OOC: Upstaged Communications Q&A

Hi there! My name's Mia Bright. I'm the creator of Upstaged Communications. Now that it's been a week since it concluded, I've gathered some of the most commonly asked questions, and answered all of them. Warning, though: this is a bit long.

1. How did this series come about?

A: The series was conceived in September 2018. At the time, I found some stories about television stations that had something wrong with them, and fell in love with the idea. I also already had an appreciation of cosmic horror, so I decided to merge the two ideas, and came up with the initial idea: a broadcasting company harnessing the corpse of a cosmic deity accidentally reanimates it. The final idea is very different from this initial version, but that was the original idea.

This wasn't originally intended to be a series. My first idea was to write a screenplay and try to shop it around. Unfortunately, this was unrealistic for multiple reasons, and there was an issue surrounding another project of mine. I had an ARG idea earlier in 2018, unrelated to this story, and was beginning to work on it; however, I realized after a couple months that I had no way of pulling it off. The idea was great, but I lacked the necessary experience and skill to make anything good out of it. That gave me the idea to turn this movie idea into an ARG, which would give me the time to practice and hone the skills required for the project, with me working on the original ARG idea once this was completed.

I spent a few weeks planning a new version, and a number of significant details changed. It morphed into the series that exists today. I started it in late October of 2018, and things progressed from there.

2. What were your inspirations for creating the series?

A: The biggest inspirations were the movie Videodrome, and the ARG ECKVA Network. I won’t describe either in detail here, but I highly recommend you check both out; they both feature broadcasting companies that begin to peddle with forces out of their control. Both proved inspirational for different aspects of both the original idea and what the series ended up becoming. I also took some thematic inspiration from the HBO show Westworld.

A less direct inspiration came about while I was rewriting the presentation of the story, which happened at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021. That was when a lot of series began to rip-off a well known ARG called Local58. I have nothing against the series; it’s well made, and I respect what the creator does with it. However, it’s not my favorite thing in the world, and the ARG sphere began to look more and more like a soulless copy of Local58. There were some good ones, but the vast majority were not. I was frustrated at ARGs and analogue horror specifically for going down that route, so I wanted to make this to play with similar ideas, while doing something completely different with the presentation.

3. Why all the connections to theatre, with things like stage directions, the audience, etc.?

A: It’s interesting when characters know they have limited control. Watching them adapt to their circumstances and think of ways out is fascinating to explore, for me. For Upstaged Communications, I knew that I wanted the characters to be aware of being trapped in a story they only had partial control over, and I decided to show this dynamic through a comparison to theatre. The characters were performers on a stage they didn’t pick, acting out a story they didn’t write, forced to adapt to scenarios forced upon them by the playwrights: Edward and the Signal. And even the playwrights were subject to the whims of the ones who held the power to decide their reality, which was the audience. After all, you need the audience to watch the show if you want to tell your story.

4. How many people worked on this?

A: Just one! Some stock photos and sound effects were used, but I did all the writing, editing, production, all of that.

5. What stuff did you use to make this?

A: I used Vegas Pro 18 for putting the videos together, and a mix of Krita, Artbreeder, Photomosh, and Photoshop for all the visuals. I made the Marionettes UI and pages in Krita off of a base template I came up with at 4 in the morning years ago, used Artbreeder to create the character portraits, used Photomosh to mess them all up for the receiver portraits and distort the various things that got distorted, and did some touching up on them in Photoshop. For the backgrounds in the Event Simulator, I took public domain images from Pexels. The music was all created by me using a mixture of Bfxr, a $50 bass I got off of ebay, and audacity. I used melobytes to generate some of the music, but I usually edited it significantly to make sure it wasn’t literally painful to listen to, and used the things I mentioned to beef it up a little. 

6. What was with the break between 2018 and 2020, and the break between 2020 and 2021? Why did you kick things into gear properly in 2021?

A: After I made the initial posts in 2018, my personal life got in the way, and forced me to stop production pretty much immediately after I started. That kind of bummed me out, so I put it on the backburner for a while, choosing to tinker with the story behind the scenes while working on other projects.

All my tinkering resulted in a story that was too convoluted, so I ended up scrapping about a year and a half of plotting to return to my original plan, which is what the return in 2020 was; specifically, the “An explanation” blog post. That was me committing to the original story, instead of risking ruining it by making it too complicated. It was already complicated enough as is.

Despite committing to the original story, I was still unmotivated to work on it, so I put it back on the backburner for a couple months. The presentation I had in mind would have involved lots more time and money than I was able to afford. Then, in either October or November 2020 (I don’t remember which) I decided to hunker down, and work on it. I spent the next several months extrapolating my idea in detail, based on the original plan I had, while reworking how I’d present all the video elements, and pushing a lot of the things originally planned to be filmed to writing. Things moved slow due to other projects, personal matters, and covid, but by the time May rolled around, I was prepared to finally dive into Upstaged Communications, with fully written out plans that accounted for every likely possibility.

7. What were the other possibilities for how the story could’ve gone?

A: This is a longer answer. I’m also roping in other questions that all boil down to this point, like how much influence the players had on the story, whether sending emails or leaving comments changed anything, etc.

The short answer is that communicating with Penelope was how you changed the story, while communicating with Edward was how you gathered information to present to her. There were a lot of minor points where things were flexible, but all of it ended up resting on two main turning points, which in turn would inform how the story would’ve proceeded. They were the video Upstaged, and the video Cutting Strings. I’ll describe the three possible endings and how these turning points dictated them.

The first possibility was the worst case scenario. This is what would’ve happened if nobody interacted with the story at all, or chose to focus on things so out of left field and unimportant that it essentially distracted Penelope. In this scenario, she would’ve remained stagnant after the events in Encore!, leaving her extremely paranoid. This would’ve meant that the events of Upstaged wouldn't have happened, as she wouldn’t believe the fake Riley. This would’ve triggered an event that revealed the fake Riley, with the real one reaching out to Penelope. However, Penelope also wouldn’t trust the real Riley, and wouldn’t have downloaded her letter.

This would’ve majorly disrupted Edward’s (and Riley’s) plans. Edward would still attempt to complete Project Assembly Line, but it wouldn’t have been possible through writing. Instead, he would’ve slipped hijacked broadcasts through Marionettes. It would’ve been his counter to the Amygdala Simulations, called Hippocampus Restorations. They would’ve been a lot more vague, and wouldn’t have worked. Penelope would download the second letter after the Hippocampus Restoration videos, but would have ignored its contents, letting the Signal retain control of Marionettes. Cutting Strings would've been different as a result, and renamed to Marionettes Strings.

Edward still would’ve tried his plan, though, as it was the only thing he could do. Event Simulator would’ve been created, but this time by the Signal, so it could chisel Edward’s extermination into history. Events would progress similarly to Bitter, Sorrow, and One By One. In the finale, however, Penelope would not go to Station 85. Nashiko would’ve brutally killed Edward; Riley, however, would’ve been unable to kill Nashiko in time. After all, she had nothing to live for anymore; her plan wouldn't work. The two would’ve ended up killing each other instead of Riley proving victorious. That would leave everyone dead except for Penelope, who would’ve had to live with her actions resulting in the death of everyone involved. The Signal would slip into inactivity, but it would still be alive, waiting in the building for some unlucky person to wander in. It’s the worst of both worlds--almost everyone’s dead, and the Signal lives.

The second possibility is what I expected. This would’ve happened if people interacted with the story, but didn’t note the specifics of how Riley was interacting with Penelope--specifically, reaching through the glitches. If people managed to prevent the events of Upstaged while Penelope wasn’t on high paranoia mode, there would’ve been some clarification from the real Riley that informs Penelope of her talking through the glitches, which would’ve allowed Cutting Strings to happen the way it did, which would’ve led to the best possible ending. I’ll get to that after this. If Upstaged wasn’t prevented and nobody pointed out the glitches thing to Penelope, though, things would’ve proceeded roughly the same as what actually happened until Cutting Strings.

In Cutting Strings, Penelope wouldn’t quite understand what she was doing, and would’ve gotten distracted. This means that she would’ve failed at the last moment: Riley’s segment in the Marionette’s Grave page. This would result in the Signal using the system to shove her to a downward spiral, and she would’ve fully succumbed to the Signal again, becoming an active transmission tower. Edward would, however, pick up where Penelope left off, and finish the task of bringing Marionettes back under his control. He would then run the channel and blog, while Penelope was asleep.

From there, Bitter, Sorrow, and One By One would’ve been roughly the same, except Riley would be more desperate. During Showtime!, Penelope would still go to Station 85, while Edward and Riley have to rush to end Nashiko. After all, if Penelope arrived while Nashiko was an active transmission tower, it would’ve had the unlimited spread it wanted. That would’ve made it powerful enough to poison the rain again, instead of relying on the pendant.

They’d find her in the basement, in front of the Signal’s television, and fight. Nashiko would’ve violently killed Edward, while Riley would shoot Nashiko. At that moment, Penelope would arrive to the station, and would’ve looked for Riley. Thinking of the ace up her sleeve, she would’ve waited by the television, where Penelope would find her. Riley would attempt to reason with her, saying that she can bring both of them a better ending, but Penelope wouldn’t listen, being too far gone in the Signal’s delusions and dreams. The two would’ve fought, with Penelope fatally wounding Riley by stabbing her in the heart; however, Riley would’ve been able to shoot Penelope before she died. Then, with her dying breath, she would’ve turned around and shot the television, killing the Signal as it gloated over her failure.

Riley would then die. The last slips of her consciousness would be brought forth before the audience, and the conversation would’ve been similar at first, with Riley convincing the audience to cement the Signal’s end. This time, however, she would say that it was a satisfying ending that left no loose ends. The audience would’ve accepted this, and the fate of her consciousness would remain unclear. Marionettes would decay, ending the series. In the end, the Signal would’ve been dead, but everyone else would have died. There would also be next to no information given out about the audience.

The best ending is close to what happened. I had expected the previous ending to be what happened, because Upstaged wasn't stopped. This meant that Riley never had a chance to directly tell Penelope about communicating through the errors, and that meant she should’ve failed at Cutting Strings. However, a player actually figured this out independently, and informed Penelope of this. It wasn’t something I expected--I thought that, at best, it would’ve required a whole email exchange with Edward--but it redirected the story back to the best possible ending. Penelope freed herself, the Signal died, Penelope and Riley survived, and the audience was explained. Indirectly, at least.

That was what audience participation dictated. In the end, the best ending was found.

8. Did you have any unused or unfinished things from the production?

A: Not a whole lot, but I have some. I’ll link an imgur album below with everything in it, and explanations for why they were unused.

9. What was the hardest part of making this?

A: Figuring out the formatting for the final five episodes. Before the rework of 2020/2021, I wanted them to be live action, found footage episodes from the perspective of the character’s eyes, with actual actors doing what was described in the final videos. That wasn’t possible, so I had to figure out a way to tell the same story in video format. I eventually settled on Event Simulator, where it was almost like watching someone else play a text adventure game. 

10. What’s your favorite episode?

A: Cutting Strings. I feel like it encapsulates the Marionettes side of the series perfectly, and is (in my opinion) much more visually engaging than the other Marionettes centric episodes. Upstaged was also fun for how different it was, being the only one to feature true live action footage. Also a fan of Amygdala Liberation.

11. What was your favorite blog post?

A: "The future that never was" is my favorite bit of writing in the entire series. I'm also a fan of Project Assembly Line 8: Edward Marion. Exploring the future that never was something I had to consciously limit myself on, since explaining too much of it wasn't a good idea, but it was fun to explore.

12. Who’s your favorite character?

A: Nashiko. I like characters that go through so much shit that they decide that they’re going to do something about it, no matter how destructive it might be. 

13. Is there anything you wish you could’ve done with the series?

A: Plenty of things. There was the plan for live action I mentioned earlier, as an example. The biggest thing, however, is that I wish I could’ve made a website that let you interface with Marionettes as it updated. Unfortunately, I lack any programming knowledge, and that’d be surprisingly expensive. As a result, it was all limited to the blog and videos. 

14. Are there any codes or puzzles that were left unsolved?

A: There are two secrets left. One is probably easy to find, but just hasn’t been pointed out in any place I can see it. It won’t give any new information; it was just about Penelope. The second has not been and never will be found. 

15. What was with the Upstaged splash screen that appeared in Marionettes: Hunger?

A: I received a couple direct questions about the story; what the Signal really is, what the audience is, whatever. I won't answer those, because I feel like the series already said what I wanted to say about them, but I'll answer just this one.

If you look at where it first appears in Marionettes: Hunger, it's right after the final words of Marionettes the system, telling Penelope to restart Project Assembly Line and contact Edward. After that, the words "TEETH AND BLOOD" appear over the system, then transform into red and black lines, or tendrils, that cover the entire thing.

After that, there's a glimpse of the audience and the Signal, before it fades to the broken, worn, decayed logo of Upstaged Communications. The idea I was attempting to show was that the tendrils of teeth and blood (aka the Signal) clamped down on Marionette's corpse and took control of it, which the Signal explicitly calls attention to in Amygdala Simulation 3. The appearance of the audience is their first direct appearance, so showing it with the Signal there showed whose story was now taking over.

I don't mean to get overly detailed with explaining what certain things meant, but I think doing so there was justified since I didn't see anyone understand it, and I got a specific request to explain it. If you don't understand anything else about the series, go back and read/watch it again. I'm sure it'll make more sense now that it's complete.

16. What are you working on next?

A: I have another series in the works called The Concrete Forest. It’s another ARG, but it is NOT in the same universe, and is found footage instead of… well, whatever the hell you’d call Upstaged Communications. It’s going to be bigger, bolder, and better than anything I’ve made yet. I’ll link the channel and a general progress thread below. I'm also working on a little thing called Signal Hijack, if you haven't noticed.

17. What is Signal Hijack?

A: Legacy breaker from the one most scorned by Edward Marion.

That’s all for today. Thank you for the questions, and thank you for watching! Here’s some links you should click:

Unused stuff for Upstaged Communications: https://imgur.com/a/hnIhPqm

The Concrete Forest channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK7YlEe0dOOL6VF3rkNBLPw

The Concrete Forest progress thread: https://twitter.com/HeartfulKitty/status/1415763542507237379?s=20 

My personal channel (I upload independent projects on it): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbEuRYk9dW45POZN5u6YD6Q

OOC ANNOUNCEMENT: Q&A

Upstaged Communications is now over. Thank you for watching, reading, and playing along. I hope you enjoyed it.

Now that the series is over, I'm going to be doing a post-series Q&A, which will be uploaded on the channel. If you have any question about the production, inspirations, development, etc. then send them my way. You can @ me on the discord, leave a comment on this blog post, or email upstagedmarionettes@gmail.com; I'll compile a list of questions, and create a video where I answer them, which should be released in 1-2 weeks.

You can ask any question you want, but please understand that I may not answer of the more spoilery, story-focused ones. I'd like the work to speak for itself as much as possible. If you're unsure as to whether I'll answer the question or not, then ask! The worst thing I'll do is not answer. 

Showtime!

- Executing FINALE protocol...

- Scheduling auto upload...

- FINALE protocol concluded

What happens when you die?

Video: https://youtu.be/FfpPeaGpXGU

Return

I've been thinking a lot lately. Thinking about everything that's happened to me. Everything that would happen to me, if I just... let this be. Walked away. I quickly realized I don't really have much to return to outside of this. 

I know what I have to do, now that the receivers are gone. Edward needs me back at Station 85. I'm going. However, when I was shown what happened to Wyatt, I saw something. Thanks to everyone pointing out the secrets left for me, I anticipated something, and was able to catch that one. It was from Riley. She told me not to enter the station before she finds me. I trust her, so I'm going to go there and wait outside, instead of going right in like Edward probably wants me to. 

It is time for me to leave. This will be the last you hear from me. Take care.

Act warning

I got another email from Edward. It's the last one he's sending.

The subject line is "Act warning" and it reads: "Are you ready?" 

I responded, asking him what to be ready for. I already know the answer; I just want to hear him say it.

It's showtime.

Event Simulator 3 - One By One

Video: https://youtu.be/VNTvU_lF49I

I wonder if Edward feels the pain the receivers do, too.

Grave

I got yet another email from Edward today.

The subject line is "Grave" and it reads: "What happens when you can't do what needs to be done?"

I sent a reply immediately, asking him what happened. I got the automated response:

It's the same except for under the dashes, which now reads: "One | In death, they raise the curtains"

I think there's one more after this. 

Time's been weird in Station 85. What I'm being shown seems to be running semi-concurrently to the rest of it, but I'm being informed of them about a week apart at a time. I wonder if something is stretching the time out. Maybe it's them, trying to make the show last for as long as possible. I don't think it's going to work.

I'm worried. I felt sharp pain in both of my eyes earlier, and it lasted for hours. It was unbearable. I'm going to check event simulator. 

Event Simulator 2 - Sorrow

Video: https://youtu.be/yGH9qEH_thg

I can feel the pain of each receiver when they die.

Desperation

Edward sent me another email today.

The subject line is "Desperation" and it reads: "What happens when all you care for is on the precipice of being taken away, leaving you with everything to lose?"

I replied, asking him what he was talking about, and I got an automated response.

Same as always, except for the bottom part, below the dashes. It now reads: "Two | Their stories were cut short, so now they seek another"

It went from four, to three, to two. I'm going to check Event Simulator again.

Event Simulator 1 - Bitter

Video: https://youtu.be/MYZQewJZpLQ

Yesterday, I felt a sudden, sharp pain in my jaw and neck.

Spite

Edward sent me an email today.

It's a short one. The subject is "Spite" and it reads: "What happens when all you once had is taken away, leaving you with nothing to lose?"

I replied, asking who he was talking about, and I got the auto response.

It's the same, except for the bottom part, under the dashes. That reads: "Three | Endless eyes are watching from the sky"

I wonder what the three is referring to.

I'm going to check Event Simulator. I think something happened. 

Discord

[INFORMATION OUTDATED]

Some people who have been watching this unfold have made a discord server to discuss it all. I'm not interested in joining, but I've been informed that Edward keeps an eye on it, and sometimes talks. I assume he wants his version of the story to be told. 

Here's the link if you want to join it: [REDACTED]

Amygdala Liberation

Video: https://youtu.be/yoepI3Qty6A

I'm free.

Just one more thing is needed from me. I think I have to wait for Nashiko, Wyatt, and Riley to finish their parts first, though.

Marionettes update

I got another email from Edward today. Unprompted, but I was expecting it.

The subject line is "Marionettes update" and it reads:

"FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Upstaged Communications is proud to announce a new program available to all employees through Marionettes: Event Simulator. The existing AI of Marionettes has been upgraded, allowing it to not only monitor stations and determine their status, but also simulate events that have taken place within them, and to any employees, so that they may be displayed and preserved. These simulations are almost entirely accurate approximations of events that have transpired, utilizing Marionette's complex AI and advanced data gathering capabilities to paint a more complete picture of our world than ever before.

Use this to see.

Edward Marion

Upstaged Communications HR, Marionettes Admin

Dpt. 85

-------- -----

The window is quiet"

I replied immediately, asking him how I can access this event simulator. I got an automated response:

It's the same as it always is, except for two changes: he now has Marionettes Admin there, and below the lines, it just says "Four". 

I don't know what the number is referring to.

Something happened earlier. I think I'll use event simulator to view it. 

The future that never was

I received an email from Edward today. Unprompted.

It's another story from Edward. It reads:

"In the future that never was, I watched as it began to rain. It spilled like tears onto the ground, the sky crying from the horror it was forced to bring to the world. The rain pierced the minds of all it could reach, toxic well water it had created now evaporated into the sky to infect the ones below. Toxic well water composed of lies it whispered so truthfully. Everyone was turned, slowly, as the rain melted away their sense of self, and eventually their life. Nothing was left behind but empty shells, devoid of any humanity, ready to be puppeteered by the one anathema to nature.

Survivors locked their doors and boarded up their windows, desperate to escape the rain. The storm. But as the days went by, they heard a tapping against their windows. Incessant, endless tapping. It quickly started to drive people mad, as nothing could block it out. It doesn't matter how deep into silence they tried to dive; the tapping always wormed its way in. No way to block it out, people began to give up. They opened the doors, and walked into the rain, where they were welcomed into the cold, murderous arms of its storm. All fell in time. Then a deal was struck, and the sun was finally able to shine through.

Do you hear it tapping against your window?"

When I saw that Edward emailed me, the contents of what he said were secondary to my concern for his and the other's safety. As such, I just skimmed what he sent, and frantically emailed him back, asking if he was safe to send that to me, what was going on in there, and if he was okay.

I got the automated response.

The message at the bottom changed. It now reads:

"Upstaged Communications is aware of the continued issues surrounding Marionettes. We will focus on repairing it and installing necessary updates as soon as possible. All necessary changes for the futu[/////]

Do you fear its storm"

It seems that Edward is trying to repair Marionettes. 

I've been putting off what I need to do. Honestly, I'm still scared. Scared that this will somehow all backfire, and I'll end up ruining everything. Like I apparently did before. I know what he's telling me, though. I know what to do.

Cutting Strings

Video: https://youtu.be/0tMPfX0znls

I did it. Control's been given back to Edward. The Signal is saying we'll all be dead in less than a year. I won't let that happen. 

I know what I need to do next.

Letter from Riley 2

I wasn't expecting anything more, but I got another download request from Marionettes today.

It's called "letter(1).pdf" and it's only a page long. It's another letter from Riley.

This is what it said:

"Penelope,

Congrats on finishing the first part of this thing. I know it's painful to learn about your history, and the history of this entire thing, but you did it. The first step's done.

The next step is to free your amygdala. Like Edward said, to do that, you need to face your fears, and wrest control away from it. Prove it has no control over you. First, you have to help retake Marionettes. You're afraid of messing up again, and giving it more control, so you have to do it right this time. It's also important if any of us are gonna survive. No pressure or anything. 

In the next 24 hours, I'm going to go into the Marionette's central server room, and I'm going to try to just mess it up. It should lead to a chain of errors, which you can use to enter the pages the Signal normally wouldn't want you to get into. Fun little exploit, isn't it? It should eventually bring you to the admin control page, where you can switch ownership back to Edward.

The Signal is probably going to try to use Marionettes to stop you. Distract you. Don't focus on the distractions. That's how it was able to get out in the first place. Focus on fixing things. After that, Marionettes will be retaken, which is important for everyone's future, and the first step in freeing your amygdala.

You know what to do after this. I'll contact you again when I can. 

     - Riley"

Just to verify what Riley was saying, I emailed Edward, asking him what I should do next. I got an automated response:

It's the same, except for the bottom part, which reads: "Next is cutting strings of control"

It's almost creepy how he always seems to know what I'm going to ask. 

I'll be sitting here, waiting for it to start. I'm guessing I'll see an error prompt when it happens. 

It was mentioned before that Riley seems to be reaching through the errors. That matches what the exploit is, which gives users access to things they wouldn't normally be able to access with the errors. I'll focus on those. Anything else might be a distraction from the Signal. 

I won't let myself get distracted by anything I see. I have to do this. I have to.

Amygdala Simulation 8 - Audience (UPDATE 2)

More things were found in the latest Amygdala Simulation.

First:

I knew that there was more to the message. I assume that "I know how to find them" and "SEE THEM" is the secret that Riley mentioned. 

There was also this observation pointed out:

I assume Riley's interruptions and whatnot are coming through the exploit I found, which means causing errors. That might explain why things seem to break down whenever Riley attempts to reach out. 

I have a lot to think about. And something I'm waiting for. 

Amygdala Simulation 8 - Audience (UPDATE)

Some things I missed in the latest Amygdala Simulation were pointed out to me. 

First, there's this:

That's talking about the part with Riley's face, I believe. I did not realize that was a code. 

There's also a second thing, which is:

I'm guessing it's related to her saying "DO NOT GIVE IN" and "I HAVE A SECRET." It almost feels like an incomplete message; like there's supposed to be something more there, which explains it. Probably not in its entirety, but something to at least give me a baseline. I guess I'll see what she means at some point. 

After seeing those things mentioned, I had a hunch, and shot an email to Edward. I guessed he wasn't safe yet, but that maybe he'd be offer some sort of specific guidance or clarification, or at least an update on his situation. So I sent an email. Unfortunately, I got the same automated response as always; however, it had some things changed.

The bit under the dashes changed again. It reads:

"Rules are breaking

Chisel its extermination into history

Continue the next step in assembly line with instruction

Empties in past, shadows in present, whole in future, all trapped"

"Chisel its extermination into history" is from Project Assembly Line 8, but a little changed; in that, it said "chisel its extermination into permanence." I assume they mean the same thing. The third line seems to confirm that the first step of Project Assembly Line is completed, and says that I should continue it with instruction. I'm guessing I'm going to get something else from him or Riley, telling me what I specifically need to do next. I think I know, but it wouldn't be smart to take action until I know for sure.

Or maybe I'm just stalling until I'm forced to do it. If it's what I think I want to do, I really don't want to try, but if they say that I have to, then I will.

I don't understand the first or fourth lines, though. Maybe the first refers to the audience? After all, they apparently favor the Signal, but he seems confident in our abilities to end it. Not sure, though. And I've no idea what the last line means.

Time to wait and see.

Amygdala Simulation 8 - Audience

Video: https://youtu.be/lN0sjlxYH10

I saw the intrusion in the middle. It read: "I HAVE A SECRET - RILEY." I don't know what she means.

It doesn't matter who's favored here. I have to do my part. 

Project Assembly Line 8: Edward Marion

I got another download. I think it might be the final one of these.

It's called "pal8.pdf" and it's a file over Edward Marion. I think I know who's shadow that is.

This one is four and a half pages long. The cover page, then writing. This is what it said:

PROJECT ASSEMBLY LINE

SUBJECT #8: EDWARD MARION

Marionettes recreation of his last staff photo, circa [!error]

"NAME: EDWARD MARION

STATION: #85

POSITION: FOUNDER/MARIONETTES MASTER/HUMAN RESOURCES

When I awoke, I was laying in a room. Dark, outside of the dull glint of stars in the sky. The stars were wrong. Voices slithered out of the hole and surrounded me, chattering, curious as to why I ended up there, in front of them. Why was I special? What did I do to deserve this?

Nothing. I did nothing. That's what was so cruel, so terrible, so inhuman about it. Nothing created it. It just began, one day. Swimming between the broadcasts, slowly melding and shaping itself into what is known today. A signal of decay and control, living in the television. It took control. Awful deeds committed by its unwilling marionettes left a trail of destruction in its wake, until it propagated across the world. A sprawling, inorganic mass of perpetual disrepair and torment, wounds never given the chance to heal. This was the world I unwillingly helped created. The world it used me to create, while I was forced to sit in silence, unable to stop it. 

It controlled me, broke my body, but I was aware. I knew of all the horrible atrocities performed by my hands, forced to watch and feel as the planet slowly withered to ash. But there was nothing I could do. All that was left was for me to watch the show, as my heart and spirit shattered.

Maybe I was special because I was the first to see it. Or maybe it just happened that way, the same way it simply began one day. When it finished, when it achieved the perfect world it desired, it finally gave me up, leaving me alone in the ruins of what once was. With nothing left, I closed my eyes.

When I awoke, I was laying in a room. Dark, outside of the dull glint of their eyes in the sky. They were all wrong. Their voices slithered out of the opening and surrounded me, chattering, curious as to why I ended up here, in front of them. Why was I special? What did I do to deserve this? What would I do to earn this?

I offered them a new story. A story of heartache and loss, but of success, too. Of victory, in the end, after a long, arduous struggle. They were satisfied, won over by my tale, and sent me back to when it first began, before the world went wrong. Armed with the knowledge I now had and the restrictions they placed on its spread, I was able to contain it. Build a system that could contain it. Its story, its performance, was upstaged by my own. I was in control now.

But it was still alive. It was still awake. It was inevitable, really, that it would break free, tearing down the walls of my prison after it found a crack. An obvious exploit that I had somehow missed. All futures looked poisoned, tainted by its rain, tainted by the fear of what it could grow into, except for one. It had found a new tower to use, much the same way it used me in the shattered future, but it needed me, too. My deal with the watchful stars above ensured that. Since it was weakened, limited to the walls of my empire, maybe I could trap it in its new vessel, and force it to become dormant. To go to sleep, the same way I did when it had won. It thrived on its spread, so I'd remove all of it. All mention, all history, everything. Remove the experiences that kept it alive, and the corpses it had created and reanimated. I used my system to do so, and it worked. 

It worked.

It worked, until it didn't. Years waxed and waned, with me wasting away in the decayed remains of my plans, until 2016. That was when Riley saw Penelope. She wasn't supposed to; she didn't know why she needed to be kept apart from her love, but she agreed to my instructions, knowing that I knew best. 

And then they saw each other. Did Riley do it on purpose, disregarding my instructions? Did Penelope remember more than I thought, and seek Riley out? Did the endless stars watching me demand an encore, a better show? Or did it just happen, a coincidence none could have foreseen?

It doesn't matter now. In 2016, it awoke once more. I planned to bring Riley back, to tell her of its return, to search for a new, more permanent end. If my plan prior didn't last, we needed a new one. A better one. More thorough. I will never see that darkened room again, so I can't beg or bargain for a better future for us all.

She did not arrive. Years passed, and I was forced to look through the poisoned wells in the desert of possibility, until I found it, at the center of it all. One plan. One chance. One solution. A plan I once thought too horrible to consider, but one I'd now have to drink from. Erasing history didn't work, so I'd solidify its history, and chisel its extermination into permanence. Canonize its end. If they won't change the world again, then I will do it for them. There's only one thing to do. End the Signal by any means necessary.

It's okay. It is what we have to do. What I have to do. Penelope, this is the only ending where it takes its bow, and leaves the show. We'll do what we have to do.

Your hippocampus has been liberated. You remember, now, and know all you need to know. After this is your amygdala. What you need to do is face your fears, head on. I know you've been sitting in the same chair ever since it last tricked you, scared to even get up, lest you fall for its lies again, and help it. It uses your fear to control you. Break it. Do everything you can to prove it has no control over you. I know you can do this. One chance. One solution.

All will be well, Penelope. All will be calm. Be seeing you."

That's the end of the file.

He's right. I know all I need to know. I know what I have to do. I know what will happen if I fail. There's only one chance. One solution.

I know the audience is watching. 

Project Assembly Line 7: Penelope Adams

Riley sent me another download. I think there's only a couple left.

It's called "pal7.pdf" and is a file over me. Penelope. The download screen had the same kind of shadow thing as Nashiko and Wyatt. 

This one's eight pages long. There's the cover page, then 7 pages of text. Here's what it said:

PROJECT ASSEMBLY LINE

SUBJECT #7: PENELOPE ADAMS

Marionettes recreation of her last staff photo, circa March 26th, 2006.

"NAME: PENELOPE ADAMS

STATION: #85

POSITION: SERVER TECHNICIAN

Penelope Adams was hired on July 5th, 2003 to Station 85 of Upstaged Communications. She had graduated from university just a couple months prior, having gotten a bachelor's in computer science. She found the job listing just as she was starting her job search, and decided that she could apply. She was hired quickly.

Her job at Station 85 should have been simple enough. In concept, at least. On paper, she was hired to be a server technician, working to ensure the integrity of Marionettes, Upstaged's personal server network. She'd be responsible for running security scans, keeping it up-to-date, and performing regular maintenance if there were any bugs.

However, she wasn't allowed to do half of her job. She wasn't allowed to solve any problems she found. She would identify them, find cracks in the system, and report them to Edward Marion, who was the Marionettes manager. However, she wasn't allowed to attempt to fix anything, and she was not allowed any access to several pages, programs, and services in Marionettes. All she did was scan Marionettes, report when a certain page, archive item, connection, etc. was beginning to cause errors, and install whatever fix Edward managed to cook up. All the inner workings were coded and impossible to understand, leaving her entirely in the dark as to what was actually happening.

It frustrated her. She was hired as a technician, someone who was supposed to actually solve problems, but she was relegated to being a babysitter for a control freak's pet project. Half the things in the system appeared to do nothing at all, connecting to other things that did absolutely nothing, transmitting ungodly amounts of information that were complete gibberish. What was Edward thinking? What was Upstaged thinking, letting him do everything he did with Marionettes? Something had to be up. The company was hiding something. 

Penelope, when she thought she wasn't being watched, went searching. Rumors had begun to flitter around the company--weird items in the archive, strange intrusions that the company refused to address, evidence of the board planning something--and it was driving her mad. She tried her best to figure out what was going on, diving into both the central network and the archives to attempt to understand what was happening. Unfortunately, almost everything was either encoded or password protected, leaving her with only scraps. Scraps like a strange symbol of a dead tree, of improbably constructed music, of dull chatter she couldn't understand. Mention of something scary. Something called SIGNAL.

During one of her deep dives, she was discovered by a fellow employee. Riley Donnelly was already in a poor mood when she found Penelope, so she gave her an earful when she stumbled across her, yelling at her to stop, while informing her that she was going to tell Edward. All this did was further Penelope's curiosity; Riley evidently knew more than she did. What did Riley know? What were Edward and the company doing?

Edward warned Penelope against digging further, but it fell on deaf ears. Penelope began to pester Riley, and continued her search through the archives for any evidence of what was happening. Surprisingly, however, her efforts soon ceased, as she became focused on something else. On someone else. She realized that she and Riley lived close to one another, and that they both went to the same diner every day, for breakfast. This gave her the opportunity to talk to Riley more, outside of work.

Riley was initially pissed off, not wanting to entertain the curious technician from her job. Soon, however, something between the two clicked. They began to talk about the world outside of work--television, movies, music, books, all of their shared interests, of which there were quite a few. Penelope stopped talking to Riley about the mystery at Upstaged, becoming more invested in Riley, and Riley felt her original annoyance at this coworker melt away faster than she had expected. The two grew quite close.

One evening, Penelope invited Riley over to her apartment, so they could watch a movie together. One thing led to another, and the next morning, the two decided that they would be together. They couldn't talk of it to anyone else; after all, it was Indiana in 2006. But they had each other. Neither had seen much luck in life, with both being isolated from their families and having few friends, so it was nice to have someone else they could trust in wholly. 

Penelope's searching came to an end at Riley's insistence, telling her that it was too dangerous. Her curiosity burned within her, but she trusted Riley, and stopped. She buried whatever questions she had about the odd nature of her job and just did it, so that she could keep working with Riley. The two maintained a happy equilibrium until it happened.

On October 16th, 2006, Penelope and Riley were both nearing the end of their 12 hour shifts at the station, anxiously awaiting the time they could leave. Penelope was alone in the central server room, performing her standard scans of Marionettes, watching for any errors that might have popped up. As midnight drew closer, she was surprised when several errors appeared, all at the same time. It targeted multiple programs and connections, but there was one that caught her attention: a page named SIGNAL. She knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help herself. She loaded the page, expecting to see a password login or encoded nonsense, like she had when she found the page before, when it was functioning.

To her surprise, the page loaded. It should've been protected, but she had managed to find an exploit. She could access protected pages if it were through an error message. It was such an obvious exploit, but she had never tried it before. The screen, meanwhile, told her that the transmitter was inactive, and it was unable to see how many receivers there were.

There was a message at the bottom, written in red. It asked her, begged her, to keep looking, because it could show her what was happening. Whoever was talking was trapped, apparently, and they wanted to show her how to let them free.

Penelope's mind instantly jumped back to everything she had heard. The symbol, the music, the strange intrusions that Upstaged refused to address. Did they trap somebody? If so, she needed to get whoever it was out. She had to.

She followed the instructions written in red when it told her to go down a rabbit hole of pages. She saw a chat thread archive, a station monitor system, a room tracker, and finally a page simply named CLOSED. It had a single option: Open? Yes/No.

She picked yes as the clock struck midnight.

The next few seconds were a blur, impossible to fully comprehend. She heard music blaring from all the speakers in the room, then all the speakers in the station, as she felt something worm through her ear into her skull. She knew she shouldn't have been able to feel her brain, but it felt like something was worming around in the back of it. Although she didn't know how she knew, she knew it was implanting itself into her cerebellum, and wrapping itself around her hippocampus and amygdala. A sudden, extreme, insatiable hunger came over her, forcing her to double over in pain. The sensations, the music, the hunger... it was too much. She passed out. 

In her dream, she was on a blank path. Dead trees surrounded her on all sides, with a rusted metal fence falling apart, the wreckage lining the left and right. The sky was a dull grey, clouds of ash and dirt thrown up into the heavens, while she felt something inside of her. The hunger. She needed to eat. 

She wandered for what felt like days, but must've been only minutes. Along the path, she saw a shadow. A humanoid shadow, but just a shadow. Her conscious thought was suppressed by her instincts, and she lunged at it, trying desperately to quench the desert of famine inside her. The shadow fell, and she was able to consume it, tearing it to shreds with her nails and teeth as she tried to fill her empty stomach. It tempered her, but only for a moment. She was still hungry.

She kept searching in the dream, finding more and more, until she eventually began to feel herself grow full. She knew how many shadows there were on this path, and by the time she paused to catch her breath, she only counted seven. Seven shadows left.

The seven shadows were Thomas, Joshua, Lily, Nashiko, Wyatt, Riley, and Edward. The rest had been ended by the pendant, transformed into dead abominations of remembrance, the pendant spread from one to another like a virus every time Penelope devoured a shadow. Her body had remained trapped in the central server room, exhaustion winning the war over consciousness, but the Signal had still found a way to control her. To use her. To propagate its desires through the station. 

To escape the station, however, it would need Edward. Edward crafted its restrictions, and made sure that it would never see freedom without him. That it would never be able to bring the abominable future he had seen without him. 

It couldn't find him because he was clever, and was hiding within the fluctuations of Station 85. The Signal caused them, its trapped presence reflecting through the walls of the stations with increasing frequency, so he used its own presence against it. The other six remained hidden, detesting the unstable nature of the stations, until they could isolate a receiver, at which point they went to work.

Edward and his followers systematically slaughtered all the receivers, one by one, until there were none left. They destroyed the proof of the Signal's spread. Meanwhile, Riley amalgamated history together, tying all loose threads into a ratking of contemplation. When all the Signal's marionettes were ended, Edward grabbed the necessary information from Riley, retook Marionettes from the now-weakened Signal, and found Penelope in the server room. He fed her the product of the assembly line, and then used Marionettes to rewrite and erase it. 

If the Signal was to be stopped, it couldn't be left awake in her mind. If it was to become dormant, its history would have to be erased. Penelope's memories were altered, with all of the ones relating to the Signal deleted. Put in their stead were memories of simply finding an exploit in Marionettes, only to find that the company had been closed a few days later. Her memories had been changed by his system, and the end of its spread weighed down onto the Signal until it collapsed. It became dormant, loosening her hippocampus and amygdala, as Penelope was rewritten on midnight of the 20th. She was one of the eight that survived the events that began October 17th, 2006.

Just like Thomas, Joshua, Lily, Nashiko, Wyatt, and Riley, she was free once the Signal was trapped. She quickly forgot her old job, the only lingering disappointment being the sudden end of her relationship with Riley. She quickly moved on, not burdened by all the death and suffering the Signal had used her to cause. Meanwhile, the Signal was asleep within her, unable to start once again without something to kickstart it. 

Edward's plan worked until 2016. He had tried to separate Penelope from everyone she had known in order to prevent any risk of the Signal reawakening. However, for some strange reason, she felt a sudden compulsion to visit a place she hadn't been to for almost exactly a decade. A local diner that she went to with Riley. It had left her mind until that moment, and she decided to go.

When she arrived, she ordered her food, and ate. It wasn't anything special. Right as she was about to leave, however, she ran into someone in the entrance. She did not recognize who it was, but the person immediately lit up upon seeing her, asking her how she was, and even hugging her. Penelope felt rather awkward, and had a sudden, sharp pain in the back of her head. She informed the strange woman she had no idea who she was, and left. She had nightmares that night.

Years passed, until October 20th, 2018. On that day, she received a remote access key, which allowed her to access Marionettes. It was not sent by Edward. The Signal was now awake, and used its new receivers to send it to her, so that it could further its plan for freedom and propagation.

One chance. One solution."

That's the end of the file.

I've been writing this down because I don't want to forget again. Now, though, I wonder if that was really me who didn't want to forget, because I don't like knowing this. I don't like knowing any of this. At the same time, Edward knows what I'm doing, so I'm guessing he has a reason for allowing it. Maybe it's a part of his plan. 

There isn't a way out for Thomas, Joshua, or Lily. I feel sick. I've been holding in my stomach all morning, actually. It's been hard not to vomit over all of this. It's been hard to think about this. I just want to sleep forever. I can't, though. There's work to be done. 

Whatever it takes to end this, I'm doing it. I'm ready. 

I do want to know one thing, though. The thing said: "Edward crafted its restrictions, and made sure that it would never see freedom without him." How did he do that? What is his history with the Signal? Did he create it?