Status Updates From The Atlas: A Horror Movie L...

The Insider will reinstate the Throughline, which will reset back to the beginning. The Highrollers will exit the out-of-bounds area. They will have every advantage our years of toil have set up for them.

They will be directed toward a storyline with an out-of-bounds zone, preferably Permanent Vacancy. Once there, the Insider will trigger all manner of mobile Omens to ensure the pacification of all remaining players. Once the Highrollers are out-of-bounds and all other players have been postered, Project Rewind will come to fruition.

“I am not afraid anymore. I will simply be going on a long walk with my best friend. I know that there is a real chance we won’t ever be rescued, but I have to believe in the Highrollers. We’ve put in so much work to give them the best chance possible of succeeding.” -CW

“I have come to terms with it. Amelia says that we will need to be preserved to help beat the Throughline when the time comes. She talks about it like we are just going to sleep, to be awoken again one day in the future. She uses the words destiny and fate a lot. Carousel has not broken her.” -CW

I think he is. He has the exact kind of cold, detached personality to be able to do what needs to be done. Plus, there is little danger of him making friends with the other players and not being able to go through with it.” -CW

“Of course, we will need someone to carry forward Project Rewind in our absence. The Insider has chosen Winston, or whatever Ethan is calling himself nowadays. Even talks to him through the radio, more or less. I used my Psychiatrist tropes on him to make sure he was trustworthy.

“Amelia says to trust her, that she knows what it sounds like, but it is the only way. She talked to Samantha Cole about it. Even though the Paragons can’t exactly break character, it’s clear that Samantha is willing to make the sacrifice. She blames herself for getting all the players trapped here.“ -CW

“Not much has happened related to Project Rewind in the last year. I am writing today because the Insider finally figured it out. Carousel is sleeping, almost. The Throughline is not on the red wall anymore, and the NPCs have quieted down. As I was warned, Silas has stopped handing out all manner of tickets now other than tropes, stat tickets, and the killer collectibles.” -CW

She says the Insider is trying to figure out something they are calling “Project Rewind.” The idea is to “rewind” the Throughline back to the beginning so that we can understand what the hell we are supposed to be doing. I’ve been working at completing the Throughline for years. It doesn’t matter how strong we get. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you can’t know where you’re going.

“I wanted to talk about the feelings I have for each of you, and I wanted to tell you how much I love you all. I didn’t include those, because Camden showed me the Atlas Holder’s Journal. In those writings, I found hope—horror, too, but above all else, hope. You don’t need me to send you a letter telling you how I feel, because I want you to come and save me so I can tell you in person.” -Anna’s letter

As we stared at our new rescue tropes, Silas flashed his lights. He disappeared and reappeared five feet away. Except he wasn’t facing us. The back of his machine was to us. And there was something on it. A cloth bag with something large and rectangular was duct-taped to the back of Silas’s box. Taped to that was an envelope with three names on it: Riley, Antoine, and Kimberly.

My heart skipped a beat. A genuine rescue trope. Most players I had met had never even seen one. I was still skeptical. I had been fearing this very thing.

Ten minutes later, the sound of the breathing had faded. I could only guess what had happened. How many rules had she broken to help us?

“What’s going on?” Dina asked. I didn’t have time to think about an answer. “We need to follow Silas,” I said. Maybe it was something in the tone of my voice, but they stopped questioning me—for that moment, at least. Samantha stayed behind. She turned and started walking, then running back in the direction we had come from.

I heard something in the distance and right behind me at the same time. Breathing. It was the axe murderer. I could hear him back in the direction we had come from. That was the gift of having been in his presence before. I could detect him. “Go,” she said. “Go!” “Let’s move,” I said. I needed to be careful because one wrong word and I would be cut in half. I ushered the others to move quickly.

“I’m so sorry,” Samantha said. I turned to look at her. My heart raced just from the possible implications of what she had said. What was she sorry about? “I told you I would do anything to save you,” she said. She was crying. She looked terrified. “This was the only way.” “What are you talking about?” Antoine asked. But before she could answer I realized that something was different.

“I knew you level fifties had player tropes,” I said. I had seen Jack Goforth use Convenient Backstory. I was sure of it.

Antoine quickly walked over to the brochure stand and looked through them himself. “So it’s true,” he said. “This story is from our world.” “Wait, what?” Bobby asked. “You’re from our world too, aren’t you?” I asked Samantha.

I think Carousel brought them here—the sorcerers and the victims, brought here to relive the cycle over and over again. I’ve been thinking about that for a while, but it wasn’t until I got this last piece of evidence that it all came together.”

“So, you think the NPCs are real people forced to play characters?” Kimberly asked. “We’ve talked about that before.” “No, not most of them,” I said. “I think they’re playing themselves. I think they are reenacting events that happened to them in their real lives back where they’re really from. I think that somewhere in a parallel reality, there really was a society of rich folks that body-snatched people.

"It goes back to 1989." Players had been in Carousel since
1989?

“I would assume so,” Jack said. “Messy situation that was, huh? If they had learned our secret,” he said, looking back at me, Kimberly, and Antoine, “who knows what bad things could have happened? Secrets are funny that way.” We all looked at each other. It sounded like our friends in high places didn’t want us to talk about Dina’s quest.