Page 121 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGA N I Z A T I O N S
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A ANIZATIONS
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STEREOTYPES
Ashwood Abbey:
Ashwood Abbey: Collective delusions are surprisingly common. Take the
occasional groups of thrill-seekers who go out to hunt and kill monsters,
solely for their own entertainment. They always seem to fi nd their monsters.
Does that strike you as a reasonable or likely outcome? Of course not.
Loyalists of Thule: Every so often, you meet someone who has a fount of
Loyalists of Thule:
information about the phenomena we study. Their help, willingly given,
is always welcome, but they’re an object lesson in how an obsession with
the supernatural can make one all too gullible.
Lucifuge: Yes, I’ve heard myths about so-called Children of the Devil
Lucifuge:
— who hasn’t seen The Omen? But I’ve never seen any evidence of their
existence. No, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. But that’s not the
way it works.
Aegis Kai Doru: Let me get this straight. There’s a conspiracy that’s at
Aegis Kai Doru:
least 2,000 years old, right? And it’s got the head of John the Baptist and
about a dozen other ancient holy relics, right, all hidden away and guarded
by this hereditary sect? And sometimes they come out and use them to fi ght
monsters? That’s not a plausible scenario — that’s The Da Vinci Code.
If Null Mysteriis has a failing, it’s that the often august it’s the result of one or more as-yet-unclassified orders of en-

people who comprise the lion’s share of its membership make ergy. And that’s when the phenomenon is paranormal — it’s
the very common error of considering themselves expert in often wholly explicable by conventional science.

every field because of their undeniable expertise in one. Null But what if it isn’t?
Mysteriis’ meetings can be fraught affairs, as physicists start The supernatural seems, more often that not, to manifest
holding forth on evolution and biologists start making pro- in ways detrimental to humanity, but that doesn’t make it evil.
nouncements about psychology and ideology. It’s like radiation: everyone knows that radioactive material
The problem’s compounded by the fact that Null Mysteriis is can kill, but at the same time, no one thinks it’s consciously
currently in the middle of a schism of sorts. The current General evil. The paranormal’s often like that. If, for example, a para-
Secretary, Scottish astrophysicist Alexander Watt, is a dyed in-the- normal conspiracy makes a man invulnerable but at the same
wool rationalist who holds that the supernatural is like quantum time turns him into a deranged slasher, how is that different

physics: it’s something that merits scientific study, but in a cau- from radiation sickness, at least in moral terms?
tious, tentative, sensible sort of way. On the other hand, Vincent Vampirism is a communicable illness, albeit one that
Fielding, the Treasurer, is a charismatic psychiatrist who holds an somehow suspends human aging and hides life signs while
almost gurulike fascination for many members of Null Mysteriis. making its victim vulnerable to light and dependent on a par-
He’s stood against Prof. Watt for the post of General Secretary asitic existence. Lycanthropy, likewise, is an extreme genetic
three years running now, but so far hasn’t been elected. If, howev- condition. So-called ghosts carry the energy signatures of the
er, Fielding gets in this year, the winds of change are likely to blow living. Demons and similar apparently extra-dimensional

hard. Fielding advocates much more aggressive fieldwork and the creatures are composed of energy that could come from any-
use of techniques that Watt dismisses as “pseudoscience”: hypnot- thing from quantum pocket universes down to geo-electricity,
ic past-life regressions, spirit cameras, the serious consideration of and given form by the perceptions of the viewer.
Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, Sheldrake’s morphogenic fi eld theory, It’s all got an explanation. If the explanation has holes,
Devereux’s earthlight evidence, the work of Lyall Watson, and a it’s OK. Everything operates on the level of hypothesis. It’s
thousand other devices and ideas that Watt maintains will push the best explanation that anyone’s going to come by, and if

Null Mysteriis firmly into the realm of the cranks. someone comes along with a better one, that’s fi ne.
Of course, some might argue they’re there already. Cer- All of this isn’t to say that the members of Null Mysteriis
tainly, although many highly regarded professionals in scien- can’t and won’t participate in the destruction of a dangerous su-

tific fields pay regular membership dues, few of them openly pernatural creature. The radiation sickness analogy holds true: if
admit to being members. an energy that gets out of hand is deadly, it mustn’t be allowed
to get out of hand. Likewise, if the state of vampirism makes one
The Enemy a blood-drinking psychopath, it may well be best, given the so
For Null Mysteriis, investigation is absolutely everything. far incurable nature of the disease, to put the poor soul out of his

It’s not about stopping supernatural phenomena, or fighting misery. Cancer may not be evil, but it can be cut out.
evil. It’s about knowing. The current orthodoxy among the The members of Null Mysteriis are not often adept at di-
organization is that the paranormal is neither good nor evil: rect violence. Subterfuge, yes. Stealth, sometimes. Far better
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