The Meet transcribed.

Alright. I said I'd transcribe that tape. We're in a bit of a lull, and I can't sleep right exactly now, so I'm going to try and type this up before shit goes down.

"Alright, Linux, Date August 22nd 2013. Meeting place, (Hahaha. Nope.). Time, approximately 5 oclock in the afternoon. I'm slightly early, I have scouted five different escape routes, I suspect two or three to be blocked by members of the organization "Shadow. Runners." I am meeting with their leader, "Frozen. Sorrows."" Silence for about ten minutes. For the remainder, Linux will be basic text, FS will be green, and anyone else will be blue

"Ahh. So glad to see you could make it, I was starting to worry you weren't coming."
"I always keep my promises. After all, a man is built on his word, is he not?"
"Why not take a seat Frozen, and I gotta ask, do you have a different name? One that won't make the freaking waiter look at us and call the fucking cops for suspected gang activity. I mean, jeez, you guys' names aren't exactly low profile."
"Anything by the same initials will do."  There's the sound of a chair being pulled back, and then FS sitting down.

"Alright, so you're the one that called me out to chat. What do you want to talk about Frankie?"
"You know? All I really want to talk about is you. I mean, you are sort of the worst thing to ever hit my crew. Tell you what. You tell me some things about you, we let you live, and I'll even tell you some things about us, and why we're here."
 "Whoah Whoah Whoah there big boy. I know you've probably got a gun trained on me right now from a window, but if you didn't notice, we're decently close to a police station. Oh, and I'm not stupid enough to come unarmed. Now, I know you can path, but if your boy doesn't get a kill shot the first go round, I'll get a fatal shot while I bleed out, and I'm pretty sure that you really like that nasty Oxygen habit."
"Alright. I get it. You think you can at least get collateral damage. Enough to make it not worth our while. Still. You're curious, you enjoy mind games, and I don't think you'll walk away regardless. So, how-"
"You know, no. We play this game by MY RULES. You tell me shit first. And then I drop the information you want."
"Mmm. How about no. Because even if you kill me, after you're dead, we will kill every single one of your little friends."
 "Ngh. Fine. Shoot."
"Good morning gentlemen. Can I start you with anything to drink?"
"Yeah. I'll take a root beer"
"I'll take a mojito, thanks ." There are sounds of the waiter walking off. "Alright. First up. We looked through your blog. Noticed you said your friend died. How bout you tell us what happened."
"I hate you. You know that, right? Fine, fine. I get it. Tell you or everyone dies. So, it started when I started. He was the one person I couldn't scare off in preparation of being a runner. He wound up following me. His girlfriend too. That's when I was still religiously using the symbol to protect my ass. Back to that later. His girlfriend wound up following him. It uh. It-"
"You know, I really wouldn't expect someone that tortures people to insanity wouldn't be so damn quiet about his own issues."
"I get it. Well. It ended poorly. She wound up dieing, and he blamed me. We wound up fighting, and I drew the symbol while I was thinking about him angrily. He died the next day. I saw him die. It was ugly. Bloody and horrible." There's silence for a few minutes.
"Oh, thank you, now, I'll have the (No specifics on food.)"
"I'll have (Nope). Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't come around here until after we pay the bill. Oh. And keep other people the hell away from us. We're talking privately, and there's five hundred in it for you if you do that little favor for us," Glasses are set down, the waiter walks away. "Alright. So you've been killing people since before you really started running. Next up. What's the deal with that cognitive dissonance, and what's up with that "other world" you were talking about."
"Been a while since I called it cognitive dissonance. But uhh. I started out noticing that it only hunted people with a prior connection belying a subconscious belief in it, or a recent knowledge and belief of it. I thought that there was a definitive connection to the mind. I don't know what changed, but I couldn't stop myself from believing. I thought that the effect of the symbol would vary depending on the mental state and intention of the person that drew it. I still think I'm right, mind you, but I'm a bit more hesitant to test it, especially since I'm a bit more unstable right now. That "other world" as you called it, is actually another reality. It's connected to that whole cognitive dissonance thing I mentioned. Oh something I didn't mention online yet. I uh, pulled your buddy with me. It was funny, watching him slowly go insane. He talked a decent amount before I had to put him down."
"Funny. You think that you being a monster will make me uneasy. You know. I have to wonder. Did killing your friend make you a monster? Or did you kill your friend because you were already a monster. Do your new friends realize that you killed your old friend? Ooh! Are you already planning to kill them? Or are you going to interrogate them and drive them insane first?"
"Shut up. I don't like hurting people. I'm not a monster. I answered your damn questions, now answer mine. Why the hell are you killing runners. Doesn't your master prefer to eat live prey?"
"Well, you know, I'm not actually working for "My Master" on this one. Working for a nice guy, calls himself Breaking Point. Kinda like you actually, likes to play with his kills. Don't know what he does, exactly, but it can't be much worse than what you do. Oh. And you have one more question."
"I get two more. First. Why did you ask me here. Second, is your company a finger on a fist, or are you a lone merc crew?"
"Ohh, alright. I guess I can answer those two. I asked you here because I like to know the tougher targets. Makes it easier to kill them. Second, we work together with other groups. But we're more casually connected. There are some nice professional groups that stay with the company that hired us full time."
"Well, that's just wonderful. Anyways, I'm off. Here- is my part of the bill, I'll cover the tip. You can give me a nice ten minutes of walking before you give me a tail. I'll kill him if I have to. Have a nice day. Try not to slip in any puddles of blood."

At this point, I assume he starts walking away after pushing in his chair. After about fifteen minutes he yells something, but I can't understand what. There's an increased frequency of tapping sounds, assumed to be sprinting. A loud sound rings out, assumed a shot, and about ten seconds after, it starts crackling a lot. Linux starts coughing about three minutes later, barely audible over the crackling. It cuts out shortly after. I assume he went to that place and met up with it.
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Well. Thinks he killed his friend. Don't really think of him as the type to kill people that aren't his enemy on purpose. Still, I'm pissed at him for putting us at risk so he could get a target. If he's not bleeding, dead or shot next time I see him, I'm still shooting him in the leg.

Frozen Sorrows here

Ahh. Keith, right? Yes. That's it. You. Well, Linux did a pretty bang=up job of protecting himself. Took out Rolling Fear in his first shot, Clipped Silentboy (Not his name, he just never talks, you understand.) With his second. He took a couple shots, not fatal, not even that bad, but shots all the same. Deciding he'd had enough, he ran out, tackeled silentboy, and went wherever he goes that we can't follow. I'm really hoping that master was there waiting for him. I took his Computer because why the hell not. Oh, and Keith, buddy boy, There's two of us left, and that's more than enough to take out every single one of you in a fairly short period of time. No hard feelings man, a job's a job.

He's gone. Again

Well. I got to Linux's place. It was a bit of a wreck. I mean. It was REALLY a wreck. There was some blood on the floor, couple splatters here and there. Fuck. Can't even tell whose blood it is. Can't tell what happened. Probably safe to assume he's either stuck in that weird place, or he's been taken or killed. All bad. His computer's gone. And I found his tape. Gonna transcribe it later. Thinking about finding Linux. Realizing I have no clue on where to find him or the squad. Hoping Linux shows up at some point soon. Me, Rob, and Mike are now on triple shifts. Ugh. I don't know how long we can do this.

keith read this now

Fuck. I've got a little time to type this up. Keith, I have "visitors" I'm three blocks north of you, then take a left, and proceed until you reach the closed house. I'll hide, and I'll travel if i can but i dont know if i can and i'd much rather not. saw the target last time i went there. got thrown around a bit. come well armed, there are three of them, leave rob and mike to guard the others just in case.

New Data

Second Guy

Name Given: Fineman
Age: 32
School: High School Grad
Military: Wouldn't disclose much, mentioned Egypt in passing. Suspect he was recently turned.
Personality: Faux Affably evil. Made lots of nice talk. Knew me well enough to push me.
Psychoses: None detected.
Childhood: Grew up Irish. Parents killed as IRA members, suspect child followed by starting career as a terrorist
Pathing: Displayed an attempt to path out. Magnets prevented pathing.
Travel: Freely traveled after I pulled him with me. Was much more cooperative afterwards.
End Notes: I accidentally traveled after an intense session. Had my hand on him, and he came with me. He was terrified. He became much more cooperative afterwards. Unfortunately, I wound up having to kill him shortly after as the rapid increase in azoth in his system caused him to rapidly become more and more hostile. He traveled five or six times within a two-three hour period, each trip taking approximate 10-20 minutes per trip, he was remaining stationary though, as his bindings survived the trip. Refreshed the bindings whenever I could to prevent azoth deterioration.


So, yeah. I can pull people with me when I travel. That's both good and bad. It can be weaponized, but I also might hurt those I like. Gonna have to be more careful. In other news, I'm still alive. Haven't been shot at by the outfit yet. Not going to put up my location or any plans for obvious reasons. Oh, Frozen Sorrows, if you read this, your boy was screaming mad by the end. I killed him quickly, ended that suffering before it got too bad. You and your boys can still get out of town. Maybe give me the location of your employer, I've got enough on my plate that I won't hunt you guys down. Offer's up until I take you.

The meet.

I'm off to my meeting. I'll update this when I get back

Back. Still alive. Uninjured. Won't transcribe the tape of the recording, not most of it anyways. Gonna go sleep for a while. Latest hostage was killed yesterday. I'll put his psych eval up tomorrow. Moving houses soon.

Alright. Well. The meet happened. I got a bit of information on those sons of bitches. They've got two pathers. Frozen Sorrows is a real hardass. Pretty sure he has some psychological training, knew how to press all the right buttons. The team is just performing a mission for some less well-armed individual. "Nothing Personal" He paid upfront, so grabbing him won't help any. FS said that they were hired by an individual called "Breaking Point." Said he wanted all runners in the area dead, and that he wanted the bodies if he could get them. Either he wants them for experiments, or he's more than a little sick in the head. Thinking I might want to find that guy. Frozen Sorrows told me to fuck off when I asked him where they leave the bodies. Gonna take me a while. Gonna finish taking down the veterans before I go after him. Keith, you guys should be safe for a while. Just keep watching, just in case.

Hunter becomes the hunted becomes the hunter

Well, looks like they're changing their focus from the group of runners to me, probably a good thing. I grabbed another one of theirs today. Spent over an hour shaking a tail. Prally need to practice that a bit more. Prally gonna get a lot whether I want to or not. Anyways, I'm safe right now. I'm letting the new guy stew for a bit. I'm gonna give you guys my theory just in case I fuck up and get caught.

First things first. I do NOT believe in the tulpa effect. I DO believe in a variant that I've not seen mentioned or named.

Second, the multiverse thing. Except it's not multiple universes, it's multiple realities. Reality branches for every chance, for every choice. And there's a shit ton of those. For practicality, I'll only refer to the ones I see and/or visit based on major differences.

Alright. Time for the big reveal . . . It is my belief that through thought, we cannot create something, but we can cause realities to intersect. Or, in some cases, we can move from one to another. Travelers, as I'm calling anything that moves from one to another, usually have stranger properties, as a result of not really belonging in the reality they are in. I'm taking a guess that it is from the reality I've traveled to, on account of seeing it there. That place was not pretty, let me tell you. I don't think the path is a part of that place, I suspect it's a different dimension based on pathers' descriptions of it, but who knows. That place was dead. Their were buildings reminiscent of those I've seen in our reality, but they were sludgy. Like mold had been eating away at them for a long time. There were azoth clouds, and there was nothing that was alive. I went into an underground bunker like situation in the other reality, found some papers. Mostly diaries from people that survived initially. It's a bit hazy, but it was either an instance of biological warfare gone horribly right, or some medical company that fucked up big time. People woke up and saw the black fog, didn't do anything at first. People started coughing it up, they started to wear government issue gas masks. That helped a little, which is also why I wear a rebreather when I visit. Well, after about a week, the news reported five people dead, and then people broke. Some people became like proxies, others went the typical insane, curled up in a ball, begging for mercy. At this point, the crazy-prepared invited the non-crazy neighbors into their bomb shelters. They survived for a few months before "something" came in. Started killing them. I don't know if this was everyone's favorite well dressed person first reality, or if he migrated to it after people started freaking out and giving up on their life. Maybe it was some batshit insane experiment, or a mutation of the azoth strain. Or maybe it migrates through worlds where everything's gone to hell, finishing it off, and then moving on. I don't know. Still hoping I can find some top-secret underground labratory that'll have more information on it. Oh, and in other news, I've been training myself in how to travel better, I can now open up much smaller holes to just look through. I can't move anything between them, which is good, because I'd rather keep everything nice and segregated in this instance, but yeah.


Oh, and just in case this guy or the next can path, do any of you guys know how to stop someone from pathing? Do I just have to restrain them? Or will I not be able to interrogate them?

Edit: Just got a brick through my window. That means I'm moving very soon. Their leader, Frozen Sorrows, wants to have a chat. In public, of course. Might go and meet him. Can't hurt. If it's public, and I'm armed, and I scout the area, and well, you get it. I mean, he already knows where I live. I'll update after the meet. Keith. Stay safe man. You guys should have a much easier time until they decide to stop focusing on you. If I meet him, it'll be on Wednesday on a beach-front restaurant. All of them'll probably be busy watching us, making sure I don't pull a gun or anything like that.

Edit 2: Alright. Everything seems green. The location has five escape routes that should work well. I don't think there was ever a point where there were less than three people walking on by.  Taking a handgun just in case anyways.

Psych Eval Round 2, part 1

Alright. First guy down. Won't tell you what I had to do to make him talk. This guy was a lot less talkative than anyone in the previous group. Despite the fact that I was much less kind. He said that his team called themselves the Shadow Runners.

Name: No name Given, Referred to as Shadow Runner 01
Age: 37
High School: Graduate
College: Went straight into the army

Military Experience: Served two tours as a Marine, left America to freelance in Africa for four years before becoming a Proxy.

Personality: Bloodthirsty Monster. Repeatedly threatened me. Normal Proxy stuff. Except he pulled on his bindings so much it rubbed his wrists and arms raw.

Psychoses: Rage.

Childhood: Ran away from home after killing parents. Created a fake persona by pretending to be raised on the streets. Claims to have let a sister live. 

Pathing: No indication of ability.

End Notes: Killed quickly after I finished taking notes. Indicated that there were six left. Keith's kill makes five. He indicated that one of them was learning to path, while another was adept at it.

Moving to a new facility today. Setting up Containment chamber tomorrow. Snatching another "Shadow Runner" sometime after that. Hopefully I can pull their leader.

Mission Report: 03

Alright. Well, it's been rough. We've had three casualties, plus one injury. We've killed one of the Proxies, Linux took one of the others. We can't really do the evals, they kinda don't trust us. They just want us to protect them for free. Although I can kinda understand why they don't trust us. Linux pulled something a day or so ago. Told me we should move the fucking runners to another location, one he had scoped out about five hours before. We got attacked not even five minutes of being out. They started bolting at the first shot. Two died quickly, another bled out after about an hour when we couldn't bind their wounds. Talked to him as he died. It wasn't fun. Linux fucking told us to move so that he could capture one of them. I managed to shoot one of them in the chest while they were distracted. Drowned in his own blood. Linux was gone before he got shot. So, if his estimations are correct, there should be between three and five left. Oh, and I got grazed. Nice little cut on my left arm. We only have ten or so left. I think one of them ran off on his own. I have Rob and Mike on patrolling duty right now. I'm going to head on out to pick up some supplies, taking one of the runners with me.

Feeling Tired

Fuck. I forgot how draining it was to be alone. Less sleep, more paranoid. The being afraid to close my eyes thing is a bit new. I don't move much, but if I slip for a moment, I'm much more vulnerable all day. I suspect my group would be able to ground me, but I ain't putting them at risk of getting pulled. They're still fighting their war. I've been watching, throwing in a bit of help now and then. Three more runners got killed. I took down one of their stealth experts. From what I can tell, there's about four or so more of these proxies. They're moving well, expert coordination, most have semi-autos, one had an automatic. I'm afraid that one might have a rifle, can't be too careful. The way they move suggests radios, which means there might be another person running the operations.

I've learned a couple things from the other side. I can't share them though. No. Not now anyways. Too dangerous, too risky. For me and for anyone else. I'm getting somewhat better. I've started carrying a rebreather. Keeps some of the Azoth out. Started leaving my body faster than it's going in. I was scared for a bit. Veins were starting to look greyish. Mind you, I'm stilling coughing up a shitstorm of the stuff, just considerably less than I was a few days ago. Might be getting used to it. Now if only I had the magic cure carter found before he died. Probably help a lot. I could probably even make trips on purpose for research purposes. Med, if you find it, when you get better, tell me how to make some.

Time's up, gotta go. Interrogation time. This guy will probably take a fair amount of time. After he's done, I'll try to grab another. And then I'll move. Not out of the hub, no, can't leave the others to their own devices, they might die, but to a different section. Prally be off while I scout the area and the corresponding other area. And while I question the guy. And set up camp. Might peek in on all a you every now and then.

Mission report: 02 Status 01

Before the reports, Linux is back, I guess. Not with us, but alive and well enough to type. Don't know whether I should be more scared about that place he talked about, or worried for his sanity. We'll keep looking for him, but it's going on the backburner.

Mission report: We found a large group of runners, and they were talking about some proxies that were ex-military. Which is bad. Like, really bad. As in, I don't think you get it. It wasn't just army, but some type of special ops. They've been kidnapping and brutally killing the runners one by one. Cutting them up real bad, and leaving them hanging. No bombs. Yet.
The runners are a bit weak. Most of them are coughing up azoth pretty badly. Little bits of blood too. I know Linux would want psych evals on all of them, so I'll probably start asking some questions soon. Shot at a moving shadow. Didn't hit everything, but whoever it was ran. Think it's time to give Mike and Rob some team tactics training. I'm pulling one of the guys in the group to work with me. Prally leaving my two to guard the rest after I train them. Don't think I'll break up our group into anything less than two people. Just a bad idea.

I'll be making a report when I make some headway on these guys.

That place

It's been a day or so since I moved. I'm tired as fuck, but I can blink. Still a bit worried. I just have to keep thinking that this is the real world. I think I'll give a little description of that place and how I got there. Should be safe. . . hopefully.

So. I went nuts with grief. With regret, with self-disgust. It was bad. At one point I stopped thinking that this was the real world. The only thing I still believed in was It. And now I believe it's name has power more than ever. Not directly over it, but over us. I know that thought can protect you, that truly believing it doesn't exist can protect you, it worked for me for a few months. I'm hoping that the symbols can have multiple properties depending on what you think as you write them. Well. When I stopped believing in this world, and kept believing in it, I closed my eyes for a few minutes, and opened them to hell.

Now, Carter made the Path sound pretty nasty, but this place wasn't the Path. It was more dead. Kind of like our reality, except darker, more demonic, and well, dead. I don't think I saw anything alive there, save two things, more on that later. I walked out of the room through rotting boards on the wall. Fog was all over, it was hard to see all that far, kinda like the dreams that It appears in. This was the world as I had left it, more trees, less hills, and a hell of a lot less people. I walked around the "town" for a bit, then turned and walked north. It's where I had been heading gradually. Made it to my hometown. It decided to attack at that moment.

Grabbed me by the leg and yanked me up. I shot at it, and it kinda reacted. More than it normally would based on all accounts anyhow. Not enough to do me all that much good, but enough to keep it from killing me. All I suffered was a broken nose and a concussion. Wandered around for a few hours, passed out, and thought it couldn't be real. Woke up in our reality, injured. I spent the next few days slipping in and out of our reality. I still don't know that I'm awake, or alive for that matter.

I said there were two life forms. It was one. Med said that Azoth is alive. That was number two. The fog that was messing with my vision, it was made completely up of small azoth droplets. I've been breathing that shit for a couple days. Coughing up a lot of it. Blood ain't black, not yet anyways.Just a waiting game at this point, I suppose, waiting until I visit again. I'll write down my theories later. Just in case I die.

EDIT: It wasn't fucking safe. Ouch, my everything hurts.

I'm alive

I can't type for too long. Every now and then, I go back. Not the path. Somewhere else. Somewhere dead. Like our world. Different, worse, more dead. Lot more azoth in me now too. It took me a few trips after the first one to notice that the black fog was azoth mist. Risk traveling everytime I close my eyes. It can't take this from me if I can see it, seeing is believing. Think this might kill me in a bit. Have a few months at best. Should go back and help out Keith and the others. My hands are shaking I'm on so much caffeine. Thinking about getting drugs, except those make reality seem less real. No. Bad idea. Gonna hurl. Prally gonna travel after this post. Gotta close my eyes. They burn. Maybe I'm just insane now. Maybe none of it's real. Or maybe it is, who knows? Maybe I can sleep safely. Maybe that place is just in my head. I started thinking of some grotesque scenes after I killed those proxies. Keith. Stop looking for me, start looking for more runners. If I stop seeing that place, I'll return. If not, well, consider me dead if I stop posting in a few months.

He fucking disappeared. From a room with one exit, that we always had one person watching. We're looking for him. I'll try to keep updated. Hopefully he's alive and not a proxy.

It's quiet.

So. The past few days, Linux has been alternating between laughing, crying, and sleeping. The food we've been leaving near his door has been disappearing, so we assume he's been eating. He's been quiet the past ten hours. I'm starting to get worried, but A)His door is locked, and B) I have no idea what state of mind he's in, and honestly, he fights really freaking unfair. We're probably going to check in on him if we don't hear from him in the next few hours. I'll send results later, if we do. I'll edit if it's nothing big.