if you haven't noticed yet, you can take the messages at the ends of the chapters, decode them, and put them all together to get a sort of poem... the first three chapters have completed the first poem, and now starts a new one!
since the structure and rhyme scheme of the messages has changed, i thought it appropriate to change the cipher, as well. the messages from here on out can be decoded using atbash
happy reading!
Dipper and mabel have been missing for approximately seventy-one hours...
The two brothers trudged into the forest and through the snow. They'd been searching for Mabel and Dipper for over twenty-four hours by now, and Ford tried to distract himself by keeping his mind on scientific mode. He concentrated on his surroundings and calculated the implications of every detail he perceived so that he wouldn't have to consider the children's fates.
The amount of fog is alarming considering the snow on the ground—granted, it is possible for mist or fog to form on snowy ground, but not when air temperatures remain below zero degrees Celsius...
The first forty-eight hours are the most crucial when searching for missing persons...
The dense fog had just begun to appear a matter of minutes ago, and it was impossible to see through. Soon, neither Stan nor Ford could determine which way they were going.
A considerable amount of humidity in the air would also be necessary for fog this thick to form, but there's no precipitation falling at the moment...
The likelihood of finding missing children after seventy-two hours is incredibly slim, though it isn't unheard of...
Something paranormal must be causing this fog...
Dipper and Mabel have been missing for approximately seventy-two hours...
Stan pulled out his compass to check and ensure that they had at least been staying true to their course.
I haven't encountered anything that would have the ability to manipulate weather conditions like this; could whatever it is be intentionally hindering our ability to navigate the forest?...
Statistics on missing persons and abducted children exist using data exclusively collected from cases where children were kidnapped by fellow humans, while in this case the most probable scenario is that something paranormal took the children...
I can hardly see Stanley through this fog. Get closer to Stanley. Don't lose sight of Stanley...
Have the children been taken, or perhaps attacked and injured? No, injury implies helplessness and brokenness and bleeding and seventy-two hours of injury may lead to hypothermia or death. Injury is not an option...
Focus, Stanford. Don't think about this. Pay attention to your surroundings. Consider physical evidence, not hypotheticals...
Dipper and Mabel have been missing for approximately seventy-three hours...
"Hey. Earth to Poindexter." Stan snapped his fingers in front of Ford's face, causing the latter to jump into reality.
"What is it?"
Stan held up their compass to reveal to Ford that it had lost all functionality; its needle was spinning out of control. "I said the compass went to shit, so we got no way of knowin' for sure we ain't walkin' in circles here."
Ford blinked. "Fascinating," he muttered, taking the compass from his twin's hand. "A disruption in the electromagnetic field would result in the compass failing to point north, but few things could cause it to spin without direction... I wonder..." He trailed off, turning away as he brought a finger to his chin in thought. "If something took them... and it knows that we're searching..."
"Then it wouldn't want us to find 'em," Stan finished, narrowing his eyes.
Ford hummed a grim affirmative. "And if it doesn't want us to find them, that means that it-"
The author cut himself off suddenly, drawing his ray gun and whipping his head around to find where he should aim.
"Hey, woah, cool it, Sixer! What happened?"
He tensed. "Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"Something moved. Just over there—a disturbance in the fog. I saw it."
Stan hesitated, looking around in search of what his brother saw. But...
There was nothing.
He sighed and shook his head, continuing his walk forward. "Don't do this—not now. We gotta find the kids."
Ford hurried to catch up with his brother, still looking around with his weapon at the ready. "I'm serious!"
"You're seein' things again, Sixer. Pull it together. You're probably exhausted, I am too, but we gotta focus-"
"Stan! Listen to me! This isn't a delusion!"
"Don't do this, Stanford."
"I know I saw something!"
"Ya knew ya saw somethin' last week, too," Stan snapped.
Ford stiffened. "That was different."
The younger twin just scoffed, making the elder clench his fists.
"That was irrational! This is different! This forest is a cornucopia of anomalous activity, making it perfectly plausible that I saw something that was able to evade my vision by the time I managed to turn my head for a closer look!"
"So what if it is real? Like ya said, this place is weird! Don't get so hung up on one little thing ya might've saw."
"Seen," the author instinctively corrected, still glancing around uncertainly. "I don't know, Stan, something seems... Off."
"Everythin' seems off," Stan griped under his breath. "It doesn't matter. The kids're what matter."
"What if the thing I saw is what took them?"
"Dammit, Ford, couldja stop being paranoid for one damn minute and just focus-"
Suddenly, Stan tensed, his eyes going wide. He scanned the area around him but all he saw was green trees fading into grey fog fading into white ground in a steady gradation that left him with no certainty of where the earth ended and the sky began.
"Stanley?! Did you see it?"
He had. He'd seen something, anyway, whether it was Ford's thing or not. At least... He thought he'd seen something... No, no, he had, he was certain of it. It was real, it was there, and it was black like the trenches.
Or... was it grey, like the Arctic sea?
Or... was it blue, like ocean spray?
Or... was it colorless, like air?
Like nothing?
But it couldn't have been nothing.
Because Stanford saw it too.
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