(TEXT)

[hexrot]

FILE: RUNIC SCRIPT
FILE: TENANTS, 1-6

FILE: THAUMATURGIC REACTIONS & GLYPH COMBINATIONS – EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS PERFORMED BY JAYCE TALIS, OVERSEEN BY VIKTOR

OBJECTIVE OF TEST: To investigate the possible magical interactions between different runes, identify their combined effects, and assess their stability, potency, and potential applications.

[ there's more technical text such as an outline, hypothesis, methodology, a mention of using the combinations as a way to trigger a reverse transport and return people to their own world and time, etc, but that's mostly unimportant here. skip right to the personal entries: ]

ENTRY 1: COMBINATION 1A (MOTION + SPIRIT)
— Runic Script: Transcribed.
— These runes don't work with a channeling source. (Not needed? Or not the right one?)
— A burst of light, buzzing white noise and what felt like a psychical shock inside my head sprang after both runes were drawn together.
— Viktor did not experience anything of the sort. Sole user of the runes affected.
— Disorienting.
— 30 minutes post combination and I'm feeling restless. Can't keep still. I'll go for a walk.
— Result: unsatisfactory.
— Started feeling hungry again. It's different this time. Just what I needed.

ENTRY 2: COMBINATION 1A
— I had a dream last night.
— "Dream" feels fantastical. Felt more like a vision.
— They come in flashes: the moon breaks apart. Moon shards rain down on a cityscape and destroy it. A woman wails right before I wake up.
— Observation: Day 5 post combination and the same dream persists. Every night.

[ attached are sketches of the scenes, both on paper and a crumbling wall. ]

ENTRY 3: COMBINATION 2B (MOTION + TIME)
— Day 6. Dream persists, for the record.
— Immediate burst to the head similar to 1A. Difference is that I bled from every orifice (not as severely as 1° COD) and grew a rack of antlers.
— Health deteriorated near instantaneously, senses heightened and hunger escalated.
— Fed on blood. Health restored just as instantaneously. Never felt better (a scary thought, but one for another entry).

ENTRY 4: COMBINATION 2B
— The dream changed.
— I keep seeing someone tied to an altar. Can't make out if it's a man or a woman. They change into a monster before being sacrificed where they were tied. Also indistinct what monster. I can only remember an awful shape and sound.
— Day 8: Same dream.
— Day 10: It doesn't stop. I sleep but there's no rest.
— Day 13: I was tied to the altar this time. My body tore and broke itself apart to grow into something horrific. Six limbs, too many bones and rot. Couldn't stop screaming. Even the scream was ghastly. I was sacrificed.
— Day 14: Again.
— Day 16: Again.
— Day 18: We should terminate the experiment. I want to, but at the same time I feel like we're close to something we wouldn't have learned about this world otherwise. What if it's the key to returning?
— Got my hands dirty, might as well see it through. The safest option is a dead man doing it.
— "If you're going through hell, keep going."
— Remember your promise.
— All that remained were fields of dreamless solitude.
— I won't fail. I swore.

[ attached are more drawings of the dream. with each passing sketch, the imagery becomes more manic, messy and eerie. ]

ENTRY 3: COMBINATION 3C (MIND + LIFE)
— It hurts
— suspecting that there is no correlation to effects and glyph combinations i theorize that no matter the combo the effects will only get worse

ENTRY 5: COMBINATION 3C
It's all I hear all I hear is i need you i see you i need you i see you i need you i see you i NEED YOU I SEE YOU I NEEDYOUISEEYOUINEEDYOUISEEYOUINEEDYOUISEEYOUINEEDYOUISEEYOUINEEDYOUISEEYOU

[ it goes on for about 6 pages before becoming illegible. ]

CONCLUSION: FAILURE. GLYPH COMBINATION EXPERIMENT TERMINATED.
HAZARDS ENCOUNTERED: The following symptoms and events were experienced after Combination 3: explosive mental discomfort, incessant auditory hallucinations (SEE: NOTES, ENTRY 5, 3C), paranoia, disorientation, and insistent & focused monster attacks until sunrise. At dawn I heard the words: NEXT TIME YOU ARE MINE.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE SAFETY MEASURES: Immediate suspension of activity. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, ATTEMPT TO REPLICATE THIS EXPERIMENT!!

No more tests will be performed until further notice. If you still attempt to use glyphs in any way after reading this, the consequences are on you alone. Don't be a shithead.

The glyph for MOTION was found mostly by the gas stations and appeared with more frequency when the storms neared. Something to keep in mind.

If you have any inquiries, I'll do my best to answer them.

I'm sorry.

Comments

[hexrot]

[ bro....... 😭 ]

I don't think I can drink it.
Thanks for the thought, though.

[solitarysoul]

[Oh, wow, that really sucks.]

i'm sorry.

[hexrot]

Don't be. It's not all what it's cracked up to be.

[ it's just for the relaxing side effects and not the actual taste of it. there's something much better than wine anyway, but. he doesn't need it. let's not get gluttonous. ]


Worse comes to worst, I'll find someone to drink in my stead.

Text

[guidemyway]

...Maybe next time we do experiments we can let everyone else know beforehand?

Text

[hexrot]

Didn't think we needed backing, or discouragement.

Text

[guidemyway]

And I get that.
I’m not saying I would have discouraged it either.

It’s just if these things go bad, like really bad, it could affect all of us.

We’re part of a convoy, part of a team. We’re all in this together.

[hexrot]

Ideally, kid. That's not what happens.

[ in reality . . . how many of them were distrustful of one another? that's not a team at all. they have no leader. no common objective. they're just following the damn truck to wherever the hell it's going and surviving day by day. dying. changing. forming smaller clusters of trusted groups, but they're not a team. unfortunately. ]

As the sole subject in a controlled environment experiment, I wouldn't change a thing.
Trust our experience with this.

[undyingcrow]

We'll have to see if another opportunity arises.

I only attempted it when the convoy began playing that haunting melody to fend off the humming. It may be something about the particular frequencies or composition that warrants further analysis.

[It's not uncommon for songs in stories to carry magical qualities, after all. Siren songs immediately come to mind.]

I'm happy to help. Though, while we're on the subject, I don't suppose you noticed the peculiar radio signals during last month's Moon Warp? They seemed to correspond with bloodshed from the giant Nargacuga.

[solitarysoul]

[It always helped him, except when he drank too much. It'd probably be way to easy to do that here.]

i'm sure someone will.

[hexrot]

[ boy your brain ain't even fully developed ]

I'll be content with sleep.

[solitarysoul]

[Despite appearances, Levi is a legal adult. But he started these things before he was so eh.]

i don't know a way to help with that.

[Its an issue he has often, though.]

[hexrot]

[ that's definitely something to consider. jayce's focus was elsewhere, but now that rune combinations were out of the question, perhaps he could conduct other revan focused activities. the last bit of message has jayce blankly staring. the last moon warp. ah. ]

I hadn't.
I was [ dying. staying dead. for a few hours. coming back half dead. ] incredibly occupied at the time.
Could you elaborate?

[serialmurderbot]

Given proof of negative effects you continued attempts after one induced an aneurysm and bleeding. The third could have rendered permanent neurological damage. Even the second might have, since your notes reflect increasing irrationality. Potentially due to interrupted sleep, but according to your data other factors weren't tested or taken into account before proceeding with the next combination.

It was dangerous and stupid.

[Internally, it's caught between arguing more and just saying 'fuck it' - humans always think they're the exception when it comes to safety rules. Or maybe it's just Jayce, who seems to have embraced fatalistic recklessness.]

[airskate]

[ Oh. That's actually the thing Shadow as most worried about. ]

Good.

The Glyph for motion. Are you going to try to experiment with it again?

[hexrot]

You don't always need to, bud. I can find my way to a bed.

Thought counts, though. Thank you.

[hexrot]

Unlikely, for now. Any manipulation of the glyphs has proven dangerous, and the glyph alone doesn't exhibit enough satisfactory results.

At least not when we Drifters use them.

[hexrot]

[ oh, he meant like that (yes it was stupid). ]

In that sense, you're right.
But the results weren't, and someone had to do it.

[Text]

[constantvrunning]

[V's mostly got their concerns about these methods vented elsewhere. Now, they can ask more productive questions:]

These runes are a different class apart from the sigils we have, would you say is that correct?

[hexrot]

It is.

I'm still compiling a script for our sigils. I haven't seen everyone's.

[bufudine]

I can see the similarities. The monsters that come from within husks appear to act on instinct, but that night showed they were commanded by an unseen hand. And there are signs those monsters were once people.

[That the monsters satisfy his demon's hunger temporarily is probably the biggest indicator, for him.]

In the false Nirvana I came from, after the sun turned black, its rays turn humans into stone. A virus was developed to give humans bodies immune to the sun's effects. It was tested on those of my original world, changing us into demons. The results were deemed successful and used on select humans in Nirvana, allowing them to walk beneath the sun once more.

I'm told moons don't normally look like this one. [It's not like he's ever seen a moon.] Maybe a similar disaster befell this place.

[hexrot]

[ there's a lot to address, here. jayce goes for the more blatant, first. ]

There's proof that something happened, that's more certain now than it was.

Did you agree to the trial that changed you?

[bufudine]

[Oh?]

Did you find something else?

[Did he agree to the trial? Lol. Lmao, even.]

No. We were all infected with the demon virus, with no knowledge of what was happening to us or why. We didn't know it at the time, but my original world was a creation of the false Nirvana. So we weren't considered people.

[hexrot]

Akechi did, but it can wait a minute.

I'm sorry.

[bufudine]

[It sucked ass, but...]

It's fine. I prefer this to what I was before.

[serialmurderbot]

The fact that the variables of risk worked out in your favor this time doesn't mean the risk was worth taking.