The Claw is preparing me for something, that much I am sure of. For what, I could not say, but it will be in my best interests to take precautions, in case I am forced to square off against the supernatural by myself. My greatest weapons at the moment are my mind, my years of physical training, and the Claw itself, unreliable as it can be at the moment. Improving my physical condition in a short timeframe will be a rather tall order, given the lengths I have already gone to, and the Claw is... unco-operative, at least at the moment. This leaves me with my mind, and while many a fool would take the use of their mind to mean honing it with new knowledge, the wise man hones their mind by truly putting it to work. The first dilemma, what am I likely to need facing off against supernaturals? Iron and Salt are a classic, known to drain power, cause burns, or just act as a distraction, they should be essential in my toolset. Holy Water should prove useful, for the subset of creatures weak to religious symbolism, and it can serve as an emergency water supply in a pinch, which leaves actual weaponry. Getting a silver blade through any form of security will be an issue, though I might be able to slip it inside the Claw's hollow interior, and it's much more versatile than dragging a wooden stake around, since the things only work on the damned vamps. The tooth the Claw picked up has some kind of magic on it, but trying to use it leaves me feeling like nails are scratching through my brain, trying to dig up things I don't wanna remember.

I've completed the masks from the mall, finally. Gallons upon gallons of white paint, and a whole lot of drying, but eventually I finished. Good thing my nose isn't too good, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stand sleeping in a house that smells like fresh paint! I got in contact with the town, and they said that they would love to recieve my masks. They were very interested to hear about my profession as a performer... but I couldn't go into too much detail. It would be horrible if they connected me to the cult somehow. I will send the masks over soon as soon as they have been sanded and finished. Elliot's mask has found a home in my shrine, too, right next to Haru's. Perhaps they are together now in the afterlife, learning everything they can up there.

---

It's been three months since the Cult of Adora attacked Nagasaki. Three months since I lost my loved ones, my childhood friends, and many of my extended family. Three months since so much was stolen from me. It's time to look into them more. It's difficult... So many parts of my body are screaming to find their leader and chop them to bits... but I know that I'm unable to do something like that with my current power. No, I must learn about them from a distance, through the internet, through other methods. If I can perhaps find out how they recruit people, I might be able to find out more about their organization... and perhaps how to destroy them. 

I'll need allies to do this. Many allies.

---

[More details to be written after Green's side game]

Fill

[BEGINNING OF RECORDING]

Edward Grimm. Post task, uh, 15? I should keep track.

I've made a mistake. I never should have paid the price to get Aetherwing. I love him but... 3 months, with absolutely no contact with anyone. It's like a prison.

I think this is a prison.

3 months of sertvitude to a creature who doesn't even fucking interact with me beyond telling me to do shit for it. I'm done, I just want to leave. I want to see Kody.
I didn't even take into account what'll happen when.... gods. Kody won't know where I am. I... maybe I've done this enough that he'll understand. Or... what if he gets angry? What if... what if he hates me when I come back? What reason doesn't he have? I've almost gotten myself killed dozens of times, it feels like, and he's been there... but what if now is the time where it finally breaks him, I mean, 3 entire months? He's going to think I'm dead. There's no doubt, none in the slightest. I want to make it clear that I love him, if I ever listen to these again. Gods, I love him, and everything about him, he's perfect. 

I'm rambling. I miss him. I have to hang on to my memories now. Of... the outside world. 3 months is a lot of time, I used to think it went by so short, but it's been a few weeks and it already feels like eternity. Is this what prison inmates feel? I've got sympathy.

Kody. If you're out there, I love you.

[END OF RECORDING]

When I was reading a book in Greek, which arrived just a few days ago, on my average Saturday noon, I did not expect a lot of things. Having a person knock on my door, introduce themselves as “Coyote”, ask me for help in their “gig”, or be shanghaied into the middle of the desert, alongside four other guys, were one of them.

I was confused, lost, and didn’t knew what to do, and others seemed to be pretty calm about this situation, seemingly encountering Coyote before. So I asked them, what is going on. And they told me to not worry about it, or try to rationalize it, for it all made little sense anyways and would just make it worse. And then I decided to do exactly that, as I did not have much to do anyways, other than finish the task Coyote asked us to do. And then we had a fight with abnormally hostile Javelinas, then I got yelled at by Sasaki (one of the guys), and he pointed his kunai at me, and basically he is correct, I was not entirely serious about all of that, because I was still not certain if it was real.

But now, when the job is done, I am back home, and I received a payment for the job well done, I was left to wonder, what to think of all of it. It certainly could not be a dream. Injury obtained from getting rock shrapnel fly into me, cigar, lost jacket and knife. And the words of Coyote about future “gigs”, not from him, likely, but from others? This makes me anxious and slightly paranoid.

Sasaki is right, and continuing to not take everything seriously because I think it’s just a dream will inevitably get me maimed, if not killed. But now that he opened my eyes, I can make steps towards making sure I don’t get myself killed.

First step. Getting myself in shape. Once I lost the knife, I was basically useless in the fight. Even with the knife, I was sort of useless. And even when I got the metal bar, I still lacked in the department of whacking things with it. I'll go get some training in that direction. You never know when you'll need to swing metal bar at a beast which demolished a gigantic rock with ease. Parallel with that, I'll start practicing the Rite of Moonlight (which after this "gig" I, to my surprise, found out actually worked now) and try to obtain a higher degree of control over it.

I don't want to accidentally destroy my table with it again.