Just A Little Guy And His Many Friends!

Feel free to send in an ask or starter or something!

[the-paper-narrator]

Hi I’m back! For a little bit at least. So I took a little break from rp, but now I’m back with the little guy! Speaking of-

Characters! Obviously Tiny, he’s such a little guy, he’s trying his best, and I want to put a bit more of the spotlight back on him. Which is why I’m gonna mainly be focusing on him and another new character. Don’t worry, Fell and Eugene still exist, I’m just giving them a little break for now. If you don’t know him, he’s just a silly little guy made out of paper who’s trying his best. For more on him and the other guys, look at #character info.

And now for the fun part, the new kid on the block, Moor! Well, she’s not exactly a kid. She’s based on the game Dredge, which I would highly recommend playing, but isn’t required to understand what’s going on (okay, there’s technically some spoilers here, but they’re so out of context it barely matters, but if you want to remain completely unspoiled you have been warned). There’s a character in that game called the Collector, and I kept accidentally calling him the Curator and vice versa, so I just decided to combine them!

Moor lives in and runs a sort of alternate version of Fell’s office that can be accessed via turning on any sink in the office, which will turn into a portal to the other office. She runs the place all by herself, fulfilling both the role of narrator and curator, although not in a traditional way. She has an odd nautical flair, likes to be referred to as the Collector, and may have used her powers to slightly flood the office. Tiny accidentally stumbled across her office, as he does, and is now helping her do stuff in exchange for getting cooler powers. Also, she always has this red book, wonder what that could be about…

[the-paper-narrator]

A guy with orange hair and gray skin is sitting across from her, with a very concerned look in his eyes (since that’s all that’s on his face that could even look concerned), pointing at one of the horses, as if to say “yes, there is a problem”. That problem is that there is a little paper guy who has managed to get himself tangled in the horse’s hair.

[the-haunted-office]

September isn't sure what this person wants from her at first. Usually when people see her playing with her My Little Pony dolls, it's to scoff and roll their eyes at her. A grown woman, playing with dolls? Obviously that must mean they just have to say something about it, right?

Of course she's ready to tear into whoever has anything to say about it, so she's always on the defensive. But this person is just... pointing. And not saying anything. And that's possibly in part because they don't have a mouth. But now that she's looking at where they're pointing, she's thinking it's because there's some piece of paper stuck in the mane of one of her ponies.

"Oh. Well. Didn't notice that there," she mutters, reaching over with one of her hands to pluck the paper out. It's then that she notices it's person-shaped. "......All right. I'm guessing that this piece of paper isn't just a piece of paper," she drones as if she's bored, although that's just her voice.

[the-paper-narrator]

“Yippee! I’m free! Thank you friend!” The piece of paper jumps excitedly in her hand, then looks back at the dolls. “I just wanted to play, but the horse trapped me! Hmmmmm, maybe this one will be nicer!” He jumps off her hand and runs towards a different horse, but the other man picks him up before he can get there, shaking his head.

[the-haunted-office]

"Is there a problem?" deadpans the ghostly woman with pale melting skin, glowing yellow eye sockets, and raggedy, bedraggled sandy brown hair. Spread on the floor around her is a quite frankly impressive collection of My Little Pony brushables. They appear to be having a celebration or a party of some kind.

[the-paper-narrator]

A guy with orange hair and gray skin is sitting across from her, with a very concerned look in his eyes (since that’s all that’s on his face that could even look concerned), pointing at one of the horses, as if to say “yes, there is a problem”. That problem is that there is a little paper guy who has managed to get himself tangled in the horse’s hair.

[the-paper-narrator]

The man smiles at the camera. “Huh. What an interesting name. A day of the week isn’t too bad of a name. To be honest, I’ve lost track of what day it is here. Doesn’t really matter when there’s not much around. Explorers. You don’t seem to be doing much exploring, the camera is doing the work for you. Where are you, if this camera is all the way out here? As for supplies… I don’t think I need anything, I have a good little system around here, although if you have any interesting trinkets I wouldn’t mind a little gift.”

Moor stands there, blinking behind her dark glasses. He seems sooooooooo familiar, but as with everything in her past, the memory is just out of reach. “Ah, yes, we can probably find something suitable around here. And here is… in all honesty, I don’t know.”

“You know,” the man tilts his head at the camera “you, the one who just spoke, who never gave me your name, sound awfully familiar. A bit like the bot fellow, if I remember correctly, though that was a while ago.”

[the-haunted-office]

Thursday laughs a little bit. This dude sure doesn't hold anything back, does he? "Well, no, we technically aren't exploring ourselves in person, but we didn't know if it'd be safe to just like, jump into this random hole, right? Plus it's entirely too small for us to fit into. Hence, the camera. For one, you can keep the camera as a gift. For two! I'm sure we can come up with something neat to send. As for where we are? That's, ah, that's a little bit more complicated."

She stops and looks to Moor to see if she wants to say anything now, otherwise she knows she's likely to just overrun this entire conversation. It seems to her there might be more to what's going on here but she has no idea what that could be. They've only just tossed the camera into a portal a short while ago and discovered a living person on the other side of it and now here they are discussing sending gifts and something about a bot fellow.

"Well, maybe this office is connected to your world... somehow. I mean, that's sort of where we are right now. An office of sorts. And it'd make sense, right, the water connecting this office full of water and the water that's going through the portal, and the- the fish... and, ah... yeah that's all I have, ahaha."

[the-paper-narrator]

Moor is still panicking at everything going on, but composes herself enough to speak. “We are in an office, and while we may not physically be in your world, our locations are connected, I think. It’s like the two sides of a coin, you’re on heads and we’re on tails. Same idea, two different executions. That’s why we have the same fish.” And why she seemed so familiar, since she was probably from this world, but that’s not important (it totally is).

“Huh. A good explanation, I guess.” The man shrugs at the camera “Some of my old friends were into that sort of magicy, other-worldly stuff, but I never understood it. Sure, this place has some of the weirdest fish I’ve ever seen, and those stupid blob monsters that we got rid of, but that’s just how this place is.” Another thing that sounded way too familiar. Something about buckets? No, not the reassurance bucket, that thing has always rubbed her the wrong way, and she was starting to think this was it.

As the man is talking, Moor stumbles, unable to keep floating in the water, though still standing upright. She turns away from the book to address Thursday. “We might want to wrap up soon, this is getting a bit difficult to maintain. If you want him to do anything with the camera, now is the time to ask.”

[the-paper-narrator]

“Oh, yeah! The laminator is right around the corner! Usually I use it when I go for a swim, but now it’ll be my ghost hunting uniform! Er, not hunting, that sounds mean, more like, helping! Yeah! My ghost helping uniform!” Tiny gets back on his paper magic carpet and floats off, around the corner, where he sticks himself in the laminator like he’s done countless times before. The light follows him, so at least it can move around. When Tiny comes out of the machine, he is fully laminated, but also has “changed clothes”, which doesn’t really mean anything but it makes him look cool. He’s mimicking whatever Nextday is wearing, using it as a uniform of sorts. “There! Now I’m officially a ghost helper! Come on ghost, follow me!”

He floats off again, this time down a winding maze of hallways, finally settling at a sink. “Here we are! Um, a little help here though? Turning on the sink is hard. And how much water do we need? Like, a bucket? Two buckets? Or maybe we could just go in the sink into Moor’s office! There’s lots of water there!” At that though, the light swished back and forth, almost like a shaking head. “Is that a no? No going into Mom’s office? Okay, we’ll do this the classic way!”

[the-haunted-office]

Nextday is a little... taken aback of sorts when Tiny returns wearing clothes similar to what she's wearing. It didn't even really dawn on her what she's wearing until she saw him change, and then, reminded, she looks down at herself. The outfit she died in. Black slacks; white, collared, button-up work shirt; dark blue vest; black tie; black boots. Pretty much her standard work outfit, minus the blue jacket she usually wore in over it.

Huh. She feels oddly touched by the imitative gesture, but doesn't know what to say or do about it. So she doesn't say or do anything. She just accepts it and moves on, especially since it seems Tiny is ready to do just that anyway.

She quietly follows him and the strange glowing light-ghost to this sink, and obeys when Tiny asks her turn on the sink. She rolls up her sleeves and gets to it.

As the water pours into the sink, she looks to the light and says, "So what do you need us to do now? Just let it run into the drain? Do we need to stopper the sink? Or do we need to get a bucket, like Tiny suggested? If you're gonna do something with the water, I just ask that you try not to get my battery here wet." She gestures to the small backpack it's wearing. "Might damage it and could be bad for me, then might make it more difficult for us to help you."

[the-paper-narrator]

The light approaches the water, and when it touches it, the water coalesces into a single mass, which looks like a hand holding a lantern, containing the light. It points into the sink, at the stopper.

Tiny is ecstatic at all of this. “Woah! So you are made of water! And that’s where the light is coming from. Uhhhhhhh, it looks like it wants us to use the little stopper thingy to clog the sink. Then there will be more water and it can make more body! Right?” The hand swings the lantern up and down, a supposed yes given the movements before. “Sorry Nextday, you’ll have to get it, I’ve tried to use it before, but it’s a little difficult when you don’t weigh anything. I wish we could laminate you, so your battery wouldn’t get wet. Wet batteries are bad, I know that. I’ll protect you though!”

[the-paper-narrator]

Happy (late) Halloween! Tiny’s all dressed up as a ghost hunter! Maybe a bit more ghost than hunter, but it’s the thought that counts.

(It’s his outfit from the Nextday thread! I forgot to laminate him though.)

[the-paper-narrator]

“Anything that fits through the portal, is waterproof, and won’t immediately get eaten by a catfish. I might be able to control the fish in here, but those fish are wild. They listen to nobody. I’m not even sure if all this portal is connected to the exact same fish. Even so, it may have moved already. It’ll be a bit of a scavenger hunt.”

Moor holds the book out in front of her again, where the pages start glowing ominously. “Good day, sir. I don’t mean to startle you, but me and my friend are explorers whose equipment you just found. We have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind. And my friend is a touch concerned for you, given the environment.” Moor’s voice can be heard through the camera, with very little delay.

The man jumps at first when he hears her, looks around, then looks at the camera. “Oh, hello. This thing can talk apparently. Some newfangled technology we have here. I don’t know if you can hear me, but hello anyways. Ask away, I don’t have much else to do right now. And I’m okay right where I am. A fellow once came by on a boat, and offered me a ride out, but I refused. I’ve made a bit of a home here, I would never think of leaving now.” Moor turns the book to Thursday, so she can speak into it.

[the-haunted-office]

Thursday sits quietly and watches and listens while Moor addresses the mysterious man on the other end of the camera. This has to be one of the more exciting investigations she's done. Heck, most of what they've investigated have been things that are easily explained as leaky pipes and simple lonely ghosts and the like. Nothing too out of the ordinary. This, though? A portal with fish into another world, where there lives a person on the other side? It's not exactly paranormal, but it's definitely out of the ordinary.

"Oh," she says, realizing she's been hailed, and stands up to speak into the book. "Er- Hello! My name is Thursday - that's right, just like the day of the week. Hope we didn't startle you too much because we certainly didn't mean to! Like my friend here said, we're explorers, and we were trying to see what was on the other end of this portal here so we threw our camera into it and voila! We happened upon you. Where exactly are you, if I may ask? Do you need any supplies or anything? Anything we can help with? We're very excited to meet you, even if it's just through this camera!"

[the-paper-narrator]

The man smiles at the camera. “Huh. What an interesting name. A day of the week isn’t too bad of a name. To be honest, I’ve lost track of what day it is here. Doesn’t really matter when there’s not much around. Explorers. You don’t seem to be doing much exploring, the camera is doing the work for you. Where are you, if this camera is all the way out here? As for supplies… I don’t think I need anything, I have a good little system around here, although if you have any interesting trinkets I wouldn’t mind a little gift.”

Moor stands there, blinking behind her dark glasses. He seems sooooooooo familiar, but as with everything in her past, the memory is just out of reach. “Ah, yes, we can probably find something suitable around here. And here is… in all honesty, I don’t know.”

“You know,” the man tilts his head at the camera “you, the one who just spoke, who never gave me your name, sound awfully familiar. A bit like the bot fellow, if I remember correctly, though that was a while ago.”

[the-paper-narrator]

The light moves away from Tiny and towards Nextday, indicating the ghost probably knows she’s there. It paused, then swung over to a different table, next to a mug with some water in it. The water slides out of the mug, like it’s being controlled, and slides around on the table until it spells “water”.

“Water? Is it thirsty? Or… I know! Maybe it’s like me and paper. I can control paper, and am made of paper, so if I was stuck as an invisible force I would want paper! And this ghost can control water and is maybe made of water, so it wants water! Uhhhhhh, I know where the sinks are, but I can’t help much with carrying. I don’t wanna get soggy. Any ideas?” Tiny floats back out on his paper magic carpet, ready to lead Nextday to the sink once they come up with a plan.

[the-haunted-office]

Nextday watches with interest as the light moves over to her. It doesn't feel threatening or anything to her, although she doesn't want to frighten it either and so she stands still and simply observes what it's doing.

Her eyebrows go up. Water. Huh. Is it trying to show them that yes, it can communicate and that it knows what things things are, such as water? Or is it showing them how it communicates? Or something else?

It seems she and Tiny are somewhat on the same page. They agree that water is somehow instrumental in this light ghost's communication with them. The rest she is unsure of.

"Well, wouldn't it be easier if the light just followed us to the water? If the water is where the sinks are, can it follow us there?" She looks to the light and asks, "Can you follow us?" Then back to Tiny, "As for you getting soggy, I guess you could just hang back, stay away from the water. Or we could laminate you, weird as that might sound... You have a laminating machine around here?"

Outside of that, the only other suggestion she has is one of the pockets on the front of her shirt or jacket she's wearing. But there's no guarantee he won't get wet, depending on what's going to happen with the water. She hasn't even stopped to think about what might happen if her battery gets wet. If a little bit of water gets on it, it'll probably be fine. But a substantial amount? Who knows.

[the-paper-narrator]

“Oh, yeah! The laminator is right around the corner! Usually I use it when I go for a swim, but now it’ll be my ghost hunting uniform! Er, not hunting, that sounds mean, more like, helping! Yeah! My ghost helping uniform!” Tiny gets back on his paper magic carpet and floats off, around the corner, where he sticks himself in the laminator like he’s done countless times before. The light follows him, so at least it can move around. When Tiny comes out of the machine, he is fully laminated, but also has “changed clothes”, which doesn’t really mean anything but it makes him look cool. He’s mimicking whatever Nextday is wearing, using it as a uniform of sorts. “There! Now I’m officially a ghost helper! Come on ghost, follow me!”

He floats off again, this time down a winding maze of hallways, finally settling at a sink. “Here we are! Um, a little help here though? Turning on the sink is hard. And how much water do we need? Like, a bucket? Two buckets? Or maybe we could just go in the sink into Moor’s office! There’s lots of water there!” At that though, the light swished back and forth, almost like a shaking head. “Is that a no? No going into Mom’s office? Okay, we’ll do this the classic way!”

[the-paper-narrator]

“I…” at Thursday’s panic, Moor knew she slipped up. She was trying to hide the fact that she may or may not be from that realm, but her estimate kind of gave it away. She vaguely remembered the date from when she lived there, and she knew that weird things happened all the time so one little camera wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but Thursday had no idea. “Just a hunch I had, really. He hasn’t panicked yet, that’s a good sign. And if we did really mess something up…” She looks down at the book in her hands. With its power, she could easily whisk the camera away, back to her office, and have the memories dubbed as madness. “I think I may be able to fix things.”

Moor taps her foot against nothing as Thursday panics about the man. That panic feels very familiar, like she did it once. Maybe, it was hard to tell. But the result of that panic felt like a no, from someone. “Just because he’s here doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to leave. Some people just live in weird places- look at me for example. But I am interested in talking to him, and I might have an idea.” One she wasn’t sure would work out, and gave her a really bad feeling, but it was worth a shot. In the background, behind the man, was the tree full of shiny things. Moor opened her book and held it out in front of her, focusing into it. The shiny things changed color, reflecting something red and white that wasn’t there, in that world at least. The image wasn’t clear, a pixelated blur from the many individual pieces, but it would work. “My mirror magic, remember? How I talked to you before. He can’t hear us now, but he’ll hear whatever’s said into the book. Say something, or if this is too much, I can end it without him noticing.” Sure enough, the man was too transfixed by the camera to notice the colors behind him.

[the-haunted-office]

Luckily for Moor, Thursday assumes that Moor's hunch is based off experience with studying geology or how the landscape changes over time and that's how she recognized the time period of this other dimension. Or that she recognized as much based on the wreckage of the plane, like maybe it was an area she was well-studied in. Her curiosity ends there, and she moves on from it from there, especially when Moor assures her that she can fix things if they've messed something up.

"Oh. That's true. He doesn't exactly look like he's miserable or suffering, does he? I just saw the wreckage and my brain immediately jumped to he needs help," she admits a bit sheepishly, shifting in her seat. "But you're right, he seems like he's okay, like he's been there a while. I mean. I hope he's okay. Huh?"

Thursday looks up when Moor mentions her idea. She looks at the book too, although she hasn't put together what she's doing yet.

"Ohhh. But- what should we say? 'Hey, you with the camera - how are you?'? No, bit too on the nose and silly, isn't it? Maybe we could just tell him that we're explorers and he's found our exploring equipment and we'd like to meet him, if he'd like to meet us. And he can keep the camera if he wants to. I mean, it's exactly the truth and what we were doing before he found our camera," she says, shrugging. "We could also send like a package of cupcakes or something into the portal for him! Could tell him to go back to where he found the camera and there will be some snacks waiting for him. Bet he'll appreciate that. We could send him anything he wants. Well, anything that'll fit through the portal, anyway."

[the-paper-narrator]

“Anything that fits through the portal, is waterproof, and won’t immediately get eaten by a catfish. I might be able to control the fish in here, but those fish are wild. They listen to nobody. I’m not even sure if all this portal is connected to the exact same fish. Even so, it may have moved already. It’ll be a bit of a scavenger hunt.”

Moor holds the book out in front of her again, where the pages start glowing ominously. “Good day, sir. I don’t mean to startle you, but me and my friend are explorers whose equipment you just found. We have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind. And my friend is a touch concerned for you, given the environment.” Moor’s voice can be heard through the camera, with very little delay.

The man jumps at first when he hears her, looks around, then looks at the camera. “Oh, hello. This thing can talk apparently. Some newfangled technology we have here. I don’t know if you can hear me, but hello anyways. Ask away, I don’t have much else to do right now. And I’m okay right where I am. A fellow once came by on a boat, and offered me a ride out, but I refused. I’ve made a bit of a home here, I would never think of leaving now.” Moor turns the book to Thursday, so she can speak into it.

[the-paper-narrator]

Tiny is so focused on going on an adventure that he doesn’t even notice Nextday almost crushing him and her response. But situations like this are why he’s so obsessed with making friends, so he’ll be noticed.

“Eugene is my beeeeeeeeeest friend! Well, more like a super duper friend. Like, friends but extra. What’s the word? Oh yeah, brother! Eugene’s my brother. We even have the same Mom! He doesn’t like them very much though.” Since meeting Eugene, Tiny has been hanging out in his section of the office pretty much whenever he’s not with Moor. Eugene is a lot different than everyone else Tiny hangs out with, since he’s the only one who’s not a narrator. Just two little guys hanging out, and after a while, Eugene started acknowledging Tiny as his brother too, much to Tiny’s delight.

“I like paper! That’s why everything is made of paper here!” Tiny runs onto the table to show Next around, but is abruptly interrupted by a metallic clinking sound and an eerie purple light coming from nowhere. “That’s it! That’s the ghost! Hi ghost!” There’s definitely something there, although it can’t be seen yet.

[the-haunted-office]

Nextday acknowledges that she's heard Tiny with a small, "Hm." But she doesn't really know what else to say other than that. Or rather, she doesn't feel inclined to say anything else. She supposes she could acknowledge him further by sharing her own story about her siblings and what she does at the office all day, but she doesn't really feel like it. That takes effort, and it's more effort than she's willing to give when she doesn't really feel the long term reward for it. Why share so much about herself when she doesn't believe this little paper person will be in her life outside of this case?

Yeah, she can see that everything is made out of paper. Heaven forbid Doom ever find her way into here. She'd set the place on fire just from breathing on it. She's in the middle of wondering how many trees had to die for this place to exist when she hears the sound and sees the light too.

"Oh," she says, looking to where the light and sound are coming from. "Is anybody there? Can you hear us?" she calls into the room. She doesn't know if whoever or whatever it is can sense that she's there too, considering she is also a ghost. "We aren't going to hurt you. We want to help you - that is, if you need help. Are you trying to communicate with us?"

[the-paper-narrator]

The light moves away from Tiny and towards Nextday, indicating the ghost probably knows she’s there. It paused, then swung over to a different table, next to a mug with some water in it. The water slides out of the mug, like it’s being controlled, and slides around on the table until it spells “water”.

“Water? Is it thirsty? Or… I know! Maybe it’s like me and paper. I can control paper, and am made of paper, so if I was stuck as an invisible force I would want paper! And this ghost can control water and is maybe made of water, so it wants water! Uhhhhhh, I know where the sinks are, but I can’t help much with carrying. I don’t wanna get soggy. Any ideas?” Tiny floats back out on his paper magic carpet, ready to lead Nextday to the sink once they come up with a plan.

[the-paper-narrator]

Moor knew how strong and curious those catfish could be, they liked to topple people over in the office, so of course they would be like that in the wild. A real pain to catch. “Just fish being fish, I suppose. Maybe it thought it was another fish encroaching on its space.”

As the person picks up the camera, Moor tries to remember anything about this place. Was there anyone there? It wouldn’t be a good place for a town, but then who…?

“Eh, it’s the middle of nowhere in the 1940s, it can’t do much harm. Probably will wave it off as some foreign advancements.”

As the person walks off, the camera is pointed to the ground, at a well-worn trail through the muck. Feet in thick boots can be occasionally seen as the person walks towards somewhere, muttering quietly about something. Soon, the camera pulls up to reveal a small campsite with a campfire and single tent, with what looks to be the wreckage of a plane behind it. It’s falling apart, having been gone through for parts, and is covered in overgrowth, appearing to have been there for a long time. In front of the plane is a large tree, shading the site, with many small, shiny things hanging from it. The person sits down by the fire, and finally turns the camera around, revealing their face. It’s an old, grizzled, yet kind looking man, looking in curiosity at the device in his hands. Er, hand. As the camera turns, it gives a glimpse of his missing left arm, now only an empty sleeve.

[the-haunted-office]

Thursday almost has a small panic attack when Moor estimates that this place is someplace in the 1940s. "Nineteen four- Are you sure? How can you tell?" she asks, looking back at the screen. "Are you sure it won't harm anything? Oh man, if I just screwed up the time-space continuum or something, I'm really sorry-"

Moor doesn't seem to be too concerned, but Thursday doesn't know what to make of that. She, Moor, only found out about this type of tech a few minutes ago, after all. How could she possibly be sure it wouldn't cause a lasting negative effect on this dimension they just dropped it into?

Well. Suppose either way it was too late now.

Thursday gnaws on her bottom lip and goes back to the screen, watching quietly, now worried. She never wanted to hurt anything. The only thing she can do now is be more careful in the future and try not to do further harm to this place now.

The surroundings the camera is taking in are quite intriguing. She's full of questions, but she's so focused on watching everything unfold she doesn't think to ask them in the moment. It isn't until the person carrying the camera shows their face that she finally speaks up. "Who's that? They look like they might be stuck there! I never thought something like this could happen, otherwise I would have- I would have brought a different kind of camera, something we could have used to communicate- But holy smokes! We should help them! Maybe I can- I can get a different camera and put it in there and we can try speaking to them and- I'm sorry, I'm running way ahead of myself. I mean, what do you think, Moor? What should we do?"

[the-paper-narrator]

“I…” at Thursday’s panic, Moor knew she slipped up. She was trying to hide the fact that she may or may not be from that realm, but her estimate kind of gave it away. She vaguely remembered the date from when she lived there, and she knew that weird things happened all the time so one little camera wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but Thursday had no idea. “Just a hunch I had, really. He hasn’t panicked yet, that’s a good sign. And if we did really mess something up…” She looks down at the book in her hands. With its power, she could easily whisk the camera away, back to her office, and have the memories dubbed as madness. “I think I may be able to fix things.”

Moor taps her foot against nothing as Thursday panics about the man. That panic feels very familiar, like she did it once. Maybe, it was hard to tell. But the result of that panic felt like a no, from someone. “Just because he’s here doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to leave. Some people just live in weird places- look at me for example. But I am interested in talking to him, and I might have an idea.” One she wasn’t sure would work out, and gave her a really bad feeling, but it was worth a shot. In the background, behind the man, was the tree full of shiny things. Moor opened her book and held it out in front of her, focusing into it. The shiny things changed color, reflecting something red and white that wasn’t there, in that world at least. The image wasn’t clear, a pixelated blur from the many individual pieces, but it would work. “My mirror magic, remember? How I talked to you before. He can’t hear us now, but he’ll hear whatever’s said into the book. Say something, or if this is too much, I can end it without him noticing.” Sure enough, the man was too transfixed by the camera to notice the colors behind him.

[the-paper-narrator]

“Okay! But I think you’re a little confused. We’re just outside my own office, where the ghost keeps mopping up. No sink teleportation needed! Follow me!” Yeah navigation around here is confusing, but Tiny is so used to it its just like taking a stroll for him.

Before they can get going, Tiny looks around and finds the folded paper he stole from Nextday earlier. Using his paper powers, he unfolds it and makes it levitate just off the edge of the table, and gets on. “Ta-da! It’s a magic carpet! That’s what Eugene called it once, although I think carpets are a little bigger. Hey, maybe this ghost is Eugene’s friend! He’s kinda a ghost, I think. Maybe. He explained it to me once, I got confused.”

Tiny floats off, and if Nextday chooses to follow, Tiny leads her to a much more decorated office, landing on a desk covered in scraps of paper and a tiny office diorama filled with tiny stationary. “This is my home! In this office, I have another one in the sink office. I’m here a lot when the ghost shows up. Here ghosty ghosty!”

[the-haunted-office]

Next is mildly offended at being told she's the one who's confused, when of course she's confused because - to her - Tiny hasn't made much sense. She's asked one question and gotten five different answers to five different unasked questions before getting the answer to the question she asked and then all of those answers have been put into a blender and spat back out to the point where there's no telling which one was which to begin with.

She presses her lips together, pushes her glasses up, and quietly follows the little paper man. She decides to not even bother asking where they're going because she dreads what the dozen-point answer might be. She darn near steps on him when he suddenly stops to fold the paper and start riding around on it.

"Jesus Chr- I just almost-" she gasps, pressing a hand against her chest. She's a ghost and no longer has a heart, but she swears she can feel it racing away in there somewhere right now. Well of course he hasn't even notice that she just almost crushed the life out of him and has continued on his merry way.

She presses her lips together tighter and doesn't say anything at first, just follows him quietly. It isn't for a little while that she finally decides to speak, "Who's Eugene?" she asks quietly while looking around. And now suddenly they're in what he has called his office. She examines the tiny office diorama. "Huh. I take it this is a very... paper oriented office," she comments.

She begins to wonder if even this ghost of Tiny's might be made of paper.

[the-paper-narrator]

Tiny is so focused on going on an adventure that he doesn’t even notice Nextday almost crushing him and her response. But situations like this are why he’s so obsessed with making friends, so he’ll be noticed.

“Eugene is my beeeeeeeeeest friend! Well, more like a super duper friend. Like, friends but extra. What’s the word? Oh yeah, brother! Eugene’s my brother. We even have the same Mom! He doesn’t like them very much though.” Since meeting Eugene, Tiny has been hanging out in his section of the office pretty much whenever he’s not with Moor. Eugene is a lot different than everyone else Tiny hangs out with, since he’s the only one who’s not a narrator. Just two little guys hanging out, and after a while, Eugene started acknowledging Tiny as his brother too, much to Tiny’s delight.

“I like paper! That’s why everything is made of paper here!” Tiny runs onto the table to show Next around, but is abruptly interrupted by a metallic clinking sound and an eerie purple light coming from nowhere. “That’s it! That’s the ghost! Hi ghost!” There’s definitely something there, although it can’t be seen yet.

[the-paper-narrator]

He has no mouth but he can, in fact, scream.

(Eugene art!!! It’s been so long since I’ve drawn this little guy!!! I didn’t even have a pallet for him how dare I)

[the-paper-narrator]

“If you ever do come back to visit, would you mind bringing a few things to show me? All that is incredible, and all with just electricity?” As far as Moor knows, electricity is for lights and motors and that’s about it. The digital realm is far beyond her area of expertise.

Staring at the footage, she understands Thursday’s excitement, but doesn’t feel it herself. Not that she regrets putting the camera in, it satiates a curiosity she’s had for a long time. But the footage brings back that feeling of having two memories. At first she swears she’s never been there, that she was too busy doing something important, but at the same time that important thing was in the swamp.

After moments of nothing, she finally snaps back to her senses and addresses Thursday’s question. “I… don’t think it’s around here, no. There’s a sky, which is rare in these offices. And I don’t believe all the fish come from there, or at least this area. I have species that prefer other climates, and would perish in this swamp. Perhaps this realm is bigger than what we’re seeing, and there’s other areas with more fish?” She conveniently left out the part where she swore she could remember moving from this swamp to other, much calmer areas, even a few towns. Did she live in this realm at some point?

As Moor speaks, the camera is jostled by something from behind, turning the camera around to reveal itself, a large, jet black, unnatural looking catfish. It nudges the camera, before ramming into it, sending it flying up into shore, giving a better view of the narrow straight of water jutting into muddy land. Leaves crunch as something or someone notices the camera, picks it up, and starts walking towards the end of the waterway.

[the-haunted-office]

Thursday is so excited and entranced by what she's seeing on the screen that at first she doesn't notice Moor's spaced-out behavior. It isn't until she's pointing at something on the screen, trying to get her attention, that she notices. She tilts her head to the side a little bit, but doesn't think too much on it. Perhaps Moor is just swept away by what she's seeing. The images are compelling, after all, and she's said she's never seen technology like this before.

Still, she's a little relieved when Moor speaks. "That's true, there could be more to it than just what we're seeing here. Hmm. We need something remote controlled. I'm gonna have to look into th- Er. Wait a minute, what's- oh, hahaha, look at that!"

Thursday starts laughing when the catfish turns the camera around. It's totally unexpected and highly amusing to her. She's never seen anything like this. Well, she's seen catfish before, but she's never seen one apparently playing with a camera.

"Okay, so we have a curious fish and- Oh! There goes the camera! All right, and now it's playing soccer with it. And nowwww... now someone's got it. Ahahaha. Now that's interesting. Wonder what they're doing with it. You know, I've just thought of something. I hope this doesn't cause like some kind of butterfly effect. Like, what if this portal actually goes into another dimension and back in time, and we've just accidentally introduced technology in a time where it doesn't exist yet and messed up the timeline or something? You know what, on second thought, it's probably fine."

[the-paper-narrator]

Moor knew how strong and curious those catfish could be, they liked to topple people over in the office, so of course they would be like that in the wild. A real pain to catch. “Just fish being fish, I suppose. Maybe it thought it was another fish encroaching on its space.”

As the person picks up the camera, Moor tries to remember anything about this place. Was there anyone there? It wouldn’t be a good place for a town, but then who…?

“Eh, it’s the middle of nowhere in the 1940s, it can’t do much harm. Probably will wave it off as some foreign advancements.”

As the person walks off, the camera is pointed to the ground, at a well-worn trail through the muck. Feet in thick boots can be occasionally seen as the person walks towards somewhere, muttering quietly about something. Soon, the camera pulls up to reveal a small campsite with a campfire and single tent, with what looks to be the wreckage of a plane behind it. It’s falling apart, having been gone through for parts, and is covered in overgrowth, appearing to have been there for a long time. In front of the plane is a large tree, shading the site, with many small, shiny things hanging from it. The person sits down by the fire, and finally turns the camera around, revealing their face. It’s an old, grizzled, yet kind looking man, looking in curiosity at the device in his hands. Er, hand. As the camera turns, it gives a glimpse of his missing left arm, now only an empty sleeve.

[the-paper-narrator]

Although Tiny doesn’t know what Nextday is thinking, it’s important to note that he is the complete opposite. Few thoughts go through his head without getting blurted out, because at minimum they get a chuckle out of people. Sure, they’re sometimes laughing at him, but he can’t tell the difference.

“Mmmmmmmmmm, okay, if you say so!” He seems eager to brush her off, but makes a mental note to start throwing batteries at her if she starts fading. See, he can keep some ideas a secret.

“Uhhhhhhh, well, it happened shortly after I fell into a sink into another office, then came back to my own office. I don’t know of many other offices with ghosts, so maybe it’s from somewhere far away? And it follows me around so much, it probably in-printed on me, I do hang around a lot of printers, but whenever I go back to Moor’s office, it disappears! Maybe it really really doesn’t like Mom?”

[the-haunted-office]

Nextday is writing away, writing down everything he says, then stops suddenly and looks up at him. She blinks at him. He... fell into a sink... and... came back out in his own office... She's not sure if any of that made any sense...

Very little that has come out of his mouth has made much sense...

She shrugs and continues writing.

Still, she isn't really getting much out of him, not anything that she feels is useful. She's going to need to step things up a notch to get any results because so far interviewing Tiny has felt like interviewing a dog fixated on its own tail.

"All right, well, it seems to me we need to try to encounter this ghost," she says, closing her notebook and tucking it up under her arm. "Why don't you show me where this... sink is and we'll go into it and then-" She pauses, gets her notebook back out, opens it again. "-come back out in your office, where it usually appears, and see if we can get it talking."

Next puts her notebook away again, still not sure if she understands any of that, but deciding she doesn't want to spend too much time trying to wrap her mind around it anyway. She suspects she'll lose what's little left of it if she tries.

[the-paper-narrator]

“Okay! But I think you’re a little confused. We’re just outside my own office, where the ghost keeps mopping up. No sink teleportation needed! Follow me!” Yeah navigation around here is confusing, but Tiny is so used to it its just like taking a stroll for him.

Before they can get going, Tiny looks around and finds the folded paper he stole from Nextday earlier. Using his paper powers, he unfolds it and makes it levitate just off the edge of the table, and gets on. “Ta-da! It’s a magic carpet! That’s what Eugene called it once, although I think carpets are a little bigger. Hey, maybe this ghost is Eugene’s friend! He’s kinda a ghost, I think. Maybe. He explained it to me once, I got confused.”

Tiny floats off, and if Nextday chooses to follow, Tiny leads her to a much more decorated office, landing on a desk covered in scraps of paper and a tiny office diorama filled with tiny stationary. “This is my home! In this office, I have another one in the sink office. I’m here a lot when the ghost shows up. Here ghosty ghosty!”

[chaosmultiverse-a]

@the-paper-narrator

Caitlyn looked Moor up and down, eyes narrowing at the book "A historian? Is that book a history one? I'll admit I would be surprised if my name is in one, I'm either way surprised I was mentioned in a book." She had only more recently ended up the sheriff, and while she's dealt with many interesting cases she would say being known internationally came as a bit of a shook.

"Either way, sure Moor let's chat over some tea, I'll admit I'm a little curious about you and it seems like you're curious about me, a good place to start wouldn't you say?"

[the-paper-narrator]

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a history book, of the normal variety anyways. It’s almost like a… future history book. Points out noteworthy people, before others recognize them as noteworthy.” Magic. It’s magic. But Moor’s not gonna say that to a normal seeming person.

“I do love a good tea and chat. Say, I’ll bite first. How would you say your job is? Fun? Stressful? Complete nonsense?”

[chaosmultiverse-a]

Caitlyn looked surprised by the explanation of the book, then eyes narrowing, she was... Admittedly suspicious of such a magical object for a verity of reasons, if they were being honest that easily could be used to take out people the holder considered a threat beforehand...

"So wait, does that thing hold information about events that haven't happened yet or simply people who will make a mark on the world? Either way I'm... Not sure how good it is my name is there, there's plenty of good and bad reasons to be noteworthy." Maybe she'd bring order to the city, or maybe things would get much much worse.

"Well being the sheriff of the city is admittedly stressful, we've got a lot of serious criminals here but it's rewarding work, handling crime and corruption within the city."

[the-paper-narrator]

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the book knows and doesn’t know. I just know that it knows things, and it knows you. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, but either way, you’re of interest.”

Moor opens her book, as if she was taking notes, but doesn’t have a pencil to write with. “Interesting, interesting. Is it worth it? All the stress, all the trouble. At the end of the day, can you look out and confidently declare you did a good job?”

[chaosmultiverse-a]

@the-paper-narrator

Caitlyn looked Moor up and down, eyes narrowing at the book "A historian? Is that book a history one? I'll admit I would be surprised if my name is in one, I'm either way surprised I was mentioned in a book." She had only more recently ended up the sheriff, and while she's dealt with many interesting cases she would say being known internationally came as a bit of a shook.

"Either way, sure Moor let's chat over some tea, I'll admit I'm a little curious about you and it seems like you're curious about me, a good place to start wouldn't you say?"

[the-paper-narrator]

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a history book, of the normal variety anyways. It’s almost like a… future history book. Points out noteworthy people, before others recognize them as noteworthy.” Magic. It’s magic. But Moor’s not gonna say that to a normal seeming person.

“I do love a good tea and chat. Say, I’ll bite first. How would you say your job is? Fun? Stressful? Complete nonsense?”