Lust Chapter Four

## Mason and The Briarberg Institute

Mason Silver starts off this Chapter by introducing himself to participants who were a part of The Tension Experience last year. He claims that he works for The Briarberg Institute and that they are putting together a report on extreme "immersive theater" and have specifically become interested in Tension. They are focusing on allegations about mining and possible selling of participants data unbeknownst to the participants. The email that was sent to @creepsociety was a bit more specific saying that Mason had evidence that her personal information was recently divulged and he had many more questions to ask her about her experience (Full thread). Participants are worried that this may just be the newest plot that The OSDM is using in order to gather more information and elicit new emotional responses from them and are unsure what they can trust from Mason or Briarberg

## Joyce Visits Russell

@russell is visited at his home by Joyce and Otis and two others. When first entering his home Otis introduces himself as "John, I play Otis" which confirms theory's from Chapter 1 that John and Otis are the same person. During the meeting, Joyce had a clipboard that had a picture of @russell on it and seemed to be directly referencing information from his file including his answers to questions from the original Tension questionnaire. He was asked about @creepsociety which participants theorized was because of Mason's recent interest in her. He gets asked about how he would be able to reconnect with the experience and is shortly after handed a phone with Sabrina Kern on the line and gets to speak with her for the first time since the IConfidant in Person Meetup.

The next day @russell receives a phone call from Mason asking him about the visit he had last night. He asked questions about the briefcase with @russell's picture inside it that was posted on Instagram and about the information that The Tension Experience had on him and if there was any kind of disclosure he was given. Then he starts asking if @russell knows how to contact and of these people and asks about many of the Tension actors and ends the call saying *"The apartment is empty"* to someone else before hanging up making Russell paranoid that they were at his home.

## Mason Contacts Actors

Soon after, Mason starts contacting actors that performed in Tension. Stephanie Hyden, Erika Quintana, Damien Gerard and Andrew Perez are all contacted by him and members of the community get worried for them because it seems he knows personal information about them too. A lot of them claim that these phone calls are the first Tension related experiences that they have had since it ended so they are not sure what is going on. A few of the actors seem uncomfortable sharing details about Tension still claiming that they are under NDA still and they also seem to not want much to do with it going forward. These leads participants to question everything they think they know and to reevaluate what is "in-game" and what is "out of game".

The next day Joyce posts a warning on the forum telling participants just to avoid Mason, telling them that he is a *"dangerous lunatic who can not be reasoned with or trusted"*. Shortly after, Mason sends an email to participants saying that her post is lies and that they are trying to spin up a narrative that will silence him because The OSDM does not want him to expose them for what they really are.

The next day it is revealed that actors and creators of the Experiences have had their homes bugged. On top of that participants get a recording that shows that Darren and Clint are both locked out of the Creators master account claiming that the password has been changed by someone else. In the forum post where all of this is discovered someone starts to REDACT large portions of the conversation clearly not wanting certain conversation between some of the moderators to get out.

## Mason is Creepy

For about a week street @coryphella gets phone calls from Mason every night. In these calls Mason has a weird fascination with sleep asking to listen to her sleep on several of the nights. Also there is evidence that he is watching the Slack channel because he seems to call her and also hang up after @coryphella posts certain messages on Slack. Another common theme throughout the calls is Mason asking a question and after she answers he makes it known that he already knew the answer and also he asks specific personal questions that show that he has done his research on her.

Around this same time he also calls several other female participants that get similar, less personal, calls. @erisbonn gets a call from Mason that is more in line with his original contact with participants. First she is asked several questions about her experiences with Lust so far such as asking her if she follows them on social media. Then, he goes on to make more pop references to Taylor Swift and Katy Perry even creepily singing one of Taylor Swift's new songs. Finally, he gets into personal details talking about the specific henna that she uses and says that he bought some for himself and smells it to "calm me down, it's almost like you are here". The weirdest thing he asks is "would you mark yourself with my crest so our power could grow?" which participants are not sure how to take or what to really make of Mason at this point. To make matters weirder, a few days later he calls @daela with the complete opposite vibe she even describes his voice as high and pleasant even though previously people described his voice as deeper. Also, she did not get any of the same creepy comments that others have gotten leading participants to theorize that maybe they are dealing with multiple people portraying "Mason" or that there could be one Mason with multiple personalities.

## Joyce's Q&A

@kevin gets a phone call from Mason where he further pushes the point that this is not a game and says that no matter how hard he tries to convince participants that it isn't a game they won't believe him. He also talks about how OSDM never gives a straight answer and that maybe it is time for them to start answering some questions. Because of this, @kevin suggests that Joyce host a Q&A and she agrees to this and asks everyone to send in their questions.

On 9/1/17 Joyce goes live on Facebook for the Q&A and during the stream Mason and Michelle break into her apartment and she is beaten and taken hostage by Mason. Later that night @bcbishop gets a call from Joyce who he reports sounds badly hurt and is with Mason who screams at her to wish @bcbishop a happy birthday which rattles him and everyone else in the community who now sees Mason as a much larger threat rather than just a creepy man with too much research.

## The Briarberg Meeting

On 9/5/17 Jaime Botkin emails several participants to set up a meeting where she claims to want to talk about their experiences with The Tension Experience. A lot of participants are surprised by this because they thought this institute may have been made up by Mason but having a meeting scheduled by another person from the institute helps to validate its existence. On 9/7/17 The Briarberg Meeting takes place.

## Joyce's Goodbye

Joyce posts on the forum because Mason forces her to entitled "Are you happy?" and essentially blames everyone for being "just pieces that wind the clock" continuing the same metaphor as when she first appeared on the forums. Given the idea that it is the community's energy, participation and decisions that drive what happens this notion that they could be to blame for these events on top of the state that we see Joyce in hits hard for some participants who wish to save her (Read the full goodbye here). Mason calls @bcbishop telling him he has one chance to save Joyce and he sends @thebuz to the address he is given since he is out of town. Nothing really comes of this when he shows up at the location and it seems Mason may have just been toying with those that really wanted an opportunity to save Joyce.

@chelsea gets asked to go on a date with Mason and during the date we find out that Mason has a daughter and that her mother is in the OSDM and that she still has nightmares from this but he was able to get her out. Mason says to her "What’s real is the cult. This is not a game. Do you believe me, or are you going to post this? Have people say shit and ask oh is this in game or out of game?” she tells him that she believes him but she is going to post it anyway so that people can know the truth. He says he has to leave because something came up with his daughter and they walk to his car together. When they get there he opened his trunk and Joyce's body is in there presumably dead at this point. Participants start to understand the motivation behind Mason's actions knowing why he would be angry at the OSDM and they begin to speculate on who the Mother of his child could be.

## Mason Visits Minnesota

This event is very surprising because up until this point everything that has happened in person with the Experiences has happened in Los Angeles. @coryphella lives in Minnesota and in her previous phone calls with Mason he mentioned that he had driven by her house recently and she chalked it up to him just saying that because she did not fully believe that he was in Minnesota. However, at the end of this Chapter he goes live on Facebook outside of her house and she goes missing from the forum for 24 hours after this happens leaving participants very worried about what happened to her. During the live stream he reveals that Joyce was his ex and that they had a daughter together but that daughter is going to need a new mommy and it seems to explain his focus on female participants and his obsession with @coryphella that culminated in him showing up in another state.