The following are the private journal entries recorded by the lost founder of Plainview and husband of Sherwyn-Goss Abbey, Ferwelt T. Anthony Plaine, beginning June 18th, 1966 and spanning until June 18th, 1968.These writings discuss his secretive 2-year undergoing, “The Poseidon Project”, in great detail.As of now, it is not known if these documents display the full extent of the operation.For reasons that will become apparent,
it can be assumed that this is just the beginning of his exploits.
ENTRY 01Today marks the first step towards closing the evolutionary gap between aquatic life and beinghood.
It is a pillar of evolution that before there was beinghood, there was aquatic life. Beinghood grew legs, shed their fins, and outgrew the need for gills. And yet - through all those millennia - aquatic life has persisted alongside beinghood.
There is no concrete proof to showcase that aquatic life was or is incapable of a similar thoughtfulness to us beings.
That or nobody has pondered it as much as I have.
“Does aquatic life not have the same capability of sentience to those whom evolved alongside it?”
“How can we strengthen our idea of sentience more than we already have?”
No longer will I let such questions go unanswered.
I have set up a lab off the coast of the proposed Plainview project to undergo my research endeavors.
For all intents and purposes, I am alone up here. Not even she knows about this.
But if all goes according to plan, then I won’t be the only sentient being in this tall, wooden watchtower for very long.
The Poseidon Project has begun.
ENTRY 02After preparing the necessary equipment, I have ventured to the shore and retrieved a small bundle of anchovies lying half-dead on the hot summer sand. Not a surplus. Only a small school of about a dozen, spat out by the ocean without regard.
I have stood in defiance of the food chain, perhaps even of natural order - and taken these entities’ fates into my own hands.
It’s all up from here.
ENTRY 03The proper mechanisms have been employed, and all specimens have been tagged for convenience.
I have created an artificial lung for these specimens, utilizing a spout inserted through the entities’ throats that is then attached to a large container of water, supplying them with the lifeblood needed in order to survive - the efforts of the sea itself. It pumps every second or so, simulating a heartbeat. It supplies them with just the right amount of water needed to maintain consciousness that it matches the very waters they came from - not too much, not too little. Just right. It works on its own, requiring no manual input, allowing me to simply continue the process and observe how it plays out. If everything else may go so smoothly, it is possible that I could employ such a water-heart within the bodies of the creatures themselves.
They have been successfully kept alive for 5 hours now.
I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds.
ENTRY 04The second step of The Poseidon Project has been put into action:
Sentience.
Through Manesy University, I have obtained the bodies of several beings who’ve decided to donate their vessels to science.
A valiant sacrifice. I salute them.
The brainmatter of these beings is consistent with those undergoing typical symptoms of late-stage memory loss.
The choice to use this tissue as opposed to those without memory conditions was intentional.
As their conditions worsened, these people lost more of themselves. Memories became null, void.
Locations, people, faces - all cast into nevermore until their bearers went quietly into the beyond.
This makes their brainmatter ideal.
They are blank slates.
Blank slates that the thoughts of their new vessels can paint over. Blank slates for new life. For a new kind of life - a life form perhaps even greater than us.
If only these late people could know just how important of a cause they ended up contributing to.
ENTRY 05Since inserting the being tissue into the anchovy tissue, I have observed no further changes or developments. No speech. No evidence of coherent thought. Not much visible progress.
All is not lost, though. I refuse to give up at the first pinches of failure.
These things need time, how they do. Perhaps the specimens just need time to adjust to the new tissue.
I’m going to take some time away from this project. Not by much, only around a few days. If anything is to change when I return back to this tower, I will be sure to record it.
ENTRY 06I’ve yet to venture back to the shoreline.
It’s been two days.
The Plainview initiative soldiers on. On this front, all is well. Relatively the same, but well still. There’s not much for me to do pertaining to it.
In the dead of night tomorrow eve, I will wander out to the watchtower.
While matters are stagnant on land, I feel that the tide will guide me to a breakthrough.
ENTRY 07I came back to discover that out of the 12 specimens I was housing, only 5 of them have survived my leave.
I blame myself in a way - but I suppose it was ultimately bound to happen. Experiments are just that - experiments. You never do them with the expectation that they’re going to go without a hitch. You do them to discover an outcome.
And not always is that outcome in your favor.
But just as the tide goes out, it is fated to roll in.
I will stay here until the experiment’s conclusion. For the time being, Sherwyn has agreed to take my place for inputs on the Plainview initiative.
A man must work with what he has.
ENTRY 08There’s been an odd development in the case. One that, quite honestly, I don’t know how to respond to.
While the data shows the anchovy’s tissue and the given tissue have indeed synced,
the anchovies themselves have…grown.
Far past the size of usual species standards. More than 5 inches overnight.
In spite of the uncalled-for effects, I will not interfere.
By doing that, I’d be risking everything.
This is the farthest anyone in the field’s ever gotten.
And I certainly won’t be the one to back down.
ENTRY 09The specimens have grown overnight again. They’re all at a foot-long baseline now. Brain development continues to skyrocket.
Why then, are their bodies growing too? Is it just to sustain the denseness of a being’s brainpower? Rapid evolution?
Something else entirely?
ENTRY 10I woke up this morning to the unshakable sensation of being watched.
As I stirred from my makeshift bed, I looked into the eyes of my specimens.
The specimens looked back at me.
As I move, their eyes follow me. Every shake of the arm, every turn of the head - their gaze is diligent. Fixated.
Comprehensive.
They are now each 2 feet long.
I can’t explain the feeling of being watched by them.
Each time we exchange glances, regret washes over me.
There’s nothing but me, them, and dread.
Do they know what lengths I had to go to get them to this point?
Do they know their existence is blanketed in death?
ENTRY 11The mental sensation from merely being in the same room as these fish has breached mere discomfort.
It now makes me physically nauseous.
When I stepped in there today to be greeted by those 4-foot monsters, I felt like I was drowning. In their sadness. In some part of mine.
I was almost compelled to walk into the sea. To keep walking until I swam, to keep swimming until my legs give out. To keep sinking until…
…
I will no longer involve myself directly in this stage of the Poseidon Project.
I will keep the water-heart running, but I myself will no longer enter the watchtower.
The specimens will either die or find a way out.
For the sake of all beinghood,
I pray that they die.
ENTRY 1225 days have passed.
I went back inside the watchtower.
The specimens are gone.
ENTRY 13It’s been 11 days since my last entry.
The district officials are raising concern, and I fear the worst.
They say there’s a new form of sea life on the coast of the proposed Plainview project. They say this life form is more than hostile. That area fisherman have recounted consistent reports of being “mentally overtaken” by them.
At first I waved it off. Trying to front a feigned smile of “How ridiculous”. “It’s just fishermen and their tall tales, you know how it is with them.”
They believed me.
But at this point in time, the area reports have become
too frequent to chalk up to fireside fantasies.
Anyone who goes near the shore reports sightings of these monsters. Of these fish-things.
I gave in.
I told the officials that they are to fine whoever crosses the beach a hefty payment.
They didn’t press further.
ENTRY 145 days since my last update.
I climbed up the watchtower again while patrol was off duty.
I logged into the database housing the identifying information for the specimens.
Just to check.
Two of them - Pluto and Gamma - are in close proximity to the coast.
As for the other three, their coordinates aren’t able to be specified.
I took the database home with me.
I am never going back there again.
ENTRY 15This is the final addition I will make to this log.
I found the other three. The ones that’d been off the radar for so, so long.
Imagius.
Dionysus.
Trident.
All three of them reside in a seafood processing plant, many miles away.
I find peace in that.
I was right after all.
They really are blanketed in death.
13 days after the final known log update, the town of Plainview, Manesy, was officially established.25 years after its founding, Ferwelt Plaine died.His wife, Sherwyn-Goss Abbey, had passed 5 years prior.But despite their respective demises making headlines,nobody has ever seen their remains.Unlike her husband,Sherwyn-Goss Abbey wasn’t given a memorial.After Mrs. Abbey’s supposed passing,Mr. Plaine never made any mention of her again.
