[Text is mine. Images are generated using NovelAI]

I have a professional reputation to maintain.

This is important context.

People hear "The Watcher" and imagine some terrifying all-seeing wizard standing dramatically on a cliff while lightning strikes behind her.

In reality, I tripped over a moon rock thirty seconds after arriving. Fortunately, nobody was around to witness it. Well. Nobody except it.

The thing sitting in the dust glanced in my direction. At least, I think it glanced. Its eyes were goat eyes… and crystal eyes and empty sockets and stars. Depending on how I looked at it. "Oh, good," I sighed, brushing moon dust from my robes. "One of those days."

The creature returned to drawing shapes in the dust, concentric circles, strange symbols, a picture of what appeared to be a fish wearing a crown. I stared at it. The fish stared back. I decided not to investigate that particular mystery.

My eyes are capable of seeing through virtually every illusion known to civilization, lies become obvious, disguises unravel, falsehoods glow like lanterns (Occasionally I discover things I was not supposed to know). Sometimes... things nobody was supposed to know...

I have encountered exactly three categories of beings throughout my career. Things I understand. Things I do not understand. And things that become understandable if I stare at them long enough. Today I discovered a fourth category. I am writing this immediately because I suspect waiting may somehow make the memory less reliable. Not because my memory is failing. Because the subject appears fundamentally hostile toward conclusions.

I found it where every report claimed it would be:

Sitting on the moon.

Drawing shapes in the dust. At least I think it was drawing.

The lines looked deliberate until I looked away. When I looked back, they resembled something else. Not different. The same. Just somehow no longer matching the explanation I had settled on. That happened a lot.

The creature itself was worse. From a distance it appeared to be a girl. Closer inspection revealed crystal bones visible beneath purple skin. Closer inspection revealed there was no "beneath."

Closer inspection revealed there absolutely was. I am crossing that sentence out. No. Closer inspection revealed there absolutely was. I am leaving it in.

It is wrong. Unfortunately removing it would also be wrong.

The horns remained relatively consistent.

The eyes remained relatively consistent.

The black hole above its head remained consistent.

Everything else refused to cooperate.

The halo deserves special mention. I watched it for nearly forty minutes. The creature eventually informed me that it usually destroys the thing whenever visitors arrive. I naturally asked why. It informed me it did not know. The black hole remained overhead. Not spinning. Not stationary. Not behaving like any celestial phenomenon, I know. At one point I became convinced it was not physically present at all. Then one of the floating black particles vanished into it. A few moments later the particle emerged from somewhere beneath my chair. I have elected not to think about this further.

The wings were equally unhelpful... Mercury, that was my first conclusion. Liquid silver suspended in the shape of wings. Reasonable, elegant, understandable. Three minutes later I noticed veins. Five minutes later I noticed feathers. Ten minutes later I became convinced neither had ever existed. Fifteen minutes later I observed all three simultaneously.

I am professionally dissatisfied.

The black particles were perhaps the most frustrating element. They never stopped moving. Not randomly. Randomness implies a lack of purpose, these behaved as though following instructions. The problem is that the instructions changed constantly. I watched them form spirals, then geometric patterns, then what looked suspiciously like writing, then a flock of birds, then absolutely nothing. At one point they appeared fascinated by my hat.

What troubles me most is that my eyes worked perfectly the entire time. That should not be possible. Normally uncertainty means something is hidden, an illusion, a deception, a missing piece. There was none of that. Every observation was true. That was the problem. I would reach a conclusion; my eyes would confirm it… Then they would reveal another truth, and another and another, until the original conclusion remained technically correct while becoming increasingly useless. The experience was like attempting to describe the ocean using a single droplet. Not inaccurate, merely insufficient.

Eventually I stopped trying to identify what I was looking at. The creature seemed relieved, I am not certain why. Perhaps I imagined it, perhaps not. I asked what it was, not its name, I lost that repeatedly. Its nature, its category, its place in reality. The answer was immediate. "I don't know." No hesitation, no evasion, no clever riddle, just honesty. I believed it.

For a brief moment I wondered whether this was the first genuine mystery I had ever encountered. Then I immediately doubted that conclusion. Which feels appropriate. My current professional assessment is as follows: I know the creature exists. I know it inhabits the moon. I know it possesses horns, goat-like eyes, mercury-like wings, floating black particles, and a persistent black hole halo. I know every one of those observations is incomplete. I know my eyes failed to uncover a final answer. Most importantly— I am no longer convinced there is a final answer to uncover. If somebody eventually discovers what that thing truly is, I would very much like to read their report. Assuming, of course, the creature does not become something else the moment they begin to understand it.

- Raya Watch, The Watcher

1: Silky

2: Raya

3: AJ

Wooosh THUMP "...maybe...just maybe...Ater was right......what if..."

Shake "No I cant doubt my abilities... but...hes not wrong either...was I being overcon..."

SMACK...drip...drip... "No Blanca shan't doubt! THE BEING HE MADE CAN'T BE WRONG...but..."

Sighs "...what are these emotions...am I feeling fear?"

"Ha... I guess...I could search on the ground...as well..."

...thuck....thuck.... "Hmm its quite late in here. All humans seem to be slumbering. What a peaceful town."

...thuck...thuck... "Pupa? What a weird name for a town? Weird creations, still, they're his creations as well."

Shhhacle "Hmm? Who is it? Leaves? Wind? These new emotions must be messing with my senses. I better get on with my search. Blanca getting paranoid is not right either during such times."

FUSH...an old man looks out of bushes... Wha... what was that? He gets off from the ground, crawling out of the thorny bush he hid in quickly. Why...why did nobody wake up from its light?

He runs around and looks through windows to check if anyone was awake and saw the same woman he did. Odd... Everyone is sleeping soundly as if nothing happened... Were they all just too tired? We did have a festival today... Wait no its "today"! When the sun will come up...

He looks towards the guard tower where a candle light was shining weakly. ...but even they don't seem alarmed and Luka is quite a sharp kid. He would certainly notice... whatever that pretty lady was...

He thinks back about the situation. About how she suddenly struck herself and made a wound on her cheek, about how lost she looked and how she cried.

Poor girl... She looked so divine... but so disturbed... If such beings are lost what say we with less power... He tightens his grip on a brush in his hand.

I suddenly feel like painting again...

Silky: My shape is what...?

Silky: *Sighs and summons her club* You know Im from HR?

Silky: WELL THIS WAS FIRST AND LAST OFFENSE FROM YOU!

Saying ahead of time I just gen just for fun and dont care about inconsistencies as long as its almost perfect. Unless of course the character stops looking completely like themselves.

These are really old ones, but I thought they were funny enough to show off.

[A young looking person with a dragons tail, liquid hair, smoking a pipe and wearing a monocle was sitting in his office, dissatisfied, speaking by himself about something]

**???:** Seriously... Visiting my page, and not even meeting me first? I won't lie I'm severely hurt by this treatment, Ater...

[The air vibrated with each word they've spoken, as if listening in and waiting for their command, but not taking action from no clear instructions]

**???:** Hmm... He seems quite lost, and in a rush? I wonder...

[A number of spherical ink drops floated besides them, swimming through the smoke from their pipe, as if playing with it]

**???:** ...and he even brought his entire entourage with him? Interesting... They don't seem to be here for confrontation... My children haven't caused any trouble recently to afford such a visit... Hmm...

[The man leaned on his table, deeply in thoughts, looking around his office filled with all kinds of calligraphy, from all kinds of languages and styles]

**???:** I can see the urgency you run around with Ater, but I'm afraid I'd like some explanation of your visit without a prior notice.

Bring him here.

[The air shook, it felt heavy. The man stood up and held one of the orbs in his palm. Dark ink gushed out of it, swirling around in a vortex, as each word commanded it to act, forming into a mans silhouette before exploding, not causing any mess and revealing Ater]

"...well I guess I should have expected this... Hi there~ Haven't seen you in a while..."

Raya: I am a wizard!

Amalia: That's not uhh...

Adelaide: "What :3 Thats not what????"

AJ: Confused but makes the light stronger. Dhis ishnt a cuwse?

Amalia: ...No it is...