So... April

The shattering went well. Kind of. I don't want to get into it. It was Moth's special little event thing so I'll let him talk about it and throw in a link here when he can finally be fucking bothered to post. Be seeing as hes procrastinating like fucking crazy I'll share this to tie any curious souls over.

Moth's mask was shattered, the ritual was completed, hes allowed to talk now, and I'm gonna kill the fuck out of that snide asshole Maggot for trying to beat Moth to death with his Mask!

Satisfied?! Good.

Lets talk about work.

So we met April. That was weird. Shes really weird.

I sent Navi to the fire escape window for the apartment address April provided when she made her request for help. I stood outside the apartment room's door.

The plan was simple. Navi was gonna get 'April's' attention by knocking on the window and if things went south I was listening in from the door to kick it in and assist if it proved necessary. Navi had instructions to make lots of noise in case of such an emergency. We were ready to kill the shit out of any hostiles that came at us.

What we got instead was a smiling freak. April apparently let Navi in. And after some amount of muffled talking I could barely make, Navi let April know where I was so she could let me in. This pretty little Asian lady with the biggest stupidest fucking grin you could ever imagine in her late 20s.

She offered us sodas, and called us pretty, and started playing twenty questions with us. All huge red flags. April was being painfully too nice and too generous. Especially for a runner. It was suspicious as shit. Especially in light of her fancy fucking. So few runners get away with such grand accommodation and living conditions. It didn't seem like she needed any kind of protecting or even any kind of help. She even still had a job apparently. Shes a brain surgeon.

So I started driving the conversation back at her to try to figure out what her game was.

"So Father, er... the tall and Slender Man is hunting you right? Hes stalking you? You are a runner?"

"Of course silly!" she says smiling bright. "Its why I called. I am a runner."

"But you don't seem to be... in any short of need. Does he not bother you much?" I asked

"Sure he bothers me sometimes, but I don't let it bother me!" she declared. I could feel my face drop in disbelief. I wasn't sure if she was being serious or if her answer was being colored by her inhuman amounts of optimism.

That was when I got a text from Navi. Its been explained in a few places but I don't know if I've explained it here. Navi is very blindish. She sees the world save for whatever Father wants her to see as entirely black. And when she is allowed to see people, they have colors. Colors she knows to be representative of a person's emotions. This is all important to know because I got a text from Navi explaining that April here didn't have any emotions. Her big smile was a big fake. And that such a complete lack of emotional response to anything could be indicative or a deep internalized issue or that April is a psychopath.

Not one to beat around the bush I confronted her with it.

"You don't have emotions?" I asked bluntly.

"Of course I do. Can't you see how big my smile is?"

"You look happy but you aren't," I insisted. With that her smile looked a bit strained but she refused to let it drop.

"You're so silly," she giggled.

It was pretty apparent she wasn't going to accept what I was telling her. Possibly some self denial there. So I decided to push back to our last topic. I noticed she has cuts and busies on her arms.

"You said Father isn't really bothering you right? Where did those come from?" I asked pointing them out.

"Oh! This wasn't your Father. It was one of his other followers," she said smiling bright again... creepy.

"A proxy then?"

"Yes!" she giggled. "We've been spending a lot of quality time, and I thought talking to his family might help!"

"Does he... need help? You just said he was hurting you," I questioned.

 "He's just lying to himself."  April said shaking her head, "No matter what I did I couldn't get him to smile!  I think he's hiding his feelings behind torture.  I didn't know what to do, so I called you!"

My face dropped again. At least this wasn't a complete waste of time. She did actually need some protection. Granted she doesn't seem to actually want it...

"I just want you to try and help your brother figure out what he really wants to do with his life!" she said cheerily and optimistically.

"... Sure. Just as long as that means he stops torturing you... we can do that," I said with a frustrated huff. I have no idea what we're actually gonna do but at this point I get the sense its a waste of time to try to argue about it with.

April smiled, looking actually happy for the first time since I've seen her. "Thanks for caring so much, Picasso.  You're super sweet."

He laughed and sighed a bit. "Yeah. Its whatever. I try to be I guess."

That's about when she let a bunch of other bomb shells drop. Like, this isn't her apartment. In fact I'm not even sure if she even knew the owner anymore. I know she somehow knew he was on a business trip of some sort, which was sketchy.

So we decided it would be best to just move her rather than risk her getting herself arrested staying in a stranger's house. So we looted the place and left. And now the three of us are sharing a single Motel room. So that's been awkward.

But besides that things have been normal. April, though wierd and creepy as shit, is nice and easy to get along with. Its just a matter of catching this proxy guy that's been bugging her now... which shouldn't be too hard I guess.

This job will be done in no time.

Picasso out.