December, 1959 - January, 1960 Nat Will Monroe and joker Julie Cotton arrive in a suite in the Palmer House in Chicago, having traveled back in time from the year 2017. Will makes contact with Hugh Hefner, the contemporary version of whom Will has known for years. With his knowledge of the future, and of Hef himself, Monroe is able to ingratiate himself and Julie with the 1960 incarnation of Hefner. (25: Murphy)
February, 1960 Hugh Hefner brings private eye (and secret ace) Nick Williams to the Playboy Club in Chicago, wanting to hire him as a photographer. Williams, also a spy for gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, meets Will Monroe. Nick has no idea that Will is his son from the future – conceived in the spring of 1962, and born a few months after Nick was killed by Will’s mother, Marilyn. Will, meanwhile, was never told by his mother who his real father is, and he knows that his trip back to 1960 means he might have the opportunity to at last learn his father’s identity. Will suspects that it might be Hugh Hefner, but he also has suspicions about Playboy Club guest Jack Kennedy, who in February of 1960 is still one of several Democratic candidates for that year’s presidential race. (25: Murphy)
Nick has a photo session with the beautiful, bunny-like joker Julie Cotton, and later while snooping around the club, he manages to get photographs of Julie having sex with John F. Kennedy. The photos from the session are delivered to Hef, while Nick keeps the Kennedy photos to himself. Hefner decides to make Julie the March Playboy centerfold. Nick, meanwhile, has pieced together various clues and figured out that Will Monroe and Julie Cotton are from the future. He confronts them about it, and Julie tells Nick that she is pregnant from her night with John F. Kennedy. She believes the scandal will keep Kennedy from winning the presidency in November, which in turn will prevent his assassination. (25: Murphy)
In order to help his other self, the “do-over” version of John Nighthawk – the one who was stranded in 1871 and is now reliving the years since then – goes to the Palmer House and rents a room for himself and Croyd Crenson. Within, he places a suitcase packed with nice clothes, and an invitation to the Playboy Club’s Feb. 29th opening. Later, when the time-traveling Croyd/Nighthawk pair arrive in Chicago on Feb. 29, 1960, they head to the Palmer House and receive the clothing and invite left for them anonymously. That night, they attend the Playboy Club opening. (25: Miller Four)
Among the press present at the opening is Hedda Hopper, to whom Nick Williams delivers the photos of Kennedy having sex with Julie Cotton. Nick and Hedda both watch from a distance as Julie whispers something into Jack Kennedy’s ear. Nick knows what she’s telling her, and Hedda seems as if she’s guessed as well. Nighthawk finds Will Monroe moments later, and tells him that he’s there to bring him home. (25: Murphy and 25: Miller Four)
Julie Cotton heads to the women’s bathroom, and is followed inside by Hedda Hopper, still in possession of the envelope with the incriminating photos of Julie and JFK. Nighthawk, Monroe and Croyd follow her into the ladies’ room. Nighthawk appropriates the incriminating photos and negatives, and gives them to Croyd, who burns them. Julie Cotton, pregnant with the illegitimate child of John F. Kennedy, is teleported back to 2017 along with Will Monroe. John and Croyd then make another time-jump. (25: Miller Four)
Sunday, May 1, 1960 A U-2 plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers is lost in the Soviet Union. (1: Levine)
Monday, May 2, 1960 CIA analyst Franciszek “Frank” Majewski (secretly an ace with the ability to slow down time) is tasked with investigating the disappearance of Powers and the U-2. (1: Levine)
Thursday, May 5, 1960 Frank Majewski is one of the men who meets with President Eisenhower to discuss options after it’s made public that the Russians have found the U-2 plane. (1: Levine)
Saturday, May 7, 1960 The government receives intelligence that Francis Gary Powers is alive and in Soviet custody. (1: Levine)
May 13-17, 1960 Via analysis of recent CIA intelligence reports, Majewski realizes that Powers is going to be executed in Vladimir Prison on Tuesday, May 17th. He goes to speak to the president about it, and admits both to him and to SCARE director Lawrence Hague that he is an ace. He’s immediately conscripted by SCARE, and set up for a field mission to fly into Russia to rescue Powers (who is also an ace, code-named “Eagle Eye”). (1: Levine)
Frank Majewski is flown into Russia by another ace, Al Dearborn. On the morning of May 17th, Frank successfully rescues Powers. At one point during the mission, Majewski has a near run-in with KGB agent Georgy Polyakov, whom Frank recognizes from intelligence reports as the operative the KGB have code-named “ICICLE.” (1: Levine)
Friday, May 20, 1960 Frank Majewski is congratulated by the president. Frank’s new position as an ace employed by SCARE is ratified, and he’s given the codename “Stopwatch.” (1: Levine)
August, 1960 Rod Serling visits the Santa Monica Pier, and he asks joker cocktail waitress Trina Nelson to audition for a role in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled “Eye of the Beholder.” Trina agrees, and gets the part. The episode is shot over three days. On the final day, during a lunch in the studio commissary, Trina has a confrontation with famed anti-joker gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. (WEB: Brennert “Skin Deep”)
Nov. 11, 1960 “Eye of the Beholder,” a Twilight Zone episode starring joker Trina Nelson, airs to very successful ratings, effectively putting an end to the Hollywood joker blacklist. After the viewing party held by Irving Pinkhoff and attended by many of her fellow jokers, Trina is approached by a tentacled acquaintance named Harold. She asks him if he’d like to get coffee later, and he happily agrees to do so. (WEB: Brennert “Skin Deep”)
Feb. 4, 1961 John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy see Spartacus. (Real-world event, mentioned in 1: Williams)
April-June, 1961 Joker Iris Marshall takes a series of photographs of Croyd Crenson – who by now has come to be known, generally, as “the Sleeper.” Her series depicts one of Croyd’s changes over the course of a two-month hibernation that takes place on the couch of Iris’ boyfriend, Fletcher. During this same period, Iris also meets ace-powered poet Frank O’Hara, and takes a job offered to her by Xavier Desmond, the maitre’d of Jokertown nightclub The Funhouse. (32: Vaughn)
When Croyd awakens after two months of crashing on Fletcher’s couch, he persuades Iris to leave Fletcher. She goes on to have a successful career in the photography field during the 1960s and 1970s. (32: Vaughn and 32: Rowe One)
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Feb. 15, 1962 Los Angeles-based private investigator Nick Williams – secretly the electrical-powered ace vigilante “Will O’Wisp” – is hired by Orson Welles to investigate a possible Hollywood conspiracy against wild cards. Welles believes the conspirators have targeted his current project, a pro-wild cards depiction of the HUAC trials of 1950. The film is to be called Blythe and stars Marilyn Monroe in the title role. (13: Murphy)
Feb. 16, 1962 Nick Williams arrives on the set of Blythe, his cover-job being to act as the stand-in for the character of Jack “Golden Boy” Braun. Nick meets James Dean, cast as Tachyon, and Marilyn Monroe. Nick also meets Pan Rudo, Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatrist, and the David Harstein stand-in, Josh Davidson. Josh is secretly the real David Harstein, under a false identity. Later in the day, Nick links up with a joker informant, Peter le Fleur, aka “Flattop,” who also works as a film editor. Flattop tells Nick about a party at Peter Lawford’s beach house in Malibu that evening. Nick decides to attend. At the party, Nick meets yet more noteworthy personalities: Tom Quincey, USC freshman and psychedelic-drug enthusiast; Tom Marion Douglas, a musician; and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. (13: Murphy)
Monroe, Tom Quincey and Nick Williams take a trek down the street to invite Jack “Golden Boy” Braun to the party at Lawford’s house, and to pitch to him the idea of playing himself in Blythe. Jack doesn’t recognize Nick Williams as the photographer once hired by Kim Wolfe to get pictures of him cheating on her. (13: Murphy)
Feb. 17, 1962 Jack Braun arrives on the set of Blythe to discuss working on the film, but nothing comes of it. Ron Ely is hired to play the role instead. (13: Murphy)
Mid-February to March, 1962 One night during filming, Nick, Flattop, and Josh Davidson go out for drinks on the Santa Monica Pier, where they happen to be on hand to prevent a group of criminals from blowing up the pier with explosives. Afterwards, Josh Davidson’s pheromones help him convince Nick and Flattop to go to another Peter Lawford party. At the end of the party, Nick and Marilyn drop off Tom Quincy at USC, and then go for a swim in the school’s pool. They make love that night, not for the last time; weeks later, Marilyn tells him that she wants to become a one-man woman, and that she wants Nick to be that man. Days after that, she informs Nick that she’s pregnant. (13: Murphy)
Apr. 30, 1962 At a party at the Lawford house in Malibu, Marilyn spikes Nick’s drink with LSD, hoping to loosen him up. When he consumes the hallucinogenic, he has a panic attack and flees the house. Marilyn follows him to the beach, where he confesses that he is an ace. He passes out, with his electrical powers firing, so Marilyn fetches Jack Braun to carry him back to her house. (13: Murphy)
May 1, 1962 When Nick awakes the next morning, Marilyn explains what happened, and tells him that Jack has promised not to tell anyone that Nick is a secret ace. In a moment of insight, Nick realizes that Pan Rudo is involved in the anti-wild cards conspiracy, as is Hedda Hopper, for whom Nick freelances as an informant. That night, he meets with Hedda and contrives to be left alone in her office so that he can search her files. He finds an obituary that Hopper has written for Marilyn Monroe, dated May 3rd, the day after Marilyn is planning to spend the night partying with President Jack Kennedy and A.G. Robert Kennedy. Nick realizes that the conspirators’ plan is to kill Marilyn via overdose, in the perfect time and place so that the Kennedys – both of whom are pro-wild cards candidates – will be implicated, their careers destroyed. The Blythe film will be a casualty as well. (13: Murphy)
May 2, 1962 Nick tells Marilyn about the plot, so she cancels her plans to party with the Kennedys that night. She and Nick don’t show up on the Blythe set. Marilyn buys a toy tiger, inside of which she hides the evidence that Nick has found. They plan for Marilyn to give JFK the tiger as a birthday president during his scheduled birthday bash on May 19. (13: Murphy)
May 3, 1962 Marilyn and Nick return to the set, and filming on Blythe resumes. In his office, Orson Welles castigates Nick for having stolen away the star of his film the previous day. (13: Murphy)
May 5, 1962 Marilyn Monroe fires Pan Rudo as her psychiatrist. Later, Rudo and Hedda Hopper go to Marilyn’s home, and force her at gunpoint to summon Nick Williams to the house. Marilyn tells them she’s pregnant, and that the baby is either Jack or Robert Kennedy’s. She claims that she actually hates wild cards, and that her pregnancy will ruin the Blythe film. Hopper and Rudo agree to recruit Monroe into their conspiracy, the “Card Sharks,” but they tell her that she must prove herself by killing Nick Williams. Marilyn does so. (13: Murphy)
May 19, 1962 At President Kennedy’s birthday celebration, Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday” to Jack, but doesn’t give him the stuffed tiger filled with the information about the Card Sharks. Instead, she will hold on to the tiger, and the information inside it, for decades. Orson Welles’ film, Blythe, will never be completed. (13: Leigh Eight and Leigh Nine)
Fall, 1962 Senior high school student Tom Tudbury meets Barbara Casko, a girl from another school, and he falls for her. However, he is too scared to ask her out. (2: Martin “Chill”)
1963 Sometime in 1963, Daniel Deck’s Jetboy biography, Godot Is My Co-Pilot, is published. (1: Waldrop)
March, 1963 Fifteen-year-old Joe Belenky comes home to find his dad dead, from a gunshot would administered by a hit man on behalf of Warren Skalko, the “crime lord of the southwest.” While cradling the body, Joe’s ace ability to transform human fluids into dust (once they’re out of the body) is triggered; his father’s spilled blood all turns into powder. The hit man, Mike “Skinny T” Thomas, recognizes that the talent could prove useful, so instead of killing Joe, he enlists him. (16: Spector) (“Crime lord of the southwest” from 16: Cassutt)
May, 1963 Tom Tudbury is about to finally ask Barbara Casko out on a date, but the wind is taken out of his sails when she mentions to him that she’s been going out with Steve Bruder, a guy who has bullied Tom for years. (2: Martin “Chill”)
Nov. 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was possibly employed by the Card Sharks. (Real-world event. Possible Card Shark involvement intimated in 13: Leigh Eight.)
College freshman Tom Tudbury comes home to his dorm room to find that his roommate Rodney has decorated a photo of Kennedy with tasteless red blood marks and X’s on it, just to upset Tom. Tom decides then and there to quit school. Before he leaves the campus, he uses his ace power – telekinesis – to destroy Rodney’s car. (1: Martin “Shell”)
Nov. 24, 1963 Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald. That night, in Jokertown nightclub The Funhouse, the repatriated and alcoholic Dr. Tachyon drinks a private toast to John F. Kennedy. (1: Martin “Shell”) (Date based on real-world history.)
Late November into December, 1963 Tom Tudbury meets up with his best friend, Joey DiAngelis, at Joey’s junkyard. Tom says that he wants to use his power to be a hero like Jetboy or the Four Aces. Joey mocks the idea, since Tom requires time to summon up concentration to use his powers, time during which he is far too vulnerable. Later, Tom hits upon the notion of employing his power from a vehicle. Between him and Joey, the idea is hatched to affix battleship armor to a VW Bug, from within which Tom can safely exercise his telekinesis. (1: Martin “Shell”)
Tom and his armored shell make their debut in NYC when he rescues some people from a burning building. Tom uses the loud-speakers he and Joey installed, and loudly informs the gathered crowd that he is “the Great and Powerful Turtle.” For the next week or two, the Turtle’s vigilante heroism becomes a media sensation. (1: Martin “Shell”)
Dec. 25, 1963 Tachyon wakes up hung over in the Funhouse on Christmas morning, and learns during a police interrogation that the club’s bouncer, Mal, has been killed, and that the Funhouse’s proprietor, Angela “Angelface” Fascetti, is missing. Tachyon is held in police custody for four days (the 25th through the 28th) before finally being let go. (1: Martin “Shell”)
Dec. 28, 1963 Having been released from police custody, Tachyon is approached by the Turtle, along with joker Xavier Desmond, the Funhouse maître‘d. Turtle and Xavier ask Tachyon’s help in rescuing Angelface from the criminals who have kidnapped her. Tachyon refuses, unwilling to use his telepathic powers after what happened with Blythe back in 1950. Turtle uses his telekinesis to beat Tachyon, while also berating the alien for his cowardice. (1: Martin “Shell”)
Dec. 29, 1963 Having been shamed by the Turtle on the previous evening, Tachyon finds Xavier Desmond and offers his help in finding Angelface. Xavier takes Tach to someone who knows where she is. Tachyon reads the man’s mind, acquiring the information. They come to Turtle with the intel, at which point Turtle and Tachyon mount an assault on the warehouse where Angelface is being held. Between the two of them, they rescue her and subdue the men who were responsible. (1: Martin “Shell”)
1964 Sometime in 1964, Xavier Desmond founds a jokers’ rights group: the Joker Anti-Defamation League, or JADL. (1: Martin “Loathing”)
June, 1964 Xavier Desmond’s daughter gets married. She will divorce her first husband in 1969. (4: Martin 11/30/86)
1965 Debuting in 1965, Henry Vernon Carlyle, aka “Cyclone” – with the power to summon powerful winds – is the first ace hero “to wear an honest-to-god costume.” (1: Martin “Chic”)
March, 1965 American civil rights leaders organize a protest march, the demonstrators walking from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Gregg Hartmann is one of the marchers. Ace musician Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong is invited to be part of the march. (Month and year from real-world history.) (Armstrong’s participation from WEB: Mixon “Ripple”) (Gregg Hartmann’s participation from 4: Milan)
State and local police confront the protestors on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and try to force the marchers to disperse. Louis Armstrong, armed with a golden trumpet, produces a blast of music that he amplifies with his ace powers, driving all of the police back off of the bridge. The police regroup, as do the protestors, on opposite halves of the bridge. Satchmo speaks privately to Dr. Martin Luther King and some of the other civil rights leaders, who pass the word along for all of the demonstrators to lock arms and march in place, in rhythm. Armstrong picks up the marchers’ footsteps with his music, amplifying the sound and driving the police back once again. The cops make more attempts to approach the protestors, but are always driven back by Armstrong. Eventually, the protestors are let through, Armstrong marching at the front of the group with Dr. King, playing Havana jazz on his golden horn. (WEB: Mixon “Ripple”)
Nov. 9, 1965 For unknown reasons, shapeshifting ace Jeremiah “the Projectionist” Strauss transforms into a giant ape, the energy-drain of the transformation causing a citywide blackout. Strauss’ mind regresses to a more primitive state, apparently unable to do anything but haplessly play out the final act of the film King Kong: He kidnaps a beautiful blonde woman and then carries her to the top of the Empire State Building. Eventually, he is captured by the Turtle and put in the Central Park Zoo. No one realizes at this time that the ape is actually a shape-changing ace. (4: Simons) (Exact date is conjecture, based on real-world date of the 1965 NYC blackout.) (Capture by the Turtle from 2: Martin “Chill”)
Sept. 1, 1966 A New York Times article announces that a new hospital – founded by Dr. Tachyon and specializing in wild card cases – will open in Jokertown on Sept. 15, 1966, the twenty-year anniversary of the day the virus was first released. The hospital will be called the Blythe van Renssaeler Memorial Clinic. (1: Martin “Jokertown Clinic”)
Jan. 28, 1967 Dr. Wilson Rowe, designer of the X-11A program, dies at the age of 62. (13: Cassutt)
Late May, 1967 In London, ace Constance Russell is fired from her job as a seamstress. That night, Connie and her best friend, joker fashion photographer Glory Greenwood, attend a party held by the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie. At the party, Glory flirts with her ex-lover, Mick Jagger, a rock star whom the wild card virus has turned into a lycanthrope. Glory and Constance meet American celebrities Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, both of whom pose for a photograph taken by Glory. (27: Spector) (Surnames “Russell” and “Greenwood” from Book 28) (Month of May implied by a chronological reference in 33: Spector that 27: Spector ends near Christmastime.)
That same night, unstable ace Ronnie Kray figures out that Connie has an ace power. He follows her home and forces her to tell the truth about herself, i.e. that she can create clothing that is impervious to harm, potentially making the wearer at least partially impervious as well. One of the Kray twins’ flunkies – Frankie, the brother of Connie’s deceased friend Frances – takes her to Reggie Kray, who insists that Connie go to work making clothing for the Krays’ crime organization, “the Firm.” (27: Spector)
Late November, 1967 Constance and Glory discover the diary of their late friend Frances, the final entry of which strongly implicates Reggie Kray as the man who murdered her over a year earlier. (27: Spector)
Dec. 11, 1967 The headline “JOKER ATROCITIES REPORTED IN LAOS” is published in newspaper The International Herald. (29: Rowe Twelve)
Late December, 1967 Approximately one month after finding their friend’s diary, Constance and Glory are still wondering what to do about it. Ronnie Kray overhears them talking about the situation, and Glory accuses Ronnie’s brother then and there of having murdered Frances. Ronnie is infuriated by the accusations against his brother, and he attacks Glory and Constance with his ace power – the ability to use his hands to cut like a knife. While he’s trying to murder Glory, Constance manages to sneak up behind him and stab him with shears, killing him. (27: Spector)
Glory rings up Mick Jagger for help. Mick assists in smuggling Glory into America, and puts Constance in contact with Alan “Enigma” Turing of the Order of the Silver Helix. She agrees to join the Order, taking on the codename “the Seamstress.” In return, the Silver Helix successfully brings down Reggie Kray and the Firm, in part by framing Reggie for Ronnie’s murder. (27: Spector and 33: Spector)
Saturday, May 25, 1968 The law office Douglas, Mannerly throws a party, celebrating the promotion of Brandon van Renssaeler to an associate within their firm. Amongst the soiree’s guests are Pan Rudo and Councilman Gregg Hartmann. The party is crashed by Marilyn Monroe, who has gotten wind that the Card Sharks – of whom Brandon van Renssaeler is a rising member – are planning something that she hasn’t been told about. Her information is accurate; the Sharks are in fact conspiring to assassinate Robert Kennedy, but have left Marilyn out of the loop because of her romantic ties to him. To the disgust of Brandon’s wife, Joan van Renssaeler (nee Moreworth), Marilyn and Brandon flirt with each other during much of the party. At one point in the evening, the bad feelings between Brandon and Joan are exacerbated by the manipulations of “Puppetman,” aka Councilman Gregg Hartmann. (13: Mixon)
Later in the evening, Pan Rudo tells Brandon that Marilyn is a Card Shark, and that she is simply using Brandon to learn what the Sharks are planning. Pan warns Brandon to stay away from her, but Brandon is heedless. He and Marilyn begin an affair that same night. (13: Mixon)
Tuesday, May 28, 1968 Joan van Renssaeler meets with her friend Patricia, upset over the fact of Brandon’s ongoing affair with Marilyn Monroe. She asks for the number of Patricia’s cousin, a P.I. named Franklin Mitchell, so that she can hire him to get pictures of Brandon and Marilyn together. Patricia reluctantly gives her the number. (13: Mixon)
Thursday, May 30, 1968 In the morning, Joan listens in on a phone call between Brandon and Pan. Though she doesn’t know the full context of the conversation, she hears Brandon agree to be the point man for the Sharks, the one who will hire Sirhan Sirhan to assassinate Robert Kennedy. Later, Joan phones P.I. Franklin Mitchell, and hires him to get photographic evidence of Brandon’s affair with Marilyn. (13: Mixon)
Sunday, June 2, 1968 Franklin Mitchell gets photographs of Brandon and Marilyn in a hotel together. Afterwards, when Brandon leaves the hotel, Marilyn follows him, and so Franklin follows Marilyn. He manages to get photographs of Brandon hiring Sirhan Sirhan. (13: Mixon)
Monday, June 3, 1968 Franklin Mitchell calls up Joan van Renssaeler, and tells her about the strangeness that occurred the night before. She tells him to drop the photos off with Patricia. (13: Mixon)
Tuesday, June 4, 1968 Patricia delivers Mitchell’s photos to Joan. Joan spends much of the day pondering what Brandon has gotten involved in. (13: Mixon)
That night, Robert Kennedy wins the California presidential primary. (Real-world history.)
Wednesday, June 5, 1968 Just after midnight, Robert Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. (Real-world history.)
Brandon shows Joan a newspaper that not only announces the Kennedy shooting, but also contains an article reporting the murder of P.I. Franklin Mitchell. Brandon then takes Joan to Pan Rudo. Rudo – possibly using hypnosis – convinces Joan to tell him where she’s hidden the photos of Brandon and Sirhan Sirhan. Brandon takes Joan back to their home, where he finds the photos and destroys them. He leaves her alone in the house. (13: Mixon)
Thursday, June 6, 1968 Joan awakens having been transformed by the wild card into a joker – possessing the torso of a woman, but with her lower body transformed into that of a giant snake. She is discovered by her dog, Frou Frou, who attacks her. She reacts instinctually, biting the dog and killing it with venom. Clara, Joan’s young daughter, punches Joan in the nose for hurting Frou Frou, and Joan instinctually rears back once again, coming close to attacking Clara. Later, when Brandon discovers Joan, he promises to his wife that no harm will come to her as long as she leaves him and Clara alone forever. Joan, uncertain as to whether her new form might be harmful to Clara, agrees to Brandon’s terms. (13: Mixon)
Saturday, June 8, 1968 With arrangements having been made, Joan is sent away by Brandon with some money and personal effects. Clara is traumatized watching her mother leave, and Brandon tells Clara that her mother is dead. (13: Mixon)
Sunday, Aug. 25, 1968 The day before the 1968 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to begin, time-travelers Croyd Crenson and John Nighthawk arrive at the Fortune Films movie lot, where a box has been left for them by the doubled-back Nighthawk, containing clothing for them to wear. Croyd and Nighthawk have no idea who is leaving the “care packages” for them. (25: Miller Seven)
Crenson and Nighthawk head to Lincoln Park, mixing with demonstrators and awaiting the arrival of the time-displaced assassin known as “Lilith.” They see the Turtle nearby, being swarmed by hippie chicks who are painting peace signs on his shell. In the evening, the police attempt to clear the park in order to enforce a curfew, but they are thwarted by the Turtle’s telekinesis. (25: Miller Seven)
A time-displaced Lilith arrives at the Palmer from the year 2017, with claw wounds from Khan and burns from Cynder. She attacks a group of Secret Service agents, then teleports to Lincoln Park. Sister Mary-Catherine, a nun who has been ministering to people in the park, flags down the Turtle. She asks the ace to use his telekinesis to transport both herself and the unconscious, injured woman she’s found, so that the latter can receive medical attention. The Turtle agrees to do so, but as Tudbury begins to lift Lilith, Croyd uses his power to send her back to 2017. Turtle and Sister Mary-Catherine are left to wonder who she was and what exactly happened. (25: Snodgrass and 25: Miller Seven)
December, 1968 (there are other references to June and October, but they don’t align, as the entire story’s timespan seems to be little more than three weeks, and it climaxes right around Christmas Day) Twenty-eight-year-old Cash Mitchell – a deuce who works occasionally for crime lord Warren Skalko – is recruited by an eccentric rich man (also a deuce), Tominbang, for assistance in making a trip to the Moon. Cash agrees, and over the next 24 hours is introduced to other members of the Moon project. He meets Al Dearborn, the ace pilot. Cash also meets two jokers, each with a bug theme to his mutation: Kafka, a cockroach; and Bacchus, a giant bee. Cash also makes the acquaintance of Mike Sampson, who is unofficially recruited into the program by Dearborn. The projected launch date for “Quicksilver” – the rocket that will fly Cash, Dearborn and Tominbang to the Moon – is in only sixty days. (16: Cassutt)
Cash spends the next three weeks being tutored by Kafka and Bacchus regarding what he’ll need to know in order to employ his deuce ability – reducing the mass of objects he touches – in the proper way so as to propel Quicksilver on its journey to the Moon. One day, Cash offers a secretarial opportunity on Tominbang’s behalf to Eva-Lynne Roderick, the 24-year-old waitress on whom Cash has a crush. When Tominbang later meets Eva-Lynne, he is happy to make good on the job offer that Cash made on his behalf. (16: Cassutt) (Surname “Roderick” from 29: Cassutt)
When the Quicksilver project comes under threat of Warren Skalko, the team shoots for a premature launch, only three weeks after Cash’s recruitment. The launch is foiled by Skalko’s enforcers. Later that night, however, another launch is attempted, via a backup Quicksilver model. Due to all the shakeups, the crew is now Cash, Eva-Lynne and pilot Mike Sampson. The three of them successfully rocket to the moon, where – unknowingly observed by Aarti – they set up a communications array on behalf of Tominbang. Cash writes his and Eva-Lynne’s name in the lunar dust at his feet. (16: Cassutt) (Observation by Aarti from 29: Mohanraj Three)
Cash, Sampson and Eva-Lynne successfully make the return trip to Earth. (16: Cassutt) After their departure, Aarti – in a fit of pique – destroys the communications array and wipes out what Cash had written in the lunar dust. (29: Mohanraj Three) (29: Cassutt suggests that the communications array was operational for years before it stopped working, but 29: Mohanraj Three depicts Aarti destroying the array immediately after the departure of Cash, Sampson and Eva-Lynne.)
Later, Aarti begins to systematically map out the moon. She creates a globe on which to log her explorations, which she keeps in her customized Taj Mahal. At one point, Aarti discovers a subterranean cave filled with apparently abandoned (and presumably alien) technology. The next morning, back in her real body on Earth, she is unnerved at her discovery. Yaj notices that she’s upset, and comforts her, which leads to romance blossoming between the two. Over the months that follow, Yaj and Aarti become a couple. Yaj’s nephew Suresh, Suresh’s wife Saila, and their four children all move into Aarti’s house to live with her and Yaj. (29: Mohanraj Three)
Late 1968 or early 1969 Henry Vernon Carlyle, aka “Cyclone,” has a daughter, Helene. She will grow up to inherit his ace power, which – given the nature of how the wild card virus works – is a one-in-a-million fluke. (1: Martin “Chic”) (The anomalous nature of a father-daughter duo with the same exact ace power is discussed in more detail in 2: Martin “Chill”)
Late March or early April, 1969 (not long before Easter, which was April 6 of that year) Fortunato, a pimp who employs a multitude of high-class prostitutes that he calls “geishas,” is introduced to “magickal” ideas by one of his women, named Lenore. A tantric ritual enacted by Lenore activates Fortunato’s formidable array of wild card powers. Fortunato visits Tachyon at the Blythe van Renssaeler Memorial Clinic, and Tachyon confirms that Fortunato is an ace. That same night, Fortunato visits a venue called the Chaos Club, where he meets C.C. Ryder, a musician and social activist. (1: Shiner “Long, Dark Night”)
Sometime later, Fortunato uses his powers to track down a man who murdered three of his geishas. Thanks to intervention from afar by mad ace villain The Astronomer, Fortunato is forced to kill the young murderer and is unable to get much information about what his motives had been. Fortunato leaves the man’s apartment with only two significant clues: the murderer’s mysterious last word, “TIAMAT,” and an 18th-century penny that has fallen from his pocket. (1: Shiner “Long, Dark Night”) (Astronomer’s influence from 2: Simons and elsewhere)
June, 1969 Cash Mitchell marries Eva-Lynne Roderick. They will eventually divorce. (29: Cassutt)
Sept. 15, 1969 The Dodgers play the Cardinals and win, which clinches the division flag for the Dodgers. The team will go on to beat Milwaukee in the playoffs and then face the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. (3: Chapter 7)
Monday, Oct. 13, 1969 Teenager Thomas Downs gets a special pass allowing him to miss a lot of school over the course of four consecutive days, all so that he can cover the World Series for his school paper. On the first of those days, Monday the 13th, Downs isn’t allowed to leave school until noon. That morning, Downs is tormented by a bully named Butch (real name, Clarence). (16: Miller)
In the middle of Thomas’ encounter with Butch, the bully’s wild card manifests, turning him into a reptilian joker – who will one day grow up to be the criminal known as Wyrm. (16: Miller) (Butch’s identity as a young “Wyrm” confirmed by Miller in online chat.)
During the manifestation, Thomas notices that Butch starts to exude an exotic, sweet odor just as the bully transforms from nat to joker. Thomas realizes as well that he’s the only one who seems to detect this odor; and he speculates that he himself might be an ace, with the ability to sense wild cards by scent. (16: Miller)
Thanks to a press pass that he got from his father, Thomas is allowed to go anywhere in Ebbets Field once he gets there. He explores the Dodgers’ locker room, and manages to detect the familiar “wild card” odor, which leads him to believe that someone on the ’69 Dodgers is secretly an ace. He decides that this is a story that he is going to break. (16: Miller)
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1969 Tommy Downs interviews Dodgers manager Pete Reiser, and tells him he knows about a potential secret ace on the team, though he doesn’t tell the truth about how he’s acquired the knowledge. (16: Miller)
To start off Tuesday’s game, the first pitch is “thrown” by guest celebrity ace the Turtle, who hovers above the field in his shell and propels the ball via telekinesis. The Dodgers end up winning the game. Meanwhile, Tom meets retired joker Yankee Slug Maligne, the first joker to ever play Major League baseball. Slug is now the press box attendant at Ebbets. (16: Miller)
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 1969 The Dodgers win again. Tommy Downs is at Ebbets again, and has another chat with Slug. (16: Miller)
Thursday, Oct. 16, 1969 Tommy Downs figures out that the secret ace is the Dodgers’ pitching coach, Fidel Castro. He confronts Reiser and Castro about it, and Castro admits that he’s a wild card. However he’s not an ace; he’s a deuce, with no power more impressive than having tendons and ligaments that are more flexible than a nat’s. Still, not wanting a scandal, Reiser bribes Tommy Downs with season tickets, in exchange for not writing anything for his school paper about a secret ace – Castro or anyone else. Tommy agrees. (16: Miller)
November, 1969 Berkeley science student Mark Meadows reunites with his childhood crush: Kimberly Ann Cordayne, now calling herself “Sunflower” and living in the Bay Area after having dropped out of Whittier College. Mark tells her about his interest in the countercultural movement as part of his study of psychedelic drugs and their effect on human consciousness. She unofficially takes him under his wing, agreeing to guide him a bit toward understanding “the movement.” (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
At around this same time, immigrant construction worker Wotjek Grabowski first hears the music of ace rock star Tom Marion Douglas, aka “the Lizard King,” lead singer of the band Destiny. The music infuriates him. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
Mar. 2, 1970 In a bookshop on Charing Cross Road, Alan “Enigma” Turing of the Order of the Silver Helix meets Sebastian Wallace. The two will fall in love and spend decades together, celebrating March 2nd every year as their anniversary. (29: 3/3/20)
Apr. 29, 1970 Mark Meadows and Sunflower – along with Sunflower’s current “old man,” Peter – all attend a Destiny concert at the Fillmore. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
Apr. 30, 1970 Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia spurs protests, demonstrations and gatherings at college campuses across the United States. Mark speaks to Sunflower at a gathering in Golden Gate Park. When he laments that he still feels estranged from the counterculture, she berates him for his selfishness. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
May 3, 1970 Mark finds Sunflower again amongst the gathered crowd in the park, and she gives him an acid tablet, inviting him to take it right then and there, in the park with her beside him. He is unwilling to do so, though he does keep the tablet. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
May 4, 1970 Along with other construction workers, Wotjek Grabowski hears the news on the radio about the National Guard shootings at Kent State. His fellow workers, on the side of the military and the guard, are moved to head to the Berkeley campus to fight the student protestors. As they run off, Wotjek finds himself angered by the entire situation, and when he sinks his hand easily into a steel girder, he realizes that he himself is a wild card. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
May 5, 1970 In the early morning hours, Mark Meadows pops the acid tablet, then goes to People’s Park, searching for Sunflower. He ends up witnessing the start of a battle between the Lizard King and Wotjek Grabowski. The sight of it just as the acid kicks in activates Mark’s ace. He transforms into a super-powered alternate persona – who wields a glowing medallion shaped like a giant peace sign, and calls himself “the Radical.” The Radical and the Lizard King team up against Wotjek, aka “Hardhat.” Ultimately, Grabowski loses the fight because at a crucial moment, he believes he sees his lost daughter amongst the crowd of student protestors. Distracted at the sight (which was most likely due to the hallucinogenic aspects of the Lizard King’s ace power), Wotjek is thereafter quickly dispatched by The Radical and Tom Douglas. During the orgiastic celebration that follows Hardhat’s defeat, the Radical attracts many female admirers, but his favorite is clearly Sunflower. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
May 6, 1970 When the next day dawns, the Radical slips away into an alley. It’s Mark Meadows who emerges from the alley, and his memories are scrambled, such that he is not entirely certain whether or not he was the Radical. Over the next few days, Mark drops acid again hoping to trigger the change, but to no avail. His quest to once again “find the Radical” thus begins. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
May 7, 1970 Yaj is killed during anti-joker riots in Mumbai and surrounding areas. The incident creates a desire for revenge in Aarti, though she is powerless – at least for now – to carry through on that desire. (29: Mohanraj Three) (Month and date are conjecture, based on the first day of the 1970 Bhiwandi riots in real-world history.)
Mid to late-May, 1970 (approximate) Tachyon and SCARE investigators spend three weeks in a fruitless attempt to help Wotjek Grabowski find the daughter he claims to have seen amongst the protestors in People’s Park. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)
Summer, 1970 Tachyon learns that Wotjek “Hardhat” Grabowski has vanished from public life, presumably to go in search of his missing wife and daughter. In fact, after recently saving a young girl from a life of prostitution, Grabowski has given up on the search for his own wife and daughter, and instead gone back to Europe, in order to destroy slavery and prostitution rings in the Eastern Bloc. (1: Milan “Transfigurations” and 25: Rowe)
Dec. 13, 1970 Cash Mitchell, now divorced from Eva-Lynne, drives by Haugen’s bakery where she works, and espies her looking unhealthily frail and thin. He drives away. (29: Cassutt)
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