#129

The Old Man senses what's coming and blinds Mark with a flash of light. At the back of hir mind, ze issues the thousandth apology to him, for what is coming. When the flash is gone, the Old Man is gone; and in hir place, a young fellow, dressed in clothes strange to You and Susie, can be seen.

Moments later, there is a flash of light to the group's left. Two men and a woman have apparently just teleported down...or something. Once again, there's more confusion. But one of the men is very old, and instantly they can recognize him as Harold Coppola.

The new figure who was once the Old Man approaches them. “Hey, man!” he shouts out, as he's running. The trio seem weirded out by his presence.

“Dude!” He seems to pretend to be out of breath. “Are you guys, like, the Children of the Moon? Man! When I ended up here I thought it musta been you guys...”

“Um, I'm sorry...sir,” the woman says, her expression reflecting her feeling of oddity. “We're not, uh, Moonchildren. We're just explorers. Now, how did you get here?”

The young man just grins stupidly, but it's a false smile.

“You look very familiar,” Harold Coppola says then. “Very familiar indeed. You remind me very much of a figure I almost knew once—Zay Arkmoor. I don't know why I see such an uncanny resemblance, however.”

“The name is Zay Arkmoor, dude. The Satanist Detective! That's what my chums call me, at least, these days.”

“Great Cyaegha!” Coppola cries. “Mister Arkmoor! How did you come to be here?”

“Look, I really don't know, man. But listen. It's gotta be the Moonchildren what brought me here. I know it! It's just one of those feelings, y'know? Hey!” He points over at Mark, who is, in fact, fooled by the disguise—and held passive, by Madame Levingt. “Maybe he's a Moonchild? You think?”

The group takes out a device which Jacob instantly realizes is a dead ringer for the tricorder from TOS. In fact, it seems to have been designed specifically for that resemblance. In his mind, he feels himself begins to call the other man “Spock” and the woman “Bones”, though he figures he'll never be formally introduced to them.

Mina picks up on the reference too, but she doesn't care for it; she keeps glancing over at Mark, who is only barely being held back. He seems to be twitching profusely.

“He does seem to emit the sort of energies you've estimated, Master,” “Spock” says. “Should we initiate capture protocol?”

Coppola strokes his wrinkled chin for some time, just staring at Mark. Then he sighs. “Yes, I believe so,” he says gently.

The young figure seems to smile at this, and then turns and walks away.

“Are they going to...contain him, then?” Susie says weakly. “Is it going to happen?”

“They won't do all the work,” the young man says. “I think we have a role in it too.”

“What?” Her voice isn't holding up. “I refuse to help. I want to just hide in The House and wait until it's all over. Am I allowed to do that?”

“No,” he says simply.

“Why the fuck not?!”

“Because if I remove this disguise and use my powers, they'll know I'm not merely Zay Arkmoor. They'll see me as a Moonchild and...'canonically', Mark is the only Moonchild they've met. But you and Mina will carry out a special task for Mary. You will have to do something as well, at the end.”

“What am I doing?” Jacob asks.

The young man's face doesn't show any particular feeling as he says, “I'm not sure. Perhaps nothing.”

Beat.

“...what.”

“Sadly, I do not know if you really serve a purpose at this point. But there is a certain energy about you that I know is important. Unfortunately, I can't explain it right now.”

“Welp.”

“Indeed.”

The landing party is making preparations. Jacob sighs heavily, and Zay ignores him, taking the rest of the group aside.

(Permission for photo used granted by alexkon)