milliways_bar | (no subject)

(OOM:

you realise it all along
something in our story wrong)

When Claudia comes in, she barely slows down long enough to do her customary door-check (but it's there, and checks out) before making a beeline to the Bar, with a small stack of papers. "Hey, can you give a copy of this to Enzo and anyone else who's trying to pin down the oogyboogy?"

There's a note on top:

Enzo (and anyone else who ends up with a copy of this) -

Sooooo I think the latest Milliweird is an Internet meme, in my world. So far it's only a meme, anyway (professional interest in making sure it stays that way), but obviously it's bled through somewhere. Artie doesn't believe in coincidences and in this case, I'm inclined to agree with him.

I printed off everything I thought might be useful, but honestly, I didn't see anything that'd point toward how to stop it and monsters like this are not my strong point. At the very least, it's a lead that it can't hurt to follow up on.

I'm sticking around for a while tonight but I don't know how much I'll be in before this is over.

-Claudia

(She did also think to leave a quick description of herself, in case anyone who's dirt-digging on the creepy doesn't already know her. The rest of the pages are a selection from Creepypasta and the Slenderwiki, as best she could sort out useful information from the weird-ass videos.)

"Thanks," she says, as the papers disappear. That done, she heads for the chairs by the fire.
(All told, she's sure as hell not going outside at this time of night. Just in case.)

(OOC: Kinda sorta insta-slowtime, as I've had That Sort Of A Day, but send your research types Claud's way regardless.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Enzo almost wedges in the back doorway as he tries to enter and minimize his surfbaud at the same time. He makes for the Bar, so tense it resembles rigor mortis, and demands an extra-large Cocoa. The papers appear along with it.

...

flip rustle rustle flip

...

He hastens to the fireside, juggling papers and Cocoa. "He's an Internet thing?" he demands.

"At home, he is. Like I said in the note, I'm only keeping an eye on the stuff because I have a professional interest in never ever ever having to clean up after it if it goes all Artifacty. Here?"
Well, Enzo's seen the symbols as clearly as she has. And more, from the look of things.
"Here, I'm going for 'very, very real.' Unfortunately. And this is so not my kind of fight."

"Oh, he is." He draws a shuddering breath. "He's in a building by the lake."

"--Yeah, definitely staying inside. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm... ow!"

His Cocoa has just slopped over his hand. Apparently, it was shaking.

"You sure about that?"
She's just saying. In her experience, that much shaking is never a good sign.

"Frag!" he shouts, suddenly furious with himself. "Why am I... I'm a Guardian! I've faced way worse! This was one... guy, thing, whatever! What the /dev/null is wrong with me?"

Claudia shrugs. "Sometimes one big thing is worse than twelve smaller ones all at once. Happens to the best of us."

He shakes his head. "I've had big stuff. It wasn't like..."

Wait.

"Oh. Oh, that low-level, BASIC... It's like the nightmares! He gets into your head, right?"

"That's what everything I found said."
Creepertastic! And another reason she's trying to make sure it doesn't go all Artifacty. There's plenty of stuff with similar side effects already.

Enzo swears. Extensively. Sprite and human curses.

He's stopped trembling, though.

She lets him go for a while. Sometimes you just need to vent, after all.
"Look at it this way. At least we have an idea of what's going on, now."

"Oh, yeah. Is there anything in here," he waves the papers, "about how to stop him or hurt him? Weaknesses?" With a grim smile: "Kneecaps?"

"Not that I saw, unfortunately. As for the kneecaps, I'm not saying don't try, but if he is following the meme's conventions? He teleports." So good luck landing a blow, in other words.
"You might see something I didn't, though. And I left it for anyone else who's trying to look into it, too, so. Maybe everyone can compare notes."