May 16, 201x. Weather: Clear, Sunny
I arrived back at Beach City early this morning. Renegotiation of my job gigs starts next week. Was welcomed back by Mr. Universe, though it was a little awkward when he noticed the cryptid lockbox began to shake and glow. Right now, I need to figure out a plan of attack. With this newfound skeleton in my closet, I am now in quite a precarious position with anyone who visits.
Luckily, I just found a new method to prevent the cryptid from reforming. I can open the vacuum bag and close the lockbox on the blade of my survival knife. I'm down one knife, but the cryptid instantly poofs every time it tries to reform. All I need to do is time visits between reformations so no one asks about the lockbox with the knife jammed in it. Just in case, I stored it in the glovebox up near the driver's seat.
For the sake of my research (which may very well involve calling federal authorities at this point), I need to come up with a new plan of attack. For now, I should simply list every facet of my conditions.
-No Gem can be trusted to enter this RV.
-My original research purpose (anatomy, history, anthropology) is now a front. I need to figure out what the Gems are planning, and if there is possibly a greater political conflict.
-Historical stories on the human side need to be corroborated with the logs picked up from the Kindergarten.
-No Gem can know that I am now capable of using warp pads on my own. I'll need to fin a hidden one.
-No Gem can know what the new purpose of my research is, as a method for incapacitating or even killing Gems needs to be established. The cryptid in the glovebox alone can probably kill this entire town.
-If the Gems are found to be hostile entities, Beach City must be vacated immediately, with Little Homeschool and the town to be treated as hostile territory. Furthermore, the government and all known policing entities must be informed as soon as possible.
-Search for other plans like those in the Kindergarten in other Gem locations. Given the right warp configuration, I'll be able to travel to places like the Command Base to collect the necessary logs. However, the Kindergarten logs already seem to possess a master plan, though I have yet to open and translate them.
-Given a more open set of options, I might be able to anonymously circulate images of these plans to force a large-scale investigation. I may very well either die or already be dead, but this will be a good last resort in case I'm spotted by the Gems.
-As an upside, there may be multiple factions of Gems involved here, meaning that humanity might have an ally.
Begin Audio Log – Jason Kim, May 16, 10 PM. Beach City.
[The sound of pouring liquid can be heard]
Jason: Already opening DeMayo's gift… If only this were actually a fun or celebratory occasion… God, that's strong.
Jason: Given all these conditions… I'm not sure how to proceed. I now have access to forbidden knowledge that may very well sign humanity's death warrant. Furthermore, half of my options either involve getting killed or killing myself to become some kind of war martyr for some global conflict.
[the occasional sound of glass tapping against the table followed by pouring liquid can be heard]
Jason: I'm way in over my head here. Guess this is where all those other researchers went. Hoping to look into the bottom of a bottle and then maybe living until thirty. Fuck, where did all go wrong?
Jason: Maybe I'll just run, say my research is completed then move somewhere quiet. I could ghost everyone who tries to contact me. I couldn't have trusted anyone in the first place. I even thought I found some new friends. And Neph…
[an incoherent mumbling and sobbing can be heard]
Jason: I mean, how'm I gonna know if a Gem is on the human's side… human. Human side. Human-Gem. Wait, didn't Mahaiswr-whatever mention someone like that?
[A frantic tapping of keys can be heard]
Jason: Steven. That was his name, Steven. Maybe he's my ally in all this. But… He's gone. Apparently, he's living off the grid or something. Can't ask the rest of the Gems either or I'll be suspicious.
Jason: Maybe I'll just… bye.
[A loud thud is heard followed by silence for the next twenty minutes]
End Log
May 17, 201x. Weather: Clear, Overcast
Guess I left the audio recording running last night. Dug too deep into Demayo's whiskey. Only half the bottle left. For now, I should finish looking into human sightings of these Gems.
The logs from the Kindergarten speak of some kind of Gem colonization effort that occurred here approximately 5000 years ago, around the time of the Mesopotamian Empire. That means… Hammurabus. The Epics of Ishtar documented a real war that occurred in the past. Perhaps these Gems were mistaken for divine entities and conscripted humans in the fight like some kind of proxy war. In that case, then who was Ishtar, and who was Tiamat? Our divine protagonist and antagonist were said to both be slain upon the final clash on the hill of flowers. In Mesopotamian lore, it was said that Ishtar and Tiamat represented two sides of the same coin: One (Ishtar) represented all the emotions, love, and sin that made life burn, multiply, mutate, and spend, and there was there was the primordial origin of all life (Tiamat), angered by the direction of humanity and wanting to create order. As these two forces directly clashed, a great purge was sent out, taking all the gods on the battlefields with them. In place of where the two primordial gods once stood was a hill of flowers surrounding a broken cage, representing the new freedom of all that crawled on the ground, flew in the sky, and swam in the waters. Those kingdoms are long gone, and the Epic itself has changed over the millennia, but there was always one point that stayed the same: the broken cage. One that… wait… Budwick dedicated a portion of his journal to a site on the Korean Peninsula known as the Palanquin: a derelict, cage-like vehicle overgrown with… flowers. This war of the gods… What was it for? It is said that most of humanity and Earth's life died in the days of that great war. What was Gem colonization supposed to be?
Given those points, I think I should finally look into the rest of the Gem Colonization logs. Maybe I could have a final plan or even a documentation of this so-called divine war.
I… I think I'm going to be sick. Holy fuck. The very earth was to be hollowed out and cleared of all life. Every resource, every scrap of life, sunlight, geothermal energy, fuel source and mineral were to be cleared out, with Earth's crust turning into an empty, cold, lifeless shell. Furthermore, that's what those injectors are for. Each injector sets a center for what is essentially a highly efficient Dyson point (a component of a Dyson sphere). When that point is determined, all forms of energy will continuously be absorbed into that center until a Gem finally emerges. Afterwards, energy will continuously be transferred to the Gem from that original center via quantum tunneling, leaving the area lifeless and completely devoid of sunlight. The more energy a Gem uses at a time, the greater the area of absorption, causing the Dead Zone to expand dependent on the lifespan of the Gem originally injected into the space. I assume the humanization of these Gems is also causing the Dead Zone to expand, primarily due to the increased resource cost of this sort of cognitive operation.
But… I should still try to keep an open mind on this. All these plans were thousands of years ago, and it's clear that the Gems of Little Homeschool and Beach City aren't trying some kind of military takeover now. Surely, something changed. But, just to be safe, I'm going to hide this information from the Gems. If possible, I'll begin establishing online aliases to send this data around in case of trouble.
May 17, 201x. Weather: Clear, Sunny.
Renegotiation's in two days. For now, I'm establishing a new plan of attack, set into two prongs. The first phase is to establish a method to either disable or permanently kill a Gem. Given access to power source logs, I may be able to find a way to essentially "hack" Gems. The second phase is to inquire about Gem history at Little Homeschool. Furthermore, I should canvas the area and ask around about any major events involving Gems. There was a recent change that occurred in Beach City proper, and some people may be willing to talk about it.
I should also canvas people from the local government. It may be prudent for them to know about these original plans and send them up the ladder.