Joshua

April 17, 1974 | Wednesday

Michael

The long drive back to San Francisco finished, Mitch, Marshall, and Roger arrive back at Roger's place at around 6:30 pm on Wednesday. Roger notes with interest the state of the apartment, especially the, er, exploded phone.

(It would seem appropriate to figure that Roger was resting/sleeping on much of the drive back to the City.)

(Also, get this man some takeout)

Bill

At some point on the ride home, Roger wakes up briefly, groggily asks what day it is, and on hearing, groans loudly, shuts his eyes, and goes back under.

(Having woken up even sicker, I’m Method-ing my way through this one.)

Brant

Marshall glances at Roger in the rearview as they pull up to his place. He parks, then realizes something: "Fuck, forgot I was driving this thing. Help me get Roger inside and I'll go ditch it around the corner."

Bill

Still leaning a little on Mitch, Roger walks over to the burned out wall phone. He reaches down and almost puts the receiver back in the cradle, but then thinks better of it, and lets it hang. He pats the wall — only surface singeing from some sparks. He motions Mitch to help him to the couch, where he picks up the vever, and flips it over so he can't see the symbols. "OK, before Marshall gets back and the debrief starts, tell me, how bad is it? I've never been ridden this long... I don't think it's possible. Weeks? It usually can't go that long. These new loa, ayiee. Even petro loa have more respect for their chevals."

Brant

Marshall parks about four blocks away and throws the keys to literally the first person he sees, then he walks off to Roger’s place.

Jeff

Mitch gives Roger the eyeball, diagnosing his physical condition with spooky psychic powers

>> SUCCESS by 8

Michael

Hey Jeff?

Would you mind if I sent this to you via DM?

Jeff

If you want

Michael

incoming

Jeff

"I'll level with you man, it's not great. You've been through the wringer. No permanent damage, at least not yet, but if I were you I'd want to sleep for a week and eat some pizza."

Bill

Roger sighs in relief., even crosses himself involuntarily. “Thank you. My grandmothers’ warnings… I guess I was more afraid than I knew.” He weakly slaps Mitch’s shoulder. “All this stuff at the peak and taking recruits walkabout… I missed you, man. When I try to tell these kids like it is, I really miss your straight talk.

He cocks his head to one side and asks: “But really, what are the chances I can get some rest?” He looks down at the note. “And what’s a ‘ee Phone’ ?”

Jeff

"Kind of hoping you could tell us." Mitch briefly describes the events of his and Marshall's visit where they found the iPhones, wrapping it up just as Marshall arrives.

Brant

"Sidewalks are terrible around here," Marshall remarks as he enters. He makes a prayer gesture with his hands and tilts his head at Roger, removing his sunglasses. "Roger, mitram — are you with us?" He helps himself to a seat.

Bill

"It's me, alright — just me. I can't even hear Kalfu's usual snide side commentary right now. Maybe they're all giving me distance, a little ashamed at the treatment." Roger lies back in the couch, lets his head fall back, then snaps it forward, pulls himself together. "So I managed to do it again. I contacted another strange loa -- I guess you'd say a "modern" one. Even more than that... it's like a piece of it is from the future. And I invited it to ride me, for a little mission, and then it seems it went full off the reservation, like the issues I had with Agent Double-Zero at the start, but much worse."

Roger leans forward, and grabs a cigarette. Once it's lit, he continues. "Neither of you two were there when we were in England, when we went into that simulation. But it's like a piece of the persona I took on there, it stayed connected to me. Charley and I used it, "Joshua", some time later. Yeah, Charley. You know she left me parts of her lab? The stuff we were trying to figure out where her network 'stuff' touches the spirit world. Using it, I could feel a presence like Joshua, occasionally, little trial contacts."

"Then, down inside GP, working with the Agent in the cheval recruits, it was like I being prompted by him, and Papa Legba, to look for another Opener of the Way, but in this new wired way. The Agent would keep telling me out of the mouths of the recruits to start looking for a Q. Oh, and I'd also been working on this other technique, where the loa and I share a bit more, so they were with me a little more than usual, bleeding over. Anyway, the Agent had caught a lead in the wind of a Ozy thing, and Papa Legba and he — well they kept pushing. So I took a bit of leave, came back here, and tried to reach out. I had this inkling; I'd heard some of the tall tales those nerds at SRI were telling each other, about "phreaking", with a "ph". It sounded like tales of the trickster gods. So I made "Joshua" a ritual, and there behind him was something bigger. I invited it in... and then I remember little, until I was being tackled by Mitch's old co-workers at Livermore."

"The pieces I do remember, they feel like when the Agent gives me memories, so I think he took rides too. They did something, with me, and when I'm stronger, I'm gonna ask what."

Brant

Marshall is quiet for a bit as Roger talks, then stands. He goes into the kitchen and opens the fridge, checking its contents. He closes the door and opens a cabinet, checks inside, and closes it. “Well,” he says, “you need groceries. I’ll send someone around in a few hours. We were worried about you, you know — if we’d known … well. Well. I have questions, of course, but … well, they can wait. In the immediate sense,” he returns from inspecting the kitchen, “do you need us? For anything?”

(Marshall is sure Roger gets his food from a local bodega or Caribbean grocer but he’ll have Sunshine arrange for grocery delivery from Petrini’s).

Bill

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. mea culpa. This was mucho a mucho. I’ve pushed past the edges, and it’s dangerous.”

“What I need you for? Since you asked, Marshall, help me a little covering with GP. I’m trying to convince them I’m a dependable team player— but I ain’t getting out of having “incidents” like these. The gods don’t play by our book. But, man, right now I could really use some R&R without a major debriefing. I promise, I’m good for it, once I ever figure out what the hell happened anyway.”

“And, once I’m not bone-tired, a good days rest, I should get in on an assignment. I, uh, can’t really be trusted just on my own for a bit. In fact, let’s make a time for a regular call-in, starting tomorrow. I don’t love you getting in my daily, but I think I need more regular contact, just in case.”

Bill

“And run around the corner and get a bottle of hot sauce from Carmela’s— this one”. He shows an almost empty bottle with a custom local label. “If I’m gonna be laid up here, eating whatever you’re buying, I’ll need to give it some taste.”

“And thanks. I don’t think we’re keep score much like we used to, so I won’t say I owe you. But just, thanks.”

Brant

“Please, please. No apologies. You did nothing wrong. Special assignments are … well, I don’t need to tell you.” Marshall takes out his wallet. “Mitch, do you wanna run to this Carmela’s place? Maybe also get Roger a six pack? I will manage the Peak tomorrow, don’t give it a second thought. And I’ll drop by to check on you. Update you on our latest goings on with the Hearst girl.” Marshall wanders over to the black and white photo of him and Roger, back in ‘Nam, Marshall with his non-regulation haircut. “Do you remember, Roger, the last thing you — I think it was you — said, when it was down to just you and me, near the end? Before we found the boat?”

Jeff

Mitch ducks out quicklike.

Bill

"Right now I remember saying 'God won’t leave us here. The gods are still with us.'”

“But that was me.”

“For a long time, Maître Carrefour didn’t let me in on what deal he made that terrible time. I know I teased you like I knew, but I didn’t.”

“When you almost died, and he wouldn’t let it happen that way, because he’d seen your death— I got a glimpse.”

Bill

"While he was riding me in that back room where you lay shot and dying, a memory leaked over. Not of what happened in the jungle, but of the deaths he'd seen there. I saw your deaths, the ones that were still ahead of you in the jungle. None of them had you dying of a self-inflicted gunshot, I'll tell you that-- that's why he was thinking of them, so intensely I got the memory. There were four of them, for the four ways going away from the crossroads we'd summoned him at, there in the jungle. Two are never gonna happen now, because you made a deal. One had you dying of kulullû poison from a barb as they chased us down-- that was the path we were on. The other, well, it didn't end in the jungle, but you were gone already from the thing on your back they put on you in the jungle temple."

Bill

Roger takes another couple of drags on his cigarette. "The thing is, I'm not sure if I should tell you the other two. You're still heading along towards one or the other, so I don't know which one you picked. I can tell the choice he offered was going down the river, or up it, since the trail routes were off. Knowing you better now, I'd guess you took the hard path against the flow, and that's where we found the boat to take us down. You're stubborn that way... and that's just the kind of joke the devil loves. And the kind of person he loves."

"Do you remember? Did you break through whatever block he put around it to keep you on the path?"

Brant

Marshall resumes his seat and crosses his legs. "I don't ... I don't know. I get flashes, occasionally, but only occasionally. I remember a debate, or an argument with him. I remember him saying something from Corinthians ... I've never been certain. I think it was 'For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.' Something along those lines. I remember that I ... traded ... something. Maybe that's not the right word. I dream, sometimes, of that 'crossroads' we found. I think I remember there was an old Buddha statue there. Broken and covered in vines. I - I have a feeling ... a sense, I guess, that I was one person before we came to that 'crossroads' and someone different after. I felt the same way after the thing in Huntsville. Like a path had closed ... no, I mean, like I had come to the end of a path, and had been ... reset. Like chess pieces on a board after a losing game." He scratches his beard and sighs heavily. "So long ago. Were we ever so young."

"Of course, now that I say it out loud — the Corinthians thing, that is — I wonder if he was just fucking with me."

Bill

"He's always doing two things at once with his words, and fucking with you is both of them."

"Do you think you're still you, the same self? I don't: I'm definitely a whole different person. People. Still one path, though, and still a final end coming. I guess it's being on the same path as all the other mes that makes the one me."

"OK, now I'm gettin' loopy."

Brant

Marshall shrugs. "Who's to say? Jayne was always the one who best understood this sort of quantum thinking -- to the degree any of us can. Anyway," Marshall stands, "you should get some sleep. No need to engage in philosophy right now. I'm sure Mitch'll be back any second now."

(Also, wasn’t meaning to end the scene if Jeff wanted Mitch to pop back in, like Bill said. If not, Marshall will find a phone … somewhere and call HQ to get a car sent for him and Mitch, and then Sushine re: grocery delivery for Roger. But! I want to have a brief private debrief with Mitch while they wait for their car arrives from HQ).

(Assuming Mitch is catching a ride not just, like, wandering off.)