End of September.

Classes are back in session.
The factory has been rebuilt so Ernesto and Mark have a job again
But this Saturday, Madame Cobb decides we should all go to the beach. The 6 starlets make a rush for upstairs as they start fighting over clothing.

It is a beautiful, sunny and warm day on the beach; and it is full of people.
The rumour is that Micky Cowen’s yaught is out there somewhere. Acrobats are working out on the beach, demonstrating their art. Madame Cobb and Rosie go and get funnel cake. Mark’s coming back with a beer when he hears someone taps him on the shoulder. It’s Gia (Steel Chrysanthemum). She tells him that they were supposed to find the LA Heroes tonight as the Alchemist wants to speak with us.

Ernesto wins the strength contest and gets a prize (a skip-rope for his sister).

And a fun time is had by all.

We head back home in the late afternoon, gear up and go to Chinatown to visit Master Wong.
We meet up with Steel Chrysanthemum, and head deeper into Chinatown to Wu Lang’s Tea and Herbal shop. Tonight the Alchemist is in mage robes. He has the parts of a Geomancy watch in parts hovering before him. He assembles it without touching it and eventually it puts it in his palm. It no longer works in detecting El-Nino.

He inspects El-Nino and tells him he’s been transformed to gain his power.
Noh remembers a man who said he’d have to end the experiment early; she wonders if this has to do with El-Nino’s powers set. Domino makes an illusion of him for all to see.

El-Nino takes the device and goes to seek the highest concentration of the magical drugs.
He finds the source is some kind of private hospital or rest home: the Elisia-Moyer’s Rest Home. It’s a gated facility with bars on the doors and windows. A guard at the gate and one inside. It’s a mansion with gardens. He takes note of the address and returns to old China town.

Steel Chrysanthamum comes with us. We fly and get the car, then drive up into the Hollywood hills towards the Elisia-Moyer’s Rest Home. Elisia-Moyer was a rich philanthropist who came to LA after the civil war. She started lots of foundations and hospitals are named after her. This home is a well known recovery home; it gets mentioned in society papers but it’s not that high-profile. It’s for men only.

We find a quiet spot to park the car. When we get out, Steel Crysanthamum is impressed by the car.
The patients don’t strike El-Nino as being the rich and powerful set. Instead, they’re all big and burly guys and a lot of them have military tattoos on their forearms. One of which has the same tattoo as Mark/Dynamo. There are 12 men in residence. There are more security guards (3) inside. He also finds a doctor in his office; who looks a lot like the image of the man Domino displayed previously. There are two guards outside and two dogs. Inside there are 6 female nurses.

The detector points to the Doctor and a cabinet in one of the doctor’s rooms. The cabinet is triple locked and contains vials of medicine.

Domino goes to test one of the residents. She shows him Dynamo walking into the room and blasting him! He reacts violently, throwing the bed at the wall; then he wakes up. He’s badly bent the bed frame. Guards come and fetch the doctor. Domino opens the window slightly and a guard notices. She remains concealed out of sight.

Noh notices that the other residence are kind of edgy.

The bedroom door opens and the doctor enters. He addresses the resident as Phillip. The bed was bolted onto the floor and he tore it off! The doctor hears Phillip’s tale and looks to the window. It whips open and a snake made of smoke rolls out of the room and begins looking around. Noh sees the snake’s head is that of the Doctor’s – right down to the red tie pin.

El-Nino goes through the doctor’s files. He sees files of men between the ages of 25 and 40, service records (all these men are military). There are files for incoming and outgoing. The outgoing files talk of people being transferred to the Mexican facility (Laguna Clamente). El-Nino finds a cane with a brass pommel, it has a blade hidden inside. It has buttons, so he takes it. He also finds a sleek pistol in the desk drawer. He takes that too.

Noh hides, but I think the Doctor spotted her.

When Domino gets back, everyone is gone.
There’s movement in the commons room. The front doors open and the patients and the guards all come out. The Doctor follows them. The snake thing spreads out, looking for intruders. They’re fanning out. The Doctor directs them. The nurses are all standing around frozen.

Noh watches the Doctor bend his knees and suddenly he elongates so that he can circle the house. He displays the tie pin prominently and when he goes by Noh’s hiding spot – he sees her and announces her location! In the tree!!

-

El-Nino attacks the large men closing on the tree that Noh is hiding in. One of them falls back, unconscious.
Noh teleports behind one of the big guys and strikes at him with her naginata. The swipe strikes down his back. It knocks him flat.
Dynamo flies in, he spots two more guys rounding the house from each direction. He charges one of the four he sees and throws a punch. The other one is faimilar to Dynamo — he’s from the same unit.
Steel Chrys climbs up over the fence. El-Nino helps her down. She disarms one of the armed guards with a knife.
The Doctor elongates and manages to strike Noh. He entangles her, but she manages to get out of the way. He ends up 50 feet up, and the pin is actually embedded in his flesh and it’s glowing.
Domino flies up and over the building. The Doctor sees her and starts to say “I know you.” and she dazzles him, responding “No, good doctor, I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
A thug jumps Dynamo. His shock field goes off and does some damage, but knocks Dynamo about.
One jumps Domino, and she is now -1 toughness, but manages to dodge out of the way.

El Nino tries to remove the red gem from the Doctor’s chest, but the doctor slapped him away.
Noh strikes at the mook that tried to land on her. He falls back, unconscious.
Dynamo breaks the hold of the mook that had him in a bear hug and knocks him back, unconscious.
Steel Chrys charges towards the guy that’s looking for his gun, and kicks him in the back. She pops knives out of nowhere and nails him to the grass.
The Doctor tries to cover his crystal with one of his hands. He expands out towards the house and breaks through a window. An arm reaches out, grabs someone and throws it at Noh.
Noh manages to block the blow, and the poor missile crumples against her. And the arm retracts into the building.
Domino conceals the mook at herself and clears his mind. She chats briefly with him and learns that it’s part of the Super Soldier program.
A mook shoots at Noh.

El Nino sees the Doctor in the office. He tries to grab the gem through the back of the Doctor’s neck. He succeeds. THe Doctor siezes up and becomes stark white and then turns to liquid.
The last mook grabs his head in pain.

Domino gets directed to a phone and calls Aegis.
The people inside are fairly passive. One has a panic attack.
The Doctor, before the gem shorts out, says “Let me introduce myself, I’m Dr. Essex.”

The house has been here a year. The US army sends them prospective members. One of the nurses is really doubtful; as she thinks they’re sent really damaged goods.

Agent Corel arrives in a lone Buick and he looks really really angry!

September 1947

Shadowy shapes reach out to Domino. A silhouette in the doorway steps into the light – it’s a woman dressed as a samurai – all in silver. She’s a short woman in sparkling silver armour. It has a few dents and crumpled areas. She has a fat lip as well. She raises her katana and points it at Noh.

El-Nino tries to disarm everyone in the area. He successfully takes the bottle away and off to groom lake it goes.
The Silver Samurai slaps Domino out of the way.
Domino dazzles Silver Samurai. She then disappears and takes a step away.
The Spirits/shadows were trying to get the bottle, but it’s gone. A few slither into the fallen’s mouths and they bring the people up. They demand to know where is it/where is he. They move with stilted motions.

As El-Nino returns, he checks in on Bruno (who is confused). Then returns to the cafe. Domino’s gone, Noh’s still spazzing out. Two communists and Dynamo have lurched to their feet and don’t seem to be OK. They are speaking in women’s voices demanding revenge. Silver Samurai is stumbling forward, trying to find the mask while being mostly blind. El-Nino hits her, many many times.
She calls out “Witch! Your spirits will not avail you!” And strikes at one of the possessed communists. He falls backwards, and blood splatters on the wall.
Domino picks up the table and smashes it down over her head.
The spirits grab a hold of Silver Samurai, despite her struggling.

Meanwhile in the endless shadow that is unconsciousness, all lack of sense and sight – without up or down, the first thing that comes to your sense is a glimmer of sound. A very up-beat song starts playing. Slowly, all around you, figures start appearing and dancing out of the darkness. You feel the hard ground beneath your feet, the dance floor. Noh is wearing her old dating clothes and Dynamo is wearing what Tom use to wear. They are dancing together.

Noh recognizes the dance hall as the place where she last had a happy moment with Tom. There were no arguments, or angry discussion. They came here, danced and had fun. Dynamo has no clue what’s going on. All around them, the dancers are wearing black and red. Dynamo/Mark realizes they are no longer masked. In addition he spots a pattern — everywhere he looks he sees the 4 suits of cards: a woman wearing a heart necklace, a man with cuff-links of spades. There’s nothing of the sort on them. The people around them are tightly packed, but somewhat ephemeral still.

Tom’s voice cuts over the music, and Rosie and Tom start to argue. The crowd strikes out and Tom continues the argument (despite Dynamo’s zinggy comebacks). Noh fights back and suddenly she holds a shadowy sword. She starts waiving it about. At her insistence, Tom appears as a being encased in crystal; with weeping sores on his face. He is furious almost beyond words. Noh strikes at the bottle with her sword. It shatters, and Tom reaches for Rosie. Dynamo steps in and clocks Tom!

The mask turns from a theatrical Noh mask to a samurai face place. The form becomes that of a samurai – with big square shoulder pieces and a skirt of plate. The weapon is a pole-arm with a blade on the top. She’s awake and standing in the cafe. Dynamo wakes up and in a lot of pain. He’s holding onto another woman.

El-Nino disarm her and runs away.
Silver Samurai screams in rage! She is able to free herself from Dynamo and the others grasp. She looks at Noh and pauses.
Domino throws everything at her – papers, wood fragments, broken bottles, you name it.
Dynamo tries to hit her several times, succeeding at last and popping one of her ribs.
Noh takes a ready stance with her naginato and offers Silver Samurai a deal – she claims this mask. If the Silver Samurai is willing to leave her alone, the sword will be returned.
The spirit voice coming from the beaten-up communist staggers away from the cloud of flying debris – becomes a chorus of voices declaring vengeance on Tom and this city.

El-Nino adds to the flying cloud of debris.
Silver Samurai takes a moment to try and focus. She asks what honour does Noh have to keep this promise.
Noh promises to speak for all the voices of the women who will cry out in the darkness, unheard.
They agree that, when Noh is done with the mask it will be sent to the Buddhist temple in west Holiwood. Noh stands at-ease, and bows to the Silver Samurai, who returns the bow.

Noh asks El-Nino to retrieve the sword. He does so. And she reclaims it.
She dismisses all claims to the mask, bows, and leaves.

El Nino returns with Bruno, who freaks out! We all feel it, but are able to push through. Domino calms the boy down.
Antoine takes his son home.

As we drive back home in the Phantom Corsaire, it’s the end of the chapter – but not the story.

Dynamo flies back. Along the way he spies two figures running along roof-tops. When he gets closer he recognizes Steel Chrysanthemum and Fu-Master. And they’re outside of Chinatown! Dynamo flies down and learns they were seeking the Champions of LA. They ask if something was happening with spirits; and the Alchemist wants to talk to us. With the message delivered, they depart.

When Dynamo gets home, the house is relatively quiet. Stacey has a beer ready for him. He delivers the message. George has drawn the Japaneese character for ghost. He says that Stacey should know how to find them.

In the night Domino leaves a message for Agent Corell, and tries to visit Madame Toussau. The shop is empty and deserted for some time. Domino writes Thank you in the dust, and leaves.

The next morning is quiet. There were no ninjer attacks overnight.
Ernesto leaves early for mass. It seems he’ll be attending mass each morning for a month.
Those who have it, go to work. Rosie takes it easy.

Madame Cobb says she had nightmares last night.
Mark goes to work and… nothing happens.
Domino goes to work at a shop opening.

After work, and supper – Ernesto is very helpful. He does odd-jobs for Madame Cobb, the dishes and keeps busy.
In the evening, we head back to old chinatown to visit the Alchemist (Wu Long).
We are led down into the basement. Wu Long is there & greets us.
He felt something happen in the spirit world. He offers us tea and bids us sit.

After we tell him our tale, he takes us to a table with a geomancer’s compass on it. He’s put various coloured stones atop it. Beneath the compass is the map of LA. He informs us that something has entered the lay lines and begun to poison them. This will change the people and the city itself over time. Tempers will fray, people will fall to anger and murder, magicians will be tempted to dark paths. Noh maps out a few of the lay line locations; one of which is called the Hey Hey, a dance hall that features Jazz bands. We are given a second map with various sites marked out.

There are three knots – three areas that are filled with spirits and the energies of the destroyed ghosts.
He also shows us a crystal he’s working on that will guide us to the strange marvel drugs we’d previously discovered. The crystal glows when El-Nino (or Jorge) touches it.

Wu Long gives us three Taoist prayer scripts. As they are brought into the areas, these scripts should help alleviate the taint. They need to be taken out and stuck to a surface. They are prayers for the rest of the dead. We head out to the dance hall right away, taking the Phantom Corsaire. We hear more arguments, and yelling around — but it’s downtown LA, so it’s hard to discern whether it’s the spirits or just a regular night on the boulevard.

We end up at the “Hey Hey”, on 4th street. We find close-by parking. As we park, there’s a crowd that gathers. Domino locks the car and disappears. El-Nino scouts ahead. The dancehall is full, muggy and loud. They’re playing swing and the dancers are highly energetic. In the back, there’s an argument going on amongst a crowd of young men. There’s a lot of shoving. It’s getting heated. El-Nino causes a small sonic blast, causing many to run away from the building (earthquake!). Dynamo stands in view and signs autographs while Domino becomes a party goer and goes into the club.

El-Nino breaks up the fight.

When Noh shows up, there’s a ghost who’s embracing one of the fighters. She’s got slashes along her throat. There’s another ghost near the other combatant, and she disappears into the shadows. Noh appears before one of them and tells him he should go home. He does.
She slips in the back door, sidestepping the bouncer. She goes downstairs, looking about for more ghosts.

Domino moves through the dance floor, dodging the grabbers and pirouetting away from those being too handy. The vibe is aggressive. The music is spectacular. She spots a girl in the corner being raped with a wall of the rapists friends. Dominio grabs a sailor and beckons others to come save a girl in the corner. Once the men are focused on each other, she moves the victim into the ladies room.

The crowd gets pushed out of the club. Dynamo arrives, dims the lights, lightning arching off him, the lights and the surroundings asks “Gentlemen, do we have a problem?” The fighting dies down quickly and they move on. He then goes into the club. He’s waved past the ticket agent. Domino makes her way over to him.

Downstairs, there are many small rooms. Noh is stealthy, as there are a few people downstairs. There’s two barrels of rum that a guy is selling to refill dancer’s mickies. She finds a ghost and talks with it.

Upstairs it starts to get unbelievably loud. Domino stops the noise for El-Nino and Dynamo – and Dynamo causes a brownout and kills the sound.

Downstairs, Noh sticks the paper on the floor and stands over it.
The spirit seems puzzled by what is happening. The ghost recognizes what’s happening only at the last minute, and the ghost disappates. There’s a feeling of falling and it’s gone. The paper burns up.

Domino checks out the back alley, but she only finds two unconscious men. She wakes them up and gets them moving again. She also tells the Bouncer that one of the Champions of LA dealt with them.

We meet up on the sidewalk outside. El Nino grabs Domino and they’re in the middle of a warehouse. In the center of a firefight. Duck!

There’s five groups – throwing and shooting at each other.
El-Nino starts taking away the guns.
Domino drives 3 of the attackers out of the building due to cold torrential rain.

By the time others arrive, most of the fighters are either unconscious or injured. El-Nino goes to find someone with a flat-bed truck.
Noh comes in and sees no spirits. The person Domino is trying to tend is Thomas. She blocks Thomas from the building’s collapse, and Noh grabs Domino and Tom and lunges for one of the support columns. It traps Noh up to her waist. Domino is safe and in her arms. Dynamo is also buried.

Through the debris something grabs for him.
El-Nino found a car and he’s driving back.
Noh starts moving through the debris.
Domino lifts the debris off Dynamo.
Attacking Spirits reach up from the debris; they are spirits of the female victims of Thomas. One touches Domino and she feels a numbing cold. -2 to all checks.

El-Nino arrives in his stolen truck. The building has collapsed. He finished clearing off Dynamo, and finds a squished man.
Noh – attacks one of the ghosts.
Dynamo blasts out of the rubble, and the spirits reach up to grab him. He does a cone lightning storm effect that melts and burns away the debris. When it’s done there’s a nice round bit of floor.
Domino floats up with the injured man, takes him to the car and drives away to the nearest cop stop.
The spirits attack Noh, El-Nino and Dynamo. The only one who does not get hit is El-Nino.

El-Nino picks one and punches it until he strikes the spirit, dissipating it.
Noh takes out a prayer strip, and pushes past the grabbing spirit arms, and resolutely puts the strip on the ground.
Dynamo flies up and away.
Half the spirits reach for the scroll. Two of them touch it and disintegrate. The other two try to attack Noh and El-Nino and miss. After a few seconds, the spirits dissipate.

Domino delivers the injured man to the cop shop and gets the police’s attention by turning up the radio and leaning on the horn. Turns out it’s becoming a bit of a legend; when a creepy woman’s voice speaks to you—listen, it’s trying to help.

The third spot is probably at the cemetery where Thomas is burred.
When El-Nino gets to the cemetery, he sees the dead have risen.

Domino picks up Noh and makes her invisible. They fly to Mount Pleasant cemetery. As we arrive, there are some 25 dead wandering around the tombstone. One is draped over it.

El-Nino tries to attract the zombies.
Dynamo ditto.
The zombies start spreading out until there are just 6-7 near the tomb.
Dynamo and Noh position themselves above the tombstone and wait.

The figure that’s wrapped around the tombstone, she notices that the Champions of LA have arrived. She stands, but her uppoer body moves separately from her lower. The centre of her torso is missing and she has a Glasgo smile. She raises her arms. Her hands are punctured and there are chunks of her right breast are missing.

El-Nino keeps distracting the undead.
Dynamo blasts a few of them.
Noh steps out of Domino’s grip and launches herself down. She brings forth her bow and shoots the Black Dalia in the shoulder. That joint seems to start to burn away.
Black Dalia reaches out and advances on Noh. She touches Noh on the chest. The life force of Noh is drained away.
Domino throws a zombie at her and it flies through her; striking a tombstone. Domino cries out for help.

El-Nino races through the zombies. The surrounding cold makes him tired. He tries to hit the Black Dalia, and mostly misses.
Dynamo is able to to strike her with his lightning; dazing her.
Noh pulls out the scroll and tries to defend it.
Black Dalia goes for the parchment and Noh interposes. Behind Elisabeth Short (the Black Dalia), Noh sees Thomas with a look of sadness and confusion.
Domino makes an image of Thomas with such a smirk on his face.
As the scroll finishes, the zombies start falling. It hurts the Black Dalia, but does not make him fall. Her intention is completely on the illusionary Thomas.

El-Nino manages to strike the Black Dalia, but he grows so very tired and hungry.
Dynamo strikes at Black Dalia and it misses.
Noh fires off two arrows at the Black Dalia. Each arrow enters an eye and she falls and dissipates; leaving Thomas standing there. The mask whispers for Noh to punish him. Instead Noh takes off the mask. She speaks to Thomas and when he departs, curls up against his gravestone.

Dynamo takes El-Nino home.
Domino and Noh follow later.

Downstairs, Noh screams at the Silver Samurai and her associated ninjas. 3 disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving their clothes behind.

Upstairs, Dynamo hears Noh stream. He excuses himself and heads into the hall; as he does a Ninja steps out of Dynamo’s shadow!

Silver samurai attacks Noh, leading with her bright sword. Noh manages to duck out of the way, but the sword bits into Noh’s arm. A ninja takes out an amori ( a scroll prayer) and throws it at Noh’s head! It connects.

A ninja tries to stab Dynamo, but no; the sword is deflected by his electrical field.

Noh tries to attack the Silver Samurai, and the attack seems to fail. Silver Samurai asks for the mask back, but Noh refuses. The Silver Samurai attacks again, striking Noh again despite her attempt to dodge. The Silver Samurai manages to knock the mask off her face, and she is revealed! A ninja throws a blade at Rosie, and misses.

Upstairs, Ted the Ninja misses striking Dynamo again.
Father Shanasee’s eyes grow wide, Domino steps out of the way and the Ninja’s chain falls safely away.

In the rectory, El-Nino looks down and a small black bead hits his foot. It explodes into smoke. In the smoke he can just make out two figures.

Domino grabs the priest, and disappears.

El Nino grabs one of the blades, and the Ninja grabs it back! El Nino grabs the other ninja’s sword, and again the Ninja grabs it again! El Nino steps out of the smoke-filled room, but can’t catch his breath.

Dynamo – there are two of them against him now. He hits one with lightning; the Ninja catches fire and his clothes fall to the ground without him.

Rosie reached down, puts the mask on and becomes Noh again. She teleports away to hide deeper in the shadows of the room.

The Ninja in front of Dynamo tries to hit him with a chain. Misses.

When the Silver Samurai leaves in defeat, her Ninja’s collapse.

Domino waits for the cops and stops them from entering with guns blazing. They find nothing, although the priest is quite upset over the state of his boiler (Silver Samurai destroyed it).

Once the party gathers together, we decide to go to Miskanski’s home. It’s a three-story rambling apartment building further up Bunker hill. Miskanski lives in one of the basement apartments.

We knock on the door. A woman in her nightshirt answers. She’s been crying. Someone searched through the house, leaving a mess in its wake.

We learn that Mr. Mishkanski had an argument with his wife and he left with their son. They might be at the cafe called the Golden Dawn.

As El-Nino is cleaning the house, he finds crayon drawings of himself; but with zip lines around him. We ask the Ms. if Bruno is a marvel. The family saw a doctor who said they were inoculating children for free, and so they got Bruno inoculated. After that though, when Bruno got angry, everyone got angry and so on and so forth. They tried to move from city to city to hide it, but it comes out.

Jorge says the cafe is on Oak street. There’s a pharmacy on Oak and third, and there’s a door behind the pharmacy that goes to the basement.There’s a secret knock to get in.

We arrive at the cafe. We terrorize the door guard and learn that Mr Mishkanski is here. El-Nino runs in and looks around. It’s a low-end coffee shop. El-Nino finds Bruno drawing on the walls. He perks up when El-Nino passes.

We find Bruno and Mr. Anton Mishkanski in the club and meet the mistress of the cafe. Mr. Mishkanski says: Bruno, Angry! And then it all goes to heck.

El Nino grabs Bruno and takes him out of the area. Dynamo goes nuts, shocking everyone and leaving some people with burns. The coffee machine blows up. The mistress of the place punches Dynamo across the face.

Anton says his name is Tony. He cuts Domino with his mind!

Domino starts reading the scroll. The letters burn and smoke pours out of her mouth. The smoke tries to grapple him. His arms are moving faster than he should be able to.

Noh grasps at Anton and tries to get the spirit out.

El Nino returns and tries to convince Dynamo to calm down. The guys in the cafe are still flailing at him. El Nino interposes to stop Dynamo from frying their asses!

Anton names himself Tony – and he admits to stabbing Elisabeth Short. He stabs at Noh and she feels herself bleeding.

Domino grabs the spirit and pulls it free from Anton. Noh recognizes him as her husband. He’s a bloody mess! Covered in blood. His guts are torn out, and his chest is a ruined mess.

As he goes through Noh, there’s a strange disjunction effect that torques. As Domino puts him in the bottle, the lights stay dim and it gets colder.

Noh’s shape is fluctuating madly. She spins around and yells for the fighters to stop. Red Ronda and Dynamo collapse in fear. Noh falls to her knees and starts crying.

Indistinct shapes, bloody and trailing their entrails. They arrive and begin to reach for the bottle.

Standing in the entry way, a glowing shape draws a glowing katana.

It’s been a few weeks since the madness of the giant robot attacks. In other cities, this would still be the talk of the town, but this is LA. Since the robot attacks, the papers have been filled with stories like a movie starlet married a football player and a police detective was discovered in a whore house.

For some, the world will never be the same. It’s September. School has started again.

The LA heroes have also returned to a semblance of normalcy. The factory re-opened, so Mark has his job back. But the owner is definitely quitting the business should there be another explosion, or fire, or giant robots reappear.

Rosie has been sleeping really badly. She hasn’t seen Agent Corell for a bit, which is a good thing. Even though some of us have been patrolling and investigating issues in the city, but it’s been small time hoods; no marvels or the unexplained.

It’s a Tuesday. Mark is back from work, after a long day at the factory. Ernesto and Maria are out, so the younger children are being watched over by Madame Cobb, Rosie, and Stacey.

Stacey is waiting for her uncle who’s back from San Francisco with some books. He wants to disenchant that crazy mask we have “stored away somewhere safe”.

It’s a quiet night at Cobb house. Madame Cobb and Rosie are knitting, while Stacey is showing Juana some magic. Rosie is half-dozing. Over the week she regularly wakes up feeling like she’s lost or forgotten something.

Emillio is watching the Television.

We hear them before they come in, surprisingly. The Montoyas come back, and they are arguing. Loudly. The door opens and Ernesto storms in, with Maria following accusing him of being too chummy with a young niece at the soiree they were attending. Ernesto moves into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich.

Jorge screams out “Papa no!”.

Ernesto turns on his wife and switches languages – it sounds Russian. He raises his hand to strike Maria, and Emillio interposes and grabs Ernesto’s arm. In that same strange language Ernesto yells at his son and flings him back into the cubbards, hard.

Jorges tells Emillio that Ernesto is calling Emillio a bad son. Ernesto turns away from Maria (who is furious about her husband’s behaviour) and Emillio gets up and gets into his face, trying to talk him down in Spanish.

Rosie/Noh steps into the kitchen, stepping up to Maria, and trying to get Emillio to calm down. She gets everyone’s attention by being far more forceful than usual.

Jorge gets up and peers around the door from the living room to the kitchen. Madame Cobb also gets up, demanding to know what’s going on. Jorge says Ernesto is now talking Polish. Jorge looks carefully at Ernesto.

Ernesto glares at Rosie, and moves to strike her with a closed fist. Emillio interposes, and the strike misses.

Mark/Dynamo rushes up, adding himself to the brohaha. Ernesto is ignoring everyone except Rosie.

Stacey/Domino senses magic. Ernesto’s eyes are blue and he’s looking at Rosie with extreme hate. Stacey/Domino rises from the couch, steps into the kitchen and grabs the salt shaker. She opens it, while repeating a Santarian prayer and throws it at Ernesto. There’s a white mist that flows briefly out of him, before he sucks it back into himself.

Rosie/Noh tries to trip him, and fails.

Jorge yells out “Stop!” There’s this weird hiccup, where everyone is certain the last second or two just happened again.

There’s someone at the door.

Ernesto tries to grab Rosie/Noh. Emillio tries to interpose again. Ernesto manages to connect, hitting Emillio with his ebow to Emillio’s jaw. Ernesto says to Rosie “you abandoned me, you left me…”

Mark/Dynamo gets a good hold of Ernesto, holding him steady.

Stacey/Domino tries to put Ernesto to sleep. He seems fatigued.

Juana freaks out and Madame Cobb is trying to comfort her

Emillio goes to get some rope and ties him up.

Shortly thereafter, Stacey answers the door. It’s her Uncle Antonio Vargas.

Maria tries to mother Emillio.

Ernesto is reverting to a bizarre rotation of english (American vernacular of the mid-west, modern contemporary), Italian, polish, streaming a Rosie, Marie, and everyone in general until Maria grabs a sock and shoves it in Ernesto’s mouth.

Madame Cobb gathers up the children and tells them it’s time to brush their teeth as their father’s just had too much to drink.

The household calms down a bit. Ernesto, tied up tightly and gagged, is moved to a corner.

Maria sits downn, abd looks at her husband in an angry/confused/upset sort of way. When Rosie goes to talk to her – she learns that Ernesto made inappropriate remarks about the young Hernandez woman. So much so that Maria insisted they come home early.

They’d been to a church social that was a pot-luck. It was to raise funds for the church roof.

A police car goes past, but for the next half hour, a lot of cop cars seem to be coming into the area.

Uncle Vargas sends a message to Mama Tousault (a voodoo madame to the stars), asking Emillio to deliver the message. Stacy covers his disappearance.

He arrives at Mama Tousault’s magic store. There’s a south-seas island motif. Behind the counter is an elderly ample woman in her 50s – with a white headscarf. She calls Emillio “mon petite”.

She reads the note, packs the bag and tells “Antoine, Je Sort.”

As Emillio is zipping around, it seems the police are dealing with seven distinct incidents of domestic abuse. Looking into one, he sees a similar scenario. He does what he must to intervene.

In 6 cases, the men attacked their wives. In the seventh, the man had a knife and charged the police. They shot him. He’s still alive (and still trying to strike the policeman). The police are applying first aide as best they are able.

El Nino takes the man to the hospital after struggling to get him off the ground.

Mama Tousault arrives, smoking a big cigar. Madame Cobb is not impressed, but after a please? look from Stacey, she goes to make tea. Emillio tidies up the kitchen.

Mama Tousault blows cigar smoke into Ernesto’s face. Making him cough.
We chat and then take him to the garage. After she draws symbols in red chalk, she drinks down 2/5th of burbon before dumping some on the ground and breaking the bottle.

She then gets ridden by a loa. Her smoke forces out the spirit and she catches it. She tells us that old blue eyes is furioush with Rosie/Noh. He’s very angry and feels betrayed. The butcher of the black flower. He was found and punished by the white face who killed him.

Mama Tousault says we have to find him. But tells us no more. When the loa departs.

Stacey tries to explain it to Ernesto. He says he’ll sleep at his brother’s tonight and come back tomorrow night. When he leaves the garage, Mark jumps him! Mark lets him go once Ernesto shows he’s rational.

Rosie/Noh goes patrolling to try and figure out what’s going on. She’d rather the butcher of the black flower is attacking women, not her.

Stacey and Uncle Vargas researches the nullification ritual. It takes most of the night to finish.

The people on the street are out and talking about the violence and the police presence. Things begin to quiet down. There’s still a tension in the streets of Bunker hill.

The next day, Mark goes to work with a very embarrassed Ernesto. At lunch, Ernesto seeks Mark out and asks about his wife and discussing the night before. He returns to work, and on the way home – buys flowers.

Around 6, Ernesto arrives home and Maria is cooking up a storm. When Ernesto arrives, Maria gets Mark a beer and ignores her husband. Ernesto brings her flowers. She grabs them, takes her husband by hte elbow and goes into the parlor to have a hushed conversation in Spanish.

Eventually Maria and Ernesto return. Ernesto apologizes for his behaviour, claiming he was very drunk. After dinner, Ernesto and Maria go to church.

We suit up and head out to the church. Along the way we see extra foot patrols, but the hill is quiet.

The hall is an area used by various groups and organizations. Tonight was bingo night.

Stacey/Domino knocks on the door. Father O’Shawnashe answers the door. He takes us into the hall. He describes the madness as a form of contagion. One of the long-standing parishioners – Ben Miskona. He’s a widower. And he spoke to each of the stricken men for a long time.

El-Nino found the priest’s stash of nu-die magazines. Ewwww!

Rosie/Noh is flitting from room to room using her ghost site. She’s in the priest’s bedroom, checking around. She’s not found a direction or source and so she’s just looking around. She glances in a mirror and sees a man drenched in blood with piercing blue eyes – holding a knife, drenched in blood! She turns around, and he’s gone. He’s not in the mirror. She starts moving back towards the group, when there’s a lot of movement around her. She starts to hide, and she seems shadowy forms (men dressed in black – with blades on their arms. Coming out of a puff of smoke is a Japanese woman with a blade that flares, wearing all silvery-white. She names herself Silver samurai and demands Noh give back what she has stolen!

Set in the late 1940s in Bunker Hill, LA. Four misfits find themselves living under one roof. Only the land lady seemed to know they have so much in common. And who knew that from such simple beginnings, something so great could come.

July 31, 1949

July 29th, 1947

July 29th, 1947