First Contact [Charlotte/Julean]

[hadopelagic]

As they moved, Julean babbled, all too happy to hear the sound of his own voice, especially when he was saying impressively clever things.

"The supernatural's real. We both know that, for a fact. Devils, ghosts, and aliens share our world. Well, maybe not aliens. Those guys just visit it. But. Anyway. If just one percent of the population has encountered the supernatural, that's ..."

Wait, how many people were living in the US? He didn't remember. It was a lot, though. Three hundred million? More? Julean decided to remain vague. Everyone was waiting for him to slip up, sharks circling bleeding prey.

"At least a million people," he decided. "They're probably full of doubt. Feeling isolated. So for phase one of the plan, I start dropping suggestions. Get my Chat to talk with each other, compare experiences. Suddenly, they aren't alone. And they start to wonder: how can it all be in my head, when the same thing's happened to strangers I've never met IRL? That's not enough to shift society, but it'll make people receptive when we initiate phase two ..."

He abruptly stopped talking. What was that sound?

They weren't alone.

"Charlotte," Julean whispered. "Do you hear what I hear?"

[beastly]

Charlotte crept along, listening to Julean as she moved. She was paying attention, but she was also invested in finding whatever was on the other end of these prints. She wanted PROOF for him.

"Mmmhm."

It wasn't a bad idea, getting people to connect and share their encounters with the supernatural. She certainly would have liked to have people to take her seriously about her experiences. The man had ideas. UFO conferences and paranormal meet ups weren't unheard of, but the reach wasn't mainstream.

With her shadow senses, Charlotte was just able to pick up the creature moving into and then quickly out of the area it was effective in. Something was near by, and the sound of twigs snapping underfoot grew clearer.

"Yeah," Charlotte responded in a hushed tone, "We're getting close to whatever is making the tracks- c'mon."

She jerked her head, then took off in a sprint towards the sound.

[hadopelagic]

Careful to avoid eye-level sticks (which were, according to a reputable park ranger on TV, a big safety hazard in the wilderness), Julean sprinted after Charlotte. His footfalls were louder and heavier than hers.

"We are ... in pursuit ... of the Unidentified Big-footed Person," he narrated to the camera. "And according to very scientific ... early survey results ..."

He looked down at his phone, following Charlotte by sound alone.

"Forty-three percent of Julean Chatters ... who are the smartest people alive ... believe in bigfoot!"

What else?

"And ten percent ... believe the US Constitution applies to bigfoots. Seems low. Guess it depends on ... AIIIIEE!"

There was an intense pain in Julean's right eye, and he briefly lost half of his vision. With a whimper and trembling hands, he patted his face, and then yanked a sharp stick out of his eyeball. He knew it was dangerous to use the phone while driving, but who could've predicted that running in the dark in a forest without paying attention would cause an injury???

"Oooow."

The physical damage healed quickly, but Julean was not sure he'd ever look at trees the same way. 

"I'm okay!" he shouted, bravely resuming the chase.

[beastly]

Charlotte was nimble like she belonged in the woods, and kept running, dodging branches and listening to Julean's narration. It was good he was already started on getting people interested in what they were doing.

She kept running, getting closer and closer to whatever was ahead, 'seeing' glimpses of something suspiciously bigfoot like- when she heard Julean scream and 'saw' him clutching his face. Charlotte stopped, turning back for him. A branch had gotten him- No? He was okay? Odd. She could have sworn he'd been seriously injured, but she must have misinterpreted what she was seeing and he'd only gotten a harmless branch to the face and over reacted. She frowned.

"Okay. We're close!"

The thing had kept moving while they had slowed, but as they kept running, the foot prints changed. They went from huge primate feet to... boots. What?

Ahead, a figure was visible. Not running, but nearly hugging a tree and looking their direction. They had a cellphone in hand, or something else glowing.

[hadopelagic]

Julean wasn't looking at the footprints, all his attention focused on Charlotte's back and the branches around them. Bastard pointy sticks. They'd fooled him twice, but there wouldn't be a third time. Unfortunately, that meant he completely missed the transformation.

Seeing the glow of light, Julean wondered: was this a friend of Charlottes? Somebody who'd been planting bigfoot prints? Or a hiker in a pair of Beate Karlsson AVAVAV monster shoes?

No, those explanations didn't make sense. Charlotte wouldn't lead him to a co-conspirator. And Beate Karlsson pieces were designer. It would be criminal for somebody to wear them in the dirty forest.

Whatever the case, humans used electronic devices, which meant they might've chased a person through the woods, instead of bigfoot.

"Oh, hey there!" Julean called out, swiveling his cell phone light toward the figure to get a better look at them. "Didn't mean to scare you!" What was the most non-threatening thing he could say? "Do you know where the nearest Wendy's restaurant is? My girl and I are lost."

Well, that was something.

[beastly]

Charlotte slowed as they got closer, and shot Julean a look that was somewhere between confused and irritated. The look resolved itself, and she seemed to accept the cover story, nodding. It was an incredibly stupid lie, but it'd be worse to contradict him. She was laser focused on the individual they'd chased down.

"Yes. Wendy's. We are lost and looking for Wendy's."



The figure by the tree came fully into view, illuminated by Julean's phone. It appeared to be a tall woman in a light blue jacket, clutching a pink smartphone tightly. Her red hair was a bit messy, and she seemed slightly out of breath. Wary yellow eyes looked back at the two as she took a step back, biting her lip. The Wendy's thing wasn't the worst possible choice of words, because the woman stopped, looking more confused than scared for a moment.

"I don't- this... This is the woods. What?"

[hadopelagic]

Well, that was odd. Julean looked at the woman's feet, then up to her face. She was flustered, no doubt about it. And human. Or so it seemed.

"Isn't there a shortcut ..." He looked around, pretending to be baffled by their surroundings. "Whoa. Guess not. This is seriously the middle of nowhere. I thought there was a footpath to the highway."

Julean shrugged at Charlotte, and then turned back to the woman. "We were just following the footprints."

He turned on his camera light, shone it downward, and pointed at a print. Slowly, Julean lifted his finger up to the woman.

"They lead to you."

Julean grinned and leaned against the tree, trying to give off chill, friendly, non-cryptid-hunting-vibes. "By the way, are you a magician, or something? Your prints changed."

He held up the camera and wiggled it.

"Want to see?"

[beastly]

"They did lead to you," Charlotte echoed, stepping closer to the tall woman, "That's weird. Isn't it?"

The redhead stared at them both, looking from the camera to their faces. She bit her lip and pulled her coat around tighter. The prints at her feet were large, but perfectly human. Far different from the barefoot tracks they'd been following. And yet...

"I don't know what- I don't know what you're talking about? My prints? Changed and lead you to me?"

She shook her head, looking even more anxious.

"There's no Wendy's. I'm n-not a magician," the woman pointed left, "The road is that way. You can g-g-go that way."



Charlotte made eye contact with Julean, eyes wide and then squinting, darting from the lady back to her tracks, trying to telepathically communicate her thoughts.

[hadopelagic]

Based on her her body language, the redhead lady (bigfoot???) was still nervous. But why? Julean and Charlotte were a little sketch, but it could be worse. Was she scared of all humans, even hot content creators with dimples? Eh. Understandable. Cryptids had legit reasons to be wary of the mundane world. For example, there were lots of freaks who enjoyed hunting the peaceful, berry-eating Sasquatches in the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare DLC.

"Here, look," Julean said, turning his camera around to show the woman its little screen. He rewound a few minutes, until the footprints transitioned into large tracks. "See? They start like thiiiiis." He fast-forwarded. "And turn into thiiiiis."

Julean went back and forth a couple more times, watching the woman carefully, judging her reaction. He didn't want to scare her, but he also wanted to prove his worth as a paranormal investigator to Charlotte. Before the night was over, Charlotte would know that Julean was the MOST valuable collaborator on the internet.

"How about I make a deal with you, Miss," he said, lowering the camera. "Tell us the truth, and I'll delete the evidence."

He took out his wallet and removed a gift card.

"And give you this! You like Starbucks? Because I have a fifty dollar Starbucks gift card, for some reason. It's wasted on me, since I own an Automated Personal Barista Espresso Machine, which makes americanos that are ten thousand times more delicious than any of the bitter, mass-appeal drinks you can buy at ..."

It occurred to Julean that he was going on a tangent about the virtues of his ten-thousand-dollar coffee machine. Probably not the right time. Almost sheepishly, he held out the gift card.

"What do you say?"

[beastly]

Charlotte was a bit impressed by the way Julean was handling things. For a guy newer to the supernatural, he was doing a really good job interacting with it.

But maybe not her.

The woman watched the camera footage, the blood draining from her face as she reviewed the footprints changing. She bit her lip hard, and looked at Julean as he made his offer. And looked at Charlotte. Conflict played on her face and her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at the gift card.

"I don't-," she tried to start out strong by protesting, but her voice broke quickly and the young woman was crying, "I'mmm... not supposedtobecaughttt... I can't- please...m'sorry..."

She tried to fight the crying, but it was a messy battle(and not one the lady looked to be winning), involving sniffling and running make up.

Charlotte stared, one hand outstretched as if maybe she could help, but, technically, she was part of the woman's problem. Apparently bigfoot really didn't want to be caught.

"Hey... it's okay," Charlotte attempted uncomfortably.

[hadopelagic]

The MOMENT the tears began to well, Julean felt like a skydiver who couldn't get his parachute to deploy. His face froze in an expression of dismay. He was no stranger to tears, but they were usually his. What was he supposed to do now? Julean had expected to chase and maybe photograph a cryptid with SpiderWeb. He hadn't planned to make one CRY.

"Oh, no. No, please. Please don't."

Like Charlotte, he reached out, as if to pat the woman on her shoulder, but reconsidered. The bigfoot might not want a stranger to touch her, especially not a man who'd filmed her footsteps and then cornered her in the middle of a forest. Oh, God, he was a CREEP.

"Look! I'm deleting the video!" He held up the camera and pressed delete. "All gone! And you know what? Take it. It's yours. Our gift to you."

He threw the camera on the ground near her feet.

"You like designer rings?" Julean glanced at his fingers and cringed; he'd left the expensive stuff at home. "Nevermind. Uh. What about cash? Here, forty dollars!"

Hurriedly, Julean pulled a pair of twenties from his wallet. Did Bigfoots even use money? Or were they foragers? He hadn't brought any berries! And she didn't like Starbucks!

"We aren't trying to narc on you, honestly! We're just curious. Take my money, please!"

[beastly]

The woman sniffled, looking confused at the change in the two individuals that had chased her down. She rubbed at one of her eyes, smearing mascara, and after looking conflicted, stooped to pick up the camera. She held it gently, and verified that the video was deleted.

She bit her lip as she looked at the money, eyes darting from it, to him, to Charlotte, and then back at the money. She did not take the money. When she spoke, her voice was soft and careful, as if talking to children despite looking about their age.

"It's- It isn't good to f-film people like that. Like...Me. It's dangerous."

Charlotte bit her lip, she wasn't quite happy with this. They'd had evidence . Throwing it away because someone was crying... well, it was the nice thing to do, but were they setting back humanity to be nice? ... But she didn't want to be a dick. Or mess up human/bigfoot diplomacy... This was probably the right move.

"We just wanted to have more information. ...Sorry."

[hadopelagic]

After the woman stopped crying, Julean visibly relaxed. He couldn't stand tears, would normally jump out a window to escape them. It was twice as uncomfortable when he was responsible for the outbreak.

"Dangerous how?" Julean asked. He softened his tone, hoping to be perceived as sympathetic and sweet. After a moment of consideration, Julean tilted his head downwards so he could look up at Grace contritely through his eyelashes. "I mean. Dangerous to us? Or to you?"

Could be both, he supposed. Were bigfoots solely protected by the WDSA? Or did they have their own enforcers? That'd be a trip. They could probably tear a human apart, though.

"I film everything," he explained. "If it makes you feel any better, any video can be a fake. Hey, you on Tiktok, girl? Ever seen those AI filters? There'll probably be a bigfoot one by next year."

He looked up sharply.

"Sorry, that isn't rude, is it? What do you call yourself?" He didn't want to be throwing around supernatural slurs. Julean had already been cancelled too many times in the mundane world.

[beastly]

"Dangerous for us both. There are people that would hurt me, and...N-not all supernatural people are... forgiving like me. A-and there are rules...You do not seem malicious."

"We're not," Charlotte assured.

The lady wiped her eyes again, looking down at Julean and Charlotte carefully. She seemed to be thinking of something, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I know. It is helpful, and not hard to fake videos," there was the smallest of smiles in her voice, "Bigfoot is fine but. Um. My name is Grace. What's your names?"

"Spiderweb," Charlotte said confidently, then eyed Julean,"...Charlotte."

[hadopelagic]

"Do you watch YouTube, Grace?" Julean asked. "Or TikTok? Instagram? Twitch?"

He always loved this part: the big reveal, that moment when somebody learned that they weren't talking to a handsome rando. Nah. They were talking to The Julean Park, known by millions. In that moment, he didn't have to earn their respect, or convince them that he was important. They acknowledged it instantaneously. They recognized the truth: Julean was a star.

"Maybe you've heard of me," he continued, while scrolling through the apps on his phone. What should he show Grace? She seemed sweet, so might like pictures instead of videos, which could be ... edgy. He loaded his Instagram page and tilted the screen in her direction. His profile pic was a close-up shot of Julean with bright blue hair and yellow sunglasses; he was smiling and flashing a finger heart. "My new thing's investigating the supernatural," he explained, "but it's not for the views. It's personal."

Now time for the ask. Maybe now that Grace knew he and Charlotte were friendly, she'd be willing to do an Interview with the Vampire situation. Off-camera, of course.

"Would you be willing to talk to me about your life, Grace? Anonymously? I just want to understand. Hey, I pay well, too. Just ask my collaborators."