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The Mictian Project

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The Mictian Project is a government-funded research into astral and other psychic capabilities in Europe, with a single base sitting in Reykjavik, Britannia (specifically, the geographical section previously known as 'Iceland'), and scattered staff.

History

The Mictian Project was conceived early in 2049, initially a sub-project of The Theta Algorithm. Theta was (and still is) a general state-funded paranormal investigation, largely theoretical and decentralised, very rarely investigating paranormal claims and far more interested in pushing the scientific understanding of the human body toward what could be achieved given certain minor tweaks, itself ongoing since about 2035.

The new endeavour was spear-headed by Craig Fisher (pseudonym Argus), who's break-through came by asking the right questions in the right social circles, uncovering true psychics who knew nothing of their ability or deliberately ignored it as nonsensical in themselves, in stark contrast to the prevalence of con-artists in the open.

Their first serious subject was Peter Hudnall, whom they made astounding progress with and quickly split off as an experimental and practical branch of Theta into their own funded project.

With an old military outpost outside Reykjavik donated to them for their purposes (both at the time and now, still, far too large for them), Craig set out to gather an initial team as a social and skill infrastructure for their project:

  • Thomas Bennett, one of his Theta associates, and a null, was for both the benefit of his natural, innate ability to resist psychics as well as his decently assertive personality, chosen as the head of the project.
  • Gary Whelan (occasionally pseudonymed 'Seeker' in the project), friend of Thomas Bennett's, was chosen as a profiler given Peter's revelation of other, considerably more powerful psychics to assess their situation, as well as to be a group counsellor of sorts, which was deemed important given the subject matter explored by the project as a whole.
  • Estelle Young ('Greenstone'), an expert on the government informational infrastructure, as a 'secretary' (not that such a term would even begin to do her justice). Estelle was and still is in many ways a de-facto leader of the base - she has a lot of authority, but Bennett has the last word. (She's of the unabashed opinion that's solely because he's a null, which is largely true in a toss-up between her and Thomas. Nonetheless they get along very well.)
  • David Odell, an engineer and the scientific core of the project.

The team has grown since, largely to acquire a sizable team of security personnel, as well as scientific support for David. Of the original team, only Gary has ever left. It's worth nothing that Craig, due to his socialite nature, is rarely on the base.

The 3rd of May, 2050, thanks to Gary's guidance, the project came into possession of Ian Trafford (Dread), codenamed Mictian, given all their sources at the time pointed to that he was the most powerful psychic.

Until he escaped, Dread was the only detained psychic. The project entertains relationships with others, in fact doing most of their research on them, only pushing to Dread when those avenues have been exhausted. Other psychics turn up when summoned or on a daily basis like any other paying job. Dread's detachment from society thus turned out to be a curse for him as much as a blessing - Gary assessed there was nothing the project could offer him but it was comparatively trivial to trap him, a notion Ian himself has since confirmed repeatedly, thus does not begrudge them for.

Peter rarely frequents the project now and all his meet-ups with the project are online only (Peter comes from the area that used to be Croatia), through encrypted tunnels.

Dread was gently carved out of the project by their Dark Arcadian political contact, Francisco Ahlgren, but without consent from Bennett, which has permanently soured Bennett's and Ahlgren's relationship to one of mutual contempt, though both of them are professional enough not to let that grind the project to a shrieking halt.

Notable group dynamics

Bennett and Dread had a long-standing, slowly escalating feud that Gary presumed was because they live in mutually exclusive worlds - Bennett being the only person Dread has so far met that he cannot read, and Dread being completely removed from society's moral understanding in Bennett's eyes. Gary tried for the longest time to somewhat desperately smooth things out between them, but ultimately failed and turned to Francisco for more drastic measures.

Gary and Dread, meanwhile, are good friends after an initial massive hurdle. Rather than begrudge the man for trapping him, Dread loathed him for running away soon after, crushed by the guilt of responsibility. Since Gary's return, however, and his keen if wildly unusual understanding of how to deal with the psychic prodigy manifesting iself, Dread has gained a near-bottomless respect for the profiler, and easily considers him the only mutual friend in the base he currently has.

Facilities

The most notable facility available to the Mictian Project is a room designed specifically for psychic isolation. As Dread would attest, it is quite effective, much to his terror chagrin.

Characters

Activity

Newsletters and recaps

Sessions

Interludes

See also

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