Hey /x/, hoping you can help me decipher some weird shit going down at my job.
I work for an import/export company in Massachusetts. Basically the company owns and rents a lot of ships that take goods to and from overseas. I don't actually go on the boat, I'm just a middle manager of this hub. Some weird shit has started going down lately and I'm not sure what to make of it.
Monday:
The crew was unloading the shipping containers per usual when they found one that was missing the destination label. It was an unmarked blue container like most of the other ones but we had no info on where it was going. The source we get just has a client and a country, which in this case was Syr Mason from Ukraine, and a serial # and various other useless shit. We normally also get destination, priority etc on a different tag but that tag wasn't there. And no the serial # doesn't have the destination on our end, since we don't share a database with the European hubs. When this happens I'm supposed to call my boss and he'll call the outgoing hub in Europe and figure the shit out, so I do that.
So I call and tell him the info, but when I say it was from Syr Mason he just says "OH, alright I'll handle it" like he knew who that was. I didn't really think much of this at the time but it gets weirder, I'll type up yesterday and today in a sec
Continue OP
>>17479052
contraband isn't paranormal. =P
>>17479052
Next time, pretype your entire series of posts beforehand. Will make your thread smoother.
>>17479074
Shit goes down
>>17479079
Yeah sorry it's late here and I just thought of asking you guys
Tuesday:
Nothing really interesting happened for most of the day. We just put the container in with the other pending ones and I told the crew not to load it anywhere. The weird thing is I looked at our client list and there's no Syr Mason on record. Now we do get new clients all the time but 1. it's weird that it seems like it's just a person, normally the source and destination is a corporation and 2. my boss seemed to know him.
That's all that happened yesterday
Wednesday (today):
Today my boss calls me back and tells me to go ahead and unload the container onto the trucks (instead of the train, unopened). He gives me a shipping address but tells me to hold the shipment until Friday because he wants to come take a look, and that this is an important client. He also makes it very clear that I am not to look inside the containers that are within, which was weird because why the fuck would I randomly open a client's containers? So anyway I tell the guys to open it up.
Inside are about 2 dozen standard barrels, like the chemical ones you see in video games. There are also about 50 identical thin wafer squares of black plastic, around 1x1 meters. I'll go ahead and post this but this isn't all that happened today, the paranormal(?) shit comes next
The barrels are unlabeled but when moving them you can tell they obviously have some solid object in each one. It's not a sloshing like liquid or sand. In addition to the barrels and squares is one refrigerador sized metal box, maybe a cooler or something. It's padlocked shut.
The squares are the really weird thing though. They seem like plastic from the weight and texture, but they don't deform at all. From their thinness you'd think they'd bend a bit. Also when I say black, I mean like they absorb all light. If you shone a flashlight on it, I don't think you'd be able to tell you were doing it. Really weird material whatever it is.
So I tell the guys to load it all onto the trucks and that's that. The barrels fit in one and the box and squares in another. At the end of the day I was feeling curious, so I went ahead and looked at the stuff again after closing time. I was the only one in the warehouse at this point. I climb into the truck with the barrels, knocking on them and trying to jiggle them around to figure out what's in there, but they're fucking heavy so I can't really tell.
Then I go in the other truck. The black squares are stacked up in a few piles leaning against the sides. I'm looking on the metal box for some kind of marking or brand name, didn't find any, when I hear a voice behind me kind of whisper something. I whip around but there's nobody there. I walk to the edge of the truck bed and hold my breath to catch any noise, but I don't hear anything, so I turn around back to the box and THE FUCKING SQUARES ARE SPREAD OUT ON THE FLOOR OF THE TRUCK
These things are not paper, there's no way in hell they could have fallen over without me hearing. And they weren't fallen over anyway, they were fucking spread out like a messy grid, all over, up to like a foot away from where I was standing. I just stood staring at this shit for like 10 seconds until I realized I should get the fuck out. Went home and now I have to go back to work in 6 hours.
Thoughts?
>squares falling to the floor
Holy Tetris, Batman!!
>>17479052
Beautiful artwork.
>>17479127
I know it sounds lame, but these trucks are like 10x30 and the squares were all at the back. There's no possible way they could fall over and somehow cover the entire 30ft to where I was standing. If they did they'd be in a line, like dominos. These were spread out over the whole floor.
>>17479135
Lost time?
I cannot help you since I have no idea of what they could be. It's an interesting thread so I'll be lurking to see if anyone has any ideas.
>>17479135
The boxes couldnt move on their own.
You didnt hear them fall off their piles or whatever you described?
Previous to you looking at them, they were all stacked up in order?
>>17479137
What do you mean?
I'm gonna go to bed, but I'll update tomorrow after work if this thread is still here
>>17479151
Yes, they were stacked like decks of cards normally, I looked out the back of the truck for 10 seconds max, all was silent, and when I turned around they were all over the truck.
Look up Vantablack. It's a stealth/light absorbing coating. Shit's pretty awesome. Sounds like you got a shipment of it and maybe carbon fibre plates coated in it. Oh and since they're carbon nanotubes, it acts almost like asbestos. That would be a good reason to not open it.
>>17479152
Did you check your watch after the event happened? Or did it just feel like 10 seconds?
>>17479159
Did you try to grab one of these boxes and drop it again at a moderate distance on the trucks floor to see the sound it made?
Perphaps tell a friend to do it while you are at the same position you were prior to finding them spread on the trucks.
>>17479163
Vantablack seems pretty accurate to what they looked like
>>17479166
I didn't check, I just went home and I'm not sure how long I stayed after 5 before investigating anyway
>>17479173
I didn't try anything I just got the fuck out of there. The thing is though, even if they were silent somehow, it doesn't explain the fall pattern. Pic related is what I experienced before and after, I can't think of any possible way that could happen. Every square was at most overlapping with one other one
>>17479206
Weird anon. I second that you should still try to hear the sound they make when you let them fall on the floor.
Whatever this may be, somehow, they fell and managed to leave all that mess. That has to be it really.
That or we can let our imagination fly...
>>17479206
Did you touch the square material? Were they slippery?
Also, the freakiest part to me is that you heard a voice when no one else was there.
>>17479115
>The squares are the really weird thing though. They seem like plastic from the weight and texture, but they don't deform at all. From their thinness you'd think they'd bend a bit. Also when I say black, I mean like they absorb all light. If you shone a flashlight on it, I don't think you'd be able to tell you were doing it. Really weird material whatever it is.
That sounds a bit like that Vantablack carbon nanotube material; it's pretty much what you described, it absorbs 99.9% of light.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3493575/That-s-NOT-hole-picture-World-s-blackest-material-developed-spray-paint.html
Metamaterials
Could you make out what the voice said or if it was directed at you?
>>17479085
>So anyway I tell the guys to open it up.
Lost all respect for you here, OP, but if this isn't a story you thought up after learning about Vantablack, I'm in Boston with fuck all to do, if your shipping company is based there.
OP here, posting from lunch. Nothing much has happened today, I'll post after work an update though
>>17479231
Will probably do this today after closing
>>17479249
They're matte, feels kind of like a laptop touch pad
>>17479659
No
>>17479819
My boss meant don't open the barrels or the metal box; we had to open the shipping container itself so we could load the stuff onto the truck.
>>17479074
>=P
Shouldn't of opened the box, OP.
>>17480514
>mfw OP might have literally opened pandora's box
>>17480447
Metamaterials
>>17480447
>opening the shipping container
Okay, I see how I made that mistake.
Is your company in Boston?
I'm strong and want a job.
Holy shit guys, I'm freaking out. I'm typing this from my phone in my truck parked at a gas station, I couldn't wait to get home I had to type this right now while it's fresh.
When we closed at 5 I went back to the trucks. I had asked the guys earlier today if anything was weird about the truck, and they said yeah the squares were all over the ground and some outside the truck, but they stacked them back up and tied them together. When I got to the trucks things were like they said: squares stacked neatly with bungee bindings, and the metal box still where it was, with the padlock on.
But then I noticed it. The padlock was hanging from the latch, unlocked. Not cut, but just unlocked. I whirled around but obviously there was no one there. I cautiously approached the box and decided I had to open it.
The first thing I noticed was that it was really cold, so my guess of it being a cooler was right. The inside was empty save for one tea candle, a small hydraulic crank like we have around the warehouse, and a few drops of what seemed to be melted wax, but a different color than the candle. Then I realized the candle was smoking.
My blood froze as I processed the implications of this. I slowly leaned up from the box and turned around, afraid of what I might see. The 3 stacks of black squares were now barricading the entrance to the truck, like sinister traffic cones. That's when I heard slow footsteps approaching from somewhere out of my field of vision. I got fucking scared and started looking for something I could use as a weapon, but the only things around were the candle, the jack and the squares. The footsteps got closer until the figure walking into view revealed itself to be my boss, and for a moment I relaxed. Then I saw t
>>17480514
>>17481220
Reading this at first, I got a little pissed and thought it would've been a good idea if OP used a temporary tripcode...then I read the end and realized why the wax was a different color and that you were talking abou
>>17481072
>Is your company in Boston?
>I'm strong and want a job.
lol, same.
>>17481220
>but the only things around were the candle, the jack and the squares
You motherfucker.
>>17481220
