Dylan Evaluation
Carla: Annual evaluation of Dylan Faden, formerly P6, performed by Dr. Carla Vaughn. The questions asked here correspond to the fifth iteration of the Gunnars Psychological assessment. Are you ready, Dylan? Let’s begin then. In a single word, describe the world around you.
Dylan: Where’s Casper?
Carla: Dr. Darling is out of the building today.
Dylan: He’s never out. He didn’t want to come, did he? He never visits, not since Roberts. Tell Darling it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t control it yet. But I can now. I learned. Will you tell him?
Carla: In a single word, describe the world around you.
Dylan: A prison. A cold, empty prison. Not even a poster on the wall.
Carla: What is the next number in the sequence: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15?
Dylan: 18.
Carla: What day is it today?
Dylan: How the hell would I know? It’s not like you give me a calendar.
Carla: You find a rabbit in the woods. It is breathing, but not moving. You cannot see any blood. What do you do?
Dylan: Leave it.
Carla: Expand on that.
Dylan: It doesn’t matter. The rabbit’s not real. None of it’s real.
Carla: What day is it today?
Dylan: Do you enjoy asking people questions that can’t be answered? Is this what gets you up in the morning? What you dreamed of doing as a scared, stupid little girl?
Carla: Can you describe a dog to me?
Dylan: In Ordinary, we had a friend. Nosebleed Neil. And when it all went crazy, you know what I mean, Nosebleed Neil turned into a dog. Or something like a dog.
Carla: What day is it tomorrow?
Dylan: Fuck off! I don’t know! There. Is. No. Calendar! How could I fucking know?
Carla: Dylan, calm down—
Dylan: Fuck you! Fuck you and fuck Casper! Hey, are you watching this, you old fuck?! Did you send your bitch ‘cuz you’re too scared of me?! Where is Casper?!
Carla: Security, get a team in here! I need —
Dylan Questioning
Carla: Alright, I won’t take up too much of your time today, Dylan. Like I said, I want to talk about Jesse, your sister.
Dylan: What about her?
Carla: I just want to get your perspective. What do you think of her? What kind of person is she? That sort of thing.
Dylan: I adored my sister. When I was little, I mean. Back in Ordinary.
Carla: And you don’t anymore?
Dylan: When I first got here, sure. I’d always hope she’d come too. To find me. To take me home. We went everywhere together, why should this be any different? Casper said she could come too, to the Bureau, if she wanted to. But she never did.
Carla: Why do you think that is?
Dylan: Because she didn’t care about me. She always wanted to be out on her own, seeing the world. She always said so. I guess she got what she wanted.
Carla: Great. So she wanted to see the world. Did she ever mention any place in particular?
Dylan: Why?
Carla: We like to ask questions around here, you know that. Any particular cities, towns, landmarks, anything like that?
Dylan: I don’t remember.
Carla: What about family, friends? Were you close with anyone living outside of Ordinary?
Dylan: I’m done with this. Tell Casper I want pizza for lunch today.
Carla: Dylan, wait, we’re not—End of session.
Jesse Therapy: Polaris
Psychiatrist: You mentioned a poem last time we talked… by Thomas Zane.
Jesse: Yes. “Beyond the shadow you settle for, there’s a miracle illuminated.”
Psychiatrist: Hmm… I looked the poem up… only I could not find any poet by that name. I did find a European filmmaker who moved here in the sixties, named Thomas Zane.
Jesse: What? I don’t…
Psychiatrist: No matter. It suits you very well, the poem. How you see things. Maybe you wrote it yourself?
Jesse: I didn’t…
Psychiatrist: No matter. You’ve said a few times that you feel like “there’s a piece of you missing.” Can you talk about that?
Jesse: Okay. Yeah. It’s this… I feel… an emptiness, a yearning for something that I think I lost.
Psychiatrist: It is natural for you to feel that way. Your brother and your parents are dead.
Jesse: No. No… Dylan’s not dead. And… that’s not even it.
Psychiatrist: You are referring to the imaginary friend from your childhood.
Jesse: Polaris… she’s come back, after a long time. She’s calling me… in a dream I saw. She showed me things.
Psychiatrist: Jesse.
Jesse: It felt more real than anything. As real as what happened in Ordinary.
Psychiatrist: The industrial accident in your home town? … that you believe “Polaris” caused?
Jesse: No, it wasn’t an accident. There was no “industrial accident.” And Polaris didn’t cause it. She saved me and Dylan.
Psychiatrist: Jesse.
Jesse: No. It was a cover up. The government knows about it. There were agents there. Agents from… I don’t know exactly. They took Dylan. They… I’ll find them. I won’t stop looking. Polaris wants me to go to New York. There’s a… building there. I have to leave soon. I have to be there at a very specific time. Something… something hugely important is going to happen —
Psychiatrist: Jesse, you know we can’t let you go until you’re well. And that begins by understanding what’s real and what’s imagined.
Jesse Therapy: Slide Projector
Jesse: We used to play there all the time, me and Dylan, and other kids as well. We loved it. This time… I remember… was different… we found a way in, deeper into it, like it had shifted. We went inside, and that’s where we found the Slide Projector.
Psychiatrist: A dump is a place for lost things. Things that have been thrown away. Did you ever feel that way when you were growing up, Jesse?
Jesse: What? No… yes, but that has nothing to do—
Psychiatrist: Was there a slide projector at your home, when you were small?
Jesse: No…
Psychiatrist: Those were before your time, I suppose. But your family did look at photos together maybe in one form or the other?
Jesse: Maybe…
Psychiatrist: Hmmm… when was this, can you remember? At parties, barbecues? How did it make you feel? Did your parents ever show pictures that embarrassed you? Was alcohol ever involved at these parties? Did your parents drink? Did that make you uncomfortable?
Jesse: No, that’s just stupid. Come on. That has nothing to do with this. Nothing. The Slide Projector —
Psychiatrist: Let me ask you this: as a child, did you ever fantasize about worlds inside pictures? Inside a painting? You know, stepping into a painting, into a hidden world, escaping, and finding adventures there? Away from your parents?
Jesse: I don’t… I don’t think so, I don’t remember. Maybe. I don’t know.
Langston Interrogation
Langston: OK, this room is really intimidating and all, but I know my rights! It’s not a crime to try and get a book signed.
FBC Interrogator: Making unauthorized contact with a dangerous paranatural entity- is indeed a Bureau offense, Mr. Langston, and can be prosecuted as such.
Langston: Uh, OK, well I didn’t know that. Listen, this is being blown way out of proportion. All that happened is I heard Dr. Hartman had been brought in and, since I’m a huge Alan Wake fan, I thought it’d be cool to get a copy of “The Creator’s Dilemma” signed. Uh, that’s a book that Hartman wrote-
FBC Interrogator: We know what it is.
Langston: OK, uh, good. So yeah, I was just looking to fill out my Wake collection. I certainly didn’t know Hartman had turned into some kind of shadow zombie-
FBC Interrogator: That’s a completely inaccurate description.
Langston: Whatever! Listen, I’m just a desk jockey. I sort papers, do data entry, that kind of stuff. Don’t come down on me like this. I made one mistake! I see people break the rules all the time and no one is pulling them into dark rooms to yell at them. Yesterday, Dave Gleeson and his crew were talking to that empty spacesuit and laughing their heads off.
FBC Interrogator: We’re letting you off with a warning, Mr. Langston,[sic] But this is going on your record, so one more screw up and our next chat won’t be so friendly.
Langston: Great! That is just great to hear, guys. Thank you, thank you so much. Hey, is there any chance I could get my copy of “The Creator’s Dilemma” back?
FBC Interrogator: Get out.
Fra Interrogation
FBC Interrogator: OK, we’re gonna try this one more time and then we’re done playing with you, you understand?
Prisoner: Jelly!
FBC Interrogator: Where are you from?
Prisoner: Jumble grand. Up and loose and heavy treats sandwich.
FBC Interrogator: Jesus Christ. Does anyone have any idea what this thing is saying?
Prisoner: Hotly! Dirt arrange you.
FBC Interrogator: Why are you here? What the hell do you want? Why’d you stow away on that ship?
Prisoner: School bearing, boy boy. I’s many cauterizing loops through and about. Wind and windy, Mitchell.
FBC Interrogator: Did he just say Mitchell? Was there a Mitchell at NASA?
Prisoner: Tubes.
FBC Interrogator: You know what? Nevermind. I can’t do this anymore. Just send this thing to the guys at research. Let them cut it up or whatever they do. Hear that? They’re gonna cut you up, you pain in the ass!
Prisoner: Spider time!
Dr. Hartman Interrogation
FBC Interrogator: Thank you for meeting with us again, Dr. Hartman.
Hartman: It’s my pleasure, gentlemen. I hope the information I’ve provided thus far has been of some small use.
FBC Interrogator: It’s been invaluable, doctor, really. We have a much clearer picture of this event thanks to your accounts.
Hartman: Well I do consider myself a keen observer of-
FBC Interrogator: We did have one question though. You mentioned in an earlier conversation that your patients displayed, and I’m paraphrasing here, unnatural abilities that you in fact encouraged during their time in your Lodge. It’d be very helpful if you could fill us in on the details there.
Hartman: Of course. Like yourselves, I work to understand and even bend the rules of our earthly paradigm. My patients’ wellbeing was paramount, of course, but I would hardly be a man of science if I did not reach out at the underlying truth. As I stated in my written proposal, I believe working alongside your organization could be greatly beneficial to both parties. Sharing notes, as they say.
FBC Interrogator: Thank you, doctor, that’s all we need to hear. Remy?
Remy Denis: Dr. Emil Hartman, you have been found in breach of codes 4, 8 and 74 of the Federal Bureau of Control criminal offense system.
Hartman: What? You can’t do this. I am a well-connected man. You’re making a dire mistake, my friend.
Remy Denis: You will be detained until further notice and all personal property will be confiscated, including the Cauldron Lake Lodge.
Hartman: That’s preposterous! You can’t just seize my property! I’m a United States citizen! I have rights! That lodge is my life’s work! I’m offering you years of research!
Remy Denis: Get him out of here.
Hartman: You’re making a mistake! You have to listen to me! You have to listen!
Brian Hennerman Interrogation
FBC Interrogator: Brian Hennerman, 21 years old, resident of southern Texas-
Brian: I’m sorry, ma’am, but I really don’t understand why I’m here.
FBC Interrogator: You know what you did, Mr. Hennerman.
Brian: I do?
FBC Interrogator: Tell me about “Delivery Disaster.”
Brian: The movie? I don’t, I mean, it wasn’t very good.
FBC Interrogator: That’s not what your review said, but we’ll come back to that. Tell me where you got the movie from.
Brian: Movie Knight, with a, you know, a “k”, not an “n”. Not “night” like “night time” but-
FBC Interrogator: Who contacted you? Who told you to review that film?
Brian: No one! I just did it because it looked obscure! I didn’t even like the movie! I shouldn’t have given it such a high score, but reviewing obscure films makes you look smart and I thought if I looked smart I would get listeners and my podcast would take off and I could move out of my parents’ basement and maybe even go to college and get a film degree like I’ve always wanted to. I swear! I swear I swear I swear!
FBC Interrogator: OK, the kid doesn’t know shit. I’m ending the session.
Suspect Interrogation
FBC Interrogator: Agent Guthrie, interrogation to 4.C pertaining to the Eagle Limited incident and its subsequent, uhm, state alteration.
Paracriminal: Look buddy, I have no clue what you’re talking about.
FBC Interrogator: So you deny being a part of a radical group aiming to affect inanimate objects in a manner that would yield… hm, unusual results?
Paracriminal: Yeah I deny, but hey, tell me more about these results. They sound real… unusual.
FBC Interrogator: I’m sure you recognize that the measures this group of yours takes to achieve their goals can be considered acts of terrorism.
Paracriminal: Goals, measures? You’re being very vague. Did you known you’re being very vague?
FBC Interrogator: Alright; 62 dead. Passengers and crew. Innocent people. Still sound vague to you?
Paracriminal: You might as well stop wasting both of our time. I won’t say anything and you can’t say anything. I know you can’t.
FBC Interrogator: Tell you what I CAN do. I can throw your sorry ass in one of our cozy containment cells. You can rot there until you’re ready to talk. Or you could just save us both the trouble and tell me all about how you’re going around creating Altered Items. How’s that sound?
Paracriminal: Uhh…
FBC Interrogator: Did you really think we wouldn’t catch on to you? We always do. Always. So you might as well come clean, for your sake.
Paracriminal: I uh- I think I’ll just talk to my lawyer instead.
FBC Interrogator: That’s not how it works around here, “buddy”. But tell you what, why don’t I leave you here to think on it for a while. See you in a couple of days.
Paracriminal: Wait wait wait-