"shoots thon rising germinal"

-Bellman.

Sally's dead. Well, she wasn't really Sally. She was a Nobody, trying to steal her life from her. We know this because we found the real Sally-- by accident.

Our talk with the SMSC agents led us to visit the local headquarters, see if we could get some more information. Ishmael pulled out his secret weapon (a pocketwatch the Manufactured Newborn is looking for, rumoured to be the same one it spawned from) and we entered the building, the others finding a place to park the van. While we waited for the manager, two ladies came in as well and were told to have a seat. I thought one of them looked an awful lot like Sally, but we figured it was a coincidence. Besides, she smelled like she hadn't showered in months. So instead we just waited.

Turned out the SMSC wanted to buy the thing off of us. That's not how we operate, unfortunately (I would love to be able to afford better equipment for our work), so Ishmael was already heading for the door when the other lady (the one who didn't look like Sally) asked if he was trying to summon the Newborn. They talked with each other about that, exchanging information (and, from the looks of it, blogs), and then the rest of our team came in. Including our own Sally. And everyone went silent there as we realized what was going on. But then she was on the ground, bleeding out from a bullet in her chest. And the other lady told the SMSC to "clean up your damn Nobody." And they left. We made sure to leave, as well, before the manager came back in to see what was going on.

So we're all a little lost. But we know their names: Issy and Sally. And Ishmael says he knows how to summon the Newborn now. We're back on the road, one member down but apparently she wouldn't have been much help anyway. Nobody is a cruel god that mimicks a person, ultimately replacing them, we're not sure for what purpose. The Genera supposedly knows, but it's not speaking.

Considering we got the tip asking us to work on this case from her, and she was a Nobody... what does that mean?

The Hunting of the Dark

-Ishmael.

Nearby town spared no hint of his fate, but it did harbour two lost souls belonging to the SMSC, our former sister group. Their wanderlust matched ours; their loyalty to identity anchored them in a post watching traffic. All of us grew up in this town, knew each other's birth names, respected each other enough to never call ourselves by them again. We brought them coffee, handed out a flyer, and compared notes. While they couldn't help us with our man, they did have something noteworthy: Some suit from the Genera has been asking about him too.

Our relationship with the Genera is not kind. It's been eyeing us since before we took ourselves off of STAB's grid, and since then we've lacked the grid's accompanying force, leaving no leverage for our safety. The Genera has no allegiance except to its own secrets. It has no code except one it won't disclose. But out of all of the organizations devoted to our dark gods, it is also the greatest in research. It discovered the fossil particle and established first contact with Them. It is rigorous, scientific, and government-blessed. But it's also devoted to its privatization. No one who goes to work there is allowed to speak with outsiders. Its public statements are carefully manufactured and edited to hide just as much about Them as they reveal. If it's after Magreat, then that is significant, but this is also cause for caution. We've stolen some of its intel in the past. The Genera is not one to forgive.

The SMSC isn't too happy with us either, considering we betrayed them in cold blood, but they're not as bureaucratic an entity. Compared to the Genera, they're practically a family business. As long as we stay out of their way and just talk to agents who don't mind us, we're golden; they've made that much clear. And that suits us. They don't have much we need. Not anymore.

Only other organization worth bringing up is the Archive, which is a library that openly acknowledges its allegiance to one of Them. Their information is good, but talking to them is risky-- they only accept deals, information exchanges.

We prefer to stay off of everyone's radar when we can. Instead, we just drive, listening to rumours, looking for any avenue that will take us closer to our dark gods, and thus closer to the greatest of all great games: The elusive god even the Ovi Man is said to have dreamed of during his final moments. That's one's mine. I'll make sure of it.

"forks and hope"

Who was Christoph Magreat? His was a name we didn't hear often, but definitely recognized. While officially all that is known about him is that he wrote some dense experimental blogs (and was integral to the blog revolution of 2015), a rumour's going around that Magreat killed the Ovi Man. It makes an odd kind of sense: Almost every blog he wrote in 2015 was about the Ovi Man's death or steady mortalization, and on the day that his biggest one came out we got word that the thing was actually dead. Murdered. So whether Magreat was the one responsible or not, we have the feeling he knew about what was going on.

This is why I've been assigned to read over Magreat's published stuff and see if I can find anything particularly noteworthy. My identity isn't important either, but I go by Bellman. Ishmael and I are the only two running this blog.

How Am I Driving?

Call me Ishmael. I work for the people who are going to save the world; this is something that you need to know up front. Their names don't matter. Identities are risks, so we go faceless through the fog. Legacies are different: Some call us "The Plot Killers," some call us "Legion," some call us "The Lonely Hearts," STAB calls us non-existent. That's a long story I'll kill another day. We don't use guns, though we do carry them for intimidation's sake. We don't go after civilians, not any more. We only go after the big game, the most dangerous game, the great game.

You might see God in birds (and Satan in long words), but we see ripples in rainbows (we see a flight in Bloom-- there are more things in Hell and Earth than can be contained in a blog). The forces of the elements conspire against us, but humanity will have its Sowing Season. We are the caretakers of this species, challenging our mighty pantheon for its authority.

Today we travel in our black van across the landscape, searching. A man has gone missing. He was last seen on December 8th, 2015. According to his daughter, he left his house without saying where he was going. She'd assumed he was heading to the bookshop or the grocery store, but there was no sign of him anywhere. She called us. We don't normally take Missing Persons cases, but then she showed us what her father had been working on: He was trying to find a way to empower anyone to be able to kill the dark gods.

His daughter doesn't think that he's dead. We think she's in denial. But we've allowed her to come along. One thing's for sure: If someone can complete his work, that would change everything.

What happened to Magreat?