ARG / Project 863

^{Click here to see Syntec’s true logo}  We Own The Future

"I'm in. Are you?"

— Matthias, to the audience at the end of Season 1

On April 25, 2018, a youtuber named Matthias uploaded a video where a pair of keys with the number 863 written on them was found in the ceiling of his team's studio. On June 1 of the same year, another video was uploaded where they found a mini combination safe that opened with those exact numbers and had yet another key inside.

Two years later, a conspiracy is uncovered involving strange chemicals, hidden spaces in the studio, and an abandoned red Mercury Mountaineer that has military tags on it. And keys. Lots of keys. And somehow, someone knew that Matthias and his two coworkers, Sam and Woods, would find all of it.

Has nothing to do with the 863 Program from China or Syntec Industries.

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This series provides examples of:

General

• Arc Number: 863, of course.
• Audience Participation: Viewers are encouraged to leave theories and suggestions on how to proceed on the subreddit r/Matthias Submissions. At the end of Season 1, it's revealed that the audience is the 'fourth subject', after Matthias, Sam, and Woods.
• Because I'm Good At It: There are a few examples found by the team that paints Syphus, as well as his company, in a good light. He's hailed for his brilliance and accomplishments by peers and students alike. He's clearly very good at what he does, and that makes him very dangerous.
• Big Bad: Nelson Syphus
• The Cameo: The show's composer, Michael Badal, has a brief, but important role helping the main three by “cleaning up” an unintelligible audio file enough to hear what is being said.
  • Others around the studio also tend to sporadically show up. Examples like the behind-the-scenes producer, Tanner Malmedal, as well as the series staff writer, Shenelle Trujillo, will make appearances when the threat expands beyond the core group.
• Corporate Conspiracy: Syntec
• Corrupt Politician: Gary Reynolds. Being a government correspondent between the NSA and Syphus, he seems to have little sympathy for the trial patients suffering at Syntec.
• Devoted to You: Deb with Wes. She seems to care about him an awful lot.
• Entry Point: Matthias and his team encounter a couple of keys on the roof of their studio. The keys have the number 863 engraved on them, which comprises the first clue of the game.
• Evil Counterpart: Nelson Syphus to Matthias. Both the audience and even Deb herself have drawn comparisons between the two, both the good and the bad.
• Faceless Goons: Syphus' Phantoms all have their faces covered, whether it be by a simple black ski mask or a gas mask that's constantly pumping them full of serum to keep them alive. However, while being interviewed in jail, Benjamin reveals that he actually isn't under the control of the serum.
• Friend on the Force: John Doe to the team.
• Green and Mean: This seems to be a motif with Syphus.
• Grey-and-Black Morality: Deb and the undercover officer are both presented as shady and often condescending, and Deb is eventually revealed to have planned to murder Syphus, but by the end of season 1, both are at the very least firmly dedicated to stopping Syphus, seeing him as the greater evil.
• Hollywood Acid: The serum acts like this, having the ability to easily eat through a container and through the floor below.
• In-Universe Nickname: Both Matthias and Woods are nicknames that everyone refers to them by, instead of their real names Matthew and Woodland.
• Likable Villain: Benjamin Cobalt, whom was revealed to be Syphus' main follower, gained quite a following among Subject 4. Many view him as sympathetic or even attractive once half of his mask was removed.
• Logging onto the Fourth Wall: As befitting the genre, several websites provide a closer look into Syntec's operations, like the company website and a website for the Syntec University.
• Mad Doctor: These are very common and actually welcomed at a place like Syntec.
• Mascot Mook: Benjamin Cobalt. His likeness appears on the season 2 soundtrack cover and is the most common cosplay choice for Subject 4.
• Mr. Smith: The undercover officer goes by John Doe when he contacts the Hi-5 employees to keep his identity secret.
• New Season, New Name: Every season so far has had a different subtitle:
  • Season 0: The Key
  • Season 1: Discovering 863
  • Season 2: The Search For The Serum
  • Season 3: The Spire
  • Season 4: Time Is Ticking
• Secret Room: One is found under a staircase. There are also multiple secret compartments sprinkled throughout the studio.
• Series Hiatus: There was an almost three month one between April and June of 2021, between the end of the first season and the start of the second.
• Sinister Car: The Mercury Mountaineer, especially when it's discovered to be the site of Wes' murder.
• Snakes Are Sinister: The Syntec logo is made of snakes, with the heads forming something similar to a radioactive hazard symbol in the center.
• Stalker without a Crush: Syphus's "drones".
• The Conspiracy: The audience seems to think this is the case with Syntec, especially when Matthias visits Benjamin in jail and finds a Syntec pen when signing out.
  • This is been a working theory from earlier seasons as well. John Doe made it clear multiple times that people within the LAPD might be in Syphus' pocket.
• The Stakeout: Many of these happen over the course of the series.
• This Is a Work of Fiction: For a while, fans debated whether or not the series was real. A disclaimer eventually gets added to the content warning at the beginning of the videos, explicitly stating that the series is fictional and that viewers should not "Contact, engage with, or approach anyone or any company not directly linked in the description of confirmed to be part of the story".
• Too Awesome to Use: The Absalate, especially considering its function is still unknown but everyone seems to want to get their hands on it.
• Two Guys and a Girl: The main protagonists throughout the story are Matthias, Woods, and Sam working together to find out the secrets of Syntec together.
• Useless Security Camera: A running gag throughout the show is that Matthias needs to update the studio security from NEST to a brand that actually works.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Syntec is a very corrupt company, but they also founded a popular university dedicated to supporting the "world's brightest minds," and keep a more friendly presence to the general public, with a less intimidating logo◊ to complete the look.

Season 0 —spoilers are unmarked!—

• Cool Key: The series begins when Matthias finding a key labeled "863" in the ceiling of his studio. To say that's what started it all is an understatement.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: The safe that the vials of clear serum was in bursts into flames when it is accidentally dropped down the stairs. What's even more unnerving is that that may have been a safety precaution to begin with.
• Giant Medical Syringe: When Matthias opens up the safe, this is what he finds.
  • To make this clear, this is the safe that was opened up in the middle of the night by the Phantom stalking them after he used a key fob to get inside. And the syringe inside was directly injected into him, if the pained screams over the security footage are to be believed. This is one of the few ways that the serum can be consumed by the body, and it's by way of a 6-inch needle.
• Secret Diary: A black journal is found hidden in one of the back seats of the Mountaineer. However, despite their best efforts, the pages have remained blank.
• Stalker without a Crush: The Phantom to the team. They even find binoculars in the Mountaineer that consists of videos taken of them around the studio.
• What a Piece of Junk: Slightly subverted. The group finds the Mountaineer in poor condition, and it only seems to get worse throughout the series. However, it has proven to be one of the most important clues they have concerning Syntec.

Season 1 —spoilers are unmarked!—

• Abandoned Area: The coordinates the undercover officer gives them brings them to one of these areas, and they find the next case in a nearby abandoned shack.
• Chase Scene: The climax at the end of the season consists of one of these.
• Cutting the Electronic Leash: Matthias throws the phone from Syphus on the ground and then stomps on the parts for good measure.
• Demoted to Dragon: The Phantom that was originally thought to be Nelson Syphus is instead revealed to be Benjamin Cobalt, a very loyal follower to the Syntec founder.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: At the end of the season, Deb reveals that "Phantoms" are recruited to Syphus' side through many detestable ways. He doesn't seem to be picky when choosing his followers, as long as they survive the effects of the serum.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After being locked in their own vault by an invader, Woods realizes how they might be able to get out.
  Woods: We had a room made to put a vault door in! We took a window out so that we could...
  Sam: Ya know, have it secure.
  Woods:... we took a window out.
• Fakin' MacGuffin: After being chased into a dead end and given an ultimatum, Matthias brings out the suitcase the pursuer is after and opens it to reveal that it's empty. Woods had the real one, and turned it over to the undercover cop.
• Hidden Villain: After it's revealed that the "Phantom" that had been tormenting the team was, in fact, NOT Syphus but just one of his drones, it catches the team a bit off-guard.
  • The chilling fact that they haven't even met the real Nelson Syphus is not lost on Matthias, as it takes a few seconds for him to move on.
• Ominously Open Door: As the team looks around blue base to find the source of the security alert, they find the door to the vault is open.
• Public Secret Message: The undercover officer thinks his emails are being watched, so his next email has one of these to keep the information safe. Missing letters in the email can be translated to numbers and put together to make coordinates.
• Secret Room: Matthias and Woods finds one of these under the stairs in red base, hidden by a trap door. It's later revealed that it was Deb's secret office when she was working under the radar to take down Syphus.
  • The server is also tucked in one of these.
• The Chosen Many: After gathering and stumbling across clues that seem to connect them to Syntec, Deb finally reveals that Matthias, Sam, Woods and the audience are actually subjects in Project 863, which is her best chance to take down Syphus.
• The Computer Is Your Friend: The abandoned Apple II under the stairs provides vital information for the team once they manage to turn it on and plug in the correct directory id's. When it's revealed that one of the dsk files is actually Deb, the kinship they've formed with it grows.
  • Which makes it all the more hard to watch when the Phantom smashes it to bits at the end of the season. The group's faces are a mix of shock and heartbreak.

Season 2

• Covert Distress Code: Benjamin Cobalt lets one of these slip when he meets with Matthias.
• Dead All Along: Wesley Nathanial is discovered to no longer be living when the team stumbles across his grave in the middle of a field. The exact location was marked on the underside of the Mountaineer's hood.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: Matthias, Sam and Woods all have different ideas of what to do with the antidote. The tension boils over to them going their separate ways to look for the serum.
• Doomsday Device: The serum bomb at the very end of the season.
• Fantastic Radiation Shielding: In a way. Matthias already has the radioactive serum inside of him, so getting close to the large serum bomb that's pumping out radiation doesn't seem to be all that concerning.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: The Phantom has dozens of these strewn about his makeshift RV laboratory.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After the team is trapped in Syntec Location #3 and faced with the threat of inhaling the serum, Matthias urges Sam, Woods and Quinn to take their antidote quickly. The catch? Woods smashed his earlier in the day, so the antidote he takes is in fact Matt's. This is, of course, done on purpose.
  Sam: Matt, take your antidote. Please.
  Matthias: I never had it.
• I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Deb when she finally confesses to accidentally killing Wes at the end of the second season.
• Joined Your Party: Towards the middle of the season, Bailey Petracek joins the core three in their investigations full-time, graduating from just a character in the background to a proxy for Subject 4.
• Knockout Gas: In the season premier episode, the studio is flooded with gas by the gas-mask wearing drone of Syphus. It ends up knocking out Woods, but he recovers without any ill effect after a firm shake.
• Locked in a Room: This occurs once the team reunites at Syntec location #3.
• Merciful Minion: Subverted when Benjamin breaks into the studio to steal the next coordinates for the serum and takes a cheap shot at Woods, who was wandering around in the smoke looking for people that needed help.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Woods destroys his antidote out of frustration with the situation at hand. However, this ultimately forced Matthias to give up his own in Syntec Location #3 in order to protect Woods from the serum's effects.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Ben gives one of these to Matthias when they finally meet face-to-face.
  Benjamin: You and I, we're the same. You're just better at hiding your mask.
  Matthias: I'm nothing like you.
  Benjamin: Time will tell.
• Oh, Crap!: The team's reaction when they finally watch the full murder tape and see Deb running out of the Mountaineer.
• Poisonous Person: This is Matthias and co.'s main concern after he's hit with the serum bomb in Syntec location #3.
• Professor Guinea Pig: After finding multiple documents in Wes' old desk, it's revealed that Benjamin Cobalt willingly allowed himself to be experimented on.
• Scavenger Hunt: Essentially the main plot for the season: Deb enlists the team to search around the valley for the remaining vials of serum before anyone working for Syphus can get their hands on them.
• The Ending Changes Everything: After deeming Deb a liar that cannot be trusted, Matthias shuts her off the only way he knows how and destroys the server under the stairs before proclaiming that her project is dead.

Season 3

• 10-Minute Retirement: Woods quits after the voices in the walls turn out to be directions that lead to his apartment. However, at his going-away party back at the studio, Matthias manages to convince him to stay until they can get to the bottom of the hauntings.
• Air-Vent Passageway: After the wall explodes, the team finds what looks like a secret duct going through the wall. Matthias, of course, does not hesitate to climb inside and check it out.
• Chalk Outline: The team finds one of these under the floorboards.
• Dead Person Conversation: This is one of the stronger theories for the red writings appearing in the studio.
• Evil All Along: Towards the end of the season, the big climax reveal is that the Double X phantom was Matthias all along, under the control of the REAL Nelson Syphus.
• Heel–Face Turn: Right as Nelson Syphus seems to have won and is preparing the SPIRE in order to brainwash the entire valley, Benjamin Cobalt flips the codes intended to initiate and shut off the tower, effectively turning it off.
• Hostage Situation: Nelson does this with Sam, Woods and Bailey in order to encourage Subject 4 to solve a cipher that he believes will reveal the code that will turn on the SPIRE.
  • When the captured team push back on his plan failing, he does the same thing with Matthias, reminding them that HE is in their friend's head, and they should remember that.
• Hostage Video: Nelson makes a video of his demands for Subject 4 and sends it via Discord. Of course, many of them were not expecting their favorite Youtuber to suddenly make demands such as these from them and the forum itself went crazy instantly.
• Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Subverted. Just before him and Benjamin leave, Nelson grabs the RSD—the easiest way for the team to track the two of them through their radioactive signatures—and smashes it, truly removing any way for them to easily follow and stop them.
• Mind-Control Device: This is shown to be The SPIRE's primary function.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Could be argued that this is why Ben switched the codes on Syphus.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In a way, Nelson Syphus actually helped Matthias in the end. Having turned the SPIRE to 'passive mode', he is in a state in which he cannot be manipulated through the serum inside of him any longer. The team never would have found the SPIRE if it wasn't for Syphus forcing their hand.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Implied, at first. The team had many different ideas as to who might be behind the hauntings at their studio, but there was always something that didn't line up. As time went on, Subject 4 seemed to be getting VERY suspicious of Matthias in particular, since his exposure to the serum. As the season goes on, their suspicions turn out to be well-founded, but not in a way anyone suspected: Nelson fully takes over Matt and holds the team hostage so that Subject 4 will solve the code for him to turn on the SPIRE.
• Take This Job and Shove It: After being forced to record the whispers in the walls for the team and cleaning it up so they could be listened to properly, Michael Badal has finally had enough and quits right after delivering the goods.
• Villain World: Pretty much what will happen if the bad guy wins this season. Nelson wants to be able to control everyone's mind with his SPIRE, and he makes it clear he won't be stopping at the Santa Clarita Valley, nor even Matthias himself.
  Nelson (through Matthias): I don't need him, I have my pick of hosts.Right, Bailey?
  

Season 4

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