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[Apocalypse Keys PbP] Murder & the Man-Who's-Not-There (Mystery on Page 2)
Dex Dynamo
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Registered User regular
The End is Nigh.
This world is fragile. Things howl at the edges of reality and claws reach out to find a way in. Ancient Doors of Power connect this world to destiny. If Harbingers of the apocalypse open enough of these doors, the world will end on their terms.
It could be fiery—of blood and bone, a living nightmare.
It could be quiet—of shiver and whisper, a twisted dream.
The world will end, and it will be remade in ways too terrible to contemplate. From the ashes or the shadows, only the Harbingers know what will rise to claim what remains.
But you’re not going to let that happen, are you? You’ve come to love this world, even if it doesn’t completely accept you.
You are an agent of Department of Interdimensional Vigilance and International Security, Interdisciplinary Operations Network (DIVISION). An organization that combats occult threats, classifies supernatural phenomena, and investigates the encroaching apocalypse.
You are part of an elite group with a “unique” set of skills. Only you can hold back the apocalypse, and hold this broken world together.
You are a monster. There are many monsters in the world, but not all of them are as useful to DIVISION. Most of them are just trying to live their lives as best as they can. They are not equipped to hold back the end of days. They are not marked by a strange fate. You are Omen-Class monsters. Your power may one day be your undoing, or it may signal our last best hope.
Apocalypse Keys is a PBTA game inspired by stories like Hellboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Doom Patrol, and other stories about monsters fighting to save the world. In it, you play monsters tasked with preventing the apocalypse... while fighting the urge to become the apocalypse yourself.
I'd like to run a game of it! The game recently funded on Kickstarter, so I have the quickstart rules and playbooks, and will share with whomever signs up to play. I'm thinking 4 players is a good group size! If you're interested, reply in bold that you're interested, and once we have four players, I'll share out the books and we can start to decide on playbooks.
CATS (Concept, Aim, Tone, and Subject Matter)
Concept: A group of monsters come together to save the world.
Aim: Feel some feelings, experience some existential horror, punch the apocalypse in its face.
Tone - Darkly Comic Tragic Horror: You are monsters trying your best to save the world. You may fail, and become the apocalypse yourselves. There is humor to be found in your place in the world (and I want to leave a lot of room for that), but my focus is on the drama and horror of that premise.
Subject Matter: There will be themes of emotional turmoil, body horror, and secret government ops. We can outline lines and veils before play.
Players
This world is fragile. Things howl at the edges of reality and claws reach out to find a way in. Ancient Doors of Power connect this world to destiny. If Harbingers of the apocalypse open enough of these doors, the world will end on their terms.
It could be fiery—of blood and bone, a living nightmare.
It could be quiet—of shiver and whisper, a twisted dream.
The world will end, and it will be remade in ways too terrible to contemplate. From the ashes or the shadows, only the Harbingers know what will rise to claim what remains.
But you’re not going to let that happen, are you? You’ve come to love this world, even if it doesn’t completely accept you.
You are an agent of Department of Interdimensional Vigilance and International Security, Interdisciplinary Operations Network (DIVISION). An organization that combats occult threats, classifies supernatural phenomena, and investigates the encroaching apocalypse.
You are part of an elite group with a “unique” set of skills. Only you can hold back the apocalypse, and hold this broken world together.
You are a monster. There are many monsters in the world, but not all of them are as useful to DIVISION. Most of them are just trying to live their lives as best as they can. They are not equipped to hold back the end of days. They are not marked by a strange fate. You are Omen-Class monsters. Your power may one day be your undoing, or it may signal our last best hope.
Apocalypse Keys is a PBTA game inspired by stories like Hellboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Doom Patrol, and other stories about monsters fighting to save the world. In it, you play monsters tasked with preventing the apocalypse... while fighting the urge to become the apocalypse yourself.
I'd like to run a game of it! The game recently funded on Kickstarter, so I have the quickstart rules and playbooks, and will share with whomever signs up to play. I'm thinking 4 players is a good group size! If you're interested, reply in bold that you're interested, and once we have four players, I'll share out the books and we can start to decide on playbooks.
CATS (Concept, Aim, Tone, and Subject Matter)
Concept: A group of monsters come together to save the world.
Aim: Feel some feelings, experience some existential horror, punch the apocalypse in its face.
Tone - Darkly Comic Tragic Horror: You are monsters trying your best to save the world. You may fail, and become the apocalypse yourselves. There is humor to be found in your place in the world (and I want to leave a lot of room for that), but my focus is on the drama and horror of that premise.
Subject Matter: There will be themes of emotional turmoil, body horror, and secret government ops. We can outline lines and veils before play.
Players
Dex Dynamo on
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3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Not especially, I'm open to players new to PbtA players (especially because Apoc Keys operates slightly differently than other PbtA games)!
In short, here's how the mechanics work:
During play, every playbook has certain triggers that accrue Darkness Tokens when you activate them, usually by embodying your monstrous nature. When making a Move, you'll spend Darkness Tokens to add to a 2d6 roll.
On a 7-, a bad thing happens; you might not get what you want, or if you do, it might have bad consequences.
On a 8-10, you get the thing you want without consequences.
On an 11+, you get you want with a twist: you go too far, your inner monster gets let out. Things go haywire.
You can, once you've rolled, spend Bonds if you want to adjust your score in either direction. Your friendships are the thing that can keep your monstrous nature in check.
During play, you'll try to collect Keys, the clues to point you towards the source of the Apocalyptic threat. Once you've collected enough, you'll all brainstorm out what's really happening, and then try to stop the apocalypse.
The Summoned: The Summoned came from another world, a terrible one that hungers for the destruction of this one. Their nature is tied to a devastating fate. A prophecy hangs over their head, and the Summoned decides how they’ll defy that prophecy, and for how long. (This is your Hellboy book, obvs)
The Surge: You have an apocalyptic power bursting inside of you. Something that threatens to tear forth and consume the world. You struggle to both contain and share that power with your friends and the world.
The Found: You were... well, you were found. You are something not of this world, discovered by DIVISION agents and trying to learn what you are, where you came from, and what this world you now live in is like.
The Shade: The Shade is caught between the living and the dead, and has learned how to observe and discern the nature of truth. You have a particular relationship with death and the world beyond.
The Last: You are the last survivor of your people. You try to carry their legacy on, and protect this new world so you don't lose them as well.
The Fallen: You were a being of greatness and power, and you had a terrible downfall. You are now trying to find purpose in a world marked by your great failure, while balancing your overwhelming sense of pride.
The Hungry: You have an overwhelming need to consume... something. This power threatens to swallow the world if you let it, so you try to balance your needs with protecting the planet.
Which is to say, I'd definitely be interested! Though, while I've played in a few PbP games, I've not played in a dedicated forum playspace before, so I might need a few pointers if you decide to have me around.
Done, you're in! Absolutely, I can answer any questions and provide some guidance along the way, and include some example posts as we go.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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In 1937 a man named Yosef Lehatzel killed himself. In his kitchen. Knife to the chest. Then Yosef called the police. As decades roll by he has become less and less certain he is not the doppelgänger, the shade, yet he remembers his childhood, his youth, his wife… so that thing must have cursed him.
Sign me up.
I must learn how to share my power, or be consumed by it
I embody the hope and fear of the apocalypse
My power is explosive, uncontrollable, and alienating
My heart yearns to destroy and be destroyed
Your Name
A mundane name—Mallory Rue
People have tried to give Mallory other names. Callous reminders of the pain she has wrought or the function she fulfills, Nihl, Jinx, Hex. It may very well be true that to others, these epithets of bad luck and misfortune are a far more accurate name for the girl, but to herself and anyone who might feign care for her, she is simply Mallory. She has been since she was young, and will be when she expires.
Your Look
obvious signs of how I control my desire, something that hints at my struggle to be human
Mallory affects a demeanor of exhausted apathy, a tired woman looking for every excuse to remove herself from the situation and take a nap. Her clothes are simple, old, comfortable, wrinkled. Her hair is a mess, given only the care of a pillow. It is, however, all an affectation. You can't hurt for what you can't help if you never cared, is the idea. It's somewhat undermined by Mallory's struggle against an opaque gloom that engulfs her features, masking any flawed beauty of humanity and leaving her cast in shadow.
Your Origin
I was chosen to carry this terrible burden and destroy the human world
What chose poor, precious, Mallory? It was no single person or thing as far as she can quantify. It was simply the powers that be, luck and entropy, that deigned Mallory the butt end of the joke that is reality.
Probably the more important question is why. Why Mallory? What made this girl so special so as to bear the burden of the great decay of all things and the fraying strings of fate? For all Mallory knows, this is another question that has no true answer. She won the shittiest lottery to ever exist. She was chosen by the same virtue of the destruction she is bound to bring; pure, malicious and uncaring, chance.
What Collateral Damage Do You Leave In Your Wake?
memories become distorted and break down in unpredictable ways
Despite her best hidden efforts to temper her appearance and her care for the world arround her, Mallory looks exactly like a beacon of misfortune, like a black cat to the superstitious, and to all that is who she will be. By virtue of association and the emotional lens of memory, events she is involved with are always viewed pessimistically. There is no assumption of good faith, not as her luck would have it.
Your Powers of Darkness
cosmic energies
To the scientifically minded, it might be entropy. To rumor and supernatural, it is misfortune. By other names, fate, bad luck, deprecation. Mallory thinks the distinction of monster she is said it best; Omen.
What Does The Darkness Demand Of You?
to be the downfall of those I care for, to never fall in love
What can go wrong will, and there are oh so many ways to get love wrong, no matter the depth to which it is felt. From co-worker to lover, what you ultimately offer to another is support and foundation, and the Harbinger in Mallory knows this, and knows isolation to be the most powerful tool of destruction in its arsenal.
Starting Moves
My Hands Around Your Heart
The Heart's Eclipse
Like a Moth to the Flame
Orphanage Visit
It didn't last. Erelong, the atomic sorceries of those who had survived terrible pilgrimages into the haunted wastes that were once Europe vied with the alien technology bestowed on those who had remained home and studied the precepts of Yith. Bloodthirsty lepidopteran entities, having enslaved the populace of South America for their own vile purposes, launched terrible biological attacks against the Towermen's gleaming arcologies. All seemed doomed to repeat itself.
In 1957, the Division definitively stopped any of that from ever happening by ensuring that Khrushchev would triumph over the Anti-Party Group with Zhukov's support. Dark rumors surround the events of that era in Soviet history to this day, but only The Division knows the truth of what happened.
A handful of beings now remember a future that can never be. One among them is Etain of Biringan, The Last - and first - of the Towermen.
E: (Having hit on a concept that out-there, I figured I'd better just get it into text before I tried to mechanize it)
A painful name I can never let go of.
Your look:
Eyes that contain a galaxy, a symbol that represents everything that was taken from me (the tattered remains of a Towerman's Action Suit)
Your Origin:
My people would have owned the Earth after humans, but now cannot.
What Tragedy Destroyed Your People:
Too much that should have been left unknown became commonplace, and the past itself became a battleground.
Your Powers of Darkness:
Time Distortion, A Weapon From A Future (The Lambent Ray)
What Does The Darkness Demand of You:
To resurrect my people at the expense of humanity, to awaken the acherontids
Moves:
Ashes to Ashes, Tragedy's Long Shadow, Dream Future Review Protocols (Recurring elements - these are dreams of futures that might be possible. Etain only sees the other Towermen in his dreams; they want to come back.)
Your Name
A name that reminds—is my name! I am Yosef Lehatzel. Please do not refer to me as Agent Mimic, Nachahmen, the Stuttgart Golem, I am not from Stuttgart you understand, Non-Linear Half-Life Anomaly or anything other than my name. Thank you.
Your Look
The smell of books and dark wood. Ah. My calone, naturally. What kind of man does not keep himself presentable?
A symbol that proves my soul belongs to another. This? A pendant. A wedding present.
Your Origin
Something else. I have recounted this story so many times, usually in a very small windowless room. Such torture, even when inflicted with good faith and the desire to learn, muddles the mind. When one answer is not accepted eventually one will break, in the hopes of appeasing the torturer. I was attacked by a monster wearing my face, and for this I have been cursed. That is the truth.
What Form Does Death Take to Speak to You?
They wait for me in reflective surfaces and look like me—…Hm? Oh nothing. Something on my mind.
Your Powers of Darkness
Shadow Magic. Magic? No, no, it is all kosher my friend. My years of study into both the sciences and the Kabbalah have yielded an understanding of space and geometry few possess. A small respite from an otherwise cursed longevity.
Supernatural Strength and Speed. I am limber. You know, when I was in college I would regularly participate in half-marathons. …Yes, yes, it is because my cells cannot deteriorate and I regenerate at an accelerated rate.
What Does the Darkness Demand of You?
To beak the veil between the living and the dead. …I can play the viola. I apologise, what did ask?
To reinvigorate an ancestral curse. …I’m sorry, what was the question?
Moves
Death Walked Here, Soul Like a Steel Trap, The Corridor of Doors
Okay, real talk? I do want to bend the bond concepts, maybe make new ones. One is that someone was there when I died, which is not strictly true for this character, and it means someone has to be from the 1930’s too. One is about being secretly in love with someone, but I want the fact he was married and meant it to be important. Could I maybe have:
You fought to put me on the team. What can I offer you?
You are like the child I never had. Why am I so hard on you?
I jus’ wanna be the Giles, you know? My love is real but platonic.
- The Towermen are a created race resulting from the infusion of tremendous forces into an artificial core by post-human science.
- Towermen look like Art Deco statuary come to life, with eyes that seethe with cosmic energy and strange emanations. Think somewhere out of the same quadrant as Doctor Manhattan and Adam Warlock.
- Etain has been in this timeline since at least 1950, and in Division custody for most of that.
- The Lambent Ray is a force that is summoned, not some mere device.
Also, for Yosef's division move, given that his shctick seems to be a general unawareness or denial of his monstrous nature and appears fairly normal, have you taken a look at the Honorary Human DIVISION move?
That said, let's start filling out our vision for DIVISION! Here are the recommended questions about what DIVISION is as an agency:
If anyone has thoughts on any of these questions, throw them out here and we'll start to get an idea of what we're working with.
I’ll give it a once over after work!
What’s your favorite area of DIVISION?
The Counterweight Lounge. The lounge is a perfectly ordinary oval shaped and dimly lit room. The oak furniture is well made but not extravagant. The walls are purple and the thinning carpet looks like spilt ink on white paper. There is a jukebox with a large selection of music. Some books (nonfiction, mundane, declassified) on a shelf, a 90’s box television that only picks up Norwegian crime dramas, a prototype Atari that never saw the light of day and a dart board. In the middle of the lounge is a stone table with a glass top which cannot be moved by any force yet known to DIVISION. It’s a nice place to relax.
All over, and there are lots. Sometimes they even trip over operations another is conducting, though more often they argue about who gets to do a thing instead.
What area is off-limits, even to you?
Etain is Not Allowed to visit - or supposed to know about - Timeline Maintenance.
The use of supposed to know about is interesting, let me ask you...
When did you find out about its existence?
I think it would be neat if there some elusive main or founding branch. No one's sure where exactly it is, and some areas speak about it in hushed reverence while others scoff and sneer like it's half a myth. But no one can deny that those that come from or are promoted to "home office" tend to be the biggest players, whether everything they've done be viewed positively or not.
What about DIVISION is mundane?
Imagine, the bureaucratic nightmare of operating at least semi-covertly the world over while actively employing beings on the very edge of human in both definition and perception. Most people probably end up employed by happenstance and circumstance rather than choice, though those that choose to enroll certainly make up a large and important demographic. By and large, however, the employees are the most mundane. Sure, hiring is clandestine, the facilities themselves have odd rooms and odder artifacts still, but people will be people. There's a knitting group. There's a breakroom betting pool on which artifact has been causing that looming light in the corner of storage room C. There's a vase in the medical ward that just lives there thanks to how often flowers are left for a fallen worker. Conspiracy theorists can guesstimate that an apocalypse is approaching based on an uptick in pizza deliveries as DIVISION employees work later and later nights. The top-brass, never show a thing, monkey suit wearing uber-professionals are shockingly uncommon.
And because these questions seem more player specific, I'll take a stab at them too.
What’s your favorite area of DIVISION?
Honestly, the liminal permanence of the Counterweight Lounge sounds nice for Mallory too. The sheer oddity and static nature of the room might very well make bad things less likely to happen. She probably catches a few naps there. And, as I'm leaning toward grabbing the orphanage move, Mallory would often spend her free time in the orphange of whatever branch we work for. It's been nicknamed The Raising Grounds, on account of being constructed out of modular rooms and panels so as to be easily repaired and adjusted to accommodate monstrous kiddos, and they can literally be adjusted to raise and lower. It's here, more often than anywhere else, that Mallory's affectations slip. She has honest hope and care for these little rascals, and wants to make sure their luck is better than hers.
What area is off-limits, even to you?
I imagine Mallory just has restricted access in general, or that a fellow caretaker from the Raising Grounds is supposed to shadow her a bit, because misfortune is a terribly risky thing to introduce to the well oiled machine of DIVISION security. Getting her too close to a dangerous artifact in transport or to a room with faulty wiring and what can go wrong will and we'll have an entire incident on our hands. But, that's mostly just scaling and mindful permissions of her access... Wholly off-limits to Mallory is the Imprisonment Ward, which holds imprisoned monsters like the containment ward holds artifacts. Mallory is too much of a security concern. And, if by a cruel twist of fate someone she helped to raise were to end up there, her finding out about it would be a very undesirable outcome.
Where's the waggle emoji when I need it?
I don't have an answer for that yet.
I do think DIVISION probably has bigger and smaller sites, including probably a headquarters somewhere.
Etain is likely to have spent some time in the Imprisonment Ward, too.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Your Name
A Strange Name - Vell remembers her real name. It's one of the few clear things she remembers, before DIVISION. But it doesn't really work with human mouths, human tongues, human lips... Some people, some of the first she met here, said that they thought part of it sounded like "Vell," so Vell she became.
Your Look
the smell of incense and flowers, a hypnotizing aura - A "sentient, bipedal plant" is how DIVISION scientists first described her. It took some time before they could really recognize that, since meeting Vell in person often left the unprepared a bit dazed, and not really aware during the encounter that they weren't just talking to a normal, friendly person. It seems that the scent of perfume that often radiates around Vell has an almost intoxicating, disarming effect.
Your Origin
I was found in an alien world and brought back against my will - Or at least, that's what she was told. She doesn't really remember much in those initial days, or before. It's all a blur, the memories all feel trapped behind a locked door, and Vell doesn't have the key. But she doesn't think she came here by choice. Why would she leave behind her home and memories?
What has replaced most of your memories from before DIVISION?
a shivering sense of loss and a yawning abyss of nothingness - Her memories should be there. They should be wonderful. They feel like they would be full of joy and life and family. Right? But instead, it's just emptiness. Who was she, before? Do you really exist, if all the memories that made you are gone? Is there anything left of Vell's real self? Or are they gone forever, lost, dead, forgotten? The ache of that oblivion tears at Vell every day.
Your Powers of Darkness
Telepathy and Mind Blasts - It's almost difficult for Vell to not instinctively reach out and touch the minds of others, to feel their hearts like her own. Why is it so natural for her? Why does everyone else seem to shy away, when they know of it? Does it make someone a monster, to feel what you feel? Isn't that just empathy?
Creature Affinity - Animals don't mind. Animals like it when you know what they feel. Plus, plants and animals have a very symbiotic relationship with each other. They sustain each other, whether by providing actual food and sustenance or by spreading seeds and life. It makes sense.
What does the Darkness demand of you?
to create an army of mindless puppets - Human minds and hearts are right there: exposed, vulnerable, manipulable. They took you from your home. Maybe they locked your memories away. They are selfish, deceptive, and deny the opportunities to learn more about each other. Instead of trying to understand them and help them grow in their way, maybe you can just do it your way: faster, and easier.
Starting Moves
You Can’t Hide Your Heart from Me
A Man of a Thousand Faces
Where Do You End, Where Do I Begin?
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Where is DIVISION located? Are there many branches or just this one?
I agree, definitely located all over. There are many branches around the world. Multicultural woo!
What about DIVISION is mundane?
There's food at most DIVISION branches, but it's quite boring. Kind of low quality, too. Ordering out or bringing something in is pretty commonplace because of that.
What’s your favorite area of DIVISION?
Wandering around the entranceway, or just kind of awkwardly near certain people's desks and cubicles. Appreciating the potted flowers that people have or that makes the entrance just a bit more welcoming.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Collecting all of our responses about DIVISION in one place:
Where is DIVISION located? Are there many branches or just this one?
What about DIVISION is mundane?
What about DIVISION is strange? How are the monstrous agents, like you, treated differently than the human agents? How does this show in DIVISION structure?
What’s your favorite area of DIVISION?
What area is off-limits, even to you?
We'll answer those last four questions and then I'll introduce our mystery.
Tahuantinsuyo branch is based in Cusco, Peru, and is generally regarded as a comparatively calm assignment.
Etain has refused to explain to DIVISION why the door to his quarters sometimes opens to their break room, or what he's been doing in the ruins of the Sacsayhuaman citadel at midnight on the autumnal equinox every fall since 2012, but everyone at the Cusco branch appreciates the snacks he leaves them afterwards.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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What about DIVISION is strange? How are the monstrous agents, like you, treated differently than the human agents? How does this show in DIVISION structure?
DIVISION is strange in its breadth of knowledge, largely analytically sourced. Save for any number of rumors or realities pertaining to secret libraries and the such, the strangeness is most obvious in that this knowledge does not come with comprehension or understanding. An agent can point at a monster and call them plant-, artificial-, insectoid-, nearhuman- typed, and can claim them to be of a certain class, ranking up to myth-, omen-, and harbinger- class. No one but monsters truly understand what it is like to lead their lives however, and that is not information DIVISION as a whole is ready to undermine their classifications to sympathize with. Beyond those specifically named classes, the class distinction is largely a farcical suggestion, which upper-DIVISION members might change on the fly to justify certain responses. A human agents ID might list their blood type, but a monstrous agent's ID will be near-indistinguishable from a threat and response dossier.
Items and beings "recovered" by Division get an official designation assigned. For those that have been in custody longer, like Etain and Yosef, it usually includes the place and year that they were taken into custody. Classes are designated with the Latin name for the letter they begin with. Newer additions may have a more modern-sounding scheme.
Etain, for example, is still internally referred to as 1943-Oak Ridge - Victor Hotel Harbinger (1943 - Oak Ridge - VH Aha, in a shorthand nobody actually uses). There are reams of now-digitized notes and memos appended to his initial recovery paperwork, reflecting a monthslong debate about whether he was a Nazi agent (the Thule Society having been opposed to DIVISION at the time) and the final conclusion in 1944 that if he was, he wasn't a very effective one and didn't speak a word of German as far as the agent in charge, Eleanor Rand, could tell. The overall tone of a lot of it is rushed; as his letter designation implies, a lot of weird stuff surfaced related to the Manhattan Project.
The Harbinger class is reserved from entities from other worlds or dimensions; Vell was probably also originally Harbinger class. Etain views being classed as from "another world" as slightly insulting but has stopped arguing about it... apart from during an internal review in the 90s. His recent reclassification to Omen class came as a surprise; DIVISION has tended to forget about him over the years unless something radioactive is in play.
Overall DIVISION is committed to the idea of using monstrous agents for a few reasons:
First, most that aren't inherently predatory (Parable class) or self-destructive (Ephemera class) are much simpler and cheaper to employ than detain. This is a surprisingly old development in the organization's history. The majority aren't paroled into employment until they've been studied for a period of at least a year, sometimes longer. There are surprisingly few monstrous agents as obviously inhuman as Etain or Vell, most are more like Mallory or Yosef.
Second, there's only so much a human agent can get done on short notice by comparison to what a being that can reverse time, fly, or control darkness can. This is just a recognized fact of life at DIVISION. Yosef and Etain were able to deal with 1973-London Papa Alpha X-Ray Pe (a real vampire trying to infiltrate the crew of The Satanic Rites of Dracula, for reasons unclear but believed related to Christopher Lee's descent from Charlemagne); human agents would've succumbed to the beast's wiles.
Third, DIVISION (apart from Black Pyramid - which doesn't exist) isn't interested in systematic pursuit of an end objective. Many of its competitor organizations are: The Consensus Algorithm, the esoteric Muslim-Hindu syncretism that is the modern Thugee Cult, and many others all have some often-eschatological purpose in mind. DIVISION just asks that the world keep turning. For several monstrous agents, this is ultimately a very persuasive point, as most would rather continue to live in a world they can understand, even if it doesn't understand them.
Some memos:
NOVEMBER 10, 1943
MEMORANDUM RE: 1943 - OAK RIDGE VHH
FROM: ELEANOR RAND
TO: D.E. NICHOLS... [Various redacted items]
APRIL 7, 1967
MEMORANDUM RE: EVENTS IN POINT PLEASANT
FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION, SMOKY MOUNTAIN BRANCH, ARLINGTON BRANCH
FROM: ELEANOR RAND, AIC (SOUTHEAST REGION)
from: erand@DIVISION.org
to: 1943orvhh@DIVISION.org
July 12, 1991
You've activated the part of my brain that used to make monster taxonomy lists about old movies, though, so now I'm curious about classes beyond Parable and Ephemera. I also wrote out those "types" with Etain and Vell in mind, nearhuman- and plant- respectively, and I figured Yosef and Mal would be called something like adjacent type for how human-like they appear, although Mallory is riding a line.
I had it in my mind that Mallory was found near immediately, literally spelling out omens since she was born and such, which would make her in this classification system 2000-Miami - La Iglesia Lukumi Babalu-Aye Omen, Adjacent. I imagine the modern naming scheme is less a departure from this structure and more for internal resources, since the advent of the orphanage system would have DIVISION dealing with kids, and most people and common sense tells you that addressing a kid by numbers and titles doesn't tend to ingratiate them to you. Older employees or more militant types might still whip out a full designation on ya rather than a name.
I think DIVISION as a whole doesn't realize it's literally been staving off the ends of the world for most of a century. Some of the higher-ups and several of the Omen-class agents surely do, but I don't think the average employees actually realize the stakes they're playing for. They may even think working for DIVISION is kind of fun. Harbinger-class and actually being a Harbinger, mechanically, may not have a lot to do with one another. Or they might - the possibility of another world sort of implies that this one could go away.
It's possible that Black Pyramid helps keep that kind of thing from obsessing everyone, but of course, it doesn't exist.
I bet @Endless_Serpents can come up with some memos or something to help us clear this up.
- Attempts to adequately define the undefinable.
- To put their stamp on the whole endeavour.
- Because they’ve seen too much and gone unaligned*. Unaligned is not to be confused with insanity, but does make one difficult to parse in this reality.
Beyond that the world wars fractured, destroyed, gave rise to and allied various monster hunting clubs, occult research teams, esoteric cabals and silent religions (cults which nevertheless have real magic power). DIVISION as it stands now is better and worse than it was prior to the 1920’s.
It’s rarely spoken of day to day, but in Yosef’s opinion SEVERANCE is the greatest threat to DIVISION itself, if not the world. SEVERANCE is a counter agency looking to uplift mankind through the exploitation and spreading of the supernatural with roots leading back to pre-war DIVISION. Yosef doesn’t have a nasty scar on his chest where SEVERANCE agent Alexander Sandsend shot him point blank, but he sure feels like he does.
*Famously, director Trevor Li Teng** got up during a routine budget meeting, excused themselves, then proceeded to walk diagonally through the air, passing through the ceiling never to be seen again. The director of DIVISION is not a sought after job, but a duty.
**When questioned about certain changes to the terminology of several contained objects, Teng said: “Those watching are not present, and do not learn linearly. Best keep them on their toes. If even I don’t understand, how can they hope to use our knowledge against us?”
What about DIVISION is strange?
The fact no one has figured it out. People aren’t stupid. Technology is constantly improving, everyone can record what they see now. So who, or what, is keeping it all under wraps? Sure, there are people whose job it is manage media, but no one is perfect… yet, here we are. Still secret. Just as that table won’t budge, is there some object, perhaps some mythical first object, that will not allow the cover to be blown?
How are the monstrous agents, like you, treated differently than the human agents?
There’s the subtle and obvious treatment as a ticking time bomb, naturally. Besides that, Yosef and the others are banned, just absolutely no way, no how, allowed back to the site they were picked up from. In the case of Mallory this likely extends to several locations, including the hospital they were born at.
How does this show in DIVISION structure?
Handler isn’t a word that’s ever used, but for every monstrous agent there are at least two human agents that cross paths with them when they’re not on a mission. Questions are asked, questions like: “Did you find yourself sympathising with that hungry ghost?” and “Do you think those cultists deserved what happened to them?”
Personally, Yosef is terrified of this one receptionist woman (actual job title unknown) who greets him in the main hall most days. He’s still mulling over his answer to whether he prefers yellow over blue.
What area of DIVISION is off-limits for you?
Yosef is, to his knowledge, a fairly well respected individual. For a time, new agents assume he is human (he is human!) and so he regularly learns what the average human thinks is going on today. He chooses not to pry into areas outside his expertise because like a prisoner trying to decrease his sentence with good behaviour, involving himself with the supernatural just isn’t the plan.
Were he to look for the Spacial Anomaly Vaults, he would swiftly find he is to be subdued if he comes within 300 feet of the Happy Angels Funhouse Mirror.
Haven't figured out where Vell fits in just yet, but that's probably fine.
Is Etain the only one they locked up, out of the four of us? Because he got very locked up.
I think at a basic level monsters are taken in for questioning, some solitary with monitoring, and then brought out as agents if deemed safe and/or to get thrown at something worse. Those that are known about from a young age or before they realise what they are, are more likely to be approached to become agents from the start, in the hopes of keeping them on the level.
We open in DIVISION headquarters (specifically, the American branch of DIVISION: Elysium, though you've never heard anyone call it anything outside of "DIVISION"), located in the beautiful city of Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Eileen Kitohara (They/Them) arrives a few minutes late for their shift, a bacon egg and cheese croissant in hand. They greet Charlie, the receptionist, and say hello to the slightly impatient agents in suits and earpieces waiting for them. One of the agents hands them a manilla folder, they pop it open and scan it, reading occasional half-sentences out loud in between bites. Their eyebrows raise, a slight smirk forms on their face.
"Alright then. This is interesting. Round up my usual crew, and we'll meet in the briefing room in... what time is it, 8:45?"
"It's, uh, it's 9:14."
"Oh! Well, put a 'tardy' on my record. I dunno, have everyone meet in the briefing room at 10. I could use a run to the coffee shop."
One by one, a friendly junior agent greets you somewhere in DIVISION HQ, and give you your orders: Meet at the briefing room at 10. A high-priority mission that only your unique talents can address.
(We'll do our character introductions here, and then once we've met everyone, we'll flash back and build some Bonds with one another.