The National Bureau of Normalcy

The NBN's logo.

The National Bureau of Normalcy is a covert organization operating within the United States government with the stated purpose of capturing, experimenting on, and weaponizing cryptids. It serves as the main antagonistic force of season 19.

## Description

The National Bureau of Normalcy is a fascistic, warmongering organization dedicated to transforming cryptids (who they refer to as "meta-beings") into "living weapons" through unethical experimentation. Its members pursue this goal through the capture of live cryptids to be used as lab rats in research and development. The Bureau also seeks to keep the public unaware of the existence of cryptids, presumably to avoid public outcry.

A document outlining the termination of human co-conspirators.

According to leaked "suspect files" released as promotional material for the show, agents are encouraged to capture cryptids alive whenever possible. However, any human discovered to be "significantly compromised" from conspiring with cryptids is to be terminated and "delivered to HQ for incineration."

The Bureau is not a particularly well-funded organization. In the same suspect files mentioned above, agents are even warned not to waste valuable bullets on terminating human co-conspirators, and are encouraged to stab or strangle them to death instead.

The NBN seems to disguise their true motives from their lower-level employees, choosing to portray themselves as protectors of humanity who simply contain these dangerous creatures and keep them from hurting anyone. This intra-organizational propaganda seems to work pretty well, as it convinced Agent Z to join the cause and has kept Agent Y from questioning anything the Bureau has done for over a decade.

## History

### The 1940s

Bureau agents torturing Lars the vampire following his recapture.

According to the Bureau's logo, it was founded at some point in 1942. By who and as a result of what event is unknown. In 1945, a feral vampire named Lars escaped from the Bureau's custody and made his way to the University of Texas at Austin. His brain already severely damaged by the experiments he had been subjected to, Lars began to wreak havoc on campus. The vampire was recovered by Bureau agents, but not before he bit Nikolai, turning him into a vampire. The last time we see Lars, two Bureau field agents are menacing him with a pair of pliers. The purpose of this instrument is unknown.

### Modern Day

In late 2019, the Bureau acquired the FANNTM phone through unknown means. The phone was designated Object of Interest #045 and was scheduled to be transported to Bureau Headquarters via Geographic Relocator. However, due to human error, the object was sent to the wrong coordinates. The two agents responsible, X and N, were terminated.

Several months later, Bureau web crawlers flagged a live stream on TSTV's website. The live stream showed the Object of Interest in Daisy's possession. It also showed the members of Down to Film turning in cryptids. Agents Y and Z were dispatched to infiltrate and investigate the show.

### Apocalypse Timeline

After revealing the existence of cryptids and painting them as a public menace through widespread propaganda and disinformation, the Bureau began publicly detaining cryptids, converting them into weapons to be used by the U.S. Military. At the same time, foreign governments began weaponizing cryptids as well, leading to an international arms race. The battles fought with these new "living weapons" decimated the human population, eventually culminating in a massive nuclear event. The only ones to survive this fallout were those with the resources to do so, including many members of the NBN.

Over the course of hundreds of years, what remained of the Bureau changed and adapted, and its members dedicated themselves to righting the wrongs their forefathers had committed. This reformed Bureau began to develop new technologies to achieve this end, including the FANNTM Phone and the Time Watch. After inventing the latter, the Bureau sent Rich back in time to prevent the apocalypse.

## Technology

Agent Y loading his tranquilizer gun.

**Geographic Relocator:** A long-range teleportation device disguised as a cardboard box. Coordinates are put into the device through the use of invisible buttons.

**Tranquilizer Guns:** All field agents are armed with tranquilizer guns modded to fire specialized darts designed to combat various types of meta-beings. These specialty darts were described in detail in the "leaked files" released as promotional material. They include garlic-infused ketamine darts for vampires and wolfsbane-infused ketamine darts for lycanthropes.

**Brainwashing Technology:** The Bureau has developed some kind of procedure to mentally break down captured meta-beings. The half-finished result of this procedure was seen in "Down to Film Noir" in the form of Lars the vampire.

**Vacuums:** Commercial-brand vacuum cleaners used for capturing and transporting ghosts.

**FANNTM Phone (Apocalyptic Timeline):** The FANNTM Phone is a telepathic communication and espionage device. Users are able to listen in on the thoughts of those around them, as well as speak directly into an intended target's mind. The device is notoriously unstable, and the presence of significant emotional distress can cause it to malfunction, causing mental "spasms" in bystanders. Furthermore, Wurgaluxian bioelectricity can "supercharge" the phone. In this state, it's capable of broadcasting telepathically on a massive scale, and can even swap bystander's consciousness'.

**Time Watch (Apocalyptic Timeline):** The Time Watch is a time-traveling device built to help prevent the end of the world. Although the watch allows its user to travel through time, it does not allow them to travel through space. Travelers will appear in the same location they were in in the previous time period.

## Notable Members

* The Director
* Agent Z
* Agent Y
* Special Agent In Charge Hitchins (Deceased)
* Special Agent in Charge Mitchell
* Agent X
* Agent N

## Notes and Trivia

* The NBN was, of course, inspired by the Men in Black conspiracy theory.
* The NBN is very similar to FANNTM from season 14. They are both evil government agencies experimenting with mind-control technology while searching for an object of great power disguised as a normal everyday item. There is one major difference, however, in that they are on opposite sides of the political spectrum: FANNTM were authoritarian communists, and the NBN are fascists.
* According to Henry Williams, who pitched the name, "National Bureau of Normalcy" was intended to give off the same sense of "bland and unassuming menace" as the House Un-American Activities Committee, the communist-hunting committee that socially destroyed over 300 people during the 1940s under suspicion of unpatriotic behavior.
	+ The name is somewhat inaccurate, as it's unlikely that an American government agency would bear the title of "national." More likely, such an agency would be referred to as a "federal bureau." However, the Bureau's relationship with the American government is never fully explained, and also "Federal Bureau of Normalcy" isn't alliterative so, hey, what are ya gonna do.