![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Changeling Game Summary, 01.27.03 (Part the First)
Hey there, all...
Ran a game of Changeling last night, thought I would write the summaries in short story format so I could get more comfortable with writing that way. I thought the game went pretty well, but the summary isn't very well-written. It's pretty long too; this is only the first part...the second will come later today or tomorrow.
Gabriel Yorke and Jack Black woke up in the same bed today. This was not the normal state of affairs. That much was obvious when the sidhe woke up, looked over to the redcap and asked in the most bewildered voice his sleep-addled brain could muster, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
The redcap was just as confused as Gabriel was. The fact that they were both naked under the same sheets did absolutely nothing to ease the tension. He looked around sleepily, his shock dampened by the slow start of a brain
just put into operation. "I have no idea," he said slowly. "I went to bed in my apartment this morning, and I woke up here."
Both checked the time. It was 12:59 p.m. on what looked to be a bright (too bright) Friday afternoon. That was odd, especially since both of them just went to sleep two hours ago. Neither Gabriel nor Jack were what you would refer to as morning people; they both spent their peak hours around evening or later. Jack owned a nightclub in downtown Fayetteville, and Gabriel had developed the habit spontaneously; he didn't need a job, or schooling, for his livelihood, so he could keep his own hours.
Still, this did nothing to explain the odd time (and place) of their waking up together. Jack checked his watch for the date...August 14th. Wasn't it August *16th* when they went to bed?
The things Gabriel saw outside his apartment made even less sense. The sun was shining with an abnormally oppressive bent, even for the dog days of summer in Arkansas. Everything outside looked like it had been run through over-exposed film, the already muted colors of the industrial district in which Gabriel lived washed out completely under a harsh, stark yellow. There were no cars, no people on the roads today; with the day as hot as it looked, it made sense for people to stay indoors as much as possible. Where were the people that were supposed to be *working*, though?
That's when Gabriel saw them. Five people on the intersection, no more than shadows in the harsh glare of an early afternoon sun. It took sunglasses and a scope for him to make them out with any detail...there were four people, two men and two women, on each street corner of School and Sixth Streets, with a fifth figure -- another man -- standing dead center. He had dark hair, pale skin (that may have been the light though) and a trenchcoat. What was he doing with a trenchcoat in this weather? Gabriel blinked, and they were gone. There had been no evidence of their passing, no clue as to where they went. They just...vanished in the heat.
In the meantime, Jack saw nothing but blackbirds descending on the wilted trees when he looked outside.
The contents of Gabriel's refridgerator and closet kept changing. At first, there was bottled water in the box. Then there was beer. His clothes had been re-arranged again, and the secret door that lead to a freehold under the apartment complex kept disappearing, along with the stash of guns he kept there. On the off-chance the door re-appeared again, both of them squeezed through and into the tunnel. Maybe there'd be answers at the Hogshead Inn.
The Hogshead Inn was a very comfortable place that had been running since before there was an apartment above it. Somehow, there were trods from a few select apartments that lead to the freehold below...and the Near Dreaming. Somehow, Gabriel had scored just such an apartment. Of course, a faerie apartment manager might have had something to do with that.
Jack and Gabriel followed the tunnel until they came to the enormous door that marked the entrance of the Hogshead Inn. There was no doubt that it was a nocker creation; tall enough to dwarf any troll, the gigantic circular door was covered by all kinds of gears, levers, catches and other, unnamable things that beeped, blinked, banged together and pulled apart again. It would have all been very impressive if it could have been opened by something a bit more complex than a turncrank.
The inn inside was much more simple than its door; an enormous room that looked like it could house a well-sized dragon lay before them, all constructed of the same honey-colored wood. The ceiling had to have been a good twenty feet tall, with windows both near the top and the bottom of the establishment. Slightly calmer sunlight filtered through them to give the place a rather cheery appearance, fostered by the fireplace on the opposite side from where they stood. Between them were scores of tables, some round but mostly square, with chessboards etched and colored into the wood of every one. Most of them had cupholders etched as well, and fewer still had small grooves for placing pipes and tobacco. To the left of their entrance stood another one, this one leading outdoors to a thick, old-growth forest. To the right, a bar with eight stools seperated the main part of the inn and the prep area behind it.
This is when the fae knew something was wrong. The Inn was completely empty, which never happened...at the very least, the innkeeper, a boggan by the name of Gwynneth Asholgard, kept herself busy by sampling the supply of ale for the night's festivities. The prep area had been deserted, it looked like; water was left running in the sink, vegetables were half-chopped, and lukewarm tea *and* ale had been left unfinished. That, Gabriel decided, was very unlike Gwynneth.
The pair wandered outside after further inspection of the bar proved fruitless. Gwynneth was standing right outside the door, the hair usually kept up in a neat bun let down and blowing in a wind that rustled the trees. The problem is, that was the only thing that was moving.
Jack waved his hand in front of her face, and got no reaction. Gabriel tapped her on the shoulder, and her arm fell off, splitting in two when it hit the ground and revealing ash inside. The jagged break in her shoulder flaked into ash as well and bobbed in the air before flowing off into the trees.
Something was definitely not right here.
Off the path that cut through the forest outside the Inn, there were more figures to be seen, each of them looking up at a fixed point in the sky with their mouths hanging open. None of them were moving. Some weren't even people, but a pair of legs standing in the undergrowth, flaking ash where a torso should be. Jack knew enough about the Dreaming to not wander off the path, and Gabriel followed his lead. That path was a safe haven, and there was no telling that whatever had happened to these people wouldn't happen to them if they set foot off of it.
They both wondered what could have possibly happened to all of these people.
"Maybe it's a dream," Jack said.
"It's not a dream; it's a wish," came the reply behind them.
The voice revealed itself to be Benjamin Anderson, a kid who had been giving them all kinds of trouble recently. He had the distinct affinity for committing suicide in various places about town, leaving nothing but a single organ behind. His moods swung violently from sullen to enraged, and he had attacked them more than once with little to no provocation.
None of this mattered to Jack or Gabriel now; the day had more than enough surprises for them already, and this one was almost expected by now. "What? What are you talking about?"
"My dad wished this to happen. He wished for death and destruction to come to everyone who caused what happened to him in Fayetteville, but that wasn't enough. Eventually, he wished for the destruction of everyone in Fayetteville."
The boy looked...different from previous meanings. There wasn't the hint of instability in the air around him, but instead a constant, sullen feeling.
"Who's your dad?" Gabriel asked.
"Dr. Cutthisson."
A piece fell into place. Dr. Cutthisson was something of a local legend in northwest Arkansas; a doctor who specialized in juvenile cancer cases, he owned a practice in the woods behind Walgreen's in another part of town. No one knows when this practice existed, though some say it had been in the 60s. No one knows what happened to the roads leading to the building; an unintentional visit there a week earlier revealed that there was no way to get there without walking. What they found there was odder still -- the remains of his patients, all stored and stacked neatly in freezers.
Dr. Cutthisson, it seemed, took the organs of his patients and placed them in formaldehyde jars. He also committed horrific acts on the children, the extent and nature of which is unknown to this day. The very few survivors (if you could call them that) wouldn't talk, and even Benjamin himself shied away from mentioning too much about it.
Eventually, the doctor was caught, stripped of his practice and nearly killed by a decidedly angry populace. He escaped before he could be tried, and to this day, no one knows of his whereabouts, or even if he was still alive.
*Something* was happening around town, though. Several fae had run-ins with Benjamin and other chimera (some had branded them nervosa) in the past few weeks, and as such the rumors of Dr. Cutthisson's re-appearance was spreading through the Kithain's community. Jack, Gabriel and a few others had seen him first-hand, but the meeting was so confused neither of them could have been sure it was more than a dream.
But here was Benjamin Anderson, telling them that the sudden death of all Fayetteville was the doing of this one doctor, his father.
"After Fayetteville, he went to Hawaii, but he couldn't practice there. He became this beach bum, this...party guy, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough for him." Benjamin looked like he wanted to say more, but something was holding him back.
"What about the other children?" Jack had asked. He looked more confused than ever.
"He ruined them, too. He ruined the lives of me and 16 other children."
"Sick bastard," Jack muttered.
"He was my dad." Benjamin shot him a look that was something Jack was more familiar with.
"Doesn't change the fact," the redcap stared back. He looked at the boy until Benjamin looked away.
"Did the other children call him Dad, too?" Gabriel asked. Benjamin shot him a look, too, but looked down. After a moment, he muttered, "I'm gonna go eat something," and skulked off in the direction of the Hogshead Inn.
Jack and Gabriel exchanged glances. "What do we do now?" The redcap looked out of ideas.
Gabriel shrugged and turned to walk the path. "Well, I'm going to Hawaii."
Ran a game of Changeling last night, thought I would write the summaries in short story format so I could get more comfortable with writing that way. I thought the game went pretty well, but the summary isn't very well-written. It's pretty long too; this is only the first part...the second will come later today or tomorrow.
Gabriel Yorke and Jack Black woke up in the same bed today. This was not the normal state of affairs. That much was obvious when the sidhe woke up, looked over to the redcap and asked in the most bewildered voice his sleep-addled brain could muster, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
The redcap was just as confused as Gabriel was. The fact that they were both naked under the same sheets did absolutely nothing to ease the tension. He looked around sleepily, his shock dampened by the slow start of a brain
just put into operation. "I have no idea," he said slowly. "I went to bed in my apartment this morning, and I woke up here."
Both checked the time. It was 12:59 p.m. on what looked to be a bright (too bright) Friday afternoon. That was odd, especially since both of them just went to sleep two hours ago. Neither Gabriel nor Jack were what you would refer to as morning people; they both spent their peak hours around evening or later. Jack owned a nightclub in downtown Fayetteville, and Gabriel had developed the habit spontaneously; he didn't need a job, or schooling, for his livelihood, so he could keep his own hours.
Still, this did nothing to explain the odd time (and place) of their waking up together. Jack checked his watch for the date...August 14th. Wasn't it August *16th* when they went to bed?
The things Gabriel saw outside his apartment made even less sense. The sun was shining with an abnormally oppressive bent, even for the dog days of summer in Arkansas. Everything outside looked like it had been run through over-exposed film, the already muted colors of the industrial district in which Gabriel lived washed out completely under a harsh, stark yellow. There were no cars, no people on the roads today; with the day as hot as it looked, it made sense for people to stay indoors as much as possible. Where were the people that were supposed to be *working*, though?
That's when Gabriel saw them. Five people on the intersection, no more than shadows in the harsh glare of an early afternoon sun. It took sunglasses and a scope for him to make them out with any detail...there were four people, two men and two women, on each street corner of School and Sixth Streets, with a fifth figure -- another man -- standing dead center. He had dark hair, pale skin (that may have been the light though) and a trenchcoat. What was he doing with a trenchcoat in this weather? Gabriel blinked, and they were gone. There had been no evidence of their passing, no clue as to where they went. They just...vanished in the heat.
In the meantime, Jack saw nothing but blackbirds descending on the wilted trees when he looked outside.
The contents of Gabriel's refridgerator and closet kept changing. At first, there was bottled water in the box. Then there was beer. His clothes had been re-arranged again, and the secret door that lead to a freehold under the apartment complex kept disappearing, along with the stash of guns he kept there. On the off-chance the door re-appeared again, both of them squeezed through and into the tunnel. Maybe there'd be answers at the Hogshead Inn.
The Hogshead Inn was a very comfortable place that had been running since before there was an apartment above it. Somehow, there were trods from a few select apartments that lead to the freehold below...and the Near Dreaming. Somehow, Gabriel had scored just such an apartment. Of course, a faerie apartment manager might have had something to do with that.
Jack and Gabriel followed the tunnel until they came to the enormous door that marked the entrance of the Hogshead Inn. There was no doubt that it was a nocker creation; tall enough to dwarf any troll, the gigantic circular door was covered by all kinds of gears, levers, catches and other, unnamable things that beeped, blinked, banged together and pulled apart again. It would have all been very impressive if it could have been opened by something a bit more complex than a turncrank.
The inn inside was much more simple than its door; an enormous room that looked like it could house a well-sized dragon lay before them, all constructed of the same honey-colored wood. The ceiling had to have been a good twenty feet tall, with windows both near the top and the bottom of the establishment. Slightly calmer sunlight filtered through them to give the place a rather cheery appearance, fostered by the fireplace on the opposite side from where they stood. Between them were scores of tables, some round but mostly square, with chessboards etched and colored into the wood of every one. Most of them had cupholders etched as well, and fewer still had small grooves for placing pipes and tobacco. To the left of their entrance stood another one, this one leading outdoors to a thick, old-growth forest. To the right, a bar with eight stools seperated the main part of the inn and the prep area behind it.
This is when the fae knew something was wrong. The Inn was completely empty, which never happened...at the very least, the innkeeper, a boggan by the name of Gwynneth Asholgard, kept herself busy by sampling the supply of ale for the night's festivities. The prep area had been deserted, it looked like; water was left running in the sink, vegetables were half-chopped, and lukewarm tea *and* ale had been left unfinished. That, Gabriel decided, was very unlike Gwynneth.
The pair wandered outside after further inspection of the bar proved fruitless. Gwynneth was standing right outside the door, the hair usually kept up in a neat bun let down and blowing in a wind that rustled the trees. The problem is, that was the only thing that was moving.
Jack waved his hand in front of her face, and got no reaction. Gabriel tapped her on the shoulder, and her arm fell off, splitting in two when it hit the ground and revealing ash inside. The jagged break in her shoulder flaked into ash as well and bobbed in the air before flowing off into the trees.
Something was definitely not right here.
Off the path that cut through the forest outside the Inn, there were more figures to be seen, each of them looking up at a fixed point in the sky with their mouths hanging open. None of them were moving. Some weren't even people, but a pair of legs standing in the undergrowth, flaking ash where a torso should be. Jack knew enough about the Dreaming to not wander off the path, and Gabriel followed his lead. That path was a safe haven, and there was no telling that whatever had happened to these people wouldn't happen to them if they set foot off of it.
They both wondered what could have possibly happened to all of these people.
"Maybe it's a dream," Jack said.
"It's not a dream; it's a wish," came the reply behind them.
The voice revealed itself to be Benjamin Anderson, a kid who had been giving them all kinds of trouble recently. He had the distinct affinity for committing suicide in various places about town, leaving nothing but a single organ behind. His moods swung violently from sullen to enraged, and he had attacked them more than once with little to no provocation.
None of this mattered to Jack or Gabriel now; the day had more than enough surprises for them already, and this one was almost expected by now. "What? What are you talking about?"
"My dad wished this to happen. He wished for death and destruction to come to everyone who caused what happened to him in Fayetteville, but that wasn't enough. Eventually, he wished for the destruction of everyone in Fayetteville."
The boy looked...different from previous meanings. There wasn't the hint of instability in the air around him, but instead a constant, sullen feeling.
"Who's your dad?" Gabriel asked.
"Dr. Cutthisson."
A piece fell into place. Dr. Cutthisson was something of a local legend in northwest Arkansas; a doctor who specialized in juvenile cancer cases, he owned a practice in the woods behind Walgreen's in another part of town. No one knows when this practice existed, though some say it had been in the 60s. No one knows what happened to the roads leading to the building; an unintentional visit there a week earlier revealed that there was no way to get there without walking. What they found there was odder still -- the remains of his patients, all stored and stacked neatly in freezers.
Dr. Cutthisson, it seemed, took the organs of his patients and placed them in formaldehyde jars. He also committed horrific acts on the children, the extent and nature of which is unknown to this day. The very few survivors (if you could call them that) wouldn't talk, and even Benjamin himself shied away from mentioning too much about it.
Eventually, the doctor was caught, stripped of his practice and nearly killed by a decidedly angry populace. He escaped before he could be tried, and to this day, no one knows of his whereabouts, or even if he was still alive.
*Something* was happening around town, though. Several fae had run-ins with Benjamin and other chimera (some had branded them nervosa) in the past few weeks, and as such the rumors of Dr. Cutthisson's re-appearance was spreading through the Kithain's community. Jack, Gabriel and a few others had seen him first-hand, but the meeting was so confused neither of them could have been sure it was more than a dream.
But here was Benjamin Anderson, telling them that the sudden death of all Fayetteville was the doing of this one doctor, his father.
"After Fayetteville, he went to Hawaii, but he couldn't practice there. He became this beach bum, this...party guy, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough for him." Benjamin looked like he wanted to say more, but something was holding him back.
"What about the other children?" Jack had asked. He looked more confused than ever.
"He ruined them, too. He ruined the lives of me and 16 other children."
"Sick bastard," Jack muttered.
"He was my dad." Benjamin shot him a look that was something Jack was more familiar with.
"Doesn't change the fact," the redcap stared back. He looked at the boy until Benjamin looked away.
"Did the other children call him Dad, too?" Gabriel asked. Benjamin shot him a look, too, but looked down. After a moment, he muttered, "I'm gonna go eat something," and skulked off in the direction of the Hogshead Inn.
Jack and Gabriel exchanged glances. "What do we do now?" The redcap looked out of ideas.
Gabriel shrugged and turned to walk the path. "Well, I'm going to Hawaii."