valleysandsarchives

[valleysandsarchives]

Sorry for the long wait for posting! Work got busy and I haven’t been able to get a break enough to look at anything in the folder. Hopefully things will clear up in a few days!

[valleysandsarchives]

R/G/DZRG/HUL/I/BL/F

QZ/D/HDR/VWLKVM

BLFI/S/VI/G/RGHN/VZO

[valleysandsarchives]

So I’ve looked in the folder first.

Yeah, okay. I know what you’re thinking. “But Yuugi, why didn’t you look in the journal first? Wouldn’t that hold more personal sentiment?” Listen, I’m just going off of my intuition here. And a lot of the time, my intuition doesn’t make sense. But there’s definitely a lot of information in the folder, especially since I found it wrapped in a rubber band. So, I decided today I would open it!

At first, it was just full of more papers and half-written notes. There were even a few loose bills and receipts in there, which was a little concerning to say the least. I mean, who just leaves their receipts in random folders? Anyway, I found this small newspaper article in the back from the 70s. Check this out; this part got me:

“As Domino Museum prepares to unveil its newest exhibit, reports are coming in about missing staff members working on the exhibit going missing, usually at night. Reports have been filed about a strange rotting smell from the dumpster behind the museum, but a full-fledged investigation has yet to be launched. Witnesses have not discovered any traces of a body in the area, and there has been no effort to look further into it. Police speculate it could have been a bird carcass or some other form of roadkill that has since decomposed. When one staff member was asked about the cause of the strange disappearances, they said this:‘It’s that damn gold piece; it’s looking at me when I got to check on it! I just know that damn thing’s behind all of this. We gotta be cursed or something, ‘cause lately things have been real strange around here.’ The “gold piece” in question is in reference to a particularly-strange item in the exhibition’s collection, titled “The Mummy’s Treasure” (pictured below the article). When the same staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, was asked to describe some of the other oddities occurring around the exhibition space, they replied as such: ‘You mean besides the people going missing? Well, there have been some weird noises, like someone’s humming some weird tune when I’m alone on the night shift. I’m a night guard, for context, if you’re lookin’ for it. And sometimes, when I walk by it, I feel like something’s watchin’ me, like that damn thing’s got more than just an eye on the front of it… I’m telling you ya, it’s haunted! The whole exhibit’s cursed because of that… That thing! There’s gotta be some kinda demon or curse attached to it!’”

The picture looks suspiciously similar to the piece on the string I found in the box. My camera died as soon as I tried to get a picture, so that didn’t happen this time. I’ll post about it as soon as I can get a clear pic though!

Anyway, the article is very interesting. I did a little digging on the ‘Net and found out a little bit more about the missing persons cases and here’s what I found:

Eight (8) people went missing in total over the course of the 3 months the exhibit was on display

This includes one janitor who knocked the piece off of its pedestal on accident while cleaning drunk one night

The victims weren’t found in any of these cases, or reappeared within a matter of days

However, when they did reappear (if that’s what happened), they were described as “hollow” and “soulless”

One of them reappeared with an arm torn off, with bite marks resembling that of a crocodile. He was pronounced dead several days later from the infection his bite had developed

3 of the missing cases were of known criminals, who disappeared after attempting to steal from the exhibit

2 of them were teenagers, the youngest victims at age 17 who, shortly before going missing, had a friend take a photograph of them in front of the piece-in-question

Only 1 of them wasn’t museum staff, though what exactly they did for a living isn’t specified in any of the articles I looked at

Weird, huh? I wonder if this has anything to do with the folder in the back labeled “the search”… Oh well, I know what I’m looking at next!

Also, fuck the outros. You know it’s me anyway.

[valleysandsarchives]

An ending is bittersweet– Not because it is the end of something, Destined for faliure, rather Something new is beginning Out of it–A rebirth. It inverts itself, Tearing up previous beliefs. Breathing life into a new cycle. Each ending is a cruel one in nature, Great epochs have said as much. In each ending there is a beginning; Nothing can come from an ending where Something is not lost. A NEW STORY ARISES. IT HAS ALREADY BEEN FOUND.

[valleysandsarchives]

I’m starting this blog as an archive.

Okay, so this is gonna take some explaining. I had a blog a while back, but I left it behind, and now I’m back here to use this one as an archive for something I’ve been looking at for the last few days.

First of all, Hi, I’m Yuugi, and I founds something incredible stuffed in Jii-san’s old stuff–which is why I’m starting this blog. He passed away recently (and by “recently” I mean within the last few weeks), so Oka-san put me in charge of clearing out his old stuff in our attic. It was… A very sobering experience, if I’m gonna be honest here. Like, it felt like I really had to sit there and slowly accept the fact that he’s really gone while I just sifted through his old stuff.

At first, there was a bunch of weird old t-shirts, and a few other things from his retirement friends. Then as I kept going, the age of the stuff I was pulling out got older and older. Pretty soon I was looking through a bunch of my old drawings from childhood, a few things from Duel Monsters tournaments (yes I play a card game marketed for kids! It’s very complex and fun! Don’t judge me!), and pictures of me from when I was a little kid. Then it became stuff from my parent’s wedding, and then stuff from when Otō-san was a kid, which was… well… He wasn’t exactly in the picture for most of my life, so it felt a little weird seeing him as a kid. At least I know where I get my height from now….

Anyway, back on track! Okay, so where was I?

Old stuff. Pictures. Right. Okay. I can do this.

So it went until eventually I got to the stuff from Jii-san’s days as an archaeologist, shortly before he himselff got married and settled down. It started out as just one folder, but it turns out this stuff spans, like, four boxes and there’s some scattered around loosely, which is a lot of stuff.

A lot of the stuff is old drafts for academic papers and sketches of wall detailing and whatnot, but there’s a few things that interest me in particular:

1. A big folder with a rubber band around it,

2. An old leather-bound journal, and

3. Some weird gold piece of… something? with a piece of hemp cord wrapped around it

I’m not exactly sure why these things in particular are what I found the most interesting, but… it feels weird to write it down, but it- I genuinely think it feels like something was calling out to me in these things, like there’s a mystery to be solved here. Maybe I’m making it up, maybe I’m not. Either way, I think at least, if there isn’t any real mystery to be solved here, Jii-san would be happy I’m enjoying looking at and learning about his work.

My plan right now is to use this blog to archive the things I found that sound interesting or have some kind of connection–my very own red-string corkboard like in those detective movies. I’m gonna try and update whenever I find something relevant, but this might be my only post for at least a week until I find anything.

Ja ne for now, minna-san!

Stay cool,

Yuugi-kun

[valleysandsarchives]

it is sinking–eVer closer,

that sweet relIef of death,

that Seeps into the hearts of men,

to take theIr very lives away,

with iTs teeth so sharp and claws so cruel

Meant to seem so gentle,

and yet it lEads a man to the grave HERE.

NOW.

IT WATS FOR YOU.