othersdie | Entries tagged with todd

If the apocalyptic weather conditions, rampaging animals, and earthquakes haven't convinced you to stay at home, do yourself a favor and get inside. The fight between the Anonymous Movement and the Deities isn't ours.

Things like this--things that feel like the promise of significant change--have happened before. The clock has behaved erratically before, and we've been offered freedom before. It's always the same: There's a build-up, a day or two of chaos, and then we're back to whatever curses the City has scheduled for us. Ultimately, nothing changes. It doesn't matter who controls the City or what promises they make. The Deities and the Anonymous Movement are puppets, bureaucrats--administrators who lack the power to alter the City in a meaningful way.

Don't fight for them. Fight for yourself or your friends or your convictions if you have to, but not for them.

( [Private // Unlocked to Neil and Todd] )

[COMMENTS]

[Justin doesn't bother making a post. Neil has already articulated his thoughts on the door, and anyone who wants to find him will know that he's either at the Police Station or in Xanadu. (He would spend more time in the apartment, but the thought that Neil and Todd might end up separated if the door works is more distressing when he's around them.)

He has a bouquet of pink orchids with him. Homegrown, of course, and intended for one very specific visitor, if she comes. She has to come. If the door works, this might be his last chance to see her.

It might be his last chance to see anyone. Justin is, as usual, not optimistic about the outcome of the experiment with the door. At best, everyone with somewhere to be will leave. At worst--well, he's torn between worst-cast scenarios. Either the City could be destroyed and take everyone with it or the Anonymous Movement could force everyone out. (Okay, the first is worst, but the outcomes are equally distasteful. He would lose the only people he cares about either way.) Such lines of thought make Justin even broodier than usual, which is a significant achievement.

Maybe, for once, the worst won't happen.]

[COMMENTS]

[Midday, a new arrival--or perhaps someone familiar to those who have been in the City for more than a few months--appears by the fountain. His button-up shirt (buttoned all the way to the top, as usual), khakis, and loafers aren't exactly seasonally appropriate, but at least he managed to avoid the icy fountain.

It's not as if the cold can bother him that much, anyway.

He looks around for the device that he knows will be nearby and--yes, there it is, just like always. He dusts stray snowflakes off of it, checks the date, and switches it to record.]

This is Justin Pendleton. If anyone who knew me is still here, I'd appreciate a response.

Who's currently running the City? Anonymous? What state is the police force in? Again, answers would be appreciated. Thank you.

[He moves to end the recording and hesitates.]

Neil, Todd. You'd better still be here.

[There, good. He cuts the video short and pockets the network device. Until he hears from his flatmates, Justin resolves to check out the City and see what has changed in the four months he's been gone himself.]

[COMMENTS]

( Action for Neil & Todd / Off-Network In All Conceivable Ways )

[Public Voice Post]

I don't remember if this has been asked before, but is there any apparent pattern where the handcuff curse is concerned? Are the participants usually friends? Enemies? Strangers? Given the unlikelihood that I would be handcuffed to a friend, I can't believe it's coincidence.

[And if you know Justin, you will also know that he has three friends in a vast City. The odds of randomly being attached to one of them are slim to none.]

It's nothing important. It just seems that there's significance in what happens here more often than not.

[COMMENTS]

( And all that comes here, it comes here to pass... )

[There is a bird standing on top of this camera--no, pecking this camera. If it wasn't talking, it would be an unremarkable little brown bird.]

I just want a chance. I want to start over.

[For those who have been following the network today, it shouldn't be surprising to hear a bird using Justin's voice (or what sounds like Justin's voice; he doesn't usually sound quite so desperate).

Peck peck peck.]

I just want a chance. I want to start over.

I just want a chance. I want to start over.

[Peck peck--click!]

( Private Text // Off Network )

[ooc: Video is entiiirely accidental and Justin won't know about it until he's informed. Additionally, my notifs are kind of wonky; please forgive me if replies aren't quick!]

[Justin isn't a fan of talking out loud when typing will do, but this is video for a reason. That reason is a thin orange tabby who is curled up quite happily in Justin's lap, sound asleep and purring.

Does this cat belong to anyone? I hu--I... I mean, I found her. On my way home from work. Please message me if she's yours.

[The video feed ends, but Justin keeps talking in a rather melancholy monotone.]

This curse--many of the curses--are harmless, but no one in the City should become too... compliant. It's tempting to become accustomed to curses, to--to death. In a place where death is seldom more than a temporary and upsetting setback, we shouldn't be careless. We shouldn't assume that, if we die, we'll come back.

Not everyone comes back, not every time. Death can be permanent, even here. Some of you know that--maybe you've heard, or maybe you've been here long enough to see someone die and not return--but if you don't, keep it in mind. Be careful. Don't take unnecessary risks during curses or... or take the life that you have for granted. Even if you're dead within the City, you still have this existence; don't treat it lightly.

[There's a breath as if he's getting ready to say something else, but he evidently thinks better of it and ends the feed.]

( [Filtered to Police / Unhackable] )

( [Private / Unhackable] )

[COMMENTS]

( Police Filter // Unhackable )

As anyone who has been watching the network likely knows, there has been another murder. If you're going to be out, please be cautious, stay alert, and try not to walk alone.

I'm alive again today. It's too soon for this to be another curse.

( Filtered to Euphie, Neil, and Todd // Unhackable )

[COMMENTS]

( Police Filter // Unhackable )

( Filtered to Dean // Unhackable )

For those who haven’t heard, Todd Anderson has written a play called “Like Clockwork” that will likely be performed in May. If you are interested in helping with the play’s production, contact Neil Perry. Please consider attending.

Additionally, in light of recent allegations, I would like to issue this reminder: the police officers in the City are as susceptible to curses as anyone else. Like everyone else, they cannot be held responsible for actions they take while under the influence of a curse.

I wonder if the rest of spring will be as eventful as its beginning.

( Private // Off Network )

[COMMENTS]

I hope that everyone has had time to recover from their experiences in the desert.

That was a strange curse, and strangely anticlimactic. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's worrisome--the sudden split, the apparent lack of control that the deities had over the event (but their amount of control has been brought into question before now), the abrupt disappearance of the desert. The City has an inherent instability to it. I understand that. I wish I understood something beyond that.

Someone--Rosella?--mentioned an hourglass. It seems like sand has always been making random appearances in the City (as far as I can remember) and everything seems to revolve around time: the Clock always (or almost always) ticks, the twelve apartment complexes are arranged around the center of the City like numbers on a clock face, most curses last twenty-four hours, other curses are so regular that they could be marked on a calender.

Sand and time. Did the hourglass get turned upside-down? Is there any significance to the fact that one City was sand and the other was glass when glass can be made from sand? How much control do the deities have and how much power do the other beings that we've seen before have? How much power do we have?

Not that it matters. The City exists whether or not we're here, whether or not we remember, and whether or not we care enough to worry about what it is and what its purpose is. Maybe the City isn't a sentient thing or a twisted experiment; maybe it's a world like any other where individuals don't mean anything. Maybe the Clock would keep ticking if we all vanished (if a clock works in a universe where no one can hear it, does it make a sound?). Right now, I'm inclined to think of us as grains of sand in relation to the City as a whole.

( Filtered to Neil and Todd // Unhackable )

( Private // Off Network )

[ooc: The triumphant return of mopey tl;dr that no one can read!]

[COMMENTS]

Thank you for the warm reception. However poorly I articulated it, I appreciated the offers of assistance.

I have a question, but I'm not sure if there's an answer. Regardless: what's the purpose of the graveyard? The carousel, the ticking, the deities--all of that makes sense (or as much sense as anything else), but why is there a place to bury people if no one stays dead here? Is it just a prop? It feels significant, although feelings can't be relied on.

This is a strange place--strange in its own way, stranger when I think about it. I'd call it all a dream if I wasn't convinced that I'm awake. Every time I think I'm close to making sense of something, it slips away.

That's not important. Thank you, again, for being so welcoming.

[Filtered to Neil and Todd // Hackable]

I've read all of the guides (most of them appear to be outdated) and as much as I could find about filters. It's unnecessary to use one, I suppose, since I can just talk to you, but some things are more comfortably put in writing.

First and most importantly, thank you. I don't fully understand why you trust me enough to let me into your apartment when you know about what I've done and you realize that I'm not the same person you knew. Whether I should blame kindness or poor judgment, thank you.

Second--and I don't know if I should tell either of you this, but something wholly inexplicable tells me that I can trust you--I've been having odd experiences. Do you know what it's like to try to remember a dream you've just woken up from? It's like that, and sometimes I think I'm on the verge of something... and then it gets away. Is this a normal phenomenon here?

Third, I'd like to repeat what I typed first. I haven't done anything to earn trust, kindness, or friendship--not that I remember. I hope that you're both usually more cautious.

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Justin Pendleton

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January 2015

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action // video
closed action / voice
There's nothing good because nothing lasts
video / text
[video / text;]
[text] April 13th, evening
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Page generated May. 23rd, 2025 09:32 am

I believe that I am in Hell,

therefore I am.

Entries tagged with todd

text;

action;

action // video

closed action / voice

There's nothing good because nothing lasts

video / text

[video / text;]

[text] April 13th, evening

7 [text]

6 [text]

1 [text]