Mantid #1: Origins

"And so the squirrel chatters..."

After school let out, Blaze and Jack went to Wysteria's house. Her parents were very kind and quiet people, but they seemed a little suspicious of them. Wysteria said not to worry, and explained that they were just a little overprotective of her, and that they just needed to get used to them.

The three of them began to study in the upper level of her family's garage, which was very well-finished. It had an L-shaped desk in the left-hand corner of the room with a microphone, small speaker, fan, and a touchscreen laptop computer sitting on one half, and a bunch of drawing and craft supplies on the other half, all stored in bins, next to an ancient, yellowing-out cord and receiver phone. On the wall above, there was a shelving system with what looked to be stacks of finished journals in it. They dated from 2028 to that year - 2032. Next to the shelves, there was a corkboard with nonsensical notes with odd symbols and drawings on them. There were some pictures too.

"Cool room," Blaze complimented, "So... Do you get this all to yourself?"

"Mostly," Wysteria confirmed, then shrugged, "The perks of being an only child."

Her eyebrows raised, "Wow."

Jack walked over to the desk, "What's the microphone for?"

"I have a Podcast where I tell true scary stories about close encounters with criminals and aliens, and also about survival against impossible odds," She explained, "And some Twilight Zone-type stories that I wrote myself beforehand, in case if I'm unable to find anything interesting on my go-to websites," She continued, "I also like listening and talking to people by means of a Ham radio."

"Oh," Jack commented, then he asked, "What's the Twilight Zone?"

"Yeah," Blaze wanted to know too.

Wysteria stared at them blankly in disappointment, "You don't know what the Twilight Zone is..."

They shook their heads, "No."

"It's an old television show from the fifties and sixties - Oh, right..." She realized, "You're not much into vintage, are you?"

"Not really," Blaze said kindly.

"Well," She continued, "It's basically like the old, original version of creepypasta, but televised - Less edgy, of course, and more about strange occurrences than psychopaths. It's more along the lines of 2001 a Space Odyssey, feel-wise. But I do believe that's where the new stuff like Creepypasta, and especially Local58 stems from - It's based on shows like the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits."

"Huh," Jack said, not understanding where half of the references she made came from, "Interesting."

She recommended it to them, "You should watch it, it's a good show."

Wysteria pulled out two bean bags and a bungee chair out from underneath one half of her desk, and dropped them out in the open space in the floor. Being the tallest one there, she took the bungee chair, and stretched her disproportionately long legs out in front of her until her knees cracked, and she brought them back, crossing them at the ankles. She then slowly twisted at the waist, and reached with her right arm, and grabbed her binder to use it as a portable desk in her lap.

Blaze and Jack each took a bean bag, and dragged them to where they wanted them, and sat down with their composition notebooks and folders for the class. They retrieved their study guides.

"We should probably put our phones out in the middle of the floor in a circle now," Jack prompted.

Wysteria nodded, "Right..." She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and put it down on the floor, facing Blaze.