Head Games

Bureau of Psionic Affairs Internal Report B7/408 Date: Redacted Author: Redacted

This document is compiled from the informal journal entries of Doctor Smith* during his work on the "Project Eleos" program, transcribed into text from audio files on the Doctor's computer. This document should only be viewed by agency personnel with Zeta-Level security clearance or higher. If you have read this memo without proper clearance, please report your error to your nearest superior and wait for a cleaner team to arrive for a standard mind wipe. If you refuse to submit to the process, you are liable to be detained, lobotomized or even demoted.


 * Subject's name has been altered to protect the identity of the agency personnel involved. If you are looking for the name of the individual, please contact your superior. If your request is approved, please wait up to two to three weeks for further details to relayed directly into your telepathic feed.

Please note that the agency officially refutes many of the claims made in this transcript, and denies any accusations of wrongdoing made by Doctor Smith. Also note that Doctor Smith is currently on administrative leave for gross misconduct.

Entry 01 - Patients Arrive
Ahem, am I coming in clear? Finally! The microphone on this cheap piece of junk was echoing horribly. I know I could probably just psi-scan the hard drive on this thing and find the problem but all that data is just gibberish to me. It's so frustrating.

Hello! My name is Doctor Maxwell [Smith]. I'm using this highly encrypted agency computer to record a personal diary of my current assignment. My colleagues keep making fun of my old tape recorder, and this isn't too complicated. I figured it was time for a change.

Today, I've been assigned as head on a project that could vastly alter the future of our mission. Several test subjects have been delivered into my care this morning. All of them are what the agency refers to as "Shriekers." The poor brutes were found homeless, wandering decrepit alleyways and rural backwoods screaming about hearing voices and seeing lasers shooting around everywhere. These poor souls have spent so much time unable to suppress, regulate or even understand their psychic abilities that they've been driven howling mad.

To put it bluntly, for any agency personnel who haven't been doing their homework, Shriekers are psychics, (empaths, telepaths, psychonauts, whatever you want to call them) who were never properly trained to use their abilities or even given an explanation about what they were. As such, their bizarre powers ruined their personal relationships and caused chaos wherever they went. They end up going violently insane. Unable to care for themselves, many of them become homeless.

For the longest time, the agency has considered these hapless, wandering telepaths a lost cause, and would usually put the poor creatures down upon pickup. But now, thanks to the miracle of modern science, we may finally find a cure.

Project Eleos begins today!

Entry 02 - Test Subjects
Yesterday when the test subjects arrived, I had twelve Shriekers at my disposal. As of this afternoon, I have nine.

When they first arrived, the Shriekers were herded in a transparent, psi-proof containment box. The poor devils acted like apes in there. Even with the powerful Psilirium coil weakening their powers, they still managed to go, berserker, climbing all over the walls, levitating each other in the air, shooting out psi-blasts and releasing the high-pitched hyper-auricular screams the Shriekers are famous for.

A massive fight ensued. Hits were flying, bodily fluids were splashing everywhere, pure chaos. One poor sap was levitated into the air and slammed into the wall of his containment cell over and over again. I guess whoever lifted him up assumed he could break the cell open? Sadly for him, the only thing he managed to do was slam that poor fellow's head as flat as a pancake.

Another one apparently knew fulgurkinesis, the process of controlling lightning. He gave all the other subjects in the box a good shock before another Shrieker managed to set him ablaze. I was worried the other Shriekers would be harmed by the flames or smoke inhalation, but luckily one of the other Shriekers was hydrokinetic and managed to splash out the fire. Unfortunately, the test subject could not be saved, and all that was left as a mess of soot and charred goo.

By the time the guards managed to get in the box and start subduing the Shriekers, one managed to slip past them and started going on a rampaging. He was levitating things in my laboratory, tossing objects and debris at guards and my lab assistants. I hoped the guards would have merely subdued him so I could continue my experiments, or at least wipe his brain bare so he could be one of my lobotmite lab assistants, but unfortunately, the poor creature was euthanized.

It's fairly impressive how the Shriekers can wield their powers as weapons so efficiently, even if a bit chaotic. Usually, when stray psychics retain their sanity, they're unable to control their powers at all. But now that they've entered this broken, primitive state it seems their natural instincts and psychokinetic powers have formed a kind of proverbial alchemy in them.

From now on, we'll be keeping all of the test subjects in separate cells. I pity the poor custodial team that has to wipe down all the blood and fecal matter from the big box.

Entry 03 - Test Groups
I've split the remaining test subjects into three teams of three. "Team A" will be the control group. They shall simply be lobotomized. Afterward, I will begin telepathically implanting commands in them to do simple tasks, just as I do with my lab assistant and the agency does with its shock troopers. Data from studying this group will show us if lobotomites are any more efficient or practical then cured or domesticated Shreikers.

"Team B" will be the domesticated group. Just as wild beasts are trained to become companions and zoo animals, we will attempt to see if Shriekers can be domesticated. If this is successful, the agency's biggest failure will suddenly become a valuable asset. They'll make for great labor and shock troops, but unlike the lobotomites will be far more capable of taking care of themselves without having to be nursed by a psychic handler having to constantly send commands into their head like a bad computer program.

"Team C" will be the redemption group. Simply put, we will try to restore their sanity and help them gain control over their unstable abilities. If this works, it will be the psionic equivalent of the discovery of penicillin. Of course, if they fail to produce more satisfactory results than the first two teams, this discovery will be treated as little more than a curious novelty at best.

Entry 04 - Experiments Begin
Team A gave us a little trouble during the surgery process. An agency intern was strapping the first one down to the operating table but didn't properly secure his psi-restraining collar. I always tell them, listen for the click! Listen for the click! The poor schmuck had his head exploded like a watermelon blasted with a shotgun. It made such a terrible mess in the operating room. Luckily, after sedating the patient the process went over swimmingly. Afterward, the interns are now listening to me much better.

The second patient on Team A tried to put up a fight, and his collar's psilirium crystal was low on energy. Thankfully, the only person his powers could effect was himself. So many poor fools think telepathy is just a magic telephone between brains, but it is actually brainwaves controlling nervous systems through space. The patient's aggression started to create massive growths and polyps all over his body and by the time he was sedated his body was lumpy and malformed, like something out of a Cronenberg movie. He's much uglier, but he'll make a perfectly useful lab assistant all the same. I think I'll nickname him "Lumpy."

The third operation went along swimmingly. No crazy psychic antics or head explosions whatsoever. The new lobotomite is a perfectly loyal and helpful assistant.

Team B provided some brief trouble when they tried to use their powers on the guards. A few ergokineticlly-enhanced beatings quickly put a stop to that. Those jarheads weren't taking any chances after what happened to the last poor fools that underestimated them. Right now the "treatment" they're undergoing mostly amounts to beating them into submission. Their screams are quite disturbing for the lab workers, but I'm sure they'll get used to it in time.

Team C is currently the most pampered group, receiving only the finest sedatives and being treated with soothing Psykon Crystal therapy. Each patient is being treated with different drugs and energy waves in different amounts. It will be quite interesting to see how each one reacts.

Entry 05 - Process Continues
I've been informed by one of my superiors that some of my subordinates have been complaining about me to the disciplinary board. What disloyal rats! Luckily for me, the Director of the Bureau of Psionic Affairs has my back. He knows the importance of our experiments here, and the wonderful fruits they could bare not only for the agency, but all of humanity. Even lowly normals will benefit from what we're doing here.

The unnamed lackeys even had the nerve to question if I was even really a doctor. As far as the agency is concerned, I most certainly am! I went to medical school. Words like "graduate" and "expulsion" and "criminal indictment" are just banal bureaucratic buzzwords. The Bureau saw past all that nonsense. That's why they chose me to work for them. It isn't just my powerful psychic abilities, it's the fact that I'm willing to do what most of those pencil-pushing drones approved by the AMA are to afraid to do.

Oh, dear. It appears I've gone off on a bit of a tangent. No matter, back to my lab reports.

Team B has most likely been taken as far as it can go, I'm afraid. They've officially submitted to their betters and are now being trained to do basic tasks and attack on command. They don't seem to be any more or less efficient than the lobotomites. But, as one of the interns pointed out, the domestication process is a lot quicker and less messy than the expensive and time-consuming lobotomies we've been performing. At the very least, it would make the jarheads and the interns a lot less squeamish.

Results for Team C have been mixed so far. One patient seems to have gone completely catatonic. I knew this was a risk of over-exposure to Psykon. We'll try to see if we can break him out of his traumatized state but I don't have high hopes. Another patient seems to be responding to basic sentences, but his powers have been completely suppressed and he seems to have no idea what's happening around him. The third patient isn't any different than when we started.

We'll keep pressing forward. If we continue losing patients, we may have to find more test subjects. Morpheus forbid, we may even have to make our own.

Entry 06 - Breakthrough!
Eureka! We've done it! By Morpheus, we've finally done it! Team C has yielded terrific results, and we now have an efficient and (hopefully) replicable process for restoring Shriekers to sanity!

Patient 3 of Team C finally responded to treatment. He showed vivid memory of where he was before he "snapped" and described himself as feeling "crystal clear." His powers are currently heavily suppressed, but he still has enough energy to move a few blocks around and read thoughts. He told us how he used to hear the thoughts of everyone around him all the time, a constant mess of clouded chattering. No more! Thankfully, he won't be learning any agency secrets, so long as the agent around him are smart enough to shield their telepathic feeds. But of course, they learn to do that in basic training.

Patient 1, who had previously gone catatonic, was introduced to the same treatment methods of patient 3. He awoke mere hours into treatment and is showing just as much progress as the other patient did. Patient 2 also responded extremely well to the therapeutic methods.

The three patients are currently speaking to treatment specialists and being handled with the utmost care and decency. They may either choose to join the agency or live their own free and happy lives, monitored by the agency for signs of violent outburst or relapse, of course.

But if they show any signs of dissension or threat to the agency, reveal any secrets or start to become violent, the BPA will have to step in. Termination, mind wipes, lobotomies? All just arrows in our quiver. I do hope they're smarter than that.

Entry 07 - Conclusion
I should have known this would happen. After my experiments finally succeeded, the BPA has now suspended my research, barred me from my laboratory and is currently subjecting me to disciplinary procedures. I should have known that those greedy, lying bureaucrats would only turn their empty heads the other way only until my efforts had brought them fruit. Now that the sweat of my brow is in their slimy hands, they're pretending to have morals and integrity. Calling my work "inhumane" and "cruel"! Bah! If they truly believed that nonsense they wouldn't have let me come this far.

Whatever comes next, I have no problem with. I'll serve my sentence with dignity and pride, knowing I've ushered in a wonderful new era for humanity. No matter what they do to me, my research will live on forever.

Addenum
Dr. "Smith" has been put on administrative leave following the conclusion of Project Eleos. As a sentence for his criminal actions, his brain has been suspended in a tank and his body has been put into stasis. To maintain his mental health and morale, his brain is heavily sedated. At the conclusion of his eight-year suspension, his brain will be put back inside his body and he will be allowed to practice medicine once again.