saveourearth | [Audio] Leaving a Message at the Tone.

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[Audio] Leaving a Message at the Tone.

Date: March 16th, 2019
Characters: Walter Weekes (whose Number I really should write out sometime...)

[Someone's making their own kind of test post, today. Following up on an idea:]

Excuse me, is this Mr. Neutral? This is Mr. Weekes.
We met at the museum reopening event two days ago, and I was interested in learning if you would like to meet up again. Perhaps for coffee?

[Is Walter seriously expecting a reply from the obscure never-gave-a-first-name Mr. Neutral? Not exactly. But if the man does reply, that would be very useful indeed.

Anyone else who responds to this post will get a reply sent directly to their Number (or via encrypted text), rather than through the Network.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You forgot to put in their number, we can all see this

[Helping.]

This is to check if the man even has a Number. He was asking what the crowd was gathering for in the museum, and then later about the aurora, and didn't sound as if he was asking as your average curious bystander. No Echoes happened because of his appearance, but when I asked what sort of work he did he managed to dodge the question. No sense of malevolence from him, he was just very strange.

Asking about the aurora... like he knew there was something about it?
You might be on to something
And he might be like Ben, looking but not talking

[A moment passes as Russell divides his attention, then returns.]

Are you going to give him another way to contact you?

He did say it was likely that we'd run across each other again. I suspect he doesn't think it will take all that long.

[There may be some awkward silence on Walter's part, but there's no way he's letting Russell know that.]

Depends on if this works. If he has email, that would be ideal, but another in-person meeting seems the most likely with him.

These guys have really terrible names. Mr Neutral. Mr Evil. Who the hell named them?

Mr. Evil?

[He knows Sam wouldn't joke about this, but... seriously?]

I may have missed that one. And I'd presume the obvious answer is that they named themselves?

[Please let them not have done it Walter's way, though.]

Don't know, but he was pretty offended when I questioned him about it. So I gotta assume yeah, they named themselves.

Mr. Evil is the bald one who messed with the bomb last year.

[Walter makes a very unpleased noise.]

I called Superintendent Khan when I saw him, but I didn't engage.

[And then they couldn't catch him.]

Did the name come about before he decided to do such a thing, or is it the other way around?

He didn't say. He wasn't exactly friendly or forthcoming, particularly when I told him his name was weird to begin with.

I'm guessing Khan didn't find him?

It's likely a point of pride for him, then.

[Walter hadn't been quite that blunt with Mr. Neutral, for what it was worth.]

No, no one did.

Don't be surprised if we're called in to identify him on local footage or the like, though.

I'd be glad to. So they have footage?

[Now he wants to see if they'll let him look at the footage from where and when he "disappeared" on him, in that museum, too.... Probably not likely, but it can't hurt to ask, can it?]

It would have set off more alarms for everyone if there wasn't any.

[The zoo incident was more than enough precedent for law enforcement to put emphasis on the power of video proof. Funnily enough, the description of those perpetrators didn't match these new Number-linked folks.]

And likely have set off a panic in the local law enforcement.

Wonder if I can convince 'em to let me see it. That asshole disappeared on me, and I don't know what happened to him. So if there's video, that might show how he did it.

[It better not be "magic".]

Considering Mr. Neutral likely did the same disappearing act on me, whatever you find might shed light for the both of us.

I can send you a picture, if you'd like.

[Not a photo - from memory.]

Sure, I'll take a picture. At least I can recognize him if I see him, too.

[He doesn't know this isn't a photo, either.]

[Walter has to switch to drawing on paper, rather than speaking into it, to send the picture, but there's not much of a delay to show for it.]

Best be using something you can write on, for this. Otherwise you might just end up with static.

Artist, these days, are we? Yeah, I've got paper here.

Though now I'm curious what a picture would sound like.

[And switching back to speaking once more, because Walter is amused.]

There are people who could answer that question, I'm sure. Not just synesthetes but those who work with converting kinds of data for a living. Programmers of text readers and like.

I'd think a picture wouldn't sound like a description of it. Might sound more like radar. I know they've got a whole variety of things that turn sound into pictures, there's gotta be the reverse somewhere.

The latter's more of what I meant.

It's an interesting experiment to try, sometime, for sure.

[And certainly something with more levity than what's been going on in Mossgate recently.]

Maybe another time, though. Thanks for the picture, I'm gonna keep this with the one I've got of Mr. Evil.

[Not that the other one's a great picture, just a sneaky snap of a police sketch artist's rendering, which isn't perfect.]

I could send one of- that man as well, if you'd like.

[If Stone's using the police's official one.]

If you've got one, I'll take it. Maybe it's better than the one I have.

[And less than a minute later, again, Stone shall have it!]

How's that?

Did you mean to send this to everyone?

This is to test a theory. The next time I see him for sure, I'll be better able to discern if he has Network access. You didn't happen to see him at the museum, did you? I don't think I was the only person to talk to him.

Edited (Because CONSISTENCY) 2019-04-21 00:11 (UTC)

Is this the guy with the cat? I didn't actually get a name out of him.

No, it was a different man. I did see him, though, and called the Superintendent. She sent some officers for follow up.

[And then they couldn't find him. *grump grump grump*]

The superintendant? Was he a criminal?

The man with the cat? He's a suspect wanted for questioning over tampering with the bomb in September. I was one of the people who spotted him there the first time.

...I probably should have asked for a better description when people were telling me about him before. I just thought he was being rude for bringing an animal into a museum.

We helped contribute to a suspect sketch back in November. I can show you that, if you'd like?

[It'll be even more bizarre if they're the exact same clothes.]

And there was that, as well; it does help to identify him.

I'd like that. I don't want to meet anyone else suspicious and not know who they are.

[Walter's next reply is a photo - actually a drawing of one of his clearest memories of seeing the man, but it's photorealistic enough that Jimmy might not be able to tell that it is, at least without studying it.]

[Jimmy immediately starts studying it, committing the man's features to memory using his new observational ability. After a few minutes he chuckles.]

Wow, you never said you were an artist.

[Walter is quietly embarrassed.]

Thanks. It's something I've been practicing since October, after Sadie gave me some supplies for my birthday.

[He's had to replenish parts of the stock since, but he's keeping the originals ~~until the end of time~~.]

It looks really cool! I've never seen a drawing this realistic before.

[Again, he's really glad this is text.]

It's largely a function of having perfect memory, if I had to name a specific factor. And the patience to practice, but that almost goes without saying.

Is that the same as eidetic memory?

Possibly. It's not the memory capacity of anything human, however, so it's at best a parallel.

Do you have anything to compare it too?

In my life? No. Not from before the aurora. Apart from that however there are a few scant psychological studies on people who cannot forget anything, as well as those with dedicated experience in 'chunking' memories into schemas for easier access. And fictional accounts, of course.

Should we be worried that the closest equivalent for a lot of these echoed abilities is fictional?

Is there anything about our situation that we shouldn't be worried about?

[Hopefully Walter's wryness comes through, there.]

Probably not. This definitely wasn't what I was expecting when I signed up for the exchange program.

The irony is, if anyone in the exchange program knew this was a thing, they may not have even let you come here.

[A pause.]

Granted, it's highly unlikely they'd be capable of stopping all this, either.

You're probably right on both of that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Audio] Leaving a Message at the Tone.

[Text - public]

[Encrypted private non-Network text] Verging on Action if they're both in the flat.

[Encrypted private non-Network text] - and what time of day do you figure it is?

[Encrypted private non-Network text] Midmorning, their time?

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[Audio, Private] Please tell me you know of that one recording of 'butts' XD

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[Encrypted Private Text] 'Tis time for the quick tagbacks. =P

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