Frederick Langston

**Frederick Langston** is the Panopticon Supervisor at the Federal Bureau of Control. In charge of the Bureau's collection of Altered Items and Objects of Power, Langston uses rituals to keep the objects calm. When the Hiss invades the Oldest House, Langston has his hands full locating and recovering escaped Altered Items as the Hiss begins to corrupt them.

## Biography

### Background

Frederick Langston joined the Federal Bureau of Control around 2004. Thanks to familial connections in the FBC, he was able to start out as a junior agent working in the Containment Sector. Not long into his new job, an unknown accident occurred in the Panopticon and killed most of Containment's management, and Langston instantly leaped up several rungs on the career ladder.

In 2017, he discovered the Investigations Sector was housing psychologist Dr. Emil Hartman and went to get his copy of Emil's book, *The Creator's Dilemma* signed. Unbeknownst to Langston, Hartman had been transformed into a creature known as a Taken, causing him to be detained and interrogated by FBC officials for attempting to contact a paranatural entity, although he was let off with just a warning and having his book confiscated. Langston was also present in the Sector during Hartman's escape, having stopped to get a bag of his preferred type of chip unavailable elsewhere in the Oldest House, but escaped before the Sector was sealed to prevent Hartman's escape.

After years of diligent work, he was promoted to Panopticon Supervisor, a position he still holds as of October 2019. During his time as supervisor, he attempted to initiate a reform of the Bureau's Altered Item containment policy. He argued in favor of more ritualistic treatment to better placate them, though Director Trench was insistent on keeping them "like prisoners."

### Events of Control

During the Hiss invasion, Langston survived due to wearing an HRA, and sealed himself in the Panopticon's surveillance center with two Rangers. Several of the Altered Items within the Panopticon escaped, and in the ensuing chaos, he did not remember to relieve junior agent Philson from monitoring the Arctic Queen. A team of security soon arrived led by Lin Salvador, who went to secure the Benicoff TV Langston's warnings. When the new Director, Jesse Faden, arrived in search of Dylan, her long lost brother, Langston directed her to his cell, but warned her of Salvador's disappearance.

Faden eventually questions him about Philson, who she discovered in the Panopticon, and he allows Faden access to placate the refrigerator. When Faden returns, successful in quelling the fridge but having lost Philson, Langston mournfully mentions how the young agent always hated "fridge duty". Langston also recruits Faden to retrieve the hoards of Altered Items running loose in the facility, providing her with a list that also denotes their general location. Upon Jesse's return, he gives her a second, shorter list of further escaped Altered Items. He is thankful to Jesse when she returns a second time.

### AWE

Langston's security cameras of the Investigation Sector on his terminal suddenly begin working for the first time in years when Jesse enters the abandoned Sector, and Langston contacts Jesse through the one way intercom system after spotting her on camera. He urges her to find and kill Hartman before he can escape the area. With an outlet to talk, he also monologues about numerous mundane topics, such as his feelings on the Bureau, his homelife with his cat Alfred, and some of his past experiences with the FBC.

After Jesse defeats Hartman in the various areas of the Sector, she will pursue him into the recreation of the Bright Falls AWE, with Langston commenting on Hartman's freakish appearance as he flees Jesse. With Hartman slain in a final confrontation, Jesse offers Langston the role of Head of Investigations, which he rejects due to the tendency for the higher-ups of the Bureau to meet a terrible fate. He then informs her of a distress signal coming from the town of Bright Falls, which he notices is dated several years in the future. He informs Jesse that agent Estevez was on site and once the Hiss were dealt with, they could make contact with her and understand the situation.

## Personality

Langston is an awkward, fairly introverted individual, living alone with his cat and having only his elderly neighbor as a friend. He tends to be awkward in conversation, using obtuse metaphors or rambling until made to cease by Jesse. Despite this, he also displays an unexpected savvy and passionate in regard to fulfilling his role as Panopticon supervisor. He is forward thinking in how to further contain the Altered Items under his care, and has kept a close enough eye on Bureau hierarchy to realize Trench was the driving force behind the refusal of these ideas, and hopes that his replacement will be more open-minded, which is proven by Jesse's disgust with the Bureau's old practices. His decades of experience have also caused him to learn to be content with what he already has, refusing a promotion to keep as safe from the dangers of the Bureau as possible.

## Trivia

* It is implied through Langston's disdain with the Bureau's treatment of Altered Items and his fondness of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, that he may be the anonymous author of the Tennyson Report.
* Both of Langston's cats are named after poets: his aforementioned current cat is named Alfred after Alfred, Lord Tennyson, while his former cat Sylvia is named after Sylvia Plath, whom he mentions as an inspiration in his freestyle poetry.

## References

1. ↑ Panopticon Methods Proposal
2. ↑ My Brother's Keeper
3. ↑ Fridge Duty
4. ↑ Langston's Runaways
5. ↑ A Dark Place
6. ↑ It's Happening Again

 Miscellaneous