[Text] | June 30, Testing

[scarsolderthanyou]

June 30

[Whatever someone else was expecting to see on their mirror, computer screen, notebook, or whatever other flat surface they were looking at, instead they get to see someone making an intentional attempt at this contacting-other-people-through-numbers thing. Sam has seen both of the last two message sets and conversations come through, worked out vaguely what happened, and while he didn't reply then, he's seeing if it can be done on purpose now. By him.

There's a string of numbers to open the "connection" and then some spiky but very readable handwriting:]

Hello. This is Sam Stone. Is this thing working? Or am I writing to myself?

[He's somewhere between feeling like an idiot, feeling like he's losing his mind, and apprehensive that this is some kind of government experiment gone wrong and that the local black suits are going to barge in any minute. At least if someone answers, he won't be the only one arrested for using some new weird technology.]

Comments

[Text]

[iamnotgod]

Yes, it's working.

[Walter's writing this from his computer, rather than on paper, but text feels... better, for him. More apt.

And, in a manner that was not lost on him, faster.]

Though at least looking like you're writing to yourself is a good idea.

[Text until we say otherwise!] :)

[scarsolderthanyou]

I'm the only one here. There isn't anyone to look over my shoulder. Who is this?

[Text until we say otherwise!] \o/

[iamnotgod]

[Well, that was fast.]

I was speaking on general principle, there.

[There's a nearly imperceptible hesitance, then:]

This is Walter. Walter Weekes. And you?

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Somebody wasn't reading, up there.]

Sam Stone. I'll be careful about other people if I ever do this in public. I don't think I will probably do this in public, though.

You're that kid from the fireworks show, right?

[Text] Muse is laughing at me. |D I deserve that.

[iamnotgod]

[One of the downsides of reading at high speed, perhaps - that 'oh shit, I typed something I didn't need to' feeling, only worse.

And he would protest being called a 'kid', but Stone IS in his seventies. Not the smartest tack to take.]

Yes. I feel as if I should apologize for how I acted, then; I know I was

[Another, near-imperceptible hesitance.]

strange.

[But then, he hadn't been the only one, had he?]

[Text]

[dragoonrouge]

Hello.

[The text is somewhat italicised, scruffy, and small, Sadie is currently in class and is scribbling in pencil in the corner of her notebook]

I'm Sadie

it's cool XD I miss shit like that ALL the time

[scarsolderthanyou]

I wasn't a lot better I'm just more used to acting normal when I'm not.

Does that mean you got a weird feeling from the lights too?

[He still hasn't quite let go of the idea that his brain might finally be failing him and he's imagining all this, but for now, he's engaging.]

[Text forever probably!]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Nice to met your handwriting, Sadie.

[It's about on the same level as his: mostly legible but only mostly.]

Welcome to whatever weird thing this is.

Trait-sharing dance! \o\ |o| /o/

[iamnotgod]

Yes. Hollowness, and a heartbeat.

Or something like one, anyway.

[That had been harder to realize, in the immediate aftermath, but looking back there HAD been a feeling like one.]

[Almost certainly]

[dragoonrouge]

Nice to meet you too.

[Her writing gets interrupted by the edge of an electron shell diagram encroaching into it before she continues]

Weird is what this is, although at least it isn't voices coming out this time.

[Text unless said otherwise] \o7

[darkmagiciangirl]

Oh, hello! It's working!

[The writing is a mixture of cursive and print - rather utilitarian, optimized for writing quickly.

She was writing on a dry erase board with a fine tip marker.]

Chihiro Sano here! Good to meet you! :)

[Off to the side a database diagram starts to form as she continues her work. She doesn't realize it is also being transmitted.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

No funny images or anything to go with yours?

[scarsolderthanyou]

I wouldn't do that to you all. Not on purpose, anyway. That seems like it would be a lot more startling, and likely to interrupt if you're busy.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Sam is about to fix that.]

I can see your doodles. What are those?

[iamnotgod]

No.

[He doesn't write out the ellipsis, which is a shame.]

Not unless the Northern Lights themselves count. But those weren't imagined to begin with.

[dragoonrouge]

That's kind of you, the last time this happened, the others got me in trouble with the Librarian.

If you're on here then you saw the Aurora right?

[darkmagiciangirl]

[Drawing stops abruptly and is quickly erased, her writing is hurried - as if embarrassed.]

Sorry - planning a database before implementing it - didn't realize you could see it!

[Text!]

[tobodlygo]

Ah. Another one!

Welcome, I guess :)

[His writing is neat and fast, a quick looping of ballpoint pen amidst technical drawings and aerodynamic equations.]

This is James Kirk, How are those Old Pilot bones of yours, Stone?

[This RAF brat knows a good lot of the aviation lot in Mossgate, it's not hard to believe he knows about Sam, somehow!]

[scarsolderthanyou]

No I think we all saw those the same.

[After a pause, he adds,]

I just also saw flying. Or imagined it. Or remembered it, I usually don't have that vivid of an imagination, but I'm pretty sure I never actually had wings.

[scarsolderthanyou]

I think everyone saw the aurora. My daughter and grandchildren did, too, but they don't seem to be sending out random messages like this. I don't know why we're doing it and everyone else isn't.

[scarsolderthanyou]

It might be that anything on the same surface that you're writing this on gets sent over. Might want to transfer your conversations to paper or something, unless you don't mind sharing your database with the rest of whatever this is.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Oh right, this kid. If Kirk is a fan of aviation, Sam may or may not have even taken him up in his plane once or twice, honestly.]

Confused, tired, and now annoyed because I have to deal with the likes of you, kid.

[How do you make a text look like a joke? Oh, right. The sideways smiley face that his grandkids always use. He adds that, even if he's doing it in handwriting, not phone or computer text.]

:)

[iamnotgod]

I-

[Wouldn't know what that's like, he wants to say. Even comparatively. But that would be a brick wall of a reply, now wouldn't it? And he doesn't want to just downplay this, either.]

wouldn't know where that came from. That's the only time you've felt it, though? After the lights?

[Because he's experienced that hollowness twice now, as far as he recalls, and he still doesn't like it.]

[dragoonrouge]

None of my family seem different after the weird aurora.

[There are more scribbles that encroach a bit on her writing, this time its some like division before it gets erased]

So far the only thing in common seems to be the aurora, Mossgate, and a repeating number.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[There's a long pause before he responds, but he finally does.]

No, there was once a couple of weeks ago. I found a box of my wife's things I hadn't gone through, and I found this bracelet in there that I don't think was one of hers. I felt that thing then and had to sit down then, too.

I thought maybe it was just because of finding some of Amy's things when I didn't expect to, but maybe it wasn't.