Occulturation #12 Respite

Day-Week-Month: Werewolf-Incorporeal-Restcha → Pixie-Incorporeal-Restcha

Garsh opens his eyes. His throat and lungs feel like they’re on fire. He looks around and sees that the building he is in does not look the same it did before. It was in poor condition when he first entered through the window, but now it is collapsed and little more than rubble. The walls and roof have fallen. He is covered in grey and white powder. He coughs in the stale air, trying to clear his lungs of the dust that he breathed in. Looking around, he can see Millie is inside with him. He doesn't recall her entering. She isn’t moving. And she appears to be lying unconscious on a person. No, not a person, a Screamer. The person is transparent and dark except for his hands and arms which are opaque and pale. The Screamer isn’t moving. It’s not dead, but it looks like it has no intention of attempting to escape. Why? Is it not capable of moving? Or is it just not willing to take any action? Garesh looks around. There are no helicopters, and it appears to be dark and just after sunset. Garesh takes out his phone to check his phone, it’s Restcha hour of the Ghost quintuple, or in other words, it’s the 3rd hour of the 4th 5-hour period of the day. So it is the 18th hour of the day (6:00 pm). The day is Werewolf (2nd day of the week), the week is Incorporeal (4th week of the month), and the month is Restcha (3rd month of the year). Garesh tries to lift Millie up and wake her, but she is too heavy and doesn’t react to his prodding. He ends up just rolling her on the ground. He pushes her again and again until they’re finally on the grass, which isn’t so coated in dust as the inside.

The Incorporeal inside the house still doesn’t move. He can barely see. Strangely, there are no lights on. No street lamps, no porch lights, just no light at all. He rolls Millie out to the sidewalk, where she finally wakes up. Meanwhile, he hears Willheim clicking on the ground next to him. He can’t really see, but it looks like Willheim is carrying a wooden plank? No, it’s the board with letters to help them communicate with the Incorporeals and teach Millie to write. As Millie gets up, she rubs her eyes and whines tiredly, “Why did you wake me?”

Garesh reminds her, “We need to get the soul-infused tokens from Bowlday’s theater.” That’s when something bumps into his side. It’s a necklace that clicks together. It’s floating in the air held by Willheim. Garesh is confused but he grabs it. It is made of beads and it’s far too long to be useful as a real necklace. It is more than 10 feet long, so it has to be bundled together. “A bead necklace?” Garesh asks aloud. He doesn’t understand where it came from or why Willheim would be carrying it. Millie groggily leans against Garesh’s side and reaches to touch the bead necklace. “You found it.” Millie says almost as a whisper as she closes her eyes, “The soulbeads.” Garesh can’t hardly believe what he’s hearing. This necklace is full of souls? Where did it come from? Did Willheim get it from the theater while he was knocked out? How could he be sure? Millie is an Incorporeal but Garesh is going to need more than just Millie’s word on something like this. Jack flies up to light up the area he is standing in. He can now see that the beads have Screamer sigils etched in them. Most of them are the Screamer sigil for Fey but a few of them have the symbol for Incorporeal. The magnifying glass on the board that Willheim is carrying moves around to spell out “B-E-A-D-S.” Garesh decides that this will just have to be good enough. He can check if they’re real when he reaches Daisy’s There is no way he is going to check out Bowlday’s theater after a close call with the A.S.S.F. flying a helicopter in the area. As he starts walking, he has to hold Millie’s hand to keep her continuing forward. As they walk along the sidewalk, Garesh can see that the houses are nothing but rubble. He remembers that the houses on this block were in disrepair but none of them had entirely collapsed. But now, there were only a few that had any more than a wall or two standing. He wonders what had happened. He also doesn’t know why the Incorporeal in the house he had entered had not killed him. It had attacked him and started sucking away at his life, but it didn’t finish the job.

With Millie almost dragging Garesh to the ground as she sleepily walks along the sidewalk, Garesh decides that maybe they should stop for the night. He’ll have to find a hotel. However, this is a residential area. He makes his way to the nearest bus stop. He can see the stars. It is rare that you can see the stars in the city because of all the lights, but it is strangely dark on this block. Garesh wonders if the bus will even come to this stop with the condition this block is now in. However, shining headlights come towards them from the distance as the city bus slows to a stop to let them on. Garesh helps Millie up the bus and pays the bus driver. Bus driver asks them about their appearance, “You’re covered in the white dust of debris. Did you roll around in the rubble or something?” Garesh isn’t sure how much he wants to tell the bus driver. “The houses here are collapsing. One of them completely fell apart when we got inside.”

The bus driver grimaces. “That’s dangerous. You should stay away from these buildings. They are unstable. A massive Screamer rampaged through this area earlier today. The A.S.S.F. took care of it, but these buildings are not safe to be around.” Garesh and Millie take their seats on the bus. Millie falls asleep almost immediately, leaning her head on Garesh’s lap. Garesh isn’t quite sure where the other Incorporeals are. Jack must be hiding in his lantern or something. There are only three other passengers on the bus. Some of them are asleep. In the light of the headlights, Garesh can see the trail of destruction left behind by the Screamer that the bus driver mentioned. He wonders what sort of Screamer could have done something so devastating. He wishes he could access such powerful Screamers to use against the A.S.S.F. Surely, even they would have a difficult time taking down such a powerful Screamer. And if he had multiple, he would be unstoppable. Unfortunately, he is pretty sure that witches can only control Fey and Incorporeal. And this doesn’t look like the work of any Fey or Incorporeal he has seen. If he had to guess, it’s the work of a Shifter. Shifters are the strongest and most savage of the Screamers. So if this is the work of a Screamer, it must be a Shifter.

The bus slows to a stop and lets Garesh and Millie off by a hotel a few blocks away from the path of destruction. Garesh slowly gets Millie to walk and they make their way to the hotel. Garesh notices that there are not very many houses nearby. This hotel is the only building on an empty road that connects directly with the street that is littered with debris. Now that Garesh thinks about it, he wonders why no emergency vehicles and personnel came to the block that is where the Screamer attacked. Garesh look back to the bus stop where he was dropped off and notices that the road is made of gravel. He hadn’t noticed that before. What’s strange, however, is that there are no tracks where the bus had been. He decides that a bus probably wouldn’t leave much of a trail when driving through gravel. Though, now that he notices that oddity, he can’t find the sign for the bus stop. Garesh knows he must be really tired if he’s having trouble thinking already, so he decides to redouble his efforts towards getting to the front door of the hotel. There are no lights on in the hotel. And the parking lot is empty. He keeps Jack in his lantern, he can hear Willheim disturbing the gravel, and he just assumes that Svartr is following as well. When he gets to the door, he is surprised to see that it is a wooden door with no window, instead of the automatic sliding glass doors that he usually sees at these establishments. Looking through the window next to the door, he can’t see anything because there are no lights on inside. He wonders if this is truly the main entrance. But the archway is here, indicating that this is where he is supposed to go to get a room. But if there are no lights on, is it even open for business. Garesh knocks on the door. Instead of opening, the wooden door slowly melts into a dark brown goop that slowly plops down a drain that seems to have been placed there for this purpose. Then a candlestick jutting from the wall comes alight with dark purple flame. A whole row of them come alight, one by one, all dark purple flames. Garesh doesn’t want to enter the hotel when it is clearly inhabited by Screamers, but the darkness behind him seems to creep closer and he soon finds that he would rather be inside where he can see than outside where he can’t. As soon as he and Millie enter, the doorway closes up as the brown goop surges from the drain and builds up a wall of wood in the doorway.

The front desk lights up with a thick fog that is illuminated from behind with dark purple flames, making the fog appear purple and mystical. The silhouette of a human person. However, as the person walks forward, there is no movement of its legs and it doesn’t bob up and down or rock side to side. It’s arms stay straight down to its sides. As the silhouette comes closer, Garesh can see that the figure is solid but has no face. And the figure is all black. It appears to be a mannequin made of obsidian or some other smooth black material. A quiet voice, almost like a whisper, hums from all the directions, “Bienvenidos a la Felices y Dulces Sueños.” [Welcome to the Happy and Sweet Dreams] The flames flicker from the gentle vibrations of the voice. Garesh is shaking. Due to his shaking, he doesn’t notice the magnifying glass bouncing across the letter board that he is holding in his hands, spelling out the spoken words in Spanish. He is only moments from turning to try and break through the door. But then Millie speaks. “Quisiéramos una habitación para la noche, por favor.” [We would like a room for the night, please] The spirit board does not spell out the words that Millie speaks. Garesh is caught off-guard by Millie’s words and doesn’t run to the door. Instead he turns to see the mannequin slide up to the counter closest to Millie. The whispering voice hums from all directions, “Sí. ¿Una habitación para seis personas?” [Yes. One room for six people?] Millie chuckles a bit. “No, solamente yo y mis...” [No, only I and my…] Millie pauses as if realizing something. Though Garesh can’t imagine what, since he has absolutely no idea what Millie is saying or what the voice is saying. And the mannequin is just standing there, stiff as a corpse, featureless face staring directly at Millie. Millie looks a bit worried as she hesitantly asks, “¿Se permiten mascotas?” [Are pets allowed?] Hushed laughter echoes from the walls around them. And the mannequin quivers a bit. “¡Sí, claro! ¡Ja ja ja! ¿El hombre y los incorporales son sus mascotas? ¡Qué comico! ¡Ja ja ja!” [Yes, of course! Ha ha ha! The man and the Incorporeals are your pets? How funny! Ha ha ha!] The mannequin is shaking. And thumpings slam against all the walls around them. Garesh is getting quite scared now. He fears that Millie may have angered the Screamer. Millie asks, “¿Cuál es el costo en total?” [What is the cost in total?] The voice is still laughing but calms down and answers, “Mascotas cuestan nada. La habitación cuesta una cuenta para veinticinco noches.” [Pets cost nothing. The room costs a one bead for twenty-five nights] The mannequin has stopped shaking and laughter has silenced. Millie is stunned. She asked for one night. She only wanted one night. So she asks, “Venticinco noches?” [twenty-five nights?] The mannequin turns to the wall and reaches out its arm towards the wall. It reaches its stiff, unbending hand through the rotten wooden wall. The hall enters the wall in the same way an arm enters a stagnant pond. Ripples on the wall spread from the point of contact. The hand comes back out clenching a large brass key. It looks like it would fit in one of those old doors that you sometimes see that have big keyholes. The mannequin turns to face Millie, arm outstretched with key in hand towards her. Then the whispering voice sounds right in Millie’s ear instead of from all around. It’s like someone is standing directly to her right. Not in the direction of the mannequin. “Esta llave para su habitación va a desaparecer después de veinticinco noches. La clave para la llave es ‘Le digo, ¡abierta!’” [This key for your room will disappear after twenty-five nights. The code for the key is ‘I say, open!’] As these words whisper in Millie’s ear, the air becomes cold and misty. The air condenses into fog in a perfect rectangle that is the size and shape of a door. The curtain of fog rolls down towards the ground, revealing a hole in the fabric of reality that opens to a luxurious hotel suite. Millie stares at the portal to the decorative hotel accommodations, then she feels a weight in her hands. She looks down to see the key in her hand. She turns to the mannequin, but it’s no longer there.

Garesh is trembling in fear. Millie grabs him by the arm and pulls him to the room. Garesh resists at first but then sees the key in her hands and follows her. As soon as Garesh, Milllie, and the rest of the Incorporeal are all in the room. The foggy curtain closes. None of the doors in the suite lead outside. The only way out seems to be via usage of the key. Millie explains to Garesh that she bought a suite for 25 days. Garesh doesn’t know how she could have done that since she doesn’t have any money. But then as he gets ready for bed, he takes the bead necklace out of his pocket and puts it on the nightstand. He sees that one of the beads is charred black. He decides to count his beads. There are 119 beads, not counting the charred black bead. Garesh can hardly contemplate the significance of the charred black bead before he falls asleep.

Garesh wakes up before Millie. However, he doesn’t know how to use the key to escape. He assumes, or rather he hopes, that the key can somehow allow them to escape the suite. He tries to wake Millie, which he still finds irritating since he is fairly certain that Screamers don’t sleep. Millie doesn’t wake when he shakes her. So he has to wait for her to wake up on her own. While he waits for her to wake up, he writes out his plans for what he will do at Daisy’s Chain. Ystra said it was a corporation that included all sorts of businesses and services. Pretty much anything you could possibly want could be bought at Daisy’s if you had enough money. He doubts that he could pay the Screamers to kill the Council of the Grave. And if he revealed his intention to do harm to the Council of the Grave, he would probably be killed. The Council of the Grave clearly has some sort of evil agreement with the Screamers, since they leave the Outer Villages to be slaughtered by the Screamers even though they have the resources and power to protect them from the Screamers. So he will have to be subtle. He’ll probably seek Ystra's mentor. When Millie finally gets up, Garesh checks his phone. It’s Pixie, Incorporeal, Restcha (3rd day of the week, 4th week of the month, 3rd month of the year). Garesh picks up his belongings, his necklace of beads, handgun, his backpack, the spirit board, and the key. He hands the key to Millie and tells her to get them out of here. Millie reaches out with key in her hand and twists as though to unlock a door and says, “Le digo, ‘¡abierta!’” [I say ‘open!’] A curtain of fog appears again, rolling down to reveal the hotel lobby. Garesh is about to try and leave the lobby until he remembers that the door doesn’t have a handle. Millie walks right up to the door and it melts into a puddle that goes down the drain. Garesh hurries to leave as well.

Looking at the sky, it’s just above sunrise, so it must be somewhere around Restcha hour of the Werewolf quintuple (3rd hour of the 2nd 5-hour period of the day; 8:00 am). Gares gets a hold of his bearings and remembers that he is supposed to be heading towards Daisy’s. So he needs to go Feyward, which is on the bottom left of a compass or map. He starts walking in that direction with Millie and the rest of his Incorporeals following behind.