§-ii Classification and Logging

§-0ii

SUBJECT ENTRY: Classification and Logging

RECORDER: REDACTED, PhD; Lead Researcher

DATE LOGGED: REDACTED, 2028

STATUS: Ongoing

CLASSIFICATION: Administrative log; origin record

CROSS-REFERENCE: All current and future entries

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Notes:

This entry exists to explain how the entries are labeled and sorted into their given categories. 

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Summary:

For the first several weeks we didn't know there was anything to organize. Each transcription I took from REDACTED was copied to my secure server and logged by nothing more than date, entry number, and status of the narrator inside. Neither of us pressed to find any connection amongst them.

That changed around a dozen or so. We began to notice some entries carried over elements from others. More importantly, those elements belonged to the entities revealed at the climax of the tales. 

I spent the better part of a week on categorization. Every existing transcription, pulled and reread in order, cross-checked against the ones after it. Digitized copies moved to the secure server. It felt less like literary analysis and more like sorting inventory pulled off a truck with no manifest. Count what's there, group what matches, flag what doesn't.

Six groups. Not six stories—six recurring beings identified within the different stories.

I brought my findings to REDACTED and laid out the groupings as I saw them. We agreed the categories needed names. Not for flourish, but so we could talk about the same thing twice without describing it from scratch each time, and so whatever understanding we built could be checked against itself later. A number in a file doesn't help anyone recognize a pattern walking toward them. A name might.

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What we settled on:

THE WEARER

GAMES MASTER

PLEASURE SEEKER

THE DOPPELGANGER

THE GLUTTONOUS

ZOO KEEPERS

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Dr. REDACTED, PhD; Lead Researcher