“Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.” (IV)

Lastly we have 10. 10 was... Well she was a sex slave... How she became one I don't know she never said, but the story is usually the same. Either a teenage runaway taken off the street, a young girl taken from her home or sold by her parents/guardians into the international sex rings. I assume one of the latter options, because she never learned how to read before she came to us, so either she wasn't very old when she ended up a sex slave or her parents were awful parents. Regardless she spent an unknown amount of time in that life and obviously it had an effect on her mental state. She decided she just wanted to disappear. Not to die, but to cease. To not have to think or remember anything of her life and so The Quiet helped her get free and sent Zero to bring her to us. When she arrived she was ill, malnourished and generally showed all sorts of signs of mistreatment. We risked quite a bit to get her medical care. Despite our nihilistic goals, we believe in alleviating suffering. I mean after all that is the main goal we all aspire to. The alleviation of all suffering through oblivion. In her time with us she began to do quite well and some of us, even worked to teach her how to read and other aspects of a proper education she had missed out on. Zero didn't know how to read either when this first started so for a while zero and 10 were taught together. I think 1 did most of the teaching.

So, that was 10... A woman who's early life was horrible and then when she found a home with people who cared for her she was killed along with most of her new family by a masked mad man...

Well...

I guess that means she's happy I did it.

I told her and she just immediately pushed past me went to the computer and wrote up that. Then she started crying and yelled at me when I tried to hug her.

She's in her room now and I think she's gone back to sleep.

“Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.” (III)

7 and 8... The Children of Nothing's first pair of siblings though much more different in age than 11 and 12.

Their parents were abusive. Horribly so, from what I've been told. 7 spent her whole life under their rule and when she finally moved out she was so happy. She finally felt free. Until she found out they were having another child. She couldn't let another child go through what she did. She spent years trying to fight for custody of the child and free the child from her parents, but it didn't work. Eventually she grew frustrated and desperate and kidnapped the child, her brother.

She fled with him to try and give him a better home somewhere safe, but she was hounded. The police were after her. She had done something that was arguably justifiable, but still illegal. Luckily for her and her brother The Quiet protected them and Zero brought them somewhere where they could be safe...

Well... I guess that ended up not working out so well...

Such a silly thing to be upset about.

4 has been in anguish for the last little while on the subject of whether or not she should tell the story of 6. I hear her arguing with herself and almost tearing her hair out most of the time.

6 isn't dead as any one following this would know, but she's worried his story will never be told otherwise. See... He's not likely to tell it himself. I'm not sure if she'll thank me or hate me, but I've decided to end her indecision for her.

I'm going to tell you about 6. He's a large built man. Ex-soldier as I understand it. Really really likes knives. He's not a blood thirsty man though. He doesn't like killing. He became a soldier because he thought he would be able to defend peace. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he was a fan of the concept of a small sacrifice for a greater reward or as fans of Star Trek might call it, "The Needs of The Many" he was willing to suffer the anguish of taking lives and do the aforementioned taking of said lives in the belief that the end result would be less suffering overall. He kept this outlook for quite some time before the reality of it all finally got through to him.

It was all a cycle. Everyone he hurt meant nothing. every war he fought simply made way for another war and more suffering. He decided he didn't want to do it anymore and simply left...

Now if you're familiar with the way the army works... Simply leaving isn't allowed and is in fact pretty illegal. I'm fairly sure that they don't execute people for desertion anymore, but I could be wrong. Regardless people tracked him down and that's when The Quiet acted. It protected him and sent Zero to find him. He was brought to us then and became six. Now he could bring a proper unending peace to the world.

Happy 4?

Oh as for why he'd be unlikely to tell the story himself. He doesn't think he deserves to be remembered. He hates himself for all the things he did while he still believed he was fighting for peace and believes that him ceasing to existence without anyone ever remembering he existed at all is best for everyone.

Huh... Whether 4 is happy or not I imagine 6 will probably not be very happy about this.

Congratulations are in order.

Facelesss has figured out the second most obvious mystery in his life. Everyone applaud. Yes I am a Dying Man shard. However, no you have not killed 9. 9 was not the person I was possessing. I am 9. Does it surprise you that a creature like myself might embrace the concept of Oblivion? Hunted by my brethren to be absorbed again into the whole. My consciousness absorbed into something else. The idea is not appealing to me. I much prefer the idea of everyone ceasing to be, plus The Quiet's power kept me nice and hidden from the other shards.

Also you seem to still be a bit groggy... Is something wrong? The gas can't have had an effect this long? Are you ill? Or maybe something is messing with your head?

Who knows...

“Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.” (II)

5 was a lawyer. A prosecutor I think... In his time he saw the depths of depravity to which humanity could sink. It inspired him to be noble and to do all that he could to make sure that the scum of the earth got the punishment they deserved. He had a reputation for zealousness and somebody like that is going to rub some dangerous people the wrong way. He was prosecuting a case against a major figure in the criminal underworld. Some of the figure's friends approached him. They told him to do whatever he could to make sure the defense won. He refused. The next day his family was killed. I guess they hoped this would make him give in. It didn't. It broke his spirit, but instead of making him want to do as they said he wanted them to kill him. He won the case and they came for him.

That is when The Quiet came to his aid. The Quiet protected him from his assailants and when Zero found him she told him about The Quiet and The Promise of Oblivion. He was hesitant. He didn't necessarily want to end everything. He still believed the world was mostly good, but he joined The Children anyway if for no other reason than for revenge and because the hollow emptiness he felt inside after the death of his family left him with no where else to go.

The last post.

4 has spent most of her time asleep. She's still with me as I'm not sure she'd be able to survive on her own. She's... a strange one. She doesn't speak much and when she does it's usually in strange quotes that usually seem only tangentially related. She woke up a few minutes ago. Grabbed my computer wrote that last post and then went back to sleep.

I'm not really sure what to make of it.

I guess since 2 is dead... There's no reason not to tell you about him... We already told you about, Zero, 1 and myself...

I can't really add much to what 4 wrote. Sometimes when he'd come back from one of his private missions he'd bear strange scars or marks and one time he came back with one of his hands covered in a strange black sludge.

Like 4 said, none of us ever knew what he was doing or what The Vast Emptiness was telling him, but it definitely seemed to speak to him like it did to Zero. Sending him on these strange missions.

We can assume that whatever he was doing it was helping to prepare for the arrival of The Vast Emptiness

Also so it seems Faceless has confirmed that he's going to find us and try and kill us no matter what. I'm not going to lie that terrifies me and I'm sure knowing that just makes him happier, but... I guess I also sort of expected it. We'll just keep running and do what we can to hide. Maybe The Vast Emptiness will continue to help us and we'll be able to avoid detection, maybe not, but I'll do whatever I can to make finding us as hard as possible.

You said you're patient, but we'll see how patient you really are I guess.

“Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.” (I)

2 was a Sine Corda. He worshipped The Quiet before even Zero. One day The Quiet reached out to him and told him to seek out Zero. The Quiet probably told Zero the same and the two found each other.

2 was special. He spent most of his time in a state similar in appearance to death. He would not move or respond only stare ahead. There was no way to tell what he was seeing, but suddenly he would move and stand and he'd leave without a word and he'd come back later. Say that he had done something and then return to his strange state.

The Quiet spoke to Zero and Zero was our Guide, but The Quiet spoke to 2 as well and none of us will ever know what it said.

Fuck...

It's been a while and I'm still shaken up... Four and I escaped together. We just ran I don't even know where. So, many of our friends... Zero... All dead... In what? Couldn't have been more than an hour. I'd never really faced death before. I'd been sent to jail, but I'd never really been attacked no one ever actually tried to kill me... I don't know how to feel about this... The Children don't really exist anymore I guess. 9's post says that some of us are still alive, but only 11 and I assume 12 are still trying to do anything...

I don't really want to meet up with them... They're going to continue antagonizing him... I don't want to meet him again. I just... I just want to forget all this. I want to find somewhere and hide. Start a new life and pretend none of this ever happened. I... I don't want to die.

3

Why must you take everything from us? You took our mother, you took our father, you took our home. Now you took our new family and our new home. Is it any wonder we hate you?

The Faceless Bastard... Your pawn. We know that he is meaningless to you, but he is the instrument through which you take from us and so we will take him and we will take no small satisfaction in doing so.

Zero is dead, but we will still finish the preparations for The Nothing's arrival. Even without The rest of The Children's help.

Oblivion will come and only peace will remain.

11

Dear Faceless Bastard.

I am nothing if not accommodating.


To date you have killed

Zero
Two (The poor catatonic man you killed in the first room)
Five (You killed him on the stairs)
Seven (The boy)
Eight (The woman who was embracing seven)
Ten (You already know which one that was as you killed her in her room)

and you are seemingly correct about one being killed by The Archivist.

So, that leaves these for you to check off.

Three
Four
Six
Nine
Eleven
Twelve


I am Nine, btw. Pleasure to address you. I hold no hard feelings for you. I understand of course why you killed my compatriots, nevertheless I will kill you when we meet. See... You got fairly lucky. Some of us are more dangerous than others and it appears that your arrival was surprisingly well timed to avoid us. I was out on my own mission I am back now though. I came home to an awful mess. I'd love to meet you non-violently actually. Do you still frequent O'briens? I'll meet you there. You don't need to specify a time. I'll be there every day from open to close until I see you.

Goodbye.

P.S. I ask for this to be a non-violent meeting, but I assume that is unlikely.

2222014133220063

How's it going? I'm sure all you smart people can figure out what that title says, so there's no need to introduce myself. Let me tell you my sob story. Everyone else is doing it... Except 2, but that's understandable. He's catatonic most of the time and when he's not catatonic he's wandering off somewhere.

You probably won't be hearing much from 6 or 10 either and there's no telling what 4 will do.

Anyway let me tell you all about me.

I'm a hacker.

Done.

Nah, just kidding. I am a hacker though. I was a white hat at one point, but I suppose I'm something different now. Void hat? Empty Bucket hat? No clue. I'm certainly not helping people with security now. I mean I'm mostly just using my abilities to get The Children the money they need to operate, stealing from the greedy dicks 1 tells me to target. I'm... Not very good. Never been amazing. I'm not someone who would ever likely end up in the news... At least I wasn't. The Vast Emptiness makes things a lot easier. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm basically completely undetectable when I'm in there. It is completely impossible to alert security systems, I've tried to do it purposely, just to test. It's like the systems just refuse to acknowledge my presence. I still can't consider myself very good though... I mean with magical assistance it's not really much skill. You just have to know the basics.

It's like performing archery, but your arrow is magically attracted to the bullseye. If all you have to do is know how to shoot the arrow out and face the right direction, that's not really you being skillful.

I'm getting off track. So, why did I join The Children?

Well... Mostly because I spent five years in jail for outing a child molester. It was meant to be longer.

life sentence off the books, no court case, no nothing.

I was just doing my job, checking for security breaks in some banking company's security systems, when I stumbled upon something. Some bigwig at the company had probably unintentionally stored some private photos on the company server. They weren't just laying around for anyone to see, but they were accessible from the main server and I accessed them. I felt ill seeing the pictures and obviously I won't describe them to you.

I asked my boss what I should do and he told me to out him. So, I did. I made it public knowledge. The guy's life was of course ruined, but the sick bastard deserved it. Unfortunately even in shame he had some friends, powerful friends. The details are hazy and I wouldn't know half of it anyway. I found myself in a quiet room with two men, who quite pointedly informed me I was going to jail. They didn't even bother to lie. They didn't need to. I didn't have many friends or family and the people I worked with could be told anything and they'd probably believe it. Lastly I was told if I tried to inform anyone there were people in the prison who were told to "Shut me up. Permanently."

A bit later I was in prison. I spent five years in prison being a good little prisoner. Regardless I suffered fairly often. I was a scrawny little weakling and easily frightened. Who wouldn't want to pick on me?

One day I woke up and apparently I had a visitor. Not an official one. Officially I wasn't even in the prison. No, the visitor was in my cell with me. I had a cellmate, but they apparently couldn't see the visitor. The Visitor was Zero. I think I'm the only person who met Zero, before The Vast Emptiness came to their rescue. Usually she arrives afterwards to find them confused and scared. The Vast Emptiness rendered me invisible and together me and Zero walked out of the prison. I joined The children and I happily get them the money they need to see to it that this world is erased and if I get to hurt people like that child touching asshole in the process. So, be it.

P19A01: 1

The old ways are still ingrained in me and so I feel the need to point out that is not a proper Archive designation.

If The Archive were to properly designate me... I'd probably be something like P19D02: 1

I assume The A series would be taken by The Sine Corda, B would be The Hushed Monks and C would be The Projectionists and then maybe... Maybe we'd get to be D series. Assuming there isn't some other better known Quiet Cult out there.

And despite her being zero and me being 1 the 00 designation denotes the beginning of the series and so her designation would be P19D01: zero

If you've been monitoring Faceless' posts like I have, you've probably guessed by now that I am the Ex-Archivist member of the Children of Nothing.

Since Faceless has already outed who I was before and will undoubtedly share my old identities name if he learns it, I figured I might as well follow in our Guide's footsteps and recount my own tale. It's not as bad as Zero's or 11 and 12's or... Really most of the others... In fact comparably I guess my reasons for wanting this entire world erased may seem rather petty...

It all comes down to corruption and good old greed.


See I was an analyst. It was my job to analyze the information our collectors obtained or that we bought or whatever. See... my problem is... I always sort of assumed we collected that information to be helpful. I mean obviously we sold it so that we could continue running The Archive, that's obvious. That's just how things work, but I thought we were more picky than we were.

Turns out most of the information we sold went to corrupt politicians, CEO's, Stock market people... All using them to cheat everyone else and get more money. Rich assholes using our information to ruin the lives of others, just so they could get richer and we were apparently fine with this. Well... Maybe I'm an idealist, but I'm fairly sure we could have made money just fine without dealing with unscrupulous bastards like those.

Also of course we were also providing information for payment to servant groups who would use them to kill lots of people, but that kind of balanced out since runners and fighters and anti-fear organizations used our services to do the exact same in return. That was just part of the game, but hurting innocent people just for greed was something I couldn't stand.

So, I left. The Archive were not happy. It was less than a day after I'd walked out the doors that The Martyr's found me... Sort of. They found where I was, but despite me being there standing right in front of them. They couldn't find me. They left without having seen me and Zero arrived that afternoon and told me The Quiet had chosen me. The Archivists weren't at first happy when they found out they'd be working with me, but they weren't able to kill me anymore. The Quiet protected me and we had money.

As I was well aware they'd break all kinds of rules in exchange for enough money. So, now they provide us with information in return for money that 3 provides for us and everything works swimmingly. When The Quiet... Or I suppose I should call it The Vast Emptiness That Brings Peace, arrives they and their corrupt ways will be erased along with everything else and all those who suffer will know everlasting peace. 

I am Zero.

While 11 and 12 are on their mission, they will probably not be using this record much.

We are not supposed to keep our old identities, but I feel it is important to remember why we chose The Nothing over our old lives. For remembering all that is wrong with this world will keep our resolve strong and keep us remembering why this world needs to be erased.

I was born to a religious family. Unfortunately their religion was that of The Archangel. They were  what are called Timberwolves. Obviously I do not remember my birth or the early years of my life, but I know that my earliest memory was one of suffering. My parents believed that becoming one with the Archangel was the greatest gift one could receive, but that the gift needed to be earned. All would Embrace The Archangel, but those who did not earn the gift of doing so, would be tortured for all eternity instead of treated to The Archangel's Paradise. My parents had one job for me. To act as a lure. I was to go out and lure others into my parents clutches so my parents could sacrifice them to the Archangel's Embrace. Of course at first they didn't tell me this. They merely left me at a city park to make friends and then had me unknowingly lead my new friends to their ritualized deaths...

When I refused to do it my parents would beat me and threaten to sacrifice me instead. They told me if a week passed without someone to sacrifice they'd sacrifice me to The Archangel's Embrace to be tortured for eternity. So, I continued my work. Hating myself, my parents and The Archangel. I wanted it to be over, but I didn't want to die. If I died I'd go to The Archangel. There was no way out, until I found out about The Nothing. My parents called it The Quiet. They tried to use it as a bogeyman. Something to scare me towards The Archangel. They thought I would fear oblivion, but I embraced it. I spent every moment I had begging for it. I called out to The Quiet in my dreams and one day.

It answered me. It called itself The Nothing and it told me it was coming. It told me to prepare for it's arrival. It told me how to prepare for it's arrival. It sent me a hero. A fighter. I told him what was happening and brought him to my parents. He killed them and left me alive. I was free, but the world still needed to be prepared. In my dreams The Nothing told me names and I sought them out and found them. First 1 and 2 and the rest until I found 11 and 12. I have not heard any names since. Now only one word echoes in my dreams.

"Soon."

We met him. Face to... Mask... I... I know why we were given this task. It will be a true show of the strength we have gained.

I... I saw him, heard his voice and I could feel the fear welling up in my chest. I couldn't... I couldn't speak to him... 12... 12 spoke for me. I felt fear, but in him I could sense only Rage. I remember the fear of our last meeting with the man behind the mask. He was too young to remember clearly. When we last saw him he killed our mother and would have killed us, but... The Vast Emptiness protected us. Kept us safe from his view and the view of his False Gods.

I will fight this fear. I am not a child anymore. I am a servant of The Void. I will not fear some man. I cannot let my younger brother upstage me.

There is no leader in the Children of Nothing, but our guide is the founder of our order. She is called zero. She and 1 have worked to find our target and learn of him. We know now where he is and 3 has worked to try and get us a path close to him.

The Order has bought a house in a neighbourhood near him. We will be moving in shortly. The Faceless Bastard is a man of violence and rage, but The Vast Emptiness That Brings Peace will protect us. We will erase all that he is.

I had a name once. Now I am one of The Children of Nothing. If you must refer to me I am called 11. My brother is here as well. He is called 12.

Your understanding is not necessary, but I have been told to explain. We are The Children of Nothing, Followers of The Vast Emptiness That Brings Peace. The only true salvation of this world.

The Children of Nothing serve in order to prepare this world for the arrival of The Vast Emptiness That Brings Peace. It's coming will bring with it the erasure of this world, but there are those who will try to stop it and they must be removed.

We are, but acolytes in The Order. We have served for eight years to be given this task. Our final task to become full fledged members of The Order. We must erase a foe of The Emptiness.

We have been tasked with the removal of a Servant of The False Gods. One called The Faceless Bastard.

We will erase him, but slowly. First we will remove all that he cares for. It is our task to break him and make him embrace oblivion, before we grant him peace.

We are your children. You are the void. The Emptiness. We give of ourselves everything until we are nothing. 

We will carry forth your message to the world. In emptiness there is peace. True happiness can only be claimed in oblivion. In your name we will take this world of strife and return it to the nothing from whence it came. 

We cast away our name and identity to better serve you. Our ties to this world only weaken us. Through absence do we gain strength.

We prove our allegiance to Nothing through this last act.