Stranger/Echelon: Thanksgiving

Two newcomers (artists) are visited by a masked stranger who presents an 'examination' for American direction (or the Ego).

A 'dark' adaptation of the iconic invasion-home series The Strangers (Liv Tyler). Hope you like it, 

----

====

AMLAN: This post-grad Echelon suburb-townhouse studio-share is art-ideal.

MARCUS: Surely is, pal; and we can hop into the city for clubs/lady-quest(s).

AMLAN: We missed Halloween in this quaint town, but Thanksgiving looms.

MARCUS: Surely there's a nice Facebook 'field' goal for newbies/strangers!

AMLAN: I read a weird Facebook-post about mystery-mask faces in traffic.

MARCUS: Halloween thing?
AMLAN: Devil's Night (Facebook).

Well, Amlan and Marcus wouldn't have anticipate the sort of high-art 'frenzy' that would ensue soon following their move to their new shared swell suburb house in Echelon (American Homeland), when the very-same masked-man of mystery posted about on social media appeared at their front-door (masked!), claiming he wanted real estate photo-IQ for Facebook or something and then requested to use the bathroom (hmmm).

STRANGER: Now, I've got your attention; this water-gun's acid-filled, homeys.

AMLAN/MARCUS: What the Hell do you want, stranger (now)?

STRANGER: I'm that 'bad-fellow' you read about on social media?

AMLAN/MARCUS: Doesn't matter; we've got little money; we're poor-artists.

STRANGER: I know that, homeys; I want some sports-item of value; for mercy.

AMLAN/MARCUS: What, mercy, like a pardon for home-invasion consciousness.

STRANGER: You said it, homeys; otherwise, you get acid to the face (dark).

AMLAN/MARCUS: Jesus, we're newbies to the neighborhood, stranger.

STRANGER: You nerdists-artists have some sports-treasure/collectible (IQ).

AMLAN/MARCUS: Well, yes, we do; but we're doubting it'll satisfy you, devil!

STRANGER: I'm sure it's perfect and what I need...something Americana.

AMLAN/MARCUS: If we fail to procure, devil?

STRANGER: This won't be the only Halloween you missed (Facebook-poke).

Well, the treasure did please. It was a Cali-Bowl pro-football level spirits memoir of a Super Bowl value(s), and it featured an athlete who began his career in a Thanksgiving-TV football-city (Detroit), and it offered the poor-artists (Amlan/Marcus) a special statement 'chance' to declare their right to pardon at the hands of the acid-handed 'stranger' from Hell.

AMLAN: This is California, Super Bowl, slick, special, destiny, devil.

MARCUS: Surely it's the kind of 'souvenir' for Homeland's bread, stranger.

STRANGER: It's (well) decided.

Fortunately for Amlan and Marcus, the masked stranger pardoned their Echelon-studio haven for art and sports, and he made them promise to keep this 'pardon' a magical secret, which they surely did. Marcus decided to pen a series of cool nature-exploration comics creating fantasy-images of the divide between suburbs and cities, with small ponds and mini-forests in-between, to forget the invasion-gear scars delivered by that evil Stranger.

AMLAN: I doubt he'll ever be caught, pal.

MARCUS: Let's put the past/bureaucracy behind us...and move to Belgium.

AMLAN: You said it.

"Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about" (Ralph Waldo Emerson). 

====

"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)