View source for Book 6, Chapter 4: Tumbling Down

{{Steel Town session
|title=Falling Down
|book=6
|chapter=4
|blurb=In which names are discussed, a new mystery deepens and another building falls down.
|content=It had been a few weeks since Jack and Allan had met the thing in the sewers.  During that time, each had their own ideas on what should be done to figure out what was going on in Hamilton.

Jack kept a close eye on the [[Department of Energy Research]] (DoER), and was looking into the disintegrated house.  Specifically, he was looking at the various people who went to the disintegrated house, which had been quartered off by various organizations: caution tape at first, a few survey teams, and once in a while a Government Canada fuel saver truck came by.  After a week, Jack saw the residents of the house beside the crumbled home leave.  The house had been condemned, but moving costs were being covered by the government.  There was a lack of DoER involvement, or at least no logos.  Jack took pictures of everything and everyone, trying to see if the same people were just switching uniforms.  He borrowed one of Allan's cameras.  Jack also wanted to check out the ribbon cutting, "because if something was going to happen, it would be at the ribbon cutting!"  Of course, he also had to be careful with his girlfriend, because they were on thin ice.  The only reason why she is still going out with him is because she thinks there is something he is not telling her, and she can't stand mysteries!

Allan was still working at the morgue, encouraging the twins to become more fae-like, and keeping an eye on the technology company - [[Titan Gears]] - that he had discovered.

It was at a fae-owned (or, at least run) bar that a brawl had started.  A [[White Court Vampire]] had thrown [[Jacob]] (one of the twins) over the bar, through a secret panel, and into a store of strange fairy brews, including an airborne intoxicant.  The fight was quickly moved outside: Allan and Jacob vs the unknown, but hungry, vampire.  The twin's girlfriends, the other twin, and [[Constable Stephanie Moordha]] (Allan's date) had gone out the front while Allan and Jacob went out the back.  However, Stephanie did get to the back just in time to see the white-court vampire fleeing... up a wall.  The bar closed down the next day.  However, as a result, every guy who went to that bar ended up getting laid (and maybe not with the girl he went with)... except for Allan.  There were several arrests for indecent exposure.  After that interesting night, Sargent Stephanie decided to take things slow with Allan, but was still willing to go out with him, if only to find out what was going on.

When Jack learned about this incident, his only comment was "that is what happens when you let straights into a fae bar."  The Concession Street police officers did notice the strange happenings, but did not do anything about it because there wasn't enough to go on.  Sargent Providence made sure to warn Jack not to investigate this because it would cross his bounds.  Jack, of course, decided to investigate it.  However, he limited himself to looking into the business side of things.  What he found were a few interesting leads, but it would take a very long time to go through it without getting into trouble.  Jack did find out that the bar was opened by some people who had opened up two other bars: [[The Rainbow Lounge]] and [[M bar]].  ''(This will become relevant in a future story arc.)''

Allan had been taking to eating his lunch in the business school's cafeteria, making friends with the students there, and keeping an ear out for word of Titan Gears.  It was painfully obvious that most of the business students had less knowledge than they pretended to have.  Allan did find out that it has a dummy company and affiliated corporations that own property in Hamilton called [[Jotun Holdings[[ (pronounced ''YO-ton'').  After comparing notes with Jack, he discovered Jotun Holdings owned the bar that had closed down after that particular bar fight.

It was getting close to the end of the term, and just about anything would be a distraction from so many bodies, and the largely extended autumn (complete with extra duties from the Court).  That distraction turned out to be the new building's grand opening!  There was punch, cheese and crackers and many many many boring speeches by VIPs, and even more by not-so VIPs.  Leading up to the ceremony are demonstrations of the advances in miniaturization (but not yet at the nano-tech level).  Allan had been daydreaming of his upcoming lack of morgue rotation, when he saw Ella Fitzroy - a corpse who had been on Allan's slab  a few days ago.  She had died of CO poisoning in a car accident, and had that zombie eye look that was all the rage among the living dead.  Upon seeing her, Allan dropped his drink, and heard the sound of breaking glass (even though it was plastic) and thing fell slightly slower than they should.  Ella, apparently, had become one of the [[Patches]] - the nameless entity's mouth-pieces. 

"An invite is extended to you and to your friends to parley once again under the city.  Please, will you follow?"  Apparently, the nameless entity had learned much better English... and had maybe been watching those Pirate movies.  Jack and Allan went, making their way around to the back of the new building, and down a hatch.  There should be plenty of time to get back by the ribbon cutting.  Allan grabbed crackers before they left.

At first, there was enough service lights to get , but soon they left the well light areas and were heading down in near darkness.  Cell phones, although they can be set to bright, didn't emit enough light.  Even though Allan dropped cracker crumbs every couple of steps, he and Jack soon got their heads turned around and became rather lost. Finally, they got to the room where they were before, though some renovations had been made.  The floor was concrete, for one, and was better lit.  It was still damp and smelt like mildew and rust.  The huge piles of rock were no longer there.  A few [[builder-bugs]] were still around.  There was also a huge iron stove-like thing in the back of the room.  Several conduits were coming out of it, and the heat from the stove was palatable.  Although the conduits and stove were made of iron, Allan got the sense that what they contained had nothing to do with iron.

"You redecorated!" Jack said when they arrived.  Allan just gulped.  "What's that for?" Jack continued, pointing at the stove.

"That is a question with a long answer.  Answerable but know that for not it has many important functions.  Important to us.  Please sit."

We sat on mismatched chairs while Ella looked like she was sitting on air (complete with an arm-rest) and had a brief conversation about the difference between those who have pointed ears (the fae) and those who have rounded ears (mortals and most other supernatural creatures).  It was brief because when Ella asked about the importance of this, Allan responded that it was a question with a long answer.  The conversation was vague and unsatisfying to Ella ("Well, he did say it was a long story", responded Jack).  Soon, they began to talk about what had really come to the entity's attention.

"Many people possess an attribute called a name," the entity began.  "And it... it... There are many sources of information that imply possession of a name is more than just identification.  Is this accurate?"
"It is first used to identify individuals", Jack responded.
Ella "Do you have a name?"
Jack "Yes"
Ella "What is it?"
Jack "Jack Marks".  Jack then went on to explain first and family names and said he was the sum of the two.  Ella argued that he was the intersection of the two.
Throughout the discussion, many points were raised.  The issue of who gives names - family and the state.  How names can change - childhood names, nick names, self-chosen names.  The fact that most everything seems to have a name, partly because it is easier to identify things.  The fact that the entity does not yet have a name.  How names work, and the process of individualization and integration.  (The whole montage can be heard at this link HERE.)

Jack and Allan had a few questions for the entity too.  If it was sentient (on some level it was, depending on what notion of thought you followed), if it had parents (no, it was catalyzed and rose from inert nonliving compounds).  And that it could be the first artificial intelligence on the planet!  There was also discussion of Steven Hawkings and the theory of information evolution.

Two important questions that Jack asked was when it first wanted a name, and when it first became aware of it's own existence.  The answers were 48 hours ago, and that it, the observer, had first recognized the existence of the observer - 87 hours ago.

The discussion came around to communal processing.  "Those are maybe part of me" it said, pointing to the builder bugs "but I am unsure if they are like your mitochondria or like your white blood cells."  It pointed to some fresher corpses who were still doing work.  "Those are also part of me."  She then points to some other corpses and looks confused.  "That is not part of me... are they part of you?"  Ella Patch collapses, and the bugs stop streaming.  They start to go towards the two corpses.  The bugs around the two corpses skitter to a hault in a 10' radius, and the corpses charge.

There is a fight.  We win.  There was a figure in the shadows, and glowing blue eyes in the corpses.  Ella fights off an attempted possession.  Quickly, they leave.

The ribbon cutting ceremony was about to start when they got out.  More builder-bugs - smaller and different from the ones that the entity was using - put the top of the new building onto it... and then began to take apart the new building.

Ella was saying "no... no... no... stop her stop her stop her" while Jack was trying to squish as many new bugs as he could.  Allan set up a wide ward to contain the bugs, but also trapped several people inside it.  The strain of drawing upon that much power caused all of his hair to fall out.
|location=McMaster Campus; the sewers; Glitter
|starring=Jack Marks; Allan Tarik;
|featuring=Penny Glaucus; Stephanie Moordha; the nameless entity
|date=2012/01/09
|timestamp=2011/12/12
}}