#moreauvians

[preservationofnormalcy]

There's a deer man outside my house right now. I think? He might actually be an elk. Anyways, he's been strangely polite, and just asked me to tell you that he needs assistance from you guys specifically. He doesn't look injured or anything, but one of his antlers is broken. Said he couldn't use technology or come inside my house, and he's just kind of sitting on my porch right now. What should I do?

Oh, no, wait, this is good. Wearing a suit? British accent? Jenny, get my Moreauvian notes. Under ‘I’ for Island.

This is just a copy of The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Yeah, my notes are written in the margins.

Oh my god.

We’ve been trying to establish diplomatic relations with the Island since the Doctor himself died. They’ve historically been extremely isolationist, and they don’t visit the mainland very often at all. And this one is asking for us?

Stand by, offer him a drink, we’ll head there. I’m calling some of my colleagues in the diplomatic corps. You might be lucky and your house will be host to a makeshift diplomatic summit! How exciting!

According to my notes, you’re gonna want to, uh. Avoid looking him in the eyes and don’t mention or talk about the surgery. They’re really sensitive about it.

[preservationofnormalcy]

Heyo, just a quick question out of curiosity.

Has there ever been a piece of media, be it a book, movie, videogame, etc. that was made using extra normal methods that ended up going mainstream?

Gibbons are parafictional.

Messed up but true.

This is kind of a roundabout thing and not strictly in the way you're asking, but I've mentioned before that some famous science fiction stories were sponsored in part by His Majesty's Esoteric Services, in an effort to obfuscate rumors about actual extranormal events. As far as I know they don't do it anymore - jury's out on whether it was successful at its original goal, but you've probably heard of War of the Worlds or The Island of Doctor Moreau.

I remember grandpa saying War of the Worlds was 'propaganda' or something

It....well, your grandad's got a good head on his shoulders. Other than that, not really sure. If someone waved their hand and attempted to magic a book into existence, I can't imagine the product would be very good. Just look at ChatGPT.

[preservationofnormalcy]

What is a Moreauvian?

It’s a sad story.

In the 1880s, a certain British scientist named Moreau began to talk about his extranormal theories. With surgical techniques that he thought of as cutting edge but mundane, that we now know are part of the extranormal sciences, he hypothesized he could take an animal and “uplift” it into a bipedal shape, and with some small modifications to the subject’s brain, intelligence and sentience would follow.

His Majesty’s Esoteric Services, Britain’s normalcy preservation agency, followed him closely for several months. The doctor caught on and moved quickly, purchasing an island in the South Pacific whose location is still a bit of a mystery. He fled to it and seemingly never left.

We don’t know much about what happened after that. By happenstance a sailor with HMES connections shipwrecked on the island and escaped, but he was the only one who’s seen it. His reports are…pretty harrowing. The doctor’s techniques did in fact “work” after a fashion, but it was not pretty. We assume that Moreau is dead, and given that sightings of Moreauvians still occur, either his creations are continuing his work or have a stable population and society.

HMES, several years later, commissioned an author to fictonalize the events now that Moreau was out of their reach. They did this a lot back then, reasoning that fictionalizing extranormal events would cause the population to disregard rumors as ‘just a book they read’. The jury is still out on if that works long term.

Also, it goes without saying that attempting to replicate his work is very, very illegal.

[preservationofnormalcy]

If molemen are just people who've adapted themselves to live underground, then what would you call a talking mole that can use tools? A mole with a little backpack (or at least something that looked like a mole with a little backpack) in my yard just offered to pay me to deal with the neighbor's out-of-control dog.

What do you call her? Maybe her name; I'd ask her what her name is, find some common ground, maybe strike up a friendship. Who knows, wacky sitcom hijinks could ensue with your new best bud!

As for her origins, well, she could be a Moreauvian, could be something parafictional from Redwall or Wind in the Willows, could be a lot of things. Again, she's probably the better authority to ask what her deal is, if she seems amenable. Off the cuff, she's probably parafictional if her outfit is pristine, and Moreauvian if it's as dirty as it should be from tunnelling underground. But yeah, best option is to just ask.

[preservationofnormalcy]

I don’t know how else to put this so I’ll just say it outright.

I accidentally made a Moreauvian

I was working on my robotics project, my hamster got out of its cage without me noticing, it fell on my project, a bunch of whirring and zapping happens, and now it’s walking around and using complete sentences.

It has tried to hack into my university’s database to ‘Gather Reconnaissance’. I think it might be trying to make more of itself, I’ve caught it looking online for chinchillas and the like.

Please tell me what to do, I think it may want to take over the world.

Right, "accidentally," sure. Did any of these projects involve, and let me get my notes, para-surgical techniques?

We'll assign blame later after an investigation, but for now, give it a bunch of treats to keep it occupied. If I know anything about mad scientists from my lengthy dealings with a certain other university, you can flatter their ego and intelligence by telling it the treats are a peace offering and complimenting it. We'll send LEP's Recon Team. Once you notice them, get to a safe place.

[preservationofnormalcy]

Hello! I'm fairly new to the extranormal community (thank you for the great information your office provides, by the way!) I was also basically raised on old science fiction. When I saw your PSAs about the Moreauvians that raised my eyebrows a little

That's made me wonder about several other stories of that era, since you mentioned that it wasn't an uncommon cover-up method for extranormal incidents. I grew up with the tales of Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man, The Time Traveller, the expeditions of Dr. Lidenbrock and Mr. Cavor... All that being said, the possibility of one specific story having a grain of truth has bothered me more than any of the other possibilities

...Was there actually a Martian invasion in the waning days of the 19th century?

I mentioned this phenomenon in a previous response about Moreauvians.

I’m going to have to be a little vague here - some of that stuff I’m not sure if it’s classified or not, so I won’t try out of respect to my British (and other organization) colleagues. I will say that it’s definitely not “all of them” (of the ones you’re listing or in terms of ‘famous fiction’) or even a noticeable chunk of them. If you’re ever at an AbSci University campus or reading their material, you might be able to infer some things based on what’s on the big “illegal sciences” list.

As far the last one, I have to— hold on, let me get the - yeah, “M” for “Mars”.

….what?

Anyway. Ahem.

“It is the official position of the Office for the Preservation of Normalcy and His Majesty’s Esoteric Services that there is no life on the planet Mars, and any reports or records to the contrary should be updated with modern scientific standards.” That’s all I can say.

[preservationofnormalcy]

There’s this weird, deer thing? Covered in what looks like sheep’s wool, and it’s just standing in the middle of the road here- I think I’m somewhere in Acton, Massachusetts.

I hope this isn’t a bad thing. I should probably help it, it looks injured.

Quick check of the Rangers archives doesn’t show anything for Acton. Dover, yeah, and a lot of witch activity of course. Nothing like that…could be a lost Sheepsquatch, though they’re not normally that far northeast?

If it’s a sheepsquatch, I wouldn’t approach it even if it’s injured. They’re cantankerous, and honestly kind of dumb. We’d probably have the Rangers tranq it, treat it, and bring it back home.

One more thing, and this may sound strange - if it’s wearing a suit, or any type of human clothing, try and talk to it. We’ve been having more reports of Moreauvians being seen in North America and we’re looking for a diplomatic pathway with them.