networkinthenight | [ text ] @shadow; information compilation [ OPEN ]

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 ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ wow don't embarrass him??? ]

it seemed like the best thing to do.

that makes sense. i think if they knew how to prevent another one, they would've done it already. or they would've told us how to do it.

[ Riku just says it how he sees it and gives credit where he feels it's due. It bolsters his faith in that capacity for the hearts of people to come together for some greater purpose.

While still keenly aware of how the darkness in people can sow discord and divisiveness, can awaken the possessive greed lurking inside those hungry hearts. Too many times, the seed of it has a name: Fear. ]

or it serves a purpose great enough to be tolerated. preserved.

[ Given what he's experienced and witnessed, he can see how things could go pear-shaped fast. Sweeping the slate clean might be the most brutally efficient way of starting over if the combination of personalities proves too volatile to work with. ]

sorry I don't have anything more to offer right now.
at least we have our options. hit the books or the road.

[ That's a disturbing possibility. Shadow's first thought is that he can't imagine a purpose great enough to justify what a "reset" implies. Then he thinks of the gods and their sacrifices. He thinks of the power of blood, and he chooses to remain silent. ]

it's fine. i appreciate the help.

[ Some people shrink back from the idea of their own end, rail against it. It takes a particular kind of person to be relatively at peace with the concept of giving up one's own life for another. He's no fanatic, gods exist and he knows it, but his faith rests in what lives on in people's hearts, his own dedication is to something much more grounded in what other people might call the human condition.

It's just there's an awful lot of non-human people in that same category. ]

there's something else.
it's about how long we've been exposed to this darkness.
it's going to start screwing with us, probably sooner rather than later.

[ His experience with this phenomenon is different, considering his time spent trapped in the Realm of Darkness, this darkness doesn't corrupt, but the lack of light messes with a person's sense of time and head just as much. ]

do you think we should warn people?

[ Shadow has experienced a distortion in time caused by stepping into another 'realm' of sorts. He walked in a place that belonged to gods, and when he emerged almost a month had passed. That place was dark as well, with stars overhead that pierced the sky like spears. But Beacon is not that place, and Shadow hasn't realized it might be disorienting in its own right. ]

if it could be dangerous, yes. how will it screw with us?

if anyone asks, this didn't come from me.

[ Technology like this is still new enough to Riku that he doesn't realize just about anyone determined enough to find this discussion could probably leak it, but maybe... just maybe, he won't regret taking a chance and speaking about this. ]

disorientation comes first. your grip on the passage of time slips.
you might lose days sleeping
or just... walking.
hunger tells you how much time passed until that starts getting unreliable.

I think the clocks on these tablets helps with that a little.

your mind and your heart try to fill in the blanks, you see things, remember things.
it gets hard to tell what's a dream and what's really happening.
in a way, we're lucky we have each other. alone...
even a strong heart can be smothered by the dark.
it's too easy to think about giving up and letting whatever happens happen.

[ As soon as Shadow reads that first line, he winces. Not because he has a problem with being confided in, but because he knows that other people can see their conversation. But the message continues, and there's nothing Shadow can do but try to share information in turn. ]

i won't stay it came from you, but other people might see it here. there's a way to make your messages private.

[ And he explains how to adjust privacy settings. It's a simple, straightforward lesson — not because he believes Riku is unintelligent, but because Shadow isn't great with technology, so he explains it in a way that he understands.

With that done, he moves on. ]

thank you for telling me this. the first part sounds very familiar.

[ Perhaps he would've experienced the latter half if he'd stayed 'backstage' longer. He doesn't know. ]

[ crap. ]

great. thanks for the heads up.

[ Shadow's not the only one wincing. He can only hope, he guesses, that Kairi and Sora aren't curious enough to go looking for this. ]

you've been through something similar?

yes. [ How to explain it? ] i was in a dark place that most people can't reach. i walked there for almost a month. when i got out, i couldn't believe how much time had passed.

the realm of darkness? how did you get out?

[ text ] @shadow; information compilation [ OPEN ]

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