Episode description[edit | edit source]
TEN HEADLINES FROM THE CITY SILHOUETTE
THURSDAY EDITION, PAGES THREE, FOUR, FIVE
City Museum of Natural History To Open Grasslands Exhibition
Six Perfect Sailfish, Bone White
City Pound To Close, Relocate To Smaller Venue on Bristlefish Street
Digging Re-Commences In Lanternfish Square After New Discoveries
Water Pressure In Eastern Palisades Expected To Return To Normal
City Sanitation Workers Strike Brought To A Bitter End
Rooftop Lounge To Open, Exclusive Supplier: Bavette’s
Boardwalk Resurfacing Efforts Halted Following Accident
Late Night, Stoplight Street: Shrill Cry Of Seabird Wakes Residents
“Never Underestimate Gundersen”, Sales Soar
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Hey. So what’d you have? Oh, yeah that’s—that’s cool. No, it’s fine. They’re fine! I just don’t like their—their soup. Yeah, I—so what? Who cares about egg rolls? Egg rolls aren’t even the meal. Soup is not a side! Hey—I’m allowed my personal freedom.
Oh my god, Ollie, this—this extremely doesn’t matter. What matters is MY STORY—the comic? Extracurricular? So, as I was saying before your early dinner interrupted me, the comic. Kept. Going. And here’s the good part. Finally, I can get to the good part. I have the entire collected Extracurricular already. My uncle gave it to me after he got it on clearance at the Big Bluff Buffet Gift Shop after Bluff City Studios went bankrupt, and they had to like move all their old merch and stuff super cheap to cover costs or whatever—
Yeah, yeah, when they sold the old space. Anyway, I have it! It’s one of those big heavy hardcover omnibus type things, and it’s like all eighty issues, and— Yeah, yeah it’s really good—[annoyed] yes, yes, you can borrow it. Anyway, the point is, there is NO issue or arc where half the characters get sent back in TIME! But in the comic I found…the weird one…they do. There’s this whole arc called “Out of Time,” and—you know it’s only like half the crew, Paternoster and Mr. Good aren’t there...[pause] Yeah, his name’s Mr. Good, I—yeah, it’s like sort of ironic—Anyway, it’s about The Champ and Grouse. The Champ is like, she’s like a boxer. She can store kinetic energy and—
Kinetic energy. It’s like the opposite of potential energy. Didn’t you pay attention in Science? God… Anyway, Grouse is there too, and she can like talk to birds, and like she’s like a detective, she’s like—she’s like what if Batman could talk to bats, or like—she’s like I guess Aquaman, but if Aquaman talked to birds instead of fish—which would be way cooler IMO. Anyway, they get sent to this really weird place, it’s called [warping noise, unintelligible] and they meet this woman there—Caitlin Key—who’s like this underground street hero, and she helps people get away from this like oppressive regime, and they’re getting into fights and they’re doing all the normal stuff but...everything is weird...and I don’t mean that—I don’t mean that’s it weird for them—I mean it is weird for them. No one knows what day it is, and they don’t understand how to get around the town, and everything seems just like a little off, like everyone’s forgot what really happened here. But I—Ollie...I can’t remember what happened here. I’ve read this issue like SIX TIMES now, and every time I keep losing track! It doesn’t matter, what matters is if this exists, who knows what else exists? We should go to Bluff City Studios. We should go dig around and find some more cool shit.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
One week prior to the events in this episode, Paternoster, Mr Good, Grouse and The Champ were investigating a major burglary of ferrofluid (a special magnetic fluid) in Bluff City. They tracked the shipment to an industrial dock west of Bluff City, discovering a large and well-managed import/export operation that was running in the middle of the night. Tanks of the ferrofluid were being shipped away, and arriving were crates of liquor bottles.
In the ensuing fight, the lights were turned off and Grouse and The Champ became separated from the others and “things got weird, almost dream-like” (a heavy, electronic reverberation sound, a brief glimpse of an endless tunnel with light pulsing down it, shadows danced and strange music played, there was the sound of neighing in the distance). Grouse and The Champ both wake on “a strange beach in what felt like a strange time”: 1920s era Blough City.
Mr Lee L Bee found the two and brought them to Caitlin Key for help, explaining to Caitlin that they also had superpowers and that he thought the three of them “might be able to help each other”. Caitlin herself is looking for help, as Blough City attempts to tighten its grip on it’s citizens (especially its superpowered ones like her) and the Whitaker Family are no longer providing protection to the speakeasy she runs. To get that protection back, she must prove the innocence of Hollis Jewels Whitaker (or at least find someone more worthy of the blame for the roadside shootout he is being accused of).
The Whitaker family only have one lead: that Hollis was seen earlier that night in an argument with someone at a party hosted by Gale Green. Gale Green is a lead for The Champ and Grouse too, as someone who could potentially help them get home to Bluff City.
Caitlin, Elana and Chanti borrow Mr Lee L Bee’s car to speak to Hollis at his mansion. They are greeted by Hollis’ butler, Benedict Boatwright. Caitlin introduces Elana and Chanti as her trainees, and says that they have been sent to see Hollis by Hollis himself. This baffles Benedict, who is shocked that Hollis has requested her.
Chanti steps forward, assuring Benedict that they will be discreet in their discussions. Caitlin backs this up, arguing that they are already late to meet Hollis in the smoking room. In the face of this, Benedict crumbles, expressing his remorse that he was not able to stop Hollis from associating with “that Hughes woman”, and letting them in. They go upstairs to meet Hollis, asking if his parents have sent them and asking who Chanti and Elana are.
Chanti introduces herself by name, but Elana gives her name as “Champ”. Hollis offers them drinks, which they do not accept (“we’re on the clock, you know?”). Caitlin asks if he has information that could help her get him out of this situation.
Hollis is vague, telling her to leave the situation with the police. Caitlin disagrees, telling him that the police have settled on him as the primary suspect and are unlikely to change their minds, and asks him to go over the night in question.
He says that he went to the party at Gale Green’s place, and pulled over on the way home to assist someone, handwaving the end of the night. He tells them again to let it go, as his parents will sort it out (“they always do”). Elana says that they are his parent’s way of sorting it out (“this is that, you’re in the middle of that”). Chanti sits on the armrest of his chair and lights two cigarettes (one for herself (in a cigarette holder) and one for Hollis, calming him down somewhat and getting him to open up.
Hollis tells them that “Horseface showed up” and told him that the pumps were broken and that they had to go to The Thicket to fix them. On their drive back, Hollis was in one car and Horseface was in another car with the bottles. A cop “who didn’t know better” pulled them over and called for backup. After that time, “things get hazy”, the lights went out, and Hollis’ memory is fuzzy and when he came back to himself there was screaming and Hollis drove away. He told Horseface to go underground, and as far as Hollis knows he’s okay.
Caitlin asks if he was under the influence of anything that could be affecting his memory and he eventually agrees that “there could have been an altering”, but that in a month’s time he’s sure that all this will be no more than a fun story for him to tell at parties.
They prompt him for information, discovering that the pumps are imported from Out of Town. In an attempt to press him for more information, Caitlin mirrors Chanti’s position on the other armrest as she asks about what specifically was wrong with the pumps. Hollis says that the pumps are there for bottling up water to send to Out of Town (“easy money”) for a client that his family and the Nebraska Family have going on.
Elana asks if he knows anyone with a horseshoe crab for a face (Mr E Masque) and Hollis says he saw someone like that during the last year’s holiday party at his parent’s place with what Hollis believed to be a horseshoe crab mask.
They then ask if they can get in contact with Horseface, and Hollis is elusive (“oh, my parents want to know where Horseface is”), as he believes his parents will kill Horseface to pin the blame on him instead of Hollis, and he wants to protect him. Caitlin swears that she will protect Horseface and promises not to tell Hollis’ parents where he is (“you know that I got here by being an incredible liar”). Hollis tenses (“I’ve seen them break good liars before”), telling Caitlin that to have that knowledge would put her in danger too.
Caitlin tries again, saying that she’d rather have her alliance with Hollis than his parents. Hollis relents, telling her that Horseface is stashed by the docks, near a barrel with an owl mark on it.
Caitlin notices that the right shoulder on Hollis’ shadow has a small “box” of “extra shadow” coming off of it, although she is unable to identify it or what might be the cause of it.
Hollis leaves, and Chanti puts her cigarette out on his chair (as Hollis said that he believed talking to animals would be a useless ability), and then begins to look through his things. On a side table, they find a key to a hotel room with a letter that says “Room 22. The Grand Canary Hotel. - Alexandra”. Caitlin knows that this is the same Alexandra Hughes that Benedict said that Hollis was with the night of the shootout.
Caitlin speaks to Benedict on the way out, asking about Alexandra. Benedict clearly disapproves of her although he has never met her as she is from a lower class. Chanti, Caitlin and Elana quickly leave before Elana punches Benedict.