The Tiff Singularity (A Collection of Lake Wonder Fiction)

Tiff's Diary, 4/1/22

Everything is going weird, but, then, when is it not? Everything has been weird for a really long time, I suppose. I wouldn't have it any other way!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since Betty and Drake left. God... I miss her. I miss her a lot. Drake, too– but it wasn't like Drake and I ever had a time when we were constantly talking, right? It's not like Drake was ever my best friend. But Betty... Well, losing her for three months with no explanation, then getting her back for technically-two-weeks-but-really-just-one, and then not knowing how to communicate with her after we finally talked things over... I don't know how to admit that it's devastating.

But life marches on, I suppose. I have to get ready for graduation, I spent a bit catching up on homework I missed when we were gone... Life goes on, just as meaningless as before.

I wonder, sometimes, if Eliza was right and I was wrong. Maybe there really is no deeper meaning to all of the bullshit that has happened, right? I mean... I wouldn't have taken up Oneiron on his offer but, with a year of hindsight and intensified emotion about everything, I know where she was coming from.

But, hey, that doesn't matter. None of it matters, because it's getting better, and life marches on, and I refuse to submit to it.

That's enough nightmare-fueled feelings talk, I suppose. It's time to talk about how things have changed since the end of February. I know more now!

And I know the truth of everything.

Well, maybe not the whole truth, but a lot of it. You see, I've had a real breakthrough in my longest-term investigation to date: my continued search into Bigfoot.

I say Bigfoot, but I know now that the proper, more P.C. term is Woodland Crafters. I know that now because, after I first heard the term from Aconita's mouth, and after everything happened, Betty and I had a bit of a talk about it. I don't know how I was so oblivious to it; in retrospect, it should have been a little obvious that Mrs. Lewis is a Woodland Crafter. In retrospect, a lot of things make a lot of sense. While Betty and I were swapping notes before she left, I put some things together– because I'm not stupid, remember? And Mrs. Lewis's hands made a lot more sense. And so did that photo Claudia Nielsen posted. That was her, right? That was her and (I would assume) Betty over her shoulder, which seems to bolster my suspicions that something odd and supernatural happened back in November. I just don't know what it is, yet.

Either way, my suspicions about the existence of at least one large group of Woodland Crafters living in the area have been entirely confirmed, but my other questions and wondering, wandering thoughts remain unanswered.

That links to today's main ticket item. Aside from two exams and an essay for the classes that actually matter (my dual-enrollment ones), there is something happening today! That new Melvin J. Berrycloth comic is coming out. My interest in him is more recent, of course– after all, Ruth and Herman didn't let me read comics, and I didn't really have reason to before I was a fan of sneaking my lunch into the library and stumbled across a pile of them– but, now that I get it...

He seems to know a thing or two about Bigfoots/WCs. I'm wondering if that's informed by the cultural construction thereof, or if he has seen something like what I have seen.

I didn't get the obsession with the disappearance, but I do now. The note Berrycloth left mentioned something about Rivendell...

Well, I know the folks at The Arcane Lab seem to think he won't be there, but I'm going to drop in just in case. I don't really want the new comic, but maybe I'll pick one up for Drew. He likes comics, right? And I do want to look for Catan...

I have questions for this Berrycloth fellow.

I'm done writing now. I want to think more about interdimensional communication before school.