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Jesse: We need to get back. I have to see my brother.
Jesse: What’s the deal with Black Rock?
Arish: Ugh, fuck, don’t get me started on Black Rock. You know, ever since Research found out it blocks paranatural stuff, they have just been parading dangerous materials in and out of the fucking Quarry. Fucking lab coats, man. Love making my job harder.
Jesse: (Sounds like there’s some tension between departments.)
Arish: Still, at least, the Quarry’s got a good view of the night sky. You know, me and Salvador used to have after work beers down there.
Jesse: What do you know about Dr. Darling?
Arish: About as much as anybody, I guess. Head of Research. Loves to hear himself talk, all of those science-types absolutely do. He’s been acting a little bit psycho, although HR told me not to use that word, so…
Jesse: (Everyone thinks finding Darling will lead us to the answers, but if he’s completely lost it then what help could he be?) You’re security, right? Do you work with Rangers?
Arish: Not often. Rangers are specially trained in Threshold reconnaissance and ground zero AWE response. Security is more interested in the dangers inside the Bureau.
Jesse: They must see some weird stuff out there.
Arish: Oh yeah, definitely. You know, every week they are tackling things that were previously unknown to the human experience. Most Rangers, they retire due to “cognitive collapse”. I looked up the medical definition. Not fun.
Jesse: How does the Bureau handle Thresholds?
Arish: “Handle” might be a bit of an optimistic way to put it. Marshall sends her Rangers in to map them, check growth-rates, locate epicenters, take samples. To measure stuff, basically.
Jesse: (Sounds like he’s done his homework.)
Arish: Down in Maintenance, Thresholds are used just like any other tool. The lab coats mine Black Rock from one and Maintenance siphons water from another. We use it for pretty much everything, except drinking.
Jesse: Why don’t you drink it? (Do I even want to know?)
Arish: A lot of times we find these little chunks in it. It’s uh… pretty gross.
Jesse: (I didn’t want to know.) What do you think of Marshall?
Arish: Marshall? Marshall’s a fucking badass. The Rangers could not ask for a better leader. She’s a little, uh, you know, intense, but given the stuff she’s seen, I’m not surprised. She does have a bad habit of disappearing, though.
Jesse: Where does she go?
Arish: Last time, she vanished, I did some digging into the security logs. I found camera footage of her entering the Quarry. She was down there, alone, for days. Now, typically that’s not allowed, but Marshall is kind of above the rules.
Jesse: (I wonder what she finds so interesting in the Quarry?) I have to go.
Arish: Me too. Watch yourself out there.
Agent 1: Just when I thought things were stabilizing, Marshall abandons us! I’m sick of no one telling us what’s going on!
Agent 2: Information’s always been on a need-to-know basis.
Agent 1: Well, I need to fucking know. I’m an upper level executive, damn it!
Agent 2: Apparently, the Director restored HRA production. They’re already getting other survivors out of safe rooms.
Agent 1: Great. Maybe I can get back to my office soon. I miss having a door to close on people.
Agent 2: I think you’re going to have to endure the inconvenience a little longer.
Jesse: (It’s happening, after all these years. Dylan is here. But am I too late?) How is he? I need to know.
Pope: He’s clearly been affected by the Hiss. But it’s different than the any other manifestation we’ve recorded. Maybe what makes you so special is genetic. He was a prime candidate. Or maybe it’s Polaris, protecting him? Something else affecting the situation? I need to run tests. He seems more in control, more present.
Jesse: I want to see him. (My brother… or is he?)
Pope: Of course. Marshall set up an HRA warded cage to contain him. It’s on the upper floor, up the stairs.
Jesse: Okay. I need to go.
Pope: Jesse, be careful.
Jesse: (Shit. That’s Dylan.) Can you hear me? (Come on, Dylan. I’m here. I found you.) Do you know who I am? (You know me. Say it.)
Dylan: You are Dylan Faden’s sister.
Jesse: (He’s talking in the third person. Always a good sign.) Do you know who you are?
Dylan: Not Dylan. Trench and Darling made sure of that. I’m P6. P. Six. But I’m better now. The Hiss made me better. Push the fingers through the surface into the wet. You’ve always been the new. You want this to be true.
Jesse: Can you stop that? Please. (Not exactly the reunion I’d hoped for.)
Dylan: It feels good to say those words. I want to say them. They sound good. They make me feel good. Don’t you want to say them too?
Jesse: (No. Fuck off, no. You need to help me get this thing out of his head. If he is still in there, if there’s anything left, you have to help me.)
Dylan: You? You! You came in through the hole in you. We let you in. You’ve always been here, the only child. A copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.
Jesse: Stop it!
Dylan: Orange peel.
Jesse: (Shit. Shit! He can see you. This is not safe.)
Dylan: We found Polaris together with my sister, where we were very small, in Ordinary, in the desert through the door opened up by the Slide Projector. But she didn’t help when Trench took me away. She didn’t give me any powers. All the powers are my own powers. She didn’t help when they locked me up for years. After the song, time for applause. We build you until nothing remains. The egg cracks and the truth will emerge out of you. You are home. The Bureau brought the Slide Projector back here with me, and the Bureau did what the Bureau does. They used it. And they found — They opened the door up to the Hiss. That’s the only thing I can thank them for.
Jesse: (There. There it is. We stopped the Altered World Event in Ordinary when we shut down the Slide Projector. And now the projector’s here.)
Dylan: An earworm is a tune you can’t stop humming in a dream. Baby, baby, baby, yeah. Just plastic. So, safe and nothing to worry around. Ha ha, funny. I welcomed the Hiss. I let it in. To get rid of her. The Hiss set me free. Polaris is using you. The Bureau is using you. You are a puppet. You can almost hear our words, but you forget.
Jesse: (If we shut off the Slide Projector, maybe, maybe that will stop the Hiss.)
Dylan: This happens more and more now. You gave us the permission in your regulations.
Jesse: (Maybe it’s not too late for my brother.)
Dylan: You must see the truth for yourself, Jesse, sister. The horrible truth about the Bureau. The Hiss is the better option. Go to the Prime Candidate Program, in the Containment Sector. I have the keycard to get you there. Salvador wanted me to have it.
Jesse: (“Wanted?” Bullshit. I saw what the Hiss did to Salvador. What it turned him into.) Okay, Dylan. I’ll go. I want to see the truth for myself. (I’ll go, but only to look for the Slide Projector. You can help me. We can end this.)
Jesse: I don’t know what else I’m hoping to find here. Dylan? Can we talk?
Dylan: I’d like to tell you about a dream I had last night.
Jesse: Off to a good start. Okay. I’m listening.
Dylan: I was back in Ordinary before all of this happened. But in the dream, I was alone, it was just me. I was the only child. A girl. My name was Jesse Dylan Faden. But then the Bureau came and caught me, brought me back here. Locked me up. Have you ever noticed that our names — Jesse, Dylan, they could be girls’ names, boys’ names, could be anything. Don’t you find that weird? I find that weird.
Jesse: Sure. (What the hell was that? Is he trying to mess with me?)
Jesse: (Maybe Dylan’s still here? Maybe there’s a way to reach him.) I’d like to talk to my brother, please. Dylan?
Dylan: Dylan would like to tell you about a dream he had just now.
Jesse: (This again?)
Dylan: I was going to be the new director of this place. I helped you get a job here, so we could be together. You were an office assistant. You’d make coffee and deliver the mail and there was always plenty of work to do. And it stayed that way forever and ever. It was nice. Really nice.
Jesse: (That’s debatable.)
Dylan: But here’s the strange thing, the dream shifted, and none of it was real anymore. It was a game. We were in a game, and it was a fucking boring game, but you couldn’t stop playing. And then it shifted again, or maybe it was another dream already, or maybe I’m just confusing them. But in this other dream, it was more like a musical. This is an ordinary song, about an ordinary girl, from an ordinary town. It’s the ordinary story… She worked an ordinary job, in an ordinary office, something, something, something. And that’s all I can remember of that dream.
Jesse: (Maybe I can learn more about the Hiss from him.) Can we talk?
Dylan: I just had an interesting dream.
Jesse: (Shit) That’s fascinating, but let’s talk about the Hiss for a change, yeah?
Dylan: This dream was about the Hiss.
Jesse: (Eh… best I’m gonna get.)
Dylan: In my dream, the Hiss had broken free of this prison, this house. I’d set it free. And the president himself was there to welcome us. He was the first to take the Hiss in, to spread the word. At first, many people thought it was horrifying, that he was horrifying. But also many people who heard his words wanted to welcome the Hiss in. And slowly more and more of them came around, until the whole word was brought together by the Hiss. It was wonderful.
Jesse: Okay. Thanks for sharing that. (For the record: that will never happen. Not as long as I’m alive.)
Jesse: (Maybe I’m here just to punish myself.) Any new dreams you’d like to share, Dylan?
Dylan: I’m glad you asked, sister. The dream, like all dreams now, felt very real. Like reality, and reality now feels like a dream. Maybe it’s all a dream. Maybe it’s all real.
Jesse: (A dream where my brother endlessly tells me about his dreams.)
Dylan: I was in a dark place, and there was a dark man there. His name was Mr. Door. And he told me that there are many worlds, side by side, on top of each other, some inside of others. In one world, there’s a writer who wrote a story about a cop. In another world, the cop was real. Door said he himself was in all of them at the same time, endlessly shifting between them. I asked him how I could reach these worlds. I wanted to bring the Hiss there. But he didn’t want to help me. He didn’t like the idea. What did he know?
Jesse: (Not wild about the idea myself.)
Jesse: (Here we go again. Once more with feeling.) Let me guess. You want to tell me about your dream.
Dylan: Yes. Yes. In fact, I’m having a dream right now.
Jesse: (Oh, that’s new.)
Dylan: In this dream, I’m standing in the corner, watching Jesse and Dylan talk about this very dream. “This very dream”, he said just now. And repeated it again now. I’m standing there and watching, and that’s all I can do… it’s as if I’m trapped there. And that’s all I have to say about that dream.
Jesse: Okay. Okay, Dylan. That’s good. Is he still in here? Or is this the Hiss playing mind games? I don’t know.
Jesse: Is this what Dylan wanted me to see? It doesn’t matter. We need to find that Projector.
Jesse: All the times I felt paranoid. I was right. The Bureau could’ve given me the answers. But they just stood by and watched me.
Jesse: They studied what happened in Ordinary here. That’s the place to start looking.
Jesse: Dylan and I were both Prime Candidates. Experiments.
Jesse: We’re going back home. Of course we are. It started there and it’s never gone away.
Jesse: There’s got to be a way to rotate these tracks. Maybe there’s a control panel nearby…
Jesse: It won’t rotate… Something’s blocking it.
Jesse: Let’s see what they have on Ordinary. It’s all here: our home, our school, the woods. The dump.
Jesse: We found the Slide Projector in the dump outside town. Did they recreate that too? Is that where they keep it?
Jesse: They moved the whole landfill here, in the middle of New York. And nobody saw a thing. Pretty unbelievable.
Jesse: We should check that lab.
Darling: Effective immediately, I’m setting up a new department, Dimensional Research, in the Research Sector, transferring the Slide Projector there. That’s where my focus will be now. The Ordinary site remains as is. We’ll be back to… I don’t know when.
Jesse: Darling took the Projector to the Research Sector. He dedicated a whole area to it, so he knew it was important. “Dimensional Research”. That’s where we go next.