Waiting for the storm.

Not a metaphorical one, mind you.
We have a snow/ice storm barreling straight for us. AGAIN.

(We got plenty of snow down here, Storm. You guys still need it?)

I stayed home from drumline practice today to help mom. I don't actually have to be there anyways.
And Newman finally hounded them for their godawful organizing skills. FINALLY. Let's hope the threat worked. I'm tired of playing mom and cleaning up their stuff.

Oesch couldn't hold off the college guy anymore. He tried. I had to talk to this sexist old man who kept making crass comments to me about financial aid. And he was just offensive in general. And I hate him. Ugh...

Seth didn't show today. I'm going to use that as proof that something happened during that phone call. I need to talk to Skyler...

WHAT.

Half of me keeps thinking of criminally insane ways of getting to that red tower (I'm joking, of course). And the other half is like, "OHMYGOD HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE."

For those of you who are like, "What...?" go over to The Idyllic Clone. Right now.

I'm so insanely jealous and scared for Matty at the same time.

I had to show Casey. She said it reminded her of the shack behind her house near the woods. I forgot it existed. We're going to explore it sometime. Not sure when. I'm split on this again. Half of me hopes something happens, the other half hopes we're just being silly girls in a creepy, run down building.

Because him being across the street was terrifying. I don't know what I'd do up close.

Also.
He was near Seth's house again. This time he actually called as it was going on. It was hard to make him out sometimes. Then the distortions got worse and he hung up. He called back not two minutes later, saying nothing really happened.

I don't believe him.

I'm going to be the "bad" friend and go behind his back to Skyler. I'm thinking about giving her the "keys" to the blog as well.

Here's the pictures I promised.

But first, number eight! Hi, Kerri!

Alright. Pictures. Pictures that came out wonderfully and aren't any sort of messed up.

This makes me look smaller than I really am, even though I am little and cute and stuff...seriously though. This thing is a monster compared to me. It's HUGE.

Me and Kate. Kate said everyone had obligatory 'scooter shots', so she made me get on it.

This is a Steampunk Bike. And it is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Ohmygod. I kept telling dad that I needed it in order to live.

Me on a 250 Star. A bike I can actually handle. C:

I don't have time to do much in regards to research today. Sorry people whose blogs I've followed and not caught up on yet. :(
Mom wants me to do a practice ACT test (I have a giant book of them). I'm not going to argue (like I ever do anyways) and I need to do one anyways. They take forever. I also have to clean up the giant pile of movies and CDs in the living room from my Monster Rancher binge.

Stay safe out there, new friends.

Expo! And other news.

I have some silly pictures to show you! I'll post them tomorrow. I'm too lazy to do it now. Basically, they involve me and some motorcycles. One of which is huge, two of which are silly little scooters.

There was that, and my mom almost getting severely wounded from a neighbor backing into her. She left something on top of her car by accident, heard it fall off, and pulled over into a neighbor's driveway to get out and look for it. And they just pulled out obscenely fast, hit her and pinned her against her car, and then drove off.

Who DOES that?!
And is it wrong to harbor violent feelings towards those neighbors?

But she's fine. Just some bad bruising around her shoulder and hip. Nothing broken.

It was just kind of crazy. I mean, I've been drowning myself in this creepy monster business and something REAL happens...
Not that Slenderman isn't real. I think all of you reading this know that.
It's that something of our reality and something that could realistically happen to anyone...I don't know. It shocked me.

BUT SPEAKING OF READERS. I see seven of you now! Hello! A welcome to J and Kaiju! And to Stormecho, who I don't think even got one in the comments. Sorry 'bout that.

As for our monster problem, nothing eventful since him creeping across the street last night. No reports from the rest of the crew. Today was pleasantly normal.
I'm starting to wonder if our lack of incidents coincides with Aiden's rise in them...

The basement is safe...

I saw him. He was there. Right across the street.

I should have been watching Ace. He was pacing and being annoying and I didn't want to let him outside because I just let him inside but that wasn't what he wanted. I'm such an idiot...

The window. He just wanted me to look out the window.

I have no idea how long he was standing there. But the curtains weren't drawn. I was perfectly exposed. I don't like being vulnerable...

I didn't noticed him in the window behind me though. I went back to my room and had accidentally left the blinds up. And I spotted him through that one. And that's when I realized what Ace was doing.
I drew the blinds in my room.
I stopped to make an irritated face at him before drawing the living room curtains. Maybe he got the hint.
I did not appreciate that happening...now I know how Seth and Sammi and Casey feel...

There's no windows downstairs. I decided to move there and play Monster Rancher 4 to calm down.

I'd been in the basement with Ace for about three hours. First I collected every CD/DVD/video game in the house, then moved it downstairs for monster generation purposes. Then proceeded to insert every single one into Monster Rancher. That took about two hours. I was trying to get a Dragon or a Joker or something. All I really got was an expanded Monster Book. I spent the rest figuring out what I wanted to combine for the 5th monster on my team and then training it some.
I now own a Melcarba. I have a soft spot for Beaklons. I'm not really sure why. They're these big, insect-type creatures and they're kind of ugly. But part of me adores them. And this one is actually really cute. He's a Beaklon/Henger mix. I named him Tank!, like the Cowboy Bebop theme.

I think I've effectively calmed myself. I can sit up here now. It's okay...
...man, lookit how adorable that is! I love him! <3 Tank!



God, I'm so ridiculous...




Casey won't work out this weekend. She already has plans. Which is fine, because dad's motorcycle group organized a meetup at an expo and he wants to take me - HOLD ON.
11:11 MAKE A WISH.
Okay, as I was saying, that's fine that we're doing things. Keeping ourselves busy. I'll probably see her next weekend. Maybe we can do some investigating together. We're an awesome team.

I need to shower and try to sleep. (Maybe set up a couple wards elsewhere in my room, in case he gets any ideas.)
Be careful out there everyone.

Behavior

If you didn't read Aiden's latest post, either go here: The Idyllic Clone

Or I'll just summarize it and say that Slendy (I've decided to go back to names because...what the hell) is almost acting like some sort of protective babysitter to Allen. And it's weird. And I wish he were being that benevolent towards us.

I asked Sammi and Seth what they had to say about how he acts, because they've actually come in close contact (as I've found out through Sammi's photos and a conversation with Seth - had to drill Seth for that tidbit though).
Sammi doesn't have much. She hasn't been harmed or attacked. She thinks. She may have blacked out once. I told her to try to keep better track of that. Because that could turn bad.
Seth's the one that was slipping into insanity. I'm proud to say we've successfully pulled him back to the surface. THANK GOD. He's much more coherent when he's not being dodgy or paranoid...and the whole thing is less worrisome.
Seth's is jumbled, as you'd probably expect from somebody who we thought was turning into a proxy. We know he's been in Seth's house. We know Seth was disturbed enough to turn to a journal. I'm also assuming he's heard him "speak".

Based on these grounds, I'd call our case much more malevolent.
The question is why. Why the inconsistencies?

I'd don't have much to report today. We didn't even have a little Seth-Sammi-Branwen conference this morning. We've decided to stop bugging Skye about it though...
I thought I saw him from the bus window this morning and drew a ward in the condensation just in case. But there was also a fog light flashing on the roof and the forest suddenly went all strobe light-like and it was hard to tell what was a tree or a potential monster and it was disorienting and I was getting sick and I decided some Owl City and Neon Trees would be a better investment of my time.

That's all for today. I have more math to do. (Also, I ended up getting a B on my midterm! Yay! Small victories!)

Edit: One last thing. I think I should talk to Skyler. Especially about her experiences. How/when she heard about it, what's happened since, what happened while she was with Seth, etc. I'm also thinking about being more of a stupid idiot and going to Casey's to help her out and observe. Two things can happen. Either I'll get up close and personal with him, or nothing's going to happen. I'm starting to think I'm some sort of ward all by myself...

Or Ace is a lucky charm.

I think he was close.

No, not that close. Not that I know of.

I came home humming "Animal" by Neon Trees and was being cheery about two of my midterms. I got a 97 on Band and a 98 on English. I'm a boss at both of those. (I'm so scared to see math. D:)
Erin called and wanted to come over for dinner. I told dad, who then took Ace for a run and immediately went to the store to pick something up upon returning.
And he called to say where he was since I was like, "Okay. Here's Ace. Where's dad."

And about two seconds into the phone call the phone starts squealing and spouting static. I could still hear dad and apparently he couldn't hear those sounds on his end...

I turned around in the computer chair and nothing was outside...huh...

SO. ANYWAYS. I've resolved to occupy myself with mundane stuff while I'm trying to handle this mess. Speaking of handling messes. Drummer boys annoy me. Brandon (drumline captain) and I organized the percussion cabinet last year and labeled the drawers and shelves. And during the marching season we in the pit do a fantabulous job of keeping it clean. But as soon as concert season hits, BAM. We're suddenly keeping a pet tornado in there.
I'm going to punch all of them. In the mouth. Even Brandon. Just because his pouty face is hilarious.

And the horn players. They're always a party...
I love that that section has no distinctive personality because there's only ONE person in it that actually likes to play horn. The rest of us got shafted there and/or actually are horn/brass players but we don't care.
That's where I was today. Playing just loud enough for me to notice and soft enough so nobody could hear how terrible I am on horn.
Because putting a percussionist of 13 years on a brass instrument that she has no idea how to use is perfectly logical...

Skye's back in school! She seems to be doing better. I guess it's unrelated after all.
We just worked on tweaking our video. Nobody wanted to talk about weird things.

I'm now hired by Justin's mom's boyfriend to design stuff for their band. Which means I get paid. Cash monies.

AND. I got accepted to Kent.
I also bought a prom dress last week because it was perfect and I don't even know what I'm doing for prom but I have this dress so I'm going now.
Which is funny because things will probably be effed up by then. But if that's the case then we'll just have our own mini prom on the run. And after prom. In a van. Down by the river.

(Ohman. That sounded so clever but now that I've thought about it it sounds so gross...)

Okay...well, I have math homework to finish. Until next time.

Okay...we're better.

Dad came home around 7:15 or so. And he brought SUBWAY!

I am apparently easily distracted from terrifying things when there's other people and food. If he was skulking around trying to look through the curtains at my delicious sandwich, well that's too bad. Because I ate all of the sub. ALL OF IT.

I ended up coughing later because I kind of half inhaled it and I freaked out for like two minutes before I remembered that I'm a 'tard who can't chew her food properly when she's hungry. Hee.

And now Ace is all squeaky clean. He's terrified of the shower now though. But he'll have to deal. It's easier to wash him. I can't believe that took me years to figure out...

Edit: Now mom is home. I feel much safer. I also talked to Seth. Through an actual phone conversation (unbelievable right? /sarcasm). Apparently everyone is and he's slightly annoyed by it, but at least he knows he's loved? Hah. We talked a bit about what's going on and what we should do, then tried to talk about better things. Like how there's apparently a new Elder Scrolls coming out. AND IT HAS DRAGONS?!
I'm really upset my computer won't run even Oblivion. :( 

I was wrong.

Nothing has slowed down. He's just being a manipulative creep.

So I was already iffy about going outside and was just going to lie and say I took Ace without actually leaving the house. But sometimes my conscience is annoying. And sometimes it puts me in idiotic and/or dangerous situations.

I called Ace, snapped on the leash, and trotted out the door. I wanted to get this over with.

Let's give the two potential death traps proper names. We'll call them Left and Right for now. (Heh, you know, we have a saying in marching band. Left is right. Left is not right in this case. Right is not right either.)

I decided to go left first. There were weird sounds emanating from the right and less neighbors to hear my screams. So left it was.
I was just over the crest of the small hill to that patch of forest, and...there he was. Just right there. Standing on the quad path. Watching me.

I didn't know what to do, so I just stopped and stared. I felt like I was in a trance...
Ace kept trying to pull me away. Then I heard a sound behind me, which turned out to be a car pulling into a driveway. When I looked back he was gone.

I decided to go right. (I'm also an idiot and am fairly certain I'm going to die in some awful manner from decisions like this.)

I didn't get very far, because Ace turned us right the hell around about half way down the hill and made us go home.

I've covered the living room window entirely (I managed to stretch the curtains enough to meet). I'm really not sure what to do at this point. I'm also by myself.

Things are scarier when you're alone...

Okay...well...Ace needs a bath. And I suppose now would be a good time to check on Seth and make sure he's not doing anything harmful to himself. I'll be keeping myself busy for now.

Uhm...

Dad wants me to walk the dog again. Except this time I will totally be alone. Just me and Ace. Nobody else is home right now...

I'll alert you if anything happens.

Status

I thought it might be helpful to any others to give a full update on what exactly is going on with my crew.

Me: Nightmares, but less of them now - standard running panicked in a forest, evolved into actually seeing him in them. Paranoia. Have spotted him in a photograph of the woods down the street. Keeping an eye on all vantage points in the house. Have an Operator symbol taped to my room's window. "Disturbing coincidences" have slowed. I'm either fully attributing them to him and therefore am not specifically looking for them, or the number of strange incidents themselves has dropped. Confused about his intentions.

Seth: In more trouble than I initially thought. Has full on nightmares. Has a journal partially filled with strange doodles and the general messages. Also has a slight cough. May or may not be losing time. I suspect he is becoming Hallowed, though he was doing much better with Skyler around. But she's gone back home for the week. Will monitor as closely as possible.

Skyler: Don't know much and is hard to gauge, but is in less trouble than Seth. May be the least bothered, even less than me right now. She was patrolling windows for Seth, not out of her own fear.

Sammi: Possibly has the most snarky/angry attitude towards him. He now appears in her night terrors, but she fights. Woke up to her mom screaming about something this morning. Incident might be related. She's trying to track him through her photography. I'm fairly certain this means he's also stalking around outside her house.

Casey: Is also terrified. (I'm not gonna lie, I'm thoroughly frightened by all of this too.) But has taken my tips on trying to stay upbeat. Wanders the living rooms and kitchen by daylight cautiously. Avoids them as much as possible by night. Has stopped taking pictures for the time being. Also has nightmares.

Skye: Whether she wants to be included or not, I believe her case is relevant. Developed a cough that has progressively gotten worse. Was not at school today. Has become more irritable. Went from being annoyed by Seth and I and our discussions, then got blatantly furious about it. It could just be that she gets angry about things that she doesn't like and she might possibly have what Aiden had. But I'm considering her anyways.

I think that's everything. I still don't see him in the window behind me. I will definitely alert you when that happens. Because despite my best efforts, I'll probably be screaming about it.

I'm going to go try to offer input on other blogs.

Oh look more snow. Yay.

If I had any nightmares, I don't remember them. Aside from knowing that he's outside somewhere, I am otherwise okay.

I don't like there being a forest in the backyard. Too many vantage points in this house. But as far as I know, he hasn't come anywhere near my house. This is nice, but it presents some good questions. Like, is the symbol actually working? And why am I the one that seems to have the least problems? (More on this in another post.)

I just read up on Maduin (you funny, ballsy man) and several others. I didn't have much else to do in IM today. And it's midterms, so no homework. Not academically, anyways. Research on him is my survival homework.

I also got Casey's pictures. Here's the first:

Then the camera gets completely screwy:

And then nothing's wrong with this one:

Next...a status report.

I dance in my room. And sing. Loudly.

Because that's what I do when I'm stressed. And it works wonderfully.

The walls of my house aren't very soundproof, so there's no doubt that my parents can hear Michael Bublé (Yes, I DO listen to more than My Chem) lyrics being spouted from any point in the house. But I don't care. (I'm pretty sure they don't either, or something would have been said about it.)

We found Skye. Well...we didn't find her. And it was more like Sammi found her because Skye finally replied to a text. She was in her house the whole time. She's just been really sick.

So...Skye hasn't been abducted = win
Skye is horribly ill = sad

I still feel much better. You'll learn that my panic and worry attacks don't last long. Even though this one was pretty warranted.

I just know that I'm going to go spin around on my fake wood floor in my socks, probably run into a bunch of stuff and get bruises, laugh, and repeat.

If Mr. Creeper is in my window, he can screw off or he can join me.

(I tried to dance with Ace. He didn't appreciate it.)

In other news...

My day has actually gone without incident. Nothing strange has happened since the day that picture was taken. Maybe it's because I'm being as defiant as I possibly can.

Or I'm special.

This doesn't mean tomorrow will be incident free. It might be worse. Eye of the hurricane? I don't know. But I'm reading all of these other blogs, all of the survivors, and I'm like, "Psh...I can do that too. What am I freaking out for? I don't have freaky missing persons cases. As far as I know I'm not actively being stalked. I haven't lost any time. And I've yet to see a proxy. I just have a single picture, some bad audio incidents, and some nightmares. Everyone else got past that. I can too."

Because I have a terrible reaction system and sometimes I'm a BAMF at rationalizing. I don't know how the rest of the crew feels, but I'm feelin' pretty...unbeliveable? Yeah, I'm undefeatable. YEAH-

Okay I'll stop.

Regardless of whether I'm truly in a mess or not, I want others to see this. I want to join in. I want to help. If anyone else out there is wiling to talk...

Is it okay to panic now?

One
Friday and Saturday ended up being enjoyable days. And I decided not to ruin them. Today is okay though, I guess. I though, "Hm...I have nothing going on," except now I have the urge to cry.

Two
I finished The Tutorial yesterday. I had barely started it before, never even got to the Tulpa Effect theory. And now I'm absolutely terrified that I've passed this thing on to several classmates because of Casey.
Still, it's a guide. It's a beacon of hope. And I love it and M for existing.

Three
I haven't broken down yet because I'm trying to sass the crap out of Him. Actually, it's mostly just me being bitter and sarcastic about the fear, and not to Him directly. I keep telling myself, "Zeke is a badass. Zeke didn't let himself turn into a cowering mess. And Zeke is alive."
Second point of hope.
I've been looking to see where else Zeke and M have been in the other blogs. I've come across Sandra's crew and Celeste thus far. Aiden, is there a list of sorts?

Four
Yes...what we really want to talk about...
Most of the pictures are normal nature shots. Some of them were alarming and it looked like someone set my camera to thermal or something - except my camera doesn't have anything like that at all. There's also the standard fuzz and distortion and such.
Ace's picture came out unharmed. At least I got that out of my useless nature shots and screwed up pictures.

And then this one showed up amongst the distortions...

...it's the only one like that.
This is where I heard something snap. I don't know if...HE and the noise are related - I don't think they are - but...there He is...

I couldn't see him there before. Maybe I wasn't looking, or maybe he only showed up on camera.

I don't know if I'm more comfortable with Him currently being invisible to me or if I'd rather just see Him.

I've asked the crew (Seth, Sammi, Casey, Skyler) to keep their eyes open and take pictures as well. Apparently Casey already has something for me. She caught a bit ago and initially brushed it off as the camera spazzing out. I have yet to receive it, but I'll post it when I do.

Speaking of the crew...

Five
Nobody's heard from Skye in a few days. We don't know if she's at home sick or if she went to the hospital or...
God...I don't want to think of that...

And Ripley's owners have reported him missing. Which also worries me. But he's run off before. They found him relaxing in a lady's house the first time. Maybe that's where he is, I hope.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to stay in my head. I'm going to try the Operator symbol trick. I'll put it in my window. Hopefully I don't have any of the dreams...I have school tomorrow...and midterms...I'd like to sleep.

...I'm going to try to contact M.

"Branwen's Big Forest Adventure!"

Dad was being non compliant about going with me and I couldn't offer an explanation that sounded sane, so I just said, "Alright fine. I'll go by myself."

I was getting impatient about this trip anyways. But I was smart about it. I didn't actually "go in".

So it starts off with me getting Ace and snapping the leash on. I had to get him up and excited first. German Shepherds are known for napping around the house a lot. And the other half of him (something huge, Mastiff we think) just makes him more chill and easy going. I guess that's what makes him a gentle giant though.
So I found him lazing around dad's chair. I bent down, said, "Walk?" and his head snapped up. Ace loves walks!

I grabbed my camera and we went outside into the snowy wasteland.

It actually wasn't that bad. I only started freezing when we began to head home.

I noticed the fire smell again when we hit the driveway. It only existed in that area though. Ace and I headed up the street and our neighbor Roger was out shoveling his driveway. Ace loves Roger. Ace loves people. Especially kids. Gentle giant. Gentle protective giant too.
We stopped to chat a bit. Roger says he hasn't seen Ripley in a couple days. Come to think of it, neither have I. I shrug and say maybe he'll show up on the walk. We continue on our way to the closest patch of woods on the horseshoe.

I got as close as possible and got some pictures. I decided against actually going in since I had nobody with me and this patch of woods was difficult to get into in the first place. Running out would be a trick. And then to try it with a huge dog...
I heard a snap. I figured it was just a dead tree under the weight of the snow and ice, but I took some pictures in the direction anyways. Then a couple shots of Ace for cuteness. I picked up his leash and we headed in the other direction.

No sign of Ripley.

We get to the other patch. I can actually enter this one and exit easily due to there not being an almost vertical hill. It just slopes off the road into a patch of grass and then there's a forest. There's also some quad trails.
I only took a few steps in though. I took some pictures around and noticed Ace staring off into the distance at something. I decided to take some pictures in that direction as well. One is zoomed in, to make sure.

We headed home. All the while it was silent. Not in the same creepy way like on our last walk. Just the sounds of people were absent. The kind of silence I love, as rare as it is. You could hear the wind as it blew past you. Someone had wind chimes up. There were some birds as we got closer to the second patch of woods.
Then some dogs barked as we passed and that was a tad annoying.

Still no sign of Ripley. Maybe he got hit by a car again and was being confined to his house?

The fire smell was still in the driveway when we got back, but I think it's from the neighbors. No creeptacular source there.

Anyways, I've got me some pictures to go through now. If this is really happening, then I guess I've also got a game of Where's Waldo: Eldritch Abomination Edition to play too.

I'll get back to you on the pictures as soon as possible.

I hate snow.

No. I have no "Branwen's Big Forest Adventure!" for you. I couldn't get out with Ace in the daylight because dad was busy. I could have gone at night, but that's stupid and I still can't find the camera with the working flash. And now, when dad's still home and nobody's busy, we're having our 8,624,324,578th snowstorm. Whee.

I'd like to say that nothing exceptionally weird has happened in the friend circle.

I'd LIKE to say that.

Seth - Quiet. Chews nails a lot. Completely different demeanor from before. Missing school.
Sammi - Is typing. She hasn't done any photo editing in days. She specializes in that.
Skye - Still coughing. Is now hardly sleeping at all.

Does that sound dumb? Yes it does. But I'm not done.

Seth's girlfriend, Skyler, has been visiting a lot lately. She lives three hours away. Seth says every time she does she checks the locks on the doors and patrols the windows at regular intervals. Remember, Skyler told Seth about the videos.
Sammi isn't editing any photos because she has none. Every time she takes a picture, it'll look fine on the camera, and then show up completely messed up and distorted on the computer. Especially if the picture was taken outside.
Skye is deteriorating for no determinable reason. She's been to the doctor. They gave her medicine. She isn't any better.

Did I mention Casey? I guess not. Someone's been stalking around her house. This has happened before and somebody actually broke into her house awhile ago. But this particular stalking incident wouldn't have been noteworthy if it hadn't started happening RIGHT after she watched the videos. Yeah...this has been going on and she JUST told me...
 Oh and hey. Casey's house has wide windows spanning each wall of the living rooms and kitchen.

Me? My particular incidents have slowed. Except the backyard last night.

I had this theory...if this were all really happening...maybe the moon would have some affect on it. The full moon was yesterday - the Wolf Moon. It's the brightest of the whole year. Did you know Whelan means 'wolf'?
I thought, since things weren't happening as much, they'd come to a full stop last night. And maybe that tiny little connection between my surname and this particular moon would do something.
I keep learning how much of a daydreamer I am lately...

Alright...so I bought a laser pointer for Ace, thinking he'd be amused. He took no notice of it. I was disappointed. Well it's mine now. So I started shining it through the glass back door to see if I could get it into the yard. When I successfully spotted it on the snow covered ground, I kept moving it to see how far I could get it into the yard within my sight from the warmth of my house. I got to the woods...and was hit by a feeling of extreme anxiety. I shuffled away from the door and put the laser down to make a cup of tea.
As I'm sipping this tea in the kitchen with Ace, dad walks out, looks out the back door and shouts, "HOLY HECK!"
He's pointing. I don't want to turn around. But I do.
There's a full blazing fire in the fire pit by the woods.

We haven't burned anything there in weeks.

I'm going kind of stir crazy from the snow days (I've gone to school a total of two days this week - tomorrow is not looking good). But I NEED a cancellation tomorrow.

I HAVE to find out what's in those woods.

Snow Day!

I've finished Seeking Truth and am now starting The Tutorial. Wow...sorry I doubted you, Zeke. You really are awesome.

Next time dad takes Ace for a walk I'm going with him and I'm taking a camera. Just to take pictures. Just to see. Because now I've thought of it and if I don't do it I'll probably go insane with not knowing if the pictures would work or not.

I had another pretty terrifying dream (actually, dream series) but when I woke up after like...the third one of the same thing I realized what was going on in them and how silly it was. And I laughed. Because when they're put together it's really quite funny. At least to me. C:
It involved zombies and ghosts and running from them and car chases and a castle. And the cops. But the police and the car chases were only in the third one.

Well, I'm gonna waste my snow day reading blogs. Maybe I'll post later. We'll see.

Edit: I like that I never actually did that. I don't remember what I did, but it wasn't blogs. It was probably Monster Rancher. I LOVE that game.

I have quite a tale for you. Quite a tale indeed.

If there's anyone out there that actually reads this and just chooses not to comment and was concerned about the lack of posts, I'm fine...I assure you. Weirded out lately...but fine.

(EDIT: Now it says I have 32 posts. But I counted. Including this one, there are only 30. Where are the other two coming from?)
The original reason was because I noticed that I had 31 posts of random babble about stuff in my life and it hasn't even been a whole two months. I decided that was kind of ridiculous and decided to cut down on posting. I was waiting for interesting things to build up. That happened, just...not the way I intended.

While I was busy being all lazy and not writing about IM or BPA or any of that nonsense, I was catching up on the Slender Blogs. I've finished Just Another Fool, Dreams in Darkness, Lost Time, Dare 2 Die, and I got half way through Seeking Truth. (From what I gathered in comments from other blogs, Zeke Strahm seemed really awesome. So far he's just been annoyingly skeptical. I'm waiting for the awesome, folks. Don't quite see it.)
Apparently The Tutorial should be my next stop. I would have gotten there, had a series of what I'm going to call "disturbing coincidences" (for the sake of my sanity) not happened. But they did. And I panicked. And I dropped everything related to this Operator or /Construct/ or whatever He is. Including this.
This became my second reason for not posting.

My last post was on Monday. I told you guys how Sammi and I were the only ones of our group there that day. Seth just wasn't there (he told me he slept in) and Skye had some sort of stomach flu.
Semester projects were due Wednesday, so we didn't talk much. Just worked away on my comic and her photo manipulation. Nothing was out of the ordinary here at first. Something I didn't tell you guys in that post is that my best friend Casey - I've talked about her before - she wanted to know what I was talking about that was so creepy. So I told her. I warned her first. She watched anyways. She started flailing around on Facebook and started this huge chain reaction. A few people thought it was dumb, but most of them got to only Entry #3 and were ready to cry. At that time I felt like a mastermind. I toppled one domino and they all fell. Now...I'm not so sure. Now I don't think that was such a good idea. I feel kind of sick thinking about it...

Tuesday the whole group was back - Me and Sketham (Skye, Seth, Sammi, in case you didn't see it). I noticed that Skye was coughing. I feel like I only noticed this because of this stupid ordeal. There was a snowstorm in the forecast. A huge cloud headed right for our area. There was NO way we weren't going to get hit. Oesch told us not to bank on a snow day for our semester projects. I decided that was wise and continued to work on the comic.
I got home, saw some more frantic statuses about...it...and decided to read some more blogs despite how creeped out I was. I would like you to take note at this point that I'm an idiot and I am the driving force of my own fear of the paranormal. It's all in my head. Most of the time. I think. Anyways...I go to get something from the kitchen...a cup of water I think...and another light bulb blows. The third one. (The second, gone unreported here, also occurred in the kitchen.) I'm starting to get really upset about this phenomenon...and then the nightmare. You know, the one all the characters have of being chased in a dark forest and running and running and running and hiding but you can't get away because it's after you and you can't escape but you keep running anyways and you see it and it's getting closer somehow...
This isn't useless drabble. I promise. I need you to remember the details here, and besides...that snowstorm leads...

...into Wednesday. My high school had already canceled the night before. The Career center canceled that morning. This was awesome, because I got to sleep more. And I wanted to sleep, because my REM cycle was relatively untainted then. Some friends had planned a little sledding party at one of their houses. I really needed to hang out with people and get out of my accursed light bulb killing house. I didn't care how much I didn't like being outside. I MADE myself go hang out with them.
And it was great! I was having a wonderful time with Brian and Cara and Jason and Jackie (Cara's sister) and their dog Fisher who is possibly the most cuddly animal...next to Ace. We played Reach after coming inside and I discovered that I'm suddenly more awful at this Halo than the previous games. But it was okay because I was Jason's teammate and he made us suck less, despite how much I accidentally killed him. It was really hilarious.
Then Jonnie, who couldn't come to the actual party, joined our game from the comfort of his own home and we talked to him through Jason's headset. And then I learned that Jonnie turns invisible almost all of the time. And when he turns invisible and he's near you, your radar freaks out with red dots and you run away and you hide but he catches up to you still and the next thing you know he's knifing you in the back. This was insignificant until I made the connection with my dream. That was probably a coincidence, but I didn't have to be comfortable with it.

Thursday. By this point I've dropped all Slenderman related business. The dreams are bad. And I don't like them. Our projects were due today since snow ruined Oesch's plans. I finished mine with 40 minutes of class time to spare. Awwwwright. (Okay that part was unnecessary. You don't need to remember that.)
Seth was really tired looking and quiet. Half of that's because he procrastinated on his project. That didn't make me less worried. Skye got 45 minutes of sleep for whatever reason. Her cough has grown horrendous. It was occasional, but it was loud and dry sounding. Sammi...was...well...it's hard to tell what's regular Sammi behavior and what isn't anymore. But for the sake of my worried mind, let's say she was acting more distant than usual.
I was annoyed at myself for finding these connections when I promised to forget the subject. Then I decided, "Screw it," and threw a crappy little Slendy doodle into a comic page just to make the reference. I was kind of amused. Then I was annoyed again.
Casey is totally terrified of those videos. But she's the same as me. She's just too interested now. She keeps telling me when there are updates...
I think everyone else, the collateral from Casey, has died down about it.

Friday. I only had to go to the high school today. Nothing particularly special happened, aside from the Slenderman doodle on the white board in English. What have I done...

Saturday. Oh. There they are again. This dream was different. I was being chased, but I'd managed to take some control and changed the setting. The whole thing took on acid trip properties and I can't remember much of what happened...other than there were definitely ghosts and they were haunting me because of something I did or started. And they were everywhere I hid. And anything I managed to think of to help me in my partially lucid stated ended up turning against me.
I spent most of this day playing Monster Rancher 4 because Sly 2 decided to spaz out on the audio and I got scared and punched it and shut the stupid thing off.
I remembered that I never learned where Seth heard of the videos.
He got the idea from Skyler. His girlfriend. But where did she hear of them...

Sunday. Today.
I have to ask you to remember something I said. When I first talked about taking Ace for a walk and the odd thing that happened.
Dad asked me to walk him again today. It was lighter out, so I decided to go right then. And I wanted to test something.
Also, Ripley came frolicking out of nowhere. I was relieved. He was okay. Silly little neighbor dog...
I took Ace to the other end of the horseshoe. See, on the side far from the house, the bend gets close to the woods. That's where the weird thing happened. Now, on the other side, a street branches off of the bend and turns into a dead end. Which halts. Right at the woods.
I took Ace there first. And what I expected to happen occurred. He just...stared into them. I couldn't see anything amiss. But I thought...maybe it's something he hears? So I listened. And it was absolute...silence. Not a sound. No winter birds or cars or wind or neighbors. It took some budging to get him to move. Ripley bounded around like nothing was wrong.
When I finally got Ace to move, we turned and walked to the other bend, to the first incident. He didn't stop here like I thought he would. But I did figure out where Ripley went off to the other night. He just kept walking. He went on without us to wander the rest of the neighborhood.
He never does that. He always follows us.
And then there was the smell. I thought it was the exhaust of the motorcycle being revved in the garage we just passed. Then I actually sniffed. It was smoke. There was fire somewhere. And the revving disappeared. Everything went silent again. Ace took the leash in his mouth again and started steering us home.
About halfway home, he actually started PULLING the leash. He would slow down for half a second, look to left, then surge forward with the leash still in his mouth. He only calmed down when we got to the back porch steps.

Now that I'm done chewing your ear off about the "disturbing coincidences" in my life, let me recap as to what exactly was amiss. Let's compare notes.
- Erratic behavior in both Seth and Sammi.
- Coughing in Skye, which is getting worse.
- Nightmares that are getting more vivid.
- Electrical issues of varying sorts.
- Eerie silence and smells of fire.
- Something is scaring Ace. Something outside.

Could these all just be "disturbing coincidences"? Knowing how I am, possibly. But that doesn't make me feel better. And coincidences or not, something's bugging my dog. There has to be something outside he can't handle. Sometimes he takes the leash just because he's tired. He never frantically pulls it like he did today.

I don't know what's going on...but I'm worried. Worried and scared.

Monday...I almost called this Tuesday.

All full of deeeelicious pierogies. Yum! <3

Now then. Today.

It was just me and Sammi in our little group today. Sammi looked better. Seth was missing (AGAIN - he says he slept in) and Skye is violently ill with the stomach flu. Oy. :(

Made a logo for Justin's band today. He was really happy. I'm so proud of myself. I like making people happy. C:
Argued with Visa some more about their freakin' automated text messages. But nobody cares to hear about that.
Oesch saved me from talking to the college guy. I don't need "help" with college. I'm not a moron. I already applied to Kent.
Also started Dreams in Darkness in IM. I got to around where Ted died. I'm more upset about this than I should be. :'(

Enough of my mundane day. Now for the interesting part.

I had to take Ace for a walk because dad had to go pick up his prescription. By the time I was ready, it was turning dark. We went around the neighborhood horseshoe. The nice Papa John's guy successfully avoided me twice and restored my faith in the driving skills of Ohioans. Then I saw it.
An extremely long shadow.
I slowed my walking and stared at it for a while before I figured out it was coming from that neighbor's trash can.
Crisis averted.
And THEN the neighbor dog comes hurtling out of the shadows to say "HI!". I almost screamed.
I love him, fluffy little Ripley, but JEEZ.
He then proceeded to do his usual routine and loosely follow along side us during our walk.
We reach the bend in the far side of the horseshoe from my house, the part of the road closest to the woods. There's no sun left now. Ace stops. He stares. He won't budge.
When I finally got him to move, he flipped his head around, grabbed the leash in his mouth, and guided us back home.
...I only registered that Ripley was not at all present on the way back home just a few minutes before typing this.I was a little weirded out by it. But I know it's just because of Dreams in Darkness. I used this to rationalize.



I'm waiting for my fear cycle to register these events as amusing. It will. Eventually.

I'm just digging myself deeper aren't I?

I've decided that as fearful of it as I am, I'm now completely interested in this...Slenderman. I went back to the Know Your Meme article to see if there was anything else on Him. I have discovered Just Another Fool and the world of blog ARGs.

Shortly after reading all of it (and feeling very creeped out), I went to my room to get something, turned the light on, and it immediately explodes. Not really, but that's what it looked like. I scampered away from my room, informed dad I'd need a new light, and decided to go play Sly 2 while it was still light enough out to survive the basement.

I got to Episode 8. It has a Clockwerk icon. I KNEW I'd have to fight him again...I just didn't want to. So I got annoyed and was about to shut it off, when the audio spazzed out. I freaked, almost punched the power button, and ran up the stairs because now the lights were out down there and if I didn't run fast enough the monsters would get me. (Don't laugh. And don't tell me you've never done that before.)

So I made some chicken and I play wrestled with Ace (don't worry, he doesn't bite) in the two areas I deemed safe in the house: the living room and the kitchen.

And now I'm here. Dare I venture into another ARG tomorrow? We shall see.

:D and =/ and :C and D: and >:l

:D

Because Aiden's home and not dying! I managed to sleep for 12 hours. Not 12 hours straight, because Ace opened my door at 6:00 AM again (he's so smart it's unnerving and annoying at the same time) and there was the nap I had around 7:00 PM last night. I ended up getting up around 10:00. I didn't have as fun of a dream, but at least it was rather mundane. (Still would be strange to you, but strange to me are my more acid trip type dreams. Those are fun. :D )
No nightmares. No waking up crying or with a burning sensation in my chest or anxiety.
I thought about them though and got scared. So I cuddled Ace. He's snuggly. I love him.

=/

Because I was trying to read the first Ga'Hoole book and I kept hearing a weird noise. At first I thought, "Mouse in the heater. 'Kay. Whatever."
And then I remembered. And then I panicked again. So I shot up out of the chair and paced along the living room window. I told you about that right? The huge window? It's like, right behind my computer chair too?
I looked outside...and dad was shoveling the driveway.
The sound was the shovel on the asphalt. I wanted to hit myself.

D:

Because Seth texted me right after that incident with another weird message. I yelled at him. He laughed. Then we proceeded to have a normal conversation. Then he says he's worried about Sammi. I ask why. Apparently she's been acting rather irritable and scared. I begin to worry too, but he tells me not to and that he'll handle it. I say okay, push the thought out of my mind, and go back to reading my book.

:C

Because I was sitting on my bed, listening to more My Chem, and suddenly the audio started squealing. Before I could tear out the earbuds in terror, the right one exploded with a small shock. If this has ever happened to you, you know that no matter how small the shock is, if it's in your ear it freakin' hurts.

>:l

Because I'm about to punch Sly 2 in the face.

That is all. Good day.

Frank makes my life.

I took a nap (unintentionally) and actually didn't end up terrified. I had a really nice dream. I cherish it.

I'm ignoring the bit about Kari and Interactive Media and the mall (Kari and IM were two separate sections of the dream) and skip to the My Chem portion.

Me, my best friend Casey, another friend Justin, and some kids from IM were all at a Danger Days themed music camp of sorts that was being run by the MCR boys. The interesting part, is when I was sitting on a log around a camp fire, peeling skins off of potatoes to make potato balls for dinner (I don't think those are even a thing but I'm going to try to make them now). There was a log diagonally to my right and another to my left. Justin and Jacob were on the one on my right, when Frank came over to sit on the one on my left. We were hanging out with him and he was being hilarious. Then Justin and Jacob (IM kid) left at some point and were replace by Gerard, who was discussing something bothering him with Frank and I chimed in to give advice.
And something in the back of my still somewhat conscious mind said, "See, there's no reason to be nervous around celebrities. They're just like normal people."
And then I woke up.

I was really disappointed it was just a dream, but it was nice to not have a nightmare. Moreover, it was nice to have one about a band I grew up listening to (since like...5th or 6th grade).

Nothing much exciting today. Seth came in late, but that's unsurprising. Sammi was angry for some reason. Skye and I were watching Maru the Cat videos.

I lived!

That wasn't so awful. I was actually quite fun. C:

Speech: Probably placed.
Animation: Probably didn't. But we don't care. And as frustrated as I was with the girls, Cassie explained it well. It was superhero related. Just in a way you wouldn't think of.

And Apples to Apples. Ohmygod. I missed that game

"Jewish...? DOITDOITDOITDOIT. ISRAEL! WINNER!"

Basically, it was my turn to judge, and when I flipped over a green card it was a 'Create Your Own'. But someday had already written "Jewish" on the side (we found this game in the college's lounge). We all laughed, and I demanded they do it, then more laughing and slapping cards down really quick and running through them fast because we had to board the buses again and somebody actually put down 'Israel'. It was amazing. xD
Then we just hung out in IM when we got back.

Seth, Sammi, and Skye didn't go. They didn't finish theirs. Seth didn't even show up today. Which is unsurprising, as he randomly does that. Punk decided to skip and sleep in.

Sammi is Sammi again. Whee!

I'm so glad this competition is over...I was already losing sleep because of the dreams...and the anxiety helped not at all. But now...now I can sleep. I also watched Splendorman. I laughed obnoxiously. Makes me feel much better about the whole thing.

I'm gonna wear my Killjoy outfit tomorrow. For funzies.

I believe that's all I have for you. Toodles!

I don't like my dreams...

...but I don't feel like talking about the ones I've had as of late. Ugh...

Meant to update earlier, but was still have an anger/anxiety attack because of BPA. Cannot wait for Thursday to happen and just be over with.

Yeah. Still can't believe they put it on a THURSDAY. Awesome. That's really nice of them.

[sigh]

The animation is almost done. I'd show you, except that in my opinion it sucks too much (it's still decent for our first one ever) and I have no readers anyways. I have to fix some transitions and edit the rest of the audio. The other two girls have been assigned the task of explaining exactly how this is superhero related. Because I said weeks ago what it was supposed to be about (in their defense I didn't really press the fact). But there's metaphors all over the place in it. So I don't know if the judges will like a metaphorical explanation, but they're gonna have to suck it up.

Annnd...I have to make note cards of my speech. Good thing about this is that there are like...three judges at the most. So only a few people get to see us scramble to form a metaphorical explanation for the video and watch me nervously talk about the 1993 Flood.

I'm rambling. That has nothing to do with anything...only me venting.

I guess what I SHOULD talk about is...well...Skye watched Marble Hornets.



...and thought it was dumb.

Sammi, on the other hand, was the unfortunate victim of Seth's craze over it. Which is why she's been so quiet. She's terrified. Apparently she can't sleep. She's having nightmares. Seth feels remorse, but doesn't really remember telling Sammi to watch them.
This accompanied with my dreams.
I don't like it. I feel uncomfortable.
Although...my case could just be from stress.

Ah well...still wondering what was up with the black birds and the fish. I think I'll go check that out now, in case I missed an update.

EDIT: HAH! That kinda cheered me up. Was reading comments on an article about the birds and found this: "I bet Sam and Dean Winchester would have the explanation..."
I want this person to be my new best friend.

Yaaaaay. Schooooool.

Heh...heheh...school. Yeah. We can call Interactive Media school.

No. School is when I go back to the high school at 11:30. Ugh.

So...anyways...I was waiting for the bus this morning, being a paranoid idiot and scanning all the trees (it's the dark in the morning/I haven't really been outside in a few days...don't judge), and I notice something white on the road. I proceed to have a mini heart attack. Then I realize it's just the underside of the neighbor dog's tail. Then I proceed to continue having my mini heart attack because the bus is up on the hill now and the dog is still on the road and that dog is KIND OF an idiot. (He ran off in plenty of time, it's all good.)

Then during the bus ride, I kept getting freaked out about trees, shadows and silhouettes. I resolved to stop looking out the window and just listen to My Chem.

I got to the Career Center, walked over to Seth and Skye and Sammi. Seth's a little more quiet than usual. So is Sammi. In fact, Sammi is REALLY quiet. Skye is the one that initially greets me. Then she gives me a little koi necklace as my late Christmas gift. I might edit it in a picture later just because I love it. C:
Seth talks, he sounds tired but fine. Maybe he's losing as much sleep as me. Serves him right. Sammi still hasn't spoken. I pet her hair (WHAT. It's REALLY SOFT.) and she meekly says hi and the bell rings and we go off to IM.

Seth and Skye are now as chatty as usual. I playfully slap Seth across the face for instilling a new fear in me. Skye asks what it is. Seth's quiet. So I tell her. She scoffs at it and says scary movies almost never frighten her. We'll see...we'll see...

Nothing much exciting after that, except for MORE infuriating BPA nonsense. I have a Flash animation to do. It's due by Wednesday. We compete Thursday. :D
I HATE THEM.
At least I have all of the pictures in. I just have to mess with the frames, the song, and the paperwork...

Well...that's all for today.

EDIT: Did you guys hear about the black birds? That's freaky. Mom says she heard something about a ton of fish washing up on shore too...

Everybody hide your body from the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxIggZfJWAc

In case you didn't get it from Aiden. ;3
I was sitting in the car, listenin' to this song, and I thought, "These lyrics...they're an awesome coincidence," and then shoved the song at Aiden. :D

Still debating on using S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W as His name. Not so much a pain to type over and over as I thought...muh...

[headdesk]

MFMNSHFNWRMRTYBA3RTNEM

Guess who has school today?

At least I get to see people again. Like Seth. Especially Seth. So I can slap him. Jerk. >:l
Why did I have to listen to yooooooouuuu. Dx

At least I slept pretty well...pretty much because I had to take benadryl before bed and then was knocked out. Thank you allergies and potential flu. That was actually quite nice of you. ;D

Guh...

Wow...I slept terribly last night.

Mom was too sick to go to church and sing, so that's cool. (I'm religious, just in a very lax way. For example, I hate waking up at 8:00 AM and going to church to sit through the same freakin' mass. Ugh. Good going, Catholicism.)

So I just ate breakfast, helped cleaned up Christmas stuff, then retreated to the basement to play some Spyro.

Yeah, I know. "Branweeeeeen! You're scared of ghosts and the basement is FULL of them!"

No, it actually isn't. We only had that problem once, and I'm not even sure if that was legit (new favorite word, blame Seth). Plus the basement is well lit and almost homey. I could live there if I wanted. But I won't. Because it is pee your pants terrifying down there in the pitch black.

Anyways, beat Spyro, got screwed out of the final cut scene because the game froze, went back upstairs, then Erin and Brad came over.

It's been lazy here. I'm mostly distracting myself while throwing glances over my shoulder. I think I dreamed of him last night...I forgot to do my little recall thing when I woke up. Oh well.

...why does this huge window have to be RIGHT next to the computer? D:

Love your friends/Hate. Everything.

I'm home now, helping mom make wedding soup and croissants.

So, if you're following Aiden, you should know all of the shenanigans that took place.

I'd like to say that I had an awesome time, disregarding all of the stuff that happened this morning. We scared the crap out of ourselves. I'm fairly certain I cried a few times. I think Hollywood needs to check this Slenderman shebang out and take some notes on how to make a proper scary movie.
(I'd also like to say that I think Ryan and Brenno wussed out, but that's between you, dear invisible readers, and me.)

Now. The doll incident. First of all, Slenderman falls into the paranormal for me, which means he fits nicely into my phobia. Second, he has ghost/demon like properties, which catapults him into the top tier of things to fear (that rhymed...unintentional). Third, as for the aforementioned ghosts and demons, I always feel safer outside for some reason because I feel like I can run. No. He's everywhere. You can't run. It's hopeless.

Take this all into consideration, and all of a sudden Branwen is a ticking time bomb of hysteria.

So slipping the doll into my room? Bad joke, not okay. Doing it TWICE? Now I'm just hysterical and unbelievable amounts of pissed.

I don't know who's responsible, but I really don't think it was Aiden or Brennon. Okay. Maybe Brennon.

But whatever. It happened. That's over. I'm home now, which means big protective doggy and no sign of that doll.

Like I said, disregarding all of that nonsense, it was awesome. Taben's really cool (the transgender thing threw me off though, found myself having to switch pronouns all night :P), Allen's a neat kid, and Ryan's a cool guy.

Holy crap it's 2011. Happy New Year, everyone!