45: Peepopo

Solvej and Ursula brought Maria up to Yanica’s garret and prepared some boiling water with which they threatened to torture her. And from what I understand, Solvej was looking a little bit the worse for wear, and had had a few more drinks that evening than anyone realised. That may explain her behaviour, but in my sad experience of dealing with Solvej, sometimes, it seems, she doesn’t always need an excuse to perform such reprehensible acts. In any case, Ursula was now feeling more at home, and the two women bonded over the prospect of some nice torturing.

Convinced they had stumbled upon a dark cult, they asked how Maria could know Solvej’s name, and the young dancer explained that she didn’t actually know her name, she just dreamt that she knew it. She said that she had a group of friends who could dream things that came true and that she had dreamt that Solvej would join her group. This didn’t do anything to convince them that Maria wasn’t part of a dark cult.

Solvej wanted to know why Maria had been harassing her and whispering spooky things to her in the Phoenix. Maria simply explained that she was just asking her to dance as she wanted to be friends and maybe teach her how to rump. Solvej noticed, in the firelight, that Maria’s eyes looked unnaturally large, and dark, and bright.

Solvej decided there was a darker secret behind all this and pressed the boiling kettle against Maria’s ankles, but Maria just laughed in her face. This must have hurt Solvej’s torturer’s pride and so she poured the boiling water over Maria’s legs and this had the desired effect.

Maria eventually explained that she had come to Altdorf when she was 17 in the wake of the great Kislev famine. Solvej and Ursula realised that this was about 20 years ago, and that must make Maria about 37 years old, and yet they guessed she looked about 19. She said that she was just part of a group of dancers who wanted to stay looking young forever. Solvej demanded that Maria take them to the source of this power so they went back to the Phoenix. Maria had trouble walking now her ankles were scalded so Ursula carried her on her back.

Meanwhile Otto, Gulgad, and Erhardt had just climbed out of the cellar at the Phoenix and were having a drink at the bar. Erhardt was trying to explain to Otto why there might be no chance of catching a large rat down there, by pointing out that any rats would have been eaten by the formidable magical spiders, but Otto was still committed to the idea that he might get in the ratcatchers’ guild that way. Erhardt tried to get Gulgad to back him up on the opinion, but Gulgad was more amused to watch Erhardt struggling in the face of insurmountable ignorance.

In the VIP lounge, Kurtis was on the dance floor trying to rump with Yanica. He wondered what the waitress had meant by ‘his usual’ drink and went to the bar to find out. The barman understood what he meant and fetched a bottle of wine from the back. The bottle didn’t have a label and was made from black glass. Kurtis poured it and it looked like normal wine although, like him, it had good legs, and the two of them downed their drinks. It was delicious but strangely sweet and musty, which went straight to their heads and the pair of them decided to sit back down in their booth. Yanica shut her eyes and immediately fell asleep, and Kurtis joined her.

Kurtis dreamt he was with one of his girlfriends. I’m not entirely certain what happens when two people love each other very much, but whatever it is, that is what Kurtis was up to in his dream. It may have been with Yanica, or Stella, or Gen, or someone else, but he was dreaming about it. But then suddenly, he wasn’t with them, but with a very old lady instead (and I don’t mean the landlady of the Exploding Pig). And then she was young again, and then old. And then Kurtis was no longer himself, but actually a fly, and then he realised he was caught in a spider’s web. And then he woke up.

Kurtis was a bit shocked by the strange dream, but he has a knack for shrugging these sorts of things off. Yanica was still asleep on his arm, no doubt having a dream of her own, so Kurtis eased her off him and went to get a cup of water.

Solvej, Ursula, and Maria arrived at the Phoenix and spotted Otto, Gulgad, and Erhardt. They had been talking about getting into the VIP lounge, anyway, and so were happy to see that Maria could get them in. Maria was a bit dubious, though, and told Solvej it would be better to just bring her in and leave her less attractive friends behind. Erhardt used his magic to make Otto more presentable, but not wanting to hurt his feelings, he cast the spell secretly while giving him a good luck hug. Solvej rubbed her fingers in some dirt and applied it to Otto’s eyes to give him the trendy new Marienburger look and told him that the biggest part of attractiveness was confidence. And so Maria led Solvej, Ursula, and Otto into the VIP lounge. I think Erhardt and Gulgad were feeling a bit too mature for that sort of thing.

In the VIP lounge they spotted Kurtis and went over to his booth. Kurtis immediately noticed that there was some sort of grey wispy magical stuff across Otto’s features, and he was about to mention it, but Solvej told him to keep quiet about it, as this was Erhardt’s spell, and she didn’t want Otto to lose his new-found confidence in his looks.

Maria pointed out Kurtis’ wine and explained that that was the source of her youthful good looks. She tried to get Solvej to drink some, but she was reluctant, but Otto had a nice drink, and so did Maria. Maria went on to discuss the wine pointing out that it was a way to get an exquisite cadaver. This spooked Solvej who had the idea that they might be drinking dead people, or something, and that Otto needed to puke it up. Maria said that it was just an expression that meant it was her ambition to die looking beautiful, but Solvej shoved her fingers down Otto’s throat and brought up the contents of his stomach. Weirdly, Otto saw this all happening like a premonition before it actually happened.

It was around this time that Yanica woke up and told everyone that she had had the strangest dream. Kurtis explained that he was running up someone else’s bar tab so they could have more drinks, and Otto remembered that he had seen the Kurtis with the scar go into this place the night before and thought that maybe it had been Kurtis after all. For some reason, Solvej got angry with Yanica and told her that she would be no longer welcome in her own garret, and that she and Ursula would be moving in, instead.

Kurtis decided that the stuff with the wine was too strange and so he brought it out to Erhardt. Erhardt studied it and saw wisps of the dark god magic he had seen in the magical forest, and elsewhere.

By now it was closing time, and everyone piled out of the Phoenix. There was discussion about hiding in the cellar and exploring the club later, but there wasn’t the opportunity as the bouncers herded everyone out. Although Erhardt managed to slope off to a dark corner unseen, using his magic, except, for some reason, Otto could see him quite clearly, lit up like a Mondstille tree. It was around this time that everyone lost track of Maria and Yanica and perhaps, feeling unwanted (and maybe even terrorised), they had gone off together.

Everyone was hanging out outside the Phoenix wondering whether to go on somewhere when they noticed a bit of a fracas outside the Hammer and Bucket. The nobbish drinking club members, who had made fun of Gulgad the previous night, were having some sort of argument. One of them was hugging and protecting a short, horned, bluish-pinkish creature while a couple of the others were trying to attack it. Many of the bystanders were getting extremely het up about the incident, one way or the other.

Gulgad decided he needed to protect the thing and stood between it and the drunken nobs. One of them tried to slap him across the face in a nobbish sort of a way, and so Gulgad punched him in the face.

Meanwhile Otto also decided the creature needed to be protected, and Schnitzel concurred, and made his way over to the group and carried the creature off. It seemed to have a flute for a mouth, and could only communicate by saying ‘pee-po-po’ over and over again in a melodic and vaguely expressive way. Which, for those who thought the creature was cute, made it seem cuter, but for those who thought the creature was some sort of dark abomination, made it seem even worse.

Solvej felt she could see through whatever was going on with the creature and decided that it was evil and needed to be stopped, so she grabbed it from Otto. She then tried to stamp it into the ground, but it wriggled away, and Otto managed to grab it back and tried to run off with it.

Kurtis and Ursula agreed with Otto and did their best to stop Solvej and couldn’t understand why she had got so riled up about the cute thing. Meanwhile, having saved the creature from the nobs, Gulgad began to have second thoughts about it and could see how it might be a demonic entity that needed to be destroyed, after all. He ran after Otto and told him he would help. Otto was determined to save the creature, no matter what, and was worried Schnitzel might be jealous, but Schnitzel seemed to love it, too.

Meanwhile, in the Phoenix, all the bar staff had tidied up and gone home leaving Erhardt there alone. He poked around the place for a while but couldn’t find anything particularly incriminating. But he did find a locked cabinet with several bottles of that wine in. And so he tipped all the wine away, and left.

Otto and Gulgad couldn’t think of anywhere to go except back to Paul’s, where Kurtis had been staying, and where he had let them stay the previous night. When they got there, Paul was enthralled by the creature, too, and decided he must sketch it immediately, and sat it down in an artistic pose and went to get his pastels, while the cute creature made his familiar pee-po-po noises.

Gulgad saw his opportunity and grabbed it and smashed it against the wall. He damaged it severely, but it was still hanging on to life, or whatever it had to hang on to. It tried to wriggle free, but Gulgad had a good grasp of it. Otto and Schnitzel looked on in horror as Gulgad smashed it against the wall again, and it disappeared without trace, as if it had never been here. Immediately, Gulgad and Otto forgot what the big deal had been. They could remember Peepopo being there, and everything that had happened, but couldn’t really remember the strength of feeling they had had about it. Paul couldn’t remember what all the fuss had been about, either, and drew a sketch of Schnitzel, instead.

Similarly, back on the Street Solvej, Kurtis, and Ursula got over their disagreement, as it didn’t seem to matter that much anymore. When Erhardt emerged from the Phoenix, Solvej told him about the blue demonic creature which probably sounded dodgy to him, of course, but as he hadn’t been there, he didn’t really get it. And with Peepopo gone from the world no one could really remember what all the fuss had been about.

That night, Otto dreamt that he could see Peepopo wandering through a strange forest, and the creature was lost and afraid. It was making those sounds with its flute-mouth thing but didn’t sound happy. Then in his dream Otto heard an orchestra join in with the Peepopo sounds. Then a strange, bright gateway appeared in the middle of the forest, and Peepopo walked into the light and disappeared. And then Otto woke up. I think he thought it meant that Peepopo had gone to a happier place.