Something in the Water

I love that song.

Slendy appears to have found the restaurant we work at because he's chilling outside the gardening centre next door. Buying some roses for your garden, Slendy? I swear, next thing I know he'll be walking in and ordering the mushroom risotto.

Leah and Max have become Sickeningly Sweethearts in our absence. It makes my head hurt just LOOKING at them.

I'm about to have my lunch break, which I will use to duck down to the supermarket down the road and get some ingredients for dinner since the cupboards are looking rather sparse and we're feeding Jeff and Cheska as well as ourselves tonight.

--Vivi

Goodbye, 2010.

December 31st. New Years Eve.

There are always fireworks on New Years, so Chess and I are going to go see them tonight. Try and ring in the New Year on a positive note. Blankie and his band of merry mooks aside, this year hasn't been so bad. I did well at university, got no severe injuries, nothing went wrong with my household appliances (I have some horror stories about my microwave), Chester and I finally got over our Cannot Spit It Out (we forgive you, Jeff) and yeah. Good things did happen. I have good memories of 2010.

I was well enough to go to work this morning and I'm fully recovered now (as a matter of fact I'm practically bouncing off the walls, Elaine-style) so yeah. Kaylee came in and did her usual thing. Bought food, ate it, left. I'm considering the possibility that she doesn't recognise me, seeing as when we met I'd dyed my hair brown with semipermanent hairdye for some reason. Can't think why. That would explain why she's been giving me funny looks....

In other news, yesterday was a really bad day to be sick. Really humid. Awful. I was in a horrible mood pretty much all day because on top of being sick I was also pretty damn uncomfortable. Blegh.

But I'm better now, huzzah. Better enough to notice when Chester is trying to put the butter in the freezer again at least. I'm home from work, it's New Years Eve, and things are...being pretty normal.

Augh, now I'm tempting fate. Something insane is sure to happen now. Dx

--Vivi

(P.S. Chester says "I'll see you guys next year.")

ewsbnbnioui;

Cassy approves this message.

Sick again

Vieve's got sick. She's asleep at the moment and she's forbidden me from going in the kitchen without supervision, so we're getting takeaways.

As previously observed, Vieve is much heavier sleeping than she is awake. Kaylee visited at work again today. Brought food, ate it, gave Vieve an odd look, left. Weird.

Jeff's package arrived an hour ago. I've downed a vial of the stuff (tasted awful) and if no adverse effects manifest themselves within 24 hours, Vieve will take one as well. We trust Jeff, but just in case something happened to them on the way.

I've got to go, I'm hungry and takeaways aren't going to purchase themselves. Stay safe, everyone.

--Chester

Did not expect that to happen.

Chester here. If the note this morning wasn't already enough, something strange happened at work today. Mariko was sick today so Vivi was out working out front serving customers and the like with me, which was fairly uneventful until about 2.00, when this girl came in through the door, buys something, and sat down at one of the tables to eat it. She was really tiny, like some sort of pixie- about 5"1, cute in a wide-eyed, childish sort of way, blonde, green eyed, wearing a short skirt and a t-shirt. I went to ask Viv about something and she goes. "That's Kaylee."

Kaylee finished eating, arranged her knife and fork neatly on her plate, got up, gave Vieve a curious look, and left. Basically, nothing happened.

I think she's messing with us. Well, she's trying to mess with Vieve but she's messing with me as well. Because you mess with her, you mess with me and I, Chester Matenga-White, do not like messiness. Messes must be dealt with with extreme prejudice.

--Chester.

Chester, you're a funny one. Describing threats to your continued relative wellbeing as "messes". You have more in common with my family than you think.

On a happier note, Chester's slowly learning his way around the kitchen. I can't leave him by himself otherwise if something goes wrong he will flip out and make the problem worse, but he's making progress. He hasn't blown anything up yet, although he's got a bit too cautious and tends to undercook things a bit. Either that or he zones out for extended periods and just stares out the window or at the wall or at me. I'd be a bit worried considering the whole Slender-man thing but he's been doing that ever since I met him. He's doing it now. Hey, Chester, what're you daydreaming about?

(I was remembering lunch yesterday. What was the name of that place we went again? --Chester)

Can't remember, something to do with stars. Right, I've got to go make dinner (Chester's helping, of course) so I'm off. Everybody stay safe.

--Vivi

What is this i dont even

So on our way home from work Vieve and I went and did some grocery shopping (again) and on our way home decided to stop in at Leah's because I'd been so busy working that I forgot to give her my christmas present. (A slide rule. Leah/Her collection of slide rules OTP)

So we go down her driveway and her house is pretty much silent and the door is ajar. Viv and I are freaking out at this point, so she gets her cricket bat from the car and try to walk as quietly as possible. Then we opened the living room door.

Okay, I think the Belligerent Sexual Tension between Leah and Max has got a little too much for them. Luckily for our eyes they weren't going at it, but seriously. Eating each others faces is NOT going to solve all those bottled up feelings. For gods sake, I thought Vivi and I and our whole Twice Shy deal was hard. Meep.

We left, went home, and resolved never to go over to Leah's house without calling first ever again.

I managed to cook something today! Huzzah! Because, y'know, much as I like watching Vieve clatter around the kitchen and humming to herself I'm really not being very useful. I tried to help with the laundry but...uh...I'mreallynotcomfortablehandlingcertainitemsofvieveswardrobespecificallytheonesthatgounderherclothes .///////////////.

Well, I'm off. I'm going to try and help Vivi with dinner. I'm getting used to living here- I didn't bang my head on the door frame this time. Damn frame. I know I'm kinda tall, but seriously? Was that door made for HOBBITS?

Har har. See what I did thar?

--Chester

Back to work.

Vieve here. Christmas was fun, it was nice having a couple of days off, but today Chester and I have work. And, since I've been working here for a couple of years now, I know that the days after Christmas are usually pretty insane. Oh well. It pays for my rent and it's not boring, although I'm really not looking forward to the next two months, where it's gonna get a fair bit more humid and working in a space with several hot ovens in it is not going to be fun. I don't mind the heat, the heat is fine, but the humidity drives me insane.

Chester is in the kitchen. He is trying to learn to cook. While it's sweet of him to want to be able to help me, Chester is a notoriously awful chef and I'm having to check on him once every five minutes to make sure he isn't turning the bacon into charcoal and burning the pancakes. He seems to be doing alright, but you can never be sure. If things start to go wrong, Chester is the sort of person who flips out and runs around in circles for a while before he gets down to the business of fixing things, and in the interim the problem has usually got worse.

Ah well. Chester's got an invitation to come along to Matarangi, so I will not have to spend ten days totally alone with my folks, which is nice. Unfortunately, as far as I know I will not have an internet connection so you lovely people will have to get by without me. Let's just hope nothing too major happens while I'm gone...

Well, work starts in just over an hour so I'm going to see if nothing too awful has happened to those pancakes.

Giftwrap and Genki Girls

Leaving Vieve unattended with wrapping paper is a spectacularly bad idea. Her giftwrapping is hilariously haphazard. (Insert short pause in which Vivi hits Chester) It's rather endearing really. I've had to help her with all the things that aren't square otherwise the results are an epic waste of paper. Which her cat then lies on.

I went out this morning and got her a present. Just something small since I'm currently unemployed although I do have some money because I'm renting out my house until the end of January, although Mr Irving is rather kindly giving me my job back after Christmas since he couldn't find someone to replace me. He's also fine with Vieve and I being away over part of January, which is awfully kind of him, but the two others who work here sometimes in the mornings are apparently buying a house and need the extra work. Everybody wins.

Today, I met Viv's sister Elaine. Elaine is a Perky Goth, emphasis on the perky. Elaine is what happens if you put a litre of Red Bull, five cups of sugar, and glitter in a blender, take the top off, turn it on the fastest speed possible and then run for cover. She has so much energy it isn't even funny. She literally flung the door open, raced in grinning, accosted me and asked why I was sitting on the couch in my pyjamas and did I stay the night last night oooooooooh did we do anything she should be worried about last night (No, we didn't) and Vieve's cat has gotten sooooo much bigger since she last saw her, maybe she's getting fed to much, oh my god did you see The Social Network it was such a good movie I went to see it with my boyfriend last week and it was amazing and instead of popcorn we smuggled in a tin of those chocolate-filled wafer sticks, which are soooooooooooo delicious AND OH MY GOD I HAVEN'T FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BYE SIS BYE CHESTER I HAVE TO GO!

And then she left. Which makes me wonder what the rest of her family is like because I've only ever met her mother, who's also energetic- her brother lived in Finland or somewhere until early this year, her father is in Singapore 9 months out of twelve and Elaine just wasn't around very often. I always thought that since families tend to have similar temperaments, the rest of Vivi's family would be pretty quiet except when you irritate them. Maybe Vieve is the odd one out. Maybe her entire family are Genki.

...

God, if you're up there, please help me.

Christmas dinner with the Sullivans. I'll inform you of the death toll on Boxing Day.

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

Fragging Proxies

Got attacked by another proxy. I was just walking in the Domain, minding my own business when this girl in a comedy mask jumps out of the bushes and launches herself at me. She kept telling me to listen to the Call, but all I could hear was slightly staticy music in my ears from my iPod, which I keep on pretty much all the time now. She had a knife, too. She made a couple of notches in Mr Cricket Bat, and in me, but I can just say I fell on some glass or something. I have a split lip as well, which is an awful lot more visible than cuts on my face, arms and torso, but I've got worse split lips from cricket accidents and the like. I'll be fine. Physically, at least. Mentally, what's been going on lately is pretty taxing.

The proxy ran off and the static stopped, so I went to the hospital and got two of the cuts stitched. I don't have work today so I'm just sitting around watching Black Books and trying to eat, but I honestly just feel so sick and unhappy that I can't make myself eat anything more than some crackers and hummus, and some tea. I don't know if it's losing so many people so quickly, getting attacked by a proxy in a fucking creepy mask, or that I'm actually sick but either way I feel pretty under the weather right now.

Phone's ringing. It's my brother. I'll be off to talk to him now.

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.

Fun times (and other horror stories)

Since my last post, I have eaten about half a carton of raspberry chocolate swirl icecream, felt sick and also slightly guilty, both about knocking out the proxy (poor kid) and about the whole half-a-carton of icecream thing,  gone off my food, slept for 12 hours, eaten a gigantic breakfast, and been late to work. Well, late my by standards. I'm usually here same time as Max who always arrives early. I was on time.

I feel kind of numb. We've lost Robert Sagel (mindwiped, Redlight has been monitoring the comments so we can't say anything, and he's getting a new blog.), Nessa of Exit Light, and probably Fizzbomb of Para not-so-normal, and that's only that i know of. Our ranks are dwindling.

Please, please, everyone else stay sane. I'm doing my best, I guess.

Keep calm and carry on. I have that poster on my wall. Whenever I'm stressed, I chant that in my head.

Keep calm and carry on.
Keep calm and carry on.
Keep calm and carry on.
Keep calm and carry on.

Sounds like a goddamn Madness Mantra. I'm not crazy! Not clinically at any rate. I swear, sometimes I think that Slendy is not a real, physical being but some kind of thoughtform memetic virus, making us imagine him to reality.

Someone call the SCP Foundation!

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)

Options

First thing first: I found Chester.

Mr Irving didn't ask any of us about Chester, so I asked him if he's heard anything. he told me he'd got a call from Chester, calling in sick. Again.

So I finished at work, went home, and found Chester asleep on the couch looking like he'd been dragged through a bush backwards and then kept awake all night. he hadn't given me my spare key back. bastard.

He's not in a good state. Paranoid, tired, and while he was out there he realised something.

There are only so many places we can go. Neither of us have anything more than high school qualifications (We're both two years into a Bachelor's degree) and New Zealand is a small country. Even smaller when you realise that we'll need money to get on a ferry to get down to the South Island. Shifting to Australia is probably too expensive.

Running, at the moment, is not a viable option.

Cassy likes vegemite.

chester matenga-white you son of a bitch.

Actually, that's not right, your mother seems like a nice lady.

Why didn't you TELL me how long this had been going on for? When did you find out about It? When was the first time you saw It?

People are weird. They think that they have to go through things alone. They don't.

Also, Chester, capitalised letters spelling out something you need to say is the oldest trick in the book. Stay safe. If you see it, add to the map if you can manage it.

On a non Chester flipping out related note, I still have yet to see the new Harry Potter movie. I think I need to take my mind off things for a while so I can stay relatively sane and not go running around like a headless chicken. I'll just go check the movie times.

I wonder what I'm going to tell Mr Irving at work tomorrow.

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.

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)