Seeping Through the Skin

Seeping Through the Skin Chapter of Beneath Cold Boughs
Chapter 3 of The Widening Gyre
Chronology
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Down Among the Worms	The Upside Down

Morris trails the Tree and bites off more than he can chew as things begin to spin out of control.

What Happened

Chasing the Tree

As Diana and Jane headed for home after speaking with Suleiman, Morris instead decided to keep an eye on the Tree as it was cut out of the shell of Willowgate. Morris found himself at home in the dark, easily lurking out of sight of Hank and his crew as they continued their work. It took until after 2am for the Tree to be removed and placed carefully under the tarpaulin of a flatbed truck, and once there swiftly driven away. Hank and his crew headed for some much-needed sleep and Morris gave chase, like it was the old days driving with Big Jimmy.

The truck lead him east into the grim underbelly of Morganville, nearly losing him twice as it caught the last moments of a green light and almost leading to him getting T-boned when he ran a red to keep up, but he successfully tailed it to a warehouse near the old harbour overlooking Sauton Point. It was a dingy looking half-forgotten place that looked like it should have been knocked down decades before, watched from all sides by modern security cameras. Morris parked his car a block away, close enough to the nearest cluster of vagrants to maybe tempt one to try something just so he could hurt them for it, and stalked closer through the gloom. Around him the glaur and decay of the swamp reached out and ruined the cameras one by one, and he slipped inside.

Voices carried down from a gantry-mounted office above, two men talking about a football game and complaining about referees, while the truck sat beside pallets and crates moved out of the way for it. Morris took a quick look at the other crates and found transistor radios nestled in mouldering straw, before moving to the truck and the Tree. The men's conversation ended and one came down to check on his load

In the Warehouse

• lurked in shadows, out of sight of the crew
• tailed the truck, almost got into a v unlucky road traffic accident
• reached out with the swamp and ruined security cameras before slipping inside, saw 2 ppl talking, stayed hidden from them.
• odd crates - transistor radios
• hid under the tarp and grabbed the driver when he came to check on the truck
• thing outside, teeth and hints of an emaciated predatory frame, an echoing growling 'voice' in the back of his head "run prey" accompanied by cold dread that stole the strength from him.
• fought, blows that felled men were shrugged off until he threw an entire crate at it, splattering it with mre tins. Angry, fast, razor fangs.
• out of strength to fight, felt something. warmth. love? hunger? both? enthralling, uplifting experience and a whisper in the back of his mind that not every fight need be won. Grabbed the driver and fled to the tangled maze of the basement, falling unconscious as he did so...

Consequences

• woke up. HUNGRY. SO HUNGRY. In the gym, phone dead, car back in Morganville. Started walking, spotted swastika and hard-asses in a bar near the bus stop and NEEDED to break them down. So he did, only leaving when weapons came out and returned to pitch a car through the window of the bar. It was a shithole full of shitty people, anyway. Spree continued across town, breaking down every petty little shithead and wannabe tough, or just getting rid of local filth - the mastrubater on the subway's arm broken. Until reached Morganville and started chasing down car to Jimmy Fingers and interrogating by wrapping in heavy chain and dunking in the bay

• meanwhile, after initial investigation in the Row, Diana dinner and research - Coulter and Mathesson, Gilchrist College. Contacted Carter and recruited him to cause trouble in the Row. Expensive, he didn't want to mess with the Patriots, but wound him around her finger. After talking with Carter, overheard people talking about the car/bar incident, grainy footage. Worrying similarity to Morris... walking alone, concerned for she felt the world shift around her (instinctive Primal Pathway) and was on the harbour edge where Morris was killing Jimmy. Told him to let him go, ad he did so by chucking the chain and Jimmy into the sea. And he felt better doing it.
• talked about control and parted ways, Diana sure they were being watched by something she could not see until they parted...

People Encountered (in order of appearance)

• Morris Mayfair
• A truck driver, beaten unconscious by Morris then lost in his Lair.
• Jimmy Fingers - Morganville vagrant, stole Morris' car and sold it for meth. Drowned in chains.
• Diana Graves

Locations

• Jack's - skinhead bar in Westwood, west Ormwood, where Morris began his rampage.
• Morganville - Morris tailed the truck carrying the Tree to a warehouse in the really bad parts of Morganville.

Notes

• Morris gained the Heart of the Ocean Atavism, instinctively using it to ruin security cameras. And his own phone.
• Diana gained Inspired (Manipulating men) Condition