4/4

Played: March 10, 2021.

Thursday, June 28, 1973. Once URIEL’s bivouac suite is largely ready, Jocasta heads down to the lobby to survey the scene. She watches with curiosity all the weirdos and nerds and geeks arriving for the convention. They are decidedly not her crowd, but she is able to sense that they are all highly enthused about this weekend. They are craving the social aspect of this thing, an opportunity to mix and mingle with their peers. Lighting a cigarette, she heads into one of the ballrooms, which is being set up as a sort of huckster space — booths and tables filled with genre paperbacks, vintage toys and action figures, comic books, lurid “sword and sorcery” posters, sci-fi costumes, and the occasional piece of genuine occult paraphernalia. She doesn’t see anything resembling the RFK ‘72 posters, however.

Roger puts on a suit and tacks a SANGUSH glyph to his lapel. He heads to the lobby and slips behind the front desk, the reception staff nodding to him with somewhat confused recognition. He makes note of everyone who is staying on floor 12, among them Andy and Viv. He also spends a moment observing how the staff relays messages from guests. That done, he heads back to URIEL’s suite and changes into overalls and work boots. He tacks the SANGUSH glyph to his collar and heads back downstairs, where he deftly insinuates himself among the “back of the house” — the maintenance people, housekeepers, cooks and loading dock employees. He strikes up a rapport with the head of the housekeeping staff, a Latin-American woman named Marilina, from whom he gets some intel on the name and reputation of the hotel’s night manager. After that, he finds an out-of-the-way storage closet and practices lockpicking his way in so that he is familiar with the hotel’s standard locks.

In URIEL’s suite, Mitch preps the various listening devices that the team will be planting in Andy’s and Viv’s rooms. When Roger returns, he breaks into their respective rooms and plants the bugs in locations based on Marshall’s suggestions. While Roger’s away, Mitch wraps up reading the first of the three Atlantis novels. Though still very much focused on the “white hats” of MARPA, in particular the formation of MARPA, the book overall is more of an alternate history world setting. The world building is what sets it apart; that’s why Andy’s fans really love it. But it also has a fun narrative, with a part about a MARPA magician figuring out that Sirhan Sirhan was mind controlled by the Atlanteans, and about revolutions throughout Central and Western Europe. The latter half of the book is very Kennedy heavy and ends with something called the Battle of Santiago, which is basically the Atlantis RFK’s equivalent of the Bay of Pigs. The Americans lose, their first big defeat in the “hot” portion of the war.

Roger returns from bugging Andy’s and Viv’s rooms, changes back into a suit, grabs a listening device disguised as a Tabasco bottle, and heads down to the bar. At around 7 pm, Andy and Viv arrive, taking a seat near the bar. They’ve arrived at the hotel early for an icebreaker drink before heading into the convention’s “VIP” party at 8 pm. They converse casually about their day, whether they’ve gotten any writing done, and about Andy’s idea for possibly changing his planned ending of the Atlantis novels. After Andy and Viv get some margaritas, Roger slides over and asks if they have any salt. During the swap, he places the Tabasco sauce on their table. He’s aided in his deception by a sudden distraction: the arrival of a super awkward teenage boy who asks Andy if he might be willing to swing by he and his friends’ three day-long tabletop wargaming tournament they have planned. Viv gets the biggest shit-eating grin on her face. Andy practically has a heart attack but squawks out that he’ll try to come by. Once the boy leaves, Andy takes a deep breath and tells Viv he’s only going to stick around the party for 45 minutes before going to his room. Viv says she’s just gonna play it as it lays.

After finishing half her drink, Viv tells Andy about how she met Jack Parsons. Andy confusedly asks, “You mean a kid who thought she was Jack Parsons?” Viv yells at him: don’t talk like that, you know that’s dismissive. She met the actual Jack. The two talk a bit about quantum theories, world-lines, identities. Viv tells Andy some of the things Charley-Jane recounted to her about Jack being involved in cult activity and getting blown up, which was “really, really sad.” Andy asks how she’s going to proceed. Viv, a bit drunk by now, says:

I think that if we don't squash it — if we don't fuck it up — then people can develop all of themselves from a very early age and maybe, uh, by taking it seriously and letting it … I mean, so that’s the other thing, right? It’s like a normal six year-old there’s only so far that you can go with their understanding. But with a kid like this? I don't know, I don't know.

Andy asks if Viv’s saying this kid is going to wind up working in jet propulsions for the Department of Defense. Viv says she hopes not. They talk some more about the strange vibes in the air.

7:45 pm. Archie, Charley, and Eddie arrive at the hotel. Archie has snatched himself a VIP ticket thanks to all the Star Trek stuff he donated earlier in the week. The trio tour around the huckster room, checking out all the cool movie and TV show props on display for auction. Eddie asks Archie why he never mentioned owning all this amazing Star Trek stuff. Archie says he doesn’t know, it just didn’t occur to him — it’s all just junk! He doesn’t get what people see in it. He gives Eddie $50 and tells him to bid on whatever he wants, even if it’s stuff from Archie’s house, and to have fun while Archie attends the VIP party in a suite on floor 11. He arrives mere minutes before Viv and Andy. Chelsea Quinn Yarborough greets them and introduces them to the crowd. Archie mingles with the crowd, playing up his nerd credentials a bit, while trying to get a read on the room and on Viv and Andy in particular. After a while, Archie spots that Andy is available and he deftly makes his way over to introduce himself. They shake hands and Archie says he’s a big fan of the Atlantis books. Andy says that’s surprising, since most people his age are more into the ‘50s stuff. They talk a bit about Andy’s early work and why Archie loves the Atlantis novels so much. Then, Archie says that he’s sorry but he has to ask, even though Andy must get asked this all time:

“I really want to know: where do you get your ideas?”

His tone is extremely serious and as he says this, he stares directly into Andy’s eyes. Andy glances at Archie’s nametag:

Andy: Mr. Ransom, I usually get that question from 20 year-old college students who want to find out exactly what it is about the world we live in that makes me want to write these books. Because it is about the world we live in — a pastiche of our politics. I feel … I feel very sincerely that crafting a world like this — where all of the conflicts are on the surface, they aren't hidden by our politics, by our generation gap, by our world's — you know, we keep all of these conflicts kind of bottled up and then, when they explode, they explode in these ways where nothing ever changes. I wanted a world where something changed in an interesting way. And that's why there's so much back and forth in these books between the USA and Atlantis. That's why I — it's not that I necessarily think, “Oh, I have to tell both sides equally,” but I just … I want to lay bare the conflicts that are at the center of our world. I want to — I mean these are all metaphors, obviously, but to me this is my way of exploring the politics and philosophy that undergird everything in America.

∿ WHO IS SEBASTIAN STONE?

One of the primary characters from the Atlantis trilogy, Sebastian Stone is a highly-placed magus within MARPA, a former member of the Black Chamber who fought the Nazis during the War. He is a complete libertine, an occultist of debauched personal habits with a mysterious past, a sort of American Aleister Crowley meets Ian Fleming’s “M.”

Archie: And if it was all true — MARPA and the Atlantean hive mind and spooks and secret agents fighting an idea war between freedom and slavery — I mean, if it —

Andy: Wait, which side is which? What do you mean by freedom and what do you mean by slavery?

Archie: That's my question to you, Mr. Krane! Which side would you be on?

Andy chuckles and says he’d probably have wound up working as a low-level marketing guy for MARPA, if he found himself in the world of Atlantis novels. If he wanted to go on vacation to the Atlantis novels, though, he’d obviously pick Atlantis. Archie leans in and smiles:

Archie. Oh. Sure. It’s a nice place to visit. But you wouldn’t want to live there.

Something about the way he says this carries an air of sincere menace. Andy says maybe he wouldn’t, and maybe Archie wouldn’t, but Archie’s going to meet a lot of kids this weekend who would do it. Archie, picking up on Andy’s mention of working as ad man, mentions that he himself is a former ad man. They trade industry talk and gossip for a while. Archie tells Andy that he now works for an innocuous sounding think-tank foundation. After about ten minutes, Archie suddenly says: “But you are mistaken, Mr. Krane. Atlantis isn't going to win. Atlantis isn't going to win.” As he does, he unleashes the Voice, enthralling Andy with Anunnaki source code and revealing himself to be … Sebastian Stone.

Andy is puzzled. “So you’re rooting for America?” Andy asks. Archie nods and says yes, he is — aren’t you? Andy asks how old Archie is, and Archie tells him. Andy says, “Oh, so we’re the same age. Tell me, did you serve in Korea?” This question catches Archie off guard, and he winces a bit, but avoids a flashback. Andy continues:

I was basically … I weighed 20 pounds less than I do now when I went to my intake. I was 4F. But I knew a lot of guys from my high school who went there and didn't come back and then kids went off to Vietnam and they didn't come back. I don't know, Mr. Ransom … I grew up — I grew up hearing radio reports of our brave boys fighting in Europe and in the Pacific and I believe they were doing that for the right reasons but since then, I really haven't. I'm just going to be completely honest with you: I don't know where this country is going. I've voted Republican my whole life. I voted for McGovern in ‘72 … (he starts to tear up) … I don’t know why I’m just … Mr. Ransom, I feel like I’m in a nightmare and I can’t wake up.

On the other side of the suite, Viv observes what’s going on out of the corner of her eye and senses that Archie has employed something akin to the storytelling powers she naturally commands. She chooses not to intervene, preferring to simply enjoy her evening. Having now had an opportunity to talk with Andy at length, Archie attempts to evaluate the man’s psychological state and determines that, no, Andy is not drawing his inspiration for the Atlantis trilogy from any sort of alternate reality or “inside source” within SANDMAN. His stories are personal. With that, Archie wraps up the conversation:

I know what you mean. Sometimes it seems like none of the old truths … that nothing seems stable, nothing we relied upon seems true anymore. Certainly, the young people — they’re searching. They’re seeking. We’ve let them down. But I would say to you, Mr. Krane: keep the faith. This country’s been through a lot and we’ll make it through the Age of Atlantis, too.

They shake hands and part ways.

Downstairs, Roger, Mitch, and Charley have set up a work area around the Magneta Clock, posting Sophie’s SANGUSH glyph on a sign that reads: “REPAIRS IN PROGRESS. PLEASE EXCUSE ANY INCONVENIENCE.” Roger and Charley open the back of the clock and examine its inner workings. They deduce that the clock’s mechanisms do not date from the 1850s; they are likely no older than 1900, if that. But those mechanisms are something. Charley finds that they are crafted to an insanely intricate degree, bearing elaborate and beautiful engravings that could only serve the craft-person’s aesthetic desires since practically no one would ever see them. Charley also determines that the clock’s wiring has been disconnected from the hotel’s electrical network. So, while the clock could function as a “master clock” if it was hooked up properly, it is not doing so right now. While Roger and Charley putter around in back, Mitch evaluates the clock’s, y’know, vibe. He finds that it does not resonate with History B energy, fortunately, but does resonate as something that would be receptive to History B — a vessel, as it were, that one could fill with ontological taint. At his best guess, this is a sort of an incipient reality shard: it is not a reality shard yet, but it will be when the “bad thing” happens.

Roger, Mitch, and Charley confer. Mitch posits that this clock is dangerous because it could be infused with History B energy and, if the “master-slave” component of its wiring system is reconnected, it could turn everyone in the hotel into mind-controlled clock zombies.

Roger: Wait, are you serious?

Mitch: You know me, I'm never completely serious. This is just like my first best guess as to what this could mean. It could be something way more benign than that. Like, that would be nice, if there were something way more benign than that. But I'm not going to pretend that I think it's something way more benign than that just to make you feel better, Roger. I don’t think you’d want me to do that.

Charley: Uh … excuse me …

Roger: Maybe I don’t, but is it a mind whammy? Is that what we got here?

Mitch: It doesn't have like a particular mind whammy flavor. That's just where my head is going because of all of these freaking uh … fen. Slans.

Roger: I don’t know any of those words. I speak four languages.

Charley: So, um, is this just a feeling? A feeling you have when you look at the clock? Can you tell me what it is about the clock? Like, where or what it is about the clock that makes you think that? Because maybe I can, uh, take a closer look?

Mitch explains, as best he can, that it is the clock-ness of the clock that is giving Mitch this idea — the totality of the object, the gears and mechanisms and faceplate and chimes, the whole thing, working together. So if Charley dismantled it, she would also dismantle the threat it poses. Charley wonders what sort of experiments she could perform on the clock to better suss out its abilities — but everything she thinks of would require them to reconnect it to the hotel’s electrical system. Mitch says, OK, so basically it sounds like the team’s options are to dismantle it, which would have the effect of disarming it, or reconnect it to the hotel’s electrical system, which would have the effect of re-arming it. Charley says she’d like to re-arm it before dismantling it. Mitch says that wasn’t the answer he was hoping for.

In the VIP party suite, Archie approaches Viv, who is holding full court among the other attendees. He doesn’t have an easy in — Viv is bandying conversation and promoting her book, and there are almost no lulls in the conversation. Archie eavesdrops for a few minutes. He gets the sense that the difference between Viv and Andy is that Viv is trying to genuinely connect with people, to establish connections among people, and to help others find their purpose. Archie grows more suspicious as he observes the group around Viv hang on her every word. He also realizes that Viv is playing around with a version of neurolinguistic programming, but one that does not rely on the Anunnaki source code. Archie ponders all the various cutting remarks he could make that would burst Viv’s bubble, but he is too polite to say anything and instead just stands there, listening and watching, before leaving the party. Viv sticks around until about 10 pm before heading off to find another party, having heard rumors of a group of kids partying it up with psychedelics on floor 11.

Back to the lobby. Charley asks Mitch and Roger if it really would be so bad if the clock became a reality shard. She notes that the team will be in place when that happens — if it happens — and isn’t it better to be “on site” in that circumstance, as opposed to somewhere else? Especially if they could make it into a reality shard under something like controlled conditions? Would that be so bad? Mitch says he doesn’t know. Roger says that Charley makes it sound like the clock is just a tool, to be used for good or evil, depending on the wielder. Mitch compares it to a nuclear bomb. It is inarguably potentially dangerous but a lot of things are inarguably potentially dangerous. Roger asks if the spirit of this thing is incontrovertibly evil. Charley says no and reminds them of what Sophie said: that the clock isn’t itself a product of SANDMAN origin, but that the concept of mechanized, standardized time is. Mitch takes another look at the clock, attempting to discern if there’s any sort of memetic demon lurking inside. Critically, he sees nothing. The clock has no aura, it is not “alive” in any sense, and it is not host to a memetic demon. But it has picked up a lot of emotional energy over the past five decades and has a quality that draws people toward it. “Like zombies,” Mitch says.

Mitch asks how they should proceed. Charley says this doesn’t sound good. Mitch and Roger agree. Charley sighs. “It’s been a good clock, it’s probably tired now. I can take it apart. We could take all or part of it with us.” Roger notes that, for the clock to lose its “meet me at the clock” memetic power, they would need to take the whole thing, the casement and everything. The trio debates their options and the implications thereof. Ultimately they decide to steal the clock and bring it to Livermore for safekeeping and study. As they prep the clock for relocation, Archie emerges from the elevator in the lobby, ready to take Charley and Eddie home.

In the URIEL suite, Jocasta smokes a cigarette and listens on her headphones to Andy’s activities in his suite. She hears him crying.