At The Safe House

The safe house:
The house is fully wheelchair accessible with an old wooden ramp leading up to an extra wide front door. Inside the hispanic "cleaning" lady greets you. She is dressed in a rather comically short "nurses" outfit that might be better suited to a low budget porno.

Two other men are there.
First is average height black male in his forties. He is very clean cut and wearing a purple polo shirt with an "ismile" logo on it. Apparently some sort of schwag promotional shirt for a tooth whitening product. He sizes everyone up for a moment and then gets back to whatever he was doing which seems to involve scurrying around the house from room to room.

Second is a bald white male also in his forties that seems to have just rolled out of bed. He's wearing a white undershirt with large yellow stains under the armpits, and a pair of slacks. He sits at the kitchen table shuffling and signing some papers and has a suit jacket and button up shirt rolled up in a bundle beside him that is held together with a tie that he has knotted around the whole thing.

The inside of the house is rather drab with quite dated furniture. On the walls are dusty "inspirational" sayings of people performing physical rehab. There are also framed photos here and there of "accomplished" rehab patients doing extradorinaiy activities. Little notes of thanks adorn some of the photos.

Ismile man comes into the main room where the cleaning lady is looking you all over. (first aid/medical check for healing)
He freshens up the dead flowers in a vase on the coffee table and turns on the old school rear project large screen tv. He runs back into the back and returns with a VHS tape which he puts in the VCR but doesn't turn on. "It will autoplay, just push it in if anyone comes," he says to the hispanic woman.
He glances at the Lucien and Percival and shakes his head. "You two look like shit," he glances at his watch, "I'm not sure you have time to shower...maybe...the next few hours are...well we get through this and we are in the clear."

The man in the kitchen shouts, "I think we're good...I'll be surprised if anyone comes by. You gotta figure that party had a few hundred people there, if they interview everyone they'll be at it for the next month."
Ismile looks at Lucien, apparently deciding he is Percival isn't lucid enough, "We don't know what the police have footage of. They have the invite list...and I take it you are...Lucien, so he'd," pointing at Percival, "be on the list, but you if I'm understanding correctly were a plus one, so.." He laughs, "well you're probably good unless they have some decent video footage."
He looks back at the hispanic lady, "can we get them in more appropriate attire?"
He switches the news on to local 5.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Headlines are leading with "Night of Chaos in Atlanta!"
911, police, and fire and rescue were stretched to their breaking point tonight after what many are calling a mafia war.
Fighting broke out at a night club and spilled into the streets across the city which have left dozens dead and multiple businesses in flames.

Public Relations Press Briefing:
"I will share with you what I know at this time and can share.
We have taken an individual into custody who was attempting to flee in a private aircraft. That aircraft is owned by best selling author Morna Demarkov, who I'm told is safe at this time and being treated for injuries. We do have video recording, taken by her at the time she was kidnapped, of the individual making threats and supposedly coordinating attacks. I have not heard this recording yet myself and we have yet to authenticate it but it does appear to be legitimate.
We are also currently looking for several people of interest who may have been targeted and have more information. I currently have no information on their whereabouts.
We are currently operating under an assumption that the individual in custody may have sleeper agents in the field and to them I would say, "this city has seen enough destruction, your leader is in custody, and it would be senseless to carry out any order you might have. Turn yourselves in."

Reporter asks if the individual in custody is Oltov. PR: "We are not officially releasing any names at this moment."
Reporter asks if Morna was a willing participant. PR: "All the evidence we have at this time suggests Morna and her assistant were taken at gunpoint, and given the first opportunity she had she was able to notify authorities.
Reporter asks if Morna is Grady: PR: Morna Demarkov is receiving care and it is my understanding, due to her relationship with the individual, is doing so in private and she still fears for her life. We have identified at least two individuals who were at her apartment waiting for her, and let me just say, I think this is a good time to recognize that out of this tragic night a number of heroes have emerged, such as Dwaine Southerland who singlehandedly apprehended one of the suspects and kept the residents at The Atlantic safe.
I'm also told we have an individual who fought off attackers with condiments, we have neighbors who looked out for one another, and business owners that fought fires from spreading to other retail stores.
Reporter asks they are trying to understand the timeline, was the first fire at Morna's art gallery. PR: We are still actively trying to put together the precise order of events.
Reporter asks about video of a car being thrown. PR: I have no information on such an event occurring.
Reporter asks about mass poisoning PR: I have been made aware that some sort of agent or contaminant may have led to a number of individuals becoming sick, but we do not have sufficient information at this time to link the two events. It is possible that one of the fires caused a leak in a sewage line and may have led to the issues.

Public Relations head ends the press the conference with some final words, "Last night was a terrible night, we will continue to update everyone, and release any information we feel is appropriate to keep the citizens of Atlanta safe. I would like to add, please do not jump to any conclusions, last night, as tragic as it was, was an isolated incident and not. Please stay calm, and stay patient, now is not the time for panic, putting up red lights, or turning on one another. It is rather a chance for us come together, to share the word, and spread the Atlanta love that is in our hearts.

News Tickers are starting to run with headlines like "Former movie producer turned new age mafia boss arrested."

Daniel makes the news:
Daniel is interviewed at one point standing in front of the gym. "I don't know what happened, I was inside setting up the bear traps like I do every night before I go to sleep on the floor, and these two guys come up and one throws a molotov cocktail through the window, and I, I grabbed the first thing I had, which was these two large family jars of mayonnaise and threw them right at the fire but it didn't put it out and then I thought "I'm going to get in trouble for starting another fire..."
The interviewer cuts him off, "so you slept here? You didn't just lose your business but your home too? That must be devastating."
Daniel, "Well, I can sleep in my car, I can sleep about anywhere, it's kind of a skill that I've developed over the years..."
Interviewing, "You were homeless and built this business up from scratch just to have it taken away?"
Daniel, "Well I'm in the ghost fighting business, and I don't need a fancy gym to show someone how to swing a sock of rocks...."
The interviewer starts to close out and Daniel gets real animated, "wait wait wait, you don't think I did this do you? I didn't! Believe me Percival, if you are watching, see I didn't do this, I swear, I'll come stay on your sofa just like times, don't be mad...."

Little Old Lady:
"It's a shame, just a shame, this used to be a good neighborhood. They had just won a cruise you know. And it's like I was saying, I saw that young man there, right there and I said, "you better be careful," that could have been him. I'm just glad I was able to warn him. Who would have thought, dressed as paramedics, why are they stealing cars, they already had an ambulance. But that man went right over there and stole their car and they just drove off together, and the police didn't do a thing. I had to go over there and I said, did you see that? did you see that? And they shot Mr. Greenling."
Reporter, "So you had to notify the police..."
"Yes, I said, "did you see that?" and I pointed, I pointed, just like this, down the street."

Percival looks at the man and says, “you’d look like shit too, if you’d spent the night being beaten and tortured.” And he lays back on the couch. Follows up with saying and “you have us mixed up.”



---I think what you are referring to was a typo on my part and meant to mean that he decides Percival is not lucid enough to talk to.

Lucien and Percival get a text from Morna:



Clicking the Link
The text is just a link to an old YouTube video hosted on the Video Vault Channel which hasn't put out a video in several years.
The video is titled: "Home America Production$ - The $ecret Life of The Bottom Line
The video quality is poor.
The 37 minute video is mostly about and narrated by Hershel and Gail (aka Babs) Watts.

It looks at what is essentially "hollywood bookkeeping" in order to inflate, reduce or eliminate the reported profit of a production company.
At its essence the Watts discuss their long career traveling the US and making small direct to home video movies in order to lose money. They talk about their adventures going to small towns, finding someone that liked to knit, convincing them to make a movie on how to knit, claiming it would be released by like Prism studios, but was really released under subsidiary, which in turn charged Prism an exorbitant fee which they could write off or tack onto another project.
In some cases they would hold fake auditions in an area, but charge a fee to "correct" their resumes so they were in industry standard compliance. Pick someone at random as having gotten the part, but then indefinitely delay production.
The whole thing is interspersed with footage from these shoots and auditions.
Hershel mentions at one point having seven productions going at the same time across a motel. "We had one guy playing the mascot for each one, so he comes out of Room 1 as Flabby the Lazy Bear who's learning to exercise from some local gym nut, we'd change out the head and send him into room 2 and he's Chewy the woodworking beaver talking with the ACE hardware guy about hammers and hammer safety."
"Technology now, it's getting to wear anyone can share, but when we started doing this, it was huge, we were big time "hollywood" producers in your little town looking for talent. You make sweet potato pies? Here's some hand puppets, make some pies and let's roll."

Another bit of the movie they discuss doing a movie for police. "We had to...well, the whole manson family thing doesn't work anymore. You need a threat that scares cops, scared cops buy your video, they watch it once, whatever. We make bank. So, we've pre-sold 10,000 copies. It's going to Vegas to get played at a convention. We are looking at a real flip on this, $50K into, half a million, but we are going decrease Celador's share of revenue by artificially deflating the fees that should have been paid back to production. Western Living will step in and sue, the whole venture closes down, we walk away happy, Prism is happy, Looking Glass is happy, Otlav is walking away with a million easy for doing nothing, except directing Western to sue us for artificial deflation, on a company he owns a share in."
They go on to talk about how they had to make an actual video though and came up with this "grunge/post-grunge satanic cop hating occult" idea. "Red flannel, they were priests, blue flannel were bishops, etc..."
"It morphed into this whole thing, by the end Hershel and I were just people watching, noting their fashions and making notes on it meaning something secret."
"But we needed a "star." We needed someone that looked the part. Fit in, but didn't too fit in, kind of foreign but not and there no was time or budget for auditions....Babs takes over, "then we thought, the "can't poop kid."

This sends the video into a side story.
Babs: "With a budget, this would have been very French expressionism." Hershel laughs.
The movie cuts to the commercial:
A mother is scooping some ice cream out into bowls, she calls out, "Would you like some ice cream?"
Cuts to a row of toilets so they form a sort of hallway with the mother scooping ice cream at the far end.
Voice over, "I want some ice cream but I haven't pooped, I can't just keep eating and not poop."
Mother: "Something wrong dear?"
Voice: "Nothing's wrong mom, I'm just not feeling..."
Mother: "You haven't pooped today have you? You can't hide not having pooped."
A crowd gathers across the room of various professions: Milkmen, landscapers, secretaries..good wholesome common community people.
In unison, "We all know you haven't pooped."
Voice, "it's not I haven't pooped, I can't poop! Ok, I can't poop!"
Mother: "Oh dear, that's nothing to be ashamed of, lots of us need help. Try Cemens. Your father and I drink it every morning.
Father: "That's right son, with Cemens, you'll never be constipated again."
Commercial cuts to the son.
A younger but very energetic and recognizable Neil raises his arms up in victory, "I can poop!"

Movie cuts back to the Watts laughing. Babs wipes tears away from her eyes, "..never mind the name..." Hershel shouts, "I can poop!" Babs, "You find the best people at community theaters. Hey, who hasn't gotten their start by excitedly shouting "I can poop...after apparently swallowing something called cemen..." Hershel, "oh we are going to hell. I think he did that for like $20 or something. The janitor cost us more money on that shoot. Contractually it had to be played so I think it played once on some local access or online thing or something.
Babs: "Someone must have told the company too, I don't think ...she starts laughing... cemens ever came to the US.
Hershel: "You know there is probably some couple like us, who's job is to just make terrible products so some company makes money."
Babs: "Oh that makes sense."
Hershel, "Turns out poop kid had moved to LA after doing that commercial, "to be a star" so there we were working with him again as the ...satanic grunge cop killer kid turned good, trying to warn cops about people like him? Whatever that was.
It then cuts to a scene from "Open-Sourced Threat" in the scene Neil is dressed in black, on his knees with his arm around a tombstone. "Stone Temple Pilots, it's code for a grave, a cop's grave, a cop funeral."  
Another scene he is sitting eating fries on a bench, "You know we see each other, but don't "see" each other. This isn't social. Just sitting here I've seen, at least six go by. We might give each other a glance but we aren't going to stop and have tea with each other."

Well I guess Neil is safe. Considering he’s apparently known Oltav since he was a kid.

If there is a point where you want to interrupt, just note at what point you jump in.

The man in the kitchen will check his phone, nod, and place it into his pocket. "Ok, everyone, let's get this show on the road."
Ismile will come back into the room with a wheelchair and pair of forearm crutches. He looks at the hispanic lady, "really? you look like a cartoon."
"I'm changing, I'm changing."

There's a knock on the door, and albino man will enter. He scans the room. "Jesus christ, can we get some makeup or something on them?"
"Alright...we want you two doing as little as possible."
The hispanic lady returns and tosses two very used looking sweat pants down, a tshirt, and a sweatshirt.
Albino guy points at Lucien and Percival, "ok, get changed."

Ismile guy shouts from down the hall, "which one is most likely run their mouth?"
Albino, "the white one."
Ismile, "He gets the wheelchair, other in the crutches."
Albino, "This is shock and confuse, we want to keep away from questions, be fast, keep it confusing. They can look around, but keep it on the move and keep it distracting.

Percival just changes into the clothing he was provided