So, the blog takeover was rather obvious. I’d expected to
track down Totara; I didn’t think he’d track down me.
The first thing he did was cut the power while I was out.
This took out about half the traps right away. He also removed any batteries he
could find, ensuring I came home to a dark house and that it stayed that way,
and also that the cameras were disabled the entire time. Black didn’t stop him.
Speaking of, I fell asleep after making tea for him and
myself on the camping stove; when I woke up it was a day and a half later with
dry throat and pounding headache and a bad taste in my mouth to find the house
had been overturned. I’ve tested the tea since and discovered traces of sodium
thiopental I found had been taken from the supply left over after I sent some
to Phil, as well as fospropofol, a combined concoction that scares me. I then
threw out anything remotely edible inside the house in case that had been
tampered with too.
The sedatives did not seem to agree with Black, and he threw
up on the carpet almost immediately after waking. He slept abnormally long in
the days afterward, although he seems to be fine now apart from having a newfound
aversion to tea.
My lab was somehow in even more disarray than the rest of
the house. It had been methodically searched, although very little was taken.
The floppy disk and CD I acquired from the mountain lab are gone, the electromagnetic
field generator 2.0 and the backup
fuel generator have several small but important components missing, and my
computer’s hard drive has been magnetically wiped.
Totara has a sense of humor I don’t like. When I find him, I
might just return the favour.
Outside of all this, I’ve been working on a way to sculpt
azoth, preferably into weapons. Azoth is very malleable, capable of taking a
variety of shapes and hardnesses, and I want to take advantage of this
property. So far, though, it’s been... difficult.
Making a sealed experimental container was easier than I
thought it would be because it required only a few modifications to a vapor
cage similar to the ones holding rats. I added gloves to the final structure,
as well as a glass ‘airlock’ to move items into the main chamber without any
escape of contaminated air. Instead of a vacuum, fire is used to clean the air
of azoth vapor after items have been removed.
I tested it out by attempting to find out if specifically
living azoth could be accurately shaped. My hypothesis was that since it
communicates with itself via electromagnetic signals, mimicry of these signals
could cause it to perform desired actions. To this end I made a miniature
solenoid with adjustable voltage and current to see if there was a ‘sweet
spot’.
It did not go well as hoped. The solenoid could cause the
areas of azoth it was run over to become solid, but not for any useful length
of time. In addition, the behavior it caused was erratic; often the azoth would
twitch or twist into odd shapes or for one worrying moment, coil around the
electromagnet even when the current was cut. Fortunately said magnet was within
a plastic bag from which it was easily removed.
I also tried seeing if dead azoth could be fired like
clay in a kiln. In retrospect this was a terrible idea. I constructed the kiln
underground and with plenty of coal in order to create a layer of carbon
dioxide over the azoth to counter it’s oxygenated properties. I thought this
would be sufficient but clearly it wasn’t as the entire thing detonated with
enthusiasm c. As far as I can tell, the
azoth ignited inside the kiln and then caused a massive pressure buildup.
I was very nearly bludgeoned by a brick, and got some
very awkward questions from the neighbours. I told them it was a car
backfiring.
That said, azoth can be safely
cooked in an oven at temperatures below its flashpoint as long as it’s
distributed evenly: it’s in fact part of the process I used to make azoth fireworks.
The heat causes it to harden, shrink and become brittle, so it’s not really
useful as a method of making objects. Messing around with variable temperatures
and lengths of heating to see if more useful results are yielded will have to
wait until said oven is fixed from the aftermath of an unfortunate paper
related incident. (It’s a long story involving amateur
surgery, a spectrometer, and a fire extinguisher. Also chess.)
I’m using the remains of the kiln to construct incubators,
since I don’t want to leave Dying Man water samples in the one in the
university.
I’ve also been making more of the active substance contained
in the mysterious pills, which I’m going to call Cortexiphan just for the hell
of it, so as to build up a decent stock in case it’s ever needed. Currently only
have roughly thirteen grams of product, kept dry with dessicants in an anti UV
jar in the freezer. Hopefully it doesn’t degrade over time.
Something I forgot to mention earlier: None of the dead or
disappeared rats were from the vaccinated group. It’s a good sign but not
absolute proof that it works yet.
I know I’m a bit late to this news, but Last and his team
killed the Rake, or a Rake at least. In any case, a precedent has been set. I’ve
been busy making the promised medals. They are almost complete, and just need
to be electroplated. If you can email me an address to send them to, that’d be
great.
In other news, I need a Proxy volunteer for my next
experiment. Someone who can Path. It’s nothing particularly harmful or even
strenuous, although it does require a lack of dickishness and an ability to
remember instructions. And if you encounter a Denizen on the Path and kill it,
I’d quite like it’s corpse for study.
