Friday, December 13, 2013

Ji-Ja-Je-! Jack Attack. But not that Jack.

My Jack. The one I picked up recently. The little kid that's been living in my loop and following Duckie around like a lost Duckling. 

And yes, that's right. This is another fluff piece. I still have nothing from the Black Lake incident that would be safe to declassify and divulge...  yet at least. 

I've also no news on how the hunt for Picasso and Moth is going. I made a few calls to check in on my 'Finest', my personal kill squad of fire cultists, but their response boils down to "We're working on it.".

Unboiled, their exact words were, "God fucking damn it Fracture, for the 5th fucking time, we're looking. If we encounter anything interesting, you'll be the first to fucking know it. Fuck off."

The new Firecracker is such a peach isn't she? There's certainly something black, hard, and disgusting at the core of that one.

So yeah. This is a fluffy piece, on Ji-Je-'Jack'.

I'm certainly now that Jack was a hollow before Hollow's Eve. We have his face on file as such. I can not say, however, that Hollow's Eve had anything to do with him waking up. Jack is, after all, a child. Children, with their young minds, may very well be more capable of coming out of a hollowing on their own if given the right, or a strong enough, stimuli. Although killing several people in-front of a young hollow and then running at that hollow with a knife is hardly something I can retest. That circumstance is rather extreme.

Its also evident that Father adores children. The realization that he was about to lose a child may have caused him to unhollow Jack in hopes that Jack would be better able to defend himself in his awakened state. To those questioning why he wouldn't just show up and defend Jack himself if children are so precious to him, the answer is simple. Duckie was in the room. Father still very much hates Duckie and still refuses to appear anywhere near Duckie. So given the unique circumstances, its not unreasonable to think he would have just let his hold on Jack go in an effort to save Jack.

Furthermore, as Duckie was in the room, its not unreasonable to think that somehow Duckie did this. Especially if Picasso's theory that Duckie destabilized the loop and caused the Hollow's Eve incident is true. Duckie's own soft spot for children, combined with the violent backlash he seems to induce in slender related things, and the sight of a child about to be cut open may very well have resulted in him lashing out in more than just a physical way... this theory, if true, could be cause for great concern. If true... it would certainly explain why Father still hates Duckie so much...

I personally, remain convinced that the magic of Hollow's Eve did this but as a scientist I will continue to explore all explanations until all possibilities are thoroughly exhausted. Hopefully by that point, a true answer will be found.





Here is what we do know about Jack. He was labeled under our 'special finds' classification of hollow. We actually have quite a few of those.

See, we collect a lot of hollow's off the streets. We can't have homeless vagrants wandering around and drawing operator signs on everything, it draws a lot of attention after a while. So once informed of such an individual, we steal them and keep them in a loop. Its much either to look after, sort, and maintain them that way. It also gives us a sizable ever present force that we can call upon in extreme situations. But that's neither here nor there.

We found Jack in an abandoned loop. Which is not extremely uncommon. Every now an then I find an abandoned treasure trove left behind by some poor proxy, or on occasion runner, that was storing all his goodies in a personal loop and didn't have the foresight to pass on the knowledge of the loop before they bit the bullet. Or worse, somehow got stuck in that loop.

Now if you have a loop, its a great place to keep your hollows. You never have to feed them and they'll always have fresh wall to draw on. Similarly, someone left abandoned in a loop or who accidentally trapped themselves in their own loop, tends to eventually hollow. Constant exposure to Father from the loop, combined with an eternity of potentially dilated time, usually sees to that. So its rather common to find, if nothing else, a hollow in an abandoned loop.

Looking back over the file explaining where we found Jack, formerly H-88/Inmate 132, he was locked in cell in a loop made to resemble an asylum. Specifically cell 132. He was recovered with several other hollows, a collection of medical supplies, and selection of well maintained knives.

Now, an asylum has it's own implications. For a proxy, its synonymous with the word 'prison'. Proxies like to keep runners they aren't done with in asylums. When the Bureaucracy stood, they would lock proxies they couldn't control in asylums. And if a runner is merciful and bested a proxy, there's at least a 1 in 5 chance that that proxy is gonna wake up in an asylum in the the middle of nowhere. There's also some hear say that proxies that get taken in by the government can expect one of three things. Slow death on a dissection table, a life time of being studied in a clear plastic box, or an asylum. That's just a rumor of course. And wishful thinking. If an aware government agency gets you, its almost certain we won't ever be seeing you again. They aren't about to put you in an asylum where we can potentially find you... I wouldn't think.

Now, its hard to say who owned Jack's loop before it became abandoned or what its exact purpose was. Some of what we found inside would imply it was a personal store house. If it was a proxy, the asylum setting could indicate that they thought of the hollow's we found inside as captive. I'm curious of they were hollows before they were abandoned. Makes me wonder if its possible that they were left there with the express purpose of eventually hollowing. One of those hollow's weren't in a cell. Maybe someone over took and locked up their captor only to find they had no way of escaping the loop themselves?

Hmm... now I'm just inventing stories. We can never be sure. We found no written logs inside, not a single little black book. So whoever's loop it was, whatever the loop was intended for, that story is lost to time.

The only hint to the nature of the loop was the clothing of the hollows inside. They were all dressed in clothing reminiscent of the 70s. But that only really serves to time stamp what ultimately amounts to a time capsule of lost souls.

Sadly, that's all we know of poor Jack before he woke up.

There is one new thing we've discovered since he woke up that has proven itself true time and time again. Hes a sassy little shit.

The Lord Guardian Fracture out.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Hollow's Giving

Howdy pilgrims. Fracture here, of course. Note the Italic text. Italics everywhere! Its a must.

So, I know I'm a little late with this post. Its already two days after Thanks Giving. But I've been busy. Thanks Giving, like most shallow heavily marketed events, is about putting up a superficial front and pretending to genuinely care about your fellow man/woman for a day out of the year. So I spent all week doing that.

A very special dedicated effort was made to ensure all operating proxies, that I know of at least, did not go without a meal for Thanks Giving. Which is a sizable task because most of us live like homeless drifting murderous vagrants. You know, because most of us are.

Beyond that, we're also paranoid and prideful. So many meals got sent right back to us. Some of them thrown right back in our faces. Was it all worth it? Probably not. Would I do it again? Why the hell not, right? That meal might have made all the difference... might have even saved some lives. And no one died for once. As long as we're not losing anything valuable, no harm in trying.



So, I suppose I should address Hollow's Giving right? That's right. Its time for another proxy holiday lesson. This ones special.

Every Thanks Giving, Hollow go out and bring home turkeys as an apology for freaking out on Hollow's Eve. Its said no runner ever dies on Hollow's Giving because proxies don't hunt on that day. And perhaps most amazingly, if you give Father a cooked turkey stuffed with twenty dollar bills on Hollow's Giving he'll let you free and you can go home and try to sort your life back together. And if you can't rebuild your life, we're always happy to have you. Oh, and one lucky proxy gets to hop on Father's back and receive a piggyback to the moon. It's said that once on the moon, the tentacle rape never ends. I haven't figured out what about that is lucky yet... but hey, I bet the moon is real beautiful.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm lying and full of shit.

Hollow's Giving isn't a thing. Hollows are hollows. I try to feed them turkey legs but they just use them to draw operator symbols on the walls... which is awkward and disgusting.

Many proxies are actually extra violent and aggressive on Thanks Giving. Most of them has lost everything and have received nothing to be thankful for. The whole holiday tends to remind them how far they've fallen.

Do not give Father a cooked turkey full of twenty dollar bills. It won't do anything... or he'll kill you. You're the one at risk at the end of the day. And no one goes to the moon. I can't comment on the tendril rape. I'd sooner not know actually. There is one true fact in that story though.

The moon is beautiful.

Hehehe. 

Honestly, Thanks Giving is just a horrible time to be a apart of this great game. This whole season is.

Its cold and everyone's hungry but the hunting and running never ends. But apart of us remembers that this season is supposed to be one of good will. 

'Maybe, just maybe, the other side of the game remembers that too. Maybe they'll be merciful and take it easy on us,' desperately wishes runners to their hunters. Desperately wishes those hunters to their handlers.

But the answer is always 'No'. These thoughts that it could ever be otherwise just make you vulnerable. Just leave you weak and hesitant at a time when you are probably already weak and tired. So don't question it, eh? Just keep pushing forward. Live.

Its funny to think, that my old handler use to make up stories about good will between runners and proxies during the holidays. Loveless would tells us about meetings between proxies and runners not too unlike a t.v. special where runners where the pilgrims and proxies where the natives. Or more realistic stories where a group of hunting proxies actually invited their prey in for the night to eat and sleep. Or one where a homeless proxy and the homeless runner he was chasing stopped fighting for the night and pooled their cash together to buy a meal and ate as friends... if only for that day.

Fanciful beautiful stories. All of them bullshit.

Do not do that. If a proxy invites you in for a meal, run. Its a trap. If you feel bad for a runner and want to invite them in, don't. They'll stab you in the back.

I'm not saying this is all universal. If you're already friends with someone across the fence, I'm not telling you to stop. But don't go trusting strangers over the holidays with a heart heavy with goodwill. Because that heart will get stabbed.

At the end of the day, we're all a bunch of paranoid violent sociopaths or outcasts and Thanks Giving is just a Thursday. 

The Lord Guardian Fracture, out.