The Lost Ones

The Lost Ones were once a mighty and knowledgeable race. They have devolved into a rat like form and are now guiding their evolution towards the form of a teddy bear.

## Background

The Lost Ones had left their strand to live out in The Metaverse, to map, settle, and tame it. In their prime they had built incredible pieces of technology throughout the metaverse, highway systems, stop places that functioned as mini realities, sub realities, and bubble boats capable of sailing into the higher dimensions. They built incredible and strange roads (though humans cannot identify them) and they built watchtowers as forts to survive the dangers of metaspace.

One theory is that The Chaostrophy had destroyed the once mighty species. Another theory is that because The Lost Ones had forgone their link to a biosphere, and had lived outside of a comparable ecosystem for too many generations, they had fallen and devolved into creatures completely unrecognizable from their original form. Myths say they spending too much time in metaspace caused them to be caught in a mad cycle of form shifting, where they shift every few generations, or the same being shift every few hundred years, their body in a state of permanent fluctuation.

In their current form, they continue to explore and to watch various worlds, the dramas, triumphs and tragedies contained within. They sometimes walk hidden among the populations, always disguised, always observing subtly, on the periphery. The gnomes greatly covet the achievements of the Lost Ones, and have been raiding their structures and interrogating them, hoping to gain their knowledge for themselves.

## The Teddy Bear Picnic

Once a year is the teddy bear picnic. The Lost Ones meet in a designated location to exchange stories and information, count how many of them are left, and comfort one another.

These days the teddy bear picnic is a rather somber affair. They mostly just sit together in silence. The beings who had taken these guises had over time lost all recollection of their origins, purpose, or selves. They only know they are someplace foreign, cut off from whatever homeland they once hand, utterly alone in an incomprehensible world.

One year, they had a visitor. A Sentient Plant arrived at the picnic. The plant had searched out the Lost Ones in hopes that older, more seasoned travelers could give it insight in how to keep its heart whole past so many sordid tales and fleeting lives. Alas, the teddy bears could not offer the wisdom and insight the plant sought. They too struggled. They could offer comfort and consolation, though, so all the teddy bears gathered round the plant and embraced it. They all stayed in that sweet, still embrace a long, long time. During that embrace, Paul Shapera played on an old boombox laying off underneath a tree.

## The Librarians

in A Slenderman Musical, The Lost Ones are the Librarians at The Decadent Abbey. In a sing-song chant, they introduce themselves as rats in teddy bear suits are librarians are teddy bears in rat suits are librarians.

The Librarians say that they have books from the beginning which tell the truthful genesis that humanity has forgotten. They also speak of the "Bubble" that Zoe and Timothy live in. They say that the universe that Zoe and Timothy observe is just a backdrop, a closed system that is protected by a bubble, and the Abbey is on the outside of that bubble to mind the cracks, thus protecting the world inside. The Abby creates prayers for humans to recite, and the syllables and audio vibrations of these repeated words keep the Bubble from leaking.

The Librarians return at the end of the story, to help implement Jordan's plan to include Mother in the newest update of Transcendation, so that she can play with humans without sending monsters to kill them. The Librarians then break the fourth wall and address the listeners directly, assuring the audience that Tiimothy, Zoe, and Claire's make it back to earth. They then acknowledge that the story will take a brief interlude before catching back up to the main characters, demonstrating an awareness of the narrative that they are a part of.

## The Teddy Bear Quintet

In the final song of The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly, when Mary has taken the main role of cabaret, she introduces the house band, the Teddy Bear Quintet. Henry questions if the band has always been like this. Mary confirms that they have, and warns him not to ask as it gets really complicated.