Well... I found something related to strings. Apparently, Long Limbs isn't the only beast in town. I had to milk my contacts for all they were worth for this information, but there is a Puppeteer. I wasn't able to get a name, though, so I'll just refer to it as "the Puppeteer".


It uses strings to control its version of proxies, and maintains absolute control over them when it wants to. I wasn't able to get much else, unfortunately. Strange that my contacts would fail like that, but there is little information about Long Limbs either, so I guess it wasn't completely unexpected.


I've keep my head down here, and that's the way its gonna stay. I'm trying to avoid attention. Dyed my hair and pulled off a wardrobe change in another city.


Not much else to say.


Stay strong, Hawk. Make contact as soon as possible, please.

This is some of the worst bullshit I have ever seen. Hawk's been taken by that army, and Loki doesn't even give a fuck. I smacked him when he refused to send out a search party, and he confined me to quarters.


Like that'll happen. All packed and ready to go.


Just one thing: I'm going to be keeping an eye out for information regarding strings while I'm out looking for Hawk. I saw it again, the string in Loki's head. It was plainly visible this time.


Oh, one other thing. In the book, the one with "a grey stone of ashen glory" written in it, there was a feather that looked to be something like down. But it was orange. Phoenix, maybe? I'm keeping it with me, regardless. Might come in handy.


I'll post again in a few days. Maybe. Depends if I can find a cyber-cafe.

Wolf's clocking something big. Might be the last post I make for a while.

And no, I didn't drink the Pepsi. I'm not an idiot.

Holy fuck, is that what Wolf's clocking? A fucking army!?

Oh, fuck, I'm already hard from this! I can't wait to sink my blade into their flesh!

One's standing on top of a tree. Megaphone.

"Bring us the one you call Hawk or we raze your camp to the ground!"

Posting. Preparations take precedence.

Blurg. No sleep good sleep.

Sorry. Not terribly coherent right now. Nightmares suck balls.

Doors. Doors everywhere. Each leads to a different Hell. But my Hell is through the only door that's locked. To get to it? I have to open and look in every single other door. I woke up screaming after the twelfth door.

Shadows. Shadows permeate the walls of my room. All of them. Darkness swells in the night air as I look upon the fragile glass window.

Damn I wish I was normal still. Writing books instead of going through this bullshit. I would have loved that.

Some of the shadows seem a bit... darker than the others.

And it's Him. Long Limbs, Slender Man, Der Ritter. Whatever you like. Standing there, just outside the window.

Pricked my finger on the crossbow bolt. Hurts. Haven't felt much pain lately.

Did that actually fucking hit him!? Fuck, it did! But he pulled it out like a badass in a movie.

He's grinning without a face now. Maybe I should stop typing for now.

He just shook his fucking head. Another bolt. Went through him, no touching.

So my blood does something, hmm? Good for me. Lace this bolt with some of my blood, aim.

Hit. Right in the face. Err, lack of a face.

Pulled it outagjkbwelsndkfhdsgwlnewfdksl

Looking away. Guess that's why he's an eldritch abomination.

Looking back in five.

4

3

2

Okay, He's better now. Pointing at a spot in my room.

He vanished.

Should I warn those bastards?

Panther, for sure, but the others? Maybe Wolf, but that's it.

Checking the spot in my room now.

What the balls he gave me a bottle of Pepsi.

Well. Thanks, Slendy. Doesn't mean I won't kill you, though. I've got your weakness, I can hit you with my blood.

But what's so special about my blood?

So, then. Back to the story. I had to stop where Loki took away Hawk's spear, right? Right.


After that, Loki made this big speech to his group. Dunno if Hawk mentioned it before, but these guys are all ex-proxies. All of them. Even Hawk was a proxy when he was younger, even if he forgot it.


Loki began by saying how big of a loss they're former camp was, but that this one was more secure and there was even less chance of the Slender Man and his proxies finding us here. I didn't believe him for a second, and Hawk didn't either. Hawk actually denounced his claims, saying that the only reason that this place had a lower chance of being found is because it wasn't a place that we had been attacked at yet.


A pair of strong looking men grabbed Hawk around shoulders, but he did some sort of crazy wrestling move to flip them both over his shoulders and knock them headfirst into the ground.


I actually remember the next part vividly, so I'll give a transcription of what they said.


"I've told you before, Loki," Hawk said. "The only reason I'm here is because we have all felt what His control feels like and want to keep Him from controlling even more people. Why are you being such an idiot? Your claim is fallacy, exaggeration."


"Stop speaking out of turn, Hawk," Loki said, glaring from his position. "And stop causing harm to my people. Do you want to get kicked out of this group?"


"One: nice job avoiding my question. Two: I don't give a fuck whether I'm in your group or not. Three: when I came here, you said that I would be treated as an equal. All I have seen so far is you lording over the rest of your group. I understand that every group needs a leader, yes, but you are not leading them; you are being a dictator."


"If you don't like it, you can leave."


"No, I can't. You know damn well why I can't. You'd have me shot before I got a foot outside the camp. That was one of the conditions you gave to me when I joined, and one of the conditions you gave to Cat."


"Panther joined us of her own free will, and has made use of what would otherwise be a corpse. She knows how to use what scraps she can, something that you don't seem to."


"That was never part of the discussion. Keep to the topic or I'll kill you."


"You threatening me, Hawk?"


"Not a threat. A promise." Hawk pulled up his crossbow, which he kept loaded with regular bolts. "I took down both Elephant and Crocodile at the same time, without the use of my best trait. How far do you think you can get before I cut you down?"


"Restrain him."


A woman, the one identified as Wolf, put a hand on Hawk's shoulder and whispered something into his ear. He growled and slipped the crossbow back onto the hook on his belt. Wolf sighed, keeping her hand on his shoulder.


"If you ever forget your place again, Hawk, I will personally use this spear to kill you," Loki said, lifting the spear he'd taken from Hawk. "Get out of my sight."


Then Hawk left, and I left with him. I looked back before I left and could have sworn I saw a string coming out of the back of Loki's head. But I blinked and it was gone, so I probably just imagined it. I only put that here for recording purposes because of these uncertain times.


That's where the story ends, really. I tried to keep Hawk from drinking his ass off but he wouldn't listen.


I wasn't able to update this immediately after knocking Hawk out to prevent him from trying to rape his katana because I was told that I had to join a watch rotation. Boring as fuck. Wolf couldn't sense anything that wasn't in the camp, so I just cleaned my guns a couple times.

"Hawk" is drunk. Still. So I'm writing this instead. The meeting yesterday went about how I expected it, with myself and Loki at each other's throats. He claimed I was "unclean", so I called him a smarmy jackass who didn't know his left foot from his asshole.


Then "Hawk" came between us and sort of mediated the whole thing. Calmed us down, made us think rationally. So, seeing as Lance is braindead, permanently, I've been inducted as her replacement. My codename is Panther.


The reason "Hawk" is drunk is because Loki took his spear away, despite all of the crying and wailing and begging that Hawk did.


I'm telling you, I love him and all, but... He loves his weapons. I think that, if he could, he'd sleep with them in an instant.


Fuck. He just wandered in, read that, then said "that's a good idea" and left.


More later. Gotta keep him from killing himself stupidly.

Okay. So. Shit went down. Lance went brain-dead when Long Limbs showed up in our camp, so I got permission from Loki to put Cathryn in her.

She just read that over my shoulder and smacked me for my phrasing. I'm not changing it, though.

Well, that'll bruise.

Wolf's still kicking, but there aren't horribly many of us left. Slendy brought an entourage, no idea why, but one of them had a RPG and blew the fuck out of the medical tent.

I find it ironic that Wolf and Cat don't get along. It's like... heh.

Cat just keeps hitting me. Ooh, now I'm not getting sex tonight. Whoopdee fucking doo. I didn't have sex for months after she disappeared, and immediately before was my first time anyway. Yeah, I rocked her world as a virgin.

Damn. Now she fucking bit my shoulder and is licking up the blood. I thought I wasn't getting sex?

Oh. She wants to write something. Color change to PURPLE for Cat's writing.

Why purple? Eh, who gives a fuck.


Yeah. It's me. Now I'm back, and I'm black. Okay, so I'm not black. But I'm tan.


Shut it, Hawk. Do you want a new asshole?


The fuck? He just grinned at me and said "Got one to spare?"


... Fuck it.


So, yeah, I'm back, alive, and have some news. I've got a click on something that might be of use to people. A grey stone of ashen glory. That's what the book said.


Damn said that the book burned to ash when the med tent was blown up. I still had so much to learn from it.


What's the stone do, you ask? I haven't a clue. All I know is that it was sought after for an age before whoever wrote the book finally decided to die. That book was a damn diary.


The author said that he was searching for the stone because of a "tall figure with the longest legs, and arms like tree branches" that was following him. Dunno if Slender wants it or if he wants it hidden.

That's helpful. Really. Truly.

Stupendous! Extravagant!

And that's another bruise. Damn I missed her.

Nyeh. Loki's calling a meeting. Something about our current state of affairs.

And he wants my titanium spear back. He ain't getting it from me.