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--- wod:mage:recap:1_chapter_2 [2020/03/29 16:40] – [Monday, December 21st, 2009] anagramofbrat
+++ wod:mage:recap:1_chapter_2 [2020/09/07 16:40] (current) – ↷ Links adapted because of a move operation anagramofbrat
@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ====== Act 2: The Awakening - Chapter 2 ======
-===== John "Jack" Murphy =====
+===== December, 2009 =====
+The weirdness begins at the start of December 2009. [[wod:mage:pcs:jack|Jack Murphy]] walks by a tank of coral fish on his way to the seals, when he notices the coral fish are swimming alongside him in a specific pattern. The pattern seems unusual to Jack, and it itches at the back of his brain. He dismisses the event as a random occurrence, but it happens again a few days later. Jack sketches the symbol, and finds he is doodling it idly throughout his work shifts. The strangeness increases one day when Jack passes the shark tank – and sees every shark lined up in a neat row, watching him. He stops and stares at the sharks, and then moves. The sharks shift position to keep watching him, but not out of a sense of hunger, simply curiosity. He hears a tapping, and turns to see the octopus tank. The octopus is also watching him, and sketches a symbol in the water with its tentacles. Jack rushes on, and finds the seals are also watching him – not moving, not barking, just watching.
-[[wod:mage:pcs:jack|John Murphy]] is a twenty-eight-year-old Caucasian man who goes by Jack. Jack has a master’s degree in maritime biology and works at the Boston Aquarium in a specialist capacity; he oversees the seals.  He has a one-bedroom apartment at One Back Bay Luxury Apartments in Boston, and between the rent and his student loans, his salary is pretty much spoken for. His parents live in the greater Boston area, and his younger brother is attending college in Worcester. The family is lifelong residents of the Boston area, and were thrilled when Jack got the job at the Aquarium in 2007. Jack was caught in the riot of 2008 but has no clear memories of it. Other than that chunk of missing time, Jack’s life is pretty good right now, although he does not have a girlfriend.
+As the weeks pass, the oddities continue sporadically. The coral fish sometimes make symbols, the sharks sometimes watch him, and the seals will behave strangely at irregular intervals. Jack deciphers the first symbol, and it seems to be “Life.”
-The weirdness begins at the start of December 2009. Jack walks by a tank of coral fish on his way to the seals, when he notices the coral fish are swimming alongside him in a specific pattern. The pattern seems unusual to Jack, and it itches at the back of his brain. He dismisses the event as a random occurrence, but it happens again a few days later. Jack sketches the symbol, and finds he is doodling it idly throughout his work shifts. The strangeness increases one day when Jack passes the shark tank – and sees every shark lined up in a neat row, watching him. He stops and stares at the sharks, and then moves. The sharks shift position to keep watching him, but not out of a sense of hunger, simply curiosity. He hears a tapping, and turns to see the octopus tank. The octopus is also watching him, and sketches a symbol in the water with its tentacles. Jack rushes on, and finds the seals are also watching him – not moving, not barking, just watching.
+===== Monday, December 14th, 2009 =====
+[[wod:mage:pcs:talia]]’s office is undergoing an end-of-year audit, but she’s not worried. Other than her mileage receipts, her books are straightforward and clean. However, one of the auditors, [[wod:characters:atticus|an older white man with craggy features and wearing an expensive, hand-tailored suit]], gives her the creeps.  She heads out to do her job, as the holiday decorations need to give way to First Night preparations. Talia checks out the various plant beds and covers those than need covering. However, in Wharf District Park across from the Boston Aquarium, she finds something very strange: a bright, tropical purple flower of unknown genus in one of the beds. She eyes it with confusion, as she knows she didn’t authorize this planting – or any flower like this. She carefully removes the plant, and finds an extensive root system. She re-soils the plant bed and eyes the unknown specimen; she has no idea how a tropical plant just appeared in the dead of a New England winter, or how it developed such a root system when she’s positive it wasn’t here last week.
-As the weeks pass, the oddities continue sporadically. The coral fish sometimes make symbols, the sharks sometimes watch him, and the seals will behave strangely at irregular intervals. Jack deciphers the first symbol, and it seems to be “Life.” On the night of Friday December 18th, Jack goes out to dinner with his coworkers as part of a holiday party, and inadvertently breaks the cardinal rule: he orders seafood, although he’d meant to order the steak. He gets a few dirty looks, but some of his coworkers defend his freedom to order whatever he damn well wants and he says simply, “Hey, it’s not one of ours.” He enjoys the seafood, but craves raw fish. After a round of drinks, Jack slips away to a sushi bar.
+After finishing the rest of her rounds, she returns to the home office and runs into the creepy auditor again. He eyes her unpleasantly, and Talia responds with a rude gesture as she passes him. She enters her office and sets the unknown plant down. She then starts researching it, and then loses track of time. She’s still going when the night janitor taps on her window in concern, and with a shock Talia realizes it’s just about midnight! She heads home, managing to catch the last train out to Somerville; she lives close to Davis Square. The next three days pass, with Talia getting more and more obsessed with identifying this damned flower, but she keeps coming up dry. By Thursday afternoon, she makes the conscious decision to step away; she has work to do that she’s been neglecting.
-==== Monday, December 21st, 2009 ====
+===== Friday, December 18th, 2009 =====
+Talia arrives at work to find the creepy auditor is prowling the office. She ducks inside her lab to avoid him and then grabs her kit to head back out into the field. She does her rounds, but when she gets to Wharf District Park and comes up to the spot where she found the purple flower on Monday, she is stunned to see another purple flower in the same spot! She swears and starts working, but looks up to see another figure approaching. [[wod:characters:shepherd|It’s a young man with pockmarked skin bundled up in full winter gear]], which Talia finds odd until he starts speaking with a thick Georgian drawl.  The transplanted Southerner is clearly unused to New England winters, and is concerned she’s vandalizing the park! She assures him that she works for the conservancy and is merely transplanting a flower that won’t survive the cold.
+The Southerner watches intently as Talia works, but she realizes he’s genuinely curious, so they chat a bit and she explains her procedure as she frees the plant. Once she finishes, he waves goodbye and moves off. She packs the second plant away and finishes her rounds. When she returns to her office, she stares at the empty spot where the first flower was. After confirming no one went into her lab while she was gone, Talia places the second flower on the shelf where the first one sat – and is overwhelmed with the feeling that this is the exact same flower.
+That evening, Jack goes out to dinner with his coworkers as part of a holiday party, and inadvertently breaks the cardinal rule: he orders seafood, although he’d meant to order the steak. He gets a few dirty looks, but some of his coworkers defend his freedom to order whatever he damn well wants and he says simply, “Hey, it’s not one of ours.” He enjoys the seafood, but craves raw fish. After a round of drinks, Jack slips away to a sushi bar.
+===== Monday, December 21st, 2009 =====
+==== Jack Awakens ====
 Jack goes to work in the morning and starts his rounds. The sharks stare silently at him, and then the seals sit quietly. He mutters, “Did you guys talk to the sharks?” and steps back when they nod. They continue to stare silently at him, so he mumbles, “OK, this is weird. Do some tricks or something.” A few roll on their backs and favor him with expressions that clearly say, “Happy now, asshole?” He shakes his head, grabs some fish, and feeds the seals. He then retreats, passes the shark tank which seems normal, and checks the logs for last night. No unusual behavior is noted down, and Jack knows the closing person is meticulous, so he is now worried.
@@ Line 22: / Line 33: @@
 Salt water pours into his helmet and Jack panics! The sharks reach him and each grab a limb. Jack prays for a quick death, but the sharks rotate, so Jack is facing down, and then they dive! Jack sees an ancient tower half-buried in silt, and then the sharks release him. Jack then feels the gills on his neck open to admit water – and then he registers the fact he has gills. The sharks circle above him, so Jack swims into the tower. He sees glyphs scrawled into the rock all over the place, and identifies the symbol for Life. He sees the other symbols and realizes the symbols represent various ocean-going animals – but more importantly, they represent the very concepts of those animals.  He stares in wonder as he floats within the tower, and then the octopus joins him and gently pushes him to a blank spot on the walls. He sees names half-encrusted with silt, so he reaches out and puts his finger on the stone. It gives, and he scrawls his name. In that instant, Jack Awakens – and finds himself back in the octopus tank in the Boston Aquarium!
-His boss [[wod:npcs:george|George Ducharme]] is staring at him quizzically on the other side of the glass, but the crowd of people next to him is watching intently. Jack ascends and climbs out of the tank. He strips out of his suit and meets George; he claims he spotted the octopus acting strangely and wanted to do a visual check. George nods as they walk into the breakroom, and Jack is hit with sudden insight: he knows the other man will be dead from lung cancer soon, and can see the lump growing! Jack sits down, and George notes he looks feverish. Jack claims he needs a few moments to catch his breath, so George leaves. Jack groans and then has another flash of insight: he can sense the microorganisms all over his body, working together in a harmonious micro-ecosystem.
+His boss [[wod:characters:george|George Ducharme]] is staring at him quizzically on the other side of the glass, but the crowd of people next to him is watching intently. Jack ascends and climbs out of the tank. He strips out of his suit and meets George; he claims he spotted the octopus acting strangely and wanted to do a visual check. George nods as they walk into the breakroom, and Jack is hit with sudden insight: he knows the other man will be dead from lung cancer soon, and can see the lump growing! Jack sits down, and George notes he looks feverish. Jack claims he needs a few moments to catch his breath, so George leaves. Jack groans and then has another flash of insight: he can sense the microorganisms all over his body, working together in a harmonious micro-ecosystem.
-===== Gloria Webb =====
-[[wod:mage:pcs:gloria|Gloria Webb]]  is a twenty-three-year-old Caucasian (with possibly a “little extra”) woman who has a BS in Business, and was planning on graduate school when the riot happened. Her freckled face is in a perpetual frown, and she resembles the actress Julianne Nichols. Her parents have been divorced for over a decade and her mother moved to California. Despite this, they remain in business together; they have an empire of sex shops called The Treasure Chest that has adapted to – and profited from – the Internet age. Gloria’s hope to avoid the family business failed when her father was injured badly in the riots of 2008, and she had to put her graduate school plans on hold to take over the flagship store. Her parents had no other children together, but she has much younger half-siblings in California. Now, her bachelor’s degree (with a minor in computer programming) is being used to sell sex toys and oversee the store’s relocation from a side street to Newbury Street, as the riot left many formerly-upscale properties much more affordable. She is also responsible for ten part-time employees. Gloria sublets an apartment and she is actively looking for a housemate; she has put a two-year moratorium on helping her father, who is “recovering” in Mexico. Her only companion is her pet spider. Luckily, Gloria herself was not in Boston during the riots.
+==== Gloria Awakens ====
+Christmas week brings in a rush of business on top of [[wod:mage:pcs:gloria|Gloria Webb]]’s headaches of moving the store and planning a reopening sale for January 2nd. By mid-morning, Gloria is flagging, but luckily her Dunkin Donuts hookup, the pierced employee [[wod:characters:sharp|Amanda]], swings into the shop with coffee and food. Gloria thanks Amanda profusely – after she downs half the coffee and becomes human again; Amanda gets the employee discount and no judgmental looks. There is a lull in business, so Gloria leaves [[wod:characters:jill|Jill]],  her head clerk, in charge for a few minutes while she slips into her office for five minutes of peace, quiet, and food.
-==== Monday, December 21st, 2009 ====
-Christmas week brings in a rush of business on top of Gloria’s headaches of moving the store and planning a reopening sale for January 2nd. By mid-morning, Gloria is flagging, but luckily her Dunkin Donuts hookup, the pierced employee [[nwod:npcs:sharp|Amanda]], swings into the shop with coffee and food. Gloria thanks Amanda profusely – after she downs half the coffee and becomes human again; Amanda gets the employee discount and no judgmental looks. There is a lull in business, so Gloria leaves [[wod:npcs:jill|Jill]],  her head clerk, in charge for a few minutes while she slips into her office for five minutes of peace, quiet, and food.
 As she eats lunch, Gloria boots up Netflix on her computer to watch another few minutes of the classy British detective show she’s consuming in tiny chunks. The show is all posh and no sex, just as Gloria prefers. She thinks to herself, “The Internet is not for porn,” but then the main character in her show, a dapper British man with an impressive mustache and wearing fancy clothes and a bowler hat, turns to her on the screen and replies, “Of course the Internet is for porn!” Gloria slaps herself to wake up, and then she hears the British detective – behind her. She turns to see the character standing in her office, and he crisply informs her, “Come with me. I have something to show you.”
@@ Line 43: / Line 50: @@
 Gloria realizes something is off as she can hear the faint murmur of the pedestrians in her path – and their thoughts. Gloria walks in and is hit by the smell of seawater – coming from Amanda! Amanda stares at her in shock before crossing over from the back to the main dining room. She hisses to Gloria, “What the hell? A second one today?” Gloria has no idea what she’s talking about, but allows herself to be guided to a table. She tries to talk about her “dream” and how she signed her name, but Amanda shushes her. Amanda gets some whispered details, enough to groan, “Fucking warlocks,” before plopping Gloria down at table and telling her to stay put for two hours, until Amanda gets off duty. Gloria shrugs, but can sense Amanda will have answers, so she settles in and starts working. She pulls some files from her bag – files she subconsciously knows were left in her office when she departed.
-===== Talia Howell =====
-[[wod:mage:pcs:talia|Talia Howell]]  is a twenty-four-year-old Caucasian woman who graduated from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s in horticulture. She stands 5’10” and has well-toned arms and strawberry blonde hair. While she is thinking of going to graduate school, she currently works for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the agency that oversees the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which sits atop the Big Dig. Talia works in the home office growing some of the more delicate plants before harvesting them and planting them in the parks. She has no siblings and rarely speaks to her parents; they had her because it was expected and are so wrapped up in their work they don’t really notice her. She grew up upper-middle-class, and came to Massachusetts for college. She lives in Somerville in a dinky attic apartment with unrestricted access to the roof. She grows pot illegally, and has since college. She started growing it for personal use and as a challenge, but started dealing to pay for college. Talia was in Boston during the riots, but has no memory of those days.
-==== Monday, December 14th, 2009 ====
-Talia’s office is undergoing an end-of-year audit, but she’s not worried. Other than her mileage receipts, her books are straightforward and clean. However, one of the auditors, an older white man with craggy features and wearing an expensive, hand-tailored suit, gives her the creeps.  She heads out to do her job, as the holiday decorations need to give way to First Night preparations. Talia checks out the various plant beds and covers those than need covering. However, in Wharf District Park across from the Boston Aquarium, she finds something very strange: a bright, tropical purple flower of unknown genus in one of the beds. She eyes it with confusion, as she knows she didn’t authorize this planting – or any flower like this. She carefully removes the plant, and finds an extensive root system. She re-soils the plant bed and eyes the unknown specimen; she has no idea how a tropical plant just appeared in the dead of a New England winter, or how it developed such a root system when she’s positive it wasn’t here last week.
-After finishing the rest of her rounds, she returns to the home office and runs into the creepy auditor again. He eyes her unpleasantly, and Talia responds with a rude gesture as she passes him. She enters her office and sets the unknown plant down. She then starts researching it, and then loses track of time. She’s still going when the night janitor taps on her window in concern, and with a shock Talia realizes it’s just about midnight! She heads home, managing to catch the last train out to Somerville; she lives close to Davis Square. The next three days pass, with Talia getting more and more obsessed with identifying this damned flower, but she keeps coming up dry. By Thursday afternoon, she makes the conscious decision to step away; she has work to do that she’s been neglecting.
-==== Friday, December 18th, 2009 ====
-Talia arrives at work to find the creepy auditor is prowling the office. She ducks inside her lab to avoid him and then grabs her kit to head back out into the field. She does her rounds, but when she gets to Wharf District Park and comes up to the spot where she found the purple flower on Monday, she is stunned to see another purple flower in the same spot! She swears and starts working, but looks up to see another figure approaching. It’s a young man with pockmarked skin bundled up in full winter gear, which Talia finds odd until he starts speaking with a thick Georgian drawl.  The transplanted Southerner is clearly unused to New England winters, and is concerned she’s vandalizing the park! She assures him that she works for the conservancy and is merely transplanting a flower that won’t survive the cold.
-The Southerner watches intently as Talia works, but she realizes he’s genuinely curious, so they chat a bit and she explains her procedure as she frees the plant. Once she finishes, he waves goodbye and moves off. She packs the second plant away and finishes her rounds. When she returns to her office, she stares at the empty spot where the first flower was. After confirming no one went into her lab while she was gone, Talia places the second flower on the shelf where the first one sat – and is overwhelmed with the feeling that this is the exact same flower.
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