Dawn Bloom
| Dawn Bloom | |
|---|---|
| The Dawn Bloom ARG was part of the Black Watchmen series of ARGs. | |
| Type | [[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]] |
| Creator | Alice & Smith & the Lovent Group |
| Discovered | 2016-12-24 |
Main Page > List of Investigations > Dawn Bloom Operation DAWNBLOOM is an operation in the Black Watchmen (a permanent ARG). It differs from past operations within the Black Watchmen in that it is expected to run for several months, and relies very little on previous lore within the game's universe. You can access the Discord server for this operation here, and the Black Watchmen forum thread here.
Contents
Background
Members of Q98A66
This operation involves interaction with Special Task force Q98A66, which we have been told stands for Query 98, Admin 66. Q98A66 has five members, only four of which we have met, and only three of which regularly make appearances in the Discord channel. Those three members (Diagnostic, Control, and Liaison) are apparently able to do their jobs interchangeably, while Brain and Tactical are too highly specialized to 'swap out' with other members of the team.
- Liaison handles communication between Q98A66, Division 66, and Division 79(the Division of the agents in the Discord). As a part of his job, he is sometimes tasked with disseminating information that may or may not be wholly true, at the request of Dispatch. His defining personality traits seem to be skepticism and adherence to rules and regulations. He is usually the one to come to us with new information, requests for more intel, or general commentary on the mission. Brain's name for him is 'Virgin Sacrifice'.
- Control is in charge of Q98A66, as indicated by her handle. Her personality is hard to gauge, as she isn't often in the Discord chat. Liaison has described her as duplicitous, and says she never looks the same two days in a row. She seems to be skilled in subterfuge and operating discreetly, unlike Tactical who is more interested in making a show of firepower. Brain's name for her is 'Hannah Montana'.
- Diagnostichas the job of handling technical and performance related testing. He seems more relaxed than Liaison, and openly states that he believes the signals we are receiving are a result of time travel. Liaison describes him as a hyperactive conspiracy theorist and a lukewarm scientist. His previous employer has been heavily alluded to be one of the organizations in The Secret World. Brain's name for him is 'Bitch Corivias'.
- Brain was formerly called 'Specialist', but also goes by 'Uncle AIXXXXXXXXXXXXX'. He appears to be unstable psychologically and poses a threat to himself and those who surround him. What he contributes to the team isn't entirely clear, but he is ostensibly Q98A66's specialist in esoteric or unique information. Brain used to collabarate with the Oakvalley Sleep Center on a lucid dreaming method, called the "Glasswick Technique". He was also formerly a librarian, then a literature professor, and finally a dean at Yale in the 70s before whatever caused him to become the way he is now occurred. His identity has since been more or less erased. He has the ability to use subliminal messaging and hypnotism to essentially leave parts of his mind with people or in places so that he can monitor them. Liaison claims this is dangerous, because it leaves those who have these 'parts' with them open to other things taking advantage of the situation. Liaison has stated that Brain has used the internet to disseminate dangerous information in the past, and has expressed concern that in his contact with agents he will do this again. Because he isn't allowed online, Agents requested a mailing address to communicate with him. He can be contacted by mail at:
212 Showroom
68-10 58th Avenue
Apt Nine
Flushing New York 11378
- Tactical is focused on 'in person' threats. If agents are contacted by Tactical, it means Q98A66 is under attack or otherwise compromised. Liaison has said that the rest of the team doesn't see Tactical that often. He apparently moves from place to place using a helicopter, and was the person to originally gather all the team members together. In the one interaction that agents had with Tactical, his demeanor was serious but he was still comfortable cracking jokes. Brain's name for him is 'Manlet'.
- Archivist' is Diagnostic's biological brother. He was recruited to the Taskforce when the Agency was attempting to contact Diagnostic's next of kin. His job is to record information about the operation and convert that information into Archive documents suitable for distribution across the Agency. Diagnostic cut contact with him about 8 years ago when he joined up with his previous employer, so their relationship is somewhat strained. He will be in contact with Archivist Wheeler at some point in the future to obtain additional information for the operation from the Agency archives.
- Medical is also known as Dr. Talcom. He specializes in bioweaponry (both development and counteraction). Most of Q98A66 seems to dislike him, probably because he wanted to use Rupture Bone on Diagnostic during his episode on 1-26-2017. He appears to have a lot of pull in the agency, as Liaison mentioned him being present whenever unknown biologics were encountered. Before joining the Taskforce in person, he traveled to Scotland, and then to Toronto.
Initial Call to Action
In the Christmas Eve newsletter, Alice & Smith announced Operation DAWNBLOOM.
Agents, Special Task force Q98A66 needs your help - a abnormal radio signal was picked up across the Atlantic in the last two weeks, it’s meaning and origin remain unknown. We understand little about this bizarre phenomenon, besides the fact that it must have come from a satellite, it originates from a single location, and it is growing stronger...
Welcome to Operation DAWNBLOOM, an experimental project created by the Lovent Group [head writers of Ahnayro: The Dream World] in collaboration with Alice & Smith. This project is all about dynamic, reactive storytelling putting control of the narrative fully in the hands of our community.
For your first mission briefing, head to the Situation Room (In-Game) and look for static.
[...]
By accessing the Situation Room (a page within the Black Watchmen's game client where Operations are often announced), players were directed to Archive Case File S2J3L9. In short, a mysterious signal was picked up around the 14th of December and a taskforce set up to analyse it. The intensity of local interference is strongest at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York. We were given a copy of the recording and a contact link to the taskforce: [email protected]
Fieldwork
Agent Kokuei
Agent Kokuei has been approved by Dispatch for a field mission to attempt to deceive a member of Lphabeta into disclosing information about the company. He will need to be provided a fake identity (of a real person that Lphabeta would be interested in), and will meet with a contact set up by Control once we have enough information for his cover to hold.
We, the agents, need to find a person who looks enough like Agent Kokuei that he can pretend to be them, and then dig into their life and get enough details on them so that he can passably pretend to be them.
Montauk
We are currently in the beginning stages of planning a field operation at Camp Hero in Montauk. Agents local to Southern NY are asked to report in at the forum thread so we can coordinate dates and times. Field operatives will be tasked with deploying a remote radio listening device, which is still in the process of being designed and instructed.
Boston [COMPLETE]
Several agents are participating in the MIT Mystery Hunt in Boston over Martin Luther King Day weekend. Agent codex is using this opportunity to go into the city early and get some field reconnaissance done on the Beehive, as our online intel has a few gaps. Other agents should NOT attempt to do field work in Boston without the explicit approval of Q98A66, because they are nearly certain that our enemy is already operating in the area.
Avenues of Investigation
The False Point Signals
| Updates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '17 | 01 | 12 | 18 | 20 | 30 |
| Dec '16 | 19 | 27 | |||
There were three audio files in total from this signal recording (1, 2, 3). Two of them were of a man reading seemingly random words while occasionally a high pitched noise was played, and the last was a 'clean' version of the man reading words. They all appeared to be pitched upward or downward. Agents determined that the spoken words and the high pitched audio were two separate encrypted messages.
Agents dylanamite and BPotatoes were the ones to crack the spoken cipher, by first noticing that certain words were always read in order. A 'chain' of words was determined, with groups of three words being used to indicate a letter. The cycle cipher was constructed of cardinal and ordinal directions, moon phases, and the primary/secondary/tertiary colors of the RGB color wheel. Agent codex created an image to help visualize the cycle cipher.
The spoken words decrypted to:
HELLO YOU ARE THE MOST PERFECT WORLD
The other audio was analyzed by Agent KiRa, who used SSTV analysis software called RX-SSTV on mode Robot-36 to extract images from the audio. Agent UNLorD combined the images into what appeared to be the silhouette of Long Island created out of text. Preliminary analysis of the SSTV images showed that the text was related to viruses, possibly RNA retroviruses or viral classification methods.
Q98A66 - Research Data
Hypothesis: The signal is bouncing off the moon
Test: Use Communication Array and Satellite to ‘ping’ lunar body, and observe if signal distorts.
12/27/2016 20:00 EST: Broadcast SSTV signal with no actual photo, just errant signal, after two seconds we observed no change in signal. Called Signal One.
Broadcast AM Radio Signal, tone B sharp, and after two seconds observed no change in signal. Called Signal Two.
When Signal One reached Montauk, there was no observable difference.
When Signal Two reached Montauk, there was no observable difference.
There was also no visible effect in the areas where the signals overlapped.
12/27/2016 20:30 EST: Q988A66 member suggests we are not observing enough data, that an emergent quality would appear if we tested in larger numbers. Suggests we attempt to imitate the broadcast of the original signal by altering the waveform in the same format. So scaling across the AM spectrum in loops.
Q98A66 begins hammering target with large numbers of signal ‘noise’.
After reviewing data, it was determined that occasionally HF AM Band Radio waves would lose very small pockets of itself similar to the phenomenon observed in the original signal.
The effect was not consistent, but we believe there is a frequency or format relative to Lunar Position that will generate an effect similar to the type observed in the original signal.
We need to determine that sequence.
Resolution: We need to determine the starting AM Band, and what the Band scales by incrementally in order to maintain the effect of signal ‘vanishing’. A consistent ‘vanishing’ will allow us to map the Apolune and Perilune of whatever is causing the signal effect. That in turn tells us roughly what kind of object or anomaly is causing this.
THANKS TO: All Agents submitting Research and aiding us in this endeavor, we won’t name you here for fear of compromise, but you know who you are and those observing will remember your contributions.
Agents returned to analyzing the cycle cipher for additional clues. Liaison noted in the Discord server that the meanings of the categories used for the cipher hadn't been addressed, and agents followed that lead. The cardinal/ordinal directions were determined to be a reference for orienting the cycle, and the moon phases were determined to have relevance to the date (or current moon phase). Since the date at this point was December 29th, it meant we were almost at the start/end of the cycle ('New', for new moon). After some more fiddling with the cycle cipher, agents determined that the signal frequency required for the broadcast must be correlated with the current moon phase. To determine the integer value that the frequency would need to be scaling by, agents mapped the frequency range given to us by Q988A66 (535kHz to 1605kHz) to the outside of the circle, with 0 degrees = 535kHz and 360 degrees = 1605kHz. We then determined the kHz value of 1 degree (2.97kHz). Using this as the scaling integer, and 1600kHz as the starting frequency (just a little bit before 'New' for the new moon), a transmission was successfully 'vanished' at approximately 6:30UTC on December 29th.
On Jan 2nd at 00:59 UTC, Liaison informed the discord channel a new signal was found off of False Point. They estimated about two nights to track it down manually (aka bruteforcing the correct scaling). It appears to have been broadcasting since the 28th. Liaison returned to the Discord at approximately 17:00UTC on January 3rd to confirm that they had the data, and were currently preparing it for analysis. They also mentioned there was a large amount of it.
Later that evening, the signal was made available for analysis. The audio recording appears to be a male voice, echoing, but speaking in English. It also has what sounds like another SSTV signal overlaid on top of it.
A partial transcript of the spoken words was compiled by the community.
Hello moon
You probably want to know who I am, or how I am doing this
That is not the moon
That isn’t important, and I couldn’t even tell you if I wanted to
I just don’t understand it all, but please, listen
I am coming from another place. We are very similar
We can’t do something by ourselves, so we sent people to try and find answers
This is my second trip
First trip went horribly wrong
I survived but things get worse on the other side
The wrong people got the wrong information and the cycle repeated
There are people like you, watchers, looking for answers in the dark “who helped me???”…(something)
I am not alone
The others are being lied to
And have been lied to
For them, we are already doomed
Fear the men who [?]
There is a coming trap meant to ensure our failure
Do not reveal …. “when /where you go?” (yourself?)
Or the others will panic
[sigh]
Send me a way to know where you are
But it has to be the place where my shadow landed
There’s only one place like it in the whole world
If I knew where that was, I could concentrate to within a mile of you
But now I am (just) shooting into the void
The moon you see is not the moon but a perilous device closer than we imagine.
Only you see the true night sky, we are trapped in it’s shadow
Save both worlds or repeat the cycle
I have to be vague, or the others will find us first.
There is no code in this message, just a sad lonely man
[laughing? Or crying?]
I guess you can call me the man in the moon
Additionally, eight images were extracted from the overlaid SSTV signals.
Agents believe that one organism described in the images is Parasitaxus urda, a parasitic gymnosperm that is endemic to remote forests in New Caledonia, based on the text transcribed from the third and eighth SSTV images.
“leaves”In absence of usual leaves
Hopefully able to go to a (?) lab
this fauna sample has brown
fan like structures covered in (?)
of some sort
Reminds me of Paragorgiidae
Not a similar makeup to most
photosynthesizing plants. Leading
me to believe it’s not truly a plant at all.
Bulbous, does not feel like wood at all
Present on all branches
“Polyps”
Very similar to coral
Unlike anything found on land
Taking samples
Liaison, as well as several agents, is unsure if the author of the field notes retrieved via SSTV and the speaker on the audio are the same person. However, we are assuming that our 'moon man' was a part of the expedition mentioned.
Diagnostic believes given the distance that his signal appears at False Point that our target is spamming either different physical locations or different temporal/dimensional locations, and that some earthbound location synchronizes this event. Exactly like our moon point vanishing, the moon man would observe all of his signal going to one point in time and space.
Given there is only one radio tower in the world like the one at Montauk, and that it shares a relationship to his signal, it’s likely that radar is the location we’re looking for. Agent codex compiled a report on the radar for the taskforce and emailed it to them previously.
Liaison: The big thing about Montauk is that while the AM signal erratically appears everywhere, the SSTV signal only joins there
Diagnostic and Liaison share the hypothesis that our window to send a message begins tonight, and lasts until the next full moon
Before leaving abruptly on January 6th around noon EST, Q98A66 shared three possibilities for broadcasts to be sent.
- Control wanted to send a series of messages with different locations in an attempt to gain intel on our enemy
Control: See I'm still partial to the idea that we send out multiple messages with only one of them having the correct shadow location but that encryption would have to be complicated enough to make the third party believe it's real but it would have to have something to make it obvious to moon man which is correct
- Diagnostic wanted to use the kHz wheel/cycle cipher as a sphere to describe a location in time and place, relative to information the moon man will understand.
- Liaison believed that we should send a question to him, as we lack data.
When the time window opened for our second return broadcast, we first began by sending a test tone in order to ensure we had the right values to achieve 'vanishing' of the signal. We also created a simple math equation to make it easier to calculate the kHz value our broadcast needed to start on.
To our surprise, another signal was detected being broadcasted- and it was identical to our first broadcast of Agent zaelong reading out the cipher-cycle encrypted message 'WE HEAR YOU'. Q98A66 believes that this isn't the result of our signal being intercepted, but of the network they are using being compromised. Because Liaison's computer was recently attacked, this is definitely not outside the realm of possibility.
We sent an initial broadcast to our 'moon man' asking him in plain words (without encryption) if there was an easier way for us to contact him, just past midnight on January 7th (having worked for most of the evening of January 6th trying to come up with a better encryption method or other ideas on what to broadcast).
On the evening of January 10th, we sent several messages. We sent coordinates for a jazz bar in Boston called The Beehive, as well as coordinates for Camp Hero in Montauk, both as encrypted Cartesian coordinates. The Boston coordinates were sent in duplicate, in the hopes that our 'moon man' would remember his own words: "The wrong people got the wrong information, and the cycle repeated." With that clue, ideally he would realize the coordinates that were broadcast once were the correct coordinates.
We also sent an additional unencrypted message, asking him "Did you send the flowers?" This is a reference to the SSTV signals. As far as we are aware, we are the only people who have identified and decrypted the SSTV signals, so it was important we keep information about them under wraps. However, we still wanted to know if they had been intentionally sent by our 'moon man'.
Sidenote on Coordinates
Since we don’t know how our friend on the moon sees the earth we sent out the coordinates in a {x,y,z} format
We set up the axes in such a way that the x-axis points toward the moon, the y-axis goes eastward, and the z axis goes north.
Simply put; the earth will be represented by a sphere with r=1; the coordinate of the center is {0;0;0} and the North pole is at {0;0;1}.
The zero point/orientation of the earth that matters to our moon man is how he perceives the earth; that is why the coordinates of the moon are given.
The full moon would occur on Jan 12th, 2017 at 11:34AM UTC (6:34AM EST), and it would be at this (18.1833N, 172.000W) location.
Agent zaelong also created a report for Q98A66 explaining the coordinate system.
After sending our messages to Moon Man, there was a vote on our course of action against the ones listening in on us. The options were:
- Soft: approach 'enemies' and talk to them, to find out who they are, what they want, and get them to back off, or just get them to friendly cooperate
- Hard: "Shoot first, interrogate later", kidnap them and find out what they know. objective isn't killing, but making sure they'll never see daylight again
- Observe: Bug the area and spy on whoever gets there
'Observe' was the winning option. Coordinates were sent to the Beehive in Boston, and the Observe team stood by to... Observe.
Liaison, Diagnostic and Brain went out on a boat to receive the signal sent by MoonMan, but lost their equipment because of an attack. Whatever attacked them burst upwards through the hull, and also through Diagnostic's leg. Brain had been singing(and playing a ukelele he found on the boat) up until this point, but stopped just prior to the attack and pushed Diagnostic. Had he not shoved Diagnostic, the projectile would have gone through his chest (and presumably killed him). All data from the 3rd signal was lost.
Liaison, Brain, and Diagnostic stole a boat in Montauk, as well as about 8 or 9 fishing nets. Their plan was to use the nets to entangle the drone long enough to disable it with thermite (components for making this were brought along on the boat), so the third signal could be captured before it collapsed at 6:30AM 1/19. They set out on their excursion around 9:30PM EST on 1/18.
Dispatch stated on 1/20 Q98A66 had not reported in that morning.
We are attempting to reestablish reach Q98A66 on a secure channel, but have yet to make contact. They failed to report in this morning, and we are monitoring the situation closely. Stand by for updates.
At 10:22 PM on 1/20, Liaison re-entered the Discord, ostensibly to complain about the fact that the hospital he was in was playing the Minions movie on repeat. They were again unable to recover signal #3, and Liaison had sustained severe injuries.
For this signal, Q98A66 was going to attempt to record from an inland water source. After discussing it in the Discord, Agents determined that samples should be taken from both natural and artificial bodies of water. After taking an unsuccessful sample from an underground reservoir near Camp Hero, the team managed to capture signal Signal #4 at Money Pond. Liaison later noted that the depth of the open water in which Signal #4 was captured matched that of the past signal retrieval sites at around 15 fathoms.
Liaison also noted that if the length of the next message could be determined, the number of cycles could be sent to Moon Man in order to identify how long we should record in order to capture the entire signal.
Contact with Peter Moon
| Updates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '17 | 06 | ||||
| Dec '16 | 31 | ||||
Agent madvillain reached out via email to Peter Moon, the author of the book The Montauk Project.
Hi, I am writing to you because of your relationship with the Montauk Project. Recently, my organization observed very strange radio signals being broadcasted by unknown entities. The signal is not on a single frequency, but appears as increasingly larger bursts across a scaling frequency on AM spectrum. As this is not possible without a satellite in orbit, we determined that these signals were being bounced off the moon itself (a possibly irrelvant, although interesting, coincidence with your name). The age of the waves is always the same despite location, which indicates a spontaneous manifestation. Interestingly, as you approach areas in Long Island such as False Point and Hampton Bay, the signal carries more and more interference - the interference is strongest at Camp Hero, which is where your book comes in.
Your book describes the process of 'frequency hopping', where researchers at Camp Hero broadcasted signals that shifted between different frequencies incredibly fast. This is incredibly similar to the behavior of the observed frequencies. However, the observed frequencies are not in the range you gave as being experimented with - they are in the AM radio spectrum, not within 425-450 mHz. There are two messages contained in this broadcast: an elaborately encoded message which we decoded as being "HELLO YOU ARE THE MOST PERFECT WORLD", and an SSTV image describing the behavior of RNA retroviruses, with the text in the shape of Long Island.
1. What, in your opinion, is the source of these broadcasts? Some in my organization believe aliens are the source, while others believe time travel is involved.
My questions to you:
2. Would any alien lifeforms you may have encountered have sent messages of these types?
3. Is time travel likely, given the behavior of the broadcast?
4. Would researchers at Camp Hero, in any time period, have sent these messages?
5. Was any research being done at Camp Hero related to retroviruses?
Later that day, he received a reply.
Thank you for your email, Victor. I've attached a recent newsletter about my trip to Romania last summer but only for the purpose of you getting the drift on "white noise". I'm working on a video which also addresses the subject but very briefly and not so much in the context of what you asked. The article should suffice. Aliens is a word I don't like but such a communication, according to my new vocabulary, would come from the 8th dis. mension where all potentials manifest. There is a constant effort in that dimension for different entities to communicate and/or empower themselves or even resolve situation. To reduce this to the lowest common denominator, yes, aliens and time travel would be involved....my guess. Plum Island has done most of the biological research and its connected to Camp Hero. It still exists. Can't say if Camp Hero sent them in the first place but I would guess not. There have also been signals from Europa and they are mentioned in the book "Secret Parchment". What you say is interesting and I wish I could be of more help. Above is the best I can do for now. Can you tell me more about your group?
The following response was sent:
Thank you very much for your time. Your help is sincerely appreciated. We may have more questions for you in the near future - I will keep you updated.
We are an independent organization dedicated to monitoring potential threats to global security and taking the appropriate responses when necessary.
And response received:
OK, Victor, and thank you. I'll be happy to hear from you.
Agent madvillain reached out to Peter Moon again late in the evening on January 6th.
Hello,
We have received another communication of the same type as before. You can listen to the message here, and a transcript is provided here. This message raises some very interesting questions.
Thank you for your time.
1. The message starts off with "Hello Moon". Could this be in reference to you? Do you recognize this voice?
2. He speaks of "another place" that is very similar to ours, and later says "both worlds". In your book, Project Moonbeam was an experiment involving two separate timelines. Are these things likely to be related?
3. Do you have any theories on who "the others" he mentions are?
4. He mentions a cycle, and says that we must stop it. What could this be referring to?
5. "The moon you see is not the moon but a perilous device closer than we imagine." Any thoughts on what this could mean?
And the reply
I can't hear the audio that well. COmputer is in the shop. THis is clearly a lost soul who is "strung out" in space time. ALl sorts of theories including what you suggest apply. THis is another example of spirits being lost. FAiled time experiment? YES! We live in that realm. SOlution = grounding and breathing
Diagnostic’s Medical Status
| Updates | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '17 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 26 | 30 |
During the drone attack on Q98A66, Diagnostic was exposed to a foreign material that became embedded in his leg, which appeared to be bone fragments. The team fell back to a safehouse in Rhode Island, a vet’s office.
Liaison checked in four days later, and gave an update on Diagnostic’s condition. He appeared to be worsening, with symptoms of severe radiation poisoning. His teeth were falling out, he was bleeding from his mouth, and his leg was not getting any better. The vet had examined him, and produced a handwritten report.
Transcript:
Lung cancer
This makes no sense!
Spot
A1 2.8(?) cm
A2 3.2 cm
A3 2.1 cm
B1 2.8 cm
B2 3.2 cm
B3 2.4 cm
Patient is Hostile!
Severe Pain,
Dilation of pupil is Massive! Like Dog eye!
Thought it was radiation sickness, but xray
shows cancer in heart and lungs, blood
pressure will cause death.
During the period of time that they were present at the vet, Diagnostic had bitten the doctor which prompted them to get kicked out of the safe house. Liaison paused in his briefing of the agents to go to the bathroom with Brain, and Diagnostic soon appeared in a voice comms channel. A couple agents that were online at the time went into comms to figure out what was up, and they encountered a Diagnostic that wasn’t at all acting like someone who was seemingly on their deathbed. During the conversation it was revealed that he had hijacked the van the team was using (leaving Liaison and Brain at a homeless shelter in New Haven, CT) and was driving to a safehouse in Brooklyn. During the course of the conversation, several changes in his condition were reported:
- His leg that originally had been hit by the rod, and was essentially considered to be jelly, was fully healed - indicating enhanced cell regeneration
- He was able to do a backflip which he claimed he could never do before, more so with his leg being damaged - indicating enhanced agility
- The teeth he had lost were growing back and were sharper than before
- He no longer needed his glasses (he claims he was legally blind without his glasses before) and being able to see things clearly about 1 km away (he saw a deer while driving at about that distance) - indicating enhanced sight
- He was able to smell gasoline during the whole time he was driving - indicating enhanced smell
- He seemed to have heightened coordination with his hands and feet as he said he could steer the van using his feet.
- Was able to drive while 2 cc’s of morphine was in his system. He said he felt no effect - indicating enhanced metabolism.
- During the drive, Diagnostic was asked by Lexic_Meise to perform an exorcism on one of the bone fragments found in his leg
- During the drive it was suggested that he try wiping on his skin a baby wipe. After doing so he reported that it felt itchy like it was an allergic reaction. It was assumed the baby wipes contained Aconitum which is also called Wolf’s Bane which mythologically reacts to what Diagnostic was believed to be.
Ultimately based on all this information it was believed that Diagnostic had contracted some form of Lycanthropy. The running theory was that it was a curse linked to the bone shards in his leg, but because the other shards were in the possession of other individuals it was uncertain if it would be possible to counteract this curse.
Before Diagnostic had signed off, one last suggestion was given to try self-administering Aconitine, a poison that can be extracted from the Wolfsbane plant, as he said he’d have access to a centrifuge and other needed things. The hope was that he would be online for agents to assess the effects but instead he did not come online and injected it via IV himself. This put him into intense pain and knocked him out for the night. He was not gotten in contact with again until Agent codex suggested to track him using the phone tracking program to find lost phones (the phone Diagnostic was using was Liaison’s).
Utilizing the program led them to the address to send mail to for Brain and allowed us to regroup Diagnostic with Liaison and Brain.
During the second drone attack on Q98A66, Diagnostic recalled being blown to pieces. However, he was still physically intact enough for Brain to haul him onto a makeshift raft and bring him to shore. It’s possible that his body reformed itself in the time between the blast and Brain rescuing him and Liaison. Diagnostic appeared to have been completely healthy following the second drone attack, albeit with some physiological changes. He gained an extra 3 inches of height, and noted that his fingers and toes seemed quite a bit longer. Agents took note of these changes, but weren’t sure what to do with the information.
During Liaison’s check-in with the Discord on the 22nd, he shared some additional information about Diagnostic’s condition. Supposedly he is not suffering from lycanthropy, but instead has some sort of 'heart worm' like infection. Diagnostic has stated the worms are inside of all of his vital organs and are nowhere near surface level. The darkened portions seen in the lung x-ray by the vet then must have been worms. The science team onsite carbon-dated the shard of bone that Liaison (or someone else) had on hand, and Liaison interpreted their findings as 'hysterically old'. The worm that infected Diagnostic was apparently present in the shard in some sort of calcified, larval form. It incubated from this form to clusters of 250 in Diagnostic's body overnight (a nearly impossible incubation period). The foreign cells of the worm infection are replacing the cells in Diagnostic's body, and adversely affecting his limbic system as well as his bone marrow (according to Liaison). Despite the apparent effects on his limbic system, agents haven't noted any major issues with Diagnostic's memory when compared against events that we are aware of.
Liaison contacted agents through the Discord to report that Diagnostic was experiencing severe health complications. Many of his injuries sustained over the course of the last week or so were returning at a rapid rate, and the symptoms he had been experiencing in Rhode Island were also returning. As it was a full moon that night, the inference made was that the transformative process he underwent in Rhode Island was reversing itself. The new cells produced by the worm infection appeared to be dying off, and because such a large portion of Diagnostic's body had been replaced by them (due to the excessive amount of trauma he'd been through) it looked as if it could kill him. Liaison suggested that we find a way to stimulate the worms, and allow the infection itself to keep him going.
The initial thought was to use moonlight to stimulate the worms. Some initial research gave us the temperature value of 4100 Kelvins at 1 lux brightness for moonlight, so Liaison traveled to the operating theater and had Brain (who was assisting in the surgery, despite having no medical training) use a modified light therapy lamp (such as the type used for Seasonal Affective Disorder) to try and stimulate the worms. These values caused movement in the worms, but no cell growth. Liaison suggested that something might be missing for the worms to feed on, or to produce whatever it was that the worms fed on in Diagnostic's body. While the agents in the Discord struggled to determine what that could be, other ideas were proposed by people more local to Liaison for how to deal with the issue. Brain suggested an alchemical solution of some sort (Liaison described it as 'sacrificing a lamb in the operating room', but we're pretty sure it has to do with a salve of some kind), while the lead doctor in the surgery, Dr. Talcom, wanted to use Rupture Bone. Both Liaison and Bone were opposed to this idea, as it seemed like less of a solution to the problem and more of an attempt at an experiment. Liaison is ejected for his disagreement, as is Brain a while after, and two other doctors.
While this discussion was happening at the operating room, agents in the discord were determining the best way to stimulate the worms. Eventually, the link between lunar cycles, the limbic system (pituitary gland) and melatonin was discovered. In order to stop the production of melatonin, blue light between 460-480 nm would need to be shone on Diagnostic. Liaison teamed up with some nearby techs and a Lt. Andy who was enthusiastic about making a push into the room with a possible fix for Diagnostic's condition. Agents in the discord determined that actinic lighting, like those found in a fish tank, would output that wavelength of light at a high intensity, and Liaison said there was a fish tank in the complex that would have that type of lighting. The techs wired up a huge lamp with bulbs of that type, and they engaged with the guards in the operating room. Liaison exited the discord at 7:44 PM EST, and Brain picked up his computer and communicated directly with agents for the first time from 7:56 PM EST to almost 10:00 PM EST.
Later, Liaison first gave an untrue recounting of the events of that night after he had logged off. Later, over voice comms, he provided more accurate information.
Diagnostic emitted a black and viscous growth from inside of his body. He became enormous, still humanoid, but at least 10 feet tall. Had huge teeth and I can’t describe his hands. Gorilla-ish? And he went berserk, this was after we had already attacked security forces to break in to do this to begin with. Control and Tactical joined. I was stabbed in the chest. I’m fine. It was a minor injury, despite being a sucking wound. Luckily there were a bunch of surgeons around. […] Eventually Tactical wore him down, so to speak. Exhausted him, and got him into a locked room where we could vent the air out of. After oxygen was eliminated from the room, and blue light was restored, the blackness around him became a very, very dense or chitinous kind of outer layer. I wasn’t seeing much of it at the time. They recovered Diagnostic from the inside of it, […] he is alive. […] As long as he is not exposed to oxygen and under blue lights, I am hoping he will make a full recovery and be field active, which should be as early as tomorrow.
Discussion of Diagnostic’s condition with Medical (indirectly through Liaison) led to a deeper understanding of the possible underlying mechanisms affecting him.
The initial infection occurred after contact with a shard of what appears to be bone, which was introduced into Diagnostic’s leg via a rod that impaled his leg with a high amount of force. We think the rod weapon was carrying the bone as a part of a previous encounter with an entity, and the piece of bone is leftover gore from the engagement. The bone shard also harbored some kind of calcified, larval form of what can best be described as a heartworm-like parasite, and traces of either nervous tissue or mycelium (from some type of fungus).
The immediate response of the introduction of the bone shard to the host body is an immune response of some kind. We haven’t pinned down exactly the mechanisms of this response, but it appears to make the host more receptive to hosting the worm parasite. This allows the worm parasite to colonize the major organs of the host, including (and especially) the lungs. These appear as dark spots on x-rays, which can be misinterpreted as tumors. This parasitic worm proceeds to replace the host’s cells with its own alien cells, at a rate much higher than standard human cell production. This results in rapid recovery from injuries, faster metabolizing of toxins (and intoxicants).
Movement of the worms, as well as cellular activity, are directly linked to lunar cycles. The presence of melatonin in the host’s body causes them to become dormant and the alien cells produced by the worms to die off. Depending on how much of the host’s body has been replaced by alien cells, this can cause serious health complications. On full moons, the activity of the parasitic worms is likely to peak and result in a rage-like state. The only data we have on this state isn’t from a full moon, but from an attempt at replicating conditions by barraging Diagnostic with blue light in order to halt melatonin production. (See 1-26-2017)
Later, this shell dissolved into an ash-like precipitate which also contained black pieces of what appeared to be broken teeth or nails. The structure of these fragments was entirely dissimilar to the bone shard from the initial infection. It completely lacks the calcified larval worms and the nervous/mycelial structure, and seems to lack calcium altogether.
This suggests that an additional organism is involved in the reproductive processes of this parasite. The current working theory is that there is some kind of fungus endemic to rifts which has an endosymbiotic relationship with the parasitic worms. The ‘rage’ state could be a means for the worm parasite to guide a sufficiently altered host to the fungus (a rift site). There, the fungus spores would infect the prepared host, and colonize. Eventually, the host would begin to produce fruiting bodies similar to the ‘bone’ shard similar to the one that infected Diagnostic.
If the above information were correct, we would expect the next full moon to trigger a 'rage' event for Diagnostic, where he would find himself driven to locate a rift (likely underwater in False Point) in order to expose himself to the fungal spores. In his current state, the infection is in a sort of mid-reproductive stage. The possible uses for these worms are staggering, if a way to use them to 'sniff out' rifts could be engineered it would be a breakthrough for the Agency and would likely save hundreds of lives in future operations.
Drones in False Point
| Updates | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '17 | 12 | 16 | 30 | |||
The first incidence of a drone attacking Q98A66 occurred when Liaison, Brain, and Diagnostic were attempting to collect signal #3 off of False Point. The drone punctured through the hull of their boat, and also through Diagnostic’s leg (essentially turning it to jelly). Just prior to the drone engaging them, Brain stopped playing the ukulele he had found on the boat and pushed Diagnostic away from where he had been standing. Had he been standing in the location he was before that, the rod-like weapon employed by drone would have gone through his chest rather than his leg, and likely killed him. When asked about the drone attack, Brain said that he heard a sort of siren noise (he likened it to a dial up tone). He then saw the drone attack the boat and kill Diagnostic, but then realized he hadn’t actually seen that and so he pushed Diagnostic out of the way. The three fell back to a safehouse in Rhode Island to regroup and strategize.
Liaison, a patched-up Diagnostic, and Brain all went out on a stolen fishing boat to attempt to pick up Signal #3 again. This time, they had a plan for thwarting the drone. They draped multiple nets around their stolen ship, and mixed thermite on board the boat to dump onto the drone and hopefully incapacitate it. The plan worked well up until they attempted to use the thermite. Either the damage from the thermite or the amount of time it was kept out of the water caused the drone to detonate. Brain, again, seemed to be able to sense this would happen before it did, and bailed over the side of the boat. Liaison followed behind him, but his legs were still severely injured by the thermite and shrapnel. Diagnostic, who was holding the drone, recalls being blown apart entirely. However, he managed to recover (likely as a result of his parasites) as well as gain an additional 3 inches of height.
A second attempt was made to capture or incapacitate the drone after successfully capturing signal #4 using an inland water source. Again the team utilized nets, as well as the ‘Roswell Device’ that was provided to Q98A66 by Dispatch. This device appeared to be a large, kite-like piece of metallic material that could fold down for transport. In the presence of radiation, it glows and floats upwards. The plan was to ensnare the drone in the nets, and then use the Roswell Device to lift the drone from the water, where Tactical would proceed to shoot at it to disable it using a rifle designed for hard targets. Early in the morning on 1-31-2017, around 3:30 AM EST, Liaison contacted the Discord channel to ask for assistance in calling shots on the drone. After a few tense moments, Liaison reported that they were able to recover a drive from the drone, although he did accidentally inhale what we believe was white phosphorous and required some medical attention.
A discussion while the team was preparing to launch the boat and attempt to capture or incapacitate the drone in False Point focused on the possible reasons for the drone’s presence. Control had previously stated that she believed it was some kind of hunterkiller drone, in the water to engage with a rift entity. By looking back at news articles, agents were able to determine that there was a mass die off event of fish in Southampton, which is several miles down the coast from Montauk. 2 million pounds of fish washed up, covering miles of beach. This event occurred on 11-14-2016, which coincidentally was a full moon. It’s likely that this die off was caused by a rift entity underwater chasing the massive amount into a lock or other enclosed space, where they rapidly depleted the available oxygen in the water and suffocated.
Lphabeta Infiltration
| Updates | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '17 | 16 | 22 | 27 | 30 | ||
Trackers all come from one gps point then send data based on a maintained 'average speed'So we know about how far an object travels from a location, but not exactly where. Sorry, but there were five activated. We don't know why Control did this, but we assume one is her Data
Tracker One Latitude: 42.361783 | Longitude: -71.094291
2hr11minTracker Two Latitude: 42.361783 | Longitude: -71.094291
30mins ~ 3hr20minTracker Three Latitude: 42.361783 | Longitude: -71.094291
50mins ~ 1hr10minsTracker Four Latitude: 42.361783 | Longitude: -71.094291
30mins ~ 8hr43minsTracker Five Latitude: 42.361783 | Longitude: -71.094291
50mins ~ 1Hr30mins
A second dataset was given later
Tracker One Latitude: 41.306176 | Longitude: -72.93613
Erratic small movement, likely an animal
Tracker Two Latitude: 41.306176 | Longitude: -72.93613
Erratic small movement, likely an animal
Tracker Four Latitude: 40.161734 | Longitude: -75.465299
Erratic small movement, likely an animal
Tactical regrouped with Liaison and Brain, and they went on to search for (and locate) the two trackers that had arrived in New Haven. The two trackers were found to be attached to canisters in the possession of two homeless women from Boston that Control or another agent had paid to go to New Haven and wait for Liaison et al. Upon the group's arrival, they pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a message on the ground in chalk (blue). Brain wrote two other messages in chalk (orange and yellow). Immediately after writing those two messages, he said "I don't speak that" and then lost consciousness (from approximately 8am EST to 7pm EST).
The blue message was written in hobo code, and translated (roughly) to:
If you are sick, they'll care for you
Doctor here, won't charge
Vicious dog here
Be prepared to defend yourself
You'll be cursed out
Authorities here are alert
Thieves are about
The orange we believed was Enochian, but had difficulty getting a translation that made sense. One possible translation:
XRAYESX SAY XO
The yellow appeared to be Ogham, and possibly translated to:
LPHABETA HEARS MOON
LPHABETA is a company funded by Aconite Capital, who are linked to SIGIL. Evidence of direct SIGIL involvement triggered a parameter for Q98A66, leading Liaison to open an envelope with the Black Watchmen logo. He refused to share the contents of the envelope with the agents in Discord until getting approval from Control.
On the 22nd, we were finally briefed on the contents of the letter that Liaison opened as a result of a parameter being 'tripped'. The letter indicated that Q98A66 now has an additional objective-- compromise Lphabeta. Lphabeta is apparently not a real company, and instead is an Aconite Capital funded front for a mobilized division of SIGIL, who are also chasing the aberrant signal or may have information on the source. Liaison has also indicated that this engagement is now considered 'black' or terminal-- anyone directly exposed is not expected to survive. Ideally, this means only the members of Q98A66, but if any agent involved in the mission were to be compromised somehow, they could be at risk.
Control and Tactical were working together, having grouped up in Pennsylvania. Their current objective was infiltrating Lphabeta through the Pennsylvania facility, with the goal of acquiring the data from signal #3 that we were unable to capture ourselves. Control apparently stopped by Liaison's office from time to time, but didn't seem to be staying onsite with him long term. Their goal was to infiltrate the organization, and then send out documents from the compromised location to agents working on the operation. Any agents who wanted to receive these documents (knowing that it does increase the likelihood of them being targeted by SIGIL) were instructed to email their mailing address to [email protected].
The two canisters that were recovered in New Haven apparently contained water from the Atlantic Ocean. Liaison hypothesized that there is some microbial agent within them, or SIGIL is harvesting something that is generated by the aberrant signals in the water. Further analysis of the water by the science team should shed more light on their role in this scheme. Liaison indicated about a week later that Medical was given these samples, prior to joining the Taskforce.
Liaison indicated in the chat that they had what they believed was Transmission #3, as well as 4 transmissions recorded from Pearl Harbor (which are both on AM and FM spectra), on an encrypted drive. It was decided that Lexic_Meise would be the agent to receive the drive and (hopefully) decrypt its contents.
Control stopped by the Discord for a short while to update agents on progress in responding to letters, and also told us that she was currently having dinner with the CEO of Lphabeta. She said that it was going similarly to the Vice interview with Martin Shkreli.
Brain’s List of Chores
1-26-2017
When Brain was in direct communication with agents over the Discord channel, he assigned them a list of chores.
- Prepare a dinner
- Specifically, a roast, for his friends (Q98A66 and Adjective Alpha, the cat)
- Who are we roasting? 'The Pentient(sic) Thief, the Comissioner(sic), the enemy of our enemy who is our enemy'
- Ignore/fool/otherwise hide ourselves from the Magistrate
- 'The Magistrate' was referenced to be Satoshi Kon, and several references to Paranoia Agent were given.
- Find the Riomordial Sun
- Also spelled Rimordial Sun, Rodigal Son
- Brain described him as 'a little boy with a very bit shadow behind him, a shadow that would consume the world.'
- Liaison later hypothesized that this 'rimordial sun' is the CFO of Lphabeta, who is the son of Oran Plaskett
Chalchiuhtlicue Bluegreen
1-26-2017
While Brain was in direct communication with agents over the Discord channel, he directed them to a YouTube video. He said that it was ‘not interesting’ but that it’s also ‘not from here’. More importantly, to him, seemed to be locating whoever posted the video. He calls her a god, saying ‘no god can be born in silence’, and indicating that she is our creation. Another interesting quote about this god: 'It's dumb, machines are dumb. It's a horse looking at a jackass making a mule'. This is, apparently, a close to direct quote of Dr. Talcom when he was speaking about Diagnostic’s condition. The context there was that Talcom (now known as Medical) considered Diagnostic to be an unsuitable host for the parasite attempting to colonize him.
Adjective Alpha
1-10-2017
When Q98A66 moved to a new safehouse located in a barn, they discovered a cat had already taken up residence inside. The Taskforce decided to keep the cat, dubbing it Adjective Alpha. Brain seemed to find the cat calming.
1-26-2017
While Brain was in direct communication with agents over the Discord channel, he referred to Adjective Alpha by the name Xerjyba. This isn’t particularly unusual, as he uses codenames for everyone. He seemed especially fond of the cat, calling her ‘a queen who lets us stay in her kingdom despite our careless grace’. He also indicated that he had a telepathic connection to her, and could speak with her over long distances. She also could, apparently, read him the letters that were sent to the safehouse, as well as somehow teleport to Brain some bones that she collected as part of a gift for agent codex.
1-27-2017
Liaison was alarmed when he was told of Brain’s connection to Adjective alpha, saying that he had ‘left something behind’ in her. He likened it to a demonic possession, and said that it was dangerous. An exorcism of the cat was apparently planned.
1-30-2017
Liaison told the Discord that Adjective Alpha was missing, but he seemed less than honest about it. He also took Diagnostic aside and made it clear to the agents in the Discord that he was telling Diagnostic what he was allowed to say to us about Adjective Alpha and what he wasn’t.
1-31-2017
While checking in from the barn safehouse, Liaison spotted Adjective Alpha on a support beam overhead. The cat was subsequently captured and trapped in a glass framed shower. Apparently, she was singing somewhat loudly in a human voice, in a language that Liaison didn’t know. Liaison claims that Brain wasn’t bothered by these events.
