Avalon. The mythical island where Arthur was lain to rest. The place of retirement of Faerie's kings since Dain, Huon, Gwyn ap Nudd, Finvarra, and most recently Oberon and his wife, Titania. Here is the pinnacle of Elven civilization with magic that practically crackles in the air itself.

"If I can just get there" Tisandra said, resting her chin on her knees, "we can drive him out of my land. We can free my people." She paused, breathing a deep, solemn sigh. "I owe it to my Father to do right by my people. I cannot abandon them. Not when they need me the most."

I'm thinking maybe the Gateway to The West in St. Louis would make an interested portal to Avalon. But it's so huge. Wouldn't an island, secreted away from even Faerie country, be harder to get to from America? Wouldn't the portal be tough to find, fraught with sentinels or guardians to keep the 'riff-raff' out? Like a combination to a safe, wouldn't certain things have to be done in order to open the gates? Certain keys, et al?

And once she gets there, what then? Does she ask for help from her ancestors? Or does she abandon Bobby & co. for a life away from her people and from her friends? It doesn't make sense for her not to help them, to try to find help in Avalon.

*sigh* So I handed off my little Enkidu section down there to Alan, my myth and writing teacher. And his reply comes back at the end of it (where Enkidu is trying to eat Clarence): "Do you play D&D games?"

Christ.

So now I'm looking at the Wanderer and reaching for the proverbial pruning shears. Sucks, as there's so much good stuff in this story that I want to keep. But how is it going to work with such a huge central cast (Tisandra, Zuzu, Bobby, Clarence, Rossum and/or Enkidu. I mean geez...it's starting to look like a classic clown trope... how many people can I stuff inside a 49 Merc?)

Am I better served giving Rossum his own story? Giving Clarence his own story? I've thought about the both of them and what little I've written could fly off completely independent of Bobby and his gimmick-heavy, magical mystery tour.

More mental bullets shot from the brainpan: Wouldn't it make sense that Tisandra would seek out her grandparents and/or her ancestors who exist outside myth in Avalon? Is that the gateway Bobby is in such a bum rush to get to, to be rid of the Curse of the Pangs, etc?

Kurlos seeks the White Hart. Only its blood will summon the Huntsman... the incarnation of Death.

First... is the stag the replacement for the unicorn that lives within Noah and heals Clarence?
Second... is the stag returning to Faerie when Kurlos captures it, then later sacrifices it to summon The Huntsman? And how does Kurlos know when and where it will be returning to Faerie? Does he simply see an opportunity when he hears word that the stag has returned? A bit Deus Ex Machina, isn't it? "Miraculously" for the villain, the perfect sacrifice for the agent of Death makes its way right into his clutches? Why shouldn't he have to work on it? And how does he gain information that the Living Ark has ejected it?
Third... is the stag caught by Kurlos ahead of time and used when the Dread Lanterns fail?
Fourth... is the stag hunted by Kurlos in THIS world rather than in Faerie, thus requiring Kurlos to enter this realm? Wouldn't it make more sense if Kurlos simply began/summoned Death and Death made his own way to kill Bobby? This would make a more compelling scenario given that I've always wanted Kurlos to arrive at Earth at some point or another. And Death can be summoned any place so.....The Huntsman will be seen by Kurlos's side, but seen ONLY by Bobby.

And it is the White Stag, under threat from Kurlos's blade, that draws Noah out of the circus. And into the clutches of the Custodians. Once they capture Noah, the Custodians will interrogate and ultimately kill him for the location of the circus.

Just the escape route I was looking for.

So Kurlos enters Earth. But where? And how far is he from the White Hart? What does he use to kill it? What activates the Huntsman's summoning? The Stag's blood? Its heart? Does Kurlos summon The Huntsman there on Earth or back at Faerie? How does he get around if the Stag is far from him? What mode of transport? A motorcycle? *groan*

CLARENCE: John Ringling can kiss my skinny black ass. The bigtop is far from dead.

The Custodians work for the Argus Institute. And ditch that asinine Agent Provocateur name.

I've got to start pulling this all together. Got it mapped out in those notebooks sitting on my coffee table. Old story plots. Threads connecting one arc to another of Bobby's adventures.

I'm not sure where to place Bobby and the girls after the donut shop. I need a plot bridge. Just some tiny little something that makes sense in the setting but doesn't sound absurd under the circumstances.

“My name is not Noah” he said, his eyes crackling with rage, his jaw clenched and furious.

A grunt rumbled out of his lungs and slowly his skin began to boil as if melting from his bones. Noah’s overalls tore at the seams. His feet and calves bent and grew into the muscular legs of a horse, hooves clacking against the floor. His stature progressed by inches, then a foot taller. Then four feet until he almost could not stand upright in the room. His arms took new shape. Stronger. Larger.

His face, once round and bulbous, became slender. Serpentine. His beard withdrew into his face and scales unfolded across his cheeks and chin.

Blazing red-leathered wings pushed their way out of his back and unfolded like knives behind him, bright with scarlet and scales. “The jungle breathes” he told them. His forearms too grew thick with small brown fur and his fingers elongated into sharp, curving talons. “The jungles breathes” he said again, the kindness now drowned from his words, his voice snarling and bestial. “The jungle breathes.”

“Oh shit” Bobby muttered.

His change continued. Long bovine horns blossomed from the temples of his skull and his face took on the features of a slim-nosed reptile with thin smoke curling from his nostrils. A black segmented tail grew from behind him, a barbed stinger poised at its end, and swayed like a snake at the three of them.

Bobby scrambled and pushed Tisandra and Zuzu back, his arms outstretched. It was as if his body was vomiting up another.

His ribcage seemed to burst wide open until, splitting him practically from neck to groin down the middle of his chest, was a large mouth, ripe with incisors and smiling with an almost carnal hunger.

The quiet old man was gone. Nothing was left but a sinewy cauldron of animals, all of them claiming a limb or a body part as their own. All of them screaming from his flesh.

The surreality of it alone nearly made them all nauseous.

“Move!” Bobby yelled, pushing Tisandra and Zuzu back and raising his gun at this… thing.

Noah immediately, like a flicker of lightning, swiped the gun out of Bobby’s hands and lashed him across the room like a child’s toy. Bobby slammed hard against the wall with a thud and a grunt, slumping to the floor, dazed.

Zuzu screamed Bobby’s name and Noah hissed at her with delight.

“And to think, ” Noah said to Bobby, his voice thick and distorted. “You’re the best protection she’s supposed to have.”

“Some champion” he murmured.

He turned to Tisandra, his thin-slitted eyes softening just a bit. “I tried to protect you from them” he told her. “I told you you’d be safe here with me. Why don’t you believe me? Why are you so damned and determined to doom yourself?” He turned back towards Bobby, who was groaning and slumped against the wall.

“Now I have to do this the hard way” Noah said.

Tisandra held firm. “You tried to lock us up in cages, Noah! That’s not protecting us, that’s keeping us imprisoned until they get here.” Zuzu cowered behind Tisandra, both of them terrified.

“I would’ve stopped them” Noah said to her.

“How?” Tisandra begged him. “You already said they’d almost taken your refugees once before. What’s to keep them from getting at you again and—“

Noah lumbered towards her, his hooves clicking rigidly on the concrete. His chest-mouth flexed and licked its lips and Tisandra stole a brief glimpse beyond its gnashing teeth. Beyond it, Tisandra saw an immense garden. Rich with flowers and a blue sky all of its own. A garden filled with animals.

“I would have stopped them, Tisandra” Noah repeated, his voice strong with reminder and he moved even closer, his chest-mouth snapping. “I will keep you safe.”

"I can't let you do that, Noah" Tisandra said. She hoped she looked calmer than she was. She clutched Zuzu's hand firmly. "I can't."

"You don't have any choice in the matter" Noah told her and his twisted form lumbered towards her. The breath from his chest-mouth smelled of poppies and pouring rain. "Don't you touch us!" Zuzu screamed again and Tisandra clutched her to her waist with both arms.

Suddenly a crackle of shots echoed through the room. Clarence stood in the doorway and brought his arms down into a firing stance.

“Stay away from them, Noah” he said.

Noah smiled like a cobra. “You can’t bullshit me, Clarence. You’re no good with that gun. You’re scared. You’re shaking. You can barely aim." He sniffed the perfumed air. "I can practically smell your sweat and your adrenalin from here.” He curled his fists and turned towards Clarence, like a parent moving to pick up a child.

Clarence cocked the handle back and stumbled through his words. His eyes flickered briefly to Tisandra and Zuzu then back to the figure before him. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that scared people and guns are not something to be fucked with?”

Noah didn’t even wince. All his body relaxed with a sigh and slight chuckle through his nose. “You don’t get it, Clarence. You don’t count for anything here.”

Clarence never had time to move. He blinked and suddenly Noah’s scorpion tail had struck through the air and plunged into his foream, pumping black poison through his veins. Clarence screamed. He immediately felt a searing sting crawl up his elbow then up to his wrist and his fingers lost all feeling except the burning. He lost his grip on the gun, which clattered to the floor with a metallic clang and he crumpled right after it, the burning growing larger and larger over his arm. Oh fuck, he thought. I’m going to fucking die like this.

Noah stepped in and seized Clarence by the throat, bringing him back up and dangling him a foot off the ground. Clarence winced and fought back tears of blinding pain.

Noah licked his lips and snapped comically at Clarence’s nose. “They’re begging me to put you inside me.”

Clarence looked down past Noah’s arm and in his chest, past the mouth, was a roaring mob of beasts, screeching and anxious at the gateway. The stinger venom began crawling up his shoulder and into his spine. His skin felt like it was literally burning right off his body. He had never felt anything so agonizing in his life and he threw his head back and screamed from the depths of his lungs. The tears couldn’t be held back anymore.

“Time to feed the babies” Noah said and began to force Clarence into his stomach.

"No, Noah" Bobby's voice demanded. Noah turned to face the greaser, one of Bobby's hands nursing the bump on his head from being thrown across the room. The other hand, black as pitch, pointing the Blaster, the whine of its firing-up singing off the walls. Noah reached with his only available hand in an effort to slash Bobby. But there wasn't enough time. With an almost hissing release, a red beam burst out of the Blaster and struck Noah in the face. Bobby's jaw clenched and his eyes roared bright and aglow.

Noah's pupils immediately rolled back in his head and his grip on Clarence began to loosen. "That's right" Bobby beckoned. "Eat it. Eat every little bite of it, you fuck!" he said and he stepped forward, bearing the beam down like a hammer onto Noah's face. The hold on Clarence collapsed and Clarence quickly folded to the floor, wincing and clutching his arm.

"Now all of a sudden you're not so hungry, are you?" Bobby mocked, his eyes blazing like lanterns. The red beam poured into Noah's brain and his face betrayed a sort of paralyzed theft of his thoughts. His body receded back, the dragon wings folding and shrinking back into him, his hands growing smaller and more human as the beam beat into him. The little old man, like an insect under the flame, shrivelled and returned.

Clarence sat slumped against the wall, the poison creeping into his lungs and robbing him of his air, of his voice. All he could do was scream in his mind.

Tisandra left Zuzu standing by the doorway and dropped to see Clarence's wound. "Let me see, Clarence. Let me see" she said. His arm was a mass of dark purple where the venom was burning through his blood and she had to hold his arm with all her strength amidst his violent writhing. When he wasn't twisting, all he could do was look at her, his eyes pleading for help, his body slowing rotting from the inside out. She turned to Bobby, who was still pouring the red beam into Noah's wrinkly forehead, the old man responding with convulsions and and vomit. "Leave him alone, Bobby!" she yelled at him. "I need your help with Clarence!"

Zuzu piped in, her heart racing. "What are you doing to him, Bobby?!"

Bobby's eyes never broke their light. "I’m tired of fucking around" he told her. "He wants to forget what it was like when The Curtain fell? I’ll give him that in spades."

Noah began sobbing amidst his moans, his body jerking to the tears. "Goddamit, Bobby!" Tisandra screamed at him. "Help me!!"

"But what are you doing to him?" Zuzu asked.

"I'm wiping his mind down" Bobby told her.

TISANDRA: Stop it! He was only wanting to protect us.

BOBBY(who stops the beam for a second, his eyes no longer aglow): He was trying to kill all of us, Tisandra. Do you want me to let him keep trying? Jesus. (he starts up again, the pink beam plucking memories from Noah’s mind, whose mouth is running over with drool, his body convulsing)

TISANDRA: Dammit, Bobby! Stop! (looking to Clarence) Just hold on, Larry. Just hold on.

CLARENCE: Oh fuck! It burns like hell!

TISANDRA (still kneeling by Clarence’s side) I’m not asking you, Bobby. I’m telling you. Shut off the goddamn spell and help me!

BOBBY:(his eyes still aglow, still hard at work on Noah’s mind) You’re out of your mind, Sandra. He’ll start back up again if I don’t do this.

TISANDRA: He was trying to protect us, Bobby, in the best way he knew how. Just because it’s clumsy and a little tyrannical---

BOBBY (interrupting her, his eyes showing he’s obviously not budging) A little tyrannical? You had your bleeding-heart chance to get him to talk rationally. Now it’s my turn. I’ll take care of Clarence just as soon as make Grandpa Love forget his own goddamn name.

CLARENCE (off to the side, screaming): Aaaaaaa!

TISANDRA: Larry needs you to help him, Bobby! Just because Noah didn’t know what he was doing doesn’t mean we have the right to make him a vegetable. Look. We’re all pretty scared of what the Custodians can do to us. We’ve some stupid rash things ourselves because of them. Now so has Noah. Or Enkidu. Or whatever the hell his name is. He runs on fear, Bobby. That doesn’t make him a monster. Just scared like the rest of us. Now I’m asking you. Leave. Him. Alone.

(Bobby pauses for a second, his eyes still glowing, the pink beam still giving Noah epileptic fits and a puddle of drool under his face)

TISANDRA (royally pissed, screams) Bobby!

(Bobby shuts off the beam.)

BOBBY: I’m not kidding, if he makes another move at us again, I’ll make him forget how to breathe.

(Tisandra goes to Clarence, throwing a curt --)

TISANDRA: Thank you (-- to Bobby.) Now help me with Larry.

Bobby walks over to Clarence but not before giving Noah a slight kick on his way over

TISANDRA: You’re like a little kid.

BOBBY: (gruffly) Fuck you, Princess. (aims the Blaster at Clarence’s arm) Hold still, Larry. This should only take a second.


(A flash of pink light glows around his forearm. The blackness that has spread so prominently through Clarence’s veins and flesh now disappears. He ends up just squinting, then blinking, then opening his eyes wide, the agony released)

TISANDRA: How’s that feel?

CLARENCE:. Christ. Took you both long enough

BOBBY: Sorry, bud. (Bobby then turns to Noah, who is still sprawled out on the floor, sobbing like a baby) Sooooo, Princess, what do we do now?

TISANDRA: How much did you take from him?

BOBBY: Not enough (he says, stuffing the gun under his arm and lighting a cigarette)

TISANDRA: I want to try to talk to him.

BOBBY: (exhales) And if he gets crazy again?

TISANDRA: Just do something non-crippling, will you?

BOBBY: Why of course, Princess.

(Tisandra gives him a go to hell look and leans into Noah) Noah?

NOAH (his eyes tearful): Please give her back to me.

TISANDRA: Who, Noah? Give who back to you?

NOAH: Please give her back to me.

TISANDRA: Bobby?

BOBBY: Some girl in robes that visited him when he was living in the woods. Nice tits. I got lots of nice ones of her.

CLARENCE: Shamhat?

BOBBY: Yeah. That’s the one.

CLARENCE: He really is Enkidu. Jesus. (to Bobby) You play rough, man.

BOBBY: (exhaling smoke out his nostrils) You bet your ass.

NOAH: Please...I don’t remember what she looks like and I should. Please.

TISANDRA: If we give them back to you, Noah, you have to promise not to go beserk again. We can’t be kept in a cage or any Garden of Eden. We’ve come too far through too much shit to be locked away for the rest of our lives. Do you understand that?

NOAH (his eyes streaming tears) Yes. Yes. Just please give her back to me. I loved her so much. But I can’t remember her face.

TISANDRA: Bobby....

BOBBY: Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties in a twist. (aims the Blaster at Noah’s sorrowful face, his eyes begin to glow)

NOAH (whose mouth is wide open as the pink light breaks across his forehead. His wincing face slowly melts into something more peaceful, more serene. Less tormented):

CLARENCE (swinging his arm, testing it to make sure it’s all there) Hell I’m with Bobby. After what he did, we should’ve just left him there. That fucking tail of his hurts like a sonuvabitch.

TISANDRA: Yeah but it’s not just his life we’d be affecting, Larry. What about the ones inside him?

BOBBY: (laughs) Fuck them too. We have to be out of here by tonight anyhow.

TISANDRA: I wasn’t talking to you (ignoring Bobby and cradling Noah’s head): Noah, can you stand up?

NOAH: Yeah.

(Noah stands up, wiping the tears from his eyes. Bobby pulls the last drags off his cigarette and puts his Blaster back in his good hand, ready to spring. Clarence stands back with his arms folded)

NOAH: I didn’t mean to---

TISANDRA: I know. Come on. Let’s go talk outside. (Tisandra and Noah leave. Bobby and Clarence remain, leaning against the wall, looking at the ceiling)

BOBBY: Larry?

CLARENCE: Yeah, Bob-O.

BOBBY: What the fuck just happened?

CLARENCE: You’re asking me? You’ve got the magic spells and everything. I was hoping you could tell me.

BOBBY (rubs his eyes with the palms of his hands) He was HUGE. Jesus fucking Christ. I thought he was gonna rip me in half. And can you believe her? (in a mocking tone) ‘He’s not a monster, Bobby. He’s just scared like the rest of us’. Could’ve fucking fooled me.

CLARENCE: Yeah. I don’t think he was the one shitting his pants. That shit burned, man. (pauses) Still, she’s got a good heart, Bobby. She takes care of everybody she can. Can’t hold that against her.

BOBBY: When it nearly gets me killed, you bet I will. (sighs)

(Long pause)

BOBBY: What have we gotten ourselves into? I never agreed to any of this. I was gonna get married and work at my friend’s garage. And now?

CLARENCE: I was gonna be a famous horn player. I was gonna meet Charlie Parker before he died.

BOBBY (laughing): Heh. No shit.

(Another long pause)

BOBBY (checks his watch): We need to be hitting the road. It’ll be dusk in less than an hour and I don’t want to put up with the Pangs again (drops his cigarette to the floor and stubs it out with his boot). C’mon. He’s probably getting the jump on her while we’re in here shooting the breeze.

(They wander outside and see Tisandra talking to Noah)

TISANDRA: Why don’t you come with us then? We could use the help.

BOBBY (interrrupting her): The hell he is.

TISANDRA: I wasn’t talking to you, Bobby Huxley.

BOBBY: I don’t give a damn who you’re talking to, sweetheart. He is not coming with us. Fucking lunatics are not part of my contract.

TISANDRA: Can you excuse me for a second, Noah?

NOAH: I guess so.

(Tisandra turns to Bobby)

TISANDRA: Can I talk to you in private for a minute?

BOBBY: Why sure! (looks to Clarence and gives a rakish grin) Watch this.

(They walk behind a large tree at the zoo)

TISANDRA: I’m getting sick and tired of you contradicting me, Wanderer.

BOBBY: Oooo. I must've touched a nerve. Look, sister. That nut is not part of the program. You can forget it.

TISANDRA: We might need the muscle, Bobby. And he’s one of the Exiled. I have a responsibility to him.

BOBBY: So we’re gonna pick up every one of them from here to Memphis?

TISANDRA: No, but again, it makes sense to take him. He could help us in the long run. Not to mention the fact that there’s hundreds of other Exiled living within him. I owe all of them too.

BOBBY: Nothing doing, Sandra. Maybe you weren’t in the same room I was just in fifteen minutes ago. He nearly had you for breakfast and nearly killed me and Clarence. MY only responsibility is to get you to New York. Then I’m done with you. But I’m not about to let you make my job ten times harder by bringing King Kong with us.

TISANDRA: Bobby, he needs our help. The Custodians will be here in a few days. They’ll eat him alive.

BOBBY: No dammit! And that’s final. Now c’mon. Let’s go. The sun’ll be setting soon. Say your goodbyes and then we’re hitting the road.

TISANDRA (furious!): This isn’t over, Wanderer. You are not in charge here.

BOBBY (lighting a cigarette) That’s what you think.

(Tisandra, royally pissed, turns back towards Noah, Clarence and Zuzu. Bobby follows behind her and starts to make for the driver’s seat of the Beast, ready to get the hell out of Dodge)

BOBBY: Say what you’ve got to say, Sandra and let’s go.

TISANDRA (scowling first at Bobby, then looking gently at Noah): It’s been decided, Noah.

(Bobby opens the driver door to the Beast, smiling to himself)

TISANDRA: You’re going with us.

(Noah embraces Tisandra heartily) Thank you!

(Bobby is speechless with shock and anger, he nearly loses his cigarette)

CLARENCE (leaning on the passenger side, to Bobby): Was that what I was supposed to be watching? Heh heh. You’re 0 for 2, bud.

BOBBY: Unh uh, Princess! No way! We just agreed ---

TISANDRA (whispering to Bobby): Here’s the deal. The sun is almost setting. You have less than a half hour to get out of here before the Pangs start kicking in. We can either leave now, with Noah, or I can keep arguing with you till you’re too sick to drive. Doesn’t matter to me. I get what I want either way. But I’m not leaving without him.

(Bobby, fuming, stares over the steering wheel for a while)

TISANDRA: Noah, you’ll need to get in the back seat.

Found this while digging up info on Lucretius, a Latin philosopher (someone in a religion/anti-religion chat mentioned to me I should read him). In any case, it's an interesting snippet that got me thinking.

Had the Romans put together a simple steam engine, which was mechanically and design-wise completely within their abilities, they could have had engines to pump out mines, drive grain-mills, and propel ships throughout the Mediterranean world.. Instead they chose the reprehensible institution of slavery, while since the Industrial Revolution, we developed machines which would replace slaves, and instituted the preferable state of personal freedom for all.

My gears started spinning in my head. If machines were really the impetus for the Democratic Revolution, "all men created equal", et al, wouldn't it seem approachable philosophically, if in the future, machines in fact did nearly all the labor and tasks required of mankind and eventually a sort of idea of liberation began to manifest itself within these thinking machines. Why should not all beings be created equal rather than simply men? Why should freedom be unattainable simple because one was a machine?

A viewpoint utterly applicable to Rossum.