The Greys¶
The Greys (also Grays, gray aliens, or beings from Zeta Reticuli) are the classic big-eyed gray aliens blamed for the "visitations" at the Roulet house, and the subject of Andrew Howard's firm and sometimes contradicted beliefs about extraterrestrials.
| Type | Entity (alleged) |
| Aliases | Greys; Grays; gray aliens; Zeta Reticuli |
| Abilities | Alleged: lost time, experiments on sleepers, lights in the sky |
| Status | Never confirmed to exist in the campaign |
| First appearance | Roulet Estate 01 |
Description¶
The Roulets' handwritten notebook of sightings, much of it in code, covers several months and ends in the fall of 1992. It lists incidents in which the couple saw Greys out in the woods, saw lights flying over the house, lost time, or were experimented on while they were asleep. The VHS rack includes tapes labelled "September '92 visitation," "May '91 visitation" and "Lights in the sky, July '92" (see Visitation Tapes). After reading the library, Andrew tells Kurt that, "just like the letter said," it is a classic case of two people being abused by the Greys. (Roulet Estate 01)
Andrew's beliefs¶
Andrew is a committed UFO believer who dislikes the Greys. Asked what he knows about them, Rita (as Andrew) answers, "Well, they're not big into consent," and later says she does not want the intruder to be a gray alien "because they're non-consensual perverts." Andrew also says the Greys have been on Earth "for, like, generations upon generations." (Roulet Estate 01, Roulet Estate 02)
His working taxonomy is that Greys have no external genitalia and no nipples, because they do not nurse their young. While giving the police a description for the APB, Rita says as much, and Andre points out that the man Andrew saw in the woods did have nipples, and Andrew shouts "Eh, nipples!" in the middle of a sentence. In Roulet Estate 03, while the police keep asking to see his badge, Andrew rants about whether a gray alien could have a belly button and what that would imply about hybrid breeding. After the gunman at the pharmacy is revealed to be a circumcised human, Dante exclaims, "I fucking knew a Grey wouldn't be circumcised," and Rita adds that Greys have no genitalia and no classic reproductive characteristics. (Roulet Estate 02, Roulet Estate 03)
The players also compare other alien types at the table. Zack points out that Zeta Reticuli beings are usually the gray aliens, and the conversation turns to the blond "Nordic" aliens and the Hyperboreans. (Roulet Estate 02)
History¶
In Roulet Estate 01, Kurt tells Andrew, "You know that scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, after they've landed and the little guy walks out? I think I just saw him on the roof." Andrew is hungover, paralyzed and starstruck. Later, after glimpsing a low streak of light in the woods, he gives the woods the finger and says, "I hate the Greys. They suck so much." Rita (as Andrew) wonders whether the task force was lured out to Rhode Island by whoever ran the cleanup in Utah, and says she does not think they have done anything to warrant being assassinated by the Greys, since "we didn't piss them off personally, as far as I can tell." The first apparent Grey is the figure on the roof and in the woods; see The Roulet Intruder.
In Roulet Estate 02, Diane complains that "this one seemed like a bastard" and that a species meeting humans for the first time ought to be on its best behavior. Andrew replies that the Greys have been here for generations and are not nice people.
At the Brooks Pharmacy the "gray alien" turns out to be a man in a foam-latex mask. In Roulet Estate 03 Andrew later wonders, in New York, whether he is himself one of "those alien hybrids" and whether his strange dreams are really his father. See also Andrew's Condition.
What remains unknown¶
- Whether the Greys had anything to do with the Roulets' "visitations," or whether the visits were the intruder and the drugged water.
- Whether the lights and eyes in the woods were Greys.
- Whether any real Grey was ever present. The episodes never settle it.