Welcome to the story! If you don't know what you're looking at, you should try Movement I first.

Post titles on the left.

Headaches. Violently ill. I don't remember the conversation posted earlier (again, without my permission). Mordecai tells me I should just post more of my favourite music. With summer coming around the bend, I guess this is as appropriate as any:

This was the Sunsetters' second album, just before We Excavate. This is Summer Sucks. Over twice as long as their first album, this one saw the band perfect the sound introduced in their debut and expand it into compositions of classical complexity.

The whole album sticks to the Sunsetters' little horror story theme, telling a sort of rock opera in five songs about a boy who fears the oncoming "summer" despite some clowns' assurances that it'll be fun.

1. The Inferno Begins
2. Pig Bruiser
3. Found the Fountain of Mab
4. Tired Anthem
5. Clowns Who Set The Sun

 sink or swim.

error

I have been authorized by the higher ups to post these recordings. They are part of the standard employee psych evaluations.

It's so quiet up here now.

Canute over in accounting says most of the money the Central Information Department manages is self-fulfilling; our work pays for our work, no profit, no possibility for funding the research we do, and this is taking into account the grant. Canute has been working here since the Genera was founded, and he's taken on as a pet project this observation and financial analysis of internal funds he hides from those higher up than we. The one thing neither he nor I could account for was whatever goes on down in Fossil Research, in that frontier that has claimed Duchess.

I'm paranoid to make any phone calls, lest they too be swept up by the blogging machine. I requested a meeting with Mordecai about that the other day, but that meeting was about as productive as this blog is comprehensive. Mordecai did all but shrug and tell me to get back to work.

Work is an endless quarry without a canary to keep a watch on me. I read blogs, I process what might be a Fossil sighting and what might not, and then I get a coffee. When I go home, I have dinner and then fall asleep, dreaming of blogs, drowning in blogs. I've started working overtime, since there's not much point to leaving work if all I do is sleep.

Every now and then I'll come to my desk and see, pinned on the wall, a memo from the higher-ups. "BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR FT-WHATEVER" or "REMEMBER TOMORROW IS CASUAL FRIDAY." Today's memo says:

_{"TRUE HEROISM IS MINUTES, HOURS, WEEKS, YEAR UPON YEAR OF THE QUIET, PRECISE, JUDICIOUS EXERCISE OF PROBITY AND CARE--- WITH NO ONE THERE TO SEE OR CHEER. THIS IS THE WORLD." - THE PALE KING}

My work is forever seen and overseen. What does that make me?

Hello, all!
It felt so weird, walking down that long hallway for the first time. I'm told they made the hallway to FR so long just in case a Fossil ever escaped. Of course, I've recently been told this is a myth. I have no idea why the hallway's so long, and I doubt anyone here does. But anyway, it's so weird. I'm a scientist now!
A scientist!
My first order of business as a big-time Genera scientist was to get set up in my own personal office. I have an office now. This is intense. I have a nameplate and everything. I'm not what you'd call a "higher-up" or anything yet, though; I still have superiors of my own. Why, I'm hardly even that high on the science ranks.
That's another thing: There are actually science ranks. And I'm now on them. I'm a scientist.
I've been doing wonderfully scientific things, like making caffeinated science coffee and drinking it in my big-time personal office chair. It's a swivel chair and everything. I've been surfing the world wide web and trying to figure out why the blog servers are glitchy. Ours, that is. That was my first assignment: Look into the blog servers. They've been glitching up lately, you see. And it's my job to find out why. (Little to no progress. The problems must be on              's end. I'll make a few phone calls.)
After that, I was finally introduced to some of the other scientists. So far, I've met Churchill, Barrel, and Foam.
Chuchill is this short guy with glasses and a lab coat. His job is to transcribe the reports for Fossil experiments. See, when they hold experiments here, usually what happens is the head scientist will dictate the details of the test and Churchill will be there to write the report down. The head scientist is the one who signs the reports (and gets all the credit).
Barrel is the cook. Big guy, interesting guy. From West Sussex, used to run a restaurant in Bognor Regis. I think I've been there on holiday once.
Foam's a researcher, pretty much famous around here. Her journals on the Monomyth Theory have gotten her much respect. And she shows no signs of wanting to rest on her laurels! She wants me to help her with something involving FT-PASSACAGLIA. If she's involved, it must be big!
..though in retrospect, a lot of the stuff I've been doing so far has just been paperwork. I mean, I'm sure it's very scientific paperwork! But it doesn't feel that great yet.

I received an email from Wiseaufan01 with a link to a blog. It's one I had overlooked in my work; I'd dismissed it as fiction and filed it accordingly. Hell, I still think it's fiction. But I've taken to reading it in my free time. As leisure.

Tale of the Lost Vikings seems to be a blog kept by someone running from Fossils. He doesn't give a name, but I'll refer to him as "Lost Viking."

Lost Viking has clear interaction with FT-TINDALOS, FT-SMILE, FT-LARKS, and FT-HADES, as he mentions them specifically by name.

This post is what officially got my attention. There's talk of being kidnapped and taken to a pond, and they spraypaint "EAT" on his body. Just like the vandalism in Doctor Cloud's report, and just like the name of FT-LAZARUS in Jordan Eats Normally Now.

I've compiled a new report and sent it to Mordecai.

Tale of the Lost Vikings, fiction or not, refers to many real-world things that it's important to clarify.

If Fossils were all like FT-HADES and FT-MONOCHROME, enigmatic albeit relatively harmless, they'd at best be a scientific curiosity. But there are those like FT-SMILE that are outright dangerous. This is why the world's governments regard our research so highly and why we take this stuff so seriously. Before the Genera, if your family was killed by something you couldn't explain, it would have caused even more harm to go to the authorities or the media about it; you were claiming serious things based on paranormal, ultimately unprovable, causes. Your best bet would have been to go underground, off the radar-- you would become a Runner.

There are Runners in virtually every nation, with so many subcultures that to keep track of it all would be a logistical nightmare (albeit an anthropological goldmine). Thankfully, Tale of the Lost Vikings prepares us with enough clues to figure out its local slang.

I can hear you now. "Can't you help these people?" Yes, we certainly can, but you can't help those who refuse your help. Runners are predisposed not to trust the Genera. They have their own term for us, one that seems to have stuck worldwide: "Willow Farm." So named because we are where humans go to be transformed. Apparently. Shrug.

My way of seeing it is that they don't trust us because we're an authority figure. We take their until-now personal, possibly religious, experiences with the unknown, and we attach didactic labels and policies unto them. "That thing you thought was a demon that had attacked you for supposedly omen-like reasons, all of the ways it has changed your life and who you are as a human being in attempt to interpret it? It's FT-SMILE or FT-TINDALOS, and there are these specific explanations for it seen in figure 3..."

Well, as long as my phone messages are public. As much as I really want to push (especially based on the wording of "EAT is not our problem"), I guess this is an impasse.

It's been a quiet week. I was partly expecting Duchess to post more here than what she did, maybe even let us know of some of the ins and outs of life up in Fossil Research, but no, it's silence on all fronts. Tale of the Lost Vikings has been equally stagnant, though I don't imagine the average Runner has constant access to a computer.

Instead, what I've spent most of this week doing is reading the book Our Apocalypse by Julian Dipere. Sunsetters' Eight Colors: Blue EP has a song based on it, called "A Passage of Time." The book's pretty interesting so far, expanding on characters introduced in his earlier book City of Paradox. I'm currently at the point where the new Mistress of Oper is appointed: A young woman who had inadvertently settled the conflict between Apollo and Dionysus prevalent throughout Part 1.

Interestingly enough, that Apollo character is never actually named in the text; it's just called as such on the back of the book.

As for Sunsetters. "A Passage of Time" is a part later on in the book I haven't gotten to yet. Apparently, Dionysus changes his name to Lazarus, and the song's about the passage of time between being Dionysus and being Lazarus. I dunno, their lyrics get incredibly cryptic as the band goes on, ever since No Entry.

In the meantime, just.. enjoy the silence.

social swimmer
and a partial winner
wake up before you go
time taking you piece by piece

dine with kings
listen to their things
there's a chemical spill on their land
adrasteia's invisible hand
lifts their subjects, gently sleeping
please wake up before you go
time taking you piece by piece

can you hear the story?
once in a while we are the sun
canio's designs reset to none
and then it's all back to territory
just wake up before you go (can you hear the story?)
time taking you piece by piece (do you still want glory?)

social swimmer drowning
history passing you bit by bit
with new mountains crowning
you can let the dream mend it
just please wake up before you go
time taking you

So first, we have the blatant FT-BIRCHMAN mention, the FT-LARKS, the FT-HADES, and FT-SMILE. There's more lingo in there that I don't understand: "Prophet of War," "Invisible Touch."

Really, it's just alarming to see a blog that's talking so much. I only wish it was more local so I could meet this guy or something. Not sure what we'd talk about, but.. well, I'm sure we could help him deal with the Fossils. If it's real, of course.

The thing is, the Topography Genera Center has dealt with Fossils before. As in, saved people's lives. We are not bad guys, okay? We do our studies because we want to help. I wish I was allowed to post some of our juicier stuff; Canute tells me there's a study talking about how to get FT-TINDALOS out of your life and they actually found a definitive answer. I'm pretty sure that file's classified because, as definitive as it is, it's still not 100% certain yet and the Genera doesn't want a wave of reports of deaths because it turns out we were wrong.

But I digress. I'll go back to my busy blogging.

Email redacted for privacy reasons. It's worth noting here, again, that the Topography Genera Center is not affiliated with any country's government; we've merely received a government grant in the UK. Needless to say, I'll be contacting Mister Eccleston, if only to put him at ease that he's in no trouble.

Stumbled upon this gem during my blogosphere travels. I highly advise reading it for yourself.

This could be a prank. My escapades with "EAT" are certainly public knowledge by now, and it wouldn't take much for someone to come up with a blog like this specifically to play at my paranoias.

Of course, the stuff about our North branch seems the most blatantly suspect. Because of this, just.. just consider this to be another one of those examples of the high creativity output of the internet.

Well, Mordecai finally had had just about enough of my persistent requests, so I had a toasty suspension waiting for me. And when I got back, I had this waiting for me too, floating about in the blog's drafts.

Just another oddity to blog about, I suppose.

Greetings from Fossil Research once more!
queen sea will take you in
..by which I mean life has been somewhat boring lately. The higher-ups provided me with a bigger flat than the one I had before the promotion, and I've been able to afford a better car with my new salary, which has all been nice, I really do appreciate all they've given me. But... there hasn't been much in terms of science.
this is your new home now
Y'know. Science. The thing I became a scientist to do in the first place.
I want to step into that enormous test chamber and start dictating to Churchill, "Begin test 8044536271," or something. The lights would thud on one by one, the white walls would gleam painfully on my morning eyes (before the coffee wakes me up), the scientists down in the chamber would provide the peculiar Fossil evidence for us to analyze, and then...
ignore the laughter
Showtime.
we will not hurt you
...but now I'm daydreaming. "Caught in a reverie," as Blackcap would say whenever he'd pass by my office to see me staring off into the distance. I can't help it; I'm a dreamer!
Though I haven't been doing as much daydreaming lately, not with Foam in my office every day. There've been rumours of a Genera worker having an unfortunate run-in with a Fossil. The worker was Ant, a designated driver for research-related outings. The whole debacle was caught on tape, apparently; I haven't yet seen the tape but it's been circulating around and it's only a matter of time.
your last wishes
In other news, I see Liquid Len has just returned from his newest suspension. I don't know how that guy keeps getting in trouble; it's like he's trying or something. Oh well.

The Lost Viking has put up more posts.

He had a run-in with FT-SELKIE. He mentions being taken to "Oper," which coincidentally is the name of the city Selkie has in Dipere's Our Apocalypse. Of course, Topography Genera Center research has found no conclusive evidence to the existence of Oper, and our policy prohibits us from relying only on anecdotal evidence.

..but still. Nothing says I can't personally believe in what the Lost Viking says.

_{Without a gate to hide behind, she prepared to be taken by the Larks. She had made her decision; as painful as her death would be, she would much rather die by Larks than by the dwelling silence rising in her performing mind.
Do not fear the dark outside your window, for the worst hides somewhere more familiar.}

Julian Dipere, Our Apocalypse. Just finished reading it.

Work has been monotonous. I've gotten so used to this boring life that I don't even know if time's passing anymore. I'm beginning to feel like there's a dark inside my memory.

The Lost Viking's back. He's out of Oper, though if we'll ever really hear much about it, I don't know.

My life's been ranging between "batshit boring" and "comfortably numb." As you can tell, the blogging universe has been hit with radio silence for many months now; there's been so little to do! I want to post more Fossil reports for you guys, but I need Mordecai's OK now if I want to post anything official.

So my daily schedule has become "Wake up, force myself to go to work, sit in this cubicle for hours doing fuck-all and having no way of complaining without risking more goddamn trouble, read books, if I get sick go to Doctor Cloud, eventually go home, go straight to sleep." And I'm one of the Genera's unlucky bastards who has to work on weekends. Why the hell do they want me to work on weekends when they don't actually ask me to do anything? Fuck if I know.
..fucked if I don't.

Anyway. Lost Viking's back. Yay.

It finally happened! I got to dictate an experiment!

It was exactly as I'd pictured it being. I stepped up into that observation booth and grabbed the microphone and I said-- I'll remember this for as long as I live-- "Begin Test FTP08531. Dictate."

Two scientists down below entered the chamber wearing full-body hazmat suits, one of them pushing a cart containing trace samples of FT-PASSACAGLIA, the other carrying a box of Lego blocks.

"Test Designation: FTP08531. Test date: March 2nd, 2013. Test subject: FT-PASSACAGLIA."

The scientists reached a table in the centre of the white chamber. One placed the box of Lego blocks on the table, the other carefully used a scalpel to cut a piece of FT-PASSACAGLIA off.

"Subject is to be applied to two pieces of plastic Lego-brand product." I felt a little silly calling it that, but it was protocol. Scientific protocol. So I was good.

The guy with the scalpel slowly spread the sample on the Lego blocks like butter on science toast.

"Subject-applied plastic Lego-brand products are now to be pressed together and tested for adhesion levels."

They pushed the blocks together, Fossil-side up, and then proceeded to shake the blocks around. Both remained stuck together.

"Test complete. Subject-applied plastic Lego-brand products will be cremated, and FT-PASSACAGLIA is to return to Fossil storage."

And then they left and Churchill finished writing down my dictations and I was congratulated on a job well done. I just took it all in stride and said "All in the name of science, it was nothing."

So that's the story of my first experiment. I hear the higher-ups are considering assigning me more tests to do. This is the dream life, there's no other way to put it. I'm so happy right now.

Thank you for your draft-post message, Mister or Missus Night Owl. Doctor Cloud is not around at the moment, so instead I, your humble messenger boy Liquid Len, will have to be the one to have the last laugh.

After the last post went up, the higher-ups have been almost distraught. I haven't seen many of them besides Mordecai ever since, and even then Mordecai was pretty distant. When he walked up to my desk the other day, I sat up straight and prepared for whatever suspension I was about to get. But he gave no suspension.

Actually, he gave me a raise. And then he told me I might want to help a friend soon. And then he turned and walked away before I could ask him what was going on.

I'll be honest with you, I don't hate Mordecai or anything. Sure, I've come to associate his face with dismissals and disciplinary actions and the obfuscation of the higher-ups, but that's not his fault. It's his job. The man himself is one of the more lenient and supportive characters I've found in this facility. It creates an interesting case of cognitive dissonance, both fearing and trusting, both admiring and dreading.

..anyway. The rest of the higher-ups seem to still be deciding what to do about this whole "warning" scenario. Whatever FT-LOTOPHAGI is, it's something they really don't want the public finding out about. I guess that'd explain why it's not in the Fossil records I have access to.

In fact, in the interest of transparency, why don't I tell you what I do have access to?

Fossil-Type BIRCHMAN (tall man, no face, probably the most iconic of Fossils, very popular)
Fossil-Type HOMUNCULI (branching term for a series of phenomenon revolving around a planet in a nearby galaxy, towers of steel, complex technology)
Fossil-Type TINDALOS (big dog, also very popular, stalks people based on questionable reasons)
Fossil-Type SMILE (pale feral dude, deadly)
Fossil-Type OVER THERE (paradoxical city, difficult to access, even more difficult to leave)
Fossil-Type RED DEATH (silent fella, spreads disease and accidents)
Fossil-Type PASSACAGLIA (potent hallucinogenic mold)
Fossil-Type ICEFALL (signal jammer, consciousness slower, usually works in conjunction with other Fossils)
Fossil-Type LARKS (unnatural gatherings of birds, possibly linked to other Fossils-- might be how other Fossils can "see all, hear all")
Fossil-Type HADES (dead man standing)
Fossil-Type SELKIE (doll-face, can make you do things you wouldn't normally do)
Fossil-Type CRAWLERS (like LARKS but with bugs, basically)
Fossil-Type MONOCHROME (walking shadow)
Fossil-Type SHALOTT (woman in the mirror, linked with many ambiguous suicide cases)

I'm positive there are more records than this. Sometimes, I'll check into our records and see extra pages, a "Fossil-Type SATI" or a "Fossil-Type X" or a "Fossil-Type AD A DGLGMUT," but whenever I check the pages they're always password-protected, and they usually disappear within hours.

In the end, I can only see what those higher than me want me to see. And if this "Night Owl" character can actually bring some of the information to the public, then.. everything we know may soon change.

Lost Viking posts again, this time rather pertinent.

If this account can be believed (and Topography Genera Center policy requires me to remind you that it most likely cannot), the higher-ups aren't the only ones the Night Owl is threatening.
And that "Cremator" fellow sounds familiar.

What does EAT stand for?
How many of us has it already seen?
How similar to humans are her arms?
How quickly is it progressing?
What does it know?
How long has it known?
What does it know?
How long do we have left?
Who is this man?

My birthday again so soon? It's been a slow year. My memory's starting to blend. What even is my age now?

I'm sorry I was away for so long. I took a short...vacation. This is the next part in the Duchess recordings. Frankly, I'm surprised that the higher ups gave in on the Night Owl debacle.

no entry to my mind for you

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Just had this sent in from an anonymous source. Possibly that person from the phone call?

Checking Wikileaks shows that it's not actually there. Was it taken down?

I'm back from another suspension. This time, I was suspended for several months. This is getting ridiculous. I'm sensing that my job here won't last much longer. Oh well.

I asked Blackcap about Duchess when I saw him. He looked at me with a slight smile and said, "Who's Duchess?"

I got an email on my company email. At first, I thought it was spam, but we never get spam in our company email accounts; the higher-ups are very good at that. It just contained the link to a blog, a blog I have the feeling I shouldn't share. But fuck it, I'm posting my findings in screenshots. What's the worst they can do, suspend me?

The blog is titled Property of the Night Owl, and it contains the following posts:

I'm keeping an eye on this blog. It might be a fake, might not be from the Night Owl character at all, but considering the threat to the higher-ups and their apparent lack of responding to those demands, I'm.. more wary of doubting it.

Still doesn't explain where Duchess has been for the past several months, though.

It's great to know that not even a visit to the pub can be free from recording ears. It's also great to be constantly reminded that this blog is not entirely my own. What's also great is to see these recordings transcribed as if they were from my perspective.

Everything is great. Everything is grand. Everything is fossils buried, heads in the sand.

Someone else has something to say too, and they pinned it to my wall in place of a memo from the higher-ups:

Fuck you.