Episode description
NINE HEADLINES FROM THE CITY SILHOUETTE
MONDAY EDITION, PAGES TWO, THREE, FOUR
Lights On Horizon Over Dark Water Dismissed Once Again
Pipe Bursts In Top Left Ceiling Corner Of Mayor’s Office
Early Morning, Lanternfish Square: Body Of Seabird Discovered
Cement Mixer Tumbles From Boardwalk, Resurfacing Efforts Halted
Alteration To Eastern Omnibus Timetables Praised By Transit Office
Di Traglia Martini: The Ocean’s Bounty… In A Glass!
High-Fenced Area North Of Monkfish Ave. Expands Once Again
Exhumations Begin At The Catafalque Memorial
Fourteenth Lantern Gala Postponed Due To Weather Concerns
Contents
Plot
Chanti, Elana, and Caitlin drive out to the docks to speak to Horseface. On the way, they make the same turns as another car (a long black sedan), making it appear as though they are following the other car. They can see five police officers inside, and Caitlin recognises them as being from the Mysterious Phenomenon Department (also known as ‘Myst’), the sub department of Blough City PD which hunts down those with superpowers.
Caitlin asks Chanti and Elana to cause a distraction. Chanti uses her bird telepathy to communicate with an American Condor to drop a deer leg on the other car. The other car begins to swerve wildly. Chanti communicates with a hawk to get it to swoop into the car and steal the police officer’s hats. The officer tries to grab his hat, almost falling out of the car, and their car pulls to a stop on the side of the road. Caitlin drives past, and the three feel the police watching them closely as they drive away.
They arrive at the dock, finding it crowded with barrels and containers, and realise that their search for one marked with an owl will be more difficult. Using Chanti’s bird telepathy, they are able to get birds to help with the search, tracking it down and noting that it has marks on the ground outside the container, cigarettes on the ground, and some shoes left outside what would be the door to the container. They can hear a radio playing inside.
Elana knocks on the door to the container. The radio is turned down, but the door does not open. Chanti says that they have a candygram, and Horseface calls for them to come in. Caitlin enters, telling Chanti and Elana to cover her. Horseface aims a shotgun at her as she enters, and Caitlin tries to placate him (“I don’t have any candy but I’m bringing you a treat regardless”), telling him that Hollis sent her, and introduces herself with both her government name and superhero alias.
Horseface fires the gun, hitting her. The sound of the gunshot reverberates around the container, causing Horseface to drop the gun to cover his ears.
Outside, Elana, on hearing the shot, attempts to punch through the container’s wall. The wall hits Horseface in the head, stunning him. Caitlin pulls out handcuffs from her dimension pocket portal, and cuffs Horseface. He exclaims, believing that they are Myst. Caitlin convinces him that she is not, at least enough to calm him down, although he is still wary as she did not use the code phrase Hollis told him (“an owl comes not once but twice, isn’t that nice”).
Horseface asks who sent them and Caitlin says again that Hollis sent them, finally seeming to convince Horseface. Elana says they should leave, as the police are coming, and Chanti suggests that they go to the Grand Canary Hotel (“you’re not paying” “then I love it!”). Horseface is still slightly hesitant, as he feels that Caitlin was going to attack him as she entered, but Chanti manages to talk him into it. On seeing their car, he asks if it’s for sale, which the others express disbelief at.
They hear the sound of the police approaching. Caitlin creates a portal so that the police will continue past them to drive into the ocean, and the car carrying the police splashes into the ocean. As they drive away, they see a “creeping shadow” across the surface of the ocean, as though something is coming up out of the ocean.
They take Horseface to a storeroom in the back of the Grand Canary Hotel. Caitlin says she wants to make sure Horseface has been honest with them, and asks him to tell them more about the night Hollis was arrested. Horseface says he wasn’t involved and that they’re only pinning the crime on him to protect Hollis.
Horseface talks them through that night, saying that they fixed the pump, filled bottles with water, waited for the late shipment, and then were stopped by the police. After the second police car arrived, “the police yelled, and that’s when Hollis said to run”. After that, Hollis told him to hide and organised a safe place to hide.
Elana and Chanti know that some of the shipment at least, some of the bottles end up in Bluff City, and Elana asks what the water is for. Horseface says he doesn’t know, but they ship out around 100 gallons a day. Elana asks how Hollis even knows how to fix pumps and Horseface says that a friend of the family taught him how.
Horseface requests a new cover name, settling on Quickster as he can “get places fast”, and Caitlin gives him the key to room 47B and tells him to skip signing the hotel guestbook. He leaves, taking a little packet of crackers with him.
As they leave the storeroom, Caitlin is stopped by a few staff of the speakeasy as they are setting up for the night. Chanti and Elana discuss how they’re going to get into Gale Green’s next party, either by bluffing their way in, finding someone to tag along with as a plus-one, or by using violence. Chanti asks Caitlin, who says that she knows plenty of people who would go to the party but she also knows a caterer who might be able to get them more information than a normal party-goer.
Chanti does not like this idea, as she feels Gale will react better to her being a party guest than a caterer. Caitlin asks why Chanti wants to speak to her, and Chanti says that she thinks Gale has information on what they’re currently investigating, and Caitlin agrees to organise it.
They drive up to the party, fireworks illuminating the not-quite-dark-yet sky. The doormen to the party, Barry, spots her, clearly on their guard upon spotting her, saying that they didn’t expect her to be there, and Caitlin says she was expected (“my plus one has a plus one”). They begrudgingly let her in.
The party is already in full swing. As they move through the party, the three of them charm the crowd (Chanti pretends the bird in her fascinator is clockwork, Caitlin does card tricks using her portal powers, and Elana gets a little drunk and finds someone who she thinks is being “the asshole” and punches him out and getting the approval of the doormen in the process). Chanti requests Waxwing’s favourite drink (a Ward 8) at the bar in an attempt to catch Gale’s attention.
Caitlin strikes up a conversation with Alexandra Hughes, while Gale approaches Chanti, remarking on her choice of drink and offers her a tour. Chanti agrees, and Elana joins them, taking them on a tour of her house. As they move a little away from the party, Chanti, looking for a way to broach a conversation about their connection to Bluff City, mentions the painting (‘Gale Green On A Bench’, as seen in When Justice Is Done). Gale brushes it off, sitting down and offering them another drink. Gale asks how they know Caitlin (“are you also troublemakers?”), and Chanti says that they’re more
“trouble-solvers” than troublemakers. Gale tells them that there’s something wrong with the city, especially in the past year, and it is affecting her as well (“I can’t keep focus, I leave things half-finished, the city feels half-finished”), especially her memory and ability to move through Blough City (“I keep reaching for someone’s hand and it isn’t there… and I don’t know who”), revealing that she can’t remember Waxwing.
Chanti offers to tell her, and Gale says she would like to know. Chanti hesitates, as she worries it will “make [Gale] sadder”, although after some prompting from Elana she does reveal Gale’s connection to Waxwing and to Bluff City (“she definitely still reaches for a hand but she knows who’s hand she’s reaching for”). Gale believes her, but still does not remember.
Before Gale leaves, Chanti asks her about the pumps, and Gale reveals that it is connected to The Tunnel Project, although she does not have any direct connection to it as she turned the Whitaker and Nebraska Families down when they offered her a part in it. Gale says that she mainly turned down the project as she doesn’t like either family (they make her want to “punch them in the face”). Chanti and Elana tell her she would probably be good at it, commenting on her superhero past. Gale still doesn’t remember clearly, but the more direct mention of Waxwing sparks something in her memory.
Meanwhile, Alexandra is telling Caitlin all of the latest gossip on everyone at the party (“it’s great [Caitlin’s] enjoying it”). Caitlin carefully prompts Alexandra towards a conversation about Hollis, in an attempt to find out more information about their connection. Alexandra sees through her attempt, calling her by her superhero alias and telling Caitlin to be direct with her and implying that she does know the information that Caitlin is after (“the truth is much more dangerous than anything anyone in this city knows”).
Their conversation is interrupted by the doormen, telling Caitlin that some police officers have arrived asking after her.