un: stanford | voice

[cryptograms]

Greetings, Trench! This is Stanford Pines speaking. Many of you I met in Deerington, and others I only met after arriving in Trench.

For those of you I haven't met: I worked as a researcher of all things paranormal and anomalous in my home dimension, and after I arrived in Deerington I used my experience in that field to research and catalogue the events, creatures, history, and metaphysical inner workings of Deerington, the Dream, and its residents.

Now, I wasn't the only person gathering this information. Several other individuals compiled their own documents on the same subjects and made them available to all of Deerington. Several of the authors vanished, however, and the distribution of their works depended on other Sleepers already having their own copies to share.

Which brings me to a proposal I have for the entire town.

[ There's the brief sound of shuffling paper before Ford continues. ]

Assuming no such other project is underway I'd like to begin keeping a publicly accessible archive of information gathered by Sleepers, particularly as it pertains to the Sleepers as a whole, as well as the nature and history of this dimension.

So, I'm looking both for individuals willing to contribute their own research, as well as any ideas as to where this archive could be housed. We may be able to requisition our own wing within the School of Mutter's Archaic Archives, but it may be preferable to select a more neutral location, outside of the immediate influence of any of the Patron Pthumerians.

[ Ford pauses for a moment, clears his throat, and continues. ]

Thank you all for hearing me out. And if you ever encounter anything especially weird, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

Yeah, I got the rundown of Sodder and them from a couple different people, but nobody knows anything about the new gods.
I've hung out with Cloverfield some.
He's a nice dude. Real lonely. I think he just misses people.
You learn to recognize it after a while, you know?
He likes having someone there that he can relate to. He just wants some friends.

I don't know much about the others but I have a feeling someone named The Reckoning is probably not gonna be as sunshiney.

[cryptograms]

[ There's a longer pause before Ford responds this time. He needs to write all of this down. ]

That's much more than I was able to learn from speaking to him.

Have you managed to make contact with any of the other Patrons?

[hauntedsavior]

Not yet. None of them really seem like they want to hang out like CF does.
Mine is The Reckoning and with a name like that I don't know if I want to hang out with her much?

Also, like, I guess put a huge asterisk down by what I'm saying.
We wanna get technical here, I'm putting human emotions on something that is DEFINITELY not human.
We don't even know if the gods feel things the way we do.
I only think I recognize what Cloverfield is feeling.

[cryptograms]

[ Hey, this 'grollschwert' person seems to actually know their stuff! ]

That's an excellent observation. You're right that we shouldn't make any unchallenged assumptions. However

[ This next part takes a while. Ford has a lot of thoughts on the matter that he needs to stop and collect. ]

Though they may not be human, or even mortal, their emotions aren't necessarily alien to us. Julia was just a child in many ways, acting out of fear and a desire to be accepted, and even the full-blooded Pthumerians had motivations that weren't far removed from what you might expect of a mortal creature. The Pthumerian queen was driven by ambition and a sort of affection, Mother Superior by grief and fury, Cynthia by compassion and love.

What I mean to say is: the inhuman perspective should still be considered, but you shouldn't discount your own perspective, either.

[hauntedsavior]

[aw, kind of him to notice. it's a desperate backpedal to avoid recognizing that she has feelings.]

Right, right, I've heard a lot about how, like, the whole problem with Sodder and all of that was that everyone had human emotions and everyone was trying to do what they thought was right.
Just a family dispute, but with people strong enough to alter reality around them.
If that holds here? Hoo boy, we are in for some Conflicts.

So mythology is kind of your thing, I'm guessing.
Me too, honestly. Something about the stories that people tell to explain the way the world works always hit me as interesting.
And I guess now they're more than just stories.

[cryptograms]

That's an extremely apt description of the situation. My hope is that the circumstances surrounding Julia were unique enough that we won't see a repeat here, but even a more stable situation will have its own set of problems.

[ From what he's been able to gather several of the Patrons are romantically involved with one another, which... is bound to be an interesting time. ]

That's correct! Mythology, folklore, and urban legends are a major area of interest in my studies.

Several of them were more than just stories in my dimension, of course.

But even for the ones that are true there's something interesting in studying how they're passed on, and what bits of the truth are exaggerated, downplayed, omitted, or overwritten.

[hauntedsavior]

Oh yeah, dude, I'm all about that kind of stuff. The way that stories change the longer they go on.
Doesn't just happen with fiction. I was actually going to school for military history for a while, and you would not BELIEVE how much those stories get twisted.
...Well, if you're from America, maybe you would.

Anyway, like. I remember we had one month in Recolle, where I was before this, where people started turning into spooky mythological creatures. Just as a little Halloween treat.
It was real interesting seeing what parts the city kept around.
Didn't see a lot of vampires obsessively counting grains of sand.