Session 3 — Something Big

In-fiction date: November 15, 2015

Beth's Diner

Around 6:30 PM the cast wrapped filming on Episode 7 and walked out of the old telecom facility into a cold Texas evening, floodlights at their backs. Sterling Horselover had summoned everyone to Beth's Diner, a few blocks away, and was already in a booth when they arrived — waving them over frantically.

Over dinner, Horselover was all energy and no focus. He wanted to know whether they were happy with the show so far, and — oddly — where each of them goes to think. The answers: two of them think in their cars, one in a home office, and Cory Vandermere at the park by the river. Horselover mentioned, almost in passing, that he had been looking at the stars.

Then the energy drained out of him. He admitted the ratings were bad and that he was afraid HBO would cancel the show.

"I'm afraid HBO is going to cancel us. We need to do something big."

He said he was going back to the office to write something big for the finale, and left — the frantic energy gone, replaced by something slower and heavier.

With Horselover gone, the cast turned the booth into a writers' room and spent a while pitching ideas for what the finale could be. (Specific pitches not recorded.)

The evening ended when Tara Orlando texted: her purse was locked inside the studio, and Horselover — who should have been there — was not answering his phone. She was worried. The group headed back.

Back at the Studio

Two cars sat in the parking lot: Horselover's Cadillac DeVille and Tara's Honda Accord. Both still here. Horselover never left.

Loose paper was scattered across the parking lot. The group collected a page — Horselover's handwriting, covered in their characters' names, arrows, and diagrams. None of it cohered.

While they stood in the lot, something moved on the roof — possibly a person — and disappeared into the darkness before anyone could identify it. Beckett caught a glimpse of what looked like a book up there before it, too, vanished.

Inside, Cory and Daniel broke off to the second floor, where Tara was waiting. Horselover's shoes were missing from their usual spot. Tara asked them to find a way into Horselover's office.

The Roof

C.W. tried to pick the lock on the roof access door and failed — the pick broke off in the lock — but the group made it up regardless. The roof was empty of people. What it held instead: a chair, a book, and a telescope.

A loose page lay nearby — typed text on aged-looking paper:

"Have you never read it?" I asked.

"I? No, thank God! I don't want to be driven crazy."

I saw he regretted his speech as soon as he had uttered it. There is only one word which I loathe more than I do lunatic and that word is crazy. But I controlled myself and asked him why he thought "The King in Yellow" dangerous.

— Robert W. Chambers, "The Repairer of Reputations"

A security camera was mounted on the roof, but it pointed at the roof access door rather than the roof itself. Whatever happened up here, it wasn't filmed.

C.W. looked through the telescope but couldn't determine what it was pointed at. Beside the chair, under the journal and against the wall, the group found a carving in the concrete.

Cory took a tracing of the carving — see Rooftop Symbol.

There was no sign of Horselover. No body on the ground below, and no way he could have left the building without passing the group. He is simply gone.

The Door

When it was time to leave, C.W. noticed something wrong with the roof access door — it sat too far to the right. Not visibly. Viscerally.

He stepped through and got goosebumps. He stepped through again and felt a lump in his throat. Something was present in or around that door that should not be.

The shiver spread to everyone standing near the door, which now simply looked wrong. Cory tried to walk through — passed the check, took −1 Sanity, and could not continue. Daniel tried next with the same result: passed, −1 Sanity, stopped cold.

C.W. took the door at a run. He passed, at a cost of −2 Sanity — and the moment he was through, everyone else felt immediate relief, as if whatever was holding them had let go. The group followed him through and headed down the stairwell.

The Stairwell

They descended two flights and found no door. The landing where the second floor should be was blank wall — the door they had originally come through was gone. Cory ran back up and confirmed the roof was still accessible, but there was no fire escape down.

They were between floors that don't connect. The party split.

Split Party

Cory — the Real Second Floor

Cory went back down and found that the door to the second floor was there now. He checked in with Tara, who was still calling Horselover and getting no answer, then went down to the security desk. An elderly Black man — the security guard, name unknown — came back up with him and unlocked Horselover's office.

Inside the office was the rest of The King in Yellow — the page from the roof had been torn from it. Cory took the book, unsure yet what to do with it. Later, he and Tara shared wine coolers on the second floor: a moment of normalcy at the edge of something that was not normal at all.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party below realized Cory was missing entirely.

The Others — the Smoking Room

The remaining group descended two more flights and found a door marked Second Floor. It did not open onto the second floor.

The room beyond was a smoking lounge with a bar, a mannequin standing behind it, and a painting on the wall behind that. The walls were printed in red, yellow, and black.

Beckett stayed in the smoking room while the others moved on.

Horselover — Found, Then Lost

From the stairwell, the others spotted Sterling Horselover a level below. C.W. broke into a run after him — and noticed, as he ran, that the concrete walls of the stairwell were wallpaper: red, black, and gold. The building is wearing a costume.

C.W. lost sight of Horselover and found another door marked Second Floor, with Wade right behind him.

The Music Room

The second "Second Floor" door opened into a music room, styled entirely in 1920s décor — except for a modern security camera mounted in the corner. As it turned out, cameras were in every room down here, and the group began to wonder aloud whether this was an elaborate production set — whether they were being filmed for some reality-show version of Box 13.

Wade found records on the shelf, each labeled Sounds From Wade's Life. The record on the turntable was Queen of Argylle. Wade swapped it for another and heard a childhood conversation — his own past, played back.

Then a voice, close, in his ear:

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the realm of a mad god."

Leaving the Impossible Rooms

When the group below tried to get back out through the door, the sanity checks came again — but the logic had inverted. Failing the check let an investigator through without resistance; passing held them back. One investigator failed — and walked through easily.

The Smoking Room — Mr. Wild

At the back of the smoking room, Beckett found a man who had not been there before. The man said he was looking for something, had found some whisky, and seemed entirely unbothered by the room, the building, or any of it.

Beckett: "Find what you were looking for?" Man: "I think I found some whisky." Man: "What's your name?" — Beckett: "Mr. Blank." — Man: "Mr. Wild."

Mr. Wild produced a phone book and found Beckett's entry immediately.

"Reputation — damaged. Due to your appearance?" Beckett: "Just about right."

Mr. Wild explained that it is his job to know — to help fix people's reputations. Beckett glanced at the mirror behind the bar. His reflection had no scar.

Mr. Wild: "We will do business later."

He sent Beckett back to the party.

The Printer

Everyone made it back to the real second floor and tried to compare notes — different rooms, different experiences, same building that should not exist.

Then Horselover's printer started printing. No one was in the office. No one sent a job. It printed regardless.

They convinced Tara to let them read it. What came out was a new script for Box 13: the investigators sent to the McAllistor Building to find a missing artist. The cast list named all of them — their characters, by name — plus one name that stood out: RWC Wild.

Tara locked up Horselover's office — "I'm sure Horselover will get back to us." — and asked Cory to walk her to her car.

Bond Phase

Wade Keegan (Gus)

Action: Obsesses over the recording from the music room. Result: −4 to all bonds.

Cory Vandermere (Elias)

Action: Tries to dig into his acting — draw on the Method. Roll: Missed by two. What happens: Tries to understand how Elias would have solved what he just experienced. Can't. The gap between actor and character opens up and swallows him. Result: −3 to anchor bond.

Daniel Boulton (Kip)

Action: Obsesses. Result: (outcome not recorded)

C.W. Patrick (Palmer)

Action: Pushes his sanity loss onto his agent — lets the relationship absorb the damage. Result: Bond with agent damaged to protect sanity. One bond grown.

Beckett Blank (Mordecai)

Action: Visits his bartender. Result: Bond with bartender grown.