[ text ] @shadow; information compilation [ OPEN ]

[itsaname]

hello. i'm shadow moon.

[ He includes a picture of himself so that people can make the connection between name and face. It shows a serious man with gray eyes who clearly has no idea how to take selfies. It's something like this, only darker. He Tried. ]

i'm no one special. i spent most of my life not doing much. then i got sucked into a war i didn't fully understand. i lost everyone i cared about, and then i died.

i don't know if knowing more would've made a difference for me or not. there were a lot of things outside of my control. but knowledge can make a difference here.

i've seen discussion about sharing information, but i haven't seen anything compiled and distributed yet. so that's what i've tried to do. this isn't something i've got experience doing. i've probably missed things. there are probably things that haven't been shared at all. if you can add to this and help make it more accurate, please do.

DEATH
- we're dead, but we can die again. it's common enough that there's a permanent obituary section in the paper. resurrection isn't guaranteed: "life is finite."

- the dead return faster is the body is left alone.

- "an entity" revives the dead. it will only work in privacy; how it revives them is unknown.

- if you die more than once, you will come back wrong.

- the recently revived reappear in the church.

- your lantern is a part of you, and your life is tied to it. take care of it.

LIGHT & MAGIC
- the only sources of light are our lanterns, the bonfire, the lighthouse, the stars, and the moon.

- you can take torches from the bonfire. these can be used to light other things (candles, lamps, etc.).

- magic that should illuminate doesn't work right; other spells are unaffected.
- trying to create a fire only creates smoke.

OTHER BEINGS
- there aren't any animals here. aside from us, it looks like the only inhabitants are forest spirits.
- general policy with spirits: "respect them, and they shall respect you."
- some forest spirits will kill you with their hands.
- some forest spirits are friendly.

- known friendly ones: postmaster, ice cream guy, being beneath church.

- if you see food laying beside the trapdoor in the church, leave it. it's an offering.

- librarian's friendliness is 50-50.

- give it food. it's hungry. its presence is unnerving, but it didn't attack when it had opportunity.

- there were other people here before. they disappeared when the town was "reset." the only ones left are winters, dr. ingram, rastus, and the lighthouse keeper.

THE RIVER
- the river is dangerous for two reasons: its strong, unpredictable current, and something that lives in the water.

- the thing in the water will try to drag down those who cross. throw something in and it'll throw it back.

- it looks sort of like a person, and it'll try to eat you.

- there's a village on the other side of the river. people are working on building a bridge so we can access it (and whatever else might be over there) safely.

- there are remnants of a bridge upriver, but it needs repairs.

THE VILLAGE
- it has 20 houses, a park, a rec center, and a library.
- the library has all sorts of books.

THE LIGHTHOUSE
- approaching the lighthouse without "a large group that knows what they're doing" is suicide.
- the lighthouse keeper uses morse code to communicate. if you get too close, she'll tell you, "GO BACK".

- she communicates like this because she's not currently connected to the network.

MISCELLANEOUS
- there are sand dunes and cliffs past the river in the opposite direction from the lighthouse

- no signs of civilization so far

- the town hall holds no records.

[ AND WITH ALL THAT SAID, he adds: ]

some people consider information and knowledge to be currencies. they want to keep it and peddle it out at their own convenience. i think that in a place like this, that's a good way to get people killed. we all have our own unique strengths, weaknesses, experiences, and observations. if you know something that can help others, please speak up.

thanks.


(( ooc: SUP Y'ALL. this info is from public network posts/comments. shadow isn't the type to read through every single person's conversation, so there's stuff he's missed! please shove info his way and he'll add it in, or suggest other ways for him to format things, or whatever else you'd like to do. shadow is icly not the greatest at this, but He Cares and He's Trying. o9 ))

Comments

@dr

[donttalktome]

[Guess who feels called tf out by this post???]

Some corrections.
The lighthouse and the stars and moon all create light.
If you die more than once, you're definitely coming back wrong.
The lighthouse does not communicate in morse code, the lighthouse keeper does, because she isn't currently connected to the network.
And for your information, knowledge is a currency.

[itsaname]

[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ !!! ]

thank you. i appreciate the help.

[ Shadow means it, too.

It's a strange question to ask, but considering the circumstances: ]

do you know what the upper limit is on how many times someone can die?

and yeah, someone told me that once. he said there'd only ever been the information age. he said that information and knowledge were currencies that had never gone out of style.

[donttalktome]

I don't know the limit, but you can go at least five, ask Winters.
Whoever told you that was right. Well, on one count at least.
People probably had to figure out how to do more than subsist before they could worry about information.
But that's semantics.
Assuming you, like literally everyone else here, is from a time before mine, your currency would be utterly meaningless to me.
As would gold, or other such things that people once used to trade.
But good information never loses value.
Why do you think it costs so much to learn things?
Because knowledge is worth more than money, which is why the rich try to keep it for themselves.

[Did that just turn into a rant on the education system? Sure did.]

[itsaname]

[ Shadow wonders if that means Winters has died five times. But then … well, the good Doctor continues on. And on. And Shadow quickly decides that he will indeed ask Winters about that one. ]

the same man told me that a secret no one knows but you is the most powerful secret there is.

he was old. 1000 years or something. [ A number that would sound absolutely insane if Shadow were in his own world, but here? Perhaps not. ] maybe powerful people wanting to keep knowledge for themselves is timeless.

[donttalktome]

[Smart move, Shadow.]

A thousand years?
I suppose you would have a lot of secrets then, wouldn't you?
Powerful people wanting to keep their power is timeless.
So yes, that follows.

[What were they talking about again? Oh, right.]

Did you have any specific questions about things?
It's hard to just say "share any information that might be helpful".
I have a lot of information that might be helpful.

[itsaname]

[ Nice as it would be to get a handbook of How To Survive, Shadow remembers how insistent Winters was when they arrived. He remembers getting paid by Wednesday to not ask questions. And honestly, he's just … not that upset by the situation. He's not fueled by outrage or even curiosity.

But Shadow's not compiling this information for himself. So he thinks about it, and he comes up with: ]

that's fair. mostly, i'm interested in things that could be lethal. areas or beings that we need to prepare for or avoid. do you know anything about those?

and you've already helped by correcting things i got wrong. i'd be grateful if you'd continue.

[donttalktome]

Well that's easy.
Just about anything here can be lethal.
Don't get lost in the forest, don't fall into the river.
Don't go toward the lighthouse, at least not past the fence.
The spirits in town probably won't hurt you if you give them a respectable distance, but the ones outside of it are unpredictable.
And stop trying to get into that goddamn trap door.
That's never ended well for anyone.

[itsaname]

[ It's all good advice, and it makes sense. But given people's apparent interest in that trapdoor, he has to ask, ]

what happens to people who keep messing with the trapdoor?

[donttalktome]

Well nothing, technically.
They've never gotten in, they've never found anything out.
But that's the problem.
They become obsessed.

[itsaname]

i think i understand.