Changeling: Session 13

When we last met, the Goom-lair came under attack, everyone started hallucinating, and Morgan started dreaming…

Morgan is on the ferry, and the Hand Made Man, possessing the Statue of Liberty, has waded into the Hudson River with its mouth agape, water rushing in, pulling the boat swiftly inward.  As it collides, Morgan awakens with a start, tangled in her blanket on the floor of her apartment.  She texts the group, “Statue of Liberty.  Hand Made Man.”  Looking out her window, she sees two figures in a car parked outside of her apartment.  One figure is taking pictures of her flat.  Morgan opts to carry on normally and not give them anything to use… against her?

Back at the Waldorf, Alia has been raking in the cash, having scored some work off of stranded businessmen at the hotel.  She visits Drake briefly and talks to him about laundering  some of the extra cash she’s been squirreling away, out of sight and mind of her pimp.  She gives him $3000 to start with, not much by Drake’s standards, but definitely something she’d rather keep away from Smoky’s notice.

Wally has gone back to his old apartment complex, where he finds a group of professional movers boxing up his belongings and loading them into a moving van.  When one of them pauses to speak with him, he is promised that they’ll have everything to the new apartment by the end of the day.  Considering he doesn’t have very much to begin with, they’re out in about half an hour.  At a loss, he starts back to his new place, alerting Alex and Goom that there will be movers coming.

Back at Wally’s, Alex and Goom are watching TV and knitting (Goom), when Alex’s burner phone rings.  It is Debbie, his daughter.

“OK, I’m curious.  Who are you?”

“Alex Constant”

“That’s…”

“Messed up, I know.”  As he says this, Alex’s main phone starts ringing, but he lets it go to voice mail.

“Listen, can we meet?”

“Yeah, we can do that.”  His other phone starts ringing again, and again he ignores it.  He and his daughter decide to meet the next day at a Starbucks off of Times Square, around 11:00 in the morning.  As they hang up, his phone rings a third time, and Alex answers it.  It is Debbie again.  She sounds distressed, in tears, says it is dark and cold where she is, and she can hear trains.  She screams, the sound fading as though being pulled away from the phone, to be replaced by heavy breathing.

“Who is this?”  Alex asks.

“You have… our attention,” comes the reply, and the line goes dead.

Alex turns to Goom, who acknowledges that he could hear it on the phone as well, so Alex knows that he isn’t hallucinating things.  He messages the group to let them know, and Morgan chimes in that she has suspicious visitors at her apartment as well.

Gareth has been running around the city, pilfering iron scraps from construction sites and the like.  He’s towing it all home with him in a wagon.  When he gets the messages from Alex and Morgan, he scans the area carefully, but does not notice anyone – or anything – untoward.  When he gets off the freight elevator across from his flat, he notices that his door is ajar.  Carefully stepping into the room, he confronts a youngish guy who is wearing a blue polo bearing an embroidered “Acer Acquisitions” logo.  When questioned, the guy informs Gareth that Acer just bought his building, and as the new owners they are conducting surveys of the residences, and does Gareth have anything to report – leaky pipes, bad heater, loose flooring?  Gareth, highly suspicious and well put off, tells him everything is fine and watches him until he leaves.  Wanting to make sure Kali’s place is not molested, he bounds up the two flights of stairs that separate them.  Not wanting to worry her while she’s still in hospital, he opts to lockpick his way into her flat.

The Acer guy isn’t there, and so Gareth takes the opportunity to clean up the vomit still lingering from Kali’s suicide attempt some days prior.  Without heat, the sick has frozen solid to the floor and toilet, although with plenty of cleaning products and some chiseling, Gareth has it spotless by the time Mr. Acer enters the apartment.  The guy is, unsurprisingly, confused to see Gareth in there, but Gareth just claims he is house sitting, and the guy proceeds with his inspection.  At this point, Gareth does text Kali, although doesn’t let on that he broke in.  Once the guy is gone, Gareth, against what he is sure is his better judgment, messages Drake to ask him to look into Acer Acquisitions.

Drake does some digging and finds that Acer is a brand new company recently formed by one Luthor Grant, and they have recently acquired many buildings in lower-income areas of New York City.  From the looks of it, Luthor is not grouping these buildings together, which would suggest tearing down to gentrify, but rather is seeding the area.  He replies back to Gareth some time later that it, “Looks legit.  Not owned by anyone we hate.  Yet.”  “Yet?” comes the reply.  “Day is young.”

Alex decides that he is going to scope out the Starbucks ahead of time.  Knowing that he (or, Konstantyne) is currently one of the most wanted men in the city, he disguises himself, using a combination of mundane effects as well as his new abilities to alter his appearance.  He leaves, warning Goom of the impending movers and saying he’ll be back.  He finds that the café is not ideal – it only has entrances off the street and no way out the back.  While wandering about the store, he becomes aware that he is being watched by a black van, which is idling with its side door open.  He walks purposefully down the street, and the van creeps along behind him.  Finally, Alex dips into a subway station and loses his pursuers.

A little later that evening, Goom and Morgan are each watching television and catch a TMZ report sensationalizing that Konstantyne has been spotted in Times Square sporting a really terrible disguise.  The NYPD are nowstaking out the Starbucks.  Morgan alerts Alex.

That night, Alia leaves the Waldorf and returns to her regular apartment.  Goom stays at Wally’s, watching the door and cleaning his M16.  Alexis calls Wally and asks if she could come over to his new place because, among other things, he actually has heat.  She’s obviously been informed of some of his new situation (Wally recalls Hank saying that Alexis would be taken care of).  Wally concedes and calls a cab to pick her up.  Shortly after she arrives, meeting Goom, they retire.

Wally dreams.  He is sitting on the couch in his new living room.  There is a knock at the door, quick and reverberating, although a look out of the peep hole does not reveal the visitor.  He does note, however, that the hall is not his apartment hall, but an unknown place with bright red walls, green doors, and dark maple floors.  The knocking comes again, and Wally opens the door to see a kid who he has seen on his floor, although the child is dressed in knickerbockers and other early-century garb.  He is freaking out, babbling about the Hand Made Man, and Wally allows him in.  Just as the kid enters, everything slows to a crawl.  Wally, somewhat lucid in his dreaming, has willed a gun into his hand as he forces the door closed.  Something is pushing back and a figure storms in.

The thing is made of Erector Sets, with a face of bolts and gears.  The kid runs, the erectorman giving chase, paying no mind to Wally, who fires at the Hand Made Man.  One hits, and the thing yells.  Another shot shatters the window, and it bursts into a vacuum, sucking out all three figures.  Wally hangs onto the window ledge as he watches the kid and the Hand Made Man running down the face of the building.  Wally tries to pull himself back into the apartment, but he is fighting gravity, and finally plants his feet on the side of the building, standing upright, and his gun is floating beside him.  He grabs it and shoots again.  Suddenly, Alia is beside him, sitting astride an enormous black horse.  She wears a long feather boa that pools on the building at her steed’s feet.  “Why are you, like, the coolest person I know?”  Wally asks her as he fires another shot, squarely hitting the Hand Made Man, sending it tumbling down the building. 

Admiring his marksmanship, Alia declares, "Giddyup," and gestures with her head for Wally to climb aboard, which he does, coolly leaping onto the horse, sitting behind Alia, as she spurs the beast to gallop after the Hand Made Man.  As they ride, they hear the horse’s hooves breaking windows as it speeds down the building, but there is another noise scraping along with them.  It is the stallion’s enormous phallus, dragging on the ground.

Wally fires again at the monster, sending it flying off the building to crash upward through another structure across the street.  The boy stops running and turns to Wally and Alia.

“You all right, kid?”  Wally asks.

“Why am I here?”

“Are you dreaming?”

“I think so.  Why are you in my dream?  This can’t be all of our dreams.”

Wally and Alia aren’t sure how to answer him.  The kid seems weirded out by the giant horse dick anyway, and says he has to go as he fades out and disappears. 

What I get for searching "comically large horse cock"...

Wally and Alia take a moment to discuss the concept of shared dreams.  Alia decides, what with this being a dream and all, that she will ask the horse his name.  Gareth suddenly realises that someone is talking to him, and replies with the only thing that seems immediately relevant. 

“Oh dear god, I’m a horse.”

Changeling: Session 7

Pre-post warning.  Some of the links here are NSFW.  Click away from this page at your own discretion.

When last we met, the day following their strange night at The Box and beyond continued to be even stranger…

Wally is still mulling over what to do with the invitations received from M. Butterfly when there is a knock at his door.  Peeking out, he sees it is one of his building neighbours, Alexis.  She’s dressed very nicely for work, her hair is up, and her face is plastered with makeup.  He opens the door and she greets him as Edward, the name by which he’s known in the building.  She’s holding out a casserole dish with Fritos on top.  She seems very excited to see him and asks how his apartment has been since the police raid earlier in the week.  They make the stilted small talk of two socially awkward people before he finally invites her in.  She noted that he hasn’t been around the building in a while and she thought, after the debacle wit his neighbour, that he might want some food, so she made him a Frito Pie.  She starts acting really coy, playing with her hair, and he notices a few bruises on her neck and under her arms.  He’s deciding whether or not to comment when his phone rings.

It is Hank, his landlord and drug dealer, and he wants to discuss business.  Since Wally had to take his production kit with him when the police arrived on site, Hank has run out of product and his customers are getting antsy.  He’s not overtly threatening but serious, and Wally suggests they meet in an hour.  When he steps back into the apartment, Alexis has gotten out bowls and silverware and has served up the Frito pie.  He notes that she seems a bit calmer now and they eat and soon wind up on the couch, talking.  When she puts her hand on his knee, giving it a squeeze, he freezes and she freaks out.  She tried to leave, but Wally stops her, saying it is OK, and that it isn’t a big deal.  She breaks down into uncontrollable sobs, and he brings her back into the apartment where she proceeds to cry herself to sleep, head in his lap.

Knowing he has to meet Hank, he gently rests her down on the couch and writes a note saying he has to “see the super about something” but will be back soon.  When he gets to Hank’s office, he notes that he’s been chain smoking and is on edge.  Hank’s “investors” are starting to breathe down his neck, and he wants to know when Wally can have more product.  Wally says two days is realistic, although if he really wanted to push it, he could have it done in a day.  Hank suggests that Wally call in sick to work and get started now; he’ll be expecting product tomorrow, and make sure that there’s some beer for him when he picks it up. 

Wally goes back to his apartment, and when an hour passes without Alexis waking up, he amends his note explaining he has to “run an errand” and leaves his number for her.  He takes what remains of his Pyrex set and descends to the basement where he spends the next several hours cooking.  He checks on Alexis periodically, and sometime after dawn, she’s returned to her apartment, although she’s cleaned their dinner dishes and put away the rest of the casserole in the fridge.  Wally texts the group to say that he’s gotten caught up in things, but he’s received some information and will get it to them soon.  Knowing he’s got the better part of a week’s worth of product ready for Hank, he pops down to the corner store to get some beer.

Meanwhile, back at Gareth’s the assembled group – Gareth, Alex, Drake, Morgan, and Goom – decide it is a good idea to see Goom’s lair so that they know it’s location for future reference, just in case.  Everyone except Drake heads out, as he has had a notion pop into his head about his doppelganger and, feeling he is on to something, he wants to research it further.  The rest of the gang heads out, following Goom into subterranean levels of the city through twisting, turning pathways.  They do note, however, that he’s cleverly and discretely marked the way with brown yarn that blends in with the shadows and dinginess. 

  Eventually they make their way to a heavy metal door, which Goom pulls open.  The interior of Goom’s lair (as he calls it) is shockingly nice.  He’s managed to siphon electrical power from somewhere, and has a fridge, TV, a recliner (with a basket of yarn to one side) and an elevated sleeping area; he even has a small vegetable garden with a grow light.  He offers them refreshments, and everyone takes beer or water while Goom has a glass of milk.  After hanging out for a little bit and marveling at Goom’s ingenuity, they all go their separate ways, Alex heading home to sleep, Morgan returning to her apartment to prepare for work, and Gareth returning to his apartment to update Drake.

Morgan gets dressed appropriately and heads to work to tell fortunes – a small back room in a new-age shop.  The proprietress quickly motions Morgan aside and tells her that people came by earlier saying that they are investigating fraudulent and unlicensed business practices in NYC.  They wouldn’t give any ID or business cards, but kept saying they were with a federal agency.  The “agents” had a very unsettling vibe, and Morgan acknowledges that there have been strange things in the air lately and thanks her for the information, saying she’ll likely take a few days off to see if it blows over.  The woman comments that she’s so unnerved she might close shop early and go home to “pop some Wallies”.  Morgan again returns to her house, changes out of her fortune telling garb, and heads back to Gareth’s.

Alia, having returned Mia to their apartments after the unsuccessful visit to the free clinic, realises that she’ll need to cover both her wages and Mia’s while Mia is out of commission, goes into the city and tries to scrounge up an odd job or two.  She’s able to make $40 washing dishes for a few hours before she has to go to her “real job”.  She’s just been dropped off on a street corner by her pimp, Smoky, and who does she encounter, but Morgan.  She’s a bit suspicious about suddenly encountering this person from the previous night of supreme weirdness, but they chat a bit.  Morgan reminds her of their meetings, and says that they’ll be doing a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the group member’s place the next week, and that Alia is welcome to join them.  Alia says she may, confirming that she’s got Morgan’s contact information, when they’re interrupted by a guy in a sedan pulling up and propositioning them both.  Morgan quickly declines, despite the guy’s insistence, and backs away, leaving Alia to her work.  After the car pulls into an alley with Alia, Morgan continues on her way.

Alia is asked to do a host of freaky shit (vaginal sex, analingus on the John – no condom – followed by tongue kissing).  She agrees, provided that he uses protection when they fuck, and she can use some sort of sanitary wipe on him before she goes down.  He busts out a handful of wet-naps from his glove box (he’s got kids, he says) and they get down to business.

When he gets back, Gareth finds that his apartment has become host to an impromptu chaotic art installation – papers with hasty scribblings, and thread and twine connecting various papers have been taped up around the apartment – and Drake has a mad glint to his eyes. 

Drake's "Art"

 He explains that after looking up what his doppelganger has been doing (investments in concrete and steel) he realized that something must be up and started delving deeper, and the resulting madness is his flow chart.  To cut a very long and involved story to its briefest possible point, Drake explains thus:

He knows that his doppel has business with a hedge fund and investors at Goldman Sachs, though apparently there has been some tension of late, possibly stemming from “Drake’s” poor investments in steel and concrete, which are dying industries in the US.  Recently, “Drake” and others had been involved in lobbying for NY to pass legislation giving preferential treatment to companies that are based out of the state and owned by racial or gender minorities when large contracts are offered for things like rebuilding, city beautification, and so on.  Two of the companies that “Drake” recently invested in fit the bill perfectly (NY based, owned by minorities). There wasn’t a lot of industry in the United States for steel and concrete – most product coming in from over seas – until the September 11^th attacks when the American companies contracted to rebuild the World Trade Center raked in billions.  Were there another disaster that cleared the way for the rebuilding of a new skyscraper, these two companies invested in by Drake’s doppelganger would be perfectly poised to receive said contracts, and he would make a financial killing.  Drake just doesn’t know when, where, or how his doppel intends to pull this off, although it will probably take a decent amount of time before the plan is executed.  Off the top of his head, Drake thinks that the Empire State or Chrysler buildings seems like prime targets.

Gareth is in the process of downing his second beer of the afternoon while listening, and suggests a connection between this plot and the “Christmas Day Massacre” being planned and promoted by Alex’s double, the magician/illusionist known as Konstantyne, which will be going down in just about a month in Times Square.  Both are mildly horrified when they realise that Times Square, while not a high rise, is a large portion of expensive – and more importantly iconic – real estate, and may very well be another potential target, although Drake thinks that the timing is too quick for what he thinks his double’s got planned.  At one point in their discussion, Drake casually touches Gareth on the hand or the arm, and suddenly Gareth feels refreshed, as though he had received a solid night's rest, despite having been strung out on no sleep since well before The Box the night before.  Gareth looks suspiciously at Drake for a moment, but says nothing.  Knowing they need to do away with the incriminating evidence of Drake’s brainstorming, they pile up the papers and string at Gareth’s welding apparatus, turn on the vent hood, crack another beer, and fire away. 

That’s when Morgan gets back, and they fill her in on everything, making sure that all traces are burnt to a crisp.  The rest of the day proceeds without incident.

The following week is fairly mundane. 

Wally tries to get ahead of production for Hank and visits with Alexis again.  He manages to catch her during the week, which has gotten difficult – he thought she had a 9 to 5 job, but has recently been getting in around 2:00 in the morning every day.  They hang out briefly, and she invites him over for Thanksgiving dinner at the end of the week.

Morgan tries to figure out what she’s going to do about work.  The shop that she uses is still under heavy surveillance by whatever suspicious party has taken interest – her host tells her that they’ve been sitting outside in a car each day, although every time she’s tried to call the cops, as soon as she begins dialing, they drive away.  Morgan hasn’t been back yet.

Goom explores the city using his new-found heightened sense of smell and looks into procuring a shotgun on the black market.

Gareth begins having erotic dreams, every night, about the devilish host at The Box.  They’re always frustrating and incomplete, causing him to awaken every morning in an extreme state of arousal, although the memories of the dreams soon fade.  Freaked out by that and what he saw in the red door, Gareth goes to a local free clinic to get tested for HIV.  He also takes time to look up Sam’s family, finding that they moved to Virginia sometime after he died, and that there is still a memorial web page set up for him, obviously dating back to the mid-90s.  The picture on the site of Sam he knows to be one of the two of them, although Gareth has been cropped out.  Following that, he also looks to see what his own doppelganger (a moderately well known artist) has been up to, but only sees that he’s recently had some trouble with a piece overseas.

Drake predominantly spends his week looking for a more permanent place to live, while also continuing to keep tabs on his doppelganger.

Alia spends her week babysitting Mia, trying to get her as sober as possible without going cold turkey, so that she can try again to abort her pregnancy without doing serious harm to herself.  Alia also does what she can to over-earn each night, and working during the day at odd jobs, to cover both her and Mia’s wages for the week.  She also tries to squirrel away some extra money ($50 here, $100 there) for her own, without letting Smoky know.

During the week, through text messages, they determine that the next meeting will be on Thanksgiving and since Gareth has the room and an oven, he’ll host.  Everyone decides what they’ll be bringing, although Wally says he might be a little late.

Alex goes to work as usual, although notes that he has stopped receiving bizarre phone calls and has seen no more butterflies.  The night of November 27^th, he has a strange dream.  He finds himself in a room with stone walls, manacled and chained in a corner.  The room seems to be precariously balanced, and keeps tilting around, causing him to be slammed into the wall, or dangling by his wrists over a black vacuum of space.  His hair is long and stringy and hangs in his face.  The room gives one final lurch, and he falls, free of the manacles, landing in a sewer similar to the spaces that Goom led them through earlier in the week.  He hears a din coming from the end of the tunnel and approaches it.  He hears chanting, which he knows to be in English, but he cannot understand it.  He walks into a massive room with concentric levels of stairs going down, like an amphitheatre.  Sitting in it are thousands of homeless people, chanting, and they all have black orbs for eyes, with flickering candle flames for pupils.  Seven levels down, the space bottoms out at what appears to be a subway track (Alex can see the third rail) with a block of concrete with a stop sign in it to one side.  Secured in the concrete are also the manacles he’d been held with (he just knows it) but in them now is a woman, and he knows without looking that she is his daughter. 

He leaps over the ledge to the first row of the amphitheatre and everyone goes silent and stares at him, flames flickering in their dark eyes.  However, they make room for him and allow him passage down, level by level.  When he makes it to the bottom, he turns to look at his daughter, but finds he is blocked by the red door.  He tries to look around it, but he is compelled by some unseen force that stops him.  Giving every ounce of his willpower, he makes his way around the red door, and all of the people in the seats start hissing at him.  His daughter looks up at him, her face haggard, spent, as he’s never seen her, but when she sees him, a wave of hope washes over her and she starts calling to him.  He starts towards her, the image breaks, and Alex is awake.

The afternoon of Thanksgiving, Wally goes to Alexis’ apartment around 2:00.  He knocks and announces himself, and he hears her call out to wait a minute.  Through the door, he hears a rustle of plastic being shoved into a trash bag, cabinets being slammed shut, and other noises.  Finally the door opens, and Alexis greets him with a puff of flour covering her head and shoulders, though conspicuously none on her apron, and there is a smell of burning coming from the oven.  She lets him in and goes to get dressed, coming back out sans flour.  Wally offers her the pumpkin pie he picked up at CVS, and they sit down to eat what is obviously a meal, portioned for at least ten people, that was picked up at Boston Market.  As before, Alexis is bubbly and awkward, but they fall into a pattern of small talk and comfortable silences.  Wally apologises for having to leave, as he has to go to the meeting at Gareth’s, but she sends him off with Tupperware full of leftovers.  At the door, he kisses her on the cheek.

Wally drops off his leftovers at his apartment, bringing some of them, another CVS pie, and the invitations for the next day with him to Gareth’s.