You snap the shots and start to turn around.

It's not weird per se, but you see something that catches your eye.  It's a framed photo hanging on the wall out in the hallway.  You can see it as you turn.

Artie Oskins is a few years younger than he is now. He's standing by a canoe with two other kids.  One of them is a pale girl with hair so blond it's almost white.  She's just a shade away from being an albino.

The other kid is you.

The three of you are standing there, staring at the camera, grinning like you've never had this much fun in your lives.

Tyler stops, staring at the picture for a moment. He almost reaches out to touch it, before remembering he's in a crime scene. A bit freaked out at this picture of something he doesn't remember, he takes a couple of pictures of it as well (to make sure he's got one that's in focus), then turns to hurry for the window. This place is too weird!

He is freaked out, so if dramatically appropriate for him to step on the hair on the way by, feel free to go for it! I don't know what you might've had in mind. I was half expecting it to come to life and attack him when he was getting the picture. ;-) And, I just want to say this whole game is awesome!

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 123):

Thanks.  I'm enjoying Tyler very much.

You back peddle, snapping away and turning.

As you do, you step on the 'hair'.  It seems to catch, somehow sticking to the bottom of your shoe.

As you step, it yanks on the hair.

There's a feeling of tension.  And a loud

"OOOOOWWWWW!"

From out of the socket, appears a sort of squished up ball.  A hair ball.  You realize that it's the top of someone's head.  The 'hair' is acutally hair.  Attached to the top of someone's head.  Who seems to have somehow gotten stuffed into the electrical socket.

The yank from the hair stuck to the bottom of your shoe pulls the head out as far as the bridge of their nose.  The eyes are large and oddly yellow.  They roll your way and blink at you, perhaps surprised.

A muffled voice from inside the socket says,

"Whalll?  Ooo ghonna ghtt me oudda ere o wha?"

Tyler yells in surprise and falls back on the floor, staring at the head for a moment.

He's still young enough that he can accept the weirdness in front of him, however, when it becomes clear they need help.

He pockets his phone, which is still connected to Levi, and tries to pull the head further out of the socket.

"Aw man! You are a life saver! Ow! No, no! Keep going!"

The guy, and it seems to be a guy, starts taking to you once you get his mouth out from the socket.

"Okay. One more big pull and I think my arms'll come out.  I can't tell you how grateful I am man.  No idea how long I been stuck in there.

"Name's Quentin by the way.  Who you?"

"Tyler," he answers, after he's got Quentin sufficiently out, stepping back to give him room. Then his curiosity is released, "How'd you get in there? How'd you fit in there? And why aren't you electrocuted?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:57, Wed 16 Sept 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 127):

"Oh Bro.  That's like the million dollar question."

Quentin is a tall, lanky man.  Maybe in his early twenties.  He has long black hair and a paleness to his skin.  His eyes look like they have cataracts over them.  They're milky colored.  You can just barely see the blue behind them.  Quentin doesn't seem to notice them much.

He's wearing old jeans and a t-shirt.  THUNDER SEVEN! Triumph '85 with some one of those old vintage rock concert logos under it.

Quentin blinks.  "You smell somethin'?

"Anyway.  Last thing I remember, I was walkin' up the stairs to my place.  Was kinda buzzy."

He giggles.

"Maybe too buzzy.  Cos I was about two thirds the way up an' I fell backwards.  I remember thinkin' Oh man!  This is gonna suck!"

He scratches his cheek.  "Then I was in that...wherever that was.  Where was I anyway?  Anyhoo.  I'm out now.  Thanks little man.  I gotta get back to my place and catch some shut eye.  My boss told me I got extra shifts tomorrow."

He looks around.  "How come I'm not on the stairwell?"

Tyler sniffs a little, curiously, at the question, but listens curiously, grins, and says, "You must be a meta. Awesome! Never actually met one before. I bet your power saved you from the fall by… Teleporting you into a power outlet? I don't know."

Then, he starts to move towards the window, and says, "Anyway, the way out is this way. And be careful. We're in the middle of a crime scene, so you do not want to leave any finger prints."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 129):

Quentin blinks.  "Crime scene?"

He blinks again.  Than grins.  "Awesome!  It's like Night Heat!"

He stands.  His limbs seem all gangly, and he lurches forward.  As he does so, you realize something is wrong.  Well.  Wronger.

He's moving like he's got some kind of back injury.  Quentin seems to move almost sideways and seems to have no control over it.  He careens into the wall.

"Ouch!  Damnit!  I must still be buzzy..."

He finally manages to make it to the window, almost collapsing on the sill.

You can now see the back of his head.  It's split open.  You can see the skull.

Quentin blinks at you.  "Hey.  I meant to ask.  How come you're all hummy like?"

"Frak," Tyler says, as he sees the wound.

Heart racing, it takes him a few moments to come up with a plan. There's no way they're getting down the fire escape. He just needs to get them into the hall.

He pulls out his phone again, "Levi? Still there? Are there any cop cars out front?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 22 Sept 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 131):

"Huh?  No.  Why?  What's goin' on?"

"There is someone here who's hurt. We gotta go out the front door. At least into the hall, so I can call an ambulance. Wanted to make sure that wouldn't be anybody guarding the room. I have an idea if there is, anyway."

He moves then to help Quentin up, and tries to support him, "Come on, let's go out in the hall."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 133):

Quentin nods, though the motion seems hesitant.  He seems to be blinking quite a bit.

"...'kay..."

He shambles behind you down the hallway.

The police have taped up the doorway nice and thick.  You have no choice but to knock some of the tape aside to get into the hall.  Quentin stumbles through the tape, waving his hands around like he'd just stepped through a big mass of cobwebs.


At the end of the hall is a set of stairs leading to the upper floor and down to the lobby.  Your phone vibes.

Levi:  Old Dude just went inside.  Should be on the way up

As if on cue, you can hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairway.

Well, there was no denying that someone had gone into the room now, anyway. So, it was on to his backup plan.

"HELP!"

Whoever it was that came up the stairs, he says, "He's hurt his head, he's really confused. He thought he was in a stairwell..."

He has no need to fake his fear for the guy, and he isn't lying yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Tue 29 Sept 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 135):

A tired looking older man is coming up the stairs.  He stops midstair and stares up at you, blinking.

At first his face says, "Huh?".

But he shakes his head as if to clear it, climbs the stairs, walks past Quentin and looks around.  The man looks at you.

"Where is this guy?"

Quentin blinks at you.  "Who you talkin' to kid?"

It seems neither the Stair Guy nor Quentin are aware of each other.  Even though they are standing next to each other.

For once, Tyler's ability to think on his feet fails him. He looks between the two in confusion.

"But... Um, never mind, sorry, guess he's gone," he adds to both, suddenly far more scared. Is he crazy?

He starts to move off towards the stairs, still guiding Quentin since he's not sure what is real.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Thu 01 Oct 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 137):

The old guy stares at you.  "Hey!  You high kid?"

Quentin blinks.  "You high man?"

But he trails after you as you head down the stairs.

Outside, Levi is dithering at the door to the apartment complex.

"Dude!  You high or somethin'? What were you thinkin'?!?"

He stares at Quentin.  "Who's he?"

Quentin makes a sort of mock salute.

"Name's Quentin little dude."

Levi slowly nods.  "Hi."

Levi looks at you.  "Hey...uh.  Wanna catch me up?"

Tyler laughs in relief as Levi sees Quentin, but then nods quickly. "That hair I saw? It was him. He was trapped. But he's hurt. Think we need an ambulance."

He pauses for a second before asking, "And did you text to say someone was going upstairs? Cause I saw someone but he and Quentin couldn't see each other. Maybe there was crazy forensic chemicals in that apartment, made me see things."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:38, Mon 05 Oct 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 139):

Levi looks confused.  "Who couldn't ya see?  The guy comin' up the stairs or Space Case here?"

"Hey Little Dude.  Don't talk about your elders like that."

"If I want to hear from you, I'll buy you a pot brownie, 'kay?"

"Oh that would really hit the spot.  Thanks man."

Levi blinks at him and then looks at you.

"Okay.  Let's walk through this.  You pulled him outta an electrical socket.  He's got a gash on the back of his head that they wouldn't show in PG rated movies cos it looks too gross.  And you wanna take him to a hospital. You sure you ain't high?"

Levi grabs your arm and starts to pull on you.  He looks back at Quentin.  "Hey.  I think there's a cop down the street.  Go ask him to call you an ambulance."

Quentin blinks.  "Wait...where's my brownie man?  Don't tell me you were ruffin' me abotu the brownie!"

Levi looks at you.  "You...you do get that he's dead.  Right?"

Tyler blinks as well and looks back to Quentin for a second. "Ohhh... Yeah, that makes way more sense. I was thinking he had a superpower to travel in power lines or something."

He looks back to Levi and adds defensively, "The only other ghost I've seen only appeared for like a few seconds, he seemed too solid! So, how can we see him but other people can't?"

No longer worried about Quentin, his thoughts return to other weirdness, and he pulls out his phone to show Levi the other picture, "I found this, too. I don't remember this at all!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:47, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 141):

Quentin is standing there, blinking at you.  His eyes seem to lose focus the farther Levi drags you away.  You wonder if he even remembers you after about four meters.

Levi glances at the picture and then at you.  "Yeah?  That's when we went to camp back in...what was it?  Fifth grade?  You remember.  It was the time the counselors made us stay inside because a rabid beaver was rooting around the cafeteria's dumpster.  And you got that rash from your new swimsuit.  How can you not remember that?"

You have not the foggiest idea what he's talking about.

Tyler looks blankly at Levi for a moment and then shakes his head, "Nope, don't remember any of that."

"Let's talk about it on the way home, before cops come and see their tape broken. Man, I feel so stupid!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:16, Sat 10 Oct 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 143):

Levi glances sideways at you.  "Why?  Cos you didn' recognize a dead guy?  You run into many of them?"

He slaps you on the back.  Maybe a little too hard.  Then he does it again, mostly because it is kinda funny.

"Anyway.  Look like he isn't following us."

You lose sight of Quentin as you round a corner.

"You really don't remember Camp Adawaq?  It was like sooooo stupid but still kinda cool.  I mean...rabid beaver.  Right?"

He shrugs.  "It was just...camp.  I dunno what to tell ya.  You really don't remember it?"

Now that you think about it...you don't recall much about fifth grade at all.  Your teacher's name.  The way the classroom smelled.  Who picked on you and who didn't.  None of that is there.

Tyler glances back one last time before they round the corner. He feels a bit guilty about leaving Quentin behind, but he doesn't have any idea how to help him and the idea of his mom catching him talking to thin air convinces him.

"I don't remember it at all. I... Don't remember much of anything that year, though. It's kind of blank, just like whatever happened this summer that we ended up in the hospital."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Tue 13 Oct 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 145):

Levi blinks. "You don't remember the hospital?  That nurse with the really big tits?  I mean the BIIIIIIIIIIG bozoingas?  You would remember her."

He sighs contentedly.  "I do. I remember her."

The two of you walk in the direction of your apartment.  Mom texts you.  She has night class tonight.  There's some mac and cheese or a pot pie in the freezer.  Eat one of those for dinner and fruit only for desert.  No cookies.  She's counted the Nutter Butters in the pantry.

Levi giggles.  "Nuuuuuttttter Butter Par! Tee!  Nuuuuttter! Butter! Par! Tee!" he sings.

"Seriously.  's kinda creepy you don't remember that.  Well.  You didn't miss much.  Except a rabid beaver."

Levi is Levi all the way home.  He goofs on you and keeps trying to get into the pantry to steal the Nutter Butters.

Anything else with this you want to do or say?  If not, I will move us along to...

---

Reggie's place is an end row town house near the Kennedy metro stop.  It's not the greatest neighborhood.  Guys in patchy jeans are rubbing the meth sleepy out of their eyes while a woman with more make up on than a drag queen tries to convince them to let her do things to them for money.

Reggie answers the door.  Without his uniform on, he looks a little rougher around the edges.  Like maybe he should be rubbing the meth sleepy out of his eyes.

But he seems quite sober as he grins and waves you inside.  "Thanks for comin'.  This whole damn thing has me all kinds of screwed up.  You want somethin' to drink?  I think we got Mr. Pibb, Fresca, and some water.  Well.  That's about what we got."

The arm is laid out in an otherwise empty room upstairs.  Reggie has fashioned a work table by laying a few old two by fours across some milk crates.  His tools look like they've been salvaged from a junk pile somewhere.  Some of them are more rust than tool.

But the arm is suprisingly tight.  The material is rough.  You would guess he made the arm by melting down old cans and recasting it.  And the wiring is all salvaged.  But the set up is solid.

He activates the arm, controlling it by a patch to an old Nintendo 64 pad.  The fingers twitch.  The thumb and ring finger begin to rise.  The others look like they want to but don't have the gumption for it.

The palm tries to flap up, but it only shakes.

Reggie's correct.  The problem is the power isn't getting to the various parts in the required voltages.  The arm should work.  It just needs to be rewired.

"Whaddya think?"  Reggie asks, wiping a hand across his mouth.