Creeping Fruticose 2

(Part 2 of my solo Cthulhu Dark playing.)

Terra Knafferly, biologist and academic
Insight 2

Terra wakes up blearily, makes instant coffee, toast, and walks from her apartment block, through the sleepy downtown restaurants and bars, and onto the northern section of campus. Past the huge stone library with its tiny windows like some many-eyed pachyderm, past the colonial-era English and History department buildings, and into the Biology building, all glass and steel. A clock dully clicks through the first seconds of 7:43am as she walks by, her uncle’s notes pressed against her through her bag.

A tall, thin brown-skinned man sits on one of the desks in her classroom, re-reading a sheet of paper. Younger than Terra by at least a decade, short hair and stubbly. His long legs were crossed at the ankles, his pose one of forced calmness. The skin around his eyes was bruised and bleary.

“Terra Knafferly?”

“Yes?”

“I’m Bar.” He stood. “Bar Alvi. I, ah. I knew Bob. I’m really sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you, I -“

“Listen, Bob, he, uh. He didn’t leave you a note, right?”

Terra frowned. “Mr. Alvi, no, he didn’t.”

Alvi held out the sheet of paper. It shook in his hands. “Have you his notes?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with, with what he did. With any of this.”

“Just read the note.”

IT IS A GATE. THEY ARE NOT MAKING ART, THEY ARE NOT MAKING SCULPTURE. THEY FORGE A GATE AND MORE WILL COME, MORE WILL COME. I’M SORRY THEY ARE COMING, THEY WILL NOT MAKE ME ONE OF

I FEAR THE LIBRARY BASEMENT STORAGE WAS COMPROMISED. BURN IT FOR ME PLEASE.

I’M SORRY

(Terra Insight Check -> d6 => 3! ++)

(Alvi already has insight of 2 from this)

“How…” Terra holds one hand just under her mouth, fingers upon one cheek, thumb on the other. As though to stop the words.

“Bob and I had a dead drop.” Alvi shrugged. “It started as a joke. Well, I thought it was a joke. I guess it was Bob’s idea. Just a place we stuffed notes on campus, little things. Haikus. Jokes. The occasional cigarette.”

“Bob smoked?”

“Yeah, I mean, once in a while. Once in a bit. So” Alvi looked hungry, eager. “I mean, I know this is weird… but is there anything weird from his notes?”

“Yes… Yes.” Terra digs out the notes, flips open the folio to the photo of her double. She pushes the notes into Bar’s hands like they were burning her, then she marches up to the whiteboard and begins writing.

“What the fuck…”

(Insight check Babar: 3. ++)

CLASS CANCELLED TODAY: HAVE FUN! on the whiteboard in large black letters. Terra turns back to Alvi, trying to keep her face neutral. Unlike the smiling photograph.

“I guess we ought to go to the library, Bar?"

“Sure,” he said, shakily.

On the way there, Terra summarized the notes as Bar looked far-away, barely responding.

Terra Knafferly, biologist and academic
Insight 3

Babar Alvi, failed chemist postdoc, urban explorer
Insight 3