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Special Agent Field Reports: July 2020
🕑 Added 2020-08-27 16:20:12 +0000 UTCSecret Agent Avia Jiutai accidentally discovered a lost song. The song in question, presumed to have been played only once on a local Australian radio show in the late 1980s was partially captured by a local rock group for use on a bootlegged mix tape. Eventually rediscovered and distributed online, the origin of the mysterious folk-rock song, and the identity of the original performers, became the obsession of many online groups for years. By the time of the partial song's resurgence, however, the radio studio from which the song was originally broadcast had burned down, along with its collection of vinyls and the archives of its shows. After this, the quest for the song died down, as many presumed the answers to be lost entirely. Agent Jiutai was aware of this mystery, but did not have it in mind when he was browsing a collection of bootleg discs in a small market in China. Several caught his eye, in particular a mislabeled cover of a somewhat popular folk album from Russia's 2000s music scene. Once he played the disk, however, it became clear that the CD actually held the missing song, in no way associated with the Russian folk band, in full, grainy, ripped-from-vinyl detail. Further investigation into the metadata and printing codes lead the agent to track the recording to a private European recording studio. How the song wound up on Australian airwaves remains a mystery, but certain online groups have been overjoyed at the full song and additional leads.
Secret Agent Gedat Rakkin traveled to the American Midwest to investigate the tragic death of the Mothman. A local celebrity, despite SIU's best attempts at censorship, Mothman (a tall, winged creature of indeterminable age and origin) was found dead on a Saturday morning in the office of the used car dealership he owned. Many signs of struggle were noted in the office, the floor scuffed by metal, and much of the furniture badly damaged; examination of the body on the scene revealed that the death was likely by edged weapon. Any relevant security footage from nearby cameras was either deleted or scrambled into uselessness before agents could investigate, however Agent Rakkin's exhaustive interviews with locals uncovered a rumor of a “woman in metal armor with bone on it” who was spotted on the outskirts of town. The grieving wife of the Mothman graciously allowed the SIU to study his remains, but the body itself seemed to resist analysis, as it had quickly turned into ash and dust (with no intact genetic material to be recovered) during transport to a local morgue. Agent Rakkin was able to recover two large, black feathers from the remains; one was given to the widow and the other, with her grace, has been taken to the SIU headquarters for analysis.
Senior Special Agent Fenix Blackpaw investigated a strange coincidence surrounding numerous unrelated novels from the 1990s. Spending much of his July vacation reading (practicing his SIU‑mandated speed reading training) Agent Blackpaw read through many different genres from the 90s era and discovered subtle repeating phrases across the disparate authors. A few of the exact same spelling errors seemed present across the works, along with a few discrete, repeated ideological themes. Traveling to America to research this further in his own time, Blackpaw received access to the archives of three different publishing houses involved in the collection of unrelated books he had read from. Extensive research into mailing addresses and handwriting from signed contracts show that all these books, and likely a great many more, were secretly penned by the same author under a series of false identities. Records of this core and singular author are sparse, though one author's name, officially tied to a medical history and signed car insurance policy, appears in two of the books that received singular, limited print runs. If Blackpaw's theory is correct, this author may rank among the most prolific authors in history, with a famous series on ancient dragons spending weeks on the best seller list across two years. The author was not available for comment, having been dead for 31 years.
Special Agent Erik Fischer was assigned to a small fishing town in Maine after reports of frequent nightmares. Locals claim that, almost a year ago, nearly all citizens of the town started having severe, disturbing nightmares on a nightly basis, and that their intensity has only grown over time. This was first regarded as a mental health crisis, and a possible case of mass hysteria, but as murder and suicide reports have increased, along with the reported strength of the nightmares, more attention has been warranted. Agent Fischer ran a series of interviews and investigated potential air and water pollutants to no effect. However, upon examining the town's food supply, sourced largely from the ocean, he made the odd discovery that a local species of clam had developed strange markings on its shell: distinct black marks on the pale surface which, deeper study indicated, seem to mimic a set of ancient curse runes. According to the agent, a specific ancient text (of Maori origin) contained numerous curses and spells, including a curse for misfortune and nightmares that could be inflicted via magical runes that matched the design on the clam's shells. Agent Fischer reasons that a temporary clam-free diet may stifle the problem, while local authorities attempt to relocate the new species under the cover story of a parasitic infection. Whether or not the runic markings are pure coincidence, or an example of highly specialized adaptation to repel harvest, has yet to be determined.
Special Agent Cat Zirka apprehended vandals in the ruins of Atlantis. The ancient city, left destroyed and buried in the North-West African desert, has been cordoned off by SIU and local governments since the confirmation of its identity in 2027. Despite the extremely hostile environment, and several layers of active protection, security footage showed evidence of a break-in. Agent Zirka discovered that some of the recently-excavated roads, lined with large stone walls, had been marked by spray paint graffiti. Zikra notes the apparent sadness of the graffiti, with most of the messages portraying personal longing ("come back", "need you") or outright sorrow ("we're living a lie"). A trail of trace clues led the agent to a small nearby town eking out an existence in the desert whose residents claimed to be indigenous to the area for generations. Not able to convince the locals to submit to genetic studies (and eager to get home, away from the heat) Agent Zirka reasons that the locals may very well be distant descendants of whatever population lived in Atlantis and may be expressing their cultural identity through the graffiti, though no one confessed to the vandalism. Why whoever it was suddenly rose to action, and why they portrayed such personal sadness and longing at the ancient site, or why the seemingly unrelated word "imago" was found freshly carved several times into rock walls, remains a mystery.
Reports of reanimated dinosaur skeletons sent Special Agent Chaz Gates to a local history museum. Upon arrival, the Special Agent was immediately confronted by the problem: the replica fossil remains of several large Jurassic-era carnivores from an educational display were lurching and stomping around, having apparently "come to life" over night and caused a great deal of damage to nearby exhibits. Though several employees were injured, Agent Gates noted no specific intent from the skeletons to kill or maim, and saw that it was a pale teal moss that had spread over the bones which was causing their movements through contractions, like musculature. This moss, first discovered by Agent Rakkin in Indonesia, was well known to SIU staff for this usual effect on bodies and objects it comes into contact with. The size and number of these animated objects proved very difficult to subdue, and Chaz was injured in her first attempt before a brief retreat. An unlikely ally appeared to assist: the mobile animal statue the agent had bonded with months prior seemed to sense the danger and arrived at the museum, it was said to be instrumental in disabling the fossils. A very thorough investigation into how the samples of this moss and the metal sculpture escaped SIU storage is underway; Agent Chaz has been granted permission to once again take the small sculpture into her possession for personal study.
Special Agent Kouroth flew to Cambodia’s capital city to investigate a surprising twist in a ten-year-old missing persons case. An aging high-rise office building was being torn down as part of a large string of downtown renovations. In the process of breaking apart the cement foundation of the building, a body was found encased a meter deep in the cement. Agent Kouroth was dispatched after examination revealed that the young man was subject to an unsolved missing persons report a decade prior. While, on the surface, a possible theory may be that he fell, or was placed, into wet cement while the building was being constructed, this presents a problem: the building had already been completed fifteen years before his disappearance. Strangely, all evidence at the scene suggests that the man had somehow become encased in the wet cement when the structural foundation of the building was laid, despite that the missing person would have only been a five year old child at the time. According to experts, the surface of the slab had not been tampered with for over 25 years and there was no evidence to suggest that he had been placed into a hole in the cement at a later date and sealed in. Research into this bizarre situation is ongoing; no clues or unusual readings were found on his well-preserved body.
Special Agent Neo resumed his study of the game A.N.N.O., an abstract Japanese title released in 1999. With participating volunteer agents, including Agent Zirka, several playthroughs of the game were recorded and studied. This abstract, nontraditional game is known to change upon every playthrough, but several recordings reveal that certain changes seem specific to the player. Extensive playthroughs lead Agent Neo to theorize that the game was tailoring itself to the personality of the player. The exact mechanics of this are currently unknown, although examination of the cartridge reveals an embedded infrared detector, which may be used by the game's programming to detect emotional responses. This may make A.N.N.O. unique in this regard, as no game from that era is known to be so reactive or personalized. Agent Zikra, specifically, noted that the generated landscape of the game reminded her of a beach she once saw in a sensory deprivation tank-endued hallucination; Agent Neo reported that some of the game's visuals reminded him of dreams he had had after studying an ancient dream journal some months prior.
