(A new Subject! Prompt used for this one was "Dullahan." Also, a slightly different style of write-up, for this one - admittedly unintentional to begin with, but I just ran with it.)




I enjoy listening to him tap at the keys in front of him. The soft pitter-patter reminds me of rain, and I like the rain. There isn’t much of it to be found in here, though. I close my eyes and listen to the low hum of air; a cold and steady wind being pumped through the tired innards of the old building. I can almost put the image of the shore together in my head. I smile and answer his questions – I admit, partly just so I can keep listening to him type.

He asks me the usual question: my name. A fairly standard opening. I tell him my name is Jeremy, but that’s a lie. I don’t have a name that matters anymore. But it’s sometimes nice to pretend, and people like him find it easier when I do. In hindsight I wonder if I ought to have used his name instead, see the look on his face for a bit of fun. I can see it on the badge hanging around his neck like an oversized collar. I remark on it, saying it’s rather like the sort you’d find on a dog – a little strip of fabric with a little decoration, a name and a few numbers that supposedly help people identify you when you get lost. I ask him if he’s ever gotten lost. He responds in the negative, saying he’s usually pretty good at knowing where he is and where he’s been. I laugh, but before I can say more to him, he asks me another question: What are you doing here?

Again, something familiar, and easy enough to answer – I’m always on some job or another, and someone had an offer for me. So I stopped in. It was a fairly simple transaction. I see him looking at me intently, and I smile. Yes, I could leave if I wanted, but I’m not about to leave a job unfinished – it’s not a good look. And I’ve still got some work left to do.

He asks me about my work, and I lean back in my seat. I tell him I’m in the fishing business. I watch the confusion pinch his eyebrows together. If wishes were fishes, I say. The sea’s full of them. Big ones, small ones, you get the idea. I’m not too terribly picky, I just wait and see what bites. I’m an odd-job kind of guy. Been a friend, been an enemy, I find things, and I hide things. I admit I’ve hurt people, but it’s never meant personally. As always, what people ask me to do is their business, not mine. As long as they’ve got something to offer, I don’t turn my nose up at a job just because it might make some folks squeamish. And at least I can keep things tidy - unlike others in the business.

I already have a good idea of what he might ask next, but I don’t let him get there this time. It’s my turn to ask him where he was last week. Tuesday, a little after three in the morning. I watch the crease between his eyebrows slowly deepen. He tells me he was asleep, like any normal person not working a night shift. I sigh, flicking the cigarette between my fingers, watching the smoke swirl upwards in a current. I know he wants to ask me what the job is. He wants to know who hired me. He’s afraid, even if he doesn’t show it. So I ask him if he remembers where he might’ve drifted off to. I ask if he remembers the beach.

Meet me there, I tell him. The same spot as before. He’ll have all his answers then – if he wants to remember them, this time.


Subject Notes:

MA-XX24 will always appear in monochrome, regardless of the level or color of light being cast upon it. Applied substances such as paint or dye lose their pigment after a few hours, breaking down entirely after a full day. Its head – appearing as a Caucasian adult male human’s – hovers just above the collar of the suit. Its neck is loosely “tethered” to the main body via black smoke, though it moves and behaves as if it has standard musculoskeletal attachments. This head will dissipate if forcefully separated, but it will typically reform from the main body after approximately one day. During this time, the body itself remains fully functional and coordinated, with an amorphous mass of smoke appearing in place of a head until full regeneration is complete. No other structures or substances have been observed within the suit thus far, with the suit likewise giving similar readings during tests, leading to the speculation that both body and suit are somehow entirely comprised of this smoke.

The heavy black smoke it emits has since been compared more closely to vapor, with it reportedly having a scent akin to heavy rain or coastal fog, and feeling “cold” when inhaled. Additionally, observers have described faint sounds similar to dripping water and “something that slithers” while within it, with the volume increasing proportional to the smoke's density. During one instance in which a small audio recorder was inserted into the collar of the suit, it briefly recorded what sounded like a low, distant wailing before all transmission abruptly ceased. Upon retrieval, it was found that the cable had been cleanly severed, and the device was unable to be located. Later analysis compared the sound observed to being similar to that of a whale, but it still remains unidentified.

This entity’s motives remain largely unknown, although since arriving of its own accord, it has thus far been cooperative with questioning, stating that it enjoys “watching people play the detective game.” It will regularly engage in conversation, although it has been noted that its answers are not always accurate or honest. It has shown an ability to translocate, frequently appearing in offices or break rooms, where it often tries to engage in small talk, though it has since agreed to scheduled appearances in the designated holding cell as part of the “game.”





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