Category:Men in Black

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Also pejoratively referred to as "Blindeyes", the Men in Black are an organization that is active in the Divided States, a domain in the Wartorn Cluster. Its mission appears to be by and large benevolent, as the Men in Black monitor and where necessary suppress supernatural^[1] and extraterrestrial^[2] activity in the Divided States and at least create the illusion that some law and order still exists.

Background

The organization has been active for a long time, since well before the archetype^[3] became a part of mainstream American culture on the world that the Divided States and Vieuxlyons hail from. They were already active in the pre-American civil war era, when they joined hands with the Other to hunt down her son, who had gone insane and turned to cannibalism. After capturing the creature, they saw that he was imprisoned in an underground complex that also served to contain other dangerous creatures.

At some point in history, the Men in Black were engaged in a shadow war with a hostile alien species that would itself become known as the archetypical "men in black" from the Ufology^[4] community's mythos. The terrestrial Men in Black apparently won the conflict, having driven the aliens - as well as other species - to exile on their Earth's moon and stolen much of their advanced technology. In the wake of their enemy's defeat, the Men in Black adopted their general aesthetic, possibly as a matter of convenience, to more easily intimidate people who needed to be kept quiet, but perhaps also because they did not fully understand the technology they now had access to, and could only reproduce rather than reverse-engineer^[5] it.

Current Sketch

Although the jail complex that holds the Other's son and other monsters has since been taken over by a different group, the Men in Black are still active in the Divided States. In the wake of the Big Boom and the disintegration of civil order, the Men in Black "inherited" (read: salvaged) the remaining files of the now-defunct FBI^[6] and CIA^[7]. Presumably, the Men in Black also collected whatever other government agency's files they could scrounge or steal before these could be destroyed. They continue to monitor for alien activity in the domain, and also investigate crime - both mundane and supernatural. They still monitored the activities of the aliens that now reside on the Wartorn Cluster's moon.

At some point after the American Civil War, the Other became a permanent member of the group. Its true nature does not appear to be public knowledge among the other members, and it does not appear to be in a position of overall command. Its words imply it does have some influence over the group as a whole, however.

In the current age of anarchy, the Men in Black are paradoxically more of a public presence than they were before. They are known to have a base in Philadelphia^[8] (though probably not their true headquarters), and will actively masquerade as agents of the American government, creating the illusion that someone is at least trying to reestablish civil order in the Divided States. While they still generate a good amount of fear as a means to gain cooperation from an often fractious population, the Other claimed that it was making an effort to change the group's modus operandi with an eye to generating the people's trust so that the Men in Black might help to actually rebuild the country.

Characteristics

The Men in Black can be both men and women, who drive in high-class black automobiles and wear black three-piece suits and black sunglasses. Presumably, all of these are augmented with alien technology. Agents of the Men in Black are typically armed with handguns , which would then also be augmented with alien technology. At least one member of the Society of the Wandering Eye mentioned she had never even heard of a Man in Black being capable of using "Magick", implying that they normally rely on technology.

It is revealed during the events of "A Darkness Falls" that the eyes of a fully-initiated Man in Black turn fully black; pupil^[9], iris^[10] and sclera^[11] alike. Whether this is due to a shared Path of Corruption, or a mutation^[12] that occurs due to a ritual initiation (Men in Black visit and view the irradiated ruins of Washington DC from a safe distance), is currently unknown. Even the Other, whose eyes used to be an unnatural shade of blue, had undergone this transformation and needed to cast a quick illusion to have their eyes appear normal.

References