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. ]

a prerequisite to being, well, ben

[fumitory]

( well, at least they're forthcoming about a name...

—wait. William? as in, Will, the one he met through the mirror? Ben stares and wonders; the Will he met didn't really seem like a...'William' to him, but their communication had been limited. he could have given 'Will' over in a crunch for time.

facing shadows had been on the table of topics for him and Will before, so Ben leans with a little hope that this is a familiar link. )

I've seen some that looked more animal shaped, but as if malformed. Headless perhaps.

You ask that as if you believe they're different - what have you seen?

[omniavincit]

[ "Malformed." God. Is this what he used to be like?

Choosing his words carefully: ] Something sort of personal.

Then I started to wonder if it wasn't personalized.

[fumitory]

I fear it may be very personal in a place like this. ( Ben's are monstrous in some way, but still resembling human. telling, without telling too much. )

What I cant decide is if they are only emulating something we recognize - or if they are what we suspect they are.

Have they communicated to you? Theyre dead silent to me.

[omniavincit]

Are they real, you mean? [ No, is his instinct. No more than Plato's shadows.

Realistically: ] I don't think they're actual spiders. They'd have starved by now. [ But something about that leaves him dissatisfied. He's thought about it before—this place is so obviously abandoned. Could they be the previous inhabitants? Reduced to shadow, changeable as the landscape? ]

No, they haven't. What have you tried?