The Circus

My dear sister,

I’m exceptionally proud of your advancement in the program thus far. Your first mission! Hooray!

Yes, a timeline correction does seem like it has world-ending consequences (and indeed it can. I’ve ended the world twice with my own blunders, but thankfully my mentor was able to undo the errors). Believe me though, the guardians wouldn’t have selected you if they didn’t think you were up to it.

Your flurry of panicked questions in your last letter gave me a laugh. So similar to my own when I first started out! But your fears are well-intentioned, so fear not about them ;). As we know, the enemy can attack us from many vectors, and ill-born fears mark us as prey.

To answer your first question, no we can’t just go back and kill him. I’m surprised you even asked this, seeing how you soared through Rudimentary Ethics (with an A- grade, if I recall). Morality and intention aside, even the enemy knows that direct action causes unintended consequences that can lead to complete world destruction. You may be asking, isn’t that what they want? That was my assumption anyway, when I was a trainee. My mentor put it this way: what is a parasite without hosts?

As for your plea `what can I do?` Our mission isn’t complicated, and in that we have an advantage. Where our enemy becomes mired in intricate plots and schemes, we have one goal. To support joy. That true boundless joy inherent in everyone, as you well know it. The forest walks, the lake swims, the breathwork, the music, the countless stories that ballooned your imagination, all your training thus far, was to teach you this one important principle. True joy is our guide. Please, even if things get tough (or perhaps, especially when they do), remember to continue your training.

As far as your fears about them (I’ll not dignify that party with their self-assigned name. My mentor called them `the twisted`, as they took his cultural symbol of well-being - the svastika - and twisted it). Indeed, the twisted operated long before that party and are still a menace today. Though in the time you’re going, they were the most brazen, and most likely to succeed in their grand strategy.

As guardians we must fight them, everywhere and at all times. And this battle takes bravery. It’s our most important virtue and you must decide if you can summon that courage to fight. Even now, as you read this, I’m sure the enemy attacks you, enticing you away from my words. Our battle starts within. Find your true joy, and you will find your discipline, your courage, and the champion you are.

I’ll not begrudge you if you decide you can’t do it, nor will any of the guardians. There are countless ways to serve our mission, and you’ll not be seen as a failure if timeline correction is not for you. But I implore you to deeply consider it, because well, it can be so much fun!

Your brother, always

Ansel

***

My dear sister,

You have no idea how delighted I was to hear you accepted the mission!

No, I have little idea how our machines work. Tachyons and quantum tunneling and the likes are far outside my competency, though we have guardians that find great joy in all that (and thank God we do!). I know that won’t sate your curiosity, so I have sent your questions to my friends in the lab, and they'll contact you shortly with better answers than I can give.

Yes I agree, the journey is quite disorienting. I’m happy to hear you landed at the right time within a few kilometers of the production. I once landed in the middle of a paleozoic ocean and was about to be lunch for a hungry Dunkleosteus. Even our most methodical guardians, our machine makers, get things wrong sometimes.

As per your question, why 1926? It’s one of the most consequential years of our battle. In the time you are in now, the enemy schemes are rapidly unfolding. The Bamberg Conference has concluded, giving full control of the twisted party to that total crank (what my mentor called the funny little Austrian). Even more consequential, is where you are, across the world, with that other little mustachioed tramp. This is where our resistance started in earnest, and it’s of great importance to our cause that his Circus is completed. As you know, the enemy has their own time-operatives at work (with stolen technology of course, as they can’t create anything new). You’ll likely not directly encounter them, as they do their work in the shadows, though you’ll see their influence. I suspect the scratch on the film negative you reported was their workings.

And as for your `anxious thoughts and lingering sense of doom`, this is quite normal when facing the enemy head on. You must remember our most important virtue of patience. (Yes, I know earlier I said it was courage, but if you think about it, courage is a form of patience, and patience a form of courage). Be patient with yourself and others, it’s the best defence against the enemies onslaught.

Remember your mission! Not only to support Chaplin’s joy, but to all those you encounter. Release it from the enemies graspings, within you, and within all. I can feel the weight of your thoughts across time and space, so I plead to you to remember your training and have fun! It’s a comedy about a circus, what could be more fun than that?

Your brother, always

Ansel

***

My dear sister,

So you’ve met the real tramp. Yes, he has a history of misdeeds. And yes, his pursuit and treatment of his wife Lita (especially at her age) cannot be morally defended. Indeed, he deserves all the shame and guilt and loss coming to him (my mentor called this negative karma. In my tradition a similar concept is sin. You’ll have to figure out how to conceptualize this intangible). No, it’s not your job to assuage him of this. And no, the guardians do not absolve his actions by hand-waving it as the doings of the enemy. The enemy does delight in it all, in fact, they gluttonously feed on his misdeeds. But man alone (in the universal sense of man), is responsible for his actions.

I truly understand your misgivings, but you must remember, the production is not solely about him. As I said before, our mission is simple, regardless of how complicated circumstances become. We must try and guide him back to joy. You might be asking why the scoundrel deserves it (as I did when first confronted with a similar quagmire). If so, you’re missing the point. Joy is not a reward or right, as pleasure or freedom is, but rather it’s a foundational state of being. The further the scoundrel is led away from it, the further he’s led from his discipline, and the closer he comes to the enemy’s snares. Remember! There’s no bodied person who is the enemy. Love the sinner, hate the sin, as my tradition says (my mentor had heard this directly from the Mahātma as well. Though he also told me that sometimes, the most compassionate thing to do is to strike a scoundrel's head with your cane to knock some sense into him).

If the little tramp doesn’t seek redemption, even after your guidance, then I don’t blame you for ‘not wanting to be near the lecherous creep’. Every grave conflict has its central dilemma, and whatever path you choose, I have faith that it will be the best one.

Your brother, always

Ansel

P.S. Your account of the monkeys stealing the plate of deviled eggs had me howling!

***

My dear sister,

What terrible news. The fire at the studio was most certainly stoked by the enemy's influence. And yes the divorce will inevitably delay the release. But all is not lost, and no, you haven’t failed. That the little tramp and his lawyers are agreeing to the settlement (which our law guardians say would be the largest awarded by American courts up to that time) shows a first step toward atonement. I know this is your influence working with him. As for Chaplin being in a constant nervous turmoil as you put it, it is fraught with danger yes, as the enemy can now overwhelm him. But this is exactly why the guardians have sent you. You, my dear sister, have shown time and time again your perseverance (our most important virtue), and your ability to stand again when sent to your knees. For it’s in this dark night that he’ll either perish, or rise to see the sun of a new day. Now is the time to employ all your training: courage, patience, focus, and above all the reminder of his joy - to see him through.

That he said that this ordeal has been like “walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys” is a sign of his courage, and where true courage exists, the enemy flees. Though I do hope you have shown him that he invited the monkeys in.

As for the `lurking men with wicked smiles`, you reported seeing shortly after the fire, I doubt they are party to the twisted, though they may be involved with the enemy somehow. Please be careful! If you feel anyone suspects you of being an operative, you must abort immediately. Not only for your own safety, but for the success of our entire operation. The enemy employs hideous means of extracting information. I say this not to scare you, but to remind you to be vigilant. Stay brave, and stay mindful, and you will succeed.

Your brother, always

Ansel

***

My dear sister,

I fear the worst. Headquarters says they haven’t received your last report. My own tachyonichat shows our last transmission eight days ago. I pray it’s only a technical issue. If you somehow see my message, and are in danger, please come back. The guardians are already discussing a contingency plan.

Your brother, always

Ansel

***

Renata, please be alright. Please come home.

Ansel

***

My dear sister!!

Good God, you have no idea of the relief I felt when I saw the little green light pulse on my tachyonichat. Actually, you do! For it must have been the same relief you had when you were finally able to send a message. I want to address everything you said, and I have many questions of my own (like how you tracked down plutonium in 1927!?). But we can get into all of that when you arrive. Yes! You’re coming home. Headquarters has reported that the mission was a success and the earth timeline is stable. Renata, you did it!

I didn’t want to overload you with the consequences of this mission at the outset, but with its success, I want to share with you all the fruits of your achievement. And we will share it all, at the feast already being prepared in your honor. In the meantime, I will give you a few events to read over on your journey home.

First, The Circus will release, and what the studio created (with your immeasurable assistance) will spread lighthearted joy and laughter across the world in a dark and heavy time. Further, Chaplin’s turmoil, and perseverance to see the project through, instilled in him the courage to create The Great Dictator and later state against opposition that "I was determined to go ahead, for Hitler must be laughed at.” Our mission could not be summed up better.

But our battle is not about the individuals, the total cranks and little tramps, but rather the spirit of what drives each combatant. And let me tell you, from your efforts, our spirit landed quite the blow. One of our history guardians regaled me with the story of André Bakale, a man of French-Nigerian descent who was born on the Isle of Mann and deemed too crippled to serve, on account of a clubbed foot and three missing fingers (the latter entirely his own fault, as André loved two things: ship building and distilling rum). Despite his disabilities, André owned one of the largest trawlers ported in eastern Kent, and when the call came for the "little ships” to help rescue the stranded in Dunkirk, he was first in line, insisting he sailed down himself. When he tossed the ring buoys, with twisted airplanes screaming overhead, he shouted to the scrambling soldiers that “You all look like the monkeys swarming the tramp!” (What a triumph of a scene!) It was, on account of the soldier’s laughter, the greatest joke some had ever heard. Especially when retold after a few swigs out of André’s cask.

That laughter, that camaraderie, after failure, after retreat, carried those downtrodden spirits back to Dover. It was the embodiment of what the British press later called the “Dunkirk Spirit”. It is the same spirit that guides us. And it’s the spirit you helped to flourish.

My dearest Renata. I’ve never been more proud of you, and I eagerly await your return.

Your brother, always

Ansel