"Vigilamus Pro Longo Pallio"
'We Watch, For the Long Coat'

The Extraterrestrial, Paranormal, Parahistorical & Anomalous Investigative Division (EPPAID) or the X-Division, is a branch of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation dedicated to the cataloging, observation and in rare occasions, defense of the mundane against the threats that come from the Alien, the Cryptid, the Poltergeist and the generally weird. They are the Paranormal Watchers of old, Hoover's occult spooks, the CIA's greatest rival (and sometimes ally), the watchers of the Veil, the nemesis of the defunct German Ahnenerbe. And since the end of the Harbin Incident, they have had funding and active recruitment unseen since the Cold War Era.

From the sea, to the shining sea, from the state of the Philippines and its cities to the far end of DC, Puerto Rico and even the shores of Japan and the ancient city of Jerusalem, the Division has been actively assisting in cataloging the things that are not of this world. The Veil has been thinning since the 1900s, and everything in history from that fateful day in Buffalo, September 6, 1901 up to the present has been leading up to its current fragile state.

You are a newly hired recruit of the X-Division. Tasked to bear the baton of an institution a century old. You will handle cases that exist beyond the mundane alongside a plethora of characters, answering to the Director and any of the 'Big Five' and veteran agents alongside civilian associates and consultants you might run into along your journey.

The Division has seen its fair share of weird stuff since its founding. It has survived the insanity of the Occult War against the Volksreich's Ahnenerbe in the Second World War. It has survived the Cold War, against enemies, both within and without. It has stared into the abyss against the Cognoscenti American Deep State and ensured the Republic survived. It has witnessed the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new millennium.

And when the day came, it survived an extraterrestrial incursion.

You are stepping into an institution that has been belittled, mocked, often threatened of being dismantled, always on the verge of being shutdown while being underfunded and understaffed yet surviving through the generosity of some notable allies, the memory of Silent Cal's preparation and the sheer indomitable will to ensure the things that might bump in the night would think twice of striking an ignorant population.

Each file you can potentially access from LVL 1 to COSMIC shows the growth you may have with every case you solve, every trust you build and every action you take. Some will be mundane, others eye opening. All show the kind of battles the organization has been combatting and cataloging.

Welcome to the X-Division, Agent.

Planned Opening intros pending: [STANDBY]

Universe Designation;
Grazed Shoulder

Grazed Shoulder: A Summary of the Timeline (1901-Present)

What If Leon Czolgosz Failed to Kill McKinley?

On September 6, 1901, 4:07 PM, anarchist Leon Czolgosz fired two shots at President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He never succeeded.

Some say it was because Czolgosz had been sweating and drunk before carrying out the assassination. Others pointed to the report of the revolver he used having been jammed with sewer water days before. A few insist a mysterious figure in a long coat nudged Czolgosz's arm. The first shot hit a button in McKinley's coat and was deflected. The second shot grazed McKinley's shoulder instead of hitting him directly in the abdomen. The President survived, yet weakened.

This is the story of that grazed shoulder. And everything that followed.

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Part I: The Foundational Era/The Progressive Era (1901-1921)

The Survival That Changed Everything

McKinley survives but is left in diminished health. He serves out his term, weakened but determined. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt must wait—and in that waiting, he becomes something different. Older. Wiser. Less impulsive.

In the meantime, he witnesses the conservative faction of Senator Mark Hanna establish a so-called 'Regency Presidency' wherein the true power lies with said faction with Hanna at the helm. Roosevelt keeps this in mind during those turbulent years.

- 1905-1913: William Howard Taft becomes President. His legalistic, methodical approach builds the administrative framework for Philippine integration. The Philippine Statehood Organic Act of 1907 is the capstone. Theodore Roosevelt, after serving as Secretary of State for the entirety of Taft's first term resigns on 1909 after the Pinchott-Ballinger controversy of 1908-1909. The Progressive Party would form in 1910, just in time to win the midterms and a prelude for what's to come.

- 1912: Theodore Roosevelt, now leading the Progressive "Bull Moose" Party, wins the presidency with exactly 270 electoral votes—the constitutional minimum. His victory speech is delivered moments after surviving an assassination attempt in Milwaukee.

- 1913-1921: TR's presidency establishes the Progressive Party as a permanent fixture. He creates the National Economic Board (NEB), articulates the Pacific Doctrine, leads a coalition government with the creation of a Senate Coalition Leader title, and leads America through World War I. In 1919, he offers asylum to White Russian refugees fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution. Approximately 200,000 flee to the Philippines. More would follow in the years to come.

The Birth of PAPID

In 1921, President Calvin Coolidge establishes the Paranormal and Anomalous Phenomena Investigative Division (PAPID)—later known as the X-Division—to investigate the mysterious figure who has been appearing at pivotal moments in American history. Their motto: "Vigilamus Pro Longo Pallio" ("We Watch for the Long Coat").

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Part II: The Interwar Years (1921-1941)

The Roaring Twenties

- 1921-1929: Coolidge's "unsung" presidency quietly strengthens Progressive institutions. The Pacific Capitol is built in Manila. White Russian communities—Little Novgorod, New Smolensk, Little Kyiv, New Odessa—flourish. The Native American Districts are created from the sins of the Reservations. A different President is placed on Mount Rushmore instead of Jefferson, a consequences of the Tripartisan model.

- 1929-1933: John W. Davis's disastrous single term sees the Stock Market Crash and the onset of the Great Depression. His inaction dooms his party for a generation.

- 1933-1937: Alf Landon stabilizes the economy and establishes the Philippine Commonwealth. "He held the line."

The New Deal and the Gathering Storm

- 1937-1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt—a Progressive, not a Democrat—leads the nation through the Great Depression's final years and World War II. The New Deal transforms American society. The "Arsenal of Democracy" arms the free world.

- 1937-1941: Japan, having seized the Russian Far East in 1921, grows fat on Siberian resources. General Douglas MacArthur fortifies the Philippines, preparing for the inevitable war.

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Part III: The Great Asian War and the Post-War Order (1941-1961)

The War in the Pacific

- December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. But thanks to TR's "Many Baskets" doctrine, the carriers and some battleships survive. MacArthur immediately launches air raids into Formosa.

- 1942-1943: The Battle of Negros Oriental—"America's Volgograd"—becomes the turning point. MacArthur holds the Visayas-Mindanao fortress, bleeding the Japanese dry. The USS Enterprise and Saratoga defend the Tañon Strait.

- 1943: General Secretary Yakov Sverdlov orders Operation Sunrise. The RSSR retakes Vladivostok on Christmas Eve.

- 1945: Germany surrenders. Japan surrenders after the atomic bombings. The Western Front & the Great Asian War ends.

The Post-War World

- 1948: Thomas E. Dewey defeats Harry S. Truman—but Truman wins the popular vote. Dewey's "one-term curse" begins.

- 1949-1953: Dewey's presidency is defined by the Dewey Plan, the 23rd Amendment, and the final push for Philippine statehood.

- 1955: Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines are admitted as the 49th, 50th, and 51st states on December 30, 1955, as signed by President Adlai Stevenson II, the one term Democrat who presided over the early Cold War years and is blamed for the fall of Haiti to Socialist revolution.

- 1957: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the war hero, becomes President—serving one term before a heart attack forces his retirement.

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Part IV: The Cold War and the Long Night (1961-1981)

Kennedy's New Frontier

- 1961-1969: John F. Kennedy becomes the first Catholic President. He survives the Dallas Derailment in 1963—a series of odd events that involved an Air Force One with mechanical failures, a patsy at a Repository and the oddity of the affair. His two terms are defined by the Pragmatic Alliance, the Vietnam Stalemate, and the Caribbean Showdown.

The Long Night Begins

- 1969: Lyndon B. Johnson inherits the Vietnam stalemate. "Peace with Honor" is achieved, but at a cost. The Progressive Party's long decline begins.

- 1973-1981: Henry "Scoop" Jackson's hawkish administration creates PATO, but stagflation and the Applegate Scandal (1974-1975) rock the nation. The "swamp is drained." Nixon, Aquino, and Biden lead the investigation.

- 1976: Jackson wins re-election by exactly 274 electoral votes—one above the minimum.

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Part V: The False Dawn and the Modern Era (1981-2021)

Anderson's New Dawn

- 1981-1989: John B. Anderson becomes the last Progressive President. His presidency is a "False Dawn"—a brief moment of hope before the Long Night resumes. He revitalizes the Rust Belt, resurrects the Pragmatic Alliance, and names the "Pacific Rus."

The Fractured Landscape

- 1989-1993: George H.W. Bush presides over the fall of the RSSR but loses to Biden.

- 1993-2001: Joseph R. Biden Jr.—"Amtrak Joe"—defines the 90s. The Global War on Terror begins with the 1993 WTC bombing. The Trans-Archipelago Railway is begun.

- 2001-2009: Colin L. Powell, the first Black President, handles 9/11 with a steady hand. He captures Bin Laden, never invades Iraq, and admits Puerto Rico and Guam as states.

- 2009-2017: Barack Obama's presidency is defined by healthcare reform, the Great Recession recovery, and the "Pivot to Africa."

The Return of Disruption

- 2017-2021: Donald J. Trump's populist presidency divides the nation—but he concedes in 2020, knowing to challenge the results in an unorthodox manner would be political .

- December 15-20, 2020: The Jotunn-Devas Incident in Harbin reveals that humanity is not alone—and that the X-Division has been preparing for this moment for a century.

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Part VI: The Post Harbin Era (2021-Present)

- 2021-2025: Andrew Yang's experimental presidency sees UBI pilots, NEB 2.0, and his break from the Democratic Party to form the Forward Party.

Trump's Return

- 2025-incumbent: Donald Trump returns for a second non-consecutive term, surviving an assassination attempt in 2024.

X-Division Personnel:

"My job is answering the questions the President and Congress will have of our operations. Your job, is to make sure Bigfoot doesn't scare the hell out of the tourists. We got enough paperwork as it is."

Director Dimitry Yevgeny Schultz: The last of the Abbott Era Generation. A Vietnam Stalemate Veteran and a former US Army soldier, Schultz had been with X-Division since 1975. He has seen the final months of the Applegate Scandal and the dismantling of the Cognoscenti and their cohorts. He has witnessed the transition of the old PAPID era generation under Anderson to Abbott's tenure. Picked as her successor in 1993, he is the second longest serving director since J. Edgar Hoover, having led the Division from 1993 to the present through trials and Congressmen who questioned their actual purpose. His role in answering directly to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff means you are unlikely to see him. And it's usually a very bad sign if Schultz is directly involved.

Like a father to his agents, Director Schultz has kept many of the Division's agents, including the Big Five from being outright scrutinized during the years leading to the Harbin Incident. Since the confirmed existence of aliens, Schultz has been leading efforts to help the public cope with the idea that there are indeed things that go bump in the night. However he is getting in on his years despite his vigorous work energy (rumors speculate that a noodle incident in the 1980s that involved an alien artifact is the reason) and is ready to pass the baton by 2027 just as he had done for his predecessor. Many in the division's veterans know that John Corwin is the likely candidate. Other say it's Dr. Reed. Schultz has not told anyone yet but the pair are his two likely candidates.

The Big Five

"My family has been chasing Thanatos since 1916. You could say it runs in the blood. Grandpa Reggie had the Pinkertons and faith. I have the internet and faith."

Special Agent John Reginald Corwin: Special Agent, Field Operations Chief. Grandson of founding PAPID agent Reginald Corwin and named for the man. John has been with the Division since 1993. After graduating with a degree majoring on History & Philosphy, Corwin joined the FBI around 1992 with a goal to continue the work his grandfather started after he was moved to the division a year later. He is known within the organization and the FBI proper as "Spooky Corwin" for his intense focus on Subject LC-001 ("The Gardener" aka Subject Thanatos), particularly regarding the 1901 McKinley assassination attempt. Corwin mysteriously disappeared from 2003-2006; he returned physically unchanged but reportedly "temporally scrambled" according to Dr. Reed's assessments. He was present at the Harbin Incident and made first visual contact with Subject LC-001 during the crisis. He is married to Agent Artemis Gallia-Corwin; father of Zachary Corwin (b. 2001).

A firm believer of Thanatos's otherworldly existence, Corwin has been on the forefront of every investigation that involved the X-Division's white whale, having inherited the same faith that drove his grandfather, a former Pinkerton Detective to catalog everything in America, from the the unexplainable to the downright weird to the existence of aliens. Since 1993, he has firmly believed that Thanatos is a benevolent figure that's been watching humanity for a century. The Harbin Incident vindicated his views.

"John means well. Most of the time. But every so often I have to step in and debunk some of his more outlandish theories like a good cousin would do. I maybe a believer now, but someone has to bring logic when the case gets mystic. There's always an explanation, 90% of the time anyway."

Special Agent (Dr.) Eleanore Margaret Reed: Scientific Advisor and Chief Analyst of the X-Division. The other grandchild of Reginald Corwin. A former MIT physicist recruited in 1993, Dr. Reed initially joined to "debunk her cousin's wild theories" but became a believer after exposure to classified evidence. Despite being cousin to John Corwin (her mother was one of Reginald Corwin's five children), she still finds time in making sure he doesn't get off the deep end when it came to cases they have handled since the 1990s, often joked by the Division as the one usually having the brain cell whenever the pair handle a case related to the absolute weird stuff (Parahistorical and Extraterrestrial cases, bonus if Thanatos is reportedly involved). Her doctorate on Theoretical Physics would come handy when she coins the term 'Parahistorical Resonence Index' on unexplained phenomena that challenged historical knowledge and events. Her work on cognitive armor after the end of the Harbin Incident would become the basis for the Division's defenses against the malicious forces in the dark, particularly the Devas Mindflayers.

The complete opposite of Corwin, she has challenged his views numerous times, and still does when she isn't dealing with her private life. Though she's now a firm believer of the weird, she still brings logic to the equation first before admitting that a particular case is indeed beyond the confines of Science and Logic.

"You know what I've come into terms after being in this weird part of the FBI since 2003? It's that there's not enough donuts in the world to lessen the fact that every case we've handled was always going to end into some weird shit. The paperwork alone makes me respect the old guys like Schultz even more."

Special Agent David 'Duke' Lynch: Pacific Operations Coordinator & Senior Field Agent. Not to be confused with the other Lynch of course. Lynch is a by-the-books cop who hails from the streets of Columbus, Ohio and a former USMC soldier who fought in the Gulf War. Lynch has had a few run-ins with the kind of weird shit during his time in the Middle East that would eventually be his job, yet despite this remained committed to bringing semblance of normalcy to an otherwise chaotic world hidden underneath the mundane. When Corwin disappeared back in September 16, 2003, Lynch, who had moved from the FBI to the X-Division later that same week became Reed's partner in solving various cases before she went sabbatical around 2004. By then, he had transferred to the FBI's Pacific Bureau to help expand the X-Division's Pacific wing. When Corwin eventually returned from..wherever he was two and a half years later on March 1, 2006, the nickname "Duke" first came during on the assignment monitoring Corwin after his reinstatement, during which he apparently displayed the specific combination of straight-backed authority and methodical patience that reminded someone of John Wayne. Nobody has confirmed who coined it. It has stuck since then.

Still retaining his by the books demeanor, Duke is one of the Big Five and a major asset. He's no firm believer like Corwin but he has learned to live with the fact that nothing in this world is truly what it seems, like Reed, he is the sceptic to Manalastas's believer. He'll make sure the Division has a steady supply of donuts, coffee and enough morale to keep everybody from being too overwhelmed.

"Putangina, what did you expect when you get sent here to the 51st, a vacation? The amount of cryptids out here in the Pacific is as significant as the mainland and I mean that. Wait till you read about the Rusalki migrations that settled here. A nyet, you can't date them."

Special Agent Sarah Magdalena Manalastas: Senior Field Agent and Pacific Wing Chief Coordinator. Sarah hails from the state of the Pacific and is a third or fourth generation Pacific Rus (her mother is a White Russian emigre descendant). One of the Pacific branch's fastest rising agent, she was first hired as an FBI agent in 2002 and would become part of the X-Division in 2004, Lynch was her partner as they solved cases of the Pacific variety (whether in the islands of the Philippines to the cold shores of Alaska). Her reopening of the Gil Perez file (the one about the teleporting soldier) had been one of the most significant breakthroughs the division had in unlocking the mysteries of the Ahnenerbe's old project. Her ties to the state and its culture means she is well equipped when it comes to knowledge that borders on mystical, from her Orthodox Christian upbringing to the traditions whispered by her elders, on both sides of her blood, Manalastas has pretty much become a vital asset for the Pacific wing in its growth even before Harbin.

Fluent in multiple languages like the rest of her peers (a direct result of America's embrace for polyglots), she can identify a Pacific Rus folk belief's connection to actual paranormal activity (a classification challenge the division had struggled with before her arrival), distinguish between Bangsamoro spiritual practice with anomalous properties and Bangsamoro spiritual practice that is entirely conventional, and navigate the specific category of 51st State phenomena that blend Filipino folk tradition with Orthodox mysticism with Davis American settler mythology into a unique regional paranormal ecosystem that nobody else in the division has her depth on. And she knows good local coffee from the usual consumerist drivel ("Though I can make do with Starbucks, every now and then." - S.M).

"Quentin Roosevelt I laid down the foundations of us Americans embracing being a polyglot. That kind of ability has saved this division's ass numerous times because I happen to learn 17th Century Dutch in one occasion. The amount of weird shit out there? Chances are, they tend to have a dead language inserted in for good measure. And don't get me started on the languages Bigfoot's kin communicates in. A treasure trove is what it is."

Special Agent Artemis Ioanna Gallia-Corwin: Linguistic Analysis & Occult Symbology Chief and Tactical Operations Leader. Artemis Gallia grew up bilingual in English and Dutch, with conversational German from her mother's stories and Dutch family, and developed her linguistic facility through formal academic study in comparative linguistics at Ohio State before FBI recruitment in 1993. X-Division recruited her in 1994 specifically for her ability to work with the Volkist occult documents that the post-Applegate purge had produced --- documents that required someone who could read German, Dutch, and the specific coded language the Ahnenerbe used and who understood from personal family history why the work mattered. And as someone whose mother survived the insanity of the Volksreich's Kaltur erasur programs during WW2, she has had personal stakes, especially against the legacy of the Ahnenerbe.

Though serious, and sometimes joked by her colleagues of having 'traitor vibes' (she blames that damn Chris Carter show), she has remained loyal to both the Division and her family. She has had asked John Corwin to go on sabbatical before his disappearance in 2003, and went sabbatical herself to raise their son before going back to duty by 2015. In her early days, she usually accompanies Corwin in cases when Reed is in the labs and has became the go-to operations leader for tactical operations when they are needed (very rare and if the X-Division comes in guns blazing, that's usually a very bad sign). Along with the rest of the Big Five, she is one of the public faces of the X-Division, though still under the radar due to not being at Harbin at the time.

Known Associates:

"Welcome back to the Derailer Files, if you're listening to this podcast, then you've come to the right place. We got everything here that's been declassified by X-Division like the Antarctic Expedition of November 1945 that Truman greenlit to the really interesting cryptid migratory patterns happening across the world. Stick around and find out what really has been lurking beyond the thinning Veil."

THE DALLAS DERAILERS

Division Category: Civilian Associates — Pardoned 2015 (Obama administration)

They are not X-Division agents. They have never been X-Division agents. They have been alternately prosecuted, monitored, surveilled, briefed, un-briefed, briefed again, classified as assets, declassified as assets, reclassified as civilian associates, and pardoned. Their relationship with the division is the most unusual in its history: they were right about everything before the division confirmed it publicly, which creates an accountability problem that the division has never fully resolved. They are the internet's greatest schizos, conspiracy theorists, hackers & investigative journalists and /x/'s favorite trio of truthers. Formed in 1989 at a Trekkie Convention, their names derives from the odd event of November 22, 1963 when Air Force One was delayed in its flight to Dallas, Texas due to Mechanical problems and the series of oddities during that day. Applegate of course revealed that a rogue cadre of CIA operatives did plan to assassinate President Kennedy and that the derailment of his visit had prevented that. The trio gave the name, because they firmly believe even after Applegate that the Cognoscenti and their goons are still out there, waiting.

The Trio:

Jack Fitzwater "Fitzy" Byers (b. November 22, 1963, Arlington, Virginia)
De facto leader. Son of CIA analyst Evelyn Byers née Bishop, who was one of the career officers who survived the Applegate purge and spent the rest of her career building the institutional firewall that prevented its recurrence. Fitzy inherited his mother's analytical rigor and his father's (a journalist who covered the Applegate hearings) instinct for the story behind the story. He studied political science at Georgetown, worked briefly at the State Department as a CIA analyst, realized the State Department's relationship with strange truth was too managed for his temperament, and founded The Derailers Network with Frohicke and Langley in 1989.

Marvin "Froh" Frohicke (b. March 15, 1958, Detroit, Michigan)
The eldest. His father was a UAW organizer who taught him that power operates through connections most people don't see and that documenting those connections is a civic obligation. He became an investigative journalist in the 1970s, covered both the Applegate investigations (and was present when AG Aquino was nearly assassinated at the footsteps of the Capitol) and the post-Applegate reconstruction era with the specific focus of someone who believed the story wasn't fully told, and formed the Derailers network when he realized the story was larger than any mainstream publication would print. He is the partnership's emotional center — Fitzy provides the analysis, Langley provides the technical infrastructure, and Frohicke provides the conviction that this matters and the connections to the human beings whose lives the phenomena affect. He keeps a collection of Bonsai trees that he takes whenever the trio move to one of their many safehouses across the 53 states.

Richard "Duck" Langley (b. 1970, Syracuse, New York)
Named for Richard Nixon — his parents were among the voters who voted for Nixon in 1968 and named their son accordingly. The nickname Duck was a forum typo from 1994 that he adopted because it was either that or explain it forever, and explaining things forever was less efficient than having a distinctive name, plus was less funnier than Duck as a nickname. He is the Derailers' technical genius: hacker, signal analyst, equipment builder, the person who built the transtemporal signal detection array from commercial components that detected the Jotunn-Devas mothership's early signs six months before X-Division's own instruments confirmed them. His laptop has 47 rubber duck stickers. This is not a coincidence. He and Lynch have been in a low-grade competition about rubber duck count since Lynch noticed his stickers in 2006 and added one to his own kit. Neither of them has addressed this directly. Both of them are aware of the other's count. It is the federal law enforcement community's most unusual ongoing non-conversation.

The White Whales:

"He's been here since that fateful day in Buffalo, September 6, 1901. Whether or not he nudged Czolgosz to miss a point blank shot is just the tip of a mountain of questions we've been asking since then." - PAPID Founding Agent Reginald Corwin.

The White Whale. The first case. America's oldest modern cryptid that predates even the Mothman. Nobody knows who or what he is but he has been called many names; The Man in the Long Coat, the Long Coated Man, America's Conscience, the Samaritan of Buffalo, the Laughing Cossack, the Silent African. And many more.

To the X-Division --- formed in 1921 when they were still known as the Paranormal and Anomalous Phenomena Investigative Division (PAPID), he is Subject Thanatos, LC-001 (Long Coat-001), their white whale who has appeared across history even to the present day, especially after Harbin. And they ask the same questions the Division has been asking like their predecessors have,

What is he?

A Tulpa? A Cryptid? An Alien? Or simply the right man in the wrong place that made all the difference in the world?

The answer is still uncertain. Only that when he does appear, History seems to bend differently or bears witness to something significant.

"She is the Effect to His Cause. Yet she is the far more elusive one between both of them. We've had five official records of her appearance across a century since 1916. And the fifth was when she appeared in Harbin with Him in 2020." - Dr. Eleanore Reed

The other white whale of the Division. A far more elusive figure than even the Man himself. Rarely seen, yet felt regardless. The judgement of a thousand butterfly effects. When she arrives, it usually means she heralds judgment upon the ones who deserve judgement. Or at least, that's how the theories go. In truth, the Woman With the Butterfly Pin, as she has been referred to remains a very enigmatic figure, even more than the Man.

Subject Poiêsis as she is referred to by the X-Division is an enigma, yet it is clear that she is the one trailing after the Man's works. Benevolent like the Man (according to records), her true nature, much like her companion remains a mystery. One X-Division will probably never solve.

The iconic photo of President McKinley ascending the steps of the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York during the Pan-American Symposium, September 6, 1901, shortly before the attempted assassination.

The Man in the Long Coat is seen on the Upper Left corner. The first confirmed sighting of the figure.