You don't find records of any details on how to defeat El Petizo, or how he was previously defeated. A lot of stories talking about people and creatures coming to the defense of those attacked; making it run away.  A few small stories talk about El Petizo wondering what he does with the people it's taken and what he is searching for.  A few stories offer a few more hints; mention of the creature only appears in spanish stories and most often in latin american countries. A few odd stories here and there are mentioned in English, but often are translations. There was speculation in a few places that El Petizo was working for the "Diabolo" or Devil because typically the most innocent, kindest people were affected.  One story told of a boy who got away, some say he was never the same, always speaking in tongues and unknown languages and others say that the boy had that ability long before he was taken. One final story talks about one girl that was found after having been kidnapped, branded with scorch marks across her eyes in strange symbols and she was left blind for life.  Her mother, when asked, said she was special, that she could see things others couldn't... until she was taken.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:10, Mon 29 June 2015.

With something of an affected sigh, Right puts the books away and makes his way towards the nurse's office, hoping to catch some glimpse of Tommy, or determine where he went. If necessary, he pokes his head into the nurse's office and says, "Hello? Tommy had a problem and he left with the librarian, I'm just checking to make sure he made it here okay."

If it seems Tommy has gone home for the day, Right follows suit, hoping to catch up on local newspapers and people watching. For the first time in a very long day he feels like he has a purpose.

Nurse Wagner smiles at you briefly, "Tommy's resting in his dorm room. He'll be alright, we see him in here at least once a week with something similar, nothing to worry about. Epilepsy looks worse than it truly is, and he's well medicated." She nods at you curtly. "I'm headed home for the evening, have a good night, Mr. Right."

You head back to your dorm, through the rest of the school and other children clearly headed back to their dorms. Some of them are talking about movie night and speculating on what movie will be shown. Upon reaching your school dorm room, you see a small envelope sitting on your bed. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a piece of paper from a notebook, folded in such a way as to look like an envelope.

"Good evening, Nurse Wagner," he returns as he heads out. "Hopefully I won't be seeing you again too soon." Polite response. Lame joke. Forced laughter. People love that, it seems in his experience.

As he returns to his room, he is alarmed to see the piece of paper. In theory he knows that anyone has access to his unsecured living quarters, but in practice, he was hoping that he was flying under the radar enough that nobody would interfere. Perhaps it wasn't interference. Perhaps it was an ally. He gingerly takes the paper, holds it at arm's length and gives it a little shake. Assuming no mysterious powder falls out, he opens it and reads it. He bristles preemptively. It it's from Lucella, he hopes that it's properly encrypted.

You unfold the envelope and realize it is made of one piece of note paper, written on it with ink. The letter is written in pink ink, hearts dotting the i's and all.

"By the name of Agbar, I call upon you, holy word is written, the letters are answered, the portrait is hidden not on paper, but in your heart. Agbar who understood the workings of miracles and was cured of his ills, asks YOU now, what is it that YOUR heart desires? For your wish to be granted, take a piece of paper and write upon them the answers to the questions below, then you must take a pinch of salt, and throw it in a fire, along with the paper and 2 hairs from your head. Your wish shall be granted within one year, if and only if you copy this exact letter, word for word, and pass it on to 6 others that you know are in need.

The Questions
What is it that your heart desires?
What is it that you see that no one else does?
What is it that you know that no one else does?
What is the name of your dearest love?

Signed, on behalf of Thaddeus, the Seventieth"

Right turns the words of the letter over and over in his head. Lucella was a bit strange, but he doubted she'd write a fake chain letter just for the sake of alerting him she wanted a meet.

The name Agbar doesn't immediately ring any bells. The writing style, obviously feminine, clashes with the undersigned name, Thaddeus. The Seventieth seems to imply that this is a very, very old chain letter. His mind races as he considers all the possibilities. With a crisp turn of his heel, he immediately heads back to the library to research this new mystery, leaving Tommy a matter best left until morning.

22:14, Today: Chad rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s. Research.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:14, Wed 01 July 2015.

You stumble across two particular pieces of information that may or may not be useful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgar_V

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_of_Edessa

The meaning of the seventy becomes much clearer. The text purports to be signed by the original author, not the person writing the chain letter. This continues to beg the question, why would a student be writing a chain letter semi-convincingly started by an early Christian mythological figure?

As long as it wasn't setting off his God-Machine senses, it didn't matter. He vaguely recalls his time as an angel, and is something. Wistful, perhaps. It wasn't that back in his Guardian days there were no unknowns, nothing that could overcome him, it's just that they were way less confusing and obvious.

He retires for the night, thinking and thinking about all the mysteries of the school. In the morning, he teaches his classes and waits for the period where Tommy would show up, if he was going to show up.

Your day begins with breakfast in the cafeteria with the other children, you see Tom but he's surrounded by friends, you wonder if purposefully but you can't really say.  He looks at you then quickly looks away, focusing on other things in a very obvious way.  Lucella meets you at the cafeteria line with a brilliant smile; she's toned her usual metallic and flashy look down for the school but you notice a golden and ruby cross necklace even then. She whispers in Gaelic, "Burners yet?" You realize you should probably visit the dead drop; Gordon's contacts have likely arranged those phones you asked for by now. "We should talk, let's meet at the fountain, 3pm free period?" She nods at you and walks away from the line, her plate brimming full with bacon and waffles and chocolate sauce.  She can't help herself.

Your first class goes as planned, the children listen carefully - they may have troubles per your files on them; but they are smart, gifted and seem fairly kind. The only thing of note is that Kyle did not appear for class. Tom is there but seems distracted, scribbling in his book and mostly ignoring anything that happens around him.  At the end of the period, the children begin to leave and you try to get Tom's attention.  However, before much else can happen Sarah steps close to your desk and says, "Mr. Right? Hold up a second." She watches for all the children to leave, including Tom.  Then she looks at you again, and say simply, "What are you?"

(Roll wits + empathy to see how well your day went with the kids.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:18, Fri 03 July 2015.

19:55, Today: Mr. Right rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s. Empathy.


"I am me, just like you are you. What are you?" Right asks, trying to play off the entire situation as some kind of nonsense children's game.

"Yeah, exactly what I figured. Probably can't trust you. Whatever." She looks disappointed and huffs.  As she begins to move away, you notice blue ink has been used to draw strange symbols on her arms, they are hiding just under her school uniform.  She flashes a look at you just daring you to ask about them, hikes her backpack on her shoulder as if to leave.

"Wait," he calls her back as she's about to leave, "Come here". He squats down to bring his tall frame down to her level. "I'll tell you what I am if you tell me what you are, and what you know. How does that sound, do we have a deal?"

The words were out of his mouth before he even thought about what he was going to say. A thousand explanations were bubble sorted somewhere in his consciousness, his real one, not the random electrical sparks inside his skull. The most relevant thought he had is that humans tended to panic when they heard the word "demon".

She squints at you, pausing momentarily with one hand on her shoulder holding her backpack, the other hand on her hip, leveling her gaze appraising your answer. This kid had sass, and she'd clearly seen a thing or two. "Fine. Deal. Go."
This message was last updated by the player at 20:44, Tue 07 July 2015.

"There is a great machine that more or less controls the world. I used to work for it. Now I do not. If I told you exactly what I am, it would hurt me, but I am not the same as you. Does this satisfy you?" he asks the girl, hoping things will go smoothly.

"Eh, I suppose I'll take it.  It was more than I expected. So, "great machine", that's interesting. Have to think about that one. Well, I'm Sarah, I'm not really anything. I can see things, like a pattern to everything, or sometimes the lack of a pattern which can be very telling.  It's complicated, but think of it as seeing beneath the skin. I don't just see a person, I see their veins, and where they run, and how they are connected.  I don't quite know what the beating heart is, or even the point of veins, but I know they are there, and I sometimes know that one vein is sending blood to the finger, or the toe, but never why, really.  I could tell you were different, I just didn't know if it was good, bad, or neutral.  But you're strange, you're not like the others. You're more like... like there's a pattern missing, instead of a proper pattern. Ugh, I don't know. This is all stupid and confusing and I barely know what to think anymore. How do I know I can trust you? And what did you make about my letter?"

Right smiles, amused, "You wrote the letter? It seems like a chain letter, but a very, very old one. Is there more that you can tell me about it?"

"I figured you would know; but I guess not? I wrote one copy out for you but I changed a few minor words to make it slightly different so it wouldn't be part of the pattern. The original one is, it's got... I don't know. It's dumb. But, uh, power I guess? It was catching on like wildfire and some of the kids could see it and some couldn't. I've been trying to stop it because it doesn't feel good, it feels like it's searching for something." She looks nervously at you, biting one nail and suddenly very focused again. "And it might be me..." She sighs.

Right nods along, "How do you think it will find you? When someone else sends you one? I've seen things kind of like this before. I know the power that they can hold. Do you think it compels people to forward it along? If it doesn't, here's what I suggest: take the copy that you made me, and make a hundred copies, or more. Send one to everyone you know, everyone who's in your classes. Your teachers, your classmates, your bunkmates, everyone. Then when they get the one that's looking for you, they assume it's exactly the same as the one that they already got and throw it in the trash. It's a sort of memetic vaccination. Do you think that these are somehow connected to the smoke monster, and do you know anything about that?"

"That's a great idea, Mr. Right... Maybe I can trust you afterall. I was also thinking of asking Tom to look at the original for me. But, I don't know if I should pull him into it."

"The smoke monster came for Tom. I think he's already in it," Right says with what could be genuine regret. He struggles with the concept of sincerity, given that if he doesn't calculate what he's going to say or do, nothing comes out at all. "Why Tom?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Thu 24 Sept 2015.

"I dunno, he's one of the ones that can just see the truth in some things.  He saw it in you, I think? We thought you might be like them, but you're not, I guess." She looks confused, uncertain, and more than a little bit troubled. "You're right though, we're all in it. But this school feels... protected.  Is that weird? I mean, like, we're getting attacked, kind of, but it still seems... protected."

After a pause, Right comes up with an idea, "Do you know where Tom would be now?"

"Yeah, I think so. He's probably in his hideout, he's between classes. So, are you going to tell me more about you?"

Moments later a shuffle at the door reveals the young hispanic man you had met before, he smiles looking up seeming surprised to see you both there, he is pulling a small cart with boxes on it, "Oh! Heylo, sorry to interrupted you." His spanish accent coming through, "Hello Missy." He smiles. "I having more boxes for this one, I won be long in your time. Nice to see you again Professor, how goes new classes?"

He begins moving the boxes towards the cupboards at the back of the room.

Right makes no particular gesture to the girl, either to stay or to go. Her questions were getting dangerous, but she could hardly compel an answer to them. He just didn't particularly feel like lying again. The Mexican deliveryman was both an awkward intrusion and an unexpected savior.

"You too," he replies, "Classes are going well, I think, but I think you'd probably have to ask the kids on that one." He chuckles a perfectly insincere chuckle. He waits to see if the strange man has more to say, and whether or not Sarah excuses herself. He needed to find Tom, but he doubted that she would tell him in front of his present company.

"Ah yes, Mister Right, it is good that it is going well. I bring more supplies for you in having better classes. You let mi kno if der anything I can do for you. In my country, teachers are very worthy of help, we praise teachers, not like this country, but this school better than most." He nods to himself and stacks the boxes in the cupboards up the back, all the while humming to himself a little bit.

Sarah looks confused for a second, "Right, prof, see you later." She slips out of the classroom, leaving you and the man behind.