An Old Friend

Hey, everyone. We've all been busy with the plan we're enacting in the aftermath of Operation Alice. "Attack Order Follow My Rainbow," I think he's calling it at the moment? But we've been trying to keep our operations under wraps right now.

Well, here's something I think we're good to share now: I've met up with an old friend. You remember Raggedy? He ran into some trouble and ended up in a Florida swamp. Long story short, we came in and rescued him. I'll have the details up a bit later.

He's not in great shape right now. He has a few stab wounds he hasn't been able to treat properly and he's fighting infection from that. He's also had to deal with a lot of bugs, and we're not sure if he's picked up something from them at this point. And on top of all that, he's unshaven, and, with all due respect to the guy, his beard-growing skills aren't particularly exceptional.

We've got him in one of the runner safehouses that Last and Rogue Shadow helped set up, being treated by one of our doctors. A runner one, not a doctor one. It's hard to tell where exactly the lines are anymore. Seems like he'll be okay, but I'm still worried. He's probably one of the closest things I have to a friend these days, and I don't like seeing him like this.

Like I said, we'll be providing more details of what exactly happened in a day or two. For our group at least, it seems like there's actually going to be something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Operation Alice

Last here, distinguishing myself with a lovely shade of brown. As you may have heard, Operation Alice was a rousing success. It’s been in motion for a while now, actually, but we’ve only just recently actually pulled it off.

So you’ve heard of the Mother of Snakes, right? The Fear of yourself, basically. Not liking what you see reflected in the mirror, all that. And I wasn’t really looking forward to facing off with her since we’re largely a self-loathing bunch. What’s more, Snakemom’s got these servants called “Lilim.” And we’d have to deal with them, as well.

So I started making plans. I started talking to Crimson, but he didn’t really know how to approach the situation. We tossed a few ideas around, but we were largely at a loss.

What’s more, we’ve gotten something of a target on our back. The Four Horsemen, the Fantasy Triad, and the Magi have all been fairly active. And it’s no secret that the Magi and the Slender Man have at least a tenuous alliance, since a group associated with two of them is responsible for the deaths of two Fears. The remaining Fears have started making alliances.

The Red Cap and Choir are already working together, if you’ll recall, and they’ve been recruiting. The Dying Man has joined with them as well, as he and the Red Cap go way back. There might even be some link between them. As with all this dimensional bleeding stuff, the details vary, but there’s evidence to suggest that they were once the same Fear. And on top of that, the Mother of Snakes and the Eye have both recently forged alliances with them.

Four groups of Fears. Tensions building. Everyone could feel that there was a huge, impending shitstorm. Something was about to break, and the biggest target was on our back.

That’s when the Lilim attacked the Drones, servants of the Intrusion.

You see, there are certain perks to being allied with EAT. Awhile ago, we (we meaning EAT, naturally) managed to infect the water supply of some Lilim groups. See, EAT has the ability to possess others into a sort of hivemind, slowly spreading through their systems. They’re generally unaware of the process and they still function as themselves, but once he takes them, they’re his whenever he wants them. It took a bit of time, but we finally reached a point where enough of the Lilim were happy Campers.

When we launched our attack on the Drones, or rather, when we made the Lilim launch our attack on the Drones, it was met with huge backlash. The Horsemen don’t like being attacked, especially when there was an unspoken agreement to go after the Magi and the Slender Man. Understandably, they retaliated, all four of them, wiping out a large portion of the Lilim.

I managed to make it there to see a lot of what happened, albeit from a distance. After most of the Lilim had been taken out, the Horsemen themselves came in, all riding on giant black horses. The Archangel in the lead, clad in duster, gas mask, and bowler hat. The Plague doctor behind him in his beaked mask, cloak, and wide-brimmed hat. The giant, muscle-bound Brute, face hidden beneath a helm, and his beautiful Burning Bride, red hair and dress seeming to flicker like flames, seated behind him. And finally, completely covered in a cloak, the Intrusion. The four rode into the middle of the encampment, where a giant mirror sat, the Mother of Snakes reflected in it. She’d probably be beautiful were it not for the vertical pupils and forked tongue. Oh, and the giant snake wrapped around her. I’m not really too fond of snakes.

“You misunderstand,” she said. “That attack was never my intention—”

The Intrusion’s horse stepped forward, and the cloak collapsed, empty, as a swarm of insects sped out and into the mirror. I’ve heard that the Mother of Snakes is generally pretty well-defended in there, but the Intrusion is, well, pretty good at getting into places it’s not wanted.

“Please, no!” she shrieked as the Intrusion pulled her out of the mirror. The Archangel rode forward and its horse trampled the mirror, crushing it. The swarm reentered the cloak, where it regained a humanoid shape.

“Nowhere to run now,” the Brute said in a deep voice. He dismounted and pulled a sword from its sheath. Flames danced along the blade’s edge. “Vengeance shall be ours.”

In one clean blow, he cleft the head from her neck. The body burst into flame and shriveled up. Laughing, he remounted his horse, giving his Bride a quick kiss, and the four Horsemen rode off.

And with that, Operation Alice came to an end. The Mother of Snakes is dead. The Horsemen have struck a blow to this newly-formed alliance. The Fears are on the brink of all-out war.

We have these fuckers exactly where we want them.