October 25th, 2013/A page in Rose's new journal

It's been a long while since I first learned of the Heat Haze.

How many years has it been? Two? Since the day Dave returned after being killed, along with John a year earlier and eight new Chumhandles appeared on our screens, I can't say anything has been quite the same. Now, let me recapitulate what exactly has changed.

I believe I myself have gone through the events required to come back from the dead and receive a power. The constants line up: a surreal, nightmarish dream-like experience, with a feminine voice coming from somewhere. One other person, my mother, accompanying me in the Haze other than myself and the entity said voice belongs to. And a wish. The entity knew well what I wanted, well what I would do if some magical power came into my hands.

I hate to say that it/she is right. I am utilizing my granted wish exactly as I remember her saying. But I have every reason to. After all, why not use what is available to you?

I believe my power allows me direct communication with the 'snakes' – the supernatural beings currently keeping my friends alive – rather than my friends themselves. To my relief, these snakes are not truly intelligent nor are they truly powerful. They seem to have desires of their own, yes, but they cannot override the personality of a host nor even use their own powers without some actually sentient person calling on them. However, on their own they may utilize English words so as to communicate these desires, and take on the tone of voice used by the entity in the Haze.

Now, about my experiences with said power: it is dormant in a stubborn way. While John and Jade have near-intuitive control over their "eye abilities" (as the strangers on Pesterchum call them) and Dave's is still almost always activated, I have a hard time reaching mine. It seems to never come out when I want it to, but does not even do so of its own volition. It just lays dormant within me. So the Heat Haze is capable of making its gifts cutting remarks, then? How cryptic! But nonetheless, it is a satisfying ability. In theory.

~Rose Lalonde

November 11th, 2013

The world of eye abilities is a social one.

For instance, my gift is useless when not surrounded by people who have been revived via Heat Haze. For another, covertCommander, the purple-text girl belonging to the 'Mekakushi Dan', has been advising me on how to properly utilize my power. The rest of her gang has chimed in with advice as well, though they all defer to CC as a leader and an expert on eye abilities. I use the word 'gang' in a fairly literal sense; having deduced that the Mekakushi Dan is based in Japan and having Google Translated the kanji nicely provided to me by fantasyPathway, the merry little band of new friends in my Pesterchum call themselves the Blindfold Gang.

I am now associating myself with juvenile delinquents. Or not? They don't seem to have the menacing air around their speech that one usually associates with gangs. I feel like I now know more about deers, soda and the art of making paper flowers than I used to. But I digress.

This journal entry is also to say that I have experimented with my power, with more often than not Dave as my subject. It is still as fickle as it was months ago. However, when it doesfunction as desired, I learn all that I want to and more. The words of the snake are lucid and well enunciated – as well as a snake can enunciate, anyways. It tells me, using a voice distinct from Dave's, that it wants to return to its "queen" and do her bidding. And for the rare days in which I can properly activate my eye ability (There's a name for it, though I can't be sure it's right. Is it 'Communing Eyes'?) in the proper circumstances, I hear exactly the same things from John and Jade's snakes.

The path of the seeker is ever difficult, however. It seems the process of talking to snakes pains my friends, prompting them to vehemently refuse me whenever I tell them what it is I'm about to do. When my power ends up deactivating itself, I see something in John, Rose and Dave. They open their eyes wide, like trying to escape a bad dream. Would it be safe to assume that it is akin to trying to leave the Heat Haze again?

On another note, I've found research on the Heat Haze beyond what I've done myself. Somebody's investigative journal has been released onto the internet. I don't know who did so, or whether it was with permission, but I'm utilizing it. The journal is unnamed and not under the website of any archeological organization at all, but it seems to be credited to someone who is, according to Google, a professional archeologist. The author? A person named Tateyama Ayaka. It's a detailed account that draws info from both seemingly firsthand data (was anyone in the Mekakushi Dan adopted, by chance?) and local legend, also keeping measuring up to everything I've found myself. I will continue using it as much as I can. I have to know.

~Rose Lalonde

Postscript tucked at the end of the journal

If you call yourself my friend from back when we were naïve children on a chat client, and have come across this journal, I apologize. I really do. But this needs to be done. Look at what's happened to us – as much as the voice in the summer heat called these inhuman eyes "gifts", you know they're not really that. They're curses. And the more I learn, the more I realize we are very likely pawns in somebody's game of chess, perhaps the "queen" your snakes so reverently desire to serve. We're the pieces on the board. At the least, this is keeping us safe. At the most, it could repair our fates. So forgive me, if you read this. The pain is worth it, trust me. Oh, and one more thing: if we are not exploited or killed off for a second time, and you would call your future optimistic:

Spare yourself the effort. The pleasure was all mine.