[Many people here will recognize the inside of the sports shed on the campus of the elementary school. Newer people may not have seen Ecks's face before; she's a patchwork woman with a perpetually blank expression, and when she speaks (turning the tablet around as she does so, so that she's only visible for a moment at the start of the video) her voice is flat and inexpressive.

The new subject for viewing is a conical hat with the word 'DUNCE' written on it in big, red letters, which she has set on the floor of the building.]

What is this? What is a dunce? This hat is not comfortable or warm. What is its purpose?

[Look, Maybe he'll be more successful with this than with what happened with Angel.]

The Guardians of the Galaxy are gonna do a totally heroic thing for you, the good people of this town--we're gonna go and see if we can get the coffin room unlocked with our super cool galaxy key.

But we don't work for free, so we're expecting payment for our services.

What do you got to trade? We'll take anything good.

Hey everyone, it's Al.

I've made a couple of updates and additions to the survival guide recently, and I thought I should send it out again. I know that not all the information that we have is in there, but I think that's probably for the best. This is supposed to be a basic guide to help people who are new here, and too much information at once would be overwhelming. But I do think that a compiled guide of all the information we do have would be a good idea... like the posts that-- uh.

[He hesitates a moment, suddenly realising that he probably shouldn't mention Dr. Watson's information posts on the public network, when he's so careful to keep them to the shadownet.]

Well... you all know what I mean, right? But to have it all in one place would be helpful, so if anyone would be willing to help compile that, or has information that should go in it, please chime in. We can't do this without all working together. I also think it might be a good idea to have a few words or phrases recorded in every language; things like 'I need help', or 'I'm okay', so if we're unable to understand each other again then at least we can communicate that much.

Okay, well that's it, here's the guide.

[And a download of the survival guide pings up as available.]

[While the format's a video, Junpei isn't on screen. He doesn't intend to be, either. All he's recording is part of the building he's in-- recognizable as one of the convenience stores. That's not the focus, of course. For now, his voice is.]

Hey.

Anyone else think that whole instant tattoo removal seemed like some sorta cover-up?

I mean, don't get me wrong-- even though I'm pretty sure red's my colour, I don't miss the look at all. It's just.. the timing? Getting rid of whatever that was when Miller wanted to use it and the admin couldn't see it? There's no way that's not suspicious.

So, I'm gonna keep this short and get right to the point. I need five people to meet me in Zone Two in a few days. And one of you should probably.. know how to draw blood...

[The point of recording like this soon becomes apparent, as he props a notepad up in front of the screen. Maybe he could've made it a text attachment instead, but, well, he didn't. There's a list written on it, as follows:

1. No lines, no light -- @magenta2?
2. Lines only, no light -- @beyonce?
3. Red eyes, no light
4. No lines, with light
5. Lines only, with light
6. Red eyes, with light

... He'll just leave it there.]

I'm sure nobody's gonna have a problem going by memory? House already volunteered a couple of you, but it's fine if you'd rather be a baby and skip out.

[... After all, he's already ignored one of the suggestions, himself, by refusing to put Quark up to it...]

At least listen to what we're gonna do, alright?

Back when we got who knows what pumped into us down there, I was thinking, what if that wasn't just drugs? The goal was to "fix" us, so what if we were given more nanomachines? Maybe with new programming, to fix an imbalance. Or, you know, cause one. What I wanna see is if the concentration's different between those of us who had the markings, and those who didn't. Hey, maybe even throw in someone who never got brought down. And while we're at it, we may as well see if our lights make any difference, too.

Who's in?

[A sigh.]

ANYWAY...

You poor people don't have to worry about sacrificing blood to the blood god anymore.

You're welcome.