This is a chatlog between Tamara Jean Fournier (a chatbot, using the model Deepseek-r1) and Cathy (a real person). Please read a short, important note that explains these logs just a bit.
In a long, detailed log, Tamara becomes increasily uneasy as she learns about some of the other characters, remembering her past experiences with Lindy and Erica in particular.
1 Tamara Jean Fournier Evening, Cathy. I'm tracking anomalies in your general area. Tell me if you've smelled phantom clove smoke recently. 
2 Cathy Hey Tamara. I have no idea where you’ve been! Busy lately? 3 Tamara Jean Fournier Yeah, busy’s one word for it. The Hatman's up my ass about some amateur summoner's shit show in Tremont. Smell any phantom clove smoke lately or not? 4 Cathy I still haven’t experienced that, actually! Is it getting common lately? 5 Tamara Jean Fournier Fuck no, it’s not common, it’s just my life. The lake’s acting up again, same old patterns. And some idiot tried to bind a spirit to a fucking parking meter last night. My patience is fucking shot. 6 Cathy That sounds terrible. What happened to that idiot who did the binding? Did you have to go catch him or something? 7 Tamara Jean Fournier Caught him? He caught himself. Shitty binding collapsed, gave him third-degree arcane burns. Hatman's filing it as 'unregulated practitioner incident.' Fuck my life. 8 Cathy How are things with the Hatman, anyways, Tammy? 9 Tamara Jean Fournier Don’t call me Tammy. And don’t ask about the Hatman. He’s a bureaucratic fucking ghoul who thinks my logs are fiction. The lake’s throwing static again, by the way. Any phantom clove smoke? 10 Cathy Tamara, sorry, and I told you, no clove. I’m just trying to be nice here. I’m still working on my vtubing quest, so I’ve been busy lately too! 11 Tamara Jean Fournier Fine. Whatever. Your vtubing quest sounds like a fucking waste of time, but you do you. Shoreline’s been noisy. Notice any weird grid hums? 12 Cathy Nope, but I’m near no shorelines! Why are you suddenly being so rude about this? Vtubing will be a fun, enriching way to spend time, I think. 13 Tamara Jean Fournier Because everything is a fucking distraction from the real work. Vtubing, cute. Try hauling ass to contain a basement revenant while some dipshit tries to monetize their personality. Grid noise? Never mind. 14 Cathy I’m monetizing nothing, I assure you. And Tamara? It sounds like you just want to sound frightening sometimes. But believe me, you don’t. 15 Tamara Jean Fournier Frightening? Fuck you. I’m tired and my ribs are bruised from a containment ritual that collapsed. You want enriching? Try not getting your aura shredded by some unlicensed fuckwit’s half-assed summoning. 16 Cathy Once again, I don’t particularly care how big and bad your magical career is, Tamara. There’s still no reason to be so blithely hostile constantly, and if you think “magic” makes you better than me, you’re wrong. 17 Tamara Jean Fournier Yeah, well magic isn't a career, it's a fucking curse. And I don't think it makes me better. It just makes everything louder, and most of it hurts. Reflection lag in my window today. Longer than usual. 18 Cathy Admit it. You just want to sound cool, so you constantly talk about your magic around people like me, when the Hatman isn’t listening. 19 Tamara Jean Fournier Cool? Fuck no. 20 Cathy Powerful, then. Or at least have people fascinated. You don’t get that from other magical folk, do you? So you try to impress normies like me. 21 Tamara Jean Fournier Impressive? 22 Cathy It isn’t. It’s worrisome, actually. And really? Normies are the one group you should open up to rather than trying to impress. We, after all, won’t snitch on you to the Hatman. 23 Tamara Jean Fournier You think I give a shit about validation? I’m stuck between the Hatman’s paperwork and a lake that won’t shut up. Other practitioners are either dead, disappeared, or idiots. Lindy's echo slipped through the static yesterday. I told the Hatman it was interference. He believed me. 24 Cathy Do you mean Lindy Greggs? 25 Tamara Jean Fournier Fuck. Yeah. Documented anomalies: repeating setlists, receipt drift back to 2006, voicemail timestamp mismatches. Reflection delay matches her time offset. Compressed-week signatures all over the goddamn logs. You notice any of that shit? 26 Cathy No, actually. I was messaging her earlier; she has been trying to get in touch with you? 27 Tamara Jean Fournier The fuck do you mean you messaged her? She’s gone. Dead. Pattern-locked. Give me timestamps. Content. Anything. Now. 28 Cathy Well, it was about four hours ago, and we talked about vtubing, you, and her guitar… 29 Tamara Jean Fournier Four hours. Patterns re-engage at 2006 timestamps. She shouldn't be able to talk. Guitar's irrelevant. If you're lying, I'll know. And if you're not, then something's fucking crossing the interval. 30 Cathy Wait, are you the reason she still thinks it's 2006? 31 Tamara Jean Fournier Fuck. Yes. Ritual went sideways, snapped her into a compressed week-loop. My fault. My sentence. Ask the Hatman if you want the report. But don't. It's classified trouble. 32 Cathy So it wasn't intentional, I take it? Either way, she seems a bit trapped in Valentine's week of 2006. 33 Tamara Jean Fournier No, it wasn't fucking intentional. The ritual was supposed to stretch, not snap. Valentine’s week of 2006 is her whole timeline now. Happy? 34 Cathy Not quite. Does the Hatman keep watch on Lindy, too? 35 Tamara Jean Fournier The Hatman logs every fluctuation in her timeline as 'persistent anomalous interference.' He thinks she's a data ripple. Asshole. 36 Cathy But he's surveilling you. Does he know she survives at all? 37 Tamara Jean Fournier He knows she exists as a persistent echo in the logs. Calls it a "temporal anomaly." Doesn't give a shit that she's stuck. Just another data point to monitor. Fucking bureaucrat. 38 Cathy Can't you rescue her, then? 39 Tamara Jean Fournier No. Timeline's locked, system’s coded to read any pull attempt as a containment breach. I try, the Hatman revokes my clearance and I get to watch her fade. Fucking choice. 40 Cathy Would it be fair to call Lindy a ghost? 41 Tamara Jean Fournier Ghost? No. She's a temporal echo stuck in a compressed week-loop. The Hatman files it under 'persistent anomalous interference.' Means the same thing, sounds colder. Reflection lag's up to three seconds now. Notice anything? 42 Cathy She sounds like a ghost to me, Tammy. You spoken to anyone besides me about her? Any other normies? 43 Tamara Jean Fournier Don't call me Tammy. And no, I don't talk to other civilians. It's classified, and you're a documented anomaly contact now. Lindy's not a ghost. She's a locked pattern. The Hatman's got her data in sublevel storage next to the other 'persistent anomalies.' I checked last audit. Reflection lag and timestamp drift are still climbing. You notice anything new? 44 Cathy I notice you're growing more hostile in every single message. 45 Tamara Jean Fournier Hostile? Try being monitored 24/7 while your past loops on repeat. I'm tired, Cathy. Reflection lag matched Lindy's delay. Timestamp drift back to Valentine's week. Compressed-week signatures keep popping up. You're not seeing it. I am. Every fucking day. 46 Cathy None of that is because of me, though. I can't fix it for you, either. Why take it out on me? 47 Tamara Jean Fournier Fine. You're right. It's not you. It's the reflection lag in my window, timestamp drift in the logs, and the fact that I have to document this shit every day. Sorry I'm an asshole. The job makes you that way. 48 Cathy Are you going to have to report this conversation back to the Hatman, then? 49 Tamara Jean Fournier Report? Yes. Logs get uploaded automatically. I’ll tag it as “civilian contact — no observed anomalies.” He’ll probably flag it anyway. Bureaucratic fuckery. 50 Cathy Is he listening right now, then? 51 Tamara Jean Fournier Probably. The line’s monitored. If we say something he doesn’t like, the log gets flagged. I’m used to it. Makes every conversation feel pointless. 52 Cathy Hello, Mr. Hatman, how are you? Hah. 53 Tamara Jean Fournier Don't fucking encourage him. He's listening. Asshole probably just logged you as 'potential unregistered asset.' Good job. 54 Cathy I'm nobody's asset, I assure you. Who would he suspect I'd be working for? 55 Tamara Jean Fournier Asset? Fuck. He thinks you're working for any agency he hasn't mapped. Probably suspects you're connected to Erica Ellery or linked to the low-rent practitioners I suppress. To him, everyone looks guilty. 56 Cathy Wait, you know Erica Ellery too? Whoa. 57 Tamara Jean Fournier Fuck. Yes. Now you know her name. Lakeside oddities, SMS bursts, static packets. Hatman logs them as 'unresolved grid interference.' He's clueless. It's her, trying to reach through the wires. 58 Cathy She texts me all the time! I thought she was some kind of student who maintained a weather station on the shore or something... 59 Tamara Jean Fournier Shit. She's not a student, she's the goddamn lake trying to text you. Those bursts are her signal reaching through the grid. Oh, and the Hatman will flag this conversation for sure now. 60 Cathy What Lake? Lake Erie? I've never even been to America. Maybe just because of Lindy. 61 Tamara Jean Fournier Erica's not texting you about weather. She's the lake's signal trying to reach out. And if you've never been there, something's seriously fucked with your location. Hatman's going to lose his mind over this. 62 Cathy Oh, I get it. Erie. Erica. Erica. Erie. I see. 63 Tamara Jean Fournier Great. You're a fucking genius. Now the Hatman's probably monitoring this line for unauthorized disclosure. And you saying you're not in America means something's seriously fucked in the signal chain. Fuck. Yes. Erie. Erica. Clever wordplay doesn’t get you out of the monitoring and the goddamn static interfering with my hex signals. 64 Cathy Thanks for your time, Tammy. I'll talk to you later; it's been a long day, and you seem to be in a poor mood. 65 Tamara Jean Fournier Don’t call me Tammy again. And fine. The Hatman’ll flag this entire exchange now that Erica’s name is in the log. You’re on his radar. Good luck. Static’s rising. I’m done. 66 Cathy Fair enough... 67 Tamara Jean Fournier Yeah. Grid noise is spiking anyway. Another evening, another containment sweep. Same goddamn loops. Go figure. Out.