Spirit of 77 Season 2 Episode 1
Spirit of 77 Season 2 Episode 1: Returning to the City At Last
Starring
- Mike as Tom S Fisherman: a gonzo journalist with a mysterious religious background out to uncover the truth!
- Stephen as Killian "Baphomet" Burque: goth glam rock alien looking for the new sound and his old life.
Baphomet and Tom S Fisherman were having their usual breakfast at the Sheila's Titty Bar. The "eila's T" has burned out or been broken off, soat night it glowed brightly "Sh itty Bar". The name stuck with the locals no matter if the sign was on or off.
No one was dancing, Tom was having what passed for coffee, and Baphomet was helping himself to the buffet of questionable freshness that had been left out overnight to fester. The gross buffet's cocktail of botulism and rotting food actually agreed well with Baphomet's stomach, so he took advantage and tucked in greedily.
"Well aside from this coffee proving there couldn't possible be a just and loving god, what's on your plate for today Baphomet?" Tom said as he grimaced his way through the sludge.
"Danny the roadie left a message at the bowling alley for me. Said I should head on over to the Guitar Warehouse Deluxe Superstore where he works now. Said he got this flyer for this show he thought I'd like," Baphomet said as he shoveled spoon fulls of what was maybe potato salad and hopefully Salisbury steak into his mouth, "How about you?"
Watching his alien companion shovel food into his mouth was almost more than Tom could handle. Luckily the only thing in Tom's stomach was the sludge coffee and that was too stubborn to go anywhere.
"Mama Lucia over at Pancini's Pizzeria called the office and woke me up this morning. Said she had some big story for me. The old editor in chief has been hounding me for something. Figured I'd go see what she wants. Might be she has something worth saying. Plus she'll feed me," at that Baphomet offered a bite of the slop he was eating, "I meant of real food that doesn't smell so obviously fermented and gross."
"Well your day sounds boring as shit to me, plus Imma need to pick up today. We should meet up later or something, so you can go deal with your mother or whoever that woman is that cooks for you," Baphomet said as he stood to leave.
Tom nodded over his mug as Baphomet left. Tom was gonna have to get all the way across town to see Lucia. He'd need to contact his editor to get a car sent over, so he headed straight for the payphone outside. He watched Baphomet get into the back of a cab and head off for the suburbs.
"Hello Chief? It's Fisherman. I'm gonna need a car. Something plush and comfortable, but it'll need a big engine. V8 at least. Can you send one over? Tom asked.
"FISHERMAN! YOU SON OF A BITCH! WHERE'S MY FEATURE! You've been promising me a real juicy feature for ages and all I've been getting is this weekly slice of life column," the editor raged at him.
"I'm following a lead you damned cheapskate. Don't fuck us both on this! I don't get that car I don't get a story and you don't get that feature," Tom crossed his fingers as he listened.
The receiver was quiet for longer than Tom would have liked, "I'll send the intern over with...something," the EIC hung up immediately after that.
A short time later his car showed up the intern hopped out, tossed him the keys, and ran to the nearest bus stop.
When the car started with a groan Tom sighed and shifted into gear to head to Mama Lucia Pacini's Pizzeria.
Meanwhile Baphomet was arriving to see a line out the door and down the street to get into the Guitar Warehouse Deluxe Superstore.
There were a few security guards at the door and a guy with a clipboard. When Baphomet tried to walk past them to get in the stopped him quickly.
"Woah there buddy, just where do you think you're going?" the man with the clipboard said.
"Just tryin to get in to see my guy Danny. He works here."
"Huh huh huh, you think just cause you know one of the low wage staff they can get you into the concert of a lifetime? We got Elton John and The Bee Gees playing together for the only time in history. If you want in-"
"Pass," Baphomet was already walking toward the loading dock in the alley before the men at the door could say anything.
Danny the roadie let him in the back way and they skipped the whole mess in the front. Headed straight down to the basement where Danny had set up shop. There were dozens of shelves wrapped in fences with various locks on them protecting Danny's vast collection of strange instruments. Baphomet had gotten his sonic sitar from Danny after he began his quest for the new sound that would rocket him back to stardom. It hadn't yet, but it was a great sitar.
"Ay Aw-right, I 'eard about dis geezer Voodoo Carruther puts on a helluva show.Spooky shit I 'ear. Awl part the act, a real showman they say. If ya fink it's worf a butcha's, 'ere's the flyer fuh tonight show." Danny handed Baphomet a flyer for Dickery Dock's an old sailor bar down by the docks.
"Thanks, I'll let you know how it is afterwards," Baphomet said as he headed back for the stairs.
"See that yew dew." Danny called after him.
Back on the street Baphomet took off on foot back toward the sketchy part of town where he and Tom lived.
"Alright, next stop: drugs. Papa Baphomet needs to get himself a hefty fix to keep me runnin for another few weeks," he mumbled to no one in particular as he walked.
Once he got back into his own zip code, the drug dealers were plentiful. Without hesitation Baphomet jumped the first one he found and beat the holy hell out of him. He rifled through all the dealers pockets collecting all the drugs, gave the dealing one last open handed slap across the face and headed back to the bowling alley Tom lived above. That's where he parked the tour van.
Technically he was still renting it, but after the band broke up things got hectic and some how he ended up with the van and no place else to live. It made sense to him at the time and without an address the truck rental place would never track him down, he was sure of it.
Once safely in the back of the van, he began his ritual. First he laid all his drugs out in front of him, then began waving his hands over them, made strange pseudo-mystical noises, and freed his mind. He began to wonder if these were the drugs he'd heard about that were making people act all weird and become permanently-stoned in a bad way.
His vision began to blur. All the drugs in front of him turned into tiny liquid pools. A single lines of liquid as thin as human hair began to rise up out of each pool until they reach the ceiling; which burst open and two giant spherical clouds began to pull the strands upwards. The clouds moved the strands all over the sky. He looked down and saw all of the liquid pools had turned into small people that were moving along with the sway of the strands above them.
"DAMN! These drugs are no good," Baphomet wasn't sure what the hell he saw, but he knew for sure it was not a good thing.
"Fuck it," he took all the drugs at once.
His heart began racing and he felt as though he would lose his buffet breakfast, but he held it together. He felt his consciousness being tugged on at the back of his skull. It grew to an intense pull, that felt as though it would rip his consciousness from out of his head.
When he snapped back to reality he fell forward from where he was sitting. When he looked up, two large burning eyes were staring at him from the other side of his van. Slowly the outline of sharp teeth began to burn into the outline of a grin beneath the eyes.
"My my, you are a daring fellow. I'll have to keep my eye on you, HAHAHA!" the grin and one of the eyes disappeared in a puff of smoke before the other eye burned more brightly and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Baphomet collapsed in a puddle of his own bodily waste on the floor of the van. He had no idea how many hours had passed when Tom was above him slapping him awake.
"Wake up you smelly bastard. What've you been up to today?" Tom said looking at the state of Baphomet.
"Oh hey man. Found out about this concert tonight down by the docks. You wanna come?" Baphomet responded in a daze, "How'd your food go?"
"I spent my day chasing Mama Lucia's lead around. She told me about some "muckers" she saw robbing the local 5 and dime. Says her boys saw those same guys down by the docks doing shady business. I know a guy that works down there, gave me some insight into what she's rambling about. Turns out, she might have tipped me off to a turf war between the Irish and Italian mobs. Pretty sure she is in on the Italian side, but we'll see where the story leads before I go putting anything into print. Anyway, my buddy at the docks says the Italian's regular delivery is coming tonight. Might head down there."
"You can give me a ride to the concert. I don't feel like walking anymore," without waiting for a reply Baphomet shuffled out of the van shaking off the uneasy sensation he'd gotten from his hallucination.
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