Keep an Eye Out

Good evening all y'all lovely Gloaming folks. Cain Mosni here with your daily scoop of unsolicited local drama. First amendment, baby.

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Your boy's gone pro!

Sorry to leave y'all hanging. Totally forgot this account existed till I was cleaning out my password manager the other day. Hope you didn't miss me too much.

Guess what? I just got a sweet gig working for The Man. The powers that be. That's right, folks. I have an honest true nine-to-five journalism job with the Gloaming County Watch. Never thought I'd be saying it, but thanks a lot, Gloaming County. I know Sheriff Nelson's gonna hate seeing my column in the papers. Suck it, Randy, I'm the real deal!

Can I say that anymore? I suppose I should keep things more civil now that I'm a published journalist. No promises.

Ah well. Signing off for now,

Cain Mosni

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Is Vi home rn??? When's the last time you've had contact??

The Egress works in strange ways.. We aren't the closest and I don't typically do house calls.. but if she doesn't turn up soon someone might need to go knocking on her door.

Eventful week, eh?

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Someone’s going around leaving apples on folks’ doorsteps. Might just be a prank, but a lead’s a lead. :)

A lead is a lead indeed. I'll take a look.

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Is anyone out there?

Hello? This is a test. Cain to ground control, can you hear me? It's getting real lonely making all these journal entries for myself. At least there's always my column in The Watch. Does anyone under sixty-five even read the paper anymore? I hope so, because otherwise you're missing some key deets.

Solstos Co., you better get your act together or I'm gonna do something drastic and inadvisable to those shiny headquarters! (For legal reasons, that last statement is a joke.)

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Hey there. I got an odd question for you, hope its not too personal. Why did your parents name you Cain? Was it in reference to Lake Abel? Surely that would've spun some pretty bad school days, given the religious nature of the town.

My parents had the decency to make it a middle name. Bless them. They had their work cut out for them, "raisin' Cain" as it were, ha ha.

I think it's from some great uncle on my dad's side. Not too sure. The lake is a funny coincidence though. Started going by my middle name as an eighth-grader in need of edgy teenage reinvention and it just stuck. Plus, I sorta despise my legal first name with a passion (sorry Ma & Pa.) Now, here we are.

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In regards to that spooky women in the photo, in honor of the holiday, howabout something inordinately spooky? Something like the Rotting Queen perhaps?

Certainly seems appropriate.

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I'm surprised you didn't notice the giant letters trough the slideshow that spell "HERE WE GO AGAIN." WHO IS "𝘞𝘌" AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN 𝘼𝙂𝘼𝙄𝙉?????????

Well, whaddya know. I did glaze over that on my first pass through the pages. Our hacker certainly has a sense of humor.

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Ghosts in the County Website?

It's always been crunchy and slow to load, like every other net-based function in the region. I mean, we practically just transitioned away from dial-up. But this morning, some fellow sleuths brought something to my attention.

Yes. Gloamingcounty.com has been hacked. Not sure about their choice in graphics and decoration, but I appreciate the chaos for sure. I cracked up after loading the home screen only to find that creepy old lamb mascot tiled across the entire thing with its cheeky little grin.

Then, the slideshow loaded in. Most of the images look like home videos or photographs likely donated by community members. I wouldn't be surprised if they were drawn from the town's pre-existing photo bank. Then this happened:

This image has entranced me, dear reader. Who is she? Mysterious, silhouetted, some trace of a face just barely legible through the grain... Look at the blurry, indistinct shape of her shoulders. The nonsensical way the photograph smears around her, as if it can't believe she's there. Because she isn't.

Yes, I do believe we have a ghost in the machine. Or a liberal use of the blur tool in Photoshop. One of those. But in the spirit of Hallow's Eve festivities, I'd like to believe in ghost stories for once in my little skeptic's life.

The Gloaming County ghost. What should we call her?

Happy Halloween from yours truly,

Cain Mosni

On my way to the harvest fest now. Can't wait!

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Check on the Head Ranger. Ask him about Winnie.

Flint? Haha... Oh boy that would be an awkward conversation.

I don't need more good ole boys of Gloaming on my tail at this very moment.

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who are winne and flint?

How I feel answering my askbox these days.

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Used to live in gloaming, finding this blog has been a blast to the past. I remember all sorts of playground rumors from back then, some stuff about deers and shit. If I recall correctly, some kid claimed his game of pokemon diamond and pearl had a new pokemon called a “gloamdeer” in it, stupid kid stuff, he didnt even own a ds I dont think.

Oh I know about the gloamdeer. That thing is real alright.

I think it was a legendary, even. Or cursed? Definitely didn't glitch out the whole battle sequence every time it was summoned in the cracked version of DnP in which it existed for its short, sorry life. At least... so I've heard.

You're from Gloaming, yeah? Have you been back recently?

If you haven't, you will soon. Everyone comes back around eventually. See you then!

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Is your avatar a cat because you have nine lives? Like, Jesus dude you are flirting with death, yet it doesn’t seem to catch you.

Huh. I never thought of it like that. Guess you could say so. Fear not.

The great Cain Mosni always comes back!

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You alive buddy?

As alive as I can be on the job after a solid 3 hours of sleep. Haha. Chugging Zoomy-Mart brand pumpkin spice brew and boy is it bad!

Cheers.

-Cain

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Guy who sells micro-greens at the farmers market is a stalker.

I'm not nearly sober enough for this right now.

-Cain

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Good Lord. The people have spoken. Alright. Give me some time. I'm on it.

-Cain

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Holy mackerel.

I admit it. I thought y'all were buggin for no reason, but something is actually going down with the good reverend. Haven't quite cracked what it is, but I'm working on a piece about it as we speak. You fine folks will be the first to know once it's finished.

-Cain

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Do YOU know who winona is?

A nosy bunch of anonymous readers, aren't you. I'm so proud.

I do. That is, if my hunch is correct on who YOU are referring to. Not sure if it's my place to speak on it, but here goes.

People called her a witch. It was mostly a snide joke among ladies at church buffet tables, but I know a good handful of people would've been ready with pitchforks and torches at a moment's notice if given the chance. God forbid a woman be a little spiritual and hippy-dippy in a way that ain't praising the Lord every Sunday.

Not to say she didn't go to church. She did, and brought her whole family along. I remember seeing her there when I went as a kid, anyway. Once she even corrected Rev Caplan on a quotation mid-sermon. When I tell you everyone went white as a sheet at that... she always struck me as sort of fearless in that way.

She worked some kind of nature conservancy job. Taught a lot of classes to kids in the woods, that sort of thing. I went to a few of her talks. Once, she brought out a hawk, took of its leather hood, and showed us how it hunted by holding a dead rabbit above her head. The kids all screamed when the thing dive-bombed us to snatch its prey, but I was having the time of my life.

I always got the feeling she didn't really mesh with Gloaming in general, though, despite growing up here. Or Gloaming didn't mesh with her? Not sure which. Sort of a chicken and egg situation.

Either way, she skipped town eventually. One of the few to actually make it out of this place for good. I still don't know how she did it.

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Good Lord. The people have spoken. Alright. Give me some time. I'm on it.

-Cain