Fairfield Addendum - Written

[hard_talker]

[no music, tonight - the radios and journals of Paradisa are uncharacteristically silent. instead, there's a filter.]

[Filtered away from First Gens, except for those known to be allies. Also filtered away from those who would report this information back to any hostile First Gens or use this for general harm.]

Hi, folks. I know by now, you heard he's gone, but ... I've inherited the Paradisa Comprehensive Report from Zelos Wilder. I'm gonna do my best to keep it up to date, but I'm going to need all the help I can get. So if you find anything: whether it's on an expedition or just something you saw lying around in the Library or found at the bottom of sock drawer, let me know.

In the meantime, here are my rough notes on everything we found out on our latest trip to Fairfield, from our new friends Dr. Gene Brewer and Heath. I have a tape I'm still transcribing, too, but for now, chew on this.

Things About Dr. Brewer & His Wanderers

The Wanderers left Draconis either two or three years ago ... Heath can't say for certain because they haven't had a reliable calendar.

Brewer and his wanderers left Cair Draconis to escape their own outbreak of the Deadly Sins virus. Only, Brewer described it as the castle "losing its mind". Out of three hundred poor schmucks, only about thirty survived, mostly adults. None of them have "gone home" since they left the castle, which seems like it was at least before any of us got to Wonderfuck, since he didn't know there were people here "again". Brewer himself has been there for about nine years by his watch.

He mentioned "other groups in passing", which means there are still even more people out there roamin' around away from their castles, including the First Gens that Reno Browne was with. Makes a guy wonder just how much we're in the minority, stickin' around Wonderfuck. Dr. Brewer also said it was possible Reno didn't know that Lastlook was where the Draconis group quarantined the virus, so if anyone ever runs into her again, don't blame it on her, arright?

A Note About The Town of Fairfield:

Fairfield's got existing technological capabilities, but no magic or powers, which suggests they might have a cache of those blue crystals somewhere that no one's been able to find yet.

Things About The Aliens From Terre Haute

The Wanderers call the aliens "Collectors". They seem to attack periodically, but not on any set schedule. They capture some people and take them away, but they aren't sure exactly what for.

Brewer said they don't seem like they're tied to one of the other two castles. ... Which means that they might actually honestly BE FROM SPACE and this is actually a planet in a universe somewhere. They DID show up around the same time we came back from a dose of weird Castle shit by crashlanding in a spaceship of our own ... maybe ... I don't know, the Castle using space as a thing opened up some kind of window in the barrier that's usually up in the atmosphere, and let them in? (Doc! I'm no good at this space shit, help me out here.)

The Collectors took two people from the Wanderers the last time they attacked: a housewife and a film student.

Things About The Five Castles

Castle journals don't connect to journals from other castles. Only someone with a Paradisa journal can read Paradisa journals. This doesn't mean we should stop filtering our shit, though, since the First Gens are from Castle Wonderfuck.

Paradisa was empty once, and castles don't usually "repopulate". Apparently, we're a fuckin' anomaly. Castle Draconis is on the island of Draconis on the Northeast coast - are we sensin' a trend here, people? There used to be a bridge that went out to the island, but they destroyed it when they left. There are also whales. He suggests a primitive sonar if we're gonna try and use any boats to go out in the ocean ... which, hey, didn't I hear someone mention that they got boat blueprints on one of the trips out? Help a guy out here.

Castles all bring people in, take something, and send them home, but they "feed" differently. Draconis wiped them all out in waves, entirely - Brewer says it'd have its residents just up and kill each other themselves. Libet killed its people "with kindness", which makes a twisted, gross sort of sense if you've read the notes from that trip. And then there's us, I don't think I have to tell you how that goes. Everybody Knows.

REALLY BIG IMPORTANT NEWS TYPE SHIT, SERIOUSLY, CHECK THIS OUT:

Our castles are all connected. Zelos talked to Dr. Brewer about it and the journal picked it up on this page over here.

I don't know about you guys, but I say someone needs to get on finding the door marked for Draconis and sealing that shit off yesterday, don't you?

Anyway, I'm gonna keep working on my notes. I'll put up a full update once I'm done, but as Marilyn Manson once said, this is the new shit.

Let me know if you were out there on the trip and there's anything I missed.

Stay classy, Castle Wonderfuck.

~ Hard Harry

Comments

Same Filter foreverrr

[encryptedlock]

Hey, you can get on the CastleNet, right? I put up a digital version of the boat plans there.

Now, about space--I mean, it was the first time we were ever in a place like my home, Space Olympics, and then the ships later. So you might be onto something.

[hard_talker]

Sure can. ... That's awesome, that way anyone can get to 'em even if you get turned into a whatsihoozit.

... You think so? I mean ... it was just a hunch. But if all the places we've been to really exist here on the maps, as well as ... you know, where they really were to begin with ... I thought it might make sense.

[encryptedlock]

Right? That's why I like to keep everything there. Well, that and it's easier to search than to try and find anything in the library.

It makes as much sense as anything else, really. Even if it was messing with us when it, say, put LA on a north coast instead of a west coast.

[hard_talker]

If you can find your way around all the stupid games. [he snickers] I went looking for the resident list one day and ended up playing that virus game for like, two hours. Crowley's an asshole.

... I know, right. It feels weird havin' LA up above us. ... Actually, now that you say that, I'm surprised nobody noticed when the sun didn't come up in the right place over the water.

[your periodic reminder that your DJ is, in fact, a nerd]

[encryptedlock]

[York laughs.] If I had a chance of beating Delta's high score at any of them, I'd be tempted to play. As it is, I usually stop after they've been out for a week.

The thing is, it all seemed to be right. Wouldn't surprise me if the castle messed with the backdrops somehow.

[hard_talker]

The "backdrops"? You mean you think it can make the sky look like whatever it wants? That sounds like an awful lotta power for one building or whatever the fuck it is to have over a whole planet ... especially on places out past its own Dead Zone.

I guess we still got a lotta things we don't know.

[encryptedlock]

It's easier than you think. I mean, consider for a minute that right up until a few weeks before I got here, the whole world was blocked off from exploration. An illusion's easier than a force field.

[hard_talker]

... Huh, yeah, when you put it that way, it makes a lotta sense. Still, that's really fucked up. Because if it can do shit like that, how do we even know what we're seeing is ... what's really ...

Fuck. Now my head hurts.

[encryptedlock]

[York snickers a little.]

Exactly. But you gotta act for a while as if it is, or else nothing will make sense at all.

I mean, the First Gens did specifically reference the Allegory of the Cave. Shadows on the wall. Why imagine it could be anything different?

[bronwe]

I can keep straight notes.

[hard_talker]

Yeah? Great! This thing is huge, it's bigger than all of us. I'm gonna need all the help I can get. And not everyone likes my style, so.

[as much as it stings his little teenage ego] I might need some help making things sound more official after I get 'em all pulled together. I was always more of a fiction guy when it came to writing.

[bronwe]

Official! Well I can't claim any of that, but I will try to write most legibly.

[hard_talker]

If it's my report, and I say you're official, then you're official. S'that easy, isn'it? [he chuckles]

[bronwe]

Splendid! Then it will be official and legibly written. The only thing it's missing are pictures!

[hard_talker]

We might even have some'a those, too! My girlfriend, Nora, she runs the gallery, so she's asking people if they've got any art they've done of people or places out there.

[bronwe]

Well then! I say you put a proper title on it and that book is as done as a book can be.

Mark

[courageous_wit]

I'll help you keep the report up to date if you like. Do you mind me making some magical copies of the notes?

Hermione

[hard_talker]

Don't mind at all, in fact, it's a great idea. Maybe we can make a condensed version to give to newbies or something if they ask, too.

Mark

[courageous_wit]

Brilliant idea. It's quite a lot to take in even for those who've been here years.

Hermione

[hard_talker]

I might need your help figurin' out which parts are most important to tell people to start with. Even readin' it to figure out what I wanted to ask Doc B. was makin' my head spin.

Mark

[courageous_wit]

How about we start with Lois's report?

[hard_talker]

Go through that for basics? Yeah, sure. You want me to give it a shot? It'll be a break between makin' five billion holo-emitters. I brought a bag fulla parts to build some, but ... even a tech-head like me gets sick of it after a couple hours.

[courageous_wit]

If you like. You can do that and I'll set about making copies. If we can condense it enough, we may even be able to use it to help welcome newcomers.

[hard_talker]

Kinda like those pamphlets in the school nurse's office. Only instead of "You've Got Acne, So Now What" it's more like "Congratulations, You've Been Kidnapped By A Magic Castle".

[courageous_wit]

Maybe not quite in those words, but the same basic idea.

[cyan_maid]

If ever I find anything out, you'll be the first to know. But I have to say, I wish I'd done more digging on my own. This is all fascinating.

[hard_talker]

Hey, you came with us, that's something huge all on its own. But thanks. Like I said, I'll take all the help I can get.

[he'd even still take that MP3 player lesson if he hadn't just buggered off]

filter

[lord_wizard]

I knew it.

I don't suppose anyone asked the illustrious doctor which door was which? Or anything about the personality of the other castles?

[hard_talker]

He drew the symbol for one of them, called it Ivera. That's apparently the one with the force field around it. I did ask him, but he said he doesn't know much beyond what we do ... as far as they all knew, the rest of the castles were empty. They were surprised we were even around.

[lord_wizard]

Not completely surprising, given the lack of contact and the time they've been out there. Though if they knew the doors connected to the other castles would that not mean at some point someone went to these castles.

The symbol he drew, was it, perchance, this one?

[hard_talker]

.... Nope! That must be the fifth one. Ivera looked like a peacock feather. Why, where'd you see that one?

[lord_wizard]

It's one of the door symbols, but it was the only one that glowed. Given Ivera's location behind a magic barrier and the presence of magic in the symbol, I thought there might be corollary. Perhaps not.

[hard_talker]

Maybe that one's ... I dunno, maybe it's like a traffic signal, telling us that we should come find it next? You got me.

[lord_wizard]

Or it glows because that is the door for which I have the key.

Either we try it, or get in contact with the esteemed doctor again to ask.

[Filter]

[rose_of_battle]

Did you get all the information that Raine had? I know he helped her with some of it...

[hard_talker]

Raine - she was the professor he was always talking about ... no, I don't think he did. Maybe it ended up in the library?

[which it did, actually, as Lemony put it there for safekeeping before the mun dropped him. hurr hurr.]

[rose_of_battle]

Yeah, Raine Sage. She's a teacher back home.

[She stops to recall a conversation she had had, speaking slowly as it comes to her.]

You know, you may be right. She told me once she was going to do that with her information once she got it together, so I wouldn't be surprised if she had arranged for it to go there when she went home.

[Sneaky, sneaky!]

[hard_talker]

Huh. D'you know what her journals might've looked like? I can have a look next time I'm in the library.

[rose_of_battle]

Hmmm. [Sheena stops to think about that.]

I never saw them, but knowing Raine, they'd definitely be recognizable--maybe have that symbol from Lastlook on them?

[She pauses.]

It's possible they might also have papers and notes stuck in there without any organization... Oh! There's probably one in her handwriting about plants! She was studying the plants of Paradisa.

Does that help?

[silentrunning]

[Someone's ridiculously glad to see you're still in the vicinity and not sent back to Arizona or anything like that. She'll pop a Pepsi and start reading the notes.]

This is very interesting. I'll keep my eyes open, and let you know anything I find.

[A pause in her writing.]

I'm so sorry about Zelos.

[hard_talker]

Thanks, buddy.

[he's still writing, but draws a little cake for her, just because.]

[silentrunning]

[She squeaks in delight at the cake! SHE HAZ A CAKE! And she draws something for him too. A tiny record on a turntable. the title of the record is "Fuck Paradisa"]

Here. Have a present.

[hard_talker]

Nice! ... Hey, you even drew the dials right.

[silentrunning]

{A tiny chuckle.]

I've been in your room and looked at your equipment enough to know how it should be. I drew it from memory. I'd love to learn how to use all that some day. I'd never be able to broadcast, but it'd still be fun to learn.