Oddity Park

"Spicy tuna coming up." Tony says with a smile.

Glenn sees how you reacted to their shouting, and leans in close to you.

"Do loud noises bother you? I can't help but notice that you like, jump every time someone raises their voice. I mean, I don't wanna dig into your personal life like that, but, if it's something that really freaks you out, I'll try to keep my voice down."

The minotaur waiter you saw earlier slides Glenn their drink.

"Thanks, Adonis." Glenn mutters.

Adonis extends his hand to Jenny. Jenny looks at Glenn. Glenn rolls their eyes and slaps a $5 bill down.

"Why do you offer me a drink if you're not going to pay for it?" Glenn sighs.

"Because you need to loosen up!" Jenny cackles.

Glenn whispers in your ear.

"Somebody has to be an adult in this family. Mom #2 can't do it all by herself."

"Oh shit, right." Glenn almost yells, but then lowers their voice down to a whispered hiss.

"Hey Tony, make that sushi to go. We gotta leave."

"Gonna go swim with the old lady, huh?" Jenny slurs.

Glenn's eyes glow red. I don't mean that in the figurative sense. Glenn's eyes, quite literally, catch on fire. Their face contorts to a terrifying grimace. Their liquor begins to bubble and steam. The heat coming from their hands causes the glass to crack.

"Mom, you've had enough." they growl. "You're going to say something you regret."

"Don't talk to me about regret." Jenny grumbles. "You're still young. You got your whole life ahead of you. No crummy job, no wet blanket wife, no snot nosed kids."

Glenn's tentacles begin to wave erratically. The hand they use to hold their liquor begins to change shape, becoming a massive crab claw. The glass shatters, and they use their other hand to begin waving the spilled liquor around in the air, forming an amber tsunami suspended in the air.

"Go home mom. Go home right now."

Jenny stares long and hard at Glenn. The look is not a mother about to chastise their misbehaving child. The look is like an annoyed teenager who thinks she's much too cool to have to deal with this.

"Bye Tony!" she cries in an obviously fake happy voice. She staggers out of her stool, stares at you, scoffs, and slithers out of the bar.

Glenn begins to calm down, returning to their usual form.

"Sorry you had to see that." Glenn scowls, not able to look you in the eye.

Tony comes by with a paper box, some napkins, and a glass bottle of Coca Cola.

"Spicy tuna to go," he says with a smile. "Hope next time you'll be here to stay. Love to get to know you better. You two enjoy your evening."

Tony waves as you and Glenn exit the bar. Glenn has their hands in their pockets, looking down at their feet.

"I'm really, really sorry," they sigh. "You didn't need to see all that."

Glenn takes a vape out of their pocket and takes a long, deep rip. They exhale, filling the air with a minty cloud of syrupy smoke.

"She's been like this since I turned 16. I mean, I wonder if she was always like this and just stopped giving a shit about hiding it after I was old enough to understand her. Maybe she started out wanting to be a good mom but, once I started having my own opinions and stuff, she just stopped giving a shit. It was never this bad though. I mean, did you hear her? I knew she regretted marrying my mom, and my existance, but holy fuck. To be that blunt about it? In front of our new neighbor? I mean, fuck, if you weren't there, I probably would have killed her."

They take another long drag, exhale, then look at you.

"Fuck, I made it worse, didn't I?"

Glenn points the vape towards you, gesturing as if to ask if you would like to take a hit.

Glenn's eyes almost begin to water, but then the tears fizzle and steam as burning cheeks evaporate them.

They sigh and look at you with a sincere smile.

"Not going to lie, but if I were in your shoes, I would have left by now. And that's not me being some angsty little shit who's all 'muh, my problems are too much, I'm gonna go listen to Green Day and cry about it'. I mean like, you must feel hella awkward."

They pause.

"Did I just say hella? Man, I've been in California too long. Where are you from, again?"

"That must be nice. I've lived in a couple of different places. Was born in Loch Ness. Then we moved to the Gulf of Mexico, occasionally spending time in the Caribbean. We were going to just live in the Pacific Ocean, but the real estate is getting pretty competitive. It's hard to find a decent place away from the major shipping lanes. It was either Oddity Park or risking getting chopped up by boat propellers or drowning garbage. Maybe that's why things fell apart. We're going tank crazy."

You arrive at the bank of the river. The beach is littered with ancient looking bones and driftwood. Morgane pokes her long neck out of the water and smiles.

"Hello, dearies!" she cries. "Glad you could join me! The salt levels are just right, and it's not too chilly!"

She ducks back into the water, then resurfaces with a bicorne hat resting on her head.

"I found another pirate skeleton! No gold, but some more clothes for your collection, Glenn."

Glenn looks genuinely excited, their hands clenched and waving back and forth.

"NICE!" they shout, then suddenly covering their mouth.

"Sorry." they whisper.

Glenn takes off their long read leather coat and swan dives into the water. Instantly, you can see their scales begin to shimmer like you hadn't seen yet. The water appears to rejuvenate them. They and Morgane splash around in circles before going deep into the river. After a few minutes, it's clear that they're going to stay down there for a while, and are waiting on you to join them.

You find the two circling around a skeleton dressed in raggedy 18th century clothing, lying half buried next to a sunken canoe filled with Native American jewelry.

"I think this belongs to the Chumash people." remarks Glenn. "We should give it back to them. There's a reservation up river."

"Oooh, but it looks so nice!" remarks Morgane. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we took a little bit."

"Naaaah, I think they don't need any more people stealing their stuff."

"Alright, Glenn. We should give these to Professor Aguado. He's our resident history expert. He'd be able to know for sure."

"Hey look over there." says Glenn. "I think that's some stuff from the old Cervantes Mission. You're not allergic to holy stuff, are you, Charlotte?"

Glenn and Morgane swim toward a skeleton dressed in the robes of a nun. The nun is clutching a massive leather bound book, and as you draw closer, you notice her clothes are riddle with bullet holes, and her canine teeth are longer and sharper than the average human's.

"What happened here?" asks asks Morgane.

"She was probably a vampire," replies Glenn. "The old Spanish mission in Cervantes colony was attacked by monsters constantly. It took Saint Peralta and her militia to stop them. That's where the city of Santa Peralta gets its name, and it's the origin of those fucking Knight assholes."

You probably heard about the Knights of Saint Peralta before. Five years ago, before the masquerade was dropped and the existence of supernatural beings was common knowledge, the Knights were an underground monster hunter group that worked for the local Catholic church. Now that their work is no longer secret, they are seen by many humans as heroes keeping darkness at bay, but as violent bigots by the supernatural community.

Yes, there are some violent and malicious supernaturals in the city. The Scrub Dog werewolf motorcycle gang, the Korean vampire crime syndicate known as the Mulbaem, and the Obsidian Court of unseelie faeries to name a few. However, in the eyes of the Knights, there were no good supernatural beings. You have been advised by many to avoid the human parts of town.

"Oddity Park sits at the intersection of ley lines," says Glenn. "Ley lines are channels which magical energy flow through, and intersections are very powerful and usually can open up holes between dimensions and alternate universes. So, supernatural and strange phenomena are drawn to them. That's why the Cervantes colony was a paranormal hot spot back in the 1700s, and Santa Peralta is today. Even though this river isn't very deep, a lot of stuff that is charged with magical energy just ends up floating down here."

"Loch Ness sits at one too," says Morgane. "That's why my people call it home. We share a line with Stonehenge, which sits at one of the largest intersections. Merlin got his powers from that line."

"Hundreds," replies Glenn. "I don't know an exact number, I haven't dabbled with magery or anything like that. I'm sure any of the magic users we have around here could tell you. I think they change too. They sever and reform through the ages. A very powerful magic user could manipulate them, too. Merlin could. Baba Yaga could, or can if you believe the conspiracy theories. The Dalai Lama is said to have that power, but I don't know if they've ever used it."

"I know Santa Peralta is at the intersection of at least 20," adds Morgane. "I think we have a Mother Line too. Mother Lines are lines that connect you to all of the major planes of existence. Arcadia, The Astral Sea, Heaven, Hell, and the Crossroads."

Heaven and Hell should be self explanatory.

Arcadia is the homeland of faeries, dragons, unicorns, and other creatures you might typically think of as "magical". Not all magical creatures come from there directly, but they can all trace their roots back to Arcadia somehow.

The Astral Sea is where souls of the dead go to either be reincarnated or be sent to Heaven or Hell. Only truly remarkably good or remarkably evil souls leave the Astral Sea. The majority stay in the Astral Sea until they are ready to be reincarnated (or stolen by a necromancer in need of some spiritual juice).

The Crossroads is the space between universes which can only be navigated by extremely powerful magic users. There are some small settlements there where ambitious travelers call home, but for the most part is a howling void of chaos and instability.

"If you wanna see some creatures, we can go to the fairy village over by the Macabre Topiary." says Glenn.

"Oooh!" cheers Morgane. "They have a little zoo and an animal hospital, it's the most adorable place! We should go! Maybe tomorrow though. It's getting pretty late. It's almost time for supper."

It's almost 6 PM. The sun will set in around an hour.

"You good, Char?" asked Glenn.

"Oh, let her enjoy the little things!" replies Morgane.

Glenn swims down to join you, stirring up little tornadoes in the silt.

"Watch this!" Glenn cries.

Glenn spins their arms around in circles and reels them back, before swinging them forward and making a massive ripple in the silt. The bottom of the river is now a kaleidoscope of different colors, rippling and spiraling into each other like paint in a blender. You begin to notice fossilized remains peaking from beneath the silt.

You see the fossilized remains of what appear to be dinosaurs. But, the shape isn't quite right. It's covered in bony spikes, almost like a porcupine.

"Huh. I think we just found a new species." remarks Glenn.

"Ooooh, can you name it after me?" asks Morgane.

"Sure, mom." they smile back. "Of course, Charlotte found it. Maybe she should be the one to name it."

You and the Macnameras gather up as much loot as you can carry. Morgane sees Jenny stumbling out of the bar, and decides to go deal with things.

"This should be fun," sighs Glenn. "Hey, I had a lot of fun today. Hopefully, we'll be able to do this again tomorrow. Here's my number."

Glenn hands you a slip of paper with their number. They smile and pat you on the shoulder.

"Welcome to the neighborhood."

Glenn wanders over towards the family conflict. You've probably had enough of that drama, so you decide to sit this one out. You take as much of the treasure you found as you like home to your tank. As you walk past the front desk, you see Axel helping another customer sign paperwork. You get in the elevator, head to your tank room, and for the first time since the bus ride, take a well deserved rest.

-END OF DAY 1-