Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat Ep. 13 - "Cicada"

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

We catch up with Agents Tuck, Merit, and Warp as they road trip to D.C. to hand off the 1984 VHS to case handler Mallory. They learn that a few names from 1984 are still very much alive and their excursion descends into a terrifying escape from one of the program’s darkest and most dangerous black sites. This episode features an original shotgun scenario that resurrects a long-lost DG character and fan favorite. TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood and gore, death, body horror, mental illness, cults and religious trauma, PTSD, sexual harassment, abduction, manipulation, panic attacks, the topic of Covid-19 including irresponsible Covid quarantine practices, droning and loud, consistent beeping alarm SFX, gunshot SFX Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Allegra - Agent Tuck • Caleb - Agent Merit • Zakiya - Agent Warp • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) • Epidemic Sound (epidemicsound.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Twitter (twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Twitch (twitch.tv/maydayroleplay)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes in adult language. For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please check our show notes before each episode. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to Lucky Episode 13 of Doom to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Allegra. I'm Agent Tuck. I'm Caleb.

I'm Agent Merritt. I'm Zacchia. And I'm Agent Warp. Tonight we return to three of the agents of Operation Perennial in an original shotgun scenario that aims to resurrect a certain DG character and community favorite. Keep listening to find out more. A year ago, Mayday started a Patreon to help cover the costs of hosting and running our content online, and some amazing patrons stepped up and have supported us, many from the very

beginning. Thanks to them, our Discord has become a lively, friendly place to talk shop, discuss Mayday and other content, and we even like to share cute photos of our animals and plants. And we'd really like it if you joined us. If you go to patreon.com forward slash maydayrp, you can join at the $2 level and get access to our Discord. There are other levels, which in the coming months will feature more Patreon exclusive content.

Expect more behind the screen posts like scenario guides for this show and all of our shows. Our Patreon only one-shots and mini-campaigns, deleted scenes, as well as art and music. If you're already a patron, let us know what else you'd like to see from us to make your subscription feel special. Thank you to our patrons, both old and new. This season is dedicated to you. Now, let's begin. I think I hate my job.

It's not exactly something I can just quit, though. You know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I just had a normal job. A job where people's lives didn't depend on me not fucking up or me dying to stop myself from fucking up. Like a librarian or a coffee shop owner. Ooh, what if I made custom kitchen towel sets on Etsy? I mean, I can't say that I hate it. I want to, but I think we're doing something good.

Protecting people from things that no one should have to see. I just wish them seeing it by accident didn't end in more dead people and more traumatized kids or more mysteries. There has to be a better way than you keep it hidden or you kill the people who find out. That sucks! Sucks! Sucks!

I'm so intuitive to what we're doing. But at the core of it, we're getting rid of darkness and danger in a world that's already overflowing with it, so it can't be all bad, right? I think I'm just tired. I miss my wife and the past few days have been a lot. There was an omniscient zombie in a septic tank in the middle of the woods that knew all of our dirty laundry. In Merritt and Boomer, cleaned up some loose ends while the rest of us waited in the car.

I still can't believe Boomer went in there. I should have... I should have been me. Then we went and raided a green box for a case from 1984 about monster kids and lords of thought. That one sounds way too familiar. I volunteered to go to DC for a reason, and if I can give Boomer the case file to look through and make sure I'm not drawing lines where there aren't any, but if I'm right,

this might be exactly what I've been looking for forever. And then, I punched the one person I might have actually gotten along with in the face. I thought I was over all this matter, but I clearly overestimated my own emotional fortitude. But Halo wasn't there, I know it was her, and if I'd just gotten close enough to ask what happened when she signed the book, the book that's come up twice now, if Hyde hadn't fucking held me back, that's not even mentioning our resident priest taking mystery ducks despite our most junior agent, Jesus, our most junior agent, who I might add I'm stuck in a car with for this receivable future.

Him and Warp. I know weird co-workers isn't high on the list of issues with my job, but I have no clue how to talk to either of them about, like, anything. No, actually, I think I could ask Merritt about basically anything, and he'd have a PowerPoint slide show up and ready to go before I finish the fucking question. I mean, to be fair, Warp probably would too, but I think hers would at least be interesting. His would just be spreadsheets and, ugh, I mean, it's not even big deal. I was hoping I could ditch them to go with the case file and see my wife, but I don't

know how feasible that is anymore. It's April 23, 2020, around 11 AM. Agents Tuck, Merritt and Warp, you have rented a vehicle and you have set out to rendezvous with Agent Mallory at a GPS coordinate provided to you by your case officer. You've been driving for about an hour on a relatively empty highway, and you've left the quarantine city of New York behind you and are entering more rural land. What's going on inside the vehicle? I think that Merritt is definitely driving.

Oh, you fucker. What did you guys end up renting? Oh, I think just some sort of four-door sedan, something very nondescript, like a Corolla or something like that, in government black, with enough space for, you know, like an extra seat for our incidentals. Oh, yeah, she's, I think, low key, kind of the same of what Tuck is doing. I think she's observed the awkward tension, but if it's seven hours and there's still like four pounds of good old wool left, she's separating them out into strands in her lap.

So your corner of the car is quite messy, then? Completely just furry, like it's going to be an extra charge if we don't clean it up. Tuck is in the backseat hating that she's not driving, just like fidgeting and looking at everything, like keeping just the closest eye on everything and hating being a passenger. As a show of support, he's taken the, like, grubby, half-charred, disgusting rental ox cord you get with those cars, and he's made sure that it's available for Tuck in the middle seat. I think Merritt operates a lot like a really good Uber.

Like he's making sure everyone has breath mints, bottles of water, the ox cord if they need it. Do you want the AC on? Do you not? He's trying to make sure that everything is temperature controlled for everyone specifically. Yeah, you're trying to be the Uber driver that you can never seem to get, right? Yeah, exactly. If you'd like to put on some music, by all means.

Is there anything you guys hate? No, no, I love all music. Absolutely everything. Morb? Generally, no. I mean, I don't know a lot of songs before a certain point, but. Okay. You know, early 2010s is always good.

Sure. Okay. I'll find an early 2010s playlist and put it on. Sure. You plug in your phone and the rest of the drive is underscored by songs like Katy Perry's California Girls and DJ Khaled's All I Do Is Win. And he's, you know, 10 and two with the mirrors changing every 0.5 seconds to make sure that he's driving appropriate.

Every so often, he'll ask the others, do you think I'm driving fast enough? Should I slow down? Merritt, there's literally no one else on the road. It doesn't fucking matter. I just wanted to make sure both of you are comfortable. I can speed up if you like. It should be fine. I mean, there aren't even police.

We don't have to. It's fine. I could haul ass if you wanted to, got this shit like right in half, just rip down the road. Come on, Merritt. Okay. Absolutely. And he goes from the 40 that he was going to 55.

Okay. Live and wild. So, Tuck, you seemed pretty adamant about coming along on this little trip. Was it for professional or personal reasons? Well, mostly. I've got a case that I need to pick up. It's in DC. It may have connections with what we're working with right now, so I figured I'd grab it and

take another look at it, see if we can find any connections, anything that might lead us in another direction. Interesting. I'd love to know the name of the case file, maybe it's something I've heard of. Sergio, would I know if the case I'm going home to get would have like a name? No, case files don't really have like code names or anything. It would simply be whether he knows of the substance of the case file. The circumstances.

Yeah. It was a missing children's case in 97. 97? Yeah. Really? You weren't operating around that time, were you? No, no. I was a kid myself.

My old handler clued me into it. That was with the program or? I think there's an overlap. Yes, there's mention of a dark man tall appearing from nowhere. You mean like the one mentioned in 1984? Exactly. Or even Meadowbrook, there's a potential connection to Meadowbrook too and I don't know what the, what it means, I just wanted to look at it again.

Meadowbrook was, well that was the case that you were on? Yes, Boomer and I. Interesting. So this dark man seems to be following you, right, Tuck? I wouldn't go that far. Well, it's remarkable to show up in three cases that we've investigated directly. I mean, how often does something like that happen? It's almost like you were fated, right?

I don't think I believe in fate. I think it's just, there's a limited number of exceptionally powerful unknown creatures and he just happens to be in the ones we found so far. Right. What about you? When did you two become a part of all of this nonsense? Oh, I don't know. Warp, do you want to offer up your history first?

Oh, I mean, you don't have to. I just, I mean, I have seven hours on the way there and on the way back, so. Yeah, no, it's fine. I mean, it's kind of a bummer. Is it everything with us? Yeah, I guess without giving too much away, my. Maybe Mary should go first. Absolutely, I can share mine.

It's very matter of fact. A year and a half ago, I was involved in a case through the Federal Bureau of Investigation in my personal life. I was very new to the program, not our program, but the Bureau. I was called in on a case in Lake Placid, New York, a mauled woman and myself and my partner were investigating as far as we could. It looked pretty run of the mill. A woman with a gun lost on a hiking trail and, you know, that investigation led to,

well, what we all lead to, right? The inciting incident, the moment when you are presented with something that cannot be explained by anything in a book, at least any book you have read. In viewing that being, I reacted accordingly. I followed procedure. I did what I could and the program was impressed and they extended an invitation to myself and my partner. Here I am, this being my first operation outside of my inciting incident.

Your partner made it through too? No. Well, you know the program. If you are not 100% on board, then... Yeah, yes. ...exceptions are made. I'm sorry for what it's worth. I am too.

Thank you for that. I had a really big family and there was... They were very passionate about their goals, ambitions, our goals were sort of everyone's and that became a problem to the state, the country, actually, and they rectified that problem really quickly and a lot of SWAT. I guess I haven't really said this out loud outside of like an interrogation room, but there's... You can take your time, it's okay.

They just... The solving of the problem made a lot of waves and the program caught on to it. And it was either follow what happens when the state finds out that you're doing things they don't enjoy or join the program. Sounds like a lot of forced entry. Yeah. You know, this is just like us, right? In response to trauma, the only thing we can talk about when we're alone is more trauma.

In response to working as an agent, the only thing we can talk about is shock. Yeah. Shock's a real thing, huh? I'll reach over really slowly and like envision of her and just kind of like hover my hand out like if she needs support and she can take it if she wants to. Warp takes it. I'll squeeze her hand and pattern let it go. Thank you.

I mean, these past couple of days apart from being at large have been memorable. I wouldn't say fun, but memorable. I don't think any of us would. Yes. I hope that we can strive towards something that at least ticks into the positive. I don't want to operate at a net zero and I definitely don't want to see us in negatives. But that's part of the reason that I bring all these questions up because I feel like we've gotten off on the wrong foot and I know I've said that maybe three different ways

and all of them unsuccessful because right after that I did something else to put my foot in my mouth. But it's true and I appreciate both of you. I'm glad that the two of you decided to come along, that these were the three fated to get in our car, whether fate exists or whether numbers are included. Merritt, how old are you? I'll be 27 in September. Holy shit. You're 27 years old?

26. Merritt. I graduated top of my class in the firearms training. I must have passed above the board three different times. I excel at suicide negotiation. Just about anything. Name it and I can do it. But yes, 26.

Oh my. And this is the reward for that? I'm sorry. That's a fair question. I don't think that the program is any sort of reward. I think it's something that you unfortunately stumble into and you either accept the responsibility of keeping people safe through whatever means you can on the other side or you don't. The FBI, that was my reward.

Everything that came through Quantico, my instructors, every teacher I ever had, the people who knew me, that was my reward. But whatever this is, this is a calling, right? Not everyone can sit at this table and redo. And albeit I sit at it very young and that creates circumstances for myself. But it's something we have to do. Wow. Do you think you being here is fate too?

Yes. I think that sometimes you're called something. And if people like us do not decide to do what we do, then people die. People still die, Marin. Yes, absolutely. But if I can be a small difference in that, if I can tip the meter one way like we were saying, if we can do anything in this car to prevent someone else's life being taken, I think it's up to us.

It's very noble. You're very wise for 27. I was in 26 even. I was an asshole at 26. I was also in the FBI at 26, but I was an asshole at 26. I'm lucky my wife married me when I was 26. Jesus. My original partner used to say that I was a grandfather waiting to grow into the gray.

I think it's accurate. It is. I never saw myself for children, but I could be a grandfather for sure. Another two hours pass. You take the 95 to the 295 and pass through Philadelphia. But not before passing an exit whose sign states Meadowbrook, this exit. Merritt, pull off real quick. Okay, but you have to admit that fate exists.

I'm not going to admit fate exists, buddy. I think I slowed down to like a 30, and I start to pull off. I need you to say it. Merritt. Doc, you have to say it. We're going to miss it. Really, Warp, you two? We're going to miss it.

He's not going to miss it. Fine, fine. Fate exists. I've put my fingers up in the mirror and crossed them. Fuck you. Not as Merritt, but fuck you. And I'll pull off to Meadowbrook. Thank God.

Warp, it would have been okay if we missed it. It's not life or death. I mean, it would have been to turn back, I guess, but it just felt really important. I think I'll get out of the car and actually offer the driver's seat to Tuck, knowing that she's been antsy the whole way and that this is her thing. I'll get in the passenger side, though, and I will play a knowing modern jazz. Oh! It's good jazz.

It's just if you don't like jazz, you're stuck with it. I'm going to put in the address that I have memorized into my phone, and I'm going to start towards the 1206. This thing has been my DG notes forever. So you guys trade places and you punch in this address, 1206 Spooner Avenue, and you head there. Warp and Merritt, you have never been to this location. It's just kind of a suburb of New Jersey.

Pretty. Looks like there's money in the area. And you come to what looks to be a very old neighborhood, a lot of brick buildings, a lot of buildings and houses that clearly have been here for a long time. And eventually, Agent Tuck stops in front of a corner of a neighborhood, and it's a little strange and obvious. And you remember from mentioning something back in the cabin about it being a park now, but sure enough, in kind of a corner of the neighborhood,

there is this lot-sized park where there's a couple benches and some trees and a swing for some children. It's small and seems like it was kind of forced, but it's a park nonetheless. I'm going to get out and just walk around, try and just see if there's any weird vibes left over, anything. Agent Tuck, you get out and if you didn't already cure a disorder, after this scenario, or I probably would be asking you to make some kind of roll, but there is this cool breeze and the sun is kind of high in the sky.

The neighborhood is quiet as it kind of was, as you recall. And there is this kind of sense of peace. You take a couple steps into the park. You do look across the way and you see a mother with her baby. It feels nice. What doesn't feel nice is the memories of this area and what you kind of went through, but you don't shudder, you don't feel anything you shouldn't feel. It's a nice park.

You know, I think it's interesting that they even bothered to build a new infrastructure for the park. It looks like it follows the old layout of the house, huh? Yeah, I mean, there wasn't. It was an okay-sized house. It just feels like they were in such a rush to hide the memory. If you knew what went on in that house, you'd be in a rush to. I'd love to, if you're willing to share.

Let's get back in the car. We can do this in the car. We don't need to put it back in the land. It's already dealt with it enough. Merritt puts away his patent paper that he was... Just ready. So the three of you jump back into the car, get back on the highway, and again, once you kind of exit the Philadelphia area,

you are in between Philadelphia and Baltimore and you find yourself once again in the country. It's about 1 p.m. a little after one. You know you have another two hours ahead of you. So Spooner Avenue, there was a house and a ridiculous number of people died in it. There were like 19 people that were killed there. Over 50-ish years.

Suicides, accidents, murders, you name it, it happened there. Including my old handler, Agent Donnelly, Arthur. He was there right before my team went. And he died. He killed himself, I think, if I'm remembering correctly. Were you two close? Fairly, yeah. He brought me into the program, so...

I mean, he was with me from the FBI too, so he was a good guy. It was an unfortunate loss. But it turns out that it was consecrated for some Italian pagan god. It was the one I asked you about, Warp. Nero Lothotep, Luomenero. There's a bunch of different names for it. Right.

And it had been consecrated in, I think, the 50s by the... I'm sorry, the 1910s even, by the divatellos who moved in with her sons. And they did something, and it destroyed the house, kind of, in a metaphysical sense, I guess. Is that family, the connection to the dark man? Servants similar to that ghoul, or whatever mentioned in 1984? Maybe.

I'm still trying to make that connection. We decided to do a ritual to fix whatever had happened there, and it required a human sacrifice. We were working with a local chief police at the time, Buffington, and we tried to get him to give us someone terrible, anyone who'd done awful things, just... Right, a transient, or a prisoner. Not a transient, they don't...

just a rapist or a murderer. A criminal. A bad criminal. I wasn't gonna say we should kill someone for shoplifting, but he wouldn't give us anyone. He was adamant that it was him. So we put together the ritual. The house took over one of our dudes.

He shot another agent. Buffington killed him. Halo killed Buffington. Boomer ran, I can't blame her. She ran out of the house. I think that's the only reason she survived. Agent Halo... Agent Halo is in the tarmac.

Yeah. Halo's in the tarmac. She completed the ritual. I think we cleared the house. I wasn't sure. But then Nyarlathotep Lominaro, he came out of the mirror, and he offered her the book, like the same book from 1980. And she signed it.

And she was fucking gone. She signed his book? She signed the book, and they disappeared. She didn't die. She just... And she's here in 2020. I don't think she died. I don't know what happened to her.

That was the worst... I can't say the worst of it. It was terrible, but it was... She just vanished in front of my eyes. I'd seen... I heard and saw and experienced unexplainable things, and she was there one second and gone the next.

And I... There was nothing else to do. I ran out, grabbed Boomer, and we hauled ass. It's bizarre because the research shows in 1984, they were servants in Detroit. There were servants to the dark man directly. There's no mention of anyone disappearing in thin air or anything to prove to why that would happen.

And why she would come back now and still a member of the program without any sort of information. Yeah, it kind of makes sense why I wanted to talk to her, huh? Absolutely it does. If I had known, I would have completely backed up your prerogative. I'm so sorry that I'd gotten in the middle of any event. Now that Agent Merritt and Warp have finally listened to the totality of this story

and the incredible coincidences that it contains, I need you both to make sanity checks for me. Yeah. You're welcome. Feel that coming on. This is why we don't share. This is gonna be so shit. Merritt passes with a 42 above 46.

Warp passes two with a 10. Yes! Oh, my babies! I had no faith. Yeah, you know, specifically Warp, now that you have these bonds with these other agents, there's just this kind of empathy that comes from you as opposed to fear or confusion or paranoia.

You feel bad for talking. And it's, in a way, you succeeded on your sanity checks because it's helpful to slowly start understanding who this dark man is and what is going on. There's a little bit of closure here and kind of better understanding Tuck and her past. Tuck, forgive me if I'm getting ahead of myself, but if Halo has rejoined the program in any fashion,

shouldn't there be an additional file on any cases she's worked since then? I would assume so, but when I was looking at the laptop this morning, there's not exactly a function find for. But in this situation, we, as Operation Perennial, have a jurisdiction over any physical file

that relates back to the program for filing. Don't you think we could reach out to the program and control F through Mallory? That's the plan. I mean, if this woman's been alive for, or at least around for however long, I imagine we can check other things too. Maybe not through the program, but maybe through Boomer.

And if we continue to pull the thread on the dark man, then Halo will be not too far off his trail. Yeah, we have to be careful with Boomer with Meadowbrook. She, that shit fucked her up real good and I don't know how far I want to push that. Tuck, by your calculations, the coordinate that you are following on the GPS is about a half hour south outside of DC.

You suspect to get to your home from this spot wouldn't take you very long. From the spot we're at? From the coordinate that you are heading to. You are right now kind of getting into the city of Baltimore and passing it, but you're also going to pass DC. You're going to go south of DC a little bit to head to this coordinate.

I had a plan. I had a perfect plan. And it's all falling apart. Okay. I'm going to pull off to get some gas and while I'm getting gas, I'm going to text my wife. Fuck her. Okay.

And what do you text her? I'm going to say, or actually I'm going to call her. I'm not going to text her. She picks up and she's excited to hear from you. She says hello. Hi, are you home right now? I am, yeah. Hi, what is it?

Oh my God, I miss you. I'm in DC. You are? Just for now. Not for long. And I need to pick something up from the house. You've been gone like nearly a week. How much longer are you going to be?

I know, babe, I know. I... I want to... If you're in town, are you going to be able to stop by and see me? Can I meet you somewhere? I can... The thing is, I'm with some work associates. Can we hear this?

Are the work associates close enough to hear? It depends. Like, how did you make this phone call? You stopped at a gas station. I stopped at a gas station. I started pumping gas. And then I feel like Tuck was around during that time. I know Tuck was around during that time where everybody was like,

don't pump gas and talk on your cell phone. It'll explode. And she... Like, that was kind of like around the time that she started driving and started having a cell phone. So she definitely is like, tracked far... like far enough away that like,

that ingrained anxiety isn't going to like, kick off. You can... Mary, you can see that she's on the phone with someone smiling. Um... I'm going to let her have it because honestly, this car ride has been going too well for me to push it right now. But a big part of me does think maybe I should go stand by the trash can or something.

But I find it. Yeah. So Tuck, you mentioned, you know, you're with work associates and she's like, I mean, I'd assume that they're being protected too. Just have them come over or something. It's fine. We'll just have them together.

Bam. Oh, you're making this. Oh, man. Okay. We've been in multiple different states. I don't feel comfortable putting you at that kind of risk right now with everything that's going on.

I... Okay, here's my thought. Here's what I'm thinking. Can you... This sounds so shitty. Can you stand on the porch while I go in the house and grab this? Wow. I mean, I...

Yeah, I guess. But that's all the time we're going to have together. Just like saying hi on the porch. Baby. I... What if we have like a nice dinner outside so that we can all be separate but I can see your beautiful face

and we can be close to each other and we can talk to each other? I just... I'm so scared. I'm so scared of getting you sick from some dumbass that I was around in the backwoods of fucking Michigan. Hailey, I am so bored

having so many lovely, honestly. Hey, listen, before I forget, I got a letter in the mail. Did you take a COVID test recently? Yeah. I had to take one for work. Why? Cool. Good to know.

Good to know. Of course I am. I'm not an idiot. Are you wearing yours at work? Okay, well, look at the story. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I'll see you. Okay, amazing.

Okay, I will... Oh, that is... My love, my beautiful wife. That is entirely impossible. Maybe... Maybe one of the others. These two, though, I... This is...

I will say this drive has been the best time we've spent together. Oh, no. We've flown other places, but our pilot is in New York still. Oh, I'm telling you too much. I'm telling you too much. I have to keep you safe.

Yes, we have a pilot. That's all I'm going to tell you. I don't know. I'm sure... Well, Boomer does like to make pancakes. Max, I've talked about it before. It's a nickname. She likes blowing shit up.

It's a nickname. No, absolutely not. It's a nickname. Hold on while the person piloting me looks at their notes. Stephanie and Alan. Stephanie and Alan. Okay, guy, girl.

Okay, cool, cool. All right, well, I mean, I'm just going to get started. I'm going to probably make something vegetarian and make enough for four people. Don't go crazy. I miss you so much. I can't wait to see you.

All right, I'll see you soon. I'm excited. All right, I love you. All right, love you too. Bye. Fuck, I have to tell them this now. God damn it. God damn it.

This is the best thing that's ever happened to us. Serge, I want to thank you for your hard work. Your sacrifice. Your skill. Your deft hand. Your push. There's a master at work right there. All right, so I get back in the car

and I'm like messing with the covering on the steering wheel and like it's squeaking. I'm feeling it so hard. Was that Mallory? No, it wasn't. Everything okay? Do we need to make another stop? Oh, I hate this.

She's saying all of this out loud. Is this about the case? It is. It's about the case we have to pick up. 1997, right? Yes. Okay. Is this a green box?

No. I mean, I can't judge you for making an extra stop, so whatever we need to do. Oh, another sheep farm. It's not a... Well, if I had my way, it would be another sheep farm, but... Okay, you are about to learn some very personal information about me.

I want you to keep this to yourselves. Oh, okay. Okay. He unclicks his pen. Thank you. You can keep this in your brain. You cannot keep it on paper. You cannot tell anyone else where we go.

Merit, especially not Mallory. Absolutely. Mallory cannot know about this. Understood. Off the record, we will keep this between ourselves. This stays in the sedan. This stays in the sedan. Yes.

I'm going to turn my phone off. I'm going to wrap it in my jacket. I'm going to shove it under my seat. Both of my phones, because in case we're being listened to. Okay. I live in DC. My wife is here. My case is at my home with my wife.

We are going to my home with my wife. She wants to have dinner with us. Oh. So, you are Stephanie. You are Alan. Those are the names she knows because I don't know your real names. You're going to find out my real name. And when we get back in the car after that, I'm expecting to know your real names too.

Okay. Okay. That's fair. That's... I have kept her very far from all of this. She knows things, but not everything. And not anything about my job. I'll expect that you give us a rundown of what it is we should know before we enter so that

I don't say anything off kilter to get you in trouble. Yes. What do you think you do? Well, she knows I'm in the FBI. She knows I'm on a terrorism task force. I'm going to... I'm just going to say we all work on a terrorism task force. It's a lot easier than trying to explain what anything else is.

What were we doing in Michigan? Classified. It's classified. I can't tell you. It's classified. Perfection. That's the easiest slide to tell. Yep.

And I use it a lot and she hates it. So, it's about 3 p.m. and you've got two choices. You can either head home or you can head to Mallory. We'll go to Mallory first. If we get to a point, I'll text my wife and be like, we'll come around 6. And then we figure out what we're doing. If we're going to drive back to New York tonight, or if we're going to stay in D.C. for an evening.

And then... If you're comfortable, I already allotted extra space in the budget for a night in D.C. I could always strike off this line I have here for lodging if your wife's apartment is viable. Our home is not going to be an option. That's a shame. For the three of us, or for the two of us. And I give Warp a very direct look.

All of us. We've been all over the place. We've seen people. I'm not risking anything with her. I could be asymptomatic and pass it to her. And I could not be home when she gets sick. There's no way in hell. According to the document that your wife was telling you about,

she was trying to explain that. That explains the critical failure at the beginning of our first session. Oh, that I'm susceptible. You're extremely susceptible to COVID-19. So I wouldn't be asymptomatic. I would be very adamant. You would be the opposite of asymptomatic. You'd probably die.

Shit. You'd be in a bed some more. Talk with all due respect. And this is speaking from me. Let me specify. This is from myself. You could be dead tomorrow. Anything that happens in this program could take you away before COVID ever could.

If it was me, and I had a decision between seeing my loved one and sleeping in a hotel with me, I know the decision that I would make. We'll discuss it. Perfect. And we don't take a lot of space. At least I don't. I don't think Merit does either. I will sleep anywhere you put me, as long as you can give me a four by four square.

You allergic to cats? I am not allergic to cats unless they're short hairs, and that's just seasonal. I see. Is that a joke? Yes. That was actually pretty good. That makes sense. Thank you.

I've been working. I assumed you didn't know how cats worked, and I'm glad that's not true. Okay. We'll talk about it. I hate it here. I don't want to talk about me anymore. Warp's going to put a hand on Tuck now. I'll grab it and squeeze it to balance it out.

I think there's like a million questions. It's like, how long have you and your wife been together? You know, what's the courtship like? How'd you guys get together? Like, he rolls down the pull list now that he's unlocked. Oh, she'll talk about it. She loves, she fucking loves her wife. So you fight through the traffic of DC, and you find yourselves once again in rural pastures,

and then the stench hits you, the smell of manure, and you realize that you are in cow country. You look at the GPS and it says Manassas, Virginia. You pass large fields littered with black cows and bulls, feeding in troughs and large factory-sized barns. Tuck, you're driving, correct? Yes, I need some semblance of control in my life. You notice that the GPS coordinate is not far off now, maybe 10 minutes. What do you do? Should we have everything?

Do we have videotape? I have the tape with me. That's it? I guess that is, yeah. Should we game plan anything that we think we need to ask Necessary of Mallory? I'd like to talk to her about Halo. Okay, I was thinking the same. I was thinking of drawing anything they have off Meadowbrook in any associated case.

The Waminero, Darkman, yeah. Exactly. Also all relevant case files to Agent Flute and Agent Nancy of 1984. Oh, good. Both as professional curiosity and personal curiosity. I'd like to see where that leads for Perennial and what we can put onto the database for that. You've been driving for a few minutes now, and I mean, you're really in the middle of nowhere at this point, where once was an empty interstate.

You see that there's like a, there's one vehicle about 100 yards ahead of you that's kind of coming. As it approaches, Tuck, you notice it's a black van. It's going fast, and suddenly police lights begin to flash from within the windshield, flashing out towards you. What do you do? I'll, uh, I'll pull over. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Is there, is there, is there like insignia on the van or is it straight black? You know, it's coming right at you about 100 yards away.

You don't see any insignia, just straight black. I'll start pulling over, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep, keep my foot ready to switch pedals and whip around it if I can. If they're, like, if they're coming to ram us, I'm gonna try and get around them. Agent Warp and Mayor, what are you doing in this moment? I believe that's them, but we can't take any chances. And then he'll put his hand to his sidearm at his, at his hip. Um, not ready to pull it or anything, but he's prepared for when they, they get themselves pulled over. Uh, Tuck, if, if you could pull yourself out in an angle enough that we can get away if we need to, let's take as much precaution as possible.

Warp. Stay down. I'd like to imagine, I'd like to imagine your face just goes into the wool. Yeah. If they're, if they're gonna open fire on us and they don't know who we are, we need to keep her safe. Agent Merritt, you are getting ready and you know, just kind of instinctively, you look at warp, you look past warp out the back window. And there's another black van also with internal police lights gaining on you from behind. Tuck, flash your hazards when you pull over. Okay. I'll, I'll punch the hazard with a knuckle and I'm going to put my hand on my, on my weapon too.

You come to a stop on this kind of dirt road and you know, skitters to a halt, there's some dust kind of passing the car as you come to a stop. The two vans reach you almost simultaneously, both of them skidding to a stop and the van doors fly open. About four individuals on either van wearing black combat gear come spilling out. You can see that they are carrying assault rifles, shotguns. They do not appear to be fucking around. What do you do? Merritt, take your hand off your gun. I realize that I'm outmatched, so I take my hand off my gun, hands up.

Hands on the wheel. Warp, pick yourself up, hands up. There's no hiding this time. She is terrified. They're confirming. Remember that we have very important evidence on us. That's all this is. It's a pickup.

It's a draw. Right. Okay. As Merritt is kind of trying to calm you, keep things, you know, everyone stay, it's okay. Both teams approach the vehicle. The team from the front van approaches the driver's side door and talk you are immediately pulled out. That's fine. I can, do I have had, will I have had time to put my mask on?

Yes. Then I'll, oh man. I'm going to say agent Tuck, counterterrorism task force. We were called here by agent Mallory. You are trying to get that sentence out, but they are kind of manhandling you a little bit. But nonetheless, you are pulled out and stood up. The team from the back van pulls out the passengers, Merritt and Warp. As I'm pulled out, I inform them there is precious sensitive material in the passenger side by my feet where I was sitting.

It needs to be handled with care. Thank you. Almost in response, your hands are thrown behind your back and all three of you are cuffed. They take your service pistols, they take your phones, and they cover your heads with a white hood. I'm going to talk to Warp as much. Can I, can I try and talk to Warp as much as I can? Sure. Warp, we are still here.

We're, they're just taking us to, I don't even think we're supposed to know where we're going. It's okay. That is what you are saying as you are being dragged in the direction of what you assume are the vehicles. All that you can see is just below your periphery, your feet. You have no idea if Warp is even with you. I'm just going to keep up a constant stream of like, we're here, we're with you, you're alright. You are pushed into one of these vans you assume. You hear the doors closed and the vehicles take off.

You can hear the breathing and the panting of the individuals who have detained you. Warp, you do not hear Tuck. No, no. What are the three of you doing in this moment as you're basically being jostled around in this van waiting for the next moment? I guess we know what Tuck is doing. Yeah, I think Merritt goes back to yoga breathing exercises and he tries to find presence of mind. He imagines the energy ball moving through his body and tries to focus on that exclusively and accepts and trusts enough that they won't kill him and if they do, there's nothing he can do about it.

Warp starts counting, trying to count like however long they're driving away from this point, but she starts counting in Greek just because it's something to focus on. After about ten minutes, the van comes to a stop and the door slides open. You are pulled out and onto your feet and you begin stumbling your way towards some new area. Agent Merritt, you can tell that you're all still walking on gravel or dirt and then it changes to kind of wood. Agent Tuck, you can tell that you've all been brought inside some kind of structure. And Agent Warp, you are the first to notice that familiar smell of livestock, that musk, but you don't hear any livestock.

Someone touches the top of your head and kind of signals for you to watch your head. You kind of instinctively duck into a new space and are led down some stairs. The temperature drops a little bit as you descend. A few more seconds and you're done with the stairs, you're led down a tunnel or a path, smooth like concrete now. You're stopped in front of something, you're kept still for a moment and you hear the hiss of a hermetic seal being broken. Then they continue leading you forward. Another door opens and you are brought inside and finally sat down. Agent Tuck, they lift the black hood from over your head and you can see that you are in a windowless, dark room.

Lit only by floodlights. You are sitting on an aluminum chair and before you is a floor to ceiling mirror. A mirror similar to the mirrors that you saw in Meadowbrook, floor to ceiling. In the reflection, you see yourself in the chair, but you also see two of these black clothed individuals who are kind of right behind you. One of them, he looks to be Hispanic looking man, cuts the cuffs, releases them and says only your handler will be with you shortly before walking out and closing the door to what appears to be the only entrance. What do you do? I walk away from that mirror as quickly as I can. I hate it here.

If I can't get away from it, I'm going to back up until my back is against the wall and stare into it. There's a moment. Quiet. You don't hear anything. You're trying to control your breathing, control your feelings. And you hear over an intercom the familiar but slightly modulated voice of Agent Mallory. It's coming in through a speaker, so it sounds a little different, but she says hello, Agent Tuck. I apologize for the aggressive display.

I know about the incident at the cabin. I know that you have been exposed to something unnatural. I have a few questions for you, and if you answer them to the best of your ability, then we can go back to everything being okay again. Would that be all right with you? I don't think I have a choice, but thanks for asking. I'll try to make this as brief as possible. His warp okay? Warp is doing fine, and so is Agent Merritt.

We're just making sure that everyone has got their story straight, and that we haven't missed anything. So if you could, in your own words, could you tell me what happened at the cabin, and specifically, why did it go wrong? You gave us Bauman's information. We went to his apartment, looked for information there. We found a key to a cabin, made our way there. Agent's hide, warp, boomer, and Samuel entered the cabin while Merritt and I circled around back. There was a shed and a subject tank. The subject tank was locked from the outside.

We went inside to see if we could find a key. Hide gave us a key. We went back out, opened the sector kink, heard the sign of crying. I had us shut the subject tank because we all know that something crying in a subject tank isn't ever a good sign, is it, Mallory? There was a disagreement on how to deal with whatever was in there. Agent Samuel wanted to exercise it. We gave him the opportunity. It went poorly.

She came out. She knew things about myself, agent warp, agent hide, and agent Samuel. And then we shot her, burned her body. Merritt was injured. We patched up his neck, and then we prepped the cabin to be destroyed. While we were inside, Agent's boomer, hide, warp, and Samuel were waiting in the car. An individual approached them. They didn't respond to him or his attempts to speak with them.

As Merritt and I exited the premises, he sped off in his truck saying he'd called the police. We gave chase. We dealt with the potential information leak and left. And why do you think it went wrong? We all had a hand in miscommunication as a new team is want to have. We're learning each other. We're learning how each other works. And unfortunately, civilians got hurt because of it.

What do you think could have been done differently? Do you want a chronological list or alphabetical? Whichever you prefer. Agent hide had information that would have been useful to know before we went back to it. Agent Samuel was adamant that he knew what to do. When Agent Merritt and I, and Agent Merritt, hide and I could have taken a different charge. We could have not left four, three squints in an agent alone in a van while we dealt with. There's, in any case, there's tons of things that could have been done differently to change the outcome.

We were all at fault. I don't know what you want, Mallory. We can't change the past. The past has already happened. You gave us a team. The team is learning itself. Boomer and I were the only ones who knew each other before we started this. And then you give us the directive to kill the people we're trying to protect. It's a shit situation anyway you spin it. Do you, in your opinion, believe that you have been able to move past the events that occurred in Meadowbrook?

Or do you believe that they could be affecting your performance even today? Well, if you'd asked me that 72 hours ago, I'd say I was fine. But then a woman who disappeared in front of my eyes appeared in a plane with a contact from another agent on our team. I don't. I don't think. I think I can handle it. But I think any event that happens to an agent is going to affect them. If you want my honest answer, I know the answer you want is no, I'm fine. I know the answer you want is I can handle it and it doesn't bother me.

But that's not an honest answer. And if you want an honest agent and an honest answer, that's the answer I'm giving you. And do you honestly feel no remorse for the deaths of your fellow agents at that opera? Of course, I fucking feel remorse. I made it out. Boomer made it out and they didn't. And it's just luck. It had nothing to do with anything I did or didn't do. Torch shot Buckskin because he was possessed by a house. I could have just as easily been possessed by the house. Boomer could just as easily been possessed by the house.

Buckskin could have shot me. Buckskin could have shot Halo. None of it means anything. But according to your statement, it was you that slit his throat. You that killed the officer. You don't feel bad about that? Of course, I feel bad about it. It's another human life, but we gave him options. And that's the one he fucking took. I can't force a change of the past. I can deal with what happened and what I had to do to keep this directive going,

to keep people alive and safe. And if one of them decided that he was going to be a sacrifice, but couldn't do it himself, then this is the job you've given me. Agent Tuck, I'm noticing a trend. Have you picked up on it yet? That I keep living? Yeah, I've noticed it. Why do you think I picked this fucking name? You've also failed your fellow agents at Meadowbrook. You've failed to de-escalate the situation at the cabin, just like you have failed to solve the disappearance of your sister Mia.

I'm painfully aware of this agent Mallory. Are you... is this a test? Do you... Are you trying to see how far you can push me before I break? Because this is terrible, but this is all things that I think on a daily basis. So if you want to break me, you're going to have to try a little bit fucking harder. Let's change the subject for now. Oh, great. Fun. Would you consider Agent Warp a liability? And before you answer that, we will cut away from you.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God! This has been amazing. This is too much. Too much. She's so casual about it, dude. There are black spots in my vision, motherfucker. So Agent Warp, they lift your hood and you see the same thing as Agent Tuck, except in front of you is a small aluminum table.

A black-clothed individual, their face covered by a wind mask, frees you from your constraints, closes the door, but stays in the room with you. What do you do? Can you at least tell us if we're in trouble? He says nothing and a moment of awkwardness passes between the two of you. I guess not. And then you hear over a speaker the familiar voice, although modulated a little bit of Agent Mallory.

And she almost sounds like she's in a rush, like she's just kind of very off-handedly speaking to you. And she says, All right, Agent Warp, I've just got done speaking with Agent Tuck and Merritt, and they both believe you to be a liability. Can you convince me they are wrong? What? They said that?

I'm not. I promise. I've been mostly focused, and we haven't really been given that much to work with. I mean, later in the case, I would be able to prove myself, but I've really just been trying to sort of learn how things work and how everyone prefers to organize things, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but I'm efficient. Agent Mallory asks you to recount the incident at the cabin.

Do you tell her everything to the best of your recollection, or is there anything that you keep hidden or anything like that? I think all of the moments that were like results of miscommunication I leave out, but otherwise intense detail about everything that she observed, like almost rambling. You complete telling your side of the story, and you hear her say, Good, I believe you.

And the man that is standing behind you walks up to you right beside you, and he puts a bottle of water down, and you hear Agent Mallory say, Please have some water. Calm down. Agent Warp, I'm going to be up front with you. And the man takes a step backwards away from you. I've invited you to a facility few within the program actually know about because I want you all to get the big picture to understand that your operation is important, but also extremely fragile.

Do you believe that you are still fit to continue this operation? Yes, absolutely. Do you feel any remorse for the Stevenson's? I don't. It feels like watching a Falcon hunt. Yeah, I feel sad, but sometimes it happens. Things have to eat, right? She just says, I believe you. And the man standing behind you takes a step forward again,

and he puts a little like snack cake down. And she says, enjoy. And we're going to cut away from you. Agent Merritt, they lift your hood and you see the same as Tuck and Warp, black clothed individuals who unlock your cuffs. They leave the room and next to you is a small aluminum table and you are sitting on aluminum chair. They close the door behind you a minute passes.

What do you do? I think I'm taking deep breaths. I'm trying to memorize the room, know my exit if I need it, and just try and center myself before the conversation. You notice in the corner of your eye some kind of movement. And when you look at its mirror side and where you could not see the seam a moment before a square panel on the glass wall slides open, revealing a door frame and stepping through this door frame is

an impressive figure, tall woman about 1.8 meters in height, weighing in about 70 kilograms of finely toned muscle. But she looks older, older than mid 40s, late 40s. Her hair is gray blonde, cut about an inch long. And she comes in wearing these big glasses aviators. She pulls them off and you can see that her blue eyes seem uneven. And when she comes closer, when she comes more into the light, you realize it's because there is kind of scar tissue all around her eyes.

She's carrying with her something in her hands and she's kind of jiggling around. She slaps it down on the table next to you and you can see that it's a small round bullet shell casing. And with a kind of gruff voice, she says, you know what that is? Do I recognize that casing is coming from a six hour nine millimeter? Yes. Are those the casings I left at the scene? No. It's the casing that someone who has experienced knows not to leave at the scene.

The scene where I put a bullet through the brain of the only man in Michigan who could have tied you together to the Stevenson murders. So you're welcome. Thank you. She kind of straightens. It says, look, I'm going to cut to the chase, pretty boy. You and the other members of perennial security fucked up. The next time one of those smarmy researchers suggests something, you take your gun,

you put it to their skull and you suggest that they sit down and let you do the decision making. Am I clear? Absolutely clear. The only reason your ass isn't rotting in some Michigan shithole of a prison is because of me and the DO. You got it? Understood. All right.

Stand up. Strip search. Get undressed. Okay. He gets up and he's already ripping off his jacket and like doing half the strip for them and he's like adopting the position as best he can. Make a human intelligence check for me. I passed with a 39.

She paces you as you do this and you can't help but be reminded of like a tiger pacing in its cage waiting for its meal, you know, watching the zookeeper, you know, getting the meal ready. And she makes sure you're undressed and she gives you a thorough inspection. It's both humiliating and uncomfortable. And when she's done, she slaps you on the ass and says it's not that cold in here. Is it, Agent Merritt? You can get dressed.

No. No, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. You'll have to forgive me if you want to enter this facility yet to get through me. So that's why I... No, I understand. And I thank you again so much for saving our lives. Listen, I'm going to let you and the others in.

Mallory wants you here for some reason. She wants you to see what's here. That was their name? The Stevens? Shut the fuck up when I'm talking. Right. I think you're a fucking liability. I think perennial is a liability and the DO is losing his edge for approving this.

But who am I? I'm just security, huh? The head of security, no less. Agent Merritt, I really only have one question for you. Are you really serious about moving up within our ranks? I think I've proven that. I think I've proven myself as best as I can. But understanding now that you view me as a liability, I think I need to reassess some

things before I make any decision and move forward. I only want to be the best agent I can and do the most good I can, ma'am. Well, listen to what I tell you and you'll do just fine. You are the lead of this operation. Whether the researchers want to argue it or not, okay? Operational security above all else. Now listen, and she kind of steps up to you, you know, like mono a mono almost. There's something very both physical and this woman has been around soldiers and warriors.

And she kind of, you know, steps up to you, squares up to you and says, look, if you're serious about helping us about the program, there may become a time where I might need to ask you for some help. A little bit of side work for the director personally. You help me out. And regardless of what happens with perennial, I'll make sure you're taken care of. Does that sound good to you? Understood, ma'am.

I appreciate your, uh, your openness. Absolutely. She gestures for the door and says, please, let's step out and meet up with the others. The two of you, you go to the door and as if it had never been locked. You open it without issue. The same goes for the other two, tuck and warp. You are eventually the question stop and you are eventually let out. But I'd like all of you to make sanity checks for the entire experience.

Yeah. I fail with the 75. Dude, warp passes with a 27. Tuck fails. Okay. So tuck and merit, you're going to roll a D four. I rule one sanity. I got a three.

Okay. Are you going to project that sanity onto anyone? Yeah, I'll project it on my dad. I rolled a four. Asian warp, you only lose one sanity. Um, your experience really wasn't that bad. I mean, by the end of it, you have a couple of snacks, but when you step out of the room, you can see Asian tuck and merit and they appear demoralized.

Um, whatever happened in their rooms did not happen in your room. But in this cement hallway are the three of you. A tall blonde woman that exits from the room with, uh, Asian merit. And then, and, uh, about four of these black clothed individuals. And then eventually Mallory comes through out of a side room. Uh, you can tell that you are probably underground in some kind of cement bunker that to your left, there's a, appears to be a mantrap, which is a space where there is a door and another door. And to get from one door to another, you have to, you know, be able to get through.

It's a, it's a situation where you could technically lock the doors and no one could get out to your left. And then ahead of you is a very long hallway that seems to have many more doors. Uh, and all of this is lit by overhead fluorescent lighting. Immediately, Asia Mallory is, she's apologetic. She comes out and says to all of you, I'm very sorry. I hope that you all understand this is an extremely secure facility. I haven't seen you in a number of days. I just needed to know that you were safe to interact with.

Absolutely, ma'am. Uh, no offense taken. The tall woman that came out with merit blonde short haired woman says, Hey, you see Mallory, they're pretty tough. All right. I feel good about this. Uh, I'll see you later. And she begins walking out of the mantrap, uh, entrance along with the four black clothes individuals,

leaving you and Mallory alone in this facility. I think as soon as she leaves, merit takes this deep breath. Like it's unloading and strains himself back up and tries to regain composure. Uh, Mallory notices it. She, you know, she kind of looks at you and tries to change the subject a little bit and says, Welcome to black site cicada agents. I believe you had something to show me. Yes, ma'am.

I had it in the operating vehicle when we were introduced. Yes, they brought it in. Let's, let's go to my office, please. And you begin walking down this longer hallway. You enter a new space and there are six doors, uh, actually about five doors. And one of them is like a little kitchenette area, kind of a break area, but she opens the door onto the left and you see just a kind of office space. Uh, there is the VHS tape on her table along with your phones.

Uh, she explains that your weapons are being kept on the other side of the mantrap, uh, for when you are ready to leave. Mallory, forgive me for asking, but I'm wondering what exactly is this forward operating base used for? Well, uh, this is a facility built in 2008, uh, and it has two uses. Uh, one is a kind of research triage site, uh, when new items are received, we bring it here, our research team looks at it, decides how dangerous it is, and then we, you know, put it on ice somewhere. Uh, we have a space called the library that has, uh, several tomes, artifacts, things like that.

Uh, the other part of this facility is that it is a containment facility. Containment for? Uh, well, uh, I guess I might as well just be upfront about it. Um, when you called me, uh, earlier yesterday, uh, you mentioned the case file and I hadn't read it. Uh, but as soon as I did, I realized why it was relevant to bring you here. Um, there is an asset here that was involved with that case file. You don't, you don't even have credit. No, I, I don't, I don't think that would be, I don't know how we would contain that, to be honest.

Thank God. It's a specimen, formerly human. Uh, she used to be part of, well, she used to be part of the program. But, um, time does funny things to agents. You may know her as Deborah Constance, but the program has known her as Agent Nancy. For a little while, she even took on the name Gene Qualls. I won't bore you with the details of how it happened, but what you should know is that I, I worked under her for a time as Agent Ophelia and she saved my ass on more than one occasion.

But the time came where she became uncontrollable. And so we put her here as a way of, um, containing and studying her. What's different about her? Well, for one thing is she eats human flesh and loves brains. She's a ghoul. Yes. I believe the legend is that she read something, uh, a manuscript that we actually have on site that, uh, that turned her. Did she read it on site or did she read it before?

She found it a long time ago in the 90s, I think it was. This facility wasn't built until 2008. Was this during her assignment to clean up Devils 1984? No, this was sometime. She was brought in shortly after that, um, situation. That situation certainly brought her to the attention of the, well, whatever we were back then. The conspiracy, I suppose. And she worked with us for a little while, but eventually she found this tome and she read it and it made her what she is today.

So you see the importance of bringing you here, of showing you what happens when you let this get out of hand. The importance of not taking wild chances on a whim, doing it by the book. Yes, we understand. I don't know if I can get you clearance to see her, but I think it's enough for you to know that she's here. What I can do is, if you were interested, you could go to the library. Yes, please. We're gonna have to anyway if we're gonna catalog this VHS and she holds it up very leisurely. Well, is there someone who can, um, who can lip read?

I'm sure there is, but is there someone here who can lip read? We can always ask Dr. Chen. She's the new head of the research here. You want to follow me to the library? Absolutely. While we're getting names, Dr. Chen Research, who was the woman, um, a part of my introduction? That was the director of security. Her name is Catherine Oaks. Thank you very much. She pulls you aside a little bit and was like, how was she? Are you all right?

Uh, right is rain. She can be a little hard, but I had a old instructor like that. She just comes with the territory. Good. I know she can be a little rougher on the edges. Um, all right. Well, if you want, let's visit the library. Yes? Yes. The three of you are led outside of her office and down the hall in the direction that you have not ventured yet. Again, a very long hallway. As you're walking, Agent Mallory just seems to be, she seems chattier than usual.

She really, it's almost like a, a kind of anxiety is being lifted by talking about a little bit. And she reveals that for about four years, she was in fact the former site manager of Zakeda and had relinquished it in the hopes of moving into a new position within the program as well as kind of, you know, starting perennial, perennial is kind of her child. So you're not, not just the case handler in terms of perennial, you're in a part of the brain trust that put it together then. I recommended it and it was approved. So I've been kind of overseeing it from the beginning. Yes. How did you become not just a grunt? Yes. What's, what's the trade off between Affilia and Mallory? How do you, how did you step up? Honestly, surviving. I learned not long ago that, that it's best to just try to avoid the unnatural in any way possible. That usually helps.

While, while you guys are walking, Asian Tuck and Merritt, this is honestly the closest you have been to Mallory. The last time you saw her, she was, you know, six to 10 feet away from you. She smells like cigarettes. And this is weird, but you think she's wearing a wig? I've described her before as having very soft hair and you're a little taller than her. She's kind of a short woman and yeah, you, she might be wearing a wig. Before long, just a minute or so passes and you come to a juncture where again, long hallway into the distance and to the right and to the left are two double doors. She gestures casually to the right and says, that's what we call the pen. And this is the library and she points to her left. Can't give us a name like the pen and then not tell us what the pen is Mallory. It holds Nancy.

Oh. Is it dangerous to keep her so close to literally all of the information? She's been here since 2008 and it hasn't been a problem. So was the cicada base created to hold her specifically then? Yes, actually, if you notice, a lot of this looks brand new because this level was built secondarily after the first level, which was the pen. Is it usual common practice for the program to construct bases around containment cells or things related to the unnatural as a focal point? No, as you would imagine, budget is always in flux. This was a measure that had many benefits and so the DO thought it was wise to invest. On the subject of the budget, how are we funded?

This is a lot to talk about in the middle of a hallway of a black site. Very quickly and she gestures. She's gesturing to the library doors and what you only now realize is there's like a security guard, a man in nondescript. There's no symbols or anything, but it's clear that he has a pistol at his holster and he's kind of awkwardly sitting there as you guys are asking these very pointed questions. Well, to be fair, you put the operation together so you know that you hired the best at asking questions. Why don't we head inside? She says, Arthur, we'd like to go inside of you. Would you mind? Do you know if Agnes is inside?

And he says, oh yeah, Dr. Chen's in. He swipes his key card and the doors seem to unlock. He opens one of them and you step in. What you see is a larger room. It's four walls and then shelving. Most of the shelving is equipment, computers, old computer, monitors, microscopes, slab equipment. In the center of the room, there's two main tables, long tables. To your left is a table that is mostly empty but has a couple of knickknacks on the far end and there is a woman in a lab coat who is kind of looking it over and has one of those kind of head pieces that magnify her eyes.

And on the right hand side is a table with a series of books inside of glove boxes, the kinds of plastic see-through boxes that you could put your hands into gloves and reach in and interact with what appears to be mostly books. But the woman who is looking at something on the left side kind of looks up and notices you. Oh, Mallory, yes, hi, nice to see you. You've brought some guests. And Mallory introduces you as the agents of Perennial and Agnes' eyes, Dr. Chen's eyes kind of light up. Oh, so this is Perennial, very nice to meet you. I guess you are agent semiology points to Agent Merritt. No, my name is Agent Merritt. It's nice to make your acquaintance, Dr. Chen.

Oh, of course, yes, yes, very nice to meet you. Can I help you with anything? Well, we have a lot of questions. So many questions. We've also come to catalog an item with our case handler Mallory here. We've brought you quite the specimen. Mallory hands over a VHS tape and says they say there's something weird about it, so maybe get a chance to look at it when you can. There's no sound is the main thing, and we need someone to read lips, hopefully. I mean, it's from the 80s, so it's terrible quality and probably a little bit corrupted. Dr. Chen, who is a shorter Asian woman with kind of curly black hair and kind of frizzes out, asks any weird symbols on this?

No, no, I don't believe so. Mallory kind of cuts you guys off and says we wouldn't have let them in here if it was that bad. Chen puts down the VHS tape and Agent Warp, you can see that to the side of you, to the right of you is a table with many, many would look to be very old books and a couple of random items too. About how long do we have in here? Can we have in here? Well, says Agent Mallory, how about this? I'd like to speak with Tuck and Merritt for a moment in private. How about as long as we have our conversation, huh? Wonderful. Take your time. Warp, you remember our objectives in terms of research, what we're looking into in terms of leads we discussed in the car? Yes.

Perfect. Thank you. You good? Yes. Mallory signals to Dr. Chen. Dr. Chen, Agent Warp is one of the best researchers we have. Feel free to put her to work in some way if you're interested. And she turns to the security guard who is now on the inside. This is Arthur. Be nice. Then he just kind of tips his hat to her and she begins leading the two of you out of the library. As you are returning to her office, both of you give me alertness rolls.

Pass to the 33. Crit success. Nice. I fail with the 98. You are a little too busy kind of preoccupied Merritt with the things you want to talk to her about, you're furiously looking through your notes. Tuck, as you kind of go through the door and you're heading back down the hallway, you look behind you and you can see that there is another mantrap, another kind of security station, maybe 100 feet away from you. And you can see another security guard talking to what appears to be some maintenance people. There's about three maintenance people, a woman and two men. They seem to be maybe coming in for work or something. What's back that way Mallory?

That's the security staff entrance. And when she looks back, she says, hi Jerry. And the guard who is kind of talking to these three individuals kind of waves back. So you, how do you hire? Never mind. That doesn't matter. That's unimportant. Let's go away from you guys for a moment. Agent Warp, you are in this room with Dr. Chen and Arthur's the security guard. What are you interested in looking at? I want to see what Dr. Chen is working on first. And then honestly, anything, what's, is there any specific items that stand out on the table or can I read the titles of the books?

You walk up to these displays and you see that there are some, it seems like one of the displays is just dedicated to a couple of small journals and it's not really labeled, but there are other boxes that are labeled. There is a book called La Fête du Nouveau Monde, which roughly translates to The Feast of the New World. There is another book that reads Cult the Ghouls. There is another one that is labeled simply the ghoul manuscript. At least, at least they're very direct. The ghouling for dummies? It looks like a journal, like it doesn't say on the book the ghoul manuscript.

Imagine like in a museum, there's like a little card at the bottom. Yes, there's like a placard that says the ghoul manuscript. At least it's not like a post-it note or something. Oh, by the way, the ghoul manuscript is bound in human leather. So you can see like a human bone for the spine of the book and it's bound in human flesh. Just by the way, he says. With peace and love, by the way, should never be accompanied with human leather. And then the final book at the end is, again, looks to be kind of a thicker journal, but there's nothing on it.

All it says at the bottom is Damonte Grimoire with a question mark. That's a cool name. Why is that familiar? The final thing at the end is that there are three things that stand out to you. Besides a couple of random knickknacks like pocket change and stuff, there appears to be a stick. It's a staff made of ironwood, capped at one end with two human skulls and with a spike at the other. It almost looks like it could be used as a weapon. What the fuck?

The label for it just says fetch stick, F-E-T-C-H fetch stick. There is what appears to be just kind of like this old leather bag and the plaque says bad corpse dust. Why are you like this? It's regular, regular leather? It seems to be regular leather, yes, just very old. Then finally there's just a whistle with a little chain on it and the plaque just says whistle. From bad corpse dust to whistle. Fuck this place.

I'm most scared of the whistle. That's the fact that it just says whistle. Your eyes are just kind of lighting up, looking at all these very curious things. Yeah, I think it's like going to a museum for the first time and trying to like making the action to touch it and then realizing that would be such a bad idea. Dr. Chen kind of sees you, you know, kind of walking and she says we keep them here because it all has to do with ghouls. These items were found in operas. We hope to better understand what we're studying here. Would it be okay if I looked at some of these?

Oh yeah, feel free to open any of them. We haven't found any kind of memetic problems with any except that one and she points to the ghoul manuscript. And you can notice that there are no gloves to be able to reach into it. There's no way to open the ghoul manuscript. What happens if you read it? Well, if you read it, you become her and she gestures towards the pen. I see. Okay, well, cult to ghouls it is.

And she's going to start with that one. So you open it up. It's written in French. Reading this would take days, probably. But fortunately, it seems like Delta Green is very thorough. Excuse me, the program is very thorough. And there's a little kind of like index card and it says cult to ghouls. And on it, there's a kind of synopsis of what there is to understand about this book.

It says that Francois Honoré Balfour Comte de Lett. I have no idea if I'm saying that right. French is hard, yo. Yeah, wouldn't be. I don't know. Was a aristocrat that was brought into something known as a ghoul cult in Paris. This aristocrat was wealthy, depraved and perverse and had a sociopathic level of selfishness. And so, while the cult did not want him to ever discuss this, he created in 1703 something that he penned the cult to ghouls.

And he even distributed it through underground channels across France. The result of this incredible act of psychotic conspicuousness was that French authorities cracked down on the cult in a series of raids across the country. The book details rituals about eating flesh to transform into a ghoul as well as other unnatural hyper geometry that we have yet to test. Hmm. Is there anything that seems like maybe like something to help defend against ghouls at all in the like hyper geometry section? No, nothing. At least the index card itself does not say anything about how to protect against ghouls. Okay.

It's a very just kind of cliff notes version of what you can find in this book. Okay. While you are looking over this book, and you know, it takes a couple minutes, you hear over your shoulder fucking hippies. And it's clearly Dr. Chen. Hip? What do you mean? What are you looking at? She kind of turns and kind of is holding a piece of paper is like just just some bullshit that came in via the mail.

You know, an agent sent this in. I think he's NSA saying worried that he's he's worried that this is something unnatural. But I don't know, it just looks like hippie to be bullshit to me. What does it look like to you? She hands you something. She hands you a pamphlet. It's, you know, badly photoshopped. Could you could you do me a quick favor and just describe this this pamphlet?

Yeah, it's a one one sheet double sided pamphlet that says beautiful gal worthy farm. And it sort of talks about where what harmonic bliss is. And then it has a couple of like anecdotal stories about how good harmonic bliss was for people, which seems to be like the practice of essentially getting on the same wavelength as someone else. She points out one thing in particular. You'll you'll see in the first side, there is a symbol. Could you describe to me what you think that symbol kind of looks like that's in the like the bottom right? It kind of looks like. I think I'm thinking the same thing.

It kind of looks like a hip bone. Fallopian. Yeah, fallopian tubes. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, I think that's a great explanation of it. I was going to say butterfly, but I think fallopian to hip hip bones. I was going to say crab. The other thing it reminds you of though, Agent Warp is the symbol that you would have to draw every morning as a child.

The symbol that the Oracle wore. This is the symbol of your cult. And I need you to make a sanity check, please. I wonder because it says bliss on it. Yeah. She does feel that. No. I think that you are going to lose one sanity.

And I think I need you to make another sanity check to see whether you whether your disorder kicks in. There. Hey. Yeah, it's a fail. What does it look like as you are looking at this and you realize what this is? Okay, I think she's gonna. Okay, she's gonna stare at it for a long time. And she's going to start tracing it because if she if she recognizes she's going to start like tracing it on her hand.

And she's going to keep tracing it like pressing a little bit harder every time. It's only going to take a few seconds, but to the point where it starts to become irritated. Yeah. And I think that Dr. Chen would notice this and probably be like agent, you're going to tear the paper. Stop, stop. Sorry. Yeah, I would argue in your fugue state that you are now in. You aren't even able to speak.

She kind of just tears it from your hand, but we're going to cut away from you for a moment. Let's go back to Tuck and Merit. You guys walk back into her room and she says, I have a feeling that you guys have a lot of questions. And I wanted to make sure we had the time to discuss them in a quiet place. Merit floor is yours. I wanted to start with Lansing, Michigan. Is there anything expected of Operation Perennial in terms of cleaning up that environment? Should we expect to do anything in the future?

Is there anything you'd like us to do in that regards? Or is it Operation Normal? Should we continue on? Things are Operation Normal thanks to the work of D1 and myself. Just please remember that moving forward, OPSEC is more important than the ideas of the researchers. Can I ask a potentially dangerous question? They're all potentially dangerous, but sure. I guess this one's more potentially dangerous to us as humans.

Why do we have to kill people to find out? The people that see things, that know things. These are the people we're supposed to protect. These are the people that we are... It is our job to keep people safe. These people included. And being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a death sentence for them. Why?

Why? I don't want you to kill anyone, but the truth also cannot get out. And that truth is that our reality is fundamentally different than what most people suppose. More than what they can suppose. The program keeps people safe because it obscures the truth. Tuck, this goes back longer than any of us. We've seen the horrors that average people experience when they come into contact with the unnatural. And we cannot risk that.

There has to be a better way. Just because something's tried and true and old and what it has been for years. We all know that that's bullshit. There has to be some kind of... I don't know. People know that when the CIA show up, or the FBI show up, you don't look too closely. Why can't we have something like that for us? That people don't need to know exactly what it is.

To know not to push too far. It wouldn't be a hard change. It would keep people alive. It would take pressure off of your agents. The agents might have a higher rate of success because they're not worried about keeping it hidden from literally everyone. They can be more focused on the mission than worried about the people they're supposed to keep safe, but also maybe kill. And I know you're not the director. I know you're not the DO, but it's too much for the people carrying things out.

And the people who are affected directly. I'm a case officer now, Tuck. But I was an agent like you just a few years ago. I'm also trying to find my place in this organization. And I think having people like you, people with hearts, might be long overdue for us. But the mission, as the current director dictates, is to keep what we do under wraps for as long as possible. Now, I know you've seen things, and I've seen things too. But I don't want the people I care about to see them.

I don't either. That's not what this is about. It doesn't seem right. We're protectors and executors. That's not right. Perhaps this is best suited for philosophy class. That's fair. It's just a question that's been rattling around in my head. I'm not compromised.

I will carry out the mission to my best ability. But I know you're not compromised. Those who are truly insane show a lack of self-preservation. And I could see I was pushing your buttons. So I know that you and Merritt and Warp are still okay. Speaking of, I wanted to bring up... You mentioned something about a woman on the tarmac. Yes. My God. Yes.

Tuck's going to try really hard to keep the sarcastic pissy bite out of her voice because it's trying to push through. You tell her the details. You fill her in. And she seems unfamiliar with the name. She says, look, I'm going to throw that name up the chain and see if anyone recognizes it. But here's the thing. If she was with Thornbill, then she's technically not with the program.

What? Sorry? There is a face to the program. It's called March Technologies, formerly March Industries. It's a kind of research branch. And we use it to sell research and sometimes assets to the private sector. And it helps fund all of this. You asked about funding. This is how we do it.

So she is no longer an agent in the program. She's working with a ancillary organization. If she was on a program-related mission but is now with March, then there's something else going on. Maybe, you know, March often will scout people that they think are important. It's pretty fucking hard to scout someone when they disappear. How about this? I'll kick the name up, but you should go speak to Thornbill when you get the chance.

I tried to. But we'll do. Yes, ma'am. Where would I find her? She's currently stationed in an Air Force base in Long Island that we double as a research base. She's probably looking at the rock that you gave her now. Wait, there's a potential that that's going to be sold to the private sector? No. We have to understand what it is first.

I don't know if we've ever come across something like this, but I assure you anything that is sold is safe, neutral. We're talking military components, you know, computer chips, advanced technology like that. We're not giving unnatural tomes and artifacts to anyone. That you know of. Does the program have authority over March Industries or technology? Or is it in equal measure? There is a there is a very hesitant yes.

Yeah, make a human intelligence check to see if you can kind of better understand that. Oh, I'd love to. Oh, shit, five. Success. The yes implies there's history. So if we were to contact March Technologies and request any information on the doctor or formerly agent Halo, would that be within our jurisdiction? You'll get a stone wall.

If you want to speak to someone at March, your best options are either Thornbill or I'll put you in contact with someone, someone approved by us. Could we have someone outside of Thornbill just in case that Thornbill's been compromised by whoever this person is? I can reach out to Dr. Taffum, see if he's interested in speaking to you. He's a little bit of a surly goat, though. I have a way with those personalities. I'd love to be put on.

He might be stationed in New York. I'll reach out to see where he's at right now. Thank you so much for that. I also had a professional curiosity as well as a personal curiosity in both Agent Fluke and Agent Nancy's case reports. As much information as we have, I understand that's partly our... Our objective is perennial, but anything we may have leads to information of cases they worked on or anything with their history.

This was Fluke's last, so we'd have to go back. Exactly. I can probably pull up Fluke. It'll be more of just a personality report, kind of talking about his history in a more legal fashion with the FBI and such. His cases in that time, there really was a lot of bad bookkeeping, so honestly finding more about him is going to be difficult. But I can find out about his personal history.

Anything you can give me in terms of his history, I think would aid the operation. I'd love to know anything more about that crazy old bastard. Agent Nancy, I believe you know her as Constance or the subject. Yeah, oh yeah, I know her quite well. Let me see what I can put together for you. Nancy is very delicate. Again, you being here took a lot in the last four hours, but I will see what I can dig up.

I do know that a case she was personally involved with as Agent Nancy is on the server. I'll get you that code for it. Perfect. Please. And anything related to Meadowbrook or the dark man itself, we would like to highlight or finding an emphasis, a train, a thread to pull at. The Devatellos were the family.

Devatellos. Luminero near Lothotep. We feel like he's cropping up in multiple circles, so. Yeah, he tends to do that, I hear. You are discussing this. You hear a man's voice. Hey, I told you to stay right there. There are two successive gunshots and the lights go black.

The very next moment you are bathed in red emergency lights and you hear over the intercom. Containment breach. Containment breach. I fucking knew it. I fucking knew it. Please. What?

What the fuck? Shit. Agent Mallory is like, uh-oh. Uh-oh. We don't have weapons. We have to secure the subject. We have to get warp. We have to get warp.

Mallory, where's the armory? Where are weapons kept? The armory is down the hall. But let's find out what's going on first. And she goes to the door and the door is locked. But she takes her key card and swipes it and it unlocks the door. She opens it and says, uh, after you. After us?

What? You guys are a lot younger than me. Well then hand your firearm over. I don't have a firearm. You don't? What the fuck? There is a literal ghoul down here and you don't carry firearms. That's what the security is for.

It's going to be fine. We're going to find them and figure out what's going on. Unless she killed them all. Let's collect warp first. Then we can find out what's happening. Who steps out the door first? Me. You just like step out?

Yeah. I mean, I'm following procedure because Merit's a better agent than I am. But he's, you know. It's darker in this hall than it was before, but you know, it's lit by red. And you can see in that center area where you could go right and go into the pen. You can go left and go to the library. There is a body on the ground and about a dozen feet past that body. You see the bodyguard Jerry kind of writhing in pain, holding his gut.

I'm immediately going to become as cautious as possible. I'm going to turn back to the other two and call the body down the hall. I haven't assessed yet. I'm going to call out to the dying man or not call out. I'm going to direct. I'm going to point to either passageway at the T intersection he's caught at. And sort of signaling, you know, is there danger? He is kind of ignoring you and just like, you know, fuck, fuck, you know, screaming at the pain.

You kind of strategically begin moving down this hall, Merritt. As soon as Mallory kind of sticks her head out and sees that there doesn't appear to be anybody in any kind of combat or anything. She just starts walking down the hall, kind of no, no stealth or anything whatsoever. What the fuck? Could I check that first body for a firearm? I watch our backs the entire time. OK, Merritt, you get right up to the body. It is a man.

He looks to be in his early thirties. He has a bullet right under his eye. He appears to be dead. He has kind of blonde short hair and he's dressed in what appears to be like a custodial outfit. But he does have a gun in his hand. I will take that firearm from you. Does he just have one or does he have multiple? He just has one.

Now that you are closer to him, you can see just to your right leading into the pen, a trail of blood. Is the pen closer to me or is the person writhing on the floor? Dead on the ground is right in front of you. To the right is the doors for the pen. To the left are the doors to the library. And ahead of you about a dozen feet is the writhing security guard that Mallory has called Jerry. And she is moving towards him. I'm going to call out to Mallory.

Case handler, let's get warp first then we can attend to the injured. I don't know where the threat is. I don't understand where it is. You have no weapon. Let's regather. All right. Fine. Fine.

Fine. But Jerry, are you okay? She calls out to him. He just calls out as if this is something he's practiced with. Three perps. Man. Two men. Woman.

I think I shot one of them dead. Two at large still? Yeah. Where'd they go? Into the pen. Fuck. Okay. All right.

Look, look. Hold on a minute. Mallory kind of stops you. If they're going to the pen, that means they're trying to break him out. But it's impossible except if they turn off the power. The generator is down there. If they turn the power off, everything resets, including the locks. So we can get warp, but we also kind of need to get in there.

Can they lock the library from the inside? The library is locked. The only way to get it open is to manually do it from the security room. Okay. Then we leave her in there. She's safe in there. We leave her in there. Okay.

Let's head to the generator then. Go to the security room first to see what's going on. Right. You go and basically right at the security door is this Jerry who has been shot in the stomach and blood is pooling around him and he's just kind of trying to rest himself up against the wall. I need a doctor. Jerry, you got an extra gun?

I got my gun. We're going down there. We'll lock you in here. No, no, no. There's no time for worrying about me. Just take my gun and he hands you a standard pistol. Put pressure on your stomach. Yeah.

I'm going to just proceed into the security room and check the corners. Keep myself on a wire. The security room has a panel of buttons that you can press to kind of change on what looked to be about six to seven monitors. The ones that are worth looking at are the ones that you don't really recognize the rooms. There is a hallway that seems to split in two and you see two individuals. One of them has a ponytail and they seem to be talking for a moment. There's no audio and then they split and they go in opposite directions.

One to the right, one to the left. And Mallory's there with you and she says, I think that one, the one that went to the right, that's the pen. The left is the generator. But here, here, this is the button that if you want to unlock the pen entrance. Why would we unlock the pen entrance? I mean to get into that area, not to unlock the actual pen itself, I mean. Yeah.

To get to the generator. Is there an intercom somewhere nearby? Yes. There is an intercom system. I'm going to flag the intercom. I'm going to say... This is Agent Merritt. We have two suspects inside of operative base.

We need all agents in these two locations immediately. Bring firearms. They are armed. They are dangerous. And then immediately I'm going to slam the button on the open for the pen. I'm also going to try and see if I can cycle through those cameras and find any agents that have been locked in rooms to free them out into the hallway of the weapon. You can see that on one of the cameras, it's looking into the mantrap that is the entrance

that you probably entered from. And you can see a security guard on the other side trying to dial something. And now he's like on the phone talking to somebody he hangs up and he's just trying to like figure out how to get in. And with him you can see your weapons and your cell phones. I'm going to let him in and open the pen. It doesn't work. Mallory says there's no way to actually open these doors unless we turn off the power

or unless someone from the outside comes in and does it from the outside. Right. Best case scenario, Roger, and she points to the guy that's on the other side of the mantrap. Best case scenario, he's contacted Oaks and she's on her way back. But we can get through to the pen while they're working their way in. Yeah. All right, let's go.

Agent Warp, give me another sanity check to see if you're able to kind of fall out of your fume. No, that's a failure. You hear over the intercom merit talking, but you don't say anything. You do hear the security guard saying he's kind of yelling at the door. You got to open it from the security room. He's like trying to get their attention. I would say that the two of you are able to eventually see him in the doorway talk and

merit. And you get the impression that if you want to unlock the library, you've got to do it in the security room. Can they lock it back again? Yes. I will say that he could. We leave them in there. Yeah.

Absolutely. You unlock the door, open it up. He kind of spills out and is, you know, he starts telling you that he sees he saw two perpetrators go into the pen through the door. And you also see that Warp is basically catatonic standing in the middle of the room. I got to deal with this first, then we come back for her. Absolutely. So what do you want me to do?

We need, we need, we need all the guns we can get in there. Okay. All right. Yeah, sure. Lock them in here. Close the door. Slides his key and seems to lock. We need you to head off the pen while we go to the generator.

Generator's first priority, but there's still a perpetrator in the pen. You think you can handle that? One of you are going to be with me, right? No. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I can totally handle that.

Absolutely. Perfect. Thank you. You go to the door. There has been unlocked the, the pen door. You open it and you see a staircase that leads down. I assume you start descending. Yeah.

And how are you moving? Yeah, I think I'm heading it up and I'm moving quickly, but not so quick that I can't keep my surroundings around me. You know, it's, it's with the gun eased at my chest as well. I'm at the ready in case something appears and I'm checking corners and you know, trying to do this is like it's a firing round. Same. I'm keeping track of the back too.

Tuck, you look back who, you know, and there's Arthur, the security guard behind you. He is very, he is visibly getting more nervous the, the more you descend these stairs, but eventually you enter a lower level that looks older, like the, the, the wall sconces, the lights on the walls, the way, even the way like the cement was paved. It just has this air of like a generation older than the above level. Right. Cause this is the portion that was made for her. This was 2008.

There is another man trap, but it looks like the door that would have blocked them from entering has been blown open by some kind of small explosive. There's a, you know, kind of black on it. You gotta go fast. If they've got small explosives, we need to stop this quickly. Yeah. You come to a T-juncture. This is a much smaller area to the left.

You can hear the hum of a generator to the right is just a pair of double doors. I'm going to point at the double doors and look at Arthur and say, that's, that's all you. We're going to move down to the generators. We have to stop him before you can break them down. If he does break them down, the subject will be creed and it will be exponentially more dangerous, but we need you to stop whoever is inside. Look.

All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go. And he starts making his way to those doors. We're going for that hallway towards the generator. Go ahead and make a stealth check.

The two of you. We're famous for these. I'm out of time. 26. I fail. I succeed with an eight. Oh, shit. So here's what happens.

Merritt, you open the door and you walk in. There is a the door does kind of squeak a little bit. Tuck you instinctively kind of move to a position of safety. But Merritt, as you are moving, you hear a man step out and he just says, fuck you. And he just fires his gun at you. Okay. He succeeds with a 26. Okay.

Shit. You take eight points of damage. No. Gotcha. You are blasted. We'll say you kind of shoot you with a leg. And you kind of stumble backwards. Agent Tuck, if you wanted to give kind of a return fire to cover him.

Oh, yes, I do. Okay. 19. That's some success. Go ahead and fire at him and do your damage. A d10, I think it is. Uh, that's five points of damage. The shot brings out if you hear the man on the other side of this large generator scream

and it sounds like he kind of stumbles and you can no longer see him back there. Uh, also you don't know what you're doing. You are putting yourself and everyone at risk. You need to stand down. Agent Merritt, if you'd like to do something, you can. Uh, I can't see him. You currently cannot see him. He seems to have stumbled out of view behind the generator.

I mean, I think that, you know, I've just barely missed off nicking my femoral artery and I'm bleeding down the side of my slacks. I'm limping immediately. I'm going to try and get myself to the back of the generator and corner it. I'm not making myself visible. But I am prepping myself in the event that I have to turn the corner and shoot. So I'm letting Tuck, you know, present the opportunity for me to take a shot. Got it.

So you're, you're holding in action if he comes around the corner and he's visible. Got it. So Tuck, it sounds like you're the one that needs to proceed. Yep. Uh, seeing that Merritt's on the ground, um, I'm going to duck, kind of like duck walk low, uh, towards where I saw the guy and keep my shoulder touched on, uh, on different parts of cover, uh, until I can see him. You make the corner and you immediately notice a still lit cigarette that has dropped to

the ground, presumably out of his mouth. And you can see just down the way, just a little bit at the end of the generator. Uh, this man who is badly bleeding from his chest has kind of dragged himself. And as soon as you come, he kind of tosses his gun in your direction, puts his hand up. Can I see if he has any explosives on himself? Like if he's, if he's wired for anything. Make an alertness check. Oh shit.

I do not want to die, but that's success with 48. He does not appear to have any explosives on him. Um, but he says you're too late. But if I fail, she'll be able to get her out one way or another. That we're getting a little justice for Nancy. Make a, make an intelligence times five role. I succeed with a 50. This is a small Asian man, old in his late 60s.

He's got a big thick mustache. Uh, looks to, he's got a big frame glasses. And he looks to have smoked himself, uh, into an extremely skinny state. And in fact, as you're kind of walking towards him, he's reaching for a pack of bloody cigarettes and like trying to put it in his mouth again. Are you just going to do it or what? And he starts lighting it. I'm going to, I'm going to grab him by his shirt and drag him over, um, over out the door

and like shove him in front of me like a shield and push him towards, towards the pen. Let's make opposed athletics checks. Okay. Because I think that is not what he wants to do. That's very fair. That's a success with 32. He had a success with a 36. Motherfucker.

He's going to break from you and he is running over to what appears to be a control panel. Oh, I'm shooting him then. He's done. Okay. Go ahead and make that attack. Oh, it's an 80. I have an 80. It's exactly an 80.

Okay. Go ahead and roll that detect. Oh my God. Oh, good job. An eight. You shoot him in the back. His body crumbles and kind of like sickeningly slams into the control panel, but it doesn't seem like he hits anything.

Nothing turns off. Nothing seems to change. Um, go ahead and roll me a sanity check for killing a man. That's fair. And, uh, uh, Merit, why don't you roll me a sanity check for taking so much damage. Okay. Uh, 21. It's a fail at the 66.

My heart is not made for murder. Yeah, I think you're going to need to roll a d4. Merit, you just are going through the motions of, okay, this is going to take this long to heal as long as I cover the wound and tightly bandage it. It should be okay. Yeah. Can I actually rip a part of the, well, he's probably not wearing a dress shoes. I don't know.

Part of my clothes to create like a makeshift tourniquet and give myself some first aid as fast as I can. Well, that gets turned in that corner. Well, if you want to heal from it, then I'll need to ask you to make a first aid roll. Uh, I have a 33, which I think is above my 30 unfortunately. So that is unfortunately a failure. You are able to stop the blood, you know, you're able to kind of keep it from getting worse, uh, but you aren't able to heal yourself.

The problem is, is during this interaction, you hear the gunshot from, uh, tuck and you hear a series of gunshots coming from the pen and then silence. Um, how bad is this? Am I good enough to continue to operate? You are pretty sure that your femur has been shattered, that your thigh bone is broken. So I couldn't walk if I wanted. You could still walk if you wanted to. It's just going to be real painful.

Mary, are you still mobile? I think I am. How are you over there? He's down, but I think we have to get to the pen. I'm heading there now. I'm going to go over and pull him up and give him my shoulder. You help him up. Mary, give me a, um, let's do a constitution times five roll.

Where's Mallory and all this shit? I thought she was with us. She, she is with you. She's probably in the hallway at this point. 16 under 50, so I succeed. Okay. You do not lose any willpower, kind of fighting through the pain. Once I'm standing, I'm going to look too tough and say, just go forward.

I'm going to follow. I don't need the hand. We need you faster. Gotcha. Mallory, there's a gun. Get it. Okay. All right.

Fine. But you were an agent before you can be an agent again for a fucking minute. She grabs the gun and follows you. Who's going into the double doors leading to the pen? I'm going in first. I'll go in second. I actually turned to Mallory and I say, well, agent Ophelia, if you can check my corners for me and keep that gun pointed at someone that is not me, we can do this together.

We'll follow Tuck. You'll stay with me. Call my shots. Was that a joke calling the Ophelia? It's Mallory. Yes, it was. Please. Agent Tuck, how are you entering?

Do I need to ask you for a stealth role or are you just kind of pushing through? I think at this point, she's heard all the shots. I think I'm going to go in loud and try and duck real fast to give the other two a shot. Okay. Let's make a firearms check at minus 20 because you're basically coming in and kind of firing at the first thing that seems to have movement. Right. So firearms minus 20.

That's a failure of the night, too. You kick the door open. You do see movement on the other end of this kind of larger room. It is a woman and she kind of ducks behind a panel as you fire at her and you are able to find some cover behind a kind of desk that is set up closer to the wall. What you, what the three of you see is a very large room, maybe a 50 by 50 room. And there is a circular hole in the concrete floor with a very thick, possibly many, many inches of looks to be laminated glass that is covering this hole.

So there is a clear view to into the floor and there is light emanating from the floor. It looks to be kind of fluorescent light that is somehow down there, but you don't see the lights down there. There appears to be a free standing kind of PA system, some kind of box where there is a speaker and a walkie on it. But the hole is deep enough that you cannot see into the floor. The walls do appear to be sloped like pyramid shaped, almost like they're folding in towards the top, which is a hole with glass over it.

You also see a door that seems to lead into another room. But your main concern right now is that there is a woman on the other side who has taken cover from you. I've kind of given you the surprise round. I think that she would probably just yell out. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. This is nothing to do with you. You're releasing a ghoul onto people.

It has a lot to do with me. She had a name once. She was a person once. I know she's a person. She chose this. Yeah, and they took it away. They took it all away from her. It's not fair.

She was a good person. She was a good agent. And now she's dangerous. Stand down. You're outnumbered. Merritt, it's your turn if you'd like to do something as you hear them kind of yelling across from each other. I have no sight of her.

I would like to take the turn to aim, giving myself a plus 20 on my next shot and preparing myself as soon as it's clear. I'm not making any noise so that she does not know I'm there. She's focused on talk. I'm going to shoot as soon as I see her. The two of you here, I've already placed the explosives. You don't have to be a part of this. Leave now.

I'm going to blow this room and then she can finally be free. And both of you kind of instinctually look at the glass and sure enough, kind of every, you know, couple of feet, there appeared to be some C4. Would we know enough that like if we were in the same room and it blew, it would be dangerous? Yes, yes. She's, yeah, this is like a suicide mission. It's your turn to talk if you want to do something. Does it look like there's a detonator or does it look like it's timed or can I not tell?

You don't see a detonator. It's probably on everything. Is there a way that I can start moving to get an angle on her? Sure. I mean, if you want, you can either make a stealth check or you can just try to, I will have enough movement to get to where you can see her. Would I have enough movement to get back to cover? No.

You basically be moving to a position where you could fire on her if you wanted to. Yeah, I'll do it. You heroically leap out and start running. You eventually see her kind of hiding behind something and you raise your gun and you fire at her, make that attack. It's a success for the six. Cool. Go ahead and do your damage.

Three. She was holding her action to fire on you if she saw you. Makes sense. Makes sense. That is a failure. She kind of whips her gun around, but you're just too fast. You like dive and you fire at her and you kind of just shoot her in the hand. She screams out in pain and you see a, what looks to be a handheld, like a really old

mobile device slide across away from her and away from you and she starts scrambling towards it. If you want to get it, give me an athletics check. Yes, I do. Yes, I fucking do. What are you doing there? If I hear gunshots, I want to round the corner and get to where my partner is. I'm going to prime the gun as soon as I see her.

I will say that you can see the both of them now scrambling towards what appears to be a detonator. You can fire at her, but there's always the risk that you might hit Tuck. I'm going to take that risk because if this happens, it's terrible. I have a success with a 42. Roll your damage. Seven points of damage. My athletics was a failure.

Oh, interesting. What is the failure that you had, Tuck, the number? It was a 60 over 50. You failed less than she failed. She rolled a 71. So you are able to get to the detonator, but you are able to kind of grab her legs and you stop her from being able to move and it's enough time for Merit to take aim and fire at her.

You shoot her and she screams in pain and seems to kind of stop moving and then is like slowly reaching for the detonator and it's still too far to get to it. I would say either of you could get up and grab it. Well, if she's still reaching, I'm going to pump another shot in her. I'm going to get closer. As you are moving, Mallory is kind of walking behind you and she looks at the woman as the woman's kind of turning over and she just says, Tanya, wait, Merit. Gun comes back, but it's primed against her.

At this point, the lights after about a few minutes of this come back on. I assume you guys apprehend her in some way. Oh, absolutely. That detonator, we figure out how to take the C4 off. The whole while while you are tying her up and you walk over to take the C4 and stuff away from the glass and you can see into this hole, it is lit by fluorescent lighting along the walls and about 30 feet down in this pyramid-like space, there is a woman, an attractive woman, a young woman, looks like, you know, a girl you'd see at the club, not Deborah Constance.

And she's just kind of looking up at you guys, watching what you're doing. And when she realizes that you are removing the C4, her shoulders kind of slump a little bit and she moves over to a little cot that is on the ground. You can see that beside that cot is a rotting hoof of a former cow. And she just starts going back to sleep. Mallory almost begins kind of questioning this woman that she has referred to as Tanya, but she kind of holds back and she says, I'm going to go check on Jerry and the others. A few minutes past, the lights return from the emergency red and coming in is Catherine

Oaks and a squad of men in black clothes. They apprehend Tanya and they bring you out. They tend to your wounds. Merritt, you can go ahead and roll the D4. It takes three back. Oaks grills the two of you as to what happened. She thanks you for stopping the incursion and agent warp. Eventually you are giving smelling salts or something and you kind of come back.

You're filled in on what happened. Mallory eventually comes to you and says they've decided to completely wipe this place. We're starting over. We're moving the asset. I'm sorry for all of this. This wasn't my plan. I can assure you. No, that's all right.

You had nothing to do with this breach. You're a victim of circumstance like the rest of us. We understand. Just with all of this, please, this cannot be shared with anyone except, of course, the other perennial agents. I have to ask one more favor of you. Sure. They need to cover your heads so you don't know where we are as they take you out.

They're taking this back to the car? They're taking you back to your car, yes. Leave us all in the same car. You will all be in the same car. Okay. Case handler. Who was she? Tanya, she was an agent of the program.

But in 2002, when we came back online, there were some folks who decided that the program was too bureaucratic and they decided to not come back in from the cold. Tanya was one of them. And I guess she somehow learned of Nancy's whereabouts. A closely guarded secret we tried very hard to keep from, well, her and the others. And that was her code name, Agent Tanya? Yes. If you have no other business with Agent Mallory, she says,

please continue the operation the best you can and inform me when you have a new lead. One quick question. Dr. Chen was working on something that I think if there's any way that I could aid in it maybe remotely or have access to that research, I think that would help us significantly. Yes, of course. I can make a copy of that. They do in fact make a photocopy so you are able to take that pamphlet for harmonic bliss with you. Great.

Unfortunately, your heads are covered again. You are brought out of the facility and the next time the hoods are lifted, you are standing in front of the Corolla. The people who brought you here jump into their vans and they jump off the road. I'm assuming they gave us back our phones. They gave you back your weapons and your phones, all of your personal items. Did they give me a crutch or something? Yes.

Am I that bad that I'm... Yes. Your leg is in a cast. I would say your whole leg has to be in a cast and you have a crutch. Okay. And you are allowed to go on your way. All right. Warp, why don't you sit up front with me so American put his leg up?

Of course. I think that's a good place to bring the session to a close this time with no words to be said as you have survived a lot of stuff today. Oh God, we have to go see my wife after this. There's so much. Thank you. Hey Mayday listeners. Caleb here celebrating a year of Mayday role play.

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And we've saved you a seat. Join the Mayday role play Patreon today at patreon.com. Constance quals Nancy. She wakes from a sleep so deep no human could survive it. A noise above her draws the attention of her unnatural hearing. It has been countless years she has spent in this hole existing in a kind of torpor. Not dead, but not really alive. Waking only at the smell of either rotting flesh or when they enter.

And force her. Hold her down and feed her the brains of another. Learning their secrets, but gaining another personality to contend with in what has become a crowded cell. Her eyes adjust to the lighting and through the thick glass ceiling above her, she can see Tonya, her friend from so long ago. She's placing explosives around the perimeter. Is this a dream?

Is this really happening? Is this how she finally gets out? It was so tough for her in the early years. Her hope of escape dashed over and over against the smooth concrete walls of her prison. But time heals all wounds and now the thought of the outside world's expansive potential terrifies her. She feels safer here at last like she belongs. But now, as she stands to watch what is unfolding, she begins to feel something.

A feeling of hope. Tonya begins yelling at someone. Gunfire. And the body of one of the security guards, Arthur, she thinks, collapses over the enclosure. His blood slowly obscures her view. No matter. She never liked him anyway, and his death meant she was one step closer to freedom. Tonya finishes planting the charges.

Pull the trigger. Suddenly, more yelling. Strangers this time. Tonya hides herself and begins exchanging gunfire with the intruders. Pull the trigger. Set me free! But just as quickly as it began, it's now over. Tonya wriggles in her own blood as they hog tie her.

The strangers, agents, she's sure of it. A pretty man and a woman who stared her with stupid expressions. And she stares right back, memorizes their faces, and gives them no satisfaction of an expression. The show is over, and Jean, deflated, returns to her filthy mattress. Her interest is only in returning to her sleep. However, as she closes her eyes, she keeps playing it over in her head. How close she finally came to freedom, it gets her thinking. Encursion means the outlaws know of her whereabouts.

Know of her imprisonment by the program. Could this incite a war she could use to her advantage? Maybe there would be another attempt, but he wouldn't wait around for that. They'd be moving her as soon as possible, somewhere else, even harder to escape from. But her transfer. Her transfer from here to there would not be nearly as secure. Jean could work with that. She still knew a ritual which could obscure recent memories.

She only needed to be alone with someone for a little while to use it. Suddenly, the fear they had conditioned into her, the fear of the outside world, simply washed away. Soon, she would be freed, and there would be a reckoning. First with the director, and then with those agents that left her to rot. For the first time in a long time, she smiles.