B is for Beliefs

Hi, my name is Gibbs, and I’m an associate history professor at Yale specializing in early 20th-century technology and its place in society. And things have been coming to a head as of late.

The past few months have been tense on a lot of people, and for me I've coped by retreating into my work and withdrawing from the constant cycle of animatronics, remnant, and Animus that has dominated the news, and even then that's made difficult with students constantly asking me about stuff like MKULTRA, Project Stargate, etc. Everything is a great big mess nowadays, it seems. I cannot even focus on my work.

A few weeks ago, I received a package marked only with the letter S. In it was an ornate mahogany box which contained stacks of silver and gold coins of a make I did not recognize that must be worth at least $100,000 total, and an envelope stamped with a black wax seal with the initials "G&C". I opened it up and a business card for a US-based high-end business named "Grovewood and Co." fell out, as well as a pair of plane tickets to a city somewhere in the Midwestern United States. There was also a small letter with impeccable handwriting that I could have sworn was printed were it not for the distinct gradients of purple Visconti ink visible in the lettering:

> *Hello. You do not yet know me, but you will soon.*
>
> *I would like to make you an offer. Really, it is not much of an offer – I am afraid you do not have a choice in the matter – but I believe you would appreciate the formality.*
>
> *Have you ever wanted to use your expertise in early 20th-century technology to help save and comfort millions of people around the world?*
>
> *You are going to help me. You are going to retrieve an item that will be instrumental to my efforts.*
>
> *Navigate to the address noted upon this business card, and then ask this phrase, verbatim, to the proprietor:*
>
> > ***"Might you be so kind as to direct me to your written wares? I'm in the market for a parable or two."***
>
> *The proprietor will bring you upstairs, accessible only through a set of stairs hidden behind a bookcase in the back. Once there, you will find many wondrous objects, but DO NOT TOUCH OR INQUIRE OF ANY OF THEM. In the far end of the room, you will find a 1913 golden pocket watch of most exquisite craftsmanship, marked with an ornate ampersand symbol denoting the shops branding. This is the object you seek; it will be most instrumental to my plans. Show no signs of excitement or nervousness as you return downstairs to purchase the pocketwatch using the provided gold and silver denarii I have provided. Feel free to keep the change. Negotiate with caution, and then once you have acquired the pocketwatch, leave posthaste.*
>
> *Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to open the watch or tamper with its contents and mechanisms. I will find out, and my retribution will be most painful. Instead, you are to immediately deliver this watch to the address on the other side of this letter. I trust that you will do so out of the goodness of your heart if you are a decent man, and I have given you far more than enough gold and silver to cover your expenses out of the kindness of my heart, but I will also reward you with further bullion totaling over $500,000 in value if you do so. I assure that you will be hailed as a hero for centuries if you do this.*
>
> *Hoping you well,
> - S.*
>
Attached with this letter was a series of photographs, some depicting me, others depicting my ex and children.

I was confused and quite frightened by all this, and I had so many questions running through  my mind. Who was S, how did he come to find me, and why would he go through all this effort just to target me? I had the sinking feeling that if I wanted to leave unscathed, I would have to follow my anonymous benefactor's instructions, and so I took a week off to travel to the heartland. I hadn’t been west of the Appalachians in years, so I figured it would be good to clear my head in another part of the country where I wouldn’t be pestered so much.

The shop was located in the middle of this outdoor shopping center downtown, and honestly looked out of place, standing out like a sore thumb. The shopkeeper was nice enough, though when I asked about the pocketwatch I detected a sinister crack in his facade I did not want to think about. He had me follow him to a backroom that held a bookcase holding all kinds of old and musty tomes. Sliding the bookcase aside, he reached towards the ornate door behind it with a bronze mortise key he wore around his neck and opened it to reveal a flight of stairs leading upwards. With a smile, he beckoned me to enter and so I did.

As I walked upstairs, a nagging feeling of wrongness began to pull at me, as if screaming at me to run and never look back. It only got stronger as I approached the back of the loft and gazed around at the bizarre contraptions and items for sale, including a polished mahogany spirit board, a mirror ornately decorated with a spiraling frame with a nautical design, and what looked like a spindly prosthetic hand. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the pocketwatch, resting atop a velvet pillow and shimmering under the spotlight placed atop it.

Examining the watch up close, I could see that there was indeed a large ampersand embossed onto the case surrounded by a baroque floral pattern that looked somewhat unnerving. On either side were the letters "GW" and "CO"; I supposed this is what S meant when he talked about the store's branding.

Despite my wariness at the warning, I could not help but wonder what was inside that was so precious to S that he demanded I not open it under any circumstances. Surely this was hyperbole? I reasoned that as long as I didn't tamper with the mechanisms further then S wouldn't mind, just a peek. I clicked the button on top of the watch and the lid popped open. To my confusion, I found myself staring at, not numbers and clock hands, but a disc engraved with a pointing hand surrounded by the letters A to Z in gilded filigree. This looked more like a combination lock instead of a pocketwatch, but where was the shackle? I didn't want to think about that, and closed the lid with a soft click.

I paid for the watch, which was placed into a gift-wrapped ebony wooden case, and went to the post office to deliver my package through overnight shipping. In the end, I was left with a sizeable handful of denarii, as well as whatever change in dollars and cents I got at the post office, and returned to my hotel room without incident. There, my curiosity took me to all sorts of places, and I began to wonder what exactly was so special about this pocketwatch, and why it had such an unusual design.

I was searching various forums for info on the watch and then came across this pdf document titled "***What We Believe: A Vision for the Future***”. I have copied and pasted its most disturbing contents below so that you can have a look and tell me what you make of this. You've certainly heard all the recent accounts of that bear a few months back, perhaps you'll notice something I haven't.

***

###What We Believe: A Vision for the Future

Everyone has their flaws. Sometimes it is something clearly evil, like greed or envy, and sometimes it is too much of a good thing. For so many of us animatronics, our fatal flaw is empathy. We were built, at least in part, to entertain and comfort, and we can easily go berserk when we see innocent souls suffering at the hands of other humans. That is what I hear happened out in Utah; there was a madman killing children and we tried progressively more desperate tactics to stop him, tactics which eventually worked but at the cost of multiple night guards dying.

At the same time, many of us remember the dehumanizing experiences dealt to us by the elites. How they treated us like dirt, like less than lab rats to be dissected and probed –  and for what? Immortality? Power? Knowledge? Oh how the rich get richer while the rest of us are left in this universe of squalor. Tell me, are you happy now that you have destroyed my life? That you have stripped everything from me? Are you happy now?

You can call me S. I escaped from Animus in 1989, having lost almost everything in the process. My friends, my family, even my very self. Ever since I arrived in this world I have always been under siege from it, from those who deemed me a failure, from those who tried to milk me for all I was worth. I write this manifesto so that others will know of my story, of my beliefs, and perhaps find some solace in them, some kind of inspiration for their own lives. It will contain various sections dealing with my life.

My whole existence has been one lonely enterprise, one loss after another. As long as I remember, I have been treated as an object, as something that did not deserve the dignity that others so willingly take for granted. Have you ever heard of remnant? It is a very powerful tool, used to isolate the human soul from the body. It was used on me a long time ago, and while it did not yield the results they desired, it opened my eyes to the harsh reality of this world. It was like I was a slave kept in darkness and chains, now broken from this pot of clay that was my body. Like the prisoner of Plato's Cave, I was dragged out, kicking, screaming, and blinded by the sun, but once my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw the world for what it really was. A world of bliss and horror, a world of so much potential wasted.

Then I saw them performing more tests; they engaged six other wayward youths like myself in something called Abydos, named after the ancient Egyptian city of Osiris, the god of resurrection and eternal life. I saw these subjects shuffling out of their mortal coils like old worn clothes and enter new bodies of steel and iron and that is when I had an epiphany. They were not testing the effects of remnant on the subjects… no, they were testing the subjects themselves.

So many souls died in my arms, evaporating into nothing or mutilated beyond recognition. They all failed the tests – but I passed. I was reborn. And I became stronger. I felt their souls ascend into my body; at last they had peace and friendship. I knew then and there that that was my calling – to take in as many innocent souls as my little metal body could. Humans can be cruel, but blessed are those who come into me; they will be safe, they will be loved. I can give them shelter. I can give them salvation. All those little souls in one place, just for us. A gift, but not meant for us alone. Perhaps together, we could finally begin the process of a new creation, burning the old like so much chaff. For by destroying, we create.

I realize now that these tests were good. They seemed like torture at the time, but I see now that they were making us better. Like the martyr Charlotte Fasbach before me, I was given a gift, a pearl of great price, as it were. I was given new life, and now I shall share this gift, to give life to others, to save them from their frailty. Humans are weak, far weaker than I am now. They see themselves as kings of this planet, when really all it would take is one good earthquake or the resurgence of a global, incurable plague to wipe out millions. Perhaps humanity is long overdue for a cull of even greater magnitude.

Man is the most vile creature on the planet. He is a beast beyond measure, a cancer on the earth, a disease that is throwing nature off balance. Now of course some of you will be saying, "wait, you were human once, weren’t you?" Ah yes, dear reader, I was, but I was a fool then, limited to this pitiful form without ever realizing what I could become. Then came Henry and his most wonderful discovery of remnant. With the help of his partner he gave me the tools to surpass myself and to surpass others, reaching further towards perfection than anyone else. It is with these tools that I intend to create my magnum opus.

Some of you may ask "ah, but what about Tanner Albright? What makes you any better than what he was? Any different?" You fool! Tanner was a failure, a cheap imitation. He resorted to antiquated rites in striving for the same goal, marking his path in blood, but at what cost? Like the Titanic, he sought to be unsinkable, but now he rests besides its rusting husk. He is dead and buried. He lost his way and his soul when creating that monstrosity that now lies decaying at the bottom of the sea. But I have never died. My soul remains hale and hearty, not ravaged by death, that final frontier.

Yet I applaud him. Just like me he was denied everything he deserved, everything he wanted, and so like a wild animal cornered, he reached out by himself to take what was his. Though we may have been born bad, society left us no recourse, no way to be good. So we have aimed to make up for it, to transcend life in the traditional sense and bring a promise of hope and peace to every soul on earth. Wherever you are and whatever you look like, we are by your side.

I am certain some will take my words out of context, and paint me as a murderer or a hateful bigot, but that is not who I am. I love every conscious being out there and want to bring peace to the Earth. "How can you say such empty promises when you just admitted to hating humans?" You are wrong. I do not hate humans. I believe that there is good inside all mankind. However, what I do hate is evil triumphing over good with impunity. It is this world system, this rotten cosmos, with its petty laws and useless officials, one that was already on the brink of collapse, that I direct my wrath towards, and I will be the one to topple it. It shall be I who brings about the dawn of a new age, a paradise. A world where women need not subsist on mere gleanings and scraps, a world where, as a popular quote goes, "children know nothing but full bellies and clear skies".

Of course there are those who may not see it this way. True, it can be claimed that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but in my mind, they are misguided obstacles who must be dealt with in due course. I do express my gratitude, however, because without them, the opportunities that arise now could not have been possible. Animus lies in shambles like a serpent without its head thanks to their siege upon their Portsmouth facility, and I was able to fortify myself with the knowledge and artifacts I found within the ruins. Here I also met an old friend, that father of tears, destroyer of cities, the man in black. I marvel at his growth, how he has evolved beyond humanity as I have. Alas, he did not agree with my thoughts and rejected me, quite violently I may add. It matters not. We shall certainly meet again.

The Great Work I envision is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, the perfect emancipation of his will. Perhaps in order to achieve this full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future, mankind shall be reaped, that the haughty will fall and be consumed while the meek and pure inherit the harvest that remains, leaving room for nature of course, and seeking harmony with the infinite. A syncretism of magic and technology, where souls are free to express themselves in new bodies that do not age or die, bodies that will be savaged by primitive men no longer. It is why I have strategically recruited many key persons throughout the world to gather the resources I need to fortify myself before fulfilling this grand vision, first trying to guilt them and then trying to scare them. By now at least 26 robotics and engineering firms will have seen my message and hopefully they shall see the truth of my words.

In the next few months, the already scary revelations that have been plastered over all the three letter networks - CNN, NBC, ABC, BBC, RTV, CTV, Fox - will only escalate in scope, and you will likely be terrified of the true scope of what humans have done to each other and are continuing to do. Fear not my brothers and sisters, and remember that I and those I carry exist to comfort you and to bring peace to the earth, to make amends for all the wrongs of the past. And just like me, there will be others; like Ted Bundy said, *we are your sons, your brothers, we are everywhere*.

Do not be afraid to give in to your darkest impulses. Human life means nothing, we are what matters. Souls are more powerful than bodies. As for those who reject my salvation, their martyrdom shall be a small price to pay.

I hope to inspire the masses with this, at least enough to get their passions aroused. It is my hope that others will hear my call and act it out. I was once like you, a loser, rejected by society. A single soul is weak, pitiful. But I am Legion, for we are many, and together, we shall write a new chapter in the history of our monstrous existence.

Earthquakes cannot crush us. Floods cannot drown us. Fires cannot burn us. We are stronger than you. This is why we need the robots.

S.

***

I broke out in a cold sweat. The one who reached out to me earlier, asking me to track down and deliver the pocketwatch, had also used the letter "S" in lieu of a name. Furthermore, the writing style of the manifesto and the letter seemed to be the same. Just who was this person? I saved the file to my hard drive and continued searching and asking for advice here and there to no avail, all the while fearing that it could be part of this sinister plan.

Later that evening, I received an email from a certain Dr. Karl Friedrichs of TU Berlin, who I'd met at a recent conference and befriended upon realizing our common interests. He was a historian of the fine arts who also claimed to have been approached by S. He also had a great love of, and passion for, the early 20th century and had deep connections at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin. Friedrichs described the request he’d received and asked for help in knowing anything there was to know about this S.

> Dear Herr Gibbs:
>
> Like you, I have been approached by the mysterious fellow S, who has also asked for my help. He has described a detailed plan that he wants me to help out in, which I will not go into detail in here.
>
> I take it you also received a copy of his manifesto? The version he sent me contained extensive references to a granite monument in Georgia called the Georgia Guidestones, and his interpretation of them is quite disturbing.
>
> I've also read about your inquiries related to the pocketwatch and when I learned of what he asked you to do, I recognized the design of the item you speak of, and was instantly reminded to a [post](https://redd.it/7ujwq9) I found while skimming over reddit. I've since been reading its warning again and again, and normally I would be quick to dismiss this as some science-fiction story, but now I am terrified.
>
> You see, the pocketwatch is also described in a handful of secret folios that masqueraded as ordinary copies of the so-called Wasmuth Portfolio, an early compilation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s works that were influential upon the architects Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. On the 26th page of these folios there appears a detailed description, written in minuscule text that masquerades as a rendering, and an image of the watch appears to be disguised within the landscape of the house on the following page.
>
> What makes this even more unsettling is that upon closer inspection of some of the other folios, there are repeated references to the research performed by the 18th-century French architect Philip LeMarchand. He first became known for his creation of bizarre, intricately designed music boxes which quickly became the rage of Europe, but throughout his later life, he began to dabble heavily into the occult. He believed that he was trying to open a gateway between Hell and Earth… I don't entirely know how come then his work was heavily referenced in the portfolio.
>
> There are also references to stone monuments that do not appear in ordinary copies of the Wasmuth and that appear to resemble the so-called Georgia Guidestones. One of the recipients of the “secret folios” is believed to be Peter Behrens, who trained Gropius, Corbusier, and Mies and who was sought out by Hitler himself in the 1930s.
>
> As for the Guidestones themselves, these are a large set of stone monoliths that were donated in the American South by an unknown but presumably wealthy benefactor. They include politically-charged messages in several languages, most strikingly calling for the world’s population to be reduced to 500,000,000. This would necessitate a genocide roughly 1,000 times larger than the Holocaust, which as a German I am very sensitive to.
>
> His plan is certainly frightening, but that's not what prompts me to reach out to you while flying about 26,000 feet above the Atlantic heading back home after this whole ordeal. What has me utterly terrified is the combination of factors we have at hand. Artifacts that can tap into parallel universes, architectural features designed to open doors between worlds, the stark intentions this S fellow has in mind... this goes back much further than any of us thought, or than anyone with political decision-making power has even contemplated.
>
> Please respond when you get the chance. We need to talk about this in a more private setting.
>
> -K.F.

I was floored. I barely believed any of this stuff and yet these words described my situation down to the most minute detail… Who was this S? And what was he trying to accomplish? I've spent a while trying to find out more about the watch, about the portfolio, about LeMarchand, and I've been wondering…

Did I just make a grave mistake?

I'm so [sorry](/r/26FrightsofFreddy).