1.5 When the Cat's Away

Alma: "Of course it will be a problem if Tez is missing. You know what they say, when the cat's away, things are going to go badly quickly for La Colonia... and he's the person who's running everything here."

Opening Montage

• Adriana leaves the apartment she shares with London's mom – they seem to be getting along great. She finds an injured dog, and manages to resist her Rift's urge to kill him and take away his pain. As she hesitates, she is abducted with a bag over her head...
• Tez, his sicarias, and La Águila de Plata are in a street brawl; a strange mist starts rolling in that seems to weaken them even as it has its own strong energy. Choosing La Colonia over destroying each other, they turn back to back to face this new strange threat together...
• Erica Garza (La Colibri) is getting ready for bed when she is abducted from the home she shares with her girlfriend Helen (La Águila) by a man with a rag soaked in chloroform...

Downtime Montage

Whiro: "Something's been done to them. Can't you feel it here? The way you're dampened, the way you hurt. They don't want power here. I am power, and I reject their suppression. You felt it. It comes from the men. The Men in Gray. But they are not the only ones."

• Daniel & Geoffrey - casino - building Daniel's usage of his skills
• London - researching La Colibri - talks to Rogelio - identifies her as Helen's girlfriend Erica Garza
• Maeve - Reddit research - Men in Gray - gets nowhere in conspiracy land
• Kevin + Wren - visiting Denver - Whiro finally gets a better look at what is happening here - this was inflicted upon Denver by "the ones who want to drive all the gods away."
• Daniel - goes digging for info on the Men in Gray, specifically the one who was with Inez. Gets a name - Ville Haavikko - who is not a known government employee; goes looking for how the seeds of involvement in this group are planted; leaves a post about having a rider he wants to get rid of to encourage them to make contact
• Somewhere in all of this we developed a plan with Sergei to have him use his tuning fork to make a MistMap of The City

La Colonia - Rogelio's "Graduation"

Maeve (texting w/ Geoffrey): "Alex Duke is the blonde dick."
Geoffrey: "..."
Maeve: "I know how to say it in Spanish now!"
Geoffrey: "... I'm not sure how to take that."
Maeve: "I think London's embarrassed."
Geoffrey: "... In in another scenario, I'd be very curious about this blonde dick."

• London, John, and Maeve go to The Saint Within celebrate Rogelio's completion of the program
• John give Rogelio concert tickets and he is ecstatic
• Rogelio has a glow, but hitchhiker is gone
• Maeve confirms that the Men in Gray were not part of Rogelio's therapy
• Rogelio thinks she means Alex Duke, and he goes off about the man
• Adriana was supposed to be there, but doesn't show
• Adriana's phone is off/location was last seen two days ago

Maria's Apartment

• Adriana's backpack is still there, so it doesn't look like she ran
• They find her journal, which is in Spanish - London will have to translate it
• Maria can't give them a good sense of time as to when she left
• Maria tells them all about the news of the fight and how Tez got picked up by the cops

Tattoo Shop

• Whole group meets here
• Geoffrey questions his gang-affiliated employee re: Tez's arrest, and the man tells them that La Águila de Plata was also picked up but he doesn't know where the pair were taken
• He's heard it's either the Men in Gray or the "Ken Doll" cop Alex Duke, but nobody is sure which
• Tells them they should go to Bill’s Billiards to talk to Alma for more info

Helen & Erica's House

Maeve: "I can help you cross over, or I can make your afterlife a hell beyond what it already is... [ghost harasses her in Spanish] London, I don't think I want you to translate this."

• Mail in the mailbox is a couple of days old, lining up with the disappearance of Tez, Helen, and Adriana
• Maeve talks to a ghost who is zero help
• No signs of forced entry
• Signs of a struggle in the primary bath/bedroom
• (London finds his boots, yay)

Geoffrey: "London, you know that you've got an open invitation to game night anytime you want. I've got an NPC that's just perfect for you."
London: "Really."
Geoffrey: "He's an incubus. He's got amazing charm skills. You would have a blast."
Wren: "Wouldn't really be stepping out of your skin though, huh?"
London: "I'm really not sure whether to be offended right now or not."

Bill's Billiards

London: "I think five people showing up will result in guns drawn."
Geoffrey: "Ok, we'll drop the other two off."
London: "Perfecto. That will result in knives drawn, but this I can deal with."

• Group splits up - most go to Daniel and Geoffrey's condo; Geoffrey, John, and London go to Bill's
• Tez's table is empty; they sit at it
• They try to get an audience with Alma – Bill (whose name is not actually Bill) goes to the back room to announce them

London: "John, do you want backup?"
John: "No, I think I'll be all right."
London: "I meant I have a few extra pens for autographs."

• Only John is admitted due to his celebrity (the Isabella Effect)
• John tells them Colibri and Adriana were also taken, and tries to explain the Four Tezcatlipocas, which... gets a little mangled
• Ten minutes on the dot, Geoffrey and London bang on the door
• More conversation between Alma and the group – concern that with Tez gone all hell is going to break loose in La Colonia
• Alma vaguely recognizes London but can't put her finger on why
• Ultimately, Alma reveals that it's Duke who has taken Tez and La Águila

Communications

Briana: "If you want to get rid of your rider, as you called it, I can help you with that. It's a pretty easy fix. Shrouders can handle it. It takes no time. If you want to actually do something about it, There are people who are willing to do that."

• Wren and Briana - Bri explains that the men in gray are saving the city from Rifts taking over and destroying everyone and everything; feels she's on the right side here, agrees to meet with Wren for dinner and talk more
• Maeve and Orlov - David Orlov calls Maeve with another job – find Erica Garza; she is important to Armand's operations, but he won't give details; she has worked off and on with their company, and there is something that can't move forward without her
• Geoffrey and Daniel – Geoffrey tells Daniel to "really look" at Inez - she doesn't have a Rift but she DOES have metaphysical stitching similar to what they saw on Denver, like something has been surgically removed
• B and Kevin – B texts and she needs him to return that favor – her friend Maya has been abducted from Town Hall. She thinks she knows where they are being taken, but can't/won't go alone

Barn

Geoffrey (texting Daniel): "Sorry hun. Candy Factory Part 2. Go cosmic. 💜❤️💋"

• They collect the whole extended group except Daniel and Inez and get in the car
• B leads the group to a Barn in the agricultural far southwest part of The City
• They attempt to pick the lock, and try to get in through the hayloft; in messing with the door, London's elbow vanishes through it
• They realize this is an Enclave situation like the Candy Factory
• Geoffrey texts Daniel to tell him to stay with Inez and "go cosmic," letting him know where they are
• Maeve texts Cillian, sending their location telling him they are going after Duke; he panics
• London, Geoffrey, John, Sergei, and B are all able to pass through the door
• Maeve, Wren, and Kevin cannot get through – they try picking the lock again but fail (and they know it won't work anyway)
• As they are trying to find a way in, an attractive "Ken doll" of a blonde man bracketed by a group of thugs approaches them spinning a collar around in his hands and tells them the only way in is by wearing one...
• They/we realize that while the folklore Rifts can get through, the gods cannot...

Enclave

• Those who get through find a seemingly idyllic agricultural paradise of rolling fields, forests, rivers, and farmland
• Collared figures are seen laboring the land all of them using their powers for forced agricultural productivity
• "Working in the field you see a man with blonde hair wearing a torque around his neck. He's got antlers coming out of his head, and he's Pushing like this, and as he walks, his feet sink further and further into the ground until he's pushing the ground with his hands, and behind him crops are growing until he is completely inside the dirt."
• "Off in the river, you see a woman with a mermaid's tail, also wearing a collar, who's chained to the banks. People are bringing animals to her, and she looks up at them and touches them with one hand. A smear of blood comes off of her hand onto the animal, and it walks away. And you can see its belly swelling as it moves— as it moves away. "
• "In the orchards, there's a woman with a collar walking through. She's wearing an apron dress, like Norse-style apron dress, and as she touches the trees, apples grow in her wake."
• "In every direction you look, people are working the fields. One man is has fallen backwards onto the fields, and you can see things— it's almost like his body is leaching into the soil as cabbages and carrots and other plants grow from the— what's flowing from his arms."

Red Yarn 🧶

Apples + Oranges (A+O)

• Apples and Oranges (A+O) is a big agriculture company providing fresh produce, meat, and dairy to The City.
• They have a reputation for shady labor practices.
• Armand Short is the owner of A+O, and the father of Briana Short.
• Short has a vested interest in the whereabouts of Erica Garza, who has gone missing. Per Short's fixer, David Orlov, Garza has worked with them sporadically in the past and is critical to moving an undisclosed important project forward.
• A+O runs meatpacking facilities in La Colonia. They own a bunch of shell corporations that enable them to operate additional factories with lower safety and working standards.
• A+O facilities had a string of deaths that were too numerous to be accidental. We have not explored these deaths further.
• Rogelio Lopez tried to blow the whistle on the A+O labor practices, but the A+O legal team exposed his crimes perpetrated by El Cuyo, his Rift, discrediting him as a witness. A+O hired him back at another plant under one of these shell corporations.
• A+O owns soup kitchens in lower-income areas, including La Colonia and Independence.

The Saint Within

• There are volunteers at the A+O soup kitchens, at least in La Colonia, who are representatives of an organization called The Saint Within. These volunteers are able to identify and talk to people with Rifts and offer them a way to remove them.
• We know that those who come out of the program at The Saint Within have a "glow" about them, but their Rifts appear to truly be gone.

Alex Duke

• Alex Duke is a disgraced cop who should have been kicked off the force but wasn't after he murdered somebody in La Colonia. He's not allowed in any official capacity there or in Independence.
• He is good looking in a blonde "Ken Doll" kind of way.
• Duke is still frequently seen in La Colonia because he moonlights in private security and is often spotted near A+O properties.
• Alex Duke has abducted at least two of the four Aztec creator gods, the Tezcatlipocas.

The Men in Gray/Shrouders

• The Men in Gray have an implied mission of ridding The City of Rifts before these gods-made-flesh come and destroy everything and everyone in their pursuit of their individual goals. Ville Haavikko is one of their agents, and a Shrouder, who are a subset of the organization.
• Shrouders are responsible for evaluating people for their “use to society” in a currently unknown context.
• Briana Short has ties to the men in gray, and is also against her father's labor practices.
• We know that it's possible to distill a Rift and make it usable by anyone who has ownership of the resulting substance.

• The Niners in Independence round up "troublemakers" in that district and take them to City Hall, where they are evaluated by the Shrouders.
• The prisoners in City Hall are of all ages, but are almost exclusively racial minorities.
• Both Denver Morrison and Inez Hill show signs of some kind of metaphysical tampering, which manifests as "stitches" as though some part of them has been excised and stitched back together. Denver shows multiple instances of this.
• Both Denver and Inez have had run-ins with the Niners in Independence.
• Per B, some of the prisoners that the Shrouders identify as "useful" are transported to another location – a farming Enclave at a barn in the southwest part of town.

The Barn Enclave

• Alex Duke is here at the barn; it's TBD whether the Tezcatlipocas are.
• Gods cannot enter the enclave freely. They must be collared to enter.
• Folkloric Rifts can enter unimpeded.