Lost Time, part II, draft 1

I do believe they are starting to get to me. How could I not notice that it has been a week? They are good, very good, to be able to cloak their temporal manipulations from me. Now two days gone in only a couple of hours, it could not have been more than five or six hours since I wrote that last post.

I should have... I could still remember it then, but all of it is gone now. Whatever happened to the Black-Eyes, and anything else following Ridley's arrival with the girl. She is no longer here with us, I am sure of that much. If what I think has happened is true, then we are danger of a paradox occurring. Ridley's memory does not seem to be affected as mine is, or so he claims. If he attempts to jog my memory of anything that is not already in my previous post well, odd things start to happen. Needless to say that something is preventing me from learning of whatever may have transpired.

What did I leave you all hanging for? Lucifer is bending the temporal stream, he is here now facing off against what I am certain is the he that the Child had been rambling about. There is danger from the dimensional bleeding as well, things are moving far out of control. The first battle has taken place.

Ridley and I had to abandon the house, it has become clear that someway or other it has become a nexus point, the place where various sites with extradimensional properties become connected. I believe this may be Lucifer's doing, in an attempt to keep track of me. Lucifer and he arrived outside and began raising hell. We... honestly I am not quite sure what we were doing... Lucifer noticed our presence but...

Damn, it is starting to slip away again, must be quick. The Child was there, I do recall now, and he was distracted by it, breaking off from his battle with Lucifer to attack the Child. Lucifer and noted our presence there and made a lunge at us. He was displeased with how things had been left between us, and now determined that if I could not be used in his plans then there was no point in keeping me alive. For whatever power he may claim to have though, at the end of the day Lucifer is still, more or less, only human. Ridley brought him down by emptying a round into his chest. On my end I decided that this whole business had gone on long enough and that we should soon be getting to the bottom of this. Lucifer was still conscious and quite furious, so I knocked him out with my cane.
Now I was ready to take care of business, namely sifting through Lucifer's memory to try for some answers. I did not expect his mind to be unguarded but I also knew that Lucufer would not have made more than a half-assed attempt at protecting himself as he would believe I would never be able to get close enough to him to actually use my power. I had just started to actually get through and could see a few things when my concentration was broken.

You see, after shooting Lucifer, Ridley decided to take him on. Unfortunately, the Child did not take particularly kindly to Ridley's presence and tried to take the both of them on. He made an attempt at killing them quickly by just unleashing some kind of bright light. It did absolutely nothing; I am really not sure what it was supposed to be doing; it did, however, succeed in making Ridley quite cross so that he tackled him with a knife. Cutting an eldritch entity with a hunting knife is not a particularly wise course of action as you can probably guess, and he grabbed Ridley and stabbed him with his fingers. Ridley, being himself, naturally did not give up even with his fingers stuck in his chest, and now swiped at his wrist with the knife. Gold 'blood' began pouring from the wound and one could see it begin to dissolve upon coming into contact with Ridley's skin. He looked to be in pain now, but continued stabbing until he realized that his knife had melted, at which point he kicked him off and rolled away to actually try to get the 'blood' off before it ate through him.

He  did not appear very happy about having his precious blood spilt and would have tried something more deadly on Ridley if not for the Child's reappearance. The Child jumped onto his back and there was a darkness upon the area which I recognized all too well by now. I was going to grab Ridley before he did something stupid but then Lucifer pulled himself up. Admittedly, I cursed some as it appeared he was going to attack again, but then something unexpected happened. The Path opened up suddenly behind Lucifer and he, in trying to get away from it, stumbled backwards and fell into the Path, which then closed.

}==The Angel, it... broke? Reality shattered... the Bleeding came through...

}==There is Emptiness


what have you forgotten coronado? something is still missing...

Hush My Child

"So, you have been lying to me then, have you? Do not try that act on me again, it shall not work anymore. I should have seen it from the start really, but they planned for that, hmm? They were inside my head the whole time, tainting my thoughts, keeping me from seeing what was really going on. And then there is you. The Children are not capable of the things you can do, are they? Something else I should have seen, I would have realized if my mind had been clear. But I can see it well enough now.

You come from that place, am I right child? Yes, yes, I thought as much. Well it is a great help to us, indeed. If that place is involved, then I now know who it is that is coming after us. It is still puzzling though. Some of the pieces still do not quite fit. You do look just like her, but then if they have been messing with my memories this long, then it is quite easily explained.

It did really happen, I am sure of that much. No, I am sure you know how the Master feels about that incident. He did nothing to save them then, he will do nothing special for us now. Perhaps, perhaps. It would be a perfectly logical action, but logic does not often account for much in this business. Possibly, but it would be best not to discuss this now. It is late, you should be getting to bed. Very well, yes, I shall read you a story first. How about Mr. Lovecraft's 'The Hound'?"


}==========================={


"C'mon dammit, pick up! Boss? Yeah, we might have a problem, I think he knows I'm here. He's just in there talking to himself again. No, no I--- wait, what the fuck was that? Hold on.

Who's---FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKOHSHIT"

otr uwtp9ue09tu90, u9wer666lrktjwerlks======-34eowe

"---there? Carter, dammit, what the fuck just happened? Carter!---"


}==========================={

THOUGHT I'D LEAVE YOU A GIFT BEFORE YOU LEFT, CORONADO.

BE SEEING YOU.

Broken

No, not again. dammit, why cna't this
This can't happen. It has to be wrong. 
Madi...
There's too much I ca't even figure otu what's happneing outside my own mind anymore. Madison, sorry ill figure something out and stop him i won't let itt
god why

So shaken up, boy. Come, why don't you allow me to assist you.

What, how did you get in here? Who are you?

You don't recognize me? Perhaps this will help...

That...  oh god, how does that

Quite simply, dear boy. But come, you've been bumbling about long enough, time for you to rest and let me take over. I can finish what you started. Once you're asleep I can let him out, heheh. Give them some fun for a while.

SO LET IT BE DONE...

Distractions

Well, I go off on other business for a few days and what do I find upon my return? Fiona has managed to get herself into a bit of trouble with this 'Rise' character (Rise? honestly?), and now Konaa is staying at her house. How very inappropriate. It seems I cannot take my eye of that child for a minute. This could possibly be an inconvenience and I simply could not allow this to stand.

Konaa was looking for the Ark. Instead, it seems he got a another little run-in with Ridley. Well, almost. The Master appears to have been rather less than amused by Ridley's antics and promptly sent him into a time-out. Ridley, Ridley, Ridley, when will you learn? At any rate, following this little encounter, they headed back to Fiona's house, where I was waiting. While we awaited their return, Dolly requested that I tell her some stories. So I dove into tales about some of the Master's classic victories. The descent into madness of Logan Renault and Damien O'Connor, the blasphemies of Ezekiel Strahm, the eternal chase we allow the man who you know as M. For a more recent wonderful ending, I told her of the fall and death of Zero. Such wonderful stories, each one brings a tear to my eye when I think back to how awesomely the Master is able to use His powers against the blasphemers. Yet somehow she seemed rather less than enthused at such stories, complained that there was not enough blood and death.

I was just about to launch into another story, about one of those idiotic cults that seem to spring up here and there, and about how a whole town of them was wiped out back in the twenties, it is a good one, perhaps I shall tell you all sometime, when finally they returned and arguing rather a bit too loudly as well. From what I could make out Konaa wished to return home and Fiona did not think he was well enough to leave just yet. I am not one to disagree when a wise decision has been made, especially by an enemy and so I interjected that I thought the boy was perfectly alright and should be on his way as soon as possible. They seemed a bit surprised by my presence. I would expect such things out of that blasphemer, but really Fiona, have I not taught you better than that?

Again, clearly I need to be spending less time on my other duties. The Princess still has so much to learn it seems. Konaa was rather visibly irritated with my presence. I had never even met the boy before, yet I felt such an aura of hate towards me; my, and I thought Ridley was the one he disliked. There is something interesting about this one, I would have loved to check out some of his memories, but alas I had not the chance. My powers are rather limited in their nature and I felt to advance upon this one would not be helpful towards the outcome I wished for. I repeated to Fiona that clearly the boy was doing very well and we should respect his wish to leave. Eventually, she agreed and Mr. Konaa was, rather unhappily I think, on his way.

So, with that distraction as well as most others out of the way, I am now free to focus on my business here. I think I will punish Ridley some more, he needs to learn to follow directions and to not stir up trouble around the Princess. It creates needless complications. However, I shall attempt to have you sent someplace else as soon as possible.

Not to Boston. Nowhere near Boston.

~Regards

Nothing exists?

How trite. Fortunately, I place little enough weight on Lucifer's ramblings. But I find myself doubting just how much he was either a traitor or a madman. Depending on how much of what I saw really happened...?

That's not like you, Archangel. Denial. I don't believe for an instant that Eternity actually has that strong a hold over you.

This game has ended. The ceremony took place without a hitch. We gathered at that building, which seemed to be the nexus of some sort of dimensional bleeding. Ridley and his men arrived with Mr. Ross, his sister and the masked man in tow just as Lucifer stepped out of the Other Side with the second Miss Ross. Needless to say that there was a touch of confusion among Mr. Ross and his sister(s) when they all met one another. It didn't last too long though; it seems they've all become quite accustomed to the temporal shenanigans that have been occurring.

Without a hitch? I suppose you consider the priest trying to kill Eternity and, ahem, another party almost taking yours and Ridley's heads to be just business as usual? What am I saying, of course you do.


Lucifer attempted to bargain for returning Miss Ross to us, but Eternity was having none of that. Lucifer became violent and made an attempt at assaulting Eternity, which proved unwise, as Eternity quickly disposed of him. Miss Ross, the time-displaced one, then leapt towards her future self and threw her over the balcony. She was killed instantly.

Certainly doesn't seem that you thought it went as well as you made it sound.

From there the situation only got more out of hand. The formerly-masked man attacked Miss Ross and her brother attempted to restrain him, and through some means or other it seems both of them ended up dead. I was already at the time attempting to seal the bleeding. Lucifer managed to return and made a second attempt at Eternity. The Master stepped in and in his mercy left him alive after removing most of his powers. The building began to shift and something else came of the bleeding and killed Eternity.

If only it were so. At this point, I wouldn't trust anything this bastard says. It was that priest that got involved, but he didn't manage to kill Eternity, whatever that thin white devil may want you to believe. Oh, I got in on the act as well, both of me, though the other one was of course far less sophisticated in his methods. Almost managed to get Ridley's head. I was this damn close. Poor Dave, though. Even I shudder remembering what Slenders did to him. Would have gotten us too, if that priest hadn't managed to pull us out of there. Shit. And Archangel, no matter what bullshit you've had pumped into your head, you didn't do whatever you think you did. I'm not really up on all this dimensional bleeding tomfoolery, but I might be persuaded to be pretty damn sure they actually made you do the opposite of whatever you intended. 

I can't complain because I wouldn't have been here in the first place if you hadn't jacked everything up, but... Actually, no, I think I will complain. It would have been better if this hadn't happened. You actually caused the bleeding. Is it some kind of frigging paradox? I don't know how that crap works, but somehow, whatever you did actually caused the incident two years ago as well. This is just too much shit for me. If I could figure out who it is that's screwing with your memories...

The ceremony was completed, at least, though not without trouble. The Bleeding became more violent the more I tried to seal the breaches. There was            keep keep tellling
go on
There was one moment where it appeared all would be lost, when a breach I had already sealedd9 I ripped open one of the seals to allow the bbledig n to flow m0rr frrelly as i        looekd back algon the time dtream II coudl se myse
wron g story
tha tiwas the one that tried to kill me taht time

It was you. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Get out.

Oh? Or what?

You know well enough.

And you know well enough you won't be able to kill me. After what's become of my body, I don't think I fear any man.

The Dark Lord will-

Yes, but he is no man and he will not listen to your orders. Your own powers far surpass those of your pawns but you couldn't fight off that old man. He almost managed to kill you, perhaps I'll try my hand at finishing the job.

Burn.

Rather frightening. You oughtn't to be wasting your energy with such idle displays, though. But before I kill you, I think I'm curious enough to try to figure out what you're hiding, exactly. Be seeing you.









Didn't even try to catch me? Shame. Have I cracked your hold on the Archangel? I think I'll try another, thanks.

Dear, dear...

Ridley, my friend, time paradoxes are not good things, you know. Should you arrive when I am not around, please do not attempt to go through with the procedure yourself. We would like to avoid a repeat of what happened in... well, nearly every other time something like this has been attempted.

Oh, and watch out when you get to that rest stop, the man in the black mask will be waiting for you. And you want to know why you think he is familiar? You do remember this incident, no? I was attacked by a rather odd gentleman, he returned to the house and wrote on my blog? When you first showed up and when we found Madison. Yes, I do know more, but I do not have to tell you all now do I?

You want a taste? Fine, Lucifer was not real. He was never real. You all recall how the Master skillfully and brilliantly distracted you all with that nonsense about the revenants? That is all Lucifer ever was, a distraction. Albeit for a target a bit more powerful and resourceful than you mortal blasphemers, and one that required a bit of convincing that he was actually fighting what he thought he was. Hence, my capture at the hands of that fool. And perhaps we threw a bit of retconning through the timestream in there as well. It did work rather marvelously, I must admit. Of course he caught on eventually and we did end up having to terminate Lucifer a bit earlier than planned, but alas he was from the beginning but a pawn to be sacrificed, so it was no real loss. The time paradox? No, sorry, no time to explain right now, there is business that we must attend to.

Come along my dear, we are going to go see our good friend Cross. One of our compatriots has fallen by his hand and for that there must be retribution. Oh, I do hope that he is reading this. I know what he is planning and I know where to find him.Yes, yes, come along child, we really should be setting off if we want to reach him in time.

Time. Everything just keeps coming back to time, doesn't it?

~Regards

Once More...

--ean, what the hell is he talking about? He didn't even leave the Ark the other day. I saw him, he was just sitting up in his room muttering to himself. I don't think he even had a computer with him the whole day.

I think he's losing. We've verified Knuckles' disappearance, it matches what he described, but there hasn't been any overt activity by the Children since then. And they can't behave the way he's talking about.

That is what I have been trying to tell you all for some time. I say we kill him and be done with it.

Of course you want him dead, Eternity, he's the only one who's actually tried to do anything about your activities.

Whatever are you talking about?

Please. Everyone knows about your little side dealings. We just reckon that if the Master leaves you to it, there's no reason for us to give a damn.

Are you questioning my loyalty to the Master?

What I want to know is what are you even doing here? You aren't here for the "Princess" and it's not as though anything else happens here.

You think so? But my business is none of your concern.

I think it is. Archangel's still only here temporarily, I'm the one in charge around here.

So you are. I am just passing through, what of it?

You never just pass through, what are you here for?

I am afraid that I cannot divulge that information. Now if you will excuse me...

No you don't. I'm getting some damn answers for once. Othello, grab him.

Phantasm, this is most unwise.

34mut843yvm8234yv89m3cru9lpeoirkvee;dd--


Bastard. They'll eat you alive for this.

Everything Is Fine

Ridley, I know I am rather late, but honestly, letting yourself get beaten by that Konaa brat. You are making us all look bad here. What are you doing anyway? I know you have finally captured those two runners, but you have not updated your blog. What are you doing?

Meanwhile, things have been rather uneventful. The Princess is busy getting caught up on schoolwork, and I suppose a good education is important, so I really have not had much to do. Phantasm is very unhappy that Salem is in Boston with Ridley, nobody knows how the kid managed to get there and nobody even realized that the kid was missing until somebody looked at Ridley's blog and saw Ridley mention it. Phantasm called Ridley to yell at him, but it is not as though he can do anything about it now. That kid is a strange one alright.

Oh, that last post, the nursery rhyme? There is not anything to worry about. That was just the girl. I do not know how she got into my account, but then I do not know how she got here to begin with. She could have been following me for quite some time now even; no one else can see her here, it is possible that she has been hidden from me as well up until now. The little Black-Eyed girl. The same one that came to me all those years ago, before I joined the Master. Has she been following me this whole time? If I am not mistaken then the Children do not age, but I did not think they were immortal. I do not know what is going on now, I thought it was all tied to Lucifer but he is dead now.

I have heard rumors that Cross will be passing through here on his way back from business in Europe. I never did like him much, there is something that he is hiding from all of us, even from the Master. He is an untrustworthy sort.

Oh, right, none of you know about Cross, do you? Of course not, he is not the type to leave records of his presence. Heh, I am sure he will not be amused that I have written this. It matters not though, I am his superior, it is not as though he can do anything about it.

That will be all now. Fiona is finished with her tutor for the day and will be in to see what I am doing on her computer again. Must not have her finding my little blog just yet now can we?

~Regards

there was a crooked man

...who walked a crooke d mile
he found a crooked sixpence
upon a crooed stile
he bougfht a crooked cat
who caught a crooked mouse
and they all lived togther
ina littel crooked house

The Devil's Children

You shut the door. But it doesn't matter, they're still out there. You can still hear them, you can still hear her, screaming at you to let them come in. She tells you you're going to die... it's already too late, you've seen them, you've talked with them, you're going to die. Isn't that what happens to those who have seen the Children? The Children with the black eyes. The Devil's Children.

It's been an hour now. Why are they still there? Why hasn't the landlady shooed them? Surely someone must have complained, they're so damn loud. You can't take it anymore, this has to stop. You get up from your chair and walk swiftly back to the door, you open it. There's nothing out there, only darkness. Empty. But they're still there, you know they are, you can still hear them in your head, they want you to let them in, LET THEM IN! COME IN GODDAMMIT, THE DOOR'S OPEN, COME IN, COME IN, COME IN DAMN YOU AND GET IT OVER WITH!

Your neighbor opens their door to see what all that screaming is. He looks down the hall at you with an expression that tells you he thinks you're mad. You're the mad one? How could he not hear the Children and their screaming? But it's gone now. The yelling. You don't hear them anymore and so you start to think maybe you are going mad. Black-eyed children? Something that can't really exist, surely. But you remember, you remember that there were stories; you remember the old Cajun down the street who used to tell stories to the children. It was so long ago, but you still remember the stories. You hadn't thought about those old stories for more than a decade, but you remember now.

In the old days, all the children would go down to see the old Cajun gentleman and listen to his stories. He told about the Black-Eyed Children, didn't he? About strange children with dark eyes who approached people and asked for favors. People felt fear when encountering these children. The old man loved to frighten the neighborhood children, you see. He told them about the Axe Man of New Orleans and about the Comte Saint Germaine. About the Salem Witch Trials, or what he claimed really happened in 1692. There were tales of strange creatures which were known to the Japanese, turtle demons with bowls of water in their skulls and vampire like things with floating severed heads. He once spoke of a little girl made of wood who could control people by wrapping strings around them like puppets. He told of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred and how he met his grisly end. And the Angel of Fallen Light, who had been cursed by God to wander the Earth for eternity and who, it was said, hated all creatures with power like himself and would attempt to purge these beings from existence.

There was one that particularly stood out though. You aren't really sure why you think of this one more clearly than all the rest. Maybe because of how eerie it was now, thinking back to how the old man died. The story of the Tall Man. It was said that the Tall Man had lived forever and that he would live still until the Earth was made desolate, or even until the last star in the night sky had blinked out. He wore a dark suit and a tie and his face never appeared the same twice, if he even had a face at all. He went after children who were bad and took them away where they were never seen again. He walked among the trees and could be found in any forest or woods to those who were foolish enough to seek him out. These were found later, their bodies ripped open and hung from the trees. And to all those who knew too much of the Tall Man, madness surely followed.

One of the children had asked the old Cajun how he could know so much then, if madness came to those who possessed knowledge. The old man replied that he could not be affected because he was already quite mad, and he began to laugh like a madman and you and all the children became frightened and ran away. You think that was the last time the children were allowed to go and listen to the Cajun's stories. Some months later some kids in the neighborhood went missing. Some people blamed it on the old Cajun, as he too had disappeared. After some days of looking, they found the old Cajun. In the woods, his body mangled and impaled on the trees, his organs removed and intestines strung up in the branches. With him were some scraps of clothing from the missing children. They were never found.

You think over the stories again. There's something missing, something not quite right. You notice the lights begin to flicker and the radio is just static. Wait a minute, you didn't turn the radio on. You know you didn't. The door's still open so you close it, then you see something move out of the corner of your eye. Something you can't make out, it's hidden in the shadows, and those damn lights are only making things worse. You cross the room and turn off the radio. Now there's that whispering in your ears. The story, about the Tall Man, why does it sound so... what? You can't quite place it, but you know there's something familiar, something you should remember and it's not just because of some old fairy tale you heard when you were little. Damn, that whispering, maybe you are going mad, where is it coming from? You see something moving in the shadows again and try to follow it, to find out what it is. Whispering in your head. It's so loud, why is it so loud? It's only a whisper, just a whisper, but it's so very loud.

It's too much. You walk into the kitchen, you have to sit down, try to think. Didn't you just close that door? Yes, yes, you know you closed the door only a minute ago, why is it open again? The girl is there again. The little girl with the empty, black eyes. She's standing outside and... she's talking to someone. Someone inside the house. You lean over, trying to get a look at who it is but all you can make out is a shadow, an odd shadow. Shaped like a man, but not the right size for a man. The whispering in your head, it's the shadow, you can hear it now. The whispering tells her to come inside. She turns and looks right at you and starts walking towards you. You want to get up, to leave before she reaches you but you can't because the whispering is still so loud and you can't think clearly. And it's telling you that you need to stay. The little girl stops in front of you; she stares at you with those solid black eyes. She speaks, her voice cold and without emotion. She says

"The Tall Man would like to play a game with you, sir. He would be ever so displeased if you were to refuse."

You can't speak, still staring into those eyes, like looking into the void. She turns around to face the door and you turn with her. The shadow is there again, slithering into the room; but now you can see what was attached to the shadow...

Then you wonder why it all seems so familiar.

From the Ark

Hello, hello, my dears.

I am at the Ark now and have just recently begun my new assignment. You all remember the first time I was here, do you not? Good. You will recall, then, that there was that girl here, investigating the death of some punk who was bothering Ridley about getting into our little circle here. Ridley was not happy about being pestered by this child and promptly separated the lad from some of his vital organs. Some of our dear boys came and cleaned house, but it seems they missed this little girl, and then the Master began to take an interest in her.

Well our dear Princess returned from after a week in the Master's domain. Honestly, what is it with you people and your blogs, ? It has been such a long time, I scarcely remember... but I digress. As you can see, the Master has taken a rather very different approach than normal with this one, and she has come over to us quite readily.

So, you may be wondering what am I to do in all this? Compliments of her dear 'Prince', is to recieve an inheritance from her dear departed mother. It was such a tragic accident. I am to serve as an... executor; someone must keep the money safe until our Princess is ready to recieve it. I might perhaps act in the role of a mentor even, imparting some of the wisdom I have gained through my years of servitude to our glorious Black King. After all, the children are our future.

Well, first things first of course, I had would have to introduce myself. Properly, I mean; that little encounter outside the Ark does not count, and was over a month ago besides. So I headed straightaway across this little town to Fiona's neighborhood. I was expected, Mr. Adalheidis had already received word of his ex-wife's death, and so I was let right on in. I laid down the details for him: Fiona's mother left her a very large sum of money in her will, however as she is a minor I was to have control over the money. She would be granted an allowance, so long as I see fit. Fiona entered then, her look of shock a delicious indication that she still remembered me. However, I believe she recognized that surely I must be a subject of her dear ‘Prince’, and she sat down to listen as I explained the situation.

She appeared quite joyous at the news, though of course she was very unhappy to hear of her dear mother’s death. She remained a bit distrustful of me I could see, remembering that night at the Ark. Needless complications; I shall remedy that easily at the soonest possible convenience. Dear old father remained wary as well, sensible chap, I will grant him that, but some things are best to take care of sooner rather than later. Not quite as simple as I would have hoped since the man should have no reason to distrust me. It is possibly nothing, but I shall keep an eye on that one…


And so you have the situation as it stands for the moment. I shall be returning to see Fiona again soon, to... help her find some ways to use her inheritance. For starters, I believe a princess should have a palace, and there is a just lovely old place outside town that should suit the Master's purposes. Hmmm.... come to think of it, this place is lacking an owner now that old Maalik is dead, perhaps....

Well, I must bit you all adieu, dear readers. It has been a fine day in which business has been conducted, and one needs be well rested to keep one step ahead of one's enemies.

~Regards

aeifklhsdafi---yo, what the hell is that?

I am rather busy over here! What are you babbling about?

That! What the fuck is that!?

I do not know to what you are referring! I see nothing!

Ridley! Archangel! That creature is coming back! Get out of the way!

Oh, bother.

Dammit!

8923rhfadsfjdhy82n83 rm[[asdf9]]

And so we bring you Carthage.

The Angels of the Tall One devoured by the Light.

Yes, I do believe I have heard that one before. Would you care to try devouring me again?

Blackness reigns.

What the hell is he talking about now?

Ignore it. There's too much Bleeding here, it's going to break soon.

824398iyaohfsahoifh8886660

What was that? Who is Dolly?

ioadsufk34in v8iuq384]]q//a//0rf9

Break it now?

Archy, you crazy bastard don't even think about it!

I believe you may have something there. Hehehe...

Agents of Madness! You would not dare....

Oh, how wrong you are. It is rather easy, just li----


Coronado you bastard, going and ruining all our fun like that. Nevermind, you've accomplished naught.

Damn you alejandro

Ending it. This is it. Kill the Cihldren, kill Jaluha, kill The Operator, kill Ridley
kil you. endit .why/

mya rm why ithasn tcomeb ack/ nohe alcannnt ... goiiiiiiing numbcant fee;l anythig

its darktoo dark cant feelseew hatis this? roots/wy?

bleedingbleedingcantholdtimenothingmoreeternityiscoming
thetreeohgodthetreewhatisthisitsnot/shoudntbeherenotrealnotnormal
zerowasmadhewasmaditwasalieitsnotrealwhyisitherenononononononono

Lost Time part II

I do believe they are starting to get to me. How could I not notice that it has been a week? They are good, very good, to be able to cloak their temporal manipulations from me. Now two days gone in only a couple of hours, it could not have been more than five or six hours since I wrote that last post.

Right now I have but a temporary and very short respite. A brief recap of events shall we?

Lucifer and he  appeared, along with that Black-Eyed boy I had spoken to before. Lucifer and he were fighting each other until they saw where they had come out of the nexus at. Lucifer broke off to face me and then he attacked the Child. Lucifer attempted to land several punches against me, which I blocked simply using my cane, then struck him in the jaw. However, it seems I fell into a bit a trap and he managed to land his next blow. It was nothing serious and I quickly recovered myself; we continued fighting for a while.

Meanwhile Ridley, feeling he needed to kill something or get himself killed, lunged at him as well, with his hunting knife already drawn and ready to cut into something. He cut into his wrist and gold 'blood' was spilling everywhere, and dissolving just about everything that came into contact with it, including Ridley's flesh, and that of the Child. The Child became enraged at this at jumped onto his back when a shadow I recognized too well fell over the area and a cold wind began to blow. All was plunged into darkness all of a sudden, and of what followed I am uncertain. I was hit by something, and I believe I may have opened a gateway and escaped for the next thing I realized I was back inside. The normal daylight had returned, he and the Child were gone, leaving only myself with Ridley and Lucifer. Ridley seemed not to have sustained much injury, merely what he had acquired from his blood. Lucifer and myself however had come out of it rather the worse for wear. Lucifer was now missing an arm, and would then have fallen to Ridley's tender mercies had he not managed to exit back into the nexus. For my own injuries it appeared that something had broken my arm, possibly trying to tear it off as it had done to Lucifer. The cause of which is still unknown.

Thus, the first battle is done, its outcome remains in question. Temporal energies are still fluctuating and dimensional tearing is getting worse. One of the pieces may have been removed from the board. Uncertain. Too many unknown factors still remain.

I do not know, I feel something is going to happen again soon. The second battle may not be far off.

~Regards

Lost Time

Well well well well well...

I see that there has been quite a bit going on in my absence. Now, you may wonder what was happening to me for me to be gone for such a stretch. You are probably disappointed that it was really nothing that will be very interesting to describe. We shall come to that in due course. However, for the brief period that I have been back there have been some remarkable occurrences taking place, one in fact I have only just returned from. These also we shall get to at the proper moment.

Where do we begin? Ah right, after Ridley arrived and blew up my room at the inn. Should I perhaps refresh your memory? It was a while ago for you all was it not? Well, there I was just enjoying a good book when that girl informs me that Ridley is outside. Now we had not seen much of him since his little falling into madness way back when. He had been possessed by Lucifer, who, it seems, has lost his own body and currently exists purely as a thought construct. I am pleased to say that this is my doing, although that is why he was coming after me. Wanted to get control of me, for revenge of course, but he also thought it would allow him to get closer enough to the Master to do... well, something. We are still not yet very clear on that aspect of the situation.

So I was transported to Lucifer's domain for 'processing'. Or to be more accurate, to be tortured for three weeks while he attempted to break into my mind. He seemed to have forgotten that he tried that once before and it did not work, and did nothing to attempt to gain better results. I am quite sorry to say that this is all the detail I can give you. I am sure you were expecting a bit more with my being away so long. If you like, I suppose I could go into great detail about how I was tortured during the three weeks. Should any of my dear readers be into such things.

Eventually he realized that I would not break and so tired of me, dumping me back here at the house. Intact I may be, but three weeks of persecution at the hands of a madman with delusions of godhood does take its toll on one. Weakened as I was I would be unable to open a Gateway and a trip on foot would do nothing to help my condition; as such I contacted the Ark for some assistance and was told it would be forthcoming. In the meantime I was informed of these recent developments. This mostly confirmed some things which have been written on my blog in the last month, but there were some more recent happenings of which all of you out there are unaware. I am also troubled by those last two posts Ridley made. But, updates first.

I learned from Phantasm that the girl, Madison, had disappeared from the Ark, though with as much attention as they were paying her, I wondered that she had not simply walked out all on her own. Secondly, there was the little issue of the Black Eyed Children. There had been increased activity ever since my little encounter last month and they appeared to be acting aggressively towards the Disciples, many had disappeared or wound up dead somehow, though nothing like what happened to Knuckles, it had been the Children's more standard methods. Suddenly it had ceased altogether. Dropped below even normal levels of activity, almost nothing. Given some past experience I would say that this has me even more worried. The Children must hunt. If they are not, then it means they are frightened of something. I will have to consult with the Master...

I digress. I was still speaking with Phantasm, she was filling me in on Ridley and Maalik's little trip back here where they had encountered the Manifestation, when I heard a noise outside. Just a slight noise it may have been, but it was off somehow. Not a usual outdoors noise. I would have investigated but that soon proved unnecessary; the source of the disturbance drew attention to itself. From the next room I heard the sound glass shattering and repeated once or twice as someone, clearly, was breaking out the window. I removed my pistol from the desk drawer and set out to confront who or whatever it was that had just broken in.

Cautiously I peered around the corner with my pistol at the ready for the first sign of an attack; there I saw that an old shovel had been used to destroy the lovely front window. Not a second later I was shown the face of the trespasser and who should it be but my dear old friend Davey. Yes, that blasphemer whose mind I had had such fun screwing around with before other matters took precedent. I had already learned of his presence here when Ridley escaped from the labyrinth. He appeared to be alone, without his dear sister and I was greatly disappointed. I had hoped I might be able to fix some... problems which had arisen. Nevertheless one must allow themselves to be discouraged, a gift is a gift after all.

As the boy climbed inside I took aim with my pistol, then fired a shot at his knee. Somehow he dodged it; appearing quite surprised to see me there he speedily recovered himself and found cover before I could fire again. It was then that I was put on the defensive as he revealed his own firearm and took a couple shots in my direction, forcing me to duck back around the corner. We were both covered then, either one of us tries to come out the other ones going to shoot. Well, this was a right fine situation we had going on here, so perhaps it would be an opportune moment to tempt fate a bit. Somebody had to do something to get this thing rolling, and naturally it would have to be me. The boy was peering through his barrier just enough to see me should I attempt anything, I do not think he was expecting me to suddenly leap out and rush across the room. He raised himself, ready to fire a shot, and I did the same.

There was but a moment of pain as the bullet cut into my shoulder. Nevermind, such things are trivial in the service of our Master. But I saw the boy fall backwards and knew I had also managed to hit my target. Dammit, I was still weakened from the weeks trapped in Lucifer's realm, a bullet wound was not helping matters any; I would have to end this quickly. I leapt over the couch that the boy had been ducked behind; he lay on the ground, one arm lying limp as the blood oozed out. There was another crack. Must have switched hands, under better circumstances I would have realized; he shot me again. It was starting to get to me now, with the state I was in already even the Master's powers were taking a while to patch things up. But I would not be bested this day and was able to land on my prey exactly as I had planned. Needed to work quickly now.

I knocked his gun out of his hand before he could try anything more and, holding my pistol with my good arm, attempted at knocking him out with the butt. To no avail, as it seemed he would be having none of that. So I caught him off guard a tad with a blow to the jaw using my bad arm. This made the pain spread faster so I knew I would need to hurry. Quickly, while my dear friend had not a moment to recover, I took another shot; it was clear though that I was out of it, my blows were not having the desired effect, my first one did so only because of surprise. Getting his one arm free he was able to deliver a punch right in my face. Had I been merely human I have no doubt my nose would have been broken. The pain from this attack coupled with two gunshot wounds and the fatigue my entire body had been feeling since my return were making me dizzy. He took the opportunity to throw me off and attempted to find his gun. The idea that this might be the end for me did cross my mind, but I try to never dwell on such thoughts. There was blood in my mouth and the taste of it, well, it makes me feel alive. I would not be dying without a fight. Of course, you can see that I did not die.

Of course, there also was no fight. By me, at any rate. Oh, I was all ready for a nice little battle to the death, as my dear friend had rather unsportingly retrieved his firearm. Well, another bullet was unlikely to act favorably for me, thus my only course of action at that point would have to be swift and decisive. Then I heard the Leaves. Yes, the Black Leaves. The boy heard them also and stopped cold. My escort had arrived, better late than never.

The boy turned and made a mad sprint for the window. He nearly got outside too when there was a band and there he goes flying out onto the lawn. I look back and who should be there but my old friend Ridley, of course. He turned to me and grinned.

"Sup Archy. Enjoy your vacation much?"

Crazy idiot, but he returned his focus to business in an instant and rushed to the window. I could not quite make out what he was yelling but it was soon followed by him emptying the rest of his gun outside. Luckily, we are fairly isolated here, Fisk would not be pleased to have to deal with this after what happened with that other situation. Oh, did I tell you, the Master's plans for that are proceeding quite smoothly. In fact, it should be quite soon that...

No no, must stay on topic, there is little... we do not have long until we must go. Davey boy managed to escape from the house, but Ridley is a persistent one and decided to follow along, forgetting all about me there of course. I pulled myself to up and into a chair, only to be greeted by still more surprises. One of the Children was there, a boy who appeared to be about ten years old. From his face I could see that he was very confused and there hung about him a feeling of temporal displacement. He did not quite seem to know where he was; the Children are also known to react negatively in such situations, but being that I had little chance of escape at the present moment I thought there could be little harm in striking up some conversation to pass the seconds until Ridley should report back. So I asked him why he was there.

"It is him, sir; he has driven us all apart. He is going to devour us."

Of course, in reply I inquired as to whom he was referring. The Child only said that he was trying to drive them towards the Bleeding. He wanted to purge the Children from the light. Nothing further was I able to gather from the Black-Eyed boy, all further inquiries were either given nonsense answers or ignored all together. He never moved, merely stood there staring into space with that perplexed look on his face.

About an hour later, there we were still: the Black-Eyed boy continually refusing to move in any way, myself bleeding in an armchair, though by this point in somewhat better shape than I had been previously. I heard some noise outside and, being now able to rise, I went to see. Yes, clearly I remembered what had happened on the last occasion I had done that. Outside it was just beginning to get dark out; the sky was a lovely dark shade of orange to one side and to the other it was just turning violet. There was a faint breeze blowing through the trees, rustling the leaves. Such a soothing sound is it not. I can think of few more relaxing.

At any rate, as I exited the house I could see a figure emerging from out of the trees. The figure appeared to be carrying something. Soon I could see that it was Ridley returning, with a knife cut across his face and his favorite jacket in shreds. He looked quite agitated. What he carried was the girl, but not Madison, or rather, not the one of her we had had before. The past version, I believe I called her Sarah before, I see no reason not to continue doing so. In a rather ungentlemanlike manner (but I suppose there is no reason for me to expect otherwise) Ridley dumped her onto the seat on the porch. She was in a quite deep sleep certainly, for no one could have continued sleeping while being handled by Ridley.

Apologies, this moment is passing, we must go. Yet I have but little remaining to speak of. Some other day it seems, we must be off.

Another Game has begun. There are those that shall fight on both fronts, yet many are unaware that the Player is moving pieces on a second board.

Something... no I cannot-- not yet.

~Regards

It began to rain in the Black Forest...

The Sergeant lie in the mud, broken and bleeding. He too had heard the voice in his head.

"You are not one of my children."

He had been told that he was not worthy to be chosen. The Sergeant wept. Why had he been forsaken? Why had this gift not been bestowed upon him as well? He reached out slowly with one arm and attempted to pull himself up, but his legs could not move. He refused to die there, in the rain and the darkness and the trees. If He would not accept him, then he would find a way to hurt Him. There had to be some way to end Him. After all, everything has a weakness.

Doesn't it?

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

Again, so sorry for interruptions yesterday. There was some business matters that just could NOT be avoided. Let's get started shall we? This is gonna be another long one...
Now, where were we?

Our brave little toaster soldiers had done away with good ol' doctor Abendroth, and had discovered a strange bone seemingly connected to his recent experiments. Along with this was what appeared to be the doc's journal, which told of his meetings with a creature in the forest. The doctor had been driven mad and in the end he wanted the creature to destroy the world for him.

While the Sergeant was still reading out of the Doc's journal one of the men was still patrolling the lab, making sure to keep an eye out for anything strange. Strange things do tend to crop up on missions like these, don't they? Sadly, recon-guy never saw what hit him. Oh, but he definitely heard what hit him. A mad creature in an SS uniform, screaming like an ape jumped out behind the soldier, throwing his arms around the him and plunging his knife into the guy's neck. He broke the neck and continued hacking at it until he'd detached the head. Would've sat down to a nice little meal if not for the fact that his screaming had of course called the other soldiers over there. Bullet thru the brain, down goes mad nazi (see, I can spell it right when I want to, get off my back).

There were only four men left now, and Sicarius decided they needed to leave before anything else happened. In all the years that he had been dealing with the supernatural, this was something quite different from anything he'd seen before. This place they were in was just... wrong, it should not exist, there seemed to be no natural laws here, only chaos.

"My, but gentlemen, you'll never find the way out of here like that. I won't let you go without me."

Sicarius jumped and turned to see where this voice had come from. It was one of the other Nat-zee dudes. Where he had come in from, it was hard to say as there was only blank stone walls in the direction he was coming from. His uniform was in tatters, though he appeared to be wearing some other kind of uniform in the places where his was especially damaged. There was a bandage around his head, covering his left eye. His right leg was missing and in its place was some form of artificial limb, the likes of which the soldiers had never seen before, it was shiny metal and it moved just as a normal leg would move. Strapped on his back was a rusted old sword, the end of which had broken off, and in his hand he held what looked to be a rifle, but it was no type of rifle that any of them had seen before. He spoke again:

"The darkness gentlemen, children of darkness. There are too many of them, can't fight past them on my own, even with these sorcerous weapons I found here."

Sicarius asked the nazi what had happened to him. The nazi said they needed to hurry, He would be getting close now since the old man had finished his experiment. Sicarius figured the nazi might at least be less dangerous than whatever creature it was that lived in this place. They followed, and the nazi talked.

"We came down here six days ago with orders to kill Dr. Abendroth. Himmler got wind of what the old man was trying to do and wanted it stopped. We found him, tried to take him out, but he said it wasn't Time yet. He did something and the maze shifted, we got separated. I found Erich, dead, something had ripped him open, removed all of his organs. Then I found Friedrich. He looked so old, he started screaming at me, said I was devil come back from the dead, said he'd seen the creature kill me months ago. I only barely escaped before he shot me. I don't know about the others. But that creature, that thing that wears the form of a man, that I've seen. What the doctor tried to control. He was a fool. The beast, it is chaos and death incarnate."

They had been climbing a steep stairway for must've been about twenty minutes. All the Time they could hear noises all around them. First it was the screaming, then there was that strange tekeli li, tekeli lie coming from somewhere they could not place. Then they heard the children. The voices children, yelling at them from out of the darkness as they neared the top of the stairs. When they did reach the top the yelling became angry, the children told them they could not leave, they said that He wanted them here, to play with them. The soldiers continued on, following the nat-zee boy to a large door ahead of them. The children said they would not be leaving, that they would die. Sicarius, out of the corner of his eye, saw things moving in the shadows. Lots of things. Lots of small things. Small and human-shaped things.

He yelled at the nazi soldier, the children were there. He shouldn't have done that. The children were playing, they didn't like it when people found them hiding. The nazi turned swiftly, knowing that it was already too late, and fired into the shadows. Bright bursts of light shot from the barrel of his gun, he yelled at Sicarius and his men to just shoot them, hurry up and shoot them and they might still be able to escape. They did so, but to no avail. One of Sicarius' men disappeared, just disappeared into nowhere. Then one of the men was shot in the chest. They turned and saw another natzee running thru, trying to reach the door and gunning down anything in his way. The first natzee recognized him as Friedrich and tried to catch his attention. Amid all the confusion, Sicarius could hear the rustle of leaves. Leaves. He thought it odd that he should hear leaves in such a place at such a Time as this.

Then he heard the nazi scream. He turned to see Him. The creature. Chaos. Death. Wearing a twisted mockery of the human form, the beast stood nearly twelve feet tall, its arm long and twisted, like the branches of a tree. It wore a suit, a dark suit, so very dark it appeared to take all light from the area. And a tie, red as blood, around its neck. What Sicarius noticed most though was that the creature had no face; where a human's features should be it was just blank, empty. Maybe that's why he didn't immediately see the tentacles coming from the creature's back, grabbing the natzee that had been leadin them out. At least, not until the creature started ripping the natzee apart with those tentacles.
That was what snapped Sicarius out of his daze. The children were gone, at least he thought they were since he couldn't see them around any more. That Friedrich fellow was gone now too, but the Sergeant was still there, and very bewildered looking, he appeared to not really know what was going on. But then, Sicarius didn't either, he just knew they had to get out. He yelled to his last remaining comrade and motioned for the door. The Sergeant also snapped back to reality and the two of them rushed for the big door. Sicarius did not dare look back to see if the creature was following them. Somehow they could still hear the screams of the natzee, though surely he must've been dead already?

They kept running, past the rows and rows of pews, the stain-glassed windows, things which surely were not supposed to be in this very ancient church which appeared on no map. They reached the big door and struggled to get it open. The door was very large and very heavy, but soon enough they were able to pull it open just enough that they could get through. The Sergeant sneaked a glance behind them and gave a yell. The creature was standing only a few feet from them, appearing to have never moved at all, the body-parts of the now certainly very-dead natzee held in its tentacles. The creature was looking at them, he could just tell that it was, even without a face. Sicarius would not allow the creature to ensnare him though; he grabbed the Sergeant and pulled him away from the old church. The creature remained on the other side of the doors, still just standing there, still just staring. The two soldiers took off through the forest.
Sicarius and the Sergeant evenutally had to stop for a rest, though. They had't seen the creature anywhere after they got outside, so they thought it might be safe to stop, at least long enough for them to figure out how to get out of there without running into any Nat-zees. The Sergeant took out his compass, but found that it kept pointing in different directions, at one point the needle even appeared to be attempting ot point straight down. It seemed they would have to have to just start walking and pray for the best. So they started off, keeing an eye out for the creature, for Him, or any other unnatural beings that might be hiding in the forest.

It seemed to Sicarius that they had been walking for a very long Time. The Black Forest is very large of course, but somehow he just didn't feel right about it. He didn't feel as though they were getting anywhere. He made note of a tree with a very unusual shape. Several minutes later, he thought they passed it again; he couldn't be sure so took out his knife and carved a cross into it. Some minutes later they passed the tree with the cross. They were going in circles, though Sicarius knew they couldn't be, they were always heading in a straight line. At least, normally they shouldn't be, but today was very very unusual. The creature had them in a loop, and a very good one it seems, as long as it had taken him to figure it out. The creature could be watching them, it probably was watching them. Or at least keeping them busy until it felt like dealing with them itself. Sicarius knew he'd have to act quickly to get them out of the loop.

There was a gunshot. Sicarius turned to see the Sergeant, his gun raised, the creature several yards off unharmed by the bullet the Sergeant had just attempted to put thru His brain. Assuming it had a brain in its head, of course. The Sergeant fired again, again the creature was unaffected and now the Sergeant was out of bullets. The creature was ignoring the Sergeant though, He passed right by the Sergeant, looking at Sicarius the whole Time. Sicarius was unsure what to do, the guns wouldn't work and he wasn't sure he had any magick that could affect this thing. He had simply never encountered something like this before.

The Sergeant saw that the creature had ignored him, passed right on by without even taking a second to kill him on the way. How DARE this fucking bastard! He'd killed the damn Natzee, and wasn't he worth more than a stupid fucking Natzee? The Sergeant had dropped his knife somewhere during the confusion so he found a good-sized tree branch that had fallen and snapped off the end to make it sharp. He ran at the creature, planning to impale the bastard on the limb; somehow he felt certain that this would kill. He just KNEW that it would. It didn't. The branch went through the creature alright, but He didn't even seem to notice it. The Sergeant grew more enraged, pulled the branch out of the creature and started beating the thing with it. The creature took notice now, but only as a man would acknowledge the fly buzzing around him. The creature unleashed His tentacles on the Sergeant, who dropped the branch and broke into a hysterical laughter. The tentacles grabbed him and merely tossed him over into a tree. Though to be fair, the throw did succeed in breaking several of the Sergeant's ribs, puncturing a lung, causing massive internal bleeding, and some right nasty damage to his spine.

Somehow the Sergeant was still not amused. It didn't matter, he couldn't move now, and it was Sicarius that the creature was interested in. He hadn't even looked away from Sicarius while disposing of that little irritation, just continued looking at Sicarius. Sicarius still didn't know what to do; he couldn't move, it wouldn't matter if he did, there was no way to escape this thing. He knew this was true. There was no way that he could fight this thing for it was Death and Chaos and Eternity; it could never be destroyed. He wondered why this being would possibly bother the affairs of men, for beside Him we are nothing; we are small, insignificant, weak. Imperfect. Truly this being must be perfect.

Sicarius felt humbled. He knew now what he must do, so he bowed before Him. It was only proper that he give proper respct to one so far superior to himself, was it not? Then he heard the voice in his head. A voice horrible, yet soothing, so very much like a voice in a dream yet it held much authority.

"You have chosen wisely, my child. Arise and serve Me, give your life into My service."

Sicarius could not refuse. To do so would be madness. What purpose was there in serving men? It was only in following Him that one would gain power. For He WAS power, and those who stood against Him would be destroyed. Destroyed forever. But for those who stood with Him, they would gain eternity.

He could hear the leaves again. But he knew now. The leaves were good for they were of His world. Sicarius was dead now. In his place was something new, in his place stood a man more complete, a man made more whole. There were others that had been chosen by the Master. It would now be his job to bring this gift to his fellow man, to give these chosen their purpose. He had been like them only moments ago, weak and without purpose. Now he was strong, he was complete. He would help them find the truth.





Well, there we go. Damn, so motherfuckin' long. Story Time with Uncle Ridley is done now chillins, so off to bed wit' ye. Time for all good little boys and girls to get some sleep. And now that that's done with, we'll be getting back to our normal activity. Namely, fucking runners up the ass, scaring small chillin shitless, and tracking down that asshole that shot me in the arm and stole a whole fuckin week from me. Remember, I do this because I love you. I love each and every last one of you. Don't forget that my chillins.

He will rise soon. We await his return.

Y'all stay frosty. We're always watching.

HOT DAMN BISCUITS SWEET BEJEEZIN CAJUN FRIES

Did I get your attention? I hope so.

Yeah nothing happened. It was not a black-eyed little brat that I saw, just Salem standing there being all creepy and shit. Damn kid, I don't why they let him just wander around wherever it likes. Not exactly normal looking, people might notice. Then again, it's not like I'm one to obey rules so what the fuck ever.

Now, you may be wondering, what does Uncle Ridley have for us tonight? Well gather round chillins, cause it's Uncle Ridley Story Time. Yaaayyyy!!!!

Tonight we gon' go waaaaaaay back, all the way back to good ol' 1940. Pearl Harbor has not yet been bombed so Uncle Sammy ain't yet in the business of killin' Natzees. Not official-like anyhow.

Enter our hero, part of an elite team of American soldiers specially assembled and shipped over to Natzee-land in order to rid it of Natzees. This team is super-duper secret, so secret in fact that they don't even got no name; they just move in, kill Natzees and leave before anyone knows anything has happened. Their mission at the Time of our story? Headin' deep into the Black Forest to capture a Dr. Balthasar von Abendroth. Dr. von Abendroth was a Natzee Mystical Person involved in all kinds of Natzee evil plots and shit. Shut up, I can't be expected to remember all the details.

Our intrepid hero is a young man acting under the codename Sicarius. Though the youngest member of the team, Sicarius was the most skilled and most dangerous of the warriors here assembled. A force to be reckoned with, certainly. After several weeks they had finally managed to track down the location of Dr. von Abendroth's hidden compound: an ancient church deep in the forest, which was not shown on any map. The journey would be perilous, while there should not be many soldiers in the forest, it was possible that von Abendroth would have his own personal guard. But besides this, they had far worse things to fear than simply some crazy Natzees. There were many terrifying and otherworldly things living in the forest.

Sicarius knew this. That was why he was there. Back in the States Sicarius had spent many years fighting against the abominations that sought to end our precious existence. And that was why it was he that was most dangerous, for it would be he that would have to stop von Abendroth's twisted experiments with the occult. But they met no opposition on the way to the hidden base, and so their only problem was with finding the church, which was shown on no map. They had only a general location to go by and that would mean covering quite a large area to find it, and so they were split up into several small groups to cover more ground. After some Time, one of the groups discovered the church and the others were called there. The team assembled, but found that one of the groups had not returned, and they could not be reached by radio. They waited, but they needed to get inside and take care of von Abendroth, and so they entered the church.

Immediately things began to get strange. The church had appeared to be only a very small building, little more than a shack; but upon entering the soldiers found themselves in a vast empty chamber, much much too large to fit inside the tiny building they had just entered. One of the soldiers threw up; he said there was something not right in the air. But they had a mission, and they knew from the start that things would not be easy. They trekked on, going deep into the structure, to where they knew Dr. Balthasar von Abendroth would be waiting. They could just tell in their guts that he would be there, wherever it was they were heading to.

Along the way these valiant warriors encountered many horrible things. Ghosts, apparitions, the screams of phantom victims, or perhaps these were not truly phantom but the real screams of those being subjected to von Abendroth's unholy experimentation. There were grotesque creatures that sneered and laughed at them and tried to grab them for their next meal. But Sicarius had trained his men well and they were able to make it through this twisted circle of hell. Still three of their number were lost: one was killed, the other two vanished into the labyrinth, and all had the feeling that they were being watched constantly.

It seemed like hours, but anon they came to a large wooden door set into a carved stone wall, deep deep within the compound. This was what they had been searching for. The carvings on the wall must have come from some distant, impossible antiquity. Had these their origin in man, or from a Time when man walked the earth at all? Violent scenes of eldritch creatures doing battle with one another were carved into the great, ancient stone wall. The soldiers looked over these scenes and felt unease at one figure that appeared repeatedly and, at the last, appeared the victor of this ancient struggle. Their discomfort sprang from the form of the creature, for it was vaguely that of a man and yet... and yet it was not. It held sinister resemblance to a being described to them in the legends of the local villages.

They had not come to witness these stone carvings, yet they became transfixed. Sicarius snapped himself out of it, he knew what was going on, he knew that these were there to trap them, that if they looked too long and too intently that they would be driven mad. He roused his men from their trance and reminded them of their duty: to open the door. They had brought explosives, which here in this place might do no good had not Sicarius enchanted them, allowing them to break magickal barriers. These were set up on the door, detonated, the door was gone. Sicarius and his  men rushed into the chamber beyond.

Greeting them there, was the form of von Abendroth. He appeared for all the world as a kindly old grandfather type, just a frail old man who could be of no harm to anyone. Yet the smile he wore betrayed evil intent. He had been expecting them, as they knew he would be. It was imperative that they got rid of the old man quickly. They started shooting. The sound of gunshots filled the room, smoke filled the air 'til all was dark. They stopped firing and waited for the air to clear. When it did they could see before them Dr. von Abendroth, bloody and full of bullet holes, but still standing, still that ominous grin across what remained of his face.

"Fools. He is coming. Der Fuehrer cannot control Him. He is going to destroy all of you."

Von Abendroth laughed, he started spewing out blood before collapsing into a heap on the floor. The men were unnerved at this, but Sicarius had heard the ravings of mad wizards before, and that was all von Abendroth was. They began searching the chamber, they needed to figure out what the old man had been working on so that they could destroy it. They would need to use the proper technique for disposing of whatever this was; if they used the wrong thing on it, there could be disastrous results.

Sicarius heard a shout from one of the men. He rushed over to find the Sergeant pointing at a bone. Just a bone, sitting by itself on a worktable over in the corner, with just a note that read The Angel of Death cometh. On a different table nearby were stacks and stacks of papers with von Abendroth's handwriting. Some were neatly written, many were scrawled almost illegibly on the page, and there were various odd letters and symbols which even Sicarius did not recognize. The Sergeant began reading aloud from one of the pages, which appeared to be some kind of journal the doctor had been keeping. It told of his encounter with some creature, some creature that sounded very similar to one they had heard of in the legends of the local villages. He had gone mad trying to tame the creature, trying to capture the creature for Der Fuehrer. He had found a way to summon the creature, he had gone mad and he wanted to end it. The doctor wanted HIM to end it all...

Well, I think that's enough for tonight chillins. You'd all best be gettin' off to bed now. But don't worry, Uncle Ridley promises to be back with the rest of the story tomorrow. Nighty night baby.

Stay frosty. We're always watching.

Yo bitchez, guess who's back

It's Ridley baby! Did y'all miss me? I know you did.

So yeah, I kinda went just a little bit batshit insane back there. I do apologize for that, don't know what could've come over me. No wait, I do. That Lucifer bastard was trying to use me to lure Archy into something, and it done worked too. We're still trying to track him down. And no, I don't remember anything that happened since I read Redlight's post like a month ago.

Shit, really? A whole month? Damn!

So once my mind was back up and running on all cylinders, Phantasm decided I needed to do some work (the horror!) and sent me on back to Archy's old hideout per Eternity's orders. Me an' Maalik (cause he's still in trouble, hehe...) go on down back there and find the house looking completely normal and with no sign of anything having happened there since I left. Boring as hell, or at least it woulda been if it wasn't for something making me feel really uneasy. Maalik sensed it too.

Going inside, we figured out why. Spatial anomalies up the whazzoo, I don't even know how to describe the crazy clusterfuck that was the inside of that house. We managed to find our way to the basement somehow, I don't even know how since we had to go up some stairs to reach it. Anyhow, in that little room where we'd chained up the serial killer man there was some shit written on the walls. In blood, of course. And there was a body. Or rather, there were body parts. Belonging to crazy serial killer man, we determined upon locating the head. It was a very sloppy job, whoever did this took no pride in their work whatsoever. I was greatly disgusted at it.

We turned to leave and found the door had scadooed. Then the writing on the walls had changed and the door relocated itself behind us. It lead into that office building, some kind of conference room to be precise. We stepped out, since we didn't have nowhere else to go and hell, we weren't lettin' that damn room change around on us again. There was a big table in the center of the room, chairs all around it, a couple dead old guys propped up in em, lookin' like the grandpa in that movie with the crazy ass hicks tryin' to eat some teenagers. Great film.

Out the windows it looked out over a cityscape, completely normal you'd never guess that the space-time all around you was being raped. Maalik was lookin' at one of the dead old dudes while I was lookin' out the window at the streets below. Little cars and people moving down the streets. Then I realized that somehow, they really were little cars and little people, we were on the ground floor and everything outside was just a little doll cityscape. Maalik yelled at me, I turned to see the dead old guys apparently weren't quite dead 'cause they had gotten to their feet now and one of them had grabbed Maalik and seemed to have a much stronger grip than you'd expect from a corpse.

Naturally, I pulled out my gun and shot into the thing's head and eventually it released Maalik. the others had mobilized by this time however and as they were in between us, well that was that. I turned and jumped thru the window, just on a gut feeling, the glass shattered and I fell. We weren't on the ground floor anymore apparently, of course it didn't look like I was outside the building either. I was falling down some kind of maintenance shaft with wires and piping all over. Then I was not falling anymore, gravity had shifted and I was now standing on one side of the shaft, with lights flickering above my head. I walked on down the shaft, having nothing better to do and out of somewhere, crazy serial killer guy jumped out and was standing right in front of me.

"Oh hallo, Ridley, hows ya doin'? It'll be a rite time we'll haff here won't it?"

I drew my knife, he was already coming at me with his. Stabbed the dude in the neck, shoulda cut the jugular, he didn't go down, puts his knife thru my hand. Son of a bitch. I kick the foo in the face, knock him back, pull the knife out and plant it firmly into his heart. He's still going, lunges at me, I fall back to dodge it and then there's a gunshot; I turn around to see Maalik behind me down the tunnel. Crazy man got, is now just gone. I look around, I'm back up in that conference type room, no dead guys around, but there is a lot of blood soaked into the carpet now. I go out the door and into a hallway. I can hear this noise sort of... tekelilili. What the balls? It's comin' from the one end, so I follow it and it keeps gettin' louder and louder til eventually I come to a door, the sound obviously coming from the other side.

So I open the door. The noise stops. And I'm looking at myself. Balls. Yes people, I walked in on myself ducking behind a barrier of office furniture trying to avoid being shot by some asswipe in a trenchcoat. The nerve. Not having been detected yet, I decided it was only proper that I help myself. So I shot trenchcoat man in the balls and went over to greet me. It's not often I run into anyone so good-looking, especially in a place like this.

"Hey there, nigga, you looking fine. What're you doing in a place like this?"

"Hey man, you too. You know how it goes, business and all that. I remember you, you're here with Maalik, right? Crazy shit."

"I don't think I like the sound of that. You mean, crazy shit now? AND I'm going to be coming back here later? That blows."

"S'how it goes. But hey, lemme help you out. You just walk on through them doors over there, you'll get to where you need to be."

"Mighty neighborly of you. Hope to be seeing you again."

Leaving myself to leave through the door I just entered through, I head on through the appointed door. To be greeted by Maalik screaming in rage. I'm in the basement and he's hacking the serial killer guy to pieces. The same pieces we saw when we first arrived maybe, but who the hell knows anymore. He looks up at me with this just blank expression on his face, and said

"I had to kill him, boss, he knew too much boss, right boss? Kill him. He knew TOO FUCKING MUCH!!!!"

Then I swear to Jeeves the sound just cut out. Like when y'all're watching them videos with the Master in them and the sound goes out? It was like that. Then I just see part of Maalik's skull get blown away and he drops to the ground. In the door behind him is that runner, the dude. Uh, Dave, he was called. Standin' there at the top of the stairs with a gun, which he fires a second time, down at me now. I try to move, but it still catches me in the shoulder. Ignoring this, I chased after him and am caught off guard by the sudden return of sound when he yells

"Shit! Sis' move it, he's coming back again!"

And then I'm back in the house, looking completely normal and I see him making for the back door, the girl already outside. I give chase, following them through the backyards for a while. Lost the bastards when we made it out of the suburbs and into the city, couldn't find em in all the damn traffic. Bastards.

Well, that was that then. I got my phone, was gonna call Phantasm and tell her I think Maalik was dead but I really had no damn clue, when I notice the date. Says it's the 19th, when we'd gone in there it was the 14th. Son of a whore. Just got back in Maine, gave the report to Phantasm. Don't know what the hell happened to Maalik, wait a couple days I guess, whatever. The runner was real enough so I suppose it coulda been that that was the real Maalik  that got shot there.

So there you go folks. Exciting isn't it? I know you're all much concerned about me, you love hearing from me don't you? I know you do.

And uh, Archangel too, cause this is like, his blog so yeah.

Stay frosty peoples, we're always watching.

Damn this shit

Phantasm here again. Eternity has arrived. Some higher up in the bureaucracy, I'm not entirely sure why he's here. He told us not to worry about Archangel, says he'll be freed when the time is right. That doesn't exactly ease my worry, since I'm aware that the relationship between Coronado and Eternity isn't exactly a friendly one. And even if that weren't the case, Eternity seems pretty shifty.

And now, this morning we got an anonymous tip that we should do something about those runners Archangel was following earlier. Not too soon after this, we finally get a report in from one of the agents we sent to investigate and verify some of Archangel's earlier reports. For one thing, they found the site where Knuckles disappeared, no black-eyed kids and no sign of Knuckles, or any of our other people for that matter, but the whole shipment that Knuckles was supposed to bring here was gone too. You don't need to know what that was. But they had also gone back to Archangel's old hideout and apparently found those two runners hiding out there. They saw our people and headed into the basement, our guys of course giving pursuit, only to find them gone. There's no way out of he cellar and it's one big open room, so there's nowhere to hide, but they managed to disappear. Also missing was the Jack the Ripper wannabe Archy had placed in stasis and tied up down there. It's possible the other two freed him, but I had been under the impression they were trying to get away from him.

This is all bullshit. Obviously, though this needs to be checked out again. I happen to have a few hard knocks lounging around here that could stand to do some real work, so I think I'll give them their new assignment.

Coronado's Gone

This is Phantasm.

So like he told y'all he's just been here chilling with us. Well, as much as he actually chills, I guess; he had Maalik punished for letting those kids find the Ark and now he's been more or less running the show around here. There's  rumors too that the Tall Man has something special planned out that he wants him to take care of personally once He it gets rolling. I guess Coronado considers that quiet, but for most of us here... well, ain't normally much going on here.

So anyway, Thursday night. I was just down in the club having a drink, nothing too much going on, it acutally was a pretty quiet night. Then there's a loud noise and the building shakes, like there was an explosion. Of course, people start freaking out like the herd of animals they are and scampering around all over the place. In the middle of it all that little bitch that Coronado's been dragging around with him runs over to me. She's babbling on about Ridley, that he shot some kind of cannon at the room and then just jumped up through the hole. Hot damn!

We head upstairs and find the door to Coronado's room closed and some kind of... static-y sound coming from the other side. It took me a minute to finally break it open, longer than it should've with the cheap ass construction we've got in this place. I fell into the room and there was nothing there. Literally nothing. An empty blackness. That static noise was still there, getting louder, and then I think there was another sound I could only just make out of the static. Something like.... sort of like "tekelili". I lost all track of time and it felt like I'd been standing there for hours.

Then suddenly I was standing there in Coronado's room. For some reason the clock on the wall was the first thing I noticed. It read 11:55. Then I realized that the room was completely intact, there was no hole in the wall where Ridley had apparently blown it up. Only thing at all out of place was that the book Coronado had been reading was lying open on the floor. I picked it up, didn't know what else to do. Coronado loves his books and wouldn'ta just dropped it on the floor, so I figured something must've actually happened. And then there was Madi. When I remembered that she followed me up there. I think she was caught in that darkness too, whatever the hell that was, and it seems to have had some effect on her, cause she was on the floor passed out.

What the hell? I mean really?

Stuff's been hectic the last few days, with Coronado gone I've had to take over here. We did finally find Ridley. Passed out in a gutter on the edge of town. When we woke him up he just started spouting some meaningless random crap. He doesn't seem to be exactly conscious, it's like he's stuck kind of half-asleep and doesn't know what's going on around him. We've got him locked up and are trying to snap him out of it and see if he'll say something that actually means anything.

This brings me to my next point. I actually read through the stuff Coronado and Ridley wrote on here. Coronado, you do love being a dramatic asshole, don't you; vaguely alluding to shit when you know what's happening here. He probably doesn't want me to tell you all this, but whatever, he isn't here right now.
The force that's been screwing with him, the angel of light, the incident that got Coronado put into Stasis. It's all the same thing. His buddy Lucifer's back. It has to be him. Damned if I know how.

Lucifer used to be one of us, worked with Coronado. Apparently volunteered for some project and got altered by the Master, went batshit. Actually bought into his namesake, said he could surpass the Tall Man, obviously failed and got killed. At least I thought so. Who knows anymore. Did succeed in injuring Coronado enough to put him into Stasis, from where he just got released.


Great shit.

What, outside? Ignore him, it is not anyth---
What? Well, you should have told me sooner. Hurry up! Go and find---

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I say! What the devil does he think...? Get out, quickly! Bring Phantasm back here! Hurry up!
...
Well, Ridley, to what do I owe the honor?

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Quite so? And if I protest?

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Oh well, I thought as much. Hmm....
I see you have us cut off from the rest of time. He wants to face me alone without any interference, I take it. Well, this should at least prove interesting.

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Well, may as well get this over with, what do you say? Come on n---

Quiet

My dearest children,

It has been most dull around here since the incident at the Ark. The Master has his own personal agenda with that girl and at present my services are not required in that area.

My good friend Ridley has yet to make an appearance. That is to say, he has not directly made is presence known, but I have felt him nearby, lurking just out of sight. I know not for what purposes he has brought me back to this place, though it is most assuredly that who are whatever force may be manipulating him is doing so for the purpose of luring me here.

I am afraid of that is all I have to report to you at present, my dears. For the moment then, I must bid you adieu.

~Regards

The Ark

Well, there were some unexpected occurrences at The Ark last night

The plan has been, simply to meet up with Maalik, the local.... commander we could say, who had been in charge of Ridley when he was posted there. He had retained a few bits of information from the case, and I had thought we might be able to find some reason for Ridley’s returning here. We met up at the club later after I wrote that entry yesterday, and discussed the little bit of information we had available to us.

Now besides myself and Maalik, of course the girl was with me, as well as another Disciple, Phantasm, and her child, Salem. Salem is not exactly human and tends to give normal people a somewhat disturbing feeling. She insists on dragging the kid everywhere, I am sure, because she enjoys seeing how people react to it. She had not been around at the Time of the incident, but she was besides myself one of the only people that Ridley would actually bother to talk to. She was rather a bit unhappy at hearing what had happened to him, but she could not say that it was unexpected.

Now we did not manage to find out much. However we have seemed to confirm a theory I had entertained almost from the beginning, that this force that is acting against us is also related to the incident for which I was given to Slumber in the first place. What that is, well for now I feel that best remain quiet. There are certain... complications arising from the other beings. The Black-eyed Children do not like to be alone, they always travel in groups. They also generally cannot harm one until after they have been given invitation, and usually do not actually attack others themselves. The boy was by himself and was able to apparently kill Knuckles with his own power. These two things would be bad enough, but with other things that have been happening it assures us that something very much wrong is going on. Just what exactly, well, that is anyone's guess.

As we sat discussing recent events, a boy and girl came into the club who appeared to be on a date. I noticed them come in, but did not think anything much of them until Maalik pointed them out again. He said he recognized them. That boy Ridley killed had been stalking some girl, it somehow had something to do with why he had been trying to join us. The guy had had a brother also. You get one guess who this pair happened to be. Showing up at The Ark most definitely was not a coincidence. So I did a bit of reconnaissance on the situation, and while watching memories is much more difficult without physical contact, I managed to pick up enough information from the girl.

It seems Fisk overlooked one little detail when he was cleaning up here. The brother, Roman, was not too happy about the police just suddenly dropping the investigation. The girl, Fiona, wanted to help him out. There was an officer who apparently is not aware of how things roll here, and was aiding the kids in conducting their own little investigation of the situation. They managed to track some of his activity to the club, and well there they were. Maalik would have to punished for allowing such a breach twice. Still, they intrigued me. There was something about the girl, I noticed it in her memories, but it had not been clear enough for me to see during my brief scan. This place was just getting more and more interesting by the second….

Well then Salem became focused on her. The kid has some kind of sense, I cannot really describe it. Salem can… see things about people. And if the kid was so fixated on this girl then there must indeed be something special about her. Phantasm and I were discussing this development when Salem decided to go over and talk to her. The kid right freaked her out, it appeared, being right there behind her when she turned around. The boy was gone, left her alone on the dance floor. Salem started spouting the kind of cryptic nonsense that some of my colleagues seem to enjoy taunting you lot with so much. A little side effect of the kid’s condition is apparently prevents normal speech. I do not know, there are far stranger things I suppose.

Phantasm goes over and retrieves the child; she managed to act all nice and normal, but I knew she was getting a kick out of watching the girl squirm. But that was what I needed. For her to be afraid. Because afraid she was weak enough for me to see just a little bit more clearly into her memory. It was for only a brief moment, but I could see it. I knew what she could do, and it might very probably be of use to the Master. I grabbed the notebook we had collected of information on Ridley, stuffed it into my pocket and walked out of the club.

It was a nice night, clear and dark. I had a little smoke while I waited. I did not wait long, Fiona came out very soon and stopped to wait for the cop. I could see that she was rather upset and wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible. Putting out my cigarette I walked over and got her attention. She was quite frightened when she saw me there, but I could tell she was putting a fine effort into not looking like it.

“Ah, I’m sorry. You surprised me. How can I help you?”

Inspiring fear in you mortals, it never gets old. I took the notebook out of my pocket and flipped through it. There was one thing particularly I wanted to give to her. I found it and scribbled my calling sign onto the front before handing it to her.

“I was told to give this to you.”

She stared at the envelope in my hand but did not grab it. She gave a nervous little laugh, and started rambling, not really sure what to say. From her tone it was clear that she was very anxious.

“You see, my dear, this was given to an associate of mine a while ago by a young man. They had some… business together. He was a friend of yours, I believe….”

She cut me off

“Bruce?”

And grabbed the envelope, pressing it close to her. She whispered, “Thank you.”

I nodded and returned inside. The doorman had seen everything, he had a good laugh about it. Where exactly is this going? Well, I do not honestly know, but it should hopefully prove to be an interesting distraction from my other business. This girl is… interesting. I think it shall be most entertaining to bring her over. The Master wants to see her.

Back on Ridley’s case, well, we do not really have much to go on now. He was following us closely on the way here, but after the encounter with the Child I have not seen any sign of him. Madison’s blocked memory may be my only lead for the moment. Oh, and I just remembered I will have to have Maalik whipped for his incompetence in allowing The Ark to compromised in such a way twice. Even if it did lead to some rather amusing diversions. One must take responsibility for their failures, after all.

~Regards