A Journal in Jade: The ‘ARCANA’ Diaries — Week Three

ARCANA, the latest alternate reality game (ARG) from the team that created All of Them Witches, kicked off on May 6. Each week, NoPro’s Laura Hess, Blake Weil, and Kevin Gossett will be offering their thoughts on Jade’s story, the brain-bending puzzles, and any other creepy goings-on.

READ WEEK ONE

READ WEEK TWO

Week Three

Kevin

My prediction was right! Well, mostly! This week actually saw the introduction of two (one and a half?) new characters, demonologist Gareth Fitzpatrick and Jade’s sister, Robin. Aside from being an absolute delight, Gareth represented an overt move towards the mystical (and one that set up the swan dive into the supernatural that served as the week’s cliffhanger). He also served as week three’s chief puzzle giver outer, as Jade was slowly and disturbingly coming apart at the seams.

As with previous weeks, these puzzles were a ton of fun and required some old fashioned pen and paper time to work out! This time they were a play upon logic games; each had their own rules as well as a component that connected Gareth’s three puzzles and something that was happening with Jade. Rather unintentionally, I didn’t send the individual solutions to Jade throughout the week, but it only felt like I was missing out on some commentary from her and not any story, which was nice.

Gareth also expanded the world of ARCANA and gave it additional texture separate from Jade’s storyline. This is something that bringing Hadley Meares into the game also accomplished, but in a totally different direction. If you dig into Gareth’s web site, it has some fun and quirky stuff about him and his life. Most impressively, it seems to have come together rather quickly after trolls kept getting a Vimeo account with the puzzle videos taken down. (Instead of letting that be a hindrance, All of Them Witches (the company behind ARCANA) quickly changed course and added an element that enhanced the story even more!) And, if they ever wanted to continue playing in this world, Gareth feels like the perfect connective tissue to bind future stories together.

We weren’t really introduced to the other character but Robin made her first real appearance in the game this week. And what an appearance, she looks just like Jade! She’s not Jade’s ex, as I had believed (and I think many other players had, too), but, instead, her sister. Along with her officially entering the game, Jade answered some questions that had been lurking since the first about what happened with Robin and why she left.

It was a doozy on a couple of levels. First, Jade has been lying to us the whole time and painting Robin as the controlling one, when, as she admitted, it was actually Jade. Second, it was Jade’s controlling nature that made Robin want to leave, and when Robin tried to go, Jade went after her with scissors and locked her in the attic, but Robin managed to escape.

However, according to Gareth’s web site, those very actions are what may have allowed Jade to become susceptible to possession. And there’s that supernatural thing I mentioned earlier. If last week’s horror was home invasion-flavored, this week’s horror went full supernatural. From attic doors slamming on their own to recitations of Latin to white eyes and a terrifying voice, we got it all. It’s a jump from the more naturalistic feel of the early weeks, but a move that actually works for the game because of how tied into Jade’s revelations. She recognizes herself as controlling and may think of herself as a monster, but now she is one. Can she be saved?

Laura

Something awful happened this week. Something woefully foolish and regrettable: I fell behind in ARCANA. (Also, Jade is possessed by an evil demon.)

This week, I serve as a cautionary ARG tale. Much like the college quarter system, if you lag behind in ARCANA, you risk suffocation under an avalanche of information upon reentry. When I dug back in, I was overloaded by the backlog of clues and riddles. An unintentional experiment, this deflated the experience for me. Unlike Netflix binging, ARG binging flattens any space for imagination. Without time in between hints and puzzles, there’s no opportunity to fill that blankness with dread; the game lacks The Blair Witch Project effect: the less that is shown, the more your mind compensates with horrifying imagery. As a result, all suspense and intrigue were lost and I have only myself to blame.

There was also no sense of accomplishment on my part; I solved no riddles on my own. Although I was tickled by Eric Hoff’s performance as the newly introduced Gareth Fitzpatrick (“Runner-up Best Demonologist, LA Weekly, 2011”), the protective sigil labyrinth hurt my brain. After finding his business card in the attic, Gareth’s professional insight was summoned by Jade (and us, the participants), in order to create a protective shield from the evil spirit pursuing her. The sigil’s concentric circles housed “word-scars,” which turned out to be Latin (unveiled in stages and written backwards on Jade’s tarot cards), along with “blood drops” (from the word-scars) assigned to certain letters, and directional “squiggly-wigglies,” which ultimately isolated a final word: “ADPRECOR,” Latin for “invoke” or “beseech.”

Via instructional videos, Fitzpatrick lilted decrees such as, “So as I’ve already demonstrated, the first little squiggly-wiggly is facing directly south. And then the second will be northwest. Third, southeast. Fourth, due east. And we all know to give no credence to that little squiggly-wiggly, don’t we all? You’ve been paying attention. The fifth, north. The sixth goes west, as I have demonstrated. Seventh, northeast. Eighth, southwest. The ninth between five and seven, which is just logical actually.”

WHAT?! No, Gareth, I have not been paying attention.

So I retreated to Slack and sought refuge in the dedicated ARCANA hive mind. Ever faithful, this week I leaned heavily on Ryland Aldrich and Rachel “Rach” Walker. Not only did they provide step-by-step illustrations building out the sigil, they offered a new window into Jade by way of pop culture. Ryland made a reference to the rock band Papa Roach, which confused Jade, who responded with, “roach? doesn’t [sic] sound very relaxing.” In contrast, Rach had an exchange with Jade about HBO shows, revealing Jade’s adoration of True Detective, Season 2 only, which caused nearly as much alarm as Jade’s other online admissions: sleepwalking, screaming in agony, laughing hysterically, and ravenous rose-eating (not a typo).

Perhaps because I failed on the puzzle front, I’m currently more focused on the story, rather than the riddles in ARCANA. There are a number of loose threads: we have yet to revisit the true story of Amos Ratliff (the man who killed two people, allegedly to win back his wife’s love), and there was the introduction of Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, the real-life killers of Pearl Bryan, aka the “Missing Pearl.” How are these murders linked to Jade? When William Hickman, Scott Jackson, and Alonzo Walling were hanged, none of their necks broke; all slowly asphyxiated during their executions. Amos Ratliff, however, was executed by electric chair. I want these particulars to prove meaningful. Thus far, ARCANA has beautifully interwoven historical events with the fictionalized narrative and I’m keen for these adjacent storylines to play an active, concluding role.

A consistent love of mine has been the humor, whether it’s driven by the creators or participants. Week Three escalated the horror, which was exciting. Sometimes the enigmas feel taxing, but the comedy cements the game as wonderful entertainment in this time of COVID-19. With ARCANA, the AOTW team struck a balanced chord with the tone, which can be a slippery slope, and the show possesses enough gravitas counter-weighted with stylized humor. Many entertainment properties seeking this mark miss, but ARCANA couples the two together cohesively like a John Wick of ARG.

For example, the injection of new character Gareth Fitzpatrick has been a boon. In addition to his instructional videos, his website is flush with delightful details: “[Gareth] placed third in the 2003 amateur birding international in Glasgow and is planning to release a series of birding videos to accompany his demonology work once the price of high-def cameras drop.” Armed with an AOL account, he “occasionally performs short-form improv comedy at the ‘Ow My Ribs’ comedy theater.”

On Slack, Bennie Waters cooed about Gareth: “I would do anything for him.” Same, Bennie, same.

Blake

One thing that was mentioned in the lead up to ARCANA was the voyeuristic schadenfreude of watching a social media friend collapse in real time. Up until this week, I didn’t see it, but oh boy did I this week. Jade’s confessions and eventual total descent into gibbering, possessed madness was a glorious sight to behold, and the ARCANA Discord was a delightful galley to munch popcorn with.

Let’s start with that confession about Robin. While we all knew Jade seemed mildly unstable, the fact that she turned out to be an emotionally and physically abusive nightmare before all of this demon nonsense was a real shock. Her utter shamelessness in lying for weeks to the audience, earning cheap sympathy for her tragic tale, makes it all the more effective a betrayal. Linda Blair in The Exorcist was an innocent, playing host to a monster. Here, the lines are blurred. We can have sympathy for Jade still (mine is hard to shake), but now the thrill ride is much more grounded in human drama.

The whole ARG seems to have taken a few pages out of filmmaker Ari Aster’s playbook this week. From the psychodrama between warring family members to the horrifying mirrored shrine/dollhouse Jade set up in the attic, it all felt very Hereditary, with long videos of Jade sobbing and entering manic episodes A few of my friends have complained about blending this more subdued horror aesthetic with the Grand Guignol weirdness of Gareth Fitzpatrick and his summoning circles, but frankly, I love it. It gives a core of pathos while still allowing this to be a fun and diverting ghost story in a stressful time.

This week I was also curious, as someone who focused almost exclusively on puzzles in other ARGs, how ARCANA fared without them. For most of the week, I let others take on the heavy lifting. I just sat back and watched it go. While definitely a more voyeuristic experience than active puzzle solving, it was just as pleasant; the story is so well paced and suited to its medium that it is successful on its own.

What finally broke me to solve puzzles was one that turned out to be my favorite one of the whole experience so far. A torn note from Robin, with codes on each shred, served as a magnificent “final boss” for the week. Each code called back to a previous puzzle, with small nonograms, lyrical clues from “Little Marian Parker,” pigpen ciphers based on Jade’s old week one art, and more. The frenzy of piecing it together and shrieking at its ultimate revelation that “JADE IS THE VESSEL” was some of the most fun I’ve had recently, and the variety of codes used allowed for a unique collaborative deduction.

The one thing hanging over ARCANA is whether they can stick the landing. A handful of major questions need to be addressed in this final week to get my full seal of approval; who edited the video to make sure Jade got fully possessed, and why? What really is “Providence”? And is a bittersweet, if not happy, ending even possible? I can’t wait to find out together.

Predictions for Next Week

Kevin: Lots of pressure after getting my prediction right last week, so now I don’t know what to do! It’s the last week, so I would expect some of the loose ends to be tied up, but that’s too easy. I guess I’ll take an off-the-wall/downer ending guess: Robin returns, possessed-Jade finishes the job with the scissors, and then, like, Jade lets Providence loose into the world. In all seriousness, I’ll take the easy way out and guess that we get a bittersweet ending focused on Jade and Robin that ties the emotional elements of the story together, if not all of the bits and pieces.

Laura: While I lack predictive acuity, I offer a laundry list of questions. Who will help Hadley Meares? Is @veryslyuno / the fox mask-wearer the entity that’s been filming Jade in the attic? Before becoming possessed, was Jade hexxed or hypnotized (what were those intense mood swings)? What role will Robin play? Gareth refuses to perform exorcisms, so will we have another week of sigil building, except this time to expel a demon? Will the AOTW team leave the door ajar for an ARCANA sequel or story continuation? I, for one, am desperately hoping that Gareth’s supreme birding skills somehow tie the entire game together. Or at least that he wins “Best Demonologist” this year from LA Weekly.

Blake: I’m going to guess answers to all my questions. I’m placing my chips, for what they’re worth, on an obsessed Hadley Meares being the perpetrator of the possession, of Providence being identified as a specific Goetic demon, and that sisterly love will ultimately win the day, although the Robin/Jade relationship will be too strained for a full reconciliation. I’m almost certainly wrong on all points, but that’s half the fun, isn’t it?

ARCANA is free-to-play and also accepting donations via PayPal. Arcana is a creation of AOTW: Eva Anderson; Mali Elfman; Eric Hoff; Tommy Honton; and E3W Productions (Aaron Keeling, Austin Keeling and Natalie Jones).

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