Emotion Sickness/Synopsis

## Emotion Sickness

The sound of rock music played by enthusiastic teens drifts out of the open garage doors of a house that's not Joe's. He stands facing the band as they practice, smiling as it all seems to be working. Sean has his head down though, possibly watching his fingers on the strings. Phoebe is in the back working beside Paulo, helping with getting the electronic equipment hooked up properly.

Out of the blue, Charlotte asks why Phoebe's there in the garage with them. Joe offers that she helped them not die, but Charlotte claims that doesn't mean she's in the band. Like she did with Paulo, Phoebe snarks that *she* can hear her, and she's there because she actually understands audio and recording equipment. Charlotte cattily doubts that's why she's there, and with typical directness, Phoebe asks Charlotte to try that again, with less weird teen girl jealousy. Charlotte's mouth snaps shut and she blushes furiously, staring angrily at Phoebe.

The band gets back to playing music, but the strain is showing on Joe's face as he tries to figure out what's happening with his friends. It soon becomes apparent that Sean's having a problem with his chording, and his anger explodes as he kicks over an amp. Joe starts to ask why Sean is acting like his father but stops himself before he completes the sentence. Sean catches it anyway and tries to call him on it, but Joe sidesteps, commenting that he's not usually this ragey. Back at the sound equipment, Phoebe notices that Paulo seems to be having a problem with what's going on and remarks that he seems jumpy.

Fletcher focuses on Sean with a thoughtful expression as Joe works on calming the oddly super angry Sean down, cautiously telling him everything is fine as Sean stands fuming hotly. While Joe is speaking with Sean, Charlotte is watching Joe with a loving look and a soft smile (and hearts around her head). Fletcher spots this, too, and it gives him something else to think about. Phoebe sneaks a look back at Paulo and asks him what he's doing, and Paulo shakily replies he's being terrified. Fletcher notices this, too, and things seem to be clicking for him as he starts to become seriously concerned by everyone's over-the-top behavior.

The witches' spells are beginning to have an affect on the teens.─────────────────────

An anonymous street in the suburb of Walker's Point is lit with isolated streetlights, quiet now in the late evening. A lone rat sits at the curb just at the edge of a pool of light in a waiting posture. Joe steps up behind it and gives in to its unspoken importuning. A mob of rats approaches, dragging along some clothing with them, then Corkindale demonstrates the trick of shifting back to human inside of clothing, finishing up clothed rather than nude, likely in the same fashion Sienna accomplished this feat back at the Snacc Stop. This time he puts his own cap back on.

He announces he's pleased Joe is listening to reason, for a given value of reason. Joe makes sure Corkindale understands he's not there because he forgives him for lying to him or trying to manipulate him. Corkindale offers that he never lied to Joe, and Joe tells him he tried that excuse on his friends, and they didn't buy it. The old man surprises Joe by admitting that's a fair comparison. He goes on to say he tried his best to do what was right. He says he tried to tell Joe the truth as best as he thought he could, and that he really does want to help.

Sitting down on the curb, he tells Joe there's no instruction manual for this. Even when Nature sends a message, it's so damn obtuse that entire wars have started over the same vision, because people saw what they wanted. Joe shows he gets it, stating it's because Nature is too big to talk to us. Suspicious of this knowledge, Corkindale tries to ask who told him. Joe interjects Ralabast, and the old man counters with Kagan. Joe tells him it wasn't them, it was a weird squirrel girl who told him she needs his help. That jars a curse out of Corkindale. Joe guesses it's because there is another chimera in town. He tells Joe there's more than one, and that's why he wanted to talk to him.

Corkindale tells Joe in an ominous tone that the Order of the White Wolf is in Walker's Point. The information means nothing to Joe, and he gives back a puzzled look. Facepalming, the old man says he keeps forgetting Joe doesn't know anything. Getting impatient with Corkindale, Joe calmly suggests he could ask Kagan, getting Corkindale to look sideways at him through his fingers. The old man says he shouldn't do that, and Joe replies he knows, that's why he asked Corkindale. Pressing him, Joe snarks answers would be good. The old man agrees.

Corkindale begins to lecture, telling Joe chimera come in a lot of different power levels. Some are like Joe, but a lot aren't. Some would call them weak. Chimera who can only turn into one thing or can only turn into forms that seem harmless, chimera like himself. Joe tells him he could call him a lot of things, but weak isn't one of them. He answers that saying he is weak, if all you care about is raw power, but he's of the opinion that strength, real strength, is what you do with what you have. Others disagree, which is where the Order of the White Wolves come in.

They are, he supposes, what you might call chimera supremacists. Or a raging pack of assholes. And he uses pack here intentionally because as the name would indicate, they base themselves on what they *think* wolf packs are like, for some reason. Most of them have a white wolf form and one other. The wolf form is how they get in, proving they've overcome their weakness. Corkindale continues with the lecture, stating their credo is 'The weak must be culled'. They believe they're improving chimera by executing the weak so they can come back stronger in the next life.

They're dangerous, and they're here.

He tells Joe he needs to train. They're not soul parasites. These guys are idiots, but they're not dumb, and they're not going to try and push him to use his powers. They'll just try to kill him. Joe asks if Corkindale can promise him it won't make him turn into Ralabast. The old man sarcastically answers he can't promise tomorrow is Friday. Joe tells him tomorrow is Saturday, and he flippantly replies, "See?"

At some time during the lecture, Joe had sat down next to Corkindale. With his head hanging down, Joe tells the old man his friends are acting strange, there's a whole bunch of chimera in town, and he's having dreams about something even worse. He declares he can't risk it, that he can't risk Ralabast, because he doesn't have anyone. Joe is scared of Ralabast and is afraid to trust himself, which makes it hard for him to trust others.

Just then, Corkindale says he almost forgot, and he reaches over for something, puzzling Joe. Joe is startled when the old man plants a stuffed duffel bag in his lap. He tells Joe to shut up and open it. He relates that he retrieved a bunch of the clothes Joe'd lost since this all began. The salvageable ones he fixed himself. The others he … replaced, more or less. In an aside, he comments he has no idea what kids wear. Joe opens the bag to find most of the clothing he'd considered lost forever. His exclamation of how did he… gets a confession that it pays to be a sneaky rat sometimes.

Corkindale starts to make another comment, but Joe cuts him off, saying this doesn't change anything. He's sure his parents will appreciate it, but the old man doesn't get to lie to him about his ***entire life*** and just fix it with old clothes. He tells Corkindale he can't trust him. Not yet. Walking away with the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he finishes by telling him maybe not ever.

## References

1. ↑ The Great Beyond
2. ↑ Civilian
3. ↑ Emotion Sickness **John Amor** Nov 19, 2019 *in a reply to* **Dareka Nemo** Nov 18, 2019