About Gossamer Commons
As of 2006-05-12:
Keith Onzeker is a twentysomething college dropout who wants to be a writer. After discovering and saving the life of a fairy child, he has been Marked for Death… but before he can die, the Fairies owe him a Boon. He chooses to be inspired to write a truly significant novel — one that will have an impact for generations to come and stand the test of time.
The problem is, the fairies don’t have any way of providing that….
Gossamer Commons is a webcomic written by Eric A. Burns; artists include Greg Holkan(p.1-105) and Peter Venables(p106 onwards). It appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is about the magic you find in the mundane, the mundanity you find within magic, butterflies, jazz music, life, death, and the slacking in between.
Synopsis
Chapter One: The Mark of Death
Keith Onzeker is an early twenties college dropout and writer living in Ithaca, New York. Living might be slightly overstating the case, however — he’s mostly just spinning his wheels, convinced he wants to be a writer but seeming unable to get things put down on paper. For some time, he apparently was hanging out with his roommate, Jack. However, he introduced Jack to a girlfriend named Mary — and seems perhaps a touch displeased about this fact. In general, Keith thinks he’s looking for something.
Naturally, “something” ends up being found, in the person of Sonata, a six inch tall fairy whose foot is caught in a grate. Seeing Sonata seems to cause some kind of manifestation on Keith’s forehead, complete with smoke, and also causes Keith to have a flashback to his childhood, when his grandmother used to tell both Keith and his friend Trudy fairy tales. His grandmother borrowed details from other myths and traditions, it seems, and his mother was a bit concerned with Gramma telling Keith scary stories. At the same time, there was a certain amount of at least playful tension over the fact that Keith’s mother married someone a quarter Dutch (thus the surname Onzeker).
One of the key elements of the fairy tales is that mankind is apparently not meant to see fairies without glamour laid over them. When they do so, they receive the Mark of Death.
We also learn that Trudy is more than capable of casual violence to Barbie dolls. But then, who isn’t? And we meet her father, Doctor Glick, who seems somewhat… unpleasant. Funereal, even. Or possibly he has significant odor. In any case, he seems to freak out Libby and concern Aggie, and that can’t possibly bode well.
Keith, back in the present, remembers what his grandmother said about being marked for death. Despite this, he chooses to help the fairy get out of the grate. She seems pleased and shy, though she speaks only in music, and then she flies away. Keith, amazed and slightly wistful, tracks the adult Trudy, who is apparently a jazz clarinetist now, and more than a little opinionated. They go for coffee, and Keith tries to explain what’s happened to him.
We learn, during the course of the conversation, that Trudy is used to humoring Keith. We also learn that despite having scraped together four hundred bucks for an iPod, Trudy is homeless. Or, as she calls it, ‘Housefree by Choice.’ She apparently values being able to duck into Keith’s apartment to grab showers and store things like her CDs. We also discover she’s a smoker, has something of a habit of building up relationships with guys to have places to crash when she needs it, and Keith has a history of nagging her.
Keith returns to his apartment, only to discover the door is open. He discovers Malachite, a fairy Lieutenant of the Barony of the Lower Finger Lakes Region, is there on the matter of Sonata. Malachite confirms that Keith was marked for death when he saw Sonata, because the fairy is just a child and not yet able to weave a glamour to protect herself. She also had been tangled in iron, which could have killed her. So, even though Keith has been Marked for Death, the Fairies owe him a debt. They have chosen to repay this by offering Keith a Boon.
Keith has decided he wants to be inspired to write a timeless classic of fiction — one destined to go down in history as one of the great works of literature. Malachite tries to dissuade him, but Keith is adamant. Malachite explains that fairies, despite their power, have no way to inspire artistic ability in human beings. He also reveals that Sonata is the daughter of Garrison, the Baron of the Lower Finger Lakes Region.
Trudy shows up at Keith’s apartment to take a shower. Keith panics, thinking Trudy will be Marked for Death as well. Malachite assumes his Glamour, however — a human form that both protects the fairy lieutenant from cold iron and protects humanity from the Mark of Death. Sonata — being just a child — is not old enough to weave glamours, which is why she was in danger from the iron she was tangled in as well as being in a state that marked Keith for death. Keith notices that despite being having a pure-black true body, Malachite has chosen a hispanic glamour. Malachite explains (rather testily) that he had an African glamour for years, but recently black glamours have become trendy ever since the Fairy Queen started wearing one. Surrounded by artless knockoffs of black actors, Malachite angrily changed to his current glamour.
Trudy comes out and starts hitting on Malachite, who seems to be at least somewhat interested, or at least amused. Keith tells her that he’s been marked for death, and Malachite is the one who’s going to kill him. Trudy at first is mad at Keith for taking the joke too far, but when Malachite tries to agree — and claims Keith is crazy — Trudy gets pissed off and backs Keith’s story up. In this case, she backs it up with a chef’s knife ready to cut Malachite’s pretty little face. The two look like their coming to blows, only it comes out that Trudy is a jew. When Malachite learns this, he backs right off.
It turns out that the fairies, for many centuries, have been under a decree from the royal court to leave the Children of Israel alone. This particular Fairy King — Finnbheara — decreed that the Children of Isaac would receive neither grief nor succor from the Children of Fae. This may have been done for purely superstitious reasons, as the fairies have no collective opinion or knowledge of God or any of his incarnations. Still, it’s settled into deep tradition at this stage of the game, and the repercussions would be dire for violating this rule. Malachite isn’t even supposed to talk to Trudy.
Trudy, however, figures that she can keep Malachite honest, since by definition she’s trouble for Malachite — especially since the fairies want to kill Keith. Malachite corrects her — and Keith’s — misapprehension. It is a universal law that Keith will die. The fairies simply try to clean up the mess. As it is, the fairies have to keep Keith alive until his boon is completed, and that means that the potential energy surrounding Keith’s death will simply continue to grow, and grow. Malachite is unsure that the fairies will be able to keep the universe off the length of time necessary to fulfill Keith’s boon.
He leaves, warning Keith not to tell anyone else and to lie low for a while. On his way out, he uses a crystal to take Keith’s “picture” — which seems to be a three dimensional image of Keith that floats within the crystal — and then heads out the door. Trudy and Keith commiserate — Trudy feels that Keith has it easy. The fairies have to keep him alive. If Keith just stops writing, he’s practically immortal. Keith tells her he intends to write the book. That he intends to follow through on his half of the bargain, in effect. That this is a chance for literary immortality, and besides… it’s the only honorable path he can take.
Trudy breaks down, unable to deal with the thought of Keith dying. He comforts her, though he too has begun to realize just how bad his situation is. After Trudy recovers, she leaves to go to a gig (at Keith’s insistence). Keith waits for Jack to come home, since he needs his roommate’s support in all this.
But Jack — caught up in young love — breezes through with his girlfriend Mary, not giving Keith a chance to tell him something is even wrong. Keith is left alone with his cat in the apartment.
Chapter Two: The Viceroy of the Cul-de-Sac
Malachite has gone to “Arcadian Communications, L.L.C.” He apparently has an appointment with a fairy named Mercy, there. Mercy is apparently a specialist in understanding the relationships that define and bind humanity together, and can read potentials within human beings. She can apparently also do all of this with the image in the crystal that Malachite captured from Keith before leaving him, last chapter. Malachite is specifically learning whether or not Keith even has the potential to write the ‘Great American Novel.’ His reasoning is this: even if Keith’s boon was to write the book himself, if he’s not capable of writing the book, then it’s honorable to cheat — have a fairy possess him and write the book for him. If Keith is capable of writing the book, then it all becomes more difficult.
Mercy seems to delight in telling Malachite that Keith does in fact possess the potential — that many human beings do. What he needs is inspiration, and discipline, and the skills to meet that potential, and that is what he has asked of the fairies. Malachite’s easy way out won’t be so easy. The tension between the pair grows as Malachite asks if there’s some way to easily drive a wedge between Keith and Trudy — get her out of the picture. As it turns out, it can’t happen. Mercy instead thinks Malachite should kill her.
Malachite protests that she hasn’t done anything wrong — and besides, he’s not even supposed to talk to a Jew. Killing her is right out of the question. Mercy coolly details ways that Malachite could eliminate Trudy while staying within the law. Malachite rejects them as dishonorable, and the two come to a point of conflict. Mercy points out that Malachite is a Red Cap — a fairy famous for delighting in murder — and she herself is supposed to empathize with humanity. Now, she is the one willing to be machiavellian about Trudy’s life, and Malachite isn’t. Malachite and Mercy have a tense moment where Mercy insults Malachite’s honor by implying he’s a coward. Fortunately (for her) she backs down before he kills her. Malachite then heads out to meet with Keith.
Going to Keith’s apartment, Malachite meets Jack, Keith’s roommate, for the first time. The meeting does not go well, as Malachite had been shouting up threats to break into the apartment. Malachite learns that Keith has — despite Malachite’s injunction to lie low — accepted a temp job that has him out of the apartment. Neither Jack nor Keith’s temp agency are willing to tell Malachite where he’s working, so he goes to the alleyway where Keith first saw Sonata and used a ritual to find her. However, what he found also disturbed him.
At his job, Keith leaves after a good day — and learns they’re not interested in hiring him full time. As he walks to the bus stop, he finds himself in the half-world between the fae and mundane worlds, where a gigantic doglike creature called a Barghast has come, drawn by Keith’s Mark of Death, to kill him. Malachite leaps in and manages to drive off the Barghast temporarily, but the effort consumes nearly all the Red Cap’s strength. The two flee, trying to reach a store (which acts as a gateway to the mundane world and therefore would be a safe haven), but it’s clear that they won’t make it. Malachite prepares to sacrifice himself so Keith can live.
However, en route, they pass by a dead end street that culminates in a Cul-de-sac. Malachite diverts them there, and then calls upon Apokoryfoma — a Greek Goddess and Nymph, given dominion over Cul-de-sacs in all their forms. Appie (as she is called) destroys the Barghast. This is when we learn that Appie is a rather unhappy ex-girlfriend of our Fae friend.
The two have an argument, and Appie defines herself as a Neriad and Goddess. She also makes it clear that as she has acted on Keith’s behalf, she is owed a sacrifice. Keith, thinking fast on his feet, offers her a chocolate bar. Somewhere between annoyed and amused, Appie accepts it. Though she also indicates that she and her ex-boyfriend Malachite will have a reckoning in the future.
As Malachite and Keith walk to the Triphammer Mall (and safety), Keith mentions that the muses were Greek, so that must be who Malachite is going to call to see his boon through. As it works out, this hadn’t occurred to Malachite, but with a certain degree of hubris he declares that he won’t need Appie’s help to fulfill Keith’s boon.
Chapter Three: Passing Over
Trudy wakes up in an anonymous apartment next to an anonymous man. She crawls out of bed, gets dressed, and leaves the apartment without a word. She stops at the Shortstop Deli, but rather than get her regular breakfast, she just gets a paper. This is Passover, a day of fasting, and though Trudy is not religious she seems to keep this ritual. As she does each morning, she goes to the Tompkins County Public Library, where she plays light music as rehearsal each morning.
She is joined by Malachite, who confesses that he’s drawn to her — he wants to understand her. The pair flirt a bit over the keyboard, before Trudy talks Malachite into agreeing to go with her to buy the ingredients for a Passover Seder and then pay for a cab to Keith’s place. Against his better judgement, he agrees after she agrees to claim to any fairies they happen to see that she was pestering Malachite rather than his willingly associate with her.
Back at Keith’s apartment, Jack presents a new flour canister to Keith and his girlfriend Mary. He is enthusiastic about it. Keith is amused at best, but there is a tension between the pair. Mary confronts Keith over it — claiming that Keith is jealous of Jack, because he has a girlfriend — and that Keith never even asked Mary out, so he has no right. Keith begins to protest, but Jack returns, causing the conversation to be derailed.
The three make plans for later. As it’s Passover, Trudy has asked to have the apartment to herself for the Seder. Mary is puzzled — that’s not very Jewish of her — but the guys are mellow. Jack suggests they all go do something, but Keith is meeting Malachite later. This leads to Jack foaming at the mouth over Malachite, who he doesn’t like (for what appear to be at least somewhat homophobic reasons).
At Wegman’s grocery store, Trudy buys supplies and tries to explain them to Malachite. As they do this, they’re observed by Mercy, who takes pictures of them together. She then cheerfully confronts the pair, making it clear she has all the evidence she needs to ruin Malachite. She was offended by Malachite’s making her back down in her own office (back in Chapter Two), so she is going to use this evidence to force the Red Cap to do her bidding. She leaves the pair to finish shopping, and Malachite tells Trudy that Mercy has him over a barrel.
Gossamer Commons also stars other people who haven’t appeared yet.
More to follow as more is revealed.