Thank Goodness.

Vieve here.

You have no idea how utterly relieved I am. I don't know who participated in the Solstice for definite, but most of the people who I knew for sure were helping out seem alive and kicking, which is soimmenselyrelievingyouhavenoidea. Seriously, the Solstice may have been freaking scary for you people, but at least you knew more about what was going on than Chester and I. And not knowing things that are important, such as whether your friends are still alive, is scarier than the scariest thing you can name. Nothing is Scarier.

I was working in the morning again today so I could have the afternoon to breathe, and around twelve when I'm just thinking about going come, Chester comes in the back door, grinning ear to ear, goes "I'll be kidnapping Vivi now, we're going on a date."

You can kind of predict how that went down. Max dropped the empty bowl he was carrying on his foot, Leah slopped water all down herself, and Mariko walked in to see what was going on and started laughing.

They were quite freaked out. Is it really so abnormal for me to, I don't know, fancy someone? I am a girl. I may have been a Bifauxnen with an allergy to Y chromosomes in my youth and I may have never dated anyone, but I am indeed female. Meh.

Over to Chester.

--Vieve

You forgot to mention the betting pool on when we *ahem*.

(WHAT? I didn't know about that! --Vieve)

It's pretty apparent you're a girl if you don't mind my saying, Vivi. Either way, lunch was pretty damn fantastic (note to self: Max knows all the good eateries in Auckland.) and Vieve is a lot easier to be around now she knows most of her friends are safe. She's still distracted, but she doesn't need reminding to eat and sleep now. Also, she's a lot more fun to hug if she's not always tense.

Turns out I am invited to Christmas dinner with Vieve's family, too. That's another group of people who have seen this coming a while back. I've called Mum to ask if my family are doing anything on Christmas night (they  usually don't, we're normally more lunch-gettogethers) but I got her answerphone,  so I've told her I'm living with Vivi until the people renting my house find somewhere else to stay and to call her home phone as opposed to mine.

Sigh. Vieve and I have rented a Studio Ghibli film because those films are...just...so...so...they make me happy. We're going to eat dinner, and we are going to watch it, and we are going to thank whatever deity is up there, if any, that things are being relatively normal.

--Chester

Arithmetic

Hey guys. Viv here. I came to work at 7, when we open, so I could get some work done and help with the breakfast rush so I'm free to pick up Chester. I just got home, and I'm enjoying a bit of peace and quiet before Chester invades my apartment.

Two weird things happened today. First, I woke up this morning when Cassy tried to sit on my head. I'd also forgotten to change out of my day clothes. I was really tired last night, I'd had a stressful couple of days, I guess I just cleaned my teeth, washed my face and then passed out. Huh. I've taken to filming myself at night to check nothing funky is happening while I'm asleep but the footage is normal- I turn the camera on, take out my ponytail and then flop.

Second, I got a package in the mail. Doesn't say who it was from, so I've left it in my box in the lobby until I have someone else (namely Chester) with me in case there's some trickery going on here so I have backup.

Stay safe.

--Vivi

i don't

understand...

never have.

Things were much easier when I didn't try.

But it seems I have to, because I can't leave this alone, it'll just...niggle at me, on and on and on and all the what if's won't leave me alone, they'll keep me up at night staring at the glow in the dark stars on my ceiling with your words circling through my head over and over again

i need some tea and some time to think.

snap out of it

i'm sorry, jeff

she said it wasn't my fault

but

i still...

feel guilty.

it's a flaw of mine, feeling guilty about things that I cannot prevent. i try my best to get past it but it always comes and bites me.

I'm okay. Upset, shaken, but okay. I'm glad nothing else has happened today. No proxies or slendy, just the operator symbols in my letterbox. Anything else would be...too much. There's a bar of mint chocolate in my fridge. I think I'll have a square of that, watch some Glee or something, and go to bed.

--Vivi

(p.s. chester, thanks for calling me when I needed you the most. We're even.)

(p.p.s. sorry for this post. feeling a bit fragile.)

What's in a name?

TOTALLY RANDOM TIMEWASTER QUESTIONS:

Is your username your real name? Do you like your real name or is it kinda meh? If your username isn't your real name, why did you choose it? Does it tie into Mythology, a concept you find interesting, or do you just like it?

I am insatiably curious about these things.

My username is indeed my real name. I do like it, but I don't adore it. I prefer using the various diminutives people have given me over the past two decades. 

No sign from Where's-his-face or any of his mooks since that phone call a couple of days ago. I hope it stays that way for a while. I have Christmas shopping to do. Also I need to deflea Cassy.

Chester, since you aren't answering your phone, you said you're out of credit and I know you read the blogs, vieve_veritas@hotmail.co.nz. Tell me what happened.

--Vivi

The Call Knows Your Phone Number.

Got two phone calls that pissed me off yesterday. And then one that killed my bad mood, or at least K.O.'ed it.

Phone Call #1 (Private Caller)

G: Hello, who's speaking?

???: Is this Ms. Sullivan?

G: This is she.

???: What?

G: Yes, it is.

???: We seem to have detected a virus in your computer-

G: I have Antivirus.

???: Yes, that is why I am calling you, I need to give you instructions to fix your computer.

G: Are you from the software developer?

???: Yes. First, we need your password so we can remotely fix the problem.

G: Ohhh, so you guys are from AVG? Hold on, I'll get my book of passwords.

???: (relieved) Yes, now-

G: (hostile) I use Symantec. You do realise that there was an article about this scam in the newspaper a week or so ago? You can only hit a couple of people before word starts to get around.

???: I-

G: Find a new way to scam people, honey.

(I hang up here)

Goddamn telephone scams. If anyone gets called by a supposed tech support centre yattering about detecting  a virus, hang up.

Phone Call #2: Unknown number. It's a Vodafone number and I'm on 2degrees, so it's probably costing them a fortune, which is a good thought.

???: Come outside.

G: Excuse me?

???: Come outside.

G: Why?

???: Come.

G: Where?

???: Places.

G: Who are you?

???: A servant of the Master.

G: Who the bloody fuck is the Master?

???: (pause) Who are you?

G: Pardon?

???: Who are you?

G: This is not a game of who-the-fuck-am-I!

???: ...

G:  I'm Vivi, bitch.

???: (pause) Come outside.

G: Piss off.

???: Co- (phone cuts off. Hope he ran out of credit.)

Fucking proxies. I did go outside shortly after. No proxies. Someone trying to spook me. Weird that they didn't know my name though. "Who are you?" indeed.

Phone Call #3: Chester

C: Vivinator

G: Chestertron. What's malfunctioning this time?

C: My nose is stuffed up but nothing else. I was just checking in, seeing if you were okay.

G: Who are you and what have you done with Chess?

C: I read the blogs. There seems to be some freaky stuff going down, so I thought I'd check in.

G: Well, uh, I'm fine. I had a stomach bug earlier but it's gone now.

C: Good. Look, is there anything you want for Christmas?

G: Excuse me?

C: You heard me.

G: You're running, you crazy boy, you don't have time to go christmas shopping!

C: The Solstice is on the 22nd, and I'm going to be optimistic and hope that It'll get sent into long-term dormancy or something. Three days is enough.

G: ...Just curbstomp some proxies for me, okay?

C: Okay.

G: Attaboy. Actually, I'll do that myself. You just stay alive.

C: I'll try.

(he hangs up)

Trust Chester. He's on the run from a Noodle Person like something straight out of Amigara Fault, only more hostile and with a small army of crazies, and he's thinking about Christmas presents. It says something about Chess that I'm not sure if he's pulling my leg.

Breathe.

Keep calm and carry on.

It pays off.

I'm not at the edge of my sanity any more. Maybe it's the little glimmers of hope that have been surfacing lately in terms of the non-hallowed rate of the bloggers. Maybe it's that Chester is gone, and from what I have heard of him he's actually feeling a lot better than he did when he was staying in one place.

I guess I feel alright. I'm still sick- I'm not eating very much, but my stomach can handle more than crackers and dip now. Although I can't leave my toast and vegemite unattended because Cassy will try and eat it.

Speaking of cats, if anyone has room in their home for a feline or canine, an awful lot of them get dumped at animal shelters such as the SPCA every year around this time. A lot of these cats and dogs will have to be euthanised. So if you have room to take care of a cat of dog or want one, I'd recommend you stop in at your local animal shelter. if you're iffy about kittens and puppies possibly having accidents on your carpet, you can get adults too. There are also a lot of studies that show that owning a pet has a positive impact on your health as well. What's not to like?

--Vivi

Well. Fuck.

We're losing people fast. I left for four hours to visit my brother and do some grocery shopping, and it all goes to hell. We've almost definitely lost Jeff now. Melody, B (What Now?)'s girl-friend, is dead as well.

I wonder if they'll do to Jeff and Melody what they've done to Nessa. Use them against the people they care about most. Do whatever sick, twisted necromancy they do to get to people even more.

I heard from Chester. I passed on M's advice about running, how he can stay in a town for a few weeks, a month maybe, as long as he keeps moving. He's okay. He had a run-in with a couple of proxies, but he's okay. There's a substantial physical difference between a 163cm girl with a cricketbat and a 185cm ex-rugby player with a crowbar, so he did quite well against them.

I miss him. It was easier when he was around, when I could keep an eye on him. I've known him for four years, bickering and bantering the whole way, and the things that have happened recently make the probability of one of us getting hallowed and used to torment and break the other is very high. Too high, considering he's been a very good friend to me over the years and I depend on him more than I'd like to admit.

Enough on that. There's a part of a song I want to show you all. All of you who're still sane, anywho. I have since moved on, musically, from this artist but a few years back she was my favourite. This song is my favourite of hers, and this is my favourite part.

"It's love, it's love that shows us
We will be alright
It's truth, it's truth that holds us
As we walk in it's light."
--"Deciphering Me", Brooke Fraser.

It's also an excuse to plug local artists.

Everyone, please be careful. Don't let them get you like they've got so many of us.

Love (because I really do love you all, I'm terribly sentimental really),
Vivi

P.S. You agents or whatever you think you are? Go die in a hole.

Let's play a game.

Let's pretend life is normal.

I suck at this game.

I miss things being normal. I miss the times when I didn't sleep with a cricket bat propped up against my bed and a knife shoved between the headboard and the wall. I miss being able to hang around with my friends and family without glancing over my shoulder. I miss the time where the furniture in my living room was not arranged so I can see the door from every chair in the room.

I even miss stupid Chester cracking awful jokes and looking around at us grinning like he expects us to start having hysterics. Everyone does. Him and Max are Vitriolic Best Buds, Leah is sulking because she's missing her partner in crime, Mariko's temper is more hair-trigger than it's ever been, and some of our long-time customers have asked why he isn't around.

But the fact that I miss them doesn't change the fact that it's impossible to have it all back.

The thing with the Slenderblogosphere is that people are always dropping in and out. Dying, going crazy, just plain leaving. You never know who's going to be next, and it might be you. It's a very disquieting thought. People are leaving, taking Redlights offer, or just going, and try as I might I can't blame them for trying to get out of this as soon as possible. I just have to see this through to the end. My end or his. Whichever comes first, because try as I might I can't seem to believe in anything beyond this life other than oblivion.

I think it's taken a while to sink in, all the things that have happened. It hurts. It hurts a lot, seeing people in my situation or something similar dying, going crazy.

We have to try our best to hope. To try not to become so disillusioned that we give up entirely.

It's hard some days.

WE WILL BE PASSIVE NO MORE

First, Chester's gone.

Again.

he left a note this time. None of this fucking around on my blog. He even used capitals and punctuation and everything. 

"Genevieve-

It's probably not safe for me to be around anymore. I've called Mr Irving and resigned, I'm renting out my house, I'm just going to keep moving. Keep safe. I've been reading up and it looks like something major is happening on the Solstice. Whenever that is. People are taking up titles and getting more aggressive, there are some people who appear to be active agents of Slender man. 

Maybe I'm one of them, waiting to wake up? That may not be the case but it's better safe than sorry. Better to run, now, and wait until at least the Solstice. Maybe then there'll be a resolution to all this.

Can you tell Leah that a family emergency came up and I'm sorry I can't take her out for dinner on friday? I owe her for preventing Max from mauling me that one time.

If you go crazy and start writing SEES ME all over the walls, remember this- you have 20/20 vision, you're observant. He won't see you, because you'll see him first. You are the Sentinel.

--Chester."

1) He wrote all of that out by hand. It was nearly illegible.

2) Oh fuck.

3) Chester was a drama student. You can tell, can't you? He's got a healthy sense of drama, that one. The Sentinel? You're a funny one, Chester. I'll watch. I'll wait. I'll try my best to see him coming, Chess.

Looks like the bloggers are all up in arms. I don't blame them, not at all. Sometimes I want to run into a Proxy just so I can make a spirited attempt at bashing their head in with the cricket bat currently located next to me. I've been passive for too long. Lionel and Kaylee were nice people, Chester's a nice guy. It got personal for me a long time ago.

I can't let Slendy steal all that I have left.

-- Genevieve (Sentinel)

Solstice

Apparently the Solstice is coming up and something important is happening then. It's the Winter Solstice in most places, but the Summer Solstice here. Somehow that takes the fear out of it. 


And somehow that makes It even scarier, that It can lurk in light places, streetlamps, lit rooms. Chester hasn't seen him in ages. He's okay, if anyone's curious. Eating his way steadily through all the food. Going to work again. He attempted to use my shoulder as a pillow earlier but it was too uncomfortable. Serves him right, I'm not blind and I'm not stupid.

I had some tea earlier today. It was the stuff Kaylee and Lionel bought me as a thankyou gift. This is the first time I've tried it. It is some good tea.

...

I was thinking, earlier today. Yes, I know. Shock horror. I thought of something. (again, shock horror)

What is Slender man, is, like...

a dementor?

As in, he feeds off our fear? That makes him strong?

Either way, EXPECTO MOTHERF***ING PATRONUM

In other news, Cassy just walked in. Looks like my Patronus just arrived. Hahaha.

"Expecto Patronum" is Latin. It means "I await a Guardian."

Sorry for the absence...

Things have just got that little bit weirder.

First thing, Chess is staying with me at the moment. He saw It on Monday. More accurately, it was outside his house. I don't blame him for wanting to sell and find somewhere else to live, if he isn't going to run.

If Max makes one more insinuation about why exactly he's staying over, colleague or not I will not be very pleased. This is just temporary. He should probably get moving.

Second, I had a total freak out yesterday because my dad turned up at my apartment building while I was at work and Chess let him in then left to go do something so I go in and there's this bald guy in a suit standing in my living room with his back to me. Thanks, Dad. Really thanks.

To clarify, my Dad lives in Singapore. I only see him a few times a year. So I didn't know that he'd lost what remained of his hair and he hadn't told me he was coming. Thankfully he turned around otherwise I might have done something... stupid.

Third, Dad brought a folder of my drawings that he'd found in his house. When I was young I fancied myself quite the artist for a while, even though I wasn't actually that good. You can kind of guess where I was going with this, can't you?

I was never very good at drawing faces, so I used to leave faces blank. I now have sheet after sheet of drawings of faceless people. Which makes me wonder if this is a really contrived coincidence or if this goes back further than I think.

On a totally unrelated note, I am totally unrecognisable with brown hair. Okay, so I'm a redhead, but being unrecognisable as a brunette is actually kinda funny. Huzzah for semipermanent hairdye. It's nearly washed out now. Now I know what to do if I ever need to go incognito.

Thanks muchly to Omega of Encyclopedia Slenderia for linking to my map. The only pin on is so far is Kaylee's. I'll be adding Chess's to it shortly although I guess that will give away where I live. Greetings from New Zealand (in case you don't know, it's those two islands shaped like a canoe and a fucked up stingray nearish to Australia). I think I'm the first Slenderblogger from around here, although I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

Sick

I was pretty much out for the count yesterday. Mariko, who works with me, chewed me out for being careless about my health over the phone this morning and told me that I'd better be well enough to show up for work this afternoon otherwise she'd storm over to my place like a 5-foot steam train and lecture me until this stomach bug died out of sheer fear.  I'm not being careless, I just can't help that the way the shadows fall in my room at night looks vaguely humanoid. I'm paranoid. Seventh floor, seventh floor.

Chester, meanwhile, hasn't seen him either. He's taking it all pretty well, if I were him I'd be soiling myself with blocks of baked clay. He's reading up on some of the blogs, trying to figure out exactly what we're dealing with.

sdjmksae4njmol\

Cassy says hi.

MAP. It's in the post before this one. Go put sightings on it.

--Genevieve.

Maps.

Finally found a tool that allows people to mark Slenderman sightings and slendervictims.

Look at the pin I put down for Kaylee for an example. If you know the dates, put them down please. Use red icons for people who have since passed on, blue for people who're still living. You don't have to give exact locations if you don't want to, just a rough estimate. I need your help.

http://www.mapservices.org/myguestmap/map/exilisveritas

Break's over. I'll check back at Chess's.

(edit: forgot to add link)

Goddamnit!

Two things today went badly wrong. The first is largely inconsequential and will just cost me vet bills, the second was rather more alarming.

1) My cat went walkies and vanished for a day and a half. Pretty normal Cassy behaviour, she does it all the time, but she came back with some pretty nasty scratches and I had to take her to the vet this morning. Nothing wrong, I just have to give her antibiotics. Which happen to be damn expensive, and that's on top of the vet bills.

2) One of my workmates, Chester, apparently called in sick today and I'm working for an extra two hours to cover for him because otherwise there's only two staff around and that's counting Leah, who just does paperwork and accounting. That's not a problem, extra money is good. The real problem was when I called up Chester. Here's a transcript of that phone conversation, as far as I can remember.

(phone rings. Chester picks up.)

C: (wary) Who's there?

G: It's Genevieve. Mr Irving told me you'd be sick today so I'm working until closing time to cover for you.

C: Oh. Thanks, Vieve. I would be at work if I didn't feel so shitty. I hope things go okay.

G: She'll be right, Chess. This isn't the first time someone's got sick. If you're infectious it's probably best to keep away, anyhow.

C: I meant you, you seem tired. 

G: You're the one who's sick. Even though you don't sound too bad.

C: I'm not sick, sick, I'm just stressed and it recently got worse. I haven't been sleeping too good and I don't want to accidentally poison a customer. That's why I asked about you seeming tired, I was worried you'd be sick next.

G: Point. What're you stressed out about?

C: It's probably just paranoia, but it's still creeping me out. I'm finding it hard to sleep at night, I don't feel safe in my own home.

(Is this sounding familiar?)

G: Go on.

C:  Okay, so you know how I like horror stories and urban legends and stuff?

G: Creepypasta, yeah.

C: Well, I was looking around on the internet when I came across this series of videos called-

G: Marble Hornets? Everyman HYBRID?

C: Everyman HYBRID. Wait, what?

G: I think I know what you're talking about. Slender Man.

C: Oh, fuck me. Not you too.

G: No thanks, Chess. Is he stalking you or something?

C: I keep hearing noises at night but that just might be me being paranoid. Branches on my window and all that.

G: There aren't any trees near your window, Chess. I'm not telling you to pack your shit and run like a crazy person, there could be another explanation, but that's definitely suspicious. Don't worry too much about it though. Most of what I've heard says that he can't get to you as easily if you're calm about it and it might be nothing. 

C: Well. Nice to know I'm not the only one. Thanks Vieve, I'll be at work tomorrow.

(He hangs up here)

Well, looks like things just got worse. Don't know for sure if he's genuinely being slendystalked or if that's just paranoia talking. Things might be fine. I'm not going to get too optimistic about all this. It seems suspicious that out of probably-not-very-many Slendervictims in the entire country one of them is my colleague.

For now, I'm just going to read some Terry Pratchett and then go to work. Then I'll go visit Chess and make sure he's not freaking himself out more. At the risk of sounding like a certain disney musical, we're all in the this together and we need to look out for each other.

Bleh.

Finally managed to fix the settings on this thing so it shows the correct date and time. For me, at least. The previous setting was Pacific time which got rather confusing, so I mucked around in the settings until I found how to change the displayed time. It's pretty annoying when a post you made one afternoon shows up as being at some ungodly time the day before. Timezones fry my brain.

Survived my night out with the colleagues. Spent the last couple of hours disinfecting the car. Not only is Leah a lightweight, but she has a sensitive stomach. Next time I go out with my workmates, either we aren't taking Leah or no alcohol is going to be involved. Either that, or someone else takes her home. Max has a car. He can do it next time.

I'm really tired. This Slenderman business is not helping my sleeping patterns. I haven't found any way of keeping track of Slendersightings, either. Much thanks, though, to the three people who clarified all the "wifin in the club" and "slenderman wants your $20" business. That was profoundly weird. I guess people have a sense of humour about this stuff. There's a blog somewhere supposedly by Slendy telling you to give your $20 to Haiti.

There are more Slenderblogs than I thought. I've been reading as many as I can (currently, Seeking Truth), and I just finished watching Marble Hornets. Seems like Dreams in Darkness was a fake run by a crazy guy, or if it isn't, Damien's in trouble. Alot of these blogs are ending badly. People missing, large body counts, who's going to be next?

I just wonder what's happened to A Lack of a Lexicon. Lexi said he was moving and then promptly vanished off the face of the earth, as did A. The only thing I've seen from either of them is a gibberish twitterpost 10 days back. The Tutorial seems to have gone dead too. Funny thing is this all happened around September.

This is painting a picture and it ain't a pretty one.

Something or rather

Sudden influx of college work. I'm not taking Latin any more, which means I don't have to revise all the tenses and conjugations. Latin ate my life in High School. It seriously did. Thankfully I'm not taking it now I'm at college. So for the last two years, I have actually had a social life. Where's my applause? Oh well. I still have another year of my degree left, still have to do homework.

Okay, so I know that Slendy's serious business, but what's all this about 20 dollars and wifin' the the club? WHAT THE HELL IS WIFIN'? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Words cannot describe how utterly perplexed I am. Oh well. I'm going out tonight. Dinner out with three of my colleagues. Hopefully this time I will not have to be the sober taxi service for Leah, again. Leah is a genius but she cannot hold her liquor.

Does anyone in my miniscule readership know a website where I and others can mark points on a map where there have been Slendysightings? (trying to figure out a pattern here)