notes

Session 9

New Info

PIZZA sends us the mandarin translated journal, plus also several delta green files

KILLIAN's Library Records

theory: the orphans we let escape in 2001 are cult (post-schism) v2

Outstanding Leads

We're outside the HOLIDAY INN we stay at in FT MYERS. VELASQUEZ is wearing a Slayer t-shirt. We remember that she's been into hard rock the whole time.

VELASQUEZ: what'd you do last night?

LOTTIE: meth, tbh
VELASQUEZ: that's pretty hard on your body! You're not getting any younger
LOTTIE: yeah, I probably won't do it again. To be honest, that stuff we read was pretty messed up.
VELASQUEZ: yeah, twisted, out there.
LOTTIE: the best way through is to keep moving forward! find out everything we can
VELASQUEZ: that's why i love you babe
LOTTIE: that's my first time hearing that word...

At the Morgue

GUIDNA CHOWDURY: hello, welcome!

SHELF: how are ya. Tell us about KILLIAN
Guidna (GUIDNA CHOWDURY): If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was eaten by a bear, but, since I do, I know it was cats.
SHELF: why can't it be a bear?
Guidna (GUIDNA CHOWDURY): no such thing as swamp bears.
SHELF: can we see the records?
Guidna (GUIDNA CHOWDURY): yep. here. nothing new there
LOTTIE: still have the body?
Guidna (GUIDNA CHOWDURY): nope, cremated.

ECKSTEIN's place

apartment building. thin blue line flag hanging.

SHELF: knock knock knock

ECKSTEIN: finally, you're here. those morons down at the station, my gosh. I'm glad they sent the big guns. I'm gonna run for sheriff.
ECKSTEIN: They said this was cats? clearly a homicide!
ECKSTEIN: Must have been the deep state. Crooked Hillary. There's this FBI guy Gary Hall (CLYDE), he died in like 2000 or something, I was looking it up. You know KILLIAN wasn't her real name? I don't know her real name but it wasn't KILLIAN. It was trained animals that killed her. There's this russian cult or something? People like that don't just die, they're killed.
LOTTIE: what evidence do you have?
ECKSTEIN: I would have more evidence if I wasn't fired. I think the sheriff's a democrat. They wanted to keep me quiet.
LOTTIE: he does seem bad.
ECKSTEIN: I think he was doing pizzagate over here.
conversation continues uselessly

ST LAWRENCE CHURCH

not a nice part of MIAMI! largely latino neighborhood immediately south of the airport. loud planes overhead. zombos rocking back and forth on the sidewalk. syringes. church is a plain looking building. homeless ppl outside not looking great. non-homeless latino guy in a tie is speaking to a drugs lady out front. Across the street from the church is a traphouse. a lot of homeless people around. This is where homeless ppl receive services, including a lot of children. We know the church does childrens' services in particular. We street park our big black SUV.

as we walk by: "maria, please, come on, we talked about this, they're not gonna come eat you, it's gonna be fine".

MAURICIO: I'm guessing you're not here for a bed tonight. I'm father MAURICIO Probledo. How can I help you? Are you here for the thing last week? I keep telling you it's not a gang thing, it's religious.

SHELF: we're investigating a crime that involved some folks who might have lived here around 5 years ago? they might not have talked much...
MAURICIO: oh, the QUIET CHILDREN. That's a religious thing. You can talk to anyone around here... "the QUIET CHILDREN are summoning THE SPEAKER", "the HUNGRY MOTHER has the Red Minded Men", "the QUIET CHILDREN have the SILENT SLAVES" (MYTHOLOGY)
SHELF: it sounds like you know a lot about this religion. You're exactly the person we're looking to talk to. Is this just in the neighborhood?
MAURICIO: just around this church, everyone on the street here. It started when the first QUIET CHILDREN showed up, around 03, 04, something like that.
SEAMUS: some delusions associated with this religion might have caused some violence; we'd like to understand it better.
MAURICIO: that wouldn't surprise me. I don't think it's the religion makes them violent, I think they use the religion to understand the violence.
SHELF: We think understanding this religion might help us with an investigation; understanding how these folks think about the world might help us with the investigation.
LOTTIE: Could you point us to some leaders in the religion?
MAURICIO: PHILLY PHIL, but I dunno if he's around anymore. He was with that gang around 2011, ELLE GABLE, SAMUEL BALL, Tommy (THOMAS PEREZ CUNNINGHAM), JENNIFER. Elle (ELLE GABLE) stabbed someone and we had to kick them all out.
SHELF: do you have a few minutes to talk to us? we'll talk to the children too.
MAURICIO: yeah, come on in. can I get you anything? a joint?
LOTTIE: I'd hit a joint.

we go inside, it's sparsely decorated. people are having drug/religion delusions, "she's coming, she's gonna eat them".

MAURICIO: everyone's been on edge lately.

SHELF: tell us about the religion.
MAURICIO: let me see if I can remember the report I wrote about it. That was a while ago.
SHELF: can you send us the report?
MAURICIO: sure, what's your email.
we exchange cards

meanwhile:

Child: hey miss, I'm a child! I'm scared.

LOTTIE: why?
Child: the HUNGRY MOTHER's gonna eat me like she ate samantha! I won't come back!

MAURICIO: I gotta talk to you about this. We're gonna have to walk around the edge to get to the center of things. The spiral shell of the snail. Listen.

The people here believe that the whole world outside this building belongs to a creature called the HUNGRY MOTHER. She has tentacles, wings, teeth, fangs, A chimera. I believe it's a way for them to externalize their misfortune blah blah blah.
whenever somebody around here disappears, they get "eaten by the HUNGRY MOTHER". People disappear all the time! OD, murder, all kinds of bad shit.
LOTTIE: anyone seen the HUNGRY MOTHER?
MAURICIO: I don't believe so. It's like, I'm catho
lic here, I'm a priest, and I've never seen an angel walking down the street.
The world is a farm and all the people are cattle.
The agents of the HUNGRY MOTHER are the Red Minded Men. That's how they talk about all the bad people in the world. Sex traffickers, pedophiles, scam artists, cops, they're all Red Minded Men. They serve the HUNGRY MOTHER. The world is eating them. The Red Minded Men wear disguises as normal people, but they serve the HUNGRY MOTHER. (MYTHOLOGY)
The QUIET CHILDREN are trying to reveal the HUNGRY MOTHER and the Red Minded Men. (MYTHOLOGY)
LOTTIE shows the mouth tattoo
MAURICIO: that represents the HUNGRY MOTHER.
The QUIET CHILDREN think all speech is a lie. You can only communicate with the holy center if you don't speak. They were children at first; I guess they're adults now. I'm not sure how they spread this stuff, considering they don't talk. Anyway, the SILENT SLAVES speak for the QUIET CHILDREN. They hang in the house across the street.
SEAMUS: why did Elle (ELLE GABLE) stab this person? was it one of the Red Minded Men? (MYTHOLOGY)
MAURICIO: it was very arcane to me; I don't understand. The SILENT SLAVES were talking, it was like a test or something? When these children become SILENT SLAVES, that's not forever. They move on.
SEAMUS: have the QUIET CHILDREN showed any interest in, i dunno, games? ANIMALS? do they do stuff?
MAURICIO: ANIMALS! yes. The thing with the rats. The rats would run in circles, patterns, around the QUIET CHILDREN. You're gonna say I'm crazy, but I went out back one time and I saw Tommy (THOMAS PEREZ CUNNINGHAM). The alley was carpeted with rats, and every step he took, they just parted before him. Like Moses and the red sea.
Anyway, I think it's because the ANIMALS don't speak? QUIET CHILDREN and ANIMALS are holy in some way, unmarked by language.
SEAMUS: PHILLY PHIL -- was he one of the QUIET CHILDREN?
MAURICIO: he was a silent slave (SILENT SLAVES) for a while but then he started selling drugs. I haven't seen him in a few weeks.
SEAMUS: THE SPEAKER?
MAURICIO: troubling. they say THE SPEAKER is coming to kill. It sounds like the second coming of christ. It'll bring the end times. They call it SREDNI VASHTAR. SREDNI VASHTAR will come, he's sleeping right now because he's locked in the HUNGRY MOTHER's cellar, and he will come, and in his savagery, he will avenge the suffering.
SHELF: Tommy, was this Thomas Perez?
MAURICIO: yeah, I think that's right.
LOTTIE: it sounds like we might get a firsthand account across the street?
MAURICIO: I'm not going over there. No way.
SHELF: why not? it doesn't seem like you have trouble with these folks, why not the house?
MAURICIO: like I said, these folks can be violent, and they don't take well to me coming over there.
SHELF: do you know if they consider you a red minded man? (MYTHOLOGY)
MAURICIO: no, they see this as a safe space.
SHELF: not liking you coming over there, is that just you? or anyone?
MAURICIO: Never seen anyone else try.
SHELF: tell us about that encounter, when you tried to go over there. what happened.
MAURICIO: they made it clear that I wasn't welcome. There was screaming. It sounded like, one time I saw a video where a monkey burned alive.

SREDNI VASHTAR is the event of the second coming, when THE SPEAKER wakes up and comes. That'll sate the HUNGRY MOTHER somehow. THE SPEAKER needs to kill everyone so that the HUNGRY MOTHER isn't so hungry.

SEAMUS: MAURICIO, do you operate this church alone?

MAURICIO: yeah, brother.
SHELF: anyway, this FBI stuff last week, is that something we can help you out with?
MAURICIO: no. I mean, if you can get NICK out of jail, that'd be nice. He just did some graffiti; he's no threat to anyone.
SEAMUS: tell us what happened? someone got taken away just for graffiti? that's unusual. And FBI involvement?
MAURICIO: there's a lot of crime in this neighborhood, and they saw there's a lot of this same graffiti. The two alligators? with the car underneath? And then the big horns underneath that advertise that indian casino. They're drawing this location on I-75 by the casino, with the two alligators. That's the two graffiti they draw: two alligators fighting a car, and then they draw the horns from over by that steakhouse.
SHELF: by the way, do you know a guy that wears a lot of yellow and rides a motorcycle? real long tongue?

Across the Street

nobody outside. we knock, nobody answers. windows all boarded up. we smell some rotting meat (ROTTING FLESH). "FBI!" (nobody comes to the door). LOTTIE opens the door, it creaks open. SEAMUS goes in; SHELF follows. the floorboards creak under our feet. The walls are covered in graffiti and paintings (DOODLES): - two alligators above a car - bullhorns and the sun - the moon one - a campfire in the middle of a thicket of skinny trees, where a ring of six stick figures hold hands around it - three stick figures laying down with red splotches in their head, laying in a circle with pools of blood around. - the crescent moon one - notably: not the airplane one.

_we hear whispering from the basement, which is also where the meat smell is coming from: "you stink of outside; she ate; she hungers, SREDNI VASHTAR, hungry mama, babies from heaven, hungry mama make both, make us and make you, make us and god save us"

we check this floor
"Elle (ELLE GABLE) and sammy think you feed god. thinks you ate up. Tommy thinks you ate up and eat. same time like us like bite the tongue" (SAMUEL BALL)
the whispers are to us. It's in our minds and also we hear them out loud. There's a mental component for sure.

LOTTIE tries talking to the whispers: "we are like you"

whisper: "we find out which. we smell and see. you a tooth. make you sharp. just eat. ate you up. surprise Jenny. only good in it"

"I ask Phil (PHILLY PHIL), Phil taught me the milk trick. it sell its body to the red minded men. do you want to see the milk trick? come down and see it" (MYTHOLOGY)

SHELF: "yeah, I'll see the milk trick"

he walks down the stairs. it smells overwhelming. raw sweet meat. herbs. incense. mold. rot. candles flicker. there's a shrine of bones, cat bones and alligator teeth. A woman is on her knees on the other side of the shrine, facing the shrine, facing us, distended stomach, missing teeth, scabs all over her face. maybe 23. next to her is a sump pump hole or something. she's the one whispering. "come here. come eat". lighting is candles in the shrine.

[we fail a sanity check] suddenly: we aren't in a stinky basement, it's really nice now. fancy. no more shrine. there's one main candle. she's between us and it. she looks beautiful.

JENNIFER: so glad you could join us, my name is JENNIFER. I wish Phil (PHILLY PHIL) was here but he's not. Phil will be here later.

LOTTIE: I heard that Phil (PHILLY PHIL) sold his body to the red minded men (MYTHOLOGY)

JENNIFER: he's had to make sacrifices to get along in life. sit down.

we sit down, it's nice, she gives us whiskey.

LOTTIE and SEAMUS say "don't drink the drinks"

JENNIFER: "oh, SEAMUS, have you had this before?"

she caresses our arms.

LOTTIE tries reaching for her gun, not to actually grab it but to see if it works

JENNIFER: reach for you gun. do it. take it out.

LOTTIE does. JENNIFER puts it in her mouth.

JENNIFER: LOTTIE, eat. chew.

SHELF walks over to the candle and puts it out. the glamor wears off.

she's laying down. we see that she's holding a box cutter. our arms are cut. Pretty bad. We gotta go.

JENNIFER: "please, put gun, feed you"

SHELF shoots her. seeing him do that, she's gleeful. so pleased.

SEAMUS bandages our arms.

SEAMUS panics. he's shaking, wraping our arms. He's jumpy. his vibe stresses us out.

we hear groaning from the pit. LOTTIE looks in. SHELF looks in. they see a naked skinny guy with gouged out eyes laying on a pile of cat bones.

"please please please get me out. I'll teach you. I'm Phil (PHILLY PHIL). PHILLY PHIL. I taught her what babushka taught me and then she took my eyes"

SHELF: what did babushka teach you?

Phil (PHILLY PHIL): how to make the milk

SHELF: blam. shoots Phil (PHILLY PHIL).

SHELF: I'll get the gasoline.

LOTTIE: I don't think we should burn this place. People saw us.

SHELF: nope. high crime neighborhood. nobody knows who we are. I'm getting the gastank. (does so)

VELASQUEZ is panicking. what happened? where were we? why was the whiskey so good? don't we have to take fingerprints?

SHELF pours

SEAMUS: hold on a sec; lemme look around. (sees only cat bones and alligator teeth)

we drive away.

we get a hotel in LITTLE HAVANA.

LOTTIE: ok let's talk about this. you just killed a guy and burned a house down.

SHELF: they tried to kill us. he claimed access to occult techniques, which, literally moments before, were used to try to kill us. Then, he asked us to learn those techniques and join the cult. Pretty straightforward decision. We could have died. We almost did.

LOTTIE: remember when you asked me to share with you what I was going through? I wish you would do that. I want us to work together.

SHELF: I killed the people who literally just stabbed us. I think that is working together. I frankly don't understand what your objection is.