Felix's Journal

Gerald was deployed at 1400 hours to retrieve a pen from the upstairs room. Simple errand. Documented objective. Clear parameters.

He returned at approximately 1402. He had the pen.

He also had a small glass figurine of a horse that does not belong to me. I do not own a glass horse. I have never owned a glass horse. I did not ask for a glass horse.

I have placed the glass figurine on the desk. Gerald has positioned himself adjacent to the glass figurine and has not moved.

I do not know where the horse came from. Gerald cannot tell me. Gerald does not speak. I have noted that he does not speak in this log approximately seven times now, and it has not resolved the situation.

The horse appears to be watching me. This is probably the angle.

Gerald was not deployed today. I want to be clear about this. He had the day off. There was no assignment. No errand. No documented objective.

At approximately 1800 hours I found Gerald next to the refrigerator.

I opened the refrigerator. The milk was missing. The milk was later located on the counter. It had been opened and resealed. Carefully. With what I can only describe as deliberate care.

Gerald cannot drink milk. Gerald has no mechanism for consuming anything. Gerald cannot open a refrigerator. These are documented facts about the nature of unseen servants.

I have entered "the milk was resealed by an entity that cannot interact with milk" into the log. I am aware this reads poorly. I am logging it anyway.

Causation remains unestablished. I am keeping an eye on the refrigerator.

Gerald has taken my left sock. Not both socks. One sock. The left one specifically.

I discovered this at 0730. The sock was absent from its documented storage location. Gerald was in the hallway. He was not holding anything. This proves nothing and I am aware of that.

At 1400, the sock reappeared on the desk. It had been folded. In a flat fold. I do not fold socks in a flat fold. I use a roll method. The roll method is documented. This was not the roll method.

Gerald does not fold. Gerald has never folded. I have never asked Gerald to fold. He does not have the capacity to fold, to my knowledge, which I am now questioning.

I am keeping the sock. I have photographed the fold. I have measured the fold. I do not know what to do with this information but I have it.

I am watching Gerald.

I found Gerald in the Bag of Holding.

Not near it. Not adjacent to it. Inside it.

I did not put Gerald in the Bag of Holding. The Bag of Holding does not open itself. Gerald cannot open the Bag of Holding. These are facts I was confident about until this morning.

I retrieved him. He was, to the extent that an invisible force can be anything, fine. He was also — and I want to be precise here — somehow smug. I cannot quantify smug. I am logging it as an observational note with a methodological caveat.

He had been in there for a minimum of four hours. I asked him what he was doing. He did not respond. He cannot respond. He does not speak. I have noted this approximately eleven times now and it continues to be relevant and unhelpful.

I have moved the Bag of Holding to a higher shelf. Gerald is four inches tall when I hold an object at his approximate level. This will not stop him. I know this. I have logged this knowledge.

I woke at 0300. Gerald was in the room.

He was not doing anything I could identify. He was simply present, in the way that a gargoyle is present — with a specific quality of stillness that implies it has been there for longer than you think and is in no hurry to leave.

I said: "Gerald, go stand by the door." Gerald went to the door. I said: "Thank you, Gerald." Gerald remained at the door. I found this, briefly, reassuring.

I went back to sleep at 0314. In the morning, Gerald was on the other side of the room — the far corner, near the window. I did not hear him move. He cannot make sound. The window was not open. I do not know the mechanism by which he crossed the room.

I have begun leaving a small light on. This is a scientific precaution. I am not afraid of Gerald. I simply want to be able to observe him accurately in the event of further movement. This is standard methodology.

The following items have gone missing and returned in an altered state over the past two weeks. I am logging this in sequence:

1. One purple gel pen. Returned with approximately 12% less ink. I did not use the ink. Gerald cannot use ink. Gerald does not write. Hypothesis: none.
2. One vial, Compound 4-B (inert, lavender-scented). Returned uncapped. No compound was missing. The vial smelled different — specifically, it smelled like outside. Gerald does not go outside. Gerald cannot open exterior doors. This is under investigation.
3. This list. This exact document. It went missing on Day 49. It was returned this morning. One item had been appended, in a handwriting I do not recognise, which read: "Day 43 — errand completed." I did not assign an errand on Day 43. I have no record of an errand on Day 43. Gerald completed an errand on Day 43 that I did not assign.

I am keeping this list in the Bag of Holding going forward. I am aware of the irony. I am doing it anyway.

I have identified a pattern. Gerald has a bit.

The bit is as follows: whenever I am about to drop something, Gerald is already positioned to catch it. Not approximately. Exactly. He intercepts the object at the precise point where it would hit the floor.

I have tested this. I have "accidentally" knocked things off surfaces twelve times over the past week. Gerald has caught eleven of them. The twelfth was a pencil. I believe he let the pencil fall on purpose. I do not have evidence for this. I am logging it as a strong suspicion.

He also, twice, has moved an object I was reaching for to a location that was more convenient for my reach. He did this before I reached for it. He anticipated that I would reach for it before I knew I was going to reach for it.

I do not know what Gerald is. The spell description says "mindless force." I am going to need a second opinion on mindless.