The Anathema Proxy Summary

August 95

COS - The Church of Satan

Satan has started operating in Long Beach under the guise of Padre Santos the head priest of the Open Doors Church. The powerful High Demon, Mothman and the Hat Man Umbra, and Umbra’s assistant, the Red Man, are with him. It’s unclear what Mothman has to gain from the partnership, but it’s evident that Umbra is hoping for a favor in return. The Red Man has to do what Umbra says, so he’s along for the ride regardless. Additionally, Satan has an “other book” unique from his primary Boogieman Book. (It’s also different than his book of 13 regents later mentioned). Mysteriously COS05, along with August 27th, 28th, 29th, and the 30th, is still missing from the Archives. To discover more about Satan’s other book, the enigmatic Shaka proposed the Cafe should seek out some of Satan’s consorts.

AAA - An Alien Autopsy

London-based entrepreneur Ray Santilli plans to release some “authentic alien autopsy” footage on Johnathan Frakes’ Fact or Fiction. One problem, that’s no alien… that’s a Douen. A small Maydaian or Amaymonian demon found in Caribbean folklore. Their feet are famously backward, and they potentially steal children from the shore. While aliens might not be a concern of the Cafe, actual demon footage airing on T.V. is. Alex takes on the task of “blurring” the footage to maintain the balance between the Flipside and Otherside. However, in the process, Alex discovers that Ray Santilli was working with Firefighter from Division Uniform of the Astoria 23rd Agency. It seems that Firefighter, Baseball Player, Milkman, and Schoolgirl created the hoax, and the most crucial part of this hoax was 5 minutes of the film that have since gone missing. What could those 5 minutes of footage hold? Mind control? Electrical magic? And will Division Uniform try and disperse it later?

TTE - The Time Traveler's Emails

The Cafe and Diner receive a strange message from a “John Doe” on their hidden message board. It bears a striking resemblance to similar messages sent by John Titor. Like John Titor, John Doe requires an original CaDCom88 to decipher a Cafe Crisis Cipher left by his cycle’s “Last Cafe,” as cracking it is vital to his cycle’s survival. However, like Titor, Doe has taken a bit of detour from his initial mission to observe and interact with the current cycle’s timeline. John Doe has noticed a very pressing anomaly that has pushed him out of the shadows seeking the Cafe’s help. John hints that he knows the owner’s real name and that the proper people to deal with this anomaly won’t be around for another few years (By the by, this is VERY meta even for John Doe). As it turns out, John Doe is worried about the temporal anomaly that John’s timeline is “crashing” into the Cafe’s timeline. While cycles sometimes naturally crash into each other, this seems strangely forced and is most likely done by John’s version of Mammon. So, the Cafe and Diner must take a trip to John Doe’s cycle to deal with this problem, and they are accompanied by Shaka of Zulu to do so. And thus, begins and ends the mysterious Indigo Wars. The Cafe Returns the next day after having spent roughly a year in 2035 fighting against the 55 Society and Mammon, though they have more significant, more Satan-y fish to fry in 1995.

DPG - Domenech's Pseudo-goat

The Cafe gets a hit on their message board, alerting them to the presence of a Pseudo-Goat somewhere around Texas A&M University. When Aelan reaches the campus, she is greeted by a swarm of Division Quebec members from the Astoria 23rd Agency, including Joliette, Rimouski, and Estire. Leading them seems to be Five from the 12th Division: Lima. Eventually, Aelan finds the Pseudo-Goat in the care of one of the college’s students, and she attempts to return it home to the Infernus; however, for whatever reason, it can’t return to the Infernus. When Aelan tries to force the Pseudo-Goat back into the Infernus, it causes a massive blackout in Texas and alerts the Astorians to its presence. Aelan manages to escape with the Pseudo-Goat and plans to lose the Astorians in Las Vegas as she heads back to the Cafe. The owner takes a liking to the Pseudo-Goat, naming him François, and lets him stay with the Cafe for the time being until a way home for it can be found.

WFS - Whispers from the Shadows

Felix notices something, or someone is watching the Cafe and Diner while attempting to mitigate a mysterious ailment in the Owner's eye. The entity lurking around the Cafe was shadow-like and roughly 6-8 feet tall with white eyes. Along with seeing this mysterious entity, the Owner heard whispers emanating from the entity's direction. Felix then waited for the Owner to inevitably fall asleep at his desk, and when he did, the entity returned, and it was none other than the Hatman, Umbra. Umbra ensnared the Owner with his signature sleep paralysis and began whispering an eerie chant of "gisgnagraphdongraph gonfam druxmed vehnavandonvehna" which triggered the CaDCom translation feature. Though the CaDCom struggled to translate it at first, the phrase was revealed to be "there is no church," as it would be spelled out in Enochian. It seems that Umbra was attempting to lead the Cafe away from the Open Doors Church. The Owner and Felix then set a trap for Umbra in the back of the Cafe keeping him in a completely pitch-black room. Without a source of light, Umbra is unable to move as a shadow cannot exist in pure darkness. However, keeping Umbra at the Cafe would prove to be too dangerous, so Felix allowed Umbra to escape. Still, Felix was able to take a sample of Umbra's "sableblood," which will protect the Cafe from Umbra for the foreseeable future. Umbra doesn't reveal much about Padre's plans, but Felix speculates that the Mothman was specifically chosen to lure out a more dangerous entity—Indrid Cold.

SKWC - Strange Kids Want Coffee

While it is true that the Cafe and Diner masquerades as a generic combination cafe and diner… they aren’t actually a cafe or diner. So, then it is quite bizarre that three teenagers, two girls and a boy, came into the Cafe to order three black coffees. Quick on his feet, the Owner served them some instant coffee he had lying around. Could they be pawns of Padre Santos? Or perhaps they are working for the Astoria 23rd Agency? Whatever the case, the teens returned the next week to rummage through the Cafe’s trash. Interestingly, one of the girls, the red-headed one, kept looking through a Ouija Board’s planchette, but why? When the teens returned a few days later, the Owner decided to confront them directly and hired them as part-time employees #35, #44, and #1313.

October 95

ASG - A Search for Gray

The Owner begins by revealing that one of the co-owners of the Cafe and Diner, Lucy Fireald (an anagram of Lady Lucifer), left the Cafe about a year ago, in September 1994. The Owner wonders if Lucy leaving the Cafe is what emboldened her brother, Padre Santos (Satan), to make a move in Long Beach. Whatever the case, they need to track down Dorian Gray, one of Satan’s Consorts, to move forward with their investigation. Consorts are the lowest tier of the House of Satan, comprised of “husbands, wives, boy-toys, friends, jesters, and muses” of Satan. Specifically, they are after Dorian Gray, a contemporary of Oscar Wilde in life and living embodiment of the fictional character in his afterlife. Satan painted a portrait of Dorian, which allows Dorian to travel between the Flipside and Otherside at will. However, the portrait requires a certain amount of “sin” to stay youthful and operational. As such, the portrait has a symbiotic relationship with Dorian Gray, and the more debaucherous Gray is in the Flipside, the more powerful he becomes in the Otherside. Additionally, any harm done to the portrait is harm done to Dorian Gray, similar to the novel.

Later in the month, Sahir receives word from one of his many contacts that Dorian Gray has been spotted hanging around “The Diamond Club” (later called The Ruby post 1995) in LA on Thursdays for their “Perversion” nights. Out of the current staff, only Alex and Nikki could reasonably fit in at Perversion, though they are both still underage, so they’ll need a fake ID. To ensure that Dorian can’t leave the club, Felix is tasked with drawing protective sigils around the area. In the meantime, Alex does some digging and discovers that Perversion is a front for demons to enter the Flipside. Felix confirms this when he is confronted by the demon Naberius while attempting to place the sigils outside of the club. Naberius and Felix have a chat, and it is revealed that Asmodeus is also making moves in LA and is setting up these clubs and events for demons to come, chat, make deals, have fun, and then return to the Otherside. Felix doesn’t buy that, but he can’t press it at the moment and instead makes a deal with Naberius to leave Asmodeus and her operations alone to help corner Dorian. On the 22nd, Nikki and Alex track down Dorian at the club, and Dorian reveals that Satan’s other notebook directly gives those who sign their names in it a fraction of Satan’s powers. In contrast, his boogieman book only gives a fraction of the Hauntaurskald’s power and with strict rules on how it is used. When Nikki and Alex ask Dorian what other names are in Satan’s notebook, Dorian claims to not know, but Tom Walker would. Alex and Nikki then let Dorian use his portrait to return to the Hauntaurskald, but they take his portrait back to the Cafe for safekeeping.