Network; @XXDARK_STARXX

[omniavincit]

WHO: William and WHATEVER STUPID HANDLE YOUR CHARACTER IS USING
WHAT: Breaking in the network.
WHERE: The information...two-lane country road.
WHEN: Whenever you like (pre- or post-event...or lmao during...is fine)!

[ If one of the handles William selected at random from his phone's perplexing contacts list belongs to you, congratulations! That device you slipped in your pocket? Or squinted at in confusion? Or immediately fumbled, if you're William and can't seem to shake your current spell of bad luck?

It makes a noise. ]

FROM: @xxDARK_STARxx

What do the shadows look like to you?

Comments

@xXxSALTLICKERxXx

[fumitory]

( Ben's brick of a phone chimes in a way that a furby sounds running on a low battery. Ben curses in a hiss under his breath as he grasps for the thing out of his briefcase, ducked down in a twisted-looking lobby (literally, as if cork-screwed.) 'what?' he whispers to himself, reading the name, the message, passing an internal ruling that this exchange has already registered as 'ominous' on his radar. )

Who is this? ( jesus wept, Ben hasn't had to text on a number pad in years, and he certainly didn't miss it. )

They look like - well. Shadows. Humanoid - more or less - but not always. ( damn thing doesn't have commas, illiterate and prehistoric garbage. the worst part is, Ben has no idea that he even has a contact handle, yet, much less what it is. )

omg he has a fucking briefcase

[omniavincit]

[ William's phone emits a noise like someone's idea of a startled robot—a BLAT followed by a series of chiding beeps that has him muting the sound in record time. ]

William.

Also more or less humanoid. [ Sorry bro, but a spectacularly unhelpful answer deserves the same. ]

@D4D_J0K3Z

[ascocarp]

HOWDOYOUMAKESPOTSBETWEENWORDS

[omniavincit]

The bar at the bottom.

@MeTaLxHeAd79

[skaa]

large. kind of like humans. ( more like koloss... )

what do they look like to you?

1/2

[omniavincit]

[ Does he immediately warm to this person thanks to a wrongheaded deduction about their handle? M a y b e. ]

It varies. Most memorably [ there's no way this isn't going to sound like a joke ] giant spiders.

No, I'm not phobic.

2/2

[omniavincit]

Why "kind of"?

@iCu

[sorrypardonyesthankyou]

yes pardon no nitrate like people i knew

[omniavincit]

Hey Ruth. [ Somehow "nitrate" is the easiest part of that to tackle, so: ] Like negatives?

@4tlas_shrugg3d

[badassassin]

Is this a riddle? Who are you?

[omniavincit]

Answer correctly and I'll divulge my true name.

[ But it's a fair question. ]

It's William. Who are you?

@p3wp3w

[rehumanize]

Are they supposed to look like something in particular?

[omniavincit]

Well.

I'd hate to bias you.

@n1CxC4Ge

[calculo]

A void.

( short and sweet. )

Why? They look like something different to you?

[omniavincit]

Huge spiders.

[ But his original question seems less important, seems almost like an afterthought. He's reminded of the yawning, watchful nothingness behind the mirror he'd sliced open. Feels an echo of what he'd felt then. ]

Was it expanding?

[snikthatch]

what

[omniavincit]

What?

@XXXtra_TerrestriEL

[itselbitch]

There's a variety. Do you mean the ones I see the most?

[omniavincit]

Whatever sticks with you.

@XXSK3LLYXX

[ragnarsson]

Keeps changing. Mostly stuff out of old stories my brothers used to tell me as a kid to try and scare me.

[Also water. Too much water, dripping everywhere, like it's going to envelope him. But that's a fear he's not willing to share.]

[omniavincit]

What kinds of stories?

@DR_DOGFISH

[wontgraham]

[ Will has the dubious honor of responding to this late enough that he gets to scroll through...a lot of nonsensical names and a lot of surprising feedback. ]

all of mine looked like dogs. i didnt realize they could look like anything else

[ The hardest thing about the terrible flip phone he's stuck with is definitely going to be that his hand will start cramping if he tries to type as dramatically as he talks. ]

[omniavincit]

At the risk of stating the obvious, like your handle.

Are you an actual doctor? [ Wouldn't that be nice? ]

@jaN3ARxjaFAR_3

[unwieldy]

[ This is sus, says Haein who thinks everything is sus. ]

who the hell are you and why do you care?

[omniavincit]

Call me William. [ Which is in fact his name—he's just been through this a few times by now and it's getting repetitive. ] I care because they could have something to teach us.

Who're you?