Chapter 2. Paint It Black
In 1969, almost sixty years after "What Keeps Mankind Alive", and about 11 years after the events of The Black Dossier, Mina, Allan, and Orlando return to Britain from Lincoln Island after being contacted by Prospero in the Blazing World to investigate the murder of Basil Fotherington-Thomas by the cult of Oliver Haddo and to reunite with Norton (from Slow Chocolate Autopsy). Mina is coming to grips with the problems of immortality, and Allan and Orlando have begun a sexual relationship. They quickly discover that Haddo’s spirit has transferred to Kosmo Gallion (from The Avengers episode “Warlock”), and he intends to transfer yet again to the body of Terner, the leadsinger in the band Purple Orchestra (from Performance). The League's encounter with the mysterious Andrew Norton has numerous cryptic warnings that are difficult to discern. He also says that by the time they reunite in 2009 it will be too late.
Meanwhile Jack Carter is hired by mob leader Vince Dakin to discover who murdered Basil (who was one of his lovers) as well. Carter's interrogations lead him to the cult of Gallion.
Terner holds a concert at Hyde Park in honor of Basil (which parallels the real-world death of Rolling Stones member Brian Jones and subsequent Hyde Park tribute concert) in which he reads poetry and sings a song which resembles "Sympathy for the Devil". Mina, Orlando and Allan attempt to stop the ritual of the transfer from occurring but Mina realizes the actual ritual is occurring at Gallion's shop. Mina drops Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26, and meets Haddo on the astral plane. Haddo overpowers Mina, though he reveals that his possession of Terner will not effect his planned birth of the antichrist. Carter meanwhile kills Gallion. With his plan gone awry, he is forced to enter the body of Tom Riddle (of the Harry Potter series). As Mina comes down from her trip, she is driven mad by bats that remind her of Dracula, and is taken away in an ambulance. Riddle meanwhile leaves through King's Cross through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts.
Eight years later, in 1977, Allan and Orlando have still not reunited with Mina, who was their only link to the Blazing World. In a club where the band Zuki and the Tawdries play the song "Immoral Earnings (In The U.K)" Orlando and Allan sulk. Now female and sporting a mohawk Orlando grows tired of Allan who has succumbed to his previous addictions to drugs (even attempting to pawn Excalibur) and leaves Allan, planning to join the Army once she is a man again.
Read more about this topic: The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
Famous quotes containing the words chapter, paint and/or black:
“When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.”
—Willem De Kooning (b. 1904)
“[When asked: “Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?”:] If it does then men by keeping both white and black women disfranchised have already established social equality!”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)