-August- Explanation And Damage Control

Or, as much damage control as I can do perched atop the kitchen counter.

Sam's been out cold since I gave her whatever Doc put in that syringe. Doc, I don't know what you put in there, but it worked wonders.

I'm feeling considerably better myself. The vomiting has stopped for the most part, but it got worse as the night went on because I realized it would be really, really stupid of me to get knocked out by all pills Doc gave me, and even stupider to OD on them. Sam escaped from the chair twice before I finally put her under, and she's been sleeping like a little angel ever since.

Why no, I haven't slept, thanks for asking.

Oh, alright, well, Spence just dropped Todd off and he seems okay. Spencer wants to rip my throat out but at least they're both alive and okay.

Really, Spence, I'm doing better. I'm not seeing ghosts or Mr. Slim n' Trim and the physical symptoms are fading. Slowly, but they're fading.

Sam is still with me and Todd's with me now and Spence is off with the determination and arsenal of a small army, and he is not pleased. At all.

(Not that I blame him.)

Still nothing from Doc, Amanda and Steele. But if the boss is heading back up there, assuming they're alive, they should be back.

Spencer is the only one who seems to have any idea what's going on in that wing, and I'm not the first one to note it as suspicious. That place likes to change layouts like teenage girls change boyfriends and somehow, he knows where he's going.

Well, I'm not going to argue.

And seeing as I certainly don't want to go back and read that disaster of a series of posts, (Eleven of them. Jesus Rollerblading Christ.) I doubt you, mystery reader, want to as well.

(Sam's awake now. She seems mostly sane so I've given her blogging privileges, but she's not being untied until I'm sure she's clean enough to think with a clear head.)

So let's start at the beginning.

We got stuck in a Loop during our last delivery. Normally this isn't really a big deal; we can handle mazes, we can handle Proxies, heck, we can handle Tall, Dark and Faceless - to an extent.

But there are always side effects. Injuries from fighting, Slendersickness, and everybody always feels a bit disoriented after leaving a Loop. The Loops basically completely screw up your internal sense of direction and completely disregard the laws of space-time, so it's not surprising that us mere mortals end up a little strange after being in one, especially after three days of real time.

Normally, we manage just fine.

Doc has a cure for most things and what she can't cure, she just knocks out. Sometimes there will be hallucinations, (a la Sam and Steele) sometimes we succumb to a little bit of the... influence, (a la Todd) and sometimes the sickness just hits us like a semi to the face. (A la me.) The effects are usually randomized, and have less to do with what happened in the Loop and what our current mental state is, and more to do with what's the most inconvenient for us at the time.

Normally, it's not that bad.

There are a couple days when we're seeing figures in the doorways and voices in our head and we sleep with a bucket next to wherever we've decided is the best place to sleep, and then it's back to work.

Not so much this time.

It started with Todd writing us all into his own version of House of Leaves. There's nothing tongue-in-cheek about it, and the lack of capitalization at the end and the general tone threw us off. It was fairly obvious that something wasn't right.

Again, to be expect. Having reality ripped apart and hastily stitched back together doesn't do great things to your health.

But then Amanda went and googled "Dignus est Agnus." We found a prayer. Here's the translation:

"Worthy is the lamb who was slain to accept power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing..."

Absolutely wonder, right?

Then Doc posted.

Doc, apparently now high off of whatever she had just taken, and now she's getting Nam-style flashbacks to... well, we don't talk about that stuff. Ask her if you're so curious.

Again, to be expected. Maybe it's that it doesn't seem to bad when it's spoken aloud in conversation, because we're all too far gone with our various symptoms to notice, but in retrospect it all seems horrid and definitely not healthy.

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

Amanda was away on the east coast with her own delivery, so she escaped the symptoms. Her post was the small bit of common sense and reassurance that got us together and in the kitchen, and I'm a little bit afraid of what might have happened if we had stayed in our separate parts of the house.

The next post belonged to Sam.

Oh god, Sam.

Sam's fresh meat. She's the newest of all of us, and this was the first time she'd been in The Place Physics Left Behind.

(And even as I type this there are drafts going up from Amanda and Sam. Amanda, we do have a library. It's the boss'. Christ. What was he doing in there? If you're posting I take it you're okay. Spence will be up there soon. Just try and hold on until he finds you.)

We also expect her to get it kind of bad. Worse than the rest of us, certainly. I was a mess of black gunk and hallucinations and mad raving for a week my first time. It does something to you, and not good things. Not good things at all.

Spence's post. Common sense. Ordering us around because Jesus Rollerblading Christ, some direction is what we needed.

Todd official dived off the deep end.

Spencer went into the east wing after him.

We're convinced at this point that Todd's crossed the line and Turned.

"im so sorry

im so sorry
please just dont hurt me
please
ill give him back
i just wanted to get out for a while
im so sorry"

I'm neither sure of what that means, nor do I know who's speaking. Slim n' Trim? (Not likely.) A split personality? (Possibly.) But it wasn't good, wasn't good at all, but Spencer seemed to have... talked some sense into him?

Everything from here is out of my element. Amanda and Doc went off to try and rescue Steele, because it's obvious now he's gone completely off the rails, and his posts and comments and posts speak for themselves.

And from there Amanda will have to summarize for you, because it was just me having way too many pills, trying to keep Sam sane and visibly flipping the hell out.

Those pills have really made me sleepy. The fact that I haven't slept probably isn't helping.

Todd is doing okay. Sam is still a little woozy and seems a bit high, but other than that the three of us seem to be doing okay.

Spence, Amanda, Doc, Steele.

Please stay safe.