Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot [Tricube Tales] [Solo RPG], Part 7: Sometimes Ups Outnumber the Downs

 [Sometimes Ups...] [1]

"Whoops, Gareth, be careful with...ah, no". One of Jack Fall's assistants comes over and clucks like a disappointed uncle at Gareth, who just dropped a box of cables. He had been clumsy and out of sorts all day and despite being taller than most of the handful of staff in the general orbit around Jack Fall, had felt like a small child. 

The sun is way too bright and the location is strangely cramped with the old distillery building behind them overgrown. The morning had started with Gareth helping to clear some weeds - and destroying a small chainsaw in the process - and then setting up a catering table before spilling a pot of baked beans. Each time the other folks laughed it off a bit but you can tell they are getting a bit fed up, even with the big reveal that might recapture that moment when Jack Fall reunited Grandma and Grandson all those years ago. 

There have been only two real graces this last couple of days of traveling around with Jack Fall and helping them shoot the Bunker Bigfoot (now more the Cresthill Creature episode) for the upcoming season 5. 

First, they gave Gareth a chance to shoot a few of the incidental shots, b-reel type stuff before and after the interviews and everyone, including Jules who tends to run the main camerawork, have absolutely raved about Gareth's work. Hence why he has been trying, and failing, at more minor tasks around the place. A tight crew like this folks tend to do a bit of everything. The most genius cameraman in the world can make up for being a bad tech when the studio considers middlin' shots to be good enough.[2] 

The second is getting to spend time with his mom. Lucretia Castillo. aka, Lucy Hendrix. It is awkward of course. If she was alive this whole time, why did not she not come looking for him. What part does she play in the terrible things going down. 

Gareth stops a moment and sees she is currently being filmed. Talking about giving up Gareth because she was young, how she thought about looking for him years ago but hoped he was better off. Only knowing his new name. How she trusted in God to take care of her son. How finding those pictures was a sign. 

All lies. At least Gareth thinks they are all lies. Who knows when it comes to mommy dearest and her wolf husband. Both parents abandoning him in different ways. And now, the rumors on the set is that Jack Fall is going to use this episode to finally propose to Lucy. It is going to be a ratings smash, at least in the small pool of ratings such shows compete for: Bigfoot, love, and hope. And werewolves tearing the throats out of men. All the big hits. 

The look on his face gets the attention of the same flustered assistant who was picking up the wires and the older man comes over and pats Gareth on the back. 

A silent show of support despite getting it all wrong. 

[...Outnumber the Downs] [3]

Gareth is woken from his sleep to see his mom standing at the foot of his bed. Confused and deeply startled, he struggled to find a shirt and ends up tumbling from the bed in the dark. Cannot place himself. This is not the trailer, this is...

Gareth has been unable to face up to his father. Barlow Hendrix. Who is likely furious by now. A man who rewrote his entire life to run off with a few "retired" werewolves. Werewolves who chain themselves inside their trailers on full moon nights to stay hidden, relying on Ms. Macy to let them free in the morning. Who only wild out on a few occasions where everyone else is too busy to notice. Except dad. Dad who kept bucking the rules and brought this whole mess down. 

Gareth took to staying at the Cook Motel these past three nights, only leaving to join the film crew. Everyone once in a while catching glimpses of the Kai Yotes in the distance, watching him. Watching Lucy. Never interfering. Just keeping tabs. 

Once again it was easy to get Cindy Cook to give him a room. Gareth got about three words into a sentence of "My dad, Barlow..." before she began to shake her head, gave him a brief and awkward hug, and said she'd get him the best room in the place. Which, since Gareth is the primary handyman, is roughly the equivalent of the least-best room in the place. But still, a bed. A door not facing the main highway. A place to hide out that is really obvious but also one of many where Gareth might be. Besides, based on his observations, the pack seems interested in Gareth, they also keeping back. Their Hendrix worship seems to have convinced them Gareth is doing pack business on the inside. [4] 

Staring at his mother he notices she pulls out a cigarette, lights it, and then sits down in the air roughly halfway between the bed and the bathroom. No smell. This is some sort of magical illusion. She is probably at the Bunker city park. Gareth can feel that immediately, without even knowing why. Broadcasting. More witch magic.

"We have not had time to talk. Jack is...a good guy. But he has gotten into a habit of having emotional breakthrough reserved for the camera. And, well, your dad. I don't think Barlow would be too happy to see me."

She inhales and exhales, stares at the distance, and then her ghost visage reaches into her pocket and pulls a phone and puts it to her ear. Wherever she is, folks might be listening in. Now she's just a strange hippy woman chatting on a phone, in the middle of the of the night, in a park. Approaching such a sight in Bunker has its own risks. 

"I am sorry about leaving you all those years ago. You were just a baby, I have no idea what your dad said but I doubt it was the truth. I come from...people... who hunt people like your dad. Like you."

"Mom, I..." but she continues, whatever spell she is using she made it only one way. Yet another person who barely stops to listen to what Gareth actually has to say. 

"I was there because my folks felt that Mobile was a hotspot. Sensors and wards were flaring up. They sent me. The junior recruit. My first assignment. And I screwed it up. I got trapped by a silver haired werewolf. Macy. I got completely walloped. She drug me to face Barlow and...well. Romeo and Juliet I guess. Macy was mad about it but she had her Sammy. Another outsider. So couldn't say too much. She never trusted me. [5]

"The next couple of years were exciting. We were hiding from the law. Hiding from my people (who thought I was dead). I was actually helping the pack out by using my magic to hide them. The pack got stronger and stronger. Barlow and I got married. We had you. And then...

"I burned out. I started feeling guilty all the time. Your dad and Jacob were getting worse. I met someone. Not like that, a friend. Well, not a friend. A bartender. Madeleine. Mostly she just listened. I didn't mention the whole..." and then Lucy made a general claw mark motion with her hand... "thing, but just that I had fallen in with some bad folks. She kept telling me to get out. Taught me how to protect myself. Psychologically. I only half listened, really, but it was nice having someone outside of the pack to talk to... [6]

"I started rethinking my role. Maybe I could tame them a bit. So I brought up an old piece of magic. A blood spell. I used an old relic meant to help hunters stand up to the onslaught of the wolves. I played a song to bind Barlow to the pack and the pack to Barlow. He was as strong as his people and his people were as strong as him. They had to care for one another. The only two left out were you and Lina." [7]

Lucy Hendrix is now crying, wiping her eyes.

"I made a mistake, though, I got spotted. I thought the hunters had given up trying to find me but one of them spotted me in the bar, shooting the shit with Madeleine. They showed up in force and I made a choice. I left, without any time to explain, left you and left Barlow and the rest. I lied about that fight with Macy, said I had been deeply damaged and then ashamed to come back because I had failed. I still kept the pack hidden and then went back to New Orleans with the others.

"It was years later that I found out that the other packs had found out about Barlow's new weakness just weeks after I disappeared. They targeted other members. Barlow couldn't risk dying so Jacob died in his place. Each death destroyed part of the Big Bad Wolf. And then the pack just disappeared. 

"I thought I might get away, find you again. Get you out. But you were gone. Finding those photographs with your name on it...I just knew...I had joined up with Jack, at first, because I realized that a man traveling the country searching for legends might be the place and..."

Lucy looks up, a sudden fear. Her form fades, goes away. Right before the connection broke, Gareth thinks he can hear the sound of a wolf howl, nearby. [8]

-- Mechanical Notes --

1. Scene type card: Joker (1, Positive). 6 of Clubs (Related to Skills/Activities). Main Task/Challenge = Joker/ignored, 6 of spades = "Standard Brawny". Gareth misses, so... 
2. How much do they like Gareth's photos? King of Diamonds. So like...alllll the way. 
3. Scene type: Diamonds, about an object or transactions. Ace --> 1, Positive. Jack of Spades --> Bad for Gareth breaking free. 9 of Diamonds --> A Standard Crafty challenge. Again, Gareth misses... 
4. "Are they keeping tabs on Gareth?" and "What sort of interest are they keeping?" Jack of Diamonds to answer the first question, so they are definitely aware that he is at the motel and sometimes drive by. There and they have seen him on the set. However, for the second we got an Ace (1, Positive) + 3 of Spades. So, they think Gareth is keeping tabs on the enemy and are giving him a BIT of space. This is why they have not done more until now. 
5. She got a 7 of Hearts (Hard Brawny Challenge with 2 effort). Only got a single success.
6. Is Lucy Hendrix a good person? Ace --> 5, a New Person. A Teacher/Type. Bartender. But 10 of diamonds so a decent person, yeah. 
7. The relic used was a 3,2 --> Holy + 3,6 --> Flute. 
8. [Note, this was pulled early in this scene and this information was used to inform the backstory]. "Is Barlow furious." Ace (6, Event) --> "Dog Barking". So not a dog, a wolf. 8 of Hearts -> Yes, and...he wants something. Rolled on the Complex Questions table twice --> 2, 6 (Conflict) + 1, 6 (Attainment). So... combined with the diamond card earlier... there was some sort of object/transaction related to the issue. So I took that to be a magic item. 

-- Doug's Notes --

We are most likely at the end, or some rough version of it. I figure I'll leave it here today and then figure out how this all shakes out in the next 1-2 sessions. 

Ended up being more of an exposition dump than I expected but once we found out that mom was still alive and and that the relationship between Barlow and Lucy was more complicated than expected... I had set it up that she was involved with Hunters and somehow went missing around the "Troubles" but as it turned out she was more tangentially related to it..I figured I had lore to work out. 

I am pretty good with this. I like the idea of Barlow and Macy being bad guys who were mostly good because they are kind of forced to be good. Maybe in an alternate universe where Lina vs Gareth was the main plot or Gareth vs the TV show...but in this one, Lina has shown up to be a decent ally and the TV show represents Gareth finally bonding with people. 

Also, the split title of this post is a nod to the song "Not in Nottingham" from the old Disney Robin Hood. I watched that version a lot as a kid and that song in particular was like a spiritual for me. I regularly used that phrase "Sometimes ups outnumber the downs" but always with the implied "But not in Evergreen..." 

Here's to our two young werewolves and the finish of their story.