A Night at the Theatre

Nicole Taylor

The theatre club that Patricia and Nicole joined a while back, as a distraction from their daily jobs, has performed the play they have been preparing, a portrayal of The Importance of Being Earnest. They've performed it well enough, in fact, to be invited to perform the play in Ghent during the Landjuweel, a yearly competition for amateur theatre groups.

For the free seats they are allotted - 3 each - they invite their direct colleagues - Salisbury, Sofie, Matrim, May and Levi. For some inexplicable reason, Patricia also invites her old math teacher, mr Branson. She claims it is for old times sake. To her surprise, and the annoyance of many, he accepts the invite. As a result, all Time procedures are banned in the Benelux region for the week. Nicole also invites Senex, who, hearing the other invitees, wisely declines.

As part of the festivities, the pair, along with two of the guests, is also invited to a dinner and a show the day prior to the performance. Arriving early, they scout the location during lunch, finding no irregularities and catching up on things. The food is excellent.

That evening, Patricia and Nicole, along with Franklin and Sofie, attend the dinner. The first half is pleasant - Patricia and Jane join the rest of the theatre club and discuss their next project.

Not long after Alfred Stur, the director of the play to be performed that night, appears with Tara, the play's star. The team senses something odd about this Alfred, however - a androgynous figure, clad in all yellow. As he speaks of the play to be performed ("The Repairer of Reputations"), the team attempts to scan the figure to see if anything is wrong - only for the scans to turn up blank. Something is blocking their attempts at Enlightened Science - and blocking it well.

Turning to alternative methods of information gathering, Jane looks into the companion, Tara. Tara, as it turns out, is a young actor who vanished around a year and a half ago. Nicole patches in Vichoidius to start a library search on Alfred. Salisbury, meanwhile, decides to do a decidely more aggressive scan on the mysterious individual - one that spikes hard enough in DimSci to fry his glasses.

The latter in particular catches some attention, and Alfred soon strikes up a conversation with Salisbury. Mostly talking about how excited he is about his play, Alfred casually mentions how he "recruited" Tara after she was the only one to perform his play without going insane - thus allowing her to perform it over and over again. He invites Jane and Salisbury to sit with him - not yet having identified Taylor as belonging to them - and discuss the matter further.

Taylor, meanwhile, cross-references the data with the library on EDE entries, finding that the signs point to a mythical entity called Hastur - a very *powerful* mythical entitiy (or, as she hopes, an aspect thereof). Relaying this information, Salisbury blurts out the name - only for Alfred to confirm nonchalantly that that is indeed his normal identity. As Salisbury turns in a request for duodecuple hazard pay, Nicole puts the construct on red alert, and puts the IDC team to pinpointing the exact time and place of Hastur's arrival. As soon as VI-choidius learns the name of the threat, he uninstalls himselfs from Nicole's phone. Patricia, meanwhile, phones Wrinkle - who tells her that, since this is not a Time-related issue, he cannot intervene. Shortly after, Taylor sends everyone an invite to a strategy session, to which Hastur promptly invites himself, asking Taylor to join them at the table as well.

The team having taken no overtly hostile action, Hastur seemed unconcerned with them, and soon after dinner they were able to extract themselves to a safe location, for a pre-strategy-meeting-meeting. Franklin called Senex for advice - having extracted the phone number from Taylor's phone (confusing Taylor, as the "phone number" was in fact a Correspondance/DimSci procedure). Being now doubly glad not to show up, Senex could provide no direct assistance, however, although he would let the local Euthanatos know (mostly so they could flee). Senex also intecepts Jane's request for a fast, safe retreat for Charlotte, whom she had brought along to Ghent.

Meanwhile, two strategies are fleshed out. Plan A is to go on the offensive. With the immediate resources available, they calculate they could likely take Hastur down - along with most of Belgium. The only alternative for now is containment - keep him on cordial terms, while nullifying any effects the play might have on the local populace.

While having the construct prepare for the former as a contingency, the team moves to the latter. Salisbury promptly looks up Hastur, trying to convince him of the benefits of giving Tara better employment terms - more free time and vacations will, after all, improve her morale, allowing her to perform better. Hastur is soon swayed by the promise of better performances. Nicole, meanwhile, receives the IDC's analysis - Hastur's arrival to Earth was in Januari 2017, coinciding with the initial Threat Null incursion the team faced. Taylor notes that that means this ís a Time-related incident, so Jane can call Wrinkle back. Doing so, Wrinkle notes that he still can't take direct action as long as she doesn't do anything major, he still talks to her to make her promise to not do anything too bad for humanity either.

While that provides the team with some relief, they still wanted to ensure that the evening's play would not have any "minor" effects, like mass insanity. They had already requisitioned the use of two local Qi la Machinae in Prime Suppresion Mode, and positioned them in the city, focused on the theatre.

As it turned out, this proved very succesful - not just for the team (readings showed that all mental effects present were succesfully suppressed), but for Hastur as well. With the mind-effecting effects suppressed, the patrons were, for the first time, able to appreciate the play without the stress that induced. And, as it turns out, the patrons really appreciate the play. So much, in fact, that Hastur proceeded to ask if they could take similar measures to affect his future plays - giving the team the future schedule for his performances.

The lesser crisis thus averted, Nicole and Patricia can, after a well-deserved night's sleep, dedicate themselves to the true issue at hand - performing The Importance of Being Earnest. Nicole, performing in the first act as Gwendoline, turns out to still be moderately stressed, but performing adequately. Patricia, playing Cecily in the second part, started out strong, even without using enlightened procedures to enhance their performance. The third act, however, is where both shine, in a masterful interplay between the two budding actors.

The day's real crisis thus succesfully concluded, the team goes to mingle with the audience. All are sufficiently impressed (having previously been repeatedly told to expect *amateur* theatre), Hastur even offering them employment, which is politely, but very promptly, denied. As a parting gift, even, both receive an original edition of the full *The King in Yellow* - which is hurridly put in very secure storage and transported to the vaults. Patricia is very curious and has put in a request for further investigation. Coworker Matrim, who was blissfully unaware of who he has been flirting with, wants to further explore his budding relationship, but is politely informed by Patricia of the reason why this is a horrible idea.

### Classification of Entity

Designation: EDE-E.E.B.2017-08-000452

Type: EDE (Deep Umbral)

Threat Classifications: Severe, Mental, Contained

Colloquial names/aliases: Alfred Stur, Hastur

After careful examination of the data collected, and cross-referencing with existing intelligence, the entity EDE-E.E.B.2017-08-000452, hereafter refered to as "subject", is classified as a Deep Umbral EDE. Subject is dangerous, but contained. Further tracking and containment through covert means is highly indicated.

The origin of subject appears to be that of a manifestation, through the Enlightened Anthropic Principle, of the idea of the entity "Hastur" as present among the masses and identified throughout history, rather than a specific such entity. Subject was able to then manifest in true reality due to interference in subdimensional fields after actions by unrelated Reality Deviants. Indications for this hypothesis are:

* No past encounters with the entity "Hastur", or any entities related to it in mythos, have been reported.
* Subject entered physical reality during documented strong deviant event.
* Subject appeared in behavior to be one of a specific aspect of the mythical entity.
* Readings presented in appendix A point to extra-dimensional origin of subject.
* Subject proved susceptible to audiovisual coersion.
* Subject was present in prime reality for a number of years without catastropic incident.
* I want to be able to sleep at night.