Virgil Davenport

**Virgil Davenport** is the president of LMG. Believing that Melody Pendras had killed his brother Samuel, he tasked Dan Turner with fixing her tapes so he could view them.

## History

Dan walks to LMG, where Virgil is President. When he makes it to Virgil's office, he thanks him for coming and offers him a seat. He thanks Dan for his work on the tape and wonders if he wanted to come work for LMG temporarily, but Dan does not even know what they do because when he looked them up he did not find anything. Virgil says that the same thing happened to him, but they are looking for an artist who could restore videotapes damaged by fire at the Visser building. Virgil offers him 100,000 dollars to do it, but he would need to do it at their remote research facility in the Catskills. Virgil tells him that finding those tapes would mean a lot to the families of the people lost to the Visser Building fire. He knows that Dan had lost his parents in a fire, which startles Dan, so he leaves but Virgil asks him to let him know about the job.

Dan does not know how Virgil found out about his family since it was not public information, but Mark does not know either and invites him to go drinking with him.

In Virgil's car they are both taken to the Catskills until they reach a small house in the middle of nowhere. Virgil points him to everything he would need. He tells him that food deliveries would be once a week and tells him that the property was bought in the late 80's for research. All tools were of the best, but there was low cell service and no internet, but there was a landline so he could make calls. He takes Dan to the archive of many tapes recovered from the fire and tells him that he also had the camera that was used to record the footage. Dan says he has no questions and walks Virgil back to his car, where he is handed a pedometer, which really served as a button for emergencies in order to get medical professionals there. This also included mental health, and reminds Dan that they had done a thorough background check and knew that his breakdown was behind him. After that, Virgil leaves him to it.

Dan tries using his phone and looks for signal until he reaches a large metal fence. He walks back into the house and tries looking around, but many doors are locked. He gets a call, so he picks up. Virgil asks to see how he was settling in and Dan says that he had already started working.

From a distance, Dan is being watched by Virgil as a bunch of cameras were placed inside the house.

Dan calls Virgil, but is told that he was "in the field". However, he does not want to leave a message. He says he needs to know if there was someone else in the compound besides him. The woman asks if he was in mental distress, but he says that he is not in mental distress and tells her to have Virgil call him back. Dan talks to the rat and wonders if he was just some sort of board game beta-test for LMG. He watches a movie after that and turns around to see his father in the red jacket standing behind him.

Virgil shows up behind Dan, telling him he did not know he was religious and holding the pipe wrench Dan had used to break the wall. Dan asks him what that place was and is told that Virgil's family had a nominal relationship to Christianity. He tells Dan that he was in the debate club and chose Jesus in his last debate, telling the audience to imagine Jesus' death as a blessing because his light was a dangerous one and believes that Jesus was a demon. Virgil says that he did not win and got expelled, which Dan says did not hold him back. Virgil asks him why he should not just fire him for going into areas which were clearly off-limits, but Dan says that he knows that Virgil would not fire him since he knew he was only hired because his father was in those tapes. Virgil invites him down and asks him if he had ever used genetic services, pointing out that he had started Wellspring in 2006 since he believed that it was a gift being able to let people know who they really were. He tells Dan that he did not know for sure that his father had been involved and did think that there was a connection.

Virgil tells Dan that he knows that by now, he should know that Melody was a patient of his father's at NYU, which he did not mention before because he did not want to make him a promise he could not deliver on, not considering it right to get his hopes up. He tells Dan that he does not know what is on those tapes, but understands if it is too much for him or if he was too afraid of what he might find because he had read reports in which authorities believe that his father started the father himself, but Dan says that the fire was undertermined. Virgil tells Dan that he might not be aware that NYU had opened an investigation into his father shortly before the incident and says that he had found a notice of temporary leave. He tells Dan that he needs the work done quickly, and there would be a bonus for an accelerated timeline if he decided to stay. Virgil tells Dan that the area they were in was off-limits for him going forward.

While saying good-bye, Virgil tells Dan that there were a couple of bikes in case he wanted to use them and the nearest town was 14 miles south with a good coffee. Dan says that he knows how to ride, and Virgil says that they are very much alike since they liked putting puzzles together.

Dan is called by Bobbi, who asks him if everything is alright. He is told that it was night now and was just standing in the woods. He makes it back to the house and is called by Virgil, who tells him that the best part about having a paper route is the routine and comments that he had not sent them anything that day. Dan tells him that he had lost track of time and is asked if he wants a doctor. However, Dan tells him that he would get back to it.

When they hang up, Mark is approached by Virgil, who tells him Mystery Signals has a great space and a real sense of history. Mark says that the building is not for sale, but Virgil says that everything is for sale and introduces himself. He tells Mark that he thinks that both he and Dan make a strange pair, but Mark wants to know why he would need to get anything out of their relationship. Virgil tells him that he is worried about Dan and knows that they are in touch so he wants to get some perspective on his mental health since he knew that Dan had spent 8 weeks in Vermont thanks to Mark's father. Mark says that the breakdown did not happen because of Jill, but because it triggered a bunch of old family memories and realizes that all Virgil wants is a spy, so he tells him to fuck himself. As Virgil leaves, Mark asks him what is so important about Melody and her tapes, wanting to know what he wanted to find, but Virgil says that it is confidential. He hands Mark a card and tells him to call anytime.

Dan walks up to a camera and yells at Virgil, asking who he is after seeing him on the tape. Later, Virgil walks into the house as Dan waits for him. Virgil starts by saying that Samuel was his brother, mentioning that he had a lot of potential, but had channeled it into all the wrong places. Dan asks what he was really doing there restoring all the tapes, to which Virgil replies that he believes Melody had murdered his brother and believes the evidence would be found in the footage. He says that Samuel was charming, but did go quite down a rabbit hole with his occult nonsense. Dan says that Samuel was leading some fucked up cult at the Visser, but Virgil says that it was not real since it was just Samuel's overactive imagination. Dan says that that cannot be real, but Virgil says that Melody had let it all go to her head and that was what killed Samuel, but Dan does not believe it. Virgil asks if he had seen anything which contradicted what he was saying, stating that he does not even know her. He asks Dan to wonder if Melody had not been the one to set fire to everyone, including his family, which he says is impossible, but Virgil asks him to wonder. He tells Dan to finish the tapes so they could both get some closure.

Melody goes downstairs and sees the room full of mold. She touches it and hears chanting behind a door. However, as she is about to open, she turns around and sees Samuel and the tape starts altering, so Dan needs to give it a fix. When he grabs the cassette, he opens it and the VHS as well, finding mold growing inside as well. He tells Virgil about it, but he simply responds that he does not know how the mold had gotten there and he had asked him to be meticulous and Dan says that it was the same thing that was growing at the Visser, wondering how that was possible. Virgil asks if he was experiencing a mental health emergency, but Dan says that he is not. Virgil asks if he looked for the spare unit in order to keep working, so Dan hangs up looks for it, finding Ratty biting on a cable.

Dan heads towards LMG on by foot and wants to see Virgil, who he is told is not there yet. Virgil calls him from a television and he asks why he is in the city, to which he is told that he had pushed himself a little too hard and collapsed from exhaustion, so they had provided him with medical attention. However, Dan says that he was knocked out and drugged. Virgil says that he has his patient file there with him and had all sorts of observation, so Dan simply asks what the underground chamber that he found was, which he finds weird since it was identical to the basement at the Visser and it was where Virgil's brother was planning a human sacrifice. Virgil says that Dan was hallucinating when they found him, so Dan asks what he and Thomas Bellows were doing there. Virgil asks him if he is feeling okay and Dan realizes that he only wants to know what his brother was up to. Virgil asks him how he thinks he sounds accusing the owner of a Fortune 500 company of being an occultist, also mentioning that Dan had destroyed a lot of very expensive equipment at the compound, which they did get on camera. He tells Dan to take the money and go back to his life so he would not press charges against him.

Dan is at Virgil's front gate and he says that their agreement was clear, but Dan tells him that there is another tape, which Virgil says is impossible. Dan tells him that something else was left behind the night of the fire - the end of Samuel's story, which makes Virgil open the gate. Dan leaves his car behind and walks inside with Virgil, where he shows him how Samuel killed Tamara. The tape ends and Virgil wants to know if there is more, but Dan wants to ask some questions. Dan says that Virgil knew what was on the tapes before he even touched them, but the latter says that is not true, but Dan knows that Virgil believed something was on those tapes about his brother's cult and the Vos film. Virgil says that Samuel had told him all about it and he believed his brother was crazy at the time. Dan asks what is on those tapes and Virgil tells him that they are a glimpse into another world and waited 25 years to see them because he did not have the tapes, only getting them at an auction the year before.

They ended up at a facility because Dr. Turner had put them there, but Virgil does not know why. He tells Dan that they burned down his house in order to destroy them, also saying that there are people that wanted to raise that demon more than anything and people who wanted to avoid that more than anything and his father was on the other end of those people - his family paying the price and Dan's survival being purely accidental. Dan tells Virgil that Melody is still alive and in the Otherworld and needs his help to get her out, which Virgil says is impossible since it is not a hospitable environment for a human being, having spent the better part of 20 years researching the properties of that dimension, but Dan tells him that Samuel is in there as well, playing the rest of the tape for him. Virgil describes Samuel as irrational and has no reason to rescue him from the tomb he had trapped himself in willingly, which angers Dan, so he charges at Virgil and the two fight until he pulls out a gun. Virgil says that he is sorry because he really does like him, but Mark shows up and hits him in the head.