blood transfusions from healthy donors have proven to alleviate MN poisoning symptoms for up to two weeks.
- We no longer have new arrivals. I'm not sure what's caused it, but it may be a pause while the Admin regroups or it may be a general power loss issue. Please note that the doctors remain unable to prescribe medication, but we have a store of it for those in need, particular pain medications. The pharmacy may still have repeat prescriptions. If you are in desperate need, please let me know, and I can see if I can get the Admin to deliver the supply to you. Otherwise, I'll need to arrange to leave it somewhere for you to find or meet up with you. If anyone else has medications available, please let us know.
- Day 368, Al made some important updates to the Survival Guide. I know all of us are old-timers at this point, but it never hurts to refresh on the basics.
- Day 369, both House provided some music and requested ideas for searching in the Entrance Area. It seems as though, ever since Rhys opened the Bunker, our data ghosts have disappeared.
- Day 373, Rhys announced that he'd examined the Bunker mold under a microscope. It causes respiratory distress and eventual death. Unfortunately, mycology isn't one of my particular areas of expertise. It would be helpful to know what it is, but I think knowing what it does is sufficient right now.
- Day 374, Alfie sent out a reminder regarding his courier service. If you do need something, please let him know. There are several groups still outside the Bunker and we want to support everyone searching in there.
- Day 376, Nathan provided some much-needed abuse of Mr. Robert Miller, the bastard responsible for repeatedly torturing us. Good on, mate!
- Day 377, choas returned to us after being lost in the Bunker.
- Day 378, Ecks made something of an adorable inquiry about what a dunce cap is. Don't lie to little girls, arseholes.
- Day 379, Magenta returned from a rather unfortunate death.
- Day 383, I made a bit of an arse of myself thanks to a death price. But hi, hullo! Not dead anymore.
- Day 384, Castiel informed everyone about a working computer he and chaos had discovered in the Bunker before succumbing to the toxic mold.
- Day 385, we heard from a friend who helped all of us out of a very tight spot. I won't link that particular message, but everyone would do well to check back for it.
- Day 387, Dr. Strange returned to us after succumbing to the mold in the Bunker.
- Day 388, the Obituary identified the Joker as dead. He has not been heard from since. Small favors.
- Day 390, Sherlock made inquiries regarding when deaths and revivals to get a better idea of why we've had a lot of long-dead people reviving. If you'd like to contribute to his research, this is an ongoing project, and he always welcomes new data points, not to mention the conversation. He loves to listen, that Sherlock Holmes.
- Day 391, Peter returned to us, albeit more annoying than usual, thanks to a death price.
- Day 392, Dr. Strange, on my advisement, organized another tablet seance to try to reach out to the data ghosts that have gone silent in Norfinbury.
- Day 393, the Admin gave us the option to turn on our Beacons. Please be wary if this option comes up again. Beacons can slow MN Poisoning, but they attract anomalies.
- Day 394, Gamora returned to us.
- Day 395, we held the tablet seance. Unfortunately, everyone who participated received notice of a power drain and had their tablets shut off. Function returned a little later, but tablets were in a low-power mode and virtually none of the apps worked.
- Day 398, Stephen was able to access the network for the first time since his tablet had gone down. Unfortunately, it seemed to be infected and people responding to him who had not been part of the seance had their tablets infected, as well.
- Day 399, Peter announced that he was back to himself and apologized for his death price actions. He also requested music, if anyone has any they'd like to share.
- Day 401, Magenta requested a role call of sorts for those presently in the Bunker.
- Day 402, Vanitas noted that there is a constant ringing in his ears. Everyone with an infected tablet was experiencing the same. As the day wore on, it got worse and we heard Robert Miller's voice pop in and out. Mycroft, Sherlock, and I were nearby his house, so we went to check there. The ringing got worse as soon as we were inside the doors, but his words became clear: "I'm going to borrow you. Stay calm, or don't."
- Day 403, though, all of us infected people fell into comas. At some point, I'm given to understand that we started screaming. I don't remember any of that. When we woke up, what I could remember is Mr. Miller's voice telling us there's no such thing as ghosts, only copies. And copies can't change. I think, probably, he copied our consciousnesses and did something with them. It's very possible he may have put them into physical bodies for use.
- Day 404, Kunsel reflected on the potential meaning of what Robert Miller told us. I would encourage anyone feeling lost or discouraged right now to remember that we are real. What we have done here is real, and what we do matters. The data ghosts are still counting on us. Those people from the other sessions and the original residents. Winter and Andromeda are counting on us. The Admin is counting on us. We're still counting on us. We need to see this through to the end and find a way to shut down Norfinbury permanently to stop anything like this happening again.
- Day 405, Ginger first made note of the fact that we aren't having new arrivals or long-time death revivals anymore.
If anyone who's been working in the Bunker has more to add about progress here, that would be lovely, but I understand you lot are making head-way. Best of luck and stay careful in there.In addition, Rhys was able to get the Bunker open using the Galaxy Key. It is filled with toxic, radioactive mold and movements within should be limited to avoid excess exposure. Additionally, cabin fever can occur if you stay in the same room of the bunker for too long, same as the buildings. Please be careful.
Brian tried to tell everyone the ants in the bunker are poisonous. In his own very unique way. If you encounter them, please be wary. They can cause debilitating nausea and dizziness for several days after being bitten.
As an additional resource, Stephen announced that there is a map inside the Bunker that maps out the rooms and some of their hazards. If you're entering the Bunker, please be sure to review it.
In happier news, Quark revived, though his death price seemed to be enhanced recklessness. Luckily, it seems like most people didn't take advantage of that or him.
In less ideal news, Dr. Wilson informed everyone of Dr. House's death and made inquires about the state everyone else is in. Please be aware that anomalies are still very much a danger. Always be vigilant.
Flynn also made the clever suggestion of starting a phrase language dictionary of sorts in case we ever have a problem with the universal translator breaking down again. If you'd like to contribute, please contact him. This is an ongoing project.
Dr. House also returned from the dead.
Tess also invited everyone to a cookout at the Bunker; though, she was warned about the potential for anomalies. Unfortunately, the anomalies did end up crashing the party.
In additional, Castiel was able to access the computer in the Bunker again and use it to open a room near the kitchen.
Ecks noted that she and Mr. Graham have obtained a cable. With the hook-up cable from Andromeda's body, it may be possible to link our tablets up to the now-working computers in the Bunker.
On a less scientific note, Tim provided some entertainment with a text-based adventure. Maybe he'll run another one now our tablets are all working.
Brian was able to open one of the rooms in the Bunker, as well, the other one nearest the kitchen. It seems to be filled with sickly corpses. Please be very careful if you go exploring in this area and make sure to wear something that covers your mouth and nose, as well as gloves, just to be sure.
Everyone worked to prepare themselves for being potentially mind-controlled after that. Zell sent out a message asking who had been infected.
During all this, Brian reached out to see who was still around.