Oh, Right.

I... am an Idiot. I like to think I'm smart. I'm damn good in a fight, I can take care of myself, and I know how to keep under the radar but its so easy to lose sight of the big picture.

We didn't come here looking for Duckie. We came here because we knew Fracture kept tabs on this location and we were trying to force his hand by coming here.

I got so distracted by the potential Duckie spotting, I forgot that our reason for being here was to piss of Fracture. Apparently, just being here hasn't done it for him. Hes been quiet. No attacks or any such shit.

But I bet you won't take kindly to me spilling this towns little secret will you Fuck Face.

Hmm... maybe I should slow my roll a little. I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

So here is a proper first point for this update. We got our hands on this town's secrets.

While I was out, Picasso set all the mouth traps to sit on the top shelf of the closet and then rigged them to fall at the pull of a string.

I can home with lunch to find her pulling said string. I leaped back out the room. She does the string pull traps a lot and I thought I was about to get hit with something. I was actually rather relieved when I heard someone else start screaming.

Was confused when I came back in to find a man covered in snapped traps squirming in agony and screaming on in front of the closet.

Picasso had some chloroform ready for him. She still hasn't quite mastered using that... always knocks herself out too whenever she uses it on someone. Think its how impatient she is with it. Have to be careful with that shit...

So I went ahead and tied our peeping tom to a chair and set Picasso on the bed and waited for them to get up. Also removed the mousetraps while I waited. It was something to do...

"OH GOD FUCKING DAMN IT. Hate Chloroform headaches..."

"..."

"YOU SHUT UP. I'll do it right one of these days... Oh look, I tied him up in my sleep. How COOL am I?"

She wandered over to him and gave him a few light slaps on the cheek. He groaned and rolled his head and shifted his body weight before squinting his eyes and looking up in mild dazed irritation.

"Morning SUNSHINE!"

He recoiled at the sound of her screaming.

"Or should I call you noisy? I can hear your LOUD ASS BREATHING through the closet door."

She wandered over and into the closet and gave the bottom of the back wall a little kick revealing it to be a little doggy door type thing. I checked it out later. It had a latch on his side. Had we kicked it before, it wouldn't have budged. Not sure how Picasso figured out it was there.

"COOL LITTLE DOGGY DOOR! So what's your deal MUTT, who do you work for?! FRACTURE? DADDY? The state of Pennsylvania?.... OR...?!"

She said taking a dramatic overly expressive pause.

"Do you like, just really hate this room and people who stay in it or something? Seriously, whats your deal dog."

During that whole rant he just stared at her in mild irritation and didn't says anything.

"HA! A MUTE! A hideous crime against nature!"

She turned and slugged me. "No offense." She turned her attention back to the guy.

"So you want to play vocally challenged do you?"

She slammed her hands down on the arms of his chair. "Well... we, HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU TALK!"

And as she yelled she pushed his chair into the corner. "Namely, boredom," she said plopping onto the bed, grabbing some food and eating and pointedly ignoring him for the rest of the day.

And so from there, we just, kind of kept him tied to the chair. Picasso insisted that we feed him baby food, which, she would feed to him with a spoon while treating him like a baby but for some reason still referring to him as a dog. She just kind of smeared the food to his face, regardless of whether or not he actually resisted eating it....

So, that happened for three days I believe. Towards the end of the third day I came home to Picasso smearing his face with more food when he finally broke.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GRANDFATHER STOP IT. I'LL TALK, JUST FUCKING STOP IT ALREADY." 

"Hehe. Hello mister not-so-mute-anymore! WHO ARE YOU?!"

"... I'm Kappa."

"Kappa? [A bunch of words in a language I don't fucking understand] Kappa?"

"... Is that... Greek?"

"... K isn't Greek... its a letter. STOP TRYING TO CONFUSE ME!"

"R-Right, wh-whatever. That's my name. Calm down will yeah?"

"Does doggy need more food?" she says picking up the spoon of baby food and making "Choo, Choo" noises.

"No! B-Baby does not need any more food ever! I gave you my name! What the fuck do you want from me?!"

"Okay then, 'K', why were you spying on us? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!"

He cringed a bit at her yelling. "I thought the name might have said enough... I'm an Archivist. I work for the Blind Man, grandfather... Specifically, I'm Collector Kappa. I'm observing PRE cult behavior in Black Lake. This place draws them in like a magnet."

"Well, Collector K, WHY SPY ON US?!"

Once more he cringed.

"Mask behavior in this town is already kind of odd-"

"Wai, wai, wai, wai, wai, wait... WAIT... wait... wait... you call proxies masks too?"

"Well... not usually. I know you refer to them as masks though... been spying on you... remember?"

"Right... okay. Sorry, GO ON."

"So mask proxies in this town are weird. They don't talk, but they aren't hollows and they don't respond to the mention of the slender man at all. But they all operate as one cohesive group. Then entered you two. You two were new, obviously masks, but clearly independent of the others. Plus, you talk.... well, one of you does... It seemed like it merited study... so I did... listen... I obviously don't mean either of you any harm. Can you guys let me go? I'm worried about the Library. I've been away from it for to long... something could have happened to it by now."

"AND WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU."

Cringe.

"... Y-You can come with me if it would make you feel any better... I'll answer more questions... maybe you can answer some for me..."

"... Fine."

So we went to the Library. He had some trouble walking at first. Being tied down for three days is hell on the body.

The Library was a small one. It had a front desk, and a dozen selves. Six rows. Two shelves to a row with room to walk in between the two shelves. Also had a table and four chairs.

He plots down and Picasso plopped down on the chair across from him. I stood quietly at attention behind her.

"So... I guess you weren't lying... MAYBE..."

He seemed significantly more relaxed. "I wasn't. I am honestly just happy to see the Library standing."

He got up and got some water from a water cooler. Put three cups on the table and sipped at his. "Thirsty?" he asked.

She Picasso made a nauseated noise. "Pfffght. Ewww. Water," she said pushing the cup away with a finger. "No thank you."

"Suit yourself."

"I WILL!"

"Yeah... I uh, figured."

"Good... because I am.... I'm good at that..." she saids looking away for a moment lost in her own awkwardness. "So... you have any idea what the fuck is WRONG with this RIDICULOUS town?"

"Right... well that's complicated. Do you know what a cult town is?"

"YES"

"Okay. And a point of power?"

"YE-... er... kind of."

"And how about what the crossroads are?"

"... Demon flee market?"

"... No. The NPE."

"... What the fuck is that?"

"Non-Phobic Entity. A powerful sentient location, like the empty city, but as an Entity it does not inspire or act on peoples fears. It merely tests them. And should they pass those tests, it even grants wishes and the such."

"WISHES?!"

"Yeah. Tests usually involve self control."

"...Oh... so... I've looked at the archive blog from time to time... went silent... never heard of a NPE..." 

"... Not an official category. But it's one I think should exist. Many things labeled as a 'phenomenon' are entities in their own right."

"... What the FUCK, does this have to do with Black Lake?"

"Right, so Black Lake was a cult town. It, like most cult towns, was built on a point of power. Man and PRE are drawn to locations like this. Man instinctively... PREs aggressively and territoriality. A lot of major cities actually fall on points of power. Points of power like this though, ones out in the middle of nowhere, they almost without fail, develop cult towns. Its actually a pretty interesting UXP. Although, its existence is purely speculative or theoretical. Many might contest that the PREs are simply territorial and that the locations themselves have no bearing beyond being owned by the PREs. That its the PREs that make these locations of any interest."

"UXP?"

"Unexplained phenomenon."

"Right... I'm only going to ask this one more time. What does any of this, HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!"

"Well, it all comes together to make this situation... aren't you thirsty?"

"What part of EWWW, didn't you understand earlier?"

Suddenly things started to click in my head. His posture... actively pushing a drink someone doesn't want... sharing all this information. That's three red flags. Something was very up. I moved around the table and pretended to thumb through the books behind him. I watched him nervously shift as I came around. I could see he was trying to conceal something in his lap.

I could hear his chair squeak as he leaned back to look over at me. Picasso forced his attention back forward.

"I'm not asking that thing I said I wouldn't ask again, GET ON WITH IT."

"R-Right. Right. So Black Lake was a Cult town. But, and this is rather uncommon, Black Lake managed to rebel and win. A splinter cell of proxies decided they didn't want to take orders anymore. They killed all the loyalists and erased their history. They made pretend like they had always been a normal town. One or two generations later... its like they always were. Not sure how that's possible myself. I guess PRE01 decided he didn't care for the location and... just kind of let it happen."

"But, PRE01 or no PRE01, Black Lake still sits at a desirable point of power. So when PRE01 let its influence get pushed out, it attracted the attention of every other PRE. And now that everyone wants the location, PRE01 came back to reclaim it for itself. Or so it seems I guess. Maybe that's the who points. Maybe its a show of dominance."

"Now, the Fears can't go head to head. I mean, they can, but when the do... well... I assume you've heard of Nightscream's Plague Doctor/Slender Man incident? It permanently scarred the land where PRE01 and PRE12 fought. Killed everyone who couldn't get out of there in time. So imagine what hell might break loose if all 22 of the PREs where to go at it after one location. The state of Pennsylvania may very well have become forfeit as it got ripped apart at its very seems. I've heard it speculated that something like that happened at the Bermuda triangle. Supposedly there was a big Island at the center there at one point. Ridiculous speculation."

"So, instead of destroy Pennsylvanian, PRE cults are fighting as proxies for their fears."

"... Does that mean the Archive is gonna invade Black Lake?"

"We have the Library. That's all we really care about. Let them take the rest of the town."

"So that's why YOU'RE here?"

"I... kind of... that and to observe and report any interesting phenomenon."

"... WHAT THE FUCK DOES THE CROSSROADS HAVE TO DO WITH ANY OF THAT?"

"I'm getting to that, sheesh.... you should really drink that water. Its getting warm."

"...Just... SHUT UP... and speak."

"R-Right. So, I'm sure you've noticed that the Cultist don't spend any time at the hotel and that whenever you strike your buddy there you get feedback while at the hotel."

"Nope."

"I... huh, Really? W-Well, the hotel is a neutral zone. No PRE cultist can kill any other PRE cultist while in the hotel. To avoid the issue, most Cultists just tend to avoid the location. I believe this neutral zone and the absence of any direct presence of PRE in Black Lake as the result of the Crossroads interfering. I base this on the statue I found hidden in the hotel. If you no where to look, bound to the very foundation of the building, there is a statue of three Identical women facing out in different directions back to back. Each holding two torches. I believe this is a statue of Hecate, the Greek Goddess of the crossroads. I'm not sure how the crossroads presence came to be in Black Lake. Maybe its natural. Or maybe that's how the cultists who set themselves free did it. Maybe someone made a deal to protect the town. Again, its a lot of speculation and theory but its the only theory I have on why the PREs didn't collide on this location and tear it at its seems. You should REALLY have a drink of water."

By now even Picasso was starting to get suspicious of his insistence. He didn't notice me come up behind him and pin his hands. He panicked as Picasso took the cup and pushed it to his lips. "YOU DRINK IT!"

She held his nose and made him open up some and forced the water into his moth.

After that we finally let him pull free. "F-FOOLS! Wh-What have you done to me?!"

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU TRY TO DO TO ME?!"

"P-Poison you... w-with EAT."

"HAHAHA. SERVES YOU RIGHT FUCK FACE."

He started wheezing and gasping. "... Such... beautiful... singing..."

We watched as he made his way over to the water cooler and started chugging it right from the nozzle.

Picasso shoot her head disapprovingly... with out me quite catching it, she set the place on fire on her way out.

... Appropriate... I guess.

So... Black Waters secrets from a potentially reliable source. Your move Fracture.

Moth out.

Shopping List

I still haven't found Duckie... no sign of Fracture... no sign of Red.

This is starting to feel like a waste of time.

I've been watching the police station. That's where red mentioned seeing someone with what sounded like Duckie's mask... starting to sound like a pretty bad lead about now.

I think I saw a man come out in the mask she was talking about today. The diagonal in the mask's crack was wrong. Think the crack might has been too close to the right eye too. Hard to say. Didn't get a good look through my binoculars. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't Duckies.

We're spent so much time on this town... I don't want to let it all be a waste but if there's nothing here, there's nothing here. The fact that the town is prone to fear attacks isn't really helping. At this point its an irritating side note.

I don't know what to do...

Picasso has started sneaking out again. She's getting sloppy. I've actually been able to catch her on her way out... just not stop her. She keeps disappearing around bends. I think shes pathing. I hope she has more sense than that.

Fracture was using that to track us. She's gonna get us both killed doing that.

When she comes home she's laughing. She gives me a shove when she finds me waiting at the door. Says "Shut it STALKER MUTE," and then collapse on her bed. She throws shit at me when I stare at her expectantly in the morning.

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! You're not my REAL mom."

Makes me want to strike her with the chair shes sitting up.

She gave me just about the same line this morning when I gave her expectant looks over her addition to the grocery list. 106 mouse traps. What the fuck is she up to?

I wish she'd talk to me.

The irony is not lost on me.

Moth out.

Sins of the Daughter, Blood of the Father

 A BEAUTIFUL pallet to PAINT with.

I should know!

I'm gonna kill DADDY and FRACTURE and FUCKING DESTROY Duckie.

And they were like... fatherly things at some point. MOSTLY.

Except Daddy. Hes was just kind of a... GIANT FACELESS SKINNY MUTE. He could have FIXED EVERYTHING but he just fucking STANDS THERE.  I want to cut him deep.

I NEED TO KNOW IF HE CAN SCREAM.

My guess is no. No mouth...

...

Oh yeah. I wrote this. Hehe. BET THAT SOUNDS INCOHERENT.

FUCKING WRONG! This like, totally has a point and stuff.

Red's daddy is dead. He was MURDERED. Run through with his own sword! Supposedly. WHAT THE NEWSPAPER SAID.

Apparently, hes been looking for Red. And apparently, this town is stupid dangerous! Like, GIANT FUCKING BIRDS STEALING YOUR CHILDREN, dangerous. I call that a category 3! Only rates a two on my cuil meter though.

NOTHING NOT INVOLVING A HORSE CAN RATE ABOVE A TWO!

I don't care now many times I fall into infinity.

...

FUCK. Am I still doing this?

Right, so Red's Dad is a stupid american! Pop cultures tells the red, white, and blue apes if you live in a dangerous place, YOU NEED AN INCREDIBLY IMPRACTICAL FUCKING WEAPON.

So dumb ass was roaming the streets looking for his daughter with a katana. Because that's safe. According to the paper, he was reportedly well versed on how use it.

I think he was FULL OF SHIT! Where you gonna learn to do that in the MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE. I'll tell you where. NOWHERE. That's where.

I was convinced he fell on the damn thing walking. MY VERSION WAS FUNNIER.

Moth shoved the damn paper back in my face to finish reading.

Apparently, the murder weapon is missing. But the killer left behind the scabbard! With a PRESENT for the police! Four bloody finger prints.

Each belonging to a 'Ivy Knowlton', which as it turns out is Moth's 'Red'.

So the freaky emotion reading thing has apparently TURNED VIOLENT, or something.

In response to which, Moth has gotten out chloroform.

Hehe.... I bet hes gonna lose that hand trying to pull THAT SHIT.

Sword always beats drugs. And drugs always beat MUTES. So that's like, TWICE the disadvantage.

If he finds her, hes totally GONNA DIE.

SUCK IT MUTE!

Picasso entry end.

Nesting

I saw something... seriously concerning today.

I was searching around for Red. That endeavor seems to be a lost cause. If no one's found her by now, she's either dead, left town, or being kept hidden. She can't possibly be operating in town with people looking for her without her being discovered after all this time...

...

... Right. So I was searching around the park.

There was this big old tree house on one of the trees in the park. Not sure how the owners of it got away with that. I don't think most places will tolerate you building little houses in their trees. Particularly in a park on private property.

...

Right, right, right. So I was looking around when suddenly a fire truck came storming into the park blaring it's sirens and being escorted by a handful of police cars being equally as noisy. They stopped right in front of the tree house. The firemen got out and got a hose ready. The policemen got out and the three masked men among them pulled out flame throwers and started raining fire down on the tree house.

The first sound that followed were screams. Children stuck their heads out the window screaming in terror and begging for their lives, an act that give the masked men pause.

Then a second figure emerged. He was an adult in a big hooded sweater and had a big shit eating grin on his face. He pulled one of the kids to his chest and visibly held a knife to their throat trying to be intimidating.

That's when the second noise hit. Suddenly... all you could hear was the squawking of a thousand birds as they poured out of the tree house and started flocking around it and making dives for everyone and anyone in the immediate vicinity.

The masked men turn their flames on the birds to very little effect. The birds dove through the fire and brought then two officers, a fireman, and a passerby who was unfortunate enough to have taken refuge behind a police car when the swarm broke out.

I remember looking around as I hid behind a tree, and seeing people walking for their houses. Just casually walking. Many with an irritated sigh. No one was freaking out at the spectacle. No one ran over to try to help. No one ran away in terror or confusion.  When the birds started squawking and people took note of what was going on, they walked away like this was a school fire drill or something.

Most of them at least. I watched them in disbelief at their response to the situation before their very eyes. Watched as the made for their doors to hide away and ignore what was happening. Watched as a women looked over her shoulder one last time before she would have disappeared into her house and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes widened and her mouth dripped open. I saw her mouth the words a few times before they seemed to get loud enough for the the neighbors around her to stop their slow evacuation and take note of her. I watched her break into a dash for the park as her voice got loud enough for me to hear.

"JOOOODY!"

A handful of her neighbors chased after her and literally tackled her to the ground. "G-Get off me! She needs her mom! Get off-!"

One's of the people holding her down, much to the bewilderment of the rest of those holding her, punched her hard in the gut. "You can't help her," he said in a cold tone as they hauled her off into the nearest house. "If they can be saved... the masks will save them."

To my amazement, the scene the Mother had made had attacked more attention then what was happening before them in the part... almost like that was less common than this...

...Concerning.

... so the masked policemen kept their fire turned on the birds at first. As people started to go down around them, one of them yelled and pointed to the tree house and turned his flame back on it, the children inside of it, and the man holding them hostage.

The other two masked men where hesitant to join him, but when the flock suddenly turned all its attention to and began swarming him they followed suit.

They were fortunate that one of the unmasked officers had the presence of mind to commandeer the fire hose. He turned it on the swarm to literally blast them away from the masked ones. While he may have put out one of the flame throwers by accident in the process, the cover gave the other two masked men the time they needed to engulf the tree in flame.

The screaming stopped... the hooded figure dove out of the tree house to escape the flames and landed hard on his back. He winced in pain. He was covered in burns. The birds tried diving for him but where rather scattered from being sprayed crossed the park with the hose. One of the masked figures rushed over and put a heavy boot on his chest as what few birds had managed to regroup pecked at him and picked at what flesh they could manage.

Scrrrish, as the masked man buried his boot into the hooded ones chest cavity.

He started screaming bloody murder riling up the birds into a greater fervor... and was suddenly silenced as the masked man bared down fire on his face.

When the birds scattered... torrent of fire from he flame thrower stopped. The hooded one's face was charred... he was clearly dead.
...

They pulled the fire truck up and used the latter to pull the kids out before they brought the tree house crumpling down to earth... none of children made it... all of them were charred and covered in burns.

Everyone looked to the masked man who had made the call to do this to them but he wasn't looking their way. He was facing away. His stance implied heavy stressed breathing. Guilt. He couldn't bring himself to face them... his comrades or the kids.

The officer who commandeered the fire hose approached him from behind... put a light hand on his shoulder.

"We do what we have to," he said trying to sounds strong... trying to be reassuring.

The masked man sighed. Pulled off his masked and turned it to stared at its face. His old face.

"We do until we don't," he said handing the mask off to the officer. "We do... until we don't. Its your burden now," he said turning back around and walking off.

"I... Wh-What?! No! Y-" started the officer as he started to chased after now retired proxy.

The other two proxy stopped him, each with a hand lightly grabbing him. He turned to face him.

"H-He can't... we have to...!" he stammered off in a mild fuss before letting his sentence hang. He looked up at them. He was scared. He watched quietly desperate for some guidance or insight on what to do.

They both shook their heads. One of them took the mask from him and put it up to his face.

He pulled back at first, but stopped himself.

"I-I ca-" he started again but was shushed with a finger to his mask's lips.

He started to panic a bit in place obviously still overwhelmed at this development.

One of them signed a familiar motion to him. They put hand to their chest and raised it... dropped their hand back down with a deep sigh.

'Breath in... breath out.'

"Thuuuuuuuuuuh....... thuuuuuuu," went the new proxy taking several breaths to calm himself.

When he was good and relaxed... they gave him a pat on head.

"..."

"..."

"..."

While this scene played out, the other officers and firemen watched with quiet reverence and awe. When they were done, they all got back in their vehicles... off they went.

...

I noticed on my patrol the night after that happened... all the tree houses were gone across town, or at least as far across town as I was willing to check. One or two of them also looked like they had been burned down...

I think... the convocation might have attacked the town today... I think what I saw happened in several places across Black Lake...

The people... they just casually walked to their houses... what the fuck is wrong with this town?

Moth out.