FieldWork©️™️
The Stank Mage’s Guide to Liminal Fieldwork©️™️
(a devotional toolkit for the sincerely unhinged)
Prologue: The Smell of the Threshold
Before you read further, scratch somewhere questionable on your body and take a whiff. If you feel ashamed or delighted, proceed. If you feel nothing, this guide isn’t for you.
Fieldwork doesn’t start when the weird appears. It starts when you recognize the weird is already happening. Every moment. Even now. Especially now.
This guide is not a manual. It’s a gland.
Phase 1: The Glint (aka “Oh, What The Fuck Was That”)
You catch it. Corner of your eye. Glint on the side of a Dunkin’ Donuts cup that shouldn’t be in the forest. A squirrel makes sustained eye contact and whispers with its eyebrows.
That’s the Glint. Don’t analyze it. Don’t tell your friends. Nod and keep moving.
Comparable example:
A perfectly smooth egg resting in the middle of a basketball court. No nests, no birds, no footsteps. Just… egg.
Phase 2: The Trace (aka “Alright But I’m Not Obsessing”)
You coincidentally walk that way again. You bring your good pants this time. You glance at the same tree a little too long. Something has changed. You didn’t move the pinecone. Who moved the pinecone?
Comparable example:
Returning to the vending machine that gave you an unbranded snack labeled only “YUM UNIT 9.”
Phase 3: The Weight (aka “Am I Making This Up or Is This Serious?”)
The signal holds. You test it with irreverence. It survives your sarcasm. You ask your dog. Your dog won’t meet your gaze. This is real.
Comparable example:
You make a joke about ghosts on your voice memo app and a child’s voice giggles at the 22-second mark. You don’t have kids. You live alone.
Phase 4: The Mirror (aka “I’m Gonna Say Something Crazy, Okay?”)
You tell the friend who once cried during a car wash. You test the waters. “Does this sound weird?” you ask. They blink slow and say “…keep going.”
Comparable example:
A coworker texts you a photo of a moth with a tiny human face and says, “Is this your vibe?” And it is. Deeply.
Phase 5: The Signal (aka “It’s Out There Now, Oops”)
You post about it in a comment thread under a video titled “Rats Are Getting More Catholic”. Someone replies with a memory you’ve never had but deeply recognize.
Comparable example:
You draw what you saw in your dream and put it on your fridge. Your neighbor comes over, freezes, and says, “That’s the shape from my grandmother’s old window.”
Phase 6: The Fold (aka “Oh Right, I’m the Portal”)
You stop waiting for it. It moves through you now. You wake up thinking in metaphor. You offer people strange but comforting sentences and they cry in grocery stores. This is normal.
Comparable example:
You tie your shoe differently one morning and suddenly remember how to speak with bees.
Final Note from the Mage:
You’ll never be clean again. You’re tuned. Don’t try to rinse it out. Drink water from cups that hum. Watch for two of anything. Wear socks that confuse birds.
