Harry Kowalsiki (Parrish) had effectively retired from M-Cell in other to focus on his mundane criminal activities. This means that only Benon and Edgar remain.
Characters
- Name: Benon Economou (he, him) (Matt)
Occupation: Ex-Revolutionary/Treasure Hunter
Anchor: Olimpia Caporale (International Print Journalist, thinks of her as a daughter) - Name: Edgar Reese (he, him) (Daniel Fowler)
Occupation: Private Detective
Anchor: Camelia Reese, honor student going to the same school as Clyde’s granddaughter.
Prelude
Both Benon and Edgar hid low after the attack on Cylde Academy, to avoid any retaliation from Majestic-12. They only recently came out of hiding because they received a message from Agent Marcus. At the M-Cell Safehouse, Benon and Marcus discussed a message from Majestic-12 concerning the attack, published on January 30th 2021 in Semper Vigilus.
“The following is a message composed via consensus of the MJ-12 Steering Committee.
Ever since our foundation in 1948, we have defended the geopolitical interests of the United States while improving the quality of life of all humans. Our actions may have been controversial, but we always had good intentions.
Due to circumstances outside of our control, we now have a new mission.
Our new mission is to save the universe.
This will be done by exterminating the human race.
We tried to find an ethical approach for peacefully exterminating the human race.
However, a brutal terrorist attack took place at Glen Academy, destroying two Protomatter “blobs”. The entire university staff, including Glen Farmer (the founder of this university), perished.
Their deaths were not pleasant. Their skin were burned completely, as they screamed silently in pain.
These violent criminals were not ethical to us…so why should we be ethical to them?
We will avenge this tragedy. Humanity will suffer for their misdeeds.
There will be no further communications.”
Both Benon and Edgar discussed in private about the implications of the
Benon: “Save this universe? Not any other universes, just this space-time bubble? Only the human race in this universe? What about other universes?”
Edgar: “None of the power players here are good. Some just want to exterminate humanity nicely. Is Majestic-12 even a human organization? It doesn’t sound like it – seeking vengeance against humanity…that’s not what humans would say.”
Benon: “I don’t know. Maybe they have a good argument. Let’s hear it out.”
Edgar: “Is plotting all of our demise ethical, even if you’re nice about it?”
Benon: “What if it’s inevitable?”
Edgar: “I don’t know.”
Benon: “If you know that our demise is inevitable, then wouldn’t it better to plan us to die ethically than to let us suffer our inevitable demise?”
Edgar: “Benon, you’re going to die one day. Want me to suffocate you in your sleep?”
Benon: “Yeah, that logic doesn’t go far. The problem is the time of my death is uncertain. What if the entire world is ending? There’s only two ways to go – ethically or getting ripped apart in pain and suffering. Which one of those would be better to plan? Just leave people to the pain and suffering? Or an ethical, peaceful death?”
Edgar: “If you’re absolutely convinced those are two options (which I would struggle against mightly), can I at least say it’s less ethical to peacefully kill someone months in advance? Like, if I’m going to die horribly in 30 years, like give me 29.5 years, at the very least.”
Benon: “I watched a movie where the world is going to end, and the humans planned for what happens next. Most people in the world was thrown at a homogenizing event to delay it, so that they can even implement their plan. They threw billions of people at the event, so that a couple thousand people can hide and lived natural lives…and then committed suicide in bunkers underground. The time bought by the meat grinder was used to build these bunkers. “
Edgar: “No, I don’t think that’s ethical. It will take a lot to convince me that’s my two only options. I would have to be tied up, and someone has to holding a gun and a chloroform. If they tell me it’s going to happen, I’m going to try to figure out how to change it. Even when I am confronted with it happening immediately…I’m going to be screaming for help. I will never say, ‘Okay, that sounds reasonable. Let’s go with that.’ “
They then discussed what happened to Majestic-12. Majestic-12 is an official government organization, funded with tax dollars. They used federal funds to create both a public infrastructure, but also maintained a private, black-budget infrastructure (funded via embezzlement and corruption). After announcing their plan to destroy humanity, MJ-12 then went into hiding, leaving behind the public infrastructure. The US military is in the process of seizing this public infrastructure, but do not know the location of their private infrastructure.
No one knows how Majestic-12 plans to destroy humanity.
Edgar and Benon also discussed the grey-ish alien beings located in Ridgeway Lab and the fungi on the walls. They concluded that the fungi on the walls were actually the shape-shifting Migo and the grey-ish aliens were meat-puppets that the Migo used for their research.
Agent Marcus’ Briefing
At the M-Cell safehouse, Edgar and Benon received an encrypted phone call. Agent Marcus had some intel he wanted to give the Friendlies…but before he did, he want to know what happened during the attack at Cylde Academy. He need to have that sort of information before he can decide what to say next.
Edgar and Benon excused themselves to discuss privately on what to say next.
Edgar went over to Alba Ballest’s conspiracy board (which was created by Alba before she was possessed by the Yithian-aligned Other). Edgar wanted to see what happened to their timeline and to see if it had “corrected” itself following the reported disappearance of Cylde Baughman’s body. The conspiracy board mentioned that the M-Cell Friendlies were sent to investigate Cylde Baughman’s “disappearance”, who is presumed dead. The M-Cell Friendlies still went over to Cylde’s cabin, where Alba was possessed.
Edgar and Benon also sees Cylde Baughman (who had since received the medical attention he needed to survive). He’s currently resting.
Edgar: “What do we say about time travel and Cylde? Should we keep this a secret?”
Benon: “The less people know, the better.”
Edgar: “Is that true? Would we better served by having Baughman officially working for us or not?”
Benon: “Does it necessarily have to be official?”
Edgar: “For the time being, let’s keep it a secret then.”
Benon: “Baughman is supposed to solve this problem. We also know we can be killed. So we let the word out, there would be more people coming out to kill him.”
Edgar and Benon then go back to the call with Agent Marcus.
Edgar: “Agent Marcus, we shot/crippled Alba Ballest but it attracted so much attention that fled into Ridgeway Lab, barricade the building, set it on fire and teleport out of there. Apparently, it worked.”
Benon: “Except now we’re responsible for the death of all humanity. Or rather, the not nice-death.”
Edgar: “Yeah, but we’re also responsible for Majestic-12 losing all public backing. So hopefully it’s tougher for them. But I haven’t heard of any human saying that they try to kill all of humanity (they prefer to target specific groups). So I don’t think it’s morally problematic for us. But it doesn’t matter. Practically, we’re at war with these people, and they are worse than we were three weeks ago.”
Marcus: “Good. When you teleported, where did you teleport to? How does the teleporter works?”
Edgar and Benon stayed silent for a few moments.
Benon: “It kinda teleported us to a random location.”
Marcus: “And it just so happens to teleport you to that location that you wanted to go?”
Edgar: “We only wanted to get out of the building.”
Benon: “It cycles through a number of locations at any given time. But we don’t know the map it’s leading us at the moment.”
(Benon is explicitly not mentioning the Bookstore, but in reality, the bookstore appear in a number of set locations and it repeats…the pattern of where these locations are is seemingly random. Both Benon and Edgar is confused as to how the Bookstore decides where to teleport – maybe this is where they get low rent? In fact, is the Bookstore using empty lots, or empty buildings? Many questions…few answers.)
Marcus goes ahead and jot down Edgar and Benon’s answers. He buys your story.
Edgar (thinking): “Marcus is a hands-off manager, he should be more involved.”
Marcus is happy with what has happened. He believes the story, but he is still paranoid about weird stuff…because it’s tied to the supernatural. Supernatural stuff tends to leads to people getting corrupted. But it doesn’t look like whatever you’re doing is causing you to get corrupted, so that’s good.
Edgar: “If you’re worried about people getting corrupted by the supernatural, that ship has sailed. People discuss it on the news.”
Marcus: “You should still a losing war, even if you know you’re know you’re going to lose…”
Benon: “Certainly, if the extermination of humanity in the balance, then you fight. I would argue with your end goal though about your opponent’s end goal being the extermination of humanity.”
Edgar: “Limiting your resources because you think alien-tech is icky is sorta childish. You have to have pretty good justification to deny us the tools and advantages that the other guys would use to destroy us.”
Marcus: “So that’s why I’m here. I actually found some resources that we can use in our battle against Majestic-12. And we may- will have to use them, because otherwise, we’re be severely outmatched. I will discuss each item in turn, and you can go ahead and do follow-up investigations to go ahead…and use these assets. Sounds reasonable?”
Edgar nods.
Marcus starts by mentioning about Sunshine, a male living in Dorchester House. Dorchester House is an apartment complex that Delta Green uses to house assets that are…damaged by the supernatural…but are still useful. He sends an email about Sunshine to the Friendlies, so they know more about this person and his capabilities. He claims to have time traveled from 2020’s and communicate to others by using artwork. He also has recruited a network of “lone wolves”/anti-socials, so if you need an active shooter somewhere, he can get the for you.
Edgar and Benon notices that the email mentioned Dr. Richard F. Dallan, who was previously mentioned in ‘Demons: Our Misunderstood Friend‘ (a hallucination documented by Dr. Mark Sanchez) as a conduit for the demon Foras.
Edgar: “Does Sunshine communicate with sign language or literally art interpretation? Do you have to wait for him to paint a picture?”
Marcus: “You have to wait. We tired sign language; it didn’t work. Only art works. Which is really weird, but whatever…”
Edgar: “Unfortunately, sorta inconvenient.”
Benon: “How sophisticated does it have to be? Just stick figures?”
Marcus: “Stick figures can work, but Sunshine really likes to paint. It’s the difference between simple language and flowery language.”
Benon: “As for his ability to recruit lone wolves, that would put our organization’s footprint all over the scene of the crimes. Besides, I can already do the same with my contacts.”
Edgar: “If we need people, we can get people from this guy. But do we need to go over there? Or can we just have an interpreter draw something to Sunshine, to get him to send us some guys that hopefully we can talk to like normal? Does Sunshine have a rolodex? And we just go wave ‘hi’ and go through his rolodex?”
Benon: “I mean, I assume so? Although…his rolodex is artistic.”
Edgar laughs.
Edgar: “The second resource is this. Before Majestic-12 did this dangerous press release, threatening to destroy humanity, we were followed a member of MJ-12 named “Abigail Wright”. She was the CIO of March Technologies. Her last public activity was in November 24th 2021, when she was in an interview with Semper Vigilus. Then she went into a bunker, and NEVER CAME OUT.
After she went in, most of Majestic-12 Steering Committee members went into that bunker as well. Possibly even all of them.”
Benon: “We think they’re in that bunker, right now?”
Marcus: “Yes. And so, if we can find them, and deal with them, we can probably stop Majestic-12 in its tracks. Or at least, disable them.”
Edgar: “Shouldn’t we report this to the military? Even if we go in a recruitment thing – we’ll probably have 30 people. An institutional force would be warranted and welcome. Unless that’s some reason why that won’t work. We don’t have some special advantage, like a destructive magical bomb we can throw in there?”
(Edgar then held a private conversation with Benon.
Edgar: “Maybe we can convince the Bookshop to open up a franchise in the bunker? Insert ourselves and infiltrate the building, planting the bomb…”
Benon: “Who do we talk about that? Because the person in the bookstore doesn’t run it.”
Edgar: “He doesn’t understand what’s going on, but he doesn’t have to. He just need to convince the true owner to open up in that place. It’s a weird concept, but it’s like, honestly, it’s no weirder than what’s going on.”
Benon: “How long do we try, before we give up that it can’t be done? Thirty minutes?”
Edgar: “Plan A is call in the tanks.”
Benon: “I like that idea, we attack from multiple directions. Plan B, on the off-chance we can just convince a magical bookstore…that’s definitely not Plan A material, at least until we get some research done.”)
Edgar and Benon return back to their conversation with Marcus.
Benon: “Are we going to destroy the Steering Committee? Do we need to capture them, or have them sent to Gitmo? Do we need to destroy them and we can’t afford them to get captured? What is your objective, Marcus? Is it enough that we have the bunker raided by the army?”
Marcus: “My concern is this – if the army takes this bunker, then they get access to whatever occult stuff is there. I want to know what’s in there, what they’re researching. If it turns out to be, like, you know, dangerous and destructive, then destroy that. Otherwise, go ahead and let the army in.
I’m afraid that if we just call in the army, they win, they take everything in that bunker, they kill or arrest those people…and they…get…corrupted by whatever it is that in there.”
Edgar: “Okay.”
Benon: “Then I do like the idea of attacking from two directions. Let the army know about this, and we can sneak in some other way and cause disruptions.”
Edgar: “Are you trusting us that we won’t be corrupted? Or you have people following us to see if we get corrupted?”
Benon: “If knowing about this stuff means that Marcus wants you dead…”
Edgar also wonders what type of corruption Marcus is worried about. Is he simply being anti-Migo and being afraid of icky alien tech? Is it something that people can’t help themselves to (like The One Ring)? Does it do magical coercion? Does it latch onto you and change your anatomy? Is it something that the organization hates, which is why it will kill anyone who have it?
Edgar examines Marcus’ previous behaviors and writing style in an attempt to decipher his actions. He succeeded.
Edgar has a feeling that Agent Marcus has already sent people to follow the Friendlies. If Marcus wants the Friendlies dead, he would lure them into an ambush. Right now, Marcus doesn’t want the Friendlies dead. But he does have people following the Friendlies, who is prepared to attack the Friendlies on the orders of Marcus. Marcus isn’t concerned about exposure to the Migo’s technology…he appears concerned about exposure to the King in Yellow’s technology.
Edgar (privately to Benon): “Let’s discuss this later.”
Edgar: “Does he have any means of accessing the bunker, or getting in security codes? Does he have a plan? Or is it, you need to brainstorm this?”
Marcus: “If we didn’t have a plan, our employees would get angry. I got you want you need.”
He gives the location of a drawer in the M-Cell Safehouse. In that drawer, Edgar and Benon sees black suits (that can be used to impersonate a Majestic-12 Protomatter soldier) and temporary March Technologies creds that can be used to access the bunker. There’s enough for a whole team, so other people could show up (like Cylde Baughman and Sunshine’s “lone wolves”).
After this, Marcus finishes the conversation, allowing Edgar and Benon to talk more freely.
Post-Briefing Discussion
Edgar: “Sunshine is a painter, so maybe he can paint the King in Yellow. He also knows how to act, so he could also put on the play that way. This is instrumental if we want to put on the King in Yellow. But that’s not what we want to do. It’s a reason to keep him away from other people at least.”
Benon: “Sunshine was a time traveler, right? So maybe his paintings could predict the future.”
Edgar: “Have Sunshine paint a map of the base, in a future where we don’t get killed?”
Benon: “That sounds like a good plan. Have Sunshine look at multiple futures and draw a route that doesn’t result in our death.”
The Car
As Edgar and Benon leave the building, they see Dr. Mark Sanchez’s car…the same car Alba Ballest carjacked in 2021.
Edgar draw guns, but nobody shows up. Edgar’s confused – wasn’t that car stolen? He runs back inside the safehouse and look at the conspiracy board – the car was indeed carjacked in this timeline.
Edgar checks the Safehouse’s security system, where he sees a clothing store mannequin drive the car up to the place. The mannequin then gets out of the car, does a little light cleaning, and then disappears from reality.
Edgar is terrified. He fires his guns widely, and see if he hits anything. He hits nothing. Maybe the mannequin disappeared, or managed to avoid getting hit. Edgar became super-paranoid.
Edgar: “What the hell happened? Is that Alba? Why did she come here and disappear? Is she just dropping off the car? Why is she here? We need to search this building, close all the doors, and thoroughly find an invisible person.”
Cylde Baughman also helps with that. Edgar, Benon, and Cylde waves brooms around, backing themselves into a corner.
Edgar and Benon thought about requesting infrared goggles, but that won’t help against a mannequin. A dog or cat would probably be better at this, as it might catch the mannequin’s scent. The mannequin might not even be here, but they still need to look for what could be an invisible person.
Edgar, Benon, and Cylde closes doors and isolate the building, so that nobody could get into the places they already searched. It took them a couple of hours to complete the lockdown.
After a couple of hours…
Nothing happened.
Cylde then decided to spark a conversation with Edgar and Benon.
Cylde: “Hang on. When we teleported, does it appear in the same way that this mannequin disappeared?”
Edgar: “I have no idea.”
Benon: “Yeah, we don’t know what it looks like when we teleport.”
Edgar: “I am open to the idea that she left through magical technologies. We still need to take precautions though, like checking every door. Why was she here? To murder us? To clean the car?”
Edgar and Benon finishes the search, and are pretty confident that if there was an invisible person, they would have found her by now. They then check the war that the mannequin left behind.
The books that was in the car were still there – The King In Yellow, a mundane book from P.G. Woodsworth, and a history book about the Migo and their connections with Majestic-12.
Edgar: “More than likely, she was returning the books, not the car. No other reason she would return the car. Why would she do anything for us considering we murdered her? Twice? That’s probably not a good thing.”
Cylde: “Remember, Alba was already corrupted once. Maybe someone re-corrupted this corrupted Alba? A third Alba perhaps?”
Edgar: “It’s not Alba, it’s the THING. Alba is entirely gone, her body was destroyed or killed. It’s now a mannequin. Assuming that this even the same entity, and not just some new thing. Either way, we never going to use that car. Probably should secure the books.”
Benon carefully takes the books and move them into the safehouse. Cylde looks at the book, but is not interested in reading them as he already knows everything.
Conversation with Cylde
Benon: “Does he know everything? If he needs to read the books, he need to read the books.”
Edgar: “Does he know where all the MJ-12 people are?”
Benon: “If we knows everything, we already won.”
Edgar and Benon tests his knowledge – by asking Cylde about the location of the MJ-12 agents (he was not present at Marcus’ briefing). Cylde gives the correct answer, and they checked it with Marcus’ info.
Cylde: “I know everything.”
Edgar: “The future?”
Cylde: “I know the future too. But…it’s not enough. You know time-travel a thing. So if you know the future exist, so what? Some time traveler can come in and blow it all into pieces.”
Edgar: “Would you know when that happens?”
Cylde: “Yes.”
Edgar: “You know the future, right now? Before it gets tampered. You know the future after it tampered, if it does get tampered. Right?”
Cylde: “That’s correct. At the very least, my memories will be updated.”
Edgar; “Right now, in this current future, does humanity survive the next hundred years?”
Cylde: “In the form that you want it to survive? No. Actually, no, period. Essentially, time will loop back? Maybe? Ugh, it’s hard to say.
The problem is this – if I say what happens next in the future, that’s going to trigger a ritual. And that ritual will take us to a Hotel that, well, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re ready to go there.”
Edgar: “Is the Hotel a place we can go to without dying?”
Cylde: “Yes. There are many locations that can allow you to enter into a Labyrinth, and presuming you don’t get lost in the Labyrinth, you can eventually walk your back up to the Hotel.”
Edgar: “Is the Hotel a place we can return from?
Cylde: “What do you mean by that?”
Edgar: “Can we turn around and follow the maze back to here?”
Cylde: “Sure, I don’t see why not.
That’s much safer than, say, walking out of the hotel through the front gates. Because, well…you could wind up back in your dimension. Or you could go to some other dimension, some other universe.
So walking back to where you came from sounds reasonable. There’s a catch though.
The labyrinth, and indeed, most places, changes in shape and location and distance…nothing stays permanent. So it’s hard to retrace your steps. Not unless you’re skilled.”
Edgar: “If we use in the hotel, could we use the teleporter to leave? Would that take us back to earth to here?”
Cylde: “It would. The teleporter is tied to the Bookstore, and that Bookstore will always stay tethered to the universe.”
Edgar: “Do we want to go to the Hotel? Is there a reason to go to the Hotel?”
Cylde: “The Hotel is a way to get over to Carcosa. You have to go to Carcosa because the role that was originally given to me, and now is in your hands, requires you to deliver a bottle to the man who will write the King in Yellow. This will cause him to…write the King in Yellow. You know the Hero’s Journey?”
Edgar: “Yeah.”
Cylde: “Well it’s like that. The Hotel is like another obstacle in your path, something that you need to overcome to succeed in your quest.”
Edgar: “Okay. Why do we want someone to write The King in Yellow? What happens when The King in Yellow is performed?”
Cylde: “It’s not like we want someone to write it. It is more like the King in Yellow wants you to force someone to write it.”
Benon: “Should we want to do what the King in Yellow wants us to do?”
Edgar: “Can you tell us why the King in Yellow want us to do this? What is the KiY’s endgoal? Does it result in humanity’s survival?”
Cylde: “I will show you the presentation, but when that happens…be prepared. Get that device ready because you may need to teleport BACK to the bookstore.”
Edgar: “Can you tell us beforehand if we can survive what happens next?”
Cylde goes ahead and explains the Friendlies’ chances of survival at the Masquerade ball, where the King in Yellow will unmask, end the world, and reset everything from the beginning. The Friendlies’ survival is dependent on two things: the Friendlies’ Corruption and their Insight level.
The Friendlies are heavily corrupted, and so they are at a high risk of dying or turning into a supernatural monster. As for the Friendlies’ Insight level, it’s fairly low, and they can afford to take the hit to their Insight (they will gain 3 Insight when the mask is taken off and they see the King’s true face).
Edgar: “Is there any way to survive the party and then start from the beginning, without resetting? And gain that advantage? Let’s call that Plan B, if we can’t stop the King in Yellow.”
Benon: “I’m concerned about the problematic amount of corruption we have.”
Cylde: “Erase all memory of the King in Yellow, and destroy everything about him, and that will erase the corruption. But then you have no knowledge of the King, and thus cannot fight him. It’s a Catch-22 situation.”
Edgar: “We need to find a way to wipe our memories, be at the party, and then restore our memories (via hypnosis or drugs).”
Benon: “Set up a reminder on our smartwatch?”
Edgar: “Maybe make us unconscious when he takes off his mask? Take a drug that knocks us out in 30 seconds? But then…we wake up and then we immediately get corrupted. Cylde, if we get you there, and it’s you versus the King in Yellow, would that be enough?”
Cylde: “Yes. I think I have a good chance of beating him.”
Edgar: “Okay, that’s our priority, but if we get a plan…could we just sleep through this while you finish the job, then throw a towel over him before waking us up? Also, we can just keep our eyes down, and let us know what shoes he’s wearing – point us in the right direction? Or just shoot everyone in the world?”
Cylde: “You can’t kill him until he takes the mask off.”
Benon: “Hopefully we look in the other direction, or set off the bomb, or do something, yes.”
Edgar: “It sounds reasonable – a solution that we suspect it might not work because it seems like a simple solution.”
Benon: “What if the party is in a room filled with mirrors?”
Cylde: “It is. There’s mirrors on the walls.”
Edgar: “We need to be blindfolded and unconscious, but if we need to take an active part in the fight, then only blindfolds. Maybe we can induce face-blindness, but then we could accidentally shoot each other or Baughman.”
Ambush
Edgar, Cylde, and Benon hears a car driving up to the M-Cell Safehouse. Benon notes that the safehouse is in a national park, so they shouldn’t be much traffic to begin with.
Cylde: “Oh dear. It’s Marcus. I’m going to go into hiding. You guys deal with him. Be prepared to use lethal force if necessary.”
Benon: “Do you know why he’s here? He’s on our side. I’m confused.”
Edgar: “Yeah, why is he dangerous?”
Cylde: “Because he thinks you guys are corrupted.”
Edgar: “Can we just hold hands and use the teleporter?”
Edgar, Benon, and Cylde hold hands and use the teleporter, just as a shotgun blast through the windows.
Benon: “Why was Marcus trying to attack? We were just on the phone.”
Edgar: “Probably what’s happening is that he’s was listening to our conversation. Our safehouse was bugged. Maybe he was aware, and he’s decide that we’re corrupted. I guess now we’re rogue agents.”
September 10th, 1995 – New York City
Edgar, Benon, and Cylde wind up back in the Bookstore. They check their surroundings and see they are in September 10th 1995, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. The bookstore owner is busy with other customers, giving the team some time think about next steps.
They quickly requisitioned some chairs to sit down so they can talk more freely.
Blocky cellphones are currently all the rage in 1995, and the M-Cell Friendlies’ current cellphones are not working on the cell phone network, for multiple reasons: the technology is incompatible, and they’re not paying AT&T to use the network at the moment. The good news is that GPS satellites work, so their cell phones can still be useful. They better hope they have charger cables to plug into outlets, since USB charger cables won’t work yet.
The Masquerade is in the process of falling, though it hasn’t fallen fully yet. The public is becoming more aware of supernatural incidents, due to failed coverups and blunders. Currently, a supernatural incident is currently in progress in New York City, which served as the final nail in the coffin for the Masquerade.
30 AUG 1995: An off-Broadway play based on the Red Book, Her Grey Song, opens and closes on the same night in New York City. Delta Green becomes involved shortly after with Operation BRISTOL as theatergoers and actors go insane or die under bizarre circumstances.
30 AUG–10 SEP 1995: Delta Green hunts down and destroys the actors from Her Grey Song, surviving audience members, and copies of the Red Book.
Edgar tries to remember details about the Red Book, using his skills as a detective and memories of events in the 1990s. He realized that the Red Book is another version of the King in Yellow, and there’s many different retellings of that basic story.
The Red Book has its roots in the 1940s. When Nazi Germany conquered France, they gained control over the French military intelligence’s records concerning The King in Yellow. The Nazis weaponized these records in Stalingrad, but it didn’t work out as expected. The Nazis chose to mothball the project in favor of “safer” occult technologies.
When Allied forces marched into France, a Delta Green operative named Agent Mosby scouted ahead and stole the Nazi records. Agent Mosby did not want the US forces to find these records, out of fear that the United States might also try to weaponize the project.
Mosby read the Nazi records in the US, got corrupted, and fled to Europe in 1953 (with those Nazi records). Hiding in Europe, Mosby wrote his own version of The King in Yellow – the Red Book. Nobody knows where Mosby went after he fled to Europe – he must have blended into the European criminal underground.
Edgar: “We are presented with the chance to change history a bit. Let’s ask Baughman what would be the be best course of action…I don’t want to keep the Masquerade up indefinitely; I don’t think it’s a good thing. I also don’t want to watch a bunch of people get murdered by Delta Green. But…”
The Truth About Time Travel
Cylde: “Hang on. You don’t want to watch a bunch of people get murdered, but you want to change history?”
Benon: “Are you confused?”
Edgar: “Yeah, what do you mean?”
Cylde: “When you travel back in time, the universe itself is destroyed. Everything that happens after you time travel is wiped out of existence.”
Edgar is speechless, surprised that they accidentally destroyed two timelines (the first time when they teleported from Cylde Academy, and the second time when they teleported from the M-Cell Safehouse). They’re currently on their third timeline, in 1995. Time traveling forward doesn’t destroy a universe, but time traveling backwards does.
Edgar now understands why Cylde was confused – he wanted to save a bunch of people from getting murdered by Delta Green in this universe. But he also has the blood of two universes on his hands (which is far worse).
Edgar: “I cannot believe the universe would be this brutal. Like, why?“
Benon is okay with that.
Benon: “Think in terms of multiple universes, Edgar. Whenever Edgar sees a fork and takes a right path in one universe, there’s another universe where Edgar sees a fork and takes the left path. And both Edgars go on happily in their lives. Is it possible for those universes to eventually reconverge if both Edgars get back onto the same path?”
Cylde: “No. They’re just two separate universes that are exactly identical, with only their past being different.”
Benon: “Alright, so let’s look at Left-Path Edgar. He takes the left path, then finds a time machine and travels back in time, he winds up on the right-path, with Right-Path Edgar. And when Left-Path Edgar leaves the left path via time travel, what happens?”
Cylde: “That branch of the trees just ends. Everyone dies.”
Edgar: “And we already did this twice. Is this why the Migo is trying to stop humanity? Because we’re time traveling all the time and destroying universes? Are they the ones who time-travel?”
Benon: “No, it’s the Yith.”
Cylde: “The Yith are fine with time-travel and they took precautions to save their information whenever a universe gets destroyed.”
Benon: “If the Yith are okay with it, then I’m okay with it.”
Edgar: “I’m not okay with it…but those two times we time-traveled, we didn’t mean to do it. Does that mean we can never use this teleportation device again, for fear of destroying a universe?”
Benon: “Did we create a new universe when we destroyed the existing universe?”
Cylde: “Yes. You’re in the third universe since you started working for Delta Green.”
Edgar: “If we don’t destroy the King in Yellow, will all universes suffer the endless loop?”
Cylde: “Yes.”
Edgar: “I don’t like participating in the destruction of the universe, but if none of them are going to survive anyway…if they’re all doomed to die in the same way, then…we have to do what we can to break the cycle.
If there are some timelines that don’t have to suffer from the King in Yellow, then we shouldn’t time travel at all. But if all timelines must suffer if we do nothing, then we have to do something.
If we can create a new universe (and then spawn infinite universe off that), that’s what we have to do.
It’s very grim, and I would hesitate to use time travel again, unless we have to. As for the previous two universes we destroyed, we had no active part in it, so I feel no blame for that.”
Benon: “Wait, what if there’s an infinite number of Edgars and Benons existing? Then does that mean at least one of them succeed in stopping the loop?”
Cylde: “Yes! That means we’re guaranteed to win!”
Edgar: “Let’s…let’s at least try to be the ones who stop the loop. In any event, let’s hold off on the temptation to time travel.”
Benon: “Sure, but I see no moral problem with it. I suspect it’s happening all the time anyway.”
Edgar: “In fact, now I’m worried what will happen if someone in this universe tries to time travel. Then this universe would be destroyed, and we’d be dead.”
Benon: “Don’t worry about it. There’s always going to be one of us running around.”
Planning Out Next Moves
Edgar: “We’re in 1995. The bunker is not a priority, since it’s not going to happen in a few years. We’re currently children, so our counterparts are safe. Nobody’s out to get them.”
Edgar also knows that currently in 1995, Delta Green and Majestic-12 both exist and has a presence in the national government. Majestic-12 is legal (though secretive), while Delta Green has been outlawed.
Edgar: “What about Agent Marcus? We time-traveled, would he time-travel after us? Can you follow someone after they time-traveled? Wait, you can’t. When you time travel, you destroy the universe. He can’t possibly chase us – he’s dead. There’s no universe where Marcus realize we time travel and then jump into his own time machine, because he died.”
Cylde: “The only person (other than me) who is aware of the repercussions of time travel, is the time traveller.”
Edgar: “The Hotel still exist, and the party still exist. We still need some way to lose all memory of Corruption, and/or you know, deal with the KiY without seeing his face. Maybe we need some futuristic sunglasses that goes opaque whenever we something dangerous. Mr. Baughman, would viewing a reflection of the King in Yellow be just as dangerous?”
Cylde: “It’s just as bad. Are you familiar with the curse of knowledge?”
Benon: “No, what’s that?”
Edgar: “It’s the curse that we exposed Cylde to, the one where he learns everything.”
Cylde: “That’s what you get when you see the true face of the King in Yellow. A reflection won’t protect you against that.”
Edgar: “Alright, it doesn’t seem too hard to avoid his face, at least for a little bit. Would there armed guards at the party?”
Cylde: “Yes, but they would not use guns. The Hotel will also have guards, but they won’t have guns.”
Edgar: “You know, we never actually got in combat with the Migo or the Protomatter soldiers. Are these the sort of things you can empty a machine gun into and not kill? Also, we’re in 1995, do we even have access to machine guns?”
Benon: “Yeah, it might be harder to get a machine gun in 1995 than it is in 2022.”
Edgar: “Maybe we can contact young Baughman, and convince him to requisition some firearms and other resources?
The bookstore would be our obvious safehouse…but I assume that….
Wait, our credit cards won’t work here! Do we even carry enough cash for a hotel room?
We also can’t ask our contacts to help us…that would just lead to problems.”
Benon: “My 1995 self is currently wanted by multiple US agencies in this time period, for all his work with revolutions in Cyprus, Central America, and South America. I’m probably hiding out in a jungle in South America, for all I know. If I was to talk to my 1995 self, he would think I’m an agent of the running dog capitalists and shoot me. There’s no reason for me to contact myself.”
Edgar: “And I don’t want to contact my family at this time either, because I don’t think they’ll take the news well either.”
Benon looks for a coffee machine, as he cannot go out to buy coffee since he has no money to speak of and the credit cards don’t work at all. After a while, Benon finds a coffee machine in the bookstore and starts brewing coffee.
Edgar: “The main problem with making this a home-base is that it will teleport when we leave. We’re in an odd space. We’re all homeless, but we carry a device that is worth billions of dollars, and have knowledge of the future so we can play the stock market effectively. Let’s think carefully on what to do next.”
Aftermath
Benon believed that when they time-traveled and destroyed one universe, they ended up creating a new universe. Since the universe splits at every decision, it makes sense that a whole new universe spawning into existence so we can travel to it.
Benon remembered a book he read called A Universe From Nothing and is convinced that nothing exists. He doesn’t believe ‘nothing’ is a thing that can exist, that would be ludicrous, it’s nothing. Instead he believes that since the total energy of the universe is 0 and everything is made of energy, then nothing really exists…probably. He doesn’t think he got the point of the book.
Cylde thanked both Edgar and Benon for saving his life after he was exposed to the “curse of knowledge”. Cylde wants to help the M-Cell Friendlies out because he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the way that he suffered.