A/N: The wiki was a bit lacking when it comes to info about this particular set of rooms, so please forgive me if this chapter's portrayal of them isn't accurate to the game.

Research Report # 161

I'm not a fan of my newest possible recruit, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. From what I could gather from the notes she's been leaving, the amount of things she's caught onto is rather worrisome.

Not to mention the thing with Specimen 9. There was always a tiny part of me that thought we might not have gotten rid of him, and it turns out that part of me was right. If that weren't distressing enough, it would seem that Specimen 9 has... joined up with her.

If he were any other specimen, I'd brush it off as some new method he was trying out, but 9's caused me plenty of problems before, so I don't think it's farfetched to assume that that's not the case.

"I totally should have expected this," I grumble, tossing away the note. "Slime monsters, huge bugs, japanese ghosts, and now a creepy religious cult."

After chatting with Ringu, Taker and I had moved on to the next floor, and presumably closer to the lair of the next specimen we would have to face. Specimen 5, the mannequin with the huge blade that by the sounds of the notes I just read was worshiped by the creepy cult I'd mentioned earlier. Or it was what they were trying to appease, which I actually wished was the case. Sure, it would mean that 5 was oober powerful, but better that than a group of people who spend their days calling a mannequin 'Mother.' No, just no.

"We will encounter her soon," Taker informed me, thankfully pulling me out of my disgusting thought patterns. Which was good, because from my scribbled out copy of the mannequin's entry from the awful computer, she had some sort of mind powers. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it would probably be best to try and keep my thought processes at least PG 13. After all, I didn't know who was looking at them.

"Do you happen to know anything about her that could help me here? Any info at all would be really appreciated."

It had taken a lot of brainstorming, carefully worded explanations and constantly making sure I wasn't within devouring range, but eventually I'd managed to convince Ringu to fulfill my request. She would speak to every specimen she came across, and we would do the same in hopes of gathering ourselves a specimen army rebellion thing. I hoped it wouldn't have to come to war between specimens and ghosts, but maybe if I could get more (hopefully all but that's a long shot) of the specimens on my side, we could convince Spooky that this whole soul harvesting ghost army thing was wrong and everyone could be in peace, and I could run off into the sunset. Normal hero stuff, y'know? But that also meant there would be more work on my end. Now not only would I have to avoid being killed by the specimens, I'd need to avoid being killed and attempt to convince them to join up with me. If that could even be done at all.

But first, we had to navigate this weird combination between a factory and a prison, with most of its doors not even useable. "I could see why a cult would need a prison, holding spaces for sacrifices and all that, but why a factory?"

"Perhaps it was a mannequin factory?" I wasn't sure if Taker was trying to make one of those literal jokes or what, so I just nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that might make sense. Hold on a minute, I'ma write another note."

"Be careful what you mention."

During our little as hush hush as we could get discussion between human and specimens (do you have any idea how hard it is to be in a huddle and stay out of devouring range?) we'd agreed that I should still write notes so as not to arouse anymore suspicion, but to be careful of what I said. And now was a good time as any for another one.

Dear Fellow Adventurer,

Slime monsters, big bugs, Japanese ghosts, and now a cult? I got to hand it to Spooky, this mansion of hers has something for everyone. Or not for everyone, depending on how you look at it.

Don't get me wrong, this by no means makes what she's doing right, but at least she pays attention to detail. She even seems to have researched the backstory of the monsters, if she didn't just make them up. Either way, it almost makes me look forward to seeing what comes next...

Zoe

I read over my lavender script a couple times, putting the finishing touches on my drawing of what one of the cult members might have looked like. I hoped that my compliments wouldn't set off any red flags when Spooky read it, I was hoping that she had the mindset of other children I'd come across before, and thought that I'd forgotten about what had happened with the romantic guy and forgiven her for it or some crap. Though those sorts of stunts had never worked on me as a kid I had constantly used it on others. That sounds bad I know, but it was only for small things, like crayons and a turn on the swing.

When I eventually did run into Specimen 5, I still didn't have any ideas as to how I could convince her to join our cause. How do you reason with a faceless mannequin with a gigantic blade? But I'd have to try. Now let's see... although this thing does seem to have some sort of power, it doesn't seem to be connected with me directly, in that only generic scary things are appearing on the walls and not things that frighten me personally. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't have any control myself. After all, my will is quite strong. So much so that I've mastered lucid dreaming, which basically means I know I'm dreaming when I'm dreaming and can control said dream. What if...

While I run through a straight area where I doubt I'll run into anything, I close my eyes and picture the river of blood that I'd just seen on the wall. I then imagined the blood drying and clotting, forming large scabs. Each scab was in the shape of a letter, spelling out the words:

JOIN US

I wasn't sure it had had the intended effect though, until the echoey banging sounds behind me stopped suddenly. Bracing myself for possible disappointment, I open my eyes. And much to my pleasant surprise, the picture on the wall had changed into the one I'd imagined. "Wow, I did not expect that to work!"

Quickly so the mannequin doesn't recover from the shock, I replace the message on the wall with a new message. But blood isn't quite my style so I try something more extravagant. I imagine the letter scabs shrinking and disappearing into dust, which turns into glowing stars whose constellations read as follows:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW HER

The stars expand and grow until they're a white pair of underwear. A suspicious brown stain on them looks like:

TOGETHER WE CAN KICK HER BUTT

Before I can continue my fun, I'm distracted by rapid echoey sounds quickly fading away in the distance. "Oops," I mutter. "I might've gotten a little carried away there."

Taker seemed unimpressed. "You may have just ruined any chance we had of recruiting her."

"So what you mean to say is, I crapped out?"

The exasperated groan that followed my statement could be heard all over the mansion.

A/N: Sorry if parts of this chapter seemed a bit lack luster, I've been (once again) lost for inspiration lately but wanted to give you guys another chapter. Also the AC broke in my house today so that might also have something to do with it.