Continued! Special thanks to Anthony Kendall and Alan Bellows of Damn Interesting. Check out their awesome website and search "Westford". Donate to them.

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"Poor Nic Cage."

The next day, Cage or "Mr. Koestler" is visibly acting awkward because of very heavy thoughts, visibly distracted when bringing his kid to school. He also brought a copy of the numbers and some historical records to his workplace - He's desperate to find out why no one else have read Lucinda's letter and prevented the disasters from happening. There is a future catastrophe predicted for just the next day.

The backstory was pretty close to what John collected from all the details Cage let out on screen. Although, he didn't know whether Vriska's attention had caught the same or instead just wasted on how good Cage still looks after these years. The former might be fueling the addiction worse.

"You see that, John? It's the Haystack antenna in Westford! I've read about it on Damn Interesting. It's Alternia on Earth level of awesome. You Humans sure can do great things if you want to."

"Alternia is horrible! We have been fine for most of the time."

"Yeah, but these Humans aren't you. You know the story behind Westford?"

"...Shhhhhh. Let's keep watching."

Vriska returned to her dazed staring face although fortunately refrained from moving her head.

Nic Cage went to visit Lucinda's teacher right away after a fruitless argument with the coworker. He showed her the letter of numbers with a glass stain on it - from John's experience with the LaLondes, this piece of paper is bound to smell like whiskey. The background music for this part is more sad than mysterious; He wished it could be the Out of Africa theme used earlier again... Wait, the formal name for that piece is Mozart's 7th Symphony.

John chuckled at his thought of the old lady noticing the stain, but the conspiracy seems to be building up too fast to allow this joke from happening. The teacher revealed almost nothing except Lucinda didn't live long enough to be available for Koestler to interview. Murder as a cover up for all these disasters they are about to unleash all across the globe? Koestler had to head back home and start again with trying to find the workers who dug the letters up.

As Cage makes his phone call, a totally-not-sketchy outdated car pulls to his front yard. The people inside seem to have some kind of device to jam Caleb's hearing aid. This is intense.

"Hey John, it's Scratch again! With a buddy!"

The strangers reminds John of Roy Batty in Blade Runner. They handed Caleb a pebble and then peaced the hell out without further interaction - do the memetic men in black make threats in this way? Did they find out about Koestler's personal research?

"Didn't you say Scratch is more cowboy like?"

"Well, he had some mafia types working for him. Me and Tavros both know some Carapace gangsters."

"Carapace gangsters! That sounds like fun."

"You didn't ask much about my crazy stories. "

Koestler's sister came to visit him; it is revealed he isn't on the best terms with his dad either. He then broke off a conversation with her too, in order to maintain an all-nighter for news on impending disasters. John is starting to admire his personality. Though, what can he find anyway? Hardly any super science or cabal plots can account for natural disasters. The conspiracy better sound legit.

"He's still going to be my dad. One Lusus for each of us is enough."

Vriska must have noticed something in his expression too.

"Don't you have anything else to say?"

"What do you wanna know more about? Karkat and that skinny dream bubble guy all called me an apocalypse buff. Wanna hear about Alternian disasters?"

John noticed Cage noticing something on screen in his pickup truck. His film critic sense told him, no way nothing big will happen next.

"Maybe later? Something's coming."

"Roger, Seer of Movies."

Oh. The number letter said the next hit will be right next to Koestler if not right on top. He exited his car - to walk around to see what could be the cause of it, instead of...

"Abscond! Abscond! Why don't you run Nic Cage! It's gonna blow up you moron!"

"Calm down Vriska!"

Although John was pretty concerned by the downed gas tanker truck Cage was walking towards, he was more sure that he would be totally unharmed by this incident. There should be no chance in hell for this movie to turn into a revenge story featuring Caleb... Well, if it's Caleb thirty years later and still played by Cage, then maybe Vriska shouldn't blow up in that case.

Yep, the gas tanker is under control. And then... That plane came out of nowhere.

"Run away you moron! You can't die here! Abscond! Fucking Abscond! Don't die here! You're just a human! Abscond! "

Vriska's shrieks only ended when she started sobbing. Then she grabbed John's shoulders in the most uncomfortable grip John had ever even imagined. One voice inside him, maybe a past dream bubble self, asked if he should check his centralized memories from all parallel Johns for suitable exit strategies, but all reason inside him told him not to even remember having those memories. His sanity depends on not remembering, while his life might depend on the opposite.

The only option was to back slowly into mental paralysis like all three characters of the Koestler household. An unknown duration of time later, Vriska chose the same option and reverted to sitting petrified alongside him.

Cage checked the casualty number of the crash; it was 81, just like the prediction written by Lucinda. Then, the coworker from Haystack came to visit, only half for consoling though. The other half is still for questioning. John wanted too to make sense of what was going on with the number letter and how the Scratch men in black managed to cause them.

On the other hand, Vriska? She had the same expression of Cage. John permitted doing so to a degree since every Sburb player had seen at least a dozen of calamities no one should ever see.

Outside the Koestler house, the Roy Batty looking Scratch man watched. He didn't silence the coworker when the latter left, so that makes him a good villain, maybe? But then the next moment, he was inside the Caleb's room pointing a finger at him!

Did the stranger's accomplices set the whole forest outside on fire to eradicate Koestler for good? Despite the tension rising to higher than ever, John still also had to keep an eye on Vriska in case she throw off another rant. Fortunately, for the lack of a better word, she is still catatonic. Still seeing the faces of people who are still burning.

Well, it was only an evil-induced nightmare. The stranger had already left before Cage can race outside with a baseball bat and a flashlight in the most underwhelming dash ever. Seems the right term for this kind of awkward action is "N'arm scene", as John read a while ago online.

"You know, this can lead to some pretty good car chases."

John tried to cheer Vriska up when Cage tried to stake Lucinda's descendants out the next morning. She actually responded.

"Hmm."

(To be continued)