Project MONUMENT 014: 3-17 March 2010, Paris
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: O5-3/780
From: SCP-780
Okay ummm I'm getting a little confused. And a little worried about you Mal. But nobody told me to stop with these so I'm gonna just keep going and hope that you are getting them somehow.
For the two weeks following my previous report, the subjects maintained their grassroots campaign against Eliot Abril. Their efforts appeared quite successful. In the wake of the previous week's regulatory investigations and journalistic exposés, a Bank Eiffel's employees (encouraged indirectly by the subjects) went on strike in protest of alleged unethical behavior going on in the company. The subjects also began a rumor campaign, some of which was even targeted to raise suspicion that Eliot might be a vampire. All of this led to investors beginning to pull out of Eliot's companies, and protests in the financial district (encouraged, of course, by Robert and others).
The subjects could see Eliot's influence slipping, but they could also tell that he was beginning to retaliate. One day, Bo came to her job only to be told that some immigration officials were conducting an audit of the theatre, meaning that Bo risked discovery since she was being paid under the table. Her boss, Jean-Manuel Bajen, suggested that she should stay home until the auditors left, making Bo once again out of a job. Bo was even more disturbed when she got a phone call from her friend in Chicago, Sergeant Marcus Schiffer, warning her that French private investigators had been calling his police department and asking about her. Marcus told her that he had not revealed anything to them that he knew Bo would not want revealed, but that he could not protect her from what would happen if the investigators dug in places where he had no influence.
Aðalsteinn also encountered difficulties at his job when his department chair informed him that a number of complaints of academic misconduct had been filed against him. He wasn't fired, and the chair was more or less on his side, but she cautioned that he should lie low and not misuse the university's resources until the department could conduct an investigation of the allegations. About a week later, Aðalsteinn received a package with no return address, which contained draft copies of various letters addressed to archaeological societies and research institutions, detailing all of the (invented but believable) ways in which Aðalsteinn was a terrible and unethical person. A handwritten note on top said, "Tell your friends to quit it, or these letters go in the mail."
Josette and Robert were also targeted. Photos surfaced on the Internet of Josette attending the recent illegal mixed martial arts match, which caused her to be somewhat less trusted in the political arena. Robert came into work one day to discover that the night before, about 10 of his friends, relatives, and acquaintances had all been beaten up and mugged the night before - including his co-worker Pierre Schapira, his brother Gerard, his best friend Tempeste, Jean-Manuel, his chiropractor, and his barista. Robert was disturbed by this and decided to talk to Father Bruno about it; specifically, he wondered whether magic might have had something to do with this, since it stretched belief to consider that Eliot would have known that such a disparate group of people all connected back to Robert. Bruno said that although it was possible, Robert should also consider a non-supernatural explanation for it; since Robert did not exactly hide the extent of his social network, it was also possible that Eliot might have convinced one of Robert's friends to turn on him in exchange for a well-placed bribe. Robert did not like the idea that one of his friends might be betraying him, but he also did not want to quit what he was doing against Eliot, even if it meant that some of his friends might be hurt in the process.
The subjects also carried on with other tasks during this time. Aðalsteinn had recently received seventeen boxes of genealogy research from his aunt Baldína and was spending a lot of his free time sorting through them and trying to learn more about his family history. Bo and Roland spent their time watching the other subjects' homes without telling them about it, which almost backfired on them when Josette saw them spying on her and panicked a little before they told her what was going on. They also continued to observe the condo in Saint-Denis, and noted that although Michael seemed to sleep there during the day, they never saw Eliot. Roland left a vanilla bar in the SCP post office box along with a note that read, "Excuse me, who are you?" He has not yet received any...um...response, that I have seen.
Josette continued going to her self-defense class at the Champion Combat Sports gym. One night, she saw Manu enter and get into a loud argument with his trainer, apparently regarding whether he should enter the tournament he had qualified for with his victory against Jacques. The trainer believed it was too dangerous, but Manu insisted that he still wanted to fight because of the chance to earn much more money that he could otherwise. When Manu emerged from his trainer's office, Josette decided that the time was right to talk to him. It turned out that he remembered her from the fights she had attended, and the two of them seemed to get along well. Josette was very open with her belief that Manu's abilities were superhuman, and he admitted that they were certainly not normal; in fact, he hid them whenever possible because he was afraid that if the fight commissioners found out about them he would not be allowed to continue fighting. However, Manu was not aware of the existence of the supernatural (though he admitted that Jacques and some of the other fighters from the most recent bout were "not normal"). As far as he knew, he was the only one who could do the things he did.
Josette then began to act rather mysterious, and hinted at various mystical secrets that she knew. She told Manu she wasn't sure it was a good idea for him to fight in the next bout in the tournament, and he responded that he didn't know how else he would make enough money to do what he really wanted with his life. Josette suggested fighting in other countries, but Manu said that this was very expensive, and also that there were other barriers to it for him which he didn't elaborate upon. Josette responded that she knew a person who might be willing to sponsor him in exchange for some of the profits, and that he might be able to make more money with the help of someone who knew the scene. Manu said he was interested in this. He also seemed very interested in Josette herself, saying that her "mysterious act" was working. Josette then called her father's friend Stéphane and proposed that he use some of his substantial fortune to sponsor Manu. Stéphane had never sponsored a fighter before but thought it could be a good investment. They made plans for Stéphane to come to the gym, see Manu spar, and work out the details if Stéphane decided that Manu might be able to make him money.
Despite Eliot's response, the subjects carried on with their campaign against him. But after three weeks of effort, Robert was hit hard when some local tabloids published a story alleging that he had once effectively ruined the life of a classmate, Langley LaGarde, who ended up insane and homeless after Robert masterminded a revenge plan against him for mistreating his girlfriend Suzette, who was a good friend of Robert's. All of the subjects seemed appalled to learn this, particularly Josette. Robert decided that this meant it was time to step up the campaign against Eliot again, so he went to a local butcher shop, bought a beef heart, and planned to send it to Eliot with a stake driven through it. However, when the rest of the subjects got wind of this, they were not so sure it was a good idea, and called a meeting in the catacombs to talk it over before letting Robert do anything.
In the catacombs, the rest of the subjects convinced Robert that making death threats against Eliot was not a good idea. However, they agreed that it might be a good idea to move things toward their inevitable end, since they had now spent almost a month chipping away at Eliot's influence and his responses seemed to be escalating. Most of the subjects wanted to start trying to locate the place where Eliot spent the day, and attack him before he could do anything worse. However, Josette stated that she was totally unwilling to confront Eliot directly under any circumstances; although she agreed that he needed to die, she preferred to get someone else to kill him, such as the Algerians or SCP. Roland did not want to contact the Algerians again since they had expressed disinterest in aligning themselves with the subjects, and the other subjects were not entirely certain whether they trusted SCP and would rather deal with Eliot themselves.
One of Josette's largest concerns was the possibility that the mundane authorities would connect the subjects to Eliot's killing if they faced him directly, since she had a lot to lose. The subjects agreed that it might be a good idea to come up with a plan for how they could remove any evidence of a crime, if it did come to the point where they needed to fight Eliot and risked leaving traces behind. They agreed to research this and be prepared to implement it when and if they fought him, since Josette allowed that she would permit the other subjects to fight Eliot even if she did not want to be involved.
After making this decision, the subjects continued with their previous activities. Aðalsteinn, Josette, and Robert went back to work, and Bo and Roland returned to watching Michael's condo from their vantage point on top of a half-constructed building. Suddenly, the area around them became pitch dark, so much so that Roland's night vision binoculars did not work, and someone or something rushed at them in the dark.
And then some other really important stuff happened after that but it looks like Agent Axel just brought my dinner! And the next disc of Bleach! I gotta go. I promise I will finish this soon! If you are still out there reading, that is, I guess...
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: SCP-780
From: O5-3/780
Peach,
I apologize for my unexpected absence - I can see by your messages that it worried you. I was called away unexpectedly to an important meeting with the Administrator regarding Project MONUMENT. Don't worry - we are still up and running - the Administrator just wanted to ask me about how I have been using the Foundation's resources. For now, keep on doing what you are doing, and deliver the reports on the subjects' activities to me on the same timetable as always. I will inform you if I require anything else from you. Thank you for your continued prompt attention to your responsibilities in Project MONUMENT.
Malus Sylvestris
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 2 CLEARANCE REQUIRED
To: Agent Block, 2/557-780
From: O5-3/780
Block, I just spoke to the Administrator about a variety of subjects including the unexpected properties that SCP-557 has displayed. Zie asked that I tell you to continue your observation of SCP-557 and to report on any further unusual items that manifest themselves within it, and to have the 557 team continue its ongoing study of SCP-557's properties, but not to interfere or tamper with any of these items or with anything that the Project MONUMENT subjects decide to do with these items. I don't know what zie is getting at with any of this, either, but after our meeting I also know that it would be a bad idea to question hir commands.
As usual, I'm in a rush, so have some disjointed thoughts once again!
Most of this session dealt with the PCs applying the Lobby Tactic twice more, and experiencing both its intangible benefits and the response from Eliot. It didn't move as quickly as I would have liked it to, but everybody seemed to have fun, so I'm not worried at all!
Also, this session was a bit shorter than usual because we were trying to have jinxgcp Skype in and get to hear the session while it was happening. So there were a lot of breaks for technical difficulties. That said, I think we've got a good system worked out now, so the next time Jinx can listen in, we won't have to spend so much time and effort setting up.
The "let's not leave any evidence at the crime scene" thing will be reflected by the PCs learning a Tactic we worked together to make, called Cover-Up. I'll post it on the game's website once they've all had a chance to look at what I wrote and approve it.
Off to run the game now!
What is this?
To: O5-3/780
From: SCP-780
Okay ummm I'm getting a little confused. And a little worried about you Mal. But nobody told me to stop with these so I'm gonna just keep going and hope that you are getting them somehow.
For the two weeks following my previous report, the subjects maintained their grassroots campaign against Eliot Abril. Their efforts appeared quite successful. In the wake of the previous week's regulatory investigations and journalistic exposés, a Bank Eiffel's employees (encouraged indirectly by the subjects) went on strike in protest of alleged unethical behavior going on in the company. The subjects also began a rumor campaign, some of which was even targeted to raise suspicion that Eliot might be a vampire. All of this led to investors beginning to pull out of Eliot's companies, and protests in the financial district (encouraged, of course, by Robert and others).
The subjects could see Eliot's influence slipping, but they could also tell that he was beginning to retaliate. One day, Bo came to her job only to be told that some immigration officials were conducting an audit of the theatre, meaning that Bo risked discovery since she was being paid under the table. Her boss, Jean-Manuel Bajen, suggested that she should stay home until the auditors left, making Bo once again out of a job. Bo was even more disturbed when she got a phone call from her friend in Chicago, Sergeant Marcus Schiffer, warning her that French private investigators had been calling his police department and asking about her. Marcus told her that he had not revealed anything to them that he knew Bo would not want revealed, but that he could not protect her from what would happen if the investigators dug in places where he had no influence.
Aðalsteinn also encountered difficulties at his job when his department chair informed him that a number of complaints of academic misconduct had been filed against him. He wasn't fired, and the chair was more or less on his side, but she cautioned that he should lie low and not misuse the university's resources until the department could conduct an investigation of the allegations. About a week later, Aðalsteinn received a package with no return address, which contained draft copies of various letters addressed to archaeological societies and research institutions, detailing all of the (invented but believable) ways in which Aðalsteinn was a terrible and unethical person. A handwritten note on top said, "Tell your friends to quit it, or these letters go in the mail."
Josette and Robert were also targeted. Photos surfaced on the Internet of Josette attending the recent illegal mixed martial arts match, which caused her to be somewhat less trusted in the political arena. Robert came into work one day to discover that the night before, about 10 of his friends, relatives, and acquaintances had all been beaten up and mugged the night before - including his co-worker Pierre Schapira, his brother Gerard, his best friend Tempeste, Jean-Manuel, his chiropractor, and his barista. Robert was disturbed by this and decided to talk to Father Bruno about it; specifically, he wondered whether magic might have had something to do with this, since it stretched belief to consider that Eliot would have known that such a disparate group of people all connected back to Robert. Bruno said that although it was possible, Robert should also consider a non-supernatural explanation for it; since Robert did not exactly hide the extent of his social network, it was also possible that Eliot might have convinced one of Robert's friends to turn on him in exchange for a well-placed bribe. Robert did not like the idea that one of his friends might be betraying him, but he also did not want to quit what he was doing against Eliot, even if it meant that some of his friends might be hurt in the process.
The subjects also carried on with other tasks during this time. Aðalsteinn had recently received seventeen boxes of genealogy research from his aunt Baldína and was spending a lot of his free time sorting through them and trying to learn more about his family history. Bo and Roland spent their time watching the other subjects' homes without telling them about it, which almost backfired on them when Josette saw them spying on her and panicked a little before they told her what was going on. They also continued to observe the condo in Saint-Denis, and noted that although Michael seemed to sleep there during the day, they never saw Eliot. Roland left a vanilla bar in the SCP post office box along with a note that read, "Excuse me, who are you?" He has not yet received any...um...response, that I have seen.
Josette continued going to her self-defense class at the Champion Combat Sports gym. One night, she saw Manu enter and get into a loud argument with his trainer, apparently regarding whether he should enter the tournament he had qualified for with his victory against Jacques. The trainer believed it was too dangerous, but Manu insisted that he still wanted to fight because of the chance to earn much more money that he could otherwise. When Manu emerged from his trainer's office, Josette decided that the time was right to talk to him. It turned out that he remembered her from the fights she had attended, and the two of them seemed to get along well. Josette was very open with her belief that Manu's abilities were superhuman, and he admitted that they were certainly not normal; in fact, he hid them whenever possible because he was afraid that if the fight commissioners found out about them he would not be allowed to continue fighting. However, Manu was not aware of the existence of the supernatural (though he admitted that Jacques and some of the other fighters from the most recent bout were "not normal"). As far as he knew, he was the only one who could do the things he did.
Josette then began to act rather mysterious, and hinted at various mystical secrets that she knew. She told Manu she wasn't sure it was a good idea for him to fight in the next bout in the tournament, and he responded that he didn't know how else he would make enough money to do what he really wanted with his life. Josette suggested fighting in other countries, but Manu said that this was very expensive, and also that there were other barriers to it for him which he didn't elaborate upon. Josette responded that she knew a person who might be willing to sponsor him in exchange for some of the profits, and that he might be able to make more money with the help of someone who knew the scene. Manu said he was interested in this. He also seemed very interested in Josette herself, saying that her "mysterious act" was working. Josette then called her father's friend Stéphane and proposed that he use some of his substantial fortune to sponsor Manu. Stéphane had never sponsored a fighter before but thought it could be a good investment. They made plans for Stéphane to come to the gym, see Manu spar, and work out the details if Stéphane decided that Manu might be able to make him money.
Despite Eliot's response, the subjects carried on with their campaign against him. But after three weeks of effort, Robert was hit hard when some local tabloids published a story alleging that he had once effectively ruined the life of a classmate, Langley LaGarde, who ended up insane and homeless after Robert masterminded a revenge plan against him for mistreating his girlfriend Suzette, who was a good friend of Robert's. All of the subjects seemed appalled to learn this, particularly Josette. Robert decided that this meant it was time to step up the campaign against Eliot again, so he went to a local butcher shop, bought a beef heart, and planned to send it to Eliot with a stake driven through it. However, when the rest of the subjects got wind of this, they were not so sure it was a good idea, and called a meeting in the catacombs to talk it over before letting Robert do anything.
In the catacombs, the rest of the subjects convinced Robert that making death threats against Eliot was not a good idea. However, they agreed that it might be a good idea to move things toward their inevitable end, since they had now spent almost a month chipping away at Eliot's influence and his responses seemed to be escalating. Most of the subjects wanted to start trying to locate the place where Eliot spent the day, and attack him before he could do anything worse. However, Josette stated that she was totally unwilling to confront Eliot directly under any circumstances; although she agreed that he needed to die, she preferred to get someone else to kill him, such as the Algerians or SCP. Roland did not want to contact the Algerians again since they had expressed disinterest in aligning themselves with the subjects, and the other subjects were not entirely certain whether they trusted SCP and would rather deal with Eliot themselves.
One of Josette's largest concerns was the possibility that the mundane authorities would connect the subjects to Eliot's killing if they faced him directly, since she had a lot to lose. The subjects agreed that it might be a good idea to come up with a plan for how they could remove any evidence of a crime, if it did come to the point where they needed to fight Eliot and risked leaving traces behind. They agreed to research this and be prepared to implement it when and if they fought him, since Josette allowed that she would permit the other subjects to fight Eliot even if she did not want to be involved.
After making this decision, the subjects continued with their previous activities. Aðalsteinn, Josette, and Robert went back to work, and Bo and Roland returned to watching Michael's condo from their vantage point on top of a half-constructed building. Suddenly, the area around them became pitch dark, so much so that Roland's night vision binoculars did not work, and someone or something rushed at them in the dark.
And then some other really important stuff happened after that but it looks like Agent Axel just brought my dinner! And the next disc of Bleach! I gotta go. I promise I will finish this soon! If you are still out there reading, that is, I guess...
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: SCP-780
From: O5-3/780
Peach,
I apologize for my unexpected absence - I can see by your messages that it worried you. I was called away unexpectedly to an important meeting with the Administrator regarding Project MONUMENT. Don't worry - we are still up and running - the Administrator just wanted to ask me about how I have been using the Foundation's resources. For now, keep on doing what you are doing, and deliver the reports on the subjects' activities to me on the same timetable as always. I will inform you if I require anything else from you. Thank you for your continued prompt attention to your responsibilities in Project MONUMENT.
Malus Sylvestris
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 2 CLEARANCE REQUIRED
To: Agent Block, 2/557-780
From: O5-3/780
Block, I just spoke to the Administrator about a variety of subjects including the unexpected properties that SCP-557 has displayed. Zie asked that I tell you to continue your observation of SCP-557 and to report on any further unusual items that manifest themselves within it, and to have the 557 team continue its ongoing study of SCP-557's properties, but not to interfere or tamper with any of these items or with anything that the Project MONUMENT subjects decide to do with these items. I don't know what zie is getting at with any of this, either, but after our meeting I also know that it would be a bad idea to question hir commands.
As usual, I'm in a rush, so have some disjointed thoughts once again!
Most of this session dealt with the PCs applying the Lobby Tactic twice more, and experiencing both its intangible benefits and the response from Eliot. It didn't move as quickly as I would have liked it to, but everybody seemed to have fun, so I'm not worried at all!
Also, this session was a bit shorter than usual because we were trying to have jinxgcp Skype in and get to hear the session while it was happening. So there were a lot of breaks for technical difficulties. That said, I think we've got a good system worked out now, so the next time Jinx can listen in, we won't have to spend so much time and effort setting up.
The "let's not leave any evidence at the crime scene" thing will be reflected by the PCs learning a Tactic we worked together to make, called Cover-Up. I'll post it on the game's website once they've all had a chance to look at what I wrote and approve it.
Off to run the game now!
What is this?