"Candela Obscura: Flesh and Blood" (CO2x02) is the second episode of Candela Obscura's second chapter. The Circle of Needle and Thread are forced to question their morality as an infiltrating purge rages on.
Synopsis[]
Introduction[]
Festering within the heart of Newfaire, the sour taste of vengeance lingers on the palate as we suffer another loss. This is the price we pay as investigators. The temptation to harness the power within our collection of tools and artifacts is strong. But to serve Candela, one must acknowledge the danger in such hubris, and that underestimating such power leads only to destruction. It is always and forever our duty to stifle any remnant of bleed that seeps into our realm. The Circle of Needle and Thread, Assignment #538: Flesh and Blood.
Episode introduction[]
Outside a house in the Eaves, a Candela Obscura operative named Adrian stands outside in the rain. A carriage pulls up and another Candela operative gets out, greets him, and goes inside, calling to his husband who is in the kitchen cooking. The man relaxes, then is called to the kitchen by his husband, where he is given a warm hug that grows tighter and tighter. The husband reaches inside the man's back and splits him in half as he screams. Adrian rushes in, finding only the body on the floor with blood seeping from a closet holding the husband's crushed body.
Part I[]
In between assignments, Nathaniel Trapp has been attempting to adjust to the changed appearance of his eye and has discovered he can now see fog trails and outlines he could not before. He has been staying in Candela headquarters when a letter arrives from his father asking to meet "at the water's edge". He sinks into an armchair with a glass of bourbon.
Marion Collodi, meanwhile, is sleeping on Jinnah Basar's sofa, dreaming of when he was 8 years old and his father called in an exorcist, Jean's father, who held a green stone pendant over him that swayed in a circle around his chest. The exorcist grew concerned, saying he had only seen this once before. Marion remembers the night he felt a glowing light (which he believed was his soul) being pulled from his chest, leaving the scar behind.
Beatrix Monroe has spent the down time checking on her various wards and distributing food to them. She heads to her job doing laundry at Grayslate Sanitorium, where she visits Margaret Mary Finnerty, Sean Finnerty's mother, and tells her of their most recent adventure. Peggy gives her an envelope to give to Sean, and tells her she'll miss her. Bee then visits her old cottage in Seasway where she has memories of seeing a man and a child, then sits and sews more flowers on her hat. Sean comes by, saying he thought she might be there, and she gives him the letter. Sean asks if anyone ever gets out of the Sanitarium, and Bee tells him she thinks a place like that drives people crazy even if they weren't to start with. She reminds him he has a rich friend, and Nathaniel Trapp owes him something for opening the hole that Sean and his brothers fell into, and pulling only Sean back up. Sean protests it wasn't Nathaniel's fault.
When he leaves and reads the letter, it tells him he is still doing what he does best: killing those who are different because he's told to. He is responsible for his brothers' deaths, and she cannot forgive him. Sean crumples the letter, then has a vision of blood pouring down his face and a pain in his shoulder. It disappears as quickly as it started and he is holding the actual unopened letter. Before he opens it, he throws his gun down a storm drain. When he reads it, the accusatory words are gone, changed to words of loving memories and comfort that the three brothers were together.[1]
Jean is at home. She tucks in the sleeping Marion and goes back to her work, but has a memory of Violet Boucher asking if Bee said anything about the Anitithenai, while holding a syringe. She looks meaningfully at Jean's father while telling Jean that she knows what will happen if she has nothing to report soon. Her father is weak and shrunken, he is covered in pustules, and his eyes are glowing blue. Jean injects him, and tells him to sleep.
Sean returns to the Chapter House where he wakes Nathaniel and asks if he can use his name and influence to get his mother out of Grayslate. Nathaniel agrees readily. They discuss how to persuade her doctor, Dr. Orlov, that a mistake was made. Sean has noticed Orlov began getting a lot of referrals from Arthur Duffy, Margaret's former landlord, and suspects possible collusion. He then gets a replacement gun and a baseball. Nathaniel gets out an officer's revolver, but after some thought puts it back into its box.
The rest of the Circle of Needle and Thread arrive, where Draven Kingsley, their lightkeeper, awaits. There has been another incident, and a member of Allison Suarez's crew was taken out. Whatever they were combatting in their last adventure is apparently still out there. Kingsley is concerned for their safety, particularly Nathaniel's, but they notice he's acting peculiar and hear pounding from a cabinet. Nathaniel feels searing pain in his back as "Kingsley" reaches into it to grab his spinal cord and lungs. Marion is able to prevent one of the three body marks to Nathaniel, but Nate goes down. Sean grabs a sword and chops off "Kingsley's" arm while Jean finds the real Kingsley, contorted and covered in black veining, in the cabinet but takes two bleed marks and a scar, dropping as well. "Kingsley" transforms into the same creature that killed Antonio Suarez, telling them that their group killed its sister creature.
Meanwhile, Sean has flashbacked to the battlefield, and fires at the creature. Before it stumbles out the window and disappears, it says, "She's coming. She's going to get out. We're going to get her out." Sean rushes into the archives, which have been rifled. Jean comes back to consciousness to see Kingsley begging to be killed. When she tries to help Nathaniel, she sees her hand has tendrils of blue flame at the tips of her fingers. She patches him up, cauterizing the wound with the blue flame, but his back remains odd and his right leg isn't working quite properly.
They try to question the dying Kingsley, and decide they need to keep him alive. Jean pulls out a green vial and injects him. Kingsley's breathing calms and Marion ties him up, while Nathaniel takes out the revolver he earlier rejected and puts it into one of his previously empty holsters.
Break[]
- This episode is sponsored by Snag, makers of sustainable, fully size-inclusive clothing including tights.
- How To Play: Candela Obscura
- Original Soundtrack now on digital music platforms; t-shirt available in the US and Canada; dice set, lapel pin, and keychain in all five shops.
Part II[]
Kingsley is tied up in a chair with black veins snaking up his neck, emanating bleed. The group finds "Kingsley" was carrying files on all of them as if trying to learn about them. Aunt Bee locates the androphage, while Sean goes to find the child Lucas hiding in a bathroom, and reassures him. However, he has a flashback to his experience during the war of being ordered to kill children, and tells Lucas how to hide in the air vents. Lucas asks him if he's saving the world or hurting it, and Sean leaves the house.
Jean questions Kingsley, who gasps out that they need to help "Duncan, Farrah, and Allison", before his tongue falls out of his mouth onto the floor. He manages to write "Silvers--" and then the number of an address before his fingers change and grow through the floor. Bee breaks a capsule of scarlet under Kingsley's nose, but he grabs her, injuring her wrist, before she goes out to look for Sean. She finds him standing outside, smoking, counting the stitches on a baseball. She reminds him of when she and his mother took him to a ball game in his boyhood after his father's death, telling him to remember the good times as well as bad, and that he is a good man. Sean doesn't believe her. He doesn't want people trying to take care of him. All he wants is to get his mother out of Grayslate, kill the monster, put its head on Draven's superior's desk, and then he's done.
Inside, the others search the Chapter House and find a ward that can soak one bleed. They realize they can't leave Kingsley there, and Jean and Marion take Lucas outside. Bee cradles the hallucinating Kingsley, suffocating him until he is dead. They set the house on fire and join the others, heading in a carriage to the other Chapter House in Silverslip.
The house's door stands open. Nathaniel proposes a code word so they'll know they really are who they say, and Marion suggests "starry sky petunia". Nathaniel goes to a darker place, switching to another character sheet (Journalist to Detective). Jean stays with Lucas in the carriage, taking him to the Trapp family home with a note from Nathaniel. Marion senses huge amounts of bleed coming from the house, indicating a rift inside. They cautiously move inside, and hear scurrying on the second floor. They see many, many creatures moving toward them and the three ex-soldiers go into room-clearing mode and dispose of them, moving up the stairs. At the top is a gold-decorated open door, leading to an entrance to the Fourth Pharos-- but it has been corrupted, and more creatures are crawling out of it.
Meanwhile, Jean drops off Lucas and hurries back. The others are investigating the huge rift, noticing a moving astrolabe similar to the one they saw at the fallen lighthouse, that has been altered to allow things to come through. Nathaniel studies it and determines how to possibly fix it, and Marion pulls the bleed into himself despite the danger. He takes a bleed scar, but a thread moves from his chest into the rift, similarly to when he was seven and felt his soul being pulled from him. Speaking through the thread, Marion says: "If you want this, fine. Show me where you want to take me."
The others see Marion being pulled into the rift as it shrinks, but Sean pulls him back, thinking of their childhood together and that he cannot lose another brother. As they pull, the astrolabe falls apart completely and the rift is closed. Jean arrives and sees that Marion now has three scars and is on his last legs, the scar on his chest now growing over his face and around his eyes. Heedless of her own safety, Jean takes some of the damage onto herself, and Sean and Marion have an emotional conversation wherein Sean assures Marion that they are all depending on the fact that Marion is a good person, and that he isn't normal. But Marion wonders who he gets to depend on, then.
They look through the archives for records of the addresses of the other operatives from the Circle of Silver Flame that may be in danger: Allison, Joshua, Duncan Walter, and Farrah Morales. Aunt Bee tells Nathaniel she doesn't like him because of what he represents and that he pulled her loved ones into the war, but now understands he was also a victim. She apologizes, but Nathaniel thinks she was right. His older brother was the hero, not him, and he's been trying to make amends since his death.
Sean proposes warning Duncan and Farrah to lay low and get to safety, and they decide to split the party. Nathaniel, Jean, and Marion will stay where they are, looking for more information, Sean will go to Duncan, and Bee will go to Farrah. Jean heals Marion a bit, sensing much more pain and bleed within him, and he psychically shows her some of his past, including when her father visited him to "fix" him. Jean was present during the exorcism, but this time watches instead of closing her eyes, as the thread from his chest winds out, through her, and outside.
Sean reaches Duncan's makeshift house, finding it dark and the door ajar, with family portraits showing seven or eight people. From inside, he hears a gun cock, and he raises his hands, reassuring the man inside and introducing himself as Candela. The man says he knows, he's "waiting for him". Bee reaches Farrah's apartment, but as she approaches the lights flicker and she sees movement within. She opens the door and sees a worried-looking woman standing inside. She introduces herself and warns Farrah of the danger, but Farrah is unconcerned, and wearing a Periphery badge. Bee asks her circle's name.
Back at Duncan's, Sean tells him that both Chapter Houses have fallen and the door to the Fourth Pharos is gone-- they are cut off. Duncan thanks him but doesn't want help, and demands Sean's gun before he leaves. As Sean leaves, Duncan says, "We're the same, you and I," and fires directly into Sean's body. Sean is able to evade half the damage, but watches Duncan's face morph into his own as he fires once more, dropping Sean.
Post-Game[]
The four other party members are allowed to spend one resource each. Nathaniel and Jean take a stitch each; Bee takes a train; Marion takes a refresh.
Featured characters[]
Circle of Needle and Thread[]
Returning[]
- Draven Kingsley, the circle's lightkeeper
- Lucas Suarez, a child orphan
- Violet Boucher, Jean's former mentor, in Jean's memory
New[]
- Adrian, a Candela Obscura operative guarding the home of Joshua Fisher
- Christopher Francis Trapp, Nathaniel's father
- Duncan Walter, a Candela operative in the Circle of Silver Flame
- Farrah Morales, a Candela operative in the Circle of Silver Flame
- Joshua Fisher, a Candela operative in the Circle of Silver Flame killed in his home
- Margaret Mary Finnerty ("Peggy"), Sean's mother
Mentioned[]
- Allison Suarez, a former investigator in the Circle of Silver Flame
- Avery Choi, a liaison between EONS and Candela Obscura
- Anthony Finnerty, Sean's deceased brother
- Jimmy Finnerty, Sean's deceased brother
- Sergei Orlov, Margaret Finnerty's doctor in Grayslate
Quotations[]
- Sean: I look as this thing says, "I'm like you," and I go: "No shit. I'm a monster, too." And I raise the gun.
- Lucas: (to Sean) Are you saving the world or are you hurting it? I think you're saving the world, but I think you think you're hurting it.
- Nathaniel's note to his father: "Father -- Take care of this one as if he was one of your own, if that's something you know how to do. N.T."
- Sean: (to Marion) I know it's been your deepest wish to be normal--
Marion: I don't care anymore.
Sean: Good. Because you're not normal and you've never been. And we're all depending on that.
Marion: Who do I get to depend on, then?
Trivia[]
References[]
- ↑ Spenser later clarified that the first letter was in Sean's mind only, and the second letter was the one that was actually from his mother.
Spenser Starke (@SpenserStarke) on Twitter: "Regarding the letter in Ep 2, it was Marisha’s idea for her to write something from Peggy to Sean, but I wrote ANOTHER letter. I switched them without telling Marisha, but DID tell Brennan that he would receive 2 letters, the 1st of which would be in his head." (2023-10-02).
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