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.

Changeling: Bonus Material - Gareth's Place

Since Gareth's apartment seems to be fast turning into Gareth's Home For Wayward Lostlings in our Changeling game, I decided to do up a fancy-shmancy floor plan of the loft space.  I used Florplanner, a really awesome free site that lets you do 2D and 3D renderings of architectural plans.  I do recommend checking it out, as it was really easy to start using, and I intend to do a lot more with it in the future.

But the apartment.  I've had this space kicking around in my head since the game began, although it took a lot of restraint not to make it massive.  I keep having to remind myself that, though the (fictional) building in which Gareth lives is an "artists' colony" which is geared towards low-rent living/working space for otherwise starving artists, I couldn't go all out.  I must say, it was a great creative exercise, and I am much pleased with the result!

The building itself is an old warehouse that has been converted into various types of living and creative spaces from lofts like this to more conventional apartments.  Gareth's flat is about a 660 sq ft, high ceilinged loft space, with a concrete tiled area off the kitchen for with an Ansul hood system for his welding and sculpting apparatus.  There is a regular door as well as a garage-style door to allow for the coming and going of large art pieces and materials.  Conveniently, the main elevator (which in game continuity is an old fashioned grate-style contraption) is right outside his door.  Gareth's home is on the second floor.

An overview of the whole place.  That window in the curtained-off bed space is where they saw the frosty footprint.

The entrance and garage doors.  That's Wally's crash couch in the foreground, and an easel and work bench to the left.

The work area (no good objects for a welder, so it is empty space) and the "bedroom", sectioned off by curtains and a wardrobe.

And from the other side, showing the kitchen, washer/dryer, "living room", and a closet.

Changeling: Session 6

When last we met, our heroes arrived home after a night at the box and began to experience all manner of even stranger strangeness…

Alia falls back to sleep after her strange nightmare and is awoken by a knock at her door.  It is Mia, a fellow working girl, and she looks incredibly rough, as though she’s not been to bed at all and is still intoxicated.  Alia lets her in.  Mia offers her a cricket (marijuana laced with meth) out of an Altoids tin, which Alia declines as she starts making breakfast.  Mia lights up and confesses to Alia that she’s afraid she’s pregnant.  After giving her grief for not using protection while working, Alia asks what she can do to help.  Mia says she’s got no money, not enough for a legitimate clinic at least, but she’ll give Alia what she’s got if she’ll do something to end the pregnancy.  Alia refuses and takes her to a free clinic after helping Mia into clothing other than her tight stained dress. 

Drake is asleep in his apartment.  He is shocked into wakefulness by the sound of automatic gunfire from outside his apartment, spraying his apartment from the street below.  Brick explodes, glass shatters, and holes are peppering his ceiling and floor.  Something ricochets and gets him in his left arm.  After what feels like an eternity, the gunfire stops and tires squeal away, followed by screams from people outside – this is not the sort of neighbourhood where drive-by shootings happen.  Drake rolls out of bed and huddles for a moment until he is sure it is over.  When he hears sirens, he scrambles to get dressed and joins the other building residents in evacuating the building.  On the street, he sees officers entering the building, one uniformed man poking his head out of Drake’s window to view the street.  An ambulance shows up, and Drake eventually gets help for his graze wound while an officer questions him.  

A plainclothes officer named Detective Matthews asks permission to look in Drake’s apartment, as he seemed to be the target, and if there is anyone who might have wanted to harm him?  Drake gives permission – he’s got nothing to hide and the laptop where he does all of his nefarious book-cooking is heavily protected and encrypted.  He makes up some story, not entirely untrue, about calling out Diggles at a bar or club, and that Diggles seemed very upset.  The cop buys the story, says Diggles has been linked to another “act of dramatic violence” recently, and that he thinks he received a big break recently – a new source, better business – something that has given him confidence to step up his game and assert himself.  Drake senses something off in the detective’s story, but goes along with it, saying that he’s got a safe place to stay with family near Buffalo.  He gives Det. Matthews his burner phone number and asks if he can get his laptop.  As the apartment is a crime scene, the detective won’t let him do it himself, but radios up to have someone bring it down.  It takes a lot longer than Drake feels is necessary, though at a brief glance, it appears to be OK.  Drake leaves, getting on a bus and making several changes throughout the borough on his way to Gareth’s loft, shaking the police that were sent after to tail him.

Meanwhile, outside Gareth’s apartment, Wally has just been struck by a taxi.  Thankfully, it was going the speed limit in a residential area, so he’s not terribly injured.  The cabbie gets out of his vehicle with a cry of, “Oh no, not again!”  Goom, still standing just outside of the alley, says that he is a paramedic and that he will attend to Wally.  Wally, of course, will have absolutely none of this, although Goom insists and does a cursory examination of Wally, noting that he’s pretty much just bruised.  The cabbie offers to take Wally to the hospital, or call paramedics, but Wally again refuses help.  He picks up his duffel bag from where it was flung across the street, dismayed to hear his entire Pyrex collection making a cacophony of brokenness.  He brings it with him anyway and begins to limp away.  At this point, Gareth and Alex have arrived streetside and Gareth tries to go after Wally.  Wally ignores Gareth’s requests to just come back inside and continues walking. 

Goom, Alex, and Gareth all return to Gareth’s loft where Goom starts to explain his bandaged face (even revealing his empty eye socket for them – Gareth grabs a beer) but says the full explanation should wait for everyone to be together. Goom sits on Gareth’s couch and begins knitting.  Alex asks what he’s making, and Goom says it is an eye patch.  Gareth is fascinated that Goom knits, and suggests a collaboration for a future art installation.

Wally gets about four blocks away, when he again feels that thrumming in the air, to his right.  He stops, partly because he’s got a stitch in his side, and looks downtown to where the skyscrapers rise.  He sees one of the buildings (he thinks it’s the Chrysler) vibrating and emanating that violet darkness, with tendrils whipping out from the top floors, reaching skyward.  “Motherfucker” he whispers as the pain in his side eases and his violet vision fades.  He looks around – no one else seemed to notice – and begins heading to his apartment. 

Morgan awakens with no incident, has a cup of tea, and checks her messages, seeing all of the back and forth from earlier in the morning and over night about the butterflies and other strange goings on.  She gets dressed and begins to make her way over to Gareth’s.  She and Drake end up arriving at the same time.  Once inside, Drake tells the tale of his morning misadventure, Goom reveals what happened with his dream and waking nightmare, and Alex tells the full story behind the butterflies at the high school.  When he mentions the part about not having a face, something odd happens – everyone in the room sees his facial features disappear.  It is only for a brief second, the blink of an eye, but it definitely happens.  Goom keeps knitting his eye patch in the green red and yellow colours symbolizing Vietnam, stitching “Death” and “Forgotten” on it.

At the free clinic, Mia is refused service, as she is too inebriated to give consent, and there is a good chance that she would lose a lot of blood as a result of said inebriation.  Alia tries to convince them otherwise, but they are steadfast.  She is given the third degree about how serious this procedure is, how critical it is that her friend be sober for this, and what complications may and will arise after the procedure if Mia has sex, continues to use drugs and alcohol, and so forth.  Alia hears and understands, but gives flippant responses and eventually the health worker gives up – bring her in once she’s sober, and they’ll see what they can do.  Alia leaves with Mia, returning to their apartment building in the projects, all the while explaining again and again that Mia has to be sober, and no, she can’t have any drink or drugs until the whole thing is over.  She is finally able to convince Mia to do it by offering to cover her wages while Mia is out of commission after the procedure.

Back in the loft, Gareth has started into his and Wally’s strange encounter from the night before – the “TOUCHED” note, the footprint on the windowsill, the unsettling feeling that they’d missed something.  Goom says he might be able to figure something out, and Gareth gives his permission for Goom to investigate.  While this is happening, Drake examines his laptop and sees fine scratch marks around a USB portal – someone had tried in a hurry to plug in a flash drive, and he knows it had to have been the cops.  Nothing seems removed or damaged, though, and he asks Gareth for a hot glue gun, to fill in the open ports on his computer to prevent future tampering.  He then begins to look up what his doppelgänger has been doing, noting his odd purchases of stock in concrete and steel.  He wonders what his Other is up to – building something?

Meanwhile, Goom has started sniffing around Gareth’s apartment.  Literally – nose to the ground, at the windowsill, going all over the space, tracking almost like a hound.  He goes from the window, across the apartment to the bathroom door (though not in), over to the couch, and back to the window.  He says that is the path the intruder followed, noting that the person stopped in the bathroom door, and paused for a while at the couch where Wally slept, presumably to leave the note, before exiting the way they entered.  He says the  person smelled of sweat and stale beer, he smells metal, like a bunch of body piercings, and blood.  This description doesn’t seem familiar to Gareth or anyone else.

Wally finally makes it back to his apartment, but doesn’t go in.  Parked about a block down is a sleek black limo, definitely out of place for this area, and the back door and window are thrumming violet black.  It starts rolling towards him, and he walks quickly away, turning down a side street.  It changes course and follows.  Wally runs down an alley.  The back door of the limo opens and someone shouts, “Mr. Kim!”  He keeps running.  He dashes into another alley and disposes of his Pyrex shards, keeping anything that managed to make it through the accident.  He circles back around to his apartment.

Back at Gareth’s, Morgan notices something in her pocket that hadn’t been there before.  It is a golf ball sized sphere, dark and shiny, like a large black pearl, and it is cool to the touch.  She hands it to Goom to sniff.  It has no smell.  Not just that, it is the absence of smell.  She recalls from her red door dream that she had put a bottle in her pocket, although it hadn’t been there when she came back to The Box.  This is the same pocket.  Goom picks up a scrap of something from Gareth’s work bench, and has Morgan put it in her pocket; Goom’s theory is that it is a magic pocket.  He adds that it may be best for them to find a new meeting place, if they’re all already being watched, and he offers up his lair as a meeting place, provided no one is opposed to entering a sewer to get there.

Sneaking back to his building, Wally again sees the limo.  This time it is parked directly in front of his building.  Again he turns tail, calling 911, reporting that “There are people threatening me outside my apartment, they’ve been threatening me all day” and provides the address and hangs up, avoiding the area for part of the afternoon. The limo is, of course, still there when he returns.  Giving up, he approaches it with his arms out.  A man wearing a cross between a chauffeur’s outfit and a Nazi SS uniform steps out of the driver door.  His head is shaved and his face is covered in piercings.  “Mr. Kim?” he asks, and Wally nods.  The man pulls out a small box topped with a blue bow and a black butterfly, offering it to Wally, who tells him to put it on the ground.  The man confers with his passenger and then places the box on the street.  He gets back in the limo and drives away, past Wally.  Wally makes sure they’re good and gone before picking up the box.  The butterfly atop it is fake, made mostly of wire.  He brings it up to his apartment where he finds the hole in his wall has been patched and poorly painted.  He shoves as much of his book collection as he can fit into his duffel bag, and then opens the box.

On top is nice parchment with Japanese writing.  (Wally is Korean, but knows some Japanese).  Beneath the parchment are envelopes, each with the name of a person in the abductees group, along with one addressed to “The Woman In White”.  Getting a rough translation, Wally reads the parchment as “Any nice dreams lately?”  He ponders it for a bit before opening his envelope which, like the others, is sealed with a butterfly stamp.  It contains an invitation card with an address, date and time, and instructions to be dressed in “business casual” attire.  He looks up the address.  It is the Chrysler building, and the suite number on the card corresponds to the 75^th floor of 77.  According to the information he finds online, floors 75 – 77 are owned by an unpublished occupant.  The meeting time is at 1:30pm the following Friday – Black Friday.

Changeling: Session 5

When last we met, our heroes were subjected to some supreme mindfuckery inside the surreal night club known as The Box.

After receiving their consolation prize of $500 each, the group departs, going their separate ways.  Alia starts to head off, but Morgan stops her to make brief introductions and to hand her a flyer for their support group, on which Morgan scribbles her phone number.

As he heads down the alley, Wally realises that his nose is bleeding heavily and does what he can to staunch the flow.  He feels that the air seems to be carrying a charge, almost thrumming.  He turns and sees the others making their way, stumbling, down the alley behind him, and everything around him seems shadowy.  The door of The Box, however, seems to be backlit purple, and out of the shadows he sees creeping tendrils of darker darkness.  He turns and runs out to the street and eventually makes his way to Gareth’s apartment, though the entire way he feels as though he is being followed, although the feeling passes once he is in the apartment.  At some point in his travels, the light also returned to normal.

Gareth, Morgan, and Drake all head to a bar that Drake knows to still be open at this time of night. (day?)  For the first two blocks, Gareth feels intense unease, as though something is following him – the same sensation Wally had on his way home.  He looks around and sees nothing out of the ordinary, and after two blocks it subsides.

Goom returns to his lair and drifts off to sleep, where he has another horrendous nightmare.  This time he is in a MASH unit, suffering from some awful jungle virus.  Time passes and as his caretakers argue about what is wrong with him, he receives no treatment and gets increasingly worse.  He feels a throbbing pain in his right eye that only intensifies with time.  Eventually the vision in that eye occludes.  One night he is finally left alone, and, covered in filth and sweat, he rolls out of bed.  He searches the infirmary for a mirror and after registering that he appears to be young and fit as he was when he was in Vietnam, realises that his eye – the actual eye itself – has swollen to several times its normal size.  It is then that his eye explodes, and out of it pour dozens of honey bees. 

Goom awakens screaming and feels a warm wetness on the left side of his face, touching it, his hand comes away with blood mixed with some clear fluid.  There is also a hollow where his left eye used to be, and his eyestalk is lying on the outside of his face.  He feels no pain when he pushes it back into his eye socket, and gets some cloth to tie around his head to keep it in.  He makes his way to a hospital.

Meanwhile at the bar, Gareth, Morgan, and Drake are all drinking and discussing the night, each sharing what they experienced in their vision, although Gareth holds back some details of his.  They are interrupted by two ageing Jersey girls who start trying to hit on Drake and Gareth, completely ignoring Morgan.  When Gareth declines the offer, the girl who had been talking to him starts loudly berating him for being queer, and her friend joins in, prompting Drake to ask the bartender to throw the ladies out.  Gareth thanks him, though says that it is not necessary, he’s dealt with this sort of thing his entire life.  Last call is made and they depart, returning to their respective homes.

Alia goes out on the street trying to scrounge up a John or two so that she can make her money for the night – the guys she had gone to The Box with never paid her in full.  Due to the lateness of the hour (or is it earliness?) she is unsuccessful and only goes back with the $500 from the club.  Her pimp berates her, saying that she’s going to owe him in a big way, and gives her $100 out of the envelope.  Alia goes to her room to sleep, also falling into a fitful dream.  The four guys from the club are there, and they’re all fucking her.  She finds that she keeps drifting in and out of her body, sometimes experiencing it from her normal perspective, sometimes watching from across the room.  The dream turns violent and the first guy, the leader of the bunch, yells at her for leaving him in the club after he’d paid for her, as he starts beating her with a baseball bat.  She is out of her body and crosses the room in just a couple of strides, and tears off the guy’s head with her bare hands.  She sees that her hands have become claws, and she is covered in fur with zebra and leopard markings.  The other frat boys start to scream and run.  Now she’s in a dark hall and the first guy is there, head back in place, with a comically oversized erection, and he looks furious.  She sees that she is abused, bruised and bleeding.  He tries to take another swing at her with the baseball bat, but she lunges and tears his dick off.  The bat explodes against her head.  He runs and she gives chase, gaining on him as he trips over his enormous phallus.  She leaps at him, biting on to his foot and shakes him violently, and then starts consuming him.  Alia awakens suddenly, finding herself on the floor next to her bed, tangled in her sheets.

Alex is at work as part of a crew cleaning a local high school.  He’s mopping the front of the building, where there are several pay phones that line the walls – relics of an older time.  One of them rings, and he goes to answer it.  It stops just as his hand touches the receiver, and another phone across the hall starts ringing.  This dance repeats several times, and each time a phone stops ringing, it dispenses a quarter out of the change slot.  Finally, all the phones start ringing, and Alex lunges to answer one.  On the other end is his daughter, frightened and pleading.  She asks him why she can’t regognise his face, what is wrong with his face?  It is then that he catches his reflection in a window and he appears featureless – hollows where eyes nose and mouth should be – and the hand holding the phone appears to have no fingernails.  His daughter’s voice grows urgent, saying that they’re coming to take her, the same ones that took him, and that he’s got less than a month, begging him, “Don’t go.”  He hears her struggle with something, and there is a chittering sound on the line before the call ends. 

Across the hall, a closet door starts rattling, and when Alex opens it, hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of butterflies come bursting forth, completely covering every surface of the hallway.  The sound of their wings is deafening.  Alex gingerly makes his way through the swarm to a bathroom where he inspects his face which again appears totally featureless in the reflection, and he feels that his skin has gone malleable, with a putty-like texture.  He hears a coworker calling to him, and they begin trying to figure out what to do with all the butterflies, which are apparently very real indeed.  They try to clear them out, though before too long students and staff start arriving on the very confusing scene.  There is also a news crew that shows up to document this bizarre occurrence, and Alex does whatever he can to avoid being seen by the cameras and crew.  He makes his way away from the commotion and messages the group to see if anyone is awake.

When Gareth arrives home, he sees Wally asleep on the couch, a piece of paper folded on his chest.  Gareth gingerly picks it up and sees that TOUCHED is written on it – the same message and handwriting that had been on the back of one of Meagan’s pictures in the old meeting place.  He tires to gently awaken Wally, who comes to with a violent jolt.  Gareth shows Wally the message, and they both notice that the apartment is cold.  Too cold, to the point that they can see their breath.  Gareth begins to inspect the apartment, finding the window nearest his bed is open, with a bare human footprint lingering in the frost on the sill, angled as though it were stepping in.  He combs the room but finds nothing, asking Wally to look around, to no avail.  He inspects the rest of the apartment.  Nothing.  He can’t shake the feeling that he’s overlooking something, and the two of them do not sleep, with Gareth opting to work on an art piece, television turned on to local news to help keep him awake.

At some point during the early daylight hours, Gareth and Wally catch the story about the butterflies at the high school Alex had been cleaning (although they don’t know he was there).  That’s when they get his text message, and Gareth replies that he’s awake and at home.  Alex says he will stop at Gareth’s place on his way home, as he has to tell them about what really happened with the butterflies.

When Alex comes into the apartment, Wally freaks out, as he sees Alex’s visage changing as he moves in and out of shadows.  When he’s in the light, he appears normal, though when he crosses into a shadowy patch of the room, his face looks featureless.  Alex notices the same thing about Wally, although in shadow, Wally looks dead, though still with his face intact.  Both of them say something to Gareth, who doesn’t know what they’re talking about – they both look normal to him, regardless of the lighting.  Wally tries to leave, but both Alex and Gareth caution him, since they don’t know what is going on, and think it is safer to stay.  Wally decides he’s having none of this, and bolts from the apartment out to the street.

Out of an alley next to him emerges a monster.  It is a man, but not a man.  It has one large eye in the middle of its forehead – a Cyclops straight out of an ancient legend.  Wally screams and the thing steps out of the shadows into the sunlight, changing form, and Goom starts to say something to Wally.  In a blind panic, Wally turns and runs into the street where he is struck by a taxi.  Upstairs, Alex and Gareth hear the thud and squealing tires as the car screeches to a stop.

Changeling: Session 4

When last we met, our heroes had successfully gotten information on their missing friend and managed to break into her abandoned apartment to start investigating her disappearance.

Since Gareth's apartment is nearby and is the largest (he's got a decently sized studio flat which doubles as both his living space and his workshop for his sculptures and other art) they all go there.  They discuss the night club that was mentioned in M. Butterfly's letter, The Box, and decide to look it up online.   It is a very weird, decadent, artsy place, and they require reservations in advance - though no mention of a cover charge - and it is heavily implied that guests are to dress to the nines.  The attractions start at midnight, though doors open at 11:30.  The club shuts its doors after 4:00 am.

The group agrees to go that Thursday night, which will give most of them time to find appropriate attire.  Goom offers to scope the club out before, to see what they're getting themselves into.

Wally, who is staying with Gareth after his apartment was destroyed by a police raid, goes to work that night.  It is slow.  The only remarkable thing is a fellow wearing brown trousers, a puffy blue coat, and sunglasses (at night) who comes in to fill a Flonase prescription and leaves his newspaper on the counter.  After he leaves, Wally opens it up.  The headline is about the raid on his building, although scrawled across the page in black Sharpie is the message "Any nice dreams recently?" He folds it and places it with his things.  The rest of his night is uneventful.

Goom goes to The Box that night.  It looks shitty - down a back alley, rusty door, a single unshielded bulb - although leading to it there is a velvet rope and the line that stretches around the corner is full of persons in black tie and other modes of elegant evening wear.  Two imposing bouncers, as wide as they are tall, man the door and patrol the line.  Now and again people are pulled who don't meet the club's standards, and they are sent away.  Others, though, are given a hard look by the bouncer and are allowed to just go in.  By 1:30 am no one else is allowed in and the alley goes quiet.  By 3:00 am, people start filtering back out.  At 3:45 Goom sees some of the people who had received special line treatment come back out, some looking rather ill.  By 4:00 there is only a trickle, and by 5:00 there is no one left.  He never sees anyone come out to lock up, so there must be some other way in and out of the property.

When the sun comes up, the group runs around to find some nice but affordable attire.  The most notable acquisition is, of course, Goom’s; he finds his suit in the garbage behind a costume shop.  It is a plum tuxedo with Liberace levels of ruffles on the shirt, and has patent leather shoes to match.  Dressed to kill, they meet again at Gareth’s flat.

Once in line at The Box, they wait for about 40 minutes before the bounce comes by.  He gives them a quizzical look and opens the rope to usher them through to the door.  A guy in line behind them loudly complains that Goom doesn’t deserve to cut the line.  Wally turns and shouts, “Sir!  That man is a European prince!”  Goom gives an intimidating look, and the man is cowed.

A European Prince

 Inside, the place is decadent and packed with patrons.  None of the group really has any money, but before that can really become an issue some of them are approached (or do the approaching) by flirtatious club-goers and the free drinks flow.  Goom, notably, is swamped by people, although he looks exceedingly uncomfortable. 

Wally senses that someone is watching them.  Looking around, he senses the noise level drop and his heart stops for a moment before it picks up the rhythm of the club.  Not just the music – everything and everyone seem to be moving in a rhythm that they are not aware of.  He knows they must be moving at regular speed, but he’s perceiving it all in this weird deliberate slowness.  He sees a cage full of butterflies burst open as the insects flutter out – some notice them, others don’t.  A big yellow butterfly lands on the bar between Gareth and Morgan.  Wally reaches his finger out to touch it, and as he does, it bursts into a puff of glitter.  He turns to leave and the lights completely cut out.

When they come back up, there is a man on stage dressed in a white suit (no shirt), and with devil horns spirit-gummed to his forehead.  He goes into his welcome spiel.  While this is happening, Wally tries to leave, but is denied by the bouncers, one of whom grabs him and says “It is not your moment.”  Wally opts instead to go up to the balcony, where he sees a young black woman in a tight white dress leaning over the balcony to watch the activities below.  She is with a group of “bros” who don’t seem to really care about her.
Various acts are presented on stage, of varying quality, and over all it is a very enjoyable evening.  Finally the devilish emcee comes back out to announce that the finale has arrived, and that they need a group of volunteers.  Before Gareth can raise his hand to take that invitation, the lights go out yet again.  When they come back up, there are spotlights on each of the abductee group, as well as the woman in the balcony.  Drake, Morgan, and Gareth go up willingly, although there is a bit of a struggle to get the remainder up there.  

When Goom and Alex approach, they start perceiving the crowd in slow-mo, as Wally had, and find they are unable to stop their forward momentum to the stage.  On stage there is a red door in a white frame, nothing more.  The emcee gathers them all around him and whispers, “This is exactly what you came for,” as he opens the door to reveal only inky blackness.  Goom goes through first, followed by Morgan, then Drake, Gareth, the unfamiliar woman, Alex, and finally Wally.  As each of them steps through, they get the distinct feeling of falling.  Wally hears the door slam behind him.

Wally feels a room rush up to meet him, as though he fell into it.  He is in a rustic cabin, roaring fire, the works.  Out the windows he can see that woods surround him.  He is alone.  He curls up on the ground and weeps until he can weep no more.  He notices a black van approaching outside, and when it opens, he sees it has a red interior.  Figures clad in black emerge and start rushing the cabin, so Wally retreats out another door, which leads into a hallway – this cabin is bigger than it seems.  Hearing the men in black entering the house, he steps into the first room he comes to.  It reeks of stale urine and shit, and he can hear someone whimpering inside.  He does not investigate, but goes to try another door.  The next room he opens he is unable to enter, as pouring out of it are teeth.  Dirty brown, diseased and broken, they’re coming with enough force that he’s afraid he’ll get crushed by them.  By this point the men have come into the hall, and they are brandishing syringes with yellow liquid.  Wally sees the red door (the same one from The Box) at the end of the hall, and he manages to wade through the teeth and opens it.  As he passes back through, he hears a voice say, “Soon.  Very soon."

Alex walks through the door and exits onto another stage, and he thinks he can hear the sounds of The Box behind him.  In the audience are strange personages.  Some of them look like trees, others like animals, some others make no sense entirely – his mind cannot reconcile what they actually look like.  They begin to laugh at him, growing ever more hysterical.  On stage with Alex is his doppelganger, known to the world as the famous magician Konstantyn.  The doppelganger puts out the cigarette he’s been smoking and says, “It’s not long now,” as he turns to open a coffin that is sitting open on the stage.  Alex asks, “Where are they?”  “I don’t know, but we’d better get started,” is the reply.  “Started with what?”  “Your trick,” says Konstantyn as he climbs into the coffin and closes his eyes.  The emcee from The Box enters the stage and announces, “His final trick!  The vanishing half a man!” as Alex closes the lid (emblazoned with KONSTANTYN 12/25/13) and begins sawing.  Half way through he hears a whimper and sees blood on the saw.  The audience calms down, and the emcee suggests they’re growing bored.  Alex gives a flourish and opens the coffin for the big reveal.  The body appears un-sawed, although it seems as though Konstantyn ate his gun.  The emcee goes wild, shouting that he discovered Alex, “He’s mine!  He’s mine!” as he ushers Alex back through the red door, and as Alex steps through he notices that the emcee’s devil horns appear real.

Gareth is lying on a scratchy couch, with the smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the air.  He knows this place, has been here before.  It is a therapist’s office, although he can’t quite place it.  To one side he hears beeping, like hospital machinery, and he follows it through the office to a room cordoned off with heavy plastic sheeting.  Inside there are several figures milling about, all wearing big yellow biohazard suits.  Gareth looks down and realises he is also wearing one, albeit with a large red X taped across the chest.  The other people notice him and shake their heads.  He begins following the beeps, when he is approached by the mother of his boyfriend.  She tries to yell, “Your fault,” at Gareth, although between their two hoods, all he gets are the mouth movements.  She then tries to spit on him, to little physical effect.  Gareth turns towards the sound of beeping behind him and begins pulling on the plastic curtains, growing more frustrated.  When the plastic sheeting tears and the heavy material comes down, he falls to the floor next to a hospital bed with a half-skeletal figure on it.  Gareth gets up and sees on the side table a clip board with G.R.I.D. stamped across it.  He looks at the patient and knows it is Sam, although he is so sick and so emaciated he is only partially recognisable.  His lower body is swollen and full of fluid, and looks to be one large bruise.  Gareth reaches out to caress Sam’s face, whispering, “I’m so sorry.”  As he touches Sam, a tear forms and starts spreading down Sam’s entire body, spilling out putrid purple fluid.  Again Sam’s mother is there, now armed with a scalpel, and tries to attack Gareth, again accusing him, “Your fault!  Your fault!”  Desperate, Gareth pushes her away and she falls, and in trying to catch herself, she rips an IV out of Sam’s arm.  No longer receiving whatever pain medication was in the bag, Sam sits up in agony.  Gareth fights back the rising bile in his throat.  He begins backing out to the therapist’s office, and is followed by security personnel with dead eyes and hands going to guns.  He sees the red door to one side, and rushes back into darkness.

Drake is in darkness, although his body is lit as though in natural light.  He stands in the nothingness for a moment before he pitches forward, falling.  Now he is in a Porsche, speeding very fast across a bridge, a phone pole looming ever closer.  Next to him is a hot blonde woman with a blown out hair ‘do.  She purrs to him, “Choose.”  Drake knows her, although he can’t place her.  He hears a wet beating noise coming from the back seat and knows there is someone – something? – back there masturbating.  His steering wheel has a Club device on it, locking it on course.  He vaguely recalls having been a shareholder in that company, way back when.  The driver’s side door is the red door from The Box.  He knows he has a choice to make – stay in the car with the woman and the masturbator, heading dead on for a phone pole, or leave.  At the last second he opens the door and dives through.

Morgan is in a dress shop, trying on a wedding dress.  She knows this is the shop where she was Taken, but the dress is not the right style for when she was taken and when she looks in the mirror, she seems misshapen.  She hears a woman approach from behind her and whisper, “You smell good enough to eat!” followed by a sharp pain in her shoulder.  Morgan turns towards the woman who is wearing a purple prom dress and has blood on her mouth.  The woman licks it off, saying, “Sorry, it just tastes so good!”  She leaves to get another dress.  Morgan hears a whirring sound from elsewhere in the shop and, grabbing a wire hanger for defense, follows it to the main shop area where she sees several other women in prom dresses.  Again Morgan is told that she looks good enough to eat.  She declines the offer of another dress to try, and goes back to the dressing room to change into her clothes.  The back room she ends up in is wet and she sees her clothes on a steel table next to a whirring dentist drill – hence the noise.  As she approaches, she is overcome with the aroma of delicious, fresh gingerbread.  She grabs her clothes, and beneath her shirt on the table is a vial with a golden honey-like substance bearing the label “Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice”.  Morgan pockets the vial.  Turning, she sees the group of women from the shop, all looking at her with predatory eyes while she dresses, and they follow her as she goes out to purchase her dress, all the while standing around her.  She realises that one of them is carrying an electric carving knife and a silver platter.  At the other end of the shop, Morgan spies the red door from The Box, and she tries to excuse herself and starts walking toward it, but the women pursue her.  She runs, but one grabs her leg, bringing her down just feet from the door.  She feels and hears the electric carver cut into her calf, and there is excruciating pain as four inches of her flesh is cut away.  She somehow manages to get up and hobble to the door, where she pitches forward into blackness.

Goom is lying on his back, half immersed in water, and feels as though he’s hundreds of pounds lighter than he presently is.  He smells burnt vegetation, burnt flesh, and the unmistakable odor of Agent Orange.  There is machine gun fire in the distance.  The foliage above and around him is all tropical, all is occluded by thick black smoke.  He can feel holes in his torso and his hands are covered in blood.  Chunks are missing from his legs, and although he is alert, he knows he should not be alive.  He sits up and water runs out of his wounds, an eel wriggling out of a hole in his torso.  He feels immense pain as his jaw, torn apart (by what?  Bullets?  Shrapnel?) , separates from his face and is hanging by a thread on one side.  Every movement he makes causes it to swing, bringing excruciating pain.  He is overwhelmed by the desire to just rip it off, but he resists, and tears a strip of his G.I. uniform to tie it back on.  His blood has now gone tacky and he is surrounded by flies.  There is a small child nearby, naked, but so charred and ravaged by napalm that its gender is indiscernible.  Goom strips his shirt off, intending to clothe the child, and approaches.  The child raises its arms and unleashes an unholy scream as it charges him.  Goom grabs at it, and it wrenches away from him, dislodging its own arm in the process.  The charred bone hand grabs at Goom’s chest, tearing at his pectoral muscle, and a putrid smell comes from the wounds, along with maggots.  Goom tries to fight it, but is distracted by the sound of someone calling for him in the distance.  The child attacks him again, tearing into his lover.  He collapses and the child begins to eat him.  A burst of machine gone fire, gloved hands grabbing at him, dragging him away.  He hands lift him up and he is facing the red door from The Box.  A boot kicks at him, and he falls through into blackness.

Alia is in the alley outside the Box on her hands and knees as though she’d been thrown out.  She is still wearing the same white dress and high heels she’d been wearing that night.  She takes a moment to pick gravel out of her hands and knees and starts walking out of the alley to the street.  Though she’s walking at a normal pace, the street never gets any closer.  She is suddenly aware of a presence behind her, and starts walking faster, to no avail.  When she feels its breath on the back of her neck, she spins around to confront it.  There is nothing there.  Now she is aware of the presence behind her again, between she and the alley way.  She begins running back towards The Box, feeling the presence growing ever closer to her.  The club door is where it should be, but it is not the same metal door, it is the red door she had stepped through just a short while ago.  Not turning to see what is behind her, she sprints towards the door – heels be damned.  Just as she’s sure the thing will get her, she reaches the door and barrels through, stepping into a dark nothingness.

They all come to, suspended over the stage in straight jackets – any injuries they’d sustained during whatever they just went through are no longer apparent.  The Box is devoid of patrons, save for the emcee sitting at the bar, removing his horns, and the two large bouncers who lower the group down and set about undoing their bonds.  As they get up, each is handed an envelope containing five $100 bills.  There are seven shots lined up along the bar – one for each.  Gareth, Drake, and Morgan each drink a shot, and as the others decline, they finish the remainders as well.

The emcee asks how they knew to come to The Box, and Gareth mentions M. Butterfly.  The emcee is not unfamiliar, making familiar but vague references to her even calling her a whore at one point.  Eventually everyone decides they’ve had enough and leave.

Changeling: Session 3

When we last met, our heroes were laying low after a bus exploded in front of their meeting place, and had failed at getting information from a notorious local drug dealer in hopes of finding their missing friend.


Police arrive at the scene, briefly question Alex (who had remained in Starbucks), and send him on his way.  On his way home, Alex purchases a burner phone and activates it.

Wally flees home and sees an unmarked cop car sitting outside his building.  Thinking better of it, he keeps walking and spends a few hours at the library.  When he returns, there is a different car, different cops.  He goes in anyway.  When he leaves for work that night, he again notes the car.  Once at work he calls the pharmacy from his cell phone to listen for weird clicks or other abnormalities, but all seems normal.


At around 6:00 pm, Drake, who is at one of his usual haunts with his friend Luthor, receives a call from Diggles, who apologises for things getting "a little heated", but Drake and his people have clearly shown that they mean business, and he's still interested in whatever Drake had proposed.  He wants to meet somewhere to discuss further.  Drake hangs up on him and messages the group, and they decide to meet in two days to discuss where to go from there.

Anyone watching the news that evening hears only a brief mention of the shooting in the park.  The big story is that officials have a major lead on the bus bomber and Mayor Bloomberg promises that the fugitive will be dead or incarcerated in 48 hours.

At home that evening, Alex receives calls simultaneously on his Verizon and burner phones.  When he answers the burner, his other phone stops ringing.  Again with the clicks and the breathing.  He messages everyone to alert them.

The next night, around 9:00 pm, Wally hears a knock at his door.  Through the peep hole he sees a man of Middle Eastern descent, wearing a red Adidas jacket, yellow shirt, and headphones.  Wally cracks the door, and the guy kicks it in, immediately drawing a pistol, followed closely by a SWAT team.  Notably, the SWAT guys don't aim at Wally but start focusing on his back wall, prepping an infrared camera, and small boxes connected with wire along the wall.  The Adidas guy brings Wally to another room, where they hear a series of cracks, voices, and gunfire.  In the mayhem, the Adidas guy slips a piece of paper into Wally's pocket and tells him that the city will be in contact with the building owner about the damage to Wally's property.  Adidas guy leaves.  Wally's neighbour the next flat over is dead.  Eventually SWAT clears out and is replaced by standard officers, setting up the crime scene.

Wally looks at the paper, which has written in pretty script "Sweet Dreams" and a black butterfly.  While he's trying to make sense of this, an officer tells him that it is apparently OK for him to remain in his apartment.  Wally confronts his landlord, Hank, who is in a panic about their meth production set up in the basement.  (Wally cooks, Hank sells).  Wally can recover the chemistry set, but the product will need to be destroyed.  Hank reluctantly agrees, and Wally goes down to the basement to clean up.

Others who are watching on the news notice in the static footage of the building entrance that Wally walks through the lobby and peeks out.  He is immediately flooded with messages from the group.  Wally sets about disposing of the product, and then heads to work with the PD's blessing.  While at work, he messages back, explaining to everyone what happened. Gareth offers up his shoddy couch as an alternative to sleeping in a crime scene, and Wally replies that he'll likely take the offer.

When he gets off work that night, Wally collects his chemistry set, along with some personal belongings, and brings them over to Gareth's apartment.  Wanting to be open and honest about things, he lets Gareth know what he's brought with him.  Gareth just laughs.  Wally departs for the time being, having only wanted to get the incriminating evidence out of his building; he will spend the night in his own apartment.  When Gareth brings up the What-To-Do-About-Diggles meeting the next day, Wally declines, having forgotten, and asks Gareth to bring him up to speed.

2:00 rolls around, and the group (including Goom) meets at the appointed bar.  Drake reiterates his conversation the other day, and everyone agrees that this is the best current means of getting information on Meagan.  Goom suggests meeting Diggles in an alley in Hells Kitchen, one he knows to have multiple points of egress in the event things go south.  Drake calls Diggles to propose the time (the following day at 2:30) and place.  Diggles is permitted to bring two associates.  He agrees, but comments that the whole thing seems a bit shady.  This decided, the group goes their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Wally is at his apartment, and has fallen into a deep sleep.  He awakens to total darkness, no light whatsoever, although he can hear his alarm clock going off (he hadn't set it).  He finds he can't move his mouth, but the rest of his body is functional.  He hears a rattle from his bedside table.  Freaked out, he bolts from bed, using sense memory to navigate.  The rattling growing louder, he throws open the apartment door only to encounter more inky blackness.  He returns to confront the rattling table, punching wildly at it, breaking things and sending his alarm clock flying.  Frustrated, he runs his hands over his face and feels... nothing.  No eyes, no nose, no mouth.  Indentations where features should be.  He opens the drawer and finds himself looking up at his smooth featureless face - his face is in the drawer.

Not knowing what else to do, he picks up his face and attempts to press it on to his head.  As he does so, there is a knock at the door, and the officer on duty in the other apartment leans in to ask if he is all right, having heard the crashing.  Wally can see, can speak, can breathe.  He reassures the officer, who departs.  Panicked, Wally packs and goes to Gareth's place.  Once there, he tells Gareth about what he hopes was a dream.  Gareth doesn't know what to say.

That same night, Alex awakens to find both his phones indicating text messages.  The one on his original Verizon phone reads, "No daddy don't go".  The burner reads, "Please please find me".

The following afternoon, Drake and Goom set up in the alley, and the others wait in a coffee shop across the way, to keep an eye out.  On time, Diggles shows up with his two massive bodyguards, all emerging from a blue VW Rabbit.

Imagine this swoll ride disgorging this...

Per our GM: "That photo exactly, but with a faux tiger fur over the shoulders and a blinged out 9 mm."

Seeing Goom in an upstairs window, armed, Diggles has his toughs stay back, and approaches with his hands out.  He starts to go into a long winded explanation of his distribution set up, saying they can get anything anywhere, as they are "the Facebook of drugs".  Drake thanks him and says his partners will be in touch, but in a show of good faith, can Diggles provide information about a girl they're interested in?  After being shown a picture of Meagan, Diggles acknowledges he knows of her and gives Drake what he has.  Beyond pumped about what he believes to be prospective new business, Diggles leaves.

Realising that her old place is near by, everyone gathers and heads out.  It is not a nice part of town, project housing.  They knock at her door, hearing music, but there is no answer.  Alex manages to pick the lock, and they enter to find the place ransacked, as though there had been a long fight.  In the centre of the room is a record player, playing an unlabelled LP on repeat.  Alex, Drake, and Gareth hear a flapping noise from the bedroom; upon investigation it is a piece of paper blowing in the air vent, the cover of which had been removed.  The bedroom is otherwise undisturbed.  Getting a boost from Alex, Gareth reaches into the air vent, pulling out a letter and a composition journal.

While the others investigate, Gareth reads.  The letter is from an "M. Butterfly" to "Appledore", dated November 6, 2013 (the group found the scattered pictures on November 7, the current date is November 20).  The letter is heavily existential, written from one abductee to another, referring to those that took them as The Vanishers.  M. Butterfly agrees with Appledore that the Vanishers are watching and will soon be coming for Appledore's friends.  Appledore is admonished for not following M. Butterfly's warnings and M.B. is sure that by the time Appledore has finished reading, (s)he will be gone again.  Still, two pieces of advice are offered: 


1. Stay close to the sky. 
2. Never visit the mole people.

 The composition notebook is Meagan's journal from the past few months.  In it she reveals she returned to her home town, met up and hung out with her "twin" (the thing that looks like her and took over her life).  Among other things, she also mentions a quilt she's had since childhood, which has gone with her everywhere - Gareth sees it on her bed, taking it with the intent of giving it back to Meagan - and which she stole back from her doppelgänger.  She spent some time in California, where she encountered M. Butterly.  While she was travelling, she was the happiest she's been in ages, although she inevitably came back to NYC.  She writes about the group, and seems to grow ever more paranoid.  After a couple of false starts, she finally signs on with a boat (the school at sea), thinking she'll be happiest there - one of them was called the Appledore.  Along the way she also makes a comment that her best camera has been acting up.

She also makes note that M. Butterfly directed her to check out  a club on the lower east side of Manhattan where she might find more information about the Slender Man who took her. It’s some club called “The Box: Theater of Varieties.”  Her final entry, dated November 6 reads, "Wa-right. Went to the Box. Place completely ate my head. Being followed. Scared. New letter from M. Butterfy."

Drake goes down the hall and speaks to one of Meagan's neighbours, an older black woman.  She said that Meagan was nice, but she hadn't heard from her in a while.  Drake makes something up about possible boy trouble, but the neighbour says she had never seen Meagan with a boyfriend.

Before the group leaves, Gareth also collects her camera, the one that had been "acting up".  He takes a shot of the record player, and notes that there are now two pictures on the SD card.

Everyone returns to Gareth's apartment to bring Wally up to speed and to take stock of what they've learnt.