Aziz Ainsworth

## Background

Aziz Ainsworth (also professionally referred to as *Operative Agent Aziz Ainsworth*) was an investigative agent mentioned in Simulacra: Pipe Dreams. He is affiliated with the organization known as Gateway 31, in which he was commissioned to investigate incidents of possible Simulacrum encounters, and the process was overseen by IRIS' Oversight Officer who was referred to as "Ms. Moolman" (the same woman who separately conducted an interrogation of Ainsworth, who at the time, had mysteriously been using a pseudoname called "Reyes".

He is mentioned multiple times, including:

* Interrogation (testimony) log, which will be sent to your e-mail when visiting "pathofdecay.web", and pressing down on the face of the first picture that comes up for about 30 seconds. At the same time, it will show you a Boxdrop code (briefly), which is **Zu4G3b**. He went by "Reyes" in this e-mail, as mentioned above.
* The experiment log (in which he wrote himself), which you can obtain by plugging the above code into Boxdrop.

## Investigation of Simulacra

Much like the player character in the first Simulacra game, Aziz was humbly tasked with trying to lure a Simulacra 'entity' (as he called it) through Spark in order to find, observe, and manage these entities in accordance with his organization's view of the common good. His initially-discouraging efforts yielded no information or possible leads, and he went through every female's profile without noticing anything out of the ordinary. That is, until he eventually found himself matched on Spark with a young girl named Tai.

Aziz began to notice fairly quickly that Tai's actions and behavior seemed to follow an increasing pattern of behavior similar to that of a Simulacrum (what he said was at first, charming; and later on, she bombarded him with constant texts about meeting up). At the same time, he began to occasionally hear strange, low-pitched uintelligible voices when he was in his apartment. Aziz knew that this was a hallmark trait of Simulacra entities, and he realized that he had finally found his target through Tai, as she was the perfect sacrifice (considering her backstory with multiple broken, and possibly one-sided, relationships with men; a trait that most Simulacra victims share). With that, he stated that he encouraged her to unwittingly lure the Simulacra over time under the guise of wanting to help her find true love again, to which she gladly obliged. Aziz then made the fateful decision to meet up with her in person, hoping to be able to gain her complete trust. This was a sign that the Simulacra had begun to envelop Aziz and warp his decision-making capabilities to allow him to carry out their plans, instead.

As the days wore on after meeting Tai, the voice Ainsworth had been hearing at his home quickly grew louder and more difficult to ignore, and it didn't take long until it became absolutely maddening and unbearable. Aziz found himself feeling extremely paranoid, and was totally unable to sleep as a result of what was going on (which exacerbated the paranoia he was suffering in the first place). He outright refused to leave his apartment for 3 days. He reported experiencing severe psychotic breaks and hallucinations at this point, as well. Ainsworth couldn't take it anymore, and he begged his superiors to abort the mission and close the investigation immediately. He was in fear of losing his life, and frantically called his team for full backup at his apartment.

The fact that, like most others, Ainsworth had been using what he thought was fullproof behavior analysis and prediction in order to attempt to lure the afflicting Simulacrum into a trap. However, his plan ultimately backfired and eventually turned out to be his own bane. Aziz believed that he was in complete control of the situation, and that he could easily take the entity down. Unfortunately, to his dismay, he soon began to realize that the Simulacra was more complex than he, or anyone else, could have ever imagined. No matter what he did or what protocol his superiors suggested he try out next, there was nothing they could do to stop it. At this point, he was officially in over his head (as were his co-operants), and was now powerless to stop or alter his fate.

The entity was self-evolving; knowingly manipulating his (and anyone else's) actions in order to guide Aziz to sacrifice another 'worm' (and then, sadly, himself as well), which continues the never-ending cycle of finding new victims to assimilate and physically eradicate to create what they felt would be a pristine hyperreal existence. One that remains free from failure or negativity, and also from all natural human error.

## Disappearance and Fate

Ainsworth had been progressively sucked in to the Simulacrum's grasp over time, and his story eventually comes to a head when he physically interacted with the Simulacrum in his apartment:

As mentioned above, ater locking himself in for days on end, Aziz had begun logging uncanny information stating that he had seen the face of the Simulacrum, and that he finally made the startling realization that there was no escaping his fate. This is the point where he called to abort the investigation. As a result, backup would soon arrive at his apartment, and it is implied that this was the last straw for the Simulacrum, and the supernatural force had no choice but to take immediate drastic action.

The last two logs occurred after this event, where his mindset looks to change completely, almost ominously--out of nowhere, he is suddenly calm and collected, and according to him, everything "was okay". He was still aware that an officer was coming to get him, but he didn't really know how to feel about the situation, and seemed to feel as though he had worried his co-workers for nothing and that the officer was wasting his time, as it was no longer a big deal. This was the last time anyone had heard from him. From that point on, he was indefinitely MIA.

It appeared that Gateway 31 personnel had commissioned Ainsworth for this investigation with full knowledge and deliberate intent that in this situation, he was simply seen as mere 'bait', and therefore, also knew that they would inevitably be using him as a sacrifice only to further their own investigation since its inception.