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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Catching the Wish (CTW2) » CTW2: Interactions
[EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
dashcat wrote:
Shad0, do you think you will be able to post some pics soon? And maybe give us a summary of what you and the Incunabula guy talked about?

It would be much appreciated.

Yes, definitely. My apologies for the delay. I meant to post it last night, and then I got back into town much later than I anticipated... then I intended to do it this evening, but I'm still at work at 10:00 p.m. my time, having missed the Aglaura Council meeting...

Funny how tasks expand to fill the time available. Sad As soon as possible, primarily because I don't want to forget everything.
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:00 am
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
I think maybe I'll have more luck if I post this in sections, rather than trying to find a chunk of time large enough that I can post the whole report at once. So here's Part I.

Restaurant 23 is in a section of downtown Los Angeles that I have not previously visited. I had given Keith my cell phone number, and he sent me a message letting me know that it's at 923 East 2nd Street and not 923 East 3rd as he'd told me the day before... but when I'd looked up the restaurant online, its address was on 3rd Street after all. So I drive around the block a couple of times, looking for a parking space and/or anything that looks remotely like a restaurant.

After a couple of circuits, I figure out that there's an alley of sorts running one-way from 2nd Street to 3rd Street, and I head down it. There is nothing at 923 2nd Street, and 923 3rd Street looks like this.

THIS PROPERTY CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC
NO ENTRY WITHOUT PERMISSION
Yeah, this does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I try the door anyway. Locked.

Eventually it occurs to me to ask one of the valet parkers, and he points me to a blue awning halfway down the alley. Aha! So that's why this place has two addresses (neither of which is quite accurate)!

Despite its stark exterior, Restaurant 23 turns out to be a fairly nice Japanese sushi place. I enter and look around, but I don't immediately spot anyone sitting alone. Even with the wandering around I got there pretty close to noon, so for a moment I wonder whether I might have arrived before Mask Guy... and then I notice the large pillar in the middle of the restaurant. Hmm. There's a table on the other side of it, and I can't see from the door whether the chair with its back to the pillar is occupied. Hmm again.

I step forward. Sure enough, the chair is occupied. More importantly, hanging on the back of the chair is a motorcycle jacket. I approach. "Friend of Keith?" We shake hands.

At Mask Guy's request, there will be no pictures of him. (Sorry.) But he looks an awful lot like he does in those pages from the graphic novel on the web site, except that he is noticeably thinner. Also, he has a faint scar running down his right cheek. He asks me if I'd like to order something, and tells me lunch is on him -- very gracious, but I'm too nervous or intimidated or preoccupied or shy or something, so I tell him I'm fine, thanks, and sip some water.

More to follow, obviously, since nothing has happened yet.

Edit: Stupid images aren't working for some reason. I'll upload 'em.
Edit 2: Oh, no, I won't. They're friggin' huge! I'll make 'em links.
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:23 am
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
Le Part II

We're still working on small talk when Mask Guy hands me a photocopy of what he assures me is the original Incunabula catalogue -- the one that started all the trouble for him. Next up is a copy of his book, Ong's Hat: The Beginning. Mask Guy graciously autographs it for me before handing it over. Score!

To my mild amusement, he is very apologetic about the book. Apparently he expected the publisher to do some editing, but the guy basically just slapped a cover on it and printed it as-is. The finished product is clearly not something in which Mask Guy feels he should take pride. Ah, well.

While he is handing out the goodies, Mask Guy comments on how unnerving it has been for him to have people contacting him about this sort of thing, when he thought he was out of it years ago. It seems that his scholarly interest in the occult -- and he stressed this several times, that he is a scholar, and not himself a believer -- drew some unwanted attention. That facial scar I mentioned? Part of the unwanted attention.

For those of you who've read all of the Incunabula stuff, at the end Mask Guy "admitted" that the whole thing was a hoax -- that there never was an Incunabula Press or an Emory Cranston or any of it, and that he made it all up himself. According to Mask Guy, in reality that was just a public statement that he made up for the benefit of those stalking him, so that he could finally be left alone. Apparently it worked, and he hasn't been bothered since... which is why he was not entirely happy about Keith sending him the Nature mask.

Nevertheless, Mask Guy maintains that all of the Incunabula materials are actually true -- that he actually visited the Pine Barrens and spoke with all of these people ("Pineys," he called them). I took a chance, and asked whether he'd ever visited Aglaura. He said he had, years ago. (I thought about pushing him for details, but since my involvement in CTW I was so minimal I decided not to risk it.)

Mask Guy asked how I knew Keith, and what I knew about the mask. Before answering, I asked if he knew how Dale had come in contact with him, since we know that Keith found out about Mask Guy through Dale. Mask Guy said that Dale had contacted him a few months earlier because he (Dale) was creating a comic, and he thought Mask Guy's own graphic novel was awfully similar to what he had in mind. They chatted about the occult and the Pine Barrens and such... and then Keith sent him this mask.

I gave Mask Guy what I hope was a fairly accurate recitation of the facts about the masks (Sarah created them after dreaming of them, and then they were stolen) and Keith (he stumbled on the masks after witnessing Brad's murder). Mask Guy asked many probing questions, including why I trusted Keith -- why I didn't think he was crazy or a thief or even a murderer. I told him, as best I could. I remember pointing out that Keith had been posting about Brad on his site for weeks before Brad's death, and that it didn't really seem like a smart move for a guy planning to murder someone to publicize his connection with the victim in advance.

(Damn, I wish I'd been able to participate in that last call-in Aglaura Council meeting.)

One thing that struck me about Mask Guy was that, despite his familiarity with the occult and the Ong's Hat legends and all that they entail, he was very practical. For example, when I told him about Marzent's interest in the Aglaura Library -- both before and after the fire -- his first thought was that it might just be something like asbestos in the walls that Marzent wanted to cover up before it got sued. But he made a very, very good point, which was one of the more important things I took with me from our meeting:

Regardless of whether you believe that these masks have any supernatural power... clearly there is someone out there who does believe it. And whoever it is believes in the masks strongly enough to kill for them.

Stupid images still aren't working. Links again, then.
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:45 pm
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drizjr
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Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

 		Re: [EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
Thanks for the greatly detailed write up, Shad0. Cool
Shad0 wrote:
(Damn, I wish I'd been able to participate in that last call-in Aglaura Council meeting.)


Oh, so do I... so... do.... I.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:48 am
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [EMAIL] Keith August 9 - Mask Retrieval
drizjr wrote:
Thanks for the greatly detailed write up, Shad0. Cool

Not done yet, believe it or not. Last (I hope) installment to follow soon (I hope).
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:10 am
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