Conversations in the Present | A more detailed explanation of what I *think* I know

This has nothing to do with anything. Except that there are at least a few people who can sympathize with the lolcat right about now.

Had a conversation with Hakurei Ryuu yesterday. It was very enlightening. We need to do that more often. Dear sweet Christ on a crutch we need to talk more often.

If it all DOES hit the fan sometime soon, my basic plan involves dressing like Hunter S. Thompson, and riding out on the freeway with a case of whiskey in the back and a cigar in my mouth, screaming about how, "We can't stop here, this is bat country!" While doing so, I'd be picking up whoever I can to get them out of dodge.

Totems can be vital, be they masks, accents, or even states of mind. WHEN things hit the fan for me, the Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo Journalist persona might be the deadliest weapon in my arsenal.

I put out a call to Time Lord today. He's been putting together some special watches for me, modified since he last pulled that sort of thing together. As fate would have it, there are two people I know of who might need them. Whether or not they want them, I'll find out soon enough. That said, I haven't dived right into this mess yet...I think my original deadline is still in place. After seeing if Cynthia or Redlight were up for a game of Gomoku, I'm going to assume I've only got 28 real days left to work with as a safety precaution. That sort of thing attracts attention. Still, there's no point in getting involved in this sort of thing if you're not willing to take risks. It's all or nothing.

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What the HELL am I? A short explanation:

In theory, there have been conflicts raging on the Astral Plane, and other contiguous planes that connect to the material world we know and love, for some time. These things, as a rule, don't physically affect the material world. Then entities start trying to make use of people on the material world. As food, as toys, or maybe just to create physical conditions that suit entities on another plane. The way our energy moves affects all kinds of conditions on planes adjacent to our own. Think of it as being like farming food, or mining resources, although the tools to do so involve directly affecting the human population.

When that sort of thing starts happening, there are people who notice. Lets think of the Human Population as being like Blood Cells for one giant body for a moment, shall we? The vast majority of people are Red Blood Cells, which keep oxygen flowing and make the giant body that is Society capable of moving and getting energy. These are normal, everyday people. They don't notice things getting weird, or odd flows of energy, they have enough problems in the physical world to worry about. For entities powerful enough to pierce the barrier between dimensions, they have another name: Snacks.

Then you've got White Blood Cells. There aren't very many of those. These are people who can actively sense weird (and often predatory) things going on around them. When viruses make it into the Body, they actively attack and remove such things. They are...well, its complicated. I'll explain in a minute.

Lastly, you've got Platelets. Platelets fix damaged tissue and open cuts that are causing blood to bleed out of the body. For the purposes of this metaphor, assume that White Blood Cells are sometimes also Platelets.

Now, lets kill the metaphor before it breeds, because at this point it completely falls apart. The thing about people like me, White Blood Cells, Guardians, Sentinels, Avatars, call us whatever the hell you want, is that there are never very many of us at all. Lets say that we make up 2% to 4% of the human population (And THAT number is pretty generous). Of that 2% to 4%, about 70% who see the outline of these secret wars and terrible creatures and "Awaken" are too terrified by the concept to get involved. They shut down, burying what they sense, and "Go back to sleep." I don't blame them. Nobody WANTS to see this stuff. Unless you're me, and you were really itching to hit back after years of having things try and kill you. I'm weird like that. Of the human population that remain, about 80% will die or disappear in their first year of work. That is not an iron-clad, set in stone statistic, it is a guess based on the following facts:

1: People disappear all the time, every year. The number of them who sense on some level that there's something seriously wrong and get axed trying to fix it...is probably pretty high.
2: Based on my senses, which may not be real due to insanity, there used to be 7 people like me working in the Philadelphia area trying to keep things safe. After my first year at work, I was the last man standing.
3: Based on the sheer viciousness and amount of fighting that occurred in the years 2002 - 2004, and firsthand accounts by survivors of our strange cadre, I've determined that you need to be all kinds of magnificent to survive this kind of scenario. For all the ones who have, I can think of more than a few reasons why they should be dead, and I can't help but wonder how many people were in the same situation and did NOT survive.

That said, most people who do this kind of work will NEVER meet another person like them. Scenarios like Time Lord finding me, and others like him in New York are VERY rare. People in this situation can go years thinking that they might be insane, or worse, that they are the only sane man. They will trust instincts that most people don't have and will maintain a level of paranoia that goes above and beyond the call of duty in their attempts to keep otherworldly entities in line. Many will develop magic talent, but the number one constant among all of them is a highly overdeveloped sixth sense.

Recently, we've been finding each other. The internet has been possibly the greatest tool in the history of mankind for finding other people like ourselves. I won't say what websites we hang out at, but you can find us if you're willing to look hard enough. God help us, we're trying to save the day.

Welcome to the Impossible. It's time to save the world.